Ray focused on taking out the Treants. The way to do so was pretty easy. All he did was convert some of his remaining Imitators within the anthill into flying draconic maws. This allowed them to strike from within, where the ants had a lot less defending going on.
It didn’t take long before the Treants were all in a tizzy. They buzzed about, trying to stop the flames from spreading, evacuating the anthill en mass.
Ray was just glad the anthill was made of wood. Organic matter burned so well under his chaotic flames. Sure, the “burns” didn’t leave ash so much as corrupted living matter, but it did cause damage and destroy most of everything it touched. Even better, the panicked state of the Treants made them easy pickings.
Dismissing another of the Greater Windbane Maws within the burning wreck of the anthill, Ray summoned a couple more outside it. He himself crafted another of the maws along his arm.
He realized he wasn’t using his new spells as much—Channel Prayer with the Fleshcrafter powers. But he didn’t really care for these ants that much. Those skills could come later.
As it was, Ray and his exterior constructs took pot shots at the monsters. They burned under their fiery assault. Easy Essence, really.
It helped that they had all gathered together just outside their aflame home. They had little room to dodge and weren’t prepared for the assault. Since they couldn’t fly either, Ray had no trouble evading the worst they could do while remaining airborne and highly mobile.
But then, things changed when the queen of the Treants emerged from the anthill.
Ray’s construct inside the anthill died all of a sudden. He had received the briefest glimpse of a gigantic ant that made the tunnel break apart to accommodate its enormity, before the monster had lunged far too quickly for its size. The construct had died in one hit.
She was already burning, though, probably due to her size making it unavoidable. There was that, at least.
Ray drew back, letting his constructs deal with the last of the monsters outside. He had to prep for that Treant queen.
A quick cast of Mottling Spiritguard had the sparking orbs revolving around him like satellites on steroids. He also primed the draconic maw on his arm, maintaining the flames smouldering in its mouth so that it would be ready to fire in an instant. Alright, maybe this was when one of his new spells would come in handy.
Primordial Gauge informed him exactly which hole the Treant queen would come out of. Just as it came close, Ray sent one of his Spiritguard orbs shooting towards the monster.
The Treant queen stopped at the hole, on the cusp of emerging out into the dying daylight.
Ray gave it no chance to do anything further. He used Spectral Step next. The world blurred as he was taken straight to the hole. Didn’t matter if he was disoriented or not, he was in position.
So, Ray fired. The draconic maw on his arm shattered out the compressed laser breath in a massive stream that was almost as wide as the hole’s opening. At the same time, all the Spiritguard orbs revolving around Ray and building up their centripetal force now slammed in at the monster with an enormous burst of speed.
The Treant queen was smacked by too many spells at once to even consider surviving. Even Ray himself was blasted back as a huge explosion rocked the opening.
That spelled the anthill’s death knell. Unable to take any more damage, it crashed down and crushed the last of the monsters. That last explosion had thrown Ray back pretty far, allowing him to evade the collapse.
[Enemy Defeated—Treant]
Tier 7 Monster: Treant [Level 22] x9
Tier 7 Monster: Treant [Level 23] x11
Tier 8 Monster: Treant Queen [Level 26] x1
Essence: +34,420
Knowledge: +63
True Mana Restored: +4,880
Essence to Level 28: 47,200/49,600
Knowledge to next Threshold: 999/1,000
Oh, so close. Ray was sure he’d be hitting level 28 and another Reputation threshold soon enough.
He was mostly done on Cliff Three now, though. This was the last of the potential Essence gathering spots that Caleb had informed Ray about. There were some Elementals on the cliff as well, but the Everstead citizens didn’t interact with them and hardly knew where they existed.
Ray constructed more Imitators and bid them to turn into himself. Then he carried the children, the three alive and the one dead, back to the village.
The relief and celebration of the successful rescue were dampened by the fact that one of the kids was dead. Nevertheless, all the village folks were appreciative and grateful. Ray moved on afterwards.
They returned to the manor for now. It was getting late. Ray could rest up and then take out the Elementals tomorrow. That was, if he could find them.
After dinner, Ray met up with Caleb again.
“Here,” the Lord said. “I have something for you. A small gift of appreciation after your exploits on Cliff Three.”
He handed Ray a briefcase sized box. Ray opened the lid and gasped a little.
“True Mana shards!” Ray said. “And a lot of them too!”
Ray took some time to count. There were twenty five. An excellent addition to the haul he had already gathered.
“Yes, the man I contacted on Cliff One finally figured out how to create more using the one you shared,” Caleb said. “I can give you his contact information, since you’ll be heading there soon, yes?”
Ray nodded. “Right. Thank you. I’m going to see if I can find some more of the Elementals here before moving on. Although, I did want to carry out one last experiment.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.” Ray didn’t reveal too much of what he intended, but he gave the gist that he needed a good amount of Mana. “Do you have any information about locations where Mana is thick and plentiful? And also, maybe crystals or shards of specific Mana variants? I’ll be happy to pay for them, at a reasonable price.”
“Hmm. I’ll need to converse with my chamberlain to see if such information is readily available or not. As for different variants of Mana in crystals, that can be provided. Though that depends on which you want.”
“Of course. I also wanted to see just how many kinds of Mana there are, but I can find that out on my own from your library. Now, how much would the Mana crystals cost?”
Caleb smiled with genuine friendliness. “We can just add it on to the True Mana shards as a gift.”
Ray smiled back. “Thanks!”
After that conversation, Ray took a good night’s rest before heading to the library with the clerk in tow before breakfast next day.
“All the kinds of Mana?” the girl asked.
Ray nodded. “As many as you can list. Although, I’m guessing there might be a lot, and I don’t want you to list every single one, especially when some are probably much better than others. Do you happen to rank them or sort them according to usefulness or rarity or power or something like that?”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Oh, yes. We do keep records like that.” She flipped through a bunch of pages in the document. “We have some of the most dangerous, rare, and powerful kinds of Mana here. Do you want me to list those, sir?”
“Yes, please.”
Clearing her throat, the girl began. “Here are some of the variants of Mana noted for powerful uses—Life, Death, Abyss, True, Origin, Mimic, Obliteration, Spatial, Temporal, Revered, Curse, Faith, Growth, and Consumption Mana. The list is not exhaustive and there are other variants of Mana that remain unobserved by the authors that are capable of great power.”
Ray was very, very intrigued by a lot of what he heard. “Do you have descriptions?”
“Oh, yes, of course. Which ones would you like to know, sir?”
Some of them sounded like he could figure them out just by what they were called. Like, Life and Death Mana no doubt handled how life and death occurred. They sounded ridiculously powerful, and at the same time, very obvious.
It was the ones like Origin Mana or even Revered Mana that he couldn’t easily figure out. Some of the others, like Abyss, Curse, and Faith Mana were guessable, but Ray doubted hearing further descriptions from the clerk was going to satisfy him about those. If possible, he would have loved to be able to experiment with them.
Ray informed the girl about the ones he needed more information about.
“Origin Mana is described as the Mana that is best suited to empower Mana Cores and all the Mana-related abilities that one can acquire,” she read. “Curse Mana is said to enhance debuffing abilities a great deal. Faith Mana allows one to channel the power of Paragons directly and with greater potency. Abyss Mana channels the power of nothingness.”
Ray nodded. It was interesting she had mentioned Paragons directly and not Tower Nodes. He supposed it made sense, since they were originally a kingdom from outside of the Tower of Forging. Tower Nodes only existed in Towers, but not so Paragons.
While a lot of them were cool, no doubt, Ray was most attracted to this Origin Mana. He felt as though his Mana Core was the least explored aspect of his growth. Of course, going by their very basic descriptions wasn’t going to grant him a good picture. Ideally, he would have had the chance to test them out.
He had some hope that Caleb could provide him with some crystals of the various Mana types. Doubtful, considering the discussed variants were supposed to be rare.
The next best hope lay in the following document that the girl procured for Ray. It listed the various locales where different Mana types congregated the most. Aside from being necessary for determining how best to use the Ingestor and Abstractor Tower Nodes, that would also be important if he wanted to imbue a new variant of Mana into his Mana Core.
Ray didn’t want to rush the process. It all depended on whether the Mana type was an interesting one or not. A kind that would complement the one he already used, the powers he already had.
Or at least, an avenue he hadn’t fully explored yet. That was why Origin Mana sounded so good.
“Um, I don’t think this will be helpful…” the girl said.
“Oh?” Ray asked. “Why not?”
“Well, sir, it lists the specific locations by their names. You wouldn’t happen to be familiar with the local names, would you?”
“Oh… no, not at all.”
They brainstormed for a few minutes before deciding that it was best they draw a map and the clerk would point out the locations Ray could find different kinds of Mana concentrations. He kept wondering how exactly they had determined that these places had these kinds of Mana, but the clerk had no idea.
The map wasn’t super helpful. Mostly because the kinds of Mana that were located in a high enough density to be noticed weren’t great. There was only one variant that was in her list of rare and powerful kinds, and that was Obliteration Mana.
While that was no doubt powerful, Ray wasn’t certain that was what would be ideal for him.
Getting a new Mana variant would, ultimately, not be a satisfying endeavour on Cliff Three.
At least Caleb was later able to provide him with a few different kinds of Mana crystals. Some were actually rather interesting.
One was a Malady Mana crystal. Apparently, that one allowed one to create different kinds of illnesses to afflict others with. Interestingly, it also had the power to heal other people’s illnesses too. Ray supposed he saw the benefit of them possessing something like that.
Another was Rhythm Mana. Apparently, this one could control vibrations of all sorts. Ray was actually quite intrigued by that one. He could already imagine setting off earthquakes and messing with sound. There was a lot of potential for anyone who specialized with Rhythm Mana.
The few rest were a bit too basic. Ultimately, Ray decided he would wait till he reached Cliff Two before deciding to imbue any new Mana variants into his Mana Core. There just weren’t options that appealed to him here.
For now, it was time to kill some Elementals and get himself to level 28.
----------------------------------------
The journey all over Cliff Three took up the rest of Ray’s day. For once, the guard chose not to accompany him, allowing Ray to zip across the cliff as fast as his wings could carry him.
There weren’t many Wood Elementals. The ones Ray did find were a little stronger than the monsters he had beaten on Cliff Four before joining the battle for the spire. Fighting Elementals was actually fun. Ray knew how to take care of them easily and they granted him a really good dose of Essence.
[Enemy Defeated—Wood Elemental]
Tier 8 Monster: Wood Elemental [Level 20] x23
Essence: +36,800
Knowledge: +69
True Mana Restored: +4,600
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* 1 Skill Tier Point
Essence to Level 29: 34,400/54,200
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 1,000-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 70.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,098/1,250
Ray added the Skill Tier point to Mana Imbuing. He wasn’t sure how that was going to help that specific skill, but he wasn’t going to let it flounder in its current state for long.
There was a different kind of Elemental on Cliff Three. Earth Elementals. Turned out that mud could concentrate enough to gain sentience with the help of Mana. Lumbering golems of condensed earth had filled up one of only two quarries on Cliff Three, though this one was abandoned.
Ray cleared without too much trouble, though it took a good amount of time. Earth wasn’t susceptible to his Lifeblood Chaos powers. It wasn’t organic, after all.
As such, Ray had to rely on the power of direct impacts to take them down. It helped that he could make the sparking orbs of Mottling Spiritguard take on just the right shape to suit any situation. In this case, he needed them to assume bludgeoning forms that could crush the Earth Elementals under weighty blows.
Ray tried to see if there was a greater version of those Elementals somewhere int eh quarry, but he found nothing. Ah well, the ones he had killed were good enough for another level.
[Enemy Defeated—Earth Elemental]
Tier 9 Monster: Earth Elemental [Level 24] x17
Essence: +36,720
Knowledge: +54
True Mana Restored: +4,080
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* 1 Skill Tier Point
Essence to Level 30: 16,920/59,200
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,152/1,250
More True Mana crystals. He wasn't going to turn them down, of course, but would granting him a new spell really hurt?
Ray assigned the free points in the same spread as he had done before. Half to Intellect and half to Vitality. He was getting quite close to the next Vitality Tier break.
He spent his final night on Cliff Three just catching up with others.
Apparently, Jacob had already moved on to Cliff Two. Lottie was still hoping to earn some more Essence before heading up. She would see if she could hit level 30 before going farther. Her plan was to return to Cliff Four and grind some more there before going straight to Cliff Two. Good plan, in Ray's opinion.
Meanwhile, Timothy was only interested in Ray's account of the Flesh Dungeon.
“What kind of loot does it have?” he asked. The guy was so shameless. He hadn't even bothered asking anything about Ray, not even a “How are you doing?”
“Just fleshy bits and pieces, really,” Ray said. He already had the Tower Node, the dungeon's main loot. “Some Mana crystals. Nothing too fancy. Lots of Essence, though. You should be able to level up some.”
“Oh, alright.”
He didn't bother hiding the disappointment in his voice. Ray waited a bit for Timothy to ask anything actually substantial about Ray, but when it didn’t come, he gave up and went away.
And he hadn't even been selfish about it. Ray had taken the time to ask what Timothy had been up to, what his plan going forward was, how was he enjoying the manor, and so on. All he had received were terse replies that made it clear the other guy wasn’t interested in actual conversation. He didn’t want to be a friend.
Ray got the message loud and clear and moved on. What a waste of his time.
Though, ironically, as Ray was settling down for the night, he received an intriguing message via the chat.
Kredevel: Hello, Ray. It took a little bit of time, but we have finally made it to the Second Floor.
Ray sat bolt upright in his bed. Belatedly, he realized he was going to miss it when he moved on, but he barely registered the thought. The more important consideration was the fact that he didn’t need to bemoan the lack of real friends on the Second Floor.
Because the friends he had made were now coming up.
Ray: We’ve got so much to talk about, Kredevel. You came at a great time.
Kredevel: We do?
Ray: Yes! Don’t rush up the Floor too quickly. There’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye, and I can’t explain everything through chat. So maybe wait on Cliff Four till I come and meet you.
Kredevel: Hmm, about that waiting… I am afraid that might not be possible. For one of us, at least.
Ray: What do you mean?
Kredevel: Well, you see, your friend Gritty, the blood-drunk woman, has already left.
Ray: Of course. Left where?
Kredevel: I am afraid I do not know.
Ray sighed. Of course. It was just like Gritty to ruin off and do whatever crazy shit her mind latched onto. Then again, she had said she wanted to tackle the Floor on her own, mostly.
Ray: Well, we can meet up, at least. I’ll come down soon.
They decided to meet up the next day, at the lake that Ray had met Mary. He was looking forward to it.