Ray didn’t have much difficulty convincing the Everstead people that he couldn’t just heal whoever they brought up to him willy-nilly. He needed a break. His powers were limited. Only after recharging could he work his magic and get rid of the infection.
It made sense. An act that powerful needed a great deal of Mana and effort. Of course it couldn’t be used repeatedly in a short timeframe.
After all, Ray wasn’t lying. He was using the power of the Tower Nodes to perform this little healing miracle, and the Tower Nodes were temperamental at best. He could only utilize their power up to a certain extent before he needed to let them take a break. Forcing the issue wasn’t going to help.
Still, it was something Ray could take advantage of. Which he proceeded to do.
“You need a certain kind of Mana to enact this healing?” Cory asked.
Ray nodded. “Yes. A specific variant of Mana, called Origin Mana. I have been trying to make it a part of my Mana Core for a while, though I haven’t succeeded yet. But what I do have is a way to convert other kinds of Mana, especially Mana I gain from killing monsters, into Origin Mana.”
“Ah, I see. That is certainly a rather unique skill.”
“Quite. But you see why I’m obsessed with killing monsters now, right? I need to do it, if I want to get more Origin Mana.”
Cory nodded resolutely. “You appear to have no other choice in the matter.”
“Yes. But I will warn you, it isn’t just Mana that is the issue.”
“No?”
“No. The ability has a long cooldown as well. I won’t be able to use it for a whole day, usually. Maybe I could push it to half a day, if the situation was an emergency. But in most cases, a limit of once per day is what I can manage.”
That had made Cory’s face darken, though he didn’t question the matter. He did ask if there was a way to speed up the process, but Ray had sadly shaken his head. Just System restrictions.
A successful conversation, all told. Ray was now set to do what he really wanted.
Monster hunting.
Lying to Cory’s face hadn’t bothered Ray in the slightest. Cory was a man who would have been happy to see Ray dead if he hadn’t been so crucial to Everstead operations. Why should he feel guilty about creating bold falsehoods, especially when it was to his benefit?
The nearest monsters Ray was directed to were more Elementals. Wind Elementals, in fact.
He was being accompanied by another guard, a woman who was unfamiliar to him. Ostensibly, she was supposed to be his guide, quickly taking him to all the locations where he could fight monsters and gain Essence. And Mana too, according to what the Everstead knew.
“Are you equipped to deal with Wind Elementals, sir?” the woman asked. The ends of her hair that had come out of the bottom of her dark helm were flapping this way and that in the wind. “They’re not your usual variety of monsters.”
“I’m surprised I wasn’t told of their existence before,” Ray said. That clerk girl hadn’t mentioned them. He didn’t truly blame her. As a clerk, she likely knew a lot less about the monsters on Cliff Two than the military and the government administration did.
“Well, you do now. The question remains whether you can defeat them, however. We tend to leave them alone because they remain unaffected by most traditional means.”
“I think I can handle them.”
“I certainly hope you can,” the guard said as she began retreating.
“Don’t worry. It won’t take me long.”
The wind was picking up, heralding the arrival of the Elementals themselves. Ray strode forward to meet them.
His supposed guide brought up a good point. These monsters were definitely not like any others Ray had faced so far. They weren’t even similar to the Water Elementals.
The Wind Elementals were amorphous and almost invisible. Or would have been, if Ray didn’t have Primordial Gauge allowing him to see Mana. When he focused his sight to look at the world and the magical energy that drove it within the Tower, the Wind Elementals bloomed bright in his vision.
They didn’t stick to any specific form. Where the Earth, Stone, and Water Elementals had all been hulking humanoids made of their specific element, the Wind Elementals held to no such notions.
Some flapped with wings like they were birds. Others were sleek and long, swimming through the air like fish. The more Ray looked, the more weird shapes he found. Some were gigantic and monstrous, while others were small and easily ignored.
He realized these Elementals reminded him of the Wood Elementals he had burned on the Cliffs One and Two.
But the guard was right. Ray wasn’t going to be able to beat them easily. Not with most of his spells needing some kind of physical target to act on.
Nevertheless, he had ample tools in his arsenal to try.
The Wind Elementals got close enough to make his hair start ruffling and his Vestments press close on his body. It was time for Ray to act.
He cast Lifeblood Soulform to summon up the Viledrake tail. As it appeared in its black, craggy mass, lava bloomed along its entire length. Molten Mana burned like a star, the heat so intense that the air itself began to twist.
Ray grinned. Twisting air was just what he needed against Wind Elementals.
Where the wind had grown into a gust, it now quickly disappeared. The Wind Elementals screamed and screeched as they stayed far away from the heat.
Ray pressed his lips together. The Elementals weren’t trying to suicidally attack him, regardless of what they faced. It seemed they had a stronger sense of self-preservation than other monsters. He was forcefully reminded of the Duskshell he had afflicted with Insanity back on the First Floor. The memory made him smile, though at the time, Ray had been fuming.
He focused. Quick swipes from the tail showed him just how far he could extend his new appendage. Not too far. Maybe forty feet if he really stretched it.
Far enough to catch a few of the Wind Elementals off guard. The heat from the Molten Mana killed those monsters very quickly.
But the rest of the Elementals fled farther back. Ray wouldn’t be able to reach them easily. It wasn’t a problem, though. He had already figured out what he had to do.
Ray cast Mottling Spiritguard. Orbs of chaos leaped to life around him. They spun with Ray at the centre, moving so fast that they turned into black-red streaks in his field of view. Streaks that slowly turned orange as Ray used Abstract Conversion and Origin Resonance.
Then he fired the orbs into the distance. It worked, just as he had expected. The Spiritguard orbs, now burning molten orange instead of the chaotic black-red, crashed through the gaggle of Wind Elementals like cannonballs firing into an approaching army. Basically, they tore the monsters apart.
Seeing that they wouldn’t be able to run away, the monsters finally chose to go on the offensive.
Ray got ready to defend himself. His defensive Spiritguard orbs weren’t going to protect him against slicing winds that rammed in with the force of hurricanes.
Well, not unless he changed them to be filled with lava.
The same trick he was using to attack them would work well to defend him too. Their blasting wind would dissipate so long as he heated up the air enough, countering the monster’s wind-based attacks with his own currents of whirling air. Ray could, of course, summon up an Impervious Shell, but where was the fun in that?
It was just extra exhilarating to see his idea work out. Not as well as he expected, to be fair, since the powerful winds still made it through and let gashes across the exposed skin of his hands. His face would have received an unintended shave if he hadn’t covered it too.
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But it was enough to safeguard him against the monsters’ counters. These creatures were weak.
Ray turned back to the woman who had accompanied him here. “See,” he shouted over the wind. “I told you. I got this.”
She didn’t appear impressed, though. If anything, she looked more fearful, and suddenly began gesticulating to some point behind Ray like he was about to be backstabbed or something.
“Relax,” he said as he turned around.
There was a reason the guard was agitated. The Wind Elementals weren’t about to let themselves fall so easily, so had now decided to band together to stand against Ray. Quite literally.
The different Elementals had all conjoined together to form an amalgam that towered over him, slowly approaching like a glacier. The monsters—monster?—was even visible to the naked eye now. A humongous, misshapen mass of compressed air, threaded through with shining white energy alongside compressed silvery strings here and there.
Ray whistled. “Impressive.”
They chose to prove just how impressive it was by attacking.
It was almost as though a large part of their body dissolved, turning into wind. Heavy, powerful, unstoppable wind.
The Elemental’s attack was so strong that the very earth was being uprooted. Chunks of rocks and broken trees went flying, the air turning into a churning funnel of destruction worse than any hurricane or tornado could ever be.
Needless to say, Ray had no real defence against it. He had his Mottling Spiritguard orbs revolving hard and fast around him, and he was forced to switch them to defensive stance. Filled with Molten Mana though they were, the orbs could still turn into curved barriers that shielded Ray against the immensely powerful wind.
Still, they were all blown away. Far behind Ray, the guard yelled out as she was lifted off her feet. Clearly, she hadn’t retreated far enough. Ray himself was shouting as he was flung back. At least his barriers prevented him from crash-landing and crushing his body.
He was starting to see how fighting a literal storm proved to be such a challenge for most people.
Trying to stack barricades weren’t working either. Even when Ray summoned up an Impervious Shell to add to the overall defence, the wind still blew it all away. Ray had to consider himself lucky he wasn’t being hit by the flying debris.
At one point, he fell into a hollow in the ground. A location where the Elemental’s ravaging storm had uprooted a large tree and torn away a lot of the earth to boot. The intensity of the striking wind reduced just enough for Ray to gather his thoughts. Enough of a reprieve for him to figure out a counter to the situation.
He threw out one arm from the hollow, casting Lifeblood Soulform to summon up an Impervious Shell in front of him. This gave just enough time to use Primal Spiritcraft next.
As the dark shell was ripped off the ground, the draconic maw that had formed around Ray’s hand fired off its compressed laser at the Elemental. The wind threw his arm—and this his aim—off, but it was enough.
His first blast of the chaotic beam of fire had reached close enough to the Elemental.
Close enough for Ray to use Spectral Step.
Ray appeared right in front of the monster. Right before the point where it was blasting everything with irrepressible wind. He was safe.
Of course, the monster redirected its attack soon enough. It reared back effortlessly, setting off another rushing torrent of destructive air. Ray’s ears were smothered with a deafening roar, his whole body flying off like it had been shot from a circus cannon.
But not before he had cast Lifeblood Soulform three times straight.
Greater Windbane Maws formed around the enormous Elemental, immediately unleashing their fiery breaths. Actually fiery, because Ray had used Origin Resonance to once again imbue his spell with Molten Mana. As such, the constructs fired off lava.
Ray was flung away too far and too fast to see the immediate effect of his spell combination, but he regained control soon enough. Then he had to hold himself back from whooping in triumph. His plan had worked. The three flying draconic maws were tearing the monster apart.
With screeching shrieks, the smaller Elementals were trying to break free from the amalgam they had formed. But Ray’s constructs acted faster. In about twenty more seconds, the entire gathering of Elementals had been destroyed.
Everything was blessedly wind-free.
[Enemy Defeated]
Tier 10 Monster: Wind Elemental [Level 25] x14
Tier 12 Monster: Greater Wind Elemental [Level 29] x1
Essence: +38,480
Knowledge: +45
True Mana Restored: +3,790
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* New Spell: Soul Stitcher [Offensive] [Tier 5]
* Soul Stitcher has been converted to Spirit Mirrorlink by Path of Lifeblood Chaos
Essence to Level 36: 16,420/97,600
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,650/2,000
A wide smile bloomed on Ray’s face. Excellent. Another new spell. And its name looked pretty interesting too. He would have to see just what it would allow him to do.
“So you did have it in the end,” the guard said from behind.
Ray turned to find the woman in a bit of a dishevelled state. Her helm had been ripped off to leave her hair in a tangled mess, her face was scratched and smudged with dirt, and she was walking with a bit of a limp.
“Told you, didn’t I?” Ray said.
“Could have been faster,” she muttered.
Ray wanted to move on to the next location where he could gain more Essence. The day wasn’t old yet, so they could definitely spare some time.
As they got moving, Ray peeked at what his new spell had to show him.
[Information Request—Spells]
Spirit Mirrorlink [Offensive] [Tier 5]
A primal spirit spell that sends out a bolt of spiking spiritual energy at a selected target that then shackles the target to one or more secondary targets in the vicinity. Attacking any of the shackled targets causes all targets to take damage. At Tier 5, this spell seeks additional targets in a radius of 10 meters and transfers 15% of damage to all targets.
Ray read through the description a couple of times. That was pretty interesting. It wasn’t as overpowered as he had been kind of hoping, but he could see how it would combine well with the area of effect spells he already had. In fact—
No, actually, he was starting to see how he could combine it with Spiritblood Stake. He never used that spell because it just wasn’t dynamic or effective enough in a fast-paced fight.
But if he got a Spell Synthesis point, he now knew where he was going to use it.
“The next group of monsters to the east?” Ray asked as they reached the road.
The guard nodded. They were once again travelling on dino-back. Ray wasn’t exactly happy to return to humping on the ridged back of a raptor, especially because he was back to square one in terms of likability. This wasn’t the raptor he had grown kind of close to on Cliff Three. Ah, well.
“The monsters are not Elementals, mind you,” the woman said as they travelled. “So be on your guard.”
“What kind of monsters are they?” Ray asked.
“You’ll see.”
Well, wasn’t that fucking cryptic. Ray decided he would see and there was no point in pushing the woman needlessly. Though, he did have other things he wouldn’t mind talking about.
“I hope you don’t feel too bad that you have to babysit me instead of joining the rest of your comrades in battle,” Ray said. He tried to be conversational. With how his relationship with the guard from Cliff Three had gone, he wasn’t keen on re-experiencing the same thing with this woman.
“Babysitting is my current duty,” she said, her voice a little clipped. “As this is my charge, there is nothing for me to regret.”
“So you don’t mind not fighting against the Sylvan invaders?”
“If they ever manage to come before me, I will do my part to repel them.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
The guard was silent. Maybe she was unwilling to reveal the truth of her feelings, which Ray supposed was reasonable. Most people didn’t want to confide in strangers.
“You know,” Ray said. “I kind of regret it.”
She looked at him sharply. “What?”
“Oh, don’t mistake me. I’m not saying I regret not fighting in this little war. What I kind of regret is not helping the Denizens who got caught up in it. There are a few of my kind who are right in the thick of it and are now fighting for their lives.”
“Yes, I am aware. They were contacted by the lord of Cliff Three, I believe, and many of them chose to fight the Sylvans and defend Everstead.”
“They would have been better off ignoring it and just climbing the Tower.”
“Like yourself.”
“Yep.”
That made her mouth curl in distaste. “Not everyone can be so selfish as yourself and remain so disaffected by such a great conflict that has put so many lives in danger.”
Ray laughed a little. Now, where had he heard the selfishness line before? “You’re calling me selfish? When you’re here with me too?”
The curl of distaste turned into a flush of sudden rage. “This is my duty. Do you truly believe I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t need to babysit you?”
She stopped all of a sudden, her mouth a big ‘o’ of surprise.
Ray grinned at her. “You see? It’s not that hard to admit it, is it? You do feel bad for not being a part of the frontlines with your compatriots.”
She didn’t answer him, didn’t even offer him a glower or any sort of acknowledgement. With a snap of her reins, she forced her mount to speed up and hurry onwards, like she wanted to be rid of him as soon as possible.
Ray performed the same motions and did his best to keep up. Maybe it was better not to annoy or antagonize the guard, but it was still better than the sheer apathy he had faced before.
They arrived at a long series of large fences with a big gate in the middle. Several more soldiers were waiting there, though they ushered in Ray and the guard without really checking anything.
“Why are we here?” Ray asked with a bit of a frown.
His hackles rose. Maybe they hadn’t really forgiven—and certainly not forgotten—the fact that he had killed a whole bunch of them not that long ago. Maybe he was being lured into a trap he wouldn’t be able to escape from.
Skin itching with rising tension, Ray summoned up a draconic head construct and sent it flying off. For all that they might have drawn him into a trap, nobody stopped or even reacted to his construct. That reassured him a bit. It was possible that he was overreacting, that there was nothing to be afraid of from these guys. He would be fine.
The landscape in front of them rapidly began to change. They dipped down into a valley, the land rising on either sides as though to wall them in.
And then Ray saw the target. The monster he was supposed to kill. His breath caught.
That was no monster. Not the wild kinds he fought and killed. That was one of the same raptors he was riding, just another specimen of the domesticated dinosaurs the Everstead favoured. Except, there was one major difference.
The dinosaur was infected with the same plague running riot through the kingdom Everstead.