Ray flew forward. The first part of the plan involved his True Mana arms holding up the Impervious Shell as a shield against the falling rocks.
He hadn’t realized just how big the “meteors” were. They varied in size, of course, but even the smallest he saw in the dim light were garage-sized. The bigger ones could easily crush the average suburban house.
Thankfully, the combination of the Mana-Infused Impervious Shell and the strength in his True Mana arms was enough to keep them from getting to him. Ray’s dark shield and his oversized black-red arms both swayed and shook at every impact, but he remained safe. They were doing their job admirably.
The bigger problem turned out to be the monsters. They weren’t those rocky centipedes like he had fought before. No, these were more like rocky ants with giant, steely mandibles.
And there were a lot of them.
Mottling Spiritguard was helpful in keeping them from him. They ranged around him, quickly scuttling in close to snap him in two with their pincer jaws. But his Spiritguard orbs smacked them back, keeping him safe.
The sparking spheres didn’t kill them, though. Like the Stone Lice, these monsters were made of inorganic material, so the chaos didn’t really affect them. Plus, the orbs didn’t have as much of a punching power as Ray’s more directly offensive minded spells. It did help a bit to use Spiritscourge Chain at times to make them all take extra damage, but the monsters were resilient.
Ray forged on as fast as his wings could carry him. He was making good time. The chamber was huge, but he could see the end. There was another large tunnel that—
A loud screech interrupted him. He turned just in time to see one of the monsters launching itself at him. It flew through the air so fast that even his Spiritguard orbs couldn’t stop it.
Ray was forced to jerk his flight into a different direction to prevent himself from being gored by that crazy, SUV-sized rock ant.
Unfortunately, that threw him out of the protection of his True Mana arms and Impervious Shell, even if it was only for an instant. An instant was all this crazy Dungeon Obstacle needed to crush him. All that saved Ray from being flattened to fleshy pancake was the remainder of his orbs rushing to form a layered barricade overhead.
It actually worked. The falling rock, with impossible weight and momentum, actually stopped several feet over Ray’s head.
That led to him being almost entirely defenceless against the rock ants, however. They screeched and scuttled at him with furious speed and fatal intent. More of the monsters threw themselves at him.
Ray used Mottling Spiritguard again, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Not against the sheer horde rushing his position. As he got moving again, he used Primal Spiritcraft.
The first couple of monsters that sailed through the air to get to him received a face full of his summoned draconic maws’ laser breaths. Now that had the needed punch behind it. The beam of compressed chaotic fire slammed into a monster and sent it flying in a different direction.
There were too many of them around him. Some had even gotten ahead of him, blocking his path forward, forcing him to redirect his flying charge into an unideal path.
But at least Ray could keep himself safe. He had converted all his Spiritguard orbs into a defensive stance, turning them into barricades that stopped the monsters from slamming into him. This allowed him just enough reprieve to blast them with a laser breath.
He had thought that the falling rocks would help. They were crashing all around him, even on the monsters that were trying to get to him.
But it tuned out the rocks were actually eggs. For every rock that plummeted and shattered apart on the chamber floor, another rock ant emerged from its stony innards. Ray couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of twisted method of birth this was supposed to be. First, he had to survive.
The monsters were growing more and more intense. Not just in their ferocity, but in their sheer numbers too. His Spiritguard orbs weren’t going to last long like that.
Ray cast another bunch of them, sending them all out to stymie the monsters before they could even begin their charges. But there were just too many monsters swarming him now. The constantly falling rocks were definitely not helping to reach them either.
“Fuck,” Ray muttered.
His attention was being pulled in so many different directions, he was pretty sure his mind would have scrambled by now if he hadn’t had those Intellect Tiers to rely on.
Ray even tried summoning up another True Mana arm with a third Soulstrike, but it barely helped. The space was too congested, and his True Mana arm was too big. It just ended up giving the monsters an appendage to climb on and use to get to him.
A huge mass of the monsters rose farther off to his left. Ray wasn’t even sure what he was looking at right there. His eyes widened. It was like the monsters were swarming over each other to somehow form a tidal wave.
A tidal wave of monstrosity that was about to slam into him.
Ray didn’t even have time to fire off his draconic maws into that mess. He could have, but a split-second instinct told him that it would have been ineffectual and he would end up crushed. So instead, he relied on instinct to take a different approach.
Just as that wave of monsters got within striking distance, Ray lashed out with his Impervious Shield. His original two True Mana arms used it like club to bash aside the entire wave of monsters. The rocky ants went flying, their whole formation smacked apart, their cries clawing through the air and scraping along Ray’s eardrums.
He grinned though. For only a second, though. Another rock was plummeting to fall right on top of him.
Ray had his Spiritguard orbs coalescing on top of him again. The remainder of them formed the layered shield that had worked well enough the last time. Once more, Ray wasn’t crushed.
Not by the falling rock, at least. He quickly took out any of the other rock ants trying to get to him with his draconic maws. Then he pulled back his Impervious Shell shield to get—
Just as Ray had started flying forward, a screech sounded on top of him. No matter how much faster his mind had become at thinking, his ability to react to the thought was still limited. So it was that there was no point in realizing that one of the rock ants had gotten on top of the dark shell on the last exchange against that tidal wave of monsters.
It came down too fast for him to react. The monster landed on top of him, its vicious shriek filling his ears and drowning out his own thoughts.
Then it bit through him.
Ray wasn’t sure if he could hear his own scream of agony. At least his instinctive use of Recovery to protect himself was on target. As was his ability to point both draconic maws under the monster’s heavy body and fire.
With a wild screech that Ray barely heard over his own howl, the monster went flying back.
It wasn’t just his shattered ribs, punctured lungs, and the general chest area that needed an instantaneous application of Recovery. The damned monster’s weight had twisted his leg badly, and he had to heal it up to get moving. He had to get upright so he could continue flying.
Except, another rock was falling on him. Worse, one of his True Mana arms had been a crushed by a different rock. He was defenceless. Fuck.
Project Presence and Spectral Step was all that saved him.
Ray wasn’t sure if he had calculated it, but he sent his spirit soaring into the shattered remains of the very rock that had fallen a second ago to crush his True Mana arm. The benefit of that was that he wasn’t in any direct danger of being crushed any time soon.
Lightning didn’t strike the same location twice. Same with these falling rocks. They didn’t fall on the same location in quick succession. So for now, Ray was safe.
He got to his feet, wary of more monsters converging to his location. They were definitely coming. He could hear them. In other words, he couldn’t waste any more time here.
Crushing a True Mana shard, Ray called up his series of spells again. True Mana arms to hold up the Impervious Shell once, Mottling Spiritguard to keep him protected. All the while he did so, he blasted any pesky monsters that tried to get close to attack him.
Then he got moving. The monsters didn’t relent. The ceiling didn’t stop shattering apart. But Ray was ready for it all now.
He made sure to use Fleshform Manipulation to lower his weight and slim himself up to move faster. Next came Soullife Cloak to buff him up even more, plus there was the Flight Mana still lodged in his Vestments to keep him mobile and quick. Ray was as fast as he had ever been.
This time, as he flew, he had summoned the Viledrake tail to grant himself some Molten Mana. This lent his Spiritguard orbs some extra, burning weight. It gave them the punch needed to slam away the rock ants.
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Ray ate up the distance in no time. So close. This Dungeon Obstacle was taxing him like crazy.
And then he was through. No more mishaps. No more monsters acting crazy. No more brushes with death or needing to use Recovery.
Ray had made it.
Of course, the monsters weren’t about to let him go that easily. Even now, when he was past the fracturing ceiling and was more safely ensconced in a giant tunnel, they rushed him.
He actually didn’t mind. It gave him the opportunity to give them a piece of his fucking mind.
Ray let his Impervious Shell fall to the ground. Then he used Primal Spiritcraft again, though this time, it was directed at his True Mana arms. The ends turned into gigantic, spectral Greater Windbane maws. Combined with the two he already had around his real hands, Ray fired four immensely powerful chaotic lasers into the onrushing monsters.
Calling the resulting detonation massive was doing it a disservice. Great gouts of the broken ground went up, almost far enough to reach the ceiling from where they had fallen. Monsters fell by the dozens. Explosions made everything shake like a Richter-9 earthquake.
Ray grinned at the sheer destruction.
[Enemy Defeated—Steel Ant]
Tier 11 Monster: Steel Ant [Level 34] x12
Tier 11 Monster: Steel Ant [Level 33] x16
Essence: +102,960
Knowledge: +63
True Mana Restored: +7,010
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* New Spell: Soul Ensorcelled [Passive] [Tier 5]
* Soul Ensorcelled has been converted to Deathlife Corral by Path of Lifeblood Chaos.
Essence to Level 41: 58,320/140,700
Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,109/2,500
“That all you got?” Ray shouted into the chamber. They probably—no, more like of course—couldn’t hear him. Not through the racket of the falling ceiling.
No more monsters arrived. That was a bit of a bummer, but Ray had other things to focus on. Like the fact that he had a new spell to check out and that he had to get going through whatever was his next Dungeon Obstacle.
[Information Request—Spells]
Deathlife Corral [Passive] [Tier 5]
A primal spirit spell that ensorcells the spirits of those killed by the caster. Said spirits become extensions of the caster’s own spirit, forming a direct connection with the caster’s Mana Core. This allows the caster to use the ensorcelled spirits as a medium for casting. At Tier 5, this spell allows up to 10 ensorcelled spirits at a time.
Ray wasn’t one-hundred percent sure what that description meant. He had to read it over a couple of times. By the end of his third read, he was pretty certain this spell was very similar to that projected cosmos or whatever it was called ability that the Floor Lord had used.
A passive spell that would allow him to extend the range of his other spells but allowing him to cast through the spirits he captured.
Ray was keen to try it out. Sounded like just the thing he needed to take out bigger groups of monsters. Funny how he was getting a lot of those recently. First, the Spell Synthesis point that had given him Spiritscourge Chain, and now this Deathlife Corral spell.
He proceeded onwards through the humongous tunnel. It took about ten minutes of walking—thankfully, devoid of any monsters—before he reached his next Dungeon Obstacle.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Inescapable Ejection
From beneath the ground, there comes rising a spire of growth. But such growth cannot be maintained evermore. As such, a certain maturity is reached, a peak when the spire cracks apart, unleashing that which has been growing within. Survive the emissions of the growing spires and reach the end of your journey beyond.
Well, that was a bit cryptic. But the bit about the end of his journey urged Ray onwards. Hopefully, this was the last Obstacle before he reached the final chamber.
Although, getting through this one was going to be no less of a hassle than the last Dungeon Obstacle.
The room before Ray was just as large as the one he had journeyed through. While it didn’t have the ceiling constantly crashing down to crush him, what it did contain were the spires mentioned in the Obstacle’s description. Spires that were indeed emitting… something.
It looked like some sort of gas. Silvery, flying everywhere fast like there were tiny jet nozzles all over the spires. Ray was pretty sure he didn’t want to get caught in that vapour.
The spires themselves looked like nothing more than rock spikes thrusting out of the ground. Ray wasn’t fooled, though. The description had stated they were some kind of eggs too, just like the rocks falling from the ceiling in the previous room.
Or at least, the rocks had something growing within them.
Something told Ray whatever monsters were incubating insides the rocks weren’t simple Stone Ants. He sighed. Time to find out what sort of monstrous adversary he was supposed to be facing.
Before Ray personally went in, he sent out his Mimic first. The Imitator construct turned into a replica of Ray himself and then rushed forward.
It ran straight into one of those silvery clouds being ejected from a nearby rock. Ray had purposefully ordered it do so. He wasn’t exactly keen on making his construct suffer, but he also didn’t want to get caught unawares by anything.
Ray gawked as the construct began dissolving.
“Is that… acid?” Of course, there was no one to answer Ray’s question.
Floating, acidic gas. Go figure. It could be something different, of course. Ray could very well be faced with some kind of gas that destroyed Mana. Very much also plausible.
Just to confirm, Ray used Lifeblood Soulform to give life to a flying draconic maw before sending it right after the Imitator. Well, not exactly at the same location. The gas had dissipated from the spot. But there were a bunch of other locations where different spires were throwing out the same emissions.
The draconic maw construct began dissolving too. As soon as it touched the silvery gas, its scales began falling off and its eyes began vaporizing. Oh, yes. Acidic gas was the closest approximation.
Ray focused on the path forward and started moving. He was pretty sure he knew how to get through this Obstacle.
As he entered the room proper, he used Lifeblood Soulform to send up the Scouring Eye. Ray needed a clearer picture of the whole room, something like a bird’s eye view. That would allow him to navigate his way through the Obstacle better. His third sight opened, revealing the lay of the land before him.
Ray got going.
It wasn’t going to be smooth, of course. Even as Ray reached his first spire, the whole thing shattered apart. It cracked, chunks and pieces falling off, only to reveal just what he had been hoping not to face.
A monster that looked familiar started emerging from within the rocky confines. Ray needed a second to recognize that it reminded him a lot of the rock-tepedes. Rock Lice? Something like that. Long and serpentine, with far too many scuttling legs and giant mandibles that could split him in half.
Ray fired both his draconic maws at the creature. It never stood a chance. The blasts shot into the emerging monster’s midsection and destroyed the entire area around its centre.
[Enemy Defeated—Rock Tentapede]
Tier 11 Monster: Rock Tentapede [Level 35] x1
Essence: +3,850
Knowledge: +3
True Mana Restored: +350
Essence to Level 41: 62,570/140,700
Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,112/2,500
More Essence, excellent. Ray couldn’t exult in the victory for long. He had to keep moving, had to get away before another rocky spire exploded and sent out dust.
Flying wasn’t an option. Not when the tearing, shredding gas was rising far higher into the air than his wings could take him. Ray kept his Soaring Wings on his back to aid in his motion, but he definitely couldn’t fly.
He couldn’t even move directly to the next free spot. The strange, silvery gas covered every direction, blocking off his available routes.
But that was where the Scouring Eyeball he had sent far up came in handy. Through his third eye, Ray got an excellent overall picture of the lay of the land. While it looked as though the gas was emerging from the rocky spires everywhere, that wasn’t actually true. There were still pockets of free space spread throughout the huge chamber.
They were just far apart enough to give the impression that Ray was trapped.
Of course, getting to those pockets of freedom was a different sort of obstacle. He couldn’t fly to them. That would just take him straight through the gas.
Instead, he called up the draconic maws around his hands again with Primal Spiritcraft. Then he fired one of the compressed beams of chaotic fire. Ray smiled. It worked, just as he had hoped. The laser breath cut through the gas, and with his third eye, he directed the blast straight to the next free pocket.
Just as the laser entered the free spot, Ray used Spectral Step. The world twisted, shattered, and reformed as he teleported. He was so glad he had gotten used to the feeling.
Ray couldn’t relax. While he was temporarily free from the gas, a bunch of other rocky spires had all split around him. Heavy scuttling announced that he was about to be accosted by the same kind of monsters as the one he had killed not long ago. The Tentapedes.
He grinned. They would never reach him.
His third eye continued to inform him about the lay of the land, including the shadows of the monsters passing through the gas. Of course they were unaffected.
But they were also pinpointed for Ray to aim his draconic maws and fire off the laser breaths. He attacked the monsters with both hands at the same time. The gas cloaked his lasers until they burst through and reached his targets, which meant Ray’s attacks were supremely effective and efficient.
He had a feeling the monsters would be a lot more evasive if they could actually see what was attacking them.
They weren’t dumb, though. The monsters began moving in a more sinuous motion, twisting and turning this way and that to throw his aim. It didn’t really work. Not only did Ray have a good eye on them from on top, he could also cover a good area with the laser breaths.
The real problem was that the pocket of free space wasn’t going to remain that way forever.
Plus, there were just too many of the monsters to take out. Ray called up a Greater Windbane Maw construct to add to his firepower, but it wasn’t enough.
It was no surprise that a Tentapede burst through the silvery gloom to attack him directly. There would be more coming after him. Ray had definitely not taken out anywhere near all of them.
He twisted around to aim both draconic maws at the monster. But he didn’t fire. There were two monsters? No. It was one centipede like monster, an oversized and more boisterous version of the Stone Lice he had fought earlier.
The difference was that the monster was attacking with both ends of its body.
A quick reaction was all that saved Ray. Just as the monster’s two ends reached him, he jumped up, aiming both his arms down and firing off their laser breaths. Everything exploded with a detonation of black-red flames, the shockwave sending Ray shooting upwards.
Thankfully, he didn’t collide with the dangerous silver gas. His construct had fired off its laser in a different direction, guided by the eyeball floating high above.
Just as Ray was about to reach the gas, he used Spectral Step again, reappearing at the end of his construct’s laser breath. He quickly crushed a True Mana shard to top up his capacity. There was unfortunately no way for the construct to join him too, so he dismissed it for now.
Ray didn’t get a single moment of peace. More monsters were screeching and shrieking, already almost upon him. He growled. There was still a good amount of distance to cover. He had to—
Too late. The next Tentapede burst through the gas. Ray fired off another laser breath at it, making its entire midsection explode.
But the monster wasn’t alone. Ray gawked as a different monster jumped off the dying Tentapede. A monster that made Primordial Gauge scream with a warning. Ray’s heart hitched in his chest.
There was a Lostcaller in this gas-blasted chamber.