It didn’t take too long for him to reach the area indicated by Virko, nor did it take too long to find the actual dungeons. There were quite a few ruins lying about. Plus, Ray had an enormous supply of Mana crystals now, so constantly using Soaring Wings to cover huge distances was no longer as costly as before.
The first dungeon Ray came across had an ominous entrance. It was strewn with bodies.
Human bodies.
They weren’t all dead. Lifeblood Sense caught the faint pulse of life from an unmoving man at the edge of the spill of corpses.
Ray’s nose crinkled at the smell as he walked over. The blood looked fresh but had dried enough to indicate that the deaths hadn’t been too recent. Clearly, the corpses had started to rot. Strange, though. Shouldn’t there be corpses inside the dungeon instead of at its entrance? Even stranger, there were blood trails leading to the entryway.
All Ray got was that there had been a fight outside the dungeon, but the survivors had gone in regardless of their current condition.
The man, who had been lying face first on the ground, now slowly turned over as Ray approached. “Don’t come closer. You should get away while you can. This place… this thing…”
Ray’s hackles rose at the man’s tone, but he tamped down the feelings. “Are you alright? Can’t you use your Recovery to heal?”
The laughter he got in response was short, jagged, and mirthless. “I’m trying to run. To escape. Can’t let the dungeon catch sight of me. So I’m slowly creeping away.”
“While pretending to be a corpse?”
His voice turned hoarse. “That’s what you need to do here.”
Ray looked up. The dungeon he stood before didn’t have that sinister of an outlook. A rundown building in the same strange architectural style with the skin-coloured bricks, double-storey and long. Its windows were dark, the few balconies on the second floor completely filled with debris.
Presence of the Primordial told him what was up with the dungeon before Ray even entered it.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]
Everair Imperial Seeker’s Guild [Tier 5]
The empire of Everair employed Seekers for all sorts of purposes. They were vaunted as excavators of powerful ancient treasure, hunters of great beasts and criminals, scouts of the wildest frontier planets. To their keen eye, nothing escapes notice. If you are detected, then you will face the might of the vaunted Seekers upon your very soul.
Seekers, was it? Nope. Not what Ray was looking for. If he went by the original hint that Virko had left him, then he had to find a dungeon more closely aligned with his build.
“You went into a Tier 5 dungeon?” Ray asked. “At level 6?”
The man continued ever so slowly crawling away. “I know. It was stupid. But we thought we could do it as a group.”
Ray swallowed. There were at least six other people who were dead here. Holy shit, one was even a child. A kid, thirteen or fourteen at best. All of them were killed via a variety of means. So many deaths… Just more confirmation that the population of all those who had been inducted into the Tower—aka everybody on Earth—was rapidly going down.
“Are you alone, or are you with a Faction?” Ray asked.
“A Faction? What’s that?”
“So not with a Faction then.”
He supposed the dirty, grimy man’s party was still too small to make a Faction.
“Go that way.” Ray pointed in his seven o’clock direction. “You should be able to find some shelter. Tell them Ray sent you. You can’t miss it. It’s a settlement on hill, an abandoned keep that’s being repurposed by a bunch of people. Just don’t die along the way.”
The man’s face gawped in wonder. “There’s more people? Who can help?” He quickly pulled himself up, bowing at Ray. “Thank you! Thank you! I’ll head over there immediately.”
As the man stumbled off, Ray sent a quick message to Maya about what he had encountered. He also reiterated what Gritty had said.
It would be paranoid to be suspicious of every newcomer to their group, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep a closer eye on them. And everyone else, for that matter. Better safe than sorry.
Ray spotted some interesting monsters as he hunted around for the next dungeon. More of those deer-kangaroo hybrids with the glowing antlers. Spiny fins that trailed along the surface of a long lake.
The next dungeon wasn’t too far off, though again, distances seemed condensed now thanks to his method of traversal. This one was also not worth delving.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]
Undercity Beggar’s Lair [Tier 3]
However rich and powerful a race might grow, not everyone ever prospers. Regardless, the well-off must save face. Thus, the poor, the destitute, and the downtrodden are relegated to out-of-the-way establishment at the edges of civilization. There, they breed their discontent and foment thoughts of reprisal. One day, wealth and power will be theirs too.
Ray was standing before a pipe. A large pipe, sloping gently downwards, leading deeper underground. Literally, that was it. But still. This wasn’t what he was looking for either.
Fresh footprints on the muddied ground suggested there were people already inside. Ray was curious as to who they might have been. Were they aligned with any Factions? He didn’t want to waste time on them, though, so he moved on.
Finally, on the third dungeon Ray came across, he went in.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]
Novitiate Mage Academy [Tier 4]
Mana is the lifeblood of civilization. True Mana ruled the empire. As such, the Everair empire dedicated many great centres to the edification of those who could wield Mana to its full capacity. Academies such as this one were a common sight throughout the empire.
Excellent. Just what Ray was looking for.
The dungeon itself was ruined like everything else. There was a certain school-vibe to it, with its wide walls bounding an inner courtyard, what looked like wrought-iron gates, and the main school building sectioned off into chunks until they reached the dome-capped centre in the middle.
Ray’s skin itched as he entered. Mana was thick and strong here. It felt as though the air was charged like before a thunderstorm. He could simply breathe and absorb Mana.
Was that actually true? Ray fired off a Chaos Chymify and waited for a few moments. No. His Mana wasn’t actually regenerating on its own, unlike his Recovery. Bummer, but not unexpected. The System wasn’t going to break its restrictions that easily.
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Ray blessed the fact that the dungeon was within a set of ruins. That meant there were enough holes in the ceiling of the first chamber he entered—and the rest of this long-gone academy—that natural light filtered in to illuminate his path forward.
A path that was blocked by a shimmering wall.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]
Mana Veil
To prove that one has the talent to capture and mould Mana into the services of the empire, one has to demonstrate that one can handle Mana. Pass through the veil. Show the world that Mana is your servant, not the other way around.
Hmm. Straightforward enough. Ray took a deep breath, then stepped through the barrier glowing faintly blue.
The feeling was hard to describe. If all the charged sensation outside was condensed and distilled into a membrane about a few millimetres thick, then that would approximate the overall sensation. Ray’s skin buzzed. His teeth chattered. He was pretty sure he was singeing off most of his body hair that was exposed. All in all, he was glad the barrier was thin.
It made him wonder what would happen to anyone who wasn’t a casting-based class like him. Everyone needed Mana to some extent, right? That was how they used their abilities.
Or so he believed. Gritty had mentioned being able to use abilities with blood instead of Mana.
But then, how was the veil determining he deserved to pass through?
Ray had felt all the Mana trying to impress itself upon him, attempting to possess him. He peeked at his Status.
Oh, huh. So his Mana capacity was full again. The little bit he had used up for that Chaos Chymify had been refunded. Interesting. So had that veil basically checked just how much Mana he could have handled?
It made him once again wonder how the test would have gone for someone with low Spirit, but Ray pushed the question aside. He had to move on.
Past the Mana Veil was a long hallway. The doors at the end opened on their own.
Revealing an inner, closed-roof courtyard arrayed with strange, glassy statues.
The open area was easily as big as a football field, if not larger. Ray frowned at the statuary. What exactly was the challenge here? Presence of the Primordial indicated that the statues were rife with Mana.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]
Archer Statue [Tier 3]
A guardian of the testing grounds enchanted to test the ability of apprentice mages seeking to prove their skills at using Mana in a variety of ways all at once.
What a roundabout description. Guardian sounded like Ray was going to have to fight that thing. That sounded a bit basic. But then, Presence of the Primordial started alerting him to more Mana signatures.
More statues that were alive.
A Greataxe Statue. A Shield Statue. A Pike Statue. A Knives Statue. Each of those had varieties too. Some were riding on strange steeds. Some moved together, some working alone. There were even some who were flying. Or floating, rather, suspended magically in the air.
Each of the statues reminded him of the Feathered Fiend as well. Humanoid creatures with the body of a large man, but the head of a bird of prey. Kind of like Egyptian gods. He had seen similar statues lying in ruins all over the first floor. Just more evidence that this Everair race were most likely these humanoid, griffin-like creatures.
Ray shook his head at the floating ones, scoffing. “Two can play that game.”
The very first step he took into the courtyard made the statues come to life. The Archer statue’s eyes glowed red. It attacked, but instead of firing the stone arrow sculpted into its bow, its weapons glowed and fired off a spectral bolt.
Ray was already moving, so he managed to dodge effectively. If he hadn’t though… he suppressed a shudder. That arrow had come in fast.
He needed to keep moving. That would ensure the attacking statues never cornered him.
A distant shimmer distracted Ray for a heartbeat. Hold on. Was that the same barrier of Mana he had passed through at the beginning? It looked very similar. At least, until his view was blocked by one of the shield-bearing statues. Was he supposed to reach that? He supposed he’d have to get through the shield-bearing statue to do so.
No zipping straight to the finish line with a quick, little flight.
Through the corner of his eye, he noticed one of the spectral arrows was getting close. Annoying.
He dived forwards and the arrow shot just past his back. But Ray didn’t reach the ground despite his dive. He had summoned his wings with Primal Summons, taking himself into the air. The spot he had been an instant ago was immediately hammered in with a swipe from a greataxe.
Ray flipped off the statue as he flew away. He was getting rather good at controlling his motion while moving about with the same twisting intensity as a rollercoaster.
More statues were trying to converge to his position. The archer statue continued firing off magical ghostly arrows.
Ray wouldn’t be able to get through the thicket of statues normally. He also didn’t want to have to waste Mana destroying every statue either—a test revealed that one Shatterclaw was enough to break the dungeon guardians.
Thankfully, there was a simpler solution.
Ray flew backwards, away from the shimmering barrier he had spotted earlier. He jerked himself this way and that, letting more of the statues get in on his trail. Knives slashed at him, greataxes sought to cleave him in two, and even a few spears came flying in.
He was letting them all gather in one location. Corralling them away from the shield-bearing statues. Waiting until—
Until they were too committed to killing him on the opposite side of the courtyard to where Ray needed to be.
“See ya,” Ray said before rising high on his wings and shooting forward.
Two of the winged statues tried following him, but a Shatterclaw with each Talisman destroyed one of both statues’ wings. They crashed into each other instead of reaching Ray. He grinned as he flew off.
The other statues were way too slow to reach him. They hadn’t even turned around fully by the time he reached the archer statue. Dodging the spectral arrow, Ray destroyed it with a Shatterclaw. He made sure to take out the two other nearby archer statues too. There. Pain in his ass taken care of.
All that was left was the shield-bearing guardian. Ray lunged towards it and used another Shatterclaw.
Unlike the others, it survived. Even its shield survived. The glowing blue door-shaped block of stone took the brunt of his spell’s damage, the statue itself only being pushed back a couple of inches at most.
Behind Ray, the other guardians were quickly hounding after him. There was no time.
Ray used the Mana Infuser Ring next. With three pulses of Mana, he turned his Shatterclaw into Tier 5. His next attack also activated the Talisman of Focused Fury, blasting out an extra Shatterclaw on top of what he was using already.
This time, the shield broke with the sound of a mirror and a stone column shattering together. Behind it, the statue fell apart.
Ray flapped his wings and reached the shimmering barrier of Mana. Just in time too.
A second later, several of the melee statues crashed in and destroyed the ground he had been standing on. They were unrelenting, even attacking the Mana boundary futilely, though the shimmering barrier held.
It made Ray jump. He had thought he would pass this weird “test” by crossing the threshold, then the statues would deactivate.
But no. The statues continued attacking the barrier, even when they made no headway at all. Wild.
Ray shook his head slowly. “Do they want their apprentices to die or something?”
Leaving the maddened statues behind him, Ray strode to the next door. He got the feeling that the next bit was going to be the last challenge offered up by the dungeon.
Ray opened the door and was greeted by a blinding column of True Mana.
Presence of the Primordial informed him that his assumption was indeed correct. Mana that was condensed in on itself over and over into a form that was extremely visible and even more potent. There was almost a sensation like gravity in the area. Ray was being slowly, magnetically dragged towards that brilliant column.
It made sense. A black hole formed when matter was compressed into an infinitesimally small space compared to its original size. Forced to a density that was unnatural. Impossible.
The same was true for this type of Mana. Compared to the regular magical energy that Ray channelled, this was bursting at the seams with potential and power. He couldn’t even resist its inexorable pull. Wow.
He swallowed. But what was he supposed to do here?
Before, the goals had been more or less obvious. Shimmering barriers of Mana that he had been forced to go through to succeed in the dungeon’s challenge. There were no such barriers here. All Ray could see was that spot of True Mana, that brilliantly bright column which would surely blind him if he kept staring like this.
Ray delved properly into Presence of the Primordial to see if he could get more information.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]
Pillar of True Mana
The most talented novitiates of the academy, those who held the potential to become legends in the history of Everair, had to prove themselves via one final test. There was no kind of Mana superior to True Mana. Only upon successful containment and control of True Mana would a novitiate be allowed to reach the true echelons of Everair mages. But bending True Mana to one’s will is nigh on an impossible task. Weaker wills are shredded to eternity upon contact with True Mana. Thus, only the bravest, only the truest, could take such a test.
Ah, shit. That didn’t sound good. Ray had next to no clue if he was supposed to be a talented mage or not. Worse, he had nothing of the training the novitiates this test was clearly built for had.
How in the world was he supposed to conquer a mind-shredding column of ethereal energy?
Plus, he recalled one of the warnings way back. Ray would end up damaging his Mana conduits if he took in True Mana without the proper preparation.
Stop panicking. Ray breathed. The column was still dragging him closer, and he couldn’t move away against it, even when he beat his wings as hard as he could. But he had a couple of minutes before impact. Surely he could think of something.
So far, he had looked deeper at the dungeon obstacle itself. He was yet to peek at what exactly True Mana was compared to regular old Mana he had been using.
It hadn’t worked last time, for whatever reason. But he needed it now. Surely—
Yes!
[Presence of the Primordial—Mana Varieties]
True Mana
The purest form of Mana. When Mana is condensed in on itself, True Mana is created. The level of True Mana describes the number of times it has been condensed, with each condensation being twice as hard as the previous level. The dungeon obstacle presents level 12 True Mana. True Mana can only be channelled by bodies and objects that have performed Mana condensation. Forceful channelling of True Mana through uncondensed channels may cause the unprepared Mana Core to rupture.
Rupture? Shit. Ray was pretty sure he had to avoid that no matter what.
Just as he was about to hit the pillar of True Mana, he suddenly knew what he had to do. A description popped up in his head. Construct created using True Mana.
Ray summoned up the Tower Node, making it float over his head. The pillar of True Mana crashed upon him the next second, turning his entire world white.