Ray took a moment to actually observe the Tower Node he had obtained. It was diamond-shaped like the old one, but there were some small, spiky protrusions on its top face. He almost wanted to touch and see how it felt.
[System Artifact—Tower Node]
Tower Node of the Mentor
With the Node of the Mentor, you can now create your own training zone. Call forth the ability to train yourself and your comrades in a variety of applications, ranging from combat, to hunting, to even edification and craftworking. A repeatable way of raising your strength. Possible training scenarios can be increased with True Mana. Rewards can be kept even after the simulation ends. But beware, exceeding the limits of the simulation can call in the attention of the Mentor.
Ah. Tower Node of the Mentor, was it? Made sense. Every dungeon he had been to in the area had all enacted some sort of training regimen.
Interestingly, the description differed from the other Tower Node’s, if he was remembering correctly. There was no warning that he might accidentally contact whoever this Mentor was. In its place, there was an added functionality that would allow him to put in more… training modules, so long as he used True Mana to do so.
Ray didn’t know how. Interestingly, there was that warning at the bottom too. Ha, fuck the Marauder, Ray could get in touch with this new Paragon.
[True Mana Skill]
You possess two Tower Nodes—Tower Nodes of the Marauder and the Mentor. As such, you can pick one True Mana skill from two options.
Vengeful Plunder [Buffing] [Tier 1]
A buffing skill that raises your stats for every successful hit you land on your opponent. Stats raised are the wielder’s primary stats. At Tier 1, this skill raises each stat by 1 point, lasts 1 minute from activation, and costs 200 Mana. As you have no True Mana, the spell has an enhanced regular Mana cost.
Honing Strike [Passive] [Tier 1]
A passive skill that automatically and permanently upgrades a selected ability to its True Mana version. At Tier 1, the selected spell requires 50 times its base Mana requirement to complete the upgrade, and every successful hit on an opponent adds 5 Mana to upgrade completion. As you have no True Mana, the spell has an enhanced regular Mana cost.
Wow, alright. It was a good thing the new Tower Node did grant him a new option other than Vengeful Plunder, but eh…
The skill was interesting, no doubt. Ray could see the appeal in upgrading his spells just by hitting things. At the same time, the requirement felt a mite steep. 50 times Mana meant a Shatterclaw at Tier 2—which cost 20 Mana to cast—would require one thousand Mana to upgrade. If every hit granted him only 5 Mana, he would need to strike out 200 times.
Basically, the requirement felt insane.
Worse than that, Honing Strike upgraded his spells permanently. If True Enhancement was accurate in how much a True Mana version of his current spells would cost, then Ray was not at all certain he wanted a permanent version of them.
Way too much of an overkill for monsters who would only grant him a fraction of the cost of Mana in return.
In other words, Ray’s only good option was the first one he’d had.
It felt a little frustrating. He’d gone through all this trouble just to come back to the same state he had been in before all the dungeon delving and commander killing. It was especially annoying because he still liked Vengeful Plunder. Stat boost with every hit? Yes, fucking, please.
But the main reason he had hesitated was because he still didn’t know the Marauder’s true intentions. If Ray was being fair, he would admit that the Paragon he had spoken to hadn’t felt evil. He hadn’t been scummy or given bad vibes. But trusting anybody who withheld information to that extent was a big ask.
Ugh.
Dismissing the skill option again for now, Ray picked up the Tower Node. A spark of what felt like True Mana spiked from his hand into the ceramic-like material. He winced.
“Hello?” Always a good beginning.
No response. Hmm. How was he going to contact this Mentor Paragon? The last time—
Ray looked behind him. The last time, it had taken a pillar of devastating True Mana to get in touch with a Paragon. It was likely he’d have to do something similar again.
He willed both Tower Nodes to disappear. When he focused on his newest acquisition, only the Tower Node of the Mentor reappeared. Ah, good. Ray had been marginally worried that, since he hadn’t received the new Node via an achievement, it wouldn’t really be his.
That didn’t seem to be the case, thanks to whatever his first Tower Node had done.
He frowned again. Was it the Marauder’s influence coming into play again? If so, he wasn’t at all sure he approved.
Anyway, Ray headed back to where the Novitiate Mage Academy was. He needed access to that True Mana pillar again. Maybe he would even destroy all the statues this time, just to make sure they didn’t annoy him anymore.
The dungeon doors didn’t open.
“Hey, what’s the big idea?” Ray tugged on the ornate handles hard, but the doors wouldn’t budge. “Open up already!”
The dungeon refused him entry.
[Warning!]
A dungeon cleared by a Denizen will no longer be available to that Denizen again. If said Denizen is part of a party with other Denizens who haven’t cleared the dungeon, the dungeon will remain inaccessible to all Denizens.
“That’s bullshit.” Ray gave the dungeon doors a nice, solid kick. Nothing at all happened. “Let me in.” He shook the handles as hard as he could. “Let me in.”
Ray even tried attacking. A quick use of Shatterclaw to break down the stupid door and grant himself access to what he needed.
[Warning!]
System Artifacts cannot be damaged by Denizens.
Oh, alright. So dungeons counted as System Artifacts too? Which meant that Ray couldn’t destroy any of the Tower Nodes even if he had wanted. That was slightly worrying, especially since the wording suggested there were those who could do so. Maybe the Paragons.
Whatever the case, Ray understood that his access to that pillar of True Mana was gone for good. Great.
It wasn’t a complete loss. Ray had one other potential opportunity for interacting with the Paragon of his newest Tower Node. He just hoped that it would work.
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Maya: Are you still trying to conquer the dungeons?
Ray: Oh, hello. And no, I’m not conquering them, I’m simply clearing them. If they were conquered, you’d think they’d let me back in.
Maya: Oh, right. We’ve had people reporting the same thing. They can’t go back inside dungeons after clearing them.
Good to see that Maya’s Faction was investigating and clearing dungeons. Though, he suspected she hadn’t called him to chat about that.
Ray: What’s up?
Maya: How soon can you get back to our Base?
Our base. Like Ray was a part of it too, whether he liked it or not. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
On the one hand, it made him think of being forcibly considered a part of something he had no wish to associate himself with. Shuffled around departments because the higher-ups decided to shake things up and layoff half the workforce, all in the name of “restructuring” the company. He had been a casualty of such pogroms before.
But Maya was kinder. For her, it was more like including Ray in the family picture, even if he didn’t like most of his cousins and always got into arguments with his dad and uncles.
Ray: What’s going on?
Maya: Some of our patrols spotted some Sylvans nearby. We have a bad feeling they’re staking us out before trying something.
Oh, yes. Of course the Sylvans wouldn’t let the fact that about five of their own lay dead, not to mention several Brighthorns as well. If only he could get a hold of Kredevel.
Ray: I’ll be there soon. Within a couple of hours, at most. Let me know if anything serious occurs.
Maya: Thank you. I know you didn’t want to be part of all this, but we could use all the help we can get.
Ray: Don’t worry, I’ve got your back. Also, did any Imps come by the Base? Like, those Feathered Imps that helped us in the battle.
Maya: No. Were they supposed to?
Ray: I sent over some loot that I thought you’d find useful. But if they’re not there yet… well, hmm. I’ll see, I guess.
Maya: Alright, then. See you soon.
With a short farewell, Ray closed the chat window. Time to head out. He had made good progress with the dungeons, acquired some neat stuff, and, most importantly, found his second Tower Node. There were more things he had to achieve, like getting in touch with the new Paragon, but those could wait.
Right now, Ray had a Faction to head to.
----------------------------------------
Ray deliberated as he headed over to where his only companions on the First Floor resided. Sure, he might not want to be involved with the Insurge Faction as an actual member. But at the same time, he wasn’t going to let it fall just like that.
It was more than just the fact that a part of him would feel awful if something happened to Maya or Randall or Dory. He wasn’t so tied to them emotionally that he would rush to their rescue at great cost to himself. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to make a choice like that, but he set it in his head.
Ray was here to gain control over his life. Over the things that could affect him. He wasn’t going to risk it all needlessly.
Nevertheless, he didn’t want them to come to any harm. If he could help them, he would.
That extended to the Faction as well, but only because he understood the inherent power in numbers. It was cold, hard math. In a world devoid of most other people, where there wasn’t a group of hundreds to take the attention off Ray, he would be a lot more restricted.
For instance, instead of targeting a whole Faction, all the Sylvans would be targeting Ray specifically. If Insurge Faction didn’t exist.
Therefore, its continued existence benefited Ray implicitly.
As Ray had been moving, he had kept an eye out for the Feathered Imps. He kept trying to send out pulses of Lifeblood Sense, only to be reminded that he had combined the spell with Presence of the Primordial. If something popped up, he would be alerted automatically.
Which he was, about half an hour later. Presence of the Primordial picked up the trio of Feathered Imps he had met a while back. But it wasn’t just them.
[Warning!]
Presence of the Primordial indicates your presence has been detected by Total Perception [Tier 3]. Presence of the Primordial has nullified the aura of Sylvan Pride [Tier 3].
Several feet behind the Imps was Kredevel. He had his sword out, his eyes fixed on Ray. The Imps seemed to be cowering a little in front of him.
Well, at least this explained why they hadn’t reached the keep yet.
“Hey, Kredevel.” Ray waved, even though he certainly felt the tension in the air. “How’s it going?”
Kredevel didn’t wave, nor did he put his sword down. “Hello to you too, Ray. I was hoping I would find you, especially after I found your minions this far from their home.”
Ray had a lot of things running through his mind then. How soon could he reach the keep? Maya had mentioned seeing Sylvans, so was Kredevel with the group? Had he been sent out to stop Ray specifically because they had met before?
“Haven’t you seen Imps outside of their caves before?” Ray asked, like seeing Imps outside the Marauder’s Caves was like seeing a seagull on a beach.
Kredevel shook his head. “Never. Not once. In fact, it almost feels as though they’re… being controlled by you, Ray.”
Ray sighed. “Let’s cut to the chase, Kredevel. What do you want?”
“I want to know and understand what’s going on.”
“Why now? Why here?” Ray did his best not to tense but his shoulders squared on their own. “Are you with the other Sylvans? Trying to bait me into a trap?”
A slight frown marred Kredevel’s brow. “I am here on my own. If there are other Sylvans in the vicinity, they are here for a purpose unrelated to mine.”
“Unrelated as far as you’re aware.”
Kredevel’s frown deepened. He didn’t miss what Ray was implying. “You’re right, Ray. Let us cut to the chase. My mission is to find out what happened at the Marauder’s Caves, and to take care of the culprit who has caused the Imps to come out and murder our Brighthorns.”
“You were in the Caves with me, Kredevel. You know what happened.”
“Do I? Do I know everything? Have you told me everything?”
Ray tried to control his expression to remain neutral, but he was having difficulty not frowning. Kredevel didn’t need to know everything. Especially because if Ray told him the truth, he would no doubt blame Ray for killing the Brighthorns and also probably take umbrage at the fact that he was controlling a Tower Node.
Two Tower Nodes, in fact.
But if Ray kept refusing to answer, then there was likely only one resolution available to them. As such, he granted himself a leg up.
[Presence of the Primordial]
Kredevel Alt Third-shine [Denizen]
Race: Sylvan
Path: Path of Core Growth [Epic]
Class: Blade Dancer [Common] [Tier 2] at Level 18
Skills:
Dancing Swings [Tier 3]: Dance with your blade to temporarily raise your speed and power. The more you swing, the better you get. At Tier 3, this skill raises speed and damage by 3% per 5 swings. Boosts can stack and each boost lasts 30 seconds at Tier 3.
Sylvan Pride [Tier 3]: Aura of astral projection that automatically refills Mana. This Aura manifests in the element of the wielder’s Path. Your extended presence will note the aura of other beings in your aura’s vicinity. At Tier 3, this spell’s range extends to 15 meters.
Total Perception [Tier 3]: Claim absolute detection of any living being within the spell’s vicinity. At Tier 3, the spell’s vicinity extends to 15 meters.
Armoured Growth [Tier 4]: Imbue yourself with Growth Mana to create a slowly-growing encasing that negates incoming damage. Encasing can be shaped according to wielder’s will. At Tier 4, 8% of all incoming damage is negated per minute of growth.
Bladed Growth [Tier 4]: Extended the reach of your weapon by imbuing it with Growth Mana. At Tier 4, this skill increases the reach of your weapon by 4 meters.
Stored Rejuvenation [Tier 2]: Unleash stored Growth Mana that rejuvenates your soul. At Tier 2, this spell replenishes 20% of your Recovery and Mana.
Growth Mana? Was that a different kind of Mana just like True Mana? Well, maybe not just like True Mana. The theme seemed to be what it said on the tin. Growth. Huh.
“I know you’re peeking at my abilities,” Kredevel said. His eyes were slightly screwed up in suspicion.
“Like you wouldn’t be if you could do so,” Ray said.
“True enough. Although, I will admit the fact that you can block my ability to do so speaks volumes of how quickly you’ve grown since last we’ve met.”
Ray grinned. “I’ve been busy, yeah.”
“But the whole exercise is pointless.”
“What?”
“Don’t you understand, Ray? Do you truly believe I am out here to kill you?”
“You sound awfully certain you can kill me if you wanted.”
“The point is that I was ordered to do so, but there is nothing saying I must follow that order to the letter. Nevertheless, I need to know the truth. I need something to decide.”
Ray considered for a moment. “Well, how about—”
He stopped, and at the same time, Kredevel looked to his right. Someone else was here. Someone rushing straight for them.
Gritty.
Gritty: Hold on, wingman. I’ll take care of that son of a bitch!
Out of all the surprising things in that instant, all Ray could marvel at was one thing—how in the world was she chatting while simultaneously bull-rushing their position?
But this wasn’t good.
Kredevel had drawn his sword closer in a fighting stance. Gritty was dashing at breakneck speed, her form wreathed in a red aura. However strong she believed herself to be, Ray was certain she wasn’t strong enough. Not against an opponent several levels higher and possessing an Epic Path as well.
So, Ray used Primal Summons to call up his wings. With a burst of speed, he shot to a position right between Gritty and Kredevel.
Ray’s murderous companion came to a jerking stop behind his back.
“What the hell is your deal?” Gritty growled.
Ray didn’t look back. He kept his eyes focused on Kredevel, who was clearly one wrong flinch away from attacking. “Don’t start a fight when you don’t know the full story.”
“What full story?” Gritty rose to her full height and pointed at the Sylvan. “There’s a Sylvan over there. One of the fuckers that need to be buried alive. Now that I’m here, I’m going to do just that.”
“You’re painting everyone with the same broad brush, Gritty. Trust me when I tell you—not everybody you think deserves your hate really deserves your hate.”
Gritty didn’t reply to that, but Ray got the sense that she was shooting death glares at the Sylvan from behind his back. Ray was tempted to roll his eyes. Typical.
“Your friend isn’t weak,” Kredevel said. “But—”
“I’m not his friend, buddy,” Gritty said over Ray’s shoulder.
“Then what in the world are you?”
“I am your death.”
At that, Ray did look behind and shot Gritty a glare. Despite her statement, she had reined herself in. She didn’t look like she was actually going to attempt to kill Kredevel. Not just yet.
“So, Ray.” Kredevel’s attention had turned back to Ray, his eyes on the black wings coming off Ray’s back. “You realize that those wings of yours already reveal some of the truth.”
Ray supposed they did. Kredevel didn’t sound surprised by their appearance. Either he had suspected something along these lines coming up, or he had received some sort of report of a black-winged human killing off Sylvans.
But Ray never got the chance to ask. They didn’t get to talk much further at all. Instead, time froze. Presence of the Primordial tipped him off that the Ring of Temporal Evasion had activated. But problem was, no one was attacking Ray. Kredevel had opened his mouth to say something, and he was pretty certain Gritty wasn’t trying to backstab him.
So what the hell was going on?