Ray stared at the sheer size of that thing. Maybe it wasn’t as big as the Duskshell, but then again, the Duskshell hadn’t been floating in the middle of a cloud.
And maybe that was why the other Windbanes weren’t attacking. Their leader—or their matriarch, or whatever that thing was in relation to them—had arrived. Now they could watch as Ray got his ass handed to him.
Except, the giant monster didn’t descend either. It just floated high above them all. Very threateningly.
Ray twisted around. There was no point waiting. The other Windbanes were close by. Ray could shoot at them and take them out.
But he never got the chance to do so.
In place of the gigantic Windbane, a storm descended upon him. It had to be the Gust skill he had seen, just amped up a lot because that monster had to be a much stronger version of the ones he had faced so far.
Winds tore at Ray, buffeting him this way and that with no rhyme or pattern. He tried to force his wings to hold him steady in the middle of the maelstrom, but that soon turned out to be impossible. In seconds, Ray lost control of his flight, twirling around madly like he was caught in a cyclone. Moments later, he was slammed to the ground.
All that prevented him from being squashed was his Valorous Back Shield. Apparently, crashing down on his back counted as some sort of backstab. All damage was negated. Ray was still shaken, but he hadn’t needed to use up any of his Recovery.
That was when the nearer, smaller Windbanes charged in. They thought he had been winded, that he was now defenceless after being thrown out of his flight.
Especially since the windstorm was still raging. Even if Ray had his wings, he couldn’t very well take to the air again, not when he couldn’t control his flight at all. He was just outmatched aerially by what that monstrous Windbane had flung down. Damn, forget flying, it was just hard to stay upright on his feet.
Well, time to prove the Windbanes wrong.
Just as they neared, their screeches growing louder over the rush of the wind, Ray used Mottling Membrane.
Chaotic energy gathered around him in an instant, before exploding outwards in a growing black-red dome. The onrushing Windbanes crashed right into it.
The spell was still at Tier 1, so it didn’t really stop them, but it did damage them. In fact, the effects of Lifeblood Chaos were deadly enough even at just Tier 1, that it made the monsters lose control of their flights, and they plummeted to the ground as well.
They would have landed too close to Ray, but as soon as he had thrown out his spell, he had dived away. Now, he was ready to take full advantage.
Ray didn’t let the downed Windbanes get back up. He raised both hands before bringing them down hard, using Mana-Infused Shatterclaw at the same time. He had raised them both to Tier 6, depleting the last of his Mana and setting off the heavy twinge within him.
But it was worth it. The massive combination of rending claws crashed down with the force of a giant’s punch. Both Windbanes were crushed entirely, blood and bits of them spraying outwards.
Taking care of the first two had allowed the third to recover enough to face him and attack. A blast of what had to be Guttural Spark was about to fly at him.
Ray would have tried to deal with it the same way he had the first Windbane. A quick Chaos Chymify to the mouth would have put a stop to any nonsense. Unfortunately, he was out of Mana.
As such, he was forced to let it fling out the Guttural Spark. It did indeed come out as a blast of concentrated power that looked like pure Flight Mana. A glowing white orb of energy shooting straight at Ray. He had to wait to dodge it before he could take out a Mana crystal and replenish his store.
The monster would have taken the time to attack him, but Mottling Membrane had damaged it too much. Its flesh was split and oozing blood at too many places, its bones and blood vessels overgrown and suffocating the rest of its body.
In other words, Ray could attack again.
This time, he wited until the monster attempted another Guttural Spark. Just as its throat began to glow, Ray blasted it with a Chaos Chymify. It ate the spiralling bolt of chaotic energy right in the face.
Then Ray closed in, infusing his Shatterclaw to a high Tier and crashing it down on the monster.
[Enemy Defeated—Windbane]
Tier 5 Monster: Windbane [Level 15] x1
Tier 5 Monster: Windbane [Level 14] x2
Essence: +2,150
Knowledge: +9
Mana Restored: +430
Essence to Level 14: 3,450/8,100
Knowledge to next Threshold: 125/150
Oh, huh. So, two of them had been slightly weaker than the first one he had killed. There had to be different levels of them all over the place, then.
Ray looked up. That monstrous Windbane. What level and Tier was that thing?
He scoured the area for more Windbanes. Ray was getting a decent amount of Essence for killing them. If he could find more, he would earn a level before he even had to fight the big one. But just as he got moving to find more monsters, another windstorm hammered down.
This time, however, they were accompanied by the mountainside itself.
Ah. Now Ray recalled the Dungeon Obstacle. Mountain Barrage. The gale slammed in, threatening to make him lose his footing and send him flying in the heavy winds. More importantly, they had brought rocks too. Huge boulders flew down. Chunks of the mountain crashed in like shots from trebuchets.
Ray was already moving. He tried to look above him, to see if he could spot the flying rocks before he was crushed. It was hard to keep his eyes open in the wind. He could barely—
Oh! Now would be the perfect time, then.
Okay, maybe not the perfect time. Ideally, Ray would have liked to test it out some more. But he needed an eye that could see through this storm, and what better eye was there than one that was already used to these conditions?
Ignoring that his actual eyes were almost slitted now, Ray summoned that winged Scouring Eyes with Lifeblood Construct.
It worked just fine. The wind didn’t bother it. Well, apart from causing it to lose its place in the air. In fact, the windstorm was strong enough that, had Ray not quickly shielded it, the poor little eyeball would have been blown away in a second.
“Never would I have guessed,” Ray said against the irrepressible blasts of air. “That I would have had to carry my own eyes and shield it against the elements.”
It was definitely helpful, though. He needed a little time to get used to the whole situation, but the eye made it much easier to spot where a ginormous rock was moments away from crashing down upon him.
Dangerous though it was, and though his heart continued to threaten to burst out of his chest, Ray managed to evade the boulders flying in.
Until the timer of Lifeblood Construct ran out. Ray had seen it coming, though. Making progress through the storm of rocks was taking too long, and he had known that his eye would disappear soon enough. An Arcanist wasn’t a true Summoner like Dory was.
But that was fine. Ray had found shelter behind a bank of rocks. The miniature landslide the monstrous Windbane was throwing down didn’t reach him.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He couldn’t continue on like this, though. The mountainside was going to bury him at this rate. A barrage, just like Presence of the Primordial had warned him. But it had also warned him that there was a way to avoid it. He had to find the tunnel.
Ray summoned his flying eyeball again and sent it scouting.
It did well to evade the rain of rocks. Well, it was small, so that wasn’t too difficult. But its size also made it more susceptible to the wind, and since Ray couldn’t protect it personally, it had to suffer. At least it could stick closer to the ground and take shelter behind ledges and protrusions.
As it travelled, Ray made sure to memorize the paths it took just so he could meet up with the eye again once the tunnel was located.
Ray’s heart pounded hard and he felt like jumping out of his skin every time a rock crashed down nearby. At this rate, he’d die of a heart attack before getting hit.
That damn monster. Why couldn’t it be a normal Windbane and just attack him directly like all its smaller counterparts had done so far? That would have been so much simpler to deal with. They could have settled this face to face, mano a mano, like it should have been. Not this long-distance pot shots like they were a couple arguing from opposite sides of the world.
Ray blinked. Well, his two normal eyes did. The third flying one did not because it had just located a giant opening on the mountain’s face.
Good. Good. Now he could get out from this unending spray of deadly rocks.
He called the eye back, trying to recommit the path it had taken to memory. Another heart-wrenching minute later, it returned, only to be dismissed. Ray wanted to reset Lifeblood Construct’s timer so that the eye wouldn’t disappear in the middle of his journey to the tunnel.
Thankfully, he made good time to the tunnel’s entrance. He couldn’t fly of course, not with giant rocks hammering down everywhere. But the boost to his speed via Occultic Apparition helped him cross certain stretches of the mountainside with relative ease. While he moved, he condensed some of his Mana into True Mana.
Ray finally sighed in relief as he entered the tunnel proper. The rocks continued crashing down behind him, but he was safe. For now.
He took a few steps into the tunnel before halting. The sounds coming from deeper within were quite familiar now. Low but familiar screeches. The occasional flap of leathery wings.
Ray wasn’t alone in the tunnel.
Not that he had expected it to be a free ride. With how the other monsters had basically disappeared, he knew they must have gone somewhere to take shelter against the storm. Now, he had found out where.
With a wild screech, the first Windbane materialized out of the gloom to attack him.
Ray drew back. He could attempt to kill the monster the same way he done with its brethren so far. But he was getting a little tired of this dungeon. Or at least, he wasn’t interested in fighting fodder continuously like this. Not when there was that gigantic Windbane awaiting somewhere higher up.
So, Ray used Primal Summons to bring his wings back. Next, he used True Enhancement to turn Shatterclaw into its True Mana variant.
He held out his arm. Black and white energy dotted with motes of gold and bordered in shining crimson crafted itself into a long, large replica of his actual arm, complete with a claw-tipped hand.
As soon as the first monster got close, Ray slapped it aside. The Windbane died immediately. True Mana was so wonderful.
Ray didn’t relax. The sounds hadn’t stopped after killing that one monster. There were more of them not far off, more of them closing in, more of them he’d have to deal with. No wonder he hadn’t received the kill notification yet.
He got to work.
Since he could hold Shatterclaw into an active limb for the entire two-and-a-half-minute duration of True Enhancement, Ray didn’t have any worries about running out of Mana. Especially not when he was killing off the monsters so quickly. It was easy to dodge their attacks, to throw them back with Mottling Membrane if too many tried to get at him at once.
Easier still to simply move his real arm the way he wanted and make the True Mana Shatterclaw limb follow suit. All it took was a little focus of his will to make it destroy the monsters in any way that worked.
These weren’t mere claws only capable of slashing. No, this was an actual arm.
Ray punched the life out of one Windbane, grabbed another’s wing and ripped it off, bashed another to make it collide with a companion before crushing both.
A good showcase of just how powerful True Mana could be.
It turned out the tunnel was more or less stuffed with the Windbanes. Not just live monsters, but also what looked like their eggs as well. Ray distantly noted they were pretty big, like dinosaur eggs. An omelette from one of these would feed an entire town.
Ray hadn’t dismissed his constructed eye either. He took it as the opportunity it was—getting used to fighting while having his third eye provide him with a unique perspective.
When Ray finally reached the end of the tunnel, he had killed enough of the monsters to level up.
[Enemy Defeated—Windbane]
Tier 5 Monster: Windbane [Level 15] x4
Tier 5 Monster: Windbane [Level 14] x6
Essence: +7,200
Knowledge: +30
Mana Restored: +1,440
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +3 Intellect, +3 Spirit, +2 Vitality, +4 allocatable free stats.
* 1 Tier Point
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 150-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 25.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 155/250
Essence to level 15: 2,550/10,000
[Stat Tier]
Your Spirit has advanced to Tier 2. Your Path can now affect your stats.
You are now in greater tune with the universe around you. Your soul can now perceive its Mana Core. Lifeblood Chaos now allows you to control both your Mana Core and, with the right abilities, those of other beings as well.
Woah, what in the world? He could not only control his Mana Core, but that of others’ as well? That sounded… quite busted. Although, he didn’t have a single inkling about Mana Cores other than the fact that they existed, so maybe not busted just yet.
Plus, there was that little bit about possessing the right abilities. Something told Ray he might not have them just yet.
There was a certain new sensation though. A feeling, somewhere within him, like he had stuffed a small firework inside himself and it could pop off at any moment. He realized it was somewhat similar to the sensation of condensing his Mana into True Mana. Like he was turning into a powerful generator of energy.
Although, it was a lot more muted than when he condensed Mana. He could ignore it pretty easily.
Ray plugged in the free four stat points to his Vitality. He had just reached his intended Spirit threshold, so he could take away his focus from it for a moment. Besides, crossing the Knowledge Reputation threshold had boosted his Intellect too.
With how much Recovery ended up being used just to get over a few wounds, Ray knew he needed a healthier amount for now. Plus, now he was curious about what he would receive for crossing Vitality’s Tier threshold. Some sort of healing bonus or something along those lines? Ray couldn’t wait.
For now, he also put the Tier point into Lifeblood Crucible. No harm in being able to store even more Soul Aspects without needing to replace any.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]
Storm From The Peak
The peak of the mountain sends down its regards through its messenger. Get past the storm to reach the summit, from whence you will have proven your right to be at the top. Only then will the storm relent.
Oh, alright. So next goal was reaching the mountain’s peak. Would that signal the end of the dungeon?
Only one way to find out.
It was quiet outside. There were no more rocks raining down from the heavens. No more giant Windbane chucking debris from a distance.
Ray had seen the sheer focusing power of the Scouring Eye, and if the giant Windbane had an improved version of it, there was no doubt it could see him even from its supremely high perch. In other words, it knew he was inside the tunnel.
And it was waiting for him to come out.
Ray dismissed, then summoned up the flying eyeball with Lifeblood Construct again. The test was simple. Would sending out something merely belonging to him rouse the Windbane to act again or was it waiting for him specifically?
The eyeball went out of the tunnel and began to climb higher upslope. There was no retaliation from the monster. Huh. Maybe it was waiting for Ray himself.
Without waiting any further, Ray headed out.
Immediately, the rockfall resumed. A heavy gale preceded a bunch of rocks streaming down the mountainside. The wind once again made it difficult to see. Ah, crap. Good thing Ray wasn’t too far from the tunnel’s mouth, so he quickly retreated inside. The rocks stopped falling moments later.
Ray glowered to himself. How much of the mountain did the Windbane even have left to chuck down at him like this?
The monster wasn’t playing fair. It had no intention of fighting in a way that would benefit Ray. Why would it? If it could keep him pinned with its rocks, if it could starve him out like this, then there was no reason for it to come down. What a cowardly asshole.
But there was one small thing the monster was forgetting. Or perhaps, choosing to ignore because it didn’t foresee it as a threat.
The eyeball was still climbing, still getting closer. Soon, it would be where Ray needed it.
He had foreseen something like this occurring. Stymied in one location because he was facing an obstacle he couldn’t surmount using his regular means. Surviving in this new world clearly required a good deal of adaptability, not sticking to a strict set of rules and tools at all times.
So, Ray waited. And waited. Until the eyeball was in position.
For a moment, Ray simply stood watching with his third, independent eye. The sight of the gigantic Windbane was definitely awestriking.
He had been right. The monster dwarfed the ones he had killed so far with ease. He was pretty sure it could give a Dreamliner a run for its money. But more than its size, it was the sheer magnificence of the beast that required some appreciation.
Its scales were a radiant gold, unmarred by any dull silver. Ridges and spikes crested its back and neck, red as blood. Two horns sprouted from the end of its head as well, its maw filled with brilliant white light. Maybe it considered itself too majestic to come down and face the likes of Ray head on. He sure would feel that way if he was a giant, golden dragon.
Or wyvern, whatever.
“Sorry, but you’re going down,” Ray said.
Ray used True Enhancement once more. Mana pulsed and burgeoned within him, turning his body into a sizzling battery of energy. He needed a lot of Mana, even more so than last time. So much so that he had to crush another Mana crystal to top himself up. Although, thankfully, his Hallow Reputation would make the first use of True Enhancement free.
This time, he wasn’t simply upgrading Shatterclaw once. The two Talismans in his two hands seemed to glow.
That monster wouldn’t know what hit it.