Ray was about to poke Gritty again, but he stopped himself. What if she was actually busy with something. He recalled just how surprising it had been when her message had popped up with no notice. If she was in the middle of something dangerous, then he didn’t want to distract her.
Thankfully, there was an option to leave a message in some form of “inbox”. She’d be able to check it later when she was free.
Ray: Idk what you found, but it sounds important. Please let me know the details when you’re free.
It was a little unsatisfying to not have the answer to whatever supposed secret the Wild Tides possessed, but hopefully, Gritty would answer before long. For the time being, Ray’s next goal was to find a new source of Essence. He still needed to level up.
Every time he used his True Mana spells, he was acutely reminded of just how costly they were in terms of Mana consumption. He couldn’t keep carrying on like that. What Ray needed was True Mana directly, and according to Kredevel, the only way he could obtain a method of generating straight True Mana was by evolving his class.
Damnit, he ought to have asked what level he ought to be aiming for. Though, he suspected that answer might vary depending on class to class. Ray wouldn’t have been surprised if someone started off with a stronger, rarer class, then the evolution would happen later as well.
Since Ray hadn’t hit a class evolution at level 10 as would have been a natural threshold, he hoped he would hit it soon enough.
Anyway, more Essence.
Rested and refreshed, Ray began to head down the mountainside. A little annoying though it was, he had to carry the Mantle from the dungeon reward in his hands. He’d have to sell it off soon.
For now, he traced his path back the way he had come, back through the tunnel and past the stele that had served as the dungeon’s entrance. Nothing blocked him. If there were more Windbanes somewhere nearby, they didn’t appear.
That was kind of saddening. He’d have to find good sources of Essence elsewhere.
Ray began surveying the land more properly once he had left the mountains behind him. it was easier to do so with his wings. With the recent addition of Mana crystals, he could be less careful about using Primal Summons just for traversal, so he made full use of it.
Eventually Ray spotted a new set of ruins. Ideally, his next target would have been the Tier 8 dungeons that Kredevel had mentioned were on the First Floor, though they were pretty far away. These ruins didn’t look like that. Plus, he hadn’t ravelled anywhere near far enough.
Still, it might provide him with some Essence, and every little bit added up.
Ray flew down, though he held himself back from landing close to the dungeon. There was someone there, someone he didn’t recognize. As such, Ray landed farther back and approached carefully on foot.
[Warning!]
Presence of the Primordial indicates your presence has been detected by Clerical Air [Tier 4].
Ah, crap. So much sneaking in and observing. Although… Clerical Air? And a Tier 4 ability. That meant the man he had spotted was someone to be wary of.
Ray walked over, keeping his limbs loose and ready. He was starting to recall all those little tips and tricks about fighting that Gritty had tried to pummel into him not that long ago. But they all seemed unnecessary. The man, who had appeared hesitant at first, now smiled as Ray appeared.
“Hey, there,” he said. His voice was pleasant, calm. “Nice to meet you. I’m Joaquin. Who might you be?”
Ray stared at the man’s tanned brown face and thin moustache. By the looks of him, he couldn’t have been much older than Ray himself. Maybe mid-thirties at most? “Joaquin Vasquez?”
The man blinked, suddenly curious. “You know about me?”
“Sort of. Well, not really. I just know your name. It’s a long story. My name’s Ray. Nice to meet you.”
The only reason Ray hadn’t felt uncomfortable sharing his name was because the man didn’t have one of those blasted red bandannas tied to his arm. Joaquin’s eyes had darted to Ray’s arm as well, the first time he had spotted Ray, which meant he had looked for the exact same thing. Had come to the same conclusion.
They didn’t have to be foes.
“I think I know you,” Joaquin said. His smile grew wider, slightly mischievous. “You’re the guy who kicked the Wild Tides’ commander’s ass.”
Ray had killed the fellow. Kicking his ass was downplaying it a lot. Though, the sharpness in Joaquin’s eyes confirmed he knew that.
“I’m surprised,” Ray said, smiling as well. “Didn’t know I was famous.”
“Well, I don’t know about famous, but you’re definitely a known quantity.”
“Known, huh? By whom?”
“Why, me, of course. And a bunch of the people I know.”
“Who are…?”
“Hmm, that’s a bit of a long story. But I suppose we could get into it, provided we exchange stories.”
“Sounds like a deal.”
It did, although Ray wasn’t about to tell the man everything. Just what was important.
Joaquin was apparently here safeguarding some members of the Ascenders Faction. A group of weaker Denizens who were trying to level themselves up before they took on the opportunity to climb higher up the Tower.
“I thought you were unaligned.” Ray had already explained that he only knew about Joaquin through the Halftyr merchant, Virko. “Seems the info I got is outdated.”
“Not your merchant broker’s fault. Mary is… very persuasive.”
Ah, right. Mary Felds. The person who was in charge of the Ascenders.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be inside the dungeon?” Ray said. “So you can heal them up as soon as they come to any harm?”
Joaquin had mentioned that he was a true healer, more or less. Ray hadn’t yet observed the man with Presence of the Primordial, mostly because he suspected a Cleric would have some sort of ability that would either safeguard him from that sort of probe, or at the very least, inform that his abilities were being observed.
He also had a feeling that Joaquin might even possess something akin to Presence of the Primordial too. A spell or some other power that allowed him to peek at the capabilities of others.
Although, despite being a Cleric, he certainly wasn’t dressed like one. His getup looked more like combat fatigues, not a pristine robe that Ray would have associated with Clerics.
“It would,” Joaquin said. “But they want as much Essence as possible to grow quickly enough for Mary, so here I am, outside the dungeon and not taking up a share of their spoils.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“For Mary?”
“That’s her plan. Well, that’s the Ascenders’ plan, right?”
“Oh, right.” Mary Felds and her Ascenders were all about climbing the Tower. Reaching the Second Floor and higher. A goal Ray could appreciate. “Though, now I’m curious about your exact plans, if you don’t mind me asking. Are you all getting yourselves stronger before you make a push for the Second Floor together? Or are you completing the challenge somehow?”
Joaquin smiled apologetically. “Uh, unfortunately, I don’t have the license to reveal all that. But I can say that we’ve already gotten a few people onto the Second Floor, once they were ready. I could get you in touch with Mary eventually, if you’re interested.”
Ray couldn’t help that his eyes widened at the revelation. The Ascenders already had people on the Second Floor? That was incredible on multiple fronts.
First was that they had either discovered an exploit that allowed them to reach the Second Floor without completing the Floor Lord’s terrible challenge, which was quite unlikely. Rather, they must have a way of completing the challenge itself. That was no less impressive.
The other intriguing bit was that there were people who had been allowed to go to the Second Floor. In other words, the Floor Lord had deemed them worthy of going beyond his First Floor. He wasn’t so tyrannical that he was stopping everybody from getting past the First Floor, even after completing the challenge.
In other words, he sounded more reasonable than Ray was willing to give him credit for. Or maybe there was some kind of binding rule from the System that even he couldn’t ignore.
Whatever the case, Ray was definitely intrigued by the developments.
“I would appreciate talking with her at some point,” Ray said.
“Great!” Joaquin’s smile was guileless. “I think I should be able to arrange a meeting. We can set it up via chat.” He laughed, sharp but short. “She’ll be interested to meet Ray the Commander-killer personally.”
“Sounds like you guys have had dealings with the Wild Tides too.”
“That we have. They’re a nasty bunch. We’re a small group, and we’ve been keeping our distance mostly, but I know their leader really doesn’t like Mary.”
“Yeah, go figure.” Ray decided to take his questions in a slightly different direction. “And what about the Sylvans? Have you had many dealings with them? Other than getting to the Second Floor, that is.”
“I’m not sure, honestly. I’m one of the later additions to the Ascenders.”
“Huh. I admit, I’m surprised you haven’t gone up the Tower yourself, considering how strong you already are.”
Joaquin laughed. “Thanks to Mary, I can get to the Second Floor at almost any time I want. It’s not a big deal. Figured it was better to wait and help others first. But what makes you think I’m strong?”
“I’ve got my ways. And I have a feeling, you can guess my ballpark strength too.”
He shrugged. “I don’t need to resort to any spell to tell you’re pretty powerful, Ray.”
That was fair enough, Ray supposed.
It had been an interesting talk. Ray decided it was nearly time for him to move on. Though, before he did so, he asked Joaquin about the lay of the land.
“What about you, Ray?” Joaquin asked. “You’re strong enough to start venturing to the Second Floor. But I get the feeling you want to grow even stronger. Why’s that?”
“Honestly? I feel like I might need to force the issue of getting to the Second Floor, and to do that, I need to be strong enough. So, here I am, trying to pump up my spells and levels as much as I can.”
“Force the issue, huh? Mary can make that no longer an issue, you understand that, right?”
Oh yes, the whole talk with Joaquin had made it pretty clear that there was something significant going on with Mary Felds. But there was definitely something deeper to it. Something he probably wasn’t going to like.
“I could,” Ray said. “But I ultimately want to rely on no one except for myself about things like these.”
“That’s fair enough.”
Ray went on to ask him about the local area. Where were the dungeons, what sort of monsters populated this and surrounding Sectors, and so on.
One interesting little fact Ray learned was that there was a group of Sylvans not far from their location. Likely an outpost. That was really useful because Ray knew of the outposts from his chat with Kredevel, which meant he could identify his exact location now.
Their conversation paused as three people came out from between a couple of ruined columns. One was badly wounded, while the other two were supporting him by the shoulder and basically dragging him towards the healer.
“Looks like I’ve got work to do,” Joaquin said. “It was nice talking with you, Ray. I hope we meet again before long. Let’s keep in touch through the chat.”
He left Ray behind, hurrying over to the little wounded group. Hmm. Conversation over just like that. Ray wasn’t sure how he felt about that. But then again, he had learned a good deal from Joaquin. There was stuff he needed to digest. Stuff he had to act on too. A better plan of action began forming in his head as he got moving.
Gritty: I found the deepest, darkest secret imaginable, wingman.
The chat window had popped up with no warning again. Ray’s heart skipped a beat in surprise.
Ray: You’re like the opposite of a vampire, you know that? Forget needing an invitation to chat, you barge in like you’re allergic to asking for permission.
Gritty: You wanna hear what I learned or not?
Ray: What is it?
Gritty: I followed a couple of Wild Tides members and found out why the Sylvans haven’t moved directly against us just yet. It’s cause they have a deal with the Wild Tides.
Ray: A deal?
Gritty: You heard me. A deal. The Wild Tides are going to infiltrate the Insurge Faction, take it over from within, and hand over the most important “culprits” to the Sylvans.
Ray: Holy shit, that’s devious.
Gritty: Worse than that, it might actually work.
Oh, right. They had spotted some of the culprits behind this secret takeover already. Or at least, Gritty had. She had passed on the warning about people disappearing to potentially betray them. And now, they had proof that it wasn’t just a simple spying plan.
No, they wanted to take over the entire Faction.
The idea was smarter than Ray would have given them credit for. His last interaction had given him the impression that they were a boorish lot who only wanted to subjugate others via force. They still wanted that, of course, but their plans were more multilayered than it seemed.
Gritty: Where are you headed? More dungeons?
Ray: That’s what I was thinking, before I learned there weren’t many dungeons in this area. Heard about some interesting monsters not too far away, though, so I’m going to head there eventually. But right now… I think I have an idea.
Gritty: About what?
Ray: About messing with the Sylvans and the Wild Tides. They’re acting together, right? Maybe we can put a stop to it.
Ray could almost feel Gritty smiling evilly through the chat window.
Gritty: I’d join you, cause it sounds exactly like my kind of thing, but I’m kinda preoccupied atm. Break a leg, wingman. Break a lot.
Ray: Preoccupied with what?
Gritty: With escaping the Wild Tides.
Ray: …where the hell even are you?
Gritty: Damn, I gotta go.
That was abrupt, though knowing Gritty, it wasn’t surprising. Ray realized he was a little worried about the woman and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Getting attached to anyone in this world would be a terrible idea. But he also didn’t want to become a friendless loner.
Well, it didn’t matter. Gritty could take care of herself and Ray had his own business to attend to.
He journeyed on. Joaquin hadn’t had any maps with him, but Ray would be able to figure out where he had to go as he travelled around. At least it was fast enough, thanks to his wings.
Ray made sure to collect the first Mana fruit he found as well. Presence of the Primordial tipped him off that there was a Duskshell underneath the dark trees, but Ray ignored it.
First, he was going to pay the Sylvans a visit.
His first sighting of them wasn’t a Sylvan. It was a Brighthorn. So far, Ray had spotted those monsters at the dark trees, guarding the Mana fruit sprouting from the Duskshells. The only other instance had been when they were accompanying their Sylvan masters.
Which meant finding one so far from Mana indicated Ray was close to the Sylvan camp he was looking for.
He killed the Brighthorn from a distance. One bolt of Chaos Chymify was now enough to do just that. The spell itself might still be at a low Tier, but his Intellect had grown greatly, so the damage it dealt had increased proportionally as well.
It didn’t make much noise as it died. Good. Ray wouldn’t be dealing with an angry Sylvan just yet.
Lifeblood Crucible was one again active. It listed all the Soul Aspects of a Brighthorn that he could absorb. Ray took a careful look through the list. Head, legs, eyes, all check. No torso though. Hmm, would he get more Soul Aspect absorption options if he upgraded Chaos Chymify? That meant he had to find another Tier point.
Well, hopefully if his plan worked out, then he might just find himself with another Tier point soon enough.
Ray ripped off a piece of white cloth from the front of his Shapter Raiment. Hopefully, that wasn’t going to reduce its defences too much. Next, he pulled out a Mana crystal and tried to use the sort of pointed end to gouge a hole in his arm.
Nothing happened.
“Ouch,” he muttered. It hurt where he struck it, but the skin didn’t break. The pain faded in a flash too. “What in the world…?” Then he paused. “Oh.”
It was his Resilience. Of course. His strength was terrible when compared to his other stats, even Resilience since it was getting a hefty boost from the Wyvern helm he was wearing.
Ray took it off in due order. He felt a smidge more vulnerable somehow. A bit more… careful. Like the instinct that made people snatch their hand away whenever they touched something burning hot had been suppressed all this while thanks to his helm. Now that it was gone, that instinct had returned in full force.
Well, whatever. This time, when Ray stabbed the crystal into his arm, he had to bite down on a groan. There. He had left an actual, bleeding wound.
Ray wasted no time daubing the fabric he had torn off with the blood. Soon enough, it was completely soaked red. Only then did he apply his Recovery to the wound to turn his arm as good as new.
Before tying the cloth around his upper arm, Ray changed out of his getup. He hadn’t foreseen this benefit of keeping the Drakescale robes with him for all this while, but it was definitely going to be handy now. Best to reduce the chances of the Sylvans recognizing him.
It made him wonder if the Sylvans had a description of his face or something like that. Damn, if only he could have shaved off his beard. Maybe there was some mud nearby? Or—
Ray paused again as a different idea popped up in his head.
Oh, he knew just how he was going to change his face.