The swamp didn’t have a whole lot going for it. Ray was looking forward to clearing another dungeon, but he received no notification about entering one. In fact, he wasn’t sure he could enter it. As soon as he was in the vicinity of the swamp, he had to retreat out.
Problem was, the whole swamp was filled with toxic gas.
Presence of the Primordial didn’t inform Ray about it. Nothing did. He just saw that the air in the area was tinged green, took one whiff that caused him to cough violently, then immediately noped out. Ray had zero defences against poison gas or its like. No need to force himself through an area that was going to leave him debilitated.
He figured he could have used his Recovery, in an emergency situation that necessitated him going into things like toxic gas. Since this was far from an emergency, Ray ignored the swamp.
Ray roamed around the Sectors some more, though he didn’t go too far. Maya still hadn’t gotten back to him about the traversal dungeons yet. Best to not get too distant from the Base.
Roaming did reveal some interesting monsters here and there. At one point, Ray had found himself back in the little forest of dead, petrified trees. He had first thought they were uninhabited, but the flying monkeys travelling across the branches proved him wrong.
They were an interesting specimen, that was for sure. The old bio-researcher in Ray marvelled at the monkeys’ “wings”. They were more like a paired set of long spider legs emerging out of their backs, with compressed silken webs strung between them to from the wings that allowed them to sail through the air. Kind of like flying squirrels.
The monkeys were annoying little buggers too. Too agile, too many of them, each pelting sharp stones in Ray’s direction with the force of slingshots. Basically, they hurt.
Thankfully, Ray had an area-of-effect ability to deal with them now. Summoning the Windbane Maw construct was the best response he could come up with. The maw spewing a river of chaotic fire and Ray using the True Mana version of Chaos Chymify—that exploded into clouds of chaotic energy upon contact—was enough to deal with the monkeys.
[Enemy Defeated—Spider Monkey]
Tier 3 Monster: Spider Monkey [Level 7] x13
Essence: +2,730
Knowledge: +39
Mana Restored: +910
Essence to level 16: 4,090/12,000
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 150-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 20.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 182/200
Chaos Chymify had activated Lifeblood Crucible, but Ray didn’t find any of the option worth it.
The monkeys apparently had poison sacs and the fact that they could create silk from their spines was also really cool. Neither would be helpful for him, however.
Breaking through the constant Knowledge thresholds was definitely nice. Ray’s Intellect was rising rapidly even when he didn’t put any extra points into it while levelling up. As such, his base spell damage was rising constantly too. A lovely little benefit, all thanks to his boots. He ought to take better care of them.
There were no more monkeys to mass murder, unfortunately. Either the forest of stony trees didn’t have that many to begin with, or they were smartly staying away.
So, Ray got moving.
Eventually, he did arrive at a dungeon. Not the kind he was looking for, but if he ended up with a Tier point by the end of it, he would consider it a worthwhile exercise.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]
Dead River Gorge [Tier 5]
Sometimes, nature itself can become poisoned through various means. In the case of the twelfth tributary to the Everair empire’s greatest river, the case was artificial. An imbuing of the wrong kind of Mana had devastated the river, and the Everair were quick to redirect it beneath the ground. But now, it has resurfaced, teeming with toxic wildlife. Seek its source to determine the origin of its insanity.
Ray grimaced. “Great. More poison.”
He was standing at the edge of a wide crack in the ground. There was indeed a river far below the surface, its surface glimmering faintly thanks to the few shafts of light that made that far down.
The thin canyon didn’t seem like it was filled with noxious fumes like the swamp had been. As such, Ray lowered himself into the dungeon proper.
Behind him, the river plummeted even farther down via a waterfall that led to lightless depths. The opening for the waterfall was tiny, though. He wasn’t supposed to go there, at least. What he had to do was find the head of the river, the point from where it began upstream. Good. He really didn’t fancy lowering himself into tiny cracks and going on a spelunking adventure.
…there had better be no spelunking involved on the next Floor.
Ray headed upstream. That involved flying from rock to rock that jutted out of the river. There were more waterfalls along the way, though these were much shorter. Ray got the sense he was gaining elevation the farther upstream he travelled.
He didn’t get a notification for any dungeon obstacles until he faced his first adversary. A weird, fishlike creature leaped out at him, its wide mouth filled with teeth like a piranha.
The only reason Ray wasn’t struck directly was because of Presence of the Primordial informing him he wasn’t alone.
A quick Shatterclaw was enough to slam aside and kill the monster.
[Enemy Defeated—Baleshark]
Tier 4 Monster: Baleshark [Level 8] x1
Essence: +320
Knowledge: +3
Mana Restored: +80
Essence to level 16: 4,410/12,000
Hmm. Not bad. If Ray found a few more of those, then—
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]
Guardian Shoal
The beneficiaries of the river’s terrifying state will not let anyone get close enough to harm the conditions. Make your way past the school of deadly Baleshark and seek the true source of the river’s corruption.
It wasn’t a difficult task. Especially not when Ray had his wings and Mottling Membrane to rely on.
While his barrier spell was definitely not strong enough to stop even these fish monsters from getting through, it did halt their flying charge towards him. Their momentum slowed, and they fell back to the river well before reaching their target—him.
All Ray had to do afterwards was to hit them with a strong Shatterclaw to end them.
By the time he reached the second obstacle, he had taken care of a decent number of the monstrous fish.
[Enemy Defeated—Baleshark]
Tier 4 Monster: Baleshark [Level 8] x7
Essence: +2,240
Knowledge: +21
Mana Restored: +80
Essence to level 16: 6,650/12,000
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 200-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 25.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 202/250
Oh, yes. Ray could see this adding up to a lot.
[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]
Crumbling Facade
Driven to desperation, the Baleshark have realized their inability to defeat a foe such as yourself. As such, they have only one resort left. Destroying the entryway to the river mouth. Hurry!
Ray’s heart began pumping faster. The warning came at just the right time. Up ahead, the canyon began to break apart, debris falling in to crush the river and anything within it.
More importantly, it was going to close off the river mouth for good, just as Presence of the Primordial said.
Not if he could help it.
It was a nice test of his flying abilities. Ray not only had to move fast, but he also had to avoid being hit by one of the falling rocks. How those damn fish could have caused a landslide of this calibre was well beyond Ray.
The rocks were too numerous. Thankfully, he had faced a scenario like this not too long ago. The solution was simple—summon his flying eyeball to keep watch for him.
When Ray finally managed to get through the storm of falling rocks, he crested a few more waterfalls to finally reach the river’s secret.
It was the fucking swamp.
“Seriously.” Ray stared. “I was just here a few hours ago. How does this even make sense?”
Or maybe he hadn’t been here. This sure looked like the swamp he had been in not too long ago, but there wasn’t as much gas in the air. Sure, it was still tinged green a bit, and if Ray breathed in too hard, his lungs would begin burning. But it wasn’t unbearable at all. Not like it had been when Ray had first appeared here.
He blinked. Of course. A dungeon like this didn’t have walls or anything like that to deter people from taking alternative routes. So, it had to resort to more creative measures.
Like filling an entire area with overly toxic gas to prevent anyone from taking unacceptable paths.
Ray’s objective in the final stretch of the dungeon became clear in moments. Everything in the swamp was choked with a strange, pulsing vine. It was this vine that was spewing the poisonous gas into the air, choking the river and corrupting all the life around it.
It was this vine that Ray had to take care of.
Funny how he had just the right tool to do that now. If he had come here taking care of the Windbanes, he would have been having a much harder time.
As it was, Ray used Primal Summons to call on the Greater Windbane Maw. Thanks to his Mana Core and Mana Imbuing, Ray could now pull on the maw right where his arm should have been. He also set it as its own construct that would fly around and perform what was needed.
Twice the fire meant he would be done with this task twice as fast.
Ray and his construct got to work. The black-red flames ate away at the vines like termites eating through wood, except fast-forwarded to about a hundred times the speed. All the chaotic flames they were spewing rapidly consumed Ray’s Mana reserves too, but he had many Mana crystals to spare. Ray wasn’t shy about using the power necessary.
Of course, the dungeon wasn’t going to let him simply do whatever he wanted. As soon as the flames had begun clearing out most of the vines, the whole swamp had groaned.
Then a massive flower bud opened up somewhere in the distance. Moments later, a barrage of poisonous bursts flew through the air, like the flower was some kind of venomous mortar spewing the deadly toxin in highly concentrated blasts.
It was a Mana-based ability, though. Presence of the Primordial confirmed it. So, all Ray had to do was use Mottling Membrane at the right time.
The blasts of the toxin were too strong for his barrier spell to keep out completely, but that was fine. They still reduced its efficacy a good deal. Ray had also used Sphereguard of Chaos. If any of the falling toxic meteors got too close, the orbs would take care of them.
While the Sphereguard never got to deflect any of the toxic blasts, they did come in handy later on. Some of the Balesharks were swimming in the mucky water. Ray was informed about them by Presence of the Primordial, but he waited to see just how strong Sphereguard would be.
The orbs weren’t bad. Un-upgraded, they still packed a decent punch and were able to bat away every Baleshark that leaped at him out of the water.
Ray made sure to kill all the Balesharks with Shatterclaw.
Soon enough, the whole dungeon was burning with black and red flames. Even the air was no longer green. Ray had done it.
[Enemy Defeated—Baleshark]
Tier 4 Monster: Baleshark [Level 8] x3
Essence: +960
Knowledge: +9
Mana Restored: +240
Essence to level 16: 7,610/12,000
Knowledge to next Threshold: 211/250
[Dungeon Cleared— Dead River Gorge]
Rewards
* 1 Toxic Mana crystal
* 1 Tier Point
* +1,000 Essence
* Reputation: +10 Indomitable
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 50-point threshold, your Indomitability has raised your Resilience by 10.
Indomitable to next Threshold: 55/100
There! He finally had the Tier point he had been seeking all this while. Ray wasted no time plugging it into Chaos Chymify.
Hopefully, he would now get even better options for Soul Aspects.
The Toxic Mana crystal was interesting. The gem was similar to the regular Mana crystals Ray had, but rougher and clearly unpolished. He was a little afraid to grab it where it floated before him. But a gingerly touch proved it was harmless despite the name.
[Presence of the Primordial—Mana Crystal]
Toxic Mana crystal
A weathered, pitted crystal full of Toxic Mana. Crush to consume Toxic Mana.
Huh. That was it. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised by that description. After all, if the regular Mana crystals were to be crushed to resupply him with regular Mana, then the crystals of the different Mana variants would work the same way.
Did that mean he could find True Mana crystals somewhere? Maybe something to investigate when next he met Virko. Interestingly, it fit in with the other Mana crystals in the same inventory slot in the Bag of Holding. That was convenient.
For now, satisfied with his progress, Ray exited the dungeon. All the poison gas was gone, so he had no trouble taking any direction he wished and simply getting out of the mucky, swampy water. Good fucking riddance.
Nice thing was that he wasn’t too far off from a level too. Less than a third left. Ray just needed to find more sources of Essence.
For the rest of that day, until he felt tired, he proceeded to do just that.
Ray surveyed the entire area and killed a few of the dear-kangaroo hybrids with the glowing horns. They were weak, though, providing him with little Essence.
[Enemy Defeated—Loper]
Tier 2 Monster: Loper [Level 4] x11
Essence: +880
Knowledge: +33
Mana Restored: +440
Essence to level 16: 9,490/12,000
Knowledge to next Threshold: 244/250
Finding the Lopers, as they were called, also led him to one of the dungeons that were being used by members of the Insurge Faction. It appeared Ray’s travelling was circuiting him back around to the Faction’s Base.
“It’s only a Tier 3 dungeon,” the leader of the little party said. He had recognized Ray and smartly understood that this dungeon was not going to be worth Ray’s time. “Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for.”
“No, probably not,” Ray said.
He was more certain of his decision not to go in when the man went on to explain the rewards. No Tier points, some gear for high-Agility builds, and a skill manual. Definitely not worth Ray’s time.
“There are some weird monsters a bit off,” a woman said. “If you’re looking for stuff to hunt. Most of us were unable to do much against them and there’s a whole bunch of them too.”
Oh, now that sounded more like Ray’s kind of thing. He learned from the others that what he could expect were some sort of giant bugs. Like a weird mix of flies and hyenas.
Intrigued, Ray headed out in the direction he had been pointed. It didn’t take him long to find the lair of the insectoid monsters.
He had come to a stop at a small maze built of what looked like wax. Since he got no notification, it was clearly not a dungeon. Still. Ray had a feeling it would be a while if he tried going through the whole place on foot. It would also be easy to get lost. Thankfully, he had his wings to rely on.
The monsters that Ray found travelling over the maze were indeed gigantic bugs. That woman’s description had been spot on.
If someone had stuck giant fly eyes to furless hyenas and given them buzzing wings to boot, before blowing them up to the size of sedans, that was the kind of monster Ray would have been fighting. He didn’t actually fight them. Killed them without much trouble was more like it.
They were agile and pretty hard to hit using regular means. Ray at first wasted a ton of Mana, missing several chaos Chymifies and Shatterclaws.
But while the monsters could evade his targeted attacks easily, they had no reply to Mottling Membrane. The quickly expanding barrier of chaotic energy stunned them in place. It left them open for a follow up.
That was when Ray struck with quick casts of Shatterclaw to kill them off.
He also found out that they had a ton of egglike structures all over their hive, as he was starting to think of it. Some of those eggs actually burst apart as Ray passed by. The first was quite the surprise. He was even struck by a blast of some kind of toxic green shot from a stinger jutting out of the monster’s hindquarters.
[Warning!]
Presence of the Primordial indicates you are under the effects of Vilebug Toxin [Tier 2]. Your health will steadily decrease so long as you are under its effect.
Ray quickly killed the monster before attending to the warning. He had already healed up some of the damage—which had been reduced by his Shapter Raiment already—using his Recovery. But now it stated that the effect wasn’t going to go away.
Ah, crap. He had begun to feel the effects of it. A cringing pain took hold of him from the point where he had been hit near his waist. So annoying.
Ray quickly worked his way through the whole hive and took care of any of the monsters that tried to attack him. All the while, the pain kept getting worse. He had also started to run out of his Recovery.
This was turning from annoying to outright dangerous.
It was only when he killed the hive “queen”, a larger version of the monsters with smaller wings, that he found something useful.
[Enemy Defeated—Vilebug]
Tier 3 Monster: Vilebug [Level 6] x6
Tier 3 Monster: Vilebug [Level 5] x3
Tier 3 Monster: Vilebug [Level 8] x1
Essence: +1,770
Knowledge: +30
Mana Restored: +590
Essence to level 16: 11,260/12,000
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 250-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 30.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 274/300
Once the main monster of the hive had been dealt with, Ray found a little item in her mushy nest. Something he only noticed because it glimmered against the dark backdrop.
[Presence of the Primordial—Empty Crystal]
Empty Crystal
A newborn crystal that can be infused with any kind of Mana. Can be used to convert a specific substance into Mana as well, which can then be stored inside the crystal.
Ray stared at it for a second. Hold on. Was this… what he thought it was?
He held the colourless, clear crystal against the wound at his waist. Was he supposed to channel his Mana next? Ray tried doing so, though it didn’t change anything.
No. There had to be some kind of skill or ability or a supplementary item that he was missing. Even if what he was trying to remove was a substance created from a Mana-based ability, he couldn’t manipulate said substance without something more. Which still left the all-important question.
How the hell was he going to get rid of the poison?
Ray performed a quick scout or of the entire hive but didn’t find anything useful. There was nothing that could magically cure him of the toxin. Just great.
He was starting to feel really stupid for letting himself get hit by that thing.
The pain was getting even worse. That was it. Ray didn’t have a solution and couldn’t find one on his own. At this rate, if he tried to futilely look around, he’d end up dead.
But maybe, there was someone at Insurge Faction who could do something about it. Surely there had to be someone who specialized in healing. He left a message with some urgency to Joaquin via the chat but didn’t receive a reply. Well, no time to waste.
Ray headed off. Now that he was closer to the Base, he was pretty certain about the direction he had to go. So, he flew as fast as he could.
When he passed over a lake, a warning from Presence of the Primordial flickered into view. But it died too quickly for Ray to read. What?
He had come to a stop on the shore. Just in time, too. The murky water’s surface bubbled, then broke apart as a gigantic sea serpent thrust its head out and crashed to the shore. It felt like it was moving, but then, all that happened was that Gritty exited its enormous maw.
“Hey, wingman,” She raised a slime-and-blood covered hand like they had met at a park. “Fancy meeting you here. Although... you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Ray didn’t like how strangled his voice sounded, so he cleared his throat. It didn’t help much. “Just a little poisoned.”
“Ah. Here, let me see.”
She began walking toward him, still covered on monster innards.
Ray stepped back. “What are you going to do?”
Despite sporting no wounds of her own, so far as Ray could see, blood swirled around Gritty’s hand. “Don’t be shy, now. Let me take care of it.”
Ray gulped. He had a feeling this was not going to be pleasant at all.