Led by Jade's spell, the four of them made good time through the dense jungle. The journey was considerably easier now that most of their supplies were being carried in their new dimensional pouch. By the end of a day's travel, the jungle was starting to thin. Jade thought that they may be approaching the edge of the quadrant, and possibly the zone as well. Her hunch was confirmed by checking her map, which displayed their location as being near the edge of the area revealed by the node.
When night fell, Siora once again located a suitable campsite that provided good shelter from both the elements and any prying eyes. They'd only encountered a handful of the local creatures during their trek, but no one wanted to wake up to a jungle serpent wrapping around their body.
Camping was made more comfortable due to their new bedrolls, which Luis had purchased at the Labyrinth Store. After the long day of hiking none of them had much energy left for conversation, and they ate a leisurely dinner before bedding down for the night. Siora volunteered to take the first watch, and the rest of them went to sleep.
The next day saw the terrain shift further. The jungle trees grew smaller and further apart, with far less underbrush getting in their way. This sped up the party's progress considerably, and before too long Jade was greeted by a new system message.
* System Notice
* Now entering 'Rolling Foothills' Quadrant, 'Greystone Mountain' Zone, Area #411,556
True to the system's words, their surroundings were changing from humid jungle to mountain highlands. The temperature became cooler, a pleasant change after the constant heat of the jungle. For the first time since Jade had entered the Labyrinth, she found herself in a truly open area. Mountains rose from a bed of rugged hills, distant peaks piercing wispy clouds like grasping claws.
The landscape extended in every direction, with no barrier or artificial impediment blocking their sight. If it weren't for the unnaturally sudden change in biomes, they could have been standing in the wilderness somewhere on Earth. Jade had been imagining the Labyrinth as a series of small, sectioned off rooms or enclosed areas. Certainly, some of it seemed to be structured in that way, but this was more like an entire world. She had been struggling to envision how cities and civilizations could exist here, but now she began to understand.
Guided by the Pathfinder spell Jade set their course towards a gap between two of the smaller peaks, and they struck out across the foothills. With the change in scenery came new monsters to contend with. This quadrant turned out to be populated with sinewy wild cats and small stone golems. The cats were rather large, some of them coming up to Luis's waist, and were quite fast and aggressive. Fortunately, their new D-tier enchanted armor proved its worth many times over by deflecting attacks and absorbing significant damage. Jade quickly learned that she couldn't rely on the protection exclusively, the magical barrier usually failed after a single hit, but it was a substantial improvement.
The golems were easier to deal with. While they were sturdy and powerful, they were even slower than the automatons that Jade had fought in the factory. With her speed, she was easily able to outmaneuver them while Naomi chipped away at them from a safe distance and Luis delivered decisive strikes.
Siora joined the fights as well, utilizing her new spellbook's ice magic to good effect against the marauding monsters. It wasn't an especially powerful spell, simply conjuring a ray of cold energy that the elf could fire at any nearby target, but it had a low cooldown, briefly slowed enemies, and proved to be a reliable source of damage. A nice side effect of her participation was that she began to gain experience at a somewhat faster rate as well.
The next few days passed quickly. They hiked through the highlands during the day, fighting the occasional monster and generally making good progress inward across the Labyrinth's expanse. In the evenings they trained, developing new tactics and refining their old ones. By the second night, all of them save Siora had levelled up, and even she was close.
"I can't believe these choices the Labyrinth keeps giving me for my racial powers." Jade complained after picking her 8th level ability. She had finally reached another racial level and was not impressed with the options she'd been presented with. "Is being able to actually use my wings too much to ask?"
"I don't know." Naomi said, sitting on the other side of a small campfire. Night had fallen, and the mountain foothills grew chilly after sunset. "Your new power might be really useful, depending on how potent it is. We'll have to test it."
Her companion was trying to hide a smirk, and not doing a very good job of it.
"We are not testing it here. It's way too cold." Jade protested, blushing. "Not to mention embarassing…" she added, glancing at Luis.
The large man was focusing intently on his food, obviously trying to stay out of the conversation. She could tell he was amused as well, but at least he had the decency to pretend otherwise. With a sigh, she read through her new ability again.
* Succubus Racial Ability: Seducer's Mantle
* Fortify your body with a magical array that protects you from harm and enhances your presence. Gain passive damage reduction and a bonus to charisma. The strength of these bonuses is proportional to your amount of exposed skin, ranging from very low to high. This ability's effectiveness is reduced while not in your demon form. This is an enhancement effect.
"Why does it have to depend on what I'm wearing?" Jade complained, closing the window.
"Magical arrays can be delicate. Maybe being covered by something interferes with yours." Siora said thoughtfully. "Besides, it seems to suit a succubus. It would be hard to seduce an enemy while wearing lots of heavy armor, and you wouldn't want to take that off if you weren't protected in a different way."
"I'm not planning on seducing my enemies." Jade pointed out. "I'd rather defeat them in a more…" She searched for the right word. "Conventional way."
"If you're so against it, why did you pick it?" Naomi asked. "What were the other options?"
"I don't want to talk about it." She muttered, reddening further.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The system had seen fit to present her with another 'climax' related ability, this time dealing with spell cooldown reduction. Not only did it sound wildly impractical to use, but Jade simply refused to take such an embarassing power on principle. She may be a succubus now, but she still had standards. Even if they were starting to slip…
"This warded armor is too useful to give up, anyway." Jade said, changing the subject. "I suppose that ability will be helpful if I ever get ambushed without it."
"Like if you're taking a bath." Siora added helpfully.
"I'm sure that'll come up all the time." Jade rolled her eyes.
"I know exactly what you need." Luis said, finally joining the conversation. He had a glint in his eyes, and Jade had a feeling that she wouldn't be a fan of whatever his idea was. "Siora, do warded armors come in other forms? Like clothing?"
"They do." She nodded. "Mages don't wear armor, but I've seen some with robes that have defensive enchantments. And I think some monks just wear bracers that do something similar, without any heavy equipment."
"There you go!" Luis snapped his fingers. "We need to get you some 'MMO' armor, Jade."
"…What?" She blinked at him, nonplussed.
"You know! Like the women in pretty much every fantasy game? Knights and crusaders wearing weirdly revealing armor? That sounds perfect. You could have the enchanted protections from the gear, and still get most of the damage resistance from your ability."
Jade gaped at him. She knew what he was talking about, half of all mobile game ads seemed to feature heroine warriors in woefully impractical looking outfits. The mental image of running around a battlefield wearing anything of the sort was enough to make her bury her face in her hands.
"Or she could just wear a chest wrapping." Naomi pointed out. "If there are enchanted robes, there must be clothes that do the same thing. Oh!" She perked up. "Maybe that means I could get something more fashionable than armor, too!"
Jade's head was starting to spin.
"Why me?" she muttered.
"We'll have to test it." Naomi said, getting serious. "Jade, I know you don't want to look ridiculous, but we keep going over this. We have to use everything we get. If you can suddenly take half the damage from attacks and still be protected by wards like our new armor gives us, we have to use that."
"Definitely." Luis agreed. "That's like my mana shield ability, except it doesn't even cost you anything."
"Other than my dignity." Jade sighed. "Fine… we'll test it later. But I'm using this armor for now, I just got it. Besides, I barely have anything else to change into at this point."
"Anyway," Naomi said, finally changing the subject. "I'm curious about what that bonus to charisma means. The talent I picked up gives mine a temporary boost too."
Jade had been wondering that. In most games she'd played, charisma was a characteristic that could be modified alongside attributes like strength and intelligence. The Labyrinth was structured like an RPG in many ways, but the lack of that stat had stood out to her from the start. They all turned to look at Siora, who seemed startled by the sudden attention.
"I don't know…" she said. "That's not something I'm familiar with. What…?" The elf asked defensively as the rest of them continued to stare at her expectantly. "I don't know everything!"
"We'll figure it out later." Jade said, eager to get away from the topic for now. "Let's get some rest."
It was getting late, and they were all tired from the day's travel, so no one argued. Jade lay down to get some sleep, trying very hard not to think about how the other wayfarers from Earth would react if she showed up to an important battle looking like she'd just stepped out of some knockoff fantasy game.
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The world blurred as Jade warped forward, appearing behind one of the two remaining stone golems. It began to turn towards her, raising one of its dense fists in preparation to strike. She didn't give it the chance, slashing her dagger across a weak spot in the center of its back. Her blade scraped across the monster's tough stony skin, causing large chunks to break off and sending the creature staggering away from her. The strike didn't kill it, however, the cutting edge of her dagger simply not well suited to damaging such a creature.
"Luis!" she shouted, flapping her wings as she leapt away from the creature, clearing a path for her companion to finish off the wounded monster. An arc of force energy sliced passed her a moment later, exploding on contact and sending pieces of stone and debris flying in every direction. Jade shielded her eyes, but her armor's ward deflected most of the shrapnel. The dust cleared, revealing the broken body of the defeated monster.
"One left!" Siora's voice came from down the slope of the hill.
"I've got this!" Naomi replied, continuing to play her song.
The last golem was lumbering towards her, and Jade started running over to assist. She needn't have bothered. As the monster drew near Naomi stopped her melody, twirling in place and giving the creature a playful wink. Sparkling lights burst from the idol's body, surrounding her in a faintly shimmering cloud of mist that swirled around her before disappearing.
The monster stopped in place, confused, pausing with its arm half raised in the beginning of an attack. Naomi didn't wait for it to recover, dancing back and slamming out three quick notes on her instrument.
"Whiplash!"
Naomi launched a burst of fire at the golem, enveloping it in searing flames. Siora's new spell, 'Grasping Frost', followed close behind it, impacting in the same spot. The flames of Naomi's spell winked out, replaced by crystals of ice that spread across the monster's rock body. That, too, was short lived, as the secondary effect of 'Pyrotechnics' triggered following the elf's attack, sending a resurgence of searing flames to boil away the newly formed ice. The creature was left slowed by Siora's ice spell and ablaze from Naomi's. It was too much for the low-level monster, which crumbled away into small pieces.
Jade slowed to a walk, inspecting her dagger before sheathing it. Unsurprisingly, the stone body of the monster had chipped it. They really needed to acquire some basic enchanted weapons to go with their armor, but for now their mundane gear would have to do.
"Nice!" Naomi pumped a fist, grinning. "Good work, Siora! I like that move."
"Thanks!" She smiled cheerfully. "I just like having a move now."
"You look like you're enjoying that new talent." Jade commented, walking up to them with Luis. "What was it called, again?"
"Dazzle." Naomi spun in place again, winking at Jade this time. The talent didn't trigger again, it was still on cooldown, but she didn't seem to mind. "What's not to love about stunning monsters with a cute twirl?"
"Nothing." Jade agreed. "You just seem like you're in a great mood."
Indeed, Naomi had gained a subtle air of relaxed confidence about her.
"I think it's the charisma boost." Naomi said, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "It feels good. Too bad it doesn't last."
Is that going to happen to me when I take off my clothes, now? Jade wondered, trying to imagine what an increase in charisma would feel like. She hadn't noticed much of a change since acquiring her new ability, maybe her increase was less dramatic due to the passive nature of her ability? She'd find out soon, one way or another.
"Is it just me, or are these monsters getting easier?" Luis asked.
"I think we're just getting better." Jade answered. Not only were they getting used to fighting together, but their increased attributes were having a noticeable effect on their performance. Jade's agility was now 14, without taking into account her 20% demon form boost, and she was pretty sure that her reflexes now eclipsed that of any normal human. How much would the Labyrinth enhance them? As much as she disliked this place, she couldn't help but yearn for the power it granted.
The battle done, they looted the remains and continued travelling inward through the highlands. The mountains themselves were starting to draw near, but they were making for a pass that cut between two of the smaller peaks. By midday, something began resolving in the distance, a pillar of white light emerging from the other side of the mountain range and reaching for the heavens.
"That's it!" Siora exclaimed excitedly, running ahead and pointing.
"That's what?" Luis asked.
"The beacon that marks a stairway!" The elf turned to face them, clasping her hands behind her back. "We're almost there."