A few minutes after leaving the group of Classers behind, Kelsey arrived at her tent to find that everyone was down in the dungeon themselves. Oh well, I guess I’ll see them later tonight.
Deciding that it wasn't worth going to find them all individually, Kelsey simply made her way back down to the Yeti floor and started training again. She spent another five or six hours before deciding that she had enough fighting for one day and made her way back up to the campsite.
She was once again the final person to arrive at camp. “Hey, you guys, come into the tent really quick. I’ve got something cool to show you.” Kelsey said as she walked into the campsite.
The group quickly followed her into the tent where she made sure the flap was completely closed before clearing some space and summoning the giant King of the North core she had taken from the boss monster.
There was a short round of gasps as Kelsey began explaining what had happened on floor 18.
Finishing her story, she asked a question that had been bugging her all day. “How was there a boss monster on that floor? I thought they only manifested at the end of dungeons.”
Gregory was the first to jump in with the explanation. “The rule of boss monsters only being at the end of dungeons doesn’t fully apply to ones as large as this one. For dungeons like this, it still takes some pretty specific circumstances for one to manifest.” He said while surveying the core.
“If an area in a large dungeon is being cleared for an extended period of time, and people are still there, the mana in the dungeon will try to manifest itself into monsters but will be unable to because of its proximity to humans, then, once the people leave, all of the mana will rush in and start manifesting at the same time. This can cause large pools of mana to become boss variants.” he finished simply.
Right. I read about this. People naturally exude excess mana and for some reason mana produced by people interferes with the manifestation process. I had forgotten all about that.
“I see. So, since the Yeti floor is cleared so consistently and parties stay for so long, when one of them leaves it causes a mana vacuum that creates a boss monster, is that what you’re saying?” Kelsey asked for clarification.
“Correct. So, there's telling how long that King of the North had been stuck under that mountain until that group of Classers accidentally went and pissed it off.” Gregory answered.
“All of that makes sense. Next, does anyone have any idea what this core could be used for?” she asked.
Lisa was the first to respond this time. “I’ve never seen or heard anything like it. But I can nearly guarantee it isn’t dangerous.” she said.
“Why is that?” Thadius asked.
“Well, during the time you were gone, I actually started studying bodies and class rituals. I thought that together we may be able to find a way to make Mageblood bodies viable for people that already have a class.” Lisa said a bit sheepishly.
“That’s a great idea Lisa, I hadn’t even thought of that. We’ll circle back to that later, for now, what did you learn?” Kelsey said excitedly. Don’t. Get. Their. Hopes. Up.
“Okay, so. Most bodies and most class ritual objects are completely separate. Counting the Mageblood body you have, there is only one other substance that both remakes someone’s body and begins a class ritual.” she continued as she gained more confidence. “So, class ritual objects are only used when someone already has class options available to them. This would be like your kid on their twelfth birthday. Or when Owen and I reach Gold rank and have a secondary class available.”
“Okay, so what you’re saying is that if someone with a class choice available used this sphere, they would be able to skip the basic and specialty classes and just start with their path class?” Kelsey asked, bewildered.
“Exactly!” Lisa shouted. “It would probably be a pretty strong class too, considering the monster you killed to get it.” Lisa finished as she began looking at Owen. "It could also be used at an advancement tier, like gold, to change someone's path.
“Understood.” Kelsey said as she walked over and stored the sphere in her vault. “How close are you two to Gold rank anyways?”
“We’re both caught up to one another now. We should hit Gold in a week or two-- Sooner if we really push.” Owen answered.
"How about you Gregroy? How close is your secondary class?" Kelsey asked the guild master.
"A bit longer. It has lagged behind me primary class substantially. Maybe two, two and a half weeks." Gregory answered.
“Okay, don’t advance or select your secondary class until I’ve decided what I want to do with the core. I think there's a good chance I’ll give it to one of you, but I want to consider my options first.” she said as she looked at Thadius. “We’ll need to discuss the kids as well. It may be worth considering saving this for one of them.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure Lorie is going to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become an adventurer, but she’s not going to turn 12 for another five years. It may be worth just using it now. I can always figure something else out for my kids when they come of age.” he said as he looked at Lisa and Owen. “One of them could use it now.”
The group continued discussing what to do with the core for a few more minutes before deciding that they could just figure it out later and going back outside to sit around the fire and chat for the rest of the night.
During the night, Kelsey couldn't take her mind off the boss core. After serious consideration, she came to the decision that she was going to wait to give it to either Lorie or David. She felt that it may be better if her friends didn't use it at all if she planned on getting the Mageblood ritual working. But she still wasn't going to tell them yet, she figured that the core would be incentive enough for them to pause on their advancement, which she needed them to do if she wanted to test the ritual and perform it on each of them before they advanced.
When Kelsey woke up the next morning, she immediately went back down to the 18th floor and began fighting the yetis again. It was a few hours after she arrived when she saw someone enter her domain from the direction of the door. The person was heading directly towards her. During that particular fight, Kelsey had thankfully only been using melee weapons and her teleportation, so she wasn’t worried about this person seeing anything she didn’t want them to. She sped up and used some spatial magic to quickly end the fight before her guest arrived.
As she stored the yeti’s core, she looked up and saw a woman wearing the red accented plate armor that was common amongst members of the Crimson Lion guild. This can’t be good.
“Hello ma’am, do you have a few minutes to talk?” the woman asked as she approached Kelsey.
[Mage - 264]
“I guess, what can I do for you?” Kelsey asked hesitantly.
“I was just wondering if you were down on this floor yesterday around this time?” she said as she pulled off her helmet and held it against her waist. The woman was in her mid forties, scarred, and her face was etched with a grimace.
“No, sorry, I took yesterday off.” Kelsey said, trying to seem confused.
“That’s strange. We heard a rumor that a red headed woman with blue eyes, wearing clothing made of a black silk and leather was responsible for slaying a Yeti boss that appeared here yesterday.” The woman said as she narrowed her eyes at Kelsey. “Sound like anyone you know?”
Those damn Classers. They must have run their mouths.
Kelsey grit her teeth before answering. “Sorry, you got the wrong person, lady. Tell Leon I’ll swing by in a couple hundred levels. Until then, please, let me work in peace.” Kelsey said as she activated Flight and began moving away from the woman.
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Kain.” the woman said as she put on her helmet and turned away. “We’ll be keeping an eye on your progress.”
The woman said the final part with an ominous tone that set Kelsey on edge. It felt almost like a threat.
Trying her best not to give a reaction, Kelsey increased the speed of her flight and began moving away more quickly.
How the hell do they know my last name? I’m positive I never said it to Leon... Damnit! I should have just gotten those Classers away safely and left the yeti for someone else.
Kelsey did her best to ignore the sinking pit in her stomach as she realized that the strongest Immortal Guild in Anoura was going to be watching her like a hawk. She had no idea what kind of skills the people in a Guild like that could possess, for all she knew they could see her right now through the floors.
Keeping her skill usage to a minimum, Kelsey continued her fights against the Yetis for another four days. She decided that for the rest of her time on floor 18 she would only use Telekinesis and other spatial powers. She knew that the Guild was aware that she had spatial magic, so it was best to show as little as possible, for all she knew they had someone spying on her.
The Yeti floor's usefulness was coming to an end quickly, and Kelsey only spent another two days there before deciding it was best to move on.
She reached level 214 before leaving floor 18 for the final time.
Kelsey woke up the next day after a wonderful night of drinking and celebrating with her party. Owen and Lisa had moved down to the fifth floor and had finally beaten their first Werewolf of Blood together. Kelsey knew exactly how difficult that was, so she congratulated them and showered them with alcohol and food the entire night. Kelsey hadn’t figured out how to get drunk again, since her Mageblood Regeneration was now always active, but she still enjoyed the time spent relaxing with her friends. The rest of her group was planning on taking a rest day, so Kelsey was going to be going out alone.
Without waking up the party, she got fully dressed and began making her way down the floors. The mornings down in the dungeon were always very quiet. The adventurers that were delving in The Trial were shockingly respectful of others' sleep schedules. Despite this floor always appearing to be day, when night for the outside world came, the entire floor got much quieter, with those on opposing sleep schedules being incredibly quiet.
It had been around two weeks since her group had arrived at the dungeon. Kelsey was making very good progress towards her goal of reaching Immortality before the one-month mark. If she kept to her plan, she would reach level 250 very soon. Owen, Lisa, and Gregory had all made good progress as well and all three of them were getting closer to their level 100 advancements. Owen and Lisa for their first, Gregory for his secondary class.
As Kelsey arrived at the 19th floor, which she was planning on leveling in next, she opened the door and her domain spread out across the floor. Snakes. Giant venomous snakes were the monsters on floor 19 which was set in a simulated swamp biome. Kelsey immediately closed the door and began making her way down to floor 20.
I’d literally rather die.
So, skipping floor 19 entirely, she moved down to floor 20.
Arriving at floor 20, the first thing she noticed was that it was packed with people, even at such an early hour. The level range was 240 - 250. The final level range most people would experience down in The Trial. This meant that these were people who were incredibly close to their goal of Immortality and had a ton of motivation to get there as fast as possible. Even this early in the morning, there were easily over 10 separate parties that she could see with her domain as she opened the door into the floor. There were likely even more spread across the floor.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
There was no way she would be able to fight on floor 20 without everyone there noticing her skills. So, against her better judgment, she decided to tackle floor 21, where every single monster was going to be in the Immortal tier.
Before going down to enter floor 21, she ran back upstairs and began searching for Thadius who she found sitting in one of the large mess halls, quietly eating breakfast. “Hey Thadius.” she said as she walked up behind him.
“Hey sis, I thought you left already.” he said after swallowing the eggs that had been in his mouth.
“It’s a no-go on floors 19 and 20. Floor 19 is full of snakes-” she began.
“And trust me, I know how much you hate snakes.” he finished for her.
Kelsey grinned. “Exactly. Floor 20 is even worse, there are hundreds of people on the floor because it's the final level range for Immortality and doesn’t have that many Immortal monsters to fight.”
“Yeah, I probably could have warned you about that. Floor 20 is where I've been practicing... So, you’re going to continue down then?” He asked, clearly not surprised.
“Yeah, and I want you to watch my back. The monsters will be around your level, but it would be good to have you there, just in case.”
“Absolutely, just let me finish eating and then we can head down.” he said as he started attacking his plate of food.
A few short minutes later Kelsey and Thadius made their way down the stone stairs all the way to Floor 21.
Opening the door, they were greeted by one of the most wonderful sights Kelsey had ever seen. Floor 21 was a crystal cave biome. Every surface from floor to ceiling was made out of a beautiful blue crystal that shimmered in a multicolored vibrance. Kelsey stared at her surroundings in awe.
It feels like I’m standing inside a rainbow. Thadius’ reaction was similar as he through the door behind her.
“Okay, this place is awesome.” Kelsey said as her domain found the monsters that lived on floor 21.
[Crystal Drake - lvl 261]
Sleeping on a spire roughly 300 meters away was a large dragon-like creature with four legs and a set of wings attached to its front legs. It had two large horns jutting from either side of its head and its jaw was as large as her entire body. It had blue, crystal scales that shone light onto every surface around it. As the creature breathed slow, deep breaths, she could see the crystals around it growing and shrinking in concert.
Its control of crystal is so innate that it can literally control it in its sleep...
Its long, thin tail was spiked with crystal protrusions, and the end of its tail was a giant spike of incredibly sharp crystal.
Wait, can I do crystal magic? I never even thought about using crystals and gemstones... That would be so cool. I could become a diamond mage.
“Okay, Thadius. Here’s the situation. The monsters on this floor are Crystal Drakes. They seem pretty strong. I’m second guessing my decision to ask you to follow me here.” she said honestly.
“I still want to stay.” he answered confidently.
“There is a chance I will die there. I’d feel terrible if you died because of me too.”
“And I’d feel terrible if you died because I didn’t go with you. Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself... somewhat.” he finished with less confidence than she would have liked.
Kelsey hesitated for a few moments before relenting. “Alright, let's go, just be ready to run if things go south.”
The duo began making their way towards the first Crystal Drake she had seen, where Kelsey examined the area surrounding the drake. There were no other drakes nearby thankfully, the closest one was nearly a Kilometer away.
At least I can fight this thing one on one. No pulling punches, I’m going to use everything I can to my advantage. If the damn Crimson Lions really are watching me, I guess they're going to get a show.
“Before I start the fight, I’m going to go scout the rest of the floor to see if there is anyone else here. I’m going to need to use everything I’ve got, so I need to make sure we don’t have any onlookers.” she said as she activated flight and began to move away.
Floor 21 was absolutely massive. She traveled over 50 kilometers before finally reaching the far wall. Based on the number of drakes she saw as she traveled through the floor, and assuming the floor was as wide as it was long, she guessed that there were roughly 10,000 drakes on the floor. They were packed much more tightly together the further north she traveled.
Thankfully, she didn’t see a single other person while she scouted out the rest of the floor. That didn’t mean no one was here, but it was a good sign. With how much space the floor covered, and how fast she was forced to move to scout in a reasonable time, she could have easily missed a tent or two. But there wasn't much she could do about that; she would just have to take a chance.
Eventually, she got back to Thadius and told him what she found.
“Good, if they're more tightly packed in the back, that means the ones from the back don’t come here to help in a fight. It should be fine to engage them one by one.” Thadius said after she finished her explanation.
“Alright, stand back.” she said as she readied herself for whatever may come next.
Deciding to make a strong first impression, Kelsey spent a few seconds creating a dozen large steel lances and made them float around her as she ascended into the air. There isn’t much vertical room for the drakes to fly. If they can’t use their flight to their advantage, I’ll need to use mine.
Once she was as far up as she could go, she flew over to the air above the drake, activated Meditation, and launched the newly created lances with as much force as 45,000 mana per second of regeneration would allow her. The lances exploded away from her, immediately causing a sonic boom right next to her ear. The force of the lances pushing themselves through the still air also caused an explosion of air to lash out from where she was floating, sending a series of cracks cascading through the ceiling.
The drake’s danger sense was potent, and it was woken up just in time to save itself from certain death. It whipped its head up towards her as a giant wall of crystal grew from the ground around it, intercepting the lances mere moments before they would have collided directly with its skull. The hastily constructed wall, however, was no match for the raw mana she had imbued into the lances she had sent its way. The lances crashed into the wall, slowing slightly before burying themselves deep into the drake’s body.
The drake roared in pain as the crystals around it exploded outward, directly at Kelsey. The crystals were broken into hundreds of thousands of small shards that all simultaneously began moving in her direction. She tried gripping them with her manipulation, but quickly found that the drake was still controlling them. That small mistake was a costly one. She didn’t have enough time to choose a location and activate her teleport, so instead she tried dodging as fast as she could using her flight.
She hadn’t done much full speed combat since she had been fighting the Yetis who were slow, lumbering creatures, and she wasn’t prepared for what happened next. As she moved sideways with flight while still mostly upright, her upper body got 'caught' on the air, causing her to flip and tumble wildly. She lost her orientation for a split second, losing focus and becoming slightly dizzy.
*ding* You have learned the general skill Wind Resistance - lvl 1
Air moves around the user without exerting as much friction.
Fantastic timing. She thought bitterly.
Moments later, the crystal projectiles found her. Like tiny shards of glass that had been fired from a cannon, the crystals shredded through her Armory, then her clothes, and then finally her body as a non-insubstantial amount of them exploded out her back, sending a shower of blood down towards the ground.
Now that she had time, she reoriented herself and teleported down to the ground to get her bearings back. She saw that the drake was preoccupied ripping the lances out of its body, so she decided to take the time to heal.
Less than a second later, she was back to full health thanks to a quick burst of healing from her Meditation boosted Mageblood Regeneration.
She didn’t know what would be most effective against a crystal drake, but she had a few elements she wanted to try before she simply resorted to beating it to death with steel lances and hammers.
The first thing she wanted to try was melting the crystal. Crystal was just rock after all, and if she could liquefy the drake’s body, the fight would be over in an instant.
Activating Meditation, Kelsey began channeling mana into a flame that she created in her palm. Over the next few seconds, the flame grew larger and larger until it was the size of her closed fist. Roughly 200,000 mana. Let's see how you like this.
Kelsey then teleported into the air above the drake, focusing on maintain the integrity of her creation, before pointing her palm downwards and releasing the flame. She manipulated it into a cone that was designed cover the entire drake’s body.
The flame roared out of her hand with a force that reminded her of space shuttle launches from back on Earth. As the flames left her hands, a gust of wind picked up that traveled all the way back to Thadius before slamming into the wall behind him and causing the entire area to vibrate slightly. Thanks to his own wind resistance, Thadius seemed completely unaffected by the pressure generated from the blast.
She continued pouring mana into the flame for over a dozen seconds before finally hearing the ding in her head that marked the end of the fight.
As the flames stopped, Kelsey clutched her head and groaned in pain. Holy shit that hurts.
*ding* You have defeated a [Crystal Drake - lvl 261].
*ding*Magus has reached level 215 - 20 free stat points have been awarded!
Kelsey waited a few minutes for her head to stop throbbing before she opened her eyes and looked around at the carnage below her.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Turns out, fire is effective. I won't be able to do that every fight, I still need to work on my skills, but at least I know I have a way out...
Below her, the entire area that had been within the cone was completely melted into a pool of liquefied rock. The drake itself was nowhere to be seen, as it must have been completely incinerated.
I guess I can't collect their cores if I fight like that. Oh well.
Descending to stand next to Thadius, she asked “So, what do you think?”
“I’m really glad you’re on our side, sis.” he said seriously. “You’ve gone from a fresh level 100 to someone who can do ‘that’ in two weeks, I can’t imagine what your Immortal advancement will bring.”
She scratched her head feeling a bit embarrassed. “I know... But I'm worried. If I can do that... Who knows what other people are able to do. Sure, the class is strong, and I had to be extremely lucky to get it, but there are Immortal beings out there, outside of Anoura, who are likely hundreds, thousands, or millions of years old. I can't even begin to imagine what someone like that would be capable of...”
“What makes you think there are people outside of Anoura?” he asked, curiosity plain on his face. "I know when we were at your cabin, you hinted that you were worried about the true strength of older immortals."
Kelsey looked at Thadius seriously. This was something she hadn't shared with anyone else yet because she wasn't sure how they'd take it, or if they potentially already knew.
“Well, after I unlocked Flight, I did some rough estimates as to the size of the planet. On Earth, the horizon was roughly five kilometers away at sea level. On this planet the horizon is nearly one hundred and fifty kilometers away. That means that his planet is roughly the size of Jupiter.” she answered. "I then saw an old map of Anoura in one of my books, along with measurements. Although, it didn't have a damn ice wall surround it. I'm still kinda annoyed about that by the way."
Kelsey shook her head before continuing. "The entirety of Anoura is about half the size of the continental US. Even on Earth, the country only made up a few percent of total area on the planet... if this world is the size of Jupiter, then Anoura is very, very small when compared to the rest of the planet. I have to imagine that I'm not the only one on this massive planet that has made some of these discoveries. I'll bet I'm not even the only one on Anoura." Kelsey finished seriously.
“I see. That makes sense.” Thadius said as he considered her theory.
“Plus, I told you about that Sage guy, right? The one from Earth?” She asked.
“Briefly, but you didn’t go into detail.”
“Well, I have reason to believe that he was a much higher level than an Immortal. When I identified his book, I saw that it has an Ascendant rarity. I think... I think there may be another tier after Immortal... I don’t know if it’s at 500, 750, or 1,000. Potentially even higher. But I do think it exists. And, if I found a book from someone from Earth that arrived here thousands of years before we did, then it stands to reason that there are other Ascendants out there too.” She finished, feeling much better now that she had said her theory out loud.
“Yeah, all of that seems logical. Speaking of the Sage being from Earth, what do you think that’s about? Why did he arrive so much sooner than us?”
“I’m honestly not sure. As I’ve learned more about magic, I am starting to think that what happened to us wasn’t an accident. I think we were intentionally brought here by someone or something.” Kelsey said seriously. “Maybe whatever happened to bring him here was just a test run or something.”
“That’s kind of a harrowing thought. Someone with the power to teleport tens of thousands of people from a different world… Why? For what purpose?” He asked contemplatively.
“You know Thadius, that may be the single most important question in the world. Answering that is a big part of why I want to get stronger. Whoever, or whatever it is likely doesn't have our best interests in mind. I want to make sure I'm as strong as possible to make sure I'm prepared for when I find out.” she answered honestly.
Thadius looked at Kelsey with a serious expression. "I know you sis, what's your guess?"
Kelsey sighed. "I honestly don't know Thad. My best guess right now is that it was for our knowledge of science, mathematics, and engineering. It's pretty flimsy though. Assuming that it's a Spatial mage, not a monster, then someone strong enough to summon us should also be strong enough to just travel to Earth themselves. They could get all the knowledge they wanted... I don't know... I honestly can't think of any good reason." she said truthfully.
"But you still think it's by design and not accidental?" Thadius asked carefully.
"I do. Something on this scale can't happen by accident. Plus, everyone arrives without any of their personal items like phones and car keys. I don't know about you, but I've never heard of a skill that takes away someone's phone." Kelsey said jokingly.
Thadius' nodded his head and furrowed his brow in thought. "You're right. I never really considered it, but you're absolutely right..."
They were both quiet for a few seconds until Thadius looked up at her, his face hardened, his back straightened. "Kel, I'm going to need that Boss core in a month or two."