CHAPTER 12 – CONFLICT IS THE BONES OF GROWTH

Aetheris – Iron Ranked Dungeon – Erebus

***

Gideon once more dove into a roll out of the space he’d occupied as the astral infused halberd came crashing down into the paved stone ground in the courtyard before the Mansion’s ornate entrance. A widespread flash of energy splashed out from the initial strike which seemed to happen every time they attacked making evasion of the strike that much more difficult. He spun and growled. These bastards were getting tiresome. [Astral Animated Constructs], Level 27. Four of them, all Low-Iron Ranked.

They’d been immobile statues holding halberds when they’d approached the half circle of stone the path had opened up to before the very expensive looking silver filigreed doors of the mansion. That was until they’d gotten within twenty feet when the statues transformed into these bastards made of a light blue and white energy. He was pretty sick of the assholes.

Gideon activated [The Edge of the Deep Umbral] and threw his dark silver blades of energy which seemed to affect them a bit, not much but enough to keep his adversary off him for a moment. His Uncle materialized out of a silver rip in the air made of moonlight behind another as it swung at a dodging L’Sana and struck with his daggers, both coated in a film of silver energy that tore a chunk of whatever the things were made of, astral no doubt.

They’d only been able to put down one so far as the damnable things were ethereal whenever they weren’t attacking, existing half in the astral and half within the real. Magic affected them but unfortunately no one in the party was a dedicated Mage with a focused build on magic damage. L’Sana’s magical focused attacks were mostly AOE so not the best choice when dealing within melee range with all of them engaged and Ari’s breath attack was resource heavy and didn’t throw out a lot of heavy damage. She was a support build.

Her newest Ability [The Ferocity of a Dark Moon] that made her a melee tank wouldn’t help with these ghost like adversaries but another new Ability of hers [Song of Lunacy] probably would have with most adversaries, even ghostly ones but his Uncle had already failed when he’d quickly attempted some of his mind altering abilities.

The Constructs had no spirit or mental acuity or emotions, nothing to manipulate. They were some kind of like puppets or pre-programmed automatons similar to the Arcane Automata they’d faced in the Monster Waves but instead of a Master Automata these were at a guess made by a Mage, most likely the Astral Lord. His adversary lurched his way overcoming its hesitation from his fusillade of umbral daggers being thrown which Gideon had kept up while surveying the field of battle.

Freddie wouldn’t have been a lot of help against these ghost like enemies so Gideon had asked him to shift to the bracelet. He hadn’t wanted to do it but Marcus was almost completely worthless against these foes and most of the rest of them were hampered against immaterial foes with no emotional centers to manipulate. They’d only gotten lucky with the first take down when it had gotten greedy and chased him around swinging its halberd non-stop keeping it in the physical for too long until L’Sana had caught up with it and taken it’s head with her claws and a liberal use of [Memory of Tombs]. The initial strike hadn’t quite decapitated it but the lingering necrotic energy had finished what the claws began.

He leapt back as the Construct slammed its halberd once again into the stone but this time Gideon hadn’t quite cleared the area portion of the attack as he was knocked on his ass and skidded across the ground several feet. He felt a slight pulse of heat. His new improved scales along with the new armor kept most of the damage off besides the bang bang to his dignity. Danny and his Uncle were keeping one busy while L’Sana and Ari had the other dancing around. Marcus looked as if he had taken a blast from the AOE, the side of his face sporting burn marks.

Gideon’s adversary came thundering at him once again but he felt his improved symbiosis between he and Yisara, a oneness since the vision so waited to pull the card. It was time to test his new synergies and his nice shiny improved speed courtesy of his new Sub-Class and his boosted Attributes off his newly merged Bloodline.

As the Construct pushed forward within five feet, he moved, his cloak stretching in two different directions, one grabbing the fallen Skald bringing it to his hand as the other wrapped itself around a heavy stone planter’s plot, filled with some strange small young tree, pulling him not only to his feet but quickly yanking him ten feet to the right from whence he pushed his speed and became a blur as the halberd cracked the stone behind him, repositioning just past the Construct, spinning on his heel, then thrusting Skald quicker than most eyes could follow, it’s tip crushing through the construct’s back and out its chest.

The whole ghost immaterial thing attempted to come online a half second too late as it became translucent for a moment before it flashed back to the physical collapsing as whatever passed for its heart was destroyed.

Gideon’s new speed was ridiculous putting him at possible even Low-Bronze in Agility against these Low-Iron Constructs. If they didn’t have such an insanely good defense he had a feeling his team would have already put them all down.

He spun around scanning the rest of the battlefield to see Ari bathing their Construct in her breath weapon causing it to be blanketed with cold long enough to make it slow to turn transparent again when L’Sana leapt on its back sheathed in necrotic green and black flames and gutted it with her claws, the flames exploding to consume its insides while twenty feet to their right Danny was using one of her Abilities that he couldn’t quite place but could see physical sound waves coming from her mask which was somehow keeping the Construct from becoming ghost-like as his uncle was utilizing his teleport heavily to slip and slide around the creature taking it piece by piece. Whatever Danny was doing was keeping her locked in place which would have been bad news with a smarter enemy but it seemed to focus on the closest adversary which was his Uncle.

Not being able to play it’s ghost trick the Constructs were rather slow and clumsy though the AOE affect of their attacks did make them difficult to dodge hence why his Uncle was making liberal use of his teleport Ability but if it had been a contest of attrition his Uncle would have been in trouble. His Movement Ability had a heavy resource cost. These Constructs were a hard counter to his Build and his hook daggers couldn’t really do enough damage to the large creature.

Gideon helped him out by activating [Nocturnal Embrace of the Shade] slipping through the Umbral and arriving right behind the lumbering Construct chasing Marcus’s fleeting form before sending Skald through its skull ending the final conflict.

His Uncle sheathed his hooked knives followed by bending over, hands on knees, breathing like a steam locomotive. His Mana had to be red-lining with all the teleporting. L’Sana and Ari were already looping around like drug addicts looting the Constructs. He himself was still wary about anymore surprises and upset with himself that they hadn’t approached the Mansion with a lot more caution. They had been too carefree and cocky not to mention his mind was still riding on the words from Danny on his Grandfather.

Focus, he needed to focus or some of his family would not make it through this. They had become too cavalier. The System was not a joke and they needed nothing more than Sanguine Necropolis as an example to understand that.

A Notification hit his vision.

Congratulations fools. You have been able to get past the least of my servants. Wallow in your victory for it will be your last. I and mine are confined to idiotic rules laid out by the System while we reside within this Dungeon but know soon I shall be free to strip whatever pitiful knowledge this World holds than I shall enslave whatever dregs are left outside these metaphorical walls and sell you all as slaves to fund my rise back and take what was stolen from me.

Stage 1 – The Welcome – has been completed. The next Stage – Entry, will commence once you have stepped within Aetheris.

L’Sana stopped mid-looting on the last construct which had been the last one killed putting her less than ten feet from him when she gave him a sardonic look as if to say ‘Really?’. She must have just read the Notification as well. Danny stepped closer while Ari was perched on his Uncle’s shoulder healing the side of his face. L’Sana’s voice was a post-sign for irritation.

“Did you hear that pompous jack-ass Giddy? Like seriously, why doesn’t he just wear a t-shirt that says punch me in the face repeatedly? I would happily oblige.”

Gideon knew humor was her way to deal with stress and violence and normally he’d be right there with her but this wasn’t a joke. All he’d heard from Unra was everyone was struggling heavily with Iron Dungeons and he and his were good but she was referencing other Scions, the Gunslinger, the Ice Queen, the New Yorker, the Angel Rebel Lady, all of them tough as nails. He felt this was just a shallow dip of toes in the water when on the other side of the hill out of sight was a raging river. He had learned his lessons on the hard brick fists to face and he would not take this preliminary bout as any kind of indication of the subsequent challenge. He sent a Party Message not trusting the obvious observation the Astral Lord had access to.

Gather your resources back and keep important information to party chat for now until we get a better handle on what this Astral Lord can see and hear.

No one reacted to the message beyond gathering closer together and sitting asses down to rest. He sent a private message to Ari who immediately spun up [The Melody of Crescent Dreams] which now lasted three minutes in Iron and in addition to boosting the Attributes it normally did it also boosted resource regen by about 20% as well. He sent a private message to Danny which had her look up.

What was that ability you used to lock the Construct to the physical?

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

She replied immediately.

It’s one I rarely use called [Scream of Desolate dreams]. It locks down a single target making their movement glacial and disrupting magical defenses but requires me to be static so really only useful when I have a team to keep my ass safe while using it. Didn’t really do shit to the thing’s movement but did keep it from ghosting.

He nodded. A good Ability but it had limits, obviously if the magic it was shutting down was strong enough it lost the control aspect of slowing and having to be a planted target herself to use it? He completely understood why she rarely touched it. Hmm, maybe later Ranks would make it more versatile. Pushing that out of the way he focused on thinking everything through. Caution was the play in this game. He had a feeling this was more a trap than a true intent to kill those that entered the Dungeon. The Constructs would be tough to many but any competent and skilled team would have prevailed without dying. Even lesser Ranked Classes without their Titles would have figured something out. As he’d noticed earlier, the Constructs were slow and telegraphed their strikes and weren’t very intelligent. Their ghost trick was their greatest ability and defense but easily identifiable and Parties that had some focused DPS Mages would have made short work of them. Now Mages were nowhere near as common as Martial Oriented Classes, still, there were enough with offensive magics to have pushed through. Made him wonder in awe once more about the shit ton of magical avenues.

Grave, Moon and Umbral weren’t the most offensive magic focused as far as Soul-Pillars went with Grave probably the one with the most potential. It was interesting to him how each Soul-Pillar had a reputation for a general sense of what one could expect and Gideon’s own experiences confirmed the truth of it. Umbral focused mostly on stealth builds and some abilities to manipulate emotions as well as control effects. The Moon was similar in style which was probably why even within the sparse dribbles of Multi-Versal history he’d had drip fed to him there were numerous examples of alliances between the two whether through smaller Factions or large Multi-Versal ones. The Moon had a harder bend towards healing with a toe dip into stealth for many of them and an equal push into emotional and sensory manipulation comparable with the Umbral than of course, the grave, which seemed a bit more offensive in their magic and he could certainly see more offensive Mage Builds within their realm and had an example of such in the Spider Bitch though she was mostly focused on minions, a perverse Necromancer realm build with the spiders which he assumed were some undead versions of such.

He would guess a lot of the Graveborn would fall along those lines, utilizing minions or a focus on Martial Classes with a lot of tanky types which L’Sana kinda fell within with her Abilities that stole life and healed her. He could feel the said woman hard staring him but she knew him well enough to know he was formulating strategies, lost in his head and needed to focus. She ended up moving over and laying out in front of him leaning her head back into his chest. His fingers naturally fell into running through her hair and head as his mind slipped through a myriad of roads while Ari settled in her lap and Freddie shifted to his ferret mode and snuggled right next to her. Danny and his Uncle sat next to each other whispering. Gideon allowed his thoughts to get back on track.

His mind had brought up the comparisons and dissections of the three Soul-Pillars he was most knowledgeable about to bridge his understanding of the Astral which is what they would be facing the rest of the way through this Dungeon. He left Freddie alone as he already admitted much of his knowledge had been truncated with his severing from the System. Gideon’s experience with Dungeons was limited as he’d only done the one Copper Dungeon to finish off gaining Iron and it had been beasts/monsters.

He certainly wouldn’t say monsters or beasts were not a challenge or dangerous, they were but nowhere near the level of difficulty sentient creatures were. Both of his experiences within Tutorials had proven that the hard way. A Citizen’s arsenal of Abilities and their active mind to form strategies that could come at you from left field were just more difficult. Granted some of the beasts he’d had to go against were no pushovers, the Barghest Alpha in the Proving came to mind and the Iron Ranked Behir which literally had no place being something he had to face also flashed through memory though that was the System straight up cheating.

Freddie had mentioned defense and movement and controlling of space to be the predominant characteristics of the Astral. If he remembered correctly one of the Ice Queen’s Captains was the Astral Scion, a Beastkin who’d Danny had mentioned as well, the leader of a small Faction that had been absorbed by Frostholme. It was the reason Danny had been able to free herself up from helping the refugees was the invitation to protection and a home Frostholme had provided for all those people. The Scion of the Astral had been a mix Martial/Mage Class which according to Freddie was unusual as he had mentioned Mages were the most common builds within the Soul-Pillar. A lot of what was mentioned could be seen in the Constructs though obviously Martial but the ghost like defense lent credence to some of what they would face. Also the damage that the Astral energy gave off wasn’t exactly heat but it did burn more in the same sense as powerful electricity.

He said movement of space and control so they could possible expect teleportation then some kind of what? Control with the Moon or the Umbral meant for the most part emotional manipulation along the lines of his Aura creating fear or his Uncle with his manipulation of senses. He didn’t think Astral would run along those lines but for the life of him he couldn’t quite grasp how Astral would express control. The concept of Astral in his own mind only brought up D n D references of Githyanki and the squid headed creatures that ate brains whose name he couldn’t quite remember. He only remembered the Githyanki as they had the silver swords that had caught his imagination as a kid and the Squidheads had been the race that had them enslaved that much he remembered.

The image in his brain only brought up another dimension, another plane, a sea of endless, timeless mostly empty space. He would need more examples and experience before he could come up with anything concrete or plan strategies around it. He wished the Network wasn’t so limited and so heavily censored byw the System. Very few things could be shared as far as knowledge though there were hints that many of the restrictions would be lifted once the Third Challenge began. For the millionth time he was in awe of how expansive and seeming endless the System was. He’d mentioned four Sub-Pillars of thirty-one total. Thirty one different types of magic and according to the Shadowborn when he’d given the abbreviated history lesson there had been more of them that were lost with the death of Primordials.

Knowing himself he stopped his brain from expanding into endless miles of theory crafting the System. He tapped L’Sana who’d started dozing off. Everyone’s resources should be up especially with Ari’s Ability boosting. Her Spirit cost for its use had about tripled and had a cool-down added to it but would be a game saver. That battle hadn’t been intense enough to have knocked them too hard except for his Uncle. A big part of that had been walking into a trap. L’Sana stood then reached down and pulled him up while both Ari and Freddie with him shifting to his owl shape, took to the air. Marcus and Danny were up in a jiffy. He threw a message along party chat. No need to telegraph what they were gonna do. He had to remember this Mansion was the home turf of the Astral Lord and highly likely he could hear whatever was said out loud and watch their every move. It would be what he’d do and what they’d done at Umbra Mortem with the drones and cameras. IT also reemphasized his take on facing sentient beings versus monsters.

This time everyone, let’s be a bit more head on a swivel. If we have enemies as soon as we enter, Marcus, be prepared with one of your tricks, Danny, hit them with [Harbinger of the Fall] and give us space. I highly doubt were gonna be hit with the Constructs again so many of your abilities should be on the table. Ari be prepared to support and Freddie, get back on my wrist until we see what we’re dealing with. You can be more of a surprise in that shape if we need it.

They all gave a nod and Freddie dropped from the air shifting to a bracelet on his wrist. They all moved to the ornate doors and Gideon lifted a hand towards the handle but as soon as he put the action into movement they were transported.

Welcome to Aetheris. You are stepping into ‘The Entry’.

Keep your wits and a blood thirsty mien to find yourself to victory. No mercy will be given so none should be returned. The benevolence of the Multi-Versal System is eternal.

***

As soon as they transitioned to their destination they all tensed for anything but it was if they fell in the midst of a circus playhouse, a carnival mirror fun zone. At first they were in a normal foyer of a huge mansion with a wide set staircase that went up to the second level and a hall that led past the staircase on the main floor and a set of double doors to the left and right of where they stood and some strange light blue humanoid with white glowing eyes in what appeared to be a light blue and white butler outfit. All of this lasted about two deep breaths before everything and anything stretched as if part of a dream, part of a drug induced vision including the strange butler until mow everything was the size of a small stadium, the stairs and the alien looking man a thousand yards away, the doors to each side a good five hundred yards. The only sounds were L’Sana’s claws sliding in and out. Gideon could feel the tension out of his family. He threw a party chat.

Stay together and stay calm. Be prepared for anything but hold attacking till we see what this is.

He tossed an [Identify] not caring whether the man would know.

The Butler

Race – Aetherborn

Level – 30 (Iron)(Elite)

Not a lot to go on but a Level 30 Elite was nothing to scoff at and Gideon had no clue what the Race entailed. The strange Butler disappeared from the stairs a football stadium away right after he used [Identify] reappearing in a flash of blue and white spatial energy no more then ten feet in front of them. The sheer level of disdain towards them from his expression hit like a hammer. Ari hissed at the judgmental Butler but L’Sana reached up and put a hand on her. The Butler’s arrogance laced his words as did a slight echo as if the man wasn’t quite fully in the world.

“It has been a long long time since the Lord has entertained guests. He, I, and the rest of his servants have been wallowing in a prison unjustly done, peers of his, jealous, envious of his prodigious accomplishments and low-minded in the judgment of his methods, those who could not see that knowledge is everything, all else, less than trash in the face of that truth.”

Gideon wanted to refute the man’s idiocy. All the people sold into slavery so the Lord in question could buy some more old tomes might argue their lives and freedom were not trash in the face of knowledge but he knew the type he was dealing with, along the same lines as Senator Davis, the ends always justified the means, their own greed and avarice worth more any day of the week than those they considered lesser, only worth the barter they could get for their flesh. His anger was a simmering cauldron and he was happy that he no longer dealt with the violent righteousness of his Bloodline as his Class alone he could feel pulling him towards immediate violence though his Sub-Class mediated it with a compulsory push to analyze more information.

The others did not have that benefit, especially L’Sana whose Bloodline was powerful and both of her Classes based on the aggressive side. He put his hand lightly on her forearm as her claws slid out again. The Butler ‘tsked’ loud enough for them all to hear.

“Riff-raff but guests none the less. The women my Lord will no doubt find a use for, even the Dragonling who could be bred and her young sold off as pets. You shall be adjourned to the Parlor for your refreshment until he has made a decision but the men, the uncouth men. No, he is not fond of competition. You shall be sent to the Dungeon till he decides how you meet your end. Yes, yes. All nice and organized and each to their destination shall they be put.”

Gideon was about ready to unleash L’Sana to plant this misogynistic asshole in the ground but before they knew what was going on circles of the same blue/white spatial energy appeared beneath all of them as they fell through and felt themselves teleported. Everything flashed a blinding white as his repressed violence and anger exploded. He was separating them!!!