Bolts of high-powered light bounced off the densely packed forest he had appeared in. Six massive wolves yipped and howled in pain as the bullets of light turned hard in an instant as they sliced through their thick fur before bursting into searing radiance. Flames sparked on their pelts while Eli dodged a pair of wolves flanking him. Starlightning jolted behind him before he teleported out the other end of it to avoid the hard snap of their jaws.
"Interesting." Eli muttered to himself while he let [Reflection] guide him while he charged, then shot another volley of twelve beams of light. Beams of light ricocheted off the pair of wolves who stumbled back from the impact as the light fragmented into rays of light that reflected off tree trunks before they refocused on the two wolves.
He kept his focus on the now singular webbed beam of light while he charged it.
Photon Shot natively enhanced light in order to shoot it, but figuring out how to make it reflect off of surfaces with his [Reflect] perk had given him insight into how much control he retained after firing it. After all, it was a part of his body.
Shades of orange and yellow tapered into white where the wolves thrashed in their attempts to shake off his searing web. Color shifted in prismatic bands as the intensity strobed with incandescent heat burned white wherever the bars of light criss-crossed over the wolves. The light was cool, almost insubstantial wherever it touched tree trunks, branches, leaves, and even the ground.
It only burned where it gouged into the spawn of this dungeon floor. As long as he didn't fire it, the light would continue to charge.
Notifications crawled across his vision as they flopped over.
Howls echoed around him as a new pack of four larger wolves prowled out of the shadows. A dark, menacing shade of crimson gleamed around their eyes and muzzles. Sharp claws slashed rivets in the dirt as a car sized wolf pounced. Eli turned into soft radiance with a wince as icy claws and teeth zipped through his soft light radiant body. Right as it passed out his chest, he used [Reflection] to bounce the wolf into the web of vibrating light before he released it.
Thunder cracked as the strands of light slammed into the wolf hard enough to flip its bisected smoking halves through the air. Shadows surged through the woods now that his Photon Shot web had been fired.
Three of the crimson-shade wolves bounded toward him with a snarl.
Nullspace quivered around him as instinct screamed for him to teleport away or blast them with starlightning or starspace constructs. Jaws snapped in a vise around his wrist and ankle as a pair of wolves gnawed on his radiant flesh. Beads of shimmering blood oozed out of the tears. Absorbed light faded from his storage as they savaged him. The last wolf leaped straight for his chest.
Time seemed to slow while he drained more of his light to enhance his perception.
What should he do?
Rely on Stellavoltaic Nullspace the instant things went remotely sideways? Photon Shot's base power was too weak for him to do much without charging it first. A scarlet muzzle drifted closer to his throat while the other two wolves yanked at him to throw him off balance. Radiant blood dripped on the grass, where it dimmed to a mortal shade of red.
Weakness plagued his limbs as his perception of time gradually sped back up while his stored light dwindled. All it would take would be a flash of starlightning or a use of his equipped [Glow] perk to renew his storage of light, but something about it felt like cheating. He needed to push himself and his Body of Light harder if he wanted to actually grow stronger.
Teeth closed around his throat as nearly five hundred pounds of wolf crashed into him.
Stars flashed behind his eyes as he smacked the back of his head on the ground. [Reflection] activated as his radiant form rebounded off the ground and into the wolf on top of him. They rose a few inches before slamming back down, but this time, Eli charged and focused all his light into his back before he triggered [Reflection].
Normal flesh ripped as his wrist and legs were yanked out of wolves' mouths from the force. Eli flipped end over end from the sudden force as the wolf clawed at his back, its teeth dug deeper into his neck.
Eli clenched his unwounded fist as he activated Photon Shot with [Glow]. His fingers sparkled, then shimmered with radiance as he shone with unnatural light even as he prepared to punch the wolf latched onto his throat. Light twisted and reflected on itself as his hand turned invisible. He lashed out.
Distortions trailed through the air before he rammed his knuckles into the wolf's skull. It growled as it redoubled its grip and shook its head. Razor-sharp teeth slashed his throat before it healed in a shimmer of light. Eli condensed a pane of light that he reflected off of so he land on top of the wolf.
It released him with a grunt as it squirmed beneath him.
He shoved himself away from it while the other two wolves loped toward him.
Eli raised his invisible hand, then unleashed a beam of inverted light that rippled through the air before it passed straight through the wolf and into the ground. He let it continue to charge as the wolf thrashed. Whining yips emanated from it as it rolled in the grass. Its fur smoldered then ignited before the charged bolt of inverted light detonated with a blinding flash.
The other two wolves whimpered from the sudden radiance as he willed the explosion of light to re-condense into a wave of incandescence that he reflected upon itself so it flickered into invisibility halfway there. Once it penetrated harmlessly into their bodies, he had it reflect again and again inside of them while it charged. Smoke billowed out of their open mouths as they howled. Shadows shifted as their fur patched and their skin cracked from the heat.
All that brilliance solidified into blades of hard light that pulped them from the inside out.
He pushed himself up to his feet while he focused on healing himself with Body of Light. Photons collected in his body where they vibrated and energized his cells. Normally, he let it do its own thing, but he focused on guiding it and charging it into the concepts of Strength, Stamina, and Perception. Without Lumencloud Transfiguration, it was impossible, but he still felt the idea of it slowly resonated with Body of Light as he pushed his will into changing Photon Shot.
Eli stumbled deeper into the forest while his wounds closed and revitalization slowly trickled into his mind and body. It was funny how the parts of Dynamic Vitality had felt more like what he expected the System's stats to be instead of powers adapted to a part of his being. While he walked, he checked his gains from the Delver's Dives system.
Bad Wolf (x 10) [Game Point: +10 GP] [Game Point Balance: -190 GP]> This was going to take a while, especially since it didn't even offer him their powers or anything else. He grumbled silently to himself while he pushed out of the forest into what looked like a historic village full of run-down shacks and huts. A long squat building stood in the center of the village with a well outside. Robed figures moved everywhere in the village. Some walked up and down the dirt roads, others sat outside of what appeared to be a barbershop, blacksmith, bakery, and a tailor. Small robes the size of children ran around with no heed of the fact they were in a simulated dungeon. A few played in the dirt, another drew with chalk on a wooden board, and a couple more made what looked like a snowman out of clay. A clayman? A bell rang out over the village. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned toward Eli before an ungodly screech rolled throughout the village. Eli stumbled as the ground shook. Window panes cracked with the twinkling of shattered glass. Fabric fluttered on a sudden breeze as a tall figure wearing the same robes as everyone else appeared in front of him. Metal glinted under the shadowy folds of their robe as vibrant glowing eyes peered up at Eli's. "What are you doing here in Fellton, stranger?" They asked in a strangely resonant voice. "I'm just passing through?" Eli asked uncertainly. He hadn't expected to talk to anyone in this delve. Not unless he found other players or managed to rendezvous with Roman. "Through the Doomglade?" They chuckled at that with a wry shake of their hooded head. "You're a brave one, stranger. Did you run across any trouble?" "Yeah, I fought some wolves." Eli felt like he was playing a part in a show or something. It was like when Lyra had been obsessed with plays and musicals in the sixth grade and had forced everyone to act out the scenes she had written. "By the Abyssal Gown! You killed them? Thank you so much, stranger. We have been besieged by wolves, bandits, and bizarre vagrants wielding sorcery we've never seen for years. If you're interested, we have a bounty out for anyone willing to prove themselves." A notification flashed in front of Eli's face. Quest Log: Prove Your Worth! - Complete all sidequests in Fellton for a unique prize. Reward: Good Samaritan, + 100 GP Kill All Bandits! (0/20 Killed) - Kill all bandits near Fellton to complete. Reward: Moral Superiority, Power: Samaritan's Gains Ev. 0 or Power: Highwayman's Toll Ev. 0, + 30 GP [Prove Your Worth! Requisite] Kill All Wolves! (10/50 Killed) - Kill all wolves near Fellton to complete. Reward: Natural Selection's Assistant, Power: Hunter's Bounty Ev. 0, +100 GP [Prove Your Worth! Requisite] Tribulations of a Murderhobo - You're a madman! A monster dedicated to the murder of every man, woman, and child in Fellton and the surrounding area. Kill every citizen and soldier in Fellton to complete. Bonus: Complete all sidequests first for Fellton for an additional reward. Reward: Vilified, Power: Executioner Ev. 0, + 1,000 GP> "What the fuck?" Eli whispered out loud to the clear shock of the robed person in front of him. He had never seen or heard anything about quests before. What kind of dungeon was this? He read through each of them again, though with growing interest. It reminded him of playing Eldritch Wars with its multi-sided quests and storylines. This dimension had next to nothing in the way of video games. Everything was some shade or another of simulator The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. "Is something the matter, stranger?" "Nope. Hey, where are the bandits holed up?" Eli asked after closing the status window. He had some hunting to do. How else was he going to get enough points to get everything he wanted? "They took control of the coal mine and the fort to the south. Ever since the Prosperous Raiment frayed the world has come to ruin. Crops failed and taxes rose. Countless villages have gone hungry filling our fair country with disease and famine. Now strangers like yourself and bandits roam the land leeching from us all." They bowed their hooded head in distress, their red eyes vanishing under the fold of fabric. "Not to mention the rise of foul beasts that care not for the natural order of the world." "Gotcha." Eli nodded absently while he studied the rest of the town with Stellavoltaic Nullspace. Wherever he wasn't directly looking, the robed figures froze as stiff and still as statues or robed mannequins. Not a single one moved unless they were close to him or he was looking at them. How much of this was pure dungeon versus Dream shenanigans from the Delver’s Dive systematic enchantments and influence with the wristbands and dungeon? He wished he had Warlock's Sanctum so he could get more of an idea of the lay of the land and everything else around him. He got the sense though that all their equipment and everything else was beyond poor straight to pathetic. Was that indicative of their status or the state of this part of the dungeon’s theme? "Will the brave unshrouded stranger risk cloth and soul to save us from this host of evil?" "Sure." Eli shrugged. Whoever designed this dialogue must have loved old fables or something. He felt like he was stuck in a retro video game or something. He was curious what was under their robes though. Even with Stellavoltaic Nullspace he sensed nothing beneath them. "I'll do that now." "A thousand thank you—" Eli vanished in a flash of starlightning as he launched a bolt toward the sky where he popped out to free fall. He teleported like that again and again as he flickered through the air toward the south. It grated on him to restrain himself like this, but he didn't want to give the spectators or Delver's Dive staff any indication what he could do, even if he decided to trust that the wristbands obscured his data and only saw his system on the most basic level. After a couple dozen starlightning bolt teleports, he let himself slow down as he pushed his starspace field out to search the farmlands below full of rotted grain and dead livestock. His gaze locked on a large herd of cows that had been turned into piles of meat by the wolves or bandits. Swarms of flies buzzed. A pack of wolves wandering in the fields behind a dilapidated barn caught his attention. Six of them were the regular car-sized monstrosities, while the other two were even larger with shades of red. He let himself glide in that direction as he propelled himself with a flash of light. Pinpricks of incandescence gathered along his fingertips before he inverted each spark on themselves with [Reflection] while he charged them. He wrapped each spark with nullspace as he let them swell with radiance before he shot eight of his charged lightbolts. Bullets of light exploded through six of the wolves' heads instantly, while the two larger ones spun out of the way. He turned radiant as he streaked toward them like a falling star. While he fell, he pulsed light to accelerate faster than he could have ever moved in a heavy body of flesh and blood. Eli condensed his foot into a hard light blade as he stomped down on the one wolf's skull, knocking it flat. A notification flickered in front of his eyes immediately. Before the other wolf could even finish tensing its legs to turn, he shot out a gentle flash of soft light that he distilled himself into. He reappeared beside it with a knife of radiance lodged into its skull killing it instantly. Something about Photon Shot had slightly changed after his practice with [Reflection]. Light felt far more malleable as a missing puzzle piece clicked into place. He was light, whether or not he was radiant. Why restrict himself by moving in his prison of skin and bone? Without actively using the perk [Reflection], he stepped down as he consciously shifted the photons in his foot. Light flexed as prismatic fractals distorted around him as he reflected off the ground and floated upward lazily. Colors shimmered off his body while he laughed. Each new discovery he made with his powers, old and new, and about this new world... no, this new multiverse filled him with more joy and satisfaction than he had ever felt from anything else. Light was truly a part of him now. At the apex of his gradual ascent, he drifted down before he focused on the radiance of his feet. Dimples flexed throughout his radiance while he pulsed them in his attempt to reflect off the air itself. Gentle puffs of light strobed as he flailed through a series of spins while he tried to reorient himself. Then Eli hit the ground with a bounce as his whole body reflected with a flash as he soared. He stopped relying on Stellavoltaic Nullspace to teleport in cracks of starlightning as he focused on his flight instead. Starspace highlighted everything around him in his spatial field as he navigated through the artificial sunlight toward the fort and mine where the bandits holed up. Bands of incandescent brilliance shifted throughout his radiant body as he reflected off the air under, behind, and around him as he streaked forward like he was sliding down a tunnel in a water park that only went forward. Trees and small villages streaked past beneath him as he bolted across the sky. Details blurred in the world around him as his speed ramped up until his spatial field couldn't keep up from his constant acceleration. A gradual lag crept in as he struggled to pick up and process details, while he outstripped his natural reaction and dexterity. By the time he saw a particular cloud shaped like a duck, he had already passed through it. Or a sprawling castle bristling with guards who held longbows and spears. He dimly noticed a massive crater that bore into the earth in a chasm that devoured all the light. Eli tumbled as he tried to slow down before his course shifted, and he bounced off an errant cloud blasting through a line of trees. Splinters, branches, and leaves fluttered as the lopsided trees collapsed with an echoing crash that shook the earth. He blinked up at the canopy above him as he finally caught up with the jarring jolt from the farmland to the forest he was in now. It took him another second before he realized the castle he had seen was probably the fort he was looking for, too. A flex of light beneath him lifted him up to his feet. He glanced down at his chest, expecting to see chunks of wood and rock gored into his chest with his arms and legs broken. But he was perfectly fine. Even without Lumencloud Transfiguration to bolster his defenses and provide him with more light. Eli was resplendent in his unblemished radiance as he roared with laughter at how far he had come. Light pulsed beneath him as he rose out of the cinder filled forest as a fire spread from the row of trees he had knocked over like dominoes. He flew at a clipped pace as he kept his reflection gradual beneath him and at his sides, while he propelled himself forward with infrequent blasts of soft light. At last, he reached the fort. Reflection shrouded around him as he hid his radiance while he observed them with his eyes and Stellavoltaic Nullspace. Ramshackle walls surrounded a courtyard full of patchwork tents and streams of robed figures as they moved from tent to tent. Guards marched over the battlements to the towers, where he noticed ballista and cannons he hadn't seen before. In the center of the fort was a tall flagpole where a pennant with a scarlet griffin flapped in the breeze. Gnarled curtains of ivy draped the castle walls everywhere he looked. At the center of the courtyard was a massive tent where he assumed the leader of the bandits was. He gathered and charged all the light he could while he used [Reflection] and what he learned from it to heighten it both further and faster than he ever could have before. What would've once taken several minutes now took ten seconds. Stellavoltaic Nullspace charted the castle beneath him. Sparks crackled in his nullspace as he portioned out a bolt of starlightning out for each guard, robed figure, and tent below. Eli reflected the light above and behind him while he stared at the massive tent with narrowed eyes. Who wanted to waste time on goons when he could take out the boss now? He descended in a blink of an eye as he gained frictionless speed as soft light before he shifted into a spear of hard radiance aimed at the tent. Air screamed, then crunched around him as he slammed into a barrier with a blast of light. Cracks snapped through the now visible yellow tinted barrier converged on the hole he had gouged into it. Eli continued to collect and charge light inside of him while he shifted his hand so it laid flat on the blazing warmth of the barrier. He gathered, charged, and fired a shot of light instantly. Over and over. Light whimpered off the barrier as weak and soft as warm pudding. But each iteration was a bit firmer and brighter. The cracks grew larger and more frequent as the power of each shot of light grew. Eli continued to refine the process as ribbons of light tore into the barrier. Each ribbon compacted into a hard light bullet that burrowed deeper and deeper while he improved each step of the process. Collecting light simplified as he felt the rigid Photon Shot start to give way as he became light personified. Why collect light when he was already light? Bullets of hard light ripped out of his skin with a burst. When he had charged light before, it had been a stationary point in the process where he jammed it full of as much power as he could. Now power flooded into the prepared light while he selected, gathered, charged, and fired it. How he fired the light had also changed. Originally, each shot was loosed upon the world with little opportunity to adjust it, but now, it remained under his jurisdiction long past he fired it until it dispersed. A beam of high powered light blazed from Eli's hand as he felt Photon Shot improve at last. Rings of heat scorched the barrier as it melted and dispersed. The barrier sagged under Eli's weight while he applied his new process of using Photon Shot to the radiance in the rest of his body. Power flooded his limbs as his senses sharpened. He suppressed a shudder as his baseline physical prowess jumped up to about the same level it was at when he was able to use Lumencloud Transfiguration. Eli couldn't wait to see whether the combination would be additive or multiplicative. He dropped to the ground as the barrier popped. A troop of armored robed bandits loosed a volley of arrows with military precision that reflected off him in a wave as they bounced back into the press below. Some arrows even righted themselves as they pierced through cloth and armor to strike a bandit down. Shadows dulled the light in his chest, shoulders, and arms where the arrows had bruised him from the impact before they slowly healed. Eli prepared to unleash a tide of death with Stellavoltaic Nullspace as sheets of billowing fabric wrapped around him as they appeared. He tried to phase through the glossy fibers as they dispersed his light almost harmlessly as the material slowly heated from his radiant touch. Knots tied around him in the fabric even as he felt himself get launched at high speeds. He crashed into something with a hard impact before he gave up trying to get out of this with Body of Light alone. He teleported out of the fabric with a thunderous battery of starlightning bolts that swept across the courtyard and the fort walls and towers. Dozens of bandits turned to crisp ash as their tattered robes burned in the blaze. Stone wept molten tears as the power overcame the natural strength of the material and the enchantments he presumed empowered the castle. A stately robed figure walked closer to Eli as crimson eyes regarded him cautiously. Plates of metal had been sewn and riveted into its robe with the same griffin crest emblazoned over its chest. Metal glinted in its hand where it held a whip with menacing barbed hooks threaded throughout the several foot long lash. "Why do you attack Fellton Fort, bandit?" asked the robed commander as they rewound their whip. The rest of the militia crowded around Eli with their weapons bared. "What?" Eli stopped short as he let his hands drop to his side while he glanced around at their relatively clean robes, the pristine griffin insignia flying on the pole. Age and weather had worn down the walls of the fort over an unknown amount of time, but it didn't look like it was run by a group of people barely holding it together. A headache bloomed in his temples while he turned back to the commander who glared at him with distrust and hate in his vibrant red eyes. Fellton Soldier (x 27) [Game Point: +54 GP] [Game Point Balance: -136 GP]> Kill All Bandits! (0/20 Killed) - Kill all bandits near Fellton to complete. Reward: Moral Superiority, Power: Samaritan's Gains Ev. 0 or Power: Highwayman's Toll Ev. 0, + 30 GP [Prove Your Worth! Requisite] Tribulations of a Murderhobo (Progress: 5.4%) - You're a madman! A monster dedicated to the murder of every man, woman, and child in Fellton and the surrounding area. Kill every citizen in Fellton to complete. Bonus: Complete all sidequests first for Fellton for an additional reward. Reward: Vilified, Power: Executioner Ev. 0, + 1,000 GP> "Oh, fuck." Eli cringed as he read through his notifications and status report. He had massively fucked up. After some quick napkin math with spatial constructs in his nullspace to represent the numbers he realized that there were four hundred-seventy-three Fellton citizens left. He shouldn't have come in starlightning blazing and taken the time to realize that there were only supposed to be twenty bandits. How would twenty bandits even hold a fort and a mine in the first place? "Very well. For your sins against Fellton, I sentence you to die." Silk scarves appeared from thin air as the commander summoned and willed them to streak toward Eli. Stellavoltaic Nullspace distorted space around him as he sidestepped into nullspace with a frivolous flash of starlightning before reappearing outside the boundary of the dilapidated town that had sent him to the fort to begin with. Ranks of bandits twenty deep waited for him behind a shabby barricade of disassembled furniture. Next to the robed who sent him to the fort was a towering suit of mechanized plate armor. Eli narrowed his eyes at the sight of Roman while he wondered what the hell was going on.