Raine danced back from the two armsmen as they advanced on him from both sides. His hand flashed, revealing a welcome sight. With the hilt of Last Chance’s Gambit snug in his fist, he hopped back one more step. The undead gave chase, and when both were in range, he let loose a Rupture. His skill wreaked havoc on their defense and health, but didn’t slow down their advance.

Rained dove in close, then skittered back, utilizing the shuffling footwork techniques he’d stolen from the desert armsmen. His feint had the desired effect, deftly avoiding a standard slash from both skeletons. Before they recovered, he stepped in close and reached around the nearer’s shield, activating Final Gambit. With a blindingly fast martial technique, the skeleton contorted its body, barely getting its shield in place for a Block.

The shield vanished, its durability reduced to zero as the skill’s expanding sphere of nothingness swallowed it whole. Due to Raine’s increased Elemental Power pool, the discharge continued growing, consuming first the armsman’s arm, then its chest. The damage exceeded its health and the undead lost cohesion, the rest of its bones falling to the dense jungle floor. [-3,628] Raine twisted his torso and sidestepped, avoiding a Pierce from the shield and spear wielding armsman.

Based on the elites in the desert, Raine assumed these new variants would have their own special skills so he chose not to end the second skeleton yet. After testing its defenses and martial skills in a few exchanges, the undead raised its spear high, then clacked its jaw at the heavens. Its body was surrounded by a golden glow. Arcs of lightning sprung from its spear and it charged. Disappointed, Raine dodged and unloaded Final Gambit in its face, allowing it to meet the same fate as its friend.

What good is a damage buff if you can’t hit?

Shaking his head, Raine pushed through thick foliage, approaching the jungle ruins. Most of the buildings were tucked inside a steep ravine. They gave the appearance of an ancient monastery, abandoned to the elements. At the far northern edge of the mystic land, the dome-shaped sky-shield found its end just beyond the last row of structures.

image [https://i.imgur.com/a4RdUIv.jpg]

Raine worked his way downhill toward a bridge that gave access to the main complex. He progressed with light steps, taking his time and occasionally throwing pebbles ahead. Another shield and spear armsman was dispatched before he found the third variant, a shield and cestus user.

The single-bladed fist weapon was just as much of a letdown as the spear. The skeleton used a martial technique to get close, then its glowing weapon moved at a normal speed toward Raine’s chest. He avoided it like any other attack, then whittled down the undead before dispatching it with Rupture.

Despite his disappointment at the lack of a challenge, Raine understood full well how dangerous these elites were. After forcing them to hit each other a few times, it was obvious that a single connected skill would easily kill him. If he aggroed more than three of them, he would die before realizing what killed him. Raine remained on full alert as he neared the bridge.

The next armsman to show itself was another sword and shield user. He baited out its special skill, his eyes wide, absorbing its every move with crystal clarity. His only warning was a brief twinkle of light at the tip of its short blade, then the weapon vanished. Only years of experience with PVP saved him. Long ago, he ingrained the knee-jerk use of Parry the instant an opponent's weapon disappeared. Raine’s shoulder dislocated as his axe was jerked to the side in a motion too quick for his body to handle.

[Negative affliction received: Arm Luxation - Duration 1:27:41]

Their weapons met and a clang filled Raine’s ears. His opponent stumbled three steps to the side. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Raine switched to a one-handed grip on his axe. His skills and attacks would deal less damage, but there was no helping it. He retreated, utilizing Rupture to slowly whittle the bastard down without letting it get close enough to use the dangerous skill again. When it died, he stored his weapon and greedily drank down one of his two health potions.

[Minor Health recovery potion: Restores 10% HP over sixty seconds, additionally cures one physical negative affliction (Cooldown: 15 minutes)]

While rolling his healed shoulder, he opened and perused the combat log.

[Elite Ancient Armsman uses Uncanny Acceleration - damage negated]

Uncanny Acceleration? Why have I never heard of any of these skills? Is it because they’re from an ancient Gromut race? Some of them, especially this one and Guillotine Slash, are completely ridiculous for a level fifteen class. Well, greater races being straight up better than humans is nothing new. There's a reason so many people chose to change species, even with the hefty penalties.

I wonder if a Gromut Species Token is the reward for clearing this place. Wouldn’t that be something?

After learning his lesson, Raine no longer allowed the sword wielders a chance to attack. Instead, he kited them back up the hill until the third or fourth Rupture killed them (depending on his luck with crits.) Twice, Cassidy’s Comet made an appearance and he didn’t trade it out, gleefully demolishing the skeletons in his path with overwhelming force.

He sped up his pace further once he had sufficient recordings of their martial techniques. With time ticking, he was more concerned with getting out alive than further review and practice. That didn’t mean he was going to leave any of them alive. The Superiority, and especially the Attunement gains, were too good to pass up.

Halfway across the mostly collapsed bridge, Raine’s vision blurred as the ancient structure lurched. His feet were swept from beneath him and he tumbled to the side, landing hard on the mildewy stones. The world stopped heaving almost as soon as it began. Raine leaped to his feet, confused as to why he wasn’t falling to his death. A dampness trickling down his upper lip quickly invaded his mouth with the taste of blood. A realization that he’d imagined the whole thing in a bout of dizziness had him swallowing hard as pinpricks of fear speared into his gut.

Shit. The dilation. Can’t take a break in the middle of these ruins. I’ll have to hold out a little longer.

Liberal uses of Leap allowed Raine to finish crossing the partially collapsed bridge. He no longer took his time with each battle, pulling the armsmen three at a time and quickly finishing them with Rupture. He cleared out each building in the ancient monastery. Once more, he found no sign of treasure chests, and at this point, assumed everything must be hidden within the core of Korahn’s legacy.

Only once more was he beset by vertigo, this time not as bad as the last. Assuming it was because he was no longer spending several hours in the monstrously increased dilation, he continued on with slightly more confidence. By the time he dispatched the three guards at the entrance to the final temple, both he and his growth weapons were two thirds of the way through level thirteen. Additionally, he found another five skulls, this time with sockets lit with sapphire glows. He pocketed them like the others.

Halfway up the steps, a true rumble swept through the ground and the sky flickered as the shield protecting the mystic land faltered, then vanished completely. Raine was lifted into the air by a great suction. His eyes widened in alarm and his limbs flailed, finding no purchase. The fake sun and clouds were gone, replaced by an all-consuming blackness. There were no stars or moon to bring light, only a never-ending abyss that swept down to consume him.

The shield spasmed, its bluish, honeycomb surface snapping back into place. Raine fell to the ground, landing on his feet. The shield’s pale energy was now the only source of light, and it revealed a land drastically changed by the brief exposure to the devouring emptiness beyond. Trees had been uprooted, and much of the ground was simply gone, replaced by gaping fissures into nothingness that pulsed with stomach-twisting, ebony darkness.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

His instincts screamed at him to avoid them, an unnecessary fear as there wasn’t enough wealth in both worlds to convince him to get close to one. He accessed his quest log, blinking in annoyance at the updated text.

[This realm has become unstable. Time until complete spatial collapse: 23 hours 59 minutes]

[The return gate is currently nonfunctional. Pass the trials of Korahn to reactivate the gateway and escape before complete spatial collapse. All items acquired in the mystic realm shall be lost upon death. A 70% penalty to all attributes will persist for 20 days upon death]

[May Korahn’s judging gaze reveal your salvation]

Twenty-four hours my ass. Why did I assume I actually had the full time to escape? The opportunities here are too good, of course it wouldn't be so easy.

Raine dashed up the steps, his brows furrowing when the inside of the building was dominated by a large set of steps leading deep into the ground. There was almost no light, so he withdrew one of the items he’d purchased from Gazmo.

[Gromglenn Lesser Lantern - Dull Trash: Releases a dim light via chemical induction. Do not shake vigorously or use beyond listed durability for… reasons (Durability 14/15)]

Raine carefully but swiftly descended. The soft, steady light from his lantern was miles better than the flickering or a torch, if slightly more dangerous. A patch of pure darkness ahead that wasn’t washed away by his lantern had him walking on the far side of the steps. He passed well clear of the abyssal entrance, then spotted a slightly larger gap than normal between one brick and the next.

He weaved around the not-so-obvious trap, back into the center of the stairs. A few steps later, a series of clanging clicks like gears moving deep underground sounded behind and above him.

“Oh c’mon!” Not needing to see to know the steps above were rotating to turn the entire staircase into a massive slide, Raine ran downward. His eyes were wide open, looking for more dark splotches. There was no point looking for traps, he would never spot them at the speed he needed to be moving to avoid the real danger.

He moved to one of the walls, giving a wide berth to a hole in space, only for that wall to suddenly explode in a shower of heavy bricks. [-269] The blast caught him in the side and tossed him directly toward the nearest hole in space.

Time swelled as adrenaline slammed through his brain. He threw the lamp, the motion and force of release spinning his body enough that he could bring his feet together. The soles of his boots now faced up toward the top of the stairwell. He was still flying sideways, only meters away from finding out what was on the other side of the gashes in reality.

The lantern struck the far wall and instantly combusted, filling the tunnel with a flare of illumination. Looking up to see down the stairs, Raine noted the three splotches of emptiness in the distance. He waited until his body was at just the right angle, then snapped out both legs and activated his newest general skill.

[Lunge - Novice: Ignoring momentum and inertia, accelerate to maximum speed in a chosen direction (Cost: 5 discipline)]

As he’d long ago perfected, Raine’s Connection solidified the air at the exact point where his feet reached the end of their extension. Instead of the expected aerial maneuver, he continued to fly toward the fissure as the differences between his past attributes and current caused the technique to fail.

With all his might and will, Raine flexed every muscle in the lower half of his body. He strained his Potency and Connection to their limits, demanding they impose his will on not just his body, but the very world around him. The air beneath his toes became like liquid for a flickering moment, just long enough for his flexed muscles to exert the smallest bit of force against it. That was all he needed to activate the skill.

As if shot from a cannon, Raine Lunged downward. He skipped nearly a hundred steps in seconds, narrowly avoiding the holes he'd spotted with the help of his exploding lantern. Its light faded, leaving him hurtling in near-darkness. He threw out a hand to thud along the lip of several steps. The force flipped him over to land on his feet and he continued to roughly bump down another twenty steps before he gained control of his momentum.

A deep crimson glow shone up from below, revealing a rupture in space just to his side that glistened invitingly. Sweat sprang from his forehead as he carefully examined the nearby stones before taking a large step away from it. The clicking stairs were now distant, so he cautiously continued down toward the ambient light. Progressively hotter waves of sweltering heat washed over him with each step. The clicks grew closer, and he pressed deeper into the bowels of the mystic land.

He reached the end of the stairs, his armor damply sticking to his skin. He was met by three narrow bridges, suspended by nothing but thin air, over a bubbling pool of magma. The tunnel widened into a rectangular shape—about ten meters from wall to wall. A short distance ahead was a sharp corner to the right. The bridges extended around the bend.

He had no way to know which of the three was the correct one, but knew for a fact two of them wouldn’t go all the way to the end. Each was only a few centimeters wide. Perhaps in the distant past such a scene would have filled him with doubt and fear; those days were a distant memory. Without hesitating, he took the middle bridge at a sprint.

He slowed slightly to go around the sharp corner. Immense heat washed over his body from below, turning the air hazy. Ahead, the left bridge abruptly ended while his continued a little further before doing the same. Raine jumped to his right, easily clearing the three meters to land on the correct bridge. A pulse of Connection firmed the air to his side, allowing his hand to press against it for the slightest correction to his balance. Leaning forward, he sprinted to the end, assuming the bridges would disintegrate if he took too long.

A large stone platform with another pedestal at its center held the second idol. He Leaped across the dozen meters separating the end of the bridge and the pedestal. Landing on its narrow surface, he kicked the little statue into his inventory, then scoured the surroundings for the exit.

He found it directly above in the form of a narrow tunnel leading straight into the bedrock. He Leaped again, grasping a stone outcropping and pulling himself onto it. Another was above on the opposite side of the tunnel. He jumped straight onto it, then back and forth all the way back to the surface. He exited the ground from a well in the center of the monastery, cursing at himself for not checking it when he walked by earlier.

The entire ordeal had taken less than twenty minutes, but when the ground shook again, and the shield flickered on and off, Raine felt like his time was already running out. He held onto the well for dear life as the sky tried to suck him up again. When the shield turned on, he wasted no time and sprinted to the west. Most of the jungle’s trees had been uprooted and left in a massive jumble. He ran on top of them, only allowing himself to be distracted long enough to glance down at the description of his newest acquisition.

[Korahn’s Idol of Steadfastness: Xar strove for balance and absolute justice in all things. His legacy was a people gone blind and toothless, allowing nature to claim its vengeance]

Raine jumped from trunk to trunk. Multiple times, he was forced to slow and alter his course to avoid the holes in reality as he tried to stay atop the trees. Soon, the air pressure thinned and gravity lessened. His short hops turned into bounding leaps that sent him hurtling over vast distances. Heedless of the danger, he ran like his life depended on it. There was almost an entire day remaining until the listed time of spatial collapse, but he now knew that to be irrelevant. It didn’t matter how long the mystic land could survive, it only mattered how long he could survive inside it.

There was certainly no time for him to log out and take a breather.

The third area was a massive dead field. Even after angling up the mountain, he couldn’t spot anything that stood out. With no better ideas, he ran to the center of the area but space remained thin, a sure sign he wasn’t in the right place. An acrid, cloying scent clogged his nostrils with each breath. The ground crunched beneath his feet as though the endless crops that once filled this place had only recently turned to flat charcoal.

Frustrated, he chose a random direction and ran until he could see the base of the sky-shield in the distance. Beyond it, instead of the curvature of a planet’s surface, all he could see was empty darkness. He chose another direction, then another, finding nothing at all.

Is it below? Do I need to do something with the skulls?

Pulling one of each color out, he let their dim lights lead the way back toward the center of the area. Halfway there, he spotted something odd to his right. It was as though a section of the land wasn’t visible for a few seconds, then reappeared. Slamming his heels into the ground, he slowed his ludicrous speed and turned back toward the oddity. Sure enough, there was a shallow, circular crater around two kilometers in radius. The angling of the ground was gentle, but due to its size the center was fairly deep below the rest of the terrain. Due to its unique shape, it was nearly impossible to spot from the mountain, or the ground.

Relieved to finally have found something, Raine quickly stored the useless skulls and headed inside. He slowed as the pressure and gravity solidified. His guard was up and his eyes roved across the smooth ground. There were no buildings or signs of anything other than the gentle slope, yet he remained on high alert.

The shield in the sky stuttered, bathing the land in strobing blue lights. He heard a large fissure opening to his right, sucking up the ground in a roaring vacuum. His instincts screamed at him to move. He fought them down with a vengeance; without being able to see, repositioning randomly would be far more dangerous. Right as the shield stabilized, a stabbing pain lanced through his back [Critical hit! -390]

Strobing crimson flashed in his HUD, announcing his health's arrival at rock bottom. The force of the blow sent him hurtling forward. He felt a large presence looming behind even as a skeletal jaw clacked menacingly in his ear. Raine spun, sidestepping out of the undead’s reach before it could finish his remaining health. Just then, two more armsmen dropped from stealth, daggers flashing as they Lunged.