It's quite dark in here, Pareth, can you glow a bit stronger for the students? Thanks.
The group of twelve observed the environment they had been teleported into. They were in a narrow corridor, with no opening to the outside in sight. Frescoes and sculpted pillars along the walls were almost completely covered by lush green vegetation. The air was a bit stale but still breathable.
"How is this place so overgrown when there isn't the slightest bit of sunlight?"
One end of the corridor was collapsed, leaving a single way forward. Sofia extended her mana senses through the walls, confirming her suspicion that they were deep underground. “Any ideas as to where this might be?” she asked Astelia, who was also observing the walls.
“Not really, no. Mezanthil sounds a bit like an elvish name, so Elven ruins, maybe? The artwork on the walls is too damaged to be any help.”
“Let’s just go forward then. The start is meant to be a trial for the students, so it can't be too dangerous. Who’s the highest ranking of your students?”
Astelia’s feet left the ground as she floated up to get a better view of the group of students, then she pointed at a hooded teenager Exidian holding curved daggers, “That’s Evan, he’s ranked twenty-second I think, if it hasn’t changed from when I last looked.”
Sofia nodded in approval, then she called him and Shaily over. “You two are now your group’s leaders, since you have the most tokens,” she explained, then she brought out a coin, “Heads or tails? The winner’s group can decide who takes the first pack of monsters we find, then you’ll alternate.”
Evan decided to bet on Heads and lost the coin toss, so it was Sofia’s group who got to take the lead, starting the exploration by leaving the long corridor.
The entire place was overgrown, it seemed most furniture in the large halls had disappeared, or was buried under thick roots and bushy leaves. Keeping an eye on the progress of the students as they carefully explored with Pareth at their side, Sofia had a casual chat with Astelia.
“And that was my second specialization. It's been very useful so far. What did you choose for yours, you got an active point if I recall correctly? Did you even use it yet?” Sofia asked Astelia. The vampire had been holding back on specializing for a while for some reason, she still had not picked when they had met back up in Zephir’s sect.
“I did, yes. It took me a while to use it because I needed to get used to the skill a bit more before the system would let me specialize in it,” she explained.
“Oh, that makes sense, does that mean you specialized in a new skill you got after level 200?”
“Not really, maybe we should do another status trade after we’re out if you want, but in short, I fused a skill then specialized into it.”
“Right, you also got a fusion ticket… Can I try to guess what you combined?”
Astelia nodded enthusiastically, “Of course, I’m curious about what you would have done in my place.”
“Give me a second to remember the skills you had… Maybe [Lunar Realm] with [Weight of the Moon]?” Sofia tried, but Astelia shook her head.
“That was one of the choices I considered, but I decided against it because [Lunar Realm] has too many limitations.”
“Then… [Celestial Pull] and [Repulsion] would be the next obvious choice?”
“You got it!” Astelia confirmed with a thumbs up, “The resulting skill was called [Gravity Strings], it was pretty much just the two skills stuck together with more directional control. I had to practice with it a whole lot until the system would let me specialize in it.”
“Not a bad choice… I think I would have probably fused passives if I were you, [Greater physical absorption] with [Greater regeneration] sounds like an incredible combination, then I would have specialized into [Repulsion] most likely, since it’s the skill you used the most in battle both offensively and defensively,” Sofia theorized, “I remember how you blasted my skeletons around, that was really strong already.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“That could have worked,” Astelia approved, “But I felt that what I did was the best choice, fusing passives is an idea, I’ll get more fusion tickets later so it isn’t a huge deal,” she confidently bragged with a smug smile.
“If you say so. How did that specialization turn out, then? Rolled a lot? You were already at 249 earlier so I guess you have a big debt now?”
Astelia laughed awkwardly. “N- No… What’s a few levels after all. I definitely don’t have two hundred levels of debt, ahahah…”
“Two hundred?!”
The students ahead turned back to look at their teachers.
“Sorry, it’s nothing,” Sofia told them, “Keep going,” then she turned back to Astelia, “Were your options that bad?”
Astelia’s naturally tanned skin turned a bit red, “N- no, it’s just… I got two really good options almost from the start and I didn’t know which to pick, it was too hard, so I decided to keep going until I got something I could be sure was better than both of them. It just took a little while…”
“Was it worth it, at least?”
“Very much so, yes. The description and requirements of the final path I got were a bit disturbing, honestly, but there’s no question as to whether it is strong or not. Just look at it.”
[Directionless Hegemony] :
By focusing on any target you may alter its direction and speed.
Mana cost varies depending on the number, scale and distance of targets as well as the applied changes.
Sofia frowned as she read the description of the specialization. Isn’t that just what her fused skill was already supposed to do?
“I don’t really get it,” Sofia admitted, “how is that different from what you could already do?”
Astelia smiled. “It is very unassuming like that. So little text, but what has changed is not what the skill can do, it’s what it cannot do. Do you see any cooldown? Any restrictions?”
“Oh. Oooooooh.” ANY target? No maximum range? No maximum size? No limitations in the applied speed? Alright, I get it now… Depending on how heavy the mana costs are… This has the potential to do really crazy things.
Sofia narrowed her eyes. “Let’s just say, for example, that you decided, you know, to target a certain ball of fire in the sky… What would happen?”
Astelia laughed. “I don’t have that much mana.”
“So you tried.”
“Well, you know. I mean. It was Moon’s idea, kind of.”
“I see. Can you use it on me?”
Astelia nodded, “Sure, what do you want me to do?”
“Hmm, can you alter my speed to be zero?”
It took surprisingly long for Astelia to come up with an answer. “That depends on what you mean by zero. If you mean your speed relative to the planet, so stop you in your tracks, then yes. If you mean your absolute speed in space, that’s not really something I can do yet, since the planet is moving...”
“I meant the first option.”
“Then of course, here,” Astelia said candidly.
Sofia felt nothing except for Astelia’s magic enveloping her, but as she kept walking in thin air over the carpet of roots covering the tiled floor, she discovered that she no longer moved.
Woah, that is super weird.
Sofia tried extending her wings but flying was the same, her body could move but she was like stuck in space, as if held back by an invisible hand. Since the spell was non-damaging, [Heat Death] could not prevent it, but when Sofia tried to use the random teleportation classless skill she had managed to learn for Astelia, that worked and she appeared a few meters further. She had escaped the grasp of Astelia’s skill for just a second before the small vampire’s mana caught up to her and she was once again unable to move.
Teleportation doesn’t use speed so it works. Hmm. I wonder if the free flight of [Runeforged Overlord] would bypass it but this is no time to run out of mana.
“Pretty impressive, I can’t move at all,” Sofia complimented.
“Eheh, well, it’s very expensive to maintain when you force against it, I need to constantly adjust your speed back to zero, but it works!” she explained as she let go of Sofia, “This made me a bit thirsty…”
“Want some blood? Ah we shouldn’t let the kids go too far even with Pareth.”
“R- Right.”
What are you getting embarrassed f-... Oh, right, she’s younger than most of the students… Well, it is what it is.
Sofia summoned some blood for Astelia in a bone cup as they quickly flew up to the group of students laboriously making their way through the overgrown halls of the dungeon. They had been going for a few minutes without encountering anything yet, but the only way forward now were closed double doors obstructed by a bunch of thick roots.
Topaz stepped forward with her axes, “Let me take care of that, we shouldn’t waste any mana on this.” Her axes struck the roots, becoming instantly covered in their thick bright red sap. Surprised by the unexpected color, she jumped back, trying to not get touched by the strange sap, observing the tainted blades of her axes.
Hey, that feels very familiar.
----------------------------------------