Nick leaped over the scything blade of a mantis, then covered himself with his cloak of darkness, becoming invisible to the monster. As the creature turned, looking for him, he rolled underneath and behind it and pierced it from behind, lifting its entire body off the ground as his Soul Blade froze it.
As he often did, Nick was practicing utilizing his abilities as they faced off against some monsters–a horde of earthen bugs filled with immense vitality, in this case. He was starting to get the hang of his Cloak of Twilight: Darkness edition, and his new Soul Blade Resonance.
What originally felt like a small bonus, being able to shift his Soul Blade further, became interesting for his fighting style.
He could alter his blade to become nearly formless, becoming like a blast of ice from the end of a hose from the edge of his hilt. While this wasn’t powerful, exactly, it was unblockable, and, kinda fun.
Feeling a mental nudge from Luna, he spun and hosed down some hornets that had swooped in behind him, while he was distracted. Their wings froze, and then they careened to the forest floor with little more than a swipe of his hilt as he dodged out of the way. Then, thinning his blade to that of a rapier and with a few rapid flicks of his wrist, he sent several extremely sharp Blade Waves to slay them on the ground.
There was a new…closeness, to the Soul Blade as well. It was starting to feel like a partner somehow, despite being an object. Or, like a brother or sister, that always had his back. He had always loved his Soul Blade since he originally used it, as it was an amazing sword in all the ways that a sword could be measured.
It was difficult for him to explain, but it almost felt like he went from the favorite tool level straight to wanting to sleep with it next to his bed–though he more or less did that anyway. It was weird, how his connection to it shifted.
Nick knew that the formless blade wasn’t going to be all that useful against Boss-level enemies, but it gave his sword intriguing versatility. And, new combination attacks.
A giant beetle stormed through a tree behind him, shattering it at its base and sending it tumbling to the side. Dancing on the air, leaping side to side, Nick dodged with his Air Walk, his cloak of darkness billowing around him as he moved out of the way of its reaching mandibles. He did all this while he blasted it with his formless frost from his hilt. Its body was quickly covered in a thick layer of ice, slowing it down and bringing it to a stop.
Fang howled, her voice echoing through the woods. The ice near Nick starting to vibrate before shattering, shards of ice exploding in different directions. The beetle’s hardened shell was reduced to a green gore, as its chitin was ripped to shreds. With another flick of his wrist with his sharp, thin, sword, his blade sliced into its brain, killing it.
The bugs in this section of the woods were filled with earthen energy and life, making them difficult to kill. They were sturdy, and they would regenerate quickly if they weren’t completely put down.
Which also made them great for training. Kaya was pushing her sharpness Concept to the next level, and Luna was watching over their party like the great Pack Mother from her visions, cycling through her totems and supporting them with her spear. Eirwen was working on focusing her arrows into singular, more powerful blows of starlight, and becoming somewhat successful.
Jasmine was mainly on crowd-control duty, wrapping much of the bugs in her stonelight threads and heading off charges with her shield and spear. Rebecca was practicing more with her Light of Wisdom and Holy Blow abilities, utilizing her new staff to its fullest as she fought near Fang and Luna. Apparently, she had reached Early Mastery in Seraphara’s Compassion, the same as her mother. And now, she was working on reaching Early with her Wisdom.
Seraphara’s Concepts had a different effect on her person because it was more like they were borrowed–the gained stats were actually nearly half of what Nick had gained. The Faith Essence gathered in her core attuned her far beyond normal essence ever could, but it also relied on this higher power, Seraphara, to function. The bonus granted for reaching this mastery was far lower, as the impact on her body and soul was simply different.
Like a well-oiled machine, Nick’s party defeated the numerous insects, working their way to the natural treasure that powered the diverse army of insect’s growth. It was strange that such a wide assortment of bugs worked together, but when they arrived at the artifact, his party understood.
A strange, pulsing crystal cast its amber, calming light over the section of the forest, embedded in a petrified tree. From what he could tell and what Eirwen had learned, the artifact was wedged into some form of earth and life leyline where they intersected, giving off an odd feeling of harmony and life as light and sound. Of unity and the stone.
Jasmine climbed up, and wrenched it off of its perch, shattering the tree beneath it. She looked at it with a bit of wonder as it pulsed into her hands, creating a small coat of stone on her spider body beneath her. But then she shrugged. “Neat. I kinda like it, but the…weird harmony thing isn’t quite right for me. Into the bag it goes.”
The number on her bag jumped up significantly, causing Nick’s eyebrows to raise as he saw it. He was interested to see how he might use the item in his kingdom somewhere, but he knew the efficacy of the item was also at least in part thanks to its placement.
Unless he could find a similar leyline within his lands, the treasure likely couldn’t have the same effect just by being near it. Instead, Lumos would refine it into a single-use item that boosted someone’s vitality or affinity with stone, though monsterfolk may be able to benefit from it in a more direct way.
That had been worth the most of any other item they had found, and they still had a lot of bugs to loot.
Sable hadn’t joined them in this fight. She was busy tracking down their potential enemies, now that they were near the center of the valley. It had already been over a week, and they had received the first leaderboard–and they were ahead by a fair margin, surprisingly. Now, it was likely even more.
The girls continued to loot the bugs, finding useful alchemical components. The strong vitality contained within their bodies was useful, though their stone carapaces was likely going to be difficult to work with and potentially useless.
Or so Nick thought, until he looked over and saw Jeffrey. He was spitting on the stone carapace of the mantis he had slain, and then biting chunks from it and chewing it.
“Huh. I guess this will be…a ton of food for you guys.”
Jeffrey actually nodded in response to this and gave a buzz of his wings, continuing to snack on the monster’s chitinous flesh.
Fang laughed, her tail wagging. “I think Ironclaw and the other males might like to eat this too! It’ll make their bodies and fur sturdier.”
Nick narrowed his eyes. “What about you girls? Can’t you eat this stuff?”
Luna nodded. “We can, but we decided not to split our progression in this way. While we could try to gain more numerous traits by eating a wide variety of unique monsters, we’d rather focus on our magic rather than our bodies–this is what makes us special and useful to our Alpha.”
Nick thought back to the Noblefrost Wolfen, and the Mated Trait. Most likely, the males would be inclined to focus on their Body attribute and to gain unique monster traits, and the females would focus more on magic. However, if their mate was more physically inclined, they would still lean that way more than his girls, probably.
“I’m interested to see how all the monsterfolk develop. Jeffrey here has unique capabilities, but it kinda sucks he can’t talk yet.”
Jasmine shrugged. “Might just take them a bit longer. When they reach the third stratum, they will likely shift more once again.”
Eirwen finished Looting the last corpse, dusting her hands off. “Alright! That’s the last of the bugs. Help me scout and find the next spot, Luna?”
Luna smiled and nodded, before closing her eyes and pushing out her Concept Fragment’s effects. The feeling of their connection increased, linking Eirwen to her, her traits and soul power slightly enhanced.
Once again, Eirwen ran through her spells, calling to the elemental spirits, the essence in the surrounding areas. With Luna’s help, she was both faster and able to reach further.
After a moment, Eirwen smiled with a bit of pride. “Looks like Sable is checking out the East still. Then… alright, I think if we head Northwest, we’ll near the central barrier, and come up on some kind of fire elemental treasure.”
Jasmine once again got out her chairs, placing them on her back, and they set to move once again. Birdy crunched on more ice elemental gems, becoming more and more birdlike by the day. Nick was actually running low on them, with the exception of the large one obtained from the elite beast, which he was saving for himself.
He hoped he could get some new climbers running through the Path of Kings soon, where they could collect them frequently. Nick likely wouldn’t be heading through the lower floors again. Thankfully, each floor they completed after the fifteenth floor would increase the total number of climbers allowed per week. At the same time, Orion’s expectations for how many people should be Tested would increase as well.
This floor was allowing his party to get experience in facing a wide variety of enemies with unique energies and skills, and giving them opportunity for training. Nothing was overly difficult for them, but everyone was making gains that would stick with them for some time. Many of the monsters even had Concept Fragments, some with full Concepts, which allowed Nick’s party to temper and draw out their own.
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In those cases, Nick did allow the Wolfen girls and Eirwen to push theirs the most, as they were a bit behind. A lot of this floor had them pushing themselves as individuals, and Nick was happy to see them flourish.
They would continue the hunt, but soon, the hunt–the PvP battle would begin.
***
Nick climbed up the forested summit of a hill, arriving where Sable had requested he meet her. Reaching the peak, he looked down at the numerous rat people miles away in the valley below. Turning to Sable who was up in the tree, smirking back at him, he groaned. “Really? I mean, I know the prompt said we were up against other Kingdoms…but I didn’t think that meant literally. This is like us versus the boats thing all over again.”
Sable chuckled. “Yeah, but I’m sure the result will be the same. Also, these rat people are quite good at finding stuff. Just means they will have collected plenty for you to take from them.”
“Hm. This is true.”
“So? What do you wanna do? We gonna fight some rats?”
“Nah. Let’s find the other Kingdoms and see what’s going on with them first. The last Leaderboard had the others in the lead.”
It was now past the second week since they had arrived. They had found dozens of unique treasures, and even pushed Eirwen’s abilities to the limits to try to find the best ones faster. Originally, she honed in on those with the highest elemental presence, but eventually, they stumbled on some treasure that she hadn’t detected.
They learned they were missing out on different types of treasures thanks to this. Her connections to the shamanic elements were simply better, and that allowed some to slip away from her detection. She changed up her methods, and they found numerous more that they almost missed completely, though they were certainly lesser.
Even still, they were not the top of the leaderboard in the second week, to their surprise–though they were not that far behind.
Sable nodded. “Yes, I do believe the tribal kingdom has already taken the lead due to hunting the others, as the second place, the knight order became last. The ratfolk on the other hand, they seem to be much more defensive with their third place position. Look.”
She handed him a spyglass, and he looked through where she pointed. “Damn, they’re building traps and defenses? That’s…annoying.”
“That’s not all. This is near the center, where the final treasure will spawn. While that barrier over the glade keeps them from going in, and going too crazy with defenses, they’ll still have the clear advantage here when it opens if they keep at it–and I think they will. I think they’ll keep building all the way around.”
“Hm. Maybe we do need to give them some setbacks, at the least. Jasper, Jasmine, and Birdy are well-equipped to handle this without much risk. Have you spotted the tribes, or the knight order?”
Sable grinned as she shook her spatial pouch. “I might have been a little…naughty.”
Nick’s eyes widened–her score had tripled since they last met, though it wasn’t nearly as high as Eirwen’s, who still held much of the loot thanks to her receiving more loot when using the skill. “A little?”
She twirled the rope around her finger, sending the bag in circles. “Well… you know. A few of them were sneaking up on the ratfolk too, so… I just made them… disappear. I should have reported back first, but…”
Nick arched his brow at that. “I did say not to take unnecessary risks…but I do trust you. I wouldn’t call that naughty, so long as you were careful.”
Sable pouted. “Aww… you didn’t play along. I do hope we can have some…fun, sooner rather than later.”
Nick chuckled. The watch rotation and fighting through the jungle with his mother-in-law around wasn’t that conducive for sexy times outside of using his portable villa. With enemies lurking, hunting them, he wasn’t about to risk getting into a compromised position. Instead, he’d been focusing on helping the girls relax with tail brushing and cuddle piles, and they did the same for him.
Knowing that at any moment, an enemy can bust in with a bunch of spears is a major mood killer.
“Find the rest of that tribe and call us over, and you’ll have earned all the rewards you want once more, I promise. Just like in Silverbrook. But for now, we need to win this.”
Sable sighed. “You got it, Boss. You know, you’ve been avoiding awkward moments with Irene, but that girl wants it almost as bad as we do, you know.”
Nick coughed. “I know. Thankfully, she is being respectful to Becca–easing her into the idea. I’m good with it if she is.”
“Easing?” Sable arched her eyebrow. “If she was any more obvious about what she wanted, she might just trip and land on your dick. But yes, I suspect she’s waiting for the priestesses back at home to make her move, and they were also giving Rebecca, out of respect, a small honeymoon period before they made their own desires known. After Shadowvale, it won’t be long before those nuns are bustin’ down your door.”
Nick snorted. “I’ll worry about, or perhaps just enjoy, that when the time comes. You be careful out there, my huntress.”
“Aw, worried about sweet little ole’ me? You know I always am.”
The shadows flickered, and then she was in her arms with her lips on his, her momentum causing him to stumble. But before he could wrap his arms around her, her body became cold and she drifted away like smoke, floating back into the branches with a laugh, before she jumped and disappeared into the night.
In the end, she did manage to tease him once again.
Despite his efforts to watch her with his Soul Sense, he lost track of her after just a brief moment.
***
Sending Jasmine in her spider form and the two Soul Servants to harass the ratfolk had worked out well. They defeated a number of the ratfolk and destroyed their constructions, forcing them back. When they killed several of the ratfolk, they saw why the other kingdoms had gotten ahead. They didn’t just get the points from their spatial pouch, but a small bonus besides. With more than a dozen ratfolk dead, they had likely taken first place again.
Nick had hoped to draw out the other two kingdoms, but they hid and presumably watched from afar, or were busy elsewhere.
While he also thought about finishing off the ratfolk, their collection was still going well. Their leaders held the large portion of their earnings, so it was truly like he would either need to assassinate their leader or go all out and wipe them out to get what they’d collected.
He may end up doing those things, but he wanted to be sure about the other two factions before he went all-in on it.
It took Sable and Eirwen a few days of hunting to eventually close in on the tribe. The enemy had their own shamans, and had a form of elemental defense to eliminate spying on them using them. When Nick’s party finally caught up with them a few days later, they were already in combat.
It was an army of armored knights versus a tribe of beastfolk which hid in the jungle, and a third party–a creature with what looked like a large nest on its back. Nick thought it looked somewhat like a rhino, but it had merged with some sort of crystalline plant on its back. Tendrils of vinelike crystals branched off around the creature, and it was using it for both offense and defense.
The rhino was massive, but it was definitely wounded. Still, it looked like quite the sturdy creature. Nick had a feeling that this thing was worth a lot, as it had found a true symbiotic relationship with some sort of treasure.
The tribe attacked with arrows and ambushes, and by corralling the rhino to face the company of knights. Meanwhile, the knights pushed in formation through the dense foliage in hopes to capture and take them, or the rhino, down. Their thick plate armor rejected much of the arrows and blows, but they were too slow to defeat any of the hunters in the tribe outright.
The leader of the knights was present in the formation, and Nick thought the guy wasn’t too bad. Probably around the level of the Centaur Lord that he faced.
Nick and his party were overlooking the valley, deciding on a course of action. It looked like a stalemate, more or less, and it might take some time to resolve, at this pace. From what they could tell, this had been going on for more than a day now. The numbers were difficult to gauge as the tribal people were hiding, but the leader of the armored people seemed unbothered.
The leader of the armored knights seemed to exude a special pressure, his every movement causing the tribal people to retreat from his path, and the rhino to get wary, moving defensively up a hill.
Nick noted, “This looks tough. If we join the battle, the tribe might just run. I suppose we can just chase them down, but…any ideas?”
Jasmine hummed. “Maybe, we can do it a little like the ratfolk. I can weave some webs to trap some of the runners, then Jasper, Birdy and I can ambush the tribes, trying to draw out their leader. In the chaos, you can hit the knight order if the tribal leader doesn’t show.”
Sable was looking through her spyglass on a branch above. “And I can watch for and hunt down the tribal leader. I’m sure they’re watching this battle somehow. If they see us fighting the knight order’s leader, they may swoop in and try to finish the fight.”
Rebecca noted, “Another option is to be patient, and watch and wait–seek the advantage. The tribe’s goal appears to be to weaken the knight order with this rhino, and probably swoop in and deal a significant blow. Stealing a pouch is a viable strategy for them, too.”
All of his party’s pouches were already secured with an extra set of webbing from Jasmine. If the person was able to cut through that and steal the pouch, they could remove their heads from their shoulders instead.
Irene added, “Or we could leave and hunt elsewhere since they’re busy, waiting until the final treasure opens up. They’ll be forced to face us then, or we’ll be marked the victors.”
Nick thought about his options. “If these guys are here, they’re not farming for us either. They do have some folks collecting things, and scouting, as Sable ran into them. But I think I’d rather end this now. Let’s go with Jasmine’s plan and play it by ear.”
Jasmine clapped. “Oh, goody! I’ll use my spider form, then.”
Nick watched her with interest. He hadn’t actually seen her spider form yet. While she had fought against the ratfolk people using it, to great effect, Nick had been busy working with the party to collect something nearby and hadn’t seen it.
Suddenly, Jasmine started to blush, her stone-gray skin taking on a pink hue. “M-Master… Please…”
Nick frowned. “Please what?”
“Please… look away. I… don’t want you to see me transform. It’s…ugly.”
“Really?” Nick shrugged, and turned around. “Alright, go for it.”
Jasmine morphed behind him, the sound of bones creaking a little unsettling–and suddenly, he was happy he didn’t see his maid morph. Nick chuckled as he was reminded of seeing Kaya transforming for the first time–how she also wanted him to look away to change her clothes.
[Okay, ready. What do you think, Master?]
Nick heard her speak in his mind, somewhat surprising him, as she did not often use this form of communication. He turned, and when he saw her, Nick couldn’t help but be shocked. She was not larger than her original form, in fact, she seemed a bit smaller and more compact. Jasmine looked like she could leap hundreds of feet in a single bound, like a jumping spider.
Short, stone-like bristles grew everywhere on her body, giving her a furry, fuzzy look. Then, there was a weave of her Nexus Core’s light throughout her stone flesh like tattoos, especially in her abdomen. Her eyes glistened, the odd pupils large. For some reason, perhaps their large size respective of her head, they reminded him of a puppy dog’s eyes.
Her humanoid body was completely gone, and now she was just a spider.
“Damn, you’re actually kinda cute like this.”
Embarrassed, she seemed to scuttle off and out of the clearing in a blur. Jasper and Birdy made to move. Birdy chirped with laughter, and Eirwen joined in with her own chuckle.
“I know she gets hungry when she does her transformation. She’ll probably eat something from her pouch before she begins setting her trap webs.”
“Let’s settle in and wait, then.”
It was going to be a chaotic battle, but Nick’s party should be positioned for success. It was time to go for the win.