Another jagged red lighting went out and completed its purpose of capture, yet just like its predecessor, it took but a few moments to pass for another jagged red lightning to reach out, and then another and another, until eventually Hannah simply did not have any further Power Points to spare for infusing into her Dreamon Ball.
Not if she wanted to keep a few points back in case she needed to use her gun-shaped Item of Power.
Because of that, another break was issued, and a longer one as well. One where Hannah had to sleep to recover her spent Power Points. An action where she would unconsciously or subconsciously, whichever fit her narrative better, Commune with Everything Else where she traded some of her past Experience in exchange for Power to fuel her Spark of Life, her Ego.
Due to that, glimpses of Hannah’s past streamed through her awareness before vanishing entirely from her existence. Luckily, none of what Everything Else took had been that important. It was mostly about the suffering she had Experienced under the Nightmare plaguing her Dream Instance in the last seven years.
As such, when Hannah woke up, she felt rejuvenated at the expense of a few memories she could do without. Nevertheless, remembering Lee Ping’s earlier warning, Hannah promised herself that she would learn Meditation and Active Commune as soon as possible once she was out of this Emergence and the Shroud containing it.
On the other hand, since that time had yet to come, Hannah continued the next best thing to reach that time, namely capturing and transmuting a Terminid Worker Ant into a Dreamon.
Unfortunately, things were not going well even after she had figured out how to use every single feature of her Dreamon Ball.
Specifically, the features attached to the Rapid Mutation Evocation of her Dreamon Ball, but to be even more specific, the feature Endurance, which was related to the overall capacity of captured Nightmare to endure the process of transmutation from a Nightmare into a Dreamon.
Indeed, Endure not only helped the Nightmare endure the ongoing transmutation process, but it also helped Hannah to not stifle the Embryonic Ego of the captured Nightmare through reflected unconscious impressions upon an Embryonic Ego.
Yet, despite it being there, the process of transmutation was simply too rigorous for an Embryonic Ego of the captured ant-shaped Nightmare. Mostly due the ants captured so far being considered of the Spawn Class. However, the truth was that not all Spawn Class Nightmares were of the same quality, no matter if the Nightmare came from the Terror, Horror, or Hazard category. Hence, why a Spawn would always be a Spawn and thus easily replaceable, only in today’s case Hannah learned just how much the term expandable meant, or better said did not mean, to Swarm-type Nightmares.
Unbeknownst to Hannah, while she was exhibiting more effort and learning as much as she could in these somewhat dire circumstances, Lee Ping had another objective.
Well, it was the same as before in terms of finding the goal of their Quest for freedom. But what was different was that, during the initial conversation when he had revealed a bit of Hannah’s Ability, the Party Members decided not to put all of their eggs into one basket. However, just in case, they chose not to mention these new eggs to Hannah because all Dreamers were aware that critical progress in one's Abilities and Skills was usually foreshadowed by extraneous circumstances of either great emotional value or life-threatening peril.
As such, the Party simply decided to extend one such pressure condition to Hannah in order to make her progress. Only even if the progress appeared, the Party knew this progress would be closer to a wild card, something to hope for yet not rely on. That being the case, during these latest excursions into the ant maze, Lee Ping had been adjusting their course to return them to whence they came from, only not directly, since that path got blocked by themselves, but in a spiraling motion that led further down into the underground instead of up.
It was because of that hidden plan, that his fox ears flickered with a newfound echo in the distant maze. A sound that had not appeared before because not only was it distinct but it also portrayed a rather heavy or dense feeling as he processed it.
Indeed.
It was entirely different from the sounds he'd grown accustomed to hearing from this Emergence.
Ignoring everything else, his Focus centered around demystifying the origin of that distant sound, and that was when it clanged once more. Deep… Heavy… Dense. Indeed, now that it had repeated itself, he knew for sure it had not been his mind conjuring things up.
With that clarified, his response became immediate. “HENRY! PLAN D! THAT WAY!!!”
The way his sudden shout appeared, every Party member was stunned by the sudden declaration.
Luckily, after having fought just ants for what felt like ten hours, breaks included, the fighting experience had forced the Party to get accustomed to the worker ant-shaped Nightmare’s behavior and attack pattern. This meant that, despite the sudden proclamation, none of them were caught totally out of place to not be able to immediately recover.
At least, if one excluded Hannah who was both shocked by the announcement and the very fact that a Plan D existed.
Regardless of her feelings, Henry bellowed a cry of relief. “FINALLY!!!” With the cry, he broke the neck of the hip-sized ant he was about to grab. “LET’S GOO!!!” After the sudden exclamation of new things awaiting him, he immediately drew his sword in its small form and rushed toward the pointed-out tunnel.
A moment later, the Party followed, only Hannah felt a tiny bit overwhelmed by the sudden change. Still, she had no choice but to follow and forget about the next capture.
Meanwhile, Behold who had so far done nothing this whole trip into the underground maze ever since being first woken from its hibernation, simply cruised after its Master, as per usual.
Although, not all was as usual for this very new version of its existence.
Not at all.
The reason being? Behold was having conflicting impressions about what its Master was trying to do. Namely, the capturing and converting of Nightmares into what it currently was, whatever it currently was because the only thing Behold knew was that it was a Dreamon.
That was it.
There was nothing else to tell it what to be and what to do.
Nonetheless, the true conflicting impressions came from the undeniable experience of what it had gone through during its own transformation from Nightmare into a Dreamon. To be even more precise. Behold was wondering if it should feel happy and content that it is possible to gain a companion with whom to bask in its Master’s Radiance or to be in fact judgemental about this new possible presence since it seemed that not every Nightmare could join it.
Perhaps there was more within those impressions, but Behold was entirely new to those kinds of new emotional responses since it had never had those before becoming a Dreamon.
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As eager as the ginger-haired big guy called Henry professed his desire for a change of circumstances down here in the deep underground, he knew he could not rush onwards too far or too fast.
Instead, he had to clear the way before the next intersection of the ant maze before once again being pointed out the path forward. Three tunnels later, those new circumstances awaited him in the form of enlarged tunnels, both width, and height, as if the crawlers that crawled up ahead were of an entirely different stature.
That very impression proved itself right when Henry witnessed the distinct shape of something new rushing at him and the Party he protected behind him. As for its shape, it was similar to ants in general, with their triangular heads, a segmented body, and a chitin exoskeleton covering said body and many limbs. From there, however, the new Nightmare veered off grandly because, not only was it bigger than the Juvenile Class Terminid Worker Ants that had appeared so far, but its upper body and lower body had shifted priorities.
Meaning, it no longer used all of its legs to move but only the last four.
Similar to how the girl had let her imagination run wild with his little trinket that translated mental images into light projections. Only here, the big difference was that the upper body had not been humanized but instead held onto its insect-like origin but with the added cliche of two more appendages, one larger set and one smaller, that seemed closer to scythes than simple utility appendages.
Indeed, seeing it rush at him, Henry grinned with ecstasy as his First Ability flared up with Power he had not displayed so far because he had not needed it so far.
At its core, it was a simple thing, just an Enchantment increasing the Stats attached to the Ability called Call to Arms, the First Ability Sequence of the Six Enchantments depicting the standard Warrior Pathway.
The way it worked was by temporarily increasing the user's Tolerance for their Vessel to flex outwardly, better said, the underlying structure of the Vessel depicting Strength. Then Instinct guided said increased Tolerance through Acuity, such that the increased Strength generated an entirely new passive Flow within the User. After that, Logic tuned that new passive Flow for what was needed at the moment with some Concentration only for Will to steady it down even further before Adapting this new passive Flow to the already active Flow within the User, such that these two Flows merged and multiplied each other effects through determined Insights of what and where the desired results needed to be.
Naturally, those results were further defined through Skills, but in this case, all Henry needed was for his already enlarged sword to falter the incoming enemy's attention, and the way he did was to use his enlarged sword, and its increased weight and reach, to parry the oversized scythe-like appendages of the Mature Class Terminid Warrior Ant coming at him.
When the rest of the Party noticed the incoming Warrior Ant, the Party made no instant reactions because so far Henry had proved his ability in his acting Role as a Bruiser for the Party.
Nevertheless, just holding it off was not enough. “Cain, Sandy take care of those behind us. Mira, prepare your Shards and target the leg joints of that big ant on my command.”
With those orders, Lee Ping instantly used his First and Second Ability to manifest four blue/white talismans before flicking them at the Warrior Ant. Not having been given any order, Hannah watched the four streaks of blue and white split and veer around Henry before quickly attaching themselves to the thick chitin legs of the big ant only to glow brighter for a second and transform into flaming chains that bound themselves around the legs of the big ant.
In the same instance, Hannah saw and heard the chitin legs sizzle as if strong acid had been poured onto them. That was when multiple actions occurred at once. Henry jumped back and out of the big scythe limbs attack range. Obviously, being bound for a moment, the ant could not rush after him, but it was obvious that that would not be for long because the chains made of blue/white flame appeared to be straining for their existence.
Still, it was enough for Lee Ping to cry out an order for Mira to fire off her Shards at the newly generated weakness.
Just like the many times Hannah had seen her do before on the smallest hip-sized ants, the Shards flew away, with each of the four legs receiving two Shards.
Witnessing the incoming Shards, the Warrior Ant tried to bat away the Shards, but the Shards simply dodged aside before landing onto the exposed and vulnerable joints of the Warrior Ant and causing a lot of impact damage before shattering the joints in question, specifically the internal components used for the joints, thus thereby causing the big ant to almost instantly plop to the ground of the tunnel they were in without any choice in the matter.
At the same time, the chains of blue/white fire vanished and Henry stepped forward again to occupy the now crippled hybrid ant's attention that looked to be a cross between an ant and a mantis.
Still, one thing was certain. Just this, was not enough to get rid of this obstacle before them, and the worst part for Hannah was that she knew just how useless she was at this point. Her Colt basically did very little damage to the larger variants of the Worker Ant, so by exclusion, it should be even less effective on this one.
Glancing at Behold as its sole eye focused intently on the actions going on, Hannah shook away the pervading thought to use its Null Ability. Not only because it had appeared exhausting on Behold, but also because, so far at the very least, no ant had appeared to use any Abilities warranting such usage.
In the end, the only thing Hannah could do was turn away from the big ant and point her gun-shaped Item of Power at the smaller ants.
However, the underlying uselessness she felt at this moment never went away.
No, with its constant reminder, on top of everything she had witnessed so far on this day of her Awakening, Hannah nurtured a hidden but slowly building desire to improve herself, and the key for that was Behold and any other Dreamon she acquired in the future since the evidence was clear from her current Experience.
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Her gun had its limits and the same should apply to all Items of Power.
This meant the only thing she could truly trust was her own Ability or future Abilities.
Hnn… Hannah hummed and nodded her head before realigning the corsair in her vision with another hip-sized ant coming their way.
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Finishing off the now crippled Mature Class Terminid Warrior Ant was much easier than when it had not been. Still, it had taken another fourfold binding talisman from Lee Ping on the scythe-like upper appendages to give Henry the needed wiggle room to simply step forward and decapitate the Warrior Ant that was a hybrid of an ant's lower body and the upper body of a mantis.
Nevertheless, one thing this big hybrid ant revealed was just how much it took for them to finish off just one of them, never mind the many more awaiting them. On the other hand, after more tunnels and encountering a few more, the Party quickly grew accustomed to their presence, though, whenever they did encounter one, the tactic remained pretty much the same, namely that it centered around Henry, Lee Ping, and Mira.
However, there were differences.
Mainly when the Warrior Ant professed a different hybrid template instead of ant/mantis, like ant/beetle with a tougher exoskeleton needing much more firepower to kill it, or ant/grasshopper, or something like it at least, constantly hopping around thus straining Henry’s ability to occupy its center of attention. The strongest however had been an ant/scorpion with a stinger and two large but strong pincers. With that one, Henry had to be much more careful of having his sword or himself grabbed for long enough for the stinger above its back to sting and poison or envenom him. It had required Lee Ping three separate binding talismans and three separate Shard Castings to eliminate the ant/scorpion's mobility, grappling potential, and the stinger’s attack potential before Henry had been safe enough to stick his large swords into its head.
Indeed, the Warrior Ants were proving themselves very time and resource-consuming foes to face to fight, which in turn shouldered a lot more responsibilities onto Cain and Sandy to deal with the increased numbers of Worker Ants now that the majority of their Party got occupied by the new arrivals.
Luckily, Hannah’s improving familiarity with her gun proved itself more and more useful in lowering the numbers of the smaller ones while Henry, Lee Ping, and Mira dealt with the biggest ones.
Unfortunately, the increased appearance rate of the Warrior Ants leveraged higher consumption resources from the Party, thus necessitating more breaks as well, thus translating into even more cave-in scenarios as the search for the Sub-Boss continued. Still, as the Party continued toward their goal, it was only a matter of time till they reached it because the tunnels around them were getting bigger and bigger, which prompted Hannah to ask for some clarifications.
After hearing those very clarifications, Hannah prodded Lee Ping to inform her of just how to activate the Damage Mode for the COLT he had given her, so she could at least be of some use against the larger worker ant variants.
Acquiescing to the request, Lee Ping explained the process of utilizing two more Focus Points, one for infusing a Power Point into the COLT’s handle and the other to withhold the COLT’s designed purpose for splitting that Power Point into ten slices.
Naturally, it was not that simple since it required a bit of direct and active mental control despite the involved Focus Points. This left Hannah a bit strained since this usage meant she would only have one Focus Point left for free utilization. Thankfully, the only thing Hannah knew to use it for was Vision Magnification, and that was utterly useless down deep in the ant maze.
A little quirk of the Damage Mode for the COLT was that if the singular but powerful shot had not been fired all while Hannah withdrew the involved extra Focus Points, the COLT in question would automatically process the already present energy into the regular ten shots to prevent any untoward spending of energy.
Right after that conversation, Hannah had only one thing left to do, either try sleeping or simply wait while the Potion of Power Regeneration did its work behind the scenes. Only, in truth, there was something else she could do, and that was to finally allow herself a Level Up since it had been bottled up for a while at Level 6.
The reason for that action had been simple, and that reason was to stockpile her Experience in order to generate Special Action Points so she could increase her Ego Stat and therefore the number of Power Points available for usage.
The idea behind it was simple since the Level Up notifications alerted her of the mechanism behind Leveling Up. Still, after a simple inquiry for the Party, during one specific break, right after her attempts in capturing and transuming an ant Nightmare failed, her thoughts had been confirmed and elaborated on. Namely, they affirmed to Hannah that the act of withholding oneself from Leveling Up, by stockpiling Experience for the next Level Up, was and is considered the most basic Special Action needed and required for Special Action Points to appear.
Nonetheless, a downside of this was that it took much more Experience for the conversion to occur compared to how little was needed if the Experience was to be done for the first time.
That being the case, the rarity of Special Action Points only increased in Hannah’s mind, thus one more time reminding her of just how much she had squandered right after Awakening by spending everything on an even distribution.
Yet, that very same distribution was saving her, or something close to it, in her current situation.
Another reason Hannah attempted this stockpiling of Experience had to do with the fact that she had already unlocked Rapid Mutation completely, at least its basic version, and going beyond the basics felt unneeded.
The same applied to all the other options regarding Ability Points, hence, why Hannah wondered if she should or should not Level Up.
Only, the problem stopping her from outright doing it was her uncertainty if she had already argued the needed amount for at least two SAPs so her Ego would reach twenty allocated points. What exactly occurred at twenty allocated points? Hannah knew not. Even if nothing did, she would at least gain a few more Power Points to increase her safety net, especially now that she knew how to use Damage Mode for her COLT.
Whatever the case, Hannah pondered upon this small conundrum.
In the end, however, her choice was to not do it.
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Coming out of the latest break, through a flaming tunnel just large enough for humans, the Party continued their dive deeper and deeper into the ant maze.
Once again endless numbers of Spawn Class Terminid Worker Ants Nightmares rushed at them, with many Juvenile Class Terminid Worker Ants appearing as well. Naturally, with the numbers involved a few Mature Class Terminid Warrior Ants transformed their dive into a crawl.
Still, after two tunnel intersections a change occurred from the plane and repetitive circumstances.
It was a big change, at that.
So big, in fact, that Hannah glared with open eyes at just how large the new tunnel before them had become. Indeed, were she not seeing it personally, she would not have believed that such large tunnels could ever exist under the earth. Tunnels that were triple the size of what she'd just left and at least five times those she had initially stepped into when they had first started their dive, with at least seven times that of the subway tunnel they had used to enter the ant maze.
All in all, it was big, and that helped Hannah digest the information she'd been told about Terminid Nests and what lay within them, usually speaking that is.
Unfortunately, this very size presented a sharp vulnerability since it presented her enemies with much more room to maneuver around when attacking them. As if recognizing the very same, Hannah heard Lee Ping bellow out orders. “Gather around me! Gir… Hannah, retrieve your Summon, and place that gun into your Inventory! Henry! When she's done grab and carry her. I don't care how. Mira! Jump onto Cain’s back and hold tight.” Right after the order was given, an order that was both simple and confusing, for Hannah at least, she saw Lee Ping conjure another blue/white talisman.
Shaking away the slight confusion of the moment, Hannah did as told.
One quick hand motion and the gun vanished just like the few times she practiced invoking her Inventory. Then, another quick hand motion and her Dreamon Ball appeared before zapping Behold and depositing it inside the Ball. As for the Ball in question, which could not be recalled back into her First Ability Slot now that Behold occupied it, it got shoved into her skirt pocket.
Just as Hannah managed it, a big gauntlet hand grabbed her on the back collar of her father’s brown jacket, which she unknowingly brought from her Dream Instance, before placing her body over his right shoulder and right onto the metallic shoulder pad as if she were a sack of potatoes to be carried, with the stomach area becoming the cushion against its hardness.
“Welcome to the Henry Express.” Henry almost yelled out. Only, by the time Hannah processed the words, the talisman Lee Ping had conjured exploded and covered an area around them with a strange white but see-through mist. With its appearance, Lee Ping bellowed another order. “I can't maintain this for long, so don't dawdle around.”
With that said, Lee Ping took the forefront of their group instead of Henry only for the Party to follow him with a mild run. Though, as Hannah found out, a mild run for this Party of Dreamers was closer to a basic sprint for normal people.
No… For Mortals. Hannah quickly corrected her mind because she no longer counted as a normal person.
Whatever the case, sprint or mild run, the truth, however, was that the Party ran basically straight through the large tunnel as if no obstacles existed between them and their goal.
Only that was far from the truth because many ant-shaped Nightmares, small, large, and big, used this extremely wide and high tunnel as a central highway for going to and from places. Nonetheless, the reason it was so easy for them to move in this way was because every single one of them scuttled away from the Party and the white mist surrounding them.
Almost like the white mist projected the most vile experience onto them, thus making them scuttle away and giving the Party free right of passage.
Propping herself on Henry’s red armor, all while trying her best to ignore the tight hold he held on her back, Hannah tried her best to take a look behind her and through the white mist to see what was happening. It was a bit hard to make out, but after ignoring Sandy and Cain, who in turn carried Mira on his back with her arms around his neck and his arms holding onto her legs, Hannah had this vague impression that for every Nightmare the white mist forced away, one more took a backseat behind them only to eventually follow them for some distance.
Not to mention the various openings on the side that could and probably did spew out more Nightmares their way.
Not being able to hold back her curiosity, and the mild panic-induced thought of what awaited them after the white mist ceased doing whatever it did, Hannah ignored everything behind them to stare at Henry’s big face with very wide eyes.
Noticing her gaze, Henry gave the young girl a smirk before shrugging his shoulders. Only in this case, Hannah felt the shoulder shrug more than she saw it. As such, with no answer, the Party simply continued in their modest run through the very large tunnel.
The tunnel itself was not straight as it bent this or that way, but if anybody asked for clarifications for the retelling of this story and adventure into the deep depths, it may as well have been straight.
Indeed.
For the next five minutes or so, the Party used this central pathway to head deeper and deeper into the Terminid Nest.
Naturally, since an end had to come, and when it did, this mode of passage felt both shockingly slow and fast. Only, this end came not from them reaching a dead end but from something blocking their passage. Something that refused to budge away despite the white mist scarring away everything else. Perhaps it had something to do with its enormous size denoting its tier of existence. Or perhaps it was the fact that its head was turned away from them with the Party only witnessing its somewhat round but. Regardless, the truth could not be denied when it was before them, especially for Hannah since she was witnessing something alive being the size of two two-story houses.
Maybe one and a half if one ignored the fact that only its eight legs made it appear that tall and wide.
No even wider. Hannah suddenly realized.
Still, that made its main body, at least one house in size comparison, and that spoke wonders of what they faced in this very moment.
“Is… Is that a Guardian?” Hannah voiced out after a quick regurgitation of the brief knowledge shared with her not long ago. “How? How do you kill that?”
“You don’t!” The man who carried her answered. “That size you see? It proves our worst-case scenario being true.” Not giving Hannah a chance to reply to her ignorance, Henry addressed Lee Ping. “Boss. Around or through it?”
“Hmph… Around it, obviously. I am not an idiot. One random swing of its legs and we are paste.” Lee Ping replied and immediately held onto his words by rushing toward the nearest opening leading away from the large main tunnel.
Once all of them were inside, it took very little for the plain old routine to return after Lee Ping dropped the white mist around them. It was, however, in that very brief moment, between it being there and ceasing to exist, that Hannah finally understood why every single ant, whether small, big, or large, scuttled away from it.
Light! Hannah voiced in her mind. It's only white mist from the inside, but from the outside, it's a very bright light.
Once the realization settled down, Hannah returned to shooting any ant she could get her sight on.
Not long after, the Party executed another two cave-ins to give themselves some room to breathe, with Lee Ping being the main enjoyer of its existence as he had spent a bit more than he would have liked on his last stunt.
Mainly, because he had not expected the tunnel to go for so long, not within a Shroud encapsulating the Third Class Emergence. Only as it turned out, the latest evidence hinted at the Emergence still growing, which easily explained why their earlier trekking through the Terminid Outer Nest became such a chore to go through.
Once they were back within safe grounds, Lee Ping immediately settled down, drank another Potion, and began another Commune to recover as much as he could before they had to continue their search.
Meanwhile, Hannah settled close to Henry before projecting her curiosity at him.
“Ahh… Fine… I’ll tell you.” Henry said. “Remember the talk about how an Emergence always attaches itself to something, and how most of the time that something is a Nightmare?” One one later from Hannah. “Well, now you have seen one first hand.
That ant/spider-like Terminid Guardian was a Fourth Stage Boss, an Elder Class Nightmare. Either terminology works since it describes the same thing, an impossibility for us to get rid of as we are now.”
“Because it is so large?”
“Aye… That too.” Henry said before denying it with a waving hand. “Size in Nightmares is the most common denominator for their strength. But the true reason I call it an impossibility has to do with something called Stage/Class Suppression. Basically, a Natural Damage Reduction Passive Ability is present within every Nightmare to almost everything below their current Stage or Class.
Similar to your gun doing reduced damage on the larger worker ants, despite the Tool's impressive make for a Novice Training Tool. On the other hand, I slice through them with ease as if that natural Damage Reduction did not exist. Get it?”
“Mmm… Sort of.” Hannah replied. “Because the Boss is two ranks higher than you, you can't hurt it?”
“Exactly.” Henry confirmed. “Aye… Well… Not that exactly. You see. Despite my build being fairly simple and straightforward, I can ignore a lot of Damage Reduction for Third Stage Nightmares, meaning one stage above me. The same, however, does not apply to Fourth Stage Nightmares. It would be like using the dullest sword in existence against a piece of paper. With enough effort, the paper will be cut down. Only, at that point, was it even worth the effort put into it?”
“Soo… Impossible for us to defeat the Boss of this Emergence?”
“Yes!”
“Then… Who will prevent the Emergence?”
“Beats me…” Henry said with another shoulder shrug. ”As long as we leave the Emergence, I simply do not care who or what does the job. That said… Since you are curious, I will tell you this. The most probable scenario will be those silver bastards up top realizing they bit more than they could chew and then having no choice but to use an Angel’s Descent.”
“Angel’s Descent?”
“Ugh… Basically, a call up the religious corporate ladder and saying ‘Boss!… This is out of our league!... We need backup!’.” In the same instant, a deep chuckle of schadenfreude escaped from Henry’s throat. “Aye… Definitely, something like that, only with lots of prostrating and fancy lingo.”