The instant the team crossed the Gate into Castikal, they found out why there had been only a handful of bulls in the tier-two of the trunk.
The area next to the Gate had nearly two dozen Professionals gathered, with campfires burning and people chatting, under the eternal night skies of the zone. A bearded Professional detached himself from a pair of robed ones to meet the team and welcome them, holding out his wrist.
Explicit Observer Garrett Thorebourne. An early tier six Professional at just under level 700, and the man in charge of both that raid, and their part of the assault on France’s heart.
“Greetings, Resilient Spellwrangler. I was warned you’d be… advanced. But I had not expected that much. Level 152 and tier four, eh?”
“Actually, 145. My Core gives me a 5% bonus on my apparent level, but you would need to do the sum of the individual Professions to figure the real one out.”
“Cores, eh. Did you hear yet about the latest one from Sunderon? The Deathlord’s newest treasure had a new ability, a plus one to Fast Travel.”
“Plus one? What does that mean?” Jonas asked.
“Apparently, you can acquire an additional Gate for Fast Travel. Of any tier you want. And it includes tiers you don’t qualify for, yet.”
“Wait, what?” Ira exclaimed.
“The woman is upper tier-six, and she wanted to test it. It turns out she can acquire her Gate to tier seven.”
“It looks like the Cores are a lot stranger than Artefacts,” Jonas wondered.
“They are more varied, for sure,” Ira said.
“Okay, with you guys here, it looks like we’re only missing a single team of four. Hopefully, they don’t get to be lazy.”
Thorebourne pulled a watch from one of the pockets of his red leather tunic to check it, then snapped it closed.
“In any case, we move in four hours maximum. So, go ahead and relax. I’ll merge the teams when we start.”
The team moved in, as Jonas checked the gathered crowd, looking for known faces. He did not spot any… except a group of faintly familiar faces. Competing Mauler Nolan Woolahan, the man he’d recruited for the High Office all those months ago, and his team.
They clasped, and the man had a laugh.
“Even if you know about it, it still catches you by surprise. My team was still half made of tier-four Professionals a few months ago, and you’re already there.”
“For the next two years or so, until we qualify for five.”
“Wait? Seriously? You are getting tier five in two years?”
Jonas proffered his wrist again for the man to re-check his Potentials.
“Indomitable Spellbringer qualified in five Milestones now.”
“You are right. Oh, Lord. Tier five and no side Profession necessary. Is that why you took a tier-three?”
“It was mainly to level fast for Agni. But it has the useful side effect of making a tier four side Profession unnecessary. So we lost a bit of Milestone and vitals there. Completely changed our build profile, as well. Different tier four, probably different five in the end.”
“At one point, you need to focus on what you want, not just what’s available. But yes, if I had the choice of not needing a side Profession for just one specific higher tier option, I probably wouldn’t say no. At least, you have low vitals for your tier. It’s a bit fairer.”
“Yes, the hardest part will be getting to our Plazas, I think. Tier four lairs at 200 won’t be easy. Maybe not even doable initially.”
“Don’t sweat it. Worst case is you do some mercenary work with an upper tier-four team or lower five and qualify. Although, if you want the wrong specific Profession, it might be hard to find the right team with a room.”
“We do have time, that’s…”
They were interrupted by commotion by the Gate. Looking there, Jonas noticed Professionals coming out. It looked like…
“Okay, everybody, listen up. All of us are there, so we’re going to move together. The zone is small like the rest of the trunk, so it will take just under a day to the centre. We’ll make camp midway, get fresh and ready, and then tackle the beast. I’m going to invite you to my team now. If I forget you before we move, yell at me.”
Assistance requested by Garrett Thorebourne?
Yes
No
Jonas wasted no time accepting the notification. The old team’s list vanished, being replaced by the much larger one. More names popped in it until it had slightly over thirty Professionals split between tier fives and fours. Most of the tier four were a lot higher levelled than the team was, even those low or mid-tier.
Team
Professions
Health
Mind
Garrett Thorebourne
Explicit Observer (697)
21569/21569
11545/11545
…
Nolan Woolahan
Competing Mauler (454)
10897/10897
3541/3541
Willow Begum
Precise Fixer (251)
5562/5562
2284/2284
…
Jonas Sims
Resilient Spellwrangler (152)
2094/2094
1856/1856
Jonathan Gilbert
Calculating Guardian (157)
4082/4082
2111/2111
Ira Heard
Solid Guardian (141)
4084/4084
1680/1680
Guss Fullmore
Imposing Fixer (147)
2065/2065
1658/1658
Laura Harvey
Light Destroyer (147)
2278/2278
1330/1330
Alton Raby
Abiding Stabber (148)
1919/1919
1675/1675
“Anyone left? Let’s move.”
----------------------------------------
Jonas had not anticipated the silence over the clearing surrounding the Plaza. Nothing moved.
“No Legend?” “What gives?” “Wasn’t it supposed to be there?”
“Alright people. Looks like we’re early. The lower tier Legend in the previous zone seemed to obey classic equations based on level, but they’re only roughly accurate. It could go a few days before or after. Actually, we’re two days after the most probable date, so it’s just the beast being ornery.”
There was grumbling among the amassed Professionals.
“So relax, make some camp… NOT in the clearing. We wait until it shows up. In three days max, if that’s not happening, we’ll see what everyone wants to do. Meanwhile, if you want to poke some werewolves around to give us experience, be my guest.”
Ira shrugged.
“Eh. Hurry up and wait, I guess.”
Jonas shrugged back.
“Can’t be helped… although I have an idea. Let me check with Thorebourne. Come.”
The man had dropped his bag on the ground and was sitting next to it, munching on a kind of branch of some sort.
“Sims?”
“I wondered if we could try to get some of the Ancients around?” Jonas asked.
“Want to get your team enabled for tier three? That’s an iffy proposal, given the size of the team,” he objected.
“That would be complicated, I guess. We’d probably need to split our team into three separate teams and tackle nine total werewolves. I don’t even know if there are enough around.”
“The British Scouts have identified six only so far. There might be a couple hiding somewhere still. So why?”
“Well, we have this new Adjustment VII…”
Garrett Thorebourne threw his head back and laughed out loud once Jonas explained, drawing glances from the rest of the raid.
“I’m going to say, ‘I’ve seen everything’, but something tells me that’s not going to stop there if you stay around.”
“Well, Jonathan now has VIII, but we still haven’t figured out what it does. It’s only been a week, though.”
“Free guaranteed jewellery, eh. Before any level 300 or 400 chests.”
“We’re keeping to heroic lairs for now. Even if there is no Ancient up, the Milestone still gives the best quality and level for the chest, regardless of the fight. And since every guardian in here is an Ancient anyway…”
A loud howl sounded across the clearing.
Thorebourne’s head turned, and a smile came on his bearded profile.
“Well, so much for your plan. It looks like our target has decided to save his brethren from your clutches. Sorry, Sims.”
“No matter. It was a good idea. That way, we all have a chance for the artefact version. Maybe we can find some help later.”
Heavy brush to the side of the clearing started shaking, then a gigantic furry figure stepped out of the forest.
Nicteres, the Moonlord
Level 284 legend
Health: 113568
Mind: 78762
Endurance: 75386
Aether: 60275
The werewolf was bathed in the moonlight. It headed toward the centre of the clearing, stepping into the Plaza. Jonas could not see what had interested it there, but the wolf stopped in the middle of it for almost half a minute before turning around and heading out.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
The humanoid stepped out of the marble expanse and stopped, stretching.
“Did it just… crack his knuckles?” Ira whispered.
The figure shook itself, looking very much like a gigantic upright dog with the movement, then turned and started to slowly patrol around the Plaza.
“Okay, now pre-combat briefing. You’re all veterans of the Labyrinth but almost none of you have fought a Legend. You usually start that kind of fight in upper tier-five, and only if you have access to one major lair – the rule of thumb is you need a total of levels of your raid divided by forty to be good. So, obviously, the big furry in here is a bit under that range for us.”
Thorebourne's bushy smile grew wider.
“That is good training for later, without too much difficulty. But…” he trailed, raising his hand and starting to fold his fingers one by one to outline the real difficulties.
“The true difference between a Legend and an Ancient, beyond the vitals and Potentials – and yes, the thing probably has Potentials in the range of a thousand, if not a bit more – is the special attacks.”
Jonas was reminded of the much more basic explanations by Cowen earlier that year when they had found Kuminos.
“An Ancient has between four and six static abilities it will use. A Legend has lots more. It may use a dozen or more in a fight. And unlike normal guardians, they’re not very predictable. Each Legend has apparently a large set of dozens of abilities and will use a subset of those on any given fight. Every encounter, a different subset.”
“All Legendary guardians use debilitating abilities. Damage abilities. Weird abilities. Calls for additional creatures, usually. Arbitrary changes in the flow of combat. Everything that can happen may very well happen.”
Jonas could well remember the fight against Kuminos. He hadn’t seen that many abilities, but then, again, he’d fought at distance. From what he’d seen with Cowen’s team reactions, the bull-headed creature had indeed used multiple targeted abilities.
“The only thing more unpredictable than a Legend is a human opponent. And even then, he’d be limited by his build, unless he had weird skill sets. So… think of that furry guy as a grumpy Frenchman,” he smiled.
That drew a general laugh.
“Now the Scouts have fought that puppy once and left me some good notes. So we know a few of the abilities it may – or may not – use. It will certainly use a lot we don’t know about, but that’s a start.”
“Unsurprisingly, almost all of them manifest as some form of moonlight. If it is suddenly bathed in moonlight, it’ll go all mad on us. If you find yourself bathed in moonlight, you’ll get whacked. If you see a pool of moonlight on the ground, do NOT step in it. There have been two types of them so far, one starts by doing five times the Legend’s level per second as light damage to you, and then increasing as it goes…”
There was a huge general intake of breath on that one. 1420 health per second was courting death if you hesitated, even for a low tier five.
“… the other slaps a 5% cumulative reduction in one of your vitals’ maximum value, at random, every second. And it’s a pain to remove. Don’t stress your menders with this dogcrap. And there will be more than one such pool to avoid. Stay sharp.”
Thorebourne kept on folding digits.
“He inflicts bleeding on the people he’s fighting. That’s almost impossible to remove while he fights you, so we will use three defenders in a rotation. I’ve already talked with them, they know how to go for this. Gilbert and Heard?”
“Yes?” both Jonathan and Ira perked up.
“If it becomes your turn… don’t. Sorry, but you are really too low to stand against that. If we need one of you… we all run to the woods and see who survives.”
“Clear,” Ira confirmed.
“Shouldn’t happen. Again, we are slightly over the level for the difficulty. But you never know. There is no such thing as a simple fight with a Legend.”
“Noted,” Jonathan said.
“He uses claws and swings. Close range, don’t stay on its front side – I should not have to repeat the basics anyway.”
“He called an ally last time. A single elder of his level. If that happens, Sims, I want your team to move in and try to hold him away. Your two melee should remain focused on the Nightlord though, and every caster will help you down it from range as fast as possible.”
“A 284 Elder might be really hard. If that does not last too long it’s okay, but we’ll take a whacking.”
“Fullmore? Keep large aether reserves, no matter what else happens.”
Guss gave an empathetic nod in answer.
“Everyone ready? Then we all move to the range, and engage once Imposing Banneret Fisher has the beast focused.”
The raid started to spread out along the clearing border, sorting themselves into familiar configurations. The armoured first defender raised a gloved hand, three fingers up. Two fingers. One finger. A raised fist.
Nicteres, the Moonlord’s gaze sharpens. Focus and Presence are 5% less efficient.
Jonas wondered for a fraction of second why the notification was worded that way before dismissing it. Both Potentials played an equal part of the Elemental Spray but thanks to the global boost of Adjustment Milestones it remained vastly more powerful than the rest of his arsenal even in this situation.
A large blotch of lighter ground appeared in the clearing not far from him, and he deviated slightly, avoiding the trap. From his vantage, he could see two more such pools of light as a handful of Professionals dodged the dangerous ground.
The rest of the raid was converging on the Plaza area. Jonas stopped once he was in expected range of his spells and started firing.
Elemental Spray does 171 (214-43) earth damage to Nicteres (99 aether).
“So far, so good,” he yelled at Guss who was watching not far from him.
“Yes. Can’t remove that gaze effect though, it’s on him, not us.”
A whistling sound caused Jonas's head to turn. Another spellcaster, not far from him was bathed in plain light. The man hesitated for a second before starting to run away. The whistling sound intensified and Jonas's gaze turned up just in time to see a streak of white fall down.
Then the ground erupted, smouldering pieces of earth and pale grass spraying everywhere.
Moonfall splash. 49 (56-7) fire damage.
“Balls, it uses shooting stars?” Guss blurted, as the targeted Professional stumbled back into the clearing.
The team status informed them that the man had lost over a thousand of his health out of six thousand. The Imposing Fixer almost threw a regenerative effect, but there was already one in place. Jonas turned back to his main target just in time to see it bathed in light in turn.
The Moonlord raised his taloned hands high, and the light that was bathing it seemed to flow into the cupped claws, creating two glowing balls of blinding light. It raised his hands even higher, then brought them down, slamming them together.
Instinct made Jonas shield his face, despite the fact that the Labyrinth rarely cared for such a thing.
He found himself half bowled over by the backlash. Everyone at close range was dropped on the ground, and the werewolf brought its giant feet on the Banneret lying in front of him. The man managed to avoid the full brunt of the stomp but screamed as the feet smashed into his side. Another armoured man slammed a gigantic tower shield to the feet as the wolf raised it again and the beast turned its gaze to the new enemy. It roared in defiance.
In answer, howls rose from the night. Both Ira and Jonathan, scrambling to their feet started backing up, looking around to see from where the summoned help would come.
Instead of an elder, nearly twenty-five werewolves rushed out of the woods, answering the call of the zone’s ultimate guardian.
Swift Pup
Level 284 minion
Health: 985
Mind: 235
Endurance: 152
Aether: 0
Jonas spotted all kind of minions. There was a swift minion, a skittish, a vicious, a… chaos descended as the minions started to run around the raid, slashing and tearing. He saw Ira intercepting one with a sword slash, but there were too many to really manage.
Thankfully, he realized that they were all weaker than a normal minion would be. Their claws dealt some significant damage, but all the spellcasters were launching large attacks, tearing out chunks of health. One had even started a massive splash of fire, and Jonathan and a handful of healers rushed into the area, dragging the minions along with them to burn the lot.
It probably took barely thirty seconds to reduce the menace to a handful of still-snarling pups, and Jonas turned back to the werewolf who was still tearing into the shieldbearer who kept pummelling him with a huge mace that looked almost like it should be a two-handed weapon.
Nicteres, the Moonlord
Level 284 legend
Health: 41161
Mind: 78062
Endurance: 61002
Aether: 43229
“More than halfway,” Guss shouted to him.
“And I’m good for aether so far,” Jonas answered.
“Me too. That fight is something, not like Kumin…”
The healer stopped mid-sentence.
The night vanished. Jonas looked up and saw only one thing. The full moon. Shining on him.
The Moon’s Rage: 568 mind lost per second.
For a few instants, he actually raged. At the gigantic number of mind being removed every instant. Guss’s eyes bulged, shocked at the speed at which his vital was dropping. Then the total reached zero.
Thorebourne’s peripheral vision – slightly enhanced by a base skill he had never really improved – spotted a white-robed figure running toward the werewolf.
“Balls, what is the dickens are you doing, Sims… oh blazes,” he swore as he noticed the zero value of the mind vital.
No, worse. A zero-zero. As in zero maximum mind. He peeked at the status, which was still available, even though a zero-mind team member would not be considered a true part of the team.
The Moon’s Rage: Mindless. All skill effects increased by 284%.
“Tarnation, he’s going to cause chaos in the raid.”
Alton spotted the familiar figure rushing in, hand raised with flames, and blurted, “What’s Jonas trying to do?”
Laura, fighting at his shoulder, sucked a breath in when she spotted the vitals level. She then gasped as she noticed that her friend had entirely white eyes, without the slightest trace of iris, pupil, or even blood vessels. It was as if his eyes had been replaced by white stones.
“Lord, what’s that status? Check it…”
Jonas screamed wordlessly as he slammed his fire-burning hand at the back of the defender who swore insults, trying to find what had attacked him from behind. Jonas turned back to the mender who was trying to keep the defender topped, and unleashed an Air Blast, pushing the man back a few feet behind.
At that point, the Moonlord unleashed a small flurry of blows, catching both the defender, a Cautious Monolith that had moved a bit too far forward and the back of Jonas. The mindless caster turned back, yelling at the werewolf, and threw back a brown orb that smashed in the middle of the guardian.
Elemental Spray does 857 earth damage to Nicteres.
Thorebourne nearly jumped up as he spotted the spell’s damage.
“Lord, how does he do that?”
“As long as he hits the beast, not me, he can do it as much as wants,” the man behind him replied.
The reply gave the raid leader an idea.
“Throw him regeneration, and let him unload on the boss. Watson, keep the boss near him, so he stays angry at it instead of you.”
One mender dropped an Increase Healing on Jonas, only to get an overpowered Everburn in return, followed by an Ice Dart, before the insane spellcaster turned back to the snarling wolf to throw a 577-damage Flame Bolt in the furry face, drawing a howl of fury.
“You’re sure it’s a good idea, boss?”
“I don’t know, but he’s worth a tier seven caster on his own, even with random spells. I know tier six casters who would give you whatever you want to do this damage. Worst case, we let him die or finish him.”
----------------------------------------
Jonas found himself vomiting on the ground, without any idea of what had happened. The last instant he remembered was… something rage? The anxious face of Ira hovering over him told him that the fight was over.
He looked at his status, expecting to find the tell-tale Lingering Death, but found a different one.
Berzerker Exhaustion. -33% to Potentials and Vitals. Gain 435XP to reduce by 1%.
“Whelp, what is that?”
“You don’t remember?” Ira asked.
“No. Nothing.”
“You basically charged in the middle of the raid. Spraying spells all over, but mainly on the Legend. Almost died, but not quite.”
“First-time mind-loss?” Thorebourne asked as he came from behind the two.
“Yes. I knew it happened but never experienced it,” Jonas replied.
“There’s always a first time. It’s infrequent, but that Legend had a special attack for it, looks like.”
“I only remember… hundreds of mind being lost per second. Then nothing.”
“You kept attacking the last person that did something you noticed. Thankfully, that was mostly the Legend. You had a massive regeneration effect on you, which is how you survived the bleed. First time I ever saw someone with 170% regeneration. Although that mender remembers your spells. Your boosted damage is… was absolutely horrific. It’s like a Legend on its own, given that it ignored any defence rating. What is that stupid spell? Nobody at your level should do 850 damage, even with that status.”
Jonas smiled weakly before explaining Elemental Spray.
Thorebourne shook his head, muttering about weird spellcasters.
“But we got it? Can’t see the old notifications,” Jonas finally asked.
“Well, if we’d failed, you’d still be dead for the moment, as we organized a corpse recovery.”
The bushy face smile grew as he slapped Jonas on the shoulder.
“You and your team did well there. I was worried. Not about your levels, though it helps. But you’ve been in the Labyrinth for barely more than a year. It’s rarely enough for people to be competent at everything the Labyrinth can throw at you. But you are naturals. Or maybe the Labyrinth made you into naturals when it slapped Adaptation on you. Who knows. You’ll do good, I think.”
Jonas had no idea if he had obtained completion, but thankfully, there was an easy way to check with the available Profession list. He slowly made his way there, assisted by Ira, before seeing the chest in the centre.
Castikal Plaza
Legendary Treasure
Artefact weapon
Requires: Level 233
Artefact equipment
Requires: Level 229
Artefact weapon
Requires: Level 220
Quality container
Requires: Level 200
Artefact equipment
Requires: Level 152
“Got four pieces of gear. So it has a bonus piece. And looks like a Puppet again as well,” Jonas noted.
“152. Looks like it’s one for you, Jonas,” Ira added, sounding slightly disappointed.
“Seems like it takes my Core into account when under-levelling the item to use. Let’s see what this is. At least… once they let us get to the items.”
Thorebourne started by pulling the weapons, a pair of knives. Not that the team was interested – they did not qualify anyway. But the Core was heavily debated once its properties were announced.
Night Black Orb
Core
Artefact equipment
Requires: Level 229
Provides: +1 Forked Lightning rank, +1 Light Blast rank, +1 Aether Lock rank, +1 Air Burst rank, +1 Asphyxiate rank, +1 Lower Armour rank, +37 PRE, +36 INT, +34 STR, +30 STA, +412hp, +401mind, +4% aether damage, +3% elemental damage, +4% lightning damage
“On one hand, it’s not many ranks for a skill. But six skills? Three different bonus? That’s unprecedented,” one of the spellcasters next to Jonas commented.
“For an Artefact. With Cores… who knows,” he replied.
“I’m tempted to replace mine. If it was fire spells…” the man muttered.
The last piece of treasure was finally distributed – surprisingly, three Professionals had wanted a better Puppet with the Ebony Puppet that had been in the chest. But then, those did not drop regularly, meaning you were not likely to get a chance at one until well beyond level 200 Ancients.
With that done, Jonas could finally get to the treasure chest and reopen it for his bonus. Compared to the Core, it was a bit underwhelming, of course. But still an Artefact.
Swirling Black Band of the Castikan Moonwolf
Ring
Artefact equipment
Requires: Level 152
Provides: +2 Aetheric Armour rank, +1 Aether Strangle rank, +27 FOC, +26 INT, +24 PRE, +23 FOR, +23 AGI, +283 health, +5% aether damage, +7% movement speed
“Impressive. You lucky guy,” Thorebourne said once he came to see the bonus gear for himself.
“I already have Aetheric Armour. I was aether-defence in the previous Profession and it's easy to get. But Aether Strangle… That’s an interesting one.”
“Never heard of it.”
“I heard about it while in the Colonies. Sylvia had this item… I was told it’s at tier seven.”
“It’s a long way off then… oh, wait.”
“I now have it.”
Skill unlocked: Aether Strangle
Aether Strangle
Aether/Control
Rank 1: Drains 55% of FOC of the target’s aether, transferring it to the caster. 55% of the aether drained does aetheric damage to the target.
“Lucky man. With most enemies, you will never be out of aether.”
Jonas shrugged.
“Only 79 Focus even with the ring. I'm too low level for the real use of the spell. But the rest of the item is a massive boost in my main spell.”
“Great. Next kill, you’ll wreck the raid even more. Now, I suppose you’ll grind out more levels. By the way, general gathering for all Agni teams, at least those involved in the secondary attack, is on October 18th. That’s not the attack, that's the preparation. We will actually use your headquarter's office as a meeting point.”
“We will be there.”
“And even if we do not attack right away, keep a minimum of two Fast Travel charges. You need one to get to the trunk, and one to come back.”
“We can Recall straight to Gatepost.”
“No exceptions.”
“Understood, Observer.”
“Have a good trip.”
Jonas raised his voice, as he spotted a few swirling rainbows indicating people starting to depart.
“Oh, can a few people help our team for something? Hopefully, it won’t be too long.”
Explicit Observer
(tier 6)
Required: 235 FOC, 188 PRE, 116 CON
Provides:
+13 health/+17 endurance/+20 mind/+40 aether per level
+1 Milestone/10 levels
Explicit Observer Milestone: +16 FOR, +15 FOC, +4 CON, 0.5% team mind
Skillset: Opponent / Control