Quick Stoic Enforcer Caíreach Ní hAragáin paused at the threshold of the house, before reaching and ringing the chimes hung next to the door, and then waited politely, despite the open door. Fortunately, she did not have to wait overmuch, as the High Lord of the house promptly showed up to welcome her.
“I greet the Gold Brawler in my home,” Opposing Cautious Aetherwalker Isozaki Haruhiko said, bowing slightly.
She curtsied slightly in return, before following her host inside as he showed her to the garden. They might all call themselves High Lords, but even then, having servants was ostentation that was almost impossible. Any such would be a Professional in its own might, and probably a four-decade veteran at least if he or she were not a Lord itself. Under that, it was highly improbably to manage to get into Panomekon even with help. Getting a Professional to act as a household staff when any would be a master in most Divergences was a fool’s dream.
Still, as they reached the garden, she found a woman, clad in a classical kimono that clashed with her darker skin, finishing to set the inevitable tea set. She curtsied again to Isozaki’s wife. She found them an odd couple, made even odder than usual by the mere fact that they were of different sheaves. The Aetherwalker was from the same gamma sheaf as she was, while Jaspreet Baldhara was from the alpha sheaf.
Together they might live, but in the Labyrinth, they went alone – when they did. Which was the point of her visit.
They settled on totally out-of-culture armchairs, a local production made in Panomekon from actual Labyrinth materials, which had become the rage over the last century, and settled in chitchat as the tea infused.
She did enjoy discussing the strategies and her specific build after she’d figured out that Tang Feng had borrowed the two Lightning Hammers.
“Well, none of the two owners would say anything. But it wasn’t hard to guess that he might do that one,” she said, smiling slightly.
“Still, you took risks. Using a weapon specifically designed against a single path, before you eliminate at least one opponent.”
“True. But the Norse was proving to be hard to deal with. It is always better to make a choice, rather than delay and make none until you lose. Besides, the Walking Forest is all its owner promised. I’d even trade a lot to keep it beyond the Brawl. I can see multiple lairs in which it would be the best weapon.”
“True, but does Hipponous wants to?”
“A woman can dream.”
At last, they reached the point where she broached the topic she’d been angling for with her visit.
“You want to restart a new high tier team,” Isozaki said.
“Gamma gets to ride the high of this Brawl, and momentum is always fleeting. Seize it, or lose it,” she said.
“There are so few of us around, and most have succumbed to ennui, as the weight of the errors of youth weight us down, that’s true,” he acknowledged.
“Xing Cai’s bunch remain focused on tier sixteen. Their exotic calculations say it’s where they’ll find a passage, so that’s where they go.”
“And your objective would be?”
“Smidosa. Tier…”
“Nineteen, I know. The depths of the Pagodas. Ambitious, as befits the Gold Brawler herself.”
“And you do have access to it.”
“I do, even if I’ve never been there. Beyond Smidosa?”
“There’s a total of four unlisted zones, one tier 20, two at tier 19 and one tier 18. My old team had done sixteen lairs, and with proper preparation, more should be doable.”
“And you want some young and spry eighteen to replace the ones who retired?” he joked.
“We are both from Earth-99, and you have over two hundred levels over me. I would be the young and spry one,” she countered.
“True. And you still flirt with the Adjustment deaths…”
“I may not believe in the Crone and the Underworld anymore, but I am not going to wait until the properly tutored generation of Lords overcome all of us. I only had a double death two Adjustment steps ago, anyway. We may be doomed, but who knows. Maybe the tier twenty-four is the last, as some say.”
Isozaki finished his tea and settled his cup back on the central table, before asking his real question.
“Have you talked to others already?”
Ní hAragáin hid her smile. She knew then she had him.
“Cyavana Pavagi has said she had been retired for too long anyway and wants to dust her healing. Wan Heng seems interested. And Han Chun has come back from Earth-99 for the Brawl and has stayed after. Show him a strong team…”
“Have you talked to Munderic?”
“Isn’t he running with Xing Cai?” she asked.
“And he is bored. He’s got a nearly modern build as well, not too many Adjustment steps compared to most tier eighteen. He is the foremost High Lord of his original Divergence, after all.”
“I can do that,” she replied.
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The Quick Stoic Enforcer took a last look at her home before engaging her Fast Travel and follow the rest of her team into the gamma Gate of Panomekon. The insane geometry of the nexus, its inward tetrahedral shape with a sun-like light at the centre, the direct overhead view of meadows, forests, parks and estates on the other facets of the zone volume always reminded the ancient Gael songstress that, no matter what, weird zones didn't occur only in the ultra-high tiers.
Caíreach walked out of the Gate to the familiar view of her designated landing zone, Lunenroy. A vast expanse of grey dust, almost indistinguishable from the outside of a zone, and the sight of three piercing points of light in the sky that acted as suns and moons at the same time, making the regeneration of travel charges a weirdness that required a mathematically oriented mind to predict, despite typical thousands of Intellect to prime any Professional that managed to get there in the first place.
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There was no one there, of course. By force, they’d picked this Gate since four out of six of the team were only tier 18, and not everyone had a Core or Accolade with free Gate options. But you made it with what you had. She turned back and immediately went back into the Gate.
She came out of the Gate into the real expedition zone, finding the team looking down. From the Gate ledge, the view was vertiginous.
Smidosa was a tiered zone, not that uncommon in the high tiers. In this case, a gigantic circular hole, four hundred miles in diameter and barely within the zone border. Then, seven hundred feet below, a circle of land, then another, and so on, until you reached the twenty-mile large central disc where the Plaza was located, miles below.
“The last one down is a cailleach,” she said before jumping over the ledge.
A few minutes later, after they all had a laugh at hapless Opposing Cautious Aetherwalker Isozaki, who lived up to his Profession name, and cleansed the handful of status effects on the poor ones who did not have enough in both Agility and Constitution to emerge completely untouched from a plunge at terminal velocity, they started their trek toward the next circle and their first objective for this specific expedition.
The structure in front of Caíreach was similar to all of the other lairs of the zone – a pagoda-shaped building. That helped for the first foray in an unknown one, as each had one guardian per floor, so you knew outright what you would have to face up climbing to the top. In this case, everyone knew all about it.
“Time for some useful loot,” she announced.
“Let’s hope. Pity there’s only the Pagoda of Evening Thunder as a lightning-themed lair nearby.”
“Can’t help if the Pagoda of the Storm Season is nearly opposite down below,” she replied.
Han Chun, the team’s defender hoisted its shield and raised his hand in the universal gesture of warning before the charge into the first floor. Even with the lopsided team, the only minor challenge in the lair would be the final Ancient on top, and that was the fourth time they dealt with it in recent times.
An Extended Thunder: 32,245 XP/6 contributors= 5,758 XP.
Pagoda of the Evening Thunder
Accolade
Ancient
Level 9300
Provides: PRE+1811, STA+1785, +17990 aether, +17950 mind, +9% lightning skill economy
Current Accolade: The Deepshrine Citadel (legendary level 6950)
Replace
Yes
No
Caíreach reflexively selected the “no” option. She already knew what the Accolade included. It might be a higher-level one, but her current legendary-type one had much better skills and bonuses anyway. Unless it had amazing bonuses, no Lord did it for a mere heroic one, except at low levels. Or maybe a dry spell of wrong legendary guardians.
No, what was interesting was the two-handed weapon they’d spotted in the chest once entering the last level. And true to expectations, it was a fitting one. And for her, where the previous three runs had been… disappointing things.
Bright Alloy Maul of the True Storm
Two-Handed
Heroic
Requires: Level 9021
Provides: 23,366 lightning damage (+21% FOC), 6871 defence rating, FOC+3845, AGI+3623, +32017 health, +5 Storm Touch ranks, +7% earth defence rating
“Now, you can do some damage,” Isozaki said.
“Hate having to switch to a fake caster profile like yours,” she replied good-naturedly.
She twirled the maul in her hands, pleased.
“Feels so much better than the only lightning hammer I had before. Now, that cursed Four Paws can get properly cleared. This time, we win the prize.”
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She checked reflexively her status, to make sure they hadn’t been waylaid, but they were at the correct place.
Location
Zone: Smidosa (tier 19)
17 lairs completed
Locale: Pagoda of the Four Paws (incomplete, 58% progression)
Recall: Panomekon Plaza
Recall: available
Gates: 19/19
…
Fast travel: 3 charges, 29 days until next
“Looks like the first floors haven’t reset yet,” Caíreach announced.
“We’re almost two days early. All the better to get straight to the matter at hand,” Cyavana Pavagi replied.
“Okay. This will be the same strategy as last time, just better,” Caíreach said as she looked at the last room.
Everyone nodded, and Puppets came out, as they switched their gear to an optimized version. The Pagoda was elemental-themed, and the last guardian trio was earth-based, and essentially highly resistant to anything save lightning-based damage. She contemplated her own picks, twirling the enormous spiked maul freshly acquired in her hands.
Not her best, but the combination made it better than other choices. That was the case for everyone, appropriate weapons, lightning skill stacking, and earth resistances for everyone. Or untimely deaths, like the last time, which had left them with half of the team running away, with corpses in tow, and without lair validation.
Earthen Tigers × 3: 77,722XP/6 contributors = 13,880XP.
You have completed Smidosa Pagoda of Four Paws lair.
Caíreach didn’t bother with the Accolade. This time, everyone had what they came for. And the chest had a pair of mere basic items, anyone could see.
“Whew,” said Wan Heng.
“Yea. What were you thinking, staying in melee range at less than 50k health?” the healer asked.
“Either we finished it before it started to resurrect his brothers, or we lost,” the juggler replied, adding, “We won. That is what matters.”
“Which reminds me, it’s decision time,” Caíreach said.
“We can try to complete two additional Pagoda, to unlock the tier 19, then 20, or head straight for the Midaholm Gate.”
“What do we have left?” Haruhiko asked.
“We have eighteen out of twenty-four Pagodas. The ones left are the Pagoda of the Five Stars – even more elemental messes, which might be doable now with our gear – or any of the Pagoda of the World Tree, the Folding Lotus, the Underdark, the Martial Swords or the Wailing Spirits. None of which my old team had tested, given the first floors.”
“I vote Gate,” Heng said.
“Gate as well,” Haruhiko added.
Unsurprisingly, only Caíreach and the tier 20, Han Chun, were in favour of getting additional Pagodas to unlock the higher tiers.
“Unexplored zone mapping it is, then. The Library will be happy,” she concluded.
Transit: Smidosa - Midaholm
Integrity: 100%
Active
(409 years)
Stability: 100%
As usual for those circumstances, the team transited almost all simultaneously. No sense taking risks with the arrival point.
Caíreach blinked as the new zone unfolded. Incredibly tall walls surrounded a paved floor. She checked the entire surrounding and noted that the walls delimited a regular hexagonal shape. Two of the walls, two miles away, had a large gate opening, surrounded by statues of heroic-looking figures, male on one side, female on the other.
“Oh, Jesus Christos, a maze zone,” Munderic swore.
She smiled evilly in response.
“You wanted to check the zone, we’re going to check the zone. I got enough paper for the mapping, I think.”
“Those types are usually smaller than outdoor zones,” Han Chun commented.
“Hope so. Let’s see if we can break the sheaf border and find a known zone. And gain immortal fame while Xing bumbles his way in lower tiers.”