25. Resonance of the Sea pt. 3
Midgard Serpents rarely come up from the depths. They are one of the many threats from the deep in the Sea of Squalls, neither the greatest nor the least of them. An adult serpent can crush a cargo vessel by wrapping around it and constricting. This was a juvenile, not nearly so large, but it was still fifty meters from snout to tail.
It reared its head up, the fins on the top if its skull standing up as it roared a challenge at us.
“Holy crap,” Stolit exclaimed. “What is that?”
“Bad news,” I exclaimed. “I’m not sure we can win, guys.”
“Well, let’s try anyway,” Nefeline suggested. “Worst case is that we lose, right?”
“Y-yeah, I suppose you’re right,” I said, reminding myself that, even if I died, I’d only lose one level. It wouldn’t be such a big deal.
“Anything in the quest details about this guy?” Tefla asked.
“Uh, no, but I know what it is,” I said. “It’s a Midgard Serpent. A baby one, but it’s still going to be really strong. And venomous. Try not to get bitten if you can avoid it.”
The serpent decided we’d offended it, either by not running or by simply existing, and it sprang forward. Our tanks sprang forward themselves to intercept.
“This thing is a baby?” Clara our feybinder asked.
“Sort of. It’s probably one hundred years old or so,” I clarified. “For them that’s a juvenile still.”
“Oh, good. I was worried we were killing a hatchling,” she said, sending forward her fey to help shield the tanks from the oncoming charge.
I was, for once, very glad that I wasn’t melee right now. The three tanks of the group, Nefeline the [Soldier], Stolix the [Warrior], and Deeprum the [Legionnaire], braced for the charge, and they were all three knocked into the air. The rest of us scattered, but it seemed satisfied by the pass and didn’t chase after anyone. Everyone with a ranged attack used the opportunity to do as much damage as possible. Tefla, our [Stalker], and SprackleFritz our Goblin [Marauder], together with his NPC companions, stabbed at its flanks as it slithered by.
The snake turned around and did the exact same thing, charging us and simply knocking our tanks over. On the third pass as well. It kept going until, on the tenth or eleventh pass, we finally lowered it to 90% health. Finally it stopped charging, rearing up instead.
The tanks did their best to hold its attention, darting in to slash at it and then jumping back before it snapped them. It’s mouth looked large enough to swallow any one of us whole. They weren’t doing a lot of damage, but the snake didn’t seem interested in charging off towards any of the ranged DPS, or even Tefla and Spritz, who were attacking its flanks.
I thought for a moment that the fight would be easy after all, but at 70% health it suddenly sped up. It snapped out and bit Nefeline, lifting her into the air and shaking her before flinging her out a good distance. Just outside of healing range, but Clara had three of her fey on Nefeline before the bite, and they followed her for the entire distance. Their weak heal over time effect was just enough to counter the poison of the snakebite until Nef got back into range and our acolyte was able to cleanse the poison.
After some experimentation, and seeing the way that my spells reacted with the snake’s oily skin, I decided that fire spells would be the most effective, and I was burning through my mana for all it was worth.
The snake continued to snap at our tanks, catching one about one times out of three and sending them off into the distance like before. It was almost like a game you’d play with a pet, I thought. Snap, fling, reset. Snap, fling, reset. With how fast the snake was snapping, we often had two of our tanks running back into position at any one time, so it really was a good thing we’d brought three as I don’t know what would have happened otherwise.
The next change came at thirty percent. The snake continued snapping, but it also turned its attention to ranged and spat out globs of poison. Or acid. Or poisonous acid. I’m not certain because I [Blinked] out of the way whenever I saw it coming for me. The snake also began use its tail, swinging the massive thing around to its sides to try to swat at the melee. It never did turn to bite them, however.
The boss had a lot of health. It took fifteen minutes to kill. But it was disappointingly easy, for such a massive beast.
“I know it was a baby, but I expected more from a Midgard Serpent,” I commented as the snake flung itself about, various parts of it turning into black mist as it went through its death throes. “I’m almost disappointed.”
“What are you talking about, that was crazy difficult,,” Nefeline argued.
“Oh, yeah, I guess for you it must have been,” I said, correcting myself. “Sorry, I spoke without thinking. Did it drop any loot?”
I asked before it had even finished evaporating; it was simply so large that the process took some time. Once it was completely gone, some of the mist reformed into a large chest, which everyone gathered around and opened. There were two strength boots which were hotly contested, and a spellcaster amulet which I lost on the roll to Ajanta. Such is the will of RNG. Clara got a broach, Fritz and Stolit got the boots. The fourth item that dropped was a Dagger which went to our [Stalker], and to top it off we got a pair of Dexterity gloves which Tefla passed to SpackleFritz.
Once the box vanished and everyone had equipped their new item, a new popup appeared.
Wrathwater Lair (Aqueus) has been destroyed by Hagi and company!
This is an action of note! This action will not resonate into The Divergence
Hagi and company have earned the title: Serpentbane
Naga will no longer spawn in this area! A bounty has been issued for all existing naga!
Elemental slugs will continue to spawn as natural beasts of the area, but the spawn rate will be reduced
This territory now falls under the AUTHORITY of Eliyenia of the shallow pools. To claim this territory, contest ownership claim from Eliyenia.
“We got a title out of that?” Fritz asked, growing excited. “Totally worth it!”
“Not only that, but it was crazy good experience, and now there’s a bounty or something?” Clara said, somehow turning the statement into a question. “Let’s keep going and see if we can clear everything out before anyone realizes what’s up.”
“I think that notification went out pretty far,” Tefla said. “People are going to be on their way to investigate. If we’re going to kill the remaining naga like Clara suggested, we should get to work.”
I hesitated, while the others began heading out. Tefla was right; anyone who received that notice would be curious, and if any endgamers were nearby they might come to figure out who it was that was destroying Lairs while Hail was known to be doing … whatever it was that [Lord] Hail was doing right now. I needed to check in with the other me’s.
But as the others were talking about claiming the high score on the naga hunt before anyone showed up to contest them for it, I decided to stick around for a while. It was pretty good experience, although we split into two groups now that we didn’t have to deal with the heavy hitting massive parties from destroying Lair Stones. We kept in contact with the other group, turning it into a competition. My group won, but it was unfair because we had an extra dps, while they had taken our extra tank.
I pushed all the way through to level 31 before night fell and it was the agreed upon time to return to the lobby and reunite with my other selves.
[Lord] was waiting for me. He’d gained a level for his efforts today, but he was more curious in my status. He would know soon enough anyway, but I pulled it up to show him anyway.
Name
Hagi
Level
31
Guild
None
Strength
19
Health
10220/10220
Dexterity
32
Mana
55072/55072
Vitality
41
Experience
1270/11500
Endurance
23
Age
15
Intelligence
71
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Wisdom
50
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Class
Mage
Charisma
114
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Armor
6
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Spell damage
70
Serpentbane
Mana Regen
893
I hadn’t upgraded my equipment significantly since level fifteen, and tomorrow, it would be time for me to visit the Auction Network. That is, if I was Mage tomorrow. I mean, I would be Mage tomorrow, but I would also be Lord, Warrior, Archer and Acolyte. I would be me right up until the point where I asked the system to divide Me into We, at which point I would be Us.
It’s confusing, I know.
Shortly afterwards, the others joined Lord and I, and we went to sleep. Our dreams continued to grow more vivid and strange. I dreamed I was stabbing a serpent with a pen while shooting a crossbow that saved lives at a thousand pots which contained oils that needed to be escorted to the moon. And other various things along those lines. It was confusing, but not particularly concerning. Thomas had warned me that this would be a side effect of my new ability and I was more than willing to accept it as a consequence.
In the morning, I sat on the edge of the bed and reflected on the day before. I pulled up my class sheet to review my progress, and was a little amazed by the results.
Name
Hail Jeoran
Active Classes
Age
15
Class
Level
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Lord
32
Class
Placeholder level 5
Acolyte
22
Experience
0/500,000
Mage
31
Job
Earl
Warrior
28
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Archer
16
Serpentbane
Free Points
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Experience
737763
Stats
16
Skills
9
I had made huge strides, gaining a total of twenty-five levels across all of my classes and a boatload of free experience. Lord had made the least progress, gaining only a single level, while Acolyte had gained eight and Archer seven. Mage had done well, gaining six levels and earning a new title, which replaced one of my PVP titles on my displayed titles list.
Acolyte hadn’t made any particular waves, focusing on simply being part of a group and healing, even though I’ve decided I dislike it. I hoped for a way to remove it, but until that happened I was stuck with it. Archer had gotten fairly good with a bow once more, and before I split I went to the courtyard to make certain that skill carried over. I spent twenty minutes practicing the bow while I reflected and planned the day.
Archer would continue to do the important quests in Kordock, hopefully messing up the established leveling path for Travelers in that nation and driving them elsewhere. I was making pretty good strides in that area, and I didn’t think I’d been noticed yet. Lord would, of course, continue to be Lord Hail. I’d been forced to pace myself yesterday, uncertain how fast the rest of us were gaining experience, so I’d scheduled a number of things for subsequent days to give the rest of us time to catch up to him.
Warrior had to get back to Runeheld Ruins. My party had broken up after the third boss. Fortunately I had managed to attune myself to the second phase of the dungeon, which would allow me to bypass the first three bosses and continue from where I’d left off. I planned to return as warrior as soon as I could pug a team for it and feed them a line about being on a challenge quest.
Mage would proceed to the next of Eliyenia’s requests. Because why not? Destroying the lair she’d singled out had been excellent experience working with a party of ten instead of five, and it might give me another chance to claim some Dungeon Cores.
However, before any of that, I decided to level [Placeholder] to level 6, now that I had the Free Experience to do so. As I had hoped, I gained another slot and, after some consideration, I decided to leave it empty. I could feel that I wasn’t ready to split more than five ways yet, and I needed some time to decide which class I wanted to put there.
More importantly, I gained a new skill. I had several as [Placeholder], such as [Rebirth Resonance], [Assume Class], and [Distribute Free Experience], which all simply dealt with the functions of the class. This new skill appeared different. And it came with a description which made it sound quite tempting.
Consume class: Consume a class from active class list. Level in this class will be reset to 0 and removed from active class list. Consuming a class awards free status points, free ability points, and free experience points which may be assigned to any status, ability, or class.
I read the skill several times to ensure I understood what it was saying. Not only would I be able to empty a class slot with this ability, but it would allow me to increase my base stats by giving me free status points. The significant increase in my Charisma showed just how powerful base stats are; it might be worthwhile to level a class simply to consume it to power up my other classes!
In fact, I might do exactly that with Archer and Acolyte. I considered for a while, but ultimately decided to wait on that. I assumed that the stronger the class was when it was Consumed, the more Free Points I would get for Consuming it. Since I had been planning to level them today, I decided to continue with that plan and come to a decision in time whether or not to Consume one or both of them.
With everything decided, I split myself and the five of us drew cards.
I drew warrior.