“Fear not,” Kervantes shouted over the bestial roar. “I will take care of it. Please continue your cultivation with no worries.”

He sounded rather confident. Rieren had been quite a bit stronger when she had killed him, so she supposed even though she might lose to whatever monster that had appeared on the Abyss side right now, the Ceramic Automaton might be able to eke out a victory.

Deciding to let him try his hand, Rieren refocused on cultivating away the Abyss Rent. If only the cursed thing wasn’t so powerful. Even after all the Essence she had drawn away from it, there was still a good deal left. Its regeneration powers were frankly staggering.

As she continued her cultivation, she opened up the various options her latest level offered her.

[Skill Tree]

You have one available skill evolution point. Pick wisely.

Swordstorm Severance [E]

* An [Offensive] skill that allows 10 rapid strikes in a radius of 7 paces around a target.

* Use: Once per battle

* Special: [N/A]

Sheathed Passage [E]

* A [Movement] skill that guarantees safe passage for 10 paces through up to A-Grade attacks.

* Use: Once per battle

* Special: Blade must be sheathed

Earthfell Blade [E]

* A [Defensive] skill that deflects up to A-Grade attacks.

* Use: Unlimited

* Special: Deflects can be chained with other applicable skills or techniques

Bladereaver Posture [E]

* A [Buffing] skill that greatly enhances the Body stat for 3 minutes if a wound has been suffered.

* Use: Once per battle

* Special: Wound severity increases stat enhancement

Rieren nearly laughed in pleasure. The continuous sounds of Kervantes’s battle with whatever Abyssal had popped up other side of the Abyss Rent sobered her up. But she couldn’t have been blamed if she had done so. All her options were great.

The improvements weren’t clear from just the descriptions for all of the skill evolutions. But experience had shown her how they could be used well.

For instance, Sheathed Passage actually appeared inferior at a glance compared to Fray Passage. While its range might be better, it would not allow her to attack and its use number was limited. Fray Passage had even been improved to allow evasion of B-Grade attacks in its current Grade. A-Grade for was a good improvement, but not something unreachable with Fray Passage.

However, the sheathed stance of the blade during the motion could become significant in a positive direction once Rieren acquired the right techniques to synergize with it. Obtaining those techniques would turn Sheathed Passage from an evasive movement skill to something that began her actual assault.

Earthfell Blade, which was going to be her choice for now, would turn into the skill she used for most of her protection. Unlimited use wasn’t something to be passed off easily.

Of course, it had its drawbacks too. Deflects didn’t work in the same way Ground Truth would simply stop any attack headed in her direction. All Rieren would be doing was enhancing her blade to allow her to push away any attack in a different direction.

But one of the things not stated by most of those evolved skills was that they would scale well with her stats. Such as how raising her Body stat would allow her to deflect easier and with greater efficacy. She might be able to push an onrushing C-grade Abyssal a few paces right now. With the proper stats however, she would be able to send it flying off a few leagues.

Since Rieren’s Body stat was already rather high, compared to her contemporaries, it was only natural she obtained Earthfell Blade.

Rieren let the skill tree fade from her sight. There was a certain sequence she had to follow. Long years of experience had granted her the knowledge of what the best route to take was, though it didn’t take much thought to see that certain skills would help her greatly compared to others.

There was the new Domain Point to allocate as well. Rieren did so, taking a quick look through the various ways it had been improved.

Domain

Summons a realm of water around the user.

Stats

* Use: Once per battle

* Range: 8 paces

* Affected skills/techniques: Gale Blade, Earthfell Blade, Fray Passage, Reaver Stance, Tidal Summons

* Aspects: Water, [Selectable], [???], and [???] [Upgradable]

* Special: Enhances recovery by 35%, Enhances Body and Spirit stats by 10%

So many integral benefits to her Domain. Its effective range had been doubled, the benefits and bonuses it would provide her had been raised quite high, and she could now add another compatible Aspect to the main one of water.

Rieren smiled. She might not have enough of the exact Aspect she wished to infuse into the Domain next just yet, but it would be coming soon.

The most important bit was that her Domain would be raising her inherent Body stat. Naturally, one might fear that this would put even further strain on the body, after just having crossed a stage of cultivation. However, enhanced and bonus stats didn’t impact one’s physical form the same away regular addition by level up did.

Which, Rieren still had to add her new stats to her actual [Status]. Just for good measure, Rieren peeked into it as well.

[Status]

Rieren Vallorne

Race: Human

Class: Divine Bladereaver

Profession: [N/A]

Realm: Adherent [Peak]

Level: 19

Perks: Divine Resilience [B]

Titles: [N/A]

Stats

Body: 40

Mind: 22

Spirit: 22

Skills

Fray Passage [B]

Gale Blade [C]

Earthfell Blade [C]

Reaver Stance [B]

Techniques

Tidal Summon [D]

-

Domain

Ocean [D]

Rieren smiled. She had used the skill points she had saved from the last few achievements to raise her new skill directly to C-Grade. It was an unfortunate aspect of the system that all new skills started at E-Grade, regardless of the level of the skill being replaced.

She refocused on her surroundings. The fight was dying down. Rieren had continued to cultivate while she had been doing system things, and her efforts were paying off. Her cultivation rate was fast enough that much of the Abyss Rent had been torn down. Just to keep herself topped off, Rieren swallowed the last dose of the mixture she had left.

Thanks to Kervantes, she didn’t have to worry about slowing down for long. The automaton dragged in the corpse of the monster he had just killed.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“Here you are,” Kervantes said. “A monster corpse, just as requested.”

He had brought in the Abyssal on the Abyss’s side, so Rieren still couldn’t see what exactly it was. But judging by the sound of it being dragged in, she was pretty certain it was big. Larger than most of the Abyssals she had seen and fought against so far.

Much as she would have liked to observe it, she simply sold it to the System Shop to receive quite a few Credits. That just proved it was a rather high-Grade monster too.

More importantly, Rieren earned enough Credits to get some more Blood Accelerant pills and Abysmal Dawnlight tea. Well, earned wasn’t exactly accurate. All Rieren had done was sit in one spot and cultivate. Though, one could argue that she had convinced Kervantes to help, and thus kill the monster, so she could lay claim to some credit.

Nevertheless, as the Ceramic Automaton continued fighting off monsters, Rieren refilled her mixture and kept on cultivating away the Abyss Rent.

It didn’t take long for her to collapse the Abyss Rent. The part of Rieren stuck within the rent started feeling even weirder. She was losing feeling there, all sensations dying down to the level her sight was at. Basically nothing. With a quick warning to Kervantes, she pulled herself out while still continuing to cultivate.

A few moments after the automaton popped out, Rieren finished collapsing the Abyss Rent.

She couldn’t tell how long exactly it had been. Perhaps two to three hours or so. Time was difficult to keep track of when it was being slowed down to such a degree. She had the distinct feeling that the disciples at the first Abyss Rent had taken somewhat longer.

Rieren pushed the thoughts out of her head. The Abyss Rent was down. Now they had to hurry to the locations she needed one to reform and cultivate there.

Batcat, who had fallen asleep beside the Abyss Rent, now woke up as it sensed excitement. Rieren greeted it with a smile and made to pick it up, but it hissed at her and padded off a few steps. Ah, of course. All the corrupted Essence had the kitten on edge.

It seemed the winged cat was unable to last without its usual resting spot for long, however, and it walked back to her with pleading eyes. Sighing and holding back her laughter, Rieren obliged its wishes.

“There, Your Highness,” she said. “You have now reconquered your throne.”

Batcat purred and dug itself its usual nest in her hair.

“That takes care of that,” Kervantes said, clapping its ceramic hands in a rather human gesture. He found her staring. “What is it?”

“Nothing. We should move.”

“Yes. We do not have long before the next Abyss Rent pops up.”

Rieren was already making sure there were no spouts of any corrupted Essence in their vicinity. “Right. I need you to take me to the broken passage that is flooded with steam.”

“What?”

She quickly described what she knew about the exact location she and the others had passed through before finding the Abyss Rent Elder Olg had passed through. “It is past the floating platforms that you have to move with switches.”

“Oh.” Kervantes suddenly sounded faintly amused. Rieren tried not to scowl at him. She was certain he was enjoying thinking of the disciples and guards desperately trying to figure out the way to cross over the chasm. “Certainly. Please follow me.”

“Lead on.”

They left quickly. Kervantes knew the dungeon and its layout as though it was written on the back of his hand, and Rieren had to admit her internal surprise at how soon they arrived at their location.

She could feel herself relaxing as the warm steam passed her by and her feet splashed in the floodwater. Any particular location would do here, but she wanted to find a spot that would be properly defensible in case any monsters bypassed Kervantes and attacked her.

To that end, the spot where the tunnel was broken turned out to be her best bet. Rieren could orient the Abyss Rent such that any monsters barging out too fast would simply go through and fall into the depths. The lava and blistering water, not to mention the overheated rocks, would take care of them as they fall.

Of course, that would only happen if they didn’t have wings. Those Shifters would certainly find a way to climb back up. But considering that most of the Abyssals didn’t possess anything of the sort, Rieren went through with the plan.

“Same arrangement as before?” Kervantes asked.

Rieren nodded. “I will try to be as fast as possible, but while opening an Abyss Rent is easy, closing one is much more difficult.”

“No matter. My patience is not infinite, but it is rather deep.”

He wasn’t wrong there. His defense of the last Abyss Rent had seemingly improved his mood by a great deal. At least he wasn’t despairing anymore.

“There is something else I might need your assistance with first.” She explained her intention of making the new Abyss Rent open up facing a certain direction. “Do you know if there is a way I can accomplish that?”

Kervantes considered a moment. He stayed so still, Rieren had to wonder if his internal mechanisms had shut down for a moment. “Yes, it is rather simple. Allow me to guide you for a moment.”

The automaton grabbed a hold of her upper arms and physically moved around her as though she was his doll. Such a gesture would have been exceedingly odd and inappropriate from any other person, but Rieren let it pass. Kervantes didn’t exactly abide by human behaviours that no doubt appeared strange to him.

“Perform your channeling now,” he said when he was done, stepping back.

Before she did so, she once again roused Batcat and placed it away from herself. The kitten hissed at her, then at the water, then at the general surroundings. Clearly, it didn’t appreciate being wet.

“Bear it for a little while, please, will you?” Rieren asked.

Batcat sniffed mightily, raised its rail in affront, then splish-splashed off elsewhere. She would have tried to find a place it could be comfortable, but there was no time to waste.

Rieren channelled some of the corrupted Essence through the Malformed Root. It went just as she had expected. As she continued cycling the Abyss-Aspected Essence through the tool, a strange, oppressing feeling overtook the air. There was an odd groan in the tunnel, the whole area shaking and trembling slightly. The dungeon was acting, like it had done with the platforms.

An Abyss Rent formed up in the exact location Rieren had been aiming for. Thanks to Kervantes’s input, it had popped up in the manner she thought best.

“I will begin then,” she said.

They both positioned themselves just as before. Rieren was halfway into the Abyss Rent, with her senses dulled and her vision nonexistent on the Abyss’s side. Kervantes had fully immersed himself already. After that, it was simply a matter of waiting a few more hours until Rieren had another of her Aspect pillars completed.

It wasn’t as exciting as last time. There were less monsters this time as well. It made sense. Most Abyssals wouldn’t know about the existence of a new Abyss Rent so quickly.

Rieren would also not be receiving any achievements for completing another Aspect pillar until she finished her last one. However, she still looked forward to the Aspect pillar itself. The Essence she was drawing in was the pure Essence thanks to the Purifying Egg, but it was also joined by the steam-Aspected Essence around her. The second Aspect for her Domain.

While her first Aspect pillar had been about water’s state of being, the current one focused on its ability to transform into other forms and shapes. That was partly assisted by the steam-Aspected Essence she was drawing in.

By the time Rieren was done filling up the second Aspect pillar, they hadn’t faced even a single monster. Kervantes commented on it once or twice, but he didn’t seem worried.

Besides, Rieren was more interested in the Aspect pillar. With it complete, she finally advanced a stage in the Awakened realm, reaching the Mid-Awakened stage.

The advancement wasn’t easy at all. She recalled what had happened to that girl who had tried to advance a stage back near the first Abyss Rent she had encountered. The world grew completely dark, the faint hint of massive shapes moving about in the gloom. Rieren anchored her focus entirely on herself.

Kervantes’s presence ensured she wasn’t the main attraction for the monsters, though.

It was a little worrying how long it had taken her just to get one-third of her current realm completed. But she decided not to worry about it and instead focus on her actual accomplishment.

“Did something happen?” Kervantes asked.

Rieren opened her eyes. While her right side could see nothing in the Abyss Rent, the left one took in how the area was swathed in misty steam, making visibility difficult. “Yes. I advanced by a stage in my cultivation. Could you sense it?”

“If that is what I sensed, then yes.”

Rieren nodded, though she wasn’t sure Kervantes could see it. Both sides of the world were a little lost from view. But it made her wonder about all the dungeon’s functions. Were they all powered by the Essence channelled by the Dungeon Core? It only made sense, though she hadn’t properly considered it before.

But more importantly, it was interesting to find that Kervantes now trusted her enough to reveal that sort of information. She was both a cultivator who was likely to have ulterior motives and the person who had killed him last time.

Rieren wasn’t about to question him about it. Who he chose to place his trust in was his business. She had asked out of simple curiosity, not seeking to take advantage of what she learned. Could she find it useful in accomplishing any objective that might pop up later? Perhaps. If any silly crises of morality annoyed her then, she would be sure to quash it.

Batcat returned all of a sudden, yowling loudly. Around the same time, she began feeling a strangeness in the Essence around her. Maybe this was what Kervantes had sensed.

“Something is happening,” Rieren said, quickly pulling herself out of the Abyss Rent and catching the alarmed winged cat as it flew into her arms. She patted its head to calm it down. “Kervantes, you need to come out of there.”

The automaton obeyed quickly. “Is it… closing? You didn’t begin collapsing it yet, did you?”

“I did not.”

They stood outside in the steam and low level of water around the area, watching the Abyss Rent slowly close up. Just as they tended to when their corrupted Essence was cultivated away, the rent collapsed in on itself and dwindled to nothing as though it had never been there.

Rieren was baffled. Had someone destroyed from the Abyss’s side?

“This is not good,” Kervantes said. “The dungeon is closing this.”

Automatons couldn’t express their fear in the same way people could, but the way his gears were constantly clicking seemed to indicate agitation.

“What do you mean?” Rieren asked. Batcat echoed her question with a soft meow. “Why would it do such a thing?”

Kervantes’s gears clicked even faster, making his words a little hard to understand. “I cannot ascertain the exact reason why, but the only one who has the power to instantaneously close Abyss Rents is the dungeon itself. At least, when there are no others present in the vicinity. Besides, I recognize the Essence being used to close it.”

Rieren hadn’t sensed anything, but she focused some Essence into her eyes and looked around. He was right. There were strands of strange, orange-coloured Essence flowing out of the spot where the Abyss Rent had been. All the strands were flowing into the dungeon’s walls. That indicated that it was indeed the dungeon’s Essence.

“A part of a more concerted effort,” she said. “You mentioned that the dungeon was closing itself up, yes?”

“Yes,” Kervantes said.

They were silent for a moment. The development was certainly worrying. Rieren was glad that she had been able to get at least one more Aspect pillar completed, but the Dungeon Core’s actions hinted that something greater was going to happen somewhere and they needed to act before it came to pass.

“Time is wasting,” she said. With the Abyss Rent gone, it was flowing normally again. In other words, they had no time to waste. “We need to find a way into the Dungeon Core’s chamber.”

Kervantes only stood still for a moment. She suspected that if it had been capable of showing expression, she would have seen it look conflicted then. On one hand, the automaton also wished to end the Dungeon Core’s association with the Abyssals.

On the other hand, it would be leading potential other enemies straight to dungeon’s heart.

“Make your decision, Kervantes,” Rieren said, facing the automaton head-on. “If you decline to lead me further, I will find my own way forward.”

“And where will that way lead you?” the automaton asked.

“Straight to the Dungeon Core.”

“Then there is no point in dallying, is there?” All the worried clicking within him finally came to a stop. “Fine, I will lead you there myself.”

“Good. Then we should get going.”

“Can you promise me one thing first?”

Rieren raised an eyebrow. “Not without hearing what it is first.”

“What do you intend to do to the Dungeon Core?”

“Me? Nothing. I care nothing for it other than removing the Abyssals’ influence upon it.”

“And you will not promise what the intention of the others you are associated with are, will you?”

“When I do not even know their true intentions?” She shook her head. “However, I will warn you that most do not wish to help the Dungeon Core out of the goodness of their hearts. Things will be expected. Perhaps even taken. You must decide how you will react to it when the time comes.”

More agitated clicking of gears all over the automaton, but those came to a stop as well. “Very well. We will see what the near future holds. Let us go before things become worse.”