In any other time, breaking an important milestone signified by reaching the Enlightened realm would have signalled the beginning of great celebrations and festivities. Well, personal celebrations and festivities. One couldn’t expect one’s entire Sect or clan to give up on their daily business to make merry.
Regardless, it was a great moment. There would have been a feast or two, gifts to be procured, audiences of future promise to be held, new opportunities to plunder.
There was no such thing for Rieren. She couldn’t afford to relax or celebrate, couldn’t indulge in lavish dinners or expensive presents. There was no one to exult in the feelings with. Not even with herself.
The achievement of attaining the Enlightened realm was muted since she had already done it once. Now, it was a mere step towards greater power and prosperity. Towards higher realms that would make her current one look like the pittance it was.
Batcat meowed loudly and tapped her head with as much force as its little paws could muster. It was enough to make Rieren’s head flinch.
“No, cat, I am not moping,” she said. She wasn’t in truth. Rieren was glad she had achieved the Enlightened realm. She was excited to get started on advancing through the realm and explore all the new abilities it offered her. “I am just being realistic about the fact that there are greater heights I must climb and reach towards.”
Batcat hit her on the head again.
“Argh, alright, alright! I will find a place to have a nice, hot meal when we reach the closest town. Happy?”
They had moved on from the mountain with the last dungeon. Three days had taken Rieren farther into the eastern region of the Elderlands, closer to the lands of the Stannerig and the Ordorian clans. Closer to more populated regions.
It wasn’t unlikely that Rieren would find a town somewhere along the way. But they weren’t her destination. Not really. Advancing through the Enlightened realm was her real target.
Each of the realms that a cultivator could advance through had their own methods that allowed one to reach the various stages. Adherent had the condensing the body with Essence and opening the important meridians, and Awakened had the construction of Aspect Pillars in one’s elixir field.
With Enlightened, one was required to obtain the Vital Essence of the world. Classical texts and scrolls described it as a method of becoming one with the world, a way to attain Greater Comprehension and to Become One with the exterior universe.
Rieren wasn’t that concerned with the esoteric. In practical terms, what it meant was that she would have to cultivate a great deal at very specific locations in the world. These locations were said to hold special, un-Aspected Essence that could enhance one’s cultivation a great deal. But unfortunately, they wouldn’t be easy to reach. Rieren had a long journey ahead of her.
That was why, for now, Rieren had decided that her next main priority was acquiring a boatload of Credits.
One of the things still holding her back, especially with regards to how long it took for her to complete her cultivation, was the lack of resources. That could be remedied only one way. Gaining a lot more Credits.
To do so, Rieren needed a steady supply of monsters. The memories from the webs that Batcat had eaten—rather disgustingly, she had to add, at least to herself—had shown some dungeons the monsters had overtaken. These were spewing out Abyssals at an increasingly quick rate, likely due to the presence of Abyss Rents within them.
Kerolast and Mercion had even confirmed that there were such dungeons all over the Shatterlands. After all, they had only met because they were adamant on ending the slime dungeon’s potential to create Abyss Rents, and thus, Abyssals.
A part of Rieren hoped they had succeeded in securing the Dungeon Core. Most of her was just very curious if they had met the Banishedborn, and if they had survived the meeting.
Batcat flapped into being next to her, landing a few paces away in the grass. It nodded vaguely to her left.
“Did you find it?” Rieren asked.
In answer, Batcat lifted off and flew away. Rieren hurried behind the soaring kitten.
She had asked it to scout ahead and see if it could spot the dungeon from an aerial perspective. Batcat hadn’t baulked at the request. Instead, it had happily flapped off, ignoring Rieren for days on end only to appear sporadically to egg her onwards.
Rieren hadn’t exactly been seeking encouragement, but it was nice to see the adorable little furball enjoying itself.
They came to the dungeon’s mouth by the end of the day as the sun had begun sinking beneath the horizon. This was a great deal closer to populated areas than she had thought it would be. Along the way, she had spotted distant farmland and even a town situated in a valley dug out by a river cutting between two small mountains. The town hadn’t looked populated.
“Hmm, I do not like this,” Rieren said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The dungeon was giving her the same eerie, oppressive feeling as the one they had invaded back on Lionshard mountain. Its opening was dark, and there were Armistice Enforcers patrolling the area around it.
Rieren had no intention of going inside and trying to close the Abyss Rents. No, she needed them open. That was one of her regrets in the last dungeon with Mercion and Kerolast.
But if she wasn’t about to go in, she would need to draw the monsters to her. Hmm.
In the end, Rieren decided to launch a quick attack and leave a frightened impression upon the Abyssals. She preyed on the patrolling Abyssals and killed them rather easily, many of them falling before they were even aware of her location. They sensed her, but they were too slow to pinpoint her before she had ended their miserable lives.
It took several hours before the next band of Abyssals arrived. Rieren had sold her first targets’ Beast Cores for some minor Credits, but she had left their bodies rotting before the dungeon’s opening as a challenge. Or rather, as bait.
One that the rest of the Abyssals had taken in whole.
A gang of several more Armistice Enforcers ranged over the mountainside, hooting and hollering like crazed imps let loose. They were led by a more stoic Blightmane Lykan. The roles nicely reversed when the monsters finally found Rieren, with the Blightmane turning feral and crazed while the Armistice Enforcers lost a lot of their initial ferocity upon seeing her strength.
Thankfully, this Blightmane wasn’t as strong as the one she had faced in the last dungeon. Earthfall Blade let her easily deflect most of its attacks before letting it flash past her.
At the same time, she slashed appropriately to cut open the beast’s guts, letting its innards spill out in a bleeding mess and quickly die. Then she pounced on the Enforcers, killing all but one. That would allow the monster to warn the rest of its cohort.
Which would hopefully summon more monsters for Rieren to kill.
Of course, things couldn’t be that simple for the rest of time, much as Rieren wished it was. Batcat was still ranging out all over the area, heedless of her warning to stay closer and stay safe. Apparently, the kitten felt invincible.
Not something Rieren could argue against, considering she had literally never seen the cat in any actual trouble. She couldn’t help but worry a little, though.
But the important thing was that Batcat found another dungeon.
This one was apparently on a different mountain to their northeast, once again a little closer to populated lands. Rieren had to wonder if the Abyssals had begun ranging out, and if they had started raiding and plundering the lands.
She frowned. Why had she begun to think of them as barbarians with still-human motives? No, these were monsters who sought to destroy all that the lands above contained and turn the Mortal Realm into a facsimile of their Abyss. She had seen more than enough proof of the handiwork they were capable of.
Though, this also reminded her of her trip into the Abyss, and of the words the Gravemark Puppeteer had uttered.
Much as she liked to think of the Abyssals as monsters driven by an animalistic urge to destroy—which might even be true for the weaker and less intelligent varieties that made up the Abyssals’ rank and file—that wasn’t truly the case. At least, not purportedly.
The Abyssals weren’t really seeking to remake the world in the shape of the eponymous Abyss they hailed from. No, they were supposedly getting away from the dreaded world they left to invade the Mortal Realm. This new world was an opportunity for the monsters. A place where they could construct their homes and their lives without the Abyss’s oppression.
A part of Rieren understood that it was a normal goal. That the motivation behind their actions had a basis that she could comprehend.
However, the rest of her had seen more than enough proof of what the Abyssals would do once they had proper reign over the lands. There was too much death and destruction, too many shattered lives and broken dreams in their wake. Far, far too much fear and despair. Regardless of their motivation, the Abyssals were nothing more than rapacious, would-be conquerors.
As such, Rieren’s sympathy for their plight was quite limited. Another part of her, albeit a small one, recognized that there was some minute possibility for cooperation and harmony. It wasn’t impossible for the Abyssals to rein in their tendencies and live in relative peace.
Fat chance of that, though. They had already caused far too much destruction to ever scale things back and negotiate in good faith. Not with the general public.
With two dungeons present in the locale, Rieren had a lot more options, as well as a lot more danger. Just as she had suspected, the other dungeon had decided to reinforce the one she had targeted. The day following the initial discovery and the attack upon the patrols, Rieren received a visit from both dungeons’ Abyssals at the same time.
It would seem that they had determined she was a proper threat and had thus decided to attack with all the force they could muster.
Rieren had to give them props for coming up with a rather elaborate strategy. First, she was surrounded by a veritable army of Armistice Enforcers. The weaker Abyssals would keep her busy.
Meanwhile, there were several Shadeborn on the outer ring of monsters, while several Blightmanes were loping about, ready to attack at a moment’s notice. In other words, Rieren was surrounded and had little hope of escape or manoeuverability.
Of course, she wasn’t interested in running from the fight. And she certainly wasn’t about to lose.
So, she summoned her Domain and sent out waves filled with steam. With the monsters sufficiently thrown off balance and confused by her steam, it was a simple matter to launch a salvo of Gale Blade. Rieren more or less flew into the Abyssals and proceeded to tear them apart. The Enforcers were too weak, the Shadeborns too slow, and even the Blightmanes could do nothing.
Once they were all dead, Rieren finally came to a stop and let her Domain fade away. She smiled. A bounty of Beast Cores. This endeavour of farming up monster kills between two dungeons was turning out fantastic.
“Are you alright, kitten?” she asked as she sold one of the Blightmane beast Cores to receive twelve credits.
Through the corner of her eye, she had spotted Batcat landing down with a little thump. It flapped its wings dejectedly, then seemed to go to sleep right where it had landed.
Rieren stared with rising concern. Very strange. Batcat always either pounced onto its perch on top of her head—which she supposed wasn’t that appealing now that she was covered with Abyssal blood—or found itself a nice, hidden corner to rest in. To go to sleep right in the middle of a massacre, with Abyssal blood and corpses everywhere…
Quickly selling off the rest of her Beast Cores, Rieren hurried over to Batcat. Upon closer inspection, it was starting to look obvious that the winged kitten was exhausted. Its wings dropped on its back, its tail had slumped, and it wasn’t even bothering to move after Rieren picked it up.
“Are you tired, kitten?” Rieren asked.
Batcat seemed to be nodding off to sleep. But then it jerked up its head and made biting motions at its wings. Biting always signified memories. So…
Rieren blinked. Ah, it wanted memories of flying.