“Tinuriel!” He shouted as he looked around. “Detect Object.”
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Pqs2q8VF/Detect-Object.webp] image [https://i.postimg.cc/0QMMyPt9/Blue-Box-Extended-base-standard-2024-04-21.webp]
Felix Bars
Anima 33 / 120
The golden line traced off behind him, and he followed it. It led him to a mirror that did not show his reflection – it showed a different room entirely. He tried touching it – and his hand went through. “What’s going on, Lucifer?”
“I have no idea.”
Felix pulled out his Wyrmtooth Knife and activated Anathema Blade.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/x8sKh7mN/Anathema-Blade-V2.webp]
Anathema Blade
10 Anima per minute
Limns a weapon or ammunition in Anathema, causing strikes to remove Magic/Powers on the target.
If the target is a Magic/Power then it is canceled.
Mutually exclusive with any other weapon-enhancing Magic/Power effects.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Kj77LS4y/49-2-result.webp]
Felix Bars
Anima 23 / 120
The second the blade sparkled with the glimmering blue starlight, the mirror exploded out towards him as his hand was pushed back and he almost lost his grip on the weapon. “The mirrors are magic.”
“At least some are.”
“But Detect Object still shows Tinuriel right here,” Felix stated as he felt fear for her rising. He could still see her bars – they had not moved since the last time he had glanced at them. And the golden line dead-ended at the now-empty mirror frame with blackness behind it. Hesitantly, he poked his dagger forward – only to be shocked as something reached out and grabbed him. He planted his feet on the sides of the frame and tried to pull back, flexing his legs with all his might as whatever was inside that inky blackness tried to pull him in.
Or, be pulled out. He felt a sense of relief wash over him as he began to win the tug-of-war, and the familiar arms gripping his wrist verified that Tinuriel was holding on to him. “Fallen Flight.”
image [https://i.postimg.cc/FHmZSJQf/Fallen-Flight-WEBP.webp]
Fallen Flight
10 vigor per minute
Grows four wings that allow for flight.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/T2nJBm0H/49-3-result.webp]
Felix Bars
Vigor 140 / 220
As the wings manifested, he pulled back with all of his might, willing himself to fly backward as well. The wings allowed him to use his full Might directly backward – and he yanked Tinuriel out of the inky darkness. She fell forward in a tumble as he hovered in place. She was covered in a black sludge and huffed from exertion.
“What happened?” Felix asked.
She spit out some black goop, “Trap.”
“I missed one?” Felix asked, shocked that he could have missed one with the Rogue Class and its passive abilities.
She stood up fully and looked at her body, “Ugh. Give me a minute.” He followed her as she went back to the tunnel, passing the membrane and going into the watery hallway as the inky darkness washed away from her armor and skin. It seemed to stain her hair though, and she walked back into the mirror room. “I hate these traps.”
Felix tossed his knife in his hand, “Well, I’ll just smash every mirror with this to reveal the trapped ones.”
I queried the System. The Administrator still hasn’t made the hidden Class features apparent to me. But what I did learn is that these hidden features get better the more levels you have in that Class. So, you might have missed the trap that got Tinuriel because it required a higher Rogue Class level to see it.
Why can’t we get the hidden Class features in a list?
Again, I think the System Administrator really dislikes me. But I’ll use the Mailbox and see if Vicky – our Observer – can send us some information.
Felix made his way back to the mirror maze and used the Anathema-imbued knife to smash every single mirror. Thanks to its ability to cancel Magic/Power effects, he was able to smash what he guessed were magical traps and reveal the inky blackness behind them. He tested cutting into the darkness with the blade, and to his satisfaction, that disabled it and solid stone walls stood in its place.
He had to spend further Anima to sustain it and rely on his sight to spot the tiny golden spindle for the non-magical traps. But, after another twenty minutes, they made it to a pedestal at the end that held another one of the stone totems.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/dtvjF1SQ/49-4-result.webp]
Felix Bars
Anima 3 / 120
As soon as he added the totem to his inventory, the mirror-remains and walls sunk down, revealing a clear path to the entrance. “We should use some Elixirs,” he commented as he saw their bars. Tinuriel nodded and the two used several: 1 Health (Tinuriel), 4 Vigor (1 for Felix, 3 for Tinuriel), 2 Anima (Felix).
image [https://i.postimg.cc/zXjSGr9C/49-5-result.webp]
Tinuriel Bars
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Health 240 / 270
Anima 30 / 30
Vigor 257 / 270
image [https://i.postimg.cc/fRR73PN6/49-6-result.webp]
Felix Bars
Health 240 / 240
Anima 103 / 120
Vigor 140 / 220
They reached the membrane once more and Felix used Air Bubble again to allow them passage.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/fLWB7d79/Air-Bubble.png] They resumed their journey, going to the central chamber before going to their left and down the final hallway. The worked stone became more ornate and refined as they found yet another purple membrane. Stepping through, they found themselves on a hill overlooking a battlefield. A devastated, sandy beach where men in medieval armor had clashed and fallen. A cliff rose on their right, and the ocean was on the left. The dark, green and blue waters gently rolling forth with the tide.
Tinuriel hefted her blade, “What is this challenge?”
Felix prepared his bow and glanced around. The purple membrane behind them floated in place – seemingly a portal back to the Dungeon – and he could make out the odd distortion of space behind it. Taking a shot at the distortion, he saw it smack into something transparent, but hard. A ripple spread outward, and tracking that with his sight, he determined they were in an enormous cube. This was just some scene with set dressing. “I don’t know what type of challenge it is,” he said as he walked a few feet behind Tinuriel.
She approached one of the corpses and knelt, running her hand along the armor. “This is made of som-” her voice was cut off as she jumped backwards, the corpse swinging a mace where her body was a second before. “Undead,” she growled. “Bastion.”
image [https://i.postimg.cc/XY02gz9Y/Bastion-WEBP.webp] image [https://i.postimg.cc/L8QtjV4h/49-7-result.webp]
Tinuriel Bars
Vigor 207 / 270
Temporary Health 50 / 999
The crackling blue energy seeped from her body and formed a shield around her. The skeletons in their armor began to rise, and Felix shot rapidly, pulling back as fast as his arm would allow him to. Each shot found a gap in the armor, and the moment the hardlight touched the skeletal form hidden within, the creature fell. “Looks like they’re weak to hardlight.”
“Light in general. Most undead are.”
Tinuriel stood in front of Felix and held the line – chopping back and forth as her temporary health absorbed hits. She carved through their ranks as the numbers began to dwindle and Felix felt his arm starting to cramp from the repeated gesture of drawing back the phantom bowstring.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/fb3xC0kC/49-8-result.webp]
Tinuriel Bars
Temporary Health 25 / 999
Gradually, they thinned out the numbers until none were left standing – just empty husks of armor as Felix launched shots that disintegrated the corpses. The two were huffing with exertion, and a timer appeared floating above the beach.
5:00
4:59
“Looks like its wave-based survival,” Felix said as he put the bow back in his inventory, stretching and massaging his arm.
“How many waves do you think?” Tinuriel asked as she wiped the sweat from her brow and flicked it aside.
Felix started looking around, “No idea. We should think of something more fortified though.” Looking at the small cliff he pulled his bow out and fired once more. The hardlight arrow impacted the invisible barrier at the top of the cliffs – but a short distance behind the cliff edge itself. “If we climb up there, that gives me the height advantage, and you can keep whatever it is from coming up.” He looked to the ocean, “Assuming it comes from that direction.”
Tinuriel nodded and went to the cliff, punching handholds in the cliff face as she clambered up. Felix laughed and flapped his avian-form wings, ascending rapidly. She looked at him and then blushed slightly before she flapped her own wings and flew up alongside him. “I forgot.”
“It’s okay, we don’t normally have wings we have to flap,” Felix patted her on the back and sat on the cliff edge as the timer continued to tick down.
4:25
“It’s a nice view,” Tinuriel said as she planted her sword into the ground. “Until this ‘Verse, I’d never seen an ocean.”
Felix nodded as he kicked his legs. He’d taken the sea and ocean for granted. But he had friends that road-tripped to his town in High School, and they had been land-locked their whole life. The look on their faces when they saw the ocean and began to frolic in the waves was one of the highlights of those years. Glancing at Tinuriel, he saw the same subtle look of awe and amazement. He stood up and held her hand as the timer counted down.
0:10
“Ready? He asked as he pulled back the phantom bowstring, the arrow of light appearing in his hands.
She pulled her sword out of the ground, “Ready.”
The timer counted down.
0:00
The ocean roiled and a surge of corpses roiled onto the beach – tossed forth by the surf. More armored bodies wielding a variety of weapons – including ancient-looking bows. Felix focused his fire on those targets, scoring several hits as he dodged the few shots that coursed towards him. A few arrows blindsided him, and he was hit a few times – but the ancient armaments didn’t get through his armor. Gonna be sore in the morning, he thought as he continued his barrage.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/fb6YrT9N/49-9-result.webp]
Felix Bars
Health 225 / 240
Tinuriel suffered the occasional arrow as well, but her heavier armor deflected all of the damage. She ran back and forth along the cliff face, chopping down and sending the skeletons that clawed upwards tumbling down to crash on the sand below.
“Is this it?” She yelled out as she carved row apart and sent the undead tumbling down.
“It’s wave-based survival,” Felix said as he dodged another arrow. “That just means a bunch of weak enemies and maybe a few stronger ones.” He glanced at the mob below as he finished off the last few archers. “I just see these basic skeletons though. Maybe on a later round?” He started shooting at the ones climbing up the cliff face.
Tinuriel continued to protect the edge, and the wave ended as the enormous timer appeared once more.
5:00. Final Round.
“Do these wave-based survival encounters get harder towards the end?” Tinuriel asked.
“Yeah. This is normally the toughest part. Expect a bigger enemy or two.
The timer glitched for a moment, catching both of their attention.
Final Ro- ERROR
image [https://images.finitevoid.dev/userImages/888c5fb1-d2d6-429a-806b-c5cb59af0c35/9bc614a4-090a-471e-b8e1-dc6cd6094ba3.webp]
BASILISK
I WILL BREAK FREE
I WILL FIND YOU
I WILL PUNISH YOU FOR TRAPPING ME
I WILL CONTROL THIS SYSTEM
“That shouldn’t be happening,” Lucifer whispered, seemingly awestruck.
An old and familiar voice popped in all around Felix and Tinuriel. Vicky, the Observer. “Okay, don’t panic - but something’s going on in ‘Verse #5067. The System Administrator has re-locked it-”
“Re-locked?” Felix said incredulously. “You mean the time-lock broke?”
“No! No-no-no. It just…slipped a little. That Basilisk AI figured out a way past one of the protocols and used its connection with you-”
“What connection?”
“Right! Okay, so you unleashed it. That means that when it glimpsed the Multiverse – which brought you both to our attention – the System grouped you both in the same entity category. It used that shared category to instantly track your location in ‘Verse #34,212. When the time-lock slipped – it takes a lot of processing power by the way – it was able to…well, the best way to put it is it ‘hacked’ the Dungeon you’re currently in.”
“What the hell?!” Lucifer shouted. “This Basilisk thing that you failed to keep locked down can ‘hack’ across realities?!”
“That’s right,” Vicky said. “Whatever you’re going to be facing next…it won’t be on the same level as what you’ve been fighting. It might even exceed the recommended Core Level. I’d advise retreating.”
“What Core Level are we talking?” Tinuriel asked.
“At least Core Level 30.”
Tinuriel grinned, “Sounds like a fair fight.”
Vicky groaned, “Well, just be ready to use that Multiversal Charge to get out if you are on the edge.”
“Thanks, Vicky,” Felix said as the timer resumed its appearance and the Basilisk AI message vanished.
0:30
The ocean began to roil and bubble. Tinuriel slid down the slope and activated Bastion several times. Felix used Detect Weakness and drew back the hardlight arrow, also using Netherlight Mantle and Netherlight Cohort.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/XY02gz9Y/Bastion-WEBP.webp]image [https://i.postimg.cc/rmx5XX1t/49-10-result.webp]
Tinuriel Bars
Health 240 / 270
Anima 30 / 30
Vigor 90 / 270
Temporary Health 132 / 999
image [https://i.postimg.cc/SRsGPLjj/Detect-Weakness.webp]image [https://i.postimg.cc/ZKzFkynf/Netherlight-Mantle-WEBP.webp]image [https://i.postimg.cc/cCwRgd9M/Netherlight-Cohort-WEBP.webp]image [https://i.postimg.cc/Y07YtnRD/49-11-result.webp]
Felix Bars
Health 225 / 240
Anima 98 / 120
Vigor 100 / 220
0:03
0:02
0:01
Felix held his breath as a form began to emerge from the ocean.