TS6 Chapter 14

The door to the boss room opened, and almost immediately, Kat was assaulted by hot, fetid air.  She took a step forward and the ground squelched under her foot.  She bounced once on her toes, testing the springiness of the floor.

Her actions were rewarded with a splash.  Kat glanced down with a grimace, confirming that she was standing in a shallow moss covered pool of water.  She pursed her lips as she looked over the rest of the boss chamber.

A swamp.

The dungeon boss was fairly obvious.  The room itself was filled with dozens of small grass covered islands poking out of stagnant water.  In the center, the dungeon altar stood beside a conical pile of hardened mud that was almost four paces tall.

Buzzing filled Kat’s ears as a half dozen pairs of wings began to move.  One after another volleyball-sized shapes began to take off from the tower of dried dirt.  Kat squinted at them through the murky light as she pulled her crossbow off of her back.

Each of the creatures was a large winged bug, vaguely resembling a winged ant.  None of them were moving to attack, instead content to swarm around the mound.

Then, another half dozen sets of wings added to the hum.  More and more of the monsters began pouring out of the dirt tower.  About half of them had wings and immediately took off while the other others were more or less ordinary ants other than their size and their large clacking mandibles.

“Swarmers,” Kaleek said unhappily.  “Great.  I’ll get their attention, keep them off me.”

He started forward, sloshing intrepidly through the swamp water.  As soon as he hit the halfway point, the horde of ants sprang into motion.  The winged monsters took to the air filling the chamber with the sound of their wings as they spread out and created a half sphere around the desoph.  The ants that couldn’t fly, scrambled onto the water, running across it like it was pavement.  

Kat fired her crossbow, not even bothering to invest mana into the bolt.  Just as it was about to hit one of the flying ants, it swerved to the side, moving with almost supernatural quickness to avoid the attack.

A purple glow began to surround both of Dorrik’s swords, but before he could act three of the ants spit long streams of a hissing liquid at Kaleek.  He managed to slap one of the globs out of the air with his great sword, but the other two splattered across his armor.

Immediately the liquid began to bubble and Kat slid her crossbow back into its holster.  Instead, she began to cast Resist Acid on Kaleek.

Two waves of purple energy pulsed through the air, causing a half dozen of the madly dodging fliers to freeze.  Without their wings, the bugs fell into the swamp, immediately sinking as they struggled against the immobilizing Psi energy.

Kaleek crouched, dropping almost waist deep into the swamp.  Red energy surrounded him as he burned stamina.  Just as the ground bound ants started to reach him, Kaleek jumped, making it to the level of the flying ants as he jumped over the rest of the swarm.

Acidic spit arced past him, dappling the surface of the swamp and melting the grass from one of the nearby islands.  Just as the flying bugs turned to deal with Kaleek, his legs began to glow red a second time and he blasted off of thin air, jetting over the entire enemy formation and toward the now unprotected mound of dried mud.

The waterbound ants tried to turn around, abandoning their pursuit of Kat and Dorrik, but they weren’t nearly fast enough.  Kat’s gravity domain lifted her a handspan above the surface of the swamp and sent her flying toward the bugs.

As she arrived, Kat tossed every one of the insects that fell within her domain into the air, tweaking gravity slightly to leave them floating helplessly.  A handful of the monsters escaped, but they were easy prey for Dorrik as he pelted them with Ego Shards.

Each of the ants could survive two or three hits from the fast purple projectiles, but Dorrik had leveled the skill to a remarkable degree. The room flickered with purple light as he fired two to three shots per second, stunning and then murdering the monsters one by one as they tried to fall back in order to support their nest.

Kat didn’t stand idle while Dorrik did his work.  She hovered in the air amidst dozens and dozens of the helpless ants, her Pseudopod slashing back and forth on its own well outside their range as she killed them.

One or two of the flying ants tried to spit acid at her, but Kat’s control over gravity had grown to the point where she could control a bit over a dozen different gravity vectors at the same time.  It was as simple as breathing for her to alter her own flight, keep her victims hovering, and alter the gravity surrounding the streaks of gravity such that they arced through the air, splattering their companions with gobs of noxious phlegm that almost immediately began dissolving their exoskeletons.

She wasn’t sure if the monsters realized that their attacks were useless, or if the same instinct that had called the wingless ants to return to their nest was impacting their flying brethren.

Regardless, they were Kaleek’s problem.  He didn’t seem to mind, his greatsword glowing red as he began tearing huge chunks out of the nest.  The flyers tried pelting him with their acid, but between his armor and Kat’s spell, the hissing globs didn’t do much more than leave a sticky mess on his gear that he was sure to whine about to Kat later.

The final group of ant stragglers died under Dorrik’s mental assault, and he began wading toward Kaleek.  Already, dozens of the flying ants had surrounded him although only a couple dared attack him with the rest buzzing angrily as they tried to find an unobstructed angle to spit their acid at them without risking the nest that he was cheerfully destroying.

Kat maintained her position, keeping an eye on her two companions to see if they would need any magical help as she methodically destroyed the swarm of ants that was floating around her.  Dozens floated dead in the water beneath her while dozens more levitated around her, their jaws angrily clattering as they tried ineffectually to writhe and swim through the air toward their nest.

Silently, she couldn’t help but acknowledge how useful her domain was.  When she had first gained it at her class evolution it had been useful, but mostly as a tool to slightly augment her existing abilities or to let her drift or fall without needing to use mana.

Now?  It was a force in its own right.  She didn’t have any spells that could disable this many small monsters at once, but so long as Kat was willing to insert herself into the center of the battlefield, there was no reason that she couldn’t deny an entire area to her enemies.

More than that, she felt like she was on the cusp of something more.  Right now her domain could exert force on par with Gravity’s Grasp.  Enough to impair an opponent or to ground a weaker flyer.  It was a useful ability, but it didn’t have the stark stopping power of the gravity vortexes and shears of Gravity Spike, Gravity Plane, or Crushing Fist.  That meant she could use it to disorient or weaken a stronger opponent, but it wouldn’t be enough to properly weaponize it into a killing move.

With time that distinction had begun to blur and disappear.  Part of it was her daily exercises in the waking world where she pushed herself to use more and more of the domain at the same time by juggling balls or trying, and mostly failing, to knit without using her hands.  The other was that with each level she climbed, Kat could feel the range, force and her ability to control the domain growing stronger.

It was only a matter of levels before she would be able to do serious damage by targeting individual limbs or eyes with the ability.  Once she reached that stage, magic other than a couple of her light and water spells would be borderline useless around her.  The formless and manaless control of her domain was simply too versatile for any of her other abilities to properly compete.

Her eyes snapped up as Kaleek’s sword finally cut the nest in half.  Most of the flyers were down, easy prey for Dorrik as they frantically attacked the desoph without any concern for their own safety, but one or two buzzed angrily overhead.

A pair of chitinous legs popped out of the bisected nest, followed a second later by an ant head that was almost the size of Kaleek himself.  The feelers peeking out from its forehead twitched, and a purple glow suffused the entire room.

Dizziness washed over Kat, and she barely noticed herself splashing into the water.  The handful of surviving wingless ants tried to swarm her, but Pseodpod acted on its own, jabbing and slashing at her assailants to keep them at bay.

“Psychic attack!”  Dorrik called out, and a second later the purple glow shattered, revealing the same dim swamp.

Kat shook her head, standing up as the dizziness faded.  There were only two of the smaller ants left and Kat simply tossed them into the air with her domain, accelerating them toward the ceiling at almost four g now that her number of targets had decreased to the point where she could focus on them properly.

They slammed into the stone and ichor sprayed from the sudden cracks in their chitinous armor.  Immediately, Kat flipped gravity, sending them plummeting into the swamp like meteors.

Her original plan had been to bury them in the squishy moss so that her party could focus entirely on the huge psychic ant that had emerged from the destroyed nest, but the monsters’ water walking ability worked against them.  They might have been able to treat the swamp water like it was pavement, but that meant it treated them the same way.

Both of the ants splattered against the water, their corpses sinking as soon as their magic faded with their deaths.

At the nest, Kaleek was struggling.  Evidently the big ant had managed to grab hold of him with its mandibles during the second of weakness caused by its psychic attack.  Dorrik on the other hand was completely untouched as he danced around the monster, swords glowing purple as he landed slash after slash on the weak points in its armor.

Chips of chitin flew through the air like shrapnel and the huge insect shuddered with each hit, but it refused to relent from its assault on Kaleek.  The desoph had managed to wedge his sword between its jaws, and no matter how hard it tried to devour him, he held firm, grunting and swearing as he burned stamina like kindling in order to keep himself from being eaten.

Kat took pity on him, casting Overpressure on the monster.  Ichor sprayed from the wounds as the tiny cracks turned into fountains, draining the creature’s life force.  Once again, the feelers atop its head twitched, and Kat thought she could see a purple glow creeping rapidly into them.

Before the monster could get off another ability, Dorrik’s swords scythed through the feelers, cutting both of them free.

It shrieked, dropping Kaleek.  The desoph immediately dove to the side.  The monster tried to wheel around in order to target Dorrik, but the warrior danced backward and out of its reach.

Then Kaleek’s sword burst with red light, smashing into the side of the creature’s head like a freight train.  Chitin exploded as the slash left a deep crater in the insect’s armor, one that almost immediately started oozing ichor.  The ant swayed drunkenly, and Kat immediately took advantage of its weakness to cast Overpressure a second time.

With three water spells running simultaneously, Kat could feel her mana draining away.  Despite her fairly sizable reserves, she’d only be able to maintain this state for another five to six minutes, but any concerns were erased as Dorrik pounced on the creature’s back.

Both of his swords stabbed deep into the spot where the ant’s thorax and head connected, and evidently the attack found something soft and unarmored.  The queen stiffened and slumped forward.

Blood continued to flow from all of its wounds.  Despite the damage the three of them had done to it, the ant clearly had a decent amount of hit points left.  Still, that didn’t mean much when it was critically wounded and had a severed spine.

Kaleek stabbed and hacked away at the monster a couple times for good measure, and before too long the dungeon altar activated.  He didn’t really care, so Kat just walked past him.

Dorrik touched the stone structure and disappeared in a stream of rainbow light, and a couple seconds later, Kat took his spot, placing her own hand on the altar in order to claim her reward.

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Congratulations Adventurer!  

You have completed the Silver Tier Level Nineteen Dungeon, Hungry Bog

Three of Three party members surviving.  Good Job!

Assigning awards:

Gravity III

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A smile lit up her face.  Dungeon after dungeon had only granted her fairly ordinary increases to her attributes.  Admittedly, enhanced attributes were important and after a while the dungeon awards added up, but that didn’t make them exciting.  Having the reflexes, speed, and strength of a tiger was great, but that was the result of month after month of steady grinding rather than a new skill or signature ability that changed her entire fighting style.

Gravity III on the other hand?  Kat couldn’t even think of how long she’d been waiting for this.

Her class evolution had transformed her from an elementalist generalist to a gravity specialist that could use some other elements.  They still all had their times and places, but there was no doubt that her heavy hitting abilities were either her aura or her gravity spells.  Kat couldn’t even think of the last time she’d used Overpressure to kill a dungeon boss.  Sure, it weakened them and enough cuts would bring down almost anything that bled, but four or five stacked Gravity Spikes was usually enough to turn a monster’s insides into mulch.

She felt her pulse race as she beamed at the notification.  Kat didn’t even know what new spells would become available with the upgrade, but she couldn’t wait.  The iron tier abilities were a significant upgrade, and silver tier was rarer and much more dangerous.  With any luck-

The box floating in front of her flickered and Kat froze.  The text disappeared.

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Administrator modification detected.

Calibrating.

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“No!” she shouted, “Come back!”

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Congratulations Adventurer!  

You have completed the Silver Tier Level Nineteen Dungeon, Hungry Bog

Three of Three party members surviving.  Good Job!  Your rapid ascent has been noted.

Choose ONE award:

Gravity III

Evolved Gravity Aura I

WARNING: Choosing Evolved Gravity Aura I will eliminate Gravity II from your skill list along with all gravity related spells, opening up an entirely new branch of development and evolution.

Whatever your choice, we are observing.

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Kat’s breath caught in her throat.  A new ability at the cost of everything she’d already earned.

A string of curses died in her mouth as she glared at the notification.  There was no way that the new ability would be weak.  If the regular awards were being swapped out for it, the Evolved Gravity Aura had to be absurd.  The idea that it would be something normal or ordinary never even crossed her mind.

Of course, picking it would mean going back to the beginning.  Forgetting the abilities that had become her signatures, the things that, inside the tower, made her HER.

It would make the upcoming battle to climb to the twentieth floor harder.  She wouldn’t know how much harder, but there was no doubt that it would turn the battle into a nightmare.  Kat only had one dungeon left before it was time to fight the floor boss, and the idea of tackling something that powerful without Gravity Spike or Gravity Plane sent a spike of adrenaline ricocheting through her veins.

On one hand, it was a dumb idea.  Literally the fate of the world was resting on Kat’s ability to keep on climbing.  Dying in the tower in order to earn a new ability or skill was beyond dumb.  On the other, her instincts were screaming that this was a path to greater power.

The fight would be a risk.  Right now, with proper training and preparation she probably had an eighty five percent chance of triumphing over the next floor boss.  Their constant ascents without pausing to truly train and grind were pushing the team to the limit, but at the same time silver tier dungeons were a great method for tempering her new skills.

She glanced down at the altar, wishing that Dorrik was here.  She’d never heard anything about a skill evolution in a dungeon like this, but it must’ve happened at least a couple times in the history of the galaxy.  Kat was certain that there were some records somewhere that Dorrik could reference to advise her properly, but for now, outside of Kaleek, who seemed to be preoccupied trying to literally rip one of the big ant’s mandibles from its head, she was forced to make the decision alone.

Kat closed her eyes.  Taking a deep breath and holding it before releasing it.

It wasn’t really a hard choice.  It was just that letting go was hard.

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Your selection has been noted.  Growth requires sacrifice.  Sacrifice breeds progress.

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Kat didn’t even blink at the enigmatic message, waiting for the followup.  The administrator or the tower or whatever could go full fortune cookie for all she cared.  The next part was what really mattered.


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You have reached Level 1 in the skill Evolved Gravity Aura I, please select a first tier Aura Modification

Empower Aura

Expand Aura

Intensify Aura

Manipulate Aura

Shape Aura

Compress Aura

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None of the new Aura Modifications had descriptions.  All seemed simple in theory, but Kat had no idea what specifically they did.  Her aura was strong, but what would empowering or shaping it do?  Expanding or intensifying it made sense, but what in the name of Milton Friedman was empowering or compressing her aura?  What was the difference between manipulation and shaping?  They both sounded like synonyms, but Kat didn’t want to base her entire build off of assuming that two related abilities were ‘more or less’ the same thing.

Once again, the notification flickered.

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You have reached Level 1 in the skill Evolved Gravity Aura I, please select a first tier Aura Modification

Empower Aura

Expand Aura

Intensify Aura

Manipulate Aura

Shape Aura

Compress Aura

Stop thinking so much and just pick Empower Aura Katherine, they’re all good options - T

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She burst out laughing.  Apparently she warranted enough special attention from the administrator that whoever they were, they were still watching her.  More than that, they found her indecision and anxiety annoying.

Good.  It’s what they got for trying to dispense enigmatic wisdom without explaining themselves.

“Okay,” she said with a shake of her head.  “Fine.  I’ll pick Empower.”

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