Chapter 347: Who Needs a Labyrinth? |
Your party has slain Kun’sat: Davahn United, Grade 30
If we’re being honest, that grade is just a guess. Yes, all the grades we assign are guesses, but most of those numbers have a lot of data supporting them. These United freaks are both new enough and weird enough that we’re not comfortable tossing around numbers all willy-nilly, but we saw this guy throw out enough moves to get a good read on him. Now you all can point to that big, fat grade and feel better about how close you came to losing more than just a few limbs.
You have made progress towards the Emergency Objective: Eliminate the United. Mana chip rewards have been upgraded by 1 tier.
Your party receives the following rewards:
4 Diamond Chips
40 Emerald Chips
400 Ruby Chips
4 Unity Essences
You receive 1 Diamond Chip, 10 Emerald Chips, and 100 Ruby Chips.
You receive 1 Unity Essence.
I wasn’t sure I liked the look of that last reward, so I quickly brought up the item description for the Unity Essence.
The essence of Unity. You can use it like any other essence, with very little risk of any specific, terrible thing happening. The subset of things that could happen is pretty big, though, so take that for what it’s worth.
Alternatively, you can hold onto this item until the end of the Labyrinth where you can trade it in like you’re at a fucking prize counter. The more Unity Essences you have, the better the prizes will be.
In other words, stop reading this description and go find more victims.
I frowned but decided to hold onto it for now. A minute or so after the United had cremated his own corpse, Guar and Kai rejoined us through Closet portals. Kai walked with a crutch as his leg was still missing, but otherwise wore the same mildly somber look that seemed to nest permanently on his face. In contrast, the normally cheerful Guar looked sullen as he scratched aggressively at his shoulder where his arm was beginning to regrow.
“Why does it always itch so much?” he asked, peering into the wound like the answer to his question was hidden within.
“Mine never itches,” said Kai, looking down at his absent leg. “It feels strange, but it does not itch.”
They looked over at me, taking in my missing arm, hand, and throat.
“Does it itch for you?” asked Guar. I shook my head no, and the golden-eyed Littan scratched himself even harder in frustration.
Straight healing could only do so much for this kind of thing, the speed of which was generally based on health regeneration. I could bypass some of the wait time with my weird cells if Xim was focused on channeling the right kind of healing into me, but she wasn’t around so it didn’t matter. Regardless, all of my bits and pieces were fully restored after about 20 minutes, whereas Guar was only halfway to an elbow and Kai hadn’t made it more than a few inches past his hip.
We recovered some gear that had been lost during the fight, including Gracorvus and Guar’s shield. Gracorvus was fine, being indestructible, but Guar’s shield had an enormous bite taken out of it, rendering it fairly useless for its intended purpose. He sighed when we found it, then quickly swapped it out for a backup.
While the Dungeon was a bust, the annihilated environment made finding the path to the next junction within the Labyrinth easy enough. We found three platforms, all within a mile of one another. The first two led to more Dungeons, either Animal Husbandry or Survival, whereas the third just said “Obelisk”. While there may have been more, we decided to advance to our objective and head towards the obelisk rather than spend time on further exploration.
I once again marvelled at the spatial compression taking place and focused more intently on the sensation of moving through the tiny wormhole once it formed. I didn’t have any epiphanies but was steadily growing more comfortable with the phenomenon.
We came out in an orchard, with the obelisk sitting in the middle of a grove filled with a variety of fruit-bearing trees and bushes. A river ran through the zone’s center with schools of colorful fish swimming through its crystal clear waters. The environment was artfully arranged to give the illusion that it had formed naturally, although the cultivated beauty and plethora of edibles made clear that it wasn’t intended to fool anyone. It was a storybook illustration brought to life, and while it was pretty, it made me wonder who it was being pretty for.
Standing next to the obelisk was a stomach-turning stain on the otherwise gorgeous surroundings. Charl, yet again, preceded us. He was once more joined by a second person, however this time it wasn’t a Davahn murder machine.
It was Etja.
The cancerous United was chatting it up with the mage, fawning over her with the same odd affection he’d shown her the first time we all met. Etja turned to give us a wave as we approached, her expression lightly exasperated, while Charl ignored us to continue monologuing at the woman. My group of four stood and watched them converse, which mostly involved Charl talking at Etja while she nodded at the appropriate moments. She was an expert at weaving in noncommittal engagements like a well-placed “mm-hmm” or a perfectly timed “really?”
I thought there was a chance that we’d learn something from the man’s constant word vomit, but after several minutes, it became clear that all Charl was trying to do was recruit Etja into his apocalypse cult. Nothing that came out of his mouth had any substance to it.
I made a few subtle hand gestures at Etja, who replied without Charl being any the wiser. I leaned over and whispered to Guar, who pulled out his Wand of Infernal Cleanse.
“And Brae’ach said, ‘present to them what the world has denied them, and point them to me,’” Charl rambled. “I’ve thought upon this passage many times, and each time I revisit it I find new meaning. The world itself is built upon rules meant to oppress us, but Brae’ach is the one who willlll-yeaaaAAHHH!”
Charl fell over in a pillar of inferno until his body was reduced to ash. There seemed to be a lot of that going around, now that I thought about it. Etja watched the man burn, looking mildly upset, but eventually stood from the rock she’d been perched on and gave us a smile.
“Thanks!” she said. “It didn’t seem right for me to Disintegrate him since he can’t really hurt me, but I also couldn’t get him to stop talking, either.”
Guar held up his wand. “Happy to be of service,” he said. “Charl can definitely hurt me, so I have no problem seeing him gone.”
“Was he here to make some kind of point?” I asked.
“I genuinely think he believes he can convert people,” said Etja.
“He did not try to convert me,” said Kai. “Or the people under my command who he killed.”
“He seems picky,” Etja said with a shrug.
“You all right?” I asked. “How’d you end up here alone?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “I went into the Light Armor Dungeon with Nuralie and some other people, but when the Labyrinth thing grabbed us, we had to pick another Dungeon to go into. They were all martial skills, but I don’t have any martial skills so none of them matched up with me. Nuralie said we should keep looking and eventually we found another exit that listed one of my unique intrinsic skills, which was super surprising but also a lot better for me than Marksmanship or Blades would have been.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Which unique skill was it?” I asked.
“Incantation.”
“That one deals with your Mirtasian Cadence, right?”
“Yeah!”
“What was that Dungeon like?”
“It was a choreographed song and dance number!” Etja said, throwing two of her arms up and doing a quick twirl. “It was great!”
“Did anybody attack you while you were inside?”
“Nope. Were they supposed to?”
“We got intercepted by a Davahn United,” I said. “Pretty sure he didn’t belong to the Blunt Dungeon.”
“Charl?” she asked.
“No. I mean, yes, Charl was there, but he brought a pal. Guy was pretty strong.”
Etja looked between Guar and Kai, both of whom were still regrowing their missing body parts. She glanced at my bare arm and then at the other arm where I was missing a gauntlet. My helm and busted gorget had been removed entirely.
“Sounds scary,” she said. “I’m glad I didn’t run into anybody.”
Major Kai hobbled forward. “How long have you been here?” he asked.
“Thirty-six minutes.”
“And I assume it has been just you and Charl while you waited.”
“Yep!”
Kai looked up at the obelisk, then hopped forward on his crutch to slide a hand across it. He rubbed his jaw and turned back to us. “The notification says this obelisk still has all five distributions to give out.”
“Means we don’t have to arm wrestle over who gets it,” said Guar. “Unless someone else shows up.”
“Yes, it is convenient that there are five of us,” said Kai, looking around the grove. “I would like to wait for an hour to see if anyone else comes, but do not feel obligated to hold off on taking the level. I will abstain since I am already Level 20, unless no one else arrives before we decide to move on.”
Guar looked around to make sure we were all on board, then merrily made his way to the obelisk to get his second Platinum level, taking the man up to Level 17.
“What do you two think?” I asked Varrin and Etja. “This could mismatch our levels to Nuralie and Xim.”
“I wouldn’t worry,” said Etja. “If Nuralie finds an obelisk, she’ll definitely take it since they come with extra rewards that get better the more you grab.” She tapped a finger to her chin in thought. “Xim would just take the level without thinking too hard about it.”
“Fair enough,” I said. Varrin didn’t voice any disagreement, so we all laid hands on the obelisk and snagged our 17th level alongside Guar.
I considered whether to bank the points. My Dumping achievement gave a bonus point for every 5 attribute points I assigned, and I currently had 8 from the obelisk. They would decay after 24 hours, but if I got another level to get me to 16 banked points, I could use Dumping to get 3 bonus points instead of 2. The hangup with that was that it assumed I’d get another level very soon. It would also require me to put points into three different stats, and right now I was trying to rush my Intelligence to the next evolution breakpoint at 70. It was currently at 55, meaning I could get there with one more level after this one. If I went with the Dumping exploit, I’d have to wait at least one more level beyond that.
The uncertainty of our situation made me feel conservative. The party also had an agreement with Avarice to let us do another stat reset where we could clean up any of these kinds of inefficiencies. I decided to go ahead and drop them all into Intelligence, then glanced at the full list of values.
STR: 25
AGI: 10
SPD: 22
FOR: 70
INT: 64
WIS: 40
CHA: 10
LCK: 10
My plan after Intelligence was to start stacking more Wisdom to boost my mana pool and improve my perception, although Speed was looking mighty tempting after that last fight. Still, what had made the difference was that I could see the United when he moved, not that I could compete with how fast he was moving. Both would be nice, but so long as I could at least keep getting my shield between myself and the baddie, Wisdom still made more sense for my build.
You have claimed your first obelisk within the Less-Than-Habitable Megadungeon!
Tier 1 reward: Passive skill upgrade
Please choose an eligible passive skill to upgrade:
Who Needs a Cleric?
Archmage
I was 100% on board with this first reward. Who Needs a Cleric? was the first passive skill I’d ever picked up, my very first aura, and something that had been fading into irrelevance as we grew in levels. It granted health regen based on my Fortitude, which had been bonkers at Level 1 and was exactly ‘meh’ at our current level. It was still a solid boost to regen for our less robust party members, but didn’t make a major impact on my own wellbeing.
Who Needs a Cleric? also gave me an awareness of those affected by it, even letting me see a party member’s physical surroundings if I concentrated. That had become the more useful aspect of the skill over time, although I was hoping that the health regen was the part that would get upgraded.
Archmage had been my third passive skill pickup, and it was pretty straightforward. It buffed my mana pool and mana regen by 25%, and whenever I cast a spell, the relevant intrinsic skill was considered 10 higher than it actually was. It was a nice boost, but M1A1 WIZARD vastly outshone it as a raw improvement to my resources.
I had no idea why I couldn’t upgrade any of my other 3 passives, but I assumed they were all already exceptional. One was Bonded Familiar, connecting me to Grotto. The second was Auradilato, which had been a Special Delve reward. The third was the aforementioned M1A1 WIZARD, which the System gave me for getting my yee-haw on while I rode a supersonic birdplane into the side of a kaiju monster. More or less.
So, the passive skills available to upgrade were the vanilla ones I’d gotten like an ordinary Delver. I listened to my heart and applied it to Who Needs a Cleric?, which actually brought up a little upgrade menu. One of the options was “AURA BUFF”, so I naturally selected that one.
Who Needs a Cleric? (AURA BUFFED)
You exude a regenerative aura out to a number of feet equal to 10 times your FOR. Allies within the aura gain an additional amount of HP regeneration equal to your FOR. Allies within the aura also gain an additional amount of HP regeneration equal to your FOR for each beneficial aura effect you have applied to them other than this one.
You have an enhanced awareness of the location of allies affected by this aura and may focus to see their physical surroundings.
You and your party members are always considered to be within range of this aura due to Auradilato.
Who Needs a Cleric?, Auradilato, Reverse Card, and Hammerdin were all auras that I had up all the time, and my Clockwork Lifewarden staff gave me another aura that I could maintain without any ongoing cost. My Auradin evolution to Leadership currently granted a 37% bonus to the effects of my auras, meaning that the base buff from Who Needs a Cleric? was 96 bonus health regen. With the upgrade, my allies would reliably be getting a bonus 480 health regen.
That was a big leap.
However, the raw number wasn’t what made it an impressive upgrade, it was how much better the effect would now scale. As before, my Fortitude improved the bonus linearly, and Leadership improved it with a growing percentage boost, but now all of that was multiplied by the number of friendly auras I had going.
All of that also applied to me, and was doubled by my ring and then doubled again by Body of Asclepius. For me it was a bonus 1,920 health regen, whereas before it had been around 384.
That took my health regen from 3,718 to 5,266, which was a 41% bump.
I made a solid stank face as I looked at that figure and nodded with approval.
“Ohhh, that’s nice,” said Etja. “It’s like a cool breeze and a warm hug wrapped in a tasty flatbread.” She blinked through some menus while I contemplated her imagery.
“I do suddenly feel a sense of wellness,” said Varrin. He glanced at me. “You used the upgrade on your health aura?”
“I did,” I said.
“You’re quadrupling my health regen!” said Etja, prompting everyone else to check.
“Mine has been tripled,” said Varrin.
“Mine is also four times higher than normal,” said Kai. “That is quite a buff.”
“Doubled,” said Guar. “Does this mean my arm will grow back twice as fast?” He scratched at the growing nub.
“It was already growing back faster because of my aura,” I said, “but now it’ll grow back faster-er.”
“Right…”
“What did everyone else choose?” I asked. “Assuming we all received a passive skill upgrade.”
“I haven’t decided,” said Varrin.
“There’s too many good ones,” said Etja.
“Stun immunity,” said Guar.
“That was an option?” I asked.
“Impregnable turned out to be a weak passive,” he replied. “I’ve always regretted picking it up, but adding immunity to Stunned makes it pretty good.”
“I am definitely considering more ways to negate Stunned,” said Major Kai. “Getting knocked around by that Davahn was sobering.”
“If that’s the average threat level posed by the United we’ll be dealing with in here,” I said, “it might make sense for me to extract some of your people once we…”
I trailed off as my mind collapsed onto what my Closetland clone was dealing with. A wave of anger rose up in my chest, but I took several deep breaths, letting the surge die back down while drawing some curious looks from my entourage. A few seconds later, I stood, put my hands on my hips, and addressed the group.
“We’ve just been fucked by a dragon.”