Chapter 354: The Backrooms |
A few of the hornets survived Tomomaru’s lethal flex. They flew in drunken circles, looking disoriented as their hands grasped for something to grab onto. A couple found a branch to hold, while others crashed into tree trunks or fell to the ground.
Rufio was making speed away from me, but I took a moment to ramp up my Soul Sight while studying the bug-monkeys. As I feared, I was able to pick out the source of their abnormal behavior. An extremely thin soul thread was attached to their heads. It led off to our southeast, which is where the other animals had been heading according to Joma.
The Iskarim hung back and waited for me while Nottagator swooped around in her spectral form, moving in and out of tree trunks. Once we got going, I let her know what I’d found, and she made it clear that she was less than enthusiastic about following Rufio.
“This guy claims he’s taking us to an obelisk,” she said. “Even if that’s true, he isn’t tracking the animals. I’d rather find out where they’re going than get a level.” She paused as we split to fly in different directions around one of the massive trees, then continued when we got close again. “If Charl is fucking with the inhabitants we should do something about it, and I’m supposed to hold off on levels until the others on my team catch up anyway.”
“The two of us aren’t a good match up for Charl,” I countered. “I’m immune to his shit but you aren’t. Can you even use one of Xim’s Infernal Cleanse wands?”
“I picked up Divine Magic, but the skill level isn’t high enough yet.”
“Then our best bet is to try and meet up with people first. This Labyrinth is obviously taking us to the center of the forest, which is the direction all the animals were heading.”
“We’ll probably just get split up again,” Joma said, looking frustrated. “This place would be okay if it weren’t getting so screwed up. Training, puzzles, upgrades. This whole Dungeon was filled with semi-sapient groups on the cusp of forming actual civilizations. Then you get some dumbass like Charl ruining their lives along with these United. Bunch of seal fuckers.”
I took a moment to appreciate Joma’s colorful language. “We’ll do our best to un-fuck it,” I said. “We just need to make sure we have the people and tools to do it.”
Finally we emerged in a chamber filled with bioluminescent frogs that went into a hopping frenzy when we invaded their underground habitat. Joma made a few clicking noises and the frogs calmed down, then Nottagator’s ghostly head popped out from the wall and all the amphibians went deathly still.
“No,” said Joma, pointing at the Atrocidile. Notty had been staring at the frogs and licking her teeth. She let out a multi-tonal whine. Joma shook her finger in response, and Nottagator disappeared without having any froggy snacks. She saw my curious look after and took a second to explain. “This should be obvious, but don’t ever let your pets eat unidentified glowing frogs,” she said. “At best they’re poisonous, but the real fucking problem is when they’re hallucinogenic.”
I imagined Nottagator being dosed up out of her gourd and agreed that it was a situation best avoided. I felt a moment of disappointment that I couldn’t grab any of these frogs for Nuralie, then I noticed Joma pull a terrarium from her inventory and grab a few specimens. The frogs went very still once inside, going into some kind of stasis. She deposited the whole thing into a satchel and slung it onto her back.
Rufio had watched her work, waiting at the mouth of another chamber. Once we were following him again, he took us through a repeating grid of caves, each one having four exits and being completely identical to the one prior. Rufio went forward with absolute confidence, making turn after turn through the cave system until we’d gone for several miles. He stopped abruptly at the entrance to one, then went to the center of the cave and swept his boot across the ground to reveal complex runework. Another couple of kicks showed us the shape of a moss-covered wormhole platform.
“Hot damn,” I said. “You found this with a skill?”
“I am a specialist,” he said. “My specialty is finding things. Sometimes it is people, sometimes it is something more exotic.” He scratched behind an ear, which flicked a few times, then he stepped up onto the platform. Joma and I joined him, and I checked the notification for where it would take us.
Obelisk
I appreciated how straight forward these things were. I made sure everyone was ready, then activated it. A few seconds later we were following a wormhole tunnel to the next area.
We emerged in another wet cave, although a breeze and distant gloomy light told me we were much closer to an exit to the surface. In the center of the chamber was an obelisk, and standing next to the obelisk were two unfamiliar figures. The first was wide and covered in bone-like plates akin to a turtle. He held a shield as tall as he was, which appeared to be fused to his arm. The second figure was nine feet tall and built like a broomstick. Turtle had no discernable face, but Broomstick’s gaunt eyes widened when we appeared.
The pair were in the middle of doing something to the obelisk, having removed the outer layer of stone to install a strange device. I recognized it as something Hysteria had tried to install in my own Delve. It siphoned mana away, sending it somewhere else, presumably somewhere Brae’ach could use it.
Joma whistled and Nottagator burst from the ground below Broomstick, mouth open wide. Her head turned corporeal as she bit down, bisecting the fellow and following it up with another chomp to crush the rest of him. Then she fell back into the ground, disappearing into the stone like a shark back into the water. Joma was already on Turtle, who brought his shield around to block her first hit. The Iskarim’s fist got stuck on the shield and she hopped up and put her feet against it, struggling to break free, but her feet got stuck too.
“Muck!” she shouted. Nottagator resurfaced to bite down on Turtle, which resulted in total failure, the only damage being several cracked Atrocidile teeth. She chuffed and withdrew again. Turtle didn’t pull any weapons or seem like they were trying to fight back at all, just defending against the ambush.
“Joma!” I shouted. “Hold on a second!”
“What?!” she shouted back, glaring at me. “They’re fucking United!”
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“Yeah it looks pretty bad for them, but this, uh, person isn’t even trying to fight you.”
Turtle peeked their featureless head around their shield to look at Joma. The mini-yeti clocked him with her one free hand, which got stuck as well. Turtle ignored her and turned to grab the device from within the obelisk, stretching Joma into an awkward position. A few seconds later Turtle disappeared in a flash of light. Joma landed on her feet, kicked at the stone floor hard enough to send a spray of stone chips clattering off the walls. She shouted in frustration and punched the wall, leaving an imprint of her fist behind.
Your party has slain Wilbert Hannigan: Hiwardian United, Grade 12
Your party receives the following rewards:
1 Diamond Chip
14 Emerald Chips
120 Ruby Chips
1 Unity Essence
You receive 7 Emerald Chips and 30 Ruby Chips.
Master looter does not apply since this is a mixed party. Essences will be evenly distributed.
1 Unity Essence awarded to Joma for being the only person who did jack shit.
“Broomstick was a Hiwardian?” I said, reading the notification.
Rufio peeked out from behind me. “I got chips even though I didn’t do anything,” he said softly. “Do you think she will take them?”
“I don’t want your fucking chips,” said Joma without looking at him. She’d gone from beating up the room to pacing angrily back and forth. I was somewhat taken aback by her rage. I could see how the situation was frustrating, but she was way more upset than I’d have expected. Then again, she’d never been a very tranquil woman.
I did a quick scan with Soul Sight to see if anyone else was obviously nearby, then went ahead and burned 300 stamina to refresh my Shielding. Grotto floated from my back to inspect the obelisk, and I walked up to evaluate the pillar as well.
“They drained a portion of its gathered mana but the obelisk is relatively unharmed.” He began levitating the pieces the United had removed back into place and started closing the thing back up. I tapped it with my fingers.
Mana distributions remaining: 4/5
“We should all take the level,” I said. “Even you, Joma. Your teammates are probably doing the same elsewhere and I’d rather not leave these things unclaimed if the United are trying to plunder the mana for whatever reason.”
Joma gave me a stiff nod, then walked up to the obelisk and accepted the level. I did the same, as did Rufio. I noticed the Littan had already hit one obelisk before this one, but that made sense given he was able to make a beeline straight for them.
After the rush of power ran through me, I went to place my stat points. I dropped 5 into Intelligence, getting 1 bonus point from Dumping and bringing it to 70. I was tempted to place 1 point into Fortitude to keep it as my highest attribute, but that would have delayed my Wisdom from getting to 70 by an entire level. I begrudgingly left Fortitude alone and dropped the remaining 3 points into WIS.
I was then faced with a number of decisions to make.
You have claimed your second obelisk within the Less-Than-Habitable Megadungeon!
Tier 2 reward: Passive skill upgrade, Attribute super evolution
You have 1 passive skill eligible for upgrade!
You have 1 super evolution available!
Please select your Level 70 Intelligence evolution!
While these were some extraordinary milestones, I didn’t feel comfortable sitting down, relaxing, and bending all of my thoughts towards their consideration. Tomomaru had claimed he would buy us some time, but I wasn’t going to rely on the man’s self-assurance. We needed to stay moving if we wanted to stay ahead of the avatars, so I rapidly flicked through the options available for each, then dedicated an instance of focus to studying them more closely while I coordinated with my allies.
Joma was quick to make her upgrade selections. A new streak of violet entered her soul, mirroring the ones the rest of us had received for claiming one of the Labyrinth’s rewards. The Platinum in her soul also grew a notch, reminding me that Joma had gotten 10 Platinum levels before she’d dropped down to running Gold. I’d never gotten that story from her, and she wasn’t exactly forthcoming with me about her life. When taken alongside the power that had begun trickling back and forth between her and Nottagator, the woman’s soul was starting to look fairly impressive.
Rufio, on the other hand, was more indecisive.
“I am supposed to run these kinds of things by my captain,” he said, looking between me and Joma nervously. We were both pressuring him to get a move on, since he was our obelisk bloodhound.
“You don’t have to pick something right now,” I said. “You can bank it for later.”
“I would, but this is a very dangerous situation, no?”
“It is.”
“So I should be as prepared as I can be.”
“That would probably be wise.”
Rufio’s whiskers twitched and he ran his hands over them a few times. “What if I make a bad choice?”
I put a hand on the Littan’s shoulder. He was slight of build and a little shorter than the average Littan, giving me more than a full head and shoulders over him. I tried not to be intimidating while also imparting a sense of how serious things were.
“You know your build, so you’ve just gotta have faith that you’ll make a good choice.” He looked like he was about to argue some more, but I held up a hand to stop him. “Normally, I’d never rush someone with a decision this important. However–” I gave his shoulder a light shake. “–if we don’t get a move on, an avatar could come through that wormhole at any second and fucking kill the shit out of us. Understood?”
Rufio glanced nervously at my hand on his shoulder, then nodded. I let go of him, and a few seconds later three new streaks of violet appeared in his soul, representing all the Labyrinth rewards he’d gotten so far. Despite the man’s anxieties, he’d clearly already planned out what he wanted to pick, he just hadn’t had the resolve to confirm the selections.
He led us towards the exit of this new cave system while my second mind worked on my own options. As per usual, when faced with multiple upgrades and evolutions, I considered them all before making a final selection for any one of them.
The passive upgrade would apply to Archmage, the only one of my 5 passive skills that had been gained through ordinary means and hadn’t already been upgraded.
Archmage
The level of the relevant intrinsic skill for a spell you cast is considered 10 higher.
+25% Maximum mana
+25% Mana regen
While there were several options for improving the passive, the one that caught my eye was only being offered because I had the Statecraft intrinsic. I opted for that one, partially because I was curious and partially because improving Closetland would benefit a whole lot more people other than just me or my party. Closetland was also becoming a potent resource at my command. I was convinced that any investments made in it would have outsized returns.
The resulting effect didn’t disappoint, and while it lost the minor skill bump that the original passive had, it replaced it with something I thought was vastly more impactful.
Archmage Sovereign
You and all citizens of your kingdom gain an additional +25% progression speed to all magic school intrinsics.
+25% Maximum mana
+25% Mana regen
Even if I had been the only one to benefit, progression speed was better than a flat bump to effective skill level in my mind, at least until the skill cap was reached. When the bonus was applied to every Closetlander with a magic skill, it became an outrageous boon. This alone would give our new Delvers a big leg up with their advancement, which was already getting buffed by the fact our Delves all granted bonus progression speed to any crafting intrinsic that either I or Grotto possessed.
Beyond that, this would be a real bombshell to drop during a recruiting pitch. So far as I knew, there was no other nation on the planet that could cause someone’s intrinsic skills to advance faster just for being a citizen. We had plenty of projects in need of some additional mid to high level Delvers, and this was one big ass carrot we could wave under their noses when trying to get them to defect.
I mean, immigrate.
Up next was Intelligence 70, and the options were every bit as good as I’d hoped.