Book 5: Chapter 13 — Third Tier |
It took another six hours of traversing the underhalls, gradually moving higher and higher, before they emerged out onto the Third Tier, much higher than they’d ventured before.
The haze-filtered sun was still harsh after the absolute darkness below. Noah's combined sight improvements meant he barely noticed, but Aurelia shielded her face, squinting until her own adaptation caught up.
"Air," she breathed, inhaling deeply. "Actual air that isn’t made of dead bugs."
"Technically, the arena air isn't much better. Just different flavors of decay."
"Don't ruin this for me."
The ancient seating here was less colonized by vegetation, the stone showing traces of its original grandeur. Massive statues stood at intervals along the tier, representations of beings that must have been Pathkeepers, features worn smooth by time but their scale still imposing. Even the smaller columns were big enough to build a house in with room to spare.
Movement in his peripheral vision. Noah's hand went to his spear on reflex, Abyssal Awareness flaring to maximum sensitivity.
Four humanoids, clustered behind a fallen column at the far end of the section, weapons drawn but clearly focused on something else. One of them was gesturing urgently at something beyond a fallen column.
And even further beyond them, though he couldn’t see it, his awareness showed something big coming in fast.
[Ironhide Boar (Rare) - lvl 334]
The hunters behind the column had nowhere to go. Two of them were armed with melee weapons, useless against the creature's armor. The third held a staff crackling with lightning. Exactly what they needed. The fourth was older, weathered, wielding a spear much shorter than Noah's own. She moved with obvious experience, wasting no energy on unnecessary motion. Her life-force was remarkably dense for her apparent level, a sign of hard-won experience.
"Should we help them?" Aurelia asked.
"Yes."
Noah put a Predator's Mark on the boar, feeding extra power into the ability to maximize its effect.
[Predator's Mark] applied to [Ironhide Boar]
The boar slid across the stone, iron-shod hooves scraping grooves in ancient rock as it tried to turn toward the new threat.
"Lightning!" the older hunter shouted.
In almost the same instant, lightning erupted from the mage’s staff in a brilliant arc and spread across the boar's iron-fused armor. The metal plates that had been its greatest defense became its doom. Electricity raced through its body, following the iron pathways, cooking the creature from the inside out.
The boar’s scream echoed across the tier and it collapsed, still alive but twitching uncontrollably from the electrical assault.
The older hunter was on it instantly, her spear finding the gap between plates at the creature's throat. One thrust, a twist, and the screaming stopped.
Clean kill, Tony noted approvingly. The older human is skilled. Tony respects it.
Bun Bun could have killed it faster, Bun Bun observed, padding up beside Noah.
The hunter withdrew her spear, then turned to face Noah and Aurelia. "Good timing. That mark ability, yours?"
"Mine."
"Useful." She extended a hand. "Name's Ryn. These are my people: Dex, Sera, and Kol."
Noah shook her hand, noting the calluses from decades of spear work and the casual confidence of someone who'd survived longer than most. He immediately wanted to fight her, just to see where they stood, but now wasn’t the time or place. "I’m Noah. This is Aurelia."
"Pleasure." Ryn glanced at the dead boar, then back at Noah with sharper interest. "We've been trying to catch this bastard for days. Couldn't pin it down long enough to exploit the lightning weakness.” She gestured to Dex and Kol. “Your mark probably saved us a lot of pain, distracting it before it could get to us."
"Happy to help."
"You're new here. Right? Coming up from below?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"You've got the look. Charred insect remains on your boots, swarm encounter. Dust from the lower tunnels." Ryn smiled, taking the edge off her assessment. "Don't worry. Everyone starts somewhere. You're still alive, which puts you ahead of most."
Aurelia stepped forward. "We're looking for a place to resupply. Maybe information on the deeper sections."
"That we can help with." Ryn turned to her party. "Dex, start harvesting what you can from the boar. Kol, keep watch. Sera, help them." She looked back at Noah. "Share a meal with us. We'll trade information. The Colosseum runs on knowledge as much as strength."
Noah glanced at Aurelia, received a subtle nod. "We'd appreciate that."
—
They made camp in the shadow of a Pathkeeper statue, the stone providing shelter from the wind and a degree of concealment. Ryn's party moved with practiced efficiency, setting up a cooking fire, distributing tasks, creating a semblance of comfort in the midst of danger.
Noah found himself impressed. These were professionals, not a group of glory-seekers or desperate fortune-hunters.
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"Thirty years," Ryn said, catching his observation. "I've been coming to this arena for thirty years. Started when I was younger than you, probably. Stupid, reckless. Thought I was going to conquer the whole place."
"What changed?"
"I watched people die. Good people, strong people who'd done everything right and still got killed by bad luck or worse timing. After enough funerals, you learn to treat this place with respect."
The fire crackled, sending sparks upward. Around them, the arena stretched in all directions, ancient, patient, and utterly indifferent to the creatures that fought and died within its bounds.
Ryn studied them both, thirty years of reading adventurers evident in her gaze. "Lost some people recently?"
The question hit harder than Noah expected and he had to force his voice to stay even. "They're not dead. Just... not here."
"Sometimes that's harder." Ryn's expression softened with understanding. She was quiet for a moment, then spoke again, her voice carrying the weight of old pain.
"I had a partner once. Trained with him for fifteen years. Gann. Best spearman I ever saw—could read a creature's movements before it made them. We cleared dungeons together, built a reputation, made plans for the future." She stared into the flames. "Then one day, he decided he was done. Wanted to settle down, open a smithy in some nowhere village. Said he'd found someone, wanted children, a quiet life."
Ryn's jaw tightened. "I couldn't understand it. How could he just walk away from everything we'd built? From me?" A bitter laugh. "Took me years to realize he hadn't walked away from me. He'd walked toward something I couldn't give him, no matter how good we were together."
Aurelia was listening intently. Her jaw had tightened, her fingers gripping her knees, but she said nothing.
"You either learn to let people in knowing you'll lose them eventually," Ryn continued, "or you fight alone. Both hurt. One of them is lonely the whole way through, though."
While Ryn spoke, Noah noticed movement at the edge of the camp. Sera, the quiet mage, had drifted toward where Aurelia sat slightly apart from the group. The two women were talking now, their voices too low for even his enhanced hearing to catch.
"The arena teaches you things," Ryn said, drawing Noah's attention back. "About yourself, about what matters. Some lessons you learn the easy way. Most you don't."
"The Thornback Collective," Noah said. “Is… there anything you can tell us about them?”
Ryn's expression hardened. "Used to be decent folk, some of them. Then they started bonding with the beasts. Something about that process changes people. Makes them see other hunters as prey instead of colleagues."
"They've claimed the Second and Third Tiers. Demanded tribute."
"Standard practice for them. They tax everyone who passes through. Most hunters pay it; easier than fighting." She paused. "But you didn't just pay. You went into the underhalls instead."
"We needed space to grow. Couldn't do that while looking over our shoulders."
"Smart.” She leaned forward. "The Thornbacks, though... they've been watching you. Korgan's interested in anyone who doesn't fold immediately. Be careful."
Noah watched from the corner of his eye as Sera and Aurelia spoke in low voices, their conversation too soft to hear. Whatever they discussed, he saw only the aftermath. Aurelia's expression flickering through surprise, denial, and finally pain. She glanced toward Noah and caught him watching.
Their eyes met across the firelight. Noah smiled without thinking about it, raising a hand in a small wave.
Aurelia looked away quickly, her cheeks flushing in a way that had nothing to do with the fire's warmth.
Ryn, watching the exchange, chuckled quietly. "Ah. I see."
"See what?"
"Nothing. Just... take care of each other out there. The arena has a way of taking things from you. Don't let it take what matters."
Bun Bun also sees, Bun Bun added from where he'd been pretending to sleep near the fire. Noah is resisting too much. It is frustrating to witness.
Tony concurs. Tony has considered intervening directly but has concluded that would be 'weird.'
Before Noah could grumble at them properly, Dex returned from harvesting the boar, carrying armfuls of materials. But later, as they prepared to part ways, Noah caught Aurelia casting glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking.
—
Ryn's information led them deeper than before.
You have entered a mana-saturated zone. Natural mana regeneration increased by 250%.
The mana node was exactly where she'd described it, a vast chamber at the heart of the Warren's lower levels, dominated by a crystalline formation that pulsed with concentrated energy. The light it cast was blue-white and steady, throwing sharp shadows across the ancient stonework. Noah's [Dragon's Heart] responded immediately, beating faster as it sensed the ambient power.
"Feel that?" Aurelia asked, her voice hushed with awe and hunger.
Noah felt it. The mana pressure here was immense, pushing against his core, demanding attention. He’d already begun absorbing the excess, converting it to usable energy that sang through his veins. Every creature that died in this chamber would release energy that had nowhere to go except into whoever delivered the killing blow.
Perfect for rapid advancement.
Also perfect for attracting dangerous predators.
Tony is already absorbing ambient mana, Tony reported. Tony recommends we hunt loads in this location.
Bun Bun smells hunters, Bun Bun warned, his ears twitching. Two large patient ones. They have been waiting.
As if summoned by the thought, movement flickered at the edge of his Abyssal Awareness. Two signatures, circling the chamber's perimeter with coordinated precision. They moved in perfect sync, one always positioned opposite the other, creating overlapping fields of observation.
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 302]
[Mirage Stalker (Epic) - lvl 295]
"Mirage Stalkers," Noah said, his voice low. "Looks like a mated pair, waiting for someone to reach the node."
Aurelia drew her blade, flames already licking along its edge. "Then let's give them what they want."
Bun Bun will take one, Bun Bun declared, scales bristling with anticipation. The female. She smells of arrogance. Bun Bun will teach her humility.
Before Noah could roll his eyes at that, the male came at him, erupting from behind a crystal outcropping in a blur of spotted fur and gleaming claws. Afterimages trailed in its wake, ghostly copies that persisted for seconds after it passed, each one moving with convincing fluidity. Aurelia struggled to track the real creature, targeting copies that dissolved into nothing when she struck them.
“Here. That’s the real one.” Noah's spear snapped out, taking the male through the shoulder just as it committed to its attack. The Spear of Crimson End bit deep, and the rot immediately began to spread.
[Spear of Crimson End] has inflicted [Crimson Rot-III] on [Mirage Stalker]
[Spear of Crimson End] has applied [Bleed-II] to [Mirage Stalker]
The creature screamed, almost feline in its agony, and blinked away with a spatial ripple, appearing fifteen feet distant. Blood dripped from its wounded shoulder and crimson veins of rot were already crawling outward from the puncture.
Meanwhile, the female had circled for the kill strike. She leapt at Aurelia, claws extended—
“Behind you!”
Without even turning, Aurelia erupted in a defensive nova that broke the ambusher’s momentum and sent it running, fur singed and smoking. Its mate joined it at the chamber's far end, both creatures regrouping and reassessing.
"They're coordinated," Aurelia observed, flames dancing along her blade. "The male draws attention; the female strikes. Classic hunting pair tactics."
"So we do the same thing. I'll keep the male busy. You handle the female."
"Bossy."
"Efficient."
She grinned, and they moved.