Kyyle jogged up behind Finn, smacking him on the shoulder. “Good job,” he grunted.
“You too,” Finn replied with a nod.
“I’m going to go wall off a few of these adjacent tunnels while you and Julia start harvesting materials,” Kyyle offered. Julia was already at work, using the remaining spin on her shield to cut the mandibles from each ant, tossing the glimmering materials in a pile. Finn made a mental note to keep up that channel with his left hand so that she could keep working. “You guys good?”
“Yeah, go ahead,” Finn urged him. “Let’s just try to be quick. We should keep moving in case more ants decide to show up.”
Kyyle just shook his head as he jogged off. “Don’t see how there could possibly be more…”
Finn had to agree, but he suspected there were still plenty of the insects roaming these tunnels. They had killed dozens of creatures over the last two days, slowly mapping out the labyrinth that the ants had created in the lower levels of the Abyss. Yet, no matter how many they slaughtered, there always seemed to be more.
“These guys are all ready for you,” Julia called out. She gestured at a cluster of corpses which were all missing their mandibles, while shoving their latest harvest into a bag.
“Got it,” Finn grunted, approaching the soldier, and dropping one of his own packs.
He then began casting Imbue Fire, and flames soon washed across the ant’s heavily armored body. The metallic layer on the surface of its chitin began to glow a dull red as he ratcheted up the heat rank. Once he reached heat rank 4, the material began to melt down into a liquid, and Finn’s fingers twitched as he gathered it into a giant ball of molten metal. He then cut and sliced with each twitch of his fingers, forming smaller pieces that he rotated to form baseball-sized spheres. As his mana finally bottomed out, he slowly lowered the heat, letting the metal balls cool before they hit the ground in a series of dull thunks.
Once they had cooled completely, he’d pile the spheres into his pack with the rest of his swiftly growing collection of metal. Luckily, the bags helped dramatically reduce the weight. Otherwise, he suspected he’d barely be able to move at this point.
Finn stretched his arms and let out a tired sigh as he waited for his mana to regen. It would take him a little less than a minute before he could start the process again on the next ant. He could have crushed a few fire crystals to replenish his mana more quickly, but they were difficult to harvest and were better used for grenades or mines – putting aside that absorbing the flames was a rather painful way to save a few seconds. He was better off just waiting on his regen unless he was in a pinch.
While he was waiting, Finn swiped at the air and brought up his notifications.
x10 Level Up!
You have (50) undistributed stat points.
x3 Spell Rank Up: Mana Absorption
Skill Level: Beginner Level 4
Cost: 77% of mana drained as health damage.
Effect 1: The caster can absorb ambient fire mana, adding the energy to their total mana pool.
x1 Spell Rank Up: Imbue Fire
Skill Level: Intermediate Level 7
Cost: 200 Mana
Effect 1: Imbues a weapon with fire mana, increasing the weapon’s base damage by INT x 13%. Can only be used on unenchanted metal weapons.
Effect 2: While channeling, allows the caster to increase the heat in ranks, up to a current max heat rank of [4]. Each heat rank increases damage by INT x 5% while increasing the channel cost by 50%.
Channel Effect: Allows the user to control the weapon within his control range at a cost of 25 mana/sec.
x2 Spell Rank Up: Mana Sight
Skill Level: Intermediate Level 3
Cost: 50 mana and stamina per second.
Effect 1: Ability to view ambient mana. Current vision is [good].
Effect 2: Ability to isolate mana types. Currently limited to [fire/earth].
x2 Skill Rank Up: Flameworking
Skill Level: Intermediate Level 1
Effect 1: 30% increased power when shaping objects subject to Imbue Fire.
Effect 2: 10% increased control when shaping objects subject to Imbue Fire.
Without hesitation, he dumped half the points into Vitality and the other half into Intelligence. Then he swiped at his UI to bring up his Character Status.
Character Status
Name:
Finn
Gender:
Male
Level:
84
Class:
Fire Mage
Race:
Human
Alignment:
Lawful-Neutral
Fame:
1800
Infamy:
0
Health:
1815
H-Regen/Sec:
6.80
Mana:
2510
M-Regen/Sec:
55.85
Stamina
1415
S-Regen/Sec:
10.00
Strength:
47
Dexterity:
100
Vitality:
140
Endurance:
100
Intelligence:
369
Willpower:
30
Affinities
Dark:
2%
Light:
8%
Fire:
44%
Water:
5%
Air:
3%
Earth:
10%
The experience had begun to slow as his level increased, but the ants were still a great way to level. Probably because they were a hell of a lot higher level than their group. They still couldn’t be sure since the ants’ information wasn’t available, despite how much they had advanced. Frankly, Finn was surprised they had even made it this far. Without their particular group composition and the creative methods they had developed for defeating the creatures, they would likely have died a long, long time ago.
Finn’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard Julia shouting, “Hey, come over here and look at this!”
He hustled over to her location on the far side of the cavern, picking his way through the rocky terrain that Kyyle had created during the battle. As he neared, his eyes widened in surprise. Julia was standing beside a massive metallic ball that came up to her waist. Even more strange, Finn could see that dozens more of the dark spheres filled that side of the cavern, small rivers of magma winding between the orbs and the air rippling with heat.
“These look like—” Finn began.
“Eggs, right?” Julia interjected, glancing at him with a worried expression. “Yeah, that was my thought too. We’re getting deeper into the colony, and these are ants… Does that mean what I think it does?”
Finn grimaced. He had just been wondering the same thing. “There’s probably a queen down here somewhere, yeah.” He glanced at the adjacent tunnels. “Probably close by if they’re using this room to store the eggs. This looks like some sort of incubation chamber,” he offered, motioning at the magma.
“Fantastic,” Julia muttered. “I take it we’re going to make a wide berth around the queen, right? We really need to hurry if we want to get to this relic before the others do or this place resets.”
Finn knew she was right. They had been down here for more than a week already in-game, and the Abyss was on a two-week timer.
“What are we staring at?” Kyyle offered as he jogged up to them. He promptly froze upon seeing the dark orbs. “Oh, oh shit. Are those eggs?”
Julia chuckled. “Yeah. Way to catch up with the rest of the group,” she quipped at him, earning a flustered grin from the earth mage.
“Hey, I was just off making sure we are safe… yet again.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a great human shovel! The best,” Julia said with a wink.
“I’ll have you know that what I do takes finesse?” Kyyle retorte
d.
“Uh-huh, I’m still waiting on that spiral staircase out of here…” This earned her a mock glare from the earth mage. Julia waved a dismissive hand. “Joking aside, we were just talking about whether this might be an incubation chamber of some sort.”
As they bantered, Finn’s eyes had been following the river of magma back to its source. It wound down into the cave from a nearby tunnel, the ground sloping downward and creating a natural funnel. With a frown, he pulled up his map. A three-dimensional layout of the area they’d explored so far was projected into the air beside him. He could see that they had mapped a rough hemisphere of tunnels and hub caverns as they searched for a way further up the Abyss. It almost looked like they were circling a center chamber of some sort…
“I think we may be close to the center of the colony,” Finn murmured softly, half talking to himself. He spared a glance at the nearby cavern wall. “If I’m right, I might be able to see the queen from here if I use my sight.”
Kyyle and Julia both rolled their eyes as he wandered off to a nearby wall without another word. At this point, they were accustomed to his epiphanies.
Finn placed a hand against the wall to steady himself, sparing a glance at his UI to confirm his mana was full. With a flicker of his eyelids and a whispered word, the world around him suddenly bloomed into color once again. This time Finn peered into the cavern wall. At first, he saw only an ocean of green, undulating outward in the varying shades he had come to associate with different types of soil and rock, the occasional dark-green patch signifying a metal vein that lanced through the earth.
None of that was what he was looking for.
He focused on the small winding patch of orange and red – the river of magma. His guess was that it was being funneled from an adjacent cave. Possibly even the resting place for the fire ant queen. Finn followed the river through a twisting series of passages.
Then he unfocused his eyes, looking deeper and slowly removing the green layers of dirt and rock. The orange and red were becoming brighter now, radiating through the earth, and filling the ambient air with heat. He felt like he was on the right track and kept following the glowing orange trail.
Just one more layer…
Finn was nearly blinded by the dazzling eruption of orange and red as he penetrated the last wall of dirt and rock. He let out a hiss of pain as he dropped his sight and rubbed at his aching temples. It was as though the sun had risen underground, and he had just stared straight into it, the brightness leaving spots in his regular vision.
“Shit, that hurt…” Finn muttered.
“What? What’d you see?” Julia asked from behind him, a note of worry in her voice.
Finn grimaced. “I’m not sure. Give me a minute.”
He took a breath, giving his aching head a moment to recover before raising his eyes again and reactivating his sight. This time he was more cautious, peeling away at the layers gradually. The fiery colors soon bloomed once more, growing brighter as he continued removing the dense walls of earth. As he pushed through the last layer, he kept his gaze averted. Orange and red energy erupted like a rising sun once more… but it was more manageable this time. And as he gingerly peeked at the mana, he saw a faint shape form in the cloud of orange and red – the outline of a truly massive creature that glowed with a painful brightness. It was a monster of pure heat and flame.
This is an ant? Finn thought feebly.
“I think I found it,” he murmured, his voice wavering. “It’s a few hundred feet in this direction. I think it’s the queen.”
“Oh, great,” Julia grumbled beside him. “As though we don’t already have plenty of problems.”
The ant appeared to be sitting in a pool of orange energy – maybe she was resting directly in the lava? From the density and brightness of the ambient mana in the room, his guess was that it was going to be hot in there. Really, really hot.
Just before he was about to pull his gaze away, Finn saw yellow energy curl below the room – the first air mana he had seen since entering the Abyss. The energy exploded into the room in a rush, as though some pressure had just been released. The air mana soon merged with the ambient heat in the room, causing the orange and red mana to pulse even brighter. Finn was soon forced to avert his gaze again, unable to stare at the room directly.
That’s when he noticed that the mixture of yellow and orange had merged, jetting upward in a massive column that stretched upward as far as he could see. He could only stare, his mouth hanging open.
“What the hell is this?” he whispered.
The colors abruptly disappeared as Finn’s mana and stamina ran out. He stumbled, leaning heavily against the wall, and forcing himself to take a deep, steadying breath. Kyyle and Julia waited impatiently until he had managed to recover from the toll the Mana Sight wreaked on his body.
“So, what are we dealing with?” Julia asked finally.
Finn shook his head. “It definitely looks like the queen is in there – at least, as best I can tell. She seems to be sitting in a pool of lava.”
“Of course,” Kyyle offered in a dry tone. “Because we weren’t getting tired of magma, or fire crystals, or Fireballs… I swear my robes are basically just fragments of singed cloth at this point,” he muttered, picking at his armor.
Julia rolled her eyes at the earth mage. “Okay, so it’s the queen. Why do you look so confused? Can’t we just go around her?”
“I think I saw another mana anomaly.” Finn ran a hand through his hair. “Air this time,” he added. “It rocketed up out of the floor, or maybe the walls, superheating the room.”
“See!” Kyyle said, glancing at Julia. “I told you. Ant blast furnace!”
“That doesn’t mean we have to go inside…” she began, before noting Finn’s expression. “Shit, I hate that look. You’re going to say we have to go inside the ant blast furnace, aren’t you?”
“It looked like the hot air shot upward, creating a massive column that stretched up for at least a thousand feet,” Finn offered, running a hand through his hair. “Given the intensity of the mana, we’re talking some pretty intense wind, maybe even strong enough to propel us back to the upper levels.”
This statement was met with silence by both Julia and Kyyle, their expression ranging between skepticism, hope, and frustration in the span of a heartbeat.
“Okay, let’s say you’re right,” Kyyle began slowly. “The sort of heat you’re talking about would melt us if we get stuck inside the room.”
“The normal ambient heat is probably manageable, and I could watch the air mana carefully. There may be a rhythm to it – like pressure being released,” Finn replied. “If we could time our entry carefully, we might have a chance to enter, take out the queen, and then escape up that shaft on the next blast of air mana.”
“Sure, but then there’s also the other ants,” Julia chimed in, her brow furrowed in thought. “And if we attack the queen, you can bet your ass that the others are going to come running. So far, these damned bugs have operated similarly to real-world ants, and there’s no reason that should change now.”
Kyyle bit at his lip. “Well, if Finn can identify the entrances to the queen’s chamber, I could rig explosives before we enter the room.” He held up a hand to forestall Julia’s rebuttal. “I could also set a big pile of explosives here. Maybe use my earth mana to move the clusters along the walls into the center of the room so we don’t have to use our own stockpile. The heat might act as a decoy and distract the other ants from what’s going on inside the queen’s chamber. Sort of like how the exploders send up a distress signal.”
“Except I’m guessing this room is going to be well outside your control range,” Julia retorted with an arched eyebrow.
“We could probably rig up smaller blasts in sequence,” Finn interjected, his brow furrowed in thought. “Then Kyyle could trigger the first blast from the queen’s chamber, with the explosions rippling outward until they hit this room and detonate the decoy explosives
. In fact, that would probably help lure away the other ants, since they would see the heat trail of each sequential explosion… followed by the mother of all alarm bells.”
“It’s still risky as hell,” Julia retorted. “Even if we get in there, blow the tunnels, set the bait in motion, and somehow time this so that we don’t get charbroiled by whatever air mana is going nuts in there… there’s still the queen sitting in the middle of the room. So, I’m guessing we have to kill her?”
“Or incapacitate her,” Kyyle offered weakly.
“And before the air mana hits the room,” Finn added with a nod.
“So, this is basically a boss fight on a timer,” Kyyle murmured with a grimace.
The group drifted into silence, each mulling over the situation.
Finn finally spoke up. “Well, this is probably our best way of getting back to the upper levels in time… or we could all die horribly and fail.”
“Which always seems to be the downside of your plans,” Kyyle grumbled, earning him a nod of agreement from Julia.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Finn replied with a grin. “The only other real alternative is to keep exploring and hope we get lucky enough to find a way farther up the Abyss. So, let’s hold a vote. What do you guys say?”
Another brief silence as Julia and Kyyle glanced at each other.
“I don’t know about you two, but I’m ready to get the hell out of this place,” Julia said with a shrug. “I’m in. Let’s do it.”
“Me too,” Kyyle said. “Even though this seems more insane than usual…”
They both looked at Finn. He could feel uncertainty flicker at the edges of his mind. They were right. The risk was significant. But if it worked, they could save days’ worth of travel in just a few hours… maybe even put themselves back into the running for the Emir’s competition. And if they died? Well, they were already starting to run up against the respawn timer. It didn’t seem like they had a lot to lose.
Awaken Online- Flame Page 32
