8.05
Mana:
2875
M-Regen/Sec:
50.60
Stamina
1455
S-Regen/Sec:
10.00
Strength:
47
Dexterity:
100
Vitality:
165
Endurance:
100
Intelligence:
434
Willpower:
30
Affinities
Dark:
2%
Light:
8%
Fire:
47%
Water:
5%
Air:
3%
Earth:
10%
Even after the cost of his new augmentation, Finn had managed to bring up his mana regeneration to a respectable level. It was enough to let him channel Imbue Fire on two objects at heat rank level 2 indefinitely.
Although, anything hotter than that would start to burn through his mana quickly. For example, he could only maintain heat rank 4 on two spells for about 40 seconds. He would need to be careful about raising the temperature to reform the metal and then drop the channel back down to heat rank 2 – which would help him conserve mana while maximizing the durability of the dark metal.
Either way, it was good enough for now.
Finn swiped aside his notifications and turned to look at his companions. Kyyle was still staring into space, but Julia had finished already. She now had her map pulled up, projecting an image of the Abyss onto the center of the stone table. With his new passive skill active, her face and body were outlined in a blue glow – along with the rest of the room. Her eyes hovered on the yellow marker looming just above them. Strangely, the system prompts, and the UI elements still retained their standard color.
One small blessing, Finn supposed.
“It’s so close,” Julia offered when she saw him looking at her.
“Yeah, it is,” Finn murmured. Their goal was finally within reach.
“Do you think the others beat us to it?”
Finn grimaced. “Maybe.”
It was certainly possible the other champions had made it to the vault already. They had been down in this pit for over a week now and were starting to get close to the respawn timer. On the other hand, the other champions had also probably gone through hell. Assuming they survived the ambush at the top of the Abyss – a likely outcome – they would have still needed to descend at least 1,000 feet. If Altair was to be believed, the upper levels might be easier, but after their recent encounter with the cave grubs, Finn suspected the other champions would have encountered their fair share of obstacles.
Tilting his head to the side, Finn examined the map. “Although, we still can’t be certain that the vault is at this location. It could have moved or shifted,” he offered, recalling the ambient earth mana. “And even if the champions made it to the vault, that doesn’t mean they managed to get inside already or recover the relic.”
“Or return to the surface,” Julia added, her brow furrowed as she looked at the map. Her finger traced a winding path through the partial map data they had of the upper portion of the central shaft. “The hike back topside looks like it will be a pain in the ass.”
Finn nodded. “So, we may still have some time.”
Kyyle’s eyes snapped back into focus, and he waved away his own system windows. “Well, I’m glad you both are looking at the hellhole as half full of lava,” he commented with a grin. “And here I thought we were turning into perpetual cynics.”
Finn matched his smile, although his thoughts were distant. Something Julia had said was bugging him. It was what she had mentioned about trying to get back out… The problem was that all three champions were gunning for the same object, located about halfway down the pit. Julia was right. Even if they retrieved the relic, reaching the surface was going to be a royal pain. And the victory condition wasn’t, whoever got to the relic first. It was, whoever returned to the Emir with the relic first.
Finn shook his head, shifting his perspective.
If he had beaten everyone to the relic, what would he do?
Although the answer came to him almost immediately.
“Let’s say we were in their shoes – one of the other groups. And let’s assume we beat everyone to the relic. You also know you’ve got two other groups hot on your heels since you started off near one group, and you saw a system notice indicating that the second group is still alive,” Finn said slowly, feeling out the edges of the idea that had sprung to mind. “What would you two do in that situation?”
His companions both hesitated, their brows furrowing.
Then Julia’s frown deepened, her lips pinching together. “I’d set a trap,” she said simply.
Kyyle glanced at her in surprise. “How do you mean?”
“Well, I have to get this stupid relic out of the pit, right? While fighting off all these other creatures and dealing with ambient mana?” Julia replied, waving at the map. “Of course, this all assumes that the vault and the relic are actually there—”
Finn cut her off. “Well, that might be something we can check now that we’re this close,” he offered. “Just give me a second.”
He shifted his gaze to the corner of the room’s ceiling and deactivated Daniel’s Short-Sighted skill. The room bloomed back into a rainbow of colors, and Finn looked deeper through the layers of dense green earth mana. In the distance, he could see a hazy orange cluster of energy that was so dense that it obscured the other mana around it. The energy seemed to permeate a massive chamber – likely a cavern due to the telltale absence of earth mana. He also detected the impression of symmetric lines and shapes in the fire mana, indicating that he wasn’t looking at just a pool of magma. Although he was too far away to make out any clear detail.
Finn’s brow furrowed slightly. Straight lines and angles typically indicated the presence of human-created objects. Nature abhorred symmetry. That brief glimpse had been enough to raise the memories of the fleeting visions Finn had seen when he augmented his eyes – although, he couldn’t help but wonder if he had simply imagined them. Had they been real? Some sort of prophecy like Bilel had described. Or just pain-induced hallucinations?
Regardless, one image stood out from the rest: a buried temple, its walls no longer reflecting the light. After reading Bilel’s journal and Kalisha’s earlier explanation, that could only refer to one thing.
“The Seer’s temple,” Finn murmured.
He turned back to the others, noticing that they were staring at him questioningly, the colors in Kyyle’s body swirling erratically. “There’s a ton of fire mana above us,” Finn explained, rubbing at his temples. “This has been bugging me for a while, but I think this vault is really just part of the Seer’s temple. Remember Kalisha’s story – how the temple was buried down here during some battle? My guess is that the Emir is looking for a relic stored in that ruined temple.”
“Well, that would make sense…” Julia replied slowly.
Kyyle just nodded. “Okay, sure. So, there might be the remains of a fire temple above us. It might also contain this vault, which might hold some sort of relic. It seems safe to assume those facts are true for now.”
Julia nodded along with the earth mage’s words, chewing at her lip. “And even if we’re wrong and the vault isn’t there – if I were Kalisha or Malik, I’d know my enemies were going to check out the waypoint marker either way,” she offered. “And the safest bet would be for me to take out my competition. So, if I were to lie in wait…”
“You could pick them off when they arrived,” Kyyle finished for her, understanding dawning in his eyes. “Okay, I get why you were mentioning a trap before. That does seem like a safe bet.”
Finn nodded. “It seems probable. Assuming, of course, that they beat us there. We’re making a lot of assumptions here. But it’s possible – likely, even. Kalisha’s drones would have give
n her more flexibility in terms of navigating the central shaft, and the fighters all have enhanced physical skills and the wards. It’s not too far-fetched to believe both groups were able to scale the Abyss pretty fast.”
“Okay, so let’s assume at least one group is up there waiting for us,” Julia said, her eyes flitting between Finn and Kyyle. “What do we do? We still have to investigate the vault, and they won’t stay there forever. If they’ve also recovered the relic, they would want to leave before the dungeon resets – using the ambient mobs to slow down our pursuit.”
“You’re right. Or we could be wrong, and they already have the relic, and they’re now on the move. Which would mean we need to pursue them quickly,” Finn replied. “Either way, we can’t afford to wait them out. We have to take the offensive.”
Kyyle was chewing on his lip now. He abruptly reached forward and pinched at the map, zooming in on their location. Three green dots lingered just below the vault, the tunnel they had taken arcing upward and back toward the central shaft before disappearing into nothingness – indicating that they hadn’t fully explored it yet. Although, the tunnel’s angle gave the impression that it would likely offer them a path up to the waypoint marker.
The earth mage tapped at a cluster of points a couple dozen feet above them, yellow waypoint markers appearing at each location. “What if we were to set a trap of our own?” Kyyle suggested hesitantly. The other two just watched him with a curious expression.
“We’re conveniently positioned below the vault – or at least Altair’s marker,” he continued. “It would be easy enough for me to drill some holes underneath this location and plant explosives. We still have a bunch of the mines as well as a ton of the fire crystals since we didn’t have to blow the grub cave. If we position them right, the explosives should still be within my control range once we arrive at the waypoint marker. That could at least offer a distraction if things go south.”
Finn was nodding along now. Except the explosives likely wouldn’t be strong enough to do much more than cause a minor earthquake.
Although that thought gave him pause, recalling something he had seen just a moment ago when he had searched for the vault. He shifted his attention back to the ceiling. This time, instead of focusing on seeing through the layers of earth mana, his attention homed in on the stone itself. He followed the ripple and flow of the mana, looking for an irregularity in the sea of green – one he had ignored only a moment before.
Then he found it. His finger stabbed forward, tapping the map. “Here. It looks like there’s a structural instability in the intervening layers of stone and glass. Sort of like a fault line in the rock,” Finn offered. “If we plant the explosives there, we might be able to increase the damage considerably. It could even be enough to cave in the whole cavern.”
Finn glanced back at the pair. “The resulting destruction might kill us all, but worst case, we just respawn. The other two groups can’t really say the same. We have that advantage over the residents.”
Kyyle swallowed hard, probably imagining getting crushed to death under a few hundred tons of rock. “Okay, a little more extreme than my plan…”
“But it gives us a real failsafe,” Julia murmured. “We might risk damaging the vault or the relic, but putting that aside, we could always dig our way back to it with Finn’s sight and your Dissolve ability,” she added, waving at Kyyle.
The earth mage shook his head, staring at the map. “I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he muttered.
“You and me both,” Julia replied, a weary smile tugging at her lips.
Finn just kept his mouth shut, a heavy knot settling in his stomach. He agreed with his companions’ sentiment – he didn’t relish the idea of getting crushed to death or digging through a few hundred feet of rock. On the other hand, he had a nagging feeling that their enemies were waiting for them, and this wasn’t going to be a straightforward or easy confrontation.
Although experience told him that the best remedy for anxiety was preparation. They couldn’t be certain what was up there, but they were damned certain going to be ready for anything.
“Alright,” Finn grunted, his attention snapping back to his companions. “We’ve got a plan, and the clock is still ticking. Let’s get to work.”
Chapter 44 - Devout
Bilel’s Journal – Entry 146
My sickness is spreading. Today I began coughing up blood. I can feel this illness eating me up from the inside. The pain is excruciating, and it is all I can do to keep up the pretense of health. Even absorbing mana doesn’t completely stop the agony now, it only blunts it and the desperate hunger that accompanies it.
In my fear, I found a mirror and activated my sight, hoping the vision would give me some insight into my malady. The horror at what I witnessed is difficult to describe. My Najima have grown… mutated.
Those once-finite clusters have spread, consuming muscle, bone, and organs. They fill almost half my body now, my limbs nearly blinding in my own sight. The energy is quite literally killing me from the inside out. I can only assume that this is a product of my constant mana absorption. I have filled the dams to bursting, causing the Najima to stretch and grow. That would also explain the continuous increase to my mana pool.
And yet… I should already be dead.
The damage to my internal organs is too severe. The only conclusion is that the energy is somehow keeping me alive despite the pain. I need that mana if I am to accomplish my objective: the power that the absorption provides. There must be some way to stop or stall the progression of this magical disease – to find some relief from the constant pain and hunger. I believe the secret may lie in the library, among the acolytes’ writings…
***
“Hold up,” Finn murmured, giving a curt gesture, and forcing the group to pause in the darkened tunnel. “Let me just take a look first.”
Julia hovered beside him, her lance in hand and shield raised. Kyyle was to their rear and was gripping his staff tightly. Both of his companions assumed a formation around Finn, their eyes scanning the tunnel in both directions. After more than a week spent in the Abyss, they were ready for anything and everything.
Finn turned his focus to the nearby wall, the surface coated in glass. As they had ventured farther along the tunnel adjacent to the cave grub cavern, the amount of the hard, reflective substance had increased dramatically – creating a sea of dark green in his sight that didn’t leave room for ordinary rock. However, he was more interested in what lay beyond the wall, the telltale glow of orange leaking through the barrier.
With a shift of his eyes, he removed the earth mana.
His vision was immediately awash in the bright orange and red that denoted fire mana. The tunnel curved up ahead, opening into a massive expanse of fire mana on the other side. That began to explain why the tunnel had grown almost sweltering. The heat was palpable, radiating through the tunnel and causing the air to ripple and shimmer. It was nearly as hot as in the fire ant colony, and this upcoming cavern was easily on par with Sulphera’s chamber.
He hesitated a moment, his brow furrowed in thought.
As he picked out the telltale outline of ruined buildings among the mana, he couldn’t help but feel he’d been right. It looked like they were approaching the Seer’s temple, or what was left of it – which would explain the vast amount of ambient fire mana on the other side of the wall.
Although that raised many questions. Questions Finn wasn’t sure how to answer.
Had Bilel ultimately gotten his revenge? The existence of the Abyss seemed to indicate that was a possibility. Or was there some other explanation? And if the mage had managed the feat and somehow buried the Seer’s temple, that left the question of how. The energy involved in creating the Abyss would have been impossibly powerful – far beyond the abilities of one man, even if he was an exceptionally powerful mage. And if that was the case, what was Abbad’s role in all of this? Why had the librarian given him Bilel’s journal in th
e first place? Was he trying to tell Finn something?
And why did the Emir now want them to venture to this temple? What was this relic? What purpose did it serve? Was this somehow related to the Seer? Why was she asking him to complete this competition to recover a relic for a dying tyrant? Had she given him those visions he had seen when he augmented his own eyes – perhaps one of the fragmented prophecies that Bilel had referenced? And if so, to what end?
Overlaying all those questions, Finn also had the nagging sense that he was being manipulated. He just wasn’t quite sure yet who was pulling the strings. The Seer? The Emir? Abbad?
All of the above?
Finn let out a soft sigh, pushing all of that aside. He supposed none of these mysteries mattered right now. All that was important was bringing Rachael back. And to do that, they still needed to recover this damn relic and get the hell out of the Abyss. There would be time to untangle the mass of questions that were swimming through his head then.
“I think our destination is up ahead,” he murmured quietly.
His attention skimmed back to Julia and Kyyle as he reactivated Short-Sighted, noting their tense posture. “I sense a lot of fire mana in the upcoming cavern. It’s easily as dense as the fire ant queen’s chamber. It’s almost a guarantee that the fire god’s temple is buried in this cave.”
“And here I was getting used to not being permanently covered in sweat,” Kyyle muttered. “Next time, I say we get trapped inside a nice air-conditioned dungeon.”
Finn let out a chuckle. “I’ll try to work on that.”
“Temperature control aside, I take it that means there’ll be more of those explosive crystals in this chamber?” Julia asked, Finn giving her a grudging nod. “Great, so we need to be on the lookout for the other champions and also take care not to blow ourselves up if we get into a fight.”
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