A glance at the Combat Log showed him the monster had shrugged off the first six hundred points of damage from each portion of the spell and reduced the rest by sixty-five percent. Hawke began to feel like the Japanese Defense Force as it bravely – and uselessly – fired its tank guns and artillery at Godzilla. Even worse, the monster was regeneration 150 Health per second. He would run out of Mana long before he inflicted enough damage to do the job.
He followed up his attack with Shadow Leech, a Darkness spell that interrupted castings and drained the target of Mana. The Mana drain worked (a light-blue ‘300’ rose from the monster’s head) but the monster continued casting. Girl used the same spell a moment later, removing another 320 Mana from the creature, but once again its spellcasting continued unabated. Hawke hurriedly downed a potion to restore his energy as he turned his Advanced Mana Sight on and saw the monster’s spell a huge blue snowflake, pulsing with 240 Mana. Water magic, with lots of power.
“Incoming Water spell!” he shouted. Every party member stopped attacking and turned on any special defenses they had as a Godlike Ice Storm was unleashed.
A cloud erupted from the Gargantua’s hands and filled the entire cavern. A moment later, thousands of icy shards, each as big as a spearhead, plummeted down, moving at least as fast as a crossbow bolt. There was no cover, no escape from the rain of missiles. Hawke was hit dozens of times. Several shards struck his Shield of Light at an angle and bounced off. The rest punched through it; some were absorbed by his Bulwark of Light until its Health was depleted. Hawke felt icy points shatter on his armor, but they still transmitted enough kinetic energy to hurt him. It felt like getting hit with a hammer. Each shard didn’t do a lot of damage to him – five or six points, mostly, with the occasional critical doing ten to twelve – but when you were getting hit by thirty or forty of them at a time, it added up.
Hawke used his Ring of Spell Storing to recast Bulwark of Light on himself, reducing the damage he was taking, and fired off a Celestial-infused Major Healing Wave every three seconds. That was all he could do while keeping up the pressure on the monster, who was now wading to shore, unharmed by the ongoing spell it had unleashed. Its full awfulness revealed itself as it rose up to a full thirty feet in height, supported by half a dozen flippers instead of legs. On land, its movements were ungainly and stumbling, but in a matter of seconds he would be close enough to grab or smash people.
The damn spell kept raining icy knives on the party. Grognard’s Health had dipped down to dangerous levels, and Gosto was focusing on keeping him alive while others used Nadia’s Elemental Shield or Gosto’s Earth Dome to mitigate some of the damage. Hawke was losing more Health than his ongoing spells could recover, due to the Martyr spell. They needed to end the fight quickly. He rushed towards the advancing giant, getting ready to go mano a mano with it.
The two Drakofoxes took to the air, enduring the falling ice missiles for the chance to bathe the monster with twin torrents of fire, aiming for its face. The Gargantua reeled back from the painful attacks, and Blaze and Luna flew away, healing each other as their tough little bodies took more than enough damage to kill most of the other party members – and survived it. Hawke took advantage of the distraction to fire off another set of spells just as Girl teleported behind the monster’s neck and started stabbing it while screaming like a damned soul. Alba used her own Twilight Step to land on top of its scaly back and clung to it with one hand while she delivered a series of murderous strikes at its spine with the dagger in the other. Hawke reached the monster, sent one of the Saturnyx twins to his Inventory, and created a Tulpa Weapon that penetrated its shell as if it wasn’t there. The damage the Mana spike inflicted was a measly forty points, but it drilled a small hole through its carapace. Hawke fired off an Elemental Strike through the chink in the armor, burning through most of his Mana. The ensuing two thousand points of damage, unmitigated by the monster’s shell, got the Gargantua’s attention. It swatted at him with one hand while it tried to smash Alba with the other.
Alba dodged away, barely avoiding getting crushed; she was being pelted by the Icy Storm, but that damage was being absorbed by Hawke. The Shadow Assassin/Spy landed by one of the monster’s flippers and tried to saw it off. Hawke leaped past the other fist; the impact smashed a crater into the shoreline more than big enough to bury his body, and he had no illusions he could survive that. He didn’t have the Mana for any more spells, so he was reduced to hacking and slashing at the monster with his Tulpa Weapon and one of his swords. Girl held on to the giant’s face and kept stabbing it until a sudden shake of its head sent her flying off. The fall hurt her, but not as much as it should have; Shadow Assassins could survive impossibly long drops, one of their many acrobatic abilities.
At some point, the Icy Storm finally ended, allowing everyone to concentrate on the attacking. The Gargantua did not live long enough to cast another one. Towards the end, the creature tried to flee back into the lake, but two of its flippers had been crippled by Alba. Girl finished it off, teleporting right on its face and delivering a critical hit on one of its eyes that ended with her dagger-wielding arm sunk all the way past her elbow massive orb. Gross, but effective; the Gargantuan slumped down and fell still. A giant loot bag appeared over its mutilated head. Victory!
For Slaying Your Foes, you have earned 2,400 XP (300 diverted towards Leadership; 300 diverted towards Node Mastery).
You have found: 40 gold, 3 Major Healing Potions, 2 Major Mana Potions, 2 Major Endurance Potions.
You have found: Necklace of Mana Storage (Enchanted Quality Item). Increases your Mana Capacity by 150.
Current XP/Next Level: 39,363/40,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 27,588/35,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 10,336/12,000. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 1,635/2,500
Hawke put on the necklace. He already had an amulet, but apparently he could wear it and the necklace. You could never have too much Mana. Being on the verge of making seventeenth level was great; if they destroyed the Portal, that would put him over the top. And Olaf and Grognard had regained all their lost XP and were getting close to tenth level. Blaze and Luna had hit eighth level; apparently, the Arbiters had given the little beasts extra experience for flying close to a giant monster and spitting fire at its face. Despite not being even a week old, the fuzzy Drakelings were already speaking like pre-teens; they seemed to become smarter with every level they gained. They had also picked up some gear as well, although most items couldn’t be worn by them: Blaze now had a Ring of the Magus on one of his forepaw’s fingers; it raised his Intelligence and Spirit by 4. Luna had a necklace that raised her Constitution and Dexterity by a similar amount.
“How come Shadow Leech didn’t stop that big ice spell?” he asked Saturnyx while he waited for everyone to go through their loot.
“Guess I have a long way to go. Freaking Godlike tier?”
The way Saturnyx explained things, Proving Grounds critters came in several categories or tiers as well. They were all Elites, more powerful than most monsters you encountered wandering the world. Beyond that, however, they came in a number of power levels: Lesser Minions, Minions, Giant/Greater Minions, Lieutenants, Colossal, Nobles, and Masters. Higher-tier Elites had more abilities as well as raw power. And they generated more experience and better loot, of course.
“Got it,” Hawke said at the end of the lecture.
He, Girl, his Living Shadow, and Alba could all cast Shadow Leech, although
Hawke’s summoned Darkness Elemental had fallen during one of the fights and wouldn’t be available until the next day. If they could coordinate and hit high-tier monsters at once, they might stop their spells. Even if they didn’t, they would deplete their Mana by a good amount, limiting how much magic or abilities they could use for the rest of the fight. Hawke would talk to the Shadow Assassins before the next fight. Interestingly enough, Blaze and Luna had learned all of Hawke’s Celestial, Light and Life spells, but hadn’t picked up the other Elements and Schools of Magic he knew. The little fuzzballs had some limits, which made him feel relieved, although having them cast Shadow Leech would have been very useful.
I’ll keep that in mind.
One portal to destroy, two chambers to clear, and they would be done with the first level of the Dungeon.
Thirty-Three
Portal to Tartarus (Infernal Artifact)
Damage Capacity: 3,000
Access Portal: Cost: 100 Mana. Effect: Instant transport to the Eighth Circle of the Gates of Tartarus. Y/N?
Shut Portal Down (Requires Node Mastery): Cost: 250 Mana. Chance of success: 10% per Node Mastery Level. If the attempt fails, the Node Master cannot try to shut the portal again before going up in level.
Nobody felt like taking a trip into the Labyrinth, so the answer was a resounding, unanimous ‘No.’
“So do we just start whaling on it with everything we’ve got until it’s destroyed?” Grognard asked.
“That’s one way to do it. If it has hit points – or Damage Capacity – it can be taken down by good old-fashioned damage dealing. But there is a better way to do it.”
Hawke explained how his Node Mastery would allow him to shut down the portal, and that he had a fifty percent chance of succeeding. Those weren’t great odds, but if he failed, then they could shut it down by going full murder hobo on the damn thing.
“Does anything bad happens if you fail?”
“Not according to the notification. Saturnyx?”
“Okay, there’s a small chance that something might try to come in if I fail, so let’s go to battle stations, just in case.”
Everybody buffed themselves, readied their weapons or spells, and prepared to fight before Hawke reached toward the portal with his mind and concentrated, using his enhanced senses to observe the process in a way few people in the Common Realm could. He sent forth the 250 Mana required and watched the energy flow into the complex geometric pattern that underlay the portal like the circuitry of an electronic device. There were multiple spells bound into the pattern, most of which he couldn’t identify. Other components ensured that the process was limited to a relatively small area or provided energy to keep it active. If he had a week, he could probably learn to make one himself. Then again, he already had an ability that let him do something similar, and he could study that for as long as he needed. After that, he might be able to modify it. Improve it.
Hawke nodded and concentrated on the job at hand. His Mana Sight showed him why the process had such a large chance of failure: the portal had spells designed to protect it from such intrusions. They were pushing back against his will and the energy backing it up. He focused his mind, using the meditation techniques he had learned, and added an extra 250 Mana into the process. Normally, doing that wasn’t possible; the extra energy would simply dissipate without helping. But as a Mana Channeler, he had learned how to apply power to tasks, improving his chances of success. He did so now, and felt his power take hold and overcome the defenses of the portal.
Quest Complete: Close Infernal Portals (1/5)
You have earned 960 XP (120 diverted towards Leadership; 120 diverted towards Node Mastery).
You have earned 1,000 XP towards Node Mastery.
Congratulations! You have reached Level Seventeen!
You have gained 6 Attribute points to distribute.
New spells available.
You have found 15 gold.
Current XP/Next Level: 40,323/50,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 28,548/35,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 11,456/12,000. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 1,740/2,500
“Nothing like some easy Quest XP to make you feel like a winner,” Hawke said.
The jump to reach level eighteen was a bit surprising, since that wasn’t a threshold, but he figured whoever designed the rules – and they had been designed; there was nothing natural about the way the Realms worked – must have had a good reason for it. The energy costs to keep improving the bodies and minds of Adventurers had to increase, and not in a linear way. At level fifteen, let alone now, Hawke had been powerful enough to massacre a medieval normie army from Earth. Or maybe even a modern army, although he didn’t think he could take a burst from a .50-caliber machine gun or a direct hit from an anti-tank rocket. Not yet, at least.
In any case, he was hundreds of times more powerful than a normal human. Which meant it took a lot more power to level up. Hawke had learned that what he called ‘experience’ was energy that he gained by stealing it from defeated enemies or by being rewarded by the Arbiters. Saturnyx had told him that the maximum known level in the Realms was sixty, and that it would take millions of XP to get there. After that, most Adventurers left for the Realm of Gates, a mysterious place that the sword knew little about. All she could tell him was that, as far as she and her teachers knew, nobody who went there had ever returned. The endgame of the Eternal Journey was a one-way ticket to some unknown fate. Maybe they were eaten by some huge monster that ran the whole thing.
That was far in the future, of course. The portal had disappeared, leaving behind only the stone alcove that had housed it. One down, four to go. And Tava had hit fifteenth level. Her smile of pure joy made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.
“I never dreamed I could advance so far on the Path,” she said as they hugged. “Or so quickly. In my father’s stories, Adventurers were lucky to venture into a Lair once in a year or two. We have defeated two Lairs, entered a Labyrinth, and now, this.”
“We must be lucky,” he told her.
“Perhaps we are not. In the old stories, the ones from before my father or his father’s time, the appearance of so many Proving Grounds in a region usually heralds a time of troubles. Perhaps even one of the dreaded Ragnaröks.”
“Well, we sort of knew that already. Tens of thousands of new Eternals didn’t get dragged here for no reason.”
“True. Eternals have always been rare in the Common Realm, until now. Even a city like Akila had no more than a handful of them, as most of them soon move on to higher Realms. Things are changing.”
“Yeah. It worries me.”
She smiled. “Troubled times are also times of opportunity. Those who rise to defend the land will grow in power through their efforts.”
Until something kills them, Hawke thought but kept to himself.
Tava knew that, but sometimes he wondered if she really believed it. Teenagers and people in their early twenties had a sense of immortality that armies had exploited from time immemorial, and she was barely twenty-two. Kinto, much older and wiser, understood the realities, which was why he had been so hard on his kids. Hawke worried that the path they were on – the Path to Power – would end up getting her killed. He would do everything in his power to avoid that, but he wasn’t a god.
Can’t argue with that, Hawke told the sword and focused on the here and now.
Before settling down for some rest, the party searched the large cavern, looking for more treasure. Tava and Nadia discovered clumps of several exotic herbs growing near the shoreline. Hell Blosso
ms, Soul Orchids and Shadow Moss. None of the plants sounded like something he would like in his herbal tea, if he ever drank herbal tea, but you could probably make some useful potions out of them. Hawke discovered a vein of gold and three veins of Mithril along the walls of the cavern, and a couple more – deep in the lake. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a spell that would let him breathe underwater, so he could only reach the ones above the surface. After discovering his Arcane Mining level was too low to let him work on Mithril, he turned towards the gold vein.
He had extracted a few chunks of copper, tin, and iron from the mountainside near his Stronghold, small veins that the Dwarves had ignored as they looked for larger deposits in the network of tunnels inside the mountains. He had ended with a few pounds of the minerals but hadn’t improved his skill. This was the first time he had found a deposit of a high-value metal; Korgam’s Dwarves had quietly mined out all the good stuff from the area around Orom. From what he had learned, mineral deposits actually respawned, courtesy of the Arbiters, but they did so randomly, and could take weeks, months or even years to do so. This was his chance to get some valuable raw materials and improve his neglected Vocation.
Arcane Mining didn’t work like the normal skill, of course. Yeah, you did some digging and breaking ground, but for the most part you used Mana to drag out the minerals you wanted. A few minutes’ work with his Dwarven pick and shovel, and 100 Mana, earned him 300 XP towards the Vocation, which got him to level three. He also ended up with one unit of gold ore (it would take four units to melt and purify into a gold ingot). That still wasn’t enough to let him reliably extract Mithril, but the Dwarven tools’ bonus let him work on the smaller of the two veins and gain one unit of ore, as well as enough XP to reach level four. The higher level allowed him to mine the last one, acquiring two units of Mithril ore from the last vein.
Labyrinth to Tartarus: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 3) Page 21
