“Yet?” Naomi asked.
“Ah. The future timeline,” Eric clarified. “It had a feature where it did topography as well. That was great for tactics and landscaping.”
Naomi nodded. “I was planning on adding something like that, adding height and depth and all that.”
“That would be sweet,” Peter replied. “Also, landscaping?”
“What can I say?” Eric replied with a smile. “I had a bit of an eye for building last time around. That happens when you have to live on the edge of society being hunted constantly.”
Peter gave him a curious look, seemed on the verge of asking more about that topic, then thought better of it and shifted gears. “What type of threats do you think we’ll encounter in here?” he asked.
“Not sure,” Eric replied. He activated the Deflection Matrix that was strapped onto the top of his left glove. “I never went past the first floor. This is all new territory to me.” The film of reflective energy shimmered: a thin, opaque glass-like appearance. Like cloudy privacy glass.
Peter gripped his maul with both hands and his body glowed with the deep, red glow of one of his Rotes being activated. “Shannon, you there?”
Her voice came out of all three of their bracers, though it was slightly distorted thanks to the overlap of audio sources. “Yeah. I think I found the first chamber. The ground changes. I’ll de-cloak and wait.”
Eric saw her a couple hundred feet ahead of them, standing in front of a large, dirt field. As he walked up, Peter commented, “What are we thinking? Monster, trap, trial, or puzzle?”
“I hope it’s a fight!” Shannon said as she unpacked her arbalest and set it up with rapid efficiency before couching it on her shoulder. “Peter, going to go in there and see what it is?”
“My pleasure.” Peter walked forward, yet the moment his foot left the dirt trail and hit the large patch of packed ground, cracks spread across the soil. Deep, red fissures smoldered and split open wider, revealing bubbling black pitch that hissed and popped. Peter’s left leg dipped into one, and he let out a yelp of pain before pulling his leg out. “Got into my fucking boots! Damn, that burns!”
Eric manifested a Blackflame Bolt and scanned the environment, but no threats were apparent. He cautiously walked forward until he was behind Peter, who had managed to unstrap his greave and take off his boot as he dumped boiling, hissing mud out. “Fuck, man. That stung.”
Eric spotted something moving: some lump of slightly raised mud that coursed toward them across the channels of blistering bubble, so he launched his Rote. It burned through the air, and he turned his right hand slightly, testing how maneuverable his Blackflame Bolt was now with the Tracking Gloves. He had very little control over the angle of the projectile due to its speed, but his blast struck true and the mud rose up. It was lit on fire, since his flames bypassed whatever innate heat resistance it had.
“Mud elementals,” Eric stated bluntly.
The mud elementals were huge mounds of animated matter that sloughed forward, cracking the ground in places. They had no mouths, eyes, or anything that could be considered a weak spot.
Eric spoke rapidly as the slow-moving enemy approached. “All of your weapons can damage it but they have innate resistance. This is a fight for magic.” He stayed put behind Peter, who was quickly putting his boots and greaves back on. Eric fired off Blackflame Bolts in rapid succession, stacking Blackflame Blaze over and over until he had twenty applications and had begun to sweat.
His heart was beating fast, like he had just done a sprint-style lap in the pool. But, it was a far cry from how tired he’d been in the first go of the Twilight Depths—an external indicator that his mana channel undulations and workout routine were paying off. That filled him with a brimming confidence.
Only a few days in and I’m already seeing this level of progress? Mana undulation from the get-go has paid off far more than I could have ever anticipated. Perhaps there’s some amount of catch-up mechanic at play, since I’ve been summoned, and don’t have the same time as a native Elyndian to build up—
“Another one!” Shannon shouted from her position 20 feet back from them as she pivoted and fired, only for the bolt to stop mid-air and drop.
“You have to be in the chamber to interact with whatever’s in it,” Eric replied as he pivoted targets and began firing at the next enemy. “Once you interact, then you can engage outside the chamber.”
The first one he had lit up fizzled away to ash that bundled into a sphere and began rolling across the dirt field, picked up by a slight breeze. He felt a surge of energy and knew that Revitalizing Heat had gone off and restored ten percent of his mana. He focused his Blackflame Bolts on the still-alive mud elemental, and then spotted more movement out of the corner of his eye. “Okay, people, look alive. More of them coming.”
Peter took a few steps forward and readied his hammer. Naomi raised her MAB, which had a neat little sight on top that looked like some type of scope. Her aim seemed steady, and the loud bang of the manatech firearm going off caused Eric to jump at how much louder this shot was than the previous uses had been. The round sailed forward and plowed into the mud elemental he had ignited to a blaze, and that damage was enough to cause it to fizzle to nothingness. Once more, Eric felt that surge in his chest as he was rejuvenated.
Two more popped up, and the fight was truly engaged. Eric focused on stacking an even distribution of Blackflame Blaze across all of the foes so that his allies’ attacks could refresh the duration. There was no particular reason for wanting the same number of DOTs on his foes—he just liked having the even spread. To his delight, The Paths placed an indicator over each elemental’s head displaying how many afflictions had been applied to each, and with a thought, he could collapse or expand the separate timers for each.
That’s handy, he thought. Extremely useful for tracking in a more chaotic combat scenario.
The first of the mud elementals got into melee range. One of them manifested a massive pseudopod that struck out like a viper biting at prey. Eric barely got his Deflection Matrix’s shield into the path of the strike, and even then it shattered instantly. He was blown back onto his ass from the force of the impact.
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Peter began swinging at the creature and exchanging blows. He would strike, the pseudopod would snap forward, and dent his armor.
Eric got to his feet and used even more Blackflame Bolts while also diverting some of his mana to reactivating the Deflection Matrix. He could feel the tiredness weighing on him—he was burning through his stockpile already.
How do I use this skin?
As if reacting to his thoughts, he saw the Blackflame that had been surging along his flesh recede—he suddenly felt full to the brim with mana as all exhaustion left him.
Ah. Nice. Thought-based reaction. Thanks, skin.
He resumed blasting and spotted yet another mud elemental coming toward them. This one was distant, so he was able to stack ten Blackflame Bolts before it even got to them.
Naomi and Shannon continued to hit their targets, but those elementals closed in and were about to strike. However, before the pseudopods could snap out and hit any of the Summoned, a shockwave of crimson surged out of Peter, and all of the mud elementals turned their ire on him. He began getting pummeled from all directions.
Peter roared, “Eric! Light them up!”
I don’t want to use a Sigil this early, but there are a lot of them.
Eric shouted back. “Just hold tight! We shouldn’t use Skills this early if we can help it!”
“Fuck, man. This hurts!” Peter started swinging with reckless abandon, his body glowing more and more with that dripping crimson light as his armor was dented and crushed to the point it began hindering his movement. He ripped off one of the smashed pauldrons just so he could keep swinging his giant hammer.
Shannon kept firing bolt after bolt. “This is taking too long. Fireball, Eric!”
Eric shot a glance at Naomi, who was fiddling with her MAB.
“Unless someone else has a better plan!” Shannon added.
“Fine!” Eric replied. “Incoming!”
“I got it!” Naomi shouted. She raised her firearm and pulled the trigger. But instead of a loud bang, a gust of citrus-scented gas blew forward, enveloping Peter and the mob. To Eric’s surprise, the mud began to solidify and crack over, and Peter’s following blows wound up crushing whatever they hit.
“Got it! Bash them!” Naomi shouted.
The heat around them became intense. It wasn’t the magical heat of Eric’s Blackflame, which felt like a hot oven. Nor was it the humid heat of the mud elementals. This was a chemical heat that felt like someone had rubbed the skin rapidly.
Shannon swapped out her sharp-tipped bolts for one with a blunt tip. She fired it, and the bolt split into multiple as duplicates shattered the elementals. Eric felt the surge of heat through his body as the slight bruise on his rump was cured and his mana was filled up. He could feel it slowly drain from his center, swirl near his torso, and work its way to the skin, which flared with little traces of Blackflame.
“Great job,” Eric said as he looked at Naomi.
“Yay for science,” Naomi replied with a grin.
The cracked ground sealed over, and the mud elementals’ brittle corpses began to liquify into debris and Monster Parts.
Eric’s bracer vibrated, so he held it up in front of him. A small, holographic representation of The Paths’ messages appeared, floating just above the metal, but also appeared in his vision at the same time causing a disorienting overlap.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have 1 level-up to process.]
[Blackflame Mage 13]
[Choose one Skill and Trait to increase.]
Index, default notifications to bracer.
[Oh, alright. Can do.]
Let’s put a Rank into Revitalizing Heat and Flashstep.
[Confirmed.]
-----
Skill:
Flashstep 3 - The distance the user can travel is increased. 50-foot distance.
-----
Trait:
Revitalizing Heat 2 - Increase the restoration to 11%.
-----
[Well, that’s disappointing. Only 1%? Seems fairly low.]
Eric was a little irritated that the restoration did not increase drastically. However, he had the ability to use Embers to horizontally improve the Trait. And, the restoration was valuable, especially in group fights. He glanced around at his allies, who had not yet told the Index to redirect their messages from their vision to their bracers.
Eric glanced at his readout of his stats.
-----
Name: Eric Mercer
Classes: Blackflame Mage 13
Maximum Sigils: 5
Rotes: [Scorching] Blackflame Bolt, Ash Shroud
Equipped Skills: Flashstep 3, Cinderburst 3, Inferno Trigger 3, Combustion 3
Traits: [Dire] Blackflame Blaze E2, Revitalizing Heat 2
Body Enhancements: Neversick Slime (T5), Mana Skin (T7)
-----
Loadout Slots: 6 (-2 from Body Enhancements)
Gear: Manatech Bracer [Comms, Map, HUD, Alarm, Index Interface], T1 Monster Harvest Mitts, T1 Harvester's Bag, T1 Tracking Gloves, T1 Deflection Matrix, T1 Silence Node, T1 Healing Potion (x3)
Monster Parts:
Embers: 0
-----
Eric reached into the lined bag, grabbed his Monster Harvest Mitts, and set to the disgusting work of gathering components. All of the goop had split off and left behind the balls of ash, which were actually quite easy to grab. But, the slime that sloughed from some of the spheres was revolting and had a horrible smell, similar to the fields out in the central valley of California. Hot, dead dirt left to bake as the vegetation burned to a crisp. In total Eric gathered fifteen mud elemental ashes.
He stood up, wiped the gloves on each other before shaking them loose of any remnant goop, and put them into the lined pocket within the bag. “Ready?” he called back to his allies.
Shannon and Peter had snapped out of their trance, but Naomi took a few more moments before she breathed in deeply. “What took you so long?” Shannon asked.
“Sorry. I reached level twenty-five,” Naomi replied.
“What? How are you so far ahead?” Peter asked as he stared at her, wide-eyed.
“All that crafting,” Naomi replied. “I hit a bunch of milestones when I was tinkering and experimenting and making the bracers.”
“What did you do to those things?” Shannon followed up, gesturing to the elementals.
“Quicklime,” Naomi replied. “It has a neat reaction called slaking, where the calcium oxide reacts with the water to form something known as calcium hydroxide. It’s exothermic, hence the heat, and basically pulls out their moisture. I used a Skill to turn my raw mana into a chemical compound, pushed it into the chamber where I normally condense manacules into bullets, and then launched that as a scattershot. No projectile, just a cloud of chemicals.”
Eric let out a short laugh. He’d forgotten how much he had enjoyed her in-depth explanations. Being treated to one brought good memories to the forefront of his thoughts. “You’re a badass.”
She walked up to him. “Why didn’t you use a Skill when Peter asked?”
“We need to try and conserve Sigils,” Eric replied as he recovered from his fit of mirth and resumed a serious demeanor. “Sigils are a valuable resources at low levels. When we have ten or more? Sure, we can be less judicious with their use. But right now? Every single time we use a Sigil it should be a calculated move.”
“Why didn’t your heat draw out the water?” Shannon asked as a follow-up.
“No clue,” Eric replied. “Maybe because it's a magic flame? Blackflame might just burn away the essence of life, or something like that.” He put a hand to his chin. “Although it did work on wooden training targets . . . Maybe the heat part of it doesn’t affect living creatures in the same way? Honestly, elementals are weird and don’t always follow what you’d consider the rules of physics or magic: they are just . . . weird. Hell, I’m surprised your chemistry shot was able to do what it did.”
Peter walked over to him, a frown on his face. “I don’t agree with the Sigil thing in this case. We had a group, all clustered on me, and you could’ve used your fireball thing on them.”
“Cinderburst,” Eric corrected.
“Whatever,” Peter replied. “I think that Sigil use would’ve been okay. And I could take the hit. I’m the tank, the tank pulls the monster mobs and call out AOEs and for heals, right?” He clapped Eric on the shoulder. “Let’s just try it. We’re a team, and these dungeons act like the ones in MMOs from all the stuff you’ve explained so far.”
Eric frowned, but nodded, knowing that it would be pointless to keep arguing over this with someone as stubborn as Peter. “Alright, if you say so. Remember though, after I hit you, the lingering burn will stay for a little bit before I can force it to deactivate.”
Peter shrugged. “I can take anything you can dish out.”
“Let’s go!” Shannon said, pointing to the trail that picked up at the far end of the dirt patch. “I want to shoot more stuff. We have to catch up to Naomi’s level.”
We are only 3 reviews away from hitting the threshold for the "Group Portrait" art commission!
Threshold #2 - 30 Reviews = I will commission a 'group portrait' of the Summoned from the fantastic ! You can see some of the work she has done for me , and . I'm also going to put up a poll as to whether the 'group portrait' will be them in their soirée attire, or their Twilight Depths dungeon gear.
I am not asking you to do a '5-star review' (unless you think the story deserves 5 stars).
These need to be honest reviews. Give the story the review you think it deserves. Be honest. I love to hear your feedback and grow as a writer from your criticism. If you do lean into the territory of 'harsher' criticism, I would ask that you try to frame it constructively. Being negative just to be negative doesn't help my growth as an author at all.
You should not be making new accounts to make reviews to meet these thresholds. That breaks terms-of-service, and can get both you and me in a ton of trouble. So please, do not do that!
We did hit the 20 review/advanced review threshold already! That poll is going up on March 17th's chapter, as I want you to have a decent selection of "Combat Scenes" to vote on for the art commission. I ask for your continued patience on that front! Thank you so much for reading!