EG Book 7 Chapter 6 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Sorry this is late, y’all, but I’ve had a terrible migraine for the last 24 hrs. Still got a bit of writing done, but not enough to get caught up. Probably not gonna make 50k, but should definitely make 40k, which means it’s still going to be one of if not the best month of writing I’ve ever done! Anyway, enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Librarian Narwan took my team aside after breakfast, after getting Aleks’s and Ming’s team to head to the courtyard. “I want you four to go to the Jungle Arena, and try the middle difficulty again,” he told us. “Once you are done, Knight Kaminski will spend some time with you discussing new techniques and how to adapt your current ones. I want you to understand how much you have grown and truly feel the difference between a Condensation and a Core level gatherer. Your strength and capability, I believe, has tempered your view on the differences, but you need to truly know. The Sayaad Guild is aware that you are coming. Go.”

“Yes, Master Narwan,” we all intoned, bowing, and when we straightened he was gone.

“Uh, I hope he’s helping the rest of them advance quickly,” I said. “I really don’t like being a full tier above our friends.”

“You know that everyone back at Azyl is probably going to be only at Circulation, right?” Jon asked.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” I told him. “I’m going to have to make so many gathering powders and pills. So will you.”

“Hey, I am focused on my explosives and technique enhancers,” Jon said.

“Inscriptions do not really help people advance faster,” Bridget shrugged, “or I would donate some.”

“Well, they kinda can,” I said. “Use the Inscriptions to run missions, earn credits, and use them for gathering pills. Not a straightforward conversion of gift to advancement, but still helpful. Of course, I’m not saying any of us should lose money, but selling them for just above cost could be worthwhile to help our friends who stayed behind.”

“Jamila and I already decided we are going to spend more time in the infirmary,” Vaya said. “Though we will not be able to really change the costs.”

We jogged the entire distance to the Sayaad Guild transport facility. I stared in trepidation at the teleportation pad before hesitantly stepping on it. The swirl of Aether around me, the disorientation of the rapid movement, left me gagging and valiantly holding my gut to stop myself from leaving a mess on the receiving surface. “Ugh,” I said, then spat to the side of the trail, “I really hope this gets better eventually.”

“Well, we do not have anything like this in Craesti,” Vaya offered, “So this will be one of the last times you actually have to use this.”

“What is worse,” Jon asked, “Feeling like chum for a few minutes, or taking two days to get to the Great Western Forest?”

I cocked my head in thought for a second, “Oh fine, yeah, this sucks but it’d suck more to have to hike here instead,” I grumbled.

“Come on,” Bridget said, pulling Jon down the trail, “I want to see what the third level looks like.”

“We should be able to make it to the fifth,” I said. “I mean, we probably could have made it through the third round last time.”

“Just probably not without an injury that would have taken too long to heal,” Vaya said. “We have a long trip home, but I still do not want any of you to take unnecessary risks. Okay?”

“Yes, dear,” I said, pulling her into a side hug. Her grumbles were barely audible, and I tuned them out. At least, I did until she tickled me, and I jerked sideways while laughing.

We reached the Sayaad Guild’s stand, and a different Ashkhas was meditating behind it. The haze of Aether in the air was noticeably thicker. I said so out loud. “Huh,” Jon said, “do you think Bruno is causing it?”

“Probably,” I said with a shrug.

The Ashkhas stood and stretched before looking at us. She huffed, then said, “Yes, the Dungeon is causing the Aether in the region to increase in density. This is causing the Beasts nearby to advance faster than normal, and seems to be increasing their birth rate as well. Names?”

I gave her our names, and she nodded, “You are scheduled to enter the medium difficulty. The team currently inside should be out soon, so you may wait here. As you are all Seed Core, your rewards will be very little for completing the medium, and I would recommend the hard, though you will struggle with going beyond the first round.”

“Okay,” I said. “Master Narwan wants us to run the medium difficulty to see what the difference is between what we were able to do at Threshold Condensation and now at Seed Core.”

“Oh!” She exclaimed, “You are (Hero) Aiden! I did not recognize your name, I am so sorry!” She fell into a deep bow, which looked awkward with their slightly different skeletal structure.

“It’s okay,” I said.

The doorway behind us surged for a second, and then four Volk stumbled out of it. All of them were injured, cuts from the Ants wings and mandibles evident across them. The Ashkhas minder leapt over to them, and a stream of green and brown Aether covered the Volk. Their injuries stopped bleeding, but that was the extent of their healing. “You can go into the Dungeon,” the Ashkhas told us, “I will take them to the healer.”

“Thank you,” Vaya said. We echoed her, then stepped into the Dungeon.

“Aiden! Vaya, Jon, Bridget! Yay, you’re back,” Bruno yelled around us. “And wow, you guys got swole!”

“Uh, swole?” Bridget asked, confused.

“It means strong, usually in reference to large muscles,” I said.

“You know you’re way too strong for the medium difficulty, right?” Bruno asked.

“Yeah, just wanted to see how strong we got,” I said.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh, do you want to do a challenge mode? I haven’t gotten to do a challenge mode,” Bruno said.

“Uh, that depends, what’s a challenge mode?” I asked.

“You fight by yourself, and thus get much better rewards. Your friends can wait nearby, and jump in to save you, but you lose all of your rewards,” Bruno said.

I looked over at the others, having learned my lesson about jumping into things without talking it over first. Jon gave me a thumbs up, while Vaya looked nervous. “It should be fine,” she said. “We will be ready.” Bridget nodded.

I turned back towards the center of the clearing and answered, “Sure, though we do need to talk about your difficulty levels afterwards too, okay?”

“Yay!” He shouted, his voice echoing over the interior of the tree-lined circle. A glowing yellow line formed near the entrance, “No creatures will cross that line. If Vaya, Bridget, or Jon cross it, challenge mode ends. Once you move to the green circle,” it formed in the very center of the arena, “the Dungeon Beasts will be summoned. They’ll be the same types as your last attempt at conquering the Jungle Arena to start with. Good luck, and use lots of Mana!”

“It’s called Aether!” I said with a grin.

His laughter rang through the area.

I jogged over to the center. Before stepping in, I pushed the Aether in me into the General Strengthening Technique with a focus on Water and Ice Aether to increase my dexterity, toughness, and strength. The second I stepped into the green circle, sixteen Soldier Ants plowed out of the ground and rushed me. They gave off the aura of a level four Beast each. I turned to the nearest and punched out, sending a quick Aether Blast into its head.

The Beast exploded, with tiny bits of its innards reaching all the way to the tree wall. “Wow!” I exclaimed, then stepped sideways to dodge a bite. I kicked the Beast, and my foot sent it flying, broken, into another. An Aether Slash took out three more, and then I ran forward to intercept another two. I quickly broke them, and then finished off the last nine with a Four Twin Lightning Blasts technique. Each Aether Blast of my weakest attack, usually used to disorient or distract, killed an Ant.

I stared at the holes blown in the last Soldier Ant, each the size of a baseball, and shook my head. “Wow,” I repeated.

“Whoa, dude, that was awesome! One minute until the next round,” Bruno said.

I checked my center, and shrugged, “I used less Aether there than my natural regeneration, so I’m ready whenever.”

“Okay, then let’s GOOOO!” Bruno said, excited, and twenty four Beasts of a slightly higher gathering level leapt out of the ground.

Aether flowed down my arms, thicker and denser than before my advancement, and into my weapons. This time I paid attention and felt the difference. My trisula drank up the Aether, easily able to handle the increased weight behind it, and the two Aether Slashes I sent to each side crashed into and then through the Sword Bites the Beasts tried to attack me with. Behind my attack, I blasted forward. In less than thirty seconds, I demolished the second wave.

My Aether Shield, the thin layer of Aether that had become second nature to hold at all times, deflected every attack they sent out that I didn’t dodge. It drained me a bit, but normally they’d break the Shield but it would remove their control. This kept the foreign Aether from rampaging through my body, like when I accidentally pushed Aether into Nicolai.

“One minute until the next round,” Bruno announced when the last Ant’s twitching stopped.

Every Beast dissolved into the unattributed Cores, then all but four vanished. “Hey!” I shouted.

“You’ll get them back if you succeed,” Bruno told me. “Otherwise, this is all you’ll get.”

“Got it,” I said. “I am kinda too strong for this.”

“Yup!” Bruno said.

“You know, the jump to the second round was too high when we ran this before,” I said. “The Beasts should have been high level fours not level fives.”

“Oh, why is that? And round start,” Bruno asked.

I barely paid attention to the Ants this time, stepping through a quick circle before flinging my hands out and generating fifty Lightning runes around me. A blast of electricity exploded out of me as my Aether dumped into the runes. In ten seconds, I’d cooked them all, though I’d used more than five times as much Aether as the previous rounds. “Usually in games where you’re fighting various monsters or enemies, the first time you meet newer ones they’re a bit weaker, so you can adapt to them. You can leave the end result the same, making each round’s jump a bit bigger, but the first round of the second wave is probably the most dangerous, right?”

“Huh, makes sense,” he answered me. “I’ll try to change it, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to until I level up again. I’ll get five different difficulties then! Oh, one minute.”

“Ugh, I need to make that attack more efficient,” I grumbled. I took a deep breath. “Not in a rush, use less Aether even if it takes more time.”

“Go Aiden!” Jon cheered from the side. “Yay! Kill those Ants!”

I waved at my friends, and Vaya grinned back. Her sword was in the ground, and my Aether vision showed hundreds of tendrils of Wood Aether, and a deeper green colored one as well, almost writhing under the ground right at the demarcation line for my trial.

Ants surged out of the ground and dropped off the treetops, Bruno having refined his presentation for them arriving. The flying Ants proved to be weaker than the walking ones, as I was able to send an Aether Blast through three of them at once when they lined up for an attack on me. The fourth round ended quickly, and so did the fifth. When the last Ant twitched its last, Bruno announced, “Five minutes until the second wave. You may stop if you wish.”

“No thanks,” I said, scooping up a Core. “Can I give the Cores to my friends?”

“Sure,” Bruno said. “You can cross the line freely during the breaks. They can’t, though.”

“Thanks,” I told him while jogging over to the others. “Hold these?”

“I can do that,” Jon said, opening up his bag.

I dumped mine into it, only eighteen Cores. I kept two in my hand, and then pulled the Aether out of them into my meridians. A rush of neutral Aether flowed into me, then broke into a perfect mix of my Affinities. I went from slightly down on Aether, Light I can hold so much now, to being slightly above my normal capacity. My center felt tight, but I drained it quickly into thickening my Aether shield.

“One minute,” Bruno said.

I gave Vaya a quick kiss on the cheek.

“I am ready to save you if necessary,” she said.

“I know,” I told her. “I love you.”

She grinned happily, “and I love you. Now go, and continue to impress us.”

I jogged out to the center again and charged up a Wrath of the Lightning Herald. It took me a third of the time it had previously, and I ended up having to hold the technique not quite done to wait for the Bears.

Eight Bears roared into the Arena, and I threw my technique at the one directly in front of me. A second later, there were seven Bears in the Arena. I drilled a hole straight through the Beast the size of a beach ball, and it collapsed into two pieces. “Whoa!” I exclaimed, then quickly formed another Wrath as the Bears charged. I used only half as much Aether this time, making the runes smaller and more clustered towards my front, but it still obliterated the Beast.

I was able to kill a third before they got close enough for their attacks. A series of Earth Aether Slashes came off their claws, and I dodged most of them. I noticed yet again that everything they did seemed slower, but there were still enough attacks flying at me that I had to block one. Aether lined the edges of my trisula, and I charged through one set of attacks with my blades crossed in front of me.

The Bear’s attack shattered on my defense, and then I stepped into it, punching forward with an Aether Blast formed on the rear stud. I hit it, and the Fire Blast I’d charged blew through the Beast, throwing the five hundred kilogram Bear ten meters back in a heap of destroyed flesh.

A paw flashed at me from another Bear, and Earth and Metal Aether surged through my body as I formed the first and second layers of the Granite Skin, Iron Bones Technique in the split second before it hit me. My feet set, and the Beast could not move me. I cut its paw off, then flipped a trisula around and stabbed it through the brain. A few seconds later, I’d killed the last of them.

“Well, that was impressive!” Jon shouted, and Bridget clapped.

“One minute,” Bruno said.

“Am I getting a shorter break due to the challenge mode?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Bruno said. “Though it’ll increase when you get to wave three.”

“Awesome,” I told him, then grabbed the two Cores that had stayed. I checked my Aether reserves, but I was still in the upper ninety percent range, so I just dropped them into the bag on my hip.

The next three rounds went nearly the same. The Beasts, strong and tough as they were, were unable to take any serious attacks from me. The Four Twin Lightning Blasts Technique killed one, though it took sixteen shots from it, and Aether Blasts usually worked with a single hit. The only exception was an Earth Aether Blast, which was their strongest Affinity. The last set of Bears, near the top of level five, took two hits from my Earth Aether Blast before they stayed down.

“One minute,” Bruno announced.

“This is the level six one,” I stated, then started to build a Pride of the Plasma Herald, runes flashing into existence around me. Again, I finished way too soon. When the Beast formed, I was glad, as my brain felt tight from holding the runes steady. It roared at me, and a bar of Plasma the size of my body swept through it.

The Beast wasn’t dead, yet, but it was a close thing. I sprinted forward, watching as its fur and skin started to heal, and leapt onto it before its eyes and ears finished fixing themselves. I stabbed downward, and blew it apart. All told, it took me five seconds to kill a Bear that had taken everything my team had been able to send, including our Bonds (though Sia was limited) in the mix. I just stared down at the Beast, when it shimmered and the Core stayed.

“Well, Light,” I whispered. “What next?”

Adrakhsh Foxes were next, sixteen mid level five Beasts that shot bolts of Lightning and Fire at me. The Lightning tickled. They were faster than I was, just barely, but blades of Air Aether slashed across the field took them down, though I ended up using about ten percent of my Aether reserves to do so. Of course, I was able to suck down two of the four Cores left and fill myself back up.

I honestly can’t believe how strong I am compared to just a month ago, I thought while ducking under a burst of Flame from one Fox while grabbing another’s Lightning technique and redirecting it into a third Beast. Their Affinities with their main Aether were weaker than mine, and my higher gathering level let me just take their Aether away from them once it was close enough to me.

The third round is where it started to get tricky, as there were twenty four of the Beasts at a peak level five, nearly level six in strength. The Lightning attacks were still too weak to do anything, but their claws were enough to damage my armor. I quickly got scratched up, but each time they hurt me I killed one, a cut for a backhand or stab.

The fourth round repeated the third, but with thirty two Beasts instead. Each gash took Aether to heal, each attack Aether to send, and just keeping up with the speed-focused Foxes took Aether into the General Strengthening Technique. I started to use the Voltage Differential Nerve Infusion Technique as well, the attraction locations deflecting the Lightning attacks and making the Foxes tumble when they tried to speed up. Two ended up literally rolling across the ground towards a point when I amped up the Aether usage.

The fifth round left me bloody and chugging down a healing powder. “You have ten minutes until the next wave, if you wish to continue,” Bruno said.

“Do you think I’ll make it?” I asked.

“Yes, even with me pushing the difficulty as high as I can for it,” Bruno said. “Your strength and previous runs force me to.”

“Has anyone in Condensation beaten the medium difficulty?”

“A full team of five Ashkhas at Complete Condensation with three Bonds did, though it took them a large amount of resources,” Bruno said.

“I really can’t wait for you to have more difficulty settings,” I told him. “That seems excessive for a medium difficulty.”

“Me too,” Bruno said, “Me too.”