EG Book 7 Chapter 7 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Sorry this is late. Bad migraines multiple days in a row. I’ve gotten exactly zero words written in the last three days, so blergh. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

The fourth level was, in many ways, easier than the third. The Beasts, Mountainside Boars, were just higher level versions of the Earthen Boar. Even at peak level five, I was able to outmaneuver the dumb creatures. Twice I took the final one out by letting it charge into a tree on the border of the Arena. I did end up injured, misjudging a dodge on the third round and getting my left leg broken, but a quick splint of Aether and then a healing pill gave me enough maneuverability to finish the wave.

Right after the last Boar bled out on the ground, I stumbled back to my friends. “Can I have Vaya heal me and still continue the challenge?” I asked Bruno.

“Hmmmm,” his deliberation hum echoed throughout the area. “Yeah! It counts the same as using a pill did, so a minor downtick in your rewards, but nothing major. But only now, between waves, not during a wave and in between rounds. Sorry. ”

“Oh, thank Darkness,” I said, and hobbled over to her.

“Aiden, your tibia is cracked in three places,” she scolded. I felt the surge of Aether from her, Wood, Water, and Earth supporting and healing.

“That feels better,” I said.

“Are you going to continue? I believe we have gotten a good feeling for the difference in your strength now,” she asked. “Is it worth it to try and continue?”

“This is good training too,” I said. “I’ve gotten significantly faster at creating runes, and I have the third layer of the Granite Skin, Iron Bones Technique down pat now.”

“We will be watching anyway,” Jon said. “Bridget and I can get to him in seconds anywhere in the Dungeon, and your techniques will intervene even faster. Come on, let us see what the last level is like!”

“I do not like it,” Vaya said, “but you are right. We need the training, and it is safer here than elsewhere. Go. You will win.”

“Of course I will,” I said. Jon and Bridget laughed, while Vaya just gave me a look. “Sorry, I’ll be careful.”

She leaned in and kissed me. I stroked her hair, then hopped back to my feet and jogged out to the center. I used two Cores to refill myself, amazed at the usefulness of the Dungeon’s rewards. “Light, I hope we can find a Dungeon that’s reasonable like you in Craesti,” I told Bruno.

“I’m gonna be sad when you all leave,” Bruno said. “And I am really thankful you found me. So, survive here, please.”

“You got it,” I shouted, and then a single Beast snorted and stepped into the clearing. It was a Rhinoceros of some type, and a bit over initial level six in strength. It charged, quickly rushing towards me. It was slower than the Foxes but faster than the Boars, and I didn’t quite have enough time to finish a Pride of the Plasma Herald, so I just sent two Lightning Aether Blasts into it. Flakes of brown cracked off its skin, and its charge didn’t falter in the slightest.

I leapt into the Air, my Dancing Northern Wind Technique giving me steps to run forward over its head. Two steps into the run, I was thankful for the Tower of Trials teaching me to place platforms at various places to push off of, as I had to shove myself sideways to dodge a shotgun blast of Metal spikes. I rolled in mid-air, shoved off another Air platform, and formed the Forceful Punch runes along my right arm. I slammed into the side of the Rhino as it tried to turn and follow me, and the Punch blasted a hole through it.

It didn’t go down, its body flowing together like mud. Earth crush it. I've heard of Beasts like this, I thought, I’ll have to drain it of Aether to make it go down. The Beast bucked sideways, smashing me away from it. I flipped over and dove to the side to avoid a wave of Mud that engulfed the area behind me. Two Ice Spikes shot out of my trisula and stabbed into the Beast. It bellowed in pain.

A glance over at the others showed Jon was screaming something at me, but the rules of the challenge prevented me from hearing it. Considering I’d heard them cheering earlier, I knew that he was telling me how to beat the Beast. Ice freeze it, I cursed, then paused. Of course, freeze the mud then shatter it. That’s what Jon’s trying to say! I looked back at the Mud Rhino to see a skewer of Earth Aether only a meter away. A quick twist had it rip through my side, cutting through my armor and a centimeter of my skin.

I gasped in pain, then leapt at the Beast, pissed off. Ice Aether flowed into my trisula, and I ducked under its thrashing horn and hamstrung it. The Rhino fell, but its wounds started healing, a bit slower than before. I stabbed both of my weapons into its chest before it could fully recover, and blasted a chunk of Aether through its heart. Ice filled it, and a line was frozen and shattered, cutting the Beast in half.

It shimmered and vanished, leaving a different color of Core. “Huh, what’s this?” I asked myself, bending over and picking up the fist-sized object. I saw the same mud brown Aether as the Mud Rhino swirling inside the crystal. “Mud Aether? No, it's not the same, there’s still the swirls of unaspected Aether too.”

“It’s a Core of Mud and Neutral Mana,” Bruno said. “And it’ll help you figure out how to make Mud Mana easier, I think. Still kinda figuring out this whole Dungeon thing, ya know?”

“Thanks Bruno,” I said with a laugh.

“My pleasure,” he responded, and giggled, “You have five minutes. I can warn you, though, that the Beasts will all be different this time, and they will all have a second tier Mana type.”

“Oh, neat,” I said with a grimace on my face. I jogged over to where I’d dropped my bag, dug out a gathering powder and a healing powder. I chugged the gathering powder, then spread the healing powder along the gash in my side, not even wincing at the pain. Light, my pain tolerance is insane, I thought. I guess that’s what happens when you get hit by a Tribulation and work on tempering your body over and over again.

With the powder’s effects surging into me, I walked back to the center of the arena and started to channel my Aether into a Pride of the Plasma Herald, copying how I’d used it against the giant Crocodile that was munching on Aleks. I pushed myself into the same headspace, reaching a level of clarity that my opponent must die, but I held back from dumping all of my Aether out again. I only used around fifteen percent of what was stored in my center, a value that was nearly equal to what I’d used to destroy the Beast. So much, I thought, no wonder it takes so much longer to advance through Core than Condensation.

An Ostrich squawked as it landed in front of me, swirls of an off-white Aether flowed around it. I blasted the Beast, and the Wind Aether, a focused form of Air, tried to deflect the beam, but it wasn’t enough. The deflection did prevent its instant death, but the changed angle let my attack cut off one of its legs. I bugled in pain, then the Wind Aether shield shattered at me, the edges of the Aether sharper and faster than I expected. I got my arms in front of my face, my trisula covering my forearms, but the pieces that hit my legs cut to the bone.

What’s the point of all my tempering if I still get injured so badly! I growled to myself, but I felt the wounds closing. Yeah, yeah, healing faster, stronger, still tougher. I bet if I hadn’t tempered as much that I would have lost a leg to that attack. Level six Beasts are not jokes, even if I am strong enough now to deal with one by myself!

I sent a stream of Wood Aether to my leg, and then jumped over a swirling whirlpool of Wind Aether that tried to finish slicing me apart. In mid-air, I sent two Earthen Spikes that I put a sheath of Metal Aether over. The Metal was abraded away by the Wind Ostriches’ shield, but the solidness of the attack was unable to be deflected, and the Earthen Spikes punched into the Beast and pinned it to the ground. Four more finished it off, after I pulled a stone wall out of the ground to block its wild flailing.

“Five minutes,” Bruno said. “And this one has a Wind Core to let you figure that one out better.”

“Awesome,” I said, “three more.” This time, I pulled one of the four high-quality Flesh Mending Pills out of my belt and swallowed it. I carefully controlled the Aether from it, letting half flow into my injury but corralling the rest in my center to be used during the next fight. It wouldn’t dissipate for over an hour, so I knew I could hold it in place.

I decided to start out with the same technique, though I did assume that it wasn’t going to be the deciding factor again. This time, a Frog landed, a pale green Aether swirling around its mouth. I attacked, and it spat a ball of Acid Aether out. The Plasma of my attack burned through the Acid, but the Frog’s technique continued towards me. My attack hit it before I had to dodge, but I couldn’t keep the beam stable while moving sideways. That’s something I’ll need to practice, I thought with a grimace, then sent a Fireball at the Beast.

It was croaking in pain, one of its eyes burned away and a massive burn across its meter wide face. The Fireball detonated, knocking it sideways, but it recovered quickly. Another ribbit preceded a belch of Acid into the air, and a rain of stinging dropped over half the arena. “Ow, ow,” I grumbled, each drop hitting me causing a tiny burn and a drain on my Aether. I flipped my trisula around, then formed a Forceful Punch with a quick addition of a rune meaning extend. I sprinted at the Beast, then threw the Punch from about two meters away.

It was a good thing I stopped, as a cloud of Acid swirled around it the second I did so, and the ground dissolved under the punishment. The Punch blasted it away from its defense, and I leapt up, over the Acid, and landed next to the Beast. I quickly formed a dozen Metal Blades out of Aether and stabbed them into the stunned Frog. It swelled, and I ran. Behind me, the dying Beast exploded into a puddle of Acid, and only my quick rabbit impression kept me from being engulfed in it. It wouldn’t have killed me, but the injury would have made me easy prey for the next challenge.

“Whew,” I sighed, then walked into the area where the Acid had vanished and picked up the Acid and Neutral Core. I noticed then that the sleeve of my blue training shirt was scorched through and cut apart. “Air blow it, I need to get stronger clothing. I guess this is why there are specialty stores catering to those at the Core level and above.”

I meditated for a minute, setting up a single spiral in my gathering technique and letting it fill my Aether stores a tiny bit more, before Bruno gave me a one-minute warning. I quickly stepped through the motions of the Pride of the Plasma Herald Technique, thinking, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. I kept the power level down to fifteen percent of my Aether reserves, then frowned when that dropped me to less than half. Only I would whine that I’m running low on Aether after fighting through a veritable horde of Beasts, I laughed internally.

A low mist formed, and then a Mountain Mists Gorilla formed out of them. My Plasma beam speared towards it, but a gesture from the Beast had a chunk of stone create a wall in front of it. Earth Aether burnt away in front of my attack, but the Beast gained itself enough time to dodge. I formed another attack, switching to Wrath of the Lightning Herald to shave a second off the time needed, and sent it just as the Beast cleared the left side of its wall. I could see the swirling pale blue color of the Mist Aether in its body visible through the brown Earth Aether. The Beast screeched in agony as my Lightning hit it, and then it vanished in a puff of Mist.

The Mist surged across the Arena before solidifying again into the Gorilla, only a meter away from me. Its arms were easily that long, the Beast standing nearly four meters tall, and I only just avoided its backhand. The attack moved fast enough that the air cracked at its arms passage. I ducked underneath the blow, but a wave of Mist followed behind it, knocking me backwards.

I rolled with the motion, coming back to my feet just in time to see the Beast springing upon me. Earth and Metal Aether joined to form Strength Aether, and I shoved it through the General Strengthening Technique while guiding Lightning and Fire into my trisula. The bladed edge of my weapons caught the Beast’s fist, burning through the Mist surrounding it, and I held my stance.

The Gorilla screamed as its hand was cut in half, and I yelled back as I felt the bones in my arm crack. Mist flowed around, as it tried to retreat again, but I just threw more Fire at it, burning away the Mist as it formed. As the last drops of my Fire Aether flew out of my arms, a swirling Core of Mist and Neutral Aether plopped onto the ground. I dropped to my knees and moaned for a second, before forcing myself to my feet. I pulled out one of the earlier Cores of just Neutral Aether, and pulled it into my meridians. Compared to the emptiness in my center, though, it was like a light sprinkle on a parched field.

I groaned, and quickly moved to my backpack, where I pulled out a Fire, Lightning, Metal refill pill I’d gotten from the Alchemist in the city, and a Bone-knitting Pill, a specialized version of the Flesh Mending Pill I took earlier. My Aether reserves surged, but I was off balance enough that I pulled out an Earth and Wood Refill Powder and chugged it down as well. “Light, this is getting expensive,” I said, then looked at my bag. “Except I’m sure these combined Element Cores will be worth a bunch. If we want to sell them, learning a bit more about how to use and create these will be helpful.”

“One minute,” Bruno said helpfully. “Last round. Good luck.”

“I won’t need it,” I said cockily, deliberately not looking towards the others. My arms were still sore, the pill needed more time to work before they would be fully healed, but I pressed on. I should’ve gotten one of Jon’s explosive potions, I thought, Light, I should’ve taken everyone’s powders and pills, and some of Bridget’s Inscriptions too. Too arrogant, and didn’t take the time to think. At least Vaya will be able to finish healing me up afterwards, cause I’m definitely feeling all the injuries I’ve taken throughout this last wave.

Each of the Beast’s I’d fought in this round were just barely level six, strong but not exceptionally so, but this was the last one. I was worried, but decided to just go big on the first attack. Pride of the Plasma Herald, my strongest and favorite attack, formed around me, only this time I used the extra range I’d gotten by advancing to Seed Core. I created two layers of the runes, doubling up on the effectiveness of the area technique, and pumped half of my Aether into it, causing some of the runes to vibrate in the air because they were so overcharged.

A porcupine that glowed a silvery-white appeared in front of me, only to be obliterated by my attack. The Plasma was drawn into the Sharpness Aether, a mixture of Metal and Fire that was mostly Metal, and the Beast was shocked into a stupor. I followed up with a dozen Lightning Blasts that were attracted to its spines, and it died without acting. The stress filling me loosened up, and I dropped to my butt laughing.

Vaya reached me in seconds as the yellow line turned green Bruno saying they were free to enter did not really process in my brain. Vaya knelt down in front of me and said, “This is going to hurt, but I’ve got to get it out.”

“What?” I asked, then looked down. Two of the porcupine’s quills were sticking out of me. A glance behind showed that they were sticking through me, actually, and I realized I didn’t collapse due to relief, but because my spine had been cut. “Oww.”

Vaya grabbed the one not in my spine, and pulled it through after cutting the end off. A Flesh Mending Pill was shoved in my mouth as her Aether surged into me, and then she yanked the other one out. It hurt a lot, and then Jon and Bridget lifted me by my arms and legs respectfully.

“Don’t forget the reward,” Bruno said, a chest forming in the center.

“I will grab it,” Vaya said, “Just get him to the healer outside.”

They hustled me out, and the administrator exclaimed, “How did you get so injured in the medium difficulty” while sprinting to me. Another wave of cooling Aether soothed the pain in my gut while Jon and Bridget kept running towards the healer’s hut.

The healer, a Perfect Core level Ashkhas, appeared at the entry flap, and took me from my friends. More Aether, a cream that was spread over the injuries, and a powder that I was told to just hold in my mouth, and then Vaya was there as well.

My head was swimming, so I missed the discussions, but Vaya and the healer were both working on fixing the issues in my stomach. The Beast’s Aether was still there, cutting away at every bit that was healed, and only with significant effort and the last of my personal Aether were they able to get it out.

A few minutes later, Vaya slumped against me and the healer panted away tired. “Go back to your lodging and rest,” she told us. “Do not train or do anything but eat, read, and sleep. Got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” I said, and then Jon helped me to my feet. I leaned on him, and Vaya leaned on Bridget, and we staggered back to the teleporter. “So, what did we get?”

“A dozen more advanced Element and Neutral Aether Cores,” Vaya said, “None of them the same, and a metal ball that we’re supposed to attach to the mapping device we got at the last Dungeon run.”

“You know,’ I said, laughing hysterically for a second, “we totally forgot to use that in the Divine Territory.”

“Well, oops,” Jon said, and we all chuckled ruefully.