Chapter 288 - Stone Cold (Patreon)

Reivyn stood with the other members of his Party on the ramp leading to the next floor. Teilon had gone ahead to scout as much as he could, his phasing ability allowing him to walk through obstacles to enhance his Stealth Skills. Reivyn had tried telling Teilon they had just been joking about making him go scout ahead, but he insisted on doing it anyway. He had a solid argument in wanting to challenge himself for Skill growth.

With Refix’s regimen of training, everyone in the Party was well ahead of their Tier on Skill Levels. Refix instilled a mindset of never growing complacent with their Skill Levels, and even though Teilon liked to complain, he always participated fully. The benefits of living under Refix’s tutelage showed themselves with Teilon being able to successfully sneak through a Tier 5 Dungeon while still being on the lower end of Tier 4.

When it came to Skills, typically Tier 5 was the range where people were coming up on the ceiling of Level 100 and working on a breakthrough. Teilon wasn’t quite at that level, yet, but he wasn’t far off. Another couple dozen Skill Levels in some of his Stealth Skills would see him pushing past the limit, and he was already experimenting with his Phasing Ability he gained from his Class together with his Stealth Skills in unique ways in preparation for reaching Skill Level 100.

The typical “genius” could expect to reach around Level 70 in their best Skill by the end of Tier 4. Even Serilla had stalled out in the 60’s with her Swords Skill before joining up with Reivyn and his family, though she was only at the start of Tier 4. Reivyn’s group consistently shattered the mold when it came to Classers, saying nothing of Reivyn himself.

Teilon’s head popped out through the wall next to Reviyn, glancing back and forth to orient himself before stepping completely through. Reivyn had Sensed him coming, so he wasn’t alarmed, but the other Party members perked up at his sudden appearance.

“There are twenty basilisks on the floor, with a brood mother variant as the boss at the end,” Teilon said. “The beasts are mostly just lazing about, but a few of them walk back and forth along the corridors. The brood mother has dozens of eggs, some already cracked open, but most sitting whole, and I can only assume they’ll have some sort of part to play in the boss fight.”

“They’ll either hatch with little basilisks to distract us or they’re props used to antagonize the brood mother,” Refix commented. “So we should either destroy the eggs quickly, or avoid them as much as possible.”

“That narrows things down,” Reivyn chuckled. “How much of a nuisance do you think freshly hatched baby basilisks could cause?”

“It depends on how their petrification ability works. If they can enhance each others’ abilities by focusing on the same person, then it could be a problem, especially if their ability is fully powered at birth.”

“Well, it’s time to find out how strong their ability is and whether it affects us based on Tier or Stats,” Reivyn declared. “We’ll figure out the eggs during the fight.”

With that Reivyn made his way to the front of the Party. Refix followed closely behind in order to snatch him out of danger in case the petrification was too powerful. The two moved forward along the corridor at Teilon’s direction to intercept one of the patrolling lizards. The rest of the Party trailed behind a ways to intervene if necessary but not take the beasts attention away from Reivyn.

The second floor had an almost identical layout to the one below it. There was one long, main corridor with several intersections of branching tunnels heading off perpendicular in each direction. It was clearly a man-made cave, though Reivyn could sense pockets carved out that were either veins of metals mined out or natural pockets tunneled into.

Reivyn sensed the first patrolling basilisk amble toward them from the tunnel on the right as they approached the first intersection. He held up a closed fist to let everyone know to hold position as they waited for the beast to come into view.

The basilisk made a whoofing sound as it spotted Reivyn standing in the corridor before immediately charging forward. It let out an aggressive bark as it picked up momentum, and it’s eyes flashed with bright light as it focused its attention on Reivyn.

Reivyn felt as if something physical impacted him, and his joints locked up for a second. He grunted with effort as he flexed his muscles while cycling his Mana through his body to shrug off the effect. When his internal Mana made contact with whatever it was the basilisk’s ability hit him with, it felt like his Mana was trying to wash an oily substance off of his body. With his high Skill in manipulating Mana, he took a hold of the intrusive substance and pushed it out of his body.

It literally only took a second to rid himself of the petrification ability, and he was only semi-stunned for a fraction of a second, but in high-level combat, that could be deadly. It was something he would have to warn the others about and watch out for. Having multiple vanguards able to draw the attention of the beasts would be helpful.

The basilisk noticed its petrification ability didn’t work on Reivyn, or at least that it didn’t stick, and it seemed to be personally offended that it failed to lock down his movements. It ducked its head and charged forward.

The basilisk was a strange creature. It was a six-legged beast, but it didn’t look insectoid. It was more like a snake had grown additional legs along its long torso to increase its mobility. If one of these things grows even larger, will it continue to grow additional pairs of legs to fill in the gaps? Reivyn idly thought before focusing his mind on the fight to come.

“It’s ability can cause minor disruptions if we’re not careful, but I’ll go into further details after we take it out,” Reivyn quickly relayed to his father. The entire point of him stepping forward like this was to test the ability, so he needed to give some information right away to alleviate his father’s worry.

Refix grunted in affirmation as he stepped up next to his son. Refix readied his weapon while sending out his ethereal arsenal as Reivyn began attacking the basilisk with frozen beams. Lizards were cold-blooded, so Reivyn began his magical attacks with that thought in mind. If the lizards were susceptible to the cold, it might slow them down and lock their movements up just like they attempted to do to their prey.

Reivyn momentarily smirked at the irony as he braced for the impact of the charge.

The basilisk slammed into Reivyn’s shield and reared up on it’s back four legs. It attempted to slash at Reivyn with its front claws while trying to bite through the shield. Its arms - legs? - were longer than they appeared from when it was walking on all six legs, and Reivyn had to quickly slam his shield to the side while taking a backstep to avoid the beast from simply reaching around his shield. He slashed its arm with his sword as he dodged the beast.

With nothing directly in front of it to counterbalance its weight, the basilisk once more fell on its front limbs. It barked in annoyance as it charged forward once again.

Refix sidled up along its flank and began stabbing at its joints while his ethereal weapons began slashing and bashing into its scales. The scales were just as potent in their defense as the giant snake they had fought several days ago, but the two could tell it had much less vitality. The slashing and bludgeon strikes didn’t do much to the basilisk, so Refix dismissed those types of weapons from the ones swirling around and focused on trying to pierce through the scales and any gaps that could be found.

The rest of the Party quickly caught up with them. They noticed the tactic Refix employed and moved around to surround the beast, poking with piercing attacks in its sides. Kimberly got a bit too close to the rear, and the basilisk's tail whipped around, knocking into her side. She was able to utilize her Spear Dancing ability to move with the momentum, though, and only grunted a bit in pain instead of getting flung away with a serious injury.

Whenever the basilisk snapped its head to the side toward one of the other Party members on their way to surround the lizard, Reivyn stepped forward and bashed it in the face with his shield, keeping its attention focused on him.

The basilisk's eyes flashed a couple more times, but Reivyn kept a shield of Mana just on the outside of his skin, and that seemed to be effective in neutralizing the ability. It simply hit the Mana shield and sloughed off like a viscous liquid. It was entirely invisible and incorporeal, but that was the best way Reivyn could describe what he sensed.

Kefira and Ameliyn pelted the lizard with their Spells, Ameliyn using her Celestial Affinity and Kefira copying Reivyn with an Ice Affinity, and Teilon leaped over the others to land on the beast’s back, stabbing it over and over with his daggers.

The basilisk reared back at the pain from all the piercing and magical attacks barraging it, and Reivyn didn’t miss the opportunity. The scales on its neck were much less hard than the protective ones on its back, and he slashed its throat open, half-way decapitating it. Copious amounts of blood poured out of the open wound as the oversized lizard collapsed, dead.

The Party disengaged and moved a bit of a ways back to avoid the blood spilling onto the floor. They all shared a look with each other before Reivyn spoke up.

“Other than its petrification ability and its long front limbs and tail, these things don’t pose much of a threat,” he said. “The petrification was like an oily Mana that seeped into my body and locked up my joints. It was more my Strength than Vitality that allowed me to power through it, but it was Mana Manipulation that allowed me to purge it from my body.

“For someone with low Mana Manipulation, I can see it becoming a problem. It doesn’t seem to transform one into stone right away, but it can use the ability multiple times in a short span, and I imagine the accumulation of the oily Mana would eventually do it.

“Getting hit by the ability once or twice in a fight would probably be good Mana practice for Teilon and Kimberly, honestly.”

“Of course you’re thinking about how to turn it into a training tool,” Teilon smirked, shaking his head. “Maybe after we’ve culled the majority of them. It wouldn’t be good if some snuck up on us while we were in the middle of combat and added more petrifying juice to our bodies mid-fight.”

“In that case, we should take care of the patrolling lizards first,” Refix said. “Then we can kill the ones just lying about and try to maneuver the things into gazing at Teilon and Kimberly once or twice. It’s not a big deal if we can’t make it happen, though.”

“Wow, is that something Refix said?” Teilon stared at Refix with an open mouth. “Not taking full advantage of a training opportunity isn’t ‘a big deal?’ Wonder of wonders.”

Refix smacked Teilon in the shoulder while the girls hid smiles behind their hands. Well, all the girls except Serilla. She still maintained her stoic facade.

“Careful that I don’t have you attempt to solo one of these things,” Refix joked.

The Party quickly reoriented themselves into their proper formation and continued along the corridor at Teilon’s direction. It didn’t take long for them to clear out the patrolling basilisks. There were only a few of them. Most of them were found throughout the side corridors napping.

After a couple hours culling the basilisks, successfully allowing Teilon and Kimberly a couple opportunities to practice their Mana Manipulation Skills, the Party finally made its way to the boss room.

Reivyn peered into the open space that was obviously carved out by the brood mother and other lizards. The brood mother was twice the size of the other basilisks and was lying on a pile of animal bones, snoozing without a care in the world. While the other basilisks had slightly rounded, smooth backs, the brood mother had sharp spines. It was facing the opposite direction, but Reivyn had a suspicion that it also had hardier scales protecting its throat than the other lizards, too.

Despite being twice the size of the other lizards, Reivyn noted that it did not, in fact, have another pair of legs on its torso. Probably because it’s overall twice the size and not just twice the length.

There were several dozen eggs scattered in clumps throughout the room. Each batch contained six or seven eggs with one or two already cracked open and empty. I guess basilisks don’t eat their egg shells after hatching.

Everyone shared a glance and nodded to each other to indicate their readiness. Kimberly strode forward with fluid grace, her spear at the ready. Serilla was just behind her, shield at the ready to step forward and intercept a strike if Kimberly got stunned.

As soon as Kimberly’s foot touched down inside the chamber, the brood mother whirled around with a high-pitched screech. Her eyes flashed and Kimberly stumbled with a stutter step. The effects of the gaze from the brood mother must have been more potent, because she did not immediately shrug it off or power through with her Strength. Serilla noticed right away and stepped forward with her shield.

The brood mother’s size difference meant her forelimbs were much longer than the other basilisks. Instead of trying to swipe around Serilla’s shield when she charged over and reared back on her back four legs, she simply batted Serilla aside with a strike to her shoulder. Serilla went cartwheeling away, and the brood mother lowered down to charge once more at Kimberly.

The brood mother already showed higher intelligence than the other basilisks by staying on target, but Reivyn and the others couldn’t worry about that. Refix charged forward and slashed at the brood mother’s face while his ethereal arsenal stabbed and prodded for weak points along her torso and joints.

Reivyn, Ameliyn, and Kefira opened up with their barrage of Spells, but Reivyn quickly noticed that the cold beams and Celestial Bolts were bouncing off of a layer of Mana coating the scales of the beast. Reivyn did a quick calculation in his head whether to try and burn through the Mana shield or to find some other way around the impediment.

Serilla didn’t stay down for long as the strike wasn’t intended to kill or seriously harm her. It was more that the brood mother had simply violently shoved aside an obstacle in her path. She jumped up and charged back into the flank of the beast. The brood mother’s tail was also proportionally longer than the other basilisks and whipped around to try and bat Serilla away once again. Serilla blocked the strike with her shield and copied Kimberly’s move of going with the momentum that tried to bowl her over. She simply allowed herself to be pushed back before lunging forward again.

Teilon noticed the danger of the tail and took in the sharp spikes on top of the beast, so he had to constantly dash in, stab, and dash back out. He knew everyone’s Skills and moves, so he expertly weaved around everyone attacking the beast.

Kimberly finally got control of her body, but the brood mother flashed her with another gaze. Before she could get into a proper stance, she was once more stunned in place. Refix was a whirlwind in front of her, directing, dodging, parrying, and harassing the brood mother to protect Kimberly from being eviscerated.

Reivyn made his decision to try something different with his Spells, and he weaved some Traveler Affinity into his Ice Beams. The frozen beams took on a semi-ethereal state and bypassed the Mana shield and struck the beast in the joint above her middle leg. He could see the frozen Mana spread around the target, and the beast momentarily stopped.

It glanced back at its side before glancing at Reivyn. A flare of Mana coursed through the creatures body and the freezing effect stopped advancing, but the brood mother quickly determined it would need to focus too much of its concentration on fighting against the effects of the cold to completely neutralize it. It let some of the cold affect its joint and turned back to trying to get past Refix to Kimberly.

With his Divine Sense, Reivyn noticed a single egg in each of the batches start to shake.

“Watch the eggs!” He shouted.

The shaking eggs quickly started to crack, then pieces crumbled off, followed by a tiny basilisk crawling out. The tiny basilisks immediately focused their attention where their mother was and flashed their gazes at Refix. If Refix hadn’t been engaged in front of Kimberly, the baby basilisks might not have mistook the target of her ire, and Kimberly could have been in serious trouble. As it was, the babies were nowhere strong enough to affect Refix, and he simply flushed any of the invading Mana away with a casual flex of his Mana.

The brood mother shrieked in frustration, but she had no way to direct her babies.

Reivyn turned and threw an Ice Javelin through the skull of the nearest baby basilisk. The brood mother hissed and shrieked again, clawing with renewed energy at Refix to try and get around him to Reviyn, now. Kimberly was abandoned from her mind as she sought to avenge her baby.

The skin tone of the giant basilisk took on a red hue for a moment that slowly faded as she struggled against Refix. Once the slight red color completely faded, the basilisk seemed to come back to her senses and she once more sent a gaze at Kimberly who had finally assumed a ready stance. She was unable to move another step forward after that, but at least she had a stable stance, now.

Hmmm….

Reivyn summoned five more javelins and impaled the other five baby basilisks all at once. The brood mother came to a stop and turned a baleful gaze on Reivyn. Her maw opened and a deep roar, unlike the high-pitched shrieks, reverberated throughout the chamber. Her body turned a solid red and began vibrating at high speed.

The brood mother suddenly curled up into a bawl, her head and undersides completely covered by the superior scales coated in a Mana shield, the spikes prominent on her back. She then took off rolling around the room, still careful to avoid her own eggs, in a dizzying display of speed as she turned into a whirlwind and tried to bowl over all the intruders with her large body and spiked back.

Reivyn used his Mana to throw up a shield around all his Party members as everyone took a defensive position to try and avoid being crushed or stabbed. The brood mother moved too fast for them to land any kind of attack on her, and it was so sudden that nobody had time to group up for a better defensible position. Teilon simply dashed away and jumped into the way, the brood mother slamming into the solid object after briefly targeting him.

Cuts and bruises appeared on everyone’s bodies as they fended off the berserk attack, the Mana shield and other defensive gear incapable of completely stopping her attacks. The berserk thrashing lasted for approximately thirty seconds before the red tint on her skin finally faded and she returned to normal, exiting her rolly-polly stance.

The Party quickly reengaged the basilisk to prevent her from taking advantage of any momentary opening in their formation, and the battle continued as before.

“Alright, note to self, don’t kill all the baby basilisks at once,” Reivyn yelled out. “I guess we figured out the mechanic of the eggs.”

Nobody laughed at his quip, but he did see Teilon’s mouth tug into a quick smile as he once more dashed forward from his hiding spot in the wall.

With the tactics of the brood mother and the mechanics of the fight created by the System figured out, it was only a matter of whittling the defense of the brood mother down. They kept up the assault, Reivyn taking care to only kill the baby basilisks that continued to hatch whenever the brood mother’s complexion was completely normal and only one at a time.

The scales were chipped away, the Mana shield was burned through, all the baby basilisks were hatched and dispatched, and the inner vitality of the brood mother was finally exposed. Her health was quickly decimated, and before long, the brood mother gave a final shriek as she collapsed, dead.

The Party relaxed, everyone panting for breath, including the Casters who didn’t have to move around a whole lot. Kimberly was actually the freshest member of the Party, but she was still exhausted from having to exercise her low-Level Mana Manipulation throughout the entire encounter. Her fight was completely different than everyone else’s in the room.

“Yeah!” Reivyn pumped his fist in the air. Everyone turned to look at him with curiosity. “What? That fight was actually pretty exciting. That’s the most fun I’ve had in a fight in a long time. It wasn’t something we could just brute-force our way through.”

Everyone contemplated his words. Chuckles slowly filled the room before turning into full-blown laughter.

“Yeah, I guess danger is the spice of life,” Teilon shrugged his shoulders.