Grand Game 345: A Cleansing Touch (Patreon)

Day Eight in Draven’s Reach

Ghost and I picked off the crawlers one at a time.

Using charm, I bespelled a single stygian and lured it away from the column for killing. It was slow and tedious work, but it sped my telepathy skill along nicely, and by the time the last crawler died, I’d achieved my training goal.

Your telepathy has reached rank 15, allowing you to learn tier 4 abilities.

In the process, I also advanced a few other skills and gained two levels—not a lot for killing over one hundred stygians. But I had reached level parity with the crawlers and a slowdown was to be expected.

You have reached level 173!

Your nether absorption skill has reached rank 10, your channeling rank 12, and your light armor rank 14.

Your Mind has increased to rank 80. Other modifiers: +12 from items.

New ingredients acquired: 130 x lumps of necrotic plasma and 56 x vial of nether residue.

The lack of levels did not bother me. What mattered most was that slaysight could be upgraded. Turning my focus inwards, I opened the Class advancement window. It was finally time to spend my last Class point.

Commencing Class upgrade…

…

Upgrade complete. Class points remaining: 0.

Congratulations, Michael, your voidstealer Class has advanced to rank 9!

You have upgraded your slaysight ability to greater slaysight. The fourth tier of slaysight ability adds another mental manipulation to your arsenal: shatter. Additionally, the range, number of targets, and duration of the spell have increased.

With greater slaysight, you may detect any mind within 100-yards and shatter, sleep, terrify or mentally blind any 6 targets for 40 seconds. Shatter directly assaults a foe’s mind shield, weakening it with every iteration applied. Note, after the spell’s duration has lapsed, the targets’ mental defenses will be restored.

This is a Class ability and does not occupy any ability slots.

“Well, well,” I murmured as I scanned the Game messages—the changes to slaysight were impressive.

The upgrade had improved nearly every aspect of the Class ability. I was especially pleased by the new mental manipulation, shatter. It enabled me to accomplish what I’d not been able to do so far: strip a foe of his mind shield.

Even better, shatter’s effects could be stacked, meaning that given sufficient time, I could destroy any enemy’s mental defenses. Of course, the ability would not aid me against immune targets or those with high mental resistance. But that did not negate its potential.

“What now?” Ghost asked, interrupting my musings.

“Give me a moment to decide,” I replied. The side trip into the fog bank had gone off without a hitch, and I could think of no reason not to continue hunting the seeds and its protectors to further improve my skills.

“We resume our journey east,” I replied finally. “But any seed we run across, we destroy.”

✵ ✵ ✵

It took us three days traveling by the plateau to cross the breadth of the dungeon. Thankfully we had not been forced to traverse the canyons or follow the winding chasms, otherwise the journey would have taken weeks longer. Along the way, we crossed paths with five more stygian seeds.

Ghost and I destroyed them all.

Each time, the spirit wolf lured away the bulk of the nether creatures while I snuck in, slew the remaining guards, and killed the seed. It was an efficient strategy, and even though I prepared multiple contingencies, none were called for.

The harbinger continued to respond to every incursion, but he was helpless to prevent the seeds’ destruction. Time and again he winged away, only to return too late at the next fog bank.

Killing the seeds and the hundreds of stygians that guarded them netted me only six levels, but it was the improvement in my skills that made the side trips worthwhile. Nearly all of them ranked up, leaving me pleased with my progress when I finally pulled up my player profile and took a minute to study it.

Player Profile (Partial): Michael

Level: 179. Rank: 17. Lives Remaining: 3.

True Marks (hidden): Pack-alpha, Worth-adversary.

Class: voidstealer IX (hidden).

Attributes

Strength: 21 (13)*. Constitution: 27 (19)*. Dexterity: 82 (58)*. Perception: 40 (36)*. Mind: 98 (86)*. Magic: 42 (28)*. Faith: 0.

* denotes attributes affected by items.

Active Buffs

Damage reduction:

Life: 5%. Death: 5%. Air: 45%. Earth: 45%. Fire: 45%. Water: 45%. Shadow: 5%. Light: 5%. Dark: 5%. Nether: 55%. Physical: 54%*.

Resistances:

Life: 2.5%. Death: 2.5%. Air: 22.5%. Earth: 22.5%. Fire: 22.5%. Water: 22.5%. Shadow: 2.5%. Light: 2.5%. Dark: 2.5%. Nether: 27.5%. Physical: 0%.

Immunities:

Entanglement: tier 2 spells*. Mind spells: tier 2 spells*.

* denotes buffs affected by items.

Skills

Dodging: 155. Sneaking: 166. Shortswords: 165. Two weapon fighting: 144. Light armor: 145. Thieving: 118.

Chi: 151. Meditation: 182. Telekinesis: 156. Telepathy: 161.

Insight: 184. Deception: 147.

Channeling: 150. Elemental absorption: 90. Null force: 15. Null life: 11. Null death: 17. Nether absorption: 111.

Backpack Contents (Key New Items)

6 x set of stygian seed remains.

500 / 500 ingredients stored in alchemy stone.

With the notable exception of my void skills, most of my remaining ones had reached tier four, and I finally felt that they had caught up to my player level.

Truly, I was well on my way to becoming an elite.

Throughout the journey, the immense fog bank in the dungeon’s center was a constant companion. I still didn’t know what lay inside but given what I’d learned from the New Havens, there was no reason to explore it.

The dungeon’s exit lay in the southeast quadrant, and the exile in the northeast. I had absolutely no reason to concern myself with the ominous nether cloud. No reason at all. Still…

I couldn’t help wondering about it—and what the harbinger did there.

It had not escaped my notice that every time the stygian Power showed up, he seemed to be coming from somewhere in the central fogbank. Something there was keeping him busy. It was a distracting—if intriguing—mystery, but not one I was keen to investigate further. I had enough to deal with already.

On the fourth day of our journey out of New Haven, and my twelfth since entering Draven’s Reach, the eastern edge of the dungeon’s violet dome appeared on the horizon. I slowed my steps. We had finally reached our destination.

The dungeon’s northeast quadrant.

Unfortunately, Elron had not been able to give me the exile’s precise location. I only knew the possessed was somewhere in the vicinity and would have to search her out myself.

“We’re here,” I told Ghost.

She glanced from the shimmering curtain of violet that cut sharply across the plateau to the chasms below. “We go down?”

I nodded. The plateau made an ideal highway, but as deep as some of the dungeon’s canyons were, it would be impossible to conduct a search for the exile from above.

Ghost gazed southwards. “There’s a fog bank close by,” she said suggestively. Despite her initial unhappiness at playing the role of decoy, the spirit wolf had come to enjoy her own part in slaying the seeds.

I glanced in the direction she had pointed out. I’d seen the fog bank already, of course. It was half a mile away and was far enough that we probably wouldn’t encounter any stygians while we searched the chasms. But, like Ghost had said, it was close enough not to be too far out of our way.

And every seed we killed helped cleanse the dungeon a little more.

“Alright, let’s go kill it,” I said.

✵ ✵ ✵

The fog bank in question stretched nearly one hundred yards across, filling almost half of the canyon it occupied. Hmm, this seed must be one of the older ones, I mused.

Given the nature of the seeds and the function they appeared to perform in a dungeon, I’d come to the conclusion that a fog bank’s size was a good measure of a seed’s age.

Larger fog banks meant older seeds, and invariably, more guardians. “How many are there this time?” I asked as we entered the shallow bowl-shaped canyon.

“Two hundred,” she replied.

Her response barely gave me pause. Two hundred foes of any kind were a considerable number—if faced head on. But, of course, we wouldn’t be doing that.

Ghost led the way as we approached the fog bank. Neither of us spoke. We had done this enough times already that communication was superfluous. Following the spirit wolf’s bright mindglow, I slipped into the nether and slaughtered the first of the seed's guardians—a crawler pack of six.

The creatures died as easily as ever.

Moving on, I tailed Ghost to the next pack and blitzed through them too. Then, the next. And the next.

Despite the ease with which I killed the crawlers, I did not let myself become lax. These were stygians I was facing off with, after all—and in an elite dungeon to boot.

My buffs were active, and my senses extended. Stalking silently, I killed mercilessly and efficiently, no blade stroke wasted, and making sure every second counted. I had become so practiced at ambushing the stygians, it was only after I completed a full circuit of the fog bank’s rim that the alarm was raised.

“Damn,” I muttered, easing into a crouch. “How many does that make?”

“Ninety-eight,” Ghost replied nonchalantly. There was a split-second pause before she added smugly, “I win!”

I chuckled. “That you did.” This time she’d guessed right.

We had taken to betting on how many crawlers I could kill before my presence was detected. A morbid game perhaps, but it helped me stay focused.

Oh well, I thought as the cry of alarm echoed from elsewhere in the mists. “Time for phase two.”

Staying crouched, I waited while Ghost shifted roles from scout to decoy. Less than a dozen seconds later, the surviving crawlers broke south, following the enticing trail she’d laid down. With the path cleared, I headed deeper into the fog bank.

The seed was guarded by six weavers. The number had to have some mystical significance for the stygians because so far, every seed—no matter the size of its fog bank—always had the same number of weavers acting as its last line of defense.

And six stygians were far too few to stop me.

Drawing, psi, I prepared to sleep the weavers. I’d been itching to try out my new slaysight variant, shatter but had not had an excuse to do so yet. It was simpler to disable the weavers, then kill them and the seed. And I saw no reason to do otherwise on this occasion either.

“Prime, we have a problem.”

I paused. “What?”

“The crawlers are returning.”

I frowned. “Already?”

“Yes, they’ve ignored the last few daggers I manifested. I even killed one, but not even that drew a reaction from the others.”

That was certainly unusual. “Break off,” I ordered.

Releasing the weaves of the spell I held ready, I did the same myself. If I hurried, there was still time to kill the seed, but I was not about to chance it. The sudden change in the stygians’ behavior could not presage anything good, and I wanted to clear out of the canyon as soon as I could.

“Ghost, direct me. Where are—”

An unknown entity has detected you! You are no longer hidden.

An unknown entity has detected you! You are no longer hidden.

An unknown entity has detected you! You are no longer hidden.

An unknown entity has detected you! You are no longer hidden.