Lifeblood Chaos: B1 Chapter 27: Second Tower Node (Patreon)

Ray pored over the options the skill manual from the dungeon had provided. This was the first time he had received a skill manual. He was more than a little interested.

[Skill Selection]

Hale Form [Passive] [Tier 2]

A passive boost to the wielder’s health and fitness. Overall stamina is minorly increased, time to fatigue is minorly increased, and the wielder’s body is marginally hardier against all sort of damage, save magical damage.

Eukaryotic Burst [Utility] [Tier 2]

Temporarily boosts Strength and Agility. However, this consumes significant energy, and after the skill’s effect is over, the wielder enters a state of Deep Fatigue. In this state, the wielder’s movement and reaction time is slowed. At Tier 2, this skill raises Strength and Agility by 4 points for 2 minutes and costs 20 Mana. Deep Fatigue also lasts for 2 minutes, reducing movement and reaction speed by 20%.

Adaptive Breath [Passive] [Tier 3]

Shift breathing to turn wielder more in tune with the ongoing circumstance. Boosts any single, automatically-selected stat depending on the current situation. Boost lasts until situation is resolved. At Tier 3, this boost raises the selected stat by 6 points.

Hmm. Not the greatest selection. But then, Ray hadn’t expected much from the rewards of a Tier 3 dungeon that didn’t even specialize in magic.

After some moment of thought, he went with the last option. The second skill just wasn’t something that would be useful to him. While an Agility boost could be cool, Ray had no need for Strength at all and he definitely didn’t want to be in some strange refractory period after using the skill.

The first option appeared decent, but it felt a little too basic. Every increase provided by the skill was marginal. Small. Probably not worth it.

Adaptive Breath was interesting, though it had a bit of a gamble associated with it that Ray would need to keep in mind. The skill description didn’t state that he could select which stat was raised at any given scenario. No, it weas automatically selected, whatever that meant. Was the System going to pick for him, then?

Well, he would find out eventually.

Ray considered levelling up the new skill, but that didn’t appeal to him much. Instead, he used the Tier point on Dual Wield.

[Information Request—Skills]

Dual Wield [Passive] [Tier 4]

A passive skill that benefits dual-wielding any weapon or catalyst. At Tier 4, latent effects of both armaments are applied by both armaments and application of status afflictions is boosted to twice the speed when using both armaments simultaneously.

Oh huh. Interesting. So now Ray could proc Insanity even faster than he had already done.

And he could control that boost too. To not proc Insanity too quickly, he would just need to use only one of his Talismans. Or rather, not use one after the other in sequence. Handy, for when he was facing enemies like the Duskshell that had unpredictable reactions to an Insanity proc.

With all that settled, Ray exited the dungeon and started looking for his next one.

It was a little annoying that he couldn’t tell the passage of time properly. The blank haze that passed for the sky on the First Floor had nothing to indicate the time of day. At least he wasn’t tired yet. That last Mana fruit had been enough to keep him going for longer.

The next dungeon Ray came across took some travelling. “This one better have the Tower Node…”

[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]

War Master’s Testing Hall [Tier 4]

With great power comes great responsibility, and to the Everair, no responsibility was greater than serving the empire. Here, in the halls of its War Masters, aspiring Everair citizens proved their worth on the field of battle in a variety of scenarios to determine how best they could serve their home in times of great need.

The building was blocky, oppressive. Fit for a place called the War Master’s Testing Hall. Ray was pretty sure whatever testing he would face would be part of the dungeon’s challenges.

His assumptions were proven correct. As he entered the first room through massive doors, Ray was faced with a very specific scenario of war.

A siege.

He blinked. What? Ray looked around. There was nothing of the dank, gloomy chamber he had entered. Instead, he was on a high wall, like fortifications around a major medieval city. A city that was under attack.

Ray looked up. “Oh, shit.”

A dozen burning arcs were coursing through the air. Shots from distant catapults, about to land in the city and cause massive havoc.

Defenders swarmed the walls. They were the same birdlike people he had seen all over the First Floor. The Everair. Except, instead of being dead or statues, these were living, breathing members of their race. Brought to life by the strange powers of this dungeon.

Despite the imminent impact from the plummeting catapult shots, they couldn’t run away. Attackers were climbing ladders, seeking to claim the walls. The defenders kept throwing off the ladders where they could, pouring oil and firing off strange crossbows, but there were too many of their foes.

There were more details, but Ray shook his head, trying not to get lost in everything going on in this hyper-realistic challenge. What the hell was his goal even supposed to be here?

[Dungeon Scenario]

Survive the siege for 30 minutes. Do not let the city fall.

Interesting. This was the first time a dungeon had thrown the challenge straight at his face like that. Well, at least it was clear what he had to do now.

Ray figured he was supposed to follow orders and act as directed. One of the bird people yelled at him in a screechy voice, though the System didn’t helpfully translate it for whatever reason. He didn’t care, anyway. Maybe regular test-takers from the bygone era of the Everair were supposed to act a certain way.

But Ray didn’t have to abide by such rules. When one had power like he did, one made their own rules.

Forget being besieged, Ray took the fight directly to the invaders. He caught sight of more burning oil being poured nearby. His nose cringed with the smell. “So pedestrian. Come on, guys, where’s your flair?”

Ray summoned his wings and swooped away. A controlled flight and a series of quick Shatterclaws destroyed all the ladders on the side of the wall near him. So much more efficient.

Everyone watched wide-eyed awe. A lot of them had their beaks gaping open in surprise too. It was almost gratifying to see their reaction. Some of the enemy tried to shoot at him, but Ray kept moving, kept easily dodging anything they threw in his direction.

Easy as that initial defensive manoeuvre had been, his build wasn’t built for taking on multiple people at once. Though, Ray got the sense these Everair invaders were weak enough that he could dealt with them in short order. But still. He wanted some fun. Defending was boring. Why not siege the fucking besiegers themselves?

Ray found a battering ram headed for the main gates. Landing momentarily on the wall before reactivating Soaring Wings, Ray swooped down on the attackers.

The ram was the first to go. Infusing a couple of pulses of Mana into Shatterclaw, Ray raised its Tier and crushed the entire siege engine in one strike. The invaders cried out in dismay. He took some of them down as he passed too, before returning to the wall.

Thankfully, the defenders had been smart enough to stop pelting arrows so as not to hit him as well. But now that he was back, they resumed their fatal volleys.

Siege repelled on this side as well.

Ray moved on. More of the bird-people called after him, but he ignored them. Their tones were different now, however, which he did note. It was nice to be appreciated.

When he reached the next location where the enemy had gathered in force, Ray opted for a different tack. He stayed distant this time. Shots of Chaos Chymify from range allowed him to test just how strong the spell was.

Ray had still left it at Tier 1, so its power wasn’t that great. As was proven moments later when singular strikes didn’t bring the enemy down. It alerted them to his presence, though. Ray had to keep moving to dodge their retaliatory arrows. Not that he minded, really. It wasn’t like he was getting Essence for killing the enemy.

Still. His attacks from on high had distracted them, allowing the defenders to take advantage and sweep them away.

Thirty minutes turned out to be shorter than Ray had thought. Either that, or the passage of time in this dungeon scenario had been accelerated. He wondered which it was, though he didn’t mind. Ray had better things to do than clear a dungeon that wasn’t at all aligned with the things he needed.

The next scenario teleported him to a different location.

[Dungeon Scenario]

Find and subdue the enemy leader within 30 minutes.

Ah, so now, Ray was the invader. A nice flip of perspective. Ray was among the hundreds of the black-clad Everair soldiers rushing the walls.

Hmm. Instead of joining his would-be comrades, Ray flew straight up. Charging headfirst into a wall with defenders spewing burning oil on him was really not his style. If he had to find and take down the defenders’ leader, then he had a pretty good approximation of where they were supposed to be.

Ray surveyed the city he was supposed to take over. Convenient that the layout was mostly familiar to him. Maybe all civilized races converged to the same kinds of urban patterns.

After all, it was only logical that the most important structures would be located at the most defensible spots. In this case, that was at the very centre of the city. A separate ring of thick walls surrounded what looked like a familiar keep. Oh. It was the same style that Maya was leading the Insurge Faction into rebuilding.

Ray shot towards it. He had to stop atop a nearby rooftop to use another Mana crystal and redo his Primal Summons.

When he arrived at the keep’s roof, he was greeted by several defenders. They didn’t recognize him at all.

“Look, guys, it’s me!” Ray flapped his hands. “You know, the guy who flew around and took care of your enemies.”

They just attacked him.

Sighing, Ray dashed past them to get closer to the centre of the rooftop. The Everair defenders turned to fight him, but he had achieved the correct positioning now. With quick uses of Shatterclaw, Ray sent them all tumbling off the roof. Their screams were more annoyed than fearful. Well, they could fly, right? They had wings.

Though, Ray was yet to see a single one of them use said wings. Huh. He wondered what the reason behind that was.

A growl alerted him that he was yet to accomplish his objective here. Ray turned around with another Shatterclaw at the ready. But as he swung it, he used the Mana Infuser ring to raise it to Tier 6. That took care of the onrushing Everair with ease, crushing through the golden armour and—

Wait, hold on. Had that been his target?

Ray was answered with another quick teleport into the next scenario.

[Dungeon Scenario]

Defeat the gauntlet. Survive and claim your place as a true Master of War, one who backs down from no challenge.

There wasn’t any time to consider just how rapidly things had changed. Ray was indeed part of a gauntlet now.

Everair warriors rushed him. He was on some kind of field now, where a whole horde of the creatures were hurtling towards his position. Ray found himself swallowing just a little. This was one of those rare circumstances where having some sort of area-of-effect attacks would have been tremendously useful.

As it was, Ray was forced to rely on his tried and tested method of keeping a good distance from his enemies and take them out before they could reach him.

At least, singular Shatterclaws were enough to take them down without too much fuss. They also didn’t appear to be keen on protecting themselves. All they wanted was to reach Ray and possibly eviscerate him. It turned into a weird game of dodgeball when some of them began attacking from range, while Ray countered from the maximum distance allowed by Shatterclaw.

It was a good distance now, he had to admit. Infused to Tier 3, the spell allowed him to cast it up to 15 meters away.

Ray was getting tired with the sheer number of enemies that rushed him. They proved to be no real threat. He understood that he was over-levelled for a dungeon like this. Of course this wasn’t going to prove a real challenge. His greatest struggle was actually keeping up the continued barrage of attacks to prevent any enemy from getting close. Fatigue was a concern…

It made him wonder if Adaptive Breath was boosting one of his stats now. If so, which one? He couldn’t actually say if his breathing had changed somehow. If it had, then the change had been too gradual for him to notice.

Ray briefly peeked at his status. Oh. The skill was raising his Resilience stat. Huh. Did Resilience also boost his overall stamina and fatigue levels? Because those were what he really needed in this scenario.

He realized he wasn’t going to be able to keep this up. His arms were turning to lead. Soon enough, his quivering legs would give out and he’d be entirely reliant on his wings.

Not good.

Perhaps it was time to test True Enhancement on Chaos Chymify. The rush of True Mana through his body helped dismiss the growing fatigue.

Better yet, the spell morphed into an advanced version, just as True Enhancement’s description had promised. It was still a spiralling bolt of black-red energy, but this time, it was outlined in white with small motes of gold within. As soon as it touched its target, the bolt exploded into a cloud of the same energy.

A cloud that twisted the flesh and warped the bones of anything that came into contact with it.

That reminded Ray to send out a Mottling Membrane too. Passing through that barrier had a similar effect on the attacking Everair. Despite its low Tier, Ray’s enemies had practically no defence against it.

Spreading the clouds from the advanced Chaos Chymifies around gave him a bit of breathing room. A little bit of space to regain his breath and stamina.

Ray didn’t know how much time passed, but in that manner, he eventually overcame the current challenge too.

[Dungeon Cleared—War Master’s Testing Hall]

Rewards

·       1 [Selectable] Weapon

·       1 Weapon Tier Point

·       +800 Essence

·       Reputation: +5 Indomitable, +5 Thorough, +5 Ruthlessness

[Reputation Threshold Crossed]

For reaching the 25-point threshold, your Indomitability has raised your Resilience by 5.

Indomitable to next Threshold: 25/50

Ray’s body relaxed as he was teleported to the dank, gloomy main hall again. Well, that had been kind of fun, but the lack of a Tower Node was starting to bother him.

A quick look through the weapon offerings showed that it wasn’t worth his time. A sword, a spear, and a mace. None of them had anything to do with Mana either. Pretty much worthless to him. Nevertheless, he picked the one with the highest Tier just so he could sell it later for some Mana crystals.

The Weapon Tier point was interesting, though. Ray was correct in assuming that he could use it to advance one of his Talismans. Perfect.

He had to think a bit on which Talisman to upgrade. Did he want more status affliction, provided by the Talisman of the Scourge, or more outright damage out of the Talisman of Focused Fury thanks to a hopefully improved rate of the free, bonus cast?

There really was no wrong choice, at least.

Deciding not to waste too much time, Ray went with Focused Fury for now. The Weapon Tier point raised its primal spell boost to 20% and reduced the required charges for the free cast from seven to six at Tier 4. Nice. With how much True Mana ate up his total Mana capacity, quicker extra casts would be much-needed in his estimation.

With all that done, Ray exited the dungeon. Alright, enough dungeon diving. They clearly weren’t working.

It could be that there was one dungeon among many in the area that held the Tower Node and Ray just hadn’t found it. But since his last few explorations had yielded nada clues, it was time for a new strategy.

Ray focused on Presence of the Primordial.

While he hadn’t found a Tower Node at any of the dungeons so far, he had discovered one interesting tidbit. They all had the same theme. There was a certain training vibe to them all. A beginner’s academy for Mages, a glorified fitness centre for “Stoutmen”, and now a testing hall for war. They all felt like different flavours of the same basic principle.

Gearing up young Everair into functioning citizens of the empire. That seeker dungeon had sounded similar too.

What if the Tower Node of the area controlled or manipulated or even just supplied Mana to all these dungeons from a sort-of centralized location? It was more than likely that the Node followed the same principle of training.

If Ray’s line of thinking was correct, it could turn out to be highly useful. A spell for permanently improving his other spells, instead of just a temporary boost? Could be interesting.

The new description for Presence of the Primordial had stated that he could sense Mana directly. Ray hadn’t been sure what that had meant when he had first checked it, but now, it started to become clearer.

He could see Mana, to an extent.

When Ray closed his eyes, a layer of soft blue covered and outlined nearly everything he could have seen when his eyes were open. Mana suffused everything in the tower. More than that, threads of shining blue-white weaved through the air, coursing off the entrance to the dungeon he was standing before. In the distance, it connected to more of the same threads.

Ah, there they were. The threads that joined the different dungeons together. A little blue rainbow under which Ray was bound to find the treasure he sought. He hurried after it.

There were other things in front of him, of course. Ray spotted more monsters, passed another dungeon after some time, and a few other curious spots where the Mana seemed especially concentrated.

But he had a goal, and he was not about to be distracted.

Ray eventually reached the nexus where all the threads of mana converged into one nondescript spot. Here, when he closed his eyes, it appeared as though there was an invisible fountain of Mana shooting up from beneath the ground. That had to be where the Tower Node lay. But it wasn’t there. He couldn’t see it.

Hmm. The last time, he had received the Node as a reward for completing the tutorial Objectives. Would he have to perform something similar here? Maybe—

The Tower Node Ray already possessed blinked into existence before him.

“What do you want?” Ray asked.

Ignoring him, the Tower Node of the Marauder continued to blink and pulse. Was it… communicating with the other Tower Node? Ray really hoped it wasn’t the Marauder himself talking to whoever the other Tower Node belonged to.

Then the second Tower Node blinked into existence.

Ray smiled broadly. He had been right! There it was. The new Tower Node, looking quite similar to the one he already possessed. His now, finally.

He was about to eagerly focus on it when Presence of the Primordial picked up something else. Someone else was rushing to his location. No, more than one someones. Ray turned to see a man and a woman hurtle into his line of sight, fear etched on their faces.

They were being chased.

[Warning!]

Presence of the Primordial indicates you are under the effects of an appraisal skill, Hunter’s Omen [Tier 2]. You have now been marked to the wielder as the strongest being in the area.