Lifeblood Chaos: B1 Chapter 54: Irebolt (Patreon)

Kredevel’s information about the Sylvans was incredibly valuable. He detailed the different companies setting out, the different objectives they were all likely to reach for, and the different ways Kredevel thought they could be best countered.

Amazingly, he even wanted to spell out some of the more specific abilities of the stronger Sylvans who had set out, but Ray stopped him. That info would be better off with Maya.

Kredevel: Because you plan on tackling them in a different manner?

Ray: Yep. The dungeon. YOUR dungeon. That’s what I’m going to target, and I need you to tell them to target the same at the exact right time.

Kredevel: And this time will be…?

Ray: We’ll have to see. But do you think you can do it? Convince them where to go after… you know.

Kredevel: I might just be able to, yes.

Ray: Great!

Ray was tempted to ask how exactly he had procured all that intel, considering he had more or less ostracized himself from all the other Sylvans. But there was no time to ponder inconsequential matters like that.

With the Sylvans on the move, it was now time for them to act.

Before he got going, he did inform Maya. It looked like she, the rest of Insurge Faction, and all their allies were already on the move.

Maya: We were expecting it to start at any time, so we already got going.

Ray: That’s good. You’ll be ready for when they come for you. Although, if the Base is mostly empty as you said, then how are they going to know where to go?

Maya: Oh, we have that covered. If the Sylvans act like what you said, I don’t think they’ll attack and destroy a mostly empty keep. We left some clues for them to find, and once they do, they’ll head straight for the traps we’ve set.

Ray: Amazing! Looks like you’ve got it all figured out.

Maya: I like to think we do. Now to see if everything falls in place correctly.

She went on to inform him that the other Factions and groups were all cooperating as well. Quite a few of them had fallen foul of the Sylvans as well. They had a bone to pick with the aliens and they were not letting the opportunity to do slip by.

Even the Ascenders understood that they didn’t stand to benefit from the Sylvans capturing a bunch of other humans. As such Mary Felds and her Factions were lending a hand.

Now that everything was in motion, Ray got going.

He’d taken basic directions from Kredevel to determine where he was supposed to go. The central tower grew higher and higher as Ray approached, slowly but surely reaching a huge height. In fact, as Ray neared it, he had to appreciate that it was a lot taller than he had first thought.

Ray also travelled circuitously. All his planning would go to complete waste if he just ended up in the front of the Sylvans now. As such, he focused on the path he was taking to end up at the dungeon without mishap.

It helped to have his flying eyeball scout out the area from overhead.

Along the way, Ray did find another patch of dark trees with a Mana fruit growing on them. He didn’t really need the fruit itself. With the dungeon rewards, he had a steady supply. Maya’s abandonment of the keep would make it dry up for the time being, but this whole shenanigan wasn’t going to last longer than a day or two at most.

What Ray was really curious about was the Duskshell underneath all the trees. He just had to take it out without causing too much of a ruckus.

The monster fell pretty easily. Ray had already decided how to take it with the least amount of fuss. With True Enhancement, he called up the Greater Windbane maw with Lifeblood Construct. As soon as the Duskshell emerged with a rumble in the earth and great roar, Ray bid the flying maw fire its compressed laser of fire breath straight at the Duskshell.

Not the shell, mind. But the exact spot from where it would shoot out its Jutting Jaws. Having faced off against enough of them by now, Ray had no trouble identifying it.

The Duskshell’s roar was cut short as its insides more or less exploded and burst out in a  gory mess.

[Enemy Defeated—Duskshell]

Tier 6 Monster: Duskshell [Level 19] x1

Essence: +1,140

Knowledge: +3

Mana Restored: +190

Essence to level 19: 6,980/18,900

Knowledge to next Threshold: 511/600

With that extra bit of Essence acquired, Ray hightailed it out of there. That might have drawn in some attention, and he didn’t want to accidentally get caught just then.

Not before he found the dungeon.

Reassured by his eyeball noting nothing out of the ordinary—except for the one time it found a bunch of Sylvans at a weird location. They were moving away from him though, and he gave them a wide berth while continuing onwards.

He arrived at the ruins near the back of the huge central tower before long. Kredevel’s direction were quite good. The Sylvan had stated that Ray needed to find a hole and fall in.

Alright, the directions were kind of weird too, but at least they were accurate so far.

The hole wasn’t hard to find either. Ray walked past a few broken walls, searched through several rooms filled with debris and fallen, broken masonry. At the rear of the ruins, there lay an honest-to-goodness hole that led deep, deep underground. One that Ray was supposed to take to enter the strongest dungeon in the First Floor.

This was confirmed when Presence of the Primordial popped up with a handy description of the dungeon.

[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon]

Halls of the Sky [Tier 10]

The ultimate aim of anyone seeking flight always ended at the dome of the world, the boundless expanse of the heavens that lies above everyone and everything. Buoyed by their great accomplishments, the Everair sought to claim the heavens for themselves. They believed that true mastery of the sky meant bringing it down to the earth they occupied. The Halls of the Sky is the only fruit of such an inconceivable endeavour.

Ray stared at that description. Taming the sky itself? He was pretty certain there were some among the aerospace enthusiast circles who would phrase mankind’s achievements with flight in a similar fashion. But even then, that would have been a metaphor. Not something that would be considered real.

These Everair sounded hubristic enough to make it real though, as evidenced by the dungeon Ray was just about to enter.

He was starting to see why they might have fallen in the end. Pride comes before the fall, and all that.

Before he went in, Ray resummoned the Scouring Eyeball construct with Soaring Wings to take it high into the air. “Keep an eye out for any Sylvans for me, alright?” The eyeball sadly didn’t have arms to salute. Ray turned to the hole. “Well, here goes nothing, Kredevel.”

Pulling up his own wings with Primal Summons, he dived in.

He was really hoping there would be light inside. The shaft coming down from above helped light up his descent, but that wouldn’t last farther inside. None of his spells were exactly bright either. Even the Greater Windbane Maw’s flames didn’t illuminate much.

Ray was lucky that the hole didn’t go straight down. It angled downwards at a steep slope.

This allowed his wings to maintain a semblance of elevation. Otherwise, he would have plummeted straight down.

Still, the space was narrow, so Ray couldn’t exactly fly. He was climbing down as often as he was flying or hopping from one section to another.

The deeper he went, the more he had trouble breathing. Hopefully, it was more a case of claustrophobia than there actually being something wrong with the air quality. He could dela with the former. The latter, not so much.

Ray froze. Hold on a minute. Hadn’t he hoped there would be no spelunking adventure?

He supposed the breathlessness made some sense. After all, if one climbed high into he sky, one wouldn’t be able to breathe there either. The air was too thin. If the Everair really had pulled the sky down into this dungeon, then they definitely hadn’t made it more convenient to be in.

Cursing his fate, he went on. Thankfully, solid ground emerged beneath his feet another minute later. Ray let the fact that he was finally at the bottom console him, and more importantly, his breathing. It didn’t help that much. Better than nothing, though.

Ray blinked in the gloom. There was light, but it was minute. Enough for his eyes to slowly adjust and see better in, at least. He could work with this.

The source of the light was curious. The dungeon’s walls were made of stone that had a crystalline surface. At spots, they even looked metallic. That was what caught the low light and glimmered ever so lightly to illuminate the space in between the walls.

Hmm. Kredevel had said that the dungeon contained powerful monsters, that the dungeon itself was alive in a way. That was what had let Ray settle on his plan.

A “living” dungeon sounded like the prefect candidate to hold another Tower Node.

There was the possibility that this dungeon’s Tower Node had been taken by the Floor Lord already. Kredevel had said it was unlikely, however. Removing the Tower Node from the dungeon would surely have resulted in massive changes, most likely leading to the dungeon becoming defunct.

It was well and alive, however. Still fully functioning. Just as Presence of the Primordial had indicated.

Ray moved onward. The passageways were misty. It was like he was walking through clouds. He shivered a bit, his clothes soon turning damp.

Kredevel didn’t know what sort of obstacles Ray would face in the dungeon itself. The Sylvan hadn’t entered it himself and most his companions had avoided it as well.

Apparently, even they were wary about trying to clear a Tier 10 dungeon.

The tunnel winded this way and that, not really leading him anywhere in particular. It was a smidge frustrating. He hadn’t received any indication of a Dungeon Obstacle yet. Although, the dungeon was keeping things fresh, in a way.

Ray had to wade through a long passage that was flooded with ice-cold water. One step, and he was shivering straight to his spine.

He was right to fly over the water as some mechanism activated after a while, causing a chunk of the floor to collapse. He had no intention of plummeting to his death.

Another tunnel was entirely foggy, and he couldn’t help but expect some sort of trap within. He was right again. Burning away the fog, to some extent, with the draconic maw summoned around his arm revealed the presence of several holes along the walls and ceiling.

Arrow holes? Pouring burning oil holes? Who knew. Fatal, whatever the case. He managed to bypass them by shooting through the whole tunnel, with a quick flight.

Finally, Ray ended up in a wide open chamber to find his first, actual Dungeon Obstacle.

[Presence of the Primordial—Dungeon Obstacle]

Thunderstorm

The sky greets the unwary with a display of its thunderous wrath. Break the storm to advance, for it will surely follow even you think you’ve escaped.

It felt like a strange Obstacle. There was no storm. Yet. Even after stepping into the large room. He didn’t even smell that earthy, coppery scent that preceded—

The storm appeared before him. Ray blinked. It was some kind of monster, segmented like a worm, with the same consistency as the dungeon walls around him. Bluish-grey stone with the little gleaming facets like that of a crystal. For just a second, Ray wondered if it was even a living creature. Then he used Presence of the Primordial.

[Presence of the Primordial]

Irebolt [Monster] [Tier 7] [Level 18]

Formless monsters made from the matter of the compressed sky. They are said to embody the various aspects of the heavens. In their attempt to bring the sky down to the earth, the Everair used Mana-imbued meteoric stone to channel the sky’s functions for their own benefit. Thus, they could claim to hold the sky itself in their grasp.

Skills:

Segmented Form [Tier 5]: Construct and reconstruct your form at will to form any shape by reconstituting the various segments that make up your body. At Tier 5, this skill allows manipulation of 10 segments.

Thunderstorm [Tier 6]: Summon a storm of lighting and thunder in the near vicinity. Thunderbolts will randomly strike foes within the area of effect. At Tier 6, the skill’s area of effect is 18 meters.

Environmental Reconstitution [Tier 6]: Regain health by absorbing the environment that you are made of. At Tier 6, this skill adds 60 Recovery for use per segment of material absorbed.

Abstract Assault [Tier 7]: When attacking, your body can now manipulate all of its segments separately and perform any attacks.

Meteoric Bolt [Tier 6]: Gather the power of the storm in one location and fire off a tremendous bolt of lightning.

Oh! So there it was,. Finally. The last monster on his list of First Floor Objectives. An Irebolt that he needed to kill.

Strange that it hadn’t moved yet. Was it regarding him? Whatever the case, it afforded Ray ample time to scour its description.

Tier 7, and also level 17. Basically the strongest monster Ray had come across yet, minus the Duskshell. Oh, and that unfathomable Eternal Guardian of course. The list of abilities was interesting too. Healing powers, lightning powers, all things he would need to look out for.

Although, why was that Abstract Assault ability its strongest one? It seemed like a vague, passive power.

Ray figured the description wasn’t being totally honest. Hmm. If he raised Presence of the Primordial’s Tier, would he have received better information?

Since there was no sign of the storm anywhere just yet, Ray stepped forward.

Which activated the storm.

Or rather, the Thunderstorm skill that the Irebolt possessed. Its segmented body flickered blue before unleashing a flurry of sparks. The whole chamber shook and thunder boomed, Ray’s ears cringing at the volume. Lightning bolts crisscrossed the area, several landing nearby in no time at all.

Random bolts, the description had said. At least the monster couldn’t direct all the lightning to hit Ray at once. Small blessings.

This was the perfect use case for Mottling Sphereguard. Ten orbs of chaotic energy materialized around Ray, and he set them all to defend him from any of the thunderbolts that tried to land on him.

“Well, buddy,” Ray said. “It looks like I need to put a stop to your little lightshow.”

He threw a bolt of Chaos Chymify to shoot at his opponent. The Irebolt dodged easily, twisting like a snake.

Then its form changed. Rapidly. In just a second, Ray was looking not a serpent made of strange rocks, but at… two hands about to close in? No, they were jaws.

The realization of the Irebolt’s new form struck Ray a second before the monster itself did. Thankfully, Soaring Wings was still on his back. He flew up just in time, dodging the Irebolt’s charge and letting the monster crash into the wall behind him.

Several of his Mottling Sphereguard orbs had faded, having taken the brunt of random lighting that would have struck Ray without them. He cast the spell again to replenish the dwindling stock of protective chaos orbs, adding even more to the mix. At the same time, he kept moving too. The monster had recovered quite quickly and was ready to attack again.

Had to be that Environment Reconstitution ability. After all, it was made of the same material as the dungeon, as far as Ray could tell.

He was staring to understand what Kredevel had meant by the dungeon being “alive”.

The best way to deal with the Irebolt’s fast, relentless attacks was to keep moving. Dodgin constantly at just the right time would be impossible with how fast the Irebolt was.

At one point, his wings gave out on him, Primal Summons’ timer running out. He just made the remaining Sphereguard orbs focus on the Irebolt in case it got close enough to hit him. Even if it felt like recasting Primal Summons took no time at all, just that tiny casting time was enough to peg him back.

The coalescing chaos orbs weren’t strong enough to halt the Irebolt’s rapid charge, though they did slow it enough for Ray to dodge successfully. His wings were back so he could fly away in peace.

But that left him defenceless against the Thunderstorm.

A stray bolt flew in and struck him from out of nowhere. Ray was flung back, barely able to control his flight with his wings. A quick application of Recovery was all that saved him from being gored by the Irebolt, as he got back control of his motion just in time to dodge.

But the Irebolt changed shape as it flew past. It reformed from the jaw to its long serpentine state again. Then it lashed out.

So fast. Even as Ray did his best to evade again, the swiping strike caught him at the waist. He was slammed against the dungeon wall, groaning out in shock and pain. So annoying.

It was at times like these that Ray appreciated his presence of mind. The monster was going to strike again, but he called up the Mottling Sphereguard orbs once more, infusing them to Tier 6 with the Mana Infuser ring.

That reduced his Mana store dangerously low, but since he was safe for the moment, Ray found the time to crush a couple of Mana crystals.

Maya: Ray, the clashes have started.

Now, really wasn’t the time for Ray to be dealing with random messages popping in out of nowhere, but he couldn’t blame Maya. Things were about to get interesting rapidly.

Ray: One sec.

Sending the reply in an instant, Ray used a Mana-infused Mottling Sphereguard again. He made the orbs coalesce to one point, raising their defensive capabilities even higher. Just in time too. At Tier 6, the arrangement managed to fully block the Irebolt’s head-on charge.

Giving Rya just enough time to cast Lifeblood Construct and call up the flying Windbane Maw.

“Go, my valiant minion!” Ray yelled, sending the maw off into battle.

Ray wasn’t looking for much. As long as his summoned construct could hold the Irebolt’s attention for even a little while, he could finally end this. It was also an interesting test of his construct’s durability. He wondered if that was tied to the type of construct, or if he could improve it by raising the associated spells’ Tier.

Point was that the maw didn’t last long. The Irebolt smacked it back, then blasted it with Meteoric Bolt.

But that was just enough time for Ray to gather as much True Mana he needed. The Irebolt switched direction and rushed him down in the blink of an eye. Ray was ready, though. He called on Impervious Shell, the Irebolt crashing into the barrier so hard that it cracked.

And then Ray unleashed the True Mana variant of the maw.

His arm warped with the assistance of his Mana Core and Mana Imbuing, a spectral black-and-white draconic maw forming around his hand. The compressed beam of chaotic flames fired at the speed of a laser, crushing through the remainder of Impervious Shell to strike the Irebolt just behind it.

With a rupture of lightning, the monster exploded into dozens of burning chunks. Ray stood still, hoping that the Irebolt wasn’t somehow still alive.

[Enemy Defeated—Irebolt]

Tier 7 Monster: Irebolt [Level 17] x1

Essence: +1,190

Knowledge: +3

Mana Restored: +170

Essence to level 19: 8,170/18,900

Knowledge to next Threshold: 514/600

The notification brought on a ton of relief alongside it. He ignored it for now.

Ray: Maya, you guys alright?

Thankfully, she replied almost immediately.

Maya: We’re retreating, drawing them in. Are you okay?

Ray: I’m fine. I’m going to ask Kredevel to give the signal for them to come after me now.

Maya: We’ll be sure to take advantage.

Wishing her good luck, Ray quickly switched to Kredevel.

Ray: It’s time, buddy.

Kredevel: A moniker for a friend, how intriguing. But I shall begin my part. Are you ready?

Ray: I will be soon. Just need to find the Tower Node. And then, I can crush this dungeon just as the Sylvans arrive.