Zero Potential: Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Chapter 12

The dungeon had been altered. No longer were their boss monsters at the end of every ten floors. This new mode, Survival Mode made it so the scale and difficulty of the dungeon had been forever changed. Now there was a slow build up, as every floor was filled with trash monsters, effectively meant to wear down the adventurer slowly.

Fortunately, Terra didn’t have as many problems with her own pacing as she made sure to constantly move slowly and effectively.

Her pace was also aided by the fact that she constantly used her Obfuscation Aura, making sure to keep it in place. In the first fifty floors she used a mixture of her Commanding Aura and Magical Aura, with these bottom fifty floors, she solely focused on improving her ability to wield and react to creatures within her Obfuscation Aura.

The new aura was amazing, as she could feel the minds and presences of enemies that wandered nearby.

At first, she had to be close to the subject to feel their minds, or identify monsters that themselves wanted to hide in ambush. That was how she managed to grow her proficiency with her newly acquired aura.

Stalk.

Silent steps and movements filled her gait. She almost found herself bouncing with excitement and unbridled power and energy as she struck out at the lurking enemies. Enemies that seemed to be awakened due to her presence, due to somehow knowing that a threat had ventured onto their floor, but unaware of exactly how close that threat now was.

Lurking.

Cat-like creatures languidly loped forward, each performing a sort of prowling stretch to get ready. This was where Terra was at her finest, when she witnessed the creatures and then managed to follow them to a quiet place where they would meet for their final slumber.

Cold.

Her hands were cold, her stolen sword had long since broken off and chipped away at the hardened bodies that were around her. Yet, she made do, with her control over Ice magic, she crafted bladed knuckles that gave a fiercely cold bite to her strikes.

Seeing the ribs of the starving creatures of the dungeons, Terra found perfect spots to aim. In her mind, her magic and control over the elements were so intense that not only could she narrow the ice blades at the ends of her knuckles at will. But she also had it so that her ice blades were meant to break off and dissolve in the beasts, particularly in beasts that were based on fire and magma.

Slink, shatter.

To Terra’s heightened senses, the sounds of death were loud and sounded like an alarm bell being rung. Yet, her instincts from having been in these very halls so many times told her that she had nothing to fear. As her powerful left hand held the muzzle of the flame cat shut, as its last fiery breath was quenched into nothing more than a thick puff of smoke, that was exhaled through its nose, before the internal flames of the beast were quenched.

Flame Elemental Cat Killed.

Terra held the cat for a moment, her instincts telling her to hold the beast a bit longer, just in case. While the system did say the beast was dead, that didn’t negate the fact that the animal might have a secret power to resurrect itself. Having fallen victim to those types of notifications before, Terra felt it prudent to hold and wait.

Granted, most of the false dungeon alerts came from mind monsters, monsters that tried to get you to think you killed them, only for you to turn your back on them and let them hit you with an unprotected blow from behind.

Cats fortunately were not like that, they preferred to play with their food, to stalk them and bat them about playfully until they died. That was why hunting down flame cats with stealth attacks was particularly enjoyable. Almost like she was beating the monsters at their own game, which she was.

Of course, there were things she learned from being within the dungeon so long by herself. The first thing she learned was that in addition to people, dungeons too could tell you that you were proficient in a particular form of magic.

New Magic Modifier(s) Gained:

Ice Magic: Tier III. Ice Magic is 30% faster and more efficient to cast and use.

Healing Magic: Tier I. Healing Magic is 10% faster and more efficient to cast and use.

Fire Magic: Tier III. Fire Magic is 30% faster and more efficient to cast and use.

Earth Magic: Tier III. Earth Magic is 30% faster and more efficient to cast and use.

Space Magic: Tier II. Space Magic is 20% faster and more efficient to cast and use.

Those were the four main types of magic that came easiest to Terra, and the only reason she decided to get Healing Magic unlocked was so she could cast her Recovery magic faster. While she was so used to fighting these monsters now, there was no doubt in her mind that she wouldn’t need Healing Magic later on in her journey.

As for her skills, they too improved exceptionally quickly while here in the dungeon.

New Skill Modifier(s) Gained:

Meditation: Tier II. Meditation is 20% faster and more efficient.

Basic Energy Circulation: Tier III. Energy Circulation occurs 30% faster and is easier to direct within the body.

Basic Cultivation: Tier III. You can cultivate and improve your body through martial training at a 30% faster rate of comprehension, healing, and improvement.

Unarmed Combat: Tier III. You can do lethal damage while unarmed, and all damage done without the aid of a weapon is 30% stronger.

Honestly, her rate of progression was a lot slower than she remembered, but part of that was also because she was working on so many skills all at once. Normally on a dungeon run she was encouraged to focus on one particular skill, or set of skills and maximize her growth and potential with them. The reason being that at later Tiers levels it would often take an entire run to improve a single skill from Tier VI to the Maximum of Tier VII.

That said, currently Terra was just having fun, expanding her training regimen and improving herself in a more lackadaisical fashion, especially with there not being any reports of a Supreme Being of Evil on the rise, or one who has already mustered their forces. Either this time the information network is very lacking, or the being of evil is biding their time. Realizing that if the being of evil is taking their time, then Terra realized that she could also take her time.

Particularly as she was now getting not only the first kill bonuses from the lower floors of the second dungeon set to Survival Mode, but because she was now realizing why there were so many powerful people before her.

Finally, she was down to her final Flaming Tiger Boss, normally the creature that would rule the eightieth floor of the dungeon, now the final boss of the 98th floor of the second dungeon.

Just looking at the beast, it was clear that it saw Terra. Despite trying to move about silently in the darkness, the cat turned its face to constantly peer towards Terra and her relentless approach. While it was clear that the cat might not be able to identify her exact location, it was clear that this beast could see far more than other monsters could.

Realizing she had been found, Terra cancelled her Obfuscation Aura, deciding this time to go instead with her Magic Aura activated, before she casually walked out to the main dungeon path. Leaving behind the shadows of the rocky wasteland that had surrounded her and given her the shadows she needed to move about freely.

“Come on.” Terra said, gesturing for the beast to strike at her. Yet, she was outside of the strike radius of the beast and had not officially made herself a challenge to the beast, thus it was not forced to strike at her.

Terra was well aware of this, and of the beast’s peculiarities.

Huh.

Terra let out a half laugh half jeer at the creature, showing her teeth with her discontent for the fact that the beast was lazy. Then arrogantly, Terra turned around.

Slight tremor.

In her mind, Terra felt the moment the cat started moving. Then she felt the moment the beast entered her Magic Aura’s radius, then pausing for a second, Terra smiled to herself as she found these auras so convenient for killing.

Gallop.

The beast was running, but in a far more subdued and quieter pace than most cats could maintain.

In her mind she felt the moment the beast met a speed that could not alter or delay its attack. Mentally, she could picture how the beast reared up on its back legs, trying to generate more torque and power. Then for a moment, it would lose track of her, as its eyes and face would need to readjust as it shifted its flexible burning body into position. That was when Terra struck, the moment the burning orbs of light on her back were gone for a half second.

Earthen Ice Spike.

From her back, a pillar of stone covered Ice built up at a 45 degree angle from her back. One that was Terra flooded with every ounce of her SSS tier magic potential, and her internal energy.

With the spike being attached directly to her back, channeling the energy was easier. Also, seeing if the spell was effective was also far easier to tell, as she felt the force of the cat almost instantly. For her ice shard was being driven upwards, at the same time that the Flaming Tiger Boss made its decent down.

Sizzle.

The beast impaled itself instantly, burning drops of blood could be felt burning away the dense outer layer of ice that coated the earthen spike that Terra had created. With so much weight and added pressure, the spike, as intended, broke away, crumpling to the ground.

With that, Terra turned around to see a perfectly impaled Flaming Tiger Boss, slowly fading away, as the fire that once burned brightly within its eyes began to fade.

That was when Terra saw the epic rare drop from the beast.

Soul Bound Item: Burning Eye of the Tiger: An item that binds upon pickup, replaces user’s right eye. Can only be picked up by the person who performed the death blow to the creature. This item drastically improves the visual capabilities of the owner. Effect: +II Tiers to Omniscient Gaze, +II Tiers to Analyzing Combat Pattern, +II Tiers to Identify Hidden Assailant, and +II Tiers to Tracking Prey.

These were all amazingly rare skills that Terra had read about, and been told about, but were always beyond her to get.

Blinking, it was at this moment that Terra realized that the person who constantly pushed her to learn these skills was Professor Chan, a professor that she now couldn’t help but mentally equate to a quack.

“That bastard.” Terra said, as she realized the living Hell that Professor Chan put her through constantly, always pushing her to try to unlock these skills, but looking at the description of the item, these skills were likely impossible to get without an item like this, one that the professor had never told her about.

Squish.

Terra place the Burning Eye of the Tiger into her eye socket. There was a momentary discomfort, before her mind and vision began to swim for a moment, then all the sudden she could see and analyze things much clearer.

With the eye, she could see minor details within the slain beast. Minor details like the muscles on the beast’s right side were slightly more developed than those on their left side, indicating that the beast would likely begin with an attack from the right paw.

Seeing the world with the new eye, so many things about her past suddenly made sense. Professor Chan had Terra believe that he was a martial arts expert from the time he was a child. He was good, there was no debating that, even in this lifetime he was one of the best, but Terra realized the true reason for all his vaunted power and abilities came from this eye.

Granted Terra assumed the Tier II of the powers bestowed was likely due to the increased difficulty level she had imposed upon herself, but still to have the professor constantly mock her and pressure her to not be able to get these rare skills, it, well it made Terra fill with a bit of anger.

Also, now it was a lot easier for her to understand why she had been so much more powerful than Professor Chan during their initial duel. The eye also showed that in order for the professor to even keep up with her, he needed these cheat skills and even then, it wasn’t possible to beat her in the end.

Honestly, that last part made her feel slightly better, knowing that she had managed to constantly beat the esteemed professor, even with his supernatural cheats.

Fwoom.

With the soul bound eye applied, the door to the next floor opened. This was something she expected and was also part of why doing Survival Mode within a dungeon was so tough, as you had to take all the soul bound items with you, before you could leave the floor.

Looking back, there was a trail of dead tiger guard corpses that lined the path to the 97th floor. Seeing the cores, it was clear that there would be a lot of cores available, but these would all be relatively weak cores, barely yellow or average grade at best. Which would equate to almost nothing for her own mana reserves. Also, taking the cores would make it so she would get blood stains on her uniform. They would of course clear up due to her runes, but the thought of looting cores again, especially low-level yellow cores was something she decided to avoid for the moment.

In her mind she mentally tallied the last two floors. Whether she was going to conquer said floors was never in question. Even with the tougher degree of difficulty, and the rearranging of the floors so that all the final boss mobs took up the final five floors meant little to Terra. Though, she did have slight concerns about the soul bound items that she would likely have to take before leaving.

The next floor was the Emperors’ Staff, the elemental rod that made the dean an automatic arch-mage in the past timelines. This time that staff would be hers.

No, the Emperor’s Staff was not the major concern for Terra. Currently, her main concern was whether the added difficulty of the Survival Mode would be enough to change the functionality of the Cursed Crown, or if she had effectively cursed herself by her own greed.

“No.” Terra said to herself, realizing that she could always choose not to bond with the crown. Just because the alternate would mean that she wouldn’t be able to leave the dungeon, that was a risk she would have to accept. Then if worse came to worse, she could always let herself die, before letting her body get taken over as the next vessel for the incarnation of evil.

Realizing that she was getting nowhere by worrying about what ifs, Terra forced herself to move forward, through the portal entrance that led to the 99th floor.

***

On the surface, a group of seven esteemed watchers looked on in horror, as a thick cloud of gray smoke filled an orb that had been completely clear, up until moments ago.

Seeing the smoke, the eldest matriarch of the order held out her hands to the seers next to her. Without having to be told, those that were next to her grabbed her hands, and then held out their free hands to grip the hands of those that were next to her, until finally all seven were linked and surrounded the glowing orb.

“It has begun.” The head matriarch said.

“What has?”

“The choice of destiny is upon us.” The head matriarch answered.

Then with that, everyone fell silent as they looked on, as they witnessed how destiny began to look into the realm of the abyss, and began to teeter on the precipice for a moment.