A Relatively Powerful Mage

Despite the monsters lurking in the caves, Imri thought it prudent to take a day before going into them. He wanted to get both Emelia and Rayden up to their rank E heritage. For Emelia, who was level 15 and had a decent constitution, this was simply a matter of choosing which elixir to take. Unfortunately, none of the elixirs was a perfect fit; she had been hoping for something more charisma-focused, but that seemed to be a rarity among monsters. Caroline had also been experimenting with elixirs, having them give different traits and attribute points from the same monsters by using different parts, but had yet to find a combination with more than .05% charisma.

Imri could feel through his bond that Emelia wasn’t thrilled with her options. She looked at the 3 vials, but each sent a signal of revulsion. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do this,” Emelia said when she moved her hand back. It was shaking uncontrollably and she gripped it trying to regain control.

“It’s fine, no one is going to force you to do anything,” Imri said, though he couldn’t hide the slight disappointment that leaked through the bond. Emelia understood Imri had meant what he said, but he had hoped she would gain some power before their mission.

“I’ve been working on an elixir that would enhance a person's natural heritage rather than using monsters. I had been focused on the D rank one for Imri, though you're not the first person to express concern about losing their humanity. With the research I’ve done it shouldn’t take long to come up with an elixir that will help achieve an E-rank natural heritage earlier,” Caroline explained.

“It could be like what happened to me, I instinctively knew that taking one of these elixirs would be less effective than my natural rank up,” Imri said, though the comparison had the glaring issue that he didn’t have the generic human heritage.

“I did have my strange empathic abilities before the system, maybe my natural rank up would give me something related to that,” Emelia mused. It wasn’t a crazy thought, and Imri hoped she was right.

Rayden had no such compunction about his heritage rank up. Unfortunately, despite his constitution being his highest stat, it wasn’t quite enough to safely take the Drake elixir. Caroline had been working on reducing the required constitution, but it still required amounts in the 130’s range, something only people like Zhaire naturally had at low levels.

The simplest remedy was a quick level-up, which would put Rayden safely within acceptable tolerance for the rank-up. Imri decided to lead a hunt for a Drake, hopefully providing enough experience for him to level up. He was no longer as concerned with a Drake killing lower-level individuals, even melee combatants like Rayden. In addition to the stout warrior, Russ agreed to come along, mostly for the achievement.

By this point, killing the flying lizard creatures was practically routine. Imri focused on controlling the battlefield, using debilitating debuffs like High Gravity and Time Contraction at relatively high amplitudes. This ensured Rayden and Russ would have ample opportunity to deal damage and kill the creature, hopefully giving them a greater share of the experience. Russ attacked immediately after the creature slammed into the ground. Whatever he did, it was almost impossible to see, like a bullet fired from a gun, a projectile slammed into the near impervious hide of the creature. Unlike a normal firearm, the projectile was at least powerful enough to penetrate and inflict some damage, causing a spray of blood and a hiss from the crocodile-like creature. Unfortunately, his shot hadn’t hit the brain, and the wound quickly started to regenerate.

It was Rayden who did the vast majority of the damage. With the debuffs on the creature and a Temporal Expansion enchantment, he was easily able to dodge a bite. He took advantage of the opening and got in close, bringing his massive bone hammer down, amplified by the High Gravity enchantment. There was a crunch as the blow connected with such force that a small shockwave of concussive force rippled out. The skull of the Drake cracked, and if it had been any other creature their head would have burst like an overripe melon. The blow inflicted serious damage and stunned the creature, making it susceptible to repeated blows from the warrior until its head was completely caved in. Bits of brain matter were all over the warrior who grinned triumphantly.

Both Rayden and Russ had gained a level and the rank 10 Group Hunter achievement. While Imri was certain he had gotten a larger portion of the experience, it had been a good way to ensure everyone in the group received a good portion. Imri claimed the core and left the remainder of the carcass to his other two group members. As the creature was harvested, Imri noticed the attack Russ had used. It was a crystalline bullet-shaped projectile, and judging by the wisps of mana coming off of it, it was made from pure mana, like the mana storms on the plains. However, unlike the mana storm, the projectile was dense enough to be solid. Imri watched as Russ reabsorbed the pure mana, regaining a portion of the mana he had expended.

They waited until the next day to go into the cave, giving Rayden a chance to undergo his rank-up and heal using the hot spring. A group of soldiers, all under level 10, stood near the entrance. Whatever was in the cave, Imri suspected they would be around the same level as the Drakes, so he doubted these soldiers would be able to survive an attack from one of them. Hopefully, that would never be an issue.

The soldiers nodded and let them pass into the cave system. While this was the second time Imri had entered the caves, the first time being when they found the Espeonite crystals, it was far more ominous now that they knew monsters lurked somewhere inside. Imri used a Spatial Beacon on a rock and made a small cairn. He emphasized to the soldiers not to stand within a meter of it. Finally, they checked their gear, both mundane and magical, before descending inside.

“It will take several hours to reach the point where we were attacked,” Sawyer said as they began their trek. Everyone nodded, but no one let their guard down. It had been days since the attack, the monster could be anywhere by now.

The cave showed some signs of frequent exploration, narrow passages had been widened, and numerous chalk marks covered the walls. They hadn’t gone far, having only traversed a pair of caverns and were currently making their way through the third when a high-pitched sound could be faintly heard. He didn’t hesitate, activating his Temporal Expansion ring. He had preconfigured it to activate with an amplitude that would last 2 minutes, which meant he experienced 20% more time per second. As he activated the enchantment, he shouted a warning, hoping everyone would follow his lead and activate their enchantments.

Even with the Temporal Expansion effect, Imri almost didn’t see the creatures. They moved incredibly fast, far faster than Imri could manage to keep track of, though he could distinguish multiple distinct shapes. He quickly adjusted the amplitude of his ring, changing it to double its mana consumption. Time finally slowed enough that he could distinguish his opponents, though they still appeared to move at the speed of a normal sprint. There were only two of them, and at first glance, they appeared roughly human, though they were barely over a meter tall and completely naked. However, as Imri saw their faces, they obviously weren’t human. The majority of its face was covered by a too-large jaw that revealed a row of sharp teeth. It had no eyes and only a slit for a nose. Its body was covered in thin wiry hairs that appeared to be sensitive whiskers.

Creature

Troglodyte (1D) 36: A semi-intelligent subterranean creature. Navigate primarily on touch and sound. They have high agility with an extremely venomous bite.

As the lead Troglodyte charged, Imri moved to intercept, hopefully giving everyone else time to react. He hit the creature with a high amplitude of High Gravity, slowing it further. It was extremely effective against the small agile creature that didn’t possess a high strength. The Troglodyte stumbled under the unexpected added strain and Imri was able to decapitate it easily with his machete-like bone sword. He had grown accustomed to the Drakes, so he was surprised when the sword easily sliced through.

In the brief moment he had spent dispatching the first Troglodyte, the second had charged the others. Rayden had reacted quickly enough to interpose himself, however, he wasn’t as easily able to adjust the Temporal Expansion effect. He futilely attempted to smash the creature with his hammer, bringing it down in a powerful blow that the Troglodyte easily evaded. The heavy blow also left the stout warrior open for a counter-attack, with the creature biting down on Rayden’s exposed arm. While Rayden had the same Impervious Skin trait as Zhaire, the Troglodyte was a powerful D-grade creature, its needle-sharp teeth penetrating the exposed flesh.

Rayden cursed and attempted to pry the creature off of him. He was a match for the small creature in strength and he eventually managed to dislodge it. There was a loud pop like a gunshot and the second Troglodyte fell, a hole through its brain where Russ’ condensed mana bullet had shot through.

“Something’s not right,” Rayden said as he stumbled, despite only having superficial bite wounds.

“Their bites are poisonous. Emelia, he’s going to need healing,” Imri shouted.

“I don’t know how to heal poison. I can treat the damage but not the root cause,” She explained.

“Sawyer, help me get the corpses, we need to bring them to Caroline. Hopefully, she can make an antidote,” Imri suggested.

“I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine,” Rayden kept repeating to himself, though he was clearly panicking and didn’t believe the words he was saying.

“We have healing potions and Emelia’s magic to keep it from getting too bad. Caroline is an amazing alchemist and she will have an antidote in no time,” Imri reassured him as he quickly stuffed the whole corpse into the enchanted pack.

At first, the poison didn’t seem to be doing much damage, just inhibiting the warrior's coordination, like he was drunk. Unfortunately, the effects soon got much worse, almost completely paralyzing him. That’s when he started to take damage, slowly at first but it quickly escalated. Emelia started casting healing spells as soon as his health dropped below 75%. It quickly became clear that the poison would kill him several times over before it lost its potency. Even with healing, Rayden wouldn’t survive.

“We’re going back to Celestia, I’ll open a portal,” Imri ordered, as he quickly marked off the intended opening on the ground with chalk. Even with a Spatial Beacon in Celestia and an Espeonite crystal to draw mana from, it would be hard to keep the portal open for long. He also needed to make the portal threshold large enough so that someone could go through carrying Rayden.

When everyone confirmed they were ready Imri poured mana into the spell. As it opened natural sunlight poured into the subterranean cave system for the first time. They could see confused onlookers in Celestia staring at the strange space that had appeared. They each went through as quickly as they could, Sawyer carrying the now incapacitated warrior.

Fortunately, they didn’t have far to go before they reached Caroline’s lab. They quickly briefed her on the situation as the Troglodyte corpses were deposited unceremoniously on a table. “It’s going to take several hours to create an antidote, and that’s a best-case scenario. If there’s no one else who can heal him, he’s better off if you can get him to the healing spring,” Caroline explained.

“He doesn’t have hours, he won’t make it more than a few minutes without help. I can keep healing him for a while, but I don’t think I can last hours,” Emelia said. Everyone knew he wouldn’t make it to the healing spring, not at the rate Emelia was going through her mana. They also couldn’t count on another healer. Freya, the druid who watched over the various groves throughout the plateau, was the only other potential healer, but she was rarely in the settlement. Imri cursed inwardly, he hadn’t considered placing a beacon at the spring.

“Let’s go, I’ll make sure he gets there alive. We’ll need a few fresh people to carry him,” Imri said. No one questioned him, and it took only moments to get a few relatively fresh volunteers.

Emelia continued to heal Rayden whenever his health dipped, but it quickly became apparent she was going through mana at a rapid rate. They were still only halfway to the spring when she started to suffer from overchanneling. Imri took over, topping off his mana before attempting his idea. If it worked it would require everything he had. It was essentially a Time Contraction spell, but instead of altering Rayden’s perception of time, he altered the flow of time within his body.

New Spell Learned

Stasis (2F): Stop the flow of time within a system. Any resistance will prevent the effect, so the target must be incapacitated, inanimate, or willing. Mana cost / second depends on the mass of the target and distance from the target to the caster.

The flow of time had completely stopped within Rayden’s body, halting the poison in its track. His entire body was frozen in time, so he wouldn’t naturally heal or regenerate HP either. This would hopefully give them enough time to get to the spring, though Imri didn’t have the mana to maintain the spell for hours, even with external mana. The main difference was that Imri had fairly good mana regeneration, meaning he could go through his entire mana pool several times before he began to suffer the ill effects of over-channeling.

They raced across the plateau, all nonessential supplies having been discarded. Imri could feel his mana depleting rapidly, and he hoped it would be enough. He began to suffer from the over-channel debuff as he refilled his mana for the third time. He kept pushing his mana into the spell, needing more and more mana as his mana efficiency started to drop. Unfortunately, his FP quickly became an issue, having already been taxed as they hiked. He wasn’t able to keep the spell going for long before he was forced to slow down. The man who was currently carrying the dying warrior matched his pace, every step they got while the spell was still active was a step closer to the spring without time elapsing for Rayden. They only got another hundred meters before the over-channel debuff became too taxing. The spell ended and the hikers resumed their rapid descent towards the spring. Imri hoped it had been enough as he entered meditation to combat the effects of his plummeting stamina.