Bonded Summoner

When Jake emerged on the other side, the familiar, comforting echoes of the staging cavern were gone. The Battlegroup stood at the precipice of a sprawling, jagged nightmare. The subterranean world of Serthune had been beautiful on the surface and underground, but Tartarus had seemingly warped the deep crust into a claustrophobic hellscape of shattered, pulsing geodes and corrupted stone within the dungeon.

Before Jake even had a chance to assess the lighting, the Framework intervened, projecting a message in his Menu.

[Welcome to the Tartarus Prime Instance: Serthune]

[Environmental Modifier: Corrupted Resonance. The ambient mana of this area has been hijacked, tainted with the parasitic powers of the Carnex. Natural mana and stamina regeneration are severely dampened outside of Cleansed Nodes. Proceed with caution and haste, as the density of the corruption will increase over time.

There are four Major Encounters in this descent. A Cleansed Node will be provided upon the defeat of a Major Encounter and just before the final, allowing time for recovery.]

[First Encounter ahead: The Resonant Siege-Beetle.]

Jake swiped the notification away, his eyes narrowing as he read the implications. It wasn't a ticking clock like their first dungeon raid on Highlands. It was a siege of attrition. Tartarus was going to try and bleed them dry before they even reached the bosses. They would also be responsible for establishing their own safe areas before facing the bosses.

“Stay tight,” Jake ordered, his voice echoing slightly in the crystalline tunnel. He kept Sanctum in its passive, invisible state, letting the anti-assassination ward wrap snugly around his family while his overarching Champion Presence washed over their allies.

Without that golden, protective aura radiating from him and his wives, normal Adventurers would have started experiencing difficulties within the first hour. Merely projecting a mana aura around oneself was not enough protection, as it would naturally corrupt even that.