The Pinnacle Warrior

The next naiad wasn’t found for over half an hour as the Wanderers wandered from one path to the next. The sandy paths they tread were much quicker to traverse now that they were confident in their ability to feel the antlions approaching, though there was a time that one remained still and caught Astrid’s leg in its ambush. That day had been one where she was especially grateful for Benedict’s Boon of a Gentle Touch, because the antlions apparently carried a venom that sent waves of crippling agony up Astrid’s leg and into her core.

Other than that time, they would only have about 10 to 15 seconds warning before an antlion attacked, but that was more than enough for them to move from a brisk walk to an easy jog. Add to their current physical attributes, it only took a couple minutes to move an entire kilometer, so Astrid was fairly certain they had moved nearly ten kilometers before they found the next monster to fight. Eventually, though, a faint swell in the lapping waves at their side, warned them of the monster’s approach.

This time, Astrid focused less on any potentially approaching antlions and instead readied her sling. She whirled it underhand at her side several times, waiting for the construct to fully emerge, but before it could make its first attack at the party, her stone flew into its body.

Astrid experiments came with one motivating piece of information and one frustrating one. As Skandr had thought, making air explode all around inside of the water construct that the naiads made was effective. Separating the monster from the water that it was controlling did make the entire thing slump as winds surrounded the swimming monster. The spellcrafted water golem didn’t collapse entirely, which Astrid supposed shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, they were monsters 10 levels and an entire tier above the Wanderers, and if a Steel tier, magic-based monster could be thwarted with a clever but relatively weak enchantment embedded in a disposable piece of ammunition, then it wouldn’t be much of a monster.

Regardless, Astrid was glad to learn that she didn’t have to sit back and watch against the strongest monsters that could be found in this Dungeon branch. Unfortunately, the somewhat limited effect of her stones on the monsters was not what caused her frustration. Instead, the frustrating point of information was that the ammunition that she had, the windburst enchanted stones, those that were the most impactful, wasn’t unlimited. Each individual windburst stone wasn't enough to open the monster hiding within to an attack. At least two, and more likely three were required to create an opening for Muti or herself.

Astrid only had a dozen of the enchanted stones with the windburst enchantment prepared. She used three on the second naiad they fought, one of which hadn’t managed to pierce deeply enough into the water construct before it exploded and sent water misting in every direction. As the rainbow faded around them, Muti wrapped her rope dart’s cord around the naiad and yanked it free to deal it a deadly blow.

“Your efficiency in enchantment,” Astrid began to ask after the second fight.

“Hasn’t changed,” Skandr cut her off. “Each one takes me about 10 minutes to prepare, so I would guess that you can count on maybe six more every day.”

Astrid toed the dirt, disappointed but not surprised. She had several dozen more pieces of ammunition with various enchantments on them, and was willing to continue to experiment with them. The next naiad stood strong against Astrid’s attacks, the lightning explosion, frostbite enchantment, and flame burst all doing only negligible amounts of damage. Knowing what the Boss was of this Dungeon branch was, Astrid was fairly certain that she would be more useful there, but knowing that half of the monsters found in this Dungeon were largely immune to anything that she could do certainly wasn’t a reassuring piece of information to learn.

Though she should have been as limited as Astrid, Muti was able to rely on Shadow Leap, Ambusher’s Aura, and some of her small spells to extract herself from any situation in a pinch. As such, the Barbarian enjoyed experimenting further with hiding from the monsters’ perception and doing exactly what her Class’s name advertised. It was obvious that, with the difference in tiers, the naiads were never fooled by Muti’s attempt to hide herself, but combined with Felix’s efforts forcing their attention onto him, she was able to pierce through the magical barriers that kept the monsters safe.

“It’s interesting to see how our attributes are high enough to match these monsters,” Skandr said as he took a series of notes in another one of his notebooks, “but our Skills aren’t potent enough to do what they’re meant to. Even the boons combined with our Class rarities aren’t enough to fully overcome the difference between being Iron and Steel.”

“There is a different quality to their mana,” Muti said as she cut the tail from the naiad.

“Yeah,” Skandr agreed, “it’s almost slippery when I try to do something to it. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do this again at the top of Steel, if these differences continue growing more marked in each tier. Does that make you feel a little better, Astrid?”

As he turned to her, she chuckled a little. “I guess that seeing how being Steel tier might change things when I use my Skills on them. Gravity Surge isn’t worth much on the naiads. But, talking about being Steel, I need a movement Skill. I’ve never felt limited in what I can do until now, but this really sucks to see that someone with a movement Skill that would otherwise be as limited as I am just… not have to worry about it.”

“We can always just test how dangerous throwing yourself into the clutches of the naiad actually is,” Benedict shrugged. “You’re fast enough to throw yourself in there and do some real damage quickly. And then you’ve got your charges of Body and everything to keep you alive, so I don’t think it’s the worst idea to give it a go. Might be a little dicey, but if you do it when we’re already halfway done with the fight, it shouldn’t be too risky, right?”

“Ultimately, it’s up to you,” Skandr said, though his tone obviously disagreed with Benedict, which was confirmed by what he continued with, “but I wouldn’t necessarily throw myself into the embrace of a monster just because I was testing it out.“

“We already saw in Iron,” Astrid answered, “that there’s plenty of monsters that’re magically inclined. I do great against physical defenses, but magical ones are pretty hard to overcome, and it’s something that I’m going to have to learn how to overcome. I don’t know if there’s anything that I can do about it while I’m still Iron, though.”

“I mean, since you’re talking about Steel,” Benedict said with a shrug, “you’ll have seven Skill slots once we evolve. Doing a bit of calculating, you’ve got your equipment Skill, Gravity Surge, Spectre Burst, then Immortal Warrior’s Body and Aura. Even if none of them merge, which isn’t going to happen, but even if there’s no consolidation, you’ll have two slots that you’ll need to fill. I can’t imagine you’re going to feel the need to get another finishing Skill, right?”

Astrid shook her head, continuing to jog along behind Muti towards their next fight.

“Then, with your boons, you’ll probably want to get another aura if it’s offered,” Benedict sad, counting on his fingers, “and that leaves you with at least one more slot to fill. I figure a movement Skill is one of the best options you’ve got, even if it’s something simpler.”

“I can’t imagine I’ll get anything like Shadow Leap, though,” Astrid grumbled.

“No, you won’t,” Skandr agreed. “Wouldn’t make sense if you did. Though, I suppose it didn’t make a whole lot of sense that you got Gravity Surge either, so maybe I’m wrong. But, if I was a betting man, which I no longer am,“ he comforted Astrid, who narrowed her eyes at him. “But if I was, I’d guess that you’ll get some sort of Skill that allows you to shift yourself with gravity.”

Astrid felt her face screw up at that. “I don’t know if I’d want to take that, though. Felix has talked about how Tiger’s Pride was a mistake to take because it’s so different from his path at this point, but I don’t know if taking something so similar to Gravity Surge would be worth it to take because it’d be so similar that my existing Skill could do it as well.”

“That might be the case,” Skandr shrugged, “but let’s not get fixated on that. Honestly, at this point, it’s better to solidify our foundations than to pray for a boon to come our way later. After all, if you take a similar Skill to Gravity Surge in Steel, then they will merge in Mithril to a better option for you in the long run. That means that you’ll end up with a more potent Skill in the long run, even if constant tinkering with your Skill could result in something similar. At a certain point, we need to realize that we’re going to get new Skills, even if constant fiddling with what we have might produce a similar result.”

“The effort that would be spent to adjust your Skills,” Muti added, not looking back but continuing to look for more monsters, “would be better spent on gaining levels. The Great One rewards creativity, but speed and strength even more so.”

“Maybe,” Astrid replied. “We can’t know for sure what things will result in the greatest return in the long run.”

Muti shrugged and continued walking forward, her piece said.

Astrid scratched at her neck, knowing that she wasn’t going to get an answer about what would even be offered anytime soon anyways, and instead continued on her path forward to the next fight. Muti continued leading forward, and before long, the next antlion appeared as it tried to ambush the party. Astrid threw herself into battle, excited to not have to spend any of her very limited pieces of enchanted ammunition in this fight.

***

Pyra

After years, she had fought her way back into the Marchioness’s good graces. In truth, Pyra hesitated to even consider herself even that well favored, but at least she was allowed to receive assistance from the Marchioness’s other teams now, which was an immense boon. That little change was enough for her to enjoy the occasional return to her lady’s presence. Or, at least, to her estate, though never again in the Adamantine tiered woman’s direct physical presence.

Each return was a reminder of the clemency she’d been shown, that failure could have been repaired with punishment beyond being assigned to impreove. The rest of the people within the Marchioness’s estate were stronger than Pyra herself and could easily sweep her away like papers. After all, she was only barely Iron tier, and she was still largely out of favor with the lady that everyone else here worshiped.

A Butler crossed her path further down the hall, and Pyra stepped to the side as she bowed her head. She was so far below him in terms of hierarchy that she would be punished even for slowing his path, to say nothing of actually getting in his way or truly inconveniencing him. As his wooden-heeled shoes clacked down the marble hallway past her, Pyra stood and then walked towards the room she was going to be meeting her new teammates in. As a Physician, it hasn’t been too hard for her to find a party that was willing to take her in after her conditional exile, though she’d also spent time on the surface treating wounds and disease diseases to push her progress faster, as well as to expand her exposure to various things.

Now, an Indentured Doctor, Pyra was able to increase her strength off of the depth of her debts to the Marchioness. Something she’d learned was that the mistress was always looking for new, unique Classes, and as Pyra had explained her Class to the Butler that’d brought her back into the fold, she had been given greater leeway than she deserved. Regardless, she seized on that opportunity, and was now being introduced to new allies, a party that she could actually trust.

“I hope I can get along with them,” she muttered to herself as she arrived outside the door and knocked three times.

“Enter,” came the answer, and she didn’t delay in entering, bowing her head, and introducing herself before she actually looked around.

“My name is Pyra Doctor, and I will be serving as your supporter. To strengthen my ability to serve and heal you, it will be best for me to owe all of you in someway. However, now isn’t the time for those details, I’m glad to meet you.”

At that, she stood tall, smiled wildly, and met the faces of her new party members. After a few seconds, a glimmer of recognition crossed her mind, and she smiled in a slightly more apologetic fashion.

“Hello again.”

***

“Look, if we’re trying to get a Steel tier Boss clear under our belts before hitting the top of level 50, it’s gotta be now.”

Benedict’s words made Astrid grind her teeth, though she knew he was right. Though they weren’t killing countless monsters and they needed to take breaks every day or so to ensure they didn’t suffer from mana poisoning while delving, the progress made while killing Steel tiers was significantly faster than before. Just a few weeks had passed, and they all had quickly leveled through level 48 and 49. Though at least 200,000 experience separated each of them from heading the absolute peak of Iron tier, at their current pace they would kill at least 70 Steel tear monsters a delve, each of which provided over 400 experience to each member of the party. Only about two weeks of actual delving separated Muti from reaching the juncture of evolution and cutting off her further opportunities to prove herself to the Great One.

“We don’t have a particularly great plan to get all the way there fast enough to not end up mana poisoned on our way back,” Astrid threw her hands up helplessly. “We’ve gotten to the point where I think we could probably get to the bottom floor before we start suffering from symptoms of mana poisoning, but then will have to fight against the Boss, kill it, recover from a very difficult fight, and then get all the way back through 13 floors while exhausted and suffering from worsening mana poisoning by the minute.”

“The best option we have is to lean on Boon of a Gentle Touch as much as we can,” Benedict shrugged. “I know that our experiments have shown that it doesn’t take care of all of the symptoms of somebody suffering from mana toxicity, but it helps.”

“I’m not going to make the final decision on this, I say we take a vote,“ Astrid said with a sigh. “For what it’s worth, I don’t know if the journey down there will give us enough to justify the risk The more somebody gets poisoned, the more likely they suffer from long-term effects of mana toxicity, and even to the point of mutation. I’m not sure I’m willing to accidentally make myself mana dependent and incapable of spending more than a day at a time outside of the Dungeon.”

“That’s what we already do, what’s the problem,” Felix said quietly, his joke making Astrid narrow her eyes at him.

“Just because you’re right doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to have the option of staying out. Like, what would’ve happened after the Wandering Trials that way?”

“I believe we should blaze a path as quickly as we can and attempt to prove ourselves,” Muti spoke, leaving behind the point of discussion her lover brought up as she made her predictable point.

“I think Astrid is right,“ Benedict said. “There’s a whole lot of danger, even before we talk about fighting the Boss, that we don’t need to expose ourselves to. Even though I think that getting down there and doing this successfully would benefit our upcoming evolutions, I don’t know if it would be enough to justify the risk. Beyond that, who knows if it’ll be ‘worth’ more than the Bosses we fought in the Wandering Trials or the drake we bought back in the day. Maybe I’m just being spoiled, but I don’t think it’s necessary.”

“I’m willing to run the risk,” Felix said with a shrug. He didn’t say anything else, and the party looked towards Skandr.

“How many times have I been the one to make the decision for the party?” He grumbled to himself, sighing as he rolled his head back and forth. After a couple seconds, he tsked and said, “I don’t know if this is just me overreacting in response to having been as cautious as I have been, but I say we do it, but only so long as Benedict is confident that he can cover for everybody on the way up with his boon and Restful Reverberations.”

The Bard groaned and hung his head. “Assuming you realize that I’m not boing to be able to fully cleanse anyone and we’ll need to recover afterward, I’m not gonna lie. Yes, I can dedicate myself to purging the worst of the poisoning on the way back up to the surface.”

Astrid nodded, her stomach twisting in nervousness, and then said, “Then the decision’s made. We’ll take three days of rest to make sure that our bodies are fully cleansed of all foreign mana, then we’ll rush down as fast as we can see what we can do against the Boss. If any of us are feeling the results of mana poisoning before we get to the Boss floor, you need to say something, and we’ll all retreat. Am I clear?”

A chorus of voices agreed with her final words, and Astrid nodded a couple times before saying, “Then let’s get some rest in. Because it sounds like we’re less than two weeks away from Steel tier.”