novelzi [331] 4.52 Ancient Lake I
[331] 4.52 Ancient Lake I
Stepping past the threshold and into the dungeon, the landscape abruptly shifts from an idyllic montane lake to something larger, bigger, hungrier, and far more primal. The exit is right there, and I can still see the outside world from here, but it already looks so much smaller and dimmer and more distant than it was just a few seconds ago.Before me, giant trees stretch up hundreds of feet into a thick and humid atmosphere, each with leaves which are every bit as tall and wide as I am. The air is sticky and hard to breathe, yet, it also feels tinged with life, and the entire atmosphere pulses with the primordial law of the jungle. No monsters yet to greet us, but it’s only a matter of when, not if.
“What a place,” Chloe says.
I check my [Status] and see no conditions out of the ordinary. Still, it’s good to take reasonable precautions.
“Are there any special rules in this dungeon that we should be aware of?” I ask Hank. “Gimmicks to make the place more challenging? No flight, no magic, no speaking, anything like that?”
“No. The creatures here are sufficiently challenging without needing any gimmicks of the sort you describe. One underestimates their tenacity and cunning at their own peril.”
With Hank’s warning in mind, Chloe and I take the lead into the primal sky. Once we pass by the initial jungle, we emerge into a vast savannah. Just as Hank had suggested, there are monstrous creatures taken straight out of a natural history museum, alongside creatures like oversized jungle cats and gargantuan serpents that are more anachronistic but are still going to try to eat us anyway.
What surprises me is that there isn’t a flurry of creatures seeking our flesh the moment we step in the open. I guess for a prehistoric grassland, the creatures here have enough self-awareness to not attack creatures much stronger than they. Still, all of us remain on our guard with weapons drawn, eyes and other senses attuned for any signs of creatures approaching from below or employing any of various tools of stealth they might have.
“Let me guess,” I say to Hank. “You’ve been in this dungeon enough times that the creatures here recognize you by scent and have learned to avoid you.”
“I wouldn’t assume it is necessarily scent. I would suggest [Ether] signature as an alternative hypothesis. Despite my scientific curiosity on the matter, I have not actually tried to disguise my smell, nor do I think we have the time now to do so.”
“So, just a straight shot down to the third floor?”
“Probably not. The floor bosses are still going to raise a stink.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, lead the way, Hank.”
“Not so fast,” he says. “While I agree with the need to make haste, your equipment is, to be frank, woefully lacking, your weapon and Chloe’s armor aside. It won’t be enough to completely overcome the gap in power, but it will narrow it somewhat.”
“So, we’re going to be skinning some beasts.” I say.
“And harvesting spines, plates, and other raw materials, all of which will be far stronger and more resistant to damage than even those flimsy wyvern scales. We’ll be seeing a tanner in addition to a blacksmith… or whitesmith, as the case may be.”
Never thought I’d hear the day where the scaled armor of wyverns— even if they are classified as ‘lesser’ draconids— was considered an inferior crafting material. Then again, it was strong at level 35 and its effectiveness hasn’t grown along with my personal capabilities. Also, superficial as it may make me sound, but I could go for a new look after these past few months.
“I’m not getting rid of the bandana,” I say. “I don’t think I’m likely to stumble upon anything that can match the utility it provides.”
Hank just shrugs. “Just keep an open mind. You may be pleasantly surprised by what my contacts can come up with.”
The task of the hour proves more difficult than I would have initially suspected. As I had anticipated, the monsters on this level seem especially unwilling to fight us, scurrying about or charging off with blinding speed at the first sign of our approach. All three of us have [Mind]-focused classes, with commensurately low [Speed] given our respective levels and no specific Skills or equipment to boost them— and yes, there are dedicated [Speedster] classes out there.
Chloe and I can fly faster than we can run, but doing so— especially in Chloe’s case— might as well signal ‘run for your lives; the apex predators have arrived’ in flashing neon lights. And while Hank does have the expected stealth Skill— [Shadow Sneak]— he’s also the lowest level of the three of us and, to his embarrassment, admits that a few of the more powerful monsters on the floor could give him legitimate trouble.
After another hour of trying and failing to pin down anything of value— damn am I getting tired of these goddamned failures— we reluctantly decide to hurry our way to the second floor where the harvest might prove more fruitful.
Hank leads us directly to the boss of the floor, located, not at all surprisingly, at the foot of a tree far larger than even those gargantuan specimens near the dungeon’s entrance. This tree stretches to a height of at least half a mile, and its sprawling canopy covers an area easily thrice that in diameter. The leaves are predominantly green as expected, but there is a wide gradient, and shades of yellow and gold and even reddish-brown can be seen on some of the millions of branches of the primordial tree.
The boss of the floor is… a giant turtle? Not the first creature I would have expected given the theme and general habitat, but I suppose it makes as much sense as anything. Hank doesn’t approach, instead hanging back about a quarter mile off, just outside the edge of the shade, and more importantly just outside the shimmering auroral walls that will serve as the battlefield for this fight.
“This is your fight today, girls,” Hank says. “Show me what you two are capable of.”
“You know, you were saying earlier that you were the lowest level of the three of us, and yet it feels like you’re so confident we’ll have a harder time defeating the boss than you did.”
Hank smiles. “Levels and stats aren’t everything, Sera. As it turns out, my class and Skills were particularly effective against this creature.” He pauses. “Perhaps that was too much of a hint. Might lower your Experience gain as a result.”
Before I can get into too much detail about what specifically he means by that, our massive shelled friend lunges forth at a velocity I wouldn’t have anticipated from a creature known for its sluggishness. Its four massive limbs, each as tall as I am and many times as thick, power forth directly at us, all offense, no additional defense.
Chloe and I fly off in opposite directions, avoiding both the charge as well as the head that tries to bite me, again moving far more quickly than a fucking turtle should be able to. We regroup in the air to plan our next move, and have all of one second before the damn thing starts spitting acid at us, because that’s apparently also a thing it can do. And, to make matters worse, this acid is not just just spray that will fall back to the ground like so much rain. It’s a goddess-damned volatile compound that is rapidly aerosolizing and threatening to toxify us from the insides.
I call on a [Windburst] and fire it downward toward the center of the battle arena. It has its desired effect, creating a vacuum wave that sucks all the miasma out of the air above and funnels it down to the surface. By taking a deep breath just before the bulk of mass passes through us, we’re able to avoid the worst of the malaise, and Chloe’s [Antidote] spell flushes the remainder out of our system before it causes any perceptible damage.
Unfortunately— because why would things ever be so easy for us— the giant tortoise proves immune to its own poisonous haze. Worse, it seems to be reveling in it like pigs in shit, restoring its [Ether] as it devours the gift I’ve returned to sender. The toxic fumes disperse, my diminished [Ether] the only sign it did anything at all.
Realizing that our attempt to survey the situation from the supposed ‘safety’ of the air ended in complete failure, we switch to offense. Chloe’s [Mirage Swords] and my swordstaff together strike at what appears to be a weak spot on the side of the shell. Despite the small natural indentation in the shell, its carapace renders it completely impervious to our blows. I even suffer a bit of blowback as my momentum is absorbed and then promptly shunted right back at me.
“Well, physical attacks seem pointless,” Chloe says.
I’m not expecting magic to do much better, but I throw a weak [Fireball] at the tortoise’s head, hoping that perhaps its magical defenses are somewhat weaker than its physical defenses. That does not appear to be the case; the flames die down and our shelled friend is none the worse for it.
“So, what now?” Chloe asks.
“Your father said he was particularly suited to face off against this boss, and that that was a. Knowing what I do of his magic, I assume he has some way to bypass the armor and hit the weaker flesh underneath.”
“So how do we do so?”
“Tip it, I guess. I can’t imagine the underbelly is anywhere near as impervious as the main portion of the shell. As for how we do that? Aim for the feet on one side. I’ll serve as the distraction.”
I drop down to the surface and flare out my anarchic aura, goading the overgrown reptile into a charge. I dodge at the last second, though one of my wings gets chipped in the chaos. Rocks fly up in accordance with some [Earth]-aligned spell, giving me the added challenge of flying through the now-roiling terrain.
Meanwhile, Chloe watches above, aiming for the creature’s legs with [Mirage Swords] and [Scouring Lights] whenever the opportunities avail themselves. The legs are not impervious like the shell, but the thick skin and heavy defenses mean that she too is doing only minimal damage.
I’m thrown up by a rock which hits my own underbelly. As I tumble about in midair, the tortoise’s mouth opens and again launches an acidic spray of those nasty toxins from before. This time, however, I’m prepared, launching a [Etheric Collector] spell, a combination of [Repulsion] and some [Cylinder] shape glyphs together to create a basket that can collect the acrid spray. A vial of the sludge into a small test tube, sealed off with a cork, and stored harmlessly away in my [Inventory] for future analysis.
The remainder is thrown back onto the ground, where it sinks into the dirt and proceeds to infect the land with that vile curse. The tortoise tries again, but when it again meets the same result, it changes its tactics once again.
Thousands of tiny stones compress down to the size of pebbles and fly at frankly ridiculous speeds. Though their mass and thus their stopping power is low individually, my barrier can’t effectively block so many attacks, and plenty of strikes begin chipping away at my [Health]. Chloe is doing a bit better in that regard, since she’s higher-up and wearing a stronger suit of armor, but even she won’t last an eternity.
With the battle turning against us, I decide to switch to offense, relying on all of the boosts I have to keep me alive as I dart into the fray. Larger clumps of rock attempt to pulverize me, but these I can slice in half before they do any substantial damage.
The tortoise roars— I didn’t know they could do that— and sends a cube of soil, roots, and stone a good ten feet in length flying toward me. This time, I don’t dodge in the conventional sense. [Dimensional Slip], unfair Skill that it is, allows me to simply extricate myself from the entire battle for the second it takes for the stone to pass harmlessly by where I once was.
And now, having crossed through the beast’s absolute line of defense, I deliver a trio of slashing strikes at its smoldering right forelimb. Another two puncturing wounds— thank you, [Dimensional Rift], for once again allowing me to phase out of the crushing stomp that follows— and the beast is starting to reel. Finally, I charge some of my flaming [Ether], drawing from my [Crimson Heart], and use a tiny [Flaming Javelin] to cook the creature’s leg from the inside out.
“Ready, Chloe?” I ask. “Let’s topple this thing!”
She grins. “Let’s do it.”
She dives down toward the ground as I find a good spot underneath the tortoise’s underbelly. It tries to flatten me, but again I can slip out of reality in the instant before it crushes me and reappear politely outside the shade of the shell the instant following. The process repeats two more times before Chloe arrives.
She charges from the side at top speed, suffering a few bruises in the process as she barrels through boulder after boulder, her sight set right at the base of the shell.
In the instant before she makes contact, I stab the injured and burnt leg with all I have. Our foe shrieks with a roar that shakes the branches of the massive tree above, but raising its leg up was its fatal mistake. Thanks to the added leverage, I’m able to lift its side just a bit higher off the ground like a carjack, and Chloe’s tackle is able to knock the creature onto its back, wedged up between the ground and the side of the arena where our battle has taken place.
Now immobile and looking exceedingly pathetic, the turtle can do nothing as the two of us launch an unrelenting fury of spells and sword strikes at its weaker underbelly flesh. The battle is won, though neither of us lets up our guard until we receive confirmation that the fight is over.
I want to check my status, especially because I’m pretty sure I just got a level. But before I do, I rush in and tear off a few large chunks of the tortoise’s shell, now far weaker without its [Vitality] and defensive Skills behind it. They too go in my [Inventory] before the rest of the creature dissolves back into the Ether.
[You have slain Pallair, Primordial Tortoise (Level 67). You have gained a boosted 220,000 Experience.]
[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 73. [Strength] +1, [Vitality] +1. Please assign free stat points (Remaining: 11).]
[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = 409]
[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = 290]
[Level: 73; Experience: 8,229,544; To Next: 203,056]
[Current Stats: [Health]: 13,572 / 15,067; [Ether]: 7,841 / 11,245]
[Current Stats: [Strength]: 319 (Base: 134); [Speed]: 309 (Base: 130); [Vitality]: 397 (Base: 167); [Mind]: 514 (Base: 216)]