The Pinnacle Warrior

Just as the party had planned, the day they were re-entering the Dungeon proper was the last day of the “medium tide,” where they would, on average, encounter about 60 shimmerbugs an hour. After today, three days of “low tide” would come, where they would find anywhere from 40 to 50 shimmerbugs an hour. The origin of this tide’s scheduling was a mystery to the party, but getting back in and learning that was one of their primary reasons for going deeper. And, of course, to find greater challenges, now that they’d gained so many levels so quickly.

“There aren’t any shimmerbugs that are even blue within two kilometers,” Muti reported after flashing away from the rest of the party to scout their surroundings. With her new Assassin’s Bearing Skill, as long as she was “prepared to fight an enemy,” her Alacrity and Power were both significantly boosted, and that was basically permanent, given how she was constantly ready to fight. As such, with her Alacrity being well over 1000 with her equipment and Skills, she could flash through their surroundings without any issue.

“Then, unless they start the fight themselves,” Astrid commanded, “let’s just leave them be. They’re not worth the experience at this point, and they’re just too easy to be worth the effort.”

The rest of the party agreed, ignoring the kill notification they had gotten of a tavari while Muti was scouting. The best place to remain unseen by the shimmerbugs was in the vine-trees, and given that the creatures that hunted the shimmerbugs lived there, it wasn’t a surprise that sometimes there was some conflict there. Regardless, the party ignored the violet and indigo shimmerbugs on their path further into the forest.

The vine-trees replenished themselves remarkably quickly. The vast swathes that were eaten whenever a massive swarm of shimmerbugs passed through were fully recovered by the next week, when the population would surge once again. In fact, it was so commonly exploding in growth, both the shimmerbugs and the vine-trees, that the party wasn’t sure exactly how the two were maintaining stability. It would seem that, with only limited numbers of creatures even attempting to challenge the shimmerbugs’ existence, they should be exploding in population far beyond what the party’d seen. Therefore, the Wanderers were convinced that there was something further in the forest that was keeping their numbers in check.

Within just a few minutes, the party had made their way past any of the shimmerbugs that would be nearby, given the combination of their own attributes and Muti’s Shadow Aura. In that short time, they finally went deeper into the forest than ever before, as until then, they had stuck to the fringes, always staying close to the wall. However, such an easy journey wasn’t to last long.

Deeper in the forest, the various vines and their colors shifted away from being largely violet and indigo to having a mostly blue and green concentration, with an equal number of orange and yellow vines as the indigo and violet. Interestingly, the vines which seemed to support the survival of much stronger creatures didn’t look at all different, other than the color that they glowed. They weren’t taller as a whole, thicker, or anything like that. That apparent lack of difference wasn’t enough to keep Astrid thinking about it, though.

Once they were, Astrid estimated, about three kilometers from the wall that housed the exit back to the real world, the population density of the shimmerbugs grew. Instead of being infrequent enough to be able to dodge through, they were pushed into conflict with small groups of shimmerbugs, three to five, and now it was usually two blues and a green or two. However, with the density of yellow vine-trees around, the party slowed down, knowing that their rematch with the bugs that were actually a challenge was nigh at hand.

A part of Astrid thought about the fact that she and her party were now so comfortable with each other that they could walk in silence together for an hour and still know what the others were doing without anything more than quick gestures and glances. As Muti continued scouting and using her Skill-enhanced senses to see what was happening around her, the party made their way onward.

After three quick fights, the bugs being quickly destroyed with impunity, Muti perked up, and the rest knew what it meant.

Muti’s signals let the party know that there was only a single yellow up ahead, which was for the best, but that it had four greens and a dozen blues with it. Fortunately, despite what the Barbarian’s obvious desire was, she waited for confirmation from Astrid before she did anything. The answer that she got was the one she was hoping for.

“Get ready and go.”

Instead of spreading to confront a large swarm, Astrid and Felix stayed together to present a united front against the monsters. They were all sure that wouldn’t be necessary, now that they were the same level as the greens and had a significantly higher attribute total than them, but the boost from the yellow’s aura was too much of an unknown to just throw themselves forward without any sort of a plan. In fact, Astrid and Felix both stood beside each other, and, once Skandr’s enchantment book and staff were ready, Astrid activated Unconquerable Aura while the others also got themselves into their peak condition.

At the first stirrings of mana from the activation of Skills, the yellow perked up, or at least, it seemed to have, because it started chittering commands at its underlings, and the party rushed forward, closing the three hundred meters between themselves and the shimmerbugs in a few short seconds. Even with Voice of Liberation and a windstep enchantment from Skandr pushing them as fast as they could go, the party couldn’t reach the shimmerbugs before the monsters were ready for their approach.

In the front and center stood the four greens, the blues flanking them on both sides. Each one had already activated their Skills, the charge, shield, and boost to their cutting forelegs, and they ran towards the Wanderers as a group. Over the past weeks, the party had grown very familiar with the limitations of each of the tiers of shimmerbug. As such, Astrid could tell that each of the blues was performing nearly on the level of a regular green, and that the greens were nearly twice as strong as usual as well. When they had been fighting against sixty instead of a dozen, as well as being seven levels lower, that had been an insurmountable challenge.

Now, Felix hustled forward, activating Defender’s Avatar, the barrier from Boon of the Protector, and the barrier from his helmet. Then, he repositioned himself a handful of meters in front of the rest of the party with Raging Guardian as he activated Defender’s Mandate and Impenetrable Fortress.

Astrid felt a flash of pride in her frontliner’s abilities, and he accepted the crashing of the shimmerbug charge without any issue. His massive body, now five and a half meters tall, easily broke the charge. With his shield glowing with mana that pulled all of the bugs towards him, his axe reaped the lives of two blue shimmerbugs.

There was no time to concern herself too much with what her allies were doing as the fight began. Astrid herself stepped into the gap at his side, her hammer smashing through the head of one of the greens. Its defensive barrier smashed apart in that first attack, and with Body Surge pushing her total Power and Alacrity to an obscene 2,500 and nearly 2,000 respectively, her next attack came so fast that she needed to push a hefty amount of mana into Indomitability to make sure that she wasn’t thrown away through the momentum of her weapon’s swing.

The first impact shattered the barrier completely, and the hammer continued forward to smash into the bug’s body. The second impact crunched through its defenses and it fell. Fortunately, she had killed the green with that attack, as another threw itself at her side in that moment. As its sharp forelegs scrabbled against her, Astrid could tell that it was just an incidental attack, that the bug was entirely unable to resist the call of Felix’s Skill, and she was just in its way. With her increased control over Spectral Graviton and experience knowing that, because of the unnatural lightness of each of the shimmerbugs, they were largely immune to the gravitational effects of the Skill, she pushed its function entirely towards spectral as she designated a space right underneath the yellow shimmerbug as the epicenter of her Skill.

Gray tendrils, thicker and more substantial than ever, exploded into existence under the beast that slashed at Felix, carving hunks out of his shield. He weathered the attacks without issue, maintaining the enemies’ attention as he swept them all together. Muti flashed from one of the beetles to the next, her blades falling just enough to crack their shields and open up an attack from Skandr.

“The shields are strengthened by the aura,” Muti reported as she carved through every remaining shimmerbug’s shield Skill in less than a second.

As soon as it was done, Skandr released the spell he had been preparing. Instead of his usual lightning, a spell he’d been working on ever since he first accidentally created a mana explosion sailed out past the gathered body of the remaining monsters. Then, before that finished, a wall of wind exploded into existence between the Wanderers and the bugs. The bugs were all thrown back, with the exception of the yellow, which roared with a chittering screech and charged at Felix.

All of the airborne monsters were drawn towards the first spell that Skandr had cast, where a tornado of aggressive, compressed mana shredded through their defenses. They tumbled in a circle, the wind given more substance as it tore their legs off and ripped their defensive wings away.

Then, as the yellow continued to throw itself at Felix, Skandr’s spell died out. Instead of petering off, it collapsed in on itself, crushing the bugs altogether before exploding. The greens survived, though they were heavily wounded, and Muti flashed to their struggling, prostrate bodies to dispatch them before they could recover and get back into the fight.

The rest of the party focused on dealing with the yellow, which was alone. With only itself to fight against Felix, Astrid, and Skandr, its shield was broken in a few short seconds, before a bolt of lightning smashed into its head and fried its internals. Though Skandr’s spell wasn’t enough to finish it off, the monster twitched in pain from the lightning before Astrid’s hammer fell and crushed its head.

Yellow Iridescent Shimmerbug slain. 3,490 experience gained, split among party.

“Seems like the pattern is still holding true,” Astrid said, rolling her shoulders. “Which means that the oranges will be at least level 81. If whatever they get by becoming orange is as devastating as the yellow skill, we’ll be looking at a real challenge!”

“I could do without a real challenge,” Benedict said, shrugging.

“That’s not what you said last week!” Felix shot back. “You were so bored that you started actually practicing with a weapon.”

“To say nothing of what he said about Vera just yesterday,” Astrid chuckled.

“That isn’t fair!” he laughed. “But yes, I’m just never satisfied. Can we move on?”

The party continued teasing back and forth, collecting the yellow shimmerbug’s corpse in one of their spatial pouches. They’d all learned that the bodies of the monsters weren’t particularly valuable, but with each new tier, something could change, so they would collect at least one of the corpses before their return to Neverwood.

“Let’s keep pushing?” Astrid asked, rolling her shoulders. “I want to actually have an opportunity to use my helmet to its full potential.”

After that, Muti grinned as well, and the party set off deeper into the forest.

***

Ahna

“I’m sorry, there simply isn’t any sugar. I’ve been making do with honey, but the salt supply isn’t going to hold up for long either.”

“At least we have a Baker as skilled as you, able to turn such plain fare into something palatable.”

“I don’t deserve the praise, but thank you,” Ahna replied.

With a small smile, she took the two copper and wrapped the plain honey cakes in a cloth and passed it over. Sienna, the grandmotherly woman, took the food with a smile and walked unsteadily out the door. Ahna had no idea what level the old woman was, but Seamstress had good growth for Fortitude, so the woman was bound to have at least… 19? 20 Fortitude? That was probably the main thing that was keeping her going at this point, and with the war going on, there was no telling how long she would be able to—

Ahna cut off that path her mind was wandering down, instead saying goodbye as she put the payment away. Then, seeing the remaining six loaves behind the counter, she wrapped them into a larger pack and made her way out the door with a groan. Some people would have called her gait a waddle, but she wouldn’t stand for it. She was level 4, she could actually walk, regardless of what the increasingly squirmy and uncomfortable child in her womb demanded.

With the pay from the day in her pouch and her bread in her arms, Ahna stepped out of her little shop to make her way towards home. The streets were different, quieter, darker somehow. The Duchess, when she was around, seemed to bring light with her, but as soon as she was gone, and she only returned twice, the reality of what was happening settled over the city like a heavy smoke.

There was a war before. The fight against the Barbarians was bloody, claiming the lives of who knew how many. The thought of people suffering and dying on the front lines made Ahna shiver. She was glad she had every reason to stay back from the front lines and instead just make bread. Because now, the fight was here. At least, it was close, and there was no telling what would happen on the borders with the Barbarians while this civil war was happening.

And Jan… her husband, he was a member of the guard! Every member of the guard was brought at least to level 11 within the first two years of working as a guard, to make sure that they could stand up to any ruffians. That was why he was given multiple assignments to get into a nearby Dungeon, to fight against terrifying beasts called wargs. Then, because of first the Barbarian war and then the current civil war, another two Dungeon branches were taken over first by the nobles and then the Duchess to get their reserve forces to strength as quickly as possible as hostilities mounted near the capital. Every time he came back from the Dungeon, he was exhausted, with a new scar and story he refused to tell.

Regardless, all that hard work had paid off, and he had just evolved into an uncommon rarity Class in Iron! Stalwart Guard, and while Ahna wished she could be proud, instead she was terrified. If he was Iron, that meant he was strong! Strong enough to be conscripted into the battle…

A part of her wondered about Astrid, what she was doing, where she was. Savraba and Brighid had returned just for long enough to then disappear for another couple of months. Then, they finally returned once again, and had stories about how Astrid had gone and entered the… Wandering Trials, was it? For all of the delving stuff, Astrid was the one who knew anything. Ahna had just wanted to escape her parents, and now she had. That was a thought she didn’t need to think about any longer, as she turned the corner and saw the little home that she and Jan had made.

As she walked to the door, she could hear a voice, and she called out as she opened the door, “How was he?”

“As adorable as ever,” Savraba answered as he walked out holding little Michael. Seeing his mother, Michael turned to her and stretched both hands out in demand. She laughed, taking him from his caretaker’s arms and started cooing at the toddler. He giggled, just excited to be back with his mom as she lost herself in the enjoyment of the reunion.

“Are you sure you only want this as payment?” Ahna asked as she handed over the bread, except for one loaf that he would demand that she keep to herself. 

“If I wanted to make money,” Savraba raised his eyebrow, “then I’d work. My Class is more than a little valuable, even stalled at the top of Iron as I am.”

“Alright, Rab,” she sighed. “Thank you, though. We really appreciate it.”

“And I am grateful to be able to keep myself busy in one of the most honorable occupations,” he answered. “Now, I’ll go get some rest.”

He kissed Ahna and Michael both on the forehead before he walked out, his red hair fading with the sunset. The peace that Ahna felt was fragile, but it was still there, and she’d do whatever she could to preserve it.