Nightmare Realm Summoner

Time flew by within the Ancestry. The rumors about its potential size hadn’t been exaggerated in the slightest. After leaving Shawn’s courtroom and heading into the Inner Ancestry, Alex and his group waded through room after room of monsters.

The Rotkeeper certainly hadn’t spared any expenses on his gravesite. Alex lost count of the number of monsters they killed as the hours blurred. He wasn’t even exactly sure how much time had passed. But, by his best guess, they’d been in the Ancestry for something around 5 days.

Their efforts rewarded them handsomely. In addition to the magical energy that came from killing the monsters in their path, they managed to complete four more trials. Each one was harder to find than the last. The deeper they got into the Ancestry, the rarer they seemed to become.

It came at little surprise to Alex that the rewards were distributed by a rather familiar face. He’d had his doubts after the last trial in the outer section of the Ancestry, but Shawn had been very insistent that he wasn’t the only one running the place.

However, when the next Trial keeper they met was a huge giant wearing a blonde frilly wig and talking in an incredibly obviously false falsetto, he got the feeling that Shawn didn’t quite have as many people working with him as he wanted them to believe.

It didn’t matter much in the end. Maybe it was Shawn’s ability to create copies of himself. Maybe there really were dozens of different versions of him that all looked and sounded nearly exactly the same. Maybe it was the same guy every single time. It was irrelevant. The only thing that Alex really cared about was getting his hands on all the rewards they could. And the giant running the Inner Ancestry — who had last identified themselves as Shawna — had been distributing quite the healthy number of points.

Alex had managed to amass 55 of them from his efforts. Claire had the exact same amount, while Alyssa was somewhere in the high thirties. He didn’t know exactly how many points Derek or Wess had managed to get. Alex didn’t bother asking.

Every time he got points, he asked the giants if he had enough for their most expensive reward. And, every time, they told him that he did not. And if Alex didn’t have enough… neither did Derek or Wess.

He and Claire were still in the lead. Whatever the best prize was, they just had to keep that lead and do their best to stay ahead of all the other groups that had managed to make it to the inner portions of the Ancestry.

But this place was huge. They’d still yet to have any further interactions with the other Great Families that had managed to make it this deep. There was, of course, a chance that none of them had.

Alex didn’t let himself believe that for a second. It was just wishful thinking. Underestimating his opponents was the one mistake he refused to let himself make. The Outworlders were dangerous. Even with the gap between them closed, they had near-limitless resources to draw upon and years upon years of experience.

They were a threat and he would treat them as such. That meant he and his group had to get every single reward they could stick their grubby hands on well before the Great Families got a chance to catch up with them.

He hadn’t forgotten that they weren’t the only threats here. Somewhere within the Ancestry was the River King. Alex still had absolutely no idea why the man had been so concerned about keeping Alyssa safe… or how he’d known that they would have gotten separated.

That alone set him on edge. But along with the River King was Absolution. The psychopathic murderer lurked in the dungeon somewhere. He wasn’t the kind to just wander into a dungeon for no reason.

Absolution was definitely looking for something. And, whatever it was, Alex planned to make absolutely certain he couldn’t get. The last thing he needed was for the deadly scythe-wielder to get even stronger.

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Fortunately, even if Absolution had grown since they’d last fought, he wasn’t the only one that could get stronger. And unlike the Outworlders… the System wasn’t restraining Alex’s group’s levels.

All the energy from the monsters they’d killed had been storing up. And now, after several days within the Ancestry, it was finally time to cash it in. Alex had been at Initiate 9 for quite some time. He’d filled his reserves and completed all the improvements to his Mind Palace that he could manage for this Stage.

And now his basin had a huge ball of frozen mist swirling above it once more, waiting to be cashed in. Alex wasn’t the only one. Claire had also been near the peak of Initiate for quite some time.

The Ancestry was only getting more and more dangerous and difficult with every fight. There was no reason to delay any longer. And so, on the night of what was something around the fifth day in the Ancestry, while trading watches with the others to ensure nothing killed them all while they were meditating, Alex sank into his soul to finally advance to the Adept Stage.

He immediately made his way up the stairwell leading to the top of his basin and sat down upon the massive marble bowl’s edge, in the shadow of the huge hand reaching up to the sky above him and begun to meditate.

The power within the massive ball of mist above him rained down into the basin in drops of crystal blue magic. Alex had done it enough times that it was little more than second nature to him now.

His real challenge laid ahead.

Even as Alex drew the power into his body and let it infuse his being to push him toward the Adept Stage, his focus never once left the starry sky above. He peered through the fingers of the massive hand. He felt power gathering within him, changing his body. He felt the world tremble. His soul tremble.

There was a shift deep within him.

Alex drew in a sharp breath.

His Mind Palace trembled. He didn’t even need a message from the System to know what had happened. His Stage had advanced. And if it had advanced, that meant his Mind Palace was no longer capped out for its current stage.

Alex smiled. His Visualization roared to life within him.

And he felt a star snap free of its bindings in the sky.

This time, as the star plummeted down toward him, a meteor crashing down to crush the one that dared stand in its path, he was ready for it. Alex felt no panic. No fear. He’d done this before.

And he’d be damned if he was done in by his own magic.

Alex sat cross-legged, unmoving, as he watched the star grow closer and closer still. He didn’t bother doing anything yet. It would only waste his strength. After all, he didn’t possess the Star Chasing Visualization.

His Visualization was Star Catching.

Getting to him was the star’s problem. His only goal was grasping it.

And so he sat there as the streak of light bore down on him with an ever-increasing roar. Water crashed against the walls of his basin as his lake trembled in the face of the approaching meteor.

He remained still.

Even when the star had seared itself into the eyes and was only seconds away from slamming down into him, Alex still had yet to move.

Only once his vision was completely swallowed by burning light and he could practically feel the heat from the plummeting planetary body burning his skin did he finally act.

The huge stone hand above him lurched into motion. It swung upward, fingers curling upward — and the star crashed into it with a deafening explosion.

Pressure slammed into Alex. It ground the breath from his lungs and shook the entirety of his Mind Palace. This star had been far stronger, heavier, faster, than the last one that he’d caught.

But catch it he did.

The shockwave passed, rolling through his soul before fading away. And then the huge hand above him ground open. No star remained within its grip. The power was his, now. A third mote of shimmering white light glistened beside the two others upon the surface of his marble hand.

He’d added one more star to his collection. Power wormed its way through his veins like freezing ice, clawing up his throat and pushing into his heart.

Alex drew in a sharp breath. Then he rose to his feet, trills of power racing down to his fingertips. The urge to see just how much more powerful he’d gotten pulled at him. He could feel the improvements working through his body.

He was faster. Stronger. His magical reserves had increased, to an extent that he wouldn’t know until he got a chance to test it in a fight.

Alex reached the Adept Stage. But he still had a fair amount of energy left within his basin. Enough to advance his Mind Palace or push his levels farther. And Alex wasn’t one to waste potential.

Time to see just how much farther I can get… and then I’ll use the Ancestry to find out just what I’m capable of.