"Is this really necessary?" Benedict grumbled as Astrid charged forward.
"I think so," she called back as she lowered her shoulder against her shield and continued charging forward. The skeleton Boss and a sentient boulder called an elemental had both been felled, and she was onto her third Boss. Now, in this final branch, where the Boss was reported to be a remarkably quick mountain goat-like thing called an Iron Bristled Markhor, the environment had suited Astrid's quest better than others.
All of the monsters found here were focused not on being knock-down drag-out fighters but instead ambushers who danced and jumped from one precipice to the next while striking deadly blows. The main monsters here were annoying spike frilled lizards that scrambled madly up the slopes while shooting their long spines in a shower below them. The entire party hated to deal with them, but they lacked the strength to resist Astrid's attacks the way tougher, less dangerous enemies would have been able to. In truth, though they were dangerous for a regular Iron tier, Astrid quickly found that these lizards ended up being a bit of a disappointment considering how weak they were.
Regardless of their weakness in battle, that wasn't why the party was here, and only about an hour and a half of concentrated hunting had Astrid finishing the second requirement for her quest. For a short time, she had worried about if she'd be stuck on this requirement for even longer, but no longer. These monsters served as perfect fodder for proving to the Great One that she'd gained plenty of understanding about how her Skills worked and could be adjusted. With only a single Boss kill remaining for her evolution, there was nothing else to focus on and she just wanted to progress already.
"I'm still not going to be Steel by the time you're done," Benedict said, though it wasn't a protestation so much as an idle statement. She'd said it would be two days before she could evolve, and that wasn't true in the strictest sense. Between blazing through floors and killing Bosses, it had been about twenty hours and that had taken them onto the next day, but two days had yet to pass.
As Astrid thought about the math of it, she realized it was stupid to be competing with herself like this, so instead, she focused on continuing to guide the rest of the party in a hustle down the stairs and through the floors. Whenever a monster came close, she hardly ever bothered even to draw her hammer or sling, instead throwing a stone at their center mass and making them explode into gory mist or doing just what she was right now. The jumping lizard was reduced to a corpse as she smashed her shield through it and continued sprinting.
Running through the floors was a liberating feeling, but again, it just felt wrong after years of taking their time and exploring nooks and crannies to ensure that there were no ugly surprises waiting around a blind corner. As it was, the high Iron tier monsters weren't actually that dangerous, with this latest destination being a lower difficulty branch. The monsters scaled at about the rate as if they had been people with uncommon tier Classes, so the Wanderers gained basically twice as many attributes per level as the monsters did, and since they had 30 levels in Iron, the differences simply couldn't be compared. They simply couldn't pose a threat to the party, and with nobody needing anything from the unremarkable ambushers, there wasn't even any reason to kill them.
Finally, they arrived at the bottom floor, the ninth, and Astrid shook out her sling from around her wrist and dismissed her shield. In her left hand she held four different enchanted pieces of ammunition, one of which was experimental, and as she stepped out into the arena to fight the Boss, she bounced excitedly, already spinning her sling underhand at her side. The stone within was a frostbite stone, and she looked forward to seeing its effect on the Boss.
The goat was a surprisingly good ambusher, Astrid had been told. The party hadn't come here since it was a longer delve and the creatures that dwelled within were largely level 44, so they hadn't been good options for the rest of the party's quests. It was a blessing that the Verdant Walkers had given the Wanderers extra delves without extra assignments so they could focus on their evolutions. Regardless, the Boss was high enough level for her, and looking around the arena, she waited for it to appear. She stood in the middle of a large bowl, the craggy cliffs rising on both sides around her as if it was a hole carved out of a mountain.
As she searched, she saw nothing, even as she pushed Acumen-aligned mana through her body. The only warning she got of the monster's approach was a brief sound a single instant before she was struck by the monster's horn in her kidney.
The attack was flawless, though those the long, straight horns didn't manage to punch through her armor, instead knocking her sprawling, and Astrid cursed her pride that came with her eagerness. Then, instead of continuing to be an idiot, she settled her stance back on the ground, activated Indomitability, and stretched her awareness out once again. This time, with a little more warning, she could feel the goat's approach and stepped to the side, avoiding its charge.
It sprinted past her, and for the first time, she saw its form. Its curly fur was the same color as the stone it stood upon, and she could feel the influence from its stealth Skill, trying to make her vision slide off of it. With a grin, she activated the aura from Boon of the Hero and felt her resistance against the Skill grow. Knowing her attacks needed to be boosted anyways, she pushed further mana into her helmet to strengthen her mind and loosed her first retaliatory attack.
The stone screamed through the air towards the fleeing foe. The Markhor attempted to escape, but to no avail. The arc of the stone predicted where it would go and slammed into its flank, where the stone shattered with a burst of mana. Frost covered both of the monster's lower legs, and it bleated in fury as it activated another Skill and blurred from her vision.
Knowing it had been coming, Astrid whirled and looked for any remnant of ice. A hint of white showed on a slope behind her, and as she looked at it, the monster scaled higher up the mountain, where it started kicking head-sized stones at her. They screamed through the air, and as she dodged them, they smashed into the ground and were reduced to shrapnel that pattered against her armor. Fortunately, she had everything she needed to return fire, and threw four shots back at the Boss in quick succession. The first two were both wind burst enchantments, and destabilized the monster's footing. The third was a newer enchantment to Astrid, a result from Skandr's experimentations before he created the shield.
When the stone hit the Markhor, the stone turned into powder, but that powder swiftly became more stone that congealed around the Boss's neck and face. It attempted to scream as stone coalesced in its mouth, and its already unsteady footing was completely destroyed by the fourth attack, a flame burst enchantment that didn't land on it, but instead on the cliff face behind it. The explosion threw it towards her, and as it tumbled down the cliffside, Astrid sprinted forwards.
In the split second that it took for her to run the hundred meters and close the distance between her and her prey, the goat continued tumbling down the wall of the arena and the stones that had covered its face cracked and started to fall free. Astrid quickly designated the area where the goat tumbled as a Gravity Surge location. The struggling monster fell back down as it tried to find its feet as Astrid closed the distance and spent a charge of Body.
With Spectre Burst as well as another charge of Body, Astrid swung her hammer and put it out of its misery. The kill notification in her vision was a happy reassurance, but Astrid didn't care about that. Instead, she raised her fists as she received confirmation of what she'd known was true.
Evolutionary quest complete.
"That's pretty damn scary, Skandr," Benedict said, poking the Markhor corpse with his toe. "Did you make stone grow inside of its lungs?"
"I don't think so," Skandr said, pulling open the creature's mouth and peeking in. "Honestly, I'd consider this a failure."
"How was that a failure? You petrified a monster so easily!"
"The stone was already falling off, even if we're not considering the fall," Skandr explained to the Bard, "only lasted for half a second at most before it was basically broken. Plus, it took something like eight and a half times as much mana to enchant that single shot compared to all of the other pieces that she used. Maybe that'll be more sustainable now that I'm in Steel, but I doubt it, and I doubt what I did now will be able to do nearly as much against a Steel tier."
The discussion continued, but Astrid couldn't bring herself to care very much about it as she practically vibrated in place as she pulled up her Status.
Status
Name: Astrid
Class: Immortal Champion (Steel)
Total Level: 51 (0/300,000)
Attributes
Current
Per level growth
Power
540 (+54)
+22
Alacrity
349 (+37) [+209]
+12
Fortitude
539 (+59)
+20
Magical Potency
205 (+19)
+10
Self-Mastery
186 (+34)
+10
Acumen
151 (+4)
+5
Skill List
Boon of Potentiation
Boon of the Hero
Boon of Indomitability
Immortal Champion's Physique (Steel)
Spectral Graviton (Steel)
Immortal Champion's Equipment (Steel)
Unconquerable Aura (Steel)
Available
None
None
Locked
Locked
Without thinking about it, Astrid gestured for the others to follow her up the stairs. Even before looking at her Skill options, she wanted to test something.
Whatever the conversation they were having was, it died off as she ran up the stairs and searched for the nearest monster. Even though she wasn't trying to, each step she took sent her flying forward, though it didn't make her stumble. The change in Steady Load now that it was Steel tier had changed her Alacrity so much that her mind couldn't quite keep up with it. Strangely, the Alacrity increase itself took care of itself, and though she moved faster than she anticipated, she also stepped with greater surety.
She burst out of the tunnel and looked around. No monsters were nearby, but when Muti appeared behind her, the Barbarian pointed in a direction and Astrid ran that way. She idly noted that, with Steady Load at Steel now, her Alacrity was far and away the highest of the party. It was just another testament to the small differences early on paying large dividends: she had 30 levels with six more attribute points given to her than the rest of her party did because of her Boon of Potentiation. That difference would continue to grow, but as it was, she had 180 attributes more than everyone except Skandr, whose Warlock's Constitution reduced the difference between them.
Those thoughts drained from Astrid's mind as she saw a small pack of the frilled lizards. The party was traveling through a ravine about three meters across, steep cliffs stretching up on each side where ambushing monsters loved to hide. The monsters they were talking about skittered along a cliffside and seemed to be considering how to ambush the party, but Astrid had other plans. The description of Spectral Graviton stated that the closer the area of effect was to her when she created it the more powerful it would be, so she wanted to test it at near full strength, though without spending too much mana.
Was a grunt, she jumped to the right, the opposite side of the ravine from the lizards. She effortlessly landed ten meters up the wall, her feet unerringly finding perfect footholds as she ran up. The lizards hissed and tried to scatter away from her, but they were still all in one group as she stretched her hammer forward and pointed it at the center of the group while creating a Spectral Graviton.
A gray smoke lashed out towards the lizards, the smoke seeming to seek living things while everything in a two meter radius compressed towards the point she had designated. Instead of just being a mental place that she had chosen, the center of the Spectral Graviton was a visible point from which the gray mist originated. Every one of the lizards in the area flew towards the center of the Spectral Graviton, the gravity obviously strong enough to yank them from their perches, regardless of any Skills that kept them where they hid.
Much more impactful than that, though, were the grasping grey tentacles. Everywhere they touched, the scales fell away from the monsters' bodies as they hissed and squealed in agony. Astrid's eyebrows raised as the Spectral Graviton grabbed each of the lizards and held them together in one place for maybe five seconds. By the time the Skill had run its course, every one of the monsters was dead, and Astrid smiled as she nodded appreciatively. She hadn't spent much of her stamina and mana, maybe 20% of each? Less than a single charge of Body. Or, rather, Physique now.
With a broad smile on her face, Astrid walked down the slope of the ravine to the bottom, where the rest of her party waited.
"I take it back," Benedict said, shaking his head. "You're scary."
"Didn't you already know that?" Astrid asked with a playful grin. "I can help you to remember, if you'd like."
"Now, I'm good," Benedict shook his head as he sighed. "I knew that I was going to be the last to evolve, but it still kind of sucks to be in this position."
"Well, it was me last time," Astrid shrugged. "How about we get out of here so I can check out my new Skills?"
Nobody had any disagreements with that, and again, Astrid led the way out of the branch. She itched to check out the Skill descriptions, but held herself back long enough to rush through the floors. Each lizard that leapt out was just another barrier to her learning that information, and though she could have peeked at it at any point, she decided not to look at her Skills when in the middle of the Dungeon. She was positive that none of these monsters posed a meaningful threat to her and, in fact, they didn't. More than that, now that they were all, with the exception of Benedict, a higher tier than the monsters, they received half of the usual experience.
Regardless, Astrid didn't mind quickly dispatching whatever enemy approached to make her way to the surface, where, upon consulting with the Grove outside, the party all happily found somewhere to rest.
"What Skills were offered to you?" Muti asked as she stepped closer to Astrid. "I will grant you advice."
"You think I'll tell you right now?" Astrid scoffed. "Felix's the only one who shared all his options with the rest of us before he made the decision, and you made it so quickly that the rest of us couldn't even ask what options you'd gotten!"
"You have not made the decision," Muti shrugged. "If you wish to share, you can do so."
Astrid shook her head and pushed Muti's face away with a laugh.
"No."
Muti turned and sat down as Astrid pulled up her Skill options.
Pristine Mind (Iron): Grants a 25% bonus to Self-Mastery and Acumen. For a Minor mana cost, doubles the effect of Self-Mastery aligned mana for the purpose of protection for two minutes.
Conqueror's Aura (Bronze): For a Moderate cost to mana and stamina, create an aura with a radius of 10 meters around the Skill holder which grants a 10% increase to all damage dealt by allied creatures for five minutes.
Destructive Wave (Iron): For a Heavy cost of mana and stamina, create a wave of deathly energy originating from the Skill user.
Gravity's Grasp (Iron): For a Moderate cost to mana and stamina, select a creature to pull up to ten meters in any direction.
Body Surge (Iron): For a Moderate cost to mana and stamina, increase the Skill holder's Power and Alacrity by 100% for one minute.
Astrid smiled. Maybe she would talk with the others, but for now, she wanted to evaluate the options herself.