Wild Era, Ch 17: Edge of Night

Kelin spent hours in that first location of the dungeon, letting the ice spirits’ aura and attacks seep into his blood and bones until he was barely able to move. 

Ice coated his body and his features were covered in frost until it looked like he’d become a statue that was part of the frozen building behind him.

Only a thin current of soulfire circulating through his body kept him from fully freezing and maintained his life.

Frigid pain burned at his nerves the entire time, tempting him to give in and let the last part freeze over, but he ignored it.

His attention was on the current of soulfire as it cycled, as well as the changes happening around it. As the flames passed, bits of the ice energy were absorbed by it and melted away. 

The flames blazed higher, touched with a law that was similar in some ways to Endless Flames.

This was the Law of Soulfire, breaking down other forms of energy, both physical and soul, and turning it to its own.

Moment by moment, his body was adapting and his Constitution was ticking upwards. He’d already gained a dozen points and the changes were just beginning.

As the flame passed by and consumed the ice, it was like it tore apart the soul of the energy and learned how to destroy it more easily. Then it shared that aspect with the rest of his body. 

The tissues that had been frozen became more resilient and shrugged off the cold that was trying to freeze them.

Progress was slow, but it was happening. 

Hours passed, and then a day. 

By the time he’d spent almost two days sitting there, the cycle of flame through his body was more brilliant than ever, flowing brightly despite the freezing energy around it. 

Now the frost was melting from his skin. Droplets of water formed and evaporated as it faded away from his face and it turned red and healthy. 

A faint rime lingered on his eyebrows as the rest of his face cleared, shimmering with droplets of water that refused to freeze even in the surroundings.

Then that also evaporated.

He looked down at his finger where the Ring of Everlasting Flame usually was and a flicker of amusement crossed his lips. The old salamander who had been its original owner would have been proud. 

And probably insulted because his inheritor was hanging out in an ice field instead of a nice, welcoming volcano.

Kelin glanced at the five ice spirits who were still pressing close around him, their claws slashing toward him with each moment, but now their attacks were deflected by his mana shield and his skin.

Thanks to the changes in the shield, he felt the impacts and it was like being hit by sticks, but it didn’t draw much of his attention. 

Most of their power was in the ice that was part of their touch and as his resistance grew, the amount of damage they could inflict was limited. The impacts were worthy of their level at 205, but his Constitution and shield could handle that part.

He glanced around the dungeon and then he pulled his Runewielder’s Robe and the Ring of Everlasting Flame back on. 

Instantly, the impacts became even less and the feeling of comfortable heat surrounded him, blocking out the freezing cold.

Instead of going deeper, he headed toward the exit.

Before long, he was outside the dungeon and returned to the oceanfront resort, where he cleaned himself up and returned to the balcony.

He sat down in a chair outside as he picked up a cup of perfectly-made coffee and looked out at the ocean. 

Beside him, a plate of small delicacies waited, a mix of tropical fruits, steaming buns full of spiced meat, edible bread twisted into tiny flowers and decorated with sugar petals and swirls, and more.

At least the resort was worth the price. 

The ability to come back here and rest in between dungeon runs was the reason he’d booked it. It was more interesting to be around people and to have good food than to sit out on a cliff by himself.

He could have cleared the dungeon, but it wasn’t time yet. He didn’t want to waste the advantage of facing it under-level. He hadn’t even killed the ice spirits, since he didn’t want the experience yet. 

If he were Level 200, his own mana field would fight against theirs and it would take longer to improve his resistances, even if he pulled it back to the minimum.

There were other resistances he needed to get and doing it before Level 200 would be the best, just in case it had an effect on his class choices for the Second Evolution.

When he went back, he’d look for similar monsters for the other elements, and once he was done, the dungeon might be enough to get him to the Second Evolution.

For now, he looked at his gains.

Due to intense training in a harsh environment, you have gained 26 Constitution.

You have gained the Innate Ability: Ice Resistance (Basic). 

That was it for the last two days, but if someone else had seen what he’d accomplished in that short of a period, they would have been stunned.

Gaining resistances wasn’t supposed to be easy. Even with a life and death situation, like when he’d originally gained Poison Resistance, it was difficult. 

Many people died trying it.

This was only the Basic tier, but he was satisfied. It could grow slowly over time or he could spend some upgrades on it. 

Until he’d watched closely, he hadn’t been aware of the adaptive aspect his Soulfire had. It seemed like it was able to incinerate the inherent nature of other things and burn their soul, and then adapt to do it better, even if it was fighting against an element.

That was where its innate affinity for resistances came from.

This class was a good fit for him.

Most importantly, he could feel that his Ice Resistance had a chance to rise to Legendary to match the tier of the class.

His Poison Resistance was touched with the Law of Endless Flames, which would allow it to eventually rise to Heroic, but this Ice Resistance was influenced by his Law of Soulfire.

He’d been content with the Soulfire Body Refinement the class offered, as well as the recovery aspects of his sigil, but he’d been missing a part of what made it Legendary.

It had been overshadowed by the offensive side, particularly after he’d tinkered with the runes to create Blaze.

But this...it was absolutely worth calling this class Legendary. 

The defensive aspects were the true core.

His coffee had a pleasant rich aroma as he sipped at it, just a touch bitter and dark.

Another storm was building out on the horizon and he studied it as he let his mind wander, contemplating the majesty of the ocean.

It was a massive part of this region of the world and it dominated a section of the central continent. It was technically surrounded by land and on some worlds it would have been called an inner sea, but it was large enough to deserve its name.

The surrounding lands were one of the reasons its storms were so fierce and sudden.

He would relax here for a day or so, and then he’d head back to the dungeon. His timeline was no longer as short as it had been when he’d been weaker. 

A few extra days was fine.

Even a few months would make little difference to the overall situation in Sarathia, which had been building for a decade or more. 

As for Maro, Galin, and Serai, he suspected they were barely Level 115 now. 

They needed more time to grow before joining him in Sarathia and leveling them up too quickly would only harm them in the future. 

Doing it once to help them get Epic classes was one thing, but doing it repeatedly would damage their foundations, since their abilities wouldn’t get the necessary time and training.

Sandren had been right about dragging them along.

At least to an extent. 

He had shared the Sarathian quest with them, but they would have to do it within their abilities so they didn’t end up getting killed.

How to best accomplish that without leaving them behind was one of the things he considered as he watched the storm. 

He wasn’t willing to abandon them. 

They had great potential and he was too familiar with being alone at the heights of power, where friends were few and far between. He was willing to devote the time to taking some people along with him.

He could scout Sarathia on his own, which was fine. It would probably take a while and it meant that he wasn’t in a rush. 

If it had been critical to solve the issue in a few weeks, the Path would have said something, but it had left it up to him.

He finished his coffee and worked his way through some of the snacks, humming as they melted away with bright flavors. 

Then he traded out the chair for a thin cushion as he sat down to meditate. 

He turned his attention inward, cycling his energy and studying the nature of his soulfire and the Law behind it.

He would have to do a lot more of this as time went on if he wanted to unlock the full potential of the Law of Soulfire and his class, as well as to integrate it with Wildfire. 

It was the best way to develop a foundation for the Fourth Evolution.

His Path was even harder than it would have been, since he planned to merge not just those two Laws, but also Endless Flames and Returning Flame all into one.

His ambitions were enormous, but if he managed it, the result would be worth the effort.

He had to start thinking now about what that Law would look like, how its Domain would work, how his abilities would shape it, and how it would rely on his physique.

He needed to perfectly merge Soulfire into the whole, without losing anything, or it wouldn’t be possible to evolve into it.

The easiest two Laws for him to master were Soulfire, since he had a guide in this life with the Soulfire Runes, and Wildfire, since it was crystallized in his soul.

Thinking beyond that to Endless Flame and Returning Flame was too much for now. He could only consider them as much as possible. 

Perhaps they could be aspects of the whole.

He had learned four of the ten Soulfire Runes and two more would become available at the Second Evolution. Then two more at the Third Evolution.

Those first eight were only fragments of the whole, however, perhaps 10% of the full Law. It was the last two runes, the ones that he was supposed to learn at the Fourth Evolution, that would really pave the way for a full Law of Soulfire and a Law Domain at the Fifth Evolution.

If he wanted to merge everything, he would have to master them earlier. 

He needed a Concept at the Fourth Evolution that could encompass everything.

There was plenty there to comprehend.

Seeing the progress of his resistances had given him some insight into Soulfire, so that was what he focused on for now, working toward a deeper understanding.

The rest of the day passed in study.

In between other things, he made a few talismans, testing out versions of soulfire runes that matched his theories. He had some successes and some failures, but nothing that he considered too significant.

It was slow and steady progress.

Two days later, after enjoying what the resort had to offer and feeling relaxed again, he went back to the dungeon. 

He stored his ring and robe away and ignored the ice spirits near the entrance, letting them attack as he continued deeper. 

Before long, a dozen of them were spinning around him and some thin marks began to show as a touch of frost covered his skin. 

With this many, their auras were overlapping and intensifying the aspect of Ice enough that his new resistance wasn’t able to keep up.

It looked like he would need up to twice this many to push it forward further.

He wasn’t focused on Ice this time, however. Instead, he was searching the dungeon for the closest concentration of Darkness energy.

Before long, the icy world turned even darker as the black sky seemed to reach down to touch the ground and it felt like he was walking through an endless night.

It fit the dungeon’s name as the Edge of Night.

The ice spirits followed him into the darkness, but even they seemed lost, and one by one he left them behind.

The wind cut at his body, alternately trying to slice through and freeze him, but now there was a different aspect as the darkness gathered around him like a weight, dragging on his limbs and trying to drain his vitality.

He felt his energy fading, sapped away by its touch.

There was nothing around him here and it felt like he was abandoned in a starless void. He could still feel the ice beneath his feet, but that was all.

This was a good enough place to stop.

As soon as he sat down, the darkness pressed around him, dense and light at the same time, suffocating but barely there, and except for the movement of his eyelids, he couldn’t tell whether his eyes were open or closed.

His sense of the ice he was sitting on began to fade away, hidden by the dark, but he could still feel the earth beneath. His affinity through Gaius was too strong for the dungeon to hide its presence.

It was a stable presence that kept him grounded.

He relaxed some of his inner defenses and as soon as he did, he felt the darkness seeping in. It was a strange element, pervasive and light but deadly.

What it touched, it destroyed.  

His skin blackened and turned cold, and his muscles began to dry out, taking on the consistency of a thousand-year-old corpse. At the same time, he felt his vitality and stamina disappearing, pouring outward into nothing until they were gone.

He let out a huff of air as he let the process continue.

Slowly his body turned dark. 

For a normal person caught here, it wouldn’t be long before they were a dried out corpse, their body black and dry with all vitality and moisture gone.

This was why Darkness was a favored element of the undead. It drained energy from what it touched until there was nothing but a shadow left. 

Its nature was to cause everything to fade and be extinguished.

Only the current of soulfire around his organs and bones kept them from succumbing, but he could feel the blood running down where his skin had been and the coldness as it evaporated into the shadows.

There were no monsters here, just the empty wind fading into nothing. 

Some monsters could use Darkness, but Darkness itself did not give rise to life. This area was too pure in true Darkness and so nothing came to trouble him.

As he focused on building a resistance, his mind wandered.

It was strange that such a powerful source of Darkness was in this dungeon, since the Ocean of Storms should not have given rise to it.

It suggested there was an artifact or another source somewhere, perhaps even a gateway that opened onto a plane of Darkness.

It was even possible that this was a True Remnant, one of the ones that hid its true nature behind a veil until the right circumstances rose. 

Shadowfall had been like that and the Sarathians had been trying to do something with the lich there before they were killed and turned into undead.

That dungeon had been hiding a fragment of the old Lord of Shadowfall’s soul, which was the source of its power.

This one felt different.

True Remnants weren’t really rare, at least in an objective sense. A large number of dungeons that had ruins trapped by the Path started out that way.

But since a lot of them turned into regular dungeons after their initial run, they were still hard to find.

According to the guild records, this dungeon had been here for over a century and guild teams ran it every six months. Basically everyone else avoided it since it was too dangerous.

If it was a True Remnant, there was probably a fragment of something powerful here that had been split off from a greater source, one that hadn’t yet come to light.

He would like to find out what it was, mostly to satisfy his curiosity, but the conditions necessary to trigger a hidden True Remnant were complex. 

There could also be a portal somewhere or just a heavily Dark-influenced ley line below the earth here.

Without knowing which it was, he decided not to worry about it. 

If it wanted to trigger, it would. If not, it would still serve his purpose.

He could feel his soulfire burning away the dark energy, but it wasn’t as easy as it had been with the ice, so he calmed his mind and settled in.

It looked like this one was going to take a while, but once he got through it, he had a feeling the resistance would be worth the trouble.

If it became too much, he might have to head out to the resort to recover and feel a bit of life around him again, rather than this nothingness.

For now, he would endure, even as everything around him faded away.

It wasn’t like it was the first time.