Wild Era 3, Ch 11: Two Remnants

The next couple of days were fairly calm, at least for Kelin.

For the dungeons, not so much.

He stood in the remains of the second one in two days, looking out at the ocean of Wildfire that was tearing through it. His eyes burned with the same flames, which flickered around him like will-o’-wisps. 

In this dungeon and the previous one, he’d pushed his ability to control the spell on a wide scale, so much that his soul was aching with the strain.

They were Level 180 and 190 dungeons, so the gains were worthwhile.

The first one had been called Hyacinth’s Revenge, which was a strange name for a dungeon, but it had been created from a mana-infused garden and the will of a powerful ghost. 

The original owner had been a magical botanist and had placed the garden at an intersection of ley lines, and then further strengthened it with formations to enhance plant life and vitality. 

After her death, it had been left uncontrolled and gathered enough mana until it turned into a natural dungeon.

It was full of deadly plants and poisons, which made it a dangerous place for even the guild to clear, as well as a few undead caretakers that were extremely hostile to invaders.

He’d combined Soulfire Inferno and Wildfire together, targeting both the plants and the undead souls, and laid waste to the entire place.

It was the simplest way to deal with it.

With Blaze as almost a regular ability now, his mana was as intense as a mage at Level 250 or higher and the flames had burned through everything.

The Challenges had been minor distractions and hadn’t taken much longer. They had turned to ash.

From that dungeon, he’d picked up ten levels and a decent number of cores and other materials to sell at the guild. 

Most of the loot was useful for alchemy rather than talismans, but there were still a few things he could use personally.

That had put him at Level 172 and he’d gained two Elite ability upgrades, which let him take Ascending Flame and Flame of Life from Expert to Elite.

The power of Ascending Flame rose from a 70% added strength at two minutes to 90% with only a small increase of another 5% in the extra mana cost, leaving it at 40% total.

With the ability imbued into his inferno, the devastation was incredible.

As for Flame of Life, it had doubled its range to 120 feet and now lasted 90 seconds instead of 60. 

The small phoenix spirit had increased its height from 12 to 18 inches, and with its wings spread, it looked much larger, especially since its tail was long and fiery, trailing behind it like a streamer.

Both were good improvements.

As for the second dungeon, this one was called Highstone Falls and it had a nice view if you could survive long enough to appreciate it.

The sky was a deep blue touched with sunset hues that never faded, as if it was always caught at the same moment in time just before dusk. 

Below that sky, long shadows stretched out, mingling with hills and waterfalls that twisted into strange monoliths and rose above the land.

Each of the spires was covered in vines as the water ran down the surface, but sometimes it fell from the top to the bottom in a crystalline stream, which was what gave the dungeon its name. 

There were thousands of the spires rising to the sky across the dungeon, with nothing else in sight except for blue-furred bats and venomous winged serpents that nested on every one. They made the vines and the crannies of the rocks their homes.

Unlike most dungeons, the monsters in this one all shared an ability to create reflections of themselves that were weaker, usually with dozens each.

It was like they were reflections of the water falling down from the spires, each an illusory droplet shimmering in the light until it shattered.

The copies were thirty or so levels below the real monster and would disappear like smoke as soon as they were dealt a killing blow.

It was a painful experience for most adventurers, since as soon as you let one monster fly away, it would come back with a few allies and over a hundred weaker reflections, which would dive in and out from the lairs in the cliffs to ambush you until you managed to find the real one.

They dealt little damage, but they were venomous and a thousand small cuts could add up over time, which made it an annoyance to clear.

Kelin, however, found it to be relatively easy. 

Almost everything exploded before it could close the distance, disintegrating in the inferno that spun around him. 

Being a mage with powerful area spells and the ability to target the flying monsters before they could get away was critical. 

He kept up his mana shield as he walked through the spires and ignited new infernos in every direction. When the monsters flew away to summon reinforcements and brought back a horde, he unleashed Wildfire on it.

Once the closest monsters were eliminated, he focused on expanding the spell to the nearby spires, stretching it as far as he could to improve his range and control. 

He also studied the rainbow flames and the burning souls, searching for insights on how to combine his current three Laws with Wildfire in the future.

Right now, they were like sources of fuel driving the spell and making it stronger, but that was all. They weren’t changing its nature.

A true merger would be much more comprehensive.

A winged serpent flew by and he flicked a wave of Wildfire at it. It died instantly, its body tumbling from the air as its soul burned away.

Thoughts of spell formations and the wards for the academy occupied his mind as he continued through the dungeon. 

There were two Challenges in this one, but he’d already cleared both.

The first one had been a winged serpent the size of a wyvern living on a spire, its body well-camouflaged against the stone. 

It had been surrounded by a poisonous cloud that emanated from its scales and was both large and fast, but it only survived a couple of Soul Arrows.

The second Challenge was a waterfall that tumbled down from the highest spire in the dungeon, falling thousands of feet with crushing force. The water was filled with mana, making each droplet heavier than normal.

It had been an endurance test to stand under it for as long as possible.

Along with striking his body, the energy of the water had directly struck his mana flow, hammering into him with massive force.

If he’d been weaker, the disruption could have killed him, but both his Constitution and his mana density were incredible for his level, and he seized the opportunity to refine himself under the blows.

The waters had forced his body and his mana to grow stronger. 

Some flaws had been refined, his mana density and purity had improved, and he had gained a few dozen more physical and magical attributes in almost every category.

After that, he’d headed for the final encounter, which was a Winged Mirror Serpent, a Level 195 Elite. 

It lived on the final spire and had the ability to control the wind and water around it, as well as to summon illusory copies of itself and to transfer its real body between them. 

Now, as Wildfire burned all across the area, he was looking down at its corpse.

It was about thirty feet long with silver-white scales, but very thin, barely two feet across at the chest.

Its wings stretched as wide as its body and looked like translucent silk sails with white and blue patterns reminiscent of clouds and rivers swirling across them. 

It was rather pretty if you focused only on those parts and ignored its head, which was a savage visage with pupil-less silver eyes like mirrors and fangs that dripped a pale white venom.

Kelin waved his hand and stored its body away. Every part of it was worth selling or making into crafting materials, especially as a foundation for illusions or other purposes.

Then he looked at his notifications to see the result.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have cleared the Chaos Remnant: Highstone Falls.

You have gained 8 Levels.

You are now Level 180. 

You gain 72 Intelligence, 24 Wisdom, 24 Intelligence, and have 48 free attribute points to distribute.

There was also the result of using Wildfire on almost every enemy in the dungeon.

You have refined soul energy from the battlefield and gained 62 Aura. 

Combined with the last dungeon, that made about 150 Aura he’d gained from Wildfire. Between that and the levels, it was enough to raise his Aura to 1,044.

There were also the common notifications about a perfect clear, that he’d been granted 400 guild credits, and that he’d earned 385 gold, but he skipped over those to the final one.

You have gained two Elite Ability rewards.

Make your choices now.

He considered his options for what to upgrade, but he was running out of good things to spend Elite rewards on.

All of his abilities and most of his skills were already at Elite. 

The only exception was Soul Sever, the skill he’d gained when he used a soul blade to finish off Verasun in the duel. 

That one was still at Basic, but it wasn’t too important. His natural affinity for soul magic meant that shaping soul energy into a blade wasn’t difficult.

Speeding it up and making the blade sharper might be useful, but it wasn’t critical.

That left spells. 

Soul Shroud was still at Basic, but it was too much of a strain on his soul for at least another Evolution, so it would have to wait.

Other than that, there were only Soul Star, which was Advanced, and Air Purification, which was Basic.

Decay Resistance was also at Basic, but he couldn’t upgrade that one with rewards from the Path. He had to earn it through battles with True Remnants and the undead.

He shook his head and made his choices.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

Your Skill: Soul Sever has gained a tier and reached Advanced.

Your Spell: Soul Star has gained a tier and reached Expert.

It seemed he would have to spend a little time developing more skills or spells soon, so that he had a place to use his rewards.

It was a good problem to have.

With his physique, one of the most useful things to do would be to train resistances. 

Soulfire Body Refinement came with a natural trait for acquiring them, which was something he’d discovered when he first gained Poison Resistance, but he hadn’t had much time to focus on it yet.

He already had that one at Epic, so he might as well give it some company.

Ideas for the next ones to get flickered through his mind, but for now he turned his attention to the free attribute points and tossed them all into Intelligence, like he had with the ones from the last dungeon.

Then he glanced at the result.

Strength: 200 

Constitution: 602 (1,053 after 75% Physique Bonus)

Agility: 228 (252 after 24 Increased Agility from Traveler’s Boots)

Wisdom: 504

Intelligence: 1,707

Aura: 1,044

Charisma: 154

They were getting better and his mana and soul pools were beginning to expand, even if they were still small.

The waterfall Challenge had been good for adding some points to everything, even 30 to Charisma. 

Apparently, training under a waterfall was a stylish thing to do. He chuckled at the thought, even as he waved it away.

The heavy mana in the water had been comprehensive and enduring it helped to refine his force of will.

Charisma was by far the rarest attribute and it had a number of uses, but force of will was how he’d always thought of it. 

More precisely, it was a reflection of your ability to exert the force of your will outside of your body. 

It also helped you to show your intentions to others, making your viewpoint easy to understand and transparent, and it gave you a better ability to control your mannerisms and speech, which could smooth over social interactions.

If it went high enough, you could exert an external influence that was similar to a mana field, as well as affect the perception of others and inspire them to greater heights, but typically only if they were willing to believe in you. 

Only a few specific classes used it as a primary attribute, including some Lord classes that could influence their followers, but he’d never spent too much effort on it, since his high Aura attribute gave him a similar ability to exert a type of soul pressure outside of himself.

The bit of Charisma he obtained from challenges and natural growth had always been enough for him, and he didn’t see a good reason to change that. 

Wisps of souls swirled around him as he studied the remains of the dungeon.

The sunset hue of the sky was blending with a mist rising from the waterfalls on the spires, creating a peachy-blue haze that gave everything a sense of shimmering translucence.

It really was a pretty place, although this lighting made it easier for the serpents to conceal themselves while flying. 

It would be a lot more depressing if the snakes had bit him.

He chuckled as he glanced at the dungeon portal, but then a shimmer of golden runes surrounded him and he sank into the earth. 

He concealed his traces as Gaius hollowed out a comfortable cave from the interior of the spire.

The dungeon was clear of monsters, so he didn’t necessarily need to make a cave, but it was more secure in case anyone else wandered in and more comfortable for Gaius, so he didn’t mind it.

It didn’t take him long to set up a small cooking area and to start roasting part of the mirror snake’s tail.

He added some salt and spices here and there to season it and before long, a pleasant and savory smell rose up. 

His Air Purification spell was constantly working in his body and clearing his lungs, so breathing in the cave wasn’t a problem even without air vents. 

It was almost an afterthought these days, but he hadn’t pushed it much to advance. Looking through his spell list reminded him that it was at Basic.

A higher tier would help it to convert more things to breathable air and to work more easily if there was no air, which would eventually be very useful in traveling the Void.

Spatial energy could create a stable area for life in the Void as well, which most Fourth Evolution travelers used as a default.

Eventually the level of life of an entity at the Fifth Evolution or higher was beyond the need to breathe constantly, but there was no reason to neglect a useful spell.

As he added a few vegetables and some sides from his storage ring and ate his meal, he considered the best skills to train next. 

Resistances were at the top of the list, but there were many different types, so he’d have to choose one or two to start.

There were some other skills and utility spells he could train, as well as damage spells, but he wasn’t as interested in them.

He’d had hundreds in his past life and barely used most of them.

He was a minimalist at heart and of the opinion that a few core skills were more valuable than a dozen overly specific ones.

You just had to use them well.

Since he was fighting undead most of the time and Undeath was his greatest enemy, it would make sense to focus on resistances related to that. 

If nothing else, they would make his defenses more efficient, so that he didn’t need to use as much mana to fend them off.

Poison and Decay Resistance were a good start, but he could still add ones for cold, paralysis, curses, and other things that the undead favored.

Decay Resistance was a defense against Rot and some other effects of necrotic energy, so that was in progress. 

He had a feeling it might be the overall resistance to Undeath’s nature, or at least that it might lead to it eventually, like an umbrella category that covered many smaller ones, which was why it was so hard to level.

Perhaps over time it could absorb the smaller resistances if he trained them up, which would give him an alternate path to leveling it, and it might become something like a general Necrotic Resistance.

That would help against the undead and Undeath would probably hate it, so it was a good reason to get it.

There were also disease afflictions that he could train against, as well as various forms of energy drain that the undead favored, like vitality, stamina, mana, and soul theft. 

Those should be able to combine into a general Energy Drain Resistance if he got them all, but acquiring some of them would require specific scenarios. 

He would have to search out a few types of undead and weaken some of his inner wards for them to have a chance, or face something that could deal significant damage.

He rubbed his chin as he considered the map of dungeons around Celadon and the monsters they held.

Eventually, he tapped one.

It was about time to face a real Second Evolution dungeon. 

That one held a number of dangerous undead, so they should be able to give him some resistances, and it would be best to do it before he reached Level 200 himself, especially if he wanted to get another Epic ability reward.

He finished his meal and stored away the rest of the mirror snake, and then he took out a goblet of wine and gently swirled the contents as he studied the patterns.

He sipped it for a while, letting himself settle into a meditative state as he considered the future, and then he stored it away with the rest of his things and rolled himself up in a blanket.

He’d already been out here for a couple of days, so the kids should be about done with their survival class. He would check on them and then head to the dungeon.

But first, he was going to get some sleep.

Gaius’s awareness hummed around the cave as Kelin’s dreams turned to memories of Irian.

This time, they were filled with scenes of the sacred academies that had once flourished there.