Wild Era 3, Ch 7: Advances

When Kelin reached the second Challenge, he found a storm of ash covering the area.

It towered hundreds of feet into the air, making it look like a hurricane stretching up to the heavens, and it was just as wide across on the ground, a mix between a whirlwind and an inferno, with ash slowly twisting in great currents as it swirled around a central point. 

Only his mana sense let him make out the movement closer to the center. There was an eye of the storm in there somewhere, about three hundred feet in.

The ash was contained within a plaza of the dungeon, its edges marked with tumbled stones and a few broken grey pillars that might have once been a wall. Their surfaces were dusted with ash, as if the storm had destroyed what once contained it and now ruled over the remains.

He stopped at the edge of the plaza to get a sense of what the challenge was all about and after a moment, a faint smile crossed his features. 

The voice of the Path rang in his mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire, you have discovered a Unique Challenge: Storm of Ash.

Walk through the storm to reach the center and you will have passed the Challenge. 

This is an Endurance Challenge. 

Your resolve will be tested.

He nodded as the Path confirmed his impression.

The last endurance challenge he’d found had been a staircase in an earlier dungeon and he’d pushed through that to get back to the duel in time. 

He would have to make the most of this one.

For a Challenge like this, he didn’t need to prepare too much. He simply removed his outer robe, leaving him in his enchanted tunic and breeches, and stored away a few items.

His equipment wouldn’t usually be damaged by a challenge like this, but his robe was able to deflect some attacks, so it would interfere.

When he was ready, he walked forward.

As soon as he touched the edge of the ash, it whipped across his skin with abrasive force, tearing at the surface and leaving thin, white impact marks. It was almost as harsh as a sandstorm, except that its touch was lighter.

There was a strange mix of heat and cold in it as well, like sleeping embers and death.

As he moved in, the ash closed around him, abrading every part. The force transferred directly through his clothing like it wasn’t even there. His Constitution meant that it wasn’t damaging him much, but he could still feel it.

It would only get more intense as he went farther in.

He focused his mind on the concept of Returning Flame and life rising from ash, intending to get what insights he could. It wasn’t specifically designed as a Law challenge, but from his perspective, there wasn’t much difference either.

It was Ash, so he would serve as the flame rising from it.

Then he continued deeper, with the force intensifying at every moment.

If he’d been walking normally, there would have been about a hundred steps to reach the center of the storm, but with the wind against him, each step was only crossing a fraction of that distance, a few inches at most. 

His endurance was enough that he pushed forward quickly until he was halfway through the storm, at which point the intensity was so great that his skin was beginning to erode away.

A mix of golden flame and blood rose to the surface as part of his regeneration, but as soon as it appeared, it was smothered by ash. Then the wind swept across the surface of his skin, tearing away what he tried to repair.

It also tried to fill his mouth and lungs to stop his breath, and it blocked his eyes so that he could barely see. The only thing he could hear was the ceaseless rush of the storm and a deadening hum. 

The wind was so thick he could barely breathe. A few more steps in and he would be swiftly torn apart.

That meant this was the right spot.

A brief flash of humor passed through him and an invisible smile appeared beneath the ash.

He stayed at that point for a while, letting time pass as his physique was worn down and forced to regenerate over and over. His mana and soul energy both were slowly ebbing.

The burden on his attributes grew with every moment and he could feel his Constitution beginning to improve, so he slowly moved his body and stretched, shifting some of intensity to his muscles to bear. Without that, his Strength and Agility wouldn’t benefit from this.

He was in no hurry with this Challenge, but he also had no intention of going backward, so as his mana approached zero, he took out his Soulfire Sigil and hung it around his neck.

His defense and recovery shot upward, transcending the damage he was suffering, and he began to heal faster than the storm could destroy him.

He didn’t change his spot. He only studied the flow of Soulfire and his Laws as he recovered, like a single flame surging against a storm of destruction, and focused on comprehending more of Endless Flame and Returning Flame.

When his health recovered, he stored the sigil away again and repeated the same cycle over and over, without rest.

From time to time, he ignited Blaze and let it accelerate his healing. 

He also created the small phoenix from Flame of Life and let it restore his health and soul energy, testing out the unique trait of recovery in the ability and how it differed from his earlier spells.

Even though it only lasted for thirty seconds at the Basic tier, it was an incredibly powerful regeneration. As the phoenix spread its wings, his body knitted itself back together and his blood surged with flames. 

Even from a state of missing nearly all of his outer skin, it was able to fully heal him before it disappeared. 

This challenge turned out to be an unprecedented opportunity to study the ability, so he took full advantage of it, letting the storm tear him apart before he healed again.

Pain was constant, but he was in a state of meditation that barely acknowledged it.

Bit by bit, his Constitution and his resistance to the ash improved and the cycles of healing became less frequent. When that happened, he stepped forward, continually seeking the same point of being on a knife’s edge.

His state of existence was too low to really access the Laws he was after, but he could still learn to use their fundamental principles better through his abilities, and with each cycle, his understanding of the Flame of Life grew.

With each bit of insight, the phoenix’s fire grew brighter and its wings a little longer. Its existence blazed brightly against the ash and some aspect of it shed the flakes from its wings, leaving it untouched amid the storm.

Time passed and when he stepped forward again, the storm disappeared, leaving only a clear space with a wall of swirling grey and white ash to mark the boundaries.

He stumbled for a moment as entered the area, since the pressure of the wind was gone, but he quickly caught his balance. He blinked as his meditation faded away.

He had lost track of time, focusing only on his Laws and the growth of his Constitution and other attributes, and he had to hold back a frown.

A notification told him he’d spent over three days in the storm, but he waved it away. Ideally, it would have lasted even longer. 

He hadn’t managed to make as many strides as he would have liked, but there had been some. He glanced at the results that were chiming in his mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

Your Class Ability: Flame of Life has improved by a tier and reached Advanced.

The strength of the ability had improved and its duration had leapt up to 45 seconds, while the height of the phoenix had increased from six to nine inches tall.

Its range had also increased to 45 feet.

His attributes had also swiftly improved, mostly in his Constitution.

You have gained 47 Constitution, 12 Strength, and 8 Agility.

At that, he did smile, since it put him at 568 Constitution, just four points shy of his current goal.

You have completed the Challenge: The Storm of Ash.

You have gained the Innate Resistance: Ash (Basic).

The majority of your reward lies in this resistance and the attributes you’ve gained, but one additional reward will be granted.

It lies in front of you.

At the center of the plaza, there was a piece of charred wood resting on the stones, its surface mottled with grey and white flecks. One half was scorched and grey, while the other was brown and held traces of bark, although dark marks from a fire had been left across the surface.

Kelin analyzed it.

Ember of Ash (Rare).

A Rare artifact made of elemental wood that has been completely altered by the Law of Ash. When ignited, ash will spread in a destructive storm to cover three hundred feet in every direction. 

To ignite this artifact, use a powerful elemental flame. Mundane ones do not have the necessary force. But beware, it makes no separation between targets and is fully capable of harming the one who lights it. 

When Kelin picked it up, it felt as heavy as iron ore in his hand and it radiated the same strange mix of cold and latent heat as the storm itself.

He stored it away and as soon as it disappeared, the storm around him began to fail. Within seconds, the winds subsided and the ashen walls revealed slashes of the dark sky above. Then the ash began to float to the ground, as if all power had left it.

Ten seconds later, there was only the occasional flake of ash drifting on the breeze, while the rest had fallen into massive piles that covered the plaza in every direction.

He checked over the area, but instead of setting off immediately, he created a ward and took out a chair and a cup of tea. 

Then he sat down in the midst of the ash, reflecting on what he’d just experienced. There were no more artifact rewards here, but the experience itself was still valuable to his mindset and his understanding of his abilities.

Thoughts of flame and cold filled his mind, as well as a reflection on how his soulfire had met the ash and been smothered, but still risen again later.

He gave the thoughts his full attention, understanding exactly how much they might one day influence his Fourth Evolution concept, and then only after settling his thoughts and resting a while, soaking in the experience of being alone in the midst of the ash, did he store everything away.

Flame flared around him as he gathered himself and leapt upward twenty feet into the sky. 

Then he levitated, walking out above the ash until he found a clear area and returned to the ground, where he dusted himself off and then turned his sights to the third mana concentration.

As he headed there, he searched back and forth through the dungeon, checking for any other monsters and clearing them out as he went, but it didn’t take him long to reach the end.

The only thing left was to deal with the boss.

The location was a tumbled pile of stone that rose thirty feet into the air, the remains of some vast and ancient hall that had fallen. Pillars and broken walls stuck out above the other stones, creating a frame like a ribcage that was open to the sky.

Kelin levitated up onto a wall and got a decent view of the interior, as well as what was waiting inside.

It was a long, lean beast covered in scales, not a dragon but perhaps some relation to a drake or a salamander. It was also undead, with half of its body rotted through and bone showing in the gaps.

Its breath hissed out of its jaws with a dark flame and its claws tore at the broken building as it paced around, walking on top of a bed of ash and dust.

He was too far away to analyze it, but once he saw it, he jumped down and headed to meet it. On the way, he activated a handful of shielding talismans, but he held off on Blaze.

There was still a little bit of training he could get here.

When the beast saw him, it hissed and rushed toward the entrance of the hall, which gave way to a killing field of ash in front that stretched for almost five hundred feet in a sort of open-air arena.

Its breath was a dark billow of heat and necrotic flame, while its eyes glowed a fierce and unsettling blue.

Kelin analyzed it as it rushed toward him.

Undead Shadowflame Drake. Level 200. Berserk Undead. 

This beast was once a guardian of the royal house of Ukresh, the kingdom that came to be known as Ash after it was invaded by the legions of Undeath and destroyed. The sky turned to an endless necrotic storm as every living being within its borders was slain.

When the legions moved on, most of the former inhabitants were raised again to fill their ranks, but a few corpses remained within these walls, the ones who were slower to adapt. Due to the vast amount of necrotic energy infusing the area, they too eventually found a second life. 

This beast is one of them, now attempting to do in death what it could not accomplish in life. It rests within the remains of the royal hall, killing any being, living or undead, who dares to enter.

It was a good history lesson, but Kelin only had a moment to appreciate it as the beast closed in.

Berserk undead were a type that were barely under Undeath’s control. They had almost no ability to reason. 

The drake was just barely into the Second Evolution, but it was enough. It had reached a higher order of existence and its mana field came with it, pressing down on the area like ash and charred bone. 

Kelin shrugged it aside, relying on old practice and the density of his own mana, but he was forced to ignite Blaze to compete.

Despite that, his expression was calm and thoughtful, and he studied the drake like a rare treasure. 

Drakes provided some of his favorite crafting materials. Even undead, this one had a lot to offer.

Before long, a Soulfire Inferno blazed through the area, raging as it fought against the drake’s innate Fire resistance, and Soul Paralysis and other spells shocked the area in massive explosions of force, hurling the drake backward like it had been struck by a giant.

One collision turned into another as spells and abilities flew back and forth, but Kelin’s focus didn’t waver.  

He only rarely pulled out a talisman or asked Gaius for support. His reserves were already growing deep, at least for his level. 

The drake was a powerful opponent, but not too difficult to deal with, so he took the time to test out how much his improved mana shield could handle.

The difference was considerable.

A full-on collision from the beast sent him flying, but his shield took the edge off the blow and allowed him to float down easily in a distant area, where he was able to recover and draw the beast in again with more spells.

He also became more practiced in adjusting the shield for the incoming damage, so that it would be dense if he wanted it to absorb more and thin if he wanted it to absorb less.

He didn’t speed through killing the beast, only using Soul Paralysis and not soul arrows or Wildfire. His mana dipped and rose as he alternated between potions, talismans, and his natural recovery.

From time to time, he let Gaius come out to have a turn.

The elemental was weaker than the drake in a direct clash of magic, but when a few thousand pounds of stone slammed into it, there was no doubting the power.

Gaius was a wave of force crackling with energy, and when he took on a physical form, he didn’t bother looking human. He resembled a moving cliff, one that the drake could barely damage.

Flashes of silverflame ore speckled the elemental’s structure, showing the progress of his conversion, but there still wasn’t much. He needed four hundred pounds of the stuff, or about two hundred times as much in other Rare Earth-affinity materials to convert. 

Once he had it, his abilities would rise notably, especially his magic, but what he could do now was enough.

A few hours later, Kelin allowed the fight to wind down and finished the drake off with a Wildfire. One monster wasn’t going to give him even a single point of Aura, but it was still satisfying.

The explosion rocked the entire area, filling the ruined hall and the arena with vibrant rainbow flames.

The Path announced the result. Kelin dismissed most of the notifications. He’d met all the requirements, so he focused on a summary.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have successfully cleared the Dungeon: The Ashen Halls. 

You have gained 6 Levels.

You are now Level 162.

You gain 54 Intelligence, 18 Wisdom, 18 Aura, and have 36 free attribute points to assign.

For defeating the Final Boss and fully clearing the dungeon while at a significantly lower level, you have gained an Epic Ability upgrade.

For clearing the monsters of the dungeon, you have also gained an Elite Ability upgrade. 

Make your choices now.

Those were the two major rewards from the dungeon. 

There was also some gold, silver, guild credit, and the materials from the drake.

He looked through his abilities and then made his choices.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

Your Class Ability: Flame of Life has risen by a tier and reached Expert.

Your Soulfire Ability: Blaze has risen by a tier and reached Epic.

The power of Flame of Life improved again. Its duration increased to 60 seconds, its range moved out to 60 feet, and the phoenix’s height rose to 12 inches.

For Blaze, the effect was even better.

You have reached a unique understanding of the power of Blaze. 

At the Epic tier, this Ability still costs 15% of your mana and soul energy to initiate, but the conversion has improved. The cost of your spells is now increased by 5 times, while the density is increased by 4 times. 

That was an 80% mana efficiency, far better than the 53% he’d had before. It was almost perfect, since some energy was necessary to compress the mana.

It also meant that he could use Blaze basically all the time.

He turned his attention to the attributes and tossed four of the free points into Constitution, taking it to 572 and an effective 1,000 with his physique.  

He added the rest to Intelligence, taking it to 1,407.

Gaius helped as he got to work harvesting the materials from the drake, including its core. There were hundreds of Shadowflame Drake scales, as well as bones, fangs, and other things. 

Since they were tainted by necrotic energy, he’d sell or trade them at the guild. It would go a long way to supplying his crafting needs for a while.

Eventually, he tossed the remains of the skeleton into his storage directly, to see what the guild would give him for it. 

There was plenty of space in there.

The dungeon portal had appeared nearby, off to one side of the ashen arena, but he didn’t head for it immediately.

Instead, he cleared out a space with a gust of wind and flame that scoured it down to stone, set up a ward, and made camp.

Some food and drinks that he’d stored from the guild came out of his bags and he spent a pleasant evening watching the strange waves of darkness in the sky.

He also took out the Sovereign’s goblet and raised it, silently toasting the heavens, before he took a sip.

Eventually, he fell asleep in the chair he’d brought along, his hand still grasping the goblet. All around him, a hum of powerful runes from his wards played a mage’s melody.

Only after he’d slept for a long while did he wake.

He yawned, stretched, and completed his usual exercises before packing up and leaving the dungeon.

When he walked through the silvery black of the portal, he scanned the area as he held two talismans at the ready.

For once, no one was waiting to ambush him on the other side.

He chuckled at that as he looked up at the sky. It was early night, which meant he’d timed his exit correctly.

He drew his cloak tight around him and shifted into a shadow, heading south toward Highmist.

It was time to check in with Jesra about her progress on the Verasun estate, and then he’d head back out.

That dungeon had proved he didn’t need to worry too much about any other First Evolution ones. 

He’d stop here and there and burn out a dungeon purely for Aura and levels, but it shouldn’t take more than half a dozen before he closed in on the Second Evolution.

Other than that, it was time to start exploring a bit and enjoying his travels. 

He could also help out the guild, clear some problem dungeons, and check on the people in the area. 

All old habits that were good to reestablish.

Once that was taken care of, he would start looking toward Sarathia and the quest from the Path.