Wild Era 2, Ch 34: Ascent

After looting all of the monsters, it took Kelin about an hour of walking along the plateau before he found another good spot.

It was an untouched area that was teeming with monster soul signatures, one near the center of the dungeon.

He let out a shout of mana and soul energy that stirred everything within range and ten minutes later, it was a field of scattered corpses as Wildfire rose into the sky.

From that, he gained another six levels, sending him to 124, as well as another 41 Aura.

He tossed the 36 free attribute points into Constitution, which took it to 383, and then he moved on.

There were only a few wandering monsters left on the outskirts of the dungeon, so he charted a path to intercept them as he headed for the first challenge he could sense.

There were three nodes in the dungeon and except for clearing everything left to get the best completion bonus, he didn’t plan to waste time.

It took him two hours of cutting back and forth across the dungeon, eliminating monsters here and there, before he reached it.

The challenge was marked by an arch of silver metal rising twenty feet above the plateau, like a gate to another world. 

Arcs of blue-violet lightning crackled across the surface, forming a web that resembled natural runes, and a heavy elemental pressure poured out from it.

The voice of the Path echoed in Kelin’s mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have discovered a Challenge: The Gate of Storms.

Enter the gate and survive if you have the ability.

Kelin rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he studied the gate. Then he activated a few shield talismans and cast a levitation spell on himself.

Levitation and flight spells weren’t his strong suit, since he wasn’t much of a Wind mage and once he had reached the Fourth Evolution he had been able to fly naturally, but he had a feeling it was going to be necessary for this one.

As he walked through the gate, lightning crackled across his skin, making his hair stand on end. 

He found himself standing in the air on the other side, with nothing around him but the cutting winds of a dark storm.

Below his feet, a runic circle made of wind energy created a type of platform to stand on, but it was located in mid air and had no walls to keep anyone from falling off.

Kelin floated down and stood on top of it. Then he swiftly drew a ward and tossed his sigil into the air.

As soon as he did, thunder roared all around and the storm swelled in strength.

Clouds gathered together, forming the head and shoulders of a massive being. Lightning crackled along its body, giving it an outline, and more clouds flew toward it, assembling the torso and legs.

Within moments, a massive giant made out of the storm was standing in front of Kelin, about three hundred feet away. It was over a hundred feet tall and a single one of its feet was large enough to cover the platform where he was standing.

Its eyes were pure blue-violet lightning that crackled with thunder, its mouth was a cavern of howling winds, and its light grey skin was patterned with violet tattoos that resembled branching lightning.

It had a long grey-white beard that extended halfway down its chest and was holding a lightning spear in one hand, the tip resonating with the same energy as the storm around them.

Kelin analyzed it.

Bearded Storm Giant. Level 155. Elite.

There was no earth in sight, which meant there was no hope of grounding out its lightning strikes with the staff Kelin had made.

He would have to deflect them or absorb the damage instead.

Instead of destroying the giant as quickly as possible with Blaze, he decided it would be a good opportunity to test out Soulfire and his abilities against lightning.

A bit of practice before facing Verasun.

A smile appeared as he tapped his staff onto the platform by his feet, which echoed like it was made of solid rock.

As the giant pointed its spear at him, a massive bolt of lightning crashed into a second later, sending a wave of crackling lines spreading out all around it.

Kelin’s mana dipped, but not excessively, thanks to the heavy defensive advantage of his ward and sigil. It allowed him to turn most of his attention to studying the interactions between Soulfire and Lightning.

Waves of lightning rained down as the giant did its best to destroy him, with everything from individual bolts to sheets of lightning and wind blades from the storm.

Kelin endured it, adjusting his defenses bit by bit to deflect the lightning better.

Twenty minutes later, when he felt his mana begin to dip too low, a single Blaze-enhanced soul arrow flew out from his hand.

The giant’s soul ignited into rainbow flames, which soared upward from its body to join the clouds.

Then it fell.

The world around Kelin dissolved at the same time, and he found himself back outside the Gate of Storms, with notifications ringing in his mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained two Levels.

You are now Level 126.

He dismissed the attribute gains as he tossed the free points into Constitution, which took it to 395. 

Then he waited for the reward notification, which came a moment later.

You have earned a Treasure Reward. It has been adjusted to fit your combat style.

Staff of the Storm Giant (Rare: Professional).

It was a version of the giant’s spear, but altered into a staff to suit a mage. 

It had decent properties to enhance lightning magic, but he held little interest in it, so he tossed it into his storage to sell later at the guild.

It should fetch a decent price.

The battle had been useful for experiencing storm magic against his defenses. It wasn’t as strong as Verasun’s would be, but it was something.

Instead of continuing on, he sat down on the ground outside the gate as he turned his attention inward.

He’d had some time to consider his Evolution and the Law opportunity, so it was time to deal with the Soulfire runes he’d gained.

There were two of them, which was the same at each Evolution. Ignite and Blaze had been for the Basic Evolution. 

The First Evolution runes were called Flare and Illuminate.

They had widespread use to enhance the power of Soulfire, both for combat and healing, but they were mostly designed to add power and offered enhancements to the range and area of effect.

As the name of Illuminate suggested, Soulfire was starting to show some of its gentler effects. It could both burn and illuminate.

He had considered methods to imbue the Law of Returning Flame into the path, but eventually he had decided not to try and combine them yet.

It was too early and he didn’t have the necessary grasp of the inherent Laws at this level. 

All he could do was keep following the individual paths for a while longer and look for places where a critical choice would allow them to develop into Reincarnation.

Fortunately, Soulfire, Wildfire, Endless Flame, and Returning Flame were all part of the greater concept of Fire. As long as his abilities stuck to that path, he should be able to merge them later on.

With that decision made, he got to work incorporating the runes into his Soulfire Physique, letting them take their place beside Ignite and Blaze in the structure he’d created before.

Slowly, the pathway of the ability he’d formed began to change as new lines appeared in his spirit. He swiftly interlocked the runes, building up the structure bit by bit.

A little while later, the notification he was waiting for arrived.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have incorporated the Flare and Illuminate runes into your soul.

Your Soulfire Ability: Blaze has gained additional effects.

25% of the damage or healing that results from Blaze may now radiate outward from the target as an Area of Effect. The effect will extend in a radius that is 25% greater than the initial attack.

This effect is optional and requires an added expenditure of 1x the mana cost of the spell, but the Area of Effect does not weaken the original effect of the spell.

He studied the result and nodded.

It was a good addition, especially since it didn’t weaken the original damage to create the area effect.

He created a Blaze-enhanced Soulfire Bolt and infused it with Flare and Illuminate.

When he launched it, the bolt looked like it had two short wings extending from either side, making it 25% wider.

When he created a Soul Arrow, it looked like it had fletchings on the side, and the fire it spread was wider to start. It was effectively 25% more damage for a minimal cost.

For his other spells, the size of his Soulfire Inferno and Soul Paralysis became wider and their effect stronger, and for his healing spells, if he touched someone, he could tell that some of the healing would extend almost freely to others nearby.

It wasn’t that wide of an area effect, but he could expand it in the future.

It was a decent upgrade, but the real advantage was that he could sense the Law of Soulfire better. It was a flame burning in his awareness and filling Blaze with power.

That was where the strength of the ability came from, more than the mana cost.

He spent a little longer studying the changes, but they were straightforward enough, so he dusted himself as he stood up and turned his attention to the next mana concentration in the dungeon. 

He set out for it, scanning the area for any remaining monsters at the same time.

The plateau was vast and the sky around him howled with storms that rose and crashed in irregular patterns, with clouds that frequently formed out of nothing and turned into towering mountains that covered everything in sight.

At other times, the clouds dissipated into raging winds that tore across the ground, whipping up tornadoes that hurled sharp blades in every direction.

The storms changed constantly and they should have been filled with monsters that attacked him, but nearly everything here was dead.

His journey was relatively calm, with only his hair and wind whipping in the breeze as the winds tried to yank him from his feet.

The second challenge turned out to be a mountain of silver-black ore that slowly rose in front of him, its peak splitting the clouds. He saw it long before he confirmed the presence of the challenge on it. 

There was a staircase that marched up the slope in a direct and severe line, filled with what looked like a thousand steps, and at the top, he could vaguely make out the shape of an altar.

You have discovered a Challenge: The Ascent.

Climb the staircase to the peak and you will be rewarded.

Be warned that with each step, the pressure will increase.

This Challenge is not suitable for those weak of body or will.

Kelin considered the staircase for a moment, as well as his rather limited Strength attribute, and then shrugged.

Not every challenge could be completed by everyone. 

A mage would usually be at a disadvantage in a strength trial, and he wasn’t going to win an arm wrestling contest anytime soon, but in terms of endurance he had a significant advantage.

Since it was focused on that and will, he would give it a shot. 

He walked toward the staircase and began to ascend. 

As his foot touched the first step, it felt like a light breeze was pressing down on him, but it was barely there. Step by step, he continued upward, and with each step the pressure increased. 

The first three hundred steps weren’t that hard, but with each hundred after that, the difficulty leapt upward. 

At four hundred, sweat was running down his body and his muscles began to strain. 

At five hundred, he could feel the resistance building. His Strength was no longer enough to move under the pressure, so he had to shift to reinforcing his limbs with mana.

He forced himself up each step by moving his body like a marionette.

At six hundred, the pressure was enough that his muscles were beginning to fail and only his advanced Constitution held them together. Soulfire was working hard to heal the tears as quickly as they formed.

At this point, it was more a war between how quickly he could heal than it was about walking.

He studied the damage he was doing to himself and then the four hundred steps left to the peak. He could see the altar up there in the distance, just barely.

He paused for a moment to recover some mana and to let his healing catch up and then he continued upward.

As he moved on, his body cracked under the force and his muscles tore. Then they slowly rewove. He could feel points of Strength and Constitution appearing as he adapted to the pressure.

He made the most of it, pouring mana into his healing as he kept going, but he had to stop frequently to let his healing catch up.

Each time, it felt like the sky was pressing down on him and the distance to the altar seemed to grow greater as it receded from his sight.

He ignored it as an illusion, focusing only on his progress.

With the recent levels, his mana pool was up to 953 and his mana regeneration was decent, so he managed to keep going for quite a while, dragging himself upward step by step, before he had to stop to meditate for real.

He had just passed the seven hundred fiftieth step, and when he began moving again, the pressure felt like he was lifting the entire mountain with him.

At eight hundred, his muscles were breaking down faster than he could heal them and only his Tempered Bones and Constitution were keeping him from collapsing.

His bones turned out to be his best advantage here, stabilizing his skeleton and allowing him to move even under the tremendous pressure, as long as he had the mana to move them. 

Unlike his muscles, they didn’t tear or crack.

At least at first.

Slowly, step after step, he forced himself upward.

Objectively, it hadn’t taken him that long to get up this far, only a couple of hours, but it felt like days had passed as he reached the eight hundred fiftieth step and kept going.

Except for his bones, his body was breaking down so quickly that he had to pause every 25 steps to meditate and restore it, with each pause taking half an hour or more.

He was on the verge of calling on Gaius for help, but when he saw that he was still able to move, he refused to ask. If he did, the rewards wouldn’t be as good.

Eventually he pushed on.

Notifications of gains for Strength and Constitution continued to flare in his mind, as well as a few for Agility.

He crossed over the nine hundredth step and then twenty five more before the challenge changed.

A wave of fluctuating magnetic energy began to radiate from the mountain, oscillating at different frequencies as it tried to tear him apart.

It combined with the massive pressure to make his skin split open in long cracks and even his bones felt like they were being ground to dust. 

Silvery lines of cracks appeared, sending pain shooting through his limbs.

When he saw that, he snarled and continued to push forward, slowly crossing another dozen steps, and then another.

His bones were still holding together, but the cracks continued to grow longer. 

Eventually, he had to stop every five steps to recover, withstanding the magnetic resonance as he tried to heal the damage so his skeleton didn’t shatter.

His mana was completely devoted to interlacing his internal structure, with barely any left to move, but every effort to raise his foot took a quarter of his mana pool.

By the time he reached the nine hundred and fiftieth step, he had to stop on every third one.

Despite the destruction happening throughout his body, he could see the altar ahead of him, practically within reach. 

It was a simple stone slab with two upright pillars and a third laid across the top as a table, one barely six feet wide. It glowed with an ancient silver light, like the stones were infused with the essence of dawn.

It was only a few dozen steps away.

By the time he reached the nine hundred seventy-fifth, he had to stop every other step.

At nine hundred ninety, even his tempered bones began to give way. He could feel them splitting wider under the force, and he was no longer able to heal them quickly enough. 

His mana disappeared into the black hole of each crack.

He could no longer stop to recover. All he could do was give up or try to make it the last few steps.

He saw the altar ahead of him, glowing softly, and he threw all of his endurance and will into moving one step at a time.

Even with all of his mana driving his body forward, his legs trembled and only moved an inch at a time.

There were five steps left to the altar as his meridians began to rupture and chaotic mana flooded through his body. 

Streams of soulfire blazed across his skin, mixing with the blood from the cracks on his body, which itself glimmered with flames as it ran down his limbs and fell to the ground.

He couldn’t maintain a cycle of mana recovery any longer and his efficiency dropped, but he still pushed forward.

He refused to allow this hill to win. 

He would crush it, or he would destroy himself trying.

That thought burned in his mind as his foot scraped across the ground and he stumbled, falling forward. 

The impact was enough that he felt both of his forearms break and cracks spiderwebbed through his fingers. 

His hands were driven six inches deep into the stone of the step.

But there were only three steps left to the altar.

His mana was completely empty and he could barely see, but he dragged energy out of his soul and drove it like spikes into the ground, using it to lever himself forward.

It was pure soul energy that looked like blazing golden flames, and with it to help he lifted himself just enough to fall forward onto the next step.

And then the next.

His foot trembled as he lifted it again, scraping the top of the step, and then he collapsed forward, his hands outstretched.

But this time when he fell, his hands landed on the altar. The bones in his arms and hands shattered as he fell on top of it, leaving him unable to grip it.

He felt the cool silver stone beneath his cheek.

Suddenly, all of the pressure and the magnetic force trying to rip him apart disappeared.

He realized he was lying on top of the altar, with his chest pressed against the stone. His hands were braced on the sides, trying to grab it.

With the sudden cessation of the trial, his soulfire should have raged outward as it started to reconstruct his body, but his mana was so drained that it was just a flicker.

Wisps of flame protected his heart and other essential organs, and tiny wisps began to glow in his bones, but that was all.

As he drew in a long breath, however, a strange silver energy began to rise up from the altar and pour into his body. 

Everywhere it went, his body began to swiftly heal. The cracks in his bones filled in and disappeared, his muscles rewove themselves, and his damaged meridians recovered.

Kelin let out a groan as he let himself relax.

As it healed him, he could also feel the energy pouring in new strength. The changes were accompanied by the voice of the Path.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have completed The Ascent.

This was a unique challenge designed to test your limits.

The reward for passing it comes in two parts.

First, there are the personal gains you have made to your body and attributes. Although the Challenge was designed to stress you, it also provided nourishment, allowing you to advance swiftly.

You have gained 22 Strength, 35 Constitution, 15 Agility, 18 Intelligence, 7 Aura, and 12 Charisma.

Second, you have earned the Trait: Force of Will. 

Most people are limited by their consciousness, but you know that you can push past it, if you are willing to pay the price. You will find it easier in the future to channel your entire existence toward a single goal.

You gain an additional 20 points to every Attribute.

As the voice of the Path faded away, the silver energy from the altar continued to pour through Kelin’s body, swiftly strengthening everything it found.

He lay there on top of the altar, unwilling to move for a while, taking it as a well-earned rest.

This challenge had reminded him that you could never take a dungeon for granted.

Eventually, as the energy faded away, he felt the altar grow cooler to the touch and he let out a sigh as he pushed himself up.

He dusted off his robes and looked around, taking in the sight of the dungeon from the mountain. This altar was the highest peak in the entire area.

He took out a flask of water and swished it in his mouth before he took a long drink. Then he started walking back down the steps.

This time, there was no pressure. It was just like any other staircase.

If he’d had more time, he might have indulged himself and rested at the top, but he couldn’t delay any longer. 

That challenge had already taken him half a day.

Fortunately, it was worth it.

Attribute rewards were naturally higher now that he was at the First Evolution, and that challenge had been one of the better ones.

It had added almost 250 total attribute points, with 140 from the trait alone. 

He only gained 21 points per level, so taking half a day for that was worth it.

As he came down the mountain, he scanned the area for remaining monsters and then he shifted his shoulders, stretching as he settled his mind.

Then he set out for the final fight.

It took him a couple more hours to reach it, since he sidetracked to eliminate all of the monsters that were left in the dungeon.

There weren’t enough of them left to Wildfire, just a few scattered ones here and there.

The boss’s lair was a plain of shattered iron ore and chunks of stone that had been scorched by lightning. Dark trails from where it had fallen covered everything in feather-like and branching patterns.

At the center of the area, the boss was resting on the ground. It resembled a pile of boulders and iron ore, with silvery spikes protruding here and there that crackled with lightning.

Kelin analyzed it at a distance.

Magnetic Lightning Golem. Level 160. Elite.

Blaze ignited in his meridians as he walked forward, sending a raging torrent of power through his veins.

He wasn’t planning to draw this out.

As he came closer, however, Gaius sent him a pulse of interest.

You want to fight him instead? Kelin asked silently. 

An eager confirmation came from the elemental.

It is a fake elemental, but it contains some rare elements, Gaius added. They are not runic silverflame ore, but I can still consume them. Now that I have Evolved, with enough materials, I can create more.

I will need perhaps two hundred times as much, but as long as the mana signature is strong and the quality is high enough, it will work.

Alright, I’ll wait here, Kelin replied with a chuckle. Don’t take too long.

After the last challenge, he didn’t mind letting Gaius do the work on this one.

Gaius’s presence infused the stone below his feet and then a hill of iron ore and stone began to tremble, shaking it as it took on a more appropriate form for the elemental.

He had gained a couple more feet since the last time he appeared and now stood a dozen feet tall with massive shoulders that were just over six feet across.

He looked something like a stone golem, but the lower half of his body was merged completely with the earth. Only his waist and above showed. 

His body was made of massive plates of stone and iron ore, some interlocking and others simply shattering and fusing back together as he moved. In the gaps, a constant churn of moving stone was visible.

A golem would have struggled to move all of that, but to Gaius the weight was nothing.

Kelin tossed up a Soulfire Sigil and a ward, and then he waited.

The fight didn’t take long.

Gaius moved forward like a small mountain and the golem shuddered as it stood up to meet him. Lightning crackled around it and more fell from the sky, slamming into Gaius’s body, but the elemental ignored it all.

Moments later, Gaius had trapped the golem’s legs in bands of stone that rose up from the earth and then he seized its upper limbs as he pulled. 

Slowly, the golem’s body began to stretch as rocks shattered. Lightning crackled in the gaps, leaping in arcs from the sky to the golem, to Gaius, and then to the earth.

Gaius didn’t relent. He just kept pulling, relentless and unforgiving.

Then he tore it in half.

The golem exploded into a massive lightning storm and a rain of spikes that swept across the area, ripping holes into everything nearby.

The outer layer of Gaius’s body was shattered under the force, but new stone flowed to replace it as the elemental threw the chunks of the golem away.

Then Gaius began to sort through the remains. 

Pieces of ore began to melt and flow away, merging into his body. They swiftly disappeared as tiny bits of new silverflame ore began to form.

The entire process only took a couple of minutes and then he flowed back toward Kelin.

Halfway there, he sank into the earth and disappeared, returning to the soul chamber. 

“Good work,” Kelin said, chuckling. “Satisfied with yourself?”

The element rumbled with amusement that sounded like a rock slide and a wave of earthen energy flowed through Kelin’s body.

Up to now, Kelin had taken the lead in most fights, but their experience split went both ways, and as Gaius grew stronger, there wasn’t always a need to do it himself. 

No elemental was weak, especially once they were self-aware. 

They were born of the pure energy of nature, intimately connected to the primordial forces that underpinned all of existence.

Gaius had the entire Law of the Earth as a guide and, most importantly, he was benefiting from just as many rewards and bonuses as Kelin was. 

It was very rare for an elemental to consciously choose their own path, but with the soul bond and Kelin to guide him, he was swiftly making progress toward becoming a unique and powerful existence.

It would be interesting to see what he chose in the future.

Kelin smiled slightly as he turned his attention to the notifications from the Path.

He ignored most of them, only looking at the summary. 

Completing all of the challenges added a couple of levels, and then there was the reward from the dungeon boss as well.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained 6 Levels. 

You are now Level 132.

For completing this dungeon at a High difficulty, you have earned an Ability Reward.

You may choose two Abilities to upgrade by a tier, to a maximum of Elite.

It wasn’t an Epic upgrade, but he hadn’t expected one.

He studied the options and then he tried out something that he was curious about, choosing Decay Resistance, which was at Basic.

This Ability cannot be upgraded in this manner. Seek out the power of True Remnants that contain the undead in order to improve it.

He nodded at that, since it was what he’d expected. The ability was a strange one, almost outside of the Path.

Since that had failed, he made a different choice.

Your Class Ability: Ascending Flame has gained a tier and reached Advanced.

The longer your flame burns, the more intense it becomes.

At the Advanced tier, this ability enables you to enhance the power of your spells by 60% over two minutes, at which point they will maintain that level of intensity until the spell is ended. The mana cost of the spell increases by 30%.  

Your Subclass Ability: Mystic Echo has gained a tier and reached Expert.

When you activate a talisman or artifact, you are able to summon an echo of its power as a second cast. This echo occurs immediately after the initial activation.

At the Expert tier, the echo is 30% as strong as the original, but as the ability improves, the strength of the echo will increase.

If you activate something you’ve created yourself, the echo will be twice as strong and can be infused with your supporting abilities.

Both of the abilities had good improvements, with 10% more strength for 5% additional cost on Ascending Flame, and another 10% power for Mystic Echo.

The attribute gains from the levels left him with 36 free points and he considered where to put them for a moment, but then he added them to Constitution.

That took him to 486 in that attribute. With his 75% advantage, that was equivalent to 850.

The Ascent challenge had reminded him that he could never be too durable. 

This should be enough to handle any surprises from Verasun.

He could have put them into Intelligence, which would have strengthened his mana, but he already knew that competing with Verasun in that regard was pointless.

The man would have far too many attributes there.

He would have to make up the difference in other ways.

Kelin glanced up at the sky, which was swiftly turning to twilight as night approached, and then he cleared out a space nearby, where he sat down and began to pull out talisman materials.

The dungeon wasn’t going to kick him out for a while, so he might as well take advantage of the privacy here.

Getting levels was only one part of his plan to fight Verasun, and he had run out of time for it, so he would have to move forward with what he had.

He had a day left now and all of it needed to be devoted to the even more important part.

Making talismans.

He wasn’t going to fight the man point for point.

He was going to bury him under an avalanche.

By the time dawn arrived, he had created almost two hundred new talismans, split equally between shielding and infusion. 

His speed at making them had advanced noticeably now that he’d Evolved, and the previous fifteen minutes per talisman had dropped to under three minutes each.

He still had the rest of the day and no one was bothering him inside the dungeon, so he kept working, slowly producing more.

By the time evening fell again, he had four hundred more.

He wanted to keep working, but even he had to sleep a bit. His Constitution meant it wasn’t a lot, but a couple of hours of rest were important to balance his mind.

He let himself sleep for a little while and when Gaius woke him the moon above the plateau was shining brightly, its light mixing with the storm.

He estimated the time remaining, and then he got back to work, making even more talismans.

When there were two hours left until dawn, he stored away all of his materials. He activated a dozen Soul Veil talismans and then walked through the dungeon portal.

The night was quiet and still on the other side. Crickets chirped in the darkness and a cool breeze blew across the plains.

He turned toward Highmist and sensed the area, but everything was clear.

His cloak billowed out around him as he turned into a shadow and then he sped across the plains, covering miles in seconds.

The duel was set for mid-morning, only a handful of hours away, and from what the Path had just told him, the Herald would be arriving an hour before to oversee it.

He needed to be there to meet him.