Wild Era 2, Ch 2: Ring of Mist

The song was a simple one from the early days of Irian. The tune rose and fell, and the old words came to Kelin’s mind. 

On Orreth fair, the wind is rising,

To stir the golden plain,

Where the leaves are falling,

Like a silver rain.

They were ones he’d learned as a youth, about the Golden Plains of Orreth near his old home. The song described the summer tide of mana that rose through the world as the elemental gates opened. It had been as much a part of the seasons of Irian as the turning of the world itself.

Orreth had been next to a forest of silverwood trees, and the leaves blew across the plain for miles.

There were more verses to the song, but they would have to wait until later, since he was approaching the first mana convergence in the dungeon.

The forest thinned out into a ring of tall trees that grew so closely together there was barely a few inches of separation between their trunks. Their branches entwined above the area like a web, allowing only a few stray rays of light through. 

The area was dim and shadowed, but fortunately, he didn’t need much light to see. 

Everything was clear.

His sight was a combination of his mana and soul senses, elemental affinities, and physical eyes, which were strengthened by his soulfire physique. Any of them alone would have been enough to see clearly, and with all of them, it made little difference how dark it was.

The trees surrounded a clearing that was about a hundred feet across. A dozen massive boulders with flat tops were scattered across it. 

Each of the boulders was four feet wide or more, creating small platforms, but they were too far apart to jump from one to another without some help or a Wind spell to glide. 

Short grass and wildflowers should have been growing in the clearing, but necrotic mist was gliding through the area at shin height and draining the life from them. Most were brittle and shriveled. 

At the center of the clearing, there was a larger stone that was standing upright like a door, about four feet across and twelve feet tall. Runes were engraved on its surface in vertical lines, resembling an ancient script, and a bold line down the center made it look like the center point of two swinging doors.

It should be some type of portal.

Kelin didn’t recognize the language, but that was no surprise. Most dungeons were brought into the world as fragments from other galaxies, remnants of the invasions that came through the Chaos Gates.

He scanned the area, analyzing the amount of necrotic energy in the mist, and then he walked forward into the ring. 

This was a dungeon challenge, and he could see the basic structure of it.

He jumped up onto one of the stone platforms and waited.

A moment later, the voice of the Path rang in his mind.

You have entered the Ring of Shifting Mist.

This is a Dungeon Challenge.

Core Objective: Survive until the end and eliminate all of your opponents.

Warning! This challenge has been afflicted by necrotic energy and the difficulty has increased. The reward for clearing it will also be higher.

The name of this challenge has been updated due to the influence of the undead. It is now the Ring of Grasping Mist.

As your level is higher than the average for this Challenge (Level 82), its difficulty will be adjusted to match. 

Additional resources have been assigned.

Experience allotted to the challenge will remain the same, but the monsters will be stronger, faster, and more durable than before. 

As Kelin heard the Path’s warning, his eyebrows rose in surprise.

He was within the general range for the dungeon, which was up to five levels above the strongest monster. That was Level 85 here, so the dungeon should have been normal until he reached 91.

This type of thing happened, but usually only when you exceeded the range. It was the Path’s way of discouraging adventurers from constantly running dungeons under their level.

It seemed like the Path was going to make things more difficult for him anyway.

Until now, he’d been in dungeons over his level. This was the first time he’d gone into one that was lower.

It was possible that the Path was measuring the strength of his abilities or his soul and evaluating them compared to the strength of the dungeon, or perhaps it had singled him out for a different reason.

If it was the first option, he couldn’t really blame it. 

If it was the second, it suggested the Path really was paying attention to him, despite that it wouldn’t answer his questions about how he’d died or acknowledge that he’d been reborn.

Hopefully, that was the case.

Despite that, the Path was never unfair. The challenge would be harder, but the reward would match.

What would make this difficult was that dungeons were usually designed for a team, not for a solo adventurer, so he would be facing stronger monsters that were intended for a full party.

But a smile tugged at his lips at that. He’d been hunting well over his level for this entire life so far. 

Why should this time be any different?

It would just be like a Level 90 challenge instead of a Level 80 one.

Mana began to rise up from the earth. It condensed between the stones, swiftly turning into a current that wove between them like a river. 

As the mana moved around the stones, it formed the lines of an enchantment, turning the entire clearing into a maze of interlocking runic structures, with the stones as the intermediary nodes that routed the spell.

At the same time, the stones began to glow with mana and separate enchantment patterns formed on them. Spatial energy gathered across their surfaces, outlining nascent dimensional portals. 

The large stone at the center was the same, but the portal there needed more energy, so it would be a while before it could open. He’d have to clear the smaller ones first.

He could see what the challenge was supposed to be, but the necrotic energy had changed it.

The enchantment should have been a river of Water and Wood energy that formed a silver mist and a maze enchantment, one that was designed to befuddle the senses and confuse anyone who entered.

If he fell off the stones or had failed to get onto one in time, being in the maze would result in confusion as he found himself in a misty realm with no clear exit. Only high Wisdom or magical perception would help him to get out. 

Meanwhile, wolves or other creatures summoned from the mists and the portals on top of the stones would attack him. 

As long as he stayed on top of the stones, however, he’d be out of the path of the energy and free to deal with the monsters more easily.

It should have been a decent challenge, dangerous but not excessively so, but the necrotic energy made it a slow death trap. 

Now the mists would sap the life of anyone touching them, while the beasts that attacked would be undead and strengthened by the environment, stronger and faster than before and harder to detect.

If they weren’t killed quickly, the mists would heal them.

Given the nature of the mists, it was possible that wraiths or other creatures that directly sapped vitality would also form.

If someone didn’t get out in time, they would be torn apart.

The mists were mostly below the stones, but some waves lapped over the surface, sending tendrils out toward his feet and ankles, like grasping hands that were reaching for him.

He swiftly created a ward circle and ignited a Soulfire Sigil in the air, letting it shine around him. A blaze of soulfire crackled across the surface of the stone, burning away the mist that touched it.

The mist recoiled from the flames, but it didn’t disappear completely. It flowed around the edge of the stone like it was searching for another opportunity.

Kelin ignored it as he created two Soulfire Bolts and held them ready. His sigil bolstered his defense and recovery, and the ward was enough to keep the mist at bay.

Then he waited for the portals to fully form. 

He was out of shield talismans, but he had plenty of Fire Blade and Soulfire Bolt ones if he needed them, as well as some mana and healing potions.

The mist in the circle had become dense, completely obscuring the ground between the stones and making it look like he was standing on a tiny island in a dark ocean. Stray winds stirred the surface of the mist, causing it to rise and fall like the tide.

Silver lines appeared on the surface of the stones, including the one beneath his feet, and the heavy thrum of mana filled the clearing. Crackling lines of spatial energy formed in the air, touching one stone after another.

Then portals began to appear. 

One to his right opened first. It was on top of a stone similar to the one where he was standing. 

A wave of silver mist appeared above the surface, and when it faded, three figures were floating there. 

Two looked like silver phantoms with vaguely humanoid features and had deadly silver-tipped claws, while the third was darker and touched by necrotic energy. A crackle of black and blue light surrounded it.

Kelin analyzed them instantly.

Silvermist Spirit. Level 78.

Silvermist Burial Wraith. Level 80. 

The two spirits were the natural inhabitants of this dungeon, while the wraith was an undead version. 

The necrotic energy was probably slowly converting everything here

As soon as the monsters appeared, they flew toward him with their claws extended, passing directly over the sea of necrotic mist. 

The spirits looked vicious and unearthly, but the wraith was a crueler version. Its claws were black and its eyes glowed with a cold blue light. 

Wraiths by nature drained the life of the things they touched, so Kelin had no interest in letting it cross the distance.

He launched the two Soulfire Bolts in his hands, one at the wraith and one at a spirit behind it, and then he quickly created two more, throwing one of them at the third.

He missed his staff, since it had let him hold four spells ready at once, but he would make do.

An explosion of soulfire tore through the spirits as the bolts lanced through their forms. A cloud of ethereal fog burned away at their center and their substance swiftly disappeared as the soulfire ate through.

Soulfire was half soul energy and half fire, so it was a good element to use against them. 

The wraith suffered more from the energy than the spirits, since necrotic energy was opposed to the higher laws that made up Soulfire. About half of its body dissolved, while only a third of the spirits’ did.

At that moment, the wraith and spirits struck his ward. Their claws slashed at the barrier and ignited long lines of crackling golden flames. 

His mana dipped slightly, but his ward was efficient, especially with the Soulfire Sigil to support it.

He intensified his remaining Soulfire Bolt, which tripled the mana cost, and hurled it at the wraith at point blank range. 

Then he created two more and intensified them too, throwing them at the spirits.

The soulfire blazed through all three of the monsters and their forms disintegrated before they could attack his ward again.

To his left, two more portals were already spinning to life, and he turned to face them. A surge of mist appeared above the stones, leaving four figures.

There was another Silvermist Spirit and a Burial Wraith, as well as two new monsters. They resembled the spirits, but it looked like they were wearing mages’ robes. 

Instead of long claws, their hands were filled with a web of misty runes in a spell form that they were in the middle of shaping.

He analyzed them.

Mistveil Illusionist. Level 80. 

It was a spectral mage that looked like it belonged to the mist of misdirection and confusion below. Its spells would have difficulty breaking his ward, but there was no reason to let it finish casting. 

Kelin sent an intensified Soulfire Bolt at the spirit and the wraith, and as soon as his hands were free, he shaped two soul arrows and threw them at the illusionists.

Those he didn’t bother to Intensify.

The monsters staggered as the rainbow-hued arrows struck. They were like small darts as they disappeared into the monsters’ forms, but then soul flames ignited where their hearts should have been. 

The flames flared outward as they swiftly spread, and the illusionists let out a joint howl as their forms twisted like candles in the wind. Their spells held together for an instant, but they disintegrated as they flew across the sea of mist. 

With their deaths, another portal began to open. 

This time, it was a burial wraith accompanied by the hulking forms of three dire wolves, but unlike the ones he’d seen before, these were ghostly.

Dire Wolf Phantom. Level 78.

They looked very similar to the regular version, except that he could see straight through them. 

So far, everything in this challenge was ethereal, which made sense given the mist below.

The wolves tilted their heads back and let out a howl that sounded like a lonesome call to the moon, but as the sound spread, it was full of a sharp ghostly energy that spun through the air and swiftly turned into spiraling blades of mist.

The blades slammed into his ward, digging furrows into it and unleashing a rain of golden sparks, but another part of the energy tried to continue on, aiming for Kelin’s mind and soul.

Then that shattered on the barrier too. 

It would have been dangerous to anyone not familiar with soul attacks, either shredding their mind or disorienting them, but his wards were durable, as was his soul.

Soul arrows were more mana efficient against these monsters than Soulfire Bolts, so he shifted to them and sent two sets at the phantoms and the wraith. 

As they burned away in rainbow flames, he turned toward the next set of portals, which were already opening.

This time, there were three portals. It looked like the pace was increasing as the challenge adapted to him.

Most of the portals had two or three monsters, but there were ten monsters split between these with a mix of the types he’d just seen, and the portals didn’t close. It looked like they were going to stay open for a second wave. 

Since that was the case, he switched up his tactics. Sticking to individual spells here would cost him too much.

A pair of soul arrows flew toward the first two monsters that appeared, but instead of creating new ones, the golden sphere of a Soulfire Inferno appeared in his hands.

Wildfire was an option, but as efficient as it was, it wasn’t right for everything, and if he used it exclusively, his other spells would never improve.

He threw the inferno at the second portal, which had a Silvermist Spirit and three burial wraiths.

Then he did the same again, creating two more infernos and tossing them at the other two portals.

Three explosions of soulfire swept across the area, burning away some of the mist in the air and the monsters both. He held the connection to the spells open, pouring mana into them as he let the flames rise. 

It was similar to the ocean of Wildfire that he liked to use, but it was made of soulfire instead, and he could feel the stark difference in the laws that underpinned it.

Wildfire was a familiar old friend, sharp and deadly, whereas soulfire felt like the heart of a sun, hot and endless.

He could feel the energy of the Ignite and Blaze runes in the soulfire, the first two of the runes he’d studied, but there was much more there to unearth. If he wanted to improve his use of it, the path was clear.

He would have to master the other runes to start.

For now, he focused on Blaze. He didn’t ignite his mana and soul cores, but it was still enough to intensify the energy of the infernos. The three spells grew larger and brighter, blazing with a golden fury.

The spatial structure of the portals was too powerful to be affected, but the monsters that were standing near them disintegrated and the new ones that tried to come through burned away as they entered, incinerated by a storm of soulfire.

After a moment, those three portals released the last of their monsters and began to close, but he didn’t stop the infernos. 

He channeled more mana into them and let them continue to build, pouring in mana until all three grew larger and merged into a single storm of flames. 

Swiftly, the flames spread outward, turning into a hurricane that spun above the stones and the sea of mist.

Then he turned his attention to the new portals that were appearing. They flickered into existence above the stones. 

Three more opened, and then four at once, releasing another set of ten and then twelve monsters, but the phantoms barely had time to appear before the flames tore through them. 

Another set of portals opened before those closed, making six that were across the area, but they were also swept up in the storm. 

More portals joined them, until there was one on every stone except the one that Kelin was standing on.

Monsters appeared and disappeared, their forms torn apart as soon as they entered the flames. 

The sea of mist shuddered as the mana flows picked up and the intensity increased, but Kelin continued to channel the inferno.

Now that it was burning, it was relatively efficient on his mana.

He was down to a bit under half, but it was enough for now.

Sixty seconds later, all of the portals suddenly snapped closed and a surge of spatial energy headed for the stone slab at the center of the clearing that looked like a door.

The lines of arcane script on the surface of the stone blazed with light, and then liquid droplets of spatial energy gathered across the surface, making it look like it was covered in silver rain. 

The energy was intense enough to drive the inferno away from the central stone, making it look like a circle of flames spinning around it.

The silver rain sank into the line that was marked at the center of the stone and the surface shuddered as it began to separate, forming a set of tall and narrow stone doors that swung open. The interior was filled with silver mist, but there were thick tendrils of black and dark blue energy woven through it.

Those tendrils grew larger as Kelin watched, swirling toward the center of the opening. 

A low growl resonated through the area as a dark form appeared. It was hard to make out at first, but it was tall and its steps made heavy echoes as it walked toward the doors.

Then it appeared, standing twelve feet tall as its bulky form broke through the mist. It shouldered its way through the door and stood in front of it.

It was a broad-shouldered figure with a body like a tree trunk, long wooden arms that ended in claws that touched the ground, and knobby feet that resembled roots. 

It was standing on the ground, not on top of a stone, but it was tall enough that it didn’t matter, and it was almost as wide as it was tall. It had needed to turn sideways to get through the door

The mist rolled over its lower body, concealing its roots and making it look strange and haunting. Kelin could sense those roots burrowing into the ground and shifting the earth as they spread outward. 

Dark blue eyes glowed on the trunk where its head should have been.

At first, he thought it was a treant, but his analysis showed the truth of things.

Gnarled Silvermist Wood Ghast. Level 82. Elite. 

Perhaps it had been a Gnarled Silvermist Treant once, but now it was undead.

Kelin only studied it for a moment before he reached out to the storm of flames and sent the entire inferno barreling toward the creature.

The ghast let out a soul-shaking howl as it lumbered toward him. Flames spun around it, making its bark turn black, but they weren’t enough to stop it immediately.

Roots sprang up from the ground beside the stone Kelin was on, their barbed tips lashing as they swept toward his feet. 

The roots slammed into the ward around him and an explosion of soulfire resulted, sending a crackle of golden flames back along the roots. 

Each impact from the roots was like a massive whip hitting his ward, and they were surrounded by a haze of necrotic energy that was trying to drain the life from the area. 

It would have been dangerous if he’d been standing there unprotected, but his ward held. These weren’t enough to break through.

He intensified the inferno and focused it around the ghast as it closed the distance. 

Despite its form, it was fairly quick. Its long arms rose, resembling two battering rams as it closed the distance.

The ghast’s arms crashed onto the ward, sending up an eruption of soulfire. The ward shuddered under the impact, but no cracks formed. 

Kelin’s mana dipped slightly, but it wasn’t enough to make him rush.

He pulled the inferno toward the ghast and enveloped its entire form, letting the flames chew away at it. 

The mist drained some of the flames’ energy, but at the same time, the flames kept the mist away from the monster, preventing them from supporting it.

More hammer blows fell from the ghast’s arms, slamming into his ward again and again, and the roots continued to flail at him. The collision sent flames flying in every direction, which merged into the inferno.

A war of necrotic mist and soulfire rolled through the area around the ghast, twisting as they each fought to destroy the other.

But slowly, the ghast’s massive body turned black and its roots began to shrivel under the heat. Its blows fell more slowly as bits of its bark turned to ash and fell away.

Its claws held up, but finally one of its arms snapped as it brought it down on the ward, shattering into two pieces. The inner layer glowed white with ash and golden flames.

After that, it didn’t take long.

Cracks ran along the ghast’s form as flames licked through the openings. More joined them until they were running along the creature’s entire body, from root to trunk and down its remaining arm.

Its two cold blue eyes grew smaller, shrinking as the flames consumed it. 

Then the ghast shattered into pieces. 

As it fell, flaming embers exploded outward, flying through the sea of mist, which was only half as deep as it had been before Kelin’s inferno.

A chime rang through the area, and then the spatial energy of the portals began to dissipate, along with the sea of mist.

Kelin staggered as he released the spell, but he recovered swiftly.

His mana was under 15%, but it had held out.

Without bothering to check the ghast or the other monsters yet, he sat down where he was and began to meditate. Notifications were ringing in his mind, so he turned his attention to them.

Congratulations on completing the Challenge: Ring of Grasping Mist.

You have earned a treasure reward for clearing the challenge.

The rewards have been adjusted for the increased difficulty.

A glowing sphere of multihued light appeared on the stone in front of Kelin. It swiftly resolved into a small treasure chest that was made of silver and richly burnished wood. It was about eight inches square and just three inches deep.

When he opened it, a strong pulse of mana came from the interior.

Three bars of luminescent metal were lying on top of a blue cushion. Each of them was six inches long and an inch across, and he analyzed them to confirm their identity.

Runic Silverflame Bars. 

Grade: Rare.

Silverflame ore is rarely found, since it can only be formed in a vein of silver ore with a high concentration of elemental Fire essence. Even when it is located, the amount that can be extracted from a mine is usually limited to a pound or less, and the grade is often Uncommon instead of Rare.

This metal has the desirable quality of storing mana and intensifying the Fire attribute of whatever it touches, which makes it one of the best materials for magical Fire enchantments that can be found for the early First Evolution. 

It is highly sought after among mages for enchanting their personal equipment, especially staves and amulets.

Each of these bars was worth about 2,000 gold as a base price, which was more than almost all of his gear put together, but it would be foolish to sell them for that. 

Not that he would be selling them. They were rare enough that it was only worth using them or trading them for something else he might need.

It was rare to get three matching ores like this, but that was thanks to the dungeon’s high mana and the increased reward of the challenge. 

He could tell that their mana signatures were all identical, which meant they’d all come from the same vein of ore and probably the same original piece. 

It made them especially useful for enchantments, particularly any that needed to be linked or perfectly harmonious with all of the parts.

There was enough here to use in several enchantments, perhaps half a dozen if he were frugal, and he already had an idea of how to use them.

This type of ore would be useful when he rebuilt his equipment. He might be able to add an inlay to his staff, or perhaps some details to his other equipment.

As to whether he could do that work himself or if he’d have to hire someone else, that remained to be seen. He’d have to improve his crafting skills first.

Either way, he wouldn’t be using the ore until he was ready, so he closed the chest and stored it away in his spatial pocket.

That was the only notification from the Path, but it was enough. The experience from the challenge was limited, but the material rewards were high. 

This was one of the reasons people ran dungeons, and why Baron Verasun and the others in Celadon were so intent on keeping the materials under their control.

He would have to let the guild know about this reward. They would need to have more oversight over here. They were short-handed, but hopefully they could spare some attention.

Even if silverflame ore was a rare item from the dungeon, the fact that it could appear would get a hefty amount of attention, the type that some people would kill for.

He’d already had an assassin after him once, thanks to Verasun, so he could vouch for the truth of that.

He meditated until his mana had recovered, which took about an hour, and then he set about collecting everything from the monsters that he’d killed. 

All of the mist had cleared away and some sunlight had even appeared between the web of tree branches above, so it was an easier task than it would have been earlier.

He picked up about fifty monster cores, as well as a number of medium-quality and low-quality mana crystals, and necrotic gems. He also found some rarer materials, like chunks of the ghast’s wood that had survived the flames and a gnarled silverwood heart.

He stored them all away and dusted himself off.

He could sense the dungeon’s attention on him like a stormcloud hanging low and rumbling above his head. Its assessment of his strength was increasing, which meant that the dangers here would as well.

Given the increased difficulty of this challenge, he had a feeling it would be ready for him when he got to the next one.