Wild Era, Ch 31: Final Challenge (Double)

The energy from the elixir swept through Kelin like effervescent lightning, crackling with force as it saturated his meridians, bones, and everywhere else.

Its magic was unique and as it moved, it unblocked parts of his meridians and vital areas that had not yet been attuned by Soulfire Body Refinement, leaving new pathways crackling in its wake.

A wave of blazing soulfire followed it, surging through every part of his body. His bones and muscles hummed with force and his mind sharpened. 

A haze of golden flame filled his vision and then his sight cleared, with everything he could see sharper and more distinct than before. The darkness of the arena had partially lifted, but now it was as clear to him as if it were under bright daylight. 

His skin tightened and hardened. Tiny cracks formed all over it like shattered porcelain. Then a wave of soulfire and the elixir’s energy ran through it, filling in the gaps that had appeared.

The cracks disappeared, leaving unblemished skin behind that was more perfect than before.

Its density and ability to deflect energy had improved.

The same effect ran through the rest of his body, leaving cracks in his organs, meridians, bones, muscles, tendons, and veins, until every part of him shattered and was rebuilt under the force.

As the cracks filled in, soulfire blazed freely through the unblocked channels.

The elixir had an enormous amount of magic behind it and it was doing more than just upgrading his body refining ability. It was also improving the base.

As a Rare quality elixir, it saw the malnourished body he had and sent a wave of crackling potency through it, swiftly repairing the damage from 20 years of hunger and neglect, including a few childhood injuries that had never healed well.

His bones cracked again under the force and this time they grew a little longer and denser. His muscles were torn apart and reestablished, more supple and denser. His tendons were shredded and rewoven more tightly, giving him a faster reaction time.

Even his mana core and his spirit were touched, although only so much as a strong body could do for them. 

The flow of his mana smoothed out, his cycling speed improved, and the stability of his vital energy surged. 

Wherever this elixir was from, it was something special.

As the changes began to wrap up, a series of notifications rang in Kelin’s mind, reporting on all of the differences.

The first and biggest change for his attributes was the difference between his malnourished state and his new one.

A surge of strength and durability ran through him, as well as a sense of explosive speed.

Your malnourished condition with reduced attributes has been corrected. 

You gain 32 Strength, 50 Constitution, 40 Agility, and 20 Charisma.

The wave of power from the elixir settled into his body, providing all the energy necessary to support the changes.

He grew an inch and a half until he was a bit over six feet, and his musculature developed, leaving him lean and agile with a well-defined physical structure, more like an athletic rogue than a mage.

As soulfire flowed through the changes, the Path continued to speak.

Your Class Ability: Soulfire Body Refinement has gained a tier and reached Expert (Perfect Foundation).

Additionally, you have achieved a perfect foundational physique attuned to the Soulfire affinity.

By fully aligning your physique to Soulfire, you gain an improvement to your durability and physical recovery, as well as an increased resistance to mortal wounds. 

The advancement to Expert adds 10%.

As a bonus for achieving a Perfect Affinity Integration, you gain an additional 10%.

You now have a 55% improvement to your durability and physical recovery, as well as a 55% resistance to mortal wounds.

The Path’s voice faded away as the wave of changes finished its work, leaving Kelin’s body steaming slightly in the cool air of the dungeon.

When he looked down at his arms and hands, there was a healthy glow to them and the muscles and bones were well defined, like they’d been sculpted from marble. 

A faint flicker of soulfire flowed through his skin, making him glow with power.

He let out a breath and a light grey cloud left his lungs and turned to ash in the air, leaving them feeling clear and strong.

He smiled at that, and then he checked his status sheet to see all the changes.

Strength: 119 

Constitution: 128 

Agility: 110 

Wisdom: 171

Intelligence: 512

Aura:  215

Charisma: 102 

That was a significant gain. 

It had been the right thing to drink the elixir now. 

The description hadn’t mentioned that it would correct his malnourished state, but it made sense as soon as he thought about it. The improvement to his body refining was much harder than providing some physical repair.

Now he had the starting attributes that he should have had to begin with, and all of the gains he’d made from fighting and training were still there.

His Strength and Agility were on the athletic side and above the human baseline, while his Constitution was a bit higher. 

With the 55% improvement to durability from body refining, his Constitution was effectively 198, which would help reduce the damage he took from most sources.  

The physical changes were more than he would have been able to spare easily from his mental attributes for a while. 

Most mages didn’t invest much in Strength or Agility until they had to, but Constitution was always a critical attribute, since otherwise you would be too flimsy to survive even mild hits at your level.

Constitution also improved your overall health, stamina, resistance to poison and disease, and your ability to shrug off other afflictions, both mundane and magical.

It was also the key attribute that influenced your lifespan.

Every point in Constitution meant another year or more that you could live, if things went well. 

A simple rule for it was 10% of your free attributes, and 20% was better. 

That was enough that a Level 100 mage would be at least at 200 Constitution, while a Level 200 mage might have 600 or more.

The calculations for higher evolutions depended on which class you had, since free attributes could vary widely and higher-rarity classes like Epic or Legendary received more, but that was the basic range.

With his 55% bonus, his Constitution was now on par with the basic defense of a Level 98 mage, and with Gaius’s support for stoneskin, well beyond it. 

All of those attribute gains were important and getting them now made him that much more durable. 

That bonus was one of the reasons he’d been so excited when he was offered the body refining skill.

But it was the resistance to mortal wounds that was the most important.

Baseline durability could be made up for with enough spells and talismans, but none of that would help him survive a wound that should otherwise have killed him.

The resistance would.

It meant that even if he got an arrow in the eye that went straight through his brain, or a dagger in his heart, there was a chance that he could survive it, especially if he healed it quickly enough.

Basically, the overall vitality of his body would preserve his life force, preventing him from dying for a little while. His capabilities might diminish, but he would still be alive and probably able to move.

It wasn’t a perfect guarantee, and it wouldn’t help if he was completely disintegrated by a stronger force, but it was still good.

A 55% resistance wasn’t a gamble where the Path rolled the dice. It meant that he would be straight up 55% harder to kill. 

If a dagger was stabbed into his heart, he would have that much longer to keep moving and fix it before his vitality disappeared.

Constitution alone couldn’t do that. It would only make you harder to stab in the first place.

He stretched as he stood up and adjusted to all of the differences. 

Then he got to work with Gaius as they gathered all of the cores and necrotic gems that had fallen across the arena.

By the time they were done, there were 47 new cores and 24 necrotic crystals to his storage. Three of the necrotic crystals, the ones from the death knight, banshee, and wight were high-grade, and their cores would be worth more too. 

He also added five more medium-grade Water mana crystals, which had dropped at random from some of the lesser undead.

With that done, he turned to the runestone.

His trusty bone sword appeared in his hand and he felt the new strength in his muscles as he raised it. 

This time, it only took two good swings to shatter the stone before it exploded into a rain of fragments. 

He felt the distinct sense of the last mana tether snapping at the edge of his mind. It was followed by a sense of mana disappearing as the core enchantment it had supported lost its power.

He got a brief sense of direction with it, which made him glance over his right shoulder. He could sense it clearly even as the mana trail faded away.

It looked like the dungeon boss was to the northeast.

As the runestone broke, the last vestige of the barrier around the arena disappeared and the flow of necrotic energy in the standing stones dropped to almost nothing, leaving the exit clear.

He gathered up the two dozen or so runestone fragments and tossed them in his storage to join the others, and then he changed his staff back into its proper size. 

Then, since he’d been in the dungeon for a while, he decided it was time to rest for the night. 

He walked a short distance away from the arena. Then yellow runes glowed across his body as he sank into the stone at his feet.

He moved ten feet down and Gaius began to shift the stone around him, creating a small cavern.

It was similar in a lot of ways to the cavern in the mine where he’d been reborn, but a little smaller.

Gaius created a few long tunnels, each just a few inches wide, that sprawled out around them for dozens of feet and then opened to the surface as a series of cracks in the earth.

Those would provide fresh air.

Kelin cast the air purification spell on his lungs just in case, since it would help him breathe if the air became murky down here, and then he pulled out some camping gear, a bedroll, and a few other things from his storage.

It wasn’t long before he had a small fire going above an enchanted stone plate that was similar to the ones in the guild rooms. Above it, he set up a spit with some of the last drake meat he had, letting it slowly roast.

He also pulled out some spices to add to it, a bottle of wine, and some side dishes that he’d bought and stored away.

He yawned as he turned the spit. He could have set it to rotate on its own with a simple spell, but he preferred doing it manually.

With all of the changes to his body, his stomach felt like a black hole. When the drake meat was ready he cheerfully ate it, followed by all of the side dishes.

Those were a mix of things from neatly roasted green vegetables, fresh bread, herbed butter, sliced white and crumbly blue cheese, some fruit, a slice of peach pie, and more.

The guild had excellent bakeries and adventurers had bottomless stomachs, so it was a good match. There was always a lot of food available for purchase.

After all of that, he was still hungry, so he pulled out the body of a Level 40 Earthen Boar that he’d encountered on the way to the dungeon, swiftly cleaned it and incinerated the unnecessary parts, and then he began to roast that too.

That took longer, even with some fire spells to speed it up, so he meditated as he waited, leaning back against the stone wall behind him.

With the fire in the cavern, it was pleasantly warm, enough to banish some of the natural chill of the dungeon that crept through the stones. For once, the salamander’s ring didn’t have to do too much.

When the boar was roasted, he ate nearly the entire thing. His body was like a soulfire furnace, incinerating the food and turning it into pure vitality, and his stomach barely even expanded.

He stored away the final leg for later and then cleaned everything up, including himself, by summoning a stream of heated water to wash.

He let Gaius drain away the water he splashed everywhere into the earth, where it could join the rest in the dungeon.

Then he lay down on his bedroll and folded his arms behind his head, before he closed his eyes.

It was a long and restful night, and as always, he dreamed of Irian.

In the morning, he stored everything away and let Gaius restore the cavern as he rose back out of the earth.

He spent a while scouring the dungeon, looking for any remaining wandering skeletons, and the ones he found met a swift end.

He wanted to make sure to get the 100% completion for the dungeon by clearing all of the monsters.

His senses and Gaius’s combined with the speed of his reformed body as he jogged through the forest, scanning every part.

Half a day later, when he was confident that he’d gotten everything, he turned toward the final point that the runestones had revealed.

He’d seen it while he was hunting, but he’d avoided it. Now, his staff tapped stoically on the ground by his feet as he headed there.

He saw it before he arrived, rising out of the ground. A low rise of stone in the distance turned into a hill and then into a cliff that soared upward.

When he got there, he found a broad stone gateway that marked the base of the cliff. Behind it, a pathway opened onto a narrow staircase that twisted up the cliff face, leading toward a plateau on the top.

There were three ornate runes on the top and sides of the gateway, showing where the connections from the runestones had been, but they were silent and the way was clear.

If he hadn’t broken them, there would have been a barrier blocking the gate and the staircase. 

From the parts of the enchantment that he could see, he guessed that trying to force his way through it would have cursed him and damaged his vitality, adding a long-lasting affliction that would have tried to slowly turn him into an undead.

The only other option would have been to climb the cliff directly, and that would have been difficult. It was a sheer face with basically no handholds.

Even with his improved Agility, that was a futile task. 

He would have had to levitate up, which would have drained his mana, and he had a feeling there would be a second barrier at the top anyway.

Since the way was clear, he simply walked through and began to ascend the staircase. The stones were wet with a cold dew, but he easily kept his balance, thanks both to his new Agility and the enchantments on his boots.

The staircase cut back and forth up the cliff face and it took him almost five minutes to reach the top.

When he did, he saw another runic gateway and a long border of dark runestones around the edge of the plateau, showing his guess about a second barrier was right, but all of them were silent.

The plateau was about three hundred feet across and made a rough square. At the center of it, there was a stone altar surrounded by three standing stones that were similar to the ones in the arena.

In front of the stones, a sharp and refined-looking man in elegant black leather armor and a coat with a long tail was waiting. 

His ears were slightly pointed and his eyes were dark pools with no whites visible, but the most noticeable thing about him was a sense of grace and danger.

His Agility and Strength were extremely high, enough that his physical presence had turned into an aura. Someone else might have thought it was just his attitude, but Kelin could see the energy warping the air. 

Kelin had something similar forming from his mental attributes, but this man was well ahead of him. 

There was no doubt this was the dungeon boss, but a humanoid one was rare and dangerous.

He didn’t look undead, but given the nature of the dungeon he definitely was, which narrowed the options for what he could be down to only a couple of possibilities.

Beside him, there were two undead priests that were the same as the ones the Death Knight had, but that was all.

It was an implicit way of saying that he was enough.

As Kelin took in the scene, he walked up the last few steps of the staircase and out onto the plateau. 

Four spells were already channeled around his staff, orbiting the top like comets, and a blazing Soulfire Sigil was in his hand. 

He’d also layered five Runic Scale Talismans around him, which gave him a 75-point reserve mana barrier, his Reactive Sigils were renewed, and a layer of stoneskin had formed across his body, making his features look grey amidst Gaius’s glowing yellow runes. 

After the death knight, he wasn’t planning on tempting fate.

There was no line that marked out the distance to the dungeon boss except the separation between the staircase and the plateau.

As soon as Kelin crossed it, the man grinned at him. 

He didn’t seem inclined to move yet, either out of arrogance or amusement.

“Ahh, a mortal...so full of vigor and inclined to tempt fate.” The man’s smile was wide as he studied Kelin. 

“But alone? That is brave. A few have come, always in groups. When I was locked away here, I feared my days of amusement were over, but now I see there is still a ray of hope.”

Despite his talkativeness, the dungeon boss was an imprint of the being he once had been, now preserved by the Path. He’d been recreated for this challenge.

Kelin analyzed him at a glance, as well as the two priests behind him.

Vampire Scion. Level 65. Elite. 

Undead Priest, Level 60.

Undead Priest, Level 60. 

It was what he’d expected.

Vampires were rare and powerful, not often seen even among the undead.

He’d heard once that they were like the natural nobility of whatever galaxy they’d come from, one of the ruling races. 

They apparently came in two types, living vampires that were born and undead vampires that were created. The first type was much stronger.

This one was probably the second type, but all vampires used necrotic energy, even the living ones, which was pretty strange for a living being.

There was a race of Winged Furies in this galaxy that were something like living vampires. They were one of the other High Races. 

They looked like humans with wings, but they used Wind magic, had sharp fangs, were known for their pride, and drank the blood of their prey.

When this type of vampire appeared, there had been a lot of curiosity over whether the races were connected, but it was just a similarity in drinking blood.

These days, both the Winged Furies and the vampires hated the comparison. They each saw it as an affront to their race, and if given the opportunity, they would ignore easier targets to fight each other.

With two priests to back this vampire up and provide healing and support spells, and with the magical resistances granted to him as an Elite, he was dangerous. 

He would definitely be stronger and faster than the death knight.

But unless he had the same sort of gear to disrupt magic, which he didn’t seem to so far, he was a lesser threat in Kelin’s eyes.

Kelin walked a short distance onto the plateau, ignoring the vampire’s grin as the boss watched him, and then he took advantage of the major flaw in that race.

While the vampire was wasting time with his show of superiority, Kelin drew a ward circle on the ground around him and activated it.

Then he looked up at the vampire and returned the smile.

“Are you still wasting time talking?” he asked. “Or are we going to fight?”

The vampire’s eyes turned from dark black to a blazing red at that. He bared his fangs with a hiss and his hand slashed through the air at the two undead priests behind him, which were starting to step forward.

“I offered you courtesy, human,” he snarled, “a last moment of manners and conversation before you die, but you dare to throw it back in my face? I will show you how prey is supposed to behave. You can entertain me for years if I’m careful with you.”

The vampire’s eyes locked on Kelin’s and a dark well of power expanded around him like a cloak. Strands of vital energy and heat from across the plateau flowed toward the vampire. It was a web of necrotic energy, drawing life and energy into it.

Then the undead spoke.

“Serve me.” 

The words swelled out in an ocean as they washed over Kelin and slammed into his wards. 

The impact was considerable and Kelin felt the tug of the ability as it tried to draw on his soul, but what should have felt like the sky was falling on him, forcing him to kneel on the ground and worship the vampire, was little more than an annoyance.

His response was four spells and two talismans.

While the vampire was distracted, two soul arrows slammed into the undead priests behind him, and then two Soulfire Bolts and two Fire Blade talismans struck him.

The bolts and fire blades exploded against the dark aura around the vampire, turning into a blinding flare of flames and light, but they only made him rock back slightly on his feet.

Kelin was already forming two more soul arrows.

“Obey,” the vampire hissed as the flames cleared away. He glared at Kelin as the weight of power around him crashed down again.

Two soul arrows shot toward him in a rainbow blur and disappeared as they passed through his leather armor to strike its soul.

The vampire let out a snarling hiss, but then he abandoned his attempts to subjugate Kelin and shot forward in a blur.

Shadows merged and flowed around the creature, revealing flashes of white fangs and dark claws that appeared at the end of his fingers.

Four dark lines from the monster’s claws were ripped open on the soulfire ward in front of Kelin, like rents torn in paper. They were jagged things, blazing with necrotic energy.

Then the vampire’s other claw slammed into the same area, shattering the threads of soulfire left behind as it headed straight for Kelin’s throat.

Kelin felt the impact as the strike hit his stoneskin and tore long gouges in it, but then two Soulfire Bolts appeared from his aura, striking back along the same path.

The bolts slammed into the vampire, making him blink as the light burned away at the aura around him, but he only turned his head slightly away.

So far, none of the soulfire spells had burned through the vampire’s protective aura. Only the soul arrows were working.

Kelin began forming two more soul arrows, but the vampire was fast. 

He recovered from the explosion and his hand shot forward again, tearing another chunk out of Kelin’s ward.

It was like he was dismantling it piece by piece. The necrotic energy disrupted the soulfire, creating a blazing war where the golden flames burned against black. 

The vampire ignored the two priests behind it, which were already staggering as rainbow flames engulfed them, and continued ripping pieces out of the ward.

Between the flames, he looked into Kelin’s eyes and smiled, with some of his arrogance appearing again. It was a strange and demonic expression with his red eyes blazing and the smile on his lips.

“I will peel you out of your shell, human, like a delicious orange, and then we will see how long you can resist my commands.”

Kelin replied with two more soul arrows at short range, which disappeared into the vampire’s soul in an instant, joining the ones that were already there.

Then he started pouring energy into the ward around him, rebuilding it even as the vampire went berserk. Dark claws tore rifts open in the ward as necrotic energy clashed with soulfire, and Kelin’s mana began to drain swiftly.

He let it continue as he repaired it, focusing on weaving the ward as tightly and densely as possible. 

Since this vampire was so talkative, he might as well get some practice with his abilities. 

Soul Arrow and Wildfire were his best spells, but he didn’t want the others to fall behind.

The undead priests were dead already, leaving the vampire alone, and with four soul arrows in his soul, it was only a matter of time until he died. 

Kelin could feel his connection to them and he continued to pour energy into them, slowly making them burn more brightly against the vampire’s resistance.

While the clash to destroy his ward continued, he set the two soul arrows he created around his staff, and then he made two more and let them join them. 

He also reinfused the two reactive sigils in his aura that the vampire had triggered and had Gaius make the stoneskin even denser.

Those would be his backup.

His ward was more efficient than his mana shield, but his mana was already down to 80%. He was losing about 5 mana every second from the vampire’s attacks. 

Then he began creating a Soulfire Inferno.

A few seconds later, he threw it at the vampire.

It exploded outside of his ward and covered the monster in flames, but they were held back by the same dark aura around it.

So far, the vampire’s defenses hadn’t weakened much. He was almost immune to regular spells as long as that cloak and his energy held out.

To be more precise, the tier of Kelin’s spells weren’t sufficient to harm him. That shield was probably Elite, the tier that was intended for Levels 80-100. He’d have to beat it down before anything would work.

Kelin poured mana into the inferno to occupy the vampire, who snarled at the flames, and then he began shaping Soulfire Bolts, stressing his current abilities to make them as dense and powerful as possible.

He released them as rapidly as he could, sending a chain of bolts slamming into the vampire’s chest.

Then he raised his hand, fusing his soul into his words, and gave the vampire a smile as he spoke the monster’s own word back.

“Obey,” he said, letting the full force of Paralyze Soul and Empower Soul explode around him at short range.

The wave of soul energy crashed against the vampire like a tidal wave. The monster took a step back, blinking for a moment, and then he shook his head in disbelief.

“You dare to try to command me?” he asked. “Prey commanding a vampire?”

“Serve me.” Kelin responded with another wave of Soul Paralysis, hammering at the vampire again.

The vampire snarled and the aura around him swelled in response. His claws lengthened again and he turned into a blur, tearing away the ward in a massive chunk. 

Then one of his hands shot through the gap again, striking directly for Kelin’s heart like he wanted to rip it from his chest.

The stoneskin on Kelin’s body was six inches thick, making him look like a stone golem. As Gaius leveled up, the quality and hardness of the stone did too, but the vampire’s claw was shrouded in necrotic energy and sank through like it was barely there.

The attack only slowed a little.

Runes shimmered at the point of impact as an interlocking scale pattern appeared across Kelin’s body, and then they began shattering one after the other.

At the same time, however, two reactive Soulfire Bolts slammed into the vampire and knocked him back before he could fully tear through his talismans.

Kelin poured more energy into rebuilding his ward and then he hammered the vampire with two new Soulfire Bolts before he raised his hand and unleashed another Soul Paralysis.

“Hold.” The word resonated around Kelin like a hammer striking an anvil, shaking the air.

The vampire bared his fangs and snarled, but instead of moving forward, this time he was more composed.

“Since you wish to use magic, I will show you magic,” he growled in reply. Then he raised his hands.

The area around him was already black from his aura, but now the aura began to expand, swelling until it reached thirty feet across. 

It looked like a dark moon behind the vampire. 

Rays of black and blue light shot across the surface, crackling with force, and then the sky above the vampire changed colors, turning as black as the moon as its light was swallowed.

The moon grew even larger, until it covered half of the plateau, and then the vampire pointed at Kelin. 

A bar of dark light the size of a wagon shot out of the moon and crossed the distance in a blink, slamming into his wards.

The impact was so incredible that the wards shattered in an instant and Kelin found himself flying through the air. 

He slammed into the ground on the far side of the plateau, almost at the edge. 

Dark necrotic energy crawled around his body, leaping like lightning as it tried to break through his defenses. His stoneskin looked like acid had eaten away 80% of it and the scale talisman was gone, fragmented into a hundred shattered runes.

Spikes of pain ran through his limbs from cracked bones and shaken organs, but the improvements to his body kept him together. Without the advancement from body refining, he would have been in bad shape.

He felt soulfire raging through his veins and meridians, working to expel the foreign energy and repair the damage.

His Necklace of Warding had been no use in blocking that attack, since it was purely magical.

In the distance, the vampire looked furious and paler than before as he lowered his hand. The moon faded away back into an aura around him, but it wasn’t as dark as it had been before.

The arrows in his soul were also blazing more brightly they began to ignite. 

The vampire glanced down at his chest and hissed in pain, but then he looked back up, his attention locked on Kelin.

Then he shot toward him. His body was a blur of movement as he reached out for Kelin’s neck.

“Hold.” Kelin’s word rang out as he looked at the vampire, and the full force of Soul Paralysis and Empower Soul Magic exploded into the air around him.

This time, he had a better grasp of the vampire’s soul and the nature of his strength, as well as how necrotic energy was flowing through him.

The vampire froze as his muscles locked up.

It only lasted for an instant, but at the speed the vampire was moving, he flew straight past Kelin and went a dozen feet more before he regained control of himself.

He flipped in the air, using the darkness around him to maneuver like it was a physical thing, and then he landed crouched on the ground as he spun around and looked at Kelin.

There was wariness and fury mixed in its gaze.

Kelin had already risen to his feet and his staff was in his hand. 

In his other hand, a five-pointed star of rainbow light was growing. He looked calmly at the vampire as he raised it.

Then he threw it.

The Soul Star shot forward like a comet, heading directly for the vampire.

The monster disappeared, blurring into the shadows as he moved to the other side of the platform, but the spell was locked onto his soul and curved to follow him.

It also sped up, disappearing in a blink as it crossed the distance.

Then it slammed into the vampire’s chest.

Five arcs of soul energy exploded outward, tearing through the vampire’s soul as they struck the four arrows that were already there. The combined force erupted like a volcano, sending a massive sphere of soul flames roaring through the vampire’s being.

Smoke rose from his fingers, his ears, and his nostrils as ethereal colors began to fill his eyes, but it was slower than on any Elite Kelin had faced so far.

He staggered, his hand moving to touch his chest as he glared at Kelin. 

He raised his hand and his aura flared out like wings in the air, and then it changed shape until it looked like his hand. 

The vampire reached out toward Kelin and the aura swept toward him, but its path was erratic and jagged. 

Kelin stood there silently, leaning on his staff as the four soul arrows orbited the top, but he didn’t release them.

Halfway to him, the aura began to fluctuate, its shape distorting as it came to a halt in the air.

Behind it, the vampire coughed as a faint trail of rainbow smoke poured out of his mouth.

He reached out toward Kelin again and the aura moved forward a few halting feet, but then rainbow light filled his eyes.

The aura dissolved as the vampire toppled forward, his face slamming into the stone of the plateau.

Ethereal flames poured up from every part of his body, making a cloak of fire, and smoke twisted in the air above him. 

Notifications began to ring in Kelin’s mind.

He looked across the plateau, scanning it for any enemies, and then he winced as he walked forward slowly, heading back to where his Soulfire Sigil was still hanging in the air.

Trying to train abilities on powerful enemies was always risky, but the rewards were often worth it. 

As he sat down under the sigil and restored his ward, he glanced at the notifications ringing in his mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire. 

You have gained a Level.

You are now Level 60.

Your Soul-Bonded Elemental has also gained a level.

You gain 1 Wisdom, 3 Intelligence, and have 5 free attribute points to assign.

Due to stressing your abilities in battle, you gain 1 Constitution, 2 Intelligence, and 1 Aura.

His Intelligence was up to 517 now, so he tossed the free points into Aura, which raised it to 221. 

Then he moved on to the next notification.

Your Skill: Empower Soul Magic has gained a tier and risen to Expert.

Your Spell: Paralyze Soul has gained a tier and risen to Advanced.

It wasn’t every spell he’d used, but it was a good gain for a fairly short fight. He’d have to use Soulfire Inferno and the other ones more before they leveled up.

He began channeling his energy into Touch of Soulfire and let the healing wash over him. Then he looked at the next notification.

You may choose one Class Ability and one Subclass Ability to upgrade by a tier, to a maximum of Expert.

Expert was the usual goal for Levels 60 to 80, so that was the limit of the increase that the Path offered at 60.

He considered the options and then he made his first choice.

Your Class Ability: Touch of Soulfire has risen by a tier and reached Expert.

He didn’t have much time to spend practicing healing, so he was happy to take the Path’s help in upgrading it. 

Most of his class abilities had already reached Expert, so the choice was between that and Reactive Sigil, and it would be easier to upgrade the sigils, since he used them more. 

Now his healing would be able to deal with slightly more complex things, although he still wouldn’t be able to regenerate missing limbs unless he reached Epic. Specialized healing classes could do that earlier, but not him.

His second choice resulted in another notification.

Your Subclass Ability: Affinity Focus has risen by a tier and reached Expert.

[Affinity Focus allows you to harness sources of natural mana and to imbue them into the items you craft, as well as to enhance your creations with specific affinities or bonuses. 

At the Expert tier, you are able to add a 15% bonus to items, such as 15% Improved Mana Regeneration or Fire Efficiency, as long as you have the matching Affinity.]

Affinity Focus was the hardest of his subclass skills to raise and it had just reached Advanced back in Highmist. 

Moving it to Expert now would save him a lot of effort.

The ability was the base amount for all the enchantments he was able to add, while Runic Engraving could only improve on it, so it was critical to get it up.

Runic Engraving and Arcane Refinement were still at Advanced, but those were easier to raise with practice.

His ability list was finally starting to look a little credible, with tiers that matched his level.

There were still some things to raise, but he would work on them.

He moved on to the next notification.

At Level 60, you may choose one new Class Ability from the following list:

Soul Recovery.

Soulfire Reinforcement.

Make your choice now.

Soul Recovery would strengthen his soul, improve his recovery rate, and give him a certain amount of ability to heal his own and other people’s souls.

Soulfire Reinforcement would allow him to use soulfire to infuse artifacts and other objects, including wards he hadn’t built himself.

They were both useful, but more on the side of passive abilities with long-term gains than things that he would use much in battle.

He considered the option and then he made his choice.

A wave of golden energy gathered around him from the Path. It blazed with light as it sank into his body and formed a new pathway in his soul. 

Congratulations, Soulfire Warden.

You have gained the Class Ability: Soul Recovery (Basic).

[You are attuned to the nature of the soul and just like you can heal the physical body with a touch, you are capable of restoring damage to the spirit. This ability can be used to heal your own soul and those of others, helping to remove damage from curses and spiritual afflictions, as well as from other sources. It works on both physical and spiritual beings. 

At the Basic tier, this ability provides a passive +5% regeneration rate to your soul, which stacks with healing and recovery from other sources.]

The regeneration boost and the fact that it worked to heal others, including spiritual beings, was the main reason he’d taken it now over the other one.

If Gaius ever got hurt, this ability would be good. The elemental was a large part of his strength in this life, and now he had a way to heal him. 

It would also help if he was with a team that was badly cursed and dying.

With the 5% addition and the recent increases to his Aura, his base soul energy recovery was up to 54% per hour. 

Soulfire Sigil improved that rate by 35%, which took it to 73%, and then Meditation at Expert cut 30% off the time required, so he was regaining that much every 42 minutes, which was 104% per hour.

As for his mana recovery, at his current Wisdom of 172, he was at 41% per hour as a base, which jumped to 43% with the regeneration enchantment on his breeches, and then 58% with the sigil. Meditating took it to 83% per hour.

It wasn’t bad for his level. The sigil and his work to push Meditation higher helped.

He turned his attention back to the last notifications, which were about the dungeon.

You have cleared the River Barrow Chaos Remnant!

Requirement Met: Clear 90% or more of the monsters inside.

Additional Bonus Met: Clear 100% of the monsters inside and kill the final boss.

You are granted bonus experience for completing these objectives, as well as for the successful completion of the remnant.

You are granted 3 Levels.

Your Soul-Bonded Elemental has also gained 3 Levels.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You are now Level 63.

Kelin dismissed the attribute gain description, only pausing to add the 15 free points to Aura, which took it to 236. 

Then he moved on to the next notification.

You have earned an Ability Reward for a perfect clear and for completing the remnant at a High mana density and High danger rating.

You may choose one Ability to upgrade by a single tier, to a maximum of Expert.

Make your choice now.

A perfect clear on a High-rated dungeon was almost always good for an ability improvement. It was one of the few ways to really accelerate your ability tiers.

It was only one boost this time, not two like in the last dungeon, but that one had given extra rewards due to the tampering.

He chose the ability he wanted and the Path announced the result.

Your Class Ability: Soul Recovery has gained a tier and reached Advanced.

Normally, he would have waited to increase an ability until he was familiar with it, but he understood this one well enough.

The result was an overall improvement in the strength of Soul Recovery, as well as a jump from 5% to 10% for the passive effect.

Then there were the final notifications.

You have earned a treasure reward for killing the Final Boss: Vampire Scion.

The reward will be based on your class. 

Since you have completed the dungeon solo and it was intended for a complete party, the tier of the reward will increase from Expert to Elite.

A sphere of light shimmered in front of Kelin, swiftly flashing through different hues until it resolved into an ornate scroll that floated toward him.

When he touched it, the scroll flashed with a glint of soulfire and then knowledge appeared in his mind.

Compendium of Soulfire Runes (Elite).

Artifact Scroll.

Soulbound to Kelin of Highmist.

[This scroll contains knowledge of runes related to Soulfire that may be employed by your class. It has a total of ten runes in an ascending order of difficulty, each with an attunement to one facet of the higher Law of Soulfire. A complete study of this compendium will help to set you onto a steady path in your element.]

A brief smile appeared on Kelin’s face as he absorbed the information in the scroll and then he stored it away.

It wasn’t a combat artifact, but it was perhaps even better.

The knowledge in the scroll would be useful to him in a hundred ways, from carving a better Soulfire Sigil to improving his spells and enchanting efforts. 

Setting a strong foundation for a Law of Soulfire now would also help him when it came time to form one at the Fourth Evolution.

It wasn’t hard to find normal elemental compendiums, but given the rarity of soulfire, this one would have been almost impossible to get.

It was an invaluable reward, something he wouldn’t have gotten if he hadn’t completed the dungeon alone.

Then there were the final notifications.

You have earned treasure rewards for completing this remnant.

You are awarded 19 gold and 11 silver coins in the local currency.

You are awarded an additional 15 gold coins as a bonus for the dungeon’s High difficulty and mana density.

Your guild badge has recorded your accomplishments, which will be acknowledged by the Stars Alliance when you return to a guild hall.

65 Guild Credits have been added to your badge.

100 bonus credits have been added to your badge for completing the local Alliance Quest: Scout the Dungeons.

The coins appeared directly in his personal storage space, in the same local style as always, and his badge let out a chime.

Kelin nodded at that.

65 credits was normal for this dungeon, since it matched the level of the boss. 

The extra 100 was for the quest that Captain Sandren had assigned him to scout the dungeons for signs of tampering.

With that, the notifications were done and he went back to meditating as he let himself recover. 

The damage from the vampire was extensive, but his upgraded healing was making swift work of it. It just meant that it drained his mana until it was done.

While he was healing, Gaius brought him the cores from the vampire and the two undead priests, and he stored them away. 

The vampire’s body was still there, however, suggesting that there was something to gather from it, so he went to investigate.

He analyzed everything and then he extracted the vampire’s fangs. They shone with a pale silver energy in his mana sight and a unique affinity that was more oriented to Life magic than Necrotic energy.

The body dissolved into dust, leaving behind a dark cloak and the black leather armor that he was wearing.

It had some enchantments for stealth and agility, but it wasn’t suited for Kelin, so he stored it away and went back to meditating.

A couple of hours later, he stood up and dusted himself off.

His mana and soul energy were full, his reactive sigils were restored, and the four soul arrows he’d summoned at the end of the fight were still orbiting his staff.

He’d decided not to dismiss them. 

It was good mana control practice to keep them there and he rather liked the effect. It also meant that he had four instant spells whenever he needed them, for the small cost of a bit of attention.

Then he turned to the dungeon portal that had appeared on the plateau.

This time, he could take the quick exit.

He gave the area a final glance, but the sight of the soul arrows made him think of something. He grabbed a couple talismans out of his belt and held them in his left hand. 

Bandits had always liked stalking the exits to dungeons and Jesra’s warning about the Wind Hunters was still on his mind.

Then he stepped through the silver and black barrier and let the stars stream past him.