Wild Era, Ch 22: Wraith Shards

The Poison Drake turned to look at Kelin and the others as they stopped. Its eyes locked onto them like a serpent’s sighting prey. The only emotions in its gaze were pride and cunning.  

Its jaws opened in a savage roar and the entire arena of the ancient city shook under the force. Poisonous green mist rose up from cracks in the stone around where the drake was standing. It swirled upward in streamers until it merged into the storm of poison wraiths above its wings.

But it didn’t charge forward.

It looked at them as if it were daring the ants to come into its lair and face it.

Kelin analyzed the Hesen around it at a glance.

Hesen Chieftain. Level 65. Elite.

Hesen Bodyguard. Level 55.

Hesen Officer. Level 56.

Hesen Shaman. Level 55.

Hesen Mage. Level 53.

Hesen Warrior. Level 50.

Hesen Berserker. Level 52.

All of the upper level Hesen were gathered here like servants for the poison drake.

The chieftain should have been the final boss for the dungeon. His Elite status marked that. But the poison drake had usurped his place and taken control.

He was a melee type, a bigger version of one of the berserkers. If he was allowed to use the rage abilities that came with the class, he was probably strong enough to break a stone pillar in half with a single swing of his axe. 

The shamans were the next most dangerous, capable of summoning Root Terrors and spirits to attack, while also using healing spells on their allies and slowing, crippling, and poison curses on their enemies. 

With enough of them together, they could weaken almost any attempt to defeat the boss.

After them, there were the mages with long-range magic, mostly direct elemental spells and bolts. 

The bodyguards, officers, and other melee fighters were there to protect the magic users and the chieftain, making it difficult to make any headway.

Now, they were all gathered around the poison drake to protect it instead.

Based on the number of wraiths, the drake had probably killed most of the monsters in the forest and turned them into its followers.

“By the mother of stone...this is going to be painful,” Galin swore as he stopped next to Kelin and looked at the enemies.

They were on the edge of the arena and for the moment, there were no enemies directly near them. The poison wraiths were all concentrated around the drake.

Serai looked pale as she took in the opposition, but her expression changed to one of resolve.

“If they stay bunched together, I can rain ice spears down on them,” she said. “It will just take a lot to kill them all. I have a couple bigger spells as well. I can stack them together if we’re going all out.”

“I can attack from the ground,” Galin agreed. “You go high and I’ll go low and send earth spikes up at them. Maybe we can meet in the middle.”

“I’m only good at jumping into the heat of things,” Maro said, but he was just as determined. “I’ll distract the drake if you all kill the rest.”

“We’ll have to eliminate the poison wraiths first,” Kelin said as he studied the problem. “Otherwise, there won’t be a fight once they get their talons into you. Then the Hesen casters as well. The drake will have to be the last, but containing him is the problem.”

Since nothing was attacking them immediately, he sat down on the edge of the arena, taking the moment to meditate as he worked to get his mana back.

The poison drake let out a growl at that, but it only watched him.

It seems like it was unwilling to leave the arena, which wasn’t unusual for dungeon bosses. 

The Hesen under its command were likewise constrained by the commands of the Path and didn’t run to attack. 

They were lucky that this was one of the dungeons that worked like that. 

Not all of them did.

It wouldn’t last forever. They had to take advantage of the time to make their final preparations.

“We have a chance to prepare ourselves,” he said, feeling relieved as he ignited a Soulfire Sigil and placed it in the air.

“Take advantage of the time to recover. If the Path’s strictures on this dungeon hold, they won’t attack for a couple of hours unless we try to run.”

It was an opportunity for a dungeon team to restore their mana and make their plans before the final battle. 

The obvious solution would be to Wildfire everything in front of him, but it wasn’t going to work. There were too many enemies. 

He did the calculation anyway.

It would take 50 mana and 50 soul energy to start Wildfire, and then 100 wraiths would be 300 mana to burn them all. The soul energy would come from them to expand it, and the size of the fire would be enough to fill the entire arena.

A dozen Hesen would be another 36 mana, and then it would be just 3 more for the drake. Despite its level, by the time the Wildfire reached it, it would die just as easily as the rest.

The poison fog would be completely burned away at the same time.

That would be 389 mana and 50 soul energy, just under his maximum of 402 mana currently.

He could do it, but the backlash would kill him.

The impact of 113 burning souls wasn’t something he could bear right now. He’d done 12 before in the mine. 

With the improvements he’d made since then, he could manage maybe 15, perhaps 20 at a stretch. 

The best tactic would be to burn down the wraiths with regular spells and then Wildfire the Hesen and the drake together, but that would only work if everyone else stayed out of the way.

Wildfire was not kind to allies without his Law to control it.

Another option was to kill everything normally and then to Soul Star the drake.

That was probably how it would have to go down, either that or a combination of Wildfire and then a Soul Star.

The drake’s status as an Elite meant it would take a while to kill it with soul arrows, but he could do that too. It would take at least four of them, maybe six or eight. 

Dungeon bosses were naturally resistant to everything, even soul magic.

The Hesen Chieftain would be the same.

It would be better to catch them up in a Wildfire, which would kill them quickly, but first he had to deal with the wraiths and the poison.

The amount of poison in the arena was easily a dozen times stronger than anything they’d seen so far, especially around the drake. Their mana barriers would hold out for a little bit, but once those failed just walking down there would probably kill them.

The drake was keeping the poison away from the Hesen or they would have already been dead. It must have learned its lesson after it killed some of the others.

“The poison from that drake and the wraiths is going to be the biggest problem,” Kelin summarized. “If we don’t do something, it will kill all of us as soon as we get close to it.”

He thought about the problem for a moment and then an idea occurred to him.

“Dungeons always leave a door,” he muttered under his breath.

It was an old adage.

Dungeons had a law of balance. There was always a sliver of opportunity, if you were able to seize it. 

It was one of the rules of the Path. 

He took out a handful of the green poison shards from the wraiths they had killed and studied them. 

If he had more skill at enchanting, he could turn them into a shield against the same type of poison, but he wasn’t at that level in this life.

But they could still be useful.

It just meant doing it the more painful way.

He held up his palm, showing the shards to the others.

“I have an idea,” he said. “This is the same energy as what’s around the drake. If we can build up a resistance to it, it will help us survive down there.”

“How are we going to do that?” Maro asked, looking puzzled. “Building up a resistance takes dozens or even hundreds of exposures. I’ve been hit by those things twice now, but I don’t think I’m even close to it.”

Building resistances was a common part of an adventurer’s life, especially as you got higher, so the idea was familiar to them. It was essential for facing some monsters. 

“These are the purified energy of a poison affinity,” Kelin said as he held up the shards. “If we absorb them the right way, it will be a resistance trial. We’ll either gain a resistance to the poison or we’ll die if it overwhelms our constitution. But if we’re careful, we can make sure the second one doesn’t happen.”

He pointed at the sigil in the air. 

“I wouldn’t suggest this except that we have that sigil as a backup and I can purge the poison directly. It will help to accelerate our regeneration and I’ll step in if the poison becomes too much.”

“You think that will work?” Serai asked doubtfully. “I know the guild offers some resistance training like that, and poison resistance is one of the more common abilities that all adventurers need, but the guild uses carefully moderated doses over days with healers on hand.”

“These shards are dangerous,” Kelin agreed, “but we can do the same thing here. These have a pure poison affinity. They could be used for antidote potions, nullification artifacts, or half a dozen other things. For this purpose, they’re as good as it gets. It’s very difficult to find something with a pure affinity, and because of that, they offer a quick way to build up a resistance to it. 

“In terms of using them to gain a basic poison resistance, it’s actually a waste, but they have the best chance to grant it of anything at this level. If you can fight off pure poison, you’ll build a resistance quickly. The same resistance would have to be accomplished by careful doses of a dozen different poisons under the eyes of the guild.”

He had some poisons from the assassin, but there was no time to separate them out into small doses and carefully administer them over days or he would have considered it.

The resistance that those poisons gave would also be weaker against the wraiths and the drake. 

“These are what we have available,” he finished. “I’ll try to enhance them a bit and create an enchantment that will promote turning them into a resistance, but I’ll have to work quickly.”

“What type of resistance are we talking about here?” Galin asked. His tone was serious, but he seemed willing. 

“Natural and magical poison resistance,” Kelin answered. “We’ll need it. Poison Drakes generate a natural miasma of poison around themselves, both from their scales and from their breath. It spreads throughout their aura and is imbued with their affinity, the same as these shards.” 

He glanced down at the drake, which was still staring at them.

“Its claws and fangs will also be coated in it. Even if you get a resistance, try not to get hit. A resistance is only good for so much. But it will be better than not having one.”

“I don’t see that we have much choice,” Serai said as she looked at the shards. “We’re stuck here until we do something. We can’t go down there with that poison in our current condition, and if we run, it will chase us. 

“This seems like the best chance, and if it really does give us the resistance, at least it’s something that will be useful in the future. Assuming we survive.”

“Let’s do it,” Maro said. His voice was determined. “I’ll go first as the test subject. If I die, you’ll have to figure out something else.”

”No, I’ll go first!” Galin said, holding up a hand in protest. “I have a stronger Constitution than you, so if anyone is likely to survive it, it’s me.”

Kelin hid a smile at their willingness to fight over it.

“Based on normal dungeon habits,” he said, “we have maybe two hours before they start to get angry down there. I’m not sure how long this will take, so we can start with one person, but we will probably all have to do it together.”

“Test it out on me,” Galin insisted. “You probably need to calculate the dose. You can start with a small amount and then keep adding to it until it seems like I’m struggling. I’ll try to tell you what’s happening as we go.”

Kelin looked at the other two for confirmation, and when they didn’t disagree he nodded in approval.

“Give me a couple of minutes to grind these up and enchant them,” he said. “Just using the raw things isn’t going to be good enough.”

With that, he turned his attention to the shards and began to pull some things out of his storage.

That assassin had left him a few cups and bowls and random things, which would be useful now.

He took one of the glass bowls that the assassin had probably used for mixing poisons and then he purged it with Touch of Soulfire, leaving the glass warm.

Then his mana blade appeared in his hand and he began to engrave the bowl. Runes began to swiftly form across the base and around both the outside and inside, each of them glowing with golden light.

He based the engraving on an alchemical enchantment he was familiar with that promoted the beneficial properties of ingredients, enhancing them before use. 

To that, he added key runes for regeneration, resistance, and adaptation, working the whole into a pattern that should promote the gaining of a resistance. 

It wasn’t a perfect enchantment, but it was the best he could do in a handful of minutes.

When he was done, the bowl glowed with soulfire, and the Path’s notification rang in his mind. 

Congratulations, Arcane Artisan.

You have engraved a Magical Artifact.

Item: Alchemist’s Mortar of Poison Resistance.

[Effect: This mortar reduces the negative properties of the ingredients mixed inside it by 25% and adds a 10% enhancement to their poison resistance.]

The bowl was still glowing as he poured a pile of the wraith shards into it, creating a small mound of glittering green crystals. Eight of them fit.

He had about 60 total, which should be more than enough.

He’d left some of the shards behind, but it had been easy to get the ones from the wraiths that died outside his wards. Gaius had helped him to collect a lot of them. 

He took out a glass pestle and swiftly engraved that with a simpler copy of the enchantment, making a complete pair. 

He wrapped the bowl in a mana shield as he began to grind the crystals into dust. With each rotation of the pestle, the green crystals crackled with poisonous mist, releasing it like a fog in the bowl. 

When he had them completely ground down, there was a small hill of powdered green crystals. He mixed the powder with a touch of soulfire, carefully heating it until it began to melt into a liquid. 

He’d never been much of an alchemist, but he at least knew something of the basics when it came to mixing potions and elixirs.

What he was doing was a rough form of alchemy, with soulfire standing in for the flames that alchemists normally used. Hopefully, some of the beneficial nature of that element would infuse this mixture.

As the powder turned to liquid, more of the poisonous green fog lifted away from it, purified in the heat. He was careful not to remove too much, leaving over half of the original affinity.

Then he pulled out one of the healing potions he had, which was also from the assassin. He let a thread of soulfire flow through the potion, slowly heating it and bolstering its positive qualities. 

He looked up at Galin as he held the bowl in one hand and the potion in the other.

“I’m going to pour this potion into the powder, which will make something you can drink a little more safely,” he explained. “Don’t drink the whole bowl, just a sip or two to start. If you have any inherent abilities to resist poison, you should use it. Try to fight back and destroy it. There are enough positive qualities mixed into this now that it should work.”

He uncorked the potion with a flick of his thumb and slowly poured it on top of the poison, letting the two mix together.

The potion was red, but as it mixed with the green liquid, threads of yellow light formed, swirling through the mixture. The sigils on the outside of the mortar glowed with the same light.

It was a good sign.

Kelin handed the bowl to Galin, and the dwarf didn’t hesitate. He sniffed at it and then he raised it to his mouth, swiftly drinking two mouthfuls before he handed the bowl back to Kelin.

Galin’s face almost instantly turned pale with a touch of green, and then he began to cough. A haze of green mist with yellow threads came out of his mouth.

The dwarf saw the mist and glared at it. His hand swept out and a mana shield swept the mist back toward his mouth, where he inhaled it again. Then he held his nose and sealed his mouth shut.

After a moment, his body convulsed and his veins swelled up. Then his skin turned pale, but the effects were much less than when the wraiths had attacked him. 

A faint green and yellow energy light began to rise from his skin and hovered just above it. It mixed with the light of the Soulfire Sigil in the air, which made it look healthier than not. 

Kelin swept his senses across Galin. The dwarf was struggling, but the poison wasn’t overwhelming him. He could see the poison mana in the mix breaking down and being absorbed by Galin’s blood, which was what it was supposed to do.

At the rate it was disappearing, two sips probably wouldn’t be enough. Maybe four or six. Kelin might need to mix another batch if everyone else was the same.

“It’s going well,” he said to the others. “He’ll be fine. Who’s next?”

“Me,” Maro said as he held out his hand. “Two sips?”

“For now,” Kelin said. “You’ll both probably need more after that.” 

He passed the bowl to Maro, who did the same as Galin.

The berserker turned pale as threads of green and yellow light swept across his body, but then a wave of fire rippled across him, fighting against it. 

Kelin watched him carefully, evaluating how quickly the poison was working. At the rate it was going, Maro’s fires might burn away the poison even more quickly than Galin’s natural resistance.

Then he looked at the sylph as he offered her the bowl. 

“Serai, you should start with one sip,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on you the most of all.” 

“What about you?” she asked as she took the bowl.

“I’ll start as soon as I’m sure you three are fine,” he said. “I can heal myself, if needed.”

With Touch of Soulfire and Soulfire Body Refinement, he might need an even larger dose than Galin, but the harder it was to gain a resistance, the stronger it tended to be.

“Be careful,” she said seriously as she raised the bowl. “I doubt we can make it out of here without you.”

Then she took a drink and handed it back to him.

As the green and yellow aura sprang up around her, her reaction was a wind of icy mana around her body that warred against it, pushing it back and freezing its progress.

Her reaction was almost as strong as Maro’s, which meant that one sip was about right for her.

Kelin watched all three of them, measuring their progress at resisting the poison and destroying it. Here and there, he sent a thread of soulfire at them to break up a dangerous concentration of poison.

When he judged the Soulfire Sigil was enough to keep them alive by itself, he raised the bowl and heated the contents again.

There were about three sips left.

He drank all of them. 

An instant later, he felt the poison hit his stomach. Strands of green and yellow energy began to  radiate outward through his body, but soulfire rose from his meridians and blood to meet it.

When the two met, the green energy was incinerated, while the yellow light moved on, sinking into his veins.

Soulfire Body Refinement had attuned his entire body to soulfire, and it didn’t appreciate poison coming to visit. That ability was his best card here. It gave him a natural advantage in improving his constitution and strengthening his physique. 

Resistances were a part of that.

He suppressed the rejection as he let the poison flow through his body, encouraging the green and yellow auras to mix everywhere.

The yellow was an antidote aura, but there was less of it. With the poison and that together, it was setting off a war in his veins. The poison washed across everything and then the antidote pulled some of it back out.

In order to make the most of the process, he seized control of the antidote mana and separated it into reserves, preventing it from wasting itself on weak batches of poison.

Whenever a particularly strong clump of poison became too concentrated, he sent a thread of the antidote to break it up.

All the while, the poison was slowly eating away at his veins and trying to sink into his muscles and bones. It felt like fire and acid were corroding him from the inside out.

He grimaced as he pushed the feeling away.

Instead of thinking about it, he focused his attention on the unique nature of the poison and he began to thread it through more parts of his body, particularly his lungs and organs, helping it to reach key places.

If you wanted to get a resistance, it was best to be comprehensive.

Unlike the others, no green mist appeared on his skin. He contained it all, letting it flow through his blood to every part of his body. There was just the glow of soulfire around him.

When it was clear that he could let the process continue on its own, he brought out some more wraith shards and began to mix another batch of poison. The runes on the bowl glowed with light as he ground the crystals down and then liquified them. 

When it was ready, he poured another healing potion on top. The yellow light formed again, a little more brightly this time, and he turned to watch Galin.

The dwarf’s hands were clenched and his body was radiating with light. Most of it was yellow now.

“Drink more,” Kelin said as he tapped the dwarf on the shoulder. “Time for a second dose.”

Galin’s eyes opened and he let out a huff of breath that stirred his beard, but he reached out and took the bowl. He drank two more sips and handed it back.

Then he went back to his silent struggle.

The same thing repeated again a moment later with Maro and Serai.

They’d all been getting an advantage over the poison, but with a new dose, the green aura flared up again, making them shake like they had a fever.

Kelin kept a critical eye on them for a couple of minutes and then he drank the rest of the bowl, going back to his own internal battle.

Five minutes later, he started mixing a third batch.

He’d only had five healing potions from the assassin and now he would have two left, but the others probably had a couple if needed, just like they’d had mana potions.

At any rate, this would be the last round like this. All three of them were beginning to burn off the poison at a faster rate, which meant they’d need something stronger soon. 

He gave them a third dose and then he drank the rest of the batch.

When the poison washed through his body, its effect was slower this time, as if it were struggling to sink in. The acid feeling was also weaker.

A few moments later, a notification rang in his mind.

You have gained the Innate Ability: Poison Resistance (Basic).

He felt the progress of the poison slow down even more. It was struggling to sink into his body.

He evaluated the process, as well as how much of the antidote he had floating through his body, and then he decided to speed things up.

He took a raw wraith shard from his storage, ground it to powder in the mortar, which made it simmer with golden flames, and liquified it with soulfire. 

Then he drank it.

It felt like a river of acid pouring down his throat and when it hit his stomach, it was like a sword had just sliced through him. Without the healing potion to moderate it, it was about ten times stronger than before.

He almost doubled over at the pain of it, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay upright. 

A wave of poison roared through his body, making his limbs shake. His lungs began to freeze up and he felt his muscles locking down as well.

At the same time, soulfire rose up in response, rising from every vein and muscle, as well as from his bones. Threads of the yellow antidote joined it, breaking down the strongest parts.

Now that he had the basic resistance, it was like a scaffold for his own energy to build on. 

The poison washed through him in a tide, but with each wave, it encountered more resistance. 

He forced his attention away from the process as he checked on the other three, and then he prepared a new bowl of concentrated poison for them.

He gave each of them a single sip of it, and half a sip for Serai. 

While their struggle continued, he went back to his own.

He was being hard on them, but he was harder on himself.

The poison continued to wash through his body and he drank the rest of the bowl again. The acid feeling intensified, flaring up before it crashed against his veins.

Then another notification came.

Your Poison Resistance has been upgraded to Advanced.

A little while later, he drank a third bowl of the concentrate, but it had less effect, so he took a whole wraith shard and ate it directly, without the bowl to moderate the ingredients.

It seared his tongue like hot iron, but then it melted. As it hit his stomach, a whirlwind of pain spread out from it, saturating his body. 

A few minutes later another notification sounded in his mind.

Your Poison Resistance has been upgraded to Expert.

It was followed by another notification, one he hadn’t expected.

You have discovered a natural trait of Soulfire Body Refinement. 

Its improvements to your physique enhance your ability to gain resistances.

Then the notifications continued.

Soulfire Body Refinement has gained a tier and reached Advanced.

By aligning your physique to Soulfire, you now have a 35% improvement to your durability and physical recovery, and a 35% resistance to mortal wounds.

Your Class Bonus to Fire and Soul magic has increased to 35%.

It was a 10% increase over the Basic tier for all three areas.

The process of tempering himself with poison had forced his body to adapt, and as a result soulfire had integrated more deeply through his meridians and physique. That made it easier for him to channel it, which improved his class bonus.

Tiers went from Basic to Advanced, Expert, Elite, and Epic. 

The poison drake was probably at Expert or Elite with its poison, since that was its nature. Epic was possible, but given its level, unlikely.

Hopefully.

He let his body fight off the poison that was still flowing through it, which was growing weaker by the moment, and turned his attention to the rest of the team.

Analyze told him that Galin and Maro had already gained the Basic tier of poison resistance, so he gave them a stronger dose of the concentrate, which should push them toward Advanced.

Serai was a bit behind, still struggling to get the initial tier.

He kept a careful eye on her and then gave her another half sip of the concentrate.

A few minutes later, he saw the change in her aura as she finally gained the ability.

He dosed Galin and Maro again with two sips each, and then gave her a full sip. The bowl of concentrate was still half full, so it would last a bit longer.

Each round was taking several minutes, and they’d been at this for over an hour already. 

They could keep at it for a little longer, but fighting against the poison was draining on them and they needed enough time to recover.

As he waited for them, he ate another wraith shard, enduring the acidic strike as it melted its way to his stomach. 

He wasn’t expecting any more significant improvements to his resistance, since the gulf between tiers was wide, especially as they increased, but there would still be a little progress.

Even an Expert resistance didn’t mean he could completely ignore the drake’s poison, especially if it bit him, since the concentration in its fangs would be much higher than what was in one of the shards, but he should be able to ignore the poison fog from the wraiths, as well as the miasma in the arena.

His body would ignore low doses like that, and any stronger poison that reached him would also have less purchase and wear off more quickly.

Maro and Galin were making progress and he was fairly confident they could reach Advanced in short order.

He was more concerned about Serai. At the rate she was going, Basic might be all she managed in the time they had available.

That should be enough to keep her moving for a while, but the concentration of poison might slow her down and there was a chance it would eventually overwhelm her.

They would have to be fast.

About ten minutes later, he stopped giving them more doses of the concentrate. They were running out of time and they needed to clear it from their bodies.

He saw when Galin and then Maro gained the Advanced resistance, and their bodies began to reject the rest of the poison. Green mist poured away from their skin, burning up in their auras.

Serai was struggling, however, so he had to help her purge the excess poison. Once he did, the icy wind around her body calmed down and she doubled over, looking faint.

He healed her a bit more and then he stored away the things he’d used to mix the poison and began to meditate, letting his mana head back toward full.

The team looked worn out as they picked themselves up, but they didn’t complain too much. They just grumbled as they got cleaned up, wiping away the sweat and dried fog of poison that had settled on their skin. Kelin was already clean, since the poison had never condensed on him. 

Then they sat down to meditate as well.

“We have thirty minutes,”  Kelin said as he looked down at the arena. “They’re already starting to move around.”

It would be just enough to restore his mana. After that, they would have to attack.

In the arena, the drake was staring at him, its eyes fixed directly on his. The monster’s eyes were a vivid green that rippled through a dozen shades, a brighter version of its scales, and they were filled with rage.

The emotion was matched in the storm of wraiths above it, which screamed as they spiraled around its wings.

The Hesen were staring at them too, waiting for them to step foot into the arena.