Wild Era, Ch 17: Shieldrun Forest

Welcome to the Shieldrun Forest Chaos Remnant.

The notification rang in Kelin’s mind as he passed through the barrier. 

Open blue sky, rolling plains, and a vast forest stretched out before him. In the distance, mountains rose to meet the horizon, their peaks covered by twisting streams of mist and clouds.

The entrance had been at the base of a tree, but he was standing on a small hill just outside of the forest,  which was ahead and to the right. 

It looked very similar to Shieldrun Forest, with the same towering blue oaks and maples, but there was a heavier and more dangerous feel to everything.

A tumbling stream ran past between him and the forest, while to the left the land descended toward the plains that stretched out in a green and golden medley.

A bright yellow sun blazed down, showing the same mid-afternoon light that he’d just left, but there was more fire essence here, making it tingle across his skin with the promise of destruction.

Here and there, he could see monsters moving in the distance, but there was a thin barrier around the entrance that hid him from their view and gave him the chance to orient himself.

He took stock of things quickly.

He drew in a deep breath as he tasted the Fire essence from the sun, as well as the Wood and Earth that were dominant throughout the forest and the land. Mana sizzled at the edge of his senses, like a crackling wave of electricity, and elemental essence filled the air.

The dungeon had to be thirty or forty miles across before it reached the mountains, but the size of things was no surprise.

Every dungeon was a minor world of its own. 

They were dimensional realms, slivers of reality constructed to hold monsters and mana inside. It was entirely possible to live in one for years, and some of the greater dungeons allowed you to do that. Others were opposed to adventurers and would constantly send monsters after you as long as any remained. 

This was probably one of the latter. If he didn’t start moving soon, monsters would be pushed toward him.

That was fine. 

He turned and checked the exit. 

The starlight barrier was still there, almost invisible in the sunlight, but it hummed with spatial mana in his senses.

A small rainbow-hued rune appeared above his hand and he touched it to the barrier, and an awareness of the gate’s location appeared in his mind.

It was important to not lose track of a dungeon’s entrance. Some of them could be tricky and move around. The soul imprint would make sure that he could find this one.

Then he summoned a mana shield and activated both of the bracers he’d made, one for physical missiles like arrows and the other for spells, in case something tried to ambush him as soon as he left the barrier. 

He tinted the outer edge of his mana shield to match the color of the grass and sky, effectively camouflaging himself, and a pulse of soul energy to his Soul Shroud changed it to obscure him from most senses. 

That spell was always active as a defensive layer over his soul that blocked analysis abilities from seeing more than he wanted, but it could be altered to do much more, if he had the energy for it.

Then he stepped out of the barrier and headed for the forest.

There would be monsters on the plains as well, and probably in the river, but this was the Shieldrun Forest remnant, so he might as well check out the forest first.

The dungeon’s mana density meant that it wouldn’t be long before he ran into something.

It was tempting to gather up a bunch of them and just Wildfire the entire place, but as nice of an idea as that was, it wasn’t the best plan right now. 

He could still feel some pain from where he’d scorched his soul fighting the hydra and the Flametear Serpents back at the mine. Adding more unnecessary damage would hinder his advancement.

He’d use it if needed, but it was better saved for emergencies.

Also, destroying everything like that was bad for his other skills. He didn’t want to be a one-trick mage who could only use Wildfire. It was important to have a strong foundation and practice other methods, especially if he wanted to improve his Law in the future.

He passed through the plains as a camouflaged blur. He passed by some wild animals, including boars, deer, and rabbits, which he noted in case he wanted to hunt something for dinner, but he was interested in other game right now.

Before long, he caught sight of a patrol of monsters. He stayed still and relied on his camouflage to hide him as he studied them.

They were lizard-like humanoids about five feet tall with lean bodies. There were three of them in this group, two with spears and one with a bow.

Their skin was made up of overlapping scale patterns that ranged from light grey to dark brown, giving them a natural camouflage of their own in the forest.

They stood upright with two arms, two legs, and a fanged snout, but two short horns twisted back along their heads and no ears were visible. Their hands and feet both were tipped with sharp claws and they only wore loincloths.

He recognized the general type as one of the intelligent and dangerous monster races that populated remnants.

Hesen.

They were a type of lizardkin known for their savagery and innate elemental magic. 

They were one of the many enemies from other galaxies that had come through the Chaos Gates, but the ones in this dungeon would be a far cry from the most dangerous types.

Still, if they were here, it was no surprise that the dungeon was difficult. Hesen were cunning, agile, and good with both melee and magic.

He analyzed them as he stepped out into the open.

Hesen Scout. Level 42.

Hesen Scout. Level 40.

Hesen Archer. Level 44.

Kelin swiftly scanned through their abilities, noting that all three of them had a Wood affinity, but he focused on their levels and classes, which were the most important. 

They were on the lower side for the dungeon.

As soon as they sensed the Analyze, the three Hesen let out a rattling hiss as they spun around. They couldn’t see him that well, but they could tell the general area where the ability came from.

The two scouts raced forward with their spears raised. Their bodies blurred as they moved through the underbrush. 

Behind them, the archer drew back his bow and swept the arrow point across Kelin’s general area, searching for a target.

Two soul arrows shot forward from Kelin’s hands, but he held onto his mana shield at the same time to keep up his camouflage. 

The Hesen barely saw where the arrows came from.

The soul arrows sank into the two scouts, and they stumbled as their eyes filled with rainbow light. Wisps of smoke drifted away from the sockets. 

They tried to stay upright as they ran toward Kelin, but a moment later they fell to the ground among the underbrush.

The archer released and an arrow struck near Kelin’s shoulder, but it was deflected off to the side by the enchantment on his bracer and buried itself in the dirt.

The archer let out an angry hiss as it drew its bow again, but that was the last thing it had time to do as Gaius reached up from the ground and wrapped it in bands of stone.

Then a soulfire bolt seared through its head.

A notification from the Path rang in Kelin’s mind, telling him that he’d gained a level, but he waved it away. It brought his Intelligence to 325 and he added the five free points to Aura, taking that to 176.

Then he had Gaius retrieve the cores from the Hesen. They were small marbles of grey and brown, full of Wood and Stone energy. 

That was why he felt no compunction about killing them. 

The Hesen here were monsters born of elemental energy and mana, even if they were modeled after real enemies that had come through the Chaos Gates.

The Path of Stars had scanned the race’s appearance and abilities and recreated them with mana and elemental essence. Then it assigned them experience and used them to populate this remnant, so that there were enemies to face. 

They were only impressions of the real thing, so there was no need to feel guilty about killing them. Their bodies were already beginning to disintegrate now that he’d taken the cores.

Higher level remnants would have the real thing.

Even if these had been real, he wouldn’t have felt bad for them. He’d gotten over that a long time ago. 

If the Hesen wanted to be safe, they should have stayed at home.

He checked over the bow and spears to see if they would be useful. They were low quality, but he had enough room to store them for now, so he tossed them into his spatial storage, along with the dozen arrows in a quiver.

Dungeons routinely had a mix of intelligent and wild monsters, so there should be some natural monsters in this forest too, maybe elemental boars or stags, which he could hunt for food. 

They should be around the same level as everything else.

He set Gaius to scout the area around him as he restored his camouflage and walked on, following the direction that the Hesen had come from.

Where there was one Hesen, there would be more. They usually fought as a tribe.

Even though the Path had created them for the remnant, they would act as natural as any other Hesen at their level, so they would be out hunting, scouting, or building their camps.

Now that he knew what to expect, he deactivated his focus bracers to save the rune structure in them. He could turn them back on in an instant, but if he left them charged, the runes would slowly burn out. The quality wasn’t high enough to sustain continual use.

It didn’t take him long to find another group of Hesen. 

This time it was a group of four: two scouts and two archers. 

They were moving stealthily through the forest, hunting something with their spears and bows at the ready. They exchanged quiet hisses as they walked, which sounded almost like the wind in the leaves.

Gaius rose up from below the archers and trapped both of them in stone, while Kelin sent a pair of soul arrows at the scouts.

The Hesen barely had time to notice what was happening before the scouts were dead. Then two soulfire bolts tore through the archers’ heads and finished them off.

It wasn’t enough for a level, so Kelin collected the cores and moved on. 

If his guess was right, there should be at least two hundred Hesen in this remnant, and maybe more, so he was going to be here for a bit. Their tribes were usually large, and the scouts were the weakest type.

This group had seemed wary of something, which made him curious about what they were hunting, so he shifted his path to go in the same direction they had been.

It was deeper into the forest, and the blue oaks around him glowed with veins of mana, giving the daylight a blue tint.

About ten minutes later, Gaius alerted him to the presence of enemies ahead, so he moved quietly.

In a clearing between the blue oaks, another group of Hesen was fighting against two forest monsters. 

There were two scouts, two archers, and three other types of Hesen that he hadn’t seen yet. 

One of the new ones was wearing boiled leather and held a shield and a spear in his hands, while another was covered in wild stripes of black and red paint and held two axes. The third was some type of mage and was casting with a staff.

They were fighting against a towering dark-barked treant that was surrounded by whipping roots and a twelve-foot-tall bear that was almost as wide across as it was tall.

Since they were all engaged in battle, Kelin didn’t hesitate to analyze them.

Cursed Treant. Level 55. 

Stone Bear. Level 50.

Their affinities were for Wood and Stone, as normal for the dungeon, and they had several unique abilities, but he only glanced through them. 

They were wild monsters from the forest, created from the ambient energy. Apparently, the Hesen had a grudge against them. 

He analyzed the new types of the Hesen next.

Hesen Mage. Level 53.

Hesen Berserker. Level 52.

Hesen Warrior. Level 50.

They were higher-level variants of the ones he’d seen before. There were also the scouts and archers that he’d seen before, still at the same levels of 42 and 48.

The two groups were probably fighting over territory or because they saw each other as food, but as soon as they saw Kelin, he’d be their new target. 

Monsters had an instinctive hatred for adventurers.

It looked like this was one of the loosely organized remnants that were filled with competing groups of monsters. There were also focused types that had more clear-cut requirements.

This type had its advantages, since it was easier to escape if needed. They also tended to be larger, with a lot of space. 

The focused ones were more streamlined and you usually had to follow a set path inward that was filled with ambushes or guards.

This was better, since it meant he could deal with the monsters on his terms.

Dealing with this many at once was a stretch, enough to make things hard for most teams, but he wasn’t going to back down from the challenge.

He channeled mana into his bracers and then created two soul arrows. One of them he sent at the mage and the other at the stone bear, the two targets he assessed as posing the greatest risk.

The arrows shot across the distance in an instant and struck. 

A mana barrier appeared around the mage, but the soul arrow pierced straight through it before it sank into the mage’s head.

On the other side, the stone bear let out a roar as the arrow landed. It sensed the direction of the attack and went berserk, charging forward into the Hesen that were between it and Kelin. 

Its heavy paws slammed into them like battering rams, knocking them out of the way in explosions of earth essence. 

The two scouts and the warrior were flung to the side.

At that moment, Gaius raised up a thick wall of stone in front of the stone bear, one that was almost a hill more than a wall, and the bear slammed into it with a thunderous collision.

Two new soul arrows formed in Kelin’s hands. This time they flew toward the treant and the berserker. 

The berserker was sprinting around the stone wall toward him, its axes raised as it let out a howl. As the soul arrow struck, its eyes went blank and its path began to swerve.

When the other arrow struck the treant, however, a fanged mouth opened on its trunk and a low, unearthly howl came from it, one that sounded like a horrified, wailing ghost.

A dense wind of ghostly energy came from the creature and swept across the clearing. The Hesen that were caught up in it grabbed at their heads and began to scream as well as they fell to their knees.

Kelin raised his hand and summoned a ward of golden soulfire in the path of the wind. He also called Gaius back into the soul chamber to protect him. 

The wind slammed into the Soul Ward and split to the sides. The energy that was directly pressing against it was incinerated, burned away by the soulfire.

While soul attacks were rare, they were much more common among monsters and enemies from other galaxies, just like the one that had almost killed Kelin in his past life and set him on his path to a soul affinity.

Adventurers usually had to carry special artifacts to protect against them or rely on a priest or shaman class to ward them off. Most positive energy wards, including those based on healing, fire, and lightning, could work to an extent, just not always efficiently.

This ability was called Cursed Wail, and it was why the Hesen had been wary of the treant.

The soul arrow had already ignited the creature’s soul, so Kelin took advantage of the disruption it caused and began unleashing soulfire bolts at the remaining Hesen.

Everything he’d already hit was down or dying.

Two golden bolts at a time seared through the air, each of them intensified to the limits of his current ability.

The first set took out the Hesen archers, blowing their chests apart in an explosion of flame.

The second set targeted the warrior that was trying to stand up from the ground. One took him in the head and the other in the neck, leaving him dead before his corpse could even hit the dirt.

Another two soulfire bolts took out the scouts, each of them searing through an eye. 

Then the clearing was still, only filled with the smoking corpses of the monsters.

Kelin scanned the area around him, and relied on Gaius to sense even further, and then he dropped the mana flow to his bracers. 

Everything within a few hundred feet was still, except for a boar running away in the distance.

That was the power of a trained mage.

If he had an open field of view and enough mana, as well as spells that were strong enough, there was little that would be left standing.

A notification from the Path rang in his mind, telling him he’d gained two levels.

The battle had taken four soul arrows at a cost of 20 mana and 16 soul energy, six intensified soulfire bolts at 6 mana each, plus a Soul Ward for 10 mana and 10 soul energy, since defending was often harder than attacking.

The total was 54 mana and 26 soul energy.

It was more mana than soul energy, but his soul pool was still low, so he added the ten free points to Aura, bringing it to 186.  His Intelligence was up to 331.

He still had over 80% of his mana and soul pools, but his meridians ached a bit from intensifying that many spells in a row. 

It was an unpleasant feeling, like ants were crawling through his bones, so he cycled his mana and began massaging the pathways.

Those were growing pains.

It was important to stretch the meridians with intense mana flows in order to force them to adapt, which they did by absorbing bits of the energy that flowed through them, but it was even more important to actively reinforce them afterward.

Without that, you could end up crippling yourself.

His Soulfire Body Refinement came in useful at speeding up the recovery, but while he worked on that, he assessed the monsters.

Then he asked Gaius to gather the cores while he went to check on the stone bear and the treant. Unlike the Hesen, those two could have crafting materials.

A few minutes later, he extracted several items

From the treant, there was a Cursed Treant Core, long strips of Wood Affinity Bark, and four chunks of Spirit Amber, which had condensed inside its heartwood. They were each about the size of a knuckle. 

That was where the treant had stored its soul energy for the wail.

The core would have to be purified first, but the other materials could be fashioned into scrolls and artifacts that worked well with soul energy, so he stored them away and moved on to the bear.

From that monster, there was a dense earth affinity core called a Heart of Stone, and a large number of claws and fangs, plus its hide.

The hide would be good for a set of armor, but probably not for him. It was too thick and had the wrong affinity. It was also far too large to fit into his storage, so he would have to leave most of it here for now.

The mana blade from his subclass cut through the material easily, so he cut out some rectangular patches from the best section, which could be used for scrolls or other crafting, and then placed those in his storage as a compromise. 

He added a number of the bear’s claws and teeth as well. He might end up throwing them out later if he found something better, but if not, they would be useful as rune talismans, especially protective ones.

Meanwhile, Gaius had extracted the cores from the Hesen and the monsters were already disintegrating, but their weapons and other gear remained. 

Kelin sorted through it and added the berserker’s two axes to his storage, but besides that, the only thing that caught his attention was the mage’s staff and a necklace.

Simple runes were engraved along the surface of each.

Staff of Acid Bolt.

Charges: 22.

[Fires a corrosive bolt of acid at the selected target. Damage is partially reliant on the user’s affinity and mana control. Range: 30 feet. When all charges are exhausted, the staff will disintegrate.]

The runes on the staff were simple, but it was still a dungeon staff, although a very simplified version of what the Path could create. 

It wasn’t as powerful as either his soulfire bolts or his soul arrows, but it was a useful option that could save him some mana. He was pleased by the find as he moved on to the necklace.

Necklace of Warding.

Charges: 3.

[Summons a responsive mana shield to block physical attacks that threaten the wearer. When the charges are used up, the necklace will disintegrate.]

The mage hadn’t gotten a chance to use it, but it would be helpful for him. The responsive enchantment was better than what he had on his bracers, since it would inherently sense any attack that threatened his life.

Kelin looped it around his neck and let it fall into his shirt next to his guild badge.

Then he stored everything away and looked around, choosing which direction to head next.

If his guess was right, the Hesen tribe should be off toward the center of the forest, along with the dungeon boss, while the treants and stone bears wandered more randomly.

He recreated his camouflage and turned toward the center.

Then he began walking, his new staff tapping on the ground as he went.