B5 C37: The Passage of Months

As Cal continued to drag us from one region to the next, our humble vacation slowly transformed back into the routine we’d long since grown

As Cal continued to drag us from one region to the next, our humble vacation slowly transformed back into the routine we’d long since grown used to. 

Explore a region. 

Clear it if we could. 

Retreat back to the prairie.

Admittedly, it took a while before we were back in full fighting force. For me and Verin, we had quite a few layers of rust to work off. In Cal’s case, it took her some time to slip back into a team mindset after so long on her own. Still, once we ironed out all our kinks, we found our combat prowess drastically improved from our recollections. With both Cal and Verin having gained a level since the fire region, our firepower had increased considerably.

Naturally, that meant that I wasn’t far behind either. While I didn’t gain much experience from class quests, the countless battles finally chipped away at my required experience, and soon, I joined the others as the proud owner of a shiny new level.

Congratulations! You have reached level 18!

As a Protagonist chosen by a god of luck, all free stats have been randomly allocated.

+1 Constitution

+1 Strength

+1 Endurance

+2 Dexterity

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+3 Perception

God’s Mind Activated:

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

Divine Synergy Activated:

+1 Charisma

As my level was a multiple of three, I once more received the bonus from God’s Mind, and my much more recent Divine Synergy ability kicked in as per usual, granting me a point in my lowest stat. As soon as I grabbed one more point in Charisma, all my stats would be at least 30, and a few had climbed into the low 40s. Another level, and I’d finally hit the 1000 health mark, too. 

All in all, it was a cause for celebration, and not the only one, either. 

Surprising us both with her restraint, Cal eventually revealed that she’d turned 24 somewhere along her solo journey. She’d considered immediately demanding a big feast as soon as she returned, but when we’d already had one waiting for her, she figured she’d tell us later once I had a new batch of ingredients to spoil her with.

It thus came as no great shock when my own notification soon followed.

Age has increased to 29!

And for once, we even had eggs, too. At last, we were able to celebrate correctly, and I baked two giant cakes for both of our birthdays. Despite Verin’s having long since passed, I didn’t feel it was fair to leave her out, and thus, a third cake soon joined the ranks of the first two.

Paired with our recent discovery of the Liquid Sun that perfectly masked the taste of our moonshine, we finally had some fitting birthday parties on our hands. 

Between all the fighting, we threw ourselves into our hobbies and our training, as per usual. For Verin, this involved an unexpected amount of traveling, as she wished to revisit many of the earlier regions to refresh her memory, especially now that she had mana sight again. Soon, the common room was filled with paintings of floating sky islands, of rolling sand dunes, and noxious hydras. 

Honestly, given that her glacier kept her from needing to breathe, I’d strongly considered dragging Verin down to see the coral reef, too. The sight didn’t quite justify the risk, though it would have been a nice addition to her paintings.

Having scratched the crafting bug for a while, I instead focused half on spell training and half on soul forging. Repeated casts of all my Apprentice-rank spells had my spell schools inching upwards day by day,  and endless architectural plans were drafted and just as quickly discarded as I tried to settle on suitable siblings for my Transitory Hut of Restful Slumber. Hoping to tackle some of my worst character traits, I was trying to design buildings to enhance my organization and keep me from constantly putting important things off. Sadly, neither goal proved to be as simple as constructing a hut with a bed.

Cal, as she was wont to do, often disappeared off to who knows where. When she was around, I often caught her posing for Verin, and her room was liberally littered with the artist’s sketches of her. Whether it was vanity or an appreciation for Verin’s talent, I couldn’t say.

And between all these peaceful moments at home, we fought, we bled, and we conquered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Think she’ll need us to finish it off, or odds are she can actually kill it like that?” Lounging serenely in a chair I’d summoned from storage, Cal watched the fight before us unfold. Sitting to her side, I tilted my hand back and forth. Really, it could go either way.

The region we’d found ourselves in this time was notably not weird. Compared to most of the others, it was blissfully straightforward.

Admittedly, we still weren’t sure exactly what mana type we were working with. Something with fire and metal, but if there was an intent behind it, we weren’t sure. Maybe molten metal? Slag? Sometimes it seemed to be more like melted rocks than metal, which maybe made it lava?

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Moral of the story: We’d ended up in a hot region full of melted earth.

For a while, we’d gone exceptionally slowly, practically babying Verin in every fight. The mana type had enough similarity to fire that we were worried about a repeat performance to last time.

Very quickly, however, it became incredibly clear that we needn’t have bothered. With her new class skill and the ring she’d received from the fire boss, Verin had already withstood the steam and sunlight regions admirably. It looked like lava had nothing on her either.

If anything, her ice was a bit too effective. For whatever reason, many of the monsters that could control liquid metal couldn’t budge it an inch once it was cooled down. Though it often took a bit for her skills to go into effect, once they did, she was the deadliest out of all of us this time.

And so, we’d fought our way through the region all the way to the boss. A fairly standard giant golem awaited us, red-hot and angry to boot.

While our magic damage seemed to hurt it a bit, it easily shrugged off any physical blows with its partially liquid body, negating much of our combat power.

Once again, cue Verin. While the boss had shrugged off all of her effects at first, her Glacial Zone continued to gradually sap its frost resistance, and enough repeated casts finally saw something change.

Sadly, she hadn’t managed to freeze the entire creature solid, but she didn’t need to. Clinging Permafrost proved to be a perfect counter to the boss, and soon, its feet fully cooled down.

We expected something to happen then. Maybe it would erupt with fury and heat its feet back up. Perhaps it would explode into globs and reconstitute somewhere else. Hells, maybe it would even summon minions.

The truth was far more… underwhelming. Sure, it had a lukewarm ranged attack, firing off a bit of its body as a head-sized glob of hot metal. Even that had long since stopped, though. Either it had realized the attack wasn’t getting through Verin’s glacier, or it didn’t want to waste anymore body mass.

And so, it was stuck.

It was a fierce boss. It was! Massive. Hit like a truck. Burned things from sheer proximity. Highly damage resistant.

Anyway you swung it, it was a true menace, and I could imagine it wiping out almost any of the parties I’d known back from my dungeon-delving class.

Here and now, though, it could do nothing but stare down at Verin. Not that it had eyes, or even a face for that matter. With that being said, if it did, I still got the distinct sense the creature was locked into a glum frown.

“Shame we don’t have a clock,” I bemoaned. “We could make a bet on how long this would take.” A real shame we didn’t have any popcorn, either. Failing that, I’d removed some of our lemonade stash and a few crackers. Cal and I idly snacked as we watched the riveting battle.

To be clear, I was a single spatial step from Verin’s glacier. If something did change, I was primed to act, and the lemonade wasn’t the boozy variety. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting Verin actually get hurt. Even so, this was the calmest boss fight we’d ever had.

Eventually Cal got her answer. The entire golem froze over, but its health refused to budge.

“Not it! Swords are bad against solid metal. All you, T.” Cal stole the rest of the crackers while shooing me off.

With a sigh, I lifted myself to my feet, summoning my new pickaxe.

“All right. Let’s get this over with, then…”

You have defeated a Molten King!

Regions cleared: 17/63

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“Tess, is that really the best item you’ve earned recently? I feel like I see you holding that thing more often than any of your weapons.” Ducking her head into the kitchen, Cal tilted her chin, gesturing at the mighty instrument I presently wielded.

Naturally, clearing more regions meant getting more loot. In that sense, all three of us had lucked out to a degree. While most of what we got were fairly basic trinkets that padded our stats, usually one of us was lucky enough to get something that truly stood out from each region.

For the recent molten region? That honor went to Verin.

Ring of Rigidity

Enhances all spells and effects which reduce a target’s temperature or mobility. Targets affected in this manner become increasingly rigid and brittle, with greatly heightened effects on gaseous and liquid enemies.

In a rare showing, the item had far more to do with Verin’s fighting style than it did the region’s mana type. By now, we were well-accustomed to the dungeon taking our actions into account when assigning rewards. My Noxious Gastro-chemist’s Cookware was a good example, as I doubted we’d have earned anything cooking-related had we simply fought the hydra head-on.

Still, it was much more common for our rewards to directly correspond to the mana type of a region. I could only imagine Verin’s near-solo boss kill had nudged the rewards distribution more in her favor.

As for the steam region? Cal.

Vaporous Robes

+2 Wisdom

+2 Endurance

+3 to Stealth

When activated, surrounds the wearer with an opaque layer of steam in the shape of a robe. Grants limited temperature control, counteracting a portion of any frost damage while absorbing a portion of any heat damage. Additionally, the steam blocks most basic identification skills while muffling outgoing sounds.

On paper, the robes had gone to her for their stats and focus on stealth. In reality, I was fairly sure she’d taken them for the temperature control, as I often found her lounging about with them activated. Heat Sight confirmed that she liked to turn the heat up all the way to a sauna-like territory, and I swore I’d even heard her start purring on a few occasions.

Thankfully, the best of the bunch had gone to me. “Taste this and tell me that I didn’t get the best item out of all of us.” Beckoning Cal over, I had her try a bit of shakshuka I was making, and with a single taste, she threw her hands up in defeat. My victory was clear, and nothing more needed to be said.

Perhaps noting just how excited I’d been by the region’s many eggs, the dungeon had chosen to reward me in turn.

Sunny-side Up Spatula

+5 to Cooking

Enhances the quality and rarity of all egg-based dishes, increasing the strength and likelihood of obtaining any buffs.

Causes the yolks of any eggs cooked with this spatula to glow.

The last effect, I was less sold on. It looked incredible when I fried eggs, and in the current shakshuka I was making, it lent the entire dish a solidly magical aura. For anything else? It was kind of creepy. I’d tried some standard scrambled eggs and some yolk sauce dishes like carbonara, and the resulting glow mostly made my food look minorly radioactive. Still, the difference in taste was noticeable enough that no one could complain.

Plus, I just liked looking at it. Far classier than the cheap black plastic I’d used in my last apartment, the spatula was formed from the same solid sunlight that the region was known for, with sweeping regal curves that made me feel like a royal chef.

Which, in fairness, I was, at least whenever Cal wanted something to eat. Speaking of which…

“Pack some of that up! Verin and I were talking, and we’re thinking we should head back out tomorrow, and I definitely want to steal some of that for lunch on the road.”

As they say, the only reward for a job well done is more work. With a wry grin, I started taking out more ingredients to make a second batch. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Voila! Another beautiful region. Only downside is that I have no idea what mana type we’re working with, but it’s nice and peaceful, right?” Cal gestured broadly to the upcoming region, to which I could only shake my head.

Weird definition of “peaceful.” I mean, she was right in some sense. I couldn’t spot any monsters yet, at least. Still, the environment reminded me most of the spatial region or maybe even the mental region. The main visible feature was a nondescript white floor, and while I could see a few protrusions and holes here and there, that was it.

“A lovely option, truly. We should move forward with caution, but if we succeed at clearing it, perhaps we could hold a picnic here.” Verin gazed wistfully at the barren landscape, and I couldn’t help but feel that she was yanking my chain.

“Right? The prairie grass is too tall, and all the other regions with grass are always these jungles and forests. This looks pretty good! Tess, you have any picnic food tucked away?” Leaning on her Acting skill for all it was worth, Cal delivered her lines with what felt like genuine earnestness.

Yes. Haha. Very funny. Scanning the region with all my vision variants revealed nothing, so it looked like we’d have to figure things out the hard way. If the others wanted to check this region out, I wasn’t going to stop them, even if I didn’t understand the appeal. 

We stepped forward as one, our eyes peeled for any incoming monsters. When none came, we walked on for a time, bantering as we went. Considering how simple the region seemed so far, it came as something of a shock when Cal came up short, temporarily freezing.

“What the hells?” Twisting about, she looked in every direction, repeating the action until she twirled around like a top. “Where’d the exit go?”

Glancing back, I spotted the border to the previous region right where we’d left it, a few minutes walk away. For a split second, I thought she might be playing another prank on me until Verin joined in, frantically looking about.

Somewhat belatedly, a sneaking suspicion began to form, but before I could voice it, the system settled the matter for me.

You have received a quest!

The Endless Valley

…

While I was sure the quest description would have been illuminating in its own way, my eyes jumped ahead as I spotted a far more informative line.

You have learned a new skill: Illusion Resistance

Prerequisites: 35 Perception, 25 Wisdom

It was a bit of a shock to receive the skill after so long, but I’d only recently hit 35 Perception, so it made sense, at least. The only problem was that I really, really didn’t need it. Naturally, learning the skill wasn’t my main focus, though.

An illusion region. 

And now that we’d walked a bit closer, I could finally see into one of the holes in the ground I’d spotted. Spikes sat at the bottom in what must have been the world’s most glaringly obvious pitfall.

Detect Trap has reached level 14!

That really counts? Man, if I spent a week or two here, I’d be able to earn far more levels in Detect Trap and Trap Disarming than I deserved. Maybe even Detect Secret too, if I was lucky.

I briefly considered acting as a guide for the other two as we went about completing the quest, but it didn’t seem worth it. It wasn’t as if either of them had the stats to grab their own Illusion Resistance skill.

And so, as they bickered amongst themselves and cursed the dungeon for trapping us once more, I picked the two of them up and began to walk back. Their startled cries were followed by demands for an explanation, only for their words to cut off as I stepped back into the previous region.

Setting the two down, I patted them on the head before turning back.

“Illusion region.” Summoning Tal’Ket’s disk from my storage, I tossed it their way. “Mine. See you two in a few weeks!”

Thus said, I spun about and strode right back in.

As to be expected, it was the easiest region I’d ever faced.

Detect Trap has reached level 17!

Trap Disarming has reached level 11!

Detect Secret has reached level 17!

Illusion Resistance has reached level 3!

Quest Completed!

…

Regions cleared: 19/63

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While our string of successes in clearing regions was great for new loot, and it served as a solid morale boost, eventually we had to accept that we were reaching the end of any easy powerups.

Take me, for example. I’d hit level 17 on my 28th birthday. Nearly a year later, only a few weeks before my 29th, I’d hit 18.

Now, sure, part of that was our unique circumstances in the last year. The months spent in the spatial region were awful for meaningful experience, and the time I’d spent with Verin hadn’t been much better. Still, without many easy class quests to cross off, I was expecting the next level to take that long again, if not longer. Ultimately, it wasn’t too different for the others, either.

So, minus a few class points or some equipment upgrades here and there, we were as strong as we were going to be for the foreseeable future. We’d been exceptionally careful not to bite off more than we could chew lately, but it was time to make a decision.

Stay and wait for me to level up my Spatial Magic, or tackle the next mana-collection site? Despite having been a full year prior, the memory of how close we’d come to dying in the mental region was still fresh on our minds. If the other three regions were even remotely as hard, then why bother? Especially now that our living situation was so vastly improved, what was wrong with taking the easy way out?

And yet.

We were so close.

Already, we’d suspected that the region of one of the collection sites bordered the fire region. We could walk into it whenever we wanted to. Plus, between Cal’s solo escapades and our recent clearing spree, we’d worked our way to the final region in that direction as well. Only the regions behind the sea still eluded us, as we hadn’t taken the time to wrap around the body of water, and I wasn’t willing to let the others brave the deadly waters without more robust waterbreathing skills.

Even so, that put two of our remaining three targets within a stone’s throw. And better yet, we were all far stronger than back when we’d accidentally stumbled into the mental region. Surely, we had to at least try, didn’t we?

“If nothing else, we’ll scout them out,” Cal offered. “Same as always. Not that we can help it if the dungeon chooses to trap us inside, but we should still look, shouldn’t we?”

Unspoken was our shared desire for none of us to spend a third birthday inside the dungeon. 

And so, with a quickly achieved consensus, we decided to strike out for the next collection site. Only once we’d prepared everything under the sun did we set off, going so far as to travel by foot in case we needed to summon Tal’Ket for a quick escape.

When at last the fire region sat at our backs, there was no putting it off any longer. It was time. Steeling ourselves for whatever the region might bring, we prepared to break our second collection site and get one step closer to breaking free.