B5 C36: Vacation Regions

“Ahhhhhh.” Leaning back against the side of a steaming, scalding pool of water, Cal closed her eyes, letting her body slowly sink deeper in.

“Ahhhhhh.” Leaning back against the side of a steaming, scalding pool of water, Cal closed her eyes, letting her body slowly sink deeper in. “Not going to lie, but this is way better than the baths we have back in the prairie. No offense, Tess.”

“None taken.” After all, how could there be? I fully agreed. Presently, I was only one step away from drifting off to sleep from the soothing heat, and I likely would have if we weren’t still in a dungeon.

Despite her predilection for frost and ice, Verin seemed to feel much the same, her limp and boneless form too at ease to even contribute to the conversation.

Even though it had robbed us of a new round of ingredients to work with, Cal’s recovery had gone off without a hitch. At least, that was mostly true -- a few of the fern-like scars persisted, and she still bore an impossibly thin scar on her brow, but Arbor had healed her fingers without an issue. Thankfully, the princess seemed to enjoy the battle remnants, and I was half convinced she’d somehow convinced Arbor to leave the scars there on purpose.

With Cal sporting all ten digits and Verin able to use her mana again, nothing was keeping us confined to the prairie. Given how little traveling Verin and I had done lately, we were itching to get out of the house.

And luckily, Cal knew just where to go.

Not only had she directly passed through half a dozen regions to reach the frost biome, but she’d also scouted out all the surrounding regions along the way. Of course, that didn’t mean she was 100% certain what mana types each region had, nor what dangers they might hold, but it was enough to give us a general lay of the land.

While Cal had ultimately refused to tell us what she had in store for us, she’d prepared a packed itinerary for the next few weeks. The trip was meant to be one part vacation, one part easing us back into fighting. So far, it had been just that.

Our first stop was the steam region, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Undeniably, there was danger here: Underground vents dotted the landscape, spewing out superheated steam that could cook an unwary traveler in a flash, made all the harder to spot due to the region’s ever-present fog-like steam in the air. On top of that, the land was rife with elementals.

Strangely enough, they weren’t even steam elementals, either, instead being standard water elementals, just hotter. Whenever we found a body of water like the one we were resting in now, they guarded it fiercely, blasting us with boiling water.

The risk, however, was fairly minimal compared to the reward. After all, the entire region was filled with hot springs. What were a few quick fights when weighed against the utter bliss of soaking our worries away?

You have gained a buff!

One With Steam

Reduces all damage from steam-based attacks. Prolonged exposure to steam gives your skin a moisturized glow, increasing your Charisma.

This buff will last for as long as you remain within the region.

Better yet, it looked like the water was magical, too. Which, once again, was why I couldn’t take offense when Cal said the springs were better than my baths back home. How could I compete with magic water?

“Wait, weird.” Perking up as she got the notification, Cal’s eyes flashed back and forth as she seemed to reread the message. “That’s definitely different from what I got the last time I bathed in this region. You think each hot spring has its own buff?”

Finally stirring, Verin managed to open a single eye. “Curious. I will admit, I am quite enjoying the current buff. While I am thoroughly tempted to remain in this pool for the foreseeable future, perhaps we should collect the others as well?”

It was an idea, at least. With none of us in a rush to leave the region, we decided to try it out.

For the next week, the three of us pushed through the thick steam to hunt down every hot spring we could find. Much as advertised, each one had its own buff, often focusing on heat or fire or steam in some way.

As per usual, I collected whatever reagents I could find along the way. Sadly, I hadn’t spotted any new protein sources, but a few new herbs thrived in the steam. Not letting a prime cooking opportunity escape me, I’d summoned up the metal filter I used for papermaking, intending to use it as a sort of steamer. The next time we found a hot spring, I shoved the new herbs into some basic dumplings, placing them on the filter and letting the spring’s steam rise up to cook them.

The edges of the pool turned out not to be hot enough to truly steam food, but I eventually found an area that was hot enough to make it work, having to summon a thin layer of frost armor to avoid getting as cooked as my dumplings.

Evidently, I could have done a slightly better job of pinching the wrappers shut, as a few opened up, spilling bits of herbs and gryphon meat into the water. The ones that survived were looking beautiful, though, and I quickly began swimming back to the others.

“Food’s ready!” And as it turned out, the hot spring was ready too. Just as we had numerous times before, the three of us received the standard notification.

You have gained-

Only, this time, it was cut short.

By now, I’d long since grown accustomed to the strange sky above me, but that only made it all the more shocking when the usual chaotic patchwork disappeared. The steam above us rapidly grew thicker and thicker before taking on a red hue, a bloody crimson blotting out all else.

As if to challenge the red steam for our attention, a grand pillar of fire rose up in the distance, burning away the surrounding steam with an explosive roar and a concussive burst of air. For a brief moment, I caught sight of an absolutely massive fire elemental, and then the steam swallowed him, hiding him from view once more.

Well before any of us could make heads or tails of what was happening, a low, gravelly voice resonated through the entirety of the region.

“Fools! For untold eons, the water elementals have kept my wrath at bay, imprisoning me beneath the earth. But at long last, you have slain their defenders! You have sullied the sacred pools that bound me, sapping them of their power! Once more, the land will tremble at my power as all is reduced to ashes and-”

Sharing a weary look, the three of us reluctantly pulled ourselves from the hot springs.

“Are we all good? Verin? Will he be an issue for you?” Shaking herself like a wet dog, Cal summoned her feather blade as Verin shrugged.

“No. I picked up a new class skill that increases my fire resistance. Between that, the ring I gained from the fire region, and all the buffs from the hot springs, I do not imagine this will prove too difficult. Shall we?”

With that settled, the three of us rushed into battle.

Waves of fire spread over the region, burning everything in sight. Hot springs dried up, the resulting steam attempting to cook us alive. Steam clouds condensed, sending boiling rain to burn through our defenses.

Sadly for the boss, his wrath was a pitiful thing when compared with ours. After all, how dare he interrupt us right as we were about to eat? From the start, the fight was already a foregone conclusion, and when the notifications arrived, it was to none of our surprises.

You have defeated Golgothum, He Who Boils Seas Dry!

It was only after everything died down that I realized my horrible mistake.

Somehow, in the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten to store away the dumplings before the fight.

Futily, I rushed back to where I’d left them, but to no avail. In the end, it turned out Golgothum truly did have his revenge, as not a single crumb of our meal was anywhere to be seen.

Regions Cleared: 14/63

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

“Do I get a hint at least?” With the bulk of the hot springs having dried up, our relaxing vacation had been cut short. Thankfully, Cal swore she had a fitting region that would make it all better, particularly for me. Even better, it was only one region away, cutting down on our travel times.

Annoyingly enough, though, she adamantly refused to tell us more than that, only responding with “You’ll see,” and a cryptic smile whenever we asked. Even when we passed into the region in question, I couldn’t see what made it such a winner.

The climate was nice, at least. Tall yellow trees formed tiny clusters, sparse enough that they did nothing to mask the warm, soothing sunlight streaming in from above.

Which, naturally, was pretty weird considering there shouldn’t have been any sun to speak of. And yet, lo and behold, when I gazed into the sky, sitting there was a great golden orb, illuminating all beneath it. In something of a first for the dungeon, it seemed we were working with purely directional lighting. All of the trees cast shadows, and I could practically feel my Constitution going to work to keep me from getting a sunburn.

It wasn’t long before we found our first enemy, a golden bird which God’s Eye registered as a Sunlight Skyhawk. With each feather seemingly forged from solid sunlight, the bird in question looked far more regal than its name would suggest, and I initially mistook it for some sort of phoenix. Still, its combat power was nothing we couldn’t manage.

The higher it flew, the stronger it seemed to get, launching feathers that left thick beams of sunlight trailing behind them. Worse yet, the surrounding sunlight healed it at a ridiculous rate, any cursory wounds sealing shut in seconds. Nonetheless, it lacked the stopping power to put any of us down, and once we managed to bait it into diving down and passing into the trees’ shadows, it lost most of its strength and proved trivial to defeat.

Which was great and all, but I still had no idea what the big deal was supposed to be. Maybe Cal was pulling my leg? I pressed her once more, this time receiving only a barely more helpful response.

“I dunno. Maybe use all those vision skills you’re so proud of. That, or fly up a bit.” She didn’t even try to restrain her shit-eating grin, and not wanting to have to ask again, I shot up into the sky.

For a moment, I didn’t even bother looking around, simply basking in the region’s warmth. Apparently, Cal had marked this region as too complicated to tackle by herself, but she’d spent some time here on her way back, sunbathing away the memories of her time in the frost region. I could see why, too, as the faux sunlight was fully on par with the hot springs in comfortably warming me to the bone.

Lazily, languidly, I at last cast my gaze over beneath me, and-

There. All thoughts vanished from my head as I raced forward, chaining together Jet Steps and throwing all of my mana into portals just to get me to my destination one second earlier. My heart raced as my blood seemed to boil within me until I reached a feverish pitch, every fiber of my being working in conjunction to bring me to my goal.

In that moment, I felt faster than the skyhawk we’d fought before -- hells, maybe even faster than Tal’Ket -- as I swooped down to the nearest treetop. Not even daring to blink lest my prize somehow vanish before my arrival, I homed in on the trio of golden, oblong shapes that sat there in a nest spun from golden sunlight. When I finally identified them, I half-expected the treasures to be Legendary -- nay, maybe Mythical, even -- and I could barely believe it when the system had the audacity to mark them as only Uncommon.

I, at least, knew they were worth far more than that.

Sunlight Skyhawk Egg

Before anything could possibly go wrong, I swept all three of the eggs into my storage. Evidently serving as some sort of trigger for the region, my act didn’t go unnoticed, and an avian cry pierced the air as another skyhawk appeared out of nowhere. Not even bothering to lure it into the shadows, I met it in the sky, cutting it down.

You have defeated a Sunlight Skyhawk!

As much as I wanted to rush back down to the others to revel in our good fortune, as I hung there in the sky, I noticed something strange.

There, in the distance, was another set of trees, another nest, and another few eggs. Now that I already had a few secured, the sight of them didn’t send me into another mad dash, and I had a second to really take the scene in. Unlike standard nests, the two I’d seen so far sat at the very top of the trees, seemingly eager to bask in the sunlight. That meant that, even from this range, I had a good view of the eggs in the following nest.

And while the effect wasn’t too pronounced, without a doubt, they were… bigger. While I was thrilled with the trio of eggs I already had, it was undeniably true that they were small, pitiful things, on par with hummingbird eggs.

A few more Jet Steps and portals confirmed that the trend held as I advanced further into the region.

Taller trees, climbing closer to the sun. Bigger nests, each more resplendent than the last.

And most importantly.

Bigger and bigger eggs.

Unquestionably, I wanted them all.

Somewhere in the back of my head, there was an insistent voice, urging me onwards. So what if there were stronger monsters somewhere? So what if there was a boss waiting for me? I’d soloed regions before, and I could do it again!

Alas, that was an Old Tess thought. My friends and I had already suffered enough from being stupid and rash, and so, begrudgingly, I flew back to the others. We’d clear the region safely, together.

When I landed, Cal waited with a smirk, seeming to know exactly what I’d discovered. That left only Verin out of the loop, and after I explained, she nearly matched my fervor. Whether due to her newfound appreciation for cooking or her desire to spice up our diet, the noble was just as adamant that we push onwards.

Under our combined might, the region stood no chance.

That wasn’t to say it didn’t put up a fight. We soon discovered that the trees could act as a sort of magnifying glass for the birds’ attacks, and the larger the tree, the stronger the effect. Beams that would have resulted in light sunburns gradually transitioned into deadly attacks that could melt through bone.

Luckily, they never grew quite strong enough to cut through my overloaded armor, and Verin’s glacier seemed to refract the beams, robbing them of much of their strength. Cal, as per usual, cheated with Apex Shroud.

When we reached the center of the region and the boss that lay therein, I almost felt bad, honestly. A singular tree with gleaming golden bark climbed into the sky, seeming to brush the region’s sun. If not quite on the level of Arbor’s heart tree, it was still a gripping sight, as was true for the nest at its top.

With beams of solid sunlight cutting off the aerial route upwards, we were forced to slowly climb the tree over the course of a day, its many boughs and branches hiding traps and treasures in equal measure. When at last we reached the top, the nest felt more like a stadium than anything else, and the eggs waiting there for us were equally as massive, almost as large as me.

Sadly, that same size applied to the region’s boss, too.

Suraya, The Wings of the Sun: Level 27, 10,000/10,000hp

Somewhere along the course of the fight, it became eminently clear that we were doing something wrong. Either there was some hidden secret to make the fight easier, much like there had been with the poison hydra, or we just weren’t a good matchup for the phoenix. Its proximity to the sun made its attacks ridiculously powerful, but the real issue was its longevity. Wounds disappeared in a heartbeat, and it showed no signs of slowing down.

It was only after we begrudgingly decided to run away that things took a turn for the better. After I threw every egg I could find into my storage, we bolted.

Naturally, the phoenix wasn’t thrilled by this development. Enraged by the loss of its children, it left its nest in pursuit, forcing us to fend it off as we descended the tree.

The lower we went, however, the weaker the boss got. Shaded by the many leaves and branches of the tree and growing farther and farther from the sun above, the phoenix began to slow down, as did its healing.

Our long retreat was a bit touch and go at times, but when at last we reached the ground, the fight was a foregone conclusion.

You have defeated Suraya, The Wings of the Sun!

Regions Cleared: 15/63

And while our victory was a nice reward in and of itself, it was what came next that I was looking forward to the most.

After all, what better way to celebrate than with a nice, big cake?