B5 C26: A Thunderous Tribute

Having taken enough abuse for the time being, Cal slipped into the embrace of her Apex Shroud, shakily pulling herself to her feet before fleeing the scene. The enemies in the region were more trouble than they were worth, and outside of her current resistance-training regimen, Cal had little desire to stay and play with them.

 When the coast was finally clear, she cancelled the skill, her organs angrily protesting the multiple forms of internal damage they’d just endured. The lightning was bad enough, but scrolling up through her messages, she had another resistance make an appearance farther up.

Sonic Resistance has reached level 18!

In the past month, her eardrums had ruptured more times than she could count, but that was the most pleasant part of her training. Even worse than the lightning bolts, the vicious sound attacks she’d been subjected to had a tendency to vibrate straight through her skin, rattling her innards in a way that her limited healing spells struggled to handle.

At least it’s comfy here. Rather than having dirt or stone at her feet, Cal instead stood on a fluffy bed of clouds. Needing a small break, she flopped backwards, sinking into the pillowy material.

As she had countless times in the past month, Cal reflected on how she’d ended up trapped here.

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

Success! 

For the third time in a row, Cal celebrated her effortless passage through the dungeon’s regions. While she’d passed all manner of monsters and puzzles and environmental hazards along her journey, none of them had posed even the slightest challenge to her Legendary skill, and Cal was beginning to think that nothing ever would.

At this rate, forget months, I’ll find the frost region in a few weeks. Admittedly, she missed her old Dexterity, as the going was often slow. The last region alone -- a hot springs region which constantly obscured her way forward with thick steam -- had taken two weeks to traverse. Even so, she was making great time, and she knew it.

Some cursory scouting had revealed two more adjacent regions, neither of which was the frozen tundra she’d been hoping for. Still, Cal was feeling good about the next leg of her journey, as it was fairly easy to discern what type of mana it used.

Peering into the next region from the safety of her present steam, Cal took note of the endless clouds spread out before her. The ground was made from clouds. The sky was filled with clouds. Even the air between the two was slightly cloudy, acting much like the steam had to block her vision.

Of course, Cal would have felt much better about the region had all those clouds been the friendly fluffy white variety she was most familiar with. Unfortunately, every single one of them was a brooding gray, bordering on a bitter black. Spun about by invisible wind currents, they only offered occasional breaks from their monotony by lighting up from within. On each occasion, the lightshow was followed by a thunderous peal.

“Storm mana, probably.” Or maybe not. She didn’t spot any rain, after all. Still, it had to be something pretty close.

The important part was that the region made sense. While it was a fairly loose system of classification, Cal had begun to divide each region into two separate categories: the normal ones, and the bullshit ones.

The fire region? The mountains? Hells, even the desert. Normal. Maybe there was a twist or two thrown in, but there wasn’t all that much to think about. There were monsters. There was a boss. If you fought them and won, you were in the clear.

Then, there were the bullshit regions. Mental mana? Monsters that put you into a coma without you even spotting them? Bullshit. A jungle which forced you to cook for a giant hydra before escaping? Bullshit. 

For her current purposes, she also counted Tal’Ket’s air region under this category, too. Cal had actually enjoyed clearing that one quite a bit at the time, but each floating island had required them to go on a scavenger hunt and then fight a bunch of elementals. Fine when they were together as a trio, but awful for her current objective. Any region that wouldn’t let her enter, move around, and leave whenever she wanted firmly fell into the bullshit category.

A storm biome, though? Probably fine. There’d be a few elementals. Maybe some environmental damage. Simple. Straightforward. She knew what she was walking into.

Thus emboldened, Cal confidently strode into the next region under her fully empowered Apex Shroud.

And for a while, it went just how she thought it would. Quietly. Peacefully. The only sore point was her mana, which she noticed dropping faster than it normally would.

Some sort of constant effect? For all its selling points, the biggest weakness of Apex Shroud was that it used up more of her resources when it was actively fighting against something. Hiding her body heat in a frost region, for example, used up far more energy than hiding it back in the prairie. 

Still not awful. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to keep her full shroud up at all times, but that was rarely needed. Hoping to save a bit on mana, she dropped some of the less important aspects of her skill as a test, and-

CRACK!

Cal’s vision went entirely white as an entirely novel form of pain snaked its way through her nerves, and she bonelessly sank to the ground.

You have taken 180 points of lightning damage!

Before she could get her bearings, she was in motion once more, this time ragdolled through the air by an explosive burst of air. The accompanying noise instantly ruptured her eardrums, muting the world around her.

You have taken 70 points of sonic damage!

Thankfully, her mind finally caught up with the situation, and mid-air, she slipped back into the more comprehensive version of Apex Shroud, hiding herself from further attacks. Already, she was berating herself for her carelessness.

Didn’t Hex teach me something about lightning? Thinking back, Cal recalled a lesson on the more common ways that monsters might sense her. The dark goddess had been firm that some creatures could sense something called “electricity,” and that she had to hide her “electrical charge” from them.

At the time, it sounded like nonsense. Having read through Tess’s mind at one point, Hex had been adamant that, even on Earth, there were non-magical fish that could sense electricity, but Cal was skeptical. Was she supposed to believe that there were normal animals with “lightning eyes”?

She’d long since relegated that aspect of Apex Shroud to the back of her mind, often deactivating it to save on mana. Unfortunately, it seemed that she’d finally run into a case where it was necessary.

Whatever. I was wrong. This is a crappy region. I’ll go around it.

Luckily, aided by a few healing spells, her own colossal Constitution was enough to restore both her vision and hearing after a while, and Cal booked it back towards the steam region.

It was only as she closed in on her ticket to freedom and safety that she noticed something was exceptionally wrong.

Where once there had been nothing to block her way forward, there was now a thick barrier of wrathful black clouds, visibly crackling with lightning. Glancing at her mana, Cal didn’t like her odds at pushing through it, either.

Please be temporary. Please be temporary. Please don’t be a quest. Please don’t be a-

As if waiting for that exact moment to taunt her, the system chimed in at last.

You have been offered a quest!

Hoping against hope that it would be an optional quest, Cal quickly scanned ahead, her heart sinking when she reached the relevant line.

Until this quest is completed, a thick layer of thunder clouds will block all means of escape.

With a litany of curses, Cal turned back.

Well, fine. How long can clearing one lousy region take, anyway?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Cal did her best to moodily trudge atop the clouds, but their bouncy, forgiving surface made it tough to convey the proper level of malcontentedness. Eventually admitting defeat, she opened up her new quest.

A Thunderous Tribute 

Having entered the domain of the Voltaic Kingdom, it is customary to offer a fitting tribute to the reigning king and queen. Present yourself in their audience chamber to discover their demands.

As the rulers of the region, the voltaic monarchs control all passage out of their kingdom. Until this quest is completed. a thick layer of thunder clouds will block all means of escape.

Rewards:

+1000xp

Safe passage out of the region.

The extra experience notwithstanding, Cal scowled at the quest description. This was extortion! 

Plus, if anything, they should be giving her a gift. Didn’t they know they were supposed to be courteous to a visiting princess?

Whatever. If they turn out to want something ridiculous, I bet I can take them. There wasn’t much a fully overloaded attack out of Apex Shroud couldn’t accomplish by this point.

It took a frustrating amount of walking before Cal chanced upon her first residents of this “Voltaic Kingdom,” and when she did, she had to admit they were an odd bunch.

They seemed to come in two varieties, and while they were vaguely humanoid, no one would mistake the figures for actual humans.

The first were obviously linked to lightning in some way. While they had a sort of thin, glassy skin, their main feature was the bright yellow bolts of electricity that played beneath the surface, haphazardly jumping about. Their perfectly spherical heads looked like they’d make a good trinket, fitting for any up and coming wizard’s study. 

Cal’s Identify skill was fairly anemic after she’d lost so much Perception while sundering her class, but it at least managed to return a basic name for the creature: Voltaic Cloudtender.

Their companions followed a much more standard elemental route, composed of light gray cloudstuff. Whenever one idled about, they easily blended into the surrounding environment, with Cal finding it hard to easily track them. These esteemed personages had been granted the moniker Thunderous Cloudtender.

Much more bizarre than the creatures themselves, however, was what they were up to.

While Cal had certainly seen stranger sights in her time, she was still taken aback on spotting the large tree that sprouted directly from the cloud below. 

At least, she thought it was a tree. If slightly whiter and less substantial than she was used to, the trunk looked passably normal. It was the “leaves” that made Cal second guess herself. Much like everything else in this dreary land, the tree’s standard greenery had been replaced with a mass of clouds, rendering it closer to a young child’s drawing than an actual plant.

On a singular positive note, the tree’s cloudy foliage was somehow safe from the all-pervading gloominess. Unlike the rest of the clouds, it was a pure, radiant white.

It seemed that this was the cloud in question for the cloudtenders, as both variants were busily flocking around the tree, fussing about. A smaller number of them held long pitchforks which they used to spear chunks of the cottony cloud, pulling them off the tree to throw into wooden baskets. A quick Identify labeled this strange resource Cloud Essence.

Are they farming? Actually, was it considered farming when you harvested from trees? Orcharding, maybe? Doesn’t matter. Pretty sure it’s not an orchard either if there’s only one tree. 

More out of curiosity, Cal dropped her Apex Shroud to see if any of them took offense to her presence. While it earned her a harsh shock and a booming clap, the resulting lightning and thunder was barely worth noting compared to the original. It seemed that it had been a one-time welcome gift, of sorts. 

Moreover, that was all she suffered. Even when she got closer, none of the cloudtenders gave her a second glance. Not that they had eyes to begin with, but the point stood.

“Damn. Maybe I spoke too soon. If everyone here is friendly, this might not be as bad as I made it out to be.” She still had no idea how to find these “voltaic monarchs,” of course, but she’d barely started looking. You think any of them know the way?

It was at that moment that one of the Thunderous Cloudtenders fully filled its basket, setting its pitchfork to the side as it hefted up its fluffy bounty. With no clear destination in sight, it began to wander off.

Well, not like this place has any roads or pathways. And with the low visibility, gods only knew where she might end up if she struck out on her own. I guess… I follow it? Sidling up to her new buddy, Cal decided to check out just where all this cloud essence was ending up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

It quickly became clear that Cal had made the right choice. 

Barring some incredible Perception-based skill, she couldn’t imagine how anyone would navigate in this wispy, cloud-infested land. Along her walk, she spotted a few more cloudtenders, some headed the other way with empty baskets, others similarly hauling around baskets of cloud essence. Rarely, they’d pass another of the strange trees, too.

Whenever one of the newcomers was walking in the same direction, they joined her ever-growing posse, until her solitary companion had morphed into a grand procession. Had any of them been capable of speech, Cal would have pestered them for details on their destination, but she had no such luck. 

She settled for surreptitiously grabbing a cloud essence from one of their baskets, playing with the bizarrely spongy material. Feels fun. Wouldn’t be a bad chew toy for an animal. But what else would you even use this for?

It was only a full day later that she spotted something new.

Slowly revealed as she grew close enough to peel back the layers of obscuring clouds, a grand castle pierced the sky.

Unsurprisingly, it was made of clouds.

Even with the uninspired choice of building materials, the castle was an imposing sight, large enough to house a small city. Despite having lived in a palace all her life, Cal could admit to feeling slightly imposed. Sharp tower heads and looming balconies sprouted from the structure in a strangely organic way, with the wide, gaping gates feeling like hungering maws.

Eschewing the standard mote, a ring of crackling lightning surrounded the entire castle.

Cal’s head was on a swivel as she took everything in, even as she followed the cloudtenders. At some point, they encountered a set of guards who led them inside, where Cal’s gawking began anew. 

So many hallways. So many places to sneak into… Her previous Infiltrator class reared its head, urging her to run off and explore. There had to be a treasury somewhere, right? It was a shame she’d dropped the class already. Otherwise, she was sure there was a class quest or two she could complete in a place like this.

Lost in thoughts of righteous redistribution, Cal only snapped back to attention when she felt a gradually increasing pressure bearing down on her. Coupled with the two massive doors at the end of the hallway, it was clear they were approaching the throne room.

When the doors finally opened up, it turned out she was only half right. Lacking a ceiling and open to the sky above, the space couldn’t technically be considered a “room.”

On the other hand, the two thrones at the far end made it very clear that it served the same purpose. A few scattered guards and officials ringed the room, but Cal barely noticed them. Over twice as tall as Cal, each throne housed an ever taller figure, both of whom had her pulling up short.

In the left sat lightning incarnate. Thousands of thick, jagged bolts made up its form, and she knew without a doubt that any of them held more than enough power to fry her to a crisp. A spiky crown of lightning rested upon its head, while a gleaming golden trident sat in its hand. Dipping into Apex Shroud, she quickly risked an Identify.

The Lightning Queen: Level ??

As if the queen wasn’t enough of a threat by herself, a second figure sat to her right, composed entirely of roiling black clouds. Similarly arrayed and crowned, the only major difference was the massive drum it held in its hands.

The Thunder King: Level ??

The two likely had actual names, but her pitiful Identify failed to return anything more than their titles.

If the two had noticed her, they didn’t show any signs of it. Instead, they simply sat there as the amassed cloudtenders formed into a single-file line. Each of them then took turns presenting their baskets to their rulers.

Officials rushed out to count the gathered essences before scurrying away with them. Cal might have followed them, too, if not for the notification that arrived.

Quest Updated!