FMH: Everything ~ Forty-Three

As it turned out, Andre's plan was extremely effective. Even though it took two full weeks, they completed the Zone far faster than they would have otherwise. Trial and error had them constantly resetting, but the Druid had simply grown a sparse carpet of mycelium along the entirety of the Zone, since he had no other plant life to contend with.

The fungus had rolled along the Zone at a much higher rate of growth than grass or other more ‘intense’ plant life would have required. When it finished, he was able to determine the optimal path from the starting pool, going all the way to the end of the Zone almost fifteen hundred miles away. Needless to say, if Luke had been forced to contend with this puzzle on his own, it may have taken years or even decades before he had cleared it.

Still, the Berserker had nothing to complain about. Every time he went into a pit, he came out with a broad smile on his face. Taylor never trusted herself to get close to the pits while the monsters were still alive in them. Every time she tried, she was forced to start marching to her own death. Even so, she used it as willpower training and got as close as possible, having Andre yank her back with a vine if she got too close to the edge. The Mage had recommended that each of them undergo this training, amending her words when Luke merely snorted derisively at her.

Even with taking time to train their Characteristics, grow small groves of plants for food and liquid, and making careful judgment calls, they cleared the Zone only days after the fungus had spread completely, and they moved on to the next one.

Taylor thought over what Luke had mentioned to them about this place, how every third Zone could now be used as an exit to their own plane of existence, but only every fifth one could serve as a new entrance.

That worked well for them months later, after they had evaded the strange monster made of light in Zone twenty-two and defeated a fortress populated by goblins in Zone twenty-three. Now, they were finally finishing a slog through Zone twenty-four.

This Zone had nearly been the death of three of them thousands of times, as it was a bog made of a combination of liquid mana and what served as dirt for this world. If they had stepped off of solid ground, they would have been plunged into the energetic fluid. That would have guaranteed a quick and nearly painless death as they exploded, and Taylor couldn't help but admit to herself that she had considered it at least a few times. Mostly intrusive thoughts, but having only the three men as company was slowly driving her mad.

Everything had been fine until she had snapped and started casting Cleanse on her teammates at least once a day. At first, she did it because they stank so terribly, but then it became one of her daily chores. With the expectation set, it was hard for her to find a reason to refuse, even if it only took a mental command from her for the Spell to take effect. She still needed to physically touch them in order to cast the Spell, and for some reason, that fact had begun to grate on her.

Intellectually, Taylor understood that it was a combination of constantly being on high alert, always being under attack, and never being farther away than an outstretched arm’s length from one of her companions. When they had been living in the Scarrocco Nature Preserve, they had all been able to have their own space. They could pursue their own interests, move at their own pace, and feel confident that they could be alone with their thoughts or their private actions.

She accepted the fact that the mental fatigue was starting to get to her, and day after day, came to understand Luke the Murderhobo just a little bit better. His habits were starting to make sense, his aversion to dealing with people seemed brilliant, and his short and to-the-point answers were a relief after the circumlocution that Zed would put her through in order to answer even the simplest of questions.

As Luke reached his hand out and touched a strange film of power in the air between the two Zones, Taylor let out a deep sigh of relief as it collapsed into an exit portal. At that moment, she felt newfound strength, realizing that she had increased in power to an unbelievable extent over the last few months. The constantly shifting scenery, new monsters ready to fight at a moment's notice, and the sheer quantity of those self-same monsters had allowed her to break into level eighteen. That was in conjunction with increasing Thunder Beast’s Eye to Tier eight, Fissure to Tier six, and Frozen Trident to Tier five.

As per usual, she had divided the increases in her Characteristics between Mental Energy and Physical Reaction, but as they stopped to catch their breath and watch the Scar forming in the air, she read over the changes in her Spells. One of them even made her blink in surprise:. She hadn’t been under attack by a mana-based Spell of some sort since her entry to this world, so she had not even thought to look at the upgrade that she had achieved in her Spell Nullify. She softly murmured to her Sigil, “Display changes in Spells since last viewing.”

Frozen Trident → Astral Triplet (Tier 5, level 0).

Effect 3: The spikes of ice generated by this Spell are now tipped with ice from the void around planets, adding an armor penetration effect of 50+3n%, where n = Skill level. (Maximized at 80% armor penetration.).

Nullify → Absorb (Tier 5, level 4).

Effect 3: All mana from nullified effects are added to a temporary bonus mana pool that'll be drained before your normal mana pool when casting Spells. This bonus mana will be retained for 10n seconds, where n = Skill level, before dissipating into the surroundings.

Fissure → Earthshaker (Tier 6, level 0).

Bonus, AOE: Take direct control of all earthen materials around you, shaping it to your desires. This may disrupt control of other effects created by Ascenders attempting to control the same earthen materials. This Spell lasts for 10n seconds, where n = Skill level. Damage potential varies based on materials used.

Thunder Beast’s Eye → Tribulation of Argus (Tier 8, level 9).

Bonus, Multitarget AOE: For every 25 mana invested in this Spell, gain a n% chance to summon one additional Thunder Beast’s Eye 10 feet from the nearest eye in the sky. Each additional eye will only be able to cast a single bolt of lightning, but it will be done at no additional mana cost.

Though she had many powerful options, she had immediately invested Potentia until the Tribulation of Argus had reached level nine. She had not been willing to use this Spell to this point, as they had been on soggy ground. Taylor wasn't going to take a chance at accidentally obliterating herself and her team, not after the fire Spell fiasco when she first arrived.

Even so, the Mage was desperately excited to get a chance at using it. The main reason was… the Spell didn’t specify any upper limit for how many additional eyes could be summoned, only that there was currently a less than ten percent chance that it would happen.

“I will be able to use this soon without killing us all,” Taylor promised herself. On the note of safety, she had been far too cautious to allow her Meta-magic to increase in Tier while she was in this world. Even though the absolute abundance of mana would have increased the speed at which it ranked up, she needed to be able to activate Luke's healing ability. It had saved her multiple times, more than she wanted to count, and it frightened her how easily she was accepting wounds at this point. “Maybe I should stop relying on that… it's a bad habit to get hit, and we’ll be back to the base world soon. Probably.”

That last part was added because her musing had caused Luke to look over at her sharply, and for some suspicious reason, he had reached down and ‘casually’ scooped up a large quantity of mud. She didn't want to know what he planned to use that for and resolved to not give him any reason to bring that filth anywhere near her.

When Luke marched past the distortion and into Zone twenty-five, she couldn't decide if she was happy he didn't think they could leave, or if she should try to force the issue and escape this place. Her Sigil wasn't screaming at her that it believed she was strong enough to break past the barricade that was surely waiting for them, but she could tell that they were close. But… did she want to risk her life, and what freedom she enjoyed, on being probably close enough? As her mind pondered these questions, her body fell in step with Luke, and she marched past the distortion without a word.

Her suspicions were confirmed as the mud slid out of Luke's hand without another word.

After a few minutes of walking, she decided to say her first words to her team for the day. “Luke, did you get any information about this Zone when we entered?”

He nodded at her, remaining silent. She forced herself to have a calm reaction and merely continued her line of questioning. “Please share that information with us.”

Taylor had found that it was best to give firm yet polite demands instead of asking him questions. Otherwise, he would share whatever he thought was the most pertinent detail that satisfied the query then go silent. It had taken weeks of failed conversations until she had worked out this methodology.

Luke took in a sharp inhale through his nose, as if he were about to hit something. All of the team’s heightened reactions kicked into gear, and their heads snapped into position to stare at him as he turned around. Only after she had released some tension did Taylor realize how much her battle instincts had increased over the preceding months. “It appears that Zone twenty-five is a boss Zone. There's only a single creature here, and there's a good shot that we don't even see it; if we don’t wanna.”

“Is that… a good thing? It doesn't sound like a good thing the way you say it, even though it does sound like a good thing when taken at face value.” Zed's words were far calmer than his attitude had been when they first arrived. Perhaps he was feeling like he was a true part of the group, now that he was rapidly increasing his power. Even so, he lagged far behind the other members of the group, but that was to be expected when he had started so far behind where they were. Even now, he was focusing most of his Potentia into his Masteries instead of increasing his level.

“It might be, it might not.” Luke's answer was extremely cagey. “The information it gave me said that, if we make it to the end of the Zone without defeating the boss monster, we will be guaranteed enough Potentia to increase at least one level.”

“Great, let's do that!” Zed started walking, but the Murderhobo’s hand reached out and rested on his chest to stop him.

“However…” Luke slowly announced the remainder of his thoughts. “If we were to defeat the monster, it guarantees us enough Potentia to gain three levels. I don't know about you three, but that means it would give me enough to get to level twenty-one.”