CC5 ~ 45!

~ 45 ~

The magma was thick, at least thicker than water, which made it harder to swim through. The density helped with the issue of sinking, allowing Joe to remain at a fairly level depth. He didn’t dare to go above the surface; not only would the Elves be looking for him, but there was a chance that he would touch the barrier and get tossed back onto one of the islands.

He was keeping a sharp eye on his Exquisite Shell, but he thought that it was lowering at a reasonable level. Joe’s strength was at one hundred and thirty-three, and there was practically no comparison to a human fresh off Earth. He clawed through the magma with the same force that a high-end front-loader would use to scoop a hole in the earth. Needless to say, he was moving fast. Far faster than he had ever expected he would be able to manage.

Then something caught him. Not a monster, more like a convection current. All of a sudden he was in a downward suction of magma, dropping a dozen feet in an instant. It hit just before Joe had planned to surface for air, so he had to work hard not to panic. Then he recalled that he had a spell that could help in situations like this. He cast Neutrality Aura in the next moment.

The tightness in his chest didn’t vanish, but his darkening vision fixed itself. Joe was glad not to pass out while boiling rock pressed in on him from all sides, but now he had another issue: he had not a single clue where he was. The flowing danger zone had tossed him around to the point where he wasn’t even sure which way was up, and he was running out of time. Joe pulled himself out of the current fairly easily now that he was expecting it, breaking from the undertow in an instant with a solid pull and kick, but…

Exquisite Shell: 1,836/3,586. You are taking 25 heat damage per second!

“It’s only been a full minute since I started?” Joe wasn’t foolish enough to speak the words aloud; he wasn’t going to let his breath escape that easily. He kept swimming as hard as he could, paddling for another thirty seconds before he ran into something solid.

Exquisite Shell: 961/3,586. You are taking 25 heat damage per second!

Joe was going to attempt to climb up the solid rock, but his forward momentum had been arrested. Since he had come to a stop and didn’t continue moving for a moment, the undercurrent grabbed him and sucked him deeper into the magma. Joe scrabbled for purchase on the stone, but his grip caused the superheated stone to *squish* instead of stopping him. The current sucked him into a volcanic vent, and suddenly, Joe was moving even faster than when he had been when swimming at full speed.

He was in freefall.

Joe’s vision cleared up, revealing a massive, empty room that was only solid due to being mostly a mix of obsidian and a metallic substance. He landed in a pool of magma that was slowly increasing in height. Apparently, this cavern had only recently been melted into, as it was neither filled, nor even close to it. Still—Joe watched the magma get higher—it wouldn’t stay empty for too much longer.

He swam through the magma pool, moving so fast that he left a wake behind. Joe pulled himself out of the pool, amazed that his Exquisite Shell had managed to keep him alive until this moment. Checking the remaining strength of his protection, he blanched and hurried to get to a ‘safe’ spot. Just as he got to the top of a small hill, his shell broke, and Joe felt the full heat of the room.

Health: 80/1,642

You are taking 20 damage per second!

“Mend!” Joe frantically slapped his chest, sending his health rocketing upward, as well as healing dozens of internal stress fractures and wounds. That much damage per second just by standing in the hot air really showcased how effective his shell had been at saving him. “Lay on Hands!”

With those two spells, his health rose by a full five hundred points. This gave him a comfortable amount to work with, so he cancelled Neutrality Aura to maximize his mana. He started choking in moments; clearly, the air was utterly tainted with harsh chemicals and fumes. Joe slapped on his Exquisite Shell, followed by his aura once more, taking a breath and waiting in place only long enough to gather enough mana to heal himself up the rest of the way.

Skill increase: Mend (Journeyman I).

Skill increase: Lay on Hands (Student I). Sometimes it pays to almost die and bring yourself back from the brink!

Skill increase: Exquisite Shell (Student II). Even lobsters boil in their shells, yet you just dove right on in and made it through. Impressive.

Skill increase: Neutrality Aura (Student I).

Title Gained: …Student of Defense. When focusing most of your efforts on surviving, you have found that you are better at it than expected. Increases a single defensive skill or spell effect by 10%. Once chosen, the effect cannot be transferred.

You have gained a broken title! You currently have the maximum number of titles. You can either replace one with this new title, or apply this title to another! You have five minutes to decide before this title is dismissed.

Joe looked at his titles quickly, a smile lighting up his face even though his circumstances were dire. Gaining titles was rare. He couldn’t think of the last time he had gained a title out in the wild, based purely on his own effort over time. He scanned the list, dismissing them one by one. Joe didn’t want to weaken an effective title, and didn’t want to empower one that wouldn’t be sticking around if he got something better. There was really only one choice, and he made it while laughing.

Are you certain that you want to apply ‘…Student of Defense’ to ‘Baldy II’? ‘Baldy II’ is a curse, and adding onto it may make it harder to remove if a cure is found. Yes / No.

“Yes. It’s a part of me now, practically a calling card. I’m the hairless human mage that’s going to take down the Elves, and I like it.” Joe got ready to adjust the wording of the title, but the notifications shifted before he could get to it. The change and new wording startled him greatly as a strange choice was offered.

Hidden requirement met! You have accepted a cursed title and made it a part of who you are. You have proven that you are not willing to become a victim to circumstances, and you have earned a reward from CAL. Title has changed into a permanent effect: Boon and Bane.

Boon and Bane: choose a spell or skill to empower by 10%. Remain permanently bald. Cannot wear hats, but no longer lose your stealth ability in direct sunlight. Or, you can dismiss both the positive and negative effects and regrow your lost hair.

Joe looked at the options and ran a hand over his bald head. He had really come to enjoy his current look, and he didn’t think that he was going to let it go now. “I’ll take it. Empower… Retaliation of Shadows.”

Boon and Bane applied!

Skill updated: Retaliation of Shadows (Journeyman I). 45.1% damage returned when attacked, with a maximum return of: 451 dark damage.

“Neat.” Joe looked at his titles, and saw something that he hadn’t seen in a long time: an empty slot. “Guess I gotta do some awe inspiring things to get a new title.”

He had considered boosting Exquisite Shell, but ten percent just wasn’t enough to really help at this stage. Joe was getting his shell broken constantly by the potent enemies he was running up against, and he needed more ways to hurt them. Neutrality Aura had been a close second, but again, he needed something that was a bit more of an active defense. With that out of the way, he turned to the problem at hand; he was trapped underground in a room that was slowly filling with lava. Magma. Whatever.

“First thing to get out of the way…” Joe sent a pulse of mana into the manacles he was still wearing, and in just a moment, the Uncommon-ranked cuffs crumbled into rubble that he didn’t even bother to sift through. “That would have been an issue if they had respawned Eli before I got those off.”

Next, immediate survival was the priority. Joe needed to either block the flowing lava, or get himself out of there. Well… both, really, but he didn’t know if tunneling out would just let more lava in. Joe hadn’t had this issue since he had been searching for diamonds back when he’d tried minecraft. Now, he was planning on using the same tactics to deal with the problem. “I need to put a block in front of that flow so that the hole is plugged. How to do that is the question.”

Joe opened his system notes and looked over the rituals that he had previously worked with. “This… the mana-sapping one; that doesn’t need to be mana, does it? It could easily be invoked as energy. Heat is energy. Kinda. Okay. I can convert this to a heat-sapping ritual, but what is that heat going to do? If I just collect it, I’ll melt the ritual and likely my face. I need to repurpose it. I can send it… down, if I pull that part from that ritual here, but there again, I run into the issue of breaking the ritual.”

He pondered over the issue as the entire, massive cavern floor raised another six inches thanks to the magma. “What if I modify the Gravedigger’s Requiem to move horizontally instead of vertically? Disperse the effect, then have it ‘dig’ through a wall using the heat instead of vibration? Do I have that kind of time?”

Eyeing the rising lava, Joe gulped. “I might not have the time… but I can’t think of anything else that I could do instead. Time to do or die.”

He really hoped he could do it. If this failed, he was going to die within range of the major fort again. Joe was not looking forward to another escape attempt.