Dissonance a litrpg adve.., p.26
Dissonance: A LitRPG Adventure, page 26
part #1 of Unbound Series
A way to increase my regen. A search for "oneness" or whatever. Contemplation? A...a steadying of the mind and body to...improve the functions of both...by channeling the power of my mind and body....
Meditation is level 27!
What, really? Felix's brows drew down in concentration, falling deeper into his thoughts. Then, by using Health, Stamina, and Mana, the Skill forms a sort of loop, speeding up recovery by feeding them into one another? Did stats have anything to do with it? What were those called? Harmonic Stats, Resonance and Resilience; pertaining to mental and physical recovery, respectively. Harmonic. Harmony. That's a music thing, right? What—
Felix's eyes snapped open.
Does it have to do with the faint music I hear when I level up?
Meditation is level 28!
Meditation is level 29!
Meditation is level 30!
+5 RES
+5 REI
"Huh," Felix gasped. "Music?"
A sudden bellowing shattered his calm, the air itself shaking with the power of it. Felix scrambled to his feet to peer in the direction of the platform, but the broken doorway was still dark.
Not for long, I imagine. Felix looked at the exit. Gotta move.
Careful to keep Meditation active, Felix breathed and waited ten, then fifteen seconds. His Mana rocketed back up by nearly 60 points; it'd have to do. He could already hear the thunder of approaching footsteps. He didn't have much time.
Using his Fire Within Skill, he visualized his pathways, feeling the flow of his Mana through his body. He Willed his Mana through his chest, belly, arms, and legs, flowing it in progressively complex patterns that were nevertheless increasingly familiar to him. Felix only had one chance at this; if he got it wrong, he wouldn't be leaving this volcano. As the power built and twisted into the required patterns, he released it.
Stone Shaping!
A five-foot portion of the stone doors before him liquefied, flowing into an amorphous tunnel that Felix and Pit quickly stepped within. It was like stepping into pudding, except upsettingly warm. The thickened stone sludge flowed around and behind him, sealing up the pathway back even as a titanic scream shook the air.
"Helga—!"
The scream cut off, and Felix sealed himself in stone.
Felix took a moment to breathe.
His heart had jumped into his throat when he heard the Archon's voice. He was very angry, and Felix figured he knew the reason.
"Next time, don't sic your dog on people," Felix muttered. "Golden jerk."
Shaking himself, Felix moved forward, his thoughts only on keeping the pattern tight and controlled. Stone shifted and moved around them, leaving only a small six-foot-by-three-foot bubble within a mountain of impenetrable rock. Using the Skill carefully like this was far easier than the sudden alterations he had done before. This way, his Meditation could ensure his regen kept up with the expense, if barely.
Felix kept his head in the game and kept moving. He wasn't out of the woods yet.
The way wasn't entirely solid, almost as if most of the rock he cleared was large rubble. Or not even stone. Flickers of light flashed occasionally around him, bright in the dark. Something had collapsed, a long time ago. Every few minutes, a puff of stale air rushed into his bubble, the massive boulders around him melting and shifting. However, as an hour went by, Felix still hadn't cleared the path.
How deep beneath the earth was he? Was this not an exit? He felt as if he were wading through waist deep snow.
What if he never got out?
The spell nearly cut out as his concentration wavered. Felix caught himself, firming his mind even as he poured slightly more Mana into the spell. His regen couldn't quite keep up with the increase, though. He'd have to take a break sooner rather than later.
Two hours.
Three hours.
Four hours and twelve breaks later, the bubble around Felix burst open into a blazing, brilliant light.
For a moment, Felix was blinded, his eyes used to the darkness of the mountain. He stumbled forward, tripping slightly on scree that slid and clattered beneath him. When the world came into focus, Felix's breath caught. It was gorgeous.
Beneath bright blue, cloudless skies, Felix observed a towering mountain range that spread to his left and right, or north and south, he amended with a glance at the setting sun. The mountains overlooked a wide valley that extended well into the hazy blue distance, and was filled with a variety of pines and leafy green trees.
And there, off in the distance, stone towers rose up into the sky.
"That's so far away," he sighed, shoulders drooping for a moment before he started moving down the mountain. "C'mon, Pit! We've got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall."
Pit let out a low squawk behind him.
As they stumped down the mountainside, loose stones cascading around him, a booming voice echoed across his consciousness.
Challenge Complete!
You Have Survived!
Return To The Domain To Receive Your Reward!
"Wha?" Felix dragged his hand over his face as he minimized all the notifications trying to pop up. "Under the mountain? No fucking chance of that, mysterious system voice. You hear this, Pit?" The tenku merely chirruped tiredly and kept shuffling sideways down the mountain. Felix shook his head, his face pinched. "Unbelievable."
They trudged down the mountain in silence.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
"Down!"
Magda dove forward, left shield extended to deflect an acidic projectile from a hissing Tree Serpent. The kite shield didn't quite reach, but the attack deflected anyway, much to the surprise of Atar cowering behind her.
"How'd—?"
"Get back behind the wall!" Magda shouted, ignoring her own advice and charging forward at the serpent. She didn't look back to see if he listened. If he didn't, he'd likely die.
Magda wasn't worried about the boy.
Evie and the Dayne girl were fighting off the Tree Serpent on their own. Harn was too busy fending off the marauding chimeras behind them. Evie swung her spiked chain around her body, expertly weaving the twenty-foot-long weapon through her arms, legs,and around her torso. Each rotation added momentum to its strikes, and in an expert's hands, it was a deadly implement.
Magda felt pride wash over her, even as she desperately charged toward the battle. Evie was good, but she was still only barely into Apprentice Tier for Chain Mastery. The thirty foot long Tree Serpent easily bobbed and weaved through her assault, wedge-shaped head and single flame-colored eye staring fixedly at the nimble fighter.
Vessilia was moving about with almost as much grace as Evie, hopping here and there, lining up strikes with her eight-foot spear. She was strong, too, as each hit did considerable damage when it connected. The Tree Serpent threw its looping coils up and away from the vicious duo, dodging Evie's latest attack while lunging to bite Vessilia.
"No, you don't! Wall of Force!"
A shimmering field of energy suddenly warped the light between Vessilia and the Tree Serpent, cutting short its lunge as it bounced off. Rearing back in anger, the serpent moved to strike again, but Magda was already on it.
"Clarion Call!" She held her twin kite shields in front of her as she emitted a high-pitched wail. The Serpent froze in its tracks, it's single eye widening as if mesmerized. Then it went wild, snapping and lunging at Magda with abandon. The Shieldwitch punched outward with her shields, each time meeting the attacks at an angle, deflecting the majority of the strikes to either side of her body. "I've got it's attention! Flank it!"
Evie and Vessilia looked at each other and took off. Evie ran along the ground, nimbly negotiating the root-filled terrain despite the pervasive fog that limited her Perception to a measly half-dozen yards. She came up beneath the serpent, near the tree where the majority of its body was tethered.
Whipping her spiked chain in a tight loop around her shoulder, she launched the weighted end of it straight up. The chain flew far faster than it should have, bridging the gap in a fraction of a second and hitting with the power of an Iron Guilder. The Tree Serpent cried out in sudden pain.
Then Vessilia came down on it.
Somehow the girl had climbed atop the nearest tree, and using it as a springboard, she jumped a full twelve yards into the sky. She landed on the serpent's head spear first, the eight-foot polearm sinking three feet deep into the serpent's glowing eye.
SCREEEEEEEEE—
Vessilia twisted her blade, and the serpent suddenly fell limp. The Duke's daughter rode the corpse to the ground, where it hit with a boom of displaced fog.
"Yeah! You kicked his ass, Vess!" Evie was ebullient, but then she always was. Magda let the Force Wall drop as Vessilia pulled her spear free of the gooey remains of the serpent.
"Well, I would say we did it together," Vessilia smiled brightly, her teeth straight and extra white against the dark orange blood that streaked her face.
"Yes, good job, now back to the group! Now!" Magda cut them off and hustled them back to the first Force Wall she had put up. Evie rolled her eyes and nodded her head at her friend. The two smiled and ran back to Atar and Harn.
Blind gods, that girl can make friends with Avet himself. Magda shook her head ruefully, thundering behind the pair as they retreated to her temporary bulwark. A hazy orb appeared out of the mists, visible mostly due to the fog that rolled up and over it. The orb became permeable as Magda approached, and all three quickly entered. "Harn! Report!"
"Chimeras have been routed, and the fliers have been scared off for now," Harn growled, still watching the darkening skies. Night was coming on them quickly. "How'd you kill the snake?"
"Didn't," came the reply. Magda jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Vessilia. "She did."
"Oh, aye?" Harn's grim face watched the Dayne girl look proud, blush, then wilt under his stony regard. Magda suppressed a smile. The man was a brute, stubborn as an ox, and as hard to impress as any Guilder trainer she'd ever met. Which made sense, considering his background.
"We must seek shelter for the night," came an insistent voice. Magda glanced over at Atar, eyeing his torn robes and mud-splattered hems. He didn't have a single wound on him, or even any monster blood. The rest of them were practically painted orange and crimson, by comparison. “It is getting too dark to keep going.”
Harn looked over at Magda with a raised eyebrow. The Shieldwitch glanced at Atar before turning back toward the setting sun. “We keep moving. We’re close.”
Muffled groans came from the Tin Guilders, but they hoisted their discarded packs and followed after. The five of them trudged along the darkening path, following game trails barely visible even to their enhanced senses.
Game trails, Magda snorted to herself. As if we're the ones doing the hunting. Even now, she could vaguely sense the prowling of chimera, sniffing them out.
They were deep into the interior of the Foglands, the terrain largely unmapped and unexplored. Not that the land could be trusted, for it appeared to shift and change randomly, moving a tree or a hillock from one glance to another. Whatever cataclysm created these lands, it scarred them deeply; magic oozed from everything, confusing even their Skills at times. The chimeras were out en masse as well, and the Tree Serpent was only one of five such encounters they had endured over the past seven hours. Add in the strange commotion to the west earlier that afternoon, when rage boiled up from the earth like a near physical vapor, and all of them were on edge and due a rest.
But we're too close to rest. Magda's mouth thinned as she viewed the narrow ravine before them. It extended perhaps twenty yards before opening back up, and there didn't seem to be a convenient way around it. We have to take a chance.
Before she could step inside, the little shit stepped in front of her.
"That's enough! We've been following you blindly for nearly a week," Atar yelled, red in the face, making his wispy blonde mustache stand out. "You've let us kill one or two beasts between the three of us, keep us moving for hours on end, and what's worse, have yet to help us Reveal our Omens!"
Atar squared his shoulders and clenched his fists at his sides. "Now you expect us to keep moving, through a twisty and obviously trapped ravine as true night begins to fall! I demand to know just what is going on here!"
Atar huffed and puffed, his skinny shoulders trembling with either rage or fear. Probably both. Magda looked back at Evie and Vessilia, the same questions echoing in their eyes. Harn simply shrugged at her, his helm covering an expression that was surely some variation of "I told you so." Magda put her hands on her hips.
"You're an arrogant pissant, and you only deserve to know what I deem appropriate," she growled, and the boy flinched as if struck, his thin arms crossing over his chest. Magda glared at all of them, her dark eyes barely visible through the slit of her half helmet. "From here on out, you are responsible for yourselves. We are encroaching upon a place that is truly dangerous. It is enough to put pressure on both Harn and myself, let alone the three of you. Follow my lead and do. Not. Stray."
She punctuated the last three words with a jab of her thick, gauntleted finger. The last was to Atar, who flinched again.
"Understand?"
Mute nods went all around, and Magda stomped past the small mage and into the ravine.
"Good."
He was back in the ocean.
Opaque green water, sizzling against his skin even as the last vestiges of his clothing dissolved away. Carmine lightning skittered across the skies, thunder following close on its heels. The storm was on top of him, and the waves swallowed him whole.
He fell, sinking faster and faster.
Into the darkness.
Slender shapes encircled him, twisted and slithering through the murk. A flash of scales, of spines, of awful claws and teeth. They spun closer and closer, appendages meant to rend and tear and eat and eat and eat and eat—
Then something brilliant shimmered beside him. The warmth of the light chased away the twisting creatures, sheltered him from the corrosive waters, and stilled the tossing seas. A hand laid on his shoulder, his muscles going soft and weak at its touch.
"You have survived...I am surprised."
Felix’s body relaxed entirely, the feeling he mistook for weakness instead being a delightful relief in all of his muscles. But he couldn't quite look up into the blazing light. Who was this?
"This is good. You're strong. I'll need you to be stronger still if you are to find me."
The presence drifted closer to him, a blinding light just beyond his periphery, and he was struck by the impression of lips close to his ear as it spoke again.
"Can you do that, Felix Nevarre?"
Felix sucked in a breath, pulling in tainted water that suddenly wanted to dissolve his body from the inside. He reeled, the light fading, his body thrashing in the darkening depths.
He screamed.
Pit leaped backward with a startled squawk, fur rising and wings spreading wide.
"Pit?" Felix realized he was sitting up, braced precariously between two thick branches. His heart thudded in his chest as he belatedly noticed the danger he was in; they had climbed this tree to sleep. Though it wasn't a magic tree, it was a very tall conifer with remarkably little sap on its bark, and that meant it was the winner. Felix looked at the night darkened forest around him and regarded Pit, who was delicately poised two branches away.
"What's up? What happened?" The skies were clear and filled with dazzling starlight, the majority of the moons having set already, leaving only the smallest two hovering over the horizon. It was early morning, something like 3AM if he were to use Earth time here. As far as Felix could tell, the days and nights felt a good deal longer than back home, but he wasn't sure.
Pit rustled his feathers a few times, taking a moment to preen his wings with his eyes closed.
"Oh, c'mon," Felix pled, rubbing an eye with the back of his hand. "I was having a nightmare. It was...it was not great. I'm sorry for scaring you. What happened?"
Pit chirped happily, regarding Felix with his big golden eyes. Felix couldn't help but smile. Then the tenku turned and gestured with his black-dipped front paw, toward the east. Felix turned.
It took him a minute to see it, but between the shifting branches and thick foliage, he could see fire.
"People," Felix gasped. "Pit! We've gotta check it out." Felix shifted to climb down, but a blinking in his vision arrested his attention.
Oh right, my notifications. Guess I was too tired to go through them last night. This night? Earlier. He sighed. I should check them. There could be something useful in there.
Felix settled back against the tree and with a placating gesture to Pit, toggled his notifications.
Stone Shaping is level 16!
...
Stone Shaping is level 23!
Fire Within is level 25!
Fire Within is level 26!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier In Fire Within!
You Have Gained:
+10 WIL
+5% Control Of Internal Mana
Deep Mind is level 24!
Felix clenched his body as a rush of information and power flooded his system. He reached a steadying hand to a nearby branch, but his sudden spastic grip snapped it in two. As the feeling faded, he regarded his hand with dull eyes.
I'll never get used to that. The burst of stats and Skill levels seemed to be hitting harder recently, and Felix wasn't sure if that was because he kept getting them in big batches or another reason. He had to get that under control. Now that his Strength was so high, he was afraid he'd hurt himself or others someday.
Shaking his head, he focused on the last few notifications. He'd reached Apprentice Tier in Fire Within, which made sense after he'd used it to escape the mountain. If its past utility was any gauge, having that Skill in Apprentice Tier would be extremely useful. As a reward, he'd gained more Willpower and greater control of internal Mana. While the Willpower was welcome, he could honestly say it was his least-needed stat. He almost wished he'd earned Strength or Vitality, but Felix wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially here; horses probably had razor-sharp teeth and ate people on the Continent.
