“Go ahead,” Eric replied.
“You were confronted with a foe only you could face. Did any message from The Paths appear with that?”
No harm in lying about this, Eric thought. It’s something completely new to me as well. I can gauge her reaction to see if it's something known and just not spoken about. But . . . it could also be something negative that is not common knowledge, or even forbidden. It’s a risk, but a risk worth taking.
Eric replied with as much seriousness as he could muster, “I saw a message. It said that I held a unique power and would face an additional challenge.” He held up his hand and manifested the Blackflame Bolt, holding it above his palm as the tension grew like a pulled bowstring. “I received an improvement to my Rote because I rose to and conquered that challenge.”
Seraphine’s look of neutral curiosity broke as the corners of her lips turned up in a faint smile. “Ah . . . interesting.” She made a few notations in her notebook. “I imagine that this means you will seek further descent into the Twilight Depths?”
Eric looked forward to his allies, who he knew were listening in. Then, he turned back and replied with a grin, “Yes. Getting these levels, new Traits, and new Skills, is very appealing to me.”
Seraphine slowed her stride, falling back into line with the trailing guards.
Eric picked up the pace and walked next to Naomi and Shannon. Shannon glanced at him and put out a hand, rubbing his shoulder gently. “Hey, you okay?” she asked gently. “That solo monster fight must have been scary. Just checking on you.”
“I’m good,” Eric replied. “Let’s just focus on clearing this floor of the dungeon.” They reached the next chamber within a few minutes, and once there Eric groaned internally.
I fucking hated this room.
The entire chamber was a single hallway that extended well over a football field across. The walkway they stood upon was raised across the entire expanse, and dozens of dangerous obstacles were set up along the route: spinning blades that whipped up the air with loud whump noises, spikes that poked out of the ground in patches in a pattern, and swinging axes that were right out of an Indiana Jones movie carving across the path.
To either side of the path were deep pits filled with scurrying swarms of rats. They were milling over each other, cannibalizing one another, and Eric knew they could not be harmed permanently as they would regenerate near-instantaneously. Stone grooves like a ladder were carved every fifty feet into the walkway to allow for someone to get back up—but they would have to suffer attacks from the rats if they fell into the slavering horde.
Naomi let out a little scream and slapped her hand over her mouth. She waved her hands in a fanning motion. “I fucking hate rodents!”
Shannon giggled. “Aww, they’re so cute. They have that little eye bulge and are super happy right now. So cute.”
Peter ignored the girls’ comments and just looked at the obstacles ahead, the slow drip of blood down his armor gradually covering the ground in a little puddle. “This thing on a timer?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Eric said. “At least, I don’t see a clock or anything like it. Does anyone mind if I go first?”
“Go for it, bro.”
Eric stepped down the walkway and came up to the first obstacle in the path: scything axe blades that swung down at regular intervals. The pattern was extremely easy to understand, so he deftly hopped forward from safe spot to safe spot, feeling the breeze of the passing blades. He had to turn his body sidelong to fit.
Peter might have some trouble doing this with his armor. At the same time, he could probably jump into the rat swarm and just force his way across, then climb up the ladders at the end.
That was a viable option, and one that Eric himself had done the first time around. His experience using that workaround had been absolutely miserable, because he was constantly being eaten alive while healing himself through the ordeal. This time, he would have to actually use dexterity and move his body correctly. In a pinch, he could use a Sigil and activate Flashstep if he felt like he needed to avoid impending death, but he hoped to preserve his remaining ones for the boss at the end of the floor.
It’s all just timing and watching for patterns.
Eric made it past the swinging axes, and there his confidence faltered slightly. A large, square pad of a spongy, green substance stood in front of a large pit that led down to the rat swarm. On either side, walls hung down from the ceiling, suspended without any floor to support them beneath.
Am I supposed to—
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard loud grunting from nearby. Looking down to his left, he saw Peter, holding both ladies overhead, seated on his shoulders as he waded through the rats. His body was surrounded with a sheen of crimson from some Skill. Peter glanced up at Eric. “Race you there!”
I’m not going to rush and risk harming myself.
Eric walked up to the edge of the square spongy surface and poked at it a few times. The return jiggle was about half the force he’d initially exerted. Almost like a trampoline. What he was supposed to do for this obstacle clicked in his mind: a spider-climb. It reminded him of when he was on the Admiral’s flagship during heavy storms, and she had taught him while inside the vessel’s narrow passages, to push his feet into the joist of the floor and wall.
He stepped on the pad and bounced a few times, memorizing how much height he got. Then, he walked back, got a jogging start, jumped, landed on the pad, and launched himself up. He put his hands and feet out to either side and stuck the landing.
The hard part is done. Now for the annoying bit.
He moved one hand, then the other, and then a leg, and the other leg. Slowly, he made his way across the thirty-foot gap, though Shannon, Naomi, and Peter were already at the far end of the passage.
“Want me to come back and carry you?” Peter shouted.
“I’m good!” Eric replied.
Plus, this is showing Seraphine and the guards that I’m more than capable of tackling challenges myself. It’ll help me stand out even more and help build that reputation that I’m better than you three. That is going to keep you safe from the more duplicitous people who are going to want to take advantage of the strongest Summoned.
Eric took a few breaths to compose himself. Then, he looked up to face the next obstacle: a series of spinning, circular platforms that were on stands above the swarm. He would have to jump from one to the other, taking the spin into account.
Or, I can get onto one, then do a little circle in the opposite direction to stay facing forward before jumping to the next.
Eric did just that, leaping onto the first one, intentionally landing on hands and knees. He held on for dear life as the spin suddenly accelerated, then decelerated, and continued to alternate between fast and slow.
Fucking obstacles changing up on me.
He shuffled to his feet and tried to match the spin’s speed in the opposite direction, but the varying speeds made that very difficult to manage.
I must look like an idiot right now. My plan is backfiring right now.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Hold on!” Naomi shouted. “I found something with gears!” She sounded very excited.
Eric held tight, then almost went flying a few seconds later when the pedestal stopped spinning. It took him a few seconds to regain his bearings, and even then he was still dealing with the dizzying confusion of a rapid spin suddenly halted.
“I stopped the traps!” Naomi called over.
Eric finally got his senses back under control and stood up. True to what she had said, Naomi had disabled the entire room. A panel of the wall had been removed, the stones cracked and shattered. There was a pile of gears and cogs covered in grease on the ground next to her. With no moving obstacles, Eric cleared the rest of the course with ease.
“Great job,” he said as he gave Naomi a high five.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have 3 level-ups to process.]
[Blackflame Mage 8, 9, 10.]
[Level 10 in Blackflame Mage reached! Gain access to a new Skill. You may equip your new Skill on your Loadout by spending one hour doing low-impact activities.]
[Level 10 in Blackflame Mage reached! Gain access to a new Trait. You must choose an existing Trait to remove, or lose access to this new Trait.]
-----
New Skill:
Inferno Trigger 1 - Only usable if a target is suffering from Blackflame Blaze. The target erupts, dealing x2 the remainder of all burn damage in a burst that only affects the selected target. This does not trigger Blackflame Blaze.
-----
New Trait:
Sapping Heat 1 - When a target dies within 1 minute of being harmed by the user, the user restores 10% of their mana.
-----
It looks like Inferno Trigger is a single-target variant of Combustion. Both rely on Blackflame Blaze, but one triggers the burns in an area-of-effect while the other is for single-target damage. Interesting. I could set up my Loadout for a very damage-focused role. I shouldn’t be surprised, given that’s what Reapers are good at.
Given this new Trait, Eric also had to consider his build. At this early juncture, he would be receiving a lot of options, and as he was going to be limited in his Traits, these early choices would define him down the line. He needed to consider the idea of moving away from being group-friendly, and more individual-focused.
Vital Heat gives me healing, and this new Sapping Heat would give me mana recovery. If I’m okay with lighting my friends on fire occasionally, removing Sheltered Flames for this new Trait would drastically increase my survivability. And, this mana recovery Trait, I would imagine, will upgrade to add a mana regeneration aspect instead of just ‘mana-on-death’, which means I could use heavier armor for more protection.
He considered the extremely likely scenario of hostile invaders arriving on Trok’s shores, given that a war breaking out was almost certainly bound to happen, and tried to examine his build options using that as a lens.
Ideally, he could lob Cinderbursts at them while they were getting off the ships, but the range on that Skill wasn’t amazing and would easily put him in crossbow range. That was a very real danger on the field of battle, one often downplayed by the heavily armored Trok foot soldiers who could shake off volleys. That meant if he were to engage in the fray, he would have to wait until the melee was joined, and then fire off Skills into areas with allies.
I need to keep Blackflame Blaze no matter what. That’s core to my setup right now, and I’ve already received two new Skills that function off of it, and applied an Ember, so there’s no way I’m dropping it. So the question is . . . do I care more about personal survival, or preventing collateral damage?
He glanced across his allies, who were busy with their own messages from The Paths and zoning out, staring into space.
I had to fight something solo. That’s going to keep happening, if that message from The Paths and that voice was anything to go by. Being able to survive on my own is going to be more important. Sorry, everyone, you’ll have to deal with some burn damage if things get too close quarters and you get hit by the splash.
Drop Sheltered Flames and take Sapping Heat.
[Confirmed.]
[Choose a Skill and Trait to increase. Then repeat this twice.]
All the Trait increase into Blackflame Blaze. And, let’s put one Rank into Combustion, one into Inferno Trigger, and one into Blackflame Beam.
[Confirmed.]
-----
Skills:
Combustion 2 - The area of effect increases in size. Increase radius to ten feet.
Inferno Trigger 2 - The amplification of (Blackflame Blaze) is increased. Increase to x2.5.
Blackflame Beam 3 - The piercing power of the beam is increased. Penetrates 3 targets (or 3 feet of material).
-----
Traits:
Blackflame Blaze 10 - Increase burning damage-over-time to 50%.
-----
Name: Eric Mercer
Classes: Blackflame Mage 10
Maximum Sigils: 5
Rotes: [Scorching] Blackflame Bolt, Ash Shroud
Equipped Skills: Backblast 2, Cinderburst 3, Blackflame Beam 3, Flashstep 2, Sootshroud 2
Traits: [Dire] Blackflame Blaze 10, Vital Heat 1, Sapping Heat 1
Body Enhancements:
-----
Loadout Slots: 5
Gear:
Parts & Components: 30x Duskbound Zombie Material, 10x Duskbound Zombie Ash, 1x Graveborn Corpsestrider Ash, 12x Graveborn Strider Material, 3x Graveborn Strider Ash
Embers:
-----
Eric willed the words from The Paths to fade away. He looked back at Seraphine and the guards, who were making their way across the trap room, seemingly floating a few inches above the surface of the center pathway. As Eric squinted, he could make out a very minute purple shimmer beneath their footsteps.
Peter tapped Eric’s shoulder. “I got a Trait that lets me heal from killing things.”
Shannon came out of her trance a moment later. “I got a neat new Skill I want to try!”
“I made a build choice,” Eric said. “You know how I said I won’t burn you if you’re caught in an AOE? Well, I had to drop that. Sorry, but mana restore on kill is too valuable for large fights. If I hit you with an AOE, you’ll suffer a burn for a moment before I can shut it off mentally.”
“Totally get that,” Peter said. “I can take some hits, that’s fine. The other two are going to be out of range. We’re good I think.” He coughed once, then spit out a globule of blood onto the stone floor.
Eric glanced back at Seraphine and spoke loudly, “We will be taking an hour to switch out Skills in our Loadout. After we do that, it should give you and these wonderful observers you brought along the chance to see more of our capabilities.”
Seraphine’s tiny smile appeared again. “A capital idea, Blackflame Mage Mercer. I would advise walking to the next chamber, though, and waiting for the timer outside of that location.”
Naomi cleared her throat, prompting Eric to look her way. She locked eyes with him, and mouthed, ‘Walk and talk.’
Eric waved for his allies to join him as he led the way. “Come on. We’ll take a breather up ahead.” As Naomi got up next to him, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Quietly,” Eric continued, jostling his pack and intentionally moving it askew on his shoulders to rattle loudly as he walked. With that, and whisper-level conversation, there was no way Seraphine could hear them.
“I maxed out a Trait at ten Ranks,” Naomi replied. “Can you go beyond that, or is that the limit? I don’t know what happens if I try to go further.”
“Yes, you can go beyond that, upgrading it each time to add a new function. I think it’s better to have one Trait that you dump most of your Ranks into. You’ll always want one that you can choose to drop later on, in case a new one you receive is one you want more. I’d keep a Trait at Rank 1 at all times, just in case.”
“Do we ever get to merge Traits? Or get more Trait slots?” Naomi followed up.
“No to merging, yes to more slots,” Eric replied. “But those slots are tuned for your second and third Class.”
Naomi sighed. “Meaning that you can only use Traits from those Classes in those slots.”
“Correct.” Eric glanced back at Peter and Shannon, who were leaning in and listening intently. “Any other questions?”
“What is a Loadout?” Shannon asked. “I just got a new Skill, but I have to equip it to my Loadout since I have too many already.”
“Same as me, then. Your Loadout Slots on your Secondary status readout tell you how many Skills you can have equipped at once.”
Peter spoke with the slightest hint of suspicion tinging his voice. “How do you know all of that?”
Eric smiled and tapped his temple. His words weren’t a lie, as he had said them in his past timeline. “Just say the word ‘Index,’ and then follow it up with a question about what information you want. It’s pretty neat and intuitive. If you’re going to do it while we’re walking, just put a hand on my shoulder so you don’t bump into a wall.”
He continued, “I spent a lot of last night just asking questions. Try the command: ‘Index; Tutorial.’ I was messing around with various command words, and that one got me into a neat practice space, maybe in my mind or somewhere like that. I learned a ton of stuff about the basics.”
Naomi put a hand on his shoulder at the same time as Shannon did. They both said the phrase, and their eyes whited out as they entered that zoned-out-state of interfacing with The Paths.
“How’d you figure that part out though?” Peter asked from behind as he put a hand on Shannon’s shoulder, making a little daisy chain.
“Just experimenting as I lay in bed,” Eric lied. “You didn’t spend all last night talking to the Index in bed, trying to learn all you could?”
Peter shook his head. “I was too busy just trying to process everything. Y’know, being taken from home and all that. Not being able to go back. It’s a lot to deal with.” His eyes narrowed, and his voice tightened a bit. “Did you just not think of all that? Are you a sociopath or something?”
“I’m trying not to think about Earth,” Eric replied. “Why think about it when we can’t go back? I’d rather forget and move forward. No point in lingering on what I can’t have.”
Honestly it was so long ago that I don’t even consider my life on Earth as part of my life anymore, he added mentally. Sure, I can access everything with perfect recollection thanks to all of my memories that are stored The Paths Within, but why would I want to? Back on Earth, I would’ve been a nobody. Just another person in a world of eight-billion. Here, I’m special. One of twenty Summoned. On this go around, I have a primal force. I’m even more unique. Ley Lines below, I’d never go back.
Peter let out a sigh. “I guess that’s one way to go about it. Just throw yourself into the deep end, huh?”
“Something like that,” Eric replied. “Do your thing with the Index. I’ll keep us on course.”