She figured that since the acidic lake was a form of liquid, she could make it conduct electricity easily enough. Unfortunately not even a fraction of a fraction was electrified even when she put a whole slew of lightning rage to it earlier on.
But Zeke being Zeke, he surprised her yet again. It was at the moment when the kraken was getting distracted by Hamil’s multitasking rock formations and splinter attacks, causing it to put all of its attention to the flying rock wizard. Zeke held onto something that glowed alongside the ever exhausted looking Saang, both their hands gripping hard at the weird blanket-like material in their hands.
It wasn’t big, almost a person-sized blanket, but it glowed with so many runes that it boggled her little mind. Her eyes managed to peek at the several interlining waves and lines that connected to each other so fluently. It looked more like embroidery work than actual letters with meaning. She thought for a moment that Zeke made what looked like a really pretty dress, but instead Zeke and Saang both chucked the blanket out with all of their strength.
The blanket slowly but smoothly went over to the acidic lake, first burning up entirely thanks to its properties. But as soon as the blanket, which was actually made of the Ethereal Manifest skill, touched the surface of the lake–it expanded so far out that it completely covered the entirety of the lake, including the kraken.
As though it noticed something amiss, the kraken turned and launched several streams and waves of acid at them. Zeke grabbed hold of Saang and flared his buffs, launching themselves away from the torrent of acid blasts. Zeke yelled out again, his face riddled with sweat and turning pale.
“The lake’s changed! It’ll only last for a few seconds! Make it count, Mikky!”
His words, however brief they were, finally sparked her mind into action. She rushed forward to the lake with Kote following to ensure her safety.
Her body relaxed before energy took over, making it crackle with lightning so powerful, it almost blinded Kote at her side. Inside of her, she churned the energies within her body to not only make her lightning attunement stronger, but denser and finer. She poured in not just her magical energy, but her kinetic energy as well. She laced the two energy streams together finely, then tightened them as she spun them over and over again.
She felt her Clashing Energies Class Skill being roused up, both her Kinetic and Mana Manipulation skills on full blast. They all funneled straight into her Lightning Mastery, the only skill capable of handling the entirety of her attunement with not a single shred of power lost in between.
As the lightning coalesced inside of her, she learned her lessons of using her hands to dip into the acid. She opened her mouth, but was surprised to learn that she didn’t need to do this as a ball of lightning formed in front of her face. Her mouth closed as all of her energy fueled the small ball, becoming larger and fiercer with its coiling sparks that turned the nearby rocks and ground to mere dust. This required a lot of energy control on her part, but she grinned as she faced the surface of the burning lake.
The memory of trying to save Amber filled her mind. It made her seethe in anger–not just at the dungeon, but at her own weakness. Even if it wasn’t necessary on her part, she wanted to at least give Amber what she deserved–which is to completely and absolutely destroy this dungeon sky-high, just like Zeke promised.
With a rebellious roar at whoever put them through this nonsense, she let her lightning fly unwarranted as she used her Dragon Breath Race Skill.
The entire lake became submerged in thunder and fury. Sparks of lightning shot out at every part, destroying every single particle and atom within the liquid. The blanket from earlier had changed the properties of the entire lake, causing them to become actually conductible by the highest degree.
Of course, that took out a lot of Mana from Zeke, which was why he looked so pale to the point of reaching Mana Deprivation, the kind that reduced his regeneration by half, and any naturally gained mana actually damaged him. That was the only way that they could change this entire lake where the kraken was.
And thankfully, the lightning that was decimating the burning liquid also burned the kraken within. It roared in pain and agony, its tentacles shaking and its body undulating in a panic.
Before anyone can really do anything about it, the kraken instantly leapt out of the lake, going over to the coast and into dry land. Its massive body slithered across the ground, still affected by the shocking aftermath of the lake. Sparks coiled around its almost gelatinous form, causing it to writhe in pain.
Unfortunately for the kraken, its pain was far from over.
Several shards of stone and mineral came flying at the kraken. However, the stone and mineral each combined and suddenly tempered, becoming smaller and denser with a diamond like shape. Each one of the projectiles pierced the kraken’s skin, delving deep into its flesh as blood showered.
Bone of immaculate sharpness thrust towards the creature at different angles, piercing at its head and tentacles, keeping the limbs in place on the ground.
Both Kote and Hamil stayed around, one running across and throwing more sharp bone stars while the other hovered. At the back, Saang ran with all her might, unleashing a cascade of powerful kinetic-charged axe strikes that clawed at the kraken’s head. Some bits of carmine covered the edge, giving her attacks the extra ‘oomph’ for more damage.
Mikella finally managed to get over there, but her body nearly caved in from using her attunement to the best of her abilities as well as a powerful Race Skill she wasn’t used to. She looked up before noticing Zeke running towards the kraken.
His body flared up with all of his runes across his skin, activating his buffs and running straight towards the face of the kraken. The nexus rune on his back was glowing brighter, almost becoming like an aura or a mantle from how much Mana he was churning even at his state. His eyes glowed as she felt energy becoming pressurized from his presence, something that caught the still bewildered and stunned kraken in place.
When he jumped towards the face of the boss, he punched at it with a roar, plunging it deep into its eye socket and squashing the organ into a pile of fleshy goop. The kracken roared in pain and fury. His hands began to burn, the blood and insides probably burning him from the acidic properties. Just as Mikella wondered what he planned on doing, more energy cascaded off of him.
He roared louder, his voice becoming distorted, turning primal as he shouted.
“Aether Blast!”
For a solid moment, a vision of Giant Zeke from back at the biodome appeared, just like when it appeared during Diaga’s healing. As usual, its size even dwarfed the kraken as its large glowing eyes peered at it, its giant hands hovering over the kraken.
But instead of clutching its hands together, the Giant Zeke version pulled its arm back, tightening its fist. It slammed against the Kraken with a force that Mikella can never really explain with words alone.
A large torrent of glowing blue light blew off the back of the kraken’s head, decimating a row on the ground from the intensity of the magic skill inherent to his race. The air swirled from the intensity of the mana, or rather Aether, resulting in the surrounding trees to bend from the blast, a shockwave that traveled across the entire swamp.
On the other side, Zeke pulled his now completely mangled right hand off the eye socket, jumping off of the creature now that the back of its head was blown off. For a few moments, the kraken lay still, until it eventually fell over to the side, all of its insides flowing out of the back as the boss of the dungeon was finally slain.
You have defeated Catastrophic Kraken, Level 117.
You have gained experience points.
*****
Level Up! You are now Level 65. You gain 4 free points (4 FP total).
You have gained +10 STR (x2) from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +10 DEX (x2) from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +5 INT (x2) from your sub-race.
You have gained +5 SPI (x2) from your sub-race.
You have gained +5 END (x2) from your class.
Kinetic Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 8.
You have gained +1 DEX from your skill.
You have gained +2 END from your skill.
…..
Mana Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 4.
You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
…..
Lightning Mastery Level Up! It is now Level 6.
You have gained +2 INT (x3) from your skill.
You have gained +1 SPI (x3) from your skill.
…..
Dragon Eyes Level Up! It is now Level 4.
You have gained +2 STR from your skill.
You have gained +2 DEX from your skill.
…..
Aerial Advantage Level Up! It is now Level 4.
Increased attribute increases.
…..
Forced Regeneration Level Up! It is now Level 7.
Increase regeneration rate.
Decrease damage needed to regenerate.
…..
Clashing Energies Level Up! It is now Level 2.
Increase body resistance.
Increase skill effectiveness.
Increase regeneration rate.
Increase skill synergy.
…..
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Dragon Breath Level Up! It is now Level 2.
Increase power effectiveness.
Decrease resource consumption.
If the list of notifications wasn’t proof enough, she doesn’t know what else does. She ran over to Zeke, who was now pittering all over the ground as he landed on his ass with a gasping breath.
His hand was still burning as well as the rest of his body that started glowing in certain spots, each one looking like they were burning themselves.
She winced at the sight. She recalled him having those after going Giant Zeke in the biodome. A debuff called Extreme Mana Burnout, which was a lot worse compared to the normal Mana Deprivation. She wanted to scream at him for overdoing it when the boss was already at death’s doorstep.
Unfortunately, she would be just a hypocrite as she felt her body turning bitterly cold, receiving another notification that was bright red.
You are afflicted with Intense Mana Deprivation.
Your Mana regeneration is reduced by 50%. For every mana you generate naturally, you will receive damage based on how much you receive. Restoring mana artificially will not damage you.
It was a first for her to get Mana Deprivation, considering that she barely used mana in the past. Now, after using her lightning to the extreme and Dragon Breath being a literal breath of pure power, that wasn’t much of a surprise.
Still, Zeke was made of sterner stuff as he just casually sent notifications he gained straight to her, a goofy smile on his pain-ridden face.
Level Up! You are now Level 65. You gain 2 free points (4 FP total).
You have gained +8 DEX (x2) from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +8 INT (x2) from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +12 SPI (x2) from your class and sub-race.
You have gained +7 END (x2) from your sub-race.
*****
Battle Runecraft Level Up! It is now Level 5.
You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
You have gained +3 SPI from your skill.
…..
Steadfast Mind Level Up! It is now Level 5.
You have gained +2 SPI (x3) from your skill.
You have gained +1 END (x3) from your skill.
…..
Ethereal Manifest Level Up! It is now Level 7.
You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
Restoration Level Up! It is now Level 2.
You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
You have gained +3 SPI from your skill.
…..
Rune Copycat Level Up! It is now Level 3.
Increased copied potency.
Increased copied rune’s speed and effectiveness.
…..
Script Improvement Level up! It is now Level 2.
Increase general improvement of all runes.
Decrease general consumption cost of all runes.
…..
Aether Blast Level Up! It is now Level 2.
Increase power and depth of your mana.
Increase pressure and instability of surrounding mana.
Mikella just shook her head. The amount of crap he went through was nearly the same as hers. It’s been a long while since they put themselves in a tense situation, so now the skill levels were coming in droves. Still, it was never a pleasant experience when it was touch and go for a moment there.
The veterans soon came around, eventually helping the two out by giving them specialized potions that can help outright cure their debuffs in seconds. It cleared Mikella’s debuff instantly, surprising the two of them. Unfortunately, the mana burnout was only lessened instead of disappearing, but apparently Zeke was acting like a whole new man, the pain being nowhere as bad as when he first got it.
Eventually they drowned themselves in health potions, getting Mikella’s melted wing to finally heal up. Hamil admitted that he felt justified for finally using their expensive potions, considering Zeke was there to heal them every single time. In his state, however, the potions finally came in to shine.
“You two are seriously full of surprises every time,” Saang said, her voice tired and ragged. Her eyes looked a bit droopy too, but there was still that glint in her eyes. “Seriously, that power…”
“Don’t expect me to do that every time,” Zeke groaned. “That was a hail mary at best. I really wanted to kill that thing as fast as possible.”
“Good thing too. I’d rather we kill it outright than chance another fight–or worse, letting it run away. But those burns…” Kote hissed in sympathy. “You really put yourselves through a wringer.”
“But the boss is finally down,” Hamil said with a hearty chuckle. “Can’t wait for the loot!”
Zeke and Mikella turned to each other, reminded of the event the last time this happened. Fear gripped their hearts for a solid moment.
Mikella can’t even imagine Zoan pulling in with Clara again to a dangerous dungeon, but they quickly went over to the corpse.
Touching the corpse, which was now thankfully just a normal corpse rather than trying to burn with its acidic skin, a prompt showed up.
For once, something went according to plan.
You have received the following:
Skill Unison Fragment
Otherworldly Skill Orb
Both Mikella and Zeke let out a breath of relief after seeing that there were no strange abnormalities like Zoan had explained before. Despite not telling them anything about it yet, it was clear that it was something Zoan wasn’t even able to explain as of yet due to some order she received.
The same strange items that were clearly meant for them and them alone flowed into their storage packs, and Mikella grimaced at the skill orb, however unbelievably priceless it is for her.
She had to swallow the damn thing down her throat, after all. It was not a pleasant experience.
She still has no clue on what to do with the Skill Unison Fragment, something that supposedly helped her fuse her skills. She still didn’t have a good idea on when to use it for, and neither did Zeke.
So while the awards didn’t seem all that impressive right now, it was still an incredible thing to get. As for the veterans…
“N-Natural treasures…”
Hamil said in visible awe, clearly seeing a notification as well as the explanation of their rewards. Unlike the otherworlders, any person from Tarial who cleared the tower with them was also granted a reward–and it was an incredible reward as it allowed them to get natural treasures, items that helped them tier up their attunements.
“Hamil, Kote!” Saang shouted, her voice almost straining somehow. “I just got a treasure that specifically tiers up my attunement! My own fucking attunement! Do you guys know just how hard it is to raise my stupid attunement? It’s useful but it’s niche as hell!”
“I hear you Saang, I hear you,” Kote said, his voice the opposite of Saang–quiet and contemplative. “It’s no wonder why Cronus wanted us to keep this a secret. Anyone who knows about this would do anything they can to join you two, even if it means going too far. And I mean the kind that outright slaughters anyone who gets in their way.”
Despite getting a treasure for himself, Kote actually sounded concerned at the possibility of this reward reaching out to the public. In other words, otherworlders like them are basically keys for giant treasure vaults for power. That alone got Mikella to seethe silently at the thought of anyone taking advantage of them, or anyone else that might be out there trying to survive like them.
“Well, you guys earned it at least,” Zeke said, trying to placate everyone who just stood there in awe. Mikella smiled at the action as he continued. “This was a lot to go through, especially for your first time in the towers. We’re used to it, but it’s great that you helped us out. Seriously, thank you.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining,” Kote said, his eyes thinning and proving he was smiling within the mask. “And you two proved that otherworlders need to be taken care of. I know you two might think that we’ll only see you as living treasure chests–but seeing this tower… it’s proof that everyone’s a victim in this.”
Saang and Hamil got out of their shocked state, nodding to Kote’s words. Mikella once again sent out a silent prayer for Amber who lost her life thanks to this shitty tower. She was glad that it was done and over with.
And just as she proclaimed it in her head, another notification dropped down onto her vision.
You have cleared the dungeon: Melting Swamplands
You have received the following rewards:
200 Gold Coins
500 Silver Coins
Skill Book: Warp Jump
“An awesome dungeon clear reward on top of a boss reward,” Saang’s smile widened further and further, the excitement in her eyes never fading. “This tower has everything!”
“L-Let’s take a step back, Saang,” Hamil said. Despite his tone sounding hesitant, the corner of his lips was twitching slightly, avoiding a smirk. “Remember, this tower is god-awful for everything around us.”
“That’s why we gotta clear them as soon as possible,” Kote said without hesitation. “The rewards have nothing to do with this.”
“I could smell the lie from all the way over here, Kote!”
The veterans were just as eager for the rewards as usual. Meanwhile, Mikella looked at her own reward with extreme giddiness.
If this meant what she thought it meant, that means that she just received what looked like a freaking teleportation skill.
“What’d you got?” Zeke asked, clearly just as excited to see the look on her face.
“I got something called Warp Jump!” She exclaimed with a bright smile.
“Wait, seriously?!” Zeke said in alarm. “Isn’t that a freaking teleportation skill?!”
“Hell yeah!”
The two instinctively high-fived each other despite the pains and aches they went through. The news was just too good not to celebrate.
She has flight, and now she has the possibility of teleportation. While she hadn’t checked it yet, potential ideas for new combat styles flooded her mind.
“What did you get?” Mikella asked, prompting him to send the notification to her vision.
You have cleared the dungeon: Melting Swamplands
You have received the following rewards:
200 Gold Coins
500 Silver Coins
Skill Book: Mythril Skin
“Mythril Skin… sounds badass as hell,” Mikella smirked. But then a thought occurred to her. “I know we’re getting new skill slots, but are you gonna learn it?”
“I will, since it suits me,” Zeke said, then prompted Mikella to ask.
“Then… do you need Warp Jump, too? It’s probably a good idea to teleport a healer around the battlefield…”
She said that, but when she realized that she won’t be teleporting, her enthusiasm got drained. That instantly made her feel shitty, sounding so selfish knowing that a teleporting Zeke might be better for everyone around, including her.
Yet despite that, Zeke shook his head. “Nah, you learn it.”
“You… sure?” Mikella asked to be sure, wanting to know whether he was just being kind as usual.
“After seeing what Cronus can do with his runes, teleporting us from Eve Glade all the way to here… I kinda don’t want to get another skill to intervene with that. I want to learn how to do that myself.”
Once again, Mikella was stumped by Zeke’s decision. This one made more sense in a long-term sense, and having Zeke learn how to teleport without getting a skill sounds more plausible than possibly wasting a skill he probably won’t need later on.
So that meant…
“Yes! Warps for me!”
Zeke chuckled, and Mikella blushed after she revealed that. Zeke then looked at his own storage pack, the skill book in his own bag.
“I probably need something to defend myself, considering the name of the skill. Better to learn how to protect myself further now that I don’t have my barrier.”
“Not that you needed it anyways,” Mikella grinned. “We just beat a Master-Rank monster on our own without your barriers. Turns out you’re not just a barrier guy after all.”
Zeke smiled back, a feral sort of grin that made Mikella’s chest tighten.
“Yeah, good point.”
When the excitement around the rewards was getting to their heads, the area around them began to shake and stir. The ground, the trees, and the electrified lake all rumbled and shook, the acid from the surrounding rivers flying everywhere. Thankfully none of them were any close to the group, but they got on guard when the shaking started.
“Shit, is it another boss!?” Hamil shouted, returning back to his professional side.
“No, it’s the dungeon!” Zeke shouted. “It’s about to disappear! We gotta get out of here!”
“The entire dungeon?!” Saang shouted in alarm.
“But I don’t see any exit! How do we get out?” Kote shouted, sounding cooler compared to his clearly shocked look in his eyes.
The two otherworlders shared a look, then closed their eyes. It was the same as entering the dungeon. All they needed to do was to focus on the connection between themselves, and then to the soon crumbling tower.
They felt a connection that was as strong as iron rods between themselves, and from that link, they followed a branch straight towards the tower beneath them. It was faint, and growing fainter, but it gave them enough time to connect to it and force a way out of the dungeon.
Energy swirled near them, just before the stuttering acid lake, which created a giant portal swirling with incandescent white energy in a heartbeat. The three adventurers were stunned into silence before the otherworlders called them out on it.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Mikella shouted, rushing out with Zeke towards the portal holding hands. The others followed suit, chaining hands together, before all of them left the acidic swamp together.