We took a moment to make sure everyone was at full health before proceeding any deeper. The Aerth crew were more than a little excited. I thought once they got past level 200, we could start lessening our protection, but that was going to take a while, and Oliver couldn’t reach that point at all without being awakened.

  We had a long way to go, though, and they weren’t the only ones who were excited.

  Chapter Thirty-Six: More Dungeon Fun

  I glanced over at Samvek and realized something was off. My look was enough for him to say, “Apparently, I can’t use Hunger inside a dungeon.”

  He was upset, and I couldn’t blame him. One or two percent of the stats from every monster slain added up quickly, especially when the monsters were only going to rise in level from here. “Any idea why?”

  “According to the notification I just got, dungeon constructs don’t contain Vitae. Just purified XP.”

  “That sorta makes sense with the Hell System. It wants you fighting other sapients, not beings created by a dungeon. Sorry about that. I’d been hoping you were going to shoot up in stats.”

  “Me too, but at this pace I’ll eventually gain a level, and that’s worth something.”

  I nodded, and we moved on. We went unmolested for a few dozen miles, which, given our flight speed, even limited for the others, only took a few minutes. The terrain around us slowly began to change.

  The swampy loam gave way to cracked basalt threaded with glowing seams of magma. The humidity burned off in a rush of heat that rolled over us like a furnace door opening, and the canopy above thinned until only skeletal branches remained. Far ahead, the land rose into broken ridges and stone spires, their edges jagged as if gnawed by titanic teeth. The dungeon wasn’t subtle about its escalation.

  The first roar came from the sky.

  Shadows passed overhead, vast wings blotting out the sickly light as a trio of draconic shapes descended in tight formation. They weren’t true dragons, but they were close enough to set my nerves humming. These were wyverns, or wyvern-adjacent. Their hides were a mix of obsidian scales and crystalline growths, and their wings stretched wide as they banked into a diving attack. Their throats glowed with internal heat, not fire exactly, but something denser and more violent.

  Primal Wyverns (Legendary)

  Level: 265

  Affinities: Fire, Earth, Chaos

  Highest Stat: Will

  Lowest Stat: Perception

  A fifteen-level jump in monster power wasn’t much for us, but it would help keep the XP rolling in.

  “Azuria would laugh at these little worms,” Samvek called out. “I’m going to kill them out of respect for her.”

  I wasn’t sure how serious he was, but I knew his bond with his dragon bordered on sacred. I’d seen the same with Cece and Jiang. If it was only three of the beasts, that wouldn’t be an issue, but of course as soon as I thought that, more groups rose from the cracked earth as far as I could see, filling the sky like an aerial assault.

  The lead wyvern folded its wings and dropped like a spear, claws extended straight toward Clay and Oliver, with the two others of its group right behind it. I didn’t even have time to react before Samvek intercepted. Lightning arced from his body, and he held nothing back, striking each of the wyverns, searing their wings. The power he unleashed had to be near the peak of what he was capable of producing, but I assumed he was trying to make a point.

  As for the wyverns, they weren’t dragons, but they weren’t easy prey either. There was no doubt as Samvek danced amongst them in the air, wielding spear and lightning with equal ease, that he would eventually slay them, but they were capable of absorbing more damage than their level would suggest.

  Clay fired arrows while Oliver lobbed spells. Lexa found out the hard way that her vines from the ground attack wouldn’t work against these enemies, but she had other tricks up her sleeve. On them, actually. Massive thorns sprouted from her arms and shot out as high-speed projectiles. I was reminded of my first blood evolution, when I’d gone to Galen and gotten my own set of spines from that dungeon boss.

  “I’m going to take out some of the others before they get here,” Selena said. “You need to focus on protecting them.”

  Reality folded around her as she stepped between points, reappearing on the back of a wyvern in the far distance. Her hooked blades flashed, carving deep channels through crystal scale as she severed one wing joint. The creature screamed and spun out of control, crashing into a stone ridge hard enough to break it in half. The other wyverns in its group began to circle around her, and I wondered if I was going to have to pull her out. I should have known better.

  The only reason she’d put so much distance between us was to cut loose without the risk of friendly fire. Her abilities were without a doubt the most versatile I’d ever seen, but they could also be insanely destructive. She rewrote the laws of nature, and the wyverns fell from the sky as she moved from beast to beast, opening their throats. As they crashed to the ground, the notifications came pinging in rapid-fire. She was dropping them faster than I would have thought possible.

  Samvek surged upward on a burst of lightning, continuing his dance, but I could see his attention had turned toward Selena. It felt like any minute they were going to start a competition to see who could kill the most wyverns. I couldn’t help but imagine Samvek as Gimli in that equation, mostly because he was the hairier of the two.

  The lion man didn’t bother with finesse. A bolt erupted from his body, slamming into the nearest wyvern’s chest, punching through scale and bone. He followed it with a spear thrust that detonated inside the wound. Lightning exploded outward, shredding the creature from the inside, but he was already on to the next. Wyvern after wyvern died under his assault, and when one group was finished, he warped space, taking himself to the next.

  “Are we going to follow them?” Oliver asked.

  I shook my head. “Draconic creatures are more dangerous than most other kinds, and while I want you three to gain practice using your power, getting levels for survivability is more important. I’m sure it’s frowned upon here to tell someone else how to spend their stat points, but whatever you get, make sure you focus on durability and evasion.”

  “We have a saying here. ‘If a mage is getting hit, the battle is already over’. My defenses are multilayered, although I admit that they aren’t up to dealing with these monsters. At least not yet.”

  “Well if nothing else, this will allow them to cut loose a bit. I’m sure you know how difficult it can be to really go all out when you have allies around you.”

  Despite the efficiency with which my companions were killing the wyverns, a few got through, which suited us fine. I’d gained a full level and was halfway to my second. Clay reached level 203 and Lexa hit 196. Oliver, of course, was still stuck at level 150. I could only hope that all the XP he was gaining was being stored for his eventual awakening.

  A trio of wyverns reached us, and I decided to let them have a shot at one. “I’m going to take two of them. I want the rest of you to work together on the third.”

  That was all the instruction I was going to give. I’d have to count on their training.

  I angled upward immediately, pushing Area Flight just enough to quickly create separation. Two of the wyverns peeled off toward me, wings beating hard as they adjusted to my movement, crystalline scales refracting the ambient glow of magma veins below. Their mouths opened in near-unison and dense streams of incandescent force blasted toward me, a fusion of heat and earth mana. I twisted through the space between the beams, both passing close enough to make my armor creak.

  Wayfinder flowed into its polearm form as I closed the distance, lightning crawling along the blade in tight coils. The first wyvern slashed at me with talons like quarry picks, and I met the strike head-on, bracing with a force construct shaped into a slanted plane. The impact still drove me backward through the air, shoulders screaming as weight and momentum slammed through the construct, but it held long enough for me to counter. I drove Wayfinder’s spearhead up under its jaw and released a focused burst of lightning straight into its skull.

  The creature screamed and convulsed, wings locking for a heartbeat before it spun out of control. I didn’t let it recover. I ripped Wayfinder free and hurled a second bolt into its exposed chest, the electricity detonating inside and tearing the wyvern apart from the inside out. Fragments of obsidian scale and molten crystal rained downward as the dungeon reclaimed what remained.

  The second wyvern was already on me, smarter than the first. It circled wide, forcing me to track it while it built power in its throat, chaos mana rippling visibly along its neck. I felt the pressure spike and snapped a layered force shield into place just as it fired. The beam hit like a siege weapon, shattering the outer layers of the construct and driving me backward, pain flaring through my ribs as the remaining force bled through. The chaos tried to disrupt everything around me, but I refused to allow it. It probably helped that I had an innate resistance to chaos mana, but the lizard didn’t know that.

  If it wanted chaos, I would give it chaos. I gritted my teeth and leaned into the attack, forcing myself forward through the resistance. Lightning answered instinctively, a focused lance that punched through the incoming beam and into the wyvern’s mouth. Its head snapped back violently, internal structures rupturing under the conflicting energies. I followed through with a brutal sweep of Wayfinder that severed one wing at the joint. The creature dropped like a stone, smashing into the basalt below and skidding in a spray of sparks before going still.

  I didn’t give myself time to watch it die. My attention snapped back to the others, and what I saw made my stomach knot. Clay, Oliver, and Lexa were locked in a desperate engagement with the remaining wyvern, and this one had figured out exactly how to press them. It stayed mobile, diving and pulling up sharply to force them to split their focus, while its breath attacks bracketed their positions and denied easy movement.

  Clay was bleeding from a gash across his shoulder, armor cracked where a talon had clipped him. Oliver was hovering lower than I liked, mana flaring unevenly as he tried to maintain multiple defensive layers while still casting. Lexa had taken the brunt of a wing strike, one arm hanging stiffly as she forced roots and thorns to keep the wyvern at bay. They were fighting well, but they were being pushed to their limits.

  The wyvern shrieked and dove again, this time straight at Oliver. Clay reacted without hesitation, stepping into the wyvern’s path and then flashing in a blur that I assumed was some type of magical ability. An instant later, he was clinging to the horn on its head and driving his dagger into its eye. Green poison dripped along the edge of his blade, and the wyvern crashed downward. I thought for sure it was going to blow through Oliver’s shields, but Lexa stepped up. She slammed both her hands on either side of its head and took the brunt of the incoming momentum. I knew she was durable but worried if even a treant could take that kind of damage.

  Apparently, I didn’t need to worry. The beast thrashed on the ground as Clay went to work cutting into its neck while Lexa held onto its jaws, struggling to keep them shut like some crazy Australian guy wrestling a crocodile. It would have been comical if it wasn’t life and death, and it was everything I could do not to intervene.

  Oliver suddenly let out a shout of exultation, and I felt the strongest magic yet from him attach itself to the wyvern. The thrashing stopped. His victory shout changed to a warning. “It’s not dead, only paralyzed! Finish it fast. I don’t know how long I can hold it!”

  Clay drove his blade into the wyvern’s spine, and from the way he was cutting I thought he finally managed to sever the spinal cord. For redundancy’s sake, Lexa’s arm became a long wooden spear. She jammed it into the creature’s unspoiled eye, but unlike Clay’s dagger, this was long enough to reach the brain. She didn’t need to leave it there long. As she withdrew the spike, vines started to sprout from every hole in its head, all carrying bits of the shredded brain. They’d won.

  I didn’t wait for confirmation. I dropped to Clay’s side and laid my hand against his chest, Celestial Restoration surging into him in a warm, overwhelming rush. Torn muscle knitted together, shattered bone realigned, and his ragged breathing steadied as color rushed back into his face. I extended the spell outward, catching Oliver and Lexa in its radius, healing burns, mending fractures, and pulling them back from the edge.

  Lexa exhaled slowly, flexing her fingers with visible relief. Oliver sank down onto an invisible perch, hands shaking as he let his mana stabilize. Clay looked up at me, grimaced, then laughed weakly. “You are wise beyond your years, my friend,” he said hoarsely. “I’m going to invest more in durability.”

  “Good,” I replied, keeping my tone steady. “Because that was only the opening act.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: Punching Up

  Once the last of the wyverns fell, we reunited, and I reviewed our gains. I still hadn’t hit level 264, but that was fine. Samvek and Selena had each gained a level, too. The other three were blowing past us in terms of growth, though. The wyverns had pushed Clay to level 215, although he did say that he noticed it slowing a bit, and Lexa was at 211. Oliver tried to put a positive spin on his inability to gain more levels by letting us know he’d increased the proficiency of some of his spells. And if he was earning XP, he’d be earning it as a level 150, so he’d potentially be able to leapfrog Clay if he got to keep that XP after the awakening.

  We only got a moment to catch our breath. I’d been intending to wait to choose my new spells, but I wanted the opinion of my closest allies. Ultimately, Selena’s question helped me make my decision. “I know getting an ascendant tier spell sounds great, but when you put your mind to it, do you have a problem leveling up your spells?”

  I shook my head. “Not if I have the time to put them to use.” I got what she was implying. If I played my cards right, I could soon have two ascendant spells.

  “Time, huh? That’s your first spell, then. And given the amount of damage your armor has taken here, I’d think it would behoove you to take Repair as your other spell.”

  I couldn’t argue with her logic, so I opened my interface and accepted the two spells—Time Pool and Repair. Knowledge flooded my mind, and I couldn’t help but notice how distinct they were from the spells I got from my system. They weren’t attached to my class core, for starters.

  No class consistent with the Fey System is detected. Spells are being modified to work with the existing structure. If a Fey System class is later obtained, the spells will improve.

  That was promising. The more experience I got under my belt, the less picky I was becoming about where my power came from. But after the battle we’d just had, I needed to repair our gear. The cooldown on the spell was twenty-four hours, so I’d only be able to cast it once. But I had a plan. I asked everyone to get as close as possible.

  “I’m gonna try something with this Repair spell I just got. I’ve tried this before with other spells, so hopefully it’ll work here.” Without further explanation, I attempted to target all my gear, along with everything that was visible on each of my teammates. As I cast the spell, I felt my mind being stretched thin, but the denser mana here helped to keep me grounded and empower the spell.

  I held in a scream as I pushed myself to my limits, but began to relax when I felt a hundred different threads coming out of me, each attaching to its own piece of gear. My armor began to seal itself before my eyes. Even Wayfinder hummed in my hand with pleasure. It reminded me of how I felt when I used Clean on myself.

  Multi-Target Spell: 209 >> 215

  It would have been nice to celebrate the victory, but the dungeon had other ideas.

  The ground suddenly split open ahead of us, stone tearing apart as something enormous hauled itself free in what could never be mistaken for a subtle emergence. This was raw mass asserting itself. A behemoth rose from the earth, its body a grotesque fusion of stone plates, petrified bark, and embedded crystals that pulsed with inner light. It unfolded, standing upright on legs the size of castle towers. It took a tentative step toward us, sending shockwaves through the terrain, causing trees to snap and stone spires to crumble. The dungeon had apparently shifted from greater numbers to the unmatched strength approach.

  Primal Behemoth (Legendary)

  Level: 310

  Affinities: Earth, Gravity

  Highest Stats: Strength, Vitality, Endurance, Durability

  Lowest Stats: Dexterity, Mind, Agility

  The aura surrounding it hit like a physical force. Clay dropped a full meter before I caught him. Oliver’s spell collapsed mid-cast, and even Lexa groaned as the pressure tried to drive her back into the ground. I pushed against it, Trailblazer’s Aura flaring as I asserted my presence, and felt the dungeon acknowledge the contest.

  “Let’s see if we can trap it.”

  Lexa slammed her hands down, roots exploding outward in a massive network that wrapped around the behemoth’s legs. The mountain of a monster snapped them like dry spaghetti. I cast Cone of Winter’s Debuff, hoping to slow it, but what were a few glaciers to a mountain? Oliver had the same idea as me, conjuring an ice elemental in an attempt to pin one of its legs. He was no more effective than we were.

  Samvek and Selena were trying different tactics. She warped reality, causing the ground beneath its feet to act like anything other than earth and stone. The behemoth’s massive weight caused it to sink through the new surface, but when it made contact with the solid ground underneath, its power surged.

  Samvek warped the space around it, trying to use it in a way that I hadn’t seen before, almost as if he was attempting to bring the creature’s insides out and its outside in. But the aura around the gargantuan beast pulsed once, and gravity instantly became ten times greater. It wasn’t enough to affect us, but it put the advantage back in its favor and disrupted Samvek’s efforts. I noticed with an odd sense of fascination that even the flow of time felt off from whatever it was the creature was doing.