Knives & Levels - Chapter 111

The next couple of days of exploring the Academy were relatively simple. Colt fell into a rhythm, with him mostly just putting off the need for sleep, since getting any at all here was impossible.

Even though he didn't feel fear, there was a constant sense of danger. Unlike in the caves, where he could have his friends watching his back while he rested, here if he even dozed off for meditation for too long, that odd pounding noise and laughter would return.

Despite his inability to feel fear, something in this place was attempting to terrify him.

The dissonance between the feeling he couldn’t feel and its obvious intent was a gulf too wide to bridge. The reaction product of those two chemicals mixing was his growing annoyance with the odd pounding and laughter. 

Every time he closed his eyes for a brief rest, there was a pounding at the door, laughter, or something thrown around in a nearby room. All amounting to an increasingly pissed off feeling with the phantom playing games with him. Whatever the cause, he just wished it would show its face so he could Cut it up. There wasn't anything to really fear from a noise that darted around, afraid to confront him.

By the first few hours, he thought he knew what it was. Several times he saw a pale face grinning at him from the corner of his vision, or poking out from the end of a hallway.

Whenever it dared to show its face, he’d rush forward with a burst of movement to finally track it down and kill it. 

It was gone by the time he reached it, even as instantaneously as he was able to move. Annoying. Supremely annoying.

So he concentrated on what he could do: hunt down the other phantoms.

They came in three different flavors. The professors, like the one he'd stumbled across in the first place, coming into this place, were the most challenging. They had a different degree of access to magic, with each of them displaying similar types of Edicts, but differing in the types of magic they knew. One thing was usually certain: they had one form of water magic and some complementary form. For the most part, this could be troublesome if he were not so quick to kill them. 

So it was to his benefit that his whole build relied on speedily dispatching foes, because it ended an encounter with them before it got dangerous.

The second flavor of annoying monsters was what he came to think of as ‘students.’ These were less powerful, coming in generally around level eighty-five. The issue with them is that they came in groups and also wielded varying magics. It made fights a little tricky, with each one being special. Colt had to think about the layout of his enemies and the magic they wielded, and then adapt on the fly. Usually focusing on whichever one seemed the most dangerous by the highest level or the type of skills.

Then, he rarely encountered the third type, which was exactly the same as the one he'd encountered outside New Nashville.

The half-formed phantoms that were called Twisted Frozen Phantom Scholars. And were now the easiest to fight. Although the way they operated was confusing, a whole bundle of them could congregate together and create a more dangerous foe. But, using the Yeti knife and preventing them from ever doing so, Colt could keep a handle on the situation and prevent things from escalating.

Most of it was adaptation for him, thanks to his tool. He could fight them and get by without taking too much damage, as long as he planned appropriately and fought fast.

That wasn't to say he got through all the fights flawlessly, especially with multiple monsters involved; it often left a wound. He took hits from magic, leaving scars and open wounds. 

Once, one hit him with a ‘soul devour’ after getting too close. Which wrecked his focus for an hour after, but didn’t permanently handicap him.

The feeling of an attack like that was similar to using an Edict, except way worse. It was an ache in his soul that slowly healed with meditation… The few minutes of it he could get before that annoying fucking Phantom started throwing stuff around and ruining his rest. 

Colt was already slowly worn away from the lack of rest and constant fighting. After days of it, he felt drained physically and mentally, and his soul capacity was reducing over time as well.

But the results had been worth it.

———

You have leveled up! x 9

You have 27 Stat points to spend. You have gained 9 points of Dexterity and 9 points of Soul.

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Advanced) has gained a level!

———

After a couple of days of hunting, the increased levels and skills were starting to amount to something he could work with. The gap between where he was and where the Yeti was had begun to close; for the stats themselves, he spent them pretty much immediately upon obtaining.

14 went to Dexterity; 6 went to soul, and the last seven were tucked away into endurance. He already felt the way that his Olympic Physique was bringing out every invested point within his physical stats to another level. And the sheer drain this place brought on him necessitated more investment in the stat to help him keep going.

He reviewed his Status after the first few days in the dungeon.

———

Name: Colt King | Race: Basic Human

Icon: Nike | Class: Edict Carver (III)

Faction: None

Level: 77

Edicts:

Cut (Superior)

Movement (Lesser)

Momentum (Minor)

Skills: 

Inspect (Advanced) - Level 21

Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Advanced) - Level 21

Meditate (Advanced) - Level 20

Phantom’s Gambit (Intermediate) - Level 16

Soul And Mind Fortitude (Advanced) - Level 21

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) - Level 16

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) - Level 18

Swords Proficiency (Basic) - Level 6

Hide Status (Basic) - Level 6

Stats:

Strength: 24

Endurance: 60

Dexterity: 150

Intelligence: 11

Willpower: 15

Soul: 220

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

———

He’d come a long way, level 77, and his ability to punch above his weight was treating him well. Soon, he knew his friends would arrive at the Academy, and he could act even bolder. All it took was another day, and then his friends were due here. He would pop outside the Academy and wait on the wall for them. From there, they could function as a team, and he'd be able to get the rest he needed. 

That said, wandering these dark halls and roaming through the various rooms in their disorganized and half-frozen states yielded interesting results. Plenty of phantoms to kill. He'd been afraid that the outskirts building wouldn’t be enough to justify this risk when he initially wandered there. But, as he closed in closer and closer to the central congregation of the academy, where the thicker, larger libraries the size of warehouses lay, he encountered more and more of the phantoms.

So much so that he dared not go into the direct center of the Academy, where they would be too much for him to deal with alone.

On his last day, after wandering countless halls, touring the various dark Gothic libraries—and this place had a considerable number of libraries—from which he’d stolen a couple of choice, important-looking books he couldn’t read, he came across his most interesting discovery yet.

It was in one of the outlying corridors, not connected directly to the main building, through a twisting, navigating maze that went up one of the towers that jutted out over this mammoth of a dark architecture. He found a crystal at the top of the tower.

A crystal that contained a person within it. They were a human, and in the middle of a fight. Their hands held a wicked, darkened blade, and their face was snarled into a vicious roar as they swung, frozen within the crystal. Colt stared at it for a long while, and he’d almost mistaken it for just another piece of artwork or sculpture, if not for the powerful Edicts that seemed to radiate outward.

The Edicts were thick in the room, bouncing off the obsidian walls, their pressure pressing in on Colt's senses and resonating with his Momentum and Movement.

This wasn’t a sculpture. There was more here.

Colt hesitantly reached out to it with his soul, then recoiled as he began understanding some of the thick strands of physical reality at work here.

No, this was more. A person frozen in time.

And a second later, an Inspect confirmed his suspicion.

———

Time Crystal [Epic]

Description: A frozen moment in time, crystallized for eternity. To do so takes an immense amount of magic and concentration that borders on the power of the Chaos Gods. But, it is said that the contents of which are a profound capsule of once was, and the beauty of a moment frozen in time forever is a resonant, transcendent thing.

Or you know, maybe they just got used to taking care of a potential enemy forever. Your choice of interpretation. 

———

Gods of Chaos… Another hint thrown out by the system. Colt circled the crystal, the resonant energy radiating outward from it, unlike anything he'd ever felt. He wondered if perhaps this was the ‘Celestial Seed’, but if it had been, then surely the description would have hinted at that.

So, this was a person frozen in time. However, this left a lasting impact on reality; thick waves of Edicts rolled off it—ancient things, forces fundamental to the universe, like two of his Edicts.

Colt sat down in front of it. Hands in his lap as he stared upward at the beauty on display.

This was thick with his powers—Momentum was reacting strongest of all, and this crystal could be the Catalyst to finally bring it to the next level, and balance it out with Movement. Neither of them could have an advantage for long, or it would keep his soul from reaching harmony.

So far, he’d cobbled along not having the right understanding of his new Edict to fix the problem… But he could almost hear the universe whispering its secrets to him here. All of that Momentum on display before him, seized in an infinite halt…

This was a key.

Colt closed his eyes and focused. The radiating Edicts outward reacted, swarming thick around him. 

He’d need to be fast because his friends would arrive, and somewhere not far away was that pesky Phantom that would do its best to disturb him. All he needed was to embrace the Edict and welcome it in—then he could greet his friends at the Academy stronger than ever.

All it took was balance, meditation, and hard effort.

Colt got to work.

###

It was incredible how things could shift over time. Nate knew from personal experience in the army that one situation one day could suddenly change drastically and irrevocably with no warning at all. Life was a funny dynamic of false comforts and sudden drops that took you down random routes at the whim of fate.

They had gone securely for the first two days, minimizing their exposure and tactically going throughout the caves. Within them, with a sound strategy, they hunted down monsters and increased their levels.

It had been productive enough. They had gained some levels. Not as much as he’d hoped before, but enough to bring them along now that they knew the secret that monsters were hiding behind fake walls.

Until, on the second day of their covert mission, life dropped one of those unexpected, irrevocable changes.

The Yeti screeched outside their cave, a haunting and howling thing that whipped the interior with a cold and chilling presence. It’d sniffed them out.

It was a premonition. A gut feeling deep in Nate’s soul. Good things ended, and these days of hiding and scrabbling to and fro reached their natural conclusion. Everything in him screamed, and this was the moment to act. All those years of service accumulated to one understanding: moments like this had choices, and every second mattered. One either moved when things like this happened, or they sat high and faced an inevitable end as the world came crashing into them, ending what they had built in seconds.

Nate wasn't one to let things fall apart. And nor, as he told his friends to get their things together, was he going to let them be either. The Yeti was coming for them.

The howling didn’t let up; it confirmed his thoughts by the second. It’d found their targets, and their only remaining solution was to outrun it.

But where did one run?

In Nate’s mind, only one answer led to survival: the Academy. Things had just become too dangerous out here to survive. And he hoped within its many walls and below that he could find refuge from this beast, even if the place was swarming with monsters.

There was terror—Julia yelling, Sarah scrambling to pack food away, and Nick shaking in a corner, trying to get his things together.

“It’s fine. Hurry, good pace. But keep yourself calm. Panic brings disorganization, and that wastes time,” Nate shouted, helping where he could.

He would be the rock that brought them from despair.

Speaking of which… He saw Nick. The man was struggling; his foot had begun a slow path to recovery, so he moved slowly. If this were a race to run from the Yeti… Nick would be eaten.

Not that they were about to go and sacrifice the man. Nate wasn’t willing to do so, and even though Sarah was still harsh with him, the way he’d turned back and struggled through the blizzard to come for them had shown his resolve. It was the first step in amending their relationship, and even Sarah wasn’t likely to toss him to the Yeti to save her own skin.

Nick didn’t say much. Just trembled as he worked. Those eyes said all they needed to, screaming that his life was over. Nate walked over and took in Nick’s pale cast and lethargic movement; the look of a man who saw death coming for him.

Nate crouched next to him, and Nick kept his head down.

“It’s only right. I will give my life so you lot can escape, ya don’t need to tell me, I get it. I get my role. I’ve made so many mistakes… And if this is how I pay you back…” Nick choked up, his fingers trembling as he dropped a bag. Nate picked it up and set a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look into his eyes.

“Don’t say things you’re gonna regret. None of us had that in mind. I know you can’t run like this—but think it through. Even if we ran, would any of us get away this time? Only one of us could outpace a beast like this in a storm. And that one is Colt. Don’t see him anywhere, do you? No, soldier. We’re doing things differently.” Nate said.

“What?” Nick asked.

Nate shook his head—Sarah and Julia called out. They’d finished packing. There wasn’t a time for explanation. He just offered Nick a hand up and got to moving and shouting orders. They marched out of the cave and back to the surface in minutes.

They saw what he'd feared once they poked their heads out of their hidey hole. The Yeti lurked on the slopes not long away, blood dripping from one of its hands; its previous white fur now matted with the stuff like it had spent the last two days doing nothing but killing anything it could get its sharp claws around.

And it saw them.

The gale picked up in the tundra as the pressure of the cold increased. The Yeti let out a roar, sprinting toward them as it tried to close the distance and hunt down its last prey. With every step, the wind around them picked up. Breaking out into a full-blown gale.

Nate activated his plan.

The giant steel hammer in his hand flattened to a plate, and he threw it onto the ground in front of him, falling onto it as he pressed more of his Forge edict outward—handles forming on the edges, spaced so he and his group could grab on for dear life.

In a second, it became obvious what his plan was.

His hammer had become a sled. Nate gestured for his allies to hop on; their trepidation was almost hilarious on their faces as they obeyed—and he understood why. For so many days, they’d navigated this place with careful footing. Distinctly doing their best not to slip, since this slope was coated with thousands of spiny icicles that would stab you through if you crashed into it.

And his plan was essentially to slip all the way down the hill to the Academy in the middle of a blizzard while a ferocious boss none of them could deal with was trying to murder them.

Yeah, it was a wild plan.

But it was the best he had.

There was only one real solution. He couldn't outrun the Yeti. But, with such a slope and mass of people, he knew he could out-sled the Yeti.

“This is crazy,” Sarah said, hopping onto the thin steel plate and grabbing onto him. Nate grunted and then flexed his will.

“Grab on wherever you can. Hold tight.”

There were shouts from behind as the Yeti closed in, as the wind began to whip around. A shard of ice impacted Nate and hit him in the head, stunning him for a second, but he shook it off and began the next phase, kicking out and getting the sled moving. It didn't take much to get them to slide, and in a second, they were off. Trailing down the slope as wind raged at them, threatening to knock them off course and into one of dozens of ice formations that would shred them to pieces.

Every second too, the sled only moved faster. Transforming into transit of death as it sped through the cold inferno of ice and wind.

After half a minute, Nate stopped caring about the Yeti behind him. The entirety of his world focused on two things. The steel plate beneath him, and the way his Edict shaped it to funnel the snow and direct their course as the speed picked up, and his immediate vision in front of him. Swerving when he had to, he narrowly avoided skewering them on spikes that appeared in the middle of the blizzard.

Left. Right.

The movements were jerky, gut-wrenching things. But they worked. 

In ten minutes of complete hell, they broke out of the blizzard. Too fast for the Yeti to follow; it’d tried to catch them with different manifestations of ice, but with the Sled just zooming by, they hadn’t the speed to stop them and kill them.

As soon as they crested the blizzard, Nate knew he’d won. He could see the academy miles below, but they weren’t out of the woods yet.

There were still many miles of deadly slope between them and the safety of those obsidian walls. And by the second, the speed of the sled only went faster. Navigating and preventing a head-on collision that would kill them all took every bit of his concentration, and then some. After so long being careful on this glacier, he wasn’t about to let go of that care while doing the most dangerous thing yet.

Nate couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity, watching as they went. To think it came down to sledding in such a deadly place—after everything. If it were him speeding quicker and quicker towards the descent, he was sure he’d die. But he was alone.

As they picked up speed, and he could direct the sled, they eventually moved too fast to avoid everything. But Julia became their saving grace. When an inevitable collision approached, Julia blew up the spears in front of them with a burst of water.

Several times, she saved their lives and also cemented their victory. The pathway forward became increasingly clear.

This would work.

Nate let out joyous laughter as they sped down, terror becoming an adrenaline-filled joy. In the distance, the dark, inky building that had dominated the landscape for so many days below was coming closer and closer. 

We're almost there, he thought, clenching the steel beneath him even tighter. All he had to do was hold on just a little longer.