Chapter 118 – Floor 3 Exploration

The others were not recovered from whatever the monster had done. They sat on the couch’s their heads in their hands for a few more minutes. They didn’t look miserable or anything like that, but more like they hadn’t fully woken up.  

Kang eventually stirred, looked up groggily, and seemed to recoil slightly as he registered his surroundings. “Where am I?” he squinted at Tom. “What happened to you?”

Tom patted his ruined armour and then glanced pointedly down at the dried blood caking his right arm. “You got knocked out. I won, but it was closer than I would have liked.”

There was a long silence as the other boy absorbed that.

“Is that your blood?” Eloise asked in a small voice. “Or the monsters?”

Tom sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose and briefly considered how to spin things to prevent her from getting unduly alarmed. “It’s mine because it couldn’t be the monsters because it bled gold.” He smiled crookedly at her. “It got a lucky hit in and it wasn’t that bad.” He lied hurriedly. “Trust me,” he winked. “It looks worse than it was.”

“Tell us what you faced.” Kang demanded.

He took a moment to think about how much to confess. What was useful to explain and what would prompt Eloise to become hysterical about what they faced. “It was a single monster and kind of like a flying carpet with claws.”

“A what?” Briana asked.

“Oh,” Tom scratched his head. “It’s something from a fairy tale from earth. A Disney movie. Think of a big blanket that if it stretches out, it could fly, but it can also roll itself up to become smaller and move super-fast like a striking snake.”

Kang shrugged. “Sounds weird to be sure, but there are lots of monsters that match that description. What could it do?”

“It had shields that blocked my remote lightning attacks.”

The other boy winced.

“That advantage let it close to melee range. I was lucky enough to stab it with Power Strike’s shield breaking functionality and that disabled it for long enough to sneak Spark through. It was vulnerable to lightning and so got stunned. I cut it up with my dagger and killed it after about twenty seconds. The stun might have worn off anytime after ten, but by then it was cut up too much to threaten me anymore.”

Kang was looking pointedly at the dried blood on his arm.

“That was one blow. I dodged this,” he touched the conspicuous slashes through his armour. “But I couldn’t avoid the arm strike.” He wasn’t going to admit to being so desperate and over-classed that he had resorted to a crazy gamble to trade blows in order to win the fight. “Its speed is a problem. I was lucky to get a glancing blow in with my spear. If I hadn’t, we would be dead.” And in a timeline without his tier three dagger that was exactly what would have happened. “I can’t beat the floor with my existing skill set.”

Kang stilled but maintained eye contact. “What are you saying? I thought you had a trump card”

“I need Remote Power Strike.” He admitted. “And it’s not a want. It’s a need. If I’m going to beat this, we need to wait until I get it.” The tier three spear was not, probably, by itself the answer. In the latest encounter, it would have done nothing because he failed to land a blow before it was on top of him. Of course, that inability depended on how strong the spear’s movement buff was, something he couldn’t test in training and only in battle and, for obvious reasons he hadn’t had that opportunity. If it was twenty percent, then he wouldn’t be able to consistently tag them, but even such a low buff would somewhat even the fight between them. If it was stronger than that, and he doubted it was from the description but if that bonus reached forty percent that would let him win, one on ones but he had no doubt once he got deeper into that valley that he would have to defeat multiple enemies at a time. At that point, he was back to needing the ability to stun them at range.

Kang assessed him, searching for the truth of his words. “We only have two weeks.”

“Less,” Tom acknowledged. “I’m very aware.” He shot a glance at Briana and wished she hadn’t when flinched away. She knew that they were talking about her no matter how much they tried to disguise their language. “We have to have completed the floor by then.”

“And we’re going to be knocked out every fight, aren’t we?”

“Maybe not. You might develop a skill.”

Kang snorted. “Maybe, but.” He shook his head. “The gap feels too large. And Existentia is never that nice.”

“Sorry I don’t have a way to help with that. But there’s a chance the attack is visual based. Some mind effects are like that.”

Kang’s eyes snapped around at that. Then he looked thoughtful. “It very well might be,” he agreed. “We’ll test it next time we go in, but prepare for the worse.”

“If that happens, I’m sorry.”

 Kang waved the apology aside. “Providing we survive how we do it doesn’t matter and to be honest being knocked out ’wasn’t that bad. It was nearly pleasant if you exclude the disorientation when you woke up. Girls, how was it for you?”

“It didn’t hurt,” Briana confirmed immediately.

“It was almost fun,” Eloise confided at the same time and then looked embarrassed. “I mean it was interesting… Um…”

“No, I get what you mean.” Kang assured her. “If we were in a safe environment, yeah, I could see the feeling being addictive. But on the battlefield. Not that’s bad” He shuddered.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s okay,” Kang continued. “I understand. It’s disturbing, but believe me I know why you described it like that.”

“So, if you spend the entire time unconscious am I right in saying it’s not that big of a deal.” Tom asked with a smirk. “That you’re basically happy to sleep on the job.”

“It wouldn’t be no.” Kang answered flatly. “But we can’t change what we’re facing, and we all have to be there. So if we’re being knocked out the whole time, then so be it. We can’t change that.”

“True. My plan is to put all my fate generation into learning Remote Power Strike.” Tom told them.

“That’s for the best. Give us the prayers you think will help the most.”

Tom considered the offer for a moment. “Despite the cost of efficiency, I agree you helping me gain my skill is probably the optimal choice.”

“We’ll do it.” Kang promised instantly.

With a decision made, Tom threw himself into what he had to do.

Ten hours of exhaustive practise with a break every ten minutes to fix Briana during daylight hours before switching to the two-hour cycle at night. He used Fateful Repositioning whenever it came off cooldown and the fate it generated was directed toward helping him with his aim. The effort and fate expenditure worked. He finally got the ding in the evening of the fourth day. They only had a little over a week before Briana would be so weakened she would become an even bigger liability than she was already. At that point, winning with her would become hard. It was possible he would be able to get the other two to carry her, but their bodies were that of six-year-olds. Carrying someone who weighed the same as them for kilometres would be a severe strain and greatly increase the risks of everyone else dying.

He had been so convinced that with his abilities that he would be able to keep everyone alive, but he was beginning to have his doubts. The fact he had needed a tier three weapon on the first solitary monsters told him how difficult this challenge was going to be. To do it with one of them unable to walk. It didn’t sound feasible. Tom needed to find a way to complete everything in the next week.  

“Adam, can you show me my new skill?” he called out. A page appeared and when he read it, he frowned. It was boring.

Skill: Intangible Power Strike – Tier 2

Allows non-physical aspects of Power Strike to be conveyed on a spear controlled by the user or a neutral spear to a distance of twenty-four metres.

But it was exactly what he needed for the next day.

He ran to find the others. “I got it. Tomorrow, we start clearing the floor in earnest.”

Prepared for the coming fight, they milled around the entrance once more. Kang, with Adam’s help had adapted his and the girl’s armour. They looked ridiculous. It was as if they were wearing a helmet that basically acted as a pillow.

“Stop cracking up whenever you look at us,” Kang growled. “This is necessary if we’re going to keep being knocked unconscious. If our head lands on a rock, it could kill us as quickly as monster’s claws.”

“I know… but.” Tom couldn’t continue and bit back on his laughter.

Eloise started to take the helmet off.

“No, no, leave it.” he ordered. “Kang’s right it’s very necessary.”

“Apologise.” She demanded.

“I’m sorry for teasing you about the pillow head.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at his choice of wording, and then she obviously decided it was close enough to genuine. She stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry before she pushed him toward the door to the lobby area.

A minute later, he walked out onto the grassy field.

“Heads down,” Kang reminded them. “We’re hoping that the primary effect is visual.”

They stood patiently at the entrance with Tom standing five metres in front of the others to attract the attention of any monster that noticed them. This time, he spotted the rippling in the grass when it was almost two hundred metres from where he stood. A few seconds later, time slowed as it focused on him specifically.

Clinically, he watched as it charged him, but discovered nothing new.

His Lightning Javelin was already formed and just like last time it stampeded at him until it was five metres away and then flared up to show its underbelly and impressive size. Tom had a clear view of the brightly coloured shifting patterns, and he felt the slight pressure on his mind, which was simple enough to ignore. With a single thought, Intangible Power Strike covered the magical weapon, and a single point of precognition mana was invested to activate the shield breaking sideway evolution. With everything prepared, he launched it at the monster. Even with its attributes making it three times faster than him there was no way it could react to the speed of an attack that flew a couple of magnitudes faster than he could physically throw a javelin. It wasn’t ten times faster, it was at least a hundred times.

The missile struck the carpet right in the centre and quicker than thought the magical defences flared into action to protect it. This time it did not negate the attack because the steady blue glow that infused the spear went almost white and the opposing shield shattered and his weapon, effectively unimpeded, smashed into the creature and after tearing through the skin was converted into a lingering lightning strike.

Electricity crackled across its skin, and Tom leapt forward even as behind him Kang of all people toppled over. If he didn’t have a monster to butcher, he would have rolled his eyes at the outcome. The creature had collapsed pooling in a disorganised mess like a discarded blanket. He immediately started hacking into it. Yellow blood bubbled toward the sky as sections larger than Tom were hacked off.

The number of dancing electrical sparks racing from spot to spot within it was reducing and so without hesitation he used Electricity Explosion fusing the origination point to the middle of its body. The spell sparked and crackled with exploding arcs of energy bursting out in all directions. Every one of which landed on the dying monster.

Its severe vulnerability to lightning was on display as from that central location the errant currents went through all of it. It was completely helpless as Tom continued to hack away at it with the hatchet he had bought for this job. He kept going until it was in so many pieces that it was not going to reform.

He glanced back at the others. “You can look up now.”

They did and stared at the hacked-up rug like monster.

“That’s what knocked us out.” Eloise asked curiously as she came forward and used her spear to poke at the remains. He noticed she was flipping pieces over to see the underside that had done the damage. “Those claws are so long and sharp.”

“They are.”

“What happened to Kang?” Briana asked. She had held back slightly and hadn’t approached the dismembered, weird creature. He appreciated the caution.

Tom frowned at the other boy in annoyance. “He peeked. We’ll wait here until he wakes up and then push deeper.”

They waited.

He spotted another ripple in the grass. “Eyes down girls.”

They responded and scrambled back, and Tom was thrilled when he felt time slow.

He stood patiently and it being, relatively speaking, a low ranked monster it followed an identical pattern to the previous two. It approached at speed and then reared up to use its visual based mind attack and was greeted by a Lightning Javelin that crashed through its defences, impaled it,  and then made it crumble, stunned to the ground. 

Over six minutes had passed since the last fight, and he used exactly the same technique to butcher it before it could recover.

Fighting these creatures was cleaner than most monster battles. The yellow blood evaporated away, floating into the sky in streams of different sized bubbles, so there was no mess to contend with.

When he stepped back, he looked critically at what he had done. “I think in future once it’s down we’ll get you girls to jump in and help.” He told them.

“You want us to cut it?” Eloise asked alarmed, taking a step backward toward the door.

Tom stood and tried to look stern with his external expression. He was not sure it helped since he was the same height as them. “Is that a problem?”

“No.”

“Maybe.”

“And why might it be a problem, Eloise?”

The little girl paused. “It looks icky.”

“It isn’t.” Tom spun around on the spot. “See my armour is still spotless.”

She looked doubtful.

“It’s important Eloise.” He assured her. “You might even get a bonus if there is a percentage contribution overlay.”

Adam had implied there wasn’t, and that success was just a tick or cross and everyone got the same reward, but given how Existentia worked Tom couldn’t quite get his head around the concept that contribution calculations weren’t going to apply. In case it did, then eking out even a small advantage for the girls by getting them to cut up a stunned, helpless creature was worth the effort. Plus, if they could contribute to killing paralysed monsters that gave him more freedom if an overwhelming force assaulted them. With their help, he might be able to contend with three or four at once instead of just the one. His biggest issue was doing sufficient physical damage in a timely fashion. Each monster was taking him ten to twenty seconds to kill and if there were four of them, that was too long.

“We’ll do it,” Briana said authoritatively.

Eloise nodded her agreement, and he struggled not to smile at the puffy helmet she was wearing. He must have been successful, because she didn’t comment any further. Tom went back to watching for enemies and a couple of minutes later Kang woke up. 

He was disorientated, but he wasn’t stupid. One look at the girl’s smug expressions and he grimaced in self-recrimination. “So it’s a visual effect?”

“Yes.” Tom took a moment from his vigil to peer at him. “Care to explain. It’s not like you to lack discipline.”

“I was trying to catch a glimpse of it before it flared. It did it quicker than I expected.”

“Ah,” Tom nodded. “Makes sense. You were too slow.”

Kang rested his head in his palms, a picture of embarrassment. “Yes. I’ll do better going forward I promise. Please let’s not talk about this again.”

Tom believed him. That was not a mistake someone as experienced as the other reincarnator was going to make again.

Slowly, they pushed forward and moved deeper into the valley. The situation was similar to the previous floors as the monsters kept coming, so they weren’t required to search to locate them. They could have reduced the risk by staying right next to the door, but Tom wanted to explore far enough to find what other creatures they were going to be facing, in case there was some skill or ability he desperately needed to obtain.

There was a flicker of movement coming at him. “Heads down,” he ordered. The monster approached at its usual breakneck speed, and it flared up. Contemptuously, he stunned it. The fights were easy now. “It’s down.” He told the others.

Kang and the girls rushed forward and hacked it apart. Tom stood in over watch and in moments it was over.

The girls were grinning. They were enjoying being useful.

Once more, they moved forward.

For over an hour, they made steady progress with a brutal fight occurring every four minutes on average.

Danger Sense spiked.

Tom tensed and searched the area it was indicating. He figured this was probably a new type of monster.

Then he saw that instead of one moving patch there were a few of them. “Multiple incoming.” He yelled at the others.

He assessed what was coming. There were three enemies, and they were clearly working as a single pack. Quickly he added another javelin to the one he had pre-prepared and wished he had the levels and mental fortitude to increase it to three at once.

He waited and hoped they followed the normal pattern, but by the way Danger Sense was carrying on he knew he wasn’t going to be that lucky.

When they reached him, only one flared up to do their mental attack.

The other two instead switched to their swifter condensed form and rushed at him. His mind could feel the pressure of the attack and he was glad that he had prepared his spells in advance and that he had a trait that sped his perception of time and allowed him to track the fast-moving monsters.

Power Strike with precognition mana wrapped effortlessly around the crackling spears and when they crossed the five-metre line from him he launched the attacks.

His blows hit and the electricity that ran through them stunned them instantly, but only that. There was nothing to cancel their momentum or slow them. Airborne, they hurtled at the spot he was standing.

Tom dove into a forward roll to avoid them.

One of them landed centimetres from Kang and skidded to a halt a couple of metres beyond him. It was the one that Danger Sense had warned him to get out of the way of explicitly. Even with its claws not actively attacking him, if he had done nothing, they would have impaled him with enough force to punch straight through his armour skin and bone.

Tom didn’t have time to concern himself with the ones he had already stunned. The one that had flared was rolling into its condensed form to kill him. That meant the dangerous underside was no longer active. “It’s down,” he yelled to get the others to react, and then the third monster was upon him.

It was fast. Devastatingly so, and while his trait let him see it, his movements were like he was pushing through treacle. His body was unable to respond fast enough to his orders. He twisted desperately away while tracking the incoming strike and knew it was not enough. While the mind and soul were willing, the body lacked the power to execute the manoeuvre.  

Screw it, he thought and manually triggered Fateful Repositioning to turbo charge his movements and allow him to avoid the flashing claws. He wasn’t sure his body shifted very far, but the claws missed and then his Lightning Javelin spell finished and at his command it launched itself across the inches separating them and stabbed deep into the monster’s flesh.

For the barest of instances, while helpless in the air he had mental capacity to focus on the wider battle. His pseudo sensing spell showed that the girls were still picking themselves off the floor, but Kang had leapt over to attack the one near him and was swinging his axe like a woodchopper. It glowed blue and a single blow went through an entire roll to thud into the ground.

There were three enemies, and he quickly went through the mental calculations. He had spent twenty of his personal mana and only a single free cast spell. Within reason, he had magic to spare.

He used Spark on the monster he was fighting to keep it subdued while he hacked away at it with his hatchet. Each blow cutting through six or seven layers of the rolled up creature. It was progress, but nothing like Kang’s single strike, which must have gone through forty.

While he did that, he sent an Electricity Explosion to stun the ones that the girls were dealing with and a Bolt to subdue Kang’s one.

Breathing heavily from his frantic physical hacking, he cut it completely in half and the upward rain of blood ceased. He sighed in relief. He had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to take it down in time. With that concern addressed, he switched his attention back to the wider battle. Kang had finished his almost ten seconds ago and had crossed to help the other two.

They, too, were finishing up. All three of the monsters were dead.

“No injuries,” Kang observed impressed.

“But I stressed my skill too much.” Tom told him. “We’re going to have to hold here for a while until I recover.”

“You’re in charge,” Kang said simply.

“Tom?”

“Yes Briana,” he said, turning to her. He had a feel for the cadence of the floor. They had a few minutes before they would be attacked again and if they were, well, Kang was on watch and failing that Danger Sense would keep them safe.

“How do you cast spells so quickly? You were launching three a second. It takes me almost four seconds just to use Razor Water.”

He was tempted to claim that was what it meant to be a reincarnator, but decided the joke would backfire. At her age, she would take it too literally and this was an opportunity to encourage her talent. A joke risked the opposite and could crush her enthusiasm for all things magical. “Lots of practice and my trait does some heavy lifting as well,” Tom answered her simply. “The trait boosts my casting speed by three times when I’m fighting opponents this powerful.”

“I want something like that.”

Tom laughed. “It only helps when fighting things much stronger than you. Our job is to do the opposite. We should always be battling stuff weaker than us.” He frowned and looked in an accusing manner up to the sky. “Unless, of course, you’re dropped into a bloody darkhole trial. In here it’s a lifesaver I’ll admit that but outside I hoped to never have to use it. The only reason I was given it was because to most people its useless.” And he wasn’t lying. It had never been intended to be used in life and death struggles. It had been about giving him a chance in the Divine Champions trial. And now that he had his LightningJavelin and Intangible Power Strike combination. The trait was going to let him do what it was intended for. He was going to start winning matches on his own terms, and he could barely wait for that to happen. Once he got out of here, the coins were going to begin to flow freely.