The Lake with its blue froglike critters was pretty full. But then, if nobody but them ever came around, it wasn’t very surprising.

“Four frogs and then the elder. Let’s do this.”

“Still hating this one, Jonas? We avenged you. Twice already.”

“This time, I have a new tool to test.”

Fire Funnel

Aether/Offense

Rank 0: Does 15% of INT in fire damage per second to any hostile at the targeted location, within 2 feet. Lasts 10 seconds. Costs: 2 aether per base damage.

Of course, that spell Jonas had obtained from testing high-tier items at the Archives was at the lowest possible rank so far. But it was there, thanks to one of the side effect of Adjustment, and he intended to make use of that, whenever he could.

“Those froglets it calls will hurt. Between that and Firefall. They want to hit me, they’ll have to get burned.”

Firefall

Aether/Offense

Rank 0: Does 20% of INT in fire damage to all enemies within 10 feet of the target. Costs: 2 aether per base damage.

The latter was a simple trick that Myrl Douglas, the Indomitable Spellthrower from their rescue expedition, had given him. Once told, he’d berated himself for not figuring it out. Almost all of the spells he used affected hostiles. Which meant everything… except him or the people in his team, no matter how much the fire seemed to engulf them. That meant Jonas could stay in place, and let the enemies burn if they tried to reach him.

He’d been shown a handful of guides on known spells, and Fire Funnel looked definitively on the high-end of useful. Even if it scaled more slowly than Firefall and you used it on a single target, as long as that target didn’t move out of the radius, it would still be awesome in terms of damage per aether over time. If you needed all your resources for a fight, that mattered.

Then, of course, he’d been told that there were “intelligent” enemies in the Labyrinth, and those would probably quickly leave any such area. But hopefully, the frogs wouldn’t be too smart. Or maybe they’d hate fire since they were “Iceblood” ones. One thing to test.

“Good haul so far,” Laura said.

“You just got a worthless new tunic,” Alton replied.

Frog-Skin Ribbed Tunic

Torso

Common equipment

Requires: Level 30

Provides: 6 defence rating, STR+4

“So what? Me and Ira, we got big stuff thanks to Cowen. It’s the rest of you who needs to catch up quick,” she said, alluding to the number of items the Imposing Knight had let them keep as they ploughed through one lair after another on the way to Grailburg.

“Actually… you know what? I’ll take it,” Jonathan said.

“What?” Laura exclaimed.

“I’m still wearing my starter gear one. It might not be much more, but it has 3 more defence and some Strength. So why not? I can keep waiting for proper metal armour, or get what I can.”

Laura shook her head before handing the tunic to Jonathan, who quickly stripped and put the new one on. The effect was even worse against the rest of his equipment compared to the plain-looking original tunic.

The four elite frogs on the four cardinal points of the icy-blue mountain lake had yielded a variety of gear. Although the so-called ribbed tunic was worse from being a common gear than the quality one obtained two months ago from Ovildian, the rest was, in fact, better than what they previously had.

Frog-Skin fingerless Glove

Hand

Common equipment

Requires: Level 31

Provides: 3 defence rating, DEX+4

Blue Burlap Trousers

Legs

Common equipment

Requires: Level 30

Provides: 3 defence rating, INT+4

Blue Soft Robe

Torso

Quality equipment

Requires: Level 28

Provides: 6 defence rating, health+34, INT+3

Jonas lamented the loss of the skill on his old robe, but given how important Intellect was to his skills, and how often he used that Air Burst… it was still objectively better.

Aerial Robe

Torso

Exceptional equipment

Requires: Level 9

Provides: 3 defence rating, INT+1, health+13, +1 Air Burst rank

“Sigh. Only 700 experience from the next level,” he remarked.

“You want to hit some more frogs before the Elder?” Ira replied.

“No. Guss and Laura are further away because they had to skip a lair dive, and besides, there’s no Milestone, so it’s just a bit of vitals for me, Jonathan and Alton. Let’s do it first, then we hit the last frogs to level.”

Iceblood Froglord

Level 37 elder

Health: 1754

Mind: 703

Endurance: 841

Aether: 940

“Sounds higher than I remember,” Jonas said.

“We had him twice at 36 and once at 35. No bother,” Ira replied.

Then they jumped from the last ice floe on the central flat rock and within the enemy’s range.

Iceblood Froglord’s freezing presence: -2health/sec, -2 all potentials.

At that point, the Froglord deigned to notice them.

Iceblood Froglord sounds the alarm: -74 mind.

“And it begins. Let’s go quick.”

Unlike any of the earlier times where the alarm had only resulted in mind vital loss, two froglets immediately answered the call, trying to jump on Guss.

Iceblood Lake Spoor × 2

Level 24 minion

Health: 124

Mind: 52

Endurance: 93

Aether: 18

Jonathan moved to distract them, and this time, Jonas joined him. Both Laura and Alton looked, then quickly refocused on the main enemy as they saw Jonas’ quick sign.

Fire Funnel started: 2 enemies hit for 9 damage each (18 aether)

The two froglets ignored the swirling red haze around Jonathan’s feet, making Jonas happy. He wouldn’t waste the Firefall for less than 5 frogs, but Funnel immediately started to drop their health and they did ignore the threat. He checked for safety but switched back to the main target.

Flame Bolt hits Iceblood Froglord for 35 damage (17 aether)

If he’d counted right, the two enemies would now die without his intervention, between Jonathan’s two swords slashing and the Fire Funnel. And probably just in time to the next call. Although, with the Froglord dropping relatively fast in health, it might not even happen.

Iceblood Froglord

Level 37 elder

Health: 951

Mind: 703

Endurance: 655

Aether: 640

“All in!” Jonas said, needlessly as the two melee fighters looked dubiously at his suggestion they were not already using their endurance. The freezing presence intensified slowly as the frog’s health dropped, but it was not a hindrance.

Iceblood Froglord sounds the alarm: -74 mind.

Iceblood amphibians × 3: 1393XP/6 contributors = 232XP

With the second call sounding just before the Froglord died, the team immediately spread out to watch for more spoor, but no froglet came.

“Nothing? Disappointing,” Ira said.

“We had one… no, two fewer Milestones last time. If you count Adjustment. Of course, it goes faster. We’ll see the wolves in their cave, then the boars. The boars will be the real test of how much we’ve progressed,” Jonas said.

“And the dancing bear.”

“It’s not far from the boar ruins. Of course, we’ll do it first.”

“Check this out,” Laura called.

Blue Iron Ringmail Legwarmers

Legs

Exceptional equipment

Requires: Level 29

Provides: 28 defence rating, +39 health, +38 endurance, +36 mind

“Wow. Goody,” Jonas said.

“For you Jonathan, I think,” Ira replied. “They look almost like the ones I got last time, except those have a more diverse bonus.”

“Sure?” he asked.

“Sure. Mine might be lower quality, but they have a higher level and additional AGI for my dodge skill.”

“Thanks, Ira.”

“Anytime.”

By the mid-morning next day, they’d reached the zone’s central Plaza. No crows were guarding the mountain pass treasure box, but they’d torn through the local wildlife and all, save Ira, had gotten a level. The team’s main defender was inching closer to his own level, though.

“There’s a lot less pressure now that we can move around at will,” Guss said while contemplating the ‘sculpture’ hole next to the Plaza. Knowing that this used to be a Recall Stone removed a bit of the mystery of the place, though.

“That’s how Professionals work normally,” Jonas replied. “That’s why everyone was wondering how anyone could be lost. Unless you deliberately mess up, you always have a way home. And at worst, you can just retrace your steps across each Gate.”

“If you’re on your own, it could be hard? In high tiers, I mean.”

Jonas thought for a while.

“Maybe for someone like Guss at some levels. I think you’d need some gear and weapons since a Hospitaler might not have much in the way of offensive skills. But outdoor, it’s mostly normal and veteran creatures. It’s not like you’re doing a lair solo. You can kill them pretty easily if you get jumped. Otherwise, you just avoid them and walk between Gates along the border.”

“I’ll probably get some side Profession with offensive stuff at one point,” the team’s healer replied. He then added, “Hopefully an aether-based one, so I can avoid losing my skills.”

Ira pointed toward the brook that ran close to the Plaza, toward where the wolf cave was located.

“Cave’s not far. We can do it quickly and head toward that dancing bear.”

Jonas laughed.

“You really want to see that lair.”

The wolves in the Grey Cave might be slightly higher than the frogs, but they were still in the levels 40, while the team was now 62 and with additional milestones. That lair had been their last completed back when they were still trying to escape their confinement. Now, it was time for their second dive, starting with the lone wolf standing at the cave’s entrance.

Grey Cave Wolf

Level 41 veteran

Health: 665

Mind: 264

Endurance: 550

Aether: 197

The hapless wolf veteran fell quickly under a couple of spells and weapon hits. But the real wolf cave began deeper, past the first turn of the entrance.

Large Grey Wolf × 2

Level 42 elite

Health: 1171

Mind: 463

Endurance: 971

Aether: 173

The pair of elite wolves had been a problem getting around originally, but that was mostly why the team had adopted the strategy of having two Laymen around. Jonathan might still have less gear and vitals than their team’s main defender, but he still had a higher survivability rate than any of the others and having two separate defenders meant that Guss did not have to scramble to keep Ira alive against the combined assault of the double elite pack.

Still, Jonathan knew he still needed more gear to replace the last two pieces of leather clothing he’d obtained while he was still classified as a Watcher profession. Both he and Ira had some gear stashed at Gatepost’s bank, obtained while Cowen was moving them across the last tier two zones separating them from Grailburg. But the lowest piece at the bank still required a level of 88, which was still far in the future.

“I’m taking the left wolf. You take the right one,” Ira announced.

“Good for me,” Jonathan replied.

“All on right,” Jonas added, probably needlessly as the team knew well their roles and priorities by now. They hadn’t fought for a while, but the handful of enemies on the way and the warm-up at the Ice Lake had brought back their old practice. They still had to learn, but guardian fights like the ones in a tier-two zone were not that complicated. Usually.

Both wolves started with their howls, which the team remembered from their first foray.

Large Grey Wolves howl. -84×2 mind, -3×2 PRE.

That attack was the most dangerous part of the fight. They had not done their howl that often, but each howl took an enormous chunk of the Professional’s mind vitals. They had never experienced it dropping to zero before, thankfully, but they now knew from Cowen that “bad” things happened if you dropped to zero and lost yourself.

Of course, as if to counter Jonas’ previous experience, the wolves howled in concert immediately again, slicing another 168 mind total from the team. Alton, in particular, became quite vulnerable, with barely 80 mind left. But the wolves now had no more aether until they regenerated, and the team’s mind vitals would also grow back a bit before any could use that howl.

“Need to kill the rightmost wolf before he can howl again,” Jonas warned.

As one, the three team's damage dealers started using their attacks without sparing their resources. The two Laymen had separated their wolves, bringing each to a side of the cave and ensuring they couldn’t take an opportunistic attack on someone. Like their large claw attack.

Large Grey Wolf claws. 74 damage (66 defence).

Jonathan winced. His Notice Attack skill hadn’t warned him this time, and the defence was still relatively low, absorbing only a little of the damage. Alton, piercing the wolf from behind, noticed and shrugged at him. After all, Jonathan could count on Guss to keep him with high health, despite the claw attacks. The Hospitaler was good at his job.

Laura did a final smashing with both of her hammers and the first wolf expired with a final hiss. Most of the creatures found in the Labyrinth were slavering monsters, including strange ones never seen on Earth, but there was always something when you had a critter than looked like a normal animal dying.

Jonas turned immediately toward the other elite as the three fighters crossed the cave. The advantage of being an Aetherist was quick changes of targets like that, getting him a hit or two before the rest of the team closed the range on their next target.

Flame Bolt (2) does 38 fire damage to Large Grey Wolf (18 aether)

The wolf was already below a thousand health thanks to Ira’s Zweihander attacks, so the assault started from a good position. The only thing worrying Jonas was the howling effects, but although the wolf was close to having enough of its aether back, so was Alton just over the threshold for the attack. With a single wolf capable of howling… they were safer now. And Ira could take the load of the wolf’s clawing and bites.

Large Grey Wolf×2: 2546XP/6 contributors = 424XP.

“It’s still touch-and-go with those attacks,” Jonas noted after the wolf expired without howling.

“They were lower level the first time,” Ira reminded him.

Grey Sandals

Feet

Common equipment

Requires: Level 39

Provides: 4 defence rating, +6 WIS

“Guss? Interested?” Laura asked after fishing the pair of grey fur sandals from the leather-covered trunk next to the cave’s rear exit. Unlike the usual version, those looked sturdier, as if they were made of thick leather rather than the burlap versions the team usually found for those using primarily aether Professions.

“Lose some aether from INT, gains a lot more WIS. Sure, I’ll take them,” Fullmore replied.

Jonas gestured toward the deeper tunnels.

“One more wolf guardian, and then it’s the elder.”

The final cave of the wolf’s lair was open to the sky. In the afternoon, that left plenty of light, but also plenty of shadows to the sides. So, as the team got to the cave’s entrance, Jonas wasn’t surprised that no wolf seemed to be there. But he knew there had to be one. Hopefully, only one; the reference booklet said there had been only one when the explorers had checked and they had had the same experience back nearly six weeks ago on their only foray.

Ira entered slowly, carefully checking all sides and waiting for the final lair guardian to show itself.

“Nothing so far… come on, don’t be shy wolfie…”

Ira reached the centre of the cave and slowly turned, checking all directions for any sign in the shadows, but nothing moved.

“Do final guardians go missing?” he asked.

“No idea. They shouldn’t; the only mention of missing lair guardians in that book is for some lone outdoor guardians. It should be lurking around somewhere,” Jonas mused.

A tense minute passed, until Ira unexpectedly gave a huge shout, trying to provoke the guardian. But the only ones startled were Jonas and the rest of the team.

“So?”

“I think we may need to move in. I don’t think it’s going to show up,” Jonas concluded.

“Last time, it was lounging on the sun’s rays. Why not this time?”

“Don’t know. Ok, let’s follow Jonathan.”

They got inside and started to cross the outdoor cave.

Nothing happened until they were halfway to Ira’s centre position. The only warning came from Jonathan’s whose Notice Attack triggered unexpectedly. He let out a shout as a shadow moved from the side.

Grey Shadow Alpha aether slash hits for 110 damage across five persons, one hit avoided.

“Bollocks! It’s on us already!”

Grey Shadow Alpha

Level 39 elder

Health: 1852

Mind: 738

Endurance: 896

Aether: 1078

“Spread out! Spread out! It’s not the same wolf!”

Ira sprinted, closing toward the wolf as Jonathan swung his two swords, trying to connect. The person avoiding the attack had been Laura, but Jonas had lost nearly a quarter of his health in a single attack. And judging by the size of the aether pool, the wolf-shaped monster had more attacks in reserve.

Jonas backpedalled toward the cave’s side. The wolf, however, tried to follow Guss to the entrance, ignoring the Layman’s sword slashes. It took Laura’s hammers colliding with its tail to elicit a howl and the wolf turned.

Grey Shadow Alpha howls. -97 mind, -3 all Potentials.

“Ira, Jonathan, time to get this furball off me now!” Laura said as she moved backwards, to see if the wolf was fully distracted from the team’s healer.

Now that the main threat was engaged properly, Jonas could have a better look at the final lair guardian. Unlike their first foray, this wolf had the “shadow” mention and indeed, the wolf seemed to be still in shadow despite being in full exposure from the open cave ceiling.

“The dratted thing has a defence rating? What the bull?” Laura swore.

Ira swung his big Zweihander, trying to catch the wolf’s ire, and confirmed the notice.

Black Iron Zweihander does 23 damage to Grey Shadow Alpha (78 defence rating).

“Ouch, that thing absorbs almost a quarter of my sword’s slashes,” he informed the team.

Flame Bolt (2) does 47 increased fire damage to Grey Shadow Alpha

“My attacks do some extra damage,” Jonas said. Then he saw the wolf start to turn toward him and pulled out his finger, stopping the next attack. His Flame Bolts might do serious damage compared to the melee fighters, but he sure could not afford to take those slashing attacks. He had the lowest health total of the entire team.

Both Ira and Jonathan positioned themselves in front of the wolf as Laura and Alton moved behind. Jonas waited a bit more before risking another bolt. The wolf howled again in response but did not move against him.

Once passed the threshold of the positioning, the fight actually moved uneventfully. The wolf, despite its shadowy disposition, did not use any other surprises beyond the common howl, bites and the aether slashing attack which only affected Ira and Jonathan from the proper position. Once he had dropped below half health, Jonas started to relax and throw more regular bolts.

Grey Shadow Alpha: 2067XP/6 contributors = 344XP.

“And it’s done.”

“Thankfully, we did not have to fight that shadow thing last time.”

“If we had, instead of the Grey Cave Alpha, we’d probably have run,” Jonas admitted. He then pulled the notebook and a self-refilling quill and started writing.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking notes. The Archives are going to like the fact that this lair has different variant fights,” Jonas replied.

“Even if nobody but us comes here?” Ira asked, incredulous.

“Even. They like their information, even the near-useless one.”

“Aaaand… I win this time,” Laura announced after finding the small iron-bound box next to a wall.

Grey Shadow Mace

One-Handed

Exceptional equipment

Requires: Level 39

Provides: 14 shadow damage (+17% STR), STR+5, DEX+4, PRE+2

“Whoa. That’s a hammer!” Guss said.

“Huge Strength-based percentage,” she confirmed, twirling the mace. She put the Blue Iron Hammer she’d been using in her bag, and made crossing motions with her two hammers.

“Hey, be careful. That’s no blade, that’s bigger,” Jonathan yelled.

“Don’t worry. It’s not as if a Professional would drop that by accident.”

They crossed back the stream separating the wolf cave’s side from the small valley of the Plaza.

“It’s bear time!” said Ira.

“It’s also getting late, and we’re not going to make it anyway?” Jonas countered.

“So what? We’re going to camp somewhere anyway, might be getting closer as well,” their main Layman insisted.

“You really are going to be insufferable. Stop slacking and get your 62 like us first,” Jonas replied.

The rest of the team laughed at the exchange. Even Jonathan.

Jonathan Bennett Gilbert

Health: 817/817 (718)

Mind: 516/516 (462)

Endurance: 521/521 (446)

Aether: 534/534

Effective level: 62

Level 32 Layman

Level 30 Watcher

Experience: 28367/53333

Strength: 29 (25)

Dexterity: 31

Agility: 33 (30)

Constitution: 37

Stamina: 26

Wisdom: 27

Focus: 37 (36)

Presence: 26

Fortitude: 24

Intellect: 29

Defence Rating: 70

20% faster levelling

10% team defence

10% armour

Milestones: Adjustment IV, Watcher II, Layman II

Skills: Notice Attack (1), Brace (1), Cross (1), Turn Blade (1), Gauge Enemy (0)

Equipment: Reinforced Iron Band (29hp/25end), Frog-Skin Ribbed Tunic (4STR), Refined Ringmail Gauntlets (18mind), Adjusted Leather Belt (1AGI/12end), Blue Iron Ringmail Legwarmers (39hp/38end/36mind), Sturdy Ringmail Sollerets (18hp), Serrated Bronze Sword (1FOC/13hp), Small Curved Sword (2AGI)