The three hour time from Voker was starting to make sense. Obviously, Kaldalis and crew had sprinted through the dungeon at top speed, ignoring any potential hidden secrets or alternate routes, which would have slowed them down if they were picking their way through carefully. Additionally, having Courbois and one extra damage dealer meant they chewed through the fights faster and safer.

But the real time loss they’d suffered was apparent now.

When someone died in a dungeon, they couldn’t respawn until the current fight was over - one way or the other. If Voker was getting swallowed by monsters, that meant that the enemies couldn’t attack him directly, and he would instead suffer the slow DoT of digestion that Kaldalis had seen from the nautilobster queen.

With a tank armor value and hit point pool, it would be a long and agonizing process to die and finish the wipe. One or two wipes could account for nearly half an hour of extra time, especially considering that Voker’s party didn’t have an extra tank to give them a fighting chance.

Having figured out the mystery was small comfort as Kaldalis was being dragged towards the mouth of a giant bug, with a couple of glowing red explosive bubbles gently floating down towards him.

Although…

Kaldalis stopped stabbing the monster’s claw and reached up with one hand. The nearest of the big red bubbles was drifting just past him, and he had to stretch to reach. He feared it would explode at his touch, but the thick layer of goo that made up the surface didn’t break. It felt just like it looked: soapy and sticky at the same time. He wouldn’t call his hold on it a “grip” but he definitely had control over the bubble.

And as the wet opening of the bug’s mouth approached, he flicked the bubble in.

From where it landed in the darkness within the monster’s maw, Kaldalis should have been outside the radius of the blast. But the creature’s body funneled the flames out of its mouth in a jet, dealing over four hundred damage to him again. The beast bucked and shuddered, clearly not unscathed by the blast this time. Its thrashing in pain flung Kaldalis out of its grip and away, relieving him of the danger of being swallowed again.

“I guess I was wrong,” Courbois called over to him as the boss staggered for a moment before lurching after Kaldalis. “Getting grabbed and almost eaten was the strategy after all.”

“Coulda used a good one-liner,” Balrim said as he tossed Kaldalis another potion.

“I was gonna do the line from ‘The Faculty’,” Kaldalis said, scrambling to his feet before the monster closed the distance to him again. “But that one is too cheesy even for me.”

The crab-beetle closed the distance, but not as fast as it had been before. Kaldalis could see that Myrin had carved two of its legs entirely off on the right side, and along with the smoke still leaking out of its mouth, it looked like it didn’t have long left. Thanks to Myrin’s blade, it was literally on its last legs.

As it weakened, it shed more and more of the glowing red bubbles. In its last moments, there was no pause to the stream of bombs. They only exploded when their surfaces were ruptured, though, and so all Kaldalis had to do was keep the boss pointed away from where the bubbles collected, and then move back away from the bubble-covered area when he could no longer position safely.

Generous use of Kaia’s Flicker whenever he seemed like he was going to fail to dodge kept Kaldalis from being grabbed and swallowed, and within a couple of minutes, their overwhelming damage output dropped the monster.

It was called a Spinifron Lucanid, which was way more of a mouthful than Crab-Beetle. Its death, however, rewarded Kaldalis with the last chunk of exp he needed to reach level fourteen.

“Ding,” he said, sagging down to one knee. Compared to the previous fights - even the trash - this had been a workout.

“Grats,” Balrim said, tossing him another potion. “We gotta keep moving, though. Clock is ticking until we hit the exit.”

Kaldalis nodded, grumbling as he struggled to his feet. Something on his UI next to his character menu was flickering for his attention, but Balrim was right. They hadn’t gotten the notification of their time until they’d exited the dungeon. He wasn’t sure if beating the boss had locked the time in or if it hadn’t counted until they were out.

But they couldn’t afford to dick around.

If they spent two hours exploring the city and seeing the sights, they wouldn’t even beat Voker’s time.

“We get the tablet, and we get out,” Kaldalis said, starting towards the fortress-like building. “As fast as we can.”

“You go ahead and find it,” Reno said, gesturing towards the statue, where a loot chest had appeared. “We’ll sort this out, since you and Courbois are so uninterested in dungeon loot.”

Kaldalis discarded his caution as he led the way towards the fortresslike building. With the final boss down, there wouldn’t be more foes. It would be a clear path to the tablet, and then to the exit.

Despite that certainty, once he entered the building, he started to doubt.

The interior of the building made it clear that this was no library or place of learning. This building resembled nothing as much as the barracks from town scaled up. The entry room was full of racks of rusty weapons, many of which were corroded down to nothing. There were pitted spearpoints scattered on the ground, fragments of steel that had once been swords, and bits of treated string that had endured where the bows had not.

Unusually, there were two pieces of metal that were recognizably battleaxe heads, despite axes not being a weapon category in this game.

As Kaldalis poked through the building, he found other signs that these were barracks. There was a room with what looked like storage racks for clothing and armor - all rotted or rusted away. The actual barracks themselves still had the remains of beds lined up against one wall, and cracked and crumbling lockers against the other. At the end of that room was a stairwell leading up to the next floor.

The second floor was a replica of the first, though it was slightly less decayed, which showed him that the room with the racks was something of a training room, with frayed straw mats set into the floor for padding. On this floor, the stairs were in the back of the outfitting room, and led up to the final floor. By the time he got there, the rest of the party was starting to catch up, with Courbois in the lead, the DPS shortly behind, and Balrim bringing up the rear.

“Nothing yet,” he said, leading them upstairs to the final floor, “but I’ve got a good feeling about this dramatically-anticipated final floor.”

“Good thinking,” Reno said, scratching her chin. “And here I was gonna suggest we head back outside and get the shovels.”

The upper floor was different from the previous two. It looked a bit more like what he’d expected after the end of the first dungeon. There were shelves and desks here like it was either an office or a study area, but it hadn’t enjoyed whatever mystical power had preserved the library. He could also see dried husks of book covers and piles of dried kindling that had perhaps once been chairs.

And in the center of the third floor, they found the tablet chamber.

Just like the one at the bottom of the other dungeon, this one contained the tablets, whole and intact.

Also just like the one at the bottom of the other dungeon, this one contained a robe-clad skeleton.

“This is important,” Balrim said, kneeling down and examining the bones. “This means something.”

“But what?” Kaldalis asked, peering over his shoulder, trying to figure out what the Talsar was seeing.

“They did something,” Balrim said, pointing to the rodent-like Lataxinan skull. “They protected these tablets somehow. Whenever there’s not a skeleton, the tablets are shattered and gone.”

“Faulty logic,” Myrin said, setting her attention on the tablets already. “When someone comes in to smash and steal the tablets, they might clear out the skeleton, too.”

Balrim grumbled, but had nothing else to say.

The group took turns watching the tablets turn from Lataxinan language to English, and then reading over the story to learn the power contained within. The trio of DPS went first, followed by Balrim, Courbois, and finally Kaldalis taking up the rear while his friends made their way out to look for the exit.

This story apparently predated Kaia’s story, as this power didn’t come from research, but from chance, and described his canonization at a young age earned by the event of the technique’s creation rather than a campaign.

The canonized individual was a man named Nyxlas, who was a soldier in the Lataxinan reserve forces. When the island came under attack - by a foe so familiar and historically obvious that the tablet didn’t mention their name - Nyxlas and his unit were on a training exercise. They had to get word back to the city so that their defenses could be mustered.

He didn’t know how on the day it happened, but Nyxlas channeled the power of the Paths Between Paths through his weapon.

His skill with the spear no longer just let him sail over obstacles.

It practically let him fly.

He didn’t just beat the enemy forces on the way to the city, but he beat the next fastest member of his unit by nearly an hour.

After the defense of the city, Nyxlas was questioned, and the event studied, and as soon as it was replicated, the technique was absorbed into canon so that it could be taught to and employed by all of the Lataxinan armed forces.

The final panel explained that it was the key to their civilization’s indomitability in armed conflict. No army could outmaneuver them, escape them, or prevent their escape in turn. All thanks to Nyxlas’ Augment.

Would you like to learn Nyxlas’ Augment?