Chapter 38, Mindful of gaze and foreigner

Sitting down on the first step on the stairwell, hearing the double doors close behind me with a soft bang, I study the addition of more decorations of engraved softly glowing, emerald vines now snaking through the upper corners of the walls in the stairwell. Just spending a few minutes thinking hard I try to put a coherent picture together of what I want before speaking up to Ari.

“Ari dear, I think I might have an idea on how we could evolve our fighting style. I’m not sure how efficient it will be with our current vessel but it should still be doable.”

“Oh? Let’s hear it.”

“Getting thoroughly crushed by the floor guardian against the wall had me thinking about how overwhelming force is a weapon in of itself. The pangolin matriarch used nothing other than its body to cause massive damage. Why can’t we do the same?”

“You don’t want to create another melee weapon?”

Ari sounds a bit confused but also intrigued.

“I’m sure we could dream up some amazing melee weapon if we put our minds to it but should we really? There might be more to gain by simply fighting unarmed than with daggers at this point.”

“Hm. We could punch and kick things to death, I suppose, but why? Won’t that be a lot more difficult when going up against the monsters closer to our own level?”

“Not necessarily. I think there’s more we can do with telekinesis to help with that. We’re now using it to move an external module but we could do a lot more with it. How about adding telekinetic force into our punches and kicks? It’s a simple solution with the only downside being that our body has to be strong enough to not simply break against our opponents.”

“And that won’t really happen before we remake our vessel from the ground up with better, stronger and more efficient mana structures.”

“Exactly. But our body should still be able to cope until we gain our next class. There’s also another reason why I think this might be the way forward for us.”

Ari’s less confused now but twice as intrigued.

“Spill.”

“Celestial flames. I remembered your half-joking image you projected of us tearing through hordes with bare hands while slinging flames all around us. Couldn’t that be a great use of our mana to quickly take out large amounts of enemies?”

There’s a few moments of silence as Ari considers it. I can tell that she isn’t opposed to the idea but I’m not sure if she’s got a better suggestion. Finally she answers.

“It’s worth a shot at least. It would surely be an efficient way to level both [Arcane Manipulation] and [Basic Arcane Telekinesis] if nothing else. I’m not sure how efficient our celestial flames will be against these scaled and armored enemies but we’ll surely figure it out as we go deeper.”

I jump to my feet, lowering myself into a dramatic fighting pose before punching out at invisible foes. It’s such a basic way of fighting but there’s also so much freedom in it. I jab with my right hand as I manifest a flame in my left, throwing it at the wall in front of me in a small explosion of golden flames. The flames stick to the wall and spread outwards as I continue feeding it mana, soon setting the whole stone wall on fire and draining my reserves quickly.

The 11th floor is even wider in dimensions than the previous ones and I pick two stalks of Farilograss growing in some moss in a corner while I check it out. Except for more glowing engravings of plant monsters there’s not much of an aesthetic difference. The ground might be a little more uneven but I’m not entirely sure.

There’s two corridors going out from this chamber and I pick the one on the right before going through it, tripping on a piece of ground which raised itself to block my foot and falling face first into the trap. It’s another pit trap and I break through the thin layer of stone pretending to be a stable ground before heading straight downwards towards 3 meter tall spikes 5 meters below me.

Not feeling ready yet to use telekinesis on my body to break my fall, I scramble for anything else that might work, finally getting hit with the most obvious answer and feeling like an idiot for not even considering it before now. I move my ring blade beneath me and use it as a platform, slowing my descent sharply before stopping a few decimeters above the sharp wooden tips. The mana drain for keeping myself afloat and breaking my fall isn’t as bad as I’d thought it might be.

It’s still too much for my regeneration though and I dip briefly into my capacitor before slowly lifting myself upwards again and depositing my body on the other side of the trap. The ring blade wasn’t the most ideal place to land as I’d cut my arms and thighs on the sharp edges but it was a lot better than getting skewered by 5 or 6 wooden spikes.

“Why have we never tried using the ring blade to fly? It seems like such an obvious thing to do.”

“We were probably too fixated on getting good enough with telekinesis to use it on our body to think of other solutions.”

“I guess that’s true, Ari. I’m still convinced that using it directly on ourselves will be the best way to go about it but I should have considered other options in the meantime for emergencies.”

Lying on my back and thinking I spin the ring blade above me, mentally going through how to mount it if I ever need to break a fall in an emergency like this again. I suppose standing on it would be the most logical solution to not getting cut. I have no idea how easy that would be when trying to keep my balance but it might work in a pinch.

The first enemy of this floor is another green plant monster further ahead in the wide corridor, sticking to the ceiling unmoving until I’m 5 meters away and its thorny vines try to grab me. I grab one of the thorny vines, ignoring the pain as I pull with everything I've got, not even budging it. The other vines smack against me, slicing bloody groves into my skin and I gnash my teeth in annoyance.

Applying telekinetic force to the vine itself in the same direction I’m pulling finally has some effect as the vine simply snaps in half instead of tearing the plant out by the roots. I let my ring blade loose as it soars forwards, easily dispatching it.

Ding! You have slain [Thousand Prickle Plant - Level 105]. Less experience awarded.

“Well, that was a pathetic display.”

I swat playfully at the giggling Ari. She’s not wrong though.

I can always try flinging some fire at it but I want to figure out a good way of using telekinetic force to finish these things off before complicating things further. There’s surely a lot of different ways I could go about this but using telekinesis to directly amplify my own punches and kicks seems the most obvious. Why not do the same when pulling on a vine?

I come upon another plant monster and try implementing my plan as the thorny vines latch onto me, grabbing two different vines and focusing through the pain on the action of applying telekinetic force uniformly across all the mana structures making up my fists.

Pulling hard with mana enhanced muscles and supportive telekinesis I manage to tear the plant from the wall, making it thud to the ground as it angrily flails its thorny vines all around while hissing like an angry cat. I get caught by a few of them but ignore the pain as I rush towards the plant, punching it straight in the bulbous center with a right cross. I try adding telekinetic force to my fist at the moment of impact, splattering the plant and instantly killing it.

Pop!

Ding! You have slain [Thousand Prickle Plant - Level 109]. Less experience awarded.

“Ouch!”

I’d dislocated my shoulder when the added telekinetic force suddenly pulled my arm forwards. I use telekinesis to push at the shoulder joint, expending a few hundred mana to forcefully pop it back into place and nearly stumbling over to the side.

“Fuck. This is hard. It’s one thing to pull a creature apart as I don’t have to be overly specific with the amount of power used. As long as it’s torn apart I’ve succeeded. This is much more difficult as we’d guessed.”

“You’ll just have to practice, Zel. If you get good enough at using it we should be able to learn how to fly. Use that as motivation.”

My chest fills with determination at Ari’s reminder. That’s right! I’ll master this new fighting technique before we leave this dungeon. Just you wait, Ari.

I get to tear down a few more plant monsters, getting a little better at doing it before finding another Farilograss stalk along the corridor. Not long after the first chamber of the 11th floor opens up in front of us.

“Why is it so large?”

Ari sends me a shrug.

Ari and I study the 50 meters wide, 70 meters long and 6 meters tall chamber. The moss is a lot thicker in here and there’s more moss coverage than visible stone. The flickering lanterns in the ceiling hang from slightly longer chains, reaching a meter in length, and their poor glow would make counting the monsters in here difficult without bringing a lightsource.

There’s over 30 monsters in here and they’re a lot bigger than the previous floor’s creatures. I let my identification run wild, trying to get each new variety before they can rush us as I lower myself into a ready stance.

[Six Legged Bonehead Lizard - Level 115]

[Pangolin Grizzly - Level 122]

[Blooming Gaze Goater - Level 126]

The lizard variant looks about the same as their climber cousins but are now 2 meters in length instead of 1.5. They also have six legs with the suckers on them and they seem to be making use of the added legs for increased speed when climbing on walls and the ceiling.

The Pangolin Grizzly is some sort of hybrid between a grizzly bear and a pangolin. It’s got the scales and head of a pangolin but the body of a bear, no tail and no real way of rolling into a ball. It still looks ferocious though as the teeth neither fit on a bear or a pangolin. They’re more like the teeth found on the razor rats, several rows of them and all that. Its claws are also unnaturally large and I’m sure no normal grizzly stands at a shoulder height of 3.5 meters.

The Blooming Petal Goater is the ugliest creature I’ve seen in the dungeon so far. Or maybe the ugliest creature I’ve seen, period. It has the body of a goat with a height of 1.8 meters, splotchy and dirt colored scales covering every surface except for its feet and head. The feet look all too human and they’re bare skin as if plucked from a dead adventurer and reattached to this monstrosity. The head lacks scales as there is no head.

Instead of a head the goater has a mass of wriggling, thorny tongues, dripping saliva everywhere. They unfurl like a blooming flower, showcasing the lone, sinew-suspended, glowing crimson eye further down its throat. The eye vibrates slightly as it screams in a deafening volume, tongues spasming like they’ve got an electric current running through them.

There’s also a few plant monsters hidden around the room but I don’t really care about them as I’m too preoccupied with preparing myself to slaughter these horrific dungeon creations. The architect of this dungeon must be quite insane to dream up something like that and find it good enough to challenge adventurers with.

I send my ring blade forwards as they rush towards me, lizards on the walls and ceiling with the other large monstrosities on the floor. The ring blade cuts through a gaze goater without issue, continuing through another two of them as I prepare to punch the lizards leaping from above.

I warm up by just fighting with my normal enhancements as I punch a lizard in the skull, cracking it but not smashing straight through as I’d been able to do at the higher floors. Killing another one with a roundhouse kick, splattering its brains across the walls, I'm faced with the realization that the steel-toed boots have a large impact on the effectiveness of my kicks.

I could probably implement some sort of punching glove but that feels wrong. I’m not going the same route as Howard, using his physical strength to smash everything apart. I’m going to use overwhelming magical power to accomplish the same while not needing any cumbersome armor.

Throwing an uppercut at another lizard and cracking its neck I dodge to my right in time to avoid an enormous paw swipe from one of the pangolin grizzlies. This is a better target to practice with as it looks quite sturdy. I duck under another swipe from it as I move forwards, lowering myself further before punching it hard in the neck. My punch draws a whine from the monster but nothing else and the scales barely seem damaged, merely a few cracks covering a small area.

Jumping back and avoiding the sharp teeth I dash to the side of the beast and prepare to punch once more, this time with added telekinetic force. As my fist hits its side I make sure my arm isn’t fully extended as the 1000 points of mana I’d spent flows through the arcane mana structures conjured by my skill, converting into telekinetic force.

Bam!

My fist slams into the monster's side hard enough to lift it off its feet and throw it a couple of meters sideways, scales cracked in a small radius where my fist hit, blood leaking out between them as they’d pierced the flesh beneath. I kick another lizard out of the air before returning to my prey, ring blade still singing through the mob of monsters approaching me, keeping most of them distracted.

The pangolin grizzly isn’t dead, merely hurt and furious but I’d still managed to cause some damage without really hurting myself. I’d felt some pain when my fist had connected and my elbow almost popped from the sudden strain but it had worked. Rushing towards it I meet the paw swipe with a kick, sending it off course before dodging a lunging bite from the maw. Lowering myself below the maw to its side I throw an uppercut into its throat, pushing even more mana into manifesting telekinetic force.

My fist goes straight through the scales and neck muscles and I find myself stuck with a once again dislocated shoulder, swaying painfully back and forwards as the pangolin grizzly stands on its hind legs, letting out a gurgling bellow, warm blood flowing past my arm. I’d managed to get through the scales, getting a little banged up in the process but the damage was minimal at best. I’d arguably gotten myself into a bad situation for little payoff.

I use more telekinesis to pull my arm out of the contracting and constricting throat muscles just in time to fall beneath the swipe of another paw and land in a crouch beneath it. Rolling out from under the descending mass of the monster I stand up before popping my shoulder back into place. I’m taken by surprise as my eyes land on a gaze goater standing just in front of me, its thorn-covered, fleshy tongues blooming like a flower and revealing the eye within.

The red, square-pupilled eye flashes and I look curiously at it, absently noting that the shuddering and spasming unfurled tongues close in on me from all sides as it screams pleasantly. The tongues curl around me and I’m comforted by the feeling of the teeth and thorns grabbing a firm hold of me, I don’t want to come loose after all. It would be a real shame if something came between me and my rest.

Rest?

I’m supposed to be resting, aren’t I? Of course I am, how could I have forgotten? Hm? What’s that noise?

“ZEL!!!”

Ding! You have gained resistance [Mind Magic Resistance].

Ding! Resistance [Mind Magic Resistance] has increased from [1] to [2].

With a jolt of pain I come back to my senses, my face mere centimeters away from the glowing red eye as my body is getting shredded by the tongues grinding me down into a paste for easy consumption. With renewed mental clarity and a thrill of horror I focus vaguely on everything around me as I push out as much telekinetic force as I can through everything.

Everything blasts apart, torn tongues launched through the air and the throat housing the eye torn into many uneven chunks as I fall to the gore covered floor with barely any flesh left on my bones. It’s a miracle that my eyes are still functioning as I’m mostly just bone and tattered flesh at the moment, the rest of my body being saliva covered mush all around me.

I don’t have much time but still send Ari a brief thought of thanks. It was her mentally screaming in my proverbial ear that had finally woken me up from whatever cursed mind magic that evil eye had put me under. I’d never thought that such an ugly monster would be a mind mage but looks can be deceiving. Ari starts regenerating our body and I quickly check our available reserves, the stunt I’d just pulled can’t have been cheap as I probably wasted 80% of the power in my desperation to kill it.

Mana: [6520 / 6520]

Capacitor: [8,842 / 21,907]

Mana regen: [3120] / Minute

I still have a third of my reserves it seems but I’m unsure if it will be enough as my barely finished regenerating body gets smashed into the ground, breaking and shattering bones by the sheer force of the enormous paw. I hadn’t reacted in time and a pangolin grizzly got to me before I even registered it. I must still be a little out of it.

Urging Ari to use as much mana as needed to quickly restore us, I look for my ring blade, finding it a second later stuck in the side of a dead lizard. I must have completely lost focus when under the mind magic, just dropping the ring blade. Furious at the turn of events I use telekinesis to quickly pull it towards my prone form, slicing the head off the pangolin grizzly lowering its open maw to take a bite of my cracked and broken body.

Lizards, goaters and pangolin grizzlies continue rushing at me but I furiously dismember them as my body knits itself back together, flesh regrowing and bones mending. Finally able to stand, I jump to my feet and spot the last two unscathed monsters who’d not yet died, coming straight at me.

I send the ring blade to slice apart the lizard as I launch myself at the last [Blooming Gaze Goater - Level 128], fury burning in my eyes at the ugly thing. It unfurls the disgusting tongues and I dash to the left of it, avoiding the front and the glowing eye as I enhance my right arm, punching straight into its side.

I don’t add the telekinetic force to my fist like previously but instead use it to amplify the kinetic mana transfered from my fist into the monster with the punch, spreading it out to go both wider and deeper into the flesh of the creature, partially ignoring the tough, scaly exterior. I push my last remaining 5000 mana into the attack and the result is better than I could have hoped or predicted.

Time seems to slow as I watch a ripple spread out from the impact of my fist, visibly straining the integrity of the scales before they’re just gone. Blood, fibers of flesh, pulverized bone, intestines and only partially intact scales burst out from the other side of the goater, coating the wall 20 meters away in gore as a bloody mist seems to hang in the air. The front leg and head as well as the hindquarters flop uselessly to the ground, entirely disconnected from each other.

I stare at my fist, the two monster parts and the gruesome splatter of pulverized innards coating the wall, ceiling and floor like paint with both shock and exhilaration. What the fuck had I just done?

I blink slowly while looking around at the carnage as my ring blade zooms back to me before gracefully settling itself to hover behind me. I almost absently increase the spin of it to throw off the blood covering it as my mind tries to grasp what I’d done. I’d not amplified the telekinetic force of my fist but the force behind the blow itself? Or does that even make sense?

“Whaaaat? That was amazing! What a comeback, you sure showed the goaters why they shouldn’t mess with us!”

Ari’s energetic and incredulos voice draws me back to reality and I chuckle weakly before suddenly bursting out in a crazed fit of laughter, not managing to contain my chaotic mess of feelings. Falling onto my back in the gore and blood I lay there laughing, Ari chortling in both amusement and confusion at my wildly fluctuating mood.

“Zel, dear. Are you alright?”

Ari asks as my laughter slowly dies down, sounding a tiny bit concerned. I try mustering some sort of control and forcibly clamp down on my rampant emotions, stifling the last laughs into barely more than giggles before answering.

“I think so, darling. Don’t worry. I’m not sure what got into me but my own shock, anger, relief, exhilaration, happiness and amusement with your comment must have combined into whatever that was. I feel fine now though, don’t worry.”

Ari sends me calming waves of love and I bask in it to regain the last of my temporarily vacant faculties but don’t manage to get more than a few peaceful moments before a male voice from the corridor leading further ahead draws my attention, putting me back into fight or flight mode.

“Yooo. What the fuck??? Is that chick nuts or something?”

Jumping to my feet, ring blade spinning into a blur behind my back, I raise my fists in front of me and take in the threat before realizing my mistake. I’d acted before even registering the voice for what it was, preparing to battle another monster.

“Idiot! Can’t you see the state of her? Apologize!”

The next voice is feminine and smooth and I focused in on the source, an elven rogue in black, tight fitted leathers matching her dark skin, eyes and hair. She looks at a young human male with a shortsword, gray hair and green eyes clad in leather and chainmail of good quality.

“Hm. Yeah, I’m sorry. That was rather rude.”

Feeling my adrenaline leave me I slow down the spin of the ring blade and lower my fists, standing straight as I meet the gaze of the rogue turning to look back at me. I can feel her identifying me and I reciprocate, identifying the man as well.

[Rogue - Level ?]

[Warrior - Level ?]

So they’re at least at level 240, maybe much higher. I sure hope they’re friendly and not only pretending to lower my guard. One can never be sure as there’s rarely witnesses in a dungeon when going towards the lower floors. The evidence of any murder gets wiped clean by the dungeon consuming it fairly quickly after all. The perfect spot for those looking to commit a crime.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for asking though.”

I answer the rogue and she raises a skeptical eyebrow at me, clearly not sure whether to believe me or not. If they saw me lying naked in gore laughing like a lunatic they have good reason to question the state I’m in. The rogue, trailed by the warrior, slowly approaches as she continues speaking, stopping when they’re 10 meters away.

“I’m Xenira and this idiot here is Annos. Are you sure you don’t need help? You look a little…”

She’s clearly having a difficult time putting my current appearance into words without sounding offensive. I chuckle slightly before answering.

“Yeah, no. I’m fine. Name's Zelaria. Are you heading up from the lower floors?”

They exchange a glance before Annos nods and speaks up.

“Yes. We’ve been here for a while now and it’s time to get going. How about you? Are you… finished here? Need help getting back up to the surface?”

“No, seriously. I’m fine. Thank you for the offer though.”

They don’t seem to believe me and I decide to clean up to show them that I’m not lying. Ari gladly accepts the task of running the mist over my body, getting the gore out from every nook and cranny as the two adventurers look at me in surprise and confusion. As the last of the blood is combed out of my hair I manifest all my clothes back before styling my hair.

Sensing my daggers lying a ways away I grab them with telekinesis, pulling them quickly towards me and inadvertently startling the adventurers as I catch them and hang them on my new belt. I’m completely freshened up after barely 15 seconds and my impressive display seems to convince them that I’m actually alright.

“Most impressive. Arcane is a very rare affinity and I’ve never seen it used like this before. A very unique way of using a mage class, that’s for sure.”

Xenira sounds very impressed but Annos looks confused.

“Arcane? What’s arcane?”

“Her affinity, stupid.”

“Yeah, but what is it? I’ve never heard of it before.”

I look curiously at Xenira as she massages her temples, clearly frustrated by him not knowing this obscure piece of knowledge. I can’t fault him though as nobody I’d ever asked had any real idea.

“There was one dark elf in the capital I grew up in no more than 150 years older than me who had an arcane affinity. He got an arcane mage class during his class evolution if I heard correctly and he could do all sorts of things with it. It’s a strange affinity, seemingly able to do almost anything but ridiculously hard to use. Or at least that’s how I understood it. I’m no expert though.”

“Dark elf? Is that what these dark skinned elves are known as?”

“Seems likely, never heard of them before but we did meet one looking like her in the Rhodolite region.”

Curious, I can't help but ask.

“Dark elves, is that how you classify your race? Or was this arcane mage somehow different?”

“You’ve never heard of dark elves before?”

She sounds slightly affronted but still answers.

“Yes, I’m a dark elf. We’re not as prominent in this region, that’s true but I’d thought an adventurer at your level should have met some of us.”

“I have. Just one though. Where do your people hail from?”

“The far south of the continent. I don’t suppose telling you anything more specific would be helpful though. I can’t imagine you knowing anything about the regions and territories I hail from.”

I still want to know as this is good information if I ever want to visit a region of dark elves. They at least seem to have one arcane mage and maybe there’s more information on the affinity there if I ever get curious.

“Please, at least give me the name of the region. I don’t know of many kingdoms or empires outside of the Riverflow kingdom but I plan on traveling the world and exploring all sorts of places.”

Giving me a skeptical glance she sighs and answers.

“I seriously doubt you will ever travel that far but sure, why not. I’m from the Eráliose Empire. It’s at least 6000 kilometers south of here, probably more, and it took me many years to get here. I didn’t rush here though as there were plenty of adventures on the way.”

That’s indeed quite the distance. I’m not even sure how to appreciate a distance that large but it would surely take a long time to get there by running.

“Since she doesn’t need any help, we should get going.”

Annos speaks up and Xenira nods in affirmation. Deciding to give something back I speak up.

“Thank you for answering my questions. If you’re looking for more adventures I’m sure you’ll find excitement in the west of the kingdom. An invasion of mushroom people has begun and the experience is good.”

“Mushroom people?”

Both of them ask in unison and I smile and nod. Leaving it to them to find out more if they want further information. The invasion should become public knowledge before they reach the capital and then they’ll know for sure.

“Bye!”

I cheerfully wave at them before strolling down the corridor they’d come up from, getting a muttered goodbye in return as they stare after me. As I pass a bend in the corridor, getting out of their line of sight I settle down against the wall and wait.

“What are we doing, Zel?”

“I don’t think they have hostile intentions but I’d rather not get snuck up on from behind when fighting if I misjudged them. Taking a small break here is a better alternative.”

“A little paranoid but probably prudent. Should we check our notifications?”

“Let’s.”

Ding! You have slain [Large Dusk Thorn - Level 50]. Less experience awarded.

…

Ding! You have slain [Blooming Petal Goater - Level 128]. Less experience awarded.

Ding! [Mana Machine v. 2.3] has leveled from [188] to [189]. +[10 AP].

Ding! General skill [Identify] has leveled from [50] to [54].

Ding! General skill [Aerial Acrobatics] has leveled from [73] to [76].

Ding! General skill [Running] has leveled from [108] to [113].

Ding! General skill [Sprinting] has leveled from [112] to [119].

Ding! General skill [Jumping] has leveled from [138] to [144].

Ding! General skill [Dodging] has leveled from [221] to [243].

Ding! General skill [Harvesting] has leveled from [11] to [14].

Ding! General skill [Small Blades] has leveled from [174] to [175].

Ding! General skill [Dual Wielding] has leveled from [200] to [209].

Ding! General skill [Unarmed] has leveled from [113] to [137].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Spatial Ring] has leveled from [116] to [125].

Ding! General skill [Basic Arcane Telekinesis] has leveled from [195] to [226].

Ding! Skill [Sensors] has leveled from [255] to [278].

Ding! Skill [Passive Power] has leveled from [529] to [539].

Ding! Skill [Arcane Manipulation] has leveled from [557] to [581].

Ding! Skill [Capacitor] has leveled from [336] to [343].

Ding! Skill [External Modules] has leveled from [226] to [243].

Ding! Skill [Power Profiler] has leveled from [64] to [81].