Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice enacted a plan to score a massive amount of points. It didn’t turn out the way he wanted, but he did manage to figure out a way to create enchanted items. He escaped to the tunnels he had made, and directed Eli to make stone walls to stop anyone that followed.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment!

Sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I’ve been working full time for the past few weeks, and it’s been taking toll on my writing. I’ve also had the single hardest time thinking of how to progress the story to the point that I wanted it to go.

The reason I was so bothered by the highest tiered people, was the fact that they didn’t show up. They could have easily exploited the weaknesses I had left in my plans. That was the whole point of the plans!

I was going to see who the most dangerous people were, and set them up to die first. That way I could relax while picking off the others. Fate had other plans though.

None of the highest level people made themselves known to me. So now I was back at square one. I still needed to figure out a way to find them, but now I had to make new plans to do it.

An explosion shook the tunnel I ran through. My smirk came unbidden to my lips. I covered Susan with a bit of air mana to push the small bit of debris away.

Susan looked at me, obviously startled. “What was that!?”

I obviously didn’t tell her much of my plans, loose ends and all that. “I had Drake make sure that the people chasing us won’t be able to get to us. No need to worry.” My smile had instant results. The relaxation was evident on her face.

God she is so easy. Speaking of easy… I was beginning to wonder where EDI had gotten to. None of my fairies reported seeing her, and she wasn’t in the battle just now. She already understood my mind a little, thanks in no small part to EDITOR.

She must be plotting something.

She was ok with killing players, so I couldn’t expect her to just be all pacifistic about me. I needed to think about a full-proof plan against her.

Meanwhile in the estate:

“IT BURNS!”

People were screaming, as flames rose around them. The estate was crumbling at the seams. Flames erupted from the cracks, clawing up the wall.

The estate was sinking into the ground, while excessively heavy rain drowned out the screams of the victims. Molten bubbles of energy spewed as the thick rock of the estate slowly returned to the earth.

The hallways and rooms inside shot flames constantly. Rooms crumbled as bombs went off one after the other. Falling stones blocked most doorways, fiery tempests blocked the rest.

The enormous magma pit that was used to heat the hot spring, had been converted into a lava lake. A lake with the estate at the center. The heat from the lava that was boiling up from the ground, only intensified the flames inside the castle.

Only people close to a fire or water mage were safe. Even then not for long. As the estate slowly sank, the temperature rose dramatically.

People tried fleeing from the windows, only to be stopped by an explosive orb of metal. Even in rooms with fire or water mages, they still had to contend with falling stone and bombs.

Voice’s POV

I was raking in a nice bit of points. People were dying a lot faster than I thought they would have. I gave them too much credit.

My plan had been simple. Eli had helped Drake to get into the magma pit that heated the hot spring. Over the course of the last few days, the pit had grown to a tremendous size. Drake had been gathering a ton of fire mana, of heat, and storing it below the earth’s surface.

At the same time, I had Tear store as much water as possible in a different location. Once the party started, Drake unleashed the fury.

I had instructed Drake to pull all of the fire mana to the surface. Once it got high enough, the ground would become unstable, and the estate would begin to sink. All of the traps in the estate had two triggers.

Heat and force. If it was hot enough, the orbs would explode. If the orbs exploded, they would set of the fire traps within the room. I set off a small line of bombs once I got into the tunnel, just to jump-start the process.

The first objects to get blown up where the doorways and windows. After that the bombs led to essential support beams in the estate. Once both of those were gone, no one would be able to stay alive in there for long.

The reason I was comfortable in using this plan was simple. While Drake raised the fire mana, Tear was collecting water mana. The water mana condensed, and Tear directed it to begin raining. That would keep the forest from catching fire, while not putting out the fire all at once.

Of course that wouldn’t be enough alone. The fire would have broken out in at least one place. That is why I ordered Drake to absorb all fire mana that was going to escape the sphere of control the fairy possessed.

Almost no fire mana would escape him, that was the reason the other group even got to the castle. Drake had to move the fire mana extra slowly.

The fire mana that escaped Drake was quickly dealt with by the heavy rain caused by Tear. It was a great combination of fairy usage, if I do say so myself. Which I do.

I never got a huge chunk of points though. Either the high profile targets escaped, or they were never there to begin with. Either way I missed out on the points.

There was almost no way the people would fall for the same trick twice, too. My workload just doubled in size. And where the hell did that damn kobold go? I wanted to pick him off myself!

Back to me now. Susan and I approached the edge of the tunnel system. SparrowHawk was scouting a large area around the exit tunnel. Of course it was an oblong path. The tunnel wasn’t even the center. That way less people would be likely to figure out the escape path.

After a quick confirmation from SparrowHawk, we exited the tunnel. All of my fairies had returned, except for SparrowHawk. I kept the little bird flying around so I had an extra set of eyes.

I didn’t sense any life mana signatures either. After triple checking that the coast was clear, we ran past the tunnel mouth. I had Eli seal up the tunnel for about ten feet. That way no one would accidently find it.

I had triple checked my escape plan before implementing it. There was a difficult to navigate path that led several hundred feet away from the tunnel.

The only reason it was even remotely usable was that Moro boke down some of the nature mana before hand. After we passed an area, Moro and Sol worked together to repair it.

With our path covered, we headed out. At this point I figured using Susan was basically useless. Over the past few days I had learned that the elder gods had made her invulnerable to all attacks while in this game.

I talked to her before hand about the plan. Just to re-iterate, I went over it again.

“Alright Susan, this is where we have to go our separate ways. Remember if anyone asks you were coerced into doing this. I don’t want your business to suffer because of me.” She sadly nodded her head.

I adopted a more somber look. Like a parent telling their children they can’t go to a theme park. “Come on now. We went over this. Remember? You have to find some new place to set up camp if those other people attack us.

How about this… When we get out of this game, I will take you out on a romantic date. After I find you of course.” Obviously I meant when we got out of DIVE, not the death match. That way I’d never have to cash in on my promise.

She smiled slightly. “That’s alright, but I’d much rather just go out as friends.”

I paused, but only for a moment. “Of course! I was just kidding silly!” I gave her a playful nudge. It had been a while since my advances had been rebuffed. It was not something I was really used to anymore.

If I pushed it though, I’d have to do more work than I was willing to at the moment.

“Alright, I’ll try to meet back up with you. I don’t know if I’ll be able to though.” I gave her a tight hug, which she returned.

I flew off after activating my squirrel ring. I still needed to figure out how to meditate while gliding. If I could do that, then I might be able to get a skill out of it.

After flying for about an hour, obviously with SparrowHawk aiding me with wind mana when I began to drop, I finally found a suitable place to stay.

It was a cavern on the middle of a mountain. It looked as though it had been used, and recently. I decided to kick out the owner, and make it my own.

The cave was actually a system of interlocking chambers and corridors. It looked like it had been mined out centuries ago. After a bit of exploring I head a deep chirp. It sounded like a baby bird, but one that huge, and injured.

I found the source of the noise not long after I heard it. A baby bird, though large in size, lay dying in a nest.

I approached it slowly. Ancestor said there were not any life mana signatures around besides me and the bird. I crept closer to it.

It was dark, so I didn’t have a clear view of it, but it’s body looked wrong somehow. That is the best way I could explain it.

I tried picking the bird up, but it’s astoundingly powerful beak tore off 60 points of my health. Ancestor said that if I lit the place up for a second I’d be able to see its name and level.

I didn’t want to hurt the injured bird, but I did want to see its info. In the end I came to the only viable solution. My curiosity was more important than its health.

I lit the cave up, only for a brief second. My mouth hung from what I had seen. I didn’t even need to look at its info to know what it was.

Nightmare-Wing Level 1

Baby GryphonHealth:23/3000Stamina:0/3000

I had to leave. If there was a baby gryphon here, then the moth-

“KWAA!”

The shrieked reverberated the entire cave system. The cave shook with each step the creature made. Ancestor kept reporting the approximate distance between the Gryphon and me. It was slowly getting closer.

I knew for a fact that I couldn’t kill the mother. For fuck’s sake, the baby had a maximum of 3k hp! My mind was whirling at a million miles an hour, trying desperately to figure a way out of my current situation.

The only thing I could think of to do was to take the baby Gryphon hostage. If I did that though, the mother might attack in a blind rage.

I still had a bit of food left over, but it was all fruits and vegetables. I didn’t know much about lions and birds, but I was pretty sure they were carnivorous.

Still I did the only thing I thought would get me out of the situation. I began to heal the baby Gryphon. If I could prove I was only helping, then maybe the mother Gryphon would let me go.

As soon as my light mana hit the baby Gryphon, I encountered a massive wall of resistance. A dark mana cloud seemed to have coiled around the hatchling.

I took inspect over from Ancestor. I needed to see what this was to be able to undo it. When I looked at the mana signature, a box popped up. The box informed me of the basic info about the mana.

You have viewed the darkness mana creating the Gryphonic Pestilence.

Gryphonic PestilenceGryphonic Pestilence is a disease with no known cure. It was created by an ancient and powerful elf, to kill off the Gryphon species as a whole. The pestilence is made up of several high-level spells weaved together. Improper handling of the spells will result in a catastrophic event.

Mana Mages, and the derived classes, can learn lasting spells by disassembling them. Current amount of disassembling: 0%.

So all I have to do is take this spell apart to be able to actually remake it!? Isn’t this some super-high-level spell? I wonder how hard it will be to actually learn it.

I decided to stop caring about the mother Gryphon. I knew I’d probably die, but there was also a good chance she would let me live if I cured her hatchling.

I began to delve into the mana coiling around the poor beast. Before disassembling it, I made sure to note as much about it as possible.

The first thing I noted was that it had four types of mana interwoven. Darkness was about 70%, light was about 15%, wind was about 10%, and air was about 5%.

By the time I figured that out I felt heavy breathing on my shoulder. I didn’t turn around. I would either die, or figure this thing out. Despairing about the future wouldn’t be useful.

I cast several healing spells towards the baby Gryphon. The Hp only returned by three points. Ok so just basic healing spells are out.

I began to dive back into the sickness, to try to figure out how to take parts of it away. The mother Gryphon hadn’t attacked, so I was just going to keep going.

The 50% darkness mana was at the core of the spell. The other 50% of the spell wove around it, and returned to it at irregular intervals.

As I figured that out I got a notice.

Current amount of disassembling: 10%.[/tds]

[Td100] Gryphonic PestilenceGryphonic Pestilence is a disease with no known cure. It was created by an ancient and powerful elf, to kill off the Gryphon species as a whole. The pestilence is made up of several high-level spells weaved together. Improper handling of the spells will result in a catastrophic event.

The spells seems to lower the amount of healing a Gryphon can receive, as well as slowly lower its health.

That’s interesting. So I guess the more I learn about the mana signature the more history I learn on the spell? Well that will be useful.

For the rest of the day continued to observe the Gryphon’s mana. I wanted to try altering it a bit, but the whole ‘catastrophic event’ thing was a major put off.

I traced the mana around and around. When I finished following the entire loop once, I began again. I had to make sure I knew exactly what the structure was if I was to break it.

I had Ancestor help on that note. Rote memorization could only be used so much. After completing it a second time I counted all of the discrepancies from what I first measured.

I went for a third time to make sure it was all perfect. That’s when I realized something. Each of the strings of mana connecting to the core of the spell were slowly fluctuating bit by bit.

The spell is changing!

I spent another two hours tracing the mana changes in the spell. No wonder I hasn’t been cured yet! The ass who made this had it constantly modify itself. Hm, this is impossible.

I decided to give myself a short break. I wouldn’t be able to fully concentrate on the problem at hand if I strained myself any further. I cast a quick sleep spell on the baby gryphon, to help it better sleep.

Now on to the real problem.

I looked around. Not ten feet away from me was an excessively large gryphon. The bird/lion was staring intently at me. It’s bleach white feathers contrasted with its blood red eyes, and black talons. It’s beak was curved as a bird’s was, but jagged as if maintain the ripping power the lion was so proud of.

It’s name was Heroic-Feather. Really? Who has this terrible naming sense? It was even more ridiculously overpowered than its offspring.

I felt a shriek. Not with my ears, but with my mind. “KWAA! Why are you here Hermit?”

Obviously I had no idea why the gryphon called me hermit. I was about to speak, when the gryphon screeched in my mind again.

“NO! Speak with your mind! You’ll wake my cute little Nightmare-Wing, you fool! I wouldn’t be able to understand your human tongue anyway.”

Frowning I began to speak with my mind. Well I wanted to help your offspring.

Ancestor spoke to me. “Not to me, Voice. You must speak to the gryphon.”

Confused I asked, How do I do that? I only know how to talk to you or the fairies.

“Try allowing the Gryphon to hear your thoughts. Mush like how you block the fairies from hearing our talks.”

I prepared my mind, and tried to communicate to the gryphon alone, as if it was a new voice in my head.

Well that sounded weird. Maybe I AM going crazy.

Hello Gryphon. I am trying to heal your hatchling from the plague set upon it.

The response was slow in coming. “Gaia has given me the instruction not to kill you. If you harm my child though, I will rend your head from your body. You were connected to my child before, so I did not interrupt, but you will leave now. Your kind is not welcome here”

A menacing, low pitch, growl escaped from the gryphon’s beak.

But I can heal your child!

The thought screamed at the gryphon. Its face twitched momentarily. Then, as if coming to a conclusion, it spoke again. “You say you can cure my hatchling? Fine, you will stay here until he is cured. If you break your promise, you will be our sup.”

You have been forced into this quest.

Success: Free Nightmare-Wing from the heinous plague.

Difficulty: Class and god related quest.

Failure: Not managing to save Nightmare-Wing.

Reward: Heroic-Feather’s blessing.

Failure leads to being eaten. If you are eaten by a creature blessed by the Elder Gods, your character file will be corrupted. You will need to create a new character.

To myself I thought, Crap, I guess this means I can’t back out of it now. I seriously doubt that the gryphon would let me be after running away or failing.

But what was up with that character deletion!? That’s hardly fair! I didn’t even mean to come up here! [i]If my character gets eaten I’m complaining to Kelsey. That’s not even fair.

I took a quick glance at my purity levels. I would have to get a lot of mana to attempt to cure this disease. All of my purities were at least 5%, except: Light, darkness, and fire. My nature Affinity was quite high for just being in the forest for a while.

If I got my last three mana types to at least 5% purity each, then 5% of my mana would be ‘pure mana’. Since pure mana was basically 9x concentrated mana, just 5% would change to 45% of what my total was.

Basically getting 5% ‘pure mana’ meant I’d have a total of 140% total mana. If I got all of them to 100% then I’d have 900% mana!

Why didn’t I focus on this first!? I scolded myself getting sidetracked with other things. They may have been more interesting, but it was more than worth the boredom to get that freakish amount of mana.

To the gryphon I spoke, Alright, give me until tomorrow to figure out some stuff, and gain a bit of mana capacity. I’ll try to take out the plague then.

I felt an unhappy acceptance from the gryphon. At least it accepts it.

I focused on increasing the purity of my mana types. I remembered how I had to breathe in mana in the air, and breathe out the impurities inside of myself.

Feeling that making the air consumed by impure mana might harm the baby gryphon, I decided to walk to the edge of the cave before I started purifying.

Once there I sat down in a comfortable position. I closed my eyes, and concentrated on absorbing the light mana around me.

I breathed in the light mana, let it circulate around my body, and breathed out the impurities my light mana contained. After an hour of this monotony, I heard a ding. I had only increased it by 1%.

This is a lot slower than when I was in River’s Cross. I guess since Mar isn’t the patron goddess of this area I don’t get a lot of purity.

To get to two percent took me an hour and a half. At that point I couldn’t even force myself to sit there anymore. There was too much sitting around recently. I had to do something.

I summoned my fairies, including Kretchof. “Alright guys, I want to do something. Sitting here meditating is boring.

Eli, I want you to make the small plateau here bigger. At least twenty feet. Use mana from the mountain to do it. Make sure it is fully connected to the mountain though.

Otherwise it will just fall when too much weight is applied. Then the whole plan would crumble along with the floor.”

I allowed Eli to start working right away. I assumed it would only take Eli about four to five hours to make a stone plateau.

“Tear, go and find a water source. A lake or large pond. I will be needing a lot of water mana.” I dismissed Tear as well. Tear flew off, determined to make me proud.

“SparrowHawk, you need practice hunting. All birds should be master hunters. Have fun.” The bird gleefully shot off. In reality, hunting small game would increase the stealth abilities of SparrowHawk. That way it could better keep watch for me.

“Drake, hm I don’t really know what you should do. Go find something fun to do.” If I left Drake out of the plan then I might have negative repercussions. At least by telling it to have fun I’d be giving it a job.

“Kretchof go ahead and make some more of those undead minion protectors for me. Once you are done you can go back to the dungeon.” Kretchof bowed and went to work.

I gave golem very specific items to make. It would take a lot of practice for its, but sensed a heap of metal mana near the far wall. The things I ordered were, giant clippers, to clip large wings, barbed wire, and metal bars to make a jail cell.

“Sol and Moro! You both are going to help me increase the potency of the seeds I have here. If you get done before Eli, then you can do whatever you want until it’s time to plant the seeds.”

Most of the seeds were already powered up, but having them all powered up would be good. While everybody went to work, I set about casting several healing ‘spells’ on the baby gryphon.

Even if the barely healed any hp, something was better than nothing. At least in this case. I healed another 5 hp before Moro and Sol brought me the finished seeds. “Good, as promised have fun until I call you all back.”

Moro jumped off the cliff Eli was making, and somehow managed to land on a tree far below. The monkey jumped off into the distance rather quickly.

For some reason Sol found happiness in helping me heal the gryphon cub. I allowed Sol to take over, and instead decided to sleep for a while.

I closed my eyes, and nodded off while thinking of my plan. I had thought of a way to allow the plants to heal without even being picked. I just needed to test it.

Again, I’m sorry for the long delay. I am going to try to post at least 2 chapters a week. But with working full time recently I don’t have a lot of time for anything fun.