Accidental Reaver

Chapter 223 - 222: Running the Depths

Specs of metallic ash bits carelessly floated, often feeding into slow flowing earthen rivers. Metal came together with earthen material to form a sludge. Light ash spewed from calderas. Flames flickered, then extinguished.

A thump broke the silence. Luke landed, the rest of his crew touched down nearby. Iona unholstered her short bow, nocking an arrow. Another anchor centered the room, its symbol present. When the Reaver made a motion to use the anchor, Iona stopped him cold, grabbing his wrist.

"Hold the natures about you, eager newbie. There's a short recharge period after using an anchor. Take in the cozy atmosphere for a second." She released Luke's wrist. "I overreacted. There's no drawback to using an anchor while on cooldown, other than possibly being laughed at by onlookers." Iona winked, breaking into a smirk.

"My generous senior Defier, saving me from eternal embarrassment. What would I do without you?"

"Besmirch our legendary legacy or something to that effect." She sat on a basalt rock ridge. Timber rubbed up against Iona, closing his eyes in contentment. "This leg of the journey is safe as it gets in the Tower. The anchor points always have a team or two occupying the nearby territory, farming the monsters that wander here."

Sooty perched on Iona's other shoulder, pecking at Lulu. Earthy air rushed into Luke's nostrils. It felt nostalgic of the trenches he once called home. He frowned. Other teams stayed at the outer edges of the anchor clearing. Spiral headed, eyeless, gray-skinned creatures popped up from the several metal river paths. Iona glanced their way, then closed her eyes again.

"Charred Walkers, relentless creatures. The only ones ignorant enough to come here without a lure."

A spell, sword, and arrow bombardment attacked the waves of Charred Walkers. Once the abilities and arrow rain subsided, the monsters were in tattered pieces. This anchor point kept three teams grinding down here, from what Luke could tell. Another one waited near the anchor, probably waiting for their cooldown period to expire. The ether pressure noticeably intensified on this floor. The itch became closer to a light weight spread across Luke's body. A team of seven tier 2 hunters connected their arms and teleported from the anchor, leaving.

"How long is the wait usually?"

"Not long, about ten minutes. Far faster to wait than to rush down ourselves. Riskier to use the anchor system if you don't know what you're doing. Less powerful teams will often take the manual way after coming to the 9th floor, this one, that is, or 14th."

"Risker? But I thought this anchor system cuts out the process of going down most floors? Wouldn't that help you avoid the monsters on the way?"

"You see the trees but not the forest." Iona's nature expanded out, filtering the metal traces in the environment nearby. "These anchors let you go down, but never up. There's more than one story of a team porting themselves down to a floor they can't handle, and dying because of it."

Xera said, "Those gray guys couldn't take more than a strike or two from me. Things don't seem all that more dangerous down here. There's not even any poison that stings right in the hilt."

"The Shard Pits are an oddity, Xera, but it's a lower floor than the Verdant Hallow for a reason. Its metal can be highly corrosive, and the earth starts to whisper into your head. Without mental resistance, it can lead you to your death by delusion or overconfidence." Iona patted a flat spot next to the basalt rock, cleansing it with her Nature Elementalization. "Since we have time, rest when the opportunity presents itself."

Luke took the offer, the stone acted unusually soft. He strapped Whispering Tome to the side of his leg. The quasi artifact shrunk down to fit comfortably, blue runes pulsed on its cover. "We're jumping several floors each time, aren't we?"

"Five, to be exact," Iona said, petting Lulu softly. "Chances are, after the Ivory Skylands, we'll be on our own."

"No one treats those as a grind spot like these?"

"Too dangerous without a tier 3 on your team or an Aruna."

"An Aruna?"

"She's been considered effectively a tier 3 by many, far before she officially became one recently. Now, you took her place for that position."

"I'm flattered."

"You should be. The power to cross tiers is incredibly unusual. You're a tier 3 in my book, a higher quality one at that. Let's get off the subject before your ego bursts at the seams."

Luke chuckled. "Fine by me. The next zone have any surprises?"

"Ivory Skylands? It's the most pleasant on the eyes for many who delve in the Tower. We call it the 'False Haven'. The pressure there starts to wear down most tier 2 hunters, sound spreads way beyond the norm. The light-based creatures can be deceptively tough against the more common classes. Like this one, if we're taking the central route, the trouble is minimal. Expect it to be the last anchor that keeps to that pattern. Once we leave the Skylands, we'll be in the real Tower by some's standards."

"Like who's?"

"Like mine."

"Alright then. Elitism runs in the Defier family."

"You're one to talk."

"Since when did I start to act like an elitist?"

"You have your moments. Should I start to remind you?"

"Please don't. You were saying something about the Skylands?"

"It's heaven on the eyes, but hell on the ears. Your movements glide on its winds, carrying to monster nests and its denizens. Sounds have a way of worming into the skull. Locating the enemies abound by sound alone is all but impossible in that region. All in all, we have nothing to worry about—"

More waves of Charred Walkers battered into the hunter teams, testing their triangle formation. Their murky blood splattered against the basalt and painted the metallic rivers. Ash bits formed the edges of new grave plots. Luke and Iona used the anchor point not too long after, transferring to the 14th floor, the lowest in the Ivory Skylands region.

Floating glass twisted in arcs, faintly connected to sky islands. There was no cover here. Luke spawned in with the rest, a widespread white grass plane. Blue wind gales jet-streamed in the fluffy white cloud sky. Well, until any such unfortunate cloud came into contact with a wind gale, then it burst apart into pieces.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

An ozone scent wafted about. Luke made note of the glass arcs. Despite their visual fragility, they bent and flexed to withstand any wind pressure. Thicker ones acted as the roads to other sky islands. Sound cracked about, ricocheting like a splintered shrapnel. Sooty started to drop toward the ground. The Reaver cradled her to allow the bird some reprieve.

Packs of griffins screeched in the distance, flying along some of the wind gales. Their bodies appeared partially made of solid wind, complementing their blue and white plumage. Luke would even call them beautiful if their screeches didn't naturally make the sound bombardment worse. Nemenoth employed similar tactics, though not to this mastery level. Just as he was about to release a countermeasure, Iona extended her Domain far enough to envelope the entire team.

Sooty shook herself off and returned to her perky attitude. She rattled at Iona in thanks and hopped around the white grass, picking at it. Xera and Whispering Tome followed around in boredom.

"Always someone else to take out the stress relief bags, I mean, monsters for us…" Xera said.

This anchor point was designed slightly different from the last two. The same mark as always, but it appeared as a radiant white pylon that hummed lowly. Five. Five other teams took a spread-out position near the pylon. Any monsters that came within a hundred feet suffered the wrath of many hunters looking for easy pickings. Luke smirked. His bloodthirsty weapon would have to practice patience for a little longer. Iona laughed to herself while signaling Lulu to keep a lookout. Timber appeared the most at home out of anyone, lighting streaks flared off the Thunderpaw Bear.

Silver furred canids leapt across the air currents. When their pack became large enough, they howled and ran around the anchor point at an extended distance, weakening the accuracy of any attacks used to thin their number. It was uncanny how the beasts pinpointed the weakest defense around the anchor without fail. More than once, another team stepped in to prevent the death of a tier 2 hunter. Luke saw fit to keep an eye on the griffins circling high above. A leader of their species perched on a small floating island chunk. An intelligent gleam colored its eyes. The beast studied Iona and Luke with a wary caution.

"A gigantic lion bird is visually dissecting me. Is it sizing us up? The one way up there is staring a little too long for my liking." Luke's Mist Shroud started to spread. His evolved life rating radiated into the terrain.

Yelping, the silver canids skidded to a halt. Tails tucked, the monsters bolted away, yipping, barking, and howling to communicate a retreat upon discovering a higher predator. The elder griffins stiffened, their feathers turning sharp. The winds that composed them stopped flowing as freely. White grass curdled and withered, the moisture stolen with impunity.

Iona started on a relaxed walk, using the white pylon anchor point as a lap marker. "I advise you to let loose in Meric's Crossing, our next zone. There, the monsters have less of an option to up and run—or fly." She tilted her head at the flight of griffins trailing off into a fluffy cloud flanked by two different wind streams, hiding from plain sight.

Luke snapped a finger, returning the moisture back to the parched grass and re-hydrating the air. Even the hunters nearby seemed less withered. A chorus of gasps came afterward. Only now did Luke see most of the teams nearby streaming in sweat, one or two taking a knee on the ground, breathing like someone having a heart attack. Thin black-gold tendrils prodded at the worst affected, in a sight only the Reaver perceived. They ceased, hissing in agony, as their source suppressed himself.

This legacy. It's beginning to do things if I give it the slightest opening to do so. Greed is hunger's cousin, and like after tasting the attribute buffet in the Tide, it's starving again.

While this section of the Ivory Skylands employed several hunter teams, only Iona and Luke were waiting to go further down. This was the last territory carved out by hunter efforts. The number of tier 3 hunters or other delvers was simply too small. To expect any ease, a rest not carved out by your own efforts, was foolhardy. The teams became wary of Luke. Their aura whispers cut through any concealments, bounding all over the place due to the Skyland's properties.

"Fu-fuck. An evolved, at tier 2? I thought the regular tier 3 hunters were bad enough. Are we the same species anymore?" A human hunter said to a party member.

"Dealing with Annika when she threw a tantrum was bad enough. The Ninth lets himself loose at the first hint of a challenge. For our own sakes, I pray he decides to go deeper in the Tower, where Sylen's best faces the true monsters."

"Wishful thinking, ain't it? The guy's apparently been tier 2 for less than two weeks, wouldn't he farm around here like the other top second ascended?"

"There you are again, applying common sense to the uncommon. That type, unless they need a specific drop from the Ivory Skylands, always challenges Meric's crossing or Meric himself with their team. Leaves the mortal floors to us on the conventional path."

They could try to hide their displeasure a little better. Luke mused.

The Golden Stigmata hummed intensely, optimizing the ever more potent blood within. This path of ascention started crowded by masses. By this stage, however, the rivers of people dried up to a trickle of the most disciplined or gifted. The Reaver wondered when only the ghosts of the past and living legends would walk beside him. It didn't seem so out of reach anymore.

Whatever it took to see his dad in person one more time.

Two dim blue mana mist clouds opened up, depositing Luke, Iona, and the others onto Meric's Crossing.

Walls of gray water surrounded darklight semi-physical pathways. The anchor twisted into a smoldering rock that leaked purple ether. Darkness descended, denying sight to anyone without superior ocular abilities. Luke, by now, had the Mist Shroud and vision enhanced by Twilight Vanguard or plain channeling essence. Any of the three assisted with the dark zone.

The previous darkness lifted to a grayscale. Iona had Lulu spark a feather. It illuminated a twenty foot radius. She shrank her Domain to the same size. Timber brought up the rear. At some point, the bear equipped sleek armor that protected vital points, while sparing the joints of any constriction.

"When did he…?" Luke said.

"Timber hates to wear armor until it's absolutely necessary, too stuffy. Makes him hot, and pulls at his fur."

The Reaver quickly inspected the surroundings further for anything. It was barren in terms of both enemies and allies. The hunter teams that camped around the anchor points were nowhere to be seen. The eerie lack of any hostility prickled at Luke's sense of ease. Sooty flapped in the air, shadow clung to her feathers.

"Dead down here. The standing water isn't going to swallow us whole? You weren't kidding about the lack of others after the Skylands."

Legions of creatures swam within the depths. Luke oftentimes only made out the outline of the monsters. Displaced water gave them away more than any actual visual cues.

Iona's breathing elevated. "The usual talking points I get from any newbie is 'I can't see' and 'this pressure is unbearable'. Not you. I'm almost envious of how little it's affecting you."

"Didn't you use your Domain to lessen the impact?"

"Sure I did. That absorbs a part of the ambient ether pressure down here. Nature knows it is less than useless against the sight veil that permeates Meric's Crossing." She knocked an arrow on her short bow, causing her mythril chain armor to shift. "The welcoming party has arrived."

Emerging from the gray water walls, two types of creatures sealed off the darklight forged pathways from either end. An eyeless humanoid that shifted in and out of reality, its insides twisted against translucent gel. For every one of that specimen, the other tripled their number. A quadruped beast, gray smoke folded into purple water-laden skin. White fur adorned its mane. Blue elongated teeth jutted out from the sides of its mouth.

[Shifting Fiend] (High Elite)

Tier: 3

Level: 85

HP: 49,500/49,500

Gelatious creatures of the Tower. The soldiers of Meric.

[Fanged Cloudbeast] (Elite)

Tier: 3

Level: 80

HP: 31,000/31,000

Hounds of Meric. Fearless to the extreme.

Essence Bond enchanted Xera, the sword-wand shook in delight. Luke faced one side with Sooty, trusting Iona to handle the other.

"Any tips on these guys?"

"Have certain alchemic substances or techniques at the ready. They're both impossible to hit normally. Keep your element on any attack, and you'll do fine."

"What do people do when they don't have Elementalization or one of those substances by now? Run away?"

"They die. By this floor, anyone arrogant enough to come down here, forgoing basic preparation or solid Adept mastery in Elementalization, deserves it."

"You're a harsh mistress, Iona."

"I prefer stern, thank you. Going lightly on others leads to an early death for them. I let the roots of their folly leave my conscience by being blunt."

Essence Bond attached to Xera, runes morphed, running up Luke's forearms. Sooty dipped into the Reaver's shadow, ready for a command.