Mage Tank

Chapter 136: Entry Requirements Met

I minimized the notification for my amulet to check on my allies and ensure we were truly out of danger. The Pit had gone completely still, most of its tendrils destroyed and the rest unmoving. The remnant’s remaining eye gazed out toward the sea, unfocused. The rain and wind continued, but nothing was presently attempting to murder us.

Etja, Xim, and Varrin were all unconscious, but the entire party was benefitting from the full suite of potions we’d downed throughout the boss gauntlet. The brews we’d taken after the Clockwork battle were still active but would be running out soon. After that, we’d all be stuck with potion cooldowns for the rest of the day. Still, between the massive bonuses the potions gave us and my health regen aura, everyone’s health was steadily ticking upward and we’d be well out of danger by the time the effects wore off.

“Are you going to stay like that?” Nuralie asked aloud. While the storm continued, it seemed to be abating with the death of The Pit. Our proximity made verbal communication easy enough for the moment. “It is”–pause–“unsettling.”

Her comment caused me to evaluate my mental state. Now that I was no longer engrossed in the life or death combat, it became easier to divorce myself from the shared identity that the mind and soul connections I’d formed with Grotto and Shog had created. I realized I was viewing Nuralie entirely through my Soul-Sight, my body wrapped up in Shog’s tentacles and hidden beneath my shield. I was struck by an acute sense of claustrophobia, and the thought was enough for Shog to release me.

He guided me to the ground, not gently, but not so roughly that my injuries would be worsened. I sat on the decaying surface of The Pit’s head, no longer willing to force my broken legs to bear my weight. The effects of Grotto’s neurochemical manipulations were also wearing off, and my body was beginning to reassert its disappointment over my choices. I took in a long breath through my teeth, leaning back and placing my good arm behind me to prop myself up.

“That was weird,” I said to no one in particular.

[An unexpected and creative use of your revelations,] Grotto thought to us. [I cannot say I found the experience to my liking, but I will not deny that it was effective.]

“I was Slayer. Slayer was me,”Shog said, looking at his menacing hands. It reminded me of the first time I’d connected to Grotto with Reveal.

“It was like a supercharged version of the identity confusion that Reveal can cause,” I said. “But it went both ways because of your psychic link, Grotto.”

[Yes, yes. My talents are boundless and I am happy to take credit for the feat,] he thought to us, but the words were half-hearted at best–like he was failing to maintain the charade of Grotto the megalomaniac. [I must spend some time… digesting this phenomenon. Please do not disturb me unless the need is dire.]

I raised an eyebrow as Grotto floated over to settle on my shoulder. He latched on with his feelers, then closed his big, black octo eyes. Nuralie tilted her head.

“Did he just say ‘please’?” she asked.

“I do believe the word just came out of him,” I said, wincing as a rib clicked back into place.

Nuralie replied with a short “Hmm.”

“I felt things!” my summon shouted. I was too burned out to be startled, so I just shot him a curious look.

“Yeah, Shog? What did you feel?”

“I felt… fear. Fear that the demoness would die. When we pulled her from the mountain’s thorns, I was elated. As though I’d just bitten into someone delicious and full of mana.”

“Er, okay?” I said, uncertain of what he was getting at. “I also felt that way, except for it being like eating a person. It didn’t feel like that at all.”

“How many people have you eaten?” asked Nuralie with a grin.

“Zero, I think,” I said.

“You think?”

“I try not to make any absolute statements. I ate a lot of hotdogs back on Earth. Nobody knows what’s inside of hotdogs.”

“It isn’t dogs?” she asked.

“Probably not,” I replied. “Usually. Maybe.”

“The feelings were potent, much stronger than they should have been,” said Shog. “The demoness is a useful ally, but does not serve an essential role in my continued growth.”

“Oh, I get it,” I said.

“You do?”

“Sure. You’re normally a heartless monstrosity whose sole motivation is the urge to feed and grow stronger. No offense.”

“Why would that offend me?”

“While we were in our Voltron form,” I continued, “you were sharing some of my emotions. Since I have an evolved primate brain that derives benefits from social cohesion, I’m more considerate of the well-being of others, beyond for the simple reason that they grant me advantages.” I grunted as two pieces of a tibia slid and fused back together. “Your brain might be closer to a reptile’s…”

There was a groan from the nearby crowd of unconscious party members, and I looked over to see Xim sitting up.

“Why are we talking about Shog’s emotions?” she asked.

“Because everyone’s emotions are important?” I offered.

“That is not true,” said Shog.

“Good to know I didn’t rub off on you too much.”

There was another groan from Xim, but rather than a groan that said ‘Oh gods, I feel like shit,’ it was a groan that said something along the lines of ‘Oh gods, I’m covered in shit.’

She was looking down at her chest, which was splattered in blood and dark goop. She lifted a hand from the surface of the Pit’s head to find it slick with rotting, liquifying skin. I looked down and realized that the ground all around me was also rapidly decaying and I was sinking into it ever so slowly. It emitted a rather pungent odor.

“Can we leave this wretched place?” said Xim, shaking some of the goo from her arm.

“How do we leave?” asked Nuralie.

We all looked around for an obelisk or a portal but were met with nothing but a putrifying mountain, a dwindling storm, and an endless sea.

“Let’s wait a few more minutes until we’re all conscious and able to walk,” I said. “Then we can start looking for whatever it is we’re meant to find.”

Xim grumbled, but the group agreed. I took the time to pull out my amulet from beneath my armor and inspect it for the thousandth time since it last evolved. I was half expecting the notification to be some sort of prank, and that the item’s description would now read “Haha, fuck you,” or something. Happily, that wasn’t the case.

Traveler’s Amulet

This is an evolving item.

Current Level: Junior Jumbuck

Effects:

1) It’s stylish.

2) Soul-Sight - My dearest Arlo, you’ve realized that making Soul-Sight your own means more than gaining simple competency. Your identity informs the ability, and the ways that you use it to see the world can be as unique and personal as your bohemian fashion choices!

If you’re seeing this message, then you’ve now realized the way that these revelations can be used goes well beyond the default settings baked into them by whatever divinity they draw power from. The same is true for all revelations! Will you keep this secret to yourself and hoard the power that it grants? Will you share it with only your closest allies? Maybe you’ll shout it out for all the world to hear! I could take a guess at what you’ll do, but I hate to prognosticate when the potential outcomes are so unpredictable.

Now that I have imparted unto you this divine wisdom, let’s move on to the interesting bit: more buffs!

3) Extrinsic Intrinsics - Your bonded familiar is a quirky pet, and I find the way that the System bound your fates together to be both unique and unusual. The System even went so far as to grant you a shared intrinsic skill: Dungeoneering! Well, if there’s one thing I adore about new and untested abilities, it’s that they are ripe for exploitation!

Using the soul connection between yourself and Grotto, you can share more than just Dungeoneering. In fact, I’ve figured out a way to allow you to share all of your intrinsic skills with the little fellow. How broken is this capability? I’ve no idea, but I’m eager for you to find out!

Dig deeper into the soul connection between yourself and Grotto to unlock this item’s next effect!

I read through the text several times. It was clear that Fortune was now talking to me directly through the amulet’s description, which made me wonder how much of my current activities he was aware of. Did the amulet broadcast everything I did to the wily avatar? I’d already given up on discerning the motivations of the rotund giant without further intel, but couldn’t help from being drawn into a fresh round of speculation.

The text implied that Fortune was somehow directly influencing the System–either behind the scenes and from within the System itself, or simply by abusing its mechanics. The text also implied that Fortune was able to use this System access to manipulate the soul connection between me and my familiar. The fact that the System allowed any entity to have a backdoor into my soul was disturbing. I couldn’t think of any examples of when Fortune might have made nefarious use of that access, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

When the avatar had brought me to Arzia, he’d reshaped my body. For a time, I was concerned that he’d Trojan Horse’d some kind of obedience directive into my thought process. It was possible that my actions were subtly guided by some deeply buried manipulation he’d left inside me. Fortune had denied doing such a thing–since it was, according to him, cheating–but my trust in the demigod went about as far as I could throw him and his amply-gifted buttocks.

This ability raised another similar issue. If Fortune could manipulate my soul connection to Grotto, could he surreptitiously influence the actions of either myself or the Delve Core? It was another question that had no good way to get answered, so I stuffed it down into a mental box I’d labeled “da’ fuck?”. It was practically overflowing by this point.

As for the ability itself, it would require a lot of testing and experimentation to decide how powerful it was. I didn’t think Grotto had a use for an intrinsic skill such as Heavy Armor, but maybe we could fashion a set of octopus-shaped plate for the octo-bro. On the other hand, if Grotto learned any Dimensional spells, he’d have a big leg up over a novice. Of course, Grotto’s attunement was Divine, which limited his casting to Divine and the two adjacent schools–Mystical and Spiritual. Dimensional wasn’t available to the core normally. However, did this effect break that rule?

I also had Blunt and Shields, which made me wonder whether we’d need to make Grotto an entire mini-Arlo equipment loadout to take full advantage of this ability. Would that even be effective if the core continued to have a low Strength score? I also had 1 intrinsic slot left unfilled. Would it be worth picking up something that both Grotto and I could use?

As I ran over my list of intrinsics and considered their utility for my familiar, I heard Etja and Varrin begin to stir, followed by a kill notification.

Your party has slain The King’s Pit: Delve Remnant, Grade 24. Your party receives the following rewards:

1) 24 Emerald Chips

2) 1 Titan Essence

3) 1 Ocean Essence

4) 1000 Abbantite Ore

5) 1 Abandoned Grimoire

Party Leader has set chip and currency allocation to: Even Distribution.

You receive: 4 Emerald Chips. Remainder has been randomly assigned to 4 of 5 party members.

Party Leader has set item allocation to: Master Looter

Party Leader receives all other rewards.

Nuralie filled the sleepy duo in on the events of the battle’s end as I pulled out the Abandoned Grimoire to give it a look. An oily, black substance coated the surface of the heavy book’s cover. There was some sort of embroidery on the front, but I couldn’t make it out beneath the layers of dark gunk. When I tried to wipe some away, it dripped from my fingers in long, sticky strands, but the cover remained obscured. After a few wipes, I began to think the book was excreting it. My gauntleted fingers were stained from the substance, and I was suddenly glad that none of it had touched my bare skin. Perhaps I should have identified the tome before I’d fondled it.

Abandoned Grimoire

It is wise to consider why some knowledge is forgotten.

This tome contains the experimental findings of an unknown witch whose name and work have both been lost to time. Within its pages are a selection of spells that may be of interest to a mage with a penchant for inflicting harm. Additionally, there are several recipes that could be of use to an alchemist with the requisite moral flexibility. The handwritten notations and illustrated techniques used by the witch to accomplish her research may also serve as fascinating bedtime reading for the morbid historian.

I held the book out at arm’s length, hesitant to even open it. I’d never seen something scream “I’m cursed!” quite so loudly as the viscid, dripping tome. Nuralie’s interest was nevertheless peaked, and she carefully wrapped the book in warded cloth designed for cleaning up acid spills and placed it inside a mana-woven leather satchel where she normally stored her more volatile concoctions. The satchel’s previous contents had been emptied into The Pit during our fight. I was glad to see the grimoire disappear into the loson’s inventory.

Next, I took out some of the Abbantite Ore. The description didn’t make me worry that we would be slowly driven insane by the ancient ghost of a mad sorceress, but it wasn’t very informative either.

Abbandite Ore

This ore can be refined by a skilled metallurgist into the metal Abbandium.

No one in the party had heard of Abbandium, so it was one more thing to research later.

After we got the loot, I fielded a few questions about the mighty Arlottog and we decided to begin searching for the way forward. A full-party discussion of my amulet’s new effect could wait until we were better rested and somewhere that wasn’t a literal mountain of rotting corpse.

We went over the surface of The Pit at length, unable to find any obvious sign of an obelisk or portal. We gave the ocean a cursory search as well, looking for underwater caves and scanning for any distant islands once the rain had cleared. We came up empty, and after a couple of hours, I got an uncomfortable idea.

“Grotto told us that a Delve Remnant is a Delve that went out of control, right?” I said. The core was still in his post-fusion hibernation, and this didn’t feel like a big enough problem to bother him with yet. We weren’t in any clear danger, just stuck.

Varrin looked around at the massive entity we stood upon, then out at the sea.

“I doubt that this entire ocean is part of the defunct Delve,” he said. “If Grotto’s description is accurate, then The Pit was the Delve. The creature had the label of Delve Remnant, not the rest of the environment.”

“So, if The Pit was a Delve,” I said, “then the obelisk would not be on the outside.”

Nuralie swallowed and looked down at the decaying body.

“It’s”–pause–“inside?”

I frowned and considered the problem. If The Pit really had been a Delve, and if the obelisk was still inside of the monster, then what was the best way to get to it? We could dig, but that would take a lot of time and it would also be ten different kinds of gross. Alternatively, we could go in through a hole that already existed.

The Pit’s eye had been obliterated by Explosion! but that hadn’t created a navigable passage into its head. At least, not one that didn’t require us to swim through an unknown length of wet and goopy sinus cavity. That left only one other conspicuous route.

“You wanna climb down its throat,” said Xim. “I can see it in your eyes.”

“Got any better ideas?”

“No,” she said, marching across the head and preparing to climb down to the mouth. “And I’m tired of being out here in the cold without my armor.”

Despite keeping an eye out during our search, Xim’s protective gear had not been found. She was in her mega-stretch onesie and–although the rain had stopped–there were still high winds that made it pretty uncomfortable.

We all followed and either climbed or floated down to the remnant’s enormous mouth. It hung open, radiating warmth from the cooling lava–now stone–that had once dripped from the maw. We made it past the rows of bus-sized teeth and into the buccal cavity without issue, finding a cavernous space made up of dark surfaces. It would have looked right at home in most any Delve. After a brief and cautious walk down the length of a granite tongue wide enough to serve as a six-lane interstate, we found the obelisk hanging down from above.

“It’s the uvula!” I said.

“Is there a reason why that excites you?” asked Varrin.

“Not really. I just think the uvula is cool.”

“I thought the obelisk would be the heart,” said Nuralie.

“Or the brain,” said Xim.

“Or the stomach!” added Etja.

“Why stomach?” asked Xim.

“Delve obelisks are usually at the center of a Delve and they convert energy that the Delve creates into mana. It has more in common with a stomach than a heart or a brain.”

“Then they vomit that energy up onto Delvers,” I added.

“It’s more that they thrust the energy into us,” said Xim, tapping a finger on her chin.

I looked up at the long, hard pillar.

“Yeah, I’m not going to draw the obvious comparison there. This one’s a uvula, not any other body part that has been mentioned or gone unmentioned.”

“So when is it gonna thrust?” asked Xim. “We beat the boss, I’m ready for the thrusting.”

“Please stop,” I said.

“What?” she asked, looking at me deadpan. “It’s been a difficult day and I’d like to unwind with a vigorous thrusting deep inside my mana matrix.”

The obelisk lit up with energy, eliciting a wide grin from the cleric.

I made no comment as our souls and bodies were penetrated by the potent mana. Once the stats had been granted, we got a new notification.

Congratulations, your party has met the entry requirements for Delve 2997: Deijin’s Descent! Your party receives an additional reward based on the calibrated difficulty of the defeated portal guardian.

Portal guardian difficulty rating: ERROR

…

Reevaluating…

…

Portal guardian difficulty rating: A

Maximum reward distribution authorized!

Each party member receives 2 Diamond Chips!

All party members receive a progression bonus to intrinsic skills used during the encounter.

Now releasing all intrinsic skills gained during the remedial level-up procedures.

Your Dimensional Magic skill has increased to level 25!

->

Your Dimensional Magic skill has increased to level 30!

Your Mystical Magic skill has increased to level 13!

->

Your Mystical Magic skill has increased to level 16!

Your Physical Magic skill has increased to level 14!

->

Your Physical Magic skill has increased to level 20!

Your Blunt skill has increased to level 23!

->

Your Blunt skill has increased to level 26!

Your Shields skill has increased to level 22!

->

Your Shields skill has increased to level 25!

Your Heavy Armor skill has increased to level 14!

->

Your Heavy Armor skill has increased to level 20!

Your Leadership skill has increased to level 11!

->

Your Leadership skill has increased to level 19!

This portal guardian realm will be collapsed after 10 minutes. Please enter the portal to Deijin’s Descent before that time.

After the parade of notifications ended, a swirling, silver portal appeared before us.

“So many intrinsic levels,” Xim said in awe.

I blinked and nodded, looking over the endless skill-ups.

“Portal guardian?” I said, eyes catching on that bit of text. “I thought we were fighting ‘remedial’ bosses to get up to level 10.”

“Other than Clockwork, the earlier bosses weren’t too impressive,” said Xim. “And all of them were at a level that I think makes sense to appear in a platinum Delve. The thing we just fought–The Pit–was leagues ahead of a level 9 to 10 Delve, even if it were a platinum.”

“Right. Can’t say I expected to fight a monster the size of a mountain before at least level 20,” I said. “Actually, are there any mana monsters of that size? Besides the one we just killed, that is.”

“None that have been confirmed,” said Varrin. “There are legends, though. Creatures of myth, such as The C’thon. After this, however, I wonder if any might be real.”

“The C’thon?” I said. “Is that just a really big c’thon?”

“The legend of The C’thon predates the discovery of the c’thonic race by centuries, perhaps millenia. The c’thons that you know, such as Shog, were named after the creature in the legend due to similarities in their appearance.”

“Hmm, but it could just be a really big c’thon.”

Varrin sighed.

“For all our sakes, I hope that it isn’t.”

“Well, no more time for banter I suppose.” I glanced at the portal. It had the same silvery shimmer as the portal that had sent us to the in-between and cast us through the void for some unknown length of time, potentially months.

“We should spend our stat points so they don’t decay in case this portal takes its time like the last one,” I said. “Evolutions can wait until we’re on the other side. We’ve only got seven minutes to get through and evolutions can sometimes have unforeseen side effects.”

Everyone agreed to the plan, and I spent my 16 accrued stat points according to my previous distribution. I placed 6 into Wisdom, 5 into Intelligence, and 5 into Strength, snagging that luscious bonus point from Dumping to all three. I gave my stats a brief review once I was finished.

Strength:22

Agility:10

Speed:10

Fortitude:40

Intelligence:33

Wisdom:40

Charisma:10

Luck:10

I now had the same number of total stats as a level 19 Delver, which was insane considering I was only level 10. Of course, my intrinsics were once again lower than what Varrin thought a level 10 platinum should have, but overall I felt phenomenal about the gains. With great reluctance, I pushed away the evolution notifications, then I confirmed that everyone in the party was ready to go.

We stepped up to the portal and I gave it a hearty slap.

Now entering Delve 2997: Deijin’s Descent.

This is a Special-Grade Delve.

Time Limit: None

Objective: Escape