Unbound

Time was difficult to gauge down in the Labyrinth. The light never changed, there was no sun nor moon or even stars, just the stones and the fog. If it weren't for his nigh-impeccable memory, Felix would have been as lost as Magda seemed to be, but he could at least estimate the amount of time they'd been down there. Technically, as it was within the past thirty days, Felix could count out the seconds and minutes, but that was both exhausting and worthless. It was enough that he could approximate the time: it had been around four hours since they had fallen into the sink hole.

For much of that time they were simply running, though battles occurred with increasing frequency. The Labyrinth lived up to its name, folding and moving through space in unpredictable ways. Multiple times Felix was positive they were rushing down a corridor that seemed to turn and take up the same dimensional space as another. His eyes told him it was just a turn, but his memory said it was exactly the same. More than his Manasight (which was still restricted, somehow), his memory proved to be their greatest boon. He kept leading them back, unerringly remembering the path they had traversed.

The enemies they found ranged the gamut of elemental types, and he found a chance to sample most of their Mana.

Lessons of the Past is level 20!

His Skill increased multiple times, but not once did Felix learn a new Skill or gain a Memory from the elementals' blood and Mana. Ever since his Body Formation his hunger had quietened, only rising up once in a while, as if it was slumbering. Without the engagement of that growling in his core, it seemed his Title and Skill had a far lower chance of activating. It was frustrating, to say the least. To focus that frustration, Felix threw himself into clearing the enemies before them with greater gusto. They had to get out of here, and to do that Felix needed to be far stronger than he was now...

To that end, Felix had dumped all of his Mana into the Elemental Shard that hung over his left shoulder. He didn't know at first how much Mana Storage was available in the shard, and decided to feed it slowly whenever they weren't fighting. Within the first ten minutes it was at capacity, holding exactly five hundred Mana and not a drop more. It was a significant bump in his pool, and meant he could be even more cavalier about his spell usage. That thought just led him back around to his annoyance at the lack of new monster spells, though he supposed he had a pretty damn wide repertoire already. No need to be greedy, he admonished himself. I still need to level up what I have.

The song still continued, of course. It was an endless refrain, a track on repeat with only minute changes in pitch and tone as the hours blurred by; it was maddening to listen to, and Felix kept his Bastion of Will engaged nearly all the time, despite the toll it took on his mental fortitude.

Bastion of Will is level 35!

During breaks and those stretches of corridor without enemies however, Felix attempted to level his Poison Resistance with the sheathed fang. Since the scales held in the poisonous aura it was safe to hold along the bottom eight inches. The top was tricky, however. He held the crude dagger in one hand while slowly edging that poisonous aura closer to his left forearm. The skin sizzled and eroded before his eyes, but the pain was no worse than an acid bath; better, perhaps, since his Body Formation. When the tip of the dagger got within six inches of his arm, his skin finally broke and blood poured out. Hissing in pain, he yanked the fang away, letting his natural regeneration repair it.

Poison Resistance is level 28!

He was healing faster now, his poison resistance neutralizing a portion of the Rotvein aura. Still, he'd yet to even touch himself with the fang.

How'd Magda withstand getting this through her fucking arm? Felix shuddered before capping the fang with an improvised scale plug. He had no way to carry it except in his belt or in his hand all the time, and the last thing Felix wanted was to touch the fang before he was ready. They had encountered a few more of the Greenfyre Serpents and he had fashioned a casing for the remaining four inches, knocking his Improvisation Skill to level 12.

He was growing by leaps and bounds down here in the dark. Despite the pain and the fear that dogged his every step, Felix felt an exhilaration that was both heady and freeing. Each encounter ended with at least a few Skill gains, and all the while his highest Skills edged closer to Apprentice Tier. The stats he gained during each Tier bump were significant increases to his power, and now he was extremely close to having all of his base stats above the one hundred mark.

STR:

102

PER:

111

VIT:

144

END:

120

INT:

111

WIL:

185

AGL:

105

DEX:

98

Pit was developing rapidly as well. The elementals they faced dropped a core at least twenty percent of the time, and each core was enough for 1-2 points in their favored stat. This led to an odd and scattered allotment of stats, but the results were more than satisfying.

STR:

49

PER:

52

VIT:

60

END:

53

INT:

37

WIL:

51

AGL:

93

DEX:

66

With the greater power, Pit was better able to take on the monsters with Felix, and their teamwork increased by the battle. He had always been fast, but he was lightning quick now. Wingblades and Frost Spears were the tenku's weapons of choice, allowing Felix to get within melee range and providing support. The support was Pit's idea, strangely enough. They're communication was evolving in a way that Felix found remarkable; it wasn't speech but the bundles of image, senses, and emotions became stronger and more concise. Pulses of sensation through their pact were enough for near instant understanding, and their Skill levels reflected that.

Pit's Wingblade is level 14!

Pit's Frost Spear is level 12!

Pit's Cry is level 24!

Pit's Rake is level 21!

Pit's Bite is level 20!

Companion Pact is level 23!

Frustratingly, Felix wasn't able to get Acid Stream, Shadow Whip, or Stone Shaping to level 25 despite how often he used them. Simple repetition wasn't cutting it anymore, the final jump taking far more effort than others. Felix didn't really understand why, and Magda's advice was to "think about how the Skill works and how it affects you." Which was...not exactly unhelpful, but Felix didn't make headway, not with those spells.

Exploration, on the other hand, had jumped to level 24 fairly quickly. This place was a treasure trove of important, unexplored crannies. That Skill seemed to apply toward places of significance, and Felix couldn't claim that this two thousand year old death maze wasn't significant. They had encountered a wide variety of fascinating structures within the Labyrinth, ranging from the omnipresent carved standing stones to delicately detailed frescos painted on the walls and mostly hidden beneath thick moss. They depicted white-furred, robe wearing creatures standing among a gaggle of elementals. Most were simply ordering the elementals around or using them to build something. A few, however, swarmed around strangely amorphous...blobs. They had no clear size or shape, only a dark discoloration that seemed to seep into whatever pigments were used on the paintings. The white-furred folk (Geist, clearly) were fighting against the blobs with spears and spells but seemed to be in a stalemate.

Magda thought it curious, but likely irrelevant. "I've seen thousands a these sorts a things. All of em have their heroes fighting off monsters or demons, or whatever nonsense you wanna imagine. It's usually just braggin'."

"Then why aren't they winning?" Felix asked. Magda shrugged and kept moving.

Another twenty minutes later, they found the statue chamber. At least, that's what Felix called it.

It was massive, easily the largest space they had found within the Labyrinth. The dense fog and smothering darkness blocked their senses beyond fifty feet in any direction, but brief flashes of his Manasight convinced Felix the room was easily a mile in all dimensions.

Manasight is level 35!

The tiled and mossy floor extended about thirty feet from the entry before it tilted down into a lake. That was the only way to describe it, as it filled most of the space, dark water that slowly surged and receded with tiny waves yet was absolutely silent. Still in the corridor just outside the chamber, Felix and Magda shared a look before stepping in. Now beyond the threshold, the sound of the water roared up from nothing, a constant susseration that filled the immense chamber.

"Some sorta seal or something on the door," Magda muttered, briefly looking back at the entryway. "Why bother, though?"

Felix shrugged and knelt down, pushing aside the omnipresent moss. A strip of carved rock was at the base of the archway, the markings in it etched in a familiar script. Felix went over his memories of the script he'd seen up to that point, a relatively short list. The script consisted of four characters, repeated over and over until they formed a dense banner of sigils. Felix considered them each in turn and while his understanding of sigils was shaky at best, he was able to tease something from them. Uncertain as to why, Felix felt that the largest of the four characters meant "quietude" and that the rest modified that declaration for an unknown purpose.

Sigils of the Primordial Dawn is level 5!

"No clue why, but yeah, some sort of silence sigil is inscribed here." Felix stood up and brushed off his hands. "At least that means any monsters behind us won't hear us?"

Magda snorted before sitting down on a large rock. "That's something. I'm taking thirty seconds. Then we move. We're close, I know it."

Felix nodded, silently agreeing. They were close. The song was louder, more strident, more...insistent...though he still blocked it out with Bastion of Will. His Skill formed a metaphysical castle wall around his mind, dark stone repelling the sinuous notes like ransacking invaders. If he focused on it, Felix could easily picture those soaring walls of stone, each block the size of two men and growing larger and more ornate as the Skill leveled. Was it real?

As real as anything else in this bonkers place, he decided.

Felix walked to the water's edge, careful of his movements and scanning everything around him with a combination of Analyze and an intermittent Manasight. With no obvious traps underfoot, he gazed out into the water and his eyes widened. Closer now, the fog had parted to reveal massive statues partially submerged in the dark water, each of them depicting a wild beast that combined a handful of opposing features.

Chimeras.

There were dozens of them, perhaps hundreds placed in the water in a regular pattern. The water sloshed against them, the sunken statuary varying in height from enormous fifty foot tall constructions to barely peeking above the surface. They appeared to be all made in the same fashion, a fluted pillar supporting a chimeric beast in some sort of action pose. From his position Felix could make out Wyverns, Harnoqs, Wendigos, and yes, even a few Tenku. But there were more, beyond the range of his Analyze, things he hadn't encountered before and were startlingly graceful meshes of monstrous creatures.

"What is all this?"

A chill wind blew across the water, the fog swirling in its passage, raising goosebumps on Felix's skin even as he ignored the temperature. His Cold Resistance made it inconsequential. What wasn't to be dismissed was that when the fog parted, his peripherals caught the shape of something fluttering near the water line.

"Is that..?" Felix's attention pivoted and his mouth widened into a grin. "My stuff!"

There, sitting on the mossy stone was a slew of pages and the splayed open form of his ragged notebook. Felix rushed over, keeping his eyes open for any more traps, and scooped them up. The notebook was more or less intact, though a number of pages in the back were coming loose from the binding. It even still had the few pages he stole from the Archon. Felix only briefly glanced at their fell designs before snapping them shut again. Of the actual satchel there was no sign, nor of his grease pen or the locked box Pit had stolen. It appeared as if the bag had fallen from a great height and scattered, which unfortunately made sense.

We must be closer to our landing point then, right? How would the bag have fallen here if it was really four hours away from where we landed? Felix frowned. We did double back on many of the pathways...this Labyrinth is too strange though. How big is it, exactly?

Ten feet away, further from the water, he spied a dented and crumpled potions case. Cursing, Felix strode over and picked it up with gentle hands. It was his alright, and the case had been half crushed by the fall, leaving several of the vials leaking a thick silver liquid. Remnants of liquid, at least, most of the essence draughts having leeched into the ground. Damn it, I need some of these. Vessilia's draughts only contained enough for two Mind, two Body, and two Spirits. The ducal heiress already had partially tempered her Body, Mind, and Spirit and only needed enough to finish the job. As Felix went through the case's remains, he found only a single Iron Body Essence Draught and the Wandering Spirit Essence Draught. The Body draught was useless to him, since he couldn't Temper his Body again at Apprentice Tier, but the Wandering Spirit Essence was lucky. It was his only uncommon ranked draught and it meant he could fully Temper his Spirit with the Essences on hand.

Now I just have to worry about my Mind Skills. Both Exploration and Analyze are close to Tier.

The soft sound of something rubbing against stone caught his attention. Felix's Perception zeroed in on it without hesitation. It sounded high pitched in a way he couldn't place, but it definitely was something dragging against stone. Almost at the water line Felix spied a glittering bronze shape, crooked and sharp.

My sword!

As he watched a wave crashed over the blade and it began to slip into the dark water. This time he didn't even check for traps, pushing himself quickly to the edge in an attempt to snatch the Crescian blade away from a watery grave. The moment his hand wrapped around the hilt, however, was when they struck.

The water thrashed and suddenly a line of blood appeared on Felix's forearm, following by a sharp burning pain. He fell backward on his ass, looking for whatever attacked him and at first he saw nothing. Then his high Perception picked out a slight distortion in the air before him, a distortion that was now lunging at him. With an undignified squawk, Felix rolled to the side as three somethings sparked against the stone ground, their path so fast and form so transparent that he couldn't follow the attack. Pushing up with his free hand, Felix shoved himself into the air, cracking the stone beneath him with a sharp retort. Even before he landed back on his feet, the invisible creature struck again. The blow hit him square in the chest, sending the Nym sliding backward a few feet, stopping once he fetched up against a standing stone.

Invisible monsters? No...fair, he managed groggily before flaring Bastion of Will. His mind snapped back together. Felix leaned forward, surprised to find his hooked sword still in his grip; then he tucked it into his belt and raised both of his hands.

Acid Stream!

Twin jets of acid exploded outward, extra Mana increasing their flow and speed. Felix sprayed down the area before him, panning to the side to ensure he got the invisible bastard. The viscous green liquid spat and sizzled against the stone, eating through the moss and rock at a steady rate, and a good portion of it coated a collection of spindly limbs that began to charge towards him. Felix couldn't quite make out what it was, or how many of them there were, but he did notice that the acid only sloughed off their form, doing no damage.

Shit.

Then the water exploded.

What seemed like a hundred dark blurs launched out of the water all along the coastline, shooting up before buzzing forward toward them. They were fast, fast enough that he couldn't make out details, but they weren't faster than thought.

Reign of Vellus!

Felix released the spell in an arc, and azure lightning exploded up from the earth as a wall of force shimmered and slammed everything backward. The near-invisible creature toppled back as the flying monsters bashed into midair as if hitting a massive window, their momentum stopped dead cold though not reversed. He could see that they were like giant aquatic insects, sectioned carapaces, faceted eyes and all covered in glistening scales. Within moments a few had recovered and buzzed their awful wings toward him again.

"Clarion Call!"

That high pitched siren song belted out into the area, and nearly all of the fly-fish swerved toward her. Felix spared a glance toward her and saw Pit at her side, launching Wingblades and Frost Spears at the approaching monsters.

Good job, Pit. Watch out, they seem fast. Pit chirruped at him mentally, acquiescence that became a warning screech. Barely registering the warning, Felix turned in time to catch a blurring limb to the face.

CRASH!

The stones shattered beneath him as his body was driven to the ground, but when the second limb hit his gut, Felix grappled with it. Refusing to let go, Felix dragged the invisible bastard down with him, using his leverage to yank on their glass-like limb until a loud thud echoed from beside him. Felix rolled on top of it, swinging out with Corrosive Strike; he could feel something grab at his fist, but not hard enough to stop his blow.

CRACK!

Splintering cracks formed on the surface of nothing, revealing the shape of several thrashing limbs beneath his fist.

Blind Fighting is level 21!

Strike after strike, Felix didn't let up. Not even as the glass monster beneath him lashed at him with razor sharp claws and fangs, slashing into his legs, thighs and back. Felix pushed through the pain, focusing on pushing each Corrosive Strike harder and further through this beast's remarkable defense. The cracks spread, making it more and more visible as it's form clouded with fractures, and Felix could make out a snarling wolf-like head atop an emaciated body with far too many limbs.

Analyze...

Name: Glassbone Stalker

Type: Aberration

Level: 35

HP: 90/433

SP: 418/683

MP: 94/94

Lore: Near invisible on land and water, they are aquatic beings that have been corrupted by a blood curse.

Strength: WIL, END, AGL

Weakness: INT, Bludgeoning Attacks

With a roar, he brought both hands down onto the Stalker's face, shattering the stone beneath it as it was reduced to glass powder.

"Huff, huff," Felix sat atop the beast a moment longer, catching his breath. One of the disgusting fly/fish hybrids buzzed his way but he crushed it out of the air with a burst of Reign of Vellus.

Corrosive Strike is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier In Corrosive Strike!

You Gain:

+10 STR

+10 PER

+10 END

Energy poured into him again, the stats vibrating his flesh and bones in ways too minor to keep track of while something like adrenaline pumped into his veins. It was enough of a boost for Felix to suddenly sense the presence of three other creatures, all of them slowly moving forward...toward him.

Felix flared his Manasight, and for the briefest of instants he could see their forms: a lattice-work of green-gold life Mana filled with dark violet light.

Manasight is level 36!

Felix pulsed outward with Reign of Vellus, sending a staggering jolt into the near invisible Glassbone Stalkers and following up with a blast of his Mantle of the Long Night. The air around him began to steam as the temperature instantly dropped by thirty degrees and kept on dropping.

Mantle of the Long Night is level 13!

Ice began to form on the ground as the air around them began swirling in a frigid breeze, and the frost crawled over the Stalkers' forms as well, highlighting them against the darkness as they recoiled in pain. Alien, warbling yowls filled the air.

"Don't like the cold, ya jerks?" Felix scowled before pumping more Mana into the aura spell. The ice started to accumulate a little faster while his Mana began to drain like a sieve. The Stalkers yowled louder and lost their patience: with a blurring of frosted limbs they charged.

Reign of Vellus!

Influence of the Wisp!

Another blast of kinetic force burst from him, this time barely stopping their braced forms. He followed up with his Influence spell, and while the blue-white fire seared them the Enthrall failed to take hold. Their strong Willpower defended them. Growling with frustration Felix gathered his Mana for a Stone Shaping, pushing his Fire Within to sound out the familiar patterns. Yet as he did so, his ability to focus on Bastion of Will faltered, and an echo of something else shuddered through his pathways, something strange yet solidly familiar...

The Mother's song...

The pattern deviated, branching outward wildly as his Mana dumped into the spellform like a flood. Felix tried to stem the flow, but could only watch as power gushed from his core and channels, spilling out into the greedy earth in flashes of dusty brown and glistening silver. Groaning in pain and muscles straining with effort, he cast the spell.

STONE SHAPING!

The Stalkers didn't pause a moment as creaking groans sounded from all around them, their numerous clawed limbs mere milliseconds from eviscerating Felix. Then the outstretched claw of a massive statue slammed down upon the glass beasts, shattering two of them instantly and throwing the third into the path of a standing stone. Its impact was lost in the immense sound of the fallen statue, which had rung the earth like a gong and thrown everyone from their feet.

Felix saw that one of the nearest statues, one depicting a half feline/half reptilian Harnoq had been bent and knocked over somehow, though Felix suspected he knew why. His flickering Manasight could still trace wispy vapors of dusty brown Mana from the far end. It was just...so far away.

How did I do that?

Stone Shaping is level 25!

"Ah shit!" Felix gave the issue no more thought as he frantically cast around for his half-destroyed potions case. At the same time, the dark waters surged as another two dozen insect-fish creatures emerged, all of them darting in his direction. He threw himself down to dodge the first few, and though they missed him Felix began to feel a strident pain that flashed across his spine and brain, like red-hot fireworks. Then more buzzing creatures converged on him.

"Felix!" A yellow dome formed around him as he fell to his knees. "Hold it together!"

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier In Stone Shaping!

You Gain:

+5 STR

Felix could only grit his teeth and bear it as energy surged though him, pinging off an invisible wound. Close to twenty fly-fish hurled themselves at the shield around him, each of them chittering for his flesh. Another sharp cry and close to half were diverted, streaming around him to attack the shield warrior who waded into the thick of it.

There! The case!

The pain surged again, just out of sight. He couldn't place it, he only felt the extreme agony of its presence, like an infected tooth. Felix snatched the Wandering Spirit draught from the ground, uncorked it with shaking limbs and quaffed it.

+5 WIL

+...

Uncommon Essence Draught Detected During Formation!

[Draught Essence of the Wandering Spirit]

Choose a Feature:

Wander

Dauntless

Chiaroscuro

What? A dull grinding resonated through his legs and it felt like his bones were splintering. Wander, that's...ah..that's ok. Moving aimlessly? Dauntless sounds..agh!...sounds good. Bold and fearless. But...chiaroscuro? Isn't that a painting thing? Something about light and dark? Why is that...eyaah...even here? Why is Italian here in the System at all?

The pain was coming increasingly fast. This was nothing like how his Body Tempered...or even the one Spirit Essence he tried. What is happening? The pain was transcending from bodily to something else, something that tugged at his heart and core as if someone was trying to tear away his skin. It was limb-weakening agony, and Felix fell to all fours. Felix blinked away sweat from his eyes and focused. The choice was before him and he didn't have much time.

He chose Dauntless.

Or he tried to. His mental choice didn't register. And then the box did something he had never seen before. It..glitched. The blue system message flickered and twisted, suddenly flaring an angry red as the three options all scattered around him like loose leaf paper in a breeze. Pain tore through him, more savage than ever, and his left leg and forearm were at the center of it. Felix reached out, but each time the options flitted away.

GAH! Just choose damnit!

He screamed as he closed his eyes and jabbed his arm forward, somehow trying to flare his Blind Fighting passive Skill.

Congratulations!

You have absorbed the Essence of Chiaroscuro!

Suddenly his body stopped hurting. The phantom injuries along his left side faded in an instant, and his skin felt normal and whole. That lasted for all of a second before the space around his core seemed to ignite, his internal fire eating away at his own flesh as soundless lightning crackled beyond his body, beyond anything tangible and struck at the heart of who he was...it was pure agony. Pure ecstasy. Then utter nothingness that consumed his entire world.

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