The air between the pillars shimmered, then warped, the portal leading to the last room of the Rift snapping into place.
Mia finally relaxed, the strength draining out of her petite frame, but then her paranoia came back with full force. If either Konstantin’s or Lori’s lot were going to do something monumentally stupid, this was the time. She might not have had the strength to cast spells herself, but her Spirit Sense was not any weaker for it. So she watched like a hawk, her mental fingers resting on the threads of swirling ambient mana for any unnatural pulse signifying a spell or skill being primed.
Carmilla, being the overprotective worrywart blessed with the supernatural perception of vampires, noticed her stiffen, and her eyes narrowed. Her gaze panned around, though Mia wasn’t silly enough to follow it. People might not notice the redhead looking around like she suspected someone was plotting the murder of her favourite puppy, but if the two of them did it at the same time, it’d be multiple times as fishy.
So Mia kicked the girl’s leg to not be too obvious about it. Of course it did nothing to the vampire who could bend metal bars with her bare hands, but the message was received all the same and Camie gave her a sheepish look.
The fact that she’d just had an entire silent conversation with her girlfriend in the span of a second sent a giddy thrill through Mia’s body, even managing to put the beginnings of a giddy smile on her lips. Just like in the books. How awesome is that?
But she quickly centred herself, and her focus only slightly wavered.
“We should take the bodies with us,” Brent said in a near whisper. “We are destroying this Rift, they don’t deserve to be sent to oblivion with it, nor do their families deserve to bury empty caskets just because we didn’t want to bother.”
Now that was like a cold bucket of water dumped over everyone’s collective post-victory mood. The smiles and grins fell away, the elation at having survived the battle draining out of people as they finally remembered that many didn’t.
Mark then went about creating stretchers for the unfortunate delvers who didn’t make it, while Camie cut the tents and tarps into something resembling a makeshift shroud. It was about as much dignity as they could give the dead in these circumstances. The others gathered them up, placed them on the stretchers and covered them up. A morose silence fell over the survivors, all of them probably thinking that it easily could have been them lying on one of those stretchers.
Helene came to hover over Mia, pulling her into a comforting side-hug, which the girl happily leaned into. The forest felt cold; she needed some warmth.
They streamed into the last room, one after the other, under the vigilant stare of the three ringleaders. Lori glared at the beastkin, her eyes never leaving them even a moment to act without being watched, and Konstantin returned the favour, staring back at her with that vaguely offended stare of superiority like he was annoyed he had to waste his attention to warn off a pesky insect buzzing about his head. Meanwhile, Brent was coiled tighter than the Gordian knot, ready to spring into action to break up any fight threatening to break out. Now that there was no existential threat hanging over everyone’s heads like a Sword of Damocles, the two might be at each other’s throats in moments.
When the last person stepped through the marble arch, the portal fizzled out, leaving them all together in the empty white room, alone with the Rift Core sitting atop the pedestal near the back wall.
“Well then,” Brent said, his voice tense and wary as he positioned himself to see everyone. “I’m going to go ahead and do the honours if nobody had an objection to it?”
There was none, thankfully and nor did anyone start a fight while Brent backed away to touch the Core.
[Rift’s Destruction has been initiated! Process will commence once all delvers have left the rift or after 2 standard ‘Earth’ hours.]
[Generating Rift Rewards … ]
[Rewards doubled by ‘Hidden Quest: First Raid Clear’]
[Reward quality increased for being the first ever delvers to Clear this Rift]
[Reward quality and quantity increased by 500% for initiating the Destruction of this Rift!]
[Rewards Generated for User Maria Vexley:
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1 x Junior Grade Runic Lexicon: Arcane / Basic Summoning
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1 x Junior Grade Runic Lexicon: Arcane / Basic Conjuration
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1 x Junior Grade Runic Lexicon: Arcane / Basic Abjuration
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1 x Junior Grade Runic Lexicon: Arcane / Basic Warding
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1 x Soulbound Artifact: Magnificent Hat of the Wandering Witch
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1 x [Uncommon] Rank 1 Arcane Wand
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1 x [Uncommon] Summoning Ritual Catalyst: ‘Minor Crystallised Essence of Valour’
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1 x [Uncommon] Summoning Ritual Catalyst: ‘Minor Crystallised Essence of Slaughter’
***
If it was possible, tension mounted even higher as people beheld the corridors extending from the sides of the room, all having shelves carved into the walls as if it were a crypt. Atop each shelf was a name, and on them lay the Rewards. Rows upon rows of shiny loot.
Right. Another incentive for murder. Magnificent. Just what they needed.
“If anyone starts a fight and damages my stuff, I’m joining the other side just to shoot them in the head,” Tristan pompously announced, and though his delivery came off as prickly, that did nothing to lessen the threat after everyone saw just what his arrows could do. People shuffled around, gathering in groups, factions, really, and Tristan snorted. “That’s what I thought.”
Mia had to suppress the urge to whack him in his smug face with an Arcane Blast. Even if it wasn’t his intention, he likely prevented a fight, or at least, he put a stopper on it for now. The tension was still there, but it was colder, waiting, less volatile but no less explosive.
Thankfully, the System could apparently read the room and the three corridors that opened up all held the Rewards of the three major factions that had propped up. The beastkin on one end, the unionists on another, and the rest in the middle corridor, which included Mia’s group, other ‘loyalists’ and Jeff’s lot.
At least Jeff was calm and much less likely to start anything. The man looked like nothing fazed him these days, a damned organic statue, that one.
Mia shuffled in along the rest, asking Sparkle to stay behind and notify her if anyone was acting fishy. Her eyes ran over the names, and she found the one reading ‘Maria Vexley’ soon enough.
She thought back to the list and finally allowed herself a satisfied smirk. Rank 1 upgrades to all the runic lexicons she’d had before, a fancy new wand, two ritual aids and a Soulbound Artifact. That last one sounded the most interesting, so she focused on it, reaching for the wide-brimmed witch’s hat lying atop the other loot.
***
Soulbound Artifact: Magnificent Hat of the Wandering Witch.
Desc.: A dapper hat woven from threads of Astral essence. Every aspiring witch needs a proper wide-brimmed hat with a floppy top, but this one is the hat to end all hats! The only hat a young witch would ever need with a body as dark as the void of space, filled with flickering images of constellations, and a proper pink ribbon wrapped around it.
Effects:
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Grants +1 Spirit/Manifestation and +1 Spirit/Control when worn. The bonus increases with each Rank by a (Rank x 2) value to both Attributes.
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The hat can be stored within the Spirit at the expense of locking 5% of the Core’s mana capacity while it is inside.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
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The hat can be transformed into an ebony black choker. Wearing it this way doesn’t count as it being worn for the bonus Attributes, but it is stylish.
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While worn, the hat doubles the rate at which new Runes are incorporated into your runic model and triples the rate at which you can fuse two Runes together.
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While worn the hat boosts neuroplasticity, eases memorisation and boosts focus while the wearer engages in activities befitting a young Witch, such as studying, spell creation or experimenting with magic.
***
That was much better than she’d been thinking, damn. Stat boosts, storage, and shape-change were all nice, but what made her salivate were the final two effects.
Not wasting any time, Mia grabbed the hat and placed it atop her head.
Soulbind Artifact ‘Magnificent Hat of the Wandering Witch’ ?
[ Y / N ]
Hell yes! The hat shrank, practically moulding itself around Mia’s head and casting a comfortable shade over her eyes. She turned her head this way and that, then grinned as she felt how snug the hat fit her. She wouldn’t have to worry about a breeze knocking it off at least.
Mia reached for the other Rewards, the two ritual aids she could pocket, and the wand looked about the same size as her old one, so it could go into the holster, but the books were a problem. They were only the size of notebooks, but even those were just large enough not to fit into her waist-bags.
Do you wish for the System to store your Rewards for later retrieval?
[ Y / N ]
Yes please. Mia thought, slumping a little in relief as the books and the ritual aids disappeared, but the wand was left behind.
She quickly dumped her old, barely functional wand and slid the new one into the holster hanging off the side of her hips. Thanks, System. If those essence crystals can be used for what I think they can, it's best that I don’t risk breaking them.
She had plans for that Summoning ritual she’d been putting off; she knew the place that could work for the ritual to maximise the symbolistic resonance and the catalysts she could use … but she’d have to get to Vienna for both, then rob a museum for the latter. These essence crystals might allow her to circumvent that need entirely and use them instead as the catalysts to tap into the Spirit planes of Valour and Slaughter. It seemed like even the System was getting sick of waiting for her to get to the capital.
All Mia would need now was a week or two, and her personal power would skyrocket, even if the Obelisk remained out of her reach for some godforsaken reason. Her runic model was already Rank 1, and now she’d have runes and spells to go with it, too, along with a proper wand to cast them with, one that wasn’t going to blow up in her hand if she cast a single Rank 1 spell. With her new hat, she could internalise all the new potential power she’d just been rewarded with much swifter too. It was a godsend.
It wouldn’t help her any if some asshat jumped her on her way out of the Raid though. She would not allow for a repeat of the sniper incident, she would have an overcharged Ward and a Shield up at the same time when she stepped through the portal.
Hopefully, everyone else would also be loath to die before they could make use of their shiny new loot. Or … maybe the muscle-headed brutes got things they could make use of immediately in battle, like artifact weapons or something like that. What did Elementalists and Ki users get for Rewards? Or social Classes? Mark would be a good Datapoint for melee Elementalists, while Lina for the more mage-like Elementalists. Meanwhile, Brent was a Ki warrior, her Mother a Sorceress. She’d have to ask the others later, gathering what sorts of stuff different Class archetypes got could be interesting.
“Let’s go,” Camie whispered, coming to a stop behind Mia. Helene and Lina came behind her, while Brent and Mark stood off to her other side, gazing out of the corridor and back into the room proper. “It’s time we get out of this hellhole.”
“Agreed.” That was Jeff’s voice, flat and blunt as an old shovel. Mia glanced at him and gave a slightly reluctant nod. The old spite and defiance still sparkled in her heart, and she didn’t like the man any more than she had back then … but he’d pulled through, hadn’t he? He fought, he bled, he killed monsters, all with his trademark stoic stare and bored expression.
Sparkle? Mia asked.
‘Nothing here. Everyone’s all tense but behaving.’ The sprite said, sounding serious for a change.
Mia’s energy channels had recovered somewhat over the course of the last hour or so. She’d spent the time gently massaging her channels with small pulses of mana while others handled taking care of the dead. It wasn’t like she was shirking her part … but she very much doubted any of the fallen would have appreciated their corpses getting covered in vomit, which would have been the inevitable outcome if someone forced her to gather the bodies. It was better for everyone that she spent that time meditating and keeping an eye out for trickery.
A new arch had risen from the ground while they’d been distracted, and as the group approached the air between its pillars shimmered, and the portal snapped into being. It was so close. Freedom.
Mia suppressed the urge to rush ahead and swirled her runic model. Lesser Ward of Protection layered itself on top of her body as thick as she could make it, then she let it go, revolving her runes around to form the spellcircles for Arcane Shield and Arcane Blast, the first of which she cast on her left hand. She was ready. They would go together, with the other squads they could trust not to shank them and the two factions just waiting to jump at each other's throats could do as they wished.
Once she and her friends were out of the Rift, Mia couldn’t bring herself to care what they did. She didn’t have any special attachment to any of the beastkin or unionists. She felt for Lori, and many of the beastkin had been dependable, but she wouldn’t want to risk the lives of her actual friends and family for theirs. Not in a million years. Thankfully, Brent seemed to agree, considering he was hastily ushering them out through the portal in a tight formation while the two remaining factions watched like flocks of hawks.
Mark went first, and Mia followed a step behind, her Shield raised to protect her face and upper torso from any would-be sniper, but nothing came. The drop in ambient miasma was almost jarring, if it wasn’t such a relief, even though it still poured out of the portal behind her like a broken faucet. It was like she could finally breathe after almost an entire day of constant asphyxiation.
She quickly hopped to the side, clearing the way as she panned her gaze around.
“Freeze!” Someone shouted, making Mia stiffen and fall into a ready stance instinctively. “Make no threatening moves, we are authorised to shoot at the first sign of intent to attack.”
They were in a hole, no, a pit and one surrounded by walls on all sides. Walls with little windows, murder holes, and all had rifles poking out of them. Mia’s Spirit Sense caught no less than fifty reasonably powerful magical presences surrounding them.
“Peace!” Brent shouted, stepping forward with his arms raised, and Mia was ready to let loose her Arcane Blast the moment one of the riflemen’s fingers inched a bit too close to the trigger for her comfort. She wasn’t sure what this shit was, but this was no proper welcome for returning heroes who risked their lives to protect the City. “What’s going on?”
“War,” the same soldier replied. “The rotten beastkin attacked the moment you lot went into the Rift, so step away, and keep calm. You have nothing to fear, but we will have to detain any beastkin coming through that gate. Hands where we can see them and not a lick of magic or whatnot. We can’t risk it, you understand.”
“We do,” Brent said. “We will comply.”
Mia had opinions on that, but knew it was petty and childish. She hadn’t expected a victory parade, but this was well below her worst expectations. Somehow worse than getting shot at the moment she left the Rift. Damnit all, she’d have been happy if they’d have just let them all go home; she had gone an entire day now without cuddling Camie or sleeping in a proper bed, or both. Both would be good, no, both would happen. She’d make it happen. She needed to recharge after this day, because it was a day, for sure. One of the worst ones in her entire life.
“Let’s stand to the side,” Brent said, turning to them. “This is stupid, and I’m not dying for this bullshit. Not today. Yeah?”
Mia nodded, and even the others begrudgingly agreed. Sandor looked ready to leap through a wall and strangle the shouting soldier with his intestines, but the man still followed after Brent. As did Jeff’s group, including Tristan, who seemed to have weighed the importance of his ego against getting turned into swiss cheese and decided living was worth more than putting some rude soldiers in their place.
If there was a silver lining to it, it was that Mia could finally take a glance at the System notification that’d been poking her in the brain since she stepped through the portal.
***
[Regional Quest: Raid!]
Objectives:
-
COMPLETE! Clear the Raid!
-
COMPLETE! (Initiated/Inevitable) Destroy the Raid!
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Kill the monsters inside the Raid! ( 501 / 551 )
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COMPLETE! Kill the Raid Guardian!
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Assist in achieving the above-mentioned objectives! Contributions: Major (31% towards Supreme)
Reward: A Skill Shard of varying rarity, chosen from a short list. Rarity and number of options will depend on contributions!
***
Since Objective ‘Kill the monsters in the Raid’ is more than 90% completed, and all other Objectives are Completed, you may finish the Quest without progressing it further with only a flat 2% diminishment of base Reward quality. Proceed?
[ Y / N ]
***
Yes, please. I’m sure as hell not going back for another round, fuck that. Mia thought.
***
Generating Suitable Skill Shard selection …
Skill Shard Options: (choose 1)
{Newcomers’ Note}: All the following skills are compatible with you by default. You can send your chosen skill to the Skill Library if you have no empty Secondary Skill slot, but there will be some among them compatible with your Class Skill that you will be able to merge immediately. Keep in mind though, you could also keep them in reserve for later to add to another Primary Skill, or to use in the creation of a new Primary Skill.
[Shimmer - Uncommon]: A lower-rarity version of the Blink Skill/Spell, a faux short-range teleportation. Instead of true teleportation or using adjacent dimensions to cross the distance, Shimmer makes use of Wisp magic. It turns you into your Wisp Form on activation and sends you forward in the direction you were moving in a quick dash. Speed scales with Spirit/Control, and distance travelled scales with Spirit/Manifestation. Anything that can halt a Wisp can stop Shimmer.
[Power Beam - Uncommon]: The Skill version of the Rank 2 Arcane Spell of the same name. Power Beam is a simple Skill, pour mana in, and out comes a beam of absolute destruction. Primarily scales with Spirit/Control since it takes as much mana as you can pour into it with no upper limit, using it all to empower the beam.
[Double Cast - Uncommon]: You already know how to cast two spells at the same time, but it takes focus and control, taking away precious processing power from other tasks. This Skill will handle it all for you and take the burden off your shoulders. With enough effort, it might even evolve into the Multi-cast Skill.
[Arcane Possession - Rare]: This Skill is fashioned after the instinct ability of Spirits to possess mana constructs matching their own primary element. Using Wisp magic, you can replicate this, though only on arcane constructs made out of your own mana.
[Spirit Blink - Rare]: With this Skill, you can send your Wisp Form racing across your Bond and appear next to your Bonded Companion in the blink of an eye. Range scales with the strength of the Bond. The Bond itself is not in real space, so most ways to trap a Wisp will not work on Spirit Blink.
***
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