Somnus V - Chapter 21

Kat sat on a large rock, munching on some sort of alien bread drizzled in honey. Kaleek lounged a pace or so away, his food long gone as he eyed up Kat’s meal. On another rock, five paces away, Toorvu and Stekat were talking quietly.chatting about something else.

 She wasn’t entirely sure what excuse Jaalin and her group were using to be present at their battle with the floor guardian. Obviously, there was something going on between Dorrik and the female lokkel, but neither of them would actually admit to anything. Even listening in on all of their conversations, Kat only heard breathless descriptions of potential battle tactics and plans to optimize classes. Over the past couple of weeks she’d come to the conclusion that, at least for Jaalin and Dorrik, that’s what flirting looked like.

 Part of her wondered if it was a lokkel thing, but deep down Kat knew better. Lokkel were different from humans, just like every race, but they weren’t that different. Dorrik was simply Dorrik.

 She stuffed the last of the bread into her mouth, chewing for a second before swallowing. Kat popped each of her fingers into her mouth, licking the honey off. In her gut, warmth began to spread as the enchanted meal began regenerating her mana and stamina. There wasn’t any real need for it now, she was topped off for the moment, but refilling her resource pools fifty percent faster would be pretty useful.

 Kat stood up, lifting her arms above her head to stretch them out. Toorvu and Stekat stopped talking for a second when she moved, but Toorvu just shot her a quick nod before returning to the conversation.

 “Come on Kaleek,” she called out. “Let’s grab Dorrik and make a run at the floor guardian. If we don’t cut him off, he’ll just end up talking to Jaalin until we wake up.”

 “Yeah, yeah,” the big otter replied, springing to his feet with the clang of heavy armor. It hadn’t been completely repaired yet, but the Kaleek had managed to find a craftsman capable of welding a plate over the hole in its back and covering it with enough enchantments that it was almost as good as new.

 She started walking toward where Jaalin and Dorrik were talking. By the time she made it about halfway there, their casual talk had picked up a tone of urgency.

 “A dungeon every other day?” Jaalin hissed the question quietly, clearly trying to avoid being overheard. “Are you mad Dorrik? This isn’t the second floor. If you try that on the thirteenth floor you’ll die. Even if you can handle each of those dungeons individually, even if you somehow manage to fully prepare for them, the mental strain will burn you out. You’ll get clumsy and you’ll make mistakes.”

 “No,” Dorrik replied, “I won’t die. I will simply choose not to.”

 “It doesn’t work like that Dorrik.” Frustration was bubbling over in Jaalin’s voice. “I know you want to help the human and I’ll concede that she’s one of the more talented warriors I’ve worked with, but this isn’t worth it. You’ll throw your future away for nothing.”

 “Not for nothing,” Dorrik insisted. “I’m not going to die, but more importantly, none of this is pointless. I am helping Miss Kat. There are few things more important than that.”

 “I- of course,” Jaalin trailed off, her crest fluttering wildly.

 Kat coughed, drawing their attention before her eavesdropping became too obvious. Jaalin jerked backward, her mouth opening and closing rapidly.

 “Ready?” Kat asked, nodding toward Dorrik. “There’s a big dinosaur with our name on it and we only have about a half hour left before Kaleek and my meal wears off.”

 Dorrik cast a long, meaningful glance at Jaalin before he nodded back.

 “Of course Miss Kat. Jaalin and I can finish our conversation later. After all, she will follow us to the thirteenth floor shortly. Her and I can discuss matters in greater depth then.”

 “Please, Dorrik,” Jaalin responded. “Give some thought to what I’ve said. I know that you think you can handle the workload, and maybe you can, but pay attention to yourself. If you find your concentration starting to flag, take a break. It is better to be a little slow than very dead.”

 “Death is a luxury,” Dorrik replied, smiling at the female lokkel. “I do not have time for it so I will not indulge in it. We shall meet again on the thirteenth floor.”

 He turned, nodding at Kat before he began to walk toward where the spire that connected the twelfth floor to the thirteenth jutted up from the empty landscape. At its base, a monster that looked like a building-sized ankylosaurus munched on some grass.

 Kaleek fell into step with the two of them as they approached the creature. When they were about two hundred paces away, it looked up, fixing its gaze upon them with a surprisingly small pair of beady black eyes.

 It made a chuffing noise, turning to face them. One large foot pawed at the grass and soil.

 “Be ready,” Dorrik whispered. “My research says that it always opens with a charge. From there, it adapts based upon our tactics, but if all three of us approach together, us splitting apart at the last second should be enough to confuse it and blunt its first attack.”

 Kat nodded, slipping a crossbow bolt into her weapon and beginning to infuse her mana into the weapon. The dinosaur lowered its head.

 “Remember the plan,” Dorrik said tersely. “Send it airborne and-”

 The boss launched into motion toward the three of them, ending the lokkel’s warning before he could finish it. It tucked its head into its paws, curling its body and whipping its tail upward as it turned its body into a huge circle that spun toward their group.

 Dorrik and Kaleek dove to either side while Kat Leapt, shifting gravity in order to propel herself well out of the creature’s reach. She pressed her crossbow butt against her shoulder, tracking the rapidly moving dinosaur as it thundered across the prairie.

 Kat’s first bolt hit the boss, shattering on its heavy armor. She felt the ‘click’ of there spell snapping into place as she loaded a second bolt into the crossbow

 The dinosaur hit a slight bump, sending it airborne. It hung above the grass for a couple of seconds, the single iteration of Levitation working as hard as possible to lift the monster’s bulk. Then, it slowly drifted back toward the prairie.

 Her second bolt was loaded, and Kat began infusing mana again, eyes tracking the creature as it unfurled its body. The ankylosaurus shifted slightly in the air, planting its left two feet into the dirt in order to right itself.

 It bleated. A noise filled with distress and confusion as the monster shook its entire body like a wet dog. It cocked its head to the side, looking down at the prairie and then back up at the sky, confusion evident in its beady eyes.

 Kat fired again. The monster didn’t try to dodge. Why would it? The crossbow bolt was less than a needle compared to its heavily armored bulk. It was less a threat than a thorn or a pebble underfoot.

 The bolt clicked off of heavy bone, unable to leave a physical mark even as it delivered its magical payload.

 She let gravity snap back to normal. Kat began falling a fraction of a second before the floor guardian swung its tail in her general direction, unleashing a flurry of spikes. They sailed overhead as Kat dropped toward the grass, her part in the initial stages of the battle over.

 Dorrik summoned a storm of purple daggers that pelted the monster, distracting it while Kaleek charged. He bellowed, sword throbbing with ruby light as he swung it upward.

 His weapon connected with the underside of the ankylosaurus’ armor. Two layers of Levitation left the creature weightless. The blow sent it tumbling up into the air.

 Dorrik zipped past Kaleek, his entire body glowing purple as he jumped into the air. Both of his swords stabbed deep into one of its legs. The purple light around Dorrik strobed and he ripped them free, sending a spray of blood into the air.

 The monster swung its tail at Dorrik, forcing him to jump free of the slowly tumbling floor guardian. A half dozen bone spikes followed Dorrik down. His swords flicked back and forth with blinding speed deflecting the two shards that were on target.

 Kaleek ran past Dorrik, thrusting upward with his sword into the underside of the ankylosaurus. With a hideous screech, it scraped off bone, unable to penetrate the monster’s armor but keeping the flailing monster airborne.

 “Miss Kat!” Dorrik shouted. He didn’t need to deliver any further instructions as she sprinted toward the battle, mana welling up in her chest.

She triggered Flight as she ran, targeting Dorrik. The second the spell clicked into place he took to the air and she began charging another one, aiming a Gravity Spike at the center of the monster’s body now that she was within range.

 Dorrik transformed into a purple dervish of whirling blades as he launched himself at one of the monster’s rear legs. Even enchanted and psi enhanced, his weapons didn’t have enough weight behind them to actually puncture the floor guardian’s armor, but they were more than enough to shred the thick scaled hide that covered its limbs.

 Once again the dinosaur bleated in fear and confusion. Its tail swished back and forth fruitlessly, the heavy spiked ball at the end only striking air. Dorrik took advantage of its panic to zip around the creature, stabbing both of his swords deep into the base of its tail.

 Kat released her spell, triggering a Gravity Spike deep inside the monster’s torso. It wasn’t enough to kill the creature on its own, but the rapidly oscillating pulses of extreme gravity tore and ripped at its internal organs with wild abandon, bruising what they could not destroy outright.

 From the monster’s rear, Dorrik attacked again, hacking large chunks of flesh off of the guardian’s tail. One of the guardian’s legs flailed wildly, hitting Dorrik in the center of his blood covered chestplate and sending him flying.

 It swung its tail again, sending another arc of blood through the air as it fired a volley of spikes toward the lokkel. Before Kat could intervene, Dorrik corkscrewed through air, dodging in between the chunks of bone as he retaliated with a pair of psi blades.

 As the attacks hit, Kat’s first casting of Levitation faded. Spell Infusion was an incredibly useful ability, but it didn’t let her channel and maintain her magic the way that a direct casting would, limiting the duration of her spells. On elite monsters such as floor guardians and dungeon bosses, that duration was weakened even further.

 “Kaleek!” She shouted, warning her companion as she came to a sudden stop extending her right arm outward toward the monster as it began to fall toward him, as if she was going to grab ahold of it and pluck it from the sky.

 “I’m ready Kat!” He yelled back, “Let loose!”

 She took a deep breath, activating Gravity’s Grasp. It struggled, pulling against the second iteration of Levitation for a fraction of a second before overwhelming the other spell. The weakening mana popped like a soap bubble, and the dinosaur’s gentle descent evaporated, transforming the ankylosaurus into a panicking and flailing meteor.

 Kaleek kicked off the ground, jumping upward toward the falling monster, his entire body glowing red as he activated one of his skills. When he was about a half pace off the ground, the plate of metal that he’d welded over the hole in the back of his armor erupted with white light. Even twenty or so paces away, Kat could feel the magic buffeting into her, threatening to knock her off her feet as a wave of scorching air slammed into her.

 The desoph rocketed upward, a jet of flame erupting from the armor plate. He met the falling floor guardian with enough force to knock Kat back onto her heels. His sword punched through the floor guardian’s heavy armor sending Dorrik careening to the side. The shockwave from the collision echoed through the air even as slivers of shattered armor sprayed the countryside.

Kat’s arm snapped up, shielding her face and eyes, and it was a good thing too. Shrapnel carved divots through her armor, scoring flesh underneath and shaving off a dozen hitpoints in the blink of an eye.

She lowered her limb, taking in the battlefield a fraction of a second before Kaleek and the floor guardian slammed into the ground. At some point he’d managed to flip the monster around, planting its armored back deep into the soil.

Kaleek ripped his greatsword free, sending blood and the shattered remains of the dinosaur’s chestplate flying. His sword thundered downward a second time, and this time there was no armor to stop his strike. The blade landed with a dull ‘thwack’ that sent blood and viscera flying through the air.

The floor guardian bellowed. It tried to rock itself free, but the dinosaur was like a turtle trapped on its back. Only two of its legs were functioning properly after Dorrik’s attacks, and that wasn’t enough for it to lever itself out of the depression created by its sudden fall.

Its injured tail slapped the ground, lifting the lower third of its body off the ground, but between blood loss and the persistent force of Gravity’s Grasp, it couldn’t fully right itself. It screeched and thrashed, blood flowing freely from the wounds in its chest, tail and legs, but struggle as it might, the monster still couldn’t right itself.

Then, Dorrik landed on its upper chest, his blades scissoring through the thick, corded muscle of the creature’s neck, silencing it. The dinosaur was still alive, its spiked tail firing spears of bone recklessly as it swung back and forth, but Dorrik’s attack removed its vocal cords and most of its throat.

Kat extended her mana, casting overpressure on the dinosaur’s savaged neck even as Dorrik slashed it a second time. Blood sprayed everywhere, coating Dorrik and the trampled grass around the downed floor guardian.

It shuddered, legs pawing weakly at the sky as both Dorrik and Kaleek continued their assault.

Kat stopped about ten paces away, a wise distance considering the amount of blood pouring out of the monster. From start to finish, the entire fight had only lasted about two minutes. Blinding speed for going through a floor guardian, but given that it was a heavy combatant without any real special abilities beyond its spikes and its ability to charge, the fight was almost a foregone conclusion.

That was the strength of Dorrik’s information gathering. He had to go through Jaalin now that he was on Earth, but Clan Ahn had sent thousands if not tens of thousands of warriors through the twelfth floor over the last couple of centuries. That meant that Dorrik was able to choose a floor guardian that played perfectly to their abilities.

Dorrik dropped to one knee, stabbing downward with both of his swords. The ankylosaurus stiffened. Then all of its limbs went limp and a familiar screen appeared in front of Kat.

Congratulations Adventurer!

You have defeated the Armor and ascended past the Twelfth floor!

For achieving this feat with three or fewer players, a bonus attribute point has been awarded. Assign it wisely!

For ascending a level as an Elite Gravity Adept, you gain the following benefits:

Error - Administrator Modification Detected, Recalculating

Keep climbing! Your answers and the Gardeners await you at the top!

Okay. Maybe that screen wasn’t exactly what she was used to. A second later it flickered out without any interaction from her, replaced by a new notification.

-----

You have ascended past the Twelfth floor with ease. As expected.

We are watching Katherine. Keep climbing. Show us what you are capable of.

Gravity Domain + 1

Gravity Enhancement + 1

-----

 Her eyes widened. That was new. Frantically she opened up her character sheet in order to check the changes.
--------------------------------------------
Name Katherine Debs
Class Elite Gravity Adept
Max Level 12

4922 Marks
HP 102/102
MP 122/197
STA 109/121

Dodge Below Average
Damage Mitigation Poor

Strength 11
Agility 22
Fortitude 11
Endurance 13
Mind 24
Reaction 17
Charisma 11
Spirit 18

Gravity Domain Weak (3)
Gravity Enhancement (2)

Spells Known

Elementalist

Gravity
Gravity’s Grasp
Levitation
Gravity Spike
Gravity Plane
Flight
Crushing Fist

Water
Pseudopod
Dehydrate
Water Jet
Overpressure
Watershape
Scald

Light
Dazzle
Shadow
Mirage
Blind
Flare
Illusory Clone

Protection I
Ward - 11, 25%
Resist Fire - 9, 62%
Resist Cold - 8, 17%
Resist Electricity - 9, 59%
Resist Acid - 2, 41%
Resist Poison - 12, MAX

Protection II
Arcane Armor - 9, 75%
Resist Magic - 5, 82%

Skills Known
Knife 2 - 12, MAX (Dancing Blade)
Gravity II - 12, MAX
Water II - 12, MAX
Shadow Step - 12, MAX (Shadow Strike)
Light II - 12, MAX
Cure Wounds II - MAX,
Penetrate
Crossbow 2 - 12, MAX (Spell Infusion)
Leech - 12, MAX (Weakness)

Perks
Nightvision
Leaping
Sensory Dampening
Crippling Blow
Fast Healing
Second Wind
Alertness
Sharp Hearing
Throwing

--------------------------------------------

No attribute point and no free point for finishing the floor guardian with only a party of three, but despite that she had a hard time complaining too much. She could feel her Gravity Domain growing. It extended no more than an arm’s length from her body, but that was plenty. Already she would be able to interfere with the balance and personal gravity of someone that she was fighting with at close range. Her power had grown a similar amount. Instinctively, Kat knew that her gravity spells and the force of her Domain had both improved noticeably.

She felt excitement stir within her. If that was the change she was seeing only one level after her class enhancement, Kat could only imagine how strong she would end up in another five or six levels.

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