Chapter 22: Chapter 22 - Rest and Resolve
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A/N: Apologies everyone, there was a small but extremely important revision to Chapter 21. If you read Chapter 21 after the title had (Revised) in front of it, not to worry, you’ve read the updated versions. Ignore this note.
If you read the Chapter before the "Revised" was added, then a simple look back at the updated skill description should be all you need. Other than that, I only changed a few thoughts and other things to maintain continuity.
Cheers, hope everyone enjoys today’s chappie!
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Mana Pathways
It seemed the party had relegated in their explanations on how Mana was used. Arthur had only mentioned that without laws, "it’ll only reinforce your body a little".
But the conversation had quickly pivoted to a discussion about laws, that then prompted a severe warning on hiding my gift. I hadn’t dug any deeper into exactly how Mana would reinforce the body.
Nonetheless, the information I was missing was the fact that the Body manifested Mana Pathways during one’s ascension into the Gold Rank. And channeling your mana through these pathways would grant you a considerable boost to all physical attributes, sometimes even a full 2x or 3x multiplier, but the Mana Cost was also considerably high.
And all the "basic" techniques for Gold Rank Hunters in this book involved guiding the Mana through the Mana Pathways in specific ways to give you physical boosts when and where required. The forms detailed timings and intensities of this process, called "Mana Channeling".
And these basic forms and methods of mana channeling made it so you got maximum use of your peak strength, whilst keeping your Mana costs at a minimum.
My mind pieced together the full picture relatively quickly.
Channeling is supposed to happen through the Mana Pathways.
But in my case, I had somehow, someway, forced my Mana Core to attempt to channel mana, despite not having these dedicated pathways to distribute it. And that only left the Mana with one other route---my blood vessels.
I sat there, still chewing on the last piece of dried meat as the realization sank in.
The timer in the middle of the chamber indicated there was only one minute remaining now.
My gaze flicked back to the opposite wall, where the hatches had opened up from in all the previous waves.
Wave 4
If Wave 3 had contained a Peak Squall-Class Beast with a Gift, then Wave 4...
Wave 4 will be against a Tremor Class.
And if the Waves continued to scale the way it had in the first three waves...
Wave 5 should be Two Tremor-Classes and Wave 6 should be Three of them.
I shifted against the wall, realizing where this train of thought was taking me.
That means Waves 7, 8 and 9 would be against Crisis-Class Beasts, and Wave 10...
I swallowed hard.
The requirement to pass the FIRST FLOOR of Eidolon’s Matrix, would be to to survive a Disaster Class Beast.
This just makes no sense at all. How is the recommended rank for this dungeon "Any"?
Still, I’d go as far as I could. If I gave up on fighting and focused on surviving the twenty minutes, maybe I’d survive Wave 6.
But anything beyond that was a pipe-dream. Crisis-Class beasts were meant to be fought with a party of Gold-Ranks. I was just one Bronze Rank. My chances at survival were nil.
Unless...
My grip tightened around the haft of my Axe.
...unless I fight like a real Gold Rank. By channeling Mana.
The clock ticked down as I fell into contemplation, using all my past experiences to judge just how difficult that task would be.
I remembered how that singular swing had pulverized a Peak-Squall with a gift catered to defense. If that feat was what represented the difference in strength of something two stages higher, then just how insanely strong would a Crisis-Class Beast even be? A Beast that could wield that strength without strain? And then compare that to a Disaster-Class? It was unfathomable.
I didn’t like my odds whatsoever.
But I looked beyond the odds. Beyond the pain. The exhaustion.
What I saw was an opportunity.
An opportunity to push myself into a corner, to force myself to grow beyond my limits, and beyond the crutch of my gift.
This body was built to survive. But me? I was built to dive head-first into danger.
There was a conflict there. Between what I wanted, and what this body was meant for.
And perhaps that conflict would always be there, but I needed to make sure my own desires won over those instincts.
So I was going to fight. I was going to hone Technique best I could, yes, but to reach my ultimate goal, the only path is through the pain. Through every conceivable injury.
And attempts at avoiding injury would only delay that journey.
Use Technique to Attack. But to dodge...
I stood up with a huff, axe at the ready.
...who said I need to dodge?
[Rest Period has ended]
[Initiating the Fourth Wave...]
Like clockwork, the foreboding rumble of stone grinding against stone reverberated through the cubical chamber, and there on the opposite wall, opened a single hatch.
Looks like I was right.
Clicks. Clatters.
Or was I?
It almost sounded like hundreds of tiny creatures were about to gallop out of that singular hole. The ground trembled as if signaling a stampede.
But then those clicks grew louder. Louder. Louder.
Until they stopped altogether. Rows of luminous, sickly green eyes stared back at me from within the darkness beyond the hatch.
But then they were glazed over in a crimson red.
And then it emerged.
Segment after armored segment, legs skittering in perfect sync, a body that stretched as long as a semi-truck.
A Centipede.
Its carapace gleamed a frosted pale blue, plates ridged and layered like miniaturized glaciers. Frost hissed from the seams between those plates, but from the plates themselves, a darker vapor seeped---black with a faint purple tinge, carrying a stench sharp and acrid, like rotting meat.
The two vapors mixed and merged into something deadly, a fog of purple-lined white. Even from a distance, I could tell just breathing near the beast would incapacitate a bronze rank.
It’s enormous frame scuttled into the chamber, its jagged mandibles clicking like twin guillotines, each snap sending sparks flying as they scraped against each other.
Ice and Poison.
A dual element Beast.
A Tremor-Class Beast.
The hatch sealed shut behind it, leaving only silence save for the rhythmic scrape and clatter of its many limbs. The centipede’s body coiled in preparation, segments overlapping as it reared its head and directed every one of those crimson-glazed eyes straight at me.
My fingers tightened around my axe.
[The Fourth Wave has begun.]