Chapter 97 - A-G-22097 Part 4

Determined to clear through the Fanged Rats as soon as possible, MyrkLys picked up their pace. Using the camera function on their Watcets, Gabby and Benny captured the crude map Cynrik had drawn and had it up in the form of a hologram as they trekked through the winding tunnels.

Surprisingly enough, Gabby's idea was actually to put the map in everyone's hands. When she voiced how unfair it was for Cynrik to be the only one not lost in the network of rocky caves, Benny and Brance came to her defense. After a brief argument before leaving the first nest, Cynrik eventually yielded to the little girl. As a result, everyone but him, who had memorized the whole dungeon, was walking with their arm extended out, watching the digital picture of the map floating in the air.

"Honestly, you guys are so unruly. Why is it so hard to just follow me?" Cynrik aired his dissatisfactions while pouting. As much as he hates losing to someone like Brance or even Cinyah, it was worse to be vetoed by Gabby, who he considered the annoying little sister of the group.

"That's rich coming from you, Big Brother. Aren't you the KING of being "unruly," just let it go? You win some, and you lose some."

"Yes, Cynrik, we all know how my little sister gets when she doesn't get her way. Would you rather spend the next four hours hearing her complain about being lost over and over in a loop?" Even Benny chimed in with a comment.

"Tsk, y'all drive me nuts." Seeing how smug Gabby was acting thanks to defeating him in a verbal confrontation made Cynrik wanna rush forward and snatch the sour candy from her mouth.

"Everyone look alive; we are nearing the second rodent's nest."

{Cyn, are we goin with the same strat as before?}

{For the most part, yeah, it really depends on how many rats there are. If there's a sizeable amount like in the first nest, we can start with Gabby finishing her quota. Then it'll fall to Benny to start his.}

In Brance's perspective, it seemed Cynrik was a bit more annoyed than usual, so he decided to bring it up.

{You good? Since we got here, you've been a bit…I don't know…off.}

{Sigh, it's these fucking cave walls. I'm not sure if it's the Egress Cores doing or something weird with the Mana flow here, but my [Mana Sight] is basically showing me static. If it weren't for me having the map, we'd actually be totally lost. Just about the only time, it works properly is when I have a clear line of sight on the monsters. Not to mention, losing control of my bloodlust isn't exactly "fun."}

Unexpectedly Cynrik was relatively open and responded, rendering Brance momentarily speechless.

{Don't worry bout me, Brance; I'm good.} Sensing his words were causing Brance stress, Cynrik decided to gloss it over and play it off as if it wasn't that big of a deal.

{Besides, once Gabby and Benny finish up with their rats, I can let loose a bit and chip away at my own task. That should calm me down for a while.}

{If you say so…}

Weaving through a handful of twists and turns in the tunnels, the party arrived outside the next nest and went into stalk mode. Like hunters sneaking up on their prey, all four of them walked while crouching low to the ground; eventually, when they were barely out of earshot of the mischief, Cynrik waved them closer so he could distribute roles in a hushed tone.

"I wanna try something a bit different this time. Although, unlike the last nest, this one has fewer rats, I only counted seven, one of which is a tad bit stronger than the others. So don't worry about the big one; I'll lock it down with a new skill I've been meaning to test."

"Our objective this time is to work on our versatility in combat. The first nest was pretty sloppy initially, and it took us a while to fall in line together. If our opponents were stronger, there's a good chance we would have ended up in danger. Gabby, at the start, when Brance rushes out to draw their aggro, I want you to toss out your {Confusion}. Try hitting all of them except for the big grey one; the more you hit, the easier this will go. Then, Benny, I want you to herd them together with either [Wave] or a few well-placed [Water Sphere]. The goal is to corral them while they're under the effect of Gabby's skill."

"We will be primarily working on our CC or crowd control skills in a group battle setting. Unfortunately, it wasn't viable to try this at the last nest, but this is an excellent opportunity since there are so few rats."

"Brance will be there to back yall up with his [Taunt], and I'll be dealing with the big rat nearby, so feel free to go a bit wild and test yourselves. I want us to be confident if we are forced into a situation where we are at a considerable disadvantage. The more experience you get, the less likely you'll be to panic if you get surrounded. Everyone got it?"

"Yep, yep"

"Copy"

"Copy"

Gabby spat out her typical response, which was no surprise, but Benny mimicked Brance. Whenever Cynrik and Brance would discuss tactics or even when playing games, if there were some kind of briefing conversation involved, they would fall back into their old military ways subconsciously. Thus Benny had heard them use the phrases "Copy," "Roger," "Negative," and "Affirmative" hundreds of times and for some reason chose now to use it.

Cynrik tossed a sidelong glance at Brance, who was smiling at Benny's display of military bearing, and he shook his head.

"OK, Gabby, Brance, you're up."

Springing to her feet, Gabby was the first to act, followed by Brance, who charged in the direction of the unsuspecting Fanged Rats, who at that moment were devouring the remains of something unknown.

Quickly, Gabby dashed off towards the right side of the open cavern, leaving Brance executing a head-on attack.

"[Confusion]," Skidding to a stop, she placed her right hand on her temple and muttered the name of her skill to activate it.

-Tier-0 Psychic Affinity Skill: Confusion.-

-The User generates a small translucent orb and fires it at a target. Upon contact, the orb will inflict the status "Confused" on the target.-

-Status Effect Confused: While afflicted with this status, the target will be unable to focus its thoughts properly and suffer blurred vision and nausea. The target will have a 50% chance of hurting themself and will not be able to perform physical actions correctly. Duration 30 seconds to one minute depending on the disparity between the MIND Stat of the skill User and the Target..-

-The Users MIND stat determines duration and effect severity, and so long as the User stat is higher than the targets, there is a 70% chance of inflicting the status ailment. On the other hand, if the target has an equal or greater MIND stat to the User of this skill, there is only a 30% chance of succeeding.

When Gabby activated her skill, six translucent balls of Mana condensed around her head, floating silently. Exhaling slowly and a little shaky, Gabby lowered her hand from her temple and thrust it forward, guiding the orbs away from herself and launching them at their intended targets, the six smaller rats.

Although a little clumsy and slow, the orbs silently moved across the cavern; seconds later, each one merged into the head of a rat. Their effect was instant. Fanged Rats weren't intelligent monsters, to begin with, and with Gabbys 65 points in MIND, the skill had a high chance of inflicting the negative status.

The change in their demeanor was drastic. One moment the poor rats were munching away happily on Allfather knows what, and the next, their eyes crossed, and they, for lack of a better word, became stupid.

The scene was quite comical for Cynrik; he hadn't seen Gabby's [Confusion] in action before but was quite satisfied with the results. Cynrik even started rubbing his eyes for a second because he swore he was hallucinating stars floating around the rat's heads; Once sure it wasn't real, he too went into action.

Exhaling slowly, Cynrik calmly made a claw with his right hand while raising his arm across his body and towards his face; the tips of each of his fingers were glowing with visible Darkness Mana, leaving an afterimage trail as his hand moved.

"[Shadow Sewing]" the shadows around Cynriks body began to move as if alive, swirling around like a turbulent ocean

-Tier-1.5 Dark Affinity Skill: Shadow Sewing-

-By condensing Dark Affinity Mana into their fingers, The User is able to materialize up to five tendrils of Darkness Mana. Each tendril will have a range of ten meters and can be controlled independently. By adjusting the amount of Mana condensed in each one, the User can adjust the thickness of the shadow tendrils. While this skill is active, the User will not be able to move from the position they were in when it was activated.- -

- The Shadow tendrils can be used to attack or bind; in the case of Binding, the tendril will root the target to their own shadow on the ground or nearest plane, inflicting the status Bind.-

- Status Effect: Bind - Targets under this effect are rooted in place and rendered unable to move so long as the status is active. The chance of triggering this status is 20% per tendril attached to a target's shadow.-

- The primary use of this skill is locking the target(s) in place; however, they can be weaponized by adjusting their thickness or sharpness. Targets afflicted with the Bind status will have it until the User stops supplying Mana to the tendrils or the target breaks free by destroying them.-

- Durability: 2000 Per Shadow Tendril.- 

-Activation cost: 50 MP per Shadow Tendril-

-Sustain Cost: 5 MP per tendril per Second, the Cost to sustain the skill will increase if the target resists, increasing the MP cost as well as causing damage to the durability of the tendril in question.-