Chapter 179

Chapter 179

Matt stood with his three teammates, staring at the reward distortion they hadnt yet opened as the nearly invisible bodies of the boss and its protectors faded away around them. The last two weeks had been rough, and while Matt felt that his spiritual perception was sharper because of his forced reliance on it, he was glad to have just killed the final boss of the third sub-level of the first floor. It was some strange octopus-like mimic creature that could become incorporeal, invisible to their spiritual senses, or take the form of nearly any item or spell it desired.

It could also teleport and split apart into smaller clones of itself because why not. It dropped a handful of skill shards as well as a load of genesis energy, which got tossed into their storage rings for later study.

For now, they examined the shimmering portal in front of them, which would allow them to reach the safe area between floors. They were able to choose between proceeding to the second floor, pausing and recovering somewhat, or even leaving- not that they planned to do so.

The last two weeks had been a hectic rush of delving and moving through Minkalla, gathering what resources they could, and stocking up on as much Genesis Energy as possible.

Overall, things had been fairly standard, if not easy. Minkalla always pitted them against monsters and challenges that they had to be strong and quick-witted enough to overcome, but so far, nothing had been surprising. Though on the third sub-layer, where Minkalla really pushed its challengers, it wouldve been nice to avoid dealing with constant mimics, doppelgangers, ambush predators, and the spirit-like creatures that kept trying to drain his mana. Those were annoying even without their being almost invisible, let alone his endless font of mana constantly causing them to grow strong. They werent even fun fights; the bouts always turned into either endless back and forth until the monsters collapsed from their wounds, or ambushes that were foiled in a single blow from either Queen or himself.

Then the endless environmental hazards that constantly flipped from boiling hot to deathly cold, or impossibly windy to outright floods, only made things worse. And well, they were glad to be finally moving on. Having to deal with those ever changing environments when they couldn't feel what was going on was more than annoying.

All that aside, they were still well ahead of their one-month-a-floor pace they set for themselves.

All that was left was to decide was if they wanted to spend the Genesis Energy to get the Eternal Darkness floor theme reward, which would, as it was the first floor, give them a slight increase to their spiritual perception.

The four of them were split, not with each other but with their managers.

This was one of the floors they had been told to just blow past if they were behind, as its reward wasnt fantastic. However, they were well ahead of where they should be in both speed and Genesis Energy collection. As Tier 11s, they were expected to have gathered enough Genesis Energy to get the exit reward somewhere in the latter half of the second sub-level, and enough for the floor theme in the early parts of the third and final sub-level.

They had reached those marks before they even left the first sub-level. Part of that was the circuitous route they had taken, along with the two challenge rooms they had completed with nearly max rewards both times. Together, that pushed them far enough ahead that they actually had a choice. The first challenge rooms they had done well in, but not so well that they had tripled their Genesis Energy once again.

There was no reason for them to not take the floor theme reward, but all of them hesitated.

As the bosses vanished and dropped a handful of essence stones and Tier 8 skill shards, Matt scooped them up with his Concept and pulled them into his bag without looking.

Liz wiggled her hand back and forth and said, I think we should try it. We have enough Genesis Energy. Taking the reward isnt so bad.

Aster paced around the distortion and asked, It's not like we can get a bad thing, right? We know the reward right?

Matt pushed agreement to his bond through their connection, but kept his mouth shut.

Wanting to make a decision, he pulled out a thin disk of metal and flipped it. Blank side, theyd take the theme reward, the side marked with a line theyd go to the next floor now.

It landed on the side with a line.

He really didnt like that option, which was an answer in and of itself, so he said. Let's just take it. It's our delve, and we will earn more Genesis Energy on lower floors anyway. I want to take it all. Every reward, every prize.

Aster silently yipped her agreement, and Susanne nodded, but Liz rubbed her face through her mask. Ugh. I can't help but feel like we will want this Genesis Energy later, more than the spiritual perception boost... Fuck it. I want all the rewards as well.

Susanne dispelled the reward distortion, and a half dozen items tumbled out, but they didnt stay to inspect them, and instead just threw them into their spatial rings to be sorted out later.

Matt stepped forward with all of his friends, and as they were pulled into the distortion as they had been on the first and second sub-levels, he felt them vanish.

Instead of appearing on the next floor after a second of nothingness, his Genesis Energy whispered a question to him.

Did he want to claim the theme reward, or bypass it and go straight to the safe area?

Matt mentally projected that he wanted to face the final challenge, and take this floor's increase in power for himself.

As he thought that, nearly a third of his Genesis Energy drained out of him. Once that happened, he found himself standing in the ever-present darkness. But this time, there was nothing. It was like he was standing in empty space.

After a little testing, he found that it wasnt exactly true. Unlike on the floors they had traversed before, his spiritual perception was locked down to just a dozen feet or so around him, which contributed to the feeling of emptiness.

Honestly it felt like being a Tier 3 again, and Matt didn't like it. He also didnt like that all his items and armor were gone, and his skills were all restricted.

Out of the darkness, a butterfly of light appeared shining so brightly, he had to shut and then cover his eyes to ensure that he was truly seeing it with his spiritual perception.

It felt like normal vision. Each color and detail were excruciatingly clear to his spiritual perception as if it were his eyesight.

The butterfly flapped its wings, and energy scattered off of them as it flew out of his range. Matt wanted to immediately give chase, but was still unable to move, his body was locked in place.

An almost teasing thought of catch me if you can appeared to whisper at him through his Genesis Energy.

After a count of ten, he was finally let go, and Matt flew forward in the same direction that the butterfly went.

Instead of a sphere, he sent his spiritual perception out in a line, which extended his range to thirty feet, but he still didnt see anything.

Turning in place, he scanned every detail of the forest that was in line with his perception.

Above him, in the trees, he found a lingering energy that hovered in the air like dust, and threw himself at the trace of the butterfly.

Once he had locked onto it, he found that it was a faint trail of where the butterfly had flapped its wings during its escape.

From the trees, he took to the air and followed the fading trail, traveling further and further until he found himself standing on a street. How the transition was so fast and seamless, he had no idea, and he honestly didnt care. The butterfly was now so close, he was almost able to reach out and touch it.

But once again, his body was locked down, and he was unable to move even a finger.

The butterfly fluttered over and landed on his nose for a second, before it fluttered off around a buildings corner and exited his spiritual perception.

When he was released again, Matt rushed forward and more quickly found the trace of the butterfly.

He almost stumbled as he realized that his range pushed further out, and the detail of his spatial perception had increased. It wasnt much, but after nearly a month of needing to rely on just that one sense, he had gotten quite adept at interpreting its sensory data.

It felt like he wasnt just noticing more, but he was actually seeing more.

The walls around him didnt appear as just concrete, like he expected. They were colored concrete, and he could even make out a swirling pattern on their surface.

He hadnt noticed before, as there was no paint on the wall to show a layer of change, but this was more.

Matt could see it.

Understanding the game of tag that he was being forced to play, Matt locked onto the butterfly's trail and ran, arms and legs pumping with every scrap of energy he had.

His flight was restricted this time, so he was forced to run on foot through two dozen blocks of the city before the trail climbed the side of what he suspected was an apartment building.

Matt didnt hesitate as he grabbed a window ledge and hoisted himself up.

Like in the bat caves on the first sub floor, climbing as a Tier 11 was a simple task, and he was quickly a dozen stories above the ground. But just as he was passing a window, using it as an easy ledge to climb on, his gut screamed at him to move, so he took a leap.

Throwing himself off the building, he noticed a hand with finger-long claws reach out through the shattered glass of the window with his spiritual sense, right at where his chest had been.

He didnt need his AI to know that if he had been hit, his unarmored flesh would have been easily pierced.

Matt landed on the ground with a grunt and started his climb once again. No monster was going to stop him from getting that butterfly.

With half his attention scanning for his attacker, he tried to find the now vanished trail of the butterfly. Unable to pick it back up, he just climbed the building where he had seen it last. When he reached the roof, he found the butterfly flitting around a rooftop flower garden.

Matt was tempted to rush forward, but hesitated and decided to slink forward with the most delicate approach.

He couldnt be sure that the butterfly operated under the same restrictions that he was, with only his spiritual perception working.

A dozen steps away, he noticed a man-like being crawling over the edge of the wall.

Now that it wasnt inside a room and ambushing him, he could see it like a distorted nightmare version of a human, long and stretched out. If it wasnt hunched over, even climbing, it would have stood at least seven feet tall. But no, it seemed to be made out of a living shadow to his spiritual perception.

Matt knew that letting it reach the butterfly meant the end of his little exercise, and he rushed forward, startling the butterfly up into the air.

Still, Matt was a peak Tier 11 with all of his cultivation in his physical core, and he had the speed to match. Just as the butterfly was taking off, he reached out and almost landed a finger on its leg. The moment it slipped past the butterflys limb , his tiny guide vanished into nothing, and Matt once again found himself transferred to a new location.

This time, he found himself in a snowy tundra, and despite not being able to feel it, Matt knew that he couldnt allow this round to linger without risking hypothermia. The butterfly again landed on Matts nose, lingering for a much longer time than before and letting him absorb more of its energy. Doing so caused his spiritual perception to become sharper once again.

After a set amount of time, the butterfly fluttered away and ten seconds later, Matt was set free. He was unable to catch the butterfly that time and earned a lesser amount of the spiritual perception increase, but he still got a boost.

They repeated that game of tag two more times, with the shadow becoming faster and sneakier each time.

In the fourth round, Matt found the shadow trying to ambush him and pulled out the metal pole he had picked up, rushing forward to meet it. If he could end this threat, he was sure that he could catch the butterfly once again and earn the full reward of this challenge.

Matt came around the corner and slammed his pole down on the slashing claw, swung through, and assumed that he broke its bone. He took a swipe along his leg, but felt nothing with the floor theme blanketing all the pain.

Kicking out, he caught the lanky creature in the knee and knew it was broken as his kick traveled clean through the joint.

As it tumbled down, the monster wrapped an arm around his chest and tried to grapple him, but that was something he had no fear of.

Aster sighed at that, and Matt did his own little test. By directing Genesis Energy into [Cracked Phantom Armor], he found that the skill worked just like normal.

After a little flexing of the skill, he nodded. If anything, it was stronger with the higher level energy powering it. His normally light blue armor was now a golden color, and for less Genesis Energy than he got for killing a single ant on the first floor, he was able to power the skill at full capacity for a second.

It wasn't great when compared to his Talent, but it meant that Genesis Energy went farther than mana did. He had never cast a spell with essence to test that, but it felt like Genesis Energy might be better than essence, unit per unit. It certainly was stronger than mana.

Still, they weren't going to be wasteful, which meant they would resort to melee combat as much as they could.

Matt was also happy that they had gotten it as a floor, even if he would have preferred encountering it deeper. The theme reward would mean a portion of their essence would be converted to Genesis Energy, giving them a stronger foundation and improving not only their current strength, but a small boost at every tier in the future.

Foundations mattered, after all. You couldnt use the overwhelming amount of essence gained each tier to completely change your allocation, and expect to be just as strong as someone who had used that allocation their entire life.

Essence allocated to a specific aspect of cultivation carried with it a small, but compounding bonus as essence was applied each Tier. It wasnt really noticeable at low Tiers, but by Tier 16, it would have a measurable impact on their strength. With a second-floor Genesis Cultivation, it would probably start to affect them as early as Tier 14. Leveraging your strengths was vital to stay on top of things, especially on the Path.

That all tied in with the floor theme of Genesis Cultivation, it would convert their allocated essence into Genesis Energy. That conversion in the cultivators core increased the multiplier of anything built on top of it. As the multiplier compounded, the deeper the conversion became, and the better off the cultivator would be for it.

The example Kurt had given was a Tier 11 cultivator who had only gotten one Tier converted. They got more out of that conversation than a Tier 14 who had their 13th and 14th Tiers of essence converted by Minkalla. The analogy Matt understood best was that of a rectangle whose area you want to maximize. You did so by adding to the short side, as it adds the largest area for the smallest increase.

As a second floor reward and as Tier 11s, they could expect at least two of their Tiers to convert, which would be quite an added multiplier to their future cultivation.

Minkalla didnt seem to care about the amount of essence converted, which was a shame, but lower Tiers still got the most out of the place, with deeper conversions possible. It was another reason why entering Minkalla at Tier 11 was an advantage.

Still, they had to get moving, and they started to walk through the grassland after everyone practiced casting spells with a little Genesis Energy.

There was no flying restriction, but none of them wanted to risk taking to the sky with their now limited casting abilities until they knew what roamed this ruin.

Now that their eyes and other senses worked, they had no issues moving around and through the grassy fields. It also made for a much more comfortable experience altogether; even the feel of his clothes was comforting after such an extended lack of stimulation.

Matt still spread his spiritual perception out and enjoyed the increased feedback he got from the upgraded ability.

While Minkalla still restricted their spiritual perceptions range without Eternal Darkness oppressive nature, Matt felt as free as a bird. His spiritual perception now stretched for a few miles without issue, enough that even after less than a mile of walking, he sensed danger and readied his blade.

Susanne seemed to notice it at the same time, and their different reward in the last theme challenge showed its usefulness.

Liz and Aster had better range, and higher sensitivity to minute details over the expanded distance, but Matt and Susanne noticed the danger first with their specialized senses.

A prairie dog suddenly appeared from out of the ground, and without warning, shot a blast of lightning at Matt. Flicking on [Cracked Phantom Armor], he took the hit, but before he could cut at the rodent, Susanne had already lashed out with her blade and cut it apart. Space itself stretched out her blade to allow it to reach.

The rush of Genesis Energy they received was more than three times what they got from even the sub bosses on the first floor, but it was hard to tell how much of it was because of the deeper floor, and how much of it was the theme giving extra Genesis Energy to allow for skill usage.

They now knew one of the monsters to be on the lookout for going forward, but Aster was the first to notice their next attacker.

Eagle from behind us. Hiding in the sun. She yipped.

Aster, without the ability to effectively fight in the melee, was their dedicated scout. If they needed her to attack, she would be spending more Genesis Energy than the others would with their melee attacks.

Matt turned and was shocked as he was finally able to see the eagle in his spiritual perception. It was massive, and had a wingspan of thirty feet, which powered a correspondingly gargantuan body through the skies.

Liz called out, Spend spells for this one!

Matt charged a [Mana Slash] and sent out a golden arc of energy, but the eagle seemed completely unbothered by the spell.

Susannes spell was just as ineffective, even when combined with [Hypersonic Edge].

Their attacks did literally nothing. The bird didnt even have a feather out of place from their spells.

Lizs blood and Aster's ice also had no effect, forcing Liz to call out, Get us underground! This isn't normal...

Hearing that, Matt used [Earth Manipulation] to open up a tunnel into the ground, and then cover it back up. It cost him the same amount of Genesis Energy he had gotten from the prairie dog, but it kept them alive. As they felt the eagle land above them, it fortunately didnt seem interested in pecking the ground or otherwise digging.

After a second of looking around, they watched it fly off with their spiritual perception.

Seeing it was gone, Liz asked, Anyone know what this could be? It doesn't feel like an illusion.

Matt spent the Genesis Energy to activate his AI and had it check for anything they knew about it, but found nothing about an invulnerable eagle.

When none of them found anything, they were forced to concede to the fact that they found something weird in Minkalla, which was to be expected. They just needed to adapt to the situation.

No normal Tier 14 monsters could shrug off their attacks without even a feather getting bent. They were strong, and Genesis Energy empowered their spells even more than when they cast them with mana. That was why Liz thought the beast was an illusion, but it had left sizable indents in the ground when it landed, proving that to be a false assumption.

After debating for a while longer, they decided to create some camouflage out of the grass and try and slink their way through the prairie.

The invulnerable giant eagle essentially meant that flying was off limits while they were in its rift.

As they crept along the ground, they had to fight a few prairie dogs, but they never came in packs greater than five. They were easy for the four of them to take out, especially with Lizs elephant serving as a living bulwark. It may not have been as powerful as Matts skill, but even with Minkalla forcing Liz to activate it with Genesis Energy, it was by far their most efficient defense.

Aster discovered that she really enjoyed the taste of the groundhogs, and Matt started gathering their bodies for later meals.If his bond liked it, they couldnt be bad to experiment with, and he was always on the lookout for new ingredients.

It took them a full day, but eventually, through careful crawling and keeping a low profile, they reached the end of the grassland, only being attacked by the eagle when they made too much of a racket.

That told them the gimmick of the ruin was exactly that. They needed to keep a low profile, like the prairie dogs, and avoid the eagle circling overhead.

When they reached the edge of the ruin, they had no doubt they found it. Like someone had forgotten to add any natural transition in nature, they found a volcanic area that bubbled with lava that bordered the waving grasslands.

They couldnt even feel the heat until after they crossed the invisible border.

Pulling his hand back, Matt looked at the others and asked. Push through, or try to find something else?

Liz shook her head, Fly through with our Concepts. But keep low. We don't know if that eagle is restricted, and I don't want to risk it.

Matt took Liz with him, and they all disposed of their grass suits and flew over the bubbling lava. The amulets he had made for the desert on the first floor worked well enough to help keep their temperature in check, and as they were an item, ran on mana instead of Genesis Energy.

Some testing had shown that non combat items functioned fine with mana, but any item designated for combat failed to manifest its function with mana. So as long as they didnt try to attack with the amulets, they would work fine.

Even with that knowledge, Matt wished that he had a better way to block the heat, but was unwilling to spend Genesis Energy on [Cracked Phantom Armor] to completely block it out. Having a resource he didnt create endlessly was an annoying change of pace for him; he was so used to having an unending stream of spells at his disposal.

If Luna hadnt trained them for this, he would have fared far worse in adapting to the new circumstances. The floor theme forced a change of mindset on Matt that Susanne didnt really have to adjust to, and Liz also had a far easier time adjusting than he did. She just enjoyed being able to have far, far more staying power than most mages, whereas his limitless mana was a cornerstone of his entire fighting style, and always had been. He either could barely cast the spell, or didnt have a large enough max mana to cover the initial cost. Hed simply never been in a situation where the casting of spells cost him anything valuable.

Inside their current ruin, the oppressive heat pressed in at them from all sides, despite his amulets cutting the worse of its effects. The only good thing about this ruin was that the monsters seemed to be aquatic, or as aquatic as molten rock counted for. Lava turtles, while aggressive, didnt have any ranged attacks, meaning the four of them were able to sit in the air and attack with near impunity.

Which is exactly what they did. Matt had a crossbow crafted for Minkalla, and finally pulled it out along with a bundle of bolts. Susanne and Liz both had more traditional bows that they withdrew as well. Aster was once again left to be their de facto scout, unable to shoot without thumbs or magic.

With enchanted arrows and bolts, they massacred their way through the ruin, gathering Genesis Energy with every kill. Killing the turtles was annoying, but not hard. They simply needed to land an attack on the exposed heads while avoiding the flaming backs of the turtles, which were hot enough to melt and burn their bolts and arrows.

But with enough well placed attacks, they were able to kill the lava turtles and carefully swept the area clean of any monsters. What was essentially free Genesis Energy couldn't be passed up so easily.

The only downside with the turtles was the fact that they couldnt get any of the items and skills they dropped before they were pulled under the lava flows, ruining the drops.

Liz did have them stop for a while to collect some Lava Dandelions, which grew in abundance along the lava flows and seemed to be a snack that the turtles enjoyed. They were only useful as secondary ingredients in some fire type potions, but they were there and free for the taking, so she didnt leave a single one behind.

Matt, upon inspecting them, wanted to try and make a chili out of the spicy ingredient.

As Liz was collecting the flower, Aster noticed a challenge room hidden behind a lavafall.

To enter the place, they needed to have Matt part the falling molten rock with [Lava Manipulation], but that cost was minuscule when compared to the potential rewards. Thankfully, the challenge room crystal was standing far enough away from the lavafall that they werent in danger of getting splashed.

Any idea what this one is? I just get the idea that it's not fighting. Liz asked after she inspected it.

Matt shook his head as he spent the Genesis Energy to run his AI for a few seconds.

Nothing came back with a match, but this challenge pillar didnt really give them much to work with, unlike the others they had found.

After talking it over, they decided to enter.

An hour later, they re-materialized, staring numbly into the distance.

I never want to see another penguin for as long as I live, Susanne grumbled.

Aster whimpered agreement, as she dug through her storage ring, tossing several cartons of Marshmallow Fluff ice cream out on the ground, where they almost immediately melted upon contact with the hot stone of the ruin.

Meanwhile, Liz nodded silently as she grabbed the pair of [Ice Manipulation] skill shards they got as their reward while their spirits refilled with Genesis Energy, once her mouth was free from the taste of vomit.

Matt pulled out their house, giving them all a much-needed break before they resumed their lava turtle genocide.