Chapter 197

Chapter 197

Matts spiritual sense didnt even have enough time to properly register what was in the safe room before he rolled to the right. At the same time, Susannes and Aster's AI linked with his own, giving him a wealth of information.

He came out of his initial dodge and kept sprinting to the right while arrows and spells peppered his newly-resummoned [Cracked Phantom Armor].

He appeared next to the Clans gathering point, so while the attacks werent absent, they werent full-on either.

Thankfully, once he neared the Empires portion of the safe area, he was able to slow to a walk and join his Powers side.

This wasnt a surprise, and it was exactly why they set up this contingency before they left.

The first people into the safe room would be those that weren't going for the theme reward. While that population predominantly featured Tier 14s, it also included a fair number of Tier 12s and 13s from the other seasons that just wanted out, whether or not they had enough for the exit reward.

With the exception of the Sects, each Great Power had managed to convince enough of the people that were exiting to stick around for three hours in their own territory. If only to give additional protection to those taking the theme challenge as they reoriented themselves to their real bodies.

There would be no repeats of the previous floors safe room if Matt could help it.

Three hours, translating to three months in-challenge, should be plenty for most people to get their upgrades and move on.

Anyone who took longer than that was on their own.

Matt noted that Liz wasnt here yet, which implied that she ran into some difficulty, but he wasnt overly worried.

Jill wasnt out yet either, while Bradley was chatting with the first-place solo winner of his own Tier 10 tournament, Statue.

The woman was a metal mage as well, but had gotten a [Metal Body] ability far earlier than Bradley, and had used the impressive amount of control she had over the nigh-invincible state to great effect.

Statue saw Matt appear, and after inspecting him and nodding, she turned her attention back to the surrounding Great Powers.

Aster exuded smugness at her growth items upgrade, but as they had decided to lean into the idea that she was Susannes bond, didnt jump into his arms.

All of them wanted to show off their new abilities, of course, but by prior agreement, they would hold off until all four of them were together.

He did feel out the Boon settled into his spirit, familiarizing himself with it. It felt like well, like a new limb. Something that hadnt been there before but was wholly one with him.

Its effects surprised him though. He had gotten a far stronger reward than what they had recorded. Hed expected a better than average reward but something this good was beyond his expectations even after single-handedly powering the faction to victory but there were harsh diminishing returns on the favor to final Boon conversion so he hadnt expected anything quite so impactful.

Matt had heard that very rarely, an upgraded [Manipulation] skill could gain a truly incredible amount of finesse and feedback while becoming almost free to use, and he was reminded of that as he tried out his new abilities.

[Ice Manipulation], [Air Manipulation], and [Shadow Manipulation] still cost the normal amount to use, but they were responsive in a way hed never felt before.

As a quick test to check the changes he could fell, he made himself an finger sized ice sculpture of a songbird, and found that not only was he able to effortlessly imbue it with detailing on each feather, but he could make the ice flex and flow in a way that it could flap its wings and fly like a real bird without cracking and shattering like normal ice.

There was more to it as well, but before he could experiment and find out how else the Boon had impacted his skills, Liz appeared right outside the Federations territory and was bombarded by attacks. Fortunately, when people were put into the spatially expandable safe area, it was a good distance away from other people, so no one would appear inside anyone's formations. Thanks to the degree of separation, Liz was easily able to escape the attacks and join the Empires group. With her there, the four of them wasted no time in racing to the pillar leading them to the next floor, and were quickly whisked away in a swirl of motion.

***

Luna was watching a woman celebrate exiting Minkalla after an inspiration to Tier 15 when she felt the ripples of space fluctuate around all eight Great Powers moons, and ripped a hole through reality at the same time.

She and every other high Tier were caught off guard at the sudden influx that implied that the fourth floor had been conquered. Normally, that took at least six months when there were only two courts. A two-court fourth floor was unlikely. And even then, it had only been three months.

Something had happened, and she had a good inkling of what exactly it was.

She and Carol moved, appearing in the midst of a small crowd of incoming cultivators and diverting more teams to the space she had chosen, until she had about a hundred in total. She gave her chosen mouthpieces a few moments to orient themselves to being outside of Minkalla before she spoke, with her Domain leaving no room for misinterpretation or delay.

Explain exactly what happened. All at once and leave nothing out. To ensure there wouldn't be any complaints, she pulled a Tier 20 mana stone out of one of her spatial rings for each of them, and placed her bribe in front of each respective volunteer.

It only took a second for all of them to start rambling over each other.

At Tier 43, she had no issues hearing and dissecting each and every one of the delvers stammering, cutting out the wasteful information, and gathering the pertinent bits she wanted.

She felt a smile creep over her face as she got a jist of the situation.

The children had gotten a four seasons theme for Courtly Warfare, beyond perfect for Aster.

As more people chattered, she started to paint a better picture.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Winter had attacked Spring and took the city in a surprise ambush.

They thought it was a fluke, but the season had a general before anyone else, and then turned and attacked Fall.

While it had been a harder fight, they had defeated a General in a great battle that wrecked a sizable portion of the city.

That information caught her attention, and an eyebrow rose as she heard of the General's prowess.

The pinnacle fighters having most of an Intent was stronger than usual, but nothing she hadnt seen before in a Courtly Warfare floor. Minkalla never made any monster stronger than Tier 14, which meant if it wanted to make a real challenge, it was limited in its ability to do so.

It also couldnt, or at least had never, made a monster with a full Intent, but making monsters with some combination of Phrase, Image, and Anchor wasnt unusual. Though a monster of that ilk appearing at floor four was rare indeed and a monster with a strong pseudo Intent was unheard of on the fourth floor.

Still, from the babbling of the cultivators who exited, she was able to determine that her charges were part of the team that defeated the General, and that they hadnt taken any casualties.

Susanne and her Queen identity had been identified and targeted, but she was alive and well. While unfortunate, her cover being compromised was entirely expected. She wouldve been hard pressed to kill everyone who saw her Concept manifestation.

She kept an ear out for anyone talking about a blood mage, but no one mentioned it, which meant that Liz had managed to remain hidden thus far, which was good.

It wouldve been better if she had stuck to fire skills, but with the talk of a water mage fighting the general, she suspected that the girl needed to bring out her real skills, even if hidden. Though she couldn't be certain of that as water mages were all too common of an archetype to identify one of them as Liz from the third or fourth hand descriptions.

There were rumors that Quill had been in the fight as a massive ice spell she recognized was used to battle the General but that seemed more rumor than fact and she had fully expected the children to be pegged for their masked identities.

That was their purpose after all.

With her curiosity sated, she provided each of them with their promised mana stone and allowed them to go on their way. They could now go Tier up and enjoy their immortality. The smart ones would buckle down and progress as fast as possible, but that wasnt any of her concern.

The children were.

And things were going well on that front. Now they just needed to see what the latter half of Minkalla would throw at them.

She chuckled as she thought of the fact that Kurt and April might miss them coming out because of the incredibly fast fourth floor.

With a flex of her Domain, she returned to her house and her vigil, Carol joining her a moment later.

This time, she was in a much better mood. Her little monsters were growing up and showing their fangs.

Killing a peak Tier 14 with most of an Intent?

Winning Courtly Warfare in a fraction of the normal time?

Her smile only grew as she thought over the debrief she would get when they came out.

She could not be more pleased.

***

When they landed, Matt cast [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Bulwark], preparing for any attacks, but none came.

He noticed what was wrong at the same time as everyone else.

Matt cast three [Fireball]s with his sword before he swapped the form over into his old melee enchantments.

Cutting down, he cursed the fact he hadnt left either [Mana Slash] or [Mana Charge] in the melee form, as he was reduced to using his sword as a mundane blade while casting [Mana Bolt]s with the bracelet on his left wrist.

Thankfully, he and Susanne were able to fight the monsters with assistance from Liz and Aster as they cast basic spells from behind.

The kobolds did have spells of their own, but Matt and Susanne both had plenty of experience fighting the little monsters. Despite them being Tier 14 inside Minkalla, they didnt have any new tricks; just their normal arsenal of [Mana Claw], [Bite], and [Fire Breath]. With that small collection of spells, as long as they were on their toes and ready to dodge, they were able to retreat and avoid every attack.

Which was exactly how they handled the two dozen little monsters. With Liz and Aster watching their retreat to prevent ambushes, and keeping them out of the flame runes, they were as safe as possible while also not using any spells that would increase in cost.

Matt did use his gauntlets twice to prevent attacks from landing on Susanne, and his own repulsive field once when he was too slow in dodging, but they still made it out of the fight without taking a single hit, which he considered a win.

As they cleaned up the battlefield, Matt smiled as they got four essence stones, two items, specifically a spear and a ring, and a skill. For being nearly swarm level, the monsters were generous with their deaths.

Aster chortled as she used the mirror to inspect the area the monsters had come from, where a hissing, mechanical room expanded from the labyrinth's normal tight corridors, and a decently large metal box sat conspicuously in the center.

Inside sat a greataxe enchanted with [Mana Slash] and [Acrobats Finesse], which Liz tossed into her ring alongside what the kobolds themselves dropped, for later depositing into their loot vault.

After about a day of maze-hunting, Liz called their attention to her compass, which was flickering between two different directions as though it couldnt decide which was more valuable.

Matt wasnt surprised that theyd run into another group- floor 5 was small, usually about the size of an average moon- but that they had both appeared in the same ruin as them was a bit unusual.

Carefully, they crept up to the intersection and checked for traps, not wanting to use the elephant in the hopes of not giving away their presence.

They didnt find any, but Matt used a small mirror to check around the corner. A few hundred feet down the corridor, there was a team of Monster Collective delvers.

Two were beasts, a very obvious lion and a deer, while the two humans with them were basic, as those things went.

Pulling back, they had a whispered conversation and decided to announce themselves in the hope of avoiding a fight, which was likely to happen if they kept quite this close to the other team.

Liz directed her elephant to audibly approach the intersection, its footfalls preceding its entry to the intersection of the two corridors. Once it actually entered into the open space, a voice called out in the beast language, Who is there?

Liz responded in the Empire standard, Empire delvers.

There was a long silence, but eventually, the same voice called out and Liz translated for them, We don't want a fight. Who moves first?

You can go ahead, and we'll move back into our corridor further so theres no suspicion, Liz called back, directing her elephant to return to them.

It took a few seconds, but the other voice called out, Ok, that works.

After the lion checked that they had in fact moved back with a quick peek around the corner, the team moved across the hall after checking the ground for traps.

The four of them waited until they couldnt hear the group moving forward anymore.

Matt used his pole to stretch the mirror around the corner, where they met eyes with the four delvers who had decided to wait in ambush.

With their trap exposed, Matt opened the fight with a pair of talismans, bathing the corridor in flames as he cast [Fireball] through his sword. The deers antlers sucked in the fire and came alive, flickering like they themselves were red-gold tongues of flame.

Then, the fire rebounded, and a wall of red-gold fire flew down the corridor at them.

Matt gritted his teeth and cast [Bulwark], blocking the attack in exchange for functionally weakening the skill for the rest of the floor.

Then, he let the barrier fall, and he and Susanne rushed forward, using their physical boosts to close the distance. Susanne pushed past him with a burst of wind, her sword aimed at the lion. It dodged the attack and pounced on Matt with a single movement, claws glowing, but Matt sidestepped the attack with a flickered teleport and brought his sword down on the lions head.

Flesh and bone split under his blow even as he flicked both layers of [Cracked Phantom Armor] for half a second, blocking the knife the second human was driving into his ribs.The second layer of his spell blocked the attack, and his gauntleted fist hit the man in the face, crumpling his helmet and sending him tumbling into the wall.

Susanne engaged the deer, blocking a pair of attacks before swinging her sword in an odd way that seemed to obscure Matts view of her, vanishing into thin air.

A [Blood Bullet] from Liz whizzed by him and struck the deer on the flank. It didnt react, preoccupied as it was with looking for Susanne and bathing everything in front of it with golden flames, but it still met its end a moment later as she appeared behind it, grabbed a hind leg, and hacked it in half with a few brutal chops with her sword.

The final man tried to run, but Matt made a quick calculation and shot him with a [Cracked Mana Spear].

There was no retreat after trying to kill his people.

After the man fell, he got back up to his knees, but a [Mana Bolt] from Aster caught him in the heart and through his spine, ending his life.

Kicking the lion's body, Matt asked, Why be greedy? We were nicer than most. Fucking idiots.

He knew why, but he was still angry.

The Monster Collective wasnt hostile to the Empire, which didnt even give them the excuse that the Republic, Sects, or Federation cultivators had. They were just greedy, and confident in their combat prowess.

Too confident, as it turned out.

Grabbing the lion's body, he felt around the mane and looked for the spatial item that he assumed was there.

It was a necklace, as he suspected, and he sent a thought into it to find a relatively normal assortment of items for beasts, along with a number of natural treasures and other items from Minkalla.

Aster ripped a similar necklace from the deer as Liz came back with the ring and gear of the man who he shot.

Can you help me? The antlers have some special metal on them, and it seems like I cant just pull it off.

Matt wasnt happy with mutilating a sapient's body for their items, but he still brought out a small hand saw and cut the antlers at the skull. If they didnt take it, Minkalla would just eat the items, and he really wanted to know if the antlers and their fire absorbent properties were a natural treasure, or something more ephemeral.

He continued his search for whatever the compass had been pointing for, and found a loaded skill shard holster. His curiosity got the better of him, and he pulsed his AI to try and identify it. Annoyingly, it took a few seconds before his AI returned any results, pulling up a secondary data pack that Kurt had passed him in preparation for Minkalla.

[Kartan Greets his Foes] was an air-aspected area debuff skill, usually only found in the Monster Collective, but had been picked out as especially good for Aster. It was like the opposite of [Tailwind], inhibiting the motion of enemies even if they tried to use their Concept to part the air in front of them.

He happily tossed the shard to Aster as he continued his search, eventually coming on to a small ruby containing an even smaller flame within. None of them recognized it, but it was packed with enough essence to warrant later inspection.

The humans didnt have anything so impressive on them, so the four of them continued their trek into the labyrinth.

After another day of spotting and avoiding traps, fighting monsters, and navigating the maze, their compass suddenly started spinning like it couldnt figure out where it ought to point. It took about an hour, but they eventually uncovered a hidden trapdoor set into the floor below them, opened by turning a nearby pipe knob three and a half times exactly.

It swung open, revealing a lush, green room containing a single, larger bush sitting atop a small hill. It bore a single blackberry streaked with a lighter purple.

Liz was the first to say something, though from Asters whines, she probably had recognized it about the same time. Oh! A void blackberry! Thats a nice find.

A what now? Susanne poked her head in.

A void blackberry, Liz repeated with a smile, before relenting and elaborating. It helps with internal void resistance. Lots of people with void-aspected bloodlines or who otherwise have void affinity can suffer from health problems, but void blackberries help mitigate them a lot, actually. Its also key in a lot of potions and enchantments that utilize void mana, makes them more resilient and less likely to corrode. Really good alchemists can even brew void resistance potions from them. So yeah, its nice and valuable.

Matt quipped, Also, the flavor is apparently divine. Im almost tempted to take a nibble just to find out what all the fuss is about. It wouldnt lose much from one single drupelet missing Id bet.

Liz whirled on him. Dont you dare!

He laughed, Im kidding, Im kidding. None of us would do that. That means you, Aster.

He nudged the fox away from the trapdoor before her drool could drip down onto the bush below, and she tapped twice on the ground while yipping. Liz translated her message this time, It smells like cold and sharpness and ice and nothingness and ice cream and

Liz dropped down into the room below, carefully coaxing the bush into her garden orb. In the instant before it vanished into the expanded greenhouse, it dropped its fruit into Lizs hand. He couldnt tell if the bush itself had survived- natural treasures were notoriously difficult to transplant and grow- but he hoped it had. Maybe Liz would be able to crossbreed it with normal blackberries, preserving the flavor if not the magical effects.

He was really curious about what made it taste so good.

Reaching down he gave Liz a hand back into the main labyrinth, and they carried on their quest for the exit.