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Chapter 48 – Furious frost and leaping to lava
🕑 Added 2024-10-17 13:59:31 +0000 UTCJace moved quicker than he had ever before. On the plains tiles he was going around 13 miles per hour comfortably, without any exertion. Now? He estimated easily 20 miles per hour. And it was almost effortless.
The joy of speed made him giddy with excitement, and he got to the next Complex in no time. Drawing his sword, he activated Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending] and Dark Matter Shield (Rank 2). The ice and snow crunched under his foot claws as he descended into a steep ravine, water trickling down the walls.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Warning! You are about to enter a Complex!]
[This location has been marked by The Cosmic System as Tier 2.]
[Number of foes to clear out: 1.]
<<<<<>>>>>
[Quest: Slay the Malformed Starspawn.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Epic (Equipment) Boon.]
[Sender: The Cosmic System.]
<<<<<>>>>>
That’ll give me a third Epic (Equipment). I can merge them into a Legendary one! Jace’s excitement rushed through him, and he sprinted down the ravine, keeping his eyes peeled for any trace of this Starspawn.
Ollie flew alongside him, “A Starspawn is what happens when a celestial body – like a star – has a child.”
Jace turned about as he reached the end of the ravine and found only a slight pool of chilled, clear water. “How did one get here? Shouldn’t it be in space?”
“It was malformed. Rejected by its parent star. So, it fell – literally a falling star. Expect heat-”
Jace spotted a bright, orange beam of energy that was arcing towards him and barely got his shield up in time. The beam splashed against the raised blockade and scattered out in all directions. The warmth was intense – despite Jace’s armor, it felt on the verge of a burn. The beam faded, and Jace’s eyes focused immediately on the creature that crept from an impossibly small ledge under a small shelf of ice.
It was a charred corpse of some worm-like creature. A pair of beady, yellow eyes stared at Jace, and its front opened as a small mouth revealed the heart of a star within. A tiny shriek was emitted, and Jace instinctively hid his whole body behind the shield. The worm-creature projected the power of a star, a burning cone that would have roasted Jace to a crisp if not for his shield and the augmented armor.
Even then, Jace felt his prosthetics heating up. He could feel the slight char along his arms. Not the legs – which didn’t surprise him as they had the heat of a star within as well. He shouted, “Dark Energy Beam (Rank 4)!”
The energy drain he felt was prodigious, but the grey-purple light shot from just above his right shoulder and went through the cone – canceling out the incredible heat – as it pierced through the center of the creature, cutting it in half.
Jace watched, with relief, as the glowing, orange maw closed, and the cold air reimposed itself. But that relief turned to shock as the small worm creature repaired itself – strands of orange, blazing fury snapping out as the halves pulled themselves together. “No you don’t!” Jace ran forward and hacked away at the connective tissue and orange light that attempted to pull it back into place.
The crimson and purple miasma began to spread. Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4) [Vampiric]. Jace felt a soothing relief wash over him as the sunburn on his slightly exposed upper face was washed away. He took a few steps back and hid behind his shield, waiting for the creature to expire.
He was not waiting long. It expired – the malformed shape not able to out-heal the damage-over-time effects. Ollie flew over and dusted it. Jace grabbed the dungeon core from the pedestal that appeared. 28 now.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Stardust Acquired: 300]
<<<<<>>>>>
[Quest: Slay the Malformed Starspawn.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Epic (Equipment) Boon.]
[Sender: The Cosmic System.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“How do we combine the Boons?” Jace asked as he made his way out of the icy chasm.
“I can just merge them. You want the 3 Epic (Equipment) to fuse?”
“And any others we can.”
“Yeah, we can also fuse 3 of the Common (Equipment) up to an uncommon (Equipment).”
“May as well.”
Ollie nodded and waved his paws around. A screen appeared – Jace’s equipment, and he saw Ollie moving the Boons on top of each other and clicking through some confirmation statements. “Okay, it’s all set!”
“Let me see.”
<<<<<>>>>>
Boons: Common (Equipment), Uncommon (Equipment), Uncommon (Information), x2 Epic (Equipment Augmentation), Epic (Secret Cache), Legendary (Equipment)
<<<<<>>>>>
Hmm. Okay, so Legendary (Equipment) gives me gear that has 1/day Skill uses as part of it. He looked down at his Wirecannon Arm, upgrading this thing would be useful. Then I’d have all my limbs Legendary. “Let’s improve this Wirecannon Arm.” He rolled up his right sleeve all the way to the shoulder joint.
“Roger!”
<<<<<>>>>>
[Using Boon: Legendary (Equipment).]
[Manifesting.]
<<<<<>>>>>
Jace’s right, cobalt-blue arm shifted and warped – all feeling and sensation left it and he no longer felt any part of it as a part of him. He could feel his shoulder joint near his collarbone expand as the CIF pooled back into his torso.
He felt a warmth – but not nearly as painful as previously. It must be less painful when swapping out prosthetics, versus replacing existing parts. There was a glittering, starlight-blue as the arm became slightly bulkier and more human-like and less artificial in appearance. As the stars vanished, he could make out the deep, black metal with golden script. Similar to the Anathema Arm, but different words scrawled out.
“This is called a Ghostlight Grapnel Arm. It has a range of 100 ft. compared to your prior 50 ft. And it does not actually use a cord that can be interacted with. Instead, it is a ghostly version of the cord. It can fire and retract at will, instead of using a series of buttons. The downside is that you cannot impale creatures with the hook anymore. You can still pull yourself to them, or them to you.” Ollie flew around in circles around Jace.
To test it out, he aimed up at the edge of the crevice. As he put his arm up, he felt a rush of tingling sensation – as if his foot had fallen asleep – crackling up his new arm from his shoulder. The slight mass of CIF surged into the new limb, integrating it perfectly into his body. Still no clue how Earth based tech is doing that with magic limbs.
He focused on firing the grapnel, and saw a spectral, dark-grey line shoot forth, attach to where he had aimed, and stayed taught. And now, retract. He was pulled up – much faster than the Wirecannon Arm would have pulled him up before – and he felt the grapnel automatically retract as he planted his palm. And I don’t have to manually release it? That’s way easier to use.
“Plus, it gives you a 1/day use of the Skill Shadow Nebula Smokescreen, which will create a 10 ft. radius cloud extending from you that impedes line of sight of everyone…well, except for you. It lasts for 10 seconds.”
Jace held up the arm and turned it over a few times before rolling his sleeve back down over it. “I also have enough Stardust to level up, right?”
“Yup! 1620 Stardust.”
“Let’s do that. Another Rank into Dark Energy Beam.”
“How come, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I want a strong trump card, even if it makes me really, really tired.”
“Okay!”
<<<<<>>>>>
Name: Jace Seren (Aspirant, Tier 2)
Power [Class Level]: Dark Matter [Swordmage 43]
Skills: Skill Name (Rank) [Evolutions]: Universal Translation, Environmental Adaptation, Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3) [Reflecting], Swordmage Stance (Rank 3) [Astral Annihilator], Dark Matter Dart [Exploding] (Rank 4), Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), Dark Energy Mine (Rank 3) [Distant], Cosmic Infusion (Rank 10), Dark Energy Beam (Rank 12), Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4) [Vampiric], Starfire Stride (1/day), Arbiter's Anathema (1/day), Shadow Nebula Smokescreen (1/day), Archmage Geomancy (1/day), Archmage Hydromancy (1/day)
Stardust: 620
Equipment: (Returning) Starstorm Sword, (Medium / Snowguard / Burnguard) Devastation Armor, Ghostlight Grapnel Arm, Anathema Arm, (Overclocked) Dragonclaw Devastation Legs, x2 All-Seeing Dragon's Eye, (Heavy) Venture Pack, survival meals (x30), enhanced canteen, optimized medical kit, flint bar, flashlight, Omnitech prosthetic repair module (x1 charges), (Restful) Wildercloth tent, Devilsram wool bedroll
Boons: Common (Equipment), Uncommon (Equipment), Uncommon (Information), x2 Epic (Equipment Augmentation), Epic (Secret Cache)
<<<<<>>>>>
Dark Energy Beam (Rank 12) - As Rank 1, but increase size of the beam (44 in. diameter)
<<<<<>>>>>
Jace frowned, “Give me a size comparison, please.”
“Think about half the size of a king-sized bed. But a circle.”
Jace blinked at him, “Huh? King-sized?”
Ollie sighed and pinched the top of his little, cute snout. “Right, you did not have luxuries. Okay. Think the length of a baseball bat – you know what that is, right?”
“Yeah,” Jace replied. “One of the other street folk had one made of metal and wrapped in spikey bits. He used it to hit scroungers that weren’t part of the group.”
“So, that long, but then if you put it on the ground and spin it in a circle. That will give you the size of the beam.”
Jace knelt and traced out the rough shape and length, and then drew a circle using that length as a reference. That is a big beam. I could disintegrate half of a person with that! He stood up and nodded, “Right. Okay. Time to head to our next destination.” He turned to the distant volcano, 150 miles away according to Ollie’s map and the tile size.
“Are you going to do the mine-launch again?” Ollie asked.
Jace nodded, “Yup. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1) on myself,” he stated. The small, black bead appeared on his torso with a trigger condition for when his trajectory changed. He winced slightly as his heart skipped a few beats from the sudden energy drain.
Ollie looked around, “There is nothing to grapple with to set up the trajectory.”
“No need,” Jace said as he grinned, anticipating the oncoming rush. Crouching, he waved Ollie over, “Stay close.”
Ollie flew over and wrapped himself around Jace’s neck. “Ready for…whatever it is!”
“I want the earth to rise under me – as fast and as high as possible – to launch me to the volcano. Geomancy – activate.” Jace felt the glacier under him begin to rumble as a spur of rock jutted up and impacted the bottom of his feet.
It shot upwards and he clung to it as the wind rushed against his face. He was only able to keep his eyes open because they were prosthetic. He could feel his clothing whipping in the wind as he was shoved into the sky. He retracted the feet-claws, and the earthen spike stopped – sending him flying.
He flew up through the hazy silver and gold magic that floated through the skies – and the Dark Energy Mine activated, removing gravity from him. His momentum carried him forward and he sailed over the whole fifty-foot expanse of the cave tile. His sharp, All-Seeing Dragon’s eyes could make out the groups of Aspirants in the various terrain areas below.
As the Skill was about to run out, he re-used it and persisted his sailing flight – angling right towards the highest peaks of the volcanic range.
“Weee!” Ollie shouted out, and Jace whooped at the thrill of not-flight.
>>>---<<<
“You see that?” Bellor asked as he pointed up in the sky.
Renlas nodded. Some damned fool flying. Double-A is going to smite them.
But, to both of their shock – the figure just kept…floating? Sort of falling? It didn’t look like any type of flight they had seen.
And the person vanished from their view as they vanished past the mountains the two Black Hole Signers were currently climbing up.
Bellor growled and punched his fist into the wall, cracking part of the stone as he clambered up, “They’re gonna beat us to the dungeons up there! Come on!”
We have to get stronger, Renlas thought as he climbed alongside his blood-sworn kin.
The two had grown up on a desolate, desert world. They were trainees in an order devoted to their goddess of destruction. But when Cosmogenic Merging happened, they both chose Aspirant and were lucky enough to be embraced in a hug at the time. They were transported together, and went through their Aspirant Trial, together.
Then, they learned of Troxanir, the Endless Hunger. Their goddess, given flesh. One who sought the oblivion of all. To bring an eternal quiet and peace to the raging conflicts of the world…well, worlds, now that the brothers had learned of The Cosmic Corridor and The Eternal City.
Part of their duties as Signers were to grow in power. Troxanir had decreed that much; all new Aspirants were to reach level 51 at a minimum before choosing their Ascended Power and Advanced Class. Tier 4, minimum, he thought as he clambered up the rock face.
The brothers reached a cliff edge and took a breather. The air had grown warmer and stuffier. After drinking from their canteens, they resumed their climb – to the volcano tile. Dungeons with high rarity Boons.
And, to perhaps encounter and kill this unknown Aspirant who flew across the skies.
