Kit Falbo
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MwN Chapter 61/101
🕑 Added 2025-01-29 15:20:53 +0000 UTCChapter sixty-one
Harmony let the shadows from [Shadowed Graves] recede for the third time. The goal of this training season was to adjust the height of the darkness covering the sky. Ambrosia had birds flying through it reporting back. The change to only using the [Beautician] modified version in the city had ceased many of the complaints. The guild training grounds were always busy with spectators there to at least see what new hell Thorne was putting her Ascendant Games charges through. Still, she could sense that with every use a few more people trickled in on schedule, only to leave soon after the effect ended. Guess the options were either to scare people away or turn into more of a circus attraction.
Tyler, Rose, Max, and Len all lay sprawled out and wounded on the edge of a little obstacle course Thorne had set up for them. Max had yet to use his summon of her, yet was bleeding enough to display that he had been in enough danger to use it. The injuries were a new angle of the training. With the length of the games, they were sure to run out of healing potions or need to ration. Other groups were probably sure to have a healer on hand, at best they had Harmony’s discount version of [Mend] and [Renew Spirit].
Plans to put into motion. Harmony strode up using [Style and Grace] and [Poise and Bearing] to help give her courage by looking good. “Will you all be interested in another strategy gathering at my suite tonight after dinner?”
Lord Tyler practically rose from the dead the way he popped up and out of his exhausted collapsed state. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“With our trip to the deadwoods and more bonds to gain this will be perfect. I’ll bring the copy of Spirits, Geists, and Oddities of the Woods that Thorne lent me.” Len added from his prone position.
“I’ll be there too,” Rose said with less enthusiasm.
Max looked like he was wrestling to keep his mouth shut. Likely managing impulses related to his class and profession. Subservience as a maid was hard. Imagine having a class and profession dedicated to one person. Pity, though, was for someone who didn’t do it to themselves. “Ditto.” He choked out.
Thorne was heading back over. It was time to leave them to their pain. While Thorne had yet to rope her into one of these tortuous training bouts, it was possible. “Off to climb the garden. See you tonight.”
Mist rose from the oversized serpent's head as the cold she’d shoved into its brain to kill it with [Cold Touch] faded. Several cracks covered the hardened shell of fused and thickened scales she’d set upon it. If she had made the shell any thinner it might have escaped or worse. Trying to shave time off the process wasn’t worth it even if the first backup plan was to run back down the stairs used to climb up to this level.
The passage to climb higher or leave opened up. The Fifth floor with its tank-like plants was bound to be a pain. Twiggys were still a problem in groups, but at least a soul strike would put them out of commission. Up those stairs, mossifants roamed wild, giant moss-covered mud monsters made to suffocate victims by laying on top of them. Nae's Garden's moving cairns, burying you alive, and staying as a monument.
Ironically one of the tactics to defeat them was to pick your most survivable teammate, have them be covered then dig through the moss and the mud to get to them back before they died, killing the beast in the process. Few people managed to keep that role long, and mental fortitude was recommended. Guides have them resistant to silence. They recommend you bring a shovel. Or like the dig boys have multiple uses of dig. This is also another case where [Rot] is recommended. Killing off all the soft wet moss made them much easier to defeat, removing some of the mud's container and weakening its stability.
Soft, squishy, insulated against cold and silence. [High Kick] would be useless like most blunt force trauma damage. Slashing damage could only peel off so much. They actually called it scooping or digging damage in the guides Trying to figure out how to fight them shifted from only good ideas to only terrible ideas, a refuge for the desperate.
“You ready to be complete idiots?” Harmony asked Hyacinth.
“Grupt.” The shadow toad answered reluctantly and they started the climb up.
Moss everywhere. Shades of browns, greens, and black. Like the third floor not a tree in sight. Natural camouflage for the mossifants. They weren’t the only enemies on this floor but were the ones she was most worried about. Water elementals could shoot up out of the wet moss, those were very vulnerable to cold. The necromancer’s guide recommended [Cold Touch], freeze then shatter them if you had it. The guardian of this floor was a giant one. [Cold Touch] was not recommended there unless you wished to risk drowning. Guides called them squirts, little and big.
Deadly in a different way, mostly meant to wear you down or get you stuck in the mud for the mossifiants to bury you in.
With nerves already high, the leaking of [Cold Touch] made the wet ground hard enough to walk on. A heavier combatant could still break through and get stuck in the muddy earth beneath. Hyacinth's widely distributed weight was safe so far.
There was no skipping to the guardian. The big squirt only showed up after you cleared the floor, another slog for adventurers looking to climb to the top.
The first squirt popped up from the ground, [Cold Touch] snapped out immediately freezing it into an abstract sculpture, and [High Kick] turned it into shards.
Its death brought the angry mossifant charging over, a faceless round oval with six legs. The worst plan had been to use [Stride Before the Fall] to sacrifice herself to burial and dig through it while one of her suffocated slowly.
[Shadowed Graves] spread out focused on getting it to flee. It didn’t. Not unexpected since it had mud for brains. Not alive enough to know better, not dead for [Manipulate Dead], and too wet for [Dust].
Hyacinth and Harmony slipped into the shadows to flee. Part of the problem was how impact-resistant the monsters were. Training at the guild had given Harmony plenty of time to interview guild members about how difficult they were to break through. And for those unlucky enough to be bait, the way it crushed you slowly while their team dug through the beasts.
[High Kick] would never provide enough force to get past it even if she’d been as large as the version of her Maz summoned. It was still a small hammer of force. Some jobs required a bigger hammer.
“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Hyacinth yelled. Harmony’s own scream joined his. Had the shadow ceiling been too high? They were at least on target. How soft and squishy would they be?
With a shift of her feet, Harmony made sure to land close to Hyacinth’s impact. [High Kick] synergized with [Small Armor]. The offensive skill often added extra force while it limited repercussions to her body. The defensive one just stopped things massively more powerful. This should be similar to their assault on the third-floor guardian the thunder roc, but they needed more force and therefore extra height.
Hyacinth was the bigger hammer. She’d hoped he would shrink as impossible as that would be with her growth, but instead, he grew steadily bigger and denser since they arrived in Naewauld. He was more at risk than she was in this, but he promised that he could take it.
The slapping boom as they hit sent Harmony’s ears ringing. The moss and mud held together in the body of the mossifant as it cushioned their fall, but the energy of the impact had to go somewhere. Driven down to all six knees the mossifant’s body flattened out. Would it spring back? Being buried for the next attempt was… As Harmony worried, the sides split. Disturbed mud spilled out untethered, uncollected, and unalive, deflating the moss shell that had helped contain and protect it.
The tension she had kept in case they needed to keep fighting bled out of her even as her heart continued to beat fast from the long dive from above for this attack.“You okay?”
“Ugrreck,” Hyacinth responded, wobbly lifting himself up.
“Well, we both survived. I think we need to practice a few more times before we contemplate taking the floor. I did hit level twenty-one.” The added stability was good, but there were only three more levels to her last two skills and then the big hump of evolution. So much to plan for, but right now only so much time [Shadowed Graves] could be kept in use. “Let’s get hopping. I have guests to host tonight.”
Comments
NeoJungleLover
And In This corner we have Shadow Toad!!
SnuggleCat
Squish
