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Arcane Apocalypse ~ 73
🕑 Added 2025-01-03 17:00:15 +0000 UTC**************************************************************************************************************************************
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r-S4z3UdDW7N8Ji3ULAmvnLishoBUKK7rTijv-WqtQQ/edit?usp=sharing
*****
[Realm Event: Rift Mayhem]
Objectives:
Kill monsters: 563
Enter a Rift! COMPLETE.
Clear a Rift: 1
Clear and Close a Rift: 1
Contribute to securing your home against monsters: Mid (55%)
Assist those fending off monsters and diving Rifts: Mid (12%)
[Rewards will be given at the end of each week based on each User’s contribution! The Event will end once the Realm is stabilised!]
[Failing this event might mean not only the end of your town, but that of your planet and the Realm as a whole]
[Rewards for Week#3 can be claimed now!]
[Claim Rewards now?]
[ Yes / No ]
Yes.
[Calculating Rewards … ]
[Rewards Calculated!]
Rewards:
1 x Natural Treasure: Prismatic Gem
2 x Novice Ritualists Toolkit
2 x Pack of Reagents (Spirit Genesis Ritual - Spirits of Duality)
1 x Novice Summoner’s Guide ( aka. ‘A Step-by-step Guide for a baby mage’s first ritual’)
“Huh,” Mia just stared as the pile of rewards fell into her lap. A pair of sacks, a pair of satchels with curious bits of metal poking out of them and a thin book that was more like a brochure. That’s not what I was expecting.
She didn’t know what inner calculation hid behind the System’s seemingly random rewards, but she wanted to kiss it. Well, it wasn’t random, not by a longshot. Every single reward she’d gotten so far had been something she needed dearly.
A wand to not blow herself up, a protective artifact that saved her life a few times already, natural treasures to get her stats up and even that water-giving rock she’d been praying for. So, that meant these were supposedly what she needed.
It also meant that it was likely the System thought she could make use of them … meaning she should be able to go through with that Ritual that’d been sitting in the crevices of her mind like an annoying fly.
She’d just need to assimilate the second Summoning Lexicon in its entirety to have all the runes needed. The Ritual called Spirit Genesis was an exorbitantly rune-expensive spell circle, or rather, ritual circle. It had 240 runes. That was a lot.
Unfortunately, she really didn’t have either the time or the space in her Spell Tome to attempt it. For that matter, nor did she have the two greatest prerequisites for the successful casting of the ritual, which couldn’t be shoved into reagent sacks. The location where she’d have to actually cast the Rituals. The spiritual resonance of a specific place supposedly played a crucial part in the Ritual being actually successful.
Putting those items carefully into her backpack, she took the last item into her palm: the Prismatic Gem.
***
Natural Treasure: Prismatic Gem: Increases Attunement to the Arcane Element when consumed. Increased Attunement progress depends mainly on the User’s affinity for the element.
***
Looking around at the other two, who were both looking over their own set of rewards, Mia shrugged.
“I’m going to eat this thing,” she said, rolling the small gem glistening with all the colours in existence and then some. When the two looked over with raised eyebrows, she elaborated. “I don’t think it’s going to cause any problems, it’s supposed to be like that thing Lina ate that boosted her Attunement. But … I mean, just make sure I don’t spend the next three hours with my face in the dirt if I pass out from this?”
“Sure,” Lina said, nodding easily.
“Yep,” Mark said after a moment, nodding too before he quickly went back to being nose deep in some book. “But I’ll draw stuff on your face if you make me carry you all the way back to the tent.”
“Thanks guys,” Mia said, rolling her eyes at Mark’s quip. Then she laid down on the grass and threw the little gem into her mouth.
What happened next was hard to describe, like she felt every cell in her body and saw more of the world than she was supposed to for a brief instant. She felt light, smelled electricity and tasted movement.
She didn’t even notice when the usually wild and chaotic mana in her pool ever so gently flowed into her channels and up into her mouth. The energies of the gem, now suffusing every inch of not just her body, but spirit too latched onto the mana and pulled back into her pool.
[Attunement (Arcane)] 22% -> 31%
Mia opened her eyes and thankfully found herself in the same place, with both Lina and Mark still doing what they were before. A part of her worried she’d sank into some weird deep meditation and failed to notice the swift passing of time in the interim.
Attunement … it went up by a single percent by itself since last time, didn’t it? Mia thought, clearly remembering that it had been at 21% right after the Archon had ‘witnessed’ her. Nice. So getting it up can be done even without gobbling down Natural Treasures by the bucketful.
With the next reward at 40%, being a Trait called [Wisp Form] Mia was quite excited. It sounded exciting, and she remembered her First Steps of Arcanism book mentioning it as a prerequisite for a sub-school of Arcane Magic called Wisp Magic.
She stood up, patted down her clothes for dirt and leaves, grimacing at how the butt of her white jeans took on a green hue. Maybe it really would be better to go back to a darker set of clothing; it would certainly hide grass stains and dirt better. Which could be a blessing with the amount of rift-diving, monster hunting and hiking she was likely going to have to do in the future.
Self-cleaning clothes, I should have asked the System for self-cleaning clothes … maybe next week.
“I’m going to head back,” Mia said, waving at the other two as she shouldered her backpack filled with all sorts of strange ritualistic gear and magical reagents. “Have fun … or something.”
*****
That’s bullshit. Mia thought sourly.
“That’s such bullshit,” Mark echoed Mia’s thoughts aloud, arms crossed as he glared over at Zeigler across the room.
“And why would that be so?” The Colonel asked easily, squinting a little at the dwarf. “If you believe my allocation of resources is faulty, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. So tell me, why should I send your team of six people into the higher levelled Rift when Mister Addler over here has a full party of ten people prepared for this exact Rift?”
Mia resisted the glance over at Jeff, whose last name was apparently Addler.
“We have already Cleared and Closed a level 13 Rift as a team of six,” Mark said, close to pulling at his beard at the thought of his and Mia’s little plot backfiring on them. “We have experience, and we could easily fill out our numbers to have ten members too.”
“Really?” Zeigler leaned forward, an interested look on his face and the new snippet of information even drew the stoic Jeff’s attention to Mark. “Which one? I don’t remember hearing any decrease in monster activity around any of the five Rifts in the city.”
“It was outside Graz,” Mark said. “An hour walk to the north.”
“Well,” Zeigler said, thoughtfully rubbing his chin. “The best option would still be if the strongest members of the two of your teams created the party that would dive the Goblin Rift. The lower levelled Rift in the sewers is much less of a concern than the greenskin one.”
Mia stiffened up at those words, glancing back over at her shoulder at the rest of her party. Everyone was there, everyone from both her group, the army leadership and Jeff’s band of fighters. The last group looked similar to what Mia’s own group looked like, Quest given armour, rugged clothing, and some mystical characteristics here and there.
One man in particular stood out to Mia, tall and lanky with golden blonde hair and pointed ears so long their tips were higher up than the top of his head. He also had a pair of glowing golden eyes that he had aimed straight at Mia since the first moment she stepped into the command tent. There was a confusion in them, a mix of longing and disgust so conflicting it was weirding Mia out to no end.
Ignore the weirdo. Mia said to herself, mentally grimacing that her first encounter with another being with Fae blood was turning out to be a shitshow. Just focus on the topic at hand. Ignore him.
With the weekly Realm Event Rewards claimed, everyone felt the building pressure to take one or even two of the Rifts off the map. Who knew when it spat out a horror even greater than the Troll after all? It was paramount that they destroyed it before it got out of hand.
“We have already spoken on that matter,” Brent spoke up, his voice even and professional in a way Mark could never be. Even if the man wasn’t in full agreement with the rest of the team, he kept to the decision they came as a party. “It is not happening.”
“I suppose we could fill your team up with another four members,” Zeigler said. “Still it would be best if you could set aside you-“
“I agree,” Jeff spoke up, making Zeigler bite his tongue midway through his sentence and glare at the towering demonspawn. “By my knowledge, all six of you outshine the bottom six members of my team. Switching them out for you would increase our chances of victory significantly.”
What knowledge? Did he have someone watching us? Mia gave a suspicious squint to the man, then looked through his retinue for anyone who might have looked familiar … or felt familiar.
If someone had been following her, maybe her subconscious grew familiar with the way their presence tasted. No such luck tho, it was all strangers.
He probably just had someone ask around. The soldiers and most of the army mages would have seen us fight on the wall. Mia relented, finding a much more likely reason than some super magical spy having stalked them for the last few weeks without them noticing.
Zeigler, with a visible twitch of his lips, looked at Mia and her team, throwing the ball into their court.
“Out of the damned question,” Mark reiterated, frowning mightily as his face grew increasingly red. “I’d sooner trust a goblin not to shank in the back than that cunt.”
“Is that … your personal opinion?” Zeigler asked. “Or the group as a whole?”
“We have voted,” Brent said diplomatically, placing a hand on the glaring dwarf’s shoulders. Mark had always hated Jeff’s guts, and hearing how he treated Mia, Brent and the rest of the people only enhanced that hatred and turned it into loathing. “The majority of us agree. We will not be taking part in any dives where members of Mr Addler’s … militia are also taking part.”
“I see,” Zeigler nodded, giving a short, calculating glance to the visibly bemused Jeff. “How confident would you be in clearing the goblin Rift without any casualties?”
“Depends on the four people we would fill out our numbers with,” Brent said.
“If you can get a full team of ten, all at level 10,” Zeigler said. “I can agree to sending your group into the Goblin Rift. Would you be willing to lead the dive into the Sewer Rift instead, Mister Addler?”
“I suppose,” Jeff said slowly, his gaze moving over Mia’s group with a calculating edge to it. “If they can truly handle the stronger Rift, I have no problems with letting them have at it. The quicker Rifts are Closed, the better.”
“I quite agree,” Zegler said, nodding as he stood up. “Go, fill out your numbers. Then let’s get this dive underway. Make sure you pick up the prepared satchels of potions before you go in. We are all out of Natural Treasures, but we do have potions still.”
*****
“Everyone’s ready?” Brent asked, taking on the leadership role. It suited him, even if the man left leading most conversations and debates to Mia and Mark lately. He looked much more professional and easier to look up to for strangers than a petite elf or a dwarf with an almost clinical aversion to acting dignified.
Mia huffed, psyching herself up as she stared up at the cracked marble archway towering before her and the wobbly air strung up inside it.
“Ready,” said Clive, one of the four temporary additions to the team. He was almost as tall as Brent and was covered from head to toe in dark grey armour similar to his, but instead of a sword, he wielded a tower shield.
Another Ki user. Weird lot. Mia thought. They couldn’t use anything external for a few more Ranks, but in turn they had a generalist body enhancement with a heavier focus on the aspects of it allowed to them by their affinities.
Brent was swift and hit like a truck, so Mia guessed he had a mix of fire and air affinities while Clive shared he had Earth and Darkness. There was hardly a better combo for a tank Ki user.
The other three were Amelia, the woman with the Ethereal Mana-Cannon Skill Mia had marvelled at back during the defence of the wall, Aiden aka ‘fireball-guy’ and a thin elven woman named Christine, or Chris for short.
Chris was the only one Mia wasn’t familiar with, but the brunette seemed friendly enough and Zeigler vouched for her abilities. Chris was the archetypal rogue with a Water elemental near-invisibility skill and an instinctual knack for everything short and bladed.
She was also taking glances at Mia that were all too similar to the one the golden-eyed weirdo had. She’d have to ask about that later. Thankfully, the woman’s reactions had been much more subdued than the golden weirdo’s, so Mia felt it would be fine to leave it for future-Mia to handle after the Rift.
The curiosity was gnawing at her; it had to be some sort of instinctual reaction if both elves she’d met had reacted the same way. But why, and to what exactly?
“Ready,” Mia murmured, watching the pompous Aiden just nod in what he probably thought was a dignified manner. “Look out for an ambush, I’m feeling a few of them close on the other side.”
Brent gave a serious nod and after the round of nods and agreements finished up, Mia quickly applied a round of Lesser Wards on everyone, drank a mana potion, then nodded to Brent.
She already had her Familiar summoned and had recovered the exorbitant amount of mana it took for her to summon it. With her increased pool though, she had managed to make it twice the size it had been before without decreasing the duration.
Brent and Clive stepped through the portal as one, then Mia followed after them with Mark at her side.
The instant she was through, the sound of metal screeching on metal, the cackle of goblins and the war cries of the two men who went in ahead of her reached her ears.
“Kill the goblins, fifty metre radius,” Mia said, her cursory inspection of the portal with Spirit Sense having clued her in that something like this might happen. “Go.”
The Familiar shot off and Mia hopped to the side, wand coming up and aimed into the dense foliage from where she felt the presence of a monster.
Her piercing Bolt shot off, but the presence stayed so she sent off another two while making sure Clive and Mark had her back covered.
The three men were fighting a pair of hobgoblins while having to endure a rain of arrows falling down on them.
Mia felt a few hit her too, thankfully just unenhanced ones shot by the shoddy short bows regular goblins wielded. Her own Lesser Ward halted them all, having them pinging off of a thin, pink film over her skin and clothes. Holy shit, that’s scary.
Mia swallowed as she felt another impact on her shoulder, a gentle nudge as a third arrow bounced off. Mia’s target, likely a higher levelled goblin archer going by how slippery it was, finally blinked out of her Spirit Sense, dead.
Five melee goblins, small beady eyes gleaming with a promise of violence and shortswords caked in rust rushed out from the bushes.
An arc of lightning, yellow and blue snapped out over Mia’s head, catching a trio and searing them black, melting skin off their skulls as they fell.
A moment later Mia saw a dark blur in a flash of movement and then heard the cackles turn to screams as Carmilla took the fight to them.
With Helene and Carmilla through, Aiden and Christine came in next. The fire mage hesitated, probably not wanting to set off a wildfire with the group right in the middle of the rift-made forest while the elven woman just turned into a blur and slipped into the forest.
Mia could track her, the elf’s invisibility skill not doing anything to prevent the sound of her nimble footsteps being heard.
“It’s fine,” Mia said, glancing over at Aiden who still looked torn and a moment away from sending off a ball of flaming death. “We got this. You can hold off on that for now.”
Saying so, she sidestepped another arrow that came whooshing in. Ears twitching, she made a game out of dodging as many arrows as she could while flicking off piercing Bolts towards the nearest hiding monsters she felt.
Lina and Amelia came in next, the two who Mia and Brent felt would be least useful if they really were ambushed in the dense confines of a forest. Lina had to resort to just putting up walls of wind to ward off arrows and smacking a few goblins coming at her aside while Amelia was largely left just shooting off a few quick bursts of energy at a monster or two she spotted before anyone else took them out.
Unfortunately for the woman, she only had her regular human eyes and ears to do that spotting for her while Mia and Carmilla had a slew of senses more supernatural in nature to help them out. Still, there wasn’t much need for the heavy firepower Amelia’s presence added to the team against weaklings like these.
Their enemy’s numbers took a quick nosedive. Whatever dared to step within stabbing distance of Brent and smashing distance of Mark died a quick and bloody death. Mia and Helene gave them covering fire, taking out any goblin taking potshots at them while Carmilla and Chris circled around the main party a few dozen metres out like a pair of roaming reapers dealing death to whatever goblin they came across.
In less than five minutes, the sound of fighting died down and only the shallow breathing of the team members and the smell of death remained.
The Familiar came back too, apparently having made a mess of anyone aiming something nastier than an unenchanted or unenhanced arrow at the party.
“Well, that was a the worst fucking start to a rift I’ve ever had,” Mark said, spitting off to the side as his golem-like armour opened up to allow him to do so. “Fuck. I have the smell of goblins on my tongue.”
“How many have you been in?” Clive asked, the large man running his hand over his shield as if to check for dents.
“This is the second,” Mark said. “The damned rift threw us into the middle of a sandstorm in the other one. I was cleaning sand out of my socks even a week after coming out of that shithole, so that says something about this … green hell.”
“Will we have to hunt the little shits down in this forest?” Aiden asked, a distasteful grimace on his face. “I think I should just burn it all down then we can finish off whatever remains.”
“My Lesser Wards would only last at most half an hour if you set in a forest fire,” Mia said, trying to discourage the pyromaniac from burning down the whole forest while they were in said forest. “And they don’t give you air either.”
“Then what?” The man asked petulantly, looking around at the goblin corpses like they took his lunch money.
“Carmilla, Mia,” Brent said, taking on the party leader role like they’d agreed. “Can you lead us to whatever base these things have? I don’t think the Rift’s called ‘Greentide Fortress’ just for them to live in burrows.”
“I can try,” Mia said, her Spirit Sense not feeling any clump of wrongness dense enough to signify a fortress filled with Goblins. “We might have to walk around a bit for it to come within my range. Just climbing up a tall tree and looking for a ‘fortress’ could be easier.”
“Same,” Carmilla said. “I have their scent, but there’s nothing upwind of us and I don’t have the scent of any specific goblin to track in a way that doesn’t care about air currents.”
“Climbing a tree it is,” Brent said, nodding in a way that made him appear unconcerned with the slight setback. “Now, let’s find us a tall tree and then we can decide who gets to climb it.”
Comments
Lisfer
Thanks for the chapter! Happy new year ,) (Loot! Finally!)
FanObooks
A great start
P3t1
Indeed it is.
Stephanie Washburn
This is a good start to the year.
