The Reaver stabbed his feet into the dead crystal pitted floor.

Xera shouted from her crystal exuberantly, "I'd thought we'd never leave that place. Master, that starry girl could take a hint or two. So annoying! Why did that other shield lady take a nap for all that time? We could've used her help. You almost died and…" Suddenly reminded of how close things had been, the sword wand cut off her crystal, ceasing her speech.

Eyes on the jagged violet pulsing crystal spires dotting the cavernous terrain, Luke said, "Seem to always piss off a lady or two. Couldn't tell you why. Anyway, don't blame Juliana too much. In the end, it was my choice to prevent that Rogue from killing her. She's going to be conked out from the Crystal Corruption until they can fully cleanse it. I'll take an 'almost' any day of the week. It's the best I can shoot for in this line of work."

Bouncing on Luke's chest from the Reaver's abrupt movements, Wayfinder said, "Could kill you to keep tryin' to save all the poor damsels, you sly dog. Never in all the four directions would I think me newest master so eager to die. Make sure when you go kaput, ye leave a will to hand me off to someone with better sense first. It worked out this once, but by me shiny gold casing, risk yourself for the worthy, not that lot. Lad, stop actin' like a cat with nine lives."

Slightly distracted from the violet crystals pulsating in sync, their drum echoes ramping up in decibels, Luke peered to the pitch black cavern top, made of an obsidian material. Glittering red clouds gathered there, sharp shards rushing within them. Uneasy, he whispered, "We can argue about my rash decision later. Seeing someone dare to attack a down-and-out hunter for what at the time seemed like no good reason ticked me off, that's all. Seriously, Assassins piss me off."

Molten lava, chock-full of violet crystal shards, bubbled in the cavernous Crystal Crucible. The heat shimmered in the air and sourced a low red glow that mixed with the violet light gifted by the crystal spires holding up the obsidian ceiling. Looking behind, Luke spawned in a dead end, a wall of humming crystal closing off that direction. Except for the faint ash and sulfur scent from the crystal lava pools, the Crystal Crucible was devoid of smells. The shadow of a crystal sank beneath each lava pool, the only one not in shards or fragments.

Black glitter fragments tried to stick to Luke's skin, sliding off or gathered to a patch of frost, then shed.

[The Crystal Crucible tries to corrupt you. Your Elemental Body nullifies the attempt]

Black shadow wisps burned on Sooty's feathers and talons, her effort at fighting off the corruption. She had greater success than before but wasn't immune to the corruption process. The Interface confirmed Luke's fears.

[Your companion, Sooty, is being slowly corrupted. Her element slows the process but is unable to nullify due to lacking mastery]

"Sooty, in my shadow, it should protect you from this."

"Caw!" Sooty refused.

"This again? The crystal corruption is a serious problem Sooty." Knowing his corvid's personality, Luke sighed, "Promise me you'll enter my shadow if it gets over half."

Sooty started with a deep rattle. Not in the mood to hear it, Luke cut her off.

"Promise me."

Hopping on his shoulder, she cooed, wings sinking a bit, head hanging.

"Good."

[Nemenoth, sensing your lacking corruption, places his beacon upon you. All monsters in the Crystal Crucible are drawn to you in a drastically increased radius]

Eyes shutting a little, Luke tilted his head and smirked, "Haven't even taken me for a wine and dine before trying to fuck me, Nemenoth? I look forward to shattering you into pieces of ice. You sack of crystal demon shit."

Wayfinder stifled a laugh through his springs. Whispering Tome swayed back and forth behind the Reaver's head in a smiling arc. Whispers drifted from the violet jagged crystal spires, 'Impudent…' The rest of the message became incomprehensible, even for Luke's elevated senses. He didn't miss the rumbling of the movement heading this way, though. His eyes clouded with frost essence, tendrils of rime mist seeping outward.

Rampaging over this way, divided by the crystal spires, were legions of hulking crystal beasts, clad in the substance as armor, shockwaves erupting from their impressive bounds. Above them blazed Shardlings, black spikes over their centers, different from the ones Luke encountered in the first zone. Scattered about the two monster types, a third, lesser seen one, appeared.

Crystal echoes of hunters—if Luke's eyes saw right. Their images matched many of the commonly worn dungeon items he recognized—weapon types and class abilities emanating off their immaterial bodies, all the same. With one off-putting difference. Ghostly black crystals stabbed out their eyes, spines, or chest, often gemmed about in patches around the spiritual physique.

Absent, for once, was the usual pressure on Luke's mind. Like all he saw before him were inferior creatures—no—lower life forms. Too lowly to possibly challenge him with numbers alone. Snow formed in the Crystal Crucible, and bubbling lava started to shiver. White expiration left Luke's mouth. The Elemental stepped forward, glaciating the ground beneath him within dozens of feet, thin blue mists roiled. Black lines and grey runes etched the thick white-blue ice layering Xera. An arc of electric signals later, and Luke appeared above the legions of monsters, standing on a formed ice platform, steaming mists keeping it in the air.

Frost cracked in the Hulking Crystal Beasts's armor. The Shardlings slowed, and the Echoes halted their steps, already locating the Elemental Human—preparing the ranged attacks in their repertoire if they possessed them. An arctic wind rushed through the legion, covering the pitted ground in permafrost. The Hulking Crystal Beasts slid into each other, their shockwaves splitting both ice and the crystalline armor of their brethren. Crystal blast jettisoned from the Corrupted Shardlings, conjoining together like abominable limbs, trying to skewer Luke in every direction. Turning Xera into a frigid wand, Infusion, and Essence Bond resonated with the class artifact. Luke pointed her to the obsidian above.

A polar Essence Fissure possessed the skies, its pressure smiling at the creature legion at its mercy. The blasts froze mid-air, slowly losing to gravity and drifting back down. The spells and arrows loosed by the corrupted hunter images turned course, backfiring, and the Hulking Crystal Beasts slammed against the hostile ground. Ruinous Echo pulsed from Xera in waves, making the already vulnerable monsters turn into fragile targets, their innate resistances lowered. Face an impassive sheet of ice, the Reaver summoned an Essence Lance, four shards rotating around its humming form. Grey runes began to etch themselves upon the frosty essence spell. Its size increased as the ambient snow and ice gathered into it, pointing two fingers to the Fissure. Luke commanded the Essence Lance to feed into Essence Fissure.

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Merging into Essence Fissure, a thin misty nova created a transient circle. Then, a glacial hell stormed down upon the monsters beneath Luke, aiming for total annihilation. The Reaver repeated the action with Temporal North, doubling the Ice Essence shard rain with another Essence Lance, empowering the fissure. Placing Essence Bond and Siphon upon a sturdy looking Hunter Echo, it duplicated to nearby targets. Sooty screeched, instantly spreading the attribute lowering ability and stamina stealing effect to all other creatures while heavily damaging them—Vorpal Touch appeared upon the inflicted. The Corrupted Shardlings imploded first, their crystal bodies fracturing into shrapnel—shards pierced the Hulking Crystal Beasts, making them roar in pain and leap frantically. Their shockwaves injured other beasts, causing a chain reaction.

Like dominoes, one monster fell after the other. Only the tank-type spiritual bodied Hunter Echoes still lived, immune to the physical attacks from the Crystal Beasts or Shardlings. The Reaver's elemental abilities shredded them in ice, and their already sluggish movements lowered to a near standstill. Acting as icy land mines, the snow and iced ground exploded in patches at the Reaver's command, frosting over all that remained. The scant few survivors struggled against caked-on frost, cracking it apart. Swooping down with Shadow Wing at her side, Sooty picked them apart, each monster wailing from undeath.

Stepping off the glacial platform, Luke dropped down, blasting apart targets with icy Essence Bolts from Xera's wand head. Snow particles billowed up high when he landed silently, obscuring his position. Chilling zephyrs sucked in remnant ice and elemental frost, bringing along any monsters left with it. Rearing Xera back, the Reaver turned her into a blade and arced her in a lightning-quick strike, cleaving through the oncoming beasts and Echoes. They pieced apart into frost chunks and crystal flesh—all dead.

A beacon within a crucible, the Elemental Human received no reprieve. Rushing from other hollowed crystal rimmed tunnels, more monster legions sieged upon him.

____________________________________________________________________

Atop a glaciated mound of monster corpses, a man covered in ice and blood heaved.

Ice filled in broken bones, frost stanched the bleeding, and flesh wriggled around to regenerate. A metaphysical heart pumped—full of power. A red vial appeared, swirling down a polar maw, regenerating the bleeding muscles and torn skin the man sustained. A crow settled down on a snow pile nearby, picking it apart to let it melt in her mouth for water. Sooty wearily closed her eyes. An ice igloo formed around her, all but halting the crystal corruption trying to subvert the companion.

Thousands of physical bodies and immaterial spectral echoes composed the frozen vertical graveyard he used as a chair. It'd been three hours now. Luke hadn't progressed much from where he started, the endless monster waves ceased just moments ago.

He'd lost count of the exact number he and Sooty slaughtered together. His Inventory and her Spatial Feather reached full capacity at some point, orbs of light drawn to the storage function at will. The veritable flood of experience sucked into Wayfinder, bringing the numbered to level twelve. Rising West gained a level, going to Rank 2 of the usual 3 Wayfinder's abilities tended to categorize themselves in.

Taking out some jerky and flinging pieces of dried fruit to Sooty, Luke laughed at the absurdity, "Wayfinder, all that for one level? And it's going to skyrocket again once we max out Rising West, right?"

Opening a clasp, Wayfinder said, "An ocean's worth of cost for power beyond your station, icy rascal. I could say the same for the snow heap beneath that shiny bottom of yours. Keep that newly elemental head of yours straight. This Crucible has its sights set on you." Turning his needle to the abyssal cave mouth where the monster flood used to rush from, he continued, "You've got the right stride. Each new direction is going to require a mountain more than the last."

The usual white-blue runes from Essence Bond faded from Xera. The Sword Wand was stabbed into the ice mountain Luke created. She shook in place, "I think I might be tired…master, you're wearing my blade out. This constant freezing is warping my metal insides."

"Doesn't essence repair you anyway?"

"Duh! But this much is making me queezy and strains my crystal. That Cedric said something about it, that we can experience an overload if our master is tiers above our quality." Misted Essence streamed from Xera's crystal, and the ice on her weapon body melted. The nicks and metal warping from excessive cold began reconstructing to return stability.

"Xera, I'm still a tier 1, you know."

"So hurry up and upgrade me! Compass got new abilities, and Mister Silent became a floating book and a whole new weapon. When is it my turn?"

Mentioned, Whispering Tome settled in Luke's lap, icicles along its covers. Shivering pitifully, Luke took away the ice, visibly relieving the quasi artifact tome. It opened its pages, new lines written in runic at a dizzying speed.

Flesh restitched from Vampiric regeneration and elemental vitality. Luke put a hand over his chin. He thought momentarily, "If it takes killing an Envoy to gain the Envoy Essence to meet your next requirement, all we can do is wait, Xera. There isn't one here, and the ones coming for the Tide will be surrounded by Diplomats and that Yuriel. Charging head in without the support of others is suicide. Be patient, please."

Bits of grey and brown metal expelled itself from Xera. After her shaking finally subsided, she said, "All better. Okay, I can wait a bit more. This really turned up a notch from before. You're overworking me."

"I thought you could never be satisfied with any amount of battle. The world does have mercy on my soul. Whew."

Despite the beacon calling out to other monsters in the Crystal Crucible, Luke couldn't sense any more coming. He'd spread out the mist shroud to form an advanced warning mechanism, but at its edges, none appeared. For now, he'd exhausted the dungeon, conflicted on if he should feel satisfied or disappointed about it.

Getting Wayfinder another level would've been nice, he internally muttered.

The crystal lava pools cooled down into crystal stuffed igneous rock, creating blots of black stone on the otherwise violet and orange pitted ground. Luke spotted the solid crystal centers in the middle of each extinguished lava basin. Triple Step's electric currents crackled upon his physique, leg muscles swelling, calves especially, he dashed up to one in a single bound, creating a puff of frosty air where he previously sat.

Conjuring a sharp ice glove over his hand, Luke reached down to the crystal, ripping it out. Unlike the violet pulsating crystal pillars all around the Reaver, this crystal was pure white, akin to the Shimmering Expanse's central tree.

[Cleansing Crystal]

Quality: Uncommon

Effect: Purges away five corruption points. Useable only within the Crystal Crucible.

The core to the thousands of crystal lava pools that dot the Crystal Crucible. It holds the promise to stave off the otherwise omnipresent corruption within the zone if one is able enough to subdue the fiery wrath it bathes in.

Well, Luke obviously could handle high temperatures. In the small area he conquered, dozens of these frozen crystal rocks were subdued. Stocking up for Sooty's sake, Luke procured all the Cleansing Crystals in sight. He threw out some regular uncommon quality armor items, Disenchanting them to make space. Once a stack of the Cleansing Crystals settled in the Inventory, he considered the preparatory work done.

Sooty stayed insistent on using this as a training environment. This way, however, she could stay out once the corruption reached fifty. Through the transparent ice igloo, Luke saw the black corruption crystals poke out through Sooty's wings, legs, and midsection, shadows wrapping against them in a constant tug of war. He threw Sooty a stack of eight Cleaning Crystals.

"Use these, Sooty. I kept one back from what you needed to be completely fixed since you're using this to push your technique."

Tapping her beak to each pale crystal, they misted into her, and the black corruption peeled off like the fruit skin. With a shake, they fell off completely, devoid of any color. Luke offered his arm, and Sooty shook her head to refuse the gesture. The crow left the igloo, gliding around in between the crystal spires. Trailing back up the ice corpse mountain, Luke ousted Xera from her iced weapon stand. Sheathing the Sword Wand smoothly, he slid down the ice slope. Carrying Whispering Tome under his left armpit.

Gliding deeper into the Crystal Crucible, Luke created a path of frost, delving into the zone at a break-neck pace. All the same, no monsters spawned. The ether in the air was incredibly thin. Crystal clusters erupted in the pitted ground, the explosive force trying to censure the Reaver for the lack of reverence to the hazardous factors chalked in every corner.

Opening a palm, waves of frost emanated from the Reaver's hand. The crystal shards froze in the air, still trailing onto his body, now a beneficial material instead of damaging. The red clouds clinging to the obsidian top hundreds of feet above gathered their energy. Crystal lined thunder crashed down upon the Reaver, threatening tribulation.

Glancing at the strewn-about energy, Luke avoided most of it, with the predictive images overlaying his vision at every iteration. Occasionally, it proved too dense to completely veer from, shocking the man. It dissipated across the ice that composed him, still packing quite the punch. Elemental regeneration teamed with the Vampiric counterpart; the two in tandem overwhelmed the damage rate, causing an impasse.

No stranger to pain, the Reaver kept on, crystal pillars blurring by. Sooty ended up hopping in his shadow, unable to keep up otherwise. She made sure to let her displeasure be known across Reaver's Link.

The Whispers that corralled from the pillars grew in clarity the further Luke went. The hostile environment sure annoyed him, but without any monsters to act as a bulwark, he soon found his objective.

A sublime crystal bastion, bleeding white, unblemished by any other color. Two crystal keys of the same tint rested inside two of four indents. The two empty indents leftover awaited the key pair the Reaver stored in the Inventory. Stopping at the bastion's edge, the ground turned into smooth grey crystal, contrasting against the bastion's purity.

"Here for a date, now that you ran out of doormen, Nemenoth. Thanks for the meal." Luke blew light from his mouth. Frost crept up against the white crystal bastion, invoking another whispering from nearby pulsating crystal pillars.

'Embrace crystallized perfection, hunter. Join as the finest piece in my vast collection. None can overcome me alone.'

"We'll see about that."

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