Alright! Aggregate level 44. Let's see what good stuff we got this time, Nar thought, as he pulled up his gains notification.

 

You have leveled up!

 

You have gained:

Strength 41 -> 43

Constitution 57 -> 61

Stamina 61 -> 64

Vigor 13 -> 14

Speed 64 -> 67

Agility 64 -> 66

Hearing 42 -> 44

Sight 38 -> 41

Smell 19 -> 21

Dexterity 19 -> 20

Reflex 72 -> 77

Accuracy 13 -> 15

Awareness 20 -> 21

Ego 72 -> 75

Aura*** 1055 (380 + 675 Mod.) -> 1191 (420 + 771 Mod.)

Instinct 46 -> 47

Endurance 21 -> 22

 

Skills upgraded:

Skill [Sword Aura 2] was upgraded to [Sword Aura 3].

Skill [Pathways of the Champion 10] (Passive) was upgraded to [Pathways of the Champion 11] (Passive).

Skill [Mastery 8] (Passive) was upgraded to [Mastery 9] (Passive).

 

Well, well, well, he thought, his eyebrows rising further and further up his forehead as he read the list. The difference that 4 levels in an almost purple ranked domain can make…

Leaving the gains window open, he popped open his full status tab, in order to marvel at the utter insanity that all of his passive bonuses plus [NPC] and [???] had become over the past week.

NAR293457741235645XAV

Champion Aspirant 19

(Aggr. 44)

Rare

DPS/Tank

Aura: 9407/11,910

Health Points: 579/610

Stamina: 588/640

 

Stats

● Strength: 66 (43 + 23 [The Aspiring Champion])

● Constitution: 61

● Stamina: 64

● Vigor: 16 (14 + 2 [Combat Cycling] (while in combat))

● Speed: 115 (67 + 23 [The Aspiring Champion] + 25 [NPC])

● Agility: 126 (66 + 23 [The Aspiring Champion] + 37 [NPC])

● Hearing: 91 (44 + 47 [Senses of the Champion])

● Sight: 88 (41 + 47 [Senses of the Champion])

● Smell: 68 (21 + 47 [Senses of the Champion])

● Dexterity: 20

● Reflex: 173 (77 + 23 [The Aspiring Champion] + 73 [NPC])

● Accuracy: 15

● Awareness: 21

● Perception: 12

● NPC: 19

● Ego: 75

● Aura***: 1191 (420 + 771 Mod.)

● Instinct: 127 (47 + 23 [The Aspiring Champion] + 47 [Senses of the Champion] + 10 [???])

● Endurance: 22

● Might: 16

● Presence: 1

● ???: 35

[Speed], [Agility] and [Instinct] all over 120 points each, with [Reflex] nearing 180 points… he thought, a slow grin taking over his expression. Of course, all of this freaking pales in comparison next to all of that damned [Aura***]... Holy shit. That's almost 12,000 points in that tiny gray bar! Crystal… Between my [Aura Blade] training and my self-heal, that triple attribute modifier combo is really starting to take off! I'm getting close to 100 points of [Aura***] per level!

He shook his head in disbelief. And to think I started with 21… Crystal. It's almost impossible to believe.

Glancing back at his gains notification, he noticed the expected [Ego] increase, which continued to lend credence to Cen's theory about his [Aura Blade] control.

[Constitution] continues to increase, and [Vigor] has been matching it… And there's also an increase in [Endurance]? I'll take it, he thought. [Sword Aura 3] is great to see, but the big one is that damned [Mastery]! It finally upgraded to 9! How much is that now… From 526 to 621 points? Damn! That's not bad! Not all!

There was no use in having that ginormous amount of aura if he couldn't even properly touch it, but at 621 points of [Mastery], which was boosted by his [Pathways of the Champion] and [Combat Cycling] skill, that was already more than enough to fight with.

But that [Aura***] really is the real showstopper, as Tuk says, he thought, rubbing his chin. And those attributes are probably only now starting to show their true worth too…

He clenched his jaw, staring at the numbers before him.

I've been fully focusing on my [Aura Blade] and increasing my [Ego] in order to control it, and Kur, Row and Calli have been phenomenal in helping me get the opportunities to do so… But I need a real fight. I need to see what I'm truly capable of now. These 4 levels were huge increases, he thought. Plus, our level ups are slowing down, and the gains might be getting smaller too. Like Leon said, his level 43 was better than 44…

They had been focusing on their harvesting and gathering needs, and on leveling up in order to not be outmatched by the jungle beasts, and the 4 levels they had gained in that week and a few days, had been beyond what any of them had hoped for. So much so, in fact, that they ceased having much trouble with the common herds they faced… Meaning that Kur and Leon had started feeling itchy and dropping not so subtle hints that it was time to start downing uncommon beasts.

We'll probably get started on smaller uncommon encounters soon, though Sej will probably keep us from attempting one of those nests that have bosses until she's sure we can handle it, Nar thought. I'm still a bit skeptical about how we'll all work together as three parties in one big fight, but I guess we'll see how it goes. Hopefully well, and hopefully we can think about those rares too.

"Oh, no!" Tuk whimpered.

"I told you not to look!" Leta snapped at the trugger. "And stop gagging! Or this needle is gonna stab the wrong place!"

Nar blinked off his tab and notification, and hid a smile at the scene unfolding at his feet.

"I was curious…" Tuk said, in between said gags, his countenance pale beneath the thick, ashen brown, wet bangs of hair that stuck to his forehead.

Nar shook his head, pressing his lips to keep his smile from growing, and watched as Leta placed the last of five, long needles around Tuk's left shoulder, and began cyclin into the aurium metal. The needles glowed the bright, customary shifting gray of aura, and she began working on the horrific bite that one of the rycali had managed to inflict on Tuk.

"You need better [Awareness]," Eum said, grinning at the trugger. "But this is good! More [Constitution] for you!"

"I guess…" Tuk mumbled, with a queasy sigh. "Thanks for getting it off me."

"No worries, man!" Eum said, flashing him with his razor sharp, tygarys teeth.

On Nar's other side, Viy and Era had joined in seeking shelter under an agglomerate of bushes, but none of them had fully managed to escape the rain. Meanwhile, Cor was chatting with Tun under another such bush of glowing, bright light blue heart shaped leaves, and the tank was currently making sweeping gestures and giving the caster tips on target priority and on better leveraging their [Awareness]. Nar smiled as he recognized the words from their dour faced lecturer on TSA.

As for Sarke and Kur, they are quietly debating whether or not to harvest the hundred or so dead rycali strewn across the mud and the underbrush around them, or if it was best to just focus on the tree barnacles that covered the tree trunks around them. The barnacles were stretched-hand sized, gray shelled creatures that infested the impervious dark trunks that supported the canopy covering the Jungle Tops, and the creatures had been their original goal before the rycali had swarmed them just as they arrived at their destination.

Nar grimaced as he looked up at the dull, dark looking shells. They had tasted them already, and it was like absolute ass. But for hungry auramancers, their protein was a must to complement their diet of weird plants, roots, and unripen, tough, sour berries and fruits that their guides had decided on feeding them.

Eum burst out laughing just there, and Nar couldn't help but shoot him a poisonous glare. Every night since the vedars had "attacked" the camp, the auramancers had been forced to weather the delicious smell of vedar meat grilling or bubbling away in a stew. Just thinking about it made Nar's mouth water.

Unfortunately, Eum and Leon continued to reap great pleasure from goading and parading their delicious meals in front of the auramancers. Their dramatic and exaggerated groans of pleasure and culinary descriptions of the succulent meat were enough to make Nar want to blast them with his [Aura Blade]. As it was, he had actually been getting more and more tempted to just eat the aetherium meat and regret it later, just to be able to savor something that tasted good for once!

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

And why not? he wondered, his mind dominated by the thought of steaming, chargrilled meat. I can just heal myself… I can just think of it as training.

He shook his head. Entertaining the thought only made it worse. Let Mul or Jaz try it out first. The two of them were a lot closer to their breaking points than he was anyways.

A tap on his leg drew his eyes downwards.

"Yoh!" Eum greeted him. "How's that skill going?"

"Meh… Getting there," Nar said.

"Patience!" Eum said, nodding seriously. "The hunter must be patient!"

"Right…"

The tygaris was back in the more humanoid face shape that he seemed to prefer to use while not in combat, but he hadn't bothered using the rain to clean up the blood and gory bits matting in his fur.

Maybe it's even on purpose, Nar thought, keeping his expression neutral. Who knows what a patron of honorable combat and hunting requires as a show of servitude?

"Ugh, this isn't working!" Viy suddenly snapped, annoyed at all the water still dropping on her. "That bush looks bigger!"

And Era, Eum and Nar followed after her, seeking better shelter and leaving Tuk in Leta's capable hands. The whole reason why they were still getting soaked was because they had left most of the space to Tuk and the cooline anyways.

"Nar, you have teeth stuck to your shoulder," Era said softly, as they bunched up under the glowing, white bush. "Do you want me to remove them? I don't need aether for it."

"Oh, I know," Nar said, looking down at his shoulder. While his growing [Reflex] and [Instinct] made his HP almost redundant as of late, the frustrated, angry feathery creatures had decided on a six-pronged, screeching rush, and one of them had managed to land a bite, even if only for a split second. "I'll push them out with my aura. Thanks, though."

"No worries," she replied in her customary dreamy tone.

"Yuck," Viy muttered. "And what's with those birds and shoulders? They kept trying the same on me!"

"Must be a kink…" Eum said, sniggering to himself.

Nar shook his head as Viy barked out a laugh. The tygaris was impossible to read. One moment he was going off about sparing, offering blood to his patron, and honorable combat, and the next, his speech pattern dropped its loftiness to come down to match whatever Tuk and Jaz had learned across their adventures across the many sections and crews of the Scimitar.

"Oh! They're moving!" Eum said, leaping to his feet to have a better look at the teeth embedded into Nar's skin.

Nar snorted. "Suit yourself, man."

The yellow, misshapen and serrated teeth felt like a physical blockage to his aura, and it seemed to hesitate at the unexpected obstacle. Usually, it always did, whether it be sand or whatever Tys decided to rub or stab him with, but as usual, cycling a lit bit more aura to the area, and focusing a bit harder on transmitting his intent to his repairing aura did the trick.

With a rush of anger at the invasive objects, his aura bucked against the teeth, and they began exiting his skin.

"Damn!" Eum said, his eyes going wide.

Both he and Viy leaned in forward to look at the teeth as they shifted and pulled and snagged at Nar's skin and flesh, and Nar did his best to ignore them.

"That's nasty," Viy said, twisting her face. "But I can't stop looking at it…"

"You're going to damage yourself further," Era warned.

"It's okay. More practice for more," Nar said, offering her a smile. And indeed, his aura's expulsion efforts caused the teeth's serrated edges to rip through flesh and skin on their way out. But as he'd said, that only meant more chances to practice.

"This stuff's insane," Eum said, shaking his head. "Wish I could do it too!"

"Really?" Viy asked with a snort. "Do you have any idea what he's gone through?"

"I can only imagine, yes… But think about it! Passive healing? That's huge!" Eum said, his green eyes glowing with hunger. "I'd go through any torture to get a skill like that! Plus, pain resistance thrown in the mix?"

He shook his head. "I envy you auramancers. I truly do. In my opinion, you get a lot more out of the "you are what you do" than us aethermancers do."

"Well, we had to get something out of it…" Nar muttered.

A sudden, distant boom echoed throughout the giant tree trunks, and it was followed by another smaller one almost immediately.

"That was not thunder," Eum said, his tygaris ears shifting atop his soaked and bloody mane.

"Don't think so…" Nar said.

He focused on his [Hearing], but other than raindrops on leaves and bushes, he didn't hear anything out of place.

"That was us," Row suddenly said through their party chat. "We had a clash between aether and aura skills, but we're all fine! Minimal injuries."

"Oh, shit!" Viy breathed.

"What happened?" Kur asked.

"It… It was my fault," Row said, her tone flat. "I miss-tagged a beast, and Cen and Medis hit it at the same time. Teb was nearby and caught the edge of that blast. Jasphaer's looking at him now."

"I'm fine," Teb said in exasperation. "I wasn't that close to it!"

"You're bleeding!" Row snapped back.

"It was the beast, not the…"

"Shut up and lay down!"

"Row, calm down," Kur said. "This kind of stuff was bound to happen. That's why we've been practicing and getting to know each other better before trying anything too serious."

"But…"

"He's right," Calli said. "And tagging is a complex thing as it is, and having to keep skills apart only makes it more complex. But it would have been the same had we something like fire and ice users in the party."

Row didn't reply, likely because she heard the logic in their words.

"Row, this is the reason why we haven't started fighting anything serious yet," Tun rumbled in Nar's mind. "To get to know each other and to practice fighting alongside all these different paths. Aether and aura complicate things, and we won't know for sure if it's doable or not until we fight uncommon, but in the meantime, we just need to keep practicing and figuring out what works and doesn't. So don't worry too much. Accidents happen, and we all learn from them."

"I… Fine," she said. "I'm sorry for that, everyone. And sorry, Teb, Cen and Medis. It won't happen again."

"It's fine, boss," Teb said. "Don't worry about it."

"Mistakes happen, and we improve," Medis said. "That's all there is to it. Guilt and blame have no place in any party, even if it's self-blame."

"Right. You're right," Row said. "Anyways, sorry about that. We took care of things on our end. Starting the harvesting now."

"We got hit by a bunch of rycali, so we're going to harvest some of it alongside the barnacles," Kur said.

"Yum!" Leon said. "You guys must really love that stuff, seeing as you can't stop eating it!"

"Leon!" Calli shouted.

The chat was suddenly filled with curses and swears, and Eum burst out laughing besides Nar.

"That was mean," Era said. "I really hope you guys can find something better to eat out here."

"The farther we go in, the less likely we are to find any animals," Nar said, shaking his head. "It's alright. We've had worse."

"If you're talking about the jell-o and the crackers, then I'd say this shit is worse," Viy muttered, glancing up at the infested trunks. "I'd take those over the crap we're eating in this jungle any day! I would almost rather go hungry!"

"Yeah, fair enough," Nar said with a sigh. He wasn't looking forward to lunch either, but the rations were gone, and they weren't making a comeback.

One of the teeth attached to his skin suddenly ripped through the last bit of skin stuck between its serrated edges, and dropped harmlessly at their muddy feet.

"Well, would you look at that," Eum said, his eyebrows rising.

"Nasty," Viy muttered, looking at the remaining two teeth still embedded into Nar's shoulder. "I've been meaning to ask, but you seem to know a lot about auramancers…"

That's one way to put it, Nar thought. Calli had attributed it to some kind of secret, and he hadn't pushed, but still, he wondered what the story was with that.

Eum gave her a curious look, but he nodded.

"I've been wondering… Are auramancer lives really that different from yours?" she asked, staring dead ahead. "In the Nexus I mean, with all that aethertech and what not…"

"Hmmm," Eum said, drawing it out. "Well…"

"Yes," Era said, when her furry party member hesitated. "They are very different."

Both Nar and Viy turned towards the healer.

"I could tell you of any number of things, but I just need to speak of one, really," she said, in her usual airy tone.

She grimaced and tapped the side of her head.

"The implant?" Nar guessed, eyeing the patch of white hair she had touched.

He had come to learn that he had been somewhat right about her species, and that Era was indeed a type of alfin. The sleep focused healer was a won-alfin, to be exact, though some preferred the more common term of dark alfin. Hers was a kind that had split from the original alfin to focus their worship on spirits and gods of darkness related aether, and according to the Church, they were the second species of sapients to come into being.

"In the Nexus, everything is implant based. Everything. I can control the strength and temperature of my shower with a thought, and it will be exactly the temperature I want. I can tell my toaster how I want my bread, and I can hail a taxi from the comfort of my own bed, telling it exactly the time it should arrive," she said, her tone a hush that was almost drowned in the heavy rain. "But these sorts of examples are no good at all, because you all lack the life experience to even comprehend what it means to live with these things, and much less what it means to live without them."

"Era…" Eum said, frowning.

"It's okay. I asked because I wanted to know," Viy said.

Though I wonder if she thought it was rude to ask Jasphaer, Nar thought, remembering how the healer had told them about his shower arrangements.

Era gave the dark-haired halberdier a short nod.

"But there is one good example I can use, one that is right here," she said, and she motioned towards where Sarke was guiding Kur in pulling out the feathers of a dead rycali. "Have you noticed that when I gather, or when Medis harvests, that we don't need to ask Sarke or Sej to teach us?"

"No?" Viy said, frowning.

"I did," Nar said, eyeing Kur's slow and uncertain movements. "But I thought you were just well prepared."

"You think we studied and memorized how to handle the thousands, if not the tens and tens of thousands of materials in this dungeon?" Era asked him. And there was no judgment, or edge to her tone, she was merely asking.

"And what happens to all of that effort when we never come back here again?" the healer asked. "Or how many days, weeks or months, must we dedicate in order to prepare ourselves to delve into all the dungeons in our lifetimes as delvers?"

"That's what we've been doing though?" Viy mumbled.

Era shook her head. "You have been focusing on a tiny percentage of materials. Even your requirements for this dungeon, despite being high in quantity, are not that wide in breadth."

"Meaning, we only studied a small subset of what there is available to gather," Nar said. "And the guides are here to help us with the rest."

"And with the proper way of actually doing it," the dark alfin said. "For no matter how much you study, practice and experience are completely different things, and without their assistance, you would ruin most of what you touch."

"How do you do it then?" Viy asked. "And so well?"

The healer tapped the side of her head again.

"The implant?" the halberdier asked, frowning in confusion. "How does that help you out here?"

"The fact that you even ask that question is answer enough to your original question," Era said. "Before coming in here, I searched the 2NET for a database of all the flora in the Brightnight, and when I found one with good reviews I paid for a five-month subscription in order to access it, and downloaded it in its entirety."

She pointed at the bush they were sheltering on, and Nar tracked her finger upwards as she considered the heart-shaped leaves. They glowed in bright, neon light-blue, with dashes of brighter white lines and dots spread across it in an outwards pattern.

"This is JUND20014-OR-2R-820761's ID FL000-4783367, and it has no colloquial name," Era revealed to the stunned auramancers. "The first string you might recognize as the Brightnight's ID, and the second one is this plant's. The FL stands for flora, the first zero means that this plant is harmless, so no poison, or advanced sentience, or any other sort of threat are present. The second zero means that it is not edible for my species, so that one might change to a one for someone else… And the last zero means that this plant is either not aether infused, or it has so little that it doesn't qualify as aetherium."

"Wow…" Viy whispered.

"If for some reason I still want to gather this plant, then my implant, through my UI, will show me exactly how to do it," Era said. "In this case…"

She reached up and pointed at a part of a branch that to Nar looked just like any other. "I should cut here using a sharp blade while applying as little pressure on it as possible. And, as it turns out, if you dry out that branch, then boil the leaves for four days, three hours and twenty-seven minutes with a hardening agent, you will get something you can put on the bites of a particular insect from this jungle in order to neutralize its poison. Interesting…"

"You… You can tell all that?" Viy whispered. "About everything in here?"

Era nodded. "There's actually a very detailed process in my head on how to fully harvest this plant, from leaf to root, but I lack most of the tools for it. And this is just from the flora database. Medis has the fauna one for harvesting."

"And it helps her in the same way?" Nar asked.

"In the exact same way. Of course, the implant does nothing for actual muscle memory or capability, so one still needs the correct training in order to actually pull it off, or try again and again until they succeed just based on the implant's instructions," Era said. "And there are many other ways in which the implant can help me here. I can look up at that tree there, and it will highlight the biggest barnacles for me based on the most effective course of climbing for me. But since they count as fauna, that's pretty much all I get from them."

"Crystal," Nar said as he looked up at said tree.

All I see are barnacles…

"Our implants can also be very helpful in combat," Eum added, his tone subdued. "My implant can access my senses and [Awareness] for example, and warn me when something is coming for me, or advise me of likely ambush locations, or when more enemies join the battle. And you can program it in many, many different ways, according to your needs and tastes. The one everyone does use though, is the Damage Tracker add-on. As long as you have the enemy's data, it will keep track of all the damage dealt by syncing with the others implants in the party and give you an estimate of how much HP something has left. It even tracks DOTs, and there are a lot more advanced add-ons out there. Some can even plan out whole strategies for you…"

"Really?" Nar asked, stunned.

"It's not my case, since I don't do combat healing, but a lot of healers have warnings for status effects programmed in theirs, as well as for buffs and heal over time effects running out, and many others," Era said. "Plus, there are high-end, healer specific implants that will carry out full diagnostics for you, and even suggest and guide you through the healing procedures."

"Yeah, Jasphaer mentioned something about those," Nar said, his expression tight.

"Of course, we don't use anything so automated as that in our party though…" Era added. "Those things are often prone to pretty critical errors, plus, they tend to not perform well the farther into the Labyrinth you go. Things just get too hard for them to keep pace with. But all the same, these are just some examples of what an implant can do for you."

"Fucking Pile…" Viy whispered. "That's… I don't even know what to say. That's a lot!"

"A lot-lot," Eum said, making a face. "Sorry."

Viy sighed and shook her head. "No need for that. It's just the way it is, and I was the one who asked the question."

"Looks like it goes a lot deeper than just staying away from aether tech," Nar said, sighing.

"You have no idea, man," Eum said, apologetically. "Those lights you have? The cooker, the boiler-purifiers… Those things are basic. My toilet mirror is more advanced than even your touch screens."

"Well… Damn," Nar said, chuckling. "That's… Well, something to look forward to, I guess, when we make it back to the Nexus."

"Don't worry, auramancers can be wealthy and live very, very well," Era said, brushing a consoling hand against his arm. "It's just different. That's all. Having so much can become detrimental too, you know?"

It can? He asked himself. Outwardly he only nodded in pretend agreement.

"Alright, gather up!" Kur called. "These birds are pretty much worthless without a lot of effort, so grab your hooks, and let's get those barnacles!"

There was a collective grumble, but people got to it.

Nar took out the pair of hooks that the two guides had loaned to them, their tip being made up of countless, tiny and incredibly sticky spikes, then he glanced towards Era.

The healer had ignored the nearby tree, and instead had headed straight for one that, to Nar, didn't seem special in any way. Now knowing, or imagining, what she was seeing though, it was a completely different story.

He would never trade his aura for aether, of course. He loved that it was the might of his own soul and hard work that propelled him forward, and not his begging or bent knee in the mud. But all the same, it was impossible to deny that a little part of him felt a pang at all the wonders, joys and comforts that his birth and Climb would forever deny him. Who knows what sort of life he would've lived had been born in the O-Nex.

Well, it is what it is. It could be worse. And it still is for…

His shoulders sagged at the memory of his dad.

There was another thing barred from him. Forever.

Clenching his jaw, he picked a tree to climb.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.