Chapter 35: To Make a Difference

"Whatever's allowing that arcane and necrotic energy to stay apart is only barely stable. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm guessing that any amount of physical disruption will destabilize it," Vex explained. "That's why you can't damage it."

I'm not sure I follow, Kestel sent over the link. He sounded... slightly calmer, but also strangely out of breath, for someone on a telepathic link. How does that link to it being invulnerable?

"I think it's invulnerable because of health and [Ethereal Body]," Vex said. He watched the Aberrant closely as it clashed with the captain; it still hadn't noticed any of the team on their side of the corridor. "[Ethereal Body] prevents it from taking any damage to its health, an effect that manifests as allowing physical strikes to whiff through its body unless we directly strike the weak point. But it can't do that second part of the effect — if it did, you'd be able to destabilize it."

And that would kill it, Kestel summarized. You think that because we can't physically strike it without destroying it, the health system is preventing us from hitting it at all?

"Pretty much, yes," Vex nodded. "If you look carefully, nothing the captain is doing is touching its body. It's skittering off just before it touches it."

In the challenge room, the captain roared as he slammed his blades down onto the Aberrant, and the Aberrant raised all five of its arms to block; the impact forced its body partially into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. But Vex was right — the captain's blades were hovering a millimeter away from the Aberrant's arms, like there was some invisible barrier that couldn't be breached.

"Normally it would still take some damage to health, even if we weren't allowed to actually touch it... but it has [Ethereal Body], and that skill technically prevents damage to health." Vex paused. "Any spell I cast would have the same problem. It wouldn't hit the Aberrant at all. Mana would disrupt that system, too. It can move itself, because it's in full control of its own mana, but..."

"We could throw a rock at it," Sev suggested. Vex blinked and stared at him. "What? A rock doesn't have health, does it?"

"Well, no, but if you throw it you're attacking it, so it becomes part of the system," Vex said.

"What about the floor? It's stepping on the floor," Sev said. "Can we make it stub its toe?"

"I don't know what that means," Vex said, raising a brow.

"...Do you not — does toe-stubbing not exist here? Does the system prevent toe-stubbing? How have I not known this all this time— Wait. I have an idea. We throw Derivan at the Aberrant."

"I believe I can throw myself at it fine," Derivan said.

Iliss and Ixiss were both staring at the adventurers in abject confusion. "What are you talking about?" Ixiss said. "You're acting like you face something like this every day."

"I mean, not every day," Sev said. "But a lot of days? It just feels like this kind of stuff keeps happening recently. I'm not really surprised at this point, I'm more worried about getting to Misa. And apparently we need to deal with this problem first, so..."

"I have a skill that allows me to strike past health," Derivan added helpfully. "That is why they suggested throwing me."

"You're a shit liar," Iliss said automatically, and then she paused, frowning. "Wait, shit. Are you? Fuck. I actually can't tell."

"He's definitely lying," Ixiss said, doing the thing where he narrowed his eyes, except he had eyesockets and was really just conveying the impression of narrowing his eyes very well. "...Wait. No."

"I am definitely not lying," Derivan said, with no conviction whatsoever.

"Anyway," Iliss said. "I'm going to ignore the question of whether or not you're lying and address the bigger problem here, which is that destabilizing it is dangerous. That's what happened the first time — there was an orb made out of arcane mana, and a monster hit it with some sort of skill infused with necrotic mana. Your friend tried to block it, and she... half-succeeded?" Iliss hesitated. "I'm not really sure what happened there. But I'm worried that if you mix the same two types of mana again..."

"It'll explode violently?" Vex guessed, and Iliss nodded. He grimaced slightly. "Yeah, it might do that. On the plus side, it's going to be mostly necrotic energy, which means your captain and you four will be immune to it, and as long as the rest of us stay out of range we should be fine."

"Except for your friend," Iliss said, jerking her skull towards Derivan.

Vex hesitated. He'd avoided saying that Derivan would be immune to it, given he was lacking any kind of organic matter. The enchantments anchored in his armor were unlikely to be affected by anything except powerful dispel-oriented skills.

"I'll cast a spell on Derivan to protect him from necrotic energy," Vex finally said, stepping forward. He reached forward a little hesitantly, looking up as if to make sure Derivan was okay with it — and when the armor nodded at him, he placed a palm on his chest and cast.

It was nothing more than a basic light and illusion spell, causing a ripple of dark-gray light to surround Derivan before dissipating. But it was a sufficiently convincing illusion, it seemed; no one questioned it.

"There. You should be fine now," he said. "Derivan, you should just need to let it hit you... but that seems dangerous, so try to hit it first? Even better if you can hit through the joint where the arcane and necrotic mana is."

Derivan nodded. Vex looked like he wanted to say something else, but he didn't speak as the armor stepped through into the challenge room.

As Derivan stepped in, the Aberrant stopped and turned, as if it could sense him stepping into the room. It screeched at him, a sound rang throughout the room and reverberated against his armor. If he'd had health, Derivan suspected it would have hurt him; as it was, all that happened was that he cocked his head slightly.

The captain looked over at him in a way that seemed distinctly worried. "Ya got a plan?"

"I need to hit it," Derivan said. It wasn't much of a plan.

"Well, ya ain't gonna have much of a choice there," the captain muttered. He was watching the Aberrant carefully as it staggered, a falling, twitching movement that seemed incredibly out of place on its frame —

— Derivan wasn't prepared for the sudden attack as it launched itself at him, all momentum suddenly changing so that it launched itself straight at him. He braced himself, knowing he didn't have time to dodge, but the captain grit his teeth and threw himself into the Aberrant to knock it off course. It screeched in anger, tumbling across the ground.

"Move!" the captain shouted at him. "Yer too close to the others!"

Derivan moved, rushing in closer, angling himself so that the corridor wasn't in the Aberrant's direct line of sight. He wasn't as fast as he wanted to be, but he was still relatively fast, the enchantments that animated him firing rapidly through his armor. The captain yelled out a warning that Derivan barely managed to hear through the Aberrant's screech and threw himself to the side, barely avoiding the ball of coalesced energy that streaked past his helmet.

It could fire projectiles. Good to know.

It didn't seem to like doing it, though. The Aberrant seemed angrier than ever that even that strategy had missed, and it charged at him as though in a frenzy, a relentless flurry of strikes; the captain tried to stop it, hooking a blade between its feet to try to trip it — but the thing barely cared for gravity to begin with, and stepped nimbly over even while assaulting Derivan.

It took everything the armor had to deflect those blows. [Barrier] could only do so much; every time an arcane or a necrotic arm struck at him, he had to twist out of the way, using only the barest flicker of a [Barrier] to deflect the blow. With the arcane arms he could barely even do that, for it seemed to suck up his mana and grow a little stronger.

All he needed to do was slice through that space between necrotic arm and arcane body, and yet for all that he tried, the Aberrant twisted and danced out of the way with incredible speed. Even the captain barely seemed to be able to fight it off now; despite its singular focus on him, it knew what it needed to do to avoid being thrown, or shoved, or pinned.

It was learning. And it seemed it knew that, too, from the way it was grinning.

Derivan had a thought.

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Health wasn't allowing other people to interact with the Aberrant meaningfully, because its skills meant it both could not take health damage and that it could not be disrupted without risking instant death.

He didn't have health. He could act outside that system.

He also had [Intermediate Mana Manipulation].

The Aberrant was made of mana.

Why did he need a sword at all?

He reached out with the skill, touching on both the arcane and necrotic mana at the same time. One felt like change and volatility, the other like death and rot, and he twisted them together with an effort of will —

There was a moment of resistance.

And then the two types of mana met.

Arcane mana decided it would have a better time being necrotic, instead, and the rippled across the Aberrant's entire being; in a moment, it was made out of only necrotic energy. A flash of light flickered over its body. Health wouldn't protect it anymore — the mere act of disrupting its body wouldn't instantly kill it.

Though it was, of course, already in the process of dying, because the nature of that change was violent. Energy rushed across the monster's entire form in an instant, exploding outwards in a brilliant display of light and dark, churning through the room in a way that sent even the captain flying back; Derivan, who had significantly more mass, was pushed back several steps before he caught himself.

Then that energy washed away, leaving Derivan feeling oddly tingly.

Your p#ar##ty has killed a level 73 Aberrant! XP awarded.

On the ground, perfectly intact, lay a single crystalline orb — the core of the Aberrant.

"Dungeon reward," the captain said softly. "Well, what do ya know. You did it."

Very carefully, Derivan picked up the orb, watching light glimmer through it as he moved it around. It looked like it was made out of glass, but it diffracted and stole the edges out of any light that went through it, giving the inside of it soft, changing hues. He walked back towards the corridor with the others as he did so, hearing the clack of the captain's bones against the stone floor as they walked.

You need to bring that back to us, someone said over the telepathic link, sounding excited. Kestel was oddly silent. That's the least damaged reward we've seen. I don't know what you did back there, but—

"Smash it," the captain said.

What?! The voice was outraged through the telepathic connection. But—

"I looked at my notifications. Misa's your friend, isn't she?" the captain said. "If she unlocked a bonus room, then you can use the dungeon reward to get there. Use it. Don't listen to whatever the research team is saying."

There was a frustrated silence over the telepathic link.

"And we'll help you," the captain said suddenly, projecting his voice loudly enough that his team could hear it. "Or I will. The rest of you get a choice. But you know damn well what Misa did for us." He hesitated, like he wanted to add something else, but he glanced to Derivan and refrained. "Break the orb."

Derivan did, crushing it in his fingers. A notification popped up, one in front of each of them, though the armor only saw his own.

You have beaten the Crystal Challenge and defeated the Aberrant it produced, despite . Congratulations.

The bonus room The Village's Last Defense> was unlocked during the battle. Entry to the bonus room has been unlocked as an additional reward category.

Randomizing rewards...

Rewards offered:

[Access to The Village's Last Defense>]

[Epic-Grade Equipment]

[Stat Boost]

There was silence for a moment, as Derivan looked at the four soldiers beside the captain. They seemed to be contemplating the choice, but one of them broke the silence first.

"I'm sorry," one of the soldiers said. For all that he was a skeleton, he looked... tired. Maybe a little bit broken. "I can't." He gestured, helplessly, at his own body. He seemed guilty, though Derivan felt he didn't have an obligation to help. Misa's rescue had not been a transaction; he knew her well enough that he could say that on her behalf.

"I'll help," Iliss said, and Ixiss huffed beside her.

"I'm going to have to if you do it," he grumbled.

The last soldier — a thick, broad-shouldered orcish skeleton — grunted. "I will help."

"Come with us anyway," the captain ordered the one that had refused — and when he began to protest, he shook his head. "I won't make you fight. But whatever blew up that orb is still out there, and I'm not leaving you to go through the dungeon alone. You'll sit back and be defended like all the rest."

That quieted him. He nodded.

Derivan looked at Sev and Vex. "Shall we?" he asked.

There was no answer; there was no need for one. They each reached for the button on the notification at the same time, and a whirl of light surrounded them, blazing into a brilliant white as it transported them into the bonus room.

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