Chapter 33: BII: Chapter Five

Blood bathed the ground in puddles of slush and mud like a swamp. Goblin and troll corpses were strewn about everywhere around them. Eli stepped carefully around them while he made his way over to Nora, who climbed her way out of a half-dome of bodies. He bet it would have reeked, but between his frozen lumencloud and voidspace armor, he couldn't smell anything. It was *fantastic*. Based on the scrunch of Nora's face and how pale she was, he had a feeling his bet was correct.

"That was one of the worst dungeon sets I've experienced in a while. I guess the Crucible is feeling vindictive today." She groaned and wiped the blood from her eyes. "I didn't think it would be this bad, but I don't understand why it escalated this much already. I asked for Hard, but..."

"But that was a lot." Eli nodded while he checked the cooldown of Spatial Dominion and saw that it had already been over an hour of fighting. He glanced around again at the gristly reenactment of a butcher's battlefield. She had told it to give them a 'three-tiered' dungeon. Did that mean they already progressed?

Nora frowned as she looked at him before she took her own survey of the slaughter they'd wrought.

"Crucible! Status report. Which tier are we in?" She shouted out to the strange graycast sky.

"Tier-one of Diabolic Descent. 849 spawn killed in total. Would you like to end your Delve session?"

"No!" Nora shook her head as she slumped, heedless of all the blood and gore. Granted, her outfit was already splattered enough. It was a wrinkled black mess of crusted over blood and other fluids. "Well. Let's do kill counts, take a short break, then progress."

Eli nodded as he pushed out more lumencloud and shaped it into a mound of cloud that he froze, then stabilized with voidspace. It had become almost second-nature to him after the frenzy of battling. He checked his notifications.

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have slain:

Goblin (x 342)

Troll (x 49)

With the powers:

Natural Armament Ev. 2 (x 342)

Corruption Control Ev. 1 (x 342)

Earthborn Regeneration Ev. 2 (x 49)

Staggering Brawn Ev. 1 (x 49)

You may select from one of the following options:

Siphon Power Experience

Gain a Power Perk

Obtain Power from the Conquered >

<Condensing list>

<Processing...>

<Your condensed power list is:

Wild's Armory Ev. 2

Blight Control Ev. 1

Earthborn Restoration Ev. 2

Staggering Might Ev. 1

You may select from one of the following options:

Siphon Power Experience

Gain a Power Perk

Obtain Power from the Conquered >

Eli blinked blearily at the list even as he ignored some level ups he had gotten during the fighting. He had a lot of options here, but he didn't really want any new powers. He was drowning under the ones he already had. But he would gladly take perks. It was tempting to take experience, but he didn't want to deal with any of the steep penalties.

Only combat focused powers *didn't* suffer from the experience and evolution penalties.

He turned each of them into perks.

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have selected perks:

Armory

Blight

Restoration

Might>

<You have two or more perks. Would you like to merge them to create a new power at evolution tier zero? Y/N>

<Would you like to merge these perks into Baneful Colossal Armory? Y/N?>

Eli blinked at the knowledge the potential power imprinted into his mind. Any weapon or armor he made with this power would be very strong, repair itself, and any wounds inflicted would be nearly impossible to heal if he didn't *want* them too. But he felt uncertain. He needed his powers to better fit his newfound needs here, not new powers entirely.

He declined the new power prompt and fixed each of his new perks to his powers with a widening smile as he felt the horizons of each power grow. He took the moment to admire his status and his new level in Voidspace Mastery. It was *one* level away from being maxed out. After he slotted the Restoration perk into Restoration, a new message popped up.

[Stats:

Body: **Light** (Photon Shot)

Perks Equipped: [Might]

Mind: None

Will: None

]

[Equipped Power List:

Slot One -- Voidspace Mastery Ev. 1/Lv. 9

Perks Equipped: [Subspace]

Slot Two -- Lumencloud Invigoration Ev. 0/Lv. 5 (Maxed)

Perks Equipped: [Armory]

Slot Three -- Restoration Ev. 2/Lv. 3

Perks Equipped: [Restoration]

]

[Unequipped Powers:

Imbue Ev. 0/Lv.5 (Maxed)

Augumentative Elemental Absorption Ev. 0/Lv. 5 (Maxed)

Spatial Dominion Ev. 0/Lv. 4

]

[Unequipped Perks:

Blight

]

<Synergy detected between a power above Evolution Stage: 1>

<Would you like to recycle Restoration into Hyper-Regeneration Ev. 0? Y/N

Note: This option will be available if declined>

Eli beamed at the offered power and wondered if he should take it at some point when he wasn't stranded in a dungeon. Would this mean that he'd be able to recycle this power and merge it with Lumencloud Invigoration earlier than he expected?

He glanced over at Nora and saw that she was playing on her phone while she leaned against a massive drum she summoned. There was no way that was comfortable, but whatever.

Eli pushed with Lumencloud Invigoration and when he focused on his frozen armor, he felt it refine. Thousands of tiny errors and fault lines corrected in an instant. He relaxed as it became far more comfortable near instantly. He flexed his hands experimentally and grinned at how the armor stopped cracking as much by itself. Voidspace Mastery had held it together for most of this Delve with his inverted spatial armor.

He closed his eyes as he let voidspace flood into the framework of the frozen lumencloud armor. He let it adjust until they were perfectly overlapped again.

Eli punched his hand into his palm with a satisfying smack of unyielding ice reinforced by voidspace. Then he flipped his hand over and thought about creating a simple lumencloud knife. Lumencloud vapor curled from his palm before it appeared in a flicker of frozen power. Instead of a clumsy, jagged chunk of ice, it was now a basic dagger with a simple edge that came to a dull point.

He focused on the light part of Lumencloud Invigoration as he willed it to gently ignite while siphoning its power into the core of the blade. Near flat dull planes tightened as the edge honed itself to a keen, gleaming edge.

Again, he flooded the kernels of empty space inside of the blade with Voidspace Mastery until he felt the structure within and reinforced it with voidspace.

No new notifications popped up after another check of his status, but he did notice that Spatial Dominion's cooldown had expired. Should he try to see if he could another level out of it?

Nora was still playing on her phone. And Lumencloud Invigoration was maxed out, so he could swap it out real quick. But what if other monsters appeared? He bit his lip with a frown. If he didn't have to pretend to be fucking Herbert, he'd be a bit more fine with it.

Eli *knew* he was close to a breakthrough with both Spatial Dominion and Voidspace Mastery though. Both were almost finished with their evolution tiers.

"How much longer, Nora?" Eli asked right when a timer dinged on her phone.

"Looks like it was fate for us to continue." Nora smirked at him for a split second before her face fell slightly. Her expression reverted to being neutral as she stood with a bone popping stretch as new, unbloodied clothes appeared around her. Her violin and its bow flickered as they vanished and reappeared with no sign from their entrenched battle. "Alright. We still have two tiers left. Do you see anywhere the path continues?"

He pulled himself up with a summoned spear of frozen lumencloud.

The area was a nearly flat plateau now covered with goblin and troll bodies everywhere he looked. The arch and cave they'd come from along with the miniature peak where the giant was laid one way, while there was nothing but an outcropping of rock forming a lip around the plateau overlooking the valley.

Eli's spatial field explored every nook and cranny while he cast his gaze around to see if there was anything hidden. Were dungeons like those from video games, with neat puzzles or anything else? Would they need a key?

He glanced up at the peak. Was the *sword* a key?

Before he could open his mouth to suggest the idea, Nora spoke up from where she stood studying the valley overlook. She pointed at the ground. "Looks like there's a sort of hidden staircase going down into the valley."

"Oh." He led the way down with his frozen lumencloud armor. Gravel scattered down the trail and out into the open air with each step they took. Mist spun around them as they walked. Voidspace Mastery expanded around them where it plumbed every infinitesimal fracture or gap in the cliff face above and below them. If they were attacked up here, they'd have a troublesome time fighting without creative use of powers.

If it got bad enough, he might even have to expose himself. He clenched his fist with a grating series of pops at the thought.

Nora was silent once again. Eli was really starting to wonder if she hated Herbert or what was happening. Was she onto him? Was this something else? Or maybe she was just taking this whole Delve *very* seriously.

He sensed movement as the space between the solid stone to their left loosened. Solid rock broke into clumps of sand as a troll started to lurch out from the side. Eli breathed in as he kindled the light in his internal stores and summoned a spear that he threw into its throat. He amplified the force with a tiny teleportation.

Bone crunched with a crash as his spear pinned the troll by its throat to the cliff face behind it. Sand hardened into chunks of jagged stone that—

Eli pushed his will into the spear as he willed it to spread and freeze. Droplets of blood sprayed its body as lumencloud stirred inside of his body before punching through the front of its chest with multiple bristling points. Flesh drew closed around the wounds as it flailed feebly to free itself.

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It thrust his arm out and showered him with gravel that pinged off his armor harmlessly.

He glared at it from under his translucent layers of ice and voidspace armor. Why wouldn't it die? A two-handed axe fell in his hands as the lumencloud vapor froze a fraction easier. He kicked off with as much force as he could muster. Dust kicked up behind him as he swung it horizontally and cleaved straight into its skull.

The troll's head snapped back into the rock. Still, it tried to heal. Ice spikes jutted out from his fists as he slammed his will into the axe and exploded all of its force forward into the gaping wound of its partially split head. Brain and bone flew everywhere before he lashed out with his fist, despite the words streaking across his vision.

Rock cracked and fragmented under his bloody fist. Sections of ice armor exploded to disperse the force before they resealed with ease. Eli just wanted to get out of here and be done with pretending to be someone he wasn't. He was tired of Nora traipsing along behind him while she hummed to herself.

Brackish red oozed from its corpse.

Eli kept moving.

Again and again, goblins or trolls leaped out of the ground to their left. Dropped from the ceiling. Rose from the ground.

And Eli killed them every time, as he got better and better at using the [Armory] perk equipped to Lumencloud Invigoration. He was also getting the hang of freezing it. Instead of forcing it to stay ice whenever it broke, he'd let it melt in slushy water and vapor so he could refreeze it, then shape into blades to gouge into his enemies.

Still. Nora followed behind him without saying a word.

While they worked and fulfilled their bloody passage lower into the Diabolic Descent dungeon, he restructured and reformed his sets of armor and weapons continuously. Vents streamed with flows of lumencloud through a turbulent network in his lumencloud armor interlaced with his voidspace set. Each breath flooded both his body and armor with power. With Strength, Perception, and Stamina.

A cave mouth gaped at the bottom of their descent. Drifts of mist seeped from the absolute darkness with the cave like billowing smoke.

Ice creaked as power saturated his frozen armor. Eli swept his mundane and superpowered senses around them constantly. He had to be vigilant for an ambush. They reached the cave mouth without incident.

Eli stopped to force his spatial field inside, but it couldn't penetrate through the occlusion of the growing fog.

"What are you waiting for? Final tier, then it's the boss battle."

They didn't even have to duck when they stepped inside. It seemed to expand to let them in, as if the cave really was a mouth ready to feast on them. Everything outside seemed to vanish. He turned back, but the exit swirled with a black mist that devoured all light.

"What are you doing Herb... I mean, Eli, it's too dark. Can you give us some light?" She knocked on his armor with a flat click. Herbert could *make* light? What the fuck? He really hoped it was only pure light and little else or he could run into issues, but that was easy enough. He loosened his stranglehold on his lumencloud armor while shifting it to a pure diffused white.

Flecks of minerals sparkled in the shifting rays of light. The walls of the passage curved‌ around them. No gravel littered the floor and there were no cracks of any kind. A cold draft of air brushed through his air vents to tickle across his face.

Tight, cramped walls spread out into a massive cavern with full of pockets and craters strewn about. Eli glanced up as he pushed his spatial field out as far as it would go, and he still wasn't able to sense the entire cavern. He focused and shined his beams of light around, then winced at the silent glance from Nora, but none of the holes seemed to be real passageways.

They stalked deeper into the room.

Eli popped out icy blades of lumencloud that angled to always aim wherever he‌ looked. Nora summoned a belt studded with bells that jangled with her every step like she was one of Santa's elves dressed for war. Her violin and its bow grew larger as it transformed into a cello that she drove the spike at the base into the ground with an echoing thud.

"Why aren't they coming?" Eli asked clumsily as his mouth dried.

"I don't know..." Nora glanced around as she popped out a massive bass drum with the kick pedal under her right foot. She plucked out a few notes that echoed tortuously as pebbles split from the cavernous ceiling to clatter on the ground.

A goblin dove from the shadows. One of Eli's blades slid into its back. It twitched once and then fell limp.

"There we go." He nodded in approval as goblins and trolls rushed out from their obvious traps as the obfuscating mist vanished to let them swarm towards them. Blades of ice and frozen wind slashed into their bodies with newfound ease. Every time he pricked through their hide and the resistance from their powers, he launched a tide of inverted voidspace into their bodies as he teleported needles of lumencloud into each progressive gap he overturned to be his.

Goblin and troll bodies burst like overripe fruit as glaciers of ice tore through their body.

Nora played at a frenzy pace. Each note sent a compressed shockwave into any enemy close enough to hear her play. Jets of blood spouted from popped eardrums as they continued to pour out of their hiding holes. If they got too close to their location, she'd stomp on her kick pedal to release explosive blasts of sonic power that mulched any enemy that threatened them.

Eli gritted his teeth as he pushed more power into lumencloud weapons and armor as he sent them out to attack. Meanwhile, he ducked and weaved around as he blocked and slashed out with weapons. Nora could just about kill them in one strike, while he had to wear them down and destroy them from the inside out.

Sheets of frozen glittering ice spread from corpses to live foes if they so much as brushed it. Glowing mist steamed off their wounds as Eli threaded their demise with each stitch of his blades. Restoration surged through him over and over as he pushed himself harder to keep up with the tide.

Rumbling shook the cavern.

He swayed as the ground heaved underneath him. A troll's fist cracked into his armor, popping half of his frozen breastplate with the blow as he fell. Before he could teleport back to his feet, the floor of the cavern gave way beneath them.

Rock and bodies tumbled around them as they plummeted through an open shaft.

Shimmering lumencloud ice and vapor sent waves of light that reflected off of beady eyes and glinting carapace on the walls. Eli spun while he tried to reorient himself with the impressions his spatial field gave him. He felt the walls full of hordes of tiny, large, and giant spider bodies scurry downward to follow them. He couldn't sense the top or the bottom, but he felt all the broken rocks nearby.

He searched for Nora and found her cradling her half broken bow. Dark brackish blood from the sys-spawn along with her own drenched her clothes.

Eli teleported over to while he prepared to push Restoration into her.

Then he stopped.

Light dimmed from his armor as he fueled his Perception to slow the march of time while he studied her and their fall. Her wounds were superficial and when she had initiated the dungeon, she asked the Crucible to protect them from actual injuries and even death. So she wasn’t in real danger. Otherwise, they would've been more cautious.

If he acted now, he'd expose himself and he still did not know who these people were or how they'd react if they knew he and Roman were from *another* dimension and world.

Waves of sticky fluid blasted from the sides of the shaft in a tangled web that bounced as it caught more and more rock. Smaller Giant Spiders darted onto the web to feast on the felled goblins and trolls without impunity. The still falling rock squashed some of them. Eli wrapped his arm around Nora's waist as he flooded the surrounding space with an inverted spatial field before he teleported them right before impact on a flat, rough-hewn plateau caught and supported by webs.

Glacial walls of light infused lumencloud wrapped around them to block off her sight as she groaned from the whiplash of rapid movement. He lashed out with Voidspace Mastery as he stored as much rock as he could fit into a series of spatial bubbles before he launched as much spare rock as he could into the ranks of spiders closing in on them. Teleport after teleport were accompanied with a loud splat as their exoskeletons ruptured.

Nora mumbled something quietly as she tried to push herself up, then yelped as she collapsed from her own weight. Her arm bent at an awkward angle. Whether it had broken in the fight, fall, or teleportation, he had no idea. They closed in around them and he flexed his will into the near radiant walls of lumencloud ice.

He loosed rippling walls of thin, compact spears that he then teleported for as much force as he could directly into each spider's body. Series of crunching pops and moist oozing pops echoed around them along with the twinling shatter of ice. Eli whipped the shards of broken ice around them in a hailstorm.

Any spider that drew near exploded under the onslaught.

Eli smirked to himself under his dim armor. And this was supposed to be a *hard* three-tier dungeon?

Long spindly legs uncurled beneath them at the edges of his spatial field. Walls shuddered, then cracked as a behemoth charged at them from below. Eli's eyes widened as the thing chopped out with one of its legs and destroyed the thick, solid plateau of rock with a single blow. Then an aftershock blasted them up at an angle, slamming them into the wall.

Nora screamed with a wet gurgle as she flopped forward limply, then vanished.

Layers of armor cracked then shattered along with his bones from the massive impact.

Restoration rolled through him as it forced his devastated body back to its previous state.

The spider below scrambled toward him. Each leg unfolded in one smooth motion before it sprang forward with a gale of force. Eli fell forward as it appeared in front of him, blocking out his sight entirely. Its mandibles were as large as a roof as they yawned on either side of him.

Lumencloud hardened into pure radiance, and sheets and panes of voidspace appeared around him in an armored dome dozens of yards thick.

Its mandibles closed with a screeching roar of wind that filled him and his layers of protection with pow—

He felt a crushing weight as the spider's jaws crushed against him entirely. He tried to pull away or blast out Body of Light empowered waves of lumencloud at it, but it held him fast. The spider's mandibles opened again. It tore into him with a cold savagery. Everything went black as he was yanked through space and chucked out into the airlock containing the double doors of the Crucible.

Eli rolled to a stop with stars in his eyes from motion sickness. He slowly rose to his feet as he met Nora's judgemental gaze. She sighed as she leaned back against the wall in her exercise clothes again.

"Damn the Savior to Hell... I was really hoping we'd be able to take on a Hard three-tiered boss alone. Next time, please take this seriously and use *all* of your powers?"

Eli nodded while fear clogged his throat.

He *had* used all of *his* powers at the end and it hadn't helped. How was he going to make up for the gap between him and Herbert before the next session?

She got up and left while he closed his eyes in defeat and let the System flood his mind with its notifications.

<Better luck next time, Elias Newton! You were slain by: Colossal Titan Spider!>

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You survived death thanks to the Crucible’s intervention!>

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have slain:

Goblin (x 224)

Troll (x 108)

Titan Spider (x 721)

With the powers:

Natural Armament Ev. 2 (x 224)

Putramancer Ev. 2 (x 224)

Earthborn Regeneration Ev. 2 (x 108)

Earthen Mantle Ev. 2 (x 108)

You may select from one of the following options:

Siphon Power Experience

Gain a Power Perk

Obtain Power from the Conquered >

<Condensing list>

<Removing Invalid Selections>

<Processing...>

<Your condensed power list is:

Putramancer Ev. 2

Earthen Mantle Ev. 2

You may select from one of the following options:

Siphon Power Experience

Gain a Power Perk

Obtain Power from the Conquered >

"Invalid options? What the fuck?" Eli mumbled to himself while he sighed. It removed all the other options since he had already selected from those lists? That was bullshit. He debated taking Earthen Mantle while he teleported back to his feet.

He'd think about it on the way to his dorm room. Words scrolled his vision after he hit Gain a Power Perk to figure if it'd be worth it or not.

Eli didn't really feel like waiting for Roman anymore.

<You may now select from one of the following options:

Empowered By Earth

Macro-Control

Earth

Earthen Protection

BACK>

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