Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn leaned back on his arms, his legs out in front as he controlled his breathing. The others were sprawled out in various positions around him. Teilon groaned with his arm thrown over his eyes, blocking out the light of the sun.

“That sucked!” He said. “Now I know for sure why people would simply buy these treasures and why only a couple people were selling them. At a certain point, Life Experience just isn’t worth it, hah.”

Kimberly kneeled next to him holding his hand. She squeezed his hand in the meaty part between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing little circles. They had found that the little action somehow helped relieve headaches. This wasn’t the same situation, but it was all she could do. Kimberly and Ameliyn were the only ones in the Party who hadn’t participated in harvesting any of the thorns.

Serilla had insisted she harvest thorns before she would agree to letting Kefira do it. Kefira could have insisted, but she let her friend take care of her in her own way. The two girls were currently sitting back to back, leaning against each other. Serilla tried to maintain her stoic expression, but there were still remnants on her face where tears had streaked down her face.

Kefira didn’t even try to hide it as she quietly sobbed. Reivyn’s hand rested atop hers as they all sat around recovering from the ordeal.

Reivyn looked at his father who was standing guard over the group, acting as if he had barely been affected. Reivyn always respected his father, but his estimation of the older man grew by leaps and bounds once more. Reivyn knew that Refix’s Pain Resistance Skill was slightly higher than his own, but notably, his father had not unlocked the Tier 4 Iron Will Skill.

Despite that, Refix stood like a silent guardian over the group. Aside from the initial tightening of his muscles, Refix had simply powered through the discomfort.

While an impressive feat, it had led to a different, embarrassing situation. Reivyn had screamed in agony for the first time in years upon being pierced by the bloody thorns. Nothing was comparable to the time his body had been subjected to whatever it was the Masked Man had done to him in the void between Realms, but other than that, nothing had come close to the searing pain from harvesting these simple treasures.

“Look on the bright side,” Refix spoke up getting everyone’s attention. “Even my Pain Resistance Skill advanced a level. This is good training-”

“Don’t you even think about it!” Teilon pointed a finger at Refix from his prone position. “There’s no way I’m going to incorporate that into some insane training regimen you have cooking up in your brain right now.”

Refix gave Teilon an exasperated look.

“Even I’m not that sadistic,” he said. “I wasn’t going to suggest we train with these things. For one it’s wholly impractical to travel all the way out here for simple training. Two, the thorns once harvested no longer cause the same type of pain, so they can’t be reused.

“I was just trying to point out an additional positive to the experience. Skill leveling is something I’m always thinking about, so obviously that’s where my mind went.”

“Additional positive?” Teilon questioned. “What’s the other positive?”

Refix quirked an eyebrow at the question.

“Acquiring the thorns…” he said.

“Oh. Right. Of course,” Teilon replied sheepishly.

The banter between the two had helped to alleviate some of the tense atmosphere around the sufferers. Kefira’s sobs stopped, and she managed to wipe her face dry with the back of her hand. She and Serilla helped each other to stand up. Reivyn and Teilon followed suit. Kimberly didn’t let go of Teilon’s hand and watched him closely. He simply smiled at her.

“It’s about time we collected ourselves and moved on,” Kefira said. “How many thorns did we end up harvesting?”

“Seventeen,” Ameliyn replied immediately. She was the one who helped pluck the thorns and apply a simple salve to the wounds.

“Seventeen… And we need five per person… Well, not Reivyn.” Kefira stated flatly. “So we need eight more thorns. If we’re lucky, that’s only two more rose bushes, but no more than three.”

“Well, actually, we don’t know if going through the normal method will have an affect on Reivyn or not,” Refix said. “If I had to guess, I would say it would. He’s able to incorporate the energy of treasures directly, but the ritual of combining these treasures isn’t as simple as one plus one equals two. It definitely wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’m willing to do it,” Reivyn shrugged. “No reason not to, really. I’m interested in how it will manifest for me, too.”

Reivyn checked his Status Screen real quick to double check the Experience requirement for the next level of his Bloodline.

Bloodline: Lvl 1 Unknown 236,443/10,000,000,000

Ten billion… And I haven’t siphoned much Experience into it for quite some time, Reivyn thought. I’ll have to wait and see what’s going on with my Experience gains first, though. Right now I’m not gaining any Experience to siphon. I also want to wait until I reach the max Level of my Tier before I dedicate siphoning Experience away for a while. 𝐑

“So we need an additional five thorns,” Kefira said. “So thirteen more instead of eight. That’s four or five more rose bushes. If the next spot we find has the same number of rose bushes as this hill top, we should be fine with that.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Teilon said. “Let’s hope it’s only four. I’m not too keen on experiencing that again any time soon.” The others all gave him a flat stare. He held up his hands in front of himself. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ll do it if I need to, but mphllnln.” He shook his head quickly while letting out gibberish.

Reivyn smirked at his friend.

“Don’t worry. Dad and I got two next time. I agree with him: it’s excellent training.”

He glanced at his Notification.

Skill Level Up!

Pain Resistance (67 -> 69)

Pain Resistance was one of those Skills that had synergized with his Protection Prodigy Skill. He didn’t know exactly what that meant, but the Skill itself was still independent.

Teilon shook his head in mock disbelief.

“You and your dad, I swear…” He chuckled to himself. “To each their own. If it comes down to it, I’ll do it again, but I really hope not.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take your turn next time,” Kimberly said, patting Teilon on the shoulder. Teilon stared at her for a few seconds but didn’t say anything.

“Okay! Time to move on,” Kefira clapped her hands. “There’s still one more treasure to hunt around here, and then we should make our way toward the mountain range while looking for more clusters of these rose bushes.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Refix nodded his head. He turned to Reivyn. “Do you see the next treasure?”

“It should be the ginseng root, right?” Reivyn sought confirmation.

“Yeah, those little things grow among other treasures. They’re not always present, but they don’t grow independently, so we’ll only find them near other treasures.”

“Right. I’ll check.”

Reivyn focused on his Divine Sense. It wasn’t enough to cover the entire hill top, but it was close. It seemed to expand in diameter by an inch every couple of days without him straining to work on the Skill. Just the passive nature of the Skill ensured it was always being worked even just a little bit.

That progress was nothing to scoff at, either. Reivyn expected to live a long time with his ever increasing Stats. Three days for an inch was a lot in the grand scheme of things, and that was without actively trying to increase the Skill. The Skill Level had crept up to 22 over time, and the radius was up to 60 yards.

It’s a bit imprecise, but the rate of expansion is slightly more with each Level Up, too, Reivyn thought. I can only imagine how far the distance will be by the time I reach Transcendence with the Skill. Multiple miles at least. Hopefully my Mind Stats will keep up with the information my brain will have to process every second. There might be a hard cap on it, though, considering it’s supposed to be fueled by Divine Mana. A problem much too soon to contemplate.

Reivyn meandered around the hilltop letting his Divine Sense cover every square inch. It was unlikely any ginseng growing in the area would do so below the hilltop so far away from the rose bushes.

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The hilltop was quite picturesque. The rose bushes, now huddled together a ways away from the Party with their tendrils still lazily waving back and forth in the air, weren’t the only spot of color among the grass. There were various mundane flowers of all kinds in a kaleidoscope of color. They swayed with the breeze along with the grass. There was a serene charm to the view.

“I’m not sensing anything,” Reivyn replied after covering the entire hilltop. “No Mana spikes or plants that look like a ginseng root. Other than the natural Mana saturation of the flora, there aren’t any other natural treasures around.”

“Hmm, too bad,” Refix said. “We’ll just keep checking each time we come across anything noteworthy. We don’t have to harvest all of the rose bushes we come across to snag the ginsengs.”

“Are my ears deceiving me, or is Refix talking sense for once?” Teilon turned and asked Kimberly.

A phantom gauntlet materialized behind him and gently smacked him in the back of the head.

“I always talk sense, boy,” Refix smirked.

Teilon grumbled while rubbing the back of his head.

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Kefira said. “Daylight’s wasting.”

—

The Party continued their trek across the rolling hills. Up and down, up and down they traveled. The constant elevation changes weren’t anything to their group who had high Physical Stats, but Reivyn noted it would have been quite the struggle at a lesser Tier. Most of the hills were quite gentle in their slopes, but they still got larger and larger as they got closer to the mountain range.

The prevalence of the rose bushes was still low, but it was much higher than closer to the Outpost. Even though the Adventurers knew better than to destroy the rose bushes in their harvesting of the thorns, there was still something that kept the plants from growing too close to the settlement.

It didn’t take long for the Party to find another hilltop with the rose bushes present. For some reason they never spotted any growing in the valleys or sides of the hills. They were all on the hilltops, and this was a known phenomenon mentioned in the information packet.

“Does this seem a little strange to you?” Refix asked the Party as they observed the rose bushes.

The bushes were clumped up on the very edge of the hilltop. They were as close to the edge as they could get while still being considered on top of the hill and not on the side. There had been no mention of such behavior in the information they received from the guild.

“It’s like they’re trying to stay away from something while being unwilling to move any further away,” Reivyn said. “I’ll move forward and see what I can sense.”

“Be careful,” Refix said. “We’ll be ready in case something happens.”

Refix nodded to the others as they readied their weapons and assumed their formation. They remained mostly relaxed, but they were ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. Reivyn waited for them to get ready before stepping forward.

He picked a spot away from the rose bushes to prevent them from uprooting and running away. There was no reason to provoke them into whipping their thorny vines at him while he was concentrating on figuring out the cause of the anomaly, either.

The hilltop they found themselves on was at least three times the size as the last one they had encountered the rose bushes on. From what Reivyn could see, it was at least 200 yards in diameter with a gentle slope giving it a slightly domed appearance. It took several dozen steps for Reivyn’s Divine Sense to finally get close to the center of the hilltop.

What’s that? Reivyn frowned as he sensed something just below the surface near the center. There was a spike in Mana density in a circle around the center. It looks like a thick root or something. Is there some sort of other plant growing in the center keeping the other natural treasures at bay?

Even with his Divine Sense, it was hard to pick the root - or whatever it was - out from the surroundings. If there wasn’t a spike in the Mana density that he could perceive through his Divine Sense, he didn’t know if he would have paid enough attention to spot it at all. It had some sort of camouflage Skill or Ability that let it hide from more mundane senses.

As he took another couple of steps closer, the root-thing started to move. It looked like it was spinning in place. Reivyn stopped and took a couple steps back. The movement stopped. He stood in place and observed the thing for a few moments.

“Anything?” Refix called out to him from behind.

“There’s something,” Reivyn called over his shoulder. “I’m not sure what it is, yet, but it appears to be some sort of massive root. That’s all that comes to mind right now.”

He stepped forward again, and the thing started moving again. It was definitely aware of his presence. Reivyn hadn’t activated any of his Clandestine Prodigy Skills, so it made sense he was easily spotted.

I’m not really used to using those Skills all the time, he admonished himself. I should change that and start actively trying to have a smaller footprint on the world for situations exactly like this.

He got closer and the thing started moving faster. It wasn’t getting closer to him, though. It seemed to be shrinking in on itself. Reivyn stopped once more and took another couple steps back, but this time the movement didn’t cease.

“You say it looks like a root. Can you describe it?” Ameliyn called out.

“Yeah, it’s like a long, thick tube,” Reivyn responded. “It’s got a camouflage ability, so it’s hard to pick out details other than the large Mana density.”

“What’s it doing?” Ameliyn called again.

“It’s rotating or something. It’s slowly contracting, getting closer and closer to the center of the hilltop. Almost like it’s-”

Reivyn’s Danger Sense flared in his mind. It rang like a bell, warning him of imminent bodily harm if he didn’t do something.

He acted on instinct. His body was empowered with his Mana as he leapt to the side with all of his might. A whip-crack sounded out as something clipped Reivyn’s side. It moved too fast for him to see what it was in the moment, even with Divine Sense.

His body tumbled end over end as he cartwheeled uncontrollably away. A searing pain in his left shoulder and arm assaulted him, but luckily it was nothing compared to extracting the thorns. With his Pain Resistance, Iron Will, and recent memory of the pain from the thorns, he wrestled the pain down and focused on what had attacked him.

“-coiling,” Reivyn finished his sentence in a whisper.

Reivyn came to a halt and crouched low as he looked back at the massive snake that had lunged at him. It was easily longer than 60 yards as its tail end was still out of range of his Divine Sense.

It was thicker than a tree. It had two large eyes that focused intently on Reivyn. Its head was framed by an open hood, and it’s humongous fangs dripped venom as it opened its maw wide. Another ring of Danger Sense caused Reivyn to leap away once more as the snake spit venom where he had been crouched.

Reivyn could hear the ground sizzle as the venom melted the earth and plants away at an alarming speed. Any plant that was even close to coming in contact with the venom withered and decayed at a visible rate while those directly in contact with it simply melted away.

A phantom lance streaked across the sky and attempted to stab the giant snake in the eye. The snake recoiled with dextrous speed to avoid the attack. It turned its head and hissed at the approaching Party as they yelled a battle cry to distract it from Reivyn.

More and more phantom weapons shot out from Refix as he charged across the hilltop. Spells materialized and pelted the beast. The spells and phantom weapons clanged mostly uselessly against the scales of the creature. It was only mostly uselessly as Reivyn could see some damage done to the scales themselves.

The snake reared back, growing taller and taller in the sky, as the Party got closer and closer. Teilon fanned out to the side away from Reivyn as Refix, Kimberly, and Serilla charged ahead in a three-pronged front. Ameliyn and Kefira stayed back to continue launching spells at it.

The snake wiggled its body around with tremendous coordination as it dodged a majority of the phantom weapons and spells, while easily fending off the few that struck it. Reivyn was slightly mesmerized by just how flexible the huge beast was. It was almost unbelievable something so large could maneuver the way the snake did.

As the Party got closer, the snake suddenly lunged forward to snap at Refix. It didn’t move nearly as fast as the lunge that toppled Reivyn, but it was still much faster than any of them could move. It struck and moved back to a ready position, seeming to kind of float in the sky, in an instant.

Refix was no slouch, though. He angled his body as he sidestepped and parried with his actual weapon at the same time. He was only knocked slightly off balance and quickly recovered to continue charging forward.

Reivyn wasn’t sitting still, either. As the rest of his Party closed in on the threat, Reivyn stood and charged forward while summoning his own Mana.

A peak Tier 5 Monstrous Beast Cobra, Reivyn quickly identified the creature from the long list provided by the guild. Known weaknesses: Cold and piercing. Strengths: incredible defense - both physical and magical - speed, and toxicity.

With the creature identified and knowing its strengths and weaknesses, Reivyn adjusted his Mana weaves. He idly noticed that his mother’s weaves also subtly shifted while still being mostly Celestial.

Reivyn thrust his hands out and sent an orb of supercooled Mana up into the sky. It was a variation of his plasma lances. Any spell he could easily conjure, he could adjust the Affinity he infused into it. He used a base of Ice Affinity with a touch of Eternal. With his enhanced ability in Magic after achieving the Magic Prodigy Skill, he was able to create a weave that would add Piercing to the tips of the lances as they formed to rain down upon the snake.

The orb launched up into the air where it radiated a deep, bitter cold. It shone as a blue ice ball in the sky, mist clouds forming around it and radiating out. This particular Spell was one of Reivyn’s favorites because he could just toss it up there and it would maintain itself as it shot projectiles at his enemies while he could focus on other things. He didn’t need to maintain the Spell after it was in place.

As the ice orb began to condense the lances, Reivyn noticed his mother’s new spells. Her main affinity was Celestial, and he usually saw her perform it with the burning of a star. Now, however, there seemed to be little stars that also radiated the cold of space. It wasn’t that they were necessarily cold, like his ice orb, but they had a complete absence of warmth to them.

The little meteors, for want of a better descriptor, fell from the sky as the first lances formed to join them and slam down onto the snake. Where his mother’s spells struck, the scales seemed to lose their resilience. When follow up strikes from Kimberly’s spear, Refix’s phantom arsenal, or Serilla’s sword hit the affected scales, the previous defense that caused the weapons to bounce off was absent. Many attacks passed through the scales to leave bloody streaks on the snake.

The weapons were striking the body of the snake, though, and nowhere near where a fatal blow could be landed. The snake would need to lower its head for them to reach such a spot on the creature. They were still able to increase the amount of damage and Health loss to the beast, though, and they could eventually slay the creature if they could whittle its Health Pool low enough.

Reivyn’s ice lances pierced straight through the scales whether they were debuffed or not. The Icy Affinity added to the damage and as it spread through the internals of the snake. The lances didn’t dissipate like the plasma versions, either. Soon the snake looked like a pincushion with dozens of misting, blue lances peppering the top of its body and head.

Refix took advantage of both Spells and directed his phantom arsenal to strike wherever a weakness was exposed.

The only person not participating so far was Teilon. Reivyn didn’t blame him. He wasn’t exactly equipped to engage in a fight with a monster this size and speed until an appropriate opening formed.

Despite the successful tactics, the snake seemed to shrug the offense off. It continued to wiggle its body while snapping out a lightning speed toward those harassing it. In between lunges, it would spit venom at random. Everyone, including Kefira and Ameliyn in the back, had to pay attention and dodge aside to avoid the toxic venom. Based on what it did to the Tier 5 plants and earth, nobody wanted to find out what it did to human flesh.

The snake abruptly lowered its body and dashed away back to the center of the hilltop. Its movement speed was many times faster than any of them could move. It wasn’t just its sudden lunge that was tremendously fast. Just its slithering across the ground was fast enough it could easily flee at any moment. If it chose to run away, there was no chance they would be able to catch it.

It wasn’t fleeing, though. It spun around at the center and once more coiled around itself. The Party had charged forward to chase after it, but seeing it once more coil into a tight spring, they all stopped their advance and spread out. They had all witnessed the first strike that had sent Reivyn tumbling away even after a mostly successful dodge.

The snake didn’t give them time to prepare and struck out with its massive lunge as soon as it was ready. Another whip crack sounded out over the hilltop. Refix was the target this time, and he managed to leap out of the way. His phantom arsenal had been hovering just behind him, though, lying in wait.

As soon as the snake was fully extended, the phantom arsenal struck. The snake was unable to dodge this time, and several polearms speared straight into its eyes, blinding it.

The snake screeched as its body began flopping around all around. Its lower body was exposed for the first time where the scales were absent and a soft underbelly was exposed. Ameliyn’s ice meteors continued to pelt the creature, lowering its defensive abilities even further.

Teilon finally found the right timing. He was left with only one dagger, but that was more than enough. He joined the fray as he jumped onto the writhing beast near its neck - if it had a neck - and began stabbing over and over.

The others also swarmed over the beast, careful to pay attention to if it got control of its body lest it roll over and crush them. Kefira’s spells found better purchase against the soft underbelly. Despite using Space affinity to form impossibly sharp edges in her attacks, the scales’ natural magic resistance prevented them from finding purchase except against the debuffed scales hit by Ameliyn’s or Reivyn’s Spells.

With a large portion of its body exposed to her Space attacks, a maelstrom of blood and devastation wracked the snake’s body as the Spells finally turned the tide with its large-scale destruction.

The snake wasn’t able to recover from the sudden turn of events. Kefira and the other spellcasters focused their assault closer to the snake’s head where Teilon had created perforations with his dagger before jumping off the snake, and Refix sent his arsenal to assist the Spells.

Quickly, the head of the snake was severed from the rest of its body. A fountain of blood exploded out of the stump, but the body continued to writhe even after it was slain. The only difference was now the body was curling up on itself.

The Party dashed away from the body of the snake so they didn’t get accidentally pulverized. They stood and waited for the beast to finally die for good.

Assimilation Complete!

Providence has been fully assimilated. Regular Experience gain restored.

Enemy Defeated

Exp +166

Nice! Reivyn pumped his fist. So that confirms the issue was the assimilation of the Providence I had absorbed. I only got 166 Experience for the fight because of the 35% Party modifier for having seven members in our Party, and it seems the assimilation needed 632 points to complete.

If I could solo one of these monstrous beasts, that would be 2,280 experience for the one creature. I don’t think I would be able to solo such a beast at this time. Ferocious beasts are much stronger than their equivalent human counterparts, and monsters are even more so. At least the non-humanoid ones are. And that disparity only grows more and more as one advances in Tiers.

It’s no wonder it takes so long to advance Levels at the higher Tiers as compared to the earlier ones.

“I see that you’re quite happy,” Refix commented as the snake’s body continued to convulse.

“Yeah, my Experience is back,” Reivyn confirmed. “And it seems the issue was what I thought it was. Assimilating Providence comes with an additional burden, it seems.”

“That’s good. One less thing we have to worry about.”

Reivyn nodded his head. Things were looking good for their expedition.

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