Chương 78: Book 2: Chapter 13 - Unmasked

V calls it temporal weighting: any resource spent today must be measured against every use it might have served across all the tomorrows, and our tomorrows are long. By that arithmetic the mortals are hopeless. They will trade a decade of advantage to spare a friend a single bad afternoon, burn a thing they cannot replace to meet a need that will have passed by morning.

Perhaps a creature that cannot outlive its choices understands, better than we ever will, that the only moment one is asked to pay for with certainty is the next one. - S. Solara, Personal Record, Date: Redacted MASON A soundwave rippled through the knee-deep water a fraction of a second before it hit the air. I locked my knees early, deliberately letting the concentric rings propagating across the flooded marble floor smash into me.

My boots plowed through the water, kicking up settled silt that clouded around my feet. I bled off the momentum, throwing my shoulders back to sell the Level 42 projection that [Aetheric Chameleon] was feeding to the party link. Maintaining the deception in active combat was more difficult than I'd expected, requiring a good thirty percent of my bandwidth to calculate the artificial drag on my mana throughput, strength and speed caps, and to avoid using skills I'd come to rely on by instinct.

It felt like fighting with a hand tied behind my back. The coral siren shrieked from the top of a shattered marble pillar, the Level 39 grotesque amalgamation of pale flesh and jagged reef unhinging its jaw to produce a sonic volley of cutting wind.

"Incoming!" Dario yelled from his support position behind the fight, his voice amplified as it bounced off the rippling water. A heavy hum agitated the air ahead of me, a translucent barrier materializing in oscillating waves above the water's surface. < SYSTEM MESSAGE: Party member Dario Navarro is trying to sync [Harmonic Aegis]: Physical barrier will absorb 70% of physical damage, increase stamina regeneration 35% multiplicative. > The buff washed over me but didn't hold.

It was a seamless weaving of ambient aether, a high-Silver support skill that created a dome of mana to absorb damage while enhancing any ally within its influence. The problem was [Aetheric Chameleon], the disguise was a localized suppression field that compressed my Gold-Rank aura but had the unfortunate side effect of interfering with System-linked skills cast near it. Dario's buff tried to inject restorative mana into channels that were already full.

With a show of exaggerated effort, I manually vented a fraction of my mana into the water at my feet, creating a vacuum that pulled the buff into my chest. The Siren unleashed its second volley, a sound wave that hit Dario's shield and shattered it, dispelling into the air harmlessly.

"Now, Lia!" Dario shouted, tossing a ball into the water that flashed green and then instantly expanded into a hexagonal bulwark that protected both of us from further attack. A shadow fell from a pillar above, plummeting through the air in a streak of grey-green. Liarra landed on the Siren's back, eliciting another shriek as the Blade of the Seraph flashed red in the gloom, shearing through the creature's back.

The monster fell with a splash and a gurgling choke, floating face down in a pool of dark green where its blood tinted the water. < PARTY MESSAGE: Enemy Defeated: Coral Siren (Level 39). > The large room fell quiet save for the steady drip of the condensation falling from the cracked, vaulted ceiling. Displaced water lapped against the columns in the atrium, the elven architecture beautiful even in its ruined state.

"Clear," I called out, Liarra flicking the blood from her blade before sheathing it with a twirling flourish. I let my shield form back into a hand, bending over and sucking in long, ragged breaths. In truth, I felt fine, if a bit mentally fatigued, but the key to any good disguise was full commitment. Dario waded toward us, his tree-trunk legs pushing waves away to either side.

"Good instincts, Caden," he said, clasping a huge hand on my shoulder.

"You fight with the experience of a much older man." I was sure he meant it as a compliment, in our two days together he'd proven to be exactly what he appeared to be: a man wholly without guile.

"Your [Harmonic Aegis] was well-timed, that hit would have done real damage."

"You're an easy lead to follow, it took Lia and I two dozen combat encounters to find a rhythm."

"Caden is a quick learner," Liarra said, letting the secret of my [Limit-Breaker] Intelligence stat stay between us. I had to imagine it wasn't easy for Liarra to lie to her husband, even by omission, but she also knew that the truth about me was dangerous to anyone who knew it. Statistically, it was also just a fact that the larger the circle grew, the faster it would inevitably come out, and I had a lot more yet to do before I was willing to bring Cassius Petracca back from the grave.

"I noticed your aura snagged on my stamina buff, are you running a restrictive passive? I didn't see anything on the party readout," Dario said, quickly looting the fallen monsters for distribution later.

"Took a bad hit from a necrotic deep crawler six months ago," I lied, keeping it vague.

"Have a bit of scarring that I haven't had time to get properly treated, can create some instability in my buffing channels. Nothing to worry about." Dario's expression softened, curiosity giving way to concern.

"Aetheric scarring is nothing to let fester, Caden, it can become permanent if you're not careful. I have some experience treating curses, I can take a look if you'd allow it."

"Maybe once we're out of this dungeon," I said, feeling a tinge of guilt to rebuff his concern with more deception.

"We can compare medical histories later," Liarra said, gesturing toward the flooded corridor ahead.

"The Commission map shows the stratum two entrance less than a mile ahead, now isn't the time to lose focus." I considered severing the party link temporarily, claiming some sort of System error so I could use [Deep Structure] to scout ahead without notice, but thought better of it. I peered down the corridor. Through the elegant curves of the ancient building, the architecture abruptly stopped about a hundred feet ahead.

The walls beyond became smooth and sterile, a place where the dungeon had warped the existing environment as it approached the stratum transition. The water through the archway was almost unnaturally clear and serene, but the air had a tinge of gray mist, [Architect's Vision] revealing a swirling miasma of dark energy. Dario unhooked a bone charm from his belt, letting it dangle against his knuckles.

"The air through the doorway is choked with some sort of magical taint - I'll need to create a repulsion bubble so stay close." Liarra stared at the grey sludge with a look of growing dread.

"What's wrong?" Dario asked her, noticing the sudden change.

"I'm not sure." She tightened the straps on her quiver, checking her bow.

"I feel like I've been here before, but I know I haven't - Lantoch is on the opposite side of the forest, we never ventured this far north."

"There's something in the air, I can see it," I said, slipping my sword back into its sheath.

"It's not nullifying mana exactly, but seems to be warping it. This may be what's twisting the dungeon's fauna." We'd heard countless reports outside the dungeon that something in stratum two was producing power spikes in the monsters there, but nobody seemed to know the source of it - the dungeon itself wasn't old enough to explain the readings and scouts were giving conflicting reports that suggested instability. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I don't know, but every instinct I have is telling me we should leave."

"You got me into the dungeon, I can take it from here," I said, part of me hoping she'd agree to leave, another part knowing she never would and glad for it. In some ways, it would be easier alone, I could fight without fear of being exposed, but being alone again didn't appeal to me as much as I would have thought it might a few days ago.

"We don't leave until the job is done," Dario said with finality.

"Of course not," she agreed without protest, the matter settled. Cautiously, we crossed the threshold of the archway, keeping tight to Dario. The walls through this entrance were carved from a pale, porous stone that looked like bleached bone. The knee-deep water remained, but it had lost the aquatic plant life and was now clear and still. Its temperature also dropped suddenly, the unnatural transition putting a chill in the air and in the icy water that numbed our feet.

In the wireframe glow of [Architect's Vision] I could see the air meeting the barrier projecting from Dario's bone charm, the mana distortion hissing as the two forces crashed together. I'd never seen anything quite like it, it was attacking the mana like a parasite.

"The ambient mana here," Dario said quietly, the usually boisterous man falling into a hushed unease.

"It feels like it's eating itself." Liarra was walking close to Dario's left as I stalked near his right, she had her daggers drawn, apparently expecting a sudden attack in this deep white ocean of nothingness. She rolled her shoulders, popping her neck side to side as if trying to shake off the feeling we all pretended not to notice.

"You okay?" I asked, reading her familiar body language.

"I'm fine," she said, clipped.

"Just keep your eyes open, this place is dangerous." We pressed deeper into the bleached corridors, the only sound our boots sloshing through the water. The Commission map that we'd purchased on the way in showed this area already scouted, but it was changed from what the parchment indicated. The geometry had shifted, walls were moved from one place to another like a rotating hedge maze, paths that bent back on themselves before suddenly terminating.

It was almost as if the dungeon itself was trying to disorient us... or perhaps lead us into a trap. Finally, after walking in circles for what felt like a very long time, we reached a circular antechamber indicated on the map as being in a completely different location. The attack happened with no warning, my [Architect's Vision] failing to pick up the disturbance of air until it was already too late.

Three shapes flashed in my peripheral vision, grotesque long-limbed replicas of elves, their faces stuck in a twisted smile, joints clicking loudly like rocks banging together. < SYSTEM MESSAGE: Enemy detected: Calcified Invoker - Level 47 > Level 47... an impossibly large jump in power level. One of them was already mid-lunge, my quicksilver arm materializing a shield in front of me by sheer instinct.

Its claws clanged off with an arm-rattling spark of metal on metal before retreating back to its pack with a jerky, terrifying speed.

"We should run!" I called out, quickly analyzing the layout of the combat arena, knowing that a slog through water was going to be difficult, the monsters long, skinny limbs giving them a clear mobility advantage. We had to hope there weren't more of them entering from the series of corridors that branched off from the circular room.

"No time for that," Dario said, voice calm and measured.

"I'll support, Liarra can keep them distracted from range. Caden, you'll have to be the decisive blow, Lia's arrows won't be able to put them down at this large of a level gap." I could drop the mask, pull them apart with [Vector Authority], but unmasking in a public dungeon would have to be my last resort - we'd passed another party not even three hours ago and more would be in stratum two ahead, it was impossible to know who might be watching.

"Caden!" Liarra yelled as a second attack came just behind the first, two of them swiping at me with six-foot legs that I grabbed in mid-air, flinging them back with an angry grunt, bodies slamming hard into the white stone walls. Their movements were easy enough to read, their strength considerable but not dangerous to my Gold-Rank body. It was their numbers that worried me. Liarra fired arrows at the third, keeping it pinned while Dario chanted behind me.

The other two spun to their feet, water spraying around them in a distracting fountain of mist. Sensing the backline was weaker, they tried to beeline for Dario, but I was faster - grabbing a long leg with one arm and flinging it hard into its companion. They spun end-over-end, limbs flailing as they crashed hard into the water once again. I pulled my mithril blade from its sheath, seeing a chance to end this quickly.

I launched forward before the two disoriented invokers could recover their wits and drove the mithril blade through the closest joint. The folded steel ripped through it with no resistance, black ichor staining the walls and water like ink. I pivoted on my heel, transferring the kinetic energy into a horizontal swing that severed both monsters clean in half. The third was still being peppered with arrows, arms flashing as it tried to deflect them, shafts sticking out of it like a pincushion.

I whipped a null-mana dagger from my belt and flung it in a twirling arc that split its forehead just over its too large eyes. I quickly closed the distance and took its head off with a backhanded strike of my blade.

"We shouldn't stay here," I said, pulling the knife from the dead beast's head and wiping it on my sleeve.

"The Commission info says these calcified invokers run in larger packs; this was a scouting party." Before I could even finish speaking, the water at our feet began to vibrate and sounds of rushing clicks echoed down the hallways around us. I could blast the corridors with explosives, collapsing the tunnels, but we didn't know which led to the next stratum, and with the shifting routes of the dungeon we could end up cutting ourselves off from escape.

Six more of the invokers appeared from our right, then another four from a path to the left, splashing into the shallow water, their grinning faces locked onto us in a eusocial coordination that gave me flashbacks to my first hunt in the rat tunnels of Carriston. Unfortunately, there was no Den Mother to disrupt the pack.

"We have to go back," Dario said, already moving toward the way we'd come. He chanted something under his breath and a System readout appeared. < SYSTEM MESSAGE: [Acoustic Alacrity] applied to party, Dexterity +20%, movement speed +15%. Duration: 4 minutes > I had to manually throttle my base speed, the buff pushing me toward superhuman movement that would have been impossible to explain.

I kept myself facing the approaching monsters, a dozen more had funneled into the circular antechamber, no doubt even more behind those. We all backed up as one, Dario chanting, Liarra sprinkling arrows to any that ventured close, grenades primed and ready in my hands. We reached the tunnel behind us, the chokepoint making it difficult for the larger swarm to take advantage of their superior numbers.

"I'm going to collapse the tunnel," I said, calculating now that it was worth the risk. I readied a shaped charge that would bring the roof down in front of us. We pulled a little further back, letting more of them enter the mouth of the opening. I poured a full bracer's worth of mana instantly into the oversized aetheric vessel and threw it at the ceiling before casting a barrier that enveloped our party in a semi-translucent blue shield.

The detonation nearly knocked us off our feet, but the barrier held as the first two rows of invokers were turned to black mist by the blast. The ceiling didn't fall. In fact, there was no marking on it at all. [Architect's Vision] offered no clues, it was as if the walls were made of indestructible material. The concussive airburst had disoriented the still-growing group of monsters, giving us a much-needed second to regroup.

"We have to run!" I yelled, ears ringing.

"Back to the entrance!" But there was no time, one of the monsters was already advancing. It vaulted over me on legs that allowed it to spring high into the air beyond my sword's reach, aiming a long, calcified claw directly at Dario's chest. It hit his chainmail and partially deflected, but the creature was too strong, raking through it and cutting deep into his shoulder. He went down to one knee with a grunt, refusing to fight back.

"Rio!" Liarra shouted, moving out of position as three more of the invokers advanced, another four moving on their heels. She slashed at the attacker with her blade, but she wasn't strong enough to sever it, the invoker's arm was cut deep but still attached. The swarm surged forward, sensing their impending victory. I couldn't wait any longer, I dropped [Aetheric Chameleon].

The release of my Gold-Rank aura displaced the air in the corridor like a shockwave, the surrounding mana compressing and then expanding in a deafening roar. The air temperature plummeted, flash freezing the water in the tunnel and encasing the horde in a sudden knee-deep block of ice. I didn't bother with the sword, instead channeling [Vector Authority], raising my quicksilver arm and unleashing a concentrated cone of kinetic force directly into the center of the swarm.

The frozen air shattered, the chattering throng of invokers exploding in a ring of viscera. Dismembered monster parts bounced off the walls, a foul stench filling the air as blood fell around me like rain. A few confused monsters still remained, pounding at the ice to free themselves. I closed my eyes and used [Sovereign Will] to reach my mana out through the tunnel, mapping their signatures and finding another dozen lying in wait deeper into the path behind us, cutting off our escape.

Moving faster than their eyes could track, I glided over the ice and through the mess of bodies, punching small holes in their chests with the charged tip of my index finger. I pulled Dario and Liarra close - their eyes still glazed over from the sudden Gold-Rank overpressure - and activated [God's Shell], a recent evolution of the very barrier skill that Liarra had once spent a week systematically destroying.

A chain of synchronized detonations echoed through the passageway, my precisely planted charges exploding in the chest cavities of the remaining invokers all at once. Chunks of ice and severed limbs bounced off the semi-translucent shield around us. When the dust had settled, the room was again silent, my breath misting in the cold.

"Bind the wound," I said, my voice lacking any accent, all attempts at disguise now feeling pointless.

"More will come and we should be gone when they get here."