Chương 199: Testing Ourselves

Although the next morning, we were all exhausted, they let us have a Labyrinth run. It was a day later than usual, given the requirements of Vaelheall Week. At least they still let us have it, though. Legs stiff, minds blurry, we raced into the depths. There were plenty of volunteers to operate the elevator this week, and they didn't ask for any sort of reward.

"You know, one day, we'll have to switch it up," I told a squad led by a Dupe named Pork, who had offered to stay behind.

"You guys should still try and investigate the lower levels. The top squads can rotate in and out."

"Thank you for the offer, Sir Levi," said Pork, "but respectfully, I wouldn't let you do this job for a thousand years." Anchor leaned closer.

"Is there some secret benefit? Did we imbue the ropes with some fancy arcane aura that enhances Skills, hm?"

"No, no." Pork laughed nervously.

"We thought we were going to be the best of the best when we arrived here. Maybe we still are better than the average Dupe. We're still going to reach Silver, I can say that. However…the best resources should be saved for the best Dupes. It's generous of you to try to spread around your earnings, but you must look after yourself first." He lowered his voice.

"It is best for everyone, Sir Levi, if you are as strong as possible. And that you get strong quickly. We know you have some… ideas about how to help Gate. I won't say any more, but many of us stand behind you." As he spoke, Habit walked past. He must've heard the comment, because he shook his head.

"If you insist on staying behind, so be it," I said.

"But if last year is any indicator, we'll have excess Imperial Steel. We can give it—""Sir Levi," Pork said with intensity.

"We are not some helpless farmhands. Our squad will insist on paying you a fair rate for any scrap you give us."

"Your wages couldn't amount to a fair market rate," Sage commented.

"Not when dealing with Imperial Steel."

"Then we will still give you what we can," Pork insisted.

"Do not argue with a man trying to give you a gift, brother," Brawl told me.

"It is considered quite rude, as if you do not think their gift is worthy."

"If you're serious about it, then I won't tell you no." I dipped my head toward Pork. After that, we set off. They lowered the elevator for us, and we stepped off onto the floor of the lower level. I led us toward a lava canal today, instead of aiming for a far-out plaza to hunt something stronger.

"What are you looking for today?" Anchor asked.

"This isn't our usual route."

"No," I said.

"But I wanted to find a bunch of lava gorillas, and they seemed the most plentiful by the canals."

"Flameknuckles," Sage corrected.

"I appreciate the sentiment, brother," Brawl told me.

"It will make for a good break, given our recent bout of training."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a break. Each of us is going to take on one, on our own, to test ourselves. We'll see how far we've come in these eight weeks." The entire squad groaned. Sage asked, "Even me?" I paused.

"Give it a try."

"Morph is flammable, dustbrain," she said.

"He's getting stronger, but if he tries to use his roots to tear apart a Flameknuckle, he'll burn up before long." I stepped closer to him. At the moment, he carried Sage with one arm, and held the other arm down by his side, staying still as a statue. I tapped his shoulder with a finger. It thudded, like I'd tapped a rock.

"He's stronger than you think, now. He's been advancing alongside you, and I know he doesn't exactly have a reading tablet, but his Vitality is surely improving. Don't hold yourself—or him—back. I know you don't like being coddled, so don't coddle others…" His limbs were solid, and the branches had a waxy coating, like a freshly fallen pinecone. Something told me he could withstand a lot more heat than Sage thought he could.

"I will try…but if Morph gets injured, I will pull him back immediately. And I will blame you."

"Your terms are acceptable. Let's go." We patrolled along the edge of the canal, watching for monsters. The lava gorillas should have been attracted to our presence, and being Silvers, they'd emerge when they thought their territories were being threatened. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. To this day, I'd still never seen one emerging from the canals. When I did, my breath caught in my throat. The lava canal bubbled, its surface crackling orange and yellow.

It bulged, then burst spattering globs of magma over the walkway. I backed up, pulling my squad away, and held my shield up. It was still regular wood, but the magma cooled enough by the time it hit my shield that it only left a scorch on the paint.

"Poor shields…" Brawl muttered.

"We are always sacrificing them."

"It's not destroyed yet," I countered, brushing the char off the shield's face with my gloved hand.

"Well, Sarge," Anchor said, "you were looking for this fight. I say you go first. Best of luck and all." I snorted, then said, "Very well. Stay back." I swapped my spear for my crossbow, then targeted the gorilla's head. We'd fought plenty of them over the past few weeks to know their weak spots and how they would fight us. They didn't have functional eyes, not the way we did. Theirs sensed maegen currents, locked on to them, and attacked.

Although I couldn't wield maegen the way other Path-walkers did, my very existence still interacted with the currents. It was like wind: I couldn't control it, but my existence still affected the air flow. Being stronger than the rest of my squad, I affected the flow of maegen more than them. My Presence was higher than theirs, and it made me a bigger target. I caused more ripples in the ambient fields of maegen. Aside from Presence, I'd also enhanced my attributes.

According to Sage and the alchemy books I'd read, increasing my stats and further tempering my enhanced body caused increased the density of mae in my body. If mae was existence and life energy, then increasing my attributes (especially Vitality) just meant I had more of it. Needless to say, the gorilla locked its glowing eyes with me. It pounded the ground with its flaming fists, creating an explosion of sparks beneath it. Then it lowered its head and charged me.

I fired a bolt and activated my resonance Skill for my crossbow, and the bolt blasted forward with a boom, cracking across the beast's head and leaving a gash in one of its eyes. It was a Silver, and my crossbow Skill was still only Journeyman-tier. Advanced-tier was the equivalent tier for Silver skills. Needless to say, the bolt wasn't enough to pierce the beast's rocky skin, but it did slice across the maegen receptor in its eye, blinding it on one side. Darting forward, I leaned to the beast's blind side.

I reloaded the crossbow, then switched to my spear as I ran. I twirled it to build momentum, then slashed it across the beast's leg. The Imperial Steel glowed orange along its edge, but it didn't break. The shaft however, charred, growing weaker by the second. I'd still get a few more hits out of it, though. Rock exploded out of the beast's leg, and it shifted its weight. The glowing orange veins of magma shifted, and a section of the beast's thigh crumbled into dust and debris.

It made the gorilla about a foot shorter on one side, and it would never charge as quickly again. I slid to a halt on the other side of the gorilla. Turning to face me, it let out a high-pitched shriek, then gnashed its jaw together. It tried to wheel around, but it was too slow. It flung its arm toward me, launching a barrage of molten pellets at me, but I triggered my Art, using it to launch myself up at an angle, before triggering it again in a different direction.

As I fell, I used a different tactic I'd been theorizing over the past few weeks. Mid-air, I swapped to my crossbow, drawing on my enhanced agility to change my weapons fast enough. I used the enhanced momentum of my fall and the gravity well to accelerate my next bolt as quickly as it could go. It smashed into the gorilla, completely shattering the beast's head and leaving a deep hole into the rest of its body.

I swapped to my spear and plunged it into the hole at the last moment, as my Art dragged me down with as much force as it could muster. My spear pierced the hole my crossbow bolt had already started, and the force of the impact was enough to shatter the remaining body of the gorilla. I rolled away before the magma could burn me too badly, then patted out the ends of my cloak and leaned over the beast's body.

"There we go," I said, kicking through the remains with my boot, looking for any chunks of Imperial Steel it had absorbed throughout its life.

"Dead."

"Well done, Sarge," Anchor said. (I had realized only a few weeks ago that that wasn't a perfect translation, because he was actually saying something more like 'to praise,' but my mind translated it as 'well done.' Either way, I tried not to glow from the praise.)"Now, let's see what the rest of you can do." Brawl was next.

When we found a lava gorilla for him, he took a little longer to defeat it, but combined with his Art and his unending barrage of flail swipes, he took it down with minimal injuries to himself. Considering the rest of the squad was only the peak of Titanium, and they were punching up against mid-tier Silver foes, I still had to remind myself that they were doing quite well. Next was Anchor.

The rest of us had to stay far away while he fought, so it didn't latch onto us instead and try to attack us, but with my enhanced Perception, it was easy enough to see what was happening. He dodged and fired back at the beast, slowly chipping it down, until he landed a hit on its core. His archery Skill had reached Advanced-tier, and it did far more damage than any of my individual crossbow bolts could. Finally, it was Sage's turn. She and Morph attacked a gorilla, though Morph did most of the damage.

Sage extended a constant flow of Presence to keep him on his feet and empower his strikes, and to heal him. The surface of his branchy arms grew shiny and black, and his leaves withered closest to the gorilla, but eventually, he smashed its head open, and ripped apart one of its limbs with a tendril of vines. After that, when the gorilla was mostly incapacitated, Sage pulled back.

"Morph can't take any more." The rest of us swooped in and crushed the remains of the monster. I turned back to Sage, and she said, "I won't be able to fight as well as you three—""It's alright," I cut her off before she could be too hard on herself.

"You did well for a healer. It's good for my peace of mind, knowing that you're not going to die to a single hit."

"You sound like my father."

"Nah, if your father had his way, he wouldn't have let you even try."

"Th—thank you. Dustbrain."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes.

"Now, let's loot this corpse and get back to the surface."