Alex skid across stone, his palms scraping raw before he rolled hard and came up crouched. His chest heaved and coughed, his lungs full of both water and blood. Behind him, the waterfall hammered the cavern wall like a ballpeen on a sheet of silver steel. The sun crystals of the mountain outside still pierced the water somehow, casting the chamber in shimmering light. The cave, not at all surprisingly, was damp. Moisture clung to his skin, icy cold and heavy, but at least it wasn’t drowning him anymore.
Holly staggered a few yards away, coughing water as well. Her hair was plastered to her neck and back. Eric was there too, doubled over with a hand on his knee, sparks still twitching across his knuckles. Henry and Lance climbed up from the edge, both dripping, but each was standing tall.
Beyond them, Alex caught sight of the raft—or what was left of it. The boat had been reduced to pieces against the cavern wall, with the planks and vines scattered in a soggy heap. One by one, the others pulled themselves free of the wreckage. Garret cursed loud enough to be heard over the roar of the falls as he dragged Peter to his feet with a bruised arm. Allie leaned heavily against the cave while still cradling Tom-Tom in front of her. The little kobold was spitting water out in long, wheezy huffs. His ladles clattered in his claws as he shivered.
They were all beaten up something fierce. Faces were pale, blood trickled from cuts and gashes, and bruises were already turning yellow and purple. No one had escaped the lake crossing unscathed. But as Alex scanned the chamber, adrenaline still surging through him from his last flare-boosted kick, the realization hit like a bell strike.
They were alive. Every single one of them had made it.
Alex straightened up slowly, pushing back damp hair as water dripped from his scraggly bearded chin. He needed a shave soon, he'd have to remember to do that at some point. His muscles still burned from channeling too much power too fast. His soaked clothes clung to him like a second skin, the ache in his arms and legs was a reminder of what it took to push through this far. But seeing the team on their feet, even Tom-Tom, a wild grin spread across his little face as Allie held him, Alex was proud of his team.
The roar of the falls filled the cavern, but beneath it Alex caught the sound of something else, the shifting splash of water outside. The guttural bellow of the crocodilian chimeras regrouping. His skin prickled at the thought of those beasts getting into the cavern. They wouldn’t stop at the barrier of water. Not now, not after the taste of blood they just had.
“Move, back of the cavern, now.” Alex shouted.
No one argued with him. The party stumbled together across slick rock, footfalls almost in unison. The far wall loomed out of darkness, and cut into the stone was the black maw of a tunnel. A way out, or further in. Holly ducked in first, her sword at the ready, Eric right behind her. One by one the others poured in, weapons clutched tight. Alex brought up the rear, scanning the water just in time to see two dark shapes crest the surface near the cavern mouth.
“Seal it!”
Lance and Garret slammed their palms against the stone the moment Alex slipped through. The air rattled with the grind of earth as the two of them erected large, thick slabs of stone and the tunnel mouth was sealed shut. The barrier wasn’t pretty, but it was thick and solid. If the beasts wanted in, they’d have to smash their skulls against a wall of mountain.
Then there was nothing, only silence, and a pitch-dark stretch of tunnel swallowing them whole.
“Allie,” Alex whispered.
“I’ve got it.” Her hands glowed a soft gold, light pooling between her fingers and forming a floating orb. Beside her, Peter raised his spear, coaxing a second globe of pale-white luminescence into being at its tip before it was sent drifting off. The twin lights floated ahead, illuminating rough stone walls veined with dripping mineral deposits.
The group moved quickly but carefully, boots echoing off the narrow corridor as the tunnel sloped deeper into the cliff. The air was cool, damp, heavy with the scent of moss and iron.
It wasn’t long before the walls widened, stone peeling back into a naturally carved chamber. A hollow bubble of earth, big enough to fit them all comfortably.
“This’ll do,” Henry muttered. A moment later he was lowering himself to the floor. He set his halberd beside him while vines shifted around his wrists restlessly.
“Sit, heal, and cultivate. Patch yourselves up.” Alex was terse, but no one complained.
The raid party collapsed into the cavern with the sound of tired bodies creaking in their flesh packaging, groans echoing all around. Corks popped as healing and stamina potions were passed around, the distinct tang of alchemical brew filling the space. The glow from Allie and Peter’s lights cast their tired, pale faces into sharp relief. Alex saw cut faces, bruised arms, and raw skin. But already, wounds began to knit under the care of Allie and the liberal use of potions.
Alex dropped onto a low ledge of stone that jutted from one of the walls, every inch of him aching. His heartbeat was still hammering, the echo of the final chimera’s charge replaying in his mind. He reached for his own potion and tipped it back, letting the warmth of relief wash through his sore muscles, though it did nothing for the strained aether channels.
For now, they were safe, but only for now.
Alex quickly brought up his attributes on his status screen to check his progress;
As always, there was slow progressive growth in his stats just from fighting the chimeras and practicing his aether gathering technique. There was also the growing experience pool that taunted him with potential, yet as with the Dark Den dungeon, Alex wasn’t able to spend his experience while inside the dungeon.
“Doesn’t mean you can’t progress though.” Obby added in his mind.
What are you thinking? Wisdom?
“As much as I’d love to say yes, I really don’t think you have the resources to make that worth while.”
Hmm. Alex was surprised the sentient stone wasn’t pushing the matter, given how insistent he had been about Alex increasing his wisdom attribute before, no matter the situation at hand. He avoided that for now and decided to focus on progress instead.
Strength and Agility are close to the first Earthly Tribulation. Getting every stat past that threshold might be quite a boost given the ability combination effect the System does.
“That’s definitely worth a shot. But how are you going to manage that? You can’t spend your experience in here.”
Another great point made by the enchanted pebble, and one Alex could possibly have an answer to, if he was resourceful enough. His mind rapidly scanned through his storage bracelet, skimming over its contents with a trained eye. Within moments, he found something he could use and materialized the object into his palm.
A small glass vial filled with bubbling purple liquid lay in his hand. It was a curious little concoction that he hadn’t really been certain he’d find a use for. When he and Allie had figured out what it was, and what it did, he assumed it would be useless for him.
Now though, he had a possible plan.
Obby, do your little scanning thing and tell me what you can about this. Alex asked in his mind. Before, Obby had insisted that the golden energy he stole would give him new options. And, as it turned out, scanning items and getting back System information was one of those ‘new options’.
It basically gave Obby an ‘identify’ ability. It was far more useful than Alex would ever admit to Obby’s one-eyed gremlin face.
“Sure thing flesh sack.” Alex felt the bond between himself and Obby pulse for a moment before Obby brought up a translucent screen into his vision. It looked just like one of the normal System screens, except it had a black border instead of filigreed gold and blue. That, and the fact that this screen had a little logo of Obby’s illusionary aether-body face in the bottom left corner with a text that read “Obby Inc.”.
Alex sighed at Obby’s cheeky description, but he was only just trying to confirm his suspicions either way. The elixir would typically be used by a mage to infuse aether energy into their body, making it stronger, basically like a shitty body refinement technique.
Thanks you his body attunement ability, his body was already absorbing and consuming aether energy 24/7. So the elixir’s effect would do nothing for him that cultivating naturally didn’t already do. But there was one thing Alex could actually use it for, and that use came down to the major difference between himself and a typical mage, his lack of mage core.
The elixir’s quality didn’t seem that great, especially given that it was designed for early stage Adept mages, and Alex was already in the middle stage, the liquid foundation stage, of Adept Tier. But that mostly was about the quality of the aether he could use, not the quantity of energy he had.
Inside Alex’s body, when fully saturated, he had maybe one tenth of the aether a typical mage of his level. Which was why he had to supplement his aether pool with the gems in his bracer, and by mastering excessive amounts of control in his spellcasting to not waste any energy.
Which meant the elixir he held now contained a quantity of aether that was expected of a typical adept mage, one with their core still intact. The elixer, was designed and intended to be cultivated by the drinker, handled and contained by their mage core and trickled into their body during the process, something that an Adept tier core could easily handle. Alex was different.
If he drank the elixir, he had no mage core to siphon off the large amount of excess that would be dumped into his body. And it would be a large amount, when compared to his body’s normal capacity at any rate.
So why did any of this even matter? Well it was due to how Alex was able to raise his many attributes without spending experience points at all.
Each new threshold in his ability would give an experience boost into every one of his stats, if he was able to break through it, anyway. This was what Alex was wanting to go for, using the massive quantity of aether in the elixir to force his body’s attunement into the next threshold.
He wasn’t close to that 80% mark, but that might not matter if he simply crammed his whole being full, to the point of bursting at the seems, and then forcing his tissues to take it all in. It was a massively crazy plan, one that would cripple him if he fucked up, or even destroy his aether channels, possibly even kill him.
Yet, Alex felt his body reacting at the idea of giving it a try, his heartbeat increasing, hammering in his chest. He rubbed his hands on his martial robes, skin sticking to the fabric as he began to sweat. Not in fear, or anxiety, but excitement, he wanted to do it, to feel that rush.
“Crazy meatboy, you going to go for it?” Obby chuckled.
Alex answered by popping the cork to the small vial, and downing the contents in one go.