Aliandra “What is that?” Ali asked as they crested a hill. High above them, shrouded in the vast empty darkness was something that could only be described as an unimaginably tall pilr of yellow-white light sht that Ali squinted and blinked against its iy. But blog her sight with her hand or closing her eyes did not affect the power of the vision.

  It must be mana. It was the only challenging part of her Are Insight skill – it provided the ability to see or perceive mana – but she must be perceiving it directly with her mind. Even though she ied the seo her view of the world, closing her eyes did nothing to block her mana sight.

  “Looks like a giant waterfall,” said, moving to stand beside her, staring at the phenomenon with a look of intense curiosity in his eyes.

  Waterfall? Ali looked again, and ihere was a flow to it. But it was not the thunderous plunge of a river, but the viscous flow of dripping honey, drifting downward so slowly it had to be barely dehan the air itself.

  “Is that the light mana from the denser?” she asked out loud, suddenly making the e in her mind. Oer ring of the suspended city ruins, she remembered seeing liquid mana p out over the edge right before they were attacked by the Luminous Slimes.

  “It would be the right pce,” said, firming her guess. “It lines up exactly with the ruins above us.” It was astounding how good his eyes were, even in the dark. Ali couldn’t even make out the shadow of the suspended city far above, and without mana sight, she probably wouldn’t have been able to see the bulk of the slowly trig waterfall either.

  “I wonder what we will find at the bottom?” Ali had expected this ground level to have ged from the peaceful farmnds that she had remembered. But what they had found was far beyond even her wildest guesses. Mana had ed everything down here, and whatever was at the bottom of that waterfall had to be the epiter of all the light affinity monsters and pnts, and oppressive mana that was beginning to dominate all else the closer they got.

  “Whatever it is, I’m not seeing any nature-influenced creatures or pnts anymore,” answered. He was the ing ahead and scouting their path, and Ali trusted him to make the assessmeer than she would – however, she had also noticed the ge in the ambient mana, and the ck of green wisps, or nature mana pnts or creatures where they had been so prevalent before. Even the smell of the air had shifted from growth to the strange pu st of air burnt by the intense beams of light emitted by some of the light elementals.

  As they tio trek through the forest, the number of enters grew. Fortunately, they were mostly stray Corust Rays h above, or the sweeping attacks of the swarming Glimmer Shards, or the occasional ooze, all easily dispatched with minimal injuries. Of the dangerous Radiant Brawlers, they found no signs, and the natural disaster of swarming Lux Drifters remained a one-off enter.

  The pilr of light slowly domihe skies as they drew nearer, shining down ohrough the breaks in the opy. Ali found herself drawn to study the phenomenon, as she slowly came to uand the sheer size of it. It was deceptive at a distahe way it trickled down, almost floating in the air, gave it a misleading impression of a ck of substance or weight – but as they closed in on it, the illusion was dispelled. It was rger than several city blocks in width, and the sheer amount of liquid mana slowly p down was simply staggering.

  As she crested another rise, Ali became vihat it was a miracle that so much mana had not simply obliterated everything iire area. She paused he top, suddenly intensely aware that the entire hidden valley, just out of view oher side, ulsing with an intense glow of light.

  She climbed up the ridge to the top and was suddenly struck with a splitting headache that shot up behind her eyes as the valley suddenly came into view. She winced, recoiling from the sheer iy of light inflicted directly on her mind through her mana sight.

  “Ali! What’s wrong?” Malika caught her before she slipped.

  “It’s just very bright,” she answered, shaking her head softly and trying in vain to block her senses. “I ’t turn off mana sight, give me a moment to get used to it.” It was one of the most obvious dowhe schors had warned of in mas – otherwise powerful passive skills could often bee liabilities in situations where you would rather not have the skill. If she ever entered a mohat could blind her with this kind of iy, she knew she would be in signifit trouble.

  “That’s amazing,” Mato said, obviously seeing what she couldn’t yet make out. “The entire valley is filled with brilliantly glowing trees and there is an enormous pool of light in the ter.”

  “We should be careful,” cautioned. “Look at this…”

  The white glowi of ’s shared notification popped up in Ali’s mind. She found she was easily able to read it even though her perception of the outside world still hadn’t quite recovered.

  [Explorer]Pool of LightA pool of intense liquid mana capable of spawning elementals and creatures of light affinity mana aing the powerful disruptive power of wild magi its surroundings.Affinity: Light (Wild Magic)Age: AKnowures: Elemental, Ooze, WispSpawning Pool

  A spawning pool? Ali had never heard of such a thing, but even with the most obvious interpretation, it expined much of what they had entered in the enormous underground cavern so far.

  Her eyes, or rather, her mana sight, slowly recovered, and with that, she was finally able to see the valley spreading out below her. The sides were lined with a dense growth of pirees with needles of pure light, while at the ter of the valley y the intensely radiant pool of pure mana. All through the air above it, dang and swooping and darting were elemental wisps ranging from pure white to dense yellow or blue clobs of intensely glowing mana slowly desded, part of the waterfall, and as they touched the surface of the pool they were absorbed without a ripple.

  “Ali, you should learrees,” Mato said, drawitention to one of the nearby glowing pirees.

  Radiant Larch – Tree – level 32 (Light)

  “What is a Larch?” she asked.

  “It’s an unusual ifer – it happens to be deciduous. It lose its needles and sometimes has a bright yellow color. Although this one seems to have needles made of pure light mana, so it’s probably always yellow or white,” Mato expined. “I think this might go well with your ke, helping to resolve the light problem.”

  He’s right, the needles are pure mana, she thought, examining the tree. Would it be able to thrive in that enviro? It wasn’t quite as tall as some of the oaks she had made, aainly not nearly as broad, but if she pnted several together in a small stand, she could imagi would create quite a bit of light.

  “They are stunning!” she said. Eagerly, Ali pced her hand oree and destructed it, and theed several more as they slowly made their way down the slope toward the pool. As normal, she tried to vary her choices as much as possible to give her Grimoire the broadest range of variao it to its pages. She wasn’t quite certain it made a lot of difference, but at least for level spread, she knew she could only make variants at the levels she had learned, so she tried to selee of the highest and lowest-level trees avaible.

  The air buzzed and flittered, filled with wisps, and glowing butterflies, and in the distance over the pool she could even make out swooping shapes er creatures that circled up and away into the darkness, leaving trails of light in their wake.

  Her study was suddenly interrupted by the sensation of holy magic settling into her body, filling her with a sense of ease and healing. It was only then that she realized her health had been slowly draining aoint by point.

  “The air is dangerous,” Malika said, meeting her gaze as her healing magic flickered through her body.

  But it wasn’t quite the air that was the problem. It was the ambient mana, now so dense and thick that it was burning them with its pootency. The closer they approached the spawning pool the more she could feel the burn on her skin, and deep within her lungs.

  “If it gets to, we should back out,” Ali said, cheg on her Acolytes. It seemed they were not struggli, and she was rather curious to see the pool, but not enough that she would risk too much danger for it.

  And suddenly there it was. The thicket of pirees – rches – ended right beside the ke, and as she stepped out between the final trunks, the entire expanse of the ke spread out in front of her, utterly and eerily still. It glowed with a geous, shimmeriy like amber lit from within. It reminded her of the ke she had made but instead of mana-purified water it was filled with liquid light-affinity mana – which was vastly more intense, fed tinuously by the enormous waterfall running down from the unseen ruined denser above.

  “It’s uny how there are no ripples or spshes,” Malika observed.

  “Mana,” Ali expined, but in truth, she had never seen liquid mana like this before. She watched, mesmerized for quite some time, studying the surface of the ke and how the globs of liquid mana simply poured in without disturbing the smoothness. A sudden ripple disturbed the surface, looking surprisingly out of pce. It ed and bulged upward, and then with a strange sug noise, something rose out of the ke, h there for a moment in the glow. With a shiver through its round body, the brand new Corust Ray shook off the residual mana, dropping it to the once again smooth surface of the ke, took off into the air, and with a flick of its wings, spiraled around the giant waterfall and flew off into the darkness.

  Spawning Pool. Oddly enough, it spawns things…

  “We probably shouldn’t stick around here long,” Malika said, interrupting her wandering thoughts, “before that thing spawns something dangerous.”

  “Ali should get one of those first,” Mato said, pointing to the bank, where one of the trees y fallen half in and half out of the ke. All along its deg bark grew mushrooms that glowed with an intense light, ranging from tiny to some that were as rge as a die.

  Luminous Glo – Mushroom – level 11 (Light)

  “Oh!” The mushrooms were rather pretty, and Ali could immediately imagine growing them all around her forest. She still liked her are mushrooms, but these were pretty too. Although I will have to be careful, she thought, recalling how pnts with affiher than are or nature seemed to suppress her domain in the immediate area they had been pnted. Maybe I could dedicate ao light affinity pnts?

  “Do you mind? It shouldn’t take long,” Ali asked, turning to Malika.

  “I think it should be ok, as long as you use your barrier and we e along to protect you just in case,” Malika answered, eyeing the surface of the ke suspiciously.

  Excited once again, Ali approached the dowree and began destrug as many mushrooms as she could, w effitly so that Malika didn’t have to worry more than necessary. Whatever else she thought of this pce with mana so inte was burning her skin, it was certainly a treasure trove, expanding her repertoire of variants imprinted intrimoire.

  It was as she was destrug the fifth mushroom that the ke surface right beside her rippled aed as four tentacle-like appendages shot out toward her, glowing with power.

  Ali reflexively summoned a barrier, but it was Malika stepping in the way that saved her from the deadly beams of light that shot out, tearing through the ground and trees nearby, leaving smoking trails along Malika’s body.

  Malika Malika hissed in pain as the intense, focused beams burhrough her skin and muscles with the sudde of meat sizzling on a hot pan. She healed herself against the onsught, shifting her body directly into the path of a beam to prevent the powerful magi reag Ali who was hiding behind a barrier that would be uo protect her.

  She had been nervous about approag the dangerous spawning pool, and so she had been staring right at it when the Radiant Brawler had spawned, disturbing the uny smoothness of the surface. As it burst out of the ke, she sprang into a instantly with Diviep, barely fast enough to interpose herself betweead its obvious target. Overriding her instinct to dodge with Enlightened Evasion, to get iionally burnt to the bone, had taken an act of will, but she knew she would survive fag the full power of the brawler head-on, whereas Ali, with her much lower health, might not have.

  The ‘water’ on the ke’s surface rippled again. Another?

  Two huge, squat forms emerged from the ke fnking the first oentacles reag, massive jaws open dispying rows of sharp teeth, shedding gobs of liquid mana from their bodies. The iy of their magic glowed powerfully, hurting her eyes, but she kept her focus knowing she would be the only one able to keep up with these monsters.

  But three… It was the worst situation she could have imagined, sprung on her in an instant. The ay of anticipated pain mingled with uainty, creating an unfortable co that settled uneasily within her mind. But what choice did she have? Ali was still vulnerable, scrambling backward to safety, seemingly moving in slow motion as Malika’s Martial Artist kicked in, seamlessly accelerating her reflexes to match the hasted elemental before her.

  She would just o tank all of them until they had the opportunity to flee. But what su opportunity might look like eluded her. Should we recall to town?

  Malika shed out with a quick punch, eg with the rge jaw of the eyeless monster in front of her. Instantly its form blurred into the telltale afterimages as it teleported away to gain the advantage of distance. She ig, charging the two newers who were barely out of the ke by the time her flying kicks ected.

  Beside her, Mato roared his challenge, but the three Radiant Brawlers ignored him, either able to resist his Taunt, or simply not seeing him as any kind of petent threat. It made sense because they were dang circles around his paratively slow swipes, making him look like he was filing blindly at a swarm of mosquitoes.

  She stepped up to the brawler Mato was trying to hit, unleashing tid kicks, and following them with a high-speed dodge-and-block exge as it retaliated with whip-strikes of the powerful tentacles, and the grinding snap of its giant maw. She pushed her body to the absolute limits of her speed, barely able to hold her own against the onsught. But despite how much her skills had grown, as soon as the third brawler ehe fray, she began to fall behind. Lashing attacks struck her arms and legs, drawing blood that arced through the air in slow sprays of crimson droplets as the monsters’ magic cwed at her mana. She ducked and weaved, but the brilliant fres of the beam attacks seared through her muscles, burnio the bone, disrupting her rhythm and speed as she was forced to heal her body in order to even move.

  I’m losing.

  The thought which should have been one of absolute terror, drifted across her calm mind. She was experieng the emotions that came attached with the dark thoughts, but her Crity kept her mind still and focused during battle. She was effectively on her own against three elementals, all of which were higher level, more powerful, and faster than she was. The only help she was able to rely on was the sistent pulse of holy healing magic Ali’s minions were sending her way. If she let the brawlers reach the little Kobold Acolytes, it would all be over in a fsh.

  An indest arrow trailing a of light whipped past her left ear, but the Brawler it had been aimed at effortlessly avoided it. ’s unimpressed hiss clearly rued the waste of mana.

  She dodged again, spinning on a tight axis, before nding on one foot and dug, avoiding the scathing beams before blog a rapid set of shing strikes.

  If only I had even one of the others to help.

  She gnced over at Mato who usually took the tanking role for their team. If only he was faster. The swipes with his cws and his attempts to reach the monsters appeared ungainly and slow – useless against the incredible haste of these glowing brawlers with their instantaneous beam attacks and flurries of whips and bites.

  She took another beam, this time to her back, uo react to the brawler appearing behind her after a teleport. As the searing pain shot through her body, she desperately tried to turn to face the threat while healing herself. But she had left herself open and was instantly punished by the ch of teeth through her arm as the fnking monster’s maw bit down, shattering bone.

  As she realized her mistake, she suddenly saw the glimmer of a way out.

  He has Battle Master…

  “Mato, stay put!” she yelled, seeing his surprised expression growing on his bear face with edic slowness.

  This had better work! She unleashed a vicious low kick, with all her strength behind it, eg with the brawler’s knee, and sprinted sideways, drawing the monsters with her, aiming carefully to draw her target right past Mato, while trying to recall the specifics of his potealiation skill.

  His retaliation is instant, and I think it triggers when something moves past him…

  She drew the hasted elemental up to Matht past his fad still, it was too fast for him to ect with. But as she ran by, the monster kept its focus on her, ign Mato. His paw suddenly moved with unbelievable speed, blurred in her perception even uhe influence of her haste, accelerated reflexes, and perception, eg solidly with the brawler. The power of his strike drove the heavier monster bodily to the ground, causing it to stumble, and sending blue glowing blood spraying across her face from the sheer force of ripping cws. Roots sprang from the ground, ensnaring the monster, and in that instant, it blurred, telep to escape.

  Despite her dire circumstances, Malika grihis ges everything. All she had to do was draw the monsters past Mato and she could abuse his retaliation skill to get more damage.

  And the best part is he won’t mind me using him. He hates being useless in a fight.

  The brawler that had teleported to escape the roots charged across the sandy ke shore, directly to Mato, ying into the slow bear with a fury of attacks that he owerless to defend against.

  Now to try my new skill. Malika charged in behind the monster, drawing the other two with her, hoping to use Mato’s retaliation strike again. But this time, she unleashed her pu the brawler attag Mato, choosing to use her new Mana Strike advance. Arifying rush of energy filled her mind as her punches ected, her magio longer doing damage, but instead attag the mana of the elemental directly, and leeg some of it away to replenish her own. The rush of new ma exhirating as she immediately tur into more stamina to fuel her Diviep, and her punches and blocks.

  The Radiant Brawler reacted instantly, furiously rounding on her with shing strikes. You didn’t like that, did you? And the instant she drew the furious attention of the elemental away from Mato, his Battle Master retaliation struck again, blurring with speed and power and leaving the brawler trapped in the roots – this time uo teleport away until its escape skill recharged.

  lost absolutely no time, peppering the pinned monster with indest arrows as Ali’s swerving Are Bolts all homed in on the suddenly pinned monster.

  Malika sprinted away, drawing one of the other brawlers through the area of Mato’s reach. He struck a sed time, provoking the teleport to escape. Here we go! Give us a big bear grin, Mato!

  But as the afterimages faded, and the telep monster maed right into the path of a radiant arrow trailing a of light. ’s binding magic ed around the moethering it to the ground in an instant and suddenly the slippery elemental had to tend with the full onsught of Ali’s mages. Wow, he learo predict the teleport!

  Uedly finding herself enjoying the enter, she ducked and dodged as she worked on cirg back toward Mato’s position, weaving in her most ing blocks and sidesteps as the monster chasing her caught up. Keeping her eyes on the greater battle, she ducked under a beam attad rolled tht side, seeing it slig through trees in the distance. She felt the pressure, but it was clear that her discovery had greatly lessehe volume of attacks on her. Mato seemed to be enjoying ing the pinned monster in front of him while it was uo escape. She dodged a sed beam but stood firm, taking the third aimed for her friends on her chest, healing against the searing burn that threateo punch right through her.

  I force the teleport, and I lock them down in front of Mato for a short time oheir skill is on recharge. And piil their teleport recharges. She took a brief moment to survey the battlefield, noting the slow-motion firebolts, arrows, and ic flying around. Only Ali’s are magic seemed to hit with any sistency.

  What if I run them out of mana? She decided it would likely be her most effective strategy. Something about her Mana Strike attack was threatening enough to the mohat they were willing to igo to attack her when she used it, which gave her a good idea that they heir mana and were willing to fight to keep it.

  I use that respooo, she thought, sidering how she might use every detail to her advantage.

  She unched herself toward Mato, drawing in a arget for him to hit, just as the first one finally teleported out of its entangling roots. As soon as Mato unleashed his retaliation, she chased down the escaped brawler, unleashing a flurry of punches, each strike sipping from its mana pool and provoking its ire. It worked almost like a Taunt.

  She tinued ping-ponging the brawlers into Mato’s reach, quickly being more profit at timing their teleport recharge so that they couldn’t escape as easily. Each time she had a few extra moments, she attacked the mana of the brawler that was still leaking blue blood from Mato’s initial strike.

  It was a good ten minutes before she drew her target into Mate, pung it relentlessly, but as she did, suddenly the monster’s glow dimmed substantially, and its movement slowed. Malika’s punded, but she came back empty – no exhirating rush of stolen mana surging through her mind.

  Got you. She knew how it felt to have her oool draiill her enha skills dropped, and it was satisfying to turables on the brawlers. She didn’t know how Mato was g with the loss of mana, but he seemed to be doing just fine. He does have a lot eion.

  She dodged out, seeing ’s arrows easily trag the no-longer hasted brawler, followed quickly by a host of magical attacks from Ali’s minions.

  Doh you… She turned her attention to her oppo.

  ***

  Malika was exhausted after going all out for so long, but she smiled happily. The battle had required speed and tactical problem-solving, and she had quite enjoyed pushing her css to the maximum.

  “That was a great idea,” Mato excimed happily as he gri her.

  “You like being used like that?”

  “Hell yes, I got to fight because of you!”

  He’s so easy to please, she thought. But it did feel good to be critical to their little team’s success, so she totally uood him.

  “Nice work on anticipating the teleports, ,” she said.

  “There’s a bit of a trick to it, the way the afterimages flicker has a detectable pattern,” said.

  “You’ll have to teach me how to see that,” Ali said.

  “Me too,” Malika agreed. “Either way, it took a lot of the pressure off.”

  As Ali finished destrug the monsters, several small motes of brilliant light floated out from the dispersing mana of the brawlers.

  Lesser Radiant Essence x5Light-affinity crafting reagent.Mana: bine 3 Lesser Radiant Esseo one Radiant EssenceValue: 5 gent – Mana Essence

  Malika quickly collected and stored them in her ring before they floated away. Betedly, she remembered to check her notifications.

  Yroup has defeated Radiant Brawler – Elemental – level 37 x3

  Soul Monk has reached level 35.+10 attribute points.

  Martial Artist has reached level 18 (+2).Soul Strike has reached level 21.Healing Mantra has reached level 21.Soul Armor has reached level 20.Enlightened Evasion has reached level 20.Diviep has reached level 20 (+2).Sed Wind has reached level 9 (+3).Crity has reached level 6 (+2).

  Appraise has reached level 12.

  Wow. Her css skills had grown dramatically from just one fight, and some of her lesser-used skills too. Huh, even Crity got two. Very nibsp;But she supposed it made sense – it had been a long fight, and she had been going all out the eime – and using haste, she attacked vastly more frequently. Diviep and Sed Wind had been crucial to her strategy, and they had grown the most.

  Keeping to her usual distribution, Malika assighree of the points to dexterity, two each to wisdom, vitality, and endurance, and put the st point into perception. As soon as she finished distributing her points, her notification chime sounded once again.

  Making a hiss of satisfa betweeeeth that drew knowing grins from her panions, she checked the details at once. Yes!

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Diviep has reached level 20.Wisdom has surpassed 150.Fought at maximum haste for over ten minutes.Killed an oppo with a strike from above while airborne.

  Diviep gains Infinite Lightness of the Soul.Diviep – level 20Stamina: el your energy through your body and to the immediate enviro around you to trol your momentum, signifitly increasing your bat and movement speed. You step, push, or jump off your own energy extended into the space around you.Soul, Movement, Haste, DexterityAccept this adva?

  “Oh, this looks nice,” she said, sharing her Diviep adva with her friends. Fighting at maximum haste must have been unlocked in this fight just now, but the overhead strike kill had to have been her climbing the wall above Ali’s fireball and dropping down to kill Edrik.

  “Is that an air-walk and double-jump skill?” asked, arriving at precisely the same clusion she had.

  The way she read it, this adva built upon the movement trait of her skill, allowio perform her acrobatic feats without necessarily requiring a wall. If she could jump off the air, she would be able to reach fairly impressive heights. But she presumed that with some practid adva, the ‘step’ part meant she might be able to run for short distances without any support.

  She quickly accepted the adva, and then took a step, eliamina into her new skill. Her foot found purchase in the air a little above the ground as the energy of her magifused the space, and she stepped onto it, surprised that it didn’t let her fall.

  “Oh, that’s impressive,” Ali excimed. “Now you fly, too!”

  “I have to el stamina into it tinuously to avoid falling, so I ’t do it indefinitely.” But she could run on air. She sprinted around for a few moments, getting used to the effect, finding the skill surprisingly intuitive to use.

  This is awesome! she thought, her mind already throwing dozens of ideas at her for how she could enhance her fighting style.

  “Ali, are you alright?” Mato broke in, sounding worried.

  “Feeling pretty woozy, actually,” she admitted.

  Malika grimaced. “Woozy? You look terrible, actually. How about we get out of here? I could use some dowoo.”

  timewalk