Delve - 145: Monkeys
Author: SenescentSoul

145: Monkeys - Delve | Royal RoadProgression Tracker [0.6.0]
marker_1: welcometothejungle [21st Fallow]
marker_2: tarzan [22nd Fallow]
span: 16.2 hours
Strength: 40 -> 42 (+2)
Recovery: 30 -> 32 (+2)
Endurance: 20 -> 21 (+1)
Vigor: 40 -> 43 (+3)
Clarity: 179 -> 181 (+2)
Synchronization
Strength: 6.4 -> 9.1 (+2.7)
Focus: 14.6 -> 16.4 (+1.8)

The Ice Cavern
+40 Strength
The Halls of Corruption
The Lair of Embers
+1,000 Heat Resistance
We Can’t Just Call It ‘The Lair’
+200 Force Resistance
Southshore Rat Warren
+1,000 Health
50% stronger grip when climbing
The Solar Temple
+200 Stamina

Total Known Skill Trees
Tier 0: 144
Tier 1: 144
Tier 2: 144
Tier 3: 139

Richmond Rain Stroudwater
Attributes
Resistances

Rain bounced from foot to foot, swinging his arms to loosen the stiffness that had built up in his muscles overnight. His armor’s enchantments seemed to be constricting him a bit more than usual. The feeling of pressure would fade as the day went on, he hoped, but if not, he was quite used to ignoring all manner of discomforts. He wasn’t going to let it bother him, even if it did make it a bit hard to breathe.

It was presently 7:45 AM, and he, Ameliah, and Tallheart were standing in the clearing at the entrance to the Ashen Jungle. The fire moss was barely glowing, just enough for him to make out the spiderweb pattern in the darkness. Tallheart was setting up his tools next to the mountain of rock he’d excavated the day before, and Ameliah was resting nearby, looking only half awake. Her Lunar Orb floated over her shoulder, lighting the clearing.

In fifteen minutes, they expected the fire moss to blaze back to life, heralding true dawn and the start of the day. By coming down before then, they’d been able to decimate the monster population, as the creatures had been more than willing to swarm out of the trees to their deaths. Refrigerate had been remarkably effective at taking care of the riffraff, and for everything else, there was Fireball.

Both Rain and Ameliah were back at full mana already, but they had decided to keep Tallheart company until the day properly began. The smith wasn’t planning on joining them in their exploration until this afternoon, as digging out their camp had taken longer than he’d planned. He hadn’t had time to build the water filter, and they were starting to run low. Making it would be his first project of the day.

Ameliah yawned adorably, and Rain smiled as he glanced at her. He considered going to sit next to her but discarded the idea. He was too full of nervous energy, despite only getting four hours of sleep. The reason for that was simple: it had worked. The Bastion stood. He’d checked first thing this morning, and though he’d found himself unable to move from where he’d welded his core, that was fine. It was a problem he could solve later. The key thing was that he hadn’t lost his progress. It had even survived his alarm.

Based on Bartum’s description of the system’s daily essence-exchange, Rain had feared that the process would break something. His unplanned unconsciousness had robbed him of the opportunity to push it off, but apparently, he’d been worried for nothing. Either the Bastion had been strong enough to survive it, or the essence-exchange wasn’t nearly as traumatic as he thought.

Emboldened by this fact, Rain had then tested one more potentially destructive event, namely a skill tree unlock. Again, the Bastion had held. As far as Rain could tell, the entire thing was as solid as a rock. He had gotten a foothold at last.

Rain grinned, finished with his warmup. It was time for practice.

Crouching, he prepared himself, making sure that the straps holding his shield to his back were secure. Once he was satisfied, he then jumped as hard as he could. Being unencumbered save for his equipment, his feet made it perhaps a meter off the ground. He frowned as he landed, his legs easily absorbing the impact.

That’s not nearly good enough.

He tried again, and then a few more times, his best jump reaching a meter and a quarter.

No, not nearly good enough. Strength alone isn’t going to cut it.

Having expected this result, he activated Velocity at 25% power, compressing the range to zero.

Velocity (10/10)
61.20% boost to speed for all entities
Range: 0 meters
Cost: 2.5 mp/s

He started swinging his arms again, getting used to the feeling of speed. He hadn’t been using the skill on himself much recently and was out of practice. Carefully, he took a few steps, then began to pace. Faint curls of wind trailed after him, each of his movements more confident than the last. Within a minute, he was walking more or less normally. Satisfied with this, he jumped.

With the aid of the spell, he was able to accelerate himself upward over one and a half times as quickly. The moment his feet left the ground, the magic could do nothing more for him, but the initial velocity he’d built up was enough for his feet to clear the former height of his head.

Still with the spell active, Rain controlled his motions, landing with only a small stumble before he caught himself. Good.

He began hopping about like a rabbit, fine-tuning his control with each attempt. Ameliah, he noticed in the middle of one particularly wild jump, was watching him with some amusement. His distraction proved his undoing, and his foot came down on a rock and his ankle twisted. Rain tumbled, wincing as he landed hard on his ass. When he got back up, he saw that Ameliah was looking away, pretending not to have seen, though the shaking of her shoulders betrayed her as she tried to suppress her laughter.

Rain smiled, dusting himself off.

Time for some real jumps. 100%, here we go.

Velocity (10/10)
244.80% boost to speed for all entities
Range: 0 meters
Cost: 10 mp/s

Crouching down carefully, Rain abandoned caution and kicked off for all that he was worth. He felt a great pressure through the soles of his feet, then gasped in surprise at how quickly the ground fell away. Up and up he flew—fast at first, then slowing as gravity clawed him back down. As the hang time stretched, he began to tumble, and he flailed his arms, trying to control his orientation in preparation for landing. Despite his best efforts, he ended up hitting the ground in a magnificent belly-flop.

Ameliah broke, her laughter sweet to his ears.

He bent one of his legs at the knee, kicking up his foot, then spoke, his words muffled by the dirt filling his helmet. “Nailed it.”

Didn’t hurt. Force Resistance is amazing.

He left the spell on as he got back to his feet, though the mana cost was gradually adding up. The more he practiced, the faster he’d acclimate to the effect, as reflected by his Speed tolerance. That was still only one at present, meaning he could deal with a ten percent boost without difficulty. He was well past that, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t need perfect control; he needed height. By his estimate, that jump had been in the neighborhood of six or seven meters, enough to reach the lowest branches of the enormous trees.

Let’s try that again, shall we?

Rain crouched, readying himself to leap again, but was distracted by a flicker of light from the perimeter of the cavern. He let Velocity fade, Winter replacing it out of habit as he stared.

Starting at the base of the wall, a pulse of crimson light had appeared as if coming up out of the earth. It traced its way up the network of moss like lightning in slow motion, leaving a glowing afterimage in its wake. A second pulse appeared when the first was only halfway up the wall, brighter this time. Pulse after pulse followed, each faster than the last, with the moss fading less in between. Soon, the entire clearing was awash in the light of what passed for day in the Ashen Jungle.

“Wow,” Rain said, shading his eyes against the glare.

Ameliah still had his perception accolade, and his eyes had grown wide to take in as much light as they could in the dim cavern. The change had been too sudden for them to adapt.

“Mmm,” Tallheart said, looking up at the ceiling. “That was one of the most impressive dawns that I have seen in the depths. Ten out of ten. Much like your landing.”

Rain snorted, dusting himself off with Purify. “Saw that, did you?” He smiled. “If you think that was something, can you imagine if I used all my mods? The boost would be almost seven thousand percent. That wasn’t even three hundred.” He tilted his head. “I kinda want to try it.”

“You’d better not,” Ameliah said, getting to her feet. “I don’t want to have to scrape you off the ceiling.”

“Ha,” Rain laughed, waving her away. “No, you’re right.” I mean, hot damn. Assuming a normal jump is like a couple g’s of acceleration, seventy times that is…yeah. Like a car crash or something. I’d lose some health, for sure, even with Force resistance.

“You’re still thinking about it, aren’t you?” Ameliah asked.

“Don’t worry,” Rain said, smiling. “I’m not gonna actually do it. Give me a little credit, will you? I’ll work my way up to it some other time. I prefer my legs unbroken.”

He chuckled to himself. Magic is awesome. And a little scary.

“Well, the sun is out, figuratively speaking,” Ameliah said, fighting off another yawn. She nodded to Tallheart. “You be careful on your own, okay?”

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled. “I will be fine. We are not that deep, yet, and I have work to do. Depending on what you find, this may be my last chance to enjoy solitude.” He looked at Rain, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “I find it easier to work when I do not have to answer thousands of questions.”

“Hey,” Rain said, feigning affront. “I’ve been good about that.”

Tallheart snorted. “Hmph. It will not last.” He rumbled to himself, clearly in a good mood. “Do not forget to check for metal. I doubt you will find natural adamant, but with enough iron, I can make it. That would change things.”

“I won’t forget,” Rain said, smiling. “I’m a Dynamo. That’s my thing.”

“He means don’t get distracted,” Ameliah said, slipping a coil of rope over her shoulder. Neither she nor Rain would be bringing their packs for this, obviously.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rain said. “That’s my thing too, isn’t it? Don’t worry, Tallheart. If there are any good veins of ore out there, I’ll find them. I added it to my Detection sequence. It’s literally automatic.”

“Good,” Tallheart said, turning back to his anvil. “Go on, then. And be careful.”

Rain nodded. “Right, see you later.” He looked at Ameliah, then smiled. “Ready?”

Ameliah nodded. “Ready.”

The two of them left the smith to his work as they walked to the edge of the clearing. Upon reaching the trees, Rain looked up, spotting a thick branch about five meters off the ground, one of the lowest he could see. He walked over to it, planning his climb.

The jungle was choked with foliage, making travel along the ground difficult, but there was a distinct lack of vines and other things higher up. The truly massive branches he’d noticed the day before didn’t begin until fifty meters or so, stretching from tree to tree like bridges between skyscrapers. Fortunately for their ascent, there were plenty of smaller branches on the younger trees, like the one Ameliah had managed to fell yesterday.

Rain rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He looked back down, then triggered Detection manually, scanning for monsters ahead of the programmed sequence. His search came back negative, so he nodded to Ameliah. “All clear. We’re good to climb.”

“Okay,” she said, rolling her shoulder, then looking up. “Be ready to catch me if I mess this up. Airwalk is tricky.” She looked back at him, seeming to consider. “Actually, no. Your armor makes you harder than the ground. Maybe just get out of the way.”

“Hah,” Rain said.

Ameliah smiled at him, then jumped. She cleared the branch she’d been aiming for effortlessly, not needing anything as fancy as Velocity to assist her. It was only five meters off the ground, after all. She used the branch like a stepping-stone, flinging herself toward a different tree, then kicked off its trunk to send herself higher still. Her new trajectory sent her into open space, which was clearly the plan. As she neared the top of her arc, she jumped off of nothing, like something straight out of a video game. Her double-jump sent her back in the opposite direction, becoming a triple-jump, then a quadruple-jump as she zigzagged her way through the air. Soon enough, she landed adroitly on one of the bridge-like branches, making the motion look casual.

Rain snorted. Not good with Airwalk. Yeah, sure.

Ameliah waved. “Okay, your turn,” she called. She put her hands on her hips. “This should be good!”

Rain smiled, then jumped for the branch with Velocity. His aim was true, and he crashed into it at the peak of his jump, managing to get an arm around it before he fell. A pull-up was no trouble with his current status, and he managed to get a leg over the branch, then clamber atop it with only a small amount of flailing. He searched for his next target, then leaped again, angling for a branch five meters higher on a different tree, one that Ameliah had skipped right over. His aim wasn’t so good this time, and he overshot, his shins slamming into the branch and sending him tumbling head over heels.

“Shit!” was all he had time to say before he landed—head first, naturally.

“Nice!” Ameliah called down, laughing. “I’m ready with the rope whenever.”

“Tch,” Rain said, struggling free of the unfortunate bush that had cushioned his fall. He rolled his shoulders, then turned Velocity up to 150%, planning to just go straight for the second branch. When he jumped this time, he got the height he needed, but his aim was off. He bounced off the tree’s trunk, then tumbled to the ground once more. Ameliah’s continuing laughter didn’t deter him, and he pushed himself back up, ready to try again.

Okay. Come on, Rain. You can do this.

His third attempt was marginally more successful. He reached the first branch he was aiming for, then the second, though he only barely managed to grab it with his fingertips. If not for his grip strength accolade, he was sure he’d have ended up eating dirt once more. He considered the next branch he’d planned to use, then frowned. It was a bit further away than it had seemed from the ground.

Okay, I’ll call two jumps a win. Time for plan b.

Rain shimmied along the branch until he reached the tree’s trunk. It was a big one, not even close to narrow enough for him to get his arms around. He pulled his mattock free from his belt, then hammered its spike into the wood, activating the enchantment as he did. The tree’s bark was tougher than it had any right to be, but the metal spike bit into it with no trouble. With the handhold this gave him, he hauled himself up the trunk, grappling it with his free hand and his legs tightly. With some difficulty, he removed the pick, then reset it higher.

I don’t need a rope, thank you. I can do it myself.

In this way, Rain made his way up, one swing at a time, becoming more confident as he went. The grip strength accolade was like magic in the way it helped him stick to the tree. By the time he reached the canopy, Ameliah had navigated her way over to him, and she offered him her hand to pull him up to stand on the branch beside her.

“That was everything I thought it would be,” she said, smiling as she steadied him.

Rain flipped up his visor, then stuck his tongue out at her as he slipped the mattock back through its belt loop. Their heads were truly in the leaves now, which were densely supported by a wide network of smaller branches. Reaching out, he grabbed one of these, testing it with his weight. As expected, the curiously strong wood held, barely even flexing despite being thinner than his wrist. He tightened his grip, then let his legs swing out over empty space. “Ook, ook,” he said, scratching at his armpit with his other hand as he swung himself around to look at Ameliah.

“Are you supposed to be an ape or something?” she asked.

“Ook,” Rain said, nodding. He gestured toward the branches invitingly. “Ook? Ook ook ook?”

Ameliah rolled her eyes, then smiled. “Ook,” she said, grabbing a branch next to his. She jerked her head toward deeper trees, then began swinging effortlessly in that direction. “Ook ook.”

Rain laughed, reaching up with his free hand to close his visor. With considerably less grace, he began swinging after her.

“Humans.” Tallheart snorted, then looked back down to his anvil. The entertainment was over, it seemed. That meant it was finally time to get some work done.

Sanity quickly prevailed, and Rain and Ameliah began simply walking along the large branches, as had been the original plan, reverting to simian antics only when required. Neither of them had infinite stamina, and they couldn’t afford to play around. Every so often, Rain would drop an iron token to the ground, creating a trail of breadcrumbs. He’d have used Tel, except he was pretty sure that monsters ate them or something. In any event, he’d be able to find them with Detection when it was time to head back.

They soon fell into a rhythm, making good progress despite frequent monster encounters. According to Tallheart, each biome hosted a constrained set of monster types, normally less than twenty, with only one or two common types from the region. It was similar to how things worked on the surface, but the divisions were sharper in the depths and didn’t vary with the seasons.

For the Ashen Jungle specifically, Deepcats seemed to be the only overlap with the previous, untyped caves. With a few exceptions, there didn’t seem to be much of a difference between the jungle floor and the treetops in terms of what would spawn. The rank was the same, somehow, despite the height of the trees.

Also interesting was the fact that they had yet to find slimes of any description, whether in the trees or on the ground. The blobby monsters had been a constant since Rain had come to this world, apparently being the hallmark of the entire continent. Their absence was striking, and both he and Ameliah were waiting for a dangerous variety to show up at the worst possible time. Lava Slimes were a thing—because of course they were—and according to Ameliah, they were no joke.

As they progressed through the suspiciously slime-free zone, Rain worked to fill in dossiers for each monster type they encountered, including their approximate health and resistances. He had counted twelve varieties so far, two unique to the ground, two unique to the treetops, and eight that had appeared in both places. Getting full information on the rarer ones was difficult, obviously, but for the common types, he soon had enough data to concoct a mana-efficient strategy for dealing with each variety.

Deepcats, for example, had low health and weren’t resistant to Heat. Ameliah could simply snap her fingers and Roy Mustang them with Combustion for a measly twenty mana. Their agility was useless against a spell that merely required line of sight. Fungiform Flamepuffs, on the other hand, called for a different approach. They were stupidly heat-resistant, unnaturally fast, and came in enormous packs, making single-target spells almost useless. Fortunately, they self-destructed when exposed to even the slightest Cold, sending their burning spores everywhere. The strategy for them was a simultaneous dual-aura pulse—Refrigerate from Rain and Purify from Ameliah—nice and easy.

For most other things, Rain would simply use Refrigerate, though it was hard on the jungle. Technically, Ameliah could kill a Fatbird with less mana, but Dynamos were essentially immune to mana overuse. She wasn’t. Her spells were reserved for alpha-strikes on tanky things that would have taken Rain more than a single mana pool to deal with. Flamewood Tortoises were a good example. They had around 400 Cold resistance, 1,000 Heat resistance, and a whopping 30,000 health at level 15. They couldn’t climb trees, though, so they weren’t as much of a problem today as they had been yesterday. Rain and Ameliah had bypassed a half dozen of them already, judging them not worth the mana to bring down. Their goal was to see how far the jungle extended, not to fight their way through it.

As for plants and animals, the diversity of them put the monsters to shame, like something out of a nature documentary. The animals were small for the most part—snakes, birds, big-eyed rodents, that kind of thing. Clearly, the most effective survival strategy in the monster-infested jungle was avoidance, not confrontation. There had been nothing dangerous to a pair of awakened so far, with the only significant obstacle being one particularly angry bird.

About three hours into their journey, they’d run across a darkly-colored parrot-looking thing, normal-sized, but fearless, fierce, and utterly unconcerned for its own safety. It hadn’t taken kindly to them trying to cross near its nest and had kept dive-bombing them with such enthusiasm that Rain had needed to cover it with Force Ward so it didn’t hurt itself.

Ameliah had named it the ‘Valbird.’

Now, hours later, there were two new problems, unrelated to either animals or monsters.

First, Rain was starting to run low on iron tokens. Tallheart had minted hundreds of the things, but apparently, that hadn’t been enough. The jungle was even bigger than they’d thought. They would have to turn back soon unless they wanted to risk getting lost.

The second problem was that he was starving. He’d been ignoring his hunger for over an hour, too embarrassed to say anything given how much he’d already eaten. Now, however, the food hallucinations had finally grown too frequent to ignore, and he was being forced to admit that something was really, really wrong.

“Ameliah, stop,” he said, coming to a halt near where one of the large branches met the trunk of its tree. He didn’t feel up to tackling the gap to the next one.

“What is it?” Ameliah asked, already having made the jump.

“You didn’t bring any food, did you?”

Ameliah raised an eyebrow. “No, I didn’t. You said you had it taken care of.”

“I thought I did,” Rain said, shaking his head. “I packed lunch for two, but…I ate yours a few hours ago. Sorry.”

Ameliah snorted. “I thought I heard a suspicious amount of snacking back then. Those accolades are really getting to you, huh? Well, come on. Let’s head down, then. I’m hungry too. It shouldn’t be hard to find some fruit or something.”

“Meat,” Rain said with a shake of his head. The hunger was so bad, he was starting to feel a bit faint. “I need meat. I was trying to ignore it, but…”

“Idiot,” Ameliah said. “You should have said something sooner.”

Rain nodded. “I know.”

He looked away. He had been hungry before, and he knew what it felt like. Several times during the worst of his depression, he’d gone days without eating, once even for a whole week. The effort of going to the store to restock his fridge with frozen dinners had simply been too much. His eventual return to food had been prompted by routine rather than hunger. There were only so many days in a row he could call out sick without losing his job, and once he was back at work, the mechanical cycle of work, food, sleep would reassert itself.

That had been nothing like this.

He could honestly say that he’d never felt as hungry as he did right now. His body needed food. It was DEMANDING it. There was the physical side—cramps twisting his empty stomach in a way that his freakish pain tolerance did nothing to mitigate—and then, there was the mental side.

Hamburgers. Ribs. Bacon. Mmm.

No! Rain screwed his eyes shut, slamming a fist against the tree trunk.

He jumped as Ameliah laid her hand on his shoulder. He hadn’t heard her making her way back to him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Rain said, opening his eyes. “Just hungry. Really, really hungry.”

“You know, I don’t understand this,” Ameliah said, picking a leaf out of her hair. “Your stats aren’t that unbalanced. The accolades shouldn’t be affecting you this much.”

“They are,” Rain said, swallowing some saliva. Stupid memory. Stop reminding me of things I can’t have. He shook his head. “I should take them off.”

“Don’t,” Ameliah said. “You need as much health as you can get.”

“Do I really? I have my armor, and—“

“And you’ll still die if something bops you on the head,” Ameliah interrupted. “Hunger won’t kill you.”

“I don’t know,” Rain said, pressing his hands against his stomach. “I haven’t started losing health yet, but seriously, I think I might be dying. I can’t think about anything other than food.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Ameliah said with a sigh. “Fine, take them off, but put the 500 health ones on instead. The...Icy Cellar? That was the name, right?”

“Oh yeah,” Rain said, scratching at his ear. “I forgot about those.”

“You forgot?” Ameliah asked, raising an eyebrow. “You? Okay, this might be more serious than I thought. Swap them, then let’s go get you something to eat. What are you hungry for?”

“Everything,” Rain said honestly. Detection pulsed as part of its normal sequence, and he whipped his gaze to the ground, his eyes frantically searching for the source of the signal he’d felt. There! Convenient timing. He moved along the branch, lining himself up. It was a Fatbird, seemingly unaware of his presence. Dimly, he was aware of Ameliah saying something, but it wasn’t important. With no warning, he flung himself off the branch.

“Hey!” Ameliah shouted.

Rain didn’t respond. His eyes were locked onto his target.

Force Ward.

He crashed through a bush, then slammed heavily into the ground. The Fatbird squawked, whirling around to face him, but he paid its surprise no mind.

Refrigerate.

Cold brought death to the jungle, a curtain of frost expanding out from him in a shell. He turned to face his prey, letting the spell work as he broke himself free of the bush. Its branches snapped easily, the water inside freezing and splintering them apart. The Fatbird was charging for him now, but its steps were growing slower by the moment as it fought against the icy wind.

You have defeated [Scarlet Fatbird], Level 8
0 Experience Earned

Rain compressed the radius as he approached, melting away the snow that covered the dead or dying underbrush. Stopping next to the Fatbird, he crouched down, then reached for his belt knife.

With a crunch of snapping twigs, Ameliah landed beside him. “Rain, what the hells are you doing?”

“Hunting,” Rain said, pushing his spell higher. The dead foliage around him would start to burn soon. It was only Heat resistant due to the presence of Heat-aspect mana inside it. Immolate would eventually burn all of that up, and then it would be just like anything else. The Fatbird’s flesh was no different. Already, he could smell a delicious aroma as it started to cook.

He had to swallow again. He was drooling.

Ah, screw waiting until it’s done. I don’t have enough mana anyway. What’s the worst that could happen? Food poisoning? Hah, what a joke.

With his knife, he stabbed into the side of the bird, carving through the thick fat with some effort. Gripping the feathers on one side, he pulled, widening the gash and hacking a chunk of fat free from the organs within. Disgust warred with hunger as he dropped the knife, fumbling to remove his helmet.

Hunger won.

Immolate was actually decent for cooking. It raised the temperature of things evenly once the magic had had a chance to penetrate. It hadn’t had nearly enough time in this case, but Rain found that he couldn’t bring himself to care. He dropped his helmet, then grabbed the chunk of fat, lifting it to his mouth. I can deal with a bit of pink.

“Uh, Rain?” Ameliah said.

He didn’t look up, too consumed by the flavorful juices as they struck his tongue. The leaves around him were burning now, but he didn’t care. His mana ran out moments later, and Immolate stopped, but that didn’t matter either.

“Okay, no,” Ameliah said, laying her hand on his shoulder. “I’m fine with eating a little raw meat, but that’s basically just a lump of fat. I’m not squeamish, but…Rain, stop. You need to breathe. Rain?” She shook his shoulder roughly, but he shrugged her off. “Rain! Depths, what’s wrong with you?”

“So good!” Rain said, his mouth stuffed like a chipmunk’s. He wiped the blood away from his chin as he looked up at her, still chewing. The monster flesh, repugnant to him only yesterday, tasted practically divine. It was exactly what his body wanted.

“Rain, you’re scaring me,” Ameliah said.

Something in either her expression or her tone made it through to him. She looked…shaken. Using his precious moment of clarity, Rain fought against the hunger, swallowing his large mouthful with some difficulty. He forced himself to drop the chunk of half-cooked meat, though it went against every demand of his body. With the dregs of mana that he’d regenerated, he used Purify, cleaning the blood from his face and hands.

“I—“ he began, not sure what he was going to say, but before he could find out, a bestial roar reverberated through the jungle, vibrating the very leaves with its volume.

“Shit!” Ameliah swore, spinning around as she hunted for the source of the overwhelming sound. She turned back to see Rain with his hands pressed against the side of his head, a look of pain on his face. “Which way?” she asked, signing it as well in case his eardrums had actually ruptured. She was about to try again with Message when he pointed.

“There. Three of them.”

“Three of what?” Ameliah asked, following his finger.

He just shook his head.

“Shit,” she swore again. Thanks to Rain’s…episode, he was out of mana. She pointed at his feet. “Stay there!” she yelled. “Let me handle this!”

The snap of a branch whipped her head around, and she hurriedly worked to free herself of the coil of rope that was still slung over her shoulder. Through the trees, her eyes caught a flash of motion, and then seconds later, an enormous, hulking shape came into clear view. “Hababa!” she shouted in recognition, not needing the system to tell her the name. She’d never fought one, but she’d heard enough second-hand stories about the enormous, hairless apes to recognize them immediately—second-hand stories, because first-hand witnesses were dead, more often than not.

Hababas were reaper class. For their level, they were stronger, faster, tougher, and smarter than they had a right to be. This one was level nineteen and over four meters tall. Its grayish skin was stretched taut over its muscles as if its hide was two sizes too small. Each of its four arms was thicker than her entire torso, and its too-small head sat on a thick, stubby neck nestled between its four bulging shoulders. Two of its hands held weapons—tree-trunk clubs with stones lashed to the ends. It was using its other two arms for support as it barreled toward her, running on its knuckles and tearing through the underbrush like it wasn’t even there.

She had barely taken all this in before two more of the creatures appeared behind the first. They were both level nineteen as well, and every bit as large. One of them was unarmed, while the other had a colossal falchion gripped in one hand.

Okay, that’s bad. The sword was taller than she was.

“Why do they have weapons?!” Rain yelled, stumbling to his feet.

“Stay there!” Ameliah screamed at him, reaching for her skills. Fire surrounded her as Shrouded by Flame took hold. To catch the monsters’ attention, she lashed out with Firebolt, sending blast after blast as quickly as she could. Dealing damage wasn’t her goal; she just wanted their attention. With Quicken Evocation doubling her cast speed, she managed to get six shots off in three seconds as she sprinted away from Rain.

Her fire splashed harmlessly against the monsters, doing no damage, but from the feeling of her hair raising on the back of her neck, she knew that it had worked. The lead Hababa grunted furiously, making a sound much like the ones she and Rain had been imitating before, only so loud and deep that she felt it rattling her bones. No, it wasn’t just loud. It was an attack—some sort of skill, just not a strong one.

Shit, not strong by MY standards. I need to get them out of range of Rain. Fast.

She bit her tongue as her foot snagged on a vine, and it didn’t break immediately, not having been within the range of Rain’s aura. She kicked out, tearing it from the ground, then resumed her flight with much more difficulty thanks to the living underbrush. Just as she considered leaping for the branches, her eyes widened as the shadow of one of the Hababas passed over her. Apparently, the monsters had had the same idea.

She swerved, dodging the falchion and blasting the sword-wielding creature in the face with a Fireball for its trouble. It reared back, raising its arms defensively, and she was pleased to sense that its health had dropped, if only slightly. Good. Not too much Heat resistance. I can deal with this, even if there are three of them.

Turning, she sprinted through a gap between the trees, trusting her flaming cloak to protect her clothes from the thorns. The plants slowed her progress but couldn’t stop her, branches snapping and roots tearing from the ground as she forced her way through, just as the monsters had done before. She checked over her shoulder to make sure they were still following, and her eyes widened as she saw one of the tree-trunk clubs headed directly for her skull.

The defensive skill activated just in time, multiplying her Force resistance, itself already multiplied by her passives. Instead of a broken skull, she instead received only a few thousand damage and some assistance getting out of the underbrush. As she tumbled high through the air, she used Airwalk to push herself higher still, just in time to avoid a collision with a tree.

Well, that could have gone better.

Clenching her teeth, she used Airwalk again, giving herself some spin to bring her pursuers into view. A snap of her fingers lit all three of them up with a Triplicate Cast of Combustion. It didn’t do much in the way of damage, but the flames would blind them long enough for her to come up with something more potent. Completing her rotation, she searched along her trajectory until she spotted a branch within range, then kicked herself toward it. Her aim was off, and she hit it a bit low. Nevertheless, she managed to clamber atop it without falling.

Knowing she didn’t have time to look back, she leapt again immediately. She felt the wind of the falchion behind her back, and there was a thunk of metal striking wood, then a crack as the branch gave way. A surprised grunt from the monster was followed shortly by the sound of an impact as it crashed to the ground along with the severed limb.

Dodging an attempted swipe from the club-wielding Hababa, Ameliah guided herself to a higher branch, landing perfectly this time. She spun, searching for a target, then lobbed a Fireball at the sword-wielder, which was glaring up at her angrily. To her surprise, it blocked, moving the blade in the way of the flames and drawing them harmlessly into the metal.

Ameliah frowned. “Fine, then.” She kicked off the tree trunk, aiming for a large gap between the trees where there weren’t that many branches. The Hababas would have trouble following her, she hoped. Once she was more or less in the center of the gap, she jumped again, reversing her direction, then again, bouncing back and forth in free space. She’d seen people stand absolutely still with Airwalk before, but she knew that this would be the best she could manage. It would have to be enough.

As the monsters screamed at her from the closest branches, she began to chant. As with the frog yesterday, she used all of her metamagic, including Quicken Evocation. She didn’t have time to use an uncompressed incantation, even if it would have saved her a bit of mana.

“Tryrim mi-gon, fyr ji-hen. Tryrim mi-gon, fyr…”

Sweat dripped from her forehead as she kicked herself out of the way of one of the Hababas. Apparently, they could jump further than she thought. Somehow, she managed to keep her chant going, despite the disruption. The concentration required to keep control over Airwalk was growing by the minute, and trying to cast at the same time was basically insane. Had she not spent years of her life practicing exactly this kind of thing, she’d never have managed it.

Just as she finished the last syllable of her chant, she felt something wrap itself around her ankle, then jerk her sideways through the air. She whipped herself around, punching at the monster that had snagged her. As her knuckles made contact with its skull, she triggered the spell around her wrist, activating Brace with the same thought.

The Triplicate Fireball detonated immediately. The blast hit her harder than the club had, catapulting her straight up toward the canopy. Astoundingly—or not, given everything else so far—the monster she’d struck didn’t die. Instead, its health was merely quartered. It crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.

These things are ridiculous.

Feeling a breeze on her skin as she neared the top of her arc, she looked down at her foot. Beneath her protective flames, her boot was gone, along with her pantleg below the knee. She clicked her tongue, then somersaulted, kicking with her bare foot to retake control of her trajectory. Interestingly, her footing felt a bit more certain than it had through her boot. She filed the revelation away for later, being a bit busy at the moment.

The club-wielding Hababa had clambered after her, and it had just launched itself at her from a nearby tree. She dodged easily, predicting its trajectory. She was getting a feel for their capabilities now. Letting herself fall back into free space, she began chanting again, intent on repeating her previous technique. Her eyes found the sword-wielder, which was hanging from a branch and watching her with disturbing intelligence.

She didn’t like that.

Just because they were monsters, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to predict her the same way she was predicting them.

Once her spell was ready, she launched it, but as she had feared, the monster had learned. With a massive show of strength, it flung itself up over the projectiles, too quickly for Guide Sending to track. It flipped itself over in midair, then kicked off a tree trunk with both feet, sending its sword straight toward her stomach like a bolt from a ballista.

Once more, she dodged, relying on her bare foot and the improved control it gave her. Here’s something new for you. As the Hababa passed beneath her, she dropped a blob of magma on its back.

Magma Catapult was hard to aim at the best of times, but the monster had come close enough to touch, making it difficult to miss. She didn’t wait to see how effective the spell was. Instead, she spun herself around and kicked herself into a dive for the ground. She shot straight past the surprised club-wielder, heading toward the injured Hababa instead, which was only now picking itself up.

“Tryrim fyr ji-hen! Tryrim fyr ji-hen! Tryrim fyr ji-hen!”

The triple Fireball struck the monster before it even realized it was under attack, and the last of its health vanished. Without Overcharge, the force of the blast wasn’t strong enough to arrest her momentum, and she elected to just touch down rather than waste more stamina on Airwalk.

That’s one.

Looking up to face the remaining two monsters, she calmly resumed her chant. It would take them a bit to get all the way back down here. Soon enough, the pair landed, one heavy thump after the other, and she raised her arm. They shied back, and she smiled as she fired. Her target managed to get out of the way, but that was fine. She had their measure now, and she had already started chanting again. The monsters, of course, came for her eventually, but she was able to take advantage of her smaller size and better maneuverability to keep ahead of them, even on the ground. With only two of them to deal with, things had become much more manageable.

After a few more misses, she finally landed a good hit on the one with the clubs, but the sword-wielder prevented her from finishing it off. She had to dodge away from its attempt to bisect her, which ended with its sword lodged half-way through the trunk of one of the massive trees.

Winded, Ameliah fell back. Chanting wasn’t the best thing to be using when you were running all over the place. Breathing was important.

The Hababas, meanwhile, appeared to be struggling. One was on fire, and the other was finding itself unable to free its blade from the tree. After a few seconds, the one with the sword used its sonic roar, though she was sure it knew by now that it was harmless to her. It slammed its fist furiously into the tree, then spun, abandoning its weapon as it rushed her.

That suited her just fine. She’d already begun chanting again. Waiting for the perfect moment, she leapt straight up, then stepped on its head with her still-booted foot as she took aim at the still-flaming club-wielder. Her spell struck true, killing it instantly.

Ameliah landed in a crouch on a branch, allowing herself a smile as she looked down on the final monster, the one she’d just used as a springboard.

I think I’m getting the hang of this Airwalk thing. One left.

Her satisfaction didn’t last, as she realized that the Hababa was doing something new. Instead of racing after her, it had begun to…dance. There was no other word for it—two stomps, then two fists slammed against the ground, then the other against its chest, then a roar. It began to repeat the sequence, and Ameliah frowned. She activated Mana Sight fully, then cursed.

What is this horseshit? It can cast too?!

The hairless ape kept dancing, building up speed as she watched. With one last mighty roar, it stood to its full height, raising all four arms over its head. Shimmering emerald flames sprang to life in its palms, and it locked its burning eyes onto her.

Unfortunately for the Hababa, Ameliah hadn’t let her surprise distract her from her own preparations. She had no interest in finding out what its magic did. Her Triplicate Magma Catapult descended on the stationary target like a tidal wave, swallowing it completely beneath blinding magma. Moments later, there was a puff of green fire from below the molten surface, making a pathetic burping noise.

After ten seconds, the magma vanished, the spell’s duration expiring, but not before the molten rock had done its work. The Hababa’s health wasn’t fully drained, but it was close enough. It dropped to its knees, then collapsed, dead, its skin completely burned away.

“Woah,” Ameliah said, laying her hand against the tree trunk to steady herself. She canceled Shrouded by Flame, in dire need of some cool air. Her heart was beating hard, and she was drenched in sweat.

I haven’t been in a fight that tough for years, not counting… She aborted that thought, wincing at the memory.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead, which was starting to throb with a headache. Okay, those lived up to their reputation. That was a lot of mana I had to use. If there’s more, we’re in trouble. She shook her head, then sent Rain a Message. [I lost track of you. Make some noise.]

“Over here!” Rain shouted, his voice more distant than she’d expected. “I’m fine! There’s nothing else in range!”

Ameliah closed her eyes in relief. She let herself slide down the tree trunk until she was sitting on the branch. [Good. We’re heading back. We shouldn’t have come out here without Tallheart.]

“Are you okay?” Rain called.

Ameliah smiled. [I’m fine. Just a little tired. My boot died, though.]

“What?” Rain yelled. “Hang on, I’m coming to you!”

Ameliah shook her head. [No. Finish eating if you haven’t. We won’t have time to stop on the way back, and I’m not carrying you if you faint.]

“Okay!” Rain yelled after a moment’s pause. “Don’t forget to loot the bodies! I want that sword!”

Ameliah smiled but didn’t reply. Rain had no idea how close that had been, and she wasn’t sure if she should tell him.

Soon, the heat of the battle began to fade, and her smile faded with it.

Just what is going on with him, anyway? I thought he was just exaggerating about how hungry he was, but it was like he was…an animal or something. She shook her head, then activated Purify to start cleaning up the mess. I’m starting to think he might just be a magnet for trouble. Broken souls. Plate hunters. Accolade shenanigans. Three depths-cursed level nineteen reapers in a rank-fifteen zone… She snorted. I sure can pick them, can’t I?