Chapter Eighty-Nine — Down to Earth
Chapter Eighty-Nine — Down to Earth Three bursts of Insight did... nothing to help. There were still three wyverns hovering just above the pillars filling the room. Where had the other two come from?It was only when I ducked to avoid one of them that I noticed the black mark on its side. A mark left when Amaryllis blasted the original Wyvern. A mark that I quickly noticed on the other two dragon-like beasties. “Ah,” I said. An illusion then? Or a power that allowed the wyvern to split apart into copies of itself? I was thinking the former, we had seen some illusion stuff in this dungeon already, it made sense that the boss would have something similar going for it.Which meant that we had to pick out the real wyvern and bring it down. Somehow. I crouched down, trying to make myself unnoticeable as I looked from one wyvern to the next. I shifted my grip on my spade, hands sweaty and nervous. The three all looked the same, that is, until one of the wyverns shifted and started casually flying my way and I noticed something sticking out of its chest.One of Awen’s crossbow bolts. The other two didn’t have the same mark on them.“Gotcha,” I said before jumping up and above the wyvern.The monster shifted, its mouth opening wide even as it turned in mid air to get a better angle to chomp me with. Eyes widening, I watched twin rows of serrated glass teeth closing down around me.There was no changing direction in mid-air. I brought my spade around, placing it vertically in the wyvern’s mouth just as it started to close its mouth. The wood strained, and I heard a very distressing crack. I was a little busy placing my feet on either side of the wyvern’s mouth to really wince at the damage my trusty spade was taking.My hand shot out and I grabbed the wyvern’s nostril and used it to pull myself up and out of its mouth.The moment I was out of the monster’s jaws, and clamped around its face like a very rude limpet, there was a loud crunch.I whipped my head around as I saw the head of my spade, with about half a foot of torn handle, fly past. My spade! “Rude!” I declared as I tightened my grip on the wyvern’s face. To be fair, riding someone’s face was probably a little rude on my part too, but I think a tiny bit of hypocrisy might be allowable in my situation. I balled my hand into a fist and punched the wyvern in the eye. Its head shifted, almost throwing me off as it shut its golden eye and rumbled deep in its throat. It took in a deep breath, its chest expanding and beginning to glow in a way that I did not like. “Oh no, you won’t,” I said. For all my threats though, there wasn’t too much I could actually do. So I decided to do my best. Pulling my knife out of my bandoleer, I held it out and jabbed it into the wyvern’s eye. The steel edge clinked off the glass eye, but it still left a crack and the wyvern roared in displeasure. Then it rolled over and I squeaked as the world spun around. We were heading straight at one of the larger pillars. I put two and two together and came to a result that I didn’t like, not one bit.I screamed as the wyvern lowered its head and prepared to headbutt the pillar Bun-first. My foot caught on one of the scally ridges on its face, but just as I tried to jump it slipped on the glassy surface.Terror made my breath catch. If I couldn’t place my feet, then I couldn’t jump. You needed legs to jump.Did I need legs to jump?It was with a startled squeak that I launched myself off of the wyvern’s face with a shove of my arms that tossed me a dozen feet into the air. Below me, the dragon-like beastie crashed into the pillar with a sound like a bull charging a china shop.I twisted in midair like a very confused cat to land on my feet with a scuff of shoes on rough ground. I was panting, heart beating in my throat as I watched the wyvern slam into the ground just a few meters away. It had a few cracks running across its snout and sternum. The beastie had done more damage to itself than we had managed so far.It turned golden eyes my way, eyes that were not pleased.I ‘eeped’ and rolled behind a pillar as its head snapped out and tried to chomp on me. I had just gotten to my feet when the wyvern came around the corner, walking on the middle joints of its huge wings like some sort of nightmare pterodactyl.The wyvern stomped after me, and like a mouse with a cat on her tail, I ran and weaved into the pillars to try and find some sort of safety.That’s when I ran past the girls. “Run!” I yelled.Awen started running right away with her backpack bouncing along behind her, but Amaryllis took a moment to blink at me, then looked towards the Wyvern. She said some very rude and not-kid-friendly words as she took off.“Split at the next junction,” I said.”Hit it from the sides. Get the wings!” I panted between steps.“Awa!” Awen agreed. “Idiot!” Amaryllis also agreed.They split off to either side when we passed between two pillars and I kept moving in a straight line, wyvern snapping at my backside.Amaryllis fired off a spell with a whip-crack and a burst of brilliant light, and I heard the ‘twang’ of Awen’s crossbow going off. The Wyvern roared.You have heard the screech of a fearsome creature! Your soul is shaken.My feet both independently decided to go in different directions for a moment and I flopped onto the ground with an ungainly thump. I shook my head, then looked over my shoulder to see glinting glass teeth rushing towards my head.Rolling to the side, I avoided becoming half a Bun by a hair. The wyvern didn’t appreciate missing out on its lunch and tried to stomp me down with a wing.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.I rolled the other way. My position wasn’t exactly sustainable, and it came to a head when the wyvern snapped at me again. It missed, but just barely. Still, its head was now really close.Coiling up my legs to my chest, I kicked out as hard as I could and winced as a painful thud ran through my legs. The wyvern’s head snapped up.Taking my chance, I rolled backward and got onto the balls of my feet, then shot straight up and into the air. I came down hard atop the beastie’s noggin.Its head crashed down into the ground with a crunch.And just like that, I was nearly spent. I landed awkwardly to the side and stumbled over towards the nearest pillar in order to hide.The wyvern was having none of that. It turned its head my way, opened its mouth, and from its roiling gut came a blast of dusty glass.I covered my eyes, cleaning magic blasting out towards the breathy attack to push it back. It worked, but wasn’t sustainable. Mana 48/115The wyvern paused for just a moment. I thought I was safe, then its attack redoubled and it started to stomp its way closer to me faster than I could backpedal.Mana 37/115My back bumped into one of the pillars.Mana 24/115My cleaning magic wasn’t catching all of the dusty glass, some of it scoured across my feet or flowed around after hitting the pillar behind me.Mana 12/115I took a deep breath and got ready to bounce away as soon as my faltering defences fell.A beam of pure electrical energy rammed the wyvern in the joint between its body and wings. Glass turned red. The wing folded in on itself and the boss crashed to the ground.Then a blue blur shot out from behind the pillar. “Don’t, don’t hurt my Broccoli!” Awen screamed as she practically flew at the wyvern’s head. She had something long and brown in one hand that she placed right between the wyvern’s eyes, then her hammer came racing down.A dull snap echoed out across the room. Cracks racked out from the wyvern’s forehead.Its glowing eyes glared, then turned dull and whatever spark of magic lit them from within faded.The wyvern’s legs collapsed lifelessly, bringing the entire boss down with a thump that made the ground tremble.I panted, arms slowly lowering from where I had held them up while casting. Awen was no better, her breathing coming in sharp inhales and exhales.I laughed, relief warring with the dregs of adrenaline. I wanted to laugh for the rest of my life, or at least the evening. I also had a terrible urge to hug Awen, so I ambled over to her on shaky legs. “It’s dead?” I asked.The wyvern’s unmoving head seemed to suggest as much, so did the wooden Wand of Cure Hysteria jutting out of its forehead.Ding! Ding! Ding! Congratulations, you have defeated Dungeon Boss: The Stained Wyvern of Mirrored Paths level 11! For defeating an enemy above your level, bonus exp is gained! For defeating a Dungeon boss, bonus exp is gained! Due to combating as a team your reward is reduced!“Haha! We did it!” “Awa,” Awen said.I glomped her. “You did it! I thought I was a goner there!”“Awa!” Awen said. She blinked at me, then carefully wrapped her arms around mine and placed her head in the crook of my neck. The poor thing, she must have been terrified at the end there, so I hugged her extra hard to make up for it. Dungeon Cleared! All adversaries with The Path of Endless Reflections Defeated.All Bosses DefeatedBroccoli Bunch, Cinnamon bun, level 8 is awarded the Glass Cannon class.All class slots filled.Replace current class with Glass Cannon?Replacing your current class will reset your level 0.I laughed and squeezed Awen one last time before stepping back.Amaryllis walked over to us just as the Wyvern started to break apart and fade away. Her eyes were glossed over a little. “Well, we survived,” she said. “The experience hasn’t... ah, there we are.”Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun class has reached level 9!Stamina +5Flexibility +5You have gained: One Class Point“Oh! I levelled up!” I said.Amaryllis nodded, then she gave us a brilliant smile. “As did I.”“Awa, me, me too. I’m... level ten. Whaa, I didn’t think I would reach this level for a long time.” She stared down at her hands, then a magnificent smile spread across her lips. A smile so big and wide it made her cheeks pinch and her eyes crinkle at the corners. “Thank you, Broccoli!” she said before crashing into me for a big hug.“Hey, no problem!” I said. “You saved my behind back there, you know!”Awen pulled her head back a little, her arms still wrapped around mine. “S-still, th-thank you!” she said. Then she pecked me on the cheek before pulling back with a red-faced ‘awa.’I smiled right back. “Cool! Does this mean you both have class evolutions?” I asked.“I suppose it does,” Amaryllis said. Her eyes were unfocused as she stared at what was probably her own version of Mister Menu. “I have some of the standard evolutionary paths available. Ah, and I’ve unlocked more general skill slots, of course.”“Sweet! Do you know what you’ll take?” I wondered. I looked around for a place to sit down and relax a little, now that the fight was over. “I thought I did, but some of these options are... intriguing. We’ll have to see. I’m not in any hurry.”“Ah, I... I have one that’s strange,” Awen said. “I... think I might take it.”“I’m sure you’ll pick the right thing,” I said as I basked in the combined glow of levelling up, of beating a tough fight, and of having awesome friends. Today was a good day.
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Chapter Ninety — Cleanup
Chapter Ninety — Cleanup The girls were busy staring off into empty air with vacant expressions. I wondered if I looked as dumb while looking at Mister Menu. I would ask, but Amaryllis would just tell me that I looked dumb regardless, and Awen was too sweet to tell the truth if it might hurt my feelings. “I’m gonna look for my stuff,” I said. I had to find my backpack, what was left of my spade, and my knife. The latter had disappeared at some point during the fight with the wyvern but I couldn’t remember when. Walking around the pillars was a little strange when there wasn’t a big dragon-like monster waiting to chow on me. It gave me more time to stare at all the pretty ways the light bounced off of the glass and sent little rainbows all over.I found my knife first. There was a chip in the blade, but it was probably still serviceable. Then I found my spade.Sighing, I picked up the bent metal head by the half-dozen centimeters of handle still stuck to it. It was rather finished. I rubbed a thumb over the J embossed on its surface. It had served me well. Maybe I could get someone to repair it? Then I wandered over to the entrance and found my backpack unceremoniously dumped to the side. Orange was guarding it. Or maybe she was using it as a pillow. It was hard to tell when the spirit cat was slumped on her side over the sack, her sides moving up and down with gentle breathing.I stared at her for a moment. Had she gotten bigger?“Heya Orange,” I said as I wrapped my hands around her waist and lifted her up. Her body slinked down like the liquid it was. “You are getting bigger!” I declared.Orange stared at me, her little legs sticking out ahead of her like someone who had just watched Thriller and was doing the zombie dance. Or maybe someone that wanted a hug? I pressed her against my chest until she started clawing and squirming. Setting the kitty down with a giggle, I picked up my backpack, tossed my spade into it, then shrugged it on. “Let’s go see the others,” I said. I skipped back in time to find Amaryllis staring at her talons which were sparking with magic. She had a strange look on her face, a cross between curiosity and smugness. “Ah, you’re back,” she said.Awen smiled wide at me. “I have a new class!” she said. “T-two of them.”“Two of them?” I wondered.She nodded. “I reached level ten. Um. I decided to take the Glass Cannon class as my second. It seems nice!” “Oh,” I said. “I can have that one too, right?” I asked.Amaryllis nodded. “It should be available for you once you hit your tenth level, yes. I’m going to wait until we reach the Palace of Strings. Glass Cannon doesn’t seem like a class that will mesh well with my current, evolved class.” “Oh, so what are your new classes?” I asked. It was really easy to get swept up in the excitement. It was like learning that your friends had gotten cool new toys. “Awa, I’m a Wyrmgineer now,” Awen said with obvious pride. “I, I never heard of the class, but it’s an offshoot of Mechanic. I... the description for it is not very precise, but it sounds strong.”“Anything with something draconic in its title will probably be formidable,” Amaryllis said. “Did it change any of your skills?”I blinked. “Skills change when your class evolves?”Amaryllis nodded. “Sometimes.”“Awa, my Book Smart skill changed to Bookwyrm. Ah, the description used to be about it helping me read and remember things I read, but now it, ah, lets me sniff out the value of books? And... If I sleep on a pile of books I absorb some of the knowledge?” Amaryllis tilted her head to the side. “I’ll admit, I’m not sure if that’s an improvement or not.”Awen shrugged.“I have some books you can, ah, sleep on,” I said. That was a bit strange, but maybe it would come in handy? “What about you, Amaryllis?”Amaryllis’ chest puffed out and she placed her hands on her hips. “I’ve unlocked the exceptionally rare Thundere class.”My teeth clacked as I shut my mouth, tightened my jaw, and tried hard not to laugh.I suspect my eyes betrayed me because Amaryllis glared right back at me. “What are you smiling about, you idiot?”A snort escaped and I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep it in. “Nothing!” I lied. “You moron. You have no idea how rare that class is. It lets me branch out into more offensive spells. My Thunder Clap skill, which was mostly a sound based distraction and stun, has turned to Thunder Slap, and Electro Stimulus has turned to Electro-Couragement.”I giggled. Amaryllis snapped her talons together and a tiny spark zapped me in the forehead.“Oww!” I complained as I rubbed the spot in the middle of my head she had buzzed. It didn’t hurt much more than licking a battery did, but it was still very rude.“Serves you right for being such a fool,” Amaryllis said. She brushed her wings off and nodded to herself. “If we’re all done looking at our numbers going up, I think we should get going.”I pouted, but she was essentially right. “Yeah. Did the Wyvern drop any loot?” “Awa, I didn’t look,” Awen said.We started heading towards the middle of the room, taking our time as we went to scour the ground for anything valuable. Personally I was looking for a replacement to my spade. Instead, we found a pair of goggles.Awen held them up by their leather straps and looked into the mirrored glass eyepieces. Enchanted Prismatic Goggles of Magic Seeing, of rare quality, new.“Now those are nice,” Amaryllis said as she gestured for the goggles. Awen handed them over without protest. The harpy slid them on and looked around, then she frowned a bit before a grin crossed her features. “Ah, you need to push mana into them. It’s not a passive enchantment.”“What’s it do?” I asked.She took them off and handed them over instead of answering.Holding the goggles to my face, I stared at... a completely normal world. There wasn’t any difference from looking around normally. Then I pushed a bit of mana into the goggles. Amaryllis and Awen both started glowing, most of all, some of their equipment started to glow. Amaryllis’ ring and dagger especially, each with a swirl of different colours I couldn’t guess at. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.Pushing some mana into my hand made it glow too, not that it didn’t already glow a bit.“Neat,” I said. “I guess this one is for Amaryllis, she’s our caster.”“I wouldn’t say no to it,” Amaryllis said.“Awa, I got a crossbow and a knife. I think Amaryllis should have it too.”My harpy friend slid the goggles on, then let them fall to rest around her neck. “Well, let’s get out of this place.”I nodded, then remembered why we were here in the first place. Pruning the EvilYou have heard of the location of a corrupted dungeon. Explore it, find any signs of great Evil. Eradicate them! We hadn’t seen any signs of evil, great or otherwise. But, if this dungeon was anything like the Wonderland dungeon in Threewells, then there was a good chance that the trouble would be centred around the dungeon’s core. “We need to find the access thing to the dungeon core,” I said.Amaryllis stopped and eyed me. “Broccoli, it’s... kind of a faux-pas to enter a dungeon’s core room.”I shrugged. “It’s for my quest? And besides, dungeons are made by the world, right?”“That’s the prevailing theory, yes.”“And the world gave me a quest to check out this dungeon, yeah?”She nodded. “That’s fair, I suppose.”Grinning, I skipped ahead of her and made for the middle of the boss room. Just as in the Wonderland dungeon, there was a circle of pillars here, each one equidistant with an open space in the centre. Two of the pillars had portals floating within them. One showed a hazy image of the outside world. I could see Moon Moon sprawled out on a rock, fast asleep with one leg twitching as if he was chasing something in his dreams. The moon’s light bathed the glassy valley in soft blues and pale whites.The other portal...My heart sank.There was the familiar egg-shaped core, all shiny and glowy atop a glassy plinth. The core room was brightly lit, and quite pretty, with mirrored walls and lacy bits of glass running across the ground. But there were cracks in those walls, the ceiling was warped, and worst of all, a long, tentacle-like root was sticking out of the wall and wrapped around the core.“Oh no,” I said. Quest Update!Pruning the EvilYou have found an Evil Root. Destroy it to Cleanse the Land!“That’s strange,” Amaryllis said.I swallowed. “It’s an Evil Root. My quest updated. It wants me to destroy it.”Amaryllis stared at me. “Seriously? It’s right next to the core.”“I know,” I said. “Cleaning magic might work on it?” She frowned. “As long as you don’t so much as scratch the core, I don’t suppose it’s that bad,” she said.I nodded. “I guess we can try.” I took off my backpack and handed it to Awen who hugged it close. “Watch over my stuff, please?” I asked before stepping up to the portal.As with the last one, walking through it was as easy as... well, walking through a normal doorway. If it was some sort of teleportation, then it was really smooth.The core room was suffused with magic. I could feel it in the air, taste it, almost. My affinity for magic had definitely improved since the last time I’d been in a room like that. The core itself was bright and shiny and it felt... nice? No, not nice. I had the impression that it was pushing off this sense of calm serenity, almost a physical emotion that tinged the air like a perfume. It was a bit strange, but not unpleasant. The root, on the other hand, looked wrong. There was an indescribable sense that it didn’t belong, that it was in a place it shouldn’t be. The dimensions of it were also... off. One moment it seemed like the sort of thin root that occasionally poked out of the ground, the next it looked as if there was so much weight to it, that it should have been taking up more room than was available in the room. It made my tummy queasy.I reached out to the root and carefully placed a hand against it. I had a lot more ranks to my cleaning magic now, and I was stronger besides. I fired a small burst of cleaning magic into the root. Nothing happened. That was to be expected. My next hit was stronger still. Nothing again.Frowning, I looked at my stats in a hurry.Mana 272/115I focused on my cleaning skill and tried to imagine a sort of... blade of cleaning magic, something that could cut through the root’s defences. More and more mana poured into a powerful cleaning spell until I was almost running out. I fired. A burst of brilliant light shot out of my hand and rammed into the root hard enough to make the room tremble.Nothing.“Dang it!” Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Cleaning skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!Rank A Costs 3 Class Skill Points!“Oh,” I said.Well, Cleaning had been pretty close to ranking up for a while. And I had been saving up my skill points for just that occasion. CleaningRank A -00%The ability to Clean. You are exceptionally good at tidying up and washing off. Effectiveness of cleaning is marginally increased. You may now use mana to clean things you see. You are so clean that the world around you shifts to match your cleanliness.I paused for a moment, wondering what that last bit meant. Did I have an aura of clean now? That was neat. Pun marginally intended.“How is it going?” Amaryllis asked as she stepped into the room. Her voice was pitched low and almost... reverent. It was very much unlike her self-assured, snobby drawl. Awen followed after her, still hugging my pack close to her chest. She stared around with open-mouth-wonder.“It’s... going,” I said. “I want to try Clean again. Then maybe we can try cutting at this thing with a knife or something.”Amaryllis eyed the root with lips that curled up. “That won’t work. The knife idea. That thing, whatever it is, is a mana construct of some sort. It’s going to be fairly resistant to physical blows. More so than magic.”I hummed. “Well, we can try anyway.”Raising my hand up, I prepared to give it my all.
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