150. The Catacombs (IV)

It was a surprisingly good harvest. He never expected that many A-rank treasures in one go.

They'd reached the top of the hill. From here you could see the Faction splayed out all around the Los Angeles valley, twinkling lights dotting darkened bumps stretching into the murky distance. The jagged silhouettes of mountains poked up in the distance.

There was a set of staircases at the very top of the hill made of old stone like something out of an Egyptian temple. Thick rivers of mist flowed out of it. It led straight down to who knew where. But it was sealed off—they had to clear the rest of the floor first.

The other side of the hill was much mistier, haunted by drifting ghosts that moaned and groaned as they shifted about. They wore rusted collars around their necks and thick chains around their ankles, like they'd been prisoners in some past life.

𝕄𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟙𝟛

These things didn't have physical bodies—no fists this time. Zane went at them with Stormfire; it was overkill—one flicker of it roasted them whole, burned up that weird ectoplasm in a flash. They died, mouths stretched wide open, howling with unearthly screeches. It sounded like shrill night winds.

Reina followed close behind. There wasn't much of a chance for her to do anything, which was fine. She'd proved all she had to as far as he was concerned.

He'd take it from here.

They powered down the hill. Zane threw a few more Smashes. By then, Stormfire was roasting half the hill. It even burned on the mists, swallowing them up—and when it met a Specter it jumped from the physical world to the astral. And swallowed them up too.

Pretty soon they reached the second boss. Its lair was a flat clearing where no mists dared go. It stood there silent, flickering, waiting.

𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕪𝕤𝕚𝕦𝕤, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕆𝕟𝕖 (𝔸)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟚𝟚

A mass of tattered black robes. Chains drifted from its wrists, circled its neck. It had long locks of greasy black hair floating on the air.

When it saw them, it opened its maw. And out came a screech so sharp you could see the sound waves twisting the air—most of it came half-seen, through the astral plane. But Reina was on it. She cast a shield right over Zane that ate it right up—even the soul stuff.

One Smash later it was nothing but mist and echoes.

They found a few treasure areas around there—bubbling pools of Milky white liquid.

𝕊𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖 (𝔸)

They seem to work like the Soul Sauna's waters. Reina was very pleased with the find—she loved these renewable resource treasure areas. They could be used to upgrade the whole Faction, she explained. After they finished up here, she'd get her people to come down here and set up a bottling plant. Her eyes were bright. She said something about supply chains and distribution, nodding with satisfaction. This kind of thing was catnip for her.

So far, things were going much more smoothly than Zane had expected. At this rate, they'd run through the dungeon.

They made for the second floor, went down the ancient staircase. They descended into a musty labyrinth. Torches studded the walls, casting islands of warm orange light through the gloom. The mini-map looked like a maze.

The stone here was so weathered it looked like a canyon wall. It had a certain aura to it that only ancient things did, things that had seen the rise and fall of civilizations. Strange symbols marked up the walls like cave paintings. The mists went up to their knees. They fountained out from here down the rest of the hill. Deep groans and growls echoed down the tunnels…

Soon, they met their first second-floor Monster.

𝕌𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝔸𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕪𝕥𝕖 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟚𝟘

It wore a tattered black cloak; its faces were lost in the cowls. Its skin was drawn so tight over its thin, dwarf-like bodies it was translucent. It seemed about as strong as the first-floor bosses, which was something of a surprise. Levels didn't jump that fast in B-rank dungeons.

For weapons, it had an ashen staff crowned with gemstones veined purple. It let out a piercing shriek. And darkness came blasting out at him.

Reina's shield could barely hold it off. With her Laws and Levels right now, blocking an attack 15 Levels above seemed about her limit.

Which was fine as far as the aim was concerned. They just needed to pump up her Levels. In the meantime—he was curious.

"Let it hit me," he said. "I want to see your healing."

She hesitated but nodded. The shield fell—and a tide of dark wind washed over him.

He took it point-blank, bare. The foreign essence broke against his skin at first. Then it started creeping in. It felt like a wet blanket seeping under his skin, making everything murky, making it hard to breathe.

Then he felt a warm rush take him from behind. It was Reina's Signature Skill—in that moment, their souls felt so close they nearly connected. It was even closer than Sage Mind. Her worry, her warmth, her sheer affection for him came pouring through. It was a lot—almost overwhelming at first. He blinked.

…She really liked him. He knew this, but somehow it was still surprising to feel it.

His Health started ratcheting up too. His whole body felt felt alive, like every cell of him started to sing; a grass-green glow came over him. It paired quite well with his Stormfire Renewal. The two of them ran into that dark tide—and shoved it straight back. For a few seconds, he just stood there. Taking a Level 120 Monster's best shot. His Health just wasn't going down.

Huh.

This was a nice surprise—her healing Skill was even stronger than he'd expected. It was the single strongest healing Skill he'd ever seen, come to think of it. He told her to just focus on that for now. She could throw in Shields if he really needed it. She nodded.

That was that experiment over. Now he had no more use for this Monster.

His fist lit up with Stormfire.

He wound it back—and punched.

The thing didn't even have time to scream. It went up in a flash of blinding light. It was dead before it knew what hit it. Stormfire exploded from his fist, eager and hungry. But its prey was already eaten, so it just kept going—rocketing down the labyrinth, following the curves of its walls. For a few seconds, the path ahead was just a two-dimensional square of stark blue-white.

Zane had seen eight or nine red dots scattered about the next couple of hundred feet of tunnel. When the light faded, so did they.

He and Reina went on their merry way.

Another thing about these A-Rank dungeons—he was surprised at how plentiful they were. Twenty feet down, he found a treasure chest sunk into the wall. It had an A-rank treasure called a 'Bottle of Soul Essence (A)'—a bottle of distilled life force, apparently. It tasted like honey, but lighter. He drank until he couldn't anymore, then gave it to Reina. It shifted and swirled in his belly, digesting until—

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟙𝟠 -> 𝟙𝟙𝟡

Reina gained another Level too. Not long after that, they stumbled across another treasure chest. This one had an A-Rank partial Inheritance from a sub-Faction of the 'Thousand Seas Tribe'. If they shopped it around to the other top Factions they probably get a good deal of money for it. Well—Reina could, anyway. She pocketed it.

He blasted a few more Undead Acolytes. Then they came across another treasure chest—this one with 30 Credits for the Merchant's Guild.

They went about a mile in space. Zane easily cleared everything that came in their path. And in the meantime, the treasures just kept coming. Yet another had 20 high-grade Essence Stones. Another A-rank essence treasure, a 'Golden Apple of Yzeltal (A)'. Then another 30 high-grade Essence Stones.

He and Reina just kept taking them in. There was enough A-rank essence treasures for them to be digesting the whole time down there.

He wondered if this kind of abundance was the case with all A-Rank dungeons. If so, top World Rankers should really be clamoring to raid these things. Why hadn't he heard about this before?

Then again—so few had been raided so far information on them was probably pretty sparse. And you could probably count on one hand the number of people who could just breeze through it like he could. Even Top-50 World Rankers usually made teams to tackle these—and so far most that tried didn't come back.

Before all that training in the Asura Hell Array—and the sheer Law Growth he'd done at VGI—he would've been hard-pressed to take these on too. It spoke to the work and treasures he'd put in these last few weeks. He was reaping the rewards.

Now that the testing phase was over and he'd taken charge, Reina was a lot less stressed too. She was looking around, wondering at the symbols on the walls. She started talking about how they reminded her of heiroglyphics, then rattled off a few interesting facts about them. She hadn't done any research in particular. She'd just learned these facts 16 years ago on a vacation to the British Museum as a girl, and remembered them. She started comparing this labyrinth to a recreation of a tomb she'd seen back then. She still remembered the layout, because of course she did.

Zane nodded. He kept sneaking glances at her as she spoke, all curious and bright-eyed and fascinated. God she was so smart. She could make anything sound interesting. He could listen to her teach him things forever.

She told him he was a good listener a lot, but she was doing most of the work. Really he just sat there and asked questions every once in a while—it really wasn't hard to be interested when she was the one talking.

Soon the tunnel widened out into a chamber. It looked like a dungeon. Grimy chains hung from the ceiling, slowly swaying; the walls were beaten sandstone stained with blood. And at the center of it—

𝕃𝕚𝕔𝕙 𝕃𝕠𝕣𝕕 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟛𝟞

A pale, misshapen creature hidden in a black cloak so haggard it was almost a skeleton. It let out a hissing, snakelike sound; it raised a ruby staff—

Zane didn't even bother letting it get a shot off.

Two Stormfire Smashes crashed over it, one after another. He wasn't sure he killed it at first; for a few seconds, it was too bright to tell. Then he got the notification—

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟙𝟡 -> 𝟙𝟚𝟘

Even Level 130s were pretty much nothing to him now—especially after those last few Skill Levels he'd gotten after clearing the Hell Array. Apocalypse Smash was now nearly a high level Skill. These things might've had a Level advantage, but his Law and Skill advantage was just too much.

By now, he wasn't even thinking about this like a dungeon anymore. More like a fun little treasure hunt he was doing with Reina. Almost like a date. He'd gotten all they'd set out to figure out—they'd tested Reina's skills. And their teamwork—it was just as good as it'd been all those months ago. Reina just got it. She got everything right—no reminders needed. She could heal him when she needed to or help take the edge off hard shots. He didn't need to think about anything but sheer offense; with her by his side, he could barrel his way through everything.

So he did. After he blasted a dozen or so Monsters without taking a scratch, all the tension had gone out of Reina. She wasn't stressed or worried or constantly thinking about everything anymore. She just started enjoying herself.

It was like they were solving one of those autumn corn mazes together. The only annoying thing about the place was how complex it all was—it was literally a labyrinth. Zane circled back the same way thrice on accident without even realizing it.

The next time—"Let me lead for now?" Reina suggested. He nodded. She came up to him, took his arm, and strode forward with confidence—and things went much smoother. She remembered exactly where they'd been and every room they'd been in too. Including every stretch of wall. They all looked the same to Zane, but not to her. She caught every little scratch. Even when the mini-map went out of scope, she had a copy of that section in her head.

Something about watching her work like this made him feel all warm. He couldn't explain it.

They walked together almost leisurely. She took the navigating, he took the smashing. Whenever a red dot came up he chucked a Stormfire Smash, there was a BOOM! and it winked out. Simple stuff.

He was wondering why she was in such a good mood all of a sudden. Then he realized—of course. It was a maze. She was solving a logic puzzle; her big brain had an interesting challenge to work through, to chew on. She adored that.

In the meantime they just kept running across treasures. More essence stones. Random A-Rank Law treasures. A recording of an Acolyte of the Cult of Eternal Winter, performing a foundational move—some Ice Law treasure. An A-rank breastplate called the 'Millennium Plate (A)' a beautiful bronze thing that could've been taken from some elite Roman Legion. Forged by 'Smith Dreamhamer of the Deep Earth Hall.' It went to Reina. At first he was concerned it wouldn't fit; it was rather flat-chested, and Reina... used to have back pain issues. But once she put it on it molded to her shape. They also found an A-Rank Skill tome called the 'Blessing of the Mad God (A)'—that went to her too; it granted a buff. She said she'd learn it once they got back.

Soon they came to the second Boss.