Book 3, Chapter 33

Sorin got separated from the rest of the team so that he could put the fifth slate in, leaving just one final spot for him to fill. At his best guess, it would still be another ten ranks before the mosaic actually stretched that far, however.

When he landed on Floor 20, he was immediately attacked by a pair of dog-sized reptilian creatures. They ran on all fours, but their faces were lizard-like with small frills going up either side, and their scales were so thick that there was no trace of grace in their movements. That didn’t mean they were slow, however, especially not with the wind magic they were using to help propel themselves forward.

Each step shot them twenty feet across the ground, and Sorin’s hair whipped around his face wildly from the jet stream of air their magic propelled them along. Despite that, they didn’t manage to achieve true flight, which made their angle of attack entirely too predictable.

He side-stepped the first one, being careful to avoid its outspread claws, and brought his sword down on the back of its stubby neck as it leaped by. Chain Bolt triggered, and lightning arced to its mate. The monster convulsed in the air for a moment, held upright only by the wind current that immediately started to falter without the lizard-dog controlling it, then crashed face-first into the dirt.

By the time the portal opened back up to expel the rest of his team, he’d already killed both monsters and was busy cutting the jaw frill off the larger of the two. Unless he was very much mistaken, the soulprint it contained was Wind Symphony, which was what created the powerful jet streams they’d used to move at such high speeds.

“Looks like this floor is getting off to a good start,” he said by way of greeting. Handing the frill over to Nemari, he added, “This one will merge well with some fire-based spells. If you do it right, you can make a column or spinning air that spreads flames all over the place. Any monster caught in it will have a hell of a time getting free, especially while it’s burning to death.”

Blinking in surprise, Nemari accepted the still-bloody frill. “Thanks... I thought you didn’t want me to specialize heavier into fire, though.”

Sorin shrugged. “You’ve got the baseline stuff covered now. Physical augmentations for strength, speed, coordination, and endurance. All of you need more environmental resistances in your builds, but we can work around that temporarily. You’ve got fire, air, and water elemental magic, even if all the air mostly gets used to bolster the fire. There’s enough diversity there to handle anything you might run into before the Void Wall.”

The others were mostly at the same point in their progression, and Sorin couldn’t blame them for not having a dozen different tactical options. At some point, they would need those, but only if they kept climbing. Right now, their big focus needed to be on resistances and traversal of difficult terrain.

And they need merging to give themselves room in their soulspace, but they need time to master the technique, aaaaaand we’ve circled right back around to the beginning.

Sorin stood up and flicked the blood off his knife. “How’d you guys make out?”

“Nothing interesting. No luck for Azlo either,” Rue said.

“Unfortunate, but not surprising. Ready to go back to Floor 18?”

“I was thinking we’d go to Floor 0,” Yoru said. “A day to recover and resupply would do us a lot of good.”

There was some truth to that. They were all aware of the hours passing by, but it wouldn’t matter how quickly they were on track to make it to the Void Wall if they died halfway there. Sorin also had to remember that his team was all young and new. They weren’t accustomed to the hardships of climbing floors that took months to clear, where sleep was a luxury and retreat wasn’t an option.

“We’re getting sloppy,” Nemari said, perhaps mistaking his silence for disagreement. “Nothing big, not yet, but we’re slowing down to compensate.”

“No, you’re right. If you need a break, take one,” he said. “Floor 0 it is.”

* * *

The team eased up after that. Thanks to Sorin’s Liminal Gateway, it was easy to climb for a week, then take a day off. Being able to ignore the logistics of supplies and travel meant they didn’t have to retread ground and could focus the time they spent on the higher floors doing nothing but what they’d come there to do.

Sorin himself cleared Floor 20, and then Floor 21, bringing the rest up with him only to participate in the floor guardian fights. They were all halfway through rank 19 at the end of the month, which was extraordinary progress as far as anyone else was concerned.

It just wasn’t enough for Sorin. None of them had much room in their builds, but when it was time to clear Floor 21, they all made the effort to acquire what they needed: Trackless Wanderer, Toxin Resistance, Scent Dampening, and a few of the navigational soulprints they’d skipped out on from earlier floors.

They came out onto Floor 22 about three hundred feet off the ground. The portal opened near a tree trunk wider than most houses and dumped them onto a branch thicker than most individual trees on other floors. They were immediately swarmed by hundreds of insects, most of them clouds of stinging gnats and the like. Even if the bugs couldn’t get through their skin to actually bite, it was still aggravating to deal with them.

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Nemari flash fried them, probably more on instinct than anything, but within seconds, a fresh batch had descended from nowhere. By the time the portal actually closed, she’d adapted her tactics and created a small barrier of moving air that circulated around the team at high speeds.

“That’s going to be annoying to keep up,” she said. “Why did we have to pick this floor to farm?”

“It’s the least inhospitable of the options,” Yoru answered. “No need to fly. No lava. We’ve got the sensory soulprints to keep from being surprised by ambushes already.”

“And it’s thick with monsters, if the notes are to be believed,” Sorin said. “That should mean quick rank ups for all of you. You’re two and a half floors behind now, and I shouldn’t have to explain how dangerous that is.”

That was why they were clearing this floor together. Sorin would be focusing primarily on making sure they were safe as they fought against monsters that were stronger than them. The plan was to spend three weeks there, which would hopefully see them at the peak of rank 22’s anima cap. If not, they’d at least be strong enough to hold their own while he went on ahead to the next floor.

“Holy crap!” Rue said. One of her blades flashed through the air too quickly to be followed, and two squishy lumps splattered into the tree bark at her feet. “Was that a bug? It’s the size of my head!”

“Lots of those around here,” Azlo remarked calmly. “At least that’s what my instructors told me.”

“Blood suckers,” Sorin said. “It’s basically a tick, except it can fly, and as you can see, it’s significantly bigger.”

“And the reason it was flying directly at my face?” Rue asked.

Sorin shrugged. “Exposed skin?”

Rue glared daggers at the body, then flicked one of the pieces off the branch with the toe of her boot. It didn’t make it far. Instead of hitting the ground, it just left a smear of guts on a leaf that could have doubled as a dinner plate a few feet below them.

It only took a few minutes to figure out where the portal had dumped them, and, in a turn of good fortune, they were barely twenty miles from the farming area they’d picked out. The tower had saved them a solid two days of travel. It was rare that the Antechamber positioned them in a spot that was actually advantageous, so the mood was cheery as they slowly descended the giant tree.

“You know, I was told it was actually safer to take the branch routes,” Azlo said while they climbed. “The vegetation is thinner, so there’s less risk of getting jumped by a jade cat or a venus creeper.”

“We want to be attacked by those things, though,” Yoru pointed out. “And everything else down there, too.”

The foliage was so thick that it was impossible to keep everybody in sight, and once they were within a hundred feet of the ground, Sorin was actively pushing his way through thorn-covered vines, many of which seemed to be alive and attempting to twine themselves around his limbs and neck. Rue was right behind him, but he could only keep track of her through Observer.

She was having an easier time of it, if only because Sorin was using Force Weaver to mulch everything that got in his way. Nemari and Yoru were quick to hurry after her; the plants were already regrowing mere seconds after being damaged. By the time Odric and Azlo got to the same point, they were basically fighting their way through just as much as Sorin had been a minute earlier.

And that was with Trackless Wanderer aiding them. The soulprint functioned as a sort of magical lubricant, causing plant life to just slide past them without friction, even in the case of tangled vines and branches. It wouldn’t let them walk through a solid tree, but anywhere that could be squeezed through, Trackless Wanderer made it quick and painless to do so.

“More monsters incoming,” Sorin called up. “Looks like it’s heading your way, Nemari.”

A flash of fire brightened the leaves overhead. It roared out in a column unerringly striking the insectoid monsters that had been weaving their way through the foliage. None of them survived, but the plant life itself was barely blackened. It returned to its former robust greenness right before their eyes.

“Got them,” she said with some small amount of satisfaction. “I like this sword you found for me, Sorin.”

“More coming in from behind you this time. Aim a bit lower. They’re pointed at Rue.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rue said. “I’ll kill them once they get in my range.”

Sorin hurried to get out of the way, knowing what was about to happen. True to his prediction, a few seconds later, ichor started to plop down on the leaves in huge gobs. He’d successfully put enough vegetation between himself and Rue to keep from getting rained on, though. “Still gross,” he muttered.

They finally hit ground level, only to be immediately attacked by living vines creeping through the underbrush and attempting to snare them. Sorin cut those to pieces, but no matter how much anima he spent, there were always more vines ready to replace the ones he destroyed.

The team proceeded that way until they found the first dead tree. It stood out in stark contrast to the lush, vibrant jungle around it, not just because it was bare of leaves, but because the trunk was a barkless, ashy gray. As they passed by it, Sorin noted the next difference. Where before Trackless Wanderer had been mandatory just to make progress, now the underbrush was thinning out to the point that there were clear, visible trails leading forward.

“Wither moth territory,” Sorin announced.

They were near their goal. The wither moths killed all types of plant life with the dust they released from their wings. The dead trees and shrubs quickly turned to rot, but the tower never made things that simple. The rot itself was animated and formed into shamblers that served as mobile, living hives to carry the moths forward.

The rot shamblers were the goal. Huge and powerful, they were deadly enough that a single one could take out a whole team. They were also worth a proportionate amount of anima when slain and sometimes had the rare Withering Touch soulprint that was the bane of all plant-based monsters everywhere. Claiming one of those wasn’t necessary, but Sorin wouldn’t complain if they got lucky.

It took another five minutes of walking before they found the first rot shambler. It was a hulking thing, a vaguely hunchbacked quadruped with a carpet of mushrooms growing across its back. It had no head—just legs and a trunk, and it lumbered forward through a cloud of white-and-gray winged moths.

“Everyone remember the plan?” Sorin asked quietly as they gathered to prepare for the attack. He got nods all around, and returned one of his own. “Go.”