Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]
2.43 Sky Island Dungeon III

Kristil slashes her whip sword like a flail, aiming toward the serpent on our right. It dodges, moving with uncanny swiftness as it bends its body around the attack. But Kristil is no slouch either. With another flick of her wrist, her weapon contorts in paths equally unnatural, grazing against the serpent’s iridescent green scales before being deflected by the same.

Lindsey assails the other with a [Light Arrow Volley], launching a dozen arrows in rapid succession. But the serpent is far faster and craftier than the creatures we’ve fought to this point, slithering about and winding from side to side with no discernible pattern or rhythm. My [Ether Bullet Barrage] is just as lacking, the creatures’ slender bodies providing limited cross-section for our attacks to connect.

I try a [Repulsion Bullet] next, hoping I can destabilize the creature as it approaches. But this too fails, the serpents having too much of their body mass too close to the ground for me to tip the creature over. And [Attraction Bullet] is similarly useless, the creatures’ [Speed] and [Strength] easily overpowering the glyph’s magnetic pull. With my two standbys both ineffective, I fire a [Frosted Bullet], hoping that the serpents’ cold-bloodedness is a weakness that I can exploit. It isn’t.

Worse, I’m feeling the effects of my curse as I attempt to dodge the lunging bite. My left arm has a slight delay in its movements— at most a tenth of a second compared with what I’m used to, but enough to make a difference in the throes of close-quarters combat. My [Bullet Time] allows me to dodge a venomous bite by the thinnest of margins; so close was my escape that my armor was grazed by the attack. Praise be to the glyphs in my [Brigandine]’s construction that grant it a degree of self-repairing.

Chloe hits me with an [Antidote] spell, curing me of the [Toxic] status I didn’t realize I was under. Damned serpents have acidic venom that managed to splash on my forearm and penetrate through. Didn’t even realize I’d been hit, the adrenaline and endorphins coursing through my veins blocking out the sensation of pain and injury.

But there’s still the question of how to attack these things. Chloe has no offensive magic, and Kristil hasn’t the stats to do sufficient damage. If Lindsey’s and my projectiles aren’t accurate enough to overcome their [Agility] and our [Speed] leaves us vulnerable to their attacks, then the only option is to hit them with an attack they can’t dodge. That means my [Glyphcasting] is the best weapon against them.

I again hesitate, weighing the options. The only way I’m going to have enough time to build a [Glyphcasting] array, even with Manifestation to speed it up, is by using my new artifact. But Chloe won’t last long against one of those serpents, let alone two. On the other hand, continuing to fight as we have ensures a slow but no less certain death, and trying to escape means that Kristil and I will be under a covetous curse for… potentially ever. Which is death no less certain, only more prolonged.

The only option is to trust in my girlfriend, trust that she and the others can defend themselves. I reach into my pack, Manifesting an [Attraction] glyph to summon an [Ether Canister] to my hand a split-second faster. With a minor exertion of will, I open it and pull with my [Ether] channels, letting the contents flow through my body and into my core. The canister and the world writ large attempt and fail to stop me, to deny me the power of my Skills to draw far more [Ether] from a canister than they are designed to provide.

As though to taunt the System itself, I Manifest [Attraction] upon my own body, lapping up every wisp of [Ether] that tries to escape my hungry grasp. It burns, it hurts, it makes me feel as though the blood in my veins has been replaced with magma that attempts to burn my body from the inside. But I continue, knowing that pushing through the pain and overcoming my limitations is among the rare actions in concert both with the System’s prerogative and my own purpose. And though my body is sore from the effort, the results are apparent and fill me with hope that we can win the fight before us.

[Your [Ether] has increased by 396.]

[Your [Intermediate Ether Manipulation (Rank V)] has upgraded to [Intermediate Ether Manipulation (Rank VII)].]

I take to the skies upon my [Wings of Icarus], hovering about twenty feet above the floor, just outside their likely maximum range. I might have to be wary if they decide to spit venom at me, but I choose to trust in my [Bullet Time]’s passive effect rather than diverting more of my limited [Ether] to trying to maneuver closer to the ceiling only a few feet above me.

My eyes close, picturing the flow of battle and envisioning the appropriate glyph array to use against the snakes below me. Cold seems effective against them; they seem resistant both to heat and lightning from everything I’ve seen so far. As such, I draw the inverted [Heat] glyph in the center of my [Glyphcasting] circle.

Inverted [Repulsion] slots in next, my best weapon against their speed and slithery movements. I add in an [Intensity] glyph, drawing linking runes to specify that I want to intensify the amount of heat removed from the area. Finally, a [Water] glyph to finish the array. I consider just an [Ice] glyph, but that would launch shards of ice all around the battlefield. I want instead a flood of supercooled water which will freeze around the serpents, solidifying them within an icy tomb and sedating them long enough for us to slay them for good.

Everything looks right. My [Tinkerer] skill alerts me to the presence of no imperfections in the array. My circle looks complete to my eyes, and my [Ethersight] shows no signs of [Ether] leakage that might backfire upon me as it did against the antoids. Another split-second to appease that lingering doubt that lodged itself in the back of my mind the moment my left arm shattered. And then I fire the spell.

A torrent of water cascades down, sending the entire room into a deep freeze. I shake involuntarily, and a hazy fog emanates from my breath. How I wish I’d brought a sweater.

The waterfall crystallizes the moment it touches the ground, sending a flurry of icy spines riveting outward from the impact site. Lindsey steps backward, just out of the range of the [Attraction] sphere. But the serpent she’s been fighting is not so lucky.

The lower half of its body is coated in ice several inches thick. It thrashes about, trying to break free of its eternal resting place. But it’s in vain. Between the lingering effects of the [Attraction] glyph and the ice which tries and fails to pierce its armored scales, the creature can do little more than struggle and hiss in anger, its pleas and hatred gradually subsiding as my invocation of Old Man Winter claims his due.

The other snake fares a bit better off, managing to emerge with its tail frozen solid, surrounded by a sphere of ice the size of a large car. But even weighed and cooled down to this extent, it’s still moving far quicker than I would have expected. And unlike Lindsey, who fully dodged the attack, both Chloe and Kristil show frosted hair and evidence of minor frostbite upon their bodies. Kristil especially, her outfit somewhat more skimpier than Chloe’s thick and modest [Healer’s Robes].

I’ll owe them each an apology once we beat these bastards. Not if. None of us are dying here.

I fly down to the surface just in time to catch Chloe and fly her out of the way of a venomous bite that would surely have left her in Nyx’s cold embrace. She turns to me and gives me a warm blush. Were we not in the midst of battle, I surely would kiss the grin that follows right off her face.

But surviving and winning comes first. I draw my [Lightning-Sheathed Dagger] and land a glancing blow on the side scales. The ophidian menace leaps toward me, flinging itself despite the several tons weighing it down. But with its balance thrown off and my [Bullet Time] giving me an extra quarter-second, I’m able to avoid both the fangs themselves and the acidic floes that follow in its wake.

I again leap forward to stab the serpent, but Lindsey is there before me, piercing it directly in the heat sensing-organ it has near its snout. And unlike all our attacks to this point, whatever she did seems oddly effective, the creature giving one last snarl before succumbing to its wounds.

“How did you do that?” I ask. “And what’s with your hand?” I ask.

It’s blackened, sickening, like those horrid pictures of fetid disease and gangrene. Chloe notices immediately and rushes over to her, casting a [Curing Light] followed by an [Antidote], which together return Lindsey’s hand to its normal color and shape.

“I figured if our weapons were no good against these creatures, I’d borrow one of theirs. Not like they’re using them where they’re going.”

This gets the four of us to chuckle for a few seconds. Right until Kristil gets in my face and opens her mouth as though she’s about to spout every obscenity I’ve ever heard of and probably a few I’ve not.

“I’m sorry,” I say without needing further prompting. “I tried to mitigate the blowback, but I judged it was better to overshoot on the intensity of the spell than have it rendered ineffective.”

“I–” She cuts herself off, lowering the arm that’s raised toward my face slightly. A sigh follows. “Just, give us some warning next time, alright?”

Chloe walks up to us, pulling Kristil into a hug and casting a [Heal] upon her. “We’ll get you feeling better in no time.”

I’m still tense for what awaits us next. More pressingly, the System notifications haven’t appeared yet. Did one of the two survive the attack?

I walk over to the one that I entombed earlier. Its baleful eyes stare at me despite the creature being completely torpored. Screw this asshole’s indignant gaze; should anyone try to harm Chloe, this will be their end fate. I stab both eyes with my [Lightning-Sheathed Dagger]. The creature flails about, an autonomous motion caused by the surge of lightning frying its nerves. And finally, the System notifications appear.

[Your party has slain two Apophisites (Level 32, 33). You have gained a boosted 16,700 Experience.]

[Level: 28; Experience: 194,195; To Next: 6,685]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 2,154 / 2,481 (2,757) ; [Ether]: 527 / 1,598 (1,775)]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 31 (27, -3); [Speed]: 29 (25 -3); [Vitality]: 73 (64, -6); [Mind]: 101 (88, -9)]

[Your [Glyphcasting (Rank X)] has upgraded to [Glyphcasting (Rank XI)].]

The tension eases from my neck and shoulders. Only as the adrenaline wave passes do I notice the periphery of [Ether] strain setting in, then gradually subsiding as my ring and natural regeneration fill my core beyond that crucial one-third threshold.

“What happens next?” Chloe asks. “I don’t see any new passages, and I hardly think it’s a good idea to go crawling through where the Apophisites came out of.”

“Wait,” Lindsey says. “Look carefully at the doors that opened. Of the four, two opened. Specifically, the two corresponding to the two chests that Sera and Kristil opened.”

“So, the more treasure we take, the more monsters we’ll have to fight.”

“Peril and calamity will befall you in proportion to that which you take,” I say. “With empty pockets, walk through every room without fear. That seems to line up with the inscription at the start of the dungeon.”

As if on cue, four more treasure chests appear in place of the dissolving Apophisite corpses, alongside a hidden passageway on the right side of the room from the perspective of when we first walked in.

“Alright, let’s figure out what to do,” Lindsey says.