Kyfe
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Chapter 97 - Soul Stirring
🕑 Added 2022-08-12 20:16:20 +0000 UTCThe blinking light in the bottom left of his vision let Reivyn know that there were more Notifications to be viewed. I guess my soul coming into balance was more important and got a pop-up all on its own, he thought as he pulled the notification up.
[Skill Unlocked!]
[Tier 2:]
[Poison Resistance (0 ->1)]
Huh, where did that come from? Reivyn was confused. He thought back to the recent events, and realization slowly dawned on him as he put the pieces together.
The only thing I had that wasn't from my own personal belongings was a drink that Galwit gave me when I met with him. Dad said that a spiked drink could give Poison Resistance, and the Masked Man told me he had lowered my inhibitions. I assumed he had used his Skills to do so, but I guess he's not as all powerful as his aura would lead to believe.
Was Galwit lying to me and with the Masked Man the whole time? But then my Sense Truth/Lies Skill would have been wrong. I'll need to discuss this, as well as the war the Masked Man was talking about, with my parents when I get back.
Reivyn picked himself up from the ground. He looked towards the gate that led to the Abyss Realm, but there was no longer any feeling within him that there was anything there for him. He turned and walked back toward the entrance to the Veridical Realm.
The view of the various Realms and the flickering sparks was still as breathtaking as ever, and Reivyn took it all in as he walked. He felt better than he could ever remember, and his mind was clear, but other than that, he didn't notice any major differences from finally fully unlocking his Bloodline.
Reivyn was about to pull up his Status page to check it out, but a change with the sparks caught his attention and distracted him. He looked up as millions of sparks stopped flowing with each other in whichever direction they were headed as they began to swirl about.
Reivyn's Danger Sense didn't go off, but he still got a feeling of foreboding witnessing the scene. The lights coalesced together to form a large apparition. It didn't have any specific form, and it continued to grow larger as more and more of the lights were drawn towards it.
The hair on the back of Reivyn's neck stood on end as a threshold seemed to be reached. The combination of lights birthed a sort of awareness, and Reivyn felt it bear down on him.
Now his Danger Sense did explode. A large funnel of swirling lights came crashing down towards him as Reivyn started sprinting towards the gate. It smashed into a barrier that formed around the bridge. When nothing was happening, it was invisible, but there was a sort of energy protection around the bridge protecting it.
I guess that's how I'm able to breathe in this environment, a stray thought entered Reivyn's mind as he ran all out.
The spark apparition splashed harmlessly against the energy barrier, but it quickly reformed and made for another pass, aimed directly at Reivyn. More and more sparks joined the giant funnel, as well, and the pressure it emitted grew larger and large with each passing moment.
Reivyn's heart pounded in his chest as he made his mad dash to safety. The gate to the Veridical Realm was only a couple of seconds further, and he marshalled his Physical Stats to their maximum potential, trying to shed even a fraction of a second off of the time needed.
Reivyn's heart fell, though, as a sound reached his ears. A loud crack, rang throughout the area, followed shortly by a deafening sound that reminded him of shattering glass.
A suction force arrested his movement, his hand outstretched with the gate mere inches from his grasp. The powerful force lifted him up and tossed him back the way he had come, but it also launched him out and away from the bridge. Whatever atmosphere had been protected by the energy barrier followed with him, and the sound of the wind drowned everything else out.
Reivyn's body was whipped by the wind and he went tumbling out into the void, his body rotating about, end over end. He almost immediately became completely disoriented, and the large bridge that he had just been on snapped out of existence and became just another thread tying the two Realms together. The thread grew taught from the forces impacting it, and then, it snapped. Reivyn was barely aware of it disintigrating into motes of energy that dissipated in the void.
Pain wracked his body, and his eyes bulged from the instantaneous drop of atmospheric pressure, and he could feel the blood in his body rush to his head and other orifices, trying to escape. Time slowed to a crawl as he mustered every last drop of willpower he had to envelope his entire body in a Mana Shield infused with the Eternal Affinity. He had no thoughts other than to try and keep his body as it is.
The sparks charged towards Reivyn after they destroyed the barrier, completely encapsulating him. A different kind of pain than he had ever experienced engulfed him. It wasn't as bad as what he had been through from whatever the Masked Man had done to him, but there was no defense or Pain Resistance to protect him against it.
He felt a burning, piercing pain in his chest. It felt like his very being would be torn asunder, and he could feel the depths of his core being ripped from his body. He could feel an insatiable hunger coming from the apparition of sparks as they pulled at his innermost self, trying to separate his soul from his body.
He didn't have time to think or come up with any sort of plan. He acted on instinct as the familiar Mana Weapon Skill was activated with the familiar whip. He launched it out as he passed close to another thread-bridge, using the momentum to stop the tumbling of his body.
He yanked himself out of the torrential sparks. His body flew toward the thread that he had wrapped his whip around, and as soon as he came into contact with it, it expanded into another bridge. He slammed into energy barrier of the new bridge, his vision swirling as he struck his head at the sudden transformation.
His Danger Sense was still pinging off the charts, and he quickly scrabbled to his feet. The lack of atmosphere made it difficult to run, though, and he was quickly attacked by the apparition again. The soul-wrenching pain returned, and he was peripherally aware of the new bridge being shattered into a billion pieces.
The might of the apparition continued to grow exponentially. It didn't cause any kind of physical damage, and the apparition itself wasn't the cause of the destruction of the bridges. They simply destroyed the barriers, and the desolate environment did the rest.
Reivyn's body was once more sent into the emptiness of the void, but he wasn't tumbling about uncontrollably this time. He found his next target and once more launched himself towards a thread.
He didn't stop at the first one this time, though, as he needed to build up some distance between him and the sparks chasing after him. The soul pain was replaced by burning in his lungs, as the lack of oxygen for an extended period of time started to catch up to him.
He had to carefully balance between spending enough time to gain enough distance from the sparks and maintain his consciousness while doing so. His vision was already starting to go dark around the edges, and the strain of the Mana Shield wouldn't last much longer. His Mana was dropping fast, and he could feel a significant drop in his Health each time the sparks tried to rip his soul out.
Reivyn swung from thread to thread, the spark apparition plowing through them and destroying them as it chased him. There were only so many left, but he would die from losing consciousness before he risked destroying all of the remaining threads.
The sparks acted completely on instinct, and that lack of ability to think and plan allowed Reivyn to gain distance from it as he altered his trajectory each time he launched himself at a new thread.
Heart pounding and vision turning black, Reivyn finally landed on another thread. He had only gained himself about a ten second lead from the sparks. He had no idea how to get himself into the interior of the energy barrier, and poking a hole in it would just destroy the bridge. He had a sudden inspiration from his recent experience with Mana frequencies.
He operated faster than he ever had before. He activated his Mana Sight and peered within the structure of the barrier as deep as he could. He gained a feeling of a mesh between Veridical and Abyss, so he infused his eyes with the Affinities. What presented itself before him was a complicated threading of the two Mana signatures. There were complicated, twisted braids and patterns within the two types of Mana, and they themselves were also twisted about each other in a complicated weave.
Reivyn mustered every last drop of his abilities and willpower, and he forced a similar infusion into his Mana Shield, switching his Eternal infusion out. He didn't have time to carefully build the weaves and layers. He forced his own Mana Shield to match the patterns and weaves. He felt a tremendous strain on his mind as it resisted him.
After three seconds of pushing as hard as he could, he felt a snap in his mind as his Mana shifted to the correct design. His Mana Shield's "frequency" matched tht of the energy shield, and his body simply fell through the barrier to slam into the ground. He took a gasping breath, warding off the impending descent into unconsciousness as he once more took off for the Veridical Realm's gate.
He learned his lesson from last time, and instead of just trying to reach the gate with his hands, he lassoed himself to it with his Mana whip. Reivyn mentally congratulated himself on the maneuver as he felt the sparks once more slam into the bridge he was on. The suction force tried to such him back out into the void once more, but he used his immense Strength Stat to pull himself to the gate.
Reivyn still had his Mana Sight activated, and he noted that the mana frequency of the barred gate was the exact same as the energy barrier, and he still maintained the same frequency with his own Mana Shield. He had no time to try and open the gate himself as the sparks were almost upon him.
If this doesn't work, I'm dead, Reivyn thought as he trusted his instinct.
He sailed through the remnants of the air scattering into the void, and he slammed into the gate. It appeared to be a swirling mist from this side of the Realm, and he was elated to find that he simply passed right through the portal. He maintained his momentum, though, and his body hit the ground, hard, and rolled for several yards before coming to a stop.
Reivyn lay panting for breath, vision completely dark as he had entered a pitch black room.
Suddenly, a blinding light shown from behind him. Reivyn turned his head, protecting his vision by infusing Darkness Mana into his eyes. There was another gate that mirrored the one he had passed through with Galwit in this new place, and lines of light crisscrossed it. They expanded across the entire surface of the gate as they intensified in brightness before the gate suddenly exploded into rubble, forever detaching from the void bridge leading to the Abyss Realm.
Reivyn laid his head back on the ground, his arm over his eyes as he tried to recover from the ordeal. He slowly regained his breathe as adrenaline still pounded through his body.
Reivyn's Danger Sense once more pinged, and he reacted instantly, rolling to the side. Something slammed into the ground where he had been laying, and Reivyn quickly scrabbled to his feet, arming himself with his sword and shield once more.
It was completely pitch black, but his Blind Fighting and Spatial Awareness Skills allowed him to react to another strike directed at him. A spear slammed into his shield with enough force to launch him backwards. He sailed through the air before crushing into the wall, the wind getting knocked out of him once more.
Reivyn quickly reoriented himself and assumed a ready stance. He infused Gravity into the soles of his boots and seeped it out into the ground, locking himself to the ground. He brought his Mana Shield up once more, and used Eternal Mana to reinfocre it. Lastly, he activated his Elemental Weapon with the Fire Element.
Terror flooded his being once more as Reivyn laid eyes on his assailant. What he had though was a spear turned out to be a metallic leg coming to a sharp point. His gaze followed the leg to the torso of a giant spider, larger than he himself was.
The spider reeled back and screeched at the sudden light brought by the flames of his Elemental Weapon Skill, and Reivyn siezed the opportunity to dash forward and slash at one of the legs. His sword bounced off of the metallic leg with a ringing sound, the vibrations from the contact hurting his hand.
The spider shrieked once more as it brought it's giant body down on Reivyn, attempting to sink it's fangs into him. Reivyn barely had time to see the green ooze dripping from the fangs thicker than his forearm as the weight of the beast slammed Reivyn into the ground. He managed to block the fangs with his shield though, and the spider once more brought its body up, readying for another bite.
Reivyn braided Piercing Mana through his Elemental Weapon as he thrust his sword up at the softer underside of the spider. His sword pierced into the flesh this time, and the wound instantly cauterized as he burned the inside of the spider.
The spider leapt back from the sudden shock of pain, crouching down as fluids leaked out of the hole from the stab. Eight eyes studied Reivyn. Reivyn was able to finally study the spider as well.
The body of the spider was slightly larger than an adult human, and each of its legs were several yards long. It was shiny and black, appearing to be made out of metal, and Reivyn could attest that it was more than just for looks.
He noted that the spider was leaking Abyss Mana, it's connection to the source having been cut off. The Mana density in the air was still considerably higher than any he had experienced before, even with the source of additional Mana having been destroyed.
He didn't know what Tier Region he had landed in, but he could tell from the speed and power of the spider that it was at least a mid to high Tier 3 monster.
It's more dangerous than the Revenants, at least, but that doesn't tell me a whole lot about the Region or Dungeon, Reivyn thought. For all I know, this could be the starter boss.
The spider didn't let Reivyn consider it for long, though. It lifted up once more, tilting it's body to bring it's spinneret to bear, launching a string of sticky substance towards Reivyn. He flared his Elemental Weapon and parried the webbing, burning it before it could cause him any problems.
The spider took the opportunity to lift its two front legs and charge Reivyn once again. Its speed was slightly faster than Reivyn, but Reivyn was nearly a Master with the sword at this point. Now that he wasn't blind from the darkness, he dodged to the side of one limb as he parried the other. He expertly directed the momentum of the attack away from himself instead of trying to bear the brunt of the impact, keenly aware of the power behind the strikes.
Reivyn fluidly circled his sword around and once more stepped in to stab at its face. The spider reacted lightning quick, pulling its head out of range, but Reivyn simply extended the flame of his blade, scorching the spider's face.
The spider's body once more reacted to the pain as it pulled up and back, exposing its belly once more.
Reivyn took a risk in overextending himself, piercing the spider once more just below its head. He morphed the Piercing braid into the Sharpness Affinity, and he brought his sword down, disemboweling the spider.
The spider let out a wail as its body collapsed, its insides spilling out as its legs scrabbled about frantically, attempting to do anything to stop its lifeblood from leaking. Reivyn stepped forward once more and beheaded the creature, ending the struggle.
Reivyn sank to a knee, propping himself up with his sword as he once more panted for breath. He had barely had time to recover from escaping the void between Realms when he was thrust into a life or death fight with a terrifying monster.
He launched a bright Light Ball Spell into the air, illuminating the entire room, searching for other threats. There was webbing all around the walls and ceiling, and there were several large sacks hung from several of the webs. Reivyn couldn't sense any life or movement from any of the webbings that were clearly victims of the spider, but he did notice an egg sac off in the corner.
He wasn't willing to deal with hundreds or thousands of smaller spiders exploding out at him at any time, so he Dual Cast a Plasma Beam and Inferno Blast Spell at the sac. It exploded with the fiery remains of palm-sized spiders flinging out.
"Ugh, disgusting," Reivyn said aloud.
There was nothing else of note in the cavern that he found himself in. There was an alcove that lead to the supposed exit, and Reivyn could sense that it was the entrance to this Dungeon.
"This reminds me of the Boss Dungeon in the Tier 1 Region," he mused. "There's no telling where I ended up after escaping from those sparks in the void. I've never heard any rumors of any spider Dungeons in any nearby kingdoms, either. With how big the Realm is, I could be anywhere.
"At least most of the threads connecting our Realms were extinguished. I might have accidentally ended the war before it could begin.
"Imagine spending decades, or longer, to scheme to reignite an ancient war between Realms, and then I destroy those plans completely on accident."
Reivyn threw his head back and laughed.
Reivyn was actually extremely worried and anxious about where he had ended up, but he needed to latch onto the one positive thing to keep himself calm.
Reivyn sat down on the ground and pulled his belongings out. He had one set of field rations in his pack and a full water skin. He looked back and forth between the rations and the corpse of the spider, but he shuddered in denial at the idea of supplementing his food stores with the creature.
If worse comes to worse, and I can't find anything else, I can always take the leap to butcher the spider, Reivyn thought as he put his rations away. Trying to get a gear management Skill really bit me in the butt, this time. I have no idea how large this cave is on the other side of the Dungeon, and I don't know if any monsters or beasts I find will be edible.
I don't know where I am, and I don't know how far any civilization will be from here or which direction.
I am in quite the predicament.
Reivyn sighed as he tried to keep calm. There wasn't anything he could do about those situations except slowly explore his options when the time arrived. If his hunch was right, and this was the weakest starter boss of the area, then he could be in way over his head.
Exhaustion replaced the adrenaline that had kept him going, and, knowing that he was safe in a separate Dungeon dimension, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep. He would need to be at full energy to tackle the challenges ahead.
Comments
Pawaidan
Yup exactly like I was thinking
Enxes
That's what I'm thinking too. It gives Reivyn solid reasons for being as talented and gifted as he is. And then taking out the safety net and stability and giving him a real call to adventure. He gets to go on a grand quest to reconnect with family and he's equip with abilities he's earned to do so instead of some other stories MCs who have no training and are suddenly godlike with magic and swords for no reason.
Robert Hinshaw
I’m happy we didn’t get a brain damaged arc or a mind controlled slave arc, but it feels like a pretty serious detour after all the world building that suggested Reivyn was going to attend school and whatnot. But fair enough. I’m still smarting after the encounter with the all powerful mask person, and the protagonist laughing that he’s prevented the war already seems hard to believe since he’s so weak he could be easily deceived by his nemesis (re: opening the gate), so I’m left feeling like Reivyn is just a bit player in this story, too weak to really matter compared to the other players who have dancing on their strings. Part of the advantage of having a farm boy grow up in obscurity in stories like this is so the reader can believe they’ve grown in power quietly, rather than being stomped by powerful existing characters. Not sure it’s plausible Reivyn hasn’t already been stomped now that he is clearly the weak tool of Mr. Mask.
Pawaidan
So am I wrong? it looks like the masked villan is not actually a villan, considering everything he is doing with karma. I think he was playing the villan, to give reivyn a good push towards some other end goal that's not invasion. So rather then look at this as an introduction of a super villan look at it like a kink in his path to power pushing him into a semi Divine class because he prob needs some more skill levels and stats to do it. It also fixes the no suspense problem with having super parents around while still giving the chance to have the training early on by said parents. Even if everything I said is not true I am loving this story and can't wait for more.
Richard Öhler
So until now Reivyn had access to the memories of one "old" life, I think one of the White ons. And now with the balanced soul and the absorbed soul shards there are 8 more to access for his dream skill, 4 abyss and 4 veridical? Will he get a bunch of new level 0 skills unlocked in the next chapter after his dream skill activates?
William Johnson
Good chapter, the last few to include this one have felt a bit out of nowhere but I guess they kind of were in universe too. A quick editing suggestion, this part "Reivyn was actually extremely worried and anxious about where he had ended up, but he needed to latch onto the one positive thing to keep himself calm." seems unnecessary. I think it's clear enough from context that he's pretty freaked out, saying it this explicitly feels a bit clumsy to me. That is 100% my opinion though, your story your rules of course.
William Johnson
I'm guessing here but I think there may have been others, he was just distracted from them by the mysterious entity. From the chapter: "Reivyn was about to pull up his Status page to check it out, but a change with the sparks caught his attention and distracted him."
Robert Apgar
The big thing is he is a friend of the church, and the church probably tracks abyss mana dungeons like this one in some way. He might not be in a T3 area but the worst case would obviously be a nonsensical T8 area where everything moves too fast for him to comprehend and hits so hard it fractures reality or something.
Torphin
I reserved judgement for a few chapters after the Masked Man appeared in order in order to see how things would shake out, but I think now is a good time to put down my thoughts. Honestly, the twist was a bit abrupt, which is probably what gave so many readers the narrative equivalent of whiplash. Some heavier foreshadowing of the situation probably would have helped. For instance, the author could have let the readers know that Reivyn was being observed while misleading them into thinking it was one of his normal protectors. Throw in some more time with Reivyn pondering why the Cult always seems to appear around his family and you have a much easier transition to the reveal. As for the masked man himself, I seriously hope half of what he said was a lie and that he has other goals in mind beyond what he stated. Only the cheesiest of cheesy villains would monologue about their nefarious master plan and then let their talented yet still young and vulnerable enemy go free. Assuming the Masked Man is semi-competent, it seems more likely he needs Reivyn to accomplish something and whatever he did to him at the end was, indeed, for his benefit and not some kind of "punishment". My current best guess is that Reivyn's paternal Bloodline might really be associated with the Abyss and that the Masked Man might be an ancestor of Reivyn on his father's side who is playing some kind of long game. It would also explain why the Masked Man wears... well, a mask. There might be some familial resemblance that would be noticed. I do like that Reivyn is on his own now in unknown territory. No more safety net, with the protectors gone, and no more exploring dungeons that lack a challenge in order to power-level his friends. While making friends and developing social / command skills was definitely good for Reivyn, none of the Tier 1 dungeons were really worth his time. I do hope he still finds a chance to force a Tier 3 transition at Tier 2, though. Depending on where he ended up, maybe he could eventually enroll in the local Academy and do the equivalent of jumping grades to quickly graduate. Well, enough rambling. Thanks for the chapter, author!
Game Devil
Well, maybe he remembers to funnel xp back to bloodline before leaving the dungeon. He risk going over lvl 10 otherwise I guess, and he's lacking skills not levels, most of his magic skills and many affinities are still below expert level and he needs expert or master level skills if hopes to get one of those better classes. He should be in a tier 3 area now if this is indeed a boss dungeon he has the stats but not the skills to be comfortable there.
Robert Apgar
It had an infinity symbol before he coooould level it instead of his class, if it didn't change after fully awakening. That would be a fun route to power.
MurderByNumbers
Still quite a few million xp to cap his bloodline
Robert Apgar
Ah I read between breaks so I seem to have missed that and just found that part again thanks.
Kyfe
He's speculating it's a boss Dungeon like the one he went to before, which was several separate Dungeons inside of a cavern. He's saying he doesn't know what might wait for him outside of the Dungeon in the cavern it's most likely located in, not deeper in the Dungeon.
Robert Apgar
So I guess I will have to wait for the notifications to be done. However that tier 3 class at tier 2 is probably out unless this is some academies dungeon. Unless the plan is to not level up at all until he gets back to his parents. Also why does he have to go deeper into the dungeon at all?
Heidi16
This reminded me of a Thanksgiving long ago. Our 17-year-old son left the table & went into his room. Very quickly he came back & whispered to his dad, "Can you come into my room?" About a minute later, his dad came back, sat down, and said, "Spider." Hahaha!
Jeppe Fiig
Hmm, the start of the chapter says he had more notifications, but he only has one. So shouldnt it have just said there was another notification aka the poison resistance
SodaBoBomb
Alright, this was a good chapter! I really enjoyed the uses of his Affinities, like the gravity on his boots thing. Hopefully we'll also get to see some other Elemental Weapons besides fire soon just for Variety sake. Lightning would be cool for example. I know Reiven is aiming for a pure Caster Class to balance his Fighter Class but I LIVE for this sort of SpellSword/MageBlade style combat, it's so cool! So here's hoping his NEXT class is either a ranged or stealth specialist to really hammer home that all-rounder aspect or merges his magic and martial into one class
MorningDawn
Hyped, looking forward to seeing what happens next!
