Chapter Thirty
Reve caught up to them before they’d made more than a couple hundred feet through the forest.
It was fortunate that Skylar’s golems had firm rules about not attacking Party members, because Skylar let out a surprised yelp when Reve dropped down in front of her from a towering branch. The djinn flinched back and Woody loomed over her protectively, but the golem didn’t attack.
Vester wasn’t sure Reve even noticed the golem.
“The monster is a giant reptile,” she reported.
“It walks on two legs with a massive head, small front limbs, and a long tail stretched out behind it to balance its weight. The beast has to be close to a hundred feet in length, and it is strong enough to simply knock the smaller trees over while it tracks us.”
“Are you sure it’s following us specifically?” Kora asked before Vester had a chance to do the same. The kitsune shifted from her position near the front toward the back, her tower shield gripped firmly in her arm.
“Yes,” Reve replied with a firm nod. “The beast knelt down and sniffed on several occasions. It is displaying hunting behavior. I saw it flush out a smaller beast with its roar, a quadruped nearly Dent’s size. The monster bit its prey in half with a single chomp but kept heading toward us.”
“Maybe the Great Dungeon isn’t thrilled we helped Non alter its floor,” Vester mused.
When the others looked at him, he offered a shrug.
“We know the dungeon doesn’t like when people are too powerful for their location. We just completely rearranged the eleventh floor. This might be the dungeon responding to that.”
“That makes sense,” Kora agreed slowly. “Not a comforting thought, though, because it suggests we’ll be shunted to a lower floor if we kill this beast. The dungeon has used that mechanic to force people to move before.”
“Oh, like that monster we fought on the first floor!” Krysta exclaimed. “Wait, but what should we do if killing the thing triggers a floor shift?”
“We avoid it,” Vester decided. “Let’s get to the city and make our way through to the lake. With luck, the monster won’t be able to make it to the island, and we can take care of the secret Quest before it figures out a way across.”
“Assuming the Quest didn’t get destroyed in the floor alteration,” Kora added grimly. But while that suggestion saw people’s expressions change, no one wasted time before they started moving again. They just jogged along the path Li Ra was forging for them.
Something about the description of the monster Reve gave was nagging at Vester. He turned it over in his head while they moved, and then his eyes narrowed. The next time the roar rang out over the forest, Vester placed why it sounded familiar.
There’s no fucking way the dungeon created a dinosaur, right? he asked himself. And… that isn’t even what a T-rex would sound like. That was just the noise Hollywood came up with for the movies… There’s… no way a dinosaur could get recreated in the dungeon, right?
Vester stopped, contemplating how many things Non knew about Earth.
The goddess had said her dad had shared stories with her before, and if her father was really from Earth, there was a solid chance he’d seen the Jurassic Park franchise.
Since the Great Dungeon pulled things from the gaps between realities and turned it into physical creations… well, it was plausible.
Just to be sure, Vester created a brief illusion of the T-rex from the movie and showed it to Reve.
She had him make a few changes: thicker scales along the back and head, spikes along the end of the tail, a pair of vicious-looking horns jutting forward from its head—and double the size he’d scaled it to.
While the changes gave it some cosmetic differences, Reve was firm on the point that the creature chasing them did resemble the T-rex Vester had shown them. That led Vester to explaining what he knew about the T-rex and dinosaurs in general. To his surprise… similar creatures existed on Ordinal.
Apparently there was an entire island chain between two of the continents where huge, warm-blooded reptiles were common.
Most of the beasts weren’t truly titanic, but the apex species of each island were enormous, and Kora said that hunters paid well for their skins because the hide made some of the best leather armor on Ordinal.
The speed the Party was moving at meant they cleared the thickest part of the forest before the dinosaur could close in with them. The pathway down among the tower-trees was easy to find, and Vester marveled at how peaceful those homes looked.
Vester didn’t see any signs of new monsters in those trees and suspected the Great Dungeon had yet to spawn anything to occupy them.
He was glad for that. If nothing lived in the strange little homes carved into those mighty trees, then his Party might be able to use them to hide from the T-rex. But for the moment, the group rushed past in their hurry to get to the lake.
Reve continued flying overhead, keeping an eye on their pursuer. The beast obviously had a keen sense of smell, because it altered course twice to follow their trail. While taking a direct course toward them meant it had less distance to cover, the beast couldn’t shove through the thicker trees.
The monster was also so large that even knocking down the smaller trees didn’t let it break into a full run; the shattered trunks created clutter around its feet and slowed it down. This allowed Vester and the others to maintain their lead, so they were able to reach the lake well ahead of it.
Which was when they discovered the body of water had also been changed by Non’s power.
They had been expecting a deep, wide cavern lake with an island in the center housing some kind of cattle animal. What they found was indeed wide and deep—but it was moving with a powerful current that created visible waves along its surface.
Whitewater churned and splashed from the force of the flow, and the water had a green tint that made it impossible to gauge how far down it went. The spray from the waves also caused a haze to shroud the water, and as a result they struggled to pinpoint where the island was.
Reve was able to solve that problem by scouting from above, and she reported that the island was a small, rocky spire jutting forth from a huge whirlpool.
The tall spike of stone branched out like a clawed hand to form a series of rocky shoals in a ring around the main island, and Reve described a hunched structure of some sort topping the stone formation.
Li Ra spent a few minutes studying the water.
She had a long rope with a knotted ball at the end, and she kept tossing it into the maelstrom and counting how fast and in which direction it got yanked away.
That allowed her to estimate the current strength, and she judged it unsafe for anyone with a strength under forty to swim.
The golems had begun tearing down smaller trees and ripping branches away with mechanical precision. Between Woody and Ripper, the wood was sliced clean amazingly fast. Dent’s ax-hand was enough to knock down the slimmer trunks in a few hits, so they were piling it up quickly.
The Party began assembling their raft without delay, so Vester dedicated his mana to conjuring strong cabling to tie it all together.
He focused on picturing the steel cable he’d seen holding up a ski lift, and Kora and Skylar had no problem treating the thick material like regular rope.
Krysta’s Sanctuary kept everyone’s energy levels stable, and she brewed a few potions that would ensure no one got sick on the tossing waves.
Reve was confident she could use her telekinesis to keep the raft on course, though Skylar would have to store her golems to make the weight manageable.
But they had to finish assembling the vessel before their dinosaur arrived, and its roars continued to ring out and ensure they didn’t forget they were being hunted.
Several hundred feet of cable later, Vester found his head was pounding.
Krysta’s magic had ensured his mana didn’t tank, but there was still a cost to using his Trickster’s Domain she couldn’t mitigate.
Vester could only assume the pain he was feeling came from his lack of “faith energy”, but he forced himself to push through the ache.
Or he tried.
Almost before he realized it, Kora and Krysta had bustled him to the center of their forming raft and told him to stop in no uncertain terms. When he tried to protest, Krysta had put a finger on the side of his head, wiped it, and then held up a bloodstained digit for him to look at.
Since Vester hadn’t even realized he’d begun bleeding out his ears, he had no argument prepared. Kora gave him a kiss, then went back to manhandling trees. Krysta served him tea and finger sandwiches before she promised to keep him company once her potions were done.
Vester wasn’t willing to do nothing, so he cast Labyrinth Ward back along the pathway that led from the forest to the lake. He had a vague hope that the dinosaur might be stupid and simply fall victim to the trap, but he doubted the Great Dungeon would let them disable it so easily.
While he waited, he summoned his Grimoire.
Quest: Fuck the Police! (Repeatable)
Contributions: Broke the unconditional trust between the Hero and his patron goddess. Created conflict between the Hero and his Party. Shattered trust between the Hero’s Party and the Church of Light. Pushed a member of the Hero’s Party to swear a vendetta against the Church of Light (x2)
Reward: +4 to charisma. Progression to level 51 Trickster.
Divine Quest: Summon Non.
Contributions: Performed a vast summoning ritual as a demigod in support of the Goddess of Chaos allowing for the complete redesign of a Great Dungeon floor. Aided in setting a race on the path of sapience.
Reward: Random Skill Upgrade x2. +2 constitution. Progression to level 52 Trickster. Skill Evolution: Labyrinth Ward to Labyrinth.
Vester took a deep breath, reading over the rewards.
He wasn’t shocked that breaking Denny’s conditioning had worked for Vester’s own Quest against the Church of Light, though he was surprised it had been enough to earn him a level.
He could take or leave the bonus to his charisma, but the points he got as a Trickster were great.
But it was his rewards for summoning Non that truly stunned him.
The change from Labyrinth Ward to Labyrinth meant he had to recast the spell, so he was careful to ensure he wanted his entire party on the exclusion list.
The new spell had a diameter of just over thirteen-hundred feet; Vester used all of it to mold a wall and maze between the Party and the oncoming dinosaur.
Labyrinth (SS-Rank): Level 3
The ability to create a confusing maze that traps the mind of those who enter in a limitless plane, separating their minds from their bodies.
The Labyrinth occupies a 5’ radius per point of caster’s intelligence, centered upon casting.
The caster determines who shall fall victim to their tricks.
At SS-rank, this spell increases by 1’ in radius upon reaching level 4.
Like most skills, level 6 is the cap. This spell requires mana to cast.
If I am reading this right… this spell will remain until I dismiss it. There’s nothing that says it requires mana to keep going, just to cast. Though the initial cost is pretty hefty. Even with the discount I get through Trickster’s Cane that was a big drop in energy.
While Vester was a little sad the skill hadn’t risen to level 4 when it evolved, he wasn’t going to complain. The fact it was a domain ability in its own right made it extremely versatile.
His eyes flicked to the two skills that had gained a new level. Phantom Form was now maxed at level 5, and Decoy Swap had gone up to level 4.
Decoy Swap (S-Rank): Level 4
The ability to teleport to a new location and leave behind an illusory clone at the point of origin along with three additional clones that appear within 20 feet of the starting point.
These clones perform actions as the caster wills.
Additionally, the caster benefits from a period of invisibility lasting five minutes before returning to visibility.
Level 4 allows for an 80-foot teleportation with a five-minute cooldown.
At S-rank, it will gain +20 feet per level and generate one additional decoy.
Like most skills, Level 5 is the cap. This spell requires mana to use.
Phantom Form (SS-Rank): Level 5 (Max)
The Phantom Form is an intangible body capable of bypassing all physical barriers and is immune to all physical harm.
This incorporeal form is still subject to gravity and cannot bypass materials of sufficiently magical nature.
At S-rank, this skill lasts for 5 minutes per point of intelligence.
Enchanted weapons and spells as well as certain environment effects can still affect the Phantom Form. This skill requires mana to use.
Those were solid boosts, but nothing groundbreaking. He dropped his two free points into his strength to bring that up to 30, then checked his overall status page.
Vester Gambit: Divine Elf
Trickster: Level 52
Profession: Enchanter
Strength: 30
Dexterity: 117 (167)
Constitution: 38
Intelligence: 136
Wisdom: 124
Charisma: 35
Skills: Trickster’s Domain, Phantom Form 5 Decoy Swap 4, Labyrinth 3, Chaos Cock MAX, Chaos Thief 2, Remove Divine Curse, Deprivation Cage 2, Unfettered. Trickster's Cunning 2
Profession skills: Mana Manipulation, Inscribe Enchantment
Unique Ability: Nightmare’s Release
Gear: Avatar’s Raiment, Trickster’s Cane, A Father’s Approval
Free Points: 0
Wow, I have made a lot of progress since getting to the eleventh floor, he thought with some disbelief. Denny waking up and talking must be what saw the last instance of Fuck The Police! triggering. It was probably still pending while Denny was unconscious.
“Everyone take a minute and check your Grimoires!” he yelled to his Party. Because if his rewards had been this good, he wanted to make sure everyone else had gotten their own benefits before they launched the raft out over the whirlpool.
He closed his tome and let it fade away.
Then he took a deep breath. I’m going to have to completely retrain how I use my abilities, he realized.
It’ll be hard enough to work out when and how to blend changing reality and using illusions; but now I can also spend hours in Phantom Form.
I can also weave Labyrinth within my Trickster’s Domain.
I can even use Nightmare Field inside it, though I have to figure out how.
I hope we can find some time to master our new abilities before the next cris—his thought was interrupted by the titanic roar of the approaching dinosaur, which exploded out of the forest and began charging down the path.