All three were early in the F-Grade, and were going to be a suitable test for his ability to fight creatures of that level. After all, if he were to go to an area that only had F-Grade beasts, he'd better be able to hold his own against them. Unfortunately, this trio was the strongest he and Moxlin had found in nearly three days of looking at the edge of the mental map of the caverns that Nox gave him, and after rather easy battles with other early F-Grade creatures or groups of G-Grade ones, he felt this was the best he could do.
So he was going to give himself a handicap—no using [Attuned Drill Strike], which had been able to end any single creature rather decisively, and no healing during battle. That ended up being more valuable than his overwhelming Skill, since he could cook up a potion in advance in [Gastric Cauldron] and keep it in the flask nucleus to be used at any point. Vents, it worked even better than drinking the stuff.
However, the three elementals weren't pushovers, even single ones being challenging to fight, especially the rock ones, with their unusually solid bodies. Taking on three of them at once might be overdoing it, so he at least used his newly acquired sword and armor.
This was a pleasant surprise, Moxlin still carrying the two other rewards he could've chosen when fulfilling Nox's quest to kill Puppy. Apparently, when a spider left Nox's web, whatever they took with them was theirs to keep, and it was part of a challenge to steal as much as they could before bolting out.
He remembered their description, reveling in the amazingness of his new gear.
>> Kodachi of the flowing strike (G-Grade, upgradable to F)
>>A sword made from a single piece of Helkan, endowed by an inspiration of the F-Grade artisan producing it to grant the weapon unusually refined Mana transmission. Hilt array provides limited self-repair.<<
>> Sheersilk armor set (G-Grade, upgradable to F)
>>A full matching armor set made by the in-house artisans of Nox of the Void with high-grade spider silk, enhanced by Nox herself with internal arrays providing additional defense from physical attacks. Includes limited self-cleaning and self-repairing arrays.<<
Axl was barely halfway down the crater when the two light elementals paused and rose into the air, clearly having detected him. He was not surprised that the incredibly Mana-sensitive creatures sniffed him out, so he quickly dropped the hiding feature of [Mana Shroud] and charged down.
The pyramidal elemental spun quickly, then spit out a shuddering ball of lightning at him. The attack moved rather slowly, so Axl could sidestep to largely avoid each attack, even if a few strands branching from the central bolt licked against his armor. The Sheersilk armor set was a beauty, however, and actually helped spread out the stray attacks before they hit him, letting Axl focus on pumping ambient Mana into his sword with [Mana Shroud]
A brown, threatening aura oozed from the edge of the otherwise bone-white blade as Axl closed half the remaining distance. It was a minor alteration of the dense Mana of the sheer rock below, removing some of its water and stillness attunement to allow for a purer density and heft. He'd never be able to perform such a subtle use of [Mana Shroud], if not for how easy it was to infuse Mana into [Webcutter], as he nicknamed the sword.
He never really bothered naming his stuff back in Luna, not even his finest drills or rig. He didn't even name a single rifle back in the lunar militia, as much as he had to alter each of the ones he fished out from a dead soldier to work with his Skill. But after using the sword in over half a dozen battles, Axl just couldn’t help himself, taken aback by how it seamlessly blended with [Mana Shroud] and how the weapon's elegant curvature made drawing it as seamless as taking a breath. Moxlin even mentioned that it was a normal practice, the System liking it when people named special gear.
The fuzzy elemental descended upon him as he kept avoiding the pyramid's ranged attacks, its halo reaching out to him like a wall of knives. Axl reached down into his dimensional pouch and took out a stone, then threw it at the charging elemental. A simple talisman wrapped on the stone increased its weight many times over, and combined with his Strength, it tore at the creature like a bullet.
The airborne elemental managed to slide to the side, but Axl threw another, then was struck by one of the ball lightning strikes in the arm, eating the attack to be able to throw a third. That final stone hit right in the center of the creature, and it shrieked as it was pushed back, dimming by a decent chunk.
Likely realizing its allies were struggling, the central elemental rumbled awake, the three-meter-long stone jutting out of the otherwise perfectly smooth crater floor charging at Axl, as if swimming through the stone ground. He jumped to the side to fully avoid the charge, and another ranged attack from the pyramid elemental, nicking the rock elemental with his blade as it past.
The attack barely touched the elemental's surface, but it still sliced right through, leaving a long, shallow line across the living rock. It shuddered, not expecting the damage, and tried to keep charging onwards, to force some distance between them. Axl let it, and instead turned to the fuzzy elemental that was trying to attack him again from the side.
He moved to dodge another set of ball-lightning strikes, unable to fully escape two of the attacks, the pyramid getting closer as it intensified its attack. The fuzzy elemental was almost at him now, emitting a piercing shriek, the Mana on its undulating surface genuinely threatening.
Axl quickly turned to face the incoming fuzzy elemental and threw [Webcutter] at it, the sword stabbing deeply into its body. The Mana within erupted, the weapon's edge now a vehicle for the density of stone's Mana to expand into the light attunement directly surrounding it. As Axl half expected, light-based Mana hated that particular infusion of foreign Mana. The creature was fully torn apart in a deflating burst, leaving behind only a translucent film slowly drifting to the ground. It didn't even get halfway down before Axl felt the Karmic Energy from the kill entering his body.
The pyramid elemental started to vibrate, a piercing wail building from the small body. The bulk of its light started to focus onto a single point, the pyramid pointing the dangerous-looking attack right at him.
There was no time to throw another talisman-empowered stone, the rock elemental was almost on him as well, charging from behind. So Axl instead redoubled his focus, drawing in his full attention into [Mana Shroud], absorbing the ambient Mana into his body, through the entirety of his Attributes, for a moment able to perfectly dodge the pyramid's powerful shot. He then quickly turned to the charging rock elemental and punched it, injecting it with the full payload of Mana the Skill held.
A large chunk of the elemental exploded outwards, its upper half nearly collapsing as it slowed its charge, then fell over, an inflow of Karmic Energy punctuating the victory. A ball-lightning strike hit Axl in the back, then another pushed him to the ground. He desperately turned over, rolling to avoid the next attack, gripping a stone, but at an awkward position to throw.
He braced himself to take another bolt before getting up, but there was a lull in the attacks, the pyramid now barely a shadow of its previous luminance, looking like it couldn't even keep its floating stance. Axl threw a stone at it, and it dissolved, thin sheets of clear tissue tumbling softly to the ground as a third and final burst of Karmic Energy flowed into his body.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He slowly made his way over to his sword and picked it up, happy to see the small nicks from the battle were already starting to repair themselves. He also wondered how the elementals were able to use lightning so easily, even his far more subdued casting for alchemy having a strangely heavy feeling to the action, as if he were breaking some unspeakably important law.
"Aaarg!" Moxlin cried, practically tumbling down the crater. "Did you have to detonate the rock elemental's core? That was the best part!"
"Sorry," Axl grimaced. "The fight was heating up more than I'd have liked. I didn't expect the teamwork of these things to be so good."
Moxlin went over to the thin pieces of translucent tissue left behind by the light elementals, each one disappearing into her dimensional storage. He wasn't sure what she'd use them for, but he realized from previous ones he killed that they wouldn't be useful to any of the potion-making he'd be attempting any time soon.
"Like I said before," she muttered, now scrambling to climb the rock elemental's remains. "Your long-range attack options are not great. Just learn some glyphic spellcasting for that already!"
Axl took out one of his talisman-wrapped stones, looking down at the improvised solution that had actually served him well in some earlier battles, an improvement on throwing the various spears Olkan left behind. But Moxlin was right, he needed to pivot a large chunk of his body to throw them well enough to apply a decent amount of his Strength to the throw, and this battle emphasized how that wasn't great, making him unable to throw when on the ground. Still, the idea of standing around for several seconds while he did fancy calligraphy in the air didn't seem like a better solution.
As much as potion-making appealed to him, and to a lesser extent, using talismans as he did with the stones, actually casting spells felt underwhelming, even after studying well into the section in his book. But maybe he just needed to see that in action to be convinced. For the moment, the stones would have to do.
"You ready, Moxlin?" he said.
"Yeah," she replied, popping out of the rock elemental's rubble. "Nothing in here worth taking."
He smiled at her. "I mean are you ready for the vale?"
"Eeeeeee! Finally!" she squealed, her legs exploding into a frenzy as she tumbled her way to his shoulder. "To glory!"
Axl had to admit he shared some of the spider's excitement. He'd basically prepared as much as he could the last week or so after gaining [Gastric Cauldron], from studying the [Oocile Cultivation Manual] Olkan left behind to familiarizing himself with [Attuned Drill Strike] and the odd Mana-empowered state that [Mana Shroud]'s third proficiency let him enter in short bursts. Not to mention incorporating the use of healing potions mid-battle, seamlessly healing just as he took damage, for the first time agreeing with the fuzzy spider that it did seem like a cheat.
Furthermore, the potion that gained him his second proficiency in Glyphic Alchemy was an empowerment potion, one able to permanently give you Attributes. These were rare recipes that were somehow unique to the individual alchemist. Moxlin was quite literally bouncing off random walls for a solid half hour when she heard that was exactly what got him the finished quest.
Even better, the potion could be taken more than once, Axl getting two more rounds of the full effect and one more with partial gains for a positively delicious five extra points to all his Attributes, on top of the two he already got when coming up with the recipe. Taking another potion after that did nothing, as he expected. Still, that was over two levels of Attribute points, right there. Moxlin only got the base effect once and a partial other, probably because she was already at a higher grade than the potion. She gained six points to Strength, Endurance, Wisdom, and Vitality, which was a better outcome for her since it reinforced some Attributes her class didn't invest in. It was quite the windfall, basically for free, and Axl channeled some of Roken's keenly remembered greed at the thought that, at some point, he could sell these potions.
Then there was another quite nifty Achievement he obtained the moment he drank a second empowerment potion, one he was quite giddy about.
>>Achievement Obtained:
>>Balanced Centennial Grounding (Consumable):
>>Obtain 100 points in every Attribute while still in the G-Grade, without using a Lineage inheritance.
>>Reward: A movement skill (variable rarity).
>>Upgradable: Mentorship (minor upgrade), boon enchantment (minimum of 2, middling upgrade), Dao alignment (grand upgrade).
He was practically salivating at adding a movement skill to his kit, picturing how every single battle he faced would’ve drastically benefited from the addition. But he held off on consuming the Achievement, wanting to get the very best possible version of it, so he'd have to figure out how to get his glimpse of lightning to do its thing again. Plus, the idea of getting a lightning-aligned movement Skill seemed especially appealing. Nothing is faster than free electrons when they want to move around, after all.
It wasn't all good news and promises of future power, however. In particular, the very magical-looking [Oocile Cultivation Manual] that Olkan left him was rather lackluster, simply explaining what the different Attributes did, that the Balanced Path required one to be diligent at practicing with all of them, and that developing a core was important. Annoyingly, it only provided vague instructions on how to actually make a core, Olkan's in-person instructions were better than what the manual stated. It still helped sort out some details he wasn't aware of, like vaguely how Charisma worked, but overall it was a real disappointment, and still glommed onto his soulspace, the minimal information looking positively shabby compared to the [Selsin Clan Glyphic Compendium]. It did unlock a new quest when he read the stuff about the core, so at least there was that.
>>Oocile Quest (Balance Path): Core Formation.
>>Perform the inner Mana concentration and refinement necessary to form a Cultivator's Core.
>>Reward: proportional to Core complexity: Common (minor), Attuned (middling), Dual (greater).
By far the worst development, however, was that he still hadn't gained a single level, still stuck at level 16 even after defeating over a dozen F-Grade creatures. Naively, he thought he could grind all the way to the peak of the G-Grade for his class in the cave system. After all, that seemed prudent before heading into an area specifically designed for the F-Grade. But it was getting harder and harder to find F-Grade opponents in the area he had mapped, and while it might be possible to find enough to level up after months of searching, his main quest didn't give him that leeway.
He took one more look at his Status screen, still appreciating the progress he'd made, even without any leveling up.
Name: Xel-389b (Roken)
Level: 16
Class: Usurpation of Balance (Rare)
Core: (none)
Spiritual Organs: Gastric Cauldron (G)
Lineage: Water Elf (G)
Attributes
Strength: 107
Endurance: 107
Agility: 107
Vitality: 107
Mentality: 107
Perception: 107
Intelligence: 107
Wisdom: 107
Charisma: 107
Luck: 107
Free Points: 0
Free Boons: 0
Dao: Glimpse of Lightning
Skills: Mana Shroud (Rare, Proficiency G.3), Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare, Proficiency G.1), Attuned Drill Strike (Rare, Proficiency G.1)
Technical Arts: Glyphistry: Glyphic Alchemy (G.2), Glyphic Spellcasting
Titles: Last Human of Luna (Terrania), Oocile's Chosen (Oocile), Marked Prey (Predatorial Conclave)
Quests: Establish the Terrania Nexus (Terrania), Void Tribute (Nox of the Void), Core Formation (Oocile)
Achievements (Consumed = 4): Karmic Enmity (Vikam Elves), Class Rebirth, Earliest Rebirth, Grand Slayer, Upward-Gazing Warrior (Consumable)
Soulspace Manuals: Selsin Clan Glyphic Compendium (F-Grade), Oocile Cultivation Manual (G-Grade)
Finally pushing to the very edges of Axl's mental map, he saw an opening above, a shaft of light descending onto a shallow pool with an old, broken bucket on it. The opening was neatly ringed with carved stone, a half-rotten rope peeking out, the remnants of a water well.
He checked his dimensional pouch one more time, making sure all the canteens were full of clean water, plenty of food preserves from the tastier lizards wrapped in neat preservation talisman packaging, and that he had plenty of his talisman-empowered throwing stones. Then he checked his Sheersilk armor set for any damage, and that [Webcutter] was also fully repaired.
"It's okay to be afraid," said Moxlin, her voice soft. "It's really bad to be a crazed lunatic jumping from one insane risk to another. If anything, it was very good that you slowed down after the alchemy quest. To be honest, I didn't expect that of you, and it was a big part of what convinced me to tag along."
"Not my charming muscles?" He flexed a wiry bicep, annoyed that the old joke only really worked with his previous, human body.
"Oh, yes," Moxlin snickered. "What girl doesn't love a lumpy physique?"
He looked back at the dangling rope, the silence lingering in the air.
"Strange, isn't it? It's not hard to deal with dangerous situations when I'm thrown into them. But deciding to get in myself… It just feels different."
Moxlin quietly placed the tip of a leg against his cheek, the soft fur of her tiny poke feeling oddly reassuring.
Axl took a deep breath and jumped to grab the end of the rope, then climbed up.