Bonded Summoner-Chapter 11BS7 - : Clan Hart in the Dungeon

Ophelia rode through the air on Valora, the powerful longma mount galloping through the sky. The draconic horse managed her pace, only running slightly ahead of the rest of the party.

Fhesiah flew using Qi combined with draconic flight, the girl’s speed even more substantial in the second Tier. Her Core now actually produced Qi from the void rather rapidly thanks to its Hearthian nature, and could use any within the air to fuel the flames of her paths rather easily. This allowed her to fly as long as she wanted.

Tanda flew with her raven wings flapping, the girl even having tail feathers attached to her armor, her wolf tail wagging underneath it. Her auril enabled her to reach decent speeds, and she could keep up with Fhesiah quite well.

And Jake rode on Bloodberri’s back–as she flew through the sky. Her Mythic transforming armor had several articulating bone structures attached, lined with auril beast hawk feathers. Much like the many beastkin could use flight suits and cape flaps, she could use wings as if they were her own.

Using auril, she could flap her several sets of wings in an impressive manner. Combined with her lift generating snaking movements, she could fly rapidly, despite her heavy weight.

“See, Jake? Am I still awesome, or what?”

“As always, you’re amazing, Berri. And Blood is just as awesome for indulging you.”

Blood nodded. “This was so much practice to get right. But I have to admit, it was worth it–we pushed forward our understandings of auril and light and dark to accomplish this.”

Bloodberri now looked a lot like Echidna, the goddess, just with their armor added on.

Jake could fly on his own, and perhaps a little faster, without taxing his resources overly much. But this made his snake wife happy, and they would have to slow to her speed anyway, so he was happy to oblige once more.

This configuration did give them another small benefit.

The Garuda, who they decided to name Zephyr, flew alongside them now, already summoned and capable of responding to threats. If Jake was wasting mana to fly, then he couldn’t easily benefit by keeping his permanent summon active.

And Ira now monitored the dungeon world for threats. Its new perception was even greater than before, and now, Jake thought if he faced that mentalist again, even scaled up to their new level, Ira would crush him with ease.

Its control over the void was that much more impressive, allowing it to actually harm enemies significantly. The void wyrm’s energy was still limited, but its ability to create a tear through space against most enemies was absolutely devastating. Jake could also fuel its space shredding attacks from his void lungs, making the creature very deadly on its own.

The plan was still to keep its attacks and teleportations in reserve for the critical moments, rather than it helping in most fights. A big reason for this decision was to keep a low profile, to make it harder for their enemies to be aware of everything that it could do. As always, Ira has been one of Jake’s major trump cards.

So now, Jake’s party made an impressive sight as they flew across the sky of the dungeon safely. This was not their first time, but it was interesting to see how much it had changed with each visit.

It was still a surprise to Jake that the first several floors and paths of the dungeon were like a real-time strategy game or exploration map like some open-world style adventure and RPG games. As they conquered portions of the map, they revealed territory and access to certain challenges.

Their base was frequently attacked, resulting in big battles that were difficult for all participants to survive. It was interesting how the mechanic worked, and certain elements actually carried into the next floors.

The events they were called into were when they sieged the giant castle, which was in fact reminiscent of the Fortress Assault. Jake’s sealed party went inside with a group of forty in total battle strength, and it was like a miniature dungeon raid.

Once that was defeated, forces constantly spawned and attacked the outpost on timed events, almost like what the Greater Rift would have been. This was a little bit like a mini-world boss in MMO games, where almost monthly they could face the boss and get substantial drops and benefits. Or, in this case, they would destroy their Outpost if they could not be stopped.

The Outpost when first claimed, had looked little better than the average beastkin village on Highlands. But thanks to their hard work, it now had tall walls and even a magical barrier. Then, it had minor magical siege equipment that provided a basic defense against the periodic raids of monsters. The Alliance members could then attack monsters from the walls, and these sieges were great as a leveling and even monster loot farming resource.

Even within the walls, there was still danger during battles, however. There were monsters capable of sniping-type attacks, targeting mages and archers on the walls once the barriers went down–and they almost always inevitably did.

Deaths still occurred rather frequently during these events where the Outpost came under attack. It was less of Hearthtribe members, and more from the random Alliance that frequently wandered inside, but it was proof that people couldn’t let their guards down even inside the Outpost’s walls.

The party passed an ominous looking gate, that was a dozen meters tall. It was similar to the one they went into for the Dungeon Raid, with ominous depictions of horrifying monsters wrapped around the pillars and gate itself. It was one of the four found on this floor, and had Framework scripts detailing the next floor’s information now that it had been unlocked.

Often, special events would look the same, just with different colored gates and also the Framework’s scripts detailing very little about the possible threat contained within. Unfortunately, the gates were a bit of a mystery box in a sense, or rather, a Pandora’s Box. By opening a gate, large battles which could influence the entire floor could occur, and a failure would lead to a Monster Tide on Highlands.

Berri smiled in remembrance. “This event was the most fun. I got to hit a lot of our new super baseballs.”

Fhesiah smiled. “And I got a lot of free Alchemical Breath attacks. All thanks to my understanding of my dear sister-wife’s darkness.”

Ophelia shook her head. “That potion was a letdown, though. I can’t believe it was only one strength. It said plus five!”

Blood smirked. “It was a potential improving item. I see it as we have nearly maximized our potential. That was not a disappointment to me. It was vindication.”

Fhesiah grinned. “True. We need better items than our subordinates can find and receive from their casual delving. They all received the maximum benefit, so they have the most to gain. Hopefully, with two of us unsealed, and obtaining things from higher-level events…”

When unlocking another path or floor, his party was called upon to engage in the large event, with his party’s champion status sealed. That one had somewhat resembled the Life’s Haven boss battle, in that numerous tower-like structures spawned and rained attacks of various elements down on the Battlegroup.

Bloodberri had taken to destroying them with Tanda, while Fhesiah and Ophelia raced around and took down the numerous dark casters that targeted the weakened members of the Battlegroup with shadow bolts. Avalara had tanked the large boss, as Hearthtribe fought in harmony to defeat the somewhat challenging boss battle.

Flying through the landscape of the dungeon, the party continued on over a mountain until they came across the next ominous blackened gate, which was opened by a much smaller group.

They entered the portal, and arrived in the next floor. This floor was much more closed off, and so they continued mostly on Valora and Bloodberri, running through the caves mostly on foot rather than flight.

Blue stones lined the mostly narrow cavern walls, and Jake knew they were mana stones, an important resource for their Outposts. They were also refined into higher-tier mana crystals, above the ones that Jake fed Fhesiah at the beginning of their adventure, occurring naturally from the dense mana within the caves.

The floor was nearly endless caverns with many ambush creatures, especially spiders and other nasty beasts, filled with mana. The mana was extra dense, and while normally, one might think their Mana Control skill would make this a huge benefit. But it was the opposite. The mana was too dense, and if one’s control was not enough, spells would go haywire and backfire. Using Hearth Runic Magic by forming the runes first in their hearths made the floor trivial, but this place was still not one Jake and his wives liked to explore.

Ira and Fhesiah prevented most of the ambushes, and the few trap triggers were spotted and avoided as well. The reptilian beastkin were used to such narrow spaces, and they had explored its depths.

Vesuvius had gone on and on about how tasty the many mana-infused insect monsters were, and why he had explored it so extensively to Jake when he last updated his captured template.

Jake would often meet up with his Hearthtribe brethren to update his captured templates, a requirement to keep his templates up to date. New skills and more wouldn’t show up until he did. It took less time than the initial capture, and he found the results to be much better than if the Framework simply scaled the templates to his level.

During that task, he would have chats with them and often found himself becoming a mentor to them, helping them plan out their progression. He was happy about this, but it had sort of snuck up on him. He found himself often repeating some of Zhuge Liang or Guan Yu’s wisdom, or even things that Zhang Fei had shown or told Bloodberri.

Of course, Jake understood that this was probably a large part of the three’s goals in becoming their mentors. They brought their wealth of experience to the table and told them many stories. They helped provide pointers as they improved their skills, and helped them practice their numerous skills in their sessions each month.

In all, Jake felt that mentorship was a little strange. They had said they were limited in what they could teach, but less limited than a god or goddess. But if they were able to talk so much, just how were they restricted at all?

The big, important thing they weren’t able to do, was directly teaching them skills or spells recognized by the Framework, by demonstration or otherwise. These had to be learned or earned on their own, and the most that the mentors could do was let them know about their existence. Once Jake and his wives had them, they could help direct them on how to improve or advance them.

But even still, especially with magical theory, Zhuge Liang had to be very nuanced on how he brought things to Jake and Fhesiah’s attention in order to help them advance. This was a part of the Conquest 4X game. To tell them precisely how to improve to the next level might actually cause their entire guild to lose the minor Framework benefits that would be earned by researching it themselves.

Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were far less limited, as Techniques were much closer to being general and personalized, compatible with individual instruction. They could certainly demonstrate how to swing their weapon better, and give pointers.

Following the map provided, the party rapidly traveled through the caverns. Some monsters attacked their party from nearby paths, but they were mostly jokes to their party, the enemies that crossed their path quickly being riddled with powerful hearth flames and other deadly attacks.

Eventually, they reached the Outpost of the floor, which was within a much larger, gem-filled cavern.

Jake was surprised that these Outposts on other floors were linked, with special lines traveling through the cavern walls. Resources were sent between and stockpiled, and so it became important to build and defend the Outposts on more floors to gain access to all the special resources.

Thankfully, these smaller resource-focused floors shouldn’t grant the enemy much power for claiming it if the inhabitants of the floor were forced to retreat, and very few were required to man it. Primarily, those that were using the creatures for leveling, and some actually farmed the resources contained within the floor were often enough to handle the monster surges and wave type events within.

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Crafters were often attracted to these floors, as they could use the materials obtained on the floor directly. The monsters within ate the mana stones, and those with dense mana within their veins made excellent crafting materials.

This floor was smaller in total, but the monsters were of a slightly higher level. The entry floor was intended from levels 26 through 29, and this one was meant for 30 through 33. While the entry floor had four paths that headed to other floors, this smaller one only had two.

Defeating a few more wayward enemies, including a crazy slime lizard thing that had somehow surprised them, they passed through another ominous gate and portal. This one, they had once again been called upon to help open it, requiring what should have been a difficult Boss Battle with fifty participants.

A dense vitality of life pervaded Jake’s senses, like he had stepped into the dense jungles of Highlands. Tall trees and dense, giant flora surrounded them, as they once again took to the air.

The trees were actually miles tall, their trunks thick, but defying what Jake would imagine were the laws of physics with the mana running through them. To reach miles high, they would need to be thicker than just about any skyscraper Jake had ever seen. They were wide, surely, but would otherwise have snapped at a third of the height, he imagined.

And Jake’s party wouldn’t want to travel above them–powerful monsters roamed the skies and converged on nearly everything that did. While Jake was sure they would win, it was far more trouble than it was worth.

Within the sparse branches of the massive trees, they were only occasionally attacked by similar monsters. It was easy enough for them to take a circuitous flight path, to avoid unnecessary fights, thanks to Ira and Fhesiah.

At this point in time, several paths throughout the dungeon had been decently explored in the last several years, but not everything had been unlocked. This one was one of the most explored and built up in the last few years because the beastkin were most excited about this environment.

It was the path most like the beastkin’s home, an immense jungle with giant monsters exuding dense life or death energies. To Jake, it felt almost like a trap–that the dungeon made exactly what the natives of Highlands would be drawn to, just waiting until the right time to spring it.

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However, this was a lot like the life and death reflection–the final boss battle in the Dungeon Raid. The dungeon often would make challenges appropriate for the residents of the world, that sort of fit the theme or rewards in a sense.

This was seen by many to be the Framework’s influence, but the many Divine would not confirm or deny whether this was by design of the system they created or not.

And it provided real benefits. Much of the special loot was life or death related, as this jungle too had immense vitality, or areas with powerful deathly energies. Even spending time within them could have special benefits.

The few potential improving special items found on this floor actually improved a few beastkin’s auril hearts or the Emberborn or Eternum’s flaming hearths, the life or death enhancing treasures providing them with special benefits. Thankfully, resources from the floor were often provided to Fhesiah, which once again allowed her to make special pills for the beastkin to level up reliably.

This floor was even larger than the previous one, but not long after their party took to the sky, they were forced to face a number of enemies–almost like they were waiting for them.

Most of them were giant insects or beasts, carrying various life or death energies. They were quickly swarmed by the large numbers of monsters. There was a giant lizard that lept from the trees that regenerated rapidly, a beetle that was strengthened by the life energy, and a swarm of mayflies that shot venomous attacks, among many others with similar skills or advantages.

It was surprising the number that had gathered, but the numbers were the only thing surprising. The party spammed their much larger area of effect spells and ranged attacks, and whittled away at them while Ira roamed and checked for more oncoming enemies. Finding none, they eventually cut through them and finished them off.

They killed enough of them that they decided to rest up for a bit and recover. To travel while low on resources was often not a good idea, as some of the floors actually had roaming mini-bosses or dangerous storms, and this one was no different.

Then, the dungeon could use the opportunity to whittle away at them by sending more and more enemies on the way, until a swarm arrived with them low on resources.

Besides, they had already been flying and fighting through the dungeon for several hours already. They had planned to rest when they arrived at the Outpost, but had been delayed. Perhaps this was on purpose by the dungeon, but whatever plans the dungeon had for them, they were sure that resting up now was the safest option.

Bloodberri coiled their long and massive tail, providing a shielded resting area inside. It was almost like the armored snake tail formed a several meter tall wall, and they then brought their torso inside. From their storage rings, chairs were brought out, and Valora, Ira and Zephyr wandered around outside, prepared to defend them against any threats giving them a chance to act.

They sat down to take a load off, and Jake, Bloodberri and Ophelia both drank some dense mana water to recover, while Tanda used her auril beast jerky, and Fhesiah used a Qi crystal.

Fhesiah looked over the dense Qi crystal in her hand. “It sure would be nice if they had a cultivator floor dense with Qi. I’d like to get an item that would grant you guys Divine Sense, after all.”

Ophelia said, “Maybe the Mystic Expanse will have that? Their dungeon should be opening soon, we could help them explore it.”

Jake said, “True. Or, if we get something here, we could trade something for what they obtain there.”

It had taken Nessa a couple of years, but she had finally, with Hearthtribe and Warrior Brotherhood’s help, completed the world’s Trial. Tartarus had tried hard to stop them with all sorts of machinations, from unorthodox cultivators to even an enemy Champion who led them, but Nessa had prevailed with her many allies.

And to Jake’s surprise, Nessa could earn Divine Sparks. A daughter of a true Divine, her Nascent Divinity had actually gained something when she managed to slay them.

Now, they were working on Aetheris’ integration–the other cultivator world, and they were nearing the end with their many new allies. The cultivators were certainly power hungry, and killing evil to level up and ascend was a rapid transformation.

Fhesiah smiled wide and responded to Jake’s thoughts about Nessa, “Oh, that’s right. I think it’s almost time now, don’t you, Blood?”

Of course, what Fhesiah was bringing up was for Nessa to join their family–a political marriage.

Blood smiled. “Why yes, I do think it’s nearly time. The little snake princess has grown, and her guild has outperformed even Valtor’s predictions, and no doubt our enemy’s. And so have Warrior Brotherhood, thanks to our assistance. We have over a dozen worlds in our network now, and she’ll have five to her guild’s name. It’s quite a nice combination of holdings, don’t you agree?”

She added, “It might be best that we do it soon. When the War Trial polls start coming in for the worlds involved, deciding how they will participate, it might be too late for us to gain the most benefits. In a sense, the first stage will be locked in, unable to be changed.”

Ophelia frowned, and Jake could feel her heart waver. “And what about what Jake thinks? Or me?”

Tanda’s tail was wagging, and she was clearly enjoying this topic. “I think Jake cares most about what we think–he is always seeking harmony, like a beastkin clan head. And Fhesiah, Blood, and Berri are already sold. That our family will be stronger, and believe their hearts can beat as one. I met her, and I thought we could sing the same song–and that means Ava is on board too.”

Berri sniffed. “And I’ve kept in contact with her. I think she’s a nice girl.”

Jake was baffled. “You did? Since when?”

“Yup. After the party where we killed the cultists, I messaged her. The poor girl is always busy. I had to share the best movies with her so she could relax, and make sure she knew how to play baseball for when we met again.”

Tanda turned to Lia, “So what do you think, Lia? Of course, your thoughts on the matter are important, too.”

Ophelia gathered her thoughts, and Jake already knew them–to an extent. This topic, even if not just about Nessa, had come up several times over the past few years. It had even been brought up about Yona–the maid. The girl was more than willing to become Jake’s mate, and she had become an important member of their family over the years.

Jake was starting to feel a desire for her, the more he saw her loving and caring attitude and felt her hearth–because she had gained one, as part of becoming one of Bastet’s priestesses.

Ophelia sighed. “You all know my concerns, and they’ve been largely reinforced by what we’ve learned about his hearth and his soul. More wives are easy to justify, for so many different reasons. But if Jake gives and gives, will he have any pieces of his soul left?”

Jake could feel her worries. As always, she was trying to protect him and their family.

Ophelia continued, “I think if I had to choose one, Nessa is probably the highest on my list to pick, but our view of the multiverse is very narrow. This is just one sector of many. Still, that she worked hard to earn our respect and attention counts for a lot. If we look at a list of pros and cons, who could be better other than someone even stronger, like a goddess?”

She hesitated, but eventually added, “And after leaving all our kids at home, I feel that it wouldn’t be the worst thing if…there were more of us wives in this family. But I just think about us leaving our kids at home, and… if Nessa were here already, would one of us have decided to stay at home? And if one of us did, is that even a good thing for us? For our clan?”

Jake said, “We could have brought Nessa even with all of us. This event we moved for can have up to a hundred participants. But people can change. Their goals in life can change too, can’t they? I don’t see that as a bad thing at all, if any of you girls decided to change things up.”

Ophelia frowned, her wings fluttering in irritation. “I know. It’s just… Seeing our kid’s faces, even though they put on a brave front… I think even I would have been tempted to stay at home, and… I don’t think I like it. We need to keep fighting, to protect our many allies and friends, and to save those who need us. Even our children, our ability to protect them requires us to keep fighting to become stronger.”

Jake did his best to envelop Ophelia with his Bond–giving her a hug with his soul. “I’d have talked you into it. I need my Loyal Guardian whenever we’re challenged.”

Ophelia smiled, and then blazed over to him with her Technique and gave him a strong hug that he could feel easily through his armor, and a kiss. “Thanks… I needed to hear that. And I know that’s right, but…” Her wings fluttered, and she stayed seated in Jake’s lap, and wrapped her wings around him.

Fhesiah said, “A cultivator’s desire to strive for the peak, their thirst for power–their personal momentum is one of the biggest aspects that determines those who can and can’t reach the peak. If you stop progressing and slow down, you may stop and never continue. It is for this reason that most cultivators do not have children until they reach Nascent Soul–the third Tier. They destroy one’s momentum.”

Blood arched her brow and asked, “If that’s the case, why did you have children too already?”

Fhesiah smiled. “The New Heavens has changed my mindset on this of course, but also the rest of you. My family having them was the same as me having them, in that sense. While we all spent a little more time with the children we birthed, we truly treated them all as our Clan’s children, giving them all the love and attention they needed. They’re Jake’s children, so they are all family.”

Tanda nodded, but titled her head, confused. “Of course? What other way is there?”

Blood chuckled. “For many other cultures, only those children a mother birthed would receive their love. Often, the other wives and children in a family like Jake’s are considered competition for their male’s love, as well as his resources and benefits. And because of the importance, the first born son was often killed over these kinds of squabbles and positioning done by the many mothers. A den of vipers even among humans, truly.”

Tanda was horrified with her ears flat on her head and her eyes widened, but Fhesiah added, “I knew that conflict was coming for our kingdom, our family, and it was coming soon enough. We slowed down, but we never stopped–and I’m not just talking about leveling up in the bedroom. We have properly mixed work with play, bettering ourselves and preparing for the next conflict. And doing it all while preparing our allies for the challenges that come.”

She looked over to Ophelia. “There is zero doubt in my mind you would have taken up your weapon and shield the moment our family and kingdom came to danger. This trip into the dungeon…maybe you’d have stayed at home. But you’d have been filled with anxiety watching through Jake’s eyes, wanting to protect him, to carry out your role. You might have even begged him to summon you when that strange slime reptile thing burst through the wall in that last cave–even though Berri killed it with so fast with fire of all things.”

Berri had used actual fire. She had gone out of her way to learn how to use the several fires within her hearth, for some reason Jake didn’t know. Thanks to the mnemonics, she had gotten good with many runic Tier 2 spells now, but had previously only been good with her light mana, even sucking at switching over to plain mana. That was still the case, but she was very diligent with the other fires in her Hearth now.

Berri shivered. “It was super gross! I learned my lesson now. Gross things like the muckbill and similar are meant to be killed with fire. And why didn’t Ira or you warn us?”

Fhesiah laughed. “Honestly? I saw it on the other side of the wall with my Divine Sense, and thought there was no way it could burst through it like that. It went through the porous wall like it wasn’t even there. I saw it coming, but you were even faster than me somehow.”

Jake could feel a bit of embarrassment from Ira over the issue. It seemed the creature thought the same thing, and only warned him when it was almost too late. It had underestimated an enemy, though, it was ready to kill the monster itself if Berri hadn’t been so fast. Part of the issue was it wasn’t even worth worrying about, but it had still surprised the whole party.

Berri sniffed. “We weren’t flying, so I felt the vibrations from it moving through the walls through my snake body. I could feel it being all gross like it was.” She shivered again.

Ophelia chuckled at their interaction, but turned to Fhesiah. “Thanks for the pep talk, Faye. I think you’re right, I’m just having doubts. I…think Nessa is good for our family. When we met her, she seemed like she would be a good fit. Even if she was a Norse, but is now a cultivator snake girl somehow, she seemed to remind me a lot of me. If… I was the daughter of a god, maybe.”

Fhesiah frowned. “It’s unlike you to worry about this. I think you should have more confidence, sister, are you sure that isn’t your tattoo, the seal, eroding your resolve?”

Tanda looked worriedly at Ophelia, and channelled additional auril into her sealing tattoo. Over the years, they had kept the balance quite well. However, the tattoo wasn’t just free power.

There were times where it acted up, and it did seem to be causing her difficulties. They still used it for training, and those were the times she had gotten particularly moody and antagonistic. Thankfully, all their issues were relatively short-lived. But perhaps, it was waiting for the right moment to find cracks in her resolve. Times like now.

Ophelia took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When the tattoo wasn’t in use, it was a symbol that went on her shoulders. When activated, the sealing lines and tattoos would cover nearly her entire body, and even her face. “You might be right, but I think we nabbed it in the butt early enough. I’ll be more confident now.”

Fhesiah smiled. “Good. Back to the original topic, the story behind Nessa’s transformation was certainly strange, but Tyr is a weird one and knocking up the embodiment of a living lake, a serpent, is not all that surprising to me. So that just leaves our dear husband. What do you think about Nessa?”

Jake of course knew this question was coming. “Tanda was right, of course. That you girls are on board, and she’s attractive to me, means it’s easy for me to be as well. I’d like to get to know her better in a more intimate setting, rather than at a party with tons of people around. But I do think if she’s truly seeking love and doesn’t have the wrong idea somehow, I’m interested.”

Berri clapped. “Yay! More snake girls! You know, there’s at least three of these lamia on the baseball–”

Jake cleared his throat. “Let’s take a rain-check on more discussions of more wives. I do think we’re rested enough to get moving.”

Berri pouted, but began to comply. As Bloodberri uncoiled and Jake hopped into the special basket on her back, Blood said, “I do think Yona is worth considering more. She is a lovely and devoted servant, after all. And her moon and sun magic hearth within her could be a major benefit.”

Jake was a little surprised that Blood was advocating for the maid, but put it out of his mind as they got on the move again. They traveled for some time, moving quickly through the air.

Not that far from the Outpost, Ira alerted Jake of another threat ahead, and Valora whinnied not long after. A swarm of flying enemies was heading toward them, and Jake was more than a little alarmed by what he saw with his Umbral Gaze.

And Berri was pissed. “Flying spiders! No! Just no!”

Her tail brought them to a hover, and then runes formed rapidly as Blood too worked hard to launch the eclipsing solar attack. A black and white sun was launched toward the oncoming swarm, and Jake launched his own using their flames as his other girls worked on their own magical attacks.

Berri quickly dumped the flames from her hearth, using her Hearth Control. Darts of each of his wives’ colors shot across the sky, striking spiders and setting them aflame.

As the eclipsing sun arrived, the black insect-winged spiders slowed, and they attempted to spit black miasma at his party. These spiders were full of deathly energies, and were of various sizes, from the size of a dog all the way up to a pickup truck.

Which was why when the beams of fiery light struck them from behind the eclipse, their bodies were significantly burned and purified, and the smaller ones completely erased. The large bolts and blasts of lightning from Valora and Ophelia quickly finished many of the wounded enemies off, sending the rest falling to the ground.

Zephyr dashed forward with its winged swords, slicing through enemies and sending blades of wind into the swarm. Meanwhile, Fhesiah was launching dozens of darts of kitsune flames, and launched the demonic rune spell Dragon’s Breath, the apparition exhaling a large cone of dragon flames and covering much of the flying spiders.

While the family was using many of their same attacks from the peak of the first Tier, these attacks were even larger and more devastating. As their attributes scaled upward and their Mana Control and capacity increased, the amount of offensive power had more than doubled with just the same spells. It just took a little larger of an investment from them.

Tanda shot numerous arrows from her bow, and learning from the Dreadbeast Champion, Jake had helped her craft new arrows which resembled his. A distance away after being fired, numerous dart-sized projectiles exploded in a frontal cone, still chock-full with auril. Her attacks pierced dozens of flying spiders with every shot, thinning the swarm significantly.

As the monsters died, the party’s Auto-Loot triggered, causing loot to appear within their Storage Rings. With a few more area of effect spells, they cleared out the incoming spider swarm, and Jake saw he had gotten numerous death-related items for crafting or alchemy inside his ring.

The threat dealt with, they continued their trek through the sky. Eventually, they came over a hill and saw their Outpost in the distance. Their many allies and friends were waiting for them–but fighting off a huge army of monsters.