Hyperion Evergrowing-Chapter 203: Detonation

They found the first group of adventurers who had deserted the fight standing around in a circle, loudly arguing as to whether they should go back and help, or keep running for their lives. One man was shouting about how everyone was likely dead, so they shouldn’t risk returning. His voice cut out mid word as the group turned towards Leif and the people trailing behind him.

“Damn fools. They’re a disgrace to the adventuring profession. This rot has infected Varan for generations, and it’s only getting worse.” The man had introduced himself as Silas, and he seemed to wince in pain with every step.

His comment about the group with flower shaped pins on their chests was loaded, and Leif didn’t answer right away. Lady Eire started screaming at the deserters, who all winced as if her words were causing them physical pain. The man in the group who had been shouting grew redder and redder as the noble lady berated him and his companions in front of everyone.

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Leif sensed a spike of hostility targeted at the adventurers, and he turned his head slightly to see the source. The three teens glared openly at the deserters, though the large boy didn’t seem to know why, as he was just copying the other two without any of their intent. Lucia stood next to him, and a mix of disgust and anger was emanating from her as well. He noted the new information, then mentally decided that whoever these idiots were, he wouldn’t lift a finger to try and save them.

“We don’t have time for this. Whatever punishment they deserve can come later, for now we have to move.” Leif said, infusing his words with an intangible weight. His order was punctuated as the tunnel shook, and people started running up to the next wall in preparation to scale it.

The next group of deserters they discovered were dead, their corpses were being feasted upon by dozens of obsidian beetles. Newly formed cracks lined the walls and ceiling, indicating where the creatures had descended upon the unfortunate humans. The emptiness inside Leif twinged at the sight of a fresh source of vitality, and he charged forward before those around him could react.

The beetles died as he crushed them, their oozing blood flowing towards him, drawn in by his all but empty cultivation skill. A handful of the beasts skittered away, retreating up the walls of the passage, and he let them go. As much as he needed their lifeforce, using skills to hunt them down would only be trading one problem for another.

The humans ran up behind him, and Leif pushed down [Font of Life]’s desire to be satiated. Some life wasn’t his to claim, and the skill’s insistent tugging faded as it acknowledged that fact. He sighed and rolled his shoulders, stepping over the pile of bodies. Skills flashed, striking the fleeing beetles as they wriggled back into the stone, but they had little effect.

Nobody said anything as they passed by the fallen adventurers, but a growing sense of dread grew. In the darkness behind them, the massive elemental began to move, pursuing them down the tunnel.

“We’re being shepherded.” Silas said. “It thinks we can’t escape.”

“It’s wrong.” Leif replied. “We need to keep pushing forward.”

The world shook once again, and the sound of stone grinding against stone came from up ahead. Leif extended his aura forward, seeking out the source of vitality he had left behind. It felt more distant than it should be. He grimaced internally, the dungeon was too intelligent, from what he had read of them back at the Academy, they should operate on a series of rules.

Not that this one seems keen on following any of them. Leif thought darkly, jumping up onto the next wall of steps. He turned and helped several people up after him, noting how exhaustion was making their bodies flag and their speed falter. He supposed he should be grateful that his own inhuman physique suffered from no such weaknesses.

A meaty hand grabbed onto his wrist, and Leif hauled up the large boy with scrap metal covering his arms. He seemed surprised that Leif had done so without much effort, and smiled widely in thanks.

“You big.” The boy said with a slight slur to his words. He was right, Leif almost stood as an equal to the youths height. He wondered if the kid had a skill altering his physical body, or if his size was some sort of inherited trait.

“It is our duty to help those smaller than us.” The scion said, patting him on the shoulder. “Help me bring them up.”

The boy’s eyes went wide, and he nodded seriously at Leif’s words. Lucia bounced up with little effort, and they shared a look. They had a lot to talk about, but little of it was wise to say out loud around strangers.

“Holding up alright?” He telepathically sent her.

She inclined her head slightly. Leif was empowering her [Spirit] with his core skill, and she was recovering quickly because of it, though even that attribute being increased for a significant time above its base would end up doing more harm than good. Lucia shot a worried look back down the tunnel.

“Can you beat it?”

“Yes, assuming the dungeon hasn’t swallowed my weapon.”

“Can’t you just make another?” She asked. When he didn’t reply right away her brow furrowed. “Are you actually okay?”

Leif chuckled at the worry in her voice. “I’m right up against my limits. Don’t look at me like that, I’m still more durable than the rest of you combined.”

“Is this really your mentor, Lucia?” The young spearman the large boy had just pulled up onto the wall asked. “How the hells did you punch that thing?”

Leif gave the boy an assessing look, he seemed tired but still hopeful. “A whole lot of skills working together.”

“Really? What level are you?”

“Hylon, that’s a rude thing to ask someone.” A red haired girl chided. She gave him a strange look, as if trying to puzzle out something.

“Uh, right. Sorry, sir.”

“It’s fine.” Leif waved them away. “I’m at a higher level than most, I’ve been lucky. Now go, don’t fall behind the group.”

The teens climbed down off the wall and continued running, and Leif heard the girl ask Lucia how she had moved so quickly. He didn’t hear her reply, his attention focused on the way they had come. The stone surrounding them was trembling in a constant rhythm, it was approaching. He flexed his fingers, then clenched them into a fist. When he was the last one still on the wall, Leif hopped down and followed, quickly catching up with the rapidly tiring group.

“Hey! The passage splits!” Someone yelled.

Damn. He thought, picking up speed. The passage should continue for another five hundred metres or so at least.

It was his understanding that a dungeon needed to have a direct connection between its core and the surface, with its rooms, chambers and passageways being linked together. Apparently this dungeon had discovered a way to skirt those rules, though whether it was doing so as a result of some malevolent intellect, or whatever instincts the strange magical phenomena possessed, he couldn’t tell.

“Left.” Leif said, using his aura to part the crowd before him.

“How do you know?” Lady Eire asked, sounding dubious.

“If I have to stop to explain myself every single time, we’re all going to die.” He snapped, then immediately regretted it. Being trapped underground was eroding his patience, he took a breath and centred himself. “I can sense what we need down the left passage, but there will also be a fight. There are things lurking in the walls.”

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“More beetles?” Silas asked with a grimace.

“Unfortunately not, I sense no vitality, so they’re probably elementals of some sort.”

The old man grunted. “I do not wish to demand more from you, but is it possible for you to heal those who are still wounded?”

Leif could, but he needed the strength to protect them, and to defeat the mountainous presence he could feel approaching them slowly from behind. He shook his head. “No, at least not yet. I prioritised saving those closest to death, but it cost me.”

Silas looked grim. “I see. How much further do you think we need to go?”

Leif sensed outwards with his aura, the condensed ball of vitality seemed to be getting further and further away. “I don’t know, but things will only get worse if we wait for the dungeon to change again. I’ll lead and point out dangers as we come across them, the rest of you need to keep up.”

Without waiting to see if they were all in agreement, Leif charged down the divergent passage at a sprint. It took less than thirty metres for a being of stone to burst from the wall and try to grab him. Leif’s ivory fist met the monster’s face, and the force of the blow shattered it into fragments of debris. Another elemental tried to fall atop him as it broke free from the ceiling, but he sidestepped and kicked it in the side, turning it into rubble.

The hostile intentions coming from two more sources came from up ahead, and Leif called out a warning. A moment later a storm of quartz quills fired towards him. The humans behind him cried out as they went to defend themselves, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough. A golden barrier flickered in and out of existence, catching the projectiles and sending them clattering to the floor. Leif winced internally as pain lanced through his body, his soul taking another beating at the use of the skill.

“Lucia, your sword!” Leif said, and an instant later the weapon of ivory wood was spinning towards him. He lifted a hand and caught it without looking, then spun without missing a beat, hurling the weapon down the tunnel with enough force that the stale air cracked with its passing. One of the monsters died as the sword impaled it through the chest, the other growled as more stone spines grew from its hunched back.

Before it could fire, Leif ripped the sword from the first elemental with his mind and carved it through the second. He wasn’t close enough for the blow to have the strength behind it to be lethal, but he was hot on the sword’s tail, and his fist crashed into the rheeling monster a heartbeat later.

“Three more on the right!” Leif shouted, and the group of humans braced with weapons ready as his words and aura directed their attention.

The monsters fell quickly, but their pursuer was catching up. They hurried as quickly as was safe, but an arm of stone emerged from the ground to catch a man by the leg, hurling him against a nearby wall where he impacted the rock with a crunch. Leif hadn’t sensed the attack, his awareness was too frayed. He focused and spun out his aura, wrapping elementals in his presence to slow and suppress them, even though doing so diluted what little strength he had left.

He led them down the passage, guiding the humans as the tunnels split, then split again into winding, if still alarmingly wide passages. Two more humans died, and injuries mounted. They were running out of time, and his awareness was flickering as it all became too much. It caught him by surprise when he felt something embedded into the wall by his side, and doubly so when he realised his hand was resting against the stone as if it had been attracted there by his subconscious.

“What is it?” Lucia asked, having materialised by his side. Leif didn’t reply, but he did hand her back the wooden sword. “Did you find it?”

The world shook, but not from the approaching elementals. The scion’s fist crashed into stone, embedding his arm up to the wrist. He pulled back, then struck again, then again. He reached up to his elbow, then shoulder, then his fingers brushed against the condensed orb of wood-bound lifeforce that the dungeon had buried a metre into the wall.

“Does anyone have earth magic?” He yelled, and a man stumbled forward. “Help me pry it free.”

“It’s coming!” Lady Eire screamed, and suddenly Leif was aware of the looming presence that filled the tunnel.

Sharpened stones thundered down the passage, men and women cried out as they fell, sharpened rock puncturing armour and flesh. The floor erupted to stab and impale, and more fell, it was a miracle than nobody died. The earth mage wobbled on his feet, and Leif directed him to work faster, widening the hole he had created.

“Go!” Leif yelled. “All of you, get around the bend of the tunnel!”

He pushed the earth thaumaturge away and punched into the wall once more, grabbing the sphere and pulling it free.

“That’s the weapon?” Lady Eire said as she scrambled past him, her expression a mix of horrified and hopeless. “What on earth is that supposed to do?”

“Get your people around cover.” He said as he stood and raised the sphere. It weighed so much he needed to support it with [Wood Manipulation] to do so. Lucia lingered by his side for a moment longer, but he nudged her with his aura and she dashed off to help a wounded woman get away.

Out of the darkness loomed the eyeless head of the gargantuan elemental, the contours of its face illuminated by the increasingly bright golden glow emanating from the orb of ivory wood. He waited as long as he could for the humans to get to safety, then Leif pushed every last drop of cultivated vitality into the sphere. He checked that he was the closest one to the titanic monster, then pulled back the ball of wood and shoved healing energy into it with [Surge of Life and Growth].

A hand large enough to flatten him swung down with the inevitability of a mountain.

“Expand.” Leif commanded, and the world paused as vitality suddenly drowned out the lingering earthen will of the dungeon.

The most destructive technique he had ever created did just that. It expanded, beginning to tear the elemental apart as if it was made of paper. Leif reached out with his mind, then he was sent flying as a branch of wood thicker than his torso crashed into his chest with literally earth shattering force.

Everything went black as Leif felt several somethings in his body fracture and break. When his vision flickered back on, he found himself embedded into the stone wall. Off to the side, over a dozen stunned faces looked back at him. Then a wave of dust and debris washed over everything.

Level up! Class [Scion of Aeons] is now level 36!

For waging a protracted war within a dungeon of earth and stone and destroying its most powerful guardian you have gained a level!

+1 to [Willpower] +1 to [Charisma] +5 free points!

Mana Reinforcement progress 100%!

Congratulations! You have gained the Innate Trait [True Persistence]!

===

True Persistence:

The duration of all skills and their constituent effects may be doubled at will.

Your skills gain increased effect for every decade you live.

You gain experience for every year that passes.

===

The system notifications populated his vision, which was fine by Leif, he couldn’t see anything else with how many chunks of rock and stone were being blasted in every direction. I hope the tunnel doesn’t collapse. He mused darkly, feeling as the icy sensation of power trickled through his body.

Leif read over the effects of his finally completed Mana Reinforcement.It had been a solid nine months coming, which on one hand was agonisingly slow, even if on the other he knew his rate of advancement was terrifyingly quick. It was gratifying that nothing it provided would have been immediately impactful in keeping him alive, except for maybe the increase to skill effect.

But the system only thinks I’m thirteen years old. He thought bitterly. I’m over thirty, why are you punishing me like this?

He wasn’t sure If the system overseer could read his mind, but he hoped that whatever that entity was had received his complaint. A massive chunk of stone broke against Leif’s head, which probably would have hurt if his body wasn’t made of hardened wood.

Leif just watched as the chaos unfolded, literally, before him. It really was fascinating watching the mass of wood writhe and spasm as it expanded. He went to lift his hand to brush rubble out of his face, when he noticed that one of his arms was missing. The scion did his best approximation of a blink, then looked around to see where it was. With an effort of will that made his soul groan in protest, he levitated the limb out of a pile of rocks and attached it to his torso.

When the world finally stopped shaking Leif detached himself from the wall with a grunt and walked over to where skill created barriers fitfully flickered, protecting those who huddled behind them. He tested the mobility of his arm and kicked away a large boulder, sending it down the tunnel to where the now remains of the elemental rested.

“Effective enough?” He asked, receiving mostly stunned and dust covered expressions. Lucia just closed her eyes and slumped in place. The large boy started clapping, but nobody copied him.

“Gods.” Silas said, shaking his head.

“No gods here, just me..” Leif said.

The old man chuckled. “I truly hope that was enough to stop the break.”

Something intangible shifted, and the weight of the world suddenly seemed less oppressive. “It was.” He said.