Evolution of a Healer

Cyn wasn’t sure if she was eager to see what the infested tunnel looked like, or dreading it. The walk back to the entrance cavern from Cogtopia had become a slog, just due to the sheer number of Harvesters that were waiting for them along the mine walls. The party had quickly fallen back into a groove after the first few fights, and now it was just annoying. The only upsides seemed to be that everyone had managed to gain enough experience to hit level three in their class, and Cyn was actually making progress with her Freeform Mana Casting. Enough to once again request to test the ability on a Harvester.

Of course, the next waiting ‘ambush’ they came across was three of the Harvesters, instead of just two. Cyn vocalized her intent to aim for the one on the ceiling, since even if she missed there was a chance her magic would do splash damage far enough to hit another of the arachnids. The party would allow her to hit first, and quickly take over to finish off whatever enemies remained regardless of how Cyn’s test went. Taking a deep breath, and grateful the creatures did not seem to attack until they got close or were provoked, she started venting out mana through the fingers of her right hand.

Now that she had some practice with it, mentally grasping onto the venting mana really was not too difficult. Neither was the next step, at least not when her goal was to shape the mana into something so simple. To Cyn, shaping the mana into multiple long, needle-like shapes made more sense than trying to condense it into a solid ball. Not only did it take less mana to hold the thinner shape, they felt more solid and stable then any of her freeform ball attempts had. Plus, didn’t something sharp and piercing just make more sense as a weapon?

It was the final step, actually propelling the mana needles, that needed testing. Cyn had a theory she could guide them, since she still felt in control of the mana, but without a target and with her party walking so close she had not actually tried. While they were walking all of her practice had ended with her just releasing the mana back into its misty default form, which would dissipate just a few inches from her hands. Holding up her right hand, the three bright blue needles, each appearing solid and about the same length as her whole hand, were hovering just over her fingers and easily visible to everyone before Cyn made a flicking motion towards the ceiling arachnid.

The flicking motion was far more effective than she anticipated, sending the mana needles flying rapidly towards their target. Unprepared for a high rate of speed, Cyn immediately lost her control of one of the three projectiles, causing it to disperse into mist almost instantly. The second one struck true, ripping straight through the Harvester’s large, round body at an angle and continued a short distance into the ceiling before she allowed the mana to disperse. The third needle flew past the arachnid clinging to the ceiling and continued down the tunnel. Quickly, before it got too far away and the cost of keeping the third needle’s shape rose past what Cyn could handle, she tried to take more direct control of the mana and pull it back towards its original target. The mental multitasking of keeping track of multiple projectiles was a strain, but ultimately she felt it was worth the results.

As the Harvester that was waiting on the ceiling began to fall towards the ground, seemingly still alive but stunned by the new hole through its body, the third needle returned. It blasted off one of its dangling legs near where the appendage connected to its body and ripped a thin gash across the arachnid's abdomen before Cyn allowed the needle to disperse. She was hoping the dispersing mana would have an additional effect, like the acid it had created with Mana Ball and against the mimic, but that did not seem to be the case here.

She quickly stepped back to allow Scott and Sam to intercept the other two Illuminant Harvester’s that attempted to leap at her. She did not feel like she was low on mana, but since she also did not anticipate her party having any trouble finishing off the arachnids, Cyn quickly checked to see how much she had remaining.

Mana Points: 213/350

She wasn’t full mana before testing the mana needles, and having used about one-third of her available mana felt right. The needles overall felt like a far more viable attack than Mana Ball, even if it was costly, and Cyn was sure it was just the first step to properly taking advantage of her non-standard skill. Once she could figure out how to give her mana specific effects, rather than just solidify it into shapes, the needles would probably also become less viable. Or at the very least, would probably change a bit.

“Well, that went better than the last few times you tried to kill something. I think it was dead before it even hit the ground.” Hex sounded suitably impressed, and Cyn couldn’t help but feel relief watching the Rogue prod at the dead Harvester. Even if what she had done wasn’t technically more impressive than what her party had been doing the whole time, she at least was not alone in feeling good about being able to contribute more and participating in battle without almost dying in the process.

“Yah, that was much better. I can do that a few times before I think my ability to heal will start to suffer. It's also getting easier just by practicing.” He nodded along to her words while using a dagger to pry the exoskeleton off of the Harvester. The Rogue had been taking some internal part of the Harvesters, at least off the ones that were easy for him to get into. There was apparently an organ inside that he could use in cooking, but it wasn’t important enough to rip out of every arachnid they killed.

Cyn thought it was kind of gross, but not nearly as gross as how Hex had discovered it. Which was by licking one of the first spiders they killed after coming back from Cogtopia. Apparently, he had a passive skill from his profession that allowed him to more easily discern possible ingredients and their use, but it only worked by putting them in his mouth. The Rogue had also eaten some of the web from the walls, discovering it was significantly more toxic than medicinal, and requiring frequent healing while his body metabolized the material. Cyn could at least applaud his commitment.

After a few more battles, with the party allowing Cyn to shoot off at least one of her mana needles for practice each time, the entrance cavern came into sight ahead of them. At least, they would have been able to see the entrance cavern if they could see past the solid wall of glowing webs that covered the end of the tunnel. Scott slowed as the web wall came into full view within the diadem's light, then came to a stop with the wall roughly thirty feet away still.

“Don’t like how that's changed. We should make sure we are prepared before trying to cut through.” The rest of the party quickly voiced their agreement with the Guardian, settling in for a short rest to regain their resources fully. Hex wandered a little closer before sitting down, staring into the webs for a bit before letting everyone know that he sensed some kind of treasure in the large cavern that either wasn’t there previously, or that his ability had failed to pick up last time.

“With it being blocked off like that, do you think it's a boss? It would explain there being sudden treasure, too.” The unexpected question came from Sam, and at first his only answer was a shrug from the Rogue.

“I don’t think it makes much sense to pit us against a boss when we are still at such a low level. I would think we should at least have had the chance to make our first skill choice? It's probably just a creature that is a little more powerful, like the mimic was.” Cyn had not thought about it for long, but voiced her opinion anyway. It made sense to her.

“Unless we fucked up in how we have handled everything so far, and we are supposed to have more experience.” The bout of pessimism came from the Warrior, but Cyn was quick to counter it.

“Based on the levels of what we have been fighting, I don’t think so. Plus, what else could we have done? If we took the infested tunnel instead of this one, we may have never seen Cogtopia at all.”

“There was another tunnel too, the one that Ander said would lead to a sinkhole. But I agree, if we were under leveled we probably would not be having such an easy time killing the Harvesters.” No one seemed inclined to disagree further after Dana voiced her agreement with Cyn. It did not take long for everyone to be at full resources, and not sure what to expect the party regrouped themselves and cautiously approached the wall of web. Cyn was not able to make out anything on the other side, and using Inspect on the wall just told her it was made of Illuminant Threads.

Actually, maybe Inspect did a little bit more than that. The description she got had not changed, but after using the skill Cyn felt as though she better understood how to safely handle the sticky substance. Not entirely safely, mind you, but definitely more safely than just trying to hack through it. Which was what Hex and Scott were currently attempting, with limited success. It wasn’t an expected benefit, but she figured that the web was probably affected by her Harvesting skill since it was created by the arachnids, and the threads could probably be used to create a kind of silk.

She didn’t care about the use of the web, though. Just that she not only knew how to handle it, but would be flatly better at cutting through the web than anyone else because of her profession. She informed the party, and while Scott was definitely not a fan of her being out in front while they cut their way into unknown danger, it was hard for him to argue she should stay back after seeing how much easier it was for Cyn to cut through the web wall. It was more than a foot thick, and Cyn was very aware that each slice she made was likely sending vibrations to whatever awaited them inside of the entrance cavern.

As soon as one of her cuts went through into air, opening a small hole, she backed off to allow the Guardian to finish making the hole large enough for the party to enter through, one at a time. Naturally, Scott took the lead, followed by Hex, Cyn, Dana, and finally Sam. The primary difference in the large cavern compared to their previous stay was the sheer amount of web that covered all surfaces. It looked like a nest in the making, rather than just an abandoned place where spiders lived like it had before.

Despite the increase in light, she found it concerning that there were no threats immediately visible. The Harvesters the party had been facing were dark colored, and easy to distinguish when in front of the glowing web as they created a shadowy break in the luminescence with their bodies. Now there was much more light though, with few shadowed areas remaining, and Cyn could not immediately make out any threats. The party quietly agreed that while it was strange, there was nothing to do but keep moving towards where they thought the infested tunnel should be. None of the other tunnels were visible from where they stood, seemingly covered in dense webbing just as the tunnel to Cogtopia had been before they broke through.

Since there was no longer an ‘easier’ path around the web like before, Scott had them stay near the wall of the cavern, slowly walking single file as the Guardian used first his mace, then a long, twisted chunk of metal from the broken minecart tracks to clear out a path through the sticky substance. Luckily the party already knew that the webbing’s toxicity was not transferred through skin, since Sam had previously been carrying around the Illuminant Mass rope by wrapping it around him for quite a while, so while Hex was clearly uncomfortable when his feet got stuck on stray webs it was not overtly dangerous.

They were close to where Scott estimated the infested tunnel to have been when Cyn caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t able to react fast enough, barely turning in time to see a mass of glowing webbing strike Dana in the shoulder, the momentum of it throwing the Archer against the wall where she quickly became stuck, struggling against the sticky substance that was gluing her in place. She was strong enough to get out of the web on her own, just not instantly.

Cyn was still trying to pinpoint the source of the projectile when a second one shot towards the party. Everyone but Dana was looking for the danger now, and Hex was able to just barely drop to the floor in time to dodge. With the party trapped between the wall and a seemingly impassable sea of webbing, and with the source of danger unclear, Scott yelled, “Back! Back to the tunnel!”

The Archer was nearly free, and Cyn took a few heartbeats now to help her so they could retreat. Unfortunately, when Sam turned to lead the charge back in the direction they had come from, it quickly became clear that was not going to be so simple an option.

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