Rise of the Apex Predator: A LitRPG Adventure

Chapter 14 – Dungeon Spell Crafting

Aenon stared at the elf in confusion. From his perspective, he had not done anything weird. He had merely applied what he observed the shamans doing and scaled it up. He had been observing their spell formations and mana flow for weeks now.

“Answer me. Who are you and how are you doing this? That wasn’t a parlor trick that any hick can pull off. That was an advanced mage spell, and the level of destruction is not something a nobody like you should be able to pull off”, she yelled at him.

He tilted his head to the side with a blank expression while replying calmly, “You have seen me learn and cast 5 different spells on my own. You have also seen me charge a bone with raw mana till it almost blew my fingers off. What’s so strange about this? I think the better question is, why are you so worked up about it?”

He noticed her recoil at his words while her mouth kept opening and closing like a fish out of water. Since she was at a loss for words, he continued.

“I have high stats, rare titles, and can sense mana. More importantly, I have been doing nothing but stalking and observing shamans for a very long time. Between my mana sense and whatever weird soul sense I got, it would be weird if I didn’t figure something out by now, don’t you think?”

Finally recovering her voice, she shot back.

“Yes. But this goes beyond that. This…”, she pointed at the destruction around them, “is not something low level players can do. It takes decades of practice to get the required mana control to even attempt this. Stats don’t affect mana control.”

“Don’t know what to tell you”, Aenon shrugged while moving over to the golden chest that at the center of the arena. Allie turned back into a snake and crawled up his arm.

The item within the chest was mesmerizing to look at and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. It was a mask so dark; he couldn’t identify the features on it. It was like the very fabric of reality ceased to exist around it.

System Notification

Item Name: Gaze of the Abyss

Item Type: Mask

Item Rarity: Legendary

Item Description: When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back. The origin of this mask is as mysterious as the abyss itself. Reduces WIL stat of anyone looking at the wearer by 25%. Additionally hides the player’s name and stats from identifying skills and abilities. Also grants dark vision.

Abyssal Gaze (active ability): Anyone making eye contact with the wielder has their WIL further reduced by 25% and if their WIL is below the wielder’s, inflicts a 15 second fear and paralysis debuff (Mana cost: 200 mana/sec).

Note: This is a set piece.

Aenon whistled in appreciation as he picked up the mask. It felt ice cold to the touch and had no visible eye holes. When he placed it over his face, it snapped on like a magnet and no matter how vigorously he shook his head, it refused to budge. It did not restrict his vision in the slightest.

“Hey, look Arbiter, I have a creepy looking mask too”, Aenon smiled while looking at the trinket on his arm, realizing too late that she couldn’t see his smile.

“Just… keep going”, Allie replied with frustration.

“You know, you never really told me what bugged you. You have been very prickly since the overseer left. I mean you were practically a cactus before, but ever seen the old man left laughing you have been…”

“I told you not to mention that. Ever. Again”, she snapped back at him before he completed his sentence.

“Alright, alright. Calm your horses”, Aenon winced as the trinket tightened significantly. He went around the arena gathering up all the goblin ears he could find before proceeding through the last standing door of the arena.

The corridor was pitch dark this time around, or at least it would have been. If not for the dark vision granted by his new mask. It wouldn’t have helped though, since in place of traps this room looked like an obstacle course.

There were blades zooming around, spikes thrusting in and out of the walls and floors, and of course, in typical creepy dungeon fashion, flamethrowers.

“Well, why the hell not. You might as well throw in some flying fish”, Aenon raised his arms in annoyance.

“Flying fish?”, Allie asked in confusion.

Something from an awesome game from back on earth. You really should try it.

Allie went back to silently brooding again. Aenon looked at the obstacle course more closely. His soul sense picked up on the second unknown presence he had been sensing ever since he entered the dungeon. Whoever it was, had intensified their study of his fighting style, and upped the difficulty yet again. He detected hidden traps all over the tunnel.

He sat cross legged while pulling out some system rations and water. He started thinking about how to proceed. Combat was one thing, but these traps could kill him in one shot. He needed some sort of defense. As he mulled over his options, he got an idea.

“Do mages use any barrier spells? You know, since typically they are more squishy and lacking in the physical stat department”, he asked out loud.

“I am assuming you plan to go rogue as your primary class while mage will be your secondary?”, Allie asked.

“Something like that, yes.”

“Thought so. To answer your question, yes mages get barrier spells to protect themselves. Two types in fact, a physical barrier and a magical one. But before we go further, let me explain something about stats and why very few people choose the kind of build you are planning”, she responded all business like.

Aenon pulled his attention away from the trapped obstacle course and gave her his entire focus. This information would be important for his future.

“I am assuming you know about class rarity and the concept of min-maxing?”

“I think so. Classes give fixed stat points per level based on rarity. And min-maxing is where you dump all your stat points in your class specific resource, INT, PER, and WIS for mage classes, STR DEX, and CON for physical builds”, he responded while nodding his head.

“Correct. And that is also the reason why the System came up with the concept of stat gains from Titles. Imagine a warrior who dumped a 1000 in STR and DEX each, but none in PER. He’ll be running into walls all the time since it takes a certain level of perception just to keep up with the speeds that warrior will move with. To balance that out, Titles give all stat bonuses, while class stats let you specialize.”

Aenon nodded in understanding but didn’t see where this was going. Why wouldn’t people go a rogue/mage hybrid build? It could shore up the weaknesses of each class quite nicely. But he kept quiet and listened closely.

“Essentially you will be a jack of all trades, but a master of none. You will need to split your focus evenly between your physical and magical stats to make either one viable. This can be mitigated to an extent if you get higher rarity classes, which I am sure you will, but you will never reach the full potential of your classes”, she went quiet after her explanation.

Aenon lay down after a meal and pondered about his dilemma. He loved being a rogue, but he couldn’t deny the damage potential of a mage. He had cast mage spells of his own making, and the potential excited him. And there must be defenses against such spells too. The only reason he had done the amount of damage he did was because this was a low-level dungeon where spells of such scale were not expected. As if sensing his thoughts, a pure crystal with a few dots of red popped out of his soul space.

Hey, snap out of it. That is a future-you problem. Focus on what is in front of you. And you, miss Arbiter, why are you confusing him? He doesn’t have to follow the same road that trillions of people have travelled on before. A rogue/mage hybrid build is rare, but not unheard of. And many of them have reached great heights too. Are you trying to sabotage his build by scaring him into selecting something he is not comfortable with?

Aenon’s eyes narrowed when he heard this. He looked at the trinket, waiting for a response. If she had truly tried to misdirect him, then he had to be on guard around her.

“I was merely passing on information most people learn in their starting village before heading out”, she replied a little too defensively.

Did you forget what I am? I am an entity with direct access to the System. You think I would not have that bit of information? You think I cannot guide him on the most optimal path to power? Have you seen me telling him what and how to do things?

Aenon was surprised at the heat in Harley’s voice as she bombarded the Arbiter with questions. And even more surprised at how the elf silently took it.

“I wanted to push this discussion for a time when we were not being watched, but this changes things. Is what Harley is saying true? Did you try to misguide me?”, he asked coldly.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you. Don’t forget who you are talking…”

Her anger and guilt laced words were cut short when Aenon removed and dropped the trinket to the ground. Her eyes went wide as she uncoiled herself and transformed back to her elf form.

“You saved my life twice. So, I am going extend to you the courtesy of listening to your explanation. This is your last chance. If I hear any insult, any misguided attempt at deflection, I walk away. In return I will owe you one favor in the future. So, choose your words wisely, Arbiter.”

She stared at him dumbfounded. He knew she was warring internally on how to respond. But he kept silent. Her response was key to figuring out if she could be trusted. Finally, she sighed and responded.

“I apologize for my conduct. This is something between me and the Overseer. His words bothered me greatly and I may have acted out of jealousy and pride instead of my sense of duty.”

“What words?”, he asked neutrally.

She started fidgeting in discomfort, especially when she noticed him staring at her silently. For some reason her cheeks were turning red, but she was stoic when she responded.

“My grandfather said you are a suitable candidate to court me.”

“Why would I take you to court?”, Aenon blinked in confusion. For some reason, Harley burst out laughing, making the elf turn a bright shade of red.

Aenon looked from one woman to the other, waiting on someone to explain. He was almost tempted to ask the Overseer directly, who he sensed was observing this scene. But he suspected that neither the Overseer nor the unknown entity would be of much help in this situation.

“You… I…”, Allie sputtered trying to come up with words while Harley kept cackling like the time he got his skills. Frustrated at his inability to figure out what was so funny he extended his hand towards the elf, making her jump back in alarm.

“Harley’s reaction tells me that your actions were not out of malice, so I am going to trust you for now. Could you turn back into the trinket so I can keep moving? Either you or Harley can explain later what is so funny. But rest assured I have no intention of taking you to court.”

Harley literally collapsed on the ground in new fits of laughter while the elf was starting to steam at the ears. With a huff she transformed back, and he sensed her presence disappear from the trinket. He picked up the trinket and put it on before giving Harley, who was still on the ground, a side eye. Shaking his head he turned back towards the obstacle course.

He tried theorizing what elemental wisps would allow him to set up a physical barrier to block attacks. He decided to try with the gravity wisps but had to first come up with a way to sustain a barrier around him. He gathered 20 points worth of mana in his hands and tried shaping it into a sphere. It merely swirled in his palm for a bit before dissipating like smoke.

Next, he added gravity wisps to the mana while shaping the sphere. The sphere held longer before it cracked and faded. He repeated the exercise with all kinds of wisps he had access to in the dark corridor – gravity, earth, and two others. One was a transparent mist which was so faint he failed to detect it till now. And like gravity, it was literally everywhere. He felt the wind pick up when he infused it into this mana, which meant it must be an air wisp.

The last wisp was the most elusive of them all. It was all black, making it next to impossible to detect. He would not have realized they were there if not for the flamethrowers. Somehow the fire was repelling the strange wisps. Each time a flame appeared; these wisps were pushed away. After observing he realized that the fires were also creating light wisps to a lesser degree, which were the ones repelling the black wisps. He concluded these wisps must represent the dark.

He tried attracting the dark wisps to his hand, and surprisingly he had far better control of them than all other wisps. He pulled them all towards him like a cloud, and they responded like they were waiting for his call. It felt like being wrapped in a comfortable warm blanket and for the first time, he felt the itching sensation from his stealth skill disappear completely. Even the invisibility spell had some residual itch.

Guess you finally figured it out. Took you long enough.

“So, this is a rogue’s version of the invisibility spell I assume?”, he asked while basking in the warm and fuzzy feeling.

A version of it. If you were to use this in the middle of a well-lit room, you will be repelling all the light around you. To an outside observer, there would be a shadow with no source. This version works best in darkness, which is where you are. Our secret admirer is unable to see you now. You need to keep working on improving the spell to work in all light conditions. And before you ask, I stay silent about this stuff because I want you to figure it out for the Title. Of course, you won’t be getting them till you leave the dungeon but be ready for a flood of Title notifications when you do.

Aenon felt a sharp pain in his chest when she mentioned leaving the dungeon, but he kept quiet and changed the topic.

“So, now that you are no longer delirious with laughter, could you explain what that conversation with Allie was about. She is not listening so you can speak freely.”

Harley giggled for a bit before responding.

Well, things are going to get very interesting between you two in the future. That is all I am going to say about that. As for her advice, there was nothing crippling about it. In fact, it might have even benefited someone who is not you. But it was bad advice for two reasons. First, it would have railroaded you towards a cookie cutter build, which you mentioned you hated. Which brings me to the second reason, you would not have stayed true to your soul.

Let me put it this way, imagine a training regimen developed over millennia for a lion. Obviously, it would be great for a lion, and other similar land-based animals could also benefit from it. But would it benefit a shark? That is why I don’t give you any advice about how to build your skills or spells. I know you better than anyone, better than the Arbiter anyway.

Aenon nodded in understanding. From the beginning Harley had let him forge his own path, for which he was grateful. He felt another pang in his chest when he thought how lucky he was to have Harley. After a brief silence, Harley hesitantly spoke up.

Soooo. We are not going to talk about it?

Aenon swiftly looked away from Harley and towards the obstacles. He heard her sigh but did not say anything beyond that. He redoubled his efforts to figure out a way to beat the obstacle course. He was fixated on the flamethrower since it released two forms of wisps – light and fire. He looked closely at the fire wisp. After observing it for a long time, he realized it had further components to it. But try as he might, he could not figure out what they were.

He started thinking what fire was when it suddenly clicked. Wasn’t fire just heat and light? The light wisps he saw must be one of the components for a fire wisp. Which meant the second component must be heat. To test his theory, he stepped closer to a flamethrower.

He held his hand close to where the fire appeared periodically and waited. When the flame shot out, he pulled on all the light wisps. It resisted his attempt but after a few dozen tries, he got good enough to suck all the light wisps from the fire, which were more than he realized. Eventually he could not see the fire at all but still could feel the heat on his outstretched palm.

Exhausted but satisfied from all the experiments, he went back and took a nap. When he woke up refreshed, a strange sight greeted him. The corridor was no longer dark, and all the traps were gone. It looked like a regular stone passage leading towards an opening at the end of it.

“What the…”, he exclaimed. “Did we get kidnapped in my sleep?”

But there was no response. He detected no presence from the trinket and even Harley was missing. He looked inside his soul space and found Harley’s crystal trapped inside a transparent barrier. She was ramming herself into the walls to break free but couldn’t. He rushed over to her to calm her down.

“Hey, hey, Harl. Calm down. You are ok. Stop or you might hurt yourself. I’ll figure out a way to get you out”, he controlled his avatar to gesture since it seems she could not hear him. After a minute of him miming her to calm down she finally stopped moving around in distress. But her colors were going haywire, telling him how stressed she was.

He extended his soul and mana senses around his soul space and located a faint thread floating around. It entered from the almost healed crack and was connected to the barrier around Harley. No matter what he tried it wouldn’t break. He got a dirty oily feeling when he touched the thread.

Coming up blank on how to remove this thread, he reassured Harley one more time before heading back out. He detected the thread leading down the tunnel, so he carefully moved forward but found no traps whatsoever. Eventually he found himself in what could only be described as a throne room.

Well armored and equipped hobgoblins stood at attention on both sides of the room which was grand beyond his expectations. The floors were spotless white marble and the entire chamber had pristine stone pillars holding up a vast ceiling about 60 feet high.

Despite all the lavish decorations, Aenon’s gaze was fixated on the person sitting casually on the throne opposite him. It was a boy, perhaps even younger than himself. The thread coming out of his chest was connected to a ring on the kid’s finger.

“Welcome to my humble abode”, the haughty kid declared in a high and mighty tone.