Inexorable Chaos

Jessica and the Gejan wait patiently in the tunnel leading into the ninth floor. Though they have distanced themselves from the entrance, they can still see the red light seeping in. It was difficult for them to leave Quasi alone on the floor, but he had said he could handle it. Most likely, he considered them to be too weak to help him. His unvoiced belief grates on all of them.

“Will he really be alright?” Jessica asks.

“Yes,” Darrow answers, earning a glare from everyone. Only he is able to relax, having full and complete trust in his commander. Everyone else can’t help but think of him as an idiot, but there’s no point in calling him out on it. So far, Quasi has never truly failed.

“Maybe we should at least take a peek…” Thorous answers nervously.

Orlan and Aldonis nod.

“No,” Darrow says with a firm voice, “the commander probably has a grand plan. He specifically told us to stay here for our own safety.

Aldonis rolls his eyes. “Bah! What is he going to do that peeking at could cause our death?” he argues, ”Unless he plans to destroy the whole floor, then I doubt my life is in danger.”

The scarlet Gejan takes a step down, and that is as far as he gets before a flash of light at the end of the tunnel blinds everyone. The ground shakes, followed by a thunderous burst of air that pops their ears and rattles their bones.

After the rumbling stops, all eyes turn to Aldonis, who takes a step back under their scrutiny.

“Told you,” Darrow whispers softly with a smug smile.

And then another explosion, this one very near to them, is heard and felt.

Once the shaking stops again, everyone uncovers their ears and opens their eyes, coughing in the dust.

“Did he succeed?” Orlan asks. He gets no answer except from Joker, who had remained unmoving by the explosions. The undead silently begins to trek down the stairs.

Everyone shares a look before following the undead.

The group enters the ninth floor. They move warily, fearful and curious in equal parts, they search for breath or motion.

As the dust clears, the whole group stops and stares at the sight before them, aghast at the destruction.

The mountain the boss once circled above is gone. Its shattered remains are strewn about where it once stood. High above its ruins, the ceiling of the dungeon is damaged where something impacted it with high velocity. It’s a rarity to see the dungeon so damaged, considering how reinforced the ancient structure is.

Below the cracks of the ceiling is the boss itself, its body is severely damaged and its life is waning. The magic that keeps the boss in the air is flickering on and off as the violet lines across its body turn off and on.

Everyone holds their breath as they witness the moment that the boss finally dies. It gives one final flicker, then goes out. The violet glow disappears and the boss falls and crashes into the crater.

“The mountain… It’s gone…” Thorous gawks.

“The lake too,” Orlan adds.

The others look down, gazing at the mother of all craters. The lake of blood is nearly gone, destroyed by an attack that no ordinary person could ever dream of surviving.

“A mountain. A fucking mountain. How the hell does it survive a fucking mountain!? This shit shouldn’t be possible!”

The group turns towards the voice, trying to find where and what produced it.

A patch of the ground near them trembles and bursts apart as a giant phantasmal being emerges from the wreckage.

Climbing out of the mess of gore is a clawed monstrosity with dark violet eyes. Within its translucent body floats a cracked and damaged skeleton. Everyone takes a step back as the thing’s gaze turns to them.

“Fuck this overpowered bullshit.”

_______________________________________

Everything was destroyed. The staff, the robes, the dagger, my goddamn body… everything except my bones. Even then, I can see cracks all over them. I was lucky, nay, extremely lucky, to have survived that attack. The only reason I’m even alive now is because my bones’ endurance has been pushed over two hundred by my [Hardened Skeleton] skill, and further bolstered by my wraith form’s passive abilities.

I’m not exactly sure how the math works out, but I doubt my endurance was over a thousand or anything. Most stats increase linearly, so maybe it was around four hundred if I’m lucky.

With a mental command, I check how close I am to death.

Mana

220/5634

A little over three minutes. Not that bad actually.

With another mental command, I order Joker to come near me. As of right now, all other undead at my control are too far or too dead to be of use.

Congratulations! You have defeated Shade.

For being the first [Hero] to kill this boss, experience gain is increased.

For single-handedly killing the boss, experience gain is increased.

For single-handedly killing an enemy over a thousand levels higher than you, experience gain is significantly increased.

The moment I see that kill message, my anger rises as I push away the rubble and begin to scream.

“A mountain. A fucking mountain. How the hell does it survive a fucking mountain!? This shit shouldn’t be possible!”

I’m fuming, remembering what just happened in clear detail. A mountain weighing as much as a city was hurled at the boss, and the goddamn thing somehow survived and almost killed me.

I finally notice my companions.

“Fuck this overpowered bullshit,” I grumble as I calm down.

As my rage subsides, I order Joker to approach me. He does so and kneels before me. I sigh and place my hand upon his head. If this doesn’t work, then I die. If it does work, then the system is bullshit.

“[Sacrificial Healing].”

The spell activates, taking a hundred of my mana as Joker’s body disintegrates into powder. The powder converges on my skeletal body, fixing the damaged bones, creating muscles, veins, organs, fat, and then finally skin. My body, which had been reduced to a skeleton, is now fully restored.

I feel it. The first beat. My heart pulses on its own. My vision shifts as my perspective moves back to my own body. I take a pained breath as I feel all of my nerves at once. I am human again, alive once more.

I puke, spitting out bile. There’s nothing in my stomach to vomit.

“Quasi!” Jessica runs to me.

“[Heal],” she says. I feel the magic enter me, but it does nothing. My body is just reacting violently to the ordeal. I feel weak and will need some time to recollect myself, but I’m alive and that’s what really matters.

… Actually, scratch that. I better have fucking leveled.

“Quasi, what happened? You were a…” Thorous trails off.

I chuckle weakly, “It was nothing serious, I was just dead for a bit. You know, the usual.”

Aldonis and Darrow chuckle at the joke, but Jessica does not take it well as she stops her spell and smacks me across the face.

I turn my head back to look at her, surprised. I never thought she would… she would actually hit me.

Before I can regain my wits, she then lunges forward and hugs me. I feel her body shake as she sobs. In a moment, my anger leaves me. Left behind is something else.

____________________________

An hour later, we are all strolling towards the destroyed remains of the mountain. My energy recovers quickly as I ravenously devour some wyvern jerky and drink some water. Currently, all I have to wear is a makeshift kilt that poorly conceals my raging boner. My enchanted gauntlet was destroyed and thus my magical inhibitions are gone. Without it, I’m a walking horndog, which means I can’t even glance at the ladies following directly behind me without losing focus.

With a frown, I take conscious control of my body, enough to focus on the messages I have yet to read. There’s a lot to get through.

Level Up x 31

You are now a level 238 [Necrotic Mindlord]

Three new skills obtained:

-[Decentralized Control Matrix]

-[Life’s Flash]

-[Growing Horde]

Level Up x 36

You are now a level 137 [Hero]

Level up x 9

You are now a level 111 [Grand Enchanter]

One new skill obtained: [Soulbound Enchant]

Level Up x 8

You are now a level 95 [Magic Bard]

One new skill obtained: [Ghastly Shriek]

Level Up x 57

You are now a level 58 [Engineer]

Five new skills obtained:

-[Flash Fix]

-[Drafting]

-[Visual Estimation]

-[Weak Point Determination]

-[Ruin Recreation]

I look over the progress I’ve made, gulping at the insanity of the experience. My [Necrotic Mindlord] class gained over thirty levels from one kill, which I can infer was because of the massive level gap.

Still, shouldn't leveling be harder…

Nevermind, the fucker survived a mountain. I deserve all those levels.

I shake my head and get a hold of my rapidly rising anger. Coming so close to death after throwing everything at something, only for it to survive, is incredibly annoying. It reminds me of that one summoning where I was tasked with taking over a continent. The last battle, which I won, had me ready to become the de facto emperor of an entire continental nation. Several days afterwards I died of a heart attack.

“No. Stop thinking. Distract yourself. No bad thoughts,” I quickly exclaim to the confusion of those with me.

With a command, I open up all of my new skills and look over their descriptions.

[Decentralized Control Matrix][Rare]

Drastically increase the damage threshold that your undead can take before losing functionality.

I groan, annoyed that the skill had come so late. While the skill doesn’t give a more precise description, I can determine what it actually does by name alone. The skill makes it so that undead no longer have an immediate weak point, like the skull. It would force a significant amount of bodily damage for the undead to stop functioning.

[Life's Flash][Uncommon]

Read the memories of a recently deceased corpse.

That's a weird skill. I’m not sure how useful it would be normally, but it’ll most likely come in handy at some point.

[Growing Horde][Very Rare]

When an undead under your control kills a living being half its level or lower, the corpse will immediately resurrect itself under your control.

Damn, that's actually pretty good. I could use high level undead to create an army for me. Though, I can see this being annoying as well, especially if I can't deactivate the skill. I don’t need an ever growing horde all the time.

[Soulbound Enchant][Rare]

By doubling the mana cost of enchanting an item, the item can obtain the [Soulbound] ability. Items with [Soulbound] cannot have their effects used or activated except by the individual the item is [Soulbound] to.

I lick my lips, finding the skill rather useless, especially considering it only really stops [Thieves]. In a fight, if you lose your weapon, you’re likely going to die regardless of whether your opponent can use your weapon or not.

[Ghastly Shriek][Uncommon]

Release a scream from your lips that has a chance to cause [Fear] in an area in front of you. The skills effect varies based on distance and various factors.

I frown, annoyed at the unhelpful description.

What the hell are the various factors?

I reread the description and all I can say is that it will need to be tested. How though, I’ve little idea. Maybe on monsters… the Gejan probably wouldn't like me screaming at them.

[Flash Fix][Common]

Quickly repair a targeted structure that has recently been damaged.

[Drafting][Common]

Plan, draw, and understand schematics of all sorts.

[Visual Estimation][Common]

Estimate the exact distance of the object in your field of view.

[Weak Point Determination][Common]

By observing a construction, you may more easily identify weak points in its structure and design.

[Ruin Recreation][Rare]

Instantly repair and reassemble a destroyed machine, but with a loss of integrity and power.

Reading through the skills, I can't help that [Common] skills are pretty useless to me. For one, I can already do most of what they are describing. Even [Flash Fix] is probably useless unless it scales by level. The skill is probably designed at fixing cracks in a wall and not something like a machine of war.

Now [Ruin Recreation] is actually quite impressive. Take a destroyed ballista and then make it into a smaller, but still deadly ballista. An excellent way to continue trying to kill someone, even if less effectively.

_______________________________

It takes another hour of walking before we reach the remains of the destroyed mountain. My eyes focus on the corpse of Shade, who had fallen near the entrance to the final floor. The exit was deep within the mountain, and would probably still be buried deep if it still existed.

“It’s amazing that you destroyed it. It still looks so alive.”

I nod to Orlan but stay silent as I look around for more corpses. There aren’t many. The boss would be a great minion, but I think the cost is above my mana threshold.

Speaking of which…

Mana

6430

I gulp at the increase in mana. Over nine hundred more, and all, if not most of it, was from my [Necrotic Mindlord] class. Classes over level two hundred really do give hefty bonuses, though I do know that [Necromancer] type classes like my own are known for giving large boosts in maximum mana.

Yeah, that's probably not nearly enough for the boss, especially since I no longer have the staff for near limitless mana.

Looking around further, I find more corpses, these ones from my former minions crushed in the hail of meteors that came down after the mountain was destroyed. Thankfully, there’s enough for what I want to do.

“[Undead Resurrection]/”

I feel eyes focus on me, but I ignore them as bones in the surrounding area begin to degrade, turning into dust, swirling into a storm in front of me. The bone dust quickly condenses, recreating my good pal.

“Welcome back, Joker.”

The undead doesn't react to my words, merely taking a reactionary stance, ready to move at a moment's notice to protect me or to respond to a command.

“There's fog here,” exclaims Thorous.

I turn towards her, finding her just outside the entrance to the next floor. At the entrance is a sheen of thick white fog that looks to be kept at bay by some invisible force. It’s most likely similar to the one surrounding the entrance to the dungeon.

“Keep away from the fog. It attacks the soul,” I say, remembering when I had entered before. Peter and Jessica had both fallen unconscious and would have stayed that way until their deaths.

“How do we pass it, then?” Aldonis asks and I already begin shaking my head.

“You don't. I do. My soul is the only one strong enough to enter the mist. I need to do this alone.”

“Come again?”

I give Aldonis a glare which shuts him up. I look to the others.

“You've all followed me for a long time, and I thank you for that. But now, I need to go alone. I can’t drag your bodies along with me, especially if I need to fight.”

“Shouldn’t you prepare?” Orlan interrupts.

I look at the Gejan, his scales are now completely blue. His old gray scales are now nowhere to be seen.

“I’d like to, I would, but this is an opportunity I need to take. The dungeon is evolving, learning, adapting to our presence here. I don't know what I’ll have to deal with on the next floor, but I doubt it would be a boss. Shade was too powerful to have not been a last line of defense. But, If I wait, then the next floor could change before I get there. I’d rather not take that risk.”

Silence is all I get as the group exchanges glances, unsure how to react to my declaration.

“If there are no further complaints, I’ll be going now.”

I turn and step in front of the fog, stopping mere inches before it.

“I’ll see you all later.”

I walk into the mist.