Ianmus snorted, pushing himself up to a sitting position, while Kenva gave him a disbelieving look. Even Porkchop cocked a brow at him.
“What?”
“Kaius, do you even know how long it takes the average second tier delver to reach their first class evolution?” Ianmus asked.
He shook his head. Judging by his team's reaction, he assumed it was slow — hells, he knew it was slow, since almost everyone fought creatures weaker than them — but he didn’t know exactly. Father had always been far more focused on his training than generalities that had little immediate bearing on him.
“Twenty years, fifteen if they are fast.”
He stared at the mage, his eyebrows high on his head.
“Similar for us.” his brother interjected.
“Wait, really?”
Ianmus nodded. “And two-thirds to three-quarters of that is the climb above one-hundred, when experience requirements grow steep. They call it The Wall, and the fact we’re growing multiple levels with a single kill after it is nothing short of miraculous. That, and we now have a fourth — technically third in the eyes of the System, thanks to your Bond skill — that means less experience, split more ways.”
For a moment, Kaius wanted to curse — with their gains slowing, it was going to take longer than he had hoped to reach a point of safe capability. Still, it wouldn’t be the first barrier to his path that he’d run straight through, and there was no doubt in his mind that it wouldn’t be the last. They were in the Depths, fighting creatures far above them, with nigh-limitless access to tougher creatures in the layers beneath his feet.
If he needed more experience, all he needed to do was kill more.
“Great, he’s grinning like a lunatic again.” Kenva muttered.
Porkchop chuckled, a warm amusement crossing their bond.
Pushing himself up, Kaius brushed the sand out of his locks and scooted around to face his team.
“Well, even if we’re levelling slower, and we got a bit more battered than I would like, we still did well, and our goals are unchanged. Every ruinbringer we run into after this one will be easier than the last as we grow stronger and our plans more refined — at this rate, we’re still more than on track to reach the peak of the first tier in a month or two. Much better than a decade, no?” Kaius said, giving his team a teasing grin.
“Madness,” Kenva replied with a roll of her eyes.
“You have to admit it’s quite fun though.”
Kaius didn’t miss the hint of a grin that Kenva was just a little too slow to suppress.
As their wounds finished healing, and their resource pools slowly recovered, the post-battle glow slowly left them, and their conversation moved to how they could improve for their next confrontation.
The first, and most obvious, change that they decided to make was for him to start inscribing a cast of War Haven. Even if it couldn’t outright stop a ruinbringer’s tailspike straight away, it might still be able to deflect the projectile, or at the very least would slow it enough that Ianmus and Kenva would have a better chance of reacting.
Plus, the more he used it, the more Vyrthane would level — which would mean stronger barriers and a wider maximum region he could cover with its effects.
Other than that, a shift in tactics was required. Porkchop suggested that either he or Kaius should be the ones to trigger the scorpion’s ambush, while Ianmus and Kenva sunk everything they had into removing its tails with a pair of overwhelming strikes.
Even if it left them drained and needing to recover, removing the beast's most dangerous weapons would make the battle far safer for everyone involved.
Ianmus was also of the opinion that Kaius should focus primarily on inscribing his Hateful Nail, so that he could use the persistent metal burrs it left behind to jam up and bind a ruinbringer’s pincers, something that he saw the wisdom in. It had taken a good half-dozen casts to just barely slow one of its limbs, but if he hit each pincer with two or three times that number he had a decent shot of leaving the creatures utterly disabled. Less, even, as his level and Skill grew, and each point of Drakthar made his Nails hit harder and bloom into a larger tangle of spikes.
As their conversation wrapped up, Kaius stored his scalemail and gambeson in his ring to give it a chance to clean and repair, and took a seat on the sand once more to spend his regenerated mana on refreshing his inscribed spells — nearly a full seventh of his pool dedicated to providing his backline with some form of defence.
He smiled in satisfaction, staring down at the elegant script that coated his limbs, now joined by a twisted and blocky glyph on his chest. Having such physical marks of his progress buoyed him — gave him something tangible to see and reflect on.
He really had come far. Regardless of the superficial similarities that surrounded the circumstances of both the times he had entered the Depths, he was a different man now.
That Kaius had been a scared boy, alone, afraid, and lost.
Now he was a delver in truth, strong beyond his years, seasoned in battle, and surrounded by friends and family who carried the same desire for progress that he did.
He’d ended his last journey perhaps earlier than he should have, driven by worry. This time, he intended to squeeze out every scrap of power he could. If he had his way, once he left he would no longer need to fear others discovering his strength.
No, it would be others who would need to fear his ire. Old Yon and the man with the scar most of all.
Before he rose to take his place amongst his team and continue their search for the next biome, Kaius checked his Status to cement his growth, his capability, in his mind.
Status:
Name: Kaius
Dynasty: Unterstern
Age: 19
Race: Human (Dynastic, Greater Beastblooded) - +1 Con, Str, Wil, and free stats per level
Layer Reached: 25
Class: Runeblade Initiate - +3 Int, +2 Con, +2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Vit, +1 Wil per level
Level: 119
Resources:
Health - 6210/6210 (37.8/min)
Stamina - 6070/6070 (44.6/min)
Mana - 7370/7370 (49.3/min)
Free Mana - 370/370
Reserved Mana - 7000
Stats:
Constitution - 621 (387 + 70 + 36%)
Vitality - 378 (208 + 70 + 36%)
Strength - 607 (377 + 70 + 36%)