Chapter 64: Endless

  It felt as though he just gotten started, just got into the rhythm with his breathing, when Obby’s voice pulled him from his meditation.

  “Hey, time to get up. Crunchy-boys incoming in thirty seconds. ”

  It wasn’t even worth checking his status screen, he knew he hadn’t moved the percentage displayed for his [Aether Attuned Body] ability. It was far too little time to make a difference. Other than refilling a bit of the energy in his tissues, nothing changed.

  Putting some gas back in his tank would have to do.

  Alex rose to his feet as the energy barrier around the grave mound sputtered away. He heard the creak of bone immediately after, and a wave of skeletal swordsmen began their ascent up towards him. He looked down on each of them with a calm and collected dismissal.

  Mere skeletal swordsman wouldn’t be able to stop him. He will just push through them.

  Fourth Path of the Asura. He raised his arms into the path’s beginning stance and stepped into the first skeleton that reached him, his fist blurred forward in a rapid punch.

  The fury of the asura continued.

  Twenty more of the skeletons fell under Alex’s onslaught, and thirty more took their place. The ground was churned from the new rising swordsmen and the fallen bones of ones Alex had already sent back to their death.

  Notifications flashed and were mentally swiped away in rapid sequence. It became a rhythm that he danced to. Strike, notification, swipe away. Strike, notification, swipe away, dodge. Strike, notification, swipe away, [Shield], dash, jump, strike…

  He lost ground overtime, as the growing mob of creatures began to push him further and further up the grave mound. Alex made them pay for every step he retreated. One or two killed skeletons every time he was forced to retreat, for every step back.

  He just couldn’t keep it up forever though.

  Several skeletons rushed him, more piled behind those, and yet even more waited beyond that. He was standing on top of the gravestone now, with nowhere to go. He formed his aether into a spell pattern, focusing on monitoring the output just right. Six rusty sword-tips rushed at him and were inches from his skin when his [Flare] erupted.

  The closest skeletons crumbled from the force of the resulting shockwave, bones shattering into splinters instantly. The line of skeletons beyond were torn a part at the joints. Every other swordsman caught in the range of the spell were either flattened into the dirt or launched from the mound.

  Alex had his moment to breath. He jumped from the gravestone and ran.

  “Mark the closest mound for me, Obby.”

  The magical rock didn’t respond verbally, instead Alex’s vision lit up to the left, a mound’s gravestone shining brightly in his sight just a few hundred feet away. It was quite a distance to cover, and between it and himself, bone hands were already clawing up the dirt, but Alex could make it. He had to.

  Dodging the clawing hands was easy at first. He could see where they would break the surface by noticing their aura in his [Aether Sight] under the dirt. He simply zigzagged between them rapidly. But it became harder.

  He began having to dodge hands and arms as they swung at him. Alex had no idea how they knew where he was, but they certainly did based on how they attacked him, even if the only thing above the surface was a bony arm.

  Once their torsos began to be exposed, he began having to strike back. Then he began having to use his [Shield] spell once more to begin protecting his backside. He was a few dozen feet from the next mound when a few fully unearthed swordsmen were at his throat once more.

  He twisted his aether into the spell pattern and released a second [Flare] in order to carve a path to the gravestone. Alex released a sigh and collapsed to his knees once he touched the stone and saw the system message about the protective aura. The grass somehow felt much softer than any he had remembered feeling before.

  “Meatboy…”

  “Yes, Obby, what is it?” Alex spoke between breaths, taking the precious few moments he earned by fighting his way up there.

  “I know I joked before, but you’re current aether looks to be about 78% capacity. You spent roughly 20% getting to this mound from the last one. ”

  “Okay…”

  “You only managed to regain roughly 15% when cultivating in the last safe zone.”

  “ Damn it!”

  He pushed himself up into a seated position, and started to meditate. Getting the three energy braids of his technique going was even faster now. He began to feel the fire pressed to his feet, time was no longer a luxury he could ignore. The rhythm began, energy in, energy compressed. Breath in. Breath out. He felt his tissues opening, swallowing the aether he was—

  “Alex, its time.” Obby was strangely soft in tone for once.

  “I’m ready.” He felt the aether in his body, and he knew he hadn’t regained everything he spent to get to this mound. He wasn’t sure if he truly was ready, but he knew that he had to be no matter what.

  Once on his feet, the gravestone’s aura fell, and Alex he wasted no time in taking off into the field once more. The skeletal swordsmen were already on the attack, rusty blades raised. They rushed Alex four rows deep, malice glowing in the sockets of their skulls.

  All four rows crumbled under his [Flare] spell.

  He ran over shards of their bones and didn’t look back. His eyes were already focused on the next mound and the gravestone at its top which Obby had already highlighted in the distance. It was roughly the same distance he had traveled last time.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The skeletons were rising even faster than before. He picked up speed as well.

  Alex managed to make it to the gravestone. The moment he touched it, he sat down and started forming the triple braid of his gathering technique before Obby had a chance to pester him.

  The thirty minutes felt like they went by even faster than before. He was up seemingly a second after he closed his eyes. He felt like a new parent trying to catch sleep in the minutes between their baby waking.

  “16% regained that time. You’re getting better.”

  “ And my expenditure to get here?” Alex asked as he stood. He looked to the next highlighted gravestone. His body already tensing for the next dash.

  “24% expended to get to the gravestone. You had to deflect more attacks that time. Your [Shield] ate more into your reserves. ”

  “Show me the shortest path. Can you highlight and predict the closest skeleton’s attacks?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  ***

  Alex made it to the sixth grave mound in his fastest time yet. Obby was getting better at predicting the skeletal swordsmen, so he was able to get a clear warning before each attack now. It made dodging easier, but even then he still had to use his [Shield] spell here and there.

  He was getting marginally better in his timing with his spell too. Creating and dismissing the spell construct for shorter period of time. It merely shaved off the tiniest amount of wasted aether, but it all added up.

  He touched the next gravestone. Three braids of pure aether coalesced behind Alex’s neck in record time, and he didn’t even bother wasting time sitting down anymore.

  “21% expenditure in that last run. Expected recharge, 16.5%. Expected total at end of safe zone time; 61%.” Obby’s voice remained calm and collected, in direct contrast to how Alex’s nerves felt.

  He still couldn’t see the end to the field of grave mounds. No portal in sight whatsoever. Things were looking worse with every new gravestone he reached. He was getting faster, better at using his spells, but the skeletons were showing up in a faster rate too, in more numbers which outpaced Alex’s growth. He couldn’t do this forever. He needed to figure something out fast.

  “Ten seconds.” Obby said in his mind.

  Alex groaned.

  He ran down the mound’s slope. They had found they could save time by being at the edge of the mound the moment the aura dropped, timing it just right. He reached the perimeter of the aura just as the timer elapsed, releasing the skeletons, and Alex cast his [Flare] which blew a hole through the gathered swordsmen.

  He was on his way to the next mound before the bone shards finished falling. Rising skeletons flashed in his vision thanks to Obby, and the gravestone of the next mound remained his focus. Things were going as well as he could hope for the first half of the mad dash, until the dungeon decided to throw a banana peel in his way.

  A banana peel in the shape of an arrow flying towards his chest.

  “Left, [Shield] ! ”

  He responded just in time. The barrier of aether formed just as a sickly looking bone arrow was about to slip into his guard and more than likely pierce his heart entirely.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  Alex’s eyes scanned around, searching for the source of the attack. It took a moment before he found it. A skeleton standing a few dozen feet ahead to his left and carrying a bow in its hands. It wasn’t exactly blocking his way to the next gravestone mound, but it would cause him some headaches.

  He changed direction, eyes focused on this thing even as it began drawing another bone arrow from— it’s own body?

  “Yeah, that’s gross.”

  “Agreed, lets kill it.”

  The second arrow was deflected by another [Shield] and Alex was upon it before it could fire a third arrow. He didn’t slow at all, slamming his fist into the thing’s skull at a full sprint. The resulting cranial explosion earned him another notification.

  “A new enemy type has entered the chat.”

  “ Not good. These things will whittle down my aether even faster if I’m having to deflect their arrows.” He downed another stamina potion, dropping the empty vial back into his bracelet. He was already at the next mound and cultivating again, refilling his body’s ever hungry aether capacity, even as he drank his potion.

  “True. What’s also true is that you’re managing to get better and better with your energy control.”

  “ Not fast enough to matter.”

  “No, but imagine how screwed you would be if you hadn’t already practiced this while fighting for days already.”

  A realization struck Alex that almost made him drop his gathering technique.

  “He knew, he fucking knew didn’t he?” He looked around at the massive field of mounds, stretching out into infinity.

  “Want to share with the class?”

  “ Sylvaris knew we would go into this dungeon. He knew what we would face, and how unprepared we were. He made me focus on efficiency and spell control. He made me train and fight almost non-stop to build endurance. He was basically conditioning me to do this.” Alex waved his hand to the mass of skeletons still swarming the mound and bashing against the barrier.

  “Oh, I see... yeah you might be right there.”

  “ That tricky fucker.”

  “Tricking you into being a mad slaughter machine? To relentlessly carve through hundreds of enemies… oh that crooked villain Sylvaris.”

  “Okay yeah, he helped, a lot. But still, a real heads up would have been nice. I must have destroyed three hundred of these damn things already. Shit, that reminds me.”

  Killing these things earned him quite a chunk of experience. He shouldn’t just leave those resources untapped. It would be a shame to look at all those sweet points and to do nothing with them.

  Alex brought up his status screen and mentally started spending his experience p—

  The System blared at him angrily.

  “Are you serious right now?”