The monster appeared behind me. I heard the water jet before it struck me, letting me twist and avoid it. I turned and saw the Stallion. It was a lot smarter. I doubted I’d be able to do the same trick again and I’d used up a lot of my Arcanum in my Core. It regenned over time, but tended to slow down during combat.

  All part of the Challenge.

  With all the jets of high pressure water, the formally smooth ground was pitted and eroded. The jets were strong. Most people would have had broken bones by those things.

  The Stallion was a lot smaller. It kept the same form, but now was just maybe one and half times that of a normal Kelpie, not the three times it had been.

  I really needed some kind of ranged Essence, but most of them just didn’t fit me. I’d heard of a Telekinetic Essence which kind of worked like the Invisible Woman from those old comics. That kind of gave me an idea. I had Manipulation and Force. I’d just used that to change how I used the Force, instead of just augmenting my punches, I’d made a kind of explosive bubble. Couldn’t I do something similar but at a range?

  Sure, there’d be a limit to that range, but I could probably do it. Not the best ranged, but it would do what I wanted until I found something better.

  Watching the Stallion, I raised one of my hands in a fist, pointing right at the Stallion. I pushed out the Force, turning it into a kind of lance that I sent flying toward the Kelpie. It pierced the watery-like body, exploding a bit of the Stallion’s substance.

  And drained a lot of my Arcanum.

  The Stallion made that watery-neigh and disappeared.

  It had worked. Not as great as I had wanted, but it worked. Which meant I could improve the attack. If the range was shorter, would it be stronger? Probably.

  The Kelpie appeared behind me, right at the edge of the island. It reared up as I turned, the hooves slamming down onto the ground. I had leapt back and leaped right back at the monster. I grabbed the leg, letting it lift me into the air. It was solid, but kind of wet and slippery. The leg raised over the head and I jumped off, landing onto the Stallion’s head. I grabbed a hold of its mane, trying to hold on tight. Holding on with one hand, I kept punching with the other.

  Water exploded with each impact, splashing against me, making it harder to hold on. Water got in my eyes and mouth. Kelpie water tasted horrible.

  Didn’t stop me from pounding on the Kelpie. I used up more Arcanum to push Force into the Kelpie when my fists penetrated the body. Using Force drew on my Arcanum far more than the Motion Essence. Motion took a small amount to activate the field and the field itself did the rest, absorbing and redirecting the kinetic energy. My Abilities were very Arcanum efficient compared to many others. I rarely ever had to use an Arcanum Potion.

  I still kept some on me, along with Health and Stamina Potions.

  None of which I could grab while holding onto the Stallion.

  I kept punching, using up the last of my Arcanum to explode Force bubbles inside the Kelpies body. It disappeared, dropping me to the water. I slammed into the pond, barely able to hold my breath. It was dark in the water, but I was able to tell top from bottom because of the way the fish swam away from me. They moved deeper, taking their lights with them. No way were they moving to the top of the pond, so I knew which way to go.

  Bursting out of the pond, I took a deep breath, trying to find the island or bridge. I could feel the water surging as the Kelpie came at me. Seeing the island, I swam hard, reaching the island in seconds and grabbing the top edge. I managed to pull myself up but stopped as something started dragging me back down.

  The Kelpie had grabbed my legs, trying to pull me back under. If that happened, I’d lose the fight. I pushed kinetic energy into my legs, kicking at whatever form the Kelpie had taken to grab me. It was a horse body, no arms and the mouth wasn’t large enough to clamp onto my legs, so in the water it had another form. But that form was solid, had to be to grab me. I kicked wildly, feeling something release. With another surge of kinetic energy, I pulled myself onto the island.

  I lay there, water dripping off me. Sitting up, my hair hung over my face, water running down my face. Pushing my hair out of my eyes, I cursed. I’d lost my hat.

  The Kelpie appeared in front of me, looking smaller, but I was pissed. The thing had made me lose my hat. I took a potion out of my Spatial Storage. It was a test tube with a cork, containing a shining bright blue thick looking liquid. Using my teeth, I pulled the cork, spitting it on the ground, dumping the potion down my thought, I ignored the cough syrupy taste of the liquid. Like cough syrup, which was something we didn’t have or need anymore, but had been replaced by potions, the liquid was thick and could feel it going down my throat. I hated that taste but loved the rush I felt as my Arcanum Core filled. Not fully, the potions only giving me like ? of my Core. But it was enough.

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  I sent two lances of Force into the Kelpie, aiming for where the body met the water funnel. The spears burst through, splashing water everywhere. Luckily it wasn’t on me. Two big holes formed in the monster’s body. They got filled in, but slowly, the overall size of the Kelpie shrinking a bit.

  It was interesting to see. The body shrunk more than the amount of watery-substance I’d shot out of the monster. The Celestial Challenge System wanted it’s Awakened to Challenge ourselves, but there was no true Challenge if there wasn’t a way to win. There was no Challenge in an impossible fight, that was just suicide. Now if the Awakened challenged something that was Levels above their paygrade, that was just the Awakened being stupid.

  The Kelpie reared up again, opening it’s mouth and shooting out another water jet. I dodged to the side and shot another Force Lance at it. The lance struck the monster in the head, blowing a big hole in the side. The Stallion kind of froze, just the water that constantly dripped off of it still falling. Half the head was missing, only one eye left.

  I kept waiting for the head to reform but it didn’t. The Kelpie just floated there. Stood there? It was only half a horse body on a column of water. So was it floating or standing? Either way, it wasn’t moving.

  Taking advantage of it’s pause, I shot it with the last Force Lance, blowing up the other half of the head. The water column shot up, the form of the Kelpie disappearing. The column struck the ceiling, spreading out and falling across the cavern. I covered up my head, feeling the water crash over me. It was a ton of water, the force even pushing me down a bit. Not to my knees, but staggering me a bit.

  Then it stopped, the water dripping off me. I was drenched. Grumbling I looked around, seeing that the pond had been half emptied, but it was filling quickly. I saw my hat floating on the top of the pond.

  I jumped in, swimming over to the hat. Grabbing it, I swam back to the island, dragging myself out of it. My armor and clothes were soaked, making them heavy. Swimming in clothes always sucked. Adding armor and that made it suck even more. But I had my hat back.

  Sitting on the island, legs over the edge, watching the pond fill up again, I looked at the Notifications.

  YOU HAVE SLAIN MOSSPOND KELPIE STALLION

  YOU HAVE GAINED +50 TUTORIAL POINTS AND +50 MULTIVERSAL POINTS

  YOU HAVE COMPLETED AN OBJECTIVE OF THE MOSSPOND DUNGEON.

  DESTROY THE MOSSPOND KELPIE STALLION 1/1

  YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE MOSSPOND DUNGEON.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +5,000 TOWER POINTS AND +5,000 MULTIVERSAL POINTS

  YOU COMPLETED THE MOSSPOND DUNGEON WITH 00:54:13 LEFT. YOU HAVE PLACED AS THE 135TH BEST TIME AT RUNNING THE MOSSPOND DUNGEON.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +6,500 TUTORIAL POINTS AND +6,500 MULTIVERSAL POINTS

  YOU HAVE GAINED +2 BOTTLES OF KELPIE WATER

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 FORCE ESSENCE, +1 WATER ESSENCE, +1 RESISTANCE ESSENCE

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 LEVEL-UP

  Not bad. I’d gotten some other bottles of Kelpie Water from the Cave Kelpies. No idea what it did, but figured the Alchemists back home would figure out a use for it. I didn’t wait and used the Force Essence. The new use of it was too good and wanted to power it up. The higher my Force Essence got, the less Arcanum it would use. I used the Resistance Essence, probably getting that one for being able to resist the intense water streams.

  ***

  Outside the Dungeon, I looked around the pond, feeling that there was something nearby. I walked over, seeing a clump of plants and some that looked like old cattails from back home. Walking closer, it was those that were giving me the feeling like the acorns had. Instead of the slightly fuzzy brown that cattails had, these things were a bright orange and looked more spikey than fuzzy. They were also about six feet tall, the stalks an inch thick.

  When I’d bought the harvesting tools back in the Market District, I’d also learned how to gather the Resources. So it didn’t take long to grab the pondtails The tools had cost me 200 Mulitversal Points. I had no idea if that was a good deal or not, but didn’t really matter. I needed the tools and 200 MP should be easy enough to get back.

  It took a couple hours of walking around the pond to gather all the pondtails growing around it. That and fighting some of the nearby monsters. Ursaspines, Elks and Wolves. I managed to get some more Acorns and Birch Bundles.

  I figured that was enough for one day so started heading back toward the Portal. Along the way I gathered some Whitemoss. With the tools, it was much easier to gather. The cold aura still did some damage, but not as bad as when having to directly touch it.

  Another hour and a half or so to get back to the Portal. Another Five Whitemoss Wolves and Two Ursaspines. None of them Elites, so only 10 MP and TP each. More hide and a variety of other parts. I was getting a good amount of Resources out of this floor.

  And the long walk had helped dry me off a bit. I was wet, my clothes soaked, but at least I wasn’t dripping.

  The Portal appeared before me and I stepped through into the Tower Hub.