"Status," Athelei commanded as he mulled over his future actions.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
=} User: Athelei (Tier 1 User) {=
=} Interface Authority Level: 1.15 -> 1.95 {=
Age: 4
=o=o=o=o=
=} Physical Attributes {=
Health: 8/8
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 11
Defense: 5 -> 8
=o=o=o=o=
=} Mental Attributes {=
Mana: 15/15 -> 16/16
Intelligence: 30 -> 32
Will: 23 -> 24
Psychic: 21 -> 23 (Unique) (Range: 5.5km -> 6.5km)
=o=o=o=o=
=} Other Attributes {=
Energy: 11/11
Charisma: 24
Luck: Questionable
=o=o=o=o=
=} *NEW* Endbringer's Wings {=
Governance over History (First Pair): Fully Grown (5.7m Wingspan)
Governance over ??? (Second Pair): Infancy (0.3m Wingspan)
=o=o=o=o=
=} Skills {=
- Cyan Analysis Skill: Examine (Level 8/10) -> (Level 9/10)
- Purple Analysis Skill: Appraisal (Level 8/10) -> (Level 9/10)
- Orange Analysis Skill: Judgement (Level 8/10) -> (Level 9/10)
- Trinity Analysis Skill: Inspect (Level 8/10) -> (Level 9/10)
- Orange Tier I Skill: Shop (Level 2/10) -> (Level 4/10)
- Trinity Tier I Skill: Sneaky (Level 2/10)
=o=o=o=o=
- [Invisible] mode is currently active.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Every since Athelei received the orange Nebula Gem with 0.65 Interface Authority Levels, he had strived to find similar-sized purple and cyan gems. Atlantis was really helpful in that regard, with hundreds of ownerless Nebula Gems.
All it took was a little eloquence, a business perspective, and a pinch of Sway to get what he wanted.
Thus, he had the screen above. Given the third month since the destruction of Avina was about to, Athelei nodded slightly at the growth of his attributes.
'I will most likely have a lot of opportunities to use Sneak in the subterranean kingdoms...' Athelei thought to himself as his physical body dissipated into a thin, grey fog.
He had made his decision.
All of his belongings, from his clothes to the Tidal Tome, Mind Splitter, Needle of Motionlessness, to a pouch of large silver coins, were consumed by his fog. Athelei felt his [Mana] deplete greatly as he applied a technique he learned from the Undead Remnants and temporarily turned all his belongings into grey fog.
Such a simple skill was dubbed by him as, Dissolution.
He drifted upwards as he left a note behind.
Through the dark sea, Athelei moved up, and up, and up. The water pressure was not an issue for him as he travelled through the depths and into the shallower areas of the sea.
With not even a splash, he made it to the surface. The duration of Dissolution ended as his [Mana] was stretched thin. All of his belongings returned to their physical states, as Athelei himself allowed his physical body to reappear.
On his back, however, two large wings spread out, wrapped in white Tangible Will. The second pair of wings drooped lazily on his back like feathery tails.
Just as gravity's grasp pulled him down, he flapped his wings and flew into the morning sky. Long, silky black hair fluttered in the wind as a pair of obsidian irises gleamed.
"Subterranean kingdoms, here I come."
.
.
.
It was midday when Athelei finally arrived above the bay where Avina used to stand. Cerulean waters shone in the sunlight, a stark contrast with the lifeless plains that lay around it.
"The Grey Plains..." Athelei gazed into the distance.
Grey, black, and dirty white were all the colours he could see. Only the very distant mountains had any sign of green as Undead Remnants continued to ravage the lands of Illyas. It was a plague that gave the holy royals a headache as they thought of ways to fight its inevitable spread.
When Athelei focused, he also noticed a small speck of white that floated near the northern mountains where greens could still be seen.
"Sky Cross?" Athelei used Inspect and indeed confirmed the floating school's identity despite the grand distance between him and it.
Whoosh!
Withdrawing his gaze from the scenery, Athelei folded his wings and allowed himself to fall.
"Ah~" Exhilaration flooded his body as he felt the thrill of sky diving. With spread out limbs, Athelei surrendered himself to the whims of the winds as the ground below him rapidly approached.
1000 metres,
750 metres,
500 metres,
250 metres,
100 metres,
50 metres,
40 metres,
30 metres,
20 metres,
10.
The lifeless grey earth was right in front of his eyes, but Athelei made no attempt to spread his wings and slow his fall. Instead, his body simply dissolved into a grey fog as he invested [Mana] to use Dissolution once more.
No impact sounded out as Athelei infiltrated the Grand Subterranean Entrance and slipped through the vigilance of those who patrolled the nearby fort. It was clearly quite difficult to spot a skydiver who did not bother to bring a parachute and simply phased through the earth as a grey fog. There were no bright colours to spot, nor were there any impacts from the high fall.
The difficulty was made even more so when they weren't expecting such a thing at all.
Their focus was on the Grey plains and the underground. Not the skies.
Athelei's body reformed inside one of the labyrinth's corridors and a grin had already been painted onto the boy's face.
"Fun," He whispered to himself as he sent wisps of grey fog out to survey his surroundings.
Inside his mental library, a complex three-dimensional map of the labyrinth was put on display. It was akin to a hologram as it sprouted from the pages of a thick book filled with drawings, diagrams, and calculations.
With nonchalant footsteps, the Endbringer began his descent. He did not follow his own map and instead ran towards the places he had yet to record.
The map was only there to guide him away from the tried and tested corridors and onto the paths less travelled.
'I wonder what other things are hiding...' Athelei recalled the trials experienced by Cammille and her party. He wondered what the tattoo of the giant-horned ram was about.
.
.
.
Athelei descended swiftly, unbothered by the many twists and turns of the labyrinth. His wisps of grey fog always checked different rooms and corridors in a large radius around him. With the way he chose his turns and staircases, any onlooker would think the boy was waltzing around in his own backyard.
After two hours of navigation, Athelei found himself confronted by a pair of goblins.
The three beings who stood at around a metre in height all eyed each other for a moment. But it was the human child that sprung forward first, with his white Tangible Will flickering with a few separate Mystic Patterns.
Athelei had already invoked Area, supplying him with greater avenues for attack.
Two small blobs of water splashed onto the goblins from directly above their heads, blinding them for a moment as they hurriedly stepped back in wariness.
Fwhip! Crack!
As they did though, long tails had already sprouted from Athelei's back, snapping at the goblins' heels. Blood was drawn and tendons were implicated.
'Blinded, and inflicted with a loss of balance... Likely disoriented as well.' Athelei's eyes flashed as he used Inspect.
'I am capable of killing them with one well-placed strike each, given their [Defence] being lower than mine. Hm... It seems like their weapons are unenchanted and are of no threat to me.' He swiftly analysed the state of his enemies. On the side, he also put effort into judging the possibilities of being counterattacked. His references were naturally the lessons he had been taught in the past.
The wind whistled at this moment as one of Athelei's hands sprung forward with a flash of light.
The Needle of Motionlessness was already flying through the air, propelled by Gust.
Mind Splitter was similarly unsheathed as Athelei mimicked Hana of the Banishers. He slashed forward in a reckless yet accurate lunge, cutting through one of the goblins as his body was heightened by Hunter and his Tangible Will.
Ppuk! Swish!
One goblin fell to the ground after its leg turned numb while the other was beheaded. Athelei then adjusted the momentum of his single-edged sword, spinning as he slashed down into the collapsed goblin.
Blood sprayed as another head went flying.
'No signs of life...' Athelei glanced at the updated results of Inspect and nodded to himself before picking up his dagger and sheathing his sword.
'Using the Mind Splitter with a small body is really uncomfortable though... It drags me along with it.' He reviewed his battle just now as he devoured the goblins' residual consciousness.
'But I can't really do anything about it... Despite being an Endbringer, my physical body is still maturing at the same pace as normal humans do. I can only consume more of those Crystalline fruits to boost my physical attributes for now...'
Athelei then felt around the labyrinth with his wisps as he pinpointed the location of the goblin's camp. The way events were developing became awfully familiar at this moment.
"A wave of deja vu..." He muttered, "Is the labyrinth somehow deliberately leading different groups of people through similar routines and different halls? Although I am going out of my own volition, both Cammille's party and Sister Yan's company had experienced a single hall and goblin camp each. Irene as well. I wonder if Arnold and Hyeon experienced a similar event..."
Athelei found such a coincidence no longer just a factor of luck and only luck. Perhaps something in the labyrinth was manipulating every explorer behind the scenes.
But, even though he was already mapping out every single corridor he both passed through and did not pass through, he could not find any obvious signs of tampering. Dead ends did not suddenly impede his path, nor did any new corridors manifest out of thin air.
Even in those corridors he only explored with his fog wisps and not his main body. Nothing peculiar was occurring.
'Perhaps the manipulator is a masterful illusionist, akin to those magicians who practice sleight of hand. Or maybe all of my senses, whether it is through my own eyes or through my wisps, are already being barred from noticing the truth...'
Ideas flowed like a waterfall as Athelei made his way towards the hall where a camp of goblins lay peacefully in its own miniature society.