PftA Book 4 - Chapter 50 - Anya's Hope

I watched carefully as Anya slid the last piece into place on the framed wall. It was more than just fitting the correctly-shaped piece into a slot; there was a mana component to the challenge as well.

This wasn’t the first such puzzle we’d encountered during our delve, though each was different enough that previous encounters didn’t provide any real advantage.

In many ways, the puzzles were harder than the combat encounters. Those were fairly easy: kill the monsters, find the key.

I suppose some would argue that those still qualified as puzzles since merely killing the mobs wasn’t enough to complete the challenge, but the required ‘key’ was always obvious enough and, thus, easy to find with Spatial Sense.

I couldn’t use my Space affinity much to find my way through the maze since, like the seventh floor of the dungeon, the rift blocked such cheat-like abilities. Thankfully, that limitation didn’t extend to the individual challenge areas.

When the door soundlessly slid open to my right, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

“How did you figure out the pattern?” I asked. “Foresight?”

Anya grinned. “I’ll admit, I used it a little bit. The mana pattern logic wasn’t something I’ve encountered before.”

While it appeared like a normal ‘fit the blocks into the shape’ puzzle, there were several pieces that looked the same on the surface but were, in fact, different. Each was infused with a different type of mana, and figuring out the mana pattern was just as important to solving the puzzle as fitting the correct shapes together.

“Well, I’m glad you were able to figure it out. If I’d had to do it myself, I’m not sure how long it would have taken me,” I admitted.

I was sure I’d eventually have figured it out, if by nothing more than trial and error. But Anya’s affinity had once again displayed its worth.

We stepped through the door, which led to a futuristic-looking hallway with sleek metal walls. Everything was polished and gleaming, making the surfaces reflective.

“Ah, be careful of traps during this section. It’s hard for me to pinpoint their location,” Anya warned me. Like the limitations on Spatial Sense, Anya’s foresight abilities were severely hampered by the rift’s design.

Normally, finding traps would be simple for the Fate Mage, but the rift seemed specifically designed to counter such advantages. We were really quite lucky that the limitations weren’t as strict for the actual challenges.

Had her abilities been countered during the puzzles, our stay in the rift would have been much longer. As it was, we’d already spent nearly a week traipsing through the maze, solving puzzles, and killing groups of humanoid monsters.

And unlike the vast majority of rifts in the Alliance, these humanoid creatures included monster-versions of the sapient races we were familiar with.

I fell behind Anya and made sure to step precisely where her feet had already gone. We’d gone through enough trapped hallways to have our approach already down.

While Anya might not be able to pinpoint where the traps were from the beginning, her affinity did warn her if she was about to step on something dangerous.

“How many more challenges do you think we have?” I asked, expecting a vague answer due to the interference from the rift.

“Just one,” she replied, surprising me. “The boss is all there is left… unless you’d like me to take us on a detour to challenge all the combat encounters we skipped.”

“Will it make a difference as far as the reward goes?”

Anya halted at the next potential branch in the path. Her brow furrowed as she considered my question.

“I-I’m not sure,” the Fate Mage confessed. The admission seemed almost painful for her. “The rift interferes with my Foresight much like it does your perception skills. I can navigate us to our goal, but the details are often muddled.”

“Do you want to take a break and meditate on it for a bit?” I suggested. “Now that we’re close to the end, you should be able to get a better gauge of things, right?”

I wasn’t exactly sure that’s how things worked for her, but it seemed logical enough. I still didn’t really understand Fate magic. It seemed like it should be pretty straightforward, but whenever I asked about specifics, the Fate Mages I talked to always gave me unexpected answers.

I was starting to think that maybe the Fate Mages themselves didn’t understand how their magic worked.

Since the Oracle seemed uncharacteristically uncertain about what we should do, I pulled out my newest pod and expanded it to fill the corridor. I had to craft a new one since I was using my primary as a full-time residence.

I’d surreptitiously tested access to my demesne during our intermittent breaks, and I’d learned that I could not access anything outside my current ‘realm.’

Further, I learned that all of the quasi-anchors I’d left when I accessed the space from outside had been erased when I entered the rift. It was almost like entering a new dimension of any sort reset access to my personal dimension.

I hoped that my connections would return once we left the rift, but I wasn’t optimistic. Most likely, I’d have to travel around and reset my access points.

On the bright side, it answered some questions about what I could expect when I reentered the dungeon. Since the dungeon was a separate dimensional space just like a rift, it seemed logical to assume that I’d lose access to locations outside the dungeon once I returned.

A part of me was hoping that I’d find some super secret cheat method of visiting friends and family while technically staying inside the dungeon, but that seemed less likely the more I dug into the phenomenon.

“We might need to do a completionist run,” Anya said with an apologetic smile a short while later. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize earlier, but now that we’re close to the end… I can sense it won’t be enough. If we go straight for the boss, we won’t get the reward we’re hoping for.”

I didn’t blame the white-haired Oracle. I already knew that Fate magic was finicky, at best. It was seen as one of the most unreliable affinities for a reason.

“That’s fine,” I said. “I planned for it to take a week or so, Alliance-time. Doing a complete run won’t interfere with that, given the added time dilation.”

“No, it won’t,” Anya agreed. “I shouldn’t have any trouble navigating to each challenge, though we’ll still have to be cautious of traps. I think the rift intentionally makes those harder for me to see.”

Anya looked like she was mulling over something important, so I remained silent as she processed her thoughts.

A few moments later, she shook her head and smiled. “So, what new dish do you want me to try tonight?”

= = =

Completing every challenge in the rift was a bit of a slog, especially with how careful we had to be while traversing between encounters.

“That’s the last one before the boss,” Anya informed me as I stepped around the fallen boss to look at the gate barring our path. The key for this one was obviously the boss’s crown, so I didn’t have to search the fort for a hidden object.

“Do you have any more insight on what we’ll be fighting?” I asked.

Anya shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. I sense that it’ll be large, unlike the humanoid creatures we’ve fought so far, but the rift is actively keeping me from learning anything more.”

“If you can’t see the boss, how do you know we’ll get the experience booster as a reward?” I asked as I slotted the crown into the opening.

“They are two different things,” Anya explained. “The boss is protected from my sight, but the rift’s rewards are not.”

I sighed, but it wasn’t like there was anything that I could do about the lack of information. Most of the time, I had even less information to work with.

We stopped outside the door leading to the boss. It was protected by a relatively simple puzzle that I suspected was more for show than any real challenge.

“Okay. Are you ready?” I asked before moving the last piece into place.

When she nodded, I finalized the puzzle and stepped back as the large, heavy door blocking the entrance melted away.

“Crap. It’s a Hydra,” I said.

Of particular note was the distinctly different coloration of each neck and head, marking each as having a separate elemental affinity.

Magma, Acid, and Ice – it was a trifecta that would counter most challengers and their equipment.

“This is certainly going to be a difficult fight,” Anya said stoically. “We’ll have to overwhelm it instead of whittling it down. These things have exceptional natural regeneration.”

Her comment seemed to draw the attention of all three heads, and they turned in our direction as one.

I cast an extra Barrier over both of us before stepping inside the cavernous space. It never hurt to have a little extra protection.

Anya followed directly behind me before splitting off to the right and ducking behind a series of crystalline pillars. She’d said to overwhelm the thing, so I immediately began unloading most of the consumables I’d maintained from my time in the previous rift.

Dozens of beads with a variety of enchanted effects triggered as they impacted the scaled boss. Before it could react to the barrage, I threw several other attack talismans at the creature, hoping to cause enough damage to keep the boss from retaliating.

I wished I’d thought to craft a set of [Elemental Net] scepters like I’d used in the dungeon against the wyverns. Unfortunately, the idea only occurred to me after engaging with the Hydra boss.

Anya used her varied manatech to shoot elemental attacks at the resilient creature, but they did little to harm it.

“I’m going to use a Void attack!” Anya shouted after dodging one of the creature’s retaliatory strikes.

My brow rose of its own accord, and I wondered where she’d gotten such a weapon.

I paused just long enough not to interfere with her shot, which cut right through the creature’s chest. The result was immediate.

The hydra’s three heads shrieked in an eerie sort of harmony, and the beast began rampaging through the enclosed space, no longer caring about any damage it was taking.

It was in a rage, which made it even more dangerous than before.

“Lookout!” I yelled before forcibly teleporting Anya away from the tail that whipped through the pillars she was sheltering behind.

“Thanks,” she said shakily.

The maneuver had drained a lot of mana since she’d instinctively resisted the effect, leaving me worryingly low on the precious resource.

“We need to hit it with everything we can while it’s distracted. I tried to hit the core, but obviously, I missed,” Anya added after she caught her breath.

A carefully packaged bag appeared in my hand. I only had one prepared, and this was probably the best opportunity to use it.

I pulled Anya behind the closest cover, being sure to place my body between hers and the boss.

“Toss up another shield if you can,” I told her. “Put it between us and the boss.”

As soon as I sensed the Shield manifesting, I focused on the weeping chest wound and used the rest of my mana to teleport the item into the gap as close to the core as I could get.

The contents immediately triggered.

The cavern rocked and we were slammed against the wall from the shockwave. It had gone right through her Shield.

In fact, the force of the multi-element explosion broke through the Barriers I’d cast on both of us right before the fight. Thankfully, we were both wearing backup [Barrier] talismans, which prevented us from being too injured.

“Is it dead?” I asked as I removed a mana potion from storage. My head was spinning from the rapid use of mana.

Anya triggered a talisman that fully healed whatever injuries she sustained before stepping forward. The sound of her favorite manatech weapon firing several times preceded the notification that alerted me to the boss’s death.

I guess the explosion wasn’t enough to kill it.

“It is now,” she said with a grim smile. “It’s just too bad there’s practically no way to kill one of those things without breaking their core.”

I nodded in agreement. A hydra core would be insanely useful for so many things.

“Do you care if I collect the body?” I asked.

“Be my guest,” she replied casually.

I stumbled over to the largest pieces and pulled them into the stasis section of my personal dimension. It wasn’t an experience booster, but materials from a Tier Nine hydra were certainly nothing to scoff at.

“That was a lot more challenging than any of the other fights,” I commented.

“It was,” Anya agreed before her eyes shifted to the small chest that manifested near the exit portal. They lit up with excitement as she murmured, “But it was definitely worth it.”

I watched in amusement as the several hundred-year-old woman approached the chest like a child on Christmas morning. Inside was a thin, nondescript bracelet in silvery metal.

[Anya’s Hope – Artifact – Legendary – Don’t be fooled by its frail appearance, this artifact is almost indestructible. It will boost the system experience gained by the wearer by 150%]

I chuckled at the item’s name. Legendary items were almost always named after the person who created them or earned them. I could only assume that it took Anya’s name since she was the one to open the chest.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the reward would have been something different had I been the one to open it.