[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 241 – Proof II

Sam had never used his Void powers in this way before, and he sorely doubted it would work, but he had to try. There was no way around the dreadnought, no way under or over it.

The only way was through.

Using his aura to supercharge his Path skill, Sam’s body was covered in a protective shell of purple-and-black Eschan flames.

[Escha: Surge] coated Sam and Komachi as they launched themselves at the dreadnought. Komachi screamed, as much in excitement as in fear, and the world shifted into shades of purple and black.

When Sam landed, he expected to have to flee from the monster’s reprisal, but to his surprise [Escha: Surge] had bored a hole straight through the monster’s thick metallic body.

It still stood, however, providing Sam with a much-needed buffer to stall the army of monsters chasing him. Even with Komachi’s debuffing songs distracting and confusing them, they would need every advantage they could get.

You defeat an [Alzahan Dreadnought (Level 60)].

You are unable to gain Experience in a Dead Echo.

Substantial Experience converted into skill growth.

You gain substantial skill growth!

Sam pressed on and soon found the sixth and finally the seventh lamp, both surrounded by monsters.

Though [Escha: Surge] tore through his MP like crazy, Sam relied on it again to get to the lamp in time. The press of bodies was too great for even his heightened swordsmanship to deal with in time.

The moment he dropped the shell of purple flames, Sam touched the pole lamp, afraid of damaging it with his Void powers. His other hand went right to his greatsword’s handle, but he needn’t have bothered.

With a pulse of light radiating from the lamp, all the monsters disappeared, leaving Sam and Komachi alone in the room. A room so similar to the first one they appeared in that he wondered if they had done a large loop of the entire floor.

Komachi breathed a sigh of relief. “That was tense!”

“No kidding,” Sam said, taking a moment to catch his breath. “And that’s only the second floor!”

Komachi stowed her favored harp away into her mail, then curled up on his shoulder to rest. She purred quietly, which was a comfort.

Straightening up, Sam looked at the glowing platform. “Ready for round three?”

“Just give Machi a moment.” She stretched her claws out, then began kneading his armor. It reminded him of being home back in Hawai’i, during the good times rather than the bad.

Komachi (Bard) casts [Healing Biscuits] on you.

You gain the effect of Healing Biscuits.

+Accelerated Recovery II

+Disease Resistance I

Sam stared at her. “When did you get that?”

“I learned it while you were training,” Komachi said, growing excited to share. “Real cool, right? Turns out I can pick up new spells and skills if I study from scrolls, tablets, and stuff! The Empress had tons of things for me to learn from. Those tablets showed me visions of lectures too! Doesn’t always click though.”

It felt good, despite the fact that she wasn’t even touching his skin. He let out a sigh of contentment and reached a hand up to scratch behind her ears. “Good cat.”

Together, they ascended to the third floor.

Sam had the unsettling sensation that the tower was watching and learning from him, trying to find his weaknesses. Every floor except for the very first, seemed as if the Proving Grounds were tailoring the challenges to Sam rather than providing a generic difficulty.

The room was much like the one he had just left, only about half the size and without a pole lamp. Sam walked up to the only exit he could find in the strange half-light of the Proving Grounds and found himself at a sealed door.

Red angrily glowing sigils pulsed like a hologram in front of the door. Sam mistrusted them immediately, but he couldn’t see another way out of the room.

“Hop off for a sec,” Sam told Komachi.

In case the barrier was trapped, he didn’t want her to get hurt too. Raising a hand toward the barrier, Sam pressed his palm to it as a notification appeared.

Accept Pathos?

Y/N

“The fuck is a pathos?” Sam wondered aloud.

Komachi shrugged her furry shoulders. “I’m just a cat, Sam.”

“Sure,” Sam said to the door.

The red runes flooded up Sam’s arm and seared his skin as they traveled up to the back of his neck and then vanished.

“It’s hanging above your head,” Komachi pointed out, raising up on her hind legs to get a better look.

Sam looked up and saw a singular rune glowing ruby red above his head. The barrier in front of the door vanished.

So it is, Sam said, then realized nothing came out. He looked down at Komachi.

His cat looked up at him. “Sam?” she asked nervously.

Sam opened his mouth, trying to speak, but nothing would come out. He tried to groan, which also didn’t make a sound.

[Pathos: Omerta]

The affliction of Silence is applied to you, preventing you from doing any spellcasting that requires vocal components.

“How come you not sayin’ anything?” She sounded increasingly worried. “You okay? Gimme some hand signs.”

While he had picked up some from the dullahan, he figured there was one better he could use. Sam formed a fist and stuck out his thumb and pinky, rocking it back and forth to show her that he was okay.

That calmed her down. “Okay, so, removing the barrier afflicted you, but opened the way.” She looked around for any other traps. “Probably means I won’t get hit with it too.”

Sam pointed to his throat and was about to make a slashing motion when he thought better of it. Komachi might not take too well to that.

Instead, he flattened both hands and formed an X after pointing to his throat, hoping that Komachi would get the hint. It wasn’t that Sam was talkative, but this wasn’t normal, even for him.

She tilted her head. “Hmm, maybe Machi should pick up a skill that shows Shardscript for afflictions.”

Let’s see, Sam thought as he touched the doors and they sprang open. I demolished a horde of monsters on the first floor, and the Proving Grounds gave me a puzzle floor. I used my Void powers–which it clearly thought were magic, not as if it could know the difference–and it tried to silence me so I couldn’t use them.

It was beginning to seem that Sam’s suspicions were true. The Proving Grounds were seeking a way to pry at his weaknesses, or the very least remove his strengths.

Pretty good training, he admitted to himself.

If he had been a normal mage, the silence thing would have worked. Instead, it was just annoying.

The rest of the floor was very similar to the first, except the monsters were fewer and more powerful. Most of them used long-ranged attacks that forced Sam to fall back onto his [Void: Scour] barrier to repel them.

If you think you’re going to stop me from using my Void magic, you’ve got another thing coming! Sam wanted to shout to the Proving Grounds.

Komachi sprang into action, using [Discordant Elegy] and [Paralyzing Lullaby] to disable and impair the few automatons that aimed at Sam between his uses of Void mana. Her ability to crowd control was becoming increasingly integral to their success. However, she couldn’t completely shut the monsters down. These new enfeebling Bard songs only had a chance to trigger their effect.

Though a chance was often all he needed.

He needed to pace himself. There was no telling how many floors the tower held, and he needed to be sure he could reach the top in good shape.

With Komachi’s help, Sam was able to clean up the floor with only minor damage. Damage that his healer cat could easily repair, provided she had the mana and energy to do it.

The next three floors were much the same, each forcing Sam to take a different Pathos that disabled him, and then filled with enemies that took advantage of that disability.

Thankfully, the Pathos wore off upon transport to the next floor, so while the Proving Grounds were desperately trying to nerf Sam’s ability to use Void mana, he was steamrolling through the floors thanks to Komachi’s crowd control skills and the swordsmanship the Empress had imparted to him.

Unfortunately, by the time they reached the final floor, the Proving Grounds had found a chink in Sam’s armor:

[Pathos: Mora]

The affliction of Mana Stop is applied to you, preventing you from recovering or using mana outside of your own body.

That meant his Void mana usage was strictly limited to [Void Infusion], which required him to get within striking distance of any enemy.

Thankfully, the Proving Grounds were unable to afflict both Sam and Komachi at the same time. Owing to her healing powers being far more important, Sam gladly took on the pathos.

The cold sensation stretched over his whole body and made him shiver uncontrollably until Komachi hopped up onto his shoulder. It was unsettling being cut off from using his mana normally.

He reached a hand up and scratched under her chin. Komachi had found a new mage hat on the fifth floor and she was wearing it proudly. Tiny glittering stars sparkled on the brim and the floppy point of the hat.

“Is real cool, man,” she commented at the time.

Sam couldn’t have agreed more.

The sixth floor proved the most challenging yet, but it still wasn’t enough to stop them. Sam cleaved through every monster the Proving Grounds put in his way. With or without mana, Sam was a powerhouse. And with [Great Dual Wielding Foundation] at his disposal, he could cut down whole swaths of creatures in mere moments.

By the time any of the monsters noticed his [Stealthed] Komachi’s songs and healing, it was too late.

I think I’m getting the hang of this, Sam thought to himself. He sliced two automatons in half at the waist, twisted on the balls of his feet, and blocked an overhand chop from a third. The Proving Grounds can take away spells, active skills like [Heavy Blade], limit my HP, MP, or just about anything, but it can’t take away skill for some reason.

It also didn’t understand how his Void mana worked, as it proved time and time again that it couldn’t single it out. Instead, it had to get creative. Which was worrying in its own right.

Infusing his hand with Void, Sam thrust it through the thick breastplate of the third automaton and demolished its sensitive mana core with a touch.

“I’m ready to be done with this,” Sam said, stepping up to a large pair of brass doors. These looked different from anything he was used to. Usually, it was just an empty hallway or archway that led to a room with a raised platform that would teleport him up.

Instead, these large brass doors embossed with a strange series of symbols stood before him. At their center was a single white jewel, glowing faintly.

“Dunno how most Paragons deal with this test,” she admitted. “Maybe they’re much higher level? You’re already real stronk, but I bet most aren’t that stronk at your level.”

Sam didn’t want to say that he probably could have done this without Komachi. So he gave her a friendly pat on the rump.

Though Sam felt confident he could do it on his own, why should he? Besides, Komachi turned the difficulty from challenging down to laughably easy at times.

At least, when her crowd control spells landed.

Pressing his fingertips to the jewel, the crystal began to vibrate like a tuning fork. Before Sam could pull his fingers back, the jewel shattered into a million fragments of shimmering light.

Tiny constellations streaked by, connecting with glowing arcs that imprinted themselves on Sam’s mind.

When the dazzling display faded away, the doors were open to a large throne room.

Stepping through, Sam realized it wasn’t actually a throne room. It was spacious, ringed on all sides except the entryway behind him in spiraling streaked pillars.

Oppressive darkness was all that filled the space between the pillars, but Sam had the impression he should be able to see for miles in every direction up here.

At the center of the room was a raised circular dais with several strange apparatuses he couldn’t begin to make out. Upon the center of that dais was a twisting portal of light.

It turned on itself like an optical illusion, sometimes showing him a scene in the middle of an autumnal forest clear as day, and at other times obscuring it with twisting pillars of light.

“I think that’s our ride,” Sam said, looking around for any threats and stepping up to the rift when he found none.

As soon as he put a hand out to the light, it stopped moving and opened fully into an archway through which the scents, lights, and sounds of a forest glade flooded into the Proving Grounds.

With one glance at Komachi, Sam stepped through the rift.