(Arc 2 Complete!) Path of the Last Champion [Sci-Fantasy LitRPG, Party Dynamics, Earned Power]

Nar peered out the beetle's window, but he couldn't see anything other than Labyrinth wall as they slowly descended to the cluster. Then, just as he was about to look away, he caught sight of the topmost of the dungeon cubes, all neatly stacked up in an irregular, triangular formation that climbed up and clung to the wall. All of the dungeon entrances shone with a clear green light, but despite that, he couldn't help the twisting sensation in his gut as he thought of the only other dungeon they had ever entered.

"Don't worry, the dungeons you're going into tomorrow are clean," Tys had said as he exited the lift on deck 4. "There was a non-elite Tsurmirel apprenticeship here just yesterday, and they had no issues over the last month. So go in there, and get your feet back under you."

And that's exactly what he planned to do in order to overcome that apprehension that had become associated with dungeon delving. He just needed to get in there, see that everything was going fine, and that he, and his party, were more than capable of handling whatever was thrown at them inside this dungeon, and the many more to come.

Easy-peasy, he told himself, trying to keep his sarcasm in check.

They landed on the ledge of the dungeon cluster, much like they had for their third assessment, and they filtered out of the aethership in a patient, if excited, hubbub.

"Right, over here," Kur said, taking them to one side as they exited the ship. "Let's get situated first."

Unlike their first time, where they had been guided, or escorted, up to their dungeon, this time, either because it was their second or because the Scimitar was the only ship there, the apprentices were free to manage their goings and comings, as well as their own breaks in between delves.

Speaking of which, Nar caught sight of crewmembers busy with assembling several structures besides the cluster of dungeons. They seemed to be made up of black and brown cloth that was held and hoisted taut in place by a series of black metal tubes. Tents, the captain had called them. And beyond the section of tents going up, from under a larger tent, Nar could hear and smell the busy work of chefs already on the double to get everyone's breakfasts ready for when they exited their first dungeon.

"So… If we are here," Kur muttered, with Gad peering over his shoulder as he turned the cluster map they had been given with his fingers." Then our first dungeon should be… That one! Let's go!"

They followed after him, joining the queue of parties heading higher up into the cluster.

"Remember that we're on schedule here!" Kur warned them, glancing back at his party. "If we don't finish our three dungeons by 11PM, the next transport back to the ship is at half 1 in the morning, and we'll be forced to wait out here for it."

"Ugh. Let's not do that," Mul grumbled.

Nar nodded in quiet agreement.

Ever XP hungry, the captain had warned them over dinner the previous night, that after 11PM, all facilities and lights on the ground would be turned off and all personnel returned to the ship. However, given how many parties there were, and the limited number of dungeons, some parties would be delving quite late into the night, and thus the last transport back to the ship was scheduled for half one in the morning. Of course, no one was going to be left outside in the Labyrinth, so the last ship would wait until all the apprentices were aboard, which meant that if anyone was delayed, nobody would be hitting their beds until very late indeed. And the next day would be a grueling training and lecture day…

Nar snorted and pushed away the on-coming complaining before they could materialize. They were delver apprentices, and this was what they did. Plus, much more concerning than these dungeons, was whatever waited for him upon returning to the ship. Whatever unholy time it may be, Tys had promised to be awake and waiting to begin his training, and that, far more than these easy dungeons before him, was what weighed heavy on his mind.

He had told the others of the development over dinner, and the general feeling had been one of mixed excitement for him. But, as with Gad, who had still to make her decision about the controller contract, they were understandably hesitant about him signing off his future to Tys as well.

Even if his vow ended the moment, he became a Named Few, there was still a pretty big if in him even making that far alive, or with his sanity intact. And of course, he had been honest and open about all the warnings he had been given about Tys' still to be revealed training, which had understandably put a heavy damper on their enthusiasm. But, as with all things, Kur had been their spokesperson in saying that whatever Nar chose, the party would support him, just that please, for all that was holy, Kur pleaded with Nar to be damned sure that this was what he wanted.

Nar had been prepared to take Tys' offer right there and then, ready to do anything to ensure the party's future, but perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea to get more details about his new training and its perceived brutality first… Though he still doubted anything was going to be able to change his mind.

"Alright, it's this one," Kur told them.

Nar blinked back to the then and now, and followed up after the others as they took a thin, side passage that went under a crooked, misshapen tiny bridge. He had to lower his head as he passed under it, the sound of conversations drifting down from above, then the others halted in front of him before he could come from under the tight, dark space.

He stretched his neck over Rel's head to see what was going on, and she shimmied to the side, pulling him closer to her.

"Come out, there's enough room," she said.

"Thanks," he told her, grateful to be able to stand up to his full height again.

She smiled at him, and turned her focus forward again.

They were in a cramped little opening in between cube faces, and the one that Kur was confirming the ID of showed a vertex towards them, the rest of it being buried into the Labyrinth's wall. Just as expected, it shone with the easy green of a low difficulty dungeon, and promised nothing but a breeze of a time.

"Alright, this is it," Kur said, putting his tablet away. "Everyone ready?"

"Let's go!" Tuk shouted.

"It should be safe until we reach the boss's room, but just in case, weapons out," the party leader said.

"I don't know if there's enough room for it here," Viy said, eyeing their cramped surroundings.

"Oh, right. Just be ready to draw them out as soon as we enter, then," Kur said. "Alright. Here we go!"

There was a moment of blankness, of being in the nowhere, but a nowhere that possessed an up and down and in which Nar still found himself breathing and thinking. Then, a pungent stench hit his nostrils and he blinked in the sudden darkness. He summoned his sword to his hand as soon as he had control over himself again, and pushed out his senses in search of threats.

His [Dark Vision] kicked in on his third blink, and he looked around himself, finding walls of uneven rock all around them.

"Ugh. Is this water?" Mul grunted, looking down at the floor.

Nar glanced down as well, and found that the floor ebbed and flowed past his ankles, a coldness quickly seeping through his inactive combat gear.

"This is going to burn through our aura," Gad said, her tone pragmatic.

"It's only a short dungeon," Kur said. "Shouldn't even take forty minutes."

"That fast?" Cen asked in shock.

Kur's featureless head bobbed in the darkness. "They really are meant to be done quickly, followed by a period of recharging our auras if needed, and for us to have the time to plan our next delve, and to think about and fix what needs to be fixed in our combat. So everyone, don't feel the need to hold back. We're here to test everything out, and it's better that we have all of our problems laid bare here, rather than in the Brightnight."

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"I'm starting to worry about that place," Rel muttered.

"From what I've heard, it's rough," Kur said. "But one thing at a time."

He pointed towards a distant light up ahead of them. "This dungeon only has one boss, accompanied by several adds. They are all of the crab variety, water and sand based, and while the adds should be easy enough to dispatch, a blow from the boss is enough to seriously injure even Gad. So, let's be careful, alright? I don't want anyone out of commission for the rest of the day!"

There was a smattering of yeses in darkness.

"Gad, take point. Once we reach the boss room, we spread out into our new formation. Everybody ready?"

"Yes, sir!" Tuk said loudly.

Kur groaned but ignored the ring tosser. "Go."

Nar allowed them all to pass him by, and in the darkness, he noticed something odd.

Gad had taken the front with a newer, smaller shield and her flail. Jul followed after her with a new and odd-looking quadruple set of weapons, and Viy followed after the ex-rogue with her massive new halberd. Kur had his buckler and some kind of triple ring? And Tuk and Rel kept to their rings and bow, though Nar couldn't tell in the dark if they were the same ones or newer versions. As for Jasphaer, the new member of their party, he didn't seem to carry any weapons, which made sense to Nar, but where was Cen's staff or Mul's fist weapons?

It was unusual for them to ignore Kur's "weapons out" command, but he was unsure on whether he should call them out on it or not… It was a new situation for him.

There has to be a reason, he told himself instead.

With a shrug, he instead decided to satisfy his curiosity and checked his dungeon map. As expected, the positions of everyone in the party were now clearly shown as dots of varying colors on the map. He looked up from the crimson dot and just as expected, he found Rel that dot's matching position.

The others were predictably as easy to identify, with himself, Cen and Jasphaer, showing the gray of unaffiliated aura.

Out of curiosity, he looked for Gad's and Tuk's, the newest addition of affinities to the party. Gad's was colored in some sort of light, steely gray, and Tuk was a bright, sort of vibrant yellow.

Uh. I wonder what his affinity is… As for the others, Kur's was a metallic bronze, Viy was the deep purple and blue, Jul was the dark, smoky dot, and Mul's was the bright orange dot.

That bit of curiosity satisfied, his eyes slid over to where Jasphaer walked in the dark, and he checked the healer's status next.

Wow. Almost 3000 aura? He read, his eyebrows rising. That placed Jasphaer as having the third highest [Aura] in the party, behind himself and Cen. And 190 HP and 220 stamina? Not bad.

Healing probably took a pile ton of aura to do, so it didn't surprise him that much to see that the healer had a lot of it. However…

Now that I think about it, does he have [Dark Vision]?

Jasphaer was, for all intents and purposes, an O-Nexian, no matter what gen-X he might be. Which meant that he had never lived in the pitch, absolute darkness, and black and white crystalight reality of a cubeplant like the rest of them had. Somehow, however, he seemed to be able to easily walk in the dark?

"Jasphaer?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"Yes?" the healer said, glancing back at him.

"I was just wondering, but can you see in the dark?" Nar asked him.

Kur swore, a loud slap ringing in the darkness as he slapped his forehead.

"Shit! I forgot!"

"It's okay, it's okay!" Jasphaer said, waving his hands in a panicked attempt to ease Kur's angry guilt. "I have my [Aura Sight] so I was able to follow your auras."

"You mean… Our pathways?" Cen asked.

"Yeah. And the core too."

Kur swore again, trying and failing to do something with something he pulled from his inventory… But suddenly, there was a bright, warm light in the dungeon, and people groaned at the sudden brightness.

"Sorry!" Tuk said, from behind the light. "I'm still getting the hang of it."

The light dimmed and Nar looked towards its origin, and his eyebrows shot up and he blinked at what he found.

"Wow!" Rel breathed. "Tuk! You're glowing!"

"Hehehe!" Tuk said, rubbing his nose. "It's my new skill! [Dazzling Personality]!"

Mul gaped at him. "You're joking. Right? Right?"

"Nope!" Tuk said, his whole face glowing with light. "That's its name!"

Nar could only stare, dumbfounded, at Tuk's bright eyes as they, his nostrils, ears and mouth all shone with an almost blinding light, giving Tuk a look that was both terrifying and comical.

"I'm still getting used to it," Tuk said, looking down at himself, and obviously not bothered by the light beaming out from his eyes. "But I think it's meant to blind enemies, or make me hard to hit."

"It doesn't affect you?" Cen asked.

"Nope! I can still see perfectly fine."

"Damn, Tuk!" Viy said, approaching him with Rel. "That's some skill, man!"

He laughed as Rel took hold of his chin and turned his head this and that away. "It's just a bright light. Nothing that impressive."

Despite his words, however, the tall and lanky ring tosser looked clearly pleased with himself.

"What affinity did you get?" Nar asked. "Light?"

Tuk grinned.

"The joy of life," he said. "Manifesting through light, as you can see."

He lifted his arms and spun around, to show them the light glowing from within his body, likely from his pathways.

"I certainly can," Mul grumbled, and by now Nar knew enough of him to tell the awe and respect in the brawler's voice, even if begrudgingly.

"It's amazing, Tuk!" Jul said, reaching a finger to touch his arm. "Wow… It's so bright! And warm…"

She looked up at him, her eyes shining. "I love it! This is an awesome affinity, Tuk!"

Tuk rubbed the back of his head, an honest but awkward smile tugging at his lips. "Thank you. I really like it too!"

There was a clicking sound, and a much paler light shone in a circle across the water that covered the rough floor. It looked pathetic compared to Tuk's life beaming light.

"Turn it off, Tuk," Kur said. "We're getting blinded in here. Though it's an awesome skill, and me and Gad have already taken it into our planning."

"Uh? Really?" the ring tosser asked, his light dimming.

"Of course?" Kur asked. "It's a really useful skill."

"Oh… Yeah, of course. Of course!" Tuk said, his smile wide even as the skill turned off.

"You take this, Jasphaer," Kur said, handing the healer a cylindrical object from which light beamed. "You probably know how to use it, I'm guessing?"

Jasphaer shook his head.

"Not really, to be honest. I've seen them around, but I've never bought one."

"Are they expensive?" Gad asked, and the rest of them leaned in to hear the reply.

"Uhhh… No, I wouldn't say that. Auratech tends to be basic and crappy, which usually means it's also cheap," Jasphaer said, rolling the light in his hand. "But you just don't spend your XP on stuff that you really don't need. And in the Nexus, it's never dark, not even at night. It never really sleeps, you know…"

"Oh, the lights! I see," Kur said, rubbing his chin. "Then, do you know how to use it?"

The healer nodded. "Auratech just means pushing aura into stuff. I got it. Thank you!"

"No worries. And again, I'm sorry. I actually remembered to get the light for you, but I totally forgot to actually give it to you," the party leader said, shaking his head at himself.

Jasphaer chuckled. "Too used to living in pitch darkness?"

"Pretty much," Mul said, looking around as Kur nodded with a miserable expression.

"Honestly, it's okay," Jasphaer said. "It's also my fault for not preparing properly. In the future, I'll join in the prep work too, especially since I need to know about what sort of health conditions and issues I can expect to find in dungeons."

"Got it," Kur said. "Alright, let's keep going. And Jasphaer, let me know if there's anything else you need or that I forgot."

"Will do."

As they resumed walking, Cen walked into step with the healer.

"Did you just call that light auratech?"

Jasphaer stifled a laugh. "I did, but I really shouldn't. Aethermancers call it that as a joke, since it's so much worse compared to what they have."

"Oh…" Cen said, her tone dropping.

"Yeah. It's not really comparable I'm afraid," Jasphaer told her. "It's good for basic things like lights, heat, and the like… But for others?"

He sighed. "Well, it's better than having nothing I always say."

"Is it really that bad?" Tuk pipped in?

"Well, put it like this. My family can just shower pretty much the same way we do aboard the Scimitar," the healer said. "But for me, I need to heat up a big tank of water, which I then use by siphoning it through a much crappier aura version of our shower heads."

"Oh…" Tuk said, his tone similar to Cen's.

"And if I want a good water pressure then I need to use more aura, which risks me running out of water too soon," Jasphaer said. "Now it's fine, but when I'd just made the change to auramancer I could barely pull a trickle of water! I had to wear so much deodorant and cologne back then, and there was always soap left in my hair and fur!"

He stifled his laughter in the dark passageway, but Nar, like the others, only stared at him in silent horror.

There's that much of a difference? Nar asked himself. Crystal, damn…

"Do you… Do you regret making the change?" Mul asked the healer.

Jasphaer took a deep breath. "I'd be lying if I didn't say there were moments when I did, or still do. To be honest, I think that if not for the contract, and my debt to Tsurmirel, who footed the bills for my education, I would've switched back within the week… But I'm glad I didn't! There's a reason I went for it, and I'm glad I stuck with it!"

He smiled at the brawler's unreadable expression, aiming his torch at Mul's feet. "I'm already earning more than my parents and my siblings combined, you know? And the extra XP is really helping them out! My younger sister was able to drop out of work and go to a skill-school thanks to that! Oh, uh… That's a place where you go, and you learn vocational skills. Like civilian skills."

He looked around him, meeting blank stares.

"There are non-combat skills for non-combat classes," Kur told them, coming to the rescue. "Not as many, but still a Pile ton of them."

Jasphaer nodded effusively.

"And what… Skills is your sister learning?" Gad asked.

"Oh! She wants to be a heavy driver of some kind," the healer said. "Not a lot of skills needed for that one, so it's not super expensive. Still, it's a career that's always in demand, and the pay is quite good too!"

He smiled. "Plus, she's bound to get some [Strength], so people will have a tougher time messing with her."

"And that happens a lot?" Tuk asked, his shock and anger coming clear in his voice.

"More than it should," Jasphaer said, sighing.

"Alright, people. We're here," Kur said, calling for attention. "You all know what you're working for. For now, let's see how it goes without any input and planning from my part. Let's go in at our worst and most confusing, and see what happens. Then we'll talk about it."

He scanned their faces. "Do what you need to, but don't forget to look out for each other."

"As if!" Tuk said.

The rest of them gave their party leader a silent nod.

"Alright, Gad. Whenever you're ready."

She nodded at him. Then she took a deep, steadying breath, her flail shifting at her side… And sprinted forward.

"Go! Go! Go!" Kur shouted.