Nothing is Impossible

Atlas chopped off the head of a Kobold Grunt, ending their most recent fight. Since the first ambush, they had fought off three more waves of the little buggers. Each time, more and more of them turned from the more simple and weak Kobold Spawn to the slightly more dangerous Kobold Grunts, with their most recent fight having 8 Grunts and only 2 Spawn.

Lesli eyed Atlas. "Is your only ability that armor of yours? Or is that scythe also a skill? I would have expected you to have some spells, or at least magic skills with your mental tenacity." She looked closer at him. "Are you holding out on us?" She… accused? No it wasn't an accusation, more of a belief that he should be better, and she was telling him that she wasn't impressed.

Atlas wasn't good with people, but he had known Lesli for a long time, he understood how her brain worked. Or had worked. With the system involved, it was hard to accurately know exactly what she was thinking. For all he knew, he could be way off base and she was accusing him of not caring.

He smirked slightly at her. "When we run into something that makes me use more of my skills, then I will use more of my skills."

She raised an eyebrow. "Skills? So you don't have any spells? I'm not impressed."

He smiled widely. "You will be."

She put her hand on her hip. "Oh? I doubt anything you can do would truly make me impressed. Magic has opened my eyes, no skill can do what my spells can."

Atlas laughed. "Challenge accepted."

Jay looked back at them. "Can you both shut up? I'm trying to listen for any ambushes."

Atlas flushed in embarrassment, facing forward again and looking around carefully, flexing his keen eyesight to help look for anything that was odd or out of place.

He felt his Sleeping Death skill pulse, and he lashed out with his scythe, killing a Grunt that jumped out of the wall somehow. More of them poured out of the wall, somehow phasing through the solid material. He heard someone scream. Nex maybe? And then Lars came in on a pillar of blinding light, barreling through the Grunts like a tank.

Jay appeared right behind Lars daggers blurring as he filled a Grunt with too many holes to count. The Grunt collapsed to the ground, slowly bleeding to death. Spells filled the air, and the Scurrid shot it's cannonball rock at the wall. The rock went through the wall without so much as a sound, and Atlas couldn't understand what had happened.

The Scurrid let out a screech of confusion and yanked the rock back through the wall. There were a few more seconds of fighting before the last Grunt was slain. Lars raised the visor of his helmet and looked over them all. "What just happened? How did they suddenly appear out of thin air?"

Atlas walked over to the wall and reached out. His hand went through without even a single ripple. He looked over his shoulder. "There's nothing here. I think this might be an illusion or something." Without waiting for a response, he stepped through the wall, finding himself on the other side.

He was in a sizable natural cave. It had high ceilings and was very wide, maybe 30 feet in diameter. There was a large campfire in the middle on top of an altar and there was a kobold standing behind it, holding a gnarled staff. Atlas used Master Inspection and brandished his staff.

Kobold Acolyte

Tier: 3 Level: 100 CP: 0.4

Description: A Kobold Acolyte is a kobold who has just gained the right to be considered a member of the Kobold Nation. They have started to delve into the secrets of magic and are Illusionists and Clerics. They usually support their more simple-minded kin, Kobold Grunts. It uses ambushes and magical prowess to fight. Dungeon Creature.

Highest Skill: Sneak Attack (SSS)

Highest Spell: Flowing Illusion (ZZ)

Endurance: Low

Constitution: Very Low

Strength: Low

Dexterity: Average

Wisdom: High

Intelligence: High

Atlas used Speed Form to appear behind the Acolyte, slashing horizontally, trying to rip the monster in half.

Only for it to pass through harmlessly. Atlas narrowed his eyes and searched around, straining his perception for any disturbances in the air. He noticed two places were the air seemed to… bend almost. They were both on either side of the cave, and he didn't know if that meant there were two of them, or if this Acolyte was just skilled.

Skill Divergence!

Sleeping Death (ZZ) -> Crawling Death (Z)

LUCKY BONUS!

Crawling Death (Z) -> Creeping Death (ZZ)

Sleeping Death (ZZ) -> Lazy Perception (ZZ)

Atlas suddenly found it easy to notice the bending spots, and with a wave of his hand, he created two spells, one for each of the disturbances. He added fire, some air and finally…

"Explode."

There were two explosions, completely consuming the spots in firey death.

When the dust settled, he found himself staring at the charred corpse of a Kobold Acolyte. There had only been one after all. With the Acolyte's death, the illusions all dropped, and he glanced back to find Lars staring at him. He smiled.

Lars gaped. "Did you just create two explosions at the same spot? I know your magic is strong but… sheesh man."

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He turned to Lesli. "Impressed yet? If not, there's a whole lot more where that came from." he told her, grinning.

Lesli looked at him. An interesting expression clouded her face before she smiled slyly. "It's going to take a lot more than that to impress me."

Atlas shrugged. "We got time."

Lars went into the small cave, heading straight for the altar and examining it. "Hey guys, come look at this. Do you think it has anything to do with the hidden boss?"

Atlas raised his eyebrows. "Hidden boss? What's that?"

Surprisingly, Nex was the one to talk, speaking in a soft melodious voice. "The hidden boss is a boss that can only be found by completing a random set of requirements, and is usually stronger than a normal boss, but offers greater rewards as well."

Lars nodded at her, smiling. "Yes, and I believe this altar is connected to the hidden boss. We either need to destroy it or activate it, if such a thing is even possible."

Lesli walked over to the altar, eyes glowing a mystical green. "Hmm. I do not see anything that suggests it can be activated, but the top does come off, but is ridiculously heavy, according to my Eyes of the Occult." She told them.

Atlas just shrugged, walking over and activating Strength Form before lifting the top of the altar casually, revealing an empty space inside. Well, no, it wasn't actually empty, there was a lever inside, which Atlas reached down and pulled in short order.

1 of ? levers found.

Atlas huffed. "It won't even tell us how many levers there are? Rude." He turned back and glanced at his team. They were all staring at him, uncomprehending.

Dane looked at Lesli. "How heavy was the altar top?" He asked her in his deep rasping voice.

Lesli looked a little sick. "Ever heard of an Elephant? It was supposedly a little heavier than 2 of them."

Nex just sighed. "Not that it changes anything, his strength stat must be absurd."

Atlas came over to them and smiled. "Slightly above 3,000." He told them with a wide grin.

Nex frowned. "That shouldn't be enough to lift more than 10 tons. 3,000 strength is…" She scrunched her face in calculation. "Only 33 times stronger than someone with 1 strength, not nearly enough to lift that much weight. You should be able to lift almost two tons with a lot of effort, not just casually lift 10 tons."

Nex seemed to be getting riled up.

Finally Atlas gave in. "My armor multiplies my strength, so my strength is actually far higher than it should be."

Nex visibly relaxed. "Oh. Why didn't you say anything earlier? I was starting to severely doubt if you were the same tier as us, and thought you might be someone of a higher tier hiding in our adventuring party. But a skill makes far more sense, as I thought you were just using brute strength."

Lars looked at her, askance. "Only tier 3's can enter this dungeon, I thought you knew that."

Nex flushed in embarrassment, and it was even more noticeable with her pale complexion. "I did but I just… forgot."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Okay people, let's get this show on the road."

Lars walked out of the small cave, turning right and continuing down the path. "Atlas, you can see through illusions right? Or at least notice illusions?"

Atlas nodded, before realizing that Lars had his back turned towards him. "Uh, yeah, I can notice them at least."

He thought for a moment before nodding to himself and turning around. "Okay, new plan. Jay, you are going to go scout ahead, take Atlas with you if you come upon any traps, disarm them, and if there are any illusions come back to us, don't engage with monsters if you don't have to, but this floor is not very strong, so you should be able to kill anything that it can throw at you.. We are going to follow behind, but at our own speed. Dane if you can summon another, tankier creature that would be great, but it's not necessary."

Jay looked at Atlas and they set off, Jay's eyes began glowing as he searched for traps, and Atlas flared Lazy Perception, looking for any illusions.

It was… odd. It was almost like the skill didn't want to be used, and was fighting against him. But at the same time, it didn't want to fight against him. It didn't want anything, it just wanted to be idle.

Atlas hummed to himself as he glanced around. Is that why it's called Lazy Perception? It's almost as though the skill itself is lazy.

He wrestled with the skill, trying to make it listen to him. It was… odd, to say the least. It didn't want to do anything so bad, but fighting against him was doing something, so it sort of… spasmed, fighting back then slowing, then speeding up, then stopping, then fighting back…

Atlas grew more and more frustrated as time went on, before finally, in a burst of inspiration, he tried to grow tired with the skill, not exactly using it, but letting it suffuse him as he looked around. He felt his eyes start to droop but he forced himself to stay in a sort of limbo, hanging on the edge of sleep, but just enough to understand what was happening around him.

For all his "effort." he got a notification.

Lazy Perception (ZZ) has leveled up 11 times!

Tiering up…

Lazy Perception (ZZ) -> Sleepy Perception (ZZ)

LUCKY BONUS!

Sleepy Perception (ZZ) -> Resting Observance (ZZ)

Resting Observance (ZZ): You enter a state of restful half-sleep, where everything you can see flows through your brain, easily understandable in your half-sleep state, letting you see things that you would otherwise be able to see. Lets you see through illusions of the same rank and lower, and lets you slightly glimpse the Ethereal. You regenerate Lifeforce faster while using this skill.

Atlas was impressed, if slightly amused. At this point, he had so many skills that let him regenerate his resources faster, to the point where he would be all but immune to someone who dealt a small amount of damage, at any speed, because his Life Force would simply regenerate faster than they could kill him. Unless, of course, they hit him 50 times in a single second, then there was nothing he could do to fight back and he would die.

Atlas shuddered.

Jay glanced at him. "You okay."

Atlas forced a grin. "Yeah, just cold."

Jay just snorted. "If you say so. As long as you keep an eye out."

They lapsed into silence.

Atlas used Resting Observance, and felt himself fall to the edge of sleep. His perception spiked, which was odd, as his senses felt like they should be dulled, but were instead heightened.

They walked together for a while, Jay taking out the occasional trap.

Atlas noticed one of the walls up ahead was wobbling, not unlike the illusions he had seen before. He stopped in his tracks, grabbing Jay by the shoulder. Jay looked like he was about to talk but Atlas held his fingers to his lips, pointing at the wall. Jay furrowed his eyebrows before glancing back at Atlas. "Illusion?" he asked in a whisper.

Atlas nodded.

They turned and headed back to their group, glancing over their shoulders to make sure they hadn't been noticed.

Reaching their group, they prepared to create an ambush of their own.