Stormblade [Skill Merge Portal Break] (B1 Complete)

Lizard-man intestines slopped over my sword's guard and onto my hand as blood froze mid-air and shattered against my face.

I'd signed up as an extra body for Andrew's team because he promised I'd get to fight, even though the pay was rock-bottom with no shot at the D-Rank dungeon's equipment.

It was the price of the path to power—and he had promised a fair chance at the core.

The C-Rank bottleneck happened to any delver who didn't merge skills while they were below C. Most people who got stuck behind it accepted it; the cost was too high for them to bear, and C-Rank offered most people enough power—and income—to completely change their lives. Even an E-Rank delver could make a decent living if they worked hard at it, and by the time one got to C, they were busy whenever they wanted to be.

But when delvers started skill-merging, things got interesting.

An unmerged skill could only get to C-Rank, but merging three skills together created one that maxed out at B. Four skills got to A, and five had the potential for S-Rank if it could break through the second bottleneck at the end of A-Rank.

The strongest delvers—the S-Ranks—had two or three S-Ranked skills, depending on whether they merged their Uniques. Their other skills were either one or two As, one B, and two Cs. And that process took four steps, repeated over and over.

First, learn the skills for a viable merge—or gamble with a Unique or unseen merge.

Second, level those skills to between levels six and ten of the same rank. Different-ranked skills couldn't merge, so not over-leveling was important.

Third, acquire a boss core one rank higher than the component skills, perform the mental reverse alchemy to create the merged skill, and complete the merging.

And fourth, level the merged skill, rank it up, and keep leveling.

Stormsteel Core was on the fourth step, while the components for Grassi's Greater Swordplay were on the second. And that explained why I was hilt-deep in a lizard-man's stomach while a D-Rank string mage turned half of the icy tunnel we'd stepped into thirty seconds ago into a web of razor-sharp silk.

I ripped the Stormsteel rapier out of the monster's stomach, sending a thin stream of guts and bile across the ice cave. We'd been ambushed. That happened sometimes, and there was no way to see it coming. But Andrew—and Henry, the string mage—had already turned the ambush into a death trap for the lizards before I even made it inside.

I was just getting what fighting I could in.

Another lizard-man charged me, and I used Vital Lunge. The blade caught it in the neck, cutting off its war cry in a gurgling, bubbling sound. That stopped as the rapier's electricity seared the wound shut; pinkish-yellow steam poured into the frigid air, and the monster died.

Then it was over.

There had been twenty of the screaming, naked lizard-men in the group. They'd been armed with clubs, stone knives, and crude wooden shields. None of them had saved them from Andrew and Henry. The team's archer hadn't even fired a shot. She'd just watched.

"This is gonna be great! I was iffy when Dad signed me up for a quick carry, but he was right. This is the best way to get a feel for this delving thing," the team's sixth member—and the only other pick-up delver— said.

Zeke had signed on as a support—and unlike my old build, he actually had the skills to be one. His Unique skill, as he'd already told me three times, offered a variable buff to anyone he designated as a 'friend'—either damage, health regeneration, or movement speed. Right now, he had it set to movement speed at Andrew's request.

This was his first delve, and he'd actually told Andrew he didn't need his pay. He just wanted to see what it was like with a higher-powered group so he could figure out what his role was and how to do it.

I hated him for that. Forgoing pay was one thing; I'd have done it too if it got me skill levels. But it was Zeke's gear that really irritated me. A matching, E-Ranked set of armor. A D-Ranked sword. On a support. He wasn't here for the money. Delving money had to mean nothing to him—a set-up like that could easily cost everything a C-Ranked portal could give. And that meant he was rich. Or it meant that someone rich wanted to help him.

"What's with that look, Kade?" Zeke asked.

I flattened my expression and applied my movement and deflection Scripts. "Nothing. Let's keep moving."

"So, anyway, Dad's in charge of keeping the new canal running. You know, the one out by Wickenberg?" Zeke asked.

"Yep. Everyone knows about the Wickenberg portal break." I focused on walking up the ice tunnel. We'd been fighting for a while, and while I wasn't tired, I was more than happy to let Andrew take the lead in killing for a while and let my Stamina and Mana regenerate a bit.

It did mean hanging out in the back with Zeke, though.

"Well, anyway, the water that comes through is perfectly good except that it just…vanishes…after about three days. So we can't really store it and use it for people, but it's perfect for keeping the farms north of Phoenix watered. The only problem is that the portal's broken, and they can't send a team in to kill the boss or else—"

"It'll close. Yep. Got it."

"So, anyway, that means the canal's always getting busted up, and Dad's job is to keep it flowing. It's a big deal. That's how he could afford this awesome set-up!" Zeke said.

I thought I saw the D-Rank archer look back at Zeke, but she could have just been checking their backs. They'd been doing that a lot; it was good tactical awareness. Plus, Zeke's voice was probably super-distracting. I knew I was having a hard time focusing on anything else.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Andrew's team was pretty solid all by itself. He was a fighter, and he also filled the role of tank, but that was more out of pure aggression. When a seven-foot-tall man with a thirty-pound war axe was smashing your face in, it was hard to pay attention to the rest of the team. And his Stamina pool seemed endless enough to support his balls-to-the-wall style of fighting.

Henry was the string mage. He was also a little shifty; after he'd wiped out a group of lizard-men and drained half his Mana in the process, Andrew had muttered something about keeping him on a tighter leash. His magic all looked like support spells at first glance, but he'd been even more violent than Andrew.

The rest of the team was the archer who kept head-checking us—and whose name I hadn't caught—and a second fighter. He hadn't made a move since the first fight; I had a feeling Andrew did most of the fighting in their E-Rank clears.

"Anyway, Dad was pretty excited when my system awakened. He went out and spent a good fifty thousand dollars on this gear," Zeke continued. He gestured at his armor and sword. "Then he realized I've got a support-focused Unique, but it was too late for refunds, so here I am!"

It was honestly a relief when the ice troll attacked.

I reacted first.

Ice Troll: E-Rank Monster

The hulking, stringy-haired monstrosity erupted from a pile of snow Andrew and the others had bypassed, silently storming toward Zeke and me. It wasn't as big as the Misbegotten Ogre was, and it didn't carry a massive weapon. More importantly, while it was big, it was still E-Rank.

The battle trance hit me. This was a good test, and it was on the wrong side of the party from the heavy-hitters. Even if they hurried, I'd have a good fifteen seconds to fight.

It was perfect.

The Stormsteel rapier flared to life. The Ice Troll closed in, cutting the distance rapidly as it ran on all fours, gorilla-like. Fifteen feet out, it leaped. It reminded me of the wolves from the last dungeon. Threats: two hands the size of my head, two feet even bigger than that, and four fangs as long as my fingers. I dodged right. The monster's shoulder knocked me off-balance, but its pounding slam didn't hit me.

Zeke stopped mid-sentence. Then he screamed. I didn't know what the rest of the team was doing, and I didn't care. The Ice Troll whirled, and all my focus snapped onto it. A hand the size of a steak reached out to grab me. I deflected it; the rapier left a thin line of cut and cauterized skin. And the Ice Troll finally roared.

The roar turned to a scream of agony as I riposted. A quick thrust to the chest, then two steps back for distance. The monster's Health was already hard at work patching up the two injuries. I parried one arm. Parried the other. Stepped back again. Dropped into a Vital Lunge. The sword punched through an elbow; the monster's arm hung limp for a few moments.

I was spending Stamina too quickly, but I was a striker. My best bet was to win fast.

Ten seconds had gone by since the troll appeared. Eleven. The rest of the team would be reacting. I didn't have much time if I wanted to maximize my leveling. One step forward, into the Ice Troll's reach. It swung. I blocked and started to thrust.

Its other hand grabbed my leg and pulled before I could react. I'd thought that arm was out of the fight. It yanked me off the ground. My hip popped, and searing pain rocketed up my back and down my leg as the troll ripped it out of its socket. Then the pain ripped up my leg and down my back. I was upside down, swinging through the air like a flail. It lasted a long time; I slammed into icicles and the cave wall, barely managing to brace myself for each impact, and the whole time, my hip sent blinding waves of pain across my entire body.

Then the Ice Troll let go.

I hit the ground hard. My hurt leg crumpled even as I spent Stamina to ignore the pain. It collapsed. Then it started—slowly, agonizingly slowly—to knit itself back together. The Ice Troll closed the gap slowly. It roared again, opening its jaws. Fetid air and chunks of…something rotten…splashed across my face. The stink was unbelievable.

My leg popped again—this time back into place—and I screamed a little. But I ignored it, burning Stamina, and pushed myself up and toward the Ice Troll's neck. Vital Lunge activated. The sword punched up through the monster's massive, oversized jaw. A glint of light flickered as the lightning blade cut through its tongue, then punched up into its brain.

And even then, it wasn't actually dead until Andrew's war axe crashed through its spine and out of its chest.

I let him help me up, ignoring the monster blood that covered me and steamed in the frigid air. "Thanks," I said.

"No problem, kid. Next time, fight defensively. I'll kill anything that tough. Stick with the lizard-men."

I nodded. I was grateful for the bailout. But I'd also been counting the seconds, and it had taken Andrew almost twenty-four to get there and kill the Ice Troll. That was a lot slower than fifteen.

He'd been holding back. But why?

S-Rank. Leader of the Roadrunners. The Light of Dawn—and his lesser-known title, the Depth of Midnight. The strongest mage in Phoenix—capable of turning night to day and day to night with his full set of three S-Ranked skills and fully-leveled build. Well on his way to the second tier.

Angelo Lawrence was many things, but patient was not one of them.

And right now, two of his most promising A-Rankers were in his office, trying to explain why their squabble couldn't wait until they got to his building. Why they'd had to disrupt the low-rank training hours at the Peoria GC center. And why, after all that, it had ended up becoming his problem.

As they bumbled through an explanation, Angelo raised his hand and cut them off. "The price of power is very clear. Some people make it through the C-rank bottleneck. Some do not. I have held this seat for eight years. I know both types, and it comes down to two choices. Do you know what they are?"

Deborah shook her head. She had sense. But Terrance opened his mouth to say something before Angelo cut him off. "First are the choices of determination: 'Does a delver decide, in the very beginning, to commit themselves to becoming the best?' and 'When that delver realizes how difficult it will be, will they back down?' Deborah, Terrance, you two have passed the trial of determination. Your skills are leveling nicely, and all you must do to reach S-Rank is pass the final bottleneck."

"Thank you, sir," Deborah said curtly.

"But."

Angelo let the word hang in the air like a sword of Damocles. It hovered, ready to plunge down on them, for several seconds.

"But neither of you has yet passed the trial of responsibility. Both of you are idiots."

Terrance looked like he was ready to attack right there, but Deborah put a hand on his shoulder. Angelo smiled. Together, the two of them might actually land a single blow before he vaporized them, but the outcome of any fight between the three of them was beyond inevitable. His aura raged, ready to be let out.

He let it slip for just a moment, and the A-Rankers flinched. "Both of you are as far beyond human limits as the superheroes children read about in comic books! A petty squabble like yours means nothing to the people you put in danger when you unleash your powers, nothing to the people who must clean up after you, and most importantly, nothing to me! I need high-rankers I can trust, and neither of you can be trusted."

Deborah nodded, but the color flushed from her face. Terrance turned red. Apoplectic. That was good. Angelo could manage both of those emotions.

"Deborah, you are demoted from leadership over A Team One. Terrance, you are demoted from second in command of the training and advancement program. If you wish your stations back, simply improve. Do better. Be better." Angelo stood up and walked to the window. His view overlooked the sunset on the Sonoran Desert; from his office and with his S-Rank-enhanced senses, he could see all the way to the old Mexican border.

"Inform the quartermaster of these changes, Deborah. When you have finished, return here so that we can discuss the future of your off-the-books training program. Both of you are dismissed."

As the two A-Rankers fled from his office, Angelo smiled at the desert below. Terrance would be fine. Boring, but fine. He'd hit the sparring arena here, and leave a pile of bruised and battered Bs and As in his wake, but he'd calm down. He'd do what he should have done to begin with.

But Angelo couldn't wait to see how Deborah reacted. It had been so long since he'd been betrayed that he'd almost forgotten what it felt like.

He hoped she wouldn't disappoint him.