Chapter Ninety

  Everything hurt. Twisting [Familiar Bond] had taken her most stable skill and thrown it into the unstable maelstrom the others were in. Of all her skill Harmony's connection to Hyacinth was the anchor she'd held to keep her from drifting.

  All of the authority's pressure raged about. The woman in the Deadwoods had so much to donate with angry contemptuous violence. She'd been stable when they'd previously practiced that technique and never under such pressure. At least they were safe on the seventh floor until they stepped into the wind. It howled a few paces away from where they sat after emerging from the sixth. Aeromancers theorized the wind was used to keep the air fresh on all the floors.

  “If I don't evolve, meeting the queen will kill me.” The Confession lifted a weight, even if it was only to Hyacinth.

  “Grwap.” He croaked In agreement.

  Not that she could fool him about that. She'd fool herself before her familiar. If that had been the case he'd tie her up and force her to push on so she could survive. That's what partners do.

  So, they had a goal and the seventh floor was their best hope. The rgest floor, one open to all climbers' paths. A quirk of the floor that lets you maybe catch other adventurers on their journeys. Through the winds, you travel to the final set of stairs to reach the treasure floor where you pce your hand upon Nae’s Idol and get your reward on the way out.

  While the potions took care of the numerous rat scratches and bites It took several applications of [Renew Spirit] to make them as well as she could heal up that stress to their systems. Hyacinth had strained his skill for traveling through shadows in the process as well. The hunger from [Cim the Remains of Power] was now a ravenous ache. It was time to step into the wind. At the center of this floor, the long bck spire of twisting steps marked the end of this dungeon.

  “Time to Hunt.”

  Fifty paces from where they entered the breeze started. It blew in a circle around the whole floor and progressively got stronger the closer you got to the center until you hit the calm center to ascend the stairs. With the breeze came the first of the monsters, casting their shadows from above. She'd fought these before, back when they were half their size.

  The seventh floor was home to the monsters who'd either outgrown their roles or were growing into them. Rather than any hard rule on what to expect the guides focused on zones, for in the areas of stronger winds, some monsters couldn't function well in.

  The birds had been easy comparatively. It was almost like an arm skill the way the chirps set her on edge as the oversized locusts swarmed in. Too big for the fourth floor, they'd become out of bance the dungeon moved them up here restricted to the light winds as deeper in they'd be unable to fly against the currents.

  The size of rge cats they were finally a meal for the giant toad. Ecstatic as he was at their size increase, it made them more of a pain. One [High Kick] and green guts covered her leg from heel to knee. A single bite would burn through one of her healing potions as [Mend] wouldn’t cut it the way it could seal the wounds when they were smaller.

  Hyacinth chewed happily on the first few he grabbed.

  “Swallow quicker!” She yelled at her partner. Harmony hadn’t ruled out that he allowed this to be tougher on her to push her towards evolution.

  With a beat of her [Heart], she let the stamina gain boost the speed as she tumbled out of the way of two nasty insects, their maws snapping shut. Matching stamina usage to the beats gave a boost that used up the stamina that would have been wasted while at max capacity as a kind of overflow for what she could hold.

  An accidental discovery while fighting the first few oversized great eagles. Now she incorporated excess stamina with every beat running through her skills one at a time. Even ones that might seem purely mana-based had some slight effect so far. And with that understanding came a leveling up of her newest skill.

  Five bugs on all sides. Harmony kicked off into a vertical jump and [Mass Reduction] got squeezed hard in its shell as she left the ground. The skill she’d [Cimed] From the birds let her shoot up fast and high. Turning it off at the apex allowed her to crash down and put her steel-cd shoes through two of them. [Cold Touch] locked up a third.

  Hyacinth’s tongue snapped by grabbing the st two and pulling them away, forcing them to snap at air rather than Harmony’s flesh before they were yanked back into the familiar’s mouth.

  “Took you long enough.”

  Hyacinth gave his version of a shrug.

  Irritation was unreasonable. She hadn’t gotten injured. It was rooted in the instability of her system that she needed to cure. A few more paces further and they’ll be in the second zone of the floor and the bugs and birds wouldn’t be a problem anymore. It wasn’t going to blow her away yet in that zone. Unless she used [Mass Reduction] accidentally. After the mistake with the bastard, it was easy to picture a sneeze sending her flying. She had to repce that skill.

  Ahead the ground writhed with snakes, only man-sized ones, so maybe she'd have something good to choose from.

  Past the snakes, [Shadowed Graves] spread out as Harmony used it to put fear into the next stage of the pollinating pnt monsters to trigger premature eruptions. These ones had borne fruit, bulbous pink berries filled with acid. They popped out of the grounds, a surprise, and one not as easily handled since she couldn't [Dust] the fruit away like she did the pollen.

  Too close, Hyacinth pulled her through the shadows for a short jump to get them out of being downwind from a hail of berries. The fear had uprooted dozens. With them revealed, working their way through them would be an act of timing rather than desperation. And one with a little help from her newest toy.

  A flick from her wrist shed out with one of the baby bastard's spines as proof her failed attempt on the tree lord hadn’t been totally useless. The bone whip was partially directed by [Manipute Dead] to compensate for a ck of weapon skill, striking three berries within reach. The berries exploded, spilling their acid on the pnts that carried them who were thankfully not immune to them. It destroyed the weapon too, but she had three more strapped to Hyacinth. Enough to get them onwards to the next threat.

  Level damn it, they’d spent more time on this floor actively hunting than the previous three floors combined. Oversized twiggys, clouds of dozens of mini-wooze that would jump and fly at you through a strong wind as a floating swarm of hair, cws, and teeth. The hunting in the third zone would be thinner. Oversized Mossifants guides warned to avoid them no matter how appealing it might be to use them to block the wind for they would roll on top of whole groups of adventures. Large squirts a half-step towards the fifth-floor boss who used the wind to accelerate their water bdes.

  People. Hyacinth warned with a nose toward the wind.

  Because all paths converged onto the seventh floor it was possible to meet other climbers here. Between the directional winds, the fact that most groups came out at different locations, and climbing this far up the tower being unusual when farming and leaving was more efficient, actually meeting others was nearly non-existent or pnned for.

  As for how they’d know where she was? That giant circle of shadow, where she stood at the center was as clear as any bullseye on a target. If you were in Naewauld when she practiced it had become a quirk of her existence that some now celebrated or sought once she got control of its quirks. A sign that said, Here is Harmony White!

  People were nearby. It had to be a coincidence, fans, or something else.

  Hyacinth reyed their direction.

  “You know what to do.”

  “Hurptt.”He croaked.