Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (18 page)

“Why don’t we go down to
the next level?” Regal asks the squad after they have all finished eating and
recovering their health.

Piora frowns before
saying, “We should reach level 4 before we go down. The enemies are much
stronger than we can handle.”

Veronica nods her head in
agreement, but still looks toward Regal for his decision as squad captain.

“My decision is that we go
down after everyone is level 2. Those enemies give a lot more experience
points, and these rats are too easy currently. We will stay close to the stairs
so we can retreat at any moment.”

Kilde leans forward to
glance over the map and asks, “Do you know where the stairs are? Also, there
are a lot of rats in that room. Usually several squads will get together to
clear the room before the all move down, but there is no one else to help us.”

“Yes, it should be
somewhere around this area,” Regal circles a blank section on the map that is
still unexplored. “Those rats will be the final bit of experience to get us over
to the next level. Astore and I will lure a few out at a time to avoid getting
swarmed and we will quickly pick them off. There is no need for more people if
the tactics are good enough.”

Regal holds the map in
front of him as he carefully navigates toward the area with care to avoid other
squads. Along the way, he constantly goes over his plan to eliminate the rats
in the stairwell room and every variation of it. The speed in which his mind
calculates all the possibilities is without a doubt faster than everyone else.

Half an hour later, Regal
leads the party through the blank section of his map and quickly finds the room
with the stairs as he had predicted. The fog in the tunnel clears and reveals
between twenty and thirty rats crowded in the small room, one in three are also
the stronger variations.

“Everyone, this is the
plan: I will fire at one of the nearby rats to make it attack us. Astore, once
four or five enter the tunnel, create an ‘Earth Shield’ to block the tunnel
entrance. The blockage should last between ten and fifteen seconds at least, so
we will use that time to run away with only the rats we let past chase us. By
the time the wall collapses, the remainder of the rats should have lost us and
return to the room. We will repeat this process until the room is clear.”

Astore follows behind
Regal as they creep closer to the Mutant Rats, the rest of the squad waiting
behind at a safe distance. Neither has any stealth skills, so the rats
naturally notice them and send hostile glares with their little beady eyes.
However, they appear to be intent on staying in the room and don’t directly
charge at them like they usually would.

Regal raises his weapon
and aims at the nearest rat while Astore prepares his alchemy, an earthen
yellow circular formulae slowly rotating in the air. The killing intent from
the rats reaches an unprecedented high right before Regal fires an ‘Ice Bullet’
at the nearest rat.

Like a swarm of angry
Grimwasps, all the rats suddenly let out an ear-piercing screech and charge at
Regal. Astore follows up on his role perfectly, blocking off the tunnel as soon
as four of the rats leave the room. A large drumming and the sound of clay
cracking can be heard as the rest of the rats charge into the wall holding them
back.

“Run! Run! Run!” Regal
shouts as the squad flees as fast as possible.

Regal and Astore weren’t
fast enough, and each suffer an attack by the closest rats as they try to catch
up with the rest of the squad. Regal blindly fires several bullets behind him
to scatter and slow down the Mutant Rats.

After fifteen seconds of
running, Regal glances behind him at the rats chasing before calling out,
“Everyone hold the line. We will take out the fastest one, the Shadow Rat,
first. Veronica, get ready to catch it with ‘Wind Entrapment’. Everyone fire at
it during those two seconds and kill it.”

Barely a couple of breaths
later, Veronica’s alchemy is unleashed and the Shadow Rat is captured in a ball
of wind. Over the two seconds it is captured, fifteen bullets hit it in quick
succession. It is only the fact that everyone is using ‘Ice Bullets’ which
provide extra damage that allows the rat to be killed so easily.

“Piora, hold back the rest
of the Mutant Rats quickly. Veronica, slow down the enemies with ‘Chilling
Wind’ as soon as you have a chance. Kilde, use ‘Frozen Spear’ after Veronica
slows them down. Astore... you learned ‘Stun Stone’, didn’t you?”

Astore nods his head
quickly and is immediately prepared to use it.

“Good, use it as much as
possible to prevent them from having the opportunity to attack us. Target any
rats about to attack first.”

A wave of flames sweeps
through the corridor from Piora, pushing the Mutant Rats back, and Veronica
casts ‘Chilling Wind’ the moment it vanishes. Ice and fire alchemy don’t mix
well, so they have to be careful not to use them at the same time and risk the
alchemies cancelling each other out.

Kilde’s ‘Frozen Spear’ and
Astore’s ‘Stun Stone’ are launched as soon as the rat’s speed begins to slow
down.

“Kilde, aim at any rats
Astore stuns,” Regal commands the squad while constantly firing at the rats.

Two rats get close enough
and attack Astore and Kilde. Astore backs away while Kilde switches to a combat
knife. Kilde’s twists at the hips and avoids the lunge of one rat but is
scratched by another one. Astore’s ‘Stun Stone’ arrives shortly after and stuns
a third one that was preparing to attack him as well.

With only two Mutant Rats
attacking him, Kilde dashes in a zig-zagged maneuver to dodge one rat and
attack the one at the back. His combat knife flashes through the air in a
perfect arc and almost severs the rat’s head completely. It is a critical hit,
dealing three times the standard damage and emptying the last of its health.

Regal, Veronica and Piora
fire their guns repetitively. Under Regal’s guidance, Veronica’s accuracy
improves and with the enemies slowed and rhythmically hit by ‘Stun Stones’,
five out of six bullets from her gun find their target.

A couple of the Mutant
Rats get lucky and manage to hurt one of the squad members, but the damage is
minimal and all the rats are dead within a couple of minutes.

Regal and his squad only
takes a few moments to catch their breath and start recovering health and mana
before returning to the room with the staircase down. If they take too long,
more rats are likely to crawl out of the wall and enter the room to replace the
ones that died.

They repeat this process
several times, until the area around the stairs descending to the second level
of the Theore Substructure is clear.

The four Soulless all gained
a level, increasing health and mana by ten points, stamina by five, as well as
gaining three points to put on any of their stats. The benefits of gaining a
level are known to all children, and gaining their first level is always an
exciting dream. Regal didn’t feel excited about it in the past, before his soul
formed, but currently feels strangely exhilarated by it.

Each stat has its own
benefits. Increasing strength will raise the amount of weight that can be
carried in his personal inventory and also increase melee damage. Dexterity
increases coordination and accuracy as well as damage done by ranged weapons,
while agility increases both speed and flexibility.

Every point added to
endurance will increases health by two points and stamina by one. Intelligence
will increase mana at the same rate as endurance does health, and also slightly
increase the damage of alchemy. Luck increases the chance that enemies drop
rare items and other luck-based events.

Regal already knows what
he wants and doesn’t hesitate. He quickly opens his stats and puts all three
points into agility so he can move a quicker and have a better chance to avoid
the Frostbite Wolves.

“Let’s go down.” Regal
stares intently at the stairs, tightening the buckles on his uniform to hide
his nervousness. “Remember to remain vigilant. We studied the Frostbite Wolves
in class so we already know what they look like and how they will attack.”

With their captain leading
the way, the squad descends the stairs in the center of the room. The second
floor is about fifty meters below the first, so the stairs continue for a
while. The temperature grows colder and the mist filling the air adopts a
chilling aspect that penetrates the student’s clothes and chills their skin.

They eventually reach the
base of the stairs, the entrance to the second floor which is much like the
entrance to the first floor. A large room, fifty meters wide and long, with
pipes forming the walls, and a steel crosshatch grate beneath their feet to
walk on. The only difference is that now the substructure is cold, with frost
and cobwebs decorating some of the walls. The entire area feels lifeless.

“Frostbite Wolves have
strong cold resistance, so go back to using the standard bullets. Piora, you
will be the biggest damage dealer with your flame alchemy. Kilde and I will use
our combat knives to keep them away from you. Veronica, you said you had
another wind-type Divine Art to control the enemy. I understand it uses more
mana, but please use it even if there is only one enemy.”

Regal hands out
instructions while making sure to not underestimate the enemies. Mr. River
described that the Frostbite Wolves are in no way similar to the Mutant Rats,
but hearing about them and fighting them are completely different.

The squad enters one of
the random corridors while shivering slightly. The dungeon has taken on an
eerie silence that makes even the Soulless feel uneasy. It is barely minutes
before a pitter-patter noise of padded footsteps dimly echoes from somewhere
ahead of them.

Regal draws his gun, along
with everyone else as the sound gradually gets closer. An outline in the mist
forms first, before the creature finally enters view. It is a wolf as tall as
Regal’s thighs, covered in brown fur with blue highlights in it, and piercing
blue eyes that could freeze someone with a glance. It is a Frostbite Wolf, just
as described in class.

“Fire!” Regal calls out,
discharging his gun at the wolf.

Three bullets and Piora’s
‘Flame Core’ fireball hit the wolf before it can react, taking away only ten
percent of its health. After that it quickly dodges to the side, using the
pipe-walls to maneuver around their attack with a vicious snarl before charging
at the squad. Its speed is almost twice that of the rat’s, and it is much more
agile as well.