The Pinnacle Warrior

The fights against various, wildly different chimeras passed by in a blur, and Astrid couldn't help but realize that she didn't relish the difficult but interesting fights the way she might have under other circumstances. Each one of the monsters was different from the last, with different heads, bodies, legs, tails, and so on. Some had wings, some had multiple heads, some walked on two legs, four, or even eight. Acid was a common element, but so was fire, poison, ice, and even death, like her Spectral Graviton.

The weakest ones were level 88, high Steel tier, and more than enough to grant the party a good fight. The strongest one they killed was level 96, providing 5,500 experience. One that forced the party to flee was significantly stronger than the level 96, so much so that the party wondered if it had crossed the watershed at level 103. When Gabriel appeared and drove off the beast, though, he seemed to be convinced it was closer to level 100. Of course, the party had no reason to argue with him, and continued fighting various different monsters.

Days passed, each one filled with finding and fighting plenty of the monstrous amalgamates of various beasts. Every one that came was a new opportunity for the party to practice their Skills, and the Wanderers very quickly understood that Gabriel had found this location not only because it would provide monsters of the tier and level that they were looking for, but also because the chimeras were all different. New strategies were needed for each, new avenues of approach, and any number of new exercises and experiences that the party could benefit from.

“He is wiser than I believed,” Muti said on the fourth night the party was taking to rest.

“Even though we can't see him, I can guarantee that Gabriel is close enough to hear us,” Astrid said, tossing the last bit of a pear into her mouth.

“Regardless of if he can hear us, he is not a member of the conversation,” Muti dismissed. “If he does not wish to eavesdrop, he can make choices to do so. And my point still stands.”

Astrid gave a chuckle, knowing better than to try to change Muti's opinion on just about anything. Instead, she asked, “In what way do you mean that he’s smart?”

“There are clues that we can draw from these monsters,” Muti answered, shadowy mana crawling up her left arm as her right crackled with electricity. Evidently, she would continue practicing with mana as she gave her explanation. “Their appearance, their bearing, their scents, even. There are many ways in which one can derive information on these enemies. Even so, we cannot know what each of these chimeras is capable of individually until we are fighting it specifically. As such, we are forced to adjust our fighting style until we are acquainted with each enemy we face. When we fight against two chimeras at the same time, we are forced to adjust further, with Felix's position as the frontliner made to adjust to pull both in while also reinforcing himself. We need to more quickly ascertain what an individual's weakness is and seize on it to ensure that we are not taken down by the monsters when anything unexpected occurs.”

Astrid nodded, beginning to understand what Muti was getting at, but Skandr spoke up first. “Everything you're saying is just like what we'll be going to have to do once we get into this war. Sure, we can pick out some pieces of information from people we're fighting, like the armor they’re wearing and how they act. Even so, we won't know what kind of Skills they have until we are actually experiencing them, or just how strong they might be.”

“And the people we fight will have many more Skills compared to monsters,” Felix said, his voice somber as the rest of the party nodded along, their expressions stiffening as they considered the reality of what he was talking about. “Each Steel tier will potentially have as many Skills as one of the red shimmerbugs. Sure, it would probably be stronger than most people at that level, but they'll never work alone, and each person will work in combination with others to cover their weaknesses.”

At Muti's recognition of the probable depth of thought that went into Gabriel's finding of this location, the party went silent. They were all, for various reasons and in different ways, eager to get back to Humanity's Bulwark, but the reminder that they would be fighting against people was a heavy one.

That night passed quietly, the nervous energy that had filled the camp until then replaced with a somber air of remembering what they were going to get into. The next day was even more severe and focused than before, the party pushing themselves to greater lengths to prepare themselves for the dangers that awaited them. Gabriel guided them to various different locations, where the chimeras' numbers never seemed to fall. On the fifth day, Astrid finally was able to keep Gabriel nearby long enough to ask a question that had been bothering her for days.

“Where do these monsters come from? How close are we to exterminating their population entirely?”

“Abominations like this,” Gabriel said the word not as an insult, but almost as if it was a classification, “are often the result of clashing, disorganized mana. That’s the case here, and instead of fomenting any other more natural breed of monster, the many possibilities of what could live here are tangled together. As such, the mana here constantly spawns chimeras very much the same as what happens in a Dungeon branch. Locations like this are very frequently prized as leveling locations, though due to the chaotic nature of the mana involved in the formation of the monsters, the materials left behind are often nearly worthless.”

As had become so common here in the Dungeon, as soon as he finished what he had chosen to say, Gabriel was off. He never elaborated on where he went, though the general consensus was that he was either dealing with threats they couldn’t see or simply giving them as solitary of an experience as he could while generally ensuring they weren't close to being slaughtered by going out of their depth. He never stayed long when he appeared, even though Astrid and the party became more and more convinced day by day that he was weakening whatever threats came their way.

On the first day, the party was killing, on average, twenty-four of the monsters an hour. That had been overwhelming, and over the course of a long day of hunting, nearly eighteen hours by Astrid's estimation, each member of the party had gained over 450,000 experience, about three-fifths of the experience to level 82.

The risks that the party went through were genuinely far greater than the ones they had experienced against the naiads and antlions when they started to hunt Seel tiers when the Wanderers were still Iron tier themselves. Even so, the excitement that Astrid had felt then was dulled by the fear that this would take too long now. Even after her expectations of Gabriel assisting the party were proven, the amount of monsters that the Wanderers came across increased to about thirty an hour as they grew more confident, they weren't gaining nearly the amount of experience they were against the hundreds and thousands of shimmerbugs.

When the fifth day ended, the Wanderers' encounter rate having stagnated at about thirty-three chimeras an hour, the party was exhausted. Wounded, covered with burns from acid and fire alike, as well as Benedict recovering from nearly drowning from a sudden wave of water that had taken the entire party by surprise, the day was over and it was time to rest. They’d run themselves ragged, and were exhausted, bloody, hungry, and still hadn't progressed nearly as much as any of them expected or hoped. Five days of backbreaking work, and they had barely gained three levels, reaching level 84.

The frustrations form the near week of delving built up, and Astrid couldn’t take it any longer. As she screamed, she smashed her hammer into the mole-like creature that had broken their back-line formation. An explosion of electricity burst from her hammer, stunning the beast before she started whaling on it again and again and again. When the kill notification finally flashed in her eyes, she had to fight to maintain some semblance of control over herself, and instead turned, looking at the rest of her party. Benedict was recovering, though he was more than just haggard. He was exhausted. He and the rest of the party just looked done, and Astrid could no longer hold back her anger that she'd barely controlled for the benefit of her party.

“This is taking too long! If we'd just gone back to the shimmerbugs, we could've gotten all the way to level 87 or 88 by now, then we could come here and prove ourselves against Mithril tiers! Duchess above, we could just get the levels, evolve, and get moving already. Instead, we're here just practicing when people are fighting and dying. Five days? We’ll be here forever!”

“You don't understand how slow armies are,” Gabriel said, appearing out of nowhere.

“I know how fast I am,” Astrid snapped back. “I know how fast I was even at the peak of Iron, and I can figure out that it isn't going to take too long for a bunch of people at that level to get somewhere.”

“What will they eat?” Gabriel replied, entirely unworried. “Where will they sleep? Where will they fight? How will they maintain control over dissidents if they siege and capture a city?”

“Frankly, I'm not too worried about the Iron tiers,” Astrid said, changing her tack and trying to speak more honestly about the core of her worries. “I'm concerned about the people who will be at least our level and higher.”

“All right then,” he said back, leaning forward to make sure that Astrid was really paying attention to him. “How many Mithril tier people have you met in your life? I'm sure that every single one of them was noteworthy, so tell me, how many? Go ahead and give me their names too, while you're at it.”

Despite wanting to argue, Astrid allowed herself a calming breath and thought about it. In her hometown, there was just the Viscount, and Astrid was fairly certain that her mother was the only Steel tier. Or, now that she was older and realized that there were plenty of people she'd never really paid attention to, there were probably a couple other low Steel tiers who kept their heads low and didn't care about the attention of a delving-obsessed teenager. Still, among thousands, less than ten Steel tiers and a single Mithril.

From there, she met... other than the delving teams she'd seen in passing at the Wandering Trials, two people. Greeley and Olafson. Maybe somebody else in Netherwood was also a Mithril, but she didn't know.

Her immediate reaction was not to answer the question, but Gabriel continued staring at her, waiting for her to state her answer.

“Greeley Druid and Olafson Craftsman. Also the Viscount of my hometown, though I don’t know his name.”

He nodded slowly, trying to make it sink in. “The fact that you are genuinely talking about reaching Mithril tier, and doing it so quickly and so young, is beyond impressive. There aren’t many people who ever come close to what you’ve already achieved as people with less than a decade of experience after being Bestowed with Classes. So don’t discount that.

“In addition, in warfare, the main battles are fought by people, at the very highest level, that are Iron tier. Once somebody becomes Steel tier, they become elites, to be deployed strategically in an attempt to reduce the enemy's total numbers, as well as to pick off the enemy's elites while Iron tiers and below make up the main fighting force. There are things that being high level can’t make up for, like feeding and ruling people. Policing and taking over a place. Taking care of dissidents and rebels. Instead of a handful of elite people having to fight every single battle, a large number of Bronze and Iron tier people cover that.”

He stared at her, and Astrid slowly nodded her head. He made sense, even if she still was worried about the Mithril tier enemies more than Irons.

“Fights at your level and above are determined in mere moments compared to actual battles and wars,” Gabriel continued. “A single squad of Mithrils can sweep through an entire army if left uncontested, and to match that power, they are very difficult to raise. Perhaps the Marchioness is remarkably capable and has more followers at higher levels than I expect, but do you think that she's going to be able to hide the existence of thousands of people at level 100? Of course not! I’d guess that, at most, she has a hundred people in Mithril tier. Total.

“With that being the case,” Gabriel said, pacing in front of the rest, “in terms of strategy, before either side will commit any of their highest-tier troops, they're going to make damn well sure that it's going to make a solid impact on the battlefield. The battle of Assassins, Spies, and intelligence is the one that will determine who enters the war with an upper hand. People at your level can move quickly, inhumanly so. The borders that stretch for thousands of kilometers are possible to leave behind in short days. However, regardless of how strong this Marchioness is and how long she's been planning, she'll have a very limited number of people who can threaten you. You getting these levels is to serve as an ace in the hole for the side you ally yourselves with, to be an entirely unpredictable additional force that can sweep in and turn the tide of battle in the favor of the Duchess's side.”

Astrid sat there, working her jaw as she tried to find a single thing to disagree with. The truth was, he was right, and she couldn't bring herself even to say anything back. He had experience, and it was obvious he wasn't making things up.

“We still need to get there, to be able to help people,” Astrid said, calming down, but still not entirely on his side. “It took weeks for the letter to get to me, and it's already been a week since I received it. Are you telling me there's no sense of urgency?”

“Yes, there's urgency,” he comforted her, “but perhaps you think that you have less time than you actually do, and you’re willing to make a sacrifice of self that you shouldn’t be considering. To my understanding, with this ‘delay,’ you all will still have reached the peak of Steel, from the time of your evolution into the tier in the first place, in about six months. I cannot overstate how important it is for you to take at least a little bit of time and allow yourselves to firm up your foundations. I took eight years to go from newly Steel to seeing my evolution options, and that was considered a bit on the fast side. You all have gone sixteen times as quickly as I did, and I don't begrudge you that, but there is wisdom that comes with experience that simply cannot be gained in any other way. Taking a few extra days now to make sure that your Class evolution options are the absolute best that they can be is going to be more helpful than getting there a week earlier.”

Astrid pursed her lips, turning on her heel and walking back and forth as she saw the logic in his words as that fought against her own bone-deep need to move, to hurry up and go to what she wanted to do. Finally, with a sigh, she pushed down her need to be right and instead nodded once, curtly.

“Good,” Gabriel said, grinning. “We are only just getting started. Now, I don’t hate you and think that you can continue to grow. So, you want to get experience faster? I can help with that.”

With that, Astrid felt a tingle of fear running down her back, but Gabriel’s grin widened as he disappeared, his final words drifting in the wind: “Get some good rest. You’ll need it.”

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