Vivi woke up six hours later with her body somewhat healed.

Lucius's dimmed out wisps hadn't recovered. He was forced to keep healing her while she slept. Ether was a great tool to speed up healing processes. A single night of sleep was often enough for a warrior to recover after combat, so long as the wounds weren't too catastrophic. Healing skills worked even faster. Rare skills and above could heal broken bones in minutes.

Vivi did feel slightly groggy. According to Lucius, this was a result of using too much ether. If a human's body was constantly enhanced with ether, a dependency could develop. With ether in the body, the wielder's muscles didn't need to work as hard. Slowly, muscles would stop putting in effort entirely, and the wielder would have to rely on ether to keep themselves standing. For this reason, even the best fighters kept their ether dormant when they didn't need enhanced strength.

Every human function could develop a dependency on ether. If ether was used to keep wounds shut, the body's own healing efforts could slow down. With extreme injuries, ether could be the only thing keeping a human's body alive in one piece. If that ether stopped flowing, the human's own body would collapse and die.

When Lucius disconnected the source of ether, Vivi felt that on a lighter level. Her injuries hadn't been severe enough to kill, but she had passed out in an instant.

To be safe, she should have rested for at least a day or two to ensure that her body recovered on its own and became independently operational again. If she suffered more injuries and became more dependent on ether, it could lead to problems.

Vivi figured that she would be fine so long as she didn't get hit badly another time. She got to work rearming the trap right away. She lifted bricks without the help of ether to get some movement into her muscles. After thirty minutes, the trap was rearmed again.

She stretched and tested her aches. She felt mostly okay. They could fight more skeletons.

She sneaked into the dungeon with the same strategy and carefully lured two skeletons out of the dungeon. This time, she caught two of the heavy mace skeletons.

The skeletons hadn't learned from their friends' mistakes. The first mace wielder charged right into Vivi's trap, losing its footing and then promptly eating Vivi's javelin, disintegrating.

The second mace wielder was more problematic. It jumped over Vivi's trap and swung its mace, destroying anything in its path. Its steps were heavy yet the pace of its attacks was surprisingly fast.

With Vivi's ether count nearly doubled, she felt a lot more aware. The skeletons' movements weren't overwhelming anymore. The monster was fast, and its heavy attacks would kill her in one hit. The ground blew up with each swing of the mace skeleton. But she could feel the attacks coming.

And her own attacks were a lot more precise, causing a lot more damage. She stood close as bait, prompting the skeleton to throw a heavy attack. Afterward, she countered with a heavy thrust of her own. The javelin landed on its shoulder, leaving a large crack.

I can deal with heavy enemies, Vivi thought. She jumped to the side to dodge the mace, then poked the skeleton with her javelin. It raised its weapon for a counter. Vivi ducked underneath, attacking again.

She felt sharp. Her movements were solid. With Shadow Swipe clouding her javelin with a confusing aura, the skeleton struggled to understand her attacks.

A practiced swordsman would still outmaneuver her, but she could keep up with a clumsy skeleton. The mace-skeletons had a lot of power and damage, but none of that mattered if the damage was directed at the ground and air.

Vivi struggled to land a fatal blow. She slowly hacked away, cracking one of its ribs and a shoulder, weaving claw attacks wherever she could. The fight felt like it lasted for an eternity.

Eventually, the skeleton leaked too much ether, and its balance began to waver. Vivi finished it off, killing it.

With their ether collected, Lucius's reserves grew to 3982.

Vivi took a moment to admire the number. She struggled to believe that she seriously had so much ether. "Only two monsters away from five thousand…"

Lucius was grinning. "We're almost strong enough to be considered real hunters now. What do you think the hunters will say?"

"They'll probably call us betrayers and raise our bounty," Vivi said. "But that's fine. What do you think, Eem?"

Vivi patted the fiend in the head. Eem was slowly starting to smile again. She grabbed Vivi's hand and pressed it harder against her white hair.

Vivi played with the fiend while assessing her injuries. She hadn't been hit, though her javelin looked like a crude stick. The iron root was at its limit—it wasn't built to withstand being repeatedly hacked against bones. But with some sharpening and repairs, Vivi hoped it would be enough to defeat a few more skeletons. Then she'd likely need to use Lucius's claws for the rest of the ascent.

"Will your claws have another evolution?" Vivi asked.

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"That depends on what you consider an evolution," Lucius said. "The claws are a lot more powerful now, and I can swipe with much more efficiency. The ranged claws can also be shot at different angles. But my powers are just claws. Just like a spirit sword is just a sword. We will need skills for truly interesting powers to show up. Although, I don't use my special powers often. They're… costly"

"I see," Vivi said. She could guess what Lucius meant by costly. For now, his claws were strong enough. As long as she could harm the skeletons, Vivi could climb her way up.

"Let's rearm the trap," Vivi said. "I might be strong enough to fight the rest of the skeletons, but there's no need to risk our lives for nothing. The strategy has worked so far. We have three more skeletons to kill."

*

With the trap rearmed, Vivi decided to lure the remaining three skeletons all at once.

This, she immediately realized, was a mistake.

The remaining skeletons weren't slow archers or clumsy mace wielders. One of them was another spear skeleton. The second had a sword, loaded with thousands of wisps of ether, and the last one was an assassin with daggers.

Vivi managed to trap the spear skeleton in her hole. The skeleton lost its footing, but its long spear forced Vivi to stay too far back. She jumped back to reassess.

By the time she was ready to attack the spear skeleton again, the assassin had slipped past to attack her from the side. Vivi sensed flashes of light around her, followed by a fraction of a second of time to react to daggers aimed at her eyes. Lucius's claws forced the assassin to dodge, but its daggers were redirected at insane speeds.

Vivi threw the claws anywhere she saw light, or felt ether. She was starting to panic. Even with four thousand ether, wisps rising from her eyes, she struggled to see the assassin skeleton's movements. She saw flashes of blue before her instincts flared danger, sensing a heavy concentration of ether aimed at her vitals.

The spear and sword skeletons were approaching. This was too much for her to handle at once. Even if she had four thousand ether, each skeleton had three thousand more than that. She turned toward the waters.

Not five steps in, the assassin skeleton changed its strategy. It fought solely on the side of Vivi's exit, while the two other skeletons closed in on her position.

Vivi gritted her teeth. Why were the skeletons suddenly fighting smart? They were about to surround her. Her position was awful.

Vivi got an idea. Lucius, protect my back from the assassin!

She turned around and ran at the spear skeleton. She aimed for the chest and threw her javelin.

As expected, the spear skeleton dodged, jumping to the side. This gave Vivi an opportunity to run past it, back toward the dungeon entrance. Lucius threw claw attacks behind, slowing down the assassin from killing her. He retrieved the javelin back to spatial storage.

Vivi ran into the dungeon. She noticed Eem hiding in the corner of the room. Eem, you idiot, why are you here?

That didn't matter. Vivi stood by the end of the doorway. She could use the narrow choke to her advantage.

As she had hoped, the skeletons approached her without concerns. The spear skeleton came first. In the chokehold, Vivi could duel them.

Except, the spear skeleton didn't charge recklessly. It raised its spear, preparing a throw.

Crap, Vivi thought. She jumped to the side, dodging the throw behind a wall. The skeleton's spear shot into the dungeon with explosive force.

It landed on one of the coffins, destroying it and the contents. A blue ethereal aura enveloped within, then the coffin began burning with sizzling ether. Something had died inside. Lucius quickly collected the ether, reserves rising to 4672.

The rest of the coffins creaked. The blue glow from the floor moved up to their lids, and suddenly, the coffins started opening.

Vivi's exit into the shore was blocked. The spear skeleton stepped closer, summoning another spear in its hands. Around the room, five coffins opened, skeletons rising from within.

"Vivi, run!" Lucius shouted.

Vivi was already moving. She dashed to grab Eem, then ran into the next room, deeper into the dungeon. That was the only direction she could go. There was no way she could defeat eight active skeletons at once.

"We need to find a safe spot!" Lucius said. "Just run through the dungeon! I'll tell you what's happening."

Vivi had already alerted skeletons in the next room over. The skeletons behind were running after her. She had no time to slow down. Vivi ran into the next room—a small cube-shaped room with coffins all around and an archer skeleton in the corner.

The coffins creaked, ether activating the monsters within. The archer took aim.

Vivi ran through—she was already at the doorway to the next room by the time the archer released its arrow. She lunged through the door, rolled to the ground, then quickly got back on her feet and continued the run.

"They're on your tail, keep running!" Lucius shouted.

Vivi wasn't listening. She barely had time to scan the rooms she was running into. She looked for the next doorways, bolting past any skeletons that tried to kill her. She passed the first eight rooms in under a minute, running past dozens of coffins and skeletons.

The ninth room was a larger chamber. Crystals lined the ceiling fifteen feet high, lighting the room with clarity. There were skeletons all around the room, but Vivi's eyes were drawn to the giant skeleton by the room's edge.

The giant's head almost touched the ceiling. It had no weapons. Instead, its hands were boulders, filled with thousands upon thousands of ether. The amount of ether it wielded far surpassed both of the bosses Vivi had fought combined.

It immediately ran at Vivi, hitting her with one of its bouldered hands. Vivi dove to the side, and the boulder missed by inches. The impact was deafeningly loud, shaking the whole cavern. Crystals fell from the ceiling like sharp icicles. One landed next to Vivi's ear.

She continued running. The giant was slow to recover. Her exit was in sight.

On the way, three lesser skeletons blocked the way. Vivi didn't even identify their weapons; she growled and tossed her javelin at the one directly in her way. She threw her claws at all of them, then ran past them, through the door.

The next room was smaller with coffins, all activating as Vivi ran past. All skeletons from earlier rooms were chasing her. She ran past, into the next room, Eem in her arms.

All of Lucius's ether was focused on her legs. He exhausted a thousand wisps to speed up her sprint. Rooms passed in a seconds before her opponents could have time to react. If something was in the way, Vivi charged at them with so much speed that the skeletons had no choice but to get out of the way.

Sharp objects fell from the ceiling at her. Traps, arrow holes, blades; Vivi must have run over at least five different tripwires. Her legs cut straight through the wires, and she continued the run. Lucius blocked projectiles. Vivi didn't even see what was happening. She ran and ran.

Until a few rooms later, salvation was in sight. A stairway up.

Vivi ran toward it with every ounce of life on the line. More coffins were opening around her. Skeletons ran behind her, arrows shot at her. Lucius shot claws behind as assassin skeletons tried to place daggers in her back.

She made it to the stairway, jumped up ten stairs at once, and found herself in the Fang Tanker's empty arena.

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