Chương 97: Non-Physical Attributes

Keeping track of every single attack the golem could perform was impossible. It didn't have any set patterns when it swung its arms. It did, however, have normal joints—like the other golems. Chunks of gravel and collapsed pillars clung between its limbs, holding the stone segments together. There was no whistling wind, no air holding them together, and it wouldn't strain itself like the quarter guardian we'd just fought. I watched, looking for any other obvious weaknesses.

Any time it fired a beam from its sunlight core, the rest of the core dimmed slightly, even for a few seconds after, before blazing bright again. Even though my Vitality had increased, the light was still painful to look at, and I couldn't stare directly at the golem. Halfway through the fight, when Squirrel had angered it enough, it screeched, throwing its arms back and looking at the roof. Then, golden etchings all across its body lit up with sunlight, forming runic patterns. So it had a second phase? Great.

What were the chances that effect would trigger when it got too damaged, too? Its speed increased, and gauntlets of shimmering sunlight emerged around its fists, melting the ground and causing explosions of magma where they struck. A whip of sunlight formed in its right hand, which it swung at Squirrel. It was long enough to smash through buildings at the edge of the plaza as well, sending debris flying. Once, it came dangerously close to us, and I pulled my squad back from the ledge until I was sure it was safe.

After thirty seconds of the whip-wielding phase of the golem, Squirrel retreated to the edge of the plaza and rejoined his squad, and the golem slowly reverted back to its docile state, marching to the center of the plaza, where it settled down in a crouching position. The lines of golden light dimmed across its body. It was massive. It was fast, and powerful, and to it, we were just ants. Even with three squads, how were we meant to deal with a Gold (a Gold tier, not just because of the colour of its markings)?

At least we still had time to improve our attributes. Not to mention, when we took out the other two quarter guardians, this central golem would become weaker. I couldn't afford to despair. And especially not today, when we still had to get out of the Labyrinth. We could train and come up with a plan later. Yesman's squad was the first to return, with Squirrel intact (although his armour was slightly singed). I turned to face him, checked my formation, and made sure I was ready to run—with my squad—if I had to.

As soon as he returned, we navigated down to the stage, and Yesman said, "Levi, can I have a word?"

"Yes," I said.

"Alone?"

"I'm staying with my squad."

"I get the sense you don't trust me," Yesman said softly.

"We don't have to be rivals. You know this."

"I'd prefer it if we weren't, either," I told him.

"But I have to watch my back and look out for my squad. The last thing they need is to get killed because I wasn't careful enough, because others hate a soulstealer."

"You think that of me? That I'd stab one of our best in his back?"

"I don't know what to think," I said.

"And it wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to get me killed for being a soulstealer." Yesman shook his head.

"Not with me and Habit. You brought us here. Well? If we passed your test, then let that be it." I nodded, grimaced, then glanced at the ground, trying to put myself in his place. If someone had tested me like that, I'd be pretty pissed too, of course, but he also needed to understand why I was a little jumpy. It wasn't the first time people had tried to screw me over for being a soulstealer. And although I couldn't get cocky, I could afford to lighten up a little. None of this was going to work without allies.

I said, "Yeah. You did your part well. Next time, we'll take the lead on it. No more testing. But if I see even a tiny sliver of a chance that you're going to stab me in the back, then it's back to square one."

"Square one?" I winced.

"Back to the beginning? It's a phrase from where I come from."

"That is acceptable," Yesman said.

"Good," I replied, then I gave him a grin.

"Your squad can have the next quarter guardian. But go quickly. It's going to move off soon…and maybe Habit's squad can take out the fourth one." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"We'll work on it," Yesman replied.

"They're easier than they look," I said.

"You just gotta find a weakness."

"I'll keep it in mind," Yesman said.

"But I'll also keep it in mind that soulstealers are insane, and not to be trusted when it comes to assessing a challenge's difficulty."

"If you say so…" I said.

"Now, let's get going. We still have time down here, and we can't afford to waste it all. I'll meet you at the surface." ~ ~ ~ After our Labyrinth run, we spent the rest of the day relaxing in Winworth. Training continued the next day, and days blurred by in my exhaustion. I didn't worry so much about preparing for the quarter golems, but instead for dealing with the level guardian. That meant days upon days of attribute enhancement.

Instead of just carrying riftrocks around in our backpacks, we now had to run an obstacle course while carrying larger, brick-sized riftrocks on our shoulders. On Earth, a rock of that size may have been twenty pounds, but here, it had to be as heavy as two of me. And they didn't take the other smaller riftrocks out of my kit bag while we did it. My shoulders and knees ached, but hey, at least my neck muscles were getting more pronounced, and the backpack didn't strain me as much.

The real challenge was improving my mental stats. Sure, Strength and Vitality were skyrocketing, and the obstacle courses were helping my Agility enormously, but Focus and Perception were lagging behind. To fix that, I devised a plan. My Vitality increases meant I needed less sleep, which meant I could spend more time in the evenings working in the library. And since our evening sparring practice only costed eight points of Presence, it left seven for me to do with as I pleased.

I grabbed all the books I could, as long as it somewhat related to my magic, or was useful—in terms of history books, or general knowledge about Gate and the world around us. I read them inside an enhanced gravity well. Since the library was mostly empty at that hour, I sat in the middle of the floor, then concentrated the gravity where I was sitting, using it to press down on me and make it impossible to concentrate. My lungs shrank. My vision swam, and rings of darkness encroached on the corners of my vision.

But I had a high enough Vitality stat to stay alive and awake inside the gravity well. In a matter of days, my Focus went from fifteen points to seventeen. Next came Perception. I worked with Anchor, trying to figure out how you actually made your Perception improve.

"It's about refining your senses," he said.

"You need to concentrate on the small things. On distant sounds, or on the fine details of a texture. I've continued to practice as I work, but it's slowed down. There's only so much you can do."

"There's gotta be a better way than that," I said. So I went back and consulted the books. The Dupes may not have gotten perfect training on how to improve their Perception back at Homecamp, but I figured someone knew and would've written it down. Even if the sappers cared far more about physical stats than mental.

I reported back to Anchor a few days after our first discussion, during our afternoon group sparring practice, when we gathered in the sand pits, and said, "It seems to be about the quality of your sensory organs, as well." Anchor tilted his head.

"Wouldn't Vitality cause an improvement in your eyes and ears, then, leading to better Perception?"

"You would think," I said.

"But it doesn't seem to be the case. Vitality might help slightly, but it seems more durability-based. It's like how your Vitality doesn't improve the function of your muscles, it only makes them harder to bruise. Strength does that."

"What do we have to do, then, to boost our Perception?" Anchor said.

"You have an answer, don't you?"

"Yes, but what I want to know, first, is why they didn't tell us?"

"Soldiers are soldiers," Anchor said.

"We only have so much time in the day to train, and they'd rather us learn to kill rather than see."

"Not even for archers?"

"Gate's philosophy, even when it was a bunch of scattered kingdoms, has never been an over-reliance on archers. I'm of the opinion that we could stand to invest in more longbowmen, but no one asks me." Shaking my head, I said, "Well, then. On to the solution. I found records on the sensory enhancement of the Scrying Order of Path-walkers. They were seers, with immense spiritual senses, but also powerful physical senses.

Their first order of business, when they were enhancing their bodies between Steel and Titanium, was to use a common anti-cataract tincture. It also happens to do a slight bit of damage to a regular person's eye."

"That seems like the opposite result."

"It was, until they treated their eyes like a muscle. You damage it, then give your body resources, and your body will rebuild it better. And here's the kicker—those resources, what you need to rebuild your eyes, they're in super high concentrations in infused food. It doesn't seem to work for average mortal civilians, but for Path-walkers and Dupes, it should be fine." Anchor grinned.

"I know what we're doing in Winworth next, then." After our next Labyrinth run, which was an objective-based run where we had to capture a flag from deep within the city as quickly as we could, we travelled to Winworth. But instead of hitting the taverns immediately, we headed to the supply store.

There were no merchants who took the Greenway this far east, not during the winter, but there were leftover goods from last summer, and the alchemical tinctures that helped clear out cataracts, known as Eyedown Mix, were still in stock. I bought a couple vials with the wages I'd saved up—ten silver sceats for a vial, which wasn't as expensive as I was fearing—and brought them back to Castle Urcia for testing. Before dinner, right before eating the infused food, Anchor and I both tested the theory.

We drank half of a vial, waited for our vision to get fuzzy, then ate as much infused food as we could. By next morning, my vision had returned to normal. I couldn't say if it had gotten better, but I'd keep trying for a few days, until my attributes either went up, or it turned out we'd wasted a lot of money on useless potions.