Seeing the description for Nyxlas’ Augment made clear what Voker and his party had been doing during the fight in the Xorn den. Uniquely, the ability had no cooldown, but activating it cost 1/3rd of the user’s current HP total. While active, the next use of any weapon’s movement ability would draw on the boundless energy in the Paths Between Paths, amplifying its effects dramatically.

It seemed like it would be most potent in combat with sword and shield users, since their movement ability was their shield block. But even without having combat applications, it could help him get back to town when he needed to do it in a hurry, as long as the amplification was as substantial as the tablets led him to believe.

As he joined his friends behind the fortress, he understood that Nyxlas’ Augment was likely more substantial than expected.

Behind the fortress there was a platform much like what they’d seen at the end of the first dungeon, which he expected would lift them up into the tunnel that would let them exit through the cliffside passage they’d used to triangulate the entrance’s location. But what held his attention at the moment was Reno.

She was streaking around the small clearing at absolutely hilarious speeds. Twin daggers’ mobility tool was a dash ability, which increased move speed by about double for a couple of seconds. Reno was sprinting around the area at what looked to be near highway speeds.

“So,” Kaldalis said, trying to act nonchalantly. “How’s the new power?”

“Great,” Balrim said with a toothy grimace. He hefted a healing potion in his hand and watched Reno rocketing around. “Not only does my specific version kinda suck, but I have to fucking heal these morons while they’re doing their cool shit.”

“What do you get?” Kaldalis asked.

“Bow’s first movement skill is just passive speed,” Balrim explained. “So I kinda don’t get anything because the augment applies to the next activation. But the second movement skill unlocks once you get skill to seventy-five, so… Soon, I guess.”

“Oh, right,” Kaldalis said, suddenly remembering, “I hit fourteen. I just got one more level to go and I’ll get mine.”

“Lucky,” Balrim said, finally tossing the potion to Reno once she suddenly returned to normal speed. “I’m probably going to have to run this dungeon three or four more times to get it. If I’m that attached to the concept of speeding matters up.”

“I’d be on board with helping you, if you need it,” Kaldalis said, regretting the words even before he finished saying them. “Assuming nothing else comes up that demands my attention.”

Balrim scoffed, but instead of addressing that, raised his voice to call everyone else together. “Come on, then. We’ve all had our fun. Let’s get on out of here.”

Kaldalis hadn’t had his fun, but he figured he’d have plenty of time to experiment with his augmented jump on the way back to camp.

Balrim was right, however. The sooner they were out of here, the sooner they could get back to what they really cared about. Questing, exploring, crafting, and progressing the main plot of the expedition out here.

The elevator seemed identical to the one in the previous dungeon, much to Balrim’s chagrin and Myrin’s joy.

Reno seemed as cavalier about it as Myrin was, joining her out on the edge and watching the city fall away beneath them. SeventyEight seemed only slightly less antsy than Balrim about it. Kaldalis and Courbois were of the mind that it was safer not to be on the edge, but didn’t feel it necessary to hug the floor in the exact center and quietly pray to the god of geometry that the stone disc didn’t tip over.

The top was absolutely identical to the exit to the previous dungeon. There were several more openings for other elevators, and looking down, Kaldalis wondered if he could drop to the city and explore it wherever he wanted, if he could survive the fall with his Jump ability. But it seemed unwise to explore the option now. Until he saw the time readout, he wouldn’t be sure that they had locked in their record. And with only SeventyEight in the group as a fellow spear-wielder, it would be the two of them alone against a randomly-selected, possibly extremely high level dungeon end boss.

For now, he instead pushed through the vine wall, leaving the dungeon and returning to the jungle.

Leaden Halls of Ninurta

New record!

Clear time: 62 minutes, 35 seconds.

World Record completion by Kaldalis, Balrim, Myrin, Reno, SeventyEight, and Courbois

Clearing this dungeon with a full group who has previously cleared it will result in reduced drops.

“Not bad,” Kaldalis remarked with a nod. “Job done. Voker’s time now looks like a joke.”

“I mean, it kind of was a joke,” Reno said with a shrug. “But I’m not going to complain about providing everyone with the evidence.”

“That wasn’t even that good of a time,” Courbois said with a shrug. “I ran a few of the speedrun attempts of the first dungeon, so I know what a good run looks like. We stopped a bunch of times, didn’t skip any packs, and had a few other little time losses.”

“I think we can reasonably call it the optimal casual run, though,” Kaldalis said quickly before the group’s morale could be damaged by that remark. “I don’t think anyone could beat that time without doing it on purpose.”

“Unless we missed a branch somewhere,” Balrim pointed out. “It’s possible that after the first boss, there was a fork in the path that might have led to a faster second boss.”

“It was still good work,” Kaldalis said, giving a resigned sigh. “We could come back and do it again for some real exploration later, but for now, we should enjoy leaving behind a job well done.”

Reno grinned. “And having a new toy. Dash cooldown is back in ten seconds. Who wants to race back to town?”

“You’re on,” Kaldalis said, feeling that competitive spirit that always stirred in Dylan when Nakala nettled him. He wanted to just yell “three two one go” as fast as possible, but he was genuinely curious whose speed ability was going to come out on top.

“Count me out,” SeventyEight said with a laugh. “I’ve had enough esports for one day with the record run.”

“Me, too,” Balrim grumbled, “I can’t actually do anything, after all.”

“Just give me an enemy ahead of me,” Myrin said, bouncing from foot to foot, “and I’ll leave you all in the dust.”

“Dash is in five, then,” Reno said, kneeling down like a sprinter on her mark. “First one back to town pays for lunch!” It was their usual bet from back in the real world.

“Wait, is that supposed to be an incentive?” Courbois asked. “We aren’t even paying for food from the mess hall.”

Ess smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “And when we met, they wondered how I could have thought they were dating.”

“Three, two, one,” Reno said, ignoring the remarks.

She didn’t even say “Go” she just suddenly became a blur, vanishing into the jungle.

Not to be outdone, Kaldalis activated Nyxlas’ Augment, sacrificing a big chunk of hit points, and then launched himself into the air with his jump cooldown.

Kaldalis flew.

He literally rocketed into the air at what felt like impossible speed. He didn’t just clear the treetops; he could have cleared a mountain.

At the peak of his jump, a huge expanse of the island spread out below him. He could see the town ahead of him. The cleared area from the mudslide was off to the right, where he got a good overhead view of the ruins there. He could see other ruins poking out of the jungle here and there, and he realized he could use this to draw a map for Balrim and Myrin to help them with their exploration.

The best potential for this ability was going to be long-distance travel, more than anything else. Now that he was in the air, he was going to land where he was going to land, but he was going to land literally a thirty minute walk from where he kicked off. And he was going to have another Jump after that.

But he had absolutely no precision. He traded away over seven hundred hit points for the ability to hurtle semi-randomly for a few miles in a couple of seconds.

Maybe with time he could learn to read atmospheric conditions and gauge distances to jump straight to where he wanted to go, but for now he was just going to have to jump as close as he could and then walk the rest of the way.

The jungle gave him something of an advantage. When he came down, he managed to find footing in the treetops and kick off the branches, rocketing back up into the sky.

His augmented Jump cooldown lasted for three huge leaps. It ran out shortly after the peak of the third jump, but having a second charge meant that he could use it to land safely. Landing in the treetops let him make use of the remainder of his second Jump charge to get a little more distance before he had to descend to the forest floor to walk the rest of the way. He wasn’t going to be able to jump again for several minutes, and being alone just outside the white-blossom forest made him reluctant to burn a few hundred more hit points, in case he ran into trouble.

A few minutes later, he cleared the treeline, and the thick stone walls of Panbu came into view. He squinted at the gate as he walked towards it, trying to figure out if Reno, Myrin, or Courbois were any of the figures gathered there. With no sign of them, he put a hand to the side of the gate to declare himself finished, and turned back towards the jungle.

He wasn’t terribly surprised that his ability was the best for long-ranged overland travel.

But he grew worried when he saw all three of his would-be rivals’ HP bars take another big hit, presumably burning Nyxlas’ Augment on another activation of their respective abilities. Or, at least, he hoped.

He was actually concerned about what that meant for Myrin, since hers only worked if she was moving towards an enemy.

A part of him wanted to just walk through town to the docks and start fishing, even if it meant when his friends arrived, they assumed they’d beaten him. But his curiosity overcame that desire. Who would be the next fastest? He had already decided he wanted to skill up a second weapon to unlock its mobility option for when the spear was unhelpful. Which one would suit his needs the best?

And, most importantly, how many monsters were going to end up being in the train Myrin was building up to be actually burning her mobility tool for the race?