I walked up hte pillar with an ease that should be impossible for my heavy body and the feeble hairs on my feet, if it weren’t for the dungeon making the impossible work. My species probably lived on a low-gravity planet or normally walked on walls that my claws could dig into, or maybe this was just complete nonsense but the AI made it so.

Low-gravity was my preferred answer. It somewhat irked me to think about the AI disregarding the laws of reality so blatantly, even if it benefitted me.

The claws looked like they were meant to be stronger and evolved to be sleeker, so maybe the Choldrith had since evolved to space and their low-gravity ships? It might make sense for their spaceships to maintain but the barest gravity in space, assuming their carapace prevented their bodies from morphing in disgusting ways growing up, unlike humans. Yes, maybe the AI was simulating the wall-walking that my new species was used to, even though the original planet-dwelling Choldrith was limited to climbing certain surfaces with their stronger legs and claws?

That seemed like a decent enough hypothesis to explain this ability of mine, enough to leave the topic be.

Or rather, for me to not be frustrated about it. With great intelligence comes faster thinking, and thus this must’ve been the hundredth time that I pondered about this just because I had nothing else to think about.

I wasn’t thinking faster in a way that the world slowed down around me, that was probably something they ensured Intelligence wouldn’t do in order to keep Dexterity viable. But I was certainly thinking a lot more.

Well, there were worse things. Especially around here. It did make my life rather dull though. Contrary to the others, I wasn't being overwhelmed by too many new sights and too much information, and instead found the novelty wanting.

I continued climbing the pillar towards the tight gap in the ceiling to circumvent this floor and get to the next one. We hadn’t yet crossed the swooping grounds, and it was probably for the best to avoid doing that for as long as we could. The harpies didn’t know we were here, so we might be able to bolt through the area once or twice before they’d start keeping an eye out for us.

Alexa was with me, but the others couldn’t navigate the narrow shaft without risks. Not until I tightened the rope and allowed them to climb rather than fly, that is.

I probably wouldn’t fit through the gap myself, not with the large circular abdomen I was dragging along, but Alexa wouldn’t be able to lift the rope all the way up with her tiny wings. As Elise’s flight didn’t work well in enclosed spaces and Miho hadn’t mastered moving her animal bodies enough to entrust her with flying through a gap filled with rusty rebar and sharp rocks, Alexa and I teamed up.

The gap was more than big enough for the little fairy, allowing her to stretch and fly tight circles if she wanted, so there was no risk for her. Once I reached the ceiling I handed her the silk rope I weaved with, as Ben called it, my ‘buttstuff’. The rope wasn’t magical, I had no idea how even the basic fundamentals of Choldrith magic worked, but the rope was made of a hardy silk woven tight and sturdy. That much I could do.

Elise flew up, and once Alexa tightened the rope she stopped floating to hang from the rope just underneath the hole. With her high strength she began to break and pull some of the troublesome pieces of rubble, and tear off parts of the ceiling wholesale, to widen the gap.

The building groaned twice, but nothing happened. In no time Elise widened the gap to allow me through, and the three of us waited for Ben and Miho to climb up after us.

“Seems like we have to run through the exposed side this time.” Elise said. “The stairs are still blocked and I don’t see any convenient shortcuts this time.”

“Not unless we make one.” Ben said.

That didn’t seem like a great idea considering the precarious structural integrity of the building, but then again it might not collapse even if we’d demolish our way to the top. Dungeon logic was frustratingly uncaring of our real world knowledge.

“I think we have to worry more about what he’ll do.” Miho said, pointing up. “He already kicked the hornet nest once, if he does it again then he can serve as a distraction.”

“Right, that could work.” Elise said, staring at the ceiling in thought.

We knew Azriel wasn’t that far ahead of us. It wasn’t a race for him, as long as he stayed ahead some. He probably even delayed at times to make sure he was never more than one or two floors above us.

When we reached the sixth floor, he used those boots of his to surf straight to the seventh and had been climbing the tower ever since. On the eight we found a harpy nest with smashed eggs and several severed harpy limbs, the so-called paladin clearly having no issue killing the unborn. We heard the commotion of him cutting into a small flock of the creatures squawking loudly as they defended their nests, when we were still on the seventh.

“On the other hand, being a bunch of cowards won’t get us anything.” Ben said, Alexa nodding in agreement. “We shouldn’t seek out a fight or expose ourselves out there for too long, but it’s not good for ratings if we cower and wait just to avoid fighting some birds.”

“Fair enough.” I said. “How do we want to do it?”

“With Darryl missing, only you and I are any good up close.” Ben told Elise. “While the others are far from harmless, Thomas isn’t meant for close combat and Alexa will definitely be in trouble if one of the birds snatches her and flies off.”

“Right, so I’ll cover Alexa and you cover Thomas? Or the other way around?” Elise asked.

“Maybe…” Miho spoke up. “Maybe it would be a smart idea if Elise takes the right flank and Thomas the left one, while the rest of us are in the middle? That would give Thomas more distance and the birds have to fly through Elise’s vortex before reaching us.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” I said.

The others nodded, and thus Elise began to float between us and the open sky to our right while I hugged the wall to our left. Miho turned into a Young Krutnik Reaver and Alexa sat in the crevice between her head and shoulder plates where she was the least exposed.

Despite it being the first time we appeared, the harpies immediately noticed us. Courtesy of our Elite friend, I assumed.

The four closest harpies regrouped and dove in, one of them spearheading the charge to tackle Elise and keep her occupied while the others moved slightly to the side to attack the clearly more vulnerable group behind her.

Their status screen immediately changed, their display of speed and shown tactics updating their range of Dex and Int stats. Their Dex was now somewhere between 7 and 32 points, though likely on the lower end of that spectrum. It didn’t really matter. Their intelligence going from 1-12 to 2-12 confirmed that these were no beasts, though.

I expected that these stats were going to be false at least once or twice on this twisted adventure, when enemies hid their true power trying to fool me and lure me into a false sense of security. But the lower stat estimate was probably reliable.

Elise intercepted the first harpy with a mouthful of crackling bat, and it turned into goo as she sent it to rain down upon the ground below. The other harpies swerved past her, much to Elise’s surprise.

Really? She hadn’t seen that they clearly intended to d- No, wait. Right, perhaps it wasn’t so clear for the others. There had been only two seconds between the birds spotting us and attacking, she might not have had the time after seeing the birds to think about their movements.

I looked at the numbers of the harpies change as I raised a hand at the other three, preparing a fire bolt. The Serentile Harpy status screen now gave a broad estimate of their lightning and bludgeoning resistances, but their fire and cold resistance were still three question marks. Not that it mattered much, Elise’s overkill damage didn’t allow me to glean much data anyway. For these weak creatures it was quite irrelevant anyway, and they probably weren’t significantly resistant or vulnerable to any element. Even their health was still a very broad estimate.

The harpy’s anatomy wasn’t very conclusive either. My own basic insight already highlighted several vitals and weak spots in the small model of their body, but nothing useful. Destroy the brain, go for the eyes, pierce the heart. Kind of obvious.

I still read all of the changes to the statblocks and processed their information as I continued to raise my hand. Their statblocks had gotten more and more expansive as my intelligence increased, but not cumbersome as my newfound intelligence allowed me to read and consider the information even faster than the shorter statblocks before.

I didn’t think faster, though, just more. The events before me transpired just as fast as they always did, my movements and aim were average as usual. I just processed more information as it all happened, my reaction speed unchanged but the thought put into said reaction improved.

And I would be killer at Space Invaders now, my speed of thought allowing me to shoot where the enemy was going rather than where they were, beyond what any human on the surface would be capable of.

My Scorching Ray singed the goblin cheek mildly before burning a hole into their shoulder, the harpy losing control of their flight and flying over Alexa and Miho as the other two pounced. Their claws scraped over Miho’s carapace ineffectively, but Alexa had to jump away when a harpy shrugged off her Mana Bubbles and tried to grab her.

Ben chopped one of them in half with ease belying the blunt-looking blade he was using, and Miho jumped back and bit into the other one’s neck as it tried to pursue Alexa.

The status screen changed a bit, but again it was nothing useful. Ben’s slashing damage was as overkill as Elise’s bludgeoning. Miho’s piercing was more useful thanks to her not killing her harpy instantly and thus allowing me to estimate the damage, but it only confirmed that they weren’t particularly vulnerable nor resistant to piercing. Same for my Scorching Ray.

Seeing the mana costs for my Scorching Ray being lower now, I began casting it again to put down the harpy that was still spiralling towards me.

While the statblock details had been somewhat gradually increasing during the first two floors, the mana costs had been a nigh instant change after my post-class jump in intelligence. From fighting the Mud Hag with whole mana points, to dealing with two decimals the next day. And once you saw the decimals, you also saw the cost of spells shift around. It was a minor change, but significant enough I supposed.

My Scorching Ray was less expensive now because the ‘pathways’ that the mana ran through were warmer and already saturated with fire mana residue from the first casting. Or something like that. From 3.21 mana to 3.03, and the next one would be 2.96. It had been 3 mana before so it was a bit more expensive now, but that would probably change in due time.

Meanwhile my Frost Bolt was a bit more expensive because it would have to overcome this heat before it could cool down to the required temperature, 0.94 mana becoming 1.12, but in two more shots it would be necessary. Scorching Ray allowed you to shoot the spell incredibly fast three times, but at the fourth shot the excess heat started to damage you. Well, it did now. On the second floor there was just a cooldown time without explanation.

I could definitely keep firing the blasts, and it was a reasonable choice to make when the alternative was dying to whatever you were fighting. But the heat damage increased exponentially, kept dealing damage over time like a poison and went away slowly. Especially for my body; the carapace held the warmth inside and made the effects last longer.

I much preferred to fire between one and three Scorching Rays and then spend the extra mana so that Frost Bolt could cool me down. I wasn’t that sturdy and my fire resistance slightly below average. I left the overheating to the pyromancers and other classes designed to deal with that mess.

It would’ve actually been better if I used my new wand, but there hadn’t been time to whip it out. While the minor increase of fire damage was useful, even if the specification of line spells meant that it only worked for my Scorching Ray and not my Firestorm, it was quite the boon that most excess heat would be wafting off the wand instead of lingering inside my body.

Against enemies, alternating between fire and cold was actually more beneficial. The tiny model of the harpy now had a big red spot on its shoulder that specified the area to be more vulnerable to cold damage and with a decreased armour rating, but it was less vulnerable to fire and poison. We were talking just a few percent here, aside from the pain sensitivity increase, but all little bits helped.

Well, not in this case. The first ray already took over half the critter’s health so the second one would kill it as long as I hit the damned bird, but against Bosses and the likes it would come in handy.

I fired the second ray, once again marvelling at how many thoughts could now run through my head in just a second, and it struck the harpy in the back as they tried to steady themselves before crash landing. They died mid-air and hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

I got my experience notification, it too having extended to show more than just a number. My role in the fight, percentage of damage, danger rating, etc. Which, for this kill, was pretty much 100% but with a very low danger rating reducing the experience because this hadn’t been ‘exciting’. And of course my ever-present experience reduction from that damned tattoo, a full 37% gone due to the difference in our levels.

Then again, our experience for killing lower level mobs was already paltry, so it didn’t matter that much. Well, it did if I’d try grinding these harpies, and it had been quite penalising fighting the Krutnik, but for self-defence like this it wasn’t worth fussing about.

I still did, because I thought about a lot of things every second, but I didn’t fuss about it obsessively. Little victories.

The two halves of Ben’s harpy hit the ground and Miho began to chew hers. Krutnik heads didn’t lend themselves well for expressing emotion, but the slow crunching hinted at her being none too fond of this ‘snack’. But it was a new form, and their singing was something new to her arsenal.

Well, the Krutnik palate was probably one of her better options for eating these things. The harpy was too large for her snake form and the hive insects were omnivores with barely any taste buds.

Cuddles didn’t mind the feathers and raw meat at all, gleefully digging into one of the halves that Ben dropped. Ben picked up the other half and my kill, but didn’t bother stopping Cuddles.

“Doesn’t seem like they’re dropping something interesting. Shame, I was hoping those feathers would be alchemical ingredients or something.” Ben said.

“That was a close one, good thing that my reflexes are razor sharp!” Alexa boasted.

“Probably for the best if you stay underneath Miho instead of standing on top of her, next time.” I said.

Alexa scoffed. “I’m not that fragile, I have a Constitution of 10 after all! I’ll be fine!”

“With your small body, you’re also easily grappled and taken away from us.” Elise said. “And I’m not sure if any of us can fly fast enough to keep up with these birds. We may have plenty of flight, but it’s all relatively slow.”

Alexa pouted and kicked the nearest pebble.

“Alright, let’s keep moving. We wouldn’t want to waste too much time on these birds.” Elise said.

I fired another Scorching Ray at one of the harpies diving at us, killing it with one shot now that my distance modifier was positive instead of negative. “Too late.”

Elise sighed and readied her bat. “Fine, let’s keep a move on after we beat these chumps.”