His arms shook with the strain of holding his bright sword.

  A brief, glancing blow, deflecting that giant paw, blue claws enveloped in roaring air, but it had been enough to nearly break through his defenses. Even his [Strength] boosted by his [The Aspiring Champion], at 261 points, was not close to letting him take a direct blow from the giant tiger eyeing him, its tail swishing in annoyance.

  Crazy [Strength] aside, how much does that think even weight, Nar thought, eyeing the creature’s blue feathered tail warily. It must be close to 60-feet from head to tail.

  The tiger flicked its tail in his direction, and a blur of razor-sharp air snapped forth from the glimmering blue feather-fan at the tip of its tail.

  Nar side-stepped it with half a thought, his senses alerting him well in advance, and he flicked an [Aura Blade] of his own at the beast. The blue tiger leaped away from the danger, but Rel chose that exact moment to hit it with a cursed and poisonous arrow.

  “Nice!” Nar shouted, as the [Bleeding] and [Befuddled] effects took hold. “Now!”

  Raf and Mul sprung to action from where they’d been hiding behind a thick nook of wood, and together the three of them stormed the confused beast.

  Rel’s [Bleeding] will do the heavy work of melting through its HP, but the faster we can finish it, the better, Nar thought, conscious of the struggle he picked up on through his [Awareness]. The camp is still under attack.

  BANG! BANG!

  Mul’s punched the tiger’s side with enough violence to send tremors rippling across the entirety of the beast’s body, and from the other side, Raf brought down his enormous two-handed axe on the tiger’s back paw with such ferocity that even its HP wasn’t enough to fully absorb the damage.

  As expected of the two with the highest [Strength], Nar thought, glancing at the bleeding paw. Two of its digits were clearly broken.

  But [Strength], while important, wasn’t Nar’s greatest asset, it was his [Aura***].

  [Aura Blade], 1000 points.

  He drove the sword upwards, into the underside of the confused tiger, and the blade cut upwards in a fine, razor sharp and needle beam of blinding aura. The creature roared in sudden, panicked agony, and Nar held his blade of aura in place, blowing through the tiger’s HP.

  Not yet, he told his sword, when it reached a tentative question to him. Once we’re done, and the others are safe, you can eat as much as you want. Hey! Are you sulking? I already said we couldn’t help it last time! That thing fell off the tree on its own!

  But indeed, he got the clear insight that while obedient, the blade was sulking.

  Pile, Nar thought. The blade had begun to act, if that was the right word, more and more as it had grown completely crimson. Just a few days ago he’d started wondering if perhaps he hadn’t bitten off more than he could chew in signing up to become a wielder of a soullinked weapon. But there was no way he was ever going to say no to making his weapon stronger.

  The tiger pulled away from his [Aura Blade], even in his befuddled state, and Nar passed the skills control over to his other self, allowing it to determine when it was safe to let it above their heads.

  Mul’s flames continued to erupt from his side of things, and Raf was wholly focused on the same injured limb. Rel peppered the beast with more cursed and poisoned arrows, her [Sight] and [Accuracy] on full blast to keep track of the beasts innate [Speed], [Agility], [Reflex], and [NPC]. Their faces were a blank of trained focus, entrusting their lives to Nar and his [Lingering Aura] to keep the beast focused on him.

  It’s not proper tanking, but it’s not so bad, Nar thought. Even though he was heavily limited in his taunting and even defense active skills compared to Tun, Leon and Gad, he was still able to do this much.

  “How are you guys doing?” Kur asked, to their private party chat.

  “We’re smashing through its HP,” Nar replied, dodging under haphazard, wind coated claws. “I don’t think it will last much longer. You guys?”

  “Ah… we’re doing alright,” Kur said.

  “But?” Rel asked.

  “... we lost the tent.”

  “Again?” Mul shouted. “For fuck’s sake! All the wind ivy was drying in the kitchen!”

  “Well, the other tiger blew it out of the tree in the chaos of all these damned birds!” Kur said, more helpless than defensive. “We’ll just get more.”

  The blue-striped wind tigers, as they were called, always attacked in mated pairs. Female wind tigers always birthed a boy and girl, which would mate and bond as soon as they reached their youth, ready to prowl the jungle tops in a new dual menace of wind, claws and fangs.

  “It’s alright,” Gad said. “We have enough already.”

  “It’s never enough when it comes to XP,” Jasphaer said. “Mark my words.”

  “Alright, alright. Let’s just finish this off,” Kur said.

  The fighting was thankfully cut short by the wounded tiger fleeing for its life. Nar rushed after him, but there was little he could do when the beast leaped over a giant chasm to another branch. His senses told him the battle was over in camp as well, the other tiger having likely ran away as well.

  “Come back with my gains, damn it!” Mul shouted at the retreating beast, as it limp-jumped over a series of branches and disappeared in the distance. “Ugh… Shit. I didn’t even get to spend my [Burning Anger].”

  Nar patted the brawler's shoulder as the [Heart of Loss] took hold. “Hang in there, man.”

  “Yeah,” the brawler said. “Hey, make sure you get that sword of yours to eat all the birds. The last think I need tonight is to watch those fucks feasting on grilled meat.”

  “Will do,” Nar promised,

  Raf wiggled his eyebrows at him, and he followed the surly brawler back to camp, making small conversation with him. Rel seemed to have made her own way back already, given that she was perched on a higher branch than theirs, so Nar took that moment to catch his breath, his senses fully alert for further threats.

  He walked towards the edge of the interlaced network of mossy green wood branches and allowed his eyes to take in the view through an opening in the canopy of giant, green tinted trees. They’d been journeying through the Canopy for almost three weeks now, but the sight of the place still stole the breath from him.

  The Canopy stretched in its glowing green and silver leafs, with a carpet of smooth, silken purple twilight for the sky. It never went fully dark or bright in the Canopy, remaining in a soothing, and almost cozy state. The weather too, remained mostly dry, a gentle warm breeze playing with the leaves.

  Nar inhaled deeply, taking in that freshness, and allowing the touch of the wind to dry off the sweat of his brow.

  Far below him, a herd of the biggest beasts he had thus far seen in the Brightnight swam across the mirror-like, deep waters that covered the entire bottom of the trees and the ground of the Canopy. With their incredibly long necks, the beasts, who belonged to the dinosaur family, reached upwards to the lowest branches of the massive trees that gave the Canopy of Giants its name, munching slowly on the glowing green and silver leafs.

  One of the smaller beasts got too close to one of the many waterfalls that interconnected the water to the many great pools of different levels that formed the floor of the zone, and its parent reached over to bite its tail and drag it back to safety.

  It was peaceful, and his shoulders eased as the rush of battle flooded from him.

  It was easy to forget that the waters were home to vicious, giant beasts. Not only that, if one fell down, there was no other way back out other than to either somehow climb up a tree trunk, or the sheer rock cliffs that surrounded the Canopy.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  There is always danger mixed with beauty in this domain, Nar thought, leaning over the edge to take a peek directly down the nearly 1000-foot drop to the water. And maybe that’s true everywhere…

  As he raised his eyes to the velvety sky instead, another loose breeze ruffling his hairs, he caught sight of a quick, distant shape darting over the canopy. He already knew what it was. Pulling on its [Sight], Nar zoomed in on the giant wind-serpent as it beat its enormous, dozens of green and blue feathered wings lining its long, sinuous body.

  An adult, Nar thought.

  They had reached the final stop in their long journey before heading to the Heart of the Jungle, and conclude their delve.

  The giant serpent, likely longer than the 100-feet, twisted gracefully in the air, before dashing over to a tree that stood several hundred feet above all the rest… The nest of the aelix, which they would soon infiltrate in their most daring and dangerous fight in the jungle thus far. And by a long margin.

  Nar glanced over at his status, drawing his eyes from the towering tree of glowing green and silver in the distance.

  Almost no damage… No wonder, given that combined [Reflex] and [Instinct], he thought. Pile, is the master going to tell me I’m still weak, even after all of these gains? I’ll have to be catching up at some point, no? To him, at least, if not to Tys.

  Such crazy numbers, Nar thought, roaming his eyes through the list. He had trouble believing that status as of late. Even his [NPC], who only upgraded begrudgingly, had been going up too to keep up with his explosive growth. But will it be enough to pull this off?

  Their gains had been tremendous in the Brightnight, and even more so during the second leg of their journey, through the Gloom, Den and the Canopy of Giants. Especially in the Canopy of Giants, as they battled the gigantic beasts that ruled the Canopy. The gains here had been insane.

  Everyone’s main stats, as Eum had referred to them, were starting to show, as were the ones that the delvers did not need as much for their paths.

  Nothing was as dramatic as Raf’s and Mul’s [Strength], which now reach past 550 points for the brawler, and was nearing 700 points for the muscular, two-handed axe wielding and towering altei. Mul and Raf could now lift a 20-thousand-pound beast together, so that the harvesters could have an easier time at reaching the grisly bits that sold the best.

  Viy had her monstrous [Agility] followed by her insane [Strength], but she was starting to lag behind in terms of her senses. It seemed logical, since her guilt blinded her during combat. Perhaps even outside of it too…

  Rel’s [Sight] and [Accuracy] were her extreme attributes, needed in order to hit the fast-moving beasts they now faced from afar. Unlike Cen or Tuk, Rel couldn’t control her arrow's flight after they left her bow, and so her [Sight] and [Accuracy] had been working non-stop from the moment she’d entered the Brightnight. Meanwhile, her senses of [Hearing] and [Smell] were trailing far behind, as the archer no longer fulfilled a scout role nor needed those senses as much in order to hit her targets.

  This played out across their entire party, as well as Row and Leon’s parties. Their main skills were skyrocketing, especially if propelled by attribute modifiers. And these were starting to really show their value now that it was possible to gain twenty points and more in a single attribute in single level gain.

  As for Nar, setting aside his [Aura***], which continued to power his path’s advance, his true extremes were his boosted [Speed], [Agility], [Sight], [Reflex] and [Instinct]. Together, they had propelled his fast combat style to entire new heights, to the point where the lightning fast tiger he had just tanked had struggled to hit him. Nar was almost certain that when he turned up his [Aura Quickning], that the beast had trouble even seeing him properly, given that the skill currently dumped an unceremonious 683 extra points into each of his [Speed], [Reflex], [Agility], and more importantly, his [NPC]. He was, to all effects, nearly untouchable then, and none of the beasts of the Canopy had come close to even matching him with [Aura Quickening].

  Couple these attributes with his [Aura***] and continuously improving [Mastery], which now allowed him 1073 points of aura at once, and his damage had become eye watering. He, and the others, had come to think of him as an HP shredder. Especially his [Aura Blade], which melted through those immense shields.

  Of course, the beasts continued to grow in [Constitution] as well, and even that tiger they had faced now sported HP that into the millions. It made Nar almost wonder who was keeping up with who… The delvers with the beasts, or the beasts with the delvers.

  Tys had promised the gains would be incredible, and they were. Far above anything he’d expected. But, it was also true they were starting to specialize. For Nar, he was further continuing his [Aura***] fueled, fast paced, untouchable and insane DPS outputting path. And perhaps unsurprisingly, while everyone else was also really starting to specialize into their own paths, the need for a party that balanced each other out, cancelling weaknesses and boosting strengths, only continued to increase.

  Even if non-fighters like Kur, Cen and Jasphaer continued to receive those odd adjustment points here and there, Kur’s [Strength] sat at 19 points, and it would never be able compare to Mul’s at 552, nor would Viy ever be able to compete with Cen’s or Nar’s monstrous [Aura***]. Alone, none of them would survive, just like Gad would never be able to DPS through the massive HP barriers that they now faced.

  The real question now was how far those main stats would go. Tys had remarked that she could easily break the ship, so would Mul and Viy’s [Strength] reach those same heights one day? Would Jul’s senses stretch to encompass hundreds of thousands of miles?

  The answer, according to the aethermancers, was that those main attributes would continue to grow as long as they were used in a challenging way, one that pushed the delvers beyond their current capabilities. Tuk had been making huge gains in [Hearing] and [Smell], as well as [Awareness], in order to fully realize his multi-target focused path. His [Sight] alone was not enough if he wanted to hit enemies across a maze of branches, for example.

  As long as we keep fighting stronger and stronger enemies, so will we continue to grow, and need each other more and more, Nar thought, looking into the distance as a full conglomerate of green and blue shimmering serpents took flight, leaving trails of wind aether. They said they would make us elite, and we understood that meant powerful. But I don’t think any of us truly understood what power really meant back then… Even now, I think we probably still don’t.

  But was his future the same as theirs? The independent in Kur’s party, would he eventually transcend the need of a party? Or would he have to join a party of Named Few to delve the deepest, darkest recesses of the Labyrinth, to seek out and hunt the worst of the Nexus’ enemies?

  He sighed, and closed his status.

  We’ll deal with it as it comes, Nar thought, eyeing the coiling and dancing wind serpents in the sky.

  Whatever happened, what he could see now was that the Brightnight had indeed propelled him forward another giant step. Or even a couple of them. The domain had done much for everyone, and once they survived Mach’s quest, they would likely only remain in the Brightnight for as long as it took to get everyone to level 70. Then it was goodbye to the jungle at last. From level 70 and above, the XP they gained in the Brightnight would be severely curtailed, and nobody would be sticking around just for laughs.

  Crystal. I can’t wait to have a real shower. And food. Pile! I'm sick of tree mollusks and roots! Nar thought, frowning. Give me a burger. A steak! Give me a chocolate—

  The sword vibrated in his hands, tugging at his aura. Nar looked down to realize that in his sudden introspection, he had forgotten to stow the blade into his ring.

  Oh, Nar thought, as the blade tugged on his aura again, more impatient and demanding this time. The tiger? It ran away…

  The sword turned into a sudden vortex, sucking up his aura in a vengeful pull that he couldn’t deny.

  “Ow! Ow! Ow!” he cried. “What do you want me to do? It wasn’t my fault!”

  The blade drank voraciously from his aura, and Nar knew there was nothing he could to satisfy his now fully crimson weapon. He either found it a meal, or he himself became the meal. Something had to satisfy the sword.

  Hold on, hold on, he thought, sighing. Let’s go back to camp. You can eat the birds at least and make Mul happy.

  The blade gave him another tug, but it seemed willing to trust him. He wouldn’t be given much time in order to provide the promised sustenance, though, and if he failed to deliver, then he would really become tonight’s meal.

  “I appreciate your understanding, oh great sword,” Nar said, through grit teeth.

  And the damned blade vibrated in his hand again. The smugness of it!

  Nar shook his head.

  His weapon’s stats hadn’t changed, nor had the sword upgraded again, so the only visible change was that the scarred blade was completely red now. Even the guard and the grip had taken a deep, dark crimson tone, its shimmer effect more discreet now… But the cloth from his dad, wrapped around the guard of his sword, remained the same shimmering purple.

  The thin strip of cloth didn’t even show any signs of ever-changing color. A big part of him wanted to believe that the cloth wouldn’t change unless it was through the use of an AUC again, but a smaller, stronger part of him knew that likely, there was a reason why that cloth remained purple. Given the origin of that AUC, and that it was not only rooted in hunger, but on the purple madness blazing in those cannibals’ eyes, he couldn’t help but have a bad feeling that the cloth that reminded him of his dad, of all things, remained that way.

  Well, I’ll deal with it when it blows in my face, Nar thought. As always.

  For now, he had a blade to feed, and soon they would be stealing an egg.