The most important skill you can all develop in this course is Awareness, not Stealth. Awareness will teach you about Stealth. It will instruct you on all the aspects of Stealth that you have not understood yet. There is no absolute Stealth, not even for Legendary Pathbearers.
Consider all your senses, visual, auditory, taste, touch, and more. Your Magical Skills come into play here too. They are another layer of sensory advancements you can gain. And they are spiritual infusions at that, hard to avoid, hard to counter. And this is simply speaking with our organic Pathbearers in mind. The automata students in this course must have a variety of other sensory options that are far beyond the organic norm.
As we evolve our Awareness skills and learn about how our comrades might perceive the world, you will understand that Stealth does not mean clinging to the shadows and staying silent. That is rudimentary, and it will not be sufficient against an enemy with an appropriately leveled Awareness skill. When you engage your adversaries in a battle of subterfuge, understand that you are a clashing onion.
You have layers of protection over you, and the outermost layer is Awareness—you being aware of your enemies before they are aware of you.
You cannot always have a higher Awareness skill compared to your adversary, but you can learn how they perceive things by observing their reactions in the field. And so we move on to the most fundamental lesson of this class. Observe. Learn. And then act.
Understand your enemy. Notice them first. And then move.
So. Break into teams and descend into the darkness of the dungeon. There are things down there that will hunt you. Make sure you learn where they are first.
-Captain Andrea Yuwei, STEALTH-101, Phoenix Academy
175 (I)
Escape
"Oh, gods," Adam groaned.
A rush of nausea crawled through his body, and bile threatened to overtake his throat. It wasn't bad enough that he was a prisoner. It wasn't bad enough that he was lying here, stripped bare, without his equipment, captured by the Ascendants and their treacherous avatars.
Now his life lay in the hands of a Raven once again.
"So, what now?" he asked. "Have you come to take over instead? Are you planning to rip into my mind yourself? Make me a good little spy?"
The Raven pressed her lips together. "Don't be so histrionic, Gate Lord Arrow. You are of far more use to us coherent and willing than as a mind-broken slave. You'll discover that we aren't nearly as heavy-handed as your so-called Ascendants."
Adam narrowed his eyes at the Raven. She knew his title. That meant she knew about Gate Theborn and likely a good portion of what had happened there. Adam wondered how she was aware of so much.
He had been diligent in scouring his gate for any saboteurs or spies. None of the slaves were in any condition to serve as spies for the Stolen Throne. The mercenaries were especially monitored, and Uva had scoured their minds. Of course, she could have missed something, and Adam might have as well. However, he didn't think so.
The weak point of his Gate couldn’t be the mercenaries or anyone within Gate Piety right now. Instead, his thoughts turned to another group of unwelcome visitors that bordered his gate. If there was one variable he couldn't control much at all, it was the orcs themselves.
"Before we do anything," Adam said, licking his dry lips as he took his blind swing, "I want to know something. I want to know if your informant inside my gate is an orc."
The Raven was well-trained. She controlled her facial muscles well and held to an impassive expression. Unfortunately for her, she was dealing with someone with Heroic-Tier Awareness. Adam noticed a slight quiver in her facial muscles, the almost imperceptible twitch of her eyes. He also smelled a faint scent in the air, but then disregarded it as he realized it was the dead Psychomancer who'd just fouled himself. A snort of annoyance escaped Adam as he shook his head. Even that action caused his neck to flare up in agony.
Seer of Horizons 152 > 155
"You can't trust a damn greyskin bastard with anything. Did you bribe the orc, or is he an actual agent?” Adam sneered as he finished probing.
The blank look on the Raven's face was gone now. Instead, she offered him a deep frown. "The dossier said you were astute, even for someone with prodigious Awareness. I see I've underestimated you."
"And I see you're avoiding the question," Adam replied. He took another guess and asked a follow-up question. He knew the Raven wasn't going to answer this one either, but he had her measure. Adam could read her micro-expressions to some degree. "So, bribery, then."
She controlled herself even better this time, but that faint twitch of her eye was still there. It was the slightest shudder, and Adam wouldn't have seen it at all if he hadn't been concentrating so hard on her forehead. The Gate Lord added that potential problem to his list. Find a way to control what the orcs learned about Gate Piety. But that would be a long-term task. Far behind the pressing matter that troubled Adam right now.
The Raven couldn't shake her look of displeasure as she reached under Adam's bed. He projected his Awareness to where her hand was as his anxiety spiked. He was worried that she was going to activate some kind of mechanism and finish him off. What he discovered then was a button of some kind. As soon as she pressed it, the restraints holding him in place gave a loud snapping sound before they retracted with the final click.
Adam drew in another breath. Delicious air filled his lungs, and he realized how much the bonds had been compressing his chest until they were undone. He tried to rise, but nearly curled in on himself in pain as every ligament and bone in his body screamed at him to stay still. Adam gained an architectural map of his own skeletal system from just how many parts of him combusted into searing swaths of suffering. Though his mind was clearing up, his body was still in no condition for battle, perhaps not even in condition for movement.
Adam took a second to center himself. A stray thought entered his consciousness as he wondered how Shiv would handle this misery. The Gate Lord knew the answer to that. Shiv cared about pain like a bear gave a damn about bees when it was hungering for honey. The hurt existed, but it didn't matter. That wasn't Adam's mindset. No, Adam had to deal with silly things like physical and mental trauma, so he had to be considerate. Something Shiv skipped over sometimes.
Adam didn't much like pain. Adam didn't much like having a broken body, and Adam most certainly couldn't come back from death or near-death stronger than before.
Just then, the Toughness Evolution notification flashed before his eyes, and the Gate Lord realized that wasn't entirely correct. If he got hurt one more time, perhaps that would push him over the threshold. Perhaps that would see him completely restored. He didn't know what awaited him with this upcoming Skill Evolution, but something told him he had to reach it if he wanted to escape from this place.
"Raven," Adam choked out, trying to hold back his distaste for the woman. “My wounds… Can you patch me?” She was his enemy, of that, there was no question. Aviary used people, and right now, he was simply a tool aligned with her interests. He had no illusions about her loyalties or ethics, but that didn't change the fact that he needed her to help him. There was no one else he could rely on right now, and she was a Biomancer. Whatever they did to his body, he needed it fixed.
"Hold on," the Raven interrupted him.
He felt the faint prodding sensation jab into his back. A slight pinprick of pain crawled across his skin, and numbness spread from the outer hive of Adam's flesh down to the very marrow of his bones. Soon, the agony subsided, though he still felt a weight there. It was like his muscles had been turned to lead, but he couldn't complain. This was far better than feeling like his entire nervous system was on fire every passing second. Coolness glided through his veins, and Adam let out a relieved breath he didn't know he had been holding.
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Slowly, he pushed himself off the bed and shook his head. He still had some slight double vision, and the room was far too bright. Like his eyes were being stabbed by needles each second they remained open. But he could move now, and if he could move, he could fight. And if he could fight, he could be free.
"I synthesized some pain suppressants and administered them to your bloodstream," the Raven explained. Adam could still feel her Biomancy curling within his flesh. It felt like snakes were wriggling their way through his body. "I'm removing the nerve damage Master-Avatar Stormhalt had me deliberately inflict to keep you incapacitated. It'll take a few moments longer for me to calcify the fractures I lined your bones with, and the many slight tears left upon your ligaments."
She released a slight hum of curiosity. "Your armor was quite remarkable. By all means, you should have died when the Tarrasque hit you. You were more liquid than solid when they pried you out of your armor. Without the intervention of one of the Ascendants, you would have perished. They sacrificed an Avatar to channel enough power to keep you alive. That's how close to death you were."
Adam rubbed his face and grimaced. Just because his Ascendants had proven to be the enemy didn't mean he relished the death of one of their Avatars. Aside from Stormhalt, Adam didn't know much about the people he was facing. He suspected some of them had families and friends. Some of them must still believe that they were faithful servants of the Republic. And for their lives to be spent to keep him alive, it felt beyond callous.
"They shouldn't have done that," Adam muttered.
"Oh, but they absolutely should," the Biomancer rebuffed. "After all, a Pathbearer with a Unique Skill and a Unique Feat, a direct connection to one of the rogue Ascendants, and one of the primary associates of the now infamous Deathless, is well worth the life of an Avatar. Perhaps even a hundred. Maybe more."
"People are more than the sum of their skills,” Adam replied.
"And you actually believe that," the Raven said, with the faintest hint of scorn in her voice.
"I do," Adam said, resolute. He lifted his head and glared at the woman. “I do, because I've seen societies that treat people based on their Paths and skills, and I spit on those societies. When I was in Gate Theborn and the Abyss, I want you to know something. I want you to know that all the slaves there were wasted. I want you to know that everyone there could have been more than what they were if they had been allowed to have other experiences, if they had been allowed to add just whatever they had, what little they had, to the society they lived in. Instead, it mauled itself.”
She opened her mouth to retort, but he had no interest in hearing her opinion on the matter.
“Spare me your pointless cynicism, Raven. I've seen the blackness festering in this world. I know more than you think. You might be helping me escape, but don't think you're going to get to bludgeon me with your fetid ideology. Everyone is capable of greater glories than they assume. I know this. I've seen this. And it doesn't matter if you deny it."
That provoked the most obvious response from the Raven. Her mouth parted behind the glass faceplate she wore, and for a moment, Adam thought she was going to say something to rebuff him. Instead, she looked away, and his gaze followed hers. By now, his vision had cleared enough, and the room made itself known. Spell patterns crawled along the walls, and they lingered there ominously. So long as Adam remained here, he wouldn't be able to use his own magic. But the Biomancer could, further confirming that this place was specifically designed to keep him a prisoner.
However, there was another problem. Adam couldn't find any semblance of a door or exit for this place. Aside from the spell patterns, the room was mostly a blank, white cube. The ground was covered in smears of blood and splatters of other fluid. Adam guessed that those must have originated from his body. Just noticing how much blood was on the ground made him feel nauseous once more.
"He's around your size," the Biomancer said finally.
Adam looked at her, but then realized what she was saying. His gaze fell on the Psychomancer, and he understood what she intended. A wince crawled over the Gate Lord's face as he noticed just how much blood painted the front side of the Psychomancer's armor. It was like a crimson waterfall had been allowed to flow down the prismatic plate. He was about to complain about the state of the Psychomancer's armor when the Raven waved a finger.
Suddenly, the blood that stained the front of the Psychomancer twirled into the air, forming into a dense sphere that she promptly compressed further, shrinking down to a small dot. She made a pulling motion, and it reeled into the center of her hand.
With that done, she walked over to the Psychomancer and began undoing the man's armor. At the same time, the blood she just took from the man fused over his head, becoming a solid red helmet, which even had a frog helm-style visor.
"Did you just make a mask for me using that man's blood?" Adam asked incredulously. He tried to stand, but his legs shook. He tested one step, and then another. The ground was miserably cold, but at least Adam could still feel the temperature. Better than being crippled. It took everything he had not to collapse, but he managed. Slowly, his balance was returning to him, but his disbelief remained.
"Of course," the Biomancer said as if it were no big deal. Her fingers worked fast, and she seemed to have no issue stripping the Psychomancer bare, even though she was wearing thick gloves. One piece after another came free, and soon it was the Psychomancer that stood bare before Adam. And that was the most unnerving thing. The man still stood. His body was rigid and tight, even in death. The man was skinny enough that Adam could see every outline of tissue and tendon in the dead man’s body, and they were drawn taut.
By this point, the Gate Lord was beginning to suspect that the System wanted him to develop a phobia of Biomancers. With all the time he spent with Shiv, with the time he spent facing the First Blood, or that bookish-looking orc Biomancer that was now trying to teach Shiv his art, the thought of someone being able to reach into his body using magic to subvert his very flesh with their will filled Adam with a deep sense of unease.
I really, really need a personal Magical Resistance Skill, he thought to himself.
He suppressed his worry and put on the Psychomancer’s clothes. The Raven was correct in asserting that the other man was around his size, but he was still thinner than Adam, and parts of his inner uniform and gambeson felt stifling. The rest of the armor was a bit better, but still ill-fitting. That didn't last long.
The prismatic armor made a few clicks as it adjusted around Adam. The Minor Size Modulation enchantment was quite a common thing in the Republic. It saved the military a great deal of money when one set of armor can be worn by several different people.
And that wasn't the only benefit it provided to Adam. He suddenly heard a crackle in the back of his mind. Whispers glided against his consciousness like the rustling of leaves. And there was also a lingering sense of emotion that lay just beyond the boundaries of his mental reach. This armor also included Magical Resistance and a strength-boosting enchantment. Its physical durability was nothing compared to his Legendary armor. But even so, having some armor was better than walking nude through the prison, despite the momentary advantage that the shock value might provide.
The final thing that Adam adjusted was the blood helm the Raven had made for him. He pulled at the visor, sliding it up and down, and found that it was extremely well designed. More importantly, it didn't feel like blood; it felt like steel. And that was when he began to suspect that the Raven was more than just a Biomancer. Perhaps she was a Bio-Geomancy fusion, considering the texture of the blood, how it felt like reinforced titanium. Adam thought that was probably a good guess.
"Right then," he said, looking at his uneasy ally. "So, how are we getting out of this place?"
"We have to be teleported," she replied. "No way in, no way out, but through spatial magic. Of course, if you're strong enough, you can tear open the Orichalcum walls that surround this chamber. But I'm assuming that you don't have Legendary-Tier Physicality, do you, Gate Lord Arrow?"
This Raven liked to tease. Adam let her. Maybe she would let slip some additional details.
"The armor, is it working properly?" she asked.
Adam gave her a brief nod. "Let me guess, we need to use the Psychomancy enchantment connected to the armor to communicate with someone. Only after that can we be moved out of this cell."
Once more, his words took the Raven by surprise.
"It wasn't that hard of a guess," Adam said. "Containment control and redundancy is very common in the Republic. The concept of the cell makes sense to me as well. The Academy taught us cage and control strategies. In the field, if we needed to interrogate or even construct a bivouac to provide medical or psychological assistance to one of our comrades, the simple thing to do was simply creating a pocket of space in the underground, lining it with reinforced metal, and then building from there."
Though he wanted to keep going, he stopped himself. He was quite proud of what he'd learned at the Academy. But he remembered he was speaking to a Raven, and she probably knew about these strategies better than he.
"Quite so," the Raven said. "But before we call for aid, there's one final thing I must do." She looked around at the chamber and made a gesture. A few shapes composing some of the spell patterns came aglow. She pointed at them. "I lined those spells into the walls over the course of the past few weeks. Not only here but other locations like this. It’s the reason why the observers haven’t noticed anything.” She let out a satisfied sigh. “It’s quite a feat, you know. Compromising the Rubix Well.”
"Well?" Adam asked. “Wait. I’m in a bloody Rubix Well.”
"You're in the ultimate Rubix Well," the Raven explained. "I'm sure you understand what that entails."
Adam had had a suspicion, but he didn't fully connect the dots until now. I was still a little bit disoriented. Great. So I could be anywhere. Even if I manage to escape from this prison, I could be under the ocean, underground, or even within a gate.
"Oh, it's worse than that," the Raven said with a sing-song voice. She'd clearly guessed his thoughts. "You're near the capital. In fact, I would say you're utterly surrounded by it."