Chapter 454: Achievement Unlocked

We were walking to the exit when Urist suddenly turned around and pointed at the remains of the severed snake torso.

"Wait, before we go, we should harvest some of the still intact scales. No doubt they will be extremely good coming from a medusa!"

"Oh, good point, thanks for reminding us," I lied.

I had most definitely not forgotten about the snake body; I had left some slime behind and planned to grab it after we left, but now Urist had unfortunately thrown a wrench into that scheme. I couldn't even be mad at the dwarf, as he seemed to genuinely want to help.

Of course, harvesting the scales off something like this would've taken far too long, until Sylvester conveniently revealed that he had several harvest golems ready to help. Urist was delighted, although in reality these weren't golems at all; they were slime puppets that I'd created and renamed with [Identity Fabrication].

In no time at all, we were done, and Urist was very impressed, so I boasted that I had almost maxed out my [Dissection] skill, so something like this was nothing. We distributed the scales equally among our group, although in reality this meant that I got over eighty percent of them, probably more if you considered the tail I severed and had Nu eat.

Not that Urist knew any of this, and he seemed delighted to have something to show his victory. Of course we still had the two weapons and the shield, but I wasn't going to be greedy, so I offered to let him pick, and we'd take the remaining two as a group. He tried to wave it off, saying he didn't do enough to deserve one of the weapons, but I saw through his attempts to stage a courtesy battle and insisted.

Thankfully, the dwarf's greed outweighed his stubbornness in this regard, and he happily took the sword as his prize. That left us with the shield and trident, although I really wasn't sure what we'd do with them.

I guess Sylbera can melt them down or something. Well, after we steal the enchantments from them.

With that done, we finally entered the lair of the medusa and found another teleportation mark, except this one had the word "Treasury" inscribed on the wall above it.

Urist sighed. "I can't believe I'm finally getting out of this dump. I hope my wife still remembers my face."

"Is this where we depart?" Sylvester asked.

"Depending on how long you take in there, yes. We will each get taken to a room and get to choose our prize, then after that we should be warped to the entrance of this blasted maze," Urist explained.

"Then I guess we will save the goodbye for then," Sylbera replied.

Urist nodded, and then we all stepped to the teleporter together. The room warped again, and the gloomy atmosphere was replaced with a room seemingly built from bricks of gold. However, rather than being alone in the treasury, I had four others with me.

"I guess the labyrinth master knows that we are technically the same entity," Sylvester sighed.

Sylvain shook his head in disappointment. "So we only get one treasure? This blows!"

I had to agree; this definitely seemed a bit unfair. I even tried to fix this injustice by having my [Coordicore] save the current location, but the coordinates kept shifting and changing, as if the owner knew exactly what I was going to try.

Fine, you win… For now.

The first labyrinth gave an entire set of items, but it was up to chance. The second one had progressively scaling rewards the better you performed. Now this one just dumped us in a room, and we could pick whatever we wanted, although honestly this might have been the worst way to do it.

Decision paralysis was one thing, but it was also hard to determine which item was better than the next. Even with Sylvester using his somewhat improved [Rune Reading] in place of something like [Appraisal], it was hard to tell: was this flaming sword better than the icy hammer? Who knows!

Hoping to find an obvious choice, I had everyone scour the room for anything that might have a slime core, but sadly it didn't look like that would happen. Even the things that looked vaguely similar to slime cores were clearly magical artifacts above the grade of a regular slime.

"Should we just take one of these anyway and see if we can learn anything about them?" Sylvester suggested.

"I don't think I'd learn much from another weapon or armor set," Sylbera replied.

Sylvain scratched his head. "Well, if you don't want a magic orb, I wouldn't mind one of those nice dresses for Vanessa."

"Rejected," Sylthaeryn replied.

"Let me guess, you want one of the fancy bows?" Sylvain grumbled.

Sylthaeryn frowned. "These pieces of junk? No, it would be a massive waste. I received several bows from Paeris, and more than half of them are better than anything in here."

"Wait, when did this happen?" I asked.

"Shortly after I moved to Keldenar," she sighed. "They must have used the closest tree to send someone. Which is stupid because they could have just contacted you and we could've teleported…"

"Did he give a reason for the gift?"

"There was a letter," Sylthaeryn confirmed. "It said that a [Branch Head] shouldn't be seen looking like a pauper."

"Well, that's dumb," Sylvain snorted. "I'd be surprised if anyone is richer than us if we sold regeneration elixirs."

"True, but most of our wealth is tied up in slime," she agreed. "Unless we get the ability to have something permanently primed, I don't think anyone would be happy if all our decorations suddenly melted."

I shrugged. "Who knows, maybe we will get that at level twenty, or thirty? Which is why I hope you've been keeping up your practice of [Slime Mastery]!"

"We have," the group replied in unison.

Happy with that, I nodded and returned to our problem. We ended up taking a majestic-looking staff with a fancy crystal at the end. The whole thing looked like it was sculpted from glass, but it was actually some kind of permafrost.

This staff boosted ice spells, something both Sylvester and Sylvain used. The strange icy material was another reason we picked it, and finally, we wanted to see why this crystal was better than using a white slime core. In fact, we might even be able to see how creating magical items with crystal or core works, which might mean turning my [Sub-Cores] or perhaps future spawns into weapons.

Oh gods… I'm actually considering Slime Queen for my next evolution. Gramps warned me through Vee that this was the last one, but Trixie also warned me never to pick it.

I really thought the pixie would have shown up at our island by now, but she still had not. Either she had somehow ended up trapped in another cage, or maybe she had forgotten about me, or maybe the Fairy Queen was keeping her busy. But I supposed my evolution was still quite some time away, and I could go looking for her before then if she didn't suddenly appear.

With our decision made, we suddenly found ourselves outside the entrance, and by the looks of things, we had still beaten Urist to it. I was actually relieved, as it would have seemed strange if the five of us appeared at once while he was here waiting for us.

While we waited for Urist, Sylvester and Sylvain went off to the side to study the crystal staff. Meanwhile, Sylthaeryn was now being pestered by Sylbera to show off the elven bows she had received, clearly wanting to see if she could learn something about their forging. That left me alone, and it was time to finally see what I'd gained.

<Would you like a summary of your recent advancements?>

Go for it!

<Class: Riftmancer LV 29 -> 30>

<Skill Points: 23 -> 24>

<Your class has revealed the following skill: [Spatial Erosion].>

<Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Prismatic) LV 27 -> 29>

<Trait Points: 18 -> 20>

Great, I finally hit my next class milestone, even though I shared the medusa experience with the party. I was a bit worried about that, but with Urist here, I couldn't exactly adjust the ratios. As for the two slime levels, well… What can I say? Partying up with myself is stupidly broken. But enough bragging for now; let's see what this new skill is!

<[Spatial Erosion] Erodes the fabric of reality within the user's influence, weakening the dimensional structure that governs spatial coordinates. Dimensional resistances, whether naturally occurring or artificially imposed, are reduced within the affected area. This makes nearby space increasingly receptive to manipulation, reducing the difficulty of altering, crossing, or bypassing dimensional boundaries. The effectiveness and area of influence scale with the skill's level, and the user can toggle these effects on and off at will. In addition, the user's spatial anomalies also benefit from this erosion, allowing them to further exert their influence.>

Wait… Is this not just [Displaced] but way, way better? Is this why I was struggling so much to turn it into an aura and fulfill my dream of recreating the trap when we lured those assassins into my [Rift Door]?

I felt conflicted. On one hand, it was being handed to me on a silver platter, and I knew that when I used [Skill Deconstruct] on it, I'd be able to rectify my mistakes in [Displaced] and finally create my aura. But on the other hand… It felt like I had run out of time on a challenge I didn't know had been on a time limit in the first place.

I sighed and shook the feeling away. I wasn't going to be stubborn and refuse to use it. Yes, I had my pride, but I wasn't going to let it blind me. Not only that, but I knew that [Dimensional Praxis] was now even closer, and achieving that was much bigger than an aura version of [Displaced].

Plus, I'll get to add this to [Coordicore]! Speaking of which… Does it count as a spatial anomaly? I know the skill is likely referring to my [Personal Rift], which is great, but I kind of think [Coordicore] counts too. Or if it doesn't, I'll just have to upgrade it until it does!

<Skill [Spatial Erosion LV 1] obtained. Skill Points remaining: 23.>

I only briefly tested the skill as I still had more to get through before Urist came and we said our goodbyes. I could turn it on and off with just a thought, and the effect was immediately noticeable under [Spatial Sense].

I wasn't sure how it appeared to others, but to me it was almost as if the space had somehow become my domain. I expected coordinates to warp or garble, but to me it felt like this was my space. This only increased further when I manifested my [Personal Rift] around me, making it feel like I had literally carved out a chunk of reality and put my name on it.

Despite being only level one, this effect was tremendous, and the area I could affect seemed generous, even without concrete numbers. I was very pleased with this acquisition, and I'd happily deconstruct it at level three to start stealing its secrets.

But for now, I needed to move on with my summary.

<Traits: None.>

None!? What, that's outrageous! That's… No, wait, I guess it actually makes sense. My traits are pretty cleaned up, and most of them are fused right now. I would've loved [Slime Mastery] to go up, but considering it just did, that probably won't happen too soon.

Sighing, I moved on to skills, and the very first line brought a massive smile to my face

<Skills:

[Dissection LV 9 -> MAX]

[Spatial Severing LV 4 -> 5]

[Personal Rift LV 6 -> 7]

[Folded Geometry LV 1 -> 3]>

[Dissection] you've done it! I guess you just needed to cut apart a legendary monster to get that final level!

[Personal Rift] had also gained the level I had been waiting for, meaning that I could finally take the plunge and use [Skill Deconstruct] on it. The momentary loss would be immense, but I knew that the knowledge gained would be invaluable. Of course, I didn't dare do that now, as I expected a tsunami of information that might overload my core and knock me out.

The other skill gains weren't much, but I hadn't really done much in that regard, so it made sense. I had been hoping to get [Dimension Magic LV 8], but maybe I'd get that during my [Coordicore] upgrade. [Folded Geometry] had quickly regained those easy levels, and it would add the ultimate information harvest before [Dimensional Praxis].

Still… I wonder what I should do about [Dissection]? Should I uncap it, or should I try to deduce an upgrade? Frankly, I'm leaning more towards the former, as I don't think I could handle calling it anything besides [Dissection].

I shelved it for now and looked at the final page of my summary labeled "Other," which seemed to be a catch-all for the rest of what had happened.

<Profile [Medusa] completed.>

<Achievement earned: [Legendary Adventurer]. Achievement rewards: Secondary Class Slot, 1 Legend Point.>

<Warning: Secondary Class must be a Profession. If your Primary Class is already a Profession, please seek a class change before selecting.>

<Legend Points available: 9>

I wanted to peruse the medusa, but Urist had just appeared and was being greeted by Sylbera, so my time was running out. Still, I was surprised that what had earned my secondary class was apparently an achievement, which maybe explained why I hadn't received any report on my progress toward it if it was supposed to be somewhat hidden.

Although that still doesn't explain why Leon got so many… But whatever. I'll grab my profession when we are back at home.

"Looks like I'm the last one out," Urist said as we regrouped.

"We didn't want to leave without saying goodbye," Sylthaeryn replied. "Thank you for the information you provided and your help against the medusa."

"Shucks, I feel like you did the heavy lifting while I just kept it distracted," he chuckled. "Plus, without your timely arrival, I would've been stuck in there for who knows how long. So thanks! And if you're ever in Dhoggurum, I hope you'll let me treat you."

"Actually, I did have a question for you…" Sylbera asked.

"Sure. It's the least I could do," Urist replied.

The two dwarves chatted for a while, Sylbera nodding along as he explained. We would hear about it from her when we arrived home, so it was fine to give them a bit of privacy. Meanwhile, I was making preparations for us to leave, noticing that even though our destination was definitely out of my range, [Spatial Erosion] was still somehow affecting it.

When Sylbera and Urist finished up, they returned to us, and we said goodbye. It was nice meeting the dwarf, and honestly I liked their character. Sure, they were rough around the edges, but compared to the elves or humans, it felt like a breath of fresh air. With one final wave to Urist, I teleported the five of us back to Glimmerock.

***

Urist looked at the empty space where the strange group had been moments ago. He still couldn't believe half the things he had seen today, but that was neither here nor there as he was finally out of that accursed maze. In just a few days he would be back home, eating good food, in his own bed, and back with his loving wife.

Urist took a few steps forward, then stopped, a frown forming as he had a sudden epiphany.

"Shit… Why didn't I ask for a lift back home?"