Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

"Banner is a spear and shield warrior, and his abilities are well known," Gareth explained as the hero and his team of five entered the arena. "His heroic ability is called Shield of Clouds, Spear of Lightning. The first part of his ability makes any shield he wields extra light and more resistant to the elements, while the second makes any spear he wields twice as quick and imbues it with extra reach.

"As for his teammates, it's a classical composition. There's a rogue with heroic stealth, an archer with damage amplification, a sword-and-shielding tank with movement and swapping abilities, and a life mage with a special heroic ability that grants extra shielding."

"How can you even remember all this stuff?" grumbled Lawrence. "Also, I don't remember this being public information?"

"That's because it isn't," answered Gareth. "Moreover, I have at least a little bit of information on all the teams. I compiled it myself." He tossed out five information slips, one for each of his teammates.

"Lorimer wants to know if there are any teams that are afraid of rats," Sorin said as he reviewed his slip.

"Ironically, Team Animal Crossing greatly fears rats," said Gareth. "Mostly because they survived a legendary 'rat tide.' That's how they became heroes. Astley, Daphne, are you ready to analyze the spell forms?"

"Already on it," said Daphne, casting her improved detect magic spell.

Sorin similarly cast Patient Viper's Analysis and inspected Team Unsinkable's bones and meridians. Only 14 unsealed meridians and emerald bones, he thought, shaking his head. Compared to the other heroes present, they aren't much at all.

The black disc at the center of the city began pulsing with a soft white light as Team Unsinkable stepped on. It continued pulsing once every five seconds until finally, one minute had passed. The pulsing then stopped, and a runic cage appeared around the arena. White lines appeared on the black disc, separating it into a hundred-part wheel, each with its symbol. Eight out of ten symbols appeared to be normal demons, while nine out of a hundred displayed slightly larger demons. The largest symbol was that of a chained demon surrounded by three stars.

The remaining symbols were ten white flames. Nine were small flames, and one had a silver hue. "Are those the rewards that were promised, or just extra variance on the wheel?" Gareth wondered aloud. "The symbols are spinning, so I guess we'll soon find out."

It wasn't so much spinning as symbols lighting up in quick succession, giving the illusion of a spinning wheel. This 'spinning' continued for roughly 30 seconds before slowing down and settling on a small monster symbol at a dramatically slow speed.

Five chunks of wish fire peeled off from the white fox and joined five tufts of black miasma that peeled off the black disc. They fused to produce five demons, each one equivalent to a fifth forging cultivator from the outside world.

"Tank, taunt them!" shouted Banner. "Let's take one down as soon as possible!" Each person in the group was only a third-forging cultivator, but they were heroes with emerald bones and able to somewhat close the gap against these fifth-forging demons.

Their tank was excellent defensively and managed to taunt all five creatures, demons that resembled armadillos with long and flexible limbs. This freed up the archer to let loose with a bombardment of pure aligned arrows while their rogue took advantage of their distracted state to repeatedly stab vitals from behind.

Though not an overly powerful hero, Banner's spear proved effective in finding vital points and attacking them with potent lightning energy. The team worked out a system: the rogue identified vital points and stabbed them multiple times, Banner followed up with his spear and used lightning-infused attacks to widen a hole, and finally, their archer blasted arrows into the hole and expanded these holes until large chunks of flesh broke off.

But the star of the show was still their tank and healer combination. Their healer was gifted at doing so from a distance—something life mages developed in the Bone-Forging Realm, allowing their tank to act independently. As for the tank, he seemed to be in possession of a vision skill that allowed him to dodge and block attacks coming from behind.

Though he suffered several serious wounds, the healer was always able to patch him and keep him going. By keeping them all taunted, Banner, allowed the archer and the rogue to quickly finish up a target, greatly relieving the pressure he felt and easing the remainder of the combat. The entire fight took five minutes and cost a significant amount of mana and life force.

"If it's six rounds total, I don't know how long they can last," said Gareth as the five defeated demons burst into white flames. The white flames then floated to each of Team Unsinkable's members to form wish-fish spheres above their heads. "Is it just me, or do those look like the balls from the wish-fire festival?"

"They are," confirmed Sorin. "And it appears that all the corruption in the demons has been consumed and converted into an equivalent amount of wish-fire. This must be the reward the oracles spoke of."

The barrier outside the circle faded once the last demon was defeated, and the circle began to pulse once again. This suggested it was possible to retreat at this stage. Banner's team had agreed, however, and chose to remain, accepting another spin of the wheel.

This time, the wheel stopped on one of the rare fire symbols. A fight wasn't even required before wish-fire peeled off from the fox statue and the disc and directly entered the balls of wish-fire above each competitor, augmenting them.

Three more normal monster challenges followed, each one exhausting the team just a little more and enhancing the spheres of wish fire until finally, after the fifth 'normal' challenge, the spheres transformed. Emerald runes appeared on each sphere, indicating that it had crossed a threshold and would provide an enhanced reward.

"Five challenges are up, and one to go," said Gareth. "They seem to have enough energy for another fight, but something seems off. Wait, why are they walking up to the edge?"

"Are they withdrawing and forfeiting the reward?" muttered Daphne.

"Voluntary withdrawal should count as my win because it's basically a victory," said Astley smugly.

"They're not withdrawing," said Sorin. "Their archer seems fine, but he took one too many hits and had his arm infected with corruption and venom. If things keep going as they are, he's going to lose that arm."

"I imagine they're negotiating a modified reward in exchange for him dropping out," agreed Stephan.

"He'll allow it," said Sorin. "Not just because Michael is generally friendly, but because this will let us test out if partial withdrawal is allowed."

Things developed as Sorin predicted. After a quick exchange, the archer split off from the team, and his emerald sphere traveled with him. And to everyone's surprise, he wasn't just allowed to leave the circle but was directly teleported out of the second level of the catacombs.

"Everyone only gets one attempt, it seems," said Gareth. "And partial withdrawal is possible. As for whether or not the rest of the team can succeed without casualties, we shall see."

The pulsing continued for a few more seconds until, finally, the white runes on the wheel solidified once again and began spinning.

"The wheel looks a little different this time around," Lawrence pointed out.

Sorin's eyes narrowed. "That's because they are different. There aren't just single monsters on the wheel, but too. Also, those elite symbols have gotten a little more menacing."

"The number of elite symbols has also doubled," said Gareth. "This is going to be a brutal fight. Not without casualties." The heroes watched on in trepidation as the wheel slowed down and, to Team Unsinkable's misfortune, settled on an elite symbol. A large, spider-like creature that eclipsed anything they'd fought in the upper level except maybe the boss monster appeared and immediately filled the arena with webs.

Team Unsinkable was outmatched, but they didn't let that affect their formation. Their tank taunted the spider and immediately began suffering deep and poisoned wounds from its pincers, thereby revealing their healer's weakness: a lack of purification magic.

If it were only the spider they had to deal with, the fight would be manageable. Unfortunately, its poisoned webs seemed to have a life of their own, preventing anyone from staying in one location for too long. What's more, its many eyes made it impossible for the rogue to sneak up on it, as the stealthy rogue discovered it too late when one of the spider's thin and bony legs pierced through its torso.

"I thought it was taunted," said Lawrence.

"Taunt resistance," said Gareth. "A common trait, just not that common in conjunction with anti-stealth capabilities."

"He died on impact," said Sorin, shaking his head. "Their life mage knows it, but they're desperate and wasting their mana as a result."

Having eliminated the rogue's looming threat and gaining increasing control over their arena, the spider took its time and whittled down the tank with repeated poison-laced attacks. Eventually, the toxins accumulated to the point that the life mage could no longer keep up; the tank's arms turned rotten, robbing him of his ability to block blows, enabling the spider to take its head.

Banner, who'd been poking out the creature's eyes with his lightning-infused spear strikes, was forced to take his place. But without a taunting ability, he was unable to stop the creature from going after their healer.

The life mage, desperate to survive, scrambled to the edge of the arena, where he discovered that the edge was not a solid barrier but a barrier of black fire. His arm was burnt right to the shoulder before he reflexively pulled back and was impaled by one of the spider's legs. The match became a one-on-one exchange between Banner and the spider.

With only one member of Team Unsinkable remaining, the battle was without suspense. The spider, being the cautious fighter that it was, took its time with the spear wielder, giving him no opportunities to launch a desperate counterattack.

He died not from poison or grievous wounds from the accumulated exhaustion that robbed him of his ability to properly wield his spear. A few carefully placed attacks were all it took to sever his arm from his body and lop his head off his shoulders.

Finally, silence. The elite spider dissolved into a mass of black miasma that wandered over to the orbs of wish fire and consumed them. It also consumed the four corpses in the arena, slightly strengthening itself before plunging into the arena, reinforcing it.

"The fox statue's aura is more powerful than the disc's, but it is unable to breach its defenses," Gareth concluded. "By peeling off portions of its power, the disc will eventually lose out. But by defeating teams that get unlucky or greedy, it's able to somewhat make up its losses.

Sorin shook his head. " I sense a separate game is afoot. Don't you remember that the one who withdrew was teleported out of the catacombs?"

"I see how it is," said Daphne, accepting a bag of gold from a miffed Astley. "It's a dilemma-type game that mixes up greed and the common goals of the group."

The assembled heroes broke up into tense arguments. This led them to discover that withdrawing without facing at least one opponent was impossible. As a result, many of those present threatened to withdraw after issuing a single challenge."

"I'm sure everyone here more or less understands the rules now," said Melinoë. "Though it is unclear how many individuals can participate and how the challenges scale to the number of participants, I believe we know enough that we can safely have another team challenge the arena."

"There's also something else I'd like to make clear. We God Seeds, including Michael Pollen and Charles Hargrave, have been tasked with ensuring the entrance to the third level of the catacombs is opened. That means that this arena disc must be fully dissolved by the end of the descent."

"Is it even possible to fully dissolve it?" questioned Faile from the Atlan Clan. "Pardon me for naysaying, but I think it's an important question. I wouldn't want wishful thinking getting my companions slaughtered."

"Sixty percent," Bast said suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" said Faile.

"If we separate everyone according to their grades and use the number of cores required for each of Lord Hope's blessings as the ratio, we'll need a sixty percent success rate," explained Bast. "That's assuming teams withdraw at appropriate times and challenge until they achieve a wish-fire sphere corresponding to the level of their blessing."

"It's more like 62%," muttered Daphne. "But he's more or less right. He's also assuming a similar success/failure ratio at each grade. Also, he's ignoring the effects of high variance on this entire affair."

"So, you are saying that, at the minimum, to reach these secret goals you never shared with us before entering, we meet some sort of quota?" said Fenrig. "Forgive me for being unable to accept this."

"I thought you barbarians were brave," said Melinoë.

"Bravery has nothing to do with it," Fenrig cut off. "My people are independent and won't be told what to do, much less by hidden manipulators."

"Are your people independent of Delphi or independent of humanity?" Michael asked suddenly. "Because, in case this wasn't already clear, this effort isn't just spearheaded by Delphi—the government in Olympia supports it. Therefore, it won't just be Delphi's administrator that takes issue with those who withdraw early, but humanity's government as well."

Fenrig's eyes narrowed. "Are you threatening me, Mr. Pollen?"

Michael shook his head. "I'm simply making you aware of our superiors' wishes, Fenrig. We need access to the third-level catacombs in order to avert catastrophe. What's more, the final responsibility falls on us, God Seeds. We were sent here with a responsibility, one that we cannot avoid. We shall see this matter through, no matter what challenges we face, no matter the odds."

"That is why we will be going last. Should everyone fail to meet their quotas, it will be up to us to risk our lives and pick up the slack. Believe me when I tell you that the powerhouses in Olympia would be greatly displeased if even a single God Seed perished because a bunch of low-grade heroes were too cowardly to accept a fair challenge."

Sorin frowned when he heard this, not because Michaels' words would goad more teams to take risks but because of the sudden change in atmosphere. Everyone was still frightened, but hooks of madness-aligned energy had worked their way into half the individuals present, using Michael's words and the emotions they evoked as an opening.

He realized that while the three God Seeds were here at Olympia's request, they also had individual goals and different approaches to resolving this issue.

Approaches that, in the long term, would have Sorin and the Kepler Clan surrounded by enemies.