The wave was a brutal reminder never to get too confident. I was falling into the groove of the waves with the acid spiders, lightning tigers, and what have you, and I was confident in my ability.
Fighting the wave of my opposing element opened my eyes to that arrogance.
The wave of Blaze Lions pointed out a deficiency that I needed to quickly remedy.
The aftermath of the battle was still in the process of cleaning up and we had yet to get to the unfortunate part of it. Two more were to be buried tomorrow. Austin''s Dad and cousin Dennis would not be waking up tomorrow.
Austin was off in the woods somewhere dealing with his grief. Conner was devastated at his Dad''s death and Carrie was doing her best to keep it together. I didn''t know what to do to help, so I gave them space.
Abigail and Grandma were trying their best to comfort them but I didn''t expect them to get over it any time soon. Austin being my friend, I tried to help but he wanted to be left alone, so I did.
I trusted that he wouldn''t do anything stupid and it was sad to see the spark of wonder he usually carried diminished slightly. He would get through it, we all would, but who would we be on the other side?
It was infuriating to watch my family dwindle and die. I wanted to rage at the world and let my fury out, but I didn''t. I kept it in check and when [Barbarian''s Fury] threatened to activate on its own, I took calming breaths to stop it.
Or I went and killed something brutally, but saying I took calming breaths made me feel better.
The two deaths weren''t anything that we did wrong either, it was just an unfortunate matchup. My power was stifled by the heat, Rachel''s was severely weakened, and Austin lost an aspect of his power as well.
Three of our strongest were weakened and that led to deaths that could have been avoidable. Rachel''s powers were entirely fire-based and shooting fire at lions that were already on fire didn''t do much. Believe it or not, they had innate fire resistance in their blood. She tried to manipulate it and turn it against them but she wasn''t strong enough and could only do one at a time, which was slower than some of her non fire skills.
Austin''s powers had the piercing power of light added with the burning power of the sun. He wasn''t as weakened as me and Rachel but an aspect of his usual powerset was missing.
The only person who thrived was Jonathan. His powers countered the lions perfectly and his Earth held off his gate admirably. The lions couldn''t claw or burn their way through before Carrie''s arrows killed them.
I did a decent job at my side as well, but it showed how much it drained me during the boss fight. I was usually able to act as a second tank for Jonathan but I was too drained to do it. I still had the stat boost from a full-powered [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] but I was too physically and mentally tired to do it.
The constant need to use my Law left me more drained than I had anticipated and the increased need for physical melee attacks left me empty.
The boss was able to move about more freely than usual and that led to it getting shots off at the wall. It was focused on getting through the wall instead of fighting us and its power was what got through and ended two lives.
The catapults and our experience were enough to survive the onslaught of numerous beasts without much issue, but the splash damage from a level 42 boss with a Fire Law was too much to handle.
We were lucky it was only two people who met their end.
After the attack got through and we saw what happened, Rachel went and protected everyone from it happening again. Her power was nearly useless against the boss, but she could easily counter it as well.
She could redirect the flames and fireballs the boss shot out easily enough that no stray attacks caused any more damage.
Too bad it was too late for some.
Burns were the most common injury and the 4 Healers we had worked hours to heal everyone up from some nasty burns. Second and third-degree burns were painful wounds and it hurt watching people scream in pain. Blisters and red skin were visible on almost everyone who fought in melee range.
My body was racked with burns as well but I made sure everyone else was seen to first. I would bear with the pain so others could get healed first. Abigail tried to heal me but I refused.
The boss''s fire was what injured me. My fortitude and ice armor were enough to ignore the regular lion''s fire, but the boss''s was more powerful and backed with a Law that overcame even my stalwart defenses.
Abigail didn''t like it but accepted my decision before going to heal others. She muttered something about me being stupid and to get over myself but I didn''t care too much at the time.
The pain was necessary for me. It was a twisted sense of penance for my failure. I deserved to feel it for a while.
Deep down I knew that it was stupid and wasn''t my fault nor was it the right way to process what was happening but I didn''t know what else to do. My family was dying before my eyes and I could do nothing to stop it.
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I already ran on less than 4 hours of sleep a night and I spent every spare second trying to get stronger, there was nothing else for me to do. I wanted a break.
A vacation from responsibility, from needing to claw tooth and nail for enough power to survive. A break from the constant death and battle that surrounded me. I wanted to relax.
I wanted a break from the pain.
I tried to close it off, to numb myself of what was happening but I just couldn''t do it. No matter how I tried to reason with myself, I couldn''t do it.
I stayed sitting on the wall until the sun set, falling below the horizon and the stars made themselves known in the sky. I allowed myself this brief time to collect myself and grieve before starting it all over tomorrow. The foreign constellations did little to distract my mind from what the future held.
Going hunting, gaining levels, getting stronger, just to be back here in 3 more days.
From the information that we got from the system, I knew the tutorials were designed. I found out that this was made by someone and it was someone I was going to kill.
It might take me a while, it might take me forever, but I would do it. There was no need for the pure maliciousness, the disregard for life, that this tutorial was. Even if it forged people into great powers, it wasn''t worth it.
No matter what intentions were used to create this hell, it wasn''t worth it and whoever did it deserved death. A death that I swore to carry out.
It did not slip my notice that I went from shaking at the thought of killing a person to swearing I would kill someone in a matter of days. How fast my feelings had done a 180 was enough to laugh if I still cared enough to do so.
Finally calmed down enough to look at my notifications, I pulled them up. They were the same as every other wave. Points for killing a bunch of the lesser monsters capped off with a portion of the boss.
Three levels were my reward. The monsters of the wave were higher level than me for the first time in a while. I went into the wave level 34 and the monsters were level 36 and 37. The boss was even higher at 42.
The level difference was enough to give me three levels instead of the usual two. Usually, two levels during a wave and the occasional one for hunting in between them were all I got. Now that the monsters were higher level I was getting more experience.
Others were gaining it faster than me though. Jonathan was near level 40, and Rachel the same. Austin and I were slower and weren''t the highest level anymore but we were still the strongest.
Rachel and Jonathan both had a law of their own to match us but Austin and I were stronger. It was similar to the bandits I fought and killed, a higher level wasn''t everything.
I noticed I leveled slower than even Austin did, putting me at the slowest. The only reason I kept up at all was my constant effort and lack of sleep used to hunt or smith.
My profession was the highest level out of all of theirs and it gave me the needed stats to keep up. [Avalanche(R)] was what made me so overpowered during the waves.
We figured the reason for leveling speed was class rarity. The rare class gave more stat points which in turn needed more experience to accomplish. The system would run a deficit if the same amount of essence was used to gain a different amount of stat points.
We knew there was a cost associated with gaining power but this was our first time seeing it. 4 stat points was the only difference per level but it added up. With 10 levels of the increased requirement, the difference showed itself.
My leveling speed being slower than even Austin''s was something I attributed to [Body of a Barbarian(Un)]. I knew the added stat points weren''t free and there was a cost associated with it and now I knew. I still didn''t regret it. The stat points were worth it in my opinion.
Leveling slower wasn''t that bad of a penalty for more stat points. Outside of the one situation I currently found myself in, it would have been fine. Even in the current situation, it wasn''t that much of an issue.
It was a cost I was willing to pay. And I did it again with my new skill.
Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon) ¨C Inhabitants of Niflheim are known for their strength of arms and body. Frozen Fortitude forces them to go hand in hand. Every second point in strength results in a point in fortitude.
After gaining the skill, I felt something in my spirit lock. It took some meditation and introspection to find out what happened but it was noticeable when I did. Both [Body of a Barbarian(Un)] and [Frozen Fortitude(Un)] occupied a distinct part of my spirit, and now that spot was full.
It was more of a feeling than concrete knowledge but my limit for those skills had been reached. I wouldn''t be able to gain any more like them. I knew there would be a limit and it seemed like two was it.
I wasn''t too upset about it, both skills boosted my two most important stats. Strength and Fortitude were what I needed the most and my fighting style was beginning to revolve around them.
The strength needed to swing my hammer together with the fortitude needed to last through fights. It was a fighting style I enjoyed and one I was comfortable with.
A test of whether I hit hard enough to kill something before it hit hard enough to kill me. A bloody duel to the death. I liked it.
My new skill didn''t benefit from the boost I got from endurance, it only worked on my base strength. It was still the biggest singular boost in stats I had received to date and the feeling was out of this world.
At the time I received [Body of a Barbarian(Un)], my strength went up by 20. Now, with my new skill, my fortitude went up by over 100.
My base strength was 207 which boosted my fortitude by 103.5. The .5 wasn''t added to my status sheet but it was there. It went from 130 -> 233.
I almost blacked out during the change. There was so much happening that my mind couldn''t comprehend it.
It ended quickly but it took me a while to come down from the feeling.
My two highest stats stood out from all the rest.
Strength- 274
Fortitude- 233
With [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] at 100% they would become
Strength- 548
Fortitude- 466
With the boost from [Barbarian''s Fury(Un)], they would become
Strength- 589
Fortitude- 501
It was sad that the boosts didn''t work on each other but it was expected. It would easily get out of hand if all of the boosts worked on each other and the body would rip itself apart if they all worked on each other.
A 100% boost from [Avalanche(R)], a 15% boost from [Fury(Un)], with a boost from a potion or buffing skill would quickly get to uncontrollable levels.
Still, over 500 stat points were enough. I didn''t know how that compared to the other F-Ranks in the multiverse but I felt pretty good about it.
With [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] fully built up, there was little that could stand in my way and the only thing in the tutorial that could, were bosses.
I just wished everything wasn''t so damn hard.
Chapter 71 - Destructive Tendencies
Life had a way of moving on, whether you wanted to or not. Austin took time to deal with his feelings but he wasn''t the same anymore. He let anger come quickly and frustration got the better of him. It was sad to see my friend hurt the way he was.
I wasn''t a feelings guy. I didn''t know what to say or do to help him through what he was going through. I used humor and sarcasm to get through most of my issues and even those were failing me after so much had happened.
There were therapy sessions that the camp paid for but I couldn''t force him to go. I probably wouldn''t if I was in his shoes. Time would help him through it and I couldn''t stop what I was doing to hold his hand.
We hunted in mostly silence ever since his Dad died. He targeted stronger creatures than we usually did, but I let him take the lead. The higher levels weren''t enough to stop our combined might.
My new skill turned me into a walking tank with enough power to hold my own. The level difference alone wasn''t enough to stop me.
Austin used anger to fuel his attacks and they fed on that emotion well. His style became more cynical if that made sense. Surgical precision mixed with ruthless efficiency killed anything that stood in his way. There was no playing around or anything resembling the jovial troublemaker he was before.
The feints and misdirections he used to throw out were mostly gone now. They were still there but they served a different purpose now. If they weren''t necessary in a fight, he didn''t use them. He leveraged his speed to keep him ahead of foes and poked them to death with his spear.
He dove into training with such abandon that it was hard for me to keep up. I liked the slower approach that I had been using. A couple of hours hunting, a couple of hours in the forge, a couple of hours spent practicing mana manipulation and [Ice Manipulation]. Some time spent on my Law. An even approach.
I had to trim down some of the time I spent on other areas to make sure that Austin didn''t kill himself on a monster too strong for him to handle. He was strong, as strong as me, but the path he was headed on only ended one way.
Fighting the stronger enemies, our skills refined themselves in other ways. Practical experience was a teacher in its own right. A merciless one too. Injures were common but we learned quickly not to make the same mistake. Fighting the stronger enemies, the stakes were higher. There was less room for error and a larger strain on skill. We usually overwhelmed the bosses with numbers with 5 of us attacking it, now with only two we had to adjust.
Austin''s skills advanced as I noted before, but mine were evolving in their own way. My skill with the hammer increased and I felt myself becoming more comfortable with the weapon.
If my past self was told that I would become comfortable wielding a Warhammer to battle against monsters of fantasy, he would balk at you.
To the me of now, it was just another way that life had changed. I could feel how close I was to improving my [Heavy Weapon Proficiency] to the next tier. Constant use of the weapon made me better and better with it.
A skill I had since the beginning finally upgraded from use. I used it in almost every fight and it finally decided to increase in rank.
Fortified Body(Common) ¨C Uses mana to fortify the body. Bonus to fortitude while active and the user is harder to knock back while skill is active.
[Fortified Body(C)] was the second skill I received since the start of this thing and I used it in nearly every battle. The upgrade didn''t change much about what the skill did but made it better at what it already did.
Reinforced Body(Uncommon) ¨C Uses mana to reinforce the body. Bonus to fortitude and increased magical protections while active. The user is harder to displace while the skill is active.
It came during a particularly trying fight with a monster that was way above us in power. We were still on the ground next to it trying to recover. Both of us were bleeding and only had the use of one healing potion to try and get us back in shape.
We didn''t want to waste points on healing potions too much so we limited ourselves in their use, but sometimes using it was worth it instead of waiting to recover.
Austin''s increasingly destructive tendencies caught up to us and nearly ended badly, just like I thought it would. Why I came along was to stop that from happening and drag him back to camp before he picked a fight to large for even us.
Well, he wasn''t the one who started the fight so it wasn''t entirely his fault. We were just finishing up with a panther-like creature when a loud screech filled the air.
The biggest eagle I had ever seen swooped down and attacked us while we were harvesting the panther. Sharp talons glided through our armor and carved into us with ease.
The bird of prey quickly flapped its wings to get away from any retaliatory attacks before diving back down.
It had some sort of wind law because it could shoot out blades of wind that could carve through even my ice. After getting through, it was blunted enough that my body could take it, but it was still alarming. Not a lot of things could claim to be able to do the same. My ice was strong. [Frost Armor(R)] was boosted by both my insane fortitude and my law. It being a rare skill helped too.
The beast wasn''t that high of a level either. During our trip, we ventured further toward the mountains in search of higher-level prey and were fighting level 41s and 42s.
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The bird was only level 37 but it was way more powerful than the normal monsters around where we were.
It most likely came down from the mountain for a meal and locked onto us. Or it was trying to steal the panther''s body from us, I wasn''t sure. The end result was clear.
The flying creature revealed yet another deficiency in my repertoire that I would need to fix. I had no way to hit the creature. My hammer was too slow to catch up to its body when it attacked and my ice wasn''t fast enough to catch up to it.
The bird had free reign to attack me without me being able to do anything about it. I tried dumping a massive amount of mana in [Hail] when it was close but the eagle just flapped its wings a few times and it was able to blow the ice chunks away before leaving the area of the skill.
I could have created an [Ice Fortress(Un)] around me to protect myself but that made it target Austin while I was encased in ice. Austin was the only one who had done any damage by that point, so I dismissed the skill to get its attention back.
I mostly had to watch as wind and light beams met and canceled each other out or blew off course. I constantly used my ice to try to hinder or snare the bird but it was just too fast.
Its talons were wicked sharp and even with my new boost to fortitude, it penetrated skin and drew blood. The wounds weren''t deep and were nowhere close to fatal, but it was annoying to have my new power brought low so soon after I got it. The eagle was using some kind of skill to be able to do it but I wasn''t sure how.
I was still riding the confidence boost from an over 100-point increase to the stat and nothing we had fought so far today had bested it, until the eagle.
Given that the eagle was both fast and able to damage me, it wasn''t very durable. Beasts usually focused on one or two aspects of power and it couldn''t have been all three at its level.
It was either fast and strong, but not durable. Strong and durable, but not fast. Or fast and durable, but not strong. To be powerful enough to beat out other monsters it needed to focus on which way it needed to specialize.
Still, getting carved up by an oversized chicken didn''t feel good. My armor of both metal and ice was cut through after the first few attacks before more started landing on my body.
[Fortified Body(C)] did little to help against the razor-sharp talons and wind blades carved through what was left.
I tried sending in more mana into the skill but it wasn''t what upgraded it. It was the intent behind what I wanted the skill to become. I wanted to make my body stronger, to reinforce it with enough mana that the talons wouldn''t be able to cut me anymore. Making my body unrelenting.
Mana and willpower combined to form my upgraded skill. [Reinforced Body(Un)] worked similarly to [Fortified Body(C)] with a few small changes. It worked to strengthen my body further than what [Fortified Body(C)] did and it did it in different ways.
It increased the lowest threshold needed to pierce my skin and added against piercing and slashing attacks. I wasn''t sure how it would deal with blunt attacks but my ice armor was well-suited to deal with those.
I could feel it reach a deeper level than the Common skill I used to have but it also had the downside of requiring more mana to keep active. With my wisdom stat orders of magnitude higher than when it started, it wasn''t that big of a deal.
The new skill also had an empowered version I could use when I needed it that worked similarly to using a Law. It ran on willpower and that wasn''t an infinite resource either.
I wasn''t sure how much of it I had or what other skills required it, but this was the first time that I felt it drain.
I had felt similar things when I pushed my body too hard or in the heat of the moment when I needed more than my body could give, so I related it to my spirit.
The store had information about it but I couldn''t recall the specifics behind how it worked. Abigail would know so I could ask her when I got back. She would berate me for not paying attention in the first place but would still end up telling me.
With the skill upgrade, the talons barely did any damage and after a few lucky hits from Austin''s skills, the eagle slowed enough for me to catch it. I spent most of the fight throwing javelins made of ice and launching [Ice Arrows(Un)] and after it slowed down from injury, a few [Ice Arrows(Un)] were enough to ground it. It didn''t last long after that. It was not made for ground combat.
Austin and I were sitting in the blood-soaked grass trying to get our breathing under control from the hard battle. The eagle was dead next to us and it looked like the area we were in was hit with a hurricane. Trees were torn asunder and blown over from the wind the eagle produced and concentrated burn marks indicated missed light beams from Austin. We made no move to start harvesting it yet.
"That was the last," I said out loud for him to hear.
"Yeah, we need to go get healed up," Austin answered while looking himself over.
"No. That was the last." I said firmer.
It took a moment for it to click, but he got it. I had allowed him to vent for long enough, it was over. That last battle wasn''t something we should have gone into without any preparation, or at least without a plan.
Stupidity and overconfidence were killers that we couldn''t ignore. We were both confident from our fights with the waves and thought that nothing near our level could hurt us and we were wrong. Beasts had skills that we still had to be wary of. Like the talons the eagle had. With my high fortitude, I thought nothing would hurt me. It seemed the eagle had skills designed for piercing armor and negating high fortitude.
The eagle ran circles around me and I could do nothing about it. Austin himself barely had the speed to keep up.
It also flew which made most of our attacks useless since we couldn''t get close enough to land them. My hammer was taken out of play almost entirely.
"We were getting good experience, look at how fast we gained levels." He tried to make excuses and reasonings for continuing.
I just gave him a weighted stare. While we did gain a few quick levels, it wasn''t worth the danger.
He knew what we were doing was dangerous and if either of us died, our family would soon follow. They didn''t have the strength necessary to fight off the waves without us.
It was a risk that we couldn''t take and he knew that. He just didn''t want to see it. The only reason I allowed to get this far was because the eagle was a surprise.
*Sigh* "I know. You''re right, let''s go back." He finally caved under my gaze.
This would be the end of it. He would have to find other outlets for dealing with everything.
"I know that you feel stifled and want to go explore, but our family needs us. After this is all over you can go wherever you want, I''ll take care of them." I said to try and cheer him up.
I wasn''t stupid. I knew how he felt. How he wanted to go see all the new things that the changes would bring and venture into the unknown. He had an explorer''s heart and this new system made that possible. He constantly had to restrain himself and cull that urge inside of him.
Everything on earth was mostly explored beforehand and there wasn''t a need for explorers anymore but the system changed that.
The whole planet would be different and we would have to re-explore it in all its glory. We had talked about his fantasies often. It was what he was looking forward to most when we got back.
I had made my decision about what I was going to do by now and Austin would be free to do what he wanted. I would set up a seat of power to keep my family as safe as I could which would leave him free to do as he wished.
"It''s fine. I don''t need to. I can stay and help protect them." He tried to deflect but I knew that wasn''t how he really felt.
I didn''t say anything in response, he would either go or he wouldn''t. That was a decision he would have to make for himself. He was a good man and I knew that the choice was eating at him.
He had to choose between following his heart and doing what was right for his family. It was a choice I didn''t envy. I would do what I could to convince him that I could deal with his absence, but the choice was ultimately his.
After the tutorial was over and we made it back to earth, he would have to choose.
I knew what he was going to do even if he didn''t.
Chapter 72 - Styles
Day 68
Our trip back to camp was somber but in better spirits than when we originally left. Austin had worked through some of his issues and I had increased in level twice.
I brought up an abbreviated version of my status sheet to review the changes.
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (F) Human
Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) ¨C Level 39
Profession: (F) Runic Blacksmith(Uncommon) ¨C Level 29
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 303
Agility - 152
Perception - 62
Fortitude - 258
Endurance - 142
Vitality - 78
Intelligence - 40
Wisdom - 103
Acumen - 38
Free Points: 0
Laws: Least Law of Ice
It was hard to compare to the first day I was dropped here. My strength passed 300 and my fortitude wasn''t far behind. Agility and endurance were both over 100 and wisdom joined them in with my last level.
Every free point I had in both my class and profession I spent on wisdom. It was what I needed most during the waves. [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] only worked on my physical stats and those were high enough.
Already during the waves, there was nothing that was physically stronger than me except for the boss. It would be a waste to raise those, especially with all the boosts that I have that target my body.
Wisdom was the thing that I needed most right now and a large mana pool would benefit me more than a few extra points of strength. With all of the free points going into it, it was finally in the triple digits.
Now that it reached that high I considered what I would spend my free points on now. 100 seemed like a good enough milestone to stop and consider other options. That didn''t mean I would stop putting points in it, just that I would stop and consider what I needed rather then automatically putting them in Wisdom.
My intelligence and acumen could use some love and so could my perception. Vitality could help me recover faster after battles as well. [Meditation(C)] worked well to increase my recovery but improving my base vitality would work too. The healers had caught up in level but my stats still made healing me harder. Abigail could do it best since she had the highest stats out of all the healers.
It would be something I would have to think about.
Another thing I noted from my status sheet was that my class and profession were getting farther apart. I liked to keep them closer in line and work on them both equally, but our two-day hunting extravaganza ruined that.
Gaining two class levels wasn''t a lot of difference but when the levels were getting harder to raise, it added up and made closing the gap harder. Most of the easy experience I got from runes was mostly gone and it took longer to increase my blacksmithing level.
My class was easier to level but getting harder all the same. Killing things was both easier and faster than making things in the forge and it was what I was more experienced at.
Spending two days hunting with Austin gave me a lot of improvements but I was looking forward to advancing in a different area. Usually, I took a balanced approach to how I spent my time. Some hunting, some forging, some training skills, and some on my Law. These past few days though, I spent almost every moment after the wave out in the wilderness and I yearned for some time in the forge.
After recovering from the blaze lions yesterday, we spent the rest of the day out fighting and all of today as well. The only thing that broke up the two day hunting spree was the funeral.
But now I was back. We walked into camp right after dinner and with the few hours of sunlight left I went to the forge.
Vinny was getting farther ahead the more time I spent outside the forge. He already had his forging proficiency in the apprentice tier. The boost it gave was still minimal, but it was more than what my novice tier proficiency did. It also got added to everything he produced.
He had been getting more skills related to forging with his free points and profession skill slots which made him even better. He was above level 35 in his profession and had 2 profession skills on me and quite a few bought ones as well. His speed and mastery were far better than mine and I aimed to fix that. A day in the forge wouldn''t magically make me catch up but it couldn''t hurt.
I matched him in some areas but not all. One of the areas I caught up to him in recently was being able to forge common-tier weapons and armor. My skill in the forge was finally enough to produce Common-tier equipment.
The skills relating to that achievement received their due upgrade as well.
You have upgraded a skill:
Create Weapon(Crude) -> Create Weapon(Common)
Create Armor(Crude) -> Create Armor(Common)
I had accomplished that before the wave came. I had finally gotten around to reading some of the books that Vinny had purchased from the store and it gave me the knowledge needed to improve.
Both skills provided small boosts, like forging proficiency, but everything added up. Vinny could do some better things with his [Mana Infusion(C)] skill but nothing we had made reached the Uncommon tier.
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The closest we came was on a shield we made for Jonathan and that only ended up being High Common tier. We crafted it a few days ago and it had lasted through the waves flawlessly.
To get the most out of his Earth affinity we used a special metal that was called [Enriched Iron] that had lingering earth energy from when it was buried under the earth. Vinny saturated the metal for multiple days with [Mana Infusion(C)] and we both worked together to forge the best shield we could. Vinny didn''t have an Earth affinity so he had to use neutral mana during the infusion to not contaminate the metal.
At the levels we were working with, Vinny''s fire affinity contaminating the metal wasn''t a huge deal, but we were going for the best we could.
With testing, we found that an object would only benefit from one person''s forging proficiency skill and associated [Create] skill. It would only take the highest of the people who worked on it and with Vinny having the better skill, it took his forging proficiency boost.
Both of us had the [Create Weapon] skill at the common tier so it didn''t matter whose it took for that. The shield was considered a weapon instead of armor for the purpose of the skill.
After forging the shield for multiple hours to the best of our ability, it came out as Mid-Common tier. After the forging was done, I took the shield to my workbench to begin the rune carving.
With extreme care and precision, I carved a Least Rune of Durability onto the shield without messing it up. It took a few more hours of nerve-racking work, but I did it and it was the best rune I could produce. Vinny''s hovering behind me didn''t help.
[Enriched Iron Shield of Durability(Least) - Common]
After I finished, it came out the best thing we had ever made. My [Identify] didn''t give the whole picture and Vinny had to tell me what he got from his skill.
[Blacksmith''s Eyes] gave more information and revealed this
[Enriched Iron Shield (Mid-Common) | Least Rune of Durability(High) | High-Common]
The shield itself was already Mid Common before the rune and after carving one of the best runes I had to date, it turned into High Common.
It was a hair''s breadth away from Peak Common. We were close to the strongest rating in the common tier.
It was something I was proud of and a marker that I could create High-quality runes. It also helped keep Jonathan safe during the waves and reduce the chance of injury.
The sunlight coming in through the forge''s window gradually declined and the project I was pounding out reached completion. I had other projects I wanted to work on tomorrow but it was getting late and I didn''t know if I would be able to get to any today.
The few hours I had after we returned were gone, but it was enough to spend some time hammering out a few things. There wasn''t enough time for anything too special but with the amount of battle we did, we were always in need of new weapons and repairs on old weapons.
Swords were the most common that needed repairs but axes were numerous too. Chaperones weren''t needed to keep the hunting parties safe anymore and we were able to get more free time for ourselves resulting in more repairs needed.
I wasn''t able to gain a level before sleep came and claimed me for the day which was unfortunate. I was only one level away from another skill. We had another lecture tomorrow that people pooled points to buy and my time in the forge would be hampered depending on the information.
There were also some experiments slated for the coming day that I would need to oversee. Connor finally got a poison that he was proud of and tests would be done to see if it was enough to use for body refining.
My presence wasn''t strictly necessary, but I wanted to be there in case anything went wrong. We would have all 4 healers there ready to provide their skills but it still worried me.
The following morning came quickly and it felt like I had gotten no sleep at all. After this was over, I had a lot of it I needed to catch up on.
After grabbing a morning snack, I snuck off into the forge before my attention was needed elsewhere. I wanted to get some hammering done that wasn''t the killing kind. The information lecture was planned for later in the day after lunch so I had a few hours to work with. It was barely light out from the sun''s edge creeping over the horizon. I wanted to wring all the time I could out of what I had.
Vinny said the main thing that I had to do to break into the apprentice tier of forging was to find a style that I liked. It didn''t matter what it was but I needed a forging style that I could use to improve myself.
His books had examples that I could use or copy, but I wanted something different. Vinny had a guide that detailed a style that he learned to improve his ability and it turned into a skill that he had acquired on his next level.
His fire affinity gave him more control over the flames in the forge and better temperature control of the metal. It was one of the main reasons why he increased in proficiency so quickly.
Temperature was a big deal when forging weapons and it was one of the things we were worst at when we started off. As he gained experience, he learned to leverage his affinity more and more during the forging process.
My affinity, on the other hand, was harder to utilize. Vinny''s books didn''t have anything about cold forging in them and I hadn''t bought any myself to help. It wouldn''t make sense for Vinny, with a fire affinity, to buy books about cold forging. It would be a waste of his affinity.
We could still share the base information and help each other that way, but it seemed our methods of forging would deviate from one another here. I could use my affinity to control the fire only in a limited sense. I could cool it down if it ever got too hot but I couldn''t heat it back up if it was getting too low. My method of forging going forward would deviate from his so we could both utilize our affinities to the fullest.
I had seen missives in the forging profession tab in the store about cold forging, I just hadn''t spent any points on it yet. It was time to change that.
I had heard of cold forging before but since I wasn''t a blacksmith, or a machinist of some kind, I knew little about it. My materials class covered it briefly and that was the extent of my knowledge.
Cold forging was the act of forging an object without heating it up. There was no fire involved and it relied solely on the force applied to the metal. Most cold forging was done by a hydraulic press used to force metal into the right shape. Any operation done to a piece of metal while it was room temperature (cold) to alter its shape and function was technically cold forging.
From a mixture of knowledge that I remembered and books I bought from the store, I learned that certain metals couldn''t be used like this. They were too brittle and any force applied while at room temperature would sooner break it than change its shape. Any metal over 5% carbon, said my magical book, couldn''t be used. Seeing that I wasted time learning how to make high-carbon steel was mildly frustrating.
There were benefits involved with the process compared to the usual way. Cold forging doesn''t use fire so I wouldn''t have to waste attention on keeping the temperature steady. It doesn''t lose material during the forging process so I spend less on material. There was less wear and tear on the tools involved since the scorching heat isn''t there. And finally, the most important, the metal is stronger in both yield and tensile strength.
Heating the metal and pounding it into shape alters the crystalline structure and grain of the metal. This alteration diminishes the natural strength of the metal that cold forging doesn''t do, increasing the strength of the end product.
Now cold forging was a process, it wasn''t a style. Like Vinny needed to use a style for hot forging, I needed a style for cold forging.
The style that Vinny picked up wouldn''t work for me and I would have to find my own. I wasn''t too bummed about it and had a few ideas that I wanted to try out before I caved and bought one.
The system seemed to reward stumbling on the answer yourself rather than being told what to do and I wanted to see if I could do it myself. before resorting to buying one.
I wasn''t going to spend a lot of time on it, but enough to see if I could do it. We didn''t have the time to spare for me to fumble about in the dark for too long. Vinny could make a lot of our equipment, but two blacksmiths were better than one.
Being close to getting another profession skill was the perfect time to try and find my forging style. The books said that how and what you forged influenced what skills you were offered and when.
Actions and intent had a way to influence what skills would be offered when a new skill slot became available. If I created my style now, I would be offered the skill for it when I leveled. Vinny had to wait multiple levels before he could get the skill pertaining to his style.
Forging styles weren''t the same as forging proficiencies. Proficiencies were how good you were at forging. Styles were how you went about doing it. Proficiencies pertained to the end product and style was how you got there.
Similar but different.
Proficiencies could be increased without learning a style but it was harder to do so and near impossible for people without the prerequisite knowledge.
Given enough time, a person started to develop a style subconsciously anyway. How they went about certain process and how they hit the metal into shape was all part of a style.
Getting a skill regarding your style wasn''t required but it was stupid not to. A style touched everything that a smith created and not getting a skill with it wasted a lot of the potential.
A style could also be passed down to apprentices and anyone you taught. It was the cornerstone of a smith''s legacy and vital to how they did what they did.
It was also something I had been workshopping and tinkering with for a few days with no results.
After Vinny told me a week ago when he got his, I tried to create one but I had no luck.
I was hoping some uninterrupted time in the forge would give me enough time to work one out.
Chapter 73 - Rhythm Forging
Deep concentration marred my face and the only thing that mattered was the pounding of my hammer in the forge. I had been at this for a while and nothing had worked so far. It was mildly frustrating.
I was so focused I didn''t hear the door open and someone enter into the forge. Nor did I feel it when a small high-pitched voice called out for my attention.
It took two small hands making physical contact with my back that broke me out of my thoughts while forging.
The unexpected physical contact scared me shitless and I nearly jumped over the anvil in fright, letting out a manly scream.
I turned to see Anna laughing behind me trying to form words.
"Hahaha, you scream like a little girl!" She said before giggling more.
"You do realize that you, yourself, are a little girl and in saying so, I scream like you," I said back sagely ignoring the fact I did just scream like a little girl.
She scrunched up her face at that comment and after thinking about it for a moment, stuck her tongue out at me. Like that was a perfectly understandable response.
"What are you doing in here sneaking up behind me?" I asked moving on from the jump scare.
"I wasn''t sneaking! You just couldn''t hear me." She defended herself from the accusation.
Thinking back, she could have been right. I didn''t remember hearing anything but that didn''t mean that she didn''t try to get my attention.
"Well you have my attention now, what do you need, sweetie?" I asked.
"Whatcha doin?" She drawled out in an imitating tone.
After showing her one of my favorite cartoons as a kid she started copying a certain character from the show. Seeing how that didn''t answer my question I thought of ignoring it to get back to my work.
After thinking about it, I decided not to. I could use a break and I hadn''t been giving her enough attention as before and I felt a little bad about it.
"Well, I''m trying to do what Cousin Vinny did and make my own style of forging," I answered.
She looked down at the project I was in the middle of and seemed to think about what I said for a minute before responding, "What does that mean?"
Well, shit. I knew what it was but I didn''t know how to explain it to a child.
"Uhm, its like... uhh." Huh, I couldn''t think of anything. If I told her that I was hammering in a specific way she would just ask why and we would be right back where we started.
"You know when we are playing and I do something wrong and you have to correct me?" I said, starting my explanation.
"Yeah," she said nodding.
"That''s like your style of playing. You know how everything is supposed to go and in what order and you have to correct me when I do something wrong. What I am trying to do is find my own way of playing that I like best. Find what and which way works best." I said.
She thought for a moment, "How do you not know? It''s just what feels right."
She said with the confidence of a child.
"It''s not that easy. I have to find which way works best and produces the best result. That takes time and effort trying everything out." I said.
"You said it was like playing, but that sounds more like when mom makes me do things her way because she says it''s more ef - effic - efficint" She worked to sound out the last word before looking up at me to see if she got it right.
"Efficient." I corrected slightly, but what she said stuck a cord in me.
I was trying to find the way that produced the best results instead of the way that felt best for me to use. If I was going to create my own style then it needed to feel good to use not something that just produced the best results. Something that came instinctively.
My first thought was to incorporate cold forging into my technique and focus to bring my affinity into my craft. I had success and I made decent gear, but it still felt like I was missing something. Something more fundamental. It worked, it just wasn''t what I was going for and produced Low Common-tier results.
What I wanted was something different.
I would eventually find a way to use my affinity while forging but that wasn''t what I wanted my style to be. I wanted something more fundamental than that. More encompassing than just my affinity.
Thoughts and ideas came to mind and I wanted to get to work right away but I still hadn''t gotten to the real reason Anna came to see me.
"Alright spill it, why did you come to get me?" I knew she didn''t come just to ask me what I was doing and she just used that as an excuse to ask me questions.
With her cover blown, she said the real reason, "Mom said to tell you that the procedure was happening ahead of schedule."
After processing what she said, there was the option to ignore it. I had wanted to be there for it to make sure nothing went wrong, but there was nothing realistically I could do. I was no healer and I had no skills like it to help in any way.
The only thing I could do was freeze the person but I doubted that would be very helpful. There would be 4 healers there to make sure that nothing went wrong and I could afford to miss it.
Missing out on watching the process was a bit of a bummer but I could always wait until another underwent it. It wouldn''t be that big of a problem if I missed the first.
I was curious about the schedule change, but not enough to go and ask about it. Anna probably wouldn''t know as she was only the messenger.
I was about to get back to my project and start working on the idea that Anna''s statement brought up before I stopped.
"Do you wanna watch me forge?" I asked. Anna was still in the forge wandering around looking around at all of the tools on the wall and finished products off to the side.
She was young, only 8, so we tried to limit her exposure to the violence. She knew what was happening and what we were fighting, but we did everything we could to shield them from it. Let them be kids for a while longer. According to the ''system'' they wouldn''t gain access until their day of majority which for humans was at 14. I was of mind to have them train with weapons now but Abigail vehemently disagreed.
She didn''t want Anna anywhere close to the weapons. She had been forced to alter those views the longer we were here but it was slow going and only the older kids got to train. Only lightly at that too. Some of the parents were looser with their rules but Abigail was still holding on to the delusions that it was unnecessary. That she would be able to protect them forever. It was a source of argument between her and Jonathan because he was of similar mind to me and wanted their kids trained young.
"Nope. It''s too hot in here." She said before walking out.
Well, at least she was honest. I couldn''t feel the heat much anymore because of my fortitude, but for her, it would be blazing in here and that was without me actively using the forge. After my initial failures of Cold Forging, I had turned back to using the forge.
With the forge now empty of people, besides me, I got to work.
The idea I had was getting clearer and I was excited to get to work on it.
In physics, and my earlier music classes, we were told about frequencies. It had been a long time since I thought about playing an instrument, I had quit only a year into high school.
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Most of what I knew about frequencies came from physics classes. Both in college and in high school we went over how different frequencies could be used for different effects.
In college, we had to watch a documentary on a bridge that collapsed because of the wind due to frequencies; Resonance Frequency we were taught, and it was something every engineer was lectured about and what it did.
Engineers in Canada went a step further and got rings because of it. No, I wasn''t jealous.
If something''s resonance frequency was introduced onto it, catastrophic failure would soon follow. We were told different methods to mitigate and remove this possibility from occurring.
What would be a catastrophic failure in buildings, could help me in the forge. I could change the frequency I hit things with and introduce different things to the system. By system, I meant the metal of the part.
I began by trying to find the right frequency for the metal I was working with, Flow Steel. It was a water-attuned metal that was more flexible and malleable than normal steel. My initial attempts were using it as well. I could probably make a better quality weapon if I used Ice or Cold aligned metal but the best product wasn''t what I was after. It was the process of forging I was after. How good the end product was didn''t matter.
Flow Steel wasn''t the best material to work with and was terrible for blades because it couldn''t keep an edge, but perfect for staves and rods. Abigail had a Water affinity and she needed a suitable weapon.
It was a bit biased of me to make my sister a weapon before anybody else but they could all pound sand. Well, she wasn''t the first I had made a weapon for but the same thing applied. Vinny was working through everyone at a blazing pace as it was, I could take some time for my sister''s weapon.
Being a healer meant she didn''t have many spells that she would use, but she did have quite a few buffs she could throw out. Ranged, non-ranged, and specialized healing was what took up most of her skills.
She still had a few spells for offensive purposes and I actively trained her in their use. It would be stupid for her not to know how to fight. She mostly went around buffing and healing during the waves but there were times when her offensive skills came in handy.
Since Flow Steel was already quite malleable, it wasn''t the best metal to try this out on. What I was attempting was to make the metal deform more because of the frequencies I introduced into it. It was difficult to accomplish that if the metal absorbed the shock of the blow and left little excess force to create said frequency.
Switching the metal I was using, I grabbed the more common Enriched Iron we had left over from Jonathan''s shield. It would be fine for what I needed. I still couldn''t use the steel we had on hand because it would just crumble and I used up all the Cold Iron I bought earlier.
I extended my [Sense Metal] skill throughout the piece and deep into the anvil. Cold Forging required me to start with the metal room temperature and that was what I did. Every hit solicited a loud angry clang. Having not been heated, the sound was more grating on the ears.
I felt as the force of the blow traveled through the part and into the anvil. Then watched as it left and dispersed into the earth. Within a few seconds, the force was gone. Some of the heat created still remained in the part but that wasn''t what I was going for.
What I envisioned was a shockwave from the force rebounding back into the metal so I could continue to build on top of it. Like waves in the ocean that crested together and created more together than apart.
Sensing something missing, I ran through different ideas in my head of how to fix it.
Isolating the system so there was nowhere for the force to go would work but I had no easy way to do that. There were probably Runes and other magics that could do it but I didn''t have access to them.
I spent a few minutes working through different ideas before I settled on one. What I wanted was the exact opposite of shock absorbers. I wanted something that wouldn''t diminish the force of my swing and rebound it back into the anvil and part. It wasn''t a long-term solution but it was enough to test my idea. My first idea of putting something hard under it would have to do for now.
Attempting the same with my ice didn''t work. My Ice wasn''t the best for rebounding the force and shattered if I didn''t use enough.
Getting an idea, I sprinted out of the forge and ran over to where Jonathan was. Without giving him much time to gather himself, picked him up and ran to the pylon.
He was sputtering and trying to ask me what was going on but I couldn''t hear him. After setting him down in front of the obelisk, I stated my demands.
"I need a sheet of the hardest metal you can find about 5 feet by 5 feet and at least a foot thick. It can be bigger but at least that size." I blurted at him.
He took a minute to work through the sudden change in scenery and my request before clarifying what I wanted.
"You need a slab of metal and you couldn''t have just asked normally?" He asked
"No, not just any metal, the hardest metal you can find. And yes, it is important and I am in the middle of something." I clarified for him.
He used his merchant skills and sorted through the shop with my specifications in mind before pulling up a list for me to see. Some of the prices were outlandish and I had to begrudgingly scroll past them.
Working through Jonathan to shop had its perks and the search feature was just one of them. I could search the shop as well but his skills were easier to find what I was looking for.
He also got more information about the things listed. Where I would just get the metal name and quantity, he got size dimensions, descriptions, and common metal descriptors like: Hardness, malleability, and yield strength.
Jonathan''s skills were an all-around better experience than fumbling around by myself, hence my abduction of him.
I settled on one in my price range that I thought would work and purchased it. It was more expensive than what I would have liked, but there was nothing I could do. It had the highest hardness of what I could afford to spend on my project. My manic behavior made me completely forget I could have asked him to buy more Cold Iron.
Jonathan''s discount made it cheaper but still a lot. After purchasing it, the aforementioned chunk of metal appeared beside us and thunked into the earth.
By the way it sank into the ground with ease, it was extremely heavy. I didn''t get much time to look it over before I heard Jonathan''s sharp intake of breath.
"What did you just buy? I got so much experience from that. I even gained 2 levels." He said absentmindedly while looking at nothing in front of him. Looking over the screens only he could see.
I had a lot of points saved up and I spent more than I should have on the piece. Apparently enough to give him 2 levels in his merchant profession.
Declining to answer him I made to pick up my prize. I dug my fingers into the dirt and hefted, only to barely pick it up. Even flaring [Barbarian''s Fury] wasn''t enough.
"Jonathan, help me," I grunted from trying to lift it myself.
Jonathan broke out of his reverie of his screens and jumped to help.
With his aid, we moved my prize toward the forge before running into another issue. It wouldn''t fit.
The metal was too large to fit into the building. With spare time, Scott and Brayden had built us quite the structure. With every level, their skills got better and what they made became proper buildings.
We were long past the tents and lodges we started at.
Not wanting to lose my momentum, I pointed to a clear spot near the wall for us to put it. Jonathan nodded and we heaved the metal to the indicated area before dropping it.
With my foundation set, I ran back and forth between the forge and metal slab to move everything I needed over. Anvil, hammer, metal pieces, and miscellaneous tools were scattered around on the hunk of metal by the time I was done.
Jonathan tried to question me but I ignored him. I didn''t want to lose out on my idea.
With everything set up, or as set up as it could be, I got to work.
The metal slab worked to send the shockwaves back but some still dispersed into the earth. It was annoying, but there was nothing I could do about it. It rebounded enough for me to work with.
With [Sense Metal(C)] I felt every hammer blow add to the crescendo. The piece started to heat up and began glowing a dull red to which I cooled down with my affinity. I could have probably used [Frostbite(Un)] on my hammer swings to keep the heat down but I hadn''t thought of that. I was entirely focused on watching the force spread with [Sense Metal(C)].
I wasn''t hitting fast enough to heat the piece up completely but I wanted everything perfect.
I wanted to get the timing down before I started in earnest.
Minutely adjusting when I swung changed how the force reacted and I found the rhythm I was looking for. It wasn''t the perfect rhythm for the metal like I was aiming for, but close enough to get started.
Keeping time with the frequency I found, I began my song. Putting more force into my blows, the metal glowed brighter and began taking shape and I had to use more of my affinity to keep it cool.
The forces bouncing around flowed through the piece aiding me in the process of creation.
One hit of my hammer carried with it the force of ten. The timing was everything and I had to make sure my blows were constructive interference, not destructive.
I might have been able to accomplish the same using [Heavy Blow] but that wasn''t a style, that was only extreme force. It didn''t have the grace of a style and would quickly run into problems with anything of greater strength than my swing.
As I got the hang of it, I worked faster than before. The metal shaped into a sword quickly and was soon ready for the finishing touches. Swords came easily to me because of the sheer amount I had made.
By this point, the metal was singing like a tuning fork and I had to find a way to end it without ruining what I made.
If I took it off the anvil now, I wasn''t sure how it would handle the residual energy flowing through it. I didn''t know what would happen if I hit it with an off-beat blow to cancel out the energy.
Without a better idea, I leaned on my intuition and pulled on my powers. Ice and frost built up on everything close to me as I used my ice mana to weave what I wanted.
In a split second, I pulled the piece away from the anvil and used everything I had to freeze it. My mana, Law, and skills all worked together to freeze the piece. My intent was enough not to shatter the metal completely. Leaning on my willpower, I urged the very force moving through the blade to freeze.
Usually, a drastic swing in temperature would shatter the blade but I had enough control to mitigate that.
The operation worked twofold to quench the blade and freeze the excess waves moving through it. Well, it would have quenched it if it had been hot enough.
There were places it didn''t go so well in the metal and I could have been better at uniformly cooling the piece, but it didn''t explode and that was what I was going for.
The piece itself was terrible, barely High-Crude. The mixture of Earth alignment in the Iron with the Ice I used to forge it lowered the quality. Plus, my shoddy workmanship of both a new style and cooling technique only made it worse.
But my idea was solid. I only had to fine-tune it.
How I knew it worked was from the chime of the system giving me a level and letting me pick a new skill. A new skill I was glad was there.
Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon)
It was unique too. Creating my own made it start at a higher rarity than the Common style Vinny bought.
Chapter 74 - Adaptability
Chris
After getting the skill, I realized what time it was. While I was forging it felt like only a few minutes had passed but the sun betrayed that sentiment. It was in a markedly different position than it once was.
At least a few hours had passed from what I could tell.
Oh shit, I was going to be late. Not only did I completely miss the procedure Mitchell was going through, but the start of the lecture that we had scheduled. It was another information package that some people got together to pay for.
I didn''t have time to clean up so hopefully showing up covered in grime and sweat wouldn''t be too big of an issue.
Cypteris (Alien teacher from Before)
Life had been going well for Cypteris so far. Usually, as a researcher, there were times when work got tremendously boring but, luckily, this wasn''t one of those times. A once-in-a-lifetime event was taking place and Cypteris actually got to participate.
Well, participate was a strong word. There wasn''t much that a person outside of the newly integrated universe could do but he was one of the few who got to do anything.
Becoming a pseudo-teacher wasn''t the most well-paid job but it was fascinating. He got to see the newly integrated before anyone else and witness what was left of their culture.
Usually, by the time scientists arrived on newly integrated worlds, everything was too far gone. The written word didn''t last through the terraforming and mana ravaged any record of civilization. There were records of grand civilizations that crumbed to ruins when they couldn''t handle the change. Entire cultures wiped out due to their failure to adapt.
This was one of the few chances to get a primary source of information. Humans were common enough in the multiverse that it wasn''t a huge deal, but Dwarves certainly weren''t. Dwarves were rarely seen outside of their mountain homes and they were a race Cypteris had little interaction with. The closest Dwarven planet was in an entirely different sector from his home planet.
It wasn''t surprising to have hundreds of species involved in an integration and Cypteris was lucky to have two different ones for his classes. The Great System usually limited a scholar to only one. Having only humans would have been a bit of a bummer when more esoteric races were in the newest integration.
He had been warned that his services would be needed soon and he had blocked out his whole day for the occasion. He thought up fantastical reasons as to what new thing could be the reason. Maybe it was the Dwarves? They were advancing smoothy the last he saw.
The teleportation was instant and smooth. Cypteris knew it wasn''t his real body being moved but it sure as hell felt like it. The Great System worked wonders.
It took a moment for him to recognize where he had been teleported and once he did, he couldn''t help but feel shock.
It was the same human settlement that he had been sent to before, except this time, they were a lot more advanced. The last time he was here it was a dinky cabin he found himself in that was barely adequate to be called that, now it was a suitable keep.
That meant that their pylon was at least at the town level, maybe small city level. It was decorated a touch on the barbaric side for his tastes with trophies of past kills hanging on the walls and pelts used as rugs.
It wasn''t something normally found in civilized culture but he wouldn''t fault them for it, tutorials were trying times.
After taking in the room, he moved on to the people around him. Being much higher level than the humans, Cypteris had time to take everything in before their perception caught up.
The first thing he noticed was how far they had advanced. The last time he had come there were only a couple people past the first class evolution and now almost all of them were past the second.
They were now proper F-rankers.
Some even had budding laws he could feel and one thrummed with a similar power of his own, the Law of Poison. It wasn''t unheard of to get a Law this early and in some places, even this speed was considered slow, but with the lack of information they were given it was impressive. The fact they reached it without guidance made their futures brighter.
The experience of finding out everything without a helping hand made the accomplishment so much more. The Law was stronger, the experience greater for when the system considered feats, and the soul expanded more than if they were hand held through the process. It was the main reason that The Great System restricted information. It was also the best indicator of how well a planet would do after being returned.
If they couldn''t advance well inside of a tutorial, they wouldn''t reach very far without significant guidance. The Great System was conducting a pseudo litmus test.
The personal feat of gaining a Law 20 levels away from when it was required was to be celebrated. It meant they would have The Great System''s assistance through another Tier and that was a grand achievement. Not everyone got to keep its assistance.
The first laws weren''t the biggest bottleneck on the path of power but an unfortunate few still couldn''t make the first step.
He even felt that someone was close to forming their spiritual anchor. None of the people here were practiced in controlling their aura so it was easy for Cypteris to evaluate them and pry into their secrets.
The man soon to form his anchor felt like a stalwart shield of earth that would sooner break than bend. He had a rigidness to him that most Earth affinity users carried with them and a fierce feeling of protection radiated out in his aura.
Cypteris couldn''t tell how close he was but it was surprising nonetheless. To form an anchor this early was rare. Especially without help. It was another point in their favor. Maybe it was too soon to write them off compared to the Dwarves.
The next person to catch his eye wasn''t even in the room. There were no wards or enchantments to prevent Cypteris from scanning the building he was in and what he saw shocked him further.
Without any research or know-how, these people took the first step on the body refining path. An unconscious man was lying in what appeared to be a hospital that had gone through the process.
Cypteris could feel the poison still in the man''s system and he couldn''t tell if it was accidental or not. During integrations, it wasn''t unheard of to meet a monster that had venom or poison strong enough to do it.
Based on the setting and the man with the almost-poison Law, Cypteris figured it wasn''t an accident. The fact they were already performing the procedure was another shock.
He knew exactly how long they had been here and how quickly they must have rushed through testing to already attempt it on a person. Cypteris didn''t know whether to lament it as reckless or applaud their confidence.
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The only thing he didn''t see was mana cultivation. As a group, they had taken steps down all of the paths of power except mana cultivation. He reasoned that it was fair that they hadn''t. Coming from a planet without mana, it would be asinine to expect them to understand how to cultivate it.
The one Cypteris noted down as the leader the last time he was here was nowhere to be found and he was instead met by someone else.
"Hello again, alien," A man wearing medium leather armor said. For a human he looked average. Blonde hair, average height, the shade of his skin wasn''t even special.
It was an improper greeting to someone of his station but they didn''t know better and Cypteris didn''t care much anyway. He referred to them the same way in his mind. At least they weren''t pointing weapons at him this time.
The man who addressed him seemed to be the strongest in the room. His aura flared out of him without restraint and broadcasted quite a lot. An evolved warrior that carried with him the power of the sun.
Solar affinities were rare on Cypteris'' planet and it was his good fortune to see one. The man''s affinity was strong and he had at least an uncommon class, probably rare from what he could tell.
It wasn''t uncommon for a person to stand above his peers and lead, and better classes usually came with that. What surprised Cypteris was that there was no leader''s presence in the aura.
There was no ruler''s might nor any form of a leadership quality. It was surprising that he didn''t have one, he was the most powerful in the room.
Cypteris could tell that the man''s profession wasn''t crafting related but it was hard to narrow down. It wasn''t a large portion of his power and didn''t show up much in his aura. It almost seemed purposely fleeting, if what he was seeing made sense.
Well, Cypteris had a class to get to and his curiosity was sated.
"Hello again, humans." Cypteris began, "Today we will go¨C"
Before he could begin, another rushed into the room. It was unexpected as Cypteris hadn''t felt him earlier. He must have been outside of the nearby area when Cypteris arrived.
He could easily scan the building he was in but he was hampered outside of that. The Great System wouldn''t allow him to gain any more information about their tutorial. Cypteris didn''t even know which God was the sponsor.
The man who came in was covered in soot and sweat without regard for his appearance. The interruption broke Cypteris'' train of thought and he took a second to inspect the newcomer.
His aura flared out much the same as everyone else and it felt just as strong, if not stronger, than the man who greeted him.
It took Cypteris off guard.
He had assumed the man with the solar affinity was the leader and the strongest. He was wrong.
The man didn''t feel like the stalwart earth, nor the smoldering sun, he felt like the inevitable cold after death. The biting chill that came over you when you were about to die. The threat of eternal winter.
It was one of the strongest ice affinities Cypteris had ever seen backed by a Law pushing the second tier. The newcomer''s aura carried the leadership tint that he scanned the previous man for.
This man was the leader, not the other one.
He was obviously a blacksmith of some kind and his aura showed that it wasn''t a small amount of his power. His profession was past the first evolution.
Another surprise was the sheer weight that the man had. The amount of stat points he had shouldn''t have been possible at his level.
Cypteris was a bit rude and used his identifying skill and he knew what level he was in both Class and Profession. Even with a legendary class, he shouldn''t have this many stat points.
That meant only one thing. He chose the passives. Cypteris would have advised against that but it was too late now. It slowed down growth too much for it to be effective for the average person.
There was only so long a person could climb the ladder of power and things that slowed you down added up. Typically, the type of skills the man had were picked up rarely, and if they were, only once.
It seemed like the man had filled both of the available slots for them.
They were rarely offered and were only available in the G and F ranks from a class that wasn''t common. It was too late to gain one after evolving past the F rank. It would put too much strain on the body to gain that many stat points at once. It would defeat the purpose of removing them from the planet for fear of mana poisoning just to turn around and let it happen anyway.
They were powerful skills, if you could advance fast enough to make it worth it. It wouldn''t be an issue now, only a slight drag on his normal leveling speed, but if he reached the higher ranks it would slow to a crawl. The 20 or so stat points per level now were nothing compared to the hundreds people got in the higher tiers.
There were ways to remove the skill but they were... unpleasant to say the least.
"Sorry, where was I? Oh, right, hello again humans, and welcome to your second class," Cypteris tried to hide his shock.
"What we will go over today will be more in-depth than last time and will cover more ground. Last time we discussed the basics of essence and leveling along with the three paths to power. I see some of you have already started on them." Cypteris nodded to the few with Laws.
Addressing the rest who didn''t have Laws, "They have an advantage over you. You have probably seen it already but they wield more power than normal and are stronger than you." Cypteris paused to receive a few nods.
"That is to be expected. Laws are powerful things and what most people start with. I mentioned requirements to keep The Great System''s assistance last time and the first one is coming up for all of you.
"To reach the E-Rank with assistance, the first step on a path of power must be taken. The lowest tier of Law, the First step of Body Refining, or the first step in empowering the Spirit."
Cypteris was miffed that he couldn''t just tell them the other way, like Mana Cultivation or be more specific and say Anchor formation instead of empowering the Spirit, but he couldn''t. Any attempt to give them information they didn''t already have would get him censored and he would rather not have that happen... again.
"For those who haven''t taken that step, you will be barred from reaching the E-Rank. There are ways around it and you can evolve manually, but that information isn''t what I am meant to cover.
"Just know that if you do not have a Law or a Body of Wood, you will stop leveling at the threshold to E-Rank. Level 50 will be where your journey stops."
After Cypteris paused, looks of panic started blooming on the human''s faces. Cypteris quickly went on to stall the coming questions.
"Do not panic, the block isn''t permanent. It only holds until the conditions are met. You have until the end of your lifespan to overcome it, which for most of you is quite a while."
Cypteris couldn''t tell the exact age of everyone here but most would go on to live for another hundred years, at least.
With that added information, the panic subsided and Cypteris could move on. He rehashed some of the information that he covered last time, going a little more in-depth, and new information that was boring to get through. Cypteris wanted to get to the good part.
Before he could move on to the main point of this class, a human raised their hand to ask a question.
"Yes," Cypteris motioned at the raised hand.
"You said earlier that we had quite a while of lifespan left, how long do humans live?" The female taking notes in a notebook asked.
She was the most studious of the group and Cypteris was glad that at least someone asked a question.
"Human lifespans are extensively documented, being a common race. There are variations, but on average humans live for 125 years in the F-Rank. Before that, it''s hard to tell. We don''t have enough concrete information to tell before G-rank. Few, if at all, are born in the H-rank."
This was Cypteris'' subtle dig for more information. Pre-Integration information was hard to come across and zealously guarded. Information about mana-less worlds devoid of essence even more so. His dig paid off and he heard their whispers to each other. His perception let him hear them easily.
It seemed that these humans lived for about 80 years without any essence. With the start of the curve, Cypteris could extrapolate out the first tiers. H-Rank wouldn''t increase it that much and was mostly to get the body ready for mana.
G-Rank would increase it to 100 years and F-Rank to 125. Further out was tricky but going off of multiverse standard for humans left 150 years in E-Rank and 250 years in D-Rank. It was a looser range after that and depended on how much they invested in vitality and other things that increased it.
Cypteris shook away that thought. He couldn''t get distracted right now. He answered the question and moved on.
"The upcoming evolution is different than the others. The E rank is the start of the middle rank. H through F are the low ranks, E through C are the mid ranks, and B through S are the high ranks.
"The start of the middle ranks bring racial traits into play. Every race has a trait that makes them stand out and the evolution to E-Rank brings it out. Snake-kin start producing a natural poison. Bear-kin''s bodies strengthen greatly. Elves get an increased perception and agility. Dwarves, strength and fortitude.
"It would take too long to go over all of the races so I''ll only cover humans. Human''s racial trait is their adaptability. They are the most adaptable race in the multiverse and their racial trait reflects that."
Cypteris heard a groan at that and was a bit puzzled.
"Why are you upset?" Cypteris questioned the man who groaned.
"Dragons spit fire, elves get supervision, and humans get what, adaptability. It''s a bit of a miff, isn''t it?" A man, more boy, answered.
"I would not call being able to gain the traits of almost any race a miff," Cypteris responded.
That got the boy''s attention.
"Being adaptable, humans are able to fundamentally change their body each evolution. Now, it isn''t a total change and each evolution is a small change, but it can add up. This is how humans are able to assimilate bloodlines when others cannot." Cypteris added.
This was one of the reasons Cypteris loved studying humans. They were such an interesting race. Most stuck with common paths to power that were well trod and boring, but some struck out and walked new paths. Paths that were fascinating to study.
Chapter 75 - Possibilities
Chris
"This is how humans are able to assimilate bloodlines when others cannot."
What now?
I was just told that humans could turn into anything we wanted. What the actual fuck? There had to be something I was missing here.
"Now, there are limits. Full transformation isn''t something that you can do normally, but it is still possible with extreme circumstances and only for a limited time." The alien added.
That worked to pour water on some of the more enthusiastic of us. I knew that there were going to be restrictions, it sounded too good to be true.
"Why don''t we backtrack so I can explain it a bit better."
With no complaints, Cypteris continued.
"Beginning at the evolution to E-Rank, Humans can take on the traits of certain other creatures. How it works is during racial evolutions, genetic material is introduced to your body and the system aids in making your body adapt and incorporate said genetic material.
"This means you can only take on the traits of something you have available. Say the claws of a lion are present, you might grow claws. The hide of a Rhinoceros, your skin will thicken and harden.
"It all depends on the materials you have available and what is around you when you evolve. You can push it with your intent, but generally, the adaptation is based on the material. That also means you have to be careful where you evolve. Evolving in the middle of a battlefield can lead to unintended consequences.
"Also, it starts small. For the first evolution at the E-rank, the most you can do is small adjustments or augmentations. There is only so much change your body can handle and going over that doesn''t end well. It''s the building on top of previous evolutions that makes this power really shine.
"Typically, humans stick to one type of animal or a group of animals. You can use other sentient races but that is frowned upon and can get you killed if people find out. Mixing and matching from a bit of everything is possible, but most often doesn''t lead to the best results. Sticking with the same animal throughout will let more and more adjustments be made since the body is already conditioned to it."
What the fuck? This was turning out to be a wild and somewhat gross ability. I knew that we had all sorts of mythologies about half-human hybrids and almost every mythology had a human variant of some sort but this was absurd.
Was that where this power came from? Or were our mythologies modeled after it? Centaurs, satyrs, and demi-gods. Werewolves, vampires, and gorgons. All of them were human with a mix of something else.
Did that mean that we could become actual werewolves?
The rest of my family had the same reservations and started to ask clarifying questions to the alien.
Things like how does it change us? Does this affect mentality? Is it permanent? And others regarding everything else. Cypteris answered what he could but he said it mostly depends.
If the genes of the animal were too strong then it could have detrimental effects, including mental changes. Or if the material itself had a certain disposition, it would be hard to get rid of. An example he used was demonic material. It would be hard to get rid of the side effects that it brought and he cautioned against any use of it.
It seemed he wanted to say more about it but something made him stop and redirect to something else.
"This leads to two main paths that Humans take this power. Temporary, explosive power, or permanent sustained power.
"Some humans don''t want to change and that is perfectly fine, so instead, they go a different way than permanent physical changes. There are also the purists who abstain from any change but that is a different matter.
"By far the most common is a mix of the two but that''s up to personal preference. Permanent sustained power was what I explained before, every evolution making small changes staying within the same animal family.
"Building on top of what is already there with the same genetic family pushing your body further and further toward being that animal or creature. E-rank is a small change, D-rank a little more, C-rank, a little more. Finally, reaching S-rank where the body is near a perfect mesh of both."
Hearing that made me think of how expensive beast parts would get. Like the really important bits people used for evolving.
"This permanent change is also the hardest to reverse. It can still be done but is extremely costly and will permanently weaken you. Temporary power is different. It works with the current bloodline that you have and draws out more power from it. Even full transformation is available in later ranks for a limited time and will only last for as long as the person can hold it. It differs from person to person, but usually, not longer than an hour and that''s at S rank.
"Every evolution works to purify, evolve, or somehow add to your current bloodline. Similar to what an actual beast goes through for evolutions. With the required materials of course, most commonly blood or life-blood. These changes don''t outwardly affect the body and will not show up cosmetically unless called upon.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"This process also makes removing the bloodline exceptionally hard and dangerous because not only are you removing the bloodline, but everything added on top of it during evolutions.
"Our time is coming to a close so I''ll end it with this. All of this is typically done with the system''s assistance during evolutions. I do not advise trying to do this manually as it will lead to quite gruesome results and cancerous growths without proper guidance." Cypteris ended his lecture and fizzled out soon after. It reminded me of the end of commercials when the warnings were sped through in the last second.
Instead of ''may cause nausea and vomiting'', it was ''can be gruesome and cause cancerous growths.''
All of us in the room sat in silence for a while mulling over what was said. It was a shock to find out what humanity had for a racial trait.
Usually, in fantasy stories, humanity wasn''t given a strong racial trait and was left to the wayside for others. Our only saving grace was that we reproduced fast.
It seemed reality was different. I didn''t know a lot of other traits that other races had but ours didn''t sound that bad. Taking on the aspects of other beings sounded powerful.
The only thing was if I wanted to give up being human to do it.
Permanent changes sounded like it would change who I was and alter my mentality to be more in line with whatever I picked and I didn''t know if I wanted that.
Sure, augmenting my body to become more powerful sounded good but I wasn''t sure the cost was worth it.
"What are you thinking about?" Austin came up next to me and asked.
The silence in the room made it so everyone would hear our conversation.
"I don''t know what to think. It sounds like a powerful ability but I don''t know if it is worth it." I said to some agreement of some based on their nods.
"But that option sounds powerful," Austin answered.
"At what cost though?" I said. "If the changes fundamentally alter who you are? When do you stop being who you were and become something else?"
He didn''t answer and let the silence come back. We all chewed on what we heard.
I was sure many on earth would take that option. People would jump at the chance to gain wings of a bird, or cat-like features for fighting. Defensive options that were tied to a turtle shell or rhino hide.
All of it sounded too good to be true to me and I wasn''t certain I liked it. Bloodlines were one thing, physically altering my body was another. Would the instincts of the beast carry over?
Would draconic changes make people want to hoard things? Would canine changes instill a pack mentality? Feline hunting instincts?
How would it affect reproduction? I wasn''t a parent but I wanted kids at some point in the future. Would this make that impossible? Or would I only be able to have kids with people who had similar changes?
There was too much risk involved in the process and that scared me. Maybe I wouldn''t change who I was the first time, but what about the second? Or the third?
Then again, ignoring the option was an equally bad idea. Losing out on the power from the trait wasn''t something I wanted to do either. Ignoring a potential path of power wasn''t something I could afford to do.
It seemed like the temporary option was designed with that in mind and was my answer, but I knew too little about it to say for certain. It was something I would have to look into extensively before my evolution.
I didn''t even have a bloodline yet and that was something I had been looking forward to. I eventually wanted to make my own, but for now I would use one I could assimilate. I could always change it later. From what we learned, it was possible but extremely painful. I could deal with a little pain.
We could buy bloodlines from the store but the cost was something I still couldn''t afford. I would have to find a way to make more than I had been currently if I wanted to get one in a timely manner. And a good one at that. The powerful ones looked like they cost more.
I knew Austin wanted to go explore the next-door pylon that we had found, killing all of the monsters there would give me a lot of points. It would also make my decision about the evolution come faster than I would want.
Being level 39, I only had 11 levels to make up my mind. The evolution to E-rank happened at level 50 and it was coming fast. Especially with the monsters coming every wave being higher level than me giving me more experience. There was also the option to defer my decision till the D-rank and keep being 100% human, but I would miss out on the first change.
"Did he say that demons were real?" Abigail pointed out.
She had been reading over the notes she took and pointed out something that all of us had glossed over.
The alien mentioned how using demonic material led to bad results and that meant that there were demons to get material from. That sent us on an entirely different tangent, and with most of my family being religious, not one I wanted to go on.
The confirmation that demons existed gave credence to the possibility of angels and I didn''t want to open that can of worms right now. A multiversal war of angels vs. demons was a distraction I didn''t need if it was real.
While they babbled on about it, I left the room to get some air. It was a lot of information to dump on someone and it was difficult to work my way through it.
I pulled up how many points I had to see how close I was to a bloodline.
Points: 165,332
Since the 11th wave when I blew all of my points on upgrading the wall, I had been saving everything I got. I had earned well over 200,000 by this point but my expenditures brought it down.
The rune I bought was 25,000, metal and tools for the forge were expensive. I blew nearly 50k on the metal slab I just bought. Another skill was available for 25,000 but I decided against it. One skill wasn''t worth it and there were other things I was saving for.
The latest wave, Wave 23, netted me nearly 50,000 by itself.
A bloodline was expensive though, and if I was going to keep it I needed to choose wisely. Bloodlines could be evolved and changed, in the worst case removed, but I wanted to make the right choice the first go-round so I didn''t have to deal with that.
Decent bloodlines were expensive. Bloodlines tied to an affinity more so.
I knew I wanted something with my affinity but I wasn''t sure what. Obviously, dragons sounded cool and powerful but that wasn''t something I could buy. Ice Phoenix sounded equally as good but again, not something I could buy. Cost wasn''t the issue, the store didn''t even have it. I couldn''t even imagine what level of pylon was needed for the store to have those.
Seeing as I could barely afford the ones available, anything better would be entirely out of my budget. It was frustrating to be limited to something that I could afford. There were devices I could buy that could be used on anything I killed to gain its bloodline, but those were up there in cost too.
Plus, I wasn''t sure what kind of beasts were out there and if the time spent looking would be worth it. The devices didn''t have a 100% success rate as well so I could fail and be a waste of time.
All of this was so much to think about and it was making me want to go and hit something!
Austin must have sensed my mood for he walked up decked out in his gear holding my armor and hammer.
"Want to go on an adventure?" He said with a smile.
I knew he was thinking along the same lines I had been and felt the urge to get more points. We had a wave tomorrow and doing what he had planned could get us injured.
I thought about it for a bit-
"Come on, it''ll be fun!" He added.
Fuck it! What''s the worst that could happen?
"Let''s go," I said.
Austin cheered and we made our way toward the overrun pylon Austin had found. At least I was going to get to hit something.
Chapter 76 - Vunderbar
Getting to the pylon wasn''t that hard. With the stat points we were working with a solid 2 hour jog was enough to get there and it didn''t even wind us.
We were used to it by now and we got into it with gusto. The monsters were roaming about the pylon in different groups and started quite weak compared to what we were used to.
The waves spawned level 38 monsters for us to fight now and the ones in the outer ring were only level 30.
Austin and I both decided to ignore the math and leave the strength near the pylon a surprise. This was supposed to be a fun battle/adventure, using our heads too much was against the point.
We began fighting the small groups, trying to be as quiet as possible, but our efforts were ignored. It was like they had a sixth sense and knew we were there. We might as well have been holding up a sign saying ''Here we are!''.
Stealth wasn''t my strong suit anyway so after it was broken, loud and heavy was the way to go. I got to start slinging around ice bolts and Austin got to use more flashy skills, literally.
He had consigned himself to skills without an outward effect as some form of training or keeping stealth, or a mixture of the two. I didn''t care enough to ask. I had done the same to get one of my early skills upgraded once before.
You have upgraded a skill:
Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Beginner) -> Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Novice)
A while ago, I fought groups of monsters with only a conjured javelin of ice. Throwing it at any that came close. I practice both physically throwing it and launching it with [Ice Manipulation].
I still regretted the skill choice but I would make the most of it.
We both went through stints where we didn''t use certain skills to train and it wasn''t something that abnormal for us. I occasionally didn''t use my hammer and brawled with my fists to practice if I ever got disarmed.
With [Ice Manipulation] I could form ice gauntlets to have little spikes on the knuckles for added effect.
I wasn''t worried about my hammer being removed, since I could call it back to me with [Ice Manipulation], but it breaking worried me. I needed to be ready to fight without it.
My Law made breaking it hard, but my Least Law wasn''t meant to hold up against 600 stat points of strength. My full power boost from Avalanche wasn''t something I had anticipated when I made the hammer.
Trying to upgrade my Law into a Lesser Law was proving difficult. I knew it wasn''t something that people started worrying about until the evolution to D-rank, but I wanted it now.
I got my Least Law a rank early, I could also get my Lesser Law early. Something about it was different though. To get my Least Law I connected with my element and ''meditated'' on making my ice stronger and colder.
Out of the many aspects that Ice was, I focused on those two. To go further down the road and increase my ''enlightenment'', I needed to focus on other aspects of ice.
I wanted a wind chill type of effect that would make anything in my range have to fight off the cold, but that had aspects of Wind that I didn''t have. I thought about branching out to comprehend a Wind Law, like Hal, but decided against it.
I could focus on that after the tutorial was over and I had time to settle down. I needed to stick with what I knew.
With the wind chill option out, I thought about the slow effect that ice usually had in games. Usually, ice was a debuff that slowed enemies or froze them.
It was like my aspect of ''Strength and Cold'' needed something to prop it up to reach further heights. Information on it still wasn''t available and it was driving me crazy. It felt like another aspect was needed to further my Law down the road.
After we were out, I would buy every scrap of information just out of spite. Even if the ''System'' wasn''t sentient, I was going to spite it anyway.
[Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] had long since activated and we were wading through the bodies thrown at us. I was in front with Austin behind, marching toward the center of the lollipop.
"You think about which bloodline you want?" Austin shouted over the sounds of battle behind me. The beasts still weren''t that strong and keeping a conversation wasn''t that hard. We had fought together enough to know what the other was going to do.
It was a valid question and I was still debating which I wanted. There were options that all gave different effects. Arctic Dire Wolf was an option, one of the cheapest, that was decent. It would increase my cold powers and give me a slight leadership boost.
Leadership wasn''t something I cared overly much about though. Dire Polar Bear was another option. It would greatly increase my strength when called upon and give a slight boost of ice powers.
"I don''t know. I''m not thrilled about the permanent option so I need to be careful which bloodline I pick. Did you buy anything to clarify what he meant?" I yelled back after slamming my hammer down onto a monster with a squelch.
"Yeah, I bought some about it. It said that one of the main things that the temporary option does is burn their bloodline for great strength. A bloodline is mainly dormant and only gives a slight boost to whatever aspect it is. So a Bear bloodline will give a little strength, bird bloodline gives better eyesight and so on.
"The dormant state is what bloodlines are in most of the time and gives the smallest boost. In a fight, you can call upon the bloodline to give a bigger boost for a short period of time, kind of like a boosting skill. Think about it like a borrowed power consumable and can''t last forever. This is something most races can do. Even animals can do it with their own bloodline.
"This is where humanity''s trait comes into play. We can go a step further and burn the bloodline we have for a greater boost. It takes what we build on it with our evolutions and makes it an order of magnitude stronger. Where another race would only get 20 strength stat points, a human would get 40."
He took a break to concentrate on one of his skills before shooting out a beam of light piercing through three beasts, leaving behind a scorching hole in all three. [Solar Ray] was quite the skill if he took the time to charge it up.
"The stronger the bloodline, the greater the effect. It only works with the temporary option though. If you choose the permanent changes you can only call upon your bloodline like everyone else. It said something about only so much power can be harnessed or whatnot. I didn''t read too far into that." He finished.
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This decision seemed more important the more I heard about it. I wanted something strong but didn''t have the points to buy one.
"What about you? Do you know which one you want?" I asked.
We had finished off the last of the monsters around us and were in a lull before more came.
"A phoenix one would be cool! I found information that said Solar Phoenixes were real. Think about having one of those!" Austin got excited as he explained.
"My light would take on a radiation effect, increased regeneration, and the possibility of flight! What more could I want!"
All the information we bought said that full transformation was possible only at the high ranks, but partial transformation wasn''t out of the picture. If he could manifest only wings, then flight wasn''t off the table. I didn''t know what tier made that possible but I went along with his fantasy.
I had seen the Ice Phoenix bloodline mentioned in information but we wouldn''t be able to afford it even if it was in the store. Even if we went pylon to pylon, slaughtering every monster in our way, we wouldn''t be able to afford it.
Its cost was astronomical, matching the power it held. Dragons also weren''t available but their lesser forms were. Wyverns were up there and drakes were the closest to our budget. Wyrms were more likely.
A Frost Wyrm could evolve into a Dragon bloodline given enough material and energy, but it was highly unlikely.
After ingesting a bloodline, we could evolve it the same ways a beast could, so devolved versions could work just as fine if given the time and energy needed to evolve it.
A Frost Wyrm didn''t sound very great, but with a little care and nurturing Frost Dragon certainly did.
"We can''t afford that and you know it." I popped his bubble.
There was some grumbling about it and he was a little more violent than necessary with the monster group that came at us next. We both had to give our options more thought.
Every monster was over level 30 and we were both getting over 450 per kill.
There were hundreds for us to kill.
As the distance between us and the center closed, the beasts got stronger and gave more points. It wasn''t all one type which made it harder for us to get through. The non-uniform groups threw us off.
Lightning Tigers paired with Blaze Lions. Acid Spiders with Stone Salamanders. It was a mixture of all of the waves and all of them had grown. They didn''t stay the same level as when they spawned in and increased in level just the same as we had.
It took us almost two hours to get to the center which was perfect timing for me, not so for Austin. My boost from [Avalanche(R)] built up to make me stronger, Austin was huffing a bit from exertion.
He wasn''t out of breath entirely, but he wasn''t the 100% he started at. Neither of our mana pools were full either. Mine had more than his since I could rely on my strength while he used skills more often.
At the center, where the strongest monster sat, was a dire wolf. The dead bodies of other waves were strewn around and I could see teeth marks on their bodies. It looked like the wolf had eaten them.
Using identity left me stunned.
[Prime Alpha Direwolf ¨C Level 45]
It was a massive beast of over 10 feet with a mixture of white and grey fur. Its muzzle was covered in the blood of a carcass it was eating and marred in scars. Some fur was missing from previous fights but that only added to its threatening atmosphere.
The temperature was frigid around it and something about it resonated with me. It had an Ice Law. Or something close to it.
It was the highest-level monster I had seen and it was a boss. It shouldn''t have been here.
"When did this pylon go dark?" I asked.
We hadn''t heard from the people who claimed this pylon in quite a while. I didn''t concern myself with it because it wasn''t important at the time. I was focused on keeping my family alive.
"Around wave 10, when Kyle died," Austin answered. That answered why we didn''t know. We shut ourselves off after that happened and didn''t pay attention to what happened to the others around us.
That meant this wolf had survived for 13 waves and fed on all of the bosses that came after it.
When a pylon fell, the beasts of the wave that conquered it took over, turning it into a pseudo den or home. Consecutive waves still spawned in but instead of fighting the participants, they fought each other for dominance.
Whoever won, stayed. Some of the losing wave left and went into the wilderness but most stayed and became part of the inhabitants. With every pylon that fell the woods became increasingly inhospitable due to the rising number of monsters. It was why we saw the various beasts from all of the waves.
It was also why there were so many. Some died in the fight for dominance and some died fighting each other afterward, they were beasts after all, but there was a lot compared to a normal wave.
This Direwolf Alpha had beaten every boss that came after it and had the experience and levels that came with it. I looked at Austin and he had a blazing smile on his face.
"This is gonna be fun." He said.
I had to admit, a part of me was going rearing to go, but I didn''t think this was the best decision. We had a wave tomorrow and this was a fight we didn''t need.
Before I could convey that, Austin shot out a beam of light at the wolf, getting its attention.
I was so taken aback, that I just sputtered not knowing which to say first. ''What the fuck are you doing?'' or ''Are you insane?'' Austin knew what I was trying to say and responded.
"Oh, come on. Live a little. This''ll be fun!" He said while dancing around the wolf''s retaliatory strike.
"We''re speaking when this is over!" I yelled at him as he got further away.
"Don''t be a killjoy and have some fun. You''re always so worried all the time." He quipped back.
Being forced into a battle I didn''t want was annoying but I couldn''t do anything about it now.
At first, the wolf only sent some wind blades at Austin in response. It seemed it had a mixture of wind and ice for affinities. It was the first time I saw a mix of two. The wind blades were powerful and would kill any of the monsters outside, but Austin just danced around them.
While we were talking, the boss got up from its interrupted meal and got ready. It lifted its head in the air before letting out a massive howl.
"AWWWOOOOOOO!"
With that howl, monsters poured into the area from the side we didn''t come from.
"You get the cannon fodder, I''ll play with the puppy!" Austin shouted.
"Mememe(mocking sounds), fight all the monsters Christopher, I''ll do nothing while dancing around," I said under my breath in a mocking tone.
Decision made for me, I got to work.
My hammer was still dripping blood from the previous fights and more got caked on.
I carried the ice I had been using with me and started slinging it around. Slicing off limbs, stabbing in eyes, crushing skulls.
My skill with [Ice Manipulation] was downright scary. My range had increased to over 30 feet and my control was great.
Using [Ice Arrow(Un)] I could curve it to hit multiple monsters after it went through the first. It had enough power to skewer 3 or 4 beasts if I controlled it right. It was tricky to get the hang of since it went so fast, but practice was abundant with the waves.
It lost power with every monster it went through and got stuck in the third victim, a lightning tiger. A [Shatter(Un)] on the arrow was enough to kill it. After lightly penetrating the monster, what would usually be a superficial wound, [Shatter(Un)] blasted ice chunks into the beast and killed it.
If I was close enough, I could direct [Shatter(Un)] to only explode in one direction. It worked great with [Ice Wall(Un)]s exploding out away from me or directing the ice to deal more damage to monsters.
Being as far away as I was, I couldn''t direct the ice shards but it was still enough.
Claws and teeth tried to slow me down but it all scattered off my ice armor. Any that got through were denied drawing blood from my high fortitude.
I used the time getting here to have a relaxing fight where I didn''t need to worry which resulted in gains I didn''t expect. Gains that made this fight easier.
You have upgraded a skill:
Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Novice) -> Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)
It seemed letting go and not worrying about what was behind me pushed the skill over the edge. I was fighting how I wanted to, without regard for anything around me.
Austin could hold his own and I could do whatever I wanted.
My armor skill was once again behind, but that was fine. It would go up in time.
With the upgrade, my hammer was more fluid and it bashed in heads at an increased pace. It was wonderful.
I felt like shouting, "Vunderbar!"
Even though I didn''t want this fight, I was smiling behind the blood. I didn''t cover my face with ice to be able to breathe which usually resulted in my face getting covered in it.
It was nice to be able to let loose like this. Fight without the constant worry, just my hammer and brawn against the world.
Chapter 77 - Defense
Craig (Mindbreaker)
Craig had been watching the camp for a couple of days now and he finally got a decent chance to take it. It was one of the strongest camps he had come across with thick stone walls and catapults fastened to the walls. There was only one that he saw that was stronger.
The camp itself looked like a medieval castle.
All of the other camps were barely holding on when he conquered them and this was a stark difference. Well, except for that stubborn lightning mage but Craig didn''t like to think about him.
That fight made him lose a good portion of his army and frustrated him to no end. Lightning was a weakness that Craig hadn''t anticipated. After his minions got electrocuted, his mental compulsions were wiped out, turning his army into mindless husks.
His orders wouldn''t work and he had to recapture them to reinstate his control. The jolt to their system flushed out the claws he dug into them.
He was glad that he pushed the mage out of his camp but disappointed he hadn''t killed him. Craig had been there personally to finish him off but he fled faster than Craig thought he would.
He left a few behind to stall and Craig was too late to stop him. The stone walls they held took too long to get through and the mage ran into the territory of the accursed trapper before Craig could get to him. Craig wasn''t going to follow into that death trap.
He had made a few forays into her territory before and they never ended well. His believers weren''t mindful enough to look out for traps. There could even be obvious tripwires and his army would walk right into them.
Craig had to rework how he gave orders to get over that issue. If he told a minion to go ''that way'' it would override their impulse to watch out for traps. This turned his orders into convoluted messes like ''Watch out for traps while going that way'' and every failure made him up the complexity. It was immensely frustrating.
It didn''t always work but it ended better than the previous way.
It was the main reason he was saving that camp for last. Craig had taken most of the eastern border and worked his way north from there. After reaching the northeast corner, he turned west to sweep along the northern border.
Traveling, personally and with his army, took up most of his time. The tutorial area wasn''t small and it took days to reach all of the camps. His skills were high enough that he could convert a camp in 2 days but he had to spend the time to get there. He could be in and out before a wave came if he timed it right.
It made his army have fewer casualties, but he was lower level for it. He was a few levels shy of the next evolution and he couldn''t wait to see what he would evolve into.
Level 50 seemed like a big milestone and he was excited.
He turned his attention back to the camp he was watching. It had some strong people and he could already see how useful they would be under his control. He hadn''t seen them fight a wave but they looked like veterans.
Every one of them was in the F-rank and most were up there in levels as well. They were on average stronger than those in his army. They had less than a tenth of the number though.
After the lightning mage, Craig''s army had dwindled, but it was enough for this camp at least. There were only 20 or so people in it.
Usually, Craig would wait until right after a wave to attack when the camp was at their weakest but something happened to make him move the attack up. As he was watching, the two strongest people in camp left. It left him in shock at first that such an opportunity presented itself but he quickly worked to speed up his planned attack. If he could conquer this place early he could move on to more camps sooner.
He had a minion follow the two as they left for a while and saw that they were preoccupied. They wouldn''t be able to get back in time before he took the camp. Once they arrived, Craig could use the camp''s defenses against them.
Plus, what could two people do? He had an army.
With his plan made, he signaled for it to begin.
Abigail
Abigail checked in on the project Scott and Brayden were working on. The two of them had been working almost nonstop building defenses. As the waves grew in strength, simple spike traps didn''t work anymore.
Both men pushed their professions to make things that could harm the beasts coming to kill us. Scott strengthened and sharpened wood to an unnatural degree and Brayden put it all together into a contraption to kill.
All it needed was for Allison to place it to receive the boosts from her class and skill to increase lethality.
They had learned that splitting the process up worked best. Scott made all of the wooden parts, Vinny made all of the metal, and Brayden put it together. All to have Allison place it.
Every person added to the project with their skills and boosted it from either their class or profession to make something greater than the sum of its parts.
The traps could be placed as soon as they were built, but Connor''s part was done the morning before the wave. His poison lost effectiveness if it sat out for too long so he had to wait to apply it to the traps.
He spent most of his time brewing up new and improved poisons to use. Now that he had finished his body refining poison, he was free to make up new nasties to coat the traps with.
Mitchell''s procedure had worked perfectly with only a few hitches. Abigail and the other healers were enough to make up for it and Mitchell would soon wake up with a Body of Wood.
Conner''s direct input wasn''t required for his poison to work, but he was the only one immune to his creations. If anyone else touched it, the poison would infect them.
They had antidotes, obviously, but not an infinite supply.
Conner''s new Law left him immune and marked him as the seventh person in camp to have one. Abigail herself didn''t even have one yet. She spent too much of her time keeping the camp running.
She knew from the lectures she needed to get one before the evolution to E-rank and now that there was a time limit, she would add some time to her schedule for it.
Her profession was nearing the cap and she didn''t want to waste any experience sitting at level 50.
Running the town gave a surprising amount of experience. The constant need to defend it added to successfully defending it made her level rise the fastest out of everyone''s.
Even faster than Chris.
Thinking about her brother made her frustrated to no end. The two idiots ran off to go somewhere without so much as a goodbye. Chris needed to learn that the two strongest people in camp couldn''t just up and leave.
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What if they were needed and they couldn''t reach them? Chris didn''t even bring a way for them to contact him. He was lucky Abigail prepared so well.
Being a Town Mayor had its perks. She could message the owner of the pylon with one of her skills so she could contact the idiot even though he wasn''t here.
Abigail wished he would think through what he did more so she wouldn''t have to do it for the both of them.
"Honey, you need to take a break," Jonathan said from behind her.
He moved to massage her shoulders after coming up behind her. She leaned into his touch and sighed deeply.
"I know Jon, but I can''t. Everything needs to be perfect for the wave tomorrow." Abigail''s constant worries were always on her mind.
Jonathan had been trying to get her to take time to destress and cope with what she was feeling but she couldn''t find the time. She barely fit in the therapy sessions she did have.
Not everyone in the camp went, but it was a resource Abigail felt they all needed. It was points well spent in her mind, even if she didn''t go as much as she wanted.
The losses and grief all of them were no doubt feeling needed a constructive outlet, unlike how Chris dealt with it.
Any time he got stressed, overwhelmed, or thought about the people not here anymore, he picked up his hammer and left. He would come back a few hours later covered in blood.
It wasn''t healthy.
Every time Abigail brought it up he waved her off. Chris spent more time trying to help Austin through his Dad''s death than dealing with his own feelings. She still remembered one particular heated argument with him about it.
It was after the Blaze Lion wave where they lost Dawson and Dennis. She had found Chris after the battle still in his worn armor stained with blood sitting in front of the gate he had defended. It seemed he was covered in blood more often than not these days.
"Chris, why don''t you go to the session tomorrow? Everyone could use the chance to grieve and do what little they can to cope." She pleaded.
Even with her busy schedule, she still fit in some time for it, but Chris refused. He always said he had better things to do.
"Look out there," Chris said, pointing to the bodies strewn about, "What do you see?"
Abigail wasn''t much in the mood for riddles but she played along. Chris wouldn''t be doing this for no reason.
"Dead monsters," She answered.
"Yes," He nodded, "How far do they reach?"
She hadn''t expected that follow up but surveyed the area before answering, "Just inside the gate."
Most of the bodies were stacked right outside the gate but some had managed to get through and died on the inside. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable. The amount paled in comparison to the ones outside the gate thought.
"Every wave gets harder to defend. Just look at the number that got by me." He pointed at the small fraction of the bodies inside the gate, "I do not have time to focus on anything else. My attention needs to be here."
He thumped the spot covered in the most blood. His spot in the gateway where he did battle.
Abigail wasn''t sure how to respond, but she tried anyway.
"Chris, what you''re doing isn''t healthy." She said quietly. What her brother was doing worried her. He wasn''t the same as he used to be.
"You think I don''t know that?! That I can''t see what''s happening?! I''m not so blind I don''t notice how what happened affects people. Two more because of what? A stray shot!" The way he said it with such heat in his voice, such anger, slightly scared her.
"I do not have time to focus on what we lost. I can''t afford to pull my attention away from what needs to be done. My job is to stand in this gateway and stop as many monsters as I can." He slammed his hammer down, "Any stray worry, errant thought, about the people behind me hinders that. My job is here and that''s the only thing I can worry about right now."
He seemed to deflate after his outburst before finishing quietly.
"If I open that bottle, Pandoras Box in a way, there is no closing it. There will be time to do that later. I will do what I must to be the one left standing after this is over."
As he finished talking, he had the same look on his face as he did after dealing with the thieves. While it pained her to admit, she didn''t push anymore. She would hold him to that later though.
The memory played again in her mind before she pushed it away. It was painful to see her family hurt and Chris wasn''t the only one she had to deal with.
"Where are the kids?" One of them was usually watching them and with Jon here, they were unaccounted for.
"Your Grandmother is with them," He answered.
Ugh. That was another thing she didn''t know how to deal with. Grandma wasn''t the same anymore and Abigail doubted she ever would be. After Granddad died, she spent most of her time watching the kids.
It was like she was spending as much time with them as possible when she could. It was sad to think about.
"That''s good. Spend-" Her response was cut off by the alarm bell.
Hearing the bell, Abigail went into high gear trying to find out what was happening.
Rushing to where the lookout was she found Carrie ringing the bell with frantic enthusiasm.
"Carrie, what''s wrong!" Abigail shouted.
"We''re under attack!" Her shout got everyone in motion.
"From the East!"
With a direction, her family all raced up the walls and to where we usually stood for the waves.
Connor and Allison took up the catapults and the rest of them took out their weapons.
Abigail shrugged on her armor as quickly as possible while running toward the eastern wall. She debated sending the message to Chris now but decided against it. She needed to see what they were facing before she called him back.
Her armor was easy enough to get on with all of the practice and she saw everyone else gear up with the same practiced ease. Armor and swords replaced cloth and tools in record time.
Carrie started shooting off arrows from the tower and Abigail saw them spilt into more as they flew. One turned into two before turning into four. The arrows kept splitting as the flew until 16 flew toward whatever threat they were facing. Hal rushed up the tower, bow on his back, to join her.
Rachel reached the wall first and Abigail felt the heat start to rise from her direction.
Her husband rushed to the gate where he usually stood and Earth moved up his form to cover him. He had a similar armor skill as Chris, except instead of ice, it was earth. He broke off from where she was heading and rushed toward the gate with the rest of the melee warriors.
Reaching the top of the wall let her see what was happening.
A mass of different monsters were attacking and skills rained down from the wall on top of them. Abigail was confused, the wave wasn''t supposed to start until tomorrow? And they were only under attack from one direction. It was odd.
Everyone was slightly confused, but no one questioned it now. They had enough sense of mind to fight now and ask questions later.
The monsters ran at them from the forest a few miles to the east, farther back than where waves usually spawned.
They were also a mixture of beasts they had faced before already along with a few new ones they hadn''t seen. The forest had a lot of animals and Abigail guessed the new beasts were from there.
Still, this was something they had done with ruthless efficiency over 20 times by now. A surprise wave wasn''t going to catch them lacking.
Hal had the best [Identify] skill in camp and once he surveyed the battlefield he gave his report.
"Wide range of levels averaging at the low 30''s. No boss in sight!" He shouted.
That was new. This wave was weaker than Abigail expected. The wave tomorrow was supposed to bring level 38s. Not level 30s
The number of beasts was another difference. Usually during the wave, they were more unified and charged as a group, but these didn''t.
They all charged at different speeds and acted like a conglomerate of individuals rather than a cohesive wave.
The strength of the wave put Abigail off, or rather, the lack thereof.
Something about it didn''t sit right with her. This was a break in the pattern that hadn''t happened and it was out of character for the tutorial to change so suddenly.
Her family was busy fighting while she tried to work through what was happening. There weren''t any injuries for her to heal yet which left her free to direct their defense.
Arrows flited into flesh along with magic raining down destruction. Their supply of throwables wasn''t touched by the few who needed them.
There weren''t enough enemies to justify using them.
Once the beasts reached the wall, the warriors got to work. With all of them on the same side, they cut through the monsters with ease. Even without Chris and Austin, they were stronger than the rabble thrown at them.
Just when she thought this would get cleared up easily, the bodies of the fallen monsters started to swell.
The corpses grew before exploding out with astounding force.
The explosion blew all of the warriors back and some had noticeable injuries.
The force even knocked some of the people on the wall back and Abigail saw Sam and Ashely going around with healing.
No one was badly hurt but the gate was blown in from the force. It was where most of the bodies were concentrated and worked to increase the blast in that area. The gate leaned on the ground, torn from its hinges.
Her breath hitched initially since that was where her husband was, but his earth-clad form wasn''t damaged from the blow.
Before Abigail had a chance to wonder what was going on, she saw more movement coming at them from the east.
"It''s people!" Hal and Carrie both shouted.
People? Was it more Raiders?
Now that so much was unknown and out of her control, she fired off her message to Chris.
''Under attack, people and beasts combined. Unknown threat level.''
Hopefully, he would get here in time to deal with everything.
They were strong and could hold out for a while, but this group was proving clever. They tricked them with the beasts to blow open the gate. Did they force the monsters to swallow explosives? Who would think of that.
Were the beasts from before tamed? They certainly didn''t look like it. They had the same ferocity and mannerisms as the beasts of the wave.
Except there were explosives hidden in their bodies.
She trusted in their defenses. Abigail knew how much work went into them and getting into the wall was only the beginning.
The people attacking would soon find out the folly of thinking just because the gate was open, they were weak.
Abigail almost pitied them. Chris''s mercy was soon running out and she didn''t think that these people would be let off with only a missing hand.
Chapter 78 - Spirit Anchor
Jonathan
The explosion rocked him back and some of his stone armor fell off from the force. Standing right next to the source of the blast wasn''t the best position to be in.
Jonathan was doing his best to not let any of the monsters through and he hadn''t expected them to blow up in his face.
Some of the other warriors were injured and bleeding which left him down some men. Thomas, Abigail''s Dad, was on the ground bleeding from somewhere along with Vincent next to him.
Vincent spent most of his time in the forge but that didn''t mean he didn''t know how to fight. Everyone in camp knew how to fight out of necessity. Vincent spent the waves manning a catapult now, but he was still a warrior through his class and utilized his blacksmith''s hammer well.
Scott and Brayden also took up arms and were fighting down here with him. With Austin and Chris gone, and Mitchell still recovering, that left 18 people to defend.
With the two strongest gone, it fell on Jonathan''s shoulders to lead. This was a position that he hadn''t wanted to find himself in. If it happened, that meant their two strongest were gone.
Rachel was strong and so was Hal, but they weren''t the ones spearheading the defense. He was the one down here making sure to hold the line. Both of them got to stay up on the wall behind protection.
"People Incoming!"
Was all the warning Jonathan got before spells started to land around him. Enemy mages were shooting at him and arrows planked off his armor and shield.
Magic shields went up from the wall that stopped most of the projectiles but it wasn''t big enough to reach Jonathan down below in the gate.
He had to raise a [Stone Aegis] to help keep the attacks at bay.
He was in charge of the defense here and he couldn''t let the attacks land freely. People were still getting back on their feet from the explosion and Ashley and Sam were still running around healing people.
While people were recovering, he weaved [Earth Manipulation] to build up a wall of rock to use for cover against the attacks.
He heard the catapults launch and their subsequent explosions. It was the first time they had fired and it meant they were in trouble. As a rule, they tried to keep the catapult''s use to a minimum.
They were expensive to fire and were most effective against tightly clumped enemies. If they were being used now, it meant there were a lot more enemies coming.
Gritting his teeth, he pulled more earth upward to aid in his defense. If they could explode the gate, they would be able to get through his powers but it would slow them down.
[Stone Wall]s went up as fast as he could make them to help defend for as long as possible.
He may not be Chris with his ungodly stamina and mana pool, but he had a decent-sized one. His profession as a Merchant didn''t give the best stats but it was high level.
Merchant stats could be customized to whatever Jonathan wanted, within reason. There was enough leeway with the profession that he could lean one way or the other with the stat points it gave. Merchant was a broad category and it helped him make up for weaknesses.
His class Stone Bulwark was made for this type of fighting. He was a defense specialist and his class was heavily tilted toward it with stat distribution. 4 Fortitude, 4 Endurance, 3 Vitality, 2 Strength, 1 Agility, 1 Perception, and 5 Free Points per level didn''t leave much room for magical prowess.
Tilting his profession toward the magical side gave him enough mana to use his skills more freely. He still couldn''t spam them like Chris seemed to do, but he could do enough.
His job during the waves was mostly to hem them in. Concentrate the bodies in one area for Carrie to take out with a rain of arrows or Rachel to obliterate with a fireball.
Focusing on defense, he didn''t have a ton of offensive skills to use. He had [Earth Spike] mostly because Chris wouldn''t shut up about it.
His main skill for offensive purposes was the first one he got, [Power Strike]. He had since upgraded it into [Sturdy Blow] and it was the main thing he used to kill monsters.
His body was hard enough, and his skill with the sword pitiful enough, that he focused entirely on the shield. He had Vincent make two shields to use on both arms.
They were designed in such a way that their leading edge could be used as a weapon and Jonathan used them to devastating effect.
His [Shield Mastery] skill had reached apprentice rank long ago proving his affinity with the weapon. Protecting people was something he was good at and rising through the mastery ranks for the shield proved that.
The spell fire calmed slightly which notified him that the frontal assault would soon begin. It wasn''t a moment later that he felt the melee attacks start to build on his makeshift wall.
By now, Ashely and Sam had either healed or removed anyone that was down and the melee brawl would soon begin. Jonathan wasn''t a big talker but he felt like he needed to say something to the 5 or so people behind him.
He was left with Abigail''s Dad(Thomas), Vincent, Allison, Brayden, and Scott to help him. The rest were up above slinging magic or arrows. Connor was technically a warrior but he focused mostly on Alchemy now but Ashley had to take him away to get healed.
Jonathan didn''t see the wound, but it shouldn''t have been too bad if Ashley elected to move him and he hadn''t felt any of her more powerful healing skills go off.
Being married to a Healer left him privy to what their skills felt like and which ones were used in dire straights.
Allison wasn''t a warrior but she was close enough. She knew how to use a short sword and that was good enough.
"Get ready! They''re almost through!" He yelled for everyone''s benefit.
They could see the earthen wall crumbling but he added it for himself mostly. The earth blocked his vision and he didn''t know how many they were going to face when the earth finally crumbled.
When it did, he saw a mass of people rushing toward him. There were at least 30 of them in the leading charge and that was after the ranged attackers had a go at them.
Instantly, he noticed something off. Jonathan had been feeling off since the start of this ''wave'' but now he really felt off. At first, he thought it was a surprise wave, like the others.
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But there was no countdown for this wave. No timer either.
That was his first clue.
Then the variety of the monsters was weird along with how weak they were.
That was his second clue.
The corpses exploded was the third and final clue, they were being attacked by people.
The raiders charged soon after and that was when he threw up the wall, cutting off his vision of what happened further. Now that he could see again, and assess the threat coming at him, his feeling of unease came back.
The people looked insane. Their armor was in tatters and their weapons were in disrepair. They charged mindlessly into the attacks coming at them and Allison''s throwing knives reaped lives without issue.
They neither dodged nor used skills to defend. It seemed like the only thing they were programmed to do was attack. It almost seemed like they were walking into the knives flying their way.
Jonathan knew that they had some kind of [Identify Blocker] as Hal had said as much, but he tried anyway.
[??? - Level ?]
Without much time to think, he got into fighting form. He bashed both shields together and used [Taunting Roar]. Initially, the skill required an actual roar. Something that Jonathan had vehemently tried to find a way around.
He still remembered the mocking that Chris and Austin gave him when he accidentally shouted the name of his skill one time. He was fighting a giant stone lizard for crying out loud, but they were merciless in their ribbing.
Getting the skill to use the sound of his shields clanging was a challenge, but he did it. To both the two idiots'' disappointment. They liked to make fun of and rate his ''roars'' and were sad about the change.
There was one wave where he was placed with Austin at the same gate where after using the skill, Austin sang a Katy Perry song for the whole wave. The entire wave.
A feat that Jonathan would have said was insane before he witnessed it.
His taunt worked and all of the rushing raiders focused on him. Seeing its effectiveness, his taunt worked a little too well. Usually, a few monsters ignored it and went for something else but that didn''t happen here.
Every raider was caught up in it.
He didn''t even get time to say Hi, Boo, or Shit before he started getting pummeled. Both his shields worked to defend but there were too many attacks.
His armor cracked and fell away under the onslaught and he was given little time to retaliate.
The other warriors had free reign to attack and used that time to great effect. The raiders were cut down with ruthless efficiency, but more were taking their place.
Arrows and magic from his own side landed near him to give Jonathan some breathing room.
Bodies built up and it made him slightly sick. He was used to the monsters and seeing human corpses build up at his feet was sickening. He had to push down the nausea that was building.
As the fight continued, injuries started to appear. Allison ran out of knives and joined in the melee receiving a few cuts. Scott got a stray blow to the leg that started to bleed profusely. He dropped to a knee momentarily and swung his sword wildly to fend off attacks.
Vincent lost his shield at some point and only had his blacksmithing hammer to defend himself.
They were losing.
Even with the strength advantage, the numbers were too much. For every raider they cut down, two more took their place. It made him wonder where all these people came from.
There had to be over a hundred of them attacking. It wasn''t only humans either, beasts and monsters were intermixed in their ranks adding to the chaos.
Fighting against humans was a new experience for most of them and that inexperience was costing them. Monsters didn''t have skills they had to worry about. At most, monsters had an elemental attack that they used, not the skills that were flying at them now.
Arrows from opposing rangers pinged off armor and Allison went down with an arrow to the leg and abdomen, her short sword forgotten.
Vincent worked a fighting retreat carrying her behind the wall. His blacksmith''s hammer danced between foes until he was safely behind the wall with the wounded girl.
Jonathan held the gate to the best of his ability. It was 6 feet of ground that he refused to give up. [Shield Bash] worked on repeat to fend off all he could. He didn''t have the skill, nor ability, to use [Earth Manipulation] like Chris used [Ice Manipulation].
Chris wasn''t far away and Jonathan only had to hold out until he came back. As much as the man liked to downplay his strength, Chris could handle this singlehandedly.
As much as it pained him to admit, Jonathan couldn''t do that.
Sure, Jonathan tried, but he wasn''t the same warrior that Chris was. He tried to be, for his kids'' sake, but he couldn''t.
He wasn''t the force of nature that Chris was. Jonathan was a defender, a protector. He wasn''t made for slaughtering armies.
As more of his side got injured and were taken away, the pressure mounted. He slammed his shields into the enemy with abandon but it wasn''t enough.
Scott went down next but had enough left in him to retreat under his own power. Brayden joined him soon after.
The number of blades pointed against them made some find their mark eventually. Gaps in armor were found and blades caught weak points. Vincent was a damn good smith, but armor wasn''t infallible.
Joints needed to be able to move, and the body needed to bend.
Magic rained down from the wall but it did little to deter the raiders. It was like they didn''t care about the losses they were taking. The demoralizing effect wasn''t there or didn''t register.
Soon, it was only Jonathan and Abigail''s father, Thomas, left.
Thomas was on the stronger side but wasn''t strong enough for the numbers they faced. Jonathan knew Chris was trying to prop his father up into a decent warrior, but Thomas wasn''t there yet.
He fought valiantly but he was slowing down. They had been under attack for over 30 minutes and Thomas was dragging.
His axe swings were slower and the skills he used came sporadically.
"Retreat Thomas!" Jonathan shouted.
He usually didn''t refer to his father-in-law by his first name but calling him Mr. Zalenski was unnecessary.
"No! I can take it!" Was his response. A blow to the leg staggered him during his response.
A retaliatory axe strike took the offender''s head but the damage was done. Blood seeped down his leg and dyed his armor red.
"It''s fine. I''ve got this!" Jonathan shouted back. His tone made him sound more confident than he was.
Something was rising in him. It reminded him of the time he tanked the boss of the 15th wave while Chris couldn''t.
The stone lizard boss had launched him repeatedly off into the air but something was different at the time he was needed. Chris had been scrambling around with a broken arm and no weapon, his axe being lost at some point in the fight.
Something deep inside of him awoke at the thought they were going to lose. Chris was barely standing at the time and Austin couldn''t damage it. His kids were here and he couldn''t do anything to protect them.
The thought rankled him. He was a father, it was his job to protect his kids.
Being unable to lit a fire in him like nothing had before.
Something must have been noticeable on his face because when he went to aggro the boss, Chris let him.
The same feeling as then was coming back now. He was failing as a father if he let the raiders through and that was something he couldn''t abide by.
His baby girl was behind him and he could not falter. Would not. His son was probably babbling on about dinosaurs in the bunker and Jonathan was his bulwark against the world.
Something inside of him resonated through his body, growing from deep within him. It wanted to know who he was.
He was a bulwark. The shield protecting his kids- his family.
The question of who he was wasn''t enough. It was a part of the answer but the growing power in him wanted something else. It wanted something to latch onto. The growing power was a representation of who he was, it needed something else.
Something to anchor it.
He explored all he could about the feeling but it gave no hint. Jonathan was left clueless, it could be anything.
He dove deep, trying to find out what was required of him. He already expressed who he was. What else did it need?
Thomas finally heeded his command and Jonathan was left alone to hold the gate. He was the only thing standing in the way of people who would bring his family harm.
His shields started to shine with an unnatural glow. It wasn''t mana coursing through them, but something else.
While defending against a sword attack aimed at his hip, it finally clicked.
The power needed an anchor and he found one that worked. It could have been anything. An object, an idea, a place, anything.
What Jonathan chose was a phrase. Something that connected to him so deeply that it was the anchor of who he was.
After realizing it, and bringing it to bear, his power exploded. He wielded his shields with a grace and ability he never had before. The defender in him resonated with the weapons and boosted his ability with them.
His spirit poured into the two shields on his arm and they became more. They weren''t just metal and wood any longer, they were a piece of his spirit that would sooner see his spirit destroyed than the shields break.
The phrase he picked rang out in his head and he took on a second wind. Chris had to be close and Jonathan only needed to hold out a little longer.
His anchor was a part of who he was and it would not fail him.
For his enemies had to do something before they made it inside.
You have to go through me first.
Chapter 79 - Field of Flames
Rachel
The warriors were getting pushed back. Jonathan was the only one still holding the gate against the raiders and he wouldn''t last forever. Rachel did the best she could to eliminate as many as possible.
She cast [Fire Lance] and multiple [Fire Arrow]s on repeat. Every once in a while she would have to cast one of her more costly skills. [Fire Wall] and [Flame Pillar] were both great area denial skills but they came with the cost of increased mana.
Both area skills took more mana than over 5 [Fire Arrows]. Fighting the waves was always a balancing act for her, juggling mana cost for spells versus effect.
A well-placed [Flame Pillar] could do more damage than 5 [Fire Arrows] but it all came down to timing and positioning. When the tutorial started, she would go overboard and blaze through her mana pool too fast with more powerful skills.
The waves beat that habit out of her. She was of no help to anybody if she was out of mana. She hadn''t even taken up training with a weapon, putting all her time into practicing the arcane.
As a result, she was the best at it. She could weave the strongest spells and [Ritual Cast] with the most people. She could cast a spell using up to 5 people''s mana pools and they didn''t even have to be mages.
No other mage here could claim the same. It was an achievement she was proud of and one that worked to kill the boss on multiple occasions. If only she could have used it to save her son. Thinking of Kyle still hurt.
She was powerful, sure, but she alone couldn''t take down the bosses. If it weren''t for Jonathan and Chris keeping it at bay, she would be a sitting duck squashed as easily as an ant.
As the warriors holding the gate dwindled, she resorted to more powerful spells. She knew from experience that Jonathan could handle a little flame. She still tried to shield him from the brunt of her spells using [Fire Manipulation] but he could take a hit.
The man was a walking tank. Even more so than Chris in some aspects. Chris could take a fireball to the face and walk away unscathed just because of his stats, Jonathan had skills that produced the same effect.
His earth armor was notoriously hard to get through using fire. The flames just weren''t able to pierce the armor and the force was the only thing that did damage.
With friendly fire out of the way, she threw down an [Immolate]. [Field of Flames] wasn''t worth it and the less powerful skill was more than enough. The area around Jonathan started to heat up and the air began to warp and distort.
The raiders attacking showed no outward expression but their bodies started to burn. None of them were protected from the heat like Jonathan was. Burning flesh was never a pleasant smell but when one had fire abilities, it became endurable.
[Immolate] was an area of effect skill that raised the temperature in said area to boiling. If left active for long enough, water would boil and fluids would evaporate. The skill wasn''t powerful enough yet to melt metal. Her Law made it close, depending on the metal.
It also had the added effect of flooding the area with Heat and Fire mana. Heat mana was a lesser version of Fire mana but it worked to make her skills come easier.
After the Blaze Lions, Rachel noticed how important changing the area to your affinity was. With her affinity readily available, mana cost went down, her regeneration increased, and the power of her spells went up.
Everything became easier.
That was why she couldn''t fight on the same side as Chris anymore. They would cancel each other out and spend most of the time fighting one another over control of the environment.
She would work to heat it and spread fire mana, he would work to cool it down and spread ice mana. The two couldn''t occupy the same space. Like Earth and Wind, or Lighting and Water.
The mana types were anathema to one another and canceled each other out.
With the fire mana in the area, she gathered it up with [Fire Manipulation] and cast an overpowered and cost-reduced [Flame Thrower].
The skill was normally cast from the hand or body part, but it was easy enough to move the point of origin down in front of Jonathan. The range Rachel could launch spells from wasn''t restricted to her body and hadn''t been since the first week of the tutorial.
Ranged casting was one of the best techniques for training mana manipulation. It stressed the abilities in all the right ways to increase the effectiveness of nearly all skills.
Casting a spell at range increased the mental strain, mana cost, and decreased the control she had over the spell which was perfect for training purposes.
If she used a too-powerful spell or went too far away, the spell would fail and the backlash would injure her but she was practiced enough to mitigate that.
Practice and experience aided her in casting the [Flamethrower] and it wasn''t even close to the maximum she could go.
Flames poured out of where she anchored the spell and the raiders charging into it melted. The raiders behind them rushed into the flames without reservations following their brethren in death.
That was one of the first things that she noticed, they had no self-preservation skills and she had to adjust her skill use accordingly. Where monsters would dodge and go around a [Flame Pillar], the raiders would kill themselves charging through it.
As focused as she was on attacking, and being the most effective on the wall, ranged attacks started to rain down on her. Enemy spells and arrows started to target the biggest threat, which was her.
The magic was easy to defend. Their spells were almost childish in efficiency and the control of the spells the raiders launched was laughable. If she could spare the attention, she could rip them apart with just her mana manipulation skills.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The arrows were different. They injured her slightly but they weren''t enough to really do any damage. [Mending Hearth] was enough to recover from the minuscule damage. Her self-healing skill saved the healers the trouble of coming to heal her.
Forced to defend, more raiders started to pressure Jonathan. Rachel thought he was about to falter, but to her surprise, he didn''t.
Something poured out of him and his... presence skyrocketed. Rachel had seen some information about ''auras'' but she didn''t know enough to say with any degree of certainty what it was that changed.
One moment he went from near failure to turning the tides with brutal retaliation. His shields lit up and sent bodies flying with every hit. It reminded her of Chris and the blows from his hammer, the body couldn''t help but get launched.
With Jonathan''s second wind, the fight turned into a stalemate. They still weren''t winning, but they would be able to hold off the attack until reinforcements arrived.
Thinking about what Chris would do sent shivers down her spine. She had known him since he was a baby and ever since the apocalypse, he became someone else.
When Rachel married Brayden and joined the Zalenski Family, Chris hadn''t been born yet. It was a few years after that Chris came into the world. She had Hal at the same time that Abigail was born which was 5 years before Chris was.
Chris was always a happy-go-lucky kid, quick to laugh and she couldn''t remember a time he wasn''t smiling or laughing. As he got older, sarcasm and jokes were his go-to.
Rachel watched him go through high school and most of college before the system came and with the frequency the Zalenski family gathered, she wasn''t a stranger.
That was why it was such a shock to her of how he changed. Never once would she think that he would kill a person, or cut off someone''s hand. When she heard about that she was appalled.
The boy she knew turned into some medieval justiciar, cutting off someone''s hand for stealing. It wasn''t something she had expected and rocked her worldview.
They spent a good deal of time practicing their Manipulation skills against each other which gave her a chance to ask him about it. She remembered the conversation vividly.
"How could you be so... so... barbaric," Rachel said struggling to find words to describe how she felt.
Chris sat there, the tug of war over temperature forgotten for the moment. He looked up at her and sighed.
"I don''t know. I never wanted to nor did I ask for it. I didn''t want to lead -I never did- but since I found myself in this position I''m going to do the best I can. It took me a long time to come to terms with what happened... the changes we now face." He stopped and took a deep breath forming the thoughts into words.
"The only thing I can do is try my best. I don''t think I would have done what I did if my Dad hadn''t gone along with it. He has always been my rock, morally, and he didn''t raise complaints when it was discussed. To this day I wonder why he didn''t." Chris saying that made Rachel question why Thomas hadn''t.
He was always a strict and narrow man, for as long as she had known him. Brayden had the same qualities. The punishment wasn''t something that Rachel had thought Thomas would go along with.
"I think it''s time we, I, realize I need to change. I can''t hold onto the morals of the past, the laws that used to protect us. For a while now my Dad has impressed on me the importance of honor, of justice, and I think I understand what he was getting at now that I had to go through that.
"I never wanted to cut off hands, I never wanted to kill people either, yet I have done both. The power I hold over people wasn''t something I asked for. The world is a cruel place and I need to find my place in it. I need to find where I draw the line between right and wrong and what punishments should come from crossing it. Physical might meant little before, but it means everything now and people will abuse that." He looked almost sad as he said that. Like it wasn''t something that he wanted.
"Warlords and tyrants will come and go, rise and fall. People who try to bring order to the chaos will rise and fall just the same. Other people''s morals mean little if I can smash them with my hammer to get what I want. The ease of exercising power of others will bring about a society I don''t think I will like and I need to think about what I will do about it."
"If I am to lead, I will do it right. I need to find the rules and morals to live by and stick to them. People will easily let their power get to their heads and inflate their egos. I need to come up with a code of honor to live by and it needs to be something I can keep." He looked thoughtful before adding in a quieter tone. "For I fear what I may become without it."
The conversation wasn''t something Rachel had expected. She had kept her head buried in the sand and hadn''t thought about what would happen when they returned. Returned to a lawless world where whoever was strongest ruled and right now, the strongest was Chris.
Might wasn''t a quantifier indicative of being a good ruler yet it would determine who would lead and who wouldn''t. No one would follow someone who couldn''t protect them. To hold absolute power over someone was a scary fact to consider. Rachel herself was more powerful than most of the people she knew.
If she wanted, she could go found a city and be named empress if she liked. Punishing all those who disagreed. The weight of leadership wasn''t something that she considered and she was glad that Chris did. Not many would.
After that talk, she came to terms with what needed to be done. Harsh but fair punishments were necessary and death was inevitable. She used to think that capital punishment was wrong and immoral but those beliefs left when she gained the ability to throw fire from her hand.
Taking a hand for theft was a harsh but fair punishment. Which made her know what Chris would consider harsh but fair for the people who threatened his family.
Death.
Death was both harsh and fair for the people she now faced and she pitied them for it. Chris was still feeling out his code of honor and what it would be, but it was easy enough to decide in this case. He would do it even if he didn''t want to, but Rachel didn''t think that would be a problem.
The easiest way to piss Chris off was through his family and the raiders sped past that warning sign long ago. Nothing would save them from the retribution he would bring and Rachel wouldn''t even put up a token defense against it. For she believed they deserved death as well.
If someone were looking in from the outside with the beliefs of the world before, both she and Chris would be considered evil and tyrants but those opinions died when the world ended. It was time to embrace change.
The stalemate continued as Jonathan held the gate and Rachel burned any who came near. The raider''s numbers, both human and monster, started to dwindle after the first hundred and dwindled further after the second.
It had been almost an hour by now and they hadn''t breached the gate. Jonathan held it viciously.
Some of the other mages on the wall next to her had to retreat and enter [Meditation] to refill on mana, but Rachel stayed. She could hold out for a while yet and something told her it wouldn''t be long.
[Fire Arrow] was her cheapest spell and she used it frequently. Evolved from [Fire Bolt] and made more powerful by her Law. Her Law focused on the power Fire had and the destruction it was capable of.
It boosted all of her skills and made them increasingly deadly. The sight of burnt bodies was one she would live with forever but she had come to terms with that.
It seemed like the Raiders were getting desperate and committed to one final push. The bodies coming at them increased in intensity and she had to reach deep to continue.
Her more powerful skills came out to play and [Field of Flames] burned the area in front of the wall as she poured more mana into it creating a vast swath of flame. Her Law empowered it further and raiders dropped as they entered her skill.
[Blazing Spear] pierced through 3 or 4 bodies before its energy was spent. She was scraping the bottom of the barrel mana-wise when she felt it. An oppressive atmosphere that could only come from one person.
As amateur as Rachel was in sensing auras, she could tell who it belonged to. It brought the chill of winter and a sharpness of ice. Promising the chill after death and the cold of oblivion.
Chris was back and he wasn''t happy.
His hammer would bring destruction on a scale Rachel shuddered to imagine.
A small part of her wanted to pray for her enemies but it died out instantly.
For what they had done deserved what was coming.
Chapter 80 - Hornets Nest
Chris
"The fight was completely unnecessary! We should have left after seeing the boss. There''s a wave tomorrow or did you forget?" My tone signaled how unhappy I was about the situation.
Killing all of the monsters the Wolf called with its howl was an annoyance at best, killing the boss was not.
It used its power expertly and out-leveled the two of us by over 6 levels. The experience it had gained from killing its fellow bosses made it a nightmare to fight.
It was given time to both accumulate power and get used to said power. We were lucky it ended in relatively light injuries. My fortitude staved off most of the damage that landed on me and a full boost from [Avalanche(R)] was hard to get through, even for bosses.
After teaming up on it, the ending was decided. I had better control over the ice than it did which negated most of its arsenal. With magic removed, it relied on its strong body to attack.
A strong body that couldn''t stand up to mine. My strength of both arms and body added together was superior to its. A fact that decided the outcome.
Austin and I were both sitting in the aftermath cooling down. Both of us had cuts and scrapes but it wasn''t enough for me to use a potion. Austin already had and his wounds closed faster as a result.
While I killed the riff-raff the boss summoned, he took some good licks from the boss. A hole the size of a golf ball was still working its way closed from when the boss skewered him with an icicle.
He hadn''t been fast enough to get out of the way in time and it went straight through his gut, piercing both armor and flesh. If this was before he would be dead.
Now, all it needed was a potion and some rest. [Meditation(C)] would have him right as rain in a few hours. His natural vitality would even heal the wound if given enough time.
"Oh come off it. It was fun and we gained a lot. Stop complaining." Austin said while waving his hand dismissively.
While what he said was true, it didn''t take away from the fact that the fight was reckless, a trait of mine I had been trying to tame.
"I -" The sentence died in my throat as something unexpected happened.
''Under attack, people and beasts combined. Unknown threat level.''
Abigail''s voice bloomed in his head. It took a second to recognize it was her and deduce it was one of her profession skills. Contacting the owner of the pylon seemed like something a Town Mayor should be able to do.
After parsing the message, anger exploded in me. [Barbarian''s Fury(Un)] threatened to activate on its own and I had to clamp down on the skill to avoid that.
Austin, sensing my mood, asked. "What? What''s wrong?"
"Someone is attacking our camp!" I snarled.
As soon as the message arrived I picked up my discarded armor and rushed to put it on. If someone was attacking I would need it soon. Leaving it behind was faster but I was running into an unknown fight and it would be stupid to not be as prepared as I could be.
Austin followed my lead and redonned his armor as well. There was still the hole piercing through it but it would protect everywhere else.
The body of the wolf was left behind and we both sprinted toward home.
The ground disappeared below us and my anger rose. Someone was attacking my family. From the message it didn''t sound like it was just a pack of bandits, it sounded like a full-blown assault.
I trusted in my family and their strength, but I couldn''t help but worry. Austin and I were the strongest we had and we weren''t there.
My expression continually darkened as we got closer. My thoughts spiraled about what was happening and plans of retaliation came to mind.
If they wanted a fight, they would get one.
The reservations from before were thoroughly gone. There would be no mercy like with the bandits and thieves. These people attacked with the expressed purpose of destruction and killing.
Something told me they wouldn''t like my response. Mercy wasn''t something I could afford to have anymore and I would show people the consequences of attacking my FAMILY.
I had lost my boost from [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] after the fight and I worked to get it back. The skill was a mystery when I first got it but I had teased out its activation requirements and what was needed to keep it from going away.
It activated when I either attacked or defended when containing the intent to kill. I had to attack with the purpose of harm or defend an attack carrying the intent of harm for it to activate.
It wouldn''t activate from spars or training. Finding a monster to bludgeon was hard at first since we had killed all of them in the area, but finding one wasn''t difficult once we left the area.
Running by and braining a monster with my hammer was enough to start the timer. I still hadn''t found the limits of how long of not fighting would keep the skill going so I made slight detours from the direct path back to camp.
I conjured javelins of ice while I ran and put my newly upgraded [Throwing Proficiency(N)] skill to good use. Any beast near got a javelin present courtesy of being in my way.
Stolen story; please report.
Austin was faster than me and he took off at full speed, leaving me in the dust. He would be able to hold any attack off until I got there and I would be getting there with as much boost as I could.
The slight detours added to the time needed to get back but my rising stats made me faster. In the end, I wasn''t sure which way would have been quicker.
Even so, by the time I finally reached the camp, both my anger and boost had reached new heights. The trip back was barely an hour at full tilt which made the boost half as strong as the maximum. Which was unfortunate but not all that important.
My strength stat was still over 450 and was probably the highest of anything attacking.
As the camp came into view I was thoroughly displeased. Craters from the catapults marred the land and most of the eastern field was on fire. Rachel wasn''t holding back and her skills engulfed the area.
Deep yellow fire raged with small hints of blue at their base. I saw a massively empowered [Flamethrower] blossom out 15 feet in front of the gate, spewing flames everywhere. My perception wasn''t the highest but I could see the gate was unbreeched.
Jonathan held it valiantly. There was something about him that was different and it put my instincts on edge. It was like facing a law for the first time but something else. It didn''t matter now what it was but it was strong and gave him enough to hold the gate.
Continuing to assess the situation, my eyes drifted to the bodies. None of the dead were my family which let me sigh in relief. Even thinking about the possibility made my blood boil.
It was a mixture of monsters and humans that compiled the dead and it looked like a large number of them at that. I didn''t stop to count but there were easily over 100 bodies lying before our walls.
The ground shuddered under my stride and I bounded toward the fighting. Austin was already there helping Jonathan against the attackers while Rachel burned those who came close.
This close to the fighting, I let out a roar and jumped into the thick of it.
Three [Ice Arrows(Un)] froze in front of me before being launched out. It wasn''t Rachel''s five or six, but it was still powerful.
At the end of their flight [Shatter(Un)] added to the damage done.
My hammer followed soon behind my opening attack and the first consequence of my retribution showered over me. The humans were pitifully weak compared to my near-peak state, my hammer vaporized them. Covering me in the aftermath.
Most of the blood beaded and rolled off but [Frost Armor(R)] was dyed red and would only get worse.
My hammer swings took two or three at a time before leaving them a disfigured mess of both dead and soon-to-be-dead bodies in my wake.
With Austin defending the gate, I was free to slaughter anything that came near.
After our arrival, the tide of battle swung violently in our direction. Bodies accumulated quicker than ever before as I crushed all who raised a hand against my kin.
Any thoughts of sparing them were long gone. I knew what needed to be done and I would do it. Granting mercy was just asking for them to come back and try again.
The oddness that I felt from them was swiftly ignored. How they acted mattered little when they were corpses.
My path led me toward their origin of attack as I left the wall behind. Rachel''s fire was annoying and I didn''t want to deal with it. Plus, I wanted to get to the heart of the attack.
That was where their leaders should be.
From the size and number of people involved, it had to be a joint attack from multiple factions. Or one giant faction formed from multiple smaller factions. It didn''t matter to me which, they would die all the same.
I hadn''t kept up with what others were doing and I would have to fix that. I had assumed that everyone was focusing on surviving the waves, not plotting to attack one another.
Assuming that was a mistake I wouldn''t make again. It seemed the prize of conquering other pylons was too great for some and they reached their hand too far trying to claim mine.
I would show them the folly of that decision.
Far enough away from the fiery tempest, my true fighting form was unleashed.
[Hail(C)] produced asinine amounts of material for [Ice Manipulation(C)] to work with. Without the Blaze Lions to fight against, my claim over the environment was swift and left no room for contention.
My new skill made my attempt nearly effortless.
After fighting the pseudo-dungeon reaching level 40 was assured. Passing the threshold gave me another skill. One that I used to boost my power further.
Permafrost(Uncommon) ¨C Freeze the ground around you or a targeted location, slowly damaging and slowing all enemies in range. Size and depth of Permafrost determined at the time of activation. Maximum diameter and depth are determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity. Temperature and effect are determined based on mana and Law.
[Permafrost(Un)] turned the very land I walked on into the tundra. Ice and frost rose from the ground and the grass around my feet froze. The circle of the Arctic extended out around me as more of the field turned white. The Earth froze under me and the area around me took a polar plunge.
Both [Permafrost(Un)] and a massive [Hail(C)] worked together to turn the area around me into a winter wonderland. The air dropped below freezing and the ground sapped any foe of energy.
The frozen dirt both slowed and damaged any who stood upon it that wasn''t who I considered an ally. It was taxing on both my mana and Law but well worth it.
I couldn''t keep it up forever but I would pay the cost of that later.
The attacker''s environment turned against them and the ground worked to freeze their feet in place. The skill itself wasn''t powerful enough to freeze anyone of true strength, but the addition of my Law and the fact they weren''t that strong made it enough for my purposes.
With my authority over the battlefield thoroughly established, the slaughter rose to new heights.
When facing off against the Blaze Lions before, I could only handle 10 of my auxiliary snowflakes. Now, without the hindrance and boost from my skills, more than 20 froze into place.
My range hindered me the most now instead of my manipulation skills. There simply weren''t enough enemies in range to justify conjuring more.
Bodies fell quickly and froze soon after.
A slew of massacred ice sculptures followed behind my path.
As I ran toward the forest the attack originated from, the raiders made to retreat. Any headed toward the wall turned around and tried to hinder me instead.
It was like they were throwing their lives away to stop me from going further.
While both annoying and frustrating, it wouldn''t save them from the retaliation they were due. My hammer would come for them and being delayed by a few bodies wouldn''t save them.
My slaughter continued and the bodies thinned.
After fighting through their defenses I reached where the leaders should have been.
The keyword there being should.
There was no one here. An empty forest clearing was my only prize for reaching the origin.
My anger spiked and [Barbarian''s Fury(Un)] activated.
"You COWARDS! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" My roars went unanswered.
The leaders I imagined deigned not to respond.
The cowards had fled. The spineless leaders behind the attack weren''t here and they abandoned their army to die while they slinked away in the trees.
I was no tracker and chasing after them would have me guessing at where they went. A rational mind would have realized this.
I was not in a rational state of mind.
With my prize stolen from me, I took off in the direction I thought they went.
My anger made me not think about anything other than revenge. The rebuke at Austin about needless fights before the wave tomorrow long forgotten.
They kicked the hornet''s nest and retribution was due.
They wouldn''t escape my hammer.
Chapter 81 - Warpath
Chris
I journeyed east at a breakneck pace. My boost from [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] had finally peaked and I was moving the fastest I could. I left the terrain-altering effects behind and focused on traversing as much ground as possible.
I leaped my way east faster than I could truly keep up with the surroundings. I blew through trees and plants like a bull in a china shop. My boosted stats made running through trees only a slight deterrence rather than the obstacles most people considered them.
Splinters and half-broken trees followed me as I rampaged east.
For all my power and skills, I had nothing to help me track my foe. It left me zig-zagging from pylon to pylon for hours without any luck. Most pylons I ran into were turned into the dungeon-esque monster-infested lands but some held people.
The monsters I ignored and I couldn''t determine if the people I encountered were at fault. Even in my rage-fueled state, I wouldn''t just slaughter innocent people.
If I were to take a second to think things through, I would have noticed the oddities in the pylons that I had passed but my focus was narrowed so completely that I hadn''t.
As my search extended into dusk, my frustrations grew. They were either good hiders, or I missed something.
Tracy
"Ma''am, you need to see this!" Kathy came running into her office without even stopping to knock first. She was finishing up the checks on the defenses for the wave tomorrow while trying to recover her mana.
Using her trapping skills all day had drained her and her office was designed to help her recover faster. One of the enchanters put a mana-gathering formation down that she had bought from the store. Making the mana density in her office higher which raised her mana regeneration.
They had just gotten the next level of walls at the monumental price tag of over a million points. The upgrade increased the number of catapults from 2 to 4 a side.
The trebuchets that some of the carpenters had built would be left unmanned but the magic store-bought siege weapons were more effective.
They also cost more to use but it was worth it. Especially on the bosses.
They couldn''t kill the bosses in the conventional way, they hadn''t been able to in a while, so she turned to restraining traps rather than lethal ones. Her traps were made to restrain the boss and keep it in place while the siege weapons concentrated fire to kill it.
No one was strong enough to face the boss in open battle and doing so was suicide.
"What?" Tracy ground out. She was still fighting off the mana deprivation headache and Kathy''s enthusiasm added to her already pounding head.
Kathy either didn''t notice her plight or didn''t care for she continued in her loud and excited tone.
"My birds caught something brilliant! They were patrolling the north where the Mindbreaker was last seen and they caught a fight breaking out. I had expected it to happen tomorrow after the wave, like all the others, but it happened now!" Kathy rambled out with more words than were strictly necessary.
It took Tracy''s tired mind a second to catch up with what was said. Tracy didn''t see what Kathy had to be so excited about. The independent group she had tried to warn most likely fell and would be turned into things she didn''t like to think about.
With their group defeated, nothing was stopping the crazy lunatic from taking over the north. After finishing his conquest up there, there wasn''t much between her settlement and his armies.
Rather than be excited, Tracy wanted to pull her hair out. She would need to work overtime and late into the night to make sure that there were as many traps as possible in the way.
Her new... ''ally'', Damien, would be a great addition to her side but she didn''t trust the man completely yet. He disbanded his faction and joined hers, which was a good first step, but she would be a fool to trust the man completely.
Seeing the despair in her expression, Kathy rushed to explain.
"No, they didn''t lose! I''m not sure how, but they fought off the minions that were sent at them and they even made them retreat!" Kathy exclaimed.
That woke Tracy up. Not even Damien had gotten them to retreat. The most he was able to do was stall their advance until more of the mindless bodies showed up.
Where the Mindbreaker was getting them all was still a mystery. His skills shouldn''t have advanced so quickly and he shouldn''t have been able to control so many at his rank.
Him being at E-rank was plausible but it still didn''t explain everything.
"How? I know that they were stronger than us personally but their camp isn''t as strong as ours. They just got the siege weapons last wave and haven''t made any of the other upgrades we have." Tracy questioned.
It was something she had wondered about for a while. Tracy spent a mountainous amount of points every wave upgrading her camp and their strong settlement was one of the main reasons they were still alive.
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The upgrades they bought with the points they earned were what carried them but the camp up north didn''t have them. Their walls were the first upgrade of stone and they only recently bought the catapults.
Based on their reluctance to buy the camp upgrades, she assumed they didn''t buy the store-offered traps either. Every time Kathy tried to get close to find out how they were doing it, their scout birds were shot down.
It wasn''t even the powerful archer who did it anymore, multiple people in the camp took down the birds. They killed anything that got close. A reasonable approach but annoying nonetheless.
"I''m not sure. I only caught the aftermath and the fight was already over. It does seem that they have a powerful Elementalist, though, for the land was ravaged by both fire and ice." Kathy explained.
Kathy''s birds were a tremendous boon but they could be spotty at times. They didn''t have the skills a normal scout did and you could only see what they could physically take in.
They didn''t have an [Identify] skill or anything else to gauge power level so it was difficult to truly grasp the nuance of a battle. All you saw was the events as they transpired, or in this case the aftermath.
Levels and strength could only be determined through action and seeing only the aftermath left them guessing at what happened.
"Show me," Tracy said while holding out her hand to the woman.
Kathy could see through her birds easily enough but it took some practice for her to be able to share her vision with another. It took another skill for it to be possible and Tracy used it to her advantage.
She trusted Kathy but some things she liked to see for herself.
Kathy took her hand before closing her eyes to channel her skill. It was disorienting at first, but Tracy was used to the change.
Seeing through a bird''s eyes was difficult to get used to but this wasn''t the first time she had done this.
What she saw left her breathless. The camp looked like it was on fire at first glance but she soon noticed it was only the land in front of the wall that was ablaze.
The gate was blown in and bodies burnt and broken scattered the land. She could see people milling about cleaning up the battlefield with practiced ease.
She wished to get closer but the bird would only get shot down. The only reason she could see clearly was the great vision the animal had.
Around the wall were stone ramparts that looked like they were pulled up from the ground. Stone chunks littered the area in front of the gate and various earth walls and shields were smashed in and left broken.
Kathy''s Elementalist theory was proving likely. Stone, fire, and ice were all spread around the battlefield. It was plausible that they were funneling all the experience into one powerful Elementalist.
The fire was mostly out but Tracy could see the burnt scorch marks and blackened areas that marred the land from intense heat. There were ashes of who knew how many blowing in the wind as a result.
For some reason, the ice was still around. The stone was in chunks, the fire mostly put out, but the ice was showing no signs of melting.
About 50 yards away from the wall there was a massive circle of frost that covered the ground and upon it were countless bodies.
All of them were frozen in various states of dismemberment and mutilation. Heads were frozen a distance away from bodies like they were torn off. Chests were flattened from what looked like blunt force trauma. One headless body even died standing up and froze before it could fall over. Like a cannonball took off its head and the body froze upright.
What she saw was gruesome and it caused her to fight off the nausea rising from her gut. It was a scene from a massacre. The fact someone had the power to do this scared her deeply. It was unsettling to see the carnage that was left behind in the battle''s wake.
The ice led away from the camp and into the forest. The path of bodies followed the frozen land before ending in a clearing. The clearing was where the trail of ice and bodies ended.
All told, it looked like the Mindbreaker lost a good portion of his army in the north. He had more thralls scattered around the land he owned but most of his people in the north were gone. Only their corpses remained and for some, not even that.
"Where is he?" Tracy asked. Kathy knew who it was she was talking about.
"I haven''t been able to find him. He was traveling toward that camp when I last saw him but I haven''t found any traces of him since. None of my birds have seen him either. Usually, he is easy to find since he travels with an army but I''ve had no luck. It''s like he''s hiding." Kathy said.
"Is he dead?" Tracy couldn''t help but hope for that outcome.
"No. His thralls continue working in other areas so he must still be alive." Kathy dashed that thought with her answer.
They didn''t know what would happen to the people under his control when he died but them continuing as normal was a good enough sign he was still alive.
While unfortunate, there was nothing she could do about it. She hoped that this would weaken him significantly enough so she could get out of this tutorial without having to deal with him.
Just when Tracy was about to ask to leave the vision, she saw something peculiar. A trail of broken trees led further east. Something told her that the path of destruction wasn''t from a wild beast.
The clearing was wide and most of her attention was on the marks of fighting, which led her to only see the beginning of the destruction and write it off as unimportant. The tree line wasn''t what she was focused on at first but what she saw drew her attention and she motioned for Kathy to move the bird over there.
After getting closer, she saw that the path carved a line through the forest headed directly east.
Something had rampaged through the forest without regard for damaging the surroundings. Every 5 to 6 feet, small craters dotted a line leading east.
Trees were destroyed and plants were left in pieces. Some were ripped from the ground completely.
"What is this?" Tracy asked.
"I don''t know. I didn''t see this at first, I was focused on the battle." Kathy responded curiously.
Without needing to be asked, Kathy followed the line of destruction further east. It went on for miles and it seemed to never end.
Kathy had to mobilize a few more of her scouts to speed the search up.
It took almost 30 minutes before they found anything and Kathy inhaled sharply when they did. Kathy could only share one bird''s vision with Tracy so she was left clueless as to why the woman was startled.
Tracy wasn''t left in the dark long as the bird she was seeing through changed. The new bird was higher in the air and viewed the trail from a different angle.
That new angle revealed the reason behind Kathy''s surprise.
A man was at the end of the path creating the trail they had followed.
He was sprinting through the forest at a speed the birds could hardly keep up with. His legs exploded the ground under him, launching him forward. It was how the craters they followed were made.
He punched through trees and stomped on anything in his way. The metal armor he wore was covered in dried blood and reflected the setting sun''s rays which made him easy to spot.
What she thought was the path of a great monster, was the result of a man. One human made the path she had been following for half an hour. In his hand was a massive Warhammer over 5 feet long and bobbed as the man pumped his arms. It seemed to have a slight glow to it but Tracy was too far away to see it in greater detail.
Without even knowing the man, Tracy knew he was on a warpath.
"Who is that." She couldn''t help but ask. She wasn''t even witnessing the man''s battle prowess and she was scared of him. If he could do that by just running, what else could he do?
"I think he''s the leader of the camp that was attacked," Kathy answered with uncertainty.
"What''s he doing?"
"I''m not sure,"
As they were watching, the man suddenly turned. He had continued his path east, spanning the length of nearly the entire tutorial area. There were only a few pylons further east from where he was and all of them were uninhabited.
The setting sun made it easy to discern his new direction. Even seeing through a bird, Tracy could tell which way his new path led.
South.
He was pointed toward her camp.
Chapter 82 - Encounter
My frantic chase east was unsuccessful. Nothing I came across gave any indication of being the culprit. The pylons held by humans were too weak to pull it off and the monsters didn''t show signs of anything abnormal.
They clumped around the fallen pylon and showed no initiative of amassing an army with humans. It was a mystery, a mystery that pissed me off.
I wasn''t as angry anymore and the only reason I continued my rampage was because I was already doing it. I had been running for a few hours and I might as well have continued. Reach the last pylon on the eastern front just for completion''s sake.
The tutorial area was huge and I was only realizing that now. When we first got here it would have taken a person days of travel to go from one end to the other. Now, with stats and skills, it took 8 hours.
To go from one pylon to the adjacent pylon it took me about an hour of sprinting. This was with [Momentum(R)] fully charged and over 600 stat points of strength.
Having that many stat points in agility would have been faster but that wasn''t what I had. Strength had a speed of its own though.
I knew that others probably had skills to make them faster than me but I doubted their number exceeded a handful. I was pretty fast and it would take a lot to beat me.
The way the tutorial was set up was mostly a grid. It wasn''t a perfect 7x7 grid being that there were 50 pylons, not 49, but it was close. It also wasn''t straight lines and perfect squares.
Pylons had a variation to them in their placement which made me zig zag to and fro during my chase. Another annoyance I had to deal with.
Still, my path would soon end and I would have to trek back to camp defeated. Thinking about it pissed me off all over again. Our pylon was on the western side of the northern border so I traversed more than half of the total length in my journey.
It was times like these that I wished for a different skill set. A Ranger''s tracking abilities would have come in handy right now.
Coming off [Barbarian''s Fury(Un)] was a kick to the stomach.
I hadn''t left it active for long but the backlash was staggering. I hadn''t even used it to fight and it still caused me to feel lethargic and weak. I recovered about an hour later but it was another thing I needed to gain control of.
Letting it activate naturally was stupid.
It was when I was about to turn around that I got another message.
"Turn south. We will find answers there."
I wasn''t sure how many messages Abigail could send in a day but I followed her suggestion.
Questions of how she knew that was something I couldn''t ask. I didn''t have the ability to send messages like she did. I had my suspicions but without confirmation, they would remain suspicions.
Austin''s skills related to his explorer profession were something I didn''t fully understand. He had been pushing to evolve it recently but I didn''t think he had yet. He directed our hunts to new lands in hopes of leveling his profession.
He gained experience from exploring new land and it gained extra if he was the first person to do so.
Exploring outside of the area with pylons was where he gained most of his experience. It was also the most dangerous. Outside of the grid of pylons, the monsters inhabiting the area sharply increased in strength. Which was probably why he gained more experience for exploring it.
The exploration and conquering of the pseudo-dungeon we did earlier must have pushed him over the edge. He must have gotten a good chunk of experience for that. His level 25 skill was one I knew he was looking forward to but he didn''t tell me what it was.
I suspected that it was similar to a treasure-seeking skill but would point him in the direction of what he sought.
A perfect skill for an explorer. One I doubted came in G-rank, hence my suspicions about his evolution. This being a newly evolved profession skill was likely.
Given the new direction, I turned south.
It was almost dusk but I didn''t care. If there were answers south, I would head south.
Since I wasn''t given a distance I had to assume they didn''t know. Having a skill that fickle and vague would aggravate me and I was glad I didn''t have one like it.
With my course set, there was little for me to do but think. I blazed east for four hours before I was given a new direction and I wasn''t sure for how long I would be running south.
I needed to be back before noon and with the sun setting, that was fast approaching. Looking at the timer, I had 16 hours until I needed to be back at camp. Hopefully, with some time to spare so I wouldn''t start the wave tired.
With free time to think, I thought back to after beating the wolf. Something about the whole thing aggravated me and I was coming up with reasons why it happened.
The disparity in gains between Austin and me was starkly apparent.
After taking [Frozen Fortitude(Un)] I knew I would level slower but after experiencing first hand, I hadn''t expected them to be so severe.
Two levels. From fighting what was effectively 3 waves worth of monsters I only gained two levels. Sure, it pushed me over the edge to get another skill but it was brutal compared to Austin''s 4.
[Permafrost(Un)] was an amazing skill but I couldn''t help but be disappointed at the lack of levels.
Gaining 3 extra stat points shouldn''t have resulted in Austin gaining double the amount of levels. Plus, the experience required to level up increased every level so he more than doubled what I received.
From the 24 stat points my class gave every level, an additional 3 came from the skills [Body of a Barbarian(Un)] and [Frozen Fortitude(Un)]. Me gaining what was effectively 12.5% more stat points shouldn''t have that big of a consequence.
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I came up with two reasons for why. One, the experience required to give me the extra stat points was horribly inefficient. So if one stat point cost an arbitrary 100 experience, the stat points from the skills took 200.
The hit in efficiency was possible but it didn''t explain the severity of what happened. Which made me come up with the second reason.
Paying off a loan.
When I acquired the skill I instantly gained almost 100 stat points and that energy had to come from somewhere.
My leading theory was that the experience I gained currently was ''taxed'' to pay for the stat points I had already gotten. A sort of back pay for the stats I got upfront when I chose the skill.
While both annoying and unforeseen, it was plausible. And it was temporary. After my ''debt'' was paid I would level like normal. Well, normal-ish. I still had to pay extra for the extra stats but it shouldn''t be as bad as it was now.
It was unfortunate, but the extra stat points now were worth it. Even if I wouldn''t hit E-rank before the end of the tutorial. Every level was a steeper climb and the closer one got to the rank cap was when it was steepest.
Getting 9 levels in the remaining 18 days wasn''t going to be possible. To even attempt to reach E-rank before the last wave, I would have to kill a tremendous amount of monsters.
If fighting the equivalent of 3 waves of monsters only gave me 2 levels, it would take over 18 waves worth of experience to get me over the threshold to E-rank, and that was being generous.
The experience requirement wasn''t linear and it would probably require more than 18 waves. It mostly depended on how much experience it decided I ''owed''. Without a way to quantify the extent of my reduction, I was left in the dark.
100 stat points worth of essence wouldn''t be small.
With nothing else to do but continue trucking along, the time passed quickly. After the sun had set, finding monsters to keep my buff was easier. Nighttime made them bolder and more frequent to find.
Launching javelins through them also gave me something to do while I ran. Running was quite boring and it broke up the monotony of it. Plus, it made me work on my accuracy.
Running full tilt while also trying to hit things accurately was hard. When I began my journey I had to slow down to throw which took time away from running. Now I could hit them without slowing.
Mixing both physical might for power and [Ice Manipulation] for accuracy led to deadly results. Adding my Law into the mix made it a powerful attack.
Targeting larger monsters helped with accuracy. I still wouldn''t be able to hit the smaller ones with any degree of success, especially at a distance. Hitting something the size of a giant boar was infinitely easier than hitting something the size of a squirrel.
As I continued south, the environment changed. Up north, the terrain was full of rolling hills and temperate forests, here, it was more humid and filled with jungles.
I much preferred the North.
After gaining an ice affinity it only made my distaste of hotter climates greater. I already didn''t like the heat and humidity and that was before I gained ice powers.
It was stuffy and sticky and all around a bad time. How people could live in places like this astounded me. Even the so-called ''dry heat'' of places like Arizona was too much. One trip to New Orleans was enough for me to never want to go back.
Where I lived in Ohio wasn''t terribly bad but the heart of summer was still an unpleasant time.
As the environment changed, so did the mana. Wood mana was still present but more subdued by Nature mana. More forms of life thrived other than just trees which produced it. Wind was less prominent and Earth was harder to find.
Life was a mana type I rarely encountered outside of Healing skills and that jungles produced it shouldn''t have been a surprise.
With the canopy of leaves casting shadows constantly, Shadow mana was common. Even the evolved form of it was here too. Places of permanent shadow had a trickle of Darkness mana at their heart.
The difference was great. Comparing it to the icy mountain was like night and day. The ice-capped mountains had one main type with others mostly for flavoring. Here, it was a mixture of multiple.
Life and Nature were the clear winners, but the subtypes were still around.
It was about 4 hours into my journey when something new happened. Well, other than the terrain changing.
After turning south, I stopped rampaging like a wild beast and took the extra second to go around trees instead of through them. My mad dash of rage left me when I realized I wouldn''t find my target.
So it was with some surprise that the flora suddenly whipped out at me. Vines and roots from under my feet exploded out of the surroundings before wrapping around my limbs.
The trap sought to restrain me and I couldn''t help but chuckle. The stupid plants didn''t know what they were in for.
With a mighty heave, leveraging all of my strength, I ripped the roots and vines out of the ground. The amount of effort it took was slightly shocking.
I had a full boost from [Momentum(R)] and my strength was mighty. It should have been a breeze to get out but instead, it took a modicum of effort.
After the first trap, I continued running into more. There was an assortment of effects from more restraining traps to ones meant to kill and incapacitate.
The frequency I ran into them climbed and it was becoming mildly frustrating. After a long trip, the annoyance of running into them fowled my mood further. I already failed at catching the people responsible and the traps were an unwelcome annoyance.
The lethality of the traps was great but they weren''t effective on me. I had the stats to muscle through most of them and the others required a slight flaring of my power. Most of the traps used the plants around me and only required a quick freeze to be ineffective. Plants didn''t handle ice very well.
After a while of shrugging off traps and breaking them, I broke out of the untamed jungle into a clearing with a massive wall. On it were 4 catapults like we had back at camp all manned and aimed right at me.
The wall had a plethora of people milling about with most aiming something at me. Bows, mage staves, and makeshift ballistae were all trained on my position. Some even had throwables like rocks and javelins.
Walking out of the angry forest and into what was essentially a kill box was jarring and unexpected. I got into a lull during my hours long trip and it took my mind a second to catch up to the sight in front of me.
I hadn''t expected such a greeting.
Staring down multiple different forms of death, I did what any sensible person would do.
I turned around and went back into the forest.
I wasn''t sure how, but the camp knew I was coming and readied their defenses against me. The camp was strong and it had upgrades done to it I didn''t know were possible. The split second I got to see it was enough to convince me of its strength.
It had double the amount of siege weapons that we had mixed together with more that looked hand-crafted rather than store-bought.
The wall extended 20 feet in the air, 5 feet higher than ours, and it had a different look to it. The stone exterior was smoothed over and the seams between the bricks weren''t there making it look like one giant rock face.
I could only guess at the runes woven into it and what they would do. The gate itself looked different as well. Ours was a mixture of a wooden door with hints of metal reinforcement.
The gate I had facing me was more metal than wood and had a massive iron portcullis in front of it. The thick metal making up the grating looked impenetrable. I doubted there weren''t runes contained within it as well.
The camp I ran into wasn''t just a camp anymore. It was a castle made to withstand any siege. It made me jealous.
It also was the first camp I came across that had the power necessary for the attack on my camp.
If this is what their camp looked like, they held the power to expand out to others. Ours was far away, but that didn''t dismiss them as the culprits.
Maybe they were just looking to weaken us before the wave tomorrow and conquer the ashes after we fell to the monsters.
They didn''t need to conquer our pylon right away. As long as they did it before the tutorial ended they would get the benefit.
Abigail said I would find answers here, and the strength presented against me was an answer in it of itself. Why else would they ready all of their defenses against me?
They probably knew I was chasing after them and prepared for my arrival. The roundabout way of getting here I took made the trip longer than if someone knew where to go straight back.
It would have given them enough time to get back here before me and get ready to defend while I was running around clueless.
The anger that had left me came back with a vengeance. Seeing the strength of what I would have to get through was the only reason I didn''t turn back and charge at them.
I wasn''t sure I would be able to get through.
I still had time before I had to return and I would get my answers.
One way,
or another.
Chapter 83 - Wrong Foot
Chris
After running into the fortified camp, my thoughts raced to come up with an idea of what to do.
I had no idea who these people were and jumping to conclusions was the wrong thing to do. I needed to take my time and consider my course of action.
All I was told was I would find answers to the South. That did not mean I would find them here, there was still further south I could travel. Something told me that it was here though. A slight nudge of my instincts told me I had reached where I was supposed to.
Fighting them was not something that I wanted to do and I needed to get my head straight. I couldn''t just barge in and demand answers. One, that was rude. Rudeness wasn''t something I normally considered after the world effectively ended but when a fortified wall was levied against me, rudeness became a consideration again.
Two, demanding anything wouldn''t necessarily get me what I wanted and if it did, I doubted it would be quick.
There was no evidence that pointed to them being behind the attack on my camp and assuming that was stupid. Just because Austin''s skill pointed me here and said I would find answers didn''t mean they were the ones responsible.
I couldn''t demand answers or fight them, but I also couldn''t just walk away. Well, I could demand answers but I didn''t think that would get me anywhere. They had the answers I needed and they seemed unlikely to just give them to me.
Why else would they be so defensive?
With my mind fully cleared, I moved the plan of fighting them to the last resort. It wasn''t something I would initiate but if it came to that, I wouldn''t hold back.
A few other options came to mind. Asking them could work but they might not answer. Threatening them was in the same boat as fighting them and was a step too far. I had nothing to offer them for the information other than what I was wearing and I didn''t want to give up my armor.
I could offer them points but I didn''t want to do that either. I was saving up for a bloodline and paying them off would set me back.
Coming off as openly hostile wasn''t my intent either. These people could have nothing to do with it for all I know and making an enemy, one with considerable strength, wasn''t what I needed right now.
I did kind of barge into their territory without so much as a hello.
If someone did that to my camp I would be less than pleased.
Without a better idea to get the answers I sought, I went with the most straightforward way.
Asking them.
Turning around for the second time, I walked out of the jungle and stood at the edge of the tree line. The wall was still rife with activity and weapons were still pointed at me but I ignored them.
I wasn''t sure if I would survive getting shot with everything there but I had ways to mitigate that. With how far away I was there was enough time to use [Ice Fortress(Un)] a few times and my boost from [Avalanche(R)] would last a few more minutes, should the worst happen.
[Reinforced Body(Un)] would help mitigate the damage and I could use [Ice Manipulation(C)] on the walls of [Ice Fortress(Un)] to deflect the damage as much as possible. Everything boosted by my Law should see me through with only moderate injuries if everything went right.
It would certainly hurt, but I trusted in my skills to be able to defend against one volley. After that, I would have to book it to safety as there was no way I would survive the sustained firepower of everything on the wall.
I wasn''t even sure I would survive the first volley.
Since they hadn''t attacked me immediately, I had to assume they wouldn''t just open fire on me now.
It was a hefty assumption, but one I believed they wouldn''t break. If they wanted to, they probably could have attacked me well before I exited the jungle and found their camp.
After making myself visible, I took my hammer and planted it in the ground next to me, burying it deeper than I would have liked but the message was still sent.
It was still surprising how strong I was with a full-powered [Avalanche(R)].
I wasn''t sure they would understand my message but I hoped they would. I was trying to signify putting down my weapon and asking to speak.
The hammer was within reach, it would be stupid to get rid of it, but I wasn''t holding it in a threatening manner anymore.
With deft use of [Permafrost(Un)], I subtly worked to chill the ground around me.
On the off chance this went badly I needed to prepare to defend myself.
Tracy
Why did he have to come here!
After learning the man was coming in her direction, she readied her camp just in case he attacked. She had seen the power he wielded and was justifiably afraid of what he might do.
She was treating him like she would a boss monster from a wave. She had the weapons manned and people ready to defend in case of attack and she was using the time until he got here to figure out why he was coming.
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They hadn''t done anything to the man or his camp so his abrupt turn and his subsequent journey here was a mystery.
She had Kathy keep track of his progress while she got ready to receive him. She needed to be ready just in case this turned ugly. The man''s power was nothing to scoff at and even behind her walls, she was still uneasy.
Picturing the ease the man bulldozed through trees and his giant leaping gait still played through her head. She wondered how many points in strength were needed to do that.
With plenty of time to spare, she and her forces were ready for the encounter. The man had slowed as his journey stretched on and he stopped knocking over trees which made her preparation time longer. Watching him tear through her traps only made her more worried. Even the Mindbreaker didn''t so casually stroll through her territory. This man treated them more as an annoyance than anything.
It still only took a few hours from the time he started traveling south for him to arrive which was faster than she would have liked. He tore through the last of her traps like they were paper before busting out of the tree line.
Kathy knew where he was going to come out and Tracy made sure everyone on the wall was ready and pointed in that direction.
The man took one look at the wall, saw everything she had arrayed against him, then turned around and went back into the forest.
It made her want to laugh had she not known the man was a walking disaster.
She stood there on the wall momentarily stunned before the man came back out.
He stopped just inside of the tree line and slammed his hammer into the dirt. After putting the weapon down, he crossed his arms and stood there menacingly.
Tracy wasn''t sure what the man was after and made sure that no one attacked prematurely. The man''s camp defeated the Mindbreaker and getting them as an ally would help tremendously against the threat he posed.
She trusted in her defenses but the man already showed great strength and that was without revealing any skills. All she knew was he used ice and had herculean strength. He could have extremely strong skills for all she knew that could let him get over the wall.
They stood facing each other, one standing alone, the other behind a stone wall and on top of fortifications. Both just stared at one another.
"Ma''am, what should we do?" One of the wall leaders said.
He was a heavy-set man who came from a faction Tracy didn''t even remember anymore. He was one of the four appointed wall leaders and was in charge of the northern wall, where they were. The four wall leaders were the strongest in camp outside of her and Kathy.
The generals she had holding her other pylons were stronger but they weren''t here right now. The man was normally in charge of the wall they were standing on during the waves and was second in command to only Tracy.
Kathy, her usual second, coordinated between the different Wall leaders during the waves so she didn''t count. Her job was to keep everyone apprised of the situation so nothing took them by surprise which was outside the direct chain of command Tracy had established.
After he asked the question, everyone in earshot turned to her for directions on what to do.
She wasn''t sure what the man standing below was after but he didn''t seem likely to attack.
It looked like he wanted to talk. He went about it in an odd way but she couldn''t really fault him for that. It didn''t seem like he had an elaborate plan based on the desperate chase Tracy witnessed.
Tracy knew he was trying to find the person responsible but that only confused her more. The Mindbreaker wasn''t here and she wasn''t sure what led the man here.
Without anything else to do, she had everyone remain on alert while she went to speak with the man.
She wouldn''t go personally, that would be stupid, but use a mage to create a two-way scrying pool. She would stay safe behind the walls and figure out what the man wanted.
Chris
I stood, waiting, for a few minutes while nothing happened.
Just when I was beginning to think that nothing would, I felt mana being moved around me.
I wasn''t as good as Rachel at sensing and manipulating mana but I was good enough. It helped that my ice mana saturated the area and it made it easier to detect when others intruded.
Anything that wasn''t ice stood out and was easier to notice.
[Permafrost(Un)] was hidden from view, concealed by the ground under me and my mana diffused in the area from the drain of the skill.
The foreign mana stopped a few paces away from me and became visible to the naked eye through a spell. I wasn''t sure what spell was being used, but it didn''t feel like an attack so I left it alone.
After some sputtering, what looked like a circular portal in space opened up. Inside looked completely different than the surrounding area and a woman was standing on the other side of the portal.
It was an odd way to speak with someone but it accomplished it all the same. I knew portals weren''t something we could create yet so I wasn''t worried about any attacks coming through, it seemed like it was only for light and sound.
The other side looked like the inside of a stone room and was dreadfully plain. The only thing I could see except for the stone that made up the room was the woman standing front and center.
She was on the shorter side and looked young. Well, I was also young but it didn''t feel like it when what felt like a decade had passed in the past month.
The woman was in her twenties and I couldn''t get an accurate judge of height through the portal but she couldn''t be over 5''6".
Her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail and the tail only came down to her neck. If it was down I doubted it would go very far past her shoulders. Her face was a mask of stoicism with a hint of what looked like confusion.
I wasn''t the best at reading facial expressions but having better visual sight made it easier to see tells. It wasn''t anything overt, but a slight scrunch of the eyebrows and a smidge of curiosity as she looked me over as I did the same to her made me think that.
I was no salesman trained in concealing facial expressions and it seemed like she wasn''t either. She most likely gained the same amount of insight from me as I had from her. A small part of me wondered what she saw.
Her gear was unsubstantial at first glance. Without the slight flaws or artistic touch that crafters produced it was clearly store-bought. Without knowing exactly what she bought I had no way to tell how good it was. Plus, I wasn''t even seeing it in person to get a good feel for it.
Store-bought items were hard to appraise as they were so far above what I could make and were made through means I had no knowledge of.
Based on what I saw of the wall, I doubted it would be weak. The amount of points being spent here had to be substantial and the gear of the woman facing me wouldn''t be weak.
After we both finished assessing each other, she opened the dialog.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Her tone was curt and slightly clipped.
It made me cringe a little thinking about how she probably saw things. A random person runs up to your camp and just waits, demanding an audience. It wasn''t the most polite way to begin a relationship.
"My name is Christopher and I came from a camp up north," since I was the intruder it was only right to give my name first, "We were recently attacked and I was searching for who was responsible."
I had entertained the thought of lying to them but didn''t go through with it. They most likely had no idea who I was and even though they probably wouldn''t find out, lying felt wrong.
I blamed my Dad for infecting me with this notion of honor. Plus, being straightforward and truthful was the fastest way to get what I wanted.
"A skill someone in my camp has led me here and said I would find the answers I was looking for," I stated.
Mentioning that the only thing I was given was a direction would remain a happy little secret. They didn''t need to know that. Plus, it wasn''t lying.
The omission of facts was different than lying. My Dad wouldn''t agree but he wasn''t here now was he?
The woman chewed on what I said, thinking for a moment.
I wasn''t sure how she would respond but what she said shocked me.
"So you aren''t here to attack us?"
That was a question I hadn''t expected. Sure, I busted out of the tree line and was wielding a weapon at the time, but I didn''t do anything overtly threatening. I wasn''t sure where she got the idea I was going to attack her.
It would seem we had gotten off on the wrong foot.
Chapter 84 - Growing Threat
"You have birds that you scout the area with and through them, you saw me running toward your camp aggressively?" I asked.
After realizing there was a miscommunication, I tried to figure out why they thought I would attack them. Finding out they had birds watching me as I rampaged through the forest was... unexpected.
I hadn''t thought anyone would be watching me as I ran through the forest and knowing that someone had made me a little self-conscious. I hadn''t exactly been the epitome of grace during my trek.
It also made me understand why they thought I was going to attack. I had been a bit... destructive on my way here.
"Yes, which is why we were prepared for a fight," The woman said from the other side of the portal. I realized she hadn''t given her name and I kept referring to her as the woman.
"I do not have that intention," currently, "I only seek answers," I said.
Now that I knew a bit more and found out they had birds they could use to scout, things started to fall into place.
If they used that ability to keep track of the goings on, they would know who attacked us. Austin''s skill was spot on if that was the case and there would be no need to fight them.
I only needed to get the woman to tell me.
I was slightly jealous of their ability to do so. It also made me a little sad realizing that it was something Kyle would have been able to do if he still lived. He ranted about getting a bird beast companion and seeing what it could do made me a tad sad.
That kind of information was extremely useful to have. Both during the waves and to keep what happened from occurring again. It was something that we would have to fix.
Getting that skill or class for someone in our camp would be difficult. Everyone had their own paths to tread and having a skill not in line with that could be detrimental. Especially now, when things were about to come to a close.
We didn''t have any Beastmasters but we could come up with something similar.
The woman seemed to be thinking of how to respond and her indecision vexed me. The possibility that she knew and wouldn''t tell me angered me.
I tried not to let it show. It wasn''t unreasonable to decline to answer, I had said nothing of recompense. Doing anything for free wasn''t how the world worked and it certainly wasn''t now that it had changed.
Saying nothing of repayment was on purpose. I wanted to see if they would give me the answers I sought without me having to give anything up. If I ended up having to pay for them, so be it.
"What is it you want to know?" She seemed to come to a decision.
"I want to find out who is responsible for the attack on my camp. A debt is owed and I aim to collect it." I answered gravely.
I wanted no miscommunication on what I would do and I made it clear what I was after. If these people were friends with the people responsible, I would find out now.
After saying my piece I watched her face closely.
There wasn''t any shock or surprise on her face signaling this was the answer she had expected and yet no signs were pointing at them being responsible. She also didn''t become defensive or indicate in any way that she was allied with the people responsible.
As I said before, I wasn''t the best at reading faces but I should be able to see something this big. Making clear my goals of revenge, I aimed to catch any hint of deceit or defensiveness if they did turn out to be behind it.
There was too much I didn''t know and I couldn''t discredit the idea that they might be who I was looking for.
If only Austin''s skill could have led me directly to who I wanted. I wasn''t sure how it worked but it was already frustrating me.
If only it could point me to who was responsible and make this whole thing easier, but no, it led me on a wild goose chase with only a direction to go off of.
Why the skill worked in roundabout ways was vexing. If it intended to send me on a wild adventure to seek the answers I sought, it was doing a good job.
She took another moment before answering.
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"I know who did it," For a moment I feared she would ask for something in return, "It was someone we call the Mindbreaker."
The name she mentioned meant nothing to me but that didn''t matter. All I needed to know was where I would find him. If she could point me in his direction I would be on my way.
"Do you know where he is?" I asked.
I wasn''t going to trust her blindly but this was as good of a lead as any.
"We do not know where he is. The last we saw of him was when he was up north. If you remember, I sent your camp a letter about it." She said smugly.
Now that she said it, I did remember reading a letter about something like this. We got letters from a few different factions earlier on in the tutorial but they mostly stopped after a while.
As the tutorial increased in difficulty, factions stopped sending letters. I usually ignored all of the letters as they were all asking for help or asking to merge camps.
There was one I remembered that warned of an impending threat but I had other things to deal with and dismissed it at the time. It wasn''t important when there was a wave to prepare for the next day.
Finding out the threat was real made me want to go back and slap past me. I wasn''t sure if anything would have changed but it would have been good information to have.
No one died and no one received major injuries, so dismissing the letter didn''t result in anything too bad, but it could have been a lot worse. It was mostly the surprise of my camp being under attack that scared me so much. It was unexpected. A threat aimed at my family shouldn''t be unexpected.
Since the woman, I really needed to ask her name, didn''t know where the person was, I settled for the next best thing.
"Where is his camp?" If I couldn''t find the person, I would go to their camp.
"Let''s take a step back so I can explain to you the threat we face." She said with a serious tone.
I hadn''t missed the fact she used ''we'', not the threat I face.
She then went on to describe what the Mindbreaker, a man named Craig, had been up to. The name sounded familiar but I couldn''t place it.
She told tales of taking over pylons before dominating people''s minds. She wasn''t certain how he did what he did, but she knew a lot.
His class revolved around gaining ''thralls'' and most of his skills were related to wearing down mental defenses before taking over. The other skills he had were related to controlling the thralls he already had.
The fact she knew so much about the man''s class and skills was a tad worrying. I hadn''t exactly kept what I was able to do secret and there were numerous times I had fought with birds around.
Were they spying on me? Did they have the same kind of information on me? Or my family?
The thought was unsettling and not one I particularly liked. I now understood why so many people had [Identify Block]. Being so exposed didn''t feel good.
I was used to only being around my family where we already told each other what skills we had so blocking information-gathering skills was useless.
Back to the Mindbreaker though, the information she gave me explained why we were attacked by both monsters and man. She mentioned that after gaining levels and experience using his skills, the Mindbreaker expanded out to monsters under his control.
His supply of further human thralls dwindled as more people either died or were already under his control so he expanded to beasts.
I was told he didn''t have as much control over the animals since their minds were less developed but he could still give rudimentary orders like attack or defend an area.
After she was finished giving all the information she knew, it turned out to be quite a lot.
"So the man has mental skills, an army of thralls, nine pylons, and has only been growing in power." I summed up.
To which she responded with a nod.
Hearing that such a threat was growing without my knowledge was jarring. It made more sense now why she had given me this information for free.
What she told me was a threat against us all, if it was true, and telling me helped her in the long run. Knowing that telling me was in her best interest made me inclined to trust it more.
I still wasn''t going to blindly trust it but verifying the truth of what she said shouldn''t be hard. All I had to do was search out one of these pylons and see for myself what they held.
I had assumed everyone was busy fighting the waves. Not gearing up for world domination. Well, tutorial domination.
The list of things to worry about seemed to only grow.
As she relayed information about the man, I thought of what I would do. I couldn''t rush off with a half-baked plan like I did before.
So many things could have gone wrong and I was lucky they hadn''t. I was confident in fighting an army but I had zero idea how many thralls the man had. Rushing in blind could lead me to an early grave.
I could have been led into an ambush, surrounded by beasts, or he could have trapped me and tried to work his mind voodoo on me. There were so many things I didn''t know were possible.
I didn''t even have any mental defense skills, skills which the woman said were available in the store. Her pylon rank was higher than ours and a wider variety of skills were available to purchase which ours didn''t have.
The sheer breadth of what I didn''t know was astounding and that didn''t even include the stuff I didn''t know that I didn''t know.
I had been so focused on surviving that I hadn''t spent any time, or points, on learning more about the possible things I may face in the future. I hadn''t even known mental domination was possible.
Suffice it to say, I had a lot to think about and I needed to take some time to come up with a plan of action. There would be no more charging forward blindly.
As our talk came to an end, it seemed the woman was debating asking me something.
Before she came to a decision, I asked something that was on my mind, "I never caught your name."
She had never given it but phrasing that way was nicer.
"Tracy. Tracy Strong," she answered.
"Well, it was nice to meet you Tracy, but I have things I need to do. I wish you good fortune." I concluded.
I needed to get back to camp and discuss what we were going to do.
Just when I was about to turn and leave she said one more thing. It seemed her mental deliberations had come to a conclusion and she had decided to voice her offer.
Hearing it left me speechless. I hadn''t expected to be offered that and I could only answer non-committedly.
That wasn''t something I could decide by myself.
My entire run home I went over the last thing she said. It would work, but I didn''t know if I wanted to.
Chapter 85 - First of Nine
My trip home was uneventful which gave me time to look over all of the notifications from the previous day.
The number of points for conquering the fallen pylon wasn''t small and all of the monsters that we had to fight to do that added up. I skipped over the two levels I received but that was only part of the reward.
The beasts themselves were walking bags of points. There were almost 500 of the things surrounding the pylon. We fought half just getting to the center and the other half because of the wolf''s howl.
500 monsters all over level 30 was a huge windfall of points and was exactly the reason we did it in the first place. With everything that had happened afterward, I almost forgot the reason we left in the first place.
We were trying to gain enough points for a bloodline.
Over the entire tutorial, I earned just over 300,000 points so far. Conquering the pylon nearly doubled that.
We didn''t kill the entirety of the monsters, as some ran away, but others were over level 30 and gave extra points to make up for it. Both Austin and I earned over 200,000 points each.
A hefty prize and one that was greatly needed. It was like rain during a long drought and made the points category on my status sheet swell.
Following the many notifications of defeating beasts, came ones for the raiders.
50 humans. I had killed 50 humans. There were more than 100 notifications total but with the mixture of humans and beasts, only 50 turned out to be people.
All added together gave another 50,000 points. The humans didn''t give any extra points other than the normal amount for their level. It seemed like all of their points resided with the one controlling them.
Hearing that they were ''thralls'' and not normal people helped me mentally but I hadn''t thought I would add to that number so soon. I knew that the bandits wouldn''t be the last nor would the people I just killed.
I just hadn''t thought the number would grow so quickly.
The fact I was ok with that and not more upset concerned me. I felt justified in my response, as I should be, but it was still 50 lives I reaped. A part of me thought I should be more torn up about it.
I wasn''t.
They raised up arms against my family, and for that, they deserved death. It was unfortunate that they couldn''t be saved from their predicament, but it mattered little. Tracy had said undoing the mental compulsion was impossible and I knew nothing to disprove that.
It most likely was possible, just not something we could do with our current amount of strength. It didn''t matter in the long run though, it wasn''t something I would worry about now. I had bigger fish to fry. The best thing I could do for them was give them a swift end.
It was the only small mercy I could give them.
In the grand scheme of things, I hadn''t expected to get over killing people so quickly. It must have been the constant death I had been drowning in hastening the process. There was a chance of death every time I picked up my hammer and if it was me who lived, it was someone else who died. Death had to claim one of us.
Death would be claiming a lot more soon.
My retribution wasn''t complete. I had 9 pylons to work my way through and I wouldn''t be using words.
Tracy had given me a map of all the pylons the ''Mindbreaker'' owned and I had come up with a plan of action.
The wave in a few hours wouldn''t be the only fighting I would do today.
When I returned home, I was bombarded with questions. Everyone wanted to know what I had found out and it took a while to inform everyone of the information I had learned.
I kept the last thing Tracy said to myself though. Now wasn''t the time for that conversation.
To say my family was shocked was an understatement. Some couldn''t believe that a person would do something like this. They had noticed during the battle that the raiders were acting weird and the strangeness about them, something I had missed, but they didn''t suspect mind control was the reason.
I was too busy killing them to notice anything odd about them.
The ability to do that came as a surprise to all. We would all have to reevaluate the possible things we could face. We didn''t have the pylon level required to buy mental defense skills yet but I would soon change that.
That was the first thing that I needed to fix. Running into a fight ill-prepared was just asking to die. I was confident in my strength of arms but a mental attack was new ground.
I wanted to be as prepared as I could be.
The 24th wave wouldn''t deliver anything new to worry about and with my new skill, I was as ready as I could be. My armor still had nicks in it from the fight with the wolf but it would be fine for the battle ahead.
Austin hadn''t spent the rest of the day running around the wilderness and had time to heal up completely. He even got the hole in his armor repaired while I was away.
Everything was already set up and the only thing left to do was wait. I got back just before sunrise and could have spent a few hours in the forge, but I didn''t.
I needed all the rest I could get and took the scant few hours before the wave to do so. I even put off interrogating Austin about his skill for later, even though I really wanted to.
The only thing I did before going to sleep was use [Permafrost(Un)] in front of the gate I would be fighting at. Some of the effects would melt away but empowering it with my Law mitigated most of that.
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Some of it would still be there by the time the wave spawned in and would be one less thing I had to spend mana on. I had used mostly physical strength during my trip and my mana was mostly full by the time I got back which let me use some now since I didn''t have to recover it.
After dumping a decent amount of mana into the skill, I went to sleep. I used just enough mana so that it would regenerate to full before noon.
Austin woke me up an hour before the wave so I could get ready. It gave me time to do some quick repairs on my armor before putting it on.
The 24th wave went swiftly, and if I was being honest, a bit anti-climactic. After fighting the pseudo dungeon and the would-be raiders, I expected more. Anticlimactic was good though and the mutated reptile things the wave spawned went down easily.
They had sharp claws and teeth they used to attack and had little in the way of magic. They relied almost entirely on their body.
The boss gave a few good licks but all told, it went without issue. Some damage to the camp and light injuries to a few people, but mostly fine in terms of heavy damage.
The wave earned me another 40,000 points. Every wave increased its bounty along with its difficulty.
After the normal wave came the pylon upgrade. We faced both back to back so I could keep my full power boost from [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)].
I spent a few minutes in the woods extending the duration so people could heal and recover, but we faced the second wave within an hour of the first.
Seeing how much we were missing out on by not upgrading our pylon convinced us to change that. The things that became available and the upgrades it unlocked were worth fighting another wave.
I hadn''t asked Tracy what the upgrade entailed but if they could do it, we could do it. I had extreme confidence in our ability. We were strong, I could feel it.
Seeing what constituted a strong camp gave me something to compare against. While their camp had stronger fortifications, we had stronger people. I felt that we were better where it mattered.
The pylon upgrade to the large town level went the same as the wave before it. Most of everyone in the camp had passed level 35 which made us more than prepared to face the attack.
The upgrade spawned a humanoid insect monster that [Identify] called a Skirn. The things were hideous and looked like the bastard child of an ant and a human.
Their skin was covered in patches of chitin and instead of mouths, they had mandibles. They didn''t wear clothes or use weapons, relying on the natural weapons from their exoskeleton. They didn''t even bleed normal blood.
We dealt with the upgrade easier than the wave before it. Our keep grew in both size and height, its walls thickened and turned more castle-like with every upgrade.
I also received another 25,000 points. I killed less of them personally than during normal waves and split points with more of my family. The monsters were easier to kill which made everyone contribute more and spread the points around.
All of it added together, I earned north of 315,000 points in two days.
The mental defense skill I had to buy put a dent in that total though, running me 25 large ones. It effectively wiped out my gain from the upgrade.
It was my second skill at such a price and the next one was even higher. I didn''t see myself getting another. Paying 125,000 for a skill didn''t seem worth it.
Especially when there were other things worthy of spending points on.
Bloodlines specifically. The cheapest rang up at just over 7 digits and a costly skill would put a dent in my savings.
The skill available for purchase, and the one I got, was called [Mental Walls].
Mental Walls(Common) ¨C Using mana and mental power, strengthen your mind against foreign intrusion. Increases mental defense against mental manipulation and most psionic-based abilities.
It worked to eliminate the possibility of being mind-controlled, a rising fear of mine in the past day. Being only a common skill was worrying but mental manipulation required a substantial difference in power.
A common defense skill could hold up against a rare attacking skill with enough willpower and strong enough spirit, or so the information we bought about it said.
After Abigail learned about the threat, she bought all of the information she could about mental abilities and anything remotely psionic-related. We were more prepared against it than any other affinity.
After getting the skill, I attempted to upgrade it the same way I had with [Ice Wall(C)]. Attempting to make it more substantial and more fortress-like, but it didn''t result in anything.
I had only just gotten the skill and knew too little about how it worked. It would have to be something I worked on in the coming days.
Just because my skill wouldn''t upgrade didn''t mean that I would sit around and do nothing. I was given the location of my target, and it was time for payback.
Fighting both waves had drained me, but not enough to forget about that. [Meditation(C)] worked in overdrive to see me recovered enough to do what I needed.
I had offered to bring some of the stronger people in camp along, like Rachel and Hal, but they had declined. They said they were needed here in case of another attack. I had a sneaking suspicion that they took killing people less well than I had and weren''t looking to do it again.
After the shock of the attack wore off, people had to face what they had done. For most, it was the first time they had killed a person. Only Austin and I had done it before with the bandits.
That was fine. Austin and I were enough. He was just as mad as I was and was itching for some payback.
The only reason he hadn''t joined me on my chase was the injury he got fighting the wolf. He hadn''t joined the defense at 100% and stayed to recover while I ran off.
He was in a good enough state now and we would be enough on our own. After being told about our attackers, I asked Tracy for all the information they had.
They had a lot of information.
They had an estimated troop count of both total amount and by pylon. They had strength estimates, camp defenses, and pylon upgrades purchased. It was scary how much they knew.
Of the nine pylons, only one was invested in heavily. It seemed like the capital of all of them and was the most defensible. We would save it for last.
It was also where the man responsible was no doubt staying. I guessed he had holed up in his castle at the edge of the tutorial area and was attempting to rebuild his army.
The more time he had to do that the harder he would be to fight.
The strongest of the nine pylons sat in the northeastern corner of the tutorial area and was the farthest away from our camp. The nine pylons he owned spread from the corner down both the eastern and northern borders.
The one Austin and I were headed toward was the closest to us and furthest west along the northern border. Based on the information I was given only around 100 defenders held the pylon and the walls weren''t even stone.
How they survived the waves was a mystery. I had a feeling that the roaming monsters that were out in the forest returned during the waves. If that was the case we would be facing more than the estimated 100.
That was fine. Numbers didn''t scare me.
The only thing we had to be wary of was the hand-built siege weapons. The pylon not being high enough for the store-bought kind, they had built catapults and trebuchets from scratch.
They wouldn''t have the magical enhancements from the store but they would still hurt to get hit with. I wasn''t sure how deadly they would be until I saw them for myself.
I wasn''t worried about Austin. If his speedy ass got hit with the slow-moving projectiles something went horribly wrong. If he could dodge a level 46 wolf boss, he could dodge some flying rocks.
I, on the other hand, had a lot more stationary fighting style. I still moved during battle, but not as quickly as him. I doubted I would be hit, but it wasn''t a possibility I could ignore.
A part of me even wanted to see if I could tank one, just to see if I could.
We would see when the time came. The pylon wasn''t far away and would only take us a few hours to reach.
A few hours and I would pay the man responsible for attacking my family back.
It would be the first of nine.
Chapter 86 - Unrealized Strength
"That''s a lot more than 100," Austin said from beside me in the bushes.
"No shit, Sherlock. I can count." I retorted.
We had arrived at the camp less than an hour ago and were taking the time to scout before attacking. I didn''t trust Tracy''s information fully and wanted to see the place for myself. Plus scouting out the camp was good practice.
I wouldn''t always have detailed reports like I did now, even if I didn''t trust said reports. According to Tracy, the highest level here was level 35 and was the one in charge of the pylon originally, before the Mindbreaker took over.
What was supposed to be 100 foes turned out to be double that. It would seem that all of the minions the Mindbreaker had wandering outside the camps came back for wave days.
Which was today.
I had thought that right after a wave was the best time to attack since it would be when the camp was most vulnerable. Turns out that wasn''t the case.
I didn''t know when the camp would split up and return to the normal garrison, but I didn''t feel like waiting. 100, 200, it didn''t much matter in the long run. There was a limit to my endurance and ability to fight, but I hadn''t found it yet.
And it certainly wasn''t only 200. I would treat it as just another wave. Except this wave had defenses... and skills... and tactics better than beasts.
I was told that their tactics were rudimentary and that they lost a lot of their ability after being converted to thralls, but they were still ahead of beasts.
All together, I wasn''t too concerned. I was higher level than everyone in the camp and none of them had a Law, according to Tracy.
I was inclined to believe that part. If the people here had a Law they would have put up a better fight against the Mindbreaker. Sure, they might have still lost but if that was the case they weren''t that powerful to begin with.
"What''s the plan, Stan," Austin rhymed.
A part of me wanted to say that now wasn''t the time for jokes, but I refrained. It was a small return to normal that I didn''t want to tarnish. Austin and I had never been the type to be ultra-serious. It just wasn''t our nature.
I had been forced to abandon that and become more serious while leading the camp, but with only the two of us here, it was nice to shrug off that weight.
Looking at the camp brought up some feelings I would have rather left buried. Saying I wanted revenge was one thing, actually doing it was different. Even though it wasn''t really people I would be killing, they still looked like people.
Austin sensed my hesitation and said, "Think of them like zombies. You wouldn''t hesitate to kill a zombie, right?"
I knew he was right, but I couldn''t help it. My Dad had specifically warned me of the slippery slope I now walked. If I justified killing these people, I could just as easily justify something else. Soon enough, I would justify wholesale slaughter.
This was a new world. I needed to let go of past morality and build a new one. I hadn''t given it much thought yet and it was something I would have to do. Sooner rather than later.
What ended those feelings was that whatever morals or code of honor I came up with would all justify what I was doing now. They attacked my family. Lethal force was acceptable.
"Well, first, we have to get in. We can''t do anything from outside the walls." I said with newfound conviction.
Austin eyed me but only nodded without mentioning anything.
"How are we going to do that? From what I remember, the walls are enchanted to be unclimbable." Austin''s vision slowly concentrated on the gate. The gate made of only wood. "Do you think you can...?"
I followed his line of sight to the gate, "I''m not sure. I haven''t tried before."
"You''re a lot stronger now," He said like stating that fact made it possible.
I took a second to think about it. With a full boost from [Avalanche(R)] and [Fury(Un)] I would have over 700 strength. Add [Heavy Blow(Un)] and [Frostbite(Un)] layered on my hammer, it should be possible.
I had tested the strength of the gates before but it had been a while since our camp had wooden walls. At the time, they seemed sturdy and I couldn''t have smashed it. Also at the time, I was half my current level.
This wasn''t the first wooden wall that the wolves of Wave 10 got through, it was the upgraded one. Even upgraded, it was still only wood.
"The only way to know is to try," I said with a slight chuckle.
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The idea of smashing through was extremely enticing. It spoke to the boy in me that liked seeing things destroyed.
I had kept my boost on the way here with the occasional javelin throw and beast in our path so I didn''t have to wait to build it up.
"If we run fast enough the siege weapons will be completely useless," Austin added.
With our speed, a full sprint would be impossible to keep up with while aiming the bulky things. It would take them out of the picture completely.
"What about the spells the defenders will throw? It isn''t like they won''t see us." I questioned.
"I doubt they will be able to harm you under your ice and I can handle my own." He said.
With our plan made, I readied to get up. Austin moved to follow.
"I thought you were going to wait here? What if I fail?" I asked. If I failed to make an opening, we would both be sitting ducks.
"I don''t think you realize how ridiculously strong you are. I wouldn''t be surprised if you could smash a hole through the wall, let alone the gate." He said with a slight chuckle. He stated it like it was obvious.
I wasn''t so sure. The wall was thick and was enchanted against specifically what I was going to do. Well, he could do what he wanted. I wasn''t his Mother.
[Frost Armor(R)] worked to freeze around me as I readied for battle. I had dismissed the skill while waiting so I could see better. Plus, a giant ice sculpture with frost steaming off of it wasn''t exactly stealthy.
Without any need to wait any longer. I sprinted toward the gate.
Austin''s agility let him keep up with me somewhat, but he had to use a skill to do it. My stats were too high otherwise.
As I ran, I couldn''t help but think about if it didn''t work. I knew I was strong, but this was a store-bought wall enchanted specifically against what I was trying to do.
The monsters of the wave could only get through after hundreds of them clawed at it and I was but one man. I would give it the good ole college try though.
After we left our tree line cover, we were seen quickly. It wasn''t like we were trying to hide, we were charging straight at them.
An alarm of some sort was sounded and the wall began to fill with bodies. The tree line we came from was only a few hundred yards away and they wouldn''t have enough time to fully man the wall before we reached the gate.
The people already on the wall began to launch spells at us when we got into range. Fireballs, earth spikes, and other elemental attacks flew down at us as we raced toward them.
I didn''t bother to dodge and watched as they bounced off my armor or splashed ineffectually against it. Fireballs were useless and barely did anything and Earth Spikes were only slightly more effective.
The weight behind them alone would stagger a lesser man.
I wasn''t a lesser man.
The sheer number was the only reason my ice began to crack. The amount of mana I was being bombarded with wasn''t small. A slight use of [Ice Manipulation(C)] and a hint of my Law was enough to stop that from happening.
I had designed the Ice armor to crack when hit with blunt force which was the main reason the weak attacks managed to do it. As the ice cracked, the blunt force spread out along the cracking ice and dispersed around me. Rather than the force transferring to what was under it, me.
It was designed after ceramic body armor plates. The way they worked was similar and where I got the idea from.
I could have left the cracks there and the skill would have worked to refreeze them, but I decided against it. I wanted to be as protected as I could be. It wouldn''t do to neglect it and get hurt by something unexpected.
Without the ability to see behind me, I expected Austin to be racing around trying to dodge everything while I just bull-dozed through. It was enough to bring a slight smile to my face.
The thought of him jumping around like a monkey trying not to get hit was quite funny. The thought of him using me as a human shield was less funny.
As the distance shortened, the number of attacks we were under only increased. More people manned the wall and their aim was significantly better the closer we were.
A catapult boulder was launched at one point but it soared over our heads before landing ineffectually a hundred feet behind us. Another wasn''t launched before we made it to the wall.
The attacks started to build up and strain even my armor, strengthened as it was. I actually had to use my full Law. I had only used light touches before to save it for later.
Strengthening my entire armor was still strenuous on my mind for extended periods of time.
With my full Law brought to bear, the attacks were ignorable once again. I had tried to ramp up my defense according to the strain I felt but it was harder than I anticipated.
Ignoring the magic flying my way, I focused solely on the gate. It was getting closer and I made to prepare. [Fury(Un)] activated and my speed went up a notch.
[Heavy Blow(Un)] and [Frostbite(Un)] layered on my hammer and [Ice Manipulation(C)] worked to strengthen it.
Just with that alone, 6 skills were active. [Frost Armor(R)], [Avalanche(R)], and [Fury(Un)] weren''t a constant strain to keep active but the rest were.
I began my swing and poured everything I had into it. For a brief moment, I pulled on my Law to empower every bit of ice around me. My armor and hammer began to glow from the power.
Everything I had went into my swing.
As soon as I was in range, I set my feet and began. I dug into the earth with my legs to gain leverage. I twisted my hips like I was trying to hit a home run. I flexed every muscle in my body to add to the power.
I poured all the mana I could into [Heavy Blow(Un)]. I even tried to speed the hammer up using [Ice Manipulation(C)].
All of it added together for my most powerful attack. An attack aimed right at the gate.
The attack landed and everything happened so fast I couldn''t keep up with my eyes.
The gate just disappeared. One second it was there, the next, gone.
My hammer exploded in my hands after the attack landed. Wooden splinters and ice shards were sent flying into the camp, spraying anyone close enough with the gate-turned projectile.
I stood in the gateway of the once intact gate with only the bottom half of the handle of my hammer in my hands.
I was stunned.
It shouldn''t have been that easy.
The attacks briefly stopped as if they were just as surprised as I was. The only person unfazed was Austin and he didn''t miss a step as he ran through the broken gateway around me.
As soon as he was inside, he started attacking with abandon. Light beams shot out in between spear thrusts that claimed lives every time they landed.
He used the brief surprise of the gate utterly exploding to his advantage and worked to kill as many as possible.
The nearest enemies to me had splinters of wood and shards of ice sticking out of them that turned them into wanna-be porcupines.
Blood was leaking out of them from the wounds but they seemed unfazed by the pain.
The only thing I was thinking as the battle started was my hammer was gone.
I really liked that hammer too.
Chapter 87 - Slaughter
I couldn''t let Austin have all the fun and standing still in the gateway wasn''t the smartest spot on the battlefield to be.
After the initial surprise wore off, attacks began washing over me again, only this time with fewer numbers.
The defenders were split between attacking the spear-wielding light show or the man covered in ice doing nothing. It wasn''t hard to guess who they went after first.
With my main weapon gone, I almost thought to resort to fisticuffs before I stopped. My hammer took hours to make and it wasn''t something I could just whip up but I could still do a little something.
I could make a lesser version but it would most likely just break again returning me to the same dilemma. With that in mind, I did something different.
While working to make a new weapon, it didn''t stop me from joining the fight. Without the need to hold 6 skills active at the same time, I shifted what skills I was using around.
[Fury(Un)] and [Avalanche(R)] were a given but the rest were free to switch around.
[Permafrost(Un)] blasted out of me with a decent amount of mana drastically lowering the temperature near me before [Hail(C)] started falling to hasten the effect.
I used [Ice Manipulation(C)] to pick up the pieces of hail before sending them spinning around me. My tried and true method.
With enough ice formed [Hail(C)] ended, freeing up something else to use.
[Ice Arrows(Un)] were launched at any and all near me that I wasn''t attacking with my snowflakes.
I threw up an [Ice Wall(Un)] in front of a trio of charging warriors before using [Shatter(Un)]. Ice shards exploded out skewering the trio dead.
After pulling in more of the ice surrounding me, I condensed it down the most I could, creating a dense rod of ice. At one end I worked to flatten it out before sharpening one edge. The flat section was barely a foot long compared to the rest of the haft.
A 6-foot Glaive condensed into being in my hands, ready for battle. The force of hammer strikes would break any hammer I made so I opted for a slicing weapon, plus I wanted to use an old skill.
It had been a while since I used it and I wanted to give it a go once again. It used to be my most effective way to deal with many weak enemies.
[Heavy Weapon Proficiency(App)] still worked with my new weapon, luckily, but I was entirely unfamiliar with it. I wouldn''t be able to use it to the best of my ability right away but it was enough for now.
We weren''t facing anything too strong.
After the glaive finished freezing into shape, a quick twirl to test it was enough for me.
With a weapon in hand, I jumped into the melee.
Limiting my strength was difficult but being able to cut through what I was hitting lessened the strain. With my control over ice, I was able to create the weapon with a wicked sharp edge easing the process.
With my first swing, I decapitated the thrall rushing at me. Even as inexperienced as I was with the weapon, I could still swing it effectively. Seeing a head go flying wasn''t the prettiest sight and it wouldn''t be the last.
Recovered fully, I began cutting down enemies.
After the initial test of the weapon, I activated [Sweeping Slash(C)] for the first time in weeks.
A blade made of mana condensed on the edge of my glaive and extended my range out past the end of the blade. With my mana control and Law aiding it, the weakened strength wasn''t a problem.
The mana blade extended my reach by another few feet. When I used the skill before I was limited to a foot. I was a lot better now.
Add to that weaker enemies, the blade from [Sweeping Slash(C)] was enough.
I had tried to find a use for the skill ever since switching to hammers as my main weapon but it went against the skills nature. It was built to be a slash, it was in the name, and I hadn''t been successful in my attempts.
I figured it would take an upgrade or two to change it. Upgrades were hard to define. When we first got the system and were given skills and everything, I had assumed that upgrades only made the skill more powerful.
While true, that wasn''t all they did. Take [Power Strike(C)] for example. Both Jonathan and I started with the same base skill but upgraded it into two different ones.
I upgraded it into [Heavy Blow(Un)] which increased the strength and weight of my swings while Jonathan upgraded it into [Sturdy Blow(Un)]. While both skills were similar, they were different enough to earn separate names.
His worked similar to mine but focused on sturdiness instead of heaviness. It went with his earth affinity well.
That proved that upgrading skills had some leeway to change. Both skills didn''t change in their function though and both still worked to increase the power of blows like the base skill.
I wasn''t sure how much I would be able to change [Sweeping Slash(C)] during an upgrade, but I would try nonetheless.
Even though the skill was only common, it sliced through the defenders easily enough. The mana blade was slick with blood after the first kill and only got worse as the numbers rose.
I hadn''t been able to layer any skills onto the mana blade in the past but that changed now. [Frostbite(Un)] easily slid onto the mana blade from [Sweeping Slash(C)].
The mana blade turned a deeper blue and started giving wafts of frost into the air. The slash carried the frostbite effect deep into the gashes and worked to slow down any it hit.
Usually, with my hammer, [Frostbite(Un)] injected ice mana into where I hit and slowed the affected body part. With [Sweeping Slash(C)], the frost effect went only as deep as the cut did.
If the cut was shallow, the effect was surface level. If the cut was deep, the effect penetrated deeper. With the strength I had compared to my foes, entire muscle groups were frozen and made hard to move.
None had a law to defend or any decent defensive skills to stop it. My skill was free to do whatever it wanted.
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With so much practice with it, I mentally pushed the skill deeper into certain muscles, affecting entire limbs. With my control over the ice mana it was trivial to invade their bodies and freeze them from the inside.
Honestly, it was too easy. None of the warriors that charged me had decent skill with weapons and their attacks were amateur. It was almost robotic in nature.
No feints or tricks, only straightforward slashes and thrusts.
Not all of the defenders were on the same level and every once in a while, someone of worth would attack. Saying they were of worth was a stretch, but compared to everyone else here they were.
We didn''t know where the so-called ''leader'' was but that didn''t stop us.
With the effect I had on the environment with [Permafrost(Un)] and the ice flying around me, Austin went off into a different part of the camp. I could fight with people around, but it took away from what I could really do.
Plus, focusing on not hitting friendlies was annoying.
The occasional [Solar Ray] would shoot out toward me but Austin knew I could tank them. He could freely use his skills without the worry of hitting me on accident.
Some of his more powerful skills would hurt, but nothing here required him to use those.
If he used a full-power attack on me with the intent to kill, I wouldn''t be able to tank it like it was nothing. He was too strong for that. Plus his light had a penetrating effect that worked well on my armor.
Ice wasn''t the best thing to use against light-based attacks. Some always made its way through. An annoyance I had while fighting with him for practice.
As I fought with the glaive, I got better with the weapon. It took wider swings and I had to learn to keep the edge straight, but it wasn''t all that hard. I wasn''t fighting masters of the sword or anything.
If I had to guess, I was fighting at a beginner level with the weapon not far from novice. All of my experience with the hammer didn''t translate directly but they were both two-handed heavy weapons.
When to attack and how to use the haft effectively were similar for both. The extra range from the glaive took some extra work to use effectively.
The slicing motion took some getting used to. I was used to smashing anything that got close, and the movements necessary to aid in slashing were different.
It was a fun training session though. Using a hammer on these people would be overkill and if I still had it, almost disgraceful. They didn''t deserve my hammer.
[Frost Armor(R)] shrugged off anything thrown at me and after we worked to decrease their number, even the intensity wasn''t difficult to deal with.
After turning the area into the Arctic with [Permafrost(Un)] and my continued ice skills, any fire-based attacks were wiped out. Their control was pitiful and couldn''t form their skills in the hostile environment.
It was quite fun for me to rip their skills apart. Fireballs fizzled out and any heat was sapped from the area. I couldn''t do so against the Blaze Lions because of their number but I sure as hell could now.
Not all of the defenders were using fire and the ones that were weren''t numerous enough to overpower me.
I practiced every day against Rachel and she put these people to shame.
Admittedly, I was a tad worried about Austin. He didn''t have the same fortitude that I did and this was a different fight than against monsters. Skills were a different beast altogether.
A few lucky attacks punched through [Frost Armor(R)] but didn''t make it past the metal underneath it but he didn''t have [Frost Armor(R)]. He wore what was considered medium armor.
How Heavy, Medium, and Light were officially determined, I didn''t know but his wasn''t as robust as mine. His armor consisted of a breastplate and backplate that were one piece of metal before transitioning into hard leather everywhere else.
The only metal bits were the chest plate and the plates on his thighs. Everything else was covered in leather.
It kept the protectiveness of plate over the torso and upper leg and the mobility of leather on his arms and feet. The plates were smaller than normal too to accommodate the torso''s articulation.
Only a small part of me was miffed Vinny made it and not me. It was fine.
Vinny did good work and the armor was well into the common tier, above everyone''s here at least.
None of the defenders here had any common tier gear and that made the fight all the more easy. If I could slice through leather armor with my glaive, Austin could pierce through easily.
The penetrative power he could put into his spear was enough to get through some of the bosses we faced now, let alone under-leveled thralls.
Bodies froze as I cut swaths of them down and even more joined the pile through the snowflakes flying around me. What was once a funny idea turned weapon was now a killing machine.
Over the waves, my ''blizzard'' had evolved. My increasing mastery over [Ice Manipulation(C)] let me use more and more at the same time while keeping them flying through the air.
My Law worked to give them some substance and make them not shatter as easily.
My fighting style was all aggression. I had the defenses to mitigate if not all, most damage, which let me focus entirely on attacking.
My glaive sliced through an attacker charging at me with a sword while a snowflake impaled a mage further off. By the time I yanked the snowflake out with [Ice Manipulation(C)] a different one sliced through an arm holding a bow.
When I had time in between glaive swings, [Ice Arrows(Un)] flew toward mages out of my reach. I targeted the ones still on the wall or farther away than the rest. If the arrow didn''t kill them, [Shatter(Un)] did.
The arrows that penetrated their bodies exploded inside them causing ice shards to rip into their vulnerable insides. Having an arrow of ice explode inside you did not lead to a very long life.
I didn''t even have to worry about using [Ice Fortress(Un)]. I didn''t need a break to catch my breath or block off a way of attack. None of the attacks were strong enough to pressure me.
The bodies started to thin after continued battle and I was disappointed. With my stats as high as they were and my glaive, with the extension from [Sweeping Slash(C)], I could reap three to four people at a time if they were close enough together.
Clumps of people went down quickest with the slowest being the people on the other side of the camp. It took them a moment to traverse the entire camp and reach where I was fighting.
[Ice Arrow(Un)] got used a lot more frequently then. I could have leaped toward them and ended them with my glaive but I didn''t see the point.
An [Ice Arrow(Un)] to the head or chest killed them all the same. It was almost sad how fast I was killing people.
As the last of the people running toward me fell, I was left standing on a mound of bodies. I had been treating it like a wave and it took me a second to recognize I was standing on human bodies, not monsters.
That quickly worked to wash away my battle fever. I had been getting into the fighting spirit but now that I had internalized what I had done, it was gone. I shouldn''t feel proud. I didn''t want to feel proud.
My hands shook back when the blood from the bandits splashed on me and now I was covered in it. The thought of human blood being on my hands made me so distraught then.
How quickly I had changed was disheartening.
With my mood fully soured, I walked to where I last saw Austin. His skills were hard to miss and he was closer to the other side of the camp. While I let the people come to me and stayed closer to the middle of the camp, he went to them.
I hadn''t seen any of his skills go off and assumed he was finished with his side.
I was right.
He was surrounded with the same amount of bodies as I was and was covered in blood all the same.
He sat on a body with his spear propped against his shoulder. He was breathing heavily and I couldn''t tell if any of the blood on him was his. He looked up when I came walking over but didn''t get up.
"You good?" I asked.
"Yeah, as good as I can be." He said.
I knew he was dealing with killing people better than I was but even he was unnerved by the number around him.
Letting my armor dissipate got rid of most of the blood covering me. The only left after that was from the few splatters that got through cracks before it refroze, which wasn''t a lot.
Austin didn''t have it so easy and it would take a thorough washing to get rid of it.
"My hammer broke," I said in almost a whine. Even after what we just did my thoughts were on how it started. I wasn''t deflecting what I felt now.
"I saw that," He said with a small chuckle.
I didn''t say anything back. Austin looked around at the aftermath before slapping his thighs.
"Well, time to loot the place," He said without an ounce of shame.
How he went from unsettled, to excited about looting the place astounded me. I didn''t say anything though. Neither of us wanted to talk about it right now.
"I bet I can find more stuff," Was all he said before running off.
I only hesitated for a moment before running off as well. The part of me that noted the blood and bodies wanted us to be more serious about it but I killed that part quickly.
Without the unseriousness and jokes, all that was left was the carnage and that was no fun for anyone.
It was his way of cutting through the feelings we were both no doubt going through.
He had a way of turning serious situations into unserious ones and I was glad for it.
I didn''t want to spend any more time here than we had to and his competition worked to speed up the process.
Chapter 88 - Who I am
Chris
With our arms full of what we could carry, we trekked back to camp. There wasn''t much value in the camp but we took anything we deemed usable.
For me, that was mostly gear and weapons. They weren''t the best quality, especially after we had so carefully liberated them from their previous owners, but they could be melted down for material.
My pack rattled and clanked from the numerous weapons I was carrying while Austin''s was bulging at the seams. He took anything that wasn''t nailed down and then some. Anything he thought might hold value was taken and he looked comical carrying the massive pack on his back.
You would think that we came prepared with sacks at the ready to carry loot home with, but you would be wrong. We had to scavenge the camp for backpacks and the like to even think about lugging anything back.
Austin used a missmash of different clothes all tied together into a massive sack. It was so big it wouldn''t be out of place with Santa Claus carrying it.
The loot we carried wasn''t the only bounty we received from the camp. The 200-odd defenders gave a total of 200,000 points to the two of us. Split between the two of us was 100,000 each.
They held more points than normal and it seemed the points didn''t automatically flow to the one controlling them which was a boon for us. They still held onto some points from the wave hours prior. We got more than anticipated.
Sneaking a peek at my point total was some good news on an otherwise shitty day.
Points: 653,342
On the way home, we stopped to wash the blood off before we made it back to camp. Everyone there knew what we did but it wouldn''t look good to come home covered in the blood of our enemies. We didn''t want the kids to ask questions.
We didn''t run the way back, the sacks would rip under too much force, but it was mostly because we needed to decompress. After looting and packing up, the reality of what we did hit us.
I was told that I would hold power over others with my strength but now I had a first-hand example. It wasn''t like the skirmish with the bandits, that was a small fight, this was the eradication of a village.
A random person now held the power to do what I just did and it would only get worse. It produced grim thoughts. Not everyone was good in the world and some would become monsters. Not everyone was bad either and some would create utopias.
Most would walk in the middle.
At the end of the trip, I had come to a decision. Good, bad, it didn''t matter. It was all subjective really. I would create my Code of Honor and stick to it. I had been saying I would for a while but this really drove the point home.
There could be no more delaying it. I needed to figure out what rules I would live by so I wouldn''t become something I wasn''t. It was the same reason I didn''t want permanent changes to my body.
I guess some might consider it a delusion or fantasy to try to hold onto who I was before but it was something I needed. I had only been in this new world for less than three months and look how much I changed already.
I slaughtered a village for God''s sake.
If I could change so much to do that, how much further could I go? I needed something to ground me, to set me straight.
For the longest time that something was my father. He was the one who taught me right from wrong and was the one I looked to as an example. He wouldn''t be around forever. Death came for everyone, even me.
In a world of battle and fighting it could come suddenly. I couldn''t have the thing I relied on as guidance disappear like that.
It was something I would have to think about.
Tracy
The room was entirely silent and the only sounds that could be heard were from the nature outside getting through.
After telling the man, Christopher his name was, about the camps the Mindbreaker held she had expected him to attack. That was the only of the expectations she held that turned out to be right.
She had assumed he would gear up after the wave before marching with his whole camp to lay siege to the enemy before capturing it. Everyone in the room had expected the same.
She knew he was strong from his run through the woods, but not this strong.
He treated the defenses of the camp like they were jokes and shrugged off magic skills that she would die from. She felt threatened just looking at all the attacks that had rained down on them. She still held onto the memory of watching the two charge out of the tree line.
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She thought they were there just to scout, not attack the damn thing. They were only two people. Against hundreds.
They ran straight at the gate weathering a bombardment of skills that would kill anyone in her camps. One just ignored them, letting them crash over him to no avail, the other moved so quickly that nothing hit him.
For the attacks too big to dodge, he hid behind the one in front like a human shield.
It was wild. Crazy. They were lunatics.
At first, she wondered what they would do once they got to the wall but she didn''t have to wonder for very long.
As soon as she saw the one in ice swing his hammer at the gate she concluded that the two were idiots. The gate, and subsequent wall, were bought from the store and had enchantments running through them that even she didn''t know what they did, and she was an Enchanter. Her profession told her a lot about enchanting and the runes running through the wall were still a mystery to her.
She had expected the hammer to bounce off to no effect. She knew the man was strong, but it was a system-bought wall. She knew how strong system-bought things could be, especially the defenses.
The last thing in the world she expected was for the gate to fail. Not only did it fail. It failed spectacularly, shattering into a spray of splinters.
The hammer also broke but seeing as a weapon of ice just as easily replaced it ruined the sentiment. The two fought like fiends.
One just created a snow-filled hellscape of death and blood while the other danced through the crowd stabbing quick, fatal blows with a spear. Light rays would pierce through a line of people before all of them fell over dead.
It was lethality in a bottle.
Every stab, ray of sun, or burst of light killed. It was almost as scary as the walking glacier.
One flitted around bringing death through stabbing while the other advanced slowly while crushing everything in the way, grinding it underfoot.
She was glad that she hadn''t attacked the man when he showed up. She wasn''t sure she would have been able to kill him before he got away. Having an enemy like that out there would make her lose more sleep than she already did.
Kathy was the most stunned of all the people in the room. The other wall leaders didn''t understand the sheer scale of destruction the two men wrought. She could only share the vision of one bird with the group, but she could see it all.
It was destruction on a scale none of them had ever seen before.
All doubts about the ability of the man''s camp went out the window. Now she wondered if it was the Mindbreaker that should be scared.
Though it was only one camp out of nine and it was the weakest one. She wondered if they were able to take them all like they did today.
All the rest were more advanced than the one they just saw destroyed. Still, something told her that what she saw wasn''t everything they could do.
She almost felt silly offering the man what she did.
Chris
After getting back, the rest of the day went quickly. I wasn''t in the mood for people and spent most of my time in the forge. After gaining my style I had been trying to advance my forging ability.
It was slow going and took a while to get used to, but it was working out better than I could have imagined. It was nice to be able to slow down and focus on forging rather than all the fighting.
The day went smoothly and I didn''t have to think about the level I gained from killing people. The wave, the pylon upgrade, and the battle after all added up to two levels.
Austin beat me again with experience and gained 3. He was level 47 while I sat at 43.
With the free points from the two levels, I spread it out between the three magic stats. They were my lowest stats and deserved some love. All of my physical stats were high enough already.
3 to Intelligence, 4 to Wisdom, and 3 to Acumen helped bring them up. Wisdom was more than double the other two but it was also the most useful to me.
I couldn''t help but think about how Austin was getting close to the next rank and he didn''t have enough points for a bloodline yet. We would have to do something about that.
Austin had no qualms about changing or taking in a bloodline like I did, he was excited about it even. He picked out the bloodline he wanted already which was a step ahead of me. I was still looking.
His choice was on the steeper side in terms of cost but he should be able to do it before the tutorial ended. What he decided in terms of temporary versus permanent during the race upgrade was still up in the air though.
I kept my thoughts to myself, knowing him he would only do the opposite of whatever I told him to out of spite. It was one of his most frustrating traits. The thing he hated above all else was being told what to do.
Putting Austin out of my mind, I focused on a different member of our camp. With all the hectic activity the last day held I didn''t have the time to look into something I wanted to.
While Austin and I were away, Jonathan managed to do something that greatly empowered him and I wanted to find out what.
Before the sun set completely, I sought the man out for the details.
"Hey, Jonathan. You got a second?"
He wasn''t doing anything terribly important at the moment which was why I approached him about it now.
"Sure what do you need?" He answered.
"I was wondering about what you did during the attack. I was told you formed a spirit anchor but I don''t know what that means."
"Oh, that. I was wondering when you would come and ask me about that. Admittedly, I don''t know much about it myself. What I do know came from the information Abby bought after it unlocked in the store." He said.
I had heard as much but I wanted to hear the details from the man himself.
"What did it feel like? What did you do to get it?" I asked.
It was the same kind of questions I was asked when I first formed my Law. Being on the other foot now wasn''t as fun.
"Spirit Anchors are the first step along the Spirit path of power, or so I''m told. As the spirit strengthens and gets larger through levels, evolutions, and experience, it needs something to keep it grounded and steady for future power spikes. Later ranks one can claim an Authority using the spirit and those hold a great amount of power." He cited from the information we bought.
Authorities were like Laws but different. Laws were grounded in the fundamental rules of the world. One couldn''t gain a Law of something that didn''t exist. Authorities were different. We still didn''t know the full picture but it supposedly opened up the possibility of some pretty powerful abilities later on that a person could do. They also came with a downside. Without a strong enough spirit, using them was impossible. That was where Anchors came in.
"The Anchor is what works to bolster the spirit, keep it from getting out of control, ground it. It allows you to wield your spirit in battle without damaging it by keeping it anchored, hence the name." He continued.
They were also the leading way to strengthen a spirit. Doing anything that aligned with your spirit worked to bolster it and make it stronger. Jonathan''s Anchor was about protecting people so every time he did that, his spirit would get stronger.
"Yeah, I know all that. I want to know what you did." I clarified.
"I found out who I am. I dug into the center of my being and confirmed what I stand for and who I want to be. It isn''t something you can do in a day." He said with a laugh.
He knew I wanted to get a power-up before the next wave and worked to dissuade me from getting my hopes up.
We continued to talk about it but it didn''t get any clearer.
Going to bed I couldn''t stop thinking about it.
Who am I? It was a question I was asking myself a lot recently.
Chapter 89 - Move
I spent most of the night and the following morning thinking about it to no avail. Jonathan''s warning that it didn''t happen overnight was proving true. My Law came after a few hours of effort and a bit of insight but forming a spirit anchor was proving difficult.
Plus, I had other things to worry about. The 25th wave was coming in a few days and we needed to be ready for it. There was still something I needed to discuss with everyone before that happened though. Something that I had kept hidden.
While I was talking with Tracy in front of her camp, she offered me the chance to merge factions. We could merge and join her camp. Adding together the power of my family with the defensiveness of what she had built.
It wasn''t something I initially planned to entertain, but seeing her camp changed my mind. We had always said no to merging camps or letting people join us but this time was different.
Tracy''s camp was a lot stronger than ours and could help defend against the waves better. We had strong people but we didn''t have the strong camp they did. Every time my family fought, we risked someone dying.
Declining wasn''t something I wanted on my conscience.
At first, it was a matter of trust. We didn''t trust anyone to join or for us to join others. We were all still feeling out the new world we found ourselves in. Now, though, it was different. We could hold our own.
I wasn''t able to see the woman face to face but I could tell I was stronger. I wasn''t sure how, but I was. The feeling she gave off wasn''t clear because of the spell we used to talk, but I would put her somewhere near Rachel''s level.
We had multiple people at that strength. If we were to join, we wouldn''t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back as much. We would be able to fight the entire camp, especially at our full strength.
The hardest part would be getting through the walls if we were to attack, but if we joined, that wouldn''t be a problem. We would be let in.
As bad as that sounded, I had no plans to attack the woman. We had our hands full as it was with the waves, we didn''t need to add conquering other pylons into the mix.
Also, it seemed that Tracy understood that. She was focused on surviving the waves rather than trying to conquer. I could respect that. It was just a thought I had when thinking it over and one of my many worst case scenarios.
The only thing holding me back from saying yes right away was asking my family about it. And a more selfish reason but I squashed that quickly.
Selfishly, I didn''t want to give up our pylon. It was our home, where our family fought and died. Just giving it up felt wrong, like admitting defeat. Let alone the penalties for doing so.
We weren''t certain how the tutorial worked, but at the end of the three months we were supposed to receive rewards based on performance. Losing control of the pylon we claimed seemed like it would be a hefty demerit.
Thinking about the reward was something I killed quickly. It wasn''t even worth entertaining. I would do what helped my family most, prizes be damned.
The decision wasn''t something I could do on my own, it affected more than just me. Abigail would lose access to her profession as she was the Town Mayor. I wasn''t sure how losing the pylon would affect that but it couldn''t be good.
Gathering everyone before breakfast wasn''t hard and as soon as we were all settled around the table in the keep, I told them the offer.
It went over in a mix of confusion and them asking clarifying questions. What did the camp look like? Who was the leader? How did everyone look?
Most of the questions were focused on the state of the camp but the condition of the people was brought up as well.
I told them everything I knew, which was less than I would have liked, and everyone took a second to think it over.
"I don''t like it." Austin was the first to give his answer.
It wasn''t an outright refusal, just his feelings on the matter. He was probably thinking along the same lines I was and felt like we would be giving up if we moved camps.
"The idea has merit." My Dad said from his spot at the table.
Sam nodded to that without saying anything.
Abigail was too busy in her own head to answer right away which left Hal.
"It''s what is best," Hal stated.
"I know it is. Doesn''t mean I have to like it though," Austin muttered.
Abigail finally came out of her introspection and added to the conversation.
"It would help in so many ways. We wouldn''t have to worry about the waves as much, we could focus on more things than just surviving. The weight off our shoulders alone would be worth it." She said.
It was quiet for a beat while everyone realized there were no nay-sayers.
"Then it seems we are in agreement," I announced. "The only question now is when."
Packing everything we owned up would take a while and we would have to sort through what to bring. Not everything was worth taking and we didn''t know what the other camp had.
We had two days until the next wave so multiple trips weren''t out of the question. It would take me four hours to reach the destination and that was running at top speed. It would take most of the day to travel there with everyone as a group.
That was one of the reasons I didn''t bring it up before the 24th wave. It would have taken too long to get everything together to move with the hour or two we had before the wave by the time I got back.
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I was lucky no one died or it would have been partially my fault.
Abigail immediately went off to catalog everything we would need for the trip and went about making sure everyone knew about the move.
People took the news as well as can be expected. There was the underlying feeling of defeat but there was hope blooming in people''s minds. I didn''t hold back any information and told them of the powerful camp we were going to.
The thought of protection and the slight lessening of worry that hung around since the start was a huge weight off everyone''s shoulders.
It worked to quash the feeling of uncertainty everyone had. We were going to an entirely new place with what were complete strangers. If that didn''t raise at least some unease there was a problem.
I would admit that I had a slight feeling of tension and anxiety but it was easy to get over those. This was what was best for my family. If it turned out to be a problem when we got there, I would deal with it then.
At that thought, I added another thing I needed to do.
Remake my hammer.
While using the glaive was all well and fun, it wasn''t my hammer. I had gotten comfortable with the weapon and was averse to changing that.
The glaive did well against the low-level people we fought at the camp but it wouldn''t hold up against the tough bodies of the monsters during the waves. [Sweeping Slash(C)] produced a weakened mana blade that wouldn''t be able to get through and the blade wouldn''t slice as well.
Plus, the glaive didn''t leverage my monstrous strength quite the same. My hammer was made for crushing and pulverizing, utilizing my strength to the fullest. The glaive wasn''t.
I had a few ideas about the new weapon I was kicking around in my head and I couldn''t wait to try them out. What came first, though, was getting everyone packed up.
We had two entire days to move but slacking now would only delay our departure.
Another reason I put off telling everyone about the offer was because my revenge was put on hold. I couldn''t go and attack the Mindbreaker if I was here helping with moving.
It was a delay I would accept. My family came first and putting off my revenge was easily done. Putting it off did not mean I would forget. No, that wouldn''t happen.
The move came at the perfect time though. The 25th wave was next and I wasn''t sure how it would go. It should be the wave all four directions were assaulted but that wouldn''t be all.
Just adding another direction of assault wouldn''t be all it did. The tutorial only had 5 more waves to try and kill us, only adding a direction wouldn''t be all it did.
It was the main reason I agreed with the move. I felt we were in for a sharp incline in difficulty in our remaining days here. One that I wasn''t sure we would survive alone.
The camp was packed and only non-important things were left lying around. Most of the buildings had to be left behind. Vinny''s and my forge would be left behind, the leatherworker''s shop and Scott''s carpentry building abandoned.
It took most of the day, but people were ready for the move. We would begin in the morning.
After the decision was made I worked to make Tracy aware of my answer.
I knew she used birds to scout so I made it clearly obvious to any aerial point of view.
A giant arrow painted into the ground outside was hard to miss.
At the end of the arrow was a poster that declared my intent. It was short and to the point. Even a bird would be able to read it.
I accept. Coming tomorrow.
After everyone was as prepared as they could be and full from dinner, I snuck Jonathan away to work on something. I didn''t want to bother Scott with making something and I wasn''t sure if he would even be able to.
He was a high-level Carpenter but he wasn''t E-rank yet.
Spending points while I was saving up for a bloodline hurt but it was necessary.
The main problem with my hammer was that the shaft couldn''t handle the strain. The weight of the hammer head and the speed I was swinging it around at was too much for the shaft to handle.
There was no flex or give to the ice to help deal with the load. It was too rigid and shattered when it reached the failure point. Something I would remedy.
With a wooden shaft, it wouldn''t be as likely to break. I would coat it in ice in places and make the hammerhead out of ice, but the shaft itself would be wood.
I thought about using metal but decided against it. I felt that wood was the better choice. If wood broke as well, I would move to metal.
I chose wood mainly because it was cheaper.
While I skimped on points by choosing wood instead of metal, I picked the best wood I could. I got Jonathan to search for ice affinity hardwood within an acceptable price range for my project.
What came back was a longer list than anticipated but it wasn''t hard to choose what I needed. Wood at the high common tier alone with an ice affinity, about wrist size in diameter and 5 feet long.
What materialized in front of me was called [Frozen Oak] and it was pricy. Not pricy in the grand scheme of things, pricy compared to other wood.
It was almost 10,000 points. Compared to the over 600,000 I had, it wasn''t much, but still a lot for a small amount of wood.
The wood itself was an off-brown color mixed with light blue that looked frosted over in places. It had very little give to it from testing and was cool to the touch. From my affinity, I could tell the ice attunement the wood held wasn''t huge, but enough for my purposes.
After testing it out, I was immensely satisfied. It would work superbly.
I allotted time to make the hammer the following day as there were a few more things I had to do before the move. There wasn''t much left to do, Abigail made sure of that, but as a leader I felt I should double-check everything.
It took a few hours to scout the way and another hour to check over everything in camp before I settled into bed. I didn''t scout the whole way, just the part nearest to us, but I wanted to make sure there wasn''t anything too strong in our way.
Since I was there anyway, I slaughtered everything on the path we would take anyway. It didn''t take much longer than normal running and gave me some peace of mind for tomorrow.
Still, ever since I brought up moving I couldn''t get a thought out of my head.
My family was strong and could hold their own in a fight. They were going to a camp with a bunch of other people and defenses to the nines. They would be as protected as they''d ever be.
Since they would be safe, or as safe as they could be, what would facing a wave alone be like?
If they all left for the other camp, no one would remain here.
But I could change that.
We had faced the waves with over 20 people and we were told that they scaled based on the number of people.
What would a wave for one person be like?
One very powerful person.
It was a thought that had been gnawing at me all day. I wouldn''t have to worry about anyone behind me. I wouldn''t have to worry about my family. I would be able to fight however I wanted.
It would be dangerous, sure, but what wasn''t? If I survived I would be stronger. The vision of what I did to the village wouldn''t get out of my head and I constantly worried about what would happen when we got back to Earth.
Would I be strong enough to defend against someone who tried to do that to me?
There were billions of people on Earth and thinking I was the most powerful person was lunacy. If I could do it and get this strong, thousands of other people could as well.
Facing a wave alone, and surviving, would give me that strength. It was the most difficult thing I could think of to do and the system rewarded overcoming challenges.
I couldn''t think of a harder challenge.
Those were the thoughts running through my head to justify my idea but deep down I felt something different.
Ever since the start of the tutorial, I had this feeling of euphoria during battles. A rush I had never felt before.
The deaths and losses that occurred quickly tempered that feeling but it didn''t make it go away. That feeling was screaming at me to do it. To face down an army and see who was left standing. It called to the more primal side of me.
All of the thoughts and feelings added together pushed me to do it. I was still a rational and logical person, or I tried to be, so I wouldn''t let that control me but I couldn''t help but float the idea in my head.
Would I be able to do it?
Chapter 90 - I Feel I Must
Before everyone got up and got ready to move, I had another task to do.
It was time to remake my hammer.
I didn''t get up any earlier than I usually did but that was still enough time to complete it before everyone else was ready to go. My poor sleep schedule was thoroughly shot.
It was okay though, 19 more days and I could sleep all I wanted.
Remaking my hammer was similar to the last time except I didn''t have to make the haft. The wood took to the ice nicely and it all froze together flawlessly. I even made the same pommel and sigil as last time.
The hammerhead was a different story. I wanted to try out something different than before and venture away from the double-headed hammer. Having one hammerhead would be fine and I could add a spike to the other side.
I originally decided against doing so for balance reasons. So I could swing it both ways without having to flip it.
Now that I had more experience with the weapon and was better at fighting, I didn''t need the crutch of both hammerheads. Plus, a spike could come in handy for certain monsters when blunt damage failed.
I had thought that if I ever needed anything other than blunt damage I could make something else out of ice on the spot but that was short-sighted.
The process of molding the weapon and saturating it in my Law and Mana made it stronger than just doing it on the fly. My hammer would have broken long ago if that wasn''t the case.
My trip to the mountains which had once taken half a day only took an hour. Most of the beasts in my path ran from me and the ones who stayed didn''t take long to defeat.
I was used to fighting armies of the things, taking down a handful at a time was a breeze even without my weapon.
The reason I went back to the mountains again was for the Ice Mana in the area. I wanted to use the purest ice mana I could and that was in the mountains.
During the remolding, or refreezing, I attempted to push my law like I had last time but nothing happened. It would seem doing the same thing twice wasn''t how to proceed.
The weapon ended up a beaut. The hammerhead stayed mostly the same with all of my concentration on density and hardness while the other side extended out the back in a brutal spike.
One central spike extended out the back of the hammer for about a foot, tapering off to a point. There were smaller spikes ringing the edge of the hammer but only one main one.
For the spike, I focused on making it as sharp as possible without compromising its structure. I wanted something that would pierce easily without breaking immediately.
It was fine if it broke after the hit but not during.
The weapon turned out better than I had hoped. Now if it broke again, and the wooden shaft didn''t, I would only have to refreeze the head and not the whole thing.
Plus, I could switch out the different heads while keeping the same shaft if I wanted to as well. I probably wouldn''t, but the option was still there if I ever needed a glaive or halberd.
It was with a new hammer and a small pep in my step that we started the journey south. As much I loathed the weather down there it was where we were headed. At least it wasn''t the desert.
Our caravan of 20 people wasn''t the fastest mode of travel but the new stats we had made it tolerable. Super strength was good for more than smashing things.
The few physical warriors left carried massive packs on their backs with most of our gear with everyone else carrying what they could. The pack on my back was particularly massive.
I had to wonder how Sam and Diana were able to make something strong enough to hold all the weight I was carrying. A mixture of strong leather and hope most likely but it felt like they took it to the extreme.
With my initial clearing of the path, our trip began smoothly. We started running into some trouble when we reached the end of where I got to the previous night but it wasn''t anything we couldn''t handle.
A quick arrow from Hal or spear from Austin was enough to end most things in our way. Only a few required more than that and even then, it wasn''t too bad.
As we got closer to our destination I couldn''t help but get nervous. I hadn''t explicitly told her we were coming but I did leave a giant ass sign. Now that I was looking for them I had begun to see the birds she used to scout.
They weren''t obvious but I could notice them if I was trying. I didn''t have the best perception but I was specifically looking for them now which made it easier. After I told Austin to look out for them, he had caught one of them watching before we attacked the Mindbreaker''s camp.
I used it to show off a bit. I didn''t think that she would betray us after offering to merge but I wanted to drive the point home anyway. Sort of a way to say ''Don''t mess with us.''
I wasn''t sure what their response to it was but I thought it was clear. The two of us, Austin and I, decimated the camp.
It seemed she got the message based on the welcome party we received when we arrived. People were waiting outside the open gate to help us carry stuff in and get settled.
Abigail worked with another woman to make sure everything was in the right spot. Birds constantly flitted around her so I assumed she was the one in control of them.
Tracy came out to welcome us herself and I finally got a good feel for her. With more clarity, I could tell that she was slightly ahead of Rachel in terms of strength.
After Jonathan''s power up from his Spirit Anchor, he was third strongest behind Austin and I. Tracy would fall behind Jonathan and ahead of Rachel based on what I could feel.
The new feeling of how strong someone felt was still inexperienced and I didn''t trust it completely. I didn''t even know what it was I was ''feeling'' exactly either.
After we were directed inside Tracy broke off to speak with me.
"I didn''t expect you to agree." She said to start.
"Do you not want us here?" I asked.
"No, no. Nothing like that. I just didn''t think you would abandon your pylon given your strength is all." She clarified.
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So she did see it. That was good. Seeing was believing so they say and now she would be more wary of trying something... nefarious.
"It''s what is best for my family. I feel the waves will only get stronger and standing alone isn''t an option anymore. We could probably make it through but why risk it. If even one person could have been saved by merging, it would be worth it."
She nodded to that.
"Well, you can set up near the western gate in the free space. We cleared it out after we saw your sign. Quite large that was. We have crafting stations closer to the center for all manner of professions as well." She said pointing at both areas.
"Kathy here is my second and who you should coordinate with." She gestured toward the bird lady. "I assume the woman with the clipboard is in charge of managing everything?"
"Yes, that is my sister, Abigail. Any questions can go to her. I don''t really focus on running things. My focus is more on hitting things."
I did still focus on the big things and made decisions when they were needed but if saying that made Tracy underestimate me by thinking I was a meathead, all the better.
Playing down my intelligence and craftiness wasn''t what I intended to do when I accepted her deal but Abigail had talked my ear off on the way here about how to present myself.
She said I needed to choose how I would carry myself and what I wanted to portray to others. I didn''t care for the cloak and dagger but played along anyway.
It was too close to lying for me to like it. I wanted to be upfront with what I wanted out of this but I was lectured against that.
Saying ''We will help you fight the waves while enjoying the safety of your walls'' was too blunt.
It didn''t take a genius to figure it out though which made me confused as to why I couldn''t just come out and say it.
Still, it wouldn''t do to have Abigail lecture me about it again. She was already in for a surprise when I didn''t stay. I didn''t need to give her any more ammunition.
While I still had Tracy alone I explained what I was going to do.
"While my family will stay and help you fight, I will not," I stated.
Her face scrunched up at that and confusion was clear on her face.
"What are you going to do? Your strength will help tremendously during the waves, are you just going to sit and watch?"
"My family is strong enough, they could probably defend a wall on their own, but no, I won''t be watching. I won''t be staying." I said.
Her confusion grew after I said that. Bafflement and bewilderment warred on her face for dominance.
"What? What will-... No, that''s-... Why-... How-..." She went through a deluge of facial expressions to match the questions she was thinking through out loud.
"Why?" That was the question she settled on. It seemed she worked through all of the different thoughts and concluded what I would be doing.
Why was her only question.
"How far into the future have you thought? To the end of the tutorial? To what we will be returning to? Or to how humanity will change afterward?" I questioned.
She was quiet for a beat and her hair swayed back and forth in her ponytail.
"Why? Why go that far?" She repeated.
"I feel I must." It felt like a good place to end the conversation so I walked away. Leaving her to process. I felt there was no need for threats. She understood what would happen if she hurt my family.
After thinking about it for most of the night and following 6-hour trip, I made a decision.
I meant what I said to Tracy. I felt I must, but it was more than that. It was what I wanted.
For the first time in a while, it was something I wanted to do. To finally let loose.
It was something I couldn''t give up. No matter how much Abigail and my Dad were going to yell at me later.
After coming to a decision, telling them about it hung over my head. They wouldn''t like it and would try their best to change my mind. There was only one thing I had to do before telling them.
I had made plans for what I was going to do after coming to my decision and those plans were for me not to stay here long. I would see them settled and comfortable in the new camp, then I would leave.
There were things I needed to do before the wave and I couldn''t waste time here. This would be dangerous and I wanted as much time to prepare as I could.
The trip itself took 6 hours and subsequent activity of settling in took a few more. We left at sunrise and it was after dinner near sunset everything was done.
It wasn''t complete, it would be a while before that, but I''d done enough that my job was done. We were given areas to set up that were cleared and ready to be built on. We were welcomed into the camp and it felt like the people knew how much of a help we would be. I wasn''t sure what Tracy had told them but they were more welcoming than I had expected them to be.
We were here to help them after all so I didn''t think it was that unexpected, just a nice change of things. I had been dealing with the scum of humanity lately in the Mindbreaker, it was nice to see average people again who were actually decent.
With only a few things left to do, I found Austin after dinner.
He was practicing his spear work sparring with Jonathan. Jonathan''s two shields were the best for him to practice against and both were getting proficient with the weapons.
"Austin, come over here," I called with a wave.
Their fighting broke up and he jogged over to me. He was only slightly sweaty from the light spar and looked confused at my beckoning.
"What''s up?" He asked.
"Have you thought about what will happen to our camp?"
"What do you mean? It will fall to the monsters like all the rest."
"What if it didn''t?" I asked.
He tilted his head to the side before his expression changed as he realized, "You can''t be serious. That''s suicide!"
"The waves scale with number of people. What would a wave look like for one person? Or two people?" I asked hopefully.
Austin had been by my side the entire time and I wanted it to stay that way. He was my best friend and I knew he wouldn''t stay with me for much longer. He was itching to see the world while I was planning to do the opposite. Cities didn''t move after all.
He grew animated as what I said registered, "That''s insane! We are strong, yes, but fighting an entire wave?!"
"We fought that camp," I stated.
"That''s different! They were low leveled and couldn''t even think for themselves. You''re talking about a wave of monsters with the specific purpose of killing all defenders."
The back and forth continued and we were getting nowhere at this rate. My mind wouldn''t be swayed. I was as bad as Austin with some things and stubbornness was one of them.
"Will you join me?" I asked. Nothing more needed to be said. He understood what I was asking of him.
His internal fight was easy enough to see as it played out. Trying to rationalize and feel out the possibilities of what I asked. His mind whirled to work through all the information.
It didn''t take him long to come to a decision and it wasn''t the one I wanted.
A look of resignation fell onto his face and he looked slightly crestfallen. It wasn''t a look I had seen from him before.
"I can''t." He huffed out. Almost defeated even. "I have tried my best to keep up with you but for this, I can''t anymore. I don''t have the defense you do. The stats you do. Nor the survivability. For as much as I enjoy the fight and challenge, I need to be realistic. All it would take is one bad hit. One mistake and I would die."
"I can''t risk it." He seemed sad that he had to admit it.
Hearing my friend say that I wanted to challenge him, say it would be fine. Say he was strong enough but I didn''t. This was his decision, not mine, and I needed to accept that just the same as he needed to except mine.
Dragging him along anyway would do more harm than good, literally.
"That''s fine my friend." I clapped him on the shoulder, "In that case watch over everyone here. I trusted Jonathan and Rachel to do it if you came with me but now I won''t have to. You are more than enough to protect everyone while I am gone." I said.
"Are you leaving now?" Austin asked.
"I have one more thing to do but yes, I''m leaving tonight," I answered.
"In that case goodbye and good luck. You''re going to need it." He said before muttering, "You crazy bastard."
I stuck out my hand for him to shake. "It isn''t goodbye. I''ll be back."
He took my hand and said something we hadn''t done in years.
"Live with honor." He said with a smirk on his face.
It took me a second to recognize what he said and think up the other half of the quote.
"Die with glory." I finished and we shook before breaking apart.
Walking away like that made me laugh.
I wasn''t sure how it started, but it was back when we were both in high school. It was some game or movie at the time and after hearing it I clung to it, like most kids that age did. They found an aspect of a TV show or movie they liked and incorporated it into their personality for a time before moving on to the next.
Everyone, at least I did, loves the heroic last stand. When a warrior turns to face his end and fights gloriously. The 300 from history. The last stand of knights and warriors alike in fantasy. Gandalf and his ''You shall not pass''.
I didn''t know what it was that made me love them so much but I did. That saying was from something like that and it had stuck with me ever since. Austin made fun of me for it but I didn''t care.
It was why he said it now. I was going off to fight alone. One against an army. Just like in the stories.
Live with honor. Huh.
I would try my best not to but dying like that didn''t sound so bad.
I would die gloriously at least.
Chapter 91 - Frost Rune
Deep Inhale.
Hold
Long Exhale.
The air up here just smelled better. It didn''t carry the stickiness of humidity or earthy smells of the jungle. It was a hint of pine and a slight undertone of forest.
Well, it would be until I finished my preparation. Then it would be something else. Hopefully.
Getting away from the camp was surprisingly easy. As soon as I went to Abigail and my Dad, who were together for some reason, they didn''t fight.
Initially, when I found them together, I thought I was in for a slog of an argument but none of that happened.
They almost seemed to expect it. All Abigail did was make sure I had everything planned and made sure I didn''t forget anything. All my Dad said was to be careful and that sometimes retreating was the honorable choice.
It was weird.
The whole trip back I thought they were planning something. Like they were going to pop out and say psych before laying into me about how stupid a decision this was.
I didn''t know how to feel about them not putting up a fight. I should be happy that they weren''t babying me, but the lack of pushback had a certain feeling of its own.
Well, I couldn''t dwell on that for too long. I had shit to do.
The conversation with the two didn''t last long and I made it back to camp late into the night. There were only a few things that we had to go over. Handing the baton to Abigail in terms of negotiation took longer than originally anticipated, but I still got out of there pretty quickly. I had handled the negotiation between our two camps so far but now that I wouldn''t be there, Abigail would be in charge of that.
She was always going to be in charge of that, it just came quicker and more abrupt than a smooth hand over. The negotiation with Tracy wasn''t that difficult all things considered. She stated what the rules in her camp were and they were about what I expected. She took all of the points people gathered from hunting and the waves, confiscating them to use on the camp as a whole instead of the individual.
There were a few more odd rules but I made it clear we would not be following that. Giving up all of our points was out of the question. I settled to keep the same ration as before and promised her half. That way, my family could feel like nothing changed, other than the scenery.
She tried to fight me on it, and push back but I shut that down quickly. I was under the assumption that we were helping each other, relinquishing all of our points was not what partners did. Honestly, she was lucky to get half. If that wasn''t the standard we already had in place, I would have negotiated for less.
Sigh. That was all Abigail''s problem now though. She would have to handle all of that and I got to wash my hands of it.
I would still check in to make sure everything was fine, but I wouldn''t be in charge of it any more. It gave me time to focus on other things.
Getting back as late as I did, sleep was first up on the to do list. A quick few hours of z''s later, and now it was time to prepare.
I had just over 30 hours to get ready for the hardest wave yet. I couldn''t keep the feeling of giddiness from rising. I was excited.
The first thing I had to do was destroy all the buildings. All the lodges and workstations would only get in the way and I didn''t want that. I couldn''t stand in a gateway like I had previously, I would be fighting inside the walls.
The four gates should stem the tide a little bit and the fight would take place after they got through. I would leave them open as well, closing them would just make me have to repair them needlessly after the wave broke them.
The buildings would help corral the beasts further but they would also get in the way of my fighting. I usually sent ice spinning around me and buildings would get in the way of that.
Destroying them was quite fun. I didn''t have to use my hammer but I certainly did. It was a bit sad to tear down all that we had built but that didn''t stop the smile on my face while I did it. Tearing things down was a lot more fun than building them.
After flattening out the area except for the keep, I couldn''t destroy that, the next step was ready.
When I arrived the previous night, I flared [Permafrost(Un)] until my mana ran dry to prepare. Some of the effects of the skill melted overnight but most had stayed and frozen chunks of ice lingered around the camp.
I wanted to turn it into a land of ice and snow permanently and I had just the way to do it.
After the Blaze Lions, I came up with a way to fix the weakness of my environment. It was a lot harder to turn an existing tundra against me than it was neutral ground.
The way I went about turning the area into a tundra was twofold. The first was using [Permafrost(Un)] whenever my mana allowed. The second was a bit different and took a more delicate touch.
Runes were powerful things, expensive things as well, and I came up with a way to use them more effectively. They weren''t restrained to only be used on weapons and equipment like I had been using them.
They were woven into the walls and the keep in a grand tapestry. They could do far more than how I used them.
What would take most of the 30 hours of prep time I had was this project. I wanted to weave a Rune into the very earth itself.
If I put a Frost Rune under the ground I fought on then it should aid me in turning the area into the land I desired. Buying the Rune was another hit to the wallet but if it worked, it would be well worth it.
The first thing I had to do was adjust the size. Every rune I had engraved thus far was the size of my hand or slightly larger, not the size of a football field.
I had to make sure the proportions stayed the same and that it was scaled appropriately. Too far away from the original shape made it a different Rune entirely.
[Basic Runecrafting(Un)] helped tremendously with this task.
After upgrading my profession and gaining the skill, all runecraft was a smidge easier. The skill helped me know when the Rune deviated too far from its original shape.
There were a few kinks I had to work out through the process but I believed it would work. The first was how I was going to actually make the rune.
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Engraving took material away from the source in the shape of the Rune and was one of the weakest ways to create a rune.
Pulling strength from what was removed rather than added was a weaker way of going about it but was both easier and cheaper. It was the reason low-level Runes were engraved rather than inlaid.
The low power of the Rune wasn''t worth using precious material to inlay it.
That became a problem when I started carving lines into the ground. Fighting was messy and chaotic. There was no way the lines would survive the fight without getting messed up, whether from blood contaminating it or from feet and claws smudging it.
Since carving the Rune was out, the subtractive method, inlaying the Rune was the only thing left, the additive method.
That opened a whole new can of worms. Like what would I make the rune out of?
From information I''d bought and gathered from the store before and more recently, different alloys of metal were common for use in equipment, but what I was attempting to do was different.
What I was making was closer to a ward than an enchantment on equipment. While both were made of Runes, they functioned differently.
Wards were common for stationary defenses and the like while enchantments were smaller and designed to go on swords and other gear.
The difference in size and utility prompted two different styles of creation. There were more uses for Runes than those two, and it wasn''t limited to just the two techniques total, but those were the two I was worried about right now.
Wards were usually anchored to the area they were made and that was where they drew strength from. What they were made of was a big part of how strong they were and what effects they had.
A ward could use countless materials, from metal and stone all the way to crystal and blood. What the Rune was made of altered what it did. It wouldn''t alter a Rune completely, but the medium through which the Rune was expressed colored the meaning slightly.
It was like drinking water through a filter made of orange peels. It was still water but with a hint of orange in it.
I browsed the store for different things I could make it out of and constantly winced at the prices. It wasn''t even the cost of material that was bad, it was the amount I needed.
Our camp was huge and to fill the entire area with the Rune would take a lot of material. As I planned, thoughts of how to go about it shuffled around. My plan was to make one giant Rune covering the entire area inside the walls. It was probably the least efficient way to do it, and any experienced Runesmith would probably weep at my amateur design, but it was the best I could do.
It was better to make one giant Rune and hope it worked, than to guess at chaining them together in an order that worked. I didn''t have the time to learn how to do it any differently.
I almost bit the bullet and bought one of the crystal options before I stopped myself.
I was being stupid. Why should I buy crystal when I could make crystal.
Ice wasn''t technically the type of crystal wards were meant to use but why wouldn''t it work? It was free to me and I could shape it however I desired.
It didn''t hurt to try and it would only waste time to attempt, so I did it. I wanted to finish before the wave came and if this failed, I wouldn''t have time to try again but I felt it was worth the attempt.
I had already marked out on the ground the lines and curves of the Rune, now all I had to do was make it.
Ice was fragile and prone to breaking if we fought on top of it and would lead to the same problem that carving did so I added an extra step.
[Permafrost(Un)] did what its name entailed and froze the top layer of the earth, creating a layer of permafrost.
If I buried the ice deep enough it wouldn''t be disturbed from the fighting. I wasn''t sure how it would affect the power of the Rune by being buried but it shouldn''t affect it too much.
The hardest part of the whole process was that I couldn''t physically see what I was doing. I used [Permafrost(Un)] to create ice underneath the ground before using [Ice Manipulation(C)] to mold it into the right shape.
Since I couldn''t see it, I had to rely on [Ice Manipulation(C)] entirely to feel out where the ice was and if it was the right shape.
My range wasn''t big enough to fit the whole Rune which added an extra layer of difficulty. I couldn''t see the entire Rune at once and was only ever dealing with sections of it.
The process took hours. It was painstakingly difficult and by the end, my mind was on fire. Using [Ice Manipulation(C)] for that long was hard and stressed my mind''s capabilities.
It was the repetitiveness of creating the ice, shaping the ice, going over it again to smooth it out, and then putting the finishing touches on for uniform thickness and width.
I would do all that for one line at a time before moving on to the next section. After the rough shape of the Rune was down, I had to go back and even everything out.
Sure, I tried to make everything uniform when I first made it, but when I was only looking at a few feet at a time little deviations added up that were easy to miss.
The curves especially. I tried to make the curves uniform but it was easy to lose the forest for the trees. I would think that it was fine before stepping back to realize it wasn''t.
After the hours of freezing everything into roughly the right shape, it took hours more tweaking and shaving down to make it perfect. Well, as close to perfect as I could get.
After getting everything right, nothing happened.
I expected it to like... flash into being.
After nothing happened, I went back to correct any mistakes. For a fourth time.
Again, nothing happened.
For the fifth, sixth, seventh, all the way to over ten tries and nothing happened.
I was ready to rip it out of the ground by the dozenth time. Going back over it anymore wouldn''t lead to anything productive.
It was at this point I had an epiphany. Runes didn''t require a power source on equipment because of their size and ability to draw mana from the material it was engraved on.
Wards, on the other hand, needed a power source. Whether it be the surroundings or a mana battery of some kind, a power source was required.
The size of the Rune and the effect I wanted was too strong for the ambient mana the Rune was capturing.
After noticing my fuck up, some screams of frustration sounded out in the camp. Maybe a few curses too. Whose to say?
I didn''t have the know-how or the Rune schematic for making a siphoning or gathering Rune of some kind to gather mana from the area so that left option two. A power source.
This being the first time I had done this, I had no clue what was needed. I assumed using a mana stone would work but how large of one was required?
They got increasingly expensive as their size went up.
Getting an Ice mana stone directly sounded better but it cost more as well.
I was sick of going back and buying information from the store and was, frankly, fed up with the whole process. So I did something else.
It would either work or it wouldn''t. It was already dark by now and the entire day had gone by with me tinkering with it. My head was on fire from using [Ice Manipulation(C)] so much and my frustration with the stupid Rune was at a peak.
At certain times in life saying ''Fuck it'' was necessary.
This was one of those times.
I bought the largest Ice Affinity mana stone I was willing to spend points on without a second thought. It took some redneck engineering to tie the two together but I worked it out.
I couldn''t just shove the mana stone into the ground and hope for the best.
I went to the center of the Rune and dug down into the earth, deep under the Rune. I didn''t want the stone anywhere near the surface. Calling it a stone was a misnomer.
Mana stones were made of crystal, not stone. Why they had that name was a mystery and one I didn''t care about right now.
I placed the stone under the center of the Rune before adding a tendril of Ice to connect the two. There was most likely some way to connect the two without a physical connection but I didn''t know how.
As soon as the two were connected, mana shot down the Ice of the Rune and spiraled out into the curves and structure all over the camp. I could feel the ice mana with [Ice Manipulation(C)] as it spread through the camp.
It flowed down the lines of the Rune saturating the ice it was made of.
As the last of the ice was filled with mana, frost began to coalesce in the air.
The ground froze over and the bits of frost left over from [Permafrost(Un)] expanded out.
I watched in real-time as the environment changed. Ice coated the ground and snowflakes started forming in the air.
The temperature plummeted by the minute and it showed no signs of stopping.
This was what I wanted. I couldn''t help but break out into manic laughter. All the hours slaving away creating it was worth it. It was exactly what I wanted.
It changed the very mana in the air into Ice mana. Every other kind either fled the area or was converted.
After a few minutes, the only thing left was Ice and Frost mana.
It was wonderful.
After the Rune completed, notification chimes sounded out but I was too busy watching the fruit of my labor to check. Now that I looked them over I couldn''t help but start another round of laughter.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Skills Available
You have upgraded a skill:
Ice Manipulation(Common) -> Ice Manipulation(Uncommon)
Mana Engraving(Common) -> Mana Engraving(Uncommon)
Three profession levels pushing me to level 35 and a new skill as well as an upgrade for one of my most fundamental skills.
Oh, I was ready now.
Chapter 92 - Freedom
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (F) Human
Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) ¨C Level 43
Profession: (F) Runic Blacksmith(Uncommon) ¨C Level 35
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 349
Agility - 182
Perception - 82
Fortitude - 295
Endurance - 148
Vitality - 86
Intelligence - 67
Wisdom - 150
Acumen - 56
Free Points: 0
Laws: Least Law of Ice
Skills:
Class Skills: Heavy Blow(Uncommon), Reinforced Body(Uncommon), Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Novice), Identify(Common), Frostbite(Uncommon), Sweeping Slash(Common), Ice Fortress(Uncommon), Heavy Armor Proficiency(Novice), Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice), Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon), Barbarian''s Fury(Uncommon), Hail(Common), Ice Manipulation(Uncommon), Meditation(Common), Ice Arrow(Uncommon), Shatter(Uncommon), Frost Armor(Rare), Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare), Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon), Permafrost(Uncommon), Mental Walls(Common)
Profession Skills: Sense Metal(Common), Create Weapon(Common), Create Armor(Common), Metallurgy(Common), Forging Proficiency(Novice), Mana Engraving(Uncommon), Mana Infusion(Common), Basic Runecrafting(Uncommon), Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon), Warding(Uncommon)
The sleep following the creation of the Rune was some of the best rest I had gotten in a while. I felt at home and relaxed in a way I couldn''t explain. The ice and snow worked to make me comfortable and rested which I hadn''t experienced in a while.
Following the best rest I had received, was the biggest battle I would participate in.
As noon neared, my blood started pumping just a bit faster. My heart beat a tad louder, my hands itched toward my hammer.
It would soon be me versus an army. One against many and I couldn''t wait to see who would be left standing.
Most of my preparation time was allotted to getting the Rune working and that was already done. Other than a few small things left, all that was left to do was eat breakfast and wait for the wave.
I thought about pounding a few pieces out in the forge but decided against it. The times of scrambling around doing everything I could, clawing for every scrap of power, were over.
There was no one else here to worry about. No one that could get hurt if I wasn''t strong enough.
It felt like the boulder on my back that had forced me to keep training every hour of the day was removed. I didn''t have to spend every waking moment trying to get stronger.
While I wasn''t forced to anymore, that didn''t mean I didn''t want to.
With strength, I could be more free than ever before. If I was strong enough, nothing and no one would be able to dictate what I did. The only thing I would do was what I wanted to do.
And what I wanted to do right now was relax and wait for the fight to come to me.
Before my family was hounded by the threat of death, I enjoyed the battles. The fighting and battle for survival. When there was the possibility of my family dying, it was less fun.
Now, though, it was only me.
It felt weird to put it like that. It made it sound like I didn''t value my own life as much as theirs.
In some ways, that was true. In a fight, I wanted them to be safe and would hurt myself to make that true. Being alone cut away all the worry and dread of that possibility.
The only difference between us, was I liked being a warrior.
I liked the knockdown drag-out fights for dominance.
If I failed, I would die, but that was the way of the world. I was fine with going out like that. My family would be upset, sure, but I would be okay with it. I couldn''t think of a better way to go.
That didn''t mean I was suicidal, I would flee from an unwinnable battle if I could, but the possibility of death was always there. It was what made it worth it. The satisfaction wouldn''t be the same if the threat of dying wasn''t there.
''I''m here for a good time, not a long time.'' Was a saying I quite liked and fit the mood perfectly.
My new hammer was ready for its christening and I was ready to fight to my heart''s content.
I sat in front of the keep with only ice and snow to keep me company. My armor and hammer sat next to me, ready to be used as the sun reached its zenith. There was no need to flare [Permafrost(Un)] before the wave as much as possible, as it was already tundra.
Defend your claim!
Wave Start: 0:59
For the first time, dread didn''t follow that notification. No sharp intakes of breath, no silent prayers, no clenched fists.
The only thing that followed the chime was a slight smile. Some might say the smile of a crazy person, aka Abigail, but a smile nonetheless.
After the chime, I stood and lifted my chest piece over my head before firmly pulling it on, latching it in place. All the rest of my armor was already on, my legs and boots already worn, and my chest piece was the only thing left to don.
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It was uncomfortable to wear while sitting.
My mana pool was entirely pure ice mana for the fight and the first skill I used showed the improvement.
[Frost Armor(R)] slowly froze around me and settled into place. It felt more robust in the environment and like I didn''t have to fight to keep it frozen. It was in its natural state rather than the other way around.
Newly upgraded [Ice Manipulation(Un)] flared around me and my projectiles were ready.
The upgrade increased both fine manipulation and range. What was once 30 feet ballooned out to over 50.
I still liked my snowflakes and had a few floating around me even though it was more efficient to use something else. They took too much focus to keep in shape and spinning, saying nothing of maintaining the rotation around me.
It took a load off mentally to just use whatever chunks of ice were available. Instead of focusing on the snowflakes, work broader and just spin anything. I could manipulate a lot more ice if I didn''t have to focus on each projectile individually.
All or nothing was easier than picking specific pieces of ice.
I had already frozen some into shape with the time I had but I wouldn''t refreeze them if they broke like I had been doing.
As the timer ticked down, I didn''t even have to use any skills. [Permafrost(Un)] was unnecessary as the ground was already frozen and [Hail(C)] was unneeded as I already created enough ice for me to use.
I had stockpiled it after the Rune started working. It kept it from melting and saved me from having to make more during the battle.
Any more was useless, I had created more than enough.
I tried to go and activate [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] early but couldn''t find any monsters nearby. I went as far out as I was comfortable with without seeing a single monster.
It was like all of them fled the area. It was like they knew what was coming.
Not having the boost wasn''t that big of a deal though. The start of the wave was always the easiest, the boost was unnecessary.
It was the end when I needed it the most and it was already full by then.
The extra endurance would be nice but with the new Frost Rune, not as useful.
I was all set for the wave to come and I didn''t have to wait long. The timer ended and the wave spawned in. I had made my way to the top of the keep where Hal usually stood to get a look at the enemy. The makeshift Crow''s Nest we built.
My perception and vision skills weren''t up to par with them so far away but I could see the movement of bodies. All it took was a hefty javelin throw and the [Avalanche(R)] started.
It would only add the few minutes it took for the monsters to get here but it seemed silly to wait.
I could pick up more details as the monsters closed in and I couldn''t help but giggle. I wasn''t sure if it was fate, luck, or divine intervention, but I was at a severe advantage for the fight to come.
[Vine Bears]
Nature affinity bears with vines extending out around them. They sent plants against me. Plants.
In my brief foray in the south, I saw how badly plants held up against the cold.
Not well. That was how.
The only thing that could have been better was if they had a water affinity.
I didn''t suspect the bears themselves to have that hard of a time but their vine extremities certainly would. Any advantage was a good advantage and I would certainly take it.
The bears themselves were normal-sized, bigger than me by a lot, it made me question how big the boss would be. Green tinted fur covered them and they had vines coiled around their body.
Some of the vines extended out like green vipers waving in the air. The grass turned a verdant green as they passed over it leading to the wall.
Javelins of ice streamed out of the crow''s nest I was in until they got close enough to the wall. With a jump, I fell to meet them in a grand melee.
[Ice Manipulation(Un)] flared out and I picked up all the stray ice in the area. It was the most ice I had ever used.
The mass of glistening shards slowly started to rotate around me, getting faster and faster every subsequent revolution.
The bears funneled in through the four open gates, itching to rip and destroy. Snarls and growls filled the area which only made me smile wider. Spittle flowed from their open mouths.
No yelling or coordinating. No voices from anyone nearby.
Only beasts.
"*Inhale*. Hahaha, Come and get me!" I answered with a challenge of my own.
As the bears made it into the camp the first of my defenses was up. Grand pillars of ice packed down as far as I could with my new Uncommon manipulation skill and Law combined.
One grand [Shatter(Un)] rippled out causing all of them to explode. The massive explosion of ice tore through the leading bears felling the first few ranks.
I waited until a few were past the pillars for the most effect but ended up missing a few of the leading ones.
That was fine. My hammer was ready.
[Heavy Blow(Un)] rocketed down on a bear skull, flattening the brain into mush. It was now christened with the blood of a foe. And some brain matter.
Ice spiraled cutting, bludgeoning, and generally disrupting everything.
The cold spread from the Rune caused the vines to shrivel and die if they extended too far from the bodies of the bears.
It seemed they used them for grappling and restraining prey, except they couldn''t this time. The vines couldn''t extend past a few inches without dying due to the cold.
I wasn''t sure how cold it actually was around me but I felt great. Great plumes of smoke wafted in the air from the heavy breathing of the bears, creating a mist effect as it condensed into even more ice crystals before falling to the ground as snow.
Without the need to keep [Permafrost(Un)] or [Hail(C)] active, it let me use my mana pool way more freely and skills activated faster.
[Heavy Blow(Un)] and [Frostbite(Un)] flowed more liberally along with [Ice Arrow(Un)]. The speedy projectiles flew out whenever there was a lull near me. My localized cyclone of ice disrupted their charge which created slight gaps for me to fire the skill.
The water content in the vines began to freeze around the bears the longer they stayed within my domain giving me an option I had never had before.
What would happen if I used [Shatter(Un)] on a frozen body part?
Carnage. That was what.
If their blood didn''t freeze as soon as it left their body, it would be pooling into a sea from the sheer amount.
As chunks of the red liquid froze over, [Ice Manipulation(Un)] told me I could use them.
Creating a projectile out of the frozen blood of one bear, then using it to impale another bear, before making the entire bear shatter as it froze over after death.
It. Was. Wonderful.
Even at the rate I was killing them, more took their place. I hadn''t expected so many to spawn but I wasn''t going to back down. The last wave spawned nearly 500 monsters for 21 people.
This wave spawned nearly 300 just for me.
It made me wonder if there was a strength adjustment as well but I quickly vetoed that idea. Punishing people for gaining strength defeated the purpose of the tutorial.
It was more likely that there was a minimum amount each wave would spawn and the allocated amount for one person was under that amount. Hence more than anticipated.
As the fighting continued, my boost built up even more. My stats were higher every wave and the feeling of power was hard to get rid of.
My hammer held up wonderfully. With [Ice Manipulation(Un)] at Uncommon, I could hold the ice together a lot better and condense it down farther.
It was a nice bonus to the durability of my weapon. An unforeseen bonus. I thought only an upgraded Law would help.
Whenever I got surrounded, [Ice Fortress(Un)] froze into reality. All the ice in the air rapidly condensed together into a divider between me and them.
It froze so quickly that it shocked even me. It usually took some time to build up which was removed with the building blocks readily available and the low temperature to assist in freezing.
After my respite wasn''t needed, [Shatter(Un)] had it crumbling down with deadly precision. Being so close to where I was standing let me aim the shards much easier.
As I fought, all my worries washed away.
The tightness of breath I perpetually carried with me loosened. The mounting pressure released.
There wasn''t any anxiety for the future, no dread waiting for the other shoe to drop.
There was only me versus my enemy.
It was so simple I couldn''t help but feel stupid.
I had built up this idea of Honor and responsibility into something that it wasn''t. Honor and morals weren''t a chain used to control yourself, they were aspirations to live by.
You weren''t kept in check by them through their control over you, you aspired to follow them through your own control.
Using them as a band-aid for slipping self-control wasn''t how they worked. One didn''t magically follow their own rules just because they said they would.
I was overthinking it and gaining clarity for the first time in a while.
I was a warrior. I was no philosopher. No ethics professor.
All I had to do was what I felt was right.
My father''s teachings wouldn''t disappear, but they weren''t shackles either.
I would still follow them, not because I forced myself to, but because I wanted to.
I might slip and fall sometimes, but that was life.
No one was perfect and trying to force myself to be was unrealistic.
The only thing I could do was my best.
After that realization, there was no big power-up, no new Law or Spirit Anchor. Nothing new, but I fought better all the same.
My hammer flowed better, my feet seemed to move smoother.
My fighting turned from forced, to free.
This was it.
This was freedom.
For the first time in a while, I had fun.
Chapter 93 - Shatter
My hands gripped the frosty wood as I brought the hammer down on yet another bear.
The fight had been going on for almost an hour and wounds found their way through my armor. Two or three bears clawing and pounding on my armor simultaneously caused injuries to get through.
The blood seeping out of me didn''t diminish the feeling of euphoria though.
This was some of the most fun I had in a while. A paw swipe clattered off my armor and my hammer came screaming around in retaliation.
A jaw clamped down but I managed to interspace the shaft of my hammer in the way in time. Hammer locked up in the beast''s mouth, I took both hands on either side of the snout and twisted.
The bear''s neck snapped before it thought to let go. Stupid thing died because it didn''t.
With [Avalanche(R)] over half built, I shifted my hand down the haft to the last handhold before the pommel and whipped it around one-handed at the bear charging at me. The bear''s head turned to mist.
My other hand pointed out and an [Ice Arrow(Un)] flew out in the opposite direction to skewer a bear through the throat coming up behind me. Getting over the crutch of using my hand to cast was hard in the heat of battle.
[Shatter(Un)] ripped the artery open as the arrow inside its throat exploded. More red-tinted ice was added to my arsenal. An unnoticed foe bit down on my leg while I was distracted watching the red river freeze into weapons.
My fortitude stopped my leg from breaking but the teeth pinching my skin and mounting pressure still hurt. Punching down on the beast fixed that problem but another took that opportunity to swipe me in the back.
After getting thrown off balance, more piled on. A paw pounded into my chest before I could right myself which led to another ramming into me.
I was getting pushed around by their sheer mass. They had over a half-ton of body weight on me and it was proving effective.
Somehow, I ended up on the ground with all of them piling on top of me. Open maws filled with teeth obscured my vision and descended on me.
Each one sought blood as they clamped closed. Pressure built up on my body and [Frost Armor(R)] started to crack. Teeth wiggled through and pierced my skin, drawing red liquid from me rather than them.
This was one of the first times my armor had failed. Sure, it had cracked and let things through, but not like this. Panic bubbled up in me and a hint of regret flashed in my head as the pressure on me mounted.
After those thoughts, a boisterous laugh exploded out of me.
Pressure, the heat of battle, the fight to the death.
This! This was what I wanted. This got me going. It wasn''t the same kind of pressure as before, it was different. A good kind of pressure.
My body began to rev up like an engine but instead of heating up, it cooled down. My mind whirled through ideas to get out of this situation while the bears continued crunching through my armor.
After getting knocked over, I activated [Reinforced Body(Un)] to help defend but it couldn''t stop the wounds from appearing all over my body.
Only one came to mind right away and it was dumb. A good kind of dumb.
I took hold of my armor with my Law and strengthened it as much as possible, packing more ice into it as the bears sought to rip it apart.
After empowering it as much as I could, [Shatter(Un)] detonated it, causing it to erupt around me.
Since it was frozen to my body, ice shards pelted me just the same as the bears. The only difference was that I had the fortitude and affinity to help defend, the bears did not.
Still, ice found its way past my skin and prickled all over where there wasn''t metal armor to defend it.
As condensed and durable as my armor was, [Shatter(Un)] was even more effective. The broken pieces of armor ripped through flesh with ease, creating rivers of blood that poured down on me.
I hadn''t thought the idea completely through and had my mouth open.
It was... unpleasant.
The bears nearest died and I scrambled up before more could pile on. My armor was gone, leaving me vulnerable.
Before I could refreeze it, the bears took advantage. Claws drew blood and teeth bit through skin.
Grunts of pain and anguish escaped from me.
I fought and swung my hammer as fast as possible while switching to using [Ice Fortress(Un)] instead of [Frost Armor(R)]. The bears broke the armor down before it had time to finish covering me.
Four stout walls of ice rose into place around me and let me kill everything inside before more could jump on.
As the last bear died, I took a second to catch my breath. I used a lot more energy getting up than the entire hour before it. Blood streaked down my form and dyed my armor red.
Both from me and them.
I had a slight limp and my body hurt all over. Pain shot through my hand as I picked up my hammer. I had discarded it after getting knocked down and used my fists instead. Now that I was up, I meant to pick it back up.
As my fingers wrapped around the shaft, only nine digits coiled the wood. A bloody stump was the only thing left of my left index finger. The pain shot up my arm after flexing my hand muscles, realizing the missing finger.
How did I miss losing a finger?
That was something I thought I would feel happening. The mixture of panic, adrenaline, and euphoria must have covered up the pain when I must have lost it. They were powerful drugs.
A tighter grit of my teeth was my only response. At least it wasn''t my pinky finger, that was where all the grip strength came from.
Pain sounded out from almost everywhere on my body and I hadn''t felt this bad since the 10th wave when the wolves broke the gate down. The thought I might actually die bubbled up.
[Frost Armor(R)] froze into place over a bleeding stump, staunching the flow of blood. It was a nice addition to the armor and all it took to do that was a nudge with [Ice Manipulation(Un)]
After the armor was back in place, [Shatter(Un)] brought the walls down and began the fight anew.
Pain lanced up my hand every now and again but it wasn''t something I couldn''t fight through. The wounds elsewhere caused more pain than it, especially my leg. Every time I planted it to swing, pain laced up it. Something was fractured or strained.
The rising momentum worked to stave off the exhaustion of battle and my rising stats canceled out the fatigue, but it wouldn''t last forever.
My hammer took on a new life as it smashed into heads, torsos, and limbs alike. Shatter a ribcage of one before reversing direction and a slight twist of hand to have it flying hammer first in the other direction to rip off the bottom jaw of another.
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As soon as my boost hit 100%, my fists, let alone my hammer, punched through skulls with ease. The bone protection providing little defense.
My killing speed reached its peak.
My injuries had reached a peak as well. The lesser monsters fell quickly after that but they gave their own before dying. After the last expired, another change of the waves was revealed. I was right in that it wasn''t just a new direction.
Four beefed-up Vine Bears all roared from the open gateways. [Identify(C)] revealed their level to be higher than the normal bears.
[Vine Bear ¨C Level 43]
They were in the middle of the lesser bears and what the boss should be. The lesser bears started at level 40 and the boss should be at level 46. These fell in the middle and looked stronger than what their level should suggest.
They were half again as tall as the previous bears and had rippling muscles tensed and ready for battle.
It was too early to determine if these replaced the boss or they were in addition to the boss but it would seem that every direction now got its own mini-boss for the waves.
Lovely.
Facing down the new quartet, I did something I hadn''t done in a while. A massive [Ice Fortress(Un)] isolated one of the bears from the rest, leaving me one on one with it.
Separate and conquer was my strategy. I wasn''t sure if there was another big bad to act as the cherry on top for the wave and couldn''t afford to fight all four at the same time recklessly. I was already huffing and puffing from the monsters before them.
After raising the cage, I hobbled toward the singular occupant other than me.
The other three started to pound on the ice surrounding the marked-off battlefield trying to get in to no avail. The cold atmosphere worked to keep the ice frozen and even regenerated it somewhat.
My foe isolated, I wasted no time attacking it. Even though it was bigger and stronger than the lesser bears, it couldn''t hold up to my strength, especially alone. My hammer condemned it the moment it trapped in here against me.
After giving it my full attention and harassing it with all my skills, I used both hands to bring down a mighty blow layered with both [Heavy Blow(Un)] and [Frostbite(Un)] that smashed open its head. It didn''t live much longer after that.
After the first met its demise, I moved on to another.
Separate with [Ice Fortress(Un)], harass and wear down with [Frostbite(Un)] and [Ice Arrow(Un)] before finishing off with a hammer to the head.
The last one didn''t even last long enough to receive my hammer. With only one left, I didn''t use [Ice Fortress(Un)] to isolate it, instead, I picked up all the ice from the area and smothered the beast in it.
All of the ice I was controlling flew to the bear, packing the over 2000 pound ball of fur in an icy prison. After packing it all down, [Shatter(Un)] made it all explode.
The bear died quickly.
I fell to a knee out of breath from the fight. I didn''t give the four a chance to attack with any real strength. My mana pool took a hit to make that happen but it was better than letting them hit me. I wanted to save [Fury(Un)] just in case.
Their strength wasn''t just for show and I didn''t risk a crippling injury.
After the last mini-boss died, no notification chimed signaling the end of the battle. There was still one more.
It made its presence known with an unmistakable roar. A massive beast over 10 feet tall shouldered its way into the northern gateway. The size of the boss made it barely fit inside without breaking the gate.
After getting inside the gate it stood on its hind legs, rising to over 20 feet in the air, and let out a challenging roar.
[Vine Bear Patriarch ¨C Level 46]
A mixture of a grimace and a smirk found its way on my face as I straightened up, putting both feet under me. A wince escaped while standing that I couldn''t stop.
Frost plumed out from my mouth as my lungs bellowed air in and out as fast as they could from the open face plate of my icy helmet.
"Ha... maybe I am crazy," I huffed.
I knew this would be hard. I knew this was borderline insane. But I couldn''t help it. This was a battle. This was a fight!
The ground thundered as the bear pounded into it, falling from its two-leg stance. The ground had two massive indents from the weighty paws impacting it.
"Alright, you big bastard. You want a fight?"
"I''ll give you a FIGHT!" [Fury(Un)] flared out giving a small reprieve.
My hammer streaked through the air as I hurled the massive weapon at the beast. Its head recoiled from the impact and managed to look even angrier.
I brought the hammer back with [Ice Manipulation(Un)] as the bear charged at me. The attack wasn''t the most damaging nor most effective I could have done but it was the fastest way to get the beast to shut up.
This was my house and it was challenging ME! It didn''t get to sit back and roar. It had no dominance to assert.
My mana was low, my muscles burning from exertion and near failure. My Law caused sharp spikes of pain behind my eyes from overdrawing on it.
Even still, I rose to meet it.
The bear lumbered toward me in a thundering gait as I rushed to meet it. I didn''t have the mana or the stamina for a drawn out fight, so I went all out from the beginning.
Ice built up around my hammer as I ran, packing itself on the weapon. It ballooned in size to near comical proportions as more added on.
Pulling back the enormous icy head, even more of my dwindling mana flowed into it taking a decent chunk of what was left. [Heavy Blow(Un)] and [Frostbite(Un)] worked to saturate all the new ice added to the head.
With the additional anchors, [Ice Manipulation(Un)] worked overtime to propel it forward faster than my muscles could bear.
Even with my massive boosts. My body was failing me. The fight had been going on for over 3 hours by now and my body couldn''t take it much longer.
[Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] was a powerful skill but it put a heavy strain on my body the longer it was active. As it built up, the ever-rising stats mitigated that strain. After peaking, not so much.
I had pushed it past what my body was able to handle.
The band-aid [Fury(Un)] provided wouldn''t last long. This was going to be a fast and brutal fight and I would either win or lose quickly.
I pulled on everything. All the ice around me responded to my call and flew to join my hammerhead as I brought it down in one massive blow.
My swing met its and force exploded out pushing all the snow on the ground and in the air away.
My hammer recoiled back as well as the bear.
Brief silence before another shockwave sounded, once, twice, thrice. Booms from the force rattled my bones.
One last swing and I did something different.
All the building ice transferred from the impact and built onto the limb of the bear, leaving my hammer barren. My hammer returned to its original size as ice crawled up the beast''s arm, reaching higher every second as more ice transferred over.
As the bear swiped at the growing icy cast my Law worked through it, strengthening it and condensing it down. I wrung what little I could out of it before it hit rock bottom. My Law was shot.
The bear started to panic and I could see hints of confusion behind the madness in its eyes as the ice rose higher up the limb.
It was questioning why I would forfeit the ice from my weapon.
It didn''t have to wonder long.
"[SHATTER(Un)]!" I even screamed the name. Luckily Austin wasn''t here, I would never hear the end of it.
I staggered to the ground as the last of my mental power was expended trying to direct the blast with [Ice Manipulation].
What was once a few hundred pounds of meat, bone, and fur turned into a twisted grotesque stump. A wave of pink mist escaped the area in all directions before swinging back and forth as it fluttered to the ground as pinkish snow.
Pain and anguish tainted a roar as the bear tried to process what happened. It waved the mangled limb around in the false hope what it was seeing was a lie.
It wasn''t.
Blood poured from the limb in rivers.
It tried to lumber toward me but fell to the ground on its mangled limb. It got back up quickly but its three remaining limbs wouldn''t let it move with any semblance of swiftness.
Its remaining front leg hopped as it pulled itself toward my haggard form. Neither of us were in the best shape.
This last blow would end it. The bear was a dead man walking as blood poured from the wound and it wanted to take me down with it.
Using both hands on my weapon to prop myself up, I readied for my last attack.
My pace matched that of the hobbling three-legged boss.
I flipped my hammer around spike first and lined up my blow.
[Heavy Blow(Un)] failed to activate leaving the blow skill-less save for what was left of my strength.
I brought the hammer down with as much power as my nine digits would allow using the last of my strength.
The spike buried itself 6 inches into the brain of the boss as blood leaked out of all the facial orifices.
Standing over the body of my defeated foe, something welled up inside me. It felt like it came from the core of who I was. It needed something but I had nothing left to give. My fight was won, and my body was spent.
A chime sounded out and I sagged. A torrent of energy flooded my body from the levels but did little to help how shitty I felt. I could tell from the amount it was more than one or two levels.
Hammer forgotten, [Frost Armor(R)] fell off my supine form in pieces with a few chunks left behind.
I did it!
I felt the black encroaching on my vision and battled mentally to keep it at bay. My arm flopped around grasping my tunic under my armor ripping pieces of it off. I reached for my prepared health potions and only found broken bottles.
Shit.
I didn''t even react to the pain as I smothered the stump of my index finger with the patches of torn tunic to stop the bleeding. During the fight it never got a chance to clot.
After shoving cloth over all the bleeding wounds I could see and feel, [Meditation(C)] activated.
I fought for as long as I could against the threatening black to give the skill as much time as possible before sleep claimed me.
A bird fluttered and hopped down next to me before unconsciousness clouded over.
Chapter 94 - Hang Nine
Abigail
Abigail shivered from the piercing cold as they walked through the wreckage of their old camp. She and Austin had run up here as soon as the fight down south was over. The sturdy walls and superior numbers made this wave the easiest they had faced in a while. They could safely stand on the walls and decimate the wave from afar. It was the least stressful wave they had faced.
She still remembered the indignation she felt when her Dad let the matter go before Chris left. She expected him to be on her side and help convince Christopher out of his stupid idea. Abigail ended up going along with her Dad but that didn''t mean she liked it. She still thought it was stupid and unnecessary.
It took her Dad saying she couldn''t treat him as a kid any longer. He was grown and as such, would make his own decisions.
It was still stupid.
"Holy shit... he actually did it," Austin whispered as he took in the destruction around them.
Hearing him say that made her want to ask if he thought Chris couldn''t have done it but the words died in her throat.
The scene they had walked into was that breathtaking, and not in a picturesque way. It was so much destruction. All the buildings that once stood were gone, which was a shock, but she knew from the Beastmaster lady that was before the battle.
There were bodies everywhere frosted over and slightly snow-covered. The ground was a mixture of red and white from frozen water and blood alike. Spikes of ice stuck out of bodies marking the cause of death while others had obvious blunt force wounds.
She fought the shivering her body wanted to do as they walked through the camp. It was so cold. It bit at her hands and feet and sapped the very heat from her bones. Austin was notably fine and glowing slightly which only annoyed her more.
They found Chris in the center of it all passed out. Next to him was the boss of the wave, dead, with his hammer still stuck in its skull. The same bear that took multiple catapult shots to the face and entire squad of mage bombardments to take down during their fight down south.
Chris himself wasn''t in the best shape. His vitality had worked to stop the bleeding in the time it took them to get here but the wounds would take a while yet to heal.
He had dried blood covering most of his body, covering her vision from seeing how bad it was. A few skills flared around her as she scrubbed his body with water.
The cold threatened to freeze her water and she had to actively fight against it which made everything harder.
After getting his armor off and cleaning the blood, the cuts and bruises revealed themselves, and there were many. Over half his body was a variation of blue and purple from bruises or cuts actively reopened from the jostling.
He looked like a dump truck ran him over then reversed back and did it again a few times. One bruise was so deep, it was almost black.
He most definitely had internal bleeding of some kind.
[Body Scan(C)] gave her a clearer picture of his injuries and it was even worse than the outside. It would have been easier to point out which veins didn''t have hemorrhages than those that did.
Both his tibia and fibula were fractured in his left leg along with multiple ribs. He strained almost every muscle group and he tore his right pectoral and bicep completely off the bone.
And he was missing a finger!
A glow cascaded over his body as she activated her healing skills, first focusing on the internal bleeding before she moved on to anything else. Reducing the swelling came first, then she would heal the fractures last.
"How''s he lookin'', Doc," Austin joked.
"Worse than he looks. Can you search around and find an index finger? The cold should have kept it viable to be put back on." She ordered while using her skills.
"Ha! He lost a finger?" Austin laughed.
Declining to dignify that with a response, she remained silent. She didn''t see how losing a finger was funny.
While Austin poked around with his spear and kicked bodies over searching, she turned her full attention to healing.
She brought her Law to bear and used some more powerful skills. Chris''s body was a pain to heal and her new Law helped a ton. She had only recently gotten it and this was the first time she saw the effects on Chris.
His body was usually too tough to injure during the waves but this one was different, obviously. She, and a decent number of her family, had the water affinity. She had it, her dad had it, and Granddad had it before he died.
Not everyone did, less than half, but it was the majority affinity the family had. A bunch of them got together and bought a few treasures from the store to help in comprehending a Water Law.
Splitting the costs helped them afford it.
She focused on the renewing aspect of water for her Law and it helped her healing tremendously.
It paired with her skill [Waters of Renewal(Un)] perfectly and was where she originally gained the inspiration.
Chris''s body was washed with the healing waters closing cuts and lightening bruises. She used a few more skills, like [Mend Bones(C)] and [Invigorate Healing(C)] but for the most part, he would be fine.
The only thing that worried her was the finger. She, and the other Healers, had spent a decent amount of points reading about new healing practices and this would be the first time she attempted to reattach something.
In the hospital before, it was sewn back on with the nerves reconnected to the best of their ability, here was different. All of the healing was different. One could shower someone with a healing skill without any knowledge of the body and it would work.
It would be terribly inefficient, but it would work. So many things changed in the healing field that they were still trying to keep up with. It was tough to stay ahead and not fall back on dated procedures.
If the finger was still around and intact, it would most likely be fine. The ice would have worked to keep it frozen and a good dose of healing should have it reattached just fine. He was lucky it wasn''t an arm. She didn''t think that was within her capabilities yet.
They just had to find it first.
"Ough ough, hwaak" Chris''s sudden coughing fit startled her out of her thoughts.
Chris
Ugh, I felt like death.
Healing energies worked their way through my body, mending it back together from the meat blender I just put it through. I knew whose healing it was and I wasn''t surprised she was here.
She probably came running as soon as the battle down south was over.
I coughed and spit up the phlegm from my throat and opened my eyes to what was happening. The camp looked mostly the same as it had before I passed out.
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Ice and snow dominated the landscape with the recent decoration of bodies. I groaned for a different reason at the sight of the bodies. There was no one here to help clean them up.
The aching pain I expected from sitting up was diminished to the point that it surprised me.
I had known she had gotten her Law but this was the first time feeling the effects of it. It was a massive boost to her healing.
Before I could form a question, a shout of exclamation interrupted.
"HA! Found it!"
Austin''s voice sounded out making me turn my attention over to him. He was a ways off standing in the middle of a thick bunch of bodies holding... something... over his head.
He looked proud to be holding it, whatever it was.
After shouting out, he came trotting over with his prize and presented it to Abigail. Getting a closer look at it, I saw what it was.
It was my finger.
I lifted my left hand to my face and stared incredulously. I had forgotten for a moment I was missing it. Only a stump was left, the finger cleaved off just above the connection to the hand.
"How did you find that?" I couldn''t help but ask.
Losing it in the middle of battle, the finger could have been anywhere. Kicked around or impacted from the swirling ice, literally anywhere.
How it wasn''t in one of the bear''s stomachs was a blessing. I must have killed the bear before it could swallow.
Hah. That thought made me chuckle.
My missing phalange still had ice surrounding it from where [Frost Armor(R)] covered it. The ice kept it clean for the most part and it wasn''t even dirty from the ground. The frozen earth was too hard to sully it.
"I have my ways," Austin said mysteriously.
He stuck his hand out to help me up which I accepted with a groan.
"I can''t believe it. You actually did it." He said while patting me on the back.
"Me too. I''m glad I''m not dead." I answered which got me a swat to the back of the head from Abigail.
"Hey, I don''t think doctors are supposed to hit their patients!" I cried in false hurt.
"They can when they say stupid things." She fired back.
Laughter sounded out from my mouth and I couldn''t stop it. It was nice to be back to a facade of normal with the two of them. I had missed joking around like this.
Abigail manhandled my left hand looking it over before doing the same to the finger. She was in healer mode again and I wouldn''t get much more out of her.
Austin, on the other hand, looked ready to burst from holding something in.
"High five!" He said while raising his left hand.
I just looked at him. Unblinking at his self-satisfying smile.
"Err, well, high four? I guess," The little shit kept going.
Ignoring his antics, "How did the fight down there go? Everyone okay?"
"Yeah, everything went fine. Better than fine actually. I hesitate to say more for fear of jinxing it." Abigail said while still looking over my hand.
That was good. I wasn''t that worried but it gladdened me to know everything went okay.
Muttering I was trying to ignore found my ears, "But I have five and he has four, so does that make it high four and a half?"
Austin looked genuinely confused while counting on his fingers.
Nope, not adding fuel to the fire. Goading him would only make the finger jokes worse. He had more in the chamber no doubt, we hadn''t even gotten to the vulgar ones.
Notifications were more important.
You have slain [Vine Bear ¨C Level 40] 1,600 points earned.
You have slain [Vine Bear ¨C Level 41] 1,681 points earned.
You have slain...
...
You have slain [Vine Bear ¨C Level 43] 1,846 points earned.
You have slain...
...
You have slain [Vine Bear Patriarch¨C Level 46] 2,116 points earned.
You have successfully defended your claim! Extra experience awarded. 16,000 Points to all who participated.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Skills Available
4 levels. It was more than I had received in one go in a while. I struggled to remember the last time I got 4 levels at once. It brought me all the way up to level 47.
Just 3 away from the evolution.
The points though. That was the real jackpot.
Points earned: 517,662
One wave had netted me over half a million points. It was a much-needed windfall with bloodline prices so high.
Even with the purchase of the mana stone, my current points rested at 1.2 million. A sizable amount and well over the minimum cost of the lowest bloodlines.
The last thing I focused on was the skill.
"Ah! Hang ten," Austin shouted, repeating the same gesture as before drawing me away from my musings.
Refusing to reply in worry that it would egg him on, I withheld telling him that the phrase didn''t mean high five. Hang ten was a surfing term and didn''t refer to the ten fingers in a high five.
"Wait, that doesn''t work either." He said going back to the drawing board.
I had passed the level 45 threshold and could now get my second-to-last class skill. I would only be able to get one more at level 50 for my current class and I had three to choose from.
For my level 35 profession skill, I picked up [Warding(Uncommon)]. It boosted all aspects of creating and placing wards.
What I did with the frost Rune shouldn''t really be considered a Ward but the skill worked on it all the same. The skill boosted the effectiveness, efficiency, and strength a Ward could pull from the environment.
It aided my ability to see the flows in the area around me while placing Wards so that I could put them in the optimal spot.
The reason I picked it was for a couple of different reasons. Wards were powerful things and they were the first line of defense for any city. A city I planned on building.
Creating powerful Wards would only add to the defensive capabilities of my future city.
Another reason was that Wards were extremely versatile. They could be used for more than just defensive barriers. They could create environmental effects like my Frost Rune, they could contain energies both beneficial and harmful.
Creating a Warded room to contain Ice Mana would be the perfect atmosphere for me and I could do the same with other affinities helping my family out.
Containing harmful effects could be used for Body Refining and increasing resistance toward them. A poison mist contained with Wards would be the best environment for training.
Another use of Wards was in detection. They could be used more subtly for detecting any intrusions and could alert me if there was anything happening that I should know about.
Their use were endless and it all really depended on the string of Runes involved. Stringing Runes together was something I still had to learn but it would greatly boost their power.
Using one giant Rune to increase its effects was the least efficient way to go about doing what I had. Learning that made me cringe, but there was still so much I didn''t know.
That skill choice had been easy, this one, not so much. The previous class skills were easy to pick. I didn''t get to pick the level 25 skill [Frost Armor(R)] but I would have anyway it was so good. [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] was a no-brainer and was a massive boon. [Frozen Fortitude(Un)] was another great skill. [Permafrost(Un)] was my response to the Blaze Lions and correcting a weakness.
Now it was a decision. There were three new skills I desired along with an old one I wanted to get. [Frost Armor(R)]''s counterpart [Frost Armory(R)] was a skill I didn''t want to give up.
Frozen Patchwork(Rare) ¨C Stave off injuries with a patchwork of ice. The skill will not replace lost limbs but will cover bleeding cuts, replace torn muscles and broken bones, and stave off the effects of blood loss. Stay in the fight longer by freezing wounds and maintaining your body.
Glacial Presence(Rare) ¨C The colder it gets, the stronger you become. As the temperature decreases, all your stats grow in response. Any Cold-related skills are more effective in sub-zero temperatures and cost less mana.
Polar Plunge(Uncommon) ¨C Channel your will and mana into the area around you plunging the temperature to polar levels. Works directly on the mana and air in the surroundings converting it into sub-zero temperatures.
All three skills were great. [Polar Plunge(Un)] was objectively the weakest of the bunch, but paired directly with [Glacial Presence(R)] made it a great skill.
Sure [Permafrost(Un)] and [Hail(C)] both lowered the temperature in the area but they both worked as byproducts. [Hail(C)] created ice which lowered the temperature by a minuscule amount on any grand scale and I had to pump a lot of mana into [Permafrost(Un)] to get any huge effect out of it.
[Permafrost(Un)] lowered the temperature in the area and cooled it off, but wasn''t the main effect of the skill. A skill directly tied to temperature would have way more effect for a lot less effort which would ease the burden of other skills during a fight. But, the effect wasn''t that groundbreaking and it was probably something I could learn to do myself. At least I thought I could.
Getting [Polar Plunge(Un)] without [Glacial Presence(R)] was meaningless but I didn''t want to fill up my two last skill choices with them. [Frozen Patchwork(R)] was too useful to pass up.
The thing that decided it for me, was what I needed right now. Both [Polar Plunge(Un)] and [Frost Armory(R)] weren''t immediately crucial. [Glacial Presence(R)] and [Frozen Patchwork(R)] were.
Strength or endurance.
One would make me stronger while the other would let me fight through injuries.
The words ''all your stats'' and ''Any Cold-related skill'' sealed it for me.
[Glacial Presence(R)] was better right now.
"Ah hah!" Austin exclaimed before looking me dead in the eye, hand high in the air, palm out.
"Hang nine!"
Chapter 95 - Skills
Austin and Abigail stayed for the cleanup which made it significantly faster than if I were alone. The Rune ran out of mana not long after I woke up which made the ice start to melt and create a muddy mess.
I had to throw all of it out of the camp before it created too much of a slurry. Walking around in the mud was no fun for anyone. We were lucky enough to get the bodies out before they thawed and started leaking everywhere.
Cleaning up bodily fluids was the worst.
Now that the wave was over, there were so many things I wanted to spend my time on. I wanted points to buy a bloodline, I wanted to upgrade my Law before my evolution. Plus, I wanted to spend time upgrading some of my skills.
All the ones sitting at Common irked me. In the long list of things to do, my profession was lower on the list. It just wasn''t as important right now. Being 3 levels away from a class evolution made it the center of my attention instead of my profession.
I wanted to form my Spirit Anchor and go through the first step of Body Tempering to do as much as I could before evolving. I wanted to get the best class possible. I wasn''t really under pressure to rush either.
There was always the option of abandoning the camp and fighting it out down south where it would be safer. There was no existential crisis causing me to rush and there was no need to hasten my evolution other than my vanity.
I wasn''t going to shoot myself in the foot just for a challenge I felt now. Fighting the waves alone wasn''t necessary and I wasn''t going to alter my potential because of it.
If it took a little extra time to evolve to get everything done, it was worth it. Even if I didn''t evolve before the tutorial ended.
Austin looked at me hopefully with the idea of going around to the nearby pylons to rack up some points. He still needed quite a lot for the bloodline he chose and he hadn''t gained much from the wave.
He had filled me in on how it went and it was funny to see him frustrated about it. The amount of people they had made it so they split the points among a wider group of people during the waves, diminishing what everyone got.
He was lucky I worked out a deal so we didn''t have to give them up like the rest of the camp. Well, we gave some up but not more than we already did.
Tracy''s camp worked differently than ours and she forced everyone to give up their points so she could upgrade the camp with them. She thought that was the better way to go.
Where we only gave up half, they gave up all.
It was one of the things I had to fight her on while we discussed our cooperation. I was under the thought process that we were helping her during the waves just as much as she was helping us.
Giving her all of the points we got was out of the question.
We stuck with the split we already had but gave it to her instead of using it on our own camp. It was easy to sell to my family because nothing changed for them. They still gave up half of their points the same as before.
Austin got miffed out of points because he had to split his kills more ways not because he had to give them up.
The lowest-tier bloodlines that cost the least were base animals without any affinity tied to them. Like Giant Eagle or Grizzly Bear. There was a base model for all the known animals and some that were unknown.
They started at the 900,000-1 million range, which I could already afford.
There was an incline in price to match the strength of the animal. A mouse bloodline didn''t come with the same price tag as a wolf one. An affinity added around 500,000 points to the base model but it varied based on affinity.
More common affinities like fire and earth cost less than rarer ones like solar and arctic. Anything with a solar affinity was still out of range for Austin, especially for the kind he was looking for. Upgrade potential also carried an increase in price tag. Some bloodlines didn''t have a very high evolution potential and would be very hard to evolve in a meaningful way while others had clear evolution potential. Like a squirrel bloodline versus a dragon.
I had suggested getting a fire affinity one and evolving it into a solar one, like a Flame Hawk bloodline into a Solar Hawk, but he declined. He wanted to start big even if it took more work to do it.
I agreed with the sentiment and planned to do the same. It would be a waste not to use the store we were given. We weren''t told explicitly, but it was hinted that a grand store like the one we had wasn''t a thing when we got back on Earth.
It seemed like a tutorial exclusive to massively bombard us with information, gear, techniques, professions, and general knowledge we should have. Like a primer for when we got back.
Almost as if it were a tutorial.
I wanted to gain points just as much as him, but I couldn''t forget the threat lurking out there. Giving the man time to build up forces sounded like a recipe for disaster.
We argued about it for a minute before we hashed out a plan. We would hit all of the pylons on the way to the next camp the Mindbreaker held. A compromise of sorts.
Austin wanted to focus on points while I wanted revenge.
Abigail cautioned restraint but even she didn''t put her all into trying to convince us. She wanted payback just as much as I did.
Out of the things I could spend time on, I felt that points were the most important right now. There was no telling if we would be able to buy bloodlines when we got back and that was the deciding factor. I could always upgrade my Law and all the other paths of power later.
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Bloodlines were easiest to acquire now and there was no guarantee that availability would stay after the tutorial.
Before Austin and I took off, I had a task for Abigail.
"Can you take that to Sam," I said pointing at the bear with my hammer still in it. "I want her to make it into something for me. It was a good fight and a worthy foe."
"How am I gonna carry it? It has to weigh over 2,000 pounds!" She said incredulously with wide eyes looking the massive thing over.
Huh, I hadn''t thought of that.
"I don''t know. Gut it or something, I don''t need the meat. Maybe bring Sam to it instead of the other way around?" I answered. "I believe in you. You''ll figure it out."
She started fussing over it walking around the giant carcass and muttering out some ideas. Well, she''s got it in hand.
Abigail would take care of it and I was free to leave.
It took a few hours to get back in fighting shape from Abigail''s healing and the wave itself took 3 hours. We wouldn''t surprise anyone when we attacked now as it was almost 8 o''clock at night and it would take even more time before we got there.
The part of me that wanted to rest looked at the timer ticking down with only 16 days left and promptly quieted down. 16 days wasn''t a lot of time and I needed to spend them well.
Austin and I fell into pace traveling and fighting. A pylon took a few hours to fight and conquer before we moved on to the next. Each had a different amount of beasts with them depending on which wave they originally fell, but all held a large sum of monsters.
And a large sum of points.
We spent a few hours at three different pylons before we made it to one of the Mindbreaker''s camps. I still thought that was a stupid name.
During the fights, I focused on my skills. Fighting was when I did my best thinking in terms of upgrading them and I tried to use that as fuel.
Having the pressure released and the freedom I felt while fighting the wave made me forget to focus on upgrading one of them. Upgrading my skills was on my long list of things to do and nothing said I couldn''t do two at once.
One already upgraded and I had missed the notification in the sea of kill confirmations.
You have upgraded a skill:
Heavy Armor Proficiency(Novice) -> Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)
It had come at some point during the fighting and I had no clue when. The next time I made my armor I would have to change to accommodate the new skill. It was a good change but still a little annoying.
Gaining points and upgrading skills. That was the goal. The first one I focused on was [Throwing Proficiency(N)]. It sounded dumb to focus on that one first but it was one I had gotten a lot of insight into.
I had run all over the place hurling spears of ice at things to keep my boost and it made me feel close to upgrading it. I was right, for it upgraded at the first pylon we fought.
All it took was some dedicated time using it. Austin grumbled about having to work more while I focused on the skill but he was just being lazy.
You have upgraded a skill:
Throwing Proficiency(Novice) -> Throwing Proficiency(Apprentice)
After that, I turned to the skill I had the longest. [Heavy Blow(Un)].
It was a great skill but one I hadn''t really pushed to the limit. I had upgraded [Power Strike(C)] by pushing both myself and the skill past the limit in desperation to win.
This time was harder. I couldn''t just push more mana into the skill like I did last time. It took both mana and stamina to work and overloading it with one didn''t upgrade it.
Looking back, I felt it was close to upgrading it during the fight with the bear boss but I focused on [Shatter(Un)] at the time instead. I fixed that now.
During the upgrade, I had a chance to alter the skill somewhat and turn it away from what it used to be but I refrained from doing so. I liked [Heavy Blow(Un)] and it was a great general skill to use while fighting.
It added to the strength of my swings and could be amplified with other effects by other skills, like [Frostbite(Un)]. The only thing I needed was more of what it already did.
You have upgraded a skill:
Heavy Blow(Uncommon) -> Mighty Blow(Rare)
I guessed since the function stayed the same the name didn''t change much.
The upgrade came while fighting one of the bosses of the fallen pylons and it took compressing my mana and stamina together with a little intent to upgrade.
I couldn''t just wing it by throwing things together and hoping for the best like when I upgraded it to Uncommon.
The upgrade came after hours of fighting and on the last boss before we fought a camp again. I almost gave up on it to focus on something else when it finally clicked.
I had been trying to just shove more mana and stamina into it to no avail and took some brainstorming with Austin to figure it out.
The one skill I really wanted to upgrade next was [Hail(C)] but I had a plan for that one and I didn''t have all the pieces yet. [Ice Manipulation(Un)] just upgraded and would take a lot of time to reach Rare, so I skipped over that one.
My already Rare skills were too complex and I had no idea where to start. [Frost Armor(R)] and [Momentum(R)] were both great skills but I had no idea how to upgrade them.
Throwing my Law at [Frost Armor(R)] didn''t do anything and neither did trying to compress it down with [Ice Manipulation(Un)]. Both Rare skills were beyond me right now.
We found the Mindbreaker''s camp right where Tracy told us and it looked more fortified than the last one. More people and beasts were milling around in it and some makeshift fortifications were made.
It looked like a shoddy attempt to deter another attack.
It didn''t.
Austin and I used the same strategy as before and it worked like a charm. It made me assume he couldn''t see through his thralls because it was only slightly more difficult to take down than the one before.
If he could see what we did, he would have come up with a better way to defend against it.
Honestly, I was surprised he let us do it again. A part of me thought he would pull all his army back to a few camps to concentrate his forces.
I didn''t know if he was underestimating us or if he thought the attack was a one-time thing, but he was in for a rude awakening if he thought that. He attacked my family, there was no escaping my justice.
There was one last skill I focused on and it was... unsuccessful.
The last skill I attempted to upgrade came when we were slaughtering our way through the thralls and was an idea I had thought up a while ago.
[Sweeping Slash(C)] wasn''t very useful anymore and I had spent some time thinking about how to influence the skill into something I could use.
My answer was my snowflakes of death.
They were sweeping around me in arcs and they did slash things. All I had to do was have the skill activate on them, instead of my weapon.
It was surprisingly hard.
The skill did not want to go anywhere else except for my weapon. It took a lot of fighting just to get it to change and when it finally did, it wasn''t what I wanted.
It worked on my body, instead of my weapon.
It got to the point where I had to give up on it. The skill was too rooted in being used on a weapon to be useful anywhere else. I would still keep it, but it would only be helpful in specific circumstances.
Fighting the three pylons and the camp after took 8 hours. Austin and I didn''t get back to our camp until almost 4 in the morning.
It was well worth it though and looking at my point total was the only justification I needed.
Points: 1,865,223
If we could earn points that fast we would get a bloodline in no time.
Chapter 96 - Austins Bloodline
The Mindbreaker
Shit. All of it had gone to shit.
Everything was fine until that one piece of shit chased him halfway across the tutorial.
His plan was working and he was mowing through everything in his way until that one camp. He had thought it was going to be easy. They didn''t even have a lot of people either!
He had conquered camps with double their number and he had done so easily.
But they were different. Their skills decimated his army and the one of stone made it so his superior numbers couldn''t be used effectively. He couldn''t blow through the gate and swarm them from inside.
His plan worked perfectly all up until the last one holding the gate.
The monsters with the explosives went and died in the perfect spot. The explosion blew the gate away like it had with all the others.
The only thing he had to do was breach the gate with his army and it would have been fine. But NO.
The man with glowing shields held it off for nearly an hour! Just thinking about it made him grit his teeth in anger.
The two strongest people had left but another monster was in their camp. He held off droves of thralls Craig sent at the wall and it seemed he could have held on for a while more.
Fire ravaged most of his army but that wouldn''t have been a problem if they had broken through. The fire mage wouldn''t have been able to hold off nearly as many if she was surrounded.
She would have fallen to the pressure of being overwhelmed like all the rest had.
He even went personally to control the army after it didn''t break through initially. He was as close to the battle as he ever had and they still lost!
Numbers had always worked before and this was the first time that it hadn''t. It was vexing in a way that made him want to explode in anger.
His army was so large now it was hard to keep control of all of them with his skills and he stopped leveling up a while ago. He sat perpetually at level 50 without any hope of getting any higher.
It only added to his growing frustrations.
He did everything he could to level up but it just wouldn''t happen. He killed monsters and men alike in the hopes it would work. He personally slaughtered his own army trying to level up to no avail.
At first, he thought it was a bloodline issue. He had seen the option to buy them from the store but didn''t waste the points on them. They were extremely expensive and there was no need for them. He wasn''t fighting personally.
After stalling at level 50, he reconsidered. If humans were too weak to evolve, he would gain the bloodline of something that could. He used a lot of points on a suitable one and it boosted his abilities tremendously, but didn''t let him level.
He was still stuck at 50.
With no way to level, Craig funneled all of the points his thralls brought into his camp. The fewer monsters he had to leave behind to defend it, the more he could have out conquering pylons.
He went around to all the other camps and brought death through the rest of the tutorial. The only camps left were the ones he couldn''t beat.
His camp was the most upgraded he had seen in the tutorial. Massive stone walls ran along the edge of his camp in a circle, over 25 feet in the air. Battlements ran along the top providing cover from ranged attacks and the gate had kill holes for anything too close.
It was a marvel of magic and engineering.
He had spent a massive amount of points on it. From the 9 pylons he used to have, he funneled all of the points into one camp. After the waves, the armies defending other pylons would march back here to give up their points.
All until only 8 arrived one day.
One of his camps had fallen. At the time, he didn''t think much of it. He couldn''t feel the connections he instilled in his thralls so he couldn''t keep track of them instantaneously and had assumed they fell to the wave.
The camp that fell wasn''t that strong to begin with. He conquered it from some jackass who thought he was some god. Kept saying this was his chance to rise above others and grasp his destiny.
He now ambled along with the others of his camp doing what Craig told him to do.
So much for destiny.
After the camp failed to bring back his points, he went to investigate. He didn''t like wasting time on things like this but he wanted to confirm what he already knew.
After reaching the camp, a different scene revealed itself.
It didn''t fall to the monsters, but to men. It was clearly an attack raised against the camp and not the monsters. There were no monsters left over from the battle around the pylon to signify it falling.
The bodies weren''t eaten and the place was looted. It was clear what happened and he knew who did it too. Evidence of ice and frost still littered the area.
It was the same bastard that chased him for over 4 hours. He had to run all the way back to his capital after the failed attack, wasting a significant amount of time.
After seeing who his camp fell to, he had to reevaluate his plan. There were 5 waves left and they would only get stronger. From his scouting reports, there were only 3 camps left.
The obnoxious trapper in the jungle, the man of ice in the north, and the desert coalition in the south. All three had held out for the 73 days the tutorial had gone on.
It was more like 2 camps now that the northern one merged with the trapper.
The rest were gone, either swallowed by monsters, joined him in his mission, or abandoned to join one of the others. All the other camps fell.
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There were no more camps to conquer. No more revenge to have. The only camps left were too strong for him to beat. They had massive amounts of warriors and walls nearly as good as his.
They both saw the threat of the tutorial for what it was early on and took massive steps to survive.
Both had taken firm hold of the points earned and fed them into defenses and that was one of the only reasons they were still alive. All other camps that tried other methods fell.
Except for one, but they gave up. If they had stayed they would have died like all the rest.
Two camps.
Two more and his quest would be complete. There was no need to keep his army stationed everywhere else. He would pull them all back here, to his capital.
There were still strings he could pull on and things he could do, but he would save those for later when their use would be most effective.
He would wait them out and attack after the last wave. When they were weakest and when they thought it was over.
He had to go around to all the pylons he owned personally to retrieve his armies stationed there but it was worth it.
His steadfast castle would be bursting at the seams with his army and he would wait out the pitiful humans who remained.
All to finish his mission.
Chris
Day 75
Austin and I spent every waking moment fighting and doing battle all in the attempt to gain points.
After the first day of fighting pylons, something unsettling happened. The fallen pylons on their way were all normal except for when they reached the first camp that should have held thralls.
They were gone.
The whole camp had been abandoned. No people, monsters, or anything in between. It was a ghost town.
It frustrated me to no end. I wanted to whittle down the camps until killing the man responsible but my plans had been dashed.
All it took was flagging down one of the birds perpetually following us to get a response.
The Beastmaster could see through the eyes of the birds, or so I was told, and I wrote down my question.
The Beast lady read it and gave her answer to Abigail, who had returned down south after healing me, and she messaged me with the answer.
I wasn''t sure if there was a character limit on her skill but all of her messages were short and to the point.
"Abandoned camps. Concentrated on one. All but his ''capital'' are gone."
It was not good news. The so-called ''capital'' was the strongest camp he had and it wasn''t something they could smash through.
We could do that to the weak camps because their walls and gates were weak. The scouting report on the camp in question told them the last camp was anything but weak.
I wouldn''t be able to kill the man if he stayed in his capital. The thought of being unable to do anything rankled me.
I wanted to kill him, to be done with the looming threat, but I couldn''t.
Tracy outright refused to help attack it and the only help I could get was from my family.
The camp gave me a bad feeling and something told me ignoring it was a problem. I wanted it dealt with and soon.
Leaving the problem to fester was a recipe for disaster.
I wanted it gone.
"Is that enough for you?" I asked out of breath.
It was late into the night and there would be a wave tomorrow. I wanted to go home and rest but Austin asked for one more pylon.
After finding out my foe turtled up, Austin and I turned to the fallen pylons for points.
We went through them as fast as we could, mercilessly slaughtering monsters for hours at a time.
In the three days we had been fighting we had racked up quite the sum. We could fight 4 pylons a day depending on how strong they were.
Any more and we risked serious injury. My stamina was bottomed out and so was my mana by the fourth. My endurance was high but hours of fighting took their toll. I also ran into the problem of keeping my boost from [Avalanche(R)] for too long. My body was strong, but sustaining a 100% boost for more than a few hours started to strain it in more ways than one.
Each pylon gave anywhere from 150k to 200k points and we were getting almost 1 million a day.
For three days we did this. Day 73 after the wave, Day 74, and today, Day 75.
I was tired.
We spent nearly every waking moment fighting or resting so we could fight again. My body was spent and so was my mind. Controlling ice wasn''t effortless.
The thought of turning on the Rune and a good night''s rest was the only thing keeping me going. The cold would wash all the exhaustion away and get me ready for the wave tomorrow.
I wanted to take today off but Austin said he was so close, so I acquiesced for another pylon. One last one for the day.
"Yep! I can finally get it!" Even as tired as I knew he was, excitement pepped him up.
"Good, because I''m going to sleep." We had stayed at our camp, rather than Tracy''s, and it was a good trek away.
My bed was calling me.
After getting back and turning the Rune on, my eyes closed as soon as I laid down. Austin complained about the cold but I didn''t care. I spent all day helping him, he could deal with a little cold.
Points: 4,023,923
Seeing the total the next morning made it all worth it. We had to spend a generous amount on healing potions and stamina potions to keep up our pace but even I couldn''t continue at the pace we were going.
I was close to the one I wanted myself.
Austin was acting like a kid on Christmas morning when we woke up.
He had everything he needed to evolve. He didn''t care about grinding every possible advantage out as he could and the only thing he was waiting on was his bloodline.
He had enough points to finally buy it. He planned on getting used to it for a few days then evolving when he got enough points for the material needed.
Tracy''s camp was a higher level than ours and it had more options revealed than ours. It had more, higher-tiered options for bloodlines than ours did and it made me finally make a decision. I picked one that I thought would be best. It was strong, had an Arctic affinity, and could evolve into something great.
It was the whole package.
The cost was over 5 million but it was well worth it in my opinion and I would be getting it soon. The wave today should put me most of the way there.
Austin''s choice was 3.8 million and he just got enough from the last pylon. Even seeing the new options Tracy''s camp had, he stuck with his original choice. Since our pylon was high enough level to buy it, he wasted no time in doing so. Too excited to run down for Jonathan to buy it. He was near maxed on his profession anyway, my 5 million purchase should push him the rest of the way.
He had been making a killing facilitating the trade between our camp and Tracy''s in terms of experience. His profession was higher level than his class at this point.
Austin didn''t waste two seconds after waking up before rushing to the pylon. I had barely been able to convince him to wait for morning last night.
Not knowing what to expect, I just sat and watched. Austin went over and rested his hand on the pylon for a bit before a vial appeared in his hand.
The vial held a radiant golden liquid that shone with an inner light. It wasn''t blindingly bright, but subtle in its luminescence.
I already knew which one he picked but threw an [Identify] at it anyway.
[Bloodline essence of the Golden Sun Eagle]
It was a higher-tier bloodline and the one that Austin wanted. He was fixated on bird bloodlines in hopes of eventually evolving it into some kind of phoenix.
There were hosts of solar affinity bloodlines he skipped over to focus on birds: Radiant Lions, Sun Leopards, Solar Wolves.
It would give him a boost to his solar affinity, his agility, and perception. At least that was what the description said in the store.
What it would really do when called upon it was still unknown.
Austin wasted no time and gulped the whole thing down. After swallowing, his whole body began to light up and he even started to melt the ice around him.
Steam wafted off of his body as the light intensified before it vanished as suddenly as it came.
I looked at him expectantly and he only had a stupid grin on his face.
"Well?" I asked.
"It''s perfect!"
"What does it feel like?"
"It hurt a bit at first but it wasn''t anything too bad. It settled over my entire body like a warm glove. It was like basking in the intense sun for too long. Not entirely painful but not entirely pleasant."
He started to hop around testing his arms and legs to feel the difference before looking back up at me.
"Wanna test it!"
I most certainly did.
Our fight was tame but we still pushed ourselves a little. I had to be ready for the wave and Austin was still getting used to it.
He said that it made him faster and more precise with his spear and I could attest to that. His stabs took on a new form from the boost. He could see openings and weaknesses better and his eyes could see and evaluate the fight better.
When he called on it, his body began to glow and the boosts got even stronger. The bird of prey was a good choice and he became even more deadly because of it.
With the boost from both perception and agility, he could perceive openings and exploit them with lethal efficiency.
It was startling to fight against.
If he got that much stronger from his, what would mine do?
Chapter 97 - Make Me
I stood in the wreckage of the wave''s aftermath and couldn''t help but grimace.
Seated on the fallen boss''s corpse, my body worked to seal up the parts of it that were missing and leaking blood onto the floor.
My hammer was lost somewhere among the bodies, discarded after the fight. Empty glass bottles clinked together at my feet with only a hint of red liquid still in them. Missing chunks of my body slowly grew back and healed over.
A massive wound on my side was still leaking blood from where the boss''s mandibles ripped a chunk out. I wouldn''t have guessed ants to be this strong. When they first spawned in, I thought it was going to be an easy wave. Boy was I wrong. While the wave wasn''t hard, the ants were deceptively strong.
If I were still the same level as when I fought the bears, it would have been a much harder fight. All the fighting with Austin had the bonus of leveling me up. My new levels and skill were what made it manageable, if only barely. This wave was easier than the last but I was more injured leaving the fight.
I had reached level 50 before the wave even started and had two new skills to use. If I hadn''t had them I would most likely be dead.
[Glacial Presence(R)] made everything Cold-related stronger. My armor was stronger, my skills were stronger, and my body was stronger. My mana flowed easier and lasted longer than before. Skills cost less and my Law came a tad easier and lasted longer.
I was pretty sure that was for two reasons. One being [Glacial Presence(R)] and the second from pushing it so hard the last wave.
Just like muscles, mental strain grew easier with practice. Pushing my Law so hard last wave made it last longer and the same would be true for the next wave.
The only reason I was still standing was because of the new skill I took at level 50. [Frozen Patchwork(R)] held my body together even with chunks of it missing.
The ants had a metal affinity that made their mandibles damn near indestructible. They clamped down hard and tore me apart even through my armor.
It was a fight to remember.
How I was still standing was a mystery even to me.
Two skills upgraded during the fight.
You have upgraded a skill:
Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice) -> Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman)
Meditation(Common) -> Cold Meditation(Uncommon)
My usual tactic of smashing everything with my hammer didn''t work as well for this wave. The ants had thick metal exoskeletons that were resistant to blunt damage. When I hit them it was like they were walking ingots of metal in ant form.
They made me refine my skills with the hammer and do more than just use overwhelming strength.
I could still smash them, but I couldn''t obliterate them in one swing like I was used to. That was the main reason there were so many injuries I sustained.
I had to actually use the hammer with a degree of skill that I hadn''t been pushed to do before. It was nice to feel that kind of pressure again. It made me adjust how I wielded the weapon and it was satisfying to see the improvement.
I was a long way from the beginner I started as.
The other skill that upgraded was meditation. That one came after the fact and was when I was recuperating from the wave.
The healing potions worked to fix me up and I used [Meditation(C)] to speed it up. On a whim, I used [Glacial Presence(R)] as well and tried to push the two together.
If [Glacial Presence(R)] made everything stronger when it was colder, [Meditation(C)], a rejuvenation skill, could use that to work better in the cold.
It worked.
Now the skill had increased efficiency the colder it was around me. It was a perfect upgrade to my recovery skill. It boosted my Vitality and my mana regeneration a significant amount in the icy landscape the camp had become.
The amount of points I got was another boon. Nearly 700k from the wave alone.
I was now closer to my bloodline and it would only be another day until I had enough to get it. I had plans riding on the next few days and I wanted to get them rolling soon. I didn''t want to keep fighting all the time for points.
There were people who needed to die.
With the two days I had until the next wave, I had planned what to do about the ''Mindbreaker''. My instincts kept telling me not to leave him be and I trusted them. He was a threat I didn''t want looming over me.
Convincing my family to help me attack him wasn''t even that hard. They all knew what needed to be done and they would be marching up to help. All of them would be coming up here to help me after they were finished with the wave down south. They had prepared to assault his camp and we would be doing it soon.
I wanted to be as strong as possible in case something went wrong and that was where my bloodline came in. Austin received a large boost in power from his and I wanted the same.
He had most likely evolved into E-rank by now, but I would not.
That was the only downside from the wave. All the experience was wasted. I was already maxed out for the tier and I had no plans of evolving. I would stay here until I was ready.
Pulling up my status showed.
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (F) Human
Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) ¨C Level 50
Profession: (F) Runic Blacksmith(Uncommon) ¨C Level 35
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 398
Agility - 203
Perception - 96
Fortitude - 344
Endurance - 162
Vitality - 135
Intelligence - 67
Wisdom - 150
Acumen - 56
Free Points: 0
Laws: Least Law of Ice
Class Skills:
Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman)
Mighty Blow(Rare)
Glacial Presence(Rare)
Frozen Patchwork(Rare)
Frost Armor(Rare)
Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare)
Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)
Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)
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Reinforced Body(Uncommon)
Frostbite(Uncommon)
Ice Fortress(Uncommon)
Barbarian''s Fury(Uncommon)
Ice Manipulation(Uncommon)
Cold Meditation(Uncommon)
Ice Arrow(Uncommon)
Shatter(Uncommon)
Permafrost(Uncommon)
Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon)
Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon)
Hail(Common)
Sweeping Slash(Common)
Mental Walls(Common)
Identify(Common)
Profession Skills:
Basic Runecrafting(Uncommon)
Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon)
Warding(Uncommon)
Mana Engraving(Uncommon)
Sense Metal(Common)
Create Weapon(Common)
Create Armor(Common)
Metallurgy(Common)
Forging Proficiency(Novice)
Mana Infusion(Common)
Coins: 0
Points: 4,823,923
My stats wouldn''t change much until I completed what I needed to before evolving. I put all of my free points from levels I received in the last couple of days into Vitality to bring it up. If I used [Frozen Patchwork(R)] for anything serious and continued to fight on, I needed to be able to heal afterward or have a healer ready for when the skill dropped. I couldn''t keep it active indefinitely and I needed a plan for when my body unfroze.
The injuries were still there, only iced over momentarily. If there was anything serious I could still die, it would only be delayed. Increasing my Vitality was my plan to stop that along with the recent [Meditation(C)] upgrade.
With my evolution on the horizon, I created a list to keep track of the things I needed to do before I evolved.
1. Form my Spirit Anchor
2. Get a Body of Wood
3. Upgrade my Law to Lesser
Those were the three things I wanted to do before I evolved. There was supposedly another path of power I was missing but I had no idea what to do about that.
I couldn''t wait around forever in the hopes I might eventually find out. I would have to make do with those three for now.
I spent the next few hours in [Cold Meditation(Un)], taking a health potion when the last wore off. You couldn''t take them too fast or your body would reject the healing, or something like that.
Abigail cautioned me on their use but I hadn''t particularly cared about the why at the time. All I needed to know was what the cooldown was, not why there was a cooldown. I would have to ask her again.
My family wasn''t due to come up until tomorrow so that gave me the rest of the day to get enough points for my bloodline.
I would have to travel down to Tracy''s pylon to buy it but that wasn''t that big of a deal. It would allow me to help carry things back and make sure all the preparations for battle were ready.
Abigail would make sure everything was prepped and I had no doubt she was fussing over things right now, but checking myself wouldn''t hurt.
After hitting level 50 and my new skills, fighting the pylons was laughably easy. Even easier than fighting with Austin the other day.
I would flood the area with [Permafrost(Un)] and [Hail(C)] then [Glacial Presence(R)] would activate. After that, I started marching to the center. [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] would build up and the boss would die to a few [Mighty Blows(R)].
My fighting style was down to a science by now. Even the rare time I got an injury, [Frozen Patchwork(R)] fixed it up enough for me to ignore it until after the fight when I could pop a healing potion.
The points I needed were easy to acquire after that. I was able to go to sleep well in time to get some quality rest with a satisfied smile on my face. I finally had enough for the purchase.
The run down south didn''t take long and I was soon looking over Tracy''s camp. She had taken in a few more people after us and it was even more crowded than before.
A few of the camps that were still independent had fallen and she ended up picking up the stragglers. They were able to hold their own in a fight and would help during the waves.
All of the weak had died off already.
From the snippets of information I had gotten from Abigail, Tracy had one of the last camps left. All the others had fallen.
Tracy''s, the Mindbreaker''s, Mine, and one more down south were all that were left. I didn''t really consider ours a camp though, it was only me that stayed.
Tracy was in contact with the camp down south and I was pretty sure they were going to work something out like they had for us. The amount of people in the tutorial that would make it to the E-rank compared to the monsters of the last wave wasn''t high. There would be hundreds of E-rank monsters to contend with and not enough people to fight them.
That was odd to me. I had noticed the difference with what other people were able to do and what I was able to do before and that was another thing that stuck out. I didn''t really have a sense for what normal was. Normal was the average capability my family members had that I had fought with. Learning that they were some of the strongest was a surprise.
Learning I was the strongest even more so. Tracy didn''t have all the information, but from what she did have, I was at the top. The only person that she thought came close, outside my own family, was the man down south.
People were insanely worried about the final wave and I could feel the tension in the air just a few feet into Tracy''s camp. We were 77 days into a 90-day tutorial and all we had left was the home stretch.
4 waves.
Every wave closer to the end had people fretting more.
From talks that I had relayed to me, I didn''t want to remain out of the loop anymore, people were coming together to do everything they could to survive. The camp down south juggled people around to different camps to stay ahead of the penalty of having more people.
They survived the waves by making sure that all non-combatants were outside the camp when the wave hit.
It was a risky move that I didn''t know I would have taken. If the camp fell, the people were screwed. Plus, they needed to leave fighters with them to help defend them from the roaming beasts while they were in the wild waiting out the wave.
It wasn''t a sustainable solution though and the only reason they were able to do it was because they regularly cleared the nearby pylons and area of monsters. Without culling all nearby monsters constantly, it would have failed.
It became an ever-increasing time sink during their days off to keep everything clear so the non-combatants wouldn''t be in danger while the warriors were fighting off the wave.
From Tracy''s intel, they used to have numerous pylons but they had slowly been whittled down to one. Focusing on more than one was a waste.
At first, when I heard of people owning multiple pylons, it confused me. Why would someone want to own more than one when defending was so hard? It became clear after thinking about the points they would rake in.
The more pylons one held, the more points they would earn every wave. If you had the people to defend them, owning pylons was the fastest way to gain points. Plus, the bonus at the end of the wave was boosted from them. Every wave there was reward for successfully defending a pylon and that bonus was multiplied by the number of pylons a faction held. The bonus for the 27th wave was over 17,000 points.
If our faction had 2 pylons, that would be over 34,000 points. The motive was clear.
After finding out that the leader down south was close to me in strength, I asked Tracy for all the information she had on him. I wanted to find out what he was like and if he was similar to me or not. Sadly, she only had sparse information on the guy. They had only corresponded a few times and the Beast lady''s birds didn''t do well in the desert.
Apparently, he was the first to discover the body-refining method of using poison and skyrocketed in strength from there, using that boost in body to his advantage. Well, he used venom but same difference.
He had a powerful body and used a shield and sword during battle. His affinity wasn''t known and neither was his level. It was approximated to be near the cap of F-rank and maybe into the E-rank. She did have a name though. Kurt Lockwood.
Hearing about Kurt made me think of fighting him. He sounded like a worthy foe.
I trusted in Tracy''s decision to see if the man was open to merging together but I wasn''t holding out hope. Basing any decisions on hope was asking to be let down. He either would or wouldn''t and I needed to be prepared for both outcomes.
After walking into Tracy''s camp, I couldn''t help but pick up my pace toward where Jonathan was so I could finally make my purchase. I didn''t have to go through him but it was stupid not to.
He would gain experience from the purchase and he usually got a discount on items from the store. He didn''t get one this time though, bloodlines weren''t able to be discounted. He had looked into it when we first considered them and thought about buying them.
I wasn''t sure why, but he didn''t get any discount on them. It was why Austin bought his directly without going through a Merchant. They missed out on some experience but my giant purchase would cap him anyway. He wasn''t far from level 50 and would get there after today.
Everything we bought went through him and we spent a lot of points.
"Jonathan," I said walking up to him. He looked up from what he was doing and must have noted my eagerness.
"Is it time?" He asked. Austin hadn''t exactly been subtle with his purchase which made it easy to guess what I was here for.
"Yes,"
Jonathan just shook his head and sighed, "Like you need to get any stronger." He got up and started heading toward the pylon before adding, "And here I thought getting my Spirit Anchor would close the gap somewhat."
I decided not to answer him. I didn''t know what to say really, it wasn''t like I was doing it on purpose.
It didn''t take long to reach the pylon and we were let through. Tracy had weird restrictions on it and had put a guard outside to keep people from using it.
We were let in without resistance. When Abigail and I negotiated our merging I made it clear that we were not to be barred from the pylon.
"Are you sure about this?" Jonathan asked with a hint of concern on his face. It was a lot of points I was spending and I wouldn''t be getting them back if I didn''t like it.
"I am," I said as I transferred him the points.
His eyes went wide as the numbers ticked over and only sighed ruefully.
He touched the pylon and a few seconds later a small vial appeared in his hand.
We stared at the small treasure, both thinking the same thing. So small and it had cost so many points.
The vial in his hand cost more points than we had spent on our camp for the entirety of the tutorial.
With a small amount of trepidation, he handed over the extremely expensive vial.
It wasn''t even the red color blood usually had. Austin''s bloodline vial was a golden color but mine was something else. It had hues of blue in it that pushed it closer to purple than to red. It felt like a trick of the eyes, but I would have sworn it glowed an icy blue for a second when Jonathan handed it over.
Frost started to coalesce on the surface of the glass, drawing in the moisture of the air.
Taking it in my hand made it feel real. Like it was all a dream before but now that I had it, physically had it, made it real. It was cold to the touch which wasn''t surprising. It was an Arctic Bloodline.
I used a quick [Identify] just because.
[Bloodline Essence of The Frostborn]
Frostborn was the first step on the Frost Giant Bloodline. Just like Frost Wyrm evolved into Frost Dragon, Frostborn evolved into Frost Giant.
It wasn''t even the lowest tier either. Frost-Touched was lower but I saved up to buy the better one. Frostborn gave an increase in strength, fortitude, endurance, and all ice related powers.
It was the perfect package.
The only issue was that it was... frowned upon to use enlightened race bloodlines. Titan races and Giant races didn''t like others using their bloodline along with all the other enlightened races like elves and dwarves.
It was a con I was willing to deal with.
It was the best bloodline for me and I would use it. I didn''t care all that much about the consequences.
If they had a problem with it, I would deal with it then. If they wanted me to get rid of it, my response was already prepared.
Make me.
Chapter 98 - Frostborn
I wasted no time and gulped the rich purple liquid down. Holding it for too long made me nervous for some reason, like it would disappear if I stared at it for too long.
Austin had said he felt like a warm glove slid over him and like staying in the sun for too long.
Mine felt nothing like that.
It felt like super chilled liquid going down my throat that sapped all the body heat out of me. It almost felt like my throat was frozen as the liquid passed through it like I was drinking liquid nitrogen.
The chill started to spread throughout my body and my breath fogged as it exited my mouth even in the jungle heat around me. The essence worked its way through my body and I could feel it seep into my bones, into my muscles and skin. Its chill pervading throughout my body.
It wormed through every inch, saturating my entire body in its cold touch. It felt painful at first but became comforting as the sensations continued. Like I had played in the snow for too long and had a bone-deep chill.
I understood now why Austin had said it felt like staying in the sun for too long. The process had a pleasantness to it that edged the line of painful. Toeing between the two as the effect persisted.
As the chill of my body subsided, I felt the strength that was left behind. It was invigorating in a way I had never experienced before. My body felt refreshed and stronger than ever. My muscles denser and my bones sturdier.
Now all that was left to do was test it.
I looked expectantly at Jonathan and he just sighed.
"Alright, let me get my shields," He said defeatedly. He didn''t like fighting with me because he said I hit like a bus. Even the blows I held back on rattled his arms uncomfortably.
We took a few steps outside the gate and we were ready.
We stood across from each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Jonathan wasted no time and already had his shields glowing with his Spirit Anchor.
It would seem he wasn''t taking this lightly.
Austin had described the feeling of calling upon his bloodline to me before but it wasn''t that hard to figure out. It was almost instinctual after imbibing the liquid.
I called on the power residing in my body and I felt it build up within me. The strength and fortitude boost felt stronger and almost doubled in power from their dormant state.
I couldn''t tell, but my skin turned a tad paler and my hair, which was a sandy blonde like most of my family, turned a bit whiter at the tips. My eyes turned from the usual green to a piercing blue that had a hidden glow behind them.
The transformation was quick and it flowed through me much the same as when I first drank the bloodline essence. My body heat vanished and a chill emanated out from my body.
Some of the moisture of the jungle around us started to condense and fog around my skin.
"Woah there bud," Jonathan said a little shocked, "You look... different."
His words brought me out of my introspection and I couldn''t help but ask, "Do I glow?"
"What? Oh, um, not really. Just your eyes..." Jonathan stammered a bit at the question, "I wouldn''t say they glow, but they are a bright, icy blue that I feel a chill wash over me when I look into them."
Phew. As long as I didn''t glow.
I had been making fun of Austin for so long with numerous jokes about his... glowing tendencies and I was not looking forward to him returning the favor if I started doing it myself.
Twirling my hammer, "Let''s see what it does!"
Jonathan clanged his shields together in response and our fight started.
With my bloodline activated, it felt a little like having [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] or [Barbarian''s Fury(Un)] running. The only difference was my stats stayed the same.
My status screen showed no visible changes from the activation but I certainly felt stronger. My swings held more power than before and rifled through the air faster. My hammer felt easier to swing as well, the ice in the weapon more comfortable in my hands.
The boost also didn''t have the strain associated with my other two boosting skills. My body didn''t feel like it was being pushed beyond its limit, but like it could now operate at a higher level.
It was a base increase that didn''t have the consequences the other two did. If I fought for too long with [Avalanche(R)] or [Fury(Un)], I tired quickly and felt a bone-deep exhaustion afterward. Like my body had been put through the wringer.
Activating my bloodline didn''t feel like that. The power wasn''t fueled by my body, but the essence of the blood.
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And in doing so, was finite.
I knew from both Austin and information from the store, we couldn''t call upon our bloodlines for indefinite amounts of time, the boost would run out if used for too long and would take time to recharge. Now I felt why.
There was only so much power the blood held and it would run out before long. The boost from the dormant state didn''t take any power but calling upon it did, and I could feel the amount gradually becoming smaller. There were ways to mitigate this, though. A beast could take in mana and essence to both purify and strengthen their bloodline and we could do the same after assimilating them.
We could funnel energy into our bloodline for two effects. One was we could make it stronger and give a bigger boost. The maximum strength was based on the innate power of the bloodline which was the reason higher graded bloodlines were better. They started at a higher peak and could be raised much higher than lower-graded ones.
The second thing we could do was increase the amount of power the bloodline had. Increasing the amount of bloodline essence we had dormant inside of us so we could call upon it for longer.
There were two ways to strengthen a bloodline and then there was purifying it. Purifying a bloodline led to evolving it into a higher grade and was a qualitative change in the bloodline.
Usually, the two processes went hand in hand. Beasts would strengthen their bloodline as much as possible before trying to purify it and evolve. The stronger their bloodline was, the higher chance of success they had when evolving.
Some beasts didn''t do this, but the norm was to strengthen first, and then evolve.
Seeing how failing to evolve a bloodline had the chance of death or extreme bodily injury, I wasn''t going to rush it and planned to stick to the norm.
After testing out the strength boost, I had Jonathan hit me a few times to test the fortitude boost. It was much the same as the strength, and the blows felt lighter than normal and I could take a heavier blow before stumbling.
All around, it felt like a decent 15-20% increase in my already monstrous stats. Without the usual consequences of a boosting skill as well.
The last thing I wanted to test was the effect it had on my skills. It said it boosted ice-related powers and I wanted to see how much.
I created some ice to use and started going through a few training exercises with [Ice Manipulation(Un)]. The effect was immediate. The ice flowed easier and was a lot easier to control.
It felt like a weight had been removed from the skill and it came easier than before. If I was once using oven mitts before, now it was like winter gloves instead. The skill was still only Uncommon, but the boost was noticeable.
And it worked on every ice skill I had, which was most of my skills.
I may have gotten a bit carried away in my testing.
The area of jungle we were in was a jungle no longer. It looked like someone took a piece of the North Pole and transplanted it here after I was done.
At the end of it all, I was extremely satisfied. It was exactly what I was looking for and I couldn''t wait to test it out in battle. A battle that would be coming soon.
With my purchase made, I went to make sure everything was ready for our trip and that all the preparations for the journey were made. Abigail had it mostly in hand, but I wanted to double-check.
Everyone was packed and ready not long after and there were only a few things left I needed to do. One of them was to try one more time to convince Tracy to join us.
I found her in her office where the mana density was notably higher and the woman was fretting over the papers on her desk. She was rubbing her temples in frustration about something that was written on them.
Not wanting to intrude, I knocked at the open doorway.
She looked up quickly and said, "Christopher, did you need something?"
With the conversation started, I moved into the office and took a seat across from her desk. Her face didn''t show any outward expression but it tensed as I sat without an invitation.
"Your help would be greatly appreciated for what we are about to do. We would have an easier time if we worked together."
I didn''t strictly need her help, but it would make everything easier. Another warrior would always be appreciated.
"We''ve had this conversation before. My skills aren''t suited to attacking. They focus on defense, I don''t know how much help I will be." She sighed, "I can send Kathy and Damien with you though, and a few others. Both of them have expressed their desire to join you. Damien''s lightning powers work well on the thralls and Kathy can help with scouting. It would be a shame if he managed to sneak away." She said.
My mouth opened to try to persuade her but she raised her hand to continue.
"I know what you are going to say. He''s a threat, I understand that, but why are you so fixated on attacking him right now?" She asked.
I leaned back in my seat at the question, formulating an answer.
"He is an unknown," I said slowly, "We face two threats right now, the Mindbreaker and the Waves. The waves are predictable, they come every three days and we can plan around them, knowing what they entail. The Mindbreaker, not so much. He could attack at any time and he could very well be planning something now. I do not want to leave a threat like that to stew when the end of the tutorial is coming. It''s better to end it now before he can cause trouble." I stated firmly.
My mind would not be changed on this. Both logic and my instincts were telling me to deal with the growing threat now so I could turn my attention fully to the waves.
There was a lingering feeling that the tutorial wasn''t done throwing challenges at us. We would need to be ready to face them and having the Mindbreaker running free was not conducive to that goal.
Plus, he owed me a debt.
"I understand, but I can''t leave my camp. In the event you fail," I made a face at that but she hurried to continue, "I''m not saying you will, just in the possibility that you do, I need to be ready to defend against the next wave. I''m not willing to risk everything on this. Every person lost is one who could have helped defend during the waves. I think it is best to wait him out and force him to come to us. Defending is always easier than attacking. The only reason I''m going along with this is because I can''t stop you."
A snort nearly came out of my nose at that. It would have been funny to see her try.
With only my silence answering her, she continued, "I''ve done everything I can to make my camp as defendable as possible, traps litter the area and our defenses are as strong as they can be all in the hopes that it is enough. I will not go risking everything just to kill one man."
She had her opinion and I had mine. It seemed like we wouldn''t be getting anywhere if we continued this conversation.
Changing gears, I switched to getting as much equipment out of her as she was willing to give. She would rather see me succeed than fail and was much more likely to risk wasting points on lost equipment than on lost people.
She gave us a bunch of consumables to use and a few things to attack with. It was a hefty amount of points but nothing too large. It was aid, though, and I would take it.
The total number of people coming was 27. Me and my family numbered 21 and 6 people were coming from Tracy''s side. Kathy and Damien were the most noteworthy and the other 4 were people who had a bone to pick with the Mindbreaker.
Their camps were attacked by him and they wanted revenge the same as us.
After speaking with Tracy, our gear was packed and everyone was ready for our march. It would take a few hours to march there but we would be ready to attack the next morning.
It felt like we were marching to war.
Chapter 99 - Plan
Our trek there took most of the afternoon and we arrived just before sundown. We stayed a distance away from the camp and made sure Kathy scouted the area so we remained unseen.
I didn''t think we would remain hidden the entire time leading up to the attack but it didn''t hurt to try. The longer we remained unnoticed, the less time the Mindbreaker got to plan his response.
If he didn''t know we were there, he wouldn''t have as much time to prepare when we started attacking.
We were a pylon away for the night and would close the distance the next morning. It was unusually quiet while we set up camp and I could tell the nerves were getting to people.
This would be an assault on a heavily fortified position. The first time we had laid siege to a camp rather than defended one.
The only thing we had left to do was scout the camp with our own eyes and confirm our plan of attack. All we had intel-wise was what Kathy could gather from her birds.
They were great and were a massive boon, but for something like this, I wanted to see it for myself before cementing a plan of attack.
It was too dark for that tonight and we set up a watch rotation for the night before tucking in. Nervous jitters ran through the camp that night but I slept like a rock.
Tomorrow held nothing new for me. I had attacked a camp before and I had killed before. Tomorrow would just have more of it. I was confident in my strength and only grew more confident after getting my bloodline.
I was as prepared as I could be.
"Attacking from the west gives us the high ground but there are no trees for cover like in the south," Hal said pointing at both areas on the map.
"The north and east are both suboptimal directions of attack. We would have to run up a hill to get there." Sam mentioned the other two directions.
"Brayden, how long will it take to set up the trebuchets?" I asked our resident builder. We couldn''t carry the fully built siege weapons with us and had to break them down into pieces.
Scott and Brayden would work together to put them together which should speed things up but I still didn''t know how long that would take.
We had been at this for close to an hour. Hashing out different plans of attack trying to come up with the best one since the sun had come up.
It wasn''t only the ''council'' participating either. Everyone was privy to the same information and we all stood around the map coming up with ideas. I was no war general and this would be my first planned attack. I wanted everyone''s input.
If our ''army'' was larger something like this would be unfeasible, but we only had 30 people. Hearing everyone''s thoughts didn''t create that much chaos.
People''s lives were on the line and I wasn''t going to deny their council, especially when I had no experience with planning a siege.
What Austin and I did shouldn''t be considered a ''plan'' and it wouldn''t even be helpful for this camp. The gate was too strong for me to try that tactic again.
I had some ideas about an avenue of attack and one had started forming ever since I saw the camp. The camp itself was even more defensible than the one Tracy had down south.
The walls were higher at a towering 25 feet and it looked thicker as well. Numerous siege weapons were dotting the wall that all looked store-bought rather than handmade.
It looked like a fortress.
A heavily defensible fortress. It was almost daunting to look at from the eyes of the attacker.
"I don''t think I will be able to smash through the gate," I said.
No one had asked, but our usual method of attack wouldn''t work on this camp. The gates here had the same metal portcullises that Tracy''s did which made my ability to smash them open less than zero.
My hammer would break before I got through.
"Will the explosives we brought get through it?" Austin asked.
All of us couldn''t help but look over at Kathy. She was the lead for the people that had tagged along and she knew the capabilities of the consumables best.
"I am uncertain. It would take more than one most likely but how many, I don''t know." She said. The doubt in her tone was clear to all of us.
It went around like this for a while where someone would bring up an idea before someone else shot it down.
All the while, the idea I had before came back. It was something I had thought the moment I laid eyes on the camp and saw its thick walls and heavy gate. The sheer task ahead of us prompted me to pivot my thinking.
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"Why do we need to breach the walls?" I asked, "There are no civilians in there or people we need to spare. We aren''t going to stay after we conquer it either. Why don''t we just burn it to the ground?"
"Conner, do you have any poisons that would work?" I added.
Everyone got a bit quiet after that and thought it over.
"That''s a bit... dark, Chris," Abigail said, "And I''m pretty sure that''s a war crime."
Hearing it out loud made me hear how dark it was. I suggested burning down a whole camp while people were still in it and in the next breath suggested gassing them.
"Well, um, it''s not like there are any noncombatants. Everyone inhabiting that camp is an enemy, why should we risk attacking the walls when we can smoke them out?" I stuck by my idea.
"He is right, there''s no one in there we intend to spare," Austin added with a shrug.
It took everyone a moment to skip over the fact it was technically a war crime. Now that I thought about it, there were no more war crimes anymore. If there were no countries, and civilians weren''t held to the Geneva Convention, then there were no rules of war.
"All we have to do is make sure the man doesn''t sneak away afterward," I said before looking at Kathy.
"I understand. I''ll make sure he won''t get away." She said resolutely. She gave a swift nod to match as well.
"Rachel, what''s the range of your skills?" I asked.
"Uh, I''m not sure for something like this. I wouldn''t really have to aim, just launch them as far as I can. I would say around 300 yards, maybe more. It would jack up the mana cost though to keep the skill together for that long." She said thinking it over.
"Connor, how much poison did you bring?" Austin asked for me.
"We have a few jars that we intended to use for traps and the like." Abigail answered for him, "It most likely won''t be enough for the whole camp."
"I can make more but it will take me a minute," Connor added on.
"Well, if we''re doing this," My Dad muttered, "Can you make anything flammable? Like some kind of aerosol that will spread the fire?"
Connor looked thoughtful before nodding, "Yeah, I can make something like that. It might explode though." The slight tug of a smile on his face was only a tad disturbing.
Connor''s... experiments had the tendency to do that and it wouldn''t be the first time he would need burns healed.
"If we do that, the monsters will stream out of all four gates and surround us." Jonathan pointed out.
Getting them out of the camp would make fighting them a lot easier but it would also bring their numbers to bear. We were grossly outnumbered and fighting on an open field would leave us at a disadvantage.
Well, they would be at a disadvantage. I would be fine.
"Do you think you can raise earth walls strong enough to block the other gates off? It wouldn''t have to be too sturdy, just enough for them to decide going through a different gate would be faster than breaking through. It would make things easier if we limited where they came from and how many can exit the camp at once." I asked.
"I would have to get close to do it and I won''t be able to get to all three gates in time. I would be lucky to get one." Jonathan said, "Plus, would that be before or after we launched our attack?"
That was a good point. If he ran around before we attacked, he would be the sole target and all the attacks would rain down on him. If he did it after, their attention would be split from escaping the fire and attacking the person running around the camp.
"What if I go with you? My Ice is hard to get through and I can help block off the gates?" I said.
"That could work but that still doesn''t answer when we are doing it," Jonathan said.
"We wouldn''t have to do it right away. We could open with long-range attacks and only rush to block off the gates when the person controlling the monsters orders them to leave the camp. We have to remember only one person is controlling them. They won''t act like normal people would. They will stay and burn for far longer than you might think." Rachel brought up.
It was another thing I had failed to think about. We weren''t planning a battle against beasts where their survival instincts would make their actions predictable. Nor were we planning against people who would rush away from the flames.
This was all under the control of one person and it would be up to him for how the camp reacts. Normally, if a camp was on fire, people would run away to escape it. That wasn''t necessarily the case now.
The Mindbreaker could hole up in the keep while his entire army burned around him not caring about their lives.
"At what point do you think he will decide leaving the camp is better than staying behind the walls? Even if he doesn''t value their lives, he wouldn''t watch his entire army burn." Scott asked.
No one had an answer for that.
"Kathy can warn us of any movement and we can rush to block off the gates after that. With her warning, not many should be able to get out before we block them off." Abigail said.
"That would make blocking them off harder. We would not only have to deal with attacks from the wall but have to fight through people in our way." Jonathan noted.
It would take longer to do it that way but it was the best we came up with.
"If we are getting them out of the camp, where do we plan on fighting them at?" Damien pipped in. He hadn''t said much during the meeting and mostly kept to himself, but raised a good point.
I was just planning to do what I always did. Fight wherever my enemy was, moving to where they were rather than the other way around. It worked for me because I was so much more powerful than them. Usually, I didn''t have to consider terrain that much.
"When they charge out of the camp, they will most likely go toward wherever we put the siege weapons. He would order them to attack them first to get us to stop bombarding him with them." Sam said.
"I can build up some fortifications around them but I''m not sure how strong they will be," Brayden added.
"We can line the way there with traps as well. Both store-bought and what I can make." Allison pointed out.
We spent the next few minutes scrutinizing the map for the best spot to attack from. We had to consider more than just the high ground.
Which path had the easiest places to plant traps, which path was the most defensible, which path... so on and so forth. It was a lot to keep track of.
I wasn''t sure it would have turned out as well if I had planned it alone. There were too many things I didn''t consider.
I saw monster, I smashed monster.
Everyone else here had a different thought process than me. The way they went about it was different and it made sure we had the best plan possible.
I was glad that it was all coming together so well.
We went over a few more details but the gist of the plan stayed the same. Smoke them out, lead them into where we wanted them, then decimate them.
It was the best we could come up with and I could only hope it would work.
We had contingencies in case things went wrong, which they no doubt would, fallback lines that we would make as well, but we couldn''t think of everything. As my Dad helpfully pointed out, ''No plan survives contact with the enemy.''
We had things set up to mitigate that though. Kathy would keep everyone informed of what was going on and Abigail would coordinate everything.
All we had to do now was wait. Connor was brewing up nasties in his cauldron and Scott and Brayden started constructing our defenses. Austin was running back to our pylon to make last minute purchases that we hadn''t thought of.
In a few hours, we would be ready.
Chapter 100 - Siege
"Ready! Heave!"
Scott and Brayden worked in tandem to reset the trebuchets after firing off yet another set of boulders. Our attacks had started not long ago and we had a mesmerizing opening volley.
Rachel opened with a truly massive fireball that lit up the sky as it flew through the air. Her skill [Ritual Casting] worked to ease the burden on her mana pool and spread out the cost.
Other mages added to the sight with their own skills along with the few Rangers with us. Hal powered up a massive [Power Shot] while Carrie blotted out the sky with an innumerable [Arrow Rain]. The last Ranger was from Tracy''s camp and was less impressive but contributed all the same.
Add to that two flaming boulders the size of a car sailing toward the camp and it was a glorious opening salvo. It was nothing like our first days where our ''volleys'' consisted of a couple of arrows and a handful of magic bolts.
We were using giant magical projectiles, a hail of arrows, and actual siege weapons. It was slightly astonishing how far we had come in just under three months.
Rachel had connected to a few mages who couldn''t reach far enough to attack with [Ritual Casting] and everyone she was connected with through the skill was using [Meditation] to regen their mana as fast as possible.
The warriors without any long-range capabilities mostly sat around and watched the bombardment. Occasionally doing the physical labor that was required when things needed moving or adjusting, but mostly just helped reset the trebuchet arms so they could fire again.
One of the mages that came along from Tracy''s camp had an Earth affinity like Jonathan and worked to pull up giant boulders from the ground for the trebuchets to use.
He pulled up massive chunks of stone, evened them out, packed them down, and loaded them into the sling while Scott and Brayden worked with other warriors to crank arms down and lifting the counterweight into place.
The three were working together flawlessly to keep up a constant bombardment on the camp. Before the boulders were launched, oil was poured over them and lit on fire to add to the damage they did.
Running back to buy the oil was a good decision. It added to the damage significantly and it was well worth the time spent doing it. Austin, being the fastest beside me, ran back to our camp to buy it earlier in the day.
Our siege had begun a smidge past noon when everything was ready and in place for the battle to come. Allison was still out planting traps but that was just the cherry on top compared to the rest of our preparations.
Every once in a while, some of Connor''s nasties were loaded into the siege weapon and launched into the camp. Where they exploded left either a cloud of poison or highly flammable mist in the area.
Whenever the next fireball from Rachel or flaming boulder hit it, a massive explosion echoed out that we could hear from even where we were hundreds of yards away.
One even carried a napalm-like substance that still burned in the area where it had landed. He constantly loaded new ingredients into his cauldron to keep up with the demands we asked of him.
Not wanting to be left out, I created massive balls of Ice to launch into the camp but they hadn''t turned out that well. To get the distance needed, I couldn''t make them too big or I wouldn''t be able to throw them far enough and the size I could throw didn''t do that much.
While my strength was high, it was more because of the ergonomics that hindered me so. While disappointing, I had to be ready for Kathy''s signal and couldn''t get too involved with the ranged attacks. I deemed throwing spears of ice not worth the effort and saved myself for the battle to come later.
I would have my time to shine soon.
A few of the other mages fired off long-ranged skills and one of them even had the Artillery Mage class. They did the most damage behind Rachel and their skills were designed for such a use. The only thing making Rachel outdo them was the fact she was using more than just her mana pool.
Everyone had been nervous when the siege started but Rachel''s words proved true when the army inside the camp didn''t come streaming out of the gates in response to our attack. They sat and waited in the camp launching attacks back at us but stayed behind the walls while we were free to continue attacking.
It was like they were all waiting for orders that had yet to come. It seemed like our surprise had worked somewhat because the thralls were lethargic to respond.
Everyone knew it wouldn''t last but we would take the extra time we were given.
The first problem we had run across during our attack was that there wasn''t a lot to burn in the camp. Thralls didn''t need houses or buildings like we did and the Mindbreaker had declined to build any for his army.
There were only a few wooden buildings inside the camp and most were already aflame. The only ''real'' structure inside the camp was the stone keep in the center and we weren''t able to set that one alight.
To compensate for the lack of burnable material, jars of the oil were occasionally launched to help spread the flames alongside the napalm substance Connor whipped up.
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It worked to spread the flame quickly and wafts of black smoke rose into the air. I wasn''t sure how hot it was in there but it looked smoldering from where I was standing.
Given the morning to prepare, Connor had come up with an aerosolized poison that mixed with the smoke of the flames to linger in the air and turn it into a toxic cloud.
While not the most lethal, it worked to hinder and weaken the army stationed inside the camp. Our bombardment was causing casualties but there were still a lot of them up and moving around.
Anything to weaken the melee to come was a boon in my book.
Every time I thought he couldn''t make anything worse, he took it as a personal challenge to prove me wrong.
If pain was a response they could act on, they would surely be trying to flee the camp by now.
After our opening shot, the catapults and siege weapons lining the walls fired on our position and I finally got to figure out if I could tank them.
The answer was yes.
Jonathan and I worked together to create shields of Stone and Ice respectively over the entire group to block the boulders launched in our direction while Austin speared some of the incoming boulders with beams of light, exploding them prematurely. For the initial attacks, I had used only [Ice Fortress(Un)] to defend and it nearly cost me.
The boulder had smashed through the ice of the skill and nearly hit me head-on. My quick reactions and instincts were the only thing to save me from eating the boulder in the face.
After that, my Law and [Ice Manipulation(Un)] worked to strengthen my skill and the empowered [Ice Fortress(Un)] was enough to deflect the boulders. If they hit straight on, they would explode and shatter my ice which was both annoying and slightly painful.
Using [Ice Manipulation(Un)] as I was, I held a clear feeling over all the ice I was empowering and it wasn''t pleasant to have it shatter to pieces while I was trying to keep it together.
Jonathan''s stone held up better to the bombardment than my ice which only added to my frustrations. His skills were suited to defending against attacks like this and even though it shouldn''t have, my competitiveness flared.
He had skills like [Stone Aegis], [Stone Empowerment], and others to complement his stone and empower it further while I relied on [Ice Fortress(Un)] and my Law. Jonathan''s own Law permeated the stone he pulled up which only made it stronger and evened the playing field between us.
If it were a competition on durability, I would be losing.
This went on until something finally changed and Kathy gave her signal. The people and monsters inside the gate were finally stirring and were given orders to follow.
Both Jonathan and I knew we were up. I gave him a look and said, "Good luck, my friend."
"Godspeed," He said back.
After that, we both took off toward the camp heading toward opposing gates. Our attack commenced from the southwest and we planned to leave only the southern gate open. It had the most vegetation and obstacles for us to use for cover and place traps for the enemies that would come streaming out of the gate.
Jonathan would take the western gate while I went around to the eastern gate before both of us met in the north. As we started our charge, both our respective armors coalesced around us.
Stone and earth flowed up from the ground covering Jonathan from the ground up in a thick plating of stone while Ice condensed and froze around me all the same.
I didn''t even wield my hammer, leaving it tied to my back to give me one less thing to worry about. I wasn''t planning to fight, only block the gates and get back as quickly as possible.
After we left, Austin had to pick up the slack of defending the boulders raining down on our position but he was up to the task. He didn''t have the same reservations about evolving as I did and had done so already.
He didn''t feel it was necessary to wring everything he could before evolving and chose to do so ahead of me. His new class stayed the same rarity and was a powerful Rare spear-wielding class.
His new E-rank class was strong and he gained a well-deserved power boost. He even bought some of the materials needed for his racial trait. When we were told it would start small, I hadn''t expected to start that small.
He didn''t appear any different visually, but when he called upon his bloodline faint wings of light appeared on his back. They weren''t able to give him lift yet, or anything close really, but he was hopeful they would get better when he evolved to D-rank.
The genetic material he used was the wings of the Golden Sun Eagle along with their feathers and blood. His goal was to give himself wings temporarily when he called upon his bloodline. The materials he used were expensive but since he didn''t need to save up for a bloodline anymore he could more than afford it.
The new skill he got was something that he could use to threaten even me at the right time and was one of the main reasons we started the siege at noon. Just like I got stronger the colder it was around me, he got stronger the higher the sun was in the sky.
He was most powerful right now when he could harness the powers of the sun at their zenith and we used that to our advantage. He used that power to his advantage, slinging out beams of light that shattered the incoming boulders.
My mad dash toward the camp reminded me of the last time I did this and I couldn''t help but chuckle. I was beginning to surprise myself with the amount of times I was charging into a sea of attacks headed toward me.
The attacks couldn''t keep up with my speed and those that could were weak enough for me to smash through. I made it to the eastern gate without too much trouble and started using both [Hail(C)] and [Ice Fortress(Un)] to block it off.
I poured a generous amount of mana into both before topping it off with [Ice Manipulation(Un)] to pack everything down. It was a rush job but it would take time to get through.
The last thing I did before moving on was empower it all with my Law. It would help if they attempted to burn it and keep it from melting due to the heat.
From the start of it all I had a lingering feeling of doubt. Everything had gone too smoothly and I couldn''t help but worry something was going to go wrong. Our attack had gone off without a hitch and now we were moving on to phase two all without any major hiccups.
It was unnerving.
The camp was set ablaze and the answer we had expected to come, did. It was like this was all choreographed but I was missing something. This was the threat that I had been worried about and deemed necessary to eliminate but everything had gone by smoothly.
I left the eastern gate behind and moved on toward the northern one. It didn''t take me long to get there and Jonathan was already there blocking it.
I added some of my ice to the stone that was already there and we both ran back toward our places for the plan to come.
We would be the vanguard standing down in front of the mages and siege weapons and the time for that was coming soon.
The thralls were all gushing out of the only gate open streaming toward our position to the southwest.
Jonathan and I completed our circuit around the camp and met up with all of the other warriors standing at the ready.
I tore the hammer from my back and twirled it around me, smashing it into the ground.
We were ready.
It was time to end this.
Chapter 101 - Well Made Plans
Chris
Jonathan, Austin, and I stood front and center against the thralls exiting the gate with the rest of the warriors either next to us or behind us.
Due to the sheer amount of thralls in the camp, there were still groups of them inside the walls trying to squeeze through the gate. The trebuchets and Artillery Mage kept up their fire even as the minions closed in since there were so many to target.
Giant explosions from traps and electrical implosions sounded out as the minions walked through the traps we had set. We were told electricity was their weakness and we used that to our advantage.
Most of the traps we brought with us were essentially EMPs. The electrical explosions were the best bang for our buck regarding effectiveness against the thralls.
It zapped the control out of them and made them stand still without any orders for them to act on. Damien had gone into extensive length about the effects lightning had on them.
He was... enthusiastic about his affinity. Anything about lightning had the guy talking for hours.
He did have useful information and we put that to good use. We took every scrap of information we could to use it to our advantage. But that was before.
The plan was made and already in motion and there were no more plans to be had, no more that I had to worry about.
My job was to fight and to fight well.
So that was what I did.
All my skills came alive and billowed out of me sapping the heat from the air, I stood ahead of the rest to keep the effects focused on my enemies.
Austin was off to my left and Jonathan was to my right doing the same. Our three best fighters would be the tide breakers while the rest stood behind us ready to catch the overflow.
I didn''t intend for there to be any overflow.
[Permafrost(Un)], [Hail(C)], and [Ice Manipulation(Un)] were already in motion and my hammer started singing.
Even though these were merely thralls I wouldn''t take them lightly.
As [Permafrost(Un)] drained my mana to deepen the effects, [Glacial Presence(R)] started increasing my abilities. The temperature dropping enough to activate the skill.
All of it added together to have me smashing heads as quickly as I could. The thralls were weak but numerous and my sweeping hammer swings took multiple down at once.
Austin''s light beams were being shot off from over on his side but I couldn''t see what Jonathan was doing. His skills didn''t have the same flair as Austin''s or the impact that mine did.
With the mass of bodies rushing toward us, I treated it as yet another wave.
I was good at fighting waves.
The Mindbreaker(Craig)
Sweat ran down his brow as he sat and stared out the window. Fires raged around him but the stone keep where he resided was immune to the flame making the heat merely an annoyance. All of it had been going to shit lately and it was only getting worse.
He had been caught unprepared for the attack and he was so flustered he failed to respond quickly enough. The attack on his capital had been unexpected.
He thought only an idiot would attack him and if they did, it surely wouldn''t be so soon.
He was wrong.
Only a fool would attack his capital and when he saw who it was he couldn''t help but sneer. 30 people, if that. Barely a handful had come and they thought they were going to defeat him. HIM!
And it was the one who had chased him! Oh, he was looking forward to what was coming. He wasn''t the same person he was a few weeks ago and he had made a breakthrough.
He had yet to test his new skills fully but these people were the perfect guinea pigs.
He had been building up an army for nearly three months and if these people thought that he would go down easily they were wrong.
Craig wasn''t stupid and he had made up for his mistake earlier. Numbers weren''t everything and he had been made aware of that fact and it was time to show these people their folly.
His camp was at the corner of the tutorial. The corner.
He had ready access to strong monsters to dominate and he had done so without rest. He was building up a force to wipe through all the survivors of the tutorial and these people only brought 30.
He raised his hands and started to conduct. A phantom song in his head took the lead and his orchestra rushed to follow his cues.
His army wasn''t as weak as they thought it was and he couldn''t wait to see his song come to fruition.
He didn''t want to miss this.
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Abigail
Everything was going smoothly so far and that made her nervous. The plan was being executed and there was nothing for her to do. No one needed healing and everyone was where they should be.
There was nothing left to plan and no one left to direct. Everyone was already doing their part in the battle- some more than others.
A 20-meter area of frost bloomed into being ahead of the warriors and bodies flew every which way out of it. Crushed and mutilated bodies littered the area and she couldn''t help but think Chris was taking this seriously.
They had cards they could still play if things went sideways but something about the whole situation was bugging her. Abigail knew that it shouldn''t be this easy. They were at the man''s doorstep decimating his army, something should be going wrong.
Whether it was fate or coincidence, Kathy suddenly tensed beside Abigail before stuttering over words trying to get them out too quickly.
"More, there''s more that were outside the camp. A whole horde of them are coming from the North!" She shouted out.
Abigail unrolled a map of the area to have Kathy point out where the new threat was coming from and the woman quickly did. Seeing their direction, they would have to split up to face them.
Abigail was just about to rearrange everyone when Kathy''s sudden intake of breath stopped her.
"There''s more!"
The scene repeated and Abigail was confronted with a grim scene. They had severely underestimated the Mindbreaker and did not have a full accounting of their numbers.
Three arrows represented the forces that were charging toward them. The monsters hidden in the North coming down, thralls escaping the southern gate of the camp coming from the Northeast, and this new force, coming from the East.
This fight was about to get dicey.
Kathy
Kathy wasn''t prepared for the images she was seeing through her birds. They were going to be overwhelmed. The thought of running away was hard to ignore and she had to fight her natural reaction to what she was seeing.
The thralls she had scouted in the camp weren''t even half of it. The Mindbreaker had pulled more out of nowhere and there were countless closing in on them. She was still trying to get a good count as they closed in from outside the tutorial bounds.
The numbers kept climbing and the longer it took to get an estimate, the dimmer their outcome looked.
The whole time, she hurried to explain what she was seeing to the others and mark on the map where the new force was coming from. The information was disseminated among the fighters and everyone was made aware of the new threat.
Kathy couldn''t keep up with all of the changes she was seeing but she was trying her best. Things were constantly being added and the people started talking over each other coming up with ideas on how to deal with it.
Even while the fight with the leading thralls raged, more were making their way toward the fight. What was a trickle of enemies now, was about to become a tsunami.
Before she could say anything else, she felt a disturbance through her birds and watched as four figures concealed in shadows appeared in their ranks. The four shadows appeared right behind the strongest members of their forces.
Right behind Jonathan''s stone-clad form, Austin, Rachel, and Christopher''s ice-covered back.
Kathy didn''t even get a chance to say anything before the figures attacked and daggers plunged down on their targets.
Gasps of surprise and cries of pain sounded out and Rachel disappeared in a burst of fire reappearing a few feet away with a dagger in her back, barely missing her heart.
"Rogues!"
Austin was quick enough to dodge the fatal blow but the dagger scored a deep cut through his side, parting his armor with ease.
Jonathan and Chris were both unprepared for the surprise attack and took the full brunt of it, both of their elemental armors parting before the blades.
Enchantments on the weapons flashed and Kathy saw through her birds as blood was drawn from both of the mighty tanks she thought invulnerable.
Mass panic sounded out from the surprise and Kathy heard a skill being shouted from somewhere, she wasn''t certain who.
"[Revealing Light]"
The shadows around the figures were burned away and revealed their full forms to everyone. After the light illuminated the area, the figures were swiftly killed in retaliation.
They fell easily to attacks and didn''t seem to have any defensive skills, only proficient in stealth and assassination.
"What was that?"
"Were those assassins?"
Speculation and thoughts ran wild and even the swift retaliation didn''t calm people''s nerves. This was the first time any of them had dealt with an assassination attempt.
None of the monsters during the waves were stealth experts and this was the first time seeing something like this for many.
All the rogues they knew strayed away from the stealth and assassination route and went a different direction with their class. It seemed that some didn''t follow that sentiment and were now assassins in the Mindbreaker''s army.
Just when it couldn''t get worse, they had to worry about being stabbed in the back.
Worry spread through the ranks like wildfire. They were beset by countless monsters and assassins just attempted to take out their strongest. Cries of pain sounded out after the attack.
Rachel had a gaping wound on her side that healers rushed to attend to. The other three weren''t as lucky. They were on the front lines fighting, healers couldn''t go out there safely to heal them.
Some ranged heals fell on them but from the severity of the wounds, not much was healed. Chris and Jonathan still hadn''t taken the daggers out.
Abigail had to be held back from going to heal her husband from the dagger that was still in his back. New battle lines were set up and people prepared for the new threat revealed to them. Shouting and explosions sounded out making giving orders all the harder.
Shit was hitting the fan and it was hitting it fast.
"Austin! You take the North." Kathy heard Chris yell out, "Jonathan, take the East!"
"I need healing!" Jonathan yelled back.
"Retreat to the healers, I can hold them until you get back," Chris answered.
Austin moved to cover his new direction while Jonathan made a fighting retreat to the healers. The frozen circle grew to accommodate their moving and covered the spot that was left vacant, extending to nearly two thirds of the battle front. Blades and chunks of ice whistled through the air holding off the majority of the monsters.
Nothing was said but Kathy could see the knife sticking out of the ice armor that encapsulated him. She knew where it was plunged and it was right in the middle. There was no chance that it missed the heart or if it had, it hit something else important.
Jonathan got in range of her normal hearing, not her birds, and she saw as the healers started fussing over him. They pulled the knife out of his back and all three layered healing skills onto the wound.
"How did it get through?" Jonathan asked, he seemed bewildered something was able to penetrate his armor.
"The knife has enchantments on it but I can''t tell what it does, Chris would know but we can''t go and ask him. They must have used some armor-penetrating skill or something." Abigail answered with the dagger in her hand.
"We need to be prepared for it to happen again. I doubt those are the only Rogues he has in his army." Sam, the other Healer, said.
"What are we going to do? We will be overwhelmed at this rate." Jonathan said.
"We have our contingency plans to fall back on and we still have the extra consumables we can use. If we fall back, we might be able to hold out." Abigail muttered, trying to figure out the best course of action.
All the while, the monsters threw themselves at the front line and the reinforcements charging at them were about to get here.
"There, it''s not perfect but it will do for now. We can''t waste any more time, the monsters are almost here." Sam said, cutting off her healing skill, the green glow diminishing.
Jonathan got up and ran off to the East, where the new enemies were about to hit them from.
From the bird she had kept near Christopher, just in case he shouted something important, Kathy heard something she didn''t think was meant for her.
"Austin!"
"Yeah!"
"I need you to keep them safe! Run if you have to, but I need you to promise me!"
"What? What are you on about?"
"Promise me!"
"Alright! I promise to keep them safe."
Kathy had a feeling Chris was about to do something stupid.
Chapter 102 - Wrong Words
Chris
Fuck, this hurts.
I felt the knife in my back dig deeper every time I moved to swing my hammer or dodge a blow. Every twist of my torso aggravated it further.
Assassins weren''t something I had anticipated and that failure was biting me in the ass. Rogue was one of the 5 main classes and dismissing the possibility of assassins was a rookie mistake.
It went to show how inexperienced we were at planning for war. We were lucky none of us had died from the attack. Jonathan and I were the worst off and he was already healed.
[Frozen Patchwork(R)] was keeping me going. The dagger nicked something important in my chest cavity but I had no idea what. I was no doctor and could only guess at what had happened.
The chill from the skill numbed most of the pain and worked to curtail the bleeding. It wasn''t meant for important organs but I infused my Law into the skill to boost its strength.
We had severely underestimated our foe. I thought that his army would be weakened slightly from the battles he put them through but we were wrong.
The things I heard relayed to me from Kathy painted a grim picture.
We still had aces up our sleeves, but I wasn''t sure it would be enough anymore. Already people were retreating to the second line of stone fortifications we had built.
The only way I thought to end it, was to kill the one controlling them. It wasn''t guaranteed to stop the horde of monsters from attacking but it would certainly weaken them.
So I was going to do something stupid.
Like entering the lion''s den alone.
I had fought an entire wave alone, I could take out one man.
Making Austin promise to take care of them was probably unnecessary, but it gave me peace of mind. I didn''t think that he wouldn''t, but on the off chance things went poorly, I needed to be sure.
After my decision was made, I began my march. Wading through the flowing thralls and against the current of their bodies. I marched into the belly of the beast.
Leaving as I had left an opening in the front line but the amount I was killing more than made up for it.
The closer I got to the gate, the more pressure was applied to stop me and the more bodies found themselves deformed.
Their resistance was futile and their efforts were in vain.
It didn''t work.
I faced heavy resistance trying to enter the gate but it was nothing my hammer couldn''t smash aside. I didn''t even have to call on my bloodline to get through and was able to keep it in reserve for later.
I flattened the horde of thralls as I walked over them to enter the castle. They were even nice enough to hold the gates open for me.
Immediately, I felt the blazing heat from the fires in the camp and I had to work overtime to fight the hostile mana in the area. It was nothing compared to Rachel''s skill with flames and it was easily dealt with.
The fires had no will of their own to give them strength, no one to fight me for control.
Where I walked, fires sputtered and went out before frosting over. There would be none of that near me.
My target was the only building still standing, the keep.
Trying to conserve my mana was hard with all of the bodies surrounding me and at certain points, massive expenditures were necessary.
A giant [Ice Fortress(Un)] combined with [Shatter(Un)] opened up holes in the bodies, giving me one more step toward the keep. This was the first time I was fighting to get somewhere rather than hold somewhere and the difficulty was much different.
It was a lot easier to hold an area against a force than it was to get to an area through a force.
Even so, my hammer swung ferociously and I made my way toward the keep.
While fighting to get here, I had been trying to come up with ideas on how to get into the keep. If the doors were barred and defended well enough I would have trouble getting in.
It wouldn''t be a problem if I wasn''t so pressed for time. I would eventually be able to get through, at least I thought I could, but the longer I took killing the Mindbreaker, the longer my family had to fight off the monsters he controlled.
That all changed when I saw the crowd of thralls part before a middle-aged man. Something about his face tugged at my memory but I couldn''t place it. He didn''t have the same listless expression as all the others and the army around him gave a wide berth. Like they weren''t allowed to get any closer.
This was him. The man who had caused so many troubles for me. The one who attacked my family and sought to turn them into... this. Their will usurped and their bodies puppeted.
Just seeing him made me angry.
It was an unexpected boon that the man himself appeared before me and it was one I would capitalize on.
I didn''t care to examine him closely or note down his features, they would be smashed into oblivion soon and it wouldn''t matter. His body would be unrecognizable after I was done with it.
With the parting of bodies, I launched myself at him, reading my hammer.
"Well, hel-"
Both [Frostbite(Un)] and [Mighty Blow(R)] slotted onto it and I brought it down as hard as I could, not giving him a chance to speak.
Clang
The sound of metal meeting something hard rang out and it wasn''t the dull thud of my hammer hitting flesh.
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"Did you really think that would work?" The man said from behind a massive metallic ant that blocked my blow. An ant that was in my recent memory and not for good reasons.
It was the Ant Boss from the last wave and it fully absorbed my blow without showing any signs of wear.
Shit.
As the words flowed out of his mouth, I felt an influence settle over my mind. It was looking for a way in, a way to control me. Whisps of fog surrounding and threatening to come in. I had activated [Mental Walls(C)] the second I got into the camp but I double-checked it was active for good measure.
The skill worked to rebuff the influence and I saw the man grimace at his failure.
"It seems you''ll be a difficult one." He added but otherwise looked unpreturbed.
I held zero intentions of holding a conversation and even less for holding a conversation with a mind manipulator. My best course of action was to kill him where he stood and to do that, I had to get through the Ant Queen.
"Oh, I can tell this will be fun. You fighting to kill me while the rest of your family dies and I get to slowly pick your mind apart. What was your goal I wonder? Did you think you could win?"
His words couldn''t be tuned out, it was like they were burrowing into my ears, forcing me to listen to his monologue.
There was no reason to hold back any longer and I activated everything I had.
[Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] was already going at full blast and [Barbarian''s Fury(Un)] boosted my stats further.
I called on the power of my bloodline and I felt the cold spread from my core into every inch of my body. Strength flowed through me and my ice felt smoother.[Permafrost(Un)] worked to chill the area even faster and as more frost built up and the air dropped below zero, [Glacial Presence(R)] boosted my stats even further.
"I see you intend to fight anyway. I -"
I leaned on the fury coursing through me and the words finally got out of my head. The man seemed to be doing something, but I threw myself at the Ant Queen to kill it quickly. It was blocking my way to my real target.
I had already killed it once, I would do so again.
Smashing it around with my hammer, while cathartic, didn''t go as well this time around. Other monsters were hampering me and clawing at me and one giant one made itself known entering the battle.
"ROAR!"
A massive vine bear charged at me from behind and knocked me to the ground while I was swinging at the Ant Queen. The attack pushed the knife lodged in my back deeper in and it hindered my movement even more than it already was.
I felt it intimately as it pushed deeper in. The pain was excruciating but I pushed it out of my mind. I had a mission to complete and a little pain wasn''t going to stop me from that.
Turning to look around me, I watched as previous bosses made themselves known and for the first time in a long time, I felt despair.
I felt the presence of one of them before I saw it. My control over my ice began to waver and something was fighting back against it. It was nowhere near Rachel''s level but it was an annoyance I didn''t need right now facing down three massive bosses.
The massive Vine Bear, roaring and pawing at the ground. The metal Ant Queen with metal pincers that could chomp through my armor. And the burning Blaze Lion to mitigate some of my ice.
Three of the hardest bosses that I had fought recently. Something told me that wasn''t a coincidence. If he had these bosses, he most likely had others and my mind had no trouble coming up with where they might be.
It would seem he held these three back specifically for me.
How much of what happened was his plan? Did he know we were coming to attack? Did he know I would charge in alone if I felt it was necessary? Did he plan this?
The despair I felt only grew as my speculations continued. Something was nudging my mind along that line of thought but I couldn''t feel it. If even the smallest of what I thought was true, it did not bode well for my family and I needed to end this as quickly as possible.
"You didn''t think it was only one boss, did you?"
As I looked at what was arrayed against me, his words started to cut through again. My fury sputtered slightly, letting the words in.
Even pushing all of my will into [Mental Walls(C)] wasn''t enough to keep them out of my head.
"Since it seems you have gone all out, I shall do the same."
Even though I didn''t want to focus on him or his words, I couldn''t help but look as his body began changing. Even as amateur as I was at sensing auras, the change occurring was easy to spot.
His presence grew and it almost felt like he was growing physically. Like I had to look up to him now even though we were the same height. His aura spiked from whatever he was doing and it felt stronger than mine. Not in heaviness sense, but in size.
He was E-rank.
His arms and legs took on a scaly texture and his eyes started to change, unable to stick with a permanent color. It was slightly mesmerizing to look at.
"How do I look?"
His words changed completely. Where they were just annoying before and I was able to brush them off with [Mental Walls(C)] and a little willpower, they changed completely now. Like they could penetrate even the most stalwart of defenses. Whatever he just did made my defenses not possible anymore.
They became a sultry serenade that I couldn''t help but want more of. It was highly distracting at a time when I needed it least. Three of the bosses from the previous five waves surrounded me and I couldn''t afford any mistakes.
Instinctively, I used [Identify(C)] to confirm my suspicions.
[Human ¨C Level ???]
He was E-rank. He had to have one of the three Paths of Power but I wasn''t sure which. I also wasn''t sure what kind of bloodline he had but I figured it made all of his mental skills stronger.
This wasn''t going the way I thought it would.
I dug deeper, pulling everything I had within me and I charged at the Blaze Lion. It was the easiest of the three to deal with and getting rid of its hinderance on my ice would make things easier. I aimed to eliminate it first.
I didn''t even make it two steps toward the Lion before both the Vine Bear and the Ant Queen started to harass me. The bear blocked my path to the lion and the Ant Queen attempted to pincer me and take chunks out of my body.
The first time I had fought the bear, it was a close fight that I almost lost, but that was after hours of fighting and when I was under level 45 without a bloodline.
Now, I was over 7 levels higher, 2 skills richer, and a bloodline to push myself further.
I was stronger than it.
The last time I fought it, I could somewhat tell what it was feeling during the fight. Nothing complex, only surface-level emotions like shock and surprise. Now, though, I couldn''t even glean that.
It was like they were robots without a will of their own. I had expected to see shock in the bear at being pushed back but it revealed nothing.
My hammer pounded into it, trying to get through but it fought without any regard for pain. My massive blows rained down on it and it didn''t do so much as flinch.
I could feel the force of the impacts up my arm and I knew they weren''t as weak as the bear made them look. They were swings using all of my strength, that wasn''t something it should have been able to ignore.
The Ant Queen nipped at me the entire time making an annoyance of herself. It tore off chunks of my armor and its mandibles savaged my skin underneath. The Blaze Lion was worse. Just its presence started to heat the area and I had to spend more mana to cool it back down.
It didn''t help that the entire time sultry words were whispered in my ear about giving up and letting go.
"Give in. You''re never going to win."
All of it added together drove my frustration through the roof. This wasn''t a fight. This wasn''t battle.
This was stalling.
He was stalling me while simultaneously attacking my family and trying to get in my head. The longer this battle took, the better his chances of winning got.
I was in a race against time and I was losing.
Even as I pulled out all the stops, I couldn''t do anything. My hammer was rebuffed by either the Bear or the Ant and the Blaze Lion hindered my ice. Everything I was doing was accounted for and planned against.
The feeling of despair grew and I felt the possibility of me losing grow evermore.
I felt in my mind that this wasn''t a natural feeling but there was nothing I could do about it. I was fighting back with everything I had but it just wasn''t enough.
All the battle, all the killing, all the leveling, and I was going to lose when it mattered most.
"Just stop fighting. There''s nothing for you to fight for anymore, your family is already dead."
Oh.
Oh, he shouldn''t have said that. Those were the wrong words to say to me.
Something in me snapped and the mental fog broke, dispelling completely and gave me the clarity to see things clearly. The Vine Bear looked worse for wear and was limping from the blows that I had landed and the Ant Queen had dents in its exoskeleton and a bent mandible.
The only boss without injuries was the Blaze Lion but I never got close enough to land any in the first place.
The battle wasn''t as one-sided as I had thought it was, it only appeared that way for some reason.
Fury took over but not the skill, raw, primal fury I felt about the whole situation.
He just made a mistake and I wasn''t going to let this chance go by.
He should have never mentioned my family.
Chapter 103 - Frozen to the Core
It wasn''t just anger that was running through me, it was my frustrations about everything that had happened so far. We were torn from our home, put into this death trap, and had to fight for our lives against monsters, yet we had to deal with a homicidal maniac like him.
And he had the gall to smirk at me.
I wouldn''t have been so mad if it was only monsters we were up against, but no, it was some asshole acting like a spurned lover because no one helped him. Throwing a tantrum like a toddler.
Ohh, all of it was making me angry.
I wove my ice together to fend off one of the bosses and could only growl in frustration as the Blaze Lion threatened to melt it.
His Fire Law battling against my Ice Law.
It was absurd.
It wasn''t even the actual boss that was fighting me, it was just some mindless thrall that was putting up resistance.
I should have been able to crush it. To decimate it so utterly that it should never have been an issue. Yet here I was.
Fighting and losing against thralls.
It made me angry.
The Vine Bear swatted at me and I had to defend against the Ant Queen at the same time. Both worked together to pressure me away from the man responsible. The one goading me and acting like he was above everyone else.
This never would have been a problem if this... this fucker would just die!
I shot an [Ice Arrow(Un)] out at him but it melted before it could reach him.
I had had enough.
The thought of my Ice melting to a mere beast was absurd. It was supposed to be timeless, not melt under the pressure of a wimpy flame. It was supposed to hold firm and be my weapon against my foes, not shatter and break to a little heat.
This wasn''t the nature of ice, not the ice that I wanted associated with me. Ice was the bringer of Winter, the harbinger of the changing seasons as it fell from the sky.
It was the end of all, that which awaited all that ever lived. Everything would end up in ice, frozen in the vacuum of space.
There were thousands of years of Earth''s history where ice reined supreme, yet mine was melting. Not only melting, but melting to mundane fires produced by a mere beast.
When I first acquired my Law, I focused on the hardness aspect of it so that I could make a good weapon. With hardness, came the cold needed to do it. This time I focused on something different.
Ice was more than just cold, it was the desolate landscape of the barren tundra. It was the debilitating chill that was impossible to get rid of. The silent killer that people tried and failed to ward off.
It was the winter wind that made fires go out and refuse to light again. It was more than just hard. It was the basis on which Winter was built. There would be no Winter without ice.
There would be no Arctic or Blizzards or Glaciers without Ice. Ice was where they all started and where cold originated.
That was what I wanted.
I pushed my Law into my surroundings and pushed for it to smother everything. To pervade it with its chill and show it the meaning of cold.
I focused entirely on the coldness aspect of it and the authority Ice held over the environment.
Pulling inspiration from both [Permafrost(Un)] and the Frost Rune I spent hours painstakingly building. I wove my Law into the space around me and I ordered it to freeze. I could feel my bloodline aiding my efforts.
I based the effects I wanted on [Frostbite(Un)]. I wanted the surrounding Ice Mana to pervade everything I wanted and freeze it from the inside out.
The entire time, my hammer swung through the air trying to kill the bosses attacking me, hindering my progress. This wasn''t the mountain meditation where I first got my law, but it was where I would force it into being.
I pushed my will into my idea the same way I had when making my hammer for the first time. A force worked against me, but my will was stronger.
For this, I would not be denied.
My family was facing a crisis right now and the man responsible stood before me yet I could do nothing. I needed more.
There were sharp pains in my brain as I worked to subvert natural order but I pushed through those as well. Some were from reality fighting me, some were from the man standing across from me.
Neither would deter my will.
All of my concentration worked on the task other than what was needed to continue my melee. All the words that spilled out of the bastard''s mouth were ignored.
Pushing and prodding, forcing my idea into reality, I felt it click.
I felt the very moment the world stopped fighting me and relinquished what I wanted. Also hearing the notification chime to go with it.
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In the middle of battle, I declined to pull it up but I knew what it would say and the words that would be projected.
Law Upgraded:
Least Law of Ice -> Lesser Law of Ice
I felt the difference immediately. The fires of the Blaze Lion dimmed and threatened to go out completely in the new environment I projected. If it were closer, I felt that they would be extinguished entirely.
That said nothing of the area around me which was plunged into a deeper cold. [Glacial Presence(R)] more than doubled its boost from the drop in temperature.
Everything came easier than before and I wielded my new weapon as masterfully as I could. Without the interference from the Blaze Lion, I could focus on killing either the Vine Bear or the Ant Queen.
I felt the Vine Bear was the easier of the two, and started with it. I pulled on my skill and a thick [Ice Fortress(Un)] separated the two bosses. The ice felt colder and stronger than normal which I associated with the additional chime.
Now separated, I closed in on my prey. The Bear''s vines started to freeze in my presence and as it moved, began to break and flake away.
It couldn''t handle the severe cold I was exuding.
My hammer came down with a fully loaded [Frostbite(Un)] and I heard another chime.
[Frostbite(Un)] thrived on pervading a being and freezing it through, exactly what I had based my newly upgraded Law on. It was no surprise the skill upgraded when the two were used together.
The hammerhead clobbered the Bear upside the head, knocking it to the side. Ice built up on the impact sight in much higher quantities and quickness than before.
I could feel the invading Ice Mana inside the bear and I grinned at the beast savagely. Blood covering my teeth from the battering I received previously. What I was about to do was almost an homage to the first time I had faced the beast. At least then, the fight had been honorable. What just occurred was a mockery of that.
I paid those thoughts no heed and continued with what I had planned. The bear put up a fight against my skill but it was worn out and half-ragged at this point. The only reason it was still standing was because it was forced. It wouldn''t be standing long.
[Shatter(Un)]
Half of the bear''s skull exploded in a shower of gore that quickly froze. I used the skill again on the [Ice Fortress(Un)] which showered everything near in ice spikes.
It died quickly.
Not wasting good ammunition, I began my usual tactic of spinning them around me.
The fire in the camp and the Blaze Lion had made that unfeasible before, but not anymore.
Their efforts were comical at best at disrupting what was mine. My ice would not be melted so easily again.
With the Vine Bear''s death, I turned on the pesky Ant Queen who had been a thorn in my side the entire fight. Taking chunks out of my armor and gouging out pieces of me.
I didn''t go at this the same way as before. The last time I had fought it, I pummeled it into submission with my hammer without letting up. My ice couldn''t penetrate its exoskeleton rendering most of my skills useless.
Not this time.
Metal didn''t do well in the cold and it had only grown colder as the fight went on. The first time, I hadn''t been able to freeze the thing through to kill it. It had enough power and a Law of its own to fight me over it.
It was a losing battle that I had abandoned the first time. It was harder to affect another''s body offensively than it was to defend your own. In a battle where Laws were at the same tier, it would be extremely difficult to influence the other person''s body.
While saying it was an uphill battle didn''t make it an iron-clad rule. Using Laws that were strong against one another made the fight significantly easier, like with Lightning and Water.
A Lightning Law would have an easier time electrocuting a Water Law wielder than it would for an Ice Law to freeze a Fire Law wielder. It was just the way nature worked.
Metal and Ice didn''t have that relationship. Metal didn''t have an inherent weakness to the cold but it was disadvantaged at severe cold temperatures.
Like now.
It wasn''t a weakness to the cold per se but it certainly affected it. It grew brittle and broke easily in sub-zero temperatures but the metal itself didn''t grow weaker. It actually grew stronger.
Strength wasn''t the issue I was having though. The massive dents in the Ant Queen could attest to that.
I could overwhelm the Ant''s metal body, but I couldn''t do any lasting damage because it only deformed instead of fracturing.
The cold would fix that.
The oversized insect tried to do battle against me but it was slow and sluggish from the environment which I wasted little time exploiting.
The newly upgraded [Frostbite(Un)] slammed down on it a few times, pervading it with Ice Mana. [Shatter(Un)] wouldn''t work this time as there were no fluids to freeze and explode like the Vine Bear.
I used [Frostbite(Un)] for a different purpose. A purpose that became apparent when my next hammer blow hit.
Layering on [Mighty Blow(R)] as well as the upgraded [Frostbite(Un)], the area where the hammer landed shattered into metal shards.
Its hardness overwhelmed, causing it to fail. Metal broke and crumpled away in greater volume the longer I wailed on it. More and more blows rained down on it to increasing effect. The cold brittle metal was unable to hold up.
It didn''t last long.
With both bosses killed, my next target was what stood between me and my enemy. The Blaze Lion positioned itself between us, forcing me to go through one more enemy.
"W-what h-how did y-you-"
The man''s words lost their sultry effect as he stared dumbly at the two slain bosses. I could see the gears turning in his head as he looked over my form.
Observing what was no doubt a host of wounds with blood freezing them shut, a knife lodged in my back, and deep gouges that had ice patched over them keeping them from leaking.
I could feel the incredulousness in his gaze. Like he couldn''t believe what he was seeing. It was so shocking to him that his words lost their effect.
Standing over the two dead bosses, I could feel something stir in me. Like the core of my being was waking up, asking to be heard. I didn''t have time to figure out the feeling right now and focused my attention back on the fight.
Ignoring the stunned man, I launched myself at the Blaze Lion. It was the weakest physically of the trio sent against me and the lowest level from how it felt.
It was mostly there to hinder my Ice which was impossible now.
As I swung down to pulverize the beast, I thought of something different. It was a stupid and wasteful idea, but I did it anyway. If nothing else then to keep the man stuttering in shock.
I released my grip on my hammer and reached out with both hands to grasp the beast. It tried to escape but I didn''t let it.
My stats were higher than its and all of my boosts pushed them beyond what the Lion could achieve.
After firmly holding it in place, I flooded it with ice mana with the use of [Frostbite(Un)] through my grip. The skill wasn''t meant to be used like that, but I pushed it anyway.
The Fire burning inside the beast tried to fight back, to burn with higher intensity but it couldn''t. My Ice invaded its body and snuffed it out with vigor.
The fire in its eyes dimmed and the struggle it put up diminished. The kicking legs and snapping jaws slowed until it stopped utterly. Its fight smothered completely before a stronger will.
Frost built up on its fur and the fiery mane itself froze.
I pushed more and more against it before it finally lay still. Unmoving in an unlikely death for a member of its kind.
Frozen to the core.
Chapter 104 - Death
Chris
With all three bosses dead, all that was left standing was me and the man responsible for this whole thing. He had recovered from the shock of me defeating the bosses and was trying to direct the monsters surrounding us into the fray.
All the good that did.
They were little more than an annoyance now and they fell to the ice swirling around me easily. Cutting and pulverizing anything that entered their range. They entered into a 50-foot area around me and were swiftly chopped to pieces.
Even so, the man continually directed them to die.
Words streamed out of his mouth trying to worm their way into my head but I didn''t let them. I clamped down on any foreign influence trying to influence me and obliterated it completely.
The feeling that something deep inside was welling up came back as I walked over the Blaze Lion''s frozen corpse but I didn''t know what it was.
Without any more beasts to interfere, I leveled my gaze upon the one who had caused all of this. The man who couldn''t leave well enough alone and thought himself invincible.
It was vindicating to see him brought so low. Sputtering and flailing around like some coward.
Every step took me closer to him and the end of the whole charade. Seeing his beasts get slaughtered trying to defend him, he pulled out a sword to defend himself.
Seeing the weapon I couldn''t help but snort. Now? Now he was going to fight like a real warrior? To defend himself with his meager abilities.
With the weapon in hand, he gained control over himself and stood ready for battle. It was laughable.
He thought he could fight me. The same man who just decimated his army and he thought he could put up any resistance against me.
The thought spurned me.
His sword wouldn''t save him.
The Mindbreaker
None of his skills were working. Every suggestion he made either flowed off the man or was torn through like paper. All the mental manipulations had no effect and he couldn''t even anchor one mental claw into his mind.
Ever since he mentioned his family dying all influence was rejected utterly. Like some switch was flipped and the claws he had made trying to worm his way in were severed.
He had miscalculated.
Craig pulled as much as he could on the bloodline he had assimilated to no avail. The Jade Scale Siren was one of the most expensive purchases he had made and it was failing him.
What was supposed to elevate his mental skills past the point of being shrugged off failed. It was like trying to dig into frozen earth during winter. When the earth was so hard that metal shovels broke and splintered before digging in.
Craig had no idea how the man was doing it. Nothing else in the tutorial had been able to stand up to him after gaining his Siren bloodline. Everything fell under its influence with a few skills.
Even more so after evolving to E-rank. His new class and class skills were supposed to be unmatched inside their tutorial. Especially by someone not even in the same rank.
He had [Identified] the icy warrior already and he was only level 50. Not even evolved to E-rank yet. That was the beginning of his miscalculations.
Craig thought that trapping the powerful man inside his camp would give him a new mighty warrior to add to his army. He had seen the man''s strength and knew that it would be a great boon to add it to his army.
His rank advantage had given him confidence. A confidence that was now thoroughly shattered.
That was the reason he left his keep. The keep he yearned to be in right now to separate him away from this... monster.
He had made a grave mistake and everything he did to try to escape was shot down.
All of his more powerful beasts were out with the rest of his army. He had only kept the three best suited to deal with the suicidal warrior. Craig hadn''t thought the man would throw himself, alone, into his camp and he had thought to capitalize on that separation.
There was never going to be another chance to dominate him so easily. When he was alone and surrounded by his minions. Where every second wasted was another step toward defeat.
That was why he mentioned his family''s death. Craig had thought that saying that, the man would give up and fall to his influence. To falter at the mention of what had caused Craig such pain and despair himself.
He regretted that now. He should have never mentioned his family.
It was like the man was reborn after that, like caution was thrown to the wind and he emptied all of who he was into the fight.
Craig''s mental shackles were slogged off and the three powerful bosses he had kept specifically for him were torn asunder. Easily at that.
He remembered watching as the Blaze Lion, a once fiery inferno, froze solid.
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Who did something like that? Who had the strength to do something like that? Craig thought he alone held that kind of strength.
Where Craig had an army of minions at his beck and call, this man alone was an army in and of itself. All of Craig''s plans were dashed now, little more than a child''s fantasies.
He had thought his army would sweep through the tutorial, killing all who had done nothing to save his family. Killing all who had denied him aid.
It was all futile now. His grand plans were left unrealized.
Regret and disbelief raged in his mind but there was nothing he could do to stop the man''s advance toward him. With every step the man got closer, it was like the gallows came with him.
It felt as if he came any closer, Craig''s doom was assured. An inescapable dread fell over him. The chill of death.
That only made him rage more. He refused to accept it. Why couldn''t he have this kind of strength? Why did this man get what he was denied? If Craig could have been given this strength, his family would still be alive!
His girls would still have a future left to live!
Craig pulled his sword out of its sheath and stood to face the man down. He used to have the warrior class and he still had some skills from it.
Skills like [Power Strike] and [Sword Mastery]. He hadn''t used them in a while but he could knock the cobwebs off now.
There was no use in trying his mental skills any longer as they would be ripped apart.
Some confidence flowed back into him with those thoughts. The ice-clad juggernaut didn''t even have [Identify Block] which left his level easy to see.
Craig was over level 60. Over 10 levels of difference. Plus, his class was a Rare variant. His profession was up there too. Lower than his class but still in E-rank.
Yes, he could maybe get lucky. Stall long enough for his more powerful beasts to get back and save him.
The warrior had to be running on fumes. He had used a monumental amount of mana already and the willpower to shrug off Craig''s influence wasn''t small. He wouldn''t be able to do it forever.
Yes, there was still a way out of this.
The man''s advance suddenly stopped and he spoke for the first time, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Both hands rested on the hammer that had brought so much destruction. The massive weapon planted on the ground.
Did he have anything to say for himself?
The words angered him. Who was he to act so arrogant? Like Craig was somebody to be looked down upon?
Well, since he was delaying to open up a dialog, Craig would use this. He pulled on his bloodline to infuse his words with all his will and activated all the skills he could.
"Mercy! I surrender. I''ll call off m-"
His words died in his throat as the hammer shot up and around before slamming into his side, launching him through the air. His breath left him, making him sputter and hyperventilate to get it back. Blood and spittle ran down his mouth from the unexpected impact.
The scales on his body blunted some of the impact but that didn''t stop the damage. Ribs broke and fractured along with his insides getting turned to mush from the force.
Pain exploded out of his side and his mind struggled to focus. The coughing wouldn''t stop and yet more blood joined the pile he had already spit up.
While hacking up globs of blood, Craig couldn''t help but think, How is he so strong?
The hammer felt like getting hit by a runaway train.
"Did you think I would believe that? That pleading for mercy would work? There is only one thing that people like you deserve."
The man''s walk toward his crippled form was even and firm. Every footfall without hesitation. The man stood over Craig and there was nothing he could do about it. His sword was flung from his hand after the attack.
An attack so fast he could barely see it, let alone defend against it. The fact it was so fast and carried such strength should have been impossible.
The man stopped and looked Craig in the eyes. He locked on to them without flinching at what should have been the mesmerizing effect they gained when calling on his bloodline.
Only one word came after his statement.
"Death"
Blackness followed and all the useless emotions that welled up inside him splattered into oblivion matching his brain matter.
His last thought was one of regret.
He didn''t even see the hammer.
Chris
I couldn''t help but feel a small amount of vindication as I stood over his exploded head. While gory and graphic it may be, satisfaction was hard to not feel.
I had done it, killed the man responsible. Now all I had to do was clean up the rest of them. Instantly, beasts started to go wild, rampaging around. They scrambled to kill each other and started a massive brawl. The people were different. They stood stock still, almost like statues. It was odd to see the dichotomy of the two.
The humans had lost what drove them and there was no getting it back, the monsters subverted to their base instincts, the ones the tutorial instilled in them.
It was no doubt happening everywhere else as well.
The humans that were under his compulsion stood listlessly, doing nothing but standing still. It was eerie to see them so lifeless. There had to be a way to return them to who they were but that wasn''t something we had the power to do.
Instead of staying in the camp to kill the monsters, I left and ran back toward where my family was fighting. The monsters in the camp would kill each other, there was no need for me to stay.
Plus, I had a bad feeling welling up inside me. The fight to kill the Mindbreaker took longer than I thought it would.
A lot of things could have happened during my family''s fight while I was dealing with the three bosses. They were difficult to get through and delayed my return.
Austin was strong, the only E-rank, but there were a lot of beasts sent against them. They had fortifications and fallback lines but if the fight was anything like what I just went through, something bad was bound to happen.
The worry was so great that my wounds were forgotten as I rushed back. The knife in my back ignored and the gashes marring my form were powered through.
It was hard to see the battle lines from where I was because it wasn''t the only battle taking place anymore. Everywhere was a battle. Beasts fought each other and the stationary thralls as much as anything else.
It wasn''t the obvious front line it had been.
As I neared where they should be, I couldn''t help but feel something was wrong. That something had happened while I was away.
Skills and spells still flew through the air from the last line of fortifications we had set up and that was a bad sign already. If they were pushed all the way back there, something went poorly.
I slaughtered my way toward them, decimating any beast in my range while rushing as fast as my legs would take me. Some skills flew in my direction but they weren''t hard to deflect.
Exiting the sea of bodies, I saw the rubble the fortifications had been turned into. The wall we originally built was destroyed and in its place were hastily made barricades by either Jonathan or the Earth Mage.
Fires raged and bodies were everywhere. The ground was slick with blood and viscera.
It was hell incarnate.
Humans and beasts alike dotted the landscape and I had to pull myself away from looking for someone I knew among the faces.
Reaching the wall was easy and after they realized who it was, they stopped showering me in attacks. The fighters holding off the beasts didn''t look pressured so I left them to it to venture further into the defenses.
After being released from their compulsion, the threat the beasts represented dropped significantly. They didn''t operate as one whole army anymore which made it easy to pick them off as they charged.
The warriors could handle it for the moment, I would return after finding out the state of things to finish up.
I couldn''t help but note the grim faces they wore and the wounds that covered them. They were fighting the beasts like they had wronged them somehow. With a viciousness that I hadn''t seen since... oh no.
No no no no no no.
The last time they had taken a fight that personally was after Granddad.
Bursting through the camp I came upon something that I had been dreading.
The uneasy feelings and the dread I felt on the way here were realized.
In what could only be described as a makeshift field hospital, bodies lay in various states of health. Some had only scrapes and gashes that healers were tending to.
Others were worse.
Others were still, lifeless, and ignored. Without a healer using skills to mend them.
People were dead.
Chapter 105 - Farewell
It wasn''t the lifeless bodies lying still in the field that caught my attention. It wasn''t the ones in the makeshift field hospital either.
There was one lying a few feet behind the front line that caught my eye for some reason. The axe and shield stood out. They were covered in blood but I would know those pieces anywhere.
I was the one who made them.
I wanted to be wrong, to say that my eyes weren''t seeing what they were currently seeing. I scrambled toward the body and couldn''t stop my hammer from falling to the ground as I saw it.
The thud didn''t even register to my ears and all outside noise was ignored.
The sounds of battle and shouting fell away as I looked down at him.
The man who raised me, the man who had been there for me through my 24 years of life, bleeding out from the fatal wound on his stomach. I didn''t know what to think.
It looked recent, like he had only fallen moments ago. Like he had held on until the moment he knew I was back. Knew that his job was done and he could sag to the ground.
He wasn''t going to make it. It didn''t take a doctor to figure that out. Blood pooled at a brutal pace and it was only getting worse the more time went on.
He wasn''t going to make it. I knew that deep down but couldn''t bring myself to actually think it.
What kind of world did we get pulled into where such a happy and joyful man who has raised 3 kids and even had young grandchildren had his life cut short like this?
I just stared at him, dumbstruck, while his lifeblood tricked onto the ground. Thousands of thoughts ran through my head and hundreds of things that I wanted to say to him formulated on my tongue, but nothing made it out of my mouth.
He was coughing up blood and reaching to get up, but it was without the strength necessary to do so.
Even though he was still alive, I knew what was to come. The wound was too big, the blood leaking out was too much. He was going to die. It was a miracle he hadn''t already. My mind was so scrambled [Frost Armor(R)] dissipated, dropping away to reveal my form underneath, wounds and all.
The blood leaking out of me joined the pool already at my feet.
It was all just too much, everything was just too much. Every fiber of my being wished that this was some kind of joke or illusion. That everything would go back to the way it was before this nightmare started.
How did someone watch their father die right in front of their eyes without the power to do anything about it? How do you-
"Son, come here." Dad managed to croak out before coughing up even more blood. There was just so much blood.
My feet responded before my mind caught up with what he said. I shuffled over to him and knelt next to him. Some of his blood started soaking into my pants, some of it was on my hands, but that was my last concern.
"Get your sister," Dad mumbled softly, "She should be here for this."
I immediately shouted for Abigail like it was my only goal in life. I must have sounded like a manic madman by the way I was frantically shouting. Some of the warriors that were still fighting on the front lines looked at me funny.
They hadn''t realized the body beside them. They didn''t know the severity of the wounds. They were blissfully unaware of the person that was about to die.
They probably thought he was going to be fine. Healed up with a few skills from a Healer. They were wrong. There was no healing to fix the gaping hole in his torso.
Dad cringed at the loud yelling, but I ignored it.
Thankfully, Abigail was close by in the makeshift field hospital and heard my shouting quickly. She sprinted over to me when she heard my voice, her hair flapping in the wind. It must have fallen out of her bun during the battle.
Blood coated her clothes in thick splotches and even more was on her hands from healing someone''s injury from earlier. Everyone that heard my yelling could tell that this was serious and she had a concerned look on her face as she neared.
As she got closer and noticed who it was that I was kneeling over, her face morphed from concerned to curious as to why I was yelling so frantically. Then she saw the massive wound on his chest and stomach. The gaping maw of what used to be a ribcage and the ungodly amount of blood around him. Her face went white.
"No, no, no, no, this can''t be happening," she mumbled to herself as her hands started to glow green from the effects of a healing skill as she knelt and put her hands on the wound.
The healing wouldn''t help. It was too late for that. Even if she was there immediately after, I didn''t think it would have made a difference.
Most of his entire chest was missing or mangled. I was once again amazed at his ability to fight through something like this. To only falter when he knew I was back. Maybe miracles did exist. I got to be here for what would be his last moments after all.
It was almost cruel.
Our father was dying and there was nothing that we could do but watch. All of us watched as the healing did nothing. We all knew it wouldn''t work. I knew, she knew, and Dad knew.
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"Help me up," Dad said coughing up more blood, reaching for my hand.
"No, you need to stay down. If one healer isn''t enough then we''ll get another and if that doesn''t work we''ll get another. We can use all the healing potions from the store. I''m not letting you DIE." Abigail practically screamed out while tears started streaming down her face. All the while never dropping the healing spell.
"Abigail," he said gruffly to her, "Save your healing for the others, don''t waste it on me. We both know my end is near."
"NO! I can fix this. I can heal you." She started shaking her head quickly making her hair even more messy as even more tears were falling from her face. The glow intensified on her hands and more of her skills flared but still, there was no effect on his body.
Dad must have seen the futility of getting her to stop and looked at me. "Help me up, Son."
There was nothing I could do. He was going to die either way, just one was while lying down in a pool of his own blood and the other was doing whatever it was he wanted to do. Seeing it made no difference in the outcome, I acquiesced to his request.
I grabbed him under the arms and lifted him to his feet as he let out a loud grunt of pain. He stumbled a little as I let go of his arms, most likely woozy from the blood loss. There was even more of it under him than I thought. There was so much blood.
Abigail must have finally realized the inevitable conclusion and canceled the spell on her hands. Her opposition to my decision was clear she looked at me with a spiteful glare as I lifted him.
"Both of you have made me proud to be your father," he looked from me to her as a tear escaped his eye. "You have turned into amazing people," he looked at Abigail and added, "And a great mother of her own."
We both had things that we wanted to say but he waved us off and continued. "Tell your mother and brother that I love them, and that I''m sorry I couldn''t make it back. Especially your mother." He coughed up some more blood that dribbled down his chin, but added under his breath. "She''s gonna be furious with me."
"I know what both of you are going to say and it''s not necessary. I know you both love me but I don''t have a lot of time. I have been thinking about this a lot and I want to go down fighting on the off chance there is a Valhalla." He let out a chuckle at his own words.
Over the years of religious debate with him, I championed the idea that if one of them was real, why not all of them? If heaven and hell existed, why not Valhalla?
I had said it as a joke at the time, to hear him say that now was almost laughable.
After saying that, some color started coming back to his face and he straightened his back a smidge, standing up straighter. He must have used some kind of boosting skill or something. There was no other way to recover like that.
Even though I knew what he was about to do, I didn''t have the will to stop him. It was the way I would have wanted to go out. Who was I to tell him no?
He lifted his hand and separated his fingers into a V. "Tell your brother that I said, ''Live long and prosper''."
I almost let out a chuckle before I stopped myself. That was just so like him. Dad was bleeding out, minutes away from death and he''s talking about Star Trek to my brother.
Dad had always been a huge Star Trek fan and watched all of the movies and TV shows. I never got into it like he did, but my brother did. They used to watch all the old re-runs of the show together when he was younger. I was always more of a Star Wars fan.
He turned to Abigail next. "Abigail, you know you''re the oldest. You have to keep the rest of them in line. Be the backbone of the family. Don''t let them miss any family dinners now that I won''t be there to force them."
Abigail laughed at that and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. "Of course Dad, I won''t let them weasel out of it." She said back but it wasn''t with the same vigor as before. It was missing her usual fire.
Dad started to speak again before stopping and choking back a sob. "You''ll always be my little girl." He pushed out as more tears fell and he hugged her. Abigail just nodded and started crying harder into his chest.
They broke the hug and he sighed. Then he looked at me. "Son, I guess I''ll finally find out what they''re dying to get in there for."
This time I couldn''t hold back my laughter at the long-standing joke. Ever since I was a kid, we shared that joke with each other. It started when he was driving me to soccer practice or a soccer game, I couldn''t quite remember, but we passed a cemetery.
He nudged me while driving and pointed, saying "Christopher, guess what."
I was like, 12 at the time, and looked at the cemetery he was pointing at, "I don''t know. What?"
He looked at me with a straight face and said, "They''re just dying to get in there."
I didn''t know why, but I thought it was the funniest thing that I had ever heard and laughed for almost 10 minutes straight. Ever since then, every time we pass a cemetery, without fail, we say the joke. It was to the point where I would just be driving alone and chuckle to myself as I passed one.
"You''ll have to tell me one day," I said back after my laughter died down the words nearly died in my throat but I managed to push through. Even Abigail let out a laugh or two even though she always hated that joke. She and my Mother thought it was crass and crude.
"Tell your mother that I love her and that I''ll be waiting for her." I heard him say to Abigail as I reached down and picked up the axe that he dropped. I knew he would be needing it soon.
He took the axe from me, the axe I had made for him, the axe that I had hoped would protect him, and looked me in the eye. We just stared like that before he nodded, and I nodded back. His eyes held more in that moment than ever before. He did the same to Abigail.
He looked at us both one last time and started walking towards the wave of beasts that the other group was still fighting. The last thing he said before he walked away was "Live with Honor."
All I could do was watch his back as he got farther and farther away and whisper to myself, "Die with Glory".
He picked up speed as he got closer to the front line and as he passed it, he was almost at a full sprint. He must have had some mana left as I saw him fell the first few beasts with some weapon skills as he waded into the mass of bodies.
He didn''t have much left in the tank, I could tell, because he was moving slower and slower. Most was spent in getting him up and walking, not leaving much left after. His shield blocked less and his axe moved slower. Skills got fired off more infrequently. His Fortitude and Vitality must have been on their last legs.
As I watched my father''s last moments my anger started rising. I just kept getting angrier and angrier and [Barbarians Fury(Un)] almost reactivated on its own after I had canceled it.
Why did this have to happen? Why did I have to stand here and watch my father die? What was the reason behind all of this? What was the point?
My anger reached its peak and I stood there shaking as Dad was too slow to dodge out of the way of a swipe. He couldn''t recover fast enough before another attack came from behind him and knocked him down. I didn''t get to see the rest as the bodies got in the way, but the ending was clear.
It was over.
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought that I could see wisps of smoke coming off of me like in some cartoon and a character got so angry they started smoking, but I was in no mind to think about that right now.
Giant scythes of ice froze around me and launched over the area where he had fallen. The ice reaped the lives of beasts as easily as it would wheat. While I let him die in battle, I wasn''t going to allow his body to be eaten.
The familiar chime of a system notification sounded out but I ignored it as that was the last thing that I wanted to look at right now. I just turned to my sister and hugged her while crying like a baby.
I didn''t care that I was a man of 24 years, when someone''s father died, it didn''t matter how old you were.
Chapter 106 - It Was Me
"Abigail, I''m gonna need you to heal me up," I said. Anger coursed through me like a hot knife through butter. I wanted to fight something, smash something to bits.
The only thing that stopped me was the various wounds I had. The knife still in my back mostly. Abigail, for her part, listlessly worked over my body with her healing before getting to the knife. She pulled it out and layered multiple of her more potent healing skills onto the area.
The whole time she said nothing. Total silence. It was like her mind shut down and wouldn''t come up with words to say. Only working on autopilot as she healed me up.
It didn''t take long and I was good enough to get back into the fight. Healing to 100% would take a while yet but it was enough to go hit something.
And go hit something I did.
It was a sobering trip home. The now uncontrolled beasts met their end swiftly and brutally, probably wishing they were somewhere else away from the walking calamity I turned into.
The hours following my father''s death were a blur. There were so many emotions that I had to work through that it was hard to remember much of what happened.
I can say that it was bloody though. That I knew with certainty.
Even taking it out on the surrounding beasts didn''t do much for the pit of jumbled thoughts I was going through. I was easily aggravated, snappy, and an overall chore to be around.
Austin tried to be there for me, but that wasn''t what I wanted right now. Wasn''t what I needed. Jonathan saw to my sister, comforting her which took a load off of me. I wasn''t sure I would be able to deal with my grief while comforting her at the same time. Abigail even felt bad for me because I didn''t have someone like that.
Her pity only made me more angry.
I took care of the surrounding beasts while everyone else cleaned up the best they could. Spent consumables couldn''t be recovered but the equipment could. From both our camp and the Mindbreaker''s.
Anyone healthy scavenged the battlefield for anything valuable they could find, piling it all up near our makeshift camp.
Kathy sent a message back to have people come up to help with the clean-up who arrived a few hours later.
There was a lot we needed to do and not enough people to do it.
The 27th wave was coming tomorrow and we had to be packed and returned before then. Wounded needed to be carried back along with equipment and supplies.
Most had been used, but there were a few that hadn''t, along with things we could take as loot.
One thing we did take the time for was a funeral. The few hours it took to get there were non-negotiable for us. It was something we had to do.
We moved the bodies back to the hill adjacent to our camp and dug holes. Yes, bodies and holes plural. My father wasn''t the only one who met their end today. Four of us were gone.
Our number dwindled to 17. Barely above half what we started with.
Other than my father, Scott and Diana both met their end. One in a rushed retreat where she fell and couldn''t recover fast enough and the other in a false sense to save his wife. The tutorial hadn''t been kind to Uncle Scott''s family and it mercilessly took all of them. His son, his wife, and him.
The last of the dead was my cousin Christian. When I asked how he died Austin didn''t answer. He was unusually cagey about the subject and that cageyness was going to end now.
I had let it go before because there were still things to do and I was needed elsewhere. Now, on the walk back to camp, I wanted answers.
I wanted to find out what happened after I left. Four people dead was a lot, but that said nothing about the wounded. People were gravely injured with some even missing limbs. The healers still weren''t sure if they would be able to reattach them or grow them back.
There was still too much they didn''t know to start the procedure in the dark.
While walking back to our camp for the funeral, I singled Austin out to get some answers.
"How? How did this happen?" I asked with a bit more force than intended. We had planned meticulously and I was having trouble coming up with reasons for how it turned out so poorly. It shouldn''t have turned out this bad. We had plans to retreat if it did. Not fight to the death. A live to fight another day sort of thing.
"It all went to shit after you left. We were fighting the new arrivals off with the traps and consumables but it all went wrong all of a sudden. Your Dad, Jonathan, and I were holding off the hordes as best we could with help from people behind us.
"One minute, I was stabbing through monsters as quickly as I could, the next, half the fortifications blew up behind me.
"I wasn''t sure how any got through or how it happened. I was too far away at the time to know for sure but I heard yelling as we were falling back to the second line of fortifications and that only made me more confused at the time.
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"Kathy and Abigail were yelling at each other heatedly, basically screaming at each other but I couldn''t take the time to find out why. I was busy fighting. I only found out later what happened and the reason they were screaming at each other.
"Kathy accused Christian of sabotaging the fortifications and Abigail was defending him, saying that it wasn''t something he would do." Austin sighed.
That was... unexpected. Anger flared in me at her accusation. I expected to see the same in Austin, but his face painted a different picture. His lack of emotion confused me further.
"Christian wouldn''t do something like that though." I defended, "Why would he sabotage the fortifications?"
"That''s what I, and the rest of the family, thought. We thought that Kathy was wrong and we ignored her accusation to focus on the fighting. Our retreat didn''t go perfectly since it was unexpected, but it went better than it could have.
"That was, until it happened again." Austin''s resigned tone told me more than words could have.
No, he couldn''t have. Why would he?
"There were witnesses the second time. I saw him do it myself." He confessed.
"But why? Why would he do that?!" I yelled. My mind couldn''t come up with a reason he would do that.
I had known Christian for a long time and nothing I knew about him pointed toward him doing something like this.
Austin just gave me a flat look until I came to the conclusion on my own. We were fighting someone who could manipulate people and that wasn''t the first thing I had considered.
That showed my naivety.
I believed that my family was above that, like there was no way that we would be influenced like that. Like a child who believed their parents could do no wrong.
"When? He was never gone from camp for long, when could it have happened?" Questions streamed out of my mouth as I tried to wrap my head around what I was hearing.
It seemed unreal.
"We don''t know. There''s speculation, obviously, but without him here to tell us, that''s all it will be. It could have been whenever for all we know." I was surprised there wasn''t more anger in his tone. Anger at the fact a member of our family was manipulated like that.
"After the second line fell so soon after the first, panic spread and people scrambled to retreat again. In the chaos, Diana was lost before we made it to the third line. Scott watched it happen and threw himself into the tide of monsters to save her.
"He didn''t last long."
Hearing that Christian caused two deaths because of what he did was a blow. Logically, it wasn''t his actions that caused them to die, but realistically, it was hard to separate him from what he did.
Wait, if he was under the Mindbreaker''s influence, how did he die?
Looking deeper at the man next to me, the lack of normal emotions he would show about something like this, the sadness that teetered on guilt, and all the other signs that I had attributed to grief.
It almost hurt to ask the question.
"How did he die?"
A hurt and guilty expression flashed on Austin''s face before he controlled it back to neutral. All he did was look up with eyes that said I didn''t want to know the answer.
Eyes that somehow pleaded with me to not make him answer.
This was too important. I needed to know how he died and I pressed for an answer.
"How?"
Austin sighed deeply before answering, "It was me."
The words shouldn''t have been a shock, but somehow they still were. Everything I was picking up on pointed to that exact conclusion but I so wanted it to be wrong.
It wasn''t.
Silence accompanied both of us while we walked for a few minutes after that. Neither one of us knew what to say next. My mind was a mess with thoughts and I didn''t know what to do about it.
There were too many things happening at once and it was overwhelming. My father had just died and now I was being told family had to kill family. It was too much to take in.
My immediate reaction was anger. Anger toward Austin for doing something like that but it didn''t last long before another smothered its fire. Jumping to conclusions wouldn''t help anyone and I had to think the whole thing through. Christian was a liability that could have caused more deaths if left to continue sabotaging them.
It could have ended with my whole family dead instead of just Scott and Diana. Neutralizing that threat was the right course of action.
But how did someone do that?
How did one kill family?
The silence worked to feed my jumbled thoughts and they continued singing their song in my head of cousin-cide? Was there even a word for that?
Austin was silent the entire time, letting me process the bombshell he had just ignited. His shoulders were slumped slightly and he looked conflicted in his own right.
I couldn''t fathom the guilt he must be feeling right now. Seeing him like that worked to bring me out of my introspection and focus on what was in front of me. My friend was hurting and I needed to be there for him.
It didn''t matter what he did, it was necessary. I wanted to ask more questions but now wasn''t the time. How was Sam taking this? Her son wasn''t killed in battle but by our own side?
Pushing those thoughts away was hard but I managed to do it. What was needed of me right now wasn''t to be questioning his decision, but to pat him on the back and tell him it was alright.
The last thought I had on the subject was one I wouldn''t get out of my head anytime soon.
Would I have been able to do the same?
I didn''t know if I wanted the answer to that. For some things, ignorance was bliss.
It didn''t take long to reach our camp after that. The remaining family dug holes for the ones who wouldn''t be with us anymore. It was one of the first times I cursed my high strength.
Digging that hole shouldn''t have been that easy. It almost felt wrong for it to be that easy.
Everyone said their piece about the ones not with us and we went on with our lives. Once more forced to walk ahead without letting ourselves properly grieve.
Before Abigail left, I got the full story out of her which confirmed all of what Austin said. The argument, the accusations, and the resulting conclusion.
It wasn''t easier hearing it the second time around.
After everything was over, I helped them travel down south for the second time. The wave tomorrow wasn''t forgotten and they needed to prepare for it. I needed to do the same but I couldn''t bring myself to do it.
A part of me didn''t want to. The fight was thoroughly extinguished in me today. I didn''t get excited at the thought of the battle that was to come.
Neither did we celebrate our victory. For all intents and purposes, we should have traveled back to camp victorious. We won, our enemy defeated and dead with their loot ours to claim.
From an outside perspective, our return was one closer to defeat rather than triumph.
It almost felt wrong to sit in the remnants of camp without everyone. It felt worse to check off a line on my to-do list.
Of the three things I needed to do before evolving, upgrading my Law was completed. It was an unexpected boon during the battle but it was yet another accomplishment washed of its meaning by tragedy.
Now, the only thing left that I could focus on was my Spirit Anchor. I felt... something like what Jonathan described but I wasn''t sure if what I felt was the same.
He said that power welled up from deep inside him and that was exactly what it felt like, but that was also the same spot my bloodline was.
Jonathan didn''t have a bloodline when he formed his Spirit Anchor so he didn''t know the difference between the two.
Yet more turbid thoughts colored my mind for what felt like the hundredth time that day. When the sun finally set, I was glad that the day was finally over.
Notifications pinged at me, wanted to be opened but that wasn''t something I wanted to look at right now. I wanted just a moment of peace and to not look at the proof of what had happened today.
With only the stars for company, I did not sleep peacefully.
Chapter 107 - Notifications
Life marched on, ever forward.
Spending most of the night in fitful bouts of sleep and grogginess was not how I wanted to spend the night, but it was another thing I had to deal with.
The next morning, I finally opened up my notifications to get a look at them.
There were the normal kill notifications for the countless thralls that I killed along with the three bosses. Those were somehow labeled differently and were considered generals of some kind.
I wasn''t sure how the thrall structure worked or their chain of command, but they were higher than the normal minions somehow.
Now that I had a bloodline, the points weren''t as important to me as much. They still were appreciated, just not valued as much as before. Not when it had cost so much to acquire them.
There was really only one purchase left that I had to make that was planned. There would surely be some others that popped up unexpectedly or things I could buy if I thought of it, but the only big one left was the genetic material for my evolution.
Austin went with the wings and feathers of the Golden Sun Eagle for his evolution and I was still considering what I would do for mine.
There weren''t even Frost Giant parts in the store to buy, not even Frostborn parts either. The only thing that was purchasable was Frost-Touched parts and those were lower-tiered than my bloodline already.
It would still work, we were certain of that from the information we bought, but it wouldn''t be as good. It wouldn''t add as much as using the right tiered material.
The flip side was also true. Higher-tiered material also worked and went above and beyond what would normally be possible. It was easier to fail though, which was a huge downside.
Just like with organ transplants, the body could reject the change but that only rarely happened. After assimilating the related bloodline, the body wouldn''t reject genetic material of the same likeness.
The few times it happened were if the material used was too powerful, like jumping ahead a few tiers of the bloodline. Like trying to use Dragon parts when you only had a wyrmling bloodline.
I equated it to an Icarus situation. Reaching for too much and burning in the sun.
The lack of Frost Giant parts was a blow but I had plans to fix that. Every pylon upgrade came with more things that could be purchased. If I ran down south to help Tracy with hers, it would surely go smoothly.
I could fight a wave alone at this point, with the help of all of them and a majorly defended camp, the sky was the limit.
From the notifications, the biggest windfall of points was from the Mindbreaker himself. He was hoarding points and the notification for killing him proved it.
You have slain [Human ¨C Level 65] 489,664 points earned.
We knew that the points received weren''t a 100% transfer, some were lost, and we were only given a portion of the points that were held by the person at the time of death.
His level alone rewarded over 4,000 points. Seeing the over 400k points from the kill made me wonder how much he actually had. He had to have earned a stupid amount of points from his thralls.
Those wonders would remain a mystery. The man was dead and there was no coming back from the exploded brain he now had. His body was left as food for the vultures.
If I weren''t capped in experience, he would have given a huge amount of levels. Other humans gave the most amount of experience per level and he was 15 levels above me.
It almost made me lament my decision to wait on my evolution until logic beat out greed. Logically, waiting to evolve was the best possible choice. It would give me the best options for a new class that would boost my power further.
Rushing ahead just because I could was short-sighted and would actively weaken me in the long run. I could always level later, I only got one shot at an evolution.
All the points I earned through the battle added up to get me over the 1 million mark once again and the wave tomorrow would only add to that. The last wave netted me 700 thousand and this one would only be higher.
After the long list of kill notifications, were the skill upgrades that I had acquired.
The Law was with this one as well and I pulled it up to look it over.
Law Upgraded:
Least Law of Ice -> Lesser Law of Ice
It said exactly what I thought it would. My Least Law was now one step higher. Lesser didn''t sound like a lot but the power difference proved that it was. I wouldn''t have been able to beat the Mindbreaker without the upgraded Law.
Next were the skill upgrades.
You have upgraded a skill:
Ice Fortress(Uncommon) -> Icy Bastion(Rare)
Frostbite(Uncommon) -> Pervading Cold(Rare)
Mental Walls(Common) -> Mental Freeze(Uncommon)
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Those three came during the battle with the Mindbreaker after I upgraded my Law. The new Law was perfect for [Frostbite(Un)] and combined together to upgrade the skill into [Pervading Cold(R)].
Pervading Cold(Rare) ¨C Saturate your blows with piercing ice mana, corrupting and pervading anything hit with a debilitating cold. Adds to the penetrating power of your strikes while leaving a cold damage over time effect.
The skill was what I expected from the way it felt to use. After the upgrade, it was much more powerful and the cold effect it applied was a lot stronger. It took more mana to use, but that was an acceptable trade-off for the increased power of the skill.
[Ice Fortress(Un)] was another that upgraded during the fight. My Law pushed it into the next rarity, making the walls colder and stronger than before.
Icy Bastion(Rare) ¨C Creates a bastion of ice at the designated area. Mana cost affects the size and shape that the bastion takes along with thickness. Maximum area and thickness are determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity.
The text of the skill was similar to the two skills before it. [Ice Wall(C)] and [Ice Fortress(Un)] both had similar text associated with their skills. It was still a good upgrade to have and increased my defensive capabilities tremendously.
The last skill to upgrade during the fight was [Mental Walls(C)]. It shouldn''t have been a surprise that the skill upgraded and it was a nice addition to the other two.
I knew exactly when the other two had upgraded during the fight because the skills felt different to use and had increased effects. They flowed easier and did more for the same cost in mana. It was obvious when I was using them.
[Mental Walls(C)], not so much. It was already hard to tell when the skill was activated because it had no outward effect. It shielded my mind from outside influence which was hard to notice if I wasn''t looking for it.
Upgrading from Common to Uncommon was easier than Uncommon to Rare but it was still a nice addition. If I ever ran into anyone else who used mental attacks, it would come in handy
Mental Freeze(Uncommon) ¨C Using mana and mental power, strengthen your mind and freeze out any unwanted foreign intrusion. Especially effective against subtle influences. Increases mental defense against mental manipulation and most psionic-based abilities.
When I was trying to defend against the mental intrusions of the Mindbreaker, it was hard to use my Law. [Mental Walls(C)] didn''t have an ice element in it that I could use the Law to strengthen which made it hard.
The way around that was to imagine my mind like the Earth of a frozen tundra. Similar to the way [Permafrost(Un)] worked. Strengthening it so that nothing could penetrate the frozen exterior.
It seemed to work as that mental picture influenced the skill''s upgrade. Now it was something that I could easily bolster with my Law without having to go through any mental leaps.
While those three skills upgraded during the fight, there was one more that upgraded afterward. Having come after, the notification was separated from the rest due to the kill notifications between them.
It came later, as I watched the last moments of my father.
Righteous Fury(Rare) ¨C Your body burns with a righteous fury as you dismantle your enemies. Temporarily increase the effect of all stats by 22.5% at the cost of increased stamina consumption. Once the effect wears off, your body enters a state of weakness based on the duration of the boost.
It was bittersweet that it upgraded at a time like that but I would take all the boost I could get. Upgrading to Rare increased the boost of the skill from 15% to 22.5%.
I hadn''t had a chance to test it yet but it seemed to be a boost in strength that was always welcomed.
That was the end of the notifications though. Four skill upgrades, a Law upgrade, and countless kill confirmations.
All told, the fight was a massive boost. If only it didn''t come with the cost it had.
For the wave that was coming in a few hours I wasn''t that pressed. I had to spend some of my newly acquired points to purchase yet another Ice Mana stone but that was worth it. My new profession skill increased the effectiveness of the ward. With all the newly gained strength I just received, the wave would be fine. It was other things that I was planning for.
Now that my class was maxed out, my profession would get some attention that it had been missing. My profession was a great deal behind my class and it didn''t have the achievements for the evolution that my class did. I hadn''t had the time to do much with it with all the fighting. In the last 15 levels I needed to make something impressive to increase my chance of getting a rare profession.
Information on professions was easier to come across and I knew what was required of me to unlock the one I wanted. Upgrading from Runic Blacksmith to Runesmith wasn''t that rare and there were a few books out there that detailed the process and the list of requirements that were needed.
Before that though, was a different thing that would occupy my time. I felt close to forming my Spirit Anchor during the fight and I didn''t want to let that feeling slip away. I could feel that I was close and I would be spending the next few days trying to figure it out.
My status looked a lot better with the new upgrades.
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (F) Human
Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) ¨C Level 50
Profession: (F) Runic Blacksmith(Uncommon) ¨C Level 35
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 398
Agility - 203
Perception - 96
Fortitude - 344
Endurance - 162
Vitality - 135
Intelligence - 67
Wisdom - 150
Acumen - 56
Free Points: 0
Laws: Lesser Law of Ice
Class Skills:
Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman)
Mighty Blow(Rare)
Glacial Presence(Rare)
Frozen Patchwork(Rare)
Frost Armor(Rare)
Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare)
Pervading Cold(Rare)
Icy Bastion(Rare)
Righteous Fury(Rare)
Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)
Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)
Reinforced Body(Uncommon)
Ice Manipulation(Uncommon)
Cold Meditation(Uncommon)
Ice Arrow(Uncommon)
Shatter(Uncommon)
Permafrost(Uncommon)
Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon)
Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon)
Mental Freeze(Uncommon)
Hail(Common)
Sweeping Slash(Common)
Identify(Common)
Profession Skills:
Basic Runecrafting(Uncommon)
Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon)
Warding(Uncommon)
Mana Engraving(Uncommon)
Sense Metal(Common)
Create Weapon(Common)
Create Armor(Common)
Metallurgy(Common)
Forging Proficiency(Novice)
Mana Infusion(Common)
Coins: 0
Points: 1,432,876
Chapter 108 - Im Still Here
With my newly upgraded Law, there wasn''t a lot I had to do before the wave arrived. I could have scrambled around putting last-minute preparations up but I didn''t feel the need.
I was stronger now than ever and the wave wouldn''t be that hard compared to yesterday''s fight. The only one I really had to be wary of was the last wave. This wave, the 27th, would have the first E-Ranked boss but even that wouldn''t be a first for me.
It would be different in that it was an E-Ranked beast this time instead of a human, but I didn''t think it would be that different of an outcome.
This wave would have lesser monsters at level 44 and 45, with the four mini-bosses at level 47, all topped off with a boss at level 50. Only one E-rank didn''t seem that bad.
It was when every monster was in the E-rank that there would be a problem, but I had just over a week to figure out how to deal with that. I hoped to have my Spirit Anchor by then.
Speaking of Spirit Anchors, that was how I spent my time before the wave arrived.
Meditation had never come easily to me and doing it in the cold only made it marginally better. The cold made it easier to relax and get into the right state of mind for the process but upgrading my meditation skill also helped.
It had a more pronounced effect now that it was upgraded which I hadn''t noticed before. I had always used the skill as a self-heal to speed up my recovery but it was so much more than that. It helped keep me in the right state of mind without letting outside things distract me. It did nothing for my chaotic thoughts but I would take every bit of help I could get.
After trading for, and buying, all the information about Spirit Anchors that I could get, it revealed that they were most commonly formed during meditative bursts of insight.
It was one such meditative burst of insight I was trying, and failing, to induce. They typically formed from deep dives of introspection and were caused by insights gained during meditation.
A concept that was completely foreign to me and wasn''t going so well. My bouts of meditation before didn''t go well either but this was something that I would have to get better at.
Meditation was how people broke through into higher-tiered Laws and gained insights into their Spirits and a bunch of other things. It was the basis on which most people built their power base.
Meditation wasn''t a necessary part of the process of enlightenment but it was by far the most common. It was also the safest. Attempting to gain insights during battle was a good way to die young.
A lot of things could go wrong during a battle that could cause your early demise, especially when it was a particularly difficult battle, where most breakthroughs occurred.
The fact that Jonathan got lucky during his wasn''t lost on me. It was something that I desperately wanted for myself yet also was something that I couldn''t rush. Every time I tried to push it, it felt like it edged further from my grasp.
My musings weren''t aimless, but they also weren''t concrete. I was trying to feel out different Anchors that I could possibly use. The options were near endless, though, which made everything harder.
They could be an object, an idea, a phrase, or pretty much anything. Phrases were the most common but that didn''t mean that mine would be one.
I tried using a bunch of things as my Anchor but nothing felt right. Ice, my hammer, the armor I made. Everything that was currently in my possession.
Nothing felt right.
I also didn''t really know what I was looking for and was mostly going with the idea I would know when I felt it. Another thing that I was assuming about this whole process.
The only thing I had to go off of was the only two times I felt anything close to forming one. It happened once after the fight with the Vine Bears and it happened again during the fight with the Mindbreaker.
Neither time was clear enough to gain a better picture of what I was supposed to do. It made me jealous that Jonathan had already formed his. Jealous that he knew who he was while I was left to grasp at straws in the dark.
Frustration was easy when it didn''t feel like I was making progress and it was hard to keep the feeling at bay. Juggling trying to make progress without trying to rush it was a thin line that I was attempting to walk down like a tightrope between skyscrapers.
I was lucky that a chime signaled my stress relief would be arriving soon. If anyone told the monsters that they had been relegated to such a role they would surely spit blood.
Not like any of that mattered in the long run. They wouldn''t live long enough to figure it out.
While the fight was cathartic and a much-needed reprieve from the hours spent fumbling about, it didn''t work to get me any closer to my goal. The only thing it did was cover me in blood that I had to wash off. It certainly raked in the points, but wasn''t the inspiration I was hoping for.
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It seemed this would take longer than I thought.
I was about ready to throw a fit after two days passed. I knew this was supposed to be hard but this was borderline obscene.
After the days of meditation, I had gotten better at feeling it out. My sense of what was the right track versus the wrong one grew the longer I spent contemplating it.
I had narrowed it down somewhat but that was about it. For the Anchor itself, it felt like a phrase was the best bet. No object or concept had the same feeling that a phrase gave off.
Narrowing it down further than that was what had taken so long. There were countless phrases and millions of combinations of words that I could use. While it helped to know the direction to go in, knowing it was a Phrase helped only a little.
Still, I got better. At first, if you don''t succeed, try, try again, or some shit like that.
The information from the store said you could force a Spirit to accept an Anchor, but doing so was a good way to cripple your potential. Phrases or objects that were close enough and gave off a resonance of sorts, could be forced into submission. It resulted in a weaker Spirit Anchor than forming one naturally but some were content with good enough.
The Anchor was the base that all future Spirt powers were built on top of. If the Anchor wasn''t the best it could be, the future powers built atop it wouldn''t be the best they could be either. Permanently weakening myself wasn''t something I was after.
It was building on a faulty foundation and it could lead to catastrophic effects. Still, people who clawed for more power and were stuck at their Rank because they didn''t have an Anchor would gladly force one if given the chance.
The farther away the Anchor was from what it naturally would have been, the weaker it would be and the more it would affect your future. There were even experiments detailing how a god tried to force one on a lower tiered servant just to see if it was possible. It was not. That experiment ended violently and explosively.
To reach higher ranks, more than one path of power was needed and if someone crippled their Spiritual futures with a forced Anchor, they would be forced to rely on the other two and be forever barred from godhood.
It wasn''t clear what the requirements were for godhood but the information said a forced spirit anchor would forever bar you from it.
Forcing it wasn''t my intended goal anyway so I paid that information little heed. I still had time to figure it out without resorting to such lengths, but I did plan on using it as a guiding light.
If it felt like it could be forced, then I was on the right track and I was close.
With it being a phrase, I parsed out things I thought it could be. I knew what Jonathan''s was and I was basing my thoughts on that. His was pretty cool honestly.
''You have to go through me first'' was a dope line to be your Anchor.
If mine turned out to be something stupid I would never tell anyone what it was. Especially Austin.
Trying to feel out different phrases was both annoying and fruitless. It literally could have been anything and I had no idea where to start other than random ideas that came to mind.
I tried using hammer in the phrase, something about my family, even something about Honor even though I knew it wouldn''t work. Honor wasn''t who I was, it was an ideal I wanted to uphold.
Jonathan was a protector, so his phrase was related to that.
Finding out who I was still hadn''t revealed anything noteworthy. I was a warrior, a leader, somewhat. Even trying to use something about my bloodline didn''t work.
I fought like a Frost Giant in theory, but nothing about them felt right. It wasn''t who I was.
To mix it up and spend some time meditating in a new environment to get ideas, something finally hit close to the mark.
I mostly stayed in the camp where it was coldest during my meditations, up on the Crow''s Nest for the best view. It was both relaxing from the cold and scenic from the height.
Not knowing what would spark inspiration, I went where it felt right and that was overlooking the area at the top of the Crow''s Nest.
Still, it got old sitting there for a few days and I had ventured out to a few different spots. I ran over to the mountain for a bit and a few other places.
I even tried meditating on it while fighting a fallen pylon nearby. It wasn''t a dangerous fight and I had tried to use the relatively safe battle to spark something.
Most of my enlightenments had come from battle and that was an idea I tried to pursue.
The place that had brought me closest to the answer was the cemetery on the hill adjacent to the camp we had built. I didn''t visit it much before now because I had been too busy trying to gain strength.
Now that I was spending time outside of combat, I visited a lot more. Also because it was where my father was. He was the one I would usually turn to with something like this.
He always knew the right thing to say to get me on the right track. If he were still here, he would have been able to point me in the right direction.
Trying to talk it out with the headstones was what I had turned to. Obviously, they wouldn''t answer, but it helped to voice my thoughts out loud to hear them verbalized.
It was slightly depressing to do for long periods of time, but it was also a way to grieve.
As I looked over the 13 headstones, a sense of sadness was hard to ignore.
It was hard to not feel defeated looking at them. To feel that I had failed somehow. I knew that it wasn''t my fault and those feelings were baseless, but that didn''t mean they didn''t exist.
It was hard to get the rational side of my mind to get rid of the pesky emotional side''s thoughts.
It was in one of my darker thoughts that something sparked. Playing with different phrases led me down a rabbit hole. Starting with one would lead to another, leading to another, and soon, you were nowhere close to the phrase you started with.
Sitting in front of the people who were no longer here with us, a new phrase came about.
''I''m still here.''
Saying it brought about the feeling I was aiming for. At the core of my being, power reacted to the phrase I had muttered. It wasn''t perfect, and I could have forced it, but I didn''t want to do that.
Saying it over and over wasn''t helpful. I knew it wasn''t the phrase I was going for but it was close to the real one.
Still, I couldn''t get it out of my head. ''I''m still here.''
Was it some twisted sense of survivor''s guilt that made it close or was I focusing on the wrong thing?
The feeling said it was close, but it didn''t specify what about the phrase was close. For all I knew, it could have been the number of words or something else silly like that.
I doubted it, but I also didn''t have enough to go on to say any differently.
It certainly didn''t feel like it was how I viewed myself. It sounded too... defeatist for my tastes. Like someone who had given up.
I knew for a fact that wasn''t who I was.
It was a clue, though, and one I would use. It was coming up on three days of trying to figure it out and it finally felt like I was making progress.
''I''m still here.''
Chapter 109 - Warrior
Day 82.
Before the wave started at noon, I needed to take a break.
I had been at this for more than a few days and my mind was tired. A migraine was on the verge of forming and my stomach was rumbling. Some rest and recuperation were in order as was a nice meal.
My cooking wasn''t the best in the world but living on my own for the last half a dozen years forced me to get better at it. I was no Michelin star chef, but I could get by. Especially for my own taste buds.
I had to buy more cooking utensils since the ones we had were taken down south but that wasn''t a huge deal. They were miniscule in price and I had the points to spare.
Spices, oils, seasonings, the whole nine yards. It all added up to a few hundred points but that was nothing. A single beast gave more than that.
Campfire cooking was an art that I didn''t have a lot of experience with but the ability to throw as much wood as I wanted on the fire while controlling the temperature with my ice was a cheat I used to my advantage.
No matter how much fuel the fire had, it would never get hotter than I let it which was great for keeping a steady temperature.
It wasn''t a standard grill or anything, but it got the job done.
The food was... average. It wasn''t great but it wasn''t bad. I had noticed as I increased in levels and stats normal food didn''t taste the same. It took more of it to fill me up and lacked the flavor it once had.
I wasn''t certain, but I thought it had to do with the level of the meat. If the meat came from a high-level beast, then it tasted better than meat from a lower-level beast.
It probably had something to do with the amount of essence but I wasn''t too concerned with it. That sounded like something a chef or cook would worry about.
I hadn''t prepared any high-level meat but I should have.
During my break, my mind couldn''t help but snap back to my phrase. I caught myself thinking about it even though I was specifically trying not to. It was nagging at my brain and I couldn''t help but wonder about it.
''I''m still here.''
Other variations came about like ''I remain'' or something along the lines of steadfast and enduring.
All of them caused the same feeling to varying degrees. Some had more of a reaction than other''s but they all didn''t feel right.
Even though I wanted to take a break, I wasn''t able to. My mind simply wouldn''t let it go. It was like a popcorn kernel stuck between teeth, you couldn''t help but poke at it.
Even when your tongue and gums got sore, it was impossible to let go.
I barely remembered to buy another mana stone for the Rune to use before the wave. They ran out a few hours after the wave and I had to keep buying more every time which was annoying.
When the ding of the wave arriving sounded out, I was still no closer than before.
It was with a moderate amount of frustration that I gripped my hammer for the wave. If the wood had been any lower in quality, it would have shattered from my clutch.
As the monsters closed in, they had something different about them. They didn''t act the same as usual animals and they had a vulgar feeling emanating from them.
They acted almost like they had rabies or something like that. Completely rabid compared to normal. The monsters already had a higher amount of aggression but these took it even further.
Identify called them [Demonic Leopards].
What I was seeing visually didn''t make me think of leopards. There was none of the feline grace nor the sleek killing form that cats usually had. There was a bulk to them that seemed unnatural.
Their fur was all black with hints of red that made them look even worse. The streaks of red looked like veins of blood which explained the accompanying scent of blood and copper. Like they had bathed in blood before the wave.
It was unpleasant.
I wasn''t certain what affinity the leopards had but if I had to guess it would be blood and demonic or something along those lines.
The fight started as normal but it quickly turned feral. My hammer obliterated them every swing but they fought differently than the normal monsters causing me to change my style as well.
This wasn''t the fighting I was experienced with. Usually, during the waves, the monsters were highly aggressive and always went for the kill. They did everything they could to kill the defenders they were sent against.
While it may result in injury, their main goal was to kill.
These... didn''t. It was like they were okay with throwing away their lives for a small wound. While I was bringing my hammer down on one, another would leap not on my back, but my foot to cause a small wound.
Their claws skittered off my armor most of the time but their repeated attacks carved grooves in the ice over time.
They focused on the same spots which was alarming. Even the new ones that rushed in after the fact stuck to the same spots of attack. It was like all of them were given a template on where to attack.
It was concerning because that template aligned with where my least defended spots were.
Joints that I couldn''t reinforce with armor underneath for mobility, tendons that would cripple if they got through, and flesh wounds compared to fatal ones.
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I got the feeling they were aiming to cripple, not kill.
As their claws dug deeper, I started to worry slightly.
Even though I was killing them at unprecedented speeds, some were still able to land attacks. It was impossible to kill them fast enough to remain unmolested.
I could do it, but it would expend too much energy and mana to be sustainable.
The alarm didn''t stop there either. The beasts started to work together as well. One would go high while another would go low, forcing me to choose which to defend.
None of the previous waves had this level of coordination. It didn''t have the feeling like they were being directed like some of the previous waves, but like they were doing it themselves.
Like they knew they were going to die and teamed up to land at least one attack before they did so.
It was a startling display of lacking self-preservation. Monsters usually didn''t have much self-preservation but these seemed to have even less than normal.
Claws worked through ice and drew blood for the first time during the fight almost an hour into it. I had been fighting the destruction of my armor the best I could but they still managed to get through.
I pushed my Law into the areas they were targeting and tried my best to use [Ice Manipulation(Un)] to keep it intact but I wasn''t able to keep up.
They were relentless.
After blood was drawn, they went into even more of a frenzy. It was like a boost was applied and they all got stronger. Faster.
Another cut appeared on my skin and it happened again.
The pattern repeated a few times and it became harder to fend them off. [Frozen Patchwork(R)] worked through my body to freeze over the bleeding cuts but that didn''t stop new ones from forming.
As one cut froze over, two more were opened up. As the wounds closed, the boost the leopards got also lowered. It was like they got a boost for every open wound that I had.
The new ability was something I wasn''t used to and it was hard to counter while in the middle of the fight. I had to come up with ideas while fighting as best I could.
The fact they were pushing me was both surprising and nice. It showed that even though they weren''t in the E-rank, I could still get pushed by certain beasts.
The last wave didn''t carry with it the difficulty that I had come to like. The Vine Bears were a fight. It was a true battle in every sense of the word.
The ants were as well. They could take some punishment and dish it out themselves. The 27th wave couldn''t. The beasts were some form of dog that wasn''t one I knew and they didn''t hold up very well to either hammer or cold.
It was almost disappointing coming out of that fight mostly intact.
I had just gone through a huge power boost with 4 skills and my Law upgrading but it wasn''t the fight I had come to enjoy.
This, though, this was a fight. It was a different kind of fight but a fight nonetheless. They weren''t the massive bears that could push me around, nor the metal ants that could take a few hammer blows, but they were putting up a resistance.
An annoying resistance, but it was enough to feel the pressure, the thrill of battle. That heat wasn''t just imaginary anymore either.
Previously, I had equated it to battle fever. The feeling I got while in battle was a rush that I couldn''t get anywhere else. I had thought that it was all just in my head but that didn''t turn out to be true.
All of my meditation over the past few days made me more in tune with what I was feeling within my body. I had been monitoring minute changes while trying to suss out my phrase and that carried over well to other feelings.
The battle fever was an actual feeling deep inside me near where the Spirit Anchor resided. Near where the fluctuations I had been keeping a close eye on.
They weren''t the same, but they were related somehow.
With this new information, I went in a different direction with my Anchor. If how I felt while in battle resonated with it, then I would try using it.
I didn''t make a phrase out of it but stuck with the base idea of battle. Of a good fight with a worthy foe.
The idea sparked the same reaction as the phrases I had been playing with did. A churning that was near, but not exactly what I was looking for.
It was another clue in the right direction. I knew that ''I''m still here'' sounded too defeatist to be right and this proved it. If the idea of battle was close, then it was something that touched on both of those aspects.
Phrases still felt better than ideas but I continued trying to find the right idea. If I could narrow down that, it would make figuring out the phrase easier.
While smashing and crumpling the leopards throwing themselves at me, my mind pointed inward. More wounds appeared due to that which only made it harder, but it was the needed pressure that I wanted.
The fight with the pylon had been too easy to use for inspiration and this wave was making up for that.
Every dead body that littered the area, every body that I stood over to continue the fight helped narrow it further. I felt it building up inside me. It was asking to be realized, to finally be let free.
It wanted to be formed just as much as I wanted it to.
What Jonathan described as a feeling growing from his core was exactly what I was feeling now. The power carried with it a question. It was asking who I was.
For the longest time, that very question had stumped me. I had been looking in the wrong spot to come up with the answer.
I was a leader, yes, but that wasn''t who I was. It was a temporary title that I had and I didn''t even think I was that good of a leader yet.
Survivor and fighter were both wrong answers as well. While I was both, it wasn''t what the power was looking for.
There were other answers to that question that I had come up with but they felt so... futile now. Now that I was being asked, those felt lesser somehow. My mind tried to paint me in a different light and that light was falling away now. There were none of the noble or righteous things I colored my vision of myself with. Only the bare truth was left and I could see that clearly now.
I was in the midst of battle with hundreds of enemies who wanted me dead. Who threw their lives away to leave but a scratch on my form. I stood alone against hundreds and reveled in it.
It didn''t matter if I was anything else. It didn''t matter what other word I came up with to describe who I was. There was only one that mattered right now. Only one encompassed all that I needed it to.
Warrior
I was a warrior.
In every sense of the word. My idea of a warrior probably didn''t match everyone''s but that wasn''t what mattered. It was asking how I saw myself and that was entirely subjective.
A warrior of old. Of the ones in stories. The idealistic version that was probably never really what a warrior was.
None of that mattered. It was the answer that it was looking for. Now that who I was had an answer, the power moved on to needing something else.
It needed the phrase that it would anchor itself to.
''I''m still here'' could have worked, but I knew what was wrong with it now. The idea of battle could have also worked but it was wrong for similar reasons. Battle wasn''t what anchored me. It wasn''t the idea that I resonated with.
Neither was the fact I was still here while others weren''t. It took me most of the fight to realize it, but it was obvious now that I had.
In a fight, there would only be one winner. There would be the victor, and the defeated. One would live on, while the other died.
One would be forgotten, and one would be left standing.
It was so similar to ''I''m still here'' that I was surprised I hadn''t thought of it. It was so close that it should have been easy.
My hammer had reaped lives and cut journeys short. Their strength of arms failing to be enough to bring me low. It didn''t matter how else the fight went, or how injured or wounded I ended up. If I was still upright at the end, I won.
There was only a slight change that was needed. A small tweak to make it right. It wasn''t the fact that I was still here, it was the fact I waded over the bodies of the fallen and stood over their corpses.
My power exploded and I felt my hammer light up with energy. It misted anything that it hit with an ease I hadn''t felt in a long while. The leopards'' bodies couldn''t hold up anymore.
My spirit flowed around me, into my armor, my hammer, my ice, everything I used to conduct the battle. Everything I needed it to. They carried with them a piece of me which empowered them like nothing else had.
Where chunks of ice used to break, they held firm. Where my armor used to fail and crack, it weathered anything thrown at it.
My phrase was anchored and formed and it would not fail me. It was who I was.
I''m Still Standing.
Chapter 110 - Full Aggression
Manipulating my Spirit was almost intuitive. It flowed where I willed it and responded similarly to [Ice Manipulation(Un)].
I could feel it flow through my hammer, strengthening it to an unprecedented degree. It had a reliable feel to it that made me trust it with my full strength. Even with [Avalanche(R)] at full blast, [Fury(R)], [Glacial Presence(R)], and my bloodline all boosting my stats, it felt like my hammer wouldn''t break.
It was a much-needed addition. After my Law upgraded, I didn''t have to be ginger with the weapon, but I still didn''t trust it at full blast. My strength was monstrous and it would only go up and now it felt like my hammer could handle it and then some.
Having another thing to strengthen my hammer was nice. Instead of having to chase higher tiers of Ice Laws to keep up, my Anchor was enough.
It did make me slightly sad that it wouldn''t break. I was almost planning on it to happen eventually and already had plans on what to make next.
Different designs and tweaks from what I had already made. The ice was still malleable to a point, but it wouldn''t take huge changes without having to redo it entirely.
After my Law upgraded, remaking my hammer wasn''t necessary. All I had to do was saturate it in the higher-tiered Law for a few hours to strengthen the weapon.
As I grew more experienced with Runes and the like, I wanted to try and incorporate it into the structure of the weapon. Having the control over ice that I did, it gave me almost limitless possibilities with Rune incorporation.
I could forge Runes into the crystalline structure itself instead of having to carve them after the fact like with metal. If I could size them right and combine them, a durability rune on the hammerhead and a piercing Rune on the spike would greatly increase the deadliness of the weapon.
Other Runes and ideas bounced around in my head but those two were the main ones. The only reason I hadn''t done so yet was I didn''t know where to start.
Now that I had my Anchor, that was the next thing I was going to spend my time on.
The demonic Leopards'' attacks went from drawing blood, to not even coming close. The ice remained unmarred from their claws after my spirit strengthened washed through it.
It took away the consequences of using full aggression and all offense.
The death toll skyrocketed after that.
My hammer whizzed around at speeds that were a blur to base human eyes, deforming everything it hit.
More than three bodies were flattened with every swing since they were packed in so tight trying to maul me.
I didn''t even have to use the environment or a whirlwind of ice anymore to help with killing them. My hammer was enough and my armor kept everything at bay.
Dropping the attention I kept on [Ice Manipulation(Un)] let me focus fully on the grand melee and it. was. marvelous.
"HAHAHA!" Laughter boomed out of me. Almost jolly even.
The pressure from the battle was entirely gone now that I got a boost in power, but that didn''t mean I wasn''t having fun of a different kind.
Pure destruction had an enjoyment of its own, especially after everything that had happened. The ability to utterly ignore attacks while maintaining wide sweeps with my hammer.
Even after the lesser monsters ended and the mini-bosses charged in, I didn''t change my tactic. Using magic was overkill by this point, I wanted to see how far I could push my physical abilities.
The lesser monsters didn''t even require me to use [Mighty Blow(R)] or the upgraded Frostbite, [Pervading Cold(R)]. They simply couldn''t handle the force I was swinging my hammer with. Dying to mundane mass times acceleration.
The mini-bosses were sturdier, not yet E-rank, but bulkier and stronger than their lesser counterparts.
They looked like they could handle a swing or two without my skills.
I wanted to see if I could kill them with one.
Loading both skills onto my hammer came easier than ever, my spirit empowering it and facilitating the mana flow better than before.
Charging up [Mighty Blow(R)] as much as it could go, I brought the weapon down on the leading leopard boss.
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[Pervading Cold(R)] didn''t even get a chance to apply the damage was so great. The head of the beast just disappeared. Spraying chunks of skull and brain matter on the ground below it.
Any other beast that would have watched a member of its kind get killed in such an overwhelming fashion would have fled as fast as it could with its tail between its legs.
It was a good thing that these weren''t normal beasts. It would have been a pain to chase them.
The others held up just as well as the first had. Which was not at all.
In no time flat, the four enlarged bodies joined with the countless smaller ones sans their heads. Something unfortunate had happened to those.
The boss tried to growl and roar its challenge but it lacked the threat to make it a real challenge. It didn''t have the gravitas that the Vine Bear had and was almost worth pitying if the creature wasn''t so ugly.
Its unpleasantness was greater than just its looks, the tang of blood that wafted off of it was stronger than all the rest and it had an even stronger unnatural feeling.
It only made me want to kill it faster. The boss was an E-ranked beast at level 52 and it had a huge bump in strength crossing the rank gap, but it had nothing else going for it.
It didn''t have a Lesser Law, only a Least, it didn''t have a Spirit Anchor, and the only thing it had was a durable body and high stats.
A durable body and high stats that I could almost match. From my boosts and bloodline, I had a higher strength than it but its other stats still dwarfed mine.
Strength and fortitude were the only two that I would say I had the advantage.
That was fine. It wouldn''t change the outcome.
Instead of trying to brain it with my hammer, I tried something else. My spirit could do a lot for me during battle and I wanted to experiment to test the limits.
I already proved it could strengthen my hammer, making it stronger and faster than before. It greatly increased the durability of [Frost Armor(R)] and the chunks of ice I used as weapons.
Now I wanted to see the extent of what it could do.
Ice fell off me in pieces as [Frost Armor(R)] fell away. This next test was what it would do to my body. I knew what it could do to my ice, and from Jonathan, I knew what it would do to equipment.
It was somewhat risky to try, but I felt confident.
My spirit flowed through me just like it had with everything else, I could feel the potential that it carried with it in every part of my body. It wasn''t a stat boost per se, but an improvement of a different kind. Like the base material could handle more and take more punishment.
Strength without enough fortitude would result in muscle tears and bone fractures if a person wasn''t careful. The body had more strength than it could handle.
I didn''t have that problem but it felt like this would alleviate it if I did. Like it hardened my body past what it was supposed to go. Not quite a boost in strength, but durability.
I was uncertain if all Spirit Anchors were like this or if it was specific to just the ones I knew. Jonathan''s was all about defending and he could use it on his body, shields, and his earth.
Mine was similar, I could use it on my body, weapon, and ice.
I''m Still Standing implied the sustainability to do so. To weather a battle and come out the other side a person needed to be durable. If I went with a different phrase could I have increased my strength?
Even with all the information we had, there was still a lot we needed to figure out.
The boost was big, but it wasn''t enough to stop the boss''s claws outright. They sliced into me through the spirit empowerment.
I had to be careful not to let it cause any lasting damage. Losing a limb because of carelessness wasn''t what I had in mind which made me switch my tactic quickly after it proved ineffective.
The next thing I tried was using [Reinforced Body(Un)] as well as what I did before. The skill felt more powerful than before and it had an increased effect to go along with it.
It still wasn''t enough to negate the damage from the claws though. The uncommon skill with my spirit alone wasn''t enough.
With those tests satisfied, I moved on to the last one I wanted to do. It was something I had done in the heat of the moment before and I wanted to explore more of what I could do with it.
During the fight with the Blaze Lion, I grabbed hold of it and channeled [Frostbite(Un)] into it through sustained touch. It wasn''t how the skill was intended to be used, but [Pervading Cold(R)] changed that.
It wasn''t as strict on usage as [Frostbite(Un)] was and I wanted to test out what it could do.
Grabbing hold of the boss was easy, all I had to do was let it hit me and jump on it after it closed in. Turning [Frost Armor(R)] back on gave me the leeway to be a bit reckless like this.
Keeping hold of the beast was another matter. It did not like that I was latched on to it. It went into a frenzy trying to get me off, bucking wild and frantically.
I used ice to anchor myself to it and help keep hold of it. After securing myself, I activated the skill.
Without the restriction of being used on a weapon, Ice Mana flowed into the boss from where I held on. I leveraged [Ice Manipulation(Un)] and my Law the best I could trying to freeze the beast through.
It fought me, a sanguine red mana fought against my intruding ice but it couldn''t put up a fight. The fire from the Blaze Lion was harder to vanquish than the bloody mana this thing used.
I wasn''t sure what kind of mutation the beast had that led to its affinity being like this, but it wasn''t just blood anymore. It carried something else with it.
Whatever the mutation was, it didn''t affect the outcome. The base of its power was blood.
And blood could freeze.
It was a losing battle from the start. All of the mana I had saved from not using skills or magic came in handy now because I didn''t think I would have been able to kill it with any less.
While the beast couldn''t fight off the [Pervading Cold(R)] as well as the Blaze Lion, it was harder to freeze. It was harder to corrupt and took more mana due to its rank.
Taking more mana didn''t mean I wasn''t able to, it just took longer.
I poured mana into the skill and watched as it pervaded the beast. Reaching deeper and deeper in.
The bucking gradually slowed until it stilled completely. It couldn''t move anymore, frozen still.
It took all of my mana and left me deeply exhausted, but I did it. The body of the frosty Leopard remained upright was was in pristine condition. Only with a bit of ice and frost covering its form.
After 28 waves and 82 days, I now had a Spirit Anchor. Multiple days of meditation finally paid off.
Chapter 111 - Thoughts
The destruction that surrounded me after the wave was over astounded me. Not in the amount of it, but the ease with which it had been accomplished.
The imagery of bodies and blood strewn everywhere inside the walls was not new to me but this was the first time that it felt so effortless.
Usually at the end of battles, my body was tired from exertion and my breathing was hitched. My mana was empty and there was a certain toll on my body the wave extracted.
This didn''t feel like that. Sure, I had some superficial wounds and some of my blood was spilled, but the level of destruction didn''t match the effort I felt I put in.
The boost from my Spirit Anchor was clearly visible to see.
With it now formed, there was only one thing left on the to-do list before I got to evolve.
Reach Body of Wood.
After the wave, there wasn''t a lot to do. Working on autopilot was enough to clean up the bodies at this point from doing it so many times and gave my mind a chance to think about other things.
The 28th wave was over, leaving only 2 left.
Just over a week remained of the tutorial we had been teleported to. In a week and two days, we would be put back on a changed Earth. It was both exciting and worrying.
We knew somewhat about the conditions we would be returning to and that was cause for alarm. Saying nothing of the people, the environment alone would be actively trying to kill us.
The plants that inhabited the planet changed dramatically during the terraforming, or so we were told, evolving and mutating far beyond what they once were. The animals too.
I wasn''t as concerned about initial survival as I was sustained survival.
From the information of previous integrations and data on past planets being terraformed, enlightened races came out of the tutorial with a similar level to the beasts who were left behind.
Now that was on average and said nothing of the statistical outliers that were bound to pop up.
Beasts who did well in their game of King of the Hill would reach greater heights than those who didn''t perform as well. The same was true for people in the tutorial.
Depending on the tutorial, people could return from anywhere from early F-rank all the way to well into E-rank. There was a lot of variation depending on how and what the participant did during the tutorial.
Take our tutorial for example. Austin was the highest leveled person I knew and he was a handful of levels into E-rank while some of the fighters in Tracy''s camp were only in the mid 30s and low 40s.
The gulf in levels would only get wider the more time elapsed. People''s ambition and drive for power would delineate the populous in terms of levels.
So when we were dumped back on Earth, the monsters would be about the same level as the ones we were fighting during the waves. Which was not that threatening to me by this point.
It was their continued growth that was worrying.
Carving out a place to live was going to be difficult. Taming the new environment and founding a place for civilization weren''t going to be easy tasks.
The more I learned about what the planet was being turned into the more daunting the task of founding a city seemed.
But that was a problem for future Chris, present Chris still needed to figure out what to do with his new free time.
To reach Body of Wood there was no need to spend days in pesky meditation or introspection. All that was required was the painful and merciless destruction of the body on a cellular level.
It sounded so relaxing it reminded me of a spa.
In all seriousness, there were things that I needed to finalize on how I was going to do this. There were benefits and drawbacks from doing it in certain ways and I needed to read up on everything I could.
During these last few weeks my mind has only prioritized what came next. If going through Body Refinement wasn''t immediately pressing, my mind dismissed it to focus on later.
There were too many things to juggle if I tried to focus on everything all at once.
My juggling act had decreased significantly the past week, opening up some room to focus on new things.
There was no looming threat of the Mindbreaker to worry about, no Spirit Anchor to form, and no Law to upgrade.
All the more labor-intensive tasks had been dealt with leaving only the excruciatingly painful one that somehow managed to end up last on my to-do list.
With the bodies cleaned up and thrown out of the camp, my trip down south began.
Abigail and Austin would remain at Tracy''s camp without needing to rush up here after I gave the ever-present birds the okay signal. There was no need for them to travel so far when I was fine.
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My luggage was bare bones. Only the armor I wore and my hammer would be coming with me. I usually harvested something from the boss of the wave to be used to fashion into gear but I didn''t this time.
The demonic feeling they gave off was something I wanted nowhere near me like with previous bosses.
Sam and Ashley managed to turn the Vine Bear Boss into a wonderful set of pauldrons that now rested on my shoulders. Its skull and upper jaw decorating my left shoulder with one of its paws on my right.
They managed to strip the fur of its nature affinity and greatly strengthen the hide with their skills.
While using a creature that already had an ice affinity as the base would have been better, none of those running around were as strong as the boss.
While their levels may be similar, they were significantly different in terms of strength. The Vine Bear hide was still the best in terms of durability for me to use even without an ice affinity.
It only took a small nudge with [Ice Manipulation(Un)] to get [Frost Armor(R)] to freeze over the hide. Even less of a nudge after [Ice Manipulation(Un)] upgraded to uncommon.
It added to the overall bulkiness of my armor but the extra defense was worth it. [Heavy Armor Proficiency] diminished the worst of the problems. When that skill reached Journeyman it would get even better.
Speaking of armor, that was another thing I needed to add to my list. While preparing for Body Refining, my profession would become my sole focus for a time.
It now sat 15 levels behind my class and I aimed to fix that. I wasn''t sure if there was a benefit to evolving both at the same time but the gap bugged me.
I would find out soon anyway.
The way the store worked was aggravating to no end but it was a wealth of knowledge when it wanted to be. The only thing you had to do was figure it out on your own first.
Austin didn''t care much to evolve both his class and profession at the same time which was why he already went through with it. Jonathan on the other hand, wanted to find out.
After merging with Tracy, the information we had available to us exploded in variety. We had spent a lot of points for information on Laws, humanity''s racial trait, what the planet would be like, and others like it.
Tracy focused more on profession techniques and skills while only having shallow information on everything else. She still had missives on Law enlightenment and Body Refinement but that wasn''t the focus of her spending.
She needed to know how best to utilize her workforce to produce the best armor and gear they could or whatever other professions the people inside her camp held. She needed everybody to do the most they could to increase the camp''s ability to defend the waves.
They also needed skills to use to help during the waves rather than waiting to get skills from their class.
The areas we focused on were different and sharing what we knew allowed us to find out far more.
Also, the increased number of people to add their thoughts to the conversation led to some interesting theory crafting. Not all of it led to something productive but some things were worth testing.
One of those things was whether a ''perfect evolution'' existed.
I wasn''t sure who came up with the idea but they said it may be possible to get a bonus if you evolved both at the same time. It didn''t make sense to me why, Professions and Classes were separate, why would there be a bonus for evolving them together?
It was easy enough to test though. Jonathan was the closest to doing so and was willing to wait for the opportunity. His profession was maxed out already and he was only waiting on a few more levels from his class. If we hadn''t merged with Tracy he would have been capped at level 50 already.
The fight with the Mindbreaker was his only major source of experience after moving down south. There wasn''t a need for him to stand front and center in front of the walls anymore which resulted in fewer levels from the waves.
He would get there soon though and we would confirm if the idea was true or not. If it was, there was one more thing to add to the list below making new armor.
After evolving [Heavy Armor Proficiency] to the Apprentice tier, or Uncommon in terms of other skills, my armor needed an upgrade.
With its upgrading, it gave me the ability to increase the armor''s proportions without suffering the drawback that said proportions usually entailed. The skill worked to ease the burden and cumbersome nature of the armor to a greater degree letting me pack more of it on.
There were two ways the skill could be used in my eyes.
One of the ways was to wear what would commonly be considered heavy armor but with the boosts from the proficiency skill the body would still be able to move like it were medium or light armor.
That way, warriors who focused more on mobility and agility would be able to keep the tanky-ness of heavy armor without dealing with its usual cumbersomeness.
The armor would stay the same in terms of heaviness and protection and the boost to mobility would only increase as the skill increased in rarity.
That was not how I used the skill.
The other way was to keep the boost the same while constantly increasing the heaviness and protection of the armor.
So from beginner to Expert, my mobility in the armor would stay the same, but the armor itself would change. Becoming thicker and heavier to take advantage of the decrease in burden.
I was already accustomed to the weight of heavy armor and I didn''t rely on my agility during battle. It was my strength and fortitude that I relied on and wearing ever-increasing armor was a greater boon than being able to move more fluidly.
My strength was enough to power through the restrictiveness of the armor. I wouldn''t be doing any dance recitals or acrobatics, but I could probably shrug off a cannon ball at this point.
While having to always upgrade and buy new armor sounded annoying, that was where being able to make it came in. I wouldn''t have to worry about the costs and effort to find a blacksmith able to do it if I relied on myself.
Vinny could no doubt make it but this was something I wanted to do myself. Also, he was focused on other things. With the increase of people buying their wares, profession experts were in high demand at Tracy''s camps.
No one had the points to buy better gear from the store and had to rely on blacksmiths and leatherworkers for their weapons and armor.
Additionally, no one had the points to pay for said service but that was where good old human ingenuity came into play. We went back to the beginning of commerce and the bartering system came back.
For profession-focused people to increase in strength, they needed to make things aligning with their profession. To make things, they needed resources.
They didn''t have the class levels or skills to go out and acquire said resources and relied on others to do that. Hunters and warriors would go get the skins, bones, plants, etc required and trade that to crafters for the finished product.
That way, warriors could get gear without spending points and crafters could level up without having to buy or get the resources themselves.
Some things still needed to be bought since they weren''t readily available in the surroundings but that was up to Tracy''s discretion.
She would only spend the points if she believed it was worth it.
Jonathan and my family had been making a killing exploiting that. They had the points to spend while others didn''t. They were able to buy things that weren''t available for points and turn them into mountains of resources that were available.
Like hides, fangs, claws, plants, wood, and such.
Uncle Brayden and Scott had all the best building materials for whatever they wanted to build. Well, Brayden did.
Scott wouldn''t be making much of anything anymore.
Chapter 112 - Boreas
It was nice to spend some time with my family again. There wasn''t anything I had to run around for and cram in training for anymore. There wasn''t a looming threat that needed to be dealt with.
All that was left was the monsters in the waves and I was used to those by now.
It was also nice to give my hammer a rest. Well, give my Warhammer a rest, my blacksmithing hammer was just getting started. That hammer had been singing loud and clear for the past few hours for the first time in a while.
Vinny was across from me in the forge doing the same as me, pounding on a weapon of his own. Adding his hammer clang to mine.
To get back in the swing of things, I went back to traditional forging without any of the additions I had made to the process. A way to ease myself back into it without jumping into the deep end.
After some warm-up, my [Forging Style] came out to play and I was able to really get back into the mindset. I had already managed to snag a level already. It was nice to see the numbers go up after stagnating for so long.
It was relaxing to turn towards creation rather than the destruction that I had been forced into. Forced was a strong word but it was nice nonetheless.
Fighting was fun and all and got my blood pumping, but too much of anything wore on the soul. Especially something as bloody as what I had been doing. My foes being bloodthirsty monsters took the edge off of the carnage but it was still carnage.
While in the middle of shaping the metal into a sword, Abigail waltzed into the forge and walked up to me. Taking the time to finish with the piece while splitting my attention, I looked up curiously.
"We are still working on reducing the time needed but we already managed to halve the required time from a week to half that, but it still isn''t enough to complete the procedure before the wave." She said.
"Is there no way to reduce it further?" I asked.
"Not that we know of. There''s a degree of control that we need to keep over the process to make sure it is successful and going any faster could lead to... unfortunate outcomes."
Hearing that gave me a smidge of hope. The look on Abigail''s face signified she knew what I was thinking of and disapproved.
"Theoretically," I started, "If we were to speed up the process significantly, what is the worst that could happen?"
"Death." She said curtly.
"What kind of death? A do not pass go kind or a more I''ll just feel like death?" My attempt at a joke did not go over well. Her face got even colder.
"I mean death death. Like I''ll have to bury another person I love kind of death." Her eyes bored into mine for a moment, "The level of bodily destruction isn''t a joking matter, Chris, this is serious. It''s not something we can rush."
"Yes, but, there were examples that we read that didn''t take that long. There was one that only lasted a day. Why can''t we do something like that?" I asked.
After getting back, I spent a ludicrous amount of points on all the information I could on Body Refinement. Honestly, I spent way more points than I should have but it wasn''t like I needed them for something else.
I had well over a million of the things and buying as many missives as I did barely dented my total.
All kinds of things were available for purchase. Personal accounts of what it felt like, studies on what each process did to the body. Different ways to influence the results. Ways to mitigate the chance of death.
All kinds of things had been studied on the concept and the most important was the list of elements used.
Poison wasn''t the only thing that could refine a Body of Wood, any element could be used. Fire, lightning, earth, metal. There were techniques available for almost every known element.
It was a lot of reading material to get through but I did my best. Some of the authors took an almost clinical approach to the subject which made reading the information dryer than some of my engineering textbooks from college.
It was all helpful, though, and information that I needed to get through. Picking the technique I was going to use was important to how it would affect me.
Mitchell was a bit miffed that he didn''t get a chance to pick an element and was stuck with Poison after finding out there was such a wide variety. Gaining a Body of Wood through poison made one immune to most mundane poisons, greatly increasing your natural resistance to them.
If one continued using poison for every subsequent body refinement, the body would eventually become resistant to even the most potent of them. Becoming basically immune to most, if not all, poisons and venoms in the multiverse.
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While each gave different benefits, they also came with a drawback. It increased your affinity for the element.
While that may sound like a good thing, one had to consider that raising an affinity was more than just increasing your proficiency with the element. It was deeper than that and affected you on a baser level.
It bled into your spirit and would influence the skills and classes offered. It wouldn''t affect personality or anything like that, unless you chose demonic or something similar, but it wasn''t always a good thing.
It made it harder to increase the affinity of the opposing element. Increasing a fire affinity would make increasing an ice affinity in the future far harder.
There were pros and cons to each element and it took me a while to come to the decision of which I wanted to use.
I threw fire out almost instantly. One, I didn''t really need a resistance to fire. Ice was the natural opposite and my powers were already suited to making flames harder to use.
Two, I didn''t really want a fire affinity. It would clash with everything I had built so far. I had an Ice affinity already and most of my skills were Ice related along with my Bloodline.
Fire would be both unnecessary and somewhat harmful to use.
Poison, venom, and acid were also thrown out. I didn''t want to use those for similar reasons. I didn''t feel like I needed the resistance to them I would gain and similarly didn''t want to increase my affinity with them.
They didn''t carry the harmful effects that fire would but it was a waste to use the chance to boost an affinity for something I wouldn''t use.
Now, dismissing the resistance to the poisons wasn''t done without thought. They gave a much needed resistance but I felt there were ways to achieve the same with the powers I already had.
Poison and venom worked by spreading around the body through the bloodstream, it would become difficult to do that if it was frozen.
I wasn''t sure if that was a possibility I would be able to do in the future but at the very least I should be able to freeze the invading poison making it not as effective.
Maybe an upgrade to [Frozen Patchwork(R)] would make it so it froze any harmful effects that were trying to influence my body or something.
The details still eluded me but the fact that it was possible without relying on using Poison for Body Refining made me dismiss them as options.
Other possibilities got the axe for one reason or another until I only had a few left to choose from. One that people were surprised I didn''t jump at the chance for was Ice.
Ice didn''t even make the final list.
I felt that my affinity with the element was already strong and it would be more beneficial to pick something else. I likewise didn''t need the resistance that it would instill.
I was already resistant to it. It was my own damn element. It would be embarrassing if I could get damaged by my own power.
What I focused on were things that would complement the strength I already had. Something that would mesh well with my already established ice.
There were few real options and one I briefly considered was lightning. Thundersnow was a thing that existed before and if I managed to get some movement skills utilizing lightning, my speed would skyrocket.
As much fun as shooting lightning bolts would be, there was only one element that was the clear choice.
It was something I had already been trying to add to my repertoire.
Ice wasn''t the sole element that made the Arctic so desolate. It wasn''t alone when Winter transformed the area into its harsh environment. While it was the main element, it wasn''t the sole element.
I could replicate the effects slightly with the skills I already had but there was one big thing I was missing. My skills didn''t have the... impact that nature did.
Sure, I could bring the temperature to below zero and turn the area into a winter wonderland but there was still something missing to make it complete.
A certain... je ne sais quoi.
Ice wasn''t what heralded the start of Winter, that was left to something else.
The Northern Winds.
Wind was the natural choice. Wind would boost my powers better than anything else and it would be the best for me right now.
Already I tried to incorporate wind into my skill set. It was something I wanted to use to upgrade [Hail(C)]. Maybe add a devastating wind chill to the area while I fought. Ideas were easy to come by for what I could do with Wind.
I hadn''t given it a lot of time, but I had attempted to try and gain a Wind Law. None of what I tried had born fruit but that didn''t mean I didn''t attempt it. The increase in Wind Affinity would make gaining a Wind Law a lot easier.
With my method chosen, constructing what I was going to use was the next step.
Body Refining using Wind needed hurricane-style winds to shred the body over and over again. Grinding it down with gale-force winds. I needed an environment that would create a localized typhoon with whipping winds constantly and the only way to do that was to make it.
There wasn''t a place that I knew with natural winds like that so I turned to artificial means. The Runes were expensive to buy and it would take a long time to build but it was possible.
I had already started planning it.
There were a few hiccups in the plan but those weren''t hard to overcome. The healers needed to be close enough to use their skills while staying out of the area of effect. The Runes needed to stay running for an indefinite amount of time until the process was over.
Other small things came up but it wasn''t anything Vinny and I couldn''t come up with a solution for. Trying to do it all on my own would take longer than I wanted and Vinny was happy to help.
Runes weren''t his expertise but he could help construct the room. Brayden likewise had a hand in the planning.
Something this complicated wasn''t something I could make on my own right now and had to fall back on buying some of the pieces from the store.
Certain formations were too complicated and were easier to buy than spending time trying to figure out how to make them.
One of the last things that needed to be finalized was how long it was going to take.
Mitchell''s procedure ended up taking just under a week to complete and that wasn''t something I could do. The longest I could go was 3 days. Something right after the 29th wave but done in time for the final one.
Abigail worked with all of the other healers trying to come up with a safe method to decrease the duration but they hadn''t managed to shorten it to under 3 days yet.
Well, they could but not with the level of safety they wanted.
Shortening the time increased the strain on the body and the chance of death. It turned what could be a 90-95% survival rate into something more like 40-50% and sometimes lower than that depending on how fast the process was.
The faster the refinement, the higher the chance of death, generally.
They had two days to figure it out. I would be going through with it with or without their approval.
It wasn''t that I didn''t care about the survival rate but I wanted to evolve before returning to Earth and that was the last thing standing in my way.
Chapter 113 - Formations
With my plan to finish the last task on my to-do list finalized, the only thing I had to do was make the apparatus.
And by make, I meant learn how to make. Which involved learning Formations from the ground up.
"Uncle Topher, why are you getting mad at books?" Anna''s high-pitched voice sounded out from behind me.
"I''m not getting mad at books, Anna," the grinding of teeth and my forced tone betrayed that sentiment.
"It looks like you are," she oh so helpfully corrected.
To make the room that would help Refine my Body, I first needed to learn more about enchanting. I knew the basics and that was bare bones at best. My idea of enchanting was carving a single Rune on a thing and calling it done.
It was amateur and dreadfully uninspired. During my study, it said that was one of the first ways of enchantment discovered while also being the most basic.
Being told that I spent days learning to carve Runes and put them on equipment was the most basic hadn''t been an ego booster.
With some free time, or time not spent fighting, I was working to fix my deficit of knowledge with as many books as I could buy. Which was a lot.
I had a veritable library surrounding me with piles of books stacked in my lodge. Even though I wasn''t living with them, Austin was kind enough to give me his to use for the moment.
While I told Anna I wasn''t mad at books, that wasn''t entirely true. While I wasn''t mad at the books themselves, I was certainly mad at the authors of said books.
Reading them made me feel like they all got together to hold a competition for who could be the most convoluted and confusing while still getting the information across.
It was a nightmare.
The only reason I hadn''t given up in frustration was because I was actually learning things. Albeit slowly.
"What is it you need, sweetie?" I asked trying to keep my frustration out of my tone and prove her right.
"Uncle Brayden wanted me to tell you that it should work but he''s still testing materials." She said while staring up at the ceiling making sure she remembered it right.
"Thank you, tell him I should be able to give him an answer soon," I said back.
She didn''t stick around after that and ran off elsewhere. Presumably to deliver my answer but probably stopping somewhere else along the way.
Brayden was in charge of most of the construction along with Vinny, while I was in charge of the Runes. They needed to build something strong enough to contain the force of the winds while also keeping it enchantable.
Some materials weren''t able to hold enchantments very well while others just made doing so harder.
Brayden had been hounding me trying to figure out how forceful the winds were going to be. Needing to know the details of what was required.
We had estimates from Body Refinement Techniques we bought but nothing definitive as of yet. Which was what I was trying to figure out.
Our first attempt at Body Refining was to pump someone full of poison while layering multiple healing spells over them to help with the process. The poison would break down the body while their vitality would work to put it back together.
The healing spells helped keep the body from dying.
With the wealth of books I bought, we learned there were actual techniques people had written to make the process more uniform. Not quite a step-by-step process, but less free-form.
Body Refining techniques were something a person could use to guide the process along, both speeding it up and changing the desired effect on the outcome.
By free-form, I referred to what we did, just pumping someone full of poison and hoping for the best.
Techniques would have the person try and direct the poison around the body in a certain order while also staying conscious. If the person fell unconscious then they weren''t able to direct the process anymore diminishing the effect.
Different techniques had different outcomes. Some were better than others but that was mostly subjective. Taking Poison Body Refinement techniques, for example, they varied in the order, intensity and nature of the poison, and method of application.
Intravenous injection, absorbed through the skin, inhaled, ingested, all the different ways poison could enter the body changed the outcome slightly.
The outcomes changed based on which was used and they could sometimes end up drastically different. One poison technique would make the body turn poisons into medicine, making it so eating them would have a beneficial effect on the body.
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One made them get stored in the body to be released later, one made a person able to excrete poison from certain parts of their body. It was more than just becoming immune. Learning the different possibilities was kind of mind-blowing.
While not every effect was possible at the Body of Wood stage, they built up to it for later tiers. Adding on to previous techniques used building on what was already there. Wood was the most basic stage and was commonly known as building the foundation. In almost every book, Body of Wood was used to increase the body''s resistance to the selected element so more extreme procedures could be done later down the line.
We also learned that healing spells only prolonged the process. Getting healed from an outside source ruined the effect of the Body Refining and made the whole thing take longer.
The body needed to heal on its own while also being inundated with the energy used to destroy it. It would build up a tolerance and would then use that energy while healing to do that.
The process would break down the body with foreign energy, be it wind, poison, or whatnot, and the body would repair itself as best it could.
After the first round of destruction, a trace amount of the energy could be found in the repaired cells. That trace amount would increase in intensity until the threshold for Body of Wood was met.
While that was a gross generalization of the process, it was the gist.
Healing spells would subvert the healing process and the cells wouldn''t get a chance to absorb the needed trace energy leading to them needing to be broken down again.
Healing spells made the whole thing safer and kept the body from shutting down, but it prolonged the suffering. One of the books even used it as a method of torture, pumping the body so full of healing that the process would never be complete.
That had been a cheery read.
Back to my books though.
Runes and formations were both highly technical and complicated subjects. Runes -the language of power- and Formations -stringing Runes together to have a desired effect- were some of the most complicated areas of study in the multiverse.
Its complications came from both breadth and depth. The sheer variety of uses led to the need to have extensive knowledge on the subject while the depth only exacerbated the issue.
When I first learned what Formations were, I confused it with Wards. Wards were a string of Runes combined together to have a desired effect, why did there need to be another word for it?
Turns out, Wards were a specific sub-section of Formations.
So not only did I use the most basic form of creating Wards by using a singular giant rune, I created the most basic form of a sub-section of a much bigger area of Enchanting.
When I first asked one of the Merchants in Tracy''s camp to buy all the Runic Enchanting information he could from the store he looked at me funny.
I had to repeat that I wanted all of the information in the store before he understood. He stopped looking at me funny when I dropped a load of wealth on him.
Jonathan was maxed through his profession so I tried to spread the love around. We didn''t have any other merchants in our camp- well, merchants that survived- and I wanted to be nice if I could.
No point in letting the experience go to waste. Plus, I didn''t feel like searching through the store myself. Sorting the veritable sea of things I could buy sounded like a headache that I wanted to avoid.
I didn''t particularly care much about the other people in the camp but it wasn''t that hard to seek the man out.
Whether it was a mixture of fear or my intimidating figure, the man didn''t ask a lot of questions. I asked for all the Runic Enchanting books in the store and he took me at my word for it.
The mountain of books that spawned left me speechless. There were at least a hundred of the things and they weren''t skinny either. It was also a lot more expensive than anticipated.
I essentially dropped a wad of cash on the man to get him moving, I didn''t expect him to use it all and assumed I would end up getting some of it back.
That wasn''t the case. What I got back was chump change.
Luckily, I was able to ignore most of the books for now since they were on a different subject than what I needed but there was still a lot left about Formations. Those were the ones that I was going through now.
Talismans, Runic Equipment, making Runic Consumables, and all the other subjects could be learned later. Formations were already complicated enough.
Runes put in a certain order had certain outcomes. Providing a different quantity of mana had different effects. Quality, purity, affinity, type of connection. Everything had an effect and needed to be taken into account when creating the formation.
Given that different types of connections were something I didn''t know existed, there was a lot to learn.
That didn''t even mention the different processes that could be done to change the formation. Merging and splitting power, changing its affinity, altering its flow.
My brain hurt thinking about it.
But if engineering school taught me anything, it was to cram for exams and this was similar.
In college, to pass an exam, you didn''t need to know every minute detail about a subject, while that would help, it wasn''t necessary. As long as you knew enough to get by, it would be fine.
It was an art I had mastered after 4 years of the place.
The method I used was working backward with the endpoint in mind. There were only certain types of questions that would be asked and as long as I knew how to do those, then I would pass.
There was no need to learn everything, I didn''t need to know all of the exceptions, the outliers that didn''t follow the rule. As long as I knew the rough process, it didn''t matter.
Brushing up on the common tricks professors might throw was left till after I knew what I was doing.
I channeled that method into what I was doing now. I didn''t need to know what all the different connections did, what a Rune did if it was placed before or after another.
I knew what it needed to do at the end, and worked backward from there. For Gale force winds, I needed a combination of Wind Runes and Force Runes strung together to give direction and shape.
The strength of the Wind could be determined by the amount and quality of mana used to power it rather than trying to figure it out Runically.
There were ways to limit the strength of the Formation but that was an extra step to learn I didn''t need. I equated them to pressure regulators. Specific ways to make sure the mana quantity moving through the Rune was how it was intended.
While my way would lead to a more complicated activation and could lead to more things going wrong, it was faster for me to learn how to make it.
I would be keeping that fact to myself. Abigail didn''t need to know that I was putting this together with magical duct tape and a prayer.
I had to buy a lot of Runes for the process but my value for points plummeted after getting my bloodline. I wasn''t sure if I would lose them in a few days so it was better to spend them now while I could.
I had two days to figure this whole thing out and by golly, I would do it. Knowing the amount of profession levels I would get from this wasn''t even my biggest motivator.
Chapter 114 - Stone Turtle
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Ah, another one.
Building, testing, tweaking, changing, and re-carving all worked to give experience and it wasn''t small either.
The grade and cost of the materials I was working with accelerated the level gain significantly. It was one of the main reasons my profession was so high level to begin with.
I had no hope of catching up to Vinny or Brayden, or any other crafter-focused person, but I was gaining on them somewhat. Both men in question already had their E-rank evolution, not desiring to wait on Jonathan to figure out if it was worth it.
Vinny became an even better blacksmith and Brayden did the same but with building. They made things constantly, raking in levels faster than I could hope to imagine. Just the time they spent working wasn''t something I could match.
Before, when Vinny and I just started leveling up as blacksmiths, we kept a similar pace. Both leveling up at roughly the same time.
That didn''t last long. When I went to go hunt, Vinny would stay in the forge. When I trained my skills, Vinny was in the forge. When I meditated trying to improve my Law, you guessed it, he was in the forge.
Our level discrepancy only grew.
I fell behind a level, then two, then 5, then 10. Now, he was somewhere in the mid 50s while I lamented in the high 30s. Reaching 38 with the most recent notification chime.
Usually, it would take longer for a person to climb in levels than this, but I had a few things going for me that were helping the process. The experience gained on crafts was dependent on the final grade along with the difficulty of crafting it.
A master smith forging a piddling sword wouldn''t get the same experience as an apprentice smith trying their best to make the same piddling sword.
I could make Common-tier equipment if I wanted to, but my focus was more on Runes for the time being. They allowed me to take Vinny''s finished work and add on to it for more experience in less time.
Well, it averaged out to the same amount of time if the failures were taken into consideration. Getting no experience from failing was a blow when I started but became increasingly less relevant.
My carving skills got better with each attempt and my failure went down to show that.
Another reason that I was gaining profession levels faster than normal was the materials I used. Both rarer and more expensive, they increased the experience I gained per craft.
They worked to increase the difficulty, using stronger materials was harder to forge than mundane steel, and they added to the final grade.
Using better base materials increased the base rank of the final piece before I even took a hammer to it.
The last thing aiding my level climb was the first-time bonus. We weren''t sure how it worked or the specifics of it yet, but there was a chunk of experience earned when doing something for the first time.
I learned that best when I gained 3 levels on the Frost Ward back at camp. Frost Rune, I had to correct. Wishful thinking wasn''t enough to call it a Ward.
The first-time bonus was what I attributed my recent level gain to and what has netted me the quickest levels so far. My current project was a host of new things all topped with the hardest difficulty I could manage. The only thing it was missing was expensive materials.
Trying to cobble together a working Formation with Runes I both barely understood and processes I was largely guessing at.
I couldn''t think of anything more difficult.
If I had to equate the process to something, I would say it was like trying to code by copy-pasting someone else''s with only a basic understanding of the language used.
Not the programming language written in, the actual language.
The only reason I knew what any of it meant was because of [Basic Runecrafting(Un)]. The skill helped in deciphering what each Rune represented and gave a glimpse at the greater meaning each Rune held.
It wasn''t perfect nor was it thorough, but it was better than nothing.
Some of the Runes I had to test myself to find out what they did and those scarcely went according to plan. Carving them into sheets of metal before powering them up with mana resulted in some exploding and others doing nothing.
Immense confusion and frustration accompanied the majority.
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There was one I was certain was the Rune responsible for producing wind but after powering it up to no effect, my conjecture was proven incorrect.
Some grumbling and re-reading of the books had me trying to figure it out for nearly an hour until I did. Boy did what I found out piss me off.
The Rune was responsible for producing wind but it wouldn''t do it on its own. It needed a secondary Rune to give it direction before it would do so.
Powering it up by itself did nothing, which I had mistakenly thought was an error on my part.
While going through and trying my best to combine Runes together, it was hard to keep the ideas of other things out of my head.
Rune combinations I could use in my hammer. The string of Runes I could use on Jonathan''s shields. What I would engrave on Rachel''s and Abigail''s staves.
For a brief moment, I came up with plans for a shield and axe set similar to what I started with. That one jerked my focus back to the formation box and away from my wondering ideas.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
The days weren''t getting any shorter and my level of understanding wasn''t where I needed it to be.
~~
"Yes, yes, I''m here. What was so important?" I grumbled.
It had been a sleepless night trying to put everything together and it was hard to keep my irritation at bay.
It was barely sunrise when Abigail came to get me for something she said was ''Something I needed to be there for.''
I could have been obstinate and refused but decided to go along with it. It wasn''t like I didn''t need a break and to let my mind rest for a few moments anyway.
After exiting my lodge, or Austin''s lodge if you wanted to be specific, Abigail led me to a gathering of people.
Most everyone remaining from my family was there with Jonathan, Austin, Vinny, and Brayden featured front and center.
My tired mind struggled to come up with why they were gathered separately. The only thing that they all had in common was they were the only E-ranks, or in Jonathan''s case, near E-rank.
"Now, with everyone here, we can begin," Abigail announced.
"I think we should start with you telling us what this is about?" I said.
"Jon managed to reach level 50 in his class the other day and is ready to evolve to E-rank." She answered.
Oh, I hadn''t realized he was so close. Now the grouping made more sense.
Some items were brought out and a circle was made around the man in question.
"Now, evolving to E-rank is different than before. It isn''t just picking a new class or profession." Austin said to the nods of the other evolved members, "During the process, you need to focus on the changes you want to make and choose the path you wish to take."
"It''s generally straight forward but we can give you some tips and tell you how ours went. It''s different for every person, at least that''s what we think so far." Brayden said.
"Mine was like building a house. There were materials there I could use to change the house I was building and alter it in some way. Different techniques and processes I could use to change the finished product. It didn''t explicitly come out and say it but it was clear which was temporary and permanent."
Everyone who had evolved so far had picked the temporary option during their evolution and chosen to focus on their bloodline powers rather than changing their body.
Them having bloodlines was an initial shock to me but made sense looking back. They wanted to evolve but that evolution was wasted without a bloodline. Jonathan had a large amount of points from fighting and had boosted his wealth through hunting.
Like me and Austin, he sought out the fallen pylons to earn more points. Most of the fighters did the same. Rachel, Hal, and Carrie the most.
They weren''t as fast or efficient as us but they managed to accrue a large amount of points.
Vinny and Brayden didn''t have that option. They could still fight, but they didn''t actively search monsters out for their points. The family did something different for them.
The family as a whole got a large amount of points every wave. When pooled together it was enough for a decent bloodline.
I alone donated over half a million to both of them for that purpose and Austin did more than that.
He didn''t have to think of future purchases or materials for his craft. His bloodline and genetic material for his evolution were both already purchased. He also didn''t have any need for the points he earned.
His explorer profession didn''t require metals, wood, herbs, and the like. There wasn''t a drain on his income that he needed to save up for.
We were all under the use it or lose it mentality regarding our points which made it easier for him to give them away.
If I didn''t still have things I needed to buy I would have done the same.
All of it added together for better-than-average bloodlines for the both of them and with the end of the tutorial near, the same was planned for the rest of the family.
With only 17 of us left, there weren''t that many we needed to buy. 5 of us already had them leaving only 12 that still needed them.
Finding out that they already had them was kind of a bummer. It solidified the fact that I had been away.
When the tutorial first started, the constant contact from living with my entire family was grating. Going from living on my own, to back with not only my immediate family, but my entire family needed some getting used to.
But after getting used to living with them and knowing everything, it was almost sad to find out after the fact. When I donated the points, I didn''t give it to them specifically, I gave it to Abigail to use as she saw fit.
It wasn''t like I needed to know every little detail about them but something like this was a milestone I felt miffed to have missed. Especially after so many of us weren''t here for them.
"Mine was like forging a weapon..." Vinny went on to detail his which was similar to Brayden''s but instead of making a house, he made a sword.
Austin''s was the most different but it held true to what the others had already said.
The only thing that all of them had in common was that there was only so much that they could change. They felt the limit of how far they could push it which signified the amount their body could take.
For E-rank it was notoriously little.
"Alright, I''m ready," Jonathan said after listening to the other three.
His bloodline was up there in costs and so were the materials he needed. He chose the Stone Turtle as his bloodline and it was up there in rank. Better than the Dirt Turtle and Sand Tortoise, but not on the same level as what Austin and I had.
It boosted his fortitude and endurance and defensive Earth skills tremendously but lacked the offensive power that mine and Austin''s did. He didn''t see that as an issue though.
It wasn''t what his class and skills were geared for.
The materials around him mirrored that. Multiple shells of Stone Turtles, the most expensive part, along with blood essence. He was doubling down on the defensive capabilities.
He sat down surrounded by the materials and started to glow, the process beginning.
He would be the fourth of our group to hit E-rank.
Chapter 115 - Less Than Honorable
Jonathan''s evolution carried with it a shocking revelation. Evolving both Class and Profession simultaneously did come with a bonus to the process.
If it hadn''t been so cliche, I might''ve been surprised. This seemed on brand for what we had learned so far and wasn''t beyond the realm of possibility.
After finding out it was true, it wasn''t hard to come up with a reason why. From everything we have learned about this new System that watched everything we did, it all revolved around effort expended.
The System didn''t do anything for free. It helped with leveling by taking a cut of the essence, the same held true for evolving. To keep that assistance you had to prove you were worthy of it.
For every bit of aid you received, there was a cost that came with it. I wasn''t sure if it was a net even for the System, or if it came out ahead, but it wasn''t hard to come up with reasons for why there was a bonus.
During evolutions, the System expended effort to help you through the process, whether class or profession, it didn''t matter, but it aided you through it. Doing both at the same time probably saved the System either energy or power of some sort making the process cost less than doing them both separately.
Since that seemed to be the case, both evolutions cost the System less to help with. The bonus on the other hand could be for one of two reasons. One, the System wanted to incentivize evolving both at the same time, hence the bonus. Or two, the leftover energy the system would have had to expend stayed with you, rather than being used as payment.
Finding out there was a bonus was all well and good, except it took a while to find out what the bonus actually was. It wasn''t explicitly stated anywhere and it took us a minute to figure it out.
There were two things different between the evolution to E-rank when evolving separately compared to at the same time. The stat boost during the evolution and the racial boost.
Every time a person went up in rank, there was an associated stat boost to all stats. For H to G, it was 2 stat points. From G to F, it was 5 stat points.
What took so long was because that wasn''t the set-in-stone rule we had assumed it had been. When I evolved to G-rank, 2 stat points in every attribute was my reward.
We were still new to ranking up and all that so when we told each other, everyone confirmed they received 2. Thinking that it was all standardized, when we evolved to F-rank we didn''t think to say anything about it.
When I evolved to F-rank, I got 5 points in every stat, the same as Austin who I had mentioned it to at one point or another. After his confirmation, I didn''t think anything of it.
Except now, in our questioning of what was different, Brayden and Vinny got a different boost than Austin when evolving to E-rank, even though we all assumed it was the same.
With some backtracking, we found out the reason. The rarity of the class, or profession, you were evolving into mattered. Depending on the rarity, the boost for the racial rank-up changed.
We all got two at the start because there wasn''t that much of a difference between rarities at that level. One got 8 stat points per level and the other got 10. For the 15 levels in G-rank that was only a 30-point difference.
A difference that could easily be made up in other ways, like training.
The F-rank evolution was where differences started to show. Austin and I both got 5 points in every stat while Rachel, Jonathan, Vinny, and Brayden all got 4 while everyone else got 3.
It happened again at E-rank. Austin got 10 while Vinny and Brayden only got 9.
The only common denominator between everything was the rarity we all evolved into. Austin and I evolved with Rare classes for F-rank and Austin kept that going into E-rank.
Vinny and Brayden both had Uncommon professions for theirs making it clear what was happening after that.
How we noticed the discrepancy was because Jonathan got a different number than either of them. Jonathan, with a Law and Spirit Anchor, evolved with a Rare class matching Austin.
Being the same rarity as Austin, he should have gotten 10 stat points, but he got 13.
Everyone was wondering about the difference and it took until Abigail wrote it all down that we found out the math behind it. The stat boost when ranking up your race was 20% of the stats per level of the class you were evolving into.
There was some rounding that happened but that was generally the case. When I evolved into the class I have now, Champion of Niflheim, it gave 24 stats per level resulting in a 5 point boost to all stats.
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Jonathan, evolving into an Uncommon class for F-rank, got 20 stat points per level and only received a 4 point boost to all stats. The same held true for the Common rarity as well.
The difference this time was instead of the boost being 20%, it was 25%. Only getting a 5% boost for evolving both at the same time didn''t seem like that much but you also had to consider we were still in the lower ranks.
Compared to the stat points that would be bouncing around up in A or S rank, the small amount we got per level wasn''t that much. Altogether, Jonathan, getting 13 points in all the 9 different attributes, received 117 stat points for his evolution while Austin only got 90.
27 free stat points for evolving both at the same time didn''t sound too bad when you thought about it like that. Plus, we learned that when doing both at the same time, the higher rarity class or profession was all that mattered. The boost was only from the higher one.
Jonathan had a Rare class and an Uncommon Profession but he got the stat points of his higher one.
And that wasn''t even the only bonus. Jonathan got to boost his bloodline more than the other three had been able to. That one was a bit less definitive since we were unable to get hard numbers, but we were confident that was the case.
From what we had read, he should have only been able to use two Stone Turtle shells as material but managed to use 3 instead. We were lucky we bought extra thinking that could have been a possibility.
All of it added up to be a decent-sized boost for evolving both at the same time rather than doing them separately.
With all the excitement and brainstorming that the crowd turned into, I was ready to get back to what I was doing. I still needed to finish making what I was dubbing the Wind Chamber.
It didn''t sound that impressive but I didn''t really care about that. It beat calling it the ''room'' forever.
Before I managed to sneak off back to my books, Austin stopped me outside of my- his lodge.
"Can we talk before you bury your head in books again?" He asked.
"Sure but make it quick. I''m kind of on a time crunch with this." I answered.
"With the end of the tutorial coming up, people have been... speculating. Have you heard what they are saying?" The way he said speculating clued me in on what he was referring to. People spoke in hushed whispers about it, hoping that talking about it quietly wouldn''t jinx it.
"Are you talking about how the final wave will come on day 88 but we won''t leave until day 90?" I asked without the usual deference. It would happen or it wouldn''t, talking about it in a whisper didn''t change that.
"Yes," He nodded.
Only an idiot didn''t do the math. The tutorial lasted 90 days with a wave coming every 3 days starting on the first. Marking all the waves out starting on the first made the final wave come on day 88, not day 90.
There would be 2 more days of the tutorial after all the waves were over. We didn''t know what they would be used for but it seemed unlikely that another wave would come.
The tutorial had held to its pattern almost religiously, it seemed reasonable to assume that it wouldn''t break it right at the end. We didn''t know what the last two days would be used for, but another wave was not the running theory.
Plus, 30 seemed like too even a number to break with another last-minute wave. The last wave already had so many things going for it symbolizing that it was the grande finale. I didn''t think that there would be another.
Some thought it was time to get everything in order before being transported back home. An opportunity to pack everything up and take what we needed while also giving time to farm that last bit of points before the store disappeared. The grace period to use what the tutorial offered before it disappeared.
It didn''t matter to me which was the case, I had my own plans for how I was going to spend the last few days.
There were pylons out there that would look better conquered if you catch my meaning. I planned to try to get the most out of the tutorial prizes by conquering as many pylons as possible in the two-day span.
We hadn''t solidified any plans yet, but everyone in the family was on the same page. Austin and I were able to fight pylons by ourselves while Jonathan, Rachel, Hal, and Carrie would form a group to go around and do the same.
We planned to get as many as we could.
"From what I''ve heard, Tracy plans to do the same as us," He said.
"So? What does it matter?" I scoffed, "She isn''t strong enough to get that many and I doubt we will be able to get all 50 anyway."
There were enough pylons to go around, what did the ones Tracy would conquer matter?
"What if that Kurt guy gets involved?" Austin brought up the man in the south. Tracy was still negotiating with the man trying to merge and it was looking likely to happen.
I wasn''t certain when, but if it happened, it would be soon. Most likely before the next wave.
"What are you suggesting?" I questioned. He knew that the extra ''competition'' wasn''t that big of a deal. We most likely wouldn''t be able to get them all so it was odd that he was bringing it up.
"What if we were to be... more domineering about it?" He threw out there.
He didn''t say the words specifically but I understood what he was implying.
"That could be seen as betrayal. I gave my word that we wouldn''t come into conflict with her." I said, "Less than honorable almost."
"Betrayal is a strong word. I would say more like... inevitable. Plus, you said while the waves came, not for the entirety of the tutorial. We are stronger than her, we could easily let her conquer as many pylons as she wants and then subjugate them." He tried to butter up the words used but it was clear to me.
"So not only are you suggesting we betray her, but wait until the last possible moment to drive the knife in her back?" I wasn''t angry or mad at the suggestion, just surprised. Surprised he had brought it up.
"Don''t make it sound so bad. It isn''t like we''re killing her, just liberating some of the rewards she may or may not receive." He said, wiggling his hand back in forth in a so-so manner.
"Is this necessary? Must we go to such lengths for a reward we don''t even know the value of?" I sighed dejectedly, "We are strong already, isn''t that enough?"
"We have no idea what the world will be like when we get back. Might as well get everything out of this tutorial as we can." His voice was firmer now, more resolute.
"You know he wouldn''t like this." My tone wasn''t like Austin''s. It didn''t have the firmness his did, only resignation.
Austin knew the he I was referring to, "I know. I won''t force you, but it is something you should think about."
Saying this, he let me go back to my books.
It was hard to focus on the words on the page after that conversation.
Chapter 116 - Stubborn Skill
"Are you sure this is going to work, Chris?" Austin questioned from beside me.
We were both standing next to each other admiring the pinnacle of my creation. A marvel of magic and engineering combined together flawlessly. The system couldn''t have done better if it tried.
"As sure as I can be," I answered.
"I''m not questioning your... masterpiece, but it doesn''t look like it''s going to work." Austin tried his best not to sound skeptical but I could hear it in his tone.
How could I not hear it when I was skeptical myself?
"Are you doubting me?" I said with false seriousness.
"Certainly not. I''m just saying that this looks like a horribly thrown-together shack that has magic lines running all over it that could be confused for a toddler who got too creative with a crayon." He said before adding, "Not to mention the mana stones sticking out of it at seemingly random places."
"Damn, tell me how you really feel. Well... it may not look the best... or look good at all... or show any semblance of the bare minimum of certainty, but it will work. I can feel it!" My words declined in confidence before rising back with my final statement.
"How likely do your feelings say this will end in an explosion?" I could hear the air quotes the jackass was using.
"Oh, ye of little faith, my friend. You''ll see. After the wave is over, it will work to perfection, I guarantee it." I announced patting him on the back.
"Sure, Christopher, sure. Let''s hope so." He mumbled.
It had been a hectic finish but I managed to complete the ''Wind Chamber'' with a few hours to spare. The sun was on its way up on day 85 and it would soon be noon. The 29th wave was almost here and after fighting the beasties off, this marvelous creation and I had a date.
No one who had laid eyes on it thought it was going to work. Not even Austin, who was usually the least critical of my family members. Abigail threw a fit when she saw it saying there was no way in hell this was going to work.
All of them could shove it.
The experience I got from building it was enormous and pulled me to level 44, getting me another skill from my profession.
Being a Runic Blacksmith, I felt I was a little light on the blacksmithing skills but I could always get those later. There was still room in my spirit for a few bought blacksmithing skills and skimping now wouldn''t hurt.
For my level 40 skill, I went similar to [Warding(Un)] and went with [Formation Mana Flow(Uncommon)]. There wasn''t an overreaching [Formations] skill, sadly, so I went for the next best thing.
It didn''t give intimate knowledge about formations, or even a little knowledge, but what it did do helped a ton after getting it.
It let me test out the mana flows inside a formation without having to turn it on. Like a test run of sorts to see where it went wrong. It was a great diagnostic skill to find the flaws in my patchwork formation and help fix them. Like a helpful debugger.
I used the skill religiously as the final run-through before giving it the first test. Everything held up fine and looked to be stable enough to do what it needed to.
If it would still function afterward was another story. At no point in the construction process did I consider longevity in the equation.
It would last the few days it needed to, fingers crossed, but it wouldn''t last much longer after that.
Trying to make it reliable and something that would last was an extra complication I didn''t need to worry myself with. All I needed it for was to Refine my Body.
It could burst into flames afterward for all I cared.
With my job done, and the wave encroaching, I made my trip back up north. Where the air was lighter and didn''t smother you with humidity and the temperature didn''t make you dread living.
My preparations for the wave were nonexistent. I didn''t even feel a hint of worry about what was to come now that I had my Anchor. It was like the monsters lost what made them threatening and turned into walking bags of experience.
Well, if I could level that was.
I did wonder where all the experience was going. Essence, I supposed. Everything we read and learned called it essence instead of experience.
It didn''t matter what it was called, I had to wonder where it was going. Upon killing something, essence would flow from the deceased to the one who killed it and level them up.
This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
I knew I wasn''t at my ''cap'' or something like that so my soul well wasn''t full. Was it being banked for when I could use it again? Somehow I doubted that.
My leading theory was that my body was at its limit for the essence it could hold. It needed to evolve up a rank for more essence to be applied to it.
That theory had some holes in it, but it was the best I could come up with. The different rarities didn''t make sense and training skewed things if I thought about it too hard.
If I was at my limit, I shouldn''t have been able to gain stats through training like I had. Now, it wasn''t a lot, only one or two in a few stats. Particularly my low ones but I still got a few.
I wasn''t as concerned about it as Abigail was. Controlling as she was, she wanted- no- needed to know how it all worked. It was killing her to not know how something like this worked.
I held onto the belief that I would find out in time. It would eventually come up and I would know how it all worked. It wasn''t something that I needed to concern myself with right now.
That was my attitude about a lot of things really. Growing up with Abigail instilled that in me. Gabriel too, he wasn''t as bad as her but there were certain subjects where he was unnaturally knowledgeable.
Abigail would deep dive into things to figure it out and she wasn''t shy about sharing it. More like incessant with letting other people know.
Some of that attitude had rubbed off on me but it was far less pronounced. I only did that for things I really cared about. Mostly a few games that I liked. Diving deep into the mechanics of it and figuring out the best way to do something.
I did not doubt that she would find out eventually and I would know soon after. Anyway, that was a matter for a different time. A time when hundreds of monsters weren''t charging at me.
Describing the fight that transpired could be done in a few words.
The monsters rushed in and they died.
The monsters rushed in and they died quickly if you wished for the longer and more specific description.
During the wave was one of the few times being level-capped frustrated me. Being max level wasn''t that big of a deal when I had other things to focus on. My Anchor last wave and my Law before that.
Now, though, there was nothing to strive toward during the wave to keep me occupied. Only how fast I could kill them was what filled my mind.
It gave me time to experiment with skill usage but nothing totally new came out of it. Only new uses for a few skills here and there.
The main one I tried was the incessant thorn in my side, [Sweeping Slash(C)]. That skill had been the bane of my existence recently and I just couldn''t force it into submission.
If it only worked on the weapon I was holding, then that was how I would use it. I changed my approach to the skill and created my snowflakes of death in my hand before giving them a mighty toss.
The skill flowed into the snowflake and did something I didn''t expect it to. One, it took a lot more mana, and two, it started shooting out mana blades from all sides.
I had assumed it would pick one edge and run with it, creating a lopsided snowflake with one really long mana bade. That assumption was wrong.
It turned the already sharp and spiky snowflake into an even bigger sharp and spiky circle of death. Extending out mana blades in every which way, taking extra mana to go with it.
I packed the skill full and then put a little extra in the ice before letting it fly. While testing, I only had one snowflake active which made controlling it with [Ice Manipulation(Un)] a breeze.
It flew through the air spinning this way and that. The weak mana blades didn''t have the strength needed to dismember the monsters but they left cuts here and there. Small cuts but they were still cuts.
If I pumped my Law into it that would change.
I didn''t want to do that yet though. I wanted to refine the technique a bit before I went that far.
The reason for that was because of the feeling that it gave off. I felt if I pushed it with my Law right now, it would have upgraded in rarity and maybe fixed some of the things wrong with it.
I had the time to spare and I didn''t want to muck this up. If it evolved with the same stringent requirements as it had now I was going to throw it away. Upgrading it to Uncommon had been enough of a headache as it was.
I could have easily upgraded it earlier, but that wouldn''t have fixed the things in the skill I needed to. Probably only making the mana blade stronger or longer. A base upgrade like I had with [Power Strike(C)].
Pushing the skill to activate on something I wasn''t touching was still out of the question, but making it last wasn''t. My first attempt stalled out and ran out of mana not long after being thrown and that was what I tried to fix.
[Ice Manipulation(Un)] on only one object made it easy to control every aspect of that one object. If I was trying to do this for twenty different snowflakes it would have been impossible.
The way I went about it came from the insight I gained recently. Just like formations, skills needed mana to activate. The way I was using it now took a bunch at activation, then chewed through it quickly after it left my hand.
What I needed to do was build a reservoir of sorts inside the ice to store mana to keep the skill going. Every attempt at pumping mana into it from afar ended the same as trying to activate the skill from afar.
It was a nice thought experiment and a test of the rudimentary skills I picked up from the project that I just completed.
Creating what were essentially mana capacitors inside the ice to hold extra mana to keep the skill going was difficult at first, but with [Ice Manipulation(Un)] solely focused on the task, it didn''t take long to finish what I needed it to. The runes to do so were still fresh in my mind from my creation and study.
My rate of killing slowed but that didn''t bother me. Fixing this frustrating skill was more important to me right now.
Fixing it the best I was able to, I pumped my Law into both the skill and ice. Feeling that it wasn''t enough, I channeled my spirit into it to add to the destructiveness with my new Spirit Anchor.
The spinning snowflake arced out, carrying with it a bright glow of everything I had pushed into it. Wherever it went, blood flew. Chopping deep gouges out of the monsters while occasionally cutting off limbs if the angle was right.
Nothing could hold up to the combined powers filling the ice and it carved through the bodies surrounding me in a wide sweep. It wouldn''t have been possible without my Law and spirit but with it, the beasts couldn''t hold up.
The shape of the arc was deliberate and it was flying in wide sweeps for a reason. A reason that came true when a chime sounded out.
Finally.
That infernal skill finally figured itself out.
Chapter 117 - Wind Chamber
"Ohh, yess."
This was exactly what I wanted, after the skill upgraded, the snow morphed and changed as I channeled mana into the new skill structure. From what I glimpsed already, the skill was vastly different than it once was and I couldn''t help but feel giddy at the upgrade. Something told me waiting to upgrade it was the right choice.
Mana flowed into the skill and snow exploded into existence from my hand. Even the upgrade couldn''t get rid of that requirement. The snow appeared deceptively mundane, but carried a great deal of power inside of it. Smaller and more compact than the snowflakes I usually made, the palm sized flakes flew out from my hand in great arcs that looped around me.
They flew with a mind of their own and only required minimal guidance from me by either nudging the skill or direct action from [Ice Manipulation(Un)]. That was a good thing too because the skill kept pouring out snow the longer I channeled mana into it. Creating a sea of white as it drank in the mana I was giving it.
The skill changed in unexpected ways, vying farther away from the initial skill than I thought possible.
You have upgraded a skill:
Sweeping Slash(Common) -> Sweeping Snow(Uncommon)
It took the changes I wanted and took them one step further. It changed the target of the skill from a handheld weapon to the snowflakes pouring from my hand. The only downside was they still had to originate from me, but that didn''t seem all that bad from what I was seeing.
That was the first thing I found a workaround for during my testing. The wave was the perfect time to test my new skill to discover all the ins and outs and I wouldn''t let this time go to waste.
The snow had to originate from me, that was undeniable, but what constituted as me? Could I produce it from my hammer? Have it come out of my armor?
The answer to those questions was yes.
As I grew in strength there was a rising feeling of comfort with the ice I used. Not the chunks I threw around as projectiles, the ice I used more intimately. The Ice in my hammer and armor.
They became almost an extension of myself, bathing in and becoming saturated with my Law and Spirit as I fought with them.
With the growing connection, skills flowed through them more easily and for this one, both could be substituted as my body.
Snow formed on the surface of my armor before leaping out to join the rest of the storm I had conjured up in an endless flurry of activity. The snow ran its course quickly, the mana holding it together and fueling its flight dissipated rapidly. After the mana ran out, the snow would break apart into a multitude of mundane snowflakes and flutter to the ground. This prompting me to continue making more of it and draining my mana quite quickly for a lower rarity skill.
The skill itself changed dramatically. No longer did it create gangly mana blades that extended out from the snow in thin blades. The mana enhanced the Ice the snow was made of, making it sharper and easier to cut things with.
Where it lost its reach, it increased its sharpness. Losing the breadth of the skill for an increasing depth in another area.
It combined well with my other skills. I could let it blow around me while I focused on melee, letting the snow cut and devastate whatever was in the area.
Overall, the skill didn''t change much in lethality but I had high hopes for it. The snow left too shallow of wounds to do any real damage but that could be fixed. At least it was usable now.
With my testing done, the rest of the wave died quickly. Playing around with my new snow more than I should have led to a few wounds but nothing too serious.
The mini-bosses took a little more oomph to take down than what the little snowflakes could handle.
With my new skill thoroughly tested, it was time to end things.
I had things to do and time waited for no man.
"Are you absolutely certain this is going to work?" Abigail said for the umpteenth time.
"Yes, Abigail, for the millionth time it''s going to work." My tone was dripping with annoyance. While I understood the doubt, it looked... poorly constructed, but it was beginning to be annoying rather than comforting.
Ever since the end of the wave and I arrived back at the Wind Chamber, she had been going over everything... again. The previous checks were somehow not enough.
With the amount of worry she was showing I was surprised grey hairs weren''t sprouting from her head.
The rectangular box of wood had glowing lines running all over its length with mana stones powered and glowing sticking out of it. The wood used was some Oak equivalent that Brayden claimed would hold up well to wind. The hardwood was anchored deep into the earth for support and was giving the go ahead by my fellow builders.
We were about to test that claim.
Before she could say something else or utter the same exact question again, I stepped inside the Chamber. It was built tall enough to accommodate my 6-foot-tall form, with the ceiling resting a few feet above my head.
Latching the door shut behind me made me starkly aware of how heavy-duty the latch was. Thick rods of metal connected the two slabs of wood together. It felt like it would hold up against even my strength for a time before failing.
Vinny didn''t hold back on the latch.
The four wooden walls closed me in without anyone else to witness the bloody affair this was about to become. Disrobing as quickly as I could, I wanted to get this over and done with. Fear was the mind killer and I didn''t want to let it build up.
Clothes would only get ripped to shreds from what I was about to do.
Standing in my birthday suit was a bit odd knowing that outside the Chamber countless people looked on with curiosity. If the walls fell down they would be in for a treat.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Let''s hope Brayden built them sturdy enough for that not to happen and matched the integrity of Vinny''s latch.
I gave the technique booklet one last skim before I was ready to turn everything on. Borealis: The Northern Wind Body Refining boasted a range of different benefits.
Raising my Wind affinity, and to a lesser degree my Ice affinity, while also making slashing attacks harder to penetrate the body. Where I didn''t get the poison resistance Mitchell received, cutting attacks would need more power to get through my skin and muscles after this.
My body would be particularly strong to Wind Blades and skills like it.
What it all boiled down to was using both gale-force winds and small, sharp hail-like ice to rip and shred the body to pieces. A very pleasant and lovely experience that I was at the edge of my seat for.
Like the grinding down of a sandstorm but instead of sand, little pieces of ice were used.
The first thing I channeled my mana into was [Hail(C)] and [Permafrost(Un)], to create the ice I needed and the temperature required. [Ice Manipulation(Un)] evened all of the bits out into irregular shapes with some truly wicked edges.
To make sure that they were able to damage my body, I channeled both my Law and Spirit into the ice for increased durability. I wasn''t sure if it would be able to do its job without it.
Thinking about getting pummeled with it was less than pleasant.
The room was big enough that the wind would circulate throughout, looping back to hit me over and over again and was built to facilitate exactly that.
While rectangular on the outside, it was circular on the inside. The space between the outside walls and inside walls was filled with different plates and pieces to wire everything together. Well, not a wire exactly but it was close enough to call it that.
Mana needed to flow from one side of the Formation to the other through channels engraved on the various pieces and I didn''t want those exposed for people to touch. It was already sketchy enough and that was without people having access to the insides of the Formation.
The lines carved into wood that were visible on the outside were durability Runes for the wood itself. I added a little extra to the wood to make sure this thing didn''t fall about mid-operation.
After creating the hail that the wind would need, it was time to power up the next set of Runes.
The Ice and Frost Runes carved into the ground.
[Permafrost(Un)] could lower the temperature around me, but that wasn''t enough to harm me.
Some... extreme measures were needed for me to get damaged by low temperatures. After getting my bloodline, even the coldest of temperatures weren''t enough to bring harm.
This combination of Runes was a thorn to get right. It needed to be enough to damage my body, but not too much that the Body Refining process was done by the Ice instead of the Wind.
[Glacial Presence(R)] made the whole thing that much more difficult to tune correctly.
The Northern Winds technique needed a careful balance of the two to do what it intended. It needed the cutting windchill the cold provided but not so much that it was the dominating factor.
The exposed loops of Ice covering the floor plunged the temperature inside the room well below zero. The Ice making up the Runes didn''t need to be buried like the previous time I made one and seeing the sharp increase in effectiveness made me cringe. I hadn''t known that burying the Rune caused that much of a loss.
The increase in effectiveness also came from the string of Runes that I tied together to make it better than one big Frost Rune.
It was hard to find an off switch for the Ice and Frost Runes so I had to isolate them somewhat. Making the room itself separated from the outside atmosphere.
Otherwise, the Runes would work endlessly to bring the environment in line with what the Runes meant. Wasting mana to cool the whole area outside the chamber rather than the small room I needed it to.
The barrier was a base Formation that one could buy from the store. While it was meant to defend from outside attacks it worked for the purposes I needed it to.
A bit overkill really, but it saved me time from having to learn to separate the two manually.
All around the room, various runes lit up on the walls and ceiling to contain the frosty temperatures radiating outward. With the Runes contained, the room quickly plummeted in temperature even faster than before. I knew from testing, various lines on the outside lit up during this and I had to assume people knew it was starting.
All the heat was exorcised in ferocious vigor. Saturating the room with my Law turned the crusade almost feral. The pervading aspect worked to drive the Ice mana into a frenzy eliminating and infiltrating anything that wasn''t itself.
The wood lining the room frosted over and began to contract, creaking and groaning from the treatment. Brayden built the room with the contraction in mind, making the wood slot right into place from the planned contraction.
That contraction was tested extensively to make sure that everything would stay where it was intended.
[Glacial Presence(R)] climbed to new heights that I hadn''t felt the skill reach before. It was hard to keep the grimace off my face from the increasing stats the skill gave.
The skill boosted all of my stats and that wasn''t something I wanted right now. The harder it was to break down my body, the longer this whole process would take and the more painful this experience would turn out to be.
While it would be painful anyway, prolonging that pain wasn''t what I wanted. As much as I had been injured lately, a masochist I was not.
Pain was inevitable, though, and it wasn''t something I could fix. The skill didn''t have an on-off switch. It worked always. If I was able to turn it off, I hadn''t been able to figure it out yet.
When the temperature drop reached its peak, chills ran through my body for the first time in a long time. My breath turned foggy and my body started to shiver.
I felt cold.
It was almost shocking. I hadn''t felt even the slightest chill ever since the tutorial began and it was weird to feel it again.
After the first two Formations were up and running where they needed to be, it was time to start the main event. The lines that had lit up before were a drop in the bucket compared to what happened now. Like going from low beams to high beams in a car. The bright LED kinds too.
The new light show started to create gusts of wind along the walls of the room. All the Wind Runes faced clockwise in direction, adding the gusts together, building on top of each other.
The planks the Runes were engraved on jutted out of the wall like fan blades. All angled inward slightly in the same direction, only extending a few feet in but created a fearsome speed of wind when given time to accumulate.
It felt similar to a tornado touching down right in the center of the Rune and the Winds even started to push me back.
As the Winds grew in strength, I strapped myself to the grate that was installed. For the Wind to be strong enough to hurt me, it was plenty strong to push me off my feet.
We planted a grate deep into the earth to act as an anchor, something for me to stand against for support while also letting the Wind through unimpeded.
A huge slab of metal would have disrupted the flow too much and done more harm than good.
Waiting for the wind to pick up gave me a surprise I hadn''t seen coming.
The force of the Wind was enough to influence my control over the Ice. It tugged on them forcing me to tighten my grip over them to keep them from flying away. I hadn''t had Wind do that before and wasn''t something I had thought could happen.
Releasing my control over the Ice, I let the pellets of hail fly. The pellets began their circuit and every revolution would result in my bare body being pelted with them. While harmless at first, it quickly began to increase in intensity.
Beginning at a slight annoyance, rising to a small pain, then higher. It felt like getting hit by paintballs for a while before the Winds whipped them faster around the room.
Not long after, they began to draw blood. The small protrusions of the ice cutting at just the right angle.
Grunts sounded out from me when they hit a particularly sensitive spot. Like my face... or other areas.
The Wind built and built until the gusts themselves began to carve into me. The windchill rose with the speed of the wind and it was worse than I imagined.
I knew this would be painful but this was beyond even that. The cold was the most surprising. Ever since gaining my Ice affinity and harnessing it for my powers, I hadn''t thought it would be able to damage me like this.
This experience took my blinders off and showed me my naivete. The cold was a harsh mistress and just because I handled it better than most didn''t mean it couldn''t hurt me.
I had to assume from the outside the place felt like a bomb waiting to go off from all the mana being used.
To accelerate the winds this much took some real strength. Almost every Wind Rune was tied to its own mana stone to keep them powered long enough for the process to complete.
Blood started leaking out of me at a trickle before quickly rising to a stream, then to a river. My shivering reached teeth clattering levels and I already wanted it to be over.
Only a few days to go.
Ugh, this was going to suck.
Chapter 118 - Pain and Castles
Pain.
Pain was a constant in life. It crept up anywhere it wasn''t wanted. Joint pain, back pain, any kind of pain. It followed people around chronically in some instances.
For me, my life wasn''t full of pain. There was the occasional scrape and bump here and there, but generally, my life was pain free.
The worst was the rare sprains or bruises from when I did something particularly stupid. Sometimes while alcohol was involved. Alright, mainly when alcohol was involved. It was hard to justify some of the injuries I received otherwise.
There were a few times that stuck out in my memory that were particularly painful. Breaking my arm when I was a kid, a car accident when I was a teenager, a migraine flu combo that lasted a week in college.
After the tutorial arrived, pain was a dull constant while fighting. Wounds built here and there that now crisscrossed my body in white lines. Scars that healed from one injury or another.
A claw swipe here and a bite mark there. One of the biggest that marred my form was the mandibles that took chunks out of my side, leaving a patch of discolored skin from where it healed over.
What I couldn''t see was the 3-inch vertical line that ran parallel to my spine. The thin line told a tale of a grievous wound. One that I didn''t like thinking about. It reminded me of who was lost that day.
Electrical burns that covered some of my arms were difficult to think about for the same reason.
Each had their own story and by this point, I couldn''t remember them all.
Learning to deal with the pain was still something I worked on. Every warrior had to learn that pain was inevitable but that was easier said than done. I had long rid myself of my urge to flinch in the face of it though. Coming a long way from the man who first entered the tutorial who flinched at the horn of a level 1 Rabbit.
Looking back on that moment made me want to laugh, if not for the mind numbing scrapping pain from ice and wind ripping into me. The me of the past had been so afraid of pain he hid behind a shield for the whole wave and did it again for the wave after.
Turning off that flinching reflex came with time and experience. I wouldn''t say I was perfect at it, there was always room to grow, but I was happy with how far I had come. The scars covering me were the proof of that. Proof of my effort to become a better warrior.
Now, I got to watch as every line and discoloration was scrubbed from my body with vigorous enthusiasm. The skin broke down first before the ice and wind scraped deeper, breaking further inside.
It was excruciating.
It was also kind of sad. To keep my thoughts off the mind-numbing pain, I focused on the scars that were disappearing before my eyes. The stories that they told, the tale of survival that my family had embarked on. Been forced on.
It was possible to get rid of them while evolving, Austin had discovered that, and a particularly strong healer could do the same but I never felt the need. I wanted to keep them.
It was a reminder of what we had accomplished. What I had accomplished. It was the trophies I had of hard-won battles and victories.
Maybe that was why I liked the trophies hung in our keep.
We kept skins, claws, skulls, or anything else worthwhile of the foes we had defeated. They lined the keep, telling our story of survival and triumph. Some thought it was barbaric, Diana had been a particularly loud advocator of that stance, but most were in agreeance.
Tracy certainly hated it. Her keep didn''t have any of the trophies that ours did. I had asked her about it once and she looked appalled, like the mere idea sickened her.
Something told me deer heads weren''t a decoration in her house from before.
They weren''t in mine either, but that was for a different reason. Deer heads weren''t the same. Hunting a deer with a bow or rifle wasn''t the same as battling a bear or lion in melee.
Half of the reason to keep the trophy was for the story of the battle, at least I thought so. It was a physical object to point at on the wall and say I defeated that in combat.
Maybe it was a bit vain, but I liked it, and there were so few things like that after the world ended.
The marks of battle that covered my form were all gone now. Only the deepest had hints that remained. Scrubbed away by a thousand little pellets of ice and wind.
A Wind that cut deeper every second.
No amount of effort or will was going to get me through this. This wasn''t something you could grit your teeth and stoically march through.
It was hell. In every sense of the word. Tears rolled down my cheeks before those too were ground down before they had the chance to fall.
It took everything in me not to pass out. My job wasn''t done and I couldn''t let the technique fizzle out.
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Keeping the flow of energy in line with what the technique detailed was easy at first, but got increasingly hard as the pain continued. My head wasn''t as clear, and my mind wasn''t as sharp.
Slips started to occur that were hard to rectify. Lapses in control that the pain caused started to break me down. Every lapse would add time to the agony I would have to endure, taking extra time to redo that part of the body over again until I got it right.
It was like that until the first healing spell hit me from the outside. The soothing energies offered a brief respite from the pain, only to plunge me back into the depths not long after.
While working out the plan, one of the healers had a skill that could monitor my bodily functions from the outside. A mark that they put on me before the process started. Heart rate, oxygen levels, and whatnot. I wasn''t sure exactly what they saw but I imagined the monitors at a hospital.
Every time it dipped toward critical, someone would use a healing spell from the outside. I had no doubt Abigail was out there fussing about, pacing back and forth waiting to launch such a spell.
The thought of her worrying made me smile before I controlled that urge. The pain was the only thing that stopped me.
Opening my mouth was out of the question. Even imagining one of the hail pellets hitting the back of my throat was enough of a threat to keep it clamped iron-tight.
No matter how many times I asked her not to worry, it was pointless. It wasn''t in her nature. I had resigned myself to that years ago. That didn''t keep the humor out of it though.
"Gah!" A groan escaped me.
Oh, that was rough.
The skin on my legs ripped off, causing the muscle underneath to be exposed to the full body treatment. Blood splattered out of the exposed muscle and not a second later, soothing energies worked their way through me yet again.
The healing was a balm.
It registered in my head that every time I was healed the process would take that much longer, but that wasn''t something I worried myself with right now. Without the soothing energies, I would be little more than a heap of flesh.
I was barely holding it together as it was and that was with the healing every so often.
The pain wasn''t like anything I had experienced before.
Pain in battle was different than this. That was endured to complete the action of fighting. There was something for me to push through. An objective to reach. A goal to work toward while grunting and grimacing.
This didn''t have anything to march toward or swing my hammer at. This was the slow and brutal restructuring of my body that I could do nothing but stand and endure.
Only left to hope and pray it would end soon. Time was a figment of my imagination now. Only pain and suffering to keep me company.
Standing against the grate as I was, I could feel my spirit work through my body, invigorating it, making it stay together as best it could.
As long as I was standing, I could make it through this.
Eyes closed and fists clenched, I endured.
Blood flowed liberally out of me after every blade of wind, nip of cold, and grind of ice. My body fought to reconstitute itself while simultaneously trying to shiver from the cold.
It didn''t know whether to regrow skin here or protrude goosebumps there. My teeth grunted and grit one second only to start clattering the next.
My mind didn''t know whether to focus on the pain or the cold.
The constant pain was the only thing that I had to keep me company during my isolation. But even after a while, that too became only a dull reminder. The constant pain was reduced to a muffled ache after what felt like a day.
Spikes of pain reminded me it was still there and it would never truly go away, but the same level of pain got easier to tolerate the longer it went on. Like building up a resistance.
It wasn''t truly building up a resistance, but portions of my body completing the process and resisting the damage better than before.
What I was left with was the chilling cold. The windchill that pierced through me that never went away.
It was funny. This was the feeling that I had been chasing when I upgraded my law and now I was experiencing it in excruciating detail.
The cold that settled into your core and seemed like it would never go away. A windchill so brutal your body starts to turn blue from frostbite.
My extremities never got a chance to harden from frostbite before being ground down by the wind.
Throughout it all, I''m still standing was the only thing I could think.
It all came back to the reason I was doing this. I needed the best evolution possible and for that to happen, I needed to do everything I could.
That included enduring asinine amounts of pain.
I endured so my family wouldn''t have to. When I evolved, I would be strong enough to protect them through what would no doubt be a rocky time in history.
There was little doubt that there would be fighting in every corner of the world. Everyone would want to carve out a piece of the pie. Stake their claim on the world.
I couldn''t fault others for it, for I would do the same.
That thought, above all others, was what kept me going. Imagining the city I would build. A bastion that would defend my family. An impenetrable fortress that would stand for generations to come.
Even after I was long gone, something I did would stand to defend my family. It was hard not to think about.
The impregnable fortress through history flitted through my head, Constantinople and Castel Sant¡¯Angelo. Le Mont-Saint-Michel and Edinburgh Castle. Along with other European medieval castles and Asian fortress cities.
Even castles from fantasy made their appearance. Minas Tirith and Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings along with Storms End and the Vale from Game of Thrones.
Finding the perfect place would be difficult but I had ideas for that. Austin''s profession would help tremendously.
Pain spiked and threatened to overtake my mind and I struggled to push it away. I didn''t want to focus on the pain, I wanted to focus on what the pain would bring me.
Like my very own castle.
What person didn''t want a castle?
Distracting myself with my fantasies was the only thing I could do to not pass out or go insane.
I had been in this Chamber for what felt like days, yet it still continued ripping away at me. Part of me was scared that after I was out, a slight breeze would bring back memories.
After this was done, I never wanted to think about it again.
There was crying and sobbing, yelling and cursing, pleading to gods I didn''t even know. Nothing worked to ease the pain.
I didn''t even know what day it was.
There was a chime of something in the background but that didn''t stop the assault on my body. It continued endlessly.
I didn''t have a chance to program an off switch from the inside. There was only a kill switch on the outside so the people out there could turn it off if something went wrong.
The booklet that detailed the technique gave estimations of how long it would take depending on a list of different factors. My fortitude and endurance, how intense the winds would be, if there were breaks involved, things like that.
It took me a minute to connect the sound of the chime with the realization that the process was complete.
My mind was so out of it that it didn''t instantly connect the two.
There was only one glaring problem. The Chamber was still on.
Without anything left to fight for, a reason to stay standing, I let the black take me.
Anywhere to get away from the pain.
Chapter 119 - Thoughts From the Heart
When I came to, the first thing I did was pull up my status sheet. I needed to know that the ding I heard was the Body of Wood notification and not something else.
If it wasn''t the case, and I had to go through all of that again, I wasn''t sure I would make it.
Body Stage Upgraded:
Unranked -> Body of Wood (Northern Winds Body)
Even with the notification saying I did it, I pulled up my status to make double sure.
~~
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (F) Human
Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) ¨C Level 50
Profession: (F) Runic Blacksmith(Uncommon) ¨C Level 44
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 425
Agility - 230
Perception - 114
Fortitude - 358
Endurance - 162
Vitality - 135
Intelligence - 103
Wisdom - 204
Acumen - 74
Free Points: 0
Laws: Lesser Law of Ice
Body Stage: Body of Wood (Northern Winds Body)
Spirit Stage: Anchor Formation
~~
My stats hadn''t changed much but there were a few new additions to the bottom of my sheet. Spirit Stage unlocked after I formed my Anchor and now Body Stage was on the list.
The to-do list I had set out to finish before my evolution was complete, the only thing I had left to do was level up my profession. It had leveled a lot during the building of the chamber but I still had 6 more to go for a perfect evolution.
Rushing to evolve was unnecessary but I wanted to level again. To feel myself grow. I didn''t want to waste the experience of the last wave since there was bound to be a lot of it. That many monsters in the E-rank were going to give quite the haul of essence.
After everything I went through, and all the new strength coursing through me, the last wave didn''t worry me anymore. It would be just another fight. Another battle just like any other. One where I would be left standing... or I wouldn''t.
The 29th wave was almost child''s play and I was looking forward to the challenge the last would pose.
Shuffling sounds from next to me drew my attention and I watched Abigail walk into my- Austin''s lodge.
"How long was I out?" My voice was hoarse and gravely, but I needed to know how long I was out to plan what I would do next.
The Chamber was set to run for just under three days. The longest it was supposed to take was 65 hours so that I would have some time to recover before fighting the final wave. Since I finished before the Chamber turned off I didn''t know how long it had taken.
"Just over a day. We were shocked at how quick it was too, nothing we read indicated that it would be over so soon and we are still trying to figure out why. The leading theory is because we didn''t have to heal you that much but other than that, we don''t know." She sounded upset. An upset Abigail was not good for anyone.
"What''s wrong?" I asked.
"You know what''s wrong." She muttered.
A heavy sigh escaped my lips.
She had tried to get me to not go through with it but I did it anyway. She read what was going to happen, the technique described it in exacting detail. She also knew the pain that it would cause.
My excuse of ''It was necessary'' didn''t work on her anymore. The line of being ''necessary'' and something I ''thought was necessary'' was blurring and she didn''t always agree. I was so far above them in strength that she didn''t think clawing for more was needed.
I did.
There was no way to get over that differing of opinion and we both tried to be civil about it.
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"Sigh," A sigh of her own sounded out and she deflated, "Look, I just don''t like seeing you hurt. You throw yourself into danger for our sake and come back covered in blood. The scars you had weren''t from arts and crafts-"
I made to defend myself but she continued over me.
"I''m working through it, but it''s hard. It hurts to see you in pain. To know you''re doing it for us. For me." She sounded almost dejected.
"We both know what awaits us when we get back. We''ve read the same information. We need strength now more than ever." I said back.
"I know, Chris, I know." She said softly, "I''m trying to get over it but it''s difficult. How would you feel if it was me getting hurt all the time instead of you?"
Terrible, that was how, but there was no way I was telling her that. I would throw myself in the line of fire a hundred times before she had to once, if it ever came to that.
I sat there in silence. This wasn''t the first time we had this conversation, and we both knew where the other stood.
In that silence, Abigail checked me over before giving me the all-clear. The healers worked to fix me up after I passed out and they did a marvelous job of it. There wasn''t any pain in my body as I moved around and stretched my limbs.
After she left, I went over my body in more detail to see if there was anything different. When Mitchell went through his procedure there was nothing visible afterward other than a feeling that he gave off and I wanted to check if mine was different.
Rachel had been trying to get me better at reading auras but I didn''t have the time for it. She said that the ''feeling'' I got from other people was the aura they gave off.
The only thing different about Mitchell was that he felt a little stronger to my senses but that was about it. No discoloration or other visible indicators of poison.
The same was true for my body. Nothing was different other than it felt stronger. My body felt more sturdy than before and like I could take a sword swing to my bare chest and would be fine.
I would have to test it to see the effectiveness but I felt great.
The only visible difference between my body before compared to now was that my scars were mostly gone. They weren''t gone entirely, but most had faded so much they weren''t visible.
The big ones were still there but that was it.
It was a tad disheartening but it cleaned out room for new ones. For the fights I would have in the future.
It was late in the afternoon of Day 86, and by all accounts, the process was surprisingly quick. I thought it would have taken a while longer to finish, none of us realized getting healed prolonged it as much as it did.
Now the only thing left to do was test my body and do as much forging and enchanting as humanly possible.
I knew how many levels I needed to get before evolving and had set up a way to power level before going under.
Finished products gave more experience than anything else and I sought to exploit that. I imposed a little on Vincent but he was happy to help.
The plan was for him to forge countless weapons only until they were most of the way done. That way, I could come and finish them quickly before engraving Runes on them.
We would share the experience but it was faster than forging from scratch. Plus, that way, I would get the experience from finishing the weapon from forging and then more from engraving Runes on them. Double the experience from half the work.
There was certainly some sort of penalty in terms of total experience for what I was doing but it should still put me out ahead in the long run.
6 levels in a day and a half. How hard could it be?
Pound the metal, flip the metal, quench the metal, engrave the metal.
Repeat.
Pound the metal, flip the metal, quench the metal, engrave the metal.
It was mind-numbingly repetitive but the results spoke for themselves.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
The first few were easy to get but I ran out of pre-prepared works quicker than I would have liked.
Vinny hadn''t had that much of a head start and didn''t have all the time in the world to prepare new ones for me. We ran dry halfway into Day 87 making me switch to other things. I did all kinds of things trying to scrape the last few levels into existence.
Enchanting buildings, walls, and weapons people were already using. Making as many swords as I could in the forge. I paid a premium for higher tiered materials trying to speed the process up. My skills were taking a hit from the rush jobs but the experience was good.
Without focusing on the process, my skills didn''t have a chance to upgrade and would be behind in rarity compared to my rank. Most were still in the common tier while Vinny''s were mostly rare.
There would be time to fix it later though.
The only other thing I had to prepare for was the material I was going to use while evolving. Austin used the Wings of a Golden Eagle and Jonathan used the shell of Stone Turtles.
Mine was a touch different. It wasn''t animals we were talking about, but humanoids. It was a little creepy to consider the body part I would be integrating into myself.
Different parts would do different things and there was a lot to consider. Price was another thing but I didn''t have to worry about that thankfully. My points alone weren''t enough to buy all possibilities but with the help of my family, we had enough for anything in the store.
There was also something else to consider. Stronger body parts had a chance of failure but I felt like I could take a bit more than most. My stats, body, and spirit felt more robust than what most people could handle.
There were so many things that I still needed to decide and not that long to do it.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Another chime signaled that time was coming nearer.
As soon as I hit level 50 I would be evolving and I had to make a decision.
Ugh, why did deciding have to be so hard?
A part of me just wanted to be told what to do or for there to be only one option. It would make things a hell of a lot easier.
I had an idea of what I would use but it wasn''t set in stone yet and there was still time to consider other avenues. My mind was nothing if not actively pondering.
The smithing didn''t take a lot of deep thought which left it free to doubt and question all the ideas I had come up with.
The body part I was considering the most was the Heart. I felt like the Heart made the most sense to start with. Frostborn, or Frost Giants for that matter, didn''t have wings to consider or shells to use.
They were mostly humanoid and had mostly human-like parts. Some were made of Ice or were more magically inclined than others but a great number were flesh and blood just like me. Especially in the lower tiers like I was in.
The heart of a Frost Giant was where most of their magic resided. Where they drew power from the cold and where the strength of their bodies started.
They still had monstrous muscles and strong bones, but it all started with the heart.
They were almost like dragons in a sense. Dragons had some of the sharpest claws and most indestructible scales in existence but their most prized part was their heart.
It was where most of their magic resided and the place their famous Dragon''s Breath came from.
Nothing could compare to a Dragon''s Fire.
Frost Giants didn''t have a famous breath attack that they used, but they did have magics of their own. Great powers with Ice and Frost that came from their hearts.
If I started there, the rest of the body would come later. It would boost the function of my heart and give strength to the rest of my body.
If I started with the muscles, the rest of my body wouldn''t be able to keep up. It would be harder on every other body part to keep up with my enhanced muscles if I did that.
My mind worked through the different things I could do with it. Austin and Jonathan both went the temporary route, building upon their bloodline so their changes would only surface when they called on it.
Austin wouldn''t sprout wings randomly and Jonathan wouldn''t grow a turtle shell. They would only show up when they needed them to and were called on.
A heart was different.
It wasn''t wings I needed to conjure at certain times and put away at others. It wasn''t a noticeable change that was visible for people to see.
The main question in my mind was Would it change me?
Not knowing the answer to that question killed me.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
The time to evolve was drawing near.
Chapter 120 - Evolution
"Is that him?" I asked Abigail who was standing next to me. Both of us were watching the new group of people file through the gate.
"Yeah, they say he''s already in the E-rank with a powerful class. We aren''t sure what rarity but it''s Rare at the bare minimum, most likely Epic." Abigail answered.
When we heard that a merge with the last standing faction was a possibility Abigail worked to get all the information she could about the faction''s strength. Their numbers, average level, level of the Leader, things like that.
She couldn''t find out everything but she managed to get a decent amount. We knew the leader, Kurt, was evolved but not how far into the E-Rank he was.
I didn''t think that he would agree to Tracy''s terms. I wasn''t privy to the exact wording of the agreement but I figured it was similar to what she and I had.
He spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to hold onto his pylon only to give up a wave away.
He didn''t look happy about it.
There were a few people close to him whispering something but I wasn''t close enough to hear. They seemed like advisors or something close to that and if I had to guess, it was them that made the merge happen.
The man scowled as he walked at the head of his camp''s procession. Leading them through the southern gate of Tracy''s camp and to the area that was cleared out for them. They numbered around 60 people altogether which was over triple what our faction was.
It was just shy of how many Tracy had which put them at a close second for total number of members. She had over 80 members still alive and kicking. All the surviving members of the tutorial were now in one place.
The man looked in his mid-30s with brown hair extending past his ears and in need of a cut. It was obvious he usually kept it shorter than that but there wasn''t a barber to go to around here, nor the time.
His beard was scruffy and in the same disrepair as his hair and looked like he usually kept it clean-shaven. That wasn''t saying it looked bad, but it was easy to tell he wasn''t used to having one.
At this point, my beard was getting a bit out of hand. I usually kept it cropped tight to my face but that was thoroughly abandoned now. It looked closer to the bushy forest I usually ended no-shave-November with than the tightly cropped beard I normally kept. Same with my hair, it was well past where I usually cut it, wild and unstyled. Appearance took a back seat during our time in the tutorial.
We were similar in our dishevel-ness.
His figure didn''t immediately stand out but it radiated power. His armor was light compared to what I usually wore, more leather and cloth than metal, most likely relying on his Body Refinement to get him through fights. His get up was either dyed a sandy brown or came that way from the beast or store.
Most likely the natural color to blend in with the sandy desert of the south.
I expected a heavier armor on the man but that didn''t seem to be the case. Or he could have an armor skill like I did that negated the need. I still wore it for added protection but it wasn''t strictly necessary. I couldn''t forget the variety of skills and what they can provide and assume he didn''t have access to armor.
The sword on his hip glistened in the sunlight and screamed quality. A hefty store-bought weapon no doubt and the shield on his back matched. A few dents and scrapes here and there to show its use, but overall well cared for.
It looked freshly oiled and polished, his sword the same.
He walked up to Tracy''s welcome party and spoke tersely for a few moments before moving on with the rest of his camp. He led them to the space that was set aside for them and helped them settle in.
From what we knew, he came here with his coworkers at a Law firm, most of which were now dead. The rest of his camp consisted of others in the area who came to his camp for help.
They didn''t know about the increased difficulty at first but then planned around it with the acrobatics they had people do with moving camps and all that. It was unclear whose idea that was, it could have been the man I was looking at now for all I knew.
He gave off a powerful aura and I could feel its robustness. It was near Austin''s in strength, almost higher actually. It was hard to get exacts with how it felt. It was also hard to evaluate Austin''s because I would never fight him like that. It was different than evaluating a potential threat.
He gave me an initial look when he walked in but nothing more than that, too busy with getting everything situated than evaluating me.
Well, he looked like a solid fighter and his aura screamed warrior. It was nice to see I wasn''t alone in my amount of strength and other people have reached as high as me.
It didn''t spell well for humanity if I was alone in the strength I possessed. I didn''t think I was but it was a nice change to feel someone outside my family with an aura that strong.
Achieving what I was after, Abigail and I turned away to do something infinitely more important than eyeing the new members.
It was time to evolve.
"Do you have everything you need?" Austin giddily asked. He was jumping out of his shoes wondering what my evolution would be like.
He spent a not insignificant amount of time pestering me about it. He wanted me to look at the classes I was offered almost a thousand times by now and I refused him at every turn.
I didn''t want to know what I was offered just in case it changed the outcome. Maybe it was a childish notion that I would jinx it, or ruin the surprise, but my evolution was important to me.
I didn''t want to mess it up somehow.
"Yes." I was as prepared as I could be.
My family surrounded me, already through with the pep talk and explanation even though I heard it not that long ago when Jonathan went through this.
The ground was prepared and sanitized by someone''s casting of [Cleanse]. All in the effort to purify anything that could go wrong.
The heart of a Young Frost Giant resided next to my seated form and I was ready.
I wasn''t sure how much of a tier differential my body could handle but went with the Young Frost Giant anyway. As a Frostborn, it was two steps up, a large jump, but I felt like I could take it.
My stats were high, I had a Body of Wood, Lesser Law, and a Spirit Anchor. I felt confident in using that high of a tier material without it going wrong.
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I had to help Tracy upgrade her pylon for it to become purchasable but it was well worth it.
We could only afford the one heart but that would be more than enough. Being a higher tier than my bloodline made the material worth more. There was more weight to it when using it to evolve.
Profession evolution available
I started with my profession. It was going to be the less rare of the two and I wanted to get it over with. I hadn''t had the chance to focus on it much with all the fighting that I did which made it more underwhelming than my class. There were still feats of skill under my belt, like the Wind Chamber, but not as much as my class.
The Wind Chamber was the most difficult thing that I built and that was a hack job at best.
~~
Enchanter Blacksmith(Uncommon)
Ward Smith(Uncommon)
Formation Smith(Uncommon)
Apprentice Runic Blacksmith(Uncommon)
Runesmith(Rare)
~~
The list wasn''t a surprise and I knew roughly what would be on it. Information on Professions was a lot easier to get ahold of than it was classes. I had deviated too far from the original five classes for most information to be relevant.
My profession, though, was close to by the book. Going from Blacksmith to Runic Blacksmith wasn''t that rare and there were detailed steps to the different professions from there.
Runesmith was the one I was going for and I made sure all the boxes were checked a while ago. Gaining experience from both forging and engraving. Forging a weapon of the Common tier and enchanting it to become Uncommon.
Forged what was considered a great work utilizing Runes in some capacity and having a unique forging style. The great work could have been a few things but I knew that requirement was complete.
I may have cheated and looked at the list to make sure. If I didn''t tell anyone, then the secret would die with me and that was what I intended. Austin would never know.
Only my profession list though, my class was important and I didn''t want to risk anything.
The stats were just what I needed as well.
+3 Strength, +8 Agility, +5 Perception, +3 Endurance, +8 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom, +6 Acumen, +5 Free Points
The booklet that had the information on how to unlock the Runesmith profession detailed the stats it would give and there was actually a way to influence that. Similar to Merchant in that respect.
You couldn''t swing too far away from the baseline but depending on the work you did the stats you would get could change. If you focused more on the smithing side, Strength and Endurance would be higher. The enchanting side would result in more magic stats.
I earned most of my experience from engraving so that was how the stats were skewed. That was on purpose because I expected my class to be heavy on the other side. It was a great way to even the two out.
I locked in Runesmith(Rare) and moved on to my Class.
I knew that the highest class I could be offered was Legendary. We knew that it could only go up 2 varieties during evolutions and you couldn''t jump any higher than that. I just hoped that I had done enough to get one.
The five options stunned me. The lowest was Epic with the other four all being Legendary. Having four that high was a great boon, giving me a better choice for which one I wanted.
Wringing every bit of advancement out of my rank was paying off. Not only one, but 4 Legendary classes to choose from.
Class evolution available
~~
Frostborn Warrior Shaman(Epic)
Reach closer toward the spiritual and lead them in battle. Summon and control Frost and Ice elementals for a short period of time to fight by your side in battle. Can fight both on the front lines and with magics from afar.
Requirements: Great Ice affinity, Least Law of Ice, Body Refined using Ice in some manner, Frostborn Bloodline
+8 Strength, +5 Agility, +3 Perception, +4 Fortitude, +3 Endurance, +3 Vitality, +8 Intelligence, +7 Wisdom, +5 Acumen, +10 Free
~~
The first up was the Epic. I didn''t spend much time on it but it sounded nice, I guess. I wasn''t a big summoner kind of guy and probably wouldn''t have taken this class even if it wasn''t the lowest rarity.
I did note the stat points though. From the others who evolved, we knew how many stat points the lower rarities gave for E-rank. Common gave 32, Uncommon gave 40, and Rare gave 48.
None of them were offered anything higher but we were able to guess. It went up by 8 every rarity and that held true. Both Epic and Legendary conformed to that pattern with Epic giving 56 and Legendary giving 64.
Next came the Legendary classes and boy were they a doozy. The four all sounded good and I would only be able to pick one.
~~
Blizzard of the Frost Giant(Legendary)
Harness the powers of the mighty Frost Giant''s Breath. Both Wind and Ice leap at your fingertips to direct as you please. Use them to fight how you please whether that be in melee or from range. Gaining this class necessitates significant permanent racial changes.
Requirements: Strong Ice affinity, Lesser Law of Ice, a trace Frost Giant Bloodline, and Frost Giant material used while evolving.
+10 Strength, +6 Agility, +4 Perception, +8 Fortitude, +6 Endurance, +5 Vitality, +8 Intelligence, +7 Wisdom, +10 Free
~~
Captain of the Boreads(Legendary)
The Boreads were an elite guard to the once King Boreas. They excelled at combat and were unmatched in the winter cold of their home planet. While most were warriors and weapon skills their forte, that didn''t mean they were incapable of great magics as well. Captains were a step above the rest and also held stout commanding abilities to bolster their company.
Requirements: Strong Ice affinity, Lesser Law of Ice, Body Refined using Ice and Wind in some manner, Leader Title.
+13 Strength, +5 Agility, +4 Perception, +8 Fortitude, +7 Endurance, +5 Vitality, +7 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom, +10 Free
~~
Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary)
The strength of a once mighty race placed in the form of a hammer. The Jotnar were famed warriors who specialized in heavy weapons and armor, wielding both to a masterful degree. Focuses on weapon and Armor skills above all else. They stood alone at the peak of Warriors for a time before their fall.
Requirements: Strong Ice affinity, Lesser Law of Ice, Body Refined using Ice in some manner, trace Jotun Bloodline, Warrior''s Spirit.
+16 Strength, +6 Agility, +4 Perception, +10 Fortitude, +10 Endurance, +8 Vitality, +10 Free
~~
Chilling Death of Helheim(Legendary)
The dead give you strength. Grow in power the more death there is around you, snuffing out the heat of the living. Not focused on one style of combat in specific, but any that get the job done. Death is the goal and the fastest way to get there is all that matters. Born from the blood of thousands and will grow with the blood of thousands more.
Requirements: Ice affinity, Lesser Law of Ice, Body Refined, the Blood of Thousands reaped by your hand.
+5 Strength, +5 Agility, +5 Perception, +5 Fortitude, +5 Endurance, +5 Vitality, +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom, +5 Acumen, +19 Free
~~
I had to go back and re-read a few but they all sounded like powerful classes. Two gave me pause while reading them and I wasn''t sure I liked what they implied.
Blizzard of the Frost Giant sounded like it required permanent alterations to my body and I wasn''t sure I liked that. My initial displeasure at the idea had abated somewhat but that didn''t mean I wanted to jump into a class like that head first.
The other was Chilling Death of Helheim. What did it say about me that I was offered a class like that? It required the blood of thousands just to become an option.
It would make fighting the waves a breeze if it worked like I thought it did, giving me a boost for every monster I killed. It would turn me into an army killer. Numbers would be meaningless if I could gain strength with every kill.
I didn''t know if I was comfortable with the last line though. ''''Born from the blood of thousands and will grow with the blood of thousands more."
It was wishful thinking to say my days of carnage and slaughter would be over when the tutorial ended but I would surely be turning it down. I didn''t know if I wanted a class that demanded blood and slaughter.
It sounded sinister.
Still, I had to make a decision and I wasn''t sure which. I was leaning hard on one of them after reading the list initially but I didn''t want to be hasty.
This would be my class for the foreseeable future. Most likely a year or so if the store was to be believed. It all depended on how quickly we got our feet under us after we returned.
Ugh, these decisions are killing me.
Chapter 121 - Leveraged Strength
While all of the classes sounded powerful, there were two that were lesser compared to the rest. Both Blizzard of the Frost Giant and Chilling Death of Helheim came with downsides that I wasn''t comfortable with.
That wasn''t to say I would never be comfortable with them, only that wasn''t the direction I wanted to go right now. That may change down the line as I experienced new things and my worldview expanded, but right now, it wasn''t something I wanted.
That left the decision between the other two. Captain of the Boreads and Hammer of the Jotnar. Both were warrior classes that gave good stats.
A heavy focus on Strength with a secondary emphasis on Fortitude and Endurance. Captain of the Boreads had a focus on Intelligence that the other didn''t have. Probably to give the commanding skills some strength if I had to guess.
Where Hammer of the Jotun was a pure warrior stat spread, Captain of the Boreads diversified a little bit in other stats. One had commanding and magic skills while the other focused wholly on weapon and armor skills.
I needed to decide the direction I wanted to go.
Usually, I had ignored the leader-type classes before but I wouldn''t be able to keep doing that forever. When I built my city, there would be guards and warriors who would fight for the city that would need a leader.
My fighting style didn''t really account for other people though. I was more of a solo fighter than a leader during battle and that wasn''t a small change to make. It would be a fundamental change to the way I fought, but it seemed like the sensible option when one owned a city.
Unless I appointed someone else as Guard Captain. Like a certain Earthen warrior I knew who would be perfect for it.
The question boiled down to what kind of skills did I need to fight on a higher level right now, there were more evolutions to course correct later. The class I chose now would give me the next 6 skills I would receive and I needed those to be able to boost my power set further than the other options would.
For being a supposed warrior I didn''t have a lot of weapon and armor skills. I had a lot of skills that affected the environment, but not many that were typically associated with melee fighters.
The only big ones I got back from my first class. When I first chose Warrior and got [Power Strike(C)], [Penetrating Strike(C)], and [Fortified Body(C)] which have since turned into [Mighty Blow(R)], [Pervading Cold(R)], and [Reinforced Body(Un)].
I used those skills every fight, damn near constantly at that.
Champion of Niflheim gave a good set of skills that were stat-boosting. [Frozen Fortitude(Un)], [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)], and [Glacial Presence(R)] boosted my stats by a large margin while fighting.
It also came with an armor skill that has kept me alive, [Frost Armor(R)].
I had prioritized skills that would help me deal with a large number of enemies rather than one strong one, reflecting the challenge of the waves. I wasn''t sure how well my skill set would hold up against one strong monster rather than the waves we were used to.
A monster that [Permafrost(Un)] and the cold couldn''t hinder. Strong enough that any ice I threw at it shattered rather than cut and one my hammer couldn''t smash.
I had to plan for the future when we were back on Earth. My biggest worry and threat I thought we would face was one higher-tiered monster that we wouldn''t be able to handle.
We were experienced in fighting waves of lesser-strength monsters and I knew we could deal with those, but it was the big ones that worried me.
Ones that exceeded the bosses we faced now. Back on Earth, there wouldn''t be a curated atmosphere to keep stronger monsters away. For all I knew a strong monster could come out of nowhere and attack us and there would be nothing we could do about it.
From what information we were able to get, we knew that as monsters rose in tier they sought out areas of high mana density. They needed more mana to help keep them growing in strength and purifying their bloodline.
They would grow as much as they could in the areas they were in before seeking out new ones. During their travel, they could pass by areas of civilization and there was a possibility they would attack. Or, if your city was in a high mana density area, settle in the area.
I hoped to stay ahead of the monsters in level but that wasn''t a guarantee. I could hope all I wanted and it wouldn''t make it true. Plus, it was unrealistic to plan on staying ahead of the billions of beasts that no doubt inhabit the planet. Those odds were against me.
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What I relied on most when fighting the bosses and monsters higher level than me were my stats. With [Avalanche(R)] boosting them and now [Glacial Presence(R)] pushing them further, my stats were higher than anyone I knew by a significant margin.
What I didn''t have were powerful skills to back that up.
I had [Mighty Blow(R)], sure, but I meant skills that meshed together and built on top of each other. Jonathan had better skills than me in that regard.
If I chose Captain of the Boreads I would be getting more of what I already had. Of the 6 skills it would give, a few would be magic skills, a few warrior skills, and a few commanding skills.
It was a range of different skills that would no doubt be powerful based on the Legendary Rarity, but they wouldn''t synergize or give me something new to work with.
They would be added to the list of skills I already had and used independently. Hammer of the Jotnar sounded almost singular in purpose leaving all 6 of the skills it would offer either weapon or armor related.
They would push that one aspect of my fighting further than Captain of the Boreads would be able to. My environmental and magic skills would take a hit but that wasn''t the end of the world.
I had plans on how to upgrade them further than what they were now. Specifically, merging a few of them. I still wasn''t sure what the end product would look like but I had plans for the direction I wanted to push a few skills.
Plus, there would always be a chance to switch it up later. E-rank wasn''t the end of the line and I would be able to change my class again in 50 levels. The only thing I needed to decide on now was if keeping my class unspecific was better than not.
What it came down to was what would make me stronger in the long run and there was only one of them I thought would do that. My skills were already plenty diversified, I needed to choose a specialization and I was always a warrior at heart.
Hammer of the Jotnar would boost my strength more than I thought Captain of the Boreads would. It was different but similar enough that it would be able to leverage my high stats and environmental skills better than anything else.
It would take what I already had and apply it in a better way than building upon what I was already doing.
Plus, it meshed well with the stats my profession would give me. My magical stats wouldn''t be left behind with the +8 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom, and +6 Acumen I would be getting every level from Runesmith.
With my decision made, I locked in Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary).
With both Profession and Class selected, it was time to get to the last part of the evolution.
I knew what others had said about what was going to happen but it still shocked me. I felt the energy flowing into me from the heart sitting next to me and it was asking to be used.
It was a rush of energy that was larger than I thought it would be. The small heart was a greatly concentrated ball of energy and it kept flowing into me without end.
Vinny had said it was like forging a weapon and mine was similar, kind of.
It was like I was back on the mountain making my hammer again for the first time. Condensing down the ice into the right shape and packing it together. Creating something from nothing.
My first choice was permanent or temporary.
The lecture when the alien Cypteris talked about the two and their differences came to mind and what we had read about them in various booklets. Even with that information known, this was the first time I felt it on such a personal level.
I held the two choices in my hand and the energy was demanding to be used. I wasn''t sure how long my body would be able to hold it together under the pressure so I didn''t dally.
I could feel what the choices would do. What would happen if they were chosen. One of them, the temporary, would take the power from the heart and build upon my existing bloodline with it. It would boost its power and when it was called upon, it would manifest an ethereal heart over my own, boosting what it was capable of for a limited time.
Giving me the power and magic that the heart held for the time I was able to call on the bloodline.
That was how the temporary option worked. The parts built onto it would only show up when the bloodline was called upon. Austin''s wings would only show up when he wanted them to. Same with the shell Jonathan incorporated.
The other option was different, the permanent option. It would mesh the Frost Giant heart with the one already in my chest. Some of the power would be lost in the transfer but the boost it granted would always be available to me. Always working throughout my body even if my bloodline was spent and didn''t have any energy left.
It wouldn''t only be there when I called on it, but always with me as it beat in my chest. Temporary would be a bigger power boost but it would only be available for a limited time, permanent was a bit weaker overall, but was always available.
I knew that nothing would change visually about me, but a great number of things would on the inside. My Vitality would get boosted, meaning that every stat point I had in vitality would mean a little more than before. My heart would be able to handle sustained fighting better than before, boosting endurance as well. Not the stat points themselves, but how my body utilized them.
And it would help me while controlling Wind and Ice. Wind was the secondary focus of Frost Giants and it wouldn''t boost my skill with it as much as Ice, but it was still a boost.
It was a choice that I had deliberated on endlessly. Do I or don''t I was a constant war in my mind. When I first heard of the options available to us, I nearly dismissed permanent outright.
I didn''t want to change myself or mutate my body like the option implied. The only reason I even considered it was because this was different. It was my heart, not adding a third limb or something like that.
I wasn''t grafting wings on my back like I was sure Austin would probably do later in life. He didn''t have the same hang-ups I did.
How much would changing my heart change me overall? People had heart transplants all the time and they didn''t change. They didn''t suddenly become a different person due to the new organ in their chest.
Comparing a heart transplant from before and the magical operation I was currently doing wasn''t the same, I knew that, but this whole world had changed.
I could afford to do the same to an extent. I would probably never go very far, or anything too out there with changes, but for this evolution, I felt the permanent choice was better.
If, for some reason, my bloodline was unavailable to me, or spent, it would give me strength I needed to live on.
It would help make me stronger for the trials to come back on earth. We had already lost so much family, I wasn''t sure I could take losing any more.
I was okay with changing myself this small amount if it meant being strong enough to protect my family.
Chapter 122 - Frostbound Hammer
After choosing the permanent option, there was a further choice that I could make. This one was optional and it was my chance to influence the result in some way. I could have the boost focus more on the Vitality and Endurance enhancement if I wanted to, or the magical enhancement.
I wasn''t able to change it much but I decided to leave it as was. The vitality, endurance, and magic boost were all something I needed. One wasn''t that important over the other and I didn''t want to mess with something I shouldn''t.
It was already hard enough trying to contain the concentrated heart energy coursing through me. I wanted this to be over as soon as possible before I went pop.
My body was strong enough that it was able to integrate the Frost Giant heart but I didn''t have time to muck about choosing my options. It was a higher-tiered energy that I was using and it wasn''t playing nice.
I was glad I chose the material I did, though. It was just high enough that I was able to use it without going too far and reaching for too much. It felt like if it was any stronger, unpleasant things would have happened. Like trying to fit 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag.
With my choices made, the energy flooded into my chest and started revolving around my heart. Pain blossomed and it felt like I was having a heart attack.
Alarm spread over me as the pain intensified because none of the others said anything about pain. They all said after making the options the energy would rush into their core and settle there after some time, not start stabbing pins into my chest.
There were two things it could be and there was no way for me to know which one it was. It could be the material''s tier coming to bite me in the ass or it could be the permanent changes being made to my physiology.
I elected to think it was the physical changes to my heart being made rather than the risky decision of using the heart.
It made me feel better at least.
After the pain I went through refining my body, this was nothing. It was rather unpleasant but it wasn''t the sharp, sustained pain of the Wind Chamber.
It took a few moments to finish the changes before the process was complete. My eyes opened slowly and the only thing I could see was a face millimeters away from mine.
"AH!" I screamed.
"AHH!" Austin screamed back.
"What the hell, man! Why were you so close?" I accused while trying to calm myself from the jump scare.
"It was taking longer than normal and you were grunting. I wanted to get a closer look." He answered like it was totally logical to be that close to someone else''s face.
"Well, what did you see?"
"You need a shower,"
Gee thanks, asshole.
I most certainly did but he didn''t need to point that out. Time had been fleeting trying to get all of this done and my hygiene took a back seat for a few days while I was rushing to evolve.
"I''ll get right on that, princess," I said.
He nodded, "See that you do. You''re stinking up my cabin."
After saying that, he just stared at me expectantly. I turned to see that everyone was also staring at me. It was unnerving seeing everyone look at me with such curiosity like I was a zoo exhibit.
"Well, what did you get?" Austin was the first to break, unsurprisingly.
If it was only him with me, I might have played around a bit but the 16 other sets of eyes disabused me of that idea.
"Legendary,"
Gasps were audible along with Jonathan''s rueful smile. He was no doubt thinking about the fact he just caught up to me with his new Rare class only for me to up the ante again.
Everyone knew that my new class was going to be up there but we didn''t know if it was enough for Legendary.
There was still another Path of Power out there that we had no knowledge of which I had yet to do. While the store gave a lot of information, we didn''t know everything, and assuming we did was asking for trouble.
Higher rarities were notoriously hard to get information on and we didn''t have a single information booklet on classes higher than Epic. We didn''t know their requirements or their unlock conditions.
For all we knew every Path of Power was required.
There was still a rarity above Legendary so maybe that was the one that required all four.
We didn''t know.
They stayed huddled around me until they got all of the details out of me. Nothing was spared and they didn''t stop until they had me tell them the four classes I didn''t choose as well.
Stats, distribution, requirements. I held nothing back. While this information could be used against me, I trusted my family more than anything. Now that there wasn''t a risk someone was mind-controlled, that trust was absolute.
After Christian, we didn''t take any chances and bought a trinket from the store to make sure. It wrapped around the head to check if there was any mental magic or compulsions in effect and we all underwent the test. Even me.
There would not be another incident where family had to kill family.
I almost missed the stat bonus from evolving because of the pain of having my heart altered. It was usually obvious when I evolved as it worked through every cell of my body with every stat getting a boost but the pain took my mind off of it.
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I opened the notification to confirm how many stats I received.
Racial Evolution: F->E
All stats +16
Along with the stat boost, there were two new skills that I received. The profession skill was generic and I knew what it was going to be before I evolved. The book about how to get the Runesmith class said which skill it came with.
It came with [Runesmithing(Rare)]. Similar to [Warding(Un)] and [Formation Mana Flows(Un)] it helped with the runesmithing process. It gave knowledge of how to combine smithing and enchanting to make the best product possible and a boost to the finished product.
While the skill would help a lot in my craft, there was another skill I was more excited about. The skill that came with my Legendary class.
Frostbound Hammer(Legendary) ¨C A splinter of the weapon once wielded by the Jotnar King Thiassi thousands of years ago. The ice this hammer was forged from still holds some of his spirit and must be awakened to show its true power. Combine with other splinters to bring back its full might. Only given to the mightiest of warriors with a strong ice affinity and bound to them by frost once summoned.
Reading the skill was eye-opening. The ancient weapon of a King of Old? What did that even mean? It said that power was still inside the weapon and I had to awaken it to show its true might but it didn''t come with an instruction manual.
People were still around waiting to see it and excitement was building up in me as I read the skill description aloud. All of us wanted to see what a Legendary skill would be like.
Without further adieu, I went to activate the skill.
I began with just a trickle of mana into the skill but when nothing happened, I upped it to a little more.
Nothing continued to happen and I had to use more. And more. And more.
I was pouring my mana into the skill by this point.
The skill was sucking up all the mana I was giving it and it started taking more. Pulling in mana faster than I could push it. This was the first skill that had done anything like this and it was slightly worrying. None of the other ones were this hard to activate.
Just like [Mighty Blow(R)], it started taking stamina as well and started pulling on my stamina just like it had with my mana.
What kind of skill is this?
Ice started to coalesce in front of me and frost started to form in the area from the drop in temperature. Snowflakes froze around me as the air couldn''t hold the moisture anymore. It was making... something inside the fog but I couldn''t see very well and my senses were all messed up.
My mana pool was rapidly depleting and the amount of mana going into the skill was making it hard to tell what was happening. My vision was blocked by the foggy frost and it was too much to take in with my mana sense. The sheer mana density and concentration made it too blurry to see.
As it continued to build, I felt a tug on my mental energy where my Law was held as well. I had more control over that than I did mana, but I allowed the skill to take it anyway. I needed to find out what the skill did and I didn''t want to cancel the activation now.
It took over half of my mana pool already, damnit!
The skill kept taking more and more building in concentration. The ice and fog grew until it extended out into the area around me.
My head started to hurt from everything that was happening. My Law being poured into the skill didn''t help matters creating a headache of its own from the rapidly depleting mental energy.
Lastly, it pulled on my spirit. I wasn''t as familiar with the energy that my Spirit used since I had only recently formed my Spirit Anchor but it was similar enough to the others I had used before.
While thicker and harder to move than mana, it could flow into and around my body in the same manner. I used it to strengthen things most of the time but it had more uses than that, I was sure of it.
Laws were similar. The way I used them, and the way most people used them, was to strengthen the attacks you made. Me with Ice, Jonathan with Stone, and Rachel with Fire.
It boosted the element that you had a Law in. Pushing it further than what only mana could.
It was amateur to think that boosting attacks was the only thing you could do with it, we just hadn''t found out the rest yet. We had only been living with the System for less than 90 days and weren''t that well-versed in it yet.
We focused on staying alive which meant producing the strongest attacks we could. Playing with Laws and Spirit Energy could come later.
All of that meant I had no experience with what was happening with the skill. It was taking everything I could give it while asking for more. It took mana, stamina, my Law, and my Spirit.
I didn''t know skills could do this.
The skill continued drawing on everything I was giving it and it was draining me dry. This was the first time I had used a Legendary skill and it was proving difficult. My mana was nearly empty and the rest of me would soon follow if it didn''t let up soon.
It was hard not to wonder why it was so hard to use. What was it taking all this energy for?
The suction on my power soon evened off before petering out completely. It drained me completely to create what it was doing. It left the frost in the air for a moment before that too was sucked away.
What I was left with made everyone speechless.
In my hand was a hammer. Not the hammer I usually used, but a massive Warhammer that looked infinitely stronger than mine.
The skill summoned a hammer from nothing.
This was the first time I had seen a skill summon something. Something that was real. Better than real actually.
Most of the time, skills were just mana conjurations that were lesser than the real thing. While my ice looked and felt like ice, there was a difference between it and the real thing.
Not the mundane ice on Earth from before, but the mana-infused Ice I had seen up in the mountains. My ice was better than normal Ice, but not the Ice in the tutorial. It was close, but there was something about it that was lesser.
I didn''t have the senses to tell what it was that was different, but the ice conjured by skills was different than real ice. That was why using the naturally formed ice from the Frost Rune worked better than the stuff conjured from [Hail(C)].
It wasn''t that much better, but in a fight every little bit counted.
The hammer in my hands looked magnificent. Better than anything I could have made and then some.
The hammerhead was similar to the one I was using now but it looked even better. With a massive blunt face on one side and a huge spike on the back. The ice itself was a striking Blue that mine didn''t have. An inner glow and an ephemeral quality to it that mine was missing.
The head was mesmerizing to look at. It drew my eye and it was hard to look away. I swore I saw movement inside of the Ice. Like a living blizzard of snow revolved around the inside of the hammer.
That was just the head of the weapon. I didn''t even get to the rest of it yet. The shaft was made of intricately carved wood in Formations and patterns that were different than the ones I knew.
The wood itself had frost growing off of it up and down the length of the weapon making it look even colder than it was. The weapon was so far above me I couldn''t even tell what kind of wood it was, let alone the Runes running along its length. Their meaning was above me and seemed like they would stay that way for a while yet.
While I sat dumbstruck gazing at my new weapon, Austin couldn''t hold back anymore and reached to touch it. The drawing effect too much for him to leave alone.
I was still stuck gazing at what looked like the insides of a snow globe and didn''t notice his encroaching hand.
His fingers hovered over the ice before reaching down to glide along the surface. I didn''t know what he was doing but he pulled his hand back quickly.
"Ah, fuck!" He exclaimed while shaking his hand in the air.
His scream drew me out of my reverie and made me look up from the magnetic effect of my new weapon.
He stood shaking his hand back and forth while Rachel created some fire to warm his hand up.
The tips of his fingers were black.
"Your hammer bit me!"
Chapter 123 - Pylons
The hammer was AMAZING. It was everything I wanted it to be and more.
After Austin''s frostbite was cured, he was kind enough to spar with me to break the weapon in.
With his misfortune of touching it known, I refrained from hitting his uncovered skin with it, but the rest of him was fair game. The fact the weapon was so cold that it caused frostbite just by touching it excited me to no end.
The weapon was that cold. I didn''t even have to use mana or skills to get it to such temperatures, the ice it was made of was just that cold.
It was great.
During testing, I used a few skills through the weapon and couldn''t help but laugh manically at the result. It was like a mage''s staff. It worked as a focus to amplify spells.
It only worked on Ice based skills but that was most of my arsenal. [Mighty Blow(R)] didn''t get the boost but every other skill I had did.
Casting [Ice Arrow(Un)] or [Sweeping Snow(Un)] through the hammer strengthened the skills with less effort.
[Icy Bastions(R)] came out stronger and larger, [Ice Arrow(Un)] came out bigger and flew faster.
[Pervading Cold(R)] got a huge boost to its effect, freezing Austin''s armor completely and we had to stop to let it thaw out. I worried that it would break after it frosted over and became brittle.
It was perfect. Everything about it was perfect.
The wood felt good in the hand and the Ice was the strongest material I had seen. The knots and intricately carved Runes along the wood brought the whole thing together into a majestic weapon of war.
The ornamentation was subtle enough that it didn''t come off as a showpiece but stood out as better than average.
To test the effectiveness of my new hammer versus my old one I set up an... experiment. What better way of comparing them than to hit my new hammer with my old one.
There was little doubt that the new one was better, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. I had no need of two hammers and would most likely melt my old one down anyway, might as well have it go out with a bang.
I laid my new one up against an elevated rock while I hefted my old one up over my head.
To give it the best test I could, I layered [Mighty Blow(R)], my Law, and my Spirit into my old one to make it as hard as possible and maybe give it a shot.
The only thing I didn''t do was use my boosting skill or get [Avalanche(R)] built up. The test wasn''t worth racing around for two hours building it up.
The ending surprised no one.
My old hammer shattered into a thousand pieces. Ice shards exploded out from where the two hammerheads collided and showered me in slivers of Ice along with a few others that were standing close enough to the explosion.
The only thing left of the weapon was the wooden rod that used to be the shaft of the weapon and even that was vibrating uncomfortably in my hands from the impact.
Now it was reduced to a wooden staff instead of the hammer it used to be. Maybe someone could use it as a Bo staff or quarterstaff? It was a strong wood and I had no further uses for it.
I wasn''t upset about the outcome, far from it really. The result meant my new weapon was that much better. There wasn''t even a trace of the impact on the new hammerhead and I hit it with everything I had.
It proved sturdier than my Law and Spirit combined and that was a hard thing to do. Even the E-Ranked beasts with sturdy bodies from previous waves couldn''t say the same.
Another thing that I noticed after using it and testing it out, was that there was a connection between me and the hammer. It didn''t feel like anything bad, but there was certainly a link that connected us. Bound us together.
The skill said that it would be bound after being summoned but I wasn''t sure what that meant at the time. I still didn''t, but now I knew what it felt like at least.
No one I mentioned it so I assumed no one was able to see the link and neither did they know anything about bound weapons when asked. It didn''t sound bad and it didn''t hurt, so I could only dismiss it to look into when I had more information.
While I sparred to test it out and get a feel for it, it wouldn''t get its real test until later. The last wave was due tomorrow and it would get its christening in blood then.
While swinging it around there weren''t many things that I didn''t like about it. It was an overall upgrade from the weapon I had used before with only one difference.
The only downside to the weapon was it was heavy, but that wasn''t really a downside in the long run.
It put the heavy in heavy weapon.
Now that I could level again that wouldn''t be a big deal after a few rolled in and my strength started to shoot up again like back before I was level capped. Now that I was getting 21 strength a level, heaviness wouldn''t be a problem for long.
With everything regarding my evolution was over, I pulled up my new status to give all the changes a look.
~~
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (E) Human
Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) ¨C Level 50
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) ¨C Level 50
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 478
Agility - 264
Perception - 142
Fortitude - 391
Endurance - 200
Vitality - 151
Intelligence - 143
Wisdom - 244
Acumen - 102
Free Points: 0
Laws: Lesser Law of Ice
Body Stage: Body of Wood(Northern Wind Body)
Spirit Stage: Anchor Formation
Class Skills:
Frostbound Hammer(Legendary)
Pervading Cold(Rare)
Icy Bastion(Rare)
Righteous Fury(Rare)
Frost Armor(Rare)
Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare)
Glacial Presence(Rare)
Frozen Patchwork(Rare)
Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman)
Mighty Blow(Uncommon)
Reinforced Body(Uncommon)
Sweeping Snow(Uncommon)
Ice Manipulation(Uncommon)
Cold Meditation(Uncommon)
Ice Arrow(Uncommon)
Shatter(Uncommon)
Permafrost(Uncommon)
Mental Freeze(Uncommon)
Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon)
Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon)
Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)
Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)
Identify(Common)
Hail(Common)
Profession Skills:
Runesmithing(Rare)
Mana Engraving(Uncommon)
Basic Runecrafting(Uncommon)
Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon)
Warding(Uncommon)
Formations Mana Flow(Uncommon)
Sense Metal(Common)
Create Weapon(Common)
Create Armor(Common)
Metallurgy(Common)
Mana Infusion(Common)
Forging Proficiency(Novice)
Coins: 0
Points: 1,497,200
~~
It was looking mighty fine. With the stat boost from the Racial evolution, all my stats were now over 100. It didn''t come with any achievement or anything like that, but it felt nice to have all of my stats in the triple digits.
My points took a hit after buying the Heart but I didn''t need them anymore anyway. All the points I earned in the last few days of the tutorial would be going to my family for them to buy bloodlines and get them ready for their own evolution.
Abigail evolved not long after Jonathan did which made me the 6th of my family to reach the E-rank. Rachel was level 50 but she was waiting for a few more things until she went through with it. I wasn''t sure exactly what she was waiting on but I guessed it was her Law.
She wanted to push it to Lesser like I had before going through with it.
Plus, she wanted a more expensive bloodline than what we could currently afford. She really wanted a draconic bloodline but I wasn''t sure we would be able to afford it.
There would be a lot of points to be had conquering the fallen pylons but we still had the others to think about. 11 people still needed to get a bloodline and we weren''t going to blow all our points on Rachel''s.
She had her own points that she had been saving up and had a few more days to push for more, but we were returning to Earth in under 4 days.
It felt weird to think that. In just under 4 days we would be back home. After everything we had been through, it didn''t seem right somehow. 90 days passed in the blink of an eye and it felt like only yesterday we were getting inducted into this new System.
Without anything left to do, I decided a change of plans was in order.
Instead of waiting for the wave to come to me tomorrow, I would go have a workout fighting a few of the pylons on my way back north. It wouldn''t make it easier to conquer since more would fill back in after I left, but we might just be able to get Rachel a dragon bloodline yet.
Defend your claim!
Wave Start: 0:59
I heard the ding for what would be the last time. No more waves would come after this one. No longer would we be forced to fight for our lives every three days.
We knew that cities had waves like this but they weren''t nearly as frequent as the tutorials had been. They would come once a month and sometimes not even that frequent.
It was a hotly debated topic based on the information we had on city ownership and something I took a keen interest in giving my intentions.
While everyone had the ability to buy a Civilization Pylon from the store if they had sufficient coin, that didn''t mean everyone was able to found a city.
When someone founds a city, the surrounding land gets claimed by the pylon when it is placed. Similar to what happened when we claimed a pylon in the beginning. It was like owning a deed to the land the pylon claims and the leader obtains that deed. No other Pylon would be able to claim the land that another pylon had ownership of unless it was from the same faction.
Pylons placed under the ownership of another were called subordinate pylons.
If one pylon claimed a vast swath of land from being leveled up a few times, another pylon was able to be placed inside that radius if it was owned by the same person, or faction, that held ownership the first one.
Creating a Village or Town that was tied to the original City. Owned by the same people.
It was how Kingdoms set up their land and what brought about the Noble hierarchy that the System used.
That was a whole different can of worms that I didn''t want to open. I didn''t want to be King or start an Empire, just one City was enough for me. A heavily fortified and defensible city, but a City nonetheless.
I could let other people have the fun of starting Kingdoms and fighting each other for land. I would be able to stay isolated up North and maintain neutrality. A don''t mess with me stance.
Or that was what I hoped.
There might come a time later when I had a few subordinate pylons but that would be a long ways off.
The subordinate pylons would never be able to grow past a certain rank though. They would be capped by the level of the first pylon. If the first rose to City level, then the subordinate pylons would be able to go to Town level.
There was also a cap on how many subordinate pylons one could have. A City couldn''t have countless Towns and Villages under its control and could only have a few of each.
The only other way to conquer land was fighting for pylons in battle.
The rules on placing pylons and claiming land kept people from placing them too close together or claiming land that others already held ownership of which caused fights for land to happen more often. If land was already claimed, you could only gain it by fighting for it.
Now, placing a pylon was all well and good, but the System didn''t want just anyone to own a city. It sent tests to make sure the owner was of sufficient strength to own it.
Those tests came in a few different forms but they were similar to what we had faced with the waves.
It was the System''s way of making sure millions of Cities didn''t pop up by making people earn the right to own one.
Similar to the reason we had to fight off a wave to upgrade our pylons to the next rank. The System was full of fun little tests like that.
And that was all only for Planetary City structure and Planetary Nobles. There was a whole other level above that going as far as Galactic Scale. High-Tiered people weren''t satisfied with only holding ownership of a planet, they needed more.
Planetary bodies and Galactic Sectors of ownership were common in the multiverse with their own set of noble titles. Calling someone a Planetary Duke instead of a Galactic Duke was a grave insult and could be punishable by death in some Duchies.
I didn''t get much more time to ruminate on that whole jumble of problematic societal structure as the countdown reached its end.
A wave of monsters spawned in for the last time.
Chapter 124 - Zwahelios
It was always fun smashing around the beasts of the wave but this one was going to be different. I could feel it.
The difficulty level was in for a sharp incline but I didn''t think it would be out of my reach. All the different Paths of Power that I had stepped down added up to a substantial differential between the beasts and me. It was a divide between normal E-ranks and ones who had stepped down every avenue. Well, almost every avenue. At least that was what I thought before the wave started.
What ended up spawning in created an oppressiveness that closed in from all sides surrounding the camp. A weight that started to close in on me. Even from as far away as I was, the feeling was clear. I was in for a fight, a bloody one.
The sun was high in the sky casting light down without a cloud intercept it, yet it somehow managed to get brighter than before. The light got so bright I had to squint to make anything out. The monsters were somehow producing it and it was focused on the walls lining the camp creating a nasty glare that I had to shield my eyes from.
With a bit of maneuvering, I managed to get an [Identify(C)] on one of the leading monsters and I was finally able to see what I was up against.
[Zwahelios ¨C Level 50]
They looked like avian velociraptors. Well, more avian than normal velociraptors. The birds reached my chest in height but they were longer than they were tall. Bird-like beaks protruded out of their head with sharp spikes of teeth jutting out of their mouth.
Feathers led down their short arms and ended at their pointy elbows, accentuating the corner. Taloned feet thundered on the ground as the hundreds of Zwahelios closed in. Their tails counter-balanced them letting them run upright on two legs and were thick in both muscles and feathers.
Now that I was in E-Rank myself, the level and name of the monsters were no longer blurred or filled with question marks. The rank difference not being there let me see what was approaching clearly with the skill.
That was something I had meant to change but never had the time to get around to it. Upgrading the rarity of my [Identify(C)] skill would let me see more information than what I was being given and wouldn''t fail when there was a high-level difference.
Some upgrades even gave insight into the stats of the thing being identified. Some went broader and gave more detail about what the thing was while others gave deeper insight into the skills a beast had. There were a bunch of different variations that [Identify] could upgrade into but I hadn''t gotten around to doing it yet.
The same was true for picking up an [Identify Block] skill. While we were still in the tutorial I hadn''t thought it was necessary. I knew, roughly, the people that were in here with me and what strength they held and they knew mine.
It wasn''t worth it to buy the [Blocker] when Tracy had already seen what I was capable of. Plus, not being the highest level inside the tutorial worked to my advantage. I didn''t know if it worked or not but seeing my level being stuck at 50 might have made people underestimate me.
They would have had to have been ignorant of who I was, but it was still a possibility.
With us returning to Earth soon, getting a [Blocker] was something I needed to do. Giving information to people for free wasn''t something I wanted to do. Best case scenario, I got one so strong no one would be able to see anything.
I didn''t hold my breath for that though. For every strong [Identify Block] skill, there was an equally strong [Identify] to pierce it. It was the nature of skills. If one got stronger, the other would have to get stronger to keep up.
The monsters didn''t care about my [Identify] predicament and closed in regardless. Javelins of ice met them when they got in range and kicked things into motion.
The [Avalanche(R)] was building.
The oppressive weight that the monsters carried with them followed them as they neared. It tickled the back of my neck, making my hair stand up. It was a different feeling than what being outmatched felt like but it was close to it.
Usually, when this feeling came about, it was because of a boss or a monster significantly higher level than me. The level difference had a weight to it. The difference in the essence between us.
That wasn''t true this time. These were level 50 beasts the same as I was.
The reason they had such a weight to them was because the tutorial wasn''t done trying to kill us yet. It threw one last thing at us as a final send-off. I picked up on it as the rolling wave of might tried to force me down.
Every one of the monsters running my way carried a Law with them. All of them had Least Laws of Light.
The Laws they had added together, rising on top of each other creating a wall of force that built on my shoulders. Pressing me into the ground from their collective weight.
The tutorial could have been nice and had them capped at level 50 without having a Law but that would be too easy. That wasn''t fit for the grand finale. Even with the surprise of all of the monsters having Laws, I didn''t think that was the end of it.
There would probably be a few more surprises headed my way before the wave was over. The death throes of trying to kill us one last time.
So be it.
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My new hammer twirled in front of me in preparation. A flourish I had come to like while wielding the heavy weapon.
Up and around before smashing into the ground next to my feet.
It was both showboating and a provocation. Not that the beasts knew that, but it wasn''t for them.
It was for me.
The tide reached me and I started swinging.
My hammer rose and fell as more beasts joined the fray. The monsters were falling but not as fast as more joined in. Their numbers kept rising even as the crushed and deformed dead rose with them.
It was endless and unstoppable.
The pressure inside me built and I couldn''t help but feel the heat of battle in my soul. The song being sung inside me built into a rising crescendo. The pressure reached new heights as shafts of light pierced through me, searing through my armor.
Blood leaked from the seared holes before freezing over with ice.
My armor wasn''t enough to block them. It was the same reason fighting Austin was so annoying, the beasts were able to get through my armor with their light-based attacks. The Ice only blunted the worst of it before the rest made it through. My Law and Mana couldn''t hold up to the onslaught of hundreds of attacks all backed with a Law.
I could handle one or two, maybe even a few, but not the amount that was being leveraged against me.
While I focused on swinging my hammer, the Law reinforcement on my Armor was worn through by cascading beams of light before the rest smashed through and into my flesh.
[Frozen Patchwork(R)] worked overtime to freeze the holes that were burned through me.
Through it all, my hammer rose and fell, sweeping arcs in front of me when more joined in. It was an all-out battle and I didn''t even have time to cast magic. I couldn''t bear the distraction from the melee I was in to launch any [Ice Arrows(Un)].
Snow revolved around me faster and faster in an attempt to ease the fight but more of it began to shatter from the oppressive Light. [Sweeping Snow(Un)] did what it could but the tide of beasts overwhelmed the newly upgraded skill.
Mana flowed through my hammer, building up ice atop the end until it tripled in size. The massive clump whipped through the air like a maul taking numerous beasts with it until the end of its arc.
Before the momentum of the head could end, [Shatter(Un)] sent the extra ice exploding out, taking yet more foes with it to the grave and returning my hammer to its original state.
My hammer came back through for another pass with the spike leading this time, stacking bodies atop its length before the force died out. My swings increased in intensity as the [Avalanche(R)] built behind me.
Rise and fall. Up and down. The rhythmic swings felled the beasts as fast as I could.
[Icy Bastion(R)] bloomed around me as I felt a strong light beam close in. It had the strength of more than a few of the monsters combined into a concentrated lance. They were adding their skills together, concentrating the light and layering their attacks on top of each other to get through my guard.
Yet another unwanted surprise.
[Reinforced Body(Un)] wasn''t enough to stop the lance from piercing through me the first time it happened and I threw an [Icy Bastion(R)] when I felt it coming the second time. With [Frozen Patchwork(R)], my body could take a beating, but I burned a bit of mana to save me from the wound. While the skill could patch me up, deflecting the blow with a bit of mana was better.
The attacks against me built as I did what I could to ward them off. Ice shattered from claw and talon around me before getting launching out into the sea of bodies.
Any of my ice that was broken by enemies turned into a projectile for me to use.
Both [Ice Manipulation(Un)] and [Throwing Proficiency(App)] applied to the shards of ice before they slunked into their waiting partners
[Righteous Fury(R)] ignited and burned inside me as I couldn''t hold off not using the skill any longer. If I tried to save it for the boss I wasn''t sure I would make it through the wave.
Hundreds of Least Laws added up, worming their way through my guard. Their collective might was enough to stomp down on me. Pushing my domain back, making me either wade through the thick hostile atmosphere or spend more mana to keep my domain secure.
The Frost Rune tried to fight back but it wasn''t enough against the hoard of monsters. The Rune wasn''t made to fight against that kind of force.
[Permafrost(Un)] helped keep the space steady but it only worked on the area closest to me. The ice lining the inside of the walls already starting to melt, the heat building from the focused light too much for it to handle.
Throughout it all, the [Avalanche(R)] built.
Grunts of pain were fought through along with the wounds building on my body.
My body showed its might for the first time and I couldn''t help but marvel at what it had turned into. Body of Wood was more than what I gave it credit for. Attacks that would have cleaved flesh from my bones were turned into nicks that barely drew blood.
Piercing beams of light that would have burrowed clean through me only penetrated a few inches deep. Seeing how my body stopped most attacks cold was the reason they began to combine their power.
The concentrated beams of tens of monsters were enough to pierce through me, even with my Refined body.
My Spirit began to infuse me and the fight escalated yet again. During the waves, I usually adhered to a continuous escalation of power. Starting with [Avalanche(R)], using my Law and Spirit sparingly, and saving my bloodline and [Fury(R)] for the boss.
This wave wasn''t allowing me to do that.
It was making me burn hot and fast to last through the throngs of lesser monsters. Everything was coming out as the pressure mounted. My [Fury(R)] was burning inside me, my Law and Spirit infused my attacks and body.
The only thing that I had held back was my bloodline. If there was one thing I wanted to save for the boss, it was that.
Ever since I evolved, my bloodline took on a new life. Having the Heart of a Frost Giant turned the bloodline from a decent power boost, into a devastating jump in power.
My Heart amplified the powers of my Bloodline by a significant degree and I was able to use more of it than I had before. Like jumping from low to high octane fuel.
The only problem was the length of time I could call upon it shortened to compensate. It was a tradeoff between a bigger boost in power for a shorter period of time.
As the last of the Zwahelios clawed and fought their way through the gates, finally letting me see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was time to do so.
I almost felt bad for the little lightblasting shits.
Without the need to hold my bloodline in reserve any longer, I called on the power buried deep in my core. Ice spread through my veins and my muscles bulged as they tried to contain the boost in strength.
While my Heart could output more power, my muscles struggled to contain it. Without having a Body of Wood my muscles would have popped like a grotesque balloon from the strain.
I was sure that the physical manifestations of my bloodline were more pronounced but without anyone else here to tell me, I wasn''t sure the form they took.
All I could hope was that I didn''t start glowing.
Chapter 125 - End
Austin
He could feel the Light Law the beasts had resonating with his own. His attacks were being bent by the monsters as they closed in, going where he hadn''t intended for them to land.
It was frustrating not to have them go where he wanted them to, but the deviation wasn''t much. A few inches here and there at most, but that changed a lot when the things he was aiming for required precision. His attacks were aimed with pinpoint accuracy at weak points and the deviation affected that.
In-between ribs to penetrate deep into the chest cavity, through the eye socket for easy access to the brain without having to punch through the skull. While a nudge here and there wasn''t much in the grand scheme of things, it threw off his attacks mightily.
Also, it came at a time when he needed to be at his best.
The final wave was proving more difficult than any had anticipated and he wasn''t like Chris. He couldn''t solo waves and stay on his feet through brutal injuries.
Austin saw what Chris walked away from on a daily basis and still wondered how he managed to keep going. If Austin got even half as damaged as Chris, he would be down for the count needing a healer to put him back together.
While his Vitality was higher than the Icy Juggernaut''s, his Fortitude wasn''t. The point of all of his Agility was to not get hit in the first place. He could afford to have a lower Fortitude if he dodged more attacks than what landed on him.
Austin''s eyes sharpened as he pulled on his bloodline. He had been experimenting with its use and he realized that short bursts were best. Whenever he was about to get overwhelmed or he needed to kill the beasts around him quickly.
It conserved most of the energy and he could use it over a longer period of time.
His speed soared and his spear shot out, piercing through the monsters around him in quick succession.
The rest of the family was getting battered by the beasts but nothing too serious had occurred. The gate wasn''t able to hold up for long, only rewarding them precious minutes to attack with abandon, the time for full-on battle had come.
Austin''s family showed their experience from previous waves and dealt with it in a calm and collected manner. The warriors were veterans by this point and took up their place at the front, placing their full trust in the backline to see them through the battle.
Austin didn''t even want to think about how Tracy''s sides were doing. They were wholly unprepared for what was about to happen. They placed their full trust in the walls and defenses they had built and now those defenses were crumbling.
Falling apart under the might of nearly a thousand Least Laws the beasts carried.
He was surprised the gate lasted as long as it did honestly. Even with all of the explosions and elemental attacks launched from the top of the wall, monsters sprouted from nothing to continue the advance. Biting and clawing at the gate to get through.
Taking one down did little to stop the tide. Even with all the traps laid scattered in front of the wall, it wasn''t enough. It was never going to be, but Austin couldn''t help but imagine the despondent faces of Tracy''s members right now.
He knew they placed too much trust in their defenses. They didn''t have the experience of fighting in the thick of it like his family. They weren''t ready for the battle that had started inside the walls.
They were weak.
It was what he had been trying to push Chris for in the beginning. Austin wanted to push his family just as much as himself but he hadn''t gone through with it.
Maybe if he had there would be more of them still here today. Or more of them would have died during the fight with the Mindbreaker.
There were no absolutes with what ifs but Austin couldn''t help but regret his decision. He knew Chris did, even though he didn''t like to talk about it.
Chris was bottling up everything that had happened and he wasn''t in for a good time when that seal finally cracked. He kept trying to put one foot in front of the other and he would eventually falter because of it.
Going from pressing concern to pressing concern couldn''t last forever.
When Austin had tried to broach the subject with him all Chris would say was ''I will deal with it when I find the time.''
Austin couldn''t help but pity the person that made him finally explode.
Chris
"AHHHH!"
A primal roar escaped me as more and more blood leaked out of me. My fighting had become more savage as the wave continued and I couldn''t help but shout in frustration. It wasn''t even because of the beasts anymore.
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It was me yelling at the world.
As the beams of light kept finding their way through my armor, more of my mana flowed through me to intensify my attacks.
[Sweeping Snow(Un)] revolved around me, nearly turning the sky white as I pumped rivers of mana through it. My Law and Spirit flowed liberally into all the ice and snow in the area. My hammer whizzed through the air trying to keep up with the last of the monsters.
The end of the wave was coming and I was gearing up to meet it.
The floodgates were opened and I could feel the mental strain building from using my Law like I was. When I said all the ice in the area, I meant all.
It flowed into every snowflake and spec of broken ice around me as I flooded the area in its might. My Spirit did the same and I could feel its power reservoir falling at a commensurate rate. Same with my mana keeping all of my skills active.
If I hadn''t seen the end of the tide working its way through the gate this would have been suicide. Draining myself like this would leave me high and dry when the boss showed up.
But I could last long enough now that the end was in sight.
The increased brutality added to the drops of blood flying through the air. The beasts were fast and nimble but they were not very durable. A hammer blow was enough to end them if I hit the right spot.
A therapist would probably say that I was projecting but I couldn''t give a rat''s ass about their opinion right now.
My increase in brutality was perfectly justified.
These were the monsters sent to kill us every wave. These were the beasts sent to challenge us and stand in the way of our return to Earth. The tutorial that was supposed to ease us into this whole process.
The System that uprooted our life and sequestered us into this hell. My life that had turned upside down on a random Saturday in March.
This wasn''t how my life was supposed to go. I didn''t plan to wade through the blood of thousands, smashing down monsters and snuffing out lives with my hammer. I wanted to be an engineer.
Get a cushy job somewhere and retire early. Maybe start a family in a few years while watching my niece and nephew grow up. Teach them cuss words and buy them beer after they turned 18.
Not... this.
My hammer caved in the skull of another monster, showering me in brain matter and blood. Little chunks of skull rained down around me and it was hard not to be frustrated at what I was made to do.
What the world had made me do.
The killing would never end. It wasn''t the way the world worked now that there were levels and essence. I would never be free of it, never get the chance to live a peaceful life.
It made me angry. Angry about the choice that had been taken from me. The option that was removed from my future.
And what made me the angriest? What made me seethe with rage?
I liked it.
Maybe some of my frustrations were at myself. At the person that I had become now that I had a hammer in my hands. At the person that had died and been reborn 88 days ago.
At the person my father would barely recognize.
So much anger was bottled up inside me there was enough of it to go around. All of my regrets flashed through my mind and it was hard not to be angry at myself. At the stupid choices made along the way.
If I had started slaughtering beasts at the start, would more of my family still be alive? If I went and massacred every human in the tutorial would my family be intact?
Maybe the Chilling Death of Helheim was who I was. Maybe it was through the blood of thousands that I would rise.
Maybe it was just my grief.
"GAHHHHH"
I chose not to contain it anymore. To stop repressing the emotions inside of me. I didn''t want to think about it. I didn''t want to deal with what was in there. I wanted it to go away.
It wasn''t the anger at myself that I drew on, it was my fury at the circumstance I was forced into. I couldn''t fight the System, or the tutorial grounds I was in.
But I could kill the beasts.
Unfiltered rage flowed through me and I swung.
And swung, and swung, and swung.
At some point I started screaming as I brought my hammer down, bringing death to another being.
Smashing the thing that blocked our exit out of here.
Even as the last of the lesser monsters were ground into the dirt, I didn''t stop swinging.
I charged the four bosses who tried to impose their aura on me. Charged at them with abandon and swung.
The beast didn''t go down with the first blow so I did it again. And again. It finally died making me move on to the next one. There was no grace in my swings, only destruction.
My body wasn''t handling the punishment I was making it go through but that didn''t matter to me right now. Maybe it was the tiny part of me that wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. The part that wanted to take them down with me. The part that didn''t want to be here anymore.
I wasn''t sure of the reason, but I was sure of the outcome. They would meet my hammer and they would die.
My mind went blank and I let go of everything else. Of everything except for one thing.
My desire to kill the things that had ruined my life.
With single-minded purpose, I swung.
And I swung.
And I swung.
And I SWUNG.
The boss showed up but I didn''t change in my approach.
My hammer came alight with the powers flowing through it and almost matched the preceding beast''s luminescence in intensity.
The boss felt different, like it was stronger than it should have been but that flowed through my head like water on a duck''s back. In one ear and out the other. It didn''t change anything.
The only sounds that rang out from inside the camp were my guttural screaming and the squelch of flesh being pounded in.
Booming thuds upon flesh as liquids splattered outward. Of repeated pounding almost incessant in pace.
Thud
Thud
Thud
Thud
The thuds lessened until they became dull, then changed further before finally turning into squelches.
It wasn''t until I couldn''t physically lift my hammer that I stopped. The failure to lift it was the only indicator that I shouldn''t continue.
My mind came back to me slowly and I took in the scenery around me.
Bodies littered the area in various states with the biggest one lying in front of me. My body was screaming at me in protest to rest and there were more holes in me than Swiss cheese.
The four mini-bosses were easy to spot because of their size difference, they too were smashed beyond recognition.
But the one that was by far the worst, was the boss.
It was little more than a mangled lump of flesh at this point, smashed beyond all recognition.
I couldn''t even point out the different parts of the body it was so disfigured.
It was easy to see that I snapped. The level of destruction was unnecessary even against monsters. The entire boss was unusable after the treatment I put it through.
Blood saturated my armor and the frozen blood upon it looked purposeful in its intensity. The crimson layer evenly distributed throughout my form.
I just stood and stared at what I had done. The realization that the tutorial was over didn''t hit until a few moments later.
With everything that I had been through, of the trial that my family had been put through, it wasn''t relief I was feeling at the end of it.
Without a better way to process, I sat and cried.
Cried for the people who weren''t here and the things that I had done. Of the people I had killed and the blood that I had reaped. Of the empty feeling inside me.
I cried.
Chapter 126 - Closing Hours
Picking myself up took longer than I cared to admit. It was more than just my body I had to put back together. I had prepared for injuries, though, and potions to help with healing, my outburst... not so much.
Healing potions were stashed inside the keep to use and I had a few on me for emergencies. I had to keep a few stashed to make sure not all of them broke if I got pummeled a little too hard. If I kept all of them on me, like I did for the Vine Bears, there was the possibility of them breaking.
These healing potions were a bit better than normal because I anticipated needing a decently sized pick-me-up. Plus, we had plans starting not long from now that I needed to be fighting fit for.
I bought some of the more expensive materials for Conner to use and he managed to brew a batch of peak grade Common-tier healing potions out of them. They worked significantly better than the generic ones we bought from the store.
The pylons wouldn''t conquer themselves and my body needed stitching back together. Ice wouldn''t hold it together forever.
Still, I took a bit of extra time to get myself in order before meeting up with everyone. I wasn''t sure how well they would have handled the wave but I didn''t fear for their safety.
After feeling the wave for myself, I was confident that they would be fine. Jonathan and Austin together would be able to dull a lot of the force and the rest were strong enough to handle the leftovers. Only having to fight one wall worth also helped matters.
Tracy and the new group, on the other hand, would probably have casualties depending on how well they did. I suspected Tracy''s group lost quite a few.
They weren''t on the same level as us in terms of strength. Both in levels and experience fighting which would hurt them when it came down to it. They weren''t prepared for what was going to happen.
Limping back down South gave me the answer I was looking for. 16 faces met me halfway into my journey and I let out a breath I didn''t know I had been holding. Even though I expected to see them, I couldn''t help but hold doubts.
It was hard not to worry, even when I knew they weren''t weak.
"It''s good to see you," I huffed at them.
Abigail came up to me with glowing hands to start the healing, "It was as bad as we thought."
The other healers came up to add their skills to the bowl as I turned and we headed back up north.
Abigail and the other healers worked to fix me up and make me a little less holy while everyone else started walking back to our camp. It was a bit of a waste for me to turn around and walk back to where I started, but it saved time in the long run.
Giving the healers time to work through all of the wounds I had endured before we kicked our plan into motion.
"How did they fare?" I asked.
"Tracy''s camp lost 22 people. The Eastern wall fared the worst and had the most deaths of the wave. Kurt, the newcomer, lost 5 defending the Southern wall."
Tracy losing that many was surprising. I knew they wouldn''t handle the last wave very well but that number was still higher than I thought it would be.
"Why so many?" I questioned.
"There was some... collateral damage." She said cryptically, she looked around to make sure none of the kids were in range before continuing with a quieter voice.
"Some of the explosions and traps went off when people were still fighting at the gate. I wasn''t able to see all of it, but it looked like she went scorched earth when the gates fell even though people were still there fighting."
With everything that had happened, that wasn''t all that surprising. The type of person Tracy presented herself as in my head wasn''t someone above doing something like that.
She didn''t have an attachment to the people in her camp like I did. She didn''t really care if they lived or died. She only cared about living through the tutorial and she got her wish.
It was a distasteful thing to do but not all that shocking. It made what I was about to do easier at least.
Tutorial End: 01:19:32:43
One of the first things we needed to do was allocate the next 44 hours. We already had plans set up but now we knew for certain how much time we had left and could draw up a timeline.
The wave and subsequent healing, along with travel time, took 4 hours giving us just under 2 days to conquer as many pylons as possible. We didn''t even plan to get all 50 as that was unfeasible.
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We had estimates we had come up with but those were just guesses at how many we would get.
The teams were planned out and we had all prepared for the coming hours. Austin and I would go out alone together. Rachel, Jonathan, and Hal would go together. Carrie formed a team with a few other family members and the rest stayed at the camp.
They needed to watch the kids and keep hold of our camp. Abigail was one of the people who stayed behind as well to coordinate and keep track of the points coming in. We needed to buy a few last-minute things before the timer ran out and she would be able to message me if anything came up. It wouldn''t do to have Tracy or Kurt try something while we were out.
I almost wanted it to happen just to have an excuse.
"You ready, buddy?" I asked to my partner for the coming days.
"Woo, can''t wait!" His flatline tone and dripping sarcasm weren''t enough to get him out of it. All the fighting was going to be tiring but it was something we needed to do.
"Let''s go then,"
We fought and fought, well past sundown and late into the night. Austin''s skills were nice for being able to see without the sun and his nightlight powers were getting better. Even if he didn''t like me calling them that.
We got 4 pylons before we called it a night, which was a decent haul for the time we spent. Austin was slagging by the end and I wasn''t much better. He didn''t have the sun to give him strength and my outburst took more out of me than I thought.
The next day, we managed to get 8 more. Austin was a lot more powerful during the day and we grew more experienced with the monsters we were fighting. We understood their tactics and habits after fighting them for nearly 32 hours straight.
We didn''t sleep that night, fighting throughout as we were leaving the tutorial at noon the following day. We didn''t have that much time left and I wanted to squeeze every last drop of effort out of it as I could.
Throughout the night we only got 3 more before the sun came up. Both tiredness and being out of steam played a role in our stalling effort.
The sun crept along its path in the sky and it was time for me to depart. All told, Austin and I fought and conquered 19 pylons. 19 out of 50 for just the two of us wasn''t that bad.
"You don''t have to do this if you don''t want to," Austin said, knowing I wasn''t thrilled with what we had planned.
"Getting cold feet now? It was your idea." Even my half-hearted chuckle managed to sound unenthused about the course I was on.
I had tossed and turned about the idea and no matter how I thought about it, I didn''t like it. Even though I didn''t like it, I would do it anyway.
Tracy doing what she had eased my conscience but not enough to be comfortable with it.
"Have fun with the rest of them," my parting words said, I marched back to camp. There were a few things I needed before heading to my final destination.
Tutorial end: 00:02:03:34
The timer ticking down added to the suspense and the closing hours were upon us.
Abigail gave me a once-over as I walked into camp making sure I was fighting fit.
"How many did you get?" She asked for the number even before any healing flowed through me.
"Not even a hello? How are you doing Christopher? Oh, I''m fine, how are you?"
She gave me a flat look until I gave her the information she wanted, "We got 19."
She was unfazed by the number which hurt my feelings a little and barreled on without comment, "Jon managed to get 11 so far and they''re out trying to get another before the time''s up. Everything is packed and ready to go, all we have left is for you to give me your points."
Everyone was using Abigail as a bank for points so that we could get a quick total for how many we had.
On every trip to camp, Austin and I dropped our points on her and the others were doing the same. I handed over the points from the last few pylons and couldn''t help but startle at the total we had managed to accumulate.
The pylons rewarded nearly a million a pop, making Austin and I rake in nearly 10 million points each from the 19 we conquered.
The others conquering 11 meant another 11 million would be added to that total.
Overall, with the points we had saved up and the haul we had managed to pull in, Abigail was most likely the richest person in the tutorial right now.
"What does that bring us to?" I knew roughly what the number was but it never hurt to hear it out loud.
"Austin hasn''t been back to give me his share and Jon and them still have a pool to give me," She said dragging it out, "But, I have over 40 million right now."
"Is that enough for everyone? We need what, 11 more?"
Her nod confirmed that 11 people still needed a bloodline, "We have enough for the bloodline essence, but not enough to buy all the materials people want. Some might have to make do with a less expensive part or a lesser tier."
I mulled over that information and nodded. That sounded about right. We would be able to get everyone a bloodline but wouldn''t be able to get the parts for everyone.
We hoped that they would be able to get them as prizes for the tutorial if we didn''t make enough for everyone and had plans for the occasion we didn''t make enough.
"Do you think she will be able to do it?" The she I was talking about was Rachel.
She had been fighting nonstop trying to get enough points for the bloodline she wanted. She got less sleep than even I did as fires raged through the night.
"I don''t know." Abigail shrugged, "She hasn''t been back in a while so I don''t know how many she has. Jon tried to get her to slow down but she refused. I wouldn''t be surprised if she passes out from exhaustion after the time is up."
At least she was persistent. We went over a few more things until the conversation ground down. The timer was ticking down and I lingered for probably longer than I should have.
"You know you don''t have to do this if you don''t want to," Abigail said.
I couldn''t help but chuckle at that.
"What? What''s funny?" She asked, confused.
"Nothing, it''s just the second time I''ve heard that today."
With nothing left to say, I began my march down south for the last time.
Everything was packed up and everything I wanted to take with me was accounted for. I wouldn''t be taking anything with me during my trip but the others would make sure everything made it back.
I didn''t have a lot of things that I wanted to take but there were a few that stood out. I was wearing my armor and the only other things I wanted to keep were my tools.
The blacksmithing tools I had made were something I would take with me. I could make them again but why waste them? Plus, some of the trophies I wanted to keep.
The pelt of the Vine Bear especially.
We didn''t know how our stuff was going to work but we assumed anything being carried would be transported with us. We had Sam and Ashely make up a few backpacks for us to store everything in and to make it easier to carry.
Mine was already packed and ready to go.
With nothing else to delay myself with, it was time to do something less than honorable.
I''m sorry, Dad.
Chapter 127 - When Words Fail
Tracy
She felt it before she saw it.
Since the last wave finished, every bird that Kathy had sent North was killed indiscriminately. Arrows of Ice, spears of light, or balls of fire killed anything that got close to what their camp was doing.
Her eye in the sky was blind and she wasn''t warned of his approach.
She knew what was coming, it was hard not to after she had met the man. The way the northern faction exited her camp left little doubt. The only reason to depart as quickly and as orderly as they had was because of only a few reasons, and all of them were bad. Only minutes after the wave ended they were up and out of here with prepacked luggage.
She could honestly say she saw this coming. Tracy thought it would be Kurt first rather than Christopher, but knew one of them would probably do it. She was wrong on who it would be.
The slight chill in the air gave away who it was that approached her camp and the accompanied dread was unmistakeable.
Her control over the camp was already slipping and she was barely holding on by this point. She didn''t hold the same power she once did. There weren''t enough people that would stand with her this time.
Even if she still had that kind of power, she wasn''t certain it would have worked. After the last wave ended, no one wanted to give up their points anymore. They didn''t want to live by her rules and they refused to listen to her.
The threat to their lives was over and they expressed their discontent with the way they had been treated. Some left. Others stayed but they wouldn''t cooperate with her. Most refused her outright.
Staying only to use the facilities that Tracy had built during the tutorial before they were whisked away and back to earth.
Without the influx of points, she had to go out and earn them herself. Kathy stayed with her and she cut a deal with Damien to keep some muscle on her side, but she didn''t trust the rest of her camp enough to keep them close.
She had to offer outrageous rewards for people to go out and conquer pylons under her faction. Most scoffed when she began to ask for their support but some were willing to listen. Unable to ignore what she was offering so quickly.
She only managed to get 5 other pylons in the last few days which was less than she wanted. None of her camp had the motivation to charge into battle after they had just been freed from the torment which left her with fewer pylons than she predicted.
Added to her original pylon that still stood, she had 6 total. Without birds to keep track of everything in the North, she didn''t know how many the freak of nature was able to take over.
His family was nearly as strong as he was and they all were starting to become freaks of nature. She saw the looks of distaste at her before they left. The unconcealed faces of disapproval.
It had started ever since she refused to help them with the Mindbreaker. Tracy had felt the shift inside her camp after that. They came back a few members short and barely spoke with her anymore.
Their representative, Abigail, would only engage in the bare necessities before ending contact. It was clear where the rift had started.
All of the signs pointed to this happening but there was nothing Tracy could do to stop it. She had spent all of the points she had acquired on trying to survive the final wave and didn''t have the major income that usually came after a wave.
All she had left was the points she earned from fighting nearby pylons and they weren''t enough to stop what was coming.
She had watched as the man who closed in on her camp demolished waves on his own and was under no delusion that she could contend with that. She could only hope that he wasn''t out for blood.
She had seen the outcome of that movie before and it ended with an exploded head.
While Tracy could say that she had seen this coming, she could also say a part of her was surprised. During her conversations with the man, as brief as their contact was, he didn''t seem the type to go down this road.
He seemed more like the stoic type that would abstain from doing something like this.
The light show with the spear, though, he had something like this written on his face. If it was him coming down here she would understand. She wouldn''t be able to defend against him either, but at least it wouldn''t be out of character.
Still, she wasn''t going to roll over and give up all her hard work. She had traps planted the second the wave was over specifically designed for humans instead of monsters.
She bought a few materials with what little points she had left that targeted Ice powers specifically. If she was going down, she was going down fighting.
The rising sense of dread signaled the distance closing. The temperature began dropping faster and everyone inside the camp noticed the change.
Not all of them had seen the man fight and hadn''t put the two together yet. They didn''t know the force of nature that was coming and were blissfully unaware.
She didn''t have enough points to repair the gates after the wave and had to settle for some of the builders doing less-than-stellar repairs. She lamented her lack of points once more at that thought.
Those repairs weren''t going to be enough. They weren''t going to hold out long against the kind of force she had seen him deploy.
While she had traps armed and a few consumables for such an occasion stashed away, she didn''t think she was going to win. The best she could do was delay until the timer was up.
Tutorial End: 00:00:47:56
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Christopher was cutting it close. Only 47 minutes until the tutorial ended and the man was only just now arriving. He was either too busy to come sooner or confident he could finish it in the time they had left.
One of the other mages that she had paid to stay started casting a two-way scrying pool, the same as the first time they had spoken.
If she was going to delay as long as she could, fighting wasn''t going to be her first option. Maybe she could get him to change his mind.
The portal snapped up without resistance and she saw the hulking form of chiseled ice wading through the jungle. He wasn''t in a rush and walked almost leisurely toward her northern wall.
The portal moved to keep pace, only bobbing slightly from the motion.
"Christopher," Tracy greeted.
The man''s gait didn''t falter as he took off his helmet of ice. Well, less taking off and more letting it fade away.
"Tracy," He returned. There was a tightness in his face that was new and she saw the barest hints of hesitation in his motion.
He stopped for only a brief second before continuing his march when he saw the portal keeping pace.
"So it has come to this?" Tracy didn''t mince words. Over the short time she had known him, she knew this was the best way to get him to speak.
His audible sigh told her more than he probably intended. The resignation and unwillingness were clear. All of the signs kept pointing at him not wanting to do this.
Even more questions bloomed in Tracy''s mind.
"I am sorry," he said softly, "I have given this extensive thought and contemplation and have come up with what I think is reasonable. I am not here to kill you or take your points, that''s going too far in my opinion. You''ve earned those and me taking those away would cross a line I am unwilling to cross."
Him not being here to kill her eased most of Tracy''s worries. She didn''t think he would do something like that but it took a weight off her shoulders to hear him say it.
"I am also not here to take your pylon away from you. You''ve defended it successfully through 30 waves and it is not my intention to take it from you like that."
Hearing that made her stiffen. If he wasn''t here to kill her and he wasn''t here to take her pylon, what was he here for?
Revenge? Tracy hadn''t done anything that would call for revenge.
"But." His words jarred her back to attention, "To get the most out of this tutorial and the prizes that will be given out at the end, I need to do the most I possibly can. All I ask is that you subordinate your faction to mine."
He paused to let her mull over his request.
"It is what I feel comfortable asking without going too far in my opinion. You get to keep control of your pylons and points while I get a bit better of a reward having a subordinate faction with pylons under their control.
"In the grand scheme of things, I think what I''m asking for is fair. We helped tremendously during the waves and asking for this doesn''t seem like too much." He stated.
Subordinate? That was the reason that he came all the way down here? He brought down a mountain of dread on her head only to ask for her to bend the knee.
It was ridiculous. If she had the power that Christopher wielded, she would be asking for a lot more than just subordination. She had already exploited the southern camp with subordination and he was in a better position than she was when she did it.
The southern camp was going to fall during the last wave and all of them knew it. Their camp wasn''t able to hold up to the monsters of the 27th wave and they were bleeding people trying to hold on.
Her repeated attempts at getting them to merge were initially ignored until people started to die. They lost over 15 people before they eventually said yes.
The only holdout was their leader who found her terms were too much. Subordination was too far and he wasn''t willing to give in. He eventually agreed only because the rest of his camp convinced him. They saw the writing on the wall and managed to sway him into saying yes.
Tracy was certain they would have died to the last wave if they stood alone.
The only reason that she hadn''t insisted on the same thing for Christopher''s camp was because she needed them more than they needed her. Plus, she was positive they would have said no if she insisted on that point.
Tracy wasn''t sure that she would have been able to survive without them holding a wall for her for as long as they did.
She only had to focus on three directions of attack instead of all four and it took a load off of her that was desperately needed. Her traps were more concentrated on the other three gates and her forces were able to deal with the waves easier. It also alowed her to start banking points for later waves rather than spend everything as she earned it.
Without them defending a wall, things would have ended a lot differently. It was closer than she would have liked already and that was with the two other factions helping, letting her limp over the finish line mostly unscathed.
Subordination wasn''t that bad all things considered, but she didn''t want to roll over so easily.
"And if I say no? What will you do then?" She pushed back.
Poking the bear wasn''t what she had in mind when this conversation started but she wasn''t going to give in so easily.
The few minutes of back and forth since the conversation started had taken enough time for Christopher to reach the edge of the jungle. He was standing in clear view of her camp now and finally came to a halt.
Her question was left unanswered for an uncomfortable amount of time while he stood looking over her camp. He no doubt saw the repairs to the gates she had made and was evaluating the state of the defenses.
"I asked myself the same thing," he said slowly, "How far I was willing to go for this? It wasn''t even my idea in the first place."
Tracy jumped on the weakness she saw. Any way to get out of subordinating her faction she would take, "You don''t have to go through with it if you don''t want to."
Her hopes were dashed when emitted a short laugh instead of considering her words. She wanted to ask why he laughed but wasn''t given the chance.
"If not now, then when?" He said, "I hope to build a city when we get back and the same problems are going to come up then as they are now. There will be times I must be proactive instead of passive, times when I must be the aggressor instead of the defender.
"Being neutral is my goal but that does not mean I will be passive. There will be things that I have to fight for. Resources people will wish to control and dungeons people will wish to claim.
"I have read the things that have appeared on Earth. The resources that people will flock to in hopes of leveling up and stepping on the Paths of Power."
He paused before continuing, "There will not be a place for pacifism. Remaining passive and non-confrontational will get me nothing. What should I do if someone takes control of something I want? When they have something that will make me or my family stronger and they refuse to sell and deny any trade?"
He considered for a moment before changing directions.
"Would you give up your pylon for points?" He asked.
Tracy shook her head.
"Would you trade it to me for something I could give you or a favor I would owe you?" He asked again.
Tracy shook her head once again.
"What should I do then?" He asked, "When you have denied to sell and refused other options? The only thing left is to use force and we both know how that will end."
The intensity of his stare as he said that made something inside of her shiver. Sweat began to build on her lower back and goosebumps appeared on her arms.
Yes, she knew how that would go.
"Saying that doesn''t mean force will be my first option, hopefully not my second either, but I cannot dismiss the possibility that force will be necessary in some cases when words fail. I have given it a lot of thought and I came up with a process that I feel comfortable with doing. The most honorable way I can think of to go about using force.
"I will challenge you for it." He said.
It took Tracy''s brain a second to comprehend what he was saying. When it finally did, she couldn''t help but say what instantly came to mind.
"You''ll challenge me for it?" Tracy said incredulously, "Like a duel? When people used to throw gloves to declare a challenge."
Tracy couldn''t help it. The thought was absurd. Who challenged people anymore? There were no duels anymore like there were in the past.
Well, except in Texas, but mutual combat was different.
"Yes, like a duel. It is the most honorable way of going about it that I could come up with and the way my Dad would find least disappointing." Christopher said softly.
There was a moment after he said that when he unstrung the hammer from his back and brought it around in front of him. He gave it a twirl, up and around before smashing it into the ground.
"You''ve heard my terms, I require an answer." He stated.
Tracy looked at the timer and clicked her tongue. There was still too much time on the clock and she wouldn''t be able to get out of this.
Chapter 128 - Curtains Close
Chris
Tutorial End: 00:00:25:12
I knew that Tracy was stalling but I allowed myself the chance to voice my thoughts. I wasn''t required to do so but it felt good to get it off my chest. It was different than discussing it with Austin or Abigail, they were biased to what I had to say.
Tracy, though, jumped headfirst into the kind of thinking that was required when back on Earth. Maybe a bit too much for my tastes, but she would see what I was talking about without me having to explain it or justify myself.
And if I was reading her expression correctly, she thought I wasn''t going far enough with what I was asking for. The initial surprise when I asked for subjugation was hard to miss along with the glint that arose after hearing it was only that. Like she was looking at her future reward for keeping her pylon.
That didn''t bother me though. I was asking for what I felt was right. A fair enough compensation that it didn''t feel like extorsion or stealing, but enough to feel rewarded for the work we put in. We helped with the waves, helped her survive, and now we would be getting something out of it.
My challenge also gave her the opportunity to defend herself. As the challenged, she would be able to dictate the kind of battle that would ensue.
One-on-one, group, army, it didn''t matter much to me, and was left up to what she wanted to do.
Refusal was also an option but at that point, I could say I tried the honorable way first.
When Austin first proposed the idea, I wanted nothing to do with it. It was a needless way to make enemies and was ultimately unnecessary. The marginal gain wasn''t worth antagonizing her or others in the future.
I wanted to build a city without the fighting or wars that most would endure. A way to isolate myself and my family away from the fighting we had been forced to go through.
Making enemies was counterproductive to that goal and antagonizing her would turn her into an enemy for later. Killing her would accomplish the same without making enemies but I was unwilling to stoop so low.
It was only after a lot of thought and consideration that I came around to the idea. The thing that changed my mind, and the reason I proposed what I did, was because of the future.
While burying my head in the sand and taking an isolationist policy sounded good, it would eventually lead to problems. If I created my city up North and stood alone without fighting for the things that would make me stronger, others would.
Others would fight, claw, and strive for every scrap while I took the slower way, without fighting for things and rising in levels at a more sedate pace. The problems wouldn''t show themselves immediately, but over time, they would show up.
In 10 years, 20, years, 100 years, what would the power difference be? I had to consider longer stretches of time now that my lifespan had been extended. I wasn''t sure of the exact length I would live naturally but it was close to 200 years now that I was E-rank. Longer if I kept rising in level.
If I didn''t gain strength at the same rate as others, I wouldn''t be able to keep up. If I didn''t seek out resources and opportunities and left them alone because of an unwillingness to fight, I would fall behind.
My family would fall behind.
And after 50 or so years of not keeping pace, what would I do when someone stronger than me, a rank ahead with better gear, came to conquer my city? Came to subjugate what I had built?
This new world necessitated conflict and I couldn''t shy away from it. Wouldn''t shy away from it. If I did, it would lead to paying fealty to someone else down the line or worse, death. While being under someone and paying fealty to others wasn''t a bad thing, generally speaking, it depended on who it was you paid fealty to.
It was subject to change and could become someone who was unworthy of it.
It was better to not take that chance in the first place and stand on your own two feet. To remain independent of anyone else''s influence. To do that, to remain independent, I needed to fight at times that required it. To challenge the people who needed it. To gain the resources and opportunity I required to stand on my own.
Which was what led me to what I had come up with.
I would try words first, buying what I wanted or trading for it, then, after words failed, I would resort to challenging them. If that didn''t work and they refused to entertain that.
Well, I did my best.
I took every step towards a solution that didn''t require such lengths and was refused at every turn.
After that, what happened wasn''t my fault anymore.
War was bloody and most often needless, but it still had a place in history for a reason. It was my goal not to resort to that, but sometimes doing something I didn''t like was an option I couldn''t refuse.
It was better than what others would no doubt do.
Comparing myself to others wasn''t a good way to judge the morality of my actions but it helped ease my conscience. Made me feel better about the path I had come up with.
I could only hope my father didn''t disapprove. I didn''t think he would but it was a constant on my mind.
After issuing my challenge, Tracy stared at me in contemplation. I had little doubt she was going over everything in her head that she could do but in the end, I expected her to agree without a fight.
At least that was what I hoped. I didn''t desire to fight again. I didn''t want to fight. Not for a while really.
The timer ticked away and she finally gave an answer.
"Fine," It was hard not to hear the disappointment in her voice but she had agreed nonetheless.
Without being prompted she continued, "I, Tracy Litterman, Leader of the Hoosier faction, do swear fealty to Christopher Zalenski, Leader of the Zalenski Family. May my pylons and lands be under his and may my vassals become his."
The oath was bare bones but I didn''t need it to be anything more than that. The System took her words and made them true, my status sheet had a few more lines on it and the deal was done.
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Being in the tutorial changed a few things and things that would have happened back on Earth didn''t. Being subjugated here was only a pylon ownership shift with only a faction hierarchy order change.
We didn''t have noble ranks or cities to think about. If this were later, and back on Earth between two cities or kingdoms, there would be a levy paid to me from Tracy. She would pay me some of the taxes she earned along with a few other things related to city governance.
There wasn''t a tax that the camps were able to collect as we didn''t deal in coins and there wasn''t a material tax on dungeons as there were none. Both were missing from our agreement.
Usually, a city had a percentage tax that the Lord decided upon along with a few other things that were also up to their discretion. Any dungeon controlled would also have people pay to use or tax some of the materials earned inside of it.
We had none of those things so it was only pylon ownership that I gained from the oath.
Tracy''s 6 pylons were now under my control and she even had a vassal of her own. I didn''t know that the Southern camp had sworn fealty to her but now they were under me as well along with the 5 pylons they managed to capture.
With the time that was left, there wasn''t a chance of me making it back up North. It wasn''t like I had to, as everything was already planned for, but that meant I had nothing to do for the last 20 minutes of the tutorial.
I couldn''t conquer a pylon in that time or do anything of significance, only sit and wait for the end.
Not wanting to loom around Tracy''s camp, I walked a bit away into the jungle before sitting down on a rock. Hammer to my side and waited for the tutorial to end.
I couldn''t help but think over everything that had happened. The changed man that had entered and turned into what I was now.
Wonder about the fate of humanity, whether my Mother and brother were still alive.
I didn''t like to think about what she and Gabe were doing. It wasn''t healthy to constantly think about. There was no way to know what they were going through or confirm whether they were alive.
They would be my first stop when I returned. Running home as fast as possible to make sure both of them still lived.
If they weren''t... no. Don''t think like that.
As the timer approached zero, Abigail''s voice sounded in my head.
"They managed to get one more. 31 total. Rachel succeeded. Bloodlines secured."
At least there was some good news to end this nightmare. We accomplished what we had set out for and we were ready for the return to Earth.
With 31 pylons under our faction, along with 6 from Tracy and 5 from the Southern camp, we had 42 out of 50.
84% of the total pylons in the tutorial were ours.
Tutorial End: 00:00:02:01
I couldn''t help but think about the prizes we would get for accomplishing such a feat.
Tsurandom
Sweat pooled on his face as he paced outside the opulent doors. The heat bleeding through even the strongest of formations lining the entry to his patron''s domain was higher than normal. Waves of it rolled off of the doors visible to even the lowest Rank eye.
The worry he felt was almost debilitating and his knees felt like they were about to give out. While keeping track of the integration tutorial he couldn''t help the mounting dread that built up.
There weren''t supposed to be any survivors yet there had been many. Under 10% was still wildly outside the average deviation compared to all of the tutorials taking place but that wasn''t how his patron did things.
Caring not for the fact that they most likely had the lowest survival rate in all the integration, the fact there were survivors was a problem.
Not a problem for the participants, but for Tsurandom himself. Survivors in the tutorial he supervised did not lead to a healthy and fulfilling life. It led to a short and hot end with his family soon to follow. Probably everyone he knew soon after if his patron was in a particularly bad mood.
Still, it was his duty to report the end and there was no getting out of it. No matter how hard he tried and wished to be anywhere else in the multiverse.
He steeled himself the best he could before pushing through the heavily decorated plated doors and into the inferno. The doors scalded his scales as he brushed them open.
The fires raged hotter than normal which did not signal a good start to what would surely be his end. They nipped at him as he passed through, burning and searing his flesh.
Even his body which had been tempered by fire couldn''t handle the flames his patron controlled.
Sweat traced down his features for more reasons than one as he knelt down at the foot of the Sovereign Flame''s throne.
No acknowledgment came until blackened and burnt scales marred his form. The raging fires were too much for his defenses to handle but he stayed silent as he burned. He would not add to his transgressions by speaking out of turn.
Finally, he was given permission to speak.
"My Lord, the tutorial draws to a close and I need your approval on matters concerning its end," Tsurandum spoke in the clearest tone he could even as his body wanted nothing more than to sprint away from the being he faced.
With there being survivors, Tsurandom couldn''t close the tutorial under his own power. The sponsor of the tutorial, his patron, had a chance to bless any participants that he chose before the other Gods who watched had the chance.
There was little possibility of that happening but it was still outside of his control. The System itself wouldn''t let him bring the tutorial to a conclusion, hence his presence here.
The fire flared briefly before leveling out at the heightened intensity it had reached.
"I am aware of what is needed." Short and clipped was his patron''s response.
Tsurandom didn''t have the courage to defend himself. 113 survivors out of an initial 1,344. A survival rate of 8.4%, the lowest of the subject''s entire world. Lower than even The White Hoard''s, even those lunatics had more survivors than his.
Once the tutorial was planned, it took significant effort to change and how was he supposed to know they would all come together and only defend one camp?
That rarely happened and if it did, it was too late to do anything. There weren''t enough people to defend against the waves to survive. Except this time, that didn''t happen.
Plus, the aberration that his tutorial involved was outside of his power to control. Rather than crumbling under the pressure and loss, the being leaned on his warrior''s spirit to survive.
The likelihood of one of his participants forming a Spirit of the Warrior was so minuscule, statistically, that it wasn''t even considered. The odds were so low they were effectively zero.
Still, he clamped his mouth and awaited his punishment. Not daring to say anything else less he curse his family line worse than he already had.
Except, the flame and heat never came. The burning end he anticipated never came.
"Go, I will take care of it." His patron said and dismissed him with a heated wave. The scalding air blackening more of his scales as he knelt.
At first, he thought it was a trick and stayed kneeling where he was. A test to see if he would leave with haste and run from punishment. It wasn''t until his patron''s aura bore down on him that he was forced to flee.
His body refused to endure and made him leave instinctively. Not willing to stay in the same room as the being pressing down on him and fled without his brain being able to do anything about it.
Even as he rushed away, he couldn''t help but dread the other shoe dropping.
Flame Sovereign Callum
The flames rose to the ceiling, turning white hot after the peasant left. He could feel the trembling his assistant was trying and failing to hide. There was nothing that could hide inside his domain.
His fire saw everything.
The Dragon-kin was so weak his scales burned from his fire. Callum took a perverse pleasure in burning things that weren''t meant to be burnt. A Fire Dragon''s scales were almost indestructible against flames yet he had done it anyway.
That did little to ease his frustration.
While abnormalities were possible and had happened before, they ruined his experiments and fouled his mood. They were outliers that were unaccountable for which was a constant bane he had to deal with over the integrations.
Watching the broken one corrupt others and break their minds was thrilling to watch but it was hard to ignore the ending he had lived. His fun had ended and his fascination was no more.
This wasn''t the first time it had happened and it wouldn''t be the last but it still frustrated him every time an aberration popped up. The incomplete feeling of a job not finished was hard to get over.
Still, he had to do what was required of him or the System would penalize him and no one wanted that.
He prepared some of his pre-recorded endings and called it a day, unwilling to spend any more time on the failure. Instead, he thought ahead to what he could do better.
The ants would die in a few years anyway, what did it matter that they lived for a few more? None of them would make it to godhood.
Increasing the rewards for conquest should incite more violence. Changing the pylon structure could incentivize it even, by making them closer together. Boosting the rewards for killing others more than stray monsters could be a fun avenue to test.
His mind forgot the inconsequential ants that lived and began toiling with ideas of his future experiments. Looking ahead to the next chance he would have.
For he would do to others what was done to him.
Chapter 129 - Prizes
Chris
When the timer ticked to zero, my vision went black and I felt the same sensation as I had 90 days prior.
Teleportation.
The room I appeared in was different than the one I was expecting. It wasn''t the nauseatingly bright white that I thought it would be. It had rocky walls that had a molten orange glow to them.
Like they were illuminated by the lava underneath, and there was a slight heat to it that matched that description.
My survey of the room was quick as I swiveled and looked for threats. The bare rockface was the same all around, four identical walls filling my view topped off by a rocky ground and ceiling.
Before I could question the bare room I was placed inside, a person appeared in the center. I wasn''t an expert on monster biology, but I would bet a hefty amount of money that the horns and scales dotting the man were draconic in origin.
There wasn''t a way for me to tell if they were real draconic parts, but they felt different than anything I had ever seen. I wasn''t certain if it was the horns that were the root of the feeling, or the person itself, but it was difficult to focus on.
Something was pressing on my mind as I stood there, almost like I couldn''t handle being in the same room as what was in front of me.
Other than the horns, there were a few more alterations that made the person distinctly not human. Or not pure human. With the alterations people could make that was going to be difficult to observe. With all the odd powers out there, it was impossible to tell if this was dragon in human form, or a human with dragon modifications, or something else entirely, I couldn''t rule out that option.
While I looked my new companion over and walked around the room, it started to speak... at the wall.
"Congratulations, participant, for surviving the tutorial."
The words were uniform in tone, clear in their lack of enthusiasm or excitement. The delivery of congratulations was nearly sarcastic in dryness.
"To succeed where others failed and harness determination and grit to advance farther than most. I-"
The words continued and I couldn''t help but get distracted. Congratulations? Drive? Others failed?
That was a funny way of putting it. Throwing people in a death trap and then saying that people failed for not surviving? That my family had failed?
The being continued its soliloquy while I seethed at what was said. The insinuation that it was our fault that we failed angered me. That it was because of something we did to deserve the deaths we had.
"If you get stronger and seek out the Sovereign of Flame, he might take you into his Pantheon. Rejoice, for he is the one who blessed you with this opportunity. While he will not bestow his blessing upon you now, he might in the future if you prove your worth."
The words stopped registering after that.
Rejoice?
Blessed me?
Anger ignited and my hammer leaped into my hand. The insinuation that this was a blessing drove me over the edge. This was hell. Torture that a sick and twisted mind thought up, it was not a blessing.
Saying I should feel grateful for the opportunity to watch my family die was too far. My hammer was out and swinging before my mind registered what I was doing.
Even when my mind caught up, I went through with it anyway.
My hammer passed through the person in front of me like it wasn''t even there. Like a hologram parting around an object before snapping back into place.
I swung a few more times to the same effect.
It was a recording.
We went through hell, survived waves upon waves of monsters, lived through the 90 days, and we were congratulated by a recording.
There was nothing I could do. It babbled on about this or that and I could do nothing to stop it. My attacks passed through like air and there didn''t seem to be an off switch.
I had to sit while it preached how benevolent it was to give me the opportunity it had.
If I hadn''t wanted to kill the person responsible before, I sure as shit did now.
Ignoring the babbling recording was difficult without anything else to do but I managed. The words wrapped up not long after keeping the recording brief but still insulting.
As the recording finished, the familiar feeling of teleportation happened again without any warning. The recording ended and I was off. For some reason it felt like there was supposed to be something in between those two events. The only thing I could do was hope I didn''t have to go through something similar again.
This time, when the light hit me again, it was the blaring white I had expected the first time. The bright room along with the ''guide'' was my only company.
My seething anger cooled so I could process what was going on.
"Congratulations, human! You have survived the tutorial integration and are ready to return to your planet. For accomplishing that feat, rewards will be given based upon your performance."
At least this time the congratulations seemed a bit sincere even though I knew it was a robotic figure giving it.
"You may see how many Tutorial Reward Points you have by opening the shop menu. If you have any questions or need help to aid your search, you may query me by voicing your concern."
The unnaturalness of the guide was less surprising this time around and made it easier to get through the process. This was more in line with what I was expecting, not the experience earlier that ruined my mood.
A place to choose my rewards before being teleported back to Earth.
Having been through this once before, I listened to the guide and brought up the shop menu to see how many points I had.
I wasn''t sure if they were the same points as before but I doubted it. They were called something else and referred to differently. When the tutorial ended, I didn''t have any points carried over so I didn''t have a way to test that claim. I had given them all to Abigail before I left.
Glancing at the number made my eyes go wide and made me speechless.
It was a big number. So big, that I initially thought I miscounted and added a zero or two at the end.
It was in the billions.
The encyclopedia-style list of tabs and sections of the store only seemed more daunting after knowing how much I had to spend.
The countless items up for purchase seemed endless and my points bottomless. I knew I would be getting a lot but this seemed absurd.
My initial exploration led to subsections of subsections, with even more items available to buy. There was everything in the store. Gear, weapons, skills, materials, information, anything.
Anything I could possibly think of to buy was there and then some. Some of the items I didn''t even know were a thing until I saw them available in the store.
This... this was going to take a while.
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There was a list I had made of things I wanted to buy as a reward but it needed to be updated. I had way more points than I expected and there were way more items available for purchase than I imagined. Those two facts combined made me reevaluate the entire situation.
One thing that I needed and knew for certain I would buy, was information.
I wasn''t sure what exactly I would be able to get, but I knew I needed a map. The planet had irrevocably changed and I needed a map before anything else.
"Are there maps of the planet after the terraforming?" There were too many tabs to search for it myself so I relied on the guide to show me.
Wordlessly, the screen in front of me displaying the possible items changed. Switching to a list of maps that were available.
There were options of different sizes, like maps of regions, continents, and the entire globe, along with different information the maps showed.
A lot of different maps that were available.
They went up in price the bigger area it showed along with the more detailed it was. Some got to asinine prices with the entire globe showing every minute detail.
I didn''t need any of the fancy ones, the reason I wanted a map was for the placement of my city.
There were things that I wanted near it that made placement important. Type of mana, mana density, the closest dungeon, and total number of dungeons.
All were important for where I was going to build a city. The most important, and highest priority, was defensibility.
Anywhere I built, it needed to be easily defensible. It couldn''t be on an open plain that was assailable from every side.
Fortification needed to be prioritized and placement was a big part of that but it also couldn''t be too far away from points of interest.
I wouldn''t be able to get everything from the map itself, but it would make it easier to find possible spots to survey. Places near dungeons and of the mana type I wanted.
From what we knew, we would be put back in the same spot we had been taken from. I, and my family, would return to my grandparents'' backyard in southwest Ohio.
The maps didn''t show much and it seemed like they were blocked from perception unless you bought them. It would defeat the purpose if you got to see them without buying them. Especially if you had good memory.
"Show me maps of the continent I will be returned to."
None of them had labels or names to go along with them. There wasn''t a North American map or a map of Europe. At least there were none I could see.
The list shortened to only show what I assumed was the North American continent. It was impossible to tell without looking at them.
"Show maps with filters for mana type, density, and dungeon entrances."
The list shortened further.
I was left with a few different maps, all with similar prices that I could buy. Each was pricy but well worth it in my opinion.
I purchased one of the options and moved on to the next thing on my list.
I didn''t want to spend a long time here because I didn''t know if it would delay my return. I planned to get back as soon as possible without rushing to make sure the area we returned to was safe before trying to find my Mom and brother.
With the map secured, it came time for my big ticket item. It was something I had known would suck up my points if there was an option for it and there was.
It was something I had discussed with others when we were fantasizing about what we would get at the end.
I wanted to upgrade my affinity.
There were countless affinities and there were more than I had thought possible. Higher tiers of affinity, combinations of affinity, and slight variations as well.
When thinking about what I wanted as a reward, my affinity was what I thought would be best. There was some debate about whether I wanted to add another, combine two together, or upgrade the one I already had, but doing something with my affinity was a clear choice for a reward.
Ice could be upgraded a few different ways depending on what I wanted.
Of the options, I decided upgrading it was the best option and there were two I had to decide between.
Glacier and Arctic.
Glacier was the straight upgrade of my current Ice affinity. Better in every way but without adding anything new.
Artic would boost my ice, but not as much as Glacier, and focused more on the coldness of ice than the hardness of ice. In the trade-off, it added Wind to the equation. So I would have both Ice and Wind as an affinity.
Like how a Storm affinity consisted of Water, Wind, and Lightning; Arctic was Ice and Wind. It was predominantly Ice still, but gave me more options to work with.
It also had the benefit of the Body Refining technique I used.
There were various ways to upgrade an affinity but the way the store did it was through treasures. Certain treasures held the power to upgrade an affinity once eaten and both options were available.
While I loved my ice and would continue to go down that path, Arctic sounded better than Glacier to me and was the one I chose.
It was exorbitantly expensive and was the majority of my points, but it would set me up for even more power as I grew.
Next on my list was back to information. In the tutorial, we managed to unlock 3 of the 4 paths of power and I wanted to know the last one.
We were told what it was but we weren''t given anything else on it or how to take the first step. It was called Mana Cultivation and it was a part of the Body Trinity.
Both it and Body Refining were a part of the Body for some reason.
The list that was shown was similar in length to all the different Body Refining Techniques I had seen before and there were thousands of different options. All of them claimed to boost something different and it would take forever to get through them all and didn''t seem worth it. Especially when all of them were so similar in their benefits. Just from the first page I saw 7 that boasted doing the same thing only slightly different.
From the little information we knew, affinity was the deciding factor for which technique to use. All of them were designed for a specific affinity. Mana Cultivation was different than Body Refining in that regard.
You weren''t able to use a technique for an affinity you didn''t have.
Mana was picky like that.
I still wasn''t sure what exactly Mana Cultivation was and I didn''t have a lot to go on which made my search even more difficult.
Filtering by the Arctic affinity didn''t help. Hundreds were still on the list as options.
Without anything else to go off of, I turned to the only other thing that could help me.
"Show me Mana Cultivation techniques for the Arctic affinity that will suit me best."
I wasn''t sure if that would work or not but I tried it anyway.
There was a slight glitch on the screen before only one option remained. The hitch seemed unnatural for an all powerful System but I dismissed it as filtering out my request. Without any reason to say no, I bought it before moving on to the other things I needed to get. It seemed good enough if the guide only narrowed it down to one.
Next on my list was The Northern Winds technique for Body of Stone. I had used the technique to reach Body of Wood and wished to continue with it to reach Body of Stone.
I wasn''t sure if I would be able to get my hands on it later and wanted to make sure I had it now just in case.
Next up was the Civilization pylon. It was one of the last things I had to get and soaked up more of my quickly dwindling points. With how many I had, they sure disappeared quite fast.
With that done, I wanted to ask for something... outside of the norm.
There was only one thing left I planned to spend points on and I wanted to see if my idea was possible before I spent everything on my last purchase.
"Are things that aren''t listed available to purchase?" I asked.
The same hitch in response as before happened before the guide answered my question.
"What is it you want that is not listed?" It voiced.
The voice was different than before. Instead of robotically requesting me to define my query, it asked in a more personable manor. Plus, its voice was normally robotic in nature but this one sounded almost human. And more feminine.
To answer, I clarified, "I want the hill."
The guide stared at me for a moment before I realized it had no idea what I was talking about.
"The hill adjacent to our pylon that was our cemetery." I specified.
It was a long shot but I hoped to take it with me. I didn''t want to leave them there.
The guide took a long moment to answer and it seemed almost conflicted, "Is it the remains you want? Those can be extracted."
"No, I want the entire hill."
It paused again. "It will be... expensive,"
"I don''t care," I replied.
In front of me, a new item popped up on the list and the guide was right. It was expensive.
Not as bad as my affinity upgrade but up there nonetheless.
The main reason it was so much was because of storing it. What I was asking for was tons of dirt and rock that I wouldn''t possibly be able to carry.
Most of the cost came from the ring it was stored in. I knew that storage devices were a thing but they weren''t available until higher ranks. They weren''t even available in the prize store to buy, I looked. The only things available were spatially expanded packs.
The ring wasn''t a storage device exactly, but it served the same purpose. It would hold the hill in limbo until I wanted to place it. It would then deposit what was inside before breaking.
It would let me take the hill with me and place it where I wanted. I didn''t care if it crumbled to dust after as long as it did what I needed it to.
The price tag hurt but I thought it was worth it. I wasn''t going to leave my family in that place.
There were a few smaller things I purchased from the store that caught my eye while I searched that I picked up now before dumping the rest of my points on my last purchase.
While scrolling through the different blacksmithing tabs, there was a list of different spirit fires and I purchased one of those. An Ice affinity spirit fire sounded counterintuitive but it would help me with my smithing.
Vinny had convinced me to look for them which was why I saw them in the first place and knew what they were. A fire affinity one was on the list of things he wanted to buy and his babbling drew my attention to getting one of my own.
Some others popped up here and there but there wasn''t much else I wanted to spend points on. There was still one more purchase I had to make but I had points to spare for a few more small things if I wanted.
There were a few skills I picked up with the last of my spare points before I searched for the topic I was assigned and my last purchase. [Identify Blocker(Common)] being the biggest one.
Before we left, Abigail gave us all topics we were in charge of acquiring from the store. Different things that we would need when we returned.
As an example, someone was in charge of buying farming equipment, seeds, and knowledge about plants and growing conditions.
Things that we would need while building a city.
People were assigned different things to buy so we could split the cost while still getting everything we needed.
My topic was formation materials.
One big factor that was different between the tutorial and when we would be returned, was we had to build everything ourselves.
There were no walls that popped into place, no defenses that magically appeared. That was a tutorial-only occurrence.
Everything we needed had to be built with our own two hands.
One of the biggest things we needed to make were the formations and wards lining the walls. To make the strongest city we could, those were a requirement.
Being the leading expert in such matters, it was left to me to get the materials necessary.
With the last of my points, I loaded up on rare metals and crystals that were needed for strong Wards and Formations.
With everything spent it was time to go back home.
I couldn''t wait.
Epilogue - Coincidence and Meddling
Vasariametz
Coincidence.
It was a word that explained happenstance. The small chance of something outside the norm occurring. It explained the little details that seemed to coincide with one another just enough to draw attention but not so much that people look deeper.
Coincidence.
A word that Vasariametz did not like to use. Using it meant that he did not know something and after how many years he had lived, that was unacceptable.
It was the marker of mystery, of something subtle that could possibly lead to something more. A thread to be pulled and explore where it went. It could lead to something, or it could lead to nothing, sometimes a coincidence was truly a coincidence.
More often than not, though, that wasn''t the way the multiverse worked. After many eons, it was hard to say anything was truly a coincidence. They were in the 7th age already, there were so few new things that happened after so long.
There were reasons for everything. Why life bloomed on one planet and not another. Why planets formed in certain ways to gain certain affinities. Why the universe worked the way it did.
Vasariametz was far older than most thought he was and there were so few coincidences that caught his eye.
Few things that intrigued him.
As most Gods in the multiverse could attest, an intrigued Vasariametz was one of the worst things that could happen.
One of the downsides of living for as long as he had was the knowledge he possessed. The sheer extensiveness meant that there was nothing new to learn. No new explorations to be had or adventures to seek.
Nothing to excite him like before when he was a new God exploring the multiverse. So, when something caught his interest now, it was hard to let go.
Like currently.
Vasaria had pinged around to all the different realms and pantheons he liked to frequent, mostly to cause mischief, but often to see what everyone was doing. Keep tabs on things. It was quite easy to just let the years slip by and he had already done enough of that. Integrations usually started a buzz of activity that made things interesting for a time.
The tutorials, the sponsorships, the blessings. New worlds to explore and witness. Sometimes even new lifeforms to be introduced. Though the last one was sparklingly rare, nothing was impossible. Most often variations of more common lifeforms were the most an integration would have.
He still remembered the wind-blessed Earth worms a few integrations ago. Those were a surprise. Flying Earth Worms.
Integrations were always fun. He took this time to check in and stir up whatever he could, fun to be had and feathers to ruffle. It gave him something to do and that was always welcomed.
Except for now.
Things were not how they seemed and the small coincidences did not add up in the ways he liked. Things were not how they were meant to be. Someone was stirring things up and he knew exactly who it was.
While Vasariametz wouldn''t claim to be the oldest God in the multiverse, few could claim to be older. Most as old as he had left, ventured into the void to seek out something new or die along the journey.
Others went into seclusion and have yet to come out. Immortality didn''t treat everyone the same.
The rest died for one reason or another. The Fracturing War took a lot of them. A great many perished during that trying age.
The reason he knew exactly who it was that pulled the strings was because so few were capable of such a feat and even fewer had the interest. Most had given up on playing puppeteer after the novelty wore off and that was millennia ago for most.
He noticed it early on during this new integration while he was popping around his usual spots. Small things here and there that didn''t add up to much on their own, but painted a specific picture when put together.
A terraform of a new planet that went unexpectedly, a bloodline introduced that was unusual. The direct seeding of a planet with certain creatures. The placement of certain planets next to each other.
The specific Pantheons and Gods who were chosen to host integration tutorials.
The worst, and what finally kicked him into action, was the reintroduction of creatures onto a planet they were long dead from. The revitalization of Mystic bloodlines and magics that had long left their world of origin.
Buried under the earth for thousands of years only to be dug up and reconstituted now that the planet had been terraformed. Add to that the unusually high grade of said planet, upgrading to B-grade rather than the C-grade it should have been. Yeah, things were not as they should be.
Someone was doing something they weren''t supposed to do.
Which led Vasariametz to where he was now, standing on the border of a place he swore he wouldn''t return. Planning to confront a being he swore he would never face again.
His hesitation was clear. Even as old and powerful as he was, he hesitated to cross into the domain in front of him.
His curiosity won out and he entered the Heart of the Universe.
There was no hiding from the being he approached. They knew where he was at all times, even knew the hesitation he showed before entering. Which made it unsurprising that his journey ended at a table with chairs at the ready and steaming tea freshly poured atop it.
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Even though the furniture was the highest possibly craftsmanship in the known universe, he skipped over it and his eyes locked on to the person occupying it. She sat there motionlessly, watching as he approached and sat at the offered chair. Her features were the same as the first time he had seen her, without a wrinkle of age or the fading of time to mark the difference since he had seen her last.
The conversation started as it always did. Without deviation from the thousands of times he had been here.
"I assume you understand the price that must be paid?" She asked full of mirth.
No doubt amused at the fact he was once again within her domain. Once more having to pay the price. Those same words started every conversation they had had.
The price.
Vasariametz knew well the price that must be paid but played his part nonetheless, "Yes, I assume you want the usual?"
His first words to her in millennia.
"The borders of High King Dain could use assistance." She said.
Bah, Dain was a humorless bastard. Vasari thought to himself. The stubborn dwarf was closer to sculpted rock than flesh and blood. That border detail was going to be a dry one, but with payment finalized, the conversation could start.
Only, he didn''t know how. The great Vasariametz, lost for words. Which question to ask first? It had been a long time since he had been here and questions had built over the years.
Fortunately, he didn''t have to for she did it for him.
"MetzArillion of Vasaria:
The Valliant
The Vanguard
The God of Death and Aegis of Life
The First Grandmaster
Last of the Creators"
She regaled, pausing before his last title. His most recent in ages and a look of sadness flashed before she finished.
"The Forgotten."
These weren''t titles he had given himself. They weren''t the funny monikers or names he chose to go by at random times. These were different, they carried a weight that given names lacked. A weight the very world itself imposed. They carried Truths with them, of great deeds and accomplishments. A record of the life he had lived.
Names the universe bestowed upon him for what he had done.
He had to fight the rising visceral feeling at hearing his full name again. He hadn''t gone by that since... those memories were better left alone. He wasn''t here for that.
Not many knew his full name, fewer knew the extent of his titles, but she knew both. Every last one. For she was the one who awarded them and they didn''t come lightly.
There wasn''t a being in existence who had more. None alive at least.
After announcing what was better left buried, she asked the question, "Why are you here?"
It was funny hearing that from her. She knew almost everything that happened in the multiverse, yet she was asking anyway. There was zero chance she didn''t know already.
"Did you think I wouldn''t notice?" Vasaria said.
There was no need to say anything more. She knew to what he was referring.
Her expression didn''t change at his accusation. Calmly picking up her teacup, blowing on it, and taking a sip. No doubt made with tea leaves so precious they would bankrupt even gods to purchase.
"I knew you would notice." She said with a small smile, putting the teacup back on the table, "My prediction of you returning here was less certain."
Vasaria stared, waiting for an answer. Expecting an answer.
"There are stirrings. Signs that indicate troubled times." She said finally.
He sighed. That was what he was afraid of. The few times she had done something like this before were on the eve of upheaval.
"How bad?" Vasaria asked.
"Nothing serious as of yet. Only inklings and possibilities." She said.
His mind chewed on the new information and he couldn''t help but ask, "Do you know where yet?"
"Where do you think?" She smirked at him knowingly. Like she was waiting for him to put the pieces together.
Right, he should have known that. He was letting seeing her again mess with his head.
Knowing did little to assuage his fears. Nothing yet did not mean nothing ever, only that it could be a while before it arose.
"Now come, ask the question you want the answer to. I know you met with him before the integration." She poked jovially.
It was one of the pressing questions he wanted the answer to and she knew it. His meeting with Callum wasn''t that long ago, barely a moon ago by his time.
"Why do you let him do it? Less than 10% of the participants survived this time and that was one of the good ones. Sometimes, there aren''t any survivors at all." He asked, "You let him lead pigs to the slaughter."
"I don''t let him do anything." She said firmly, unpleased with his accusation, "But, the loss in participants is minuscule compared to the impact they could have. The times when there are survivors mean there are people to drive the planet forward.
"The trials that he puts them through in his twisted sense of sadism make them strong. Makes them durable and harder to break. Stout and enduring. While all of them have died since, they drove people forward just from their mere presence. Just because of the strength they possessed.
"What he is given is a fraction, of a fraction, of a fraction, of a population and that is an acceptable loss in the hopes they might achieve something great. If they survive the tutorial, they are a factor of change that is needed on newly integrating planets. Live or Die in the end, what they do is needed.
"This integration fared better than most. I do not need to point out to you the person of which I speak." She stated smugly, knowing he couldn''t refute her words.
Vasariametz, of course, had noted the person she was speaking of. It was hard to miss one of the standouts of the integration.
"What''s the furthest one of his made it? I haven''t cared to keep track." He queried, thinking to the previous ones to make it out of Callum''s tutorial.
"The furthest made it to A-rank before they could go no further. Early mishaps made the leap to S-rank impossible." She answered with perfect recall. A feature he didn''t envy in her.
There were other questions he had and he didn''t wish to speak of Callum any longer. He was a spiteful, angry little man better left alone, but there was one more on the subject he wanted to know and she had opened the door for it.
"The man of Ice, the leading figure coming out of that tutorial, why did you meddle in his rewards?" He asked one of his more pressing questions, "He should not have been able to afford that technique. The Stars of Primordial Frost hasn''t been seen since Ymir''s age."
"I meddled in plenty more than just his," She said with a smirk, "Why ask about his specifically?"
It was hard not to get frustrated at her when she did things like that. She knew why. She knew the connection he had to that technique and why he would ask about it. The only reason to ask was to make him say it.
"He does not have the strength to complete it." Vasaria said ruefully, almost with a hint of sadness, "You have doomed him like all others before him."
Vasariametz knew that technique better than anyone. The person who made it was long gone but some things were timeless, and this was one of them.
The man might make it far along its path, but he would never be able to finish it. It wasn''t a technique made for the likes of him, it was made for someone more. A long lost friend had made that technique and it had not been seen since.
She didn''t respond immediately to that, only a sly smile and a sip of tea before muttering, "We shall see. That sentimental fool will go farther than you give him credit."
Vasaria grimaced at that. She had never understood sentimentality. Didn''t give objects the same weight as others. It was one of the few quirks she hadn''t picked up over the years and the very same reason Vasaria swore to never come back here. To never face her again.
Vasaria could hardly imagine a person asking the System itself for a patch of dirt and rock as a reward.
It was hard not to smile at that.
Their conversation continued for a long time, yet the tea remained steaming by the end.
The physical manifestation of the System could do far more than just keep tea warm.
Chapter 130 - Return to Earth
The feeling of being teleported washed over me once more and I could feel my anticipation rising. We were finally going to see what the Earth had turned into. We were finally going home.
I had to shield my eyes from the glaring sun as I took everything in around me as it filtered into my eyes. Lily and Anna appeared right in front of me looking around much the same as I was, just like how we left. The clothes they were wearing were starkly different than before but we returned in the same spots we had left. Others appeared simultaneously and soon, the backyard was filled with what remained of my family.
Backyard was a strong word to describe what I was seeing.
It wasn''t really a backyard anymore. The house was mostly gone, vines and plant matter grown in, around, and through the building. The walls were knocked over from either weather or animals and left to rot and sink into the dirt.
The structure itself looked rotted through and nearly finished decomposing entirely. It looked like decades had passed rather than only three months. That was just what was left of the house, the plants were the main feature that changed.
The grass was a wild mess, reaching higher than Anna was tall. Trees, bushes, shrubs, and grass dominated the landscape in places they hadn''t before. The concrete of the driveway and paving stones around the yard had plants growing through it, leaving it cracked and in disarray, little more than gravel.
Bugs sounded out in the new environment we were placed chirping and buzzing turning it closer to the wilds than the curated backyard we had left.
Earthy scents mixed with plants. Greenery and humidity. Even with the remnants sparking old memories of what was, all of the changes solidified in my mind.
It didn''t even smell the same.
We had our expectations of course, but this... this was outside of them.
"Alright, gather up! Make sure everyone is here!" Abigail''s authoritative voice sounded out.
With a quick count, all of us were accounted for, down to the last child.
Before we got any further organization done, materials and equipment began to appear around us. Huge piles of metal and stone, crystals and gems. Some gear was strewn around as well. Booklets stacked neatly on the ground along with other treasures.
In the center of it all, a pylon hovered just above the grass, visible to all. It was easily seen but it could also be felt. It had something magical about it making us aware that it was there, like a magical beacon alerting us of where it was.
All of the things we had spent our reward points on.
I had been trying to be more leader-ly and I took this time to make good on that effort.
"Alright, Hal and Austin, get to scouting. Brayden, Vinny, and Allison, get working on preliminary defenses. Rachel, keep a magical ear to the ground so nothing can sneak up on us." My voice carried to everyone near. "Everyone else, gather and sort the prizes or help out where you can."
I still found it odd to order around my family but working on pre-determined assignments made it easier. We had planned what we were going to do upon our return already and all I had to do was voice it.
We weren''t sure how hostile the environment was going to be so our priorities were scouting and getting at least some defenses up. They wouldn''t be permanent walls and fortifications or anything, but something quick and easy to at least give us cover.
While everyone broke away to take care of their tasks, I went to grab the prize that was calling to me. It was inside of a carved wooden box but I could feel the power inside leaking out.
The power of the Arctic.
It was the treasure that was going to upgrade my affinity. I wouldn''t be able to take it now but I wanted to keep it on me at least. It was the most expensive of my purchases and I didn''t want it out of arm''s length from me.
The rest of what I purchased stayed waiting to be sorted. The Map of North America, Northern Winds Body Refining Technique for Body of Stone, Stars of Primordial Frost Mana Cultivation Technique, the Ring Storing the Hill, the Spirit Fire, and the Rare metals and crystals for Formations could wait for now.
The metals and crystals would have to wait until we set down roots at the place we planned to build our city. The Ring would wait until then as well. The booklets would be useful when I had the free time to read them. Most likely seeing use along the long journey no doubt.
The Map would be getting the soonest use when we got around to planning our journey North. Then the Fruit of the Arctic would be next. Giving me one last bump before we set out into the unknown.
While everyone went about their tasks, I got to the heavy lifting. I had the most strength out of everyone and I used it to hasten the building of our ''camp.'' Quick chopping of trees with a conjured frosty axe and laying them along a perimeter.
Brayden came through and solidified them with his skills, making them anchor to each other and the ground. Vinny pounded nails through the wood with ease, moving along the quickly erected berm of tree trunks.
Allison set some traps in the area for both detection and alarm. They weren''t lethal in nature but used to alert us of anything coming.
That part was beginning to worry me. I half expected a warzone of animals fighting each other upon our return but it turned out nothing like that.
There hadn''t been a critter in sight yet. Without having a chance to examine the maps I had bought I couldn''t confirm, but I assumed we were in a low point for mana density which made the beasts scarce.
A lucky break after the months we had been through.
While we worked with haste, Austin and Hal came jogging back into camp. Both came up to me with their findings. I thought Abigail was the better option but I wasn''t going to tell them to leave.
"Nothing of any significance in the North and East. The highest level I saw was in the 30''s, barely in F-Rank." Hal said.
"Same here. South and West look clear with around the same levels." Austin said.
I nodded at the information. It was unexpectedly turning out well. Refraining from voicing that sentiment out of fear of jinxing it, I looked to Abigail to see if my job here was done.
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We planned for me to stay until it was deemed safe. With our initial surroundings scouted and nothing dangerous found, we were as safe as we could be.
Abigail nodded, not giving permission, per se, but agreeing with my conclusion and acknowledging I would be leaving.
"Alright, keep scouting farther out. I doubt there will be a huge jump in levels but it''s people I worry about this time." I said.
People had proved to be both good and bad in our tutorial and we had to watch out for them just as much as the beasts we would encounter.
My grandparents'' house was mostly isolated without many other houses near it, but we weren''t that far away from the city. Even if every tutorial only had 10% of the planet survive like ours, we would run into people eventually.
The nearest city was a good 20 to 30 minute drive and that was with roads. I had no idea how long it would take now. Too many things changed to make a good estimate. Speed, terrain, distance, almost everything was altered in some way.
With my job finished, I grabbed the Map from the sorted piles and searched for where we were.
There were no markers for Cities or towns, nor roads and highways. The only thing it showed was Rivers and Oceans along with Mountains, the natural landmarks. The topography was shown to measure altitude but that meant little to me.
I knew the surrounding area from a driving standpoint. To take this exit off the highway, or turn right on this street. Not which way was uphill or downhill, or the slope of the ground I was driving on.
Hills were easy to remember, but those changed. The entire landscape changed.
Direction was the only thing I could depend on. My parent''s house was Northeast of where I currently was and that was the only thing I had to go on.
I was lucky the remnants of civilization were still around and I could make out certain landmarks but it wouldn''t be as straightforward as before.
My initial perusal of the Map made me dazed. If I hadn''t had a purpose to fulfill, I would have spent a long while going over all of the changes but I didn''t have time for that.
I needed to get to my parent''s house as quickly as possible.
The map only showed what I assumed was North America. The shape had been altered and the telltale signs were harder to spot. The Florida Peninsula had broken off and become a series of connected Islands. Mexico was deformed in odd ways I couldn''t pinpoint.
The coastline had been altered and didn''t look the same as before, making state borders impossible to discern. Even the border between the US and Canada had changed, stretching in some places and scrunching in others.
All maps from before would have to be thrown out the changes were so bad.
The US and Mexico border was still visible and that was only because of the River delineating it. The Rio Grande still marking the two countries apart. The Great Lakes did the same up North but it wasn''t as clear as the River and only marked part of the border.
Based on topography, the Mountains had been irrevocably altered. Those stood out the most compared to the other changes. They were huge. The lines marking their rise were so close together that they looked like thick bars rather than the thin topography lines elsewhere.
Both the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. The Rocky''s damn near split the country in half. Spanning from deep into Mexico running all the way into Canada. They were altered from what I remembered, much taller and wider than before.
Mysteries for how that worked had to wait because I focused on the area familiar to me.
Anyone from Ohio, or most of the Midwest for that matter, knew how to locate based off of the Great Lakes. The 5 giants were the biggest landmarks that were visible on any map of the area. Noting Lake Erie, before narrowing it down further once the curves of the Ohio River became noticeable.
With the borders of State and Country gone, I had to go off of what was still there. Finding where I was confirmed we were in a lower mana density area than other parts of the map. The mountains were a deep blue in color, the gradient signifying density damn near glowed as the Mountains grew more prominent.
Without a map of the globe, I couldn''t pick out the highest area of density but there were multiple hotspots that I could see just in North America.
Mountains, the convergence of the Great Lakes, spots along the coast, and different areas inland all had the deep blue marking hotspots of high mana density. From what I could count there were dozens of spots where mana converged and rose sharply in density.
The types were all different as well. Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire were the most common but there were other tones of color marking different ones. Lightning was a flash of purple along with a different one that I thought meant Storm.
One was an eerie teal that gave off an uncomfortable feeling even though it was only a map. That one was near what I thought was Virginia.
All of that wasn''t what mattered right now. Not even the deep Icy Blue of the Far North was enough to draw my attention away.
I spent a few more minutes deciphering the map before I began sprinting Northeast. The tutorial demanded that survival skills be learned and they came in handy now.
Which way was North was almost instinctual by now.
As I ran, the scenery that passed by became more and more different. Our house seemed to be one of the better off. Others were broken into pieces or collapsed into rubble. Some I knew had once been there were completely gone.
The road was the most derelict.
It was in chunks, plants reclaiming the area along with odd stretches of dirt in-between the ruined concrete. Most likely from the expansion of the Earth.
We had been told that the Earth had grown but it wasn''t until I saw the effects with my own eyes that it gave a better picture. Distance was hard to judge now with stats and the walking speed not being the same, but seeing the road broken apart and some houses sheared in two from the expansion made it clear.
We weren''t told the exact extent the Earth had grown, but it was predicted to double, if not more.
The Grade of the planet would determine its size and we were unable to purchase that information from the store. Or if we were, didn''t have a high enough pylon to do so. Not knowing was... uncomfortable since the Grade would determine a lot of things about our new world.
Primarily, it dictated how high level the beasts of the planet would get and that was something I needed to know.
The grade came from the Planetary Core that sat at the heart of the Earth. It spewed out both mana and essence from the core, saturating the planet, giving life to the creatures and plants.
The grades came from the Ranks of classes. It directly correlated to how high a level you could reach on a specific planet.
C-Grade planets would only have the mana and essence levels to sustain C-Ranks. B-Grade would only have up to B-ranks.
There were exceptions, obviously, but that was the general rule. If a person murdered everything on a planet over and over again they would eventually outrank the planet they were on but that was a waste of effort.
It was far easier to travel to a different planet of a higher Grade to continue to grow. You could nurture the Planetary Core and grow it in Grade, but that was a costly endeavor. Only the richest factions did something like that.
That meant if I continued growing I would eventually have to leave, but that wouldn''t come for a while yet. Without the waves of beasts delivering experience-no-essence at my door, getting through E-rank was going to take longer.
And D-rank even longer than that.
On average in the multiverse, between all the different races and peoples, it took anywhere from half a year to 5 years to get through E-rank. Depending on how often you fought and if there were dungeons you could frequent.
D-rank was 25 to 50 years. C-rank was 100 to... well, a lot.
That was why dungeons were so fiercely fought over. Having one would have your growth closer to the lower bound compared to the higher one.
Growing without a dungeon could be done but it was harder. Finding things to hunt took longer and beasts of a certain level were more spread out. You could also collect the essence in the air but that was both boring and slow, requiring a different technique than normal hunting.
The time it took to climb the ranks went up the higher you went and lifespan increased with it.
Based on the map, there were a few dungeons near us but they were sparse. There definitely weren''t enough for everyone and there would be fighting for ownership.
The closest one was to the Southwest, along the Ohio River and a good march away, and was in the opposite direction I was going.
I began to see more animals and beasts that populated the grassy plains and clusters of trees but nothing too high level. One neared E-rank but was still a way off.
It eased my mind a little that we wouldn''t be thrown out of the pan and into the fire. We would be given a chance to rest. To recover before preparing for the trip.
But first, there were some people to pick up. My Mother and Brother to start before the others would go for their extended family. Jonathan had his parents he wanted to check in on and other in-laws needed to get theirs.
Some were shit out of luck with family on the other side of the country and they had to come to terms with that. Some would be crushed when they couldn''t find who they were looking for.
I was hoping that wouldn''t be me.
Chapter 131 - Changed Man
Elizabeth Zalenski (Christopher''s Mother)
"Gabriel, are you here?" She shouted as the light came back and the nauseating feeling of being transported wore off.
Before she could take in the state of the house around her, she heard Gabriel''s reply, "I''m here. My chair came with me."
Hearing that eased her worries a bit. Gabriel needed that chair to get around and without it, she would have to carry him.
Bits of things began to appear around her and she recognized them as the prizes she had chosen in the white room. A variety of different things she thought would be needed rained to the floor around her.
Her first order of business was making sure Gabriel was okay before figuring out what she was going to do.
She held little doubt that her family would be coming for her but if they were in a bad spot they wouldn''t be able to stay put forever.
She only spared the surroundings an initial glance before rushing to where she heard her son''s voice.
Outside the decrepit house they were returned, she heard shouting and fighting in the distance. The fight to end the tutorial must have restarted after everyone had returned.
The sounds came from near the town center, where most of the people were likely returned.
Allen and Jack were going at it again. If they were already fighting, their followers would soon join in. She needed to lay low until Thomas came for her.
She didn''t doubt for a second he would move heaven and earth to get here.
Hours passed as she waited inside the ruins of her old home. Gabriel waited with her, practicing magic as he usually did. She had gathered everything that came with them and huddled inside the most intact bedroom left.
The roof was mostly intact with only a few beams of sunlight penetrating through. It was in the center of what was left of the house, making it the most secure of what was remaining.
Gabriel''s light blue magic lit up the dark room as he weaved it in various shapes and sizes.
A smile always made its way on her face watching her boy''s eyes light up at the arcane. When the tutorial started, she had been scared and lost, without her husband or kids, without the knowledge of their wellbeing or location. She didn''t know what to do.
She was glad she had Gabriel with her. It would have been unbearable to be alone.
Her baby, the youngest, countered her worry and fear with wonder and excitement. He rambled on about magic and games. Of class builds and which skills to take.
He spent almost every day going down into the dungeon the tutorial had made for them. To reach deeper and get more levels, pushing his skills and abilities further. Forcing her to go with him, she wasn''t going to let him go down there alone.
All until the accident.
She still clenched her teeth when she thought about that day.
As the tutorial went on, people became increasingly hostile. What began as normal transactions and bartering, turned slowly toward exploitation and worse. The stronger someone was, the more they could take from those weaker than them.
Factions rose up, groups of people who gathered together for strength. Those factions grew in power, reaching farther with their influence.
Two of the biggest were led by Allen and Jack. Heads of the Knighthood faction and Adventurer faction. The two men hated each other and they fought over everything. Butting heads whenever they met. Both guilds constantly battled against each other during the tutorial.
She was unsurprised they met up to finish what they couldn''t in the tutorial.
"How long do you think they will be at it?" Gabriel asked from beside her.
His question startled her slightly, she hadn''t noticed the glow of his magic fade, leaving them in the shadows of the room.
"I don''t know, honey," She said, "Probably for a while."
As their levels rose, they fought for longer periods of time. Both were evenly matched and neither were able to kill the other. Everyone else in the tutorial had learned to avoid the two when they were around. Both were rushing toward E-rank, trying to get there first.
"How long until Dad comes?" He asked not for the first time.
"I''m not sure. It''s been a few hours and he should be here soon." She answered.
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They waited for a while longer before something made Gabriel shudder in his chair. He started looking around wildly with a franticness that worried her.
The only thing that made him like this was strong monsters. Ever since his accident, he became extremely sensitive to their auras.
"What? What is it?" She asked looking around herself and readying what she could.
This wasn''t the first time they had done this and she started moving her mana in preparation for a fight on instinct. The wind started to pick up around them as her skills filled with mana.
She had long overcome her aversion to combat, overcome the unsettling feeling of drawing blood. She needed to be strong to protect her children and combat was the only way to do that.
It would be a mistake to underestimate an older woman like her. Many had done so in the past and weren''t around to do it again.
"I feel it coming," Gabriel said in a hushed whisper, "It''s the strongest thing I''ve ever felt."
Sweat glistened on his forehead and she became increasingly worried as time elapsed. The moments following were smothered in a still silence as they both tried to hide their presence. Working together to be as unnoticeable as possible.
As they hunkered in silence, the clashes of weapons rang out from the area down the street. She could only hope that the beast would hear it and go towards them instead of their house.
"It''s getting closer," His whisper barely audible, "It''s coming right toward us."
She pumped even more mana into her waiting skills hearing that. They wouldn''t be able to avoid the fight if it was coming right toward them.
While Gabriel''s sensitivity was better than hers, she could feel the aura as it entered her range. The heaviness it carried and the might of it bearing down on her.
She wasn''t as well versed at reading auras as her son but even she could feel the magnitude of what was closing in on them.
Fear began to build as the feeling drew near.
"There''s a Law there. Stronger than normal, probably a tier above Least. Something else is mixed in that I can''t tell but the affinity is clear." He relayed what he felt.
He almost didn''t need to say the affinity. It was clear to the naked eye that a chill built up around them. The temperature ticked down the closer the beast came.
It was the same affinity Gabriel had which made it easy to decipher.
Ice.
Her growing fear blossomed.
Thoughts of how they were going to live through this flashed in her mind as she tried to come up with a plan. The beast was coming right for them without deviation. It wasn''t wandering around, sniffing the area, but like it knew they were there.
Like the house they were in was its destination.
She could feel as it drew closer, arriving in front of what was left of their house. She felt as it stopped to take in the crumbled walls and overgrown yard. Of the ruins it had become.
It stopped for only a moment before it continued closer. Walking inside a hole in the wall instead of where the door once was.
She didn''t hear any claws or hooves. No indication of what kind of beast it was. There was no sniffing or grunting. Just heavy thuds of its footfalls.
Thud, thud, thud. As it walked through the house.
Wait, walked?
The more she heard, the more certain she became that this was a person, not a beast, but what kind of person had an aura like this?
She didn''t have to wonder for long as a figure stepped through the doorway into the bedroom they were in. She fidgeted, trying to hide in the darkness but it wouldn''t work. It wasn''t dark enough and the scattered shafts of sunlight were enough to illuminate the area.
Placing herself in front of Gabriel, the winds whipped around her as she stood to face the intruder. Metal armor met her eye first as she evaluated where to strike. Wind wasn''t good against metal armor, she would have to aim somewhere other than the torso. It took a lot of effort to burrow through metal plate. The thighs had metal covering them as well, making her direction of attack smaller.
The man''s arms and head were uncovered and became the target she would aim at. Who would keep their head uncovered and not wear a helmet?
All of this flashed in the split second the intruder walked in. Hesitation could mean death and she had a family to get back to.
Before she had the chance to launch her prepared skills, the man stopped.
He was only a step into the doorway and he stood stock still, looking over her and what was behind her. His eyes stayed on the chair she was trying to hide for an unnaturally long time.
While the man stilled, she took this time to get more information.
The shaft of a weapon slung over his back peaked out from behind him but she couldn''t tell what it was. Her sense of mana stretched out toward the man to search for any activity or threats.
There was nothing.
No mana building or skills she had to look out for. She was befuddled. The man was doing nothing that she could sense. While that wasn''t foolproof, she had become confident in it over the tutorial.
As she looked over the intruder, something sparked in her mind, forcing her to look deeper at the man. The ruffled blonde hair that had months of wild growth. An unkempt beard that was in need of a shave.
A faint scar on his cheekbone that was nearly gone that he had received as a child.
She knew that scar and that face.
It was her son.
"Christopher?!" She said bewildered.
The man snapped out of his stillness and lunged toward her, "Mom!"
The sudden movement made her almost launch her skills on instinct but she managed to stifle them in time.
Her son bounded into the room and smothered her in a bear hug. One so tight her back cracked and popped, smashing her into the metal covering his chest.
She felt the skills Gabriel had powered up break apart and his mana fade back into him.
After breaking off the hug, Chris stepped back to take them both in. He looked them up and down before fixing his eyes to the chair Gabriel was in.
Eyes stuck on the missing limbs that made the chair necessary.
She watched his face harden as he looked it over. From the smile and joy of finding them and turning darker. Setting his features and narrowing his eyes.
"What happened." It came out forceful. The words hit her instead of being heard. It wasn''t a request, but a demand to know why his brother''s legs were missing.
As the change overtook him, she couldn''t help but react to what she was seeing.
Her son was different. He wasn''t the same man as he was before. Well, all of them had changed but this was more than that. It was like he was a completely different person.
He had never had such forcefulness in his voice before. Had never taken such a commandeering tone. Especially with her.
She began to notice other features that were different. His almost permanent smile or smirk was gone. A tightness in the face that contradicted the easygoing man he used to be.
His shoulders were set like a man on a mission. Of someone who knew exactly what was going to happen and march to make sure that came about.
The biggest difference, and the one that worried her the most, were his eyes.
They were missing that spark he had always carried with him. The playfulness they always had for a joke that was brewing or a sarcastic remark that would draw a laugh.
That playfulness was gone and she didn''t like what replaced it.
A hardness and rigidity of a man who had been through too much.
The worst of all, there was something in it that scared her.
Something told her she wouldn''t like hearing about his time in the tutorial.
She didn''t think it had been kind to him.
Chapter 132 - My Arms Still Work
Chris
I almost couldn''t recognize them. They had both changed so much from the picture I held in my head from how they were before. From the time before people were forced to fight to survive.
Both had seen better days but they were clean enough to indicate they weren''t too bad off. The grime covering me was far worse than what was on them.
I had two days of grueling fights over pylons caked on that I had yet to clean up from. The ending of the tutorial had been a time crunch and I had little chance to do anything other than fight. Even sleep was put off for when we weren''t put on a timer.
That was the first thing I noted was different. The countdown was how we told time and with it gone, I had no idea how long it took to get here. It felt like a few hours but I was unable to put an exact minute to it like before.
They were both wearing leathers for armor and even though I knew they would be, it still threw me off a bit. Some part of me still expected to see them wearing normal clothes even though that was unrealistic.
After giving my Mother a giant bear hug, I moved on to my Brother. I still didn''t know how to react to what I was seeing but a hug was in order no matter what his story was.
Gabriel and I started out with the same hair color as children but his darkened as he grew up into a light brown instead of the sandy blonde mine stopped at. I was a touch taller than him but he always claimed he was still growing, even though he was over 21. He had always been a skinnier kid growing up and he had kept that after the System arrived, instead of the bulk I usually carried. Except now that bulk was mainly muscle instead of what it was before.
Repeating the gesture with him, albeit slightly awkwardly with the chair, our initial greeting was over.
"Tell me everything. What happened to you guys, how was your tutorial? What classes do you have? What profession do you have?" I couldn''t contain my excitement. We hadn''t been away that long but it felt like years had passed since I had seen them last.
I was so giddy I almost forgot to use [Identify(C)]. So many people had a way to block my generic skill I forgot to use it most of the time.
[Human ¨C Level 38]
[Human ¨C Level 43]
My brother was a slightly higher level but both of them had done well. Not as high as us, but that was to be expected.
"Wow, slow down Christopher. Where is your Father, I expected it would be him coming to get us?" My Mother said, deflating my good mood.
A pang of guilt sounded inside my heart as I had to deflect away from that question.
With my head cleared from my initial excitement, I couldn''t help but feel a pull urging me to speed up getting back. I didn''t doubt my ability to protect them but I couldn''t help but feel a little paranoid. That I needed to get them within the safety of the rest of our family.
My worry was mostly unfounded but now that I had found them, I didn''t want to lose them.
"Never mind, we can catch up when we get back. Abigail and the rest are waiting for you guys and are anticipating our return. She still doesn''t know if you are alive." I wasn''t sure if she noticed my deflection but she didn''t say anything otherwise. "You have just as much to tell as we do it would seem and that can wait until we are all back together again."
The state of my brother wasn''t something I was going to let go. If, for some reason, it was a person who was responsible... Well, they weren''t going to have a very nice day.
"The only thing I need to know now, is if a person did that to you?" My pointed stare made it easy to know what I was talking about.
Gabriel shifted in his seat at my stare but didn''t shrink away, "No. It was a monster."
An unknown sigh of relief fled my mouth at that answer. I had just gotten done with all the nastiness of the tutorial, I did not want to do what I would have had to do.
"Good, all we need to do is pack up what you guys have." I said in a lighter tone, "Speaking of, where is your stuff?"
The room we were in was mostly empty, save for the rotten furniture that was still around. What remained of a bed frame and chairs were the only recognizable decorations and even in the terrible lighting.
"We hid them," My mother said while walking to the corner of the room and beginning to dig up the dirt. The wooden floor had long rotted making the ground mostly dirt instead.
I wasn''t sure why they did something like that but my mind wasn''t too caught up on that fact.
Even with the unpleasantness of Gabriel''s situation, I was riding the euphoria that both of them were still alive. The entire way over was filled with dark thoughts and anxiety.
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Of the possibility that they wouldn''t be here.
I was more than glad to wave those thoughts away now that I had found them. That I knew that they were alright.
My mother worked to unearth their prizes and the possessions they had kept from the tutorial and I couldn''t help but stand and observe both of them. A small part of me couldn''t believe what it was seeing.
Some clashes and booms originated from elsewhere down the street but my mind had other things to focus on. I was overcome with joy at the fact my family was still alive.
Wait, clashes?
The part of me that had been fighting for so long recognized the sounds of combat and shook me from my reverie.
Now that my wonder had been broken, it was easy to hear the sounds of battle not that far away. My parents lived close to the city and that was where it sounded like the battle was taking place.
Calling what it was a ''city'' was a stretch, only by the bare definition of the word was it true. We lived in one of the many suburbs of Cincinnati and we were around an hour away from what I would call a true city.
Still, the population was above 20,000 so it wasn''t that small of an area but it always felt that way when comparing it to the Queen City.
"What is that noise? Are there monsters in the city? I didn''t see that many on my way over, though," I said working through what it could be.
Gabriel answered me while my mom continued packing up, "No, that''s Jack and Allen. They''ve been fighting for almost an hour." He said nonchalantly.
The way he said it meant this wasn''t a new occurrence but that only set off more questions in my head.
Who were they? Why were they fighting? Why were they so nonchalant about it?
My face must have given away my thoughts because Gabriel went on to explain, "They were faction leaders in our tutorial, both with their own forces they had built up. They started butting heads over resources and dungeon rooms and it all spiraled from there. An initial skirmish led to something bigger which led to something bigger, and soon enough, they were at each other''s throats every time they met."
There were a few things I didn''t understand from his explanation but I attributed that to our differing tutorials. The base of the matter was easy enough to parse.
Two factions didn''t like each other and were currently fighting. It was something even a child could understand.
"Alright, we should get a move on before the fighting spreads. I''ve had enough fighting for a while and do not wish to get in the middle of it." I said to two nods of agreement.
I began helping them pack everything up and it didn''t take much longer after that. They didn''t have that many things, it just took longer to get them from where they had been hidden.
"Is this everything?" I asked wrapping up the bundle of materials.
"Yes, we weren''t able to get that much from the store at the end," Mom said with regret.
That didn''t matter to me, though. I wasn''t going to judge them for their performance. All that mattered was they were alive.
"Alright, let''s head out. We''ve got a few hours worth of traveling to get through." I announced.
I began heading for the hole I had used to enter the house before I stopped and turned around. The wheelchair was something I had overlooked. On the way here the terrain was rough, trees and roots had ruined the street. It would be... unkind to that kind of travel.
"How are we... is it okay to... humph" It was hard to beat around the bush without being insensitive.
"I''m not stupid, you can just say it." Gabriel said before answering my unasked question, "Mom usually carries me when the chair won''t work."
Glad that I wouldn''t have to ask, I made to pick him up with one arm under his arms and the other supporting his hips. Carrying him while traveling would be awkward but it was doable. I had the strength to carry more than ten of him, a little extra weight wouldn''t hurt.
"Not like that! I still have arms I can use!" Before I could pick him up, he brushed off my attempt, slapping my hands away.
I was confused for a second before my mom helpfully explained, "He can hang on your back which keeps your hands free."
With that explained, it only took me bending down for him to settle on my back. It was similar to a piggyback carry with the way he was hanging on.
It made no difference to me the way he wished to do it but this would put the strain on him to hold on rather than me holding him, "Are you sure? The other way was fine."
"Yes, I''m quite sure." His response was slightly snappy but I didn''t push further.
As he shifted to get a better hold, I remembered my hammer that was strapped to my back. I had forgotten it was there since the weight was familiar to me by now and I had grown used to it being there.
I remembered what had happened when Austin touched it and jerked to get Gabriel off of me.
He fell back into the chair that was still behind me and let out a startle at my sudden movement, "What was that for?!"
Removing the hammer from my back and placed it down next to me, "Sorry, I forgot that was there. Did it touch you anywhere? If it touches skin it causes frostbite. Are you hurt?" I said quickly while checking him over.
I looked him over for any indication of injury or skin that had come in contact with the hammerhead. The hammer was upside down while strapped to my back which made any point of contact on his lower half where I focused my search. I had a few health potions on me that I could use but I wanted to save them in case of an emergency.
I didn''t see anything as I examined him but I noticed he wasn''t paying attention anymore. With the entirety of my weapon revealed, his eyes were glued to it in wonder.
I could almost see the gears turning in his head at how it worked. He was captivated by it.
Hearing that he could have been hurt from my hammer, I expected my mother to show some kind of emotion but she just stood there looking at us both.
"He''ll be like that for a while unless you snap him out of it. He gets drawn to anything with magical abilities and tries to decipher how they work. You should have seen the first time he saw an enchanted blade. It was like Christmas morning." She said with a small smile.
"I should have been more careful, the Ice it''s made of could have hurt him," I muttered. I said it mostly in admonishment of myself rather than her.
I wasn''t used to worrying about others. Most of the time I fought alone or traveled alone. There weren''t times when I had to watch my actions around other people like I did now.
"Gabriel, honey." My mom said with a bit of force which attracted his attention away from my weapon.
With that mishap behind us, we were able to finish our travel preparations.
I led the way out of the house with Gabriel on my back and my mother following behind. She was in charge of carrying the bundle of stuff they had packed up while I had Gabriel and his chair.
While fussing over the travel arrangements I hadn''t noticed the sounds of battle fade and the silence that had replaced it. Nor had I felt anyone approaching nearby.
Which made what I walked out to all the more surprising.
A group of around 7 people were arrayed outside the house and all of them were facing us as we exited. All of them sported armor and weapons that looked used and had a familiarity about them that spoke of experience as a group.
When we spotted each other, they got defensive at first but began to close in after getting a better look at us.
"They are part of Jack''s guild, the Adventurers," Gabriel whispered in my ear. "You can tell by the sword and shield patch on their armor."
He didn''t get to say much more than that before who I presumed was the leader spoke, "Halt, we require you to show us your possessions so that we can inspect them for anything dangerous."
The group of seven spread out around us and it seemed unlikely they would take no for an answer.
"Well, shit."
Chapter 133 - Hes not there, is he?
The group tightened its formation around us as we all stood in silence. I wasn''t sure what they were after exactly, but the excuse to examine our possessions for anything dangerous wasn''t going to fly.
There was no way they were going to do that. Even if we didn''t have anything dangerous, it was the principle of the matter.
Who died and gave them the right to demand anything of me? Especially now, when the rule of Law was thrown out the window.
"Why don''t we all take a step back for a second," I said trying to defuse the situation and raised my hands in an unthreatening manner.
It was not my goal to get into an altercation with them but it was feeling inevitable the longer this situation went on.
All I wanted was to leave the city and regroup with my family. I had no interest in the feuds or the battle for control that was seemingly going on. What did I care who won control of the City? I would be leaving and going so far away that I would most likely never see these people again.
My attempt at de-escalating the situation didn''t work as the leader took another step toward me rather than the step back I had requested.
"Christopher, just let them do it. They did the same thing throughout the tutorial." My mother said from beside me.
The bag of things was already inching down her shoulder to comply.
"Why?" I remarked, "They have no authority over us and can demand nothing."
At this point, the leader had stepped close enough to hear our conversation and barged into it.
"We need to make sure that no one has anything dangerous or has anything they shouldn''t." He said smugly like that meant something.
This was quickly turning into something more and started becoming untenable to keep peaceful. It was clear that the dangerous excuse was a sham and they were here for something else. People could literally shoot fireballs and bolts of lightning from their hands, what did our possessions have to do with danger?
The only other reason I could think of that they wanted to inspect what he had was for nefarious purposes. Everyone had just returned and had various treasures and prizes awarded to them depending on their performance in the tutorial.
Various treasures and prizes that could be conveniently labeled dangerous, and thus confiscated. It was a scam to steal from people while claiming to be righteous.
"They did this to you during the tutorial?" I asked with poorly veiled contempt and skepticism.
"Yes, they checked what we brought out of the dungeon and took anything they deemed dangerous. It was never that much so people usually went along with it. In return, they would ''protect'' us from monsters." Gabriel said from my back.
"Even if they take the best loot." He added in a low mutter.
This whole interaction was taking a turn I didn''t like. It was quickly becoming a shakedown and my chances of getting out of here without a fight were quickly approaching zero.
What are they after? The most dangerous thing I own is my hammer and there isn''t a chance in hell of them taking that. I thought to myself.
I had noticed their eyes drifting toward my weapon and if I had to guess, it was the likely target they were after.
Every member of the group had a way of blocking my [Identify(C)] and my frustration with the skill grew. What was the point if it never gave me what it was supposed to?
I hoped they would see the same blank information in return but I had no way to tell. I assumed my [Identify Block(C)] was working based on the fact they were coming closer.
I doubted they would take this stance if they were able to see my level.
One of the last purchases I had made before the tutorial ended was the blocker skill. While only at Common rarity, it provided something none of my other skills did.
Privacy.
While my level wasn''t an exact correlation to the strength I possessed, quite far off actually, it was information I didn''t want to give away freely. I didn''t want anyone seeing my level and upgrading the skill was high up there on my things to do during my journey North. If I didn''t block it, all it would do would lead to trouble. Higher, lower, it didn''t matter what people saw but the fact they saw anything would be annoying to deal with.
Seeing as the group continued their facade, I assumed they based my level off my mom and brother''s. The group did not like our noncompliance and shifted their weapons in anticipation of combat.
"I won''t ask again, lay down your weapons and allow us to search you!" The leader was near screaming by this point, presuming being louder would corral us to comply.
I could see my mother in the corner of my eye begin to worry and it seemed she would have already allowed them if I hadn''t been here.
"No, I don''t think we will be doing that," I said evenly before adding in a hushed tone, "Hold on bud, this could get rocky here soon."
These people didn''t feel very strong but I cautioned Gabriel to hang on nonetheless. I didn''t plan on using excessive force but I wasn''t sure how jarring my movement would be from how he was attached.
"The strongest is the leader, he has a metal affinity and is a warrior-type class," Gabriel whispered.
While helpful, it was ultimately unnecessary.
The group took my refusal as a threat and I could feel the mana begin to build up from skills being powered. They took me readjusting my hammer even worse.
I had been carrying it casually in my right hand, ready for travel gripped near the head to balance it, but I had shifted it to rest in both hands as they started gearing up for a fight.
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My mother got increasingly agitated as the tension built and tried one more time to convince me, "Chris, honey, it''s not that big of a deal."
"While that may be true for you, it is not so for me." I said while striding toward the leader, I looked back at my mother and tried to reassure her, "Don''t worry Mother, I''ll be gentle."
The leader was the closest and the one who took action first., leading with his sword as he charged toward me at a full sprint. The metal of the sword came alight with various skills powering it but none of that mattered much to me.
Nothing about the weapon felt threatening, and by this point, my sense for that kind of thing was quite experienced.
While playing with them and gently subduing them sounded fun, and it wasn''t like we were on a time crunch anymore, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of urgency.
We were in for a long trip and I did not want to be bogged down with petty squabbles. It was the main reason I wasn''t going to go any farther with this group of hooligans.
It wasn''t worth the trouble of tracking down the leader and extracting the materials they had stolen. It was easier to let it go and move on. They could fight each other for all I cared, it wasn''t like I had a dog in the fight.
While that was true of what they had done in the past, the group in front of me was in for a rude awakening.
I wasn''t going to kill them, slaughtering seven people in front of my mother, who I had just reunited with, wasn''t how I wanted our reunion to go, but a light beating wouldn''t be remiss.
Not giving any of them a chance to use larger skills, I leaped into action to put a swift end to the fight so we could move on. My leap caved in the dirt slightly from the force but it was nothing like the craters I left during the tutorial. The ground felt more firm here and didn''t give as much. Gabriel gasped at my sudden movement but was able to hold on.
My hammer, without any empowerment, knocked the sword from the leader''s hands before continuing on, crashing through his guard and into his chest. He quickly vacated the area in front of me and was launched over ten feet back before flipping end over end, rolling on the ground.
I wasn''t sure if the other six members expected the swordsman''s attack to work but they were all caught off guard at the result, gaping at their leader being launched away.
The one Ranger and Mage of the group launched the skills they had powered up but a quick [Icy Bastion(R)] stopped those cold. It was insane overkill but I didn''t have another way to block the attacks.
Weak attacks like that were the kinds of things I usually let wash over me. My armor and fortitude were enough to make them harmless, but I wasn''t sure how sturdy my two family members were.
It was best to use a little overkill rather than be wrong and have someone get injured.
While the [Icy Bastion(R)] separated the group, I had to swing a few more times before the warriors were in the same state as their leader, grunting on the ground. I did my best to blunt my swings but I was moving a lot of weight fast which made it hard to be ''gentle''. Not using skills was the best they were going to get out of me. I think any of mine would pulverize even their leader, let alone the weaker ones.
Taking down the remaining warriors happened so quickly it made it hard to forget to be non-lethal. It wasn''t like a spar when both participants knew it was training. They were trying to injure me and my instincts reciprocated in kind. Before I knew what I was doing, [Shatter(Un)] exploded the wall of Ice and I forced the shards into the last members of the group on the other side. The Ranger and Mage went down in a rain of icy shrapnel putting the entire group on the ground in seconds.
It was muscle memory by this point to use those skills in tandem and I forgot I wasn''t fighting to kill. I lacked experience with non-lethal combat and none of my skills were designed for it. Months of slaughter and going for the kill drove my instincts to do just that and I moved so fast I didn''t have time to stop myself.
Luckily, the two, while peppered in ice shards like a porcupine, would live. Both were still alive and crying out in pain on the ground with blood leaking from their wounds. A healer or a few potions would be able to fix them right up.
If they got treated quickly enough and didn''t yank out the ice keeping them from bleeding to death, they would be fine.
Both weren''t my problem and them having the chance to live was good enough. I wasn''t the aggressor and there was a chance of death in every fight. It was not my fault they had chosen poorly.
With 7 people on the ground groaning from various injuries, I clapped my hands together from a job well done.
"Alright, let''s get a move on. We still have a few hours to get back and the sun won''t be up forever." I said while transitioning my hammer back to one hand for convenience and turned to face my gaping mother.
I would normally sheath it on my back but I couldn''t very well do that now.
"How did you... ? What... ? How high level are you?" Gabriel seemed lost for words before settling on asking my level. "I knew you were strong from your aura but this was something else."
My aura?
His string of questions broke my mom out of her fog. She had an uncertain look about her and she seemed unnerved at the ''fight''. It hurt my pride to call it that but I couldn''t think of a better way to phrase it. I wasn''t sure what to do about her expression but we were now free to trek back home and we were burning daylight.
My mother followed as I started walking away from the scene and Gabriel kept asking questions from his position on my back.
When we got far enough away, and out of earshot from the group, I gave him the answers he was looking for.
I answered my level first since it was easiest, "I''m level 57."
The last wave of the tutorial along with all of the pylons I had fought gave me a nice bump in levels. It felt like the chain holding me back had been lifted and the levels had come easier than before.
I had expected to only gain a few in the last few days but managed to pick up 7 before it ended. Which was only behind Austin''s 9 in our whole faction. No one gained more levels than me other than him.
Even though I killed more monsters than him, he managed to eke out a few more levels than me, and he hadn''t shut up about it. The gap in our class rarity showed itself but not by such a margin as I anticipated.
If that wasn''t an indicator of my debt being paid off, I didn''t know what was.
Those seven levels in two days gave me more growth than any other stretch of the same amount of time.
The stats from it gave 112 Strength, 42 Agility, 28 Perception, 70 Fortitude, 70 Endurance, 56 Vitality, and 70 Free points to do with what I pleased.
And that was before my passive skills came into play. [Body of a Barbarian(Un)] and [Frozen Fortitude(Un)] gave additional stats on top of that. 35 extra Strength and 56 extra Fortitude respectively.
My legendary class was showing its might and I wasn''t even a fifth of the way through E-rank yet.
Hearing what my level was gave Gabriel even more questions and our journey quickly became an interrogation.
"How did you get so high level? What class do you have? Is it Rare? Is it higher than rare? Is your profession that high as well? How many stat points do you have? What skills do you have?" His questions were endless.
"Woah, slow down there bud, why don''t we wait until we get back for that kind of stuff," I said.
I would answer all of his questions at some point but now wasn''t the best time for that. We would have the chance to catch up on everything when we got back.
With the wind ripped from his sails, he stubbornly agreed to wait but he made me promise to answer all the ones he had.
I tried to keep it light during our travel back but there were a few things we talked about. Little experiences or stories that were more conversational than a recap of our time apart.
It seemed I gave away more than I thought because right before we made it back, my mom got unnaturally quiet and slowed to walk behind me for a while.
Gabriel continued telling his story about one of his first fights with a monster while I noticed she had stopped completely leaving a gap of a few yards between us.
When I turned to look, she had a look about her that almost broke me. Half realization mixed with dread. A pleading to both know and not know at the same time.
She knew.
"He''s not there, is he?" She said softly and it was only my heightened perception that let me catch it.
Chapter 134 - Catching Up
I struggled to not let anything show on my face from her question but I failed miserably. I just couldn''t keep my face unmoved when faced with a question like that. It wasn''t something I wanted to get into yet, especially without Abigail, but I tried to stall anyway.
"We will discuss it when we get there. It''s not a conversation I wish to get into now." My words did little to assuage my mom but it got her moving again, if a bit slowly.
The rest of the trip was silent. The last 30 minutes were only accompanied by the sounds of nature and the leaves blowing in the wind. Even Gabriel''s curiosity about my powers got put on the back burner after that.
Part of me was relieved when the ramshackle walls came into view but another part felt dread. Dread at telling her that he was no longer with us.
Abigail came rushing out when she saw us and had much the same reunion as I had. Big hugs before wondering what happened to Gabriel, except she used a few healing skills to examine the extent of the damage.
There were smiles and happy faces for the first time in a while upon our return. It was proof that others had survived and people kindled hope at their loved ones being the same.
Leaving Abigail, Gabriel, and my Mother to get reacquainted, I searched out Hal and Austin to get an idea of what was around us. Both weren''t hard to find and I could soon put levels and creatures on the map of our surroundings.
Their scouting surveyed a few miles in every direction and circled the camp we had thrown together. The hours I was gone gave them long enough to get pretty far out.
Austin was the faster of the two, but both had Agility as a focus. Hal''s Wind Law helped him keep up with Austin''s speed.
Upon my return, and the low-threat evaluation of the surroundings, it was Jonathan''s turn to venture out to find what was left of his family along with a few others.
Of the 17 of us who returned, other than Abigail and I, four others had extended family they wished to gather. All of my father''s family had gathered before the tutorial hit which put most of us together.
The only people that had family elsewhere were the in-laws. The people who had married into the family and had siblings or parents that they wished to gather.
Jonathan had two siblings, a brother and sister, along with his parents. Rachel was an only child but had both parents still living. My Aunt Sam only had a sister still out there as both of her parents had passed some time ago.
Lastly, Lucy, Vincent''s wife, had family but she was from Colorado and there was no way we could get there. A 30-minute trip by car had been turned into a multiple-hour journey, let alone a cross country trip.
Getting to Colorado would take weeks if not months, and that was without any interruptions or detours. She was understandably upset but held out hope.
We focused on getting my immediate family first for a few reasons. One, they were the closest, they were only a few minutes away before the world changed and wouldn''t take that long to retrieve.
Two, they were the simplest. They were the only ones who wouldn''t lead to a cascading effect. Everyone else was going to run into the problem of branching people. Jonathan''s siblings both had families, who had in-laws, who had families.
It would explode quickly.
My Mother was estranged from her family and didn''t speak with them while my brother had yet to start one. They were the only two I had to gather.
Everyone else was going to have... complications.
We weren''t going to turn anyone away but they were going to take longer to gather the people they needed while I only had to go there and back, which only took a few hours.
The third reason we retrieved my family first was, well, because I wanted to. It was a bit selfish but it was a perk of being the leader.
Now that I was back we didn''t have to worry about that as much.
All three; Sam, Jonathan, and Rachel, were free to go out and search for their missing family while I would secure the camp. We didn''t expect anything bad to happen now that we had scouted the area and knew the levels we were dealing with, but we had kids to worry about and protect.
Sam was a healer, and while she had high levels in both class and profession, she wasn''t the most lethal of the group. She took two of her kids with her, Alice and Mitchell.
Mitchell was up there in strength with his Body of Wood and Alice was a decent Ice Mage. They were higher level than anything they would find and I trusted them to not get into any trouble.
Jonathan was powerful enough to go alone and that was a good thing. His family was the farthest away and traveling solo would allow him to cut down on travel time.
Rachel was the most powerful mage we had and she refused to take anyone with her. She was adamant that she would be fine and that they would only slow her down.
No one was going to force the issue on her and soon, we were four people lighter around camp.
Depending on what situations they all ran into, most wouldn''t be back until the following day. Afterward, we would have to evaluate the situation. People had friends or family friends they wanted to gather but all of that would have to wait.
Family came first.
Speaking of family, my stalling had run out. Abigail was waving me over and it seemed like the time had come.
I was in for an unpleasant conversation.
"He''s really gone?" Both Gabriel and my mother said.
It was rough, but we made it through the story. Abigail started crying halfway through and I had to take over the retelling from my perspective. I debated saying he died to a wave but I wasn''t going to lie to them.
Not about this.
Telling them he died to a mind-controlled monster wave took context and we ended up having to recount our entire tutorial. From the waves and pylons, to the Mindbreaker and what happened after.
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It took hours to get through everything that happened and there were sure to be small details we missed, but the overall story was complete.
My mother and brother did not take it well. It was to be expected but seeing them break down almost made me falter. There were tears and hugs but there were still a few things to say.
"And what of this Mindbreaker? What happened to him? Is he still out there somewhere?" My mother said fiercely. The tone of her voice and the look on her face was something I had never seen before. A vindictiveness and a need for vengeance was clear as day. It was something I never would have expected from her.
"He is dead." I said firmly, leaving little doubt for her mind to wonder off with, "I did it myself."
Admitting to your mother that you killed a man was something I expected rebuke for. A tongue lashing about alternative options or a soliloquy on other ways to handle a situation.
My mother did none of that.
She looked at me as I said it and nodded firmly. Like it should be so and all was now right with the world. As much as I liked to think I had changed, so had she. I didn''t think she would ever be that receptive to that kind of thing, even after the world ended.
There was only one more thing to say on the matter and it was rough to get through. My eyes started tearing up even before the first word was mentioned.
"We were with him before he died. He wanted us to tell you he loved you, and that he''ll be waiting for you." It was hard not to choke up saying that to my mom but I pushed through.
"And to you, Gabe," I said, "He said to live long and prosper."
What happened after was better left unmentioned. People deserved privacy in their time of grieving. Their grieving was less bloody than mine, but they had their own ways of dealing.
We took the rest of the day to get back into the swing of things. The joy of reuniting was stifled by telling them what happened. The whole thing overshadowed everything else that they didn''t get a chance to tell us what happened.
I was told a monster took Gabriel''s legs but I wasn''t going to insist on hearing the how right now. It could wait.
Abigail and the other healers had looked him over and were optimistic about regrowing them, but they weren''t sure how long it would take.
I did not want to reopen the wound of my father''s death but the story was necessary and hearing some good news made the day a tad easier.
Gabriel''s excitement was thoroughly extinguished but we still chatted about a few things.
It wasn''t until the next morning that we heard their story.
"We didn''t have a pylon to defend or a wave of monsters we had to fight. We were dropped in an open area with a giant opening in the center of the clearing. It was a hole in the ground driving deep into the earth." My mother started.
"Everyone was confused and justifiably afraid for the first few hours and it wasn''t until we received a notification to explore the dungeon that things settled down. People were skeptical at first but the first people went in after the notification and soon, more and more people started going into the dungeon. That''s when we got our first levels.
"Monsters spawned in the caverns and tunnels that we had to fight and the deeper we went the stronger they got. The first level wasn''t that bad but the difficulty increased the farther along you went-"
"They''re called floors, Mom, and the first floor ranged from levels 1-10." Gabriel interrupted.
"Floors, levels, same thing." She said which made Gabriel shake his head, "There were different checkpoints that people managed to reach that had rewards. A chest after defeating a particularly hard monster or for exploring somewhere unknown."
"Mini-bosses and loot drops." Gabriel chimed in again.
"The first few days were rough. We didn''t have any experience with skinning animals, or cooking by campfire, but it got better as time went on."
It sounded similar to how we started. Skinning and cooking animals for food.
"The dungeon monsters were inedible which forced us to hunt in the clearing. Buildings and shelters began to pop up and we soon had the beginnings of a town. After the first floor was defeated by someone, a pylon spawned in the center of our town. It allowed us to spend the points we received from killing monsters on various things."
We were familiar with pylons so she didn''t have to explain what they did and moved on.
"People adapted. Groups formed and people explored the dungeon or chose not to. It soon became apparent some were doing more than others. Level gaps began to appear and that''s when it went downhill."
It wasn''t hard to guess what happened next.
"Stealing loot, taking other people''s gear, forcing them to give you points. It got rough for a while before factions started to form. The two biggest were the Adventurers and the Knighthood.
"The Adventures tried to monopolize the dungeon and control who went in and out while the Knighthood stood against them. They claimed to be fighting for the people but it was clear what they really wanted. It was a fight for control over the dungeon.
"Gabriel and I stuck together and tried not to get involved. We explored the dungeon and tried to level the safest way we could. It was hard at first since we were both Mages, but it got easier. We paid the tax to whoever was in control and we went about our day.
"Gabriel constantly wanted to go deeper. Face stronger monsters and level faster. We were defeating the monsters easily enough, so I agreed. We went down a floor and while the fights were hard, we managed fine enough.
"Until we ran into a boss with a Law. We didn''t know what they were at the time and were severely outmatched. It had a hard shell around it with sharp scythe like arms empowered with a Metal Law. Neither of us could hurt it and one missed dodge took Gabriel by surprise. It took everything in me to drag him away after what happened."
She went into more detail after that but the gist of it was clear. While unfortunate, I was just happy they were alive.
His legs would be able to grow back and he would eventually be whole again. Their story continued but it was more of the same after that. Fighting for levels, getting points of food.
Even though their tutorial was less chaotic, we talked throughout most of the morning and into the afternoon.
After they finished, Gabriel finally got to ask his questions and I regaled him in my accomplishments. I told him everything and he constantly asked questions to clarify.
I had already told him of my level but that was only my class level. He nearly burst with excitement when I told him my profession.
It was unsurprising to learn he chose to be an enchanter and he was giddy to know I was a Runesmith. He focused more on the mana side of enchanting though which was slightly different than runes. Similar, but different.
I told him of my Affinity, my Law, my Body of Wood, my Spirit Anchor. Even some of my skills.
"You have a Lesser Law? How?"
"What''s a Spirit Anchor?"
"Body of Wood?"
His mouth wasn''t able to keep up with the questions he wanted to ask.
He was my younger brother and it felt good to brag a bit. It shocked me to learn that we had the same affinity. Both of us had the Ice affinity which I thought I was alone in.
Abigail took after our father with Water and my mother had Wind. I had assumed I was the only one with Ice, but it was nice to share that between us.
He also had a Least Law of Ice which was just below my own Lesser one. He didn''t have a Spirit Anchor or Body Refining but he was already brainstorming what they could be after hearing my explanation of what they were and my story of how I got them.
My affinity would soon upgrade to Arctic but it was still the same as his for the time being.
My mother took a bit of a backseat while Gabriel prattled on but I learned she also had a Least Law and it was one I was greatly interested in. She had a Wind Law.
Upgrading my affinity would put me out of commission for a few days which required me to wait until the others came back, but getting another Law was a great way to spend the time.
I waited until Gabriel ran out of steam before asking my mother for insight, "Can you attack me with your strongest skills and Law?"
I had asked Hal the same but we had never had the time and the few times we did, it never managed to achieve anything. We wanted too different things from the Wind and it didn''t lead to an easy enlightenment.
His Law was centered around his arrows which made it hard for me to connect to. I didn''t want to increase the speed of arrows or decrease air resistance. He also had a rotational aspect which didn''t really apply.
It was hard to gain insight from his Law when I was going for entirely different concepts.
Getting shot at helped but it wasn''t worth our time. The closest I got to forming it was inside the Wind Chamber but my mind was too distracted to complete it.
Now that another person with a Wind Law showed up it was the perfect time to pound it out.
My running thoughts and the idea of finally getting a Wind Law distracted me for a moment and I looked back to see my mother making a horrified face. She looked appalled at the thought of attacking me and looked at me as if I were crazy.
Ah, shit. I had meant to ease her into my new crazy but it seemed we were going straight to the deep end.
Chapter 135 - Long Trip
"What''s in the box?" Gabriel asked.
It was nice to see him cheery and active after yesterday but his constant questions slowly wore on me. Ever since the floodgates opened he had a question about everything.
His latest query was the wooden box I kept close to me at all times. I was surprised it had taken him this long given his sensitivity and the power the box radiated.
Maybe my aura overshadowed it and hid it? Or he wasn''t able to tell the two apart and thought the Arctic feeling was coming from me rather than the box?
I hadn''t had the chance to ask many questions in return since he was firing them off so fast.
The previous day had me answering most of his questions but there was one good thing managed to get out of the day. A new and shiny addition to my status sheet.
Law Acquired:
Least Law of Wind
It happened surprisingly quickly and completed after a few hours of getting pelted with my mother''s wind. It showed I hadn''t given it the amount of time I should have before which would have let me gain the Law a lot sooner.
Convincing her took a while but she came around after watching Austin spear me with one of his strongest skills to no effect. After seeing that, she was more inclined to use her skills on me.
It was cute to see she thought her skills could hurt me.
She was a long way off from being able to do that. Even without my armor, just my fortitude alone was too much for her to get through without using her strongest attacks. Her Wind Law was closer in line with what I was going for which made the whole process a lot easier. She focused on the ripping and tearing effect of Wind while also keeping the sharpness it held.
What I wanted was the penetrating effect Wind held to empower my windchill effect. While slicing and tearing with Wind sounded cool, I had my Ice for that and there were a few other things I wanted to use Wind for instead. It would mostly stay as a secondary element to my Ice but it was still a nice addition to have.
Gaining that Law set me up to upgrade one of the skills I had held off on for a while, but that was planned for later.
It was hard to get rid of the now, now, now, mindset and transition into a more mellow one, but I was working on it. Sitting around camp and not fighting for over a day was a good start.
Maybe it was the constant questions distracting me.
"It''s called the Fruit of the Arctic," I answered Gabriel''s question. Knowing he would follow up with another question, I continued, "It''s a treasure I can use to upgrade my affinity to Arctic."
"Woah, really? That''s cool! What does it look like? Can I hold it?" He gushed.
I should have seen that coming. I couldn''t fault him too much, I had the same thought when I picked it up for the first time.
The box was clasped shut but it wasn''t hard to open. I had taken a look at it before so I knew how to do so already. Tilting it so he could see, I cracked open the lid.
He had a confused look on his face as he laid eyes on the fruit before the feeling escaped the box and hit him. His expression changed significantly after that. With the box opened, the powers weren''t contained anymore and hit him full force. A chill began to settle around us and water vapor began to condense into fog.
Letting him get a good look at it, I kept the box open until I saw people start reacting to the change in temperature before I shut it. The sadness he portrayed when I closed it only made me laugh.
"Nooooo, open it back up, I wanna see it again." His pleas were unanswered.
I wasn''t sure if repeatedly opening the box would diminish the powers in the Fruit and didn''t wish to waste it. It was doubtful that was the case but why risk it?
"Why was it a bushel of berries?" Gabriel asked after giving up on getting me to reopen it.
I was confused at first myself seeing that it was a bushel of berries rather than something else. I had no context for the treasure or previous experience, but for some reason, I expected an apple or an orange.
Maybe even a peach.
What I got were berries.
It looked like a tightly packed bushel of grapes that had grown together at some point. Closer to one fruit rather than being separate entities.
The fruit itself looked unlike anything I had seen. It had a build-up of frosty ice on the skin of it but underneath, it looked radiant. It had a glow to it that resounded out in more ways than one. Visual and spiritual, both glowed to my senses.
Like concentrated mana to an insane degree with something more, transitioned in some way by the plant that made it enticing.
Gabriel continued to ask questions about it I didn''t know the answers to before Abigail walked over to us and cut him off. She had been spending most of her time with our Mother while I was with Gabriel.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Are you using it now?" She asked, looking at the box.
"No, I just opened it for him to see. Jonathan still isn''t back yet." I answered.
"Austin is here and Rachel is back, you don''t have to keep waiting," Abigail commented.
She had tried to get me to go through with it before but I declined. The area was thoroughly scouted by now and there was only a handful of E-rank monsters found but I didn''t feel right.
I wasn''t normally a paranoid person and it was a hard feeling to shake.
We were secure enough for me to be out of commission for a few days but I still wanted to wait for Jonathan. It was hard to trust others to defend themselves after we had lost so many.
"You will have to get better at that." She said unhelpfully.
"I know. I''m trying." The words ground out even though they didn''t sound like it.
"Have you thought of a plan yet?" She asked changing the subject.
Hearing that, Gabriel pipped up to listen in as well.
My immediate reaction was to continue pushing it off. They knew roughly what the plan was but nothing had been confirmed yet. I kept saying we would decide on it later when everyone was back and accounted for so I could have all the information available.
I still didn''t know how many people would be coming with us as of yet.
Rachel was lucky and returned with both her parents earlier in the day and brought a few extras. Family friends and neighbors that her parents were with at the time.
They had nowhere else to go and chose to come with us rather than remain idle.
Sam managed to find her sister but not much was left of her sister''s family. The husband didn''t make it through the tutorial and 2 of her 4 kids didn''t make it as well.
She came back with only 3 of the 6 people she had gone out to find but she made up for it with a few extra stragglers. They were mostly strangers who happened to be there.
Jonathan hadn''t yet returned but he would no doubt bring a few extra. We were picking them up at a blazing pace and we would only gather more during our trip. After remaining isolated throughout the tutorial, we were finally taking other people in who weren''t related to us.
I had mixed feelings on the issue but we couldn''t remain isolated forever. If we denied everyone who wanted to come with us I wouldn''t be able to build the city I wanted. A city needed people and I couldn''t deny it forever.
Most of everyone who joined had lower levels than most of my family and had an easier time of it in the tutorial. Most were around level 30 with only a few higher than that.
None were E-rank.
Our makeshift camp had grown somewhat crowded and people wanted to know what the plan was. A mass of people this large did not do idle time very well. They needed direction and that was up to me.
As much help as Abigail was with keeping everything organized, she wasn''t the one who had to decide on the bigger plans.
That was my duty as the leader.
The plan throughout the tutorial was to go North. Find a place with dense and pure Ice mana that was in a good spot and had a few dungeons around it.
That plan was fine for the tutorial but now was the time to actually map it out and commit to things. It was time for the hard part of planning.
With all of the materials we picked up when the tutorial ended, we weren''t able to carry it all by hand anymore. Carts were required to move it all and that took preparation. The metals and gems I picked up were enough to fill a few carts on their own and that was only what I received when the tutorial ended.
The farming seeds and equipment would fill a cart. Foodstuffs and provisions would fill a cart. Just the tools people used for their craft would fill a cart. Vinny took the anvil he had made and that weighed a hefty amount adding to the trouble.
Vinny alone amounted to most of the weight we had to haul. He was in charge of stocking up on metal in case we couldn''t find a mine.
"Yes, the plan." I said, "How much longer on the carts?"
After the walls were fortified, Brayden had been carving down some wood to use in their construction. Mitchell helped where he could but he wasn''t as good a Carpenter as Scott had been. Plus, he had just gotten back from his trip with Sam.
"A few are already done but it will be a few days until all of them are ready." She answered.
There were still a few more people to find and gather but it wouldn''t be much longer until we set out.
"Get Austin for me. He should have some skills for map reading," I sighed. I couldn''t put it off much longer and we needed a plan of action.
She nodded and left after that.
A good place to start would be the destination.
I gathered the map and spread it out on a table someone threw together. Carpenters could work quickly but this wasn''t made by one of them. Given the gifts we now had, making something with brute force was markedly easier.
A slab of wood balanced on 4 legs wasn''t that hard to cobble together with the stats and skills we had available to us.
Austin joined me as I finished unrolling the map and we both took a second to look it over. He had the Explorer profession and I was hoping some of his skills would make the process easier.
"What are you thinking? Staring at a map without a purpose won''t help us." He said.
"I was thinking up in Minnesota or North Dakota somewhere but that isn''t looking far enough," I said.
The map showed the mana type and density in those areas and it wasn''t the icy blue I was looking for. They had blotches of green and brown which meant Nature and Earth mana was prominent there. Blots of blue marked the Water mana around lakes and rivers.
"Well, it is the heart of summer so it will be different when winter rolls around." He said, "But, it won''t hold the density and purity you want."
There were a few places that looked like a good spot if only they had the mana I wanted. There was one in the heart of Minnesota that had two dungeons around it with a river near for water I had spotted that looked nice.
I didn''t look close enough to start examining terrain but it looked promising initially, before it was ruled out.
"Further North into Canada is more likely to be what you''re looking for," Austin added, running his finger upward. "But it can''t be too far. We still need to grow food during the summer."
Places were brought up and examined before moving on. Sometimes noting them down, sometimes not. There was a place near Winnipeg that was added to the list but we weren''t sure how much it would change when the seasons shifted.
A line of different options running further North was our solution. We couldn''t plan around what we didn''t know so we had options for where we could place it.
Our destination would change depending on how much Winter changed things.
Starting as far South as Winnipeg, we placed markers leading upward, farther into the Far North.
Not all of them had everything we desired but they were good enough to make note of. Some only had one dungeon while others had two. Some were close to rivers while others were near lakes.
We both had favorites we had found but we wouldn''t know just how good they were until we laid eyes on them. There was only so much you could get from a map.
There was one that stood out to me. It was up there in distance but it had everything I could want. It was farther North than most but it looked perfect on the map.
At some point, Abigail had joined us and she chimed in as soon as we were finishing up, "How long is it going to take to get there?"
Her statement poured cold water on our growing excitement. Austin''s for the chance to explore and mine for the idea of my city and she managed to stifle both.
We traced the most recent marker we added running south through Canada, the entire length of Minnesota, southeast through both Wisconsin and Illinois, before cutting through Indiana and hitting the marker for where we were.
As the line we traced grew longer, our faces fell. That would have been a multi-day trip even before the world grew!
"A little walking never hurt anybody!" Austin tried to save some enthusiasm but wasn''t that successful.
We were in for a long trip.
Chapter 136 - Planning
We planned out our trip on the map for a while longer but the markers were set and our destination was confirmed. The trip would take months and that required an entirely different level of planning.
My initial assumptions were that it would take around a week or two to get up to Minnesota but the map showed how misguided that thought was. I was thinking in my sprinting speed and the distance from before the world grew, not the speed of carts and the long haul the Earth''s growth turned it into.
It quickly transitioned into a trek that we would need to be prepared for and a lot more planning was required. Stopping points would need to be planned out. Where to get water and food needed to be considered.
One of the first things we needed to do was figure out how far we could travel in a day. That decided almost everything else for our trip and we wouldn''t be able to know that until we set out.
My plan for pulling the carts needed to be completely overhauled. If it was only a week or so, pulling them by hand didn''t sound too bad. We had well over 30 people by now and only around 5 or 6 carts of material, it wouldn''t be that hard to pull it.
People with high strength especially. The warriors would be doing the heavy lifting but magic could work as well, pushing the carts with whatever element you controlled. It was a mental exercise rather than a physical one but doable nonetheless.
Less than half of our mages had an element that could be used like that but it was better than nothing. Fire and light would sooner burn the cart than push it.
Also, during the trip, we needed to constantly be aware of our surroundings. Tracing out our path led us through some of the hot spots on the map where the mana was dense and plentiful. Monsters and beasts would be prevalent there which we would need to look out for.
I didn''t miss much about the tutorial but not having Kathy to scout for us was becoming increasingly frustrating. It was so much easier to have her birds up in the air keeping lookout rather than having people rove around.
Plus, she would be able to tame a few animals to pull the carts for us.
Thinking of her made me kick the ground in frustration. I had offered for her to join us but she respectfully declined. While she was a college student here and lived here currently, she wasn''t from here.
She was from a few hours south and she wanted to go down there to where her family and friends were.
I didn''t blame her but it was frustrating to not have what she offered.
Wait, what if we make a new Beastmaster?
As soon as the thought flitted through, a lightbulb went off in my head. We didn''t need Kathy specifically, but the class that she had.
We had information on how to get a few of the more common classes but I wasn''t sure if Beastmaster was in it. Even if it wasn''t, trying to figure it out would pay dividends in the long run.
Finding Abigail, who cataloged all of the information booklets we had brought with us, I quickly explained my idea.
"It''s possible, but I don''t remember reading about that class specifically. I''ll look again but I don''t think it''s in there." She said.
"You spoke with Kathy the most, did she say how she got it?" I asked, trying a different idea.
"I know she was a Ranger first but it wasn''t clear what she did to jump to Beastmaster. I know it wasn''t her G-rank class, but her F-rank one. So she went from Ranger to something else, then to Beastmaster." Abigail said.
That complicated things. If there was an intermediary class that had to be completed before Beastmaster, it would make it impossible to get one in a timely manner.
Most people were past H-rank already and had their first evolution under their belt. If they had to take the intermediary class for F-rank, they wouldn''t be able to evolve into a Beastmaster until E-rank.
So instead of becoming a Beastmaster at level 25, they wouldn''t get the class until level 50. We would have to wait for them to get through over 25 levels before we received any benefits.
While that wasn''t the end of the world, it narrowed our search down significantly. We needed someone who had the Ranger class lower than level 10 to raise up quickly, or someone below level 25 who wasn''t that far deviated from a Ranger class.
Both would be hard to find.
Also, all of that was on the assumption we could guide them to the Beastmaster class. It wasn''t impossible to do, but it may end up taking more than one person to get the result we want, making the whole process take much longer.
"Why don''t you talk with Gabriel to see if there were any in his tutorial? If we can find someone who is already a Beastmaster it will make it a whole lot easier." Abigail added while I was thinking of how long it would take to raise somebody up.
"That''s perfect!" Before she could say anything more, I was off to find my wayward brother.
The one time he isn''t right next to me.
Finding him wasn''t hard and I walked up to him while he was practicing his skills. He had different-sized chunks of ice revolving around him going at various speeds. It looked like a training exercise of some kind. It was still odd to see ice around camp that wasn''t mine but it was growing on me.
He looked in deep concentration as he moved it all around but opened his eyes as I neared.
"Was there a Beastmaster in your tutorial?" I asked quickly.
He took a second to think about it before answering, "There was someone similar but I don''t know if he was a Beastmaster specifically. He never had an army of them but a few followed him around." He said.
My hopes were rising.
I asked a few more clarifying questions but I wouldn''t be able to go evaluate the man until Jonathan came back. He was still out tracking down his family and he was supposed to return tomorrow at the latest.
Gabriel said the man was a part of the Knighthood but he wasn''t that high up in their leadership and usually stayed in the dungeon, remaining away from the conflict between the two guilds.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I just hoped he would be easy to find. He could literally be anywhere inside the city and he could have even left, going somewhere else.
That was another thing we needed for our trip.
A tracker of some kind would come in handy when the situation called for it. The only person we had that had any tracking ability was Hal and that was only due to one skill.
A low rarity one at that.
Getting someone specialized in tracking could go a long way to ease any future troubles we could face.
Ugh, the problems keep coming.
With the hope of securing a Beastmaster in the city, I still needed to prepare for the possibility of not finding him, or of being refused. Finding the man didn''t cement his choice to join us.
After having that idea pop up, a few other things I hadn''t thought of arose and my day flew by. Little things we would need and jobs that needed to be filled.
Everything needed attention and I couldn''t split myself to do it all. I didn''t know how Abigail did it. Just keeping track of everything that was happening was a full-time job.
I think fighting the waves was easier than this.
Still, it was nice to start writing down what needed to be done before we set out. Getting it on paper helped keep track of it all.
Carts were being made to carry our stuff, a Beastmaster needed to be searched for, a foraging profession or survivalist class would come in handy, a tracker of some kind.
We wouldn''t be able to fill every spot but being on the lookout for people was good enough. We didn''t need them but they would make our life a lot easier and the sooner we got them, the better.
Similarly, I started thinking about the kinds of classes and professions we would need once we reached our destination.
Builders, Masons, Carpenters, Engineers, and Architects were all required and that was just for building the city.
Crafters would be needed to make anything and we would also need people to gather raw material. I had yet to meet a Miner or Lumberjack but they were out there somewhere.
I knew our numbers would grow as we ran across people along our trip and some of the positions would be found but the list was quickly exploding in length.
When I first had the idea to found a city I hadn''t anticipated it being so hard.
I didn''t spend all day thinking about all of that and I had time available to spend elsewhere.
Mostly in the forge that Vinny put together.
It wasn''t as good as the one he used in the tutorial but it got the job done. It was a temporary fix that we could both use while we were camped out here.
It wasn''t enough to break out my Spirit Fire that I got but it was enough to use for smaller things.
Vinny was working on something to make the construction and tear down easier so that he could bring it with us but I focused on something else.
He also wanted to play with his new Spirit Fire but without a permanent forge to contain the energies, it would burn down anything nearby.
Throughout the tutorial, my class was my main focus. Fighting the waves, growing stronger, getting as powerful as I could. That soaked up my attention and my profession took a back seat.
That wasn''t a bad thing, per se, but it did make the two disproportionate. I didn''t think I would ever excel at my profession as well as my class but I didn''t want to leave it too far behind.
One of the main things I wanted to remedy was my skill rarities. While rushing to evolve and scrambling for experience, I let them remain at Common and Uncommon for far too long.
I wanted to raise them while I had the time and it was a nice change of pace to focus on. Both my [Create] skills were still at Common while Vinny was pushing into Rare. As well as my forging proficiency and style were falling behind.
The only thing that kept up were my Rune skills and that was only because they started at a higher rank.
We didn''t have access to the same list of materials as before, which limited what I could make somewhat, but it was nice to get back into the forge. To spend some time creating things.
With our trip slated to take months, I wasn''t sure how much time I would be able to dedicate to my profession.
One of the first things I wanted to do was remake my armor.
It was due for an upgrade and I had long come up with ideas of what I was going to make. I even had the materials purchased ahead of time just for this occasion.
The only thing I had to do before that was raise my skills a bit before beginning its creation.
Both [Create Armor(Common)] and [Forging Proficiency(Novice)] boosted the final product and I wanted to raise both skills before attempting my armor. It wouldn''t be a huge improvement, but every little bit added up.
Plus, with time to dedicate to material processing, I could saturate the metal I was going to use in mana with [Mana Infusion(C)]. We normally didn''t have the time to spend on doing that before but that changed now.
There wasn''t a fight to prepare for in a few days that I needed the new armor for and I could spend some time making it the best I could without having a sword waiting to fall over my head.
[Mana Infusion(C)] worked to saturate the material you were going to use in mana to improve its grade.
Material grades weren''t broken into strict ranks like Classes were. There weren''t F-rank materials or E-ranked materials. Materials followed the same grading system as Equipment which made it harder to divide them into strict Ranks.
It was possible, according to essence and mana level, to divide out materials into strict ranks like classes and race, but that led to confusion down the line when material grade and equipment grade were different.
There was so much you could do during the crafting process to improve upon the materials used which made the ranking system a bit more blurry than dedicated Ranks.
Materials with an essence level in F-rank used by experienced smiths, treated with solutions from experienced Alchemists, enchanted or engraved by experienced Enchanters or Runesmiths, could be pushed well past where its material was initially ranked if it was broken into the same grade as classes.
It could possibly be ranked higher than certain D-rank materials if they were handled poorly and used by a novice blacksmith without any additional material processing.
That was why equipment wasn''t broken into strict Ranks and materials had to follow suit, or it would confuse things. Having them be different was too much of a headache to keep straight.
While the lines were harder to draw, that didn''t mean there weren''t lines. There was a stopping point in how far you could push low-ranked materials and that stopping point created three distinct brackets.
They were normally referred to as the Low ranks, Middle ranks, and High ranks. From level 1-200 was the first bracket, 200-500 for the second, and 500-1000 for the last.
It was insanely confusing at first, but it wasn''t that difficult to remember. Level 200 was the cut-off for D-rank and level 500 was the cut-off for B-rank. Which meant every rank D and below was in the same bracket, C-B was in a bracket, and A-S was in a bracket.
So a Rare-tier sword in the F-rank would continue to be a Rare-tier sword up until D-rank. When crossing over the threshold into C-rank, the sword would be evaluated differently and fall down the rankings. Falling into Uncommon or Common-tier depending on the sword.
Appraisers and Craftsman could break materials down further into Low, Mid, and High inside of the Rarities but that was usually only used by crafters. There wasn''t a need for most people to get that specific, High-grade Common-tier was unnecessary for most people and saying Common-tier was usually enough.
I didn''t have to worry about most of that until C-rank, which was the reason I had ignored the grading system at first. It was easy enough to say I made a Common-tier weapon without having to think about it depreciating when I went up in Rank.
All of that to say, [Mana Infusion(C)] worked to improve a material''s grade.
Material''s grade was the keyword there. While having an impact on the equipment''s final grade, it didn''t directly correlate to a higher grade weapon or armor. It certainly helped, but what you did with the material and how you handled it mattered more.
Infusing a material with a conflicting mana type could actively hurt it but that was easy enough to avoid. Some mana affinities were notoriously finicky, but I wasn''t dealing with one of those. I was dealing with my own element and I would have to actively try to use an opposing mana type on it rather than my normal mana.
Now, with time to spare, I had to decide how much of it I was going to dedicate to infusing the material I was going to use.
The base material was an Uncommon grade Ice-aligned metal but I could maybe push it to Rare if I gave it enough time.
The metal already being Ice-aligned made it easier on me and I wouldn''t have to find someone else to supply the mana or convert my own with enchantments.
Pushing past Rare ran into diminishing returns. It just took too long to become feasible and it was quicker to buy a higher-grade material to start with.
Still, it was a nice problem to have and it got my creative juices flowing again.
Even if my to-do list grew with every passing hour.
Chapter 137 - Laying Down the Law
The days since our return picked up in pace after that. It was odd not to have to prepare to fight constantly and it gave us all time to recover. Needed time.
When Jonathan returned, he came with nearly 20 people in tow which almost doubled the population of our little camp. The area his family returned to was higher in mana and the monsters near them were stronger.
E-ranks were common there making it a more dangerous place to the unprepared. Since most weren''t that strong and couldn''t handle them, more elected to choose the unknown and travel back with Jonathan rather than stay where they were.
After informing them of our planned trip, most broke off to stay in the nearby city, even when they knew of the two guilds'' current conflicts and the ongoing fight there. It was understandable, not many would agree to join on a months-long trip into unknown lands with strangers.
Still, some stayed. Most who did had ties to someone in our group already but others who agreed to stay didn''t have anything binding them to us. I was skeptical of their motives but they seemed honest enough.
Security would become an issue as we grew and was something I had to start considering now. It was best to be prepared for something to happen now rather than try and fix an issue after it occurred.
Lay down the Law so that no one could claim ignorance.
Which was the sort of thing better done in the beginning, which was what I did.
While telling them of our plans, I also told them of the Laws I had come up with and their subsequent punishments. My aim to build a city made me form them a while ago. After long talks with my father and nights spent thinking about it.
It was hard not to think back on the punishment I carried out for the thieves while conveying them or the talks with my father about this subject. The former for its unpleasantness and the latter... that just made me sad.
The response to what I said was mostly shock and surprise. I laid it out plainly and bluntly so there would be no confusion.
Most of what I had come up with was common sense. Little things that everyone knew not to do but required to be said anyway. Those were normally punished by fines or manual labor.
With the new currency, I didn''t have a good picture of what something was worth yet but the fine amount could be changed later. Plus, people hadn''t had a chance to make any money yet so there was another method added as punishment.
Manual labor sounded harsher than it was. With stats being what they were, it wasn''t like the slave labor of the past. At least that wasn''t what I was going for.
As of yet, not a lot of things required that kind of manual labor but I formed the Laws with the premise of running a city in mind, not a caravan.
Once we got up and running, there would be plenty of labor to go around and it would come in handy then.
That was mostly for people who didn''t have that much money and couldn''t pay the fine. I wasn''t going to make them do backbreaking labor or anything dangerous, just work off the crime they had committed with sweat rather than coin.
With the smaller infringements out of the way, the big stuff was the only thing left. Watching the faces in the crowd change when it went from fines and labor, to limb removal and the death penalty was stark.
Theft or anything in the same family; scams, fraud, dishonest dealings, and such, carried with it the cost of a hand. Keeping with the punishment we had already established.
The healers we had could already regrow limbs so it wasn''t that large of a punishment but it felt fitting. As healers got better, that may need to change but for now, a hand was enough. It would also carry a monetary penalty but that was secondary to the limb.
The death penalty was what most people were aghast at. It was working its way out of the legal system before the System arrived but now it was back in full force.
I was not a government, nor was I a large faction spanning land the size of a country.
I didn''t have the ability, or facilities, to hold people for extended periods of time in prison. Life in jail wasn''t really something I could enforce. Nor did we have the people to spare to stand guard. That may change in the future but I didn''t think it was likely.
We were at a rocky time right now and firm rules were required. Life in prison was a mercy we couldn''t afford.
People who murdered and killed during this time period were better off not continuing their stay on Earth. While harsh, that punishment was reserved only for the harshest of crimes.
Plus, some crimes deserve death. The Mindbreaker came to mind when thinking along those lines.
I didn''t glorify it or try and downplay what it was. It would make me a killer, I knew that, but that was something I had come to terms with.
Some would disagree but they were welcome to. I wouldn''t force anyone to see things my way and they were free to leave.
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A city without Laws was better off not being a city.
People reacted differently but I felt good about getting that part over with. It was the bad side of leadership and it was nice getting it out of the way now.
The next hard part would come when someone finally broke one of them. If they thought I was joking or I would go easy on them for their first offense, they were in for a harsh reality check.
They would learn I was a man of my word.
Other than the unpleasantness of doing what was needed, Jonathan''s return let me do something I was looking forward to.
My affinity was in dire need of an upgrade.
Eating the fruit was similar to consuming my bloodline. It was painful but not overly so.
The energies inside the fruit exploded out inside my body once it was consumed and I could feel as it worked through every inch of me.
It was similar to my Body Refining in that it held both Ice and Wind inside of it. It was skewed toward the Ice and Cold side rather than the opposite which was where they differed.
It worked on more than just my body though. I felt it reach past and into my core, where it felt like my Spiritual Anchor was housed. It spread throughout my spirit the same as it had my body and it changed the Ice it used to hold into the Arctic.
It saturated every part of me in Arctic energies and forced my body and spirit to change and resonate with it. Where it once only resonated with Ice, it grew and deepened.
My connection with the Ice and Cold grew and Wind was added into the fold. It was like placing two tuning forks next to each other of the same frequency. One that was ringing brought the nearby fork in line with the frequency it was giving off.
The fruit rang inside me and I changed to match its tone.
The slow process made me immovable while it was occurring and it took several days to complete.
While I was under, the rest of my family prepared for our journey. Carts were built and provisions were stashed away. What animals were near were hunted and what plants that were edible were foraged.
We dried what we could and ate what we couldn''t. A full cart was dedicated solely for food storage and that would soon become two if people kept joining.
My senses were entirely focused on what was happening internally as things progressed around me.
Austin
Their return to Earth was like a breath of fresh air. One Austin hadn''t known how badly he needed until he experienced it.
The mounting pressure released and he felt free again. Just the initial scouting of the area brought him more joy than he had experienced in the past week.
Earth had changed so much and everything was new. The city he lived in was fundamentally altered, the terrain heaved up in some places and smashed down in others.
The trees were different along with the plants. They had a vibrancy and life to them that they hadn''t before, positively glowing compared to their mundane counterparts from before. The animals didn''t charge at him with reckless abandon either and scurried about like animals should.
They behaved how they would have before the System instead of the aggressive manner in the tutorial. It was yet another breath of fresh air.
He could feel his profession growing by the minute as he explored lands for the first time that no human had laid eyes on. No one had set foot here and it was him who had done so first.
His skills worked to nudge him to places unseen and sights he couldn''t even dream of before. He had traveled farther away than he should have, but Chris was there to take care of anything.
Austin could barely comprehend the entirety of the changes.
One of the biggest was that plants weren''t as docile as before. Along his journey one came at him with snaking vines, seeking to capture and strangle him while dragging him back to the plant''s roots.
His surprise was so great, that it had nearly been on him before he reacted. It couldn''t hold up against his skills and was promptly burnt to a crisp, but the fact plants had changed so much made him excited.
The possibilities alone were endless.
When training with Rachel, one of the things she stressed the most was improving his mana sense. Rachel swore by it and constantly pestered Chris to practice it.
Austin, by sheer proximity, caught some heat for his as well. She claimed that it was the most important skill to train and he believed her now.
Spots of odd mana density or interrupted flows revealed hidden beasts that even his eyes couldn''t see.
Invisibility!
Stealth and ambush predators had evolved to become invisible to the naked eye! Even if one got the jump on him and left a nasty wound, he couldn''t keep the grin off his face at their appearance.
Their return was everything he could have imagined and it had been less than a week. Plus, this was one of the lowest mana areas around.
What kind of things would be in the hot spots? What would the dungeons be like?
The closest one was calling his name but he didn''t allow himself to be swayed. He could afford to travel a bit farther away in the name of scouting but a multi-day trip toward the Southwestern dungeon was too much, even for him.
He would get his chance at a dungeon soon anyway, there were many on the way they had planned. He may have nudged their path a few times to hit them but he was fairly certain Chris knew what he was doing.
Him going along with it was permission enough.
Austin didn''t doubt Chris wanted to see what they were just as much as him. The stories that Gabriel had told made his blood pump faster. Floors to explore and treasures to find.
No one was certain if the dungeon from the tutorial would be the same as dungeons now but they couldn''t be that far apart. It wouldn''t make sense for a tutorial to introduce a dungeon only for it to be wildly different than what they actually were.
Their tutorial, as odd as it was, didn''t venture that far away from reality. Austin still remembered the description from the first day they were there.
Category: Area Defense(Modified)
It was based on the Civilization Pylons and introduced them to pylon ownership. Waves would be sent and upgrade challenges needed to be completed.
It was what their tutorial was meant to teach them, City Ownership.
Gabriel''s tutorial was described as, Category: Dungeon Delving
It didn''t take a genius to guess what theirs was meant to teach them. The explorer in him wanted to search out different areas of people to see how many different tutorials there were.
Each one would give them some much-needed information about the world they found themselves in.
Just the two he knew about barely scratched the surface of what was out there. He couldn''t tell how he knew or why he was so certain, but there were countless things to see and experience.
He couldn''t wait to do it all. The multi-month-long trip was like a dream come true. The distance alone they would cover was more than he had ever traveled, even before the system.
The farthest from Ohio he had ever seen was the beaches of Florida and the trip was all highway. This was through miles and miles of wilderness, an entirely different trip altogther.
Something in him was growing and he could feel it inside. The urge to not sit still was getting harder to fight and he couldn''t keep the smile off his face.
Everything was so new!
Chapter 138 - Strong Warriors Dont Cry
Chris
With both my affinity and my new Wind Law, it was time to upgrade a skill that was in desperate need of it.
I had held off on upgrading [Hail(C)] precisely because I didn''t have all the pieces yet. If I hadn''t waited, I would have had to upgrade it along its current path and tread deeper along either its ice creation or have it affect a bigger area.
While both were decent upgrades, that wasn''t the direction I wanted to go with it. The skill had fallen off as I leveled and got more powerful ones and it was now only used for ice generation mostly.
When I first read the description and bought the skill, I imagined an area denial skill or an area of effect around me that made fighting me up close difficult. While it started that way, the skill hadn''t really lived up to my expectations of it as I grew.
I didn''t have enough in intelligence or the mana capacity to spend on the skill to make it effective against the enemies I was fighting. My mana was better spent elsewhere and [Hail(C)] got left behind.
There was no need to get rid of it though, there were always ways to push it into what I wanted, I just needed patience.
And that patience was about to pay off.
There were two main things I wanted to push for during the skill''s upgrade and I had both of those pieces in hand now.
The first thing I wanted was to add Wind to the skill. So not only would it hail, but it would blow the ice around as well, turning it into a Blizzard.
I could have done that when I got my Wind Law but I wanted a touch more before I went ahead. I waited until my affinity upgraded to add an Arctic touch to it.
I didn''t only want Wind and Ice. I wanted the debilitating cold Northern Winds and the Arctic touch of bone chilling Cold to go along with the Ice. A small difference but a distinct one.
Most of my choices for Laws and my Body Refining had this in mind and would help to upgrade the skill along the path I wanted.
I didn''t do it all just for one skill, that would be short-sighted, no, I wanted to push my overall fighting style in that direction. I had already begun leaning on the environmental effects during the tutorial, now I wanted to solidify that.
It was the main reason I chose Hammer of the Jotnar over Captain of the Boreads. I already had skills like [Hail(C)], [Permafrost(Un)], [Icy Bastion(R)], and now [Sweeping Snow(Un)].
Pushing those skills to upgrade into the pieces I wanted was already more magic than I could currently handle. My mana was not infinite and I couldn''t focus on too many different skills that required it. [Sweeping Snow(Un)] new draining cost was already too high for sustained fighting.
Building what I already had so all of them synergized was better than replacing them with whatever Captain of the Boreads could give.
Plus, it would allow me to gain weapon and armor skills which were something I was deficient in. Getting those in E-rank would allow me greater freedom of class choice further ahead. Covering all of my bases now, so I could branch out later.
My end goal was to be a walking calamity. To fight on any scale, big or small, and be dominant. Dominant in a way it didn''t need to be explained.
It was a lofty goal but a person should aim high when dreaming or what was the point.
Pushing my Wind Law into the skill was trivial at this point as I had ample experience doing so with my Ice Law and the Arctic touch came from my new affinity. My affinity colored everything I touched anyway, all it needed was a push and it would influence it a bit more.
I used my Ice Law sparingly during the upgrade as I wanted more of a Wind effect but I did touch on the pervading cold aspect of it to boost the cold as much as possible.
Both my Arctic affinity and Pervading cold aspect could add to some truly desolate temperatures and I loved it.
As I pushed everything into the skill, it began to change. I was in an out of the way spot for the upgrade and the forest did not like what I was doing to it. [Hail(C)] morphed as I pushed against its bounds as the Wind began to pick up at my prompting. The Cold came next and the two integrated seamlessly with the Ice already falling from the sky. Trees groaned and popped at the sudden temperature drop and their leaves whistled in the Wind. The skill chimed in upgrade as soon as I activated the modified version, but it wasn''t yet what I wanted. It took the Wind effect but it didn''t really get the Cold I was going for.
You have upgraded a skill:
Hail(Common) -> Blizzard(Uncommon)
It took [Hail] and added Wind to it with only a marginal upgrade to its temperature. While that was good, it wasn''t at the level I wanted. It was only a bit nippy right now and I wanted more. I assumed that the upgrade to Uncommon could only do so much and continued pushing on the skill toward Rare.
This time, I pushed hard on the cold aspect. Both my Law and affinity flooded the skill and I drew on what I knew from [Permafrost(Un)] to help. This time, [Glacial Presence] kicked in and I felt my stats rise as the area plunged colder. When planning, I thought of the idea of merging the two together, [Permafrost(Un)] and [Hail(C)], now [Blizzard(Un)], but held off for now. I wanted to save that option for later when I had more pieces to put together. That way, it would be an all encompassing domain, rather than the patch job it would be with only the two skills.
Another chime sounded and I looked to see if it worked.
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You have upgraded a skill:
Blizzard(Uncommon) -> Desolate Blizzard(Rare)
It took everything I wanted it to. The skill expanded from only conjuring Ice and now conjured something closer in line with my [Sweeping Snow(Un)]. It wasn''t the same, and it was majority chunks of Ice rather than sharpened snowflakes, but it wasn''t the lumps they used to be. It became streamlined and flew around from the conjured Wind at higher speeds.
Plus, even though Wind took a secondary focus in this upgrade, the Winds whipped inside the skill. Branches bent and snapped inside the radius and if I didn''t have a resistance to it, the Windchill alone would make everything difficult.
It was perfect.
With that upgrade, there were only two class skills left in the Common rarity, [Identify] and [Identify Block].
Both skills required a perception aspect to upgrade that I didn''t have and wouldn''t be getting any time soon. It was most likely easier to buy the upgraded skill from someone once Earth''s economy got up and running.
Both skills were common drops from dungeons and while the upgraded ones were rarer, not overly so.
While the store from the tutorial would be gone, pylons all around the world could buy and sell things on a connected platform.
The System took a hefty fee to facilitate such a trade, but for certain goods, it was worth it. Buying food or materials in such a way would quickly see a city bankrupt, though, if not done in moderation.
The markup to use such services was steep and raised by an order of magnitude if the product was on a different planet, let alone a different sector of the galaxy.
When Abigail was telling me about it in one of the info missives I nearly choked. Plus, it required something we didn''t yet have anyway.
We were still a long way off from being able to do anything like that but the knowledge that it would eventually become a possibility was nice, even if I needed to sell my firstborn child to take advantage of it.
With my skill upgraded, there wasn''t much else for me to do. My affinity was already done and I wasn''t ready to push anything else yet.
I had taken an initial perusal of the Mana Cultivation technique I got from the tutorial but it required an insanely high Ice Mana density and purity that I wouldn''t be seeing for a while yet.
Seeing that I couldn''t do anything with it, I shelved that until I could work on it later.
Without anything else to do, I forged what was needed. Nails and bolts for carts mostly, but anything that was required. It was mundane work but it needed doing.
Hal was still out searching for the lead we had on a Beastmaster and we wouldn''t get any more information until he found the man.
Without any tracking skills, searching myself would be pointless. I would have just as good a chance to find him by searching as I would by picking a direction and walking.
Sensing the waste of time that would be, and the frustration it would involve, I delegated that task to our lead tracker. AKA Hal.
Ahhh, delegation. The true power of leadership.
Sarah
Her bow twanged as another arrow leapt from it and into the deer she was stalking, piercing through both lungs instead of the heart she had been aiming for.
Sarah tsked in annoyance before striding in the direction the deer ran off in. It wouldn''t make it far, but the fact it didn''t go down immediately caused her displeasure.
Her shot was an inch too high and it missed the heart completely something she was trying to fix.
Returning to Earth alone had come with unexpected complications, complications she was only beginning to feel. Food was her main concern and why she was out hunting.
There wasn''t a pylon to buy food from or a Merchant that sold it like in the tutorial. Plus, there wasn''t anyone else around to get it from which made it fall to hunting for it.
Once again, she cursed her luck.
The deer didn''t even give her a level either, making level 10 seem ever further out of her reach. Finding something she could hunt was becoming harder as well as everything was higher level than her except for a few isolated finds.
More things in the forest would sooner hunt her rather than the other way around.
If only things worked out differently. Sarah wished her Dad was still here so she wouldn''t have to do this alone. That thought persisted after she found the deer and started the gross, but necessary process.
Tears welled up in the corner of her eye as she field-dressed the deer and she fought to keep them from falling.
"Strong warriors don''t cry," She knew what her father would say if he were still here and saw her with tears streaming down her face.
The thought reassured her but did little else. It wouldn''t bring him back and it wouldn''t get food on the table. He was gone and it fell to her to take care of Zach.
Once the organs were pulled out and the deer was dressed like her father showed her, she tied it to the stick she had brought to transport it back home. The blood would draw predators and she needed to be far away before they caught the scent.
The massive deer dwarfed her small form and she struggled to haul the beast back home. It was easily twice her size and weighed more than her, making it a grueling trip.
The only positive was it didn''t smell this time. Or, it didn''t smell as bad this time.
Her hand had slipped and the knife sliced through the intestines the last time making the whole thing that much more miserable. She cried the entire time and the scent stung her eyes the whole way home.
Still, she persevered.
To not do so was to starve.
Tasks like this, ones her father had taken care of before, made her curse him. Everything wouldn''t be so hard if he had taken her hunting while in the tutorial. If she had more levels or more skills, things wouldn''t be the way they were. Or even a few more stat points in strength and she wouldn''t be struggling so much to pull the deer home.
Or, if she made it far enough, she reached level 10, she could evolve out of her useless class. She had picked it because it was what her Dad would pick and she wanted to be just like him at the time.
When she was younger, he taught her how to shoot a bow, how to stalk prey, how to skin and dress what she hunted.
Then, when she appeared in a magic room being asked to pick a class, there was only one thing she knew how to do. She knew how to shoot a bow, so she picked Ranger.
All the good that it did her now. She was barely level 5 and could barely take down a deer anymore.
While in the tutorial, her father kept her safe but he didn''t let her fight. Always going out alone and making her promise to stay put. He would go find food while she hid in the shelter they had made.
It worked like that for months and no matter how hard she pressed, he wouldn''t let her go with him.
"It''s too dangerous," He''d say, or, "You''re too young."
She thought he was exaggerating the danger at first. They were given superpowers! Like from the games she played! What could be dangerous to them?
Even as time went on and her father came back with more injuries, with more blood covering him, she begged to come with him.
She begged him all the way up until he didn''t come back.
She waited for days until the pain in her stomach forced her to leave. She didn''t know where to go and wasn''t familiar with the area she was in. Picking a direction at random, she walked in search of food.
From her father''s lessons, she managed to survive but did little more than that. By the time the tutorial ended, she was half the weight she went in with and was severely malnourished. Not that she knew that, but everything was harder to do than before and required more effort. Some things she couldn''t do at all anymore. She was lucky she could still pull her bow back.
Now, when she was returned to her house, she searched all over for where her Dad could be. She searched the entire house and the area around it but still couldn''t find him. He was right next to her when it happened yet he didn''t come back with her. The only other thing in the house besides her, was her little brother.
He went on about the special play room he was in and all the other kids he got to play with. Hearing that made her want to cry even more. He got to spend three months playing while she had to fight just to live.
But now there was something even worse to survive through. They were all alone in their house and there was no one else to help them. Their father was gone and Sarah didn''t think he was coming back. If they wanted to live, they would have to do it by themselves.
In a house that was far out in the woods, miles away from any city.
"For peace and quiet," her father had said when they moved. Even though she wanted to stay in their old house where all her friends were, the packed up and left for the cabin in the woods.
Struggling to pull the deer back with her, she tightened her jaw and set her face. The last sniffles quieted and she tried to stand up straighter.
Strong warriors don''t cry.
Chapter 139 - Move Out
Chris
"Run that by me one more time. What did he say?" I asked.
"He said to ''Fuck off and leave him alone.''" Hal repeated.
It took Hal a while to find the Beastmaster in question and, apparently, he didn''t turn out to be a very friendly guy.
"Did you explain our offer to him?"
"Yes, I did. Believe it or not, he did not want to go on a months-long trip to Northern Canada." Hal answered with heavy sarcasm.
I knew the proposition didn''t sound very good which was why I was going to pay him. In goods or equipment we could make from the crafters we had, or if that wasn''t good enough, coin when we found out how to acquire it.
With our lead on a Beastmaster going up in flames, there was nothing else keeping us here. Everything was already prepared and we were ready to move out. The only thing we were waiting on was if the man would join us.
Anyone with any remote connection to anyone present was already gathered and there was no one else to search for. At least the people that were nearby.
"Alright then, let''s load up!" My voice sounded out among the camp.
We would have to manually pull the carts now but we were prepared for that. Some final shuffling occurred but nothing too dramatic before we were ready to set out.
Being one of the few who could pull a cart single-handedly, I walked over to the one designated to me. Abigail had asked which one I would pull and added a little more to that one saying, "You can handle the extra weight."
Picking up the yoke I saw everyone else either pairing up or grouping up around the other carts as well.
With everything ready I announced, "Move out!"
Knowing mine carried a little extra weight, I pushed on the yoke a bit harder but kept it relatively light. I didn''t want to break the cart after all.
The cart didn''t move.
Seeing that, I squatted down to give it some more oomph. What started as mild exertion quickly climbed to moderate before landing on heavy. My muscles bulged as the cart refused to budge.
As I pushed harder, I feared breaking it but it remained sturdy as a rock, barely groaning under the strain. I had to hand it to Brayden, I was pushing with over 600 points of strength and the cart was fine.
It made me wonder what kind of skills he had to do that but that could wait until I got the thing rolling. Already, the carts in front of me were drifting away while the ones behind waiting for me to get going.
Abigail sashayed up next to me, "Having trouble little brother?"
I didn''t even have to look to know the face she was making. Her playful tone painted a knowing smirk or small smile on her face even if I didn''t look to see it. I just knew it was there.
"No, huff, just admiring the craftsmanship." Pushing harder made me grunt in exertion but I finally got the wheels rolling which made everything easier.
Even with the cart rolling, the weight was extreme.
"What the hell''s in here," I muttered under my breath.
I wasn''t quiet enough for I received a response.
"Who do you think''s pulling Vincent''s anvil?" She said with a smile.
"What? That thing''s heavy as shit! Why isn''t he pulling it, he''s the one who wanted it?" I objected.
She seemed unmoved by my objections and just walked on ahead of me laughing, leaving me to huff and puff with my cart.
It was bullshit but I settled in for a strenuous journey.
I''m finding a Beastmaster as soon as possible.
Our trip was mostly quiet. Most were getting used to traveling caravan style, which made things slower, but we made decent time. The forested area we were in made things difficult but there wasn''t anything we couldn''t manage.
We began our journey heading Northwest, diagonally through Indiana and towards where Chicago used to be. The terraforming caused the geography to change and the land connection between Michigan and Canada was cut off, forcing us to go around.
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From the map, we were in for a few more days of forest travel before it opened up into plains. I was curious to see what the old farmland turned into.
Would it have monstrous corn and soybeans?
The tutorial started in mid-March so there would be at least a few farms that had already planted. That would change as we traveled North and the planting season moved back, but for now, we were hopeful some crops were there to forage.
Animals would have eaten most of it but we would keep an eye out for anything we could take. We wouldn''t be getting a better chance to stock up on vegetables than now.
Fruit was in season as well and we were already finding different ones to pick along the way. All of them went through our resident taste tester first before we stocked them for everyone''s consumption.
I couldn''t tell if Mitchell hated being called Michie more or being called our taste tester.
What exact day it was wasn''t clear and people argued over it while we traveled. We knew it was mid-June in general but how much longer would Summer last and fruit be available?
We could obviously count the days we were gone and figure out what day it was based off of that but we didn''t know if things had changed. Was the orbit the same? Would the seasons remain the same?
Nothing we read indicated that the orbit was altered in any way but the planet more than doubled in size, which was bound to cause some orbital issues.
Especially with the Moon, let alone other planetary bodies. If Earth grew, its gravity would grow and the Moon would be pulled closer and eventually collide.
I was no astronomer but I couldn''t help but peek at the Moon at night to catch if it got bigger. We had to assume that the System would keep that from happening but there was no guarantee of that being the case.
Leading from that assumption, Earth''s orbit could have changed and our calendars would be useless. Making counting the days pointless.
There were probably classes or professions that would be able to figure that all out but we didn''t have any of those which made for most of our travel discussions.
We hadn''t even thought of it until someone made an offhand comment about the summer solstice. The three months we were gone put us back in the middle of June and we weren''t sure if we were before or after the solstice.
That question brought up the idea of if we even had seasons now? If the terraforming could more than double the size of the planet, it could also fix the Earth''s tilt.
Without our tilt, there would be no seasons.
That line of thought led down an even bigger rabbit hole to our tides. If the Earth got bigger, did the Moon get bigger? If the Moon got bigger, what did our tides look like now?
It was another thing we had no way to answer.
We were taking it day by day whether or not we were going to die a fiery death the way of the dinosaurs when the Moon crashed into us.
Austin even made a bet over it. Saying he''d put a hundred bucks on death by impact.
It was nice to have something to break up the long days of travel, even if it was gallows humor.
Rick
Pulling the cart he was assigned made all of his muscles sore. Even with the other people helping pull, it didn''t make it less of a chore. When he laid down on his bed roll at night, his entire body ached.
He even received 3 points in strength from it!
That was absurd!
Still, he was ordered to find out information on the group so that was what he would do. Even if Harris was a raging asshole and deserved what happened, Jack wanted to know more about the group that beat them up.
Harris''s team was sent out on collection duty and instead of coming back with treasures and gear, limped back bloodied and beaten up. Two were even bloody and dripping wet. They told stories of a man wielding a hammer who beat all of them like it was nothing.
They weren''t able to get an [Identify] on him but they were certain he was above level 50. After they said that, Jack sent Rick to investigate. There was no way Jack was going to let someone that strong remain unknown.
He was already in a fight with the Knighthood and maybe he could sway the new E-ranker to his side to finally gain control of the city.
He had been relentless in his fights since returning and most didn''t know why. The only reason Rick knew was because Jack and he worked together which meant they returned to the same room when they came back.
As soon as they got back on Earth, Jack made to activate the pylon he had purchased but nothing happened. Rick couldn''t see the System screens that must have popped up but he could hear Jack mutter while he read them.
His skills proved their worth once again.
"Another free pylon is too close to initiate land ownership? What does tha- Allen! He must have had the same idea,"
Ever since, their guilds had been embroiled in near all-out war. Both leaders were pushing to eradicate the other at a fervent pace and hearing of another E-ranker could tip the scales pushed Jack into motion.
Rick had been skeptical about Harris''s claims at first, but he sure as hell wasn''t now. He had thought the claims of another E-rank were blown out of proportion until he laid eyes on the man.
And not only was there another E-rank, there were 6 of them.
He had been lucky and infiltrated a group that joined up with them, giving him easy access but now he was doing everything he could to blend in. These people were way above him and he could die if he wasn''t careful.
Without wanting to draw attention, he played along when they made to leave and constantly looked for a way to sneak away without anyone noticing. Two E-ranks were constantly out scouting and he needed a way out without running into them.
At this point, it wasn''t for Jack anymore, it was purely for survival.
He waited until the dead of night when everyone was fast asleep from the hard day of travel and snuck out of camp. He pulled on all of his skills to remain quiet and unseen and could only pray he remained so.
While others were clueless or worse, ignorant of the possibility, she was not. It was not hard to locate the one who didn''t belong and it was easier still to watch him while remaining unnoticed.
While she trusted the leader of this caravan when it came to an upfront battle, he was lacking in other ways. Ways she would have to rectify.
Her family was now among the caravan''s occupants and she was not going to allow infiltrators to run amok.
While she disliked the necessity of her profession, it was just that. A necessity. It had proven itself over and over again and it was even higher level than her class.
If that didn''t show how useful it was, she didn''t know what did.
She followed the little rat with her senses and tracked where he was going. She had to leverage some of her skills during the process but it went over without notice.
She would let him run back to the nest for now. That way she knew who it was she had to deal with. Then, if it was needed, she would take action.
All in the name of love, of course.
The things she did for family.
Chapter 140 - Back to the Basics
Chris
We traveled for over a week at the pace we set and we were making... decent time? It was hard to track. The only landmarks we could go off of were rivers and hills and none of us were expert cartographers.
It was easy to confuse one bend of the river with another on the map or one hill with another. Not that there were a lot of hills we were traveling over in Eastern Indiana. Still, we knew the general area we were in and that was enough.
It wasn''t like we had a deadline we had to get there by and had to keep to a strict timeline.
Most took this time to decompress after a long and trying tutorial. Our camp arrangement at night made our tents within earshot of one another and it wasn''t hard to pick up on sniffling or silent sobbing.
Those with higher perception had it worse and could hear... other activities.
With everyone reuniting and families coming back together, couples found ways to spend their time.
Both were things that were heard but not talked about. Personally, I felt it was a good gauge of the atmosphere and symbolized what people were going through. While grief was like a heavy fog sticking around us as we traveled, some happier notes played from within.
The fog would clear eventually. Little candles of happiness and joy burning it away one smile at a time. Marching forward one step at a time.
Some in our caravan lost everyone. There was one woman who lost both parents, all her siblings, and her significant other. She was nearly catatonic when she came back to realize all of them were gone.
I couldn''t imagine it.
I was working through my own issues during this time and it was... going. I didn''t know how else to describe it other than going. Every time I felt like I was ahead, all it took was rubbing my finger on the ring I now wore to bring me back down.
Other than that, the journey was uneventful. It felt like a mixture of hiking and camping mostly. Only I had to pull a massive cart full of weights, but other than that it felt... oddly normal.
One thing that popped up while traveling was an unexpected problem, and I couldn''t figure out if it was a good or bad problem to have.
I was getting antsy.
My body was ready for a fight and twitched at the smallest of sounds or perceived movements. This was the longest I had gone without a fight and it was wrecking my nerves. The tutorial conditioned me into the regular intervals of the waves and it was jarring to get used to going without the coming fights.
Plus, a part of me wanted a fight. That was another thing I wasn''t sure was good or not.
A downside of not being hand-delivered a training regimen every 3 days was I had to find it elsewhere. We weren''t in a high mana area which meant the beasts weren''t high enough level to be a challenge.
It wasn''t even training to go after those. Going from fighting endless waves of monsters to only fighting one felt like a joke. It was barely enough time to build up steam and feel like I was in battle before the thing was dead.
And that was me trying to prolong the fight.
Without any other options, personal training was my last resort. Which was something I hadn''t done a lot of during the tutorial.
Gabriel helped me get into it, though, and made the whole thing a lot easier. He had been training this way throughout the tutorial and guided me through the process.
"I would train my skills throughout the day and then go into the dungeon to test things or to solidify my understanding, not what you were doing. It sounds like you leaped head first into the fire and prayed you came out alive." He said after hearing what I did to upgrade my skills or train.
Now, while I said I didn''t train by myself a lot, that didn''t mean I never did it. When I first got [Ice Manipulation(Un)] it was a main staple of my time to train the skill.
Temperature battles with Rachel were another way to train it. She was also big into the mana sense training and tried to beat it into me every chance she got. She was so much better at it than me which made it hard to get enthusiastic about it.
Still, having another person with an Ice Law led to some interesting training, for both Gabriel and me.
Rachel and I would fight over temperature using our respective affinities, and while that was similar to what I was doing now, it was still different. Temperature was a by-product of utilizing my affinity, it wasn''t the main part. Cold was a huge part of it, but Ice would always be its heart.
She and I fought over the effects of what our affinity had on the environment, but Gabriel and I fought over the Ice itself. Both grasping and battling over control of our element.
It reminded me somewhat of when the Wind Chamber got so powerful that the Winds fought me for control over the Ice I was holding.
It was like having two drivers of the same car fighting to go different directions at different speeds and it worked wonders for my control.
One of the biggest things I gained out of training with my brother so far wasn''t even my increasing control, but something different entirely.
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I still remembered a few days ago when I came to him for help the first time.
"You need help training?" He said incredulously, "But you''re already stronger than me, what could I help you with?"
"Most of my training came in the form of combat and that isn''t really an option anymore. We won''t hit our first dungeon for another week and I don''t want to sit around doing nothing during our breaks." I said.
Some of our members weren''t as high level or didn''t have as high endurance as the rest, making us stop more frequently for breaks and the like. Meals were another that we stopped for or when we hit an area that had things for us to harvest.
Food was the reason we had to stop most often and harvesting it took a while, but there were a few other things we picked up on the way. With the dominating Wood and Plant mana of the forests, Mitchell and Brayden both located a few trees that stood out from the rest for harvesting. They usually made those into the axles of the carriages because of their increased strength and mana content.
While I could help them with that, most everyone else spent time doing other things during our downtime. I dabbled in the travel forge that Vinny cobbled together but that wasn''t really the best use of my time.
Vinny did the best he could with what he had, but it was a pain to do anything in. Even simple nails were frustrating to get through let alone higher grade equipment. He was making adjustments and working with Brayden when he had the time but it was a slow process. Brayden''s time was mostly spent fixing the carts or spare parts to help him create a better travel forge.
Others, Gabriel and a vast majority of the combat-focused members, spent it training.
Everyone knew the brief respite we had been granted wouldn''t last forever and we would eventually be called to battle again. The only question was how long until that happened.
Which was the main reason I found myself asking Gabriel for help. He trained in such a different way than me and I felt it would be beneficial to see what he had to say.
"Alright, I guess I can show you what I usually do," He said nodding with conviction, "Let''s start by creating some Ice!"
I followed his direction and fed some mana into [Desolate Blizzard(R)]. While the skill had upgraded, it still held the functions it used to. Just like [Icy Bastion(R)] could still be used like [Ice Wall(C)], [Desolate Blizzard(R)] could create Ice like [Hail(C)].
The skill took my mana and began to drop shards of ice in the area I selected but it didn''t even last a second before Gabriel was waving me off.
"No, no, no, not like that!" He said trying to get me to cancel the skill.
I looked at him puzzled, "What do you mean? You said create some Ice, I was creating Ice."
"Yes, I said to create Ice but not through a skill! That''s cheating!" He said animatedly, waiving his hands at the conjured ice falling from the sky.
That made me thoroughly confused, "What do you mean cheating? That''s how I''ve always done it, I can''t just conjure it from thin air." I said sarcastically.
Now it was his turn to be confused and he cocked his head to the side, "What do you mean you can''t? Wasn''t that one of the first skills you learned?"
It took me a second to comprehend what he said and I frowned, "No, I assume you don''t mean my literal first skill and you mean first Ice skill, but no, it was [Ice Wall]," I answered, remembering back to the first Ice-related skill I received. It wasn''t even from my class or anything, it was one I bought from the store. It was kind of ironic.
"Not a literal [Skill], I mean personal skill," He said emphasizing one over the other but saying the same thing.
"I don''t understand the difference,"
"One you just shove mana into for the effect to happen, the other you personally conjure without the crutch of a skill. There''s a big difference. Creating Ice without the aid of a skill was one of the first things I learned how to do." He started to get worked up over it so I just nodded along.
I did manage to sneak in a question before his rant got too far and was one I thought was strongly relevant, "But what''s the point? Why learn how to do it without the skill if the skill already does it?"
He looked physically attacked when I said this. "Anyone can get an Ice-creating skill and just magic up some ice, it takes true skill to make it from personal ability. I''m not sure and haven''t tested it enough, but I think it''s designed to be that way. There are a bunch of reasons to do it without the skill. With enough practice, you could be faster at it, creating it quicker than sending mana through the skills and having it make ice.
"What if you aren''t able to use the skill? I haven''t seen anyone with the ability to block skill usage but with how big the world is, that might be a thing. I know certain enchantments can block skill usage which makes me believe people could have that ability.
"The Ice is also stronger if you make it personally! Well, not at first but that doesn''t count. Have you noticed that the strength of the ice used depends on the rarity of the skill when you let the skill make it," He asked and waited for me to answer expectantly.
That part was true and something I had noticed. Almost all the ice I used for battle came from [Hail(C)], which was a common skill at the time. It worked fine for my purposes and if I needed something stronger, I empowered it with my Law or Spirit.
But I did notice that [Icy Bastion(R)], or its less upgraded version [Ice Fortress(Un)], created stronger ice. Plus, [Frost Armor(R)] also created stronger ice than [Hail(C)].
I noticed it most when using [Shatter(Un)] on different pieces of ice. [Shatter(Un)] seemed to work better and explode more violently on stronger ice which made the skill more effective when used in conjunction with [Icy Bastion(R)] and [Frost Armor(R)].
Before Gabriel ran out of patience, I nodded to his implied question.
"If you create it yourself, you don''t have to worry about that. Plus, if you train the ability enough you can even make better ice than your skills. I think this System has a lot of different things like that, where it does things for you but you can also do it without its help."
He had been kicking that idea around ever since our information exchange. He and my mother weren''t as free with tutorial points as we had been and weren''t able to buy as much information from the store. We knew, from an alien lecture, that you could ''level'' manually. Increasing in level without the aid of the System and you could evolve without it as well.
Ever since, Gabriel championed his theory that doing things manually, or at least learning to do it manually, should be a priority. Not everything, and certainly not right now, but starting with smaller things would help people build up to the bigger, more important ones.
Some would have to learn the skill. If they didn''t have the needed requirements they would have to either do it themselves or live out their remaining lifespan forever barred from the next rank.
Starting with creating ice using personal ability instead of a [Skill] seemed like a good first step.
I wasn''t sure if I would ever level manually or anything like that, but he made good points about needing to create Ice on my own.
"Alright, how do I do it?" I asked.
Gabriel got excited before calming himself into a more lecturely tone, "First, let''s go back to the basics."
Chapter 141 - Cabin in the Woods
"Alright, let''s stop here for the night!" I announced making the caravan grind to a halt.
The clearing we were in wasn''t large but it was enough to hold all of us comfortably for the night. We were in for another large stretch of woods coming up and this was the last clearing for a while where we wouldn''t have to chop down bushes or plants to make camp. While annoying to do so, sometimes it was necessary.
Plus, there was another reason we stopped here for the night. The dungeon wasn''t far away now and we would make it either early or mid-morning tomorrow but it was still too far if we pushed through now.
Everyone began the practiced task of setting up camp and I saw Vinny break out his hammer and tools. He would be in for a busy night repairing people''s gear.
I should help him if I find the time, I thought.
It had been a few days since we had the chance to set up like this and people''s gear was in need of servicing. We had made our way through the low mana area and were fast approaching one of the hotspots on the map. Coincidentally, right where the dungeon resided.
As the mana rose, the levels of the things inside of it did as well. Beasts above level 50 started to appear and were becoming increasingly common.
Austin and Hal did a good job of keeping us secure but I had us take a different approach to the rising difficulty.
The scarcity of the beasts was a boon rather than a hindrance in that we could have a controlled atmosphere for some of the lower-level people in our caravan.
The beasts didn''t carry the same advantages to those of us above E-rank but were a massive boost to those below it. They made for perfect training dummies while we were still in the area for it.
As we reached more difficult areas, we wouldn''t be able to keep control of the situation and make sure nothing unexpected happened which made it important to utilize it now when we could.
Where we were now was perfect to get some of the lower level people some experience to level up. Plus, we now had over 8 E-rank people to make sure nothing went wrong.
Both Hal and Rachel evolved after our return joining the rest of us. Rachel waited for her bloodline which she bought right before the tutorial ended and Hal delayed for a different reason. He wanted to use the last wave to squeeze out a few more upgrades.
Plus, he wanted to see what he could get as a prize that would help him during his evolution.
His bloodline wasn''t as fancy as Rachel''s draconic one, but it had a weight of its own. He chose the Razorbeak Griffon as his bloodline and it was similar to Austin''s in that it was a bird of prey bloodline. It boosted his perception and agility while it also boosted his Wind affinity.
He could enhance his arrows with razor-sharp winds that dealt devastating damage and rotated them around for an increased effect when they hit. He and my Mom trained together using the Winds similar to Gabriel and I.
It was a running joke that we had two birds out on patrol and the amount of times ''two birds one stone'' was mentioned sharply rose. Both men hated that joke already.
While Hal could supervise the fights easily, he was on scouting duty and Jonathan was the one in charge of that effort. He was the best suited for it as his Spiritual Anchor was heavily tied to protection and his defensive skills were perfect for the task.
As their group broke off to find their targets nearby for them to fight, Austin and Hal came up to me. They both looked saddened somewhat as they approached.
"Chris, you should see this," Austin said in a low tone while Hal nodded.
I didn''t have anything else to do and followed them as they led me through a trail in the woods that looked recently traveled. Not well traveled enough to form a natural path, but enough to tell human activity had been through the area after the change.
It looked like someone attempted to cover their tracks but wasn''t proficient at it just yet.
"Where does this lead? Are there people around here?" I asked, grasping for my hammer.
If there was a group in these woods a little heads-up would have been nice. I was always ready for combat but they should have mentioned that before leading me away.
"No, not in the sense you are thinking," Hal said cryptically "You''ll see."
His words made me leave the hammer on my back as we continued along the trail of broken twigs and ruffled leaves until we came upon a smaller clearing than the one we set up in. It was so small it didn''t even show up on the map.
Inside the clearing was a two-story log cabin of a house that had a dirt road leading away from it and into the distance. It was overgrown with plant life but the remnants of the road were easy enough to see.
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The cabin itself had seen better days but it held up remarkably well to the months of terraforming. All the walls still stood and only a handful of holes were in the roof. It looked infinitely better than the houses I had seen in the city which were barely standing.
Some of the houses in the city had collapsed down to the foundation level.
"What''s this doing here? Is there a town around here we don''t know about?" I questioned quietly.
Finding a random house in the woods wasn''t what I thought they would lead me to. I had expected to find a monster of some kind or an unusual area they had found.
Austin had done that a few times in the past whenever he found something cool or unusual. One time it resulted in my foot getting snagged by a random vine that tried to strangle my thigh. Seeing it promptly frozen solid and shattered doused Austin''s enthusiasm at seeing my surprise.
Other than the grasping vines that he discovered, he also tried to surprise me with a snake that could turn itself invisible. There were a few other oddities we had come across along the way that he dragged me over to see.
Finding a house was a new discovery.
As we were observing the house I noticed movement inside of it. A curtain moved inside a window and I immediately went on alert.
My hand whipped behind me but Austin''s hand caught me before I could pull it off. I gave him a quizzical look at being stopped but he only shook his head slowly.
"What aren''t you telling me," I whisper yelled quietly.
This experience was getting strange and I wanted to know what was going on. First the odd house and now he was stopping me from preparing.
"It''s a child in there," He said, "She''s barely old enough to unlock a class and she isn''t even over level 10 yet."
Hal picked up after Austin stopped, "We came across her while she was traveling the woods. We expected to find more people around and followed for a while before being led here." His face set harder before ending, "There''s no one else around."
Oh.
Just as they finished filling me in, a high-pitched voice sounded out from inside the cabin. If I hadn''t known it was a child, there would have been no way to tell from the voice.
Its pitch was obviously feminine but had a sternness and determination to it that made it hard to picture coming from a child.
"Don''t come any closer or I''ll shoot!"
I looked at the two men next to me confused. Was she in there pointing a gun at us?
We had seen a few people with them but they were almost entirely phased out by the weapons people picked up in the tutorial. Swords or axes and the like were more commonly seen than guns since we had returned. Rangers with a bow could do the same amount of damage as a gun if they had the skills for it and were high enough level.
I was confident that I could take a bullet from a gun but that mostly depended on the caliber. Smaller caliber ones would be easy enough to shrug off but bigger ones with more power? Without any way to know what she had, I was uncertain if I was in danger.
For all I knew she could have a cannon pointed at me.
"We''re just traveling through the area and came across your... cabin. We don''t mean any trouble," I said back.
I put my hands up to signify that as I stopped approaching the house.
There was a few beats of silence before a figure popped up from behind a window. The curtains moved to reveal the person that was behind them and the origin of the voice became visible.
It looked like a young girl just above the age of 14 or 15. Dirt covered her face and was caked in her hair that made it look like she hadn''t bathed in a week. I couldn''t tell if her hair was naturally brown or if it was from all the dirt in it making it that way. We also weren''t the cleanest but we looked better than her.
Those in the caravan with water skills could create enough to wash in while we traveled.
In her hands was a bow drawn taught, pointed right at me. It made me relieved to know it was a bow and arrow rather than a firearm, but it was still drawn on me. The bow looked like the starter ones the Rangers received at the beginning and I knew those weren''t very powerful.
Strength could be deceiving now that you couldn''t estimate it from muscle mass, though. Sure, muscles grew like normal but my 600 points of it didn''t look all that different from Jonathan''s 300.
Austin had already informed me that she was under level 10 but I shot off an [Identify(C)] just to make sure.
[Human ¨C Level 9]
Even though I knew what it would say, it still shocked me. Just seeing that it was so low was something new. The lowest level I had seen since returning was the low 20s but this was even below that.
After [Identify(C)] pinged the girl, I got a better look at her. She looked half-starved and was sickly thin. Her arms were stick thin and trembled holding the bow pulled. I wasn''t sure what she had been eating but she wasn''t getting enough of it.
"Here, I have some berries and nuts you can eat if you want. Sorry, I don''t have anything more but most of the food is at the caravan." I said drawing my snack food from a pouch on my belt.
I could see her eyes lock onto the offered food but she didn''t show any other sign of letting up. Her bow stayed pointed at me the whole time.
"Is there anybody else here? Where''s your parents?" I asked her.
At the mention of her parents, her eyes tore away from the food back to me with intensity and she tightened her grip on the bow. It was clear that something had happened to them.
"My dad should be coming back soon. He was here when we left and he will show up any second now and he doesn''t like people near his cabin." She said sternly.
It was clearly a lie but it told me more than she knew. Her father was with her in the cabin before the tutorial started but he hadn''t returned with her afterward. She had been alone in the cabin for over a week, made to fend for herself.
My heart ached at her predicament but it also bled for another reason.
Her father was dead.
We were able to speak with multiple different people who experienced different tutorials and all of them had the same experience. Anyone who didn''t return was dead.
The System returned you to the same spot you were taken from and if that didn''t occur, there was only one explanation. Hearing that saddened me and before I knew it I stepped closer to comfort the child without thinking.
Whether it was the sudden movement or the fact I stepped closer after being told not to, she released the bowstring before I could realize what I was doing.
My mind was so muddled I didn''t even react in time until after the arrow pinged off my chest. The arrowhead broke off and the shaft shattered into pieces as it hit me. I wasn''t wearing my armor anymore which made it clear to see where the arrow was aimed. It hit the left center of my chest, right where my heart resided, but it didn''t have the power to penetrate my skin.
Both my Fortitude and my Body of Wood were enough to stop the weak arrow cold and shatter it to pieces.
As what happened filtered through my brain I couldn''t help but look down at my chest and laugh.
Ha! She really shot me!
Chapter 142 - The Sad Part
The face the girl made at seeing her arrow bounce off my chest almost had me bursting out in laughter but I held it in. The girl was terrified and laughing at her wouldn''t help matters.
"It''s okay, I''m not going to hurt you," I said softly, "Why don''t you tell me your name."
She was hesitant at first but she eventually told me her name.
"It''s Sarah," She mumbled.
"Well hello Sarah, my name is Christopher," I responded lightly.
Her eyes couldn''t leave the spot her arrow hit and it seemed she couldn''t keep her question in any longer, "How did you do that?"
"Do what, the arrow?" I chuckled, "Oh, you have to do a lot more than that to hurt me."
I didn''t want to overwhelm the girl so I took it slow, introducing myself and talking for a moment.
"Why don''t you come out here so we can talk? You can have all the snacks I have too." I said waving my bag of snacks at her.
I wasn''t sure it would work but she eventually stepped out of the house for the promise of food. After she did, I introduced her to Austin and Hal. She made a face seeing that Hal was a Ranger but no one commented on it.
We did our best not to startle her any more than we already had, as no one wanted to get shot with another arrow. After talking for a short while and getting some food in her, the girl broke down into tears and cried while hugging onto me.
That was a development I hadn''t expected. The girl was fine and then all of a sudden she was overflowing with tears holding onto me.
"It''s been so hard *sniffle*. I did the best I could but I''m too low-level. Luke won''t stop crying and I don''t have anything to feed him *sniffle*" She sobbed into my shirt.
Austin had been trying to hold in his laughter at seeing my awkwardness around the crying child holding onto me, but at the mention of another, he broke away to search the house and found a 6-year-old kid inside.
There were two kids in the house.
It took a while but we managed to convince her and her brother to come back to our camp for a warm meal. I didn''t carry that much food with me and the rest was back at camp.
Coming back with two children in tow caused some confusion until we told everyone the story. The girl, Sarah, recounted her experience in the tutorial and I couldn''t help but sigh at what I heard.
The dad was just trying to take care of her and keep her safe but he ended up causing more harm than good. Without any levels, the girl was woefully unprepared for when her father didn''t come back and nearly died of starvation.
Still, she was a tough cookie and I had to admire that grit.
"I had to hunt for food and I managed to get a deer but that was a while ago. The meat went bad quickly and I wasn''t able to find anything else I could kill. Everything''s level was too high."
She told in between bites of food.
I was surprised she even managed that. She was only level 9 without even her first class evolution. Some of the beasts around here were in the E-rank already, let alone the amount that were higher level than her.
After getting her a meal and letting her wash up, I met with Austin and Abigail who were discussing something in whispered tones.
"Do you know what she has to evolve into for that to work?" Austin said.
"I''m not 100% sure but it shouldn''t be hard to figure out," Abigail answered.
I caught the tail end of what they were discussing as I walked up and couldn''t help but frown.
"Please tell me you guys aren''t already discussing this. We haven''t even asked the girl her opinion on the matter and you two are already hashing things out." I admonished them both.
"You can''t say you haven''t thought of it," Austin said back.
While he was correct, it wasn''t something we should be talking about so soon. That was one of the first things that came to mind when I found out about her class and level but it wasn''t time for that yet. Even if a Ranger pre their first evolution was the perfect chance to raise a Beastmaster.
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I wanted to have a bit more tact going about it though. Let the girl get accustomed to us before dropping this on her.
"Why don''t you take a beat and let her settle first? She was hesitant to even come back with us, let alone come with us. We should give her a few days before bringing this up. We''ve pulled the carts for a week already, a few more days won''t hurt." I said.
"Yeah, but it sucks," Austin whined.
"Shut up, you don''t even pull them most of the time," Abigail pointed out.
Austin was mainly on scouting duty around the caravan but there were times when he had turns pulling the carts. It wasn''t often but it did happen.
"Plus, even if we raise her level and get her the class, it isn''t like we have horses at the ready. There aren''t any beasts around here we can use anyway." I said going back to the issue at hand.
"Fine, we can wait. But I''ll be keeping a lookout for anything we can use," Austin conceded.
I didn''t want to hear any more talk of that until at least a few days from now, there was no need to rush and I wasn''t going to force the class on the girl. To switch topics, I brought up the other reason we had stopped here for the night.
"Has Hal found the dungeon yet," I asked.
He had been sent out after our run-in at the cabin to search for the dungeon that was around here. After over a week of travel, we had finally come across one of them on the map.
We knew we were close based on the map but we hadn''t managed to pinpoint it yet. It was also what Austin was supposed to be doing given his profession. I didn''t know all of his professional skills but there should be one or two that would help him locate the thing.
"Not yet. It wasn''t like we were able to give him coordinates to the thing, it''s going to take him a while to find." Abigail huffed in annoyance at my question. I had been bothering her about it quite a few times.
"I know, I know. It''s fine," I sighed, "I''m just looking forward to a fight is all. None of the beasts around here can hold up."
Abigail looked at me strangely but didn''t say more.
"Austin, why don''t make yourself useful and go help him," I added.
He mumbled a complaint but went out into the woods all the same.
Abigail and I stood in silence for a while before she brought up something new.
"How do you think the rest of the world is doing?" She asked out of the blue.
The question was sudden and I wasn''t prepared to be asked something like that.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" I answered, "You''ve seen just as much of it as I have."
"I don''t know." She sighed, "I just can''t help but think about if other people are out there like Sarah."
I took a second to ponder on it before I shook my head to move on. The sad part was that there probably plenty more people out there like Sarah.
Nick
Crack BOOM!
Another lightning bolt leapt from his hand electrocuting yet another monster. Nick hadn''t expected a wave of monsters to attack after he placed the pylon but he was more than enough to take care of them. His lightning could kill them with ease and he shot them down as quickly as he could.
He had received the pylon at the end of the tutorial for a decent amount of points and he thought it would let him run a city. That it would turn him into a city lord or something like that.
He hadn''t expected to be bombarded by monsters the second he placed the thing down.
Nick was lucky he had met up with other people before he went through with it or he would have had to face them all alone. While he could have beaten the wave alone, the people around him helped keep them away so he could focus on shooting them down.
When he returned, the pylon gave off a beacon of sorts that people could feel from a distance away and it caused them to investigate the disturbance. Some wanted to take it from him but he easily fried those who would do him harm. He didn''t slack off in the tutorial and he doubted many around were stronger than him. Others joined up after realizing what it was. No one else around had a pylon and people were eager to rebuild some semblance of safety with it.
Any of the would be thieves were brutally killed and he made sure to display his strength. Plus, his rare mana affinity made him a step above the rest. The Storm affinity had been his stepping stone to higher power since it revealed itself when he hit level 10.
The Winds and Rain flared out as he pulled on more of his mana to fight off the horde. Bolts of Lightning shot out when he had the chance and he could see the beasts faltering.
His retinue did a wonderful job of keeping the monsters off of him which left him open to launching his skills without worry.
Most of the monsters were in the high 30s but there were a few that were higher. Those he had to fry a few times before they went down.
As the last beast he could see succumbed to electricity, he couldn''t keep the satisfaction off his face.
Right as he was feeling satisfied, the pylon sent out a pulse of white light going out in every direction. The sphere of white extended out a hundred yards before it stopped and fizzled out.
A notification popped up after the light went away and Nick laughed at the sight. He had done it. He had claimed his first piece of land and he could now build his very own city.
Name Your Outpost.
He knew that he probably wasn''t the first as a week had already gone by but he couldn''t help but feel like he was one of the firsts.
Now all he had to do was name it. Nick''s City had a nice ring to it but he wasn''t so childish to name it after himself. He could rename it the same name as before but he didn''t wish to do that either.
That name was for a city from before, this needed something new.
He minimized the notification so he could put it off for later. He didn''t have to name it right this second and he wanted to think of a good one first.
Plus, there were other things to do right now besides naming his newly claimed land.
"Have you found any builders yet?" Nick asked his second in command.
Ever since people started to gather toward Nick and his pylon he had to come up with a way to keep things orderly. That all started with his second who made things so much easier.
She was perfect for the role and even had a profession dedicated to it which only made things easier, let alone her experience from the tutorial.
"Yes, sir. We managed to find a few throughout the city and they are willing to help for the time being." His second responded.
"Perfect! Let''s get started on turning this into an actual city rather than only a plot of land." Nick announced excitedly.
He couldn''t wait to see what it would turn into.
Chapter 143 - First Coin
Chris
"So this is it? This is a dungeon?" I asked after arriving at the place Austin indicated.
Hal was a bit miffed that he spent hours searching for it only to have Austin find it rather than him, but that went to show the power of professions. Hal''s Dismantler profession was never going to beat out Austin''s Explorer at finding something no one had found before.
"Yep, this is it baby!" Austin said proudly, hands at his sides as we gazed at his discovery.
All three of us, Hal, Austin, and me, stood and examined the place around us. The dungeon looked little different than a random hole in the ground, but it was markedly different to any mana sense.
It glowed when looked at through that lens, taking in more mana than I had in me by several orders of magnitude. I wasn''t sure of the science behind it, but just by looking at it, it was easy to tell why the mana density rose around the area.
"Why does it siphon mana from the area like that?" Hal asked as we all stood and watched.
It flowed... not gently but with enough speed to be noticeable toward where the ground opened. Gravity had no effect on the flow, as some of the mana was coming from down the slope we were standing on.
"I think it''s supposed to be a filter for it or something," Austin voiced his opinion.
"No, I thought it needed mana to grow and spawn monsters," I rebutted.
A new voice interrupted our conversation from behind us. One I really should have seen coming.
"No, you idiots. If you actually listened when I spoke you would know the answer already." Abigail said while carrying Gabriel on her back.
His bandaged legs stuck out a little longer than before but he was still a long way away from walking on his own. The Healers were still working out the most efficient way to regrow them but the process had at least started. It took nearly 6 people to work and a shit ton of healing mana, but it was working.
Rachel had to use [Ritual Cast] to link all of the healers together so they could pool all of their skills together. The healing was slow-going and mana-intensive, but it was still going.
While we trained together he had made attempts to create legs made of ice but it hadn''t worked well enough yet.
It took too much control to make everything work and he wasn''t there yet. He was certainly getting better but it would be a while until he could make Icy legs work. By the time he had the fine control down his legs would be mostly regrown by then.
Keeping his balance was the hardest part. Any sort of weight shift or uneven ground sent him toppling to the ground as he couldn''t shift as fast as required. It was hard to witness at first but he was working through it. The small muscles for balance did more than what he could stimulate with his magic, at least for now.
"The dungeon is both a filter and it requires mana to grow and populate the dungeon so you both are right but also wrong. The monsters aren''t spawned from mana, they are transported here from other places. Everything in there is a real monster, not something that''s only conjured from mana." She corrected.
"Yeah, that''s the reason the monsters don''t disappear after you kill them and you can take their parts outside of the dungeon after you finish," Gabriel added.
What began as a simple curiosity quickly became a lecture when those two got involved. They went on to give a little more detail about them but my interest started to get distracted after a while.
I was glad to hear that the monsters inside were real. I wasn''t sure what else they would be but I was worried they wouldn''t feel the same. Like fighting a hologram or something if they were mana constructs the dungeon made.
The logistics of how that worked were still above us, much to Abigail''s chagrin, but we knew that they were taken from somewhere else for some reason or another.
Every piece of information about dungeons we had learned, either from our own tutorial or Gabriel''s, seemed to deliberately leave that part out. Like the System didn''t want us to know the specifics of it just yet.
For as much as we were given in depth information about some things, others were withheld for seemingly no reason.
While the history of dungeons was interesting and all, there was something much more important I wanted to know.
"How deep is it?" I asked.
From the quick lesson Gabriel and my Mother gave us of their tutorial, we learned that dungeons had floors and each floor increased in strength from the last.
Their tutorial''s dungeon ranged from level 1 all the way to over level 50. Every floor had a range of 10 levels capped by a boss monster, or '' ''floor guardian'' depending on which name you wanted to use. There were other things that could be inside of a dungeon but they were by no means standard.
Every dungeon was a touch different and you couldn''t go into them thinking they would be the same.
Some would have more traps than others, some would have mini-bosses spread throughout certain floors, some had a steep challenge increase from floor to floor while others had a smoother curve.
What was most important was the amount of floors it had.
At least that was most important to me right now. The loot the dungeon would drop was also important but that was of secondary importance right now. A good fight was something I desired more than anything the dungeon could drop.
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"We don''t have any tools to measure that and it''s impossible to tell without them. None of us have that good of a mana sense to detect the amount of floors the dungeon has." Gabriel said, "Especially with this being the first one we''ve come across and without previous ones to compare against."
Not getting an answer right now was disappointing but it wasn''t the end of the world.
"I guess we''ll have to find out the hard way!" I said excitedly, pulling my hammer from my back and started walking toward it.
After hearing that Austin had found the dungeon, I had come prepared for battle. My armor was dusted off from its stay in storage and sat comfortably on my shoulders again. The familiar weight was comforting to wear again after not doing so while we traveled.
Not wearing it was an attempt at what Abigail claimed would acclimate me to being back. I didn''t think it worked but it was nice to not wear the cumbersome plate as much, even though it felt weird not to.
My hammer had gotten a bit of love since the end of the tutorial but it could also use a decent fight again.
Abigail shook her head behind me at my enthusiasm but none of them made to stop me. They knew I was looking forward to this and was half the reason we stopped where we did.
"Come on, Nightlight! I don''t know if I''ll be able to see in here." I shouted over my shoulder to my dungeon companion for the day.
I was not about to carry a torch down there. It felt like an affront to bring fire with me while fighting, not when I had such a willing participant to light the way right next to me.
We had already planned out who would go in the dungeon and Austin and I were up first to scout it out. Everyone else had other tasks to do that pushed their turn for later or after the threat level was established.
Jonathan was a good option to scope it out along with Hal and Rachel, but none had the same enthusiasm about it than I did and let me go first. They didn''t care for the fights of the tutorial as much as I did.
"Oh, is Big Bad Christopher scared of the dark?" Austin mocked but started following anyway.
The two of us approached the cavern and I almost expected to feel something as we crossed the threshold but I didn''t. The mana was thicker but that was about it. I half expected some kind of sensation to come over me or a feeling to signify I was in a dungeon but nothing changed.
The slope wasn''t too steep and we marched on into the depths.
It was similar to walking inside of a normal cave. The air grew muggier and the light level decreased as we made our way deeper, but it didn''t have the wetness you would expect from a cave and stalactites dripping water from the ceiling were missing.
The rough stone and jutting rocks were the only sights as we descended and it became increasingly dark until Austin powered up one of his skills. As much as I joked at him about it he did make a really good night light.
It was a subtler glow compared to the luminescence I had seen him put out before, but it was enough for us to see. It worked well to not completely kill our dark vision. If it stayed that way when he started launching skills was yet to be seen.
"Do you still gain strength from [Rising Dawn] even though you''re underground," I asked curiously.
It probably wasn''t the best time for idle conversation but the thought popped into my head and I became curious.
[Rising Dawn] was the skill that gave him strength during the day and peaked at noon. It was a similar type of skill to my [Glacial Presence(R)], but instead of relying on the temperature around me, it was tied to the height of the sun.
"Yes, I still get the boost from it. The sun is still up even though I am underground. It doesn''t stop being up even though I can''t see it." Austin answered sarcastically.
Something about that didn''t seem right, "I feel like that''s cheating. The Sun doesn''t even reach here, how does it give you strength?"
He looked over at me a touch more serious than normal, "The Sun is more than just light."
I wanted to ask how that worked exactly but our conversation was cut short as we ran into our first monster. We were only a few hundred feet into the dungeon and we already hit our first monster.
It was an odd little thing to look at. We were only on the first floor so it wasn''t that high level, not even above level 10, but it was still an odd thing to look at.
It was like no animal I had seen before but even without knowing what it was, there was clearly something wrong with it. It was salivating excessively and heavy breathing could be heard from it. It lumbered down the passage we were walking with its back turned to us, it was a surprise it hadn''t noticed us, most beasts knew I was there before the reverse was true.
I was no expert veterinarian, but it reminded me of rabies or something like that. The monsters that came in the waves were sort of like this but this one was far worse.
It gave off a sense of unnaturalness as well that was unpleasant. The feeling wasn''t the same as the Demonic Leopards but it was similar in the wrongness it gave off. We knew that the dungeon monsters would be like this from Gabriel but seeing it firsthand was different. It was the main reason that the monsters were inedible.
Looking at the thing, I knew no one would want to eat it but seeing that it was most likely diseased only made it worse.
[Identify(C)] said it was only level 3, a small little thing.
"Do you want to give it a poke or do you want me to?" I whispered to Austin with a shrug.
"Be my guest," He waved me ahead.
I gave it a light tap and we were on our way again. The rest of the floor was similar and was made for people way lower level than us. The gradual slope had leveled off after we hit the ''First Floor'' and became more flat but the monsters stayed the same. There were still dips and bumps but it stayed generally level the rest of the way with the monsters all being under level 10.
We breezed by most of the monsters with either an [Ice Arrow(Un)] or a [Solar Beam] and spent little time on them. They didn''t have any parts that were useful to gather and were a waste of time to try and skin.
The winding path was tall enough for us to stand up straight in, luckily, and it wasn''t that hard to navigate. It had areas where the ceiling was higher but it mostly stayed at around 10 feet or so.
The walls were rough stone and came in tight in some areas but it looked and felt like a normal cave.
The floor guardian only took a smidge more effort but it was easily defeated. It reminded me of the first time we took on a level 10 boar.
The first evolution gap between level 9 and 10 had seemed so steep then. Back then, it took everything in me to kill the boar when now it was as easy as waving my hand.
Not all dungeons had to stick with the same 10 levels a floor standard but it was nice that our first delve into one was one we had experience with. Not personal experience but a first-hand account was close.
After we killed the floor guardian we made our way around the room in search of the reward chest. We were told that they were rewarded after completing each floor and only appeared after the floor guardian was defeated.
"It really is a treasure chest!" Austin exclaimed from the other side of the room.
I quickly made my way over to him and it examined the box he was staring at. It was a rectangular chest that was only around 2 feet wide and a foot deep.
It wasn''t even that tall either at only about a foot high. Whatever was in there wasn''t very big.
"Well, open it up," I told him.
He quickly lifted the lid and revealed what was inside. There were a few copper coins laid out inside the box with a chunk of metal next to them. My [Metallurgy(C)] skill was saying it was similar in strength to High-Carbon Steel.
I examined the chunk of metal a bit more but nothing new jumped out at me. Vinny would have to look at it with [Material Analysis] to get a better appraisal but it didn''t stand out to my senses.
If the color hadn''t given them away as copper coins, the lackluster prize of the first floor definitely did. The loot was disappointing but we didn''t expect much for the first floor.
"Our first coin! Should we frame it?" Austin joked picking up one of the coins inside the chest.
Chapter 144 - Richest
"You know, I really thought there would be stairs," Austin''s voice echoed off the cave walls we were traveling down.
We were in the process of making our way down to the fifth floor after defeating the fourth floor guardian and it was taking longer than usual. The tunnel extended on for quite a while without a monster to fight leaving us alone with only our footfalls echoing off the tunnel to accompany us.
The fourth guardian was a massive lizard the size of a car that had an earth affinity to help it out. Well, the affinity didn''t do much to us but to anyone else, it would be a difficult fight.
We were a great distance below ground and were surrounded by stone and rock on all sides. The thing literally ripped chunks of it out of the walls and ceiling to use.
It was a touch unfair in my opinion but the thing died all the same.
"Like in games?" I questioned, "Yeah, I can see it. Maybe some dungeons do have stairs? Not all of them are the same apparently."
Our conversation broke the silence we were in and carried through the open tunnel. The quiet was odd at first but quickly became normal after traveling through four floors.
"Where do you think the monsters come from?" Austin asked, "What do you think''s wrong with them?"
I just turned and gave him a dumb look. His ball of light illuminating the area made the face I was making at him visible even if he didn''t turn to face me. He knew what I was doing.
"Man, you are asking the wrong person. You just had a chance to ask the two most knowledgeable on dungeons and you waited to ask me?" I joked.
We both chuckled at that but Austin continued, "That was different. We were being told what to expect but now I''ve actually seen it. I''ve fought them for four floors and have experienced it myself.
"It just made me curious where they came from."
"I don''t know, man. Do you remember the Demonic Leopards from the tutorial?" He nodded, letting me continue, "They kind of remind me of them with the feeling they give off."
"Huh, you''re right." Austin replied, "But it''s different somehow."
"I know, but I don''t have anything else to compare it to."
We lapsed into comfortable silence after that until Austin brought up a different subject.
"You know we''re probably some of the richest people in the world right now!" He said with a laugh.
That brought a smile to my face but I just shook my head at him. The first floor rewarded us with a few copper coins and a chunk of low-grade metal.
The second floor gave a few more coins and a square of leather. The third gave a few more coins and a different bit of material and by then, I was sensing a theme.
The only difference on the third was the coins were shaped differently. The coins rewarded on the first and second floors were small rounds of copper of a similar size to nickels but the ones on the third floor were a touch bigger.
Not as big as a quarter but in between two in size. They were also a touch thicker. While the tutorial didn''t give us any coins it wasn''t hard to figure out what our new currency would be from the store.
The smaller, thinner coins were only a single copper while the bigger ones were worth 10. There was also one worth 25 and it went as large as a half piece but we didn''t have any of those yet.
Those different sizes stayed constant through the different metals so it was the same for copper, silver, gold, and whatever was above that.
We were still getting used to the new currency but it would quickly become familiar in time, as most things did.
Between us we barely had 30 copper to our name yet he was already claiming riches.
"Think about it. How many people do you think''ve been in a dungeon yet and received a coin? I''d say less than 10% of the population has a coin. Maybe less than 5%. So, technically, we are the top 10% now!" He said excitedly rubbing two of the coins together.
"That''s a stretch, even for you." I shot down.
We joked back and forth as we walked but it was never about serious topics. Mostly stupid jokes as we descended further.
Neither of us received a level, which was unfortunate, but we were looking forward to what the lower floors would offer. If there were lower floors.
The fifth was the last floor before E-ranks started to populate the tunnels and the boss was the first one with a Law, but it was only a Least one at that.
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The rewards continued to be a mixture of coins and materials which was a tad disappointing. We knew some dungeons could reward skill shards but this one seemed to be a material dungeon.
While it would be a boon to any crafters that settled nearby, it wasn''t the exciting finds that we were looking forward to.
The sixth was when it finally started to get good. I could have blazed through quickly on my own but we took it slow to explore everything and be a touch cautious.
Neither of us had trap-detecting skills and had no way to discern if any were there. This dungeon didn''t seem to favor them but we couldn''t rule them out outright.
We bulldozed through the few that populated the higher floors like they were decorative paper rather than the lethal traps they were supposed to be. We kept that stance as we descended but we were trying to be more careful.
My stats were high enough, my Fortitude especially, to walk through most of them and my armor added to that capability. Both my armor of Ice and the plate I wore under it.
I felt confident enough to walk through them for at least a few more floors. After that, things would get iffy and a new tactic would need to be found.
This was only supposed to be an initial survey of the dungeon for people who would come in after us. We wouldn''t be staying here for long but there would be enough time to get people down in here a few times.
Maybe I could take Allison with me?
She had the best trap detection skill being a Rogue turned Trapper herself but that depended on how many floors the dungeon had. If it capped at 6 or 7, I could brave them myself. Any higher and I would have to get help.
Going face-first into a trap meant for level 80s was pushing it, even for me.
The sixth floor took a touch longer since the monsters had evolved again but they went down quickly. Especially with Austin here to help.
We had fought together a great many times and we ended the tutorial on nearly 30 straight hours of it. By this point, it was instinctual to account for what he would do in the fight.
Gabriel babbled on about combination moves we could use together but we hadn''t tried any out. The attempt at using my Ice as a magnifying glass for his light didn''t work as well as Gabriel planned.
My Ice wasn''t crystal clear and the small imperfections ruined the effect. The Water Mages, though, were perfect for the effect. Any [Solar Beam] that passed through the water got a moderate power boost from the effect. The range was diminished but it was still stronger than before.
We relied on good old-fashioned teamwork. His spear blurred as he thrusted through the beasts while I smashed any and all in front of me.
By now, [Momentum(R)] had built up since the first floor and was nearly full just from walking through the floors.
As we reached the end of the sixth floor, we finally reached monsters that were higher level than us. Well, higher level than me, Austin was over level 60 already.
"Please be another floor! Please be another floor!" I chanted under my breath as we closed in on the floor guardian.
It was just starting to get good and I didn''t want it to end yet. There hadn''t even been a decent fight yet nor had I received a level.
The guardian was a step above the rest but still only had Least Law to defend itself and no other Path was present. No Anchor or Body Refining to help it defend against my hammer.
Beasts didn''t have the same exact Paths as us but they were similar enough to be called the same things. The techniques were certainly different but it was still referred to as Anchors and Body Refining.
One cool tidbit we read was certain territorial beasts could make a place their Anchor. There was an example of a Giant Anthill that nearly every ant made their Spiritual Anchor.
The army fielded to conquer said Anthill all died spectacularly even though they were all of a higher level. The power an entire Anthill could bring to bear with their combined Spirit was too much to handle.
It happened long ago but was used as an example that places could also be used as Anchors, even though beasts used them more commonly, humans could as well.
Laws were the same regardless of race, those were the guidelines of the universe, they didn''t change whether you were a mouse, bear, or human.
After Austin speared the guardian through the heart causing it to slump over dead, I ran around the room looking for the way down and nearly jumped in joy when I found one. I left Austin to gather the rewards and forced him to pick up the pace as we went down a floor.
The level 70 monsters were where my challenge lay, I could feel it.
I relegated myself to only my Law and physical stats during the fights and they became the challenge I wanted. Some of the beasts even had more stats than I did! Agility was my biggest challenge handicapped as I was.
With Austin here to help, it wasn''t too bad but I could see that getting out of hand if I fought too far up in level. A slow skill with my Ice would be a great addition to my powerset if I could find one.
That would counter any who tried to beat me using speed.
The fights leading deeper into the seventh floor started to get my blood pumping again. My hammer shook off the rust and danced through the air again.
It felt like it had been months since my last good fight.
Even though I was restraining myself, it worked to loosen my limbs and get into it again.
[Mighty Blow(R)] came down on a skull, exploding it in a shower of gore while Austin stabbed out at a monster behind me. I marched forward to meet the next monster and he stayed a step behind me.
As the monsters started reaching above level 75, they became a touch stronger. They received a second path and had either a tough body or greater magic. It seemed like the midpoint of E-rank was another power jump for the dungeon.
It would have been a challenge to stay handicapped as I was, so I began to use my Anchor as well. It was especially necessary for the groups of them around the tunnels.
They were a good mix of tough brawlers, swift assassins, and powerful magicians. Or at least that was what Austin and I came up with for naming them.
The tough brawlers were the monsters with powerful bodies that liked to get up close and maul you. Going blow for blow relying on their defenses to ward off attacks.
The swift assassins were the flighty ones who danced around while looking for openings to exploit. They usually had sharp claws or talons they used in quick slashes before leaping out of range.
I compared them to mine and Austin''s fighting style respectively.
The last were the ''mages''. They stood back while the others fought and used magic, launching whatever skills they had. Those were the most annoying to deal with and I usually focused on those with a vengeance.
A Law and Spirit infused [Ice Arrow(Un)] or something similar sent their way was usually enough to either kill them outright or put them out of the fight.
Even dealing with the annoying ones, it was nice to fight again. To wade through enemies and come out the other side.
I even got a chime to push my good mood even further.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Chapter 145 - Not a Ranger
"God Damnit! It''s a tease!" I screamed in frustration at the empty tunnel ahead of us.
Austin and I had just finished the seventh-floor guardian and were making our way down to the eighth when the tunnel abruptly ended. As we neared where it ended, the tunnel took on a rougher and more unkept look which should have made the end less surprising but my mind didn''t want it to be so.
The seventh-floor guardian was a great fight where Austin and I had to go near full power to defeat it and it promised a fun time on the eighth but it wasn''t to be so. It had teased us with a good fight only to leave us stranded looking for more.
"It still has seven floors, Christopher. What did you expect from a new dungeon?" Austin tried to soothe my frustration but it did little.
I was eager for a good fight but it seemed I would be denied, which was annoying.
"I hereby name this dungeon Tease, for being a jackass and not giving me a good fight." I declared in the barren tunnel.
Naming the dungeon wouldn''t actually do anything but it felt good to spite it. Even if it was inanimate without a clue that I was cursing it.
Dungeons didn''t have names, not really anyway. Civilizations still gave them names to refer to them better but those were by no means System enforced. It was just people collectively agreeing to call it the same thing for convenience''s sake.
Facing the dead end, we had to march all the way back to the surface and my frustration bled out of me as we hiked back. It was hard to stay mad about it while taking a half hour to get back.
Overall, the whole dungeon run took a few hours and we were only a few coins richer along with various bits of material. The dungeon loot was lackluster but we were warned it would be such.
When we got back to camp, I made sure everyone referred to the dungeon as the name I bestowed upon it, if only for my own amusement.
After it was scouted out, and the difficulty level for the floors was known, people started to sign up to go down into it. Where these dungeons differed from games was they weren''t instanced or anything like that.
They only had room for a few groups and everyone couldn''t rush down into it at once.
A signup sheet was made and people gathered together in groups to go down into it. Each dungeon was a touch different in how long before resets, based on mana level and intake, but this one reset in about an hour.
I didn''t know if that was fast or slow, but we were able to send a team every hour or so into the dungeon to get some experience.
Most hadn''t passed the E-rank threshold yet and they wouldn''t be able to get anywhere near the end of the dungeon which made it a good spot for them to level up, even if I couldn''t.
During this time, some of the major adjustments we had put off were starting to take place. Normally, we only had roughly 10 hours of downtime on the wagons to work on them while they weren''t moving and we had to make use of this extended time while we had it.
From sunset to sunrise with a few breaks throughout the day, we were on the road. I didn''t count the breaks during the day in the 10 hours because those weren''t consecutive and it was hard to do anything substantial to the carts during the short time we stopped.
But now, when we camped in the same spot for multiple days, major repairs and upgrades were happening. Brayden and Vinny had both thought of different ways to improve the wagons and were quickly doing so while they had the time.
There were a few other Builders and Carpenters we picked up along the way who helped out as well. Plus, I took some time to carve a few Runes in them for added measure.
We were traveling through what used to be Indiana right now which was mostly flat with only a few hills, but we would eventually reach rougher terrain. We were still having problems on flat ground and I wanted to beef the carts up a bit before we ran into anything too difficult.
Least Runes of Durability were my main work as I put them at various places along the cart. We ran a few tests and found that it worked best if I engraved every spoke of the wagon wheel separately, as doing so strengthened them the most and produced the lowest chance of breaking.
Which meant I had to carve 8 spokes per wheel, on a 4-wheeled cart, in a multiple-cart caravan.
I didn''t want to see my carving tool or another spoke for a long time after that.
Still, we made the upgrades and it gave people enough time to have their fill of the dungeon. Each group managed to go in it a few times and most came out with a good chunk of essence.
It was the first time our caravan leveled up as a whole and multitudes of people were sporting new skills they were showing off. Whether they worked on the upgrades and had new Builder skills, or fought in the dungeon and had new combat skills, both groups had something new to play with.
Sarah took this time to get acquainted with the group and came out of her shell a bit. She spent most of her time with the other parents or caretakers since she wouldn''t let her little brother out of her sight but she gradually opened up as well.
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I could tell she had the urge to go into the dungeon but didn''t want to leave her brother alone with people she didn''t know. It was both admirable and sad what she was going through.
Abigail was the person I designated to be her ''handler''. That word sounded wrong but that was essentially what she did. Being a mother herself, it helped her deal with the barely 15-year-old girl and her young brother.
It helped that Sarah''s brother, Zach, was the same age as Josh, Abigail''s youngest. They got along decent enough and it was nice to see Josh playing with someone his own age.
We had a smattering of different age groups of kids but few age groups had multiple kids that could play together.
We stayed for 4 days before I felt it was time to present the question. Sarah seemed more relaxed and a lot of the tension she had been carrying was released.
Zach and Josh got along during the day and she internalized she didn''t have to do everything alone anymore. She wasn''t the sole person who had to feed, watch, protect, and take care of a 6-year-old child.
While it was satisfying to see her transition, I still waited a bit longer than I should have. The importance a Beastmaster held was tremendous and we still had to do a lot of work to raise her up.
Austin pressured me to hurry but I was unswayed. He and Hal had found an abandoned ranch a few hours away that held the promise of horses. The signs were all there but the animals themselves were missing.
It looked like a ranch from before had been there and that meant there were horses somewhere in the area. Unless they all ran away, we were hopeful to find at least a few.
The stable they found had the capacity for a good number of them and we were searching for a decent sized herd of the creatures in the area.
I felt he had ranged far and wide to find something like it that would satisfy my condition. His pressure didn''t sway my decision but it was time to pose the question. I couldn''t delay it forever.
The first thing I did was bring Abigail with me. Both to have a friendly face along with the person she had grown closest to while among us. I had been too busy to spend much time with her and we remained distant.
I had more than just work to eat up my time. Everyone needed me for one thing or another which made my time fleeting. I was actively refining what my authority was needed for so I didn''t get called for superfluous things but we were still new and starting out, and people didn''t know what to do.
"Sarah, can you come with me?" I asked when I reached her.
Her eyes flicked to Abigail behind me and nodded hesitantly. She seemed fearful of me, like she knew how powerful I truly was.
Most who joined hadn''t seen me at full power. Only my family knew what I was capable of and they hadn''t witnessed it firsthand. None were there to see me fight the waves but they knew the aftermath.
There wasn''t a need to bring that part out and most remained ignorant, but Sarah knew she didn''t have the capability to hurt me from experience, which was more than most.
I didn''t wish to intimidate everyone so I kept it mostly light-hearted and personable while we traveled but she knew for a fact that there was nothing she could do.
Our trio walked back to my tent and I sat down in a chair set up for the occasion. I faced two other chairs with a small table in between us which was a clear indicator of the conversation we were to have.
Sarah tentatively sat in one while Abigail slid into the other next to her.
"How have you been these last few days? Are you settling in alright?" I tried to ease into the conversation but it didn''t seem to work.
Even as she tried to casually answer, her tenseness was clear.
"F-fine, everything has been wonderful. T-thank you for taking us in." She stuttered through some of it but that was fine.
Seeing how she was going to remain tense no matter how much small talk I tried to use, I jumped into the meat.
"I must admit, I had ulterior motives when I took you in," Her face morphed at my words but I pressed on, "You are the only Ranger pre level 10 that we have found since our return and you hold the capability to be a tremendous asset to us.
"The reason I didn''t tell you this before was that I do not wish to force you or pressure you. I wanted you to get comfortable before offering this to you so you knew you could say no and nothing would happen.
"We aren''t going to kick you out if you decline so don''t worry about that at all, feel free to do so if you don''t want to do what I say." I declared.
Watching her face as I spoke, I saw the different emotions she battled through but the biggest one was surprise.
"You need me because I''m a weak Ranger?" She asked curiously.
"Yes, I need you specifically because you are a Ranger who hasn''t evolved," I answered.
"But why? I''m weak, probably the weakest here who has a class. Ranger sucks and I could barely kill anything before you came around." She vented about her Class.
I wasn''t sure why she felt that way but it did make things easier. If she wasn''t tied to her class, maybe she would slide to a different one with less convincing. I knew some wouldn''t.
Like me, I loved my warrior class and I didn''t think I would switch if given the chance.
"You are weak only because you are low-level. That will change in time. Especially when you get a Profession." That had been a surprise to find out. I didn''t know why, but I assumed that everyone already had one even though that wasn''t the case.
I should have known based on her low level but it only clicked when she admitted it.
"But that isn''t what''s important. I need you because I don''t want a Ranger. You haven''t gone through it yet, but Classes can change dramatically during evolutions and that is the reason I need you.
"We need the class Ranger evolves into and you are our best bet. We aren''t sure of the specifics, but it should be easy enough to accomplish." I said.
"You need me to not be a Ranger?" It was hard not to smile at the hope I heard in her voice. Like she just now realized I wasn''t asking her to be a Ranger, but something else entirely and hoped it was true.
"Yes, I need you to not be a Ranger," I confirmed.
I could see her thinking about what was said for a second before she nodded enthusiastically, "Okay, I''ll do it!"
I chuckled at how fast she was nodding her head, "Slow down there buckaroo, I haven''t even told you what the Class is yet!"
"It doesn''t matter! Anything is fine as long as it''s not Ranger!" She nearly shouted with joy.
"Alright, alright, you can calm down now. I take it that it''s a yes." Both Abigail and I smiled at each other, "The Class we need is called Beastmaster. You''re level 9 so we only have one more skill to work with but it should work. If you pick up an animal companion skill or a Bond skill it should push you in the right direction. You''ll have to put off your evolution for a bit but we can make this work."
Abigail took this chance to jump in, "Maybe talk to Hal. His brother explored those skills extensively and he can help point you in the right direction. I know Kyle was looking to go in this direction."
She brought up a good point. We were hoping getting Sarah''s level 10 skills to be something like that would add an evolution option towards Beastmaster but we weren''t certain.
The plan was to have her stay at level 10 for a while to get comfortable with the skill and experience with handling the companion/bond she picked. None of this was certain but we felt that gave the best shot at getting what we were looking for.
Sarah just nodded along to everything we said, happy that she didn''t have to be a Ranger anymore.
"Well first, let''s get you to level 10," I said while getting up.
The first floor of the dungeon was the perfect place to get her last level.
Chapter 146 - First Headache
Getting Sarah''s last level was easy enough and didn''t end up taking that long. The monsters on the first floor were still low-level enough for her to defeat, even if she thought her class was weak. She had been trying to hunt creatures far higher level than her and concluded that she was weak rather than the level gap was too much.
Her bow skill was enough to breeze by most of the first floor by herself even without my interference. She managed to get her last level mostly alone, with me having to step in only once when there was a group of monsters she couldn''t take down alone.
After hitting level 10, Sarah jumped with joy before I ushered her along to find Hal and get her the last skill. I was thinking a bond skill would be best but we would ask Hal first before we went through with anything.
Even if he didn''t look into those skills much, I knew Kyle would have talked his ear off about them and Hal probably had some residual knowledge kicking around in his head.
And it was a good thing too, because he pointed us in a completely different direction than I had originally planned.
"[Bond] and [Companion] skills are good but I don''t think that''s the direction you want to go in. You''re trying to make her into Kathy, right?" Hal asked.
"Yes,"
"Then I think taking [Soothe] is a better option. It builds up to [Tame] skills and is a better path toward Beastmaster. Bond and Companion skills could still lead to hundreds of different classes but [Soothe] puts her on a direct path toward Beastmaster." He explained.
[Soothe] worked to calm wild animals and made the taming process quicker and easier. It led directly into [Tame] skills and increased their effectiveness. The reason I hadn''t considered it was because it didn''t directly do anything for taming. By itself, it only calmed whatever you wanted [Soothed]. It could work on humans to a lesser degree but any kind of mental defense was enough to brush off the weak skill. It wasn''t meant for mind control.
What he said made sense and made me wonder what skill Kathy took to get where she did. It would have made things so much easier if she had just told us.
I felt Hal''s idea held more weight than my original plan and had Sarah take what he had said.
[Soothe] didn''t seem to do much on its own but I trusted it would get us where we wanted to go. There wasn''t a restriction when ranking up to G-rank so Sarah could have gone ahead and done it but that would have killed the plan in its infancy.
We would take a few days to get her used to the skill and some experience using it before we even considered ranking up. None of us were sure if the offered list of 5 could change or not yet.
Every time someone ranked up, they chose one of the offered five. When we asked, no one in the caravan had delayed after seeing the list either.
It should be possible but we didn''t know for sure. Why would you be allowed to delay the choice if the options couldn''t change? That seemed counterintuitive for that to be an option if that was the case.
While Sarah spent a few days practicing [Soothe] on wild animals, the rest of us began to pack up. We ended up spending a week at the dungeon and everyone got more than enough time to run through it.
Our crafters were especially happy with all the different materials coming out of the dungeon. They were gluttons for choice when making things now rather than the other way around.
One thing I hadn''t realized when the material started coming out, was the crafts that couldn''t be made from them.
Most in our company already had weapons and armor from the tutorial but some didn''t, or they were in need of replacing, but some things weren''t able to be made.
Anything metal was fine, swords, spears, even great swords, were being sharpened and polished for use, the dungeon had given plenty of the stuff for crafts, but leather was harder.
The squares the dungeon offered were a few feet wide and tall, which only covered the front of my torso before the material ran out. To make a full chest piece or leggings it would take multiple of the squares sewn together.
While that didn''t sound like a problem, and we were pulling a decent amount of leather out of the dungeon, the problem was the leather was all different.
Every square came from a different animal, had a different affinity, different toughness and durability. It was hard enough to find enough of the same affinity to use, let alone the same animal.
The variation made making anything large difficult. There wasn''t enough of the same leather to combine together into something useful. Wearing the lesser gear we had now was better than the mish-mash the crafters could put together with the pieces we had.
If we had stayed longer, that wouldn''t have been a problem. We would have continued to pull out material and matching pieces would come around, but none of us knew how long that would take and I wasn''t willing to stay to find out. The pieces got bigger depending on the floor they were pulled out on but that was still too little for complete pieces.
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It was easier to wait until we found the material elsewhere.
After a week of staying in the same spot, we were on the road again. Well, it wasn''t a road but the sentiment was the same.
The strengthened carts held up better to travel and we were able to make it further than before and keep a faster pace. The added levels everyone had also helped.
People had more strength and pulling the carts was easier than before. The added weight of the new materials offset that somewhat but we were faster overall.
One thing I hadn''t anticipated about our stop was I had to come up with a policy regarding money. Most had gotten at least a coin or two inside the dungeon and they were unsure if they were able to keep it.
Our caravan was made up of people from multiple different tutorials but leaders like Tracy were common in most. People who took control of everything that came into people''s possession.
People were talking about it and we needed to come up with our policy regarding it. It was something I hadn''t thought of yet as I expected to have more time.
I tossed the problem around within our council but we weren''t able to come to a consensus.
Speaking of our council, it had grown since our return. Or stayed the same size based on how you looked at it.
In the tutorial, it consisted of Me, Austin, Abigail, Hal, Sam, and my father. The 6 of us worked out ideas and plans for what we were going to do.
That number was cut down to 5 when the tutorial ended but my mother was added after our return, bringing us back to 6.
I offered it to Gabriel but he didn''t want to be a part of it. He felt it was a waste of time and didn''t care either way.
Some of the 6 wanted to keep the same ratio as before when we were earning points rather than coins, a 50-50 split. Others wanted more, some less, but no plan had a majority to it.
I was thinking farther ahead into the future with it and wanted to make it the same as what our tax rate on dungeons would be after we created the city. It would set it now so we wouldn''t have to change it after we arrived.
Knowing that we weren''t just setting a temporary rate for the caravan, but the future rate made the discussion more adamant rather than less.
"50% seems fair to me. We give them shelter and security while they still get to keep half of what they make. Anything less is not enough!"
"Where in the world had a 50% tax rate!? That''s straight extortion at that point. No one will want to live in a city that takes half what they make."
"What then? 10%? That''s certainly not enough!"
It was a balancing act where everyone fell on different parts of the line. Thinking of all the things this decision would affect only made it harder.
If we set it too high, no one would want to live in my city. Too low, and we wouldn''t have enough money to run the city.
"How ''bout an even quarter? 25% seems like a good compromise."
"That still seems high to me though,"
We had been going around in circles trying to come up with a rate and it was beginning to give me a headache.
This would be so much easier if we knew what other cities were doing.
If we knew what others did we would be able to go based on theirs, but we didn''t and it made coming up with one all that much harder.
"Why don''t we think about it differently," I broke into the conversation, "How much would you be willing to give up as you leave a dungeon? Say you live in a city and you delve into the dungeon for a living and as you exit you have to give up an amount. How much of what you earned would you be okay with giving up and continue to live there?"
Everyone quieted to contemplate their answer while I did the same.
If my livelihood depended on making money through clearing dungeons, how much would I be alright with giving up?
My immediate answer was zero but that was unfeasible. If someone owned the dungeon they would want something out of letting me into it.
My next answer was as low as possible but that didn''t help either. I was the dungeon owner in this scenario and as low as possible wasn''t an actual rate.
One in ten?
One in five?
Giving up one coin in ten didn''t sound too bad. It didn''t give the same knee-jerk reaction as one in two. One in five was pushing it for me personally, but it might be doable if it was a particularly good dungeon.
Like one that gave out expensive loot as a reward.
The fact my feeling was conditional based on the dungeon made everything harder.
"Anything higher than 33% is pushing it for me," Hal started the conversation again.
"Yeah, I was thinking closer to what Sam said before, 25%" Austin mentioned.
Abigail seemed pained to admit it but chimed in saying 20%. She was the one pushing for the higher percentage but I had a feeling it was because she was the one using it.
She knew how hard it was going to be to run the city and wanted as much cushion as possible, even if 50% was entirely too much.
Both Sam and my Mother came in at the lower end, one said 10% while the other 15%. Sam drastically lowered her position after thinking about what she would be willing to give up.
It was funny to see how it gradually got lower but that still didn''t help us decide.
"It seems like the average is around 20%. I say we start there as a base and adjust it accordingly. Things may change that rate but One in Five seems like a good starting point." I concluded to everyone''s nod.
"While that sounds fine for dungeon tax, what about a city tax?" Sam brought up, "People choose whether or not to go into a dungeon, but what about the people just trying to make a living elsewhere, like farmers or crafters?"
Ah, geez. That was going to make this conversation way longer than I wanted it to be.
"We can figure that out later. We are still months away from even reaching the place we are going to build and that doesn''t need to be decided now. Plus, we will get to see what others do while we travel and we can get a baseline based on that." I said.
Everyone was alright with that answer and seemed fine shelving that for later.
The next step was to announce it to the caravan. People grumbled and badgered but ultimately seemed okay with what we had come up with.
It helped we were only taxing the coins right now as the material was needed by everybody. Equipping everyone in decent gear was what came first and we could decide on a sales tax after everyone was at least geared.
Plus, we weren''t really in a state we could do that. Everyone was helping everyone right now and that wasn''t something we could afford to break up.
We could maintain what we were doing for a while and it would only cause problems when our population grew too large and we would change things by then.
Technically, it was my first official headache as a leader and I thought it went over alright but it didn''t leave me feeling good inside as I laid in bed that night.
All I could think of was the future issues that would pop up and we only made it through one today. Just thinking of all the things we would need to decide made me shudder.
It was times like these when I questioned my decision to make a city.
No, Christopher. Think of the castle.
Chapter 147 - Wild Speaker
"What''s a copper coin even worth?" Vinny asked.
We were on the road again and his cart jostled along next to mine as we walked. The wheels thumped and rattled behind him and the cart had significant changes made to it during our stop and grew to even larger than the one I pulled.
He made the whole thing fold out into a temporary forge so he could have a better workspace than what he was dealing with. Making it a forge on wheels almost.
It still wasn''t enough to handle the Spirit Fire he had purchased but it was way better than the makeshift workspace from before.
Without anything else to do during our travel, we mostly talked about random things or just watched nature go by. Ever since we earned our first coin of the new currency, that was the talk of most of the caravan.
We knew it was money, but not what it was worth.
"I''ve got no idea. I assume it''s like a penny or something since it''s the lowest denomination." I responded.
"But think about what you did to earn that. You went and fought deadly monsters inside of a dungeon and were rewarded only a few coins? Imagine if you weren''t higher level than the monsters and had to fight them at level?" Vinny pondered, "Plus, how many total did you get from the entire dungeon?"
He brought up good points and it made me think about it deeper, "Austin and I walked out with 44 total, but if we were a party, we would split that so... 22 each for the whole thing." I counted out.
"Yeah, but a party would have more people, so split it 5 ways instead of 2 and each person would make under 10 coins." Vinny pointed out.
"It was more than that though, we came out with other loot than only coins. The materials are worth something as well," I added.
"True, but there are other expenses as well if we''re getting technical. I had to re-sharpen swords, bend shields back into place, service armor and gear. That would usually carry a cost along with it. Add in the fact you took some of what they made as well..." He said.
"Hey, don''t make me sound like the bad guy. Taxes are a part of life." I defended.
"That wasn''t my point, it''s just that they went and risked life and limb and only came out with a few coins so they have to be worth something more than pennies." Vinny said.
The cart ambled on behind me as I thought about what he said as we transitioned back to silence. There was a nuance there that hadn''t appeared the first time I had given it thought.
I had been distracted by the new experience of a dungeon and earning loot like a video game and never delved into the nitty gritty of how that was going to work in the long term.
Assuming people had to make a living delving into them, then what they pulled out of the dungeon had to be a livable wage. So, if they made around 10 coins a day then that had to be enough to survive on. One would assume.
In reality, it was less than that a day. Weapons and armor would cost money, as well as repairs and upgrades. Potions for healing or curing diseases. Paying for an actual Healer when potions weren''t enough. Materials or facilities if they wanted to do Body Refining or anything else for the other Paths would also cost money.
That wasn''t even mentioning buying skills or getting your gear enchanted. Those were all expenses on top of what it took to live. Food and shelter being the main two.
It all hinted at a larger nuanced economy but that quickly blew up in proportion. Trying to extrapolate what someone earned from a dungeon into guessing how much things would cost was an exercise in futility.
I didn''t have the knowledge or expertise in order to do so. Maybe some economist might be able to do so but that wasn''t me. All it gave me was another headache.
Now I wasn''t sure if our 500-coin treasury was good or not after thinking like that. I had been feeling good over the amount before this conversation.
"Why are you even thinking about this? We won''t even know their worth until we find our first pylon anyway and that won''t happen for a while yet." I asked curiously.
While looking over the map and the path we were on, we tried to predict where we would find pockets of civilization. Other than the two guilds duking it out back home, we had yet to find any large groups of people or camps.
We found groups occasionally but most of the ruined towns we passed were empty. There was the occasional larger group but that hadn''t happened for a while.
It had been almost a month since our return and most had moved on and found other places to stay quickly. Any who lived on the outskirts of cities were the first to leave and find safer places to stay and those were the areas we traveled through.
It was hard to remember that not everyone could wade through the forest like we could. There was a sprinkling of E-ranked beasts we found and that would be more than most could handle.
There were definitely some who could do what we were doing, or a large enough group of people, but I put that in the vast minority of those who returned. Just looking over the people who joined our caravan the average level was in the low 30s.
People that level would see the wilderness as a death sentence and would want to leave as quickly as possible before they ran across an animal they couldn''t handle. Especially the areas we were traveling through.
That was the reason we predicted our first run-in with ''civilization'' was going to be the bigger cities. If we kept our current path, we would eventually run into where Indianapolis once stood and the chances of a pylon being planted there were high.
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"Nothing else to do really, plus it helps me plan what I will charge for my services. If I know an adventurer only earns a few coins a day, I can''t very well charge thousands for a basic sword I make." Vinny''s words pulled me out of my train of thought and brought me back to the question I had asked.
"Huh, you''re already thinking that far ahead? Wait a minute, when did we start calling them adventurers?" I questioned.
Vinny had a sheepish look on his face at my inquiry, "I mean... what else do you want to call people who delve dungeons for a living."
"Haha," I couldn''t help but laugh at that. Real-life adventurers, who would have thought?
My laughter died off as something came to mind again and I turned to Vinny with a serious face, "Why the hell am I the one hauling your heavy ass anvil?"
Vinny''s laugh choked off before looking around with his eyes, "I have no idea what you''re talking about. Ah, would you look at that, Luc needs me somewhere other than here."
I watched as Vinny accelerated off with his cart bouncing behind him and I couldn''t help but shake my head and sigh.
Our line of carts weaved this way and that across the land as we traveled Northwest. Our trip was rather mundane compared to what some parts of the rest of the world were experiencing no doubt.
It was hard to look at the map we had and see the illuminating deep color in some areas without knowing the challenge that came with it.
The coloring of mana density so high that even I would have trouble with the things who lived there. Some would make it, like we had, but others wouldn''t. It was different to know that feeling and what those people were going through.
We could do nothing about it though. The only thing we could do was note it down and continue on our way. Continue through the paces knowing that there were places in the world where people were dying.
It was an odd thing to internalize. Odd to work through and set it aside in your head.
I blamed the old news for making that process easier. Without it, knowing would have been harder had we not been inundated with the experience before.
Still, our trip had its challenges. We went through our first rough patch not long after we left the dungeon. People must have forgotten the consequences of what would happen. What I said was going to happen.
Our first thieves popped up and everyone found out firsthand that I was a man of my word. They must have seen the new goods floating around from the dungeon and gotten too full of themselves.
Whether it was greed or envy, it mattered little to me. The Law was broken and I had my part to play out, no matter how barbaric people may think of it.
Evidence was presented against them, witnesses were questioned, and they were found guilty.
Finding the stolen goods in their possession made the process smoother but I made everyone go through the entire process. If nothing else but to practice for when it happened again.
There was little doubt that it would happen again. It was as inevitable as the rain, it was just human nature.
There wasn''t a need to do it publicly but neither did I try to hide it. If people wanted to see then they were welcome to, but I also wasn''t going to turn it into a spectacle.
My Ice took a few more hands that day.
Some, thinking that I wasn''t serious about the punishments, didn''t take it well and left. Either against the bloodshed or the barbaric punishments, they packed up what they had and didn''t continue with us.
It wasn''t the first time that people had done so but it was the first in such a public manner. People had slinked off in the night before due to second thoughts or a change of mind since the first night, it wasn''t surprising to see more do it now.
I didn''t pay those people any mind. I wasn''t forcing anyone to stay and I bid them farewell. I assumed some would also remain behind after we found a stable city, unwilling to travel through the wilderness alone and would only stay with us until we reached one, but that didn''t matter much either. It was their prerogative to do so.
While I let the healers close the wound, I barred them from regrowing the limb. I knew Gabriel''s legs were in the process of being regrown and I didn''t want that to happen just yet.
It would defeat the purpose of the punishment.
I wouldn''t bar them from doing so forever, just for a while so they could realize the weight of their actions. If they regrew the hand in a day or two, it would be easy to forget and do it again.
The morale of the caravan fell after that. The high of leveling and receiving loot from the dungeon was thoroughly wiped out but there was nothing I could do about that.
Actions had consequences and I wasn''t going to run a Lawless city.
It took a few days for the cheeriness to work its way back into our group but it eventually did. Laughs came back along with jokes. The people involved didn''t partake but others did.
It was almost a relief when the monotony of our travels came back rather than the uncomfortable atmosphere it had been.
One high note came a few days later when Sarah continued to gain experience with [Soothe] and I felt that she was ready to take the next step. She vibrated in excitement when I finally gave her the go-ahead to evolve out of her Ranger class.
Her evolution revealed a few things and I couldn''t have been happier about them. After hearing Sarah relay her options I was almost vibrating more than she was. Austin comparing me to a little girl put a swift end to it externally but I still felt it inside.
Her troubles and fight for survival were enough for her to be offered an Uncommon Class along with revealing her affinity, which was Nature.
Hearing of her Nature affinity made me picture Christian but I quickly pushed those feelings down and I focused on the Classes she was offered.
One of the options sounded perfect for what we were going for and was the one she ended up choosing.
Wild Speaker strengthened her connection with the Wilderness and wild animals which was the perfect Path for what I needed her to turn into. The fact she seemed to like it was a perfect bonus.
I was unsure if it would evolve into Beastmaster specifically, but it sounded like it would fulfill the same purpose either way. As long as she continued down this path, we would maybe have something better than a Beastmaster.
After her evolution I had her take a more active role in fighting the beasts we came across. She traveled with Jonathan out on training trips away from the caravan and her level steadily rose.
It would be a while before she reached F-rank, but she was well on her way.
Other than helping Sarah, there wasn''t much for me to do.
None of the monsters around were high enough level to fight and that only left sparring and training. Austin and I had sparred so many times we were able to predict what the other was going to do by now.
It became less of a fight and more of just going through the motions.
My training with Gabriel was my most anticipated time of the day. It was always fun to heighten my control over my element. It helped that it was the only thing that felt like I was progressing.
My levels weren''t going up and neither were my stats, but I was getting better at controlling my Ice and using it in different ways.
Speaking of Gabriel, the regrowing process took a huge leap after our long stop at the dungeon. Both of us worked together to enchant a Formation to aid the process. We laid it out on the cart he was traveling on most of the time.
It focused the healing better and accelerated the process but it wasn''t anything miraculous. Both our abilities were lacking, but we did what we could.
We still weren''t sure how long it would take but estimates put them fully regrown in another month or two.
It was upsetting that I couldn''t create anything more but I did the best I could with what I had available. The books I bought from the store about Formations came along with some basic Runes that I was able to use and that was it. They didn''t have every Rune out there and I didn''t have a large repository of Runes to pull from which made what I could put together limited.
It was lucky that one of them was a basic Healing Rune. Even if it wasn''t the best, it was better than nothing.
After Sarah and the update with my brother, it felt like everything was coming up heads for us. Even if there was a small bump in the road before.
Chapter 148 - Worriers
Nick
A month had passed since Nick planted his pylon and he could hardly believe the difference. Where the area was once full of ruined houses and derelict roads, there now stood real houses and a palisade wrapping around them keeping them safe.
They were barely better than wooden huts and some were basically shacks, but that didn''t take away from the accomplishment he felt. It was a far cry from the once modern city blocks but it was a luxury to most that made their way here from outside. They looked at the wooden huts in envy and relief after their time spent in the wild.
Stories of having to sleep on the ground every night and having to stalk through the woods to hunt and forage for food were abundant when new arrivals showed up.
The food part stayed the same, but it didn''t require a whole town''s effort to partake in. Rangers that evolved into Hunters could bring in far more meat than amateur civilians or other classes. So could profession-focused Foragers or anyone of similar professions. Long term food efforts were beginning as well with a few Farmers his second managed to find in the masses.
It was a bit late to plant now but skills could make up for the time lost. The extra mana causing them to grow faster.
After building the first structures of his new city, they moved on to planning ahead. There was still the constant threat of monsters, but they were prepared and experienced for that.
The gashes and scratches in their palisade could attest to their experience and new levels throughout the camp as well. Nick wasn''t even personally needed most of the time and he was the strongest man in the camp.
The only downside that he felt so far was the constant need for management. Everything needed his decision on placement, what people should work on first and who should do what.
Plus, after claiming the ''Outpost'' as the System called it, he had the chance to set a tax rate. Everything was way above him and the constant need for his time was beginning to frustrate him.
Nick didn''t care about most of the stuff which made it feel like a waste of time to slog through. His dream was to rule a city, he didn''t want to run one.
Which was why recruiting his Outpost Chief had been such a game changer for him. She had been wonderful at dealing with all the nitty gritty while he got to watch from afar instead of having to do everything himself.
Her tutorial had been way different than his and she was already experienced with being in charge of a pylon. Her expertise in the matter made everything that much easier and allowed Nick to focus on other things.
He felt like his Law was getting close to upgrading and he could feel he was close. It helped that the dungeon next to them gave him ample experience to fight and grow in levels.
It was hard not to think further into the future. Nick knew that not everything would continue to run smoothly like it had, but if he had already done this much in only a month, how much further could he go?
He still only had the one pylon and he had heard that owning more was possible.
Nick''s tutorial didn''t have any pylons or anything close to it. His focused on fighting in Dungeons and all of the pylon information was completely new to him, but he couldn''t help but feel excited about what he heard.
After hearing more were a possibility, he couldn''t stop his fantasies from building. What if he could build a Kingdom? What about an Empire?
Gabriel
The constant rattling of the cart was enough to drive him mad but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn''t very well walk and the cart was the only option he had for transportation.
Ever since his legs were lost he had tried to not wallow in despair but there were times when it was hard. Bumping around in the cart was one of those times. He tried to keep up a happy face so the others around him didn''t look at him with pity but the bumps and acheing was making it difficult.
Those looks hurt more than when he lost his legs.
It was like they were looking at someone who was useless. Who couldn''t do anything for himself and needed to be waited on hand and foot.
It was the reason he tried so hard to show people that he wasn''t as helpless as they assumed.
If this had been before, and there wasn''t magic to explore or keep his mind off of it, it would have been miserable. Then again, he wouldn''t have lost his legs to a monster if that was the case but that wasn''t the point.
The Arcane was wonderful. It was everything he could have imagined and then some. All the games and books he had played or read didn''t even hold a candle to doing it in real life.
From the first skill he picked to his newest, all of them were a wonder to behold. To be able to affect the world with his mind was a feeling he would never get over.
Still, one of his greatest challenges right now was trying to walk with his mind and that was proving harder than he thought. He knew how to walk but it was different than sending commands to his muscles.
The line of carts slowed to a stop which finally ended the incessant rattling. He wasn''t sure why they stopped this time but it didn''t much matter. He pulled himself off the cart and into his chair before finding a nice place to practice away from prying eyes. His legs and bottom hurt from constantly sitting, but the ache was familiar by now.
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Legs were hard. He had to move the Ice in a particular way, while keeping his balance, without affecting his other leg, and a thousand smaller things that would send him tumbling to the ground.
It was a true test of his skills and he was failing.
After yet another tumble to the ground, Christopher''s voice cut in from behind him that he hadn''t known was there, "You don''t have to continue this. Your legs are coming back and it won''t be long until you can walk again."
He turned to see Chris leaning up against a tree with his arms crossed as he watched Gabriel practice. The hammer commonly with him no where in sight. Gabriel knew that what he was doing was hard for him to watch, but Chris always found the time to accompany him. He had never been good at keeping his emotions off his face and Gabriel caught him cringe when he fell or his face tighten when he took a bad spill.
The instant reaction to reach out and catch him and having to forcibly restrain himself from doing so. While he appreciated the support, it was easier to practice without him here.
"No, I will get this." Gabriel said with determination as he pulled himself up off the ground.
It was what he spent most of his time doing and he wasn''t going to give up now. Even if he knew that his legs would come back, he wanted to walk now. Not in months after the healers were done with him. He wanted to stop feeling useless. Needed it almost. He attempted a few more tries with his new watcher and they all ended the same. Every time, he would pick himself up and go again.
He made it a few more steps this time before he ended up back on the ground. He tried not to get frustrated since Chris was here but some of it got out regardless.
What did surprise him though was the sharp laughter that erupted from behind him. His head whipped around to see Chris laughing while wiping at his eyes.
"What are you laughing at?" His question came out harsher than intended but he couldn''t help but feel hurt at being laughed at.
Chris quieted down before explaining, "I''m not laughing at you, bud, but think about this from a different perspective. You are using your mind to control Ice in the form of legs trying to walk. Looking at this from the outside is kinda crazy."
He let out a chuckle himself when it was put that way. It was so easy to forget where they came from. To get so focused on the problems of now instead of looking back and witnessing where they had started. Even with the hitch of what happened, he had come far and it was easy to forget that. Even if his icy legs were a constant struggle for him.
A more somber note rang out in his head from what Chris said and he couldn''t help but see the parallels. His father would have said the same thing. ''How you choose to look at something is almost more important than what you''re looking at.'' His father would have put it better but what Chris said held the same meaning.
It was also nice to have his brother back again. He didn''t mean back physically, Chris had been with them for over a month now, but back to almost his old self. Or what was left of it.
When Chris first came and found them, he had been full of tension. Wound so tight that nothing from who he once was got out. His eyes were always looking ahead to the next fight rather than the here and now. Partially with them while somewhere else in his head.
It was nice to see him lose some of that tension as they traveled. Gabriel got to watch as it fell off with every step they took. Chris didn''t like to tell any stories from his tutorial but they were easy enough to get from the others.
Austin especially. Gabriel didn''t have the same bond with his cousin as Chris, but it was always easy to get a story out of him. He had to work through and decipher the embellishing Austin put on his stories but the base information was always true, no matter how outlandish it sounded. Gabriel thought it was Chris''s distaste for lying that made Austin reign it in with his exaggerations. The two rubbed off on each other, as much as the two would deny it.
Even knowing it was exaggerated he knew some of it was true from other stories, like how they single-handedly charged through a gate and defeated a whole camp of thralls. That one had been a crazy one to listen to and he had called Austin out at multiple points of the story but it had all turned out true.
"You know you will probably have to go through this at some point as well. Do I get to laugh at you then?" Gabriel snarked back.
Chris sported a smile and covered it with a joke, "Are you wishing harm on your brother? And here I thought we cared for one another."
"Oh, come on, that wasn''t what I meant." He responded, "Just with all the fighting you do, you are bound to lose something at one point. Statistics demand it almost."
Gabriel watched as the tightness crept back on his face. As he went to brush off his comment and change the subject to something else after his joke hadn''t worked. It was what he always did when him getting injured came up.
That or when anything dangerous came up. It was like he was allergic to having other people worry.
"My Fortitude is high and my skills are strong. My armor as well. It w-" Chris started but Gabriel cut him off.
He wasn''t going to let him brush it aside this time.
"Christopher," Gabriel said in a serious tone, "I''m not going to baby you like the other two will. You may say your Fortitude is high and you are strong, I''m not claiming otherwise, but don''t fool yourself. Don''t forget, I can feel your aura and I understand your confidence, but saying it will never happen is both arrogant and stupid. You know better than most that anything can happen in a fight. Frankly, you''re lucky it hasn''t happened already. Given your current path, you will eventually be in the same state I am and it''s better to be prepared for that now."
He watched as Chris puffed up to wave away his concerns but stopped himself before going through with it, and visibly deflated instead, "I know, Gabe," He sighed, "I don''t think it will never happen but how do you think Abigail or mom would react if they saw me practicing just in case I lose an arm in the future? Or a leg?"
"Oh, they would give you a long lecture on how to face risks but that isn''t the point. Both of them are worriers. They were born that way and they can''t help it, but that doesn''t mean you should let it affect you. You can''t let how they will react stop you from doing something you need to do. I had enough of that during the tutorial when Mom tried to stop me from going into the dungeon. I admit, that specific example ended poorly but you can''t let them dictate what you can and cannot do." Gabriel said.
"You''re right, Gabe," Chris said softly, "But it''s hard for me to do that. Our tutorial was... rough. Everyone is still working through issues and I don''t want to add to that. I know I can''t limit myself because of them but I also don''t want to add to their struggles unnecessarily.
"Especially now, when people are just starting to heal."
The clearing they were in found its way back into silence as both just sat next to each other. Gabriel knew pushing too hard right now wouldn''t accomplish anything and it wasn''t an issue that needed it.
He was glad to have this conversation now but he also wanted Chris to add himself into that group of everyone. He talked about everyone healing like he wasn''t included in that.
Like he was fine and it was everyone else who was going through it even though he was there in the same boat.
Still, Gabriel took what he could get and focused back on trying to walk.
"If you''re going to stand there and watch, at least give it a try to find out how hard this is! It''s not as easy as it looks, damnit." Gabe pestered.
"Fine, fine, I''ll give it a go. Watch how the master does it." Chris laughed before building ice over his lower body.
Gabriel had to admit he was getting a lot better at that. The ice froze around his legs quickly and efficiently and Gabe could tell he had been practicing. His skill when they first started training was abysmal. He had let a skill do it for too long and had to work out that bad habit before they could start building new ones.
It was a nice change of pace to watch Chris fall flat on his face instead of doing it himself.
Chris''s admission of it being harder than it looked only made it better.
Chapter 149 - A City
Chris
"So this is it. A city," Austin''s voice sounded out from next to me.
Our caravan had crested the grassy hill we stood upon and were given a clear sight of the city in the distance. Or, more accurately, what was left of it.
What met our eye was ruined concrete and rubble. Buildings any taller than a few stories laid on their side or destroyed completely. Any and all glass had long ago shattered.
Buildings of brick held up the best, but even those were scattered and strewn from forces long past. Bricks strewn about from where they once collapsed. It seemed the terraforming had its way with what was once a large city. Indianapolis wasn''t the largest city in the world, but it was still a large one.
We had traveled through mostly forest and outskirts to get here and we were coming upon the first large metropolis area and to see it in such a state... it was jarring.
It showed the extent to which the world had changed. No more structures were jutting into the air, claiming the skyline, as any building that dared now lay crumbled upon itself.
Picturing New York made me sigh and shake my head. I had never been to the city and now I would never get to see it as it was. I was in no great rush to do so, but now it wasn''t even an option. Let alone any of the famous Cities around the world. The Eiffel Tower probably wasn''t standing anymore.
The odd thing about looking upon such destruction was knowing that no one had perished. Usually, such scenes came with a death toll that colored your vision when you looked upon them.
It added a somberness that this was missing. We knew that no one was in the city when it happened and the knowledge that no one had died during the destruction made it feel... lesser almost.
As more carts rolled over the hill, more of us began to stop and stare at what lay ahead. Most felt similar to me when taking in the destruction, but excitement quickly shot through the camp at the sight.
There were people.
"How many people do you think are down there?" I asked.
At the distance we were at, it was difficult for me to make out the details. I could see movement but I couldn''t tell anything of greater detail.
"Thousands from what I can see, probably more," Austin said as he glowed for a brief moment, calling on his bloodline to see further.
Even if only half the city survived, that put a few hundred thousand down there. It was hard to imagine that many people lived among the ruins.
"There''s an area of new construction on the Western side of the city. Mostly wood but there''s a palisade surrounding it." Hal chimed in from my right.
Where Austin had his bloodline to see further, Hal had skills to do the same. The only one among us who couldn''t see anything was me.
My eyesight had greatly improved thanks to the points in perception, but it was nowhere near good enough to see in the detail they were, especially for something so far away.
"Do you think it''s a pylon?" I asked curiously.
"Without a doubt. There isn''t one visible, but there''s one down there, I''m sure of it. The borders are too clean to not follow some kind of guide like the area that gets claimed." Hal answered.
"How does it look? Are people struggling? Do they look despondent or ragged?" I questioned.
We were still about an hour away from arriving at the city but I wanted to get as much information as I could. If the people looked like they were struggling then I needed to prepare myself accordingly.
The state of the people spoke to what kind of person took up leadership after arriving back on earth.
Having a base amount of strength and levels to back it up was a given. You had to have that much to even purchase a pylon, not everyone was given the opportunity to buy one at the end of the tutorial, but that didn''t say anything of the character of the person leading.
Plus, I knew they made it through at least one wave of monsters when they planted the pylon and claimed the land. Still, that didn''t mean much. There was a wide range of possibilities when it came to fighting a wave, as our tutorial could attest.
It had been over a month since our return, they could have built the palisade first and then claimed the land for all I knew. That would have lessened the strength needed to defeat the wave along with other defenses that could have been built.
Hal and Austin both didn''t see anything else in the defenses department but that didn''t mean they weren''t there. They could be hidden or been destroyed during the wave.
The amount of people down there also could have been the reason they defeated the wave. A few thousand could have handled the early levels of pylons with enough ease and there were more than enough down there to do so, even if they were all under leveled.
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All of that ran through my head as we overlooked the city.
"They look fine from what I can tell. Most are working on more buildings but there is a steady line of people leading off into the distance." Austin answered with an accompanying point.
"Which direction are they headed in?"
"Northeast,"
Unrolling the map and holding it out for all of us to see revealed the reason. After hitting more landmarks and getting better at reading the topography, we were able to pinpoint our location with greater accuracy. After leaving the dungeon, it was easy to track where we were on the map as we traveled.
Having that higher degree of accuracy, we were able to locate the dungeon off to the Northeast that they were likely heading off to.
We stood and chatted about a few other things, but it didn''t amount to all that much. There was only so much we could decipher from here and we would only know the situation once we got there.
Joining back up and hauling my cart to catch up, we traveled on.
We were a large group of people just shy of 100 strong which made us easily spotted not long after we descended the hill. Scouts who were looking out for monsters easily picked up on our presence.
I took it as a good sign that they didn''t seem to be surprised at our appearance. They had probably dealt with refugees over the past month and we were just another group coming into the city.
Nothing out of the usual happened as we approached but one thing did occur as we reached the gate. The gate was manned by a trio of what I assumed were guards.
We were still a bit early into the transition for my mind to immediately think of gate guards rather than bouncers but that was slowly changing.
"One copper per person to enter the gate, and the carts stay outside." The man standing in front of the gate said with the two others backing him up.
For some reason, I hadn''t expected there to be a fee to enter the city. In hindsight, that should have been something I expected but I was still caught off guard.
Another thing it brought up was not all of us could enter. If the carts couldn''t enter, people would need to stay with them and keep watch. I didn''t expect this to be a city of thieves but leaving them in the open was just asking to come back to them gone.
We had already had a run-in with theft and that was within the caravan.
"Hal, do you and Rachel mind staying with the Caravan?" I asked.
Both gave a nod and that problem was dealt with. The next one was forking over the coins for all of us.
The guards didn''t feel very strong and I could have just barged in without paying but that wasn''t a very good introduction. I wasn''t out to act a fool and neither did I want it known I behaved that way.
It was dishonorable.
The only reason I felt that would be justifiable would be if the fee had been outrageously high, but even then we didn''t need to get into the city. It was just a nice place to stop for a while and restock.
There was a hope to sleep on actual beds but that didn''t seem likely. With the amount of people that milled about compared to the number of permanent structures, there weren''t going to be beds for us to sleep in.
I had a thought to pay for the whole caravan but dismissed it. With our time spent at the dungeon, everyone had their own coins to spend. Even Sarah had made a few on the first level of the dungeon and she was the lowest level in the caravan. Plus, it wasn''t like they needed to enter the city.
If they wanted to, they could pay for it themselves.
Abigail walked over and paid for most of the family from our grouped funds and the guard actually counted them out. It added to the time it took and was slightly frustrating, but we waited to be waved in before we entered.
Without the cart, the only thing in my possession was my hammer and I expected some kind of restriction as I walked in about it but it never came. Everyone outside of the walls ambled around with some kind of weapon strapped to them which made them common, but a part of me still expected to be told that I couldn''t bring them in.
I was glad that didn''t happen as that was a bigger issue than paying the coin to enter. I wasn''t going to let anyone make me remove my weapon. It wasn''t like I needed my hammer, I could easily make another with the practice I had put into making Ice, but it was the principle of the matter.
I wasn''t going to let anyone deprive me of my weapon.
Luckily, there were no other restrictions and we were allowed entry into the ''city.''
It was hard not to put mental air quotes around ''city'' because it was a far cry from a real one. The houses looked solidly built but they were few in number. Other than those, not a lot of buildings occupied the area.
As densely populated as we predicted the area to be, there weren''t a lot of structures to be had. Other than their number being few, the construction looked well in hand.
What had been built looked sturdy and orderly. The placement wasn''t haphazard or undirected. Stakes in the ground with different colored ribbons demarked one area from another as people placed materials here and there.
I didn''t know what the colors meant, but it was easy to tell that someone had a hand in planning this.
We had seen the logging effort going on as we neared the city and there was a constant stream of logs and other materials entering the city to aid in construction. What surprised me was there weren''t any stones traveling about.
The camp had so far been made of logs hewed into planks instead of the stone I somewhat expected. What little there was flowed up from the Earth by dedicated Earth mages.
As we shuffled through the marked-off streets, we got a look at the reason there wasn''t stone anywhere else.
As the center of the camp, blocked from view initially, stood a large keep under construction. It looked similar to the ones from our tutorial in size and it seemed to be the inner area of the city.
It wasn''t hard to locate where to find the resident lord and the reason there wasn''t stone anywhere else.
Our pace slowed as we took in the sights and it was hard not to stare at what was happening around us. We had done this ourselves during the tutorial but it was different seeing it on this level.
Everywhere, people labored on this or that. Saws and hatchets broke logs into planks. Chisels and hammers carved the planks into shape before others hauled them off to where they were needed.
The construction effort was strong and skills flashed abound. The numerous builders raising buildings so fast progress was visible to the naked eye.
If we had been a month later, it seemed like the city would be filled rather than the sparse collection it was now.
"Alright," Abigail''s voice pulled me away from watching people work, "We need to find a Merchant around here, get some food and supplies. Maybe check out if they have anything else for sale. I don''t expect much but it can''t hurt to look."
When the city first came into sight, we had aimed toward it subconsciously. It wasn''t until someone asked the question that we realized we didn''t have a specific reason to enter it.
We had most of the supplies we needed already in the carts and we had foraged for everything else. Hal and a few other Rangers were good hunters and our food supply was steady so it wasn''t like we were low.
Curiosity was what drove most of us but there was also the practical reason. We had no way of knowing what was inside the city without entering ourselves.
There was bound to be something we needed to pick up that was available and if nothing else, it was a learning experience in how people ran cities now that the world changed.
Still, as we walked, it was hard not to feel a sense of familiarity with what I was seeing.
Almost like deja vu.
Chapter 150 - Lunch?
Hendricks
The mana in the air was so thick he could almost taste it. The thickness clogged his throat and made him struggle to bring air into his lungs. There was a suffocating weight it held, turning the air into a viscosity he had to fight through. The area had transformed into one of the highest concentrations of mana in the world and they had returned right in the middle of it.
Ever since they had been returned, fighting for their lives had taken up every second of every day. Even months after, they were still clawing and struggling to eke out a place to live. It felt like fate was playing tricks on them as they barely had a chance to rest. Monsters seemed endless and multiplied faster than they could cut them down. People fell daily trying to hold the line.
There were even some they couldn''t cut down and retreat was the only option.
If this was a joke, Hendricks wasn''t laughing. Transporting them into a tutorial to get them used to the new world for a nice few months, and then throw them into the deep end in an area with mana so thick it hurt to breathe.
"Gonzalez! How much longer ''till impact?!" He screamed over the sound of battle. The wrappings on his mace were running low and he only had a few left. Same for his shield.
The walking horrors ambled this way and that, their grotesque limbs swaying as they walked, only to whip out unexpectedly at the nearest person when they stepped in range. Their grey skin was slick with a liquid slime that made it look even worse as it shimmered in the dull gloom of the area.
Even the sun had to fight for control here and the celestial body was struggling against the environment, let alone humanity.
If that wasn''t enough, the liquid covering their form was highly corrosive. It could eat through metal, leather, and bone in seconds. No matter what their weapons were made from, they would quickly deteriorate after the first few strikes. His sword found itself quickly melted to goop during his first fight with them.
He had learned from that first day and now his group hefted maces and clubs wrapped in various cloth and leather.
The wrappings would both soak up the liquid and peel off before the weapon started eroding. Keeping the weapons intact while also removing what little of the coating they could.
"Impact! Impact! Impact!" Gonzalez screamed from behind him.
Shit, so much for a warning.
His group turned and sprinted away from the monsters before diving behind the premade berm as fast as they could. As he leaped over the lip of the protrusion, he could already see the blindingly bright flares descending on his position through the perpetual fog.
The Flares ate at the heavy cloud almost as much as the liquid at their weapons. The Flares'' path carved a channel through it as the intense heat removed any and all moisture from the air.
"Get Down! NOW!" He screamed, pushing his team over the edge without care for being gentle. He did not want to be there when those things landed and they were coming in hot, rough handling was the least of their worries if they were exposed when impact arrived. He had seen what they did to the horrors and he did not want to experience that first hand.
A flash of white heralded their impact and a wall of force washed over his prone form, barely broken by the lip he was hiding behind. Their team didn''t get much time to lay down before the force rammed into them, pushing them harder into the earth.
If it wasn''t one thing, it was another.
The horrors always came at the worst times and always when they were least expected. Even if he had Halsey scout the entire area, they would still pop up out of nowhere. Seemingly stepping out of the fog itself.
The team waited for the debris to finish settling before poking out from their hole. Heads popped up like prairie dogs to take in the scene left behind by the Flares.
It wasn''t the first time his team had witnessed the Flares in action but it still left them all speechless for a while after impact.
Trees crumbled to dust after the flash conflagration, wind carrying the grainy dust away like black snow in the air. Where the monsters once stood was ground zero for the impact, the soil a glossy black from being glassed.
Lone trees stood in a line, blackened and charred, but standing in various spots from the impact. The searing heat diverted by where the horrors stood, the bodies of the monsters shielding them from the worst of it.
"Report!" He called out.
"All good!" Jackson sounded off first.
"All good!" Gonzalez next.
"Out of mana but good!" Halsey came next.
"Wounded but functional!" Larks broke in.
"I''m fine!" Grant''s unfamiliar voice broke his rhythm and threw him off for a second.
His face twitched at the incorrect response but he schooled his expression before acting on it. Grant wasn''t military and he couldn''t treat him as such.
Hendricks was lucky to have some of his team with him, even if they had to add a few to it that weren''t trained like they had been. They couldn''t be picky when they were all fighting for their lives.
"Alright, let''s get a move on. We can''t stay here and I want us gone before the harvesters come." Hendricks ordered.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He had a unique hatred for those creatures but an even greater fear of them. They consumed anything and everything with enough mana and the site they were occupying just became a veritable feast to them.
Fire mana saturated the area, mixing and intertwining with the already dense ambient mana in the air. The combination might as well be a giant blinking dinner sign to the creatures further inside the forest.
While Hendricks reveled in his new abilities now that the System had come, just as he gained powers, so had others.
The Artillery team had the highest firepower of anybody he had met, from both the tutorial and after. The power they could unleash was stronger than the shells they launched from before.
Rearranging of team members had to be done after returning, but they meshed together well and were able to call down extreme firepower. Not every affinity worked well with such an attack but the HE Artillery team was some of the best at it.
Every member of the team had either Fire, Flame, Heat, or Kinetic affinity they packed into the Flares they shot out like one giant ball of fun.
Combat Engineers constantly worked to improve upon it further and grand formations were constantly getting updated and reworked for better power transmission.
Even though they made new breakthroughs every day, the number of monsters only seemed to climb. They were fighting a losing battle and with every death, they grew weaker.
Hendricks had the same thought as many had in camp. They were in the foothills of Virginia before the System changed everything and he couldn''t help but think other places had to be worse.
If it''s this bad here, how bad is the rest of the world?
Chris
The longer I stayed in the city the more I couldn''t shake the feeling it gave off. The arrangement of buildings felt similar and the way everything was partitioned out felt like I had been here before.
It was beginning to mess with my head when I knew a fork in the road would be there before I came upon it.
After that, it became clear what I was feeling.
Tracy''s camp was laid out in the exact same manner. The layout of the roads, the placement of certain buildings were, the residential side of the camp. Everything was the same.
It seemed Austin had already come to the same conclusion as I turned to see him staring at me, waiting for me to connect the dots.
"Finally! I realized it almost as soon as we entered. What took you so long?!" He said while thumping me on the shoulder.
I had to admit, it took me longer than I would have liked. This should have been something I caught as I entered but it had taken walking through the town for nearly 10 minutes before I got it.
"Hey, I spent a lot less time there than you did! I wasn''t as familiar with it." I defended myself.
That was my excuse and I was sticking to it. Austin continued to give me shit over it taking so long but it was all good-natured.
The realization led to further thoughts I wasn''t sure how to deal with. Finding Tracy wasn''t anywhere near anticipated and I didn''t know how to deal with the knowledge that she was here.
We hadn''t exactly parted on the best terms. While it wasn''t the worst, I wasn''t sure how our reunion would go.
She had said she was from Western Indiana, why the hell is she in Indianapolis?!
If I had known that, I might not have made us stop here. It wasn''t th-
"Christopher," A feminine voice sounded from behind me. A familiar feminine voice. The last voice I had heard before the tutorial ended.
I jumped at the sudden appearance and turned to find who I expected. She looked better now than when I had last seen her. Some of the tension was gone and she didn''t seem as strung up. The bags under her eyes were gone along with the slouch in her back.
Other than that, she looked the same. She wore the same dull brown leather armor. She styled her hair in the same high ponytail, only coming down further because of the months of growth.
Her face looked at me with curiosity instead of the pensiveness I had expected. While I didn''t hold anything against her, she might have hard feelings about the way I ended things.
It would seem she didn''t from her expression.
"Ah, Tracy, I didn''t expect to see you here," I said sheepishly. Like I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar.
People talked during the tutorial and you learned things about them over time. Where you were from, what you did, and things like that were commonly talked about between people inside the camps.
Through that, we learned that our tutorial had a wide reach of different places we were taken from. Gabriel described his tutorial as people who were in the area when the integrations started, which differed from what we experienced.
We had people from all over the US and some were even from Canada. It was only one group from Canada and the only reason they got pulled in was because they were in the US when the tutorial started, but still, it counted.
They didn''t make it long, though.
While most ended up dying, I didn''t expect to see the people who made it out again. We were all from different parts of the country and it was rare to run into them again. Needle in a haystack rare.
Or that was how it seemed before seeing Tracy standing before me.
"Nor did I you. Why are you here? I thought you were going to start a city." She asked bluntly with her arms crossed in front of her.
At this point, the initial shock of seeing her again wore off and I noticed the people around her. All of them were new faces and they wore decent-looking gear, instead of the rag-tag compilation that most walked around in.
[Identify(C)] gave me nothing on their levels but they looked a step above the rest. That skill was bordering on becoming my most infuriating one as it continued to let me down. [Sweeping Slash(C)] still held that title but [Identify(C)] was coming close if it kept failing to actually work.
Seeing the posse she had behind her didn''t surprise me. She had always been one to surround herself with others for protection. While I mostly fought alone, she was the opposite.
I had yet to see her actually fight, now that I thought about it. Her class was all about setting traps before the fight even began. Not that I spent a lot of time at her camp, but I didn''t remember anyone telling stories of her fighting either.
Without TVs or other entertainment, stories were the main go-to time passer. Tales of a fight you had or a battle you witnessed were traded around between everyone.
There were some outlandishly obvious tall tales, but most were rooted in reality enough to understand the underlying story. Austin was the main storyteller I knew but others would jump into one when the time was right.
After moving to Tracy''s camp, the stories mixed and we heard of theirs while they heard of ours. Of the ones I could remember, not one was about her fighting on the front lines.
They were always of her using a consumable or treasure, or of a trap she had planted.
I shook the stray thought from my head to respond to her question.
"We are just traveling through and thought to stop at the town we came across for supplies. I didn''t know you would be here." I replied honestly.
She nodded at my response, "On your way North, I presume?"
I nodded in response. It wasn''t a secret where we were going and it wouldn''t be hard to figure out. Any in our caravan could answer that question and I had no intentions to hide my city. It would be a hard thing to do and defeat the purpose of gaining citizens.
Guessing where I wished to build my city wasn''t hard when she knew my affinity.
I hesitated to say any more, though. I was conflicted on how to proceed from where we were. Part of me wouldn''t have been surprised if she asked us to leave.
"Well, why don''t you come and have lunch with me? We can talk of your travels and I can tell you of mine." Those were not words I had expected.
She didn''t wait for my answer before turning and walking toward the stone construction at the center of camp.
My mind whirled with the reason she could possibly have to offer that, but it came up with nothing. I was at a loss for her reasoning and I couldn''t help but be on the back foot since the beginning.
I couldn''t get over how she found me. I was only one of the thousands of people walking around the camp.
Chapter 151 - Tales of Travel
I had no reason not to follow her so I kept pace behind her as she walked toward the keep that was under construction. When we arrived, there was already a table and chairs set out for us. Austin wanted nothing to do with the lunch and left me high and dry saying he had important things to do making the chair set out for him empty.
The bastard.
My mind couldn''t comprehend why Tracy was acting like she was and it was looking for some indication of a trick or trap. I feared poison at first but even that was too underhanded for something she would do.
Still, I kept my vigilance up just in case.
"Sit, sit, tell me of your travels. How was the surrounding area, did you come across anything interesting?" Tracy started while what appeared to be an aide came to serve us both food.
It was a cut of meat from something nearby, I suspected, along with some kind of berry sauce. There were no grains or vegetables as those were rare to find.
Without a reason not to, I went into my story.
"Our travels were mostly mundane. The forest and plains were mostly free of anything high level and there weren''t that many people to be found. We gathered all who wished to join and pointed the rest in the direction they wanted to go. The only interesting thing we encountered was a dungeon about a week''s travel Southeast." I explained.
There was no reason to hold anything back. We were on a one-way trip through the area and nothing we came across needed to be kept secret.
"Oh, a dungeon? Did you go into it?" She asked and I nodded, "Fascinating things, really. When I went into the one near here it was unlike anything I had seen. It kind of reminds me of the fallen pylons but a little bit more organized."
Alright, this is getting confusing and I''m sick of it.
She was acting like we were friends having a casual chat and I couldn''t take it anymore.
"Why did you ask me here?" I laid my question bare. Abigail was working on getting me more diplomatic but I had no hand for it. Blunt and to the point was infinitely better than the dance we were going through that led nowhere.
Playing along would be a waste of time.
"As blunt as always I see," She laughed, "Surprisingly, that is a trait I''ve come to like."
I just stared at her for my unanswered question.
Her smile diminished before she answered, "What did you expect from me? That I would be mad? Angry over how the tutorial ended?"
"Yes," I answered.
She shook her head, "I made it out alive and that was all I wanted. While it would have been nice to get a few more Reward Points, I think I did pretty well all things considered."
She just looked at the dubious look on my face and sighed, "Look, I understand why you did it. You made a decision for you, I''m not angry about it, I would''ve done the same. Plus, as much as I would like to believe in what I''ve built since our return," She waved at the walls and keep under construction, "I doubt anything has changed with my abilities to defend against you. I don''t even think the City Lord would make a difference."
She made good points and some of my hesitation faded away. While I didn''t know her the best, she didn''t seem to be lying.
Wait, City Lord?
"You''re not the City Lord?" When I ran into her with a group of bodyguards, I had assumed she was the City Lord.
"Oh god no, I learned my lesson during the tutorial. I do not want to be the leader any more than I have to. It''s better to push that responsibility off on someone else." She said.
Tracy then laughed at a thought before explaining, "That way, when an Ice clad madman comes knocking, it isn''t me they''re looking for."
I snickered at that and we both enjoyed the joke.
"I didn''t think you were one to give up control," I commented. Tracy seemed like one who needed to be in charge.
"That''s the best part. Nick wants nothing to do with running the city and only wants to be Lord in name only. All he cares about is leveling up and I still retain all control, but dish off all the responsibility to him. Someone comes to conquer the city, his problem. Another City has a problem with us, his problem. While I get to control everything else. It''s a win-win really." She said while cutting up the food on her plate.
Now that seemed more like something she would do. After the conversation got rolling, it was easier to talk about things with her. I wasn''t looking for the hidden dagger and she held a lot of things I wished to know about.
"What of the pylons since our return? I haven''t placed mine so I still don''t know how much has changed." I questioned.
"That was a major headache. The store isn''t as easily available anymore and buying the things we need is difficult." She pointed at the stones flowing as people carried them by in with her fork, "We have to go and haul stone from the area instead of buying it from the store. Everything else is gone as well, no more buying information. No more consumables or treasures. The entire shop is missing and a bare bones one replaced it." She said.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I had feared as much when we realized that was a tutorial-only occurrence but there was other information about buying goods from other planets. How were we to do that without a shop?
"What replaced it?" I asked. While we knew the shop we once knew wouldn''t be a thing, it still had to be an option. We knew buying things from other planets was possible so it had to have that function at some point.
"A hassle that''s what. The new shop requires a Merchant high enough level to open trade up." Tracy answered, "Once the pylon is placed, there is no shop tab like before, it only becomes an option once you appoint a Merchant for your city. What''s available in the shop depends on what level or rarity Profession the Merchant is."
"What do you mean you need a Merchant?" I asked. This was the first I was hearing of this and while we had a Merchant, Jonathan, it would have been nice to know before hand.
She gave me a questioning look before realization flashed on her face, "You don''t know? Oh, I guess you only would after placing your pylon so that makes sense.
"Certain functions of the pylon require an advisor slot with someone with a specific profession before they can function. The shop won''t work unless you have an appointed Merchant or Trader of a certain Rank or Rarity. The higher level the Merchant the more things you can do. Trade outside the planet is still well out of reach but pylon to pylon trade isn''t that far off.
"An E-ranked Merchant should unlock regional trade between pylons in the area. We aren''t sure how far the range is, but it should reach any pylons nearby, hopefully." She explained.
"What, so you can just appoint a Merchant and the store opens up? I thought it would be more than that." I questioned.
"It''s a bit more than that." She said, "It''s similar to appointing a Seneschal or Mayor. They need to be affiliated with the city and a member of your faction before you can appoint them as a City Merchant."
Jonathan is already above level 50 in his profession. If he gets a few more levels before we place the pylon we can start out with trade. My thoughts turned toward how I was going to use that feature and how I could best utilize it.
"There are other things you can do to increase the range of trade or boost other things but learning that is slow going. Without the readily available information, we have to find out new things from the people who join us. The tutorials focused on different things and other people will have different knowledge than us." She said, "A few other things changed with the pylon but nothing as major as the shop. The pylon levels are similar from what I can tell, we are still only at the Town level but it was the same as before."
We sat and talked about a few other things over the meal but none were as important. She talked about her time since returning while I talked about mine. After hearing about a possible pylon in the city I had left, she questioned to know more about that.
I told her what I knew but that was likely outdated by now. It had been a while since we left and the whole conflict could be resolved by the two factions by now.
The points that I picked up from her that stood out were the struggles at the beginning. They had placed the pylon but they had nothing to build with. They needed people to gather resources but they had nothing to pay them with.
Everyone had just returned and no one had any money.
"People chipped in when they could but that ran out quickly after the bare necessities were met. No one wanted to work for free and we had nothing to pay them with." She explained.
"Nick went into the dungeon a few times by then and I could offer something but no one knew what a copper coin was worth. We didn''t get people up and working until we started taxing the dungeon exit and the coins started steadily coming in. But even then, we paid people mostly in food or materials."
It was how I had expected the start to go when I founded my city. I planned to have a bit of a treasury when we finally arrived at our destination but that wouldn''t last forever.
The one good thing about taking time to travel and visit other cities was learning how much things were worth. Now, that would change with supply, but the general worth of a coin would be set by the time we started dealing with it.
People would know how much being paid a coin or two was worth.
it was as we were wrapping up our meal and I was about to depart that Tracy said something that surprised me.
"I know you prefer honesty and I don''t want you to confuse my intentions." Her start made me curious to where she was going, "The tutorial was the tutorial. That''s the past and I don''t want there to be any bad blood between us. I intended to establish relations between us during this meal and I hoped it worked. I have no doubt your city will do well and I want us to start diplomacy off on the right foot."
She knew I preferred directness, but I hadn''t expected her to just come out and say that. She did a good job of changing my opinion of her by freely giving my information on how the pylon changed and her initial struggles and I hadn''t looked deeper at her intentions in doing so at the time. I should have expected her to have an angle, she always had an angle.
At least this time, it wasn''t one I would be mad at. Trying to build good relations wasn''t that bad of an idea and I saw no reason to refuse. The world reset and starting our clean slate with an enemy was not what I wanted to do and she wasn''t that bad of a person. Chronically selfish and mostly looking out for herself, sure, but not the worst person in the world.
"I see no reason to refuse, but we will be quite a distance apart. I don''t plan on stopping anytime soon. I was being truthful when I said we were only here to resupply before we continued our journey." I mentioned.
"Oh, I know, but you can never have too many friends. And you seem like the kind of person who makes a good friend." She said with a small smile, "I can help you get some things you probably wouldn''t have been able to but I can''t just give it to you for free. We still have a lot of people to feed and all but I can make it a touch easier."
"I appreciate that. We have some coins from the dungeon we hit on our way here. I do not need, or wish for, charity." I said firmly.
It was partly because we didn''t need anything from the city. We had everything covered in terms of base necessities but it was also not to be in anyone''s debt.
Similar to starting this fresh slate with an enemy, owing someone a favor was probably worse, especially for something as little as some free goods.
"By the way, I expect some of our group to stay after we move on. Not everyone is cut out for travel and we already lost quite a few. The first day after leaving the city nearly 10 people changed their minds and left." I mentioned.
"Duly noted. How long do you plan on staying before moving on?" Tracy asked.
I considered for a moment, "Not long. A day or two at most, probably less."
"Well enjoy what little we have to offer. Nick has the dungeon on lockdown currently, but other than that you can do anything." Tracy said.
That seemed a touch odd but I said nothing of it.
The whole experience went better than I thought it would and I was happy to be leaving in good spirits rather than what it could have been.
We were now free to resupply and get on our way without any other problems coming up.
We were barely a month into our trip and were still a long ways away.
Chapter 152 - The Herd
We didn''t spend much time in the city and were on the road again in a day. Tracy helped us get everything we needed and even some things we didn''t know were available. It put a dent in our newly acquired coins but it was well worth it in my opinion.
It was mostly food but there were other things filtered in. Raw materials we weren''t able to get a lot of from the dungeon or what the dungeon didn''t give out. Cloth mostly, as the dungeon seemed to have an aversion to the stuff. Ripped clothes or new items needed it and picking some up now was helpful.
One thing that did surprise me that snuck in was a skill shard. Skill shards bought through the pylon before had to be learned by the person who bought them.
These were different. The little crystal shards could be used by anyone and there were no restrictions on who could use it. The skill we received wasn''t very good, but just the appearance of it was nice to have. It was a generic bow skill called [Precision Shot] that I had no use for but someone else would. I thought of giving it to Sarah if she didn''t already have the skill.
Another thing I asked Tracy before we left was if she knew where any beasts of burden were. Horses, donkeys, bulls, or something similar would work wonders for our traveling speed.
We weren''t very fast on foot and I wanted to speed things up. Just traveling to the next city took over a month and at the rate we were going, the trip would take over a year.
Not every second was spent on travel and there were areas we could shave some time down, but I wanted to boost our base speed rather than feel rushed. While we weren''t on a specific timeline to get there, neither did I want it to drag out.
She let me know of a few places where they were likely to be, but she didn''t know for certain. She mostly pointed out where old ranches once stood that had horses or the animals I was looking for.
We hit a few of the spots on our way but sent out Austin and Hal for the ones that were too far out of the way. Evidence of the animals being there previously was clear but the beasts themselves were gone. Similar to the last ranch we came across, the surrounding area was searched but nothing was found. The tracks were too old for Hal to get anything from and too much had changed.
The disappointment grew the more we came across abandoned ranches but that all changed a few days out of the city. We were ambling along, pulling our carts when Austin came sprinting back to the caravan visibly excited. He came dashing up to me nearly vibrating before saying, "Horses! A herd of them out over the plains. At least 50 of them!"
His words quickly spread through the caravan and we all dropped what we were doing.
"Alright everyone, you know what to do. Brayden and the builders, get those posts in the ground. Everyone else, carry the planks in place and secure them tightly. They will be stronger than normal horses now that they have levels." I announced to everyone.
We had prepared for when we found animals long before we actually ran into any. The first thing we had to do was construct a pen to corral them into. It would help facilitate the taming process and make the whole thing easier.
"And someone tell Sarah to get on deck!" I added.
After we had the herd penned, it would be up to her to calm them down and tame them. She was out with Jonathan whenever the opportunity arose to increase her level but she was still a touch low for the area we were in.
The horses were most likely in the high F-rank with a few in the low E-rank and she hadn''t even hit level 25 yet.
That was the main reason we had to keep the herd contained. It would help her bridge the gap in level and make the process easier, rather than have her chase the herd around while her skills failed to work.
Something told me that wouldn''t work out.
Everyone rushed into motion and posts were slammed into the ground at a rapid pace. The forests were long behind us and it had been grassy hills for most of our travel since we left the city which made everything easier.
While everyone was working to construct the pen, I got more information out of Austin about the herd.
"How far out are they and what level is the Stallion?" I asked.
"A few miles away roaming the plains and I couldn''t get close enough for an [Identify(C)]. Based on the creatures in the area, though, I''d put him at the low or mid-60s." He answered.
"Do they have an affinity yet or are they still neutral?" Was my next question.
"I couldn''t tell from how far away I was. I didn''t want to spook them." He said.
We would need to change our approach depending on what affinity the horses had and that was something we needed to know. Some beasts stayed neutral as they evolved and didn''t pick up an affinity while others did making our plans dependent on which they were.
I wasn''t well versed enough in monster-ology to know why some did and others didn''t, but what mattered now was not putting fire affinity horses in a wooden pen they could burn down.
"Take Gabriel with you and go scout them out. He should be able to determine their affinity. If you spook them, we can just find them again. It''s better to know and chase them than guess and be wrong." I ordered.
He nodded before scurrying off to find Gabriel among the caravan while I turned to monitor the work going on. After discussing with Austin, some of the people were idling around after their part was over and that needed to be fixed.
"Anyone who can conjure walls or barricades, start creating a funnel into the pen. Anyone else, start setting up camp, we could be here a while." I shouted out.
I went ahead to create long straight sections of ice leading to the gate of the pen and others with the ability moved to join me.
The reason we didn''t create the pen out of conjured walls like Jonathan''s stone or my ice was that they would fade over time. We had to constantly supply the mana to keep them intact and the taming process was going to take a long time. Sarah was still new to her class and the horses out leveled her. It would take a while for her skills to work on one horse, let alone the entire herd.
My ice would take a special amount of monitoring due to the heat of summer as well. We were currently experiencing the hottest days of the year which made standing Ice that much harder to keep from melting.
I could have done it, but it would have been a headache to keep active for an unknown amount of time. A headache better left for something else that would no doubt arise during the operation.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
It was easier to cut a few trees down ahead of time and make a pen that way than to constantly monitor a conjured one. Plus, we had a few more Builders now and we didn''t have to rely on Brayden alone anymore.
The increased manpower made the construction effort much faster than it would have been and we were ready to go in a few hours.
It was just in time for Austin and Gabriel to come jogging back.
"They don''t seem to have an affinity and the highest level is 64!" Gabriel shouted from Austin''s back.
Even though his legs now extended down past his kneecaps, they were still a few weeks out of being whole. The healers were getting better at regrowing them and each session resulted in more growth than the last.
They were optimistic that they would be as good as new in a few weeks, now that they had gotten past the knee joint.
"Good, good. Austin, you go keep an eye on them until we are ready and Gabriel, go help with the funnel construction. Any extra distance will make this whole thing easier." I looked at both of them giving them their next tasks.
"Abigail!" I shouted over the sounds of hammers on wood.
A bob of brown hair signaled her arrival and I turned to her as she closed in, I relayed to her the level and affinity before getting an update, "Is everyone in place?"
"Yes, they are arrayed out and ready to direct the herd into the pen. Given their level, we might need to condense our lines down so no one gets stampeded over. Single fighters won''t be able to do much with a level 64 Stallion charging at them." She said.
We planned to have Austin and Hal try to lead the animals the best we could but that could always go wrong. They would be on either side of the herd to guide them but that wasn''t a foolproof plan. The others were to fan out and keep the horses from going in a direction we didn''t want them to go but they could take a full charge if any got away.
I would help on the back end, making sure the herd didn''t split up while driving them along. We figured if I flared my flashier skills, the horses would run away from me and make it easier to guide them in the direction we wanted them to go.
All we could hope was they didn''t develop some unknown skill that would ruin our whole plan.
The only person who wouldn''t be joining in the corralling effort was Jonathan. His job was to blunt the charge after we got them into the pen with his skills and shields. If the horses came in hot, we weren''t sure if the wooden posts would hold up to their charge. They were built sturdy enough to keep them in, but we weren''t sure if they would hold up to a full speed charge that went straight through.
We reinforced the pen and added what skills we could to keep that from happening but with Jonathan there, we would make double sure.
"Alright, I''ll start circling around to come at them from the other side. Everyone is to wait for my signal." I said before jogging away.
My unarmored form made it easier to trek through the tall grass and it would keep me unencumbered in case something went wrong. None of us were ranch hands or cowboys and our experience with this kind of thing was nonexistent.
And even if we were ranch hands, the animals had changed so much to make that experience not worth as much. Levels and skills changed more than just humanity.
It took me a few minutes to get around where the herd was spotted but I managed to get there without anything tipping them off, surprisingly enough. I took a wide arc just in case and it seemed to work out.
I lined the angle up as best I could before starting to power up some of my skills. [Permafrost(Un)] flared out first before [Desolate Blizzard(R)] joined in for the first time.
It was the first time I was using the skill other than for training and it was for corralling horses.
Now that I was in range, I could see the herd grazing around in the grass. The group of 50 or so nibbled on what they wanted before moving on to the next patch that looked good.
Mana had done them well as all of them looked like peak specimens, with rippling muscles and flowing manes. Glossy coats filled the herd and they seemed to be in good health from what I could tell. Even a few foals were running around inside the perimeter.
Observing them for a little longer gave time for my skills to start up and after those two started their work, [Sweeping Snow(Un)] added in for a bit of a nip. If the horses thought the chilly wind was all, the snow would get them moving in the right direction.
I wasn''t trying to kill the horses so I ended things there. [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] and my other skills were unnecessary for what I was attempting to do.
I only wanted to section off a large area where the horses would rather be somewhere else than endure what I was throwing at them, getting them to move in the direction I wanted them to.
Now that I had a Wind Law, it was fascinating to get everything working the way I envisioned. It was like the pieces were starting to come together and the painting of what I wanted was fading into frame.
Even though it wasn''t for a battle, to have my skills, the three I had built up together, mesh like this was a sight to see. [Permafrost(Un)] weaved through the ground, chilling and freezing the earth.
[Desolate Blizzard(R)] blew through the air, building my domain further so it wasn''t just the earth that was mine, but the air above it as well.
Then [Sweeping Snow(Un)] came in riding on the buffeting winds, ready to cut and slice anything inside. It grew empowered riding the winds around me instead of having to propel outward by themselves.
If both my Laws got added to the mix, it was a force of nature to behold.
I still didn''t have the control over Wind I wanted, not like my Ice, but I was working on it. Once I got [Wind Manipulation] like my mother, things would go a lot easier but I was doing what I could without it.
My affinity and Law aided me but I was still new to the experience.
I pumped mana into my skills until it was a nippy cold. Anything more was overkill and I wasn''t sure how the foals would take it. After that, I fired off an [Ice Arrow(Un)] into the air before hitting it with [Shatter(Un)].
That was my signal to the rest of them that I was starting.
After that, I started closing in on the herd at a slow jog. Some of the horses began to pick up on something wrong and raised their heads in the air, pausing their grazing while the others remained oblivious.
More and more perked up and stopped grazing as I got closer before the first one broke off into a run. After the first did it, more charged off to follow, running away from the surge of power they no doubt felt.
Rachel and Gabriel talked the most about my ''aura'' and I was attempting to utilize it better than I had been.
Most of the time, I practiced not letting it billow out of me without restraint, but now I tried to do the opposite and project it.
It was an entirely new skill and was slow going, but I was making progress. Much slower progress than other areas, but it was still progress.
What held me back the most was I didn''t see the point. Hiding it, letting it out, it didn''t much make a difference to me. That was until Gabriel told me what he could feel from an aura and I was informed of the fact I was giving information away.
Mostly it was the fact people could find me because of it. Like how Tracy had found me in a city full of people. Plus, it was how the beasts seemed to know where I was when I attempted to be stealthy.
What little practice I had with the skill didn''t do much against the horses but I liked to think it did. Even though it was 100% my skills and the force of nature I was building up, I felt my aura practice had something to do with it.
As the horses broke and started racing away from me, they started to form up like we anticipated. The stallion took the head as the others fell in behind him based on strength.
After they started running, Austin and Hal broke in at a sprint from the sides, keeping them from going left or right as I charged after them. As soon as they felt constrained by the two new additions, things started to get dicey.
Mana flared inside the herd and their speed picked up, forcing me into a full sprint to keep up while Austin and Hal had to do the same.
They made attempts to break out but a light beam or wind arrow forced them back into line as we closed in on where the pen was built.
The walls came into sight first but the lines of people were visible soon after and once the horses saw that, they went buck wild.
Both lines of people leading away had to shield themselves as the horses tried to break free and a few managed to get out of our lines, but the majority weren''t able to.
We paid specific attention to keep the Stallion in line and most followed after their leader.
It rammed and kicked, trying to break out of our encirclement, but it was finished the moment our lines swung shut. After the herd closed in close enough, everyone swung in behind them forcing them into the funnel we had built.
Seeing the only possible exit, they broke off through the funnel and into the gate into the awaiting arms of Jonathan. They seemed to pick up speed seeing the lone man waiting for them at the end of the funnel but they were in for a rude surprise.
If they thought they were getting through him, they had another thing coming.
Chapter 153 - Frustration
Chris
I trusted Jonathan fully to take care of the other end while I shifted my focus to what I needed to do next. The herd was through the gate and now it was time to close it.
A giant [Icy Bastion(R)] sprung into existence to block off the gap while the builders ran in from the sides to fashion the gate closed. My wall of ice was plenty strong to keep the horses in while the builders worked to secure the gate.
The only thing left was to have Sarah start working her skills and see how long this would take.
"Sarah!" I called out to her loudly. I wasn''t sure where in the camp she was but my voice was loud enough to be heard, "You''re up!"
Sarah
"You''re up!" Christopher''s voice resounded over the neighs and the sounds of hooves as she stared over the rambunctious herd.
She had just watched Jon tank the charge of the entire herd and stop them dead in their tracks. It took a moment for her to react after what she saw.
Jon and her had trained together whenever the chance arose but she had never seen him do something like that. It was like he was an insurmountable wall that you could only shake your head and back away from.
When his skills flared, there was something else there that gave off the feeling that no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn''t be able to get past him.
Sarah had to shake her head to get it straight and dismiss the useless thoughts, she had a job to do and she wasn''t going to mess up the first time she was needed.
When she originally accepted Christopher''s offer, she didn''t know exactly what it entailed, but she did know that she wasn''t going to be a Ranger anymore.
The opportunity to change her Class took her attention away from what she was changing it to and she only realized what her new class was after the fact. She wasn''t upset with her decision or had any regrets, but she hadn''t known the direction she was going when she first said yes.
Gaining her affinity helped and it eased her into her new class tremendously. Nature had a wide breadth of possibilities and it didn''t always mean plants. It also touched on animals as well, and that made her job a lot easier.
[Soothing Voice(Un)] had worked on the wild animals they had captured before but this was her first time using it on something so much stronger than her. Getting [Sooth(C)] to upgrade made it so much easier to calm animals down and they took to her voice way better than before. If that hadn''t happened, she didn''t think she would be able to do anything to the horses.
With all the hunting and training she had done, she had a few more skills to help her but she was still in for a challenge. While she had ridden horses before, she had never had to tame one and she was nervous about doing it.
She didn''t want to let Christopher down after everything he had done for her. Without him, she and her brother would still be starving in her crumbling house.
She set her face and gained some determination after thinking like that. If she could survive then, she could tame a few horses.
"Alright, nice horsey," She cooed at the nearest one, starting to work her skills.
Abigail
"It doesn''t seem to be going very well." She sharply pointed out.
Christopher sighed from beside her, "It will. Give her time."
Abigail looked back at the whining horse that Sarah was trying, and failing, to calm down and frowned. She had been at it for almost an hour and had no luck so far.
The gnawing feeling in her stomach that she couldn''t get rid of was rearing its head and she couldn''t help but vent her frustrations.
"The horses are nearly double her level. You''ve given her an impossible task and even if it is possible, it will take a while to get through all of the horses! There are over fifty of them and she hasn''t even tamed one of them." Abigail rebutted, frustration clear in her tone.
Christopher turned to look at her questioningly, "What would you have me do? I am no Tamer and I''ve done all I can to help, there is nothing more we can do but wait."
"I believe in Sarah as much as anyone, but you have set her up for failure!" Abigail shot back.
He then fell silent for a moment before fixing his gaze back on where Sarah was working.
"What is this actually about? I know you are not mad about the horses." He asked. Calmer than the rising voices from before.
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It was Abigail''s turn to sigh now. She had been trying to keep her rising frustration down, but it had leaked out anyway. The past few weeks hadn''t been the best for her but she was trying to overcome it.
He was right in that she wasn''t mad about the horses but she couldn''t help but get angry standing next to him.
"What isn''t there to be mad about?" She said, "We travel all day and sleep on the ground at night. People come and go constantly, making it impossible to keep track of everything. Your solution to any lasting problem is ''We''ll make do'' and no one has been advancing since we returned. Vinny barely gets any essence from crafting, Jon doesn''t get any from being a Merchant if you do all the negotiating, and I haven''t gotten any since the tutorial ended! The only person who has gained any levels of real value is Austin!" She listed off.
She hadn''t meant to have this conversation now but it was as good a time as any. It was a discussion they needed to have and she couldn''t keep putting it off.
"There''s nothing I can do about any of that! I want to level as much as the next guy but we can''t make anything more permanent until we reach our destination and that won''t be for a while." Chris pointed out.
Abigail knew that it wasn''t his fault. She knew she was just taking out her frustrations on him but that didn''t make her any less angry. Angry about things that had been building up for a while that she was just now letting out.
"And what of Anna and Josh? They need stability now more than anything yet we can''t give them that! I can''t give them that because we haven''t placed the pylon! They need a roof over their heads and meals to eat, not to be sleeping on the ground inside a tent and eat only what we can forage. They need to be in school, they need structure and security and I can''t give them that!" She vented loudly.
That was the crux of the matter and what had caused most of her rising frustrations. Her children needed something that she couldn''t give them and it killed her inside for that to be so.
The whiplash of being pulled inside a mystical tutorial was hard enough to process and get through, but now they were back. They had returned to a planet in ruin and she was freaking out about it.
Her mind was still stuck on the fact Anna should have had a schedule she had to keep. Swim lessons were starting soon and Josh had tee-ball to start. They had a summer vacation planned and all of it was out the window.
It was hard enough to keep it together in an unknown land facing a rising threat, but now they were back. They had returned to their house, they had seen what remained of what they had once known and held familiar.
The dichotomy of what they should be doing, the plans they had made for the summer, and what they were actually doing couldn''t stop showing up in her head.
There were no outside forces making her keep everything contained. No more waves to force her into action and distract her from all the little things that had built up. She''d had to dismiss anything that wasn''t readily important for their survival before, but that wasn''t the case now.
That counterweight was now gone. There was nothing for her to keep her mind occupied with while her worries bounced around in her mind. It was almost a struggle to lay her head down at night when she knew all she would be able to think about was how she was failing.
Failing as a mother.
Christopher just stared at her blankly after her outburst. She had increased in volume as her rant extended and by the end, she was nearly shouting at him. Immediately after doing it, she felt bad.
It wasn''t his fault she was feeling this way and Jon had said as much when they spoke about it, but she couldn''t help but point the blame at him. It was easier that way than blaming herself.
"I didn''t know you felt that way." He said softly, still shocked at her sudden outburst.
"I''m sorry Chris, I shouldn''t have yelled at you." She apologized. The heat had left her now and regret replaced it. She knew he didn''t deserve that but she couldn''t help how she felt.
"You''ve seen the map and you know our plans. You know everything I do regarding our path for the future, how do you want to change it?" He asked. "If you think I am doing something wrong, tell me so I can fix it."
Any of the wind that was left in her sails thoroughly left her now. He didn''t come back combative at her outburst but asked for advice. For her input on what they could be doing better.
"I don''t know, Chris. I can''t help but feel stifled, bottled up, on the road. I want to put down roots and build something, anything to feel at home again. The months of the tutorial were fine when we knew we would be able to get back home but we don''t have that anymore. We don''t even have a home anymore. We''re going on this one way trip into the unknown with no guarantee it will work and it worries me. We have nothing to fall back on." She ranted.
"Most of the solutions to our problems would be solved by placing the pylon and it''s hard to think of other ones." She sighed.
Chris approached and gave her a giant bear hug as she sighed. Even though it would do anything to fix their problems, it was his way of trying to comfort her.
It put a small smile on her face seeing him do things like he used to.
"We can speed up our travels and stop at fewer places. The horses should help in that regard but we can also cut out some of the spots we had planned." He said holding her shoulders after they broke apart.
He started smirking, "Unless you still think the horses a waste of time?"
She let out a laugh at that. He was right, it wasn''t the horses she was mad about and they would speed up their travels tremendously. She didn''t know by how much until they were tamed but they looked like they could pull the carts at a great speed.
Way better than the walking speed they were going now.
"They''ll shave down the time by a lot. Maybe we''ll get there before the year ends." She said before she thought of something else.
The thought made her smile widen as she taunted Chris, "You know, we might need to make a timeline for nine months."
He looked at her curiously and tilted his head to the side.
"You''ve heard the activities some partake in at night. What are you going to do if someone gets pregnant? Are you going to have them give birth on the road in carts?" She joked.
Heightened perception was good for a great many things, traveling in large groups with couples was not one of them. Any with the stat as their primary one had it the worst but even higher leveled people had trouble not listening when they didn''t want to.
His face nearly turned white after hearing that and he stood stock still. His mind hiccupped, no doubt trying to get the image out of his head. It took everything in her not to burst out laughing.
"They wouldn''t... but they... they would use... but there are none..." He struggled with that before looking back at her, "Yes, we will get there before then. Even if I have to tie you all together and charge ahead, we will get there in nine months."
"Slow down there cowboy, I was just giving you a hard time, mostly, we don''t have to worry about that yet, that I know of, but I was just pointing out that it''s a possibility." She said before pointing Chris in a different direction, "Why don''t you go and help Sarah, she seems to be getting frustrated and that won''t help with what she''s trying to accomplish."
"Yes, that, I can do. I''ll leave worrying about... the other thing to you." He said before walking away quickly.
She snorted as he departed. It wasn''t like it was leprosy, he didn''t need to treat it like it was a disease.
At least they would be raising their pace and that was all she could ask for. It wasn''t a permanent fix to their problems but it would help speed things along.
She couldn''t help but yearn for a schedule. A pattern of her day she could plan out and stick to and get rid of the unknowns plaguing her.
Chapter 154 - A New Form of Travel
Chris
It took Sarah a while to tame one of the horses and after seeing how long it took, I looked for a way to speed things up. I think the reason she was able to tame one at all was because they had been domesticated before. Without that, I didn''t think her abilities would''ve been able to bridge the level gap. One had to remember that she had no Laws or anything else to boost her power, only the skills her Class gave along with the ones she had been able to upgrade.
Someone came up with the idea of separating the horses so she only had to focus on one and that sped up things dramatically.
It was a mystery why I hadn''t thought of it before but it was nice to have that idea early rather than after we were most of the way through the herd.
Separating them out was difficult but I left that to others. They had to work in groups and multiple people had to be around to put up walls quickly in case something went wrong, but they managed to wrangle them fine.
After that, things sped up for a different reason.
Sarah gained 2 levels from successfully taming her first horse. She was despondent about it taking so long at first, but after some encouragement, she went back at it with vigorous enthusiasm.
Her pace steadily picked up as she leveled and she even reached the threshold for an evolution and acquired multiple new skills. Sarah kept what she picked secret, but whatever it was worked wonders.
As Sarah raced through the levels and the number of tamed horses grew, we ran into a different issue.
We had no yokes pre-made for them.
Looking back, that was a planning failure on my part and I should have thought of that, but there wasn''t anything I could do about it now.
Sam and Ashley got to work with the only other Leatherworker in our Caravan pumping them out with Vincent''s help.
I pounded out a few rivets and clasps when I could but most of the metalwork was done by Vinny rather than myself.
The pace they could make the harnesses and yokes started out faster than Sarah could tame, but that shifted as she leveled. It went from having more harnesses than horses to having more horses than harnesses.
It felt like by the end, we were chugging along at a blazing pace. Horses were being passed through the camp, fitted with harnesses, and then hooked up to the carts in record time.
By the time we ran out of carts to hook them up to we had the process down like a well-oiled machine.
The second problem we ran into was while the horses were tamed and wouldn''t run off, that didn''t mean they were trained. They were obedient, like they were used to human presence, but they did not like the harnesses and tried to buck out of them when they could. It wasn''t like people of the modern age were conditioning horses to pulling carts Except for the Amish, but we didn''t have those horses.
They liked pulling the carts even less. It was worse when we tied multiple together to only one cart as they tried to fight each other as much as fight the harness.
Sarah had to be called away from the taming efforts to settle the fighting horses a few times because it got so bad.
The horses had to be eased into the process and we couldn''t just slap a harness on them and expect them to be fine. While that took more time, it was necessary if we wanted anything close to functional work out of them.
We had to refine the process after that. People who didn''t have anything to do, or people with professions that weren''t accessible on the road, were tasked with breaking the horse in and getting them accustomed to the harness.
All told, it took Sarah several days to get through all the horses and she blew by the evolution at level 25 and made her way well past it. Sitting solidly in F-rank by the end of it, I had to take her aside and explain a few things before she kept on leveling. About the requirements and whatnot.
Plus, we advised her to wait until she chose a profession and leveled it up to match. She was young and there was no need for her to rush, evening her class out with a profession would be best. Especially now that she would live longer than a normal human. Based on her stats and if she managed to get a Body of Wood, I''d say she''d live till 130 or 140, maybe even 150 if she picked up a profession that was Vitality heavy.
Her evolution would be delayed anyway because she had neither a Law nor any of the other Paths to make the jump to E-rank. She had shot up through the levels faster than I thought possible but now she had time to slow down and touch on the parts she had left behind during her mad dash.
Both Jonathan and I spoke to her about the possible Paths of Power and she was still deciding which to do first. We didn''t have a Nature attuned Body Refining technique for her but we had a few she could choose from if she wanted to branch out.
Mine wouldn''t suit her well but some of the others would. Water wasn''t that far away from nature and could be combined into something decent and we had a few different Water techniques.
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The only person who would have needed a Nature attunement wasn''t with us anymore to necessitate it.
Still, Hal had a Wind technique and Rachel and Vinny shared a Fire one. While I felt both were less compatible than Water, I wasn''t going to tell her what to do. We could even go back to the unstructured Poison technique if she wanted. Poison and Nature would go perfect together, if that was what she wanted. The choice was hers, and hers alone and I wasn''t going to make it for her.
While we had all of the techniques, most of them hadn''t been used yet. Most bought them as their tutorial reward and we had yet to get a chance to break them open. My new technique included.
Most needed a specific environment we hadn''t come across or hadn''t had the opportunity to make yet. The fire one specifically was going to have to wait until we could build more permanent structures.
Both Jonathan and I cautioned against going for her Spirit Anchor first as that was the one that would take the longest. I advocated for getting a Law first and Jonathan agreed.
We didn''t try to push her toward it, but laid out why we thought that way and gave her a few examples of the ones people had. Almost everyone in the caravan stepped on that Path of Power first and started with Laws.
Other than the few mishaps, the days passed and the horses were trained and conditioned. I couldn''t help but notice the dormant frustration. After Abigail opened my eyes to it, it was all I could see.
It hadn''t even been two months, and people were already fed up with the caravan life. It made sense, and I couldn''t blame people for it, but there also wasn''t anything I could do about it.
I just hoped that public sentiment would pick up after we started moving again. If the initial trials with the horses were anything to go by, we would be making record time so hopefully that would help.
Nearly triple our average speed and that was with mostly untrained horses.
Another good thing that came out of taming the herd was we could now be a lot more liberal with the things we packed away. Before, when manual power was used to pull the carts, things too heavy or unneeded were thrown away or left behind. One would think a heavy ass anvil would be on that list but nooo, Chris had the big muscles to pull it.
Now that we had beasts of burden, the things we could take with us grew tremendously.
I had to crack down on a few people that took it a little too far but most were just happy to bring along more possessions. It brightened people up a bit and warded off the travel fatigue.
Our new massive traveling companions helped as well. It made me wonder if there were therapeutic horses like there were dogs before because after getting tamed and readjusted to human interaction, they certainly raised people''s moods.
While the entire taming process went mostly smooth, there were a few off-key notes along the way. The harnesses and training were one, but the other one was obstinate horses.
Some, no matter how hard Sarah tried, refused to be tamed. Even when she leveraged all her skills and newfound levels, they wouldn''t cooperate. They liked their newfound freedom too much to be broken again.
The former leader of the pack, the Stallion, was the worst of them. Sarah described it as giving off a rippling loathing at the attempt to be tamed by something weaker than it.
It kicked bucked and tried to trample her anytime she got close and all her skills slid off to no effect. There were a few other horses, particularly the stronger ones, that were in a similar boat.
They would not come under her control no matter how hard she tried.
For those... they required a personal touch from me. I sat outside their pen with a few of my skills at the ready while Sarah went inside. I tried to leverage my presence against them and they knew I was done playing around.
While the other holdouts fell to that, the Stallion refused. With me standing outside and bearing my metaphysical weight down on him, he refused to be tamed.
I still remembered the look on Sarah''s face at what I did next.
"Sarah, why don''t you step out for a second," I said slowly. If the horse wanted to play, I would oblige it.
She looked back and forth between me and the horse with a tired and worried expression. She had been working nonstop for nearly a week getting all of them under control and her sleep was falling behind.
After spending days, constantly with the creatures, she had grown overly attached. Well, maybe not overly but she quickly came to care for them and did not want to see them hurt.
She even ridiculed one person who was treating one wrong for 5 minutes, berating them about doing it the right way. How she knew the right way was beyond me, but she somehow did after spending time with them and figuring out what hurt and didn''t hurt, what was uncomfortable and what wasn''t.
"Come on Sarah, I don''t want you to get hit on accident," I prompted a bit more forcefully with an accompanying beckoning motion for her to leave.
Her face scrunched up in confliction at my prodding and she looked back at the last horse she still had to tame. It was the only one remaining, all the others were tamed already.
I opened the gate into the pen, walking through without arms or armor toward the snickering horse.
Sarah finally caved as the beast puffed up at my entrance and scurried out of the way, but not before saying, "Just don''t hurt him. He''s just a little strong-willed is all."
After saying that, she retreated outside the pen leaving me alone with the creature.
The horse snorted and prodded at the ground, seemingly trying to assert dominance but it only made me smile.
"Strong-willed is good. I can appreciate strong-willed, but obstinate... less so. You''ve had your chance to do this the nice way. Now, you get to deal with me. And let me tell you, my words aren''t as soothing." I said as I drew closer to the horse.
I wasn''t sure if it was intelligent enough to understand my words, but it didn''t matter if he didn''t. He would soon come to understand my meaning even if the words failed.
I was unarmored and I left my hammer leaning against the gate, but they weren''t necessary. My strength of body was enough to get him in line and I feared permanent injury if I smacked it around with my hammer.
The beast fought and strained, kicked and charged, but in the end, it didn''t win. Even without my hammer and skills, my pure stats were enough to cow it into submission.
It only took a little elbow grease for it to finally come around. Putting it in its place and bringing it down a few pegs.
That was fine enough to deal with. I finally found a suitable replacement to pull my cart and this one seemed like a fine specimen. It would soon learn the weight of what I was tasking it with.
After our bout, it finally allowed Sarah to tame it and cooperated with her through the process. Even if it still held on to some of its previous convictions.
For whatever reason, it refused to travel anywhere but the head of the procession. It would fight me if it had to follow behind anyone else.
Even though it took a touch longer than anticipated, we were on the road again and traveling at record speeds.
We had a new form of travel and it was fabulous.
Chapter 155 - What Lies West?
Two months.
It took us two months for them to come upon civilization again. Well, civilization that was more than stragglers and small groups living in the newly created wilds.
After leaving what used to be the capital of Indiana and taming the herd of horses, we were off at a speed magnitudes faster than our previous walking and covered an amount of ground to match.
We could have shortened that duration and stopped at a place found along the way, but no one was willing to do so. Some for the fact they didn''t want the delay, and others for the feeling the city gave off.
Even from the distance we came across it, it wasn''t a place I wanted to stop.
Chicago was irrevocably changed and it was nothing like it previously was. The Windy City was missing all of its buildings and seemed to be in even greater disrepair than the previous city we visited.
Nothing was still standing and the tallest structure left was a pile of rubble stacked no higher than the average human.
It looked like a war-torn ruin.
Flashes of skill use and the feeling of dense mana in the area gave an ominous feeling no one had the desire to intrude upon it. Something was going down in the city and no one wanted to become a part of it.
Lighting flashed and huge storm clouds revolved around the city like it was the city itself that generated them. Lightning arced down into the rubble at random intervals only to be matched with a corresponding deep rumble seconds later.
As we came upon it riding in our improved caravan, no one disagreed when I made the executive decision to bypass the city and keep on our way. Even the usual few who departed our caravan with second thoughts didn''t think the city was a viable spot to settle.
We moved on from the city and gave it a wide berth as we traveled around it.
The wilds of Wisconsin were similar to the two previous states we traveled through with one caveat. The mana level here was much higher than where we had come from.
And it was in a form beneficial to a number in the caravan. Being as close to the Great Lakes as we were, Lack Michigan specifically, Water mana was abundant around the coasts.
The higher level of Water mana persisted until we were a few miles away from the coast and gradually fell way to Nature mana. The trees and forest here thrived from the mixture of mana and gradually lessened as we traveled further from it.
A Gardener in our employ explained, saying the mana mixture was just right for planets to thrive and by god they did.
They were so thick we almost needed to cut through them on our way through the state. Luckily, the environment only lasted for a short duration, and as the mixture became less Water, and more Nature the thick flora fell back to normal levels. Well, normal levels for our current situation. It was still way higher than normal levels from before.
It would turn into a great spot to grow crops and food if the levels of monsters in the area weren''t similarly inflated to match the plant growth. It made sense for the two to go hand in hand but unfortunate for whoever tried to tame the area.
The beasts had started to become threatening long before reaching what remained of Chicago and they only became worse the farther North we went. They gradually went from the rare E-rank, to frequent E-ranks, to all of them firmly in E-rank.
We had to revise our scouting groups and double up some of them. Austin and Hal couldn''t go galivanting through the woods with the same carelessness as before. Both could handle their own, but if they were caught unaware and ambushed, that could change.
Even I had to step in for a few of the higher leveled challenges. It wasn''t strictly necessary, but I didn''t want to chance losing anyone along the way. These people had traveled with us for months by now and it wasn''t worth risking a casualty when I could easily dispatch any of the beasts.
For most, it was the first time seeing me fight and they were understandably impressed. Even though I didn''t have to go all out, they were still bewildered with what I did show.
It made me want to laugh. They had barely scratched the surface of my strength and they were already impressed. What would they do when the need to unleash everything arrived?
While we had traveled and grown closer with everyone accompanying us, I didn''t yet trust all of them completely. Some of them were complete strangers when they joined and holding no cards in reserve was a fool''s game.
I advised Austin and Hal to keep some things hidden, just in case, and I did the same. Those two fought the most and were seen doing so the most often. Rachel and Jonathan did as well to a lesser degree, and I advised them to do the same.
I didn''t think ill of the people who traveled with us, but it never hurt to be careful.
While the trip became harder, our speed only increased. The horses grew comfortable with pulling the carts and the people handling them grew more experienced.
What made the most difference was knowing what certain terrains would do to our traveling speed. Thick forests were obviously detrimental, but sometimes it was easier to travel straight through them rather than going around depending on the size of the forest.
All of that came with experience and we were quickly becoming more efficient about knowing which was faster.
One of the best things that happened was my level hit 60. While stepping in happened infrequently, that didn''t mean we didn''t come across dungeons on our way.
They were scarce and infrequent, but with the amount of ground we covered we were bound to come across a few. Most didn''t have the same number of floors as the first we came across but some went deeper.
The ones with fewer floors were swiftly bypassed with barely half a day dedicated to their stop. The few who could benefit from their depths had the chance to run them but otherwise, we moved on.
The deeper dungeons, though, those necessitated a longer stop. The two we came across that went deeper than 6 floors were the longest stop. We still didn''t spend the week like we had before, but longer than the half day for the others.
One and a half or two days spent on the two dungeons wasn''t that much of a delay. Especially now that our pace was so much faster than before and the trip didn''t feel as daunting as before.
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Before, when looking at the map to track our progress, each day only added a small line to indicate how far we made it. Now, those small lines turned into decently sized segments or progress.
It did a lot to ease people''s frustrations and dispel some of the fatigue that built up.
The skill I was offered at level 60 had me riding a high note for weeks. Chipper and smiley for days after getting it. The list of skill choices wasn''t as large as my other classes, but the three I was able to choose from all promised powerful upgrades.
Seeing the kinds of skills offered made me want to go back and hug my past self for picking the class. It was exactly what I wanted and would fit into my fighting style perfectly.
I could hardly wait for a chance to try it out in a real fight. None of the beasts necessitated such force, sadly, and I took most down swiftly to not ruin the meat and so that the animal could be used productively.
Smashing them to smithereens helped no one, even if I really wanted to use my new skill. Plus, it wasted good parts which I was unwilling to do. Ruining the meat for no good reason made it feel too close to killing for sport and there was no need for that. I had had enough senseless slaughter.
Everything we killed had a use and with the amount of mouths we had to feed, we had to make the things we came across last.
Speaking of mouths to feed, the horses were an upkeep that no one expected. We, I, had assumed they would graze on the grass as we traveled but that turned out to be not as true as first assumed.
While they did graze when given the chance and seemed to enjoy it, Sarah was adamant they weren''t getting enough food from the grass alone. It was similar to what I had felt when eating lower leveled meat and it wasn''t as filling.
While the grass could sustain them normally, we were asking them to pull heavy carts for hours at a time, every day. The grass alone wasn''t enough. For the days we spent inside the dense foliage, it was, but everywhere else, supplementary nutrition was required.
Being where we were was probably one of the only saving graces to the issue we faced. Without it, we would have had to cut back on how hard we pushed the horses so that they weren''t strained enough to require it.
One of the biggest things the Midwest was known for, and famous for, was farming. Farms dominated large swaths of area we passed through and all of the different farms gave us ample opportunity to fill up on grains and crops. Doing so along our journey was the only thing saving us from having to slow down and search out other food alternatives.
While what we passed was mostly abandoned and the fruit of the crop picked through and nibbled on by pests, we passed enough to take a sizable stockpile with us. Mostly corn but there were other things as well. Oats and wheat were less common but still available. Even barley.
The abandoned crops became less common the farther North we went so we dedicated a few days to filling two new carts with the stuff before we left the area.
Any farther North and planting season wouldn''t have come before the tutorial pulled everyone away. The only reason the crops were even available in the first place was because some farmers got an early jump in mid-March before being pulled away.
Having said crops stowed away was one of the reasons bypassing Chicago was an option. Without the need to stop and resupply, it became easier to ignore the potential problems of entering troubled waters.
Besides Chicago and the rising challenge of the beasts, the two months we spent traveling were uneventful. People fell into a routine and became almost monotonous.
One of the ways people spent their free time was trying to ride the horses. Most of us didn''t know how and had never ridden a horse before, me included, and it was a fun way to pass the time while we stopped.
It was on one of these stops that the monotony changed.
I was trying to steady myself on Remi when Austin and Abigail walked over holding the map.
"Woah... woah..." I repeated, trying to get the horse to turn right, instead of the circle we kept going in.
The Stallion didn''t seem to appreciate the name I had given it but that was tough luck. I liked it and I had won our fight.
"Chris, we need your input for a second to settle something," Abigail asked standing off to the side of the spinning horse.
"Oh come on, you two. Just get over it already. It wasn''t like Connor did it on purpose." I said exasperated.
Another thing people started to spend their free time on where pranks. Our resident Alchemist enjoyed them the most and he sometimes took things too far.
"My hair was pink for a week!" Austin exclaimed, trying and failing to sound indignant. He gave out just as much as he received and if he was mad about a prank, he shouldn''t be the mastermind of so many.
Abigail had a different reason to be mad at Connor but it was no less trivial. He had made a few fireworks for fun and some of the younger kids ended up running around with magically enhanced sparklers one night.
While I wouldn''t say it was harmless, with magical healing and potions, the kids weren''t in any real danger and it was all in good fun. Fun that was just starting to come back and I refused to smother it in its infancy. People needed a good laugh.
Abigail disagreed.
"Even though I still disagree, that isn''t why we need you." Abigail clarified.
I oscillated between looking at the two, and down at my horse, then back at the two. Debating whether it was worth it.
"Ah, fine. Remi was being fussy anyway." I said and made to get off the horse.
An indignant chuff was its only response, as if to say nah uh.
Dismounting gave them the chance to unroll the map on a nearby tree as they got into the reason I was needed.
"We are here." Abigail pointed. Putting us somewhere in the Northwest of Wisconsin. A few days travel away from bending around Lake Superior and heading due North for a while.
We were close to getting around the massive impediments called the Great Lakes. More like the Great Detours.
"And we have kept our heading Northwest for the past few days," She continued, "But Austin wants us to travel due West for some reason."
She finished her statement by pointing at the man accusingly while I just looked at him confused. Why did he want to go due West?
He took my silent question and explained, "I have gained a lot of experience these past few months and everything my Profession is telling me, is that we need to go West."
The usual carefree and joking manner he usually had was gone and he seemed to believe in what he said, even if he didn''t give any details.
"Why though? It will add days to our journey and for what? The only thing West is more of the same. I won''t add days to our trip just because you want to see a dungeon." I said.
While we did make a few creative adjustments to hit certain things, those were close enough to add little more than a few hours to our trip. A slight adjustment to come across a point of interest rather than passing by a few hundred feet away.
We had done the same to a few of the dungeons on our way.
"Christopher, I''m not doing this for dungeons. We need to go West. I can feel it." He said firmly.
"You have yet to give me a reason. How far West do we even need to go? You aren''t very forthcoming with information right now." I answered, "And what''s even over there anyway?"
Tracing a line with my eyes West from where Abigail indicated didn''t indicate anything of interest. A few Dungeons here and there but nothing stood out.
There was an area where 3 were close together but even still, that wasn''t anything new. A dungeon was a dungeon, having three together, while convenient, didn''t change that. The mana was a bit high but nothing insane like a few other places on the map.
The teal glow of Virginia only seemed to grow as the days passed.
"Isn''t that where the Twin Cities were?" Abigail commented as she did the same as me, but with her finger on the map rather than with her eyes.
I was unfamiliar with where, exactly, cities were without them being points on a map and the only reason I knew we passed Chicago was because it was sitting on the coast of Lake Michigan.
Indianapolis was easy because I had been there a few times.
Cities in Minnesota, on the other hand, were a mystery.
"If we''re gonna detour by that much, I need a little more than a vague feeling. That''s weeks out of the way!" I said a little annoyed.
To travel that far West and then back East to correct our path would add multiple weeks to our trip and I wasn''t going to just do that for a feeling, no matter how much I trusted the man.
"There''s something over there and we need to go West." Austin reiterated yet stated nothing new. He almost seemed frustrated at being unable to put it into words.
"All of our estimates for food and supplies would have to be redone. The added time would have to be accounted for and the horses would need food as well. The carts would need to be repaired again and it would add more than just the travel time to our journey." Abigail rebutted.
I gave Austin a look and said, "I''m sorry, bud, but if you don''t have anything more to go off of I can''t agree to the detour. For now, we continue Northwest."
Chapter 156 - Fight for the River
"Now be careful. The muscles are still new and it will take a while to get used to again." Abigail lectured Gabriel who was gingerly trying to stand on his new legs.
The last healing session had just completed and she was giving him the final warnings about his regrown legs.
"We will have to do physical therapy for the next few weeks to get your range of motion and the muscles stimulated but it should be fine to walk on them now." She added.
The healers had worked for months to get his legs regrown and now it was finally done. I would have to do something nice for them because they worked tirelessly for countless days for this to happen.
They hadn''t had a full mana pool in weeks, spending all of it trying to get Gabriel able to walk again. The mana headaches alone were worth a gift in return, not to mention the completion of the job.
My brother was giddy with excitement about his two new appendages but Abigail successfully calmed him down enough so that he didn''t go galivanting off from his chair. While he had his legs back, they would take some getting used to.
I got to watch as he took his first hesitant steps out of his chair and the smile on his face was a breath of fresh air. Even though the visual progress of watching them regrow was hopeful enough, it was different to see them actually working.
"Now maybe you''ll think twice about charging a monster that''s stronger than you." Abigail chastised.
Gabriel didn''t even acknowledge the comment as he was too busy walking around for the first time in months. While it was slow going at first, he was quickly getting the hang of it.
His pace sped up quickly until he tripped and fell over an exposed root.
"Careful," Abigail reached out and caught him, "You still need to get used to it."
They spent a while working through the different steps, but just being able to see him up and walking again felt good.
Besides the occasion of Gabriel getting his legs back, we stayed our course. Much to Austin''s disappointment. He tried a few more times to convince me but none worked out. It was nothing against him, but I had more behind my decisions now.
If this was the tutorial, I wouldn''t have questioned it and went along with his directions, but this wasn''t then. Nearly two hundred people ambled along with us and over fifty horses. They needed food, supplies, and had a right to not be led on a wild goose chase. Not to say it would have turned into one, but there was no timeline involved with his detour. Winter was coming soon, we were in the back end of summer now, food would run dry eventually.
If it was just me and him, things would be different. Too many people relied on my decisions to agree to his proposal. My talk with Abigail was also in the back of my mind. Sure, everyone knew what the plan was, Go North and find a place to settle, but the longer that took to happen, the more people would leave. The trip was already taking long enough, without concrete reasoning, I was hesitant to push things.
I didn''t think it would have mattered much anyway, because not a few days after Austin''s proposal, the air turned heavy and an electric undercurrent buzzed through it, ready to ignite. Tension among the caravan rose subconsciously to match the atmosphere we were entering and the horses started to get nervous, followed by the people driving them.
Something was happening.
"Chris, something''s wrong," Gabriel said, walking up to the cart I was riding on.
The group of trees we were traveling under had a small break in them which unveiled the sky to us and what we saw did not spell good news.
Clouds so dark they were nearly black with flashes of bright purple jumping between them. The moisture felt heavy in the air and it seemed ready to unleash it. A Storm fueled with mana.
"Set up camp, there''s a storm coming and it looks nasty!" I shouted out the order to stop.
The dark clouds dominated the skyline, extending off in both directions as far as the eye could see. Even with Austin''s detour, we wouldn''t have been able to escape it in time and would''ve ended up doing the same thing.
Our group was experienced enough to set up the camp in minutes but I had us do a bit extra to make sure everything was secured. Mana powered storms bordered on natural disasters from before. They had heightened levels of destruction to match their new arcane backing.
Carts were staked down and shelters were thrown up. The horse barns came first and our tents followed after.
As the storm blew in and the winds began to whip the tents back and forth, we were putting the final checks on everything to make sure nothing would blow away.
Thunder rolled and lightning flashed a few times and the first drops of the storm started to fall as I was heading back to my tent to get out of it.
The weather was an odd thing since we had returned. Sometimes, it was just normal sunny skies or rain clouds like everyone had experienced before, but other times, the mana in the air spun and combined just right to give rise to some truly disastrous storms and weather.
Sudden and fierce Winds, thick heavy rain that came down with such force it stung to get hit with the raindrops. Lightning so charged it exploded deep craters in the earth, scorching trees and the like.
Everything came together just right that the mana altered and changed in the perfect way to create the ideal atmosphere for a storm.
We had been through a few during our journey but this one seemed to be the worst. It seemed like Mother Nature still didn''t want to give its top spot as the strongest thing in the world.
Even with magical powers and monstrous beasts roaming the Earth, she found a way to get even more dangerous.
If normal storms could cumulate as something close to a hurricane, what would an actual hurricane look like? Or any of the other Natural disasters in the world?
It was a scary thought to ponder and as the storm blew through, we hunkered down to wait it out. Even I had to be wary of some of the lightning bolts that struck the Earth.
They were sometimes bigger than I was in thickness, let alone the power they carried.
Marcus
His glaive sliced through the air and bisected another of the insects assaulting him. Before the momentum of his swing ended, he pushed on into another sweep around him cutting through two more of the monsters.
His swings were graceful and kept the blade ever moving through the air. [Glaive Mastery] was one of his most important skills and he made sure to always train it when he could. It was the only reason he was so graceful with the weapon now.
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A shout from behind made him turn to find another of the menaces trying to sneak up on him. Less intentional and more the fact there were too many around him and they were bound to attack his back.
The bugs weren''t smart enough for that.
A powerful jet of water was enough to slice through its exoskeleton almost as easily as his glaive would have. [Water Blade] had been a stapple skill that had seen him through many a fight, its newly upgraded form was even better.
As the last of the insects fell around him, he took the chance to survey the battlefield farther away.
His men were struggling to contain the swarm and they were slowly getting pushed back. Casualties weren''t common and he could see men getting pulled away before a serious injury landed, but this wouldn''t last. Experience told him that much.
These weren''t even the strongest of the swarm and they were getting pushed back.
A few of his men close by also finished their fight and looked at him for direction. Ever since their return, he had taken leadership of what was left of his city. Of the people who were left among the ruins, forced to fight off the monsters that inhabited it while they were away.
Seeing how this battle would go, he had no choice but to sound the retreat, "Fall back to the pylon! Carry the wounded first before following with a fighting retreat!"
His voice carried over the battlefield and he saw the first groups shuffling off toward his walled city.
The repurposed bricks and stone blocks were hastily put together when it was first built, but they were quickly becoming a series of vast fortifications. The Builders worked tirelessly to make sure everything was as strong as possible and the Masons did the same. For if they failed, well... it wouldn''t be pretty.
They didn''t have nearly enough of the professions for his liking but there was nothing Marcus could do about it.
He watched the wounded get carried off before more men followed with the barrels they had come with. That was the reason the fight had started in the first place.
After the insects learned it was fruitless to throw themselves at the stone wall, they had fallen back to their home and defended it fiercely. Any access to the river was blocked and they had to go through this song and dance every time they needed water.
Which meant they had to fight through the swarm every week so they could restock.
In the early days, when he wasn''t as familiar with the Swarm''s power, he had foolishly tried to fight through them and get at the heart. If he could kill the queen, or whatever was birthing all of them, he would effectively kill them all.
What he saw there still made his body shake in terror, the memory was enough for his knees to rattle. The Raw power emanating out of the river''s center was enough to level the entire city, let alone the deeper frequencies that were indistinguishable to him. Some artifact or treasure sprouted from the rivers depths and the swarm was its fierce guardian. The exact relationship between the two, Marcus still didn''t know, but one thing was for sure. Any intrusion upon the river was met with zealous resistance.
Food was easier to come by, even if it was a bit... distasteful. It took a while for people to come around to eating insects, but with the sheer availability of them, it was impossible not to.
Every chance of finding Water elsewhere was met with failure. The stone was too tough to dig through and wells couldn''t go deep enough. Lakes were too far away and things other than the swarm defended those big enough to draw from. Even digging toward the river from the side set off the Swarm.
Sentiment in his city was low. Some wanted to leave. To abandon their home and search for somewhere else to live but he refused. He would not leave his home.
His family had lived here for generations, dating back to before the two cities were built next to each other. Back when what stood around him was just a small town next to an unassuming river that only had a few hundred citizens.
He would not leave it.
People who thought to leave only hesitated because the dangers of the wild were more deadly than what they were facing now. They had seen the beasts that roamed the woods and even the prey animals there would pose them harm.
They were stuck between a rock and a hard place and anywhere they turned was a fight they couldn''t handle. Either leave and brave the wild, or stay, and fight the swarm every week to survive.
As he monitored the retreat, the insects came buzzing back for another round as the last of his men were still making their way back to the city, but they wouldn''t make it in time.
He saw the distance close and knew they would be caught before they reached the city.
"Get Down!" He yelled out before powering his skills as his mana dipped even lower. His Law was already shot as pain lanced through his brain at the thought of using it.
He had to rely on just the power of his skills now.
[Water Scythe] after [Water Scythe] launched through the air, matching the swing of his glaive in a graceful dance.
The arcs of clear liquid passed over the heads of the ducking warriors by mere inches before they tore the charging swarm to pieces, dicing them into tiny chunks that squelched as they hit the ground.
"Clarissa, Barbeque them!" He ordered as the last man left the river hauling barrels full of the life giving liquid.
Acknowledging his order, the strongest mage they had stepped up and launched out great plumes of fire and smoke.
She was one of his strongest assets but they couldn''t use her unless they were already retreating. The swarm hated fire and any use of it would draw the ire of nearly all of them. Some would come flying from miles away at the sight of smoke.
It was their finishing move to give them room to retreat and kill as many as they could before huddling in the city to do it all again next week.
While the constant fighting was rough, it worked wonders for their levels. Crafters constantly had work to do and so did the fighters.
Smiths pumped out weapons and repairs as fast as they could find the metal to make them. Scavengers picked through the rubble of the city for anything useful while the fighters held off the worst of the swarm. Armor of chitin covered nearly every member and only became more prominent as the days passed.
"Sir, E-ranks approach from the river. We need to leave." An aide said next to him.
Marcus turned to look at the man and it still shocked him to see such savagery, even though he wore the same and had the same things covering him. Viscous green blood covered him head to toe while bits of dirt and blood smeared in, covering his metal studded armor completely, only leaving the barest hints of leather visible. His aide was one of the few still sporting the armor from their tutorial.
His weapon dripped with the insect''s ichor almost as much as his armor did.
It was a testament to how many he was able to take down and Marcus knew he would look the same if there were a mirror.
"Go, I''ll cover our retreat." He ordered.
He would be the last man in, as it always was. He was the strongest and he was unwilling to leave anyone behind.
As the last finally turned and ran, he fell in a step behind. Arcs of water shot out at any of the insects that came after them and his glaive took any that made it close.
The swarm made to retaliate, as it often did, and a dense cloud of bellowed out from the river''s depths. His glaive once more came alive with mana and started to subtly glow from the charge he pushed into it.
The enchantment on the weapon came alight and he pulled on what mana he could before he ran dry.
His pace was slow but steady, every step measured to make sure it wouldn''t interrupt his swing. Momentum was his greatest ally and breaking it would spell disaster. The Flow couldn''t be interrupted.
Water began to leak out the end of his blade and got caught up in the swings of his weapon. Drops built up into the air before they too, joined in the momentum.
He pulled on [Water Manipulation] to turn the droplets into a rising current around him. It danced in time with his weapon and he used it to beat back the wave of bugs coming to face him.
Left, right, above and below. His reach with his weapon was near omnidirectional and anything he couldn''t cover with it, his water did. Streamers of it surrounded him, spinning in time with his swings.
It blocked or redirected any attack that got through his guard and watched his back when his weapon couldn''t be there. It took him a while to master his fighting style but the weekly battles with endless opponents did more than just raise his level.
He felt the pressure max out and his skill was ready to be unleashed. [Rising Tides] took precious time to build, but it was well worth the effect it could do. He channeled the enhanced power out of the skill and directed it into [Flash Flood], adding the last of his mana to power it as high as he could. An explosion of force backed by the weight of several tons of water exploded out of him, pulverizing the closest bugs before sweeping the rest away.
The wave of water crested higher than 10 feet in the air and charged out in all directions, gradually becoming smaller and smaller the farther away it went, dragging the bugs unwillingly with the momentum, if it didn''t outright crush them.
His skill killed anything close and incapacitated the rest clearing the way for his men to retreat safely. Combining the two was a perilous process and ended in many failures until he managed it correctly and it quickly became his strongest combo.
And that combo came at a price. He staggered on his feet as the last dregs of mana left him, the pounding in his head only got worse from the mana deprivation but he stayed upright and trudged back into the walls of his city. Today wouldn''t be his end.
One foot in front of the other was all he thought as he trudged through the gate.
His men came to support him before he fell and they shut the gates with a loud thud. Men and women alike manned the wall ready for the swarm''s retaliatory strike.
Every member inside his City held a bow or wand with crates of arrows interspaced between. Even the warriors held them, as they could aim at the ground and still hit one of the insects of the swarm.
Marcus had barely a few minutes to catch his breath before he had to be on his feet again to lead the defense.
His only solace was the chime of yet another level.
He knew this wouldn''t last. They would eventually have to fight into the heart of the swarm and a lot of good men would die. All Marcus hoped for was one more day. One more day of survival, he didn''t chance it by wishing for too much.
Chapter 157 - Rising Challenge
Chris
"Come on, Chris, it will be fine. Just there and back, nothing else." Gabriel once again tried to plead.
Ever since he got his legs back a few days ago he had been insistent about doing more. Joining with the other groups of scouts. Being a participant when an appropriate level monster was found.
He had a Law and was working on his Anchor, but he still wasn''t an E-rank yet which made the monsters around here too strong for him.
He could punch up if the beast wasn''t as strong as its level would indicate, but most of the ones we came across were firmly in the E-rank, above what most people at that level could handle.
Even some of the newly evolved E-ranks in our employ couldn''t go toe to toe with some of the ones we encountered.
Which was why Gabriel asking to split off to travel to a dungeon was out of the question. Even if he could sense the monsters in the area and avoid them, I was not going to let him go alone, especially here.
"Gabriel, we''ve talked about this. The area is too dangerous for you to go alone." I said exasperated.
His insistence was fine at first, but it was beginning to aggravate me. I knew he meant well, but sometimes his ability to not take no as an answer was supremely annoying.
"I can avoid any of the stronger ones and the dungeon isn''t even that far away!" He tried.
I turned to level my gaze at him and just stared. I was through with this conversation.
The dungeon was far enough away that we weren''t making a detour for it, yet he claimed it wasn''t. I did have to admit, traveling alone on a horse wouldn''t take nearly as long as the entire caravan but it was still far enough away to worry me.
And here I was worrying about him when I complained about Abigail doing it to me.
I guess it''s hereditary.
It was at this point my mother decided to chime in, "Why don''t you go with him, Chris? If you two go together everything will be fine. It will be good for him to get some exercise in."
I turned to gape at her, my mouth slightly open in shock. Betrayed by my own mother.
Was the world spinning in reverse? One where I was the worry wort and they were urging us into danger.
"Oh, don''t look at me like that. You could use a chance to let loose too. I see you all tense and broody up there." She added.
There was a reason for my tense and broody attitude. Things had slowly gotten more difficult and ever since the storm a few days ago. Things were becoming challenging.
The entire trip, the mana level had steadily risen, it was slow enough that most attributed it to moving into more mana-dense areas. Places that were richer in it than others.
That sentiment held for quite a while and no one thought anything of it. Until it continued to happen despite moving cross country where the map showed ups and downs in mana level compared to where we had been before.
Which didn''t make any sense. The mana level was higher in some places than the map would indicate.
That was when we realized the base mana level was rising everywhere.
The scale of the map stayed the same, but the entire world rose in mana density anyway.
The areas with low density rose but didn''t change color on the map because everywhere else rose to match. There had been some shifting on the map where different areas dimmed or brightened, but overall, things stayed the same.
The mana levels of different areas stayed constant, which made the map stay the same even though the mana levels we were experiencing should have been lower.
The only other explanation was that the base mana everywhere steadily went up.
With that being the case, monster levels rose to match and we weren''t leveling fast enough to compensate. I had only gained 6 levels since our return, a pittance to the 57 I gained in the tutorial, and about the same time had passed.
Others did better and gained more, but it still wasn''t enough to keep up with the levels of monsters we were beginning to run into.
They were outpacing us.
It wouldn''t have been that big of an issue if we had already established our city and gained dominion over the local dungeons, but we were still a far distance away from doing that.
The caravan was struggling to make headway further North and we had to use more and more of our strength to deal with the challenges we encountered.
While that sounded mostly negative, there were good things that came out of it. The more challenging the monsters we ran into were, people''s levels rose faster because of it.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The materials we extracted from them and the area were better and our crafters could do better things with them.
Plus, the challenge brought breakthroughs for people struggling to step on the Paths of Power. The number who did so was few, but a few more Laws got added to our repertoire from the encounters.
After a meeting, we decided to bypass a few of the points we had originally intended to stop at. The dungeon Gabriel wanted to go to was one of them.
It was our original plan to stop there for a day before moving on but the circumstances made us cut it out to save time.
We were quickly becoming pressed for it for more reasons than one.
Other than the rising challenge of fighting through the wild, Mother Nature was turning against us. Well, not against me but against other people. I felt more at home as the days passed but the same couldn''t be said for the others.
We left for the tutorial at the start of Spring and we returned at the start of Summer. It was just now becoming the start of Fall.
Winter would soon arrive and the air was already turning this far North. I could feel the barest hints of Ice mana in the air already.
Tree leaves began to turn first, and the air soon followed. It was a stark reminder of what was coming.
I loved it. It felt easier to breathe and as the heat died down, it felt easier to move.
Gabriel felt the same but we were the minority of people who welcomed the changing season. Most of the caravan''s population came with us from Ohio. People who knew the cold and snow, but not the kind the land up here would see.
Back home, we were lucky to get any substantial snowfall and the temperatures would only dip low for a short amount of time compared to here. It was the main reason we left.
The part of my family who had Water affinities could find that anywhere. Lakes, rivers, oceans, even snow, all of it gave off Water mana and while the levels and purity differed, it was at least available for them.
Austin and his Solar could be found literally anywhere and so could Wind. Both affinities were common throughout the globe. The type and intensity changed, but it could be found.
Vinny and Rachel were somewhat out of luck for fire but there wasn''t anywhere we could go for that. At least nowhere that was closer than our current journey.
The deserts of Arizona were smothered in the stuff based on the bright orange glow of that area on the map but nowhere else had it in any large capacity. America wasn''t known for its volcanoes after all. Fire mana popped up as a small blip in Northern Pennsylvania or Eastern New York, it was hard to tell, but that wasn''t enough of an incentive to change plans.
While there were spots on the map that were better for Water mana, or Wind mana, there were few places for Ice mana.
Now that sounded altruistic in that we were going somewhere most people would have something to work with, but there was also a selfish side as well.
This was going to be my City and I was going to build it where I would be strongest. I wasn''t forcing my family to come with me, while they were appreciated and I wanted them with me, I wasn''t forcing them.
If they didn''t want to, they were welcome to set out for somewhere else and I would support them wholeheartedly.
While Winter was the main reason we were traveling North, it did not mean people were ready for what they were about to experience.
With Winter soon upon us, we would have to make even better time if we were to make it there before the first snowfalls. We also had to make sure to recheck our food and begin planning and rationing.
There was no way we weren''t going to have to, there were too many people and too little food not to. We did our best to scavenge and forage, but it wasn''t going to be enough to last the winter.
It was another reason I couldn''t agree to Austin''s detour a week or two ago, as adamant as he had been.
Future plans aside, the dungeon was removed from our journey and it was one Gabriel had been looking forward to. He knew the timeline of his recovery better than anyone and he spent ample time with the map.
He knew roughly when he would be able to delve into one and he had set his sights on it long ahead of time.
He did not take our change of plans well.
I had held firm on my decision, until my mom decided to sabotage me.
"I can''t leave. Not now of all times. Maybe I could have before, but not when I could be needed." I rebutted.
"It won''t take you that long, half a day at most. Get there, do your thing, then catch back up when we stop for the night. Not even half a day if you go through the night instead." She answered.
As she continued, Gabriel''s face got brighter and brighter, his excitement near bubbling over.
She was doing this on purpose.
"We will be fine without you. We aren''t as helpless as you like to think we are." She added, putting the final nail into the coffin.
"Fine! Fine. We leave in an hour and only for one run. No more than that, no matter how much you beg." I pointed at him, "And we''re back before the morning. I don''t care if we have to ride through the night!"
"Yes! I''ll get my stuff." He said excitedly before running off.
With him gone, it left only the two of us alone.
"Was there a reason to rile him up? I don''t need this right now and you were the last person I thought would side against me." After what happened last time was left unsaid.
"He needs this, Christopher. As much as he puts on a brave face, he needs a win right now and this will do that for him." My mother sighed, "No matter how much I don''t want him to."
"He''s not alone in that department, a lot of people need wins right now." I pointed out.
She just gave me a look. One that she gave me a lot when I was being a smart ass, "Not everyone is my son. Doing this for him is trivial and it will make him feel better."
"I know, but this is a one-time thing. I won''t be doing this again." I stated.
I loved my brother dearly, but I wasn''t going to compromise the security of our camp just because he wanted to go off dungeon diving. The only reason I was doing it this time was because my mother was right.
It wasn''t that far away and I wasn''t strictly needed here. We had enough E-rankers to cover everything, I was just paranoid that something unexpected would happen.
That was another reason for my tenseness.
I didn''t have that much to pack, really. My hammer stayed with me most of the time and the only other thing I needed was my armor.
That and my horse.
Where did Remi get off to?
Having a horse was a new experience for me and one I was quite enjoying. It was similar to having a dog but one you could ride. He was still working through his attitude problems but he was shaping up to be a decent steed.
I had no plans of riding him into battle or anything, but he made getting around significantly easier. I wasn''t sure how he would handle the kind of fighting I did and didn''t want to kill him on accident.
A few people who wanted one decided to single one out to take care of and groom. Not everyone wanted one which was good, as we didn''t have enough to go around for everybody, but most of the people who did had the opportunity.
I was on the fence at first but decided to try. Some companionship helped me work through some of the things I felt. Our family dog wasn''t there when we returned and Remi was quickly filling that hole.
There were so many other things to deal with at the time I hadn''t thought much of it. The world ending and all was a major distraction.
I did wonder if any stayed and awaited their owner''s return, though.
Now that would be a good dog.
Chapter 158 - Dungeons
My horse riding skills still weren''t perfect but they were enough not to fall off while traveling at a decent speed. Full gallop was still hard to control but I was getting there. I had yet to get the motion down and it was... uncomfortable to go faster.
Gabriel was newer at it than me, with only recently getting the chance, but he was a quick learner. The week he spent getting the basics down was enough for our journey to be a quick one on horseback.
Riding horses for transportation was just another oddity I had to work through that the new world brought. Nothing like trading out cars to go backward. The fact horses high enough level would eventually be faster than modern cars wasn''t lost on me.
Finding the dungeon was easy at this point, after how many we had encountered during our trip and the amount of times we had done this. The mana in the air funneled into the cavern leading into the Earth and could be felt by a good distance away if you were looking for it. It was so noticeable to even my mana skills, let alone Gabriel''s.
He noticed it way before I did and it didn''t even take a cursory sweep on our part, just riding close was enough.
"I think this one is deep," He said, dismounting from his horse and beginning to tie it up.
I followed suit and found a strong enough branch for my own, "How can you tell?"
"I couldn''t at first, but the ones we found before help compare against what I feel now. The amount of mana it takes in and how far away the draw starts are good indicators of how deep it is." He said.
"Now that isn''t always the case and I''m still trying to get a feel for it, but it generally works." He amended.
"How many floors deep is it? Enough for me to get a fight or two in?" I asked failing to hide my hope at the answer. If this one went deeper than 8 floors, it would be a perfect place for a fight.
"I don''t know, it feels deeper than the one we found a few weeks ago, and that one had 6 floors. So... maybe 9. I doubt it''s more than that." He answered.
The deepest dungeon we had come across only had 7 floors and that was one of the first ones. While fighting in them was fun, it didn''t pose the same challenge as the waves.
I hoped the ones we built our city next to would be deeper.
Dungeon curation was a profession on its own, similar to Blacksmith or Leatherworker, and was notoriously hard to get. The Dungeon Curator profession helped grow and take care of a dungeon as the name implied.
We knew some details about them but not all. Information was sparse because the profession was held in high regard. Everyone wanted a good Dungeon Curator in their employ, similar to a good Mayor or Merchant.
Their skills helped to grow a dungeon and speed up the rate more floors were added. They would also keep tabs on its condition to make sure it wouldn''t break.
Dungeon breaks happened rarely but when they did, it would devastate the surrounding area. Spewing all the monsters from the depths onto the surface for them to roam free and cause wanton destruction.
Curators weren''t necessary to keep tabs on a dungeon but they made everything easier. The signs of a break were noticeable to others if they had the skills and knew what they were looking for.
Their other ability, the hastening of dungeon growth, was what they were prized for. Dungeons grew slowly and it took a lot of time and effort to do so. Any way to speed it up was greatly sought after.
Dungeons were the backbone of a faction''s strength and finding a good one could cause a faction to rise in power.
Dungeons and the area where a faction was based played the biggest part in how fast they would grow or how high they would reach.
The only problem was Earth was still new to mana and no one would get the Curator profession for a while yet. Those were problems for the future but it was something I thought about when it came up.
"Alright, are you ready? Got everything you need?" I asked.
Gabriel gave himself a once over, patting places to make sure everything was there before nodding. Potions were in place and he had his wand with him. Staves and wands could be used as physical weapons but they were meant to amplify spells. The gems or formations carved into them could empower the skills a mage pushed through it. Similar to how my hammer amplified cold powers.
"Let''s go then,"
The first few floors held nothing new. Low-level monsters with the floor guardian capping it off. There were a few hidden alcoves and treasure chests Gabriel found but they didn''t hold much.
To the level 10 or 20 who would struggle with the floor the coins and treasure would be great, but for us, it wasn''t that much to get excited about.
Some of the metal it dropped I could crush with my bare hands it was so weak.
It was disappointing to find that this dungeon was another material dungeon. Metal was what we had the most of and it was the majority of what the dungeon gave out.
What a dungeon would give as a prize was random. It could be as wide as giving anything, metal, wood, leather, hide, cloth, crystals, gems, skill shards, even mana stones on rare occasion.
Some kept their pool diverse, giving a little bit of everything. Others specified, giving only metal or only wood.
A wide variety or a specialized grouping depending on the dungeon, or a mixture of other things. Once the drops were established, they would never change. Not even a Dungeon Curator could get a dungeon to alter its drops.
One thing dungeons never gave out, was equipment. They gave out all the materials to make it, but would not give you a finished sword or weapon.
Doing that would defeat the purpose of Professions and was a hand out the system deemed unnecessary.
This dungeon seemed to love metal. It gave it out at every opportunity with a smattering of coins to go along with it, which every dungeon seemed to do. Coins were a staple in every dungeon we came across so far.
I let Gabriel take care of most of the monsters while I sat back and watched him fight. I had seen him do it before but I wanted to make sure he was ready to be back in a dungeon. Confirm there weren''t any lingering doubts.
It was mostly baseless, but I wanted to make sure.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
He fought similarly to Rachel, except instead of fire exploding out, it was ice. He took the barest sliver of the stuff and turned it into a weapon. Flinging it masterfully wherever it was needed.
"Do you not have [Shatter]?" I asked after he manually exploded a chunk of ice to finish off a monster.
"No, I didn''t think it was worth it and picked up other skills instead." He answered before sending another bolt of ice into a monster ahead of us. "I planned to learn how to do it manually and spend my skills on something else."
"Care to share? You don''t have to if you don''t want to." I asked after he opened the door. I knew some of his skills but he hadn''t gone into detail about them.
"You know most of them. [Ice Spear(R)] and [Ice Arrow(Un)] were the first few I picked up, evolving from [Ice Bolt(C)]. I have a few neutral skills from before I knew my affinity. [Mana Shield(C)] and [Mana Bolt(C)] specifically." He said. "I''ve upgraded them since then, but they function the same."
"I didn''t know I had an Ice affinity at that point and chose to go neutral. As much good that did." He muttered.
I nodded along and waited for him to get to the big stuff. Those were common skills for mages to pick up and I knew of all of them already.
"After evolving into Cryomancer at level 10, I picked up a few good ones. [Frozen Grasp(Un)] and [Icicle Barrage(Un)] were my main skills during the tutorial at the time.
"But I didn''t only get attack skills, I have a few general skills and supplementary skills as well. [Chilling Touch(Un)] boosted my power by quite a lot even though it isn''t an attack skill on its own."
His [Chilling Touch(Un)] mimicked my [Pervading Cold(R)] in that it focused on the debilitating aspect of Ice and added that to any other Ice skills. It was in the same vein as Jonathan''s [Stone Empowerment], the skill was useless on its own and required something additional to work on.
[Stone Empowerment] didn''t do anything if there wasn''t any stone to empower.
"Oh! [Spreading Ice(R)] is a good one," He said with a smile. "I got that one through my current class and it''s awesome."
That was one I hadn''t heard of and my face showed my confusion.
"Here, watch this!" He said.
During his battles, he usually speared the monsters with a quick ice shard or two and we moved on. We were still on the higher floors and it wouldn''t start being challenging for another floor or two.
This time, instead of killing it with a well-placed [Ice Arrow(Un)], he did something else. It looked like [Frozen Grasp(Un)] but I wasn''t sure.
Mana flared as he activated his skill and ice built up from the floor, ensnaring the monster''s foot and immobilizing it. The monster bucked and clawed at it but it wasn''t strong enough to break free.
After that, his mana flared again and I could see the ice begin to spread from where it was already attached to the monster. Beginning at its foot, it quickly climbed up its leg before extending to the monsters torso. It cracked and splintered as the beast thrashed, causing shards to chip and fall off, but it continued growing and gaining ground.
It grew all the way up its leg before spreading faster from there. As much as the beast tried to fight, it couldn''t do anything to stop the spreading ice.
It only took a few moments and the whole monster was encased in it, turning into an ice sculpture right where it stood.
I just looked at it with surprise while Gabriel puffed up beside me, "Cool right!"
"It only works on the weaker monsters and it can be broken easily, but it distracts them and makes openings for other skills." He explained after a bit despondently.
"What was that you used first? It felt like you used two different skills." I asked.
"Oh, that was [Frozen Grasp(Un)], [Spreading Ice(R)] needs a base to work on. Any kind of ice works, even shards sticking out of them from [Ice Spear(R)] work. All Ice touching the target begins to spread and hinder them!" He said excitedly.
From what I saw, it looked like a great skill. Someone without an affinity for Ice would be hindered greatly as it quickly spread over their body. They would be thrown off and wouldn''t be able to move as well, opening them up to other attacks.
Gabriel showed off a few other skills but none were as flashy as [Spreading Ice(R)] and the fights didn''t allow for any big stuff. That would only come later.
We traveled along the tunnels for a few more minutes and I could see out of the corner of my eye Gabriel starting to speak only to stop before saying anything multiple times.
After multiple times of this, it got so frustrating I had to say something, "What is it?"
"Have you read the books Abigail packed away?" He asked out of the blue while twiddling his thumbs as we ventured another floor deeper. Going from floor to floor was the longest stretch of time between fights.
It was a bit out of left field but I went along with it, "Not all of them, but I''ve read most of them. The important ones."
"So you''ve read the one detailing the challenges Earth will face?" He asked going somewhere I wasn''t sure I liked. I had an inkling I knew what he was after.
"If you''re talking about the trials to keep the Systems protection, then yes." I answered, "But those won''t happen for a while yet. It''s not something to worry about for now." I said trying to end the conversation here.
"I know, but I was just thinking of it and it got me curious about what you plan to do about them?" He asked looking up at me. There was an expression in his eyes I chose to ignore. It reminded me of when we were kids and he was looking to me for guidance.
Ignoring his look, I chose to focus on what he said instead. The way he said it made me laugh. Like it was something I had sole control of and it was up to me to prepare for them.
"What do you mean? I don''t have any plans for them. My only priority is keeping you and our family safe, anything beyond that isn''t as important." I said, brushing him off.
"You haven''t thought about it?" He asked slightly aghast, "Not even a little bit?"
"I know they are coming but nothing else. I don''t even know what they will be. It seems kind of silly to plan for something when you don''t know when, what, or even where it will happen." I answered jokingly.
"But... but you''re the strongest person we''ve come across, probably one of the strongest in the area. You have to do something about them!" He said animatedly. "Even that one woman gave you a bunch of stuff because you were so strong."
Calling what Tracy did ''Giving me a bunch of stuff'' was a bit of a stretch. I paid her for what she gave us, but it was close enough.
What he said made me stop walking and turn to him, it wasn''t quite a dad voice that came out but it was getting there, "Gabriel, there are millions of people in the world, maybe billions still, it does not fall to me to do anything. My strength is not unique, there are probably thousands who are higher level than I am." I pointed out.
"They might be higher level but are they stronger than you? You''re the only person I know to have a Least Law, an Anchor, and a Body of Wood. We have yet to meet someone who could beat you and we''ve been through multiple big cities." He rebutted.
I scoffed at that, "We''ve been through maybe four and that hardly constitutes a thorough search. We''ve barely seen half the country, let alone the whole globe."
He didn''t let up and kept staring at me with a look like he didn''t believe me.
"What do you want from me, Gabriel? If something is threatening my City then yes, I will fight it, but I will not go out of my way trying to save the world. The world isn''t my responsibility, you are." I said firmly poking him in the chest, "Keeping my City and my family safe is the only thing that matters."
"But what about the rest of the world?!" Gabriel started, "You owe it to people to at least try. You owe-"
"Nothing." I interrupted harshly, "I owe them nothing. Just the same as they owe me nothing. Just because I''m a touch stronger than someone or a level higher does not make me responsible for the entire world"
"It does not fall to me to do anything." I finished and turned to continue walking.
We were talking about a future challenge that was years off at best. It didn''t much matter what I said now, years could change things but I doubted it.
Gabriel had a skewed sense of heroism that the tutorial had thoroughly knocked out of me and I had thought it did the same to him. He was probably picturing all the superhero comics he loved and was thinking that was what would happen in real life. Great Power comes with great responsibility and all that shit. I just didn''t hold the same opinion. Just because I was stronger than the average man did not mean I was forced to protect everyone.
Death and destruction were a part of life and no amount of heroism would change that.
I would leave the heroics to others. I had experienced enough death. The ring I wore carried more than it should and I wasn''t about to add to that because of a fight that wasn''t mine.
The world was large and I was but one man.
There were bound to be people out there stronger than me.
Chapter 159 - First Marker
The rest of the dungeon was a bit of a wash. Gabriel got to fight on the lower levels and he did pretty well in my opinion. He could fight up quite a few levels and only got stumped on the fifth floor. HIs Law helped him fight up a few levels but he didn''t really have anything else going for him. He was still working on his Anchor and he had yet to make a decision on his Body Technique. He still hoped to review more options.
He had a good fight against the fourth-floor guardian which was a level 50 E-ranked ape-like creature but stalled out not long after.
The roving monsters of the fifth floor that grouped together were too hard for him to take down alone. Singular monsters that high level were fine for him but the groups were too much.
When he focused on controlling and killing one monster, the others charged at him and disrupted his flow. I had the feeling he could have won with a few injuries but it wasn''t worth it to let it go that far.
We still had an hours-long ride to catch up to the caravan after this and doing it injured would make things harder.
I stepped in to play the front liner for him and held back significantly so he could participate in the fight. This was for him to get back into fighting shape, not for me to pummel the monsters into oblivion.
Fighting with my brother was an odd thing. We were both so used to fighting alone that it caused some major mishaps we had to work through at the start.
If I didn''t have the Fortitude I did, multiple wounds would have arisen because of our miscommunication.
Gabriel had fought with other mages before, most of the time with our mother, but fighting with me was different as we both tried to control the same thing, let alone me standing in his way.
For months, my fighting style was to sling Ice around in arcs around me while using [Shatter(Un)] occasionally. [Sweeping Snow(Un)] now took the place of my revolving snowflakes and I still turned the area into the Arctic with [Permafrost(Un)] and [Desolate Blizzard(R)].
I could do it even better now with my upgraded affinity as well.
The problems arose when I tried to have pieces of ice go one way and Gabriel tried to pull them in the other. Our coordination wasn''t great and us fighting over the ice caused it to go where neither of us wanted.
It was frustrating on my part, as it was so ingrained in my fighting style to fight one specific way that altering that was harder than anticipated. Gabriel felt the frustration as well based on the swear words I could hear from behind me.
We were still only on the fifth floor and the monsters were only early E-rank, but it didn''t feel good to get beaten around because of a miscommunication.
It took us longer to work things out than it did to fight the whole floor.
Other than us vying for control, I had to learn a different aspect of fighting. One I had little experience in.
Protecting someone.
During the first waves of the tutorial, we fought in groups where there were more set roles like this but that was so long ago it was hard to remember. Most of the time I tried to kill things as fast as possible so none got by me.
While that would work, it defeated the purpose of holding back and letting Gabriel level up.
I had to use my skills much more defensively and control the fight in a completely different manner. It was a novel experience to do and it was enjoyable to fight in a new way.
While it wasn''t the same as a good brawl, it was novel enough to be enjoyable.
[Icy Bastion(R)] took center stage while playing the front liner instead of my more destructive skills, and I stymied my aggressive blows for more controlled ones. It worked to both control where the beasts would go and cut them off completely from getting around me.
If any tried to bypass me and get to Gabriel behind me, they quickly found themselves face-first with a wall of Ice.
Skills weren''t the only adjustment I had to make either. Using my hammer would have ended the fight just as quickly and I had to adjust there as well.
Because of my high Fortitude and [Frost Armor(R)], I usually took an aggressive approach with my hammer. More heavy swings meant to deal damage rather than defensive ones.
I had to change that now.
While the hammer wasn''t made to be a defensive weapon, it still could be used as such. The shaft of my weapon got a workout deflecting all of the different attacks and different swings had the same effect. I targeted legs instead of skulls and chests, to cripple instead of kill.
While the new style was new and exciting, it didn''t beat the old way I did things. There was a certain feeling of primal destruction and fury it made me feel that defensively warding off enemies was lacking.
We pushed on like that, me fighting up front and Gabriel supporting from behind for the next few floors. After reaching the seventh floor, Gabriel''s help started to drop off and I had to take up more of the slack.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
By that point, we stopped tripping over each other and began to work together more seamlessly. Not perfect, but no more stupid mistakes.
We could even compliment each other, or at least we started to. His [Spreading Ice(R)] was the perfect casing to use [Shatter(Un)] on and my [Pervading Cold(R)] helped it build much faster using the Ice mana pervading its flesh.
It started to get a touch fun by the end of the last floor and my heart started to pump faster and I got into the feeling I missed from the tutorial.
Gabriel got increasingly nervous as we delved deeper and it was obvious he wanted to stop on the last floor, but we pushed through. The seventh-floor guardian was even strong enough to leave some lasting wounds and draw blood.
It was a shame it ended, but even if there was another floor, we wouldn''t have had time for it. We were already running late delving as deep as we had and we would have to make good time getting back to catch up before morning.
The last prize we got from the dungeon was a large chunk of unidentifiable metal that glowed to my senses. I didn''t know exactly what it was, but it was higher grade of metal than normal.
[Metallurgy(C)] helped distinguish different metals but it didn''t have the same ability as [Material Analysis]. Its failure to identify the metal meant it had to be a rare alloy or magical material.
Vinny''s [Material Analysis] would be better to confirm. It made me regret skipping the skill but it didn''t make sense for both of us to have it.
Our return trip was uneventful and we were on the road again. I felt like I had been saying that a lot. On the road again.
I was ready for this trip to be over but we were still a few months out. While the horses helped, I wanted to sleep in an actual bed in a house that was more than a bolt of cloth and leather held up with sticks.
I was also antsy to start construction. So many ideas and plans flowed through my mind and I wanted to get a look at where we would be building. Would it have large cliffs supporting waterfalls? Would it be at the end of a large plateau?
The closer we came, the more excited I got.
I may have driven the caravan a bit harder in my rush to finally get there but the lack of complaining only made me go faster.
The time we made was even better than before, reaching the border of what we thought was Canada right as fall began in full swing.
The sight of the leaves changing color and drifting to the ground was almost enough to make up for our fatigue from traveling.
It was beautiful.
Looking out over a sea of reds, oranges, and yellows rolling in the wind with the occasional splash of color dancing through the sky was as breathtaking as it was nostalgic.
Fall from before didn''t have the sheer beauty that the Northern forests did, but it was nice to see some things didn''t change. Leaves still turned and seasons were still a thing.
As we made ground into what used to be Canada, it got increasingly colder. It was usually a good few weeks between the the leaves turning and the first snow of the year but it happened back to back up here.
Before the last leaves were on the ground, flakes were falling from the sky. Temperatures dropped so low at night that fire pits had to be incorporated and tents redesigned for smoke.
It was a subtle change as the Ice Mana rolled in every night only to wane as the sun banished away during the day. More and more Ice Mana started to stick around during the day, building up no matter how hard the sun fought.
I slept great regardless, but it was too cold at night to sleep without a form of heat for others.
The Leatherworkers started producing heavier clothes and furs became common attire as time wore on. Heavy cloaks for warmth and furs wrapped tightly around to keep heat in and moisture out.
My attire didn''t have to change, I could walk around shirtless and be fine, but I followed suit. It was partially for practicality, but mostly because I liked it. The heavy layers and fur were soft and comfortable and they were much better than the scratchy cloth from before.
Professions could do a lot, but making the softness of cotton and silk out of plant fibers was not in their repertoire.
Snowfall started to hinder our progress but we pushed on. Anything more than a few inches caused our progress to stall nearly completely which was something I was not going to let happen.
Not when we were so close.
Remi refused to not be at the front which put us in the perfect position to forge a path. [Ice Manipulation(Un)] and my growing skills without relying on the system were the plow guiding us forward.
Pushing snow out of the way, while trivial, was a constant wear to do for over 10 hours a day. After a few hours, the strain was enough to cause a migraine from sustained use.
Gabriel and I had to split our travel into shifts to keep it a sustainable practice, otherwise I wouldn''t be able to do it all day every day.
The third and final thing that began to hinder us, was sunlight. While the cold and snow were hindrances we could work through, sunlight was not. It wasn''t as bad without clocks, but the days were still noticeably shorter.
Waking with the sun and driving through the day until sundown gave us less and less time for travel and our pace suffered for it.
With those three things to fight against, people''s moods plummeted. They did not like the cold, they did not like the snow, and they did not like the dark, which we had in spades.
While it was frustrating for me to feel great, invigorated, and loving the cold, only for everyone else to be moody because of it, I got used to it. People would adapt. That or they would leave.
Fortitude helped against the temperature but that wasn''t a stone-clad rule. We didn''t have a thermometer, but I would bet money it was colder than before. Mana had an increased effect on environments compared to before.
We couldn''t even use water freezing to compare the temperature against. The new magical nature of it made the freezing point change based on the mana level and we established that early on during our travels.
All of it rolled together for a grumpy few weeks better left unmentioned. People were snippy and quick to frustrated during the change and only mellowed out after getting used to it.
Other people were scarce, but we did run into a few stragglers traveling about. People dropped back at their homes only for them to turn into the wilderness we now traveled through quickly had to adapt or die.
The scarcity came from them either dying or leaving before we came through but there were still a few still trying to carve out a living.
Some joined us and others didn''t. We received a decent sized influx of people from the remnants of a town we passed through as all joined up with us and they were more knowledgeable of the area. They were able to point out the different areas on the map with greater precision and we could finally put a city name to our first marker.
Just North of what used to be Winnipeg sat our first possible destination and we were closing in after months of travel. I didn''t hold out hope to find the spot after our first stop but others did.
It sat near the shore of what the natives called Lake Winnipeg and two dungeons weren''t far away off the Northeast and west a short distance away from the lake. Austin couldn''t tell anything from his skills yet because we weren''t close enough but we would soon set eyes on our first potential building spot.
I would be lying if I said I wasn''t excited.
Chapter 160 - Wearing Patience
"Chris, the wolves are circling again," Abigail said as she approached the stump I was sitting on.
As we pushed on toward the first marker in the chain we had set, we were beset by a number of things hindering our travel. The snow and weather the least among them.
Animals and beasts roaming the area had gotten increasingly cumbersome to get through and it only got worse as the days went on.
Coyotes and felines were the more opportunistic predators. They only attacked smaller groups, but others who were more aggressive tried to attack the main caravan.
Wolves and bears being the worst of them.
Wolves roamed in large packs and they didn''t fear our numbers as much as the more solo predators while bears just didn''t care. They took our intrusion into their territory personally and it didn''t matter how many people were with us.
They only ran off if there was a person of sufficient strength to bully them off, otherwise, they would fight against the numbers even if they faced certain defeat.
Wolves, on the other hand, were just plain annoying. They circled and looked for weaknesses, attacked when they felt an opening and hit softer parts in the caravan where the levels were lower or there were fewer people.
They were smarter, which was the worst kind of foe.
The pack stalking us now was the largest yet and it seemed they ranged in the area of the lake we were approaching. They didn''t take our presence in their hunting grounds lightly. Over a hundred of them were out and about, circling us and getting a reading.
The alpha had yet to make its presence known but it was only a matter of time before they attacked. A day or two at most before they found their opportunity.
As we stopped for the night and began to set up camp, nerves began to fray. The constant of being on edge wore on people and it only worsened as the sun descended and the darkness set in.
Extra precaution was taken when setting up camp, extra defenses and a few extra traps were laid just in case of attack, but its reassurance was little to the people on watch.
My patience was quickly wearing out.
"I''m sick of this. I will not sit here and wait for them to attack." I said voicing my frustration and making for my hammer.
"We''ve been over this, Chris. If you go out and kill everything, the guards won''t get the experience they need." Abigail said not for the first time.
Some of the caravan who were more... violence-inclined, had taken up the guard position and had taken to it well. They stood watch at night, patrolled around the caravan on horses while we moved, and did much the same as a caravan guard would.
I had spoken to a few to feel out if they liked the position and if they would be willing to be city guards once we stopped, but it was still too soon for most. They filled the role out of necessity rather than desire.
Some did have the protection bone, as you could say, similar to Jonathan and I felt a City Guard role would suit them but I had yet to approach most. Opting to wait and observe for longer before asking them.
While Austin, Hal, Rachel, and I could take care of most of the things we had come across during our journey, we refrained from doing so. It was in an effort to train people and for them to be self-reliant, rather than dependent on us.
We let them handle the odd beast or monster and only helped when there was a real threat they would face. Training was fine, but deaths were not.
We kept that approach for most of the trip, only stepping in when needed and I had mostly gotten used to it. Letting others fight for me was still grating to sit through, but this was different.
The wolves were a real threat, more than I thought they could handle. Nearly the entire pack that had been identified were well above E-rank and speculation ran wild.
Some said all were E-rank and the alpha was nearing level 100. The outlandish tales only got worse as the anticipation rose. Even when it was nearly impossible for some of it to be true, people''s minds took things far when the wolves acted like ghosts in the night, circling only when it got dark and waiting us out.
A pressure that I hadn''t known I missed was back and I did not like having to sit and wait. The pressure of a challenge. Wherever the alpha was, I knew it was strong.
Gabriel knew more, but I had a sense of my own. One built through waves of battle and it knew what was out there qualified. That it was a worthy foe.
It was usually at this point that I would sigh and sit back down. Agreeing with her that the guards needed this rather than me doing everything for them, but not this time.
This was different.
"I tire of this, the guards will have other chances to gain experience. Depriving them of this one won''t do much." I said as I continued gearing up.
My armor was never far from hand and my hammer stayed with me. It was second nature at this point to prepare for battle.
Abigail didn''t try to stop me a second time, she knew I wouldn''t be deterred so she shifted her focus, "At least take Austin and Jon with you, there are a lot of them out there."
I would have thought she knew me better by now.
"No, I will handle it alone."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
She didn''t get to say more before I was striding out of camp.
Toward where I felt the challenge lay.
Elliot
His time since the return had been quite lackluster. He thought gaining magical powers would make his life more interesting but the mundane seemed to follow him.
Sure, he could now conjure metal out of thin air and morph it into any shape he desired, but the last few months felt too normal to him compared to the insanity he had expected. The orderly traveling of caravan life hadn''t been the excitement he had thought he would return to.
When the tutorial started, he didn''t despair or fight against it like he had seen others, he had welcomed it. While he didn''t live the best life before, it was sure to be exciting now, right?
Except the thrilling escapades of fighting for his life and saving the world were nowhere to be seen. He was only living through the motions as he had done previously. Only this time, with a touch of magic flair thrown in.
Novels and games had lied to him. Perfect storylines specifically curated for one person to be the center of the universe were false, who knew? Still, he had expected more than this.
Canada had been his home long before the System changed it and he loved the small town he grew up in, only for it to be demolished upon his return.
He didn''t know what to do after that but the town came together and there was a genuine sense of comradery, one he hadn''t felt before. Some tried to rebuild but someone in town had knowledge of what they called ''pylons'' and without it, they wouldn''t be able to rebuild.
They had gotten by in the beginning, but it only got harder. The threats increased and they began to lose people. Arguments started about what to do after that.
Some left, braving the wilds over staying put. He was about to do the same before a new group of people arrived. They came with horses and wagons, seeking to find a place to settle.
It was a perfect compromise. He got to stay near his home and they had the ''pylon'' required to create what they were missing.
All of his town that stayed agreed and joined up with the caravan headed North. There wasn''t a reason not to. Their town was in ruins and it held little else besides sentimental value.
Hearing they were going further North caused some hesitation but it wasn''t that hard to work through. They were used to the cold, a little more wouldn''t hurt. Especially with their newfound strength and resilience.
After joining, they mingled and integrated with the group and heard more of their story. Finding out they had come thousands of miles North all the way from Ohio had been starling.
Who would do that?
Still, Elliot did what he could. He knew he wasn''t the most powerful but he had the most levels of his town. He was one of the few who came back E-rank and led his town during the change.
After joining, his sense of strength was thoroughly washed away. What little growth of his ego was shattered after learning how many of the caravan were stronger than him.
Going from the strongest, to not even in the top 20 was a blow to come to grips with.
But it was one he had to work through. He killed what he could and trained the best he could. He didn''t need to be the strongest but he refused to be average any longer.
He had lived enough of an average life.
It was in that vain of thought that he worked as one of the guards. He stood watch and participated in patrols. It let him fight and gain experience rather than only being along for the ride.
It was for that reason he now sat up on watch as the wolves howled and shuffled around in the dark, causing him to flinch when one sounded particularly close. Now was one of the few times he regretted his decision. He normally wasn''t afraid of the beasts they came across, but these were different. They had power and numbers.
He had managed to [Identify] one of the wolves when they came near and he found out that they were so far above him that all it returned was question marks. He wasn''t high enough level to be even given a number. That was when the fear started to creep in.
Some of the others had more perception or more powerful skills and were able to get numbers, but that did little to assuage their worries. What they did get were levels in the 60s and 70s.
If that was the common level of the pack, what of the strongest? How high was it if that was the common fodder?
"It''s got to be close to level 100! Look how large the pack is, it takes power to keep it all together!" Samuel whispered from beside the fire next to him.
Samuel was from the same town as him and they frequently were on watch together. Their skills complemented each other and his new... leaders?- the people running the caravan didn''t see a reason to break them up.
"No way it''s that high! It''s only been half a year and we''re barely above level 50!" Elliot whispered back.
Their speculation didn''t end at the pack leader''s level, "What do you think they will do about it?" Samuel said.
After learning the strength of the pack, that was the question on most people''s minds. Elliot and Samuel had only recently joined and they had no idea what the people in charge would do about it.
Even some of the people who had been with the caravan for longer didn''t know. They had said the caravan leader only took action a handful of times and it had never been more than a light skirmish for him.
There were whispers that the man was powerful but no one knew the extent of it. He had never needed to show everything and it was highly speculated about.
The leader was a bit... standoffish. Elliot knew the man''s name but little else besides that. And the fact he used a hammer, that bit was clear as he always had the hulking thing on him. Christopher, as the man did not like strangers calling him Chris, usually kept to his inner circle.
Members of his family or close friends were the only ones he usually spoke to. He talked with others occasionally but it was little more than small talk. What surprised Elliot was the man knew his name.
There were over two hundred people in the caravan and the man knew his name. Well, he knew the names of all of the guards but the fact he knew was comforting.
It was this seldom communication that made Elliot do a double take when he saw the man walking toward him. He walked with a purpose and his bearing carried him right at Elliot.
He traded in his usual furs for thick plated metal armor covering him from head to toe and his hammer which was usually strapped to his back carried in his hands.
He looked ready for war, as insane as that thought sounded.
It wasn''t only the armor and weapon that made Elliot think that, but the expression on his face and the way he walked. A confidant gait with a matching hardened face.
For a brief second, everything Elliot had done since joining flitted through his head as if trying to come up with a reason the man was headed toward him with that expression but it came up with nothing.
Elliot couldn''t fathom why he was walking toward him and he sat completely still as the man neared, scared to move a muscle. Something about him made his instincts scream.
Elliot wasn''t the best fighter, but he had done enough in the tutorial to know when a fight was unwinnable. Everything his instincts were telling him was that if he fought this man, he would lose.
Samuel matched his stock still position and it was silent as the man approached. Only his footfalls and the crackling of the campfire were audible.
He walked to the edge of the campfire and stopped.
"Where was the nearest sighting?" Was all he asked. Nothing besides a direction. Voice firm and clear, without hesitation.
Not trusting his own voice to preform the same, Elliot pointed off into the distance where he last heard the wolves. Samuel didn''t even do anything except stare blankly at the man.
Content with that answer, Christopher walked in the direction Elliot had indicated without another word.
As his back grew smaller, the dread Elliot felt faded with it. It was the first time he had experienced something like that and it left his back sweaty and hands shaky.
The man could be scary when he wanted to.
"You don''t think he''s going out there alone, do you?" Samuel said after he had recovered.
Somehow, that thought hadn''t occurred to him.
What was the man going to do, fight them all alone? That was absurd.
Chapter 161 - Homefield Advantage
Chris
It didn''t take me long to run into the first of the wolves around our camp as I walked out. They kept a tight perimeter around us and once I broke it, they made themselves known.
I liked to believe I had worked through everything since the change but it was times like this that made me wonder if I hadn''t. I wouldn''t call it a thirst for bloodlust, but my desire for battle wasn''t seen in the best light.
Typically, people who threw themselves into unnatural danger didn''t have everything sorted out up top, but that wasn''t how I looked at it. It was something I liked doing, and it was something I would continue to do.
It made me feel alive in a way nothing else did and I enjoyed the excitement it gave off, even if it would be the death of me one day.
The feeling of my hammer descending with [Mighty Blow] or the Ice swirling around me with my new Wind Law, it was almost euphoric.
The blood was less pleasant, but I had long gotten used to the messy bits of fighting. It was hard not to with the amount of bodies I had waded through and the amount of... destruction a blunt weapon swung at speed caused.
It felt right to finally let go. To go all out in a way that felt refreshing. The wolves tried to group up but numbers had always done little against me. If that weren''t the case, I wouldn''t have made it through the tutorial.
I treated the pack like a 31st wave. Another one to fight through until one of us was left standing. I did feel bad about killing so many, but they would repopulate and grow back in now time. I didn''t plan to hunt them all down if a few ran away and there were surely more packs out there other than this one.
[Momentum of the Avalanche] began rolling behind me as I attacked the first wolf and started the onslaught. [Glacial Presence] was already giving a small boost just because of how cold it already was without any of my other skills taking effect.
[Permafrost] billowed out easier than ever before, taking to the ground quicker than even when I fought with the Frost Rune. It pushed out, freezing the earth and driving the temperature lower.
My next skill was the upgraded hail, [Desolate Blizzard]. It was the first time using it for a fight like this and I couldn''t wait to see how well it did. [Hail] had been mostly relegated to ice creation at the end of the tutorial and it felt good to have another skill to use.
Activating it felt much the same as [Permafrost]. Almost like the environment wanted to be changed in the way I was asking it. Like the air and ground wanted to be that way and it took my nudge with vigor instead of fighting against it.
The winds built up and buffeted the bare trees around the wolves and picked up the snow on the ground. I channeled the skill more toward the winds and cold, laying off the ice generation.
I had a different way to do that now.
The skill sucked up mana at a dangerous pace but the area around me came alive at its prodding.
The first few wolves were already dead by this point, falling to my hammer while my other skills built up for the long haul. While the wolves were strong, my hammer was greater.
The legendary skill was one of if not my best. It was certainly my favorite.
The whipping winds picked up the snow off the ground and it turned into a legit blizzard as the flakes blew through the air. My ability to master the Winds wasn''t enough to direct them yet so they tumbled this way and that, almost like it was a natural phenomenon.
Just like I could control Ice without [Ice Manipulation], I could control the Winds without the skill but it was harder. I was just getting the hang of it with Ice, and Wind was far behind where I wanted it to be.
My affinity helped, but that only gave me the barest hints of control rather than absolute control I wanted.
The Wind would always play second fiddle to my main element, Ice, but it was unbecoming to leave my control in such a sorry state. Thinking that made me sound pretentious, but if I was going to use it in a fight, I needed it to be controlled and calculated. It wasn''t worth it if I could do neither of those things.
More wolves came in response to the scene I was causing and it made me feel nostalgic. Having a mass of enemies come to me while I stood and fought. It wasn''t the one-off fight that only took a few swings and barely got me in the spirit.
It wasn''t the low-level beasts quickly crushed. It was challenging enough I felt the need to use [Frost Armor], and the familiar layer of ice froze over my form. It was nice to be back in fighting shape again. To actually need to push things again, rather than forcing myself to hold back.
The wolves were mostly above level 60, with some nearly 70 and above. Over 10 levels above where I was, but that was what it took for me to feel a challenge.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
If the pack were any smaller, I would have left it to the others. But it wasn''t, and I got to feel my heart beating again.
The fight was only beginning, but it felt good to release a bit of pressure inside, so I went with it and pushed harder. To see how far I could take it.
My bloodline hadn''t changed since the tutorial and it was still the same as the last time I used it, but it felt... more. Cold spread throughout my body as my strength increased and my form grew ever slightly. My hammer whistled through the air a touch faster and the nip of my skills increased even further.
This was the first time I was calling on my bloodline in a truly Arctic environment. Every time before it was in an artificially curated one and somehow, I could feel the difference. It was like the mana meant more compared to being the result of a mana stone and Rune. Like it held more weight even though the mana density was at a level I was familiar with and fought in before.
Feeling this increase even though nothing notable had changed, I pushed against it as hard as I could. If the area was so keen on taking to what I was asking it too, I wanted to see how far I could push it. Light blue mana rushed through me as I pushed my Law and mana into my skills harder, pushing against the confines of where they usually stopped.
The trees started to groan from what I was doing. Creaks and pops fired off from the ones nearby from the water inside them freezing and expanding quickly. After that, while swinging at any of the wolves that came close, I ventured out into a new way to use a skill. It wasn''t only [Permafrost] and [Desolate Blizzard] that I pushed against.
[Sweeping Snow] created its own snow to work with, but I already had some readily available swirling around me. It would be a waste not to use what Mother Nature so helpfully provided.
The skill pushed out past the ends of my hammer, where it usually stopped, and the mana carried outward into the flakes in the air. For the first time, the skill extended past the extent of my body and hammer, activating on something I wasn''t directly holding.
I couldn''t spend my attention on it now, but I would be testing that later.
The snow came alight as the mana enhanced the flakes, making them sharper and harder. They blew around a touch faster and were a lot easier to control, but I left them to blow erratically like before. There was a certain beauty in the chaos.
Drops of blood started falling before the winds picked those up too. The red drops of liquid quickly froze into pinkish snowflakes and joined with their not-so white anymore counterparts. The group sliced through the fur of the wolves, causing more blood and fur to get picked up by the wind and coating the area in red as they revolved around me.
While calling on my bloodline boosted all of my skills, I refrained from using [Righteous Fury]. I was feeling the current of the fight pull on me to do more but I wasn''t willing to deal with the backlash of the skill or the timer it forced me to fight on.
Secondly, I wanted to hold a few things back just in case.
I also didn''t use my Anchor, only pulling on my Law to strengthen my Ice and make the cold even greater.
The wolves tried and failed to attack me and I pushed on to where I felt the strongest was. It was nice to get back into feeling like this, like I could take on the world and come out alive.
Elliot
After watching the man wade into the dark forest, he sat there silently wondering what to do. He and Samuel were both speechless and at a loss.
If it were anyone else, he would say they were mad. Going to fight the entire pack alone was insane but this was the leader they were supposed to be following. While he didn''t care much about who led the caravan, he did still feel indebted a touch for the opportunity.
He wanted to help if there was a chance for him to do good, but doing so now was suicide. He wouldn''t even be able to take on two of the wolves, let alone the entire pack.
Even if his whole town went out together they would fail to defeat them. But he was just one person and he walked so confidently out into the forest.
He wasn''t crazy, was he?
With only a few interactions with the man, Elliot wasn''t accustomed to him that well, but he didn''t come off as insane. He only came off a bit gruff and steadfast.
Not throw yourself to the literal wolves batshit insane.
Still, he had to huddle up to the fire a bit closer because a bone-chilling wind blew in from the forest. It put goosebumps up and down his body and it felt like the furs he was wearing did nothing to break the windchill. Being in the cold as long as they had, and being from Canada to begin with, Elliot had gotten good at dealing with the chill, but this was different. Even with all the layers he had on and the outer coat of thick fur to blunt the wind, it didn''t help. Even the heat from the once roaring fire couldn''t be felt as the cold overtook his body.
The fire even sputtered slightly from the wind, threatening to wink out until Samuel put another log on it, feeding it more.
Growls, yelps, and barks sounded out not that long after the chill blew through and people everywhere in the camp became alert at the sound of wolves.
Some jumped to their weapons and armor, getting ready for the attack they knew was coming, while others arose from slumber already dressed for battle. Just as people were about to rush off to their posts, a flash of light caught everyone''s attention. The light easily pierced through the dark night and everyone turned to its origin. At the source, they found one of the leaders of the caravan standing on a cart with his spear glowing slightly at the tip and waiting to speak.
The people gearing up turned to him for direction and he waited until it quieted down, "Settle down everyone, there''s no need for panic."
The words did little against the barks and yelps sounding out in the forest. Everyone knew the wolves would come and it sounded like they were attacking something already.
People''s eyes shifted out to where the noise was coming from before focusing back on the man with the spear, "Everything is under control, try to get some rest while the wolves get cleaned up."
Confusion spread about what was going on but Elliot knew. He knew who was out there battling the wolves but everyone else was unaware.
"What''s going on!?"
"Why are there sounds of battle?"
Questions sounded out from the crowd and from beside him Samuel shouted out one of his own, "Does he need help?"
Hearing someone was out there fighting, it didn''t take people long to put two and two together. Christopher was the one who usually led but another man was standing in his place instead. It wasn''t a far leap to realize who was out there.
"No, he does not need any help." It was almost said with an audible sigh, "Try to get some rest before we continue traveling in the morning."
Everyone was a bit stunned and nobody knew what to do. They were told to try and get some rest but there was no way they were doing that now.
Especially with some of the sounds they were hearing from out in the forest, let alone the ground shaking at irregular intervals.
Chapter 162 - New Skill
Chris
I pushed my Law to go further. Both in the strength of my Ice and the cold it produced. Some of the constant growth I had felt from the tutorial was missing and I wanted to make up for that.
It was obvious that I wouldn''t grow as fast now that we were out of the tutorial, but it still felt weird to be the same level for weeks on end. Even though each level took longer and I didn''t have ample opportunity to get essence, it still felt like I wasn''t doing anything.
At this point, the tutorial had been over for longer than we were in it. I knew that would be the case, I knew that it would pick up again when we finally settled down and I could run dungeons on a regular basis, but it was still disappointing.
The wolves tried to stop me from approaching the pack leader but they weren''t able to hold up. It wasn''t even necessary to wait for [Avalanche] to build.
The bodies accumulated as I carved my way toward the leader and I finally laid eyes on him after almost half an hour of fighting. It dwarfed the other wolves by a head and a half in both bulk and height.
Plus, it had a different feel to it, like it was above the rest. It watched me approach with a deep snarl in its throat and rage in its eyes, well beyond the emotions the wave monsters would show.
It did not like what I was doing to its pack and it spent no time sizing me up before charging toward me. It pushed its pack mates out of the way and charged directly at me.
I pushed on [Sweeping Snow] and dumped more of my mana into it, trying to speed up the rate at which I killed the lesser pack. Something about the leader told me to finish the ones around me quickly so more of my attention would be free to deal with it. It had a feeling about it that reminded me of the bosses from the waves. A quality to it that signaled a wellspring of power.
Keeping track of its charge was difficult with all of the bodies around me but I managed to do so just in time to brace myself for its attack.
The wolf came in with jaws wide and teeth glistening with mana ready to chomp down on me. It took every bit of my reaction time to snap my hammer around to defend against it, knocking its head out of the way with my swing.
If it was the average monster, almost every monster, it would have died to that kind of swing with their head caved in, but the leader brushed it off without a scratch. After my hit knocked the wolf of course, it charged past me with its excess momentum.
Its body was fine and it only needed to right itself in the correct direction and charge again. It didn''t show any sign of injury or of being hurt from what I did.
As it recovered, I pushed [Sweeping Snow] to cut it, to rip and tear at the leader while it was staggered but nothing happened. The snowflakes bounced off its fur like they were rubber balls rather than the sharp blades they were. After cutting it failed, I pushed on the cold to penetrate into the beast but that too failed.
My snow was too weak to cut it and the cold couldn''t penetrate past its fur. Where the pack members were cut and pulverized, the leader brushed it off like it was nothing.
It gave me hope of a challenge.
Mana mixed with something else formed back onto the wolf''s snout and it came in for another attack. A Law of some kind was mixed into its skills but I wasn''t sure what type it was. It wasn''t elemental, as I was familiar with those by now and it intrigued me. The power coming off of it was similar in strength to my own Law.
It was a Lesser Law.
The first beast I had seen with an upgraded law.
By this point all the other wolves had either died or backed off to give us room to duke it out creating a circle around us to fight in and the leader wasted no time restarting the bout.
The weight and speed it charged with forced me to brace myself against the ground less I be pushed back. Similar to the Vine Bears so long ago, it tried to use its size and mass against me. Where that once surprised me, it failed to do so this time.
The ground was covered in snow and standing atop it made my footing more secure than ever. It was a paltry effort of will to freeze the ice covering my boots to what was blanketing the earth. The connection webbed out giving me the secured base to take any charge. It was with a same flex of will that let me pick up my foot again without being stuck to the ground. There was a fine line between bracing myself by securing my feet to the ground and rooting myself in place detrimentally and I had trained to keep that from happening.
No matter how hard the wolf charged or pushed, I wouldn''t be moved. It bit chunks out of my armor and I returned with heavy blows rained down upon it. For every bite landed, I smashed one of my own.
Hit for hit.
It nearly caused me to smile when I saw blood leaking down my armor. Streaks of red originating from the rents of ice missing and teeth marks.
The wolf wasn''t much better, blood leaked out of its mouth and one of its front legs was smashed beyond recognition, but it still held a stout growling in its throat. It wasn''t giving up and neither was I.
The resilience it showed caused me to pull harder, dig deeper. Dragging out every scrap of strength my stats gave me and then some. Fighting the lesser wolves took more controlled hammer swings to make me as efficient as possible, the leader took a different approach. Fighting something strong like the pack leader took swings of all the strength I could put behind it.
There were times I missed, and great chunks of earth exploded in my face as my hammer hit the ground instead of my target, but those were necessary to land a hit of any significant effectiveness.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
[Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] lit up my hammer while similar skills flowed out of the wolf to match. The lesser ones circled around, only attacking when they sensed an opportunity. Flying in to bite at my feet of lower legs while I was focused on my swings.
At the rate it was going, we were both landing hits and I wasn''t sure who would last longer without something changing. The state we were in reminded me of how I formed my Anchor in the first place. A brutal fight which took everything in me to power one more swing. The incessant urge to take just one more down.
It made me smile to have that feeling come back and I unleashed it inside of me. My Anchor was what kept me going through longer fights and from flagging during intense ones like this. I couldn''t hold it back any longer nor did I want to.
[Frozen Patchwork] was already struggling to keep up with some of the more serious wounds it had managed to get on me. I managed to land a few good hits on it to match, but it had an entire pack to help it, I did not.
My Anchor flowed into me and did what it could to right what was broken. It held no healing properties, but it made it easier to work through what was wrong. Like dulling the pain of walking with broken ribs rather than setting them back into place. A resiliency to push through rather than fixing what was wrong.
It strengthened my form and pushed [Reinforced Body] past where the lesser wolves could injure. Making their attacks only annoying rather than harmful.
The leader nipped and chomped at me the best it could but we were both evenly matched. Its size and bulk weren''t enough to overpower my strength and mine wasn''t enough to get through its fortitude.
Even with [Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] to layer on my hammer, it wasn''t enough to leave lasting damage. A mana type I wasn''t familiar with purged any ice mana in its system with ruthless efficiency. Like it was offended at the thought of being impure. Whatever mana type it was, it was strong enough to eliminate the cold I was trying to press into it.
The wolf started glowing in a luminescence similar to Austin but not as bright. A stunning silver radiated out but that wasn''t what I focused on. What I focused on was the glowing effect spread to all the wolves surrounding us as well and the beacon of light extending unnaturally high in the sky. It was trivial to sense it getting stronger, so I pulled on [Righteous Fury] to match it. If it was pulling on its pack for strength, I would pull on my rage. Even after all this time, there was enough rage still in me to go around.
We clashed again and again to the same effect. Both pulling on everything but neither able to finish the other. If it were alone and not supported by the numerous wolves surrounding us, it would have died then. [Righteous Fury] provided a good enough boost I would''ve been able to overpower it, but with a boost of its own we remained matched.
It was now that I had two paths from here. The fight could take one of two turns and I had to choose which I preferred. I could start chipping away at the wolves surrounding us, eliminated the source of its strength. Or, push through and kill the boss regardless of how many wolves it wanted to pull strength from.
I knew which I preferred and the wolf made a move to facilitate doing that exact thing.
The wolf growled menacingly at not being able to defeat me and jumped back, creating space between us. I wasn''t sure what it was doing, but I wasn''t about to let it have time to attack freely and it gave me ample chance to prepare my finisher. One final attack to end things and see who was left standing.
It was fitting in a primal way I enjoyed immensely.
I knew any attempt to interrupt what it was doing would be met by the wolves surrounding us throwing themselves at me. They had changed their formation to protect the leader and it was obvious what it was planning. It would use its pack to delay and buy time for whatever attack it was trying to power.
With only one option before me, I charged straight toward the leader. The lesser wolves were relentless in their assault to stop me, but [Avalanche] was near full and my stats were nearing their peak. The fight had gone on for longer than anticipated and the bursting strength inside me, I would not be denied. Just when I pushed past the last one separating me from the stationary leader, I felt its power get a boost. It cocked its head back and howled at a moon I didn''t even know was there.
Clouds parted the sky revealing a glistening beam of moonlight streaming down, spotlighting the wolf in front of me.
The wolf was a Lunar Wolf.
It made sense now, the purging of my ice from its system and the unfamiliar Law I felt. I hadn''t seen anyone with Lunar powers yet and this was a first.
It was similar to what Austin could do with the sun, except it could call upon the moon.
I hadn''t expected to need a full [Avalanche] to deal with some wolves up here, but I was glad I had it now. I could feel the skill the pack leader was powering and it was making my hairs stand on end. Nothing else we had come across needed this kind of force to put down.
Instead of worrying me about the area we were choosing to settle in, it gladdened me to know there were still challenges out there.
It put a smile on my face to be pushed this far, to be required to pull out my newest addition that I only just recently received. I tried not to use it because it wasted the materials of whatever I killed but it was warranted this time, without it, I wasn''t sure I would win.
The skill I received for reaching level 60 and the second my Legendary class had offered. The skill itself wasn''t legendary, but it felt powerful enough to be one to me. The few times I had used it were enough to understand the power it held, even if the backlash it caused would take a while to recover from.
Forcing mana into the skill for only the fifth time, I felt it flow into my hammer. The rush of energy from the skill was a marvel to see even if I had done this before. I didn''t think I would ever get over how it felt. If I still wielded my old hammer, it would have shattered to pieces at this point. I was grateful the class gave me my hammer first, before I picked up my new skill.
Even still, as the skill flowed into the hammer, cracks and rifts began to form and groan along its length. The wood creaked and the ice frozen to it splintered and cracked. It sounded like standing upon a frozen lake that was just thick enough to hold your weight but not enough to bear it without struggle.
Not sharp pops that made you scared of breaking through, but low groans that made you cautious of what you were doing and proceed carefully.
The carved lines running the shaft of the weapon slightly glowed but only the barest portion of the runes did so. Most remained dark and void of power, but a single string of Runes running the length pulsed as the skill ran through it.
It flowed up the wooden shaft along the string of runes and once it reached the head of the weapon, it began to alter its shape. The flat hammer head began to crack and shatter but held together enough to show it was designed to do that, rather than buckling under the skill''s strength.
It was like the hammer and skill were made to go together and it was taking on a different appearance to match. If the hammer was once one pristine block of ice, it was now a cobbled mess of chunks. But even as the hammer broke apart, it didn''t appear weakened. It still held the power it once did, only in a different form.
As the last pops and groans of shifting ice sounded out, and the skill was ready, I brought my hammer down with every ounce of strength I could muster.
The wolf must have sensed something different with this blow but it couldn''t get out of the way quick enough to escape its path.
As the hammer descended, I chanted the name of the skill in my head,
[Shattering Hammer]
Chapter 163 - March On
As the face of my hammer connected with the wolf, the cracks on the hammer''s face spread out from the impact site following unseen lines in a pattern only known to it. In the milliseconds since impact the wolf showed visible effects of what was done to it. Its body shuddered and swayed as it was torn asunder as it tried and failed to wail, its throat incapable of even that.
The appearance of the cracks faded from my hammer as the energies left the hammer and transferred into the body of the wolf, showing themselves as along its skin as they spread outward.
The transfer wasn''t entirely perfect and some of it diverted down into the ground but most was on target enough to land where I was aiming.
Where I had missed and the skill got diverted into the ground showed the effects more noticeably than on the wolf. Great rents were carved upon the frozen earth and thick and thin gouges radiated outward from the impact site, turning the once even and pristine ground into separated chunks all at different heights. Even [Permafrost] hardening the ground and freezing it solid, it failed to hold up against the might of my new skill.
What showed upon the ground was also happening inside the wolf''s body and it wasn''t long before the wolf, once glowing and mighty, staggered and fell on its side. Blood pooled along the various rents in its form and leaked out of various cuts upon its form.
I looked on, briefly swaying from the strain, while the wolf lay prone, hacking and wheezing as blood filled its lungs, trying to excavate the liquid out only for more to fill them back up.
It was dead even if it didn''t know it.
This was the reason I didn''t like to use the skill very often. It introduced a delayed death that only caused pain and suffering. It was not very pleasant to watch and I could only imagine how the wolf felt as it lay there struggling as its body ripped apart from the swirling energies inside it.
Observing the skill work its way through my foes was unpleasant. While we were fighting to the death, it was a level of cruelty I didn''t enjoy basking in.
Anything of lesser strength would have exploded in a shower of gore from the energies tearing it apart which was why using it on the weak was a waste. Doing so only created a mess and strained me unnecessarily.
It went to show the wolf''s strength, being able to last this long, fighting with everything it had to stand back up. Its claws reached out raking the snow and dirt attempting to get its feet under it many times only for it to fall back down in failure.
The rest of the pack could only look on in fear as they watched their leader scramble and fail to stand. There was a vitality working inside of it trying to stitch its body back together but it wouldn''t be enough. The silver glow from the moon continually dimmed and its fight to stand slowed. The vigor it showed in trying to fight on was honorable and it didn''t feel good to watch on as it suffered.
Righting myself after the backlash washed over me, I stood to give it a good end.
It tried to flinch away at my approach but it wasn''t able to get very far, falling down not two steps away from where it started. There was a fear in its eyes that replaced the rage it once held there.
Fear of Death.
It knew it was going to die yet it fought on anyway.
I stood next to it with my hammer in the ground and gave it as honorable a send-off as I could, "You fought well and you should be honored. I wish you well on your journeys to come."
Raising my hammer above my head one final time, its descent caused the wolf to still and brought its motion to an end.
After bringing my hammer down to end it, my body fell to a knee as my legs failed me. The other wolves took this as their chance to escape and they all booked it as fast as possible away from were I knelt.
[Shattering Hammer] was the skill I had picked up after reaching level 60 and from my initial tests of it, it was a fantastic skill.
The three options I was offered at the time all had their perks, but this was the one I felt fit me best for right now. One was a more defensive option which I felt I had covered and the other branched out in a different direction I didn''t wish to take right away, leaving [Shattering Hammer] the best choice.
It fixed one of my biggest weakness right now but the skill did come at a cost. The weakness it fixed was if I found something I could not cut or pierce with ice, while also being tough enough that my hammer blows were ineffectual.
[Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] could be added to my swings to make them more powerful, but other than that, I was out of options for what to do. If I still couldn''t kill something when [Avalanche] peaked and [Righteous Fury] was active, I was shit out of luck. The first time I ran into the problem was when I was fighting the metal ants of the tutorial.
Their hard metal exoskeletons made most of my Ice skills ineffective and they could brush off my swings with little more than a dent. I took heavy wounds fighting them just because of how long it took me to kill one of them.
They were able to hold up longer than anything else in the tutorial and the waves of them were too much for me to handle effectively. I still won, but at a great cost of effort and mana while also receiving devastating wounds.
I doubted I would run into many foes that had that combination of protections, but I wished to have something more to use. A strong finisher or something I could pull out when my max just wasn''t good enough.
The skill took a lot out of me and I couldn''t use it a lot, but it worked to fill that role spectacularly. The reason I couldn''t use it frivolously, other than being unnecessary, was because of the cost it took to activate.
The mana cost was high but that was to be expected from such a skill. It was the physical toll on my body that hindered its use. Where [Mighty Blow] took stamina and my Law caused mental strain, [Shattering Hammer] wore on my body worse than anything else. After using it, my body felt like going 10 rounds with the Vine Bear from the tutorial hitting me all at once.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The skill was only Epic, but I doubted my body or hammer could handle it if it was Legendary.
As my stats grew and my Body Refinement level improved, I would be able to use the skill more frequently, but for now, once or twice in a short period was all I could muster.
A second use wasn''t going to be required this time.
Looking over the corpse made me grit my teeth. My Vine Bear pelt was coming to an end for its usefulness and the wolf''s pelt would have made a great replacement but there wasn''t much of it that was left intact.
The fangs and claws made it out mostly unscathed but the meat and hide were all but ruined. The rest of the wolves could fill the need for food but I wanted the leader''s pelt and it was unfortunate I couldn''t have it.
Sam might be able to do something with it but I doubted it. Unless her skills got much better in a short time to be able to stitch the damage I caused back together.
Another detriment of using [Shattering Hammer].
The rest of the wolves had long made a run for it and I wasn''t going to chase them. They wouldn''t bother us anymore and it was unnecessary to hunt them down to the last.
Plus, it would wreck the local wildlife if I killed all the predators. Mana did miraculous things but it wouldn''t bring the wolf population back from extinction.
Extinction was a finality even mana couldn''t fix.
They would recover and they would do it faster than ever before as well. I wasn''t sure of the specifics, but either they had more per litter or less were lost during their births so repopulation wouldn''t be an issue.
It wouldn''t be the same mating rate as when the planet was being terraformed, but they would be back to carrying capacity in no time even with the amount I had killed.
It was honestly kind of scary to know how fast they could reproduce.
That was only for the normal wolves though, the leader took a special kind of grit and it would be a while until another could take its place. Their levels would also take longer to recover. They hadn''t started out this strong and it would take a while for them to gain it back.
The pack would likely splinter under various leaders without the steady strength that had held it together.
That wasn''t as important though, it would only really matter if we ended up staying here and that was yet to be known. We had only just gotten to our marker and we would explore the place tomorrow to scout it out.
It took a while for my body to recover and for me to get well enough to stand, but I eventually did. Cleaning up the best I could, I trudged back into camp using my hammer as a crutch. Hal and others were in charge of dismantling the bodies for anything useful and the only thing I would do was get in the way.
What met me when I returned was an audience larger than I remembered being up when I left but I thought nothing of it. I was too tired from the fight and hurting from using [Shattering Hammer] to care too much.
No one said a word as I limped by which made my walk slightly uncomfortable but I wasn''t about to break the silence.
It wasn''t until I got back to my tent that someone spoke and it was broken. Austin was leaning up against my tent waiting upon my arrival and he looked me up and down slowly. His spear was planted in the ground at his feet and he used it to prop himself up. He seemed to be relaxed despite the worried faces I passed before and the tense atmosphere elsewhere in the camp.
"Was that really necessary?" Austin asked and before I could say a word he continued, "You gave everyone a scare when you went out there alone. I even had to calm some of them down from doing something stupid like entering the fight."
I knew he wasn''t really upset but he was peeved he had to step in. He didn''t much like taking charge and I was sure he didn''t appreciate having to do so.
"It will make our job easier for tomorrow." exhaustion forced me to take a breath before finishing, "They would''ve played games and people would''ve been on edge. This fixed both problems." Another deep breath sucked air in before I bent into my tent with Austin following behind me.
My eyes roved left and right but didn''t find another waiting to ambush me. My tent being empty was good but all that meant was she would have words with me tomorrow.
Well, something to look forward to.
The Ice covered my armor from most of the blood and gore but some of it made it through. Either seeping through cracks or from when chunks were torn out during the battle.
Austin was silent as I slogged the armor off and gave it a cursory wipe-down with a rag before doing the same to my body. Blood had stopped leaking out of my wounds once the fight ended and they were now sealed in ice and would remain so throughout the night. With the temperatures slated to get dangerously low, [Cold Meditation] would have me bandaged up before the sun rose.
I would do a more detailed cleaning of my armor in the morning. I was too tired to do it now.
Austin watched on in silence as he waited for me to finish before speaking up again, "And what if this isn''t the place?"
"Then we march on," I said simply. It wasn''t a doubt what we would do.
"We continue North? I know we laid out the different markers at the start but that was before living through it. The weather will only get worse and we already have to huddle for warmth and struggle out in the open. How much further are you willing to push on if it doesn''t fit what you''re looking for?"
"Until we find it."
He stayed quiet for a beat.
"Not everyone is so inclined to the cold. If it gets much worse, some may actually die from exposure. Not everyone has your fortitude" He didn''t give me a chance to respond before using his spear to open the tent flap and walk out.
I felt we were close. So close to finding the spot we would build upon.
Close to finding home.
Night faded to the sun and the first rays of sunlight signaled the start of yet another day. My body protested against my movement but it was nothing like the pain last night. Spending the night in [Meditation] had me good enough to go about my day if a bit sore.
As people rose with the sun, the camp brushed off the frost built up over the night and exited their warm tents to a devastating cold.
The start was slow but people were used to such days and went on their way. Scouts roamed out surveying the area and I took a slow look around myself.
The area around the two dungeons was large and multiple eyes would make finding spots easier. Everyone was informed what to look for and to report back if they found anything interesting. Spots easily defensible or hard to attack were the priority but high grade materials wouldn''t be left behind.
Cliffs with only one side needing to be defended or tall hills that were hard to scale quickly.
The terrain was our friend and one less direction to defend would make things all the more easy. It also needed to be close to water and fertile land to grow food. While defensible was the most important, it couldn''t be too far for what it took to survive.
A City without food and water wouldn''t last long.
Try as everyone did, the place couldn''t support the vision I had. There were no cliffs or hills, nor mountains or valleys. It was generally flat with only a few rises in the area little more than a small hill to build upon.
A river flowed into the lake but that wouldn''t help much with flat plains on either side.
It wasn''t the spot and it didn''t feel like the place we were meant to settle.
People moaned about it, but we moved on.
The weather continually worsened and Austin''s prediction only got closer to the truth. It got so cold we needed to add more breaks to light fires and stop during certain times because the wind was too bad.
There were a few days when a heavy snowstorm stopped travel completely until it let up and we could move again.
I was back in tip top shape after a day in the cold and I sat in the lead paving the way forward, clearing the ground for the wagons behind to follow. It wasn''t even winter yet and things were already this bad.
The next marker also wasn''t what we were looking for and we had to push on as well.
I didn''t lose hope though.
I knew we were close. I could feel it.
Chapter 164 - Extended Stay
Abigail
She tried her best to keep the caravan going but the ever-worsening conditions made things hard. They were running out of thick furs for clothes and blankets, firewood was running low which would force them to stop and chop more soon, and people were getting sick from staying out too long. Connor was behind on making medicine and that was only the beginning of their troubles.
Everyone was on the brink of exhaustion because of the pace Chris set but no one was willing to speak up about it. After the fight with the wolves, everyone not of their family refused to say anything that would hinder their path forward.
It would have to be her talking some sense into him, as everyone else was too scared.
Chris didn''t know it, but him demolishing the pack made nearly everyone fear him to some degree. No one else in the group could have gone out alone and done what he did and his image had changed after people knew of his accomplishment.
He didn''t even have to say anything or tell the tale, just the state of the bodies and the destruction of the area where the fighting occurred were enough to paint the picture. The people in charge of dismantling the bodies knew how high level all of them were and they knew how powerful the leader was. The remnants of its mana and Law were still suffused in its pelt and the person in charge of skinning had to replace his knife afterward as it was irreparably misshaped.
People talked in hush whispers as the rumors spread and even if Abigail wanted to, she doubted she could''ve stopped them. She wouldn''t have, as this cemented Chris in a better light as a powerful leader, but it was out of the bag now and there was no taking it back.
After finding the first possible spots not to his liking, he pushed forward faster every time. Like he was rushing to get where he wanted and each disappointment only made him more agitated.
They had long left what any normal person would consider harsh winter and had stepped into something else entirely.
The snowfall was so thick, a wall of white met their eye in every direction that was impossible to see through. On the days that didn''t have any snow, the glistening reflection of the sun made everything so bright you needed sunglasses to see anything.
If it wasn''t one thing, it was another.
Austin had a great time during those days but everyone else was miserable. Some even got sunburned from the intense reflections.
Sunburn... in the winter. It wasn''t new or unheard of for her, but never in this intensity or quantity.
She knew this couldn''t continue and if after this next stop they still didn''t find it, she would have to say something.
They were beyond where they should have stopped to begin with. She and the others had tried to get him to settle for one of the previous markers but Chris refused.
Saying it just wasn''t right.
Trying to get him to see reason only did the opposite. When she spoke of the ever-decreasing temperatures and how people couldn''t handle it, Chris had the fire mages spread out through the line to be portable heaters.
When she spoke of the snow being too much to travel through, he sat at the front and plowed his way through with [Ice Manipulation].
When the Winds blew so hard and sharp bits of ice nipped at people, he condensed the caravan and stood in the center diverting it away as best he could.
He did that throughout the blizzard for 5 hours straight until the winds died down and they made it through the other side.
It was asinine but no matter how much Abigail tried, Chris refused to give up on their search.
All she could do was hope this next marker was the one.
Chris
I could feel it, this was going to be the one. My mind pointedly ignored the fact that I had felt that way about the two previous spots, but I meant it this time. I had almost caved and settled at the last one but I held strong.
I wasn''t looking for a spot to build the average city, I wanted a spot to build the perfect city. It was outlandish to think I would actually find the perfect spot but I at least wanted one better than average.
All the previous ones weren''t what I was looking for but I believed this one would be different.
The lake our first marker sat on was quite large and there were a few more places we stopped along its shores but we moved on from all of them. They had ample water and places to grow food, but it wasn''t very defensible.
The Northern shores were the marker we were coming from and we were moving on to the next in line. There were only a few placed out further North and even though Abigail would say otherwise, I knew we couldn''t keep going.
We would have to stop soon, even if I didn''t find it.
The land here was filled with water and the ground seemed fertile enough, the only thing we were missing was a defensible spot. The area was dotted with various ponds and lakes, depending on your definition, and they were littered around the area ample enough for a water supply and irrigation. It put Minnesota''s Land of a Thousand lakes to shame.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Water mana during the summer would be aplenty after they thawed out, but right now, the Ice mana they produced now only added to what was already there. The shear density of the stuff was like nothing I had ever felt. The Cold was more refreshing than any stimulant and it only got more pure and dense as we continued North.
This place was welcoming in a way I hadn''t known was possible and it was hard not to push for more, to keep going without regard for stopping just to wade deeper in. I couldn''t though, and I knew that if I went any further people might actually die.
It felt that way now, and it would through the winter months, but the mana would change with the seasons and Ice wouldn''t dominate year-round. We had marked where the Ice stayed frozen year round on the map before we started and we were still a distance away from that line.
Water would have its time, especially with all the lakes, and food would still be growable, if a bit sparce.
An unexpected boon during the clear sunny days was the light mana that gathered atop the snow. The reflection on the white plain was enough to create a decent amount of it in one place and Austin would have his affinity present as well.
Another harsh wind picked up and I did my best to blunt it and cold from the center of the caravan but it wasn''t enough. Some still got through even when I tried my best and I could see people shivering as it blew past them. Concentrating as much as possible, I pulled deeper on my affinity and Laws when a sudden stop of movement sent me tumbling forward and off the top of my wagon. Without seatbelts it was impossible to secure myself.
"What in the hell..." I grumbled as I picked myself out of the snow with only mild irritation, questioning why we had stopped, and suddenly at that... I was too far away from the head of the caravan to see anything so I started making my way to the front.
Along the way, I spotted Abigail doing the same with a confused face to match my own.
"Do you know why we stopped?" I asked.
She shook her head no in response and we both walked past people together. Before we made it there, Austin came jogging up to us with a smug expression and walked alongside us without saying anything.
"Well? What is it?" I asked after he refused to explain.
"Oh, and spoil the surprise, where''s the fun in that," He said with a smile.
While aggravating, I didn''t push further. We were almost there anyway and seeing it for myself would be faster than waiting for him to answer.
The people we passed kept their voices low it was clear they were curious as well and they would all turn to watch us go by. It was a bit odd to feel their new gaze but I was dealing with it.
Their looks had changed recently and I was pretty sure I knew why.
Jonathan manned the first cart after I had given it up and I saw him in the distance speaking animatedly with Hal for some reason.
Both Hal and Austin being back was concerning as at least one of the two was normally scouting ahead of us. It used to be both of them out together but they needed to start taking breaks when the weather turned and traded off who was out in the cold.
Both of them being back signaled a problem. I had to suppress a groan at that thought. I just wanted to settle down and place the pylon at this rate, why did problems keep having to pop up?
It didn''t take a second after the thought arose that we found out the reason we weren''t moving. The glaringly obvious reason we had stopped moving so abruptly.
The ground fell away.
While we weren''t on a road, the path we were on was no longer viable after the ground disappeared in front of us.
While cliffs and sharp inclines weren''t common, we had seen enough to divert around them. Seeing one here shouldn''t have been that big of an issue. Turning the carts to go around was a simple enough solution that a mass stop was unnecessary.
We were close enough now not to shout so I voiced my confusion, "Jonathan, why did we stop?"
He just looked at me like the question was obvious and just pointed ahead. Basically saying, "You''ll see," without the words.
And see I did.
After reaching the front, the trees stopped blocking our vision and a giant cliff was revealed on either side. As far as I could see on both sides, the cliff dominated the terrain. The angle of the drop varied but it never came close to anything climbable.
It was a sheer drop by what I could see and nearly 90 degrees in most spots.
I remained speechless surveying the terrain and I couldn''t help stepping up to the edge to see how far the drop was. This was the largest cliff we had come across and it made me wonder why we hadn''t seen it on the map.
Something this large should have shown up.
What met my vision as I peered over was a distance that scared me. The fall was far enough to make even me fear it. Enough that I had to gingerly step away slowly to not allow any chance of slipping. Falling was still a very real threat and even with my high defense, I wasn''t sure I would survive.
Gravity didn''t care how high my stats were and a fall from this height was most likely fatal. Or as my father would say, ''It''s not the fall that kills you. It''s the sudden stop at the end.''
It was a sudden stop I didn''t feel like testing my mettle against for fear I would lose.
As I looked over the giant rent along the land, I couldn''t help but feel like this was it. It wasn''t the perfect place I was looking for, but that feeling inside me was resonating with this place.
While it wasn''t perfect we could make it so. I felt it once I laid eyes on the cliff. Looking out over what lay below only solidified the feeling. A sea of white that my mind turned into fields of crops when summer came. My fantasies went further imagining a giant walled city butted up to the cliff edge.
We would have to go up and down the cliff on both sides to find the best place but it was a promising spot just from what I had seen already.
As we grew in strength and rose through the ranks the threat of the cliff being climbed would turn more viable but enchantments could fix that.
Same with anyone who tried to blow the ground from under the city to cause a collapse. Any kind of durability Runes and formations lining the cliff would be enough to stop that.
I already knew a few things that would work to stop those two things from happening.
My vision continued picking apart different details but it was coming together into a picture I quite enjoyed.
The cliff would force people to attack from only one side, directly eliminating the need to defend half the city. If we found a place that jutted out farther, that could be cut down even further. Like a peninsula without the water.
Even with only half the city being assailable, that was much better than the places we had come across.
It was slightly annoying the land was mostly flat and we wouldn''t have the high ground but that was fixable with enough manpower. It wouldn''t be a quick job, but we could eventually turn the land into a slope leading up to it.
The thoughts caused me to be lost in my head and all the others saw was me go completely speechless. It took until Austin''s shaking that I snapped out of it.
It felt like all the fatigue burnt away at seeing it and a rush of energy flooded my system. A rush that I quickly turned into giving orders.
"Austin, find the nearest water source and get an initial survey of the left side of the cliff leading that way," I said pointing in one direction, "Hal you take the other," a gesture to the other side to match, "Someone get Brayden up here and bring that Architect with him. I want to know if the cliff side is safe or if it will break away."
"Jonathan, gather the few people with Earth affinity and do the same. I want you to do your best to feel the earth. Help Brayden decide if the cliff is safe." I said. "Any with an Earth Law can strengthen it if there are any problems."
Having the people with Earth affinity survey the cliff was a long shot but I wanted to make double sure anything unsafe would be caught now before we started making plans.
Plans of our potential permanent stay.
With what I could think of delegated out, I turned to the last member of our group who I hadn''t given orders to.
"Abigail," I turned, looking at her, "Start breaking camp and plan for an extended stay."
Chapter 165 - Real Work
A flurry of activity overtook the group after they realized we would be setting up for most likely the last time and people had a pep in their step doing so.
Tents were set up along with the preliminary defense line that was common practice by now, but it would soon see a more permanent upgrade.
We wouldn''t rush to build the final structures right away, but a more comfortable living condition first before we started on the heavy construction.
It wouldn''t make sense to be living out of tents while spending months building fortifications for our future city. More permanent structures now that we would later tear down was better for the long run than skipping ahead while people suffered in tents.
It would let people move out of the tents and into something homier and better suited for the weather, which would be a not insignificant boost to morale.
I swore, not two days after giving the order to make camp, log cabins were thrown up in record time like all of the Builders were just waiting for the order. Trees were abundant and building out of stone was unnecessary if we were going to eventually move.
Even the combat-focused part of the group helped with hauling and chopping down trees for the builders to use like it was their job. It was lightning quick to go from ranges of tents packed closely together for warmth to organized blocks of one-story cabins lining the area near us.
Their pace was a sight to behold and showed how excited they were to finally be off the road.
Another structure we prioritized to have built was a few barns the horses could stay in. Leatherworkers and Crafters had already come up with winter jackets for them that they wore during our stops, but now we could put them into an enclosed structure away from the wind.
Sarah said they seemed happy with the barns and that was good enough for me. I checked on Remi occasionally but that wasn''t high on my list of things to do.
While others leaped into action building, we had to examine the surrounding area in greater detail.
If this was to be the place we built, we needed to know its ins and outs and where different resources were. There was ample access to wood and logs from trees, but good-quality stone was something we still needed to find.
Veins of metal were another we hoped to locate as well.
Water was readily available, we only had to melt it down from ice, but food was our main concern.
We were still stocked full with meat from the wolves but we weren''t sure it would last the entire winter without rationing it. We had stockpiled and planned ahead, but without precise knowledge of how the winter would go and when it would end, we were left estimating.
We would continue to hunt but those results weren''t guaranteed. While it was likely, we couldn''t rely on it to happen in any great quantities.
Abigail planned for no increase in food and would only adjust when more was found rather than expecting to find some.
For the scouting of resources, I had Jonathan and the other Earth affinity of our group looking for stone while the few with Metal did the same. Metal wasn''t a common affinity but we did have a small number who had it.
Vincent ended up buying a lot at the end of the tutorial, and we got more from the dungeons we stopped at along the way, but we would eventually run out. Finding more now would ease that worry for later.
Stone was first, though, and was what I had more people working on.
Before any construction could break ground, we had to decide if placing the pylon now was a good idea and the discussion was rather conflicting.
"Gaining access will give us a better idea of what we can do with it. We know from Tracy that appointing a Merchant opens up some possibilities and those could help during construction." Surprisingly, it was Hal who spoke for placing the pylon. "Any other change of function would be better to know now rather than waiting."
"I doubt the wave it spawns will be difficult, knowing that Tracy overcame it, we should be able to do the same," Austin added offhandedly.
"We have no idea if we can move it once it''s placed, doing it now seems premature and we should wait until we have more planned out!" Abigail believed placing it now was too soon.
Even though she would probably be the one to benefit greatest from doing so, she spoke against it.
"We''ve been at this for months, placing it now is fine and will give people hope. We can probably move it afterward to where we will build for real." Sam countered.
The words probably move it were something I didn''t want to find out were false firsthand.
During the entire trip, the pylon had sat on one of the carts along for the ride. It created a buzz whenever we came across new people because they could feel it from afar.
I knew some came looking to take it but changed course once finding out how large our group was. Any who were opportunistic enough to do so decided against trying for ours.
Most with the ability to go against our group would have already received a pylon already and would have no need to do so.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Without extensive exploration of the area, we were still unsure where exactly we were going to start permanent construction. In the few days we had been here, no one had been able to do anything besides a cursory look up and down both sides.
Austin and Hal were beginning to do more detailed scouting and I meant to do the same, but the fact we hadn''t made placing down permanent roots impossible.
"We will wait." I said, "We''ve gone without for months, a week or two more won''t hurt."
Rushing would help no one and I didn''t feel like it was necessary. Waiting until we got a better picture of the area was better in my opinion. No one continued the bickering after that and it was taken as final.
"That moves on to our next topic, the dungeons. Should exploring them be a higher priority than what we''re currently doing or should we wait until people gain free time?" Abigail read off the list we had created.
The list had things we had to decide on and placing the pylon was only the first of many.
Most of the initial planning was me coming up with the things that needed to happen first. Making better living conditions was the obvious first choice, but with that finished, we needed to decide what our priorities should be.
"We should at least see what the two dungeons drop so we can plan around it. Running them to find that out won''t take long," Austin chimed first.
Most likely so he could explore something fun while the rest of us worked. We were close enough to the next marker on the map that where we stopped was close enough to the two dungeons in the area. They were on the other side of the cliff but that wasn''t too difficult to overcome and get around.
The planning around dungeons was rather tricky because it impacted a few different things. The most important of which was our treasury, or lack thereof.
I turned to Abigail since she would know best, "How long can we afford to not pay our workforce."
During the tutorial, we didn''t really pay each other inside the family. If work needed doing, someone did it. During our trip here services were exchanged with the expectation of getting something in return.
Blacksmiths and Leatherworkers didn''t demand payment from people the same as Cooks didn''t for their food.
It mostly evened out for everyone to gain something from their work but that wouldn''t last. Where people were once happy just to make things to get experience, they would want monetary compensation sooner or later.
I think the reason it hadn''t happened already was because we, my family, brought in the most resources to begin with. It would hardly make sense for them to demand payment when we were giving them the resources they used to work.
While that was true during the trip, that wouldn''t continue to be so.
Payment would eventually be an issue and Abigail knew public opinion and sentiment best from organizing all of it.
"That depends," She started, "If their work continues to be directly relevant to them, for a while yet. But if you have them doing something that won''t affect them, then soon."
"That''s not really an answer, how direct is directly relevant?" Austin asked.
"Well, what they''re doing now, for example. They are working to directly improve their living conditions. Houses and structures that increase quality of life directly. The same would be true for general buildings as well like Smithies, or Tanneries. If it was for their use I should add." She said. "But if you ask them to build you a personal smithy for your use only, that''s not very relevant now is it."
The explanation made sense but I needed more specifics if we were to plan for anything.
"What projects fall under that in your opinion?" I asked.
"Since houses are already built, general storehouses or shops would be fine along with basic perimeter defenses. Anything beyond that would cause an issue. As soon as shelter and safety are established, payment will be necessary." She answered.
"How long can we afford to pay them with what we have now?" I asked next.
That was the main timeline for when the dungeons would be opened. There was enough work to do that people were needed here, rather than spending time in the dungeon and I didn''t want to open them until that changed.
The thing that would change that was if we ran out of money. The taxes from what the dungeon gave out would be our only income for a while until we got the pylon up and running and we figured out trade.
"With what we have, a few weeks. The value of a coin is still high and we can stretch that pretty far. Trades could be considered instead of payment in coins directly. A new sword or weapon would go a long way for some. Or a different service we can provide in exchange for their work. There are various ways to extend the money and also ways to recoup some of it as well. Most of the material is ours so we can charge them to use it along with a general tax now that we are planning to become permanent." Abigail explained.
I was wary of establishing a general tax so soon after setting down but it may become necessary in the long run. Ideally, I would wait until people settled in and became at least a little comfortable before starting that.
I could run the dungeons a few times for coins if it became necessary but there were other avenues to fall back on.
We had seen different things during our travels and Tracy was kind enough to explain some of how she started out. Taking advice from her about how to rule a city wasn''t the best but it was good to get ideas from.
Ways to gain essence and levels were few and delving dungeons was one of the main ones. Fighting in the wilds was still an option, but dungeons were the easier of the two.
Dungeons could only be run so many times in a day and regulating those spots could be used as a form of payment. To the scouts and people we put on watch, we could pay them with a slot in the dungeon instead of coins themselves.
Others would also be available to pay that way, but payment in coin was going to be necessary for the crafting focused of the group. Coins or materials would be the only things they needed rather than dungeon slots.
While this wasn''t the most riveting discussion, it was the most necessary.
I could just force people to work but there were a variety of reasons that was a bad idea. Setting aside the fact it was just plain wrong, it wouldn''t lead to a very prosperous city.
Resentment would build and it would eventually come crashing down. Using force and people''s fear of me wasn''t a sustainable way to run a city aside from the fact it was something I was unwilling to do.
Framing it in a way people worked for free because I ''protected'' them and provided them ''safety'' was essentially the same thing with extra steps.
It was only their fear of leaving and braving the wilderness instead of their fear of me. Which felt like the same thing in my eyes.
Plus, it felt like something Tracy would do and that made it wrong in and of itself.
Having this discussion now would ward off any of the problems that would come up from not doing so. If we got ahead of things, we could run things smoother and without running into more problems.
The main thing was I wished for people to want to live here.
Our population now was more out of necessity, and that was fine, but for it to grow people would need to want to come here. I was trying to set that into motion now.
Our ''council'' had a many-hour discussion ahead of it and that was only scratching the surface.
After dungeons, we had scouting plans to come up with. Personnel lists we needed to finalize, along with a few other things. A census was the first thing that needed to be done to see how many and of what professions we had.
If we were missing any, we would need to come up with how to fix that.
While our traveling days were over, the real work was only just beginning.
Chapter 166 - Its Time
My shovel bit into the ground and I heaved the separated earth up and out of the way. Even as cold as it was, sweat ran down my face briefly before freezing to my skin.
Pulling the shovel back down, I slammed it into the hardened ground once again to repeat the action.
The line of dirt leading away from me was longer than it had been yesterday, and that was all that mattered. No matter how little progress I made in a day, it was being made.
Starting construction at the beginning of Winter wasn''t the smartest idea, but it was all we had. It beat sitting around and waiting for the ground to thaw as that was months away.
The ground ate up tools almost quicker than we could forge them. Shovels needed a hardening treatment so good they matched some of the swords we were putting out in durability. I even had to put runes on them in some cases.
A day''s worth of work would usually see them bent and disfigured before they were dropped off in a pile for the Blacksmiths to work on. Me included.
We didn''t have enough Blacksmiths to shrug the work off onto someone else and even when my days were filled with hard labor, it continued in the forge after the sun went down.
The reforging and adjustment of shovels was almost instinctual by now and wasn''t something I thought about often, but it was the reason my spirit ached from overuse.
My strength, particularly, was hard on the tools. Any amount of design altering or adjustments to the materials wasn''t enough to keep it from deforming and I was not about to use precious metals for making a shovel of all things. Without the ability to make it stronger, I had to resort to other means.
Which was constantly reinforcing it with my spirit. While cumbersome and exhausting, it got the job done.
One thing I did notice with the constant use of my spirit was I had more of it than before. I was used to running out during long fights during the tutorial but now that I was using it all the time, I noticed differences. I had done something to increase how much of the energy I had.
It felt more robust and I could use it for longer compared to before. How this happened, exactly, was a mystery but I chumped it up to constant use.
Another heave and yet more earth was moved. An effort that sometimes felt futile when I looked out over all the stakes laid out.
The crunch of snow alerted me to someone approaching but it wasn''t a surprise. I knew I would be interrupted soon and expected someone to come get me.
"Chris, we''re ready," Abigail said.
Sigh.
"Alright," Putting the shovel down, I climbed out of the slight depression in the ground and looked over my progress.
Weeks of effort only for a line a couple hundred feet. It was frustrating but there was nothing I could do about it. Not many could work in this weather and those that could were tied up with other things.
More important things.
Grabbing my furs off the ice rack I had made for them, I tidied myself up while walking back to the camp. It felt like some of the dirt was permanent by this point but I cleaned up the best I could. Without the constant exertion, the cold was a little much, even for me.
It had only gotten worse as the days went on and some of the lower leveled people wouldn''t even leave their homes for anything less than a quick trip. Firewood was in steep demand and was constantly being split for people''s use.
The initial scouting of the area was done weeks ago and the cliff was thoroughly surveyed up and down both sides. Any place that wasn''t structurally sound had Jonathan run over it with his affinity and Law to fortify the earth.
The Architect we had didn''t have the Earth affinity but he was able to tell Jonathan how to fix certain areas and keep them from crumbling. Undercuts on the cliff face were the main problem where any amount of weight pressing on the edge would break off.
Other structural challenges appeared but they were able to fix all of them. A second look would go around once everyone was stronger but for now, they were fine.
With the scouting finished, the site of our future city was found.
The cliff extended hundreds of yards from one end to the other and multiple sites had spots good enough to build on but only one was the best. Or at least only one felt right.
While the cliff was mostly uniformly straight, curves and abnormalities still existed. and it was in one of those abnormalities we found it.
A hundred-yard section of the cliff jutted out of the side and extended out past the rest. Almost forming a mini peninsula if it were surrounded by water.
While it wasn''t big enough to build a whole city in, it was big enough for the castle. The City itself and its outer walls would have to extend the full 180 degrees, arcing from cliff face to cliff face, but the Inner walls and keep would only have one direction to defend from.
As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the place. While still assailable by land, it was only possible from one direction and defending it was something I was confident in.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
One of the major weaknesses during the tutorial was my inability to be in more places than one and this would change that. I would be able to stand in one spot and defend the entirety of the wall. Only one gate would lead to the castle and I would be able to bar it from anyone who tried to attack. They would have to get past me if they wanted into the keep.
After locating and having the Architect stake out our plot of land, I began digging the foundation for it. The blueprint for what we would build wasn''t complete yet, but the footprint it would take up was fixed. There was only so much space in the outcropping which made how large it could be constrained. Not that the castle was going to be small, it didn''t even take up the entire space we had, but it made how many different orientations we could build it few.
Preparing the ground was slow going but my dreams would come true eventually. I would force them if I had to.
Our walk back was nearing its end and I had to put those thoughts aside. Our weekly meeting was about to happen and I needed to focus on that right now. It at least gave my body and Spirit a break from digging.
While the meetings were a slog to get through with everything that was taking place, I needed to be aware of what everyone was doing.
Entering the lodge we set aside for our family use marked us as the last to arrive and that didn''t surprise me. They probably only came to get me once everyone else was already there.
Austin and Hal were both sitting bundled up next to the fire and if they got any closer, they would be in the flames themselves. They constantly complained about being cold and the fact they were always out in it. Scouting didn''t give them a lot of time indoors.
Austin was wrapped in so many layers I could hardly make out where the blob ended and he began. Hal''s attire was less drastic, but the layers he had on were hard to miss.
The others in the room were more moderately dressed, at least compared to those two, and Vinny was downright scandalous compared to Austin. Only wearing an underlayer and heavy coat compared to the ball of fur.
The heat radiating off him was cheating in my eyes but it helped him keep warm. His forge was probably the warmest area for miles around and it was certainly the only building without a thick covering of snow.
The rest wore something between the two extremes and sat at the table waiting for the meeting to begin. With the last of us arriving, we were ready to start.
Abigail and I took our place at the table and the conversation began.
"Where are we on the construction effort?" I began.
Last we left off, everything was finishing up but I wanted to make sure nothing new popped up.
Everyone turned to Abigail, "We had to add another storehouse for all the food but otherwise, all of the construction is completed. The builders will soon join you working on the City foundation."
Our initial estimates were wildly incorrect on how much food would be available to us and the additional storehouse painted that well. Basing our expectations on before mana arrived caused us some major readjustments after experiencing it for real.
Winters before would be the time for everything to slow down, animals would hibernate and predators would struggle for food. That was not the case anymore.
Animals were abundant even with the harsh weather. Snow hares and Ice Foxes ran around without a care for the cold and even more joined them. They were conditioned to the cold and mana only made it easier for them to survive.
Not only survive but thrive.
The entire ecosystem had changed and our expectations had to be thrown out with it. Even certain plants were still growing and could sustain themselves off of the cold energies.
Not in large quantities or in great abundance, but it went to show how much was different.
I thought it was a bit early to work on, but Abigail had people with either the Gardener or Farmer profession working out how to grow crops in the cold.
None of the seeds we had would work to grow in the winter and would have to wait for spring but she had them trying to either modify them or use the seeds of what was already growing.
That wouldn''t bear fruit anytime soon and was more of a long-term goal, but she was already pushing for it. Seeing things grow up here made her certain it was possible.
Another reason for the additional storehouse was the food kept for longer. One positive about it always being below freezing was food didn''t spoil as fast. We didn''t even need to build anything to keep an area cold, the weather alone was enough for that.
With our current stores, there would be no eating horses, no matter how many times Austin tried to convince Sarah we would. Much to the girl''s dismay.
The second half of what Abigail said was also good news. We called it the City, but it was mostly the Castle. The City would come second after we had the castle built.
I had been breaking ground on that by myself while everyone did other things but I would finally be getting some help. While beneficial, that brought us back to one of the first things we talked about.
"So it''s time?" I asked.
Abigail''s nod confirmed it and I wouldn''t be able to put it off any longer. Placing the pylon was talked about at every meeting and ever since the site of our future city had been found, it only got harder to fend off.
I wanted everything to be perfect before we placed the pylon but that was unrealistic. I knew that wasn''t going to happen but I at least wanted some kind of construction finished first.
It seemed like that wouldn''t be the case.
Everyone then gave their report on the areas they kept track of but nothing important came up. Things were progressing as planned and nothing unexpected arose.
Even Vincent didn''t have anything new. He wasn''t usually in our Council meetings but he was added to our group not long ago. He was in charge of most of the crafting and his input was needed. Our stock of tools and materials was mostly handled by him and having him here was easier than asking him all the time.
The meeting wrapped up in record time and I couldn''t help but feel that by design. All of them looked at me expectantly.
"Fine, we will place it now." I sighed. By their faces, I knew they weren''t going to let me delay its placement, "I''ll grab the pylon and meet you over there."
My original plan was to fight the wave personally so no one else had to deal with it but I was persuaded against doing so. Allowing all who wanted to participate would create a sense of comraderie that wasn''t easily overlooked.
Fighting for the creation of a City would create a sort of Nationalism that I couldn''t afford to go without. It would instill a pride in people that they helped found it.
An Us instead of a You, as Abigail described it. She said if I didn''t let anyone join the waves and fought them all alone, people would always see it as my City instead of our city.
Abigail wasn''t the only one who tried to convince me and I eventually caved. She also mentioned the bonus of fighting with me instead of watching me fight would improve people''s opinions of me.
The benefits of allowing everyone to fight outweighed doing it by myself so I agreed. Even if I wanted to fight alone, those times were soon coming to an end.
The location where we would place the pylon was far enough away I didn''t think anything here would be attacked, but a few would stay behind just in case. Some of my family didn''t wish to fight and they would be able to look over things here.
With all of that in mind, it was time.
"Gather all who would fight and warn the rest," I announced.
Chapter 167 - Name Your Outpost
Finding the pylon was easy. It would be harder to overlook it than it was to find it. Its beacon effect hadn''t diminished or disappeared over our months of travel or construction.
Even if Abigail tried to play hide and seek with it, which I swore she did with certain materials, by moving it around to different carts intermittently, I would have been able to find it.
It felt odd to hold it in my hand. When we were first introduced to them and saw one at the start of our tutorial it was already affixed to the ground. It was already placed and we weren''t given the option to move it, only claim it.
The pylon I received at the end, the one I now held, wasn''t affixed to anything. It was a midnight black rod that seemed to eat light and fit in my hand comfortably. It measured about 2 feet in length and a few inches in diameter, a far cry from the size I knew it was. I knew it would grow into the obelisk I knew from before once placed, but it was still odd to hold it in my hand.
If people hadn''t heard our warning yet, they certainly knew something was up now. The pylon was rarely, if ever, moved and people would be able to feel it as I did so.
It was no surprise that a crowd began to form as I walked with it. They all knew what we were doing by now.
Around half our number, just over a hundred, stood geared ready to fight. More than I expected from the group to be honest. Not everyone was so inclined to violence after being given a chance to settle down yet one in two chose to fight.
The fighters were geared and ready, wearing determined faces with only the barest hint of nerves. Not all knew what would happen as only a few had tutorials that experienced them other than ours.
They knew from stories, but this would be their first time facing a wave. If I didn''t have so many bad memories associated with waves, their nervousness would be amusing.
Without having to say anything, the group parted as I neared and fell in behind me as I passed. Conversation was light amongst the group and only a few people had the courage to speak.
We certainly chose the right day to do it, I thought. While snow covered the ground, none fell from the sky. Clouds covered the blue expanse letting the occasional ray of sunlight fall though to the surface. The occasional snow storms took a day off for us to place our pylon in decent weather.
While it would have made me stronger, the others would have had to fight through the hindrance.
Arriving at our construction site unveiled another additional boon. With all the work I had been doing to prepare the ground, it was already clear of any snow for us to fight on.
It was easy enough to use [Ice Manipulation] to clear the frozen carpet of white and it made it easier to visualize what I was doing. It was easy to confuse distances when everything was a monotone white.
As we arrived, people turned to me expectantly for direction. None had experience in larger organized fights like this and it would be a first for many of them. Even with my growing confidence in leading groups from our travels, it was still somewhat awkward to be in charge of so many.
The largest battle I had been in was against the Mindbreaker and that was only a fifth of the number I was now in charge of. Plus, I wasn''t even the one leading most of the time. I was off on my own for most of the battle.
Others usually led during the defense of the waves and by the time I started doing it, the plan was already set. I didn''t need to do much other than fight.
Luckily, my foray into large-scale battles would be relatively simple. I knew what to expect, I knew what would spawn and I only had to array the people to fight against it.
"Shields Front! Rogues behind!" The group shifted after my shout and a group of people hefting shields stepped forward. Metal-on-metal clanks could be heard as either the full plate or half plate, depending on what they chose, clinked against each other. The 20 most heavily armored of our group settled into the front of the line.
While sword and shield were the most common weapon arrangement, there was a healthy mix in the entire group. Short Spear and shield was second most common followed by axe or mace.
After the shields were set, another group of 19 set up behind them. These were Rogue-type Classes that weren''t best at front-line fighting. They were set behind the wall of shields to take care of anything that got through or to help out the front line if it was overwhelmed. None wore the heavy plate the front line favored, instead donning hardened leathers and thick furs.
This kind of structuralized fighting wasn''t where their Class excelled, but they were good enough to kill things quickly behind cover. It was when they were outnumbered and surrounded that problems arose.
This group sported shorter weapons and usually used both hands as well, dual daggers or short swords. Some chose not to and kept their off-hand free but those who chose to do so were few.
"Warriors split and hold the flanks!" While the Rogues were in charge of helping the shields hold the line, the Warriors without shields were in charge of holding the sides. The majority of Warriors used a shield, but 15 chose to go without, not including myself.
Two-handed weapons like spears or great swords were most common in this group but there were other things as well, such as two-handed battle axes and one with a quarterstaff.
Jonathan''s twin shields weren''t the only uncommon choice of weapons.
"Archers Back!" The same shifting occurred but this time it was swift and without the associated clanking. Bowmen were the least populous archetype besides Healer in our group while also having the longest range. The faster arrangement was due to the fewer people who had to move. Including Hal, only 13 others held the Class.
I called them Archers instead of Rangers because most weren''t the base class anymore and had evolved out of it and into a wider variety. Archer encompassed them all and that was why I used the general term instead of Ranger.
Plus, everyone knew what an Archer was and it made it easier when giving orders.
"Mages, form up based on affinity!" The last group besides the Healers finished sorting themselves out. 27 people in our group chose the Arcane route and were firmly in second behind the warriors in number.
We knew from experience having two opposite affinities next to each other hindered them so we devised splitting them up. While it wasn''t the end of the world if it happened, it was easy enough to fix.
Gabriel and Rachel stood at opposite ends of the line as they were direct opposites. Other matchups had to be separated as well, such as the lone lightning mage and the few metal mages.
While they could be used in tandem to great effect, we weren''t a coherent enough group to stop friendly fire from happening. The same was true of Lightning and Water. If any water was connected back to the mage and lighting struck it... the mage was in for a bad time.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Or if water splashed on some of the warriors and then lightning struck... it was just easier to separate them for now until they were used to working together. It wasn''t like we trained for this, yet.
We certainly would after this, but I had assumed the first wave would be me by my lonesome.
The last group was the Healers at only around 10. While the assortment of Classes told a picture, it was far from the full one. This was only half of our group and only those who wanted to fight.
While having 10 Healers for a group of 100 seemed few, there were more back at the camp who chose not to fight. My grandmother and Sam included. Abigail and Ashely chose to join us in the field.
I had them interspaced throughout the lines attempting to go for equal coverage.
Our formation was far from the best and there were no doubt some who had specific environments that would make them better, but for the first wave, this was enough. It would give everyone a taste of the waves while being a simple enough battle that things weren''t chaotic.
Specific classes or fighting styles that weren''t suited for this kind of combat would need to be incorporated with proper planning that we just didn''t have yet.
With our formation set, it was time to place the pylon.
Standing at the center of where our future castle would be, I brought the pylon out in front of me.
After accepting the message to place it, it began to change in my hand. It jumped from my grasp and started extending out, growing in both directions as it settled into the ground where I placed it.
''Placement of Civilization Pylon accepted, initiating claiming of land.''
After it became the pylon I used to know, another notification chimed not a moment after the shifting ended.
''Defend your claim!''
Ah, the dreaded notification is back. Well, what used to be the dreaded notification. It didn''t hold that existential creeping fear that it once did.
Everyone must have gotten the same notification because reactions sounded out from the group. Those who knew the drill didn''t show any outward expression but everyone that was new did.
While I waited a beat for Hal to convey what we were up against, I moved through the crowd to take my place at the front. The wave could only come from one direction and I would take my customary place as the vanguard.
Positioned in the dead center, I only stood a step or two ahead of the line of shields instead of way out in front. I would hardly be fighting with the group if I stood out ahead and fought alone.
Austin chose not to join me and that was fine, he was off to the side with the rest of the shield-less warriors holding the flank.
"Goblins! Level 30 or so with highs at 50!" Hal shouted.
While a bit tougher than anticipated, it was around what we planned for. Tracy had mentioned what her wave was like and this was a few levels above that.
Either she was lying, which was unlikely considering the relationship she wished to foster, or the waves weren''t constant. Just another joy to plan for.
We didn''t have the high ground which made it take a moment to pick the wave out from the trees, but I saw the shifting bodies eventually. The tree line was cut back during my work but it had yet to be cleared enough for easy visibility.
They were similar to the goblins we had fought before but their levels changed them. The goblins from before were much lower level and weren''t nearly as coordinated as the ones I was seeing now.
They didn''t march in ranks or hold a formation, but they were clearly denoted by the different evolutions as they had varying sizes and weaponry.
A collection of metal weaponry along with some bows were among them. A few at the back wore feathered caps carrying staves which I marked as Shamans.
Their numbers were few compared to what I was used to and only outnumbered us around two to one.
After looking over what we were up against, I signaled the start.
"Archers, fire at will!"
Arrows whistled overhead and more flew through the air than our number would indicate. Hal and Carrie chose to join us and both of them had [Splitting Shot] trained well. Or in Carrie''s case, her evolved [Arrow Rain].
Those two could put out multiple arrows from one shot and it seemed they weren''t alone in having the skill. Not knowing the range of how far they could shoot, I left it up to them to dictate when to fire.
Same with the mages. Everyone had a different range their skills could go and I didn''t know everyone well enough to get a good picture in my head to order volleys.
The mages didn''t need any prompting and once the goblins closed in, their magical fire joined the arrows in the sky.
Rachel''s fireballs were easy to pick out due to their size but other attacks held a strength to them as well.
I witnessed a patch of the snow rise up and completely encase a goblin running over it and I knew of only one who could be responsible for that.
It was an odd thing to experience and watch take place. It was so far away from how we started that it felt entirely different. Large clusters of arrows and devastating bolts of magic that I witnessed now made the first wave of the tutorial feel like child''s play.
Where we once only had 3 Rangers and 7 Mages, more than 4 times that number were now releasing their attacks together.
The goblins died in droves but the distance from the tree line was short enough that half would make it to our line before they fell.
While I felt the fight would be a bit of a letdown, this battle wasn''t for me. I would usually be throwing javelins of ice or firing of [Ice Arrow] at this time, but I refrained from doing so.
This was a rare chance to get experience leading and I wanted to make the most of it.
Bows continued to loose and swirls of mana flew through the air, but the goblins were closing in nonetheless.
I readied my hammer as they neared, "Brace Shields!"
While the line wasn''t enough to interlock in any fashion, they lowered themselves and got ready to receive the goblin''s charge with skills flaring up. Before the lines collided, I could see various objects flying out from behind me striking the leading goblins down.
Throwing knives and other bladed objects from the Rogues behind us or throwing axes and javelins from those who had them.
It cut down the first few but there wasn''t enough to blunt the charge by much.
As the lines crashed, I brought down my hammer on its first victim. [Mighty Blow] was unnecessary and my bare strength was more than enough to end its life.
I left my more... excessive skills alone and stuck to swinging my hammer for the most part. I didn''t even use [Frost Armor] for the battle.
The line of shields handled the charge well with only a few sliding back from the mass. As the goblin''s momentum stalled, shields dulled and the glow transferred to weapons as skills activated and our frontline had its time to shine.
Arrows from the goblins tried to rain down on us but they were swatted out of the air by the wind. I was unsure who was responsible, but I believed it was my mother.
Similar to the arrows, any magic the goblin Shaman''s tried to wield failed spectacularly. Either washing over the [Mana Shields] of those who had them or imploded with other skills before they landed.
Without having to deal with any projectiles, the front line was able to have their sole attention on what was in front of them.
We out-leveled the goblins by a decent degree and while they landed a few blows, it wasn''t enough to bring anyone down for long. The few unlucky enough to catch a bad hit had a Healer on them before the blood could start flowing.
I fought with one eye on the wave and one keeping track of what was happening around me. It didn''t take much attention to wield my hammer and even the sliver I was giving it was more than enough.
My attention elsewhere made sure no one died. If any looked to be unaware of a threat or in a losing situation, a Law-infused spike of Ice freed them up quickly.
Letting people fight like we planned was risky and I tried to make sure that none paid the ultimate price, or at least attempted to. I wouldn''t be able to do this forever nor was I perfect, but I did my best to keep casualties from happening.
A few took nasty wounds while I had my attention elsewhere, but no one looked to be in any fatal danger.
As the goblin''s number dwindled, my need to interfere dwindled with it. As the numbers turned against them, people began working together. A shield in front to hold attention while a warrior or rogue finished them off.
Arrows were deadly accurate and they could even fire through our lines. That was a bit risky in my opinion but if they trusted themselves to make the shot, I wouldn''t say anything. Until they slipped up, but I didn''t see any of that happen.
While it wasn''t a good fight personally, it was a good showing of how far we had come. We could fight in ranks decently and we weren''t total amateurs at it which was a good enough foundation to start on.
I did see a few standouts that I would try to convince to join my guards but everyone who chose to fight did well.
It made me feel good about the future.
It was little more than 15 minutes after the wave began that the last goblin fell. As it did, the kill notifications came in and I saw people look over what they had. Some should have leveled, even if I did not.
It was hard to focus on what I had killed when one other notification stuck out from the rest.
You have successfully defended your claim!
Name Your Outpost.
Chapter 168 - City of Frost
Luckily, we knew that names could be changed. Tracy had a funny story about finding out that tid bit of information. Nick had apparently named their Outpost something stupid and Tracy had to convince him to change it.
She never ended up telling us what he originally picked, but the name they came up with afterwards was Stormfront, as a play for the man''s affinity. I didn''t meet the guy, but from what Tracy told us, he loved his affinity and refused to let the Outpost be named something that didn''t include it.
I wasn''t as vain as that, I didn''t much care much for what the city was called. It didn''t have to have Ice or Arctic in the name for my sake, but since the area we were in was currently a Winter Wonderland, it seemed fitting.
If one were to look back and connect the fact that we named our city after the area we were in, and then add that we were only here because of my affinity, then in some sense, the city was named after my affinity, but that was semantics by that point.
Still, I elected to wait on naming the Outpost and dismissed the notification to the side for later. I didn''t have any names prepped, but I probably should have. My focus was more on getting here and starting construction rather than what name I would call it.
We would talk about it and throw around ideas before I finalized anything.
Still, people needed to be seen to for various non-lethal wounds and clean up needed to take place. As much fun as exploring the new pylon would be, that could wait until later.
"Good job everybody! Let''s start on the clean up!" I announced.
Everyone seemed pleased with the outcome and I was happy as well. It wasn''t standing alone against an army proud, but it was something to be proud of at least.
With some training and coordination, I could put together a decent force to be reckoned with.
After the cleanup, all of my family who cared to weigh in stood surrounding the pylon coming up with names. Some were good, while some were laughably bad.
"We should name it Icefall. The snow clinging to the cliff face kind of looks like a frozen waterfall." Gabriel said.
Austin snorted before rebutting, "No, that''s stupid. Winter''s End is way better."
"No it''s not! That means the end of Winter not..."
The bickering continued and it was slightly amusing to see everyone''s thoughts. Most threw out some variation of Ice, Snow, Frost, or Winter with either a suffix or prefix attached.
I couldn''t fault them for it, because all of my ideas were in the same line of thought.
Other than what Austin and my brother were bickering about, Icefall and Winter''s End, a few others were proposed yet none stood out to me, but I did have the inkling of an idea.
Most of my Classes so far had followed a theme and I wanted to lean into that. I didn''t care much for Norse Mythology before the world ended, but it seemed to love me from the Classes I was offered.
Champion of Niflheim, Hammer of the Jotnar, Frost Giants, all of it had ties to the stories of old. It made me question how much of it was real if we were close to the mark with our legends.
That line of thought spiraled further into how we would possibly know of it but I didn''t wish to go down that route.
I had a name to think about and those thoughts could be left for later.
Keeping in line with the Norse theme, one that stuck out from the rest intrigued me. It kept to the similar convention of Frost and then something but I liked it nonetheless.
"Frostheim."
I hadn''t realized I said my idea aloud until everyone turned to look at me. Frostheim seemed like a good choice for the area we were in. A land of Ice and Snow with deadly winters. It somewhat translated to Land of Frost but I liked it.
I couldn''t very well name it Niflheim as that was already a thing and it could possibly be a real place. Plus, Frostheim sounded cool and as much as I liked to think it didn''t matter, it did.
As people chewed on my idea, there were no immediate disagreements. They continued to hem and haw but no one could think of anything better.
To push everyone over the edge, I added, "We can always change it later if someone thinks of something better."
I would be heavily against it as I liked Frostheim, but it was still an option.
Nods of agreement went around and we had finalized the name of our city and I entered it into the notification.
Frostheim
After doing so, the usual menu for the pylon came up. It didn''t hold as many options as I remembered but to see the familiar screen again was a relief. It also had the option to appoint an Outpost Chieftain.
It was a step down from the Town Mayor Abigail was before, but it opened her Profession back up to gaining experience.
Her Profession wouldn''t devolve down to her current position, but her evolutions would be hindered if we didn''t raise the Pylon''s rank before she reached level 100.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Reaching that for her Profession would take quite a while and we had time to upgrade our pylon without rushing.
As soon as the notification came through on her end, I could see her eyes flickering back and forth, reading all of the menu screens no doubt. She didn''t wave her arms around anymore like I still did as she had much more experience with the menus.
It was just easier to point and touch and I never bothered to change that. I spent little time in the menus anyway. They were different than the status screen and the notifications that popped up usually, requiring more than just a cursory look.
Those could be called up or dismissed with a thought, or minimized with practice, but the pylon screens were different. They had a plethora of different tabs and options to click on and explore which made the simple commands of open and close not available.
You could learn to do it all manually, as Abigail demonstrated, but I never allotted the time to do so before. It seemed like a waste before.
I was content to learn eventually, through practice of using the menus more often.
On my end, I could see the different adjustments she was making and I let her have free reign. There was an option to restrict what she had access to but there was no need to do so.
That was more for people who didn''t trust their advisors completely, Abigail was family, I trusted her with my life, let alone City management.
Some of the options needed an input now but others could be put off. Tax rate was the biggest one and we had finalized that before we placed the pylon, like we should have done for the name.
While the dungeon tax rate would stay at 1 in 5, 20%, the City''s tax rate would be half that. 1 in 10, or 10%. Sam brought up a good point that people chose to go into dungeons while simply living wasn''t.
Someone who worked as a Blacksmith selling wares to make a living was different than people who ventured into dungeons. In that, we decided to lower the tax rate for those people to make sure they were able to make a living.
This was all subject to change though. We weren''t sure how the economy would turn or if certain things would effect it, but we were alright with setting it to 10% for now and seeing how that worked.
Setting the tax rate through the Civilization pylon was a touch different than paying taxes from before.
The System, being all powerful and whatnot, had what I called, a Wallet feature. Similar to how the Points worked in the tutorial, there was a section for Coins listed on everyone''s status screen.
Mine had remained empty for the entire tutorial and still was. While I had physical coins in my possession, there were only certain ways to transfer them into this ''Wallet'' section.
Gabriel came up with ideas for why and one was actually pretty funny to me. He claimed that being able to instantly transfer wealth from the physical to our status screens would make thieves and banks obsolete while also requiring the System to conjure physical money at every beings whim.
Whatever the case was, one of the ways to do so was through a Merchant. Not all could do it, but if they had the skills, they could take the physical coin and ''deposit'' it, so to say.
They would, of course, charge a fee for doing so, but it was possible. Merchants weren''t the only to hold that power and other Professions could as well. As well as certain buildings tied to a Pylon.
Banks and marketplaces could be built inside Cities that had a special link to Pylons that could facilitate the same action.
While all of that was way in the future for our fledgling City, it helped explain how the tax worked. Or more specifically, how it didn''t.
Someone could, with a coin in hand, walk up and buy something with it while never paying the enforced tax. The System only enforced it on transactions that occurred with the transfer of coins through the Status screen.
While I was one hundred percent confident the System could have enforced both, it was likely it chose not to. With how much the System liked to demand a price to do anything, watching every transaction in every city in the entire universe was too much of an expenditure, even if it had the ability to.
There were other ways to avoid this tax besides paying with actual coins. Exchanges of services couldn''t be tracked along with bartering.
I wasn''t too concerned with tax evasion right now as it was impossible to track. Once we had the infrastructure set up that would change, but taking people in good faith would work for now.
People would cheat it no doubt, but that was fine for now. It would begin being an issue when our population started to rise. The few coins or so we lost now weren''t that big of a deal.
Other than setting the tax, Abigail appointed our first advisor slot. Well, other than the city leader spot.
Tracy tried to explain the way the advisor slots worked but it was hard to grasp without seeing the screens in front of me. I filled one slot and was considered the City Owner, having full control over the pylon and anything among its menus.
Next in line was the person who managed the City. I could have taken the position if I wanted it and been both the Owner and the manager, but I didn''t want to.
It didn''t require me to change my Profession, but managing the City without the associated Profession was 100 times harder. Plus, it didn''t make sense to do so when Abigail was already good at it and had the profession.
So while I was highest on the totem pole, Abigail was second. Similar to how Nick and Tracy ran things. Next came the various ''advisor'' slots you could appoint. Things like a Treasury Advisor, or Security Advisor. The names could be changed or positions split up, but their function was clear.
Every position did something different, but mostly, it delegated some of the tasks of running the City to different people. It allowed them access to certain menus that they would need without opening up all of them.
Head Merchant was one of them that Abigail filled first. Jonathan was here with us around the pylon and accepted the notification swiftly. He hadn''t thrown out many ideas for names but he knew he would be needed for this part.
While I wasn''t going to restrict the advisor slots to only my family, I wanted to get our feet under us before we started branching out. The fact he was the highest level Merchant in our caravan was only a nice bonus.
After his appointment, an entirely new screen came up and I couldn''t help but smile at it.
The shop was back, baby!
Well, there were some changes but it was similar enough. Opening that tab of the menu led to a staunchly bare list compared to what we were used to but it was still exciting to see anything available for purchase.
Pelts from certain animals were common along with mundane materials. Logs of wood or hunks of stone that weren''t high in grade.
We weren''t advanced enough to buy things from other planets and the list only held what other pylons were selling, and not even all of them at that. It only populated with listings from pylons that weren''t too far away. At the bare minimum, we had at least one pylon in range.
I wasn''t sure what the exact range was, as that was dictated by how strong the Merchant appointed was, but I was glad to see anything listed.
We hadn''t seen a single pylon after leaving what used to be Chicago and I wasn''t sure we were close to any.
We did travel in mostly a straight line and hadn''t deviated to where any past cities used to be, but my mind chose to ignore that bit.
Increasing that range could be done in a few ways but that wasn''t that important right now. I doubted anyone was selling anything useful, but that would change eventually.
Abigail changed a few other little things before I closed the screen but we didn''t have any more appointments to make. What took priority now was construction.
Just thinking of digging again made my Spirit ache.
Chapter 169 - Time
Time was a funny thing. It could, at certain points, feel like it moved at a snail''s pace, like how the three months of the tutorial had felt like 3 years. Or, at other times, fly by faster than you thought possible.
With the bare necessities taken care of and our pylon placed, there wasn''t much we needed to do with great urgency. We were where we were supposed to be, our travel was over.
What came now was the hard part.
The construction effort wasn''t a speedy process by any means, and I wanted to make sure it was done right. No corners would be cut and everything would be done to the utmost perfection.
One thing I refused to do was conjure the walls from the ground like I had seen Tracy doing. Buildings made that way weren''t as strong as ones made of natural stone and I didn''t come all the way North with dreams of a Castle to create something not as strong as it could be.
Using that method also wouldn''t take Runes or Formations as well, making them significantly weaker to attack. Also something I refused to let happen.
Instead, I had all Earth affinities who were willing to do so out searching for a good quarry site. It wasn''t hard to find decent stone but I wanted the best.
As we grew in strength and received better skills or better techniques, our current methods would be obsolete but that wasn''t an excuse to not build something to the best of your ability now.
It would be years before people reached D-rank and while it would be a hassle to redo everything, I was willing to do it.
An attack wouldn''t come with a warning that would give us time to change it.
Either due to luck or general availability, a massive vein of Granite was found which was perfect for our tasks. It was the hardest stone in the world and would make for perfect fortifications.
It also took strengthening enchantments well which made future Formations that much better.
Hauling it only made the process take longer but I was fine with that.
To pay our workers, regular runs into the dungeon had to be made. We didn''t restrict entry into them and anyone could delve if they wanted to, but our income from taxing what came out wasn''t enough to pay everyone.
Especially for the back-breaking labor I was asking of them.
Crafters and builders made special wagons for stone transport along with cranes and winches, but it was still a Herculean task to do it for multiple hours a day.
Many received an increase of strength weekly through the exertion, or daily in some cases of weaker people.
Regular delves into the dungeons to make some coin was necessary to keep everything going, which fell to my family. Everything I pulled out of the dungeon went to paying our workforce and most of what everyone else did as well.
It reminded me of fighting the fallen pylons to farm points as the principle was the same.
I needed money, or points in the previous instance, and I got it through killing beasts. Having both dungeons there was a godsend in that respect and gave us enough to keep everything going.
As the days went on, it was easy to fall into a routine. Every morning I would wake up, eat a meat-filled breakfast, and then gear up for my daily dungeon runs.
While beginning every day with a decent amount of bloodshed wasn''t the best, I liked to think of it as training. It wasn''t a wave I was forced to endure or a beast coming for my head.
It was my prerogative to go into the dungeon and that put it all in a different light. The fight wasn''t forced upon me, but it was me searching it out.
It took most of the tension out of it and made it easier to face every day when I woke up. If I had to face a wave every morning like in the tutorial, I wasn''t sure how long I would make it.
It reminded me of something I said to Gabriel, how I looked at it mattered.
Looking at my morning dungeon runs as a chore would make me dread them over time and see them as nothing more than a way to make income.
With that in mind, I chose to look at them like training sessions. Not many in camp could be my sparring partner and fighting the usual crowd got stale after a while.
I knew their fighting styles and it wasn''t enough to keep me sharp. Austin was flighty and quick, keeping distance with his speed while chipping at you with his spear. Fighting him made me favor my cold and the environment to get an advantage. While his spear had a longer reach than my hammer, he still had to get close enough to use it.
To counter that, he would use his longer-ranged skills so he wouldn''t have to brave the cold to approach me. My ability to tank damage was too much for him to get through and the whole song and dance would repeat.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Jonathan was the embodiment of a turtle and calling on his bloodline only made it worse. Using his bloodline, Law, and Spirit Anchor, he could tank my hammer using my full strength and [Avalanche] built up.
I could overpower him if I went all out and his defense would crumble but his ability to stop my hammer cold was impressive, to say the least.
Rachel was my least favorite to fight. She and Hal fought similarly enough but she was infinitely worse than Hal. While both kept their distance and fired off skills at me, Hal''s were easy enough to block.
My manipulation of the Wind wasn''t a match for his, but it blunted some of the damage and what was left was easy enough to let my armor handle. His damage was mostly physical, as the arrow carried most of the energy, and my ice dealt with it well.
Rachel, on the other hand, turned every battle into a contest of mana control and it was a battle I always lost.
She started out with a better mana control than me and only got better at it. I trained the skill, but not to the extent she did. Gabriel was the only one I knew that could give her a run for her money.
While I could lean on my better Law, it only evened the playing field somewhat. After that, it came to who had more mana and that was not me.
It only got worse after she got her bloodline. Where before I could attempt to challenge her, it was impossible now. The Draconic bloodline she managed to get did more than increase the potency of her fire, but also increased her already good mana control.
Fighting her was still a challenge, but it didn''t really feel like a fight to me. It was more of an intense training session. That was fine, but training in the dungeons added that edge that sparring lacked.
It had stakes that fighting the others didn''t and kept me on my toes. The eighth floor had some monsters that could challenge me and was by no means a walk in the park.
It was also a steady stream of essence every day and gave me a steady way to gain levels. My progression had fallen off during our journey and now was the time for it to pick up again.
Currently, I sat at level 66. Austin had pulled ahead to somewhere in the 70s and even a few others had caught up. My Legendary Class took more essence per level and both [Body of a Barbarian] and [Frozen Fortitude] took a bit extra per level.
The debt holding me back was gone, but they still took a little extra essence per level to give me the extra stat points.
I was used to getting up early during the tutorial and I carried that with me until now. The dungeons took a while to repopulate with beasts to fight and I made sure I was first in line every day.
While I could have barred entry until I went through, getting up a little earlier to make sure I was first wasn''t that difficult and was the better thing to do.
There were occasions when by the time I got done with one of the dungeons, the other already had people lining up but they were nice enough to let me go first.
Running both dungeons took a few hours every morning but it was a routine I would try to stick to. Not many chose to run through both and even fewer delved every day, but I needed to make sure I kept progressing.
The world wouldn''t stop just because I had and the months getting here were enough of a break already.
I didn''t feel the crushing weight to keep leveling up like in the tutorial, but I knew strength would be needed for the times to come. Humanity was just beginning to get its feet under them.
Troubled times would come once the immediate threat to everyone''s lives was dealt with. When the seas settled and the barest hints of civilization were re-established, the fighting would start.
And when the time came for someone to march against me and mine, I would be ready.
Both in personal strength and the strength of what I had built.
Only the barest hint could be seen right now, but time would change that. Every day we spent toiling over it now would save lives in the future. I was sure of it.
Once the foundation was readied, my job would shift to something other than construction. The Builders, Architects, and Engineers could handle that side of things, I was in charge of the Wards.
I hadn''t spent all those points and hauled the precious materials all the way here to make a lackluster formation.
Gabriel and I were already coming up with different solutions to the problems we would face. With superhuman strength and abilities, climbing the cliff to attack from that angle was a very real possibility.
It would be extremely difficult, getting attacked the entire way up, but the cliff wasn''t the impossibility it was before skills were a thing.
Another thing we had to account for was simply jumping over the wall. We were planning to make the wall quite high already, but with ever-increasing physical strength, the possibility was there no matter how high we built it.
In the later Ranks, flying would be an issue as well but that headache would be left for when that became possible.
The other two issues were what we focused on solving first. While there were many ways to fix those problems, not all were practical or feasible. Grinding the entire cliff face down to a smooth finish to make it impossible to grip was certainly an option, but it wasn''t a permanent one.
Anyone with an Earth affinity would be able to morph the smooth stone into hand holds easily and bypass all the hard work we put into it.
What made our job the hardest, was the sheer plethora of skills people could possibly have. There was simply no way to come up with a solution that would work for everything.
The good thing was we had the time to think about it. We didn''t have to come up with the answer right this second and we would be able to brainstorm for a while longer.
While we allowed other people to give their input for the construction side, I only spoke to Gabriel about the enchantments we would put down. The physical layout of the building would be easy enough to steal through espionage, but what the Formations did was a defense secret I wasn''t willing to divulge.
Most weren''t able to read Runes in the first place, but I planned to keep them secret for as long as possible and had plans to make that so. Building the Formation while construction took place would allow me to carve them inside the walls.
Doing so would make it nearly impossible for people to find out what they did without getting extremely close and spending a lot of time searching through the stone.
It was in this period of time that flew by faster than I thought possible. The Winter''s peak came to the apex and began to wane with Spring close on the horizon at a moment''s notice.
It was like I blinked and our weekly meetings went from discussing food stores over the winter to our plans for the farmers and where we would put the fields.
Our progress as a smaller group made me wonder how the Pylons around the world were doing. The Cities with over a hundred times our number had to be built by now.
Right?
Chapter 170 - Years End
As the Spring rains came to wash the snow away, it completed the first year since the World was altered. While Chris and his fledgling City were slowly making progress on rebuilding, the rest of the world did the same.
Some had a head start, planting their pylon and building exactly where they were returned, while others had to seek out new places to carve out for themselves. The foothills of Virginia, being one such area, had turned into a perilous place for even the strongest on the planet, let alone the average human, causing any returned there to journey far away before they felt comfortable setting down roots.
In places similar, where the mana was thick and the monsters strong, people left in droves. Seeking safety and shelter wherever they could find it. A mass exodus away from certain areas happened all over the globe and in some, it still happened.
Where man once stood at the top all over the globe, some areas inverted that scale and it was undecided if it would ever be flipped back.
Some were able to painstakingly, and with great losses, fight against that hierarchy. Reestablishing ''order'' and plant the seeds of civilization, but just as many stayed and died, failing to accomplish what they had hoped.
Where some fought walking horrors of grotesque monstrosity seeking to eat them, others had to fight for the resources just to survive. Water and food weren''t freely available and stocking up took more than running to the store like it used to.
Rivers, streams, and watering holes were precious resources that many things needed for survival. While humans were among the many who needed them, they were far from the only ones.
The fight for territory between man and beast was rough for the first few months, but it had settled as the year went on.
The animals that man used to be wary of long ago became an even bigger threat after mana arrived but they were far from the only threats people now faced.
Mother Nature had made sure its dominance was not forgotten. Supercharged storms filled with mana were the smallest on humanity''s list of worries.
The Laws of the universe weren''t there for human use only. They were Laws for a reason and that was made known to all who witnessed them.
The very phenomena the Laws were birthed from took the biggest death toll in certain areas.
Hurricanes and tornadoes were powered by the very Wind Laws some sought to obtain. Monsoons and Tsunamis rife with Water Laws wreaked havoc along the coasts while Earthquakes rippling with Earth Law leveled everything for miles in some cases.
Wildfires consumed swaths of nature and burned with Fire Laws so hot that the ground melted in some areas. Not to be outdone, Nature Laws blossomed and plants grew like weeds, consuming land in their own way.
The landscape wasn''t the only thing that the System changed while it had its way with our Planet. Creatures thought long extinct roamed the Earth again and some would even claim beasts from Myths and Legends did as well.
Only a scarce few had the chance to witness such creatures and most who had were dead, eaten by the very things they thought were only fantasy.
Over ten thousand Civilization Pylons were given out as the tutorial ended but less than half remained standing by the year''s end.
The good news, if you could call it that, was the rate at which they fell dropped with every passing day. Another positive outlook was while the total number of Pylons went down, the ones that remained got stronger.
Soon, the falling numbers would stop but it would never be stagnant again. The World was too wide a place for that to happen and the System had only made it wider.
Rise or Fall, stagnation wasn''t an option anymore.
Chris
The time spent doing things right had done us well. Thick granite blocks carved and chiseled into shape stood tall and proud, dominating the landscape. Pride overflowed inside of me as I looked them over.
Months of work had gone into the process and we were nearly ready to cap it off. The blood sweat and tears of over one hundred people went into this project and I couldn''t be happier about it.
The beginnings of my castle stood at the edge of the cliff and it would weather any storm thrown at it. It looked slightly odd without any walls or gates to accompany it, but they would come in time.
But even without them, I was confident in what stood before me. I could feel it in my Spirit that it would not fall.
Spirit Anchors were still new ground for most and not many knew how it all worked, but I poured everything I had into the structure, my Spirit included.
My anchor felt fitting to saturate what would be my home.
Every day for months, I drained what little Spiritual energy I had and packed it into the stone used to construct my home.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
I wasn''t sure if everyone could feel it, but when I looked at what we had built, it felt like the world would stop spinning before it stopped standing. Maybe that was just me being biased since it was my anchor that I could feel.
As my eyes approached the cliff, the ground turned into a rising slope of manicured stone 10 feet wide that rose at a gentle angle leading upward, meeting up with the rest of the building. After following that ramp to its end, a massive double door made of heavily reinforced wood barred the way in. Metal curved and looped throughout the wood, interwoven throughout both doors and even the wooden bits received a special treatment.
For this part, I had Jonathan pour his Spirit into it instead of mine. His was more fitting for the door and I felt it would do better than mine would.
The Wood was also strengthened with every skill we had at our disposal. Builders with any they had along with every Nature mage inside our city. I had paid handsomely for every person with a Wood law to bathe the door in their power.
The Law empowering it would fade with time, but the treatment increased its strength permanently, if only by a lesser degree. The lingering Law had worked through the grains and righted what was wrong before it faded, altering the wood into a stronger form forever.
After that, Runes of Durability could be seen depicted by the metal reinforcing it. Cleverly carved into the wood and inlaid with precious metal bought from the tutorial.
Done by my own hand along with help from my brother, the door had taken us days of work and study. Studying what enchanting books we had available took longer than the work itself. Looking at it now let me see places that could be improved but I stubbornly moved on from those.
As the work continued, my Runesmithing had gotten better and so had Gabriel''s enchanting. As we got better, it made me want to go back and fix all of the small mistakes we could now notice.
It would be a perpetual problem and one I would have to live with. The tiny imperfections didn''t warrant redoing the entire door as they would only make it marginally better.
I would wait until a drastic improvement could be made until I went ripping things apart. This entire city would be a never-ending construction project but I would make it the best I could, or I would die trying.
I envisioned it as a living, growing piece of art a not insignificant amount of my time would go into improving. One I was happy to sink hours of work and Spirit into without any remorse.
If the strength and Spirit I poured into it would one day save my family, it would all be worth it.
After forcing my eyes to move on from the door and what tiny imperfections I could see, they were only able to take in one side of all its glory. While the ramp and door were first to be taken in, the rest of the castle wasn''t to be outdone.
A small mountain of stone stood before me reaching high into the sky and I knew it was only one wall of four. The wall was hundreds of feet wide and over 50 feet tall, with towers interspaced along its length. The two visible corners stood out above the rest, topped with guard towers thicker than the wall itself. They protruded out from the edge to give sight lines to any attacking the gate.
Slits ran up its length only a few inches wide starting from its base and ran the entire height, and while the tower stood out atop the wall, it wasn''t the only one.
Four others were interspaced along the top. Smaller and not as large as what manned the corners, they added to the imposing image facing me.
Two stood on either side of the gate overseeing all who would enter with two more at both midsections. The Engineers and Masons had outdone themselves and I would have to do something nice for them.
Originally, we had no Masons to speak of when the project started. Only gaining our first after a few had chosen to evolve that way when given the option. Builders reaching that threshold who had gone that route were rewarded by me personally.
After seeing me give out rewards to the lucky few, some had chosen to discard their current Profession and start from scratch with the ones I needed.
Our group had a wide range of Professions, but not all we needed we represented. Miners were our biggest bottleneck as not many wanted to mine stone all day.
It took a heavy incentive from me to convince any to make the switch.
Switching Professions was hard on people in both body and spirit. The Profession that was being discarded was essentially ripped away from the person.
All it had given in terms of stat points and skills was scraped from the person to make room for the new one. It set people back by months worth of work in some cases and that said nothing of the pain it caused.
While receiving stat points was a pleasant experience, feeling your body growing stronger, the opposite was not so fun.
It took signed contracts guaranteeing work, dungeon access for their Class, along with a decent amount of coin before any even considered it and even then, not many chose to sign up for the process.
Among the Profession books we had kept and brought with us, Miner was not one of them. Mason was, thankfully, but most of the resource-gathering ones were forgotten.
It was hard to know everything we would need when we didn''t have all the information. Abigail blamed herself for not thinking ahead, but I blamed the shoddy information we were given.
It wasn''t like we were given a guide on everything we would need and every situation we would experience. We didn''t even have a list of all the possible professions, let alone those that would benefit a city.
During our tutorial, no one had felt the need to choose the Lumberjack profession when we could just as easily cut down trees without it. I, as a Blacksmith, had cut down my fair share.
Little did we know the full benefit a resource-gathering Profession could offer. Not only were they faster and more efficient at doing so, but their skills could increase the grade of materials they brought in.
Where a regular person could only harvest the grade of wood available to them, sometimes even worsening it depending on the method of harvest, the dedicated profession could increase it.
When I was trying to build the strongest possible fortifications, any increase in material grade was most welcome, even if I had to pay a premium to make it happen.
Money did become an issue, though, as things progressed. I was not as flush with coin as I made it seem.
I could easily clear all eight floors of both dungeons but that only netted me just over a silver a day. Roughly 50 copper per dungeon wasn''t enough to keep everyone happy on our payroll.
100 copper, or a silver if you wished to convert it, paid for nearly 8 hours of the work we had done in a day.
Not only did the construction workers need to be paid, but the people gathering and hauling the material as well. Let alone the Farmers after they started work when Spring finally arrived.
With how far North we were, the planting season came a little later than most but we weren''t so far up that it never came. While the Winter seemed like it would never end on some days, the Chill did eventually break for the warm southern air to come through.
Much to my annoyance.
Anyway, while the castle stood alone for now, walls would soon join it and fill out what I had dreamed. Right now it was a very sturdy stone house with guard towers.
A house I was fit to move into now that we were done.
A house that I hoped to be my seat of power for years -no- centuries to come.
It was hard to change my thinking into longer time frames but I was beginning to come to terms with how long I would live.
Chapter 171 - Status Changes
~~
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (E) Human*
Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) ¨C Level 68
Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) ¨C Level 58
Affinity: Arctic
Faction: Frostheim (Outpost Leader)
Strength - 892
Agility - 443
Perception - 254
Fortitude - 727
Endurance - 404
Vitality - 295
Intelligence - 207
Wisdom - 387
Acumen - 150
Free Points: 150
Laws: Lesser Law of Ice, Least Law of Wind
Body Stage: Body of Wood(Northern Wind Body)
Spirit Stage: Anchor Formation
Class Skills:
Frostbound Hammer(Legendary)
Shattering Hammer(Epic)
Pervading Cold(Rare)
Mighty Blow(Uncommon)
Icy Bastion(Rare)
Righteous Fury(Rare)
Frost Armor(Rare)
Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare)
Glacial Presence(Rare)
Frozen Patchwork(Rare)
Desolate Blizzard(Rare)
Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman)
Mighty Blow(Uncommon)
Reinforced Body(Uncommon)
Sweeping Snow(Uncommon)
Ice Manipulation(Uncommon)
Cold Meditation(Uncommon)
Ice Arrow(Uncommon)
Shatter(Uncommon)
Permafrost(Uncommon)
Mental Freeze(Uncommon)
Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon)
Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon)
Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice)
Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)
Identify(Common)
Profession Skills:
Runesmithing(Rare)
Mana Engraving(Rare)
Basic Runecrafting(Rare)
Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon)
Warding(Uncommon)
Formations Mana Flow(Uncommon)
Forging Proficiency(Apprentice)
Sense Metal(Common)
Create Weapon(Common)
Create Armor(Common)
Metallurgy(Common)
Mana Infusion(Common)
Coins: 0
~~
It was almost nostalgic to look over my status sheet before what we were about to face. A nod to old times when I looked over all I had accomplished in the three days between the waves.
This was a touch different as it had been far more than three days since the last wave, but it felt the same nonetheless.
The changes that had happened to the sheet were extensive since our return. Just the stats alone had a massive jump. My strength was nearing four digits and my fortitude wasn''t far behind it.
Even though the levels took longer and longer to climb, they meant more than before. I was receiving 21 points in strength every level in my Class alone compared to the 2 at the start.
A positive about not having the threat of waves breathing down my neck was I could now spend more time on deciding where to spend my free points. 150 of them had built up and I still wasn''t sure where I wanted to spend them all. 100 of them were already accounted for but the rest were fair game.
It wasn''t like I had to spend them now, saving them was fine, but it felt wrong to have that much power sitting in limbo. Plus, it was way too many to spend right before a big fight.
Adjusting to the change that many stat points would bring took time and being discombobulated before a fight would cause more harm than going into it 150 stat points less.
The multiplicative effects of some of my skills would only make it worse as well.
The reason I was stockpiling them was because I had a few problems I wished to address and I had to wait until the right time to do so.
One, my Acumen was struggling to keep up. If I spent my entire mana pool right now, it would take over half a day to refill completely. Spending massive amounts of mana to engrave Runes throughout the Castle and then having to wait hours for it to refill was frustrating.
If I made the gap between Wisdom and Acumen even larger by throwing my Free points into Wisdom as I had before, it would take even longer for it to refill. Generally, if Wisdom and Acumen were equal, it took around 3 hours for your mana to refill to full.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Things could change that and not everyone was the same, but that was the rule of thumb we had come up with after getting a large enough sample size. Mages were on the faster end and would sometimes break that rule due to other skills, but it was a good benchmark to use.
The mana density of the area you were in mattered as well, obviously, but we already adjusted things to match where we were. If I sat in a mana-gathering formation that entire timeline would be thrown out the window but that wasn''t the point.
While Acumen was my lowest stat, it wasn''t the only one that needed some love. Over time, we had figured out the different effects stat imbalances could have and I wished to avoid that issue.
Too much strength and not enough fortitude caused you to hurt yourself when exerting that strength. Strength without Agility made you uncoordinated and clumsy.
Agility without Perception made it impossible to see where you were going and your eyes couldn''t keep up with your movements. Agility without Strength and muscles would tear when making sudden movements.
It was all one big circle where one stat affected another and one that got too far ahead could cause problems with the rest.
The problem I was beginning to run into now was my Endurance. I was built for long sustained fights and it was how I survived the tutorial in the first place, but I was losing that edge.
Points in Wisdom would make the pool bigger and let me extend fights magically, but it was physically that I was beginning to falter now.
As Strength increased, it took more energy to utilize, or Stamina, as I equated it to. To swing around my hammer with the speed and strength I did, it took a mountain of stamina to do for extended periods.
But as my Strength skyrocketed with the levels, my Endurance didn''t keep up. It was below that 2:1 ratio I liked to keep. Plus, [Avalanche] and [Rage] drained Stamina at astounding rates.
The only reason I suspected my Endurance kept up for as long as it did, and I was only feeling it lagging now, was because of my Anchor. It bolstered my body and kept me going when I started to flag. It burned Spirit to keep my Stamina from bottoming out I suspected.
The obvious answer to the problem was to throw more points into Endurance, right? The problem with that was it caused a cascading effect. [Body of a Barbarian] took every second point in Endurance and applied a point in Strength.
So, for example, if I threw 42 points into Endurance to bring it to 446, exactly half, it would then add 21 points to Strength, causing it to fall below half again.
The end result of balancing the two would take 56 points into Endurance causing Strength to go up by 28. That was a large enough jump to take a day or two to get comfortable with.
That didn''t sound too bad until you took into account the delicate work I had been doing. Carving Runes throughout the Castle, especially the doors, took a tremendous amount of precision and I wasn''t about to alter everything during such a delicate procedure.
The fact I would spend days breaking things trying to adjust was only a secondary reason to hold off, if a bit mundane.
Now that the Castle was finished and I had time to rest, I would have to go through with it, but that would come after what we were facing. Same with using the rest to boost Acumen.
As much as I didn''t think this fight would be threatening, I didn''t want to throw myself out of proportion right before it, just in case.
The other changes in my status were smaller. My affinity reflected the upgrade I had gone through along with my faction changing. The Zalenski Family Faction ended with the tutorial and it had been left empty for a while.
It wasn''t until we placed our pylon that we could form our new one. While tempted to rename it the same, I refrained from doing so. Faction names were how the rest of the world would refer to us. I would eventually change it from being the same as our city name, but that was a problem for the future.
Other than Affinity and Faction, my new Law was added to the list along with my new skills. Besides that, it stayed mostly the same. Coins still being 0 was annoying, but it wasn''t worth the cost to transfer them only to give them out in payment.
Finished overlooking my status, I closed it to look over the people around me. It was a far cry from the first time we had faced a wave and it showed in our arrangement.
To place the pylon, over 100 people stood to fight. That number had now doubled.
Our population steadily rose as the days went on as people found us and joined but most of the growth happened after Winter ended. Not many were out and about during the heavy snows.
Some found us through odd means, professional or class wise, while others were lucky. Austin''s spotty divination skills through Explorer were far from the only divination skills in the world.
While our growth was low, due to how far out of the way we were, we still grew. One of the main reasons for our growth now caused a comforting presence to be missing, but that was for another time.
I didn''t wish to get into that right now.
Our growing size had other effects, and not all were good, but the one effect I focused on right now was the increasing number of guards.
200 people stood geared for battle and it filled me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. I knew it was a stretch to say they were directly fighting for me but it felt the same.
They were fighting to defend something I had built and that felt good.
The Archers and Mages stood elevated along the walls of the castle while everyone else stood down in front. I didn''t order them to, or was it necessary for them to, but they took this as an opportunity to grow.
Similar to how Austin and I fought in front of the gates not long ago.
The fact no one had died yet only emboldened people further and I would eventually have to tamp the enthusiasm down, but it was alright for now. Our pylon was still only at the Outpost level and the waves it sent were enough for people to gain experience without it being a major threat.
We would soon upgrade our pylon and things would change, but for now, things were fine. The difficulty would go up when we upgraded it to Village and then Town, but I was in no rush.
We could wait until we had a proper wall before we went through with all the upgrades.
We were missing out on the benefits of an upgraded pylon, but those benefits weren''t enough to warrant rushing. We gathered most of the materials we needed ourselves and the things we traded for were small, so increasing that range wasn''t as valuable.
Jonathan being E-rank already got us enough range to reach other pylons, reaching further wouldn''t change much. It would increase the variety of things available, but I doubted anything truly valuable was being sold.
There were other benefits to a higher-tier pylon, but those wouldn''t help us right now and also weren''t worth rushing for.
This would be the fourth wave we would face since placing our pylon and it would be our fourth victory. The waves were all similar to what we faced the first time, around 200 to 300 level 30 enemies with a few above that.
Those numbers were going up, but not nearly at the same rate as the tutorial. The increased numbers were hard to quantify at first they were so small.
Some said it was the rising mana levels of the planet causing the increase and I was inclined to believe them. The mana levels had continued to rise and no one could tell when that would end.
Our planet was technically still adjusting to mana. We weren''t told what the final grade of the planet would be, but we knew it was currently approaching D-grade.
Mana would continue to rise until the planet reached its final grade and only stabilized after that, but until then, it was something we had to account for.
The stronger challenge of owning a city wasn''t something we could change, nor did I want it to. It was a bit wrong of me to wish for it to be harder, but the harder it was to own a city, the fewer there would be.
The fewer cities there were, the fewer conflicts over land would arise. That circle kept flowing but the point was, the fewer cities there were, the smaller the chance of someone trying to fight for mine.
While I wouldn''t seek out war and would try to avoid it if I could, there was a Latin saying that summed it up pretty well. Something I had heard from my father once upon a time.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
I hoped to build something strong enough that people were deterred from even the thought of attacking me. The Castle was only the start.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by the chime of a notification. The familiar notification that came before every wave.
''Defend your claim!''
None of the nervous twitches accompanied it this time as everyone here had faced one before. People only rechecked armor straps or pulled lightly to test bowstrings, making sure everything was ready.
It was with a small smile that I faced the coming monsters and led from the front, "Archers,"
The odd twenty or so standing near me on the wall moved in unison, nocking flowed into a full draw fluidly before waiting for the order. A stark difference compared to the first time we had done this.
While I didn''t care much for leadership, it felt good to command such a response.
My small smile turned a touch bigger.
"Fire!"
Chapter 172 - Departure
The wave the other day went smoothly, like the previous four had, and now I was back to managing our growing populous. Honestly, it was a bit of a shame the waves only came once a month to break up the monotony of governing.
It gave everyone a chance to get real experience fighting and gave me the chance to hone my battlefield commanding. Not all who wished to be guards were as combat-experienced as others.
The waves were a stark difference from how I remembered them. Instead of the heralds of death I knew them as, they were just another thing to manage among my list of growing responsibilities.
The frequency with which they arrived varied compared to before. They used to be like Swiss clockwork with their consistency, right at noon every three days, but that didn''t hold true anymore. I supposed the regularly scheduled and curated tutorial waves had different requirements to the ones we now faced.
The waves, as our tutorial was meant to show if it wasn''t a death trap, were there to test cities. Or pylons, as one went with the other now. They kept the ''unworthy'' from controlling pylons, as one information book pretentiously stated.
They were designed to make sure whoever owned one had the strength required to defend it. I wasn''t sure what the ''Great System'' needed these tests for, but it seemed to be a requirement for a lot of things.
Tests to evolve, tests for pylon ownership, tests for everything.
What dictated the strength of the waves sent, or ''tests'', was the grade of the Planet and the tier of the pylon. On higher-tiered planets where land was more valuable due to higher mana density, the tests were harder.
Our planet being on the lower end of the Grades, as it was newly integrated, didn''t have that hard of waves. As it increased in grade, that would change but so would our preparedness to face them.
The second reason our waves were... so tame, was because we were still only at the outpost level. Being on a lower-grade planet with the lowest-tier pylon resulted in facing waves with the average level in the 30s.
When Tracy detailed the wave they faced when placing their pylon, she said they faced level 20 monsters, which told me the increase was slow but consistent.
It was hard to tell with only a few waves as data points, but an increase of 10 levels over 9 months didn''t sound all that bad right now. That equated to about a dozen a year.
The book where we got most of the information didn''t state whether or not owning multiple pylons affected difficulty or not, but that wasn''t a big issue for us. I had no desire to own more than one.
Maybe adding a few smaller Villages if we grew big enough, but I didn''t wish for a continent-spanning kingdom. That sounded like way too much work. I would leave the conquering to others, as long as they didn''t come for mine.
That thought made me wonder if any conflict had already broken out. I knew human-on-human conflict had already, the Adventurers and Knighthood in my hometown were a testament to that, but I wondered if true war had happened anywhere.
It had been a year, maybe it had?
Abigail''s entrance into my... office? broke my thoughts away from that. I hesitated to call it an office because that wasn''t what it was made for. It was my bedroom first but transitioned into an office when I needed it during the day.
While the outside of the Castle was mostly finished and the inside walls were complete, the rooms still lacked furniture or anything to break up the wash of grey stone everywhere.
I was one of the few who chose to move in already as most decided to wait until the furnishings were done.
"Any messages among the new arrivals?" I asked before she had the chance to sit down on my bed. With me occupying the only chair in the room, it was the only other place to sit.
The missing presence on the battlefield yesterday was still a sore spot, even though I knew he would leave. After the snow melted and the temperature started to rise, Austin decided it was time.
It was hard not to think about how we split ways.
The Castle was finishing up nicely and it would be complete soon. My mood was high and it felt like nothing could bring it down. Even the small petty infractions some partook in wouldn''t sour my mood.
Even the melting snow couldn''t bring me down, even if others saw that as a good thing.
Austin was out talking to a few people before going out on another scouting run. He was packed down heavily with gear and I suspected this would be a long one this time.
He had been essential to getting the lay of the land. He covered ground at a harsh pace and recorded the levels and mana type of everywhere within miles of here.
While the map was great, it didn''t exactly spell out what every color meant in terms of mana affinity. Guesses were still out on what the teal swallowing up Virginia was.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The base four were easy, deep brown for earth, radiant red for fire, ocean blue for water, and a swirling grey for wind. A few others were obvious, whitish purple for lightning, gunmetal grey for metal, a bark-tinted brown for wood, and verdant green for nature.
Not to mention my own mana type, the icy blue.
He had done good work on recording anything of importance near where we were and I was glad to have him. His profession made things a lot easier on our more normal scouts.
Just when I was thinking of doing something nice for him, he finished talking with his mom and brother, Carrie and Conner, and started walking up to me.
He didn''t normally need to get my approval to go on scouting trips so this must be a really long one if he felt the need to inform me before departing.
My eyes missed his families looks of sadness as Austin approached me.
"Going out again, man? I think you''ve seen everything in a 25-mile radius." I joked.
Instead of laughing and firing something back, he just looked intently at me. It was then that I noticed what he had packed. Not only was he wearing his armor, his full armor, but he also had both of his spears with him.
I had made him a new one after we settled in and planted the pylon that had replaced the one he used from the tutorial. It was much better than his old one as my skills had improved tremendously between forging the two.
He had purchased the materials to make it with his Reward Points and it turned out fantastic. Radiant Steel, as the system called it. Bathed in Solar energies and amplified them. Vincent and I both pulled out all the stops in the forge to make it the best we could and I even learned a new Rune just for the project.
My Runesmithing skills had advanced rapidly after construction broke ground and they translated well to making weapons. I advanced past only being able to put one Rune on a piece of equipment and could now squeeze multiple into them depending on size.
Even on a smaller piece like a sword, I could now link a few together. The material had to support it, of course, but it wasn''t my lacking skills holding me back anymore.
For his spear, I used Runes of Durability and Piercing, along with a more difficult Rune of Radiance. That Rune was much more difficult than the other two and took me a while to get down without messing it up.
It was also the one I specifically purchased for him as I knew it would work well on his weapon. Durability and Piercing were no-brainers to put on a spear, but the last one was what made me proud of the piece.
Vinny handled the mana infusion as his affinity was closer to Solar than mine, but I put a lot of work into forging him the best weapon I could. Vincent''s Spirit Fire was even used and pushed it to an even higher grade. It leaned heavily toward the fire side of Solar instead of light, but it still boosted both when the skills were channeled through it. The material used and the Rune of Radiance helped even it out.
Other than his spears, his pack was bursting at the seams it was so full. It wasn''t just a long trip he had planned. It was an indefinite one.
That realization caused my good mood to evaporate. Just when I thought nothing could bring me down, the world found a way to prove me wrong.
"You''re leaving," I said softly as the realization dawned on me.
It wasn''t even a question as it was clear to me now. I knew he would eventually depart to see the world, but I hadn''t thought it would be so soon.
He nodded, "You don''t need me anymore. The area is explored thoroughly and the castle is almost finished. My presence here isn''t required anymore."
"And if I ask you to stay anyway?" I questioned, but it wasn''t hopeful.
He exhaled audibly and shook his head. I knew what he would say but I had to ask it anyway. "What would I do that I haven''t already? Range further and further out?"
That was true. He had already expanded our range significantly. Tying him here to keep expanding it wasn''t the best use of his time. Nor did I want to chain him here unwillingly.
He had a heart to explore. During our journey North was the happiest I had ever seen him and I wasn''t going to keep him from that.
"Don''t go out there and die on me," I said and punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"That wouldn''t be too bad of a way to go. Venture off into the sunset, never to be seen again." He said wistfully, looking up at the sun, "It has a certain mystique to it I like."
I couldn''t help but snort, he had always had a flair for the dramatic.
"What?" He looked at me questioningly, "Not all of us wish to go out in a blaze of glory like you. While that is still a good way to go, disappearing into the sunset has its charm."
"I didn''t think our parting words would be on how we wished to die," I said with a laugh.
"Hey, you were the one who started all the death talk." He defended.
I decided not to respond and gave him a big hug instead. His enormous bag got in the way but I gave him a squeeze anyway and a pat on the shoulders.
It would be a while until I saw him again.
"Don''t be a stranger, eh? You''ll always have a room here to come back to." I said.
"I know, I know. I''ll come back to regale you with tales of my adventure." He said sarcastically with a smile as we broke apart.
"I look forward to hearing them." I answered, and then added before it got too chummy, "Now go on, get. See the world or whatever you wanted to do."
Nothing more needed to be said so he turned and left.
Before he got too far, I shouted a final question, an afterthought I should have asked first, "Where will you go?"
He turned as he walked backward with a great smile on his face, "I don''t know." He seemed happy that was the answer, "Wherever the Sun takes me."
I stood and watched him depart for longer than I would admit to.
Ever since his departure, people had been steadily trickling in from Northern Canada. They claimed a spear-wielding warrior pointed them in this direction if they wanted safety.
Not many survived the Winter this far North, and not many lived up here originally, but enough did to boost our population.
Occasionally, the new arrivals carried messages from him if he felt like leaving one and they were always the first I asked about when new arrivals appeared.
"Not this time. They used to live near Winnipeg before arriving here and had no new information that we didn''t already know." Abigail answered.
Finding out where the arrivals were from was a good way to follow along his journey but it wasn''t the only information they brought.
With every new arrival, we tried to get anything new out of them. We had already learned a great many things depending on what kind of tutorial the person experienced.
We were keeping a list of all we knew and there were a few that stood out. The one detailing Dungeon breaks was especially insightful on how to keep them from happening.
But one captured people''s attention more than all the others, though, and only a few had experienced it. Something they called the Blight.
Rumors went wild when they first arrived and word spread, but it highlighted that there was more to prepare for than we had initially thought.
Chapter 173 - The Molten Smith
"Are you sure about this?" I asked skeptically as my eyes roved the building in front of me. The heat rolled off the building and distorted the air if I looked close enough.
It reminded me of when it was me standing where Vincent was getting asked the same question. When I was the center of everyone''s worried glances and expressions of pity.
"Were you?" He asked in response, which was as good a response as any.
I knew the pain that he was in for.
Looking at what was built to contain the fires needed for the process, I had to say it didn''t look like a fun time. At least it was built solidly and didn''t have glowing lines strewn all over it like mine did.
After the castle was finished, Vincent had asked for a few of the construction workers'' help in building this monstrosity. I had agreed to his request, as it was only a small portion of our workforce that he needed, and it would help both him and Rachel.
After hearing some of the newcomers'' stories, advancement was a hard thing to postpone without good reason. Especially with the knowledge of certain new threats our world would face.
Similar to the Wind chamber I had built so long ago, Vincent had done the same, but with fire.
He and Rachel had gotten together to examine all the secrets of their technique book and come up with this to facilitate the process. Maybe it was envy or jealousy, but their technique was better than mine.
It didn''t have better benefits or anything, as all Body Refinement grades were about equal, but it had way more options. When I bought mine, I knew exactly what I wanted and only bought the one specific technique I needed.
To keep the cost low.
But they bought theirs at the end from the Reward store which had a lot more options. The one they ended up getting was a branching technique book that had multiple different ones to choose from depending on the exact effect you wanted.
While all were Fire-based as it was their affinity, the book contained different variations of techniques. Fire mixed with Stone for a magma or lava effect. One had Fire and molten metal. One even had Fire and water to make steam. Or superheated steam as the book claimed.
Other than Fire and a bunch of secondary elements, it also had specific variations of fire. One focused on the ignition part of fire while another intensity and another the combustion part.
Anything a Fire Affinity could want in a Body of Wood was available and it only aggravated me a tiny bit. The book was penned by a rather famous faction known for their advancements in fire, if what was written were to be believed.
It could be self-boasting for all I knew, but The Order of the Phoenix Flame sounded impressive out of context. Their name was prominently displayed as the author on the book''s cover.
Where mine only came with the one Wind and Ice mixture, they had a few to choose from depending on what they wanted. It was the main reason Vincent and Rachel could use the same technique book even though they were going to be using different sub-elements.
I wouldn''t go back and choose any differently, as I quite liked my results, but it was still disheartening. The knowledge Rachel spent a large portion of her Reward points on it placated my feeling of envy.
Still, the fact our faction had more resources for fire affinity members than ice affinity members didn''t feel right when we were this far North.
Vincent, as a Blacksmith more than a fighter, was going for a Fire and Molten Metal combination to aid him in his craft. The bloodline he had chosen was also in line with that endeavor.
That wasn''t to say they couldn''t be used for combat, just they were mainly geared toward making him a better blacksmith.
Vincent''s bloodline followed my own in a way. He took me choosing what I had as a nudge to follow suit, even if it was slightly frowned upon. Fire Titans and Frost Giants were similar in their dislike of people using their bloodline.
It was a lesser tier, a step below my own, but it was in the same family. His would be equivalent to if I had chosen Frost-Touched instead of Frostborn which made his road to Fire Titan would be a long one.
Fire Titans and Dwarves were known as some of the best Smiths in the multiverse and he didn''t want to give that up, even if it came with a bit of conflict later. Nor did I blame him, they sounded powerful.
He had worked extensively to prepare the room his technique needed and we now stood overseeing his finished work. A thick stone building with roaring fires contained inside.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
If the stone wasn''t treated to specifically resist heat, they would be glowing from the raging fire and turning liquid as we looked on from what they contained.
The building was different than the Wind chamber in that it didn''t require the extensive formations carved throughout the building. It didn''t need Runes to create harsh Winds or sustain them for multiple days.
His fire needed fuel and a Runic structure was needed to facilitate that, but it didn''t require the days of studying to make that mine did.
When Vinny asked me to do my part, it took me less than a few hours to complete what was needed.
The main reason an elaborate Formation wasn''t needed was because of his Spirit Fire. It sat in the center of the room and was the source of the fire. Without it, sustaining a flame of the intensity required would take a Formation of some kind.
But since he had one, of the Fire affinity as well, all he needed to do was keep it fed and regulated for an extended period which was a lot easier to do.
Spirit Fires were ranked in grades, much like everything else, but even the lowest ones we had were enough for Body of Wood tempers. The grade of the Spirit Fire determined the maximum intensity it could burn and it would eventually not be hot enough, but it would get the job done for the first Refinement.
Other than the Runes regulating and keeping the Spirit Fire fed, there wasn''t much to construct. The basin to hold the Molten metal wasn''t too difficult and neither was the building surrounding the entire thing.
Making sure everything was fire resistant enough for the intense flames was the hardest part and was something I couldn''t help with. Ice and Fire did not mix Runically.
Trying to contain the fire by surrounding it with Ice runes was a terrible idea as we found out when it was initially proposed. Making something fireproof was much different than surrounding it with the opposing element.
The two mana types fought each other on contact and would degrade the runic structure quickly enough for it to be visible to the naked eye before ending in one of two ways.
The fire overwhelming the ice and the entire thing going up in flames, or the ice overwhelming the fire and the entire thing imploding in frost receiving a flash freeze.
There was a chance for it to end in both canceling each other out, but for that to happen the two energies needed to be present in equal amounts and purities, which was unlikely without strict tolerances.
Instead of trying to surround it with Ice, the stone making up the room was coated in a ceramic-like material that had been created for that specific purpose. Connor and another alchemist worked with a few Builders to make it fireproof enough for the high temperatures it would face. Connor mentioned something about its melting temperature being off the charts.
The basin holding the Molten metal was coated in the same substance.
Describing what was about to happen in simple terms, Vincent was going to walk into a room filled with a burning flame and take a bath in liquid metal. His body would be exposed to both the open Spirit Flame, and burn from the superheated metal.
It did not sound like a pleasant experience, but then again, neither was what I went through.
I would rather freeze than burn, personally, but I figured that was due to my affinity.
Vincent was visibly nervous as we all looked on at the raging fires inside the building and his wife was barely holding it together as her eyes tracked the dancing tongues of orange.
Lucy was on the verge of tears looking at what was about to happen and I was surprised she was here to watch. I would not want to watch what was about to happen to my significant other, if I had one.
Most watched on silently, but Vincent had Healers checking him over and getting his baseline metrics. Fussing over him like mother hens as Sam made triple sure that all the Healers used their assortment of skills.
While the chance of death was low, as we were taking all the precautions we could, she did not want to lose another son.
We kept the audience small, as this wasn''t a process to be broadcasted, but there were still a sizable amount of people to stand witness. At least for the initial plunge, as most weren''t going to stay for the entire time it took to complete, me included.
My own refinement took over two days and I didn''t have the time to spend watching over it. My presence wouldn''t add anything to the process anyway.
The Healers, on the other hand, would be on standby 24/7 until the Refinement completed. Then, after a rest and evaluation, Rachel would go through with it.
The Healers completed their work swiftly and gave a nod signaling their go-ahead.
"Well, here goes nothing," He said trying to lighten the mood. He then stripped down to his skivvies and marched forward stone-faced, the thin material would burn away once inside but would keep him from being naked in front of a crowd.
It was hard not to notice the rippling muscles his form now contained. Months of Blacksmith work had filled out his form nicely and he had more than me in that regard.
The relationship between muscle size and strength stat was still being explored but the two did not directly correlate as most expected. If that were the case, I would be a walking hunk of muscle but I wasn''t.
I didn''t even have the greatest physique of those we knew.
Sure, I was tall and bulky, but I wasn''t lined with abs or exposed muscles like a bodybuilder. We still weren''t sure about the why but we would find out in time.
His back muscles stood out as we walked toward the raging fires and the width of his shoulders made me impressed. If I didn''t know for sure I would beat him in an arm wrestling match, they might''ve made me feel inferior.
His high heat resistance worked to keep any damage at bay long enough for him to enter the building and vanish from sight. If anyone lesser tried to approach, the burns would start way before they stepped foot inside the structure.
It wasn''t long until grunts of pain were audible. He didn''t have the sound of howling Winds to drown them out and his cries were able to be heard.
Lucy''s face morphed through various emotions at her husband''s audible pain but she held firm and stared on. Sam did the same, but others cringed at what they heard.
We knew the process was painful, as this wasn''t the first time someone had gone through with it, but it was the first to be so audible. I had Winds to drown in out and Mitchell was unconscious for the process.
I stayed for the first hour but had enough after that. The sounds did not fill me with happy feelings and all I could do was pray his process was fast and smooth.
I had given his chosen technique a read before and it was hard not to picture what was happening as I listened.
The Molten Smith''s Body was quite detailed in what would happen.
Chapter 174 - Paradoxical, but it Works
Nothing unexpected arose from the process and it seemed to be going smoothly based on what I was told, even if I wasn''t there to watch. I checked in every once and a while but other than that, I kept myself busy.
Sitting around knowing what was happening was almost worse than listening to it. My mind kept bringing up the memories of what I went through and my prayers for it to end.
Instead, to keep my hands busy and mind occupied, I deferred my governing tasks for later and focused on something else.
While Vincent had a Spirit Fire for his craft, I had one of my own and it was past time to start forging with it. I had let construction pull me away from focusing on my profession.
It hadn''t seen much love but it was now time to change that. My Profession had advanced in level because of Runes for the past few months and it was time to even things out with a bit of forging.
Get back into the heart of my profession and pick up the hammer again. The smithing hammer.
While all Spirit Fires were similar, their affinities could vary. All resembled a ball of fire but differed in color and gave off different feelings. Vinny''s fire roared and emanated heat like it had a miniature sun contained inside.
Mine was the opposite. Not only in color but feeling as well.
It felt like it contained the heart of a glacier and the air coming off of it carried a chill as if it had blown over miles of ice. The Flame also matched my mana color and was a striking light blue.
It still looked and acted like a flame, flickering back and forth in various tongues that waved upward, but it wasn''t the same as a flame.
Honestly, it was a touch weird to look at. It so closely resembled fire that my mind expected it to be fire. Like I would burn myself if I stuck my hand close enough.
Another oddity of the flame was the effect it had on materials. Not every Spirit Fire had uses beneficial to forging, as some were better for Alchemists or other professions, but Ice surprisingly could. Wood Affinity Spirit Flames were surprisingly well suited to Alchemy, however that flame worked.
When I originally searched for it in the Reward Store, I half expected my affinity to be incompatible with forging, but I was wrong.
The cold emanating out from the blue fire softened metal similarly to how heat did, which I thought was odd. Cold temperatures should make metal brittle, not ductile. The key word being should.
I had long forgone fire and turned to Cold forging in my craft but I had experimented with using the Spirit Flame before. Its effect made it even easier than normal as I didn''t have to use as much force with the hammer.
The flame was cold to the touch and metal placed near it became cold to the touch as well, hell, one started to frost over when I left it in the flame long enough. By all the reasoning I knew, it shouldn''t work the way it did. Cold did not affect metal the way the Spirit Fire was doing it.
My years of engineering taught me cold temperatures made metal brittle AND I had experience using my own powers to do the same to the Metal Ants in the tutorial. Both before and after the world changed did the Cold make metal brittle, but this seemed to stand proudly in defiance of normal convention.
It was a true paradox my mind couldn''t comprehend.
At least not yet. Maybe it was a Law I was missing that worked behind the scenes or maybe it was something different entirely. Magic in high concentrations could have odd effects.
The perpetual storm over Chicago could attest to that.
Even without knowledge of the intricate details, my experiments using the Flame went swimmingly. It eased the process of forging by softening the metal and it boosted the grade I could forge with the mana it gave off.
It constantly emitted a deluge of Ice mana similar to how a normal fire would radiate heat. The mana would flow into the material during the forging process and boost its grade by a small amount.
The slight hiccups I found when using the Flame was when I couldn''t feed it enough. As a magical fire, it needed magical fuel. Wood and coal did little else except frost over when placed inside the Flame.
It fed on Mana, or more specifically, Ice Mana. It was little surprise that the Ice-attributed Spirit Flame preferred Ice-attributed Mana as fuel, but it was still nice to gain that little bit of confirmation.
After seeing the paradoxical effects it had, I didn''t want to assume anything.
Neutral mana worked as well but wasn''t as efficient, taking more mana to have the same effect, and so did other attributes close enough. Water and Wind seemed no worse than neutral mana when I had Abigail and my mother feed it with their mana pools.
Gabriel wanted to go around testing the effects everyone''s mana pool had when used as fuel but I curbed his enthusiasm. It wasn''t that I preferred to keep it hidden, but I also didn''t wish to parade our treasures around.
Greed was an easy thing to induce.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
People knew of Vincent''s already, as that one was hard to keep secret, but mine was lesser known. Only the people who had seen me pack it when we first left knew I had it, which was a small portion of our growing city.
I did not use it out in the open and that would remain the case going forward. The few experiments I had done with it were behind closed doors inside the castle.
Oddly enough, it was my mother who pushed for more secrecy regarding some of the things we had. I would eventually build myself a dedicated forge inside what I called the ''compound'', but that would have to wait until the Inner Wall was constructed.
Besides the keep part of the castle, we had a few other structures planned for inside the Inner Wall. The area staked off inside the future wall was large enough to accommodate more structures than only the keep.
Dedicated craft buildings for some of my family, a forge specifically for me, and quality-of-life buildings.
Those weren''t high on our list of priorities, obviously, but that didn''t mean we didn''t have plans for them. Abigail''s City planning was nothing if not thorough.
Before my smithy was built, I had to make do with what I had. A room in the same wing of the castle as my bedroom was taken over with tools and materials and the few things I brought with me from the tutorial.
Building something to hold the Spirt Fire was surprisingly easy and made Vincent insanely jealous when he originally found out. There was no better material to contain Ice energies than Ice itself.
I had crafted a pedestal and forge around the flame made out of Ice made by my own hand and it worked to keep the Flame contained easily. The Ice mana coming off the Flame strengthened the Ice surrounding it far better than I ever could.
It was a never-ending feedback loop. When I pushed mana into the Flame, increasing its intensity, the mana coming off of it increased in turn, strengthening the Ice surrounding it further.
The reason Vinny was so jealous was because he couldn''t do the same. You couldn''t build from fire as it had no substance. It wasn''t like Ice where I could make things with it.
He had to jump through a series of hoops to build something strong enough to contain his flame and allow him to work with it without burning everything down. It had taken him working for months with Brayden and Conner to build something that would accomplish the feat and that was where the ceramic coating originated.
It was also the main reason he was so attached to his anvil. It had taken a very expensive fire-resistant metal along with an intricate heat treatment to keep it from melting in high temperatures. It was one of the more expensive things we owned because of the material alone, not that I''d ever tell him that. To me, it was entirely unnecessary to haul it thousands of miles North with us.
Hey, I couldn''t renege on the shit I gave him over it and I was sticking to what I said, even if it was said under duress of pulling the damn thing.
The Ice my forge was made of still wasn''t strong enough for me to hammer on without shattering, much to my disappointment. While the Ice surrounding the fire was extremely strong, the anvil was too far away from the flame to receive the same treatment.
With Ice failing, I had to resort back to hard metals. I wasn''t very attached to my anvil from the tutorial and chose to leave it behind. It wasn''t made out of any expensive material or treated differently.
My forging didn''t create much heat and any it did, my Ice whisked away.
The only thing it needed to do was resist force, and there were plenty of materials out there that could do that. Even mundane High-Carbon steel of sufficient grade could work.
The real part I missed from my previous setup was the base I had. The slab of metal I put under my anvil to keep the shockwaves from dissipating. That thing was entirely too heavy and unwieldy to bring on a cross-country trip, no matter how much I missed it now.
Without it, I had to make do with what I had, and that was enough for now. The hardened stone of the castle did the same, if to a lesser degree.
I would look into better materials later, but for now, I wanted to get back into forging.
One thing that I felt should be pointed out, was just because my Profession level was higher now, that didn''t automatically make me a better smith. My skill rarities were still only Common and Uncommon, a far cry away from what I wanted them.
Reaching level 58 didn''t give me any knowledge or techniques on how to forge better and I was still on the level I was back before I evolved, which was frustrating.
I was even a touch worse as it had been a while since I had last forged.
My daily routine stayed the same going forward, as I wasn''t going to deviate from it, but I now slipped some forging time in there to keep my skills sharp. It made it so that I couldn''t spend as much time helping with construction, but that was fine with me. It wasn''t yet time for the Runes and the only thing I would be doing was manual labor, which I could leave to others.
It didn''t take long to see results and it was extremely gratifying to see my skills increase.
While building the castle, [Mana Engraving] had upgraded to Rare as well as [Basic Runecrafting], but now it was time for my other skills to receive that treatment.
Both [Create Weapon] and [Create Armor] reached Uncommon with a bit of effort and I felt my other skills improving as well.
It wasn''t a coincidence that those two had upgraded first. They were tied to the equipment I made and once I was able to make better things, they had upgraded.
It was only natural that using better materials would see those two skills upgraded quickly, even if it was a tad unearned. Well, not so much unearned as it was throwing money at the problem.
I didn''t let that get me down, though, and continued to hone my skills. Even going back to the basics to some degree.
My focus was on the first skill my Profession gave me as [Sense Metal] was well past due for an upgrade.
The first skill almost every Blacksmith learned could be upgraded into a variety of different things. At the skill''s base, it was an information-sensing skill. A smith used it to feel the material he was working with and know how it was reacting to his manipulation.
The skill wasn''t pigeonholed into only sensing metal as the name implied.
It would always be able to, as upgrading the skill didn''t get rid of its base function, but there were ways to influence what the skill could interpret.
Vinny went with [Sense Temperature]. He worked with a much more detailed flame control than I and he needed to know exactly what temperature different parts of the material were.
The fact that skill now helped him during his procedure was hard to banish from my head.
I, on the other hand, didn''t need to know that. Cold forging didn''t use heat and sensing the temperature would be useless.
Instead, I pushed for [Sense Frequency]. It was a bit pushing it for a single upgrade to go all the way from [Sense Metal] into [Sense Frequency], but I felt it would work best for my style.
My style, [Rhythm Forging], was all about creating a resonance frequency with the material I was working with and I felt [Sense Frequency] would aid in that process the most.
It was a work in progress, but I felt confident in being able to do so. Even if it took a while to make it happen.
If I could fix [Sweeping Slash], I could manage to do what I envisioned.
Chapter 175 - Traveling Light
My office was a flurry of activity as everyone seemed to need something right at the same time and my fun few days of forging were exchanged for managing. At least now Vincent was out of his procedure and was in the process of recovering.
I needed a break from my forging spree anyway. The only thing saving me from a mountain of paperwork was the fact we didn''t actually have paper.
Some professions could conjure it as part of a skill but those couldn''t be used for everyday use. Architects and Engineers could create Blueprints or Designs and have their skills generate the paper, but outside of that, we didn''t have it lying around.
We had alternatives, a plant fiber similar to papyrus or treated animal hide, but we tried to use them as little as possible as we didn''t have that much.
The foreman needed my approval on something, Abigail needed to run something by me in terms of direction, an altercation arose at one of the dungeons, and the farmers needed help getting the fields ready, along with a few smaller things.
All at the same time.
It was like the world took me looking for something to do to keep my hands busy as a challenge and had everything happen all at once.
While I wasn''t discounting cosmic retribution for having free time, there was a more likely solution to why everything was coinciding.
The Spring thaws kickstarted people into motion all at the same time.
Everyone was breaking out of their Winter freeze and activity was on the rise, which came with problems to solve.
The biggest issue, and what took priority right now, was whatever the Farmers needed. They were our future food and no matter how much I wanted to continue construction, food came first.
The current issue I was looking at would have to wait. Translators weren''t as important as putting seeds in the ground.
I mean, who even spoke French anyway?
Austin
It was nice to be free. To go where the moment took him without ties holding him back.
It felt like the chain perpetually tied around his leg had been released and he could do anything. His mind didn''t even put flying out of the picture like even gravity''s hold on him had lessened some degree.
At first, he didn''t really have a destination in mind. He just skipped along like he was out for a leisurely stroll he was so giddy. He wasn''t lying when he told Chris he would go where the Sun took him, but his feet found their direction soon enough.
During their travels, there were a few times his Profession had pinged him. A slight twinge here or a nudge there to go certain directions. Most didn''t seem to hold much importance, but one stood out above the rest.
The one where he tried to convince Chris to detour to it.
He didn''t begrudge his cousin for not listening, as Austin knew it was out there in terms of requests, but it was a bummer to be dismissed like that.
It almost made him laugh when he realized the path he was on. Southwest could lead to a lot of places, but the odds it wasn''t related to the feeling he had when passing Minneapolis was unlikely.
He guessed he would find out why he felt the urge and if it was anything cool, he would rub it in his face next they met.
He wasn''t bitter about it or anything.
The time to get there would take him weeks on foot but that was fine, it wasn''t like he had anywhere else to be.
His days of mostly solitude were only broken up when he came across other people. While rare to happen, the occasion arose more times than he thought it would. Canada had a population in the millions and even though most had perished, that still left a lot out there.
The interactions only rose in frequency as he got further South.
The few he ran into looking for security, he sent Christopher''s way. The city was in need of people and Austin doubted there was a more secure place around.
He had seen what Chris did every day to make that so.
While some may take his departure as not caring deeply for his family, that was far from the truth. He loved them dearly, but he also knew they would be safe.
As much as Christopher liked to play things down, Austin was rather observant when he wanted to be. While he didn''t have a Spirit Anchor himself, he had fought extensively side by side with someone who did.
Funnily enough, he wasn''t talking about Chris. He had more experience fighting next to Jonathan.
He had seen the toll using Spiritual energy took on Jon and there were multiple times where he ran out during the waves. Without the power Chris brought for the waves, it fell to Jon to be the vanguard.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
He was well suited defensively to do what was needed of him, but he didn''t have the endless energy Chris seemed to and had run out on multiple occasions. Especially during the last few waves.
Austin saw the pain it caused him when he ran out and had even spoken to him about it at one point about how it felt. He was familiar with mana deprivation headaches and Law migraines when he tried to overdo it, but draining the Spirit looked different.
Jonathan''s response wasn''t sugar-coated, "It''s a bone-deep exhaustion. Like your body has no energy and it hurts to even move. Imagine a hydraulic press crushing down on every part of your body."
It wasn''t hard to gain a picture of what happened from that... pleasant description.
The headaches of overextending his Law or overdrawing his mana were debilitating enough, Austin had trouble imagining fighting through worse, yet both Chris and Jon did.
The reason he felt so confident in leaving his family behind was because of a few reasons. One being, Chris was probably the strongest person he knew and with him there, Austin''s presence wouldn''t add much if a fight arose.
Two, he saw the care he took in crafting his domain. Chris spent nearly every waking moment overseeing the castle''s construction, pouring more resources into it than Austin had ever seen.
The rare metals and crystals for the wards alone were worth more than the total amount of Reward Points he received!
Other than the expensive and rare materials, Chris poured his Spirit into the stones, saturating them in his power. Austin watched as he pushed his Spirit as far as it would go trying to make the walls that much stronger.
Every day, he would expend everything in the tank only to wake up and do it again the next. Knowing the exhaustion it caused, Austin couldn''t help but respect his dedication.
It was a subtle thing, but Austin could feel the difference. The stone had an everlasting quality that they lacked before. Like the blocks themselves projected the sense they would last till the ends of time.
At first, he thought it was his imagination. Like he was seeing things just because he had witnessed the sheer amount of energy being pushed into the stone and his mind made something up rather than believe it did nothing.
It wasn''t until others started to feel it that he knew it was true. Rachel was the first to feel it with Gabriel close behind. Jon claimed to know the whole time but the feeling was clear.
They all claimed that the feeling came from what Chris was doing but no one said anything about it. To acknowledge it was unnecessary. Instead, they did all they could to help his efforts.
Knowing all that Austin did made his decision to leave easier, even if he felt the pangs of loneliness every once in a while. While a part of him wished for a companion to come along for his adventure, he knew what the answer would be if he asked.
Christopher and he wanted different things out of life, and that was alright. Where Austin wanted adventure and intrigue, Chris wanted the opposite.
The castle was more than just a home to him. It was his flag in the sand. He placed it there as if to say ''Here I Stand'' and proclaim it to all the world. It would be what he called home for centuries and he was fine with living a more... sedentary life.
Rooted in place, if you wished to be poetic. Or, Austin thought with a smirk, frozen in place.
Ah, enough about them. Think of what lies ahead.
Austin found himself thinking of what he had left behind more often than he cared for. This was supposed to be an adventure! Part sightseeing, part action! Not bemoaning what he had left behind.
As time progressed, the days started to blend together. The forests and plains all looked the same and it was days of walking to get anywhere exciting.
He continued pointing the people he ran into toward Frostheim, even though Winter''s End sounded cooler.
He ran into a few dungeons here or there, but besides that, his adventure was uneventful. Which was how an adventure should never be. The whole point was to be eventful.
He noticed time slipping by when he bumped into the shores of Lake Superior days before he thought he would. He didn''t walk any faster so he must have lost time along the way.
He attributed the quicker trip to his meditations.
Ever since he left, the feeling he once had was coming back. When he first returned to Earth, he felt a cresting feeling deep inside his chest.
He knew what it was, but he didn''t wish to jinx it by saying it aloud, or even thinking it.
At the time, it hadn''t fully formed even when he tried everything he could to make it so. He didn''t hear the question, there wasn''t a grasping power looking for something to hold onto.
While disappointing, he let the feeling go. Forcing it was no help to anybody.
Austin had thought the feeling would come back during their journey. He first felt it while exploring the new world, why wouldn''t it come back while they trekked through most of North America?
To his great surprise and sadness, it didn''t come back.
Not until now.
Once he felt it rising again, he spent most of his walking time meditating on it. While others would sit in one place and dive into deep introspection, that never felt right to him.
Movement loosened the body and rattled things free in the head. If he wanted to find out his Anchor, he needed to jar it loose through movement. His inability to sit still had nothing to do with it. Not at all.
As he ruminated on what it could be and went over all the cool phrases in his head, he arrived at the border in no time. Or what used to be the border.
It was frustrating he wasn''t any closer to an answer, but it took Chris days to come up with his. Patience was never his forte, but he tried his best.
He had narrowed it down, though. It had something to do with light, as that thought had the most resonance with his Spirit.
It being related to his affinity was no surprise but it did simplify things. Neither Chris''s nor Jon''s had anything to do with their affinities. Well, technically Jon''s Anchor sounded like what he expected from someone with an Earth affinity but it was different.
Like, come on. ''You have to get through me first'' could be the name of a skill that conjured a stone wall and Austin would believe it.
Christopher''s came from his idea of a warrior. While Austin enjoyed fights and thought they were fun, he didn''t idolize them as his cousin did.
No, his would be something cool, he could feel it.
''Let there be light'' sounded cool, and so did ''Then there was light.'' Similar, but different.
With great humor, he tried the phrases ''Cruel Sun'' and ''Strongest under the Sun'', but neither came close to any sort of resonance. Not even faintly.
His Pride was wounded but he kept trying other things. He did so until his Profession started giving him the feeling again. Different than the one in his core and felt of untapped excitement waiting to be let out.
It was hard to ignore the first time he passed through the area and he had thought of breaking off alone. He didn''t go through with it, obviously, but he did think about it.
Adjusting his course required zero hesitation and a smile crept on his face as he marched toward the feeling.
He wasn''t sure, exactly, where he was but he knew he was getting close to the Twin Cities. The feeling was rising with every footfall closer and it grew as the days passed.
Which was what made what he ran into all the more aggravating.
His path was blocked.
A swarm of insects as tall as he was flew this way and that, blocking his path forward.
Where was his personal walking blizzard when he needed it? But no, he had to do this the hard way.
Unslinging the spear from his pack, he let his skills go without restraint. There was no reason to hold back due to losing control of his mana.
There was no one to make fun of his glow here and he could be as bright as he wanted.
Chapter 176 - Irrefutable Evidence
Chris
After Vincent''s procedure and recovery were finished, it was Rachel''s turn to undergo the process. She was met with a similar amount of fanfare as with Vincent, if a little bit more. The Spirit Fire was already placed and roaring inside the building, the only thing different was that the Molten Metal was missing.
She wasn''t going the same route as Vincent with The Molten Smith body and chose a different technique called the Conflagration Body. It would boost the explosiveness of her Fire and also deepen her already strong Fire affinity. She did say something about eventually upgrading her Affinity to something stronger, but unfortunately for her, most of her points from the tutorial were spent on other things.
She didn''t have enough to buy the things she did plus a treasure to upgrade her affinity. That didn''t mean it was impossible, just that it would take a while and wouldn''t be as easy as consuming a treasure like I did.
With both of them going through the Body Refining Process, it marked a good start to our City''s advancement. Not only them, but other people started to take their first steps on the Paths of Power as well. Some comprehended Laws and others did their own versions of Body Refining. None formed an Anchor yet, leaving Jonathan and I the only ones to achieve the feat.
All in all, Spring kicked off a growth like we hadn''t seen.
If only it could have stayed that way. Our days of solitude were now over.
I shifted in my seat as the time stretched on, waiting for the meeting to start. While it was usually Council meetings that would take place in this room, it was arranged for a different reason today.
The furniture was hastily adjusted and replaced where necessary, the walls were decorated with the things we had available and rugs were placed down.
Where it used to be a bare-bones stone room, it looked more welcoming now that Abigail threw up some decor.
The fur rug under my feet wasn''t from something I had killed myself and was of a lower level E-ranked best, much to my displeasure, but it wasn''t all that bad. Having something I personally killed would be better when meeting a foreign delegation but we made do.
Yes, a foreign delegation was the reason for all the activity taking place inside the castle.
Honestly, I hadn''t expected any visitors for a while yet which was why Abigail had to hastily prepare the room for outsiders.
The bare walls and rough stone floor weren''t a problem when it was only us going over management issues, but we had to make it presentable for other people.
Abigail wanted to dedicate a specific room for meetings like this but had always delayed it until now. It felt silly for that to be something we focused on when there were so many other things on our to-do list.
I had thought everyone was busy building back up civilization like we were doing here, expecting it to be at least another year or two before people sent out delegations.
I was proven wrong as we received notice from our far-ranging scouts that they spotted a group of people set to arrive soon. While this usually meant refugees or wandering clumps of people, this time it was different.
The scouts reported that the group was bearing a flag and all had insignias or patches that matched. In other words, it was a coordinated group from an already-established Pylon coming our way.
The scouts noticed the group far to the Southeast and they were on a heading that would bring them directly to the castle. Knowing that, we speculated they had a Profession or Class that could point them in the direction of a Pylon.
There was no other plausible way for them to know we were here.
While frustrating to know that was even possible, it was better to know now so we could come up with solutions to fix that problem. Professions like those were quickly becoming known as ''Divination'' professions.
While there was a pure ''Divination'' profession, there were others that were only on the fringes of what people considered divination. Austin''s Explorer profession was one that I considered on the fringe.
A few of his skills could use information he had no knowledge of and point him in certain routes based on that. It wasn''t far-fetched to believe a divination-type class or profession pointed this group in our direction because we had a pylon.
While hiding my Pylon wasn''t the problem, it was what other kinds of information that could be obtained through divination I wanted to block. I had no idea what was possible through random and obscure professions and I wanted a defense against all forms of spying or espionage.
Finding an Anti-Divination Formation would be difficult and require a long time to research, but it was best to start that now. Gabriel would have to help fill in some of the gaps where I didn''t have the Runes, but we could do it.
While countering Divination would be annoying, that didn''t help me with my current issue.
I had people I didn''t know coming to my City for unknown reasons.
I did not like being in the dark like this.
Maybe it''s time to start an intelligence department? We don''t have many people or resources to dedicate to it, but we can at least get it up and running.
Those thoughts were cut off as Abigail entered the room hurriedly and started rushing around to different things. Straightening things that were already straight and fluffing things that were already fluffed.
It was easy to tell that this surprise visit had caught her off guard and she had spent every second after finding out about the group trying to make the room perfect.
She claimed she was going for a somewhat utilitarian room with some decor to take the edge off.
I wasn''t exactly sure what that all meant but she spent the last hour buzzing around switching things around so the room would fit her vision.
The only correction I had made, or rather an addition, was placing my hammer in the corner of the room leaning up against the wall. She wanted to remove the weapon as it sent the wrong message but I stood firm.
We knew from the scouts they carried weapons but even without visual confirmation, I knew they had them. No one went out into the wild without a weapon.
The option to take their weapons before they entered the City was there, but I didn''t want to do that. I hadn''t done it to the others who had joined us and I wasn''t going to start now.
I wouldn''t want it done to me and I would not do it to others. They were taking a risk coming here and the least I could do was let them keep their protection.
If they chose to draw them inside the meeting room, that was what my hammer was for.
Most would see it off to the side behind me and think I couldn''t get to it in time before they got off an attack. Those people would be wrong.
I could pull the weapon to my hand with [Ice manipulation] faster than they could draw their weapons. Practicing doing so was something I did often and I had gotten quite good at it. While the link between the weapon and I was still far above me, it helped locate where it was even if I couldn''t see it.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I practiced the move mostly so that when I lost it in battle or dropped it for whatever reason I could re-arm myself quickly. The fact it would work in this new way was an added bonus.
The skill also helped pick things up from afar without requiring me to get up, but that wasn''t worth mentioning. It wasn''t like I used it to be lazy. It was for training reasons. Strictly training.
While I waited for the group to arrive, I pictured what everyone else was doing right now. The castle was still under construction and people were outside working on it and they would undoubtedly see the delegation entering.
It wasn''t like I was going to keep the meeting secret, but it was slightly annoying to know the group of visitors would see an unfinished structure. Painting the picture of strength was difficult if there was no wall and the building still had scaffolding hanging off of it.
My vision of a steadfast stronghold that intimidated people was a long way off sadly, and our first meeting with an outsider was under less... pristine conditions.
It wasn''t hard to pick up the sounds of footsteps as they neared the meeting room and I stood to greet my guests. It wouldn''t do to be rude before even introducing myself.
How courtesy would work going forward was going to be weird but standing to greet guests was common sense anywhere.
Before the door opened, I gave myself a once-over to make sure nothing was out of place. I didn''t have a dedicated outfit for the occasion but I had on the nicest clothes I owned.
My tunic and pants were made from E-grade cloth with hems lined with strips of fur from an E-ranked beast. It was a mixture of warm and cold wear as the temperature started heating up. Full winter fur wasn''t necessary anymore.
A wide belt, more like a sash, split the two and held minor things I kept on me. My coin pouch and potions were chief among them.
My boots were free from dirt and blood as I had cleaned them after my dungeon run in the morning and I made sure to give them a polish before the meeting.
My hair and beard still needed some love but they were at least groomed, if missing a needed trim.
My days were busy and spent doing hard labor, worrying about my appearance could wait until we were better set up, if at all. My care for that sort of thing fell to the wayside once the world ended but there were times I had to be put together and look good.
My hair was nearing shoulder length by now and it wasn''t even a uniform length anymore. Times where a monster or weapon chopped bits off made it hard to keep it intact.
The length caused it to fall on either side of my face but I tried to keep it pushed back and out of my eyes.
The only thing I cringed at while looking over myself was the color of my clothes. We didn''t have any dyes or colors to them which left me in drab tans and browns instead of colorful attire. I didn''t get to worry about that long as the door nob sounded, causing me to flatten my tunic and stand straight to meet the group.
I already had their descriptions from the scouting group but I wanted to get a feel for who had come.
Aura was a funny thing and the more I learned about it the more I liked it. It was a measure of a man. It spoke of who a person was and made it easy to get a picture of who you were dealing with.
Reading an aura took skills and experience but I was working on being able to do so. Gabriel helped but there was a nuance to it that I couldn''t rush.
The things you could read from an aura were hard to put into words initially and people could hide things, like I was doing.
Or trying to do. It was impossible to know whether or not they had better sensing skills than I did hiding skills but I was doing my best.
I usually didn''t like to hide my aura as it was uncomfortable to do. I had to pull everything in and stuff it down to keep anything from leaking out which made doing so feel stuffy.
There were times it was beneficial to do so, to remain stealthy mostly so beasts couldn''t detect you, but it was also done to hide what you wanted to hide.
While the group had over ten people in total, only three were led to the room I was in. While the room would fit all ten, it seemed they were only there for added security during their trip.
The three who entered were the strongest, though, which probably made them confident in protecting themselves. Even if I could take all three on my own.
I dismissed that thought before I got overconfident. Even if I knew their levels, it was arrogance to assume I could beat them. They could have ways to falsify what level they were or other esoteric ways around the skill.
Knowing their level didn''t come from my own skill, [Identify], as it failed to give anything once again, but from a different person who had a better identification skill.
From their report, the three who entered were level 61, 63, and 67.
Close to what level I was, but still below and I doubted they had the same rarity class that I did.
Still, I wouldn''t assume anything but it was hard to fight the rising confidence I felt.
While their levels were near my own, the feeling they gave off was nowhere close. They were even weaker than the aura Jonathan gave off and he was a defensive expert. That didn''t mean Jonathan was weak, only that he didn''t feel as threatening to me because of his defensive focus.
While they might have been hiding the rest like I was, I doubted it. They gave off no other indication of being strong.
The first in the room was a taller gentleman who stood just over six feet and he wore what I expected from a guard.
He wasn''t fitted in heavy plate as they most likely traveled a long way, but what he had approached half-plate. It had enough metal reinforcement to come close to heavy armor but not enough to push it over the edge.
It was obvious he was a warrior without even eyeing the two-handed sword on his back. He had removed his helmet before entering at some point and revealed matted-down black hair to match a dark beard.
The second was who I presumed to be the leader, if their levels were any indication. The man stood a touch shorter than the leading guard and was obviously either a mage or healer. It was sometimes hard to differentiate the two as they wore similar things.
The staff he held was the major give away but he also didn''t come off as a warrior. How I knew if someone gave off the warrior vibe, I didn''t know but I trusted what I felt.
What surprised me was while the leader had the highest level, he didn''t feel the strongest to me. That honor belonged to the woman behind him, holding down the rear.
Her eyes swept over the room with an experienced grace. Going over everything before dismissing it. Her vision lingered on my hammer for a beat longer than normal but she moved on to finish surveying the room.
The bow strapped to her back had Runes carved along its length and the wood it was made of was high grade. I wasn''t sure how high grade without getting my hands on it, but I doubted it wasn''t at least a Rare weapon.
Which stood out because they were difficult to make. Vinny and I working together could make Rare weapons, but they took costly materials and a lot of work to push it that far.
Even though the woman was clearly a Ranger, she came off as a powerful warrior to my senses.
While I observed them, they did the same to me. It wasn''t hard to see their eyes give me a once over but it was hard to tell what they were feeling. Nothing showed on their face and they kept their expressions neutral.
Before the meeting, Abigail tried to coach me on what to say and what not to say, but most of it was superficial. I didn''t care to play the games, so I didn''t.
As we stared at each other, the leader took it in stride and didn''t hesitate to introduce himself before doing the same for his two associates. They came to my home, they should be the ones to introduce themselves first.
"Hello, my name is Carson Trelliam and the two next to me are Noah Daniels and Victoria Franklin. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He gestured to the man and woman respectfully before putting his hand out for a handshake.
"Christopher Zalenski." I answered while taking his hand in mine.
The handshake wasn''t very firm but it was solid enough to not be soft. A border he was treading closer to than I would have.
After introductions, we all sat around the table that was prepared. Their three chairs stood opposite my own at the two ends and I was the one to ask a question first. It was on my mind and I wanted an answer to it before we moved on to anything else.
"How did you know we were here?" I asked.
For some reason, everyone assumed I was Canadian when meeting me and my American accent threw people when I spoke for the first time, but they didn''t show anything to suggest they were surprised.
"That was due to a member of our city actually, and I''m not certain of the specifics if I''m being honest with you, but she can tell where a pylon has been planted and pointed us in the right direction." The leader, Carson, answered, confirming our suspicions.
That''s so cheating. That would be a great ability to have so we could map out all the pylons near us.
Before I went too deep into the benefits of having such an ability, I asked the million-dollar question.
"Why are you here?"
After asking for the reason for their arrival, I got ready to pull on my hammer. If they were here for a fight, I was ready.
"Before we get into that, am I right to assume you are the owner of the pylon here?" He asked.
My nod confirmed his assumption and he continued.
A serious expression dawned on his face before he spoke and his face matched his tone, "We''ve come seeking aid."
What he said surprised me. For some reason, a call for aid wasn''t on the list of things I thought he would say. Trade, cooperation, demands, all were on the list of things I expected, but a request for help wasn''t.
What''s strong enough for someone to call for aid instead of just leaving?
If a monster was too strong for a group or city to handle, evacuating to somewhere safer was common sense. Sending out groups asking for help wasn''t.
He continued, probably sensing my doubt, "We''ve been sent to warn and ask for cooperation in facing the threat we''ve uncovered. A grave threat that looms over everyone in the area. Maybe all of Northern America."
At this point, I was becoming skeptical of who was in front of me. A threat? Really? We dealt with those on a daily as various beasts tried to attack people.
"What could possibly be so grave for you to claim that? The trials won''t start for years yet you claim to know of a threat big enough to affect a continent." I asked letting my skepticism leak in.
I had just met the guy and he was going all doomsday on me.
"Demons. We''ve found irrefutable evidence of Demons."
Chapter 177 - Demons
Chris
"Demons? Really?" I asked before I fully comprehended what was said. It was just so outlandish. Sure, we knew of them now that the world had changed but it was still odd to think of them as real.
When one shouted Demons, it was hard not to think of all the depictions from fantasy shows and whatnot. Even though they were very real now and were possibly a threat, my kneejerk reaction was to think it unbelievable.
"Yes, Demons." Carson confirmed like he expected my skepticism, "After we found proof and the remains of a Demon Summoning Ritual, our City Leader sent us out to call for help. That is the reason we are here."
After he gave a touch more information, and my mind kicked into action that this wasn''t a joke, I pulled up everything I knew about Demons.
Not something I thought I would ever say.
Demons were a Race among the multiverse similar in some ways to how they were depicted in our mythologies. They were cruel, cunning, deceptive, and most of all, corruptive.
They infected worlds, draining them of their essence and twisting them into hellish wastelands that only benefitted Demons.
Like our stories, they were waging a never-ending war against another Race, the Angels, but that was irrelevant to what they were doing here and not worth getting into. Plus, the Angels weren''t as radiant and angelic as their name would believe. There was just as much dirt on their Race as their was on Demons. Except their vice wasn''t taking over planets as much as waging holy wars.
Demons, though, were a nuisance anywhere. Just the mana they gave off was enough to infect other creatures, turning them Demonic, which was how the Demonic Leopards from the tutorial were made. The only reason a Demon would be on Earth was for only two reasons. Because the terraforming made them and they now populated the planet, or someone was stupid enough to summon one.
Based on the fact that Carson just said they found evidence of a Summoning Ritual, I guessed it was the latter.
Summoning Rituals sounded exactly like what they were. Using a type of Formation along with rare materials and reagents, sometimes even a sacrifice, you could call out to a being you wished to summon and pull it through space to your location.
It wasn''t strictly in the domain of Demons, but they were by far the most popular thing that was summoned in such a way. Most other Races would ignore any attempts at being summoned and some would even take it as an insult.
Elemental Spirits were another commonly summoned Race, but they weren''t as typical as Demons.
The reason, not that it was hard to figure out, was for power. Lust for power was by far the biggest motivation to summon one of their ilk.
Making a deal with a Demon was far more real than when that saying originated.
Note that I hadn''t mentioned Devils, as those were different Races. While similar, they had one distinct difference. Devil''s didn''t lie. Didn''t or couldn''t, I wasn''t sure, but in the various books Abigail purchased about the other Races in the multiverse it stated Devil''s didn''t lie. Additionally, they had an odd sense of honor to them that made them distinct compared to the scheming Demons. A Devil always keeps his word and all that, I guess.
Other than the base background information that came to mind, the reason the people in front of me were taking their appearance as a grave threat was how Demons propagated.
Once summoned, if not contained, they would begin corrupting anything and everything they could while consuming materials and treasures they found to gain power. Just their presence was enough to cause a disturbance.
Similar to an aura, they exuded demonic mana that seeped into the environment and would inadvertently start the process of turning the area demonic.
Turning the flora and fauna demonic was just the start, it would creep into the water and air which spread the infection to places the Demon hadn''t even been, creating a virus that was hard to kill off.
If it was only one Demon doing this, the process would be slow and easy to take care of, the inherent nature of the plants and animals would fight against the corruption, but that was when the threat was smallest. Taking on a solo Demon wasn''t that different than taking on a strong monster.
The problems began when one Demon started summoning others.
If left alone or unnoticed, they could summon countless of their kind and become a very real threat. Hence their concern and call for aid.
The three guests let me think about what they said in silence and it wasn''t until I fully comprehended what they were saying that I spoke, "How long ago?"
The biggest question now was how long had the Demons run free. Knowing how long would give a better picture of how big of a threat this was.
If, for Heaven''s sake, they had been here since our return, they would''ve had over a year to do whatever they wanted. A Demon left alone for a year could''ve already turned into an army by now, let alone the size area that would be infected.
Carson''s face strained at my question and I knew I wouldn''t like the answer even before he said it, "We don''t know." He sighed. Yep, I didn''t like it. "We didn''t venture out much during the Winter, as I''m sure you know, and only found the area after the weather warmed up."
"The place was abandoned and it looked to be months old, but it could be longer." It was the Ranger who spoke up now, Victoria.
Seeing another speak wasn''t that surprising, but the way the meeting was going so far made me think the man in the middle would talk the whole time.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I looked over at the taller warrior on the left but he seemed content to let the others do all the talking.
Before I derailed the conversation further with more questions about the type and level of the Demon summoned, if they even knew, I decided to take a step back and cover the basics first.
"Where did you say you were from and where was the Demon Ritual found?" I asked instead of the many other questions I had. Getting a better picture of exactly where this was taking place would help in how we approached this.
"Oh, sorry about that, I jumped right into it without even telling you where I was from. We come from Fort Hope, in Central Ontario." The leader said apologetically.
Fort Hope was a touch on the nose but I didn''t say anything. For all I knew it was the name of the city before the world changed and they just kept it, however unlikely that was.
Instead of focusing on the cheesy name, I pictured where on the map he came from. My Canadian geography wasn''t the best but it was getting better now that I was up here.
People joining our City told of where they were from based on the city they used to live in, which wasn''t easy to translate onto the map we had without prior knowledge. Provinces were easy enough because we had someone from here draw them out for us and we could reference on the map.
That way, we could section the map up roughly based on where the old borders used to be. Where our city stood now was in the Province of Manitoba, even if the land had fundamentally changed.
Our ''Province'', or close enough, bordering on Ontario made this threat closer than I would have liked. Then again, if we weren''t close these people would never have come. Those names would eventually change, but it was all we had to identify places on the map. Until Cities became large enough and recognizable, the best way to refer to places was by their old descriptions. I was actually curious to see how long it would take for that to change.
Depending on where, exactly, their pylon was, it was around a month''s travel on foot to get here if you were moving with a purpose. On horse at speed, it was half that.
As I pictured the map in my head, Carson continued, "We found the Ritual circle a two-day ride Southeast from our city."
Southeast from their city was the opposite direction from where Frostheim was in comparison. While it put their pylon between us and the threat, it wasn''t that heart-lifting to know given that they were calling for help.
If they knew they needed help, then they weren''t confident in facing the threat alone. While Demons were mostly bad and were a plague to be stamped out, they did carry one good thing with them.
They were hordes of essence.
Their ability to summon others of their kind brought in essence from other planets and supplemented ours. Usually, the amount of essence a planet produced was fixed.
The Planet''s core only created so much which caused every living thing to share what was available. It was transferred between beings as things died or were eaten, but the overall amount was set. Or, the influx was set, as the total amount was always rising. There were some caveats to that, such as the System taking some to facilitate the transfers and its ''fee'' for various things. There was some loss when using it to enhance yourself, but ultimately, it was lost when people left.
If a being spent years on a Planet sucking up the essence, and then left, that lost essence would go with them. It wasn''t a huge deal as the essence the person had was ''locked'', in a way, but if enough people did it, the Planet would never grow and if done too much, it would actually deteriorate.
But, with every downside, there was an upside. The opposite of taking essence and leaving the planet, was gathering essence elsewhere and bringing it here, which was what the Demon''s did.
These creatures were filled with essence from either their home world or wherever they were coming from and when they were killed here, that essence would then transfer to whoever killed it. It was even better than a dungeon in terms of increasing level as when there was one Demon, there were hordes of them. Plus, there was only so much essence that could be gained from a Dungeon every day. Demon''s didn''t have limits on how many levels you could gain. Well, besides killing them all.
A faction or city that learned about a Demon infestation would usually keep it to themselves to make sure they were the only ones to gain from such a thing, but if they learned it was beyond them, that was when they reached out.
It went from a massive boon to a grave threat depending on whether or not the faction could capitalize on it. Without knowing the exact levels and number of the Demons, I wasn''t even sure my faction could handle it.
"How many other cities did you reach out to?" After finding out where they were from, I probed for more information. While our scouting was good around where we were, outside of that was still scarce. Hell, we didn''t even know there was a pylon in Central Ontario.
Knowing that, I attempted to find out if there were any other cities in the area. A genuine question with a deeper probing nature.
"Not enough, I''m afraid. The only other pylon we know of is to the South, roughly the same distance as it was to get here." He answered.
Only three pylons? That seemed far too low for the area. Some major Canadian cities were closer than ours.
"What of Toronto or Ottawa, your Capital?" I asked.
Toronto was a big city and it was hard to imagine a pylon not appearing there. Millions of people lived there. Ottawa was smaller, but still had over a million residents from what I remembered.
As soon as I asked, the three''s expressions changed. Looks cast down along with a somber note that spoke of tragedy. It seemed something bad happened and I just stuck my foot in my mouth.
"You don''t know?" Carson asked softly.
I shook my head in response and, luckily, he went on without me having to ask, "Toronto''s gone. Where it once stood is all water now."
Oh, I see.
When we first returned and I was looking over the changes on the map, the Great Lakes had changed dramatically. Not only did the land grow, but the lakes did as well.
Where land used to connect Michigan and Canada, it was all water now and there were a few other places where the Lakes extended outward from their previous borders.
It seemed Toronto was one of those places the new Lake swallowed up. The city used to sit right on the edge, similar to Chicago, but didn''t make it through the terraforming.
"What of the people?" I asked slightly stunned. It was stunning to think a once major city disappeared just like that.
If the entire city was underwater where did the people go? It was unlikely that they were placed back in the city and made to drown.
We had someone in our city who was on a plane when the tutorial pulled everyone away, yet she was returned to the ground instead of left to fall from the sky. If the system did that, I doubted it would dump people in a Lake.
"Scattered around for all we know. We''ve seen a few who claim to be from there but not enough to know for sure. We can''t form any ideas around how they were returned as it was seemingly random. Groups were places just about anywhere in the vicinity of where the city once stood, instead of being moved in one big group which makes it hard to track them down." He said. "We''ve had a few people try, looking for family who used to live there, but they''ve had no luck so far in understanding what happened."
"And Ottawa?" I asked.
Ottawa was their Capital and wasn''t on the shores of any Lake, as far as I knew. It shouldn''t have disappeared in the same way.
"None we''ve sent returned." He said sadly.
That didn''t mean as much as Toronto being underwater. The people could have died along the way for various reasons or they could have stayed in the City instead of making the trip back.
There were a thousand reasons that they didn''t return without jumping to the conclusion that Ottawa was gone as well.
All told, so far during the meeting the threat of Demons was revealed and it fell to only three ramshackle cities to combat the threat.
My city being one of the three did not make me feel warm and fuzzy. We didn''t even have a population of a thousand, yet we were already faced with what could possibly be a major war on the horizon.
Lovely.
Chapter 178 - Council Decision
Carson
Watching the City Owner ruminate over what Carson had just told him, it was reassuring that he took the threat seriously. From what he''d heard, the other pylon they reached out to didn''t fully understand what they were up against.
Not everyone had the urge to expand their knowledge while in the tutorial and buy information about the wider multiverse which left some in the dark about what Demons were, but this man knew.
He asked the right questions and seemed to be putting things together quickly enough that he understood the gravity of what was said.
When the news first broke in their city, those who knew went wild with worry. Those who didn''t know what Demons were quickly came to understand and join in on everyone''s worry.
Thankfully Ashton, the City Lord, knew the threat the Demons posed and swiftly sent out groups to ask for help, if there were any out there. Carolyn could locate pylons using her Profession but that didn''t mean they would be inclined to help.
At first, when she initially pointed in this direction, he thought she was joking. After living through the Winter and seeing how harsh and desolate the area became, Carson thought any further North would be abandoned. He wrote off any who lived in Northern Provinces as long dead.
The people who used to live there either dead or evacuated before the snows came. He didn''t think many would''ve survived out here alone, but he was wrong.
It took them a month to get here but they came upon a budding town. Or, the beginnings of one at least. It seemed odd to him that they focused on the castle first but who was he to say anything.
Not that they had time to look about. After being discovered by a group of scouts, they were then escorted to where they sat now without having the chance to observe much else.
From what he was able to see, the Castle wasn''t even close to finished construction wise, as workers were clearing the land for extensions and additional construction. From what was already built, though, he knew it was built to last.
For some reason, it felt like even if he launched his strongest spell at the stone nothing would happen, even when he was one of the higher levels among their city.
He sat well into E-rank, even with a Law, but it still wasn''t enough to feel strong enough to break through the stone edifice. The fact the large structure was built on an alcove of the cliff that jutted out over the rest spoke volumes of the owner.
They were building fortifications strong enough to weather any siege and it showed in their thoroughness and the castle''s positioning. Carson''s city, Fort Hope, was mostly thrown together as fast as possible so people could feel safe.
Where the previous Fort Hope once stood was gone and they built what they could upon the ruins.
When they first came upon the castle, even under construction, it gave off that noticeable feeling. After being let in and escorted to the meeting room, he didn''t know what to expect.
They had asked to meet the Pylon''s owner but that didn''t necessarily mean they would be immediately led to the person. Except they were, which was a quicker reception than anticipated.
After leaving the rest of the group behind, the next stop brought him to the meeting room he now sat in. The hallways and rooms they passed were mostly empty and devoid of any furniture but not the one they were in now.
It held various things on the wall to break up the wash of grey stone along with a table and chairs that felt finely crafted. A Carpenter of higher than average level was most likely responsible.
Other than that, the fur of a beast almost as high a level as Carson decorated the floor. While that didn''t mean much, as a large group could have taken it down, the pristineness of the fur said otherwise.
A large group would''ve had a hard time not ruining the pelt.
There were no patches or stitch marks to indicate any errant slashes or arrow holes and the fur was still intact, signifying there weren''t any spells used to take it down. Which meant it was taken down swiftly and by someone with experience.
All of that wasn''t even taking into account the man sitting across from him. Victoria, with her better perception and skill, signaled his level discretely but Carson hardly believed the woman.
Even when they had spent a month fighting through the wilds together and the fact he trusted her to watch his back, he doubted the man''s level was only a level above his own.
The faint feeling on the back of his neck impressing upon him that he stood before someone strong meant he had to be much higher level than himself, which made the idea the man was only level 68 laughable.
Not even Ashton, the strongest person he knew, gave off as powerful a feeling.
Carson''s tutorial had been fraught with battles and vicious struggle which made him believe the feeling he was receiving from the man, even if Victoria''s skills said otherwise.
Other than the prickle on the back of his neck, the man was otherwise unassuming. He didn''t wear any fancy clothes or armor, nor did he have any treasures in his possession.
The man sat before them bare of anything to defend himself, which Carson struggled to presume was either too trusting or just plain stupid. He did note that there was a massive Warhammer in the corner of the room but it seemed decorative rather than used for combat.
For one, it was massive. The shaft alone was nearly 6 feet in length and the head of the weapon was entirely too big to be effective. Secondly, it was made of ice. What kind of blunt weapon would use something as brittle as ice as the material?
Sure, they had a few Ice Affinity warriors and mages in their city, but none of them used it as a hammer. One warrior crafted it into swords while the rest fought with normal metal. The mages didn''t use weapons so they didn''t count.
Knowing that, Carson assumed the weapon was decorative but they hadn''t hung it up on the wall yet for whatever reason. He did notice it gave off an odd effect with the cascading frost coming off the weapon, but that didn''t change his mind.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Seeing the man was weaponless, he did keep an eye out for any concealed weapons, but he couldn''t spot any and neither could his two companions. They had come up with different ways to signal each other about certain things and neither had given the signal for weapon.
While the clothes looked comfortable and the craftsmanship was well made, they didn''t seem very strong. Not that he assumed they would be. His mind was just trying to come up with reasons for why the man would appear defenseless.
Having his clothes be strong armor was just one of the more fanciful things he had come up with and then dismissed.
Before he could think of anything else, the man was finished deliberating on the news given to him.
"Thank you for bringing this to me, I will need time to deliberate on this before agreeing to anything. You are welcome to stay in the rooms provided while you await my answer." While the answer was disappointing, it wasn''t unexpected.
It was the diplomatic answer to put off agreeing to anything before discussing it amongst themselves.
It was upsetting that there wasn''t immediate agreeance to help but Carson couldn''t do anything about that. He could only hope they this visit turned out to be fruitful.
If he came back empty-handed, he wasn''t sure what would happen.
Chris
After the three got up and left, I called in our Council who was waiting nearby. It wasn''t a surprise that we would have to discuss whatever the newcomers had to say and they were waiting for the meeting to finish up.
We could have all been in the room together, but it wasn''t prepared for that many people and would be awkward.
Everyone shuffled in quickly after the three were returned to the rest of their group and I wasted no time filling them in on the details.
As soon as Demons were mentioned everyone knew this was serious. This wasn''t a diplomatic group nor was it here for trade. It came bearing a threat to the area.
Worry arose but I was glad that panic did not. It was good to worry, as we weren''t sure the extent of the threat right now and worry was a fine emotion to feel, but panic was not.
Panic helped no one and would only delay the process of figuring out what we were going to do.
Abigail listed off an even more extensive description of Demons than I remembered from reading about them and it did not spell good news. With everyone up to speed and knowledgeable on the subject, ideas started flowing.
While I wasn''t sure the extent of what kind of help we would send, I knew at least some would be sent. It sounded wrong to say, but this was a perfect opportunity for me.
I wasn''t growing slowly in levels, but nor was I growing fast. The newcomer bearing the news was within a level of me and that was discouraging. If he was close, others were no doubt ahead.
I wasn''t chasing the title of highest level in the world, but I didn''t want to be left behind either. I knew some would take wild risks to gain in power faster than I was and this was an opportunity to do the same.
Yes, it was a wild risk, but I felt the rewards were worth it. Plus, it was a threat we couldn''t ignore. There were people who the Demons had to go through to get to us, but that didn''t mean we were safe.
If the people in this Fort Hope fell, we would be next. Or the pylon to the South they mentioned but we would be soon after. It was better to fight it now with help than wait and stand alone.
The Demons were close enough in vicinity that we couldn''t leave them for someone else to deal with. If even one got away, the threat would never be over. For some, that was a good thing.
A faction with deep roots might even keep a few Demons sequestered away for just that reason, but we were not that kind of faction. We were just getting on our feet and had just started to grow.
We couldn''t afford to have Demons running amok in the area around us, no matter how many levels they would bring.
The only question was, how many people would be going with me?
The few guards who spent the travel here on watch and patrol had transitioned well into City Guards if they chose to. They helped during the monthly waves and they actively sought to improve themselves in the dungeon.
While they weren''t technically a force I could call on, not yet at least, I doubted they would deny me if they knew the same information I now did. The reason I hadn''t made a more formal group or created official Guards was because the construction was still underway.
I wanted the city to be built before I started getting ahead of myself with employing the people we would need. It also saved on coin which we weren''t as flush with as people would believe.
If I stopped delving as often as I did we would have a marked loss in revenue. Or, if we added a large number of Guards to our payroll, we would be in the same boat.
Luckily, Abigail oversaw all financial matters along with Jonathan''s help and would keep us from going bankrupt. Abigail was in charge of spending while Jonathan was our link to selling things through the store.
The two combined had knowledge of every way we made and spent money, which was perfect for them to be in charge of all the financials. We would eventually have to branch out and appoint a treasurer of some sort to take over, but that was a future problem.
Additionally, I didn''t know anyone I trusted to take the job and I wasn''t going to hire some random person to be in charge of our books. When it became a problem and Abigail started getting swamped with all her responsibilities, then we would have to bite the bullet.
The percentage of our population who participated in the monthly waves was around 30%. We had around 800 people living here now thanks to Austin and over 200 chose to fight every month.
A good percentage in my opinion, but I wasn''t sure 200 would be enough. With months of time to run free, there could be thousands of Demons by now. I was confident in my strength, but I wasn''t enough to make sure none got away.
That exact point was brought up and what we were discussing now.
"Sending 200 won''t be enough. What if one gets away? Then this whole thing starts over and we''re back to square one." Abigail commented.
"We have this other city to help. This... Fort Hope or whatever it''s called. It sounds like they have more people than we do already. If we take into account the amount of people they send, it could be enough." Sam pointed out.
"We cannot rely on them to stamp out the threat. The fact they''re here in the first place shows they aren''t strong enough." Hal said.
"How do you suggest we get more volunteers then?" I cut in with a question.
At my comment, the discussion died down before falling silent. It wasn''t until a second later that Abigail spoke.
"Volunteers?" She asked questioningly.
"Yes, volunteers. I will not drag the unwilling into a fight they don''t want. If any go at all, it will be because they choose to." I said firmly. I had assumed we were on the same page about that, but apparently, I was mistaken.
"What if they don''t understand the threat Demons possess and choose not to go?" Hal asked.
"Then I suggest you impress upon them the severity of what we face. If they are uninformed about Demons, inform them. I think informing them should get us a good number who choose to go." I said.
"Won''t that cause widespread panic? We can''t just come out and say there''s an army of Demons we have to go fight and not expect people to panic." My mother asked.
"Are you suggesting we don''t tell them?" Vinny chimed in. It was rare for him to speak unless directly asked but he did now.
"People are stronger than you think. I''ve trained with them more than any of you and I know they are resilient. You don''t go through what everyone did without becoming so. Informing them won''t be as bad as you imagine." Jonathan said.
Jonathan was a new addition now that Austin was gone but it was good he was here. As he said, he spent the most time with the guards out training and knew them best.
The discussion was passed around a few more minutes but it was settled not long after. We would be telling them what we knew and asking for volunteers to go fight.
Vinny even agreed to make weapons and armor for the few who volunteered and didn''t already have them. Most already did, either from having them before joining us or buying them afterward but a few didn''t.
Those were mainly the ones who chose not to fight but we predicted a few of those would flip and decide to go when told of what we faced. I wasn''t hopeful that number would be high, but I at least expected a few.
Everything was settled and we had our course of action but I caught a stray bullet at the end of the meeting that I should''ve seen coming.
It was as everyone was getting up that they all looked at me.
Ah, fuck. They want me to announce it.
Chapter 179 - Hope for Aid
The announcement went over about as well as predicted. Worry and panic bubbled up but nothing crazy happened, which was good. I wouldn''t go far as to say people took it in stride, but it wasn''t as big a blow as some might''ve thought. Jonathan was right in that regard.
It was sad to say that people were used to this, but most in our city spent nearly a year surviving on their own in the wilderness. They had a toughness to them that kept them alive, which meant they didn''t immediately freak out when hearing of a threat. Add surviving the tutorial to that, and we were a resilient bunch.
One thing we didn''t think of in our meeting, and we really should''ve, was one of the first questions raised. I tried to keep everyone''s names straight, as that was good practice, but it was getting harder as more people showed up.
Knowing the names of the 200 who joined us while traveling was easier, as there were fewer people and they joined spaced out.
But now, with more than four times as many people, that practice was falling behind and I wasn''t able to know the person who asked the question.
"Who will fight the waves if we all leave?"
It was a good question and needed an answer, one I wished we had discussed before but I improvised one as best I could.
It wasn''t like I was uninformed about the power of the waves or the manpower it took to fight it, but a little more thought would have been nice to put behind something so important.
All told, I answered like I had it prepared, "Considering the strength of the waves and the castle being mostly built, not many will need to stay behind. We''ve already spoken about who that will be so you don''t need to worry about leaving our home defenseless. We built them strong for this reason, now all we have to do is stand atop them."
Saying that we needed to face the bigger threat wasn''t necessary, everyone knew which was more important.
It was nice to have this occur after the castle was mostly built, as we wouldn''t have to leave as many people behind. The stone was tall and thick, even the nonfighters would be able to stand atop it and repel the waves easily enough.
Not that I would plan for that. Just like I wasn''t going to force people to go fight Demons unwillingly, I wasn''t going to force people to fight here unwillingly.
My initial thoughts were to have Abigail and Jonathan stay behind out of our group, leaving the rest of my family to come with me, if they chose to. The idea to call upon Austin was brought up but I shot it down.
He had just left and we weren''t so helpless to call him back so soon. We did decide to inform him though, as he might come across Demons on his travels and it was better for him to be informed of the threat.
In the letter we drafted to send, I impressed upon him to not come back and that we had it in hand, but ultimately, it was his decision to do so or not.
I figured not many in the world chose to be Messengers, or similar enough to serve the same purpose, but we did have one in our city. And I didn''t even have to... persuade him like the Miners.
He used to be a Mail-man before the world ended and he was fine picking it back up again as his Profession. The skills it gave weren''t groundbreaking as he was still below E-rank, but he had enough levels to make him efficient.
Slightly faster travel when en route with a parcel, less stamina drain on the road, weather and environmental effects were diminished if they were harmful, things a Messenger would need to carry out their job.
Luckily, knowing where Austin was could be easily determined. Asking the last group to arrive where they last came from was a good enough head start the Messenger would be able to go from there.
One of his skills would guide him toward the intended recipient if he was close enough and had met them before.
But for who would stay, that wasn''t hard to determine.
Abigail was essential to the budding city and I wasn''t going to tear her away from that. Plus, she wasn''t as helpless as initially believed. While she started out as a pure Healer, circumstance drove her into a more hybrid build.
It was hard not to with her experiences. The amount of combat she was in as she gained levels made almost every Class option during evolutions at least tangentially combat-related.
Being in E-rank gave her three separate chances to branch out from Healer and she had chosen to do so. Her current class was a Mage/Healer hybrid that had skills for both.
You could hybridize most Classes but it was best to stick with the same main stats. Combining Warrior and Mage would diversify your points too much leaving you average at both, unless you had a high rarity Class to make up for it.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
All of her Classes had focused on the mana stats which made the change over seamless compared to some of the other ones I knew of.
While I thought it was a stretch to say she was a powerhouse at the level of Rachel and her mana skills, she wasn''t as far behind as first assumed. Somehow, by some miracle, she found time to train just the same, if not more than I did myself.
Not in the dungeons, but straight manipulation and other manual ability training. She had [Water Manipulation], but at Gabriel''s insistence, she trained without the use of the skill.
Her bloodline could also be used to fight. The majority of the Water Affinities in my family chose the same bloodline, but Abigail went above that. Partially at my insistence in the tutorial.
I made sure she set aside some of the points I gave her to get a more powerful bloodline. It was one of my more selfish requests, but she was my only immediate family left at the time.
She didn''t use it often, but it was a sight to see when she did.
Leaving Jonathan behind was obvious, as he was the best-suited defender. While having him with me would be a massive boon, leaving him here would put me at ease knowing everyone would be safe.
It wasn''t necessary to defend my decision of who to leave behind and hold down the fort as none had the courage to ask after my announcement.
After the gathering was over and the shock wore off, people started volunteering in droves, which I was glad to see. It meant we had a city of people who had honor.
Or at the bare minimum, decency, which was as good as I could ask of them.
When the numbers were tallied and everything organized, 415 chose to go leaving 453 behind. Almost 50% were willing to face the threat arrayed against us.
Double the usual amount that stood against the waves.
It would take a few days to get everything prepared, but half our city was set to march to battle.
Informing the group that arrived was delegated to someone else as my presence was needed elsewhere. I would be in the forge making sure everyone was at least armed and armored to the best of my ability.
Ashton
It was somewhat melancholic to look out over everything they had built. They had survived the tutorial, came back to ruins, built back what they had lost, only to lose it now.
His heart panged with guilt over how many they would lose. As it stood, they were in for an uphill battle.
People were just getting back to what would be their new normal and it all came tumbling down. All because of some idiot who summoned a Demon. Ashton didn''t believe for a second this wasn''t a human''s doing.
He had seen the Ritual Circle and knew the area it was in. A human had done this and it could possibly doom them all. All for power.
He hadn''t anticipated someone would fall to the temptation so fast or become desperate enough to do such a thing and that lack of foresight was hurting them now. If they had built walls sooner or spent more time building up their defenses, they wouldn''t be in such a sorry state now.
That missing thickness or the lacking height of their defenses could spell defeat or victory, and he wasn''t ready to face that. At that point, it would be on him and his failure to imagine.
As it was, nearly four thousand people toiled building what they could. There used to be thousands who lived here, but only half that returned and fewer still remained a year later.
Beasts, animals, the environment. Everything was out to kill them now and they were newly stripped of all their protections. The winter, where it was once a few months of cold where the sniffles ran through town, became a four-month fight to live as temperatures plummeted.
Food was scarce and people weren''t ready for the conditions they now faced. Ashton wondered how high the death toll was from the snows alone.
People ran this way and that around the Fort as preparations were being made as fast as they could. When they first returned, they had started construction on shelter and convenience first, but that now switched to fortifications.
Ever since the Demon Ritual was found, it had been all hands on deck to make sure they would survive.
It was almost instinctual by now for Ashton to look at the glowing stones arrayed prominently in front of him. The three stones had been a stroke of genius from one of the crafters but they were his biggest source of worry.
They signaled whether help was coming or not.
One already had a crack running through it, while the other two remained dormant. Dormant was fine, as they could still come alight at some point, but a crack was different. He knew which of the pylons refused them as the distance and response time made it obvious.
It wasn''t until the group came back that he knew the reason, but he knew no help was coming from them nearly two weeks ago. The pylon to the South didn''t believe them about the threat they faced and fervently denied sending any aid.
Claiming, ''You just want us to leave our walls defenseless.''
It saddened him to realize how far they had fallen as a society. Instead of heeding his words, they feared betrayal. It went to show the changes and mistrust people now harbored.
Not that there wasn''t any distrust before, but it was heightened now, more prominent than ever before Ashton felt. While he knew some of the best in people was brought out during this trying time, so had the worst.
And the worst in people left an impression that lasted longer.
Mistrust was fine, he wouldn''t begrudge them that, but now wasn''t the time for it. The Capital still hadn''t responded and Toronto was gone. Their seer only knew of 2 pylons in their vicinity and one already denied them.
For their sake, he hoped they were at least preparing defenses like his own city was doing. Fort Hope didn''t have the strength to stand alone, that much was obvious, but they would at least take as many with them as they could.
If they did enough, maybe the Demons would falter at the next town or if not then, the one after. One thing about Demons was their voracious need to consume. The more powerful of Demons could resist the urge and become great planners and schemers, but in their base form they couldn''t.
If the second pylon refused them as well, all their hopes were riding on there not being an evolved Demon pulling the strings. If the horde was full of Demonlings, they had a chance to make it out of this.
They weren''t smart enough to form ranks or any advanced tactics and he could rely on wit and tactics to maybe make it through this.
On the off chance an evolved Demon was in the mix, things would be infinitely harder.
As he sat there thinking that, the third stone lit up. Honestly, he hadn''t expected it to happen as Carolyn said the pylon was quite the distance away, but here it was.
They weren''t able to communicate any details, but at least some help would be coming. He just had to hope it would be enough.
Chapter 180 - City Abuzz
Carson
After he was led away from the meeting room, he and his group were made to wait in a sparsely populated room with little decor. They could have done with a bit more seating but they were all used to the wilds at this point. After a few weeks of sleeping on the ground, a lack of comfortable chairs wasn''t a big deal.
After the meeting concluded, Carson assumed the leader would talk it over with whoever he had as advisors or someone similar. The man didn''t strike Carson as the type to rule alone.
He didn''t have the controlling personality or need to be in power that would indicate ruling with an iron fist. While they had only just met, that was the sense he got anyway.
They were left to twiddle their thumbs for a few hours but someone eventually came to speak with them. The person who came through the door wasn''t the City Owner, it was someone new they hadn''t met before.
Not that being new meant anything, from what they could tell, hundreds of people lived here and they had only met a handful. Which was a good thing if they thought about it. With the settlement being this far North they had assumed it would be sparse with people but it wasn''t that bad. A far cry from the dozen or so Noah guessed there was.
Not even half the number Fort Hope had, but enough to make a difference if they decided to send aid. Which Carson hoped they did.
The person who came to meet them this time was a woman instead of a man but there was a resemblance to the City Owner that was unmistakable. Her hair was brown, darker than the man''s blonde, but they had a similar facial structure denoting a familial connection.
She didn''t match the City Owner in hair color or eye color, making it hard to tell how close of family they were, but it was obvious they were at least family of some sort.
Her hair was tied up in a professional bun with little ornamentation and her appearance made him picture glasses on her face but there were none. Instead, her deep blue eyes were free of containment and reminded him of looking into the ocean.
She entered swiftly and stood before them without fear, "We have discussed the information and have agreed to send help. We believe this threat to be big enough that we should put it down now before it''s allowed to grow."
Her words were measured and diplomatic, but that didn''t matter to Carson. They were getting help and a small weight lifted from his shoulders.
"After asking for volunteers from our populous, around 400 have chosen to stand and fight, including our strongest. With a day or two to prepare, they will be ready to leave Wednesday morning."
Saying what she prepared, she turned and left leaving them alone again.
Hearing that only 400 would be going made him wince slightly but 400 was better than nothing. Plus they were sending their strongest which was something.
Carson wasn''t able to get an exact level of how much help they were getting without knowing the levels and power of everyone coming but he hoped it would be enough. Without this pylon, they were on their own.
After hearing they needed a few days to prepare, he did the math in his head for how long it would take to get back. His group was desperate and made better time getting here than he expected they would return at, lengthening the timeline.
If they left in the morning three days from now, they would get back in about 4 and a half weeks.
He wasn''t sure when or if the Demons would attack Fort Hope in that time but he could only hope they would make it. He would have to be impolite and rush them if it came to it but that was fine with him.
After being informed of their answer, Carson''s group was permitted to enter the town proper. All they had seen so far was the two rooms of the Castle and those were both sparse. It was odd that the people lived a distance away in his opinion, but not all that unnatural.
It wasn''t far, but enough to show it was built first and the stone castle came second. The lodges and buildings they saw were all made of sturdy wood and were arrayed sensibly, but he could tell it wasn''t meant to be permanent.
The people were abuzz as they all worked on various things and there was more of them than he pictured. When he heard 400 agreed to fight he expected there to be 3 times that number to stay behind, but it was more like an even split.
A line of people queued up at the communal smithy and hammer blows sounded out throughout the night it was so busy. The frequency of clangs made him think all of the smiths in the city were going without sleep during this time.
Other than the crafters working throughout the night, people lined the streets as materials moved to where they needed to go and he saw streams of people coming back with a random assortment of it.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
It was obvious they had just come from a dungeon but it was different than how Fort Hope did things. The dungeon they had was strictly regulated and only people with permission could go inside, let alone walk out with the material in hand.
They were in a trying time and they needed all they could get, but the people here were freely selling their goods with little regulation. Well, mostly trading, but it was the same sentiment. The amount of coins people had was another oddity. The average person here had way more than back at Fort Hope.
Despite the differences, it was similar to Fort Hope in one sense. The air had the same budding tension as people prepared for a fight. Weapons and armor were being made at tremendous speed and the forges devoured all the metal available. The city worked to make sure everyone had at least the bare minimum before they were sent off.
As they walked around, Victoria and another scout they had were able to get an idea of everyone''s levels and they were much higher than anticipated. They expected the same average level as their own city, but they were wrong.
Fort Hope''s average was between 20 and 30, the line between G-rank and F-rank, but here, the average was closer to between 30 and 40. The levels themselves weren''t that different but the ranks were.
There was a stark difference between the ranks that levels didn''t indicate.
They also had more people in the E-rank than expected. Not more than they had but more than their population would indicate.
As they grew familiar with their surroundings and investigated various things the days passed quickly. As they waited nervously to depart they didn''t see any from the city leadership again until the morning they were slated to leave. They were left free to do whatever they wanted without even a minder to watch them.
It showed a level of trust Carson thought was gone after the world changed but he wasn''t going to say anything. He did hear whispers of them being guests but that was it.
The biggest surprise inside the camp wasn''t actually the people though.
It was the horses.
There were no Tamers or Beastmasters in Fort Hope which made seeing the beasts inside the city unexpected. It was a good thing, but still unexpected.
Depending on how they used them their trip could be cut down a decent amount.
The shock didn''t stop there though, other than everyone gearing up with armor and weapons, wagons of supplies were packed and readied at great speed. It seemed they were taking this seriously and preparing for a long journey based on the amount of food packed away.
The entire preparation was seamless enough to indicate experience and that experience translated to a lot more getting done in the two days than expected. He wouldn''t describe it as a whirlwind as it was too orderly for that, but much got done.
By the time the sun rose on the third day, it felt like they were packed for a year-long journey rather than the month-long it would be.
It was then that he saw the city leadership again. As the living center and the castle were separated, they didn''t get a chance to see many of them.
The same man that they met came out ready for war. His armor was a snug fit like it was endlessly tinkered with to hang perfectly on his form along with a weapon strapped to his back.
The very same weapon Carson saw during the meeting.
The hammer was fitted to his back in a fashion he couldn''t discern, but it was obvious that it was the same one he saw leaning in the corner. He doubted they kept two enormous war hammers made of ice.
Instead of the decorative piece he remembered seeing before, he saw it in a new light now. Even the man seemed different. As if a completely new person stood in front of him.
The civilian clothes and bearing were gone completely. The person he was eyeing now was one experienced in battle.
There was a... comfortableness as he moved in the armor, a familiar walk that spoke of it not being his first time wearing it. Same with the hammer. It was like it belonged there and the decorative nature before was only a figment of his imagination.
Lastly, Carson could feel a pressure bearing down on him that was new. It put a chill down his spine but it didn''t seem hostile or cruel. It wasn''t comforting, nor did it oppose him, just settled on his shoulders.
Others in a similar state of battle readiness surrounded the man and enough of them had similar features for Carson to understand. A family ran this pylon.
It wasn''t run by one man alone like theirs was.
After the man appeared, everyone seemed to quiet down naturally, like it was expected of them to do so. A subtle deference washed over the people and the cacophony of so many people in one place dampened as the man made to speak without him having to do anything.
"The time has come. We all knew this world would test us. That there would be threats we would have to stand against and this is just one of them. Do not be afraid of what we face for it is just the first in a long line of many that we will overcome.
"You all know of the tests that will come later and I implore you to think of this as one. A test run before the real thing comes in a few years. Also, I would like to applaud those willing to stand and face it." He stopped and looked out over the faces for a moment.
"Know that I appreciate your willingness to fight for this city and your eagerness to put your lives at risk to do so. Know that in doing this, you have an honor most do not. An honor to go into battle where your survival isn''t guaranteed.
"If any are to fall during this time, rest assured, I will personally make sure any you leave behind are well taken care of.
"Of that, you have my word."
As the last word rang out, it hit him with force. He wasn''t sure what it was but it felt like it was backed by a will not his own.
It was dead silent for a beat as everyone soaked in what was said along with the odd feeling that accompanied them. He hadn''t expected the leadership to be so open and forthright with the chance of death they faced but it didn''t cause a panic like he thought it would.
It was almost like they expected it and were happy to go forth. It wasn''t until Carson caught hold of someone before he learned the reason. The answer was silly enough that if it wasn''t said in such earnestness, he would''ve thought it were a joke.
"He gave his word our families would be taken care of."
He had to dig a bit deeper to understand why people were so willing to take the man at his word and he didn''t know whether to be happy or appalled with what he found out.
What kind of barbaric society was this man building here?
Cutting off people''s hands was disallowed centuries ago yet this man used it as a punishment for thieves.
Just who was he bringing back to his city?
Chapter 181 - Fighting Bugs
Chris
"Provisions are packed, weapons are ready, spare armor and metal is in wagon 3, is there anything you''re forgetting?" Abigail lectured while checking over the list in her hand.
In the two days spent preparing she had been focused on making sure we didn''t forget anything. This would technically be our first campaign as a force of our faction and the supply cashe to bring with us was rather large.
It was a lofty label to call 400 of us going off to fight Demons a campaign but it sounded better this way, if only for my own amusement. Deciding what to bring and what to leave behind fell to Abigail mostly as we didn''t want to take anything vital to the city or its defense, which was why her clipboard was filled to bursting with lists detailing our inventory.
We were lucky this happened after the Farmers planted all the seeds we brought as that process had taken a lot of manpower and I wasn''t sure how they would have managed with half the workforce gone.
Especially since those who chose to go were the stronger of the group who did most of the rock clearing and plowing.
"We are as ready as we can be, Abigail." I said, "There''s no need to worry. I''ll make sure everyone comes back."
She huffed and looked up from her papers somberly, "That''s what I''m afraid of. I know the danger you would throw yourself into if Gabriel or Mom got in trouble."
It surprised me slightly that the two decided to join me. Gabriel made sense as he looked for ways to advance and this was perfect for that, but my mother didn''t seem like the type to volunteer.
Abigail tried to convince both of them otherwise to no avail. I felt bad that we were all leaving but I had confidence in my ability to bring them back. I would channel my inner Jonathan if I had to.
As I did my final checks, everyone else could be seen doing the same. Those outfitted in new items from either Vinny, me, or the other Smiths were still adjusting and could be seen fiddling with the fit but they looked ready.
Remi was kitted out as well even if I wouldn''t ride him into battle. It took some work to get it to fit right but a new layer of metal plating covered his glossy black coat. I didn''t want to take any chances of my new friend taking an errant hit.
The horse was one of my first companions in this new world and he had grown on me tremendously. I knew he was strong, but I didn''t want to see him hurt. He fought wearing the clunky and heavy get up but I forced him into it no matter how many times he huffed and complained.
A few of the other horses had similar protections but none were as... obstructive as what I had created. It was Remi''s strength that let him carry all the weight and I doubted most of the other steeds could handle it while also being ridden.
I checked the saddle straps one more time and made sure the armor sat right without any pinching while Abigail checked over the papers one last time.
A few other stalkers were observing from afar as I did my final checks but I acted like I didn''t see them as they weren''t supposed to be here. Both were supposed to be in school right now and Abigail would scold them if she found out.
Tuffs of brown hair poked out from behind my tent and I would have noticed the two hooligans even without my increased perception. They were lucky their mother was so distracted with everything going on and Jonathan was off on an errand for me.
Their luck continued as Abigail walked off in the opposite direction to check on someone else. Most likely Gabriel as he was gearing up in the direction she set off in.
The two ran out of their hiding place after she left and impacted both of my legs. If this happened before I would''ve had to brace myself but the force they carried was trivial now.
"Do you have to go Uncle Topher?" Anna pleaded with teary eyes while Josh looked up at me with a similar expression.
When she was told most of her family was leaving she did not take it well. They had spent over a year with everyone being together in the same place and this would be the first time we split up.
Jonathan had left when we returned to gather his family but that was only for a few days, nothing compared to the multiple months we would be gone this time.
"I''m sorry sweetie, but duty calls," I said while patting her on the head.
"But you''ll miss my birthday!" She cried, letting the tears flow.
It hurt to see her so upset and I knelt to comfort her.
"Tell you what, I''ll bring you a present when I come back from my travels to make up for it." I tried to cheer her up.
Her last birthday was lost in the insanity of being transported which made her even more excited for this one. The fact it would be the big one zero was another reason she was excited. Double digits were a big milestone. One I would miss.
"You promise?" She asked gaining some happiness back.
"I promise." I confirmed, "Now, I believe you have another Uncle who''s departing and he needs one more hug for good luck."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
With a pat in the right direction, they ran off the same way as their mother and I was left alone.
Without anyone else to send me off, I mounted up. An odd feeling welled up in me as I passed through camp. and being on horseback let me see more of what was taking place.
Heartfelt goodbyes and last-minute hugs. Hundreds of people saddled down in whatever they could carry departing from their loved ones for who knew how long.
It wasn''t long before we were off and the castle was disappearing behind us. Its construction would continue but certain things would have to wait until I got back.
The stone would continue to be mined and transported along with other smaller things, but I had to be there to lay the Formations inside the walls. They had enough work that I wasn''t worried about them sitting idle, but I also didn''t want to be gone for too long.
For some reason, it felt like this wouldn''t be the last time we were riding out like this.
Austin
Mana burned through him as his eyes tracked his prey. The pressure inside him built up as [Solar Flare] drank in what he gave it. The spear in his hand danced as it left a trail of light in its wake.
He fired off [Solar Beams] at any of the bugs that closed in quicker than his skill would finish and thin holes were burned through their carapace. Smoke wafted into the air as they lost motor function and fell from the sky.
His first foray into their ranks was a staunch failure and their number forced him to retreat. When he first encountered them, he assumed they were only a temporary setback in his journey but that turned out far from accurate.
After lighting up the first few with his skills, an endless cascade of the creatures came out of the woodworks to attack him and it took everything in him to get away.
They had caused a lot more trouble than he initially thought they would. The man sized insects were similar to a mantis, as they wad two weapon like forearms they used to their advantage.
Their chitin was thick and it took effort to pierce his spear through and his skills took more mana than usual, draining him the longer he fought. As he ran out and his mana dwindled, [Spear Mastery] was the only thing that saved him from critical wounds.
After allowing the bugs in close, they proved their skill in close-quarter combat. Limbs ending in sharp tips stabbed at him from every angle and it made him think of all the complaints Chris had about fighting him. Like an angry swarm of bees full of fury were after you.
The irony that they fought with a similar fighting style to his own wasn''t lost on him, as annoying as it was. Austin attempted to channel his inner Chris and shrug through all the attacks but that didn''t last long.
His armor wasn''t meant to defend against the onslaught he was facing and the wounds added up faster than he thought. Even burning his bloodline at full blast wasn''t enough to escape unscathed.
After getting free from the swarm, his plan had to be adjusted. There was the option to just avoid the bugs but no matter how far he went around they were always in the direction his Profession was urging him in.
It was then that he realized the feeling was located at what appeared to be the center of the swarm which made him alter his entire course of action. Which turned into killing as many of the bugs as he could.
The mana flowing through him and into his skill capped out and he didn''t hesitate to release it. [Solar Flare] exploded out in a blinding light backed by a searing heat that came after.
The bugs in his vicinity were instantly burned to a crisp as the heat wave backed by his Laws overtook them and those farther away fell to the ground in droves as their papery wings burned away.
The heat was enough to sear his own skin if he didn''t have [Reinforced Body] on full blast. Gaining his second Law was what finally gave him the confidence to venture out alone.
He still didn''t have a Lesser law like Chris did, but two Least Laws were good enough. Especially when they combined so well together in his attacks.
Fire and Light melded together seamlessly when powering up his Solar skills and his affinity made them mesh without any worry of backlash. If he only had an affinity to one or the other, the possible backlash of the skill failing would burn his mana channels.
The number of dead caused essence to rush into him but it still wasn''t enough for a level sadly. After the week spent decimating the insect population the essence they provided was the only positive thing to come out of it.
The dungeons back home were his only source until running into the endless swarm and they were serving as the perfect replacement.
As the heat died down Austin noticed a change compared to the past few days of fighting. There weren''t that many bugs flying around and it seemed he was finally thinning their number.
He fought them for hours every day but this was the first time he saw evidence of making a dent. That was until he saw why a few moments later.
Through the thinned blob of insect bodies, he saw another group of people fighting them off drawing them away from his position. It was a large group and they all seemed huddled around the bank of a river.
It was rather odd that they were fighting while stationary like that but he didn''t have the easiest time spying on them. While the bugs had thinned, that didn''t mean they left him alone.
Even as he stabbed out with his spear, he tried to keep an eye on what the group was doing. Their lines were coordinated and they had a proper formation set up denoting at least some experience.
Those with weapons for close range lined the outer circle while the mages and rangers manned the inner one. Swords, axes, and maces alight with skills were easy to track as they fought on.
Austin doubted the group could see him even with his rather visible skills flashing out. His eyes were still augmented with his bloodline and his field of view was far enough to look on easily while also remaining unseen.
When he picked his bloodline, seeing farther wasn''t his main concern but it sure came in handy in times like this. It was the perfect way to scout things out while remaining hidden.
When he eventually gained the ability to fly his vision would come more in handy.
Oddly enough, the group stayed at the river bank for only a few minutes before they started to orderly back away. The retreat was perfectly organized as one layer after the next fell back without getting each other''s way.
Right as the last turned to leave, Austin noticed a woman step up and do... something.
Without being there in person to feel the mana it made it hard to know what she was doing but he didn''t have to wait for long. Streams of fire spewed outward and swaths of the bugs were incinerated.
It put his outburst from [Solar Flare] to shame as the flames streamed out farther and wider than his skill. Even from where he was the intensity of the fire was clear as his eyes picked up distortions in the air from the heat.
It rivaled Rachel in skill as the veritable flamethrower persisted.
As the flames died out, the woman turned and ran full speed away with the rest of the group.
How curious.
There must be a city over there.
Chapter 182 - Twin Cities
Marcus
Relief flooded his system as the gates closed behind him and yet another Water Run was completed without a single death. That accomplishment marked an entire month of no one dying. For whatever reason, for the past month, the Water Runs were getting easier.
Even as excited as he was about everyone making it back, Marcus couldn''t help but feel this week''s run was different. An inkling of a feeling was telling him that it was easier compared to the last. While it had gradually lightened up, this one was the easiest so far.
His mana was less than half full and his Law still had some juice left in it which marked the best condition he had ever returned in. Clarissa was flat out of both mana and mental energy but that was to be expected.
She used all she had during her attacks to kill as many as possible so using her as a baseline measurement wasn''t possible.
"Gregory!" Marcus called out for his second.
"Yes, sir!" Gregory shouted while running up to him.
"If you had to estimate, how much longer could you fight on?" Marcus asked.
Confusion flashed but the man answered all the same, "15 minutes at least. 30 if I was conservative."
Marcus nodded and sent the man on his way. His own estimates were close to that of his second so it wasn''t only him. A few more people said the same and things started to solidify in his mind.
Things were easier this time, he just couldn''t figure out why.
They had done the same Water Run nearly 70 times by now and it was always the same. Even as they gained levels from the fighting, the bugs would always be strong enough to match them.
They were growing at similar paces and the difficulty always remained the same. Except for now.
Instead of feeling hope, Marcus was worried. The pattern they had gotten used to had changed and he didn''t know why.
He thought about it constantly even while going about his usual tasks. The Builders Guild needed more materials and he had to approve a trip to go forage them. The Farmers were having trouble breaking up the rocky soil and he had to shift some higher leveled people to go help.
Managerial tasks that filled his daily schedule were completed while his mind kept gnawing on something else.
The biggest project he had going on was finally seeing some progress but even that couldn''t take his mind away from thinking about the bugs. They were his never-ending problem and they popped up everywhere.
Knock, Knock, Knock.
Swift and heavy knocking broke his train of thought.
"Come in," Marcus announced. The knocking pattern was familiar and he knew who it was.
The door creaked open and Gregory stepped through before shutting it behind him with a thud. Marcus looked up at him curiously.
"Sir, we have a visitor," Gregory stated.
"Is it the Reservation again?" Marcus asked exasperated.
The Reservation had sent them a representative a few weeks ago to discuss trade but they weren''t able to come to an agreement. They saw the predicament Marcus was in and tried to exploit him because of it.
They jacked up the price of food and materials just because they knew it was difficult for his city to acquire such things which left a sour taste in his mouth. Saying as much in a... not so polite manner caused negotiations to fall through.
It wasn''t a surprise they were back but Marcus hadn''t thought they would be quite as rushed. They must be just as desperate as he was. He wasn''t able to get any information on how their settlement was faring without sending someone out which he couldn''t afford to do.
From the one he met, they didn''t seem to be the welcoming type.
"No, sir, he''s not from the Reservation," Gregory said. "He says he comes from the North, up in Canada."
The North?
That was new. They hadn''t heard from anyone north of the border since the Change.
"Did he say why he''s here?" Marcus asked.
"He did not. He only asked for a place to stay for a while, even offered to pay upfront if that was a problem." Gregory stated.
This is odd. Visitors had arrived before but never from so far away and not in a long while. As the months stretched on from the Change, new arrivals tapered off as people stopped moving around and found places to settle.
He doubted many were still wandering looking for a place to stay. Which made this new arrival curious.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He had other things to take care of though, and even if the visitor piqued his interest, he couldn''t drop everything to go take a look. He dismissed Gregory with a wave and turned back at the reports in front of him.
They would need-
Cough
Looking up, Gregory was still standing in front of the door even after Marcus thought the conversation was over.
"Yes?" He asked, noting that there must be something more.
"Bernard was unable to get a level from the man but he claims it is high. Higher than Clarissa." Gregory said.
Oh, that changes things.
Clarissa was one of the highest leveled people in their camp and one of the strongest. She gained a lot of essence every week from barbequing the bugs which made her one of the fastest growers in the city.
Why would someone from so far away and of such level be here?
"Were they able to uncover if he has a faction affiliation?" Marcus inquired.
If he could somehow sway the man into staying here they could have another powerhouse to help in their assault. Even if the weekly Water Runs were ending without any deaths, they needed to assault the swarm eventually.
They couldn''t keep living in fear of the bugs and they needed to begin growing. To build something prosperous they needed to be free to venture out and gather resources, not hide behind the walls forever.
They needed to claim the dungeons around the area.
The three dungeons around the city were a sore spot for Marcus. The mana density rose in the vicinity of the dungeon which caused the bugs to gather in the area, forcing them to fight through if they wanted to enter them.
He knew from his tutorial the kind of resources that dungeons could provide and it rankled Marcus to not have them under control. At every turn, the insects were there to thwart his plans.
"Yes, they were. It''s one we haven''t seen before called Frostheim." His aid informed him.
First it''s Des Moines then the Reservation, now Frostheim. He couldn''t catch a break. Maybe I can spin this into something useful. Canada is far enough away they could be allies instead of enemies.
"Inform him that I would like to meet with him but don''t be too forceful. Let it remain a request for now." He said with this being the actual end of the conversation.
His chair creaked as he leaned back in it to ponder what the man could want. I''ll find out if he accepts.
Austin
"He wants to meet with me? Why?" So far, Austin''s attempts to not draw attention did the exact opposite.
It wasn''t difficult to follow the group back to their walled city and scope the place out. He had spent a few weeks just outside their range observing, but that quickly expended itself. Other than a surprise letter arriving for him, the time was mostly boring. To know more, he needed inside.
Which led to him approaching the gate like a normal traveler.
The city was in rough shape but it was better than the ones they came across in the caravan. Buildings weren''t in tatters here but there was visible damage to them from what he assumed were insect attacks.
From the state of things, it was clear fighting happened regularly and consistently. Even with noticeable damage, the wall stood strong and looked to do its job well.
It wasn''t to the same standard as what they started building back home, but neither was it poor quality. Rushed, maybe, but not bad.
His scouting found only two entry points into the city and both were gated and guarded which didn''t surprise him. Giving himself a once over to try and not stand out and so he appeared like a normal traveler, he approached the gate away from the bugs slowly.
He planned to appear like a wanderer and request a place to stay for a few days and explore what he could. Exploring didn''t always mean the wilds and new places were just as exciting as great sights.
He trusted his profession to block his level from being seen and he pulled as much of his presence in as he could. Gabriel and Chris like to call it aura but Austin thought presence sounded cooler.
Austin was much better at hiding his presence than Chris as it was impossible to scout without doing so. If he galivanted off without stifling his presence every beast within a few hundred feet would know he was there.
The gate guard didn''t give him much trouble and it raised his hopes of his plan working. There wasn''t even a fee to enter!
All of that came crashing down when a man appeared informing him that the man in charge wished to see him.
So much for not drawing attention.
He had no reason to refuse and he soon found himself in an office not unlike his cousin''s. The interior was obviously repurposed from a previous building but it was hard to tell what it used to be.
The decomposition and age of the building mixed with newer construction overtop the old made it impossible. It was cozier than Chris''s office, though, as at least this one was decorated.
A burly man sat behind the only desk in the room and it was clear this was the man in charge. He had an air that commanded respect and gave off natural leadership vibes.
Seeing the big man behind the desk with stacks of paperwork reminded him of Chris slightly. If he ignored the black hair and clean-shaven face and squinted, there was a resemblance.
He even had the broody stare of his cousin as well!
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my name is Austin Zalenski." He said sticking out his hand. His last name wasn''t actually Zalenski but going by it made things easier in the tutorial and he just stuck with it.
People got confused when he was a part of the Zalenski family faction without having the Zalenski family name.
His hoity-toity introduction didn''t illicit a reaction, sadly.
"Marcus Shieldwell."
Patience was never Austin''s strong suit and he was burning up to know what the man wanted. "I''m curious why you''ve asked to meet me. I doubt you meet with every person that comes through the gates."
"Not everyone who comes through the gates does so alone and has the level you do." The man said succinctly.
Fuck, he''s fishing. There was no way they knew his level as he had a skill specifically to block that. And it wasn''t the shitty Common one Chris had. His profession was all about Exploring and one aspect of exploring was remaining hidden.
No one in Frostheim could pierce through it and he doubted anyone here could. How did they find out then?
"The reason I''ve asked to meet is simple. I''m told you come from a faction up North, is that correct?" Marcus asked while he steepled his fingers together.
"I do," Austin nodded in response. He had said as much to the gate guard to get let in. It didn''t seem necessary but saying nothing seemed suspicious and it wasn''t like the knowledge was that specific.
A single direction wouldn''t give them any clues to where he was from as there were probably multiple pylons in the direction he indicated.
"As you are still affiliated with this faction, I assume you didn''t leave on bad terms?" The man questioned.
Oh, this is getting good. What does he want exactly?
"I did not," Austin answered.
"And if I wanted to work out an agreement of some sort, would you be able to facilitate that?" The man across from him asked with poorly concealed hope.
Did he assume just because my level is high I have an in with the leadership of my faction? Well, he isn''t wrong but that''s a far leap to make.
Maybe being discovered like this was a good thing. He was here to figure out what his profession wanted in the river and this city seemed to have an ongoing war with the bugs.
What if I get the city to help me discover what the bugs are defending?
Chapter 183 - Agreement
"That depends on the type of agreement," Austin said while leaning back in his chair. Not enough to prop it up on two legs and be impolite, but enough to show his curiosity on where this was going.
With his enhanced vision, Austin could see a vein on the man''s forehead protrude from his antics but that only spurred him on further. Marcus reminded him of Thomas, Christopher''s father.
Not to say he was a stick in the mud, but he didn''t appreciate the frivolity Austin was showing to what he considered an important conversation. It was one of the main reasons he wanted nothing to do with leadership.
It was all serious and tense without any room for entertainment or fun. It was hard to make jokes when you were literally in charge of people''s safety.
That wasn''t the case for him now. He was off on his own and could do anything he pleased. His actions were linked to Frostheim, but nothing he did would push the boundaries, he wasn''t that stupid.
Just the thought of the lecture from his mother on making enemies for trivial reasons was enough for him to act properly if a touch loose. Let alone what Abigail would say.
"While a trade agreement is a good start, what I''m looking for is one of a more... direct agreement," Marcus said ambiguously.
It wasn''t hard to guess what he meant by that.
"You want help with your little bug problem." Austin guessed.
The man stiffened but didn''t rush to deny it. It was obvious what the man was after but that made Austin curious about what he was willing to give up for such assistance.
"That would be the goal, yes, but any kind of support could be negotiated for," Marcus said.
While it would be fun to wring him for all he was worth, Austin couldn''t do so. The letter in his pack spoke of what Chris was doing and he didn''t have time to come down here and hunt bugs with him.
From the sounds of his letter, he had his hands full with the goings on up there.
"Unfortunately, that won''t be possible," Austin said. "From what I know, they are occupied with a problem of their own." The man showed nothing on his face but the disappointment was clear. "But, I would be happy to help you with your problem. I may not be able to take on the swarm myself but I''m no slouch." Austin said while tapping his chest.
"You know this for a fact? I assumed you would at least send word of such a request if not leaving to deliver it yourself." Marcus asked, not yet giving up on this string of chance.
"Yes, I do. They have problems closer to home and I doubt they''d come all the way here to help with yours." Austin said. From the way the letter from Chris was phrased, it was clear there was zero chance he would come here. After thinking, he added offhandedly, "Not unless they finish up there and you still need it, then I bet Chris could be convinced."
As soon as he said it, Austin regretted it. His big mouth was getting him in trouble again and the man pounced on his slip-up.
"Who''s Chris?" Marcus questioned.
It wasn''t Austin''s intention to reveal how... connected he was to his faction''s leadership at the start but he screwed that up. It wasn''t a bad thing for the man to know but it would change the way his relationship would be geared.
If he knew how close he was, then he would turn into a diplomat instead of an average person. It would color everything he did and he wouldn''t have the same liberties as before.
His words would need to be measured and he couldn''t do anything overtly anymore. Sneaking around would be taken as spying rather than exploring, which defeated the purpose of what he was doing.
With a resigned sigh, "He''s the one in charge of the pylon."
It was confusing what Chris''s exact title was. Technically, the City Lord was Abigail since she had the Profession for it, but calling one the City Owner and the other the City Lord got confusing fast.
He couldn''t wait until Chris started upgrading the pylon so he could make fun of the pretentious noble titles and so it wouldn''t be as confusing. He already had the posh British accent he would say them in down pat along with a practiced bow.
"And I take it you''re close with him." The man asked.
"Sadly. Even through his weird teenage years." Austin joked. "But they''re busy. Now, why don''t we discuss what kind of help I can provide since I''m here."Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The next part of the discussion was more to Austin''s liking. It was less about what his family was doing back home and what he would get for his direct help.
The man was cautious and didn''t reveal much, but it was clear what he was attempting. He wanted to launch an attack against the center of the swarm, hoping to kill whatever kept spawning the swarm.
Be it a queen laying eggs or some other fantastical reason thousands of insects kept appearing. Austin''s guess was some treasure was the cause of the population boom and once it was brought away, the swarm would die off.
The one problem with that theory was if the treasure was immovable. If that were the case, they would have to kill the entire swarm to stop more bugs from appearing.
Austin made sure not to slip up with anything more he said and he managed to make it through the rest of the meeting without another mishap. It humored him that he came all this way to get away from that kind of thing only to be right back in it.
After solidifying what, exactly, he would be doing to help, he was given liberty to go about his day. There was a weekly schedule they stuck to which made him have to wait a week until he needed to do anything.
During this time, he took the chance to explore a new city. He noticed people watching him as he walked around but that wasn''t surprising. He expected as much after his slip up and he might''ve well said he was a spy.
Even with a minder keeping an eye on him, the city was fun to explore. It was more rustic than the log cabins of his new home, but it wasn''t bad. Everything was made of stone instead of wood which was the biggest difference.
It wasn''t hard to figure out why that was the case as everywhere around was made of the stuff. Rocks dominated the landscape outside the walls and it wasn''t an exaggeration to say it was more readily available than trees were.
With all the houses, or huts in some cases, being made of stone it made the city appear utilitarian. Almost like a militaristic base rather than the foundations of a city.
Another difference was the markets.
Since the amount of people was easily in the thousands, that made it a bit more hectic, but even with more people, the trade happening was less than what people did in Frostheim.
Food and water were strictly regulated and without coin to pay for things, it was hard to run a business. Bartering for things was the only way to trade and that was mostly done with equipment.
Observing the conditions inside the city made it clear why the man was so urgent. Just knowing Austin was from a different faction made him reach out and see if there was a connection there even without knowing anything else.
What Austin originally thought was odd made sense the more he saw. The man was grasping at straws hoping on the off chance something worked.
It made him think about what he would ask for a reward for his help. They didn''t seem to have coins to spare and weren''t likely to give them up even if they had them.
Materials were scarce as well except for the mountains of insect carapace but Austin didn''t want that. The only thing they had in abundance besides that was stone and that was equally unhelpful.
It wasn''t like he could wave his hand and teleport it back home for Chris to use. Still, he pondered on what he would ask for on his side of the arrangement.
Ah, I''ll figure that out later. There''s still things to see.
It would be a long week but there were at least things to do here compared to being alone. Even if he would rather starve than eat the local cuisine.
Austin''s thoughts drifted to what Chris was doing. After the messenger ran into him while he was camping out fighting bugs a week ago he couldn''t help but think about what was going on. While he was tempted to turn around, he decided not to in the end.
Chris had things well in hand and Austin doubted things would go wrong. The man had more power than he thought he did.
Chris
"How much further?" I asked our guide.
I kept everyone at a quick pace after leaving and we ended up making good time. Without snow to hinder us the trip was quite quick. All the experience during our travels helped move things along at a fast pace. It took less than a month to arrive.
"We should be coming up on it now," Carson said.
The group of ten that arrived were clearly unaccustomed to such travel. They did not have the same experience with spending every day on the road like we did and they appeared rather haggard.
Some even had a hint of dark circles under their eyes from not sleeping enough during the journey. They kept their own watch at night and I didn''t blame them for it.
We were still technically strangers and I would have done the same, but splitting the watch ten ways didn''t help their sleep schedule. Especially when we were pushing hard every day.
They didn''t complain though, so I kept at it while they managed to keep up. Riding a horse made things easy on me but I still got sore after the long trip.
What we finally came across made memories from the tutorial flash through my mind. The first thing that came into view from the new city was a field of wooden spikes planted in front of tall wooden walls.
Similar to what we did to face the waves and threw as many traps down as we could in front of the walls.
Lines of stakes were angled chest high circled the portion of wall we could see and they were obvious recent additions. People were still working on adding more to the furthest line away.
Mounds of dirt were piled around in various spots from what I expected were either pit traps or the beginnings of a trench. I wasn''t sure how effective a trench would be against such creatures but this wasn''t my city to run.
It would have to be a wide and deep trench to do anything against higher-level humans, let alone Demons. Unless they had a way to increase its lethality.
Either through traps at the bottom, enchantments, poisons, or contraptions but that was a pricy endeavor. Without knowing if it would be finished in time for an assault was a risk.
Other than seeing the war preparations taking place, I was happy that the city still stood. It was a not-insignificant fear that we would arrive at a city in ruins overrun by Demons.
It was obvious that our companions thought the same because their sighs of relief were audible as the walls came into view.
As I slowed our pace down with the city now in sight, the woman who sat in our meeting with the bow dashed off ahead of the rest to inform someone of our arrival.
The only thing that bothered me was the city appeared to be on the defensive. I didn''t come all the way here to sit and wait for the Demons to arrive.
We would have to go on the offensive anyway if we were to kill them utterly.
Calling for Hal and a few others who had tracking skills, I turned to our guests.
"Take us to the Ritual Circle."
Chapter 184 - Ritual Circle
Chris
Carson fidgeted at being addressed directly and seemed conflicted on how to respond, "Uh, sir, don''t you think you should meet with the City Lord first?"
If we continued at our current pace we would reach the city in an hour but that wasn''t what was important right now. I was still uninformed about the details we were dealing with and I wasn''t going to trust what I was told wholeheartedly.
I wanted to see what we were dealing with first to ensure we weren''t being led on a wild goose chase.
From the way the City was preparing it was clear they were readying for war, but that didn''t confirm what we were about to face. I wasn''t well versed in Demon Summoning Rituals but I could at least check the degree of skill used to carve it.
Compare what was there to what I or Gabriel made.
It would give me a good picture of what level the person responsible for this whole thing was. At least the Professional levels. The person''s Class was a complete mystery.
You''d think that any who willingly summoned Demons was a Warlock of some sort but that assumption was faulty. ANY Class could benefit from making a deal with a Demon, which made finding the person responsible so difficult.
When literally anyone could benefit, it was hard to narrow down the suspects.
The reason I was so fixated on the person responsible for the summoning was because if we didn''t catch them, the same problem would arise when they did it again.
To kill the threat, all the Demons and the person responsible needed to be killed or it would just resurface.
"Tell him to meet me there if you wish. Time is of the essence and I will not waste it on frivolous meetings." I told the man which only worried him more.
From the way they spoke of their City Lord, I wasn''t sure if he would take offense but I hoped he wasn''t so self-important to feel that way. We came all the way here to help him and if he got upset because we didn''t come meet him first then that wasn''t my problem.
Even if I was nearly one hundred percent sure this wasn''t a trap, I wanted to see things with my own eyes.
"Everyone grab a horse, it will take a few hours to get there but it''s better than two days!" I ordered the group of trackers that gathered around Hal and I.
I saw all but one of the guests break off toward the city and it made me snort to see who we were left with. Carson was the designated person to lead us there as everyone else in his group left.
Liberating a horse from one of the carts, I got him to mount up as well to make the trip quick.
As soon as everyone was situated, we were off toward where the Ritual Circle was found kicking up dirt at a fervent pace.
Ashton
What he thought would be the final preparations were underway and he could only hope it would be enough. They had worked nonstop to build as much as they could and he could feel the dreaded hour coming closer.
Their seer predicted as much and being in the know only made him even more worried.
The slamming sound of his door opening made him jump. This was it, they were going to tell him the City was under attack.
Instead, he saw Victoria sprinting through the slammed open door nearly out of breath.
"Sir, we''ve returned with help," She said between breaths.
Excitement flared and he nearly jumped for joy at the exclamation but he stopped himself in time to remain stately.
"How many? A thousand? Two?" He asked already adjusting the plans in his head. Of the four thousand-odd citizens inside the city, only around half were fighters.
Of that half, fewer still did it with enthusiasm. It was what made all the plans so hard to draw up because he couldn''t rely on those people alone. Everyone needed to be conscripted and it hurt to force people to do so, even if it was required.
"No, four hundred." She stated.
His good mood dampened significantly but he didn''t say anything about it. It would be rude to insult any help they received even if it wasn''t as much as he expected or planned on.
"But they sent their best, or so we were told, even the City Lord himself came." She added to soften the blow.
"The City Lord came?" He questioned.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
That was nearly the complete opposite compared to how the other pylon responded. The South treated his warning as a trap and refused to send help, the North not only sent aid, but even their City Lord came.
It at least gave him hope that the four hundred were at least fighting fit.
His mind kicked into motion and he rushed to welcome the person, "Quickly, bring them in. It won''t do to leave our saviors outside the city!" He ordered.
It was then that another member of the group sent North came rushing through the door.
"Sir, they broke off into a small group to go see the Ritual Circle. The man said if you want to meet then to do so at the site." Noah, the second to come rushing in said.
What do they want with the Ritual Circle? None of the trackers were able to get any leads and it was a dead end on locating the Demons.
The decision to go or not warred in his mind. He wanted to meet the person in charge but he couldn''t leave his city in a time of crisis. He was needed here and he couldn''t go rushing off right now.
Heaven forbid the city gets attacked while he was gone.
"No, I can''t leave now. Inform me when the man returns and invite him in. What''s the rest of the group doing?" He asked.
With all the hectic construction and fortifications, they didn''t have a chance to make room for that many people. Sure, they could squeeze in maybe one hundred, but four hundred was out of the question.
They didn''t have the room for that many people.
It was Noah who answered, "They are waiting for their leadership to return to do anything. They don''t appear to be anticipating an attack and aren''t setting up any defenses."
That made him confused, "What do you mean? What do they plan to do then?"
"I think they mean to go on the offensive."
What! Are they insane?!
Chris
With their guide, it was trivial to find what they were looking for and the trip was swift. It only took a few hours to reach the site and the trackers were already trying what they could while I examined the Formation.
Runes were an odd thing to understand and I doubted I had come anywhere near the full picture but I wasn''t the novice I once was. The amount of different Runes I had seen gave enough information to glimpse a bigger meaning behind them, yet I couldn''t understand them fully.
I wouldn''t for a while yet, but I was getting better with every passing day.
One thing I did know was that every Rune was different and all had a different feel to them. Durability Runes were blocky and gave off a sturdy feeling when observed. Wind runes were marvels of twists and turns while feeling free.
Depending on the deeper meaning of the Rune, the way it was carved and the feeling it gave off changed.
The ones I was looking at now gave off a hideous feeling ten times worse than the Demonic Leopards. They were carved into thick stone and filled with blood. Blood that had since dried and took on a blackened look.
Like it was infected after use.
The Ritual did something to the blood that made it impossible to determine what kind it was. I could only hold out hope that it wasn''t human but I wouldn''t delude myself into thinking that it wasn''t a possibility.
The string of Runes formed a perfect circle in the stone, centering around a raised altar where the Formation converged. It was where either the materials used in the summoning were placed or where the sacrifices were... dispatched.
Based on the blood dripping from the altar, they used sacrifices. Not uncommon in the readings about Demon Summonings.
I tried my best to pick apart what I was looking at but I had no experience with this kind of thing. The books explained what I was examining but they didn''t present the entire picture.
Even sensing the scene with [Basic Runecrafting] and [Formation Mana Flow] didn''t tell me much. It gave off different feelings and information than what I was used to and without background knowledge, I didn''t know what any of it meant.
The Runes I crafted with were easy to understand, I spent hours carving them and hours more studying them. I knew them on a near intimate level but these were something completely different.
It was like they took the Natural Order of things and deliberately twisted it. Infected it with something... well... Demonic.
Instead of deliberating on the knowledge I didn''t know, I looked at how it was carved. The imperfections in the stone that caused slight mishaps during carving or when the person got tired and slipped up.
Imperfections in the flow of mana lowering the quality of the Formation and signs of untrained craftsmanship were abundant.
I was glad to see that the Formation wasn''t perfect and I could confidently say I was a better engraver than this person. Things would''ve been bad if I couldn''t see any flaws and the person was so far ahead of me in terms of skill.
That spoke of levels much higher than mine and of Formations I would have no hope of cracking.
Instead, it looked like slightly better than amateur work. It was hard to pinpoint a level range as that didn''t directly determine skill level. You could be high-level and just suck at engraving or be low-level and be a genius and achieve the same result.
Or, worst case scenario, the person didn''t even have an Enchanting Profession and this entire thing was free-handed without any skills.
That was the least probable outcome as there wasn''t enough time to study such a thing. The only reason I had advanced so far enchanting-wise was because I had skills to guide and help the process along.
If I had to walk blindly in the dark and be completely self studied I would be even worse than an amateur engraver.
The person we were dealing with had to have at least some Profession related to Enchanting or bought enchanting skills inside the tutorial. Due to the skill, I would guess it was a Profession but I didn''t rule out the possibility that it could be independent skills.
I was just finishing up when Hal came jogging up to me.
"Tell me some good news, bud," I said. While I wouldn''t call the trip here a bust, I didn''t get as much from the Formation as I would have liked.
"We''ve got a trail but it''s faint. It could lead to nothing but it stinks like Demons." Hal said.
"Where does it lead?" I asked.
Instead of answering with words, Hal pointed over my shoulder into the distance.
Shit.
The direction was even further south taking us away from the rest of our forces.
"Hal, how confident are you in stealth?" I asked. I knew stealth wasn''t his strong suit but I hoped that he had at least something to aid him. He used to be a Ranger after all.
"One low-level skill but nothing else. I don''t really focus on that." He answered.
"Well, you''re the best scout we have. Take those who at least have stealth skills to follow the trail and meet me back at the city with what you have. I''ll be ready to march on whatever you return with." I said.
Hal looked at me skeptically, "The City didn''t look like they were ready to sally out for an attack. How are you going to convince them?"
"You leave that to me. You just find the sons of bitches so I know where to go." I said.
Chapter 185 - It Will Have To Be
The trip back to the busy City was just as quick as the trip there. A few hours later I was right back to where I started, staring ahead at what would be my first diplomatic meeting.
It wasn''t that serious, as we were fighting a common enemy, but it was technically my first meeting with another City Lord. Tracy didn''t count as I knew her from the tutorial and I hadn''t actually met their City Lord.
The fact her pylon was leagues away from mine helped matters because even if I did cause offense, it wasn''t like they were going to chase me all the way North.
But this was different. This pylon was one of our nearest neighbors and there would be no running away if I managed to flub things. While highly doubtful, the possibility was there.
I had watched how the people who visited us acted and how they talked about their City and it gave me a decent idea of what I was walking into. Nothing specific was revealed, but an idea nonetheless.
The group was courteous and polite without any direct arguments breaking out during our time together. Unless the City Lord was the complete opposite of the people he sent, I wasn''t overly worried.
My biggest thought was on how I would get him to abandon defense and go on the attack.
Even as I walked up to the settlement gates, more traps and defenses were being constructed. Even after knowing help had arrived, he was set on building up what he could.
The worst outcome from our meeting would be his refusal to go out and attack the Demons once they were found which would be monumentally stupid.
Demons were a ticking time bomb and the sooner they were vanquished the better. We didn''t have time for him to turtle up behind his walls as their number grew with every new summon.
And if there was an intelligent Demon in control, they would wait until they had overwhelming numbers before doing anything. Waiting was death, and I wouldn''t allow that to be an option.
I had Carson walking next to me as I entered the gates and the people inside parted for us to pass. I left Remi behind with the group and chose to go at this on foot.
My armor and hammer were with me and even if I didn''t think a fight was probable, I was still ready.
The buildings I passed were mismatched with new construction mixed in with old. Some of the buildings were just reconstructed from being destroyed while others were completely new.
New growth rings of the city were the first we traveled through after entering the gates and we transitioned to older structures as we walked toward the City center. There was no inner wall, no castle at the center for defense.
It was a town full of regular buildings surrounded by a wooden wall.
It was funny to see how differently we approached City building. I was focused on fortifications above all else while what I was looking at made it seem like defense was an afterthought they had only recently seen to.
The only good thing they had going for them was the town butted up against a lake. The direction we came from made the lake sit on the opposite side of the City out of sight but it was revealed while getting closer.
Other than being on the shores of a lake, the City had nothing else going for it. The best way to fortify it would be to build a Castle inside the lake but that was long in the future.
The amount of manpower required to build up the foundational Earth for that to be possible would take forever, but that was the best option my mind could come up with.
Still, being surrounded by water wasn''t the same deterrent it used to be. A powerful Water Mage would turn the moat against you, using the readily supplied Water as fuel. Ideas of how to fix that and make moats more deadly flashed but I waved those away.
I didn''t need to be thinking about what I would do differently when it wasn''t my city.
The only thing I could admit was at least they were trying to make up for it now. The wooden palisade ringing the town wouldn''t hold against anything too powerful, but it was at least better than nothing. It could be quickly enhanced by piling dirt behind it to make it more robust.
Carson didn''t speak much while walking through his home and I didn''t ask him to. A silent observation of what we passed through was good enough for me, I didn''t need a tour.
Similar to our own City before we left, people were busy at work inside various workshops. The clangs of hammer blows were most obvious as smithing was the loudest profession by far.
Hides were laid out in the sun to dry while those already prepped were no doubt being sewn into armor. The City was in full conscription mode and people moved with a purpose between the different buildings.
It was hard to gauge the strength people held as the density made it all blend together into a blob. I couldn''t pick out specific people which ruined any attempt to know how strong they were.
Levels were revealed on some but my [Identify] was weak enough that any run-of-the-mill [Blocker] could obscure it. From what I could see it didn''t seem that different than my own city.
The levels here were on the lower side of our average but it wasn''t that big of a difference. Our months of traveling gave us some levels but not as many as we would have from being next to a dungeon 24/7. Well, for those that chose to enter it. People who shied away wouldn''t see any quick increase in level for their Class.
The fact we were still ahead was only because of the monsters we had to travel through.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Carson led on through it all and I could see what I assumed to be the management building coming up. It appeared like a City Hall from before but repurposed to be the command center.
People rushed in and out of its doors constantly taking orders out or bringing information in. The building itself stood tall and was one of the few entirely made of stone.
It was also where I expected the pylon to be.
While pylons had a beacon effect before they were placed, they were harder to sense afterward. Not to say they were hidden, but they were more subtle with how they worked.
If I had to guess the reason why, I would say it was so unplaced pylons couldn''t be lost or hidden for long.
The system made a big deal about owning land and making sure only certain people were able to do so and hiding a pylon or smuggling it away defeated that purpose.
Once purchased, everyone would know what was in your possession and there was no hiding it.
After it was placed, though, it was easier to disguise or mask where the pylon was hidden. It was easy to tell there was one, but not its exact location. Being able to hide it after it was placed confused me but it wasn''t my biggest concern right now.
Carson led me through the doors into the building and I was met with a wall of parchment on either side. Crude maps from fledgling Cartographers filled the building with loads of different things written on them.
Points were circled and lines were drawn detailing various construction taking place while others were of older dates. They depicted the city before the wall was built and at various stages of development.
The wall of parchment had people checking on it and adding words but I didn''t have a clue what most of it was about. There was way too much information to catch anything as we passed by and into a long hallway.
Doors lined either side of the hallway but none were where I was led. Small alcoves or rooms were where most of the doors led as a few were open, revealing what they contained.
We breezed by all of them and it became clear we were heading toward the lone door at the end of the hallway instead of any of the branching ones.
As my steps neared, I took a deep breath to ready myself. I wasn''t scared, but it was hard not to feel nervous. Diplomacy was not my strong suit and I did not like having to do it.
The fact it was necessary and would continue to be only made it worse. Anything I said or did could affect our future relationship and the fact we were neighbors meant that would be a constant one.
Prepared as best I could, I stepped through the door.
Inside the room, there were three other people except for Carson and I who just entered. Two of whom I''d met before. Off in the corner was the strong woman with the bow, Victoria. The warrior who I''d met, Nathan... or Noah, I couldn''t remember the man''s name, sat next to who I assumed was the City Lord.
All in the room were armed and armored, prepared for a fight to break out at any time. I didn''t think they would fight me, but ready to fight in case Demons attacked.
Even knowing they weren''t armed just to meet me, it made the room tense anyway. With everyone in a state of battle readiness it didn''t matter we were supposed to be allies, when an unknown with a weapon stood before you, it was hard not to tense.
The man in charge was seated at a meeting table with chairs arranged for three. Two straight across from each other with the third placed off and behind. Close enough they were still at the table, but clear they were support rather than another voice.
"Hello and nice to meet you. I must express my appreciation for you coming to our aid." The man, who I knew was Ashton, started the conversation with platitudes.
With only a few people in the room, it was easier to pick out the feeling specific people gave off and this man reminded me of Jonathan. Even without seeing the shield leaning against his chair, it was clear he was a defender.
But instead of a sturdy mountain that Jonathan felt like, one immovable if it chose to be, Ashton felt like a steadfast source of light. A comforting presence that would prop you up if you were to fall.
It was an odd feeling and one I hadn''t felt before but I could guess what it was from games I used to play.
He was a paladin of some sort.
I wasn''t sure how faith or religions worked now with The System and all, but what I could feel was hard not to associate with paladins. He even had the sword and shield combo to match.
The armor he wore matched my own in heaviness and even exceeded it in some areas. I made mine to go under my [Frost Armor] but his was made to be his sole protection.
When he stood briefly to greet me he matched my height putting him over six feet. His face was devoid of facial hair and his brown hair was meticulously trimmed.
An odd detail to keep under control with the world in its current state. Even his eyebrows looked curated, oddly enough. After peeking around the room and the new face in front of me, I took in his stature.
The armor made it hard to tell but there was a thickness in his limbs speaking of high strength. It wasn''t a foolproof rule that thick arms meant high strength, but it was common.
With appearances observed and platitudes to start, I followed suit, "You called and I have answered. I know the threat Demons hold and cannot leave it to fester so close to home."
It wasn''t what I really wanted to say but I couldn''t leave the man hanging.
"Introductions are in order then. This is my first time meeting another pylon owner and, truth be told, am unsure of the proper procedure." He said with a laugh trying to lighten the atmosphere. "My name is Ashton Seger, City Lord and Faction leader of Fort Hope."
"Christopher Zalenski, City Owner and Faction leader of Frostheim." I matched before we shook hands. It felt weird to be so formal about this but it was essentially a meeting between foreign delegates.
Not that we were the size and strength of countries before, but that was essentially what we were. Two separate forces meeting for the first time. Ugh, the Formalities are only going to get worse.
"With that out of the way, we can get into it then. I''m told you came with four hundred fighters and I''m pleased to have them. We''re currently adjusting our battle plans with the additions in mind so feel free to share any inputs you have that could help." He said bringing out a map of the area with the same drawings I had seen on the way in.
My options on how direct I wanted to be flashed in my head but I decided to handle this like I had before. Direct and to the point worked with Tracy and keeping that would be easiest going forward.
"I''ve come to fight Demons, not defend your City. I have trackers out searching for them now and intend to march once they are found. Time is of the essence and I cannot waste it waiting for them here." I stated succinctly.
The room fell silent at my announcement and it was clear they were caught off guard. I expected as much as I saw zero preparations for an offensive battle.
"You intend to lead an attack against them?" Ashton asked questioningly.
"I do. We need to find them first, evaluate their strength, and vanquish them as soon as possible. The longer we wait the harder it will be." I said, "We can''t depend on them coming to attack here when so many other things can happen. What if they run South and never come back?"
"We know the consequences of such a fate but we can''t do anything without information. All our scouts and anyone with a tracking skill are running around the countryside looking for them without any luck." Ashton said.
Hearing that eased my mood. It was hard not to look at all the defensive preparation and think they weren''t doing anything besides that. Hearing they were actively looking for the Demons was good news, even if they had no leads.
"Then I will add those I can to the search. If we pool information we should be able to find them faster." I said in a lighter tone.
"Then it shall be done." He said with a nod, "But are you sure going at them with... our numbers will be enough. While I can force people to defend their home, forcing them to march is a completely different story."
"How many can you estimate will come?" I asked.
"I don''t know. A third? A quarter? Half if we''re lucky." He sighed, "Will that be enough?"
"It will have to be." I said.
Chapter 186 - Threads
With our first meeting concluded, it left time for a few awkward encounters. It was obvious that neither I nor the other City Owner knew how to treat one another. I didn''t care much for throwing my weight around and he didn''t seem to want to impose on me either. It made things strange at first but they eased as the hours passed while the trackers were still out.
The group with Hal still hadn''t come back by sundown and neither did the other group from the city. It did worry me a touch when Hal didn''t arrive back at camp but I trusted him to get the job done.
Or at the very least, to be so noticeable that we were alerted to something wrong.
While I sat and waited, I stayed outside of the city mostly. I had our group set up a very temporary camp with only the bare minimum in terms of structures. I wanted everyone to be ready at a moment''s notice.
I almost didn''t have people set up, but ended up thinking better of it. While Ashton had agreed to go on the offensive if the demons were found, his City didn''t look like the pinnacle of readiness of being able to do so.
He was only just now gauging how people felt about going and getting numbers on the volunteers. If word came back now that we had the trail, he would need at least a few hours to get everyone in order on his side.
While it was frustrating to know we would be ready and waiting well in advance, there wasn''t anything I could change about it. The hours spent waiting for word certainly helped him get his ducks in a row.
The more time that passed without any new information gave him that much more to be ready when it eventually did.
Other than only waiting, I ran over a few battle preparation things ahead of time. This was going to be a direct assault on a mass of enemies rather than what we were used to.
The training for defending the pylon wouldn''t help much in this instance.
Without Hal, it left Rachel, Gabriel, my mother, and myself to discuss plans and come up with something viable. Of our council, Brayden, Sam, and Vincent chose not to come, and Jonathan but that wasn''t by choice.
One main thing we had to worry about wasn''t even the fighting itself. It was not letting any of the Demons get away. I was hoping when word came back we would have a clearer picture of what we were dealing with so these plans could be finalized.
Without knowing the composition or type of Demons we were up against it was impossible to put plans in writing.
There were a few different Demons that could have been summoned and they acted differently and had different strengths and weaknesses. The Rank was impossible to know without setting eyes on them, but I could guess from the Formation.
While the blood was untestable to find out what was used as the sacrifice, the Formation itself gave some information. The care and effort, let alone the skill, required to create such a thing spoke of the person being in the E-rank.
While someone below level 50 could have done it, I didn''t think it was likely. Especially with only a year being passed since knowledge of such a thing was introduced.
What sealed the deal though, in my mind, was the reason behind the summoning. Even the most sociopathic would have a reason behind doing such a thing. Deals with Demons were infamous even before the System arrived.
The reason I ruled out the person being below E-rank was mostly because no Demon below that would have anything worthwhile to offer. Summoning Demons was similar to spirits in the regard you could only summon something up to your own rank.
Without special care and extremely rare ingredients, your own rank was the highest you could summon. Plus, for Demons, it was ill-advised to go higher. Summoning a Demon stronger than you without protections put in place was folly.
Even without experiencing such a Ritual before, I would have been able to notice if there were such protections. I had spent extensive time since our return studying that exact subject. Wards and defensive Formations were much more in my wheelhouse than Summoning Rituals.
I spent multiple hours every day furthering my knowledge of Wards and while it sounded arrogant to say so, I would''ve been able to tell if there were any containment Wards attached to the Formation.
Not unless the engraver had a skill level so far above me that it was impossible to pick up on, but if that were the case, we had bigger problems.
That said, just because the first Demon summoned was E-rank didn''t mean all of them would be. Demons didn''t have the same rules for summoning more of their own kind as we did. They didn''t need such Ritual Circles and could get away with Ritual Casting if there were enough.
The way it worked still wasn''t entirely clear to me.
"Rachel, how does Ritual Casting work exactly?" I asked trying to understand.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"Well, it starts by linking the participants together in something akin to a Formation. Instead of Runes and mana stones though, it uses people and their skill manipulating mana. If a Formation were a computer automated version, a Ritual Casting would be a manual version." She said.
"Yeah, but how do they compare though? Does one take less energy? Get worse results?" Gabriel asked.
"That depends," Rachel said, "I''m not that well versed in Formations, but from what I understand, the materials involved in making them play a key role in how they work. It''s the same for Casting Rituals. The skill of the people involved plays a big role in how well they work. 6 novice mages won''t hold a candle to 6 experienced mages."
The shortcut that Demons had was if there were enough of them, they didn''t need to use such Ritual Circles, or, if the original Demon was strong enough, only one was required in the Casting.
As a Race, they had advantages in leading such Rituals and they excelled at it even. It was like their Race was trying to get them to expand and colonize. It was one of the main reasons they were hated so much by all non-Demons.
Their need to colonize and drive to consume put them on bad terms with nearly every other race in the multiverse, the only thing keeping them from being killed off was their strength.
The fact they grew more intelligent as they gained power and could assuage the urge to consume helped matters.
If Demon Gods ran around destroying planets and Civilizations, it didn''t matter how strong they were. Enough people would band together to kill them.
The details of the Demon Race and their standing in the multiverse weren''t important though. All that mattered right now was wiping them off the face of the Earth.
Sadly, even with our timely intervention, I doubted this would be the last Demon Hunt I would participate in. Even if we caught the person responsible, another would fall to the temptation.
The fact it happened this early after being gifted new powers only spelled out what we, as a society, were in for. It was a fun thought experiment to think about though if a bit sad.
Years down the line, when people were born with the System already in place, would they be more or less likely to fall to the temptation?
I dismissed those thoughts to focus back on the matter at hand. Even with Rachel''s explanation, we wouldn''t know anything with certainty without knowing which Demon was summoned.
Imps, Hellhounds, Demonic Converted Beasts of any kind, Demonlings, and Lesser Demons all went about things differently.
Common sense made us throw out the possibility of any non-sentient Demon but that wasn''t something we could do with 100% confidence. ANY Demon could make a deal, even if convention said Hellhounds couldn''t communicate.
Most types were inclined to summon more of their own type above all else but there would be a variety of them given time.
With hours spent going over the local maps provided to us, it wasn''t until Hal came back that we had something to work with. What he had wasn''t concrete, only a direction, but it was better than nothing.
He didn''t end up coming back until noon the following day, marking our second day since arriving.
Hal''s group was able to follow the trace they had further South and came across an increasing amount of evidence. Whether our trackers were better than Fort Hope''s wasn''t confirmed, but we at least had someone with a better skill.
Informing the City of what we found sent them into a tizzy. It sped their plans up significantly and while they took a while to form up, it wasn''t as bad as I feared.
As soon as Hal came back and signaled he had their trail our camp was up and ready within the hour.
Fort Hope wasn''t ready until three had passed.
I stood at the head of our group as we watched those from Fort Hope march out.
"Hal, how many do you spot?" I asked.
We were a distance away from the City Gates and he had the best eyesight in the group. I could have tried to count the ranks coming out but it was easier to ask the man dedicated to scouting.
Plus, he had experience doing just that during the waves.
"Hard to tell, they aren''t the most organized ranks but from what I can tell, a thousand. Twelve hundred at best." He answered.
"More than we feared but less than we hoped." I sighed.
Adding our numbers put us at roughly one and a half thousand strong. The largest army I had ever been a part of but I still couldn''t help but feel worried. Demons were not to be underestimated.
Their City Leader marched at the front, armor gleaming in the sun and shield and sword at the ready. He was even more armored than when I last saw him with a knight''s helmet to finish the suit.
The plated man was the epitome of a medieval knight and his Paladin-like aura only made the picture more accurate. He led similarly to what I did, awkwardly but with authority.
What I assumed was his inner circle followed close behind. The Ranger with the bow looked much the same as when I''d seen her last along with the other members of their group.
Only the three who met with me marched close to the leader, the rest of the ten who had ventured to my City were either further back or staying behind.
The man, Carson, I confirmed to be a Mage rather than a Healer. Other healers wore a familiar red cross somewhere on their get-up that the man lacked. I suspected he would be a Mage of some sort but this confirmed it.
I could have asked during our month spent traveling but that wasn''t something discussed outside of family. Even asking reminded me of other taboo subjects from before.
Still, watching the people who would march with me come streaming out of the gate made me feel something else.
These people would be my comrades in arms in the fight to come. My companions on our warpath. Even with everything we''d been through, it was hard to think what I felt was real. Even with magic, a Castle, and a weird System.
Something about marching off to war kicked me in places that were different than the rest. Most of the group were just regular workers less than two years ago yet here they stood.
Hell, here I stood.
I was armored and armed with medieval-style weaponry and armor, standing at the forefront of what could be considered my army.
The feeling coursing through me made me stand and take it all in with clarity. The people I watched coming out of the gates were to fight with me and the people who stood behind me were to fight for me.
The severity of what we were about to march off to face had never felt so heavy.
The burden I had dismissed when the chance first arrived. When we were transposed into what we were, I faltered and shrunk away from the responsibility. I watched as another took up the role and followed listlessly behind.
It was a stark difference to what I was doing now.
The weight of people''s lives were in my hands and it was just now dawning on me that not everyone would make it back. Sure, I knew that intellectually, but now it felt all more real.
Like the threads of fate were only now settling into place and our course was too far along to end up any other way.
Some of those threads would be cut short soon and the only thing I could do about it was grip my hammer tighter.
Chapter 187 - Doom and Gloom
Gabriel
While having his legs back was the single best thing to happen since their return, it didn''t stop him from complaining about the aching. After setting off from the new city that he didn''t even get to explore, they set a grueling pace.
While he was one of the lucky few to be on horseback, that didn''t stop the cramps and soreness from riding for so long. They had spent a month traveling only to rest for not even two days before they were off again.
It was a lot to handle and some were visibly flagging.
He heard whispers about it whenever his family got together to talk strategy without him. Not that he wanted to be involved. He had firmly refused to be a part of their ''Council'' for a reason.
He could still share his opinions, and he had, but he didn''t have to get filled in for every little detail. If he was being honest, he really didn''t care. His focus was on much more important things.
Like magic.
The tutorial had taught him a lot but that was nothing compared to what he knew now. Aunt Rachel had such a wildly different take than he did which only expanded his knowledge further.
While he had focused on creating and manipulating his own Ice, Rachel focused on something different, Mana manipulation. She could pick apart his skills if he didn''t try to defend them with startling ease.
It was something he hadn''t thought much about before.
His head was in the metaphorical clouds with magic, focusing on all the cool things it could do. Creating new effects on his skills or changing them in subtle ways so they did something else.
Combat was a focus he zoned in on occasionally, but it seemed Rachel spent all her time on that. Knowing how their tutorial was made that unsurprising.
Still, it was nice to get other perspectives and expand his repertoire.
Training with her for nearly a year did wonders for his skill and was the main reason he felt so confident coming along. He wouldn''t say he was scared, but it was hard not to feel something knowing they were about to fight a horde of Demons.
The very things games, novels, and nearly everything depicted as evil incarnate. Even knowing that the Race wasn''t exactly how it was described didn''t help with the feeling.
The things they came across only made him feel worse.
He knew what Demons would do, but it was much different to see it. After following the trail they had for a few days, they began seeing signs of Demonic activity.
Claw marks on trees with lingering Demon traces, water they walked through was tainted. As the signs built up, so did the number of tracks they found. It started with a small group, then a bigger one, then a large one, and then it was too many to count.
As the tracks they found indicated the growing army, so too did the environment reflect that. The taint lingered and with more and more Demons gathering together only made it worse.
If the Demons all died today, the taint would still be around for a while longer. It would take time for nature to defeat before things could get back to normal. Luckily, waiting wasn''t the only thing they could do.
While leaving the taint wouldn''t do anything too harmful, it was better to cleanse it as they passed. There were skills dedicated to doing so but none had them on the account no one predicting this happening.
They did find out certain affinities worked better than others. Light and Lightning worked best of the ones they had with Nature coming in close behind them.
The books said Holy, or Angelic, affinity worked best but no one had that affinity.
His own Ice affinity worked, but not very well. Surprisingly, it did better than fire which was a shock. Not better than Rachel''s Fire, but he suspected a different reason for hers working so well. Dragon-tinted flames weren''t to be underestimated. Even the infinitely small Dragon essence hers contained.
Knowing Light worked best, the other City''s leader was mostly in charge of cleansing the area they were in. Ashton rode side by side with his brother and Gabriel wasn''t far away from them.
They did what they could as they traveled, but it started to become unmanageable as they got closer to their target. Even with it being the end of Spring with Summer right around the corner, leaves were falling off trees and flowers were wilting.
A burnt orange or sickly brown plagued the plants even the atmosphere felt different. Stuffy and unwelcoming almost. When they left the city, the whole procession was in somewhat high spirits, but with what everyone was seeing now, it was getting gloomier.
Walking through days of Doom and Gloom ruined morale.
Still, Chris and the other City''s leader forged ahead.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Gabriel suspected his brother wasn''t even phased over such a thing as his face showed no emotion. Ever since they had left something was different about him. He didn''t talk as much and it was like a reversion to when they met after the tutorial.
Not quite as bad, but it was still a noticeable change.
There wasn''t a right time to ask him about it as he was always busy with something. Either planning, ordering people around, talking with the trackers, discussing things with the other City Lord, or even smithing sometimes.
Not many who volunteered to fight were crafting-oriented which left the repairs and servicing of weapons and armor to those who had the profession, Chris included.
With all of that going on while also traveling for hours every day, it wasn''t like Gabriel could walk up and talk with him about it, even if he wanted to.
As the days passed, the area only got worse. At the rate it was declining, it would take years for nature to reclaim if left alone.
Chris
They were getting close.
Dead trees marred the area, leafless and bare. Anything green had died long ago and they hadn''t seen a beast, a regular-untainted- beast, in days.
All the trackers they had said they were close.
Night watches were doubled and then increased again. Their time spent traveling was decreased as well. They didn''t want to run into the enemy while tired from a full-day march.
Scouts they sent ahead weren''t willing to venture too far and the tension in the air made people increasingly on edge. It was even worse than their attack on the ''Mindbreaker.''
The detrimental effect of the gloomy atmosphere had gotten worse the longer they had to travel through it. The Demonic taint in the air tried to wriggle in and pervade your body.
It took constant attention to ward it off. The more powerful had it easier but it was still a constant annoyance to deal with. Everything was adding up to make our trek miserable.
With every step forward, it only got worse. Demonic beasts became common and even demonic plants started popping up. Even knowing that some could be used as rare ingredients didn''t help.
Chatter quieted and laughter was thoroughly gone.
It was almost a relief when we got word from the scouts.
We had caught up to the demons.
Action immediately broke out as our plans were put into motion. All the scouts were tasked with getting a number and average strength assessment while the rest of the army did whatever they needed to do to prepare.
Dusk was just off the horizon which set the battle to take place the following day. Demons didn''t get any special powers at night but they didn''t have the same disadvantages as we did.
They could see just fine in the dark while we were without such an ability. There were some out there with either the skill or bloodline to help them do just that, but the majority of our army didn''t.
Plus, a night battle would be a nightmare to direct.
While the scouts were off getting us a better picture of what we were dealing with, everyone settled in for one final rest. Tension and worry were at an all-time high.
Camps without any fire were bad enough, but it was even worse than that as we sat on the eve of what would be some people''s first real fight.
Even I felt the jitters and this was far from my first time.
Abigail
"Do you think they''ve found them yet?" Jon asked.
The question was one she was asking herself constantly. Ever since half their city left, things had been quiet. Losing that many people was bound to do that but even the ones who stayed were quieter than usual.
All of them knew that not everyone would make it back.
Nearly two months had passed since Chris set out and it only got harder as the days went on. She tried to keep busy as best she could but it was hard.
Even the monthly wave went by with little fanfare. Jon had stepped up big again and even though it hurt to see him in such danger, it was nice to know their survival didn''t depend on one man alone.
"I don''t know, honey," She said, "Even if they have, we won''t know until they come back and that will take another month just to get here."
A sigh of frustration came out and she couldn''t help but feel dejected.
The thing she missed most from before was being able to talk long distances with one another. That way, they would have been able to keep in touch no matter how far away her family went.
But that wasn''t a thing yet. They knew of communication devices that functioned similarly but they couldn''t figure out how to make them yet. Chris was their best Enchanter and he spent all of his time on Wards, not communication devices.
The Enchanters they did have were still working on various things but it would be a while until the quality of life they once had was returned to them.
Hot water, hell, running water would be helpful. She could technically make water through her affinity but conjured water wasn''t the same as actual water. It didn''t have the same minerals or makeup which made it not a good idea to drink or ingest.
Similar to how pure water wasn''t good for you.
Her books spoke of Water Crystals being able to draw water out of the air but they didn''t have anything like that. Neither of the dungeons around them dropped Gems or Crystals which made acquiring them nearly impossible.
To do so, they would either have to venture out in search, find them in a different dungeon farther away, or buy them from the shop. The last option was the furthest from happening because any city that would sell them would have the same need for them as she did.
Still, even with Jon in here to comfort her and her mind trying to run through the treasury reports, it wasn''t enough to stop her from thinking about what was going on elsewhere.
The report wasn''t that important, even if it did show a downtick in sales they had through their pylon. With half the people gone, mostly the citizens who delved into the dungeons every day, they didn''t have as much to put up for sale.
The material coming out of the dungeon nearly fell to zero after the army left.
Their tax money fell with it but they had enough stored to make it until Chris came back. His delves raked in the coins as he was one of the only ones going through both entire dungeons every day.
No one else could claim to do the same. Not alone at least.
She knew Jon tried but he wasn''t geared for such a thing. His defense would see him through the lowest levels of both dungeons but he didn''t have the offensive power to kill the things.
Both dungeons were growing nicely though, if what little her books said about such a thing. Without a Curator it was difficult to tell, but the mana they sucked in grew with every passing day.
While both had eight floors currently, she hoped one would reach the ninth soon. Not only would it help with the growth of the city, but it would also add an entire new floor for better materials to come out of.
She tried to get everyone to keep track of what they pulled out of specific floors to keep a spreadsheet running. Every floor down was a marked increase in value. Obvious, but it felt good to get specific numbers to back that up.
Gaining a Ninth floor would increase their profits by over 10% even with only the few who could clear it.
Ah, there her mind went off in an entirely different direction.
She huffed and got back on track. She would make sure they came back to an even better city they left.
Chapter 188 - The Valley
Chris
"We need to hit them from the West, it gives us the high ground and it will pin them against the opposite valley wall," Ashton said as he ran his finger over his proposed battle plan.
"How will we safely descend the steep wall? I could jump it, but what about the others?" I said in rebuttal.
After a full night of information gathering the scouts came back with everything they found. The Demons were settled into what had once been a lush valley between two steep hillsides. The surrounding walls of the Valley had sheer drops at certain points but for the most part, it was only steep hills.
The slope made it nearly impossible to climb up or down without significant time and effort.
Learning that the Demons had holed themselves into such an area, we were all rushing to come up with our plans of action. Where they were gave us the chance to box them in, but it also gave them a defensible advantage.
If we just marched at them from the open end of the valley we would be playing directly into their hand. Plus, if things went poorly for the Demons, they could just run out the other side and into the Wild.
We needed to find a way to get behind them and close off the other end of the valley while also not letting any climb out. With the numbers we had, it was unfeasible to surround them entirely.
Another aspect that worried me was the fact the Demons were here in the first place. They usually sought out areas of high mana density or rare treasures to consume, yet they were here.
Either there was a reason for that deeper in the valley we couldn''t see, or there was an intelligent Demon leading the pack making them gather here for some reason.
The Demon had to know if all the humans in the area banded together, it would be outnumbered. Was that why it chose a fortifiable spot? Even so, there wasn''t anything else to signify an Intelligent Demon at the helm.
The scouts reported hundreds of Demons just milling about in the valley and some were even fighting each other. Conflict inside the ranks didn''t speak of someone formidable in charge.
But then again, Demons were entirely different than humans and comparing the Demon''s actions to that of humans was a fool''s errand. They likely didn''t care about the in-fighting that took place.
When Demons weren''t busy fighting the other Races, they spent most of their time fighting each other.
Still, we had to come up with something, even if it wasn''t the best battle plan in the world.
"We can have any with a bow or significant range up on the crest of the valley while all the warriors charge in from one side, but I don''t see how we have the numbers to hold both ends of the valley. Even if we spent the time sneaking around them." Hal chimed in.
To plan our battle I didn''t restrict any of my family who wished to join. With the numbers we now had it was infeasible to ask the entire fifteen-hundred-strong army to chime in but the group looking over the maps and scouting report was larger than just me and Ashton.
I wanted as many different eyes on this as possible. From my side, Hal, Rachel, Gabriel, Carrie, Mitchell, and my mother all stood around the maps while only four stood in for Fort Hope.
Ashton, Carson, Noah, and Victoria, the ones we had main contact with and ones highest up in whatever their City Leadership was. The disparity in number was opposite our army composition but I was glad no one said anything.
It wouldn''t be good to start nipping at each other when we quite literally had bigger fish to fry.
"No, we don''t have the numbers to come at them from both sides. Even one side will be risky as they outnumber us nearly 5 to 1," Ashton said.
We knew they would most likely outnumber us but no one thought it would be this bad. Given the months to accumulate, I thought there would be two or three thousand Demons tops, but that turned out to be more like seven or eight.
The good news was they weren''t as strong as us on average.
The ratio of E-rank to F-rank Demons was far lower than what we had behind us which was some of the only good news to come out of the scouts. Even if none got close enough to get an eye on the Leader.
The longer information on the leader remained unknown, the more uneasy it made me feel.
While I wasn''t well versed in Demonology, the way they were acting didn''t line up with what I had expected. When we finally came across our foe I expected raving beasts destroying everything in their path and consuming anything they could get their hands on but that wasn''t the case.
For some reason, they didn''t spread out in all directions looking for sources of mana but all settled here.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
We knew from our books there were reasons for that but none of them implied it happening so soon. Of the reasons Demons gathered like this, one worried me the most but it shouldn''t be possible, we were still protected from outside influence.
It should be impossible for them to force a convergence.
The reason it worried me was because there wasn''t anything in what we read about Demons that strictly stated that what we were seeing now was impossible, only that it should be in theory, as no other data points from a planet still under the System''s protection could be found.
Theoretically, our planet was shielded from any and all outside influence. No gods, pantheons, or rogue powers would have any chance of worming their way through the protections provided by the System.
Which made the books confident that Demons forcing a convergence to link our planet to a Demonic one through a permanent portal was impossible. Yet I couldn''t come up with another reason the Demons were acting as they were.
That worry extended out to everyone who had background knowledge of the Demon Race and it spread quickly through the ranks. As people became aware, things only grew more tense.
Knowing that if we failed, the Demons could flood in from a permanent portal would doom everyone to death. Unless people came to their senses and rallied together real quick, which I didn''t see happening.
Our battle where some might die turned into a much bigger worldly event.
Which made the battle planning all the more important.
"We should return and conscript everyone. We don''t have the leeway to only bring volunteers anymore. This is bigger than us. We can''t afford to lose." The other city''s warrior said.
The man, Noah, didn''t talk much and his first words of the meeting were to retreat and bring everyone they had. While sensible, it wasn''t practical.
We couldn''t afford the weeks it would take to go there and back with everyone in tow. Plus, the ones that stayed behind wouldn''t be that impactful on the battle to come.
"No." I said firmly, "We cannot wait nor should we. We have our target and we have time to plan. We need to work with what we have."
I was not about to turn back right when we finally had the enemy in our sights. Even if we left and ranged wide to find more help, that wouldn''t mean anything if we were too late to stop the threat.
Our best bet was to attack now, even if we were outnumbered.
"The death toll will be high if we attack now. Are you sure about this?" My mother asked gingerly.
Like I didn''t know that!
Everyone else looked to me like they were thinking the same thing. "It will be high no matter what we do. We can either fight with what we have now or fight a stronger enemy later."
Everyone knew what could happen if we waited, even if they didn''t want to admit it. Too many things could go wrong between then and now. Too many for us to wait, at least in my opinion.
"We simply do not have the numbers," Hal said.
He was most familiar with the number of Demons and he knew firsthand how many in the valley there were.
"We have to make do without, then," Ashton said, seconding my opinion that we attack now rather than wait.
"Rogues are my biggest worry. They don''t really have the skills to charge in and fight nor do they have range." A voice said. It took me a second to recognize it was from Mitchell.
As the only rogue among our meeting, it made sense for him to bring it up.
The Rogue class was something I didn''t have much experience planning around and it was difficult to know what they were capable of. Warriors were easy and so were Rangers, but Rogues were the odd man out.
Their skills were suited for single-target damage, as we began calling it, and they weren''t equipped for front-line fighting. While that wasn''t bad, they also didn''t have the range to attack from afar, leaving them in no man''s land in terms of what to do.
They were great scouts, but they didn''t really have a place in grand battles like this. Not unless they wanted to chance light armor and short weapons in a grand melee, but that was just asking to die.
Now, saying that every Rogue was like this would be false, but the vast majority were. Some excelled at combat and could dance around any number of foes while whittling them down with daggers, but those were the rare cases.
Also, Rogues could evolve into a great number of things that could either help or hinder their ability to fight like I was asking of them. Affliction Specialists and Duelists would do fine if they were skilled, but Trappers and Assassins wouldn''t.
Saying all that didn''t mean they couldn''t fight, but it was a giant risk to put people with little armor into that kind of skirmish.
"Some will be fine to charge in while some also have excellent range, but the rest..." Mitchell clarified.
"How many?" I asked.
Numbers were my biggest concern. Of 1584 people who came, 212 were Rogues. If we had to go in with two hundred fewer people that would be a problem.
"I don''t know exacts, but around half wouldn''t do well in a direct fight." He answered.
A hundred. That wasn''t the end of the world.
"We can have those hold the perimeter to make sure none escape. Any trying to flee should be easy enough for their Class to kill." I said.
Instead of sending them into a melee where they hold every disadvantage, we could make better use of them on the outskirts to chase down any who tried to flee. There, they would hold the advantage rather than asking them to do what they weren''t suited for.
"Can we afford to lose 100 bodies? We only have around 600 left to charge." Ashton asked.
We had more Warriors than any other type of class but that didn''t translate directly. If split into ranged and melee, ranged far outnumbered melee. While Warrior was most common, it wasn''t enough to offset both Rangers and Mages.
Especially when only half of the Rogues would be joining in the melee.
As it stood, it was about half and half in terms of Melee and Ranged and that was not good news. Six hundred leading the charge against thousands didn''t sound like good odds no matter how you looked at it.
"Don''t forget the Spell blades. They will be going in too." Gabriel added.
I had forgotten about that portion of the Mage class. The people who evolved into a hybrid that had skills with a weapon while also still being a mage. They could technically do both but were good at neither in my opinion.
Maybe it was just because I didn''t like them.
Something about Spell Blades set me off and I couldn''t put my finger on why. There was something inside me that disagreed with the hybridization even though I had no reason to.
They could do whatever they wanted with their Class and I shouldn''t have cared, but I couldn''t get over it.
Anyway, that didn''t matter now and they would add to our number. Not by a lot but it was better than nothing. Even with the Spell Blades, the Rogues, and the Warriors, we were in for a rough fight.
The valley would turn into one of Death, no matter how much planning went into it.
Chapter 189 - of Death
Plans were drawn up, orders were issued, and people stood ready for the signal.
Everyone had their marching orders and there was no more reason to delay. The decision to attack was finalized and everyone''s role was clear.
Being the leader of one of the two forces, I stood at the front of the group that was to charge ahead. Our position at the front gave us a clear view of the valley we were about to enter.
The valley was big enough that we couldn''t see the Demons we were to fight, but we could clearly see into the depths of where the battle would take place.
Mages and Rangers stood at the ready behind us, prepared to provide us with ranged support but that didn''t mean much to the people calming their beating hearts at the front.
All they saw was the hands of Death closing in around them. It stared them in the face because a once lush Valley was strangled of everything it had. The only thing left were converted demonic plants or withered plant life.
They were to charge in and fight an army that severely outnumbered them, what did they care that they would have ranged support? They were the ones going face-to-face with literal Demons!
The wait only made the tensions rise and made me regret agreeing to fight from the side we were already on. We had to wait aimlessly while the rest got into position.
Of the fifteen hundred, six hundred would charge in melee, of those, half stood behind me. Ashton was in charge of the other half and his group left hours ago to circle around from the other side.
Half and half. The best battle plan we could come up with. No matter how long we stared at the maps or recounted the people with us, the details didn''t change. Even if some hoped with all their might that they would.
I could only sigh.
Even with the strength I held and my wish to keep everyone under me safe, I wouldn''t be able to do so. I wouldn''t even be able to keep an eye on my family.
Every fight since the ''Mindbreaker'' where my father fell, I made sure no one else came close to dying. I always had an eye on them or had someone else I trusted completely do the same.
Austin and Jonathan mostly, with Rachel being used only rarely.
They had the strength to be protectors and I called on them to do it in my place when I couldn''t. Austin complained about it constantly but he never once said no.
Not that we babied them either, I was entirely disabused of my notion of doing anything of the sort. My family needed to fight to get strong and keeping them in glass cages would only hurt them.
It was a silent guardian angel sort of watch over them. Stand at the ready to intervene but not until the fight was lost and death or severe injury was certain.
Still, that wasn''t possible anymore.
This wasn''t the kind of fight I could afford to split my attention. It wasn''t my job, either. My job was clear and being anywhere near the others wasn''t what I had to do.
With the abilities we had, historical tactics couldn''t work anymore. Not that they didn''t work, just that they weren''t what was best. You would think with medieval weapons and armor, medieval tactics would be best but that went out the window with stats and skills.
What we used instead were tactics from fiction and fantasy. Some were more well-read in that genre and we relied upon them heavily for what we were about to do.
I felt that we would have come up with these tactics given time, but this was the first time we were in need of using them.
My role was simple really. With my strength, I was to act like a ''champion'' of sorts. The name they called it reminded me of what my previous class was and I couldn''t help but wonder if it was how everyone fought.
I was to charge deep into enemy lines and in their words ''cause as much havoc and mayhem as physically possible''. Hearing the orders almost made me smile.
Havoc and mayhem was something I could definitely do.
A few others were given the same task as me but they didn''t look toward their future assignments with a smile. They instead saw it as a death sentence. There were contingencies and plans around them to escape the fighting but that didn''t fill them with confidence.
Other than the few strong enough to be assigned the ''champion'' role, the others were rather normal. None had training to fight in orderly lines but I was confident they would be able to get the job done.
We did have to sort any that had skills with the possibility of friendly fire differently than the rest and put them near people that wouldn''t be affected, but that was left for someone else to work out.
We had more than enough people to delegate that tedious task off onto. Plus, some even had the professions for such organizing tasks. They worked wonders as they broke people out into manageable-sized groups and had people with leadership Classes take charge, but that didn''t really matter to me.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
I was in charge, technically, and would issue orders if I saw fit, but it was more in the general sense. I wasn''t going to micromanage the entire fighting front nor did I have the ability to.
None of that mattered now though. I couldn''t change it even if I wanted to.
The silence was near deafening as we waited. It wasn''t completely so but no one was carefree enough to sit and chat with what we were about to do. At most, people talked in hushed whispers.
Whispering with the person next to them or in front of, for some it was the first time meeting each other.
Others were praying. Mumbling their words and hoping that the person they were praying to was listening.
I did neither.
I stood and watched. My armor shined with the fresh polish and my hammer sat on the ground next to me at the ready. My armor was a completely new set I had managed to make while I focused on raising my Profession skills.
It was now firmly in the Uncommon grade. After my [Create Armor] skill reached Uncommon, it was well overdue to make a new set.
I even managed to add a few new Runes to it. When before my skill only allowed me to engrave one Durability Rune, I could now add a few to my armor. One was a Frost rune to help it merge with the outer layer of [Frost Armor] and the other was a Rune of Protection.
It was the best I could create and it glistened in the afternoon sun.
My hammer was the same as always, sadly. I had tried to push my [Ice Manipulation] skill to form Runes on its icy surface but my skill wasn''t high enough to manipulate whatever ice it was made of.
I had the feeling it would be possible in the future, but I wasn''t there yet sadly.
Unbeknownst to me, as the time drew nearer to battle, the area around me changed. I had to keep my aura in check consciously and it was starting to slip without me noticing. The people around me could feel a stifling hand pressing down on them and turned to me with wary eyes.
Accompanying the stifling aura, the air started to chill. Not to any significant degree, but just the natural effect I had on the area. My mana pool was already full and any excess leaked out similarly to my aura, causing the two to come hand in hand.
I was too focused on what I was about to do to notice, but others certainly did. They shied away from where I stood and even if there was already a slight gap between us, it grew larger as they tried to step out of my range.
While they stepped away, another stepped toward it.
"Are you nervous?" A voice asked to bring me out of my running thoughts.
I turned to see my brother standing next to me. While he was supposed to be with the other mages, I wasn''t surprised he was here. We still had a few more minutes until Ashton was ready on the other side.
"I am," I admitted.
I was nervous for more reasons than one. Not about my own death, but everyone else''s. About the possibility of us losing. If we lost, that left the Demons to run free.
It would leave my City defenseless.
Gabriel''s face showed shock but he quickly covered it up. Most likely he was surprised I freely admitted it.
"I..." His voice faltered, "I can''t lose you too."
What he said made me turn to look him in the eyes. They weren''t brimming with tears but the sorrow was clear. While he wasn''t with us during the fight our dad died in, he had heard about it.
He couldn''t help but compare the two.
"If it is my time, then there is nothing I can do about it," I said steadily.
The nature of death was something out of my control. It wasn''t something I could stave off or delay. If the fates decided this would be my last battle, then I would make sure to make it memorable.
"Don''t speak like that." He said venomously. The heat was clear in his tone.
We had different outlooks on death. I''d watched as my family fell around me for months and it colored how I looked at it. Gabriel didn''t have that experience.
I didn''t want it to be my time and I would do everything in my power to make sure it wasn''t, but death wasn''t something we could control. It came for everyone equally.
Everything in the universe would die eventually. Nothing lived forever.
It reminded me of a poem I once heard and I had a small smile as I recalled the man who once told it to me.
"Ours is not to reason why," I said.
It was a poem our father had once read to us. Both of us.
Gabriel''s face changed upon hearing the verse and he looked off into the valley in front of us with a different expression. His eyes took in the trees and plants, the leaves and flowers. I couldn''t tell what went on in his head but I had a guess.
It was an eerily fitting memory to resurface now.
Before we could speak on it more the stone in my hand shattered. The stone was the handy work of a Fort Hope enchanter and she somehow linked two stones together. When one shattered, so too did its counterpart.
The other half of our forces were ready.
The sharp crack caused a deadly silence to fall as everyone knew what it meant.
Faces turned grim and helmets were put on. Swords, axes, and spears alike were unsheathed and the collective atmosphere entirely changed.
Everyone here had done battle before. Everyone had gone through a baptism in blood, in one way or another. They were all at least marginally experienced with what was about to happen.
Knowing what was to come, I looked down at my hand. My skin was rather pale compared to the shade it usually was during the summer and on my right index finger, sat an unassuming ring. Both hands were un-gauntleted, as the additional ice layer would ruin my dexterity if I wore them. Thinking about it, I slid it off and handed it out toward where Gabriel stood.
My intent was clear and no words needed to be said as he took it. He marveled at it for a moment before sliding it on to one of his fingers.
If the worst were to happen, he would keep it safe.
With that last order of business taken care of, I turned and faced the brave souls behind me. The ones who would join me in this battle.
"It is my great honor to fight alongside you. For better or worse, we march to end the threat against us. If you are to fall, know you did so in defense of your loved ones. Do not fear it, for it is not a bad thing. You should not fear such an end for I can think of no greater honor!"
I knew my words weren''t the most inspiring speech in the world but I said them from the heart and meant them. I hoped that everyone who heard them recognized that.
Ashton was probably giving a grand inspiring speech to his half on the other side, no doubt, but I wasn''t going to let the last words people heard be lies. Nor was I going to prop people up with false hope.
The time for grand speeches came and went.
I took my helmet from the ground and placed it on my head with both hands. With one last deep breath, I hefted my hammer from its place on the ground next to me.
Sounds of the same happening rang out from behind me and I could only imagine what it looked like for our group of hundreds to prepare. For hundreds of weapons to ready and all point in the same direction.
My blood began to pump and I could feel my anticipation rise.
The time for action had arrived and I met it with open arms.
Lifting my hammer straight into the air for all to see, I said the last word that many behind me would ever hear.
"Charge!"
I took off and everyone fell in behind me. 321 men and women followed my charge. 321 warriors ran into battle.
Into the Valley of Death, rode the six hundred.
Chapter 190 - Charge
Chris
Shouts and roars followed after giving the order to charge and were all that could be heard as my feet propelled me forward. With every step, I prepared for what was to come.
I didn''t know how long this battle would last, but I couldn''t afford to keep anything back. My job was to cause as much mayhem as possible and to do that required my full strength. The small rodent monster I had stored next to me died silently and was the first casualty of the day.
It would be far from the last.
[Momentum of the Avalanche] started to build as I had kept a monster for that sole reason. [Righteous Fury] was lined up to activate as soon as we crashed into our foes.
Speaking of our foes, they felt the disturbance of our charge and I could see them rush mindlessly toward us, the same as we did to them. We had stayed out of sight to keep the element of surprise but that was broken as we charged.
Hounds larger than any Doberman I had ever seen with devilish flames rolling off their forms were just one among the many.
All manner of grotesque Demonlings made up a large portion of the bodies we ran towards. Their shapes and sizes made one ever so different than the next. Some with spear-like limbs ran toward us with every step piercing into the ground while others with club-like feet thudded forward. Bulbous and disgusting imps flew in the air at head height.
Even worse were the nearly humanoid Lesser Demons. They were an evolved version of Demonlings that usually increased their intelligence and changed their forms into something more bipedal. Not all were bipedal, but more likely than not they were.
As my eyes roved over the sea of monsters we charged toward, they focused on the Lesser Demons first because they were the biggest threat I could see. They had the intelligence and cunning that the rest didn''t.
The second biggest threat was when I noticed the growing forms of... something coming together. I wasn''t sure what I was looking at at first. It started as a large blob of body parts and blackened flesh, then it started to grow.
Demonlings bunched together in large piles of bodies and began to morph into each other in some way. I was too far away to hear anything, especially against the pounding feet of our charge, but my mind didn''t have any trouble conjuring the squelches and squeals that I imagined it sounded like.
The process wasn''t fast but neither was it slow. If I had been standing beside the pile of flesh as the process started, I could have stopped it but that wasn''t the case. I watched as giant amalgamations of any number of the foul creatures attached together to turn into towering versions of themselves.
I dubbed them Giant Demonlings because after the changes stopped, they took on the form of a mixture of a number of them.
All of the Demons we charged toward gave off a revolting feeling, but those were the worst. My mind couldn''t stop picturing the ''forming'' process.
Before our presence was revealed, the mass of different Demons were content to mill about in a roughly circular area. The center of which was where I assumed the leader to be.
And I assumed there would be a leader.
The Demons were too organized for there not to be one.
After the Demons on the edge of their cluster noticed us, they charged indiscriminately. It was like they saw red and took off toward us, their previous actions forgotten.
With both sides running toward the other, the distance closed quickly.
Our Mages and Rangers were already set up at the appropriate distance for them and I felt when they attacked.
All of my attention was wired and ready to take in anything that could go wrong, which left me in the prime position to feel when the mana from hundreds of people charged into various skills.
The manner and means were all different. Rangers, Mages, and Healers casting buffs. It was all different but the tide of mana that erupted was impossible to miss. Even an inept could feel the power amassed in so many skills.
Certain Warriors among the line sped up or glowed. Others took on a colored light, causing all their attacks to take on an elemental effect. Most healers that deigned to come had at least one boosting skill and they were all on display now.
None fell on me, as I told every Healer in no uncertain terms that they should not use any boosts on me. I felt they were better used on the rest. If one more person survived because they had that extra boost, it was worth it.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Plus, I wasn''t sure how many boosting skills could be stacked on a person. I already had a few and I wasn''t willing to push it. [Avalanche] at full power already strained my body.
Adding [Fury] and [Glacial Presence] only made the strain higher. Adding an additional boost from a Healer onto that didn''t seem like a good idea.
The boost layered on the Warriors were the first to take effect, but then came the sky-darkening volley of magical skills. Every mage had the chance to power up on opening salvo of whatever they could and their job was to soften the enemy up before we collided.
Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Metal, Earth, Wind, Nature, and even neutral Mana were all represented. Those elemental affinities were most common and easiest to pick out among the carpet of mana being launched.
Other, either more esoteric or rare, affinities were also among the sea. Blood, Solar, Kinetic. The amassed skills were too much for me to pinpoint anything else but I knew at least that many.
I could feel the enormous amount of mana pass overhead and braced my eyes for what was to come. Even braced for what I was about to see, it still blew my mind.
Now in my field of vision, I could clearly see all manner of magical attacks rain down from the sky. The one that stood out the most was the giant Fireball that gave even me a tinge of worry.
Wherever that landed, I did not doubt the devastation it would cause.
I wasn''t able to take it in long as before I knew it, they made impact with the ground. Explosions rocked the earth and the vibrations spread all the way to my feet, the force was so large. Wind buffeted our line as the air was violently pushed away. As the spells destabilized, their effects complete and destruction wrought, the mana they contained mixed and caused further destruction. Lightning and Fire didn''t mix with other mana types on the best of days and this was similar to priming a powder keg to blow.
It was like watching the sky fall.
The sea of arrows sticking out of bodies or the ground was nearly imperceptible compared to the wash of colorful explosions. The arrows were nearly perfectly hidden among the numerous magic spells.
That didn''t mean the devastation they caused was any less, only it was far more concealed. The sound of arrows thudding down into flesh and earth was drowned out compared to the other things that happened.
Plants and trees were uprooted, clods of earth shot off in every which way. Some going as high as a hundred feet in the air.
The chants of those running at the front reached their climax as they took it all in.
That was until we watched the Demons return fire.
It was far from orderly, or even coordinated, but the sheer amount made up for that fact. Where we had a few hundred launch skills from our side, they had thousands.
Where the wall of magic from our side was filled with nearly every color, the magic from the demons was less diverse. The spells were all either a sickly black or crimson red and they gave off the feeling of death and blood or somewhere in between.
The spells mostly came from the Imps and Lesser Demons, but there were too many to say so definitively. The chanting and shouting from the people charging with me fell audibly as we saw the spells aimed at us.
Some slowed to activate defensive skills while others ran while weaving mana into various shields. Those with actual shields held them in front and they lit up.
I did none of that.
My stride stayed steady and the only thing that changed was my form started to get covered in ice. [Frost Armor] froze around me with even greater speed and strength thanks to the Frost Rune I had carved, saving precious seconds if the need for quick armament were to arrive.
The mana pushed into the skill passing through the Rune on the armor increased in both purity and density before filling out around me. Greaves froze and locked into leggings which connected with the chest piece.
Thick plates of ice extended out over my armor and my feet left frosty footprints in the grass as I passed. The skill finished with a helmet of ice covering my head.
Where I once had to leave eye holes to see, they were frozen over completely with ice crystals so clear they looked like glass.
One of the many things I focused on while training in the dungeon was the application of my skills and [Frost Armor] underwent massive changes as the months went by.
Before, I would have let it form on its own, believing that the skill knew best and to leave it to do its thing. Now, with more experience and knowledge, I knew that was the wrong choice.
With time to spare and ideas abound, it was the skill I focused on most. My smithing experience filled me with ideas on how to push the skill further.
The armor was now more streamlined and the linking chinks of armor were far more sturdy. The armor froze into place with time to spare as the black and red magic fell.
Even as they fell upon me and the area around me, I charged forward without slowing.
The skills of the Demons were far too low to leave a scratch on my armor, let alone with my Law running through it. Another bonus of spending hours in the dungeons every day was the application of my Law became easier.
Where it once took a great amount of effort and control to empower my entire armor with my Law of Ice, it became like second nature after doing it thousands of times.
I wasn''t the only one to break through the other side of mana covered in some manner of elemental armor, as others were clad in their affinity as well.
If Jonathan were here, I knew he would be right next to me clad in Earth leaving craters with every footfall. If Austin were here, he would be dodging left and right while using me as a human shield.
But they weren''t, and I was left to lead alone.
Arrows and magic continued to fly but that wasn''t where my attention was focused.
We were close enough now that I could see the saliva and spittle fly out of the hellhound''s mouths. Close enough that I could see the lines demarking where one Demonling ended and another began on their giant, mashed together form.
Those who had to stop and deploy defensive skills fell behind while those who charged through would hit first, and prime among them was me.
Close enough that I started to change. Ice burned through my veins as I burned my bloodline and a white hot fury cascaded through me next. Both my bloodline and [Righteous Fury] pushed me and my stats to new heights.
[Permafrost] and [Desolate Blizzard] billowed out, and for the first time in a long while, I held nothing back.
Chapter 191 - Summer Snow
With a ferocious roar, I slammed into the charging Demons with all I had. With the boost from [Fury] and [Avalanche], even as small as it was at the start, I swung my hammer with over a thousand points of strength behind it.
That didn''t even include the boost from burning my bloodline. My bloodline didn''t show up on my status sheet in the form of additional points, it was a more foundational boost, pushing every point of those thousand further than before.
Honestly, my Bloodline was the largest boost I had even if it wouldn''t last as long.
With all the strength I could muster behind my leading swing, I didn''t even use any attacking skill. Only sheer force.
The leading Hellhound that had the honor of receiving my opening blow vaporized. Not even its bones could withstand the force of my swing, turning into a bonemeal mist rather than white projectile shards. The poor thing wasn''t even in E-rank, and now never would be.
Even with all my dungeon running and training, I had never leveraged my entire strength for such a weak monster, and seeing the resulting death was... something. My swing didn''t even slow down from the impact, carrying on to gift the same treatment to three more beasts.
My charge didn''t slow, it couldn''t slow, and I wouldn''t allow it to slow.
My legs pumped just as hard and fast as before and I rocketed into their front lines. The warriors behind me would land in a softened line or I couldn''t call myself a leader.
While I knew not every leader was the same, I had had a lot of time to think about the kind I wanted to be. Spending nearly a year being in charge of people had made me ponder about it a lot.
While I might not have solidified every aspect of the kind of leader I wanted to be, I knew one thing at least.
I was the kind to lead from the front.
Charging through their ranks left broken and devastated corpses in my wake and I didn''t stop. Their density of bodies and sheer number of enemies made it nearly impossible to miss with my wide swings.
Even when my hammer was in motion somewhere else, just my body was enough to run through beasts. Using myself as a human missile to kill even more as I charged deeper in.
While the front lines of both sides collided with each other with vigorous explosions of skills, I torpedoed through it all. The other designated ''champions'' tried to follow my lead but most were left stalled out only a few ranks in.
Some made it farther than others, but it wasn''t long before I left them all in the dust. Extending my breakthrough deep into the army of Demons.
Then, only when I was right and truly surrounded, did I finally shine. I went so far into their lines I could see the flashes of light the other half of the army was flinging on the opposing side.
Faint and distant as they were, I could still see them over the sea of Demon bodies.
Standing alone, in a sea of bodies. I wasn''t sure if it was the rush of power, the feeling of my bloodline coursing through me, or it if was something else entirely, but something was different.
I could feel a part deep inside of myself that was coming alive. Reveling in what I was doing.
Knowing I could go a step further, I pushed everything I had.
My Spirit flowed out into my budding domain and it exploded in size. Where once [Permafrost] and [Blizzard] only went tens of feet, it reached nearly a hundred in every direction around me and size wasn''t the only increase.
While my Spirit rushed through the skills, my bloodline pumped through them as well, strengthening and empowering it further. And not only my bloodline but both my Law of Ice and my Law of Wind pushed into it.
For the first time, everything I had was pushed into the skills with no reservations and it was marvelous. The temperature drop was enough for [Glacial Presence] to fill me with strength, pushing all of my stats even further.
It still wasn''t the largest boost I had ever received from the skill as the dark days of Winter eclipsed what I could do alone, but it was close.
The numbers on my status sheet wouldn''t represent how strong I felt at the moment, but if I had to guess, it felt like my strength was north of fifteen hundred, maybe even two thousand.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
With both skills billowing out at full power, they started to mix. Swirling around each other and combining, becoming more than their standalone parts. Stronger than when they were separated.
The skills were using my Spirit and my Law as conduits to combine and mix in interesting ways. I had never merged a skill before, but this felt like one of the first steps to doing so.
As the frost built up on the ground and the foliage froze and popped, as snow fell from the sky, the Demons weren''t spared either.
The lowest-leveled Demonlings froze over and died just from my domain of skills alone. The other weak Demons fared little better. Ice built up on their skin and even with the bestial vitality pulsing through them, they couldn''t combat the Ice ripping away their body heat.
They slowed as they lost more and more of their heat until they couldn''t move any longer. After that, it wasn''t long until they fell into a sleep they would never wake from.
While the weakest froze and died instantly, they had a better death than those who died slowly. At least in my opinion. The ones who died to the swings of my hammer at least had the honor of dying to a weapon instead of the weather.
The Hellhounds fared the best out of the Demon races, as they had flames rolling off them to combat to cold, but even so, they were visibly affected.
The lowest leveled of the hounds could only watch pitifully as their prized flames extinguished completely, leaving their skin bare to the elements. Holding on purely based on the inner fire their species carried.
The higher-level hounds didn''t have their flames extinguished, but they still greatly reduced in size. Not even E-ranked hounds were spared from the suppression because it wasn''t just a power disparity, but a Law disparity.
They didn''t have a sufficient Law to back themselves up and shrug off the cold I was forcing on them.
The least affected were the Lesser Demons and the hulking Giants of combined Demonlings. They were able to power through my skills the best, but even they showed hints of weakness from the cold.
All of this happened within the first few minutes of combat they got to witness firsthand as my swings only got more powerful.
They would soon realize the [Avalanche] building inside me.
Elliot
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
He was dead. He was so going to die. Only if he hadn''t deluded himself into getting stronger, he might not have been given the job he was.
After seeing their leader silence the pack of wolves like it was nothing a few months ago, Elliot had rededicated himself to getting stronger.
He no longer wanted to be average and he pushed himself to go further. He even finished comprehending a Law and could step into E-rank. His Least Law of Metal was helping him stay alive now, even if he knew for sure he was going to die.
They had all known the risks, City Lord Christopher didn''t shy away from telling them. Everyone knew it was going to be a hard battle but Elliot hadn''t known it then, but he did now.
He wanted to go back and beat up his past self for getting stronger. Now, with his elevated strength compared to his peers, he was given the job of ''champion.''
Sure, it sounded cool, but in reality, it was a one-way ticket to the Underworld. An express ticket at that. Charging into their lines and being a disrupting force would only make him be targeted by attacks he couldn''t handle.
His Law of Metal could only protect him from so much, and opening himself up to thousands of attacks was a quick way to die.
That realization of his pending death didn''t really hit until they were charging headlong into the thousands of Demons but by then it was too late. His body was carrying him forward even if his mind wished to be anywhere else in the world.
The charge started fine, they weren''t given an inspiring speech but were told of the honor of their actions. It worked on some and even he conjured the courage to run knowing he was protecting those he loved, but that all fled him when faced with what they were up against.
Their magic barrage was a sight to behold, but when the smoke cleared, the Demon''s numbers didn''t even look affected! They had just as many charging toward them as before, even if he knew they lost hundreds.
What didn''t help his confidence was the structured line the Warriors charged in started to break up. Their City lord encased himself in Ice and seemed to be unaffected by the Demon''s return attack charging ahead of the rest while others broke apart depending on their defensive abilities.
Christopher charged through it all unflinchingly. No, he even increased in speed somehow. Watching him mist the first few Demons helped even Elliot''s heart, but that didn''t last long when it fell to his turn to do the same.
As best he could, he steeled himself and dove in.
Luckily, he was one of the ones close to the center where his City Lord plunged ever deeper in, making his job a bit easier. His entry wasn''t as smooth or dominating as pulverizing four Demons with a hammer, but he still ran in.
His sword grew and extended under his skills and sliced through a score of bodies in his first swing and before he knew it, he was in the thick of it.
Leveraging his new Law for all it was worth let him cut through the first few ranks of demons but he couldn''t go further than that. The Demons only got stronger the further in he got and his skills weren''t powerful enough to keep going.
His job now was to survive as long as possible.
His mind didn''t even have time to lament volunteering as he couldn''t afford any distractions. His sword and shield were his only focus. Blocking claws with his left and taking limbs with his right.
The metal in both glowed under his control, sometimes even shifting unnaturally to take an arm or defend an attack he didn''t see coming.
That all changed when he felt the explosion of power from ahead of him. Not many were further in than he was but it wasn''t hard to know who was responsible.
He had felt this bone-deep chill before, only it was multitudes stronger now than it was then.
Snow began to fall from the sky, even as the sweat beaded up on his face from the near summer heat. Even when his underclothes were soaked through with sweat, his metal armor feeling like a sauna, snow fell from the sky.
The flakes cascaded down on everyone in the area and they could only look up in wonder at the oddity.
They were a week away from the heart of summer and it was snowing.
Chapter 192 - Warning Intuition
Rachel
"There he goes," Rachel muttered to herself.
She would have to be blind, deaf, and incapacitated to miss the veritable blizzard of power taking place inside the valley. Even before her magical abilities were enhanced with her bloodline she would have sensed it. A part of her believed even a normal person could have.
Chris was anything but subtle, but that didn''t really matter anymore. The fact that his current display of power nearly matched the collective strength of all the mages here was irksome, though.
Rachel wasn''t arrogant and wasn''t envious, but she at least felt they were in similar leagues, but she knew she wouldn''t be able to do what he was currently doing.
Sure, she could match the power output and area size, but her mana would run out eventually and she would be surrounded with nowhere to go. Chris, on the other hand, had asinine amounts of stamina.
She scoffed at his display and turned back to what she was doing. Being in charge of the [Ritual Cast] made her not able to split her focus too much. It was already hard enough to link seven people together, no need to add daydreaming on top of it.
Most of her skills weren''t useful from how far away she was, but there were ways of getting around that. Sure, [Flamethrower] cast from her hand would do nothing, but if she moved the point of origin, it would be fine.
Manipulating spells to do something against what their Skill matrix indicated was difficult, but not impossible. Over a year of training had gone into making it easier and she prided herself on doing just that.
With Chris ruining the area closest to him with Ice mana, she started targeting the flanks of the formation. It was just in time too, because with the numerical advantage the Demons had, they were starting to wrap around the edges of the lines.
Giant pillars of fire exploded on either end, incinerating any of the creatures trying to get around. She took it a few steps further with a creative touch of [Fire Manipulation], feeding and expanding what was already there.
She knew this was a marathon, not a sprint, and conserving her mana pool was more important than flashy spells. Using [Fire Manipulation] on already casted skills used way less mana than activating new ones.
From her vantage point, she could see that the number of Warriors dropped. Areas where skills flashed for the last time and Demons rolled over the line.
While the number of Demons fell at an astonishing rate, they weren''t without casualties themselves.
Ashton
"[Call of the Light]" He shouted as another beam of light descended. He had been fighting what seemed the endless tide of Demons for nearly an hour.
His sword was covered in Demon blood and so was his shield. His armor had dents and cuts all over it, yet he soldiered on. His people were dying and he had to do his best to stop it.
[Call of the Light] didn''t only work as an offensive beam of light, but it buffed all of his allies in the area as well as himself. While he didn''t have the most damage-aligned skills, he did his best.
Still, only about half the people fighting on either side of him were in range. They were spread too far apart for him to buff everyone, much to his dismay. He had already seen people fall, even with his light there to help.
His sword lit up and he unleashed large crescents of light out in front of him but that did little to slow the Demons down. It was like they didn''t care about their fellow comrade''s death and some would even stomp over them to advance. Pushing their bodies into the dirt to walk over them.
No matter how many he killed, it was like they were unaffected. Ashton wasn''t sure if they were mindless, or just that selfish and uncaring. He wasn''t sure he wanted to know either.
"Giant Demonling approaching!" Carson shouted which got his attention.
Those monstrosities were difficult to take down, and he would have to do it himself.
After being notified, he saw the amalgamation stomping up to their lines without a care in the world about the Demonlings it was crushing as it walked.
Ashton sprinted out ahead of it before it could attack the other Warriors, even launching one of his [Light Crescents] to get its attention.
The damage the skill did was minuscule, but his affinity worked wonders on the Demons. He wouldn''t go so far as to call Light their weakness, but he could see the lingering Light Mana in the wound eating away at the Demon''s flesh.
Having dealt with one of the monsters before, his sword and shield lit up and were encased in a blinding light. [Sword of Light] and [Shield of Light] overlayed an ethereal sword and shield overtop his own made of light.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The skills were the hallmark of his class, Paladin of Light, and boosted his offensive and defensive abilities. Ashton was lucky they attacked during the day as the drain on his mana wasn''t as much under the light of the sun.
He had another, more powerful skill, that could be used in addition to the two he used but it wasn''t time to bring that out yet. It wrecked his mana pool and would only wear him out faster.
As he battled the combination Demonling, his sword flashed out as he tried to cut along the seams he could see. He knew from experience if he cut it just right, it would cause the monster to fall apart.
It took him a few tries, but he managed to land a slash just right and the giant fell, deconstructed back into its base form, and the Demonlings comprising it tried to scramble to their feet. It was only a few more sword slashes until those too were dead.
With his foe dead at his feet, he looked back over his army. So many of them were already dead and his heart ached at seeing their lifeless bodies. Even seeing the mountains of Demon bodies didn''t help his mood.
He was no stranger to loss, but he had never experienced it on this scale before. He had never had to look over a field and see the expressionless faces of those he knew in such quantity.
His eyes turned grim and he turned to look at the center of the Demon army. He couldn''t see much with all the things going on, but his intuition was telling him to hurry.
He didn''t know why, but he felt like there was a clock counting down and he wouldn''t like the outcome when it hit zero.
As he pondered on what to do, he couldn''t help but notice a flake of white drift past his eye. It wasn''t an arrow or the flash of a skill, but something smaller. He held out his hand and watched as the snowflake landed on his armored palm before it melted.
Looking up, he didn''t see any clouds or anything and even if he did, it would be rain, not snow.
His gaze shifted from the center of the Demon army over to where he knew the other half of their forces were fighting. It didn''t take long to see the disturbance.
A hurricane-like blizzard was currently taking place on the other side of the valley and it was quickly making its way deeper, toward where Ashton was once looking.
Ashton could only marvel at the sheer spectacle that was taking place. Nothing in his arsenal of skills would be able to do anything close to what he was witnessing, even if his level was higher than the other man''s.
His mind warred on whether to leave his line behind and charge in like his counterpart was doing, but he couldn''t bring himself to do it. His buffs and skills were the reason that many on his side were still standing.
If he left, the Lesser Demons and Giant Demonlings would be left free to slaughter whoever stood before them. If he left, people would die. Even if what his intuition was telling him was true, and they were on the clock, he couldn''t bring himself to leave.
Shaking his head bitterly, he could only hope the other City Lord had what it took to do it alone. Even though the plan was for the two to meet in the middle and take out the leader, he couldn''t go through with it.
With his mind made up, he deviated from the plan and stayed put. His people needed him.
Chris
Faster. Faster!
Something was wrong but I couldn''t pinpoint what it was. Over the many fights I had experienced, a sort of sixth sense had built up. Nothing supernatural or anything like that, but a scarily accurate intuition.
Jonathan once mentioned something similar happening to him so I didn''t think it was anything odd, but the fact it was acting up now made my nerves flare.
Something in my gut was telling me to hurry. Even if my mind didn''t know the reason, I went with the feeling I had. It hadn''t done me wrong before.
I poured more mana into my skills and the Winds around me sped up and the air turned even colder. My hammer whipped around as fast as I could swing it and I marched into where I assumed the leader to be.
[Desolate Blizzard] and [Permafrost] did wonders to kill off the rabble, but that left the stronger Demons behind to bar my way. Strong Lesser Demons took chunks out of my armor with their spear-like limbs and Greater Imps blasted me with sickening balls of black rot.
My way toward the center caused me to run into higher and higher leveled resistance and the Demons before me already out-leveled me. [Identify] put them in the 80s and 90s.
[Frozen Patchwork] cooled through me and left any cuts frosted over in ice and I powered through the wounds. One leveled 89 Lesser Demon had a skill that penetrated through both my armor of Ice and what lay under it, punching a hole through my gut before I could bring my hammer around to crush its head.
It flopped to the floor dead with a flattened skull, but I still had a bleeding hole in my gut.
Something else was inside the wound, causing it to fester and get worse as well. Ice ran through the area to counteract whatever was causing it, but that only caused the bleeding to continue.
If that continued to happen, fainting from blood loss would be a very real threat.
I felt some of my Spirit well up inside me and it helped me push on, but at the rate I was using the mystical energy, it wouldn''t last forever.
It was already being used to infuse the two Domain skills and empower my armor, I didn''t have limitless amounts of the stuff either. The pool available to me had grown from using it to saturate the castle, but that didn''t make it endless.
My mana was also being used at an astonishing rate. The only thing that I didn''t have to worry about yet was straining my mind, as not even any hints of mental fatigue had arisen yet.
My mind was still sharp, even after using my Laws as much as I had. A chilling sensation overtook my brain any time I felt like I was edging toward fatigue. It was something I didn''t know [Frozen Patchwork] was capable of.
It wouldn''t last, I knew that already, but I had to push on.
My stats were well and truly the highest they''d ever been, but even with the mountain of power I had behind me, I still couldn''t help but feel like it wasn''t enough.
I felt a Greater Imp start powering up another of its skills and there was nothing I could do to stop it. They had already dodged any [Ice Arrows] I sent at them before and I didn''t want to waste the mana to keep using them.
I knew my ranged capabilities were lacking but there was nothing I could do about it now. [Frost Armor] had already re-froze over the previous hole but my armor was left weakened for it.
The dungeons weren''t like this. They didn''t have hundreds of monsters at a time laying waste to my defenses.
Imps and the magical Lesser Demons launched spells while Hellhounds and melee Lesser Demons attacked relentlessly. There was nothing I could do to stop it except take them down one at a time with my hammer.
Even so, I didn''t let despair build inside me. I couldn''t afford the mental attention of letting helplessness build.
Even when I felt I might actually die.
Chapter 193 - Unwinnable Battle
My hammer came swinging down followed by a sickening crunch. The earth shattered from the blow, causing cracks to spiderweb out from the impact.
I didn''t pay any attention to the blood that rained down, seeping into the shattered earth and picked the hammer up to swing yet again. The notification chime in the background signaling the creature''s death didn''t even register in my head.
The chime had happened so many times my brain filtered it out.
[Momentum of the Avalanche] had reached its peak and I would get no stronger than I was currently. [Righteous Fury] was already activated and my bloodline had long been burning in my veins.
I had over 2000 points of strength behind my swings now and that didn''t even account for my bloodline strengthening the base rather than adding more stat points.
My swings shattered the very earth with its power. Let alone the level 80 and 90 Demons standing in my way.
[Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] weren''t even necessary to fell most, as a precise swing to the skull ended them all the same.
Dark red mixed with streaks of black Demon blood coated me in thick, sticky layers. The Ice my armor was made of was long dyed the corrupted reddish-black. The lifeblood of my foes stained upon it.
It was times like these that the class choice Chilling Death of Helheim made sense. Even if my rational mind didn''t like it, and my emotional mind found it disgusting, that all went out the window in the face of a threat.
I didn''t care if the blood of hundreds, let alone thousands, had fallen at my hand. The only thing that mattered to me now was ending it, one Demon at a time.
It was with a grim resolution that I marched ever forward. One step in front of the other, dragging Winter with me.
It wasn''t easy, and the environment didn''t welcome it like it used to, but I wrangled it into line all the same. My Spirit, Law, and Mana would not be denied my little slice of Winter.
Snow fell from the sky from the natural moisture in the air as it cooled, unable to hold onto it anymore. My Winds picked it up and sent it careening through the space I had claimed.
The circle of death that was mine and no one else''s. Oh, they tried to assert what they could but it faltered and crashed in the face of overwhelming power.
Their piddly domains of Blood and Death couldn''t defeat mine. Some tried to impose what I assumed was the environment of their home planet but even that failed in front of my chilling winds.
My form was battered and bruised, wounds caked in ice and frozen blood. At this point, my body was half wounds. My pristine armor and Ice were nowhere to be seen, but snow continued to fall.
Lesser Demons crashed down on me, natural weapons bared taking chunks of Ice with their attacks. One chunk, two chunks, the third Demon''s attack ripped away my icy protection completely.
In sight of their foe weakened, it was like their eyes lit up and redoubled their attack. My hammer was swift, but numbers had a quality of their own. Even as my weapon came whistling around to take out three of those who surrounded me, a fourth plunged its dagger-like hand into my leg.
Its limb was awash with its Demonic Mana and empowered with a skill of some kind as it met no resistance from my tempered body. If my flesh hadn''t been enhanced from refining it, my leg would be at risk of being lopped off.
[Identify] lashed out at the one who did it seeing level 99.
A step away from D-rank, and a strong Law to back it up. It was a Law I was unfamiliar with, an ugly aura that tried to scrape and penetrate my own. Demonic Blood, perhaps, maybe Demonic Perversion because that was what it felt like in my leg.
[Frozen Patchwork] sallied my Arctic mana coursing through my body from [Reinforced Body] to attack the intruding mana but it met its match. Even having the advantage of being within my body didn''t help.
My left hand shot out from its spot on my hammer and grasped the arm of the Demon. The limb crushed in my grip, shattering the Demon''s bones as I ripped its arm out of my leg. Not to let an attack go without reparations, I pulled the arm so hard it ripped off.
A red waterfall spewed out of the newly made cavity and where the humanoid Lesser Demon once had two arms, it now only had one.
Taking my Hammer in one hand and new weapon in the other, I redoubled my efforts and called on what my body could give me. My doubling of strength was the only reason I could swing such a heavy weapon in one hand.
Just as I was about to dive into the next Demon that stood against me, a spear of black shot up from the ground reentering the wound [Frozen Patchwork] was trying to close.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The fresh Ice wasn''t enough to bear the strength of the attack even with my Law empowering it, shattering to pieces and allowing yet another wound upon my body.
"Ahh," A pained scream escaped me as I whipped my head around in search of the Demon responsible.
No matter where I looked, I couldn''t find the one responsible, but with the pain came a touch of clarity.
Not much, but enough of my mind cleared to realize that I was still alone. My gut feeling of something being wrong led me to the other edge of the Valley, where the Demons were thickest and where I was supposed to meet Ashton.
We planned to pincer from both sides and meet in the middle to stand against the Demon''s Leader, but he wasn''t here.
I didn''t have time to go in search of the man, hell, I didn''t even know if he was still alive. The attacks launched at me weren''t soft and if he didn''t have the strength his level indicated, he could very well already be dead.
It was a miracle I was still standing, let alone someone else.
That knowledge only drove me harder. If he was off dead somewhere else on the battlefield, it fell to me to stop whatever the Demons were trying to do. And they were trying to do something, I knew that much at least. Call it a budding hunch.
The books and information packets were long forgotten in my head. They were nothing compared to the experience I was undergoing now. They talked of such things, but they didn''t portray the details of experiencing it myself.
The books didn''t portray the pain I felt, the weakening of my body as my blood leaked out of me.
They didn''t say anything about glimpsing around and seeing Demons in every direction. They didn''t write about the fear of Death that seeing such a scene caused instigated.
I was no stranger to the feeling, I had felt it before, but never had it been so strong.
Not even facing the waves alone in the tutorial prepared me to face such a feeling. Like staring up at a mountain you had no hope of climbing. One of gazing upon an unwinnable battle. Something I couldn''t hope to overcome-
I threw mana into [Mental Freeze]. It was subtle, but I felt something pressing upon my mind. My feelings of hopelessness were being exaggerated by something.
Even with the skill activated, the feeling didn''t go away. It was too subtle for my skill to defeat. The manipulation was deft and it wasn''t trying to control my mind, only influencing what I was seeing.
It was a nasty piece of work.
On instinct, my eyes turned to where I felt the influence was originating and I saw it. Even acknowledging the reason behind the manipulation didn''t make the feeling go away, if anything, it made it worse.
It made me realize I was out-ranked, out-leveled, and out-numbered.
[Goranth - Evolved Demon - Level 105]
It was a Named Demon. A D-ranked Named Demon.
It weaved between the various bodies charging at me, never exposing itself more then necessary. It was hard to get a solid look at its features but I managed enough glimpses to see enough.
Traces of the Lesser Demon it used to be shined through. The black and misshapen limbs that were only recently changed to look like hands. The fingers were still spiked and the wrist was too narrow, but the hints of what it was trying to accomplish with its evolution was there. It stood on two legs, trying its best to imitate a bipedal form.
Most of its body was covered in shadow. The fog distorting what little I could see of it, but the dry, grey skin of its face was left uncovered.
It wanted me to see its cruel smile.
Finally, it felt like I was shocked awake. I went over how I had gotten here to make sure I hadn''t been influenced and found nothing that stood out.
There were no traces of manipulation in my mind that I could find and unless the Demon outclassed me, which was possible, I hadn''t been controlled. After the ''Mindbreaker,'' we went to great lengths to combat any form of mind control.
Not everyone had the points to buy protective measures, but I certainly did. The amulet I wore wasn''t much, but it was said to detect any form of intrusion upon the mind.
It would light up if it did while also defending against it, yet the amulet stayed dull.
If it wasn''t trying to mind control me, what was it trying to do?
Even as Demons came at me and I felled them with my Hammer, I searched for any clue I had missed. Something was wrong here and I couldn''t figure out what.
The gut feeling I had hadn''t gone away and only got worse. It didn''t give off a definitive direction, but with the Named Demon revealed, it was clear it was involved somehow.
My brain whirled trying to come up with the reason yet it couldn''t. My amulet didn''t go off and [Mental Freeze] didn''t do anything. Both would have at least noticed mental manipulation of some sort.
If it wasn''t mental, it had to be something else.
Evaluating the scene as best I could mid-fight, I noticed that no matter where I moved while fighting, the Demon swayed with me. It was like it was trying to keep itself between me and whatever was behind it.
Looking deeper, it felt like it was trying to hide something. I wasn''t sure how I knew, but once I thought it was hiding something, realization exploded in my head.
Like glass, the curated scene shattered apart with it. The Demon wasn''t trying to mind control me. My amulet wasn''t broken and [Mental Freeze] wasn''t defunct.
It was an illusion.
Technically, illusions were a form of mental manipulation but the way they worked was entirely different. It didn''t penetrate the mind in order to influence from within, tricking you internally. It worked externally, tricking the senses into telling your mind faulty information.
Similar, but different.
Since there was no intrusion upon my mind, nothing my skills did could stop it. The thing that broke the illusion was realizing there was one in the first place. That was the hardest part of breaking out of one. My intuition saved me.
As the illusion broke, the feelings that pressed on me faded. The hopelessness didn''t go away completely, but it diminished from before. The illusion amplified what I had already felt, meaning the base feeling was something already there. Breaking the illusion wouldn''t make it go away.
"Ah, so you broke out of it. Surprising, but it doesn''t matter. You''re too late anyway." A guttural voice claimed and its wide smile grew. It felt like a mental attack just to listen to the Demon speak.
Other than the feelings fading, I noticed what the Demon was hiding from me.
There, in the center of a blood drawn formation, was a portal. It wasn''t yet complete and was still in the forming process, but the fact it was even there caused me fear. Stray bodies of humans were strewn about the newly revealed section of the battlefield, their corpses mummified from exsanguination.
A mass of mana and essence swirled in the center of the Ritual. Rivers of blood swirled with it, Demon and Human alike, painting the growing power a mix of red and black. The blood from the nearby Demons I killed was drawn in, adding to the gallons that were already there.
Our war council spoke about what the Demons could possibly be doing and while this possibility was brought up, no one thought it was possible. Our tutorials said that our planet was still protected from outside influence.
What I was seeing shouldn''t be possible.
If I let that portal finish forming, our entire planet was doomed.
Chapter 194 - Grim Resolution
I wasn''t absolutely certain what I was looking at was what I feared, but even with the slightest off chance it was, I needed to stop it now.
When enough Demons got together and had sufficient power, they could force a convergence. Doing so would link our planet, where the Ritual took place, to a Demonic planet through a permanent portal, like I saw now.
It would let endless hordes of Demons through with virtually no way to stop them. It was like trying to swim upriver while also building a dam. To have any chance of closing the portal, you would need to fight through an endless tide of Demons to get there.
Which was virtually impossible without severely out-leveling them or out-numbering them.
Which we didn''t on both accounts.
If we failed, the only recourse would be abandoning the continent. Demons could swim, but they wouldn''t be taking over the world anytime soon with the amount of water we had. Still, everyone in North and South America were screwed.
The South Americans could maybe hold them off at Panama if they were warned and had sufficient time to prepare, but even then, with endless bodies of Demons to throw at the problem?
None of that mattered to me, though, as everyone I cared about was a month''s travel away. They would be the first to fall if I let the portal finish. Who cared if it took the Demons years to take over the continent, everyone I cared for would already be dead.
There was no running from this fight.
Not that I could, either. With the wounds adding up and the blood leaking out of me, I wouldn''t get very far if I turned tail and ran. Not that I would do that. Even thinking of doing that caused my body displeasure.
Like my Anchor would crack if I went through with running away.
As soon as my mind comprehended what was at stake, I threw everything I had at the Evolved Demon in charge of the Formation. I wasn''t sure killing it would destabilize the portal but it was a good start.
[Ice Arrow] after [Ice Arrow] flew at the wretched thing but all they did was phase through its body in a puff of smoke. Somehow, the Demon was turning insubstantial and my Ice was flying straight through without doing any damage.
Immediately, I looked for any other signs of another illusion but I couldn''t find any. Everything my senses were telling me was that the Evolved Demon was where my eyes saw him to be.
I had no wish to begin discourse with something like that and immediately switched to a new avenue of attack.
Since [Ice Arrows] didn''t do anything, I dumped mana into [Sweeping Snow] and a deluge of white crashed down on where the Demon stood. A mixture of naturally made snow from the area along with conjured snow from the skill impacted the ground with a dull thud.
It was more snow than I had ever sent at one monster and it packed quite a bit of force. The collective weight could have staggered even Jonathan, let alone the Demon.
Still, when the white cleared and I stopped sending mana into the skill, the Demon remained unharmed in the same spot as before. Like the mountain of sharp snow I dropped on him did nothing.
During this time, the surrounding Demons weren''t idle either, so as I was assaulting who the System claimed was Goranth, my hammer was used to fend them off.
Seeing that the Demon was again unharmed, I began to get desperate. None of my ranged magics were working and the Demons weren''t letting me get any closer to the nascent portal, I was running out of options.
With nothing better, I began to throw anything I could think of. A giant [Icy Bastion] froze around the Demon followed by a massive [Shatter].
Forming a javelin of Ice and using [Throwing Proficiency]. Directing [Desolate Blizzard] and leaning on the hail portion to bombard the demon with falling slabs of ice.
I even used unstructured magic, leaning on my pure manipulation skills to sling Freezing Winds and chunks of Ice at the Demon.
Nothing I did worked.
The Demon flitted around, dodging the worst of my barrage and letting some of it phase through its body. As it moved around the platform the Formation was carved on, a black fog leaked out of its body that made it hard to see if I was actually doing anything.
Its speed far surpassed anything I could throw at it and it didn''t even seem pressured under the weight of all I did.
Again, nothing I did worked.
Even with both my Laws saturating all my skills along with the meager energy I had left in my Spirit Anchor, all of it was ineffective.
Seeing that Plan A wasn''t working, I turned to Plan B.
If I couldn''t kill the Demon to destabilize the portal, I would destabilize the Portal and deal with the Demon after. A flash of indecision passed on my face but I buried it under resolution.
I knew destabilizing a portal holding that much power would have dire consequences. The amount of mana that was flowing into its creation had to go somewhere and it didn''t just disappear.
If I was successful, it would most likely explode.
Even with [Momentum of the Avalanche] doubling my Fortitude and [Righteous Fury] pushing it further, I wasn''t confident I would survive it. Sure, my Bloodline also boosted my Fortitude, but even so, the amount of mana glowed to the naked eye, let alone any kind of mana sense.
As soon as I thought it, my course was set. It didn''t matter if it exploded, I couldn''t let it form no matter what. Even if the worst were to occur, it would be worth it.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Changing targets, I took all the Wind and Ice I was throwing at the Demon and shifted it toward the budding portal.
The change in the Demon was instantaneous and visible. It stopped its flighty dodging and any sense of sinister pleasure at my helplessness was gone. It teleported in a flash of black fog in front of the portal before casting a massive inky-black shield in front of my target.
Where my skills phased through before, they clattered off now. The wall of black stopped everything I could throw at it. [Ice Arrows] crumpled and shattered on impact and nothing else could get through.
Even as everything failed, I kept up with my barrage for the Demon did one thing that gave me the advantage.
To block the portal from being hit, it stood still in one spot. It anchored itself in front of the portal and stood as its sturdy shield.
Taking advantage of the stationary demon, [Shatter] rippled through and exploded [Frost Armor] off my body, killing and incapacitating all the nearby Demons. With everything I was doing to empower [Frost Armor], its subsequent [Shatter] was equally empowered.
Even Demons over level 90 had shards of the durable Ice armor rip through them incapacitating them. The Demons close enough were were all cut down in one move, leaving my way toward the black wall blocking my path free.
Without hesitation, energy began to build up in my hammer.
Runes along its length began to light up and all my past worries were forgotten. My mana pool was bordering on empty as I shoved all the mana the skill could take into it.
I knew I would only have two shots at this and my mana wouldn''t support any more. I wasn''t sure my body could, either.
As the skill began activating, its groans and cracks were drowned out by the howling winds I was sending at the Demon. [Desolate Blizzard] was being true to its namesake, even as the skill ate up my dwindling mana.
The Winds it was sending forth were howling as they carried chunks of Ice, battering the Demon''s shield.
Under the cover of Wind, [Shattering Hammer] was free to drink in all I could give it. Any sounds originating from my hammer were nothing.
I only spared a glance down to watch the cascade of energy reach the hammerhead. The skills effects were hard to turn away from, as there was something in the way it worked that called to me.
While going full offensive, [Frozen Patchwork] had enough time to work its way through my riddled body, patching me up. I wasn''t in top shape, but enough of me was left to do what was required.
One harrowing step in front of the other, I ran toward the wall of black. My feet left deep impressions on the layer of snow that had built up around me as over two thousand points of strength propelled me forward. The blood-stained white was the perfect footing for what I required.
The lights and sounds of those fighting elsewhere were similarly forgotten and I was left alone.
One hand dragged my hammer behind me, the other out in front casting all I could. I couldn''t afford the added distraction to cast the spells from elsewhere, using my left hand as an anchor.
I wasn''t sure if the Demon noticed what I was doing, but by the time I neared the wall, it was too late. The Winds cut off as I reached back and both hands gripped frosty wood. Wood that I had come to love for its unyielding nature would soon be tested in that regard.
The time between cutting off the spells and my hammer coming down was a flash. It took less than a second to reach back and grab on. The fractured hammer face came screaming down with my full strength behind it.
CRACK
The sound resounded out like a thunderclap, bouncing off the Valley wall and echoing back. It exploded down the Valley''s gulley and could be heard from miles away turning the environment into a natural amphitheater.
Everyone fighting heard the sound of the Demon''s skill shattering to pieces. The once stalwart dreadful black wall crumbled in on itself. The shield unable to hold up against the force and shattering energy pushed into it. The energies contained in my hammer shot out and into the Demon''s skill with nowhere else to go. I didn''t partially miss it like I had with the Wolf before. My hammer hit square.
Like glass falling to pieces, the shield did the same.
After the mana used to power the shield was thoroughly destroyed, [Shattering Hammer] still had more left in the tank. It sought out something else to shatter and grind into pieces.
My eyes took everything in and saw the Demon''s body get launched back from the impact. The force of my skill traveled through his and reached the source.
Either the Demons was physically touching its shield for reinforcement, or my skill somehow followed the mana back to its body.
I wasn''t in a position to ruminate on it as I wasn''t one to waste an open opportunity.
With the cover broken, the growing portal was revealed once more causing me to suck in a breath. The foulness in the air was pushed aside for a much more important problem. The moments it took me to come to a decision and charge the Demon let the portal power up that much more, growing from the mana the Formation was feeding it.
Injured or not, the Demon was displaced from its place guarding the portal, leaving me an open lane to do what I must.
The backlash of using the skill nearly staggered me as blood gushed from reopened wounds, but I pushed through and started the process a second time.
The last time.
Mana built, my stamina drained, and my Spirit and Law were infused into the skill. Everything I had into one last attack. I wouldn''t be staggering away after the backlash of this one. I would have no more energy to stand.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Demon trying to put up a resistance but before it could, its skills failed. The structure collapsing in on itself.
"How?! What did you do to me!" It screamed in rage but I dismissed it like I had the rest of its words.
I paid no attention to the screaming Demon and marched forth toward the Portal. I knew my odds of survival were even worse with every step closer and statistically impossible within arm''s length, but that didn''t deter me.
The Demon''s eyes went wide as it watched what I was doing. It saw my hammer change for the second time and it knew what was coming.
"No! Are you insane!" It clambered.
"Stop!"
I didn''t. I only grunted.
My hammer went up, and for the briefest of seconds, glistened in the afternoon sun, before it came slamming down with resounding force.
My weapon descended like it was going through molasses to my eyes, even though I knew it was coming down at the same speed as before.
Lines of black shot out of the Demon''s body and hit all the surrounding Demons, and as one, they turned to stop me. All the Demons hit by the black leash lost all reason and charged at me with reckless abandon but it was too late.
They wouldn''t be able to stop my hammer from falling.
Nothing could.
The Demon, seeing that it could use skills again, shot spike after spike of shadowy black at me but it didn''t deter me, nor could it stop me.
"STOP!!" It screamed again.
Its spikes broke through what was left of my metal plate, penetrating through my body but even the pain of being skewered didn''t stop me. The Runes were already broken and the metal provided no more protection than normal.
Its first pierced through my leading leg, coming up from my shadow on the floor and clean through my thigh. Its second re-entered the wound in my gut from before, taking advantage of the missing armor.
The last was aimed at my head but it never got a chance to land. A wave of energy rippled out from the portal and blew it off course, cutting through my cheek instead.
Half my vision disappeared to black, but even with only seeing through one eye, I knew I had done it.
The initial wave was only my hammer impacting the mass of mana. Just the impact force was enough to send the Demon''s skill off course.
Seeing that it failed, the Demon didn''t even try to send any more spikes to kill me. Once it saw the waves of force rolling off the portal, it did something that had my newly narrowed field of vision had to do a double take.
It turned and ran.
It didn''t get far.
The shattering energies coursing through the portal did its job.
The Formation feeding it mana went first, the stone that it was carved into shattered into pieces. The altar the portal was built upon went next, exploding similarly in a shower of shrapnel.
I wasn''t able to perceive what came next.
All I saw was white and my body felt weightless. My grip on my hammer was lost and I flew through the air unfettered.
At least it was glorious.
Chapter 195 - Stream of Essence
Rachel
[Field of Flames] sucked mana out of her at an astonishing rate but there was nothing she could do about it. As the Warriors died or fell, the pressure on the ones who remained constantly increased.
She couldn''t afford to play the long game anymore with her mana. If the rest got overwhelmed the Demons would be free to charge the backline. Not that the mages were helpless, but they were not suited for front-line fighting.
Using fire against Demons wasn''t the most effective but she found ways to lay waste to as many as possible. The Hellhounds were the hardest to kill as their resistance to fire was mighty.
The Demonlings were nearly trivial to burn to death, just some extra oomph and they would soon be ashes. The Lesser Demons were the next hardest behind Hellhounds but for a different reason.
Where Hellhounds were straight-up resistant to her skills, the Lesser Demons were smart enough and had the magical abilities to fight back. They would rip and tear at her spells and some could even shield against her.
Her ability was greater in this regard, but the distance made it difficult to leverage it. She stood over a hundred feet back, making everything she did or tried to manipulate harder. Plus, with the battle of manipulation taking place closer to the Demons than it was to her, everything was that much harder.
While the Lesser Demons had less skill and finesse, they didn''t have to work nearly as hard to defend themselves as she did to attack them.
She watched how the other mages around her dealt with the problem she was facing but none seemed to make any better headway than she did.
Most relied on brute force and increased the strength of the spells they threw.
The ones who did that were chugging down mana potions like there was no tomorrow to compensate for the increased costs. Conner and the other Alchemists were great, but they weren''t able to make an infinite amount of the potions to be as liberal with mana as some were acting like. Not even mentioning the fact the number of potions a person could use was finite.
Rachel herself had already used a few. Not that she was close to running out, but to supplement her diminishing mana pool. One of the potions was a new creation that Connor said would boost her Acumen and increase the rate her mana would regenerate. Taking that at the beginning of the battle was likely the reason she could still launch spells.
While it wasn''t a doubling of regeneration, or anywhere near it, any extra mana coming in was good.
The resource she had to monitor much closer was her Bloodline energy. It had dwindled much faster than her mana pool. The reason for it was obvious.
After Chris charged in without stopping, she was the next strongest on the battlefield.
Before, it might have been a argument between her, Austin, or Jonathan, but without either of them here, it was undisputedly her. Not even the other City''s warriors or mages on their side came close.
Being the strongest meant she had to deal with the biggest threats. The combined Demonlings in their Giant amalgamations and the higher-leveled Lesser Demons were her biggest issue. The Giant constructs were easy enough to spot and prepare for, but high leveled Lesser Demons would just pop up anywhere along the front line. The Warriors were having a hard time dealing with the surprise difficulty.
Even using her stronger and more mana-intensive spells wasn''t enough to take them down quickly. She could have burnt them to ash eventually, but she needed to kill them before they impacted the Warriors on the front line.
To do so, she had to lean on her Bloodline powers to boost her power. While the Bloodline Essence of the Fire Wyrm didn''t sound all that powerful compared to its eventual evolution of Fire Dragon, it was more than the Demons could handle.
The ''Dragon Essence'', as she was calling it, turned her fire into something even the Hellhounds, with their dark flames rolling off their bodies, recoiled away from.
Rachel wasn''t sure what change her Bloodline caused her fires to undertake, but whatever it did made them insanely destructive.
She had heard a Dragon''s Fire was different than regular fire and now she witnessed it first hand. Her Fire wasn''t anywhere near as powerful as an actual Dragon''s fire, or even a Fire Wyrm''s her Bloodline was from, but they were more powerful than before she imbibed the Bloodline.
Even when she upgraded her Fire law to Lesser it didn''t compare to what her bloodline did.
She spotted another powerful Lesser Demon coming into range and she had to pull on her Bloodline yet again. She felt the power rushing through her, like searing magma coursing through her veins.
She threw another [Field of Flames] into the fray and everyone could tell this one was different. While the area combusted like it had numerous times before, the flames were tinted blue at their base this time. The heat rolling off it was orders of magnitude hotter than before.
The Lesser Demon fought to protect itself but how could she let her precious mana and Bloodline energy go to waste? [Fire Manipulation] reached out and the field turned even deadlier. She even threw in a [Fire Lance] to take it down that much quicker.
She concentrated the flames all around the Lesser Demon leaving it no room to escape. With her Bloodline still active, it was nearly trivial to change the flames into whatever she desired.
The chime of the kill notification sounded in her head and she cut the mana feeding the flames and revealed what was left behind.
Ashes.
Flesh, muscle, and even the Demon''s bones were burnt to ashes and dispersed in the wind.
She watched the essence transfer from where the Demon once stood and make its way toward her. Her skills related to sensing and manipulating mana were her pride, but it opened up her mind to something else.
Essence.
She wasn''t nearly as well versed in sensing essence, let alone seeing it, compared to mana but she was able to pick up the stream coming toward her. Following the transfer from her kills back to her was much easier than sensing unclaimed essence.
Her focus was distracted for the brief second it took the essence to get to her and enter her body and before she could look up from watching the spectacle, a resounding shattering sound echoed through the entire valley.
CRACK
The wave of sound hit her multiple times as the initial soundwave washed over her followed by what echoed back from the Valley walls. It replicated the sound of a massive pickaxe hitting metal perfectly. A sharp and short clang that carried into the distance.
The way the Valley was shaped made it so everyone heard it. Even the Rogues stationed at either end or up on the opposing Valley wall heard the sound.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
After the startling sound carried past her, Rachel''s head shot up and pointed toward the Winter Storm. It wasn''t hard to guess who was responsible but as she peered into the distance, something stood out.
Her mana sensing at the distance she was looking was minimal, at best, but no matter how hard she looked, she only saw one mana type.
There were supposed to be two.
A familiar Ice mana dominated the landscape, well, Arctic now but she still mistook it occasionally based on the fact she had spent months in its vicinity.
The Arctic mana was the only thing she could see, sense, or otherwise detect without a hint of the other leader''s Light mana. And she was decent at sensing that, too, as Austin''s Solar mana felt similar.
Somehow, Christopher was fighting in there alone.
Her worry shot up and she couldn''t help but sneak a glance at Christopher''s mother. She was close by where Rachel stood sending gales of sharp Winds down on the Demons. Giant cutting blades of Razor Wind shot down into the crowd as she spent what had to be the last of her mana.
Wind and Fire mixed well and weren''t at risk of conflict, which put the Wind Mage close to where she stood. Christopher''s brother, on the other hand, was on the complete other side of the battle line.
Rachel''s worry only got worse as she recalled the last thing Christopher said to her.
"If something happens," Chris said deadly serious, "I want you to take them and run."
She fought being told to run but ultimately agreed under pressure. Anything that could kill the walking tank would be something she couldn''t contend with.
Rachel shifted most of her focus to finding out what was happening at the center of the Valley but she still absentmindedly launched spells of her own.
She let out a breath when she noticed more Arctic mana being used.
That thought immediately died when she saw what happened next. Her eyes already trained on the area was the only warning she had.
First was the flash of light. Like a bomb going off, white light shot out and covered everything in a split-second flash.
Then came the Wind.
Air vacated the space closest to where the flash of light originated in tremendous force. It nearly blew her off her feet before she braced herself better. Some of the Warriors closer to the source weren''t as lucky and did get pushed off their feet.
Luckily for them, the Demons didn''t fare much better.
Worse, following the wave of forceful Wind, the tide of Demons tried to follow behind it. They all pushed and shoved, trying to get away from whatever was taking place at the center.
While the flash of light was instant and the Wind was quick, the Demons weren''t.
Before they could so much as run 10 feet, it happened.
Rachel knew, instinctually, what was happening, but her mind denied coming to conclusions. If she did... then... then... no! He could''ve survived! Somehow...
The explosion she refused to label as an explosion rocked the ground. Tremors spread through the area and loose dirt rattled free and tumbled down the Valley walls.
The roaring sound of everything that happened came next. She couldn''t pick up what it sounded like because not a moment after the sound came, her eardrums ruptured.
All she heard was ringing.
Following the Wind and tremors, a wall of force sent everybody off their feet. Some were sent flying back, having not prepared for the sudden wall of force, while others crumpled where they stood.
The copper taste of blood filled her mouth and the ringing in her ears continued to drown out the noise of everything else. Screams or cries of pain went unheard.
As she lay on the ground trying to get her spinning vision under control, clumps of dirt began to rain from the air. Little specs of earth or clumps of sod thumped into the ground around her and showered her in brown.
As soon as her mind cleared enough to function, a comforting warmth spread through her body courtesy of [Mending Hearth]. Her only self-healing skill tried its best to get her wounds under control. The warming fire of the skill worked its way through her pleasantly as the skill did what it could.
Blood flowed from her ears and nose with those only being the most visible injuries. After [Mending Hearth] started to right what was wrong, her mind flashed to where, or who, was at the center of the explosion.
No matter how much denial she could conjure up, there was no surviving that at literal ground zero. As much as she equated Christopher''s resistance and fortitude to that of a walking tank, even tanks wouldn''t survive that explosion.
Rachel and the rest of the Mages and Rangers took a second to pick themselves back up with groans and grunts. Those best off afterward restarted what they had been doing before.
The explosion impacted everyone equally and while they got back on their feet, so did the Demons.
The Demons, and the Warriors, were noticeably slower to their feet than those farther away, but they did stir.
Being in better shape than their opponents, arrows and spells rained down and killed any of the Demons that moved or attempted to rise. There were still plenty that were still alive but they either couldn''t get up or were unconscious.
Even as Rachel observed the field of staggered humans and Demons alike, she couldn''t help but keep picturing the moment of the explosion. The Arctic mana that flared right before it was overcome by what happened.
For some reason, her mind remembered a chill among the Winds before the explosion hit but she couldn''t recall feeling it the first time.
"Healer!"
"I need a Healer!"
"Does anyone have a Health Potion?!"
Cries for Healing or potions rang out as [Mending Hearth] fixed her burst ear drums but that didn''t shock her. Her eyes had picked up on the frantic way they moved their mouths and guessed the reason behind it.
Overlooking the swath of destruction, she was shell-shocked.
It was hard to function, let alone move, yet people ran this way and that carrying people away. Healers, with their red cross armbands, ran throughout the field using their various skills on the fallen.
Rachel stood and did nothing.
She had no Healing capabilities. She had no potions either. As one of the few with a self-healing skill, their limited supply was given to others. She only had Mana potions adorning her belt.
Almost unconsciously, she turned to where she last saw Elizabeth, Christopher''s mother. She had already lost a husband, and now she had just lost a son. Rachel knew the pain that came with that.
Kyle had been her love and joy. Her youngest and her baby.
Seeing his lifeless body had nearly broken her and now she was about to watch it happen to another. Her heart ached at the idea.
Elizabeth was standing much the same as Rachel was. Completely still, she looked deeper into the Valley, where there once was snow falling from the sky like a vengeful Winter Storm, but now all she saw was a field of brown.
The white wall from before the battle was gone. The only thing left was the dull brown of dirt with specks of black.
Rachel was about to turn away and help how she could with recovery when her skills picked up on... something.
The field of black and brown, while nearly desolate, was full of what used to be Demons. The force mangled their bodies, but that didn''t mean they disappeared.
And from those bodies, Rachel saw a river of essence arise.
Rachel usually couldn''t detect the essence of other people''s kills as she wasn''t skilled enough to sense it, but with an entire Valley of dead bodies, it was nearly impossible to miss.
Others less skilled than her even turned to see what was happening.
As more and more essence rose into the air, it all began to concentrate. The essence from all the dead Demons was all going in the same direction.
Up.
The stream of essence from one Demon combined with the one next to it, which combined with more and all rushed high into the air.
Even without her practiced sensing skills, it was impossible to miss the spectacle of what was happening. Hell, the concentration was so high it was nearly visible to the naked eye!
"What''s happening?"
"What is that?"
People questioned what they were seeing. But no one had the answers.
As the rush of essence went up, it began to change course. From nearly straight up, it started to come toward where they stood. Its angle still carried the river of power over their heads put everyone''s heads tracked its arc.
It was when the deluge of essence began to come down that those with the best eyesight saw it.
Hal was with the rest of the Wind affinities bunch, which made her son''s sudden sprint noticeable to her. His form blurred as he rushed to follow the line of essence, even though she still didn''t have a clue what was going on. Seeing her son sprint off into the distance spurred her mind into action.
All she knew said that essence only transferred upon death to those responsible for killing whatever it was. That was what she was told, that was what she had witnessed.
Yet now, it was streaming through the air for some reason.
The only logical reason she could come up with was the essence was transferring to something, but that didn''t make any sense.
Why would it arc through the air?
Not unless...
No.
That was impossible.
He was at the center of the explosion. There was no way he survived it!
Similar to Hal, she took off in a run. She kicked herself for taking so long to figure it out. Behind her, Elizabeth followed. She wasn''t sure if she knew what was going on or just following her and Hal, but she was a step behind Rachel.
She wasn''t sure Elizabeth would want to see what laid at the end of where they were going, but she wasn''t going to stop the woman.
From the other side of the line, Rachel saw Gabriel break into a sprint as well. His new legs carrying him in the same direction as she.
Mitchell, Alice, Allison, and all of the Zalenski family followed behind her. The only Healer of the family who came was on their heels as well, thankfully.
If what her mind came up with was true, they would need a healer soon.
During their sprint, it wasn''t long until even those without high perception noticed.
The stream of essence rushing through the air was following something and it didn''t take a genius to figure out what.
Essence only went to the ones responsible for the kill.
And she could only think of one person the essence would be streaming toward.
Chapter 196 - Heart of Magic
Gabriel
He''s alive. He had to be. There''s no way that he died.
Gabriel''s mind spun. Seeing the explosion nearly made his working thoughts crash. Like a short appeared causing all rational thought to shut down.
Watching Hal sprint off alerted him to something going on and watching Rachel and his mother follow behind, he couldn''t stand there and be left behind.
As he ran the same things kept playing in his head. He even pulled up their faction on his status sheet to make sure leadership hadn''t changed. Seeing Christopher''s name still listed was his only rejoice, but even so, who was to say it would remain?
The time they were in the dungeon together. The time they had spent enchanting the castle. The hours spent designing defensive formations. The long talks about how they would set up the defensive Wards for the City. The memory that stuck out was the gruff and disheveled version that met them at their family home.
Gabe still remembered the rush of joy at seeing his brother again after returning.
All of the memories since played on repeat as his feet pounded the earth in the direction of everyone else. He noticed the wave of something flowing through the air, but he couldn''t put his finger on what.
His best guess was that it was essence.
He wasn''t familiar with the energy, not as much as mana, but that was the only thing his mind could come up with. Not that he had ever seen it before. Rachel talked about it once but he couldn''t remember what she had said about it.
His focus was on the matrix behind skills rather than the ephemeral substance.
Hal had long run out of view with his insane speed, but he caught up soon enough.
What his vision picked up made his breath hitch.
Hal kneeled next to a smoldering form of what looked vaguely human. There wasn''t any black blood or Demonic mana coming off the form so Gabriel''s mind ruled out it being a Demon but worked to temper his rising hope.
Sure, the form had the right size to be who he suspected it to be, but there were also not a lot of identifiable features to confirm right away. And he certainly didn''t want to proclaim it to be his brother only to find out it wasn''t.
The fall afterward only hurt more than it already did.
Rachel and his mother reached where Hal knelt first, as they had taken off before he had. Rachel had the levels on him to be faster and his mother''s affinity made it nearly impossible for him to catch up.
Gabriel skidded to a stop next to the previous two and he felt the rest of those running toward them nearing.
Everything heightened as he tried to process everything his senses were taking in as quickly as possible.
His gut clenched as he took in what was now in front of him. Who he hoped was his brother was splayed on his back, motionless as Hal, Rachel, and his mother did their best to treat the injuries.
There were just too many of them.
The largest, and most glaringly eye-catching, was the missing arm. The stump was cut off just after the shoulder and blood flowed freely from the missing appendage.
His face was black and blue from the fight while also having a massive gash adorning his left cheek reaching from just after his nose to the side of his head. All of his hair was missing, burnt off both his head and his beard.
Both legs were oddly angled, most likely from the fall, but even the remaining arm was proportioned wrong compared to Gabriel''s memory. The last one he had of his brother whole where he watched the same body he was observing now charging off.
Along both legs and torso there were numerous lacerations of various sizes and depths along with puncture wounds abound. One such wound pierced clean through his leg and came out the other side. The only good thing was Gabriel confirmed it was his brother he was looking at but he wasn''t sure that was a good thing.
What confirmed it was the lingering Ice in some of the wounds. While he didn''t doubt most had blown off in the explosion, Gabe could feel the frozen water covering some of the wounds.
Taking in the... extensive injuries, he just stood there, his mouth agape. He didn''t know what to do in the face of such a scene and froze.
Rachel
"You couldn''t have caught him!" Rachel admonished while pressing her hands into the missing arm''s stump.
"He was shooting down like a meteor, how exactly was I supposed to catch him?! I did my best to cushion the fall with my Wind!" Hal said frustratedly, as he worked over the body.
Hal was the first to get to the impact sight, but even with him here there was a sizable indent where the body landed.
Rachel wasn''t exactly sure on what she was doing but did her best anyway. She had done generic first aid before during the waves and tried to do the same now. She wasn''t even sure if there was still a pulse but the blood was still flowing and that was as good a sign as any.
If it had stopped...
Luckily, Ashley came running up next and immediately dove into action.
Mana flared and skills activated in quick succession. One after another was used and the amount of mana pouring in was enough for Rachel to be surprised. She couldn''t help but watch the woman''s mana work.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
"Is he going to be alright?" Elizabeth asked breathlessly.
"I''m not sure," Ashley answered right away.
Even without a medical degree, Rachel didn''t put much hope in what they were doing. It was just... too much. Even for who everyone in their family knew was the strongest.
There were some things you just couldn''t come back from.
After Ashley''s skills flared, she reached down to start doing what she could manually.
While holding on to the bleeding stump, Rachel felt the healing mana wash through the body and felt something thump. Not to get her hopes up, she waited for it to happen again.
Thump.
His heart was still beating! He was still alive!
"There''s a pulse!" Rachel couldn''t help but utter the words after she felt the thump.
How is he even alive?
She instantly began to question how. She had witnessed the explosion taking place and knew he was at the center of it. He was very likely the cause of it. Yet he was still alive somehow.
Was he in front of the shockwave of force and instead of being crushed got sent sky high instead? That still wouldn''t explain how he was still alive but she couldn''t focus on that right now.
She could feel the beating getting weaker.
The Healer chugged another mana potion as the mana continued to pour out of her but it was like pouring water into a rickety bucket. There were too many injuries to fix and not enough time or mana to fix them.
The crowd around them continued to build as they worked but the bystanders were forgotten.
Rachel tried to think of anything she could that would help. She knew Chris had a skill that worked better in the cold but she wasn''t sure if that would boost his Vitality enough.
She also knew he had a [Meditation] skill that would do the same but he wasn''t conscious to activate it.
She had to stop herself from setting her hands ablaze with fire to cauterize the wounds. That was how she usually applied first aid. To stop the bleeding, she normally just seared the wound shut but that wouldn''t work on Chris.
Some of his wounds were still frozen over with ice and if she went in blazing, it would cause more harm than good.
A bell went off when she thought that.
If she couldn''t cauterize the wounds, then they needed to freeze them shut.
"Gabriel, encase him in Ice!" She shouted.
It was a longshot, and completely untested, but it wouldn''t hurt to get him into a colder environment. It was the only idea she could come up with to both stop the blood and help the overall situation.
Noticing that no mana flared or ice growing, she turned to see the man standing stock still with his mouth open motionless. It took everything in her to not smack him over the head but she couldn''t pull her hands away from the stump.
"Gabriel!" She yelled.
That got his attention.
"Encase him in ice!"
Kicked into motion, he began to follow her orders and ice began to build over Chris''s body.
It started frosting over the bleeding stump, allowing her to pull her hands away and it wasn''t long until the entire thing was covered in a thick layer of the stuff. The only thing left uncovered was his face.
"Keep going!" She said, "Drop the temperature as much as possible!"
Frosty crystals continued building and Healing mana continued to cascade through his body before it suddenly cut off.
Everyone turned to Ashley accusingly and under the deadly glare of so many, the woman rushed to defend herself. "I''ve done all I can. His body can''t take any more Healing."
"What about potions? Does anybody have any potions?!" Elizabeth shouted.
"Those won''t help either." Ashley shot down, "His body physically can''t take any more healing. If we push any harder he will reject it."
That poured cold water on everyone present.
To learn that they were all hopeless to do anything but watch. With Ashley sitting back on her knees with all she could accomplish finished, Gabriel was left as the only one doing anything.
His frosty mana continued to pour out of him and into the growing encasement. Rachel even picked up on the use of his Law.
"What about enchantments?" Gabriel broke the silence that had built, "If I can carve a Healing Rune into the ice, will that help?"
Ashley sputtered for a moment, "I... think so? I''m not sure how the Runes work exactly, but from what we''ve seen, they boost the natural healing of the body. Using them should be fine... I think."
Better than nothing.
The uncertainty didn''t sound comforting but at this point, they would take anything they could get.
After her answer, the ice around the body began to shift. She could see Gabriel visibly struggling, but he pushed on nonetheless.
It shifted into loops and curves of what she knew to be a Rune. The growing sigil gradually turning into something she had seen before. What the exact Rune meant was beyond her and without being told, she wouldn''t have known what it did.
Without anything to do, Rachel could only sit and watch as the changes took place. What started as normal ice shifted into artistic grooves and aesthetic curves.
It wasn''t a quick process, but the ice shifted noticeably until the process was completed. The finished Rune flashed as it concluded taking form and she could feel the mana shift and take effect.
"Rachel, I need help powering it," Gabriel said as mana continued to pour out of him.
Wordlessly, she started doing the same.
Enchanting was still beyond her knowledge, but her senses could pick up what was happening to the mana. The Rune siphoned the provided mana through the carved grooves, changing it along the way into something she couldn''t sense, before injecting it into the... encasement.
Her mind wanted to call it a coffin but she refused to do so. He wasn''t dead yet, and she wasn''t going to call it a coffin until she was forced to.
Rachel closed her eyes to watch the process and focused all her attention on the flowing mana.
Chris''s body absorbed it naturally, as it was surrounded by it, and it coursed through his mana channels. This was usually where the body would filter it through the central mana pool they had to get rid of any unwanted affinities.
Instead, some of it was lost as it traveled through the body, seeping into various places. The Healing taking effect.
It didn''t noticeably change anything, but it made her breaths come easier knowing there was at least some kind of healing taking place.
Other than noticing the mana break off and suffuse into his body, she saw the magic doing something else. Something she wasn''t sure how to describe.
It was like his heart was taking in the Ice mana around it and using that for some reason. Why would his heart be sucking in Ice mana?
"He doesn''t have a human heart!" She exclaimed aloud unintentionally.
She remembered watching him evolve but it was easy to forget the change he had made. It wasn''t like she could see his changed heart for the continued reminder.
Rachel knew that certain creatures evolved in various ways and it was impossible to have knowledge of them all, but some were widely known facts and even their tutorial had information about them.
It was mostly the strong and powerful creatures that they used as examples. Mainly, Dragons. Dragons were known to be one of the fiercest creatures in the Universe and they were commonly used as examples in the information packets they had access to.
One of the main things they talked about was the value of a Dragon''s Heart. The Heart of a Dragon was where all their magic originated and where most of it was stored. It was where they drew their strength from and where their famed Dragon Breath started.
The magic it contained was immense and the value of such an organ was astronomical. Rachel had to do a double take when she saw the prices of lesser Draconic species Hearts, let alone an actual Dragon''s.
Still, Dragons weren''t the only creatures whose magic resided in their Heart, other notable ones were Titans, Fire Titans along with all the other types, and most relevant, Giants.
While Chris didn''t have the Heart of an actual Frost Giant, he had one with traces of the Frost Giant bloodline, which was enough to have at least some of that effect.
His Heart drew in the Ice mana and used it as fuel to pump out blood full of vitality. Honestly, Rachel was surprised his blood wasn''t glowing blue from the effect but instead only tinted deep purple.
With his Heart''s Vitality in addition to the Healing Rune, there was nothing more they could do but watch.
"Will he live?" Elizabeth asked again.
Everyone turned an ear to hear the answer.
"I''m not sure,"
Chapter 197 - Why this Valley?
Rachel
Everyone stood and observed the icy encasement for a while longer but no one said anything. There was nothing they could do and it somehow felt wrong to speak.
To break the tentative silence.
Some had tears welling up and falling, others looked downcast at who they thought would lead them for years to come. Rachel herself was upset.
Before the System, she and Christopher weren''t the closest but they had spent a decent amount of time together since practicing their various skills. Other than watching him grow up, she got to watch him grow in a different way.
It was odd to have that pillar removed from her life. She hadn''t even known the pillar had been there in the first place. The sturdy...strength he had that made nothing seem to be out of hand. Hell, he fought the waves alone! Having someone who did that just took the edge off as they explored their new circumstances. A fallback parachute she hadn''t realized was there until it was gone.
Besides the silent but steady support being gone, she became that support for everybody else. Rachel wasn''t sure if it was an unconscious thing, but it was like they looked toward the next powerful person to lean on.
She didn''t hate doing so, but after the day she had, and standing over the near-dead body of her nephew, she wasn''t prepared for this.
The people from their City arriving to ask for directions only made it worse.
She had to tear herself away and take care of matters, as Elizabeth and Gabriel were never going to be able to do it. Gabriel because his powers were needed to keep the ice frozen and Elizabeth because the world would sooner stop spinning than her leaving her son''s side.
Oh, how she wished Abigail was here to take care of all this. Scratch that, she would honestly be worse with Chris in that condition.
"I need a count of how many healing potions we have left. Run triage on the most wounded and separate those who can''t be healed anymore." She commanded to those of her City that were still standing.
Hesitating, she called one aside to talk privately, "I need to know how many survived."
The Rogue she called over looked surprised for a second before nodding grimly. Rogues were the Class that made it out of the fight the most unscathed. Well, the group of Rogues who weren''t given the task of charging in.
The ones in the charge suffered losses equal to, if not greater, than the Warriors and Spellblades. The reason the other Rogues made it out better was their job was clean-up duty.
The Rogues more centered around stealth or assassination weren''t told to charge in and waste their skills, instead, they were arranged in formation surrounding the Valley. They, along with the lower leveled participants, were tasked with not letting any of the Demons escape encirclement.
The... lowest level of their number weren''t particularly... useful. Not that she said that aloud, but it was the truth. A few volunteers weren''t even in the F-rank, let alone E-rank!
Rachel thought they were insane for even coming along but Chris wouldn''t disparage their resolve. They were grouped up in teams to do the same as the Rogues in the hope that they would be able to pick off the Demons as they ran away.
She ended up being so busy directing everyone during the clean-up that the sun raced across the sky and reached the horizon before she even knew it.
She took care of everyone on their side of the Valley, regardless of whether they were from Frostheim or not. Before the battle, there were nearly 800 people to organize and plan around.
Half that remained standing. More were lying in beds, waiting for Healing to come.
When the Rogue she tasked with counting the casualties came back, she got the hard numbers. Of the 321 people who followed Christopher''s charge, 187 were still alive.
The Rogues stationed along the perimeter lost some as well, nearly 20 of the hundred. Some of the lower leveled teams were decimated completely, but most of them still stood, not having to fight.
With their frontline being so small compared to the number of Demons, some had gotten through or around and reached the Mages and Rangers in the backline, causing their numbers to take a hit as well.
Not as many as the Warriors, but still enough to sting.
Nearly 100 Rangers and Mages fell. Not all of that was from Demons that got through and was instead because of a Demonic spells launched at them they couldn''t defend.
Even the Healers weren''t spared from the casualties. Most Healers had stayed behind to be of use after the fighting was over but some had joined the battle.
Not every healer was as passive as the others. Some had classes specific to being a Battle Medic while others had buffs they could use. Their losses were similar to the Rogues.
Even more than that were the wounded. Healers were scrambling this way and that trying to treat the people they could. Those with egregious injuries like Christopher had to be isolated so as to not be confused with the waiting.
The human body could only take so much healing at one time. It wasn''t possible to drown the person in it and for them to be fine. They knew that from experience.
As soon as the body''s limit was reached, instead of healing the body, it would be treated as a foreign object and rejected. Similar to how some patients would reject donated organs. Too much new tissue being seen as foreign or something. Rachel wasn''t exact on the why.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
To deal with those, Healers with medical knowledge from before were required. Not every healer was a previous doctor or nurse, meaning they didn''t have the background knowledge on how to treat people other than letting their skills do the legwork.
Those who could, used mundane methods to do what they could and let their Spells go that much further before the limit was reached.
The... previous medical methods had changed, obviously, but they were still rooted in how things were done Before, only they were a touch more... barbaric.
If the Doctors were worried your body couldn''t take the healing required, it was better to chop off the limb instead and grow it back later. Healing over a missing stump taxed the body a lot less than reconstituting a completely smashed leg. Letting them focus on life support rather than superfluous limbs.
A body didn''t need an arm to survive but it did need a liver.
In some cases, multiple limbs were removed to focus the healing on the major organs. The process was extremely gruesome and bloody, leaving rivers of the stuff flowing long after the battle was over.
After the initial crazy of the aftermath, Rachel abruptly found herself without anything to do. She had been so busy that when the rush that demanded her attention stopped, it did so completely.
She went from rushing fire to fire, to standing there without anything to do.
She knew someone should reach out to the other side to see how they were doing but that could wait for later. It was already dark and everyone was drained.
If it was something important, they would come to her.
It stayed that way as those healthy enough to function hauled everyone back to their camp. Luckily, they had set it up before the battle started so all they had to do was haul everybody back.
They had to walk a bit, as they couldn''t set up too close, but it was close enough that people could slump into bedroll at night rather than left on the ground.
When she walked in with the rest of their group, she found that Christopher had already been moved. His body placed in his tent while her family stood guard outside.
She didn''t have the energy to deal with that, nor the ability to do anything helpful.
Instead, she found her bedroll and passed out.
The work began in the morning again. Not that Rachel hadn''t expected it to, but to not even get to eat breakfast in peace was aggravating.
What she did get to look at were the numerous notifications that were blinking for her attention. There was so much work to do that she had delayed looking at them but waking up gave her the perfect chance to look them over.
And by god were there a lot.
She doubted that she singlehandedly killed the most out of everyone, a certain explosion could claim that, but she would wager she at least had a hand in the most deaths.
Her spells and Fire were used liberally and in extremely wide ranges, giving her a piece of nearly every Demon that was killed. Most of the time it was only a small piece, but even singeing a Demon''s skin gave her a notification for participating in its death.
The number of partial kills was astronomical, the most she had ever received and she had the essence to back it up. Her level leaped up from the battle.
She was now level 87.
87! That was a massive jump, nearly 15 levels in one day! She had overtaken Chris in level a few months ago and this jump would take her way above him. Probably not. Her mind flashed and the river of essence she saw stream popped up.
The rarity of his Class made it take more essence to level but even so, there was a veritable river that gushed into him. Even with his legendary soaking it up, he would wake up with a lot more levels.
If he woke up.
No! She couldn''t think like that.
After checking her status, she was taken into the throng of work. People still needed healing and other various things but that wasn''t her focus. She tried to organize the mass of people and calm the chaos. To tame it the best she could.
This was usually Abigail''s job, but without her here, it fell to Rachel.
That didn''t take nearly as long as she expected and she was once again without anything to do. Chris still hadn''t woken up and it wasn''t like they were in any condition to leave. They didn''t have the facilities to haul everyone back that couldn''t walk.
She did receive a runner with the status of the other half of their army and it was much the same as theirs was. Recovering as best they could.
A thought poked at her that something went wrong with the plan on their side but she didn''t know enough to come to any conclusions. The fact she only sensed one mana type stood out.
Other than that, another thought kept reappearing in her mind.
Why did the Demons stop here? Why this Valley of all places?
To find the Demons and get to the Valley, they followed the trail of taint for days. The Demons had trekked through plenty of areas just like this one but they decided to stop here for some reason and she didn''t know why.
It bugged her.
The Valley at least used to be lush with plant life and the mana was still thick, but there wasn''t anything that instantly stood out. The mana was a bit thicker here than in other areas but it wasn''t outstandingly so.
Wait, is the mana thicker now than it was yesterday?
People generated mana, every living thing did, but there weren''t that many of them to contribute to such an increase. Plus, while people did generate mana, they also used it at a commensurate rate most of the time.
Turning the ambient mana into healing mana through their Class Skills and then using that mana to stitch people back together was only just one of the ways it was being used. If anything, there should have been a drain on the surrounding mana yet it had increased instead.
It could be attributed to the Demons being gone but even that didn''t account for the increase. While they did consume the mana, they usually emitted enough Demonic Mana to even it out.
This was something else.
To find out, she closed her eyes and searched out where the flow was coming from. If there was more mana, it had to come from somewhere. It was surprisingly easy to pick up on the mana flows in the area.
Because they were all emanating from one place. Usually it was similar to wind or water. It ebbed in flowed, swirling in some places while flowing in others. It was a hard skill to understand but when all the mana originated from one place, it was easy enough to follow it back to where it was coming from.
Mana was wafting out of the Valley, which meant the source was somewhere in the Valley. Rachel wasn''t sure what the reason was, but the feeling was the opposite of a Dungeon. Where Dungeons pulled in mana from wide ranges, this seemed to supply massive amounts of mana that diffused into the surroundings instead.
It was small now, but she could tell it was growing.
Something they did during the battle caused it if she had to guess.
She followed her senses and they drew her deeper into the Valley. The terrain was still destroyed but at least the bodies were cleaned up. The Human ones. Demons still littered the area but she stepped over those.
She walked past where the front line used to be and continued further in. The ground got worse as she closed in on where the explosion originated. The withered grass and plants were torn out and only bare dirt was left to walk on.
As she got closer, the mana only rose.
It continued to thicken as she reached the heart of the Valley and what she saw took her breath away. Greed wasn''t a strong emotion she usually felt but even she noticed it creeping up inside her.
The explosion had created a massive divot into the earth, leaving a massive area of underground exposed. This exposed ground was lined with glittering crystals and the mana was thicker than syrup inside the crater.
The blue gems were easy to identify as she had seen them before in the tutorial. Knowing what they were only made the feeling of greed worse because she knew how valuable they were.
They had stumbled onto a vein of Mana Crystals.
Chapter 198 - Crescendo
Gabriel
"Is he getting better?" His mother asked.
His cousin, Ashley, could only shake her head, "I honestly don''t know. This is so far beyond regular medicine that I would be guessing. What I can say is it does seem to be doing something."
Gabriel once again cursed his inadequacies. If he had a stronger Law, then maybe his brother would wake up faster. If he knew better Healing enchantments. If he had stronger Ice mana.
Everything that he could have that would make this situation better popped into his mind and he cursed himself for not having it. He didn''t even have a single healing skill.
Sure, he would still be limited by how much healing the body could take but maybe his would be more effective. If he had one that mixed healing and ice perhaps it would work that much better.
There was nothing he could do to change it. Even the new assortment of Class Skills to choose from didn''t have anything that would help, and he had looked. His level, much like everyone else''s, had shot up after the battle and he was able to pick up a new Class Skill.
None of those offered would help and he had shunted the notification to the side angrily. He didn''t have time to deal with that.
He also didn''t wish to make an important decision about his skills while running on so little sleep and filled with tension either.
The enchantment he had formed into the Ice couldn''t power itself and required him to pour mana into it continuously to continue working. The Rune naturally absorbed any mana that came into contact with its lines, but that small amount was far from enough to power it.
In addition, he continued to supply his Ice mana and Law to keep it as cold as he could.
No one was sure how much of an effect it was having, but even if it was minuscule, he would pour everything he had for days if it meant the difference between life and death.
Christopher''s condition had changed little since when they first found him. Wounds and injuries still covered his body, his arm was still missing, and many of his bones were still broken.
That wasn''t where Ashley had directed most of her healing.
With so many wounds, she had done her best to become essentially Life Support. Whenever Chris''s body recovered even a little bit and could take more Healing, she would come in and do so.
Even throughout the night, she didn''t stop.
No one in the tent had gotten much sleep, which meant when shouting inside the camp started to come through the tent, it was most unwelcome.
The shouting and raised voices only got more intense and Gabe was starting to wonder where the rest of his family had gotten off to.
Rachel had taken charge of their remnant forces, but she wasn''t out there to quell the shouting. Neither was Hal, as he would have gotten things to settle before letting it get this far.
Even some of his more quiet-spoken family members would have at least done something!
"Quiet down!" Hal''s voice carried over everyone else''s but it didn''t seem to do anything.
So Hal is out there but it isn''t enough to settle the commotion? Just what''s going on out there?
He was loathe to do it, but he needed to make sure nothing was wrong. They couldn''t very well travel fast with the state of things. Dumping a bit more mana than necessary into the Ice and the Rune, he turned to find out what was going on.
It must have been his hopeful imagination because after he did so, he swore he felt a shift inside the ice. When he turned to look, nothing was different though.
Odd.
Chris
The Demon. The battle. The Portal. The Explosion.
The moment my hammer filled with energy slamming down onto the mass of mana.
The Pain.
It kept replaying. Over and over. My last thoughts before what I assumed would be my death. Foolish thoughts of grim resolve. To face my death head on. Oh how fast that had crumbled. I had thought I would be fine when my death came and my time was up, but I was wrong.
I thought after the tutorial, and watching my family cut down one member at a time, I would be more accustomed when it happened to me. But I wasn''t. I still wanted to live. I wanted to fight for as long as possible. It felt like my time wasn''t up yet and it was wrong to go so soon.
Throughout the swing, up until my hammer impacted the portal and my world turned white, I was fine with the tradeoff. My family would live, and the Demon''s plans would be crushed.
All until it was too late to do anything otherwise. It wasn''t enough to feel regret, just a deep wish. A dear wish to be able to get back up and march on. I fought to do just that. Only nothing happened. I thrashed and bucked, strained and urged my body to get up, but it was for naught.
I was just too broken this time. Even my Anchor wasn''t enough to power me through.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
What I was left with instead was the pain. That and complete darkness. I wasn''t even sure where I was. I didn''t feel dead. I wasn''t whisked off to Valhalla like the stories.
I had died in battle with my weapon in hand, by all the folklore I knew that qualified me, yet I saw no Valkyrie coming to get me. Only black. And the feeling of pain.
I had never truly believed in Valhalla before the System. I didn''t believe in anything, really. I joked about it, using it in my arguments against my father whenever we had our religious talks, but I never believed it deep down.
That changed after the System came.
Not so much as I would go off preaching about it, just a silent hope. A hope that had unknowingly grown and blossomed.
It started with my Class. Champion of Niflheim had implications. It was drawn straight out of mythology. It was the first time I had looked at it and actually thought it might be real.
My Bloodline added another brick to the pile. Frost Giants and Jotuns. One more indication of it possibly being real. My next Class came next. Hammer of the Jotnar. Even the unchosen Classes held hints, like Chilling Death of Helheim
At every step, there was a reference, a clue, a small nugget of evidence. If that was real, why not more? It was a question I had asked myself many times. One I had even spoken with my father about before he passed.
Before the tutorial got hectic, and back when we were all in the same camp, the stars had always called to me and gazing up into the twinkling darkness was where I turned when feelings became... elevated. Or when the bottle I stuffed them in threatened to blow.
I had done it a lot in the tutorial. I wasn''t sure what I saw up there that calmed me, but after the craziness imposed on me and my family by the System, it was a nice thing to fall back on.
It was also where my best thinking got done, and my dad knew that.
He would often find me on the wall staring up at the night sky and drop down next to me. Sometimes without saying a word, other times he would spark discussions.
It didn''t matter what the discussions were about, just the act of talking helped. Somehow, we always came back to the philosophical questions the most. If God was real, if aliens were real, what we believed about the Universe.
Let me tell you, that discussion had a major change after the System.
It was in one of those times that I had voiced my nascent idea that Valhalla was real. I hadn''t spoken about it to anyone else. Partially because I felt Austin would laugh at me, and partially because I wasn''t sure I wanted to talk about it. Talking about it made it real.
What he said surprised me.
"I don''t see why not. It isn''t like if one is right, the other is wrong. Both can be true or neither could be true, but it isn''t really about that. It''s about if you believe it to be true."
The shock on my face was evident because he laughed when he looked at me. He hadn''t tried to convert me with our discussions, but this was the first time I had taken a different stance than before. Usually, it was him trying to convince me at least something was real.
The last part of me that believed, was less based on any evidence, but on hope.
I hoped it was real.
My father had died fighting with weapon in hand. If, on even the smallest chance, that I got to see him again, that I got to fight with him again, I wanted it to be real. More than anything else, I hoped it to be real.
That, more than anything, was what crushed me the most.
Being left in nothingness, with no grand halls of warriors and my father, hurt more than any physical pain. Even when it felt like my body was actively trying to rip itself apart.
I wasn''t sure how long I was left in this... void, but things started to change at one point. I felt cold, colder than before. I imagined my breath coming out in big clouds, even if I knew it wasn''t real.
For some reason, the cold felt familiar, but I wasn''t sure why.
After the cold, I started to feel... something. Well, I had felt overwhelming pain the entire time, but this was a different feeling. A nipping at my toes and fingertips. A brush against my arm as the breeze sucked away my body heat.
A slight chill pumping throughout my body.
I tried to shift, to see what was happening but I couldn''t. It was similar to when I tried to get up, no matter what I did, nothing happened. I continued nonetheless. It wasn''t like there was anything better to do. Even if it caused the pain to flare, I continued to try.
Something inside me wasn''t done fighting. A deep feeling, a feeling of an unbreakable will to keep going, one that wouldn''t be dismayed by anything.
It felt similar to my Anchor but it was different. I had used my Anchor many times since forming it and knew what it felt like. The feeling it had when coursing through me. This was different. Similar, but different.
With that fighting spirit, I did all I could to claw my way back to the living.
Elizabeth
"What''s happening!" She shouted in alarm.
The first time she saw it, she thought it was her imagination. She had stared at her son''s body for hours, if not a day by this point. Delirious and sleep-deprived, she swore she saw movement.
Ashley jumped up to look but she wasn''t sure what was going on. She was checking him over when it happened again. A shift. A subtle movement of a finger.
When Ashley jumped in fright, Elizabeth knew it wasn''t her imagination and a splitting grin formed.
She watched with bated breath as her son''s shifting continued. Starting with a finger, then a clench of the hand. There wasn''t much room to move inside the ice, but what little was available was being used.
After having what felt like her heart was ripped out, she nearly shouted for joy.
Her boy was waking up. All the other problems, the shouting and yelling fell away.
Her boy was waking up.
Rachel
A fire was building inside her but it wasn''t one of magic. The flames weren''t created from mana and they weren''t fueled by her skills.
It was one of rage.
She wasn''t the only one to notice the rising mana levels. While she was the first, she wasn''t the only. Even she knew that keeping it a secret was impossible. There were too many people around and the feeling was too obvious.
The only reason no one had found it sooner was because they were still recovering or distracted with something else.
Now, a day later, people picked up on the mana thickening and there was nothing Rachel could have done to stop it. She couldn''t keep the mana from gushing out from the vein just like she couldn''t stop a river from flowing.
Any effort to do so was pointless.
She had just wished she had more time to come up with a plan. Maybe even enough for Chris to wake up, but that was just fantasy.
People came looking. They saw the pile of wealth. Their eyes lit up with greed and it didn''t take long for the news to spread.
Her feeling of rage continued to be stoked as people argued. Asinine claims were thrown out that made her want to start slinging fire at people.
How they ''deserved'' something. How it was ''rightfully theirs''.
Sure, she wasn''t saying that the people here didn''t deserve a piece of the pie for risking their lives, but some of them did next to nothing yet claimed they were the sole reason for their victory.
It made the fire inside her rage at the thought.
As more people from both sides gathered and the crescendo of yelling rose, the possibility of a fight rose with it.
One they were severely outnumbered in. They had only made up less than a third of the forces fighting the Demons and that portion hadn''t changed after the fight.
If anything it seemed to be worse.
How the other city managed to have fewer casualties than Frostheim was a mystery and one she didn''t have time to figure out.
There was only one way this was going to go and without Chris, it was up to her to make sure it didn''t go poorly.
Chapter 199 - Grandstanding
Gabriel
Gabriel wasn''t sure what he was walking out into. He didn''t want to be away from his brother for too long but something was obviously going down inside the camp and he needed to figure out what it was.
It wasn''t often that people raised their voices and started yelling at each other and he needed to find out the reason why. People were usually more amenable than this.
Walking out of Chris''s tent, he picked up on a distinct lack of people. It surprised him as he expected to see a crowd, but all of them were gone now. A quick survey pointed out the reason.
They were all leaving and streaming into the valley.
He could see a much larger group that was assembled down where they fought the Demons and even from here, he could feel the tension rising in the air around them. The auras flared either intentionally, or unintentionally as people gestured at one another.
A distinct fiery one was beginning to rise above the rest, smothering those around it almost unintentionally. The aura was just that much stronger it couldn''t help but starve the others out from oxygen.
Even Rachel can''t stop it? What the hell is going on?
He looked back at the tent conflicted. He wanted to find out what was happening quickly before going back but this was gearing up to take longer than he thought.
Both Mom and Ashley are in there. They can both power the Rune and my Ice won''t melt that fast.
With that thought, his decision was made and his feet carried him toward the commotion.
It wasn''t long after that he picked up on the odd mana levels. He had been so distracted he hadn''t noticed. Mana levels like these usually indicated a natural treasure of some kind.
Knowing that, the scene that was playing out was beginning to fall into place. Getting closer to hear what was being said only confirmed what he already knew.
"We all fought for it so a share belongs to all of us!"
"You barely did anything, why should you get a share!"
"Pull up your notifications! How many Demons did you kill?!"
Gabriel forced his way through the gathered crowd to see what it was everyone was fighting about. What he saw after breaking through the bodies made him stop and stare.
There was a whole cave full of mana crystals and he could see more were leading deeper into the earth. Depending on how large a vein this was, this was a mountain of wealth. Mana crystals could be used in nearly anything. Crushing them into a fine powder could be used in almost any craft: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, and even Carpentry.
It was an easy way to increase the mana saturation of the materials you were working with. It was like using [Mana Infusion] but with the powdered version of mana instead of using a skill and that was only the most widely known application. Gabriel knew their uses in Enchanting the most, as he had experience using them before. Part of the Wards he and Chris had set up used them in some fashion. They could use to bind Wards or used as Catalysts.
Not only could they be used in creating enchantments, but used to power them as well. Enchantments and Runes ran on mana and having it in nice solid form was perfect for power sources.
The best example he could think of was plugging a crystal into his Healing Rune on the encasement. That would power it for hours instead of him having to feed it mana continuously.
Those were all good uses of Mana Crystals, but the use that was most beneficial to them right now was different.
They were among some of the few resources that could help grow a Dungeon. Feeding a Dungeon mana crystals would accelerate its growth and increase how fast it made new floors.
It was the thing they needed most right now.
While they would also use them for all the other crafts, the Dungeons were their power base, and having deeper ones would let them grow even faster.
And it seemed the other City Lord knew that.
"Now, now. Why don''t we all calm down a bit? Everyone here risked their lives and will naturally get a share. We won''t take it all and leave you with nothing." The opposing City Lord placated.
His words were fine, it was what he implied that was the problem. Ownership of the mine hadn''t been discussed and he was setting himself up for it. Giving away what wasn''t yet his.
Gabriel didn''t doubt that Chris would do the same, giving away a portion, but that didn''t matter. If everyone here perceived the other City Lord as the one in charge, then they would be snubbed.
"And who are you to decide anything." Rachel spat and the it felt like the temperature spiked even though it hadn''t. Auras were weird on how they influenced the world and Gabriel was only scratching the surface of what they could do.
They grew naturally and unless they were contained, spread out without conscious thought. He''d already found a few creative uses for them that promised more. Gabriel was sure they were more than simple indications of strength.
He wasn''t sure why she was so angry but her tone and flaring aura were crystal clear indicators of her mood, let alone her mocking words. Auras portraying emotions was one of the simpler applications he had found.
Gabriel had been near the meeting to discuss tactics before the battle and he had thought their relationship with the other city was fine. If not fine, then at least decent.
But Rachel was acting like they were the enemy.
Something was off.
Rachel wouldn''t be this antagonistic if there wasn''t a reason for it.
The part of the crowd that was from Frostheim was behind her as well. They started their own jeers after what was said. Even outnumbered as they were.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
As their side began jeering, the other side did as well. The placating effect of Ashton''s words was lost. From what Gabriel could glimpse, he wasn''t happy about being rebuffed. It didn''t show on his face, as he schooled it quick enough not to openly scowl.
He also seemed a little shocked about it.
Ashton turned to see the crowd behind him and Gabriel knew he couldn''t back down. He was their Leader and giving in would be a sign of weakness. Especially when he had the majority of the crowd behind him.
So if he backed down, not only would he be seen as differential to Frostheim, but extremely so.
"I am sure we can come to an agreement that leaves everyone happy." he said. "We fielded most of the army to fight the Demons, and who lost the most, but it couldn''t have been done without your help."
A hot weight pressed down harder in the area in response to those words as Rachel bristled. His meaning was clear. He wanted ownership and indicated he would give them something for our help.
He didn''t say it with any malice but his wording made it seem that way.
To counteract Rachel, Ashton let out his own aura. It settled over his side of the crowd and alleviated the weight pressing down on them. It felt like a steadying light, propping up those around him. His aura had sides to it that Gabriel found interesting. Most he''d seen were one dimensional. Rachel''s carried searing heat and the weight of her levels and strength behind it.
It was the crude application wielded like a blunt instrument that everyone seemed to be able to do. Letting it billow out without restraint took little in the way of skill.
Ashton''s, though, had two sides. A protective side, that settled on his followers and shielded them from the pressure Rachel was applying, and an offensive side, the more normal application that Gabriel had expected to see. It worked like anyone else''s. Pushing down on anyone weaker.
Gabriel had only seen one other person with a defensive aura but that wasn''t the part he was fascinated by. It was the fact Ashton''s could do both. That was something he hadn''t seen before.
It didn''t have the sheer presence that Rachel brought to bear, but it easily worked to keep her from dominating the crowd. Both were using them crudely, almost instinctually rather than intentionally. As the ''presences'', as Austin liked to call them, collided in the air, it was no master battle or skillful display. It was like watching boxers with extremely fluffy pillows strapped to their hands trying to knock the other out.
They were trying, but they weren''t really getting anywhere.
Rachel was mad and letting it show and Ashton was trying to deflect it. If this were a different time, Gabriel would have scoffed at how they were going about it.
This isn''t going the way I thought it would.
He thought that with both ''leaders'' of the two cities here, they would be able to calm the crowd and at least agree to speak of this later, behind closed doors, but that wasn''t the case. Everyone was still running hot from the fight and heads hadn''t had enough time to cool.
Rachel especially seemed unnaturally fiery and that wasn''t a joke about her affinity.
The crowd rallied behind their respective leaders. They couldn''t bring any presence to bear individually, but as a group, they could. If the scene were visible, it would be like two opposing mana types vying for control.
Just when Rachel was about to respond, he felt it.
His heart leaped and he whipped his head around.
The pressure from Rachel was nothing compared to what was moving in now and not even Ashton could keep it from settling on everyone. It wasn''t even being applied like Gabriel had taught him, only let free to settle around the area naturally and that was enough.
It felt like a hand from the sky was pressing down on everyone and some struggled against it. Sweat built up as they realized who was coming.
The familiar chill Gabriel had come to love settled in next. One that made a shiver run through the crowd but he felt like a warm blanket had settled over him.
For more reasons than one, Gabriel was ecstatic.
His brother was back and he was pissed.
Anger was rolling off him and waves and it integrated into his aura, exciting it almost and causing it to be even more overbearing. It didn''t take Gabriel''s aura sensing skills to tell he was mad. Everyone could tell.
Feeling it the worst, the crowd closest to where Gabriel had come from began to split. They, wisely, chose to leave the path he was on.
As they split, Christopher was revealed.
His lower body was encased in ice while his top half was bare. They had removed his armor and shirt while healing him and he hadn''t put anything back on.
Through the ice on his lower half, his armor could be seen. More specifically, the state of what was left of his armor could be seen. The massive hole through the thigh was most notable but the other rents weren''t far off.
If the broken and torn metal wasn''t enough to show how tough a battle he fought, the injuries covering his bare upper half were. One more than any other.
Chris hadn''t cared to create a prosthetic of ice and left the wound how Gabriel had seen it last. The stub where the arm stopped capped with a thin layer of ice to keep the wound closed.
Even under the scrutiny of the weight and anger, people gasped at the sheer state of him.
Unphased with their stares, Chris marched in like nothing was different. He moved through the gap left for him and didn''t stop until he was face-to-face with Ashton in the middle of the crowd.
With his right arm gone, he carried his hammer in his left. Not the one he usually wielded, but another made completely of Ice. Most wouldn''t be able to tell its condition, but Gabriel could.
It was quickly made and only had a brief coating of his brother''s Law.
While it looked fine, it wasn''t anywhere close to the same quality as his old one. Not that anyone knew that.
"I''m disappointed." The words carried to everyone''s ears. "I thought for a man requesting our aid, you would have more honor than this."
A slap to the face if Gabriel had ever heard one.
"We will discuss what lies down there," Hammer pointed at the glittering mana crystals, "another time. Now is not the time for it."
"If anyone has a problem with that," the weight-bearing down got worse as Chris went from letting his aura weigh on everyone naturally, to actively pushing down on everyone with it. He was better with it than Rachel and Ashton, and Gabriel hid his smile. His lessons were bearing fruit.
His pressure was quick, and everyone felt it increase instantly. Chris pushed down on both sides and everyone present was hit with the full effect.
"Fight me over it."
Hammer settled into the ground with his one hand resting on it like a sentinel waiting for the first to take up the challenge. Even the sight of the missing arm didn''t take away from the sight before him as it really looked like he would take any challengers until there were no more.
Not a sound could be heard.
Where the crowd was once shouting over each other and ever-rising, a pin drop could be heard now.
Seeing as no one wished to say anything, Chris turned toward where those from his City stood, "Go back to camp."
As one, they obeyed.
Chris
Motherfucker this hurts!
Why couldn''t people, for once in their life, not be raging assholes. I was more broken than whole and a massive brawl was on the verge of breaking out!
As soon as I got back inside my tent, I collapsed.
[Righteous Fury] fled me and all the heat was ripped out of me as I couldn''t support myself any longer. Even pulling on the last dregs of my Anchor couldn''t keep me up, and that was a first. If it was specifically good at one thing, it was that.
It was a miracle I was able to get up in the first place, the boosting skill and the last bits of energy I had the only thing that made it possible. Both my legs were broken and the only thing that supported me was the ice surrounding them. My connection to it was tentative at best.
My head was still reeling at everything that happened and using it to move the ice was harder than ever and nearly caused me to stumble. Let alone having to walk with it. Without my legs there for the support they provided, it would have been impossible.
I dropped back into bed exhausted, the backlash of using [Righteous Fury] making it even worse.
I was fully prepared to take anyone on if they wished but I was so glad they decided not to. I was far from being fine and a fight would have only exacerbated, well... everything.
The grandstanding alone caused enough pain, let alone a fight.
Still, to believe that man had the gall to lay claim to the mine. After what he did, not a chance.
That crystal mine was won in battle and was my spoil of war.
He didn''t do shit.
Chapter 200 - Levels Galore
Chris
My body was still racked with pain and every breath made it flare up. I was unsure of the specifics, but it felt like every bone in my ribcage was broken and stabbed into me every time I inhaled. Even the floating one.
Not to be outdone, it felt like my right arm was on fire even though there wasn''t even an arm to get feeling from!
Other than the pain, waking up to find an arm missing was a surprise to say the least. While not totally unexpected of an injury to receive, it was still jarring to try and reach for something only to realize my arm was missing. It was the closest body part to the explosion after all.
It being my dominant arm only made it worse.
"Ughh," I groaned.
I felt even worse than after I woke up all because I had to go throw my weight around.
Immediately after walking out there, I came back and flopped onto my bed of furs ungracefully. Sitting hurt worse than standing and only when I laid flat on my back was the pain the easiest to deal with.
It never went away, but it at least let me function.
There were so many thoughts running around in my skull that I wasn''t sure which to focus on first. I hadn''t exactly had the time to process everything after waking up from what I thought was my death.
Finding out I wasn''t dead made everything all the more confusing. When I swung at the portal, I thought for sure it would be my last.
Thankfully, everyone crowding my tent left me alone to gather myself when I asked for some space. They were all staring at me like I was some messiah and I needed a few minutes to get my thoughts in order.
Thoughts of the battle, the commotion I woke up to, the losses we experienced, the incessant blinking of goddamn notifications.
It was all a lot to take in after thinking I had died.
Even my body felt different for some reason. Not in the obvious way with all the pain and missing arm, but like something was different. The chill I felt running through me in the void had stayed after waking up.
With so much garnering for my attention, it made me want to shove it all away and deal with it later.
The one thing I did do, was sate my curiosity.
I had seen the levels gained by those in the group, and most importantly, felt the change in Rachel. She was flaunting her power most obviously and it was a stark change from before. For her control to slip, her famed control, it boggled the mind to know how many sudden stat points it took to do that.
The feeling she gave off had increased steeply and it made me curious.
Pulling up what I knew to be a long list, I marveled at the length of it all. It was even longer than I assumed it would be.
You have slain...
You have slain...
You have slain...You have slain...You have slain...You have slain...You have slain...
...
You participated in slaying...You participated in slaying...You participated in slaying...You participated in slaying...
...
The list went on, and on, and on.
The last half of it was all participation notifications, which was a bit sad. If all the Demons I killed from the explosion were all counted as partials, I wouldn''t have gotten all the essence.
What followed after the kill notifications made lamenting the participation kills meaningless.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
14 Levels.
Pinching myself, I had to make sure I was seeing it right. The pain barely registered but I did it anyway. Other than the deluge of level-ups, two more notifications were the icing on the cake.
Skills Available
Skills Available
Not one, but two class skills to choose. My level now sat at 82. It was the single largest gain I had ever received. Even fighting the waves of the tutorial alone hadn''t given me 14 levels. Those didn''t have thousands of Demons, but still.
Knowing how many stat points I had just received, it made me wonder if the changes in my body were from that or the aftermath of the battle. An abbreviated status willed in front of me.
~~
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (E) Human*
Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) ¨C Level 82
Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) ¨C Level 59
Affinity: Arctic
Faction: Frostheim (Outpost Leader)
Strength - 1217
Agility - 535
Perception - 315
Fortitude - 979
Endurance - 603
Vitality - 407
Intelligence - 215
Wisdom - 417
Acumen - 230
Free Points: 145
~~
My strength alone jumped from 920 to 1214, breaking through the thousand-point milestone with ease and sat a fifth of the way to the next thousand. My Fortitude made a similar, but smaller jump, up 257 points to 979.
I wasn''t sure how long it would take me to get used to the changes.
Maybe recovery will make the adjustment smoother?
Recovering old capabilities mixed with exploring new ones sounded like it would be faster done together than separately in my head.
The only other thing I did with my status screen was dump half my free points into Vitality, bringing it to 477. Quite shamelessly as well. Vitality hadn''t been any of my Classes or Professions focus and it was on the lower end of my attributes.
It even fell lower than Wisdom and only just became even with it after all the levels I just received. There were a few reasons to do so. The most obvious was to heal faster but it wasn''t the only.
The fight with the Demons was the first time experiencing it and it was something I wanted to remedy. My toughness and ability to take blows was a strong suit I loved. The only thing I liked more was my ability to dish them out even stronger.
But, at times in long battles, the wear on my body would accumulate. It was inevitable when fighting swarms of countless enemies or significantly strong ones.
[Frozen Patchwork] helped mitigate that, but it didn''t heal it. All it did was patch me up so I could keep going, delaying the inevitable. It usually lasted until I was able to get to a Healer, drink potions to fix it, or rely on my natural Vitality and [Cold Meditation].
That last bit was what I needed to boost. As Vitality fell behind, my body began to take wounds that my Vitality couldn''t fix alone.
I knew I wouldn''t be able to do it all, but I at least didn''t want it to fall too far behind. With that, I closed all the screens in front of me to sit and relax. I left distributing the rest of my Free points for later.
While my mind was getting into a better headspace, I could hear the people outside my tent. While they agreed to give me some space, I wouldn''t be able to hold them off much longer.
The last thing I did was look at the skills available to me. With two to choose, the list was longer than before but not large. There were 7 in total. The last time I got the option there were only 3.
Making decisions right now probably wasn''t the best thing to do, but I at least wanted to look over what was available to me. To see if any stood out.
Of the list, I focused on one that I would grab no matter what. My current Class was supposed to be both a weapons and armor specialist and I had already chosen a weapon skill.
The next skill I picked was planned to be an armor one, but the one I was looking at was close enough. It wasn''t armor-related, but it was defensive.
It was an upgrade of a skill I already had but it was so much more. [Reinforced Body] flooded the body with mana to make it tougher and harder to injure. The skill started as [Fortified Body] which had the lesser effect of increasing fortitude.
Fortified Body(Common) ¨C Uses mana to fortify the body. Bonus to fortitude while active and the user is harder to knock back.
It felt like ages ago I picked up the skill. The second to ever grace my status sheet. It was a staple back then and was always in use while fighting. I had pushed it to Uncommon with [Reinforced Body].
Reinforced Body(Uncommon) ¨C Saturates the body in mana, increasing natural fortitude and toughness. Increases defense against most attacks while active and the user is harder to knock back.
The skill offered went above both of those.
Jotun''s Resistance(Legendary) ¨C The famed resistance of the Jotun. Floods the body in Arctic mana increasing all physical resistance. Increases magical resistance to certain affinities: Cold and Wind. All natural defense is increased while all Cold-related attacks are nearly nullified.
[Jotun''s Resistance] went above both of those, far beyond where I thought I could upgrade them to. The scope was miles apart from [Reinforced Body].
While it didn''t state the exact extent it would boost my physical resistance, the Legendary tag it carried was a good indicator. The only other Legendary skill I had created my prized hammer, what would a Legendary Resistance skill do for my body?
Thinking of my hammer brought a wave of sadness.
While I knew it wasn''t permanent, it still hurt to know it was gone.
While swinging down on the portal, my arm wasn''t the only thing that was lost. The hammer was destroyed as well. The faint connection I had to it had been severed when I awoke.
Everything leading to and holding onto my hammer was gone. I was told that they looked for my weapon and arm in the aftermath and found neither. I could have told them my hammer was gone but that was before I had woken up. It was the reason I had to make a ramshackle hammer to intimidate the crowd.
The hammer wasn''t gone for good, but I would have to resummon it.
The first time I did so it took everything out of me. I guessed that how strong it was depended on how much energy was used to summon it.
I had only summoned it once, back when I first got the skill and I was in no condition to do so again, forcing me to go without until I was in a better state and could expend the energy.
To make it as strong as possible, I wanted to wait until I was completely recovered but that would depend on how discussions went. If Ashton was going to fight me over the Mana crystal mine, I would be in need of my weapon sooner rather than later.
Not to dwell on my lost hammer, I picked up [Jotun''s Resistance]. It was aggravating I couldn''t try it out now, but I was looking forward to the chance. Maybe I would get to test it against Light attacks soon.
The other 6 skills were all not relevant to me right now and I was already forcing myself to keep going. While picking a defensive skill after what happened could be seen as hasty, I didn''t want to use both my skill slots in the state of mind I was in.
Plus, after how many stat points I just got, I feared nothing that the other city could throw at me. If combat arose, having another skill wouldn''t be the difference maker.
The tent flap rippled and it seemed they couldn''t hold back any longer.
My mother poked her head in first followed by Gabriel. Next came Ashley to check on me and the floodgates opened.
Everyone wanted to check up on me and with so many people, it was slightly overwhelming.
I could tell that some of them wanted to discuss what we were going to do about the mine but a quick look from my mother cowed any who started to bring it up.
While it was slightly stifling, it was nice to be loved. It was a good feeling to have and one I cherished.
Chapter 201 - Demonic Essence
"Do you need anything?"
"Are you hungry?"
"Do you want me to make you anything?"
"How''s that? Are you comfortable?"
The stream of questions was never-ending and while her concern was endearing, it bordered on annoying.
"No Mom, I don''t need anything. I''m not hungry and yes, I''m comfortable." I droned for the hundredth time since waking up.
For the past two days, she''d been fussing over me like I was a newborn baby again. I tried to bear with it to make her feel better but I wasn''t sure how much more of this I could take.
Thankfully, a distraction was about to take place that would make her cool her jets. It wasn''t like she could continue her tirade of questions while we were meeting about things.
Right?
Injured as I was, it was difficult to get a sense of things happening outside my tent. I spent most of my time lying down in [Cold Meditation] trying to recover as best I could which didn''t leave a lot of time to walk among the people and get an idea of how everyone was doing.
I knew we lost a lot during the battle, I had the numbers already, but I wanted to feel it rather than hear about it.
While a fight with the other City over the Mine wasn''t likely, it wasn''t out of the picture, which meant I had to spend my day trying to get as fighting fit as possible instead of walking around the camp.
Doing that involved a lot of Ice, a Healing Rune, Ashley''s continued help, and a liberal but constant use of [Cold Meditation].
The self-healing skill was great for the small stuff but being as injured as I was highlighted the limitations of the skill. It didn''t work at all towards regrowing my arm and its efficiency at healing bigger things was abysmal.
An actual Healer was the fastest way to get back together, as crazy as that sounded.
My natural Vitality helped, along with the ice-cold chill pumping through my veins, but the state I was in wouldn''t be fixed naturally any time soon.
I still wasn''t sure how or why there was a chill pumping through me, but I wasn''t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Over half our Council was back in Frostheim, but the couple that were here started to trickle into my tent. Besides my Mother, Hal was the only other one here.
To make up for that, Gabriel and Rachel joined inside the tent.
The rest of the Council stayed behind. Abigail and Jonathan for obvious reasons. Sam didn''t wish to come and Vincent wasn''t a fighter. The last member was Austin but his absence was accounted for.
I had offered Ashley the chance to sit in for her missing mother, but she was busy with the other wounded. I wasn''t her only patient and she needed to check up on the rest.
It was half the usual size, but it would have to do.
My tent wasn''t spacious, but it was big enough that it could fit the four additional people. Hal and Rachel stood together near the opening while Gabriel and my mother were at my bedside.
"Well, tell me the thick of it," I asked.
"Tension with the other City is still heightened, but going down. With your appearance, I don''t think they will fight us over the mine." Rachel said.
It was good news but there was more she was leaving out.
"But?"
She paused for a moment, "There have been some... developments while cleaning up the battlefield."
If my ribs didn''t hurt so much, I would have laughed, "Other than uncovering a massive Crystal Mine." I chuckled.
"While everyone here are mostly fighters, there are some that have advanced their profession as well." She started, "Specifically, the Alchemists are the ones who discovered it. The bodies of the Demons can be refined for various materials and one in particular is... a problem."
After an expectant look and a dramatic pause, she answered the unspoken question.
"They distilled them down into Demonic Essence." She said.
The breath left me after waiting for the answer. It wasn''t as bad as I thought. The way she said it was a problem made me think they were trying to resummon them or something. Reanimate them maybe? Both were the worst options and I expected her to say something on that scale.
I didn''t know where my mind went, but it heard problem and thought the worst.
All told, Demonic Essence wasn''t that bad. It was frowned upon and distasteful, but not the end of the world.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
"I don''t understand, what''s the problem with that. We can''t use the bodies anyways, why is turning them into Demonic Essence bad?" Gabriel asked.
It was easy to forget he hadn''t spent months with us during the tutorial. Abigail was an information freak and tried to get her hands on every scrap of it made available to us which was why we knew while he didn''t.
I turned to him, "It isn''t strictly bad, but it can be used for distasteful things." With that answered I turned to Rachel, "What do they plan on using it for?"
"When asked, all but one said experimentation."
"And the other?"
"In his words, ''To make Vampires.''"
I was afraid of that.
Demonic Essence was one of the key ingredients involved with any Demonic Bloodline. While having a Demonic Bloodline wasn''t bad, per se, it was generally looked down on.
There was a stigma tied to it that dragged it down. A stereotype. While not all who chose Demonic Bloodlines were evil, there were those who chose it for that specific reason.
It was a case of a few people ruining it for the rest.
I, myself, didn''t feel strongly one way or the other. It didn''t much matter to me what kind of Bloodline people chose for themselves, but some Demonic Bloodlines were inherently bad.
Angelic and Demonic were pushing the boundaries for equal and opposite reasons. Both Bloodline''s influenced the Bloodline Holder more than any other. While animalistic Bloodlines would influence a person to walk differently or do things more stealthy if it was in the Bloodline''s nature, it wasn''t strong in its influence.
It was easily dealt with and conditioned out of a person.
It could get bad if the person pushed the bounds, and using higher-tier materials while evolving made it worse. If the person wasn''t prepared or wasn''t strong enough, they wouldn''t be able to handle it and turn partially feral.
It was the risk of using materials above your own rank. For every reward, there was a risk.
If I wasn''t strong enough for the Young Frost Giant Heart I used, the same would have happened to me.
The other option was the body tore itself apart trying to assimilate the high-ranking material but that was only in cases of extreme failure and usually resulted in death.
Demonic and Angelic were notorious for their difficulty in mastering the influence. Specific Bloodlines of the affinity would never stop trying to influence the holder making it a constant battle that would go on until either the person succumbed, or died. The last option was to remove the Bloodline but not many did that. Why imbibe it in the first place if you were going to remove it?
They were also one of the only few that could completely change a person''s race.
I would never turn into a Full blooded Frost Giant, no matter how far I pushed in rank, but Demon Bloodlines were different. Their nature was to infiltrate and corrupt.
Imbibing their Bloodline would change a person the same way any Bloodline would, but as you gained power and strengthened the Demon properties, it would do it to your own body. The Human part. Where Humans would usually only be able to partially change with their chosen Bloodline, a full change was possible with Demonic and Angelic.
Informing Gabriel and my mother of all that made them see the problem the same as the rest of us.
"Is the Alchemist ours or theirs?" I asked.
"Theirs."
That makes things harder.
If the Alchemist was from our City, we would be able to watch over and supervise the procedure, if not stop it completely, but that wasn''t the case.
We would be able to warn and advise, but if Ashton didn''t do anything, we weren''t in a position to force the issue. I was willing to fight over the mine because of what it represented. I wasn''t willing to do so over an Alchemist.
"We will need to watch him. I don''t care if people take Demonic Bloodlines, but we need to watch for any that go out of control." I said.
Gabriel made a face, "Why not stop it now? Squash it before it even becomes a problem?"
"I won''t for a few reasons," I started, "One, it is not my city. I have no Rule over what his people do. Two, even if I did Rule over them, I will not tell people which Bloodlines they can and cannot imbibe. That starts down a road I do not wish to go down. And three, think about the larger picture."
Seeing that he didn''t understand my third point, I went on, "If Demons were summoned here, this soon after the Change, how many other places do you think they''ve been summoned?"
Gabe''s face made me know he caught on.
"Stopping the Demonic Bloodlines here is just a patch for the larger problem. They will get out, if not here then elsewhere." I continued.
Gabriel wasn''t convinced, "Even if we can''t stop the wider world from doing it, we can at least stop it from happening so close to home."
"What''s the point?" I said, "Banning it for the off chance that some might go wild? That reasoning could be used to ban a lot of things, not all of which are good."
"So you won''t do it because you don''t like the precedent it sets?!" He asked incredulously.
"No, I won''t do it because I don''t want to become a dictator," I said firmly.
"Even if it''s for their own good?" He asked.
"Especially if it''s for their own good," I answered.
A note of silence held for a few beats while everyone processed what was said.
"Does anyone have anything more to say on the matter?" I asked.
When no one answered, I said one more thing to finish it, "Make sure to get some for Connor. I don''t know what he''ll do with it, but I''d rather have it than not."
With that, we moved on to the next order of business.
"There have been some who have disregarded your order to not touch the mine." Rachel said, "They sneak out at night to steal what they can without getting caught."
I ordered a watch over the mine for this specific reason. I knew with the amount of wealth the mine held, some would try their luck.
"What do you want to do about them?" Hal asked. He was the one watching most of the time and knew who the culprits were.
"Any from our side?" I asked.
"Yes, but the majority are from Fort Hope."
I sighed. I had thought people under my command knew me better by now.
"Get me a list of who. I will decide when we get back." I said.
I didn''t want to get into it now.
"Should we stop them?" Hal asked.
I shook my head, "No, they can''t be taking much if they''re trying to be sneaky and I''ll use it as leverage during the negotiations. The wealth they steal will be offset by what I was already going to give them. Just mark down who did it so they can be accounted for and so we don''t award them any."
That was the last of that topic and the last subject was brought up.
"With the cleanup mostly done, we need to know what to do with the bodies," Rachel said.
It was a sad subject as the bodies she was talking about weren''t the Demons.
"I will deal with it," I said. "We will pack them and bring them home."
It would make the trip longer, but any who fought for my City deserved a resting place inside of it. To preserve them as best as possible, I would go around encasing them. A personal touch they deserved.
"Anything else?" I asked.
"The messenger arrived yesterday, is your letter to send back ready?" My mother chimed in.
I had forgotten about that. With Abigail''s ability to contact me restored after replacing the pylon, the messenger was sent with us during our trip as she didn''t need it as much. He didn''t have much combat ability and was left in Fort Hope to stay safe.
With the battle over, a scout was sent to retrieve him.
"Yes, it''s ready." I said, "Hopefully she isn''t too worried."
Oh, who was I kidding. She was probably worried sick.
Chapter 202 - Moving Forward
Abigail
"Honey, you need to stop checking that." Jon sighed as he saw his wife checking the same screen once again.
She knew he was right, but she couldn''t help herself. The pylon leadership screen was her only way of knowing everything was alright¡ªwell, not alright, but it was the only thing she could do.
For weeks, she had the screen pop up whenever she had free time or the worry reared its ugly head. Every time it opened, there was a split second where she prayed with everything she had that his name was still there.
"I can''t help it, Jon." She said dejectedly.
He heard the despondent tone and came over and wrapped his arms around her. The sense of security in his embrace barely enough to ward off the evil thoughts her brain thought up.
"He''s stronger than he looks. I would know. Him and that hammer could thrash me even without his more powerful skills." Jon said, trying to ease her mind.
Abigail knew how strong her brother was but it was a fundamental problem in her mind to worry. She knew the lengths he would go to protect everyone. The danger he would throw himself into.
Still, she couldn''t let it distract her from the goings on here. It was her job to hold down the fort and she would do it spectacularly. They were already ahead of schedule on most projects even without the additional manpower that had left.
She ran through the checklist in her mind.
The farms are ahead of schedule with everything already planted and growing.
The quarry caught up as the Miners gained levels and the reserve of stone is growing.
The construction effort is already on phase two, waiting for the enchantments and for Chris to get back.
The dungeon output is low but that is to be expected with the fighters leaving.
The four biggest projects were either on schedule or ahead of schedule and she was immensely pleased at that. The workers who remained toiled tirelessly so that when everyone came home, it was perfect.
Abigail wondered if that was because of her emotions bleeding into the people around her or if everyone felt the same way she did and wanted to impress with how much they got done.
Jon broke away and started dressing for the day to come. It became her little ritual to check the screens every morning just in case something happened while she was asleep.
After the warmth left, she got up to do the same. She went through the same motions ever since they moved into the Castle. Chris had the forethought to make sure there were enough rooms for everyone in the family and even a few extra, just in case.
Making the walk to wake her children as far as across the hall instead of up the stairs.
"Anna, get ready for school." She knocked and shouted through the closed door.
She walked a few steps to the next door and did the same knock, "Josh, get ready for school."
It was nice to be able to fall back on old routines. Mornings like this were like clockwork before everything changed. Except she was now doing it while living in a Castle instead of their old home.
The kitchen was further away as well but she had gotten used to that change by now.
After giving them the first round of wake-up calls, she began making breakfast for all of them. Her hand at open fire cooking much better than her first attempts. A much welcome change compared to before. She couldn''t remember a time when Jonathan had the time to eat breakfast with them, usually out the door before the kids needed to be up and off to work.
It wasn''t quite bacon she was cooking, but the kids had gotten used to the odd tastes for breakfast. That had been rough to get Josh through it as he was quite picky.
Jon managed to hunt a deer while out training which made for a fine breakfast.
As the cooking finished up cooking, sizzling away, she went back to give them their second round of wake-up calls, much the same as the first. A chorus of grumpy ''I''m ups'' rang out even though she knew that not to be true.
Still, a few minutes later, two bobs of bedhead made their way to the table.
The little things made everything easier. A meal with family. Even if it went by too quickly.
"Alright, off to school with you." She shooed.
A few grumbles were heard but they moved in the right direction at least. Both going to grab the things they would need for the day.
A few other parents had gotten together to form it and all took turns teaching the subject they were best at. Other then some initial hurdles to get used to teaching, it was going well. It gave the kids the chance to socialize and meet others the same age. Abigail had tried to squeeze a few hours of teaching into her busy schedule before the school was built and it didn''t go very well. She was stretched too thin which made it no good for anyone.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
While they were off, she turned to the other thing that had been on her mind lately, besides what her family was off fighting.
A golden envelope sat on her desk.
A wax seal ensured its contents were kept unopened and it was one she hadn''t seen before. A triad of mountaintops with a wall ringing the base. The wax itself wasn''t a rosy red as expected, but a granite grey, matching the theme of the sigil.
When the letter first arrived she had been overjoyed thinking it was news from her family. She was only a little disappointed to find out that it wasn''t from them but another pylon entirely.
Mountainside.
They weren''t sure where, exactly, this new pylon stood but they already had a few ideas. The name itself was a large clue. Mountains were more numerous now that things had changed, but they still weren''t dotted all over the place.
Her first thought was Denver but that was too far away. The letter hadn''t arrived by messenger but by some magical means. For a person''s skill or Formation of some kind to send a letter all the way from Denver was unlikely, especially when there were mountains closer.
The other thought against it coming from Denver was the reasoning. There had to be tens of pylons closer to the big city than theirs, making it extremely unlikely they would reach out all the way to here.
After speaking to some who lived up here for longer, they theorized it was from somewhere near Calgary, but they weren''t sure.
The where was uncertain, but she didn''t know if she should open it or not. It was addressed to the pylon owner, which was Chris, but it wasn''t like he would care one way or the other.
"Just open it. You''ve been staring at it since it arrived. He won''t mind." Jon said.
He was right, he wouldn''t care, but she still felt hesitant.
Blowing out a breath, she grabbed the letter and began opening it.
Austin
Nearly two months inside the camp and he was nowhere closer to achieving his goal than before.
Even with the help of the city''s warriors, and Austin using a lot more effort than he anticipated needing, the bugs continued to be a problem.
They were endless.
No matter how many he speared, or how many Marcus sliced in half, or Clarissa roasted, or everyone else crushed into paste, they always came back in force. The only positive to come out of his presence was the city wasn''t as boxed in as before.
With Austin''s help, they were able to liberate one of the Dungeons around the city from the insects. While only holding one out of three wasn''t a lot, the fact they now had an influx of materials uplifted people''s spirits.
While the Dungeon didn''t give what they were in desperate need of, metal, giving any materials at all was better than nothing. Even if it only gave an assortment of Gems and Crystals.
They even managed to get a Skill shard out of it!
It was only found on the third floor and the skill was only common, but the fact it dropped one at all was surprising. The Dungeons around Frostheim had only dropped a handful so far and they had delved them for months.
Chris was quite put out that he hadn''t gotten one yet even though he delved into them the most.
The insects constantly attacked the Dungeon trying to take the area back but they had managed to hold onto it so far. With every passing day, they entrenched themselves that much more. Making the assaulting bugs easier and easier to deal with.
Austin was starting to get a little frustrated.
If Chris were here, the bugs would be dead by now.
It was hard not to compare his progress to what he imagined his friend would be capable of. He knew he wasn''t as good as Chris but it stung to know how far the gap was.
Even the levels he gained from the near-constant fighting didn''t lift his spirits. Mostly because he knew he would be stuck soon.
He didn''t meet the requirements to evolve.
He had two Least Laws and he hadn''t managed to push either to Lesser.
It felt like his Light Law was close to upgrading but it still wasn''t quite there. He also hadn''t undergone the Body Refinement process yet. Plans bubbled in the back of his mind on what he was going to do, but it was still annoying to know the levels he gained would soon be capped.
He could evolve on his own, but taking a shot in the dark with something as important as an evolution was stupid. Especially when he didn''t have any Golden Eagle parts to improve his Bloodline with.
Hell, he had barely gotten a chance to strengthen it, let alone be ready for an evolution.
Austin had assumed there would be so much more time before the time for D-rank came, but from the constant fighting, his level would be ready way before everything else was.
Taking a page out of Christopher''s book, he planned to do everything he could before evolving. Pushing his Laws to Lesser, Forming his Anchor, Strengthen and Purify his Bloodline, and Refine his Body.
He was behind in so many ways.
He didn''t regret leaving. He needed to explore, yearned for it, but he hadn''t realized it would net him so many levels that he would have to play catch-up with everything else.
He couldn''t wait to be done with the infernal insects so he could start on his lengthening to-do list.
Chris
The battlefield was ruined.
Everywhere I looked was either an impact sight or the place a body had once laid. Crumpled and deformed Demons were all that was left to populate the wasteland of craters and divots.
Their taint would linger for a long while before it was cleansed. People did what they could, even now they were out trying to destroy what they could of the Demonic corruption, but it wouldn''t be completed overnight.
The explosion caused a large chunk of the taint to be destroyed, along with the landscape, but if Demonic taint was that easy to cleanse it wouldn''t be the headache that was written about in books.
My body still flared with pain as I walked, but this was something I needed to do. Being cooped up in the tent was enough to drive me mad and some fresh air was a welcome change.
Even if it wasn''t the crisp air of Winter and the muggy thick air of Summer.
We were set to march back to Fort Hope at sunrise the following day and this would be my last chance to walk the battlefield.
I wasn''t sure what I was looking for. I wasn''t even sure there was anything to look for, but it felt right.
My mind could nearly picture it. The mage spells blasting the earth, swords and shields gleaming in the sun as they moved. Even the Demonic stench had its place in my imagination.
It was like I was there again, the past week rewound so I could experience it for the second time.
So many thoughts came to mind but I pushed them all away. I didn''t want to spend my last day here planning for the future, even if it was a major thing I needed to do.
I had been lax.
I had thought the end of the tutorial would allow us to take our foot off the gas pedal, to slow down.
I was wrong.
Calling how I built my City slow wasn''t far off from how I felt. I hadn''t hired City Guards, as I wanted the Castle to be finished. I hadn''t started a lot of things for the same reason.
I hadn''t even upgraded our pylon yet.
My entire timeline was centered around when the challenge would come. The test we would have to face to keep the system''s protection. Whether this year or the next, it would come and I had planned around that instead of what just happened.
If the Demons had been closer, we wouldn''t have been able to fight them alone.
We didn''t have enough people, we weren''t strong enough, and that was a failure on my part.
One I meant to rectify.
I had already put things in motion to do just that.
I couldn''t wait to progress, I needed to constantly move forward or surprise threats like this would end us.
And that was something I couldn''t allow.
Chapter 203 - Traveling Back
Chris
The sun rose on yet another day and I sat to watch it. Even the stray thought that so many weren''t here to see it didn''t dampen my mood. It was a fact of life that I was getting better at dealing with, sadly enough. We fought and some didn''t make it. That was life.
The fact none of my family were among the fallen was the only reason I could be so cavalier.
If one had... I wouldn''t have been sitting here watching the sunrise. I don''t know what I''d be doing.
After walking the battlefield, I went to all our prepared transportation to preserve the bodies. All who left Frostheim with me were to be given a rightful sendoff.
Their coffins glistened in the morning sun as light reflected off the pristine Ice. It was something of a personal thank you from me. To encase them in Ice of my own making for the trip home.
It made me rub the ring on my hand.
I had given it to Gabriel before the fight, luckily, as I usually wore it on my right hand. He protested taking it but it was good that he had.
Placing the hill and using the ring were just another thing I had put off until the City was finished.
The more I thought about it, the more cases of me doing that popped up.
"Gabriel," I called.
He wasn''t far away as both he and my mother were nearby watching the same sunrise as me. They likely had wildly different thoughts running through their head, though.
His eyes found mine, "Can you go get Hal for me, please."
He soundlessly agreed and left to go find the man in question. The sounds of activity had been getting louder as the light got brighter and I doubted he wasn''t up already. Hal was a morning person.
One of my first orders of business required his input and it was the last thing I needed to do before we left.
Both men came walking back toward me a few moments later. Hal was dressed in his normal scouting gear again, his more robust fighting armor already packed away.
"Hal, how many of our scouts remain?" I asked.
"Most," He answered, "They were the least impacted by the fighting."
That was good. It would make my next request easier.
"How many have no family back in Frostheim? No one waiting on them to come back?" I asked.
Hal hesitated, confused by the question, "I don''t know. That isn''t something I keep track of."
I nodded, expecting that answer, "Can you check? A small group is all I need. Five or six people should do it."
While Hal wasn''t technically in charge of the scouts, he was who they all reported to. A somewhat unofficial leader.
Yet another thing I had put off.
He nodded before going out into the wider camp.
"Why do you need people without family?" Gabriel asked suspiciously.
His suspicions made me laugh, "Nothing nefarious, brother. I just have a mission for them."
"Why does it require those conditions?"
"The task I have for them will delay their arrival back home. If people are waiting for them, and they are missing when we return, they will think the worst even if I claim otherwise." I said.
I couldn''t imagine their family and friends all grouping up to search for their faces only to realize they weren''t among the people who returned.
That would be cruel.
I could tell Gabriel''s curiosity was rising but I said no more. It was a little fun to leave him in the dark and guessing.
It wasn''t long before Hal came back for the second time, with the requested people in tow. A group of six, a mix of male and female, all wearing the green and brown leathers of what scouts usually wore during the Summer months. Some with daggers on the hip, others with bows on their back.
"Thank you for coming," I started, "The reason I have called you is simple. This battle has enlightened me on some things that need to change. Firstly, our City''s strength. We fielded a quarter as many men as Fort Hope.
"I mean to rectify that. I need you to go southeast, further away from home, and recruit all who are willing to join. Toronto is no more and I want you to start there. In a city that once held millions, there should be thousands still looking for a home.
"Promise them work, a means to support themselves, shelter, and security in return for citizenship. Any who join the Guards will be rewarded and any who have, or are willing to change to, these professions will be rewarded as well."If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
I said while pulling out a parchment I wrote the previous day.
It was a list of all the professions we still needed. Farmer, Miner, Quarry Worker, Administrative staff, Managerial Roles, Engineer, Architect.
The list went on, but those were the top few we needed most. We had enough Farmers currently, but if we were to rapidly expand our population like I wanted, more would be required.
Miner and Quarry Workers were still needed, one more than the other now that a second mine would be worked. Administrative staff and Managerial roles were to help manage all the people I expected to arrive.
Our main influx of people came from Austin''s recruitment and I aimed to institute more. This group of six would only be the first I sent out. Knowing that there were thousands in the Toronto area was only my good fortune.
To facilitate their journey, I gave them packs filled with travel rations and the materials they would need. We had a surplus of supplies as we packed enough to last a few months and we wouldn''t be needing that many now that the fighting was over.
"Also, I want you to keep a lookout for any traces of Demons or of people you suspect have or might summon one. Don''t take any action, but notify us and we will handle it." I added before the group could leave.
All manner of Scouts, Rangers, and Rogues had used all the skills at their disposal to find any runaway Demons but one couldn''t be too careful, especially when the main culprit behind the summoning was never found.
It had been too long since it first happened, and the person could be anywhere by now. Plus, without powerful investigative skills, it was impossible to tell.
We didn''t even know what kind of deal they made in the first place. It could have been for an item, equipment, a skill, or even a technique of some kind.
Leaving the problem unfinished irked me but there was nothing I could do about it. We didn''t have dedicated trackers or investigators to delegate the task to.
Another thing I meant to change.
With their task set, and their bags packed, the small group mounted on horses we could spare and rode off. Some of the fallen wouldn''t be needing them anymore and we could easily spare six for such a task.
With that taken care of, there was nothing left to do before we left.
We would make a short stop at Fort Hope and then be on our way back home with only a short conversation in between. And hopefully not a fight.
Our large group took a while to get moving, but we made decent time once we did. The trip to Fort Hope would take a week but that was fine. It would give me more time to recover.
Remi chuffed from under me.
"I know I''m unbalanced, you ass," I said.
My companion had been happy to see me after the battle and I was happy to see him. Since this was my first time riding him since, he had made his aggravations known.
I had tried to balance out his saddle by packing more on my right side but that didn''t seem to work. He still chuffed no matter how many times I moved things around.
The riding aggravated my wounds but I powered through the pain. It had diminished as the days went by but sitting upright while riding didn''t help.
[Cold Meditation] and Healing worked to fix most things but I was still far from a clean bill of health. Ashley was a good Healer, but my body had always taken a while to fix.
Even before the massive influx of Fortitude, Strength, and Endurance only making it harder. I was lucky I was still at the Body of Wood stage as that already made things difficult, if I had been at the Body of Stone stage, my arm would take forever to regrow.
Still, I was well enough to fight if the need arose and that was all that mattered.
I even had time to practice manipulating Ice as I rode. I had already spent time using Ice limbs as Gabriel suggested, but it was different when the entire thing was missing.
During practice, I had encased my limb in ice and used that to articulate the appendage but it was entirely different to have the entire thing ice. There was no base to work off of. Nothing to anchor the ice to underneath.
The training I did helped speed my acclimation along, but I was still a while away from anything elegant. The strain on my mind was also going down.
The fine manipulation skills needed to move the arm were above my current skills and it strained my mental ability to keep it active for long. I was used to large-scale manipulation of ice while fighting, not the fine, precise movements fingers required.
After a week spent practicing, I could keep the arm formed indefinitely, but I could only use it for a couple of hours a day and it was still clunky.
I wouldn''t be enchanting anything intricate anytime soon, but I was making great strides in compensating for what was lost. Fighting with it was out of the question, but I only needed the one arm for that.
Even though arriving at Fort Hope meant discussions would soon follow, I was still relieved to see the city''s walls when they came into view.
Many of our group were.
It was hard to blame them as people lined up to welcome our return.
Seeing the heartfelt reunions made me eager for our own. It was nice to watch the people hug and embrace their families after the fight but it didn''t feel the same as watching my own people do it.
There was a distance between us and them after the rising tensions that delineated the two camps, dampening the goodwill.
There were still smiles and tears of joy to be had from all around, but there was a marked difference between us and them.
The fact an uncomfortable conversation was to be had the following day didn''t help matters either.
But before that could happen, there was one thing I needed to do before we left, either amicably, or not so amicably. My beautiful little niece was in need of a birthday gift.
My ability with glass wasn''t the best but there was bound to be at least one Glassblower or a Crafter that could fill in inside a city of this size, all I needed to do was find them.
The enchantments for what I had in mind were already worked out. I had spent a good chunk of time coming up with what to get her. I even decided to grab a little something for Josh as well. It wasn''t his birthday, but it felt wrong to leave him out.
It wasn''t as grand as what I had in mind for Anna, but Josh had always been easy to get gifts for. The little weirdo loved rocks.
Before their house was destroyed, Abigail complained about his collection endlessly. He was constantly picking up rocks from wherever they went and his pile of rocks only grew. He refused to throw any out, no matter how much Abigail pleaded.
I had been a contributor of many in his collection. It was easy to pick out a nice rock wherever I went and the fact it irked my sister only urged me on.
My rock of choice was already made and it was settled in my saddle bag. I found it in the crystal pit and there were even specks of gem residue comprising it. Not enough to be a geode, but enough to make it pretty. Josh''s love for rocks only extended so far into crystalline structures.
He would be enthused about a crystal, but he would be overjoyed about a cool rock.
Anna, on the other hand, had a different collection. She enjoyed the finer things in life and, like with Josh, all her collection had been wiped out during the Change.
She loved snow globes, and I figured with my powers and enchanting ability, I would be able to make a spectacular first piece for her new collection.
I just needed to find a good Glassblower.
Chapter 204 - Were Leaving
After returning to Fort Hope, Ashton, Carson, and the rest of their City''s leadership broke off to resettle the crowd and the people they brought back.
Our talks weren''t set to begin right away and they needed time to reorganize their City after what happened.
I was in no rush, mostly because I was not looking forward to round two of diplomacy, and also because I had other things to do anyway.
Other than looking for a Glassblower, I had other tasks to complete in the City now that the threat was dealt with. Most of the supplies sent with us needed to be sold or traded.
Abigail packed away anything our City could spare as exports so we could have some buying power in case we saw anything this City had that we didn''t.
I also had most of our treasury on me for that exact purpose.
Trade and market research were my goals and I wasn''t the only one out scouting the trading hub. Most of our 200-man group were doing the same. Those that could walk anyway. Most for their own purposes of buying whatever caught their fancy, but most just wanted to explore the new city as we didn''t have a chance when we arrived.
There were things I noted down to buy but nothing huge stuck out as I strolled through the stalls. From my first visit it seemed the City''s Leadership kept a tighter leash on things being bought and sold, which filtered the good stuff out.
Still, I did pick up on things worth buying. The wooded area around their camp was of a higher grade than ours, leading to better logs and planks after it was processed. With the Lake nearby, they had another food source that we didn''t.
Most of the fish for sale looked like what the world had before, but I wouldn''t be sure until I tried it.
It had been a while since I had a good fish fry.
Other than pulling fish out of the lake, there was other aquatic vegetation for sale but I didn''t know what it was for. It didn''t look like kale or seaweed, and I certainly wouldn''t be putting it in my mouth, but it was marketed all the same.
A reagent of some kind maybe?
It was outside my area of expertise and others were in charge of exploring the market for that kind of thing. I kept a lookout for anything useful for blacksmithing or enchanting while others were in charge of the other professions. Connor would be upset if we left something useful behind.
I had already passed by Mitchell who was studying the wood for sale. As our resident Carpenter after Scott, he was in charge of all things wood-related.
Without Vinny, Metals and Crystals fell to me.
I would send Jonathan and the other Merchants later, but this was just to survey what was available while also noting down what the nearby Dungeon provided. That way we knew what the City''s likely export would be.
Which was clearly Wood.
Depending on how often they delved the Dungeon, they would have a surplus of Wood to sell off.
I didn''t have the time to run the Dungeon myself and get a complete picture of what it gave, but seeing people leaving with logs of the stuff was easy enough to note down.
Honestly, Vinny and I got lucky having one of our nearby Dungeons give Metal or we would have had to prospect for it which did not sound fun. Neither of the two pylons we could reach through our market had metal for sale.
I suspected the two pylons we had access to were here, Fort Hope, and the one South of here they tried to contact as they were the closest we knew of.
Other than ''Market Research'', my trip through the town was to get a better look at it. I had been led through quite quickly the first time and while I got a good look at most things, it was nice to leisurely stroll around.
They were even nice enough to not have someone watch me.
A measure of trust I appreciated but wouldn''t impact how our talks would go.
It didn''t take long until someone found me and said that Ashton was ready for me. I had gotten all the things I needed to get done finished anyway.
Dear Abigail,... Dear Sister,... Sister,
Bah, you know who this letter is meant for already, it doesn''t need a greeting. This isn''t the only letter being sent back so I will keep it short. We have vanquished the enemy and are marching home.
We still have scouts out scouring the countryside for traces of any rogue Demons but I don''t suspect there will be many. The Evolved Demon in charge was much stronger than anticipated and makes me believe the leash it kept on its fellow Demons was tight.
Still, it doesn''t hurt to be thorough. Fort Hope has also dedicated some scouts to the same purpose, but I don''t feel comfortable leaving it solely to them. With their help, we should be able to catch them all, hopefully.
The only task left unfinished is finding the summoner.
Every attempt to do so has been met with failure. No matter how hard we look, the culprit eludes us. Everyone was told to be on the lookout, but I doubt that will be of any use.
Now, before you go reading anyone else''s letter, I informed the messenger to give you mine first. No matter how poorly of a state they claim I am in, don''t believe them. Especially Ashley.
It''s not as bad as it sounds, I''m just a little... lighter now. I think this is the least I''ve weighed since high school! Ah, that joke doesn''t really make sense without seeing me.
I''m told the road to recovery will be long but I''m confident it will be swift. My lovely sister will make sure of that. I will go into the finer details of everything that occurred when I see you in person, as I don''t wish to recount it in this letter for multiple reasons. Other than that, there is one more thing I should inform you of.
My recent struggle has highlighted some things that need to change. I have been too passive in our advancement and I aim to fix that.
The first of which is recruitment.
I have sent out a squad of scouts toward the remnants of Toronto in order to gain any who wish to join our ranks. I plan to do the same when I get back to other parts of the country.
I''m unsure how effective it will be, but seeing how many Austin has sent our way since he left gives me hope that our efforts will work as well.
That being said, it would be best to plan for a population increase in the coming months. In addition to this letter, I have added a list of the Professions I told the scouts to look out for and offer rewards for, but that doesn''t ensure they will join. Add any you see fit to the list so it can be added when the next round goes out.
We need to be prepared in case our current number of Farmers doesn''t increase in proportion to our total population.
I am sorry to drop this on you with little warning, but it needs to be done.
Our Pace of Advancement needs to increase.
All my other plans can wait until I return and we can discuss our best course of action then.
I hope Jonathan and the kids are well, I''ll be home soon.
P.S. Tell Anna and Josh I have a surprise for both of them when I get back. One I''m sure you''ll love.
Abigail,
Below is a recounting of all injuries sustained during the fight and what my [Body Scan] was able to discover. Don''t tell Christopher I sent you this as he strictly told me not to. While he was touch and go at first, he should make a full recovery.
Regards,
Ashley
4 broken ribs and 3 fractured ribs
Broken femur, tibia, and fibula on both legs
...
More fractures than I can list
...
One broken wrist
One collapsed lung
Numerous ruptured disks
...
Severe Concussion
Multiple Organ Failure
Dislocated Right Shoulder
Amputation of the Right Arm below the shoulder joint
...
Our march back home was more than welcome. A general feeling of glee was radiating from our group as everyone was looking forward to returning home.
There was still the undercurrent of sadness, one look at the many ice coffins could bring someone down, but most chose to look at the bright side.
The threat against us was defeated, and our mission was successful.
Among the many things we would do after returning, a heartfelt sendoff was high on the list. Second only to reunions.
Thinking of what I was going to do made me think of how we would do it.
For all of my life, burial or cremation was the most common way to send someone off. I was partial to burials, but that didn''t mean everyone had the same views.
Additionally, with our new magical world, Death Mana was an affinity out there. I hadn''t seen it, and no one we knew had it as their affinity, but it was still a thing.
Other forms were probably out there too. With the myriad of affinities we already knew of, saying some form of Death mana wasn''t out there was stupid.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
That being said, would bodies rise from the dead?
While I hadn''t seen it and hadn''t heard anyone mention such a thing, it needed to be considered in how we would do things. If there was a chance of undeath from burial, that would have to be considered. No one would want that fate to befall their loved ones.
There had to be a way to keep that from happening. A Formation or enchantment of some kind to ensure that wasn''t possible.
Other options came to mind as well. The Viking way particularly, as it was in line with the theme we had going. Other than the smaller lakes, there wasn''t a large body of water we could use, though.
I still preferred burial, but I would leave the option open to whatever the person wanted. Unless they requested being shot out of a cannon, I didn''t care one way or the other.
Even though a month had passed, it felt like we arrived the next day. People nearly took off in a sprint when the walls came into view. As soon as we were spotted, it looked like the whole City came out to cheer for our return.
The praise felt good.
The next few hours were a whirlwind of activity as every emotion on the spectrum was exuded by people in the crowd. Exuberance and happiness for those hugging their returned loved ones.
Deep grief and sadness for those looking on at icy coffins. Gratefulness and joy at knowing the threat against them was defeated.
It was a lot to take in. One group was hugging each other tight in joy while another was sobbing over ice.
My own family was one of the lucky ones. All of us returned, even if some weren''t in the pristine condition they left in.
Abigail nearly lost it when she saw me and I had a sneaking suspicion she knew what to expect. Without foreknowledge, I anticipated her to be more animated at the state I returned in.
Anna and Josh marveled over my new arm. Anna said it looked cool and wanted to play with it while Josh just poked at it in wonder. Vinny just laughed and said forging would be harder.
The rest of their reactions were in line with what I had expected.
Everyone spent a long time hugging and talking and it was a much-needed unwind after what we faced. Even if a particular person''s lecture went on and on.
The following day was a much more somber affair.
With the amount of dead that chose burial a cemetery was planned out and constructed in record time. Abigail, with her magical ability to think ahead, already marked out a spot to place it but just hadn''t started building it yet.
I had no idea how long it would last or if it was big enough, but all those worries could wait for another day.
Nearly the entire City watched as people were laid to rest. Last words were said and tears stained the Earth.
My Ice kept the bodies from decomposing during our trip which let people view them for the final time. I fogged up the ice on some as it wasn''t a pretty sight.
As they were placed into their final resting place, I voiced my thanks for their sacrifice and dispelled the ice around them so they could return to the earth.
It didn''t get any easier as the day went on.
Every one hurt just as much as the others.
As that completed, and I left the family to grieve alone, there was one last thing to do.
The ring on my finger brought me comfort to wear. It had become a habit to rub it at certain times, and now it was time to place it.
Part of me didn''t want to. It whispered that construction wasn''t done and I should wait but my day spent burying people shot that down.
Waiting any longer would be stalling and I had done enough of that.
Similar to the cemetery planned in what would be our future city, there was another spot sectioned off.
Inside what would eventually be the Inner Wall, an idyllic spot was set aside for just that purpose.
It bordered the cliffside and gave a stunning view of the landscape down below. A forest of green as far as the eye could see.
I didn''t think there was a better place for miles around.
Using the ring was instinctual.
It probed my mind for where I wanted to place it, and similar to any other System construction, it worked in ways I couldn''t decipher.
A blink and it was like the hill had always been there. The ring that I had worn for over a year turned to dust and blew away in the wind.
After watching so many others shed tears over the day, it was my turn to do the same.
Not much was said as my family looked on. Just a quiet remembrance.
The following days were gloomy but the liveliness came back. This wasn''t people''s first experience with loss, and sadly, wouldn''t be the last.
It felt odd to wake up in my own bed after everything that happened and I doubted I was the only one who felt that way.
My daily routine had to be amended as the Dungeons were off-limits to me. Doctor''s orders.
Instead, I got caught up on everything I had missed during my three-month journey. It hadn''t felt like that much but it was already well into Summer and nearly fall.
Not that the leaves would start changing soon but it was a bit of a reality check to see the crops I had helped plant nearly grown upon my return.
For most everything that happened, Abigail handled much better than I could, but she did set aside a few things I needed to handle. Luckily, I didn''t need to enforce laws on anyone. Jonathan made sure there was nothing lax while we were gone.
It was mostly small things. The construction crew was waiting for me to engrave the Wards before they could continue and other status updates of similar importance.
It wasn''t until our Council meeting three days after our return that I felt decently caught up on the happenings and better understood the state of the City.
The room was far from the sparsely decorated grey drab it once was. Rugs and Furs lined the floor, giving it a comfortable feel along with trophies or the like hung on the walls.
It was a stark difference and one I had to comment on.
"I turn my back for one second and you redecorate the whole place." I joked.
"If I left it to you, it would be years before you put anything up," Abigail said.
I was glad for the change though. With her moving into the Castle along with her two little ones, it did need a homier touch that it had been missing. A warmth that it now had.
It was a welcome change.
The meeting was one of the longest ones we had ever had, as both sides had much to discuss. Specifics of what occurred needed to be detailed. The discussion over our new Mine took nearly an hour alone.
"... I know this is another draw on our manpower, but it''s a high priority. It will take a while, maybe a few months, to get a mine up and running but the sooner we do the sooner we can start growing the Dungeons. They should be close to a Ninth Floor already which would change a lot. More income from taxes better loot from the new floor, more essence to those that can clear it. Faster leveling for the strongest in the City.
"Part of the agreement with Fort Hope was that they would provide a portion of the workers so that should help but if we want to get a steady supply of them, we probably need to send our best
Marcus
Their attack into the heart of the insect''s territory was going better than he thought it would. They had fought tooth and nail for every foot of territory conquered from the insects and now they were pushing for the center.
The bodies of dead bugs could be stacked higher than any local mountain by this point and the disposal of them had long been a problem.
The storehouses were full of anything they could provide and their chitin was overflowing by this point that they didn''t even bother to skin anything below E-rank.
Even then, low E-ranks were beginning to be left behind.
The campaign against them was brutal.
Months of fighting were required to push them back from an area and they needed to be constantly ready for counterattacks.
Slowly, ever so slowly, his City gained ground.
It was a Dungeon at first. Giving them an avenue for resources and growth while also taking away the mana the bugs were using to grow. They swarmed around anything with enough mana or in areas of high mana density, the three surrounding Dungeons chief among them.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Gaining their first Dungeon showed the first distinguishable change.
His people grew faster than the insects could keep up with.
Every battle since then gave them that much more. More bugs fell during the fighting, more essence flowed into the people, and more resources were able to be gathered.
It was a change in the tide and Marcus could feel it shift in his very bones. While saying he could feel the tide change was mainly metaphorical, something told him he wasn''t far off.
A feeling inside him hummed at the thought.
Now, Marcus stood atop the battlements watching those under him leading the charge. He wanted to be down there. His body twitched to be down there, but he held back.
Patience and planning held him back.
While they gained ground, the bugs fought that much harder to get it back. Every strike launched against them was met with an equal and opposite retaliation.
His glaive was needed to face what would come after, not what they faced now.
Still, he couldn''t keep the feeling at bay. Watching others attack while he stood and did nothing went against everything he felt a leader should be. He was used to leading from the front, leading the charge among the Vanguard.
That honor was given to another.
Someone who had grown on Marcus, even if he would die before admitting that fact. The frivolous, cavalier little shit would gloat until the day Marcus died if he mentioned that he was growing fond of his presence.
He was the embodiment of everything Marcus wasn''t. He shirked responsibility faster than water could roll off a duck, he refused to be serious, he... he-
His rising heart rate forced him to center himself. Somehow, the man was able to get on each and every nerve, knowing where to press and how hard to get a reaction.
It was unnerving to be seen through like that which only made it worse.
As much as the man grated on Marcus, he could admit he was a central pillar to their attack strategy. Without him, it would have taken a lot longer to do what they had, maybe months before they would have reached where they were.
Longer still to get the resources they needed.
Growing out of the City gave them the needed space to take care of nearly everything they lacked. Fertile ground was conquered and held. Seeds were planted and grown.
Harvest was nearly upon them.
Harvest!
It had been nearly 2 years since that had happened and it came at the perfect time. Food, blessed food. It was enough to bring a cheer through the city.
Other than food, water flowed in. Their efforts to dig through the solid rock under their feet were rewarded and they hit the depth required to reach the watershed.
No more runs to the river were needed for survival.
It was hard to pin the changes to the exact day their fate changed, but he knew the man fighting down below was a big part of it.
Speaking of, he needed to keep track of the battle happening.
Austin, the man in question, led the charge and was doing a remarkable job. Letting the outsider lead was hard on Marcus, but he was able to extend his hand in the end.
Light shot out spearing another insect as he danced around those surrounding him. Marcus witnessed the ease in every move, the confidence that every stab would land.
It spoke to the experience of many battles. Light and searing heat were his main weapons, but his spear wasn''t far behind. Similar to Marcus, he utilized his weapon well, empowering and extending what he could do with it through his powers.
Others among the frontline he was observing were the opposite. They relied on their powers to deal the damage and used their weapon to launch it. While opposite to what he did, he wasn''t experienced enough to call it wrong.
The mages stood behind creating grand feats of magic while Rangers unleashed arrow after arrow.
Some broke apart into a carpet of them, raining down on a wide area and piercing numerous bugs. Others flew through the air with a growing power that penetrated through the swarm of bugs taking multiple down before it ran dry.
The methods were numerous but all had a practiced ease behind them. A will behind them that meshed into the whole.
Their charge stalled as the swarm thickened. The bugs rallied to defend their last Dungeon while humans sought to defeat them.
From the insect''s response, Marcus could tell that today wouldn''t be the day, but they were getting close. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after, but the day they held all three Dungeons was coming close.
The front line realized what he had seen moments ago and started their fighting retreat. One foot placed behind the other while they fought on as they backed away.
"Ready Defenses!" Marcus called and he didn''t need to look around to know he was heard.
Mechanical locks clanked into place and bowstrings were pulled tight. The ballistae along the walls were nocked and loaded, along with the catapults on the ground behind them.
The large boulders one would expect the massive contraptions to launch were nowhere in sight, and instead, a pile of sharpened rocks sat in the catapult''s pouch.
A form of grapeshot that proved more effective against the swarm of bugs.
Marcus wasn''t sure he should be proud or disappointed at how fast his City advanced at war.
It wasn''t too long ago they were waking up to work normal jobs, yet now weapons were readied and siege preparations were completed within seconds of his order.
Watching how fast people came around to militarization made Marcus wonder if the fighting was this fierce everywhere else in the world.
The thought was quick but it was something he would remember later. His attention was needed on the battle, but that was something he would think about when he had time.
The massive gate cranked open as the attack force filed into the city. The edges collapsed in first before being followed by the forces in the center.
As the gates slammed shut, it was time for Marcus to take over.
Orders to fire were unnecessary by this point and had been for a long while. Twangs and creaks sounded down the wall like dominoes falling in both directions.
He readied his glaive and slammed the butt into the ground rhythmically.
The water inside him started to roil and build. The placid calm his inner lake held beginning to change.
The ripples rolling out strengthened with every tap.
Soon.
The time to unleash the tide would come soon.
Tracy
Her face recoiled in anger at the letter she read. It took everything in her to not start throwing things. The messenger who delivered it was still standing by her side awaiting a response and she couldn''t make her displeasure known.
She knew Nick wasn''t the smartest leader, but she had at least thought him smarter than this.
Their City flourished under her care and it was growing- had grown into the regional powerhouse. Other pylons were located and some had even come under their banner.
Their reach had spread as they grew yet Nick''s hunger for more grew with it.
Skirmishes and testing probes to the surrounding powers started before Tracy could stop it and neither could she stop the retaliatory strikes in response. Their neighbors were slighted and she knew Nick did it on purpose.
He burnt the bridge before she was able to make friendly relations.
Tracy should have known he would.
The City of Storms was too big a prize to give up and she knew once Nick caught sight of it, they would be doomed. Not doomed in the major sense of the word, but doomed to go along with his ego.
He was the Master of Storms, or so he would claim, and no one else could claim the title. His vanity had only grown in proportion to their land.
His thirst for more didn''t even last a month before he readied the armies. His letter informing her of his imminent departure along with a sizable chunk of their workforce.
The army he formed had some of the crafters she was relying on. The outstanding orders would go unfilled. The trade agreements along with it unless she pulled another magic trick out of her hat.
Luckily, Tracy had engrained in Nick''s mind that she was useless on the attack. She was far from it, but it didn''t hurt to keep some cards up her sleeve. Remaining weak on the offensive was a weakness she corrected long ago.
A certain man forced her to adjust her strategy accordingly. If Tracy ever saw Chris again, she would have to thank him for revealing her oversight.
Additionally, it was a way to declaw herself and let Nick believe her non threatening. Even on the off chance he turned on her, she wanted some surprises up her sleeve.
Doing so allowed her to remain behind, without being called to war.
She could only watch from the walls as thousands marched away.
She should have never allowed Nick to go to Chicago but it wasn''t like she could have stopped him either.
Chapter 207 - Air of Change
Chris
It was nice to get back into things and into the groove of what I had left. I hadn''t realized that so much of my day was filled with carving formations, directing the Castle construction, or managing something else inside the City.
All of the responsibilities slowly added up and it took dropping everything to go fight Demons to notice all of what I was doing.
Another part that alerted me to how much I was involved with things was Abigail''s recap of everything that happened while we were gone. She had a lot of issues crop up in the beginning that I usually handled by myself.
My high strength was used as a shortcut for a lot of things that they had to work around without me there. It wasn''t much, as I had already been letting go of how much I was involved, but my absence was still noticeable.
Another change was I wasn''t there to reinforce the stone as best I could. I wasn''t sure if anyone else could notice the difference, but I definitely could.
The stones placed before and after I left were different.
Something about them didn''t portray the impenetrable fortress I had envisioned and it irked me. Fixing that wore my spirit out but that was what it was there for. If it wasn''t meant to be used, then I didn''t know what it was there for.
While they had noticed changes in my absence, I was nearly flabbergasted when I returned. Abigail had mentioned that the crews were ahead of schedule but I hadn''t expected just how ahead they were.
She mentioned that the ones who remained worked themselves more than ever to make up for the people who had left to fight. Some departments even output more than when their entire workforce was there. As outlandish as that sounded.
It brought a smile to my face.
To know that not only the ones who risked their life but also the ones who stayed behind cared about what I- we were building filled me with joy.
The Keep of the Castle was mostly finished before we left, but now it was perfected. The last finishing touches of its construction were completed along with all of the interior as well.
Furniture was moved in along with all the furs and decorations to turn my home into a home. I figured I had my sister to thank for that but the list of things I had to thank her for was getting long at this rate.
Other than the keep, the Outer Wall was well on its way. Most of its construction stalled when I wasn''t there to carve the Wards into the stone but the fact the massive semi-circle even had stones placed was a surprise.
The fervor that caused the massive progress while we were gone didn''t go away on our return as there was another reason that people kept up their rapid pace. Once the Outer Walls were finished, the actual construction could take place.
People were still making do with the cabins and lodges that we had made when we first arrived and they were excited to get into something more permanent.
The prospect of their homes being behind walls also had something to do with it.
Most of my days were spent catching up on what I had missed. Expending my Spirit wasn''t causing any harm and neither was enchanting. Although, that took some getting used to.
I had to have Gabriel come help do some of the fine detail work because I couldn''t, but I was getting better at making do.
It was somewhat therapeutic to spend my days constructing. It felt like I had spent long periods of time focused on destruction and now the coin had flipped. I had felt it in the tutorial as well.
Something was there, I could feel it, about the two sides I spent most of my time doing but I couldn''t make heads or tails out of it.
It also helped to bring my Profession levels more in line with my Class levels. I was still far ahead, but it was nice to play the little catch-up I could. Runesmith being Rare helped matters, as it didn''t take as much essence.
The horses being back also helped. We had taken nearly all of them with us to make our trip quicker which left the City without them. They were the main power behind getting the massive blocks of stone up the cliff.
The blocks we were using for the Outer Wall were even bigger than the ones we used for the Castle. Being nearly double in size, at 8 feet long and half that deep and high.
It took multiple horses hooked in together on a harness to pull the things, let alone the amount of people it took. The stories of how they did it while we were gone were hilarious.
Sarah, our budding Beastmaster, had to direct which horses we used as not all of them were fond of the work while others loved it. I couldn''t tell which was which, but she certainly could.
Speaking of our resident Beastmaster, she had expanded her work while we were gone. She had originally wanted to come with us but I firmly denied that. Other than the fact she was still a child, her skill set was better used here rather than in a fight.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
She still had skills from when she was a Ranger and could handle herself well, but I wasn''t dragging children off to war. Everyone who went was at least eighteen. I made sure of that.
I still wasn''t sure of the specifics of how her skills worked but she was able to continue her taming efforts on the local wildlife. There was a cap for how many she could keep under her control and she had hit it with the horses, but things had changed.
Honestly, she shouldn''t have been able to tame that many in the first place and the main reason she had was because we were there to help. If she were alone she wouldn''t have been able to.
As the horses grew comfortable with us, they required her skills less and less. They weren''t instantly docile and had taken some time to get used to their new environment. After they became truly domesticated, she was able to branch out again.
I really should have been able to guess what animal she picked.
"Look at him! Isn''t he so cute!" She beamed with pride while holding her charge up in the air.
Said Charge yowled in displeasure at being put in air jail.
White on grey fur that was just beginning to fill out with eyes that were bright and curious at the new world it was being introduced to. A low growl emanated out from the kennel which made Sarah yelp and apologize, putting the little guy back down.
The pup then waddled back over to its mother to join the rest of its siblings wriggling for sustenance.
Wolves. That was the animal that Sarah had chosen.
She had mentioned getting some when we fought them on the way here but they all ran away after the fight leaving her disappointed.
She had pitched the idea to Abigail while I was gone and she had agreed. Sarah using both Josh and Anna to convince their mother that they wanted a dog was a surefire way to get her to agree.
Other than getting the kiddos to want a dog, she used other reasons to support her argument that even I had a hard time nay-saying. It wasn''t that I didn''t want the animals, but I felt there were other options that were better.
Maybe it was just my bias to seeing Kathy and her birds.
I was fine with letting her progress in her Class however she wanted, though, and I had to admit, the little furballs were growing on me.
She could only tame a few of the Wolves around us and managed to tame one that was pregnant, causing the scene I was seeing now.
The litter was larger than I expected, but I chumped that up to magic causing some changes. Plus, the birth and recovery were some of the quickest I had ever seen, even without healing skills being used.
The natural Vitality of beasts wasn''t to be underestimated.
Even under Sarah''s care, the momma wolf did not like other people handling her newborns which was understandable. It was only slightly disappointing to not be able to play with them.
Soon, I told myself. It had been a while since I played with a puppy.
One of the points Sarah came up with was pairing a Wolf with one of our scouts to enhance their abilities which would begin when the pups were a little older. Scouts and Trackers would both be getting a companion if they so wished.
I was sick of not having a good Tracker and had dedicated a decent sum to training up a few.
Other than Sarah gushing about her new workload, there wasn''t much going on. The sun would come up, I would go to work, and the day would pass.
There was a Zen I fell into while watching the bones of my City being built.
Even without my arm, I was probably in the best state of mind since the Change, which was odd, because I had nearly just died. I figured seeing Anna''s reaction to my gift was the biggest factor in washing away my bad move.
Something about seeing her face light up with wonder eviscerated any negative thoughts in my brain. She played with the snow globe I made for hours. Josh also liked my gift but contained himself better than his older sister.
As the days passed, the heat of Summer dipped and began its descent into Fall and every day felt better than the last. Both Abigail and Ashely spent a large amount of mana healing me and it took over a month for the pain to go away.
They weren''t even trying to regrow my arm yet, only working through all the other broken things before they turned their attention there. My body was endlessly surprising me with the amount of punishment it could take.
Other than the first harvest, we received word back from the messengers we sent to Mountainside. We were correct in our assumption of where the new City was.
They were welcomed when they arrived, fed and sheltered while they were there. It was a good start to what I hoped would be a friendly relationship.
I did not want to get on rough terms with another pylon that was close by.
Our relationship with Fort Hope was on the mend, but a divide was still clearly there. I had sent Jonathan there to negotiate a trade agreement and also begin management of the mine.
I wasn''t going to put him in charge and keep him there forever, Abigail would kill be, only to act as our Head Merchant and negotiate for what we would trade with one another before returning.
I expected him back before the snow began in earnest. I offered for Abigail to go with him but she ended up declining, surprisingly. She said that she had other things on her schedule she needed to do.
She had spent a lot of time meditating recently, maybe she was working on her Law or something?
Abigail wasn''t the only one advancing either. Many of the people who returned from the fight found themselves stepping down various Paths of Power, some even on multiple. More Laws were gained in the months following the battle than the previous year combined.
It was slightly alarming.
Other than Laws, there were even a few that Formed their Spirit Anchors, but they were few and far between.
But above all else, Body Refining was the most common. After seeing how the bodies of those who underwent the process saved them from fatal wounds, people signed up in droves, despite the agonizing pain it caused.
The best part about the whole thing was I used it as a recruitment tactic.
My Family held most of the Body Refining techniques in the City and I made them available to all who signed up to be Guards, Scouts, or Trackers. While we didn''t have every affinity in our library, we had most of the Common ones.
Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Ice, and Solar -which could work for Light. Some were out of luck, but we were able to accommodate most. Those with Fire-related affinities had it the best, as the book Rachel bought was nothing if not extensive.
While Jonathan had purchased an Earth affinity technique, giving the other Earth affinity guards a choice solely meant for Earth, some chose out of the Fire book, mixing Earth and Fire even though a pure Earth option was available to them.
Some with the Metal affinity did the same.
One of the things I wanted to fix once our market was able to reach out was the breadth of techniques we had. Those with rarer affinities were left with little options.
Lightning, Lunar, Nature, Blood, and Wood were only some of the few affinities of people we had to let down and that list would only grow as our City did.
Even with all the good things happening, and what felt like being in a perpetual good mood, I couldn''t shake the feeling that something was brewing.
It didn''t feel like a threat, and it didn''t feel like it was aimed at me or my City, but the winds carried an air of Change.
Chapter 208 - Frozen Rift
To the Icy Bastion that Shields me,
Oh boy, has it been a roller coaster. I thought I would go on a cool little adventure to find out what my Profession was so pushy about yet it turned into something more, so much more.
Honestly, I''m just glad that you ignored my advice and kept traveling North because if you listened to me, we would have been drawn into an endless fight with these infernal creatures that only cause suffering. My suffering.
Not infernal in the same sense as what you were dealing with, but infernal in the sense that they will be forever the bane to my existence! I swear, even after burning their gore off of me with both intense light and fire, in addition to a vigorous shower and scrubbing, I still find bits of their shell and goo still covering me!
What I thought would be a fun few days of insect extermination has turned into months of slogging through their numbers with my newfound friends. The City leader down here reminds me a lot of you and your father. Ever the stoic and dutiful! The stuck-up ass.
Oh, if I could only show you the face he makes when I rile him up!
He seems like a good man and a good leader, which is more than some of the others I''ve met. I won''t go into detail but let''s just say not everyone I met along my journey got pointed in your direction and got a different point their way.
But enough about that, I have other news! Well, various bits of other news.
Mainly, we''re making progress!
With my strength, I am one of the strongest here and that entails fighting at the front and I do not envy what you do. I want my hunk of ice shield back so I can use you to block everything. Fighting this way is so much harder!
But, with my help, Marcus and his army are getting better and better at fighting off the bugs and we are finally making meaningful gains in this war. We are marching toward their center as the days pass.
I''ve felt the power that radiates from the center of the swarm and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was the reason behind my Profession going haywire.
It feels strong. And oddly like when Abigail when she goes all out. And like Marcus, as weird as that sounds.
Other than that, with my friends in high places, I''ve come to know a little more about the surrounding area. There''s a pylon in Des Moines which they renamed the same name -which is lame if you ask me- and another to the West called The Reservation. Attached to this letter is where the maps we have say they are located.
I still don''t know what specific Tribe The Reservation originated from, or if it''s a combination, but it''s composed of the Native Americans who used to live there.
Other than those two, there''s word of another pylon in Chicago that we passed by. People are calling it the City of Storms and there has been an influx of people coming from that direction.
They claim fighting has broken out and someone declared war in order to conquer the City but it''s been mostly rumors so far.
Anywho, I could use your expertise in wholesale destruction if you''re up for a fight.
Your bestest friend in the whole wide world.
Chris
A chuckle rang out after reading the signature of the letter. He didn''t even sign his name, the bastard.
It was rather unfortunate, but I wasn''t able to go down and help him. I had too many things to do here and I still needed to focus on recovery. If I went down to help, away from the Healers, it would take that much longer for them to regrow my arm.
I was getting good with my icy one, but it was still no substitute for the real thing. I had been cleared for my normal Dungeon training but I was told to stay away from anything too intensive.
We weren''t sure when the next threat would arise and I wanted to be fixed up before anything like another Demon fiasco happened.
The fact that our ''test'' was due didn''t help.
Plus, I couldn''t leave now when my plans were just beginning to get off the ground. Not only was the coin and materials I was dragging in necessary, but my presence was needed if I wanted things to start in the right direction.
I would eventually hand it off to someone, most likely Jonathan, but he wasn''t even here. Even if he was, I wanted to be the one to found it. I had grand plans on how it would turn out and for that to happen, it needed to get off on the right foot.
The coin wasn''t that big of an issue for the future, but until we started getting a steady supply of Crystals from the mine we were still rather strapped for it.
We would soon be swimming in it. Not only from the mine but also from the Dungeons. Every level down was that much more valuable and with everyone coming back a good deal stronger made the taxes we got out of them climb.
Even with the losses meaning fewer people delved, we were getting more coins every month. Some groups could even complete the entire Dungeon regularly! Unlike before when it took careful planning and preparation for select groups to defeat the eighth floor, it was now a regular occurrence.
That alone caused a huge jump in revenue.
I couldn''t imagine how much more we would make when the Dungeons grew. We were told that there was a substantial change after one reached ten floors and I couldn''t wait to see what it was.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
While my days were usually filled, there was something different on the schedule today. I took time off specifically to do something new.
I needed to choose my next skill.
So far, Hammer of the Jotnar was turning out to be an amazing class. Its first skill gave me my beloved hammer, which I still needed to remake. The second gave me a powerful finishing move in [Shattering Hammer], and the third gave me a great all-around defensive skill [Jotun''s Resistance].
It heightened my already impressive Fortitude to even new levels. Nothing in the Dungeon could even scratch me anymore when I had it running. Other than the fact it was a massive mana hog, it was a terrific skill.
It nearly made [Frost Armor] obsolete.
Not that I would stop using the skill, but it was rather pointless when nothing could get past my skin anyway.
With half of the skills my Class would give me already possessed, I only had three more available and I needed to make them count. I wasn''t sure what my next Class would entail and I needed to make sure I got everything out of my current one as I could.
So far, I had chosen one that summoned a weapon, one that causes massive amounts of damage, and one that increases my defense tremendously. It covered all of the bases.
Well, except for the magical side but none of the skills I was offered could fix that as it wasn''t the point of the Class.
That being said, it made my next choice hard and was the reason why it had taken me so long to decide.
A part of me still hadn''t but I was heavily leaning towards one out of the six. Some were easy enough to eliminate from contention, as I already had skills similar in effect of there was another skill on the list that did the same thing but better.
Or, in one skill''s case, an effect I believed I could learn in time without the need for a skill like it. It would take a long time and a lot of practice, but I believed I could do it and it made me cringe to think about taking it as a skill and essentially ''wasting'' the skill slot.
It wouldn''t really be a waste, but my mind made it feel that way.
The one I was leaning towards was called [Frozen Rift].
Frozen Rift(Legendary) ¨C Using a compatible weapon, channel a rift in space connected to the lands of Eternal Winter. Effects that are caused depend on the power expended to create the rift and the intention behind it. To connect deeper to the lands of Eternal Winter, further your Path in its direction.
First of all, it sounded powerful. Second, its name was cool. And Third, it sounded fucking awesome. Pardon my French.
I had a sneaking suspicion that using the skill would cause another string of Runes to light up on my hammer similar to [Shattering Hammer]. From what I could tell, six distinct strings ran along the shaft of my weapon and I guessed they corresponded to six different skills.
I wasn''t sure how I would be able to get them all, as I only had three possible skill choices left for my Class, but I felt the urge to get them all eventually.
While that was the offensive choice I was leaning toward, there was another defensive one that felt decent.
Jotun Armor(Legendary) ¨C Clad your body in the most formidable of Icy armor. Created from Ice directly tied to the lands of Niflheim, it holds trace amounts of its magic. Able to hold up to even the most powerful of blows and can break down and consume mana that comes into contact with it that isn''t Cold aligned.
It was a complete upgrade to [Frost Armor] and sounded perfect, but I wasn''t sure if going two defensive skills back to back was a good idea. Sure, I took a hit and the skill would''ve been useful, but I was worried I was overreacting.
My near-death scared me, but changing who I was to favor defense didn''t seem like the answer. Not to say I would never take the skill, I could still choose it with the remaining two slots, but I didn''t want my conscious, or subconscious, to influence me into changing.
Leaving Jonathan to the purely defensive path was enough. I still wanted to smash things.
Other than those two, there were more general skills that weren''t firmly an attack or defense. One was called [Frozen Leach], which sapped energy and mana from the person I was fighting.
It was a great addition to my sustainability fighting style. If I could fight for long periods of time against one opponent, not only would I get stronger during the fight, but they would get weaker.
The last I was considering was a bit of an odd skill. It didn''t sound overtly powerful but its description made me curious as to what effects it would have.
[Icy Connection] worked to forge a connection between me and my ice that would improve my ability to manipulate and feel what I was doing with it. Not only would it make [Sweeping Snow] and [Desolate Blizzard] more powerful and easier to use, but it was its use combined with [Frost Armor] that made me think about choosing it.
It wasn''t a powerful skill like [Frozen Rift] or helped with defense like [Jotun Armor], but it would elevate every skill I currently had in addition to every skill I would likely get.
Unless something unforeseen happened in the future, the Path of Ice was my future.
The fact it wasn''t immediately powerful made me not want to pick it but neither did I outright dismiss it because of that. I knew firsthand the power that came from increased connection to my ice because of my Law and I wasn''t going to dismiss the skill because it didn''t sound powerful.
Ultimately, it was in the same boat as [Jotun Armor]. I had two more to choose and it wasn''t like I needed it now. The fact I could always take it later if my next class wasn''t as good also helped.
[Frozen Rift] was where I was leaning and over weeks of thought, I didn''t come up with a reason not to take the skill. There was something in its description that made me pick it above the others.
''connected to the lands of Eternal Winter''
What kind of connection? What kind of Laws would a land like that have? How much would bleed through the connection?
It made me wonder if there was a way to use it to advance my Law in addition to fighting with it and that thought sealed the deal.
With my skill chosen, there was only one thing to do before trying out my new toy.
It wouldn''t work without a compatible weapon and I was long overdue to recreate my beloved hammer. I was healed, hale, and healthy, ready to pour everything I had into the weapon.
All of my stat points from the influx of levels had been distributed as well.
I had originally thrown half into Vitality right away to help with recovery, but I went back and added a few more bringing it to an even 500. It took a majority of my points, 93 out of 145, but I felt it was worth it.
Other than increasing my Vitality, I split the remaining 52 points between Endurance and Acumen. To increase my sustainability of both Stamina and Mana. I wanted to keep throwing points into Wisdom for a bigger mana pool but without the Acumen to back it up, it would take forever to refill.
I needed the regeneration now that I had fancy skills that drained my mana at ludicrous rates. Plus, with Winter coming soon, I had another way to increase my mana that I couldn''t wait to break into.
My stats ended up looking quite well in my opinion.
Strength - 1230
Agility - 535
Perception - 315
Fortitude - 979
Endurance - 629
Vitality - 500
Intelligence - 215
Wisdom - 417
Acumen - 256
Free Points: 0
Chapter 209 - New Toy
While my stats were looking good and my skill choice was finalized, there was one last thing I needed to do before remaking my hammer. I had spent much of my recovery time working on the Wards and the Formation lining the Outer Walls and I had gotten a few levels in my Profession.
With the addition, it pushed me over level 60 and I now had yet another skill to choose. This one was less impactful than the Legendary ones I had to choose from through my Class, but it was still something I needed to get done.
So far, I had everything I needed for my craft. [Sense Metal] had upgraded to [Sense Frequency], bumping the rarity up to rare I wasn''t able to get the upgrade I wanted right away, forcing me to push past Uncommon and go straight to Rare. [Create Weapon] and [Create Armor] were both well on their way to Rare as well, with only a small push away from being there.
Vincent had once again beaten me to the next rarity for our craft. His newly expanded affinity and body worked wonders and pushed him over the edge to creating Rare equipment while I hadn''t dedicated enough time to raise my abilities there yet.
He could make Rare gear before, but it required me, or another enchanter, to enchant it to push it over the edge.
I was intent on catching up and was intent on dedicating some quality time to do so. I had even gotten some practice smithing with my makeshift arm, even if I wasn''t as good.
[Metallurgy] had naturally upgraded to Uncommon through use. It hadn''t really felt like an upgrade at the time and was a rather lackluster event over my years of smithing. As more metal came out of the Dungeon, and various metals and alloys were distributed, my knowledge of the metals grew and my skill upgraded.
My [Forging Proficiency] was still stuck at Apprentice, sadly, but I could feel that it was on the cusp of Journeyman. [Warding] was in the same boat, as I felt it nearing the edge of Rare as I laid down more of the Formation. [Mana Engraving] was already at rare from all the use and had only minimally gone any further.
The jump from rare to epic was a large one and I hadn''t even done it with any of my Class skills yet.
[Mana Infusion] was my only skill stuck at Common for my Profession, and I wasn''t in a hurry to increase it. It would help create better gear, but not many needed my affinity for equipment, making the gains I could get from a higher rarity infusion skill minimal.
[Basic Runecrafting] was at Rare still but that was in the same boat as [Runesmithing]. Both applied a bonus to any Runes I created but they did different things. [Basic Runecrafting] helped me gain knowledge about the Runes making them easier to read while [Runesmithing] helped in implementing that knowledge.
They had grown by leaps and bounds with my constant study of Formations and Wards, even if they didn''t receive an upgrade to show it. I felt the difference every time I worked.
Honestly, my next skill choice was up in the air. I had everything I needed to carry out my craft, now it was a choice of where to venture further. There were Blacksmithing skills I could pick up that would help in that department, more engraving skills I could pick up that would make the process smoother and easier.
More specialized Ward or Formation skills, which would make my ability with those specific subjects of Enchanting greater.
It was kind of a shock to go from only 6 skills to choose from for my class, to the multitudes available for my Profession. Some of Vinny''s skills were even on my list, or their base versions as he had long since upgraded most of them.
As odd as it seemed, the skill that had given me the most insight into what I was trying to do, was [Formations Mana Flow]. While [Warding] helped me understand the process and pointed me in the right direction sometimes, seeing the mana flow, or feeling it, was a much greater boon.
It was the main reason I had gotten so much done at the pace I had kept.
Using it granted me the knowledge that I lacked and let me see where my mistakes were. That knowledge was then used to understand why.
The why behind how things worked had eluded me for so long and seeing the mana flow and change was beginning to let me see the deeper reasoning behind how Runes worked.
That being said, while taking a skill to make enchanting or smithing easier would be useful, it was the underlying knowledge I wanted access to and only a few skills could be useful in that regard.
Beginner Runic Language(Rare) ¨C Helps decipher and understand the language behind Tier 1 Runes. Must have at least some prerequisite knowledge on the subject to be useful. Deeper study and familiarity with Runes will allow you to get more from this skill.
It was a new addition to my skill list and beat out the others by a mile when it came to usefulness. I knew, from extensive experience, that no skill imputed knowledge directly into your head.
Not even [Basic Runecrafting] just gave me the knowledge. It hinted and nudged, but it was up to me to either see and heed the advice and understand it, or continue aimlessly.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
How this skill would work, I wasn''t sure, but I had a few ideas. My guess was that it would help point out areas of Runes I had seen before and help me understand how what I already knew was being used differently in other Runes.
My assumption came from the fact it said that prerequisite knowledge was required.
With the decision made, I added the skill to my growing list and turned to the next order of business. I had a few new toys to try out and one called to me much louder than all the others.
And to use it, I needed my hammer.
The first time I had summoned my hammer it had been... something. It had drained me of everything I had to bring the hammer into reality and my suspicion was it would do the same now.
Having grown by a great deal since the last time I had summoned it, I was excited to see if there would be any difference. The extra energy I would use to create it had to do something... right?
That being said, I sat in the coldest area I could and readied myself for the dreadful pulling that would come.
My forge was emptied of anything near where I sat to not cause a disturbance and I was even a distance away from my Spirit Fire for the same reason.
The pale blue Flames had died down since it wasn''t being fed but still flickered back and forth.
Activating the skill was exactly the same as last time.
The mana it took started out as a small trickle before quickly increasing in intensity. The slim thread of mana flowing out grew into a string, then a cord, then more.
Physical energy went next, the Stamina being ripped out of me. I could clamp down on my energy and stop the process if I wanted, but that would create a weak weapon and there was no need to fear my energy leaving.
A fog of Frost built up in front of me as the energy pouring out of me coalesced and gathered.
Mental energy joined in next, taking from the pool that would usually power my Laws. Instead of restraining its pull from including my newly acquired Wind Law, I let it take from both. I wasn''t sure how the Wind Law would change things but I felt no harm in letting it.
Last, but certainly not least, it began to pull on my Spirit. The energy that I used to empower things and the pool of it that had grown from my liberal use.
The skill pulled on everything I had and I gave to it freely.
I wanted to create the best weapon I could and holding back would only harm that ideal.
It took longer than last time, as I had a lot more energy for the skill to siphon, but it wasn''t a bad thing. The skill was already unusable in combat on the account it drained me dry of everything I had, and taking longer to form wasn''t that much of a downside.
It was easy enough to feel the power grow as more of it leaked out of me and joined the growing fog. Snow fell from it as the temperature plummeted.
Almost an hour later, a comfortable weight fell into my awaiting hand and I couldn''t keep the grin from my face.
My hammer was back.
It was silly to think of it as a sentient thing, but I had grown fond of it while swinging it around for nearly two years.
My eyes immediately took in the differences. The glow it gave off was more vibrant and the frosty aura was stronger. The icy blues and whites were more vibrant, more lively if that could be a thing.
Most wouldn''t consider anything aligned with Winter to be lively but I felt like that was a misconception. Winter might not be the time for Life to flourish, but that didn''t mean that it was devoid of it.
Especially now that there were magic plants and the advanced adaption of animals that lived in the Cold.
Other than the colors becoming deeper and more colorful, the size and shape hadn''t changed, thankfully. I was already familiar with the weapon the way it was and if it had changed I would''ve had to change the way I fought, refamiliarizing myself with it.
The one thing that did change about its function was its weight. It was much heavier now than it had been and that was a much desired change. My Strength had grown tremendously since I last used the skill and it was nice to feel the heft it once had again.
With [Avalanche], [Fury], and [Glacial Presence], all boosting my Strength further, not to mention my Bloodline, it was near becoming too light.
That wasn''t the case anymore.
It would be difficult to swing with one hand and would basically ruin all my training in doing such a thing, but that was a worthy trade-off. A hammer was supposed to be heavy and I would tolerate no less.
The last change of note was the head of the weapon looked even more mesmerizing. Where it once looked like a living blizzard of snow revolving around inside the weapon, it was even more profound now.
It almost looked like its own world was contained inside the ice. I did not doubt that the heat it sapped on contact had similarly grown as well.
Changes noted and observed, my excitement would tolerate no more delay. [Frozen Rift] was calling and I would oblige. I was barely able to hold back and allow time for my mana slowly come back. As soon as I felt I had the bare minimum to activate the skill, I was off.
Unsure of how the skill would function, I did take a tiny... sojourn... to find a more appropriate area to test the skill. Not a delay, per se, but a temporary stay.
Odd looks were shot my way as my face barely contained the excitement I felt. I didn''t let those stop me though, and I exited the Castle and walked to the edge of the cliff where the land was free.
There would eventually be a building here, as there were already stakes placed out for such a thing, but I couldn''t remember what it was nor did I particularly care right now.
Taking position near the edge of the cliff, I readied myself.
I aimed to have whatever the skill did activate away from the budding city and directed its activation outward, over the land below.
With everything set, I sent mana into the skill.
My guesses were proven correct, and as mana flowed into my hammer, a different string of Runes came alight than [Shattering Hammer] and even more mana than was required than the latter skill.
I had expected its hefty cost and prepared accordingly, sending mana in droves into my weapon. The power flowed through the Runes and reached the head after winding through the glowing lines along the shaft.
Sensing that it would soon finish, I began my swing and observed with wide eyes.
The mana... vanished. Gone without a trace and in its place was something else. Something that set my instincts on edge. In barely a split second, what was once a swinging hammer with massive amounts of mana became something more.
From the leading flat face of my swing, my hammer hit the air and stopped dead. Ripples of power flowed out from where my weapon had stopped and it felt like I had hit an unmovable wall. No matter how hard I pushed, my hammer was stuck.
Before I could question what was happening, a dreadful cold flowed from the hammer''s face and Ice shot out in a line. A giant pillar of Ice longer than I was tall extruded out of the weapon faster than I could blink before the connection was cut off.
Its power was spent and in place of what had once been a sizable portion of my regenerated mana, was a shining pillar of ice.
If that was all, it would have been underwhelming. Even I could form ice like the skill had. Not nearly as fast or forceful as what I had just witnessed, but I could do it.
What set me on edge was the feeling in my bones that caused my fear to build.
Even looking at it made my feet want to back away involuntarily.
The Ice the skill formed scared me.
It contained a Cold that I wasn''t sure even I would be able to endure.
Even with fear bubbling up, I couldn''t tear my eyes away. Even as it felt like they were freezing over and the need to blink became painful, I couldn''t.
This was what I was chasing.
An Ice so cold and enduring that it could freeze anything.
Chapter 210 - Skill Testing
The pillar of Ice slowly dissipated, breaking apart and transforming back into Ice mana as I stood and marveled at it from the same spot I launched it at.
It took a few moments for the pillar to fall apart after not being fed mana which wasn''t surprising. Actually, it was a wonder it lasted so long without active intervention. Usually my Ice flaked apart soon after being deprived of mana to keep its structural integrity.
Even after the last flecks transformed back into Ice mana, the purest ice mana I had ever felt, the feeling it had given off was still in my mind.
There was something about it that called to me. That much was obvious, but I hadn''t expected the Ice to be so strong. It was on an entirely different level than what I could create.
The fact I had so much farther to go filled me with joy rather than envy.
I hadn''t felt myself truly progress many times lately and this was a wide open door to doing just that. It wouldn''t be quick, but it was at least an avenue that wasn''t shrouded in mystery.
So much of what we did to get stronger was guesswork and assuming how things worked that it was nice to finally have something as reference to point at and study.
Speaking of doors I could use to progress, there was one big one that I planned to take in the coming months. Of the rewards I received, only one had lasted this long without being used.
The Stars of Primordial Frost Mana Cultivation Technique.
A mouthful, but something that promised another power bump. I had read through it quite a few times to internalize everything that it said but I wasn''t able to use it yet.
It needed massive amounts of Ice mana at a purity I couldn''t make, even with my new skill.
It was something I had only ever felt once and even then, it was only the barest hint of what I needed.
There were ways to practice the technique without the massive amounts of pure Ice mana, but it led to subpar results and I deemed it not worth the effort. It would take a large amount of work to just do that, and it wasn''t even the best use of the technique.
No, if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right.
That being said, the one time I had felt anywhere near the required mana, was during Winter. We were far enough North that the purity of the Ice Mana during Winter was truly something but even then, it hadn''t been enough. If I wanted to go through with it, I''d have to go further North and not by a short amount.
My senses were greatest toward mana of my own affinity, but even with diminished senses toward other affinities I had never felt any other type reach the purity that Ice had during Winter.
The Nature mana of the area we passed through in Wisconsin was up there in purity, but nothing else came close. There were spots on the map that promised that amount of purity, but we hadn''t encountered any of them.
The bad thing about it was I had to wait.
By the time I was ready to break open the technique and see what needed to be done, Winter was already waning. It took many months to even reach this far North and when we finally did, I couldn''t just run off and do it either.
There was probably somewhere that would work in Summer, but that was out of my range to get to. Not to mention the fact it was probably filled with beasts trying to stay within the pure Arctic zone.
Now, with my plans specifically made around leaving the Winter months open, nothing was holding me back from doing it. The only thing I had to do was wait.
And the waiting was brutal.
Once again settling my racing mind over what would happen in the future, I turned back to my new skill.
The first use of it was enlightening, but I needed to explore the range that I could use it in and see where I could incorporate it into my fighting style.
I had to wait for my mana to come back after every use, but that gave me time to think of different things I could do with the skill.
For its second activation, I did everything the same to see if the skill would act the same way. It was the first test to make sure the skill wasn''t... willful.
None of my skills had been like that, but some in the City had skills that did. Usually, it was with people who had odd affinities, but it was a basic enough test to rule out that possibility.
The last thing I wanted was to be in a tough fight and think my skill would do one thing but instead do something else.
Everything activated the same and the same dreadful pillar of cold sprang into existence.
The third time, I flipped my hammer around and used the spiked end for its activation. I used both sides of my hammer while fighting and needed to make sure the skill could be used with both.
Mana flowed through the same channels and the same activation sequence caused ice to spring from the hammerhead.
Except this time, instead of a blunt pillar of Ice, it was a giant spike.
It retained the sharp point the form of my hammer had and looked even more deadly than when I had the hammer flipped.
Instantly upon seeing it, I could think of a multitude of uses for the skill. After using a hammer for so long, the uses of the different sides were engrained in me.
Flipping from one to the other was muscle memory by now and took only a flick of the wrist to occur. Being Journeyman level in Heavy Weapon Mastery wasn''t just for show.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
It would take some practice, but I would eventually reach the same muscle memory with my new skill as well.
With both sides of the hammer used, I explored other uses for the skill.
Hitting rocks, the ground, trees, anything I could think of.
Rocks couldn''t hold up to the force the skill provided, even when I stopped my hammer before impact. The ice it conjured was enough to pulverize the surrounding boulders I used as practice dummies.
The same happened to the trees, as they were blasted apart.
It was the ground that was different.
The skill didn''t send a pillar of ice into the ground like a missile. It didn''t really do anything to the ground.
When the mana was pulled away, and what I assumed was the ''connect with another plane'' part of the skill activated, spikes exploded out of the ground in front of me.
Which was odd, because I was using the flat, blunt side of the hammer.
Numerous, waist-high spikes exploded out of the ground ranging ten feet ahead of where I hit the ground with my hammer before the skill petered out. It extended the same length that the pillars usually were but except for one giant pillar, it was numerous little ones launched from the ground upward.
Seeing an entirely new use, another round of testing and exploration ensued.
I quickly found out that intent played a major role in what I was trying to accomplish. I hadn''t been trying to do anything with the skill, letting it activate on its own, which was a mistake.
I found that out when I tried to send a pillar into the earth like I expected to happen before. That resulted in getting showered in dirt as what I expected to happen, happened.
That made me wonder why spikes were formed the first time instead which led to envisioning what I wanted to happen.
Honestly, I should have expected what I found out but I told myself I was following the natural testing process.
When I envisioned a spike, the skill formed a spike. When I envisioned a pillar, a pillar formed. Even when I pushed the boundaries and thought of the carpet of spikes while swinging at air caused it to occur.
By then, with the hours spent testing and waiting for my mana to come back, night had fallen and Ashley had come to find me.
I had lost track of time and was having such a wonderful time I had completely lost track of what I had planned for the day.
She wasn''t happy about having to find me but it was only a slight irritation.
With my fun dashed, I let myself get pulled away. The sooner I let it happen the sooner I could get back to it.
Austin
"Is your friend coming?" Marcus asked, drawing his attention away from the piece of paper in front of him.
"Yes. Uh, no. It''s complicated." Austin stammered, still trying to understand what it was he just read.
It wasn''t the length of the letter that made it difficult, it was the content.
He had known that they had confronted the Demons and he had supreme confidence that they would be able to win. Especially with the help of another pylon.
He was glad to know that all of his family had survived and most had even grown.
But what confused him was the state Chris was said to be in. He knew that a fight with Demons would be tough, but the injuries described to him seemed unreal.
He knew how strong and tough he was, which made how wounded he was a surprise. Austin wasn''t sure when he started thinking of his friend as invincible, but with every fight he walked away from, that feeling grew.
It didn''t help that every fight he walked away from made him stronger too.
His Anchor made sure of that. It was known that accomplishing feats in line with or related to your Anchor strengthened your Spirit. It was one of the only known ways to grow in power Spiritually.
Not only was that Path the hardest and had the least amount of people on it, but it also had the least known methods to progress along it. The knowledge surrounding it being coveted and hidden didn''t help.
With every fight he won, or was left standing, his Spirit would grow in response. The same way that every time Jonathan stood in front and defended all those behind him, he would grow.
Getting that boost, along with the essence from what he killed, made him grow at a pace Austin couldn''t keep up with. He could keep up in levels, sure, but that wasn''t a direct correlation to power.
"What do you mean it''s complicated? Is he coming or not?" Marcus asked frustrated at his tacky-turn answer.
That brought Austin''s mind away from his crumbling expectations of his friend.
"Well, he is not, but others are." He said, smirking as he saw Marcus''s unwelcome scowl at his vagueness.
"What do you know of Demons?" Austin asked, abruptly changing the subject.
Marcus knew better than to question the man and went along shrugging, "The basics, I guess. They weren''t involved in my tutorial but I''ve heard about them form others."
"Then you know how... out of hand they can get?" Austin gestured.
Marcus nodded.
"Well, that''s what he''s been dealing with up North. They just got done killing them all which was why they couldn''t come in the first place." Austin said, "Now that''s over with, I asked him to come down but he said no."
Marcus'' face showed a ranged of emotions at hearing there were Demons on the Earth, but Austin waved them away. "There''s no need to worry, they were taken care of."
"How can you be sure?! If even one-" Marcus rushed to say but was cut off.
"I''m sure." Austin said firmly. "It would be good to keep a look out for any more, but the ones that were here are gone. You can be sure of that."
How many did he have to kill to get that injured? I''ve seen him face down hundreds and come out with less than a scratch.
"You''ve shown yourself worthy of trust and I sill take your word on this." Marcus ground out.
Worries abated, Marcus focused back on the important part. Chris wasn''t coming.
He grunted, "If it''s about price, we can negotiate-"
Austin waved him off, "It''s not about price, Chris isn''t like that. Honestly, he might come for the fight alone. The crazy bastard." He muttered the last bit.
"He didn''t come away from the fight unscathed and it''s taking him longer to recover than I thought it would." He stated. "Otherwise, I would go up there and drag him down here myself."
Marcus nodded, taking in the new information before responding.
"But there are people coming?"
Austin nearly sighed, "Yes, there are. Just not the people I wanted."
Marcus either didn''t catch his dejected tone or didn''t care, because he started reviewing their plans and started coming up with new ones.
"How strong are the ones coming? And how many?" Marcus began questioning.
Austin began laying out what he knew and dredged up with the last remembered of their strength before he left. He knew they had grown since then, but an estimate was better than nothing.
Even while describing what he knew, Austin kept thinking about the last paragraph.
~~
Austin,
I hope you are well...
...
I''m sorry, but I won''t be able to come. My arm will take time to regrow and I do not want to leave the healers while it does. Additionally, there is much I must do here, which hinders my ability to leave.
You know my plans for Winter, and with it fast approaching, I cannot leave now.
In my stead, others wish to join you and I''ve sent them with supplies that should help you. Mitchell is curious as to whether these ''infernal creatures'' will hold up to his poison. He was rather upset that it didn''t work on the Demons.
He and your brother have been cooking up some terrifying things.
...
~~
It went on to other details but it ended with this.
~~
Oh, I nearly forgot.
Among the forces marching South to join you, Aunt Carrie is at its head. Your mother misses you and should be able to see her little boy soon.
She was quite adamant about being a part of the group. She''s grown quite a lot and may even be a match for you if you''ve been slacking. She gained a Law and went through the first stage of Body Refining.
Unlike someone else I know. You baby.
Regards,
Your ''Icy Bastion that shields you from harm'' or whatever nonsense you addressed me as.
~~
His Mother was coming. Of course, Chris saved that bit for last, the bastard
Chapter 211- Time for an Upgrade
"Jonathan, my friend, boy is it good to see you." I greeted him and went in for a big hug.
His two little ones were weaving around our legs as they both tried to climb over the other to hug their father.
"It''s good to be back." He said with a smile.
His soir¨¦e over at Fort Hope had finally come to an end and it was nice to have him back. Without him, Abigail had taken on all the duties of buying and selling what we made or excavated from the dungeon.
She was handling it spectacularly, but I had taken up a portion of the slack to help her out and it was not something I liked doing.
I was familiar with numbers and spreadsheets and had spent a lot of time using them in college, but there were no computers to make it easy. If there had, I wouldn''t have hated it so.
No, instead, everything needed to be done the old-fashioned way - On paper. Which took forever without the relevant skills, ones I didn''t have. Manually balancing our expense sheet was tedious and long. We spent so much money that the list of receipts was nearly a mountain. I could do it and had done it, but now that he was back, it was something I would happily give away.
"Oh, I see that look in your eye. You just want me to pick back up the paperwork." Jonathan said with a laugh, "I see how it is."
"No, not at all," I said unconvincingly, "But it would be more efficient that way. But enough about that. Settle in and spend some time resting, we have a big day tomorrow."
He looked puzzled then understood, "So we''re doing it then. Even with those who went South not here?"
"I don''t see why not. It shouldn''t be that hard and the heaviest hitters are still here." I said.
The Healers had finally given their go-ahead. All my bones, muscles, ligaments, and every other part of my body were healed and recovered. All the fractures were fused back together and all the tendons along with them.
The injury that was the quickest to heal was my dislocated shoulder, as funny as that sounded. There wasn''t even an arm attached to the joint. The longest was obvious and still wasn''t regrown, but next up after that was the bones.
The sheer amount that needed to be healed made it difficult.
But, now that massive amounts of Healing skills and mana had been funneled into me, even my fortified body was forced to mend itself.
Now it was time for some fighting again. It wouldn''t be tough, or anywhere close to a fun fight, but that was fine. This battle wasn''t for my own amusement, it had reasons bigger than that.
We were finally upgrading our pylon.
I planned to get at least a few upgrades in tomorrow, as I didn''t expect the first couple to be that hard. The waves had gotten harder, and the minions sent against us higher level than at first, but the mana level hadn''t increased so much that upgrading from Outpost to Village scared me.
The main reason I had waited was for Jonathan to come back. By the time the Wall was in a position to weather an attack and my body didn''t shoot flares of pain while moving, he was already on his way back and it wasn''t that hard to wait a few extra days.
It was also another reason I couldn''t go South to fight with Austin. We weren''t planning to shoot through all the pylon upgrades right now, only enough to extend our range and increase our benefits, which was why we still sent people at all.
I felt we had more than enough firepower with those who remained. As I told Jonathan, all our heavy hitters were still here.
Rachel, Jonathan, Hal, and I were the main four, but a few others joined in that evaluation after the Demons. Gabriel grew as well, but not to the extent my mother did, surprisingly.
Even after the fight, she attacked the Dungeons with renewed vigor when we returned. Usually, her Dungeon Delving was subdued and only done as a token effort to level but now she was much more enthusiastic about it. She even upgraded her Wind Law, making it the highest-tiered Wind Law in the city, beating both Hal and me.
Her other Paths weren''t as advanced, but she was planning to do a bit more before her evolution. The Wind affinity Body Refining Techniques we had didn''t suit her fancy, which made her postpone going down that route.
That was odd to say.
Before her evolution.
That used to be something I thought about constantly as I leveled in the tutorial, but now, I hadn''t thought about it in nearly a year. Shooting through four ranks and then stalling would do that.
Some in the City had already capped out at level 50. As sad as that sounded.
They didn''t have a Law, go through Body Refining, or Form their Anchor which barred their evolution to E-rank. Some were fine with that. They lived their lives and were content with what they had, doing odd jobs in the city to make money.
Stores still needed clerks and it wasn''t a requirement to have the profession. While it made things easier, it wasn''t necessary.
Every time I thought about those people, I couldn''t help the pity I felt. It was wrong to pity them, and I tried not to, but their worldview was so different than my own that it was hard not to.
To each their own.
The people dedicated to their Craft were different. Well, the rules still applied to them, if they had a Law they could advance, but they also had another way to move forward.
The books called it Inspiration, but it was essentially being skilled. If a Crafter was able to make something above their rank, they would be able to advance.
How something was considered ''above their rank'' was up to The System but the general rule applied. Get really good at your craft, and you would be able to advance.
It was insanely rare, apparently, and only happened to the most genius of geniuses, but it was still an option, even if it couldn''t be counted on.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Most would still have to rely on the other requirements.
And the requirements to reach E-rank was the First step on any of the Paths, which wasn''t that hard in my opinion, but maybe I was biased.
Looking back on it, it seemed too easy that the only thing required was one step. At the time of my evolution, I had a Tier 2 Law, a Body of Wood, and my Anchor Formed. A Step on all of the paths and a Second step for my Law.
Then again, I received a Legendary Class because of it, so maybe it wasn''t too easy.
To evolve further and reach D-rank, a Second Step was needed. Either a Lesser Law, a Body of Stone, or a One Star Core. Anchors were weird. The fact that Spirit didn''t have as many Steps as Body and Mind made every stage mean more.
Only having a Spirit Anchor was enough to reach E-rank and D-rank as in the eyes of The System, forming one counted as two Steps.
Requirements I already met.
Rachel also met them, and now my mother as well. I could feel Gabriel was close to a Lesser Law and so was Hal. I wouldn''t doubt it if Austin was in the same boat.
It was something to think about now that people were closing in on level 100.
I had a lot of smithing and engraving in my future. I was not going to lose out on the extra stats for evolving at the same time.
Plus I needed Frost Giant parts.
And I needed to advance my Bloodline.
And I...
There was still a lot to do.
The list never ended.
It was a good day for a fight.
The Sun was high and the breeze carried the first hints of a chill. It was a good day for some bloodshed. Monster bloodshed, obviously. The poor saps that the System brought to face us for our pylon upgrade were in for a world of pain.
Even without my morning coffee, as I silently cried having to go without for so long, a pep was in my step.
I had gone through the higher floors of the Dungeon since the Demon fight but those were nothing against what I could do. Bumbling through them blindfolded and unarmored would still leave me the one out on top.
Still, I wasn''t allowed to push it nor did I want to increase the time it took to recover, but today was different.
Today I could do whatever I wanted.
Well, I still couldn''t give someone two thumbs up, but I could fight without worrying about reopening my wounds. Which was something to be excited about.
It was with a singing voice that I called out to Jonathan, "Gear up, buddy, it''s time!"
He had been catching up on his work and his office was next to mine, which made gathering him up my first stop. He grunted in approval while placing pieces of parchment back into place.
"And get your Wife for me!"
I left him to it and ventured to my next stop, which was Hal''s room. The man was a late sleeper as he had the night shift most of the time.
Knock, Knock.
"Hal-ison, it''s time to wake up sweetie!" I intoned in my most motherly tone.
A groan and a thud was the only response, as he threw something against the door.
He would be up and geared in no time, and I was off to my next stop.
Both Gabriel and my Mother were already up and with a quick word, they were moving in the right direction and there were only a few more to find.
Everyone knew what the plan was, and I didn''t need to go around gathering everyone, but I had nothing better to do. Plus I found it fun.
I got to skip around the Castle bothering people, what else could I ask for?
Eliciting little Anna''s help only made it better, as I could sick her on the people who were moving too slowly. Having a small girl poking at them got them to move their feet.
The rest were gathered in much the same way but someone was hiding from me. Well, she wasn''t hiding on purpose but she wasn''t where I expected her to be, causing me to go on a little search through the Castle.
Which came up empty.
Then I asked around in the City, which also came up empty.
What the hell? Is she purposely hiding from me?
She knew what we were doing so that shouldn''t be the case, but for whatever reason, I couldn''t find her. Giving up, I went to find Vincent instead.
He needed some levels in his class anyway and this was the perfect opportunity for the Hammerman.
Unlike someone else, he was easy to find as I only had to follow the sounds of smithing.
His forge inside where the Inner Wall would eventually be built was finished long ago and he had been working in it ever since. Sometimes even sleeping in it, much to his wife''s annoyance.
The heat was annoying but didn''t bother me much as I pushed open the door.
I did reign in my enthusiasm and held back from startling the man with my shouting, as he was in the middle of hammering out a piece of metal.
It looked to be an axe head but it was only half finished and could still turn into something else. Halberd maybe?
I didn''t see the shaft he was going to use lying around so it made it hard to guess.
Entering the stuffy place let me see he wasn''t alone. My wayward Aunt was here as well, making my search throughout the Castle and City pointless.
Rachel was sitting with her legs crossed an arm''s length away from the forge. Her eyes closed and she was doing... something. Sitting that close to the Spirit Fire while it was in use was dangerous to just about everyone but her.
I could do it and so could Vinny, but anyone besides the people in this room would burn. Gabriel might be able to battle against it with his affinity but he wouldn''t last long at its current intensity. His mana would run out and he would be unable to protect himself.
Vincent''s forging was ignored as I tried to puzzle out what she was doing. I hadn''t known she was here and it was a bit of a surprise to see her.
Focusing my eyes, I watched for the telltale signs of Mana Manipulation but didn''t see any.
Odd.
Is she studying the fire for her Law?
There was no way for me to see if she was comprehending something from the flame. It wasn''t like the process gave off mana for me to see.
If she were comprehending an Ice Law, then I could have felt it resonate with my own but that wasn''t the case.
Looking deeper didn''t reveal anything different. I still couldn''t sense any mana moving unnaturally.
I could feel the enchantments I had made feeding the Spirit Fire, which gave off waves of Fire Mana and Heat. Vinny was using the heat but the Fire mana was free to bounce around the room.
Some would be siphoned back into the enchantments through a Gathering Formation but most was left to linger in the air. Some would be absorbed, naturally, by the objects in the room.
The metal anvil, various smithing tools, the furniture, even Vincent, Rachel, and I. It was natural to pull in mana and everyone did it subconsciously. Vincent more than Rachel as he was actively using it during his craft.
Rachel and I were full which meant we pulled in less. I limited the amount I pulled in as Fire mana, especially Fire mana this pure, was a bitch for my affinity to cleanse.
Most of what I took in leaked back out as I didn''t wish to keep it.
It was still hard to keep any absorption from happening. It felt unnatural and the sensation was hard to get over.
While Fire Mana leaked out of me, it also leaked out of Rachel.
Double odd.
If she was doing something with the mana then it wouldn''t be leaking out of her.
Wait...
The mana she was taking in was less than she was giving off! It was minuscule and insanely hard to catch, but she was doing something with it.
Fire mana would be absorbed, and then less would come out.
The pounding of metal on metal faded away as I directed all of my limited perception on what she was doing.
Fire mana would be absorbed, and then less would come out.
Fire mana would be absorbed, and then less would come out.
She was... cycling it? Or something?
Pure fire mana would go in and less pure fire mana would come out.
Pure fire mana would go in and less pure fire mana would come out.
"Ah hah!" I exclaimed, breaking Rachel out of her meditation.
I hadn''t meant to be so loud but I got excited after I figured out what she was doing.
"Took you long enough," Vincent said from right next to me causing me to jump.
I missed it when he stopped forging and he scared me from being so close without me realizing.
"What was that for?! I was in the middle of something!" Rachel was unpleased by my interruption.
"I''m sorry about that, I didn''t mean to." I apologized before going into why I was there, "But, now that you''re free, it''s time for the upgrade!"
She sighed in acknowledgment.
Turning to Vincent, "You too, buddy. I know you need the levels."
Vincent grunted but didn''t deny it.
"Be on the Wall in 30!" I said before leaving.
Rachel was once again ahead of me in doing something I had put off.
When did she find the time to Purify her Bloodline?
It was cheating! She didn''t have any responsibilities!
Chapter 212 - Oaths
"Come on Elliot, it won''t be that bad. Quit whining!" I needled the man. He reacted to my offer exactly the way I thought he would. The last time I''d come to the man asking something hadn''t exactly been productive to continued health.
"That''s what you said last time and I had to charge into an army of Demons by myself!" He sputtered and tried to make his grievance known, "I barely survived!"
"Ah, but you did survive and look at you now! You''re in a league way above where you used to be and are stronger for it." I nodded sagely. The feeling he gave off wasn''t threatening to me, not many held that honor, but he was a step above the rest. The fight had done him well.
"Just because I advanced my Law in the face of near-death doesn''t make up for the fact it was my NEAR DEATH!"
While it was fun to get a rise out of the man, what I needed an answer to was quite serious. He was one of the only people in the City with a Tier 2 Law and it made him worthy of such a position. Others were already lining up for the battle to come and I didn''t feel like arguing with Elliot would be the best thing for them to see.
One of the biggest things I still needed to do for the Guard Company was appoint a Captain, Commander, or leader of some kind¡ª it didn''t matter what it was called and they would be free to decide on their own title.
My first choice was Jonathan, but he flat-out said no. I could''ve pushed the issue but chose to go a different route. We were already gaining people by the dozens from our recruitment effort and the group I sent to Toronto was doing spectacular work.
People were coming from there in droves.
That being the case, and my plans for the future being expanded to match our growing population, I knew we wouldn''t stop at just one Guard Company.
With that knowledge, I would wait until we had the supplies and revenue to outfit multiple Guard Companies. Then I would come back and put Jonathan in charge of all of them. Giving him a fancy title as well.
Something he couldn''t turn down.
Chief of Security maybe?
Ah, I''d think of something later but for now, he would be free from obligation and that honor fell to another. That person being Elliot.
The man was mostly underwhelming all up until a few months ago. I knew his name and roughly what he looked like from before, but after his stellar performance during the battle, he was now a true force to be reckoned with. Well, by anyone other than me. And Rachel. And maybe Austin, depending on how much he grew during his travels.
I''d watched and observed how he handled himself for a few weeks and knew he would do a wonderful job. it wasn''t like I had anything else to do while recovering. All Elliot needed to do was stop being a pansy.
He was similar to me, back when I was still trying to run from responsibility. Well, similar enough for it to be humorous in my eyes.
"Elliot," I said more seriously, "You showed your valor against the Demons, that I cannot deny, all I am asking is you continue to do so. You have what it takes to lead, I can see it in you. All you need to do is stop fighting it." My father had said the same thing to me once and now I was telling it to another.
His agitation wound down and so did the volume of his voice, luckily. Now our conversation was only loud enough for the two of us. It was surprising he had raised it in the first place. Most were scared of me and the strength I held. He seemed to grow a spine after his near death.
"Why me, though?" He asked, "Sure, I''m trying to get stronger and the Demon fight helped that, but I''m not even in the top ten. Offer it to one of them."
My eyes appraised him heavily, making him wilt slightly as if my gaze weighed on him similar to my aura, if it were unleashed.
"You underestimate yourself." I said, "And even if that were true, and you were really not in the top 10, I would still offer it to you." I poked him in the chest. "They don''t have the heart for it that you do." He looked up at me questioningly, "Sure, they accepted their role as Champions when asked of them, same as you, but they didn''t excel at it like you did. You could have cut and ran like others had multiple times during the battle yet you did not.
"Instead, you stood proud and tall and your achievements from the fight are notable."
I didn''t actually know that at the time. During fights, I usually liked to keep an eye on things but that battle required my full attention. It wasn''t until I talked to Rachel and the others that I got a clearer picture of what happened and got filled in.
Of the multiple Champions that had stepped up to perform the role when called upon, Elliot lasted the longest. Some died, others retreated when things got tough and others... well, it was easier not to talk about those cowards. They didn''t even make it through the charge before fleeing.
Elliot stayed until he fell.
Until his physical body couldn''t stand up any longer. The explosion I caused was the only reason he was still alive, the Demons would have killed him without it. That showed grit on a scale others could reach.
"You don''t understand what you''re asking of me." Elliot sighed sadly.
He was wrong, I understood exactly what I was asking of him.
"I''m asking you to lead. To be at the front while others follow. To throw yourself into danger for the sake that others don''t have to. To fight until your last, and then reach deep and fight more." I stated heavily.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
His eyes looked up, "You''re asking me to be you."
The way he said it made me want to frown. It was easy to tell he didn''t believe he could do it. He didn''t believe he could ever come close to what I do and that was sad. What I did was nothing special. Anyone in my shoes could, and probably would, have done the same. I couldn''t tell him that, obviously, as he wouldn''t believe it and think I was mocking him, but that didn''t change the way I felt about it.
"Yes, I''m asking you to be me." Well, the idea of me that he had in his head. I didn''t want him to imitate me, but to embody the way I fought.
"I don''t know if I can do that."
"I know you can or I wouldn''t be asking it of you."
It took a second, and with a deep sigh, the man picked himself back up. He straightened his back and squared his shoulders, "I will do my best, then."
That brought a smile to my face. I really didn''t want to have to find a third candidate.
"Then you know what I need," I said.
He nodded and dropped to one knee and covered his heart with his fist.
"I, Elliot Gunderson, swear to uphold my loyalty to Christopher Zalenski with my life. I pledge to fight by his side in every battle, to protect his lands and people with my sword, and to never falter in my duty, even unto death. Should I break this oath, I bring dishonor upon myself and be forever branded an Oathbreaker."
The words resounded and even with them being said in a normal volume, everyone heard them. It was a quirk that was startling at first, but I had come to enjoy.
The Oath was something I had come up with to ensure loyalty. It wasn''t binding in any way, they could break it at any time if they so wished, but before its introduction, I added another law and announced it for everyone to hear.
The number of Laws we had was small, so it was somewhat of a surprise for the people to hear that I was adding another and all gathered to find out what it was.
The Law was simple. For the crime of breaking an Oath and becoming an Oathbreaker, the penalty was death.
At least any Oaths sworn to me it was. If anyone swore an Oath to me and broke it, I would kill them. Honesty was a dying trait even before the System came, and now that everything Changed, fewer yet kept their morals. This world needed people like that now more than ever. The others... well, sometimes society was better off without them.
Oathbreakers chief among them.
A small part of me wondered where this was all coming from. I felt so justified when my thoughts turned down that path yet I couldn''t come up with a reason for that justification. It would be considered murder before, yet it didn''t feel that way to me anymore.
Is it power getting to my head or did I always feel that way? Best not dig too deep...
While I was sure of the consequence of breaking an Oath sworn to me, it was the other Oaths I was still unsure about. Other Oaths would be sworn in the city and I could already see some people taking advantage of it. Other variations would come up, to imitate what I had the Guards swear no doubt, but if someone swore to pay back a loan and didn''t, I didn''t think death was the right solution.
Like all things, people would look for loopholes and exploit what they could. If the spirit of the Law was upheld, everything would be perfect but the Earth would stop spinning before that happened.
It was something I could figure out later.
The new Law put a little more weight behind the Oaths but it wasn''t the main reason I had everyone who joined as a guard swear one.
It was the principle of the matter.
I hoped that their own Honor would keep them in check, but it would be foolish to rely only on that. It was a mixture of Hope and Fear I relied on. Hope that people would be honorable, and fear that they would die if they didn''t.
I dreaded the day someone broke it.
For now, I would have hope but I had other plans in place as well to ensure nothing too disastrous happened if hope wasn''t enough. I didn''t need Abigail or my mother to tell me that much.
The people watching broke into applause after the Oath was sworn and I clapped my new Guard Captain on the shoulder and congratulated him. Guard Captain sounded best in my opinion.
Those who had sworn the same Oath already came to congratulate Elliot and it was nice to see the happy reception.
"What name did you come up with for this motley crew? We can''t keep calling it the Guard Company." Elliot said while waving accusingly at the people around.
That... was a good question. I hadn''t thought of what I would call them.
Seeing a good opportunity to issue the Guard Captain his first order, I smiled broadly.
"That''s up to you. I hope you pick something bold, it would be a shame to be the Captain of the Lollipop Guards." I laughed and everyone else joined in. While it would be hilarious and Austin would love it, Elliot wasn''t enthused with the idea, even if the members around him were still chuckling.
Elliot groaned. "We are not calling ourselves the Lollipop Guards."
With that order of business taken care of, I turned to look at everyone else that arrived. Not everyone would be under Elliot as not everyone chose to become Guards, but they were still willing to participate.
"Alright everyone, you know the drill by now. Let''s get this show on the road!" I announced for everyone to hear.
"Shields front and we start in five!"
People spread out as they had numerous times before. The waves had occurred every month and while there were some new people in our midst, this wouldn''t be most people''s first time.
Ice froze around my right side as my augmented arm came into being. I didn''t keep it conjured all the time but it would soon see some use.
It was still slightly odd to hold my hammer in one hand of flesh and the other ice, but I was getting used to it. It was a shame, but by the time it was regrown, I would be perfectly fine fighting without it. I only use one hand, but the new version of my hammer was way too heavy for that. One handing only became an option when all my boosts were in action and [Avalanche] was nearly full.
My strength was higher in my original arm compared to the one of ice, but it was close enough not to matter much. In a real fight, it would very much matter, but nothing today would be a real fight.
"Abigail, are we ready?" I shouted over the crowd. Her brown hair blew in the wind from atop the wall as she turned toward where I stood down below. The trick I did at Fort Hope to shout over the whole town was coming in handy in new ways.
Her Profession had the skills needed to access the pylon remotely from anywhere inside the City. It was nice to initiate the Upgrade without having to walk all the way back to the pylon or have someone stationed there with access to the screens required.
"Initiating Upgrade now!" She called back from atop the Wall where the rest of the Mages and Rangers were.
I, along with everyone else, felt when it was initiated and we all got ready.
Banter died and weapons were drawn. The switch was abrupt and swift.
"Yeah, yeah, defend my claim. I get it." I muttered after the chime.
The upgrade to Village wouldn''t bring anything too strong but I would get a light exercise in no matter what.
I wondered what the upgrades would bring and was especially curious to see how many new pylons we would reach. We only had access to two right now and I was eager to expand that.
Reaching Mountainside would help our efforts for trade and Austin said the pylon he was at wasn''t that far away. If this upgrade didn''t reach the Twin Cities, maybe the next would.
Village to Small Town wouldn''t be that hard either.
Maybe we could push for Large Town?
Chapter 213 - Large Town
The lengthening shadows and darkening cloudless sky promised the chilly night that would soon come. Not only because of the coming season change but because of the lingering Arctic mana smothering the area as well.
The landscape was awash with temporary marks of battle, some larger than others. One massive crater stood out over the rest, spanning tens of feet wide and just as many feet deep. The newly uncovered brown half-sphere clashed with the dying green everywhere else.
It wasn''t alone in its fight against the dull green, as other, smaller circles of brown had their own battle to overcome.
Brown versus fading green as far as the eye could see.
Well, as far as the normal eye could see. I wouldn''t put it past Hal or Austin to be able to see past the war-torn area in front of the wall.
Frozen blood still covered my skin and armor, as I hadn''t decided to use [Frost Armor] for the battle.
An oversight I wasn''t going to make again.
The layer of Ice was the usual victim of my heavy-handed slaying, but now, devoid of that layer, it was my skin and armor that soaked up the scarlet liquid. At least it wasn''t sticky.
It hadn''t had the chance to congeal before being frozen.
"You went overboard." A weary voice commented from beside where I sat, "Again."
I scoffed.
He made it sound like a bad thing and in some ways it was, but he didn''t need to be so dreary about it. It wasn''t like it was unfixable.
"Yes, I know it''s fixable, but it''ll take days to fill that in." Gabriel, knowing what I was thinking, pointed at the largest of the new landscaping decorations.
"And what about that," He pointed at a different addition that hadn''t been there hours prior, this one a meter-thick wall of Ice topped with endless spikes. Spikes that still held their prizes aloft, ten feet from the ground, their blood frozen inside the bodies, barred from dripping down.
"I can''t even deconstruct it and no one can get near it."
I refrained from scoffing again.
They could get near it if they tried hard enough. They just didn''t like the feeling it gave off. Gabriel not being able to deconstruct it was new. I hadn''t known about that.
The two big markers that my brother so helpfully pointed out were one hundred percent my fault. There wasn''t the need to use such force, but I had done so anyway.
It had been months since my last real fight, and while I wouldn''t consider what just happened a real fight, I fought like it was anyway. Holding back after not being able to let loose for so long was a lost cause.
It was barely a few swings into the upgrade challenge when I started to go... overboard.
"Alright, fine," I sighed, "I may have gone overboard."
A grunt prodded me to go further.
"Again." I defeatedly admitted.
It was hard not to admit it while looking at the after-effects of a full-powered [Shattering Hammer] and [Frozen Rift]. Or, as fully powered as I chanced while not killing my allies who fought near me.
The crater from [Shattering Hammer] was particularly close to dooming us all, as the entire cliff shook after my hammer landed. The ground vibrated so violently that an earthquake would have blushed.
The fighting stopped dead as both sides stilled to listen for the signs of a landslide taking the battlefield off the edge along with everyone on it, which thankfully remained unrealized. An earful was the least of my worries after that and everyone had given me the side eye for nearly killing us all.
The good news was there were a lot more earth reinforcing jobs now that a weakness like that was revealed. Jonathan and the few other Earth affinities had their work cut out for them in that regard.
I had refrained myself the next wave, using pure force instead of fancy skills.
The lesser craters were from those impacts, as [Avalanche] had carried over from the first wave, causing casual swings to hold a lot more force than normal.
It was the third wave that I lost myself and went overboard, again, as Gabriel so helpfully put it.
Instead of [Shattering Hammer], I used the more mana-intensive [Frozen Rift]. Creating nearly thirty yards of jagged ice spikes to spring from the ground and rise ten feet in the air.
That wave held annoying scaled creatures who stayed back launching elemental attacks. I had tried to use [Frozen Rift] as a ranged attack but underestimated the destruction it would cause.
In retrospect, forcing half my total mana into the skill should have been a clue. Probably. I had been too annoyed that the ankle biters kept running away from me to care at the time.
Now they lay atop the new section of wall I had added, with no more running away in their future.
My new hammer had gone through its christening and now I was left to take in the after effects. People were still clearing the field, carting off the bodies for the Dismantlers or Leatherworkers with Skinning skills.
The meat would go to the kitchens and stables. Some for the people and the undesirables to the wolves. Sarah''s growing pack of wolves were a bottomless pit to feed.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
If we didn''t have monthly deliveries of food then we would be hard-pressed solely for their upkeep. It was to the point the wolves celebrated the smell of Goblins and Orcs, as they knew they had a feast in their future.
No one else was willing to consume the things.
"Is she still documenting the changes or can we do one more?" I asked hopefully.
As the upgrades were completed, the difficulty had risen alongside them and it was just beginning to feel challenging. One more would be pushing it for the day, as the sun was soon to set and people were tired from three rounds of fighting, but I couldn''t help but hope for one more.
Outpost to Village had been a breeze. Other than the scare with [Shattering Hammer], it was completed in record time. The new strength people wielded made it impossibly easy. The early E-rank creatures were ended swiftly.
Village to Small Town followed similarly. Other than early E-rank turning into mid E-rank, and there being more of them.
Small Town to Large Town was when the difficulties started, but not for me. Late E-rank was still in my wheelhouse, but others had to take the wave seriously, lest they have a permanent end.
The highest-leveled creatures were well into the 90s, and one was even at level 100, but it hadn''t made the jump to D-rank yet. Too bad that it hadn''t, as that was where most of the strength came from at that level.
Without the boost from jumping up a rank, and with a full [Avalanche], it didn''t stand a chance. A quick pull on my Bloodline and it was as good as dead. If I had faced the beast first, without my boosts built up, then it would have been harder. But that hadn''t been the case.
It also helped that [Blizzard] and [Permafrost] had been working the two previous fights to give me even more of an advantage. [Glacial Presence] provided almost the same boost as [Righteous Fury] by that point.
It was the main reason the Arctic mana was still lingering around, frozen into the ground and air.
"You know she said the last wave was the last one. And that was after she caved and let you do another one. We were supposed to stop at Small Town." Gabriel said.
He was right, but that didn''t change the fact I would ask for it. Small Town had extended our range far enough to reach Mountainside. We could have stopped there, but I pushed for one more.
The two waves before that being on the easier side helped convince her to do one more. Now that there were actual injuries that the Healers were dealing with, it was unlikely we would be doing another.
The main argument to push for another fell when Large Town revealed Twin Cities, the pylon Austin was staying at. There wasn''t even that to use as an argument. Which left only superfluous reasons to keep going. Like spices. What I wouldn''t give for spices again. Besides garlic and onions, not much would grow this far North.
I doubted Abigail would agree to another one faced with that argument.
As our Range extended, what once had been two pylons and a paltry amount available in the Market, had turned into six and a lot more available for purchase. Mainly, the chunks of stone that Austin had promised.
He had mentioned in his letters that there was an enormous amount of the stuff surrounding their pylon and they were looking for a way to make use of it. We were the opposite. We needed massive amounts of stone and our quarries could only work so fast, limiting how much we brought in.
Sending some of our higher leveled Miners over to the Crystal mine certainly didn''t help our stone production.
The stone they had put up for sale was better than the stuff we mined. As annoying as that was. It wasn''t that much stronger and wasn''t worth the effort to redo what we had already built, but the fact it was stronger annoyed me. It was a good thing too, as we wouldn''t be able to afford purchasing the amount needed to redo the walls.
They had higher leveled Miners or Quarry Workers. The grade of the material made that obvious. Unless they had loads of Granite that had risen above what we had up here, but that was doubtful as the difference would''ve been more noticeable.
In addition to the stone that now appeared, there were various bits of Ore as well. Presumably from Mountainside but could be from a different pylon. It was doubtful that it was from a Dungeon, as the amount and quantity of what was available made that unlikely.
Dungeons didn''t usually give out chunks larger than a few pounds. The lowest level of the Metal Dungeon we had gave out five-pound chunks and I doubted there were Dungeons out there that much deeper than ours.
With the first delivery of Mana Crystals due soon, our Dungeons would soon outpace most on the Planet. Without a Curator to ensure a break didn''t happen, we would have to be on the cautious side but they would definitely grow much faster than others around the world.
Caution limited how fast they would grow, but shoving loads of mana into the Dungeon was dangerous if not monitored correctly.
Footsteps drew me away from thinking about our Dungeons'' growth, as the crunch played a pleasant melody. The crunch of new snow would always be a welcome sound. Even if it carried a person who would dash my hopes.
"We are not doing another one." Before she even uttered hello, she knew what I wanted to ask.
I slumped and said nothing. I knew what she would say anyway.
"If Late E-rank monsters get sent for Large Town, we''ll face actual D-ranks for Small City. Not even mentioning the fact jumping from Town to City carries its own risks."
The risks she was talking about were obvious after we reached Large Town. The pylon menus claimed as much and made it painfully obvious. Even someone inept would be able to take the not so subtle warning to heart.
One upgrade option was the normal progression. Large Town to Small City. It would be tough, but follow the same progression we knew from before.
The other promised a challenge above that.
In order to receive a Noble Title, the normal challenge wasn''t enough.
Two paths were opened to us. Our next upgrade would have to be a choice.
We had known that Noble Titles started at Small City. Abigail''s growing library had said as much. It would also upgrade the Profession Abigail could evolve into and that was a discussion we would have to have in the future.
She was nearing level 100 faster than I was.
Outposts were run by Outpost Captains. It was the lowest rarity for the pylon leader Profession and one Abigail had evolved out of already.
Villages were run by Village Chiefs. The next step up, but not that much higher.
Small Towns and Large Towns were run by Mayors. The rank Abigail''s Profession currently was.
Small Cities could either be run or owned by Barons, depending on whether they chose the Profession or not. I did not, so Abigail would be able to upgrade into a Baron''s Seneschal.
That was only if we chose the Noble route. If we chose to do the upgrade without the Noble Title, she would remain a Mayor.
The Title of Baron itself didn''t really do anything. I didn''t care for it and it was only in the improvements it would bring that I even wanted it. It would maybe impress others or broadcast our ability to get the title, but I wasn''t one who cared for vanity titles.
I knew others would. Maybe they would make people call them ''my lord'' or other such nonsense.
"You''re thinking useless thoughts again. I can feel it." Abigail interrupted. "The title isn''t useless, you just don''t care for the advantages it brings."
Leave it to her to crash a train of thought she wasn''t even invited to.
"If I don''t care for the advantages and there are no other uses... therefore it is useless," I said.
Gabriel snorted. "Really? Therefore? Are you a philosopher now?"
"Shut it, you. I can talk eloquently when I want to." I remarked.
"Speak eloquently." Abigail corrected.
"Did you come over here for some other reason or solely to engage in whatever this is?" I cut in and waved my hand.
"Yes, actually, we have more posts to fill now. While both the Seneschal and Head Merchant slots are filled, there are new ones opened because of the upgrades." Abigail started.
"It looks like Guard Captain is an official post so Elliot will be pleased. Head of Construction as well..."
With every title she listed off, instead of feeling good about our growing City, all I could see were the long meetings we would have to discuss who these new positions were going to.
Chapter 214 - Baroness
Nick
The smell of ozone, burnt hair, and roasting flesh assaulted his nose but he didn''t shy away from it like he had in the past. When he first got his powers the smell had been overwhelming and completely debilitating, causing him to empty his stomach plenty of times in the midst of fighting, which he worked hard to overcome.
Now, it was a mild annoyance.
If someone had told the past him that he would get used to the smell of smoldering remains, he would have thought them mad, yet they would''ve been right. Even still, the
AustinIf you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
His leg tapped constantly as his nerves got the best of him. His Mother had arrived less than a few hours ago and it was already setting him on edge.
The barrage of questions hadn''t helped.
"Are they taking care of you?"
"Are they feeding you enough?"
On and on she went. Everything and anything got brought up no matter how large or small. It was nice to see his mother again but he hated being babied and that was something universal to all mothers.
It was like they couldn''t help it.
Still, with the new arrivals, their battle plans were set. Marcus had already remade most of them to account for the new arrivals and the changes were sent out to the perspective leaders or whatnot. I think he called them Sergeants, like the military.
Honestly, although having his Mom here annoyed him slightly, he was glad she had come. She was one of the fighters best suited for a mass assault like they were planning.
Other than Chris, and maybe Rachel, his mother was the next best against countless weaker enemies. Now that she had a Law and a Body of Wood, most of the insects would be below her in power. Her boost in strength made her able to rain arrows down from the sky, quite literally, turning drops of water into a deadly barrage.
Her level being in the 80s also helped.
It was a surprise to Austin that he wasn''t that far ahead anymore. He was pushing into the last few levels of his Rank yet his family wasn''t that far behind. He imagined Chris was somewhere in the 80s as well.
He still had a lot he needed to do before reaching D-rank, not least of which was finally upgrading his other Law. He had improved his Light Law with all of the fighting and he wanted to push his Fire Law to match before reaching D-rank.
He was also close to his Anchor. He could literally taste how close he was and it had been a never-ending source of frustration, but something was holding him back. He had an idea of what that was, but he wasn''t sure if he was right.
If he was, then it was only a matter of time.
If he wasn''t, then it would take a little longer.
Time wasn''t that much of an issue to him anymore. He had shot through the ranks as fast as he had previously because he had to. Back then, it was evolve or die and he didn''t fancy dying. Now, he could take as long as he wanted. Sure, he didn''t want to fall too far behind the power curve of the Planet but he was already ahead as he was, he could take a little time off from pushing to square up on things he had skipped.
Plus, finding parts to use for evolving was going to be a bitch.
He''d seen a Light affinity falcon during his travels but none of the Eagle variety. He was sure he could find them with a little effort but that would have to wait until he reached his prize here.
He could envision the levels he would gain in his Profession once they reached the treasure he had felt. The discovery alone would push him to level cap.
So much to do and it all started with ending the infernal bugs once and for all.
Once he was done here, he would be free once again and that excited him like no tomorrow.
It had already been way longer than he planned. When he left Frostheim, he was set to explore the new world yet he got stuck in this never-ending battle.
They were winning, but it was a slow victory.
Depriving the insects from the mana around the Dungeons had killed their ability to grow and reproduce as much as they had. Their attacks now were a fraction of what they had been.
The only reason they hadn''t pushed sooner and waited for his family to arrive was because they couldn''t.
The previous two times they had conquered a Dungeon, the bugs had retaliated swiftly to reclaim the high mana area. The first had been fine, the second was rough, but the third nearly killed him.
Their forces thinned with every Dungeon as they had to leave people behind to hold them. Multiple times the insects had assaulted what they had already conquered making them leave behind valuable fighters.
Add in the fact that the insects fought tooth and nail, or mandible and chitin, to keep ahold of their last Dungeon, and the battle was rough.
Both him and Marcus had Healers come by for over a month to fix them up. From the time he sent the letter back to Frostheim, to when his family arrived, he had daily healing sessions to fix him up and it was only recently that he was back to tip-top shape.
Marcus hadn''t been much better.
Hopefully, they would be finished within the week. He would level cap his Profession from the find, gain some more levels for his Class, and then be free to work on what he needed to.
He could see it already.
Jayla
Thick layers of stone slogged off her as she nearly dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Even for her, and her insane toughness, the fight was brutal. If she hadn''t been able to hold the monster down, everyone would have died. They were lucky that the fortifications held.
Jayla couldn''t imagine the death toll if the wall had been breached.
She had done it., though. It took an excruciating amount of time and effort, even more from all her subordinates, but she had done it. She wasn''t sure if she was the first, or if anyone else had accomplished what she had, but that didn''t even register to her.
All that mattered was the new addition on her status sheet.
~~
Name: Jayla Somerfield
Race: (E) Human
Class: (E) Bulwark of Stone(Epic) ¨C Level 71
Profession: (E) Journeyman Mason(Rare) ¨C Level 95
Affinity: Bedrock
Faction: Mountainside (Leader)
Title: Baroness
Strength - 984
Agility - 474
Perception - 401
Fortitude - 1124
Endurance - 721
Vitality - 512
Intelligence - 123
Wisdom - 298
Acumen - 202
Free Points: 0
Laws: Lesser Law of Stone
Body: Body of Stone(Chiseled Stone Body)
Spirit Stage: None
Coins: 0
~~
She was a Baroness.
As with every challenge since the Change, Stone stood forever. Her Affinity upgrading to Bedrock only made that all the more true.
No matter how many times this new shitty world aimed to knock her down, they had another thing coming. Stone wasn''t so easy to force to bend, and she wasn''t any easier.
Still, she had trounced through the Dungeons like they were play pens, none of the monsters gave her any sense of a fight, but that beastie was different. The upgrade, empowered because of the Noble title, had spawned something much stronger than her. She knew it would be above level 100, but she''d fought beasts that strong before.
That arrogance had nearly ended her when the first blow nearly pulverized her.
All of her skills came out after that, and even then, it nearly wasn''t enough. Her defense held, but nothing she did damaged the beast. It took continued, sustained bombardments from the catapults and mages while she held it off for over an hour until it succumbed.
"Ma''am, we still don''t see Vancouver but we have more pylons on the map," Walter informed, only slightly dejected.
With every pylon upgrade, they searched for more survivors. There was a Small Town near Yellowstone and another small pylon somewhere in North Dakota, but that all paled compared to Vancouver. Her sister and the rest of her family were unreachable, like so many other people cut off from loved ones.
Vancouver, Seattle, Portland. Everything West of the mountains was cut off. No matter what they did, it remained out of reach.
The Rockies split the country in two and they were uncrossable through any means. Even their pylons couldn''t reach the other side.
"What others have we hit?" She asked, the consolation prize was reaching further East, instead of West. As their pylon grew, their range in the other directions was barely enough to contain her growing frustration.
"The one we sent the letter to North of Winnipeg, another in the Middle of Minnesota, one in South Dakota, and a few others that don''t have much of anything based on what their selling." He riddled off.
"Anything good for sale?"
"Equipment mostly, some materials and the like but we have most of those already. One pylon had loads of Stone for sale but we hardly need any at this point."
Jayla snorted, they needed more stone like they needed an extra hole in the head. They were having trouble getting rid of the stuff they already had. Carving out the Mountain to form her City left her with more than she knew what to do with.
Equipment, though, that was odd. Everyone was grasping for gear that would keep up with them as they leveled. Most had outgrown what they brought with them from the tutorial and the search for good gear was universal. Which made someone selling it, instead of using it suspect.
"Is anybody buying the Stone?" If there was a buyer for the stuff, she could offload some for coin in return. She had nearly a mountain load.
"It''s too early to tell. We have people watching but we won''t know more until a transaction takes place."
"What about the gear? Is it any good?" She asked.
At that, Walter hesitated which made her raise an eyebrow. Her city being built into the side of a mountain gave them ample access to more metal than their Smiths could handle. They were constantly beating away at one project or another forging all kinds of equipment. While the city prized itself on their Masons, her included, their Smiths were nothing to laugh at either.
"It''s better than ours. Both in forging ability and enchanting."
That made her stop. Huh.
Maybe they would get something worthwhile out of this partnership. She hadn''t known much about the city when they sent the letter and did it mostly out of curtesy, but they didn''t know that. That was the standing order for every pylon they found traces of to recapture what little there was left of communications.
The main thing humanity needed to do right now was reconnect. If they remained divided, they would all fall. The stone in her told her that much.
Any lone mountain would get whittled down by the wind over time.
Only when Mountain Ranges came together could they last.
"Send some of the Merchants to try and get a better deal. That Market," she spat the word, "Is worse than a seedy loan shark in fees."
"Yes," Walter sighed, "The Market that magically brings objects from one end of the world to another near instantaneously is a monumental rip off."
"I don''t need your sarcasm right now Walter, I''m still in pain." Jayla remarked and waved a hand over her body. Now free from its stony constraints, it left her battered form easily visible. Along with a bone or two poking out of where it shouldn''t.
"... Apologies," At least it sounded like he meant it. A small win.
"They''ll need people to guard them, the trip is long and goes through dangerous ground." Walter pointed out. "And I suggest waiting until Winter has passed. Whoever built the City did so much farther to the North than every other pylon on the map."
Ice affinity? It had to be something Cold related as there was no other reason to deal with the downsides of living so far North. Most City leaders picked spots that benefitted them and it was hardly a surprise someone with an Ice affinity would do so as well.
Hell, she built hers into the side of a Mountain for that exact purpose. The only better place would be underground, but that was out of the picture. No one would want to live underground, even if they had the ability to carve out a big enough spot.
The pylon near Yellowstone did the same. The man''s duel affinities for Fire and Earth made the Volcano there a perfect spot, even if he was a massive prick.
"We''ll wait then, but start the plans. Ask around if anyone had family over there so we can gather letters or volunteers." Best to send people who want to go anyway. The trip won''t be a quick one.
Chapter 215 - Harvest Festival
The weeks leading up to the start of Winter were full of activity. With Stone readily available being bought and quarried, the Outer wall was finished up rather quickly, only waiting for Gabriel and I to engrave it.
While we did that, work began on the Inner Wall.
The roundabout way we constructed the city was rather odd, but it would soon be finished. The Keep was first for defense reasons. We used it as fortifications against the Waves and in case we were attacked.
The Outer Wall was next. It took the longest amount of time and the most Stone to construct, while also being the part that drained most of our stores of precious metals.
For the Wards we designed to work, the inlaid metal needed to be able to handle the mana forced through it. Which ruled out most of what we had available to us and the only usable material was what we brought with us.
If I hadn''t bought so much from the tutorial store, we would''ve had to settle for a lesser version of the enchantment.
That being said, the Frosted Silver we had a stock of was now completely gone.
Silver was one of the best Metals to use for enchanting for its Mana conductivity alone. It wasn''t the strongest, so inlaying a sword with the stuff was a terrible idea, but a Ward hidden under inches of Stone would be fine.
Additionally, the type of Ward and the effect being powered by Ice Mana made the cold-aligned Frosted Silver the best choice. Using [Mana Infusion] for months on end only made it better.
It took a lot of trial and error to figure out which metal was best.
Gold worked, and so did extremely pure versions of Copper and Aluminum, but they usually burnt out at a much lower threshold. Stronger metals that were harder didn''t have the conductivity needed. Steels, Irons, and their various alloys didn''t have the property we needed. We didn''t have the time to test why which metals worked and didn''t, but that was on my long list of things to do once things settled down.
A list that was getting continually longer.
The only reason we knew to purchase Silver in the first place was because of the Intro enchanting books.
It was kind of depressing that I was always forced onto the next urgent thing but I hoped the rush would settle eventually and give me some time to catch up on all the cool things I was blowing by.
I was slated to live for over two hundred and fifty years and I was barely 26. I would get some time to relax eventually. Especially with my coming evolution extending that even further.
Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do with 700 years of life. The not even two years I had already experienced since the Change already felt like a lifetime alone.
With that peachy thought aside, I returned to focusing on my work on the Wards. They were the last thing I had to do before I was free to leave.
The walls were built and they were strong, I doubted anything could breach them while they were defended, but the Wards made them even stronger. With my planned journey taking me away from the City for most of the Winter months, I wanted to make sure everything would be fine while I was gone.
It was a bit nerve-wracking to think about leaving after what just happened but I would not delay it. After missing my chance last Winter, I was not going to wait another year.
With the supposed ''test'' still on the horizon, I couldn''t afford to wait another year. I was surprised it hadn''t happened yet.
Maybe there''s a trigger or something we haven''t set off yet. Someone reaching D-rank maybe?
I wouldn''t rush my evolution no matter what, as it was the foundation for my future, but it did put me in a hurry to finish what I needed to get done.
A Tier 3 Law was unlikely, but I at least wanted to push my Wind law to Tier 2 to catch up with my Ice one. My body was due for an upgrade as well. I even had the technique book ready for it. I already had my Anchor so I was good on the Spirit side, and it was growing nicely. The last was Mana Cultivation but that was already in the plans.
Other than the Paths of Power, my Racial traits needed some work as well. The Paths of Power would improve the rarity of Class I would be offered and greatly boost my power, but I couldn''t ignore what advantages my Race held because of it.
Rachel was already working on purifying her Bloodline and I needed to do the same. Empower it and purify it.
I was behind on both.
To top it off, and complicate matters even further, I somehow needed to find parts to use. How I was going to do that was beyond me though. I wasn''t the only one in the same boat and people much more knowledgeable than me were looking for solutions.
Some were waiting to evolve to E-rank for that exact reason, they weren''t willing to miss out and shoot themselves in the foot.
The leading theory was becoming a Baron and upgrading the pylon would unlock the feature to buy things from off-world but those were only guesses. We knew that option would come eventually if we upgraded our pylon enough, but assuming it would come at the Baron rank was mostly guesswork.
Bah, I''m thinking about stupid stuff again.
I had been working on the Wards for months by now and it was hard to keep my mind from wondering while I did it. What was once a sweat-induced attempt to be extremely precise, was now common enough that I could let my mind wander while doing it.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The levels and new skills made it much easier.
The levels were a bit of a sore spot though, as I wasn''t receiving as many as I hoped. I knew why, but it was still aggravating.
The bulk of the essence would come when the job was finished.
And taking months to finish a job delayed the levels I would gain for the same amount of time.
The windfall would be huge, and my level would jump, but it was annoying to only get trickles of essence when I knew what I was doing was worth way more.
To make up for it, I helped Vinny in the forge. Well, I didn''t forge, he did, but I enchanted. What started as a way for me to get some easy levels turned into one of our most profitable exports.
Vinny''s forging ability already made good equipment and me slapping some Runes on it only made it better. It gave me some easy essence and sold for more coin.
I was probably downplaying my portion of the work but it was hard to feel like I did anything when Vincent was the one doing most of the work. He spent hours forging various equipment while all I did was take his finished work and alter it.
The work was good, I wouldn''t purposefully add shitty Runes, but I didn''t really create anything new. Not like I did when I worked from scratch.
It certainly helped even my levels out. I was nearing level 70 already and once the Ward was finished, I wouldn''t be surprised if it pushed me through most of the 70s.
Darn, I did it again.
This time it did cause me to make a mistake. Cursing, I undid the last bit of infill and corrected the lines. While it was annoying to redo, it wasn''t the end of the world. The hard part was the engraving and that was already done.
If I had messed up the carving, it would''ve been a much harder fix. Depending on the severity, it would take getting an Earth mage out to fix the stone or replacing the block entirely.
That was never fun and the entire construction crew would grumble at me while they undid their work only to redo it after I adjusted the carving. After it happened a few times in the beginning, I made sure to not make any more mistakes.
My work continued until sundown when I finally took a break.
Lack of sunlight wasn''t the hindrance it used to be with heightened perception but it was good to keep a work balance. Rushing through without breaks would cause mistakes and those usually took longer to fix than just waiting until morning.
The stars were out in force and it was nice to gaze up at them once again.
A new constellation was out and one that I always loved. It heralded the beginning of Winter. At least to those in the Northern Hemisphere, but since I had never stepped foot below the equator, that was always.
The three stars were bright and shining, forming the belt, more twinkling lights filled out the body but the rest weren''t visible in the night. Some days were more clear than others.
Seeing Orion was always a joy. Even if it meant I was on a tighter timetable than before.
My arm was already taking in as much healing as my body could handle and it was growing by the day. The Healers had trouble at first, as my Fortitude and Refined Body made it difficult to heal, but they overcame that and were better for it.
It was already regrown to below the elbow, all that was left was the forearm and hand. Which, admittedly, were the hardest part. I didn''t imagine the small hand bones would be easy.
I sighed and made for bed. My body''s endurance made it so I didn''t require sleep every night, but it had been a few days since my last snooze and I was due.
And it would let me get some shut-eye before the Council meeting the following day. Those were always a drag.
Most of the meeting was like any other. We spoke about the events and direction while informing everyone of what problems people were dealing with. How the Quarry and Crystal Mine were doing along with how the Dungeons were growing now that we were feeding them mana crystals.
Everything was going like it had countless times before, until a new idea was brought up.
"We should have a harvest festival or something," Abigail said. "We haven''t celebrated any holidays since the Change and it would be nice to celebrate for once."
"That''s not true. We got together for Christmas last year." Sam said.
"That was two years ago and I''d hardly call that a celebration." Abigail corrected.
"What about the feast we had after the Demons?" Jonathan chimed in.
"Our victory feast isn''t an annual celebration and was a special occasion." She stated, "Unless you plan to get attacked by Demons every year so we can have an annual holiday, we need something else."
"Why a harvest festival though?" I questioned.
"It doesn''t have to be a harvest festival, it was just what came to mind. All the crops are in and the fieldwork is slowing down. It seems like the perfect time. Plus, you''ll be gone for the Winter so it''s now or never."
"Isn''t it a bit late for a harvest festival though? Aren''t those usually done right after the Harvest is in?"
"It''s not that late. The last of the crops are only just now getting stored away. Without advanced combine harvesters, there''s more work to be done than just cutting down the stalks."
"Alright then. I''d call for a vote but I see no reason to say no. Unless anyone objects, we move forward with the festival." I said.
No one said anything and that was that.
We now had a festival on the books.
"With that finished, we should talk about the changes to the pylon. Elliot filled Guard Captain and we have a few more spots to fill and now''s the time to recommend someone if you know anyone." I said, moving to our next topic.
"Phillip has done a nice job as Construction Foreman, I think promoting him to Master Builder is a good idea." Abigail volunteered. There some grumbles about getting Uncle Brayden to reconsider, but he firmly said no when we asked.
Phillip was a good dude, used to work Construction before the Change, and did the exact same thing now. Kind of funny really. He had a Rare Construction Management Profession and would work well in the role.
"All for Phillip being Master Builder."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Then it''s settled. Have him come to my office later so I can promote him and get his Oath." I said, "Anyone else?"
"Have you given any thought to getting an Assistant or Secretary?" Abigail poked, bringing up a topic I had thought was shot down.
While I worked on the Wards my work as City Owner had started to pile up. She had hinted at getting an Assistant or Secretary a few times already but I always put it off.
"Would anyone actually want to be an Assistant?" I questioned.
It didn''t make sense to me that someone would choose that for their Profession. Sure, Blacksmith didn''t sound all that powerful looking back, but at least it was better than Assistant.
It at least created something.
"You''d be surprised. If someone chose Messenger, then someone will choose Assistant." She said.
That reasoning made sense but it was still weird to think about. I knew not everyone chose their Profession based on the stats they gave and if they would help them grow stronger, but Assistant just seemed dull.
"Fine, I''ll get one on one condition." I stated while everyone waited to hear my condition, "That you get one as well. I will not allow you to do everything yourself."
She''d done a wonderful job, but I knew the workload was starting to outpace her. Especially with the new arrivals coming in all the time.
Houses needed to be prepared for them. Jobs needed to be arranged and that was only dealing with the migrants and didn''t even account for her work to continue growing the city.
She hated letting other people help even Before, and it was even worse now.
"Fine." She huffed, "I already have some candidates for you to look at so we can start when you''re ready."
Of course she did.
Chapter 216 - Laws
Miles
The cart shuddered as the wagon wheel fell into yet another divot on the dirt path, nearly throwing him from his seat. While the road was getting better the closer they were to arriving, it was still far from the smooth asphalt from Before.
Oh, what he wouldn''t give for travel to be as easy as it used to be.
His journey would''ve equated to a few hours in the car rather than the months spent walking, riding, or otherwise moving along he''d experienced. He almost regretted his decision to come.
If he had known it was so far North, he would''ve at least given it a second thought.
A rough wind blew in and his cloak flew open, leaving his body unprotected from the chill the air brought. He shivered, unused to it being so cold so soon. He was lucky it wasn''t snowing. It was certainly cold enough for it.
It''s not even Winter yet! This is absurd.
Miles was a proud Canadian, but even he wasn''t used to bitter cold. Toronto wasn''t usually that bad, being as far South as it was. But this, this was farther North than he''d ever been and the Cold made that fact known.
He cursed and muttered under his breath but didn''t manage to keep quiet enough.
"You''ll be alright, kid, you''ll get used to it." The cart driver assured him with a reassuring pat, like he was a child.
"Used to it? How will I get used to it when it''s only going to get worse? It''s only October!" He exclaimed. Late October, but still October.
The cart driver laughed, "Hah, I remember having the same thought when I first arrived, but it really isn''t that bad."
Miles struggled to think how the dreaded winter ''wouldn''t be that bad''. He wasn''t going to call his wagon companion a liar, but he certainly wasn''t telling the whole truth.
"Is it your first time being up North?" The man asked, striking up a conversation now that the silence was broken.
"Yes." Miles said as he sinched his cloak closed, tying the knot tighter this time, "Never really left Toronto before and if I did, it was never to come North."
"Yeah, I hear that. Never thought I''d be ''ere myself." The man chuckled.
The question flew faster than Miles could stop it, "Then why are you here?"
The man looked at Miles, but then shrugged, not taking offense to the personal question. Not many liked to talk about personal subjects nowadays, "Name''s Nathan, by the way, don''t remember if I introduced myself."
"Miles."
"Well, Miles," calling him by name instead of ''kid'', "After the Change I didn''t really have anywhere to go. I lived hours away from my family and without anything tying me down, I left to go find them and make sure they were safe." Nathan said, "Little did I know at the time they had joined a group traveling North and it took months to finally reach them."
The man didn''t sound too put out by it but just thinking about traveling for that long made Miles shudder. His ass was already sore and all he did was sit on the cart!
"After I found them, I just never had a reason to leave. After that... well..." Nathan spread his arms as if to say ''Here I am.''
Nathan''s story was sadly common. So many people had been separated that the following chaos was even worse. Not only was their home destroyed, but they had no way to contact their loved ones.
Miles was thankful he didn''t have to worry about that.
"What about you, kid? What''re you doing all the way up here?" Nathan asked.
In the ass end of nowhere, Miles wanted to add.
"It was either this or starve." Miles said grimly, "I don''t care for starving."
"I hear that. That first year was all berries and dried meat. When that failed, it was anything I could find." The man reminisced, "It was rough."
Something in him wanted to yell and scream that Nathan didn''t know anything about rough but held it in. He didn''t know the man''s situation. Even if it felt like no one could''ve possibly had it worse.
The nights spent hungry, the hope he felt when he found a berry bush only to puke it back up when he found out they were poisonous. His trials hunting beasts so far above his level that a mistake meant death that often ended in failure and left him more hungry than when he started.
"There wasn''t any food and I didn''t have a reason to stay. So when people came advertising for a City up North, I didn''t have a reason to refuse." Miles stated.
"Oh, you came from down there." Nathan realized, "I thought you were from The Fort."
To hear his home referred to as ''down there'' hurt, but it was an apt description. There wasn''t much down there. The Fort, on the other hand, at least had a semblance of society.
It was crowded, underfed, unorganized, and Miles would get shanked if he openly revealed he had food, but it was better than ''down there.''
With Toronto under water, it was every man for himself. People lied, stole, and cheated, all to survive the day. The food situation was bad before, but it was even worse now.
"There won''t be a ''down there'' much longer," Miles said bitterly.
"What''s it like? I''ve heard stories but this is the first time I''ve met someone that came from there." Nathan asked earnestly.
A part of Miles didn''t want to answer. Answering made all the memories he had pushed away come back, but he did so anyway. Maybe it would help him through it.Stolen story; please report.
"Hell." He said, "It wasn''t too bad at first. People worked together, formed groups for safety, and set up what camps and shelters they could. It worked, for a time."
"Then the food ran out. We didn''t have crops to grow and the seeds we did have we couldn''t protect. Animals and beasts ate up anything we tried to plant. Hunting worked until the beasts grew stronger than us, then it wasn''t hunting anymore. It was fighting for survival."
"Until slowly, we didn''t have any way to gather food anymore. The only thing keeping people alive is the lake. Fish reproduce so fast there''s always something to catch but even that came with... difficulties."
The memory came quickly before he could push it away. The water churned, waves splashing over the boat walls. The shaking was so hard he could barely stand. The... thing that came up from the depths.
Miles barely survived.
The only survivor on a boat of twenty.
He left the next week after he recovered.
"If nothing changes, everyone there''ll be dead by the end of the year." He finished.
The cart driver whistled sadly, "Damn, I heard it was bad but not that bad. What about the stronger people? Can''t they do anything?"
"All the good ones are dead. Slowly worn down by endless battles." Miles spat, "And those that lived will sooner kill you for experience than protect anyone."
His voice was hot in anger talking about those animals. He didn''t blame them for not helping, but they were worse than that. They actively made it worse. They cut down anyone who challenged them and stole anything they wanted.
The two didn''t have anything to say after that. Miles hadn''t meant to kill the conversation but it felt good to talk about it, even if it was painful to remember.
It was a few days later when Nathan started up again. Enough time for the air to clear. His ass was all the sorer, but the conversation made the time go by faster.
Funny enough, it started after Miles was muttering about the cold again. The segue used twice to spark it up.
"If you hate the cold so much, why didn''t you stay in The Fort?"
Miles didn''t stop his muttering but he did think about the question. He could have stayed in the previous city. It at least had walls and protection from the wild beasts, but it didn''t have much more than that.
"I didn''t want to get gutted in my sleep." He answered.
To his surprise, Nathan laughed. Miles didn''t think that The Fort''s crime was funny but his driver obviously did.
His face voiced his question before he could ask.
"You won''t have to worry about that where we''re going." Nathan boldly claimed, "But you shouldn''t be too hard on The Fort. They just got through a rough patch and didn''t expect the amount of refugees flooding in. It''ll get better in time."
"How come this other city doesn''t have the same problem? I''ve seen the caravans filled with people leaving The Fort the same way we''re going." Miles couldn''t help but ask.
Everywhere had crime. It was a fact of life. The Change just made it worse.
"Let''s just say lawbreakers don''t last long and leave it at that. There won''t be any gutting while you sleep."
Miles wasn''t one to pry, but this was important to him. He was about to take up residence in this City, any information he found out would be useful. The veiled threat was disturbing as well.
Did they kill anyone who disobeyed?
"What do you mean?" Miles asked.
"There aren''t many Laws in Frostheim, but no one breaks the ones there are. Few are willing to risk the wrath of the City Lord and he deals with every lawbreaker personally." Nathan answered with a shudder. The fear he held for the City Lord was clear.
Miles was curious about what had caused such fear but didn''t say anything.
"There are Laws?" Miles asked instead.
Everywhere since the Change enforced order, but he hadn''t heard of anywhere with explicit Laws before. His home surely didn''t have any, as people were cut down openly. The Fort tried to enforce the peace but there were too many people and far too little food for that to work.
Most places didn''t have a central power strong enough to come out and state any, let alone enforce them.
"Of course there are Laws! We aren''t barbarians!" Nathan defended before rooting through his pack under the driver''s bench, "I have them here somewhere, stamped with the official sigil, too."
It took a moment for Nathan to find what he was looking for but he eventually did, pulling his prize out of his pack and handing it to Miles. He wasn''t sure what to expect, but a single piece of paper wasn''t it.
A book maybe, or at least a stack of papers detailing everything in legalese no one could understand. Instead, it was a piece of paper that had words inked from what looked like a paper press.
It was frighteningly easy to read and understand. There were no minced words or confusing phrases. It was more like a list of things and their accompanying punishments if you did them.
A far cry from the Constitutions there used to be.
Murder, theft, assault, all the obvious crimes were listed next to their punishments and his eyes went wide reading those. Forced labor, removal of hand, restitution payments, fines, and exile.
No wonder no one broke the law if these were the punishments. The death penalty was even on the list. It wasn''t listed often and only followed the heinous crimes, but the fact they so openly stated it was alarming.
"The death penalty?" Miles whispered.
Nathan flinched but didn''t show the alarm that Miles felt inside. "Nasty business that. I felt much the same way when I read it but I''ve come around since then."
It sounded like Nathan was speaking from experience.
"You''ve seen it?"
Nathan nodded solemnly, "There''s only been one and nearly everyone was there. Everyone in the City heard about what happened and came out to watch. Some wish they hadn''t."
Miles couldn''t help but find himself curious, "What happened?"
"It wasn''t that long ago, actually. Some hot-shot among the groups traveling sauntered in like he owned the place not caring for the rules, thinking his high level made him better than everyone else. He ambushed a team coming back from the Dungeon, killed all but one, and looted the bodies." Nathan spat off the cart in disgust.
"He thought that since he did it outside the City he would be fine and that the people in charge wouldn''t care." Nathan looked Miles in the eye, "He was wrong."
"The bodies were found and the survivor was brought back and healed. With the crime reported, the guards were sent out to figure out what happened. They had the survivor''s testimony, but they investigated to make sure he was telling the truth.
"They confirmed the man''s story and sent out the Trackers. The Trackers followed his trail back into the city. It wasn''t hard to find him after that. The prick wasn''t even hiding and was found wearing the dead team''s gear."
"The trial was short and he was found guilty of three counts of premeditated murder." Nathan finished.
Miles looked through the list in his hand for premeditated murder. It was listed under Murder with all the various levels of severities.
Premeditated Murder: Death
Nathan let out a dark chuckle, "After he was sentenced to Death, he ranted and raved, defending himself, spewing all kinds of hate. Saying he was in the right and that those he killed and stole from were weak. That they didn''t deserve the gear they had.
"Everyone watching was stunned. First at what he said, then at what he did next."
Miles expected to hear that he went wild, attacking anyone that came close.
"He demanded a Trial by Combat."
"A Trial by Combat?!" Miles sputtered. There was no way that was a thing.
Nathan shattered that thought with his next words, "And the City Lord granted it."
Miles was incredulous and couldn''t keep his expression neutral.
"Once you live here long enough, you''ll come to understand. The City Lord has what some would call... a warped sense of Honor. No one talks about it openly, but it''s well-known. The prick demanded it because he knew it would be granted."
Even knowing how the story ended, Miles couldn''t help but feel his anticipation rising for the conclusion.
"Without warning, he pulled a dagger and charged. He flashed forward so fast I couldn''t even keep up and most people couldn''t. His dagger lit up with a skill and he appeared before the City Lord in an instant. The City Lord didn''t even have his weapon with him, but it ended up not mattering. He punched the man so hard that his chest caved in and lungs collapsed."
"It all happened so fast the crowd wasn''t sure what happened. Everyone held their breath after the man''s charge and didn''t let it out until gurgled choking sounds was all that could be heard."
"The man died choking on his own blood."
Chapter 217 - The City of Frostheim
Miles (cont.)
Hearing the gruesome end of the story, Miles didn''t feel as disgusted as he''d thought he''d be. He imagined that after hearing of the enforcement of the death penalty, he would''ve been more aggrieved, should''ve been more aggrieved, but he wasn''t.
What he''d gone through, what everyone had gone through, had changed who they were, and that change was most obvious in what he was feeling now.
After hearing the story, and the actions of the man leading up to his death, he didn''t feel anything except justification. Like it was only right that he was killed.
Miles wasn''t sure if it was a good thing or not that he felt this way.
Still, with Nathan finishing up the story, he digested what he''d heard. When first reading over the Laws, worry spiked but they didn''t seem that bad in comparison.
His fear of the Leader being a dictator or tyrant was still there, but it had subsided after learning more. He''d seen enough people with power abuse it that worrying about that would never fully go away, but at least this man had a Code.
He''d have to learn the extent of it before judging it good or bad, but his initial impression wasn''t horrible.
"How far away from the City are we?" Miles asked.
It had been a day or two after the story and his travel fatigue was reaching new heights. He couldn''t wait until he could get off the cart for the last time.
His ass would be sore for weeks!
"Not that much further. A few days depending on the weather. If it snows, a week or two." Nathan said off-handedly.
Miles desperately wished for it not to snow, eyeing the grey cloud cover overhead suspiciously.
"The first time the trip was made took over a month. Their group was larger and there wasn''t a path to follow back then. Now the journey''s been cut down to two and a half weeks." Nathan said. "The cleared trees saved most of it. When they finally get around to adding a road, it should be even shorter."
While he was grateful the trip had been shortened, it was still much too long. He wanted cars! Miles wouldn''t even wish for teleporters or something else magical, just for bringing cars back!
After spending two weeks riding beside the man, he and Nathan had grown accustomed to one another. Miles was less suspicious and open to talking now than he was before.
Nathan picked up on it and broached topics he hadn''t before.
"You got work lined up in the City already? I should warn you that if you''re looking to freeload, they''ll kick you out." Nathan warned.
"No, nothing like that." even back home, he''d never been a freeloader. It was an affront to his pride. "I''ve got enough to get on my feet saved up. Depending on costs, it should last until I figure something out."
Nathan looked surprised, "Oh, I took you for one of the recruited."
"Recruited?" Miles asked.
"Didn''t you hear the offer when they came to advertise Frostheim?"
Miles shook his head. "I heard of the City from a friend. I don''t know anything about an offer." Friend was a dubious term for who told him, but he wasn''t going to get into that right now. Or ever, if he could help it.
"Oh, it''s not that complicated. The City needs workers and is offering a reward for specific ones. The reward depends on the Profession you have but most are good enough that people join up."
Hearing they were recruiting workers was unsurprising, but he couldn''t help but regret his decision of Profession once again. He''d picked it in the Tutorial without knowing the situation he''d be returned to.
It''d been nearly useless and caused him to lose out on the little opportunities there were back home. Nathan mistook his disappointment for something else.
"Don''t worry if you don''t have a Profession. Many didn''t manage to get them in their tutorial for one reason or another. If you agree to their terms they have trainers that can get the one you want. There are some even selling their services in the City as trainers. They charge coin up front for it though, so it''s a bit on the expensive side and it''s not guaranteed by the City. I have a list of what they''re looking for if you''re interested."
"I have a Profession." Miles defended himself. He wasn''t like the slackers who didn''t make use of the tutorial. Those usually died quickly, unable to adapt to the Change.
"Oh, even then, they''ll pay you if you''re willing to change it. Some say the pain isn''t worth it but the opportunity''s there." Nathan shrugged and continued looking for the list anyway.
Miles had thought about changing his Profession a few times before but could never go through with it. It wasn''t a bad Profession, and he liked doing it. It felt shortsighted to change it for temporary gain.
"Ah, here it is. It might''ve changed since when this list came out but not by much. I was there a few weeks ago after all." Nathan pulled the list from the same place he pulled the Laws and handed it over.
Miles wasn''t that interested in changing his Profession and was set on finding another way to earn some coin, but he perused it anyway for curiosity''s sake.
At the top of the list was Miner. An odd thing to be in desperate need of. The City either was well enough to not need more essential Professions, or the leadership was awful. He doubted it was the second one.
All manner of Construction Professions were in demand. Builder, Stonemason, Engineer, Architect, Carpenter. Nearly every profession to do with building or construction was on the list at various wages offered.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The other Professions on the list were more obvious. Farmers and the like were needed everywhere and so were Craftsman of any kind.
What drew his eye were the two at the bottom. They looked newer than the rest of the list, the ink used to write them fresher.
Assistant and Secretary.
Nathan saw his eyes linger on the bottom and explained, "Those were recently announced. With the population growing and the work to manage it all rising, the Leaders are looking for some help. Both the City Lord and Mayor are looking for aides."
"Do you have to have the Assistant Profession?" he asked.
"I... don''t know. Do you have something adjacent or something?" Nathan guessed.
"No, not even close, but a person can still Smith without the Blacksmithing Profession." Miles pointed out. It was an unlikely idea but it didn''t hurt to try.
"Yes, but it''s significantly harder and more time-consuming." Nathan said, "But it doesn''t have any restrictions listed..."
His voice trailed off at the end and he shook his head. While Professions helped and made everything easier in their field, it wasn''t a requirement. A non-smith could still create weapons and armor. A non-alchemist could still brew potions.
You didn''t have the aid of the Skill and had to figure everything out from scratch, but it was possible.
If nothing else, he would get shot down and have to find work elsewhere. The pay was enough that he''d make a killing, but that wasn''t why he wanted the job.
He would do it unpaid if he could and instead receive something else for his time.
What would the instruction of the City Lord be worth? If he could get taught by him... he got excited thinking about it, even as outlandish as it was.
It doesn''t hurt to try.
Thankfully, the clouds blessed them and the snow held off. Their trip ended two days later right on schedule. Miles was thankful for it too, because he wasn''t sure how many more dull days of riding in the cart he could take.
He was trying to sleep away the time when Nathan interrupted his nap.
"Come up here kid, you''ll wanna see this." He hollered.
Grumbling and upset, he hopped out and made his way to the front. With stats involved, the cart didn''t even have to stop while he switched positions.
"See what? All I see are more trees." He grumbled.
Nathan said nothing. Miles could see there was a gap in the forest up ahead but not much further than that. The canopies overlapped enough that seeing anything further would have to wait until they exited the tree line.
Even as bare as they were without any leaves, there were enough branches to block his view.
Restraining himself from complaining more, he waited patiently.
What his eyes saw when the path opened up made him suck in air. He... no... there wasn''t...
It was unreal.
He knew something like this hadn''t been here Before. He lived in Canada, and he knew for a fact there were no Castles anywhere near here. He doubted there were Castles this large anywhere.
It was huge.
The Walls alone were enough to take his breath away. They towered over the ground at nearly 40 feet in the air with the ramparts extending even further and the spaced out towers growing even higher than that!
Every settlement, or what could generously be called a settlement, he''d seen since the Change was a hodgepodge of construction. His home had rickety wooden walls, hastily built to keep the beasts at bay half held together with packed mud.
The Fort''s walls were more sturdy, and at least looked sturdy enough to take a charge, but this was something entirely different. It looked like it was pulled straight out of someone''s fantasies.
You could give Miles a hundred years and he wasn''t sure he''d make it through.
It wasn''t just the thick stone and tall walls that made it feel pointless to try, there was something else pushing that thought on him. Like every giant stone brick used in its construction combined to impress upon him their unyieldingness.
Is that an enchantment? To make it feel hopeless to siege? Psychological effect?
Miles wasn''t sure why they would waste resources on something like that but it certainly worked. Just looking at it felt indestructible. He knew for certain, that nothing he did would affect the stone. Even his strongest skill wouldn''t leave a scratch.
"That''s the look I was waiting for." Nathan laughed heartily and slapped him on the back, drawing him out of his reverie. Miles hadn''t known he was gawking until Nathan broke him out of it.
"It''s something of a game for us to see the newcomer''s faces and it never gets old."
No wonder his answers were short when it came to describing the City, he wanted to see my reaction.
He followed the curve of the walls in both directions until they ended abruptly. He expected the entire City to be encircled but the Walls only protected half in a giant semi-circle.
It wasn''t until he looked closer that he realized why.
The walls ended at the edge of a cliff. There wasn''t land to protect on the other side, as the City was built butted up against the edge. The Walls blocked most of his view of what stood behind, but he could see the Castle itself poking over top of them and reaching higher in the sky.
It gave off the same feeling as the Walls, but somehow it was even stronger. Even from much further away, it felt more robust than the closer Walls.
Miles hadn''t even set foot in the City and it was already the nicest one he''d seen. Fort Hope had nothing on this. However they''d done this in such a short time was a mystery, and was one he was keen to discover.
Giant Castles and Walls didn''t just spring from the ground. The defenseless settlements he''d seen before were evidence of that.
The rattling of the cart was forgotten for the first time during the trip as Miles stared in wonder.
The line at the gate wasn''t long and it took only a few moments for the caravan of carts he was a part of to be waved through. The wait was barely enough time to look at the gate itself.
Wood strengthened with plates and bolts of metal barred entry not one bit inferior to the stone surrounding it. Lines of inlaid metal curved over its surface and even though his knowledge of enchanting was minimal, he knew it was powerful.
The mana he sensed that made up the enchantment''s structure was enough to tell that much.
As the cart rolled by, he wanted to call out and stop it so he could get a better look but held his tongue. His eyes were already moving on to the City itself.
Houses, actual houses. There weren''t ramshackle huts or mud holes in the ground. Stone foundation and wood-walled houses. Roofs pitched sharply, shingled with slabs of cut-up stone.
Shops displaying better gear than he''d ever seen before. A blade better than his own, one he''d hide away lest it be stolen, sat in a display case open for people to see.
A hammer and flame motif pressed right above the cross guard.
While the structures were stout and matched the sturdy nature of what he''d already seen, it was the people that were so different from what Miles knew.
Smiles.
Laughter.
He didn''t know the last time he''d seen genuine joy. People chatted in the streets and greeted each other in passing. There weren''t any side-eyed looks, looking for an easy target.
There weren''t any evaluating eyes, seeing if they could take you in a fight.
While the people''s expressions were what he focused on the most, the clothes they wore entered his eye as well.
Thick, heavy furs for most or fur-lined cloth for the rest. His own tunic and pants were leather and did little to keep out the cold compared to what he was seeing. The people here were probably used to it already and their clothes were much heavier than his.
The craftsmanship of them was better than what he had. He hadn''t replaced his wardrobe since the tutorial as nothing could come close to the protection store-bought items had, but he was mistaken.
None of what he saw looked store-bought, it was impossible to be as there were too many similarities for it to be so.
"I''ve seen those eyes before." His driver interrupted, "It looks like you''re staying."
Miles wanted to get mad at the assumption but he didn''t. His mind was already made up.
"Well, let''s get you some furs then. Can''t have you walking around in that, you''ll freeze to death even before the Winter comes!" He laughed.
Chapter 218 - Intelligence and Magic
Chris
My fingers flexed fully before I extended them and wiggled them all back and forth. Ashley and Abigail sat across from me in the ''Hospital'' and watched me play with the new sensation.
They were still a bit numb, and I could tell that the response time was a tad behind, but they were otherwise good as new. Somehow, the stat additions making us superhuman let us feel things like that.
An odd sensation to get used to.
Finished with my exploration of the newly regrown fingers and hand, I extended one up to make sure the gesture still worked. Can''t find out that it doesn''t work in the act. That would just be stupid.
I chuckled at their faces.
"Perfect. I appreciate the long nights and for enduring the mana deprivation headaches." I said earnestly to my two saviors.
They were family, but they still deserved my thanks.
"Don''t think we''re done. You still need a week of physical therapy. Since your arm wasn''t attached when you leveled and your strength increased, it will be stronger than you remember it. You need time to adjust before you go doing anything stupid."
While I had adjusted to my new stats with my left arm, my right was a new beast. The fact I hadn''t used it in months was another addition I''d have to get used to.
Not only did I have to get comfortable with using it again, but I also had to readjust so I didn''t break things. Luckily, most everything inside the Castle was built by either Vincent or me which made the threshold for its durability quite high.
Both of us built commodities that could handle our... rougher tendencies. He and I had the highest Strength of those that lived in the Castle. Jonathan was close, but his Class focused more on Fortitude and Endurance as its primary and secondary stats, with Strength being third.
The Mages didn''t even come close, obviously.
"I told you it would be early winter when I got it back." I poked fun at the two healers. Both were adamant at first that it would be mid to late winter before it was finished regrowing, but they were both wrong.
The Cold brought me more Vitality than they accounted for.
They knew how many points I had in Vitality, but those didn''t account for the boost my new heart provided. They were still working out how beneficial it was as their predictions were way off.
All told, the process took nearly four months. A little bit longer than it took to regrow both of Gabriel''s legs. Making the... insinuation that one of my arms was worth two of his legs caused him to fling Icicles at me.
It would''ve taken a lot longer if this was their first time doing so. Having practiced and gained experience from Gabriel, it went a lot smoother for me, even if there were some initial hiccups at first due to my stronger body.
Sadly, their work wasn''t done. Now that they were done pouring mana into my never-ending body, they were off to help with the rest of the Healers. I wasn''t the only one to lose a limb from the fighting and it would be a long time until everyone was back to being whole.
Speaking of wholeness, I could now go have my fun in the dungeons again. With the shipments of crystals steadily coming in, they had both grown another floor. They had already been close to adding one, but the crystals helped push them over the edge. The Ninth held monsters up to level 95 with some even having Tier 2 Laws.
I couldn''t wait to face the Bosses of both.
The Eighth floor didn''t really cut it anymore for my fighting spirit. It capped with the Boss at level 90 and only had a Tier 1 Law. It had a strong Bloodline it could call on to even it out, but mine was stronger.
I was only a tiny bit jealous that Jonathan got to scout out the floor before me but at least I now knew what I was going into.
The only reason Abigail wasn''t strapping me down and forbidding me from doing too much too fast, was because one, fighting was the best way to get used to the new limb, and two, she couldn''t afford me not doing it.
While we weren''t in danger of bankruptcy, the City was broke.
Well, broke was a strong word but we weren''t very fluid right now, to use Jonathan''s term. We could sell Crystals and make some easy money that way but there were some downsides to that. No one would buy them for what they were actually worth as we doubted other pylons had the coin to spend. The second reason was we didn''t pull enough out of the Mine that we could both use them for what we needed and sell them.
Our need for coin was the only reason we were selling Vincent''s products through the pylon to begin with. Both he and I wanted to equip those in our City first, before branching out to selling to others but we simply couldn''t afford to.
As the City grew, and we hired more people to work for it, we took a hit to how much coin we had freely available. Abigail had accounted for that and made sure we had enough available before hiring anyone, but what she didn''t account for was the numerous bereavement payouts we had to make.
I had assured everyone that their families would be taken care of and with the death toll we had, it was a rather large sum of money every month.
That, combined with the veritable flood of refugees, and we were rather strapped for coin. Even the additional people didn''t help that much. In terms of tax revenue, the extra population accounted for a few percentage points and that was about it.
We gained most of our coin from taxing the Dungeon and we had already been delving it at the most it could sustain. More people didn''t mean we could delve it faster.
All it would take to fix would be selling some crystals, but I would rather go delving for it so we didn''t have to.
And Abigail agreed, even if she didn''t want to.
Even if she didn''t, nothing she could''ve done would have stopped me. I was itching to test out my new strength. Not only from the massive influx of levels from the Demons but from my Profession as well.
I now had two stats at over 1000, and I wanted to have some fun experiencing what it was to fight with them. Runesmith didn''t give points in Fortitude, but it did give points in Strength, and with [Frozen Fortitude], meant I gained Strength anyway. The extra levels finally pushed me the stat over the four-digit mark.
The little chunks of experience from carving Runes onto Vincent''s work added up and once I finally finished the Ward embedded into the Outer Wall, it was a massive windfall.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The levels for my Class and Profession were closer now than they had been since my evolution when they were even at 50. Runesmith sat at 78 and Hammer of the Jotnar sat at 84.
The months spent crafting while I healed were well spent. Nearly 20 levels were gained during my recovery. Without Vincent, it would''ve been much less, but still, it was a lot.
I had gotten used to my Class leveling rapidly. Well, not used to it, but I was at least experienced in gaining physical stats in large chunks. It''d happened enough times that I had a process to go through to acclimate to them.
My Magical stats, on the other hand, I was completely inexperienced with the massive gain. My Profession had never increased in large chunks before, which made the stat increases gradual and hard to quantify.
Increasing a few stats at a time, spaced out over days and weeks, made it feel like no increase was made at all. If looked at from the start and finish, sure, there was a large jump, but experiencing the gradual rise made it feel like normal.
The essence that rushed into me from completing the Ward raised me 9 levels alone. Which when quantified into stat points, was nearly 100 points in Wisdom and Intelligence.
Totaled up, the increase in Wisdom, Intelligence, and Acumen from the near 20 levels in Runesmith awarded me 190 Wisdom, 152 Intelligence, and 114 Acumen.
When listed out like that, it didn''t sound like that much. Hell, my Strength alone had jumped by over 300 from the fight with the Demons.
It was when put into context that the increase became apparent.
Going from having just over 400 points in Wisdom and adding a half-again increase was large. Each stat point meant more than the last, making the effect on my mana pool greater than a 50% increase and what the points represented.
While that alone wouldn''t have been that much, it happened to all three of my magical stats at the same time.
Intelligence and Acumen nearly doubled.
If it''d happened to only one, fine, two would be a challenge, but all three was extremely disorienting. Not disorienting physically, I could still walk around fine, but magically.
Skills failed when I tried to use them, mana leaked out of my body sporadically from the increase of Acumen, randomly chilling the air around me as Arctic mana accumulated. Enchanting anything was impossible, as I couldn''t keep the flow of mana steady to save my life, let alone precise.
Worse, I was unused to the thickness of said mana. Intelligence, as a stat, was one of the most subtle to measure by feel. It was innocuous because it was static 99% of the time. It only increased when you leveled and that increase was usually small.
As it represented the concentration and thickness of your mana, it was something I had grown intimately familiar with. The concentration increased and thickened as the stat went up, but it wasn''t like the obvious feeling of lifting something heavier.
It was small.
Tiny even.
And most of all, gradual.
A point of Intelligence would raise the concentration by minuscule amounts. Nearly imperceptible to anyone but the best mana senses. Even Rachel wouldn''t be able to feel an increase of only one point.
A lot of my family who chose the Mage route complained in the early days because of that fact. They saw the Warriors lift giant stones and haul entire trees as we leveled up and our strength increased. Rogues would move faster than humanly possible while they didn''t have a lot to show for their increases.
It wasn''t until later that their specialty showed its worth. Take Gabriel and I for example. We both had the [Ice Arrow] skill but they were nearly two different skills by this point.
He was pushing well over a thousand points in Intelligence while I just reached a third of that only recently. Both skills would create an arrow nearly a foot in length and an inch or two in diameter. The size of what would otherwise be a normal arrow.
It was the density of the Ice and the speed at which it flew that the changes showed.
Mine was like getting shot out of a normal longbow. It flew fast, but not overly so, while packing a decent punch behind it. It would shatter against anything too tough but it would otherwise penetrate like a normal arrow would.
Gabriel''s was like getting launched out of a compound bow set to the maximum draw strength. It flew at speeds mine couldn''t hope to reach and would go through things mine would shatter against.
There were ways I made up the difference but nothing would beat sheer stat superiority when doing flat comparisons. My Law, Spirit, and Affinity would all go into boosting the skill, along with the skill rarity, but if all was the same, he would always overpower me in those kinds of spells.
It was the main reason I didn''t use it very often, as it only worked against monsters with weak bodies or if my aim was good enough to hit soft spots. And even with hitting soft spots, my typical foe was strong enough that even its weak points wouldn''t get penetrated by an [Ice Arrow].
Gabriel liked to call Skills that scaled with Intelligence Spells to differentiate them, but that was personal preference. Luckily, I only had two ''Spells''.
Technically, I had more than two but only two were limited by my Intelligence stat.
[Ice Arrow] and [Icy Bastion].
[Sweeping Snow], [Desolate Blizzard], [Permafrost], and a few others were technically ''Spells'' and increased in effect as Intelligence grew, but they weren''t limited in the same sense. To match what a higher Intelligence stat would do, I could just use more mana.
Those three skills specifically were mana hogs for that reason alone.
[Permafrost] would have a greater effect the same way [Ice Arrow] did if my mana concentration was higher, but I could also just throw more mana into the skill for the same result.
I couldn''t do that with [Ice Arrow].
There was only a limited amount you could ''overcharge'' a skill before it would break. It had something to do with the underlying skill matrix, or at least that was what Gabriel claimed.
Channeling ''Spells'' got around that and was why my two domain skills, specifically, were so ''potent'' even though my Intelligence was nowhere near an actual Mage.
Incidentally, that was the same reason hybrid classes with mage being one-half didn''t fare so well. They just didn''t have the amount of stat points necessary to both keep up physically, with either speed or strength, and magically.
A Spellblade was usually an Agility-based physical fighter. It didn''t have to be, and could choose Strength or Fortitude, but more often than not, their physical stat of choice was Agility.
To keep up with the speeds of other people and beasts of their level, they needed their Agility to increase by an equal amount. This also meant they needed their Perception to at least keep up by half that, or else the ratio between the two would cause problems.
In addition to that, to keep up with the mana pool and spell strength of people at their level, they would need even more points dedicated to Wisdom and Intelligence.
And, to cap it all off, if they wanted to recover their mana in any decent amount of time, they needed some Acumen thrown in at the end.
Not only did they need multiple different stats to scale like they were primary stats of a Class, but they also needed three others to scale like they were secondary. Which was impossible unless you had Epic, Legendary, or Mythic as your class rarity and even then, it would make you average at multiple things and great at none of them.
It would undoubtedly make you versatile in a fight, but sometimes not being great at one thing was its own weakness.
The only hope to get back the edge stat-wise and be an elite, or someone that could be a ''champion'' in a fight, would be to have an equally rare Profession that filled in the stats you needed. Doing double duty on Agility and Intelligence would push the stat to rival what Rogues and Mages had but that was easier said than done.
Even using the Free points of your Class and Profession wouldn''t work, as those would be needed to balance out the physical side to account for ratios. Strength would be needed to make sure you could move at the speeds Agility demanded. Perception to see where you were going at those speeds. Fortitude so your body could handle it, Endurance so you could do it for more than a few seconds, and Vitality for the same reason that you needed Acumen.
It was just too much, at least in my opinion.
I prided myself on having three stats above all others and that was what made me so strong. My Strength, Fortitude, and Endurance being so high was the reason I could do what I did.
If I''d split that up among four or five different stats instead, I would probably be dead.
Admittedly, my Endurance wasn''t where I wanted it to be and fell behind slightly, but my Anchor made up for that.
But that wasn''t the point. I didn''t need to think about the knockoff Warriors right now.
It was time to have some fun. Enough thoughts on boring stuff.
My hammer was back, my body was back, and I was ready for some action.
Chapter 219 - Shackles
Austin
He had gone and done it now. He''d truly fucked up.
It was something he had experienced a blessed few times. One time when he crashed his first car. Rest in peace, Betsy. He was just driving along in the rain when a split second later, he was hydroplaning off the road and into a ditch.
The car ended up totaled and he was in a world of pain, but it being one of the few times he feared for his life was much more memorable than the pain. Well, Before fearing for his life became common practice.
The tutorial had a few moments where he thought he wouldn''t make it as well. Somehow, he pulled through it all, but this was different.
None of those feelings compared to what he was feeling now.
Mitchell, his mother, and even Alice came down to help fight but none of them expected what they had found.
They were attacking the hive and it was not going well.
The swarm of insects they''d faced before was nothing compared to the ones closer to the Hive.
Closer to the treasure.
Everyone could feel it now. It was palpable in the air and Austin could taste the pressure it gave off. It smelled of Rain and a summer storm. It made the air thick with Water Mana and the humidity it gave off made everything harder.
He was drenched in sweat, much like everyone else and it ran down his armor in rivers of salty water.
After reaching the area, Marcus had initially been a pillar of power.
As the group neared the center, and the Water Mana thickened, his skills grew powerful and he was sending them out in waves. It felt like nothing could stop his advance and for a second, Austin pictured Chris and his hammer fighting next to him, rather than Marcus and his glaive.
It gave them a good initial headway into enemy territory and raised everyone''s spirits. The fear in the air before they advanced was obvious, but seeing Marcus slaughter the bugs like it was nothing made everyone come around.
Until a D-rank bug came and ended that advance abruptly.
Austin didn''t even know the Swarm had a D-rank, let alone multiple.
They kicked the hornet''s nest and now they were facing the consequences.
The speed with which the bugs over level 100 could move made it hard for even Austin to keep up, let alone anyone else. Marcus had been standing stout at the Vanguard one second, and hurtling through the air with blood in his wake the next.
Slicing through bugs with his blade, then being sliced through himself.
Marcus had lost a hand, chopped off just below the elbow before he was sent flying.
The emergence of the D-ranks sent everything into chaos and Austin couldn''t afford to think about anyone else, let alone protect anyone else. Mitchell had retreated at some point, the trail of poisoned bugs lying dead on the ground was evidence of that.
His power had grown since the last time Austin had seen him and it was likely the only reason he made it out.
Others were trapped fighting. He was trapped fighting.
The split-second decision had cost him. The flicker of idea had spelled his doom.
For others to make it out and fall back to the secondary ling, he had to stay. That much was clear.
Marcus came to the same decision and even with being less effective with one hand, he stood and did his best. Even using his own blood as a weapon against any that came his way.
His glaive whipped around him as fast as his one hand could propel it, Water danced around him and sliced through everything. The streams rotating around him forming a miniature hurricane with the one-armed man at its center.
Reminiscent of a one-man Blizzard.
Austin''s spear stabbed out, piercing clean through another of the bugs before coming back coated in the greenish-yellow of their blood. Or whatever insects had for blood.
His eyes sharpened, his body glowed, and heat rolled off him in waves.
[Flurry] caused his spear to blur, and mixed with his enhanced vision, it stabbed through three separate throats before it came back to normal speed.
The throat was the easiest way to kill them. The narrow section of chitin where their head connected to the abdomen. The natural armor protecting their chest was too thick and their head was rounded just right that if he didn''t hit right, his spear skittered off instead of penetrating.
Whatever Chris and Vincent had done to his spear, it was saving his life now. It bypassed the thinner defense with ease and plunged deep into their insides.
[Sun Burst] was tearing his body apart on the inside, as it wasn''t meant to hold the skill for so long. Not in conjunction with [Burning Light], his upgraded boosting skill.
His eyes caught sight of four of the flying enemies lining up and he grinned savagely.
Perfect.
His Class''s namesake skill lit up the end of his spear. [Spear of Dawn] sucked up the mana he was giving it and he even paid some Bloodline energy to make sure they all went down.
Skill ready and enemies moving to line themselves up, he roared and unleashed his skill in a powerful thrust.
Light burst from the end of his spear in a line, extending out and through the first insect before it could even burn.
The light carried more than just luminescence, as it was based on both his Laws.
Fire and Light.
The second was both pierced and burned while the third had its wings melted, causing it to drop from the sky. The fourth was injured, but still left fluttering in the air unsteadily.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Fuck, I thought it would go through all of them.
As he powered and launched his skill, the bugs he wasn''t aiming at jumped on him. He knew it would happen and deemed it a worthy trade-off. Their scythe hands ripped at his armor and skin, tearing and rending what they could.
He wanted to scream. But more than that, he wanted to rage.
The feeling had built for a while now but he hadn''t known what it was. Now, with it dangerously close to the surface, he could feel its simmering anger for what it was.
Pent-up aggression.
It began building not long after arriving at Marcus''s City. It was his continued frustration at being stymied. It was the constant stalling of what he wanted to do.
He wanted to be free.
To do what he wanted when he wanted. What was the point of all the power he had if he couldn''t even do that?
It made him mad and frustrated him to no end.
And now, with ample targets and what would most likely be his last fight, he let it out.
Stabbing through another bug, he felt the essence rush into him but dismissed it as he spun his weapon around to do it again. And again. And again.
With endless emeries to kill, he lost himself in battle.
It was kill or be killed and he sure as hell wasn''t going down quietly. There was so much he still wanted to see. So much he still wanted to experience.
They were told and lectured of all the possible Worlds out there and he was about to die without seeing any of them. Left to live and die on the Planet he was born on. The tutorial didn''t count, as that was all conjured, as insane as that sounded.
Something in him rebelled at the thought. Wanted to revolt at the mere insinuation that he''d be forced to miss out on adventure.
It was the same part of him he''d been trying to coax out. The hiding power he wished to finally grasp firmly in both hands and wield as his own.
He''d seen Chris do it. Seen Jonathan do it.
And he wished with everything he had to do it too.
It was poetic that the one time the feeling poked its head out of its shell he wasn''t in a position to do anything about it. If he diverted his attention now, he would be finished.
[Solar Ray] ripped through the nearest insects but more filled the hole. A stab to his back sent him stumbling and another stab capitalized on his error.
The feeling pulsed again indignantly.
Austin chuckled ruefully, blood leaking down his chin.
How poetic for it to happen now.
Ignoring it again, [Solar Flare] burst out of him in a wave. Before any more opportunistic fuckers could get another stab in, heat blasted out of him.
Chitin melted and the sharp-tipped legs that descended to seek his doom drooped, unable to maintain themselves. It wasn''t long until numerous streams of essence filled into him again.
Given the brief opportunity, he activated a skill that would either kill him or give him room to finally breathe.
When initially offered the skill, he nearly dismissed it for the drawback it had but ended up picking it up.
[Solar Eclipse] worked differently than any other skill he had. It would drain his mana and stamina, gradually weakening him and slowing him down, before he exploded out in a giant burst.
The sun was slowly covered up before it violently burst forth once again.
His arms felt sluggish, his prized speed lagging while the skill drew from him. The spear tip that was once dazzling through the air too fast for the eye, revealed itself.
He still reaped lives with it, it didn''t lose any of its deadliness, but just not as quickly as before.
The after-effects of [Solar Flare] were ending and Austin could see the insects at the edge of his sphere of blistering heat waiting to charge in. The ones permanently grounded with their wings burnt off were already charging him, not afraid of further damage from the heat.
The draining effect intensified, slowing him that much more.
It would only get worse from there.
His eyes, slitted to resemble a bird of prey, searched for a way out. A way to break out of the cage he was trapped in but came up lacking.
Drops of water still rained down on him occasionally, marking him as not the only one still trapped.
Arrows and blasts of magic did their best to relieve the pressure, but it wasn''t enough. Not until he spotted a particular grouping of arrows that all looked the same.
A hail of them impacted the ground around him before all but one faded away. His mother. Only she could create that many with [Arrow Rain]. No other Ranger he knew could come close.
She was watching.
It was the chance he needed. The arrows delayed the bugs just long enough for [Solar Eclipse] to finish and light burst out of him. It blinded the eyes and burned with a searing intensity. It was like staring wide-eyed at the sun like every child was told not to.
His spear snaked out following behind the burst of light and ended all of the blinded insects, not missing the chance to get some breathing room. His speed came back greater than it was. The air rushed by faster than his spear could push it away.
The deluge of essence from that group gave him a rush greater than ever before. Quickly checking his notifications, he saw multiple D-ranks among his kill list.
Hah.
Austin knew that it wasn''t that large an accomplishment. The bugs didn''t have Laws. They were D-rank in toughness only, not in the full sense of the Rank.
The how and why behind it was unimportant, but it was the only reason he could fight up a rank. He and all the others.
The surge he felt was waning.
His skill had run its course.
Austin stood and observed the battlefield. The bugs were rallying to defend their Hive in numbers they hadn''t predicted. Especially the number of D-ranks they hadn''t expected. The endless stream of magic and volleys of arrows were barely enough so that the front line didn''t get overwhelmed.
He, Marcus, and a few others who had been caught out and unable to retreat with the rest of the line were alone. Separated by ranks of the enemy and with no hope to get through.
Their only chance was to hold on long enough that the gap could be shortened from the other side. That or die.
A few had already discovered the second option.
Sweat dripped into his eye bringing the stinging sensation with it and he didn''t even bother to wipe it away. He had bigger concerns than sweat.
His spear was chipped. His armor was torn. His body leaking blood.
Austin watched the cage around him close in. After killing everything near him with [Solar Eclipse], the swarm filled in around him before closing in. They were behind him, in front of him, on both sides and flew above him.
Even the wings he dreamed of having wouldn''t be able to get him out.
He could do nothing but watch as the net closed around him.
His core surged and he could contain it no more. The urging he felt before refused to be contained. It didn''t care that he didn''t have time, it demanded to be realized now, taking the closing net as an affront.
Austin was trapped, had nowhere to go, and his core felt like it was on fire.
He was well and truly fucked.
"Fine. Fuck it! We''ll do it now!" He screamed to no one, "What do you want from me!"
He knew what it wanted. He''d always known. It wanted to know who he was.
Austin had spent a long time thinking about it. A long time coming up with all the wrong answers. It wasn''t so easily fooled. It was the core of his being, he couldn''t delude it like he could his brain.
It didn''t want what he thought was cool. It didn''t want what wished the answer was.
It wanted the bare truth.
He wasn''t a bulwark like Jonathan. He wasn''t a warrior like Christopher.
Austin was a slacker. He''d run from responsibility at every opportunity. His Father had lectured him many times on the topic.
What his father saw as slacking, he saw differently. Austin was free-spirited.
He was adventurous.
But most of all, he refused to be tied down.
The power shifted, moving on to demand something else. It demanded an Anchor.
All the many possibilities flooded his brain. The cool phrases he had thought up during his journey but he knew they weren''t right. They weren''t the perfect match he was looking for.
It just wasn''t until now that he realized what it was.
He''d spent so long being tied down with his family. He stayed with them through everything even when he wanted to do anything but. When finally given the chance to finally explore, he was tied down once again. He ended up trading one shackle for another.
Watching the latest shackle, one made from ichor and chitin, tighten around him, he knew out of everything else his Anchor could do, he wanted it to help him be free.
That idea of freedom resonated but it wasn''t all of it. It was half, but not the full picture.
It was more than just freedom.
He wanted to be Unfettered.
With that, the power surged and his Anchor was accepted.
With no one around to hear his shout, he yelled it to the world, finally Forming what had eluded him for so long. Formed with a mixture of the idea of being free and the phrase that slotted in perfectly.
"Unfettered Light!"
Chapter 220 - Second Sun
Austin
A second Sun exploded into existence on his shout and he could feel the power coursing through him. It was a high he''d never experienced before and it was enough to wash away the onset of his fatigue.
It didn''t restore his spent energies, but it made him forget about the tiredness.
The rush and feeling wiped away even the smothering humidity and sticky heat they had been fighting through like the sun cutting through fog.
It was more than just power that ran through him, but freedom.
His eyes, still enhanced with his Bloodline, scanned the net of insects around him, and openings he couldn''t exploit before were now child''s play to slip through.
His feet drank in his Spirit, and with three quick steps, he was out of the encasement. Free once more.
It was time for him to truly shine now.
Without the space around him being forcefully encroached on, he shot around like a beam of light to anywhere and anything that caught his fancy. Most often, it was a bug he sought as he was primed with vengeance and revenge for the infernal bastards and sons of bitc-
His mother would''ve blanched at what he was thinking but he was reaping what they sowed.
They, with their chitin-covered abdomens and stabby stabby forearms that poked him one too many times, just wouldn''t take the hint and DIE OFF. NO, they just kept popping up, one right after the other.
The only way to fix that was to kill them so fast they couldn''t keep up.
So that was what Austin did.
His spearmanship didn''t become more masterful, he didn''t upgrade [Spear Mastery] to Adept, but it did take on a new form. Speed, pure speed, made all technique irrelevant.
Just like the first rays of dawn were inevitable to usher in the new day, his spear reached its target no matter what they did to evade it.
They just weren''t fast enough.
Riding the high of his new power, and the thrill of ending the creatures that locked him down for so long, he laughed as he zipped through their ranks slaughtering all in his wake.
They tried to surround him, to contain him, but they couldn''t.
How could they tie something down that was Unfettered?
The speed came at a cost, and just like Chris couldn''t use his Spirit to stay standing forever, Austin couldn''t sustain the speed he was moving at now, but it was enough to free up the others.
He aimed directly toward his trapped allies and began gleefully dismantling the insects surrounding them.
He nearly wanted to giggle.
Marcus was his first target to free and as soon as he broke out, he began building up silent waves around him in what Austin had come to learn was a very powerful skill. Luckily, Austin was long gone before it was released and only his feet splashed in the rising wake as he rushed on toward another.
His next captive freed didn''t start launching signature skills, but they did go on the offensive now that they weren''t surrounded.
It was here that Austin liked to fight, he wasn''t one to barrel into foes headfirst and his new speed made that monumentally stupid. Why fight head-on when he could run around them and stab them in the back?
The few D-rank insects on the field who had once been so fast they blurred, were now barely keeping up. It took more energy to go that fast, but he didn''t have to sustain it for long.
He could drop down to a more normal speed after they had a spear through their bodies tearing their head from the rest of them.
The best part was that his abilities could keep up. If he were Chris, or Jonathan, or even Marcus, they wouldn''t be able to use their Skills while moving at such speeds because they physically couldn''t.
If Austin tried to launch icicles at the speed he was going, his spear would arrive long before the Ice traveled that far, but Light, light was different.
Nothing was faster than Light, and his skills were the same as they ever were, no matter how fast he was going.
After freeing the last captive and their front line reforming, it was the beginning of the end for the bugs. The tide had turned and once that happened, there was no turning it back.
Marcus would make sure of that.
When Austin first met the man, he reminded him of Chris, and seeing the way he fought only made the resemblance closer.
They both approached battle the same, with unwavering conviction and the unstoppable momentum to always move forward. Once the enemy was on the back foot, they pressed on unceasingly until they were dead.
Chris did it one bloody step at a time in an inescapable march of death with his hammer.
Marcus did it differently.
It was like he knew when the tide of battle was in their favor and pressed on with it at his back. Somehow drawing power from that fact and using it like it belonged to him.
If Austin hadn''t noticed his power grow stronger as they pressed on and conquered the three Dungeons himself, he would have claimed that was impossible, but he had and he was seeing it again for the fourth time.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
Fire raged ahead of him in intense flames from someone''s spell but Austin didn''t alter his course. Heat took time to transfer and he would be through the fire quicker than it could burn him. Especially with his resistance against it.
Rachel -no- Clarissa rained down fire like an angry god smiting all before her. It was so intense he''d mistaken her as Rachel for a second. The heat in her flame didn''t carry the Dragon might, but they had something else stoking them hotter.
Hot enough for Austin to be wary, at least before he could speed through.
Now, he charged through with his spearhead leading as he skewered a line of bugs, one with his physical weapon, and two more with the Light that shot out of it. [Solar Beam] was a favorite of his ever since he upgraded it from [Light Beam].
The way it mixed both his elements was a beauty to behold. The light was so intense it carried a heat of its own, but that was only the start, the skill had its own searing intensity following in its wake.
Being able to move faster and see clearer, Austin noticed that those two aspects weren''t in perfect sync. The light would hit first and the heat would come second. It was a flaw in the skill, one that now he knew it was there, bugged him.
He hadn''t seen it before as it always seemed to hit at the same time. Light and Heat, but now that illusion was broken and he couldn''t go back to not knowing.
It took him longer to admit to figure out why.
His Light Law was Tier 2.
His Fire Law was Tier 1.
While he usually pumped both his Laws into his solar skills equally, the difference in power caused an imbalance. He''d fixed it, evened out how much he used each so they were equal again, but that only masked the problem, not solved it.
The Tier difference couldn''t be solved as easily as using them at different strengths.
If he could...
Ferry the Heat attached to the light? No... that doesn''t work.
It clicked. Light carried energy already. All he had to do was intensify it, and then it would carry its own heat and didn''t need a separate wave of it.
He had been trying to treat them as two different entities, shoving both his Laws into the skill to enhance separate aspects, when they were one in the same. Heat was energy and light was its transportation.
He gained his Fire Law initially on the concept of combustion. The moment fire began. It had taken days of watching fire ignite to do it, even with Rachel''s occasional help.
Now, it was the concept of Heat that he wanted. Not flame, burning, searing, or any of the other after-effects of Heat, but the cause itself.
The conversion from Light''s energy into Heat was what he sought and, like his Anchor, he achieved it.
Law Upgraded:
Least Law of Fire -> Lesser Law of Fire
"Hahaha!" He couldn''t hold his laughter in now. Everything was coming up Austin today. After so long of reaching out and achieving nothing, it was finally time to take in the harvest.
Nothing stood a chance after that. Numbers didn''t matter in the face of both speed and power.
Having an army at his back was only the kicker.
Channeling his inner Chris, he went to work.
One man versus an army.
The fight was long but it was pretty much over once they regrouped. Even if he hadn''t achieved the power-up he had, they still would have won. They just did it quicker.
A lot quicker.
And with a lot fewer deaths.
Marcus commanded the attack masterfully, not letting up the pressure which only made the tide worse. Austin, after dealing with the entrapping bugs, sought out the D-ranks and quickly dismantled them before they could attack the rest of the army.
His mother rained down death from above until she ran out of arrows. Fires raged until Clarissa ran out of mana. It took a few hours to march down the center slaughtering all in their wake, but they did it.
The Queen wasn''t even challenging. It was solely dedicated to reproducing the Swarm and had the combat abilities of peak E-rank even though it was the highest level of them all.
Marcus gave Austin the honors, and he received a giant chunk of essence because of it.
But the main thing, and the biggest thing he was excited for, was the feeling urging him from his Profession finally let up. He reached the center and gazed at what had been urging him all this time and nearly cursed.
He knew it was going to be a Water treasure, the thick Water Mana made that obvious, but he was hoping to claim it as his prize for helping. It would take some concessions from him, most likely calling on Chris to help with payment, but he planned to come home prize in hand, but he couldn''t.
The fucking thing was immovable.
Even if he offered up the whole World, he wouldn''t be able to take it with him.
Before he could start cursing again, Marcus saddled up next to him with a rare smile. The man had been all scowls and frowns during the fighting and he rarely showed anything other than pensiveness while in his City.
To see him with a smile creeped Austin out. It didn''t suit him.
"I don''t think I could''ve given that up." He said ruefully, "If you''d asked for it as payment, I wouldn''t have been able to do it."
Another reason Marcus reminded him of Chris, he was terribly blunt.
"Well, it isn''t like I can ask for it. Now I need to figure out what to take instead." Austin muttered. While he thought the treasure was cool, it didn''t seem that impressive to him. The fact he couldn''t take it with him had ruined any excitement he felt.
Not that he couldn''t move it, he most certainly could, but it would destroy what he''d taken so long to seek out. The natural treasure wasn''t something you could pull out and carry with you.
It was intrinsically tied to the area and once it was removed, it would be worthless.
He was lucky his mother wasn''t around to hear the storm he cursed up when he saw it. It wasn''t until Marcus put a name to the treasure that he could curse it rightly.
It was the Heart of a River''s Origin.
Calling what he was looking at a heart was a bit of a misnomer. It wasn''t made of flesh and blood, but stone instead. Honestly, it looked more like a stone or gem than a heart.
It was about the size of his head and was anchored into where the creek just started becoming big enough to be considered a River. It was odd to think that the piddly flow that was barely a stream would later turn into the monstrosity of raging water down the line called the Mississippi, but it somehow did.
And it was one of the biggest Rivers in the world to boot.
Everyone came to gaze on the item that was creating so much pressure and it was a sight to have so many people staring down at what could generously be called a budding stream.
Before, without stats, it would have been risky to try and cross, now, it wasn''t worth the thought. Austin could jump over to the other side.
Considering Marcus'' bluntness and the fact he wasn''t the type to go back on his work without good reason, if confused Austin slightly.
"It doesn''t seem that special to me," Austin said. Sure, it was a fountain of Water Mana and it was some of the purist Water Mana he''d ever felt, but it wasn''t that valuable. He''d be excited for a Solar treasure of similar nature, but not that excited.
Marcus looked at him oddly, "You don''t feel it?"
He snorted, "Feel what? The pressure-"
"No, not the pressure," Marcus interrupted and took a deep breath, funneling the Water mana in through his nose, "The calling."
Austin scrunched his eyebrows.
"It''s like it resonates with my soul. All my body wants to do right now is jump down there and bask in it." Marcus said as his gaze turned hungry.
Austin felt nothing like that. Maybe you have to have a Water affinity to feel it?
"You know, my family has a lot of Water affinity users in it... we could-" Austin began before Marcus waived him off.
"They''ve already negotiated for whatever the treasure may be."
"What? When? I didn''t get any letters about it?" Austin challenged affronted.
For the first time, Marcus looked unsettled, "The woman who runs your City can be... persistent."
"HAH!" Austin laughed out loud, a genuine belly laugh from the description. "Persistent doesn''t even begin to describe Abigail!"
"Let me tell you, one time when I was eleven, she chased me for four blocks because..."
It would be dark before Austin ran out of stories to tell about Abigail being persistent.
Chapter 221 - Humble
Chris
The ensuing battle with both Dungeons was rather fun and cathartic. The upgrade waves didn''t carry the same feeling that the Dungeons did. Level 95 Bosses, whose bodies were a step above the rest that their level didn''t indicate, with Tier 2 Laws were a tough nut to crack.
It wasn''t as effortless as mowing through the previous Eighth Floor Bosses had been.
My new stats alone made those nearly a breeze.
The monster itself was always different along with the elemental Law they used, but it was always only Tier 1. On the off times it was something I had an advantage over, it was near effortless to dispatch them.
One poor Yeti-looking creature even tried to use an Ice Law against me one time.
I laughed in its face.
Of the Laws I''d battled against, Venom was my least favorite with Poison being a close second. Sorry, Mitchell.
The reason was because the effect lingered. It wasn''t over when the thing was dead. It continued to churn away long after the offending monster was crushed to oblivion.
Other Laws were harder to face head-on, but none were as annoying as those because it would stay lingering even as I faced off against the next beast. Plus, all my Ice did was slow it and make it less effective. It didn''t have a way to get rid of it.
Lightning wasn''t fun either, as it could go through my Ice armor and shock my body with relative ease, but nothing in the Dungeon had a Tier 2 Law back then which made the shock easy enough to push through.
Light was another I was beginning to find annoying. It made me change my idea of perfection for my Ice.
Skills followed the will of their user, which meant my intent played a role in how they manifested. My idea for the perfect Ice used to be the perfect crystalline structure, clear as glass and as hard as steel.
Getting [Light Beams] shot straight through it with little more than token resistance made me change that ideal. Foggy and clouded Ice worked better, but Light found a way through that too.
Blood was another annoying one, but that came in a few different shades. One monster used its Blood Law to heal itself, sucking the blood leaking out of it back in and sealing the wound. Some tried to control mine as it leaked from wounds, but freezing it was enough to stop that from happening.
Watching blood re-enter a wound had been nasty to watch happen.
While there were Laws that countered mine, there were just as many I dominated.
Nature and Water specifically, as I could freeze both and turn it against the wielder. Nothing could touch my authority over Ice yet but Wind was still a struggle. It was almost fun to battle against the Dungeon monsters in that respect.
It did a lot for my control over the element. The fact my body was near imperviousness to the weak Winds gave me a little more leeway with those fights.
Fire was another that was fun.
It was immensely pleasing to see the monster''s face when their beloved fire petered out and wouldn''t ignite. Those fights usually ended with the beast frozen solid to make a point.
One that stood out from the rest, not because I countered it or was weak against it, but because we were evenly matched was Stone.
I could freeze Stone with [Permafrost] but that didn''t give me enough leverage to compete for its control and only made the stone stronger. My Wind could wear down on it but not in any significant amount of time.
Those fights usually turned into a slugfest as their stone constructs battled against my Ice ones. Theoretically, Stone was stronger than Ice, but I sure as shit didn''t believe that and I liked proving it at every opportunity.
Metal was fun for the same reason, but I had an advantage over it that made it easier than Stone. When fighting against Metal Laws for an extended period of time, the Cold made them brittle and the fights didn''t last much longer after it shattered. They weren''t helpless, as they chipped away at my ice and could cut through it if I wasn''t careful but given enough time, I would win.
While the fights were all well and fun, it was the rewards that truly ramped up. The first few floors gave out pittances compared to the Ninth floor.
The First gave out barely a single copper and the Second was hardly better.
It wasn''t until passing the E-rank threshold on the Sixth Floor that the rewards matched expectations.
The Ninth was nearing the peak of E-rank and the rewards given matched. It gave nearly a silver just in coins, not even including the worth of the material.
The metal that one of the Dungeons gave was filled with mana which Vincent and I bought up all of it we could to work with.
High-quality materials were one of the only reasons I leveled my Profession so quickly. I didn''t spend as much time on it as I should have. It paid to be rich... or get a portion of the material through taxes.
On average, from the texts Abigail had, it took anywhere from half a year to three years to make it through E-rank. 50 levels in both in 6 months sounded impossible, but those people probably didn''t have to actively rebuild civilization at the same time.
I wondered how far ahead I''d be if fighting was all I did and only focused on advancing. It was an idle thought because it wasn''t something I cared much for. It would take as long as it took. Rushing wasn''t the point, building a firm base would take me much further.
D-rank would cause things to slow down. To get through all 100 levels of both Class and Profession would take anywhere from 5 to over 20 years. C-rank was even worse.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
D-rank was also where most people would start to fall off.
Souls could only go so far. Everyone had a different Soft Cap they would eventually hit. The weight/strength/robustness -however you wished to phrase it- of their soul could only hold so much essence.
Forcing more essence in wouldn''t result in more levels.
The only way to go further would be to keep pushing and experience new things. Route repetition wouldn''t lead to Godhood after all. Some would last longer than others, though. I imagined everyone in harder tutorials and who had faced death more than others would make it higher than those who hadn''t.
Once the limit was reached, it would turn into not only accumulating essence to level but strengthening the soul to be able to hold it. The speed everyone was rising through the levels now was lightning fast compared to the rest of the Universe.
Living through the end of the World had a way of doing that. Nothing like gaining experiences when everything you know and have grown accustomed to gets turned on its head while everything under the Sun wants to kill you.
That had a way of forcing people forward.
Those born after the Change would have it harder, as they didn''t have the lovely experience of nearly dying countless times.
It made me wonder when my limit would come. Would I make it through D-rank? C-rank?
I did nearly die a lot and for some reason, I don''t think the Demons will be the last time.
I was on my way back from the Dungeons when my train of thought was interrupted. A runner that Abigail had hired flagged me down.
"Sir, word from down South that the fighting is over and there are sealed letters for you to open." They said quickly and succinctly and barely caught themselves before bowing.
I trained them well. Quick, to the point with no fanfare.
That had nearly been an exercise in futility but I managed to get through to everyone eventually.
There would be no bowing in my City.
"Good, tell Abigail I''ll be right there after I clean up."
The man nodded and ran off back toward the City. As much as I wanted to rush off with him to read what happened, I didn''t think everyone would appreciate the smell of the blood and gore covering me.
One bad thing about the Dungeon monsters being real was their guts didn''t disappear off you when you left.
Washing up was routine by this point and took little more than a few moments. Leaving my armor for later helped cut down on the time it took.
With the excuse of having to make another set, I held nothing back on its design. I wasn''t quite at the point of being able to carve four Runes on it yet, but the three I did were all my best work.
Nearing Peak grade in Rune engraving.
Runes I used a lot, like Durability, Frost, and Protection gained enough practice to reach High grade in carving them long ago.
The push to keep getting better was a slow one, as most of the easy flaws and subtle flow issues had already been worked out, but I was slowly moving toward being perfect.
It was hard to go further as I didn''t have the skills necessary to even see the flaws, let alone fix them. [Formations Mana Flows] was the only reason I had come so far in such a short time.
Along with the Runes being my best work, I used the best metal we had available coming out of the Dungeon. There was an endless buy order out on any Ice-aligned metals but those were a rarity and I didn''t have enough to make a full set from it, but I did have enough to make just the breastplate.
Before the Demons, we didn''t have enough people who could clear the entire Dungeon which meant getting metals from the Eighth Floor was rare. Now, though, a lot more were coming out after full clears which made all the Smiths happy.
Instead, I had to use Neutral metals or ones easily influenced to Ice and [Infuse] them with the affinity I wanted.
It worked well enough, even if it wasn''t as good as being Ice-aligned to begin with.
Beggars couldn''t be choosers.
The craftsmanship was much better than my last set and would hopefully last me a while. At least until enough Ice-aligned metal was built up so I could make a full set.
After taking off the armor, I picked out from my wardrobe what had grown on me immensely now that the weather called for it.
Furs.
Whenever I''d seen them depicted in shows or films, they always looked too thick and heavy to be practical but that wasn''t the case. After walking around in full plate, furs felt like they weighed nothing and the freedom of movement was astounding.
Plus, they were soft.
I wasn''t like the others. I didn''t have to wear anything for the cold but I liked to and the attire had quickly become my favorite. Sam and Ashley, while Healers most of the time, had done a fantastic job on my clothes.
They''d managed to save bits of the Wolf Leader so long ago and it was its fur that lined the top of my cloak. Bits from other animals had to be used on my tunic and the rest of my clothes, but there was enough of the ferocious beast for the cloak.
The furs settled in nicely and I was off to find out what happened. Austin had been keeping us well appraised even before we sent more down there to him. His descriptions were usually filled with curses at the bugs but they were clear enough to get a good picture.
It made me want to go down there but I stopped myself from the urge. I didn''t have the time.
"Finally! We were waiting for half an hour!" Abigail shouted when I finally entered the room. It was more crowded than expected, nearly everyone was there.
Had it taken that long?
"I''m here. I''m here." I said, "Where are the letters?"
A stack of neatly folded parchments was thrust into my hand as Abigail tapped her foot impatiently.
To add security to our messages, Gabriel and I had come up with an enchanted seal. It was quick work, as I had been in the middle of carving the Wards, but it was simple enough that I doubted people would be able to break it without time to research it.
The downside was I had to open them, as no one else could do it without the letter going up in flames. There were other inefficiencies to work out, as we had to send them with the enchanted paper so they could write their letter on it, but we would work out something better in time when things slowed down.
The seal didn''t really do anything other than combust if someone who wasn''t me opened it.
"This one''s for Sam," I said after opening the first one, "It''s from Alice."
"This one is for... Connor?" I looked closer to make sure I had it right. "It''s from Mitchell."
I tried to picture why Mitchell would write to Connor but couldn''t before I had to move on.
I opened and handed out all the ones that went to other people and was left with two that were addressed to me while Abigail had four. I eyed her stack, then looked at mine, then at hers again.
Aren''t I supposed to be the Leader?
Of the two I had, one was from Austin and the other was from the other City Lord.
~~
Chris,
You would not believe the bullshit I just pulled. It was like I was impersonating you out there. I won''t go into the details as I want it to be a surprise, but I will tell you that our next spar won''t go as you imagine.
I may finally win.
The fight was difficult, but we pulled through in the end. Marcus led well and made everything all the easier. Maybe you could take notes?
I wanted to take back the treasure I found for you guys but that won''t be possible. It''s tied to this area and can''t be moved or else I would have tried. Apparently, Abigail has already discussed terms for its use.
Not sure when she did that though.
This is usually the point where I''d wax on about my exploits but I thought I''d wait to do that in person. My armor is pretty much scraps at this point and while the Leatherworkers here are decent, I want the best.
Maybe I can ask a special someone to enchant it for me again?
To their credit, the Leatherworkers here don''t have a lot of material to work with. The bugs eat anything that comes close and don''t exactly leave the hides out for them to grab. None of their Dungeons reward it either! It''s bad form to think that''s funny, but I can''t help it. This place hasn''t exactly been the fun adventure I pictured.
Maybe tell Jonathan to come with Leather when he comes to trade?
See ya in a few months, Asshole.
Yours truly.
~~
Huh, not what I expected. I can''t tell if he''s gotten more or less humble.
Chapter 222 - Internal Storm
Dear City Lord of Frostheim,
It is my honor to write to the one who aided us when no others would and I would like to send my sincere thanks. Without your help, I''m unsure if we would have been able to do what we did.
As I understand it, we owe you a debt. I owe you a debt. If you ever have need of me or my City in the future, you need only ask and we will be there.
Your Mayor has already reached out in regards to the treasure we unearthed. As much as I would like for it to remain secret, I can''t put the cat back in the bag.
If you give us a few months we will be ready and waiting to receive those who you chose to send to experience it. If you wish to do so before then, I must ask for your understanding of our lacking accommodations.
As much as I''d like to go on with my thanks, I have other news I feel you should know. I''m not sure how much your friend or cousin was able to glean from his stay or if he was looking for it at all.
His abilities were far above where we predicted they were initially, which would''ve allowed him to reach things we intended to hide. Even if he managed to sleuth out all of it, I feel it''s important to make sure you hear it from me.
We''ve been approached by multiple pylons who petitioned us to join their Factions. They all saw the position we were in and sought to leverage it against me. All offered partnership but required me to swear fealty.
While the offers are important, it isn''t the part that I wish to inform you of.
With their messengers and diplomats coming and going, word has spread of the happenings to the South, and not all of it good.
War has already broken out and more are soon to follow with skirmishes already occurring. The City of Storms, or old Chicago, was recently conquered after a bloody battle and people are fleeing from the fighting. Other cities have similar stories with outside forces trying to expand their holdings.
In the heart of it all, a Faction has been gobbling up all pylons near it by methods we aren''t sure about. They expand too rapidly for it to be done through conquest and there isn''t word of any battles taking place.
They''ve grown quickly and now have most of the East Coast under their command.
I''m told you used to be American before it all went to shit, so I''m sure you understand when I tell you where their Capital is rumored to be.
Norfolk, Virginia.
Rumors say Washington was lost and survivors are trickling out of where it used to stand, but it''s too far away for any information to be accurate.
I, myself, don''t know what to do with this information, but I feel I should inform you of it. Attached are the locations of every pylon we''ve heard word of and their suspected locations.
It''s the least I could do and I hope this serves you well.
My thanks,
Marcus Shieldwell
~~
The other letter was... informative. That was a bit of an understatement. Austin had been keeping us appraised of what he learned, and he informed us of a few pylons, but that was nothing compared to what was in the letter.
Austin wasn''t there as a spy, as Marcus seemed to have assumed, and he didn''t spend a lot of time trying to sneak around and uncover information.
All he did was send along the things he heard or saw.
Our war map had only seven pylons on it before and Marcus''s letter had markings for over double that. All were spread out over distances we couldn''t hope to reach. Our scouts ventured far, but what was depicted was thousands of miles away.
It would take months to get there in even the best conditions. Some were nearly a year''s travel away.
While the warning of the growing Faction was welcome, it wasn''t really something we had to worry about right now. Even if they stopped focusing on what was around them, it would take over a year to get any sort of fighting force to us as far away as we were.
Seeing how much more informed the other City was pointed out one of the rare downsides to settling where we did.
While we were isolated in the North without any threats nearby.
We were isolated in the North and any information had a long way to travel to get to us.
Still, I would take being up here rather than being down there.
Most of the letter was something we couldn''t do anything about, at least not right now, but there was one thing I had to ask about.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
"Abigail, what did you negotiate for?" I asked.
The letter said my Mayor already had a deal in place and now I was curious as to what she cooked up. She brought it up at one meeting a while ago but I hadn''t been paying much attention. I usually let her do her thing as my input wasn''t always needed.
I had been busy with something else and my mind forgot it.
"Well, Austin told us that there was a valuable Water affinity treasure down there and I made sure we would be able to use it. We weren''t sure what it was, but I covered all the bases. If it was a one-time use, we would pay for it through trade, if it was a sustainable source of Water Mana, the same would happen but would allow the other City access to it if it was movable.
"And if it wasn''t movable, they would allow access for us to go down and use it. From what we know, it''ll be perfect for purifying Water Bloodlines and studying Water Laws." She said.
"Oh, that''s perfect. I know you''re close so you should go down there-" I was cut off.
"It''s already planned. We''ll go in two groups so we don''t all leave at the same time." She said.
That''s good. If every Water affinity left, half our family would be gone.
It wouldn''t be that big of an issue, as we could easily handle the monthly waves, but it was better to be safe. I wouldn''t be here after all. Austin was on his way back which put me at ease, and according to his letter, was much more powerful now.
This Winter was slated to have everyone working on themselves.
Then, after spending time catching up in areas we were behind on, we would go for the Baron upgrade. Maybe even higher depending on how much more powerful everyone grew.
We needed Bloodline parts sooner rather than later.
Nick
Lightning struck with a resounding boom and another wave of its mana raged through his body. He was barely finished dealing with the last one when another bolt started the searing pain back up again.
He was nearly immune to Lightning and had used that resistance when fighting the other City Lord. All the Lightning he had been able to throw at Nick was shunted into the ground or used as power with Nick being fine.
But this was different. Even if he was just using his body as a conduit and shunting the lightning into the ground, he would be left singed and smoking in pain.
What fell from the sky was that powerful.
It had taken months just to be able to build up a tolerance and reach the edge of the pool of buzzing water at the center, let alone let the mana rushing into his body. The technique book had the steps laid out for him to follow, but he hadn''t anticipated it being this hard.
In months since the battle, he was only on the Fourth step.
Step 1: Attune yourself to the Lightning, saturating your entire body, channels, and mana pool in pure Lightning Mana.
Step 2: After that is achieved, move on and add Wind to the growing Lightning. It should mix and swirl as a thundercloud instead of rage and fight. Coexistence is key.
Step 3: Then, when both Lightning and Wind are in harmony, add Water. Water gives the clouds weight. It gives the lightning power and Wind substance. It binds all three together into what will eventually become Storm.
Whatever ''attuning'' meant nearly killed him. Nick opened himself up to the Lightning and nearly died when a bolt struck him. He learned quickly that being near the center was much too powerful for his body to handle.
What followed was weeks spent starting at the edge of the blackened sand inching closer day by day.
Eventually, while he wasn''t able to sit in the pool at the center, he reached a point where the errant strikes wouldn''t burn his flesh and send him to the nearest Healer.
After that, he added Wind while trying to keep the Lightning from going haywire. He wanted them to mix, not to fight for dominance as the book said but it was easier said than done.
Wind was easy enough to gather, but hard to capture. It howled through the ruined skyscrapers endlessly, taking the previous city''s moniker to heart but refused to be still as he wanted it to stay in his body.
Nick spent weeks mixing the two and then even longer adding Water into the mix.
The work was endless, painful, and occasionally resulted in all the hair on his body being burnt off from losing control, but he did it.
The Fourth step was simple to read, but he was finding it endlessly frustrating to implement. It had seemed so easy at first as it was barely a line in the technique book.
Step Four: Once Lightning, Wind, and Water are all equally attuned, combine them and forge the Internal Storm.
It was what his technique book was named after and its claim to fame. The Raging Internal Storm Mana Cultivation.
Mana cultivation was nothing like Nick expected it to be. While he hadn''t gone through any of the barbaric Body Refining Techniques himself, he''d seen others who did and read his fair portion of the books before.
They reforged the flesh through terrible pain granting the person unique abilities. Reforged in Fire would grant Fire resistance, Poison would grant poison resistance. When leaving the tutorial he saw the ones available to him and what they would do for his body but dismissed them.
He was a mage. He didn''t need to have a strong body and didn''t want to waste his limited Reward points on it.
Instead, he had turned to the other side of the Body Path.
Mana Cultivation.
They were told that it existed and little other than that. Frustratingly little. Nick assumed that if Body Refining was meant for Warriors, Mana Cultivation was meant for Mages which was why he forwent buying a Body Refining technique.
And he was right.
Partially, but that part didn''t apply to him.
Body Refining strengthened the body. Mana Cultivation strengthened the mana pool. Both aspects of the Body Path of Power, but separated.
Instead of painfully ripping apart his flesh for it to grow back stronger, Nick was in the process of forging his Mana pool into a Mana Core.
It would give his mana pool shape and structure. It would grow larger and increase the amount of mana he could hold. What used to be only possible through Wisdom, was possible through Mana Cultivation and it wasn''t only that.
It would improve all his magical stats. Similar to how the body got stronger and more robust improving upon the physical stats, the same happened to the magical.
Turning his pool into a Core would make his pool bigger, more concentrated, and his mana would regenerate faster.
It was perfect for him.
Nick could only snicker at the fools going down the other route. They were afraid of the unknown and went with what was more understood. Biology was easy. It was studied even before the Change and led to Body Refining being widely popular, even among Mages who didn''t need it wasting their time when it could be better spent making them stronger.
This would cement his power. With this and his Law, he would be able to stand over everyone and his coming evolution would only make him stronger.
All he was waiting for was the mana to do it. Every lightning bolt, gust of wind, or drop of water pushed his oversaturated mana pool that much further and gave him the fuel he needed.
Even if it took days filled with pain, he would forge a flawless core even if it killed him. Why settle for lower grades of Core when he could go for the best?
Chapter 223 - Northern Territories
Chris
"We can delay and see you off tomorrow. Are you sure you want to leave in this?" Abigail gestured out into the growing snowstorm. The snow had started falling as the sun rose and a good few inches were already on the ground. The clouds were abundant, forewarning much more to come.
The first snows of the year had come and gone when my arm was finishing up and the current storm dumping a layer of snow on everything was not the first. Watching more accumulate, the layers building, it was making me antsy. I knew that Winter would last for multiple months but I couldn''t help but want to start now.
It technically wasn''t even winter yet, as the solstice had yet to happen. It was still a month away, which made this a Fall snowstorm.
"Bah, there''s no better weather! This is perfect!" I said boisterously, cheerful that my journey would begin with a fun start.
It amused me they wanted to delay on account of the weather when they knew I had conjured worse. Others were already limiting their time outside and everyone already switched out of any metal armor they wore.
Any Warriors that fought in plate would only put it on after they were in the Dungeon, as counterintuitive as that sounded.
Putting it on after clearing the First Floor was less dangerous than freezing to death on the way there while the metal sapped your heat. The only way around it was lining the inside with furs and trying to do the same on the outside, which didn''t always work that well.
It made for a... bulky layer to fight in.
"You read the report, right?" Abigail asked after I denied delaying.
The scouts ranged far and wide around the City and she had compiled together all the information we had on anything to the North of us. It would only last for a few days to a week until I traveled past where our scouts had been, but it was better than nothing.
"Yes, I read it but I may need to check and make sure our scouts weren''t drunk," I said. The papers said there were Saber-tooth tigers or something remarkably similar that was spotted last week before the snows came.
"They weren''t drunk. We don''t even have any alcohol and that isn''t the first report we have of... fantastical creatures." She defended her information.
"Why did you have to go and bring that up? What I wouldn''t give for a cold beer." My eyes misted just thinking about it, "But yes, I remember. What was it last time?" I tried to remember the last report stating they saw a beast that was impossible, "Woolly Mammoth-no-, Woolly Rhinoceroses!"
That one came in the previous Winter from a scout who deviated from his course and lost his way in the snow. With everything covered in white, it was easy to get lost if one wasn''t careful.
He ended up spending a week in the snow and came back with wild stories.
While so many things had Changed, for some reason, people drew the line on extinct beasts walking the Earth again. Most for the simple reason they hadn''t been the ones to see it.
Some had traveled far and wide without a hint of anything fantastical. Some came with us from Ohio and covered thousands of miles without a hint of anything like it.
"It''s not that far-fetched and I wish you would take it more seriously." Abigail chided, "You can create a localized blizzard and the World grew by at least two sizes! What difference does it make if there are Woolly Mammoths again."
"I know, I know." I waved her off, "It''s just amusing to think about. You should tell Austin about it when he gets back. He''d go out in a storm even worse than this to see that!"
Thinking about how much the man complained about the snow the last time he was here, it made me chuckle to picture him bundled up wading through it trying to find something fantastical.
As much as I liked to annoy my sister, I did actually think the reports were real. It wasn''t that far-fetched to believe in them when everything else had happened. Honestly, it was more unbelievable to not believe in them after all that happened.
People could shoot magic out of their fingertips yet some still held onto the past reality like they would crumble away if they didn''t.
It was a part of the trip I had been looking forward to the most.
Painstakingly building up the City took time and effort I couldn''t spend elsewhere. The only traveling I did, other than to go fight Demons, was to the Dungeons and back every day.
I wasn''t the one out scouting or free to explore the surroundings for anything cool. I was stuck here and could only read reports of the cool things.
But now was my chance. To lay eyes on the mythical myself.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The child inside of me couldn''t wait.
"Alrighty then," I said slapping my legs, "It''s now or never!"
After saying the customary Mid-West goodbye, it took another hour until I was finally out the door. Everyone had come to see me off which was entirely unnecessary.
Anna and Josh waved their little goodbyes, while the rest looked on from atop the Wall. Remi had been particularly upset that I wasn''t bringing him. I never did get to ride him as much as he wanted.
Sarah would be his caretaker while I was gone, though, as I wasn''t sure he would survive my trip and I didn''t have the room to pack food for him. It wasn''t like he would be able to graze where I was going.
Speaking of food, my pack was loaded with jerky of all kinds. It would last me a long while but I would still get most of my food through hunting. Fires would be difficult to start but I had ways around that.
With everything set, my hammer strapped in, my pack loaded down, and my feet ready to get a move on, I left my City for only the second time and this one was for a much more pleasant reason.
"''Find an area of intense cold and breath of pure Winter''." My voice mocked as my feet plodded through the thick snow. What did ''even mean?
The snow had started to slowed me down, as its depth had grown dramatically. I had spent the first week standing atop it, using my control to strengthen it enough to hold my weight.
It worked to save energy but was utterly draining to keep up for an entire day.
I had, at first, taken it as a chance to train. Now that I wasn''t manipulating my arm every day, I had to find other ways to advance my skills. [Ice Manipulation] was on the cusp of Rare, I could feel it.
After days spent doing the same thing for hours on end, it had gotten old. Even the dropping temperatures and picturesque scenery weren''t enough to keep me going through the grueling task.
I still did it occasionally, but it just wasn''t worth it when I had the strength to power through the snow. Even when the banks reached above my hips, it wasn''t hard to push through them with my strength.
The first week had been a blast. I was free from all my obligations. I wasn''t required to do anything. Everything was up to my own whims.
[Glacial Presence] grew with every passing day and with every mile North I traveled. While the boost was invigorating, and I was having a great time in such a pure Arctic atmosphere, it didn''t feel like home anymore.
It was comforting and familiar, but I had made my home elsewhere. Built it brick by brick.
Surprisingly, I was interrupted rarely.
Now that I wasn''t inside a populated area, I could let myself relax. The tight control I kept so I wasn''t constantly pressing down on people was released. It felt like taking dress clothes off after being forced into them for a special occasion.
The shoes especially, as I swore designers took a perverse joy in making dress shoes as uncomfortable as possible.
In doing so, almost everything I encountered made way as I came through. Only a few things had stayed and growled, but I left them mostly alone.
I wasn''t there to kill everything in sight.
Plus, they were only defending their homes and I could hardly begrudge them that. Some even had little ones with them, shuffled behind hind legs or curiously poking out of dens in the snow.
The only ones to receive the hammer were the ones who didn''t know to leave well enough alone. Either because of hubris or stupidity, it didn''t matter and they were perfect supplements for my travel rations.
Gamey and stringy, but edible enough to not be disgusting.
I had known that the Arctic would be more lively now and had even experienced it when the meat still rolled into storehouses last Winter, but it was another thing entirely to walk among it.
It felt wondrous.
Rodents more fluff than flesh hopped in and out of tunnels burrowed in the snow, munching on the surprisingly lively plant life. None were the verdant green one would expect, but brown-grey and covered in a layer of snow and frost.
The fruit of their labor was packed with Snow and Ice mana as it was the nutrients the plants used to grow and was a welcome break from the endless meat of my previous diet. Even raw and plain as they were.
The bushes were scarce but the little fluff balls found their way to them through the feet of snow.
Stalking them were predators both on land and sky.
Arctic foxes and feline hunters diving through the snow after prey was like a scene out of a nature documentary. It was the foxes who usually went after the various rodents, as the cats liked the snow hares more. At least from what I could tell.
While those were cool to watch, it was another that fascinated me more.
Snow Owls.
They were silent, nearly invisible, and incredibly deadly when they hunted. I could watch their wings flap and not hear a thing, they were that silent. Even with snow covering the land and making sound carry as it did, I still couldn''t hear anything.
Even though my Perception wasn''t my best stat, it was still way better than a normal human.
Other than being completely silent, their coloring made it nearly impossible to see them. Pristine white feathers were easily lost in the sky with other specks of white drifting down.
Even spots of grey and brown to break up the solid color didn''t give it away and did the opposite, making it even harder to spot.
Lastly, I had yet to see one of them miss a dive.
Even the best predator in the world wasn''t 100% successful. I didn''t think the Owls were perfect, just I hadn''t seen one miss yet. It was fascinating to watch and made me want one.
Sarah could keep it well-fed and happy.
I shook my head. Maybe in the future, but now wasn''t the time for it. She was busy with the horses and the wolves and was expecting foals in the coming summer. Plus, it seemed wrong to take the Owls away from their natural habitat.
Their white coloring made them invisible here, but it would stick out like a sore thumb without the snow to blend it.
Instead, I only observed while I walked.
I wasn''t sure where the perfect spot would be but it wasn''t hard to imagine that it would be further North. It was impossible not to feel the change as I walked. Thicker, purer Ice mana suffused the air and there were even hints of Arctic around.
There was even a sudden snowstorm that carried Ice Laws I walked through a few days ago.
That had been a surprise and I took a detour to experience it before the storm broke apart. It was my first time seeing Laws naturally and it did not disappoint.
We knew they were a thing from others as we heard stories of a tornado destroying most of a city with Wind Laws spread from some of our new arrivals.
I wonder if I''m in the Northern Territories yet. It feels like I''ve been walking for months. Is that even the right Province I''m in? Ah, fuck it. It''s not like it matters anymore.
Chapter 224 - Interlude: Good Boy
Sarah
A riot of noise surrounded her as she made her way through the kennel. High-pitched yips of excitement from growing puppies were followed by low rumbling growls of warning from Lulu.
The horses had been rough, but they were nothing compared to the complete workload of keeping track of and an eye on the dozen scoundrels.
Lulu''s litter had been... larger than expected. She expected the puppies to stop at four or five, but she continued pushing more out until an even dozen were all nuzzled against her. It was a welcome change. Well, welcome in the fact there were more of the cute fluffballs. Not welcome in the fact there were now over double the things to keep out of trouble than expected.
The job was never-ending as they seemed to thrive on getting into places they weren''t supposed to be.
It was enough to wear her out even with her higher endurance and she was near her wit''s end.
She considered asking Jonathan to take her through one of the Dungeons for a few levels just so she would have more energy to spare watching but decided against it.
She was already growing fast enough already, she didn''t need to go through the Dungeon too. She''d already been warned repeatedly not to rush and focus on things other than level.
"Level isn''t everything." Jonathan would lecture. The tone and cadence of it was something she could impersonate in her sleep he said it often enough.
Sarah knew he was right, she''d seen Chris fight and knew that he didn''t get his strength from his levels, but it was boring to sit and meditate about Laws!
Even the one for her affinity remained out of reach!
The only easy one to do was Body Refining but they wouldn''t let her do that yet. They claimed that she was still too young and her body was still growing.
They aren''t my parents. I can do anything I want.
Even though she thought that, she didn''t make any moves to change her course. Sarah knew they were right but just didn''t want to admit it.
She was stuck advancing slowly, not that what she was doing was considered slow. She rose in level faster than nearly everyone else just by taking care of the little ones and doing what she wanted to do anyway.
Even if they were an absolute handful right now.
Lulu did what she could but Sarah hadn''t had any time to train her, let alone the pups before she was due. Lulu understood most things already, like not attacking people and no biting, but she didn''t know enough to caution the pups into not doing things.
Why would she care that furniture got chewed up by the little ankle biters if she herself didn''t know it was bad?
Luckily, Sarah''s skills made bathroom training easy enough and the wolves were smart enough to catch on quickly. The innate knowledge to not dirty their home made that process much smoother. The only solace to the whole ordeal.
She had cleaned up after them enough the action had invaded her dreams.
One of the bigger pups from the litter came bounding over excitedly when it noticed she was there but she had to disappoint the little one.
"I don''t have any treats this time. I''m sorry." She said while stroking the soft fur.
They were growing nicely. It was nearly enough that she couldn''t keep calling them pups anymore. At nearly three months old they were shooting up in weight and size. If they weren''t careful, they would knock her down if multiple started jumping on her.
[Inspect Tame] came back with nothing out of the ordinary and everything was still going fine. She was lucky she caught the flees and the worms early or that would''ve been bad.
She had begged Abigail for help once she found out as she couldn''t do anything about it short of picking through their fur by hand for the fleas. Luckily, Connor stayed behind when everyone left and he was able to whip something up.
It smelled horrible and stained her hands green for a week, but it killed off all the fleas. The pellet he gave her worked to flush out the worms as well.
Her body instinctively shivered at the thought. She still remembered the... aftermath of the pellet''s effects and it was pure nightmare fuel. It worked to purge the body of the worms but it didn''t have to do it in such a grotesque way.
Other than that though, the pups were growing big and strong. They transitioned to solid food well and were weened without any issues. The food was a problem, but Abigail helped.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Sarah wouldn''t be able to afford all the meat the beasts were devouring by herself, but Abigail was able to work with the butchers and get the undesirable bits for her to use. Or when the odd wave came with humanoid enemies, they would keep them in a stockpile for her.
Separated, obviously, but with the Cold as it was now, they would keep for months and the wolves didn''t care about a little freezer burn.
Her inquiry into the Kennel today was to check on one of the troublemakers. Specifically, one that was doing its best to drive her up a wall. It was the best escape artist of the litter and constantly managed to get out of the Kennel she had built.
People were finding the wayward pup all over the City as it ran around sniffing everything new and would call for her all hour of the day.
Apparently, the play time and walks weren''t enough for its adventurous urges.
Where are you, you little bugger.
A flash of white dashed to hide when it saw her coming but that was enough to doom it. She''d caught it trying to escape once again and jumped to pick it up before it could get away.
It was heavy, nearly too much to pick up on her own, but they were still a few months of growing away from that.
"No! How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that!" She scolded the thing.
In its many escape attempts, the damage it caused was enough to force someone to come fix. Holes dug under the walls needed to be filled in and extra protection added so it didn''t happen again.
Holes chewed into the wall or door needed to be replaced.
Somehow even a gap in the ceiling was used one time.
It was like it could sniff out weaknesses in the structure to get through.
Sarah found that the best way to keep the ball of energy contained was to give it some special attention. The others in the litter were content to play around and roughhouse with each other with the walks enough to keep them happy.
This one needed a more personal touch.
What started as her trying everything under the sun to wear the dog out turned into a game of sorts. One that was quite fun when she thought about it.
Picking up her prize for the coming hours, she marched off with it in her hands so it couldn''t run away.
You need a name. She thought while looking at the furball trying to get free from her grip. She''d held off on naming any of the puppies for fear that any didn''t make it.
Sure, Connor helped with medicine and they had Healers if anything went wrong, but they had no Vets. None of the Healers specialized in animal care and most were busy fixing everyone up.
Jonathan had warned her not to get too attached in case one didn''t make it but nothing like that happened and they were out of the rough part.
Cooper? No, it''s not normal for this troublemaker.
Trouble? No, that''s just asking it to continue its escapades.
His coloring and fur reminded her of sled dogs and the name Togo popped up but she dismissed that one as well.
Dakota. Dakota sounds good.
She had spent so long thinking about a name that she reached the woods outside the City by the time she decided on one.
"Look who it finally is!" Gavin shouted as Sarah came near. "We were beginning to wonder where you were."
All the others started chatting as well but Sarah stopped them. "Since he''s out of the danger period, I thought it was time to name him."
That sparked interest as the crowd of Scouts all started shouting names they thought were cool.
"Fenrir!"
"Aurora!"
"Balto!"
"Wait, you''re saying we can''t keep calling him Dog?" Gavin joked.
"Yes, Gavin, we can''t keep calling him dog." Sarah sighed, "And before you all start shouting suggestions again, I''ve already given him one. His name will be Dakota."
They congratulated her and lavished affection on the preening dog in her hands at the announcement.
Afterward, Hal walked up and silenced the group. "Alright, alright, quiet down. Now that it''s been decided, everyone knows the drill. You all have 5 minutes starting..."
All the Scouts stopped chatting and got into ready stances.
"NOW!"
All except for one of them took off at breakneck speeds into the woods, weaving in and out of the trees as they made to get away. The designated ''seeker'' was Gavin today as he stayed behind.
Sarah watched while keeping hold of Dakota to keep him from chasing after them. She felt him tense to do just that and held on tighter.
"Do you think you''ll win today Gavin?" Sarah couldn''t help but ask.
Gavin sighed, "I don''t know. I''m getting better but he''s somethin'' else."
The game had started out harmless at first but quickly turned competitive. Sarah had just wanted to tire Dakota out so he would stop trying to escape and it ended up turning into so much more.
The Scouts had noticed their outings to play in the woods and some came around to join her or chat and things grew from there.
Now it was an entire training activity they liked to call ''Man vs. Dog.''
While they liked to call it a training activity for their own dignity, it was really just a game. They took Hide and Seek and made it a competition.
A dozen or so Scouts would race off into the woods and try not to be found while one seeker and Dakota looked for them. It let them practice their stealth while also training their tracking abilities.
The seeker rotated so everyone got to work on both.
The competition came about when Dakota was introduced.
Sarah had thought it would be fun for him to try finding the ''Hiders'' and set him to do just that. He ended up finding more than the ''Seeker'' had which sparked competitive spirits.
It was downhill from there.
Dakota had yet to lose.
The five minutes ticked away and Sarah set Dakota on the snowy ground but still held on. As she counted down the seconds, she felt him ready to begin running.
When she reached zero she gave a command, "Seek!"
Dakota raced off into the woods with Gavin hot on his heels.
Sarah had thought the tracks left in the snow would have been a dead giveaway but skills made that a non-issue. Some could even cover their tracks without skills.
She knew how hard that was from her father''s training. What she remembered of it at least.
After her two companions ran off, Sarah was left standing in the clearing alone. She remembered the one time Christopher had joined them for a game and how that ended up causing a smile to form.
Chris was anything but stealthy.
The fact he had just received so many levels didn''t help. He had even less control over his aura than he usually did causing him to be that much easier to find.
He was the first one found and it wasn''t even close. Chris moped and then offered sparring to be the next activity. The Scouts paled but Abigail swooped in to save them. Chris was on a strict no-fighting order as he was still recovering at the time and Abigail came in the nick of time.
As she was thinking back, barks sounded out followed by a curse somewhere else in the woods.
Gavin was down one already.
Sarah grinned.
Good boy.
Chapter 225 - Bitter Cold
Chris
Brrrrrrrr.
My teeth clattered together slowly as I marched through the raging storm. It was an odd sensation to have again. After going without it for so long, I almost forgot what it felt like.
I was cold. Not just cold, but shivering in my boots freezing.
I hadn''t felt anything close to a chill for over two years, and now I was doing everything I could to pull my fur cloak tighter and get away from the wind. I was thankful I liked wearing the heavy thing because it was marvelous against the cold.
Although its condition wasn''t the best, and it had seen better days, it was my favorite article of clothing right now, and nothing else came close.
In somewhat of a twisted sense of humor, the best thing to fight against the bitterly cold winds was actually [Frost Armor]. It surrounded my body, even my burly cloak, and shielded it from the worst of the bite.
Somehow, even with the skill creating a thick layer of ice around me, and then another thick layer of fur for the Wind to get through, the chill still got through.
I knew traveling through high mana density areas would change things but this was something else. Even the Wind held such power to go through everything I had to block it.
It made me fearful of the other spots we noticed on the map.
Ice and Wind was my specialty. I had a specific resistance to the two especially when they were combined like they were, but what if it was something else? The environment I was in now was deadly to everyone besides me. If that was the case, what did other places high in mana but not of Ice and Cold look like?
What did that say about the World?
Frostheim was located next to two Dungeons which made the magic there denser than in other places, but it was nothing compared to the thick bog of it I was wading through currently.
We knew these areas would be deadly but I had gotten complacent. The areas practically glowing on the map were easy enough to interpret as dangerous.
I thought that being able to run through the Dungeons unharmed not much would be able to threaten me and I had been proven wrong twice in quick succession.
The Demons came and nearly killed me and now I was receiving a reality check just from the environment!
An environment I was supposed to thrive in!
Oh, I was way more powerful here than I''d ever felt before, but even I had limits and I was quickly reaching them. Soon, even [Frost Armor] wouldn''t give the respite it once had and I''d have to find another way to keep going.
The power helped, though.
If I didn''t grow stronger as it got colder, I would''ve had to stop miles ago and change tactics. The weight of so much Ice Mana and at such purity caused even me to balk.
It wasn''t something I could take lightly.
My body and stats were enough to get me this far, but the stats from [Glacial Presence] helped me push on further into the cold and so did the steady beating of my heart.
The latter wasn''t something I could quantify though. [Glacial Presence] was straightforward in its effects but my heart was not.
As the days got shorter and we neared the Solstice, the swing in temperature grew wider.
Cloudless days that allowed the sun''s rays to bask the area in light were usually followed by cloudless nights that let all the accumulated heat escape made the highs and lows brutal.
It went from not that bad and only my cloak was enough to ward the cold away, to shivering while [Frost Armor], my cloak, and bursts of [Jotun''s Resistance] tried their best to keep me from freezing to death.
The effects it had on [Glacial Presence] were wild to get used to at first. Even with multiple hours between the highs and lows, it was still a massive swing in a rather short period of time. If it happened any quicker it could be used as an attack it was so disorienting.
Another quirk of the skill that I found out while traveling was that it had a cap.
A raging snowstorm with Winds so fast I had to fight just to remain standing on two feet and an Ice Law that neared my own in Tier brought the coldest I''d ever felt and the skill maxed out. I could feel it trying and failing to go any further with the boost.
At a 33% increase in physical stats, [Glacial Presence] could go no further.
The skill wasn''t linear in the boost it gave. The colder it got, the less efficient it got, but still, to get an increase of a third was monstrous from only a Rare skill.
Other than the temperature becoming nearly too much, other things came into play. The atmosphere was chock full of mana and the beasts used that to grow to insane heights.
Some were already in D-rank!
I persevered through it all, trying to push as far as possible to get the perfect area to go through with it. The book said an insane amount of mana was needed to do it perfectly and I was going to keep traveling until I physically couldn''t anymore.
[Jotun''s Resistance] flared briefly to give a small respite from the cold and I marched on. I had been using it more often as my resistance wasn''t able to keep up. Soon, it would be the only thing that kept me from freezing to death.
Maybe I should''ve gone for Body of Stone first?
It was too late to change it now. Plus, the process would take longer than the first time which was something I didn''t want to do right now. I wasn''t even sure how long it would take to build something that I could even use.
My foot came down, crunching on snow like it had countless times before, but something was different this time. It was a subtle feeling, but unmistakable.
Ha, it only took over a month of walking and running nonstop, but here I am!
I wasn''t on the ground anymore.
I was walking on Ice. I''d reached the Arctic Ocean.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Mana Cultivation is one of the oldest methods of advancement in the Universe second only to Body Refining. The many techniques regarding it have been around so long that they date back to before the Three Paths were founded.
Some even claim to have found evidence in ancient tombs or timeless inheritances that its methods existed even before The System if what they say is to be believed.
While interesting in its own right, I''m not here to debate the fabled histories and whether or not those statements hold kernels of truth. The point of this Introduction is merely to inform of the possibilities this Path holds.
Mana Cultivation is the other side of the coin to Body Refining and both techniques combine together to make up the Path of Power through the Body. I feel that should be a distinction that is made more often. Many a time I''ve heard young apprentices calling it the Body Path of Power when they should say the Path of Power through the Body.
Unlike the semantics of describing the method, the process itself is quite simple. Almost deceptively so.
It uses the principles already seen in nature as a guide and all the various techniques out there are evidence of that. It would take much too long to go into detail about every single one, so instead, I will describe the process in the general sense.
Mana.
The Mystical, Arcane, or any other word the various races refer to it as. Mana is what the entire process revolves around and should be obvious from what the enlightened Races have decided to call this method. The fuel for all manner of spells and enchantments and the substance that can grant unlimited change.
Cultivation.
The tireless and unceasing perpetuation of the process. Continued advancement and growth through various stages. Most use the Nine stage limiter but it is far from the only one.
In the simplest words that even the Krath''les could understand, Mana Cultivation is the practice of growing and advancing the mana pool through various techniques to improve the magical abilities of the Body.
Every being has a mana pool, no matter how big or small, and it is fact that it can be grown with essence, but that growth is only the bare minimum of what''s possible.
The first step onto the long road of what can be accomplished.
Mana Cultivation is the directed alteration and manipulation that builds upon what is already there, turning the base mana pool everything has into something so much more.
Some techniques take inspiration from how beasts form cores and have the practitioner forge one of their own. Others use nature as the base, taking inspiration from the natural creation of mana crystals and use that to form crystals in themselves in substitute of cores.
Goranth, The Living Stone, pioneered his method using stone as the base. The Order of the Phoenix Flame does the same with their eternal flame. The famous Nymphs of the Endless Waves create internal Oceans they continually grow and fill out.
Either way, all the techniques referenced above create a localized storage that will continue to be Cultivated and grown with mana until Godhood. The method of storage differs, but all are similar in that respect.
I feel it is important to note that most Mana Cultivation techniques follow this rule but not all of them. I mention this purely to point out the endless possibilities there are for Mana Cultivation techniques.
What the warrior races of Lothlorian -both Orc and Human- have done is outside the scope of this text and frankly, should be impossible. Some scholars still claim it to be so even with the evidence against that stance staring them in the face. The stubborn fools.
While some claim it a perversion, the outcome proves its viability. Even if it leaves them practically crippled magically. They are known as one of the fiercest warrior Kingdoms for a reason.
How they did what they did is still a well-kept secret and the Lothlorians would sooner die than reveal it, but what is known about the process can be studied in later volumes and isn''t a topic this one will focus on.
This is meant to introduce the method along with its many variations and what those variations provide in terms of benefit. Where one is better than another or worse than another, including any drawbacks should there be any.
-Excerpt from "Introduction to Mana Cultivation Techniques" by Master Arcanist Woodridge of the Beraxi Mage Tower.
~~
Abigail
Abigail shut the book she was reading as her free time was up. It was something she had already read but it didn''t help to get a refresher. She had forced Chris to read it before he went off on his trip and it had been a while since she had last done so.
She had already gone through and cataloged all of the texts they managed to bring with them and she put the book back on the shelf where it belonged. It wasn''t like anyone would say anything if she placed it back somewhere else but she would know and it would bug her throughout the day.
Their Library was pitifully bare, as knowledge was one of the most expensive things they spent Reward Points on. They were lucky to have what they did. She doubted the Fort had as much knowledge as they did.
It was a point of pride to her, even if the handcrafted shelves by Mitchell were more empty than occupied. The room was planned for future expansion and she hoped to see it filled one day.
Some texts were new, even, and the bindings on those were made of pristine and fresh leather and lacked the timeless quality the other books carried.
Those were written by people in the city.
She had to hound Vincent to record his techniques and the process of Smithing but he got around to it eventually even going so far as to describe his personal [Forging Style]. The same for Rachel and her insights into Mana. Abigail hounded everyone for what they could give.
Mitchell for Poisons and Woodworking, Sam and Ashely for Leatherworking, Allison for Traps, Brayden for Construction, Connor for Alchemy, and Gabriel for Skills. She even got Jon and Chris to detail what they could about Forming an Anchor.
She wanted a repository for knowledge. Of everything they had accomplished so far. Abigail''s heart winced at the driving factor behind why she had hounded everyone so.
The... hiccup after Scott died left them behind and unskilled in Carpentry Mitchell did his best to fill. Scott had done what he could to teach but he was always busy doing something they asked of him.
He was able to use his past experience and uncovered new and advanced ways to push his skills that Mitchell just didn''t have the knowledge for. That could''ve been fixed through Scott''s teachings, but he didn''t have the time. It also could''ve been fixed if he had written down what he knew.
If the worst were to happen, Abigail didn''t want their knowledge dying with them. Especially when they needed it most.
The process of being able to know everything about anything being taken away had shaken her more than she cared to admit. She wasn''t one to surf the internet for hours on end about useless things but having that option taken away made her scramble to form a new outlet.
She didn''t like not knowing. Even if she didn''t read everything out there, the fact it was there was more comforting than she knew. She hadn''t realized its worth until it was too late and that option was gone.
She didn''t care for Runes and Enchantments like Chris and Gabriel. She wasn''t fascinated by the various alloys out there like Vincent. Or the alchemy processes like Connor.
What she wanted was to know how and why something worked in the barest terms. The subtle intricacies behind things weren''t important to her as much as the base function. She didn''t need to be able to recreate something or make it herself, just the baseline for how it was made and worked.
The general knowledge of how a car functioned, not the detailed training of a mechanic or the ability to machine one herself.
The principles of why things worked.
Abigail wouldn''t say she had a thirst for knowledge but others would definitely claim she did. She didn''t see it that way. Knowing things was the baseline she believed everyone should be at and it was everyone else''s lack of knowledge that baffled her.
Their lack of wanting to know confused her.
She pulled the door shut behind her as she left the library and reinstated the magical lock Gabriel thought up. They weren''t sure how strong it was but it was the best they had.
Similar to what Chris had planned during his journey, she was preparing to do the same. They had received the Water method for Mana Cultivation long ago but hadn''t had the chance to do anything with it.
Water mana was plentiful in the summer around the various lakes and ponds, but it wasn''t dense or pure enough to do what the technique described.
But that changed after Austin found the treasure.
It was the perfect place to go through with it. So, similar to how Chris was going North to find the spot for his technique, she and others were going South to do the same.
She was among the first half to go and they were preparing to set out in the morning. It had been a month since Chris left so hopefully The Twins was prepared enough to receive them.
The trip would give them even more time as it wasn''t as quick as hopping in a car.
The deadline for her to choose was coming up and she still hadn''t decided on where she would place it.
The book she was reading earlier described the many options and variations she had available to her but instead of helping make her choice easier, the options made it harder.
She almost wanted there to be only one obvious option, like Chris, but she was granted the gift of choice, even if it caused her endless stress in choosing the right one.
When it said the possibilities were endless, it truly meant endless.
Did she want to be a better Mage and forge her Core with that in mind, or did she want to be a better Healer and focus on that?
Chapter 226 - Frostborn Bloodlines
Abigail
"It still feels weird with all of us leaving," Abigail said while tying the straps of her saddle bag shut. She wasn''t the best rider but she could at least do it. If they went without and traveled on foot the journey would take even longer.
"This will be the first time either Chris or myself won''t be here," Jon said from the horse beside her. "It feels... odd."
"We get to explore! We get to explore!" Two tiny voices cheered from behind them.
It was a tough call, but she finally caved in. Everything she knew said not to bring them, but she couldn''t bring herself to say no. Anna''s face was criminal when she begged them to come. Josh was already tearing up before they even had the chance to say anything.
Abigail knew that caging them up would only make the urge grow greater. If they stifled them here they, Anna especially, would find other ways to get around it.
Both Jon and her were fending off her attempts to learn how to fight already. If they said no again...
She couldn''t bring herself to do it.
It was only a slight change of plans but not all that different. Jon was supposed to stay behind and watch them but now he was coming along to do the same. He had wanted to go originally but they couldn''t have both of them away for so long.
Not only did she not want to dish her kids off on someone else for that long, but she wasn''t comfortable with both of them being away for so long.
Having Jon along helped ease her worry. She could hold her own and had been training day and night to do just that, and they would have others with them in case they were attacked on the road, but he was the main reason her worries about being attacked subsided.
She also agreed because The Twins was vetted and decided safe. Austin''s ravings that the man in charge was honorable also went a long way when she made her decision. Plus, they needed to see the world. Being cooped up and hidden away wasn''t good for them.
Anna only had a few more years until she gained a Class and it already felt like it was too soon.
Jon noticed her rising worry falsely thinking it was because of something else. "Everything will be fine. Rachel will do fine. She stepped up and did a good job after Chris was incapacitated from what I heard."
While he was right and she was worried about that, it wasn''t the topic she was just thinking about currently.
Abigail wanted to put her mother in charge, but she randomly decided she was coming along with them. There wasn''t an area of high Wind mana like there was stone for Jon so her sudden inclusion was strange but Abigail wasn''t able to talk her mother out of it.
That being the case, Rachel became next in line to run things. Gabriel decidedly said no and while Rachel did the same at first, delegating the job to her mom, there was no one else to take up the mantle.
Her being the strongest also helped.
Brayden was too focused on building and Vinny on crafting. Alice, Allison, Mitchell, and Carrie were still down there from helping fight the insects. Sam was uninterested and so was Ashley as both were still working through the last of the injured.
Her Grandmother had long ago checked out from anything involving managing the City. She''d mostly just hung around the cemetery, as depressing as that sounded.
Hal could do it but he was focused on keeping an eye on the surroundings and training up the newest Guard Company. Chris had finally managed to convince him to take charge officially.
There were now two Orders as they were calling themselves. Hal''s was full of Scouts and Trackers and wasn''t meant to be a direct fighting force but it still counted. She''d considered Elliot, but she wasn''t ready to hand over so much responsibility just yet.
Plus, he was still organizing his own Order similar to Hal and he had his hands full with that.
Inhale
Exhale
She was getting tense again thinking about things that weren''t necessary.
"Are you ready, honey?" Jon said while sliding atop his horse.
"As I''ll ever be."
It was more like if she didn''t leave now, she would rush back to take care of one last thing.
Chris
The cold continued to be brutal but I turned my mind to other pursuits rather than lamenting how frigid it was constantly. The novelty of feeling the sensation again had worn off. Quickly.
I didn''t dread it or hate the feeling as others seemed to, but it was still mighty uncomfortable this far North. I wasn''t sure of the exact temperature but any thermometer would claim it was butt-ass cold.
To distract myself, I focused on one of the two tasks I was here for in the first place. I was here to start my Mana Cultivation, but I was also here for another reason.
To purify and strengthen my Bloodline as much as possible. So many things had taken my attention that I hadn''t done anything with it since gaining it.
Both tasks needed insane amounts of pure Arctic or Cold mana which made doing them anywhere except for where I headed nearly impossible. It could have been done. I could have made or constructed something that accumulated enough of the required mana but it wouldn''t have worked out nearly as well.
The stuff up here was like straight jet fuel into my veins and anything I could have come up with wouldn''t have come close. A minute or two up here would equate to hours, if not days of work down there.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Other than making the process much easier, it would also make the final result better for Mana Cultivation. This was one of the few times when that was even a possibility.
Laws didn''t have that option. If two people gained a Law using the same concept, the Laws would be the same. If another person used the Hardness of Ice and Cold causing the increase in density to gain an Ice Law, they would match my own when I first gained mine.
Same with my Body of Wood. If someone went through the same process, staying conscious the entire time, they would receive the same Body as me. Anchors couldn''t be quantified in such a way so it made comparison difficult.
This was the first time that there were strict qualities to what I was about to do and it would dictate how far I would be able to go on this path.
A bad first start would make everything all that much harder.
Conversely, a good first start would make everything that much easier.
I wanted to put my best foot forward and that meant getting to a place that would make the process that much easier. Which meant I had to keep trudging through the cold and snow.
Purifying my Bloodline took my mind off the boring task of putting one foot in front of another. I''d been walking or running ahead for so long that the process was mind-numbing and the change was welcome.
Like I had seen Rachel doing in Vincent''s forge, I pulled in the Arctic mana around me while letting the less pure mana as a result back out.
The process was relatively simple but extremely time-consuming. Rachel working with the mana coming off the Spirit Fire was nothing compared to the torrent of pure Arctic mana I was using now.
She was at a disadvantage there, as there wasn''t anywhere close that would help her speed the process up like the rest of us. There was a blip on the map we had that was a bright glowing red, but it was a ways away. Southeast, past where Toronto used to sit.
I wouldn''t be surprised if she asked to leave to visit just that spot when I returned.
The process she was attempting would only go so fast with the resources we had, and a Spirit Fire could only take her so far.
Purifying and Strengthening of a Bloodline could be done in any order, it didn''t matter which you started with first but I started with Purifying. It made more sense to do that first before you strengthened it in my head.
You melted out all the impurities in the metal before you began to forge with it. That was just common sense.
I wasn''t sure if it was just my mental representation of what I was doing, or if reality was how I pictured it, but I imagined my Bloodline like a sphere of liquid.
I had been able to feel it and call on it ever since I first imbibed it, and it sat in my core dormant ever since besides when I called on it. What I called my ''core'' was just how I referred to the place that housed the fundamental pieces of who I was.
My Anchor was there, my Bloodline was there. My Laws and something else I still wasn''t quite sure what it was.
With Cores being an actual thing that people will soon have, I should probably start calling it something else.
Are they in my soul?
We knew that souls were real but they were impossible to get hard evidence on. It made sense in my head. A soul was where the person''s identity was held so it made sense for the things closely related to who a person was to be stored in their soul.
It doesn''t matter though.
My Bloodline was a sphere of a deep purple with hints of blue. The same color of the Bloodline essence I had drank so long ago.
It had grown slightly since I first gained it, natural use and being in a wintery environment, but only slightly.
A beast would naturally refine their Bloodline while being in an environment beneficial to them automatically and Humans had the same, if lesser, ability it seemed.
Now I was taking a more active role in the process.
I imagined it like forcing water through a sieve. Controlling the surrounding pure Arctic mana as past I could, I sent it streaming through my body to reach deeper and into where my Bloodline was held.
Then I... ''forced'' it through the liquid drawing it out the other side.
It was hard to describe as my mental projection of how I saw things wasn''t exactly what was happening. The process was heavily feeling based which made it even harder to put into words.
There wasn''t much information on the process as we were told it was instinctual to beasts which meant there was no need to write the process out. The ones who did write it out were other humans but we hadn''t opted to buy any of those.
Information was expensive and we had to pick and choose where we wanted to know more. Bloodlines, said to be instinctual, weren''t high on that list.
Which meant I had no fucking idea what I was doing. I wasn''t even certain I was doing it right, but something was happening.
The mana I drew in was more pure than the mana flowing out, which also carried something else with it I couldn''t make out. I imagined it was the ''bad'' parts I was ''purifying'' but I had no clue what they were.
There were also changes in the drop of liquid after the process was over. Some of the dullness was chipped away and there was a subtle inner glow that was now visible.
I took that to mean I was doing something right.
An inner glow had to be good, right?
The process didn''t feel wrong and it wasn''t painful, so I continued doing it while I walked. I noticed eventually that as the drop grew brighter, it also decreased in size.
Which made sense in hindsight. Something inside the drop was being carried out with the less pure mana which should''ve made the decrease in volume obvious.
The beasts might not have written the process down, but they sure as shit codified it. We didn''t even have to buy the information on that as it was freely given in one of the classes about Bloodlines to begin with
The various enlightened bestial races were... particular about Bloodlines.
Their culture put a high value on them which made the stratified societies they built naturally separate out into various ''levels'' or ''stages'' based on one''s Bloodline.
Type was the most important. The species it came from dictated nearly everything about a Bloodline. The lowliest of prey mice would never hold a candle to even faint Dragon blood.
Debates were had on which species'' Bloodline was superior, but each one had different uses which made it hard to crown the ''best''. Some were better at one thing or another.
Other than Type, there was Tier.
There was a distinct Tier difference between a True Dragon Bloodline and a lesser Wyvern or Drake Bloodline. They were all of the same ''lineage'' but there was an obvious difference in power between them.
The Highest Tier a Bloodline could reach played a major role in how highly valued its Type was. The ceiling of how high it could go determined its value in the eyes of their society.
Those two categorized and placed value on the various Bloodlines, but they even went a step further than that.
The Strength and Purity of a specific Bloodline had its own classifications. So even members of the same species and holders of the same Bloodline could compare against one another.
Strength was determined by how long they could use it, or the size of the drop in my mental projections case. How I viewed it was probably how most viewed it as number of drops was how it was measured.
I wasn''t sure if my singular drop would eventually grow into a second one or when it would be considered that I had two drops, but that wasn''t a concern of mine.
Purity was determined by a percentage and was the only one that was immediately obvious. I likened it to the amount of glow.
Most of the reasons Bloodlines were classified so... thoroughly didn''t apply to us. Beasts used it as a show of strength and a way to know their place in society but mainly used it while determining mates.
As I would not be ''mating'' with any of them, it was mostly just for clarity''s sake.
A human could even go without gaining a Bloodline and still be powerful so it wasn''t a deciding factor for us. Bloodlines certainly helped, but they weren''t the end all be all like they were for the Beasts.
The last tidbit about bloodlines that we were told was how to evolve them.
When a Bloodline reached maximum purity and was strengthened as much as possible, an evolution could be triggered that would elevate a Bloodline to the next ''tier'', if there was one.
Wyrm would evolve to Drake, Drake to Wyvern, Wyvern to Lesser Dragon, and Lesser Dragon to True Dragon.
In my case, my Bloodlines ''lineage'' was Frost-Touched, Frostborn, Jotun, Lesser Frost Giant, then Frost Giant. There was supposedly something above Frost Giant, but I wasn''t sure what.
It seemed like it ended naturally at Frost Giant.
Starting with a higher-tiered Bloodline at Frostborn saved me all the time of purifying and strengthening through the first tier.
I wasn''t sure how far my current body would take me before I maxed out, but I was eager to find out.
Chapter 227 - The Other Side of Bloodlines
Vasariametz
Elsewhere, far from Earth and in the far reaches of space, sat a man covered in blood. Black and dripping with corruption was only one way to describe it, as the properties of the blood seemed to shift, never aligning with one thing solidly before deviating to the next.
The blood would kill mortals if they even got a whiff of it, yet Vasaria sat calmly while covered in the foul liquid.
It wasn''t his first time.
Border details were some of the best places to grow, sometimes one of the only places to grow, but for someone like him, who had lived and experienced countless lifetimes, the days of his growth were long over.
He still improved, it was hard not to with constant killing and never-ending slaughter, but the days of devouring the essence of other creatures and making it his own were a blip of his past long behind him.
Vasaria had achieved Godhood so long ago, that his time as a mortal felt like a brief nap compared to the millennia since.
High King Dain''s boisterous laughter and shouting insults could be heard for miles around and it was nearly enough for Vasaria to go and say something, but he held back.
It was rare for the man to fight himself and Vasaria didn''t want to intrude on his time of joy. It was rare to see the stubborn dwarf smile, let alone laugh like he used to.
Instead, Vasaria watched. Observing the rolling darkness. The shifting tides deeper in. He was closer to the Blight than he''d been in ages, as the last time he fought was during the time of the 100th integration. Or was it the 110th?
He couldn''t remember.
It had been only a few moons since he started his payment but he already didn''t miss it. It brought back memories he''d rather stay buried. Where he once reveled in battle and the slaughter of his enemies, now it only depressed him instead.
Trying hard not to fall into old memories, painful memories, he was assaulted with one he didn''t have time to dodge.
It accompanied a burst of cold and ice that he''d remember until his dying days.
Someone he had been desperately hoping wouldn''t come find him was about to arrive and he could do nothing to stop it. All of the dwarves around quickly vacated his presence, going so far as to put their High King between them and what was coming as they knew who it was.
Vasaria had to instantly wonder if this was something she had planned. His border assignment had been close enough to warrant a visit, but not enough that it was compulsory as her lands bordered Dain''s.
He''d tried to keep his presence concealed but he failed. He couldn''t remain unnoticed when he was so close to her home.
The memories he''d been trying so hard to push away broke through his waning shield of willpower and they played over in his mind in a split second. Watching her grow up. From the small child to the woman she was today.
Her ups and downs as she grasped toward Godhood. Her inevitable success when she finally reached it. Her sorrow when he was taken away. The image of his final battle before he fell.
His satisfied smile when Vasaria finally arrived and he knew he had done it.
That had been the reason he stayed away for so long. She was all that his old friend used to be and it hurt to see her. It drove in the knife that he was gone.
So many of them were gone.
Vasaria had the power and ability to stop her projection. She wasn''t even trying to protect it and it would be as easy as breathing, but he allowed it to continue. This wasn''t something he could run from.
Not anymore.
He owed her that much at least.
The swirling burst of cold continued to rotate faster and faster as small snowflakes sprung into being. Space tried to stop them, to clamp down on what was happening but failed to do so.
The growing cold didn''t stop there, as it continued to build until halting when it was only slightly larger than an average humanoid.
She downsized for me.
It was a sign of respect for her to go through the trouble. One Vasaria didn''t expect her to make after all this time. It wasn''t like he cared one way or another and she knew that, but did it anyway. The custom came about after he had stepped away from pantheon politics.
Memories and experiences continued to play through his mind as the process completed. It was quick, masterfully so as projections usually took much longer to solidify, and ended with the explosion of the pent-up ball of Winter.
The snow created shot out in every direction showering the portion of the sector he was in. It froze anything weak enough not to resist and he could feel the dwarves on the other side of the sector shiver.
Dain had the good sense to not say anything even though he was close enough to sense what was happening. The stubborn rock was annoying, but he knew when to not butt in.
What remained after the build-up of power and the explosion of force was a face he would never forget. White hair as bright as snow on a face just as pale. Piercing blue eyes that drilled into the soul and imparted a chill through only a gaze.
Earrings and ornamentations made of ice hung from her ears or pinned up her carefully braided hair, giving off a regal air. Her dress was the same as it always had been. Simple and without flair except for the Ice crystals that naturally formed in her presence.
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She stood staring at him with a scowl.
Vasaria hadn''t expected a warm smile but a scowl was a bit much. He may not have visited for a long time but he hadn''t done anything worthy of a scowl.
"Skadi." He said wistfully, "It''s good to see you."
Her scowl deepened.
Vasaria wasn''t one that squirmed when in another''s presence. He hadn''t done so in so long the instinct had died out, but her look of displeasure and continued silence would have caused him to if it hadn''t.
"I would say the same if I wasn''t here for another reason." She said coldly.
It hurt to be spoken to in such a way by her but he didn''t show it. She was one of the few that could cause him to feel such a way.
"What is it you need, Princess," Vasaria slipped before he could correct himself.
"Do not call me that." She said forcefully, "I am a Princess no longer. You would know if you were at my crowning ceremony."
"Either of them." She added in a smaller voice one so different than the forceful one from before. One that hurt infinitely more than being yelled at.
A voice of sadness.
He said nothing for there was nothing he could say. He had missed her coronation to become Queen because it had been too soon. Her father had just died and she had been thrust into the position so quickly.
He stayed away for much the same reason. Seeing her, who acted so much like he did, he... couldn''t. It hurt too much. She reminded him too much of the fact his greatest friend was with them no longer.
He ended up staying away for so long that by the time she became High Queen, it was easier to remain that way. Easier to push the emotions away than to deal with them.
Vasaria had always been bad at dealing with them. It was one of his greatest faults.
Seeing as he wasn''t going to respond, Skadi continued, "I''m not here to reminisce as you clearly do not wish to. I have but one question and once I have my answer, I will leave."
The words hurt but he couldn''t refute them.
"Why did you give out that technique? You promised that you were done trying to find a successor." She asked.
Hearing that made him think of the conversation he had not that long ago. It was the reason he was paying his dues out at the border to begin with, and the reason she was here at all.
"My stance on that hasn''t changed. I am done trying to find a successor." Vasaria said, "I haven''t given out the technique since last time and you know how that ended."
He had been so close. One step away from completion but they couldn''t take the last step. Like so many others who tried, they couldn''t complete it. It was why he was so confident claiming that the newest attempt would end much the same way.
It had happened enough times he''d given up.
Skadi looked confused by his response. "You and I are the only two who have it and I did not give it to the Human and I know it''s in his possession. He aims to take the first step as we speak."
That didn''t surprise him. It had been long enough that the Human''s preparations should have been made by now. The Planet he was on had poles that could sustain the first step. All he had to do was reach close enough to one.
"You know there is another who can give it out. I swear that I did not." He said.
Skadi stiffened at his words. Understanding who he was talking about.
"You know this for a fact?" She asked.
"Why do you think I am here." Vasaria waved at the front lines before him. The Blight blood that covered him.
Skadi understood what he was getting at and nodded. The hint of a smile that he would go so far as to confront it.
"I see. Then I shall depart." She said and her projection started to fade but before it could, he called out.
"What will you do about it?" He asked before she could go.
The fading of her projection slowed as her attention turned back to him, "Nothing. You and I both know how this will end." Her tone was nearly sad. She had looked for successors just as hard and as long as he had.
Both had given up after the repeated failures.
"The Human has your Bloodline." He couldn''t help but add.
Skadi smirked at that. "You think I wouldn''t know? Your information network is vast, I''ll give you that, but when it comes to matters involving my own, even you cannot compare."
Vasaria highly doubted that but said nothing to refute her.
"We have watchers that keep up to date on Integrations. Any Frost Giants discovered or Humans who take our Bloodline are made note of." She said. "It''s common practice now. Even the Titans do it." The venom with which Titan was said could be understood from the Dwarves miles away.
Everyone knew of the feud between the two towering Races.
"Does that change how you will handle it? He even has one of Thiassi''s Hammer fragments." Vasaria couldn''t help but ask again, adding a bit of information he thought she wouldn''t know to prove a point.
Knowing of the technique and Bloodline were easy. Anyone watching for those specifically would find them without much trouble. The Hammer was harder to notice.
It was hard enough to get past the screens protecting the new Planets and scanning for the Hammer fragment specifically would be a waste of time and effort. Scrying so far and through the protections wasn''t cheap after all.
Her lack of reaction to his probe proved she had already known about it. Pity.
"He will be tested like all others have been tested. His circumstances are not unique. Technique or not. Hammer or not. If he fails, it will be stripped from him." She answered confidently and with finality.
The ability of Humans to take on other Bloodlines had caused a number of wars when it was first found out. The Dragons, specifically, took umbrage to the fact weaklings could take after them.
Dragons would look down on their own children in contempt if they displayed such traits, let alone someone not of their race.
The race wars that sparked from the dispute were one of the few times in Vasaria''s long memory that the Kingdoms of Man truly banded together. For a race so divided, they unified for only a scant few reasons and that was one of them.
They refused any outside influence that would dictate how they could use their own racial trait. No other race had stipulations on how their racial advantages could be used and they fought for years demanding the same.
The fact they won was surprising to all.
Not every race went to war over it, as some didn''t care, but enough did that most believed the Humans didn''t stand a chance, especially with the Dragons standing against them. It was one of the first times the tenacity of Man was put on display.
The agreement and compromise they came to afterward had been in place ever since. Enforced by both sides to this day, millennia later. The race the Bloodline was from could test if the Human could keep it. If they passed, the challenge was dropped. If they failed, the Bloodline was stripped.
"I doubt he will fail," Vasaria commented. He''d seen enough of the tutorial to know that much. "He upholds your principles well. Even embodying some better than some Giants I know."
"I know, but he will be tested all the same," Skadi said.
With the conversation coming to a natural end, Vasaria only had one more thing to say. It was more of intuition how he knew, but he mentioned it to her all the same.
"Do not bless him." He said sternly.
She looked confused but he went on, "He will not take kindly to it and I suspect he will refuse any blessing offered to him."
"Even from me?" Skadi smirked with a hint of smugness. She hadn''t blessed anyone in ages and he doubted she would start now anyway.
He shot her down hard, "Even from you."
The blessing of the High Queen of Frost Giants was a boon no one would refuse lightly but for some reason Vasaria could see the Human refusing on principle. Not after what Callum did.
Skadi''s projection faded slightly and her attention turned away before coming back to him. "I must go..." she hesitated, "It was nice seeing you again."
Her image faded completely and Vasaria was left alone again.
His heart was in pain.
Ah, Ymir, how much she''s grown.
Chapter 228 - Mammoths
Chris
"Well, I''ll be damned."
Light filtered through the area below where I stood nearly horizontally from how the sun was positioned and the shadows that it made were long and distorted. Even with the waning light, I could clearly see the beasts milling about down below.
The Frozen Wasteland I was marching through had its ups and downs. Not every iceberg froze perfectly level with the one next to it causing cliffs and ravines to form even though it was all one big sheet of ice.
Below marched a line of elephant-sized creatures with enough fur to stuff over a dozen beds to the brim. Tusks extended well past their bodies and a hefty bulk that caused the frozen ice to rumble as they walked.
[Wooly Mammoth ¨C Level 108]
[Identify] finally putting in work as the beasts didn''t have any way to block it. It had been a long time since I used the skill on a Human as most picked up a way to block it by now.
I went by feel most of the time anyway.
And these things felt like a threat.
Even individually I wasn''t confident in beating one in a fight. It was odd to feel myself so small as it was usually the opposite sensation I was feeling.
The line of them pounded South as I stood and watched from above. They had noticed me, and I saw at least a few look up or indicate a trunk my way, but they continued on their way unperturbed.
They didn''t even feel the slightest threat at my presence.
It was humbling. It also made me realize how big-headed I''d gotten.
A part of me wanted to take one on just to see if I could win, but that died as I saw something else.
[Wooly Mammoth Matriarch ¨C Level 132]
That was a death wish. Fighting that would more than likely end with me trampled into the ground. In the past, I hadn''t run from many fights, but this was one I wouldn''t win.
It was a surprise to see creatures so strong.
We knew that beasts grew faster than Humans, and we saw how fast they continued to grow as the ambient mana went up, but this was something else. The beasts around Frostheim had already increased by a dozen levels on average but that was still only high E-rank, not D-rank.
The only way for new people to find things to kill was in the first few levels of the Dungeon or if they stumbled upon an adolescent or juvenile in the wild. Everything that made it to adulthood had grown past what F-ranks would be able to kill.
And we were in a higher-than-average mana density zone.
Another reason they felt strong was because the Matriarch exuded power as she walked. The hint of Bloodline leaking out scared off any would-be predators as wolves, bears, and cats went running as they stomped by.
At first, I was curious why they were going South of all directions, but my mind started working before long. It had been weeks of the mind-numbing dull task of filtering mana through my Bloodline and I hadn''t had to think about anything in a while.
My first thought was that moving away from the high mana area, especially the Arctic mana the creatures here loved, was against their growth, but it wasn''t long before I figured out why.
They were following the food.
One would think stepping onto the ice shelf would completely kill all the available food that could grow but that would be incorrect.
As fantastical as the thought of plants growing in the Arctic was, it didn''t stop there. There was plant growth on the sheet of ice itself, let alone where there was still tundra they could extend their roots in.
The frequency of the plant life I came across dramatically declined after stepping off solid ground, but there were still clusters of bushes every once in a while. Not nearly enough to sustain a herd of Mammoths though, which was probably why they were migrating South.
The weather would only get worse and they were riding the edge of it as they traveled. Threading the line between food availability and mana density.
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Seeing the behemoths was cool, and I was intrigued with how they reached D-rank so quickly, but I couldn''t afford to follow them. I already wasted time watching them for as long as I did.
I couldn''t afford to be careless like I had so far.
There was only a limited amount of time I could travel every day and I was wasting it watching from high up.
My beloved resistance, my affinity that I adored, was failing me. That sounded worse than it was, but in reality, I was in an area that went past what I could handle.
Even Vincent could be burned by Fire and I was experiencing the same now.
The fact that the North Pole was still so far away made me hopeful for the future. If I was being stopped here, barely a few miles into the Arctic Circle, what kind of place was the North Pole?
What kind of mana did it have? What kind of beasts claimed it as their territory?
But most importantly, how strong were they?
I falsely thought that Dungeons would hold the only challenge I could sharpen myself with and that had been flat wrong. I just didn''t explore enough to find that challenge in the world at large.
Even though I was being hindered by the weather and I was becoming dangerously close to freezing to death, I still pushed on.
Limiting my travel to the day helped, but that slowed things down too much. There were only a few moments of sunlight this far up and they were dwindling fast. Darkness reined for the vast majority of the day and the cold plummeted as the sun stayed away.
Soon it would be only darkness until the Winter broke.
In addition to getting as much ground under me during the heat of the day, [Jotun''s Resistance] propped me up enough to not immediately freeze. I had to take frequent breaks and stop completely when my mana ran dry, but it allowed me to travel without relying on the scant moments of sunlight.
It quickly became a mad dash through the day to get the most out of the light, then a mad dash as the sun went down until my mana ran dry, and then I would dig out a shelter to get out of the elements.
Digging into the ice under me was easy enough with my abilities, and the mini igloos I built weren''t that hard to make. The miniature caves created a line leading North as I had to stop and make new ones every night.
Soon, when the light finally disappeared and I couldn''t venture out even with [Jotun''s Resistance], I would be at my end.
I would do it there and could only hope it was enough.
A positive to all the downtime I had while sitting in my carved-out shelter was the time I spent refining my Bloodline. It was going remarkably quickly with all the pure mana I had access to, much faster than how Rachel described it.
I knew density and purity of the surrounding mana played a role in how fast the process was, but this was like night and day.
If someone ever found an area made for them, it would take ripping it out of their death grip to take it away.
At least, that was how I would feel.
I still wasn''t sure if I had ''two'' drops yet, or what percentage I was at in terms of purity, but I continued on anyway. It reminded me of smithing in that respect. The repetitive motions and cyclic actions.
Purifying driving the size down until I couldn''t go any further. Strengthening back up to the size it was, and repeat.
My first round of purifying revealed that there was only so small I could go. If that was classified as ''one'' drop or some fraction of a drop was unclear, but once I reached a minimum, purifying wouldn''t do anything anymore.
Maybe if I go too low the Bloodline won''t work? Like there is a bare minimum Bloodline essence in order for it to function?
I wasn''t sure and didn''t much care about figuring out why. I could leave that to others and focus on other pursuits.
There were only a few more minutes of daylight so after I was done marveling at the extinct creatures that walked the Earth again, I took off in a sprint.
Another skill I had to pick up quickly was scanning for threats. It was how I noticed the Mammoths in the first place. I had run head-first into a fight more than once which only took away from the time I could''ve been traveling. It also drained my mana to fight, forcing me to stop and refill it.
It took some trial and error, but I managed to figure out a way to avoid that. It still didn''t work on anything trying to be stealthy, and I''d gotten a claw to the back or face a few times to drive that point in, but it worked on anything not trying to hide.
Lynx and Snow Leopards were nasty little things full of rage and anger.
Some could say they were devil spawn but I''d fought Demons less ferocious than the angry cats.
My method was simple. The way I felt if something was strong was through my aura. Gabriel called it a primitive and rudimentary aura scan, but it was the best I could do.
Using that as a guide, I extended it out ahead of me and felt for anything that could pose a challenge. At first, I scanned for anything I could feel but that had me avoiding rodents in the snow or critters that would run rather than fight.
Avoiding them was a waste of time as they wouldn''t have tried to fight me anyway.
With nothing better to do, and my mind free to the task, I iterated and tweaked what I was scanning for until I found something that worked.
My sprint in the light didn''t last long and night descended rapidly, casting everything into shadow and driving the temperature even colder.
Most creatures found places to stay out of the Wind and Cold which made the trip easier. [Jotun''s Resistance] flooded my body with mana, staving away the cold and I picked up my speed.
Nighttime let me be a little more careless compared to the day.
My mana dwindled quickly trying to fuel the legendary skill and less than an hour later I was digging out another cave.
I sat and focused on pulling more mana in and shoving it through my Bloodline for a few hours until I was capped again and the process started over.
Nearly an hour later I was carving out another igloo miles from the last one.
I had tried to oscillate using the skill before. Flare it for a reprieve then turn it off for a while and turn it on again when I got so Cold I couldn''t go further.
While that allowed me to stretch my mana further, it stopped being effective after a few tries. The skill didn''t heat me up. All it did was allow me to resist being slowed and the pain while it was active.
So when the skill turned off, the feelings came rushing back and I nearly froze stiff the one time I tried it.
The igloos allowed me to get out of the Wind for one, which was priority numero uno. And it let me trap what little body heat I produced, warming me up.
I was positive I didn''t run at my previous 98.6 degrees, but it was still way above the ambient temperature, making the small dwelling much warmer than outside.
Occasionally, I would reread the technique I was about to preform, to make absolutely sure I memorized it, but otherwise, traveling and refining were the only things I did.
The process of igniting my mana heart was thoroughly burned into my brain by now.
Chapter 229 - Ignition
Igniting a Mana Heart is a process that demands extreme precision and effort of Will. It is not for the faint of heart and can even be deadly in some instances. I write this not to dissuade you from doing it, but to inform you of the possible outcomes.
To achieve even a partial ignition is to be celebrated. Most would be glad to make it to that point. A partial ignition is far from the best outcome but is still leagues ahead of the worst that can occur.
Similar to how there are grades for forging a Mana Core, there are grades for how well the ignition process goes. Scholars, if nothing else, like grading things.
The lowest grade possible is Partial Ignition. Any lower and the process fails causing extreme damage to the heart and mana channels, sometimes resulting in death. Bad ignitions can even cripple the user making them unable even to try again.
A Flickering ignition is a step above Partial but still far from the best. While Partial ignition has the capability of 10-50% of Perfect ignition, Flickering has 50-75%.
Sputtering ignition is 75-90% effective.
Full ignition is 90-99% effective.
Perfect ignition uses all of the available mana and turns the mana pool entirely into a mana heart, leaving no waste behind and using all there is to fuel the Heart that is formed.
Why the grades are divided how they are is simple. The ignition process is one of transformation first and foremost. It turns the previous mana pool that everything has into a roaring Mana Heart comparable to Mana Cores.
If the entire mana pool isn''t transformed, the Mana Heart only runs on a portion of what it should causing the effectiveness to decrease.
-Excerpt from "Introduction to Mana Cultivation Techniques" by Master Arcanist Woodridge of the Beraxi Mage Tower.
~~
Chris
I slumped into the soft snow as exhaustion overcame me and blood dyed the white snow red. Both mine and my foe''s. The last trickle of what had once been a full mana pool was cascading through me staving off hypothermia.
[Jotun''s Resistance] was an amazing skill, one of the only reasons I was still alive, but it was a mana hog. If I''d had to use [Blizzard] and [Permafrost] on top of constantly running the skill at full power, I would run out in minutes.
As it was, the area literally couldn''t be enhanced any further with my two beloved skills, leaving most of my mana available for other things. Namely, [Jotun''s Resistance].
The practice I had gotten with the skill over the month of using it helped alleviate the cost as my mastery grew, but the increased efficiency gain was a drop in the bucket compared to the raging ocean of mana the skill sucked up.
[Frost Armor] lay in pieces with most scatted about the scene of the fight. Only a select few of the armor segments were still attached to my body. Even my Law and Spirit weren''t enough to keep it from being torn asunder.
My hammer was buried spike first into the head of the body that lay beside me.
It was a tough fight. One of the most difficult I''d been in since... since ever. Even the fight against the Wave of Vine Bears didn''t compare. I didn''t count the Demons because I didn''t end up fighting them. The explosion did most of the work.
The best part, and one I knew would make Austin giggle like a schoolgirl, was that my foe wasn''t anything scary or ferocious. It wasn''t the pack of Direwolves I''d run into nor was it the various feline predators that sleuthed through the snow and liked to jump at my back.
It was a Moose.
A very big Moose, taller than what my house used to be, but a Moose nonetheless.
And it had nearly killed me.
Fighting the battle with reservations hadn''t helped, but the fact I nearly died anyway was worrying. I was so worried about ending up on bedrest again causing me to miss my chance to ignite my mana heart forcing me to wait yet another year that I hadn''t fought the same.
My style of fighting was smothered in the art of going blow for blow that trying to shy away from being hit nearly ended the fight then and there because of mistakes that I made.
I knew I was coming to the end of the line, but being stopped by a Moose hurt my pride. To cheer me up, I took the antlers from the towering beast. Matching the Moose in size, they were spayed out spanning over 10 feet wide and nearly half that in width. They would be a nightmare when trying to mount and find a spot for them, but I wanted them.
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They were the perfect trophy to bring back.
They required a sled to haul and would slow me down tremendously, but it wasn''t like I was traveling much further. Plus the sled allowed me to take a few more choice pieces that could be used in crafting.
After a rest, some light butchering, and constructing a sled out of Ice, I took off at the best speed I could.
It was only a few steps past where I ran into the Moose that I stopped dead. There was a change in the air.
One I''d felt before.
The common prey animals were silent, most likely missing completely. No birds called overhead and I couldn''t spot anything loping about in the snow.
That wasn''t all that uncommon, but what accompanied all of that was a stifling oppression.
One that marked the few times I had truly been frightened.
My body instinctively shivered at the memory and I couldn''t stop the goosebumps that started spreading, and not from the cold.
I wouldn''t forget that day anytime soon.
At the time, I had been running from a pack of wolves when all of a sudden they stopped chasing me. They acted like there was an invisible line they wouldn''t cross even though I''d stopped running and stood only a few feet from them.
Much like the line I''d just stepped over.
It confused me at first, but then I heard it. The bear must''ve noticed my intrusion into its territory and belted out a roar that rattled my bones. The wolves whimpered and stopped dead while I froze completely, doing my best to remain still and hopefully unseen.
As I felt the oppressive aura near, both the wolves and I turned tail and ran for our lives.
That was an experience I wasn''t fond of repeating.
I hadn''t even laid eyes on it, yet just the power-infused roar was enough for me to know without a shadow of a doubt, the thing would kill me. It wouldn''t even be a fight either. It would maul me with ease and then eat me for breakfast.
Before the same thing could happen again, I slowly backed away from the Bear''s territory and made to create some distance so I didn''t accidentally cross over it again.
I''m at my end.
The thought frustrated me but I knew there was nothing I could do about it.
It wasn''t only the fierce fight with the Moose that forced my decision to stop pushing North. Hypothermia was becoming a major concern and I was running into more things that could kill me.
Like the bear.
If I kept pushing, I''d be forced into a fight I couldn''t win.
While the Mammoths were the first, they weren''t the only thing that threatened me up here and I had to run from a mounting list of creatures. Herds of Wooly Rhinos paraded around with dominance. A dominance I would be splattered against if I stood against it. Both the Wolves and Felines had grown past what I could handle.
Last but certainly not least, were the Bears.
Any altercation with one of those would be my end.
Knowing that, realizing that, and internalizing that fact was tough. I wasn''t used to this. Not being at the top was a tough pill to swallow and it was rough on its way down.
With defeat and a slight bit of envy toward the aura of something so much stronger than myself, I ended my travels North.
Now all I had to do was find an open area to settle down.
Turning around hurt, but it made finding an area to set up in easier. I''d seen a few places during my short sprints that could work and it wasn''t that hard to backtrack until I found one.
Using the hidey holes I had already carved out made things all that much easier and it wasn''t long until I found one.
To prepare, the first thing I did was mark out a large circle around the area I had claimed.
Igniting my Mana Heart would both take time and leave me vulnerable.
To defend against that, I formed thick walls of ice mimicking a stout fortress around where I would sit. The ice formed easily, taking to what I envisioned with glee and there was abundant material to work with. The dome I ended up forming stood multiple feet thick and I doubted anything would be able to get through quickly.
A full charge of one of the Wooly Rhinoceroses I''d come across would shatter it with ease, but they didn''t attack unless provoked.
I was also far away from any of the Herds that roamed.
When I picked where I was going to do it, that had been a major concern. I couldn''t have things stumble upon me mid-process.
In addition to the thick dome of ice, I carved Runes along the inner and outer surfaces. They weren''t my Runes, or ones I''d designed in any way, but they worked perfectly for what I had in mind.
They were originally from when I built the Wind Chamber. It was the store-bought Formation barrier that separated one area from another, but cut apart and repurposed. My increased familiarity was enough to pick out the section of the Formation I needed, but it was still a rough copy-paste situation.
I didn''t care for the defensive barrier it formed and discarded that portion, only keeping the part that delineated one area from another. I didn''t have the materials to power a defensive barrier and those were less than stealthy.
I''d tested the hack job I did to the Formation and it worked for what I needed it to do.
It separated what was inside the dome from what was outside the dome.
Second, I carved a generic Mana Gathering Formation running along the flattened ground and inner surface. The first formation on the exterior was to keep everything contained, the second was to draw in as much mana as possible.
The Gathering Formation without the containment would just cause the gathered mana to leak out again.
The Formation would increase the concentration of mana around it, but it wouldn''t be able to stop the gathered mana from leaving.
Both combined and working together created an artificial mana chamber that ratcheted up the density of mana in a given area.
Similar to forming a mana core, igniting a mana heart took asinine amounts of mana and was why I was up here in the first place.
The surrounding Arctic mana was already thicker and more pure than anything I had ever felt, but this took that even further. There was no reason not to when I had the ability to create it.
The Dome took a few days to get right and iron out all the kinks, but as soon as the Runes were carved and powered, the area began to drown in Arctic Mana. If any beast sensed it they would come running from miles away.
Another reason for the containment Formation.
Now that the Formations were powered, I was technically on a time crunch. I''d snagged some mana crystals and packed them along for just this reason but they would run out eventually and the Formations would run out of power.
I''d planned for three months, which was overkill and what I was attempting should only take a week or two, especially with where I was, but it didn''t hurt to be prepared.
As time went by and the Formations worked together, the mana became so concentrated it began to fog. It caused a frost to form in the air naturally because the area was so dense in the stuff.
During this time, I continued to work on my Bloodline and prepared myself for what was to come.
When the density peaked, and the Gathering Formation pulled in as much as it could, it was time to get to work.
I was going for broke and I sent off a silent prayer I wouldn''t die.
Chapter 230 - Past Experiences
Chris
I''d read Abigail''s precious books enough to know the difference between one grade to the next was more than the percentages signified. A Perfect Ignition was so much more than a few percentage points than a Full Ignition.
A Mana Heart was more than only a mana pool. It linked the physical aspects of my body to my magical aspects. A melding of both flesh and blood along with arcane. The percentages only referred to one side, while there were benefits for both that the grades didn''t explicitly come out and mention, leaving percentages the main way to break them apart.
Mana Cores weren''t like that. They were rather simple in their execution. Their grade was solely based on how well the Core was forged. That was only a start of the two techniques differences.
If Body Refining could be considered the Pure Physical side of the Body Path, Mana Cores could be considered the Pure Magical side.
Forging a Core would forever keep the two separate.
Igniting a Mana Heart would start the process of linking the two.
One book even stated that Mana Cultivation and Body Refining didn''t use to be separate. That once, long ago, they were one and the same. It was why they were both considered part of the Body now even though for most, they were entirely separate.
If Capacity, Concentration, and Regeneration were the absolute goal, Mana Cores were hands down the best. They were those three ideals taken to the extreme at the expense of everything else and failed to offer any other benefits.
Cores did those three things the best, but only those three things.
Mana Hearts, while also increasing Capacity, Concentration, and Regeneration, did more than just that. Where they fell behind in that area compared to Cores, they provided other benefits that made it more than a worthy trade-off.
It was the Path a Warrior usually took while Cores were the Path of the Mage.
Mana Hearts got their name from what the process entailed. To form one, or ignite one as the process described, the mana pool was both moved and transformed. It took the mana pool from just above the sternum and placed it inside the heart.
Which was the reason why the worst-case scenario was death. A failed ignition could rupture the heart.
Doing so also removed the need for separate mana channels as moving mana throughout the body was done naturally through blood flow.
After forming a Mana Heart, the second step was to merge the leftover mana channels into the circulatory system, strengthening them and making the entire system more robust. Not doing so would cause undue stress on arteries and veins that they weren''t designed to handle.
Linking the physical with the magical would empower both to a certain degree depending on which foot led. If the Body was significantly physically stronger, the arcane side would gain more of a benefit. The reverse would happen if the opposite was true.
Seeing how my Body Refining was a step ahead of my Mana Cultivation, and my Strength, Fortitude, and Endurance towered over my Wisdom and Intelligence, the outcome was obvious.
The scales being so lopsided as they were was common in Warriors and why this path of Mana Cultivation was dubbed so, but it didn''t mean that all of the benefits were magical.
The link also worked in reverse to a lesser degree. Where Hearts lost out to Cores in one regard, they made up for it here. Having mana, along with blood, coursing through the body empowered what was already there.
Not only did the blood carry oxygen to muscles, it also carried an alternative fuel source in mana boosting the flesh past what it could once handle.
While it made the Body stronger, there were trade-offs other than being less effective than Cores.
The lack of dedicated mana channels made advanced spells harder to form and activate, but I had none of those. The only people I knew with ''advanced spells'' were Rachel and Gabriel.
I hadn''t even known what they were at first and it wasn''t until Gabriel described them to me that I realized I didn''t have any. He said it had something to do with the spell matrix but without an example, it was hard to understand.
If I did get any in the future I wasn''t that worried about it. Harder did not mean impossible.
Overall, the trade-off was worth it.
Mana Hearts made the body stronger and all-around more enduring, which was exactly the kind of thing I needed, while also raising my magical abilities. It made spells harder, but I wasn''t going to be doing those anyway.
It only took a brief thought to dismiss forming a Core when the choice was originally proposed. Not least of which because my technique didn''t allow for that. The Stars of Primordial Frost didn''t even have forging a Core as an option, not that I wanted to anyway.
Calm down, Christopher.
I was getting ahead of myself again. Waiting for the mana to peak allowed time for my mind to stray and it was starting to spiral. I didn''t need to rethink my decision to form a Heart over a Core. The choice was obvious and I didn''t need to rehash it.
The Gathering Formation reached its cap of pulling in more mana and the density inside my Dome peaked.
It''s time.
I was unsure exactly what day it was, as they blended together with so little sunlight to go off of, but it was the day I would ignite my Heart.
Darkness was all that my eyes could see and other than the well of mana to my senses, there was nothing else I focused on.
Taking a few deep breaths to center myself, I began.
Time had already lost meaning when the sun stopped coming up and darkness reigned endlessly, but even if I wanted to keep track of it now, I would be unable to. My undivided attention was focused on the process as I wouldn''t allow any slip-ups.
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My full pool of mana was drawn out as I sent it looping through my flesh. I had plenty of practice feeling it with [Jotun''s Resistance] that doing it manually only took a few attempts.
It was hard to expend and control my entire mana pool, but I eventually got the hang of it. While I drew it out, I sent what regenerated into my heart.
The process hurt, both my mind controlling so much mana at once, and my heart as the Arctic mana freeze burned the beating organ, but I pushed through. My modified heart reduced the pain but it was still there.
The first step was to move my mana pool and that required time and dedication.
Changing the point where the mana I generated originated from, however small, was painstakingly hard. It kept wanting to snap back to where it used to be and it took my entire control to keep that from happening.
It was not without failure.
The small specks of mana took a firm hand to keep in place and did everything in their power to snap back to where they used to be. Like grains of sand slipping from my hand, the mana squeezed past my mental grasp dragging all I worked for down with them.
All progress I had made in moving my mana pool over was lost and the pain started anew as I started over after the failure.
If I didn''t have experience holding so much mana together while engraving, it would have been that much harder. Repeated failure would make it take longer and a lot more painful, but what was a little pain? I wanted this to be flawless.
A day passed. Or maybe it was two.
I wasn''t sure and didn''t care. My heart burned from the freezing cold and tears welled up and froze around my eyes.
The small trickle of regeneration took hours to fill up in its new place inside my heart and even though it was the only mana I had to control, it still slipped and raged to go back. Every failure extended the suffering.
It was like trying to hold a tiny magnet away from its opposite and with every passing second, another set needed to be kept separate.
Even worse, it gelled like liquid, sneaking past the firm hold I tried to have.
Soon, but not soon enough, my mana''s need to go back diminished ever so slightly. My heart and body grew... not accustomed, but tolerant to what I was trying to accomplish and the changes began to settle.
It didn''t make it any less difficult though. Just because the force was lessened didn''t mean it went away. All I had to do was hold everything in place.
Hold!
Any speck of mana that tried to escape was ruthlessly grasped and sent back to where it was supposed to be. My mind was on fire from the exercise and that said nothing of the continuous pain it caused.
It reminded me of being torn apart in the Wind Chamber for days on end.
The pain made time seem fleeting and my brain delirious.
The process became incrementally easier as things settled into place but after clamping down on it for so long it ended up being harder. My mind was worn out. My body was worn out.
And this was only the first step.
It would only end when the ignition was over.
Eventually, after an unknowable amount of time, everything stopped.
My mana stopped attempting to leave my heart and all of it settled into its new home. The pain remained, as Arctic mana was still saturating the organ, but my mind could rest.
Not completely, if I lost complete control things would snap back, but the effort to keep things how they were was minuscule compared to what it used to be.
The only thing that could force the change to be permanent was to finish the process.
I kept a vigilant watch over everything while allowing my brain to rest as best I could. Sleeping would let me recover completely but that would also make everything fall apart.
The next step was make or break time and I wanted to be at my best.
As ready as I could be, I began again.
Ignition required a critical mass to occur. The mana held inside the organ had to go far above and beyond what my pool normally held to kick-start the process. Once critical mass was reached, the ignition process was mostly natural.
Stuffing so much mana over my normal capacity into a space that couldn''t accommodate it was not.
Pain seared my chest as mana escaped the space I was stuffing it into. It shot out as the pressure built, sending waves of pain behind in the trail of what escaped.
I needed to reach a point that was triple my normal capacity. Only then could I begin the process the technique described.
Which felt impossible.
The booklet described the more mana at the point of ignition the better odds of achieving perfection. The steps detailed didn''t even allow for anything less, as it would fail.
It was Full or Perfect Ignition, or bust. There wasn''t even an option for anything less.
If I''d known how hard the technique would be, I would''ve chosen something else.
That''s a lie and you know it. I wouldn''t have.
Still, not even having the option to choose an easier technique annoyed me, not that I would have. That''s what I get for letting the guide decide on which technique was best.
The Formations pumped a continuous stream of mana inside the dome and made it that much easier to stuff more inside me. The mana I used and stuffed down was endlessly replaced with new mana to work with. Without them, it would fall on me to gather the surrounding mana instead of the Formation.
If I were like Rachel, with the manipulation skills to drag in mana from leagues around, the Formations would be pointless but I couldn''t do what she could. It also made it so I had one less thing to worry about.
All I had to do was reach beyond my body and yank the readily available mana into me.
Stuff it down.
And keep it there.
Mana that escaped left a line of frost that burned through my body but I couldn''t falter due to pain.
It had been a long time since I faltered because of pain.
My mind replayed every time that fate tried to get me to falter and I stood tall in defiance. I weathered their challenge and I was the one to remain standing.
It was my Anchor. It was who I was.
I was someone who had stood at the forefront of an avalanche of beasts that would try to get past and I denied them. It was me that stood strong and this was just another trial.
One that I would dominate.
Pain was forgotten and I channeled everything I had into stuffing the mana down.
Compressing what was already there to give room for more.
Just how my Law was first formed. I needed Ice that was denser. Stronger. And the same applied now.
It felt like everything I had was coming together to help me now. How I first gained my Law, my Anchor, my experiences. All played in my head leaving behind the lessons I learned, and the skills I gained.
Colder.
Denser.
Stout and Enduring.
Unconsciously, my Spirit rose to the challenge and its energy cascaded throughout my body. My heart included.
What felt like would be the maximum my heart could go moved even further. My Spirit extending what it could take that much further.
The bar moved, and I continued sucking in mana.
It was the process of making my Hammer in reverse. Instead of having everything I had drained, I filled everything I could in. Yet another experience to draw on.
I burned my Bloodline next. The newly strengthened and purified energy provided a rush of Vitality through my Heart and pushed things further.
With the bar raised again, I kept going.
The total mana pushed well passed double my capacity. Blew beyond triple. Even quadruple.
When I could go no further, five times as much mana as I usually held was stuffed inside my heart, roaring to get out or be let go. The only thing keeping it from igniting was my willpower keeping it so.
The mana was mine and it would not ignite until I told it to.
With my body filled to bursting, and my heart metaphorically tearing at the seams, I willed it to ignite.
Without my will keeping it from doing so, and long ago reaching critical mass, the Arctic mana exploded out, furiously raging through my body.
It raced down my arteries and veins, bursting out my capillaries and into flesh. Every blood vessel no matter how big or small was scoured by the gushing mana. This was what would determine how well I did.
The mana that stayed behind and began the process scoured its new container of my heart and began converting my mana pool into something more.
Without the need to guide the raging mana any longer, I began inscribing my Heart in frozen Runes as my technique described. I didn''t know what they did nor what they meant. They weren''t even in the Runic Language I knew, but I''d drawn them so many times I could do it even with my mind feeling like mush.
Inscribing them felt like I was taking a hot knife straight to my insides but I pushed through the pain like I had countless times before.
Chapter 231 - Obelisk
In an area far away from human habitation, where Winter reigned and the light of the Sun hadn''t blessed the land in weeks, a disturbance was taking place. Eternal darkness blanketed the area for a week and would continue to do so for weeks more, but that wasn''t what caused such a change.
A storm nearly a mile wide was responsible for such a shift.
The already formidable winter winds carried snow and ice alike as it spiraled around a dome at the storm''s center. If one were to look deeper, past the physical representation of the elements, one would gaze upon the reason for such a disturbance.
The mana in the area funneled into the dome at a rate that sent the surroundings into a frenzy. The flow was so detached from its normal paths that it clashed with the magic outside of the storm''s influence.
The beasts in the area had felt the shift at first and noticed the subtle draw that siphoned some of the mana away but thought nothing of it. They''d felt a beast evolve before and knew what the process entailed.
The area would return to normal in a day or two and all would be fine.
Except the draw didn''t end.
Days turned into a week, then into two.
The draw only seemed to increase, and more mana rushed in to replace the amount siphoned. The localized storm grew more intense as more and more of the mana currents were disrupted and the concentration grew.
Some beasts, the smaller and less proud, took it as a sign. They left the area for fear of what was to come and knew they wouldn''t stand a chance. Some stayed and basked in the dense magic taking the opportunity given to them using it to grow as fast as they could.
None noticed the dome at the storm''s center. None even considered that it was the cause of all the disruption.
That wasn''t their concern. The only thing they had on their minds was to make use of this opportunity while it lasted.
Tracy
"Ma''am, the Southwest Dungeon is sending out a stream of Dungeon Monsters into the surroundings! Shipments from Greenfield have been halted as the City prepares for a siege." A runner came rushing in adding to her laundry list of problems since Nick left.
"Without those supplies, all construction will come to a standstill!" Monica, her head foreman exclaimed.
"I know, Monica, but there''s nothing I can do about it." Tracy sighed.
She fought the urge to rub her temples in frustration for what felt like the millionth time. Bruises had already formed from her doing it so much already and she was attempting to break the habit.
Nick had truly gone and screwed her. She told him what would happen. Even knowing it would, it still stressed her out when her predictions came to fruition.
Who would''ve thought taking all of our fighting force on a campaign would leave us in dire straights? Who could have predicted we would be in this situation when he came back and took half her construction crew?
When Nick arrived back to the City with a smug grin and an ego the size of Texas, she had wanted to slap the man silly. Besides trying to remain underestimated, there was another reason she hadn''t entertained the thought.
Nick felt... different.
Tracy wasn''t sure what it was, or how he did it, but there was a wellspring of power around the man since he returned and she wasn''t sure if she would win in a head-on confrontation.
All the training and skills she picked up to make up for her offensive weakness didn''t feel like it would be enough in the face of whatever Nick did.
She''d asked him, revealing what she could sense vaguely to not tip her hand, but Nick refused to answer. Stating she would know when it was time.
The bastard.
The fact he hadn''t galivanted off to conquer another city was the only good thing that came upon his return. She wouldn''t have known what to do if he came back demanding more fighters.
Instead, he came demanding workers.
The scant few that she had left. The City he managed to conquer was in dire need of repair and fortifications that he took all of her best in the trades. Then, to make it even worse, he took the fighters with him as well stating that without walls or fortifications, he needed them to defend his new Capital.
Hearing that he planned to move his Capital wasn''t that big of a surprise. She''d known that ever since reports of the perpetual storm around the Northwestern City he would pack up and move.
Tracy wasn''t sure whether to be relieved or hurt that he decided not to bring her with him. She was proud of what she built here and was reluctant to leave and start over, but to not be asked hurt her pride.
She had turned her home into a veritable fortress.
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Even larger and more robust than the one she led in the tutorial.
The continual rise she managed to bring about had plateaued and she struggled to keep it from all falling apart. All the problems were adding up and she couldn''t find the time to both grow the City and defend against the threats.
The most problematic of which was this new Dungeon break. With Nick taking everyone that could fight, there was no one left to delve the Dungeons. Tracy knew that without them the Dungeon would break, but she couldn''t afford to send people out there to keep it from happening.
The Dungeons nearer to the City were already hard enough to keep delved. She''d rather a break happen farther away than right next door. For months she tried to juggle all the problems and this was only the first one to drop.
There would be more. She was sure of that much.
And it couldn''t have come at a worse time.
People who traveled from City to City were rare. Not many braved the Wild and even fewer volunteered to drive supplies to and fro.
Merchants trying to level were some of the only few other than people looking for adventure. Some did it for fights as well, as the forests and plains held beasts strong enough for a challenge.
Especially with the rising mana levels.
As they plodded from City to City, word carried with them.
It was slow, glacially slow most of the time, but it was her only source of information outside her sphere of influence.
Before her runner came barging in with yet another problem to manage, she was trying to make sense of the one that had already come up.
If word from the travelers was to be believed, an Obelisk was found.
If it was only that, she would''ve dismissed it. People came into the City every day spewing odd shit, but too many details added up this time for her to do that.
The area it was found was... peculiar.
If looked at on the map, it was in the center of what lay East of the Mountains. No map she had detailed anything West of the Mountains and it was sparse at best on what it did show.
At best, she knew of the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf to the Northern reaches of Canada but only vaguely. The only places with more detail were the direct surroundings of where her City stood.
Markings depicted the pylons they knew of and the various pieces of civilization that managed to put themselves back together.
Nick''s new City to the North, a pylon in the middle of Iowa, one in Minnesota, and a few marring the Coast. Travel to the South was nearly impossible, as getting past the river hindered all movement.
The ones along the Coast were guesses mainly, as it was hearsay in the first place that they even existed.
Another was in the same boat. One was marked for Ice and stood far to the North surrounded by question marks. Tracy wasn''t sure where the City stood but she was at least sure about one thing.
She knew it hadn''t fallen.
Anything beyond that was outside her capabilities.
Staring at the map alerted her to why this Obelisk ''sighting'' was odd.
Without confirmation of if the Obelisk was even there, and with only that to go off of, it wouldn''t have been that large of an issue. While slightly alarming, it wasn''t as important as keeping the Dungeons contained.
What sealed the deal and made the problem the highest of her priorities, was that there was a countdown ticking away on one of its sides. Supposedly.
When the timer was counted out on a calendar, it marked the exact day everyone returned from the tutorials. When it hit zero, it marked two years exactly.
She didn''t need a fortune teller for what it was for.
Their ''test'' was due.
We have to send word to our neighbors. Maybe send someone to verify what was said. The closest is Des Moines they could be convinced...
Plans were forming on what she was going to do.
Hendricks
A year and a half and they were no further than when they started. The Haunted Woods remained unconquered. It felt like the eerie fog was laughing in their face for even trying.
A part of him wanted to smash whoever came up with the name but once it was said, it had stuck and it was too late to muzzle the man responsible. It was fitting, but that didn''t change the fact he didn''t like it.
He knew too many that had died in the Woods for the name to feel like anything other than an insult.
The decision was made and they pulled back to the coast. Any inroads they made into the forest were lost and the forward operating bases were mothballed.
Hendricks and his team were relegated to protection duty after the invasion failed. It spurned him to give up on the efforts to reach Washington but they couldn''t keep throwing bodies at the problem.
The Navy, or what they could rebuild, secured what shipping lanes they could find. The coastal cities doing their best to make up for what their area didn''t have.
Hendricks, and the rest of the Army, secured the West. Any E-ranked beast was marked and it was his job to hunt it.
The Admiral had ordered them to focus efforts on other avenues and that was his new job, even if he didn''t like it.
There were other places in need of saving.
I doubt any of them are still alive anyway. It''s not like they were fit and spry, let alone any semblance of athletic.
He wasn''t the only one with that opinion of the ''politicians'' they were trying to save. It wasn''t like they were the picture of health. Some claimed they were all dead already and their attempts to rescue them were unfounded.
Hendricks put the odds at less than half made it through the tutorial and most were likely dead by now. Not that he would ever say that aloud.
Now wasn''t the time for division.
"Captain, the Admiral wants to see you!" The man was off before Hendricks could respond.
Let''s see where we''ll be going this time.
Hendricks and his team were one of the few to survive the Haunted Woods. Not only did they survive, but rose in power faster than the rest.
To commend that achievement, his team and a few other teams like his were moved up the chain of command and given tasks others weren''t, or couldn''t, handle.
The last break they had from normal operations was a few months ago.
Last time we sailed around the Haunted Woods up the coast to liberate Philly. Maybe we get to go South this time. Some time on the beach would be nice.
It took a while to navigate through the command center but he reached where he was needed in a few minutes. He had to wait a little longer to be seen but Hendricks was used to that by now.
The Admiral was surrounded by people and runners. More information flowed through one room than their entire settlement. More than all of their combined settlements.
And the man at its center was a force to be reckoned with. The four stars on his shoulder were impressive, but it was the presence he gave off that Hendricks was more wary of. It was like staring up at a mountain impossible to climb. Hendricks prided himself on being one of the strongest in camp, yet even he wilted in the face of him.
"Sir," Hendricks saluted and dropped it after it was returned. His back was ram-rod straight and only slightly misted with sweat.
"New intel has come in that we need confirmation on." The Admiral said firmly giving him no chance to refuse.
"Where are we headed?" Hendricks asked.
"With the maps out of date, our best guess is St. Louis." Papers were shuffled as one was picked out of the stack, "Everything we know is in here."
Hendricks took the offered paper and tried to keep his face neutral. It was a single paragraph on a sheet of paper.
Not much to go off of.
"A strange Obelisk was said to be found counting down to the date the tutorial ended. It marks two years exactly from when we returned and we think that our prophesized ''test'' is here.
"Your orders are to locate the Obelisk, confirm if what was said is true, and send word back."
"Yes, sir!"
Chapter 232 - Lively
Austin
"Ah, home sweet home!" Austin voiced in relief when Frostheim came into view. He was getting sick of the carts and the... structured traveling. He liked going at whatever pace he wanted and being able to venture off when he found something interesting.
He still did that, but traveling with a group felt like a tether pulling him along.
Austin didn''t like being tethered.
He hadn''t before, but now it felt even worse. Doing his best not to think about the negatives along the journey, he instead thought of the positives. He would finally be out of this horrendous cold.
They knew leaving when they had would put them arriving just past the solstice but they had decided to go anyway.
A decision some of them were regretting.
Mitchell looked more like a fat bear standing on two legs than a man by this point with all the furs draped around him. Others took his lead and covered themselves in layers of the stuff.
"It can hardly be called home when you haven''t been here for nearly a year." His mother chimed.
Austin knew the comment would come up at some point. His mother had been blessedly nonconfrontational about his time away, but now it was time.
"I know, mom. I told you I didn''t expect to be gone for so long." Austin droned.
He really hadn''t. He expected to get to where his Profession was dragging him, fight the thing around the treasure, and then be off with his prize.
A few months tops.
Not the... escapade it had turned into.
"It looks so much different." He couldn''t help but say.
His mother looked toward the snow-covered city at his comment and left his previous answer alone, thankfully.
"I know. It''s hard to imagine sometimes that all of this was done in under a year." She said.
Austin still remembered last Winter when they were still trying to find a place to call home. The scene of wilderness and snow it used to be overlaid over the thick walls of stone and his mind struggled to find similarities.
Even the Walls were over-engineered. He knew they would be, but it was absurd how thick they were.
"Who needs Walls that tall?" Austin muttered, "It''s not like anyone''s gonna march out to the ass end of nowhere to attack. Especially in a place that gets so cold!"
His mother only laughed quietly.
Chris spent so much time designing, building, and dreaming of his great fortress he sometimes forgot to realize that no one was going to come up here to attack. If they did, they were either insane or monumentally stupid.
Every time Austin would mention it or say it wasn''t that serious, Chris would channel his father from the grave with a serious face, "Expect the best, prepare for the Worst."
Austin thought the entire thing was insane overkill, but hey, they did almost get attacked by Demons so maybe he was wrong.
But he still stipulated that no human army would be getting through what he was looking at now.
The Walls shouted their endurance and resistance to anyone who would listen and now that he had an Anchor of his own, he could truly appreciate what was done to them.
They felt like a piece of Chris inhabited each and every block that made up their construction. They embodied his Anchor and felt like nothing he could do would mar their chiseled faces.
That alone would''ve been enough to deter Austin from attacking with a force, but he knew that was only the start. While he wasn''t there to see it, he had been there when Chris and Gabriel were brainstorming Ward designs and functions.
Austin just knew that now that Mana crystals were coming in, some of their more... insane ideas were given the green light. They had originally scrapped them because there was no way to power them but that wasn''t an issue anymore.
"I don''t remember there being so many people," Austin remarked.
When he left, the ''City'', more like a small town, was barely a few hundred people. What met his eye now was over five times as many and that was only what he could see.
Most would be huddled away indoors this time of year cuddled up next to a roaring fire. If this many were out and about in this weather, how many people lived here now?
"Well, you kicked things off by recruiting everyone you passed." his mom said.
It was hardly everyone I passed. I had to kill some of them, the spineless thugs.
"Then Chris went a step farther. He sent out people far and wide to bring people in. People come in droves from all over. From Toronto and what used to be Quebec to far to the West of here." She said. "Personally, I could do without the French speakers but they''re nice enough. Sometimes."
"How many people live here now?" Austin couldn''t help but ask.
"Oh, easily a few thousand. When we left it rose just past the five thousand mark. Now that we''ve been gone for a few months, I don''t know, ten maybe?" She said.
Austin was happy they had the foresight to build with the future in mind. The Outer Walls were huge compared to the few hundred people that could''ve possibly manned them before, but now that wasn''t big of an issue.
If they''d built smaller, they would be running out of space with all the new people coming in.
"How come we didn''t see anyone coming this way if new people are arriving all the time?" He asked.
His mother just looked at him like he asked a stupid question. It took a second, but then he remembered the feet of snow on the ground and the piercing cold he was currently heating his body against with his Law.
"Yeah, I heard it. Stupid question."
The Walls loomed large from a distance but they were truly a marvel up close. It was to a degree Austin was sad to have missed their construction. Not enough to hold off leaving again, but enough that the thought popped into his head.
"God damnit, get back here you little shit!" A voice called from further in the woods to their left.
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Their group was using the path through the trees that had naturally been carved from so many people coming and going that he hadn''t realized someone was nearby.
What followed the voice was a high-pitched playful bark and more grumbling.
It wasn''t until Hal came streaking out of the trees chasing a small dog that he got a picture to put with the yelling.
"What is he doing?" He asked.
"...I''m not sure." His mother said curiously.
It was at that point Hal noticed the band of travelers and a smile bloomed, "Austin! It''s been too long!"
The target of his chase was forgotten as he jogged over to the group and gave everyone a big hug. Said target didn''t like being ignored and followed after, an ironic turn of roles.
"It has. It has. How have you been Hal?"
"Can''t complain. Yourself."
"Same here." Austin gestured toward the four-legged creature currently chewing on a stick, "What do we have here?"
"Oh, him. He''s just the most wonderful piece of shit to ever exist." His voice was high and inviting as he rubbed its head making the dog completely oblivious to the insult his words held.
"Sarah took in some wolves while you were away and they had a litter not too long ago. I thought it would be fun to take one in and maybe get a companion out of it." Hal said. "I didn''t realize how much of a pain in the ass it would be."
Austin observed the man and wolf and it was nice to see them together. Hal handled what happened well, but it was always nice to see people getting through their issues.
Losing Kyle had hurt him more than he let on.
"It''s no falcon or eagle, but it''s close." He said.
Austin bent down to lavish the thing but it jumped away from his touch. Saddened, but understandable, he backed off. "What''s its name?"
"Ryder."
The name sounded so... normal. Like a name that wouldn''t be out of the ordinary for a German Shepard.
"The litter ended up being bigger than expected and a few other people stepped up to take one in. Sarah only kept one and that one''s a bigger handful than this one is." Hal said.
"You two can catch up later! It''s cold as balls out here and I have a nice warm fire waiting for me inside!" Mitchell yelled in faux anger before stomping off through the snow.
Everyone else followed behind and funneled through the gates.
Standing on either side were two guards who watched them pass through. And they weren''t the kind of guards like they had manning the gates before. Those had been mostly volunteers who did it because the job needed doing.
These were different.
Their gear was similar enough that spoke of an organization behind them. The people fighting for Marcus were similar to how Austin remembered the guards here to be. A mishmash of all kinds of weapons and armor from people scraping together what they could.
Everyone used their own individual gear or what they could get their hands on which made each person equipped differently from the next.
The new gatekeepers stood with a purpose and were decked out in gear nearly as good as his own. Well-crafted furs over heavy-duty leather along with weapons of a make only few could achieve.
Austin didn''t need to get a closer look to know there was a flame motif stamped somewhere on the weapon. He also didn''t need to scan it to know that Runes would be lining them as well.
Austin motioned at the two stoic statues with his head. "They seem so official."
"They are."
"What do you mean?"
"Chris started an official fighting force. He did it in the form of Guard Companies, but they''re essentially a standing army."
"When did he do that?"
"Right after the fight with the Demons. He realized the need for a funded force directly under the command of the City. We mostly do guard and police work right now, but we train together simulating large-scale battles for when the time comes."
Austin stopped and turned toward the man, "We?"
Hal sighed, "Yes, he convinced me to take charge of the scouts in a more... formal manner. He pays us well and gives us priority when it comes to gear. If it''s made of metal, everything gets made by him or Vinny. Runes too, the whole nine yards."
"Oh shit! You''re for real!" Austin laughed, "How many people do you command? Should I be calling you Captain or something?"
Hal''s face told him he wasn''t far off from the truth. "More than I thought."
"The Orders kind of exploded in popularity when the benefits were announced. Not many can afford good gear and jumped at the chance to get it for free. Others liked that we got designated slots in the Dungeons. With the extra people, a wait list began as there were too many people and the Dungeons couldn''t keep up with demand." Hal said.
"Elliot and I stumbled at first as neither of us were prepared to organize and lead so many people but we have a handle on it now. Things fell into place after a while. Group unity was something I didn''t know how to foster in the beginning. Turned out that giving ourselves a name and calling ourselves Orders instead of up-jumped guards did most of the work."
"Orders? Like Knight Orders from fantasy books? What did you name yourselves? No wait, let me guess!" Austin said, "The Unbending Steelrods of-"
"No, I''m not letting you guess because everything you say will be an insult." Hal quickly cut him off, "I named it the Order of the Wolf. While that encompasses everyone, it''s broken up further into subgroups. There are two currently, but I plan for more. The Trackers are sectioned under the Grey Wolves and the Scouts are the Arctic Wolves."
Austin stifled a laugh and fought to keep what he said not sarcastic, "I like it. It''s... creative." He looked at the little wolf following after them and laughed, "And original."
"Oh, fuck off. I never claimed to be creative."
"You said there were two? What about the other one?"
Hal laughed, "Elliot couldn''t decide on a name and everyone under him proclaimed themselves the Order of the Lollipop. He got so frustrated he just followed my lead and named it the Order of the Bear."
"The Wolves and The Bears." Austin repeated slowly, "I sense a theme."
"Yeah, yeah. Chris said the same thing and I''ll tell you what I told him. If he didn''t like the name, he shouldn''t have given us free rein to come up with one." Hal snipped.
"Enough about that, let me show you around."
What followed was a much longer tour than Austin imagined. The place was just so big and everything had changed from what he remembered. People were still living in lodges off in the distance before, but now there were streets lined with houses and shops. Warehouses and Inns stood along the road leading in from the gate and there was even a dedicated Crafting district.
It felt like an actual city instead of a crowded campsite. Even Marcus''s City felt more like an Army encampment than a population center.
All of it was covered in a thick blanket of white but that added to the charm rather than took away from it. Even with his... distaste for the cold and snow, there was a rustic charm to the design.
Horse-pulled sleds brought people from place to place, sliding over packed snow with ease. Some had sleds designed for cargo instead of passengers.
Plots of land were still open in some areas, as construction was working through the city in sectors, but it felt... lively.
This was the first place that Austin hadn''t felt the perpetual worry that usually permeated the air. People walked the streets without being armed to the teeth. Some even walked around unarmed!
The towering walls surrounding the City did more than just look imposing. They gave people a sense of security Austin hadn''t seen anywhere else along his travels.
It was so, so different than everywhere else. Not that he had seen the whole world, but he''d been to a few different places and nowhere was like this.
"Last, but not least, is the City center. The Inner wall is still being built but everything else is fair game. There''s even a building for you." Hal pointed at the massive stone blocks being lifted in the air by wooden cranes and multiple lines of thick rope.
Their tour weaved through the streets between the construction of the Inner Wall and the Outer, but now they passed over the line and reached the area around the Castle itself.
He knew only family had places in here.
"A place for me?" He asked.
"Yeah. Come on, I''ll show you." Hal said.
The buildings in the city center were much more sparse as there were only a few standing. Most of the space was still left open and ready for future expansion. The few that stood were obvious in their use.
Vincent''s Forge, a Leatherworking building for Sam and Ashley. Even an Alchemist lab for his brother Connor. A few others were hard to identify but he knew they were for someone else''s craft or use.
What stood out was one building surrounded by glass and seemed to be made of it. There was so much of the stuff it looked like an enlarged fishbowl rather than a building.
It was formed in a various array of curves and angles that his mind couldn''t even guess at the reason.
It wasn''t until Hal stopped in front of it that he realized this was the building for him.
"..." he didn''t want to be ungrateful but it was hard to be excited with what he was looking at, "What... is it?"
"Go inside. Chris spent a long time building it." Hal didn''t answer but urged him toward the door.
With no reason to decline, Austin inched toward the door slowly and pulled it open. The inside was much like the outside, as much of it was made of curved glass but there were obvious signs of Formations as well.
He wasn''t sure what they did, but the glowing lines looped in and around the various glassy curves before all converging at the center of the room where a small seat stood.
As the only thing in the room besides the walls of glass, he walked toward the center.
As he did, the clouds parted slightly and the light of the sun escaped confinement and Austin found out what the glass did.
All the many curves and angles that looked painstakingly built all worked together to reflect the light into one point. The Light mana it carried followed suit and converged at where the seat was placed.
Austin... didn''t know what to say.
It was perfect.
Chapter 233 - Dancing Lights
Chris
It was over. Blissfully over. I wasn''t sure how long it had been, or how many days had passed, but it was done. The mana rushing in, around, and throughout my body had finally settled into something ''normal.''
The new normal of everything was wildly different from what used to be the case, but my mana was finished arcing out erratic spurts or massive waves causing pain.
The meld between my mana channels and circulatory system was still unfinished, as that was a lengthy process and one that would take weeks to complete, but the main part of the technique was over.
A new power accompanied the beat of my heart and it sent mana cascading through my entire body. Zoning in on my heart with my mana senses made it feel like there was an eight-cylinder engine roaring constantly and peaking with the beat of my heart.
It was... wonderful.
The pain that was linked to having frigidly cold Arctic mana shooting through delicate areas was gone and now all that was left was the feeling of power.
My body used the mana coursing through it along with the oxygen my blood usually carried to become more than it once had. The two combined working together in more ways than one.
Both sides of the coin were represented. The physical and the magical both were used as fuel instead of only one. We wouldn''t know the extent of the changes until I got back and tested it, but the initial discoveries were promising. It was even more of a change than getting a Body of Wood as there was more to build off of.
After the ignition was over, I took a few days of rest inside my dome and caught up on some much-needed sleep. My three-month estimate for how long it would take was wildly off and allowed me some time to rest.
Either the mana here was purer and more abundant or I could have stopped and done this much further South.
From what I could tell when I finally broke out of the dome was that around a month had passed. The darkest days were behind us and light was slowly coming back a few minutes at a time.
The Solstice had passed and Winter had begun. I could almost feel it in the air.
After giving my body enough time to rest from the built-up exhaustion, I did a deep dive into the changes. I still couldn''t go full out with my infant Mana Heart, not until my Mana channels were merged, but I could still play around and feel the difference.
The first thing I tried to do was grade how well I did. The only options were Full or Perfect, but I wanted to check if I succeeded in achieving a Perfect Ignition. The differences weren''t apparently large, but they were enough to be two different grades.
The problem was I had no way to tell.
The new power my body held was obvious, and it certainly felt like a Perfect Ignition from the large jump from how I used to feel, but it was also possible the jump was from a Full Ignition.
I thought that was unlikely, but it wasn''t like I''d ever seen or felt one before.
The books had ways of discerning the various grades but I had none of the stuff necessary to do so with me. Rachel would be able to tell, as her senses were way better than mine when it came to mana, but she wasn''t with me.
After resting and breaking out of the dome, I didn''t immediately head home either.
I had allotted for three months and then a few weeks for travel back, which left me free to do... pretty much anything. Using all of the extra time wasn''t a requirement, but I certainly took the chance to relax when it was offered.
It had been so long since I''d truly relaxed.
The area I set up in was completely different than how I remembered it and there were carcasses of various beasts picked clean littered around so I quickly packed up and left.
Something must have happened in the area while I was working on the technique.
Luckily, the Formations did their job and I didn''t find any signs of damage on the dome. I wasn''t sure what would''ve happened if I''d been interrupted during the time I was forcing down mana, but I imagined it wouldn''t have been pretty.
Besides the bones in the area, the place was surprisingly calm. Whatever happened had run its course and was settled by the time I was finished, which was good.
I wasn''t yet comfortable getting into a fight.
My heading was South, toward Frostheim, but I wasn''t in any hurry to get there. My trip North was mostly on a tight schedule but now I wandered and took in the sights.
I spent one night laying in the snow watching the Northern Lights dance across the sky. The greens and teals swirling around purples and blues with a backdrop of twinkling white stars.
The sight was something that went beyond art. I doubted a photo or painting could capture everything my eyes were seeing.
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It was rare for the Lights to be seen where I lived Before but they were a common occurrence now. If the clouds were scarce, they were visible nearly every night.
I''d seen them before. Frostheim was far enough North to be within range, but this was the first time I was so close and gave myself time to sit and simply gaze at them.
Lying in the snow, looking up without any pressing thoughts.
A day quickly stretched into a few more but I didn''t care.
It was nearly a week before I pulled myself away. As much as I liked it up here, and the silence and ambiance it held, I had to get back. Before I did that though, there were a few things I had to do.
My trip back was going to be filled with backbreaking work of working through mana channels, but it was nice to have a destination in mind.
Traveling home felt much better than leaving.
Austin
"Where is he?" Austin couldn''t help but ask again.
"You know, we don''t have to go through this song and dance every week," Hal said dryly.
Austin wanted to snark back with something but decided against it. He was frustrated and Hal didn''t deserve it getting taken out on him.
"It''s been months and Winter is nearly over." exasperated, Austin lamented in boredom. "Even Abigail and the rest of them are on their way back already!"
Hal looked up from the papers on his desk, "Chris very well could be on his way back too."
Austin only grunted at that. There was no way to contact the man to find out if he was on his way back or not. Abigail could, with her Profession, but she wasn''t here to do that. Even if she was here, she only used it in emergencies.
Gabriel was attempting to create a better way for communication through enchanting but hadn''t had much luck. The best he could do was copy what the Fort already had with paired rocks which weren''t available until after Chris left.
Chris hadn''t even tried to do anything with it yet. None of the Runes he knew could be used for communicating as he focused on what he could use for Wards and equipment.
"I know, but I''m bored!" Austin flopped onto the couch on the side of the room. "This couch is uncomfortable."
"It''s not supposed to be comfortable," Hal said while not paying attention to his complaining anymore.
"Do you wanna fight again?" Austin asked hopefully. They''d sparred a few times over the Winter and they were one of the few fun things to do.
"I''m busy, Austin. Is there something you need?"
"Yes, entertain me! There''s nothing to do and everyone else is either gone or busy!" He said.
Austin wondered when everyone became such workaholics.
While most were gone and were down with Marcus where he just came from, those that stayed in Frostheim rarely had free time.
Vincent rarely left his forge and was pounding away constantly. Gabriel was the same in his workshop. Brayden was still fully focused on building things and Sam was buried in work. With so many new people needing winter clothes, the Leatherworker was up to her eyeballs in orders.
Connor, the bookworm, was off with Mitchell trying to make new and improved poisons or some other concoction.
"Where did your mother run off to?" Austin asked.
Rachel had left not long after Austin arrived. She was nominally in charge while both Abigail and Chris were away but now that he was back, she took off while she had the chance.
It was slightly insulting that she thought he would run off again leaving her stuck to run the city. Not that Austin did much of that anyway. Hal took care of most things, which was why he was in his office doing paperwork to begin with.
Frostheim ran smoothly now that the craziness had died down, Abigail ensured that with her strict organization, but with new people arriving every day, there was still a need to be more active occasionally.
"You know where she went and I struggle to believe you''ve already forgotten." Hal dismissively said without looking up.
He was right, Austin hadn''t forgotten. It was annoying his Aunt got to go exploring while he didn''t. It was his Profession! Not that he needed the experience.
He would reach the cap well before he was ready to evolve at the rate he was going.
"But-"
"Austin, you know I love you, but please get the hell out of my office. I can''t concentrate with your yapping." Hal finally broke.
Austin had wondered how long it would take. Longer than I thought.
"Go strengthen your Bloodline, or work on your Laws, or do... anything else that''s not in my office."
Part of the reason he was so bored was because what Hal listed off was so dull. The process itself was extremely repetitive but he couldn''t even do that anymore to pass the time. Not because he was finished, but because for a different reason.
And not because he was slacking off.
The building Chris constructed for him worked perfectly to gather and store a mixture of Light and Fire mana close enough for his needs, but it only worked when the sun was up and there weren''t any clouds.
Today wasn''t one of those days. One of the frequent snowstorms common this time of year rolled in blocking the sun which left him without anything to do. He couldn''t even blow off steam in the Dungeons, as both were already booked out for the day!
Austin sighed before dragging himself off the uncomfortable couch and made for the door.
"Did you ever get Sam to give you that final check-up? She was looking for you the other day." Hal suddenly remembered.
"Sam? Doesn''t ring a bell. I don''t remember a Sam that I know. Maybe she was looking for someone else." Austin rushed out of the room much faster than his previous sedate pace to escape questioning.
The Healer was... pushy after he went through Body Refining. She poked and prodded all over his body to make sure everything worked the way it should have. The level of... scrutiny was unnerving.
With both Abigail and Ashley gone working on Water stuff, it left Sam and his Grandmother as the de facto Healers.
Well, Sam. Grandma was still in F-rank and couldn''t really do anything to heal him at this point. Especially after refining his body. He didn''t have the insane fortitude Chris had that made things hard, but a Body of Wood was difficult enough even healers at his rank would struggle if they didn''t know their stuff.
Some still threw mana at the problem, like that was all that was needed.
After he made his swift exit, he was left to wander the Castle aimlessly. He had to admit, it was pretty cool living in one, but that novelty had worn off by now.
There is one thing I can still do.
Austin shook his head before he could entertain the thought. Doing it down South was fine, and Marcus didn''t seem to care, but he couldn''t do it here. It wouldn''t be good to mix work with fun.
He also didn''t want to make it awkward when he came back occasionally. Flings were fine when he was in places he wasn''t planning on returning to or didn''t care that much about.
They were less fine when he''d run into them after the fact.
Frostheim was big, but it wasn''t big enough to eliminate that possibility.
The added possibility that his mother would find out and then grill him to know everything about the girl only made his decision to not do it firmer.
Nope, not in a million years.
Just picturing it made him shudder.
Maybe Connor made what I asked already?
Chapter 234 - Presents
Abigail
It was wonderful to be home again. The trip was slightly longer than first anticipated but it was well worth the extra time. The sheer number of people who advanced was not to be understated.
Nearly everyone with the Water Affinity was able to form Mana Cores. Only a few didn''t, but various reasons were behind their choice.
Sadly, some failed to forge one but others made a conscious choice not to, instead focusing on improving their Law with their time around the treasure. Chris allowed everyone to read through what he called a technique -more like suicide with extra steps- and they were holding out for a better option that fit them.
The Mages, though, had no excuse and all went ahead with the technique to forge a Core. Abigail herself had done so and now had a glowing Core where her Mana pool used to be that radiated power. A As the Technique labeled it.
She''d finally decided on what she was going to do. While she was still a healer and would continue to have those skills and abilities, she would never be the best healer.
She had already mixed the two. Her evolution to F-rank was a battlefield healer variant that provided buffs as well as healing skills. Her E-rank evolution took that a step further and gave offensive spells as well as the occasional healing adjacent ones.
Being a Healer was now only a small portion of her skill set. People like Sam, who only stuck to Healing Classes and Skills, were much better than her in terms of healing ability.
The only reason she had been able to keep up with them was sheer stubbornness and her Law. Hours spent training simply weren''t enough to bridge the gap. Not everyone in the Family gained their Laws the same. While their affinity was, how they saw Water differed.
Just how Gabriel''s and Christopher''s Ice Laws were vastly different even though they were the same element.
The Restorative property of Water that Abigail first gained her Law with gave her an edge when it came to healing and skills like [Waters of Renewal].
Without that edge, her ability to heal would''ve dropped off ages ago.
She would still be able to do it, but not as well as a Pure Healer like Sam.
Which was why she chose the Mage route when she forged her Core. The change would be difficult, but it wouldn''t be impossible. All her previous Classes gave the stats she needed so it wasn''t like she would be behind in that respect.
It was the variety of offensive skills that hindered her. Rachel and Gabriel had nearly a dozen skills to call on for every situation that came up. Abigail only had a few.
She could buff herself with her support skills, and heal herself, but she only had a few skills dedicated to attacking foes.
Numerous plans were in place to fix that.
The first was to purchase skill shards with the type of skill she wanted. Things like [Water Bolt] or [Water Whip] were common enough to drop from Dungeons as new as theirs.
They had already noticed skill shards dropping, but Abigail suspected the rate was disproportionately low. Not that it was a bad thing.
Just that the people who received the drops would sooner use it and gain the skill, or if it wasn''t suited to them, knew someone who could, before they started putting them up for sale.
Which left only the occasional skill that no one wanted to be sold to the City.
Time was the only solution to that, but the other was the continued upgrades of their Pylon. Further reach would increase their odds of seeing skills up on the Market.
The second plan to fix her deficit was to make her own skills.
Gabriel lectured enough about his view on skills that she knew it was possible. He ranted and raved about the underlying ''skill matrix'' as he started calling it.
Abigail didn''t know the first step to even begin doing that, but it was an option she could look into. The much easier way would be to use pure manipulation.
Forming a whip of water from pure manipulation ability was infinitely harder than just using the skill for it, but it was much more flexible.
Her daily practice to do just that was producing results, but just not at the rate she liked. Improvement was improvement, she wasn''t mad about that, but it was slow. She could use it in a fight, but it would be clumsy and not very powerful.
Burning her Bloodline was the only way to get it to the levels she needed but that also put her on a timer as there was only so long she could do so.
Her new Core helped, surprisingly.
It was like her connection to the Water mana was stronger and the effort it took to manipulate it went down. It was a hidden benefit she didn''t remember reading about.
"Mommy, are we there yet?" Anna called, drawing her thoughts to a halt.
"Almost there, sweetie. Give it a few minutes and you''ll see it." She answered.
Both Anna and Josh loved exploring the new City and had spent nearly every available moment running around to what they could see. Jon was nearly run ragged by their enthusiasm.
They had calmed down after the first few days but they were still a handful to watch over. Abigail had felt bad but Jon kept telling her to focus on herself and he would be fine.
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Which did nothing for the slight guilt she felt leaving him to deal with the two whirlwinds alone.
Thankfully, the trip back to Frostheim was blessedly uneventful. Hal wrote a number of reports about the increasing threat as the beasts continued to grow which had been a small worry as they traveled home.
She had noticed large caravans forming of people wanting to leave Marcus'' City, and they only did so when a suitable number was reached. As the citizens reached safe havens and the overwhelming desire for survival wore off, so too did the urge to get stronger, forcing some to only travel when numbers were on their side.
Most still tried to grow. Both Dungeons under their control had wait lists growing longer by the day for teams to delve into and others ventured out to kill ''real'' creatures in the Wilds.
Others took the Profession route to get stronger. They didn''t have the combat ability, but they had the stats to deal with most things. Vincent had one of the highest Strength stats behind Chris and when he swung his hammer, it was not to be taken lightly.
While the vast majority of people fell under those two categories, some didn''t care for a life of bloodshed or slaving away at a craft, as they called it.
They were content to live peacefully. Which left them vastly under-level compared to most everyone else and woefully unprepared if they tried to leave on their own.
The beasts roaming the woods would eat them up and spit them out before they could so much as blink. Especially the ones stuck at level 25, as they didn''t have the requirements to evolve.
Abigail''s thoughts turned toward her Grandmother as she stopped advancing at that exact level, but there was nothing she could do about that.
Her thoughts drifted until the Walls came into view not long after she told Anna they would. Their arrival sparked a small crowd to gather but most continued on their way like nothing happened.
The sled pulled them through the City with ease and it wasn''t long before they were home again.
Both little ones jumped off the sled and ran into the Castle while she was left to help Jon bring in all of the luggage.
"Mom! Mom! Uncle Austin''s back!" Anna cried from inside.
Austin''s back? I thought he would wait until the last moment before he had to arrive.
She knew the group sent to help Marcus was on their way back and had arrived already, but she expected him to venture off somewhere only returning when Chris did.
"Yes, the most valiant and magnanimous of all your relatives has returned to grace you with his presence!" His voice dripped with sarcasm and playfulness that only made her children giggle.
"I notice how you didn''t say strongest." Jon poked at his inflated ego as they walked in.
Austin rolled with it, "Is that a challenge, my good sir?"
Her husband only laughed, "I''d rather take my chances against Chris, at least I can hit him back rather than being used as a pincushion."
"Alright, honey, I''m off to see my family. You got the kids?" Jon asked after he set everything down.
"I got ''em." Abigail said, "Say hello to your mother for me."
Jon''s family didn''t take up any significant roles running the City as none had the urge to. They were part of the group content to live peacefully.
Austin sighed dramatically, "He''s going to miss my grand reveal of what I brought back."
Anna and Josh both perked up at that, "You brought gifts?"
"Of course I did. You think I''d forget you little rascals?!"
"Gifts! Gifts! Gifts!" Both chanted in unison.
"For the lovely little lady, I bring this." He brought out a tall and thin box, around four feet tall and barely a few inches wide and long. "And for you little man, I brought this." The second gift was much smaller and about the size of a fist.
Abigail instantly knew what it was.
So did Josh, who tore into his present with abandon revealing the rock everyone knew it held.
"Thanks, Uncle Austin! I''ll add it to my collection!" Josh ran off before anything else could be said.
"Add it? I wasn''t the first?" Austin asked.
Abigail shook her head, "Chris beat you to it."
"Bastard,"
"Hey, that''s a bad word!" Anna chimed.
"Yes it is," Austin nodded, "Do you wanna hear a few more? Sh¨C"
"Alright, that''s enough." Abigail interrupted and redirected, "Why don''t you open your gift?"
Attention diverted, Anna tore into her gift and revealed a long stick. A stick that had one pointy end and a shaft about as tall as she was. Abigail''s brain stopped for a second after she recognized the gift, "You got her a spear!!"
"That I did. The most noble of weapons and the most popular in human history." He said smugly, completely missing the face she was making at him, "I also have it on good authority that spears are the coolest."
Seeing how he wasn''t understanding her outrage, she repeated, "You got her a weapon!"
Austin looked confused, "Yeah. It''s about the age she should start learning, isn''t it?"
"She''s 10!" Abigail cried.
The man had the gall to look confused, like he wasn''t sure if being 10 was too old or too young. Ignoring the idiot, "Anna, honey, why don''t you let mommy hold onto that so you don''t lose it."
"But I wanna ¨C"
"No buts, young lady."
"Fiiine"
She was disappointed at getting her gift taken away, but it was for the best. She was not letting her daughter run around with a deadly weapon.
After Anna left, Abigail tore into the man, "What were you thinking?!"
He put his hands up in defense, "Hey, I honestly thought you guys would''ve let her train by now. She''s been asking for a while."
"She''s a child!"
"Yes, a child that will get a Class soon enough."
"I''m not having this discussion with you. Especially when I just walked in the door."
"Technically, you walked in a gate, not a door." The smartass said.
It took everything in her to stab the man with the spear she confiscated, but she pushed the urge down and only glared.
And, just because she couldn''t get any more on her plate after just arriving, Hal came running in at that exact moment. "Chris is back!"
When they first arrived, she was surprised they had beat him but it turned out they were only ahead by a few hours. The conversation suitably postponed, they gathered atop the Castle to watch him come in.
He came from the North, which was on the lower side of the cliff, and gave them a clear view as he trudged closer pulling a... sleigh?
It was clearly made of ice and it left deep trails in the snow as he marched on. Whatever was on the sleigh was heavy.
Austin sighed from where they all watched. "I half expected him to be riding a Mammoth when he came back."
The outlandish idea made her say something back instinctively, "How would he even do that? He has no way to tame one."
"I dunno." Austin shrugged, "Beat it up like he did the horse."
"That only worked because Sarah was there to tame it. You can''t just beat something up and hope it becomes obedient."
"You can''t?"
"I- You-," A synapse short-circuited as she tried to comprehend his stupidity, "I can''t with you." It had been less than an hour and he was already on thin ice. A feat he would probably smirk at if she said it aloud.
Gabriel thankfully stopped the man from saying anything else. "What do you think''s on the sled."
The group watching as Chris neared grew as more people heard the news and it wasn''t long before most were standing atop the Castle watching.
Austin flared brightly for a moment before he smirked, "It''s for you, Gabe."
"For me?" Gabriel asked, "What could he have possibly... No. He didn''t!"
That was all it took before he was off running through the City. Not one to enjoy being left out, Abigail glared until the man answered. The only thing she could notice was the sled contained a giant block of ice with something inside of it.
Whatever was frozen inside was too obscured to make anything out, but somehow Austin had. The perks of having a bird Bloodline and high perception that she didn''t. "What is it?" Abigail asked.
Frustratingly, he answered with a question, "What does Gabriel want most right now?"
"That''s obvious, he wants a Bloodline. But our pylon isn''t capable¨C"
"What''s the other way to gain a Bloodline?"
Oh. OH.
He brought a live beast back to the City! He better not bring that inside the Walls!
Chapter 235 - Foxes and Phoenixes
Chris
"Don''t you dare bring that in here!" Abigail''s cry sounded from atop the Castle walls as I trudged toward the gate.
Shrugging sheepishly, I adjusted course to right under where the Castle stood, only a few hundred feet below on the lower side of the cliff. Abigail had plans to involve this side of the cliff in the future, but they remained just that. Plans.
We didn''t have a way of traversing the vertical gap right now nor was it a high priority to figure out. Eventually, when we had enough people and it was crowded enough, we would be forced to expand to down here but that wasn''t the case right now.
While I pulled the much larger sled than the first I created, Gabriel came scurrying around the cliff as fast as he could without falling.
It was nearly a mile to get to a spot that wasn''t as steep and could be used to traverse, but it required... finesse.
Most travel went further down until the transition was more gradual but Gabriel had enough stats and skills to make use of the rockier terrain without too much issue.
It was little surprise he came running down first while everyone else took the long way down. He knew I brought a present just for him.
Getting and capturing said present was a bitch, and took forever, but I finally managed to snag one and bring it with me.
It made the trip back longer, as having to haul a giant block of ice was easier said than done, along with everything else I brought back with me.
Pelts, furs, and hides of all manner of beasts got stacked up and packed away. The massive antlers of the Moose were a nightmare to pack around because of their wonky size, but I made due.
I''d wanted to throw them into the woods more than a few times, but I stopped myself from doing so.
My skinning could use some work and ruined some of the materials, but there was enough for Sam to work with. Ashley spent more of her time on Healing which left Sam as the foremost expert when it came to Leatherwork.
I had some asks of them that only she could do. My cloak was getting an upgrade.
The Vine Bear pelt I used to wear had fallen to pieces from fighting and the Wolf was too destroyed from [Shattering Hammer] to make anything too large, but that wasn''t an issue anymore.
I brought more than enough to make a full set of clothes from beasts I personally killed. I wasn''t sure why that was a sticking point for me, but it was. It felt right to wear something I had a hand in killing rather than something someone else butchered.
I had enough for a variety of things, and I was excited at the possibilities.
In addition to the pelts, I brought anything that felt magical to my senses. Some beasts funneled mana into various parts of their body which made them worth more. The claws and fangs of wolves and big cats were the most obvious but smaller antlers of elk and horns of a bison were also packed away.
Also, a few beasts even had mana cores that I snagged.
Mana Cores didn''t usually start becoming common in beasts until D-rank, but some managed to form them early. Most likely because of the dense mana up there but I wasn''t an expert.
The list of materials packed away grew as I came across things I wanted, and instead of filtering out what was important, I made the sled I was dragging bigger to accommodate everything.
It was comical in size now. Bigger than I was tall and longer than a semi truck of Ice slid along the snow behind me leaving giant tracks in the snow wherever I went. It took nearly my full strength just to pull it.
The frictionless property of Ice was the only reason I could do so in the first place.
I managed to reach a stopping point long before Gabriel finished his descent and I sat down on my sled to await him.
"Chris!"
"Ah, it''s good to see you, brother."
Gabriel''s efforts to examine what I brought made the hug rather quick, but I didn''t blame him. It was nice to see him this excited about it.
"Is this what I think it is?" He stared wide-eyed at the frozen beast.
"Now, now. You have to wait until everyone else gets here before opening presents." I mocked.
He snorted, "Don''t even start with that. You were the one that couldn''t hold back during Christmas."
"That''s patently false. I remember on many occasions it was you tearing into the gifts early." I said. "I was a bastion of patience."
"Yeah, right." Gabe sassed, "It must be my memories that were rattled from all the hits to the head. No, wait, it''s you that fights with a giant hammer."
"What are you two bickering about over there?" Abigail cut in with the rest of the group that came to meet me.
"Sister, how was Twin City?" A short hug accompanied my greeting.
"Good. Marcus was friendly and I can see a long partnership ahead of us." She said and hugged me back.
"Mom, how are things?"
"Perfect now that you''re back."
"Austin! Man is it good to see you! How''ve you been?"
"Good, good. I see you''re whole again, I can''t believe I missed making fun of you for losing an arm. So many jokes left unsaid." Austin lamented.
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I still remembered the ones he made when I lost a finger. I couldn''t imagine the number of jokes he would come up with for an arm.
The same scene followed with the rest of the group. The group who left with Abigail along with the people who stayed behind minus Rachel.
A round of hugs later, I took the time to examine all of them.
"You''ve grown," I said. It wasn''t only Abigail either. Everyone felt much stronger than when I last left, the Winter months doing them good.
Austin had changed the most, but he had also been away the longest.
"So have you, as annoying as that is." Austin remarked, "I don''t know why I thought I caught up as you clearly don''t follow the same rules."
"You get used to it." Jonathan cut in. "I had my Anchor for barely a week before he came back with his own."
"Don''t even get me started on his Law. I thought I was good having a Tier 1 Ice Law out of the tutorial and he comes blazing in with a Tier 2 Law." Gabriel added.
"Hey! This is supposed to be a warm reunion, not pile on Chris for being different." I defended.
All three men just looked at me blankly.
"Fine, then I guess you don''t need this Gabriel." I faked pushing the frozen beast away and that got him to change his tune real quick.
"Let''s not be hasty about things! It was all in good fun." He scrambled.
"Yes, let''s talk about the live beast you were planning on dragging into the City," the cadence of Abigail''s voice was slow, dragging out the two words, "Because that''s what you were planning to do, wasn''t it?"
I looked down, "I will not confirm nor deny."
I had been planning to bring it into the City. In my defense, my Ice kept it completely restrained but it was a better idea to keep it out of the Walls. It would wreak havoc if it somehow got out inside the City.
It was hard enough to capture the first time without killing it. I wasn''t sure if I''d be able to do it again.
"Well, what is it? I can hardly see anything through the block of ice."
Everyone was already staring at it in suspense, so I removed most of the Ice to let people see it clearly.
With the ice blocking their vision removed, they could clearly make out its features. A long snout filled with short, sharp teeth. A fur as white as snow, near-perfect camouflage in its environment. A body not much larger than a human if one was lying down.
And three fluffy white tails.
"It''s a fox." Austin unhelpfully degraded my prize.
"Not just any fox. A Three-tailed Arctic Fox!" I said.
Austin wasn''t convinced, "Which is still a fox."
Gabriel, on the other hand, looked at the beast with wide eyes. He had been looking for a suitable Bloodline forever. He was upset that most of us had one already while he didn''t.
My mother also didn''t have one but she wasn''t as disappointed by it as Gabriel was.
"What''s so special about it?" Austin asked after seeing Gabriel''s heavy glare.
"It''s one of the best Bloodlines when it comes to pure manipulation. Arctic Foxes are natural mages. Their small size and physicality make it hard for them to win fights against larger creatures, but their magical abilities more than makeup for it.
"They''re born with an innate ability for spells and magic rather than having increased size and strength." Abigail summarized.
"It was also near the top of Gabriel''s wish list when it came to Bloodlines," I added.
I had looked for the other things Gabriel wanted but couldn''t find any of them. Even if I did, I doubted I would''ve been able to capture it and bring it back. I had to run from Polar Bears, let alone anything with Draconic blood.
"Now, you can still wait it out until we chance upon a Frost Wyrm, but I highly doubt we''ll find one of those. While I saw Mammoths and Wooly Rhinos that came back from extinction, we still don''t know if there are Dragons here." I said.
Gabriel, like Rachel, had Dragons at the top of his list for Bloodlines but without a method to buy it from the store, he was left without a way to get it.
"No, this is perfect! While it''s not as flashy as a Dragon Bloodline, it''s just as good." Gabriel said, still not taking his eyes off the beast.
Good, I thought.
I was worried he wouldn''t like it. It would have made all the work I put into capturing and hauling the beast pointless, but that was nothing compared to the other reason.
Gabriel had already evolved without a Bloodline once, missing the first chance to empower it. Missing a second chance to hold out for a Dragon Bloodline would''ve done more harm than good.
It was good that I wouldn''t have to convince him otherwise.
Not having a Bloodline before evolving to E-rank, wasn''t that big of an issue. It was something he could recover from, but missing two, the first two to boot, would have left him far behind.
Austin wasn''t convinced, "How are foxes comparable to Dragons."
"Dragons aren''t the end all be all," Abigail answered before Gabriel could. His... rants got lengthy. "As much as Rachel would have you believe, they aren''t the uncontested best Bloodline. It depends on what you want."
"Why are you arguing for it, Austin? You didn''t even pick a Dragon Bloodline and you had the chance to." I asked.
The man scoffed, "Yeah, but I got one just as good that fits me better. You''re comparing a fox to a Phoenix."
"The highest tier of Arctic Fox Bloodlines are comparable to your Phoenix one." Gabriel defended, "At the peak of its power, it turns into the Nine-tailed Arctic kitsune which can rival Frost Dragons in strength."
"A fox can rival a Dragon?"
"A Nine-tailed fox, and yes it can." Gabriel answered, "While Dragons may sit at the top when it comes to Fire, they can''t say the same for all the other affinities."
Austin coughed.
"Fine, allegedly sits at the top when it comes to fire." Gabriel sighed before muttering, "But I''d like to see a Phoenix beat a Dragon."
"So... you''ll take it then?" I asked my brother.
"Of course. It''s a top-tier Bloodline for my affinity. I''d be a fool not to." He said like I was stupid for even asking.
"Alright then!" I said excitedly and clapped my hands, "Connor, get to it!"
Connor blinked.
He looked at me, then at the barely contained beast, then at me again.
"Yeah, I don''t know how to do that."
My grand plan began to crumble. "What do you mean? Aren''t you an Alchemist?"
"Yeah, but that doesn''t make me all knowledgeable in every aspect of it!" Connor cried.
"It can''t be that hard. Just... you know... extract its Bloodline." Austin nudged his brother.
"First of all, the process is much more complicated than that. And second, I don''t even focus on that. I make poisons and explosives. Sometimes potions when we need them. I have no idea where to start when it comes to something like this." He waved at the animal.
"You''re an Alchemist, though, shouldn''t that account for something? Don''t you have a skill that could help?" Austin asked.
A vein in Connor''s head bulged, "The only reason I can do what I do now is because I have a base understanding of Chemistry from my degree. Poisons, explosives, even potions, somehow, are similar enough to what I know. The processes are wildly different, but I adapted enough of my old knowledge to sus out new ones."
"This," he pointed at the fox, "Is a complete mystery. No amount of chemistry knowledge is going to help to distill an animal''s bloodline."
"Well, shit." I said, "Do you know anyone who could do it?"
"I do, but you''re not going to like who it is." He said.
At my stare, he continued, "I know all of the Alchemist in the city and none would know where to start with this. No one here focuses on this. The only person I know who delves into this kind of stuff is at the Fort."
Oh, no. I didn''t like where this was going.
"How would you even know that? You''ve never even been there." Abigail cut in.
Connor looked aghast, "Did you think I wouldn''t investigate further after you told me someone was trying to make Vampires?! You guys just came back and dropped a bombshell like that and expected me not to ask further questions? That''s batshit insane and I''m here for it! I wrote a letter to him to see what his ideas were and he was surprisingly amenable." He added thoughtfully. "We don''t write often, but he''s a good dude."
"Connor," Austin said slowly, "Are you telling me you''ve been in contact with someone attempting to make a race of Demons and that wasn''t something you deigned to tell me!"
Connor wilted slightly at his brother''s intensity, "I didn''t think you''d care."
"Of course, I''d care!" Austin yelled, "Vampires are awesome!"
Abigail pinched the bridge of her nose, "That''s not¨C You know what, never mind."
Chapter 236 - Tidings and Rumors
"You wouldn''t think they were awesome if you had to fight them." Hal threw out.
Austin scoffed, "What do you mean? I''m the embodiment of their natural weakness." To illustrate his point, his skin began to glow and the snow around his feet began to steam and melt.
Gabriel, on one of the rare times he took his eyes off his present, shot down that idea, "That''s assuming what we know about Vampires is true. Just because our folklore says they''re weak to the sun doesn''t mean they actually are."
Austin doubled down, "Even if that''s true, I still don''t see the issue. We''ve fought all kinds of random things, what''s one more?"
"They''re an unknown." Abigail cut it, "The only thing we know is from fiction, or what used to be fiction. What if they have mind powers? What if they can compel people? There''s too much we don''t know that supporting this idea is ludicrous."
She directed the last sentence toward me but I only shook my head. She knew my stance on that and it wasn''t going to change.
"Just because I refuse to interfere doesn''t mean I support it. It doesn''t have to be one or the other." I said. When she made to rebut, I added, "I''m not getting into this with you again. We both know where the other stands."
Thankfully, she didn''t push further even though I knew she wanted to.
"Connor," I said dragging the conversation back, "You say this Alchemist would be able to do it?"
Connor nodded, "If anyone can, it would be him." He then hesitated and thought momentarily, "You know, he''s not that well-liked over at the Fort..."
"I wonder why," Abigail snorted.
Connor''s insinuation was clear.
Shaking my head, I responded, "I may not actively go against what the man''s doing, but inviting it into our home is another matter."
"He''s a great Alchemist though! I''m not sure if the man''s naturally gifted or just has the right kind of crazy, but he''d be a great asset. Gabriel isn''t the only one who could gain a Bloodline like this. Just think of the possibilities." Connor advocated.
While he made a good point, I wasn''t sure it was enough to offset what the man was trying to accomplish. It was one thing to make Vampires far enough away that the problem was a non-issue. It was another entirely to have it inside my city.
Seeing I wasn''t convinced, "You''d be able to keep a closer eye on it and shut it down if things go bad." Connor insisted.
I wasn''t swayed, but Abigail brought up a good point, "While I won''t get into the... ethics of what he''s doing, having him do it here is out of the question. Think about if he succeeds." She paused, "If he actually makes Vampires, our city will be forever known as the birthplace of their race. That kind of stigma isn''t something I want attached to my home."
"Bah, who gives a fuck what everyone else thinks. It''d be cool to be known for that." Austin said.
"It''s more than just what they think. It could impact everything related to foreign relations. What if people don''t want to trade with a city of Vampires? What if they attack strictly because of them? Additionally, if we''re known as being closely associated with them like that, everything they do will reflect on us. If one goes off on a killing spree, the blame with be put on us as well as them." Abigail said.
Austin kicked the snow, "Calling us a City of Vampires is a bit much."
"That''s what will happen."
"Fine. We won''t bring the crazy scientist man here." Austin gave up, "Even if it sounds fun."
"Alright, enough about this." I said, "As much fun as it is talking in the snow with all of yous, I''m in need of a shower and a nap. So, Connor, if you could reach out and facilitate a deal, that would be appreciated. See how much this is going to cost us as well. Other than that, I have some materials that need to be stored and a trophy to put up."
Abigail''s eye twitched at the antlers but declined to say anything.
"We''ll catch up after I get some rest."
My following nap took much longer than a few hours and turned into over 12 hours of sleep, but I felt amazing after the long rest.
The food also helped, as eating poorly grilled meats of animals that weren''t that tasty to begin with wasn''t the most appetizing. Most of the things I fought were predators and they didn''t have the most appetizing of meat.
The best thing I ate was an Elk I came across but that hadn''t lasted me very long. The environment made it so the meat kept for a ridiculously long time, but I was a voracious eater.
It was hard to get full with all the energy I expended.
Especially back in the Castle. Most of the food pulled in was of the lower leveled variety, which made me have to eat even more to sustain myself. Not to mention it didn''t taste as good.
With food and sleep, it was almost nice to walk into the living room for our long chat. The fire was roaring and the soft furs tickled my bare feet. It was no surprise I was the only one barefoot.
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"Did you have to hang them there," Abigail said.
"I think they look good there. Right over the fireplace." The antlers were huge, which made anywhere I put them seem gaudy, but the living room was the biggest room in the castle, made big enough to accommodate the whole family, which didn''t make them stand out as much.
They still did, but anywhere else would be worse.
Its tall ceiling also helped.
If I''d tried to hang them in the Council Meeting room they would''ve taken up the whole room.
"While you slept, I looked through the materials you brought and stored them away, all I need to know is what you plan to use personally versus what''s up for grabs." Abigail started off.
"Uhhh," My mind struggled to remember everything I brought back. "The best furs and pelts I plan on turning into clothes. The horns and fangs can go to whoever wants them, I don''t have much use for them. Vincent wants one of the mana cores to try making a staff, but other than that, I don''t want much else."
"I took a gander at your basket of goodies and I have a question for you," Austin said taking out a medium-sized horn, "Why did you kill a bison?"
I laughed remembering the fight, "Well, I didn''t set out to kill one. I didn''t set out to kill anything really. Everything I killed was because it attacked me. The bison was an accident.
"I was running North and wasn''t paying that much attention and nearly ran face first into its back end before I realized it was there. It was alone, away from its herd, and took my speedy charge as a threat. Not one to back down from a challenge, we fought.
"I won.
"I started searching ahead to stop running into fights I didn''t want after that."
Austin smirked, "Not one to back down from a challenge but you said yesterday that you ran from polar bears."
I had given brief snippets of my travels and the extremely threatening bears were mentioned.
"That wasn''t a challenge. That was certain death." I said.
"What''s that...?" He put a finger to his ear, "Is that a wuss I hear?"
"I''d like to see you try. You wouldn''t last two seconds against it."
"How would you know, you ran before you could see it."
"Alright, you two, we have more important things to talk about than your dick-measuring contest." Abigail snapped, annoyed that her serious conversation got taken off the rails so quickly. "Starting with, how far along are you with the melding?"
I''d allowed everyone a read through the technique so they knew the process, "Far enough that I''m not at risk. The main arteries are done, but I still need to do quite a few of the smaller ones."
I split my time coming back between working on my Bloodline and finishing the process. Both were dull work that got bland quick which was why I altered between them.
My heart was already strong enough to handle it, as the upgrade to it would hold even with the added pressure of mana. The arteries coming out of it were the first I worked on, if one of them blew, it would be a quick death from blood loss.
"Where would you put your fighting ability?"
"About 80%" I answered, "If I over-stress my mana, it would cause some internal damage but it wouldn''t be life-threatening."
"How much longer until you''re finished?"
"A month maybe? It depends on how much time I dedicate to doing it. If it''s all I do, a week?"
"How do you feel? I know it''s not the same as my core, but it should be similar."
"Wonderful," I said, "My mana feels endless and much more reactive than before. Skills come much easier and the charge-up time for my bigger ones is a lot shorter. Does your core feel the same?"
"It''s similar to what you described except for one thing. My mana doesn''t feel easier to use. It actually feels harder, since there''s so much more of it along with it being thicker. The same amount of mana holds more power now which makes using skills efficiently difficult." Abigail described.
"Is it the same for everyone who forged one?" I asked.
"Of the people who succeeded, yes."
I already knew who succeeded and who didn''t. Of those who went, only two came back with a core. Abigail and Alice. Most of Alice''s skills were ice-related but she still had Water as her affinity.
A few failed, but that wasn''t the end of the world. They would be able to try again.
While only two of our family managed to forge one, other people went along to try. Some of Elliot''s and Hal''s Guards went as well.
Part of the condition of their signing up was that they had free access to all of our techniques. Those with the Water affinity who wanted to forge one were a part of the group who left.
All told, nearly half a dozen people stepped down a new Path of Power, which greatly boosted our strength as a city.
Our chat continued and we went over everything that happened while we were gone. It was a lot to get through and it was hours later before all the stories were told.
Austin''s was especially long.
"Now, as fun as that was, I hear we''re in for a fight!" Austin said and jumped up, "When are we doing this thing? You can''t believe how boring it is here."
What he was referring to was the pylon upgrade. With everyone''s new advancements, we planned to go for it when everyone returned. It was half the reason Austin was still here at all. He didn''t want to miss out on the fight and he was here anyway.
I half expected him to stay strictly to make fun of me for becoming a noble in a terrible English accent.
"Cool your jets, Austin." Abigail said, "I have one more thing before we all leave."
Her face was oddly serious.
"Before we left, some... rumors were going around in the city. We aren''t sure if any of it is true, but Marcus came up to us and relayed what he was hearing." She started, "Supposedly, something was found in the South. No one knows what it is, or how it got there, but they say it has a countdown.
"When it hits zero will be exactly two years since we returned."
There was a stunned silence as everyone worked to process the information.
"That''s in four months," I said.
"I know."
"I''m not sure about anyone else, but that''s obviously a sign. A big, glowing, blinking sign. We were looking for when our ''test'' would start and it seems we now know." Austin said.
"I didn''t think it would be so soon," Hal said softly.
"It could''ve happened sooner. Two years is pretty long." Abigail answered.
"Is that everything? Is there anything else you know?" I asked.
"All Marcus told us was that something was found in the South and it had a timer. He didn''t know much more than that." Abigail said.
"How far South? How did he even hear about it anyway? It''s not like someone picked up a phone to call him." My mother asked.
"He said it was from a messenger. Someone was purposely spreading the word."
"What does it mean, though? Will we have to travel South? Depending on how far South we may have to leave now." Gabriel chimed in.
"I don''t know," Abigail said. "But it would be smart to be prepared to do just that."
"How long does that give us," I said slightly annoyed. I only just got back. Leaving again wasn''t on my to-do list, especially so soon.
"Well, we still aren''t sure of the exact location, but we shouldn''t delay too long. I''ve been in contact with Marcus and we should know as soon as he does, but it will be a long trip no matter what." Abigail said.
"Delay what?" Hal played devil''s advocate, "All we know is something down South has a timer. It could be anything."
"The odds are against that."
Things got a little more heated as ideas were thrown out, but we wouldn''t know for sure until we knew more.
"We''ll prepare but wait. Until we know something more concrete, we continue with our plans here. Speaking of, we should plan the pylon upgrade for next week. That should give everyone enough time to settle in after time spent away."
It would also give me enough time to finish melding. If our ''test'' was on the horizon, I couldn''t delay.
Chapter 237 - Marthas Tavern
Miles
"Wouldn''t be that bad", his ass.
Miles remembered his first introduction to the city, and everyone kept saying the Winter, ''Wouldn''t be that bad.'' All of them were liars.
It was that bad. He couldn''t see how anyone could admit otherwise, yet multiple people had. The giant furs helped, but it still wasn''t enough to ward away the cold for long.
Being out in it for as long as he was didn''t help matters, but there was nothing he could do to help it. It was what his job required and he''d already blown through his savings that he brought with him.
Scraping together what he could from the few Dungeon runs he signed up for had held him afloat, but that wasn''t sustainable anymore. The wait between runs was longer than he could live off of what he made from one.
If Miles was stronger, and could go deeper than only the sixth floor, he wouldn''t have that issue, but he wasn''t.
Especially alone.
There was no one he trusted enough to go in with him. He was trying to get over his trust issues but it was hard after remembering where he came from.
People backstabbed and betrayed for the mere thought of getting something out of it. Let alone if he pulled something rare out of a Dungeon drop.
No, he''d continue alone, even if he would get further in a team.
His new job wasn''t related to his Profession which didn''t net him any essence or levels for it, but it paid enough to keep him fed and clothed. His wardrobe saw a massive overhaul since his first day in the city.
"Oi, Miles, are you listening to me!" Fredrick yelled and shook his shoulder.
"What?" A clear indication that Miles wasn''t.
"That load over there, I need you to take it to the West District. Phillip''s waiting on it."
At least the sled is already packed.
He led the horses toward the drop-off for empty sleds and walked them over to his new one with practiced ease. It had taken a while to get used to the animals, and them used to him, but they were in sync now.
It was trivial to direct them and he barely needed to use the reins most of the time.
Miles wasn''t sure how he ended up being a delivery driver, or how he got sucked into being out in the cold all day, but the pay was some of the best in the city for a person who was working outside their Profession.
The Western District was where all the newest construction was taking place and his newest load would be his fifth trip there of the day.
At least after this one, he would be finished.
The one good thing about the Winter was the workday was short. The sun was already setting and if work continued past sunset, it would get dangerously cold.
Not even the incentive of hazard pay motivated people enough to work in the dark and the cold.
The newly bustling streets were annoying to navigate through but he arrived soon enough. The site had people all over the place swinging hammers or working saws to cut lumber to size.
It was still mind-blowing to see just how much could get done in such a short time. A job that would''ve taken months to complete could get done in a week if the right people were on the job.
Phillip caught sight of him and the load he was hauling and broke out into a smile. The man was an odd one and got much too excited at the sight of building materials.
"Merci, Miles, if you could drop it over there, s¡¯il vous pla?t." Phillip said before turning back to overseeing construction.
The mixed French and English was annoying but Phillip was nice enough about it. At least he said most of the words in English, rather than some of the others who were assholes about it.
Growing up near enough to the province made his French passible, but nowhere near good enough for a conversation.
Following the French-Canadian''s direction, he was off on his return journey not long after. The trip back through the City was quicker since fewer people were out and about, which was a good thing, else he would be late. Miles wouldn''t say he had many ''friends'', but he had branched out of his comfort zone a while back and it had proven not as bad as he feared.
He wasn''t a loner, at least he didn''t think of himself as one, but starting over in a city where he didn''t know anybody was hard. Nathan had been his first acquaintance, the chatty cart driver who introduced him to the city, but Miles had found a few others like him to hang out with.
Miles was set to meet up with Louis and Gavin at the tavern and it would be rude to be late. Even if Gavin was never on time and it would be him and Louis waiting on him, that wasn''t an excuse to be late himself.
As he predicted, after a quick wash and change of clothes, Louis was already sitting at their usual table while Gavin was nowhere in sight.
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"It''s lively in here tonight," Miles said after sitting down across from the man.
The taverns were one of the first things built after the houses, warehouses, and workshops were finished. From what Miles heard, since he wasn''t here at the time, after the Outer Walls''s completion, there was a frenzy of activity that saw streets of houses constructed in record time.
That frenzy died off into something more sustainable since, but there were still stories about how quickly things were put together. Their notorious Mayor had everything ready for when construction began.
"It''s little surprise. Martha''s husband bagged an Elk and word got out. I wouldn''t be surprised if every seat gets filled tonight." Louis laughed.
His mouth watered just thinking about it, "Gavin''ll be pissed if he misses it. Have you already ordered?"
Louis looked insulted and Miles took that as his answer. His drink already being on the table should''ve been his clue. While part of him craved a beer, it wasn''t yet to be. At least not yet. Word was production would start soon.
While food wasn''t scarce like he was used to, fresh food was a rare thing to have. Most meals through the Winter were from stored grains and frozen meat, which weren''t bad, and they were certainly better than nothing, but nothing beat a fresh meal.
As Louis and he waited on their third wayward friend, he noticed that the conversation was a lot more lively in the tavern than usual. While Martha''s cooking and the prize of fresh meat were exciting, it felt like it was something more than that.
Miles also noticed it during his deliveries. He wasn''t able to stop and ask, nor would he have given the chance, but it was enough to make him bring it up.
"What''s got people acting weird?" Miles asked, "Is there some event I don''t know about."
Being thrust into a festive atmosphere only a few days after arriving had been jarring. He''d gone from nearly starving to death, to five weeks of dull travel, to a giant Harvest Festival taking place.
Having experienced being out of the loop once already, he wasn''t keen to do it again.
Louis just looked at him oddly, "You didn''t hear?"
Miles shook his head, "What?"
"The City Lord''s back!" Louis said happily, "And so is the Mayor! Everyone''s been talking about it all day. How have you not heard?"
"I''ve been busy." Miles waved off. It certainly wasn''t because he didn''t like small talk during his deliveries. It slowed him down and caused him to take longer. Miles only had to hold in a few of his choice insults about the man but he was getting better.
Louis noticed his face and knew what he wanted to say, "You really shouldn''t curse him like you do."
"I''m hardly cursing the man," Miles defended, "More like voicing my frustrations."
"Well, you shouldn''t do that either."
"How would you feel?" Miles asked, "I put in all the paperwork and applications only for the man to disappear for months!"
He was only slightly bitter about it. He''d tried not to, but he got his hopes up after hearing about the Assistant position only for it to go unfilled for months. Every time he asked about it, the lady would say they still hadn''t made any decisions and the next thing he knew, the City Lord was off on a trip with no date for when he would return.
He''d found other work, but it was still annoying.
"You don''t know how scary he can be," Louis said before realizing something, "You''ve never seen him fight, have you?"
Miles scoffed, "I''ve never even seen him, let alone seen him fight."
"If you had, you wouldn''t be saying such things," Louis said and sipped his drink.
It was at that moment that Gavin finally arrived at their table, only slightly late compared to his usual.
"What''re you guys talking about? Is Miles cursing the City Lord again?" Gavin asked louder than Miles cared for.
"I wasn''t cursing the man." Miles hissed.
"Oh sorry, was Miles voicing his frustrations again" Gavin mocked impersonating his voice.
"I was just saying he wouldn''t do that if he''d ever seen the man fight," Louis informed.
Gavin whistled as he kicked back his seat, teetering on two legs, "I still remember seeing it for the first time. It''s a sight to behold."
"What''s so special about it?" Miles couldn''t help but ask. He''d seen plenty of people fight, some much higher level than him, and none were talked about in such a manner.
Even the deadly fights he witnessed back home weren''t that special.
"It''s like watching a force of nature," Louis said wistfully eyes distant recalling the first time he saw it.
"He swings that hammer ''round like it''s his God-given right," Gavin added with a chuckle.
Without anything for him to add, Miles remained silent.
"Speaking of," Gavin plopped his chair down on all four legs and smiled, "You''ll get the opportunity to see it next week."
"What do you mean?" Both Louis and Miles asked.
"Word came down from above they''re doing the next upgrade in a week. People are already signing up." Gavin''s excitement was obvious.
"Why are you so excited?" Louis cut in, "Didn''t you nearly die last time?"
Gavin choked in offense, "I didn''t nearly die! It was only a scratch. I would''ve been fine!"
"Wait, they just let people sign up to fight?" Miles asked. "I thought that was what the Guards were for."
Gavin shook his head, "Anyone can join if they want to. You have to follow basic orders and not do anything stupid, but even you could participate."
That was the exact opposite of how the Fort handled things. Miles wasn''t there long, but he had been there to see a Wave attack. No one was allowed to fight unless they were a part of the Guards.
They claimed it was for safety, but Miles knew what it was really for.
If they couldn''t fight, they wouldn''t level. If they kept the population''s level controlled, they would always be stronger and remain in power.
It was the same with the Dungeons. The Fort strictly controlled who had access to the Dungeon while that wasn''t really a thing here. There was a waitlist, sure, but there weren''t any restrictions.
"How did you almost die, Gavin? I thought you were with the Trackers?" Miles asked. The fancy wolf pin the man wore was all he could talk about when he first received it.
Louis laughed while Gavin looked slightly ashamed, "Well, you see, I may, or may not have, gotten ahead of myself and done something stupid."
"What he actually means is that he got arrogant and joined the Warriors like an idiot." Louis pointed out.
"I wanted to work on my short sword skills. I don''t get to use them very often." Gavin exclaimed.
"And how did that work out for you?"
Gavin moped, "I don''t want to talk about it."
The other two laughed.
"Now that he''s back, are you still gonna try for the assistant position? I can put in a good word if you want?" Gavin said, trying to change the subject.
"I might as well, I''ve jumped through all the hoops already, may as well see it to the end," Miles answered. "And put in a good word with who? You''ve met the man what? Once?"
"Twice, thank you very much. But I know people." His eyebrows wiggled and Miles fought the sigh he felt.
"Yeah, and I know a dog who''s more talented than you. Now we both can feel good about ourselves." Miles remarked.
"Hey! We promised never to speak of that!"
"Then you shouldn''t complain so much about it."
Their night continued jovially and the food was as good as imagined, but Miles couldn''t get the thought out of his head. What Gavin had brought up stuck with him.
You could learn a lot about a person by the way they fought and he wanted to see what everyone was so impressed by.
Maybe he would sign up after all.
Chapter 238 - Are There Any Questions?
Miles(cont.)
Somehow, against his better judgment, Miles found his feet taking him in a direction toward the Walls. Gavin had talked him into it while Louis tried to talk him out of it. The devil and angel were sitting on his shoulder and the devil won out.
To be fair to Louis, his mind was made up well before the two tried to convince him.
Ever since Gavin brought it up a week ago, it had been all he could think about. The possibility of seeing the man fight was alluring. Plenty of stories were told about it that piqued his interest and he finally wanted to see for himself.
Which was why he found himself armed and armored, ready for a fight.
As he approached the growing crowd, he tried not to wince at the state of his armor compared to theirs. Miles hadn''t exactly had the funds to upgrade what he brought with him, let alone pay for repairs.
He''d left it dirty for so long the metal had started to rust.
One of the worst things to do back home was flaunt something you weren''t strong enough to protect. It''s become a ritual for him to dirty up the plates of metal to make the chest piece look worse than it was.
Same with the rest of his gear.
Strategically leaving blood in certain places to show that it wasn''t worth a fight for it.
That wasn''t a thing in Frostheim. Everyone took extreme care of their gear, cleaning and polishing it in a week more than he''d ever done in his life. He''d watched Gavin do it plenty of times even though he wasn''t even a melee fighter.
It wasn''t only the state of his derelict gear that set him apart, but also the strength. Having used the same set since the tutorial, it was a bit behind him when it came to power.
He left the tutorial high F-rank and was now early E-rank while also using the same gear. It held up, and wouldn''t break that easily, but it also wasn''t the best thing he could be using.
A coin pouch squirreled away in his home was meant to remedy that, but he hadn''t saved up enough yet. New gear was expensive and there was only so much he could save in a week.
With his new job, his daily expenses were taken care of which left his profits from the Dungeon free to use on anything he wanted, but that still wasn''t enough for a completely new set.
He could maybe afford a new sword, but that wouldn''t mean anything if his armor failed him first.
Still, he wasn''t deterred from the odd looks he was getting and marched on anyway. No matter how much he wished to turn back.
Signing up was surprisingly easy, and just like Gavin said, anyone was allowed to do it. You had to put your estimated power level and general skill set so they knew where to put you, but otherwise, that was all.
He didn''t need to give his specific Class or exact level, only general terms that would be obvious if someone was watching anyway. He was suspicious about what they were using this information for at first, but it wasn''t all that secretive to begin with.
Plus, how were they supposed to know where to put you if you told them nothing?
Miles reached where he assumed all the other melee-based fighters stood based on the heavier armor, but his eyes searched the group with bows for Gavin. It wasn''t hard to find him and he had to fight a sigh as he saw the man''s goofy wave in Miles''s direction.
Everyone who was participating had to arrive before noon, but everyone was well ahead of the proposed deadline. The last few trickled in over a half-hour before time was up.
Miles himself didn''t wish to be late and had prepared accordingly, much like everyone else in the crowd.
Said crowd was a lot larger than he''d pictured.
This would by far be the largest battle Miles would ever be a part of. There were easily a few thousand people standing ready for battle. If he had to guess, it was somewhere between two and three thousand!
The city''s population was only around eight thousand after the wave of new arrivals stopped when Winter began. That meant over a quarter volunteered!
Why were so many willing to fight when they didn''t have to?
The crowd had naturally grown louder as time passed, but a hush fell over right at noon as people waited expectantly. It wasn''t much longer until a smaller group of people made their way from behind them, deeper into the city, to where everyone else stood.
Miles didn''t need to be a genius to know who these people were.
While the City Lord and his sister, the Mayor, were the most well-known and talked about, that didn''t mean the rest of the man''s family were unknown.
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It was kind of hard not to be when all of them were such powerhouses. Not for the first time, Miles wondered what they went through for every member of the family to be so strong.
He knew they all weren''t at the same level, and some were better than others, but for all of them to be above average was intriguing.
Miles looked over the group quickly but thoroughly, trying not to drag attention to himself while also getting a good look at them. Every member of the group had gear leagues ahead of his.
He wasn''t close enough to see, but he didn''t have to be to know flame and hammer sigils were stamped on most of it. The Molten Smith, as people started calling him, was the best Smith in the City.
Everyone fought to get the weapons and armor crafted by him.
Not only was it the highest grade from the forging alone, but it was normally enchanted as well! Miles hadn''t even seen enchanted gear before, let alone the level of craftsmanship that the man had.
Unconsciously or consciously, Miles wasn''t sure, his eyes drifted toward the center of the group. He expected some towering giant covered in Ice from the stories but what he saw was a regular man.
He was far from unassuming though, and Miles could feel the power difference between him and the man, but the stories made him think he was more than just a man.
The hammer he carried on his back was the obvious giveaway, if the subtle pressure he gave off wasn''t enough.
For all intents and purposes, he looked like any other person Miles knew. Sandy blonde hair medium in length and a well-trimmed beard kept close to the face.
The man was smiling at what another had said, a spear wielder from the weapon he had on his back, while he walked to the front. Laughing before saying something back Miles couldn''t hear.
The Mayor, Miles knew what she looked like as she worked all over town, pinched her nose, and shook her head. It looked like she was about to reach out with her staff and hit the spearman.
It would''ve been a shame, too, as Miles had never seen a staff like that. At its top was a swirling light blue crystal of some kind that looked delicate. Delicate and powerful.
For as long as Miles had been in Frostheim, and after all the fantastical tales that the townspeople spread about the man he was looking at, they all felt like lies.
How could someone be described as a snowstorm of blood and guts and such savagery be jovially laughing and joking while looking like anyone else?
Nothing was matching up with what Miles had pictured.
Miles wanted to find Gavin and strangle the man for all the stories he told of the serious, no-bullshit man that commanded respect.
Before that thought could turn into him picturing how he would off his friend, a switch was flipped.
The man reached the lead spot and changed completely.
He didn''t change physically, as he still looked the exact same, but the air around him was different.
Hell, the air around Miles was different. There was a weighted blanket smothering the area and he was sure everyone could feel it. It wasn''t pressing or pushing down on him, but just there.
This is what they were talking about. I take it back Gavin, maybe I don''t have to strangle you.
No one was talking anyway, but they certainly weren''t now as the man readied to speak.
"Thank you all for coming. Before we begin, I feel like I should warn everyone of what is to come. As you know, this will be our fourth pylon upgrade, turning our Large Town into a Small City.
"Some of you might already know this, but I''ll say it for those that do not, this Upgrade will be different from the rest. There are two options to choose from. One, like the others, is a normal Pylon upgrade, moving us from Large Town to a regular Small City.
"The other, is a Noble Pylon Upgrade."
"Not only will it Upgrade us to a Small City, but it also comes with the Noble Title of Baron attached to it. While the Title itself doesn''t mean much, it has other benefits for the City that we can''t ignore."
Miles wasn''t sure what he was hearing. He knew of Noble Titles from his tutorial, but it was never clear how to get them. He knew Pylon ownership was required, but little besides that.
Was it as easy as choosing an option and getting one? That didn''t seem very hard.
Miles highly doubted the Title didn''t mean much. There wouldn''t be two separate options if the Title wasn''t that big of a deal.
"That being said, we''re told that choosing this option will make the challenge we face significantly harder. I can''t say for certain how high of a level we will face, only that it will be harder.
"Let me be clear, this Wave we will face will contain beasts or monsters in the D-rank. Some might even be higher than that. I don''t say this to scare you, only to inform everyone of the risks and challenges they will face."
The reaction to that was worried looks and shuffling feet. Miles himself wasn''t sure he was prepared for the fight. He could fight above his level, but not that far above.
"With that in mind, we will be altering our usual strategy. The front line will not be down in front of the Walls. I know that some of you could handle it, but that is a risk we don''t need to take.
"I still will, and a few others have chosen to join me, but make that choice at your own risk.
"Second, we will be using the defenses this time. I know most of you have never seen them in action and I warn you to not interfere with their operation. We''ve planned around them and will make sure no one gets in the way.
"And lastly, before we get into deeper specifics, now is the time to leave if you feel like you aren''t up for it. There is no shame in realizing this. It only means you have farther to go until you are ready."
Many broke away from the crowd after that. Some ran while others walked hesitantly away, deciding if they could chance it before deciding not to.
Miles decided to stay. If he was on the wall, surrounded by over a thousand others, the risk wasn''t that great. He''d bet his life the Walls would hold, and he was prepared to do just that.
Being a melee warrior on top of the wall would make fighting difficult, but he had a few ranged options he could explore. It wasn''t his strong suit but he could do it.
After the crowd sorted itself out, "Great! Now we''ll get into the plan. First off, Hal will be leading all Bowmen. Be it Rangers, Archers, or Hunters, if you have a bow and shoot arrows, you will follow Hal''s command."
A brown-haired man with a bow stepped up. His armor was heavy for an Archer, and his bow was larger and looked heavier than the one Gavin used.
"Mages will fall under Abigail."
The Mayor stepped up with her staff raised.
"Healers and Supports will be under Ashley."
A woman Miles didn''t know stepped forward.
"Warriors atop the wall will fall under Elliot."
A man covered head to toe in metal. Full plate with a metal shield and sword to match. All of it shining in the sun.
"And anyone willing to fight in the thick of it," a similar smile to the one he wore while walking to the front, "Will be under me."
"Are there any questions?"
Chapter 239 - Force of Nature
Chris
"Are you sure about this, Christopher?" Abigail asked.
"It''s perfectly safe, Abigail, everything will be fine," I answered.
She had been antsy about the fact I was allowing so many people to participate in what could potentially be a bloodbath. There was a discussion about not letting extras fight, but I shot that down quickly.
We knew this Wave would hold D-ranks, that much was assured. We also knew that these D-ranks would be much stronger than right out-of-the-box ones, which made them potentially threatening to the masses.
While I did agree that we needed to change our standing plans regarding waves, dismissing the extra people outright, even if they would be in danger, wasn''t the way to go.
They would be able to stand atop the Walls and participate in whatever way they could. We built them thick enough to house thousands along its length and were well short of being overcrowded.
The siege weapon encampments would need to be kept clear, but I doubted anyone wanted to be near the moving parts of something so... robust.
Where she fought me more vigorously, was on letting people fight in front of the wall. She wanted to ban it outright, only leaving me, Jonathan, and Austin down there, like old times.
I fought back with an equal intensity. That was the crucible. The hottest and deadliest part of the battlefield and the greatest opportunity for growth. It was why I grew as fast as I did and I wasn''t going to take that opportunity away from others.
I warned them, and assured them of the dangers they would face by doing so, but in the end, I left it to them to decide.
Choosing when a fight was achievable or above their head was another valuable skill to learn.
Sure, I wouldn''t be surprised coming out of this with a few deaths, but that was worth it in my opinion. It would be sad and unfortunate, but necessary.
If all people did was hide behind strong walls, they would never grow. I wouldn''t have grown if I hadn''t done what I had.
Obviously, Abigail and a few others didn''t share my viewpoint. They claimed it was a useless waste of life to have people die when they didn''t have to.
I claimed it was a useful opportunity that I wouldn''t take away their choice for.
In the end, it took one of the rare times I used my authority to get them to back off. Their complaints were noted, and I made my decision against it anyway. In my head, I was in the right, and in theirs, they were, but that was the way of the world.
If everyone had been against it, and the entire council fought me over it, I may have caved, hell, probably would have caved, but only a few were. Most of the others were fine with it because it was a person''s choice whether to participate or not.
"How helpful will they be? Some of them are barely E-rank." She said, looking over the large crowd.
"We shouldn''t dismiss them strictly because of that. If they don''t try, they will never grow. There will be all kinds of things sent against us and not everything will be above them, they''ll have things to fight." I assured her.
Not all of the beasts summoned were on the same level. There would be some lesser foes for the weaker to fight against, it would be up to them to find them. Even if they didn''t, they''d be able to do what they could and at least participate with the stronger foes.
"Oh, hop off it you two, this''ll be fun!" Austin interrupted. "I bet I''ll kill more than you."
"Austin... you''ve seen how I fight. You don''t stand a chance." I said.
He looked miffed, "You weren''t the only one to get some fancy upgrades. You haven''t seen what I can do."
"Alright, bud, you''re on." I smiled.
"If you two could treat this as the dangerous situation that it is, that would be great."
"All work and no fun. You never change Abigail." Austin sang.
"Are Brayden and Vincent ready on the trebuchets?" I asked, ignoring Austin''s comment.
Walls weren''t the only thing built over the years. It wouldn''t be a Castle without siege weapons of our own and we went all out for the ones we had.
My Uncle Brayden and Mitchell were the masterminds behind most of them, putting Brayden''s Builder and Mitchell''s Carpenter Professions to good use. Catapults didn''t work well in the Cold, and we weren''t sure how to make Cannons yet, so Trebuchets were the weapon of choice.
The ropes he tried to build Catapults out of split and frayed when under tension in extreme weather, which was a good portion of the year. There was a workaround, but it was easier to shift to something that would work instead of forcing something that didn''t.
Dozens of the stone throwers were spaced out over the wall and even more were mounted to the inner wall. Their range was extreme, allowing them to shoot all the way from inside the city.
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Coordinating such volleys was going to be difficult, but that was what practice was for. It was better to see what needed to be changed now than when we really needed it.
This would be the first time our entire defensive capability was being put in use and I couldn''t wait to see how my City did.
After my speech, people sorted themselves accordingly and as the time drew nearer, I couldn''t help but feel my heart beating faster. I''d spent the past week spending hours making sure the meld was finished.
I was ready to finally go all out and see what I could do with my new heart.
Miles
His nerves were starting to get the best of him but he forcefully pushed them down. He''d been through worse and he wasn''t about to chicken out now. His time in Toronto was much worse than whatever was about to happen.
This isn''t your first battle, Miles, stop shaking like a schoolgirl.
He couldn''t help it. He was far from the strongest and it felt like an errant wind would blow him away.
After following instructions, he found himself stationed near a few other Warriors with some Mages and Rangers behind him. All the Classes were well spread out along with various levels.
It would be bad to have all the lower-level people in one area.
The three gates were manned with the most people, along with the multiple towers along the Outer Wall, but he wasn''t near those. Instead, he was next to one of the ginormous siege weapons spaced out over the wall.
It wasn''t his first choice to be near one, but that was where he was placed.
The wooden monstrosity was tens of feet tall and by the creaking, he didn''t want to know how much weight was being used as a counter. The size of the boulders lying in piles behind the weapon was enough of an indication.
As he fidgeted as time passed, the comfortable weight in the air changed.
It started with a few of the higher-level people near him, and not everyone''s weight was the same, but it spread out over the entire crowd. Everyone started to give off an intense feeling like they were ready to face down death.
Only some carried the intense feeling, but it was enough to set him on edge.
A chill blew over the gathered crowd, and the weight intensified.
The next thing he knew, a notification popped up with the normal chime.
''Defend your claim''
The sixty-second timer felt like hours as he watched the numbers tick away. Orders were shouted out from the people in charge and his body moved to obey, but he couldn''t tear his eyes away from the timer.
Before it hit zero, he couldn''t help but look over the insane people down below. When he heard that fighting in front of the wall was an option, he thought it was insane. Who would choose to do that?
It turned out, a good number of people would.
Nearly a hundred men and women milled about, readying themselves. Some were doing last checks on armor while others inspected their weapons.
The City Lord stood stoic at their head with his hammer planted in the ground at his feet chatting with the spearman, like it was just another Tuesday. The spearman donned a shining silver helmet while the City Lord remained without one, his face bare.
A helmet wasn''t the only difference between the City Lord and the rest. The man had multiple places where he wasn''t as armored as the rest.
A metal chest piece that covered his front and back and some plates fastened to his legs was all he wore. Metal greaves covered his feet and lower legs, but his knees were left bare. So were his arms. The metal pauldrons attached to the breastplate stopping at the shoulder.
It was odd.
Miles didn''t get time to think on it more as the timer hit zero and everything leapt into motion.
Wood creaked as they unleashed their giant payloads and his eyes tracked dozens of boulders through the sky. Their arc carrying them from both beside him and from behind him.
They flew high in the air before slamming down in the distance in explosions of dirt and soil, where he only barely could make out forms of something moving.
Ratcheting sounds signaled they were reloading but Miles wasn''t concerned with that. Once he saw the mass of bodies, they were all he could look at.
Another woosh and more boulders, but they seemed to do nothing compared to the numbers running at them.
This was the first time he''d seen so many enemies. Usually, it was a few dozen beasts at the most that attacked them in Toronto. Never an organized horde like this.
His unfamiliarity was obvious, as everyone else leapt into motion following the siege weapons like they were used to it.
Wondering what the City Lord was doing, he peeked down below and saw him standing in the same spot, in the same pose, doing nothing.
The spearman next to him was hopping up and down as a glow started to luminate off him. Miles wasn''t sure if the Sun was attracted to him, or if it was something else, as the man disappeared before he could look closer.
He felt like rubbing his eyes like he was in a cartoon. One second the man was there, the next he was gone.
Explosions of light were the only indicator of where he went, as rays of it started exploding out from where the boulders were landing.
Turning back to the famed fighter he''d come to witness was disappointing. He was only shaking his head slightly as he reached out and grasped his hammer. Miles had seen all kinds of weapons, but never one like that.
He knew what it looked like already from stories, but seeing it in the flesh was different. It was... something else.
Ice began to freeze over his entire body and it was then that Miles understood the stories. Even as bows twanged and hundreds of arrows joined the boulders in flying through the sky, he couldn''t look away from the man slowly walking forward. The oddity of how many arrows there were wasn''t lost on him even if his attention was partially diverted. Even if every person took up a bow and launched one, there was still more than what could be accounted for flying through the air now.
His magic senses whited out as a tremendous amount of mana was launched next but even that didn''t take away from the feeling.
The weight, slightly reassuring even though no part of it felt that way initially, got ten times worse. Like being plunged to the bottom of a lake, it surrounded his every move.
Miles realized then that the man had started running, instead of walking.
Magic rained down, forcing him to squint as every light imaginable filled the horizon with a painful intensity. Blue was most dominant, but that wasn''t important compared to the sheer size of the impact.
He looked back from the magical spectacle just in time to see something even better.
One man ran into a wall of thousands and exploded in snow. It was too far to make out clearly, but the aftereffects were clear. A Cold so intense exploded that he could feel it from hundreds of yards away rattled his bones.
The bone-chilling cold made Miles want to curl up and go to sleep. The feeling came and went quickly, but it was hard to shake off after experiencing.
A large section of the battlefield turned into a Wintery Hell, as that was the only way to describe it. Snow, hail, icicles, and large chunks of ice swirled around like a miniature hurricane without the rain.
It wasn''t long until the expanse of white was dyed a reddish pink.
Ah, I get it now, Miles thought. This is where the name Red Snow came from.
The stories didn''t do it justice. Nothing could do it justice without seeing it for yourself.
Gavin and Louis were right.
The man was a force of nature
Chapter 240 - Up for a Challenge
Chris
Oops, a bit too much.
Sending the same amount of mana into [Permafrost] and [Desolate Blizzard] as before caused the two skills to blossom out much further than anticipated. While it encompassed more enemies inside its radius, it also neared too closely to the wall.
My new Heart made funneling mana into the skills much easier. Before, it felt like I was forcing mana into the skills, while now it was like it wanted to be used.
I''d practiced with the meld to ensure everything was up to par, but this would be the first real stress test.
Austin, the bastard, was already off and had turned himself into a lightshow deeper in the wave, flitting about like nothing could touch him.
I should''ve known from how confident he proposed the bet something was up, but I didn''t think anything of it. He always had pure speed over me, but I would always win in a battle of endurance.
With the cheeky bastard''s new Anchor, he was killing things a lot faster than he usually could, racking up the numbers at an astounding rate.
If I didn''t know any better, I''d say he was going all out from the gate to get an early lead I couldn''t catch up to.
We''ll see about that.
Thunderous booms fell as giant chunks of rock impacted the earth, spraying the area with loose dirt and sod, but I ignored them and marched on. I''d asked Brayden and Vincent nicely not to hit me, but they couldn''t make any promises.
The teams on siege weapon duty were mostly a part of the construction crew. It didn''t take any weapons skills or magic skills to work them and it was a good opportunity to get them some essence.
Even if they had a basic Warrior Class, killing things from afar with the trebuchet would net them some levels.
That being said, with the two dozen or so weapons launching their payloads throughout the ring of enemies, the same ring of enemies I was currently positioned in, they were slamming down a bit too close to home.
I was sure I could take one. My new levels and defensive Skill would keep me from being instantly pulverized, but I wasn''t sure how bad off I would be. A broken arm or a few bones wouldn''t be that bad, but I was not letting myself lose an arm again any time soon.
It was an annoyance I wasn''t keen to put up with again.
Now that I was in the thick of things, [Avalanche] started to get rolling and [Glacial Presence] ticked up its boost. My Mana felt endless and the extra oomph that went into creating my Wintery Domain made everything flow that much easier.
I kept the big guns sealed. [Frozen Rift] and [Shattering Hammer] were still mana hogs, even with my new capacity, but they would see their time to shine. The Boss, or whatever constituted this Wave as a challenge, would get to see the culmination of my efforts.
It felt good to get back into the battlefield like this. My trip North was filled with a bunch of little battles, one one-on-one or a small group, but this, me versus an army, was where I thrived.
It was the challenge. One-on-one versus a worthy foe would always be fun, but there was something about weathering a storm of thousands and coming out on top that felt right.
The beasts sent against us were something I couldn''t recognize. Furred bodies and four legs were the only similarities to anything I knew. Teeth and claws were their go-to attack, like most things I''d fought, but they had some magical skills in their arsenal.
Not that it mattered.
All of their attacks either washed off [Frost Armor] or couldn''t penetrate my skin. The times when a larger attack came, and I felt the build-up of mana, [Jotun''s Resistance] would flare and that was that.
The beasts started in the low hundreds, the beginning of D-rank, and were subtly rising as time passed. Rising past 105 to 110, to 115.
As they grew stronger, [Avalanche] was more than capable of letting my stats rise with the challenge. It was enough for me to take a peek back at the wall, but what I saw there made me question why I was worried in the first place.
The long stone bulwark remained unbreeched and was far from being threatened. Skills poured down from atop it like a deluge of water, killing anything that neared.
A particularly nasty storm of raging water made sure the main gate was kept unmolested. Abigail, with her new staff, and two others made sure that the gate wasn''t threatened.
Like any Castle, the gates were the weakest link. The enchantment, Wards, and treatment done to the wood made it as sturdy as possible, but it was a design flaw even magic couldn''t fix.
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I wasn''t as worried about the other two gates as they were on either side, but they had their own protections put in place.
"If you don''t start burning your Bloodline soon, you''re going to loooose..." A sing-songy voice came and went before I could pinpoint its source.
The wake of smoldering remains was my only clue, as that was certainly not a result of anything I did.
While Austin made a good point, I wasn''t sure if I wanted to open that door yet. I felt like the Wave was sufficiently handled, and I doubted anything would go wrong, but it paid to be prepared.
The advancements I achieved with my Bloodline made it last longer than before, but it wasn''t something that was endless.
Ah, fuck it.
Activating it let me feel the familiar rush I''d gotten used to. It was much more powerful than at the start, but the feeling of Ice Cold power was the same.
The temperature of my body plummeted, and if I weren''t already covered in Ice, it would''ve begun to form naturally. I wasn''t sure how far below zero my body became, but I knew touching it was a bad idea. Similar to how my hammer caused Austin frostbite, my skin could do the same.
Finding that out had been a surprise.
When I first gained my Bloodline, burning it had limited changes. After spending the Winter months purifying it and strengthening it, those changes were further exaggerated.
My skin turned a shade paler than normal, nearing sheet white by this point. Standing next to Austin''s sun-kissed tan made it even worse. It was hard to tell, but my hair further transitioned from sandy blonde to pure white. It used to be limited to the tips, but that transformation was getting larger and spread closer to the roots.
Lastly, a change I couldn''t see myself, but my eyes were altered.
The cosmetic changes weren''t the only things to grow with the additional strength of the Bloodline. The boost it gave did as well. I felt closer to my Ice, my muscles felt like they could swing more powerfully, and my body felt more robust.
With the added purity, it was an all around boost to what had already been powerful.
Rising to the challenge Austin proposed, ice sculptures were left in my wake. It wasn''t only my hammer reaping lives anymore as anything too close to me died frozen stiff as the heat was sucked out of them.
Even monsters 30 levels above me struggled to handle the Cold. The ones without a Tier 2 Law were the first to die, as they couldn''t take it anymore. Reaching D-rank for beasts didn''t require an upgraded Law and could be done purely with strength of Body or their Bloodline.
With my Bloodline overpowering theirs, there was nothing they could do to stop my Laws, Anchor, and Skills from freezing them solid.
My new Mana Heart was showing its worth as I never would''ve been able to keep up with the mana costs to do what I was doing without it.
"I take back what I said. You don''t have to use it if you don''t want to." Austin called out after nearly a half hour of me sustaining my new killing speed.
I smirked, this wasn''t even everything yet. I still had [Fury] to use, and my mana was still half full.
Austin and I continued our slaughter while boulders rained down around us. The two of us weren''t enough to stop them all, far from it, which left those back at the wall a challenge of their own.
One I was sure they would live up to.
Both Austin and I were singling out the stronger beasts before they could get by, making the people behind us have it a little easier.
Seeing that everything was going according to plan, I settled in and focused on swinging my Hammer. I''d grown accustomed to the fighting style a warhammer required, and it was one I''d come to enjoy.
There was a straightforwardness to it that I felt matched my personality well. Austin''s spear was similar. He was flighty and sneaky, which matched his deceptively quick thrusts and stabbing feints well.
I used sheer force. Feinting with a hammer was... ill-advised.
The weight it held and the power it took to swing it made quick changes or reversals nearly impossible. The swing would start and end where it was aimed. I knew it, the person I was fighting knew it, and the people watching knew it.
That being the case, deception wasn''t as useful.
Power was.
And if there was one thing I excelled at, it was power.
Style still played a role in how I fought. When and how I swung was just as important as how hard, but that was something I was still figuring out. Similar to forging, I wanted to create my own style of fighting.
[Heavy Weapon Proficiency] had stalled at Journeyman, and to push it further, it felt like I needed my own take on fighting.
Trying to zero in on that was exactly when I heard Austin call out, "Boss Incoming!"
I''d felt the pillar of power getting closer as the Wave continued, but I''d assumed there was more time before it arrived. The beast responsible was hard to miss as it broadcasted its strength to everyone around. Its aura wide and stifling, similar to how I imagined my own felt.
Its body was even more conspicuous as even the trees were dwarfed by it. Its size caused the ground to shake as it walked closer.
The boss was the replica of what power looked like for beasts. It was common for them to increase in size as they did power, and this was an example of that.
Looking around, I noticed the thinned ranks I stood within. Most had run past or around me to the wall. The rest were dead or dying strewn around the area. Only a few still stood, and they did everything they could to get out of the Boss''s way.
Leaving me with nothing to fight.
Austin flashed next to me quicker than I could make out and stood to watch its approach. Giant wafts of steam billowed off his body as heat bled out of him.
"You know," he said conversationally like we weren''t staring at a powerful D-ranked beast, "As nostalgic as it is fighting side by side again, I could do without this dreadful cold."
"I thought you would be used to it by now."
"I was, but then I was free of it for a while. Then you had to go and make it even stronger." He said, waving his bloody spear at the frozen sculptures.
I pointed at the steam and melting snow, "It seems like you did the same. You didn''t use to be able to melt it so easily."
BOOM!
Stone exploded, and shards of rock rained down in the area, pelting anything close with the high-speed shrapnel. As we stood watching, a well-aimed boulder came flying in and impacted the Boss. As far away as we were, it was a wonderful shot to whoever managed it.
Except it didn''t do anything.
The Boss didn''t even look damaged, and where the boulder hit was unmarred.
"Fuck me. Guess this''ll be a toughie." Austin cursed.
"Did you expect any less? That things gotta be in the 150s." I said.
"142."
I looked at him skeptically, "That''s it?" It felt stronger than that to my senses.
"Yeah, I''m sure." he poked next to his eye, "Says so, at least."
I didn''t even bother with my [Identify] as something that far above my level wouldn''t even show up. "I''ve got to get a better one," I muttered.
"What level did you kill down South?" I asked.
"The Queen was the highest level but wasn''t meant for fighting. What guarded it was in the 130s, but we had more than two people to fight it."
"You up for a challenge?" I asked with a smile.
Austin looked over and shook his head. It was hard to read his expression with his helmet, but I knew he was smiling as well, "As long as I can hide behind you like old times, milord."
Oh god, it''s already starting.
Chapter 241 - Insanity
Austin
Austin stood and eyed the hunk of Ice next to him. The nip in the air forced him to circulate more mana through his body to ward it away but it wasn''t anything he hadn''t done before.
After so long, the frigid air and chilly, tingling sensation were normal conditions rather than hazardous.
There was a change, however, in something else and it wasn''t readily apparent someone looking in from the outside.
It took Austin a while to notice it because his eyes had been preoccupied with the fighting, but now that he wasn''t distracted, he noticed it immediately.
"You got lifts in that Ice or something? It feels like I''m breaking my neck over here." Austin poked as his gaze was forced up a few degrees.
Christopher''s face wasn''t clearly visible under the Ice, but the glowing dots of blue were easy to make out. They pierced through the thin layer trying to conceal them like it was glass.
And what they held was confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"Look, buddy, it''s okay if you''re insecure standing next to me. I can get you a box next time, you don''t have to use lifts in your Ice." Austin said gesturing at their now much more apparent height difference.
Chris looked even more shocked, "I don''t know what drugs you''re on, but I''ve always been taller than you."
Austin laughed, "Yeah, okay, and Abigail isn''t always controlling."
"Wait," Chris said, "You actually think you''re taller than me?"
Austin sighed, "I don''t just think I''m taller than you, I know I''m taller than you."
Trees creaking and snapping caused both of them to look away, but they soon turned back to each other after seeing the Boss wasn''t that much closer. It only sounded that way by the ruckus it was causing stomping through the woods.
"I don''t think now''s the time for this," Chris said.
While Austin didn''t want to give it up, he did because Christopher was right. Now really wasn''t the time for this. Even if there was a change Austin wished to figure out.
In general, they were both the same height. Both Chris and he measured in at the six foot, six foot one mark. It''d been a childhood argument about who was taller for as long as Austin could remember. Growth spurts, markings on a family door frame. Breaking out the measuring tape when the arguement got brought up.
The fact Chris was now a few inches taller annoyed him.
Yes, the glaring, extremely noticeable difference, was by only a few inches. So small that no one would notice. No one except for Austin, which only made it worse. If he went complaining, it would just point it out for people to pick up on.
This isn''t over, I''ll get to the bottom of it. Just wait ''till I get my wings. I won''t be the one looking up then.
Ice creaked and snow crunched as Chris made toward the boss but Austin put his hand up to stop him.
"Wait a sec, I wanna try something," Austin said.
They hadn''t discussed how they were going to fight the Boss but Austin wanted to test something before Chris went all smashy smashy. He knew it probably wouldn''t work, but it was a rare chance he didn''t want to pass up.
Chis set his hammer back down with a thud and waved him forward, "Be my guest."
Austin had seen Chris''s many displays of power. There were quite a few he could point to in recent memory and he wanted to try the same. He''d grown a lot and now was the time to prove it. Prove it to Chris. Prove it to his family. But most of all, prove it to himself.
The Sun was high, waning but still near enough to its apex, so [Sunshine] was still giving him strength. His skills were still running hot as well. [Burning Light] still flared brightly and [Sun Burst] was still available to be used.
Walking in front of the big lug, [Eclipse] started draining his strength. The fact he wasn''t in a frantic fight for survival made the use of the skill much easier and he had to praise the fact that his range could accommodate being so far away.
He took off in a slow jog that slowly ramped up, fighting through the sluggishness the whole way as he prepared the other skills he was about to use. While he wouldn''t match up to Chris skill for skill, he could simulate what the big guy could do with a combination of skills.
Similar to how Light and Fire were intertwined in combination, skills could be used the same.
Usually, only one or two could be used at the same time on the same weapon. If too many were layered on top of each other, they would interfere with each other.
One skill to boost the body and another to boost his spear were different. Nothing in the skills overlapped which made their use a matter of mental application and mana availability.
It was when layering skills on top of one another that problems arose, but Austin spent a significant amount of time melding and layering skills onto his spear that he could do more than two, unlike Chris.
While that wasn''t entirely fair to Chris as he only had two weapon skills, but Austin would take the small win it was.
[Solar Extension], his Rare skill that he built up from Common, started as the generic weapon skill, [Extended Strike]. What used to only be a mana projection that extended the reach of his spear, turned into rays of searing light that extended out of his spear not unsimilar to his other skill [Solar Ray].
Austin later picked up the Common skill [Piercing Strike] back when he was first an H-rank Warrior, making it a second, but similar, weapon skill that applied to his spear. He''d only managed to upgrade that one to Uncommon, turning it into [Piercing Light].
[Penetrating Strike] was a lucky find from a skill shard during his travel down South which he added to his repertoire happily. He''d skipped over picking it when offered and the new skills presented were a much better option than going back and picking it up.
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Last, but not least, the signature skill of his old Class, [Spear of the Morning].
All of them rolled together, layered onto his spear caused the metal tip to shine radiantly like a second dawn. The metal used to create the weapon drank in his mana with glee.
His pace sped up and he could feel [Eclipse] coming to an end, and the power that it would give about to burst through him. The dam was slowly crumbling and the rush was coming.
He readied his grip, making sure that his spear was in position. His mana continued to flow, taking a considerable chunk out of how much he had left. His feet began to feel lighter and the constraints on him lessened as he fed his Spirit into the attack.
Both his Laws were consumed in equal measure. Fire and Light combining into something greater.
Now that he was close enough, and the time was right, his now sprint came to an end as he abruptly stopped.
Set my feet, rotate the hips, drive the spear forward, and unleash the¨C
SUN.
Chris
Watching Austin jog toward the boss was only slightly confusing. I''d assumed we''d fight it together, but Austin was off trying something.
I was confused at first, but I wasn''t anymore.
I felt the build-up of power. Not only in the mana he started to use and control, but in his aura as well. It spiked and smothered the area before beginning to slowly wane. The steady drop continued but for some reason, the slight danger feeling it held only grew.
The glow from his spear transitioned onto his whole body as he called on his new Anchor, turning him into a bright ball of light for a brief second before my vision was whited out by something else.
Almost without any warning, the steady drop in his aura ended and it exploded out, well past where it once stopped. Everything that was drained away gradually came rushing back faster than before, turning my vision white from the intense luminescence
All my snow in the area was flash-melted, causing a slight amount of discomfort as I was still connected to it.
I had to blink my eyes a few times to force them back to normal and what I saw astounded me.
Smoke rose off him as Austin stood poised like a Greek soldier of old, stabbing his spear forward in a powerful thrust that hit nothing but air. While his physical spear hit nothing, that was far from being the case.
The searing light that blinded me was the true attack.
Turning to the Boss unveiled the damage Austin''s attack caused. A gaping hole was seared through the boss that extended well into its meaty insides. Not enough to burn clear through, but enough to cause obvious damage.
The fur around the wound was blackened, if not burned off completely and blood gushed from the new hole in its torso. The attack happened so fast that the Boss only now roared out in pain. The light closed the distance so quickly that its response felt delayed in comparison.
Austin''s breath came in giant huffs, as he forced his lungs to work overtime.
The Boss continued its march toward us, wound mostly forgotten, and it thundered on.
"Damn, huff that barely did anything and it was all I had." Austin huffed.
I said nothing and only looked at the wolfbear, as the System had called it.
Matching Austin''s enthusiasm, I marched ahead and readied my own attack. [Permafrost] and [Blizzard] were still active, but the chill did nothing to slow or hinder the boss.
Instead, I readied [Shattering Hammer].
Ice groaned and my hammer shifted, quicker than before, and I ran ahead to swing away. Being much slower than the previous attack, and with the Boss already alerted and angry, it reacted in time to meet my swing but that was fine with me.
It would land either way.
My steps halted and I brought my hammer around swiftly. [Shattering Hammer] exploded out, sending its energies raging through the Boss and I expected blood and gore to go flying from the limb exploding.
The forelimb the Boss used to attack took in my swing... and did nothing.
I could feel the raging energy of my skill coursing through it, but all it caused was another roar of pain similar to the one Austin elicited.
"Hah! I wasn''t the only one!" Austin''s voice carried from behind me.
It was a first for me.
[Avalanche] full, Bloodline burning bright, [Glacial Presence] nearing its peak, my Laws and Anchor empowering me, and it wasn''t enough.
What''s this thing made of?
Partly because of confusion, other part because of being distracted and overconfident, I wasn''t ready for a counterattack and only saw the limb swinging my way too late.
[Jotun''s Resistance] flared as I poured mana into it and I could only brace slightly before an impact shook me to the core. Knocking me off my feet and sending me rolling through the snow back to where Austin stood.
My bones felt rattled and I was shaken up, but nothing felt broken and a quick flare of [Frozen Patchwork] that didn''t do anything left me no worse off than before.
Using my hammer to stand, I looked at Austin and smirked, "Maybe we should go together."
"Yeah," he was still slightly bewildered, "Yeah, that works for me."
"Like usual?"
"Right behind you."
[Righteous Fury] burned through me as it was one of the last cards I had left to play. Everything else was already out and it seemed like this was going to be a slow and brutal slugfest.
Whatever this thing was, it wasn''t going down easily.
Miles
Insane. Certifiably and completely insane.
Miles had wondered what it took for an entire family to be considered powerhouses and he now knew the reason. Insanity was the trick. A breaking of the mind that lent itself to further power.
Nothing else explained it.
The first case for that being so was the man swinging a giant hammer at something a hundred times bigger than him, not to mention stronger.
Everyone had watched him get launched away after being hit, then everyone continued to watch as he got up and did the same exact thing running back like the hit was nothing. Miles had wondered if he''d imagined the booming thud of the hit at first by the way nothing had changed.
Other than that, the fact he was even down there in the first place was exhibit A. Miles knew he was the one that built the wall and poured hours into its construction and enchanting.
The man built one of the biggest and strongest walls Miles had ever seen, yet he disregarded to use it and fought down below in the plains in front.
Not only did he do it, but he encouraged others to do it too following in his footsteps.
Nearly a hundred people bought into the lunacy and fought like brutal savages and all Miles could do was watch on in utter bafflement.
Some of them even died!
You''d think that would be the end of it, but it was only the start.
The Mayor, the sister of the City Lord, was just the same as he was. Miles was far enough away from the gate to get a clear picture of what was happening while being close enough to make out the details.
Streams of water formed into giant whips that cut down anything and everything that neared the gate. What the whips couldn''t kill, was instead cut apart or diced into pieces from jets of water so strong they cut into the earth sending rocks everywhere.
Other than the bisected bodies being left behind, giant cuts were left into the ground dozens of feet deep!
While the water show was overshadowed by what was happening out in front, there were so many other things Miles could point out it was all too overwhelming.
Stone rose from the ground and cordoned off entire sections of the wall by someone wielding two shields. Not one, but two! He wasn''t even using a weapon!
Metal flowed changing form and shape as a man sprinted up and down the wall ensuring no section was undermanned.
Crescents of razor-sharp wind and powerful streams of sharp icicles. Jets of intense flame.
Everything was too much.
Arrows, magic, weapons, skills.
All of it was insanity.
These people could march on the petty elites that ruled Toronto like they were nothing. Roll in, stomp them underfoot, and take whatever they wanted and there would be nothing anyone could do about it.
Miles peered out over the ramparts at the duo going blow for blow with something that would kill everything where he came from and couldn''t help but rethink his life choices.
At least the man had a code and Miles prayed to every deity that he knew of that he held to it.
He didn''t want to see what could happen if he didn''t.
Chapter 242 - Unbowed
Chris
A sharp groan escaped my lips as the Boss hammered down on me for what felt like the millionth time. With me playing the tank, all of its attacks were generally aimed my way.
Austin got to flit around stabbing out when the opportunity arose with nothing to hinder him.
The Boss would occasionally turn to face him instead of me, but a well-placed [Shattering Hammer] or [Frozen Rift] made it focus back on me.
[Shattering Hammer] was doing more internal damage than first assumed, it was just taking longer to surface. Usually, the skill ripped and shredded anything in its way, but this thing was handling the skill much better than anything else I''d used it on.
[Frozen Rift] had to be used unconventionally.
The spikes and pillars it could form worked, but they weren''t what worked best. From the extensive fighting, I found a few other uses for it that worked better.
Taking inspiration from Gabriel''s skill [Spreading Ice], I had the skill turn into a debilitating encasement rather than an attack. Wherever the hit landed, thick sheets of Ice extended out in every direction seeking to encase the entire creature.
It usually flailed around and retaliated before too much could be covered in ice, but enough that the limb or area I hit was firmly covered and its movement impaired.
Austin would waylay the beast for a few moments following and before the thing could break out of it or break the ice off, [Shatter] sent it imploding into its skin.
A subtle, but powerful, side effect to using [Frozen Rift] like that was it pervaded the area in Arctic mana. It was similar to a much more effective and damaging [Pervading Cold].
Every subsequent hit in the same area was more powerful and spread further than before, building on the mana that was already there rather than having to start anew.
That was until Austin came along and burned it.
It took some... trial and error to get used to fighting together again. We both had new skills and fighting styles to get used to that neither of us had before, and there was a learning curve to get over.
Both of us used a lot more mana now which turned the elemental effects much more destructive and widespread, which then caused our opposing elements to clash.
If I hit an area with Arctic mana and he then doused the area with his Solar skills, the entire exchange would be a wash. It took him using a few skills in order to overcome my mana when I used [Frozen Rift] but no one was keeping track of that. No one at all.
"Look out!"
Speed wasn''t my strong suit and I''d learned not to try, so instead, mana flooded into [Jotun''s Resistance] and I flexed the ice around my feet. The blow landed solidly, cracking [Frost Armor] to pieces before stopping when it came to my skin.
It hurt, the force behind the swing didn''t stop at cracking my armor or denting the metal that was under it, but it wasn''t enough to send me flying like before.
I smiled through the pain and coppery taste in my mouth, as this was the first time I hadn''t gone flying.
Knowing it wasn''t Austin''s voice that called out, as he had seen me get hit dozens of times by now and wouldn''t waste the energy, I turned to see Jonathan running up to us clad in a thick layer of stone.
"You''re not supposed to be here Jonathan," I called.
He was responsible for making sure the Wall wasn''t overrun.
"The Wall is fine. You guys need more help than they do." He called back.
Indecision warred in my mind. The Boss was strong and I wasn''t sure if Jonathan would be able to tank it. It took a considerable effort on my part to not get crushed and I knew he wasn''t as strong.
My thoughts didn''t deter him, as he came in swinging. His two shields weren''t that effective for attacking, but they were big heavy metal slabs. Swing them hard enough and they''ll cause damage. The added spikes on the leading edge helped.
In addition, he had constructions of rock that he was swinging. A rod of earth he held and slammed down on the Boss''s head. The rod broke into a thousand pieces, but it got the beast''s attention.
His combinations of attacks were too much to ignore for the beast and it turned away from me and to the stony man.
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I hope he knows what he''s doing.
Left free, my hammer came around and I slammed it down in rapid succession on its knee. [Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] augmented the blows to be more powerful but it still wasn''t enough to cripple the joint.
The sounds of rock shattering and chunks of earth impacting the ground were hard to ignore as I pictured what was happening on the other side. A quick look showed multiple rows of raised earthen shields blown through but the man behind them was still up and moving.
His shields slammed together and a riot of clanging sounds exploded out keeping the Boss from turning away. The tug was only slight on me and easily powered through as Jonathan''s taunting skill went to work.
Without having to tank anymore, and trusting the man to hold up, I went to work with abandon. Austin too, as both hammer and spear slammed home repeatedly. The damage was small, but it added up.
Our thinly maintained balance continued until it was tipped further in our direction.
Jets of high pressurized water cut in from afar and long extended whips cracked home. Abigail had joined the fray from the backline.
Her hair swam in the air and turned a soft tint of blue as she burned her Bloodline the same as everyone else. Mine was running on fumes, and I assumed Austin''s was as well.
Jonathan seemed to still be going strong as his skin still had a rocky exterior to it. A thin turtle shell covered his body and protected him from the worst of the harm.
The water caused superficial damage and some of the spray froze as my skills were still working to plunge the area into Winter. I wished to yell and tell her to back off, but I knew she wouldn''t listen.
"Follow my lead!" She yelled over the sound of battle.
Not sure what she was getting at, I continued pounding away with my hammer trying to conserve what was left of my mana and energy. My Anchor was still flooding into me and my Laws were still good, along with my Mana.
My Heart pumped the arcane through my blood and didn''t seem to be petering out anytime soon.
It was my stamina that was lacking.
Each swing of my hammer came slower. Each use of [Shattering Hammer] staggered me further.
Abigail launched an assortment of skills at the beast with only slightly more effectiveness than the first time and I was still confused as to what she was getting at.
The Water cut and pummeled the Boss, but it was little better than nothing.
"Chris, freeze it!"
Seeing no reason not to, I opened up my stance and reached back to gain more momentum. Mana ran down my hammer and the Runes for [Frozen Rift] came to life.
The hit stopped a few feet before impact and my intent forced another new use out of the skill. It said the Rift was connected to the lands of Endless Winter. Winter was more than just Ice and I pulled with both my Laws to get the effect I wanted.
The face of my hammer as the source, it was like a giant bellows forced Wintery air through the connection. The frigid air howled as it escaped consignment, seeking to pervade what wasn''t already cold and desolate.
It blew over with minimal damage to the beast, but all Water in the area flash-froze in a mere moment.
With my task completed, the wind died down and the skill cut off before all of my mana was ripped out to keep the connection open.
"Austin, melt it!"
Austin did the same as me. He took her cue and did what he could to see it true. His light turned a shade of red instead of its usual blinding white and his spear shot out in quick succession.
The shafts of red left searing wounds but it was still only skin deep.
With the water frozen and melted, it was returned to its liquid state and another round of pressurized jets slammed home.
"Again!"
It took me a disappointing amount of time to figure out her plan.
Her attacks cut grooves through the skin and left Water deep inside the wound. Freezing it caused it to expand and not only did the Water freeze, but some of the fluids inside the open wound as well.
Austin melted it back to liquid which Abigail then used to force it deeper into the beast with pressurized streams only for the process to repeat.
Every cycle saw the wounds grow and deepen. Blood poured out only to be reused and refrozen.
All the while Jonathan frantically threw up earthen shields and taunting roars. Not long after, boulders began raining down as the weapons lining the walls zeroed in on their target.
Others from the wall launched attacks as they were freed up to do so. The most notable of which were powerful arrows of rotating wind that drilled into the beast.
The scales turned from a tilt into a heavy slant and there was no coming back for it now.
It was only a matter of time.
The battle was long. I knew the upgrade would be difficult, but this took the cake on difficult. I doubted many had reached this stage and I knew some probably died to it.
If one wasn''t prepared, I shivered at the thought. The thought of some arrogant dick picking the upgrade for pride only to get his entire City killed. A Boss, similar to the one I was fighting now, would go rampaging through rank upon rank of people.
It was a somber thought because I knew that a scene like that was more than just likely, but certain. If not now, then eventually.
I fancied myself a powerful man, one near the highest of those around us, and I would not have been able to beat the boss alone. I would''ve run out of steam before the finishing blow.
This upgrade was more than just physical power. It was a test of what I had built and we had passed. Abigail''s core made her a force to be reckoned with. Jonathan''s resilience stood tall and unyielding.
Austin''s spear was powerful and remained unbowed.
The pillars of what I had built were sturdy. Stout and strong.
It made me proud. Proud that it wasn''t all upon my shoulders. That I could die, and things would be okay.
The thoughts were enough to bring a tear to my eye if it hadn''t frozen first.
The boss was sluggish now. Blood loss and volley after volley of attacks had taken its toll. Austin''s many stabs had whittled it down, and now it was time to end it.
Abigail''s plan had opened up its unprotected insides and the wound had grown wide enough for a well-placed attack to penetrate through and I knew just the way.
Flipping my hammer around, as the spike would be more useful for what I had in mind, I prepared my mana. I didn''t need anything fancy this time with [Frozen Rift].
All I needed was for a spike to reach deep enough to hit something valuable.
My swing ripped through the air as over two thousand points of strength propelled it forward and my mana precipitously dropped as the lake of what was left vanished.
The glistening spike of ice pierced through blood, muscles, and whatever else was in its path before shooting out the other side, dripping with blood. A deep red that froze along the length of the spike.
The notification came shortly after along with a cheer that could be heard from the wall.
A rush of essence accompanied the victory and another notification I hadn''t expected so soon.
Another skill was available to be chosen, and I knew just the one.
Chapter 243 - Frozen Leach
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (E) Human*
Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) ¨C Level 91
Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) ¨C Level 84
Affinity: Arctic
Faction: Frostheim (Leader)
Title: Baron
Strength - 1615
Agility - 793
Perception - 478
Fortitude - 1180
Endurance - 959
Vitality - 597
Intelligence - 415
Wisdom - 667
Acumen - 406
Free Points: 0
Laws: Law of Ice (Tier 2), Law of Wind (Tier 1)
Body Stage: Body of Wood(Northern Wind Body)
Mana Stage: Ignited Mana Heart-Perfect (Stars of Primordial Frost)
Spirit Stage: Anchor Formation
~~
A look at my status showed the immeasurable changes that had taken place since Winter. Not only one but two new lines were added, which was a lot considering the previous amount of added lines could be counted on one hand.
It took getting measured from a mana device Gabriel devised to find out the Rating behind my ignition, but I had a feeling about what grade it was even before being tested.
The changes were just too substantial to be anything under Perfect. A full ignition was a monumental achievement, and something to be proud of, but the fact I perfected mine gave me a great deal of pride.
Having my third stat about to reach the one-thousand mark was another thing to be proud of. Endurance was only 41 points away after sinking all of my Free Points into it.
After my Ignition and the immense changes to my mana pool, Endurance was the weakest link and it was the drain of all my available free points currently. It would probably continue to be so until my new Class and Profession changed up the ratios.
Looking over everything pointed out that I didn''t have that much more to do before evolving. My Bloodline was nearing its peak for what my body could handle, any further and I''d risk internal damage by calling upon it.
My Body could use an upgrade, reaching Body of Stone would help matters with my lacking Endurance. It wouldn''t give me any more Stamina to use, but the improvements to my body would let me do more with less. Letting me stretch what I had a little bit further.
The building to do it in was already built, as Vincent had worked through the Winter with Brayden to make it happen.
I was not looking forward to the pain, but if I made fun of Austin for putting it off, I couldn''t show hesitation or the vulture would pounce on it. Especially while he was here.
The next level of Mana Cultivation was well out of reach and it wasn''t something I could aim for. It required more mana than I had and I only just started exploring the current changes.
Any advancement to my Laws was glacially slow, my Ice Law specifically. I could feel Wind was close to Tier 2, but there was something missing.
Lastly, my Anchor was growing nicely. The amount of Spirit I could use during fights was orders of magnitude larger than when I first formed it. I was lucky I formed it when I did, as Austin was still running out relatively quickly.
Jonathan and I could use it for extended periods of time by now.
The next stages for that were still a bit of a mystery, but it would be a long time before I was ready for that.
All of that being said, the list I still had to do before evolving had shortened dramatically after my expedition North.
1. Upgrade my Wind Law to Tier 2
2. Upgrade my Body to Stone
3. Expand and purify my Bloodline to its maximum
Only three remained and two of those were close to completion with the last only requiring me to set the time aside.
And gathering the essence to level up, obviously.
The new skill choice at level 90 was one easily filled. The selection had the same choices as before with a few extra but none of the new ones were better than the one I had in mind.
My choice was for a few reasons.
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Initially, when I was choosing my last skill, [Frozen Leach], [Icy Connection], and [Jotun Armor] were the three I passed over to choose [Frozen Rift].
All three had their advantages and disadvantages, but I picked [Frozen Rift] for reasons the others couldn''t provide. I hadn''t had the chance to explore the depths of the rift connection as much as I wished, but it was something I''d do soon.
Austin''s return helped me decide which I would choose next. We had sparred a few times, neither of us going all out, but it was a new experience and explored something I hadn''t come across yet. Speed. His speed, increased from his Anchor, was an exercise in futility to try and hit.
Speed wasn''t something I''d had to fight against before. Most of my enemies were usually running at me, not running away. Plus, most things I fought weren''t smart enough to use their faster movement against me.
The Dungeons had creatures faster than me, and those were a hassle to fight, but the environment was their downfall. Being trapped in a confined room gave me the advantage required to win.
Fighting Austin in an open field was impossible.
My hammer was fast, as fast as one and a half thousand points in Strength could swing, but it still wasn''t enough to catch the slippery bastard. He couldn''t do anything to me either, but it was annoying to not be able to hit him.
My Domain skills were the only things that worked, but they weren''t enough to defeat him outright, as he had Laws and tricks of his own.
While his attack on the Boss was strong and gave me a feeling of danger, I was confident that using [Frost Armor] and [Jotun''s Resistance] would be enough.
It was enough for the Boss''s attacks.
That was the second reason. Being able to tank the attacks of something so much stronger than me without noticeable injury eliminated [Jotun Armor] from contention.
My defense was already powerful enough, I didn''t need another skill oriented that way as that would be massive overkill.
Given enough time, I assumed I could turn [Frost Armor] into [Jotun Armor] by upgrading it manually, but there was one aspect of the skill that kept me from dismissing it outright.
''can break down and consume mana that comes into contact with it that isn''t Cold aligned.''
That line of the description was what stopped me. I could strengthen, expand, and condense the ice, mix things regarding its formation, and play with all the variables I could to upgrade the skill, but I had no idea where to start when it came to that.
The full skill description held some hints, but that didn''t help.
Jotun Armor(Legendary) ¨C Clad your body in the most formidable of Icy armor. Created from Ice directly tied to the lands of Niflheim, it holds trace amounts of its magic. Able to hold up to even the most powerful of blows and can break down and consume mana that comes into contact with it that isn''t Cold aligned.
The ''dispelling effect'', as I dubbed it, was something I wasn''t confident in replicating. I had no past experience to call on and it was a completely new aspect of Ice.
My hunch was that ''Created from Ice directly tied to the lands of Niflheim'' was the reason behind it, but I had no way to confirm.
With [Jotun Armor] out of contention, that left [Frozen Leach] and [Icy Connection].
What sealed the deal was a conversation I had with Austin after a particularly interesting spar.
"How come you never use the negative aspects of Ice?" Austin asked while wiping sweat off his face after stabbing his spear into the ground.
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously, letting the Ice under my control fall still.
"Well, you kind of use Ice only as a material, if that makes sense. Fighting you and fighting Jonathan are remarkably similar. He uses a lot more shields and defensive constructs, but the principle is the same."
His question made me stop and think. I used Ice as armor and my weapon. I also turned snow into miniature knives, but there was one thing he was forgetting.
"What about the Cold? I''ve used that to great effect using [Blizzard]." I defended. The plunging temperatures were debilitating in their own right.
"Oh, sorry, you use one aspect other than its physical properties. Congratulations." He snarked condescendingly. "I''m talking about the more mystical aspects. Like in games and stories."
"Now you''re starting to sound like Gabriel."
"Oh, hush. I''m serious." he said, "You''ve focused so much on one side of things you''re forgetting the arcane and mystical just because you can''t see it."
"Okay, great fountain of knowledge, what about you? I don''t see you pulling some arcane bullshit with your solar powers?" I ribbed back.
He laughed deprecatingly, "That doesn''t mean I haven''t been trying."
"Trying how?" I asked seriously, "An example would help."
"You know how in games the Sun and Light have healing properties and are normally used to heal or restore." He asked, "That''s what I''ve been trying."
"Okay, I see what you''re saying," I nodded, "So Ice would be slowing and debilitating, not just sharp water that''s been frozen."
"Exactly!" He smiled, "Like a debuff."
"But how would that fit into my fighting style? I''m not exactly geared for afflictions and debuffs."
"How should I know? I''m just pointing out that there''s more to it than how you look at it. Fighting isn''t all about who can hit harder." He laughed.
I fell silent and he went on to babble about something else.
After that conversation, I looked at my next choice of skill differently. Instead of seeing what would immediately slot in and be useful for my repertoire, I looked at what would expand it instead.
[Jotun Armor] would bring the ''dispelling effect'', [Icy Connection] would bring its namesake, the connection between me and my ice, and [Frozen Leach] would bring the negative aspect Austin talked about.
Of the three, I found the last most important.
If I could turn the Wintery Domain I already used into something that sapped energy and slowed, it would allow me to fight in more than one dimension. That dimension being strength of arm and body.
Right now, if I couldn''t overpower or outlast, I would lose. Sparring with Austin introduced another weakness making a third, not being able to hit something, but that wasn''t something I could remedy with my available skill choices.
The Boss was a perfect example.
If I''d been alone, and the Boss was a creature I found in the Wild, I wouldn''t have been able to defeat it. It would''ve been a long and hard battle, but ultimately, I would have lost.
My attacks dealt damage and my defense was enough for me to hold my own, but it would have drained me dry in the end. If I could''ve Leached its energy and drained it of mana and stamina, I might''ve won solo.
Frozen Leach(Epic) ¨C The Cold saps Heat but that isn''t all it can do. Both Mana and Stamina are forms of energy that can be leached away. Use Cold-aligned mana to target one or both of an enemy''s energies. More powerful energies require more mana to sap.
The skill description listed Mana and Stamina explicitly, but I was curious as to how far the skill could be pushed. Pushing skills wasn''t high on my priority list, and I hadn''t dedicated enough time to doing so with most of my skills, but there would be time eventually.
Gabriel had already explored doing so himself and had some interesting results.
I doubted the skill would stop at only those two. Could I sap speed? Slow people''s movement? Momentum was a form of energy, how would that work?
The new avenues the skill opened up were too big to ignore and was why my choice was much easier than others before it.
Choosing [Frozen Leach] as my fifth skill in my Class only left one more, but I was confident it was my best option.
My next skill choice would be brutal. The Last one always was.
Chapter 244 - Intolerence
Tiredness, fatigue, and exhaustion were feelings that rarely showed themselves nowadays. Endurance was a wonderful thing, pushing the waking hours further with every point, but there were still times it felt like my mind had been wrung dry of all its energy.
Our Council Meetings had a way of doing that.
Tedium, the very definition of the word, was the only way to describe it. I wished they were easier, and I wasn''t responsible for so many people and so many different projects, but I was the one to build the City, I couldn''t leave now.
No matter how much I wanted to.
"Hey, buddy!" Austin jogged up next to me. "Howya doin''?"
A deep, cathartic groan was only half my response. "What is it, Austin? I''m tired and a warm cozy bed is calling my name."
"Oh, come on," he said slapping me on the back, "You know there''s no rest for the wicked." His laughs at his own joke weren''t mirrored and I only stared at him to get to the point.
"I just got out of a four-hour meeting, I''m not really in the mood for your... you." Failing to find an adequate word, I just waved at him vaguely from head to toe.
"I know, I''ve been waiting for you to finish." He said.
"So you knew I was in a meeting and waited to ambush me after I was out?" I asked rather... discourteously before thinking of something else, "Why weren''t you in there with me if you knew?"
He scoffed, "And be this energetic and lively," he motioned at my disheveled appearance, "No thank you. I wouldn''t be caught dead in there."
I stopped walking and turned to face him square, "What is it, Austin? I want to go to bed."
He lost the sarcasm for a moment and spoke truly, "I wanted to talk to you." Then rushed to say. "It''s fine, though, it can wait."
"No, no. Might as well knock everything out in the same day. Can we do it in my room at least?" I said. It was rare for Austin to not be flippant and I''d known him long enough that when he tried to brush something off like it didn''t matter, it was likely the exact opposite.
"Sure," he said, following behind me to my part of the Castle.
After everyone settled in, a few rooms were left vacant. That being the case, I was able to expand from my office/bedroom combination and have three separate rooms connected on the same wing.
My forge in one room, my bedroom in another, and my office in the last.
It basically cut me off from the rest of the wing, but that was fine. Being far enough away from others let me forge anytime I wanted without worrying about noise. Gabriel''s enchantments made sure of that.
As soon as I learned a Rune for noise cancellation, they would get an upgrade.
The walk from the meeting room to my bedroom wasn''t long. Up a floor and over a few hallways and we were there.
My flop onto my soft fur-covered bed was rather dramatic but well-deserved in my opinion. Comfortable and relaxed, I let Austin start the conversation.
He took a seat in a chair off to the side and fiddled with his hands. A bad sign if there ever was one. Austin looking for the right words.
"I was wondering what your plans were now?"
"After the Winter we had? I''m not sure. That was what our meeting was about." I sighed, "We''ve achieved everything we''ve set out to achieve. I''m nearing my evolution as well as the others, we got the Noble Title, and everyone is ready for what may come."
"And about the ticking time bomb in the South?"
"Still up in the air," my face tightened thinking about the discussion we had about that. "Some want to set off immediately while others want to wait for more information. All we have is rumors and hearsay."
"Have you considered what''s going to happen down there?" Austin pointedly asked.
Sensing a deeper question, I allowed him to continue, "Everyone on this side of the Mountains has heard about it by now. Everyone will be planning something."
"And? What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.
Instead of elaborating, he changed direction, "Have you thought about what''ll happen if we fail?"
"Well, that''s a rather pessimistic thought," I responded.
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"Chris, I''m serious." he was. He wasn''t laughing or smiling.
Taking a deep sigh, "I have. It''d be stupid not to consider it."
"Our protection will end. Any nearby force will be able to come and do what they want with our Planet. We aren''t even D-rank yet, and if that happens, it won''t end well." Austin said pointedly.
"I know, Austin, but what do you want me to do about it?" I asked, "If that happens, we can only hope that we can persevere."
Austin shook his head, "How many times in history has a more advanced civilization met a less advanced one and it go well for the lesser?"
Not once, I thought. "I understand, but I can''t change the outcome just because I want to. We will either succeed or we won''t. All we can do is show up and do our best." Before he could ask something else or take the conversation in a different direction, I interrupted, "What is this about, Austin? You know I don''t like this... convolution. Tell it to me straight."
It was his turn to sigh. "I''m worried." His face was heavy and he slumped forward. "Extremely worried."
A joke comparing him to Abigail came to mind but I didn''t voice it. He was being serious and now wasn''t the time for a joke.
"Worried about what, exactly? You obviously have a point to this conversation."
"You haven''t seen the World. The state that it''s in." his eyes were sad. Not brimming with tears, but a distant sad, mourning about things past. "It''s- It''s not pretty."
"I''m not a naive teenager, Austin, I expected as much."
"No," he said firmly, "You haven''t seen it. Experienced it."
"And you have?" My retort was tinted with a bit of heat at the insinuation.
He didn''t respond for a second but eventually nodded slowly. "Finding Marcus wasn''t my first stop."
That wasn''t how he described his journey. Not in his letters or how he described it in person.
"Plenty of other cities, or ruins, now, were in between there and here. Death was only the beginning." seeing Austin choked up was... saddening. "People are cruel."
I wanted to ask why he left that part out but it was rather obvious.
"I''ve seen cruelty. We''ve had murders and assaults. I''ve had to deal with more people than I care to admit." I said, thinking back on the execution I partook in. While it was necessary, and I didn''t feel guilty, it was still another life I had reaped.
"Do you know how many people I''ve killed?" Austin''s question was off-topic.
We killed the thieves in the tutorial together, and what happened to Christian, a few more during our journey North, but other than that, he was off on his own. If we split the thieves, we were about equal.
I had the ''Mindbreaker'' and the execution in town, but I assumed Austin had a few during his travels.
"I don''t know, thirty-something?" I said. It was near my own number. I didn''t count the thralls. Those weren''t people anymore.
"Over a hundred."
"..." I didn''t know how to respond.
"Would be thugs. Thieves after my stuff. Hell, murderers who wanted to kill me purely for the sake of killing. Or people who wanted to kill me just for the essence." His voice was rising. "One group even tried to enslave me."
"I''m sorry, Austin." That was all I could say. How else was I supposed to respond?
"Don''t be," he waved off, "All of them deserved it. I''m telling you this to paint the picture. You''ve done well. You turned an area into a safe haven and for that, you should be proud. But in doing so, you''ve blinded yourself of the horrors that happen elsewhere."
"You''ve seen The Fort, yes?" He asked and I nodded, "That would be considered one of the good ones."
Denial flashed in my head. The Fort was awful. People wore rags and fought for food. The slums were just as large in area as the rest of the City.
Austin noticed my face, "Now you understand. Of everywhere with a pylon, not all of them are just. Even just is too much, some are downright evil."
I took in his words but all it did was confuse me further. What was his point? He didn''t say all this for no reason, "I understand. What is it that truly worries you?"
"You do."
I stuttered for a second. Austin and I were close, but we never really had hearts-to-hearts like this. It wasn''t our style. "I understand your worry, but I will be fine."
A flash of something else appeared briefly. Not anger or sadness, "I''m not worried for your life, but your... intolerance."
Confusion colored my face, "My intolerance?"
"What do you think will happen in the South?" He said, "Everyone knows about it. People will come from every corner of the East to fight for what may come. It''s common knowledge that the outcome of failure is death. Civilization is only just picking up the pieces. If we don''t succeed, and outside forces are allowed to invade, we will fall. Everyone with a brain knows that.
"Even the most cruel and self-centered understand the position they''re in. All creeds and ideals will be there. From the most evil of scum to the most holy of saints."
I was beginning to understand what he was leading up to but I asked him plainly, "What are you getting at?"
"Your dad''s philosophy has made you rigid. Unbending when it comes to morals and criminality or things that are similar. Don''t deny it, because I''ve seen it." He said.
My immediate, knee-jerk reaction was to do as he said and deny it, but I held my tongue. "I will not compromise my ideals, you know that." My words were somewhat harsh, "I swore to him that I wouldn''t."
Austin was exacerbated, "And I''m not asking you to. All I ask is that you will be tolerant."
"This test is more important than you!" He spat, "I need to know that you won''t ruin it! If we get down there with everyone that arrives, there can be no infighting."
Before he could get further into his rant, I held up my hand to stall him. "I agree."
He looked confused and like he wanted to say more, but couldn''t. Agreeing with his point took the wind out of his sails.
"You agree?" He asked.
"Yes." I answered, "This test is more important than me. I was never going to go down there with the intent to police anyone. The reason I''ve become so rigid, as you put it, is because I have to. People need to know that Laws will be upheld here and that actions have consequences. I''m intolerant because that''s what is required.
"When we arrive, it won''t be my intention to force my ideals on everyone there. I don''t care about what any of them do. The World isn''t my responsibility. Only my small piece of it is."
Austin looked confused, "After everything that happened with Tracy and what I heard about you almost getting into a fight with The Fort over a difference of opinion?"
"No," I scoffed, "I almost beat him senseless because he was being a jackass."
"So if you see someone that goes against your ''Code'', you''re not going to kill them?" His air quotes around Code was slightly insulting but I understand where he was coming from.
"No." I said, "At least not until the test is over."
I smirked, "After that, they''re fair game."