‘Can you give me some info about them?’ I asked glitch once inside.
{That’s why I’m here, right? To be a helpful guide in the apocalypse and talking buddy to prevent solitude making people go crazy. Giants and Lesser Giants, their strength depends on their size. Lesser giants are looked down upon and treat the giants as gods while the giants treat them like slaves. Lesser giants are focused on the scout role, having a higher dexterity than normal giants while having some giant-like strength and giants are strength and vitality creatures. Simple minded, they don’t know magic but are quite good at forging. In fact if you where to come back in a week or two they would already have one set up while swapping their clubs for swords, spiked chains and crossbows. The scariest is the leader who gets the right to wield a whip. Doesn’t sound so scary but with his strength and mastery it’s a lot stronger and faster than any other weapons they hold. He can also regenerate by eating the hearts of other creatures, especially his kin.}
‘It’s almost cute how helpful you are.’
{*frowny face*.}
By the looks of things while they are in the same camp, the lesser giants and giants are separated from each other due to their class difference. While I could try eliminating them all at once or pick off random enemies it’ll be better to get rid of these fellows first.
Sneaking into their little tenting set up, I began to wait for a chance to come along. Around half a minute later a lesser giant walked off towards the giants and I took it out. Two minutes later an angry roar came out and a few giants came over and ate five lesser giants for me. It seems the one I killed was supposed to serve them and never arrived, earning the punishment of everyone. The leader came over and bashed the giants up while lecturing them but just by that you can see the class difference by not killing them immediately.
{See, simple minded.}
I agreed.
Over half an hour I took out lonesome lesser giants through assassination without being detected before once more a lesser giant went off to serve the giants and I killed it. This time it was the leader who came over angry and started to kill them indiscriminately. One idiot tripped and threw a hammer at the giant while running which was like dropping a stone into a clear lake, the giant went crazy and slaughtered them all at these lesser beings rebelling. By the end only three where left, two females and a male, to repopulate the slave’s numbers and where severely beaten at that. I snuck in and killed them as soon as the leader left.
While not much, I got a hint of his combat ability through that fight which will make fighting much easier.
Moving onto the giants next I had to get a little more careful. Although disgusting I slipped down their throats while they where stuffing their faces with food and targeted the rough location of their hearts with over-charged magic attacks from the inside. Rather than it being easier to kill them my magic was too flashy and their bodies hid this. Leaving the body’s laying there as well made it look like they where sleeping as compared to dead. I only managed to kill five of them like this before they caught on and instantly the whole camp was alert.
Their situation wasn’t looking good with all their slaves dead and five of their mere twenty numbers not waking up but now they where alert it would be harder.
I revealed myself.
“Over here!” I called out, drawing their attention to me. They growled and tried to rush forward but the leader stopped them. Looks like he’s a little more intelligent then his followers.
Cautiously, they edged closer before leaping at me as soon as they where in range only to find me already gone with one of the giants being decapitated by a blue light in the process. The leaders control slipped as they entered a rage and charged at me. I continued this pattern until there where only three left, the leader and his two harem chicks.
His gaze was oddly calm despite the previous rage as he seemed to be considering something. Shocking me, he actually spoke.
“I underestimated you because I thought you to be human, for that I apologise. I challenge you to a duel with the conditions of these two being spared regardless of the result and in the case of my defeat my tribe will submit to you as forging slaves. Do you accept?”
“Yes.”
{Did I forget to mention the leaders intelligence? Whoops :P When the giant race is enslaved they lose the forms they are so proud of and turn into dwarfs. For them, this is the biggest dishonour as the dwarf race came from their defeat initially and are much weaker than them, also having a form smaller then even humans. The difference between the two races is giants are brute force while dwarfs are skilled in forging and earth magic. Of course the dwarfs still have abnormal strength but it is barely half of their old achievements. This guy must really care for his harem of he wouldn’t be willing to do such a thing. Due to the simplicity of their race, the harem will lose their memories upon death while he will not. I’m guessing he has already experienced this which is why he is willing to do it at all.}
“What are the rules of this duel?” I asked after reading glitches message.
“Any weapon, attack or trick is allowed as long as it doesn’t involve others and the life and death of the loser is chosen by the victor.” A whip came out from nowhere.
{That’s why he wanted a duel, because he didn’t have a whip yet but the rules of a duel would provide one for him.}
‘That makes a little more sense. It was suspicious how easily he started a duel with such high stakes.’ I commented as I got back into my combat stance and gave him a nod.
Instantly the metal whip was coming at me with high speeds and although I dodged into the air, a flick of his wrist changed the direction and hit me hard across the back. My shield almost shattered from that one blow and I was sent flying forty metres.
I underestimated him.
Improvising, I made hundreds of whips out of mana to counter his and launch my own attack to began to whittle down his hp from a distance and watched as small wounds appeared all over his body. His counter was quick as he spun the whip surprisingly skilfully and deflected most of my blows but it soon became a battle of endurance that I was sure to win since some of the blows connected every second and soon I would dominate his HP.
Realising that he couldn’t win like this he closed the distance as best as he could but I maintained my own with my superior dexterity.
Over a short amount of time I grew better with my mana whips and he grew more and more desperate until eventually I won.
“I concede. Choose, kill me or spare me.” He said bitterly.
From the beginning he knew there wasn’t much of a chance to beat me but still tried regardless so really losing wasn’t as bad as it could have been but it certainly wasn’t nice.
“I’ll spare you. What is your name?”
“Well it was Abelard but it will change.” He sighed as chains appeared around his body and ripped it to shreds. Out of the body, a much smaller but still muscular man walked out, a dwarf. His harem went through the same process.
“Now my name is Ash. My last name will only be given once I have completed my first grand project which will determine my specialty. The rest of the giant tribe will respawn as dwarfs in whichever area you designate but we must follow manually. The lesser giants will evolve into giants to replace our loss and new lesser giants will be created.” His bitterness seemed to have disappeared immediately after the race change.
“Don’t resist and don’t break anything.” I said simply as I brought them into my rose realm. We would talk later.
“Glitch why didn’t you tell me there where features like this?” I asked once they where gone.
{Many reasons but the most notable would be that every race with such an option see it as devolving rather than evolving and as such in a situation where they will respawn anyway inside the dungeon it is better just to die. Plus I’m not going to give everything away for free. Trial, error, luck, money and coincidence will bring you such knowledge. Just like how the magic guild became a class one instead of two due to your own talent when you didn’t even know there was a class difference, there will naturally be a lot of little things like this that can affect the game. Just because NPC’s can be bought doesn’t mean that is the only way to get them.}
“If that’s the case why have you already given me so much information?”
{They are either the basic things you need to know which becomes available as you discover them or things which are not important enough to restrict. Occasionally I will give tips or hints beyond that but it stops there.}
So things where a little more annoying then I thought.
“Is or will there be a chat menu in the future?” I asked while thinking of how it was unlikely that he would tell me how ally and leo were doing.
{Nope. Telepathic messages can be intercepted which is an important mechanic for the game in the cases of spying, information gathering and tracing.}
How annoying.
----
I found that damn eagle.
I followed it to the edge of the third ring right into a trap and now I’m desperately fighting for my life.
It is ordering around a tide of spiders which I am stuck in the middle of without any path of escape. For every ten I kill, one hundred more follow and for every hundred it’s a thousand so most likely, I am going to die here unless they finally run out or I get a miracle. I’m hoping for the first option as miracles are bitches who come back for repayment with interest later but I’ll take what I can get. I refuse to die from such a bullshit trap just as I get into the apocalypse!
On the bright side over the two hours I’ve been stuck here slaughtering spiders my mana control and insight has gone up by leaps and bounds so right now I can rely on my magic and a lot of concentration to slaughter the horde. The void connection is regenerating my mana fast enough to send out continuous attacks but I am still slowly inching down lower and lower.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“If I die will you tell Leo and Ally what happened?” I asked glitch after getting a stupid idea.
{Yes but only if you approve beforehand and they pay for the information.}
“That’s enough. Wish me luck.”
{No.}
“Oh come on, in what might be my last moment your getting moody now of all times?” I asked exasperatedly.
{I’ve been told to stop being so nice to people as it breaks the immersion of an Apocalypse.}
“Seriously? And you actually listened? What the hell? Shouldn’t the immersion be based per person? I think it seems more like an Apocalypse for the all-powerful being who created it to casually talk to his entertainment as if he’s not committing mass-murder than being some random dickhead. I can find those anywhere.” I grumbled.
{That’s a fair point but it’s not so simple for me. Well I’ll think about it atleast.}
I sighed as I stopped argueing and recalled my mana.
Instead I was going to be relying purely on my speed, reflexes and luck to run through the horde cutting up spiders until my mana hits full again and repeat the process for as long as it takes to make it out of here alive or die trying.
As soon as the magic stopped they closed in from all sides and I closed my eyes. At the last moment… they opened again with all the killing intent I could muster and froze the charge for a split second, giving me an opening. Taking advantage of it I leaped forward with all my strength directly through the spider in front of me and several behind it as well. I couldn’t do this before because the fangs would poison me on the way through but as long as I took it by surprise, I could use it’s body to take the ones behind it by surprise as well and make the horde lose sight of me.
Instantly I began to unleash my slaughter, never staying in one place more than a second and using every chance I could to cover myself in so much blood I couldn’t be made out from the horde of spiders. The damn eagle was the reason these things could target me so well and now it’s lost that ability as long as I keep moving.
The horde fell into a panic as their Aura’s fluctuated and the eagle suddenly stopped relaxing and stared at the ground intensely. Occasionally, they would react and try to corner me again but with how difficult I was to distinguish I was already long gone every time it happened. Legs, fangs, heads and life was severed at a ridiculous rate as my combat experience grew piece by piece and my slaughter increased in efficiency.
Ten minutes in a fang nicked my arm and I began to slow. Once another one scratched the side of my throat I began to use magic again to clear my circle out and defend. They went berserk, desperately trying to get at me before the poison was expelled from my system and actually helped me save mana in the process due to letting down their defences and making them easier to kill.
I had brought my mana up past the danger point in that time so now I could relax a little and once again focus on my situation. The eagle was taking me seriously so it wouldn’t be so easy to slip into the horde again but I was sure I could do it. The main problem was the spiders where agitated, occasionally spearing through one of their own in their paranoia. For now, when I’m using magic, this is good as it’s whittling down their numbers but the reality is that soon I will once more have to enter the horde and this paranoia is something I can’t predict. For some reason seeing that this mindless horde actually had it’s own individuality scared me. If this bird didn’t use them as cannon fodder, would I even be alive to feel this fear?
Or is it that the bird merely has influence over them rather then control? If it where to launch attacks from the air while I was fighting the horde surely things would have been more difficult for me but yet it’s staying there watching despite it’s obvious tension. Either it needs a lot of concentration to control them or this is merely an alliance arrangement where it isn’t allowed to interfere more then augmenting their vision.
After twenty minutes the poison was dispelled and I used near two thousand mana at once to fragment the ground in fifty metres in a massive pulse that sent the spiders into the air before once again covering myself in blood. This was how I planned to slip into the horde and it will be even harder to track me from the start then last time.
Despite the extra cost I kept a weak mana barrier up over my body. This time I needed enough time to fully regenerate my mana rather than leaving early because of poison and wasting more to come back in so I couldn’t afford to be poisoned again.
Dancing, shredding, and slicing through these overgrown spiders I continued my slaughter.
As if in a sort of trance I killed, killed and killed some more as all my bodies potential was drawn out to augment my killing. It was only hours later when my body had tired that I came out of this trance and once again returned to the centre. In that time my abilities had shot up a lot and although it isn’t as high as when I was in that weird trance they where still a lot better then before I entered that weird state.
It was like I grasped the essence of something but I don’t understand what. My sword got stronger, my movements were refined and my intent improved massively to the point that I can now freeze the entire horde for a full second with killing intent alone rather then a mere split second like before.
Focused solely on one-minded slaughter, I reached a breakthrough I don’t understand and increased my odds of survival massively.
Once I cleared out my circle I slaughtered for another hour before the horde backed off and formed a ring around me. All that remained was an endless sea of corpses before meeting living spiders to the point it was hard to tell between the dead and the living. A smaller spider squeezed it’s way out from the crowd and with it’s golden shell, strong aura and massive killing intent I had no doubt this was the leader. There must have been some lingering fear as the eagle soared up to five hundred metres before continuing to observe the fight.
“Why did you come into my territory?” The voice sounded disembodied, fractured and grating as if it had forcefully bound the energy of the world in order to release it but the world resisted.
I pointed at the eagle.
“Abraham this goes against our agreement. Why are you breaking your word?” The killing intent that was directed at me hit the bird instantly and I watched it flinch before steadying itself.
“You have killed me ten times already you damn spider! The least you can do is repay me by stopping this thing from killing me again!” He shouted out arrogantly.
“I killed you because you where poaching on my sons. I owe you nothing and it is already generosity on my part that I haven’t surrounded your spawn point and trapped you in an endless cycle of death. Do not temp me.”
“Hmph!” The eagle flew off.
“This is my territory. You only harmed the fodder this time and there was no permanent damaged done while it was because of that bird it happened so there is no grudge between us. You have two hours to recover your body and spoils of war before you must leave. If you remain after then or come back at a later date of your own free will I won’t be so merciful but as long as you do not stir hostility with me I will not come looking for you.”
The horde flooded away and I lost sight of the leader. Immediately, I slumped onto my back and started breathing rapidly. That was the most tiring activity I have ever done, it feels like my mind was completely dried from energy and I’m left with was an all consuming headache in it’s place. An hour longer and I would have died from this headache making me lose track of my senses and rendering me unconscious. Even now things are blurry.
[You have levelled up x74!]
[Due to killing more than 100,000 enemies, exp bonus has been given! You have levelled up x21!]
[Due to surviving an endless horde, loot has been increased in value!]
[Due to earning the recognition of the third ring boss Argoria Bloodhaven and being spared, you have earned a partial treaty! Argoria promises not to go out of his way to hunt you as long as you do not breech his territory again in the future.]
“Sigh…” I closed my eyes and ignored the messages. The level ups restored my hp and mp but my mind was still exhausted.
Half an hour later I pulled myself up and began the audacious process of using mana to collect all the loot into my inventory. Eventually I was forced to prioritize as I didn’t have enough space so I kept the poison sacks, beast cores, fangs and a small amount of full bodies to bring back for crafting. I got 6,350 gold coins from the fight, bringing me up to a total of 7,132.
[Would you like to convert the rest of the spoils directly into guild funds? Yes/No]
“Yes.”
[+9320 Gold has been added to guild funds.]
I could only pick up barely a tenth of the physical drops but I knew I was ripped off. The direct exchange rate was crap but it was better then losing any gain from it all completely.
{You’re times almost up. Leave. Also, check your status menu.}
“Right” I nodded as I started to run.
Once I was out of the territory marked by a see-through line now that I knew of it I went to scale a building and spend a while recuperating.
I was overlooking the place from up high and it was easy to tell I shouldn’t have gone in there with the millions of black spiders hanging from colossal webs between the buildings. At most, I killed around one hundred and twenty thousand but this place was totally over-run with them. So many of them… they really are only fodder…
“Status”
[Status Menu]
Name: Jean Paradox
Race: Blood Vampire *
Evolution: Unavailable *
Level: 193
HP: 20,220
MP: 19,300
Strength: 998
Dexterity: 2,347
Vitality: 1,522
Intelligence: 1,430
Wisdom: 1,210
Charisma: 10,250
Luck: 100
Unallocated Status Points: 1930
The status points reached ten per level at level fifty and then stopped increasing so I got 450 from 0-50 and 1430 from 50-193.
Sighing I got down for ten minutes training to bring my strength over the benchmark.
{Sorry, you where late by about two hours and someone else got the achievement first after dumping stat points. Better luck next time in the ten thousand benchmark.}
“My luck’s not so good today huh? Well whatever, I can’t expect everything to work out perfectly. Can you explain what just happened to me?” I asked about the odd feeling.
{You could say that 1000 in all bodily stats is a qualitative change. In other realms not cut off from the correct power system, you would have became a god with that benchmark hit. Every time you add a zero onto the benchmark number, you rank up in which realm god you are increases and every time you increase that rank you get a massive power increase. Unfortunately for you this world is cut off so it was more like your body harmonising and allowing you to bring out your bodily stats better and you won’t get the power upgrade you would with becoming a god until you leave the game or survive until it finishes and the game become nullified. To put it into perspective, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000, 100,000,000, 1,000,000,000… every zero brings it up massively. The ‘god’ you killed was a rank five god meaning they would have ten million in all bodily stats after the one hundred years was up.}
“You sure know how to kill a good mood. Why would you even bring someone so strong into the game so early? That’s completely destabilising!” I complained instantly.
{I’ll give you that information for 5,000 gold since you already qualify for it’s knowledge due to being the one to kill it.}
“Ugh… fine, take it.” I said bitterly as I watched my money disappear.
{The world has been rearranged quite a bit so old maps no longer have much meaning but let’s just say there is one hundred main territories or ‘continents’ now. They are all a lot bigger then any of the previous continents and on every one two gods are born with the same power limitation of 100 years to get back up. One ‘good’ and one ‘evil’. They will wage war against each other and many will die in the conflicts. By luck, you took out the ‘evil’ god before it could defend itself and it is considered the ‘good’ gods victory. Basically you just did all it’s work for it and got minimum rewards while making your continent a bit more stable then others, giving it more time to develop before the other continents get a clear winner. Maybe five more gods will die in such a pitiful way by my estimations and the one’s who kill gods now or later will become the major future players in the game along with a few outliers who get strong without the achievements gotten from killing a god.}
“You really went out of your way to fuck this world up didn’t you?”
{Well yeah, it is an apocalypse. If it was so easy to survive it wouldn’t be an apocalyptic event would it?}
“I guess. It’s really bothering me though, why didn’t my area sense stop me falling into that trap? I should have seen the spiders easily and it was only once I was in there that I did.” I frowned while remembering the main reason I almost died, relying too much on a sense that failed me.
{Well it’s not really a secret but a ‘boss’ is a monster who meets the requirements to advance to the next ring but instead chooses to stay, earning a power boost until they leave. Every boss region blocks such scouting techniques in order to make the traps worthy of being a boss region. You can also set up magic to mimic such effects but your still a ways off from learning it. In return for this however they are confined to their region even if they can send their forces outside which can often lead to many powerful monsters grouping up to launch a raid on them without any means of retaliation like that eagle for example. Because it can fly, the fodder isn’t enough to kill it so once it isn’t in the boss territory anymore it can just escape into the air. The only reason it is maintaining a treaty of sorts is because if he get’s his spawn point camped then it would be horrible for him once he dies as although powerful he doesn’t hold much power in close range combat.}
“So there’s things like that? Tsk. That means there are regions that could literally block off all the senses right? That sounds so annoying to deal with…” I muttered darkly as I began to search the city.
{Are you looking for the thing that girl asked you for?}
“Yeah. She’ll be annoyed if I keep putting it off.” I answered as I found it.
Lea went to the town before I ditched my responsibilities on her and found a certain shop selling a flower for sixteen thousand gold. She wanted me to pick it up if I could and find out why it was worth so much money. The NPC told her it was in the third ring so naturally she can’t come for it herself but I’m a totally different matter.
“Why’s something so valuable unguarded? Literally nothing cares about it…” I asked in disbelief as I watched one of the weakest monsters in the ring look away from it in disgust.
{They lack the intelligence necessary to study the flower and as such don’t know the uses like NPC’s do. It’s quite a common occurrence but usually these sorts of flowers are still rare since everyone plucks them for some quick cash and doesn’t focus on regrowing the population.}
“Well let’s just get it and leave then. My rose realm is full so it’s not like I can get many more benefits by staying.”
----
“Your looking rather pitiful there Leo” I said from on top of a bus as I smiled smugly at him just to piss him off.
“Says the guy who managed to get a massive scar on his neck. How did you even managed that when hp restores everything? Atleast my injuries are temporary.” I have a scar on my neck?
I pulled out a mirror from my pocket and saw that I really did. It wasn’t ‘massive’ like Leo made it out to be but it was still there and looks to be from the fang that scrapped me earlier.
“Glitch why do I have a scar?”
{Everyone needs some cool battle scars. You can get rid of it with money but in order to bleed you dry certain wounds from creatures like boss monster fodder zones or special items will scar you. It’s to save the economy, okay?}
“I can already see the commotion their precious prince getting a scar will cause…” Ally sighed.
“What did you do? We leave you for one day and you find a boss monster or special item? What the hell man?” Leo asked with an exasperated sigh and looked at me oddly.
“I was led into a boss zone and almost got killed. On the bright side, I am now officially ten thousand times weaker then the god I killed would be in a hundred years.” I said sarcastically as I jumped down from the bus and started walking back to base with them following.
“Literally or figuratively?” Ally asked.
“Literally.”
We walked in silence for a while.
“I’m going to be stat point dumping.” Leo surprised us. We had decided to train our stats up for as long as possible so I didn’t expect that from him.
“You have an advantage over us right now that we won’t catch up to for atleast several months without using stat points. Evolving will help as well but from what an NPC told me, the higher base stats I have before my evolution the more I will gain from it. I could try to train them up for ages but there’s only so far that gain will take me before I’m overtaken by both those using stat points or getting multiple evolutions. I need to use them and then evolve so I have a strong enough foundation to quickly get more levels with.” He explained seriously.
“Ally?” I questioned.
“I’ll do the same. There’s only so long I’ll let a play boy like you surpass me.” I looked at her helplessly at the fact that I’ve never actually dated anyone. This title is totally unfair.
“You better be able to bash me up by tomorrow then.”
Other then filling them in on what happened, we didn’t talk much. Somehow a gap had formed between us and I was the reason.
I just hope that’s all it is.