[ Wave 39 complete, choose reward:
Random Box
Sustenance
Time extension until the next wave.
The next wave is in 1 minute. ]
[ HP: 190 / 200 ██████████ ]
The window moved to the side with its 34 friends, Sam sat in the same spot that he had been sitting in since he started grinding through this, he had taken damage once, letting a harpy land a critical hit on him, 10 damage made it through hinting that its damage was 30 beforehand. At that point he didn’t let anything critically hit him by dodging slightly, it wasn’t enough to avoid getting hit but enough to mess with the critical hit chance. This was plenty for now.
After the 20th wave, he had to start spreading his attack out a bit to one-volley the group that came in. Initially, he could easily take out the main target with his swarm of blades, and the Static Charge could take out the rest, but things started having more than 60 health, so splitting up his attacks into two waves handled that problem easily.
[ Wave 40, boss wave ]
So far he had been fighting things that he had been fighting in dungeons, meaning that it was just more of the same. Based on progression he expected the 41st wave to start including things from the second Floor. But he didn’t know just yet.
The 40th wave materialised in, five Ravenfolk and a RavenLord. Splitting up his volley of weapons, he sent the named blades at the Lord and split up the other weapons, he successfully triggered 6 static charges, one on each target. Though the Statuc Charge didn’t count as an attack for the sake of stacking Static Charges, they still damaged everyone. And since they all spawned in the same area there was no chance to escape.
Each target took 360 damage from the Static Charge pulses alone, and that wasn’t counting the base damage from his weapons. Seconds after the targes had manifested, they had all been killed. Another wave is complete.
Checking his phone as he waited for the countdown, it had been a bit over an hour since he started focusing on this, killing everything as soon as it came through, save a few tests here and there. All in all, this was following what he expected.
The timer counted down and he had a moment to think. He needed potions, he was probably going to take damage at some point so there was no need to not have potions at hand. He also had a lot of windows to work with, so he might as well select a few boxes and hope for the best.
Currently having 2 hours available, he used 10 more to get more time. Not feeling tired yet, having two chances of around 6h each was probably a good idea. Then he started opening Random Boxes.
The next wave of opponents came in well before he got the potion he wanted, though they were easily taken out he had to smile a little having imagined the Wave pattern, it was only a bat from the second Floor this round.
Sam needed to open a total of 18 extra boxes before he had gotten two potions, both D-rank, so healing 50%. This was good enough for now. He had ended up with a mana potion as well, which was useless to him, as well as 33 Aether crystals. However, the 6th box he opened gave him a Skill Crystal.
[ Appraisal - Rank A ]
Sam smiled a bit, this was a good skill to get, though it would have been cooler outside of this soon-to-be death trap. He knew this was stupidly expensive based on Janik’s earlier statement. He said that his bottom-of-the-barrel version of that skill would probably still go for over a million. And this was the second-highest rank. He almost wanted to save it and sell it when... or if, he got back. It would probably set him up for quite some time, but... Even Janik, the man who was considering using money on himself and was a Player for quite some time without upgrading his weapons, said that it was worth using that skill on himself.
During his pondering, another wave spawned but it was just two Batfolk, letting out a scree as they dived towards him they didn’t make it far before they turned into half-blended bats,
“Fuck it.” Sam commented to himself as he crushed the Skill crystal, it was too amazing to let go, even if he lost a few million on it.
[ Skill Unlocked: Appraisal - A ]
[ Appraisal - A
Reveals health, full stats, detailed skill descriptions, and known abilities of targets. ]
Almost getting eager, Sam activated [Appraisal ] and looked forward to the countdown ending and the next wave. As the countdown hit zero, three bats manifested in the air, and Sam focused on one of them.
[ Batfolk - D
Level 20
STR: 4
DEX: 13
VIT: 10
SPT: 0
HP: 70/70
Damage: Bite 54, Claw 72.
Defence: 0
Abilities: Hovering, Damage bonus (Dex), Echolocation. ]
[ Echolocation
By sending out soundwaves and reading the returning echo, the user can determine the location of everything and anything within range.]
He kind of knew about the Echolocation ability from the lack of hiding possibilities in the second Floor dungeon, but it was still interesting seeing it. This was also going to make it much easier to plan out things, splitting up weapons and knowing what or who to attack.
The same windows opened in his vision for the others, sort of ‘sticking’ to their location as they moved, it was clear which window was for which target, and this was incredibly practical.
Sending out the swarm of blades again, they intercepted the bats aiming for him, halting this attack before it even got close to becoming a problem. Another wave is beaten and another is incoming.
Sam felt a bit... arrogant at the moment. Letting out a sigh as he realised this he knew that was going to change soon enough. He might have gotten a new skill making planning and reacting considerably easier, but... when something came that had more health, damage or he couldn’t hit properly, all that was going to change. He could feel powerful now but he needed to ground himself more. He had no idea how long this was going to last.
The 44th wave came and went, it was just four of the bats, and the same happened to the 45th. The 46th came with a Golem, much as expected and if this processed further the 50th would probably contain the Golem boss from the first floor.
[ Golem - D
Level 20
STR: 15
DEX: 2
VIT: 15
SPT: 0
HP: 340/340
Damage: Fist 60
Defence: 10
Abilities: HP bonus, Damage bonus (Str). ]
This was the first almost problem, as a Defence rating was present. Though having killed hundreds of these, even before he got [ Static Charge ], it wasn’t a huge issue. The five bats that joined the fight just turned into easy Static Charge targets. Focusing on the Golem he did more than enough damage to take it down with a single attack, [ Static Charge ] took care of the bats within range, and the ones that kept outside of its range were taken down in the second volley.
Again he didn’t need to move from his sitting position. He wanted to think that this was too easy but... that’s how you get murdered.
The next few waves were the same, they spawned, he spread out his attacks a little to get more Static Charge pulses, and everything just died.
[ Wave 50, boss wave ]
Sam got up, he might use a bit more effort on the boss, as it might need some serious dodging if he couldn’t take it down right away. He was ready for the manifestation of the group as it had done so far, but as the 50th wave manifested he found something different.
[ Wave 50; %!(¤#”! ]
“Ah.... shit...” Sam didn’t feel good about this one, his expression turned from an attempt to keep calm and not go over arrogant, to dread and a few steps away from panic.
As the manifesting light faded, in front of him stood a nightmarish mound of skittering insectoid limbs, pulsating sacks and eyes. It moved as a single entity but looked like a collection of millions of legs, carapaces, eyes and mouths. Its ‘surface’ constantly moves creating an unnatural asymmetric rippling motion like stiff fur in an uneven wind. The entire room was silent save for the chittering and clicking from its hundreds of thousands of mandibles. Seconds after its manifestation a wave of rotting flesh, excrement and compost washed over him.
[ Crawling Hive
Level: N/A
STR: N/A
DEX: N/A
VIT: N/A
SPT: N/A
HP: 1000/1000
Damage: Slam: 60, Ranged: 60
Defence: 40
Abilities: One of the Swarm, Parasitic Spawn, Contagion Burst. ]
[ One of the Swarm.
Any damage lost can be regained as long as the insects making up the body make their way back to the main body. ]
[ Parasitic Spawn
Any attack can leave parasitic insects on its target, causing ongoing damage and draining its host. ]
[ Contagion burst
On taking enough damage, releases a burst of toxic gas that, if inhaled, can temporarily blind and damage its target. ]
“Well fuck you too!” Sam let out an annoyed shout, at the System for not showing the details he hoped, at the monster itself in front of him, but also at the Entities that run this shitshow and decided to just ignore all logic they had made so far!
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The hulking mass of insects darted towards him, though it was the size of a station wagon it moved with surprising and unnatural grace, skittering across the floor towards him in an erratic serpentine pattern.
Sam panicked slightly at the sight of the incoming swarm, making him send his own swarm to meet them. His blades hit well and tore through the hive with the resistance of dirty water, it didn’t even slow the creature down but it did count as a landing attack, sending a Static Pulse from the monster which tore out a substantial amount of insects, spreading them across the floor. As this happened a violently aggressive, sickening-coloured puff of spores exploded into the air from its... ‘wound’.
But, before he was able to pull his daggers back the whole thing was on top of him. Jumping to the side it managed to swipe an infested claw at his leg, hitting properly.
[ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]
[ Infected by [ Parasitic Swarm ]. ]
[ HP: 180 / 200 █████████░ ]
[ Crawling Hive HP: 630 / 1000 ██████░░░░ ]
Sam could feel the creatures tearing through his leg, and before he managed to get to even look at it he could feel the moving under the skin, slithering through the wounds, back and forth within it. This almost sent him into shock, panic kicked in, and he tried to scrape them off with the dull side of a knife without luck. Grabbing around the wounds with his Psyhands he desperately tried to dig them out, ignoring the pain he squeezed on the wounds, pushing some of the insects out with a sickening pop as a parasitic pimple.
As he was struggling, he noticed something horrifying.
[ HP: 178 / 200 █████████░ ]
[ Crawling Hive HP: 730 / 1000 ███████░░░ ]
The insects were tearing through this flesh, the adrenaline boost and shock had dulled his pain but he could see the effect on his health, his defences meant nothing. At the same time, now looking at the creature, insects across the floor came running back to the main ‘body’, crawling into the area they came from and healing it, its health supported this.
He had no other chance, he did some damage last time, and it had to work again. Sending out his swarm of daggers, including the one now covered in his blood, they all passed through almost like nothing.
Several crits landed, making it all feel a little better. The Vampiric Dagger and Moonblade also triggered, causing a little more damage but also healed him the tiniest bit, offsetting some of the parasitic invader's damage.
Again the Static Charge pulsed, tearing out a large chunk of insects, the hive managed to let out a haunting collection of thousands of pained sounds that collected into a nightmarish shriek with hundreds of tones resonating together.
[ HP: 177 / 200 █████████░ ]
[ Crawling Hive HP: 404 / 940 ██████░░░░ ]
“W... what?” Sam commented vocally without realizing, why did its max health go down? Its current health was slowly increasing by the second but...
His train of thought was violently ended as he did his best to dodge what looked like an incoming spike made up of thousands of spiders, caterpillars, ants and worse. Jumping to the side and doing his best to redirect it with his Psyhands, all he did was tear off the piece he pushed against with his telekinetic control, not slowing the rest of the ‘projectile’ in the slightest.
It hit his arm.
[ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]
Doing his best to get all the insects off before they dug into him, dropping many of his weapons in panic and using the Psyhands to get everything off as soon as he could, he got most of them.
But not all.
Seeing the end part of insects burrow into his arm faster than he’s able to get them off was horrifying, they didn’t do much damage but seeing the bulge under his skin... moving... wriggling. Feeling this inside his body, churned his stomach. Throwing up he stained the glossy floor with the remnants of his breakfast before he, unfocused and in panic sent another wave towards the monster.
Turning towards it as he sent his collection of blades, he found that it was closer than he expected, seemingly having charged him as he was working on getting the bugs off, the blades landed properly through its body, triggering another Static burst as it sent another wave of insects flying.
[ HP: 163 / 200 █████████░ ]
[ Crawling Hive HP: 204 / 640 ███░░░░░░░ ]
As the bucket of insects flew out of its body, the noxious gas came with it, hitting Sam. He did his best to jump away as soon as he saw it. From the collective pain of getting the Static pulse hitting it, and Sam’s jump, he was able to get away from whatever attack it was intending to do.
Getting to his legs, feeling the insects inside his body moving around, churned his stomach yet again but that wasn’t the worst. His vision faded, more and more like tunnel sight, until it was entirely dark. He couldn’t see anything, anything at all, not even the System Windows. All he could perceive was the sounds of skittering around him, and the horrifying and painful feeling of things moving inside his body, eating, clawing, writhing through muscle and flesh, his lack of sight had him over-focus on this, worsening it considerably.
The next thing he noticed was the feeling of something piercing his thigh.
There was no update he could see, no system update showing him his health, the negation or resistance of damage, nothing. It was only blackness, pain and agony.
He needed to make this stop, he had to make it stop. He was within the AOE range of the Static Charge but the creatures inside him took no damage. The ability didn’t hurt the user, the creatures were inside him... they were protected by him...
This made things feel worse, he needed to do something, he couldn’t just sit there, be stabbed again and again, being eaten up from the inside.
Sending out Psyhands towards the angle he expected the monster to be, he found it easily enough. He felt the insects writhing under his telekinetic hand, biting at it, clawing at it. There was no pain, just horrifying discomfort.
But now he had a target.
His blades were picked up, one hand left on the collection of creatures to know where to aim, and something clicked in his mind. The reason the max health was lowering. That one skill, it could regenerate based on letting insects come back to it, it made sense now, he didn’t need to just kill ‘it’, he needed to kill ‘them all’.
Sending all weapons he could find at it, he knew where to aim and he could feel the same weird give as they landed, followed by the sound of Static Charge doing its thing. Another horrifying shriek followed by the sound of thousands of exoskeletons landing on the stone-like floor. He couldn’t stop, he needed to keep hitting it, or rather; he needed to keep triggering Static Charge.
Splitting up his weapons into groups of five, hoping to whatever sadistic assholes who made this System that the Cluster Strike would work on insects, he started stabbing them wildly onto the ground.
The sound of metal hitting stone again, and again, he kept missing the creatures but he kept attacking the main body, though less damage up front it triggered the explosion as intended, again and again. He could feel another stab into his body, more of those... things... entering, making room where they shouldn’t exist. The pain became worse and worse. He didn’t know how much health he had left, he felt like utter shit but didn’t know if this was just the situation, his low health or both.
Pulling out a potion to drink, his brain stopped him in panic as he felt things crawling across his body, if he opened his mouth this would just be another opening to invade, he wanted to put the potion against his lips but his body refused to listen.
Static explosions kept happening, again and again, he thought it was working but he didn’t know, things kept moving around in his body, he could feel warm wetness trailing down his body, he was bleeding, and a lot.
Then it all stopped.
A final static shock silenced the room and stopped the movement inside his body, and his eyes started working again, slowly.
“Extend! God fucking damn it, extend!” He couldn’t see any system windows, but he had seen close to 50 of them now, he could extend the duration before the next Wave... the next... Thing.. Came to be. He needed more time, he needed to rest, to heal.
Over the course of several minutes, his eyes worked more and more, and he could see the two most important windows soon enough.
[ HP: 66 / 200 ███░░░░░░░ ]
[ Wave 50; %!(¤#”!, complete, choose reward:
5x Random Box
5x Sustenance
5x Time extension until the next wave.
The next wave is in 1 hour, 47 minutes. ]
Using his phone, he could barely see the screen but he could activate the flashlight and at least somewhat look around. There were piles of insects, most blown apart by the Static pulses, with no singular ‘body’ in sight but there were heaps of them. Checking his body he couldn’t see anything moving in his body anymore, but he had a horrifying realization.
They were still in there.
Using his dagger he started digging out the ones he could, he didn’t even notice the pain nor the damage he was doing to himself, he could barely see from the tears flowing and the blood gushing from his wounds. He didn’t know how long it lasted, using all his Psyhands he tried his best to squeeze them out, feeling them, finding them, it worked to some degree but...
Things he touched wouldn’t despawn...
[ HP: 42 / 200 ██░░░░░░░░ ]
Sitting down in a pool of his own blood and tears he hugged his knees and let it all out.
[ The next wave is in 1 hour, 34 minutes. ]