“Lanu, above!” Eleisa’s shout was barely audible over the rasping, chirping sound of hundreds of harvestmen stridulating. Heeding her warning, the tree man executed a half turn, chopping the ant that had tried to use the wall to flank him in half while also avoiding a lunge from a rat. He didn’t have time to thank her, as he was immediately set upon by a group of ants.
The air was filled with the scent of blood, mixed with a foul odor, also produced by the harvestmen. While they didn’t have much direct combat potential, they supported the other creatures using their unique talents. That was plenty when the party was swarmed by four other varieties of creatures.
Whenever he got the chance, Jared took shots at them, and even though each bullet killed several of the spider-like creatures, there were so many that he barely made a dent. As he fought, Jared cursed whatever sadistic being had orchestrated this.
When they had descended the stairs in the tower, they were met with another door, and Bonlanu eased it open. He looked around for a moment, then closed the door as quietly as he could. Turning to his party, he relayed what he had seen.
“It seems this is the nest of the harvestmen. They cover the ceiling of the chamber in a thick cluster. I could not see a larger one, but it may be buried under the others. Unfortunately, the ceiling is very high up, so it would be difficult to throw a potion and hit them, like you did with the spiders.”
Jared nodded. “Okay. Open the door again. I’ll try to land an explosive shot in the center.”
Mimi anticipated his intentions and chambered one of the bullets he had made the previous night. Learning from using the Prismatic Mana Sand, he had crushed up some of each type of mana crystal he had, using them for powder. He hadn’t had a chance to test them yet, but they seemed promising. The one Mimi had just loaded was one he had filled with fire mana sand.
High Caliber Incendiary Bullet – Made from the tooth of a beast and filled with fire mana sand, this large bullet will explode on contact.
Bonlanu eased the door open again, and Jared aimed towards the ceiling of the next room, deactivating his Offensive Powerhouse title. There, he saw a huge cluster of the largest daddy-long-legs he had ever seen. They carpeted the ceiling, completely obscuring the stone. He took aim at the center of the cluster and activated Afflicting Shot. He added the Moderate Disease effect, wanting to test if the explosion would carry it as well.
He took a couple of deep breaths to slow his heartbeat, then squeezed the trigger. Naomi slammed back into his shoulder, and the gunshot echoed around the stairwell, closely followed by a slightly different explosion. Sickly yellow flames erupted across the ceiling, blasting a wave of harvestmen off their perches to fall to the floor below. Immediately, the surviving harvestmen began rubbing their front two legs together, producing a noise halfway between a rasping hiss and a cricket’s chirp. The sound reverberated through the large, open chamber, nearly as loud as the explosions had been.
A moment later, Jared felt a tug from Mimi, urging him into the room. When he didn’t immediately move, she began vibrating in his hands, conveying what he was pretty sure was panic and tugged more insistently. He took a step forward, confused at his partner’s fear. Then he felt the floor start to rumble. Apparently having decided he was moving too slowly, Naomi shifted to her doll form, dragging Jared into the chamber and gesturing that the other two follow. Confused at her behavior, but not wanting to leave Jared alone, Bonlanu and Eleisa did as she requested, entering the room as well.
Barely a second after did, there was a thunderous crash as the stone stairway was filled with falling stone, the stairs above collapsing. For a moment, Jared just stared at the doorway, now choked with stone and dust. That would have surely killed them all without Mimi’s intervention.
A strange feeling nagged at Jared, coming from all directions. It took him a second to place it, but when he did, his eyes went wide, and the blood drained from his face. It was the same feeling he had gotten right before the lurking shadeweavers had ambushed them in the sewers.
“Ambush! We’ve got incoming!”
At his cry, Mimi leapt back into his arms, shifting back into a rifle, Eleisa took flight, eyes wide, and Bonlanu brandished his shield. Even as the warning was leaving Jared’s lips, creatures were pouring into the room from all sides. The small holes in the walls that they entered through had gone unnoticed as the party’s attention had been taken by the harvestmen on the ceiling, then the collapsed staircase.
Ants flowed in over the floor and across the walls. Rats and octodonts, which looked like furry naked mole rats, beelined for the party, a wave of fur, claws, and teeth. The final group of creatures was the smallest, but quite possibly the deadliest. Catlike creatures with spidery appendages erupting from their backs darted among the other creatures like shadows, barely visible. As these reinforcements entered, the harvestmen started producing a terrible smell, which quickly filled the room, almost making Jared gag.
Within moments, Jared and Bonlanu were under attack from all sides.. Bonlanu shouted, and a wave of energy rippled through the room. Instantly, every one of the attacking creatures fixed their attention on him. They swarmed towards him, covering every surface of the large, empty room. With a shove of his shield, a handful of rodents went flying, his axe chopping through the necks and bodies of still more. He took a brief moment to drink a silvery potion, then glanced at Jared as he resumed the slaughter his movements suddenly much faster.
“Use this time when they are focused on me to thin the horde! It will not last forever!”
Jared nodded, taking out their remaining bottle of flame, and hurled it at one of the larger holes where rats and octodonts were entering, producing a large explosion. Then Jared followed Bonlanu’s example, downing a haste potion. There would be consequences if they couldn’t finish the fight before it wore off, but they were so drastically outnumbered that they needed the edge.
You have consumed a Potion of Haste (Uncommon, Excellent). Remaining time: 10:00
9:59
9:58
Wanting to make full use of the time he had, Jared let the tugging in his gut guide his aim to one of the lurkers, which he promptly exploded with another incendiary bullet. Continuing this process, he took out as many lurkers as he could, each one dying in a fiery ball of death that consumed everything within a few meters. Eleisa used this time to attack from the air, her spear elongating into a lance. She swooped and plunged, killing ants and rodents with each attack. With her first kill, the lance started glowing a soft red. Each kill afterwards added to the glow, and her movements sped up slightly. Soon she was a blur of crimson and obsidian, zipping across the battlefield and leaving death in her wake.
Bonlanu stood at the center of the beast tide, creatures clambering over each other to get at him. He defended himself expertly, taking attacks on his shield and armor, laying about himself with his axe. Each strike easily cleaved through chitin and fur, rending flesh and bone. Occasionally he would stomp, roots breaking through the floor to ensnare a group of attackers, preventing himself from being overwhelmed.
All too soon, Bonlanu’s taunt Skill ended, and Jared and Eleisa were once again on the menu. Jared retrieved his spear, and Mimi shifted to her doll form, but instead of wood, it looked like she was made of solid steel. Then a film of pinkish purple energy covered her body, and she launched herself into the fray. Jared couldn’t focus on her, being swarmed himself, but he occasionally caught glimpses of her steamrolling groups of enemies, shattering bones and chitin. Her moves were clumsy and inexpert, but with the number of foes and her mana empowering her, that didn’t matter much.
Jared did his best to fend off his attackers with his sovnya, blocking with the haft and stabbing and slashing his attackers apart. The blade of his weapon easily pierced flesh and sheared through bone and chitin alike. He was barely holding his own, and it became clear that he needed to level up his Basic Spearmanship. Bonlanu wielded his weapons masterfully, almost like a dance, and even Eleisa’s spearwork showed a lot more skill.
They fought this way for what seemed like hours, the flow of enemies constant. Whenever an attack managed to get through their defenses, Bonlanu pulled life force from their enemies, using it to heal them. They slaughtered their attackers by the dozen, but more just took their places.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Then the haste potions ran out.
Bonlanu’s movements suddenly slowed, and he seemed to be moving in slow motion. A moment later, a wave of fatigue crashed over Jared, his limbs feeling leaden. He continued trying to fight but was unable to keep up anymore. He started taking more and more attacks, and though his armor resisted most, many got through.
Then Mimi was next to him, claws, teeth, and mandibles skittering harmlessly off her no longer glowing metallic body. She had some dents and scratches, but seemed mostly unhurt, and as she arrived at Jared’s side, she lay into the creatures surrounding him, shattering bone and chitin with each strike.
With her taking some of the pressure off, he found himself better able to defend himself, though his muscles screamed at him with every movement. A few minutes later, he felt a now familiar feeling coming from behind him and whirled just in time to bisect a lurking shadewalker that was going straight for his face.
He wondered why he could sense only those creatures, but didn’t have time to consider it as more rats came after him. His head pounded from the unabated stridulations and his body protested with every move he made. Tiny cuts and bruises all vied for his attention, Bonlanu having stopped healing all but the most grievous injuries. He must be low on mana.
Mana. Jared still had almost all his own mana. Fighting through the haze of fatigue, he remembered a Skill he hadn’t used since unlocking it and activated it. Energy covered his body like a second skin, and he felt marginally reinvigorated. Weak attacks slid right off of him, and each of his strikes landed with greater force. Seeing only the enemies in front of him, he dodged, blocked, lunged, and slashed, dealing death to anything that came close.
Jared turned from skewering a rat, ready to keep fighting, but found only corpses nearby. He looked around, seeing the last of the harvestmen retreating through the holes in the walls the other creatures had entered through.
At that moment, his mana ran out, and all his strength left him. He collapsed to the ground, but soon became dimly aware of Mimi next to him, a worried expression on her face. She forced a bottle into his mouth, and he swallowed the liquid that poured from it reflexively, darkness encroaching on his vision. Just as he was losing consciousness, he felt something warm flowing within him, stitching his wounds back together.
When he came back to consciousness, Jared groaned. While his injuries had been healed, his muscles ached from overuse. He opened his eyes and looked around, finding that the bodies had all been moved to one side of the room, where they were piled in a sizeable mound. His companions were also resting, with Mimi standing guard. She waved at him as he sat up, and he waved back, but then his attention was pulled to the blinking notification in the corner of his vision. He opened it, and a small wall of text appeared in front of him.
[Giant Harvestman] x23 Slain!
[Giant Sewer Rat] x97 Slain!
[Giant Octodont] x84 Slain!
[Giant Formica Ant] x136 Slain!
[Lurking Shadeweaver] x52 Slain!
EXP Gained
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
You have free stat points to assign.
You may begin your Ascension!
You must Ascend to receive the remaining EXP.
Your Party members gain EXP
Your Party members level up!
Skill Sniper’s Marksmanship upgraded from (Masterful II) to (Masterful III)
Skill Sniper’s Focus upgraded from (Proficient III) to (Proficient IV)
Skill Afflicting Shot has upgraded from (Unskilled VI) to (Unskilled VII)
…
Skill Afflicting Shot has upgraded from (Unskilled IX) to (Proficient I)
Skill High Caliber Resistance upgraded from (Unskilled II) to (Unskilled III)
Skill High Caliber Resistance upgraded from (Unskilled III) to (Unskilled IV)
Skill Basic Spearmanship has upgraded from (Proficient V) to (Proficient VI)
…
Skill Basic Spearmanship has upgraded from (Proficient IX) to (Skilled I)
He placed his stat points mostly equally across his substats, bringing both Physical and Mental Alacrity up to 24, Magical Physique up to 12, and Physical up to 13. Then he activated Afflicting Shot, getting all the effects he could from the bodies of the horde. Claws, teeth, limbs, and mandibles all shattered into motes of light, collecting into a massive orb, which then shrank down and sank into his chest.
Effect Gained: Weak Paralysis (336/10)
Effect Upgraded: Minor Paralysis (326/100)
Effect Upgraded: Moderate Paralysis (226/1000)
Effect Gained: Minor Penetration (272/100)
Effect Upgraded: Moderate Penetration (172/1000)
Effect Upgraded: Major Disease (425/10,000)
Effect Upgraded: Moderate Shadowcurse (22/1000)
Effect Upgraded: Shadestrider (560/1000)
Afflicting Shot (Proficient I)
* Effects (6/11):
* Major Disease (425/10,000)
* Shadestrider (560/1000)
* Moderate Venom (132/1000)
* Moderate Acid (257/1000)
* Moderate Paralysis (226/1000)
* Moderate Penetration (172/1000)
With that taken care of, he eyed the pile of corpses, wondering if there was anything else worth taking. He doubted there was much left worth the effort. He did make sure to collect an eye from each of the different types of creatures, feeding them to the millennium eye. One of them gave an effect, which was interesting.
Millenium Eye (Unique, Supreme[Incomplete])
(Progress:15/1000)
Effects:
* Darkvision
* Thermal Vision
* Low-light Vision
* Mana Vision
* Motion-Sensitive Sight
Wondering how it worked, he looked through the eye at Mimi, who lit up brightly in his vision every time she moved.
That’ll come in handy if something has good camouflage.
He returned the magic item to Mimi and sat down to begin his Ascension.
He once again found himself in that empty white space. This time however, instead of prompts listing every class available to him, there was only one.
Please Select Your Specialization:
* Sniper’s Marksmanship
* Sniper’s Focus
* Crude Imbuement
* Sniper’s Fieldcraft
* Afflicting Shot
* Big Game Wrestling
* Aspect of the Traveler
He considered. He could see great potential in many of his Skills, so he started by ruling out the ones he had no interest in. Big Game Wrestling and Crude Imbuement were out, both because they were low level, and because they were melee focused. He pulled up the descriptions of the remaining Skills to refresh his memory.
Sniper’s Marksmanship (Masterful III) - You have shown you can be lethal, even at a large distance. Gives a 43% bonus to accuracy and damage while using projectile weapons specialized for long distance. Bonus is doubled if attacking a target more than 500 meters away. Bonus increases by 1% per level in the Skill.
This was a solid option. His marksmanship was the basis for most of his combat ability and promised to be a powerful option. However, recently, he had rarely been able to make use of the Skill’s second effect, and specializing in it might reduce his effectiveness at short range. He tabled it as a possible candidate and moved onto the next Skill.
Sniper’s Focus (Proficient IV) - Heighten your focus for a short time, making the world seem to slow down. Activate the skill just before firing, to grant a period of greatly enhanced focus, allowing for greater accuracy and damage. Effect time increased and stamina cost lowered slightly per level in the Skill
This Skill was out. While potentially powerful, it was too narrow. He didn’t use it often aside from the opening shot of combat, and while the cost was becoming more manageable as he leveled it up, it did still take a toll. On to the next one.
Sniper’s Fieldcraft (Skilled VII) – As a sniper, you have trained in all manner of fieldcraft, from stalking through the forest, tracking your prey, to cooking your own meals and caring for your wounds. You have everything you need to survive on your own in the wilds while pursuing your quarry. All effects improve with Skill level.
It would be interesting to see how this Skill might mold his path forwards. It was an umbrella Skill, covering stalking, cooking, spotting, harvesting, tracking, and triage. In other words, everything he might need outside of combat. A good option for sure. But was it the best one?
Afflicting Shot (Proficient I) - You can strip a material or item you would use in bullet crafting to remove its magical effects, destroying the item in the process. When you do so, you may choose one effect, which is then stored in this Skill. The number of effects you may store this way is equal to Skill level.
You can magically empower your next shot at the cost of mana, increasing its damage. When you do so, you may apply one effect stored in this Skill to the shot as well. Damage increases and mana cost decreases per level of the Skill. The number of effects you may apply increases per every ten levels of the Skill.
This had possibly the most potential of his entire Skill set. While he hadn’t made much use of it yet, he was sure it would prove invaluable against enemies with specific resistances or weaknesses. It would improve his combat ability in any situation, which put it above Sniper’s Marksmanship. So, it was either utility outside of combat, or utility in combat. But there was also one more option.
Aspect of the Traveler
Effect: You gain insight regarding planar forces. You gain minor resistance to planar forces.
While the description was very vague, he had a few clues as to what it might afford him. He double checked the description of the Shadestrider effect, which had upgraded from Shadewalker.
Effect: Shadestrider (560/1000) - Attacks shift moderately to the plane of shades, causing them to ignore a portion of the target’s armor and resistance to damage.
That confirmed his hypothesis. He remembered the sensation he had felt every time a lurking shadeweaver had come near. He had probably been sensing them moving to and from the plane of shadows.
This was the most ephemeral option, but had great potential as well. He had a choice to make: Did he go with a more concrete upgrade to utility in combat, out of combat, or an upgrade that would possibly open up further doors to him, but may have unforeseen consequences?
He made his choice.