“Finally!” Maverick exclaimed with great glee. “I am SO done with sitting down all day.”
“It hasn’t been more than two weeks,” Max said and dusted off his coat from the gray ashy dust of the Dreadlands.
“Do you have any idea how slowly time goes when you have to Cultivate the whole time?”
“I do,” Max said, casting his companion a glance. Not that it did anything. Maverick knew perfectly well how annoyed Max was at his attitude through their soulbond. “Well, we’re moving out now, are you happy?”
Maverick only huffed.
Christie, who had just come out of the cave, smiled. Max sighed.
“Save me from him, Christie,” he said.
“Darling, you’re the last person I know who needs any sort of saving,” she said and let out a throaty chuckle.
Max took the clay cup of water she was offering. It had an ice cube floating in there. Having ice was so amazing, but they had come a long way.
“When are we leaving?” Christie asked.
“You’re planning to tag along?”
“All the guys are,” Christie said and shrugged. “Both Brian’s and mine.”
“Why?” Max asked.
“To see and be inspired by our boundless awesomeness, of course,” Maverick said.
Christie shrugged again. “He’s sort of right, there.”
“I was planning to go a little deeper in the Dreadlands and see if I can find something new for us,” Max said. “I know I haven’t exactly been pulling my weight around here.”
Christie scoffed. “First of all, you’ve done more than your fair share already. I’m not exactly keeping score, but I think you’re still topping the leaderboard on overall usefulness.”
“I—”
“Second of all. As long as you’re here, people both feel and are safe. And that’s not nothing,” Christie said. “Please stop selling yourself short, darling. It’s unbecoming of such an otherwise strapping young man.”
She gave Max a grin that could be classified as hungry, and Max raised a hand.
“Fine. But regardless, I’m going deep.”
“I like it deep,” Christie said and looked at her nails nonchalantly.
“Max,” Maverick started. “Isn’t it about time you and Chri—”
“How about you both shut up and let me talk,” Max cut in. “You guys can come and I’ll see if I can set up some easy kills for you. But you take those and get back. I need to fly solo and make up for the experience I’ve been losing out on. And I don’t want any of you getting hurt either.”
Max was excited about getting back into the frey. For the last ten days he had been practicing with his signature ability, [Telekinesis], while Maverick Cultivated. When Max would run out of Mana, he would pop a [Celestial Illumination Pill] and sit down for an hour himself to let his Mana regenerate, before getting back to mastering his skill.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It was such a versatile skill with a bunch of applications, that Max had figured it was worth his while practicing with it thoroughly. Especially flying, which was really hard.
Max had finally gotten a hang of it. It consumed a significant amount of Mana, but having the ability to frigging fly, was both useful and awesome. Now Max wanted to see it in action. And apparently so did half of the outpost as well.
They had seen him gradually get better and better of course, but this would be the real deal. They were both showing camaraderie to Max, as well as getting a morale boost for themselves, watching their greatest fighter kick some ass. Max would oblige.
“Make sure everyone has a full belly before we go,” Max said. “We’ve got a trek ahead.”
“Already done,” Christie said and gave him a lopsided smile. “We’re just waiting for you to chow down and we’ll be out in two.”
*
After Max had eaten his share of yesterday’s meat, a boon granted by a calf of one of the giant hairy creatures roaming around the easier parts of the Dreadlands, they had gone out. They were making their way for the first time into the foggy parts of the Dreadlands, the inner parts, where the porous tall spires were and the hot springs, as well as the volcano looming over the horizon.
A terrible roar of a demonic giant insect monster could be heard somewhere. It was close. Max clutched his trusty weapon in his holster, but didn’t draw it yet. They had no reason to be jumpy. Max didn’t know what level these beasts were, but he was pretty sure he had dealt with worse. As long as the monster would focus on him and not chase his less mobile comrades, he should be able to gun it down without too much risk.
While the monstrous insects didn’t exactly use the thick fog to ambush, it certainly got close before they noticed it. It screeched and charged at them, and Max gritted his teeth and pulled out [The Maverick].
His comrades had wisely been keeping a fifteen yard distance to him, which paid off. From the corner of his eye Max watched them scatter and hide behind the porous spires.
“[Tether]!” Max shouted, his being filling with adrenaline. Just as the insect creature was about to swipe down with one of hits claws, Max slid backwards out of the way.
The monster, clearly not pleased with this, screeched and swiped at him numerous times in quick succession. Max kept out of the way with [Tether], pointing his revolver companion at the ugly monstrous face, as Maverick shot at it and laughed.
“Now this is what we need!” the gun said in great glee and laughed again.
Having created enough distance Max reached into the soles of his feet with his consciousness. While his other spells were fairly simply, [Telekinesis] required finesse and focus only Cultivation and practice could give.
Fortunately Max had been doing just that.
“[Telekinesis]!”
He floated into the air trying to keep his balance, which was akin to trying to keep two skateboards under his feet. But with practice, he managed. The demon-bug sliced at him with its massive hanging claws, but Max avoided laceration after adding some speed, as he leaned forward and guided the spell.
His Mana was going down, but he had enough.
Dodging another swipe, he flew upwards and was temporarily hoisted legs up, head down above the beast’s neck. Max released the spell and backflipped on the creature’s head.
Landing on the creature’s head caused it to shake it wildly and screech in terrible anger. It tried to swipe at him, but the arms were designed for hunting and swiping downwards, not for scratching its head. Max cast [Tether] on himself to survive the play at mechanical bull. Then he cast another spell.
“[Alter Gravity].”
Max cast the spell six times. With his high Intelligence and with some elementary guidance from his Cultivation, he managed to make himself weigh around 600 pounds. The weight of himself made his bones ache, but the demonic cockroach was worse off.
The head lulled to its left, and then to its right, and eventually the creature fell on its stomach.
Max wasted no time, and as the creature was still struggling, he used multiple [Tethers] to glue its head on the ground. The monster thrashed around and swiped at its claws uncomfortably close, but Max knew he was safe. Then he let Maverick go to work.
Defeated Level 19 [Terrormite (Elite)]
You gained 725 Experience points
His audience cheered and came up close to congratulate. Max gave them a smile and looted the body.
1631 Cosmic Coins
[E-tier supply box]
Good score. These are definitely worth killing.
Max gave the supply box to Christie. He had enough Mana and Health potions to work with. Being the highest level Cultivator meant he also needed the least food and water.
The [Terrormites] were a lot easier to kill than he had thought. If these were the guardians of the inner areas of the Dreadlands, Max could have ventured there a long time ago. His mouth twisted as he thought of the lizards.
They were organized warriors, and it was very likely they were already pillaging the better areas. There had been a few encounters, but in the outer rims of Dreadlands, escape was often an option, and thus there were rarely casualties on either side.
If we enter here, that could change for either side.
Max was still certainly the strongest Cultivator in the game. He might not be the highest level anymore, but leveling was slowing down anyway. In the end it was but a framework for Cultivation anyway, so Max was sure his build was at least somewhat optimal.
We’ll have to see if it’s optimal enough.
He would not be culled. Humanity would prevail.
“I need one of you guys to tell the others at the camp to come pick up whatever valuable we can out of this thing,” Max said and pointed at the demonic cockroach. It was questionable whether the meat would be edible, but the chitin and claws could definitely be reused.
One of Christie’s warriors immediately started a run towards their outpost and the rest followed Max into the fog.