Climbing into Bloodstorm, Duke felt a surge of emotion. This was a mech that was made for him and him alone. It was customized to his body, his fighting style, and was designed to give him the edge to dominate any battlefield. Still, he held no illusions. His skill at piloting mechs was passable but nowhere near what his skill in planes had been. On top of that, the foes he expected to face were by far more powerful than anyone he had ever dealt with. Even Maku had been a strong challenge that he only beat because he had a single Ability that the man wasn’t able to resist.
All these thoughts faded as he slid into the cockpit and felt it mold to him completely. He had put his armor into his INVENTORY in preparation for this and the fit was absolutely perfect. Every control was exactly where he expected it to be, just in reach and easy to access. The surge of anticipation that came with the cockpit closing washed over him – he had spent an entire year preparing for this moment and he was savoring it fully.
Seals engaged and the start-up sequence began. Duke felt the Mana draw out of the first of the twenty cores available to power the mech. He had enhanced each and every core in his downtime over the past year, pushing them to the limit of his DUNGEON CORE CREATION Ability. The Ability was sitting at Adept Rank and was tantalizingly close to breaking through into Master Rank. Duke had considered pushing for the Rank upgrade but was too focused on getting to the point he could pilot his mech that he delayed the push.
The interface engaged very differently than any of the previous mechs had. While even Wilma was mechanically piloted and interfaced, Bloodstorm was designed solely for him and connected directly to his mind. He had been told to expect reaction speed to be increased and all movements to be smoother – once he got used to it.
Finally, everything was ready, and Duke opened his eyes, but they were not truly his eyes. He saw through Bloodstorm’s sensors, and it was wildly disorienting at first. Simply the visual perspective was enough to throw his balance off. He was meters taller, and his body was definitively larger. As he had been instructed, he simply stood in place, giving himself time to get used to the visual references before engaging any more sensors.
One by one, he allowed more sensory inputs to engage, taking time to get used to the feel and experience of each. The amount of data pouring into his mind was more than he expected but his experience with DUNGEON SENSE, SENSE MAGIC, and even his lost SOUL SIGHT had prepared him for different sensory inputs. He had yet to even take a step in the mech and he finally understood the mystique and aura around the Steel Tusk mech pilots. This was an experience that not many could handle.
Duke immediately put the 392 Characteristic Points he had left to spend into his Reason to give that much more of a boost to his brain’s processing speed and power. This was accompanied by the slightest sense of a lessening of pressure on his mind. With his sensory inputs active, he began the process of slowly moving his limbs.
He started with his fingers, moving to hands and arms before finally taking a single unsteady step. The problem was not in the realm of muscle or limb control, it vested entirely in perspective. Since the limbs moved like his own their motion was easy, but their placement relative to his eyeline just didn’t match up.
The next several hours were spent slowly stumbling around the area. Eventually, Duke took Bloodstorm into the practice area, but he did create any foes just yet. Instead, he focused on just moving around and getting used to the “different body” perspective. It took several days before he was comfortable even just walking around the area.
Finally, three weeks after first climbing into Bloodstorm, Duke felt ready to try some basic combat maneuvers. He wasn’t quite ready to release the hounds so to speak, but he was ready for some practice dummies. Using his Abilities, he created an obstacle course for himself filled with varying sizes of training dummies. Then he went to town using just the limbs and physical weapons of the mech.
For three days straight, he fought imaginary foes created out of practice dummies before he realized that his reaction speed was slowed. It was then that the realization that he hadn’t slept in quite a while hit him, followed quickly by the stench of weeks’ worth of sweat and living. He immediately activated an enhanced CLEANSE followed by a RESTORE for good measure and made his way out of the mech.
He didn’t bother leaving the cavern. He simply made a room for himself with a comfortable bed. This manipulation of the dungeon is becoming second nature for me. I must be really getting close to ranking it up. He absently checked on the Ability’s level and found that he had pushed it all the way up to level 142. Another year or less and I might break through to Master rank. But right now, sleep.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Duke awoke refreshed and ready to get back to it. He created himself a massive breakfast to get started and tossed it down quickly. I just love instant delicious meals. Living in a dungeon isn’t so bad ya know.
When Duke left his instant bedroom, he collapsed it back into the dungeon floor. It was in the middle of the training area, after all. Zarna was waiting for him next to Bloodstorm.
“Good morning, Emperor. Are you ready to start the next phase of your training?”
“And what would that phase be?”
“Actual combat.”
“Actual combat?”
“Yes, Emperor. We have created a great many opponents for you to face that will push your capabilities harder and harder.”
“I’m not sure I am at that point but I’m not going to learn my skill gaps by fighting training dummies so, sure, bring it on. Bloodstorm will be ready for everything you have for me.”
Her smile was somewhat disturbing as she gestured towards Bloodstorm, “Then mount up.”
Duke smiled in return and TELEPORTED into the cockpit. Getting himself situated and starting up the mech had become second nature to Duke and it was a matter of seconds before the mech was moving towards the center of the room. For the first time since Duke had climbed into the mech, his communication crystals activated.
“Are you ready, Emperor?”
“Oh, hell yes, bring it! Let’s do this!”
Doors of varying sizes around the perimeter of the cavern began to open and creatures of all types came charging out, all intent on Duke’s destruction. The creatures ranged in size from a swarm of one-meter long rodents to a giant golem that topped out at over a hundred meters.
“I didn’t expect them all at once. Shit.” Duke reacted, preparing himself simultaneously for a siege and for an all-out melee. His first thought was to charge out to a selected foe, but one group of foes was so fast, they were on him before he could even take a step. They were two-meter long flying black insects who arrived with an angry buzz.
Duke filled the area around himself with FLAME as the insects attempted to land on his mech and start stabbing through with their gleaming stingers. As it turned out, they were especially vulnerable to fire, their wings instantly curling up and becoming useless. Their stingers were able to scratch Bloodstorm’s armor, however, and they left several gouges but none that were particularly concerning. They were all burnt corpses before the pack of wolf-like monsters arrived.
Duke was able to fight off the next three fastest groups and individual creatures using his blades to great effect. The claws that extended from his fingers were extremely efficient at cutting through the attackers until he ran into some more thickly armored monsters. With them, he either had to work his way through the thick armor or use his other Abilities to deal with them.
As more and more creatures of varying types swarmed over him, Duke found himself hard-pressed to keep up with the unending swarm. He twisted and turned as he fought foes coming from all directions. Eventually, he was thoroughly swarmed with creatures. They were biting and clawing at the mech. Thankfully, Bloodstorm’s armor was exceptionally strong, but Duke knew that even this armor had its limits. Enough effort would find a seam and that would be enough to get through the armor. Duke acted.
Bloodstorm launched into the air, spinning like a top to fling foes off like rain. The speed at which the mech reacted to Duke’s command was nearly instantaneous and spinning motion would have completely disoriented Duke if the sensory input hadn’t automatically switched to a static 360 degree view which allowed him to see his surroundings in a fixed-perspective. His inner ear complained, sending a brief wave of nausea throughout his body before his REGENERATION set that to rights.
Free of the cloying masses, Duke opened up with the mech’s compliment of onboard weaponry. Beams of energy lanced through the teeming carpet of monsters, carving meter-wide paths through them. Duke saw the effectiveness of the weapons on the lesser monsters and immediately plummeted Bloodstorm back down to the surface of the cavern. Once there, he aimed the weapons two meters off the ground and performed a relatively slow spin, the Vermilion beams of energy carving their way through the masses.
“Oh, that’s what I’m talking about!”
He had to vary the angle of the beams repeatedly to catch the crowding monsters but over the course of a minute, all the fodder had been eliminated. A flashing light in Duke’s mech interface let him know that he had drained an entire Core with that maneuver.
“OK, so I can’t do that continuously. Unless...”
Duke focused his Mana through his MANA TRANSFER Ability to refill the spent Core. He continued to fight the incoming waves as he watched the Mana level of the Core essentially remain stagnant – the base amount of Mana he could transfer was just keeping up with the Mana requirements of fighting with the mech. With a sigh, Duke OVERCHANNELED the Ability. His own personal Mana dropped precipitously, falling at nearly ten million a second.
After ten seconds of strain, the Core was topped off, but Duke was down to just over 10% of his Mana remaining. It was steadily ticking back up but it would be a while before it topped off again. Ignoring that, Duke continued fighting the waves of foes boiling up out of the dungeon’s depths, reveling in the power and capability his mech granted him.
An hour later, his Mana was fully topped off and he had started regularly activating RESTORE to keep Bloodstorm operating at peak capability. If not for his obscene Endurance, he would have had to stop after the first wave. By now, he had lost count, but he did stop. Not from exhaustion, but because the waves had stopped. A quick scan of his surroundings showed that the dungeon was ready to throw a new level of foe at him. Standing against the walls of the cavern were hundreds of mechs of varying sizes and types. All were powered up and waiting to engage. Once they saw him notice them, they attacked. Grinning wildly, Duke flashed to engage these new enemies.