I wave at Tess and leave the wall, heading to the generator that powers the barrier.
There I grab one of the natives by the shoulders, “Soldier! I have noticed that this part of the wall and defense is damaged. You are a scribe here to make sure it works smoothly, right? Explain the process to me so I can relay it further to our leadership.”
Confused, the man looks around, trying to get anyone to help, but there is only me.
“We do not call ourselves soldiers, sir, but I will sir!” he answers in the end. “If you move over here, you can see the hidden control panel. You said there is a problem with it?”
“Yes, the enemy is attempting to disrupt the barrier on the first wall.”
“That would be terrible! Let's quickly confirm everything’s working as it should.”
“That’s a good idea, soldier!”
“I'm not a soldier, sir. Please, right this way.”
----------------------------------------
The barrier is a much rougher version of the barrier the Bastion on the 5th floor had, so I don't spend much time checking it out. I just take note of some interesting ways they deal with this kind of construct, it will be useful in the future.
I leave, appearing back on the 1st wall. Not even one hour out of five has passed and as I look down the mountain, it all seems to be under control.
Yup, just thousands of level thirty, corgi-sized ants.
They are under the wall, nibbling on it at places while the lower difficulty participants shower them with attacks. Some of them do have some mildly interesting skills like hot water, a weak variation of hypnosis, some wider area sleep debuff, and snow attacks that seem nearly useless.
Then there are traditional mana projectiles, fire and ice attacks, some kind of shadowy nonsense, weak variations of lightning, gravity, and telekinesis. Most of the people from Easy difficulty seem to be using their weapons as a crutch. Either as a focus for their mana or as damage amplifiers.
So far, the atmosphere is light and people laugh, joke, and smile as they compete to slay as many of the little monsters as possible. They find this easy as the ants struggle to climb the wall because of the barrier coating its surface.
Do they really think it’s all going to be this easy? Actually, that may be what they’re thinking. The weirdos.
I just continue to fill my crown and observe it while doing so. I haven’t tested it properly yet and looking at it, it's still pale blue. From what I know, my mana changes colors the denser it is. I'm not sure if it's the same for the others as it tends to change under the influence of skills, passives, and traits. I’ve seen plenty of variation, that’s for sure.
For me, it's pale blue, followed by dark blue. As I push further it starts to develop pale blue streaks and beyond that, some of the streaks turn purple. And then it goes boom.
The crown is still at the light blue stage, hungrily devouring my mana. At this point, I start thinking this thing might be even scarier than my Mana Reservoir.
Moving a bit further from the others, I put my damaged arcane ax on my lap and send my senses inside it with the support of multiple skills.
During the tournament, I saw what an arcane weapon did in Savant’s hands. The guy doesn’t even have all that big a mana reserve and yet the weapon did such a great deal of damage and was even able to ignore natural barriers to some extent and have enough power to spare to hold people in place.
What would someone like me be capable of doing with that glove? With my mana reserves? I would easily win the 1st event, I believe.
So here I have a weapon of similar or maybe even higher rank. The glove was low arcane, meanwhile, the ax could be mid arcane at its peak. Even now, damaged as it is, it’s at least upper epic in terms of power.
My goal is simple: to bring it up to par with a low arcane artifact, at least for a little while. It probably won’t be anywhere near full power, but it should be more than enough to pull off the kind of flashy stuff Tess wants to see. And I will gladly oblige.
Mostly because I think it sounds like fun. But also to show others how dumb they were to restrict themselves. Tacita’s the only one who stands out, either she has the least severe [Restriction] or she hasn’t made it to the 6th floor yet. She probably hasn’t made it, but I can’t be sure.
As I observe the ax, it's the same as before. A myriad of twisting lines, and things I can barely perceive even as I use [Mana Domain] supported by [Mana Crown] and my Mana Wavelength Iris.
The interesting part is that I can't change these lines. I can't scratch them out as I could with other weapons. I can't connect new lines to them. I'm just not at the point where I would be capable of doing that with an arcane weapon.
Well, maybe that's not fully accurate. If I used a lot of mana, at full force, I should be capable of making it happen. The problem is that I lack the control required to do it properly and would probably just fuck things up instead.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
So the plan is simple. I will try to make use of my [Infusion] and recreate the missing lines. I won't even be etching them into the ax, rather I’m going to try to make a temporary connection, using thin threads of mana infused throughout the weapon in an attempt to reconnect the damaged parts.
My lines will be much weaker than the ones engraved in the weapon. They won't be able to bear the output the weapon requires. Well, not for long. If I do a good job, I should be able to use the weapon for a few seconds. Something between 5 to 30? It's really hard to say currently as I have no idea about the true power of the weapon.
Janky, just the way I like it.
A thin hand touches the blade of the ax, a presence I never felt until she got too close. It's obvious who it is.
When I look up, her lively eyes observe me and the ax from a veil of messy brown hair.
“110 thousand shards for the ax. Two thousand shards if you want to use it for one hour. I do not offer subscriptions to use during the events,” I tell her. The more I observe the ax, the more I like it. Not for my personal use like the other weapons, but just for the opportunity to learn from it. So the prices have doubled.
Tacita points at the damaged part of the blade and gestures at me.
“Yes, it's damaged, but 100 thousand is for the cheapest low arcane weapons. This is more likely mid-grade.”
She stops her gestures and pokes the ax a few more times. A gentle pulse of her mana rushes from her finger and through the surface of the weapon. Then she just shrugs and plops down on the grass, her back resting on the wall nearby.
After ten minutes, when I take a break from my work, I ask, “Are you waiting for stronger monsters too?”
A nod.
“Me too. I think others are being dumb if they think the system isn’t going to throw some kind of bullshit at us. The increased rewards for the restrictions aren’t going to be worth it.”
Tacita energetically nods again, her hair flying around her head. Then she taps her temple a few times and smiles.
Thirty more minutes pass.
“Do you not like Tess?” I ask.
She looks up at me, thinking for a while.
A gesture with her hand.
“Not really?”
A nod.
“Yeah, Tess is scary.”
Another nod.
“It shouldn't be that easy for someone to deal with people.”
Two quick nods.
Escaping Isabella’s clutches, Noodle also appears nearby. I notice him sensing my mana and he quickly changes direction and rushes towards me at high speed. His tongue flicking towards my mana. Even from where I am, I can sense him absorbing tiny bits of the mana I release into the area around me for threat detection.
The amounts of that mana are incredibly small and even most people from Hell difficulty can't sense it. Yet here’s Noodle nomming away at it.
When he gets closer, he freezes. Slowly his head turns to the right and he spots Tacita. He stares at her as if surprised by the fact he couldn't sense her up until now, nor even see her as she sits stock still and has probably managed to hide her heat somehow.
He quickly slithers towards me and then stops a short distance away, waiting.
“You can come.”
Once I give him permission the polite snake moves closer and gently coils around my arm, his head resting on my shoulder looking and following my gaze. Carefully, I release a bit of my mana which he starts absorbing.
Separating part of my mind, I observe as he absorbs mana, and with another part, I send senses towards the first wall.
Most of the folks from Easy difficulty are already starting to get low on mana, resting to the side, and groups from Normal difficulty are replacing them. Even now, an hour in, no monster has even reached the top of the wall; the barrier feels weaker, but it’s still going strong.
So far, I’ve only sensed a few stronger attacks, mostly from bored people from Hard difficulty.
There is also a new kind of monster now. Spiders averaging around level 50. They emerge from the same holes as the ants, several having opened since last I checked. The ants and spiders do not fight each other, attacking together instead. They throw themselves against the barrier and sacrifice their lives to weaken it even a bit further.
So far, it seems to be working; as the mana from the batteries powering the barrier is slowly exhausted.
When exactly one hour has passed, the mood changes and the battle comes to a pause as the earth starts to shake.
Curious, I fly up, but something grabs my feet. When I look down, I see Tacita holding onto my feet, hanging in the air to get a better view.
I pause mid air and look down at her.
She looks at me.
“What the fuck.”
A shrug.
With a sigh, I fly us both higher and look beyond the first wall. As I scan the area another hole opens, much bigger than the others. Much, much bigger. From the hole, emerges a lizard-like monster, rising with slow, lazy movements, as it tears through earth and stone, before stomping and shaking to shed the rubble.
The monster has orange eyes with vertically slit pupils and a snake like head, with a body covered in gray scales. It stands on four thick legs, and its tail is long and very thin at the end. It almost reminds me of a Komodo dragon.
[Quake Serpent - lvl ???]
It doesn't feel as strong as the Gaiathra I saw in the Valley, much weaker actually, so maybe it just entered into the range of three question marks. Level 300 and some change perhaps?
It's earlier than I expected, but I can say that I was right. I would love to see Tess's and Savants' expressions right now.
The monster takes a few steps, killing hundreds of ants and spiders as it does so. Then a rumbling pulse of sound emerges from its body and appears to move through its strong legs and into the ground. The earth around it explodes, causing thousands of the small monsters to die, as the earth shakes. They eventually reach the wall, immediately cracking the surface.
It repeats, the barrier weakening even further as chunks of stone come loose and take some of our people with them. They either die from the fall or get killed by the monsters that continue to attack even as they are dying of the same damage.
Finally, screams fill the area, as people start to realize that the wall has been lost and rush to abandon the post.
Looking at the giant lizard, I have a single thought.
I can take it on easily.