"YOU!" The girl jumps off of her perch and started pointing a finger gun at me… I think I might know where this is going, and the reason behind her name… "Fireball!"—called it!
A ball of fire manifests but is promptly pulled and compressed into the tip of her left index finger. At the same time; armored grandma face palms her metallic face while the capt's face scrunches up in distress. A rain of fiery red bullets are shot in my direction—I call out a few layers of my Trillatic Swarm to cover my left arm and present said arm forward, ready to receive the shots.
"Earth Wall!" Captain Pangea yells, his right fist punches upwards. Followed by a sturdy wall made of earth rising up from the ground in between me and the projectiles. The wall managed to block most of the bullets, easily in the three digits total, but was eventually rendered into broken pieces of earth in a numbers versus quality game. What's left of the bullets, maybe 40 or so, explodes harmlessly on my armored palm.
Bam! Bam, Bam!! X10.34
All that really accomplish was to blow up a lot of dirt. And from under its cover, I hear an unfamiliar female voice say. "We're here to save them Gun-ny dear, not create more casualties. And look at you, exhausting your mana again. I told you to stop doing that!"
Following a refusal to apologize by FingerGun; something about real men never regretting their choices. The same voice continues to say. "But who knows, if even a shred of his life is left. I should be able to save him."
"First of all, real men do not get angry for petty reasons, let alone choose to be called FingerGun. Last and most importantly, you're a girl!!" I reply. Purely through Mana Manipulation; I also manifest a mass of Latent mana to influence the ambient wind and create an updraft that blows away all the dust.
"I am a man!" She yells back to my confusion.
Sensing a slight spatial fluctuation from beside me, the hammer guy Blinked to a spot on my right and draped his arm over my shoulder, whispering. "Please just ignore her. She thinks she's a man, an uncle even. And we figured if that makes her happy, then there's no harm done."
I shrug and the guy Blinks into his previous spot, followed by me receiving a healing Spell of some sorts. The doctor-part-nurse lady had come forth, having taken a few steps forward to stand on the outer perimeters of her team's circle. "Are you hurt? Your hands?"
Her voice is average, a far cry compared to her outstandingly beautiful face and extraordinary figure. Keeping my eyes to myself, "I'm fine. Thank you."
Finally, my attention falls on a meek voice that everyone have been ignoring. I turn to look at Captain Pangea, who have spent the last few minutes attempting to halt our arguments. Right now, not a shred of his previous confidence is left, he is standing there trying to look smaller than his barely existent voice. "Please stop, this is not what we're here for. And please do not mock my friend's name."
Needless to say nobody can hear him with everyone talking to everyone else. Though due to my more sensitive canine-quality ears, and now that I am consciously listening to him. His words were barely audible to me.
"QUIET!" a loud robotic-auntie voice rang out mercilessly. "Listen to your captain!"
And also audible to her, apparently. When all eyes are on Capt' he takes a few deep breaths and reassumes his confident persona. "Dear citizens, please answer my question truthfully, to the best of your ability."
To FingerGun's mumbling about what kinda citizen can block 40 of my Spell Bullets unscathe, Henry and Billy proceed to converse in depth with the hero team. Making sure to clarify that these remaining Vampires are not enemies—nor friends, yet. In exchange, we were told that some of our more wanderlust members had traveled all the way to Hero Nation, formerly the USA, where they made friends.
Yesterday, said foreign friends were informed of the army knocking on our doorsteps where they promptly requested for help from the heroes. A flurry of activities later, here they are. Took them hero team less than 24 hours, assuming the request for help was made yesterday morning when the hostile army was first spotted—until their attack last midnight, to make it halfway across the super continent. Which is impressive for people in their late 30s, level-wise…
Eventually an alliance is officially signed; Rumah who occupies the northern continent and speaks for most of former Asia as well as the Parthenon from Europe, Hero Nation who united most of the southwest continent and received refugees from Australia and the far south. Lastly, Luselene who occupies the middle including both Russia land, all 6 Stan countries and Iran. Another info bomb, this one, turns out the Stans were at war due to racial conflict. The Vampires had been playing on two fronts, and winning—only to finally hit a great wall; Rumah, and me.
Only one Territory left before we unite all of Pangea. To the east of Hero Nation is the one last large faction, of which all attempted contacts with have been brief and uninformative. But we unanimously agree 3 out of 4 is plenty enough that we may consider exploring the rest of our new planet; Argead.
---
So while our technicians, crafters and tinkers get some sleep till the sun is up high, so they may then put their heads together to craft a fitting vessel fit for traversing the mysterious sea; Panthalassa. And Tail Town is developing well, both in terms of Oxygen levels and bone harvesting. I decided to attempt to venture even deeper into the Torterrene... After a few things.
Taman Safari
69,994 syscred and 268,272 exp awarded
Antrum de Druidants
5,120 syscred and 21,540 exp awarded
Taman Safari
59,076 syscred and 216,586 exp awarded
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
You are now level 31
Antrum de Druidants
5,284 syscred and 22,188 exp awarded
Slain Water Elemental lv 25 x 4
100 syscred and 323 exp awarded
Strength + 36
Constitution + 44
Dexterity + 40
Intelligence + 68
Wisdom + 16
Will + 28
Charisma + 8
Skill level up, Unarmed Combat Proficiency 52 > 55
Level 55 bonus applied
Skill level up, Visualization 50 > 56
Skill level up, SYMPHONY 32 > 33
Skill level up, Mana Sense 39 > 40
Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 60 > 61
Skill level up, Harvest Flora and Fauna 7 > 15
Skill level up, Mental Resistance 10 > 15
Skill level up, Intimidate 58 > 59
Skill level up, Sneaking 56 > 58
Skill level up, Flowing Art 63 > 64
Skill level up, Inspect 45 > 47
Skill level up, All-Weapons Proficiency 51 > 57
Skill level up, Battle command 19 > 22
Level 20 threshold breached
Skill level up, Teach 21 > 23
Skill level up, Slash Smash Stab 61 > 64
Unarmed Combat Proficiency Skill fused into All-Weapons Proficiency
Right. I did do a few more Dungeon runs the previous two or three days. One of the Druidant reward rolls even awarded me with another custom gear; a necklace that contains a tiny world the size of a school bus which can contain life and may be fed with resources to grow—I hope this one will be useful. Along with that, I also received one Magical Gear of my choosing, chosen from their drop list; for this one, I selected a Cauldron of Perpetual Boil… Felt a lot like browsing The System store, only that I can't seem to remember much of the list. The other run's roll also rewarded me with a Title of choice; I took Loved by Nature, because the alternatives were less interesting. Better loved than hated, and I currently have no need for Titles that boost local alchemy productions.
Level up is great, as usual. The same can be said for a level in SYMPHONY and the attributes gained through devouring. I have since the previous week decided to specifically aim to increase my Intelligence, and as the result of last week's test; by devouring several Elementals, I have found that Water Elementals seem to be the better target as it is easier to find and devour. Unfortunately, I had to devour them alive, as I have yet to find a way to store them. How do you keep a Core and its liquid pseudo-body fresh and untainted? Killing it causes all that liquid to fall off, leaving behind only its Core. Fortunately, they are like mere walking water tomey conscience. I can consider the act of devouring a magically shrunk blob of one, alive, as drinking extra lively water.
Level 55 bonus for Unarmed Combat Proficiency was that my hits were finally considered weapon attacks, which is probably why it finally fused into All-Weapons. Though I do not understand why my punches and kicks being counted as weapons matters in term of its functionality. As usual, the passive Skills just kinda level up when they should, like through Sensing stuff or harvesting Bambreezes.
The rest are probably due to my interactions with a large number of Vampires, then the fight. Battle Command's Threshold is pretty much similar to Teach, just with how the Skill utilizes mana to help any command travel farther and be easier understood, I believe such similarity is what pushed it past its Threshold when both Skills were previously used together. All in all, watching numbers go up is always awesome! Oh~, and +6 to Wisdom.
---
Briefly perching on the roof of my Tower, I combine its mana pool, my various Cores and my own pool to fabricate a Core-9000. And only 43 Core-150s had been produced yesterday, all thought of it forgotten due to the unpredictably lame attack.
Thursday
26 may 2044
8.52 am
The attack happened at midnight, after all the discussions, followed by everyone sleeping in organized shifts and my brief hunt, then followed by checking my updates while keeping watch—as a majority of our members ended up falling asleep on duty. It is now late morning and people are waking up. I can feel the fluctuation of an incoming Blink.
"Sorry that you had to play babysitter." Henry says, coming out of his spatial tunnel. He probably noticed numerous people sleeping at awkward places and did the math.
"Nah, its fine." I grin human teeths at him. "That was our first large-scale battle and people are bound to be slightly affected."
He chuckled, "it was more of a one sided massacre, but I guess that counts as war."
"It does if we think it does," I mirror his laugh. Soon enough, Henry left to organize the people who had woken up. And I am left to continue my delve.
Agus: Zen where R U?
I was just about to step through the Gate that would take me underground.
Zen: QuadPeak, why?
Agus: Hen said you're planning to explore past Tail town?
Zen: Yep
Zen: I'm curious about the creature
Zen: It's a lifeform, and not an organic one. But it functions as one, and why would a creature have something like a Town Core inside of it?
Zen: And it's massive!
Agus: Yeah, I'm asking myself the same questions
Agus: But explore it later
Agus: Come help build our transport
Zen: Why?
Agus: Your near unlimited mana
Zen: Lol
Agus: Seriously! Get your ass over here!!
I figured helping the builders make some massive form of transport might be pretty interesting, especially if it would get the job done faster. I deactivate the gate and Blink.
"—ist o' all's ta make an 'urable chassis." I arrive just as Atech begins his explanations. I see him turn to look at Agus, "maybe we oughta' use tha new bone o' yers."
"We should cast it. Give it an outer layer made out of the strongest alloy we can create." A lady said, she has a sturdy build and looks to be in her 50s.
"And I'll enchant it with durability and auto repair!" Agus exclaims.
"Naturally," Ardi replies casually. "You will need to apply that on everything, not just the chassis."
"That, and much more." Another said.
The discussion continues for hours, each and every idea better than the last. I listen patiently, until a chance presents itself—a lul in their conversation where everyone runs out of things to say, to ask the one question that has been bothering me. "So what shape is this thing gonna take?"
Everyone turned to look at me, none offered the answer until Atech was kind enough to say. "We 'avent gotten tha' far."