Agus's Core refining machine consumes 600 mana every 30 seconds; divided into 1 second of heat burst and at least 25 seconds of cooldown. While I, under the influence of my Rank 5 Mana Tower, regenerate my whole mana pool of 17,940 mana every 4.45 minutes, round that up to 5; 59 mana every second. Which means I take 10 seconds to recover the spent 600 mana. Thus, I multitask. Feed the machine, take out the equivalent of 20,000 mana worth of points from my Vaults of Cores and fabricate one Core-350. Continue to feed the machine while my mana recovers, rinse and repeat… An hour into the task, Agus returns from his break.
"How's it going?" He asks me.
"Going good I suppose." I had fabricated about 10 Core-350s and refined another 120-ish Infused Cores. By my calculations, at the rate we are going of 1 refined Core every 30 seconds; we would need approximately; 740 cores x 30 seconds, equals about 6 hours of work till we're done.
"Awesome. Great job! Leave it up to me after that!" He cheered. " Though that reminds me… Henry mentioned something about making VLoS wands, so we both have extra work to do."
"Yeah, he texted me about that too. You just focus on these first." I tell him. Of course, unheeding my own advice, I continue to make Core-350s. Only stopping by the time I fabricated 20 pieces, and even then; only because I ran out of extra Mana Core to use for today. Then, I simply continued to burst-heat the Infused Cores and fabricating Core-150s with what excess mana I have. By night, a little after dinner, as I am finishing up refining the last few Cores, Agus had crafted a few hundred wands while I had produced and Vaulted an extra 89 Core-150s.
"Whew. Let's stop!" Agus says. "I'll finish the rest of these by tomorrow."
"Yeap, just let me get this last one… and~ done. They're all yours now!" I stand up to stretch, "remember to make extra wands for the Vermillion Lords."
"How many are you gonna make?"
"Between my stock of Mana Core and my own pool, I only had enough mana for 20 Core-350s." I tell him, then it occurred to me. "Hmm, what about making these 20 Cores into staffs instead?"
"That would take up more material and time…" he first said, before adding. "But I'll think about it."
"Awesome! See—"
Roy: Quagxytes!
"—y–damnit!Gottago." I fall into Blink's tunnel and find myself standing on an edge above our Kill-Pit. The combat has begun! And not in the pit!! I looked around and was just about to reposition my blink to spit me out right where the fighting is going bad… there! A few guys are being surrounded by… Bli—
"WAIT, ZEN!" —huh? I turn to find Henry yelling at me from the stairs. "Wait a moment, it's not as bad as it looks."
So I look. Trusting Henry's judgement, I truly and calmly look at the situation this time. The Quagxytes are rushing out from the pit walls, onto their breathens and up to the higher grounds; the donut room I stand on. They're everywhere. Even as I stand there observing, more are rushing out of and up the walls… The few doppelganger wannabes who attempt to attack me, I eliminate with a greataxe I had just conjured. Our men are getting pushed back, but less so than I had imagined. As things stand, by killing these mindless creatures as they slowly fall back up the stairs, they'll successfully eliminate all hostiles within a few minutes of combat. How fantastic!
"ZEN, TARGET YOUR COPIES." Henry yells at me again… there are hundreds of guards currently in combat with the Quagxytes. Thus, observing the newer enemies, I can only see very few familiar figures. Two.. three… three! Easy peasy. I dismiss the greataxe and Conjure two extra-long extra-barbed whips, whipping them out to catch two of my copies—not caring about hitting some of the other copies in the process—and pulling them towards the third. Of course I had to let go soon as there is no way to win in a pulling contest against myself, let alone two. But their attention is on me and that is what truly matters.
Next, I conjure an odachi, 3 meters in length from tip to hilt with a thickness of 1.5 centimeter and on average 4 centimeters long from back to blade-edge. The whole thing only costs me 360 mana, such cheap cost for such long reach. I love it~ Slash Smash Stab! The one Quagxyte-Zen I was approaching got dissected in two diagonally as I flash past it into a crouch. Then I leap up with a spin while utilizing the same weapon Skill, dissected another one of both its arm and the torso they defend; from the bottom right hip to its left shoulders—at the same time my leap takes me high over the last one while it attempts to tackle me. Finally with a mighty downwards Slash Smash Stab; I cleanly cut the last in two mid-lunge. Gonna start abbreviating that skill as SSS for now, at least until I can come up with something better!
That was not the end of them, our encounter lasted for another 20 or so minutes before the last of them were successfully slain; I had personally eliminated another four of my copies. All in all, this one wave itself was a little more than 500 Quagxytes total. Once everything settled down, I approach Henry.
"What's with that proud look on your face? Looks like you're making a duckface!" I ask him jokingly, I've never seen him show such a face before. Hmm, or maybe he did the day he announced his plan to wed Jen and the news that he'll be a father… I forgot.
"Shut up!" He snapped back. I laugh merrily, joined by the brains-for-muscles not a second later. "It's just that with this battle, we have proof that our men are capable of combating the Quagxytes without your assistance."
I mirror his grin. "True! Without all the equipments we plan to provide them even!"
"Yeah! Rather, your presence made it exponentially harder instead… Without you none of the creatures can gain access to your inhumane attributes and become a major hazard." He accuses me while squinting his eyes. "But you were summoned here, so your sins are forgiven!"
"What sins, only one okay?! Just for coming," I complain… then it occurred to me, "hey! Not even that, I came to help!"
He chuckles. "So, how much progress has been made on your part?"—Thus, I tell him all about it.
—
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I now find myself sitting on my favorite place on my Tower's roof. All 20 Core-350s hovering above my open left hand, kept afloat by pure Mana Manipulation. Since the bonus gained from the skill reaching level 50, I feel that not only does control over my mana become easier, but control over ownerless-intentless mana, too, experience a slight boost.
Journeyman spell learnt Bend Metal
Spell mastery rank up, Bend Metal Early > Basic
Novice spell learnt Knead Bone
Spell mastery rank up, Knead Bone Early > Basic
Will-o'-Weal - Novice Rank, Basic mastery expanded
Spell mastery rank up, Vermillion Lord of Storms Basic > Intermediate
Skill obtained Lapidary
Skill level up, Visualization 47 > 48
Skill level up, Artificial Infusion 15 > 23
Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 53 > 55
Skill level up, Lapidary 1 > 9
Skill level up, Taunt 32 > 33
Skill level up, SYMPHONY 30 > 31
Slain Quagxyte lv 1 x 7
7 syscred and 1 exp awarded
Weal's mastery expansion happened multiple times at the span of less than an hour; I figured if it could Shape Stone—why not teach it to assimilate and change the shape of all things mundane… and that, is how I got the two new shaping Spells. Then taught the Spell everything! Also, I may or may have not cheated by browsing the System Store for what spells are available in that category and then, knowing their names, figuring out the Spell myself. There were plenty, but only these two seem worth the effort for now. The rest are largely situational; like something to freely shape leather—highly unnecessary. Instead, the use of Metal is unquestionable. As for utilizing bone… Well, it might come in handy when no metals are available one day.
VLoS too has finally earned its long overdue upgrade, the concept for the Spell's upgrade itself has been in my mind for a while. So, while I know I made it to function as an AoE spell, and giving it the option of withdrawing its dome of storm to instead form a pair of legs to walk on is very contradictory to its initial purpose. But I figured the Lord itself would appreciate being able to walk—and fly—around. Thus, at Intermediate mastery, all caster has the choice to either have their VLoS conserve its energy and simply exist as a Faux Storm Elemental that may freely fly and walk around while raining down bolts of lightning and ice, or have their Spell expand its dome to affect an area as usual. So more sustainable single target attacks or higher cost AoE, each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Now, Lapidary is a skill I gained and leveled while cutting the Infused Mana Cores with Agus. I take it that it is just a name referring to and/or is similar to Gem cutting. The rest of the Skill upgrades are as expected… Besides Taunt, how did I get a level in that? As I had spent most of the time in Agus's lab, and we were each busy with our own things. Mystifying...
Back to gearing up our new batch of recruits; I Artificially Infuse the 20 Core-350s with my newly upgraded VLoS, then leisurely cut each and every one of them with zeal. I almost attempted to manually create a burst of heat to refine them, but thought better of it. I only have these 20 after all, and crucial their availability are. That means no room for experiments that might go boom.
Another wave of Quagxytes assaulted our kill-pit-donut a few minutes before midnight, this one I had to fight alone yet again as we do not have enough active guards on the night shift. Honestly, the Experience reward is crap! But in a 1 vs many battle such as this, where I am placed in a dangerous situation; surrounded by hundreds of enemies that have equally over-inflated physical attributes, and the ability to actually slay me instead. I find my skills level up at a satisfyingly quick pace.
Slain Quagxyte lv 1 x 454
454 syscred and 67 exp awarded
Skill obtained Cleave
Skill obtained Leap
Leap lv 1 improved into Leap Strike lv 1
Skill obtained Chop
Skill obtained Sidewinding
Skill obtained Pierce
Skill obtained Solid Strike
Skill obtained Charge
Skill obtained Amputate
Charge lv 2 improved into Charge Strike lv 2
Skill obtained Rapid Strike
Skill obtained Vicious Smash
Skill level up, Dodge Roll 29 > 36
Skill level up, All-Weapons Proficiency 24 > 28
Level 25 threshold breached
Skill level up, Cleave 1 > 6
Skill level up, Leap Strike 1 > 8
Skill level up, Pain Resistance 19 > 24
Skill level up, Chop 1 > 4
Skill level up, Sidewinding 1 > 11
Skill level up, Slash Smash Stab 13 > 19
Skill level up, Evasion 34 > 38
Skill level up, Pierce 1 > 7
Skill level up, Solid Strike 1 > 3
Skill level up, Unarmed Combat Proficiency 38 > 40
Skill level up, Parry 29 > 43
Skill level up, Charge Strike 1 > 5
Skill level up, Amputate 1 > 8
Skill level up, Fear Resistance 12 > 14
Skill level up, Shield Proficiency 22 > 24
Skill level up, Rapid Strike 1 > 5
Skill level up, Vicious Smash 1 > 3
The thing that makes me very happy during this latest combat encounter is All-Weapons Proficiency breaking past its Threshold; I felt the deed was achieved when, in a brief period of feeling experimental; I use the flat side of my Conjured odachi to Smash an enemies head, instead of Slashing it as usual. It felt wrong during the moment. But the Threshold breach now makes it feels wholly natural. I can seemingly now use a weapon's skill using any other weapons when applicable. Another example of this being; to Stab with the tip of a whip, or to Lunge with the hilt of an axe. It's nothing amazing, but I imagine anyone with a lot of weapon Proficiencies and an even larger pool of weapon Skills might find it very helpful.
As a result, I got excited about gaining various weapon Skills to use this new Threshold feature and all of a sudden, a plethora of Skills made itself known. What gives!?—I wasn't given much time to celebrate moment I breached that Threshold, three Quagxytes was approaching me from behind; I did a spin and cleaved all three horizontally in two. More was coming, so I leaped at one a little further away to escape the pursuit; whereupon landing, I greeted it with a strong downward chop. I wind among the enemies while sliding and evading into the spaces between them, delivering powerful stabs that pierced multiple enemies at once every chance I had while deflecting anything I cannot efficiently dodge with a tiny shield on both of my Swarm-arms.
Once in a while, due to the unfair numbers, I am forced to punch a stray Quadxyte or two away and make room for me to charge out of a bad situation into a better one, amputating a few limbs along the way and smashing them viciously with the pommel of my odachi. Utilizing all my weapons in my arsenal and both my arms and legs to survive the battle.
Having some extra minds to help control specific movements of my limbs are sure handy. Not to mention the spells I can use even amidst such intense melee, with my Mana Sense to guide the way and one or two lines of thought to cast Spells. VLoS would be summoned midair while mid-leap, and while I land to deliver a devastating blow. The Lord would unfold mid-air and unleash its storm upon the enemy. Not to mention the tens of Magico Disks flying off in whichever direction every second.
All alone in this sea of monsters, I feel very much alive!