When Gatan arrived in the tunnel, Gaus had already destroyed five constructs. Though he could no longer get any exp from it due to their low level.
"I once read a story about the old dungeon but I have never been here," Gatan said.
"You're here now," Gaus said.
Gatan looked at the fallen constructs scurrying on the ground with no legs or arms and then turned to Gaus as if wondering how he took them down. "Although they are at a low level, they look strong."
"You have no idea," Gaus said. "Follow me before they blow us up." He led them out of the tunnel.
"Blow us up, how?"
Boom.
The force of the explosion threw them off balance. Gaus, having expected it, quickly recovered and grabbed the other man to safety.
"Killing them is hard," he said, and it sounded like he was complaining. "And then if you defeat them they'll explode and take you with them. I often find myself thinking they are intelligent."
"If so," Gatan said, smiling. He wasn't affected by the explosion. "They're exactly what I have been looking for."
Gaus wondered how long the battle maniac would keep his enthusiasm. There was no point in telling him the hell that awaited them. He walked them past the derelict houses to the stairs. 'Rachel from America was here' was still there and Gaus used it to avoid the traps in the stairs.
Gatan waited for him to pass before he followed him, stepping on the spots where Gaus had stepped on. They ended up in the parlor with the pool. Gaus laid on the couch as usual and enjoyed the sight of the clear water and swimming fish. Whereas Gatan sat next to him, curious.
"How often do you do this?" Gatan asked.
"Too often," Gaus said nonchalantly. "Though I must say the next level isn't so friendly. I prefer to stay here and gather my thoughts."
"Despite the loop?" Gatan asked.
Gaus took a deep breath and nodded. "Trust me," he said. "Being trapped with fifty archers on a towering iron wall isn't the nicest of experiences. Once you are in, the entrance and exit will disappear. I figure I have to kill the archers before they let me pass. I should probably mention every archer goes beyond level 30. The last time I was there, I had the opportunity to see two level 32 and one level 33. "
"Which one?" Gatan asked with a frown.
Gaus narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Which door are you describing?" Gatan asked again.
"Oh?" Gaus said with a wicked grin. "That one." He pointed at the first door on the right. "The other doors aren't worth mentioning, trust me."
There were five doors in total. Three on the right and two on the left. The two on the left and the remaining two on the right had centurions. Damn centurions for God's sake. None of them was below level 60. And sometimes he got '?' when he tried to identify them. Worse, there wasn't even an escape route anywhere. It was hell.
Gatan thought about it before nodding. "If you say so. Anyway, how are the walls structured? Are they in a cycle or a straight line?"
"Straight," Gaus said. "One on the right and the other on the left. The archers stood on both."
"So why not divide the task? One of us take the right and the other take the left? You defend my back, and I yours."
Gaus smiled. "Why do you think I invited you here? I'll take the right."
After making their decision, they went into the door. As usual, the place was initially empty. There was a tall iron wall on both sides, with the exit at the front. But as they approached the exit, it simply vanished in front of their eyes and the archers appeared on the wall. They turned around and found the entrance door slammed shut. Then the archers started shooting at them with so many arrows that it looked like they were attacking a fleet.
Gaus turned right and Gatan left.
There were twenty-one archers on the wall Gaus faced. Each archer aimed at him and released their arrow. As soon as the arrow left their bow, they would nock another and fired them at him. Their movements were synchronous like they'd practice it for all of eternity. Gaus waited until the arrows were close enough and he blinked away, leaving them stuck in the ground. A certain curved lump of steel appeared in his hands. He waited to dodge another volley of arrows before he blinked away. When he reappeared next, he pointed at the archers with the curved iron. There was an explosive sound and two archers dropped their bows and fell from the top of the walls to the ground with a hole in their heads, green blood pouring out of them. The weapon in Gaus' hand released heated smoke from the opening at the tip.
He dodged the arrows again and pointed forward. Two more archers fell with holes in their heads. The same thing kept repeating until all the archers fell. It seemed... easy. Probably why Gatan was standing with his mouth open. The man had summoned gigantic walls of red light, one on his left and the other on his right. Whenever an arrow touched the walls, it would just evaporate.
"What magic is that?" Gatan said, looking at the cylindrical steel in Gaus' hand with a frown.
Gaus was still staring at the shield around Gatan. He had never seen a magical shield so big. It should be the first thing he copied when the loop reset. Why would he even need someone to defend his back if he'd something like that?
"When are you going to finish them off?" Gaus motioned toward the archers still firing at them. They had fired a hundred arrows by now but none of it passed through the shield.
"Oh..." Gatan stuttered a bit. He reluctantly took his eyes off the piece in Gaus' hand and turned to the archers.
He raised his sword and struck. A red flash came out of the tip. It passed through the first archer on the left to the last archer on the right in a split second.
"Great Shark Grip," Gatan intoned. The upper half of the archers' bodies broke away and flew into the sky while the lower halves fell to the ground with a thud.
There was some silence as Gaus stared at the scene. He looked at the unfathomable sword. Was there anything it couldn't cut? And here he thought he was being flashy with his new creation.
"How do you do that?" Gaus said, unknowingly reaching out for the red sword.
"What is that?" Gatan said, pointing at the metallic piece in Gaus' hand.
They were silent, each gauging the other.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Can I see your sword?" Gaus grabbed the other man's sword before he agreed.
"Can I see yours?" Gatan reached out and grabbed the metallic piece.
They turned the weapons in their hands with an unforeseen curiosity.
Gaus held the sword with two hands and used all his strength to slash at the wall in front of him. He expected to see the same ominous red flash come out of the sword and cut down the wall. But nothing happened. His face flushed with embarrassment. He tried it a second time but still nothing.
For his part, Gatan had seen how Gaus used the metallic weapon. So he pointed it at the ground wanting to see what happened. When there was no response whatsoever, he went to one of the dead constructs and pointed the weapon at it. But still, nothing happened.
Together, they turned around and looked at each other. "How do you use it?" They asked in unison.
Gaus looked at his creation and smiled. "I'll go first then. The piece in your hand is called a gun."
"Gun?" Gatan said as he turned the steel in his hand. Its body was smooth with a part wooden handle that curved into a short cylinder made of steel. It weighed almost as heavier as his sword, which surprised him considering its size.
Gaus nodded. "It's something I've been working on for a long time. I consider it my creation. Though not entirely original." He murmured the last part as he retrieved a rounded piece of metal from his pocket. "This is called a bullet."
Gatan took the bullet and inspected it. It was small, just enough to fit into the tube of the gun, but also heavier than it looked.
"It's enchanted," Gaus said. "When I activate it with my mana, the shell will explode and eject the heavier piece inside."
"Just like the explosives you used against the Armored Sentinel?" Gatan asked.
Gaus nodded. "Yeah, just like that. Although, those are complete explosives that are meant to bomb a larger area. This one is meant to explode just enough to propel the bullet forward."
Gatan peered into the gun barrel. "So how many bullets are in there?"
"Twelve," Gaus said. "There is a metal plate put in place to prevent the explosion from touching the other bullets. I can always open the metal plate and move a bullet forward so I can fire it."
"And how, pray tell, do you do that, my friend?" Gatan said.
"Advanced levitation," Gaus said.
Gatan sighed in frustration. "I don't think I've ever seen someone who specializes in advanced levitation like you. You use it in sword fighting and now this..." He shook his head. "And how do you assemble such high-level explosives and detonate them the way you want? It's not your magiwatch, is it? Otherwise, I would see you touch the crown."
"It's not a watch skill," Gaus reassured him. "I used enchantment to create the explosives. It took some doing but it's worth it."
Gatan turned the bullet in his hand with narrowed eyes. "I may be having some visual difficulties but I don't see any runes here."
"I make them disappear through advanced compression," Gaus said. "I can make it visible by decompression or reverse-compression if you want."
"What? I don't remember having any such lecture in class," Gatan complained.
Gaus shrugged. "I don't remember having any sword lectures in class either."
Gatan shook his head. He still hadn't stopped looking at the gun. "Well, I guess The Master only invites people with a certain set of skills to the academy. So it makes sense."
Gaus nodded. It simply meant in the academy you could find the most powerful person in the world in your class. Thinking about it made him realize just how much power The Master controlled.
"Tell me," Gaus said. "What is it about your sword? I can't use it."
"You need to raise your physique to use it," Gatan explained. He seemed demoralized. "A strength of at least 99, maybe more."
Gaus frowned. He didn't know there was a sword that required a certain level of a physique to be used? But now that he thought about it, there were some skills he couldn't copy because they required a certain level of physique. In some way, the skills and the physique were more or less the same. But that was a topic for another time.
"We've four types of swords," Gatan said. "Ordinary rank sword whose sharpness is not enough to cut steel. It's white. There is a common rank sword that can cut through any metal. It's blue. There is a rare rank sword that is as sharp as any common sword and feeds on your strength. It has a red color. Lastly, we have the archaic sword. It's the so-called black sword that feeds on your mana. I haven't come across it and some of the people I met consider it to be a stuff of legends."
Gaus thought about it in silence. His blader skill was rare 1, which meant it could reach level 30. Level 1 to 10 produced ordinary swords and level 11 to 20 produced common swords. Did that mean he could produce a rare sword when he leveled up to level 21?
But the problem was his physique. He didn't have the strength to use the sword even if he did produce it. Did that mean he would be stuck with a common sword, and Gatan had strength at levels beyond 99? If so, LA was the worst school ever. How could they put someone so powerful in a class full of children? But then Gaus didn't know the other class members that much to make such an assumption.
"There are rumors that admiral Red of the marines is using an archaic sword," Gatan added. "By the way, I never thought there was someone as strong as you in my class."
Gaus didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He could say the same thing about him.
"I should report you to the academy for being too overpowered," Gaus retorted. They both laughed.
He pointed to the new exit door that opened after they defeated the archers. "Are you coming?"
Gatan chuckled. "Are you kidding me? I haven't had this much fun for a long time. And the exp is some of the best."
Talking about exp, Gaus had noticed a blue screen blinking in the corner of his eye ever since he finished the archers.
Exp gained from killing constructs level 30 x 14 is 598,432
Exp gained from killing constructs level 31 x 5 is 302,111
Exp gained from killing constructs level 32 x 2 is 180,337
Mana taming exercises and enchantment skills were the most useful skills he had besides his Rewind. The former were mostly leveled up to their peak, but there was still some work to do.
Alteration has reached level 20/20
K value lowered to 1 MP
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Blink has reached level 20/30
Up to 20m and 30 MP
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Blader has reached level 20/30
Up to 30 MP
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Metalmancer has reached level 20/30
Up to 20 MP
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Save library has reached level 20/100
Up to 20 CP
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Gaus's immortality has reached level 20/100
No added benefits
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Rewind has reached level 20/100
Congratulations, you have unlocked the next specialization.
Two skills available:
• Probable future
Rank: archaic 3
Take a glimpse of what's to come and prepare for it. Rewind allows you to turn a past into a future. But what if you have always been limited by how far you can see into the future due to mana? This skill is created to limit that limitation. Although the future you predict is as accurate as the variables involved, you can always depend on your visions.
Note that when you use Rewind, you are the only variable that can change the future, but when using probable future, the variables are many and you aren't one of them. You also have to wait for the future you predict to collapse before you can predict another.
The initial capacity of prediction: 2 MP
Cost: 0.2 MP per second
Choose skill? Y/N?
• Auto Rewind
Rank: archaic 3
It's been found that having to use the crown to Rewind can be tiresome (and even impossible at times), this function is designed to allow the user to Rewind using his mind thereby removing the need to always touch the crown.
Cost: 50MP
Choose the skill? Y/N?
He still had 159,660 exp but he would keep it for now. The next specialization would be difficult since he had to level three skills up to level 30 to do it, which would require at least three million exp. Either way, he'd to choose carefully. Auto Rewind had been useful at every turn but always coupled with better skill. Probable future could just be what he needed to break the mana limitations of the Rewind by giving him a vision of the future. The only difference between the two is the unknown variable. When he Rewound, he was the unknown variable that could change the future. But when he looked into the future using probable future, something else would be the variable. In other words, his predictions would be as accurate as the variability of the variables. That was one hell of a risk. And as if mocking him, the immortal dais reduced the cost of Auto Rewind from 100 MP to 50 MP.
Sigh.
Probable future activated.
Probable future has leveled up to level 20/100
Up to 20 MP
Cost: 0.2 MP per second
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Predict future? Y/N?
He pressed yes, and the world changed to blue. He stood by the side and saw everything unfold. He and Gatan entered the door in front of them. Then they met a woman.
Rachel? Gaus frowned. He knew the woman went into the tunnels but there were so many tunnels that they couldn't possibly pick the same tunnel. And even if by some chance they entered the same tunnel, then they wouldn't have chosen the same door. He could remember seeing five doors in the parlor earlier. Rachel could have taken any of them. Why was she there? And she looked furious.
Then the future abruptly ended before he could see what happened.
"Hey, are you alright?" Gatan asked, shaking his shoulder.
Gaus frowned. He must have suddenly lost awareness amid their conversation, which meant he couldn't use the skill in the middle of a fight. "I'm fine." I just peered into a dangerous future.