They spent less than an hour getting everything together that they needed before setting off. Peggy used the excess credits she had, after buying several different defensive structures, on buying Owen the info packet on skills. He knew he didn't necessarily need it, but considering they had had a rough time in the previous tier 3 gate and he was down in power, he could only hope there was some way to gain a skill or two before they actually made it.
He also felt safe leaving Peggy in charge as the defenses she bought were surprisingly impressive. They were tall thin sheets of an unknown material, but when stretched out over an area, it seemingly deflected all damage. Myra had even thrown her axe at it several times, only to bounce back at ever increasing speeds. They had a separate component to them that cost extra, but it allowed them to be moved both effortlessly but also strengthened whatever enchantment was used to reflect damage. He wasn't sure if they would hold up against excessive artillery, but they should hold up for at least a while.
The drive was mostly quiet as Owen focused on the skill packet and was surprised at how easy skills were gained, at least according to the crystal. The simplified version was that practicing an action with the intent to be better, while also imagining how the skill would function, would result in the gaining of a skill. The problem was that Owen knew that already and it hadn't helped him. He had hoped there was some secret hiding inside the information crystal and yet there clearly wasn't one. It was frustrating, but it was the way things worked.
He didn't like the idea of practicing in a car, but he was only going to do small scale stuff anyways, it shouldn't cause too many issues. Taking a butterknife out of his pocket he focused on lining one of the edges with mana. Almost immediately a translucent sheet of mana imbued the blade. Then focusing the mana in place, he tried to imbue chaos onto the other side of the blade. Not enough to let the make contact, but just enough that if he were to stab something, both mana and chaos would wreak havoc in the wound.
It took him a couple tries and he had to spend several minutes recreating the mana portion of the blade, but eventually he got it. It looked more like he had dipped a knife in a jar of jelly, as the chaos seemingly was clumped together along the blade, but he had managed to get it to stick. All that was left to do according to the skill crystal was to focus on refining the potential skill, while at the same time imagining how the process of the skill was supposed to work.
Following the instructions, Owen tried to refine both energies, while at the same time imagining how the skills would work. He wanted his attacks to be able to deal either increased damage with the mana or essentially create chemical reactions inside of their bodies by then quickly adding chaos energy to the mana. His mind slowly slipped into his core space as he continued imagining how his skill would work. He had moved to his core space to try and get a visualization of the moving energy to see if that would help and he was right, at first.
The movement of mana in his constellation was seamless as the energy rushed form his core, through his meridians, before collecting in his hand. He felt like his mana got caught on some type of funnel in his hand as the large amount of energy was way more than the current output in his hand. Focusing on pushing more through he felt the mana edge on his blade grow large and he forced himself to contain the energy again, the last thing he needed at the moment was the mana getting to be to much and colliding with the chaos energy also coating his blade.
Temporarily satisfied, he tried to picture where the chaos energy he was using was coming from. As if it were a ghost, it seemed to pour out of the void surrounding his constellation, with small sections of his meridians near his stomach lighting up slightly. He tried to pull the energy towards his hand forcibly weaving it around his mana pathway, without letting the two touch before also pulling the energy out of the same hand, still winding around the mana until he could collect it on the opposite side of the blade.
He opened his eyes and heard everyone in the car shouting. It took him less than a moment to realize why. The energy coming off of the simple butterknife was being released in waves that rocked the car, making it barely able to stay on course. Looking at the knife itself, the energy that had collected on it was warping the material, leaving the energy silhouetted around where the knife had been. Owen couldn't even see where the energies were separated as it looked like they had been fully merged, but he quickly stopped his funneling of energy. The rocking stopped with it and the buffeting power died down as well.
"What in the fuck was that," Myra cursed from the front seat. Lucas was also cursing from the front, but Owen could only smile.
*You have gained the skill 'Synergizing Enhancement': Level 1*
Owen grinned and read the description feeling even more satisfied with himself.
*Synergizing Enhancement, allows the user to channel both mana and chaos into a single weapon. Can deal up to 100% of the original damage based on how much energy is charged into the blade. Secondary effects may occur*
Owen pumped his fist and shared the notification with just Lucas, deciding it was probably not the smartest to share his screen with someone who was driving. He couldn't see Lucas's reaction, but Lucas turned to him after a couple seconds giving him a thumbs up. "Nice man, bringing back some of that power, Myra and I can clear this gate so you just focus on getting back to your previous strength." Lucas said smugly.
"If anything I'm worried about whether you'll be able to keep up or not, maybe you'll just have to sit and watch Myra and I clear it by ourselves." Owen said pretending to be offended. "Stop flirting you guys, if we really needed it, I could clear this by myself. It would take a while, but we are all here so we can finish everything on time." Myra groaned after Owen and Lucas had continued bantering for way too long.
They finally made it to the golf course owned by the next city over and the view made Owen sick to his stomach. Rochester didn't look great, there were still larger areas that were destroyed and the population had been more than halved. This city was almost entirely abandoned and there were monsters milling about some of the ruins of the city, not seemingly doing much of anything. Most buildings had been either knocked down or were beginning to fall apart, but the ones still standing had some monsters milling about in them.
Owen wanted to run out and clear out the city of any monster threat, but just for today, he needed to focus, they were already under a tight timer, there wasn't any need now to try and play hero for this city, when people were expecting them to do it for their own. Gritting his teeth he just rushed out of the car as soon as it had parked and began racing towards the tier 3 gate. Myra and Lucas were only a step behind, making it take less than thirty seconds to make it to the gate.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Without giving much preamble they jumped into the gate, hoping that this time it would be an easy one.
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*Welcome to the tier 3 gate, Safe Passage
Clear Condition: Guide the group of merchants through the mountain pass*
Owen nodded at the notification and turned to his group who eyes were filled with determination. Looking at their surroundings, it had looked like the gate had placed them in a mountain range that seemed to stretch all the way into the horizon. In front of them was a path that dipped down and trailed through the base of the mountain range, snaking through until it theoretically reached the opposite side of the mountains.
Owen was so busy staring at the surroundings, that Owen didn't even notice when Briar changed into its humanoid form. Finally turning his attention to his more immediate surroundings. He realized they were standing in a campsite with what looked to be dwarves sitting around cookpots eating. Shaking his head, Owen went to sit down, but Myra gestured for them to walk around the campsite. Groaning he stood back and began walking around the campsite with Myra. They had almost made an entire loop around before she said anything.
"Are you sure you're up for this? I know you were injured until not long ago and seeing as you don't have your skills back." She didn't get to finish her sentence as a screen popped up in front of her, while Owen had a stupid grin on his face. Owen couldn't help but feel proud about his new skill, especially since it was one he had both learned and created by himself. "Was this the one that almost got us killed in the car?" Myra asked, not able to hide some of the annoyance from her voice.
Owen smiled. "The very same, I managed to create this skill in the car ride over here and I don't think I'll have any issues keeping up if I use this skill. I tried it on several monsters and while the damage it does to them makes me want to somewhat throw up, it is still powerful." Myra nodded thoughtfully before she grew serious again. "I don't know if time works differently in here, but we should get these dwarves moving as fast as possible. I don't trust leaving Peggy back at the guild alone, even if Thomas and his group are her back up."
Owen agreed and after several minutes of trying to come up with a good excuse for them leaving early, they had made it back to where their friends were seated and Owen locked eyes with the humanoid looking Briar. "I may not have a brain, but I have an idea." Owen said doing his best impression. Myra slapped him lightly on the arm, but he just kept grinning.
Less than fifteen minutes later, a giant monster burst out of the foliage around the campsite. Dwarves rushed back and forth as they grabbed everything that they absolutely needed and began rushing down the path that led through the mountains. Myra, Owen and Lucas were quick to follow, with Myra moving to the front take the lead. Owen let himself slowly start to fall behind as the terrifying monster tore up the ground while chasing after them. As soon as the group started towards a bend in the path, Briar change back into its humanoid form looking amused at Owen who was still pretending to be terrified as he lied of the ground in the fetal position.
"Are we ready to chase after them again?" Briar asked and Owen got up smiling. "Yeah, let's do that." I didn't take them long to catch up with the back of the group, but as soon as Myra noticed they had rejoined, she pushed them at a relentless pace. It was only after several hours and many of the dwarves throwing up that Myra decided it was a good place to stop. They had managed to run past most of the monster that seemed to live in the canyon area. Though there had only been two different types they had noticed so far. One was a type of mountain goat that was able to turn different parts of it into a hard stone like material, blending in with the background. The other monster type was a golem like creature that had stayed at a distance, mostly focused on either throwing stones or eating them.
The next several hours were filled with running again, until they reached a large open area that had the path leading out of the mountains on the other side. Owen recognized it almost immediately, it was had to be a boss room. Moving up to the front of the group, Owen stood next to Lucas and Myra, as they called a halt to the group progression. Scanning the edges of the open terrain, none of them saw anything but they started coming up with a plan nonetheless. "I'll go first," Owen volunteered. That only got him angry stares from Myra until he explained himself. "I am both the fastest, most resilient and I have Briar if I immediately need back up. You guys focus and guiding the dwarves around the boss if it looks at all possible, then join me after the fact."
"I swear if you die," Myra started to say, but Owen pulled her into a tight hug. "I won't, don't worry, now let's do this we gotta get back to Peggy soon, don't we?" Myra scowled at him but didn't argue. She did change the plan somewhat from what Owen had been hoping for, she instead charged into the boss room with him and let Lucas worry about guiding the dwarves through the boss room to the other side.
Owen and Myra only made it about a quarter of the way into the boss room, before the boss showed up. A giant golem tore its way out of the earth, leaving crater more than 5 meters across. The monster itself stood more than 5 meters in the air and was shaped like one of the goats they had seen earlier. Tensing Owen prepared to launch himself forward, trying to activate his boosting skills, but cursed when he remembered he didn't have them anymore. Pulling out Piercing Heavens, Owen could only pray it wouldn't break as he channeled synergizing enhancement onto it's small blade. Briar also formed and prepared its attacks.
Myra was the first to throw herself against the golem monsters, giving Owen a chance to use keen eye without distraction.
*Capra Golem King - Level 40
This monster favors earth essence and can imbue both it's body and attack with it to boost both its defense and offense*
It swung its fist down towards Myra, who dodged at the last second, the attack sending shockwaves through the ground. Both Owen and Briar did their best to avoid them, but still got hit, though nothing had been enough to cause them damage yet. Preparing several fast thrusts in succession, Owen made sure he was charging as much energy into his spear as possible and couldn't hold back a grin and the metal that made up his spear still wasn't warping. Thrusting it forward quickly, he stabbed several times in the same location, trying to break past the defenses, but each time felt like he as stabbing into butter.
His spear glided through the rock exterior of the monster they were fighting and he suddenly realized why as earth essence sloughed off of the monsters in piles. It's whole body was kept together using mana and chaos energy just so happened to make mana run rampant. He continued his assault and without there being much of a fight, he eventually got the notification.
*You have slain Capra Golem King - Level 40.
10000 experience has been gained, 7500 experience has been consumed by your 1st grade soul.*
Sadly, just like the previous tier 3 gate, there weren't any loot drops, but given they were almost done, he ignored Myra's look of shock and started helping Lucas guide the dwarves to the opposite side of the arena, them getting the last notification just as the last dwarf left the area.
*You have successfully cleared a tier 3 gate.
15 out of 15 merchants safely made it to the exit. 200 credits awarded per merchant
You have successfully slain the boss monster, 1500 credits awarded.*
Everyone in their party just stared at the notification. "It was really that easy?" Lucas asked sounding disappointed. "I guess so?" Myra said sounding confused. Owen quickly explained his skill again describing the effects. "So, I was the perfect counter to that boss, nothing it could do would be faster than the disruption cause by chaos entering its system." He said proudly and the others just grinned back. "Well since that was hardly more than eight hours in there, let's leave and clear out the other one, before we head back. If all goes according to plan. We should be able to get back before a full day passes." Myra said and the three left towards the gate's exit all feeling a little miffed as Owen couldn't keep the stupid grin off of his face.