Blake stalked through the forest with Dampen Sound active. He had already used Mind Sense to locate the pack of Lupus and now focused on his ambush. The Aether based spell easily hid the crunch of leaves and branches from the creature's delicate ears.
Unfortunately, it did nothing for his scent.
The wind, which had been sporadic since he stepped through the portal, suddenly switched direction, and two of the five wolf-like monsters abruptly raised their snouts to sniff the air. A moment later, their barks alerted the others of an incoming threat.
Damnit! Stupid wind!
This was the seventh time Blake attempted to ambush a pack of Lupus, and the seventh failure. However, the changing wind was not always to blame. Once he got close to the pack, his visible form consistently gave him away. While their vision was actually worse than a human’s, their eyes easily picked up his movement.
I need something to hide my outline.
Blake canceled the channeled spell and gave up all pretense of stealth. Before the level two monsters could react, he used a Guided Spatial Step to close the distance and loosed a Directed Mind Blast.
Four Lupus yelped simultaneously and crashed to the ground, stunned. The fifth barely escaped his psionic spell and sprinted toward him. As it neared, its movement slowed, and its entire body began to glow with chi.
Hardened Shell. Poor choice.
It leapt toward his throat and showed fangs gleaming with chi. However, its defensive spell slowed its movement enough for Blake to take advantage. He raised his spear and channeled chi into its tip.
Just as the creature was about to collide with him, Blake thrust his weapon forward. The imbued tip penetrated its defense and sank deep into its chest, despite the Lupus’ Hardened Shell.
A moment later, the glow of its fangs dimmed, and life left its eyes.
Blake kicked the corpse off his spear and activated Alacrity. He sprinted toward the nearest downed creature, with twenty-five percent greater speed, and quickly ended its life. After he deftly retrieved his spear, he executed another downed beast before the final two recovered.
Suddenly, he felt his speed return to normal as a Slow only partially affected him. At the same time, he was blinded by a Flash of Light.
Both of them use aether, good.
While they channeled their spells, their focus was split, which reduced their combat effectiveness. He immediately backpedaled while blinded and cast Gale. A second later, he directed a gust of wind before him.
Both Lupus were caught within the spell.
They were forcibly thrown away by the pressure wave, and Blake was no longer constrained by their channeled spells. He immediately cast Focused Regeneration on his eyes, and then blinked them repeatedly to restore his vision.
Come on, come on.
A few moments later, his Alacrity expired, and he raised his spear to intercept the blurry shape headed his way. The tip pierced its jaw, but failed to end its life. Before it could escape his grasp, he yanked his spear to the side and sent the Lupus airborne.
It sailed through the air twenty feet and rolled. Meanwhile, its pack mate did not remain idle. It used Minor Illusion to create a copy of itself, and made it appear as if two monsters angled toward him. When Blake could not immediately discern which wolf was real, he used Mind Sense to pierce through the illusion, which sent a spike of pain into his brain.
Got you!
The fake creature failed to return a mental signature. Despite his knowledge, he pretended not to know which was real and turned toward the fake. The real Lupus continued to maneuver the duplicate closer while it closed the gap.
When it was only a few feet away, it leapt forward and simultaneously sent its duplicate in from the opposite direction. Blake ignored the fake copy, whirled, and skewered the real Lupus with his spear.
“Nice try.”
He easily mopped up the last Lupus of the group and checked his status.
Nano: 31m
Just enough to increase another attribute.
Blake had already completed one scenario that morning, and spent thirty mega-nano to increase his Magic Power to sixteen point nine. Most of his new spells benefited from the attribute, and it had been tied with Magic Stamina as his lowest.
What should I increase next?
Blake noticed most of his energy levels were low and opened his status to check his attribute allocation.
Attributes - Increased by 69%
Physical Power - 28.7[3]
Physical Stamina - 22[1]
Physical Resistance - 22[3]
Magic Power - 16.9
Magic Stamina - 15.2
Magic Resistance - 25.4[3]
Magic Stamina was now his weakest attribute at fifteen point two. It determined how quickly his energy levels recovered, and would need to be increased if he wanted to continue to complete two scenarios per day. With twice the amount of spells to cast, he had finally begun to consume the majority of his energy.
Since Blake chose his level two spells with the Lupus in mind, he wanted to round out his attributes to counteract the imbalance. That way, when he reached level three, he could finally choose a more generalized path. His days of grinding a single species were likely over.
Okay, Magic Stamina it is.
Blake spent thirty mega-nano and increased the attribute. Once his selection was made, he checked the scenario objective and found that only a single pack remained.
I should wait a bit before I kill the last pack.
All of his energy reserves were low, but most were high enough to get him through one last battle. It was only his aether that was below ten percent. While he stalked the Lupus packs, he kept his new spell, ‘Dampen Sound’ active, which consumed energy at a steady rate.
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While he waited for his reserves to regenerate, he checked up with his mother and Jessica. He was glad to hear that steady progress had been made in both towns, and Blake found himself barely able to keep up with the many changes.
The Payson expansion’s faction hall was level two, and they now worked diligently on building a warehouse with the two constructors the upgrade allowed. Once it was completed, they would be able to transport any necessary materials to the town without having to hook up a flatbed trailer and haul it.
It was necessary, as all level two buildings required off world materials, and there were no combat teams stationed at the budding village. Blake would have liked to establish another team immediately, but according to Jessica, none of her workers had volunteered.
They were excited by the technology of the nano-machines, and what they could build with their aid, but still treated their new responsibility as a job. The Payson workers only put in forty hours of labor per week, despite the overtime Jessica offered them.
Maybe I should stop by and talk to them.
Blake was sure he could properly motivate them if he paid a visit, but he was concerned someone might turn him in if they discovered he was wanted by the police. The ‘onboarding document’ he and his mother had written never mentioned his identity, nor his recent exploits. It only contained information about the Collective, how it worked, and when major events like Invasion day would take place.
An hour and a half later, a notification appeared in his vision. He opened the message and was surprised by what it said.
As the first of your species to have all attributes break through their unenhanced limits, your achievement has been upgraded. - [Super Human] → [Limit Breaker]
The [Limit Breaker] achievement awards you four of every attribute.
What? That doesn’t make any sense. All my attributes have been over ten for weeks!
Blake immediately poured over his status to determine where his assumptions were wrong. He finally discovered his mistake when he removed the sixty-nine percent attribute gain from the total. Without that percent increase, his Magic Power and Magic Stamina were at ten. At least, they were before his achievement was upgraded. Now, they were both at twelve.
Why does it count the flat increases toward the achievement, but not the percent?
Blake shook his head.
Just one more stupid thing the Architect does.
He opened his status to see how high his new attributes would be once the nanomachines completed their job.
Attributes - Increased by 69%
Physical Power - 28.7→(32.1)[3]
Physical Stamina - 22→(25.4)[1]
Physical Resistance - 22→(25.4)[3]
Magic Power - 16.9→(20.3)
Magic Stamina - 16.9→(20.3)
Magic Resistance - 25.4→(28.7)[3]
That’s ridiculous.
Blake had just gained an entire level’s worth of attributes, and he was still able to increase them ten more times before he leveled. It was a huge advantage, and would allow him to drastically move up his timetable.
I can’t believe people had this kind of advantage and wasted it.
After his brother recorded the time he took to brew a potion and the progress each success made towards mastery, Blake had helped him calculate how much time it would take to unlock the scent potion. As long as his success rate stayed the same, it would take around a hundred and eighty hours to unlock the scent potion.
That number ignored his current lack of supplies. Oliver would be forced to take time away from his work to travel to the goblin planet and harvest plants after Jeff and his group cleared the scenario. By his calculations, if his brother worked around the clock, it would take him at least three weeks to produce a scent potion.
With only two and a half months left until Invasion, that was far too long.
Now I don’t have to wait.
Blake still planned to max out all of his attributes before he attempted a Lupus scenario two levels above him, but that would take him just three more days.
Since he no longer needed to wait on Oliver, he would also hold off on evolving his spells. It would be weeks before he mastered them, and he wanted to use the level four materials to get started on the faction hall upgrade as soon as possible.
Blake found it funny that it was not the nano costs that held him back, but his mastery. In his past life, he had plenty of time to master his spells before he leveled. It was always the expense that held him back. This time, however, he could easily raise the required nano in less than a week.
How things change.
Blake chuckled to himself at the reversal, but the laugh turned to a grimace when he suddenly realized his mistake.
Why the hell did I have to choose Dampen Sound?
Now that he no longer needed to ambush the Lupus, he regretted unlocking the aether spell. With an additional full level’s worth of attributes, he would be far better served by Flash of Light or Force Resistance.
Although… Maybe once Oliver unlocks the potion, I can use it to upgrade my Master Solo Warrior achievement again.
It took almost three hours for the nanomachines to finish their work. By the time they were done, his aetheric energy was at forty-one percent, and he was long past ready to go.
With his high attributes, the final pack was effortlessly eliminated, and he chose a pair of boots as his reward. His new footwear not only self repaired, but increased his Magic Stamina by two. That attribute was important, because the changes he intended to make to most of his spells would vastly increase their energy cost.
Blake exited the portal in north-west Snowflake, and drove back to their base of operations. The trip took him forty-five minutes, and by the time he pulled through the gate, he was hungry for his father’s gourmet food.
It was long after dark, yet a crowd of workers remained. His headlights illuminated at least ten people as they stood in a circle near the faction hall.
What the hell’s going on?
Blake parked his old diesel truck, which had yet to be converted to crank start, and quickly strode over to see what the commotion was all about. He weaved through the gathered workers and finally saw what had their attention.
Jerome, the young man he had injured over three weeks before, kneeled on the ground, mouth duct taped shut, and hands bound behind his back. His mother stood next to the captive and tried to soothe the crowd’s tension. When she saw his approach, she let out a sigh of relief and said, “Good, you’re finally here!”
“What’s going on? Why didn’t you call me through holo-chat?”
“I was trying to handle everything on my own,” Donna explained over the angry murmurs of the crowd. “Although, that hasn’t worked out so well,” she admitted.
Blake glanced down at Jerome. “Why’s he tied up? What did he do?”
“I followed him to the sheriff’s office,” explained a nearby man in his thirties.
On closer inspection in the dark, he was revealed to be Kasey, Jerome’s team leader. He scowled as he threw a look of disgust down at his subordinate.
“Did he tell the cops anything?” Blake asked.
Kasey shook his head. “No. I kicked his ass and brought him back before he had a chance.”
Blake let out a sigh of relief.
When he allowed the man to join their faction, he had been under no illusions about the man’s loyalty. He was glad he had pulled Kasey aside and informed the new team leader that he would share all responsibility for Jerome’s actions. That included any retribution Blake would hand out if he tried to collect the reward.
Looks like Kasey took the job seriously.
At the time, he felt the decision was better than the alternatives. The only other options were to jail him or kill him. He had feared something like this might happen and had taken steps to protect against it. Blake had even assigned someone besides Kasey to keep track of the malcontent.
“Good job,” Blake praised the man. After his gaze returned to the bound man, he said, “Looks like the jail’s going to get some use after all.”
“Blake!” his mother admonished. “We can’t just hold him here forever!”
“We don’t have to. Invasion day is in just two and a half months,” he reminded her. “After that, we can turn him loose, and he’ll be someone else’s problem.”
“But…” she desperately looked to the crowd for support, but found none. “He at least needs a fair trial!”
He shook his head sadly. “A trial might make you feel better, but the verdict’s already a foregone conclusion. He’s guilty.” Blake put a hand on his mother’s shoulder and tried to calm her down. “Think of it this way, mom. Not only will he be perfectly safe until Invasion day, but when we release him, he’ll have an advantage others won’t. He’s upgraded at least four attributes already and has experience fighting monsters. He’ll be fine,” Blake assured her.
When she ran out of arguments, he turned and spoke to the crowd with a raised voice. “Kasey here just saved a lot of lives. If Jerome had told the police about our town, they would’ve come to arrest us all. Obviously, I can’t let that happen. A lot of cops would’ve died, and possibly some of us. I don’t know how far things would have escalated in the end, and I don’t want to know. Luckily, we have a jail for instances just like this. He’s going to rot down there until Invasion day. After that, his greed can’t hurt us anymore.”
Blake saw a few heads nod in agreement, and was relieved he would not have to add even more people to the cells. He lifted Jerome into his arms, carried him through the front door of the faction hall, and then down the stairs into the cells below.