“Mind, you might just be a genius.” My voice echoed throughout the cramped room she’d led me into on the second floor. “If this works? I’ll buy it off you.”

Her face went a shade nearly matching her garnet eyes as she settled a brass saucer on my hip. “D-d-don’t make… fun of me.” She stuttered before retreating to the corner of the room.

Fanning my hand out on my breast, I gasped. “I would never. I genuinely believe your use of your Class is masterful, to create something like this.” With a flourish, I held up my newly gloved right hand.

[Prototype Hydromatic Blasting Glove - Uncommon

Charges - 15/15

Durability - Unknown

Description - Crafted by Mindy Emberstone, this glove grants the user the ability to use the spell Water Shot. As long as the attached water receiver is connected to a source of water, no charges will be consumed. Prototype Warning: May react strangely if exposed to lightning or cold energy.]

“You came up with this in less than a week–” I stopped mid sentence when I caught her flinching and, realizing how nervous she was, lowered my voice. “You made this in less than a week under a ton of stress and the System acknowledged it as an Uncommon. That’s amazing.”

She didn’t meet my eyes as she walked over and opened up the large window looking out over the courtyard in front of the shop. Out there, over a dozen [Ashen Tunnelers] hissed as they continued alternating between biting at the barrier and spraying acid at it. My eyes narrowed when I spotted the [Inferno Drone] that’d blindsided me and sent me careening out of the sky.

You’re my first target, you little shit. I wonder how you’ll like some water mana right in the face?

“Are you OK?” Mindy asked quietly. When I looked over at her, she frowned. “You had a sort of wicked smile on your face a second ago. Is everything alright?”

“Ah,” I pointed out at the offending monster. “That’s my first target. It knocked me out of the air and I want a bit of revenge.”

She nodded and we moved to stand in the large opening. I sighed mentally when I realized she was almost a foot taller than me. Before, she’d been cowering so much that I hadn’t noticed, but now it was obvious. The moment she lined up on the window, her hesitation was gone, replaced with calm resolve.

Combat suits her. I wonder why she doesn’t go out and adventure. Maybe it’s Marie not wanting to go? I should ask her after we deal with these snakey shits.

I took a deep breath before exhaling. “Three, two, one. Let ‘er rip.” Like a well oiled machine, the pair of us channeled water from a globe Mindy had produced and set hovering behind us as we launched [Water Shots] out the window.

Unlike my [Light Arrow], [Water Shot] was able to pierce through the barrier without even leaving a ripple behind. I let out a happy whoop when my first blast struck the [Inferno Drone] and marveled when it exploded on impact. With that taken care of, I turned my attention to the [Ashen Tunnelers] and was pleased to find the water-based attacks were far more effective against them than any of the other things I’d attempted were, including [Light Arrow] and [Psyknife].

“Who knew?” I mused as I let out a pair of water bolts from my forefinger and pinky at once, they simultaneously struck the same target in the head and chest, killing it instantly.

While I was a quick learner, Mindy was undoubtedly highly skilled in using water mana in combat. She was like an orchestra conductor as she weaved [Water Shots] in with [Aqua Slices] and, my favorite, [Raging Torrent]. The latter being a condensed beam of water no thicker than a copper coin she used to carve through half a dozen [Ashen Tunnelers] in as many seconds. It seemed to be Mana intensive, but from the effect it had, it appeared to be well worth it.

“What do you mean?” She asked as she reached back without looking and used [Hydrosphere] to replenish my dwindling ammunition.

“Despite their name, I didn’t put together that the [Ashen Tunnelers] were fire and earth attuned.” My glove hand started to heat up, so I stuck it in the [Hydrosphere] to cool down a bit. “I was using light Mana, which is downright terrible against both of those elements before I got blasted out of the sky. If it weren’t for [Backstab], I probably would have failed to even kill the one I sneak attacked.”

She didn’t respond for a minute as she focused on hitting the reinforcements hard with a trio of [Water Bombs]. They took the shape of large blue balls that the monsters somehow knew were dangerous as they left the barrier, or at least that’s what it looked like. The moment the trio of spheres exited the barrier, the fifty [Ashen Tunnelers] all turned and let loose on them with their acidic spit. Two of the bombs made it to their independent destinations, but the final one was disrupted enough that Mindy took it upon herself to detonate it early after lowering it down to almost street level.

The results were beyond my expectations.

There was a deep *whump* sound as the first [Water Bomb] went off, momentarily flooding the courtyard with high pressure water before it disappeared a few seconds later. The monsters assembled were devastated, nearly thirty of them were killed instantly and the remaining twenty were wiped out when the second bomb reached its destination at the mouth of an alley that let out in the courtyard. The final [Water Bomb] floated at the mouth of the other street that emptied into the courtyard like a sentinel, daring any monsters to come its way.

“Wow.” I let out a breath I hadn’t noticed I’d been holding and turned to look at Mindy. To my surprise, her eyes were closed and her whole body was shaking. “Hey, are you OK?”

I wanted to touch her shoulder, but knew better than to do that when someone I didn’t know was in the middle of something in a fight. I may have grown up sheltered, but my parents had instilled in me a deep understanding of proper etiquette for combat.

“It’s taking a lot not to have the last one go off.” She grunted. “The longer I hold it, the bigger the blast’ll be.” Her whole body shook, but she didn’t let it go.

We sat there for almost a minute, during which time Mindy let out a few squeaks of pain, before the biggest [Ashen Tunneler] yet came into view. It had to be fifteen feet tall, even standing on its tail, over double the size of the normal ones. Behind it was easily another hundred of the normal sized [Ashen Tunnelers]. In a bit of a panic, I let [Essence Reading] trigger again and gasped.

[Ashen Devastator - Rank C Monster

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Levels: 45

Vulnerabilities: Water, Ice

Immunities: Acid, Poison]

“How bad is it?” Mindy said through gritted teeth.

For a second, I considered lying to her, but what purpose would that have served?

With a grimace I started unleashing [Water Shots] at the monsters following the [Ashen Devastator]. “Pretty bad, if I’m being honest. It looks like we got the boss monster headed our way.” I changed targets and started peppering the beast with the gauntlet. “It plus a hundred of its ugliest friends.”

“Shit.” She swore for the first time in front of me. It shocked me so badly I nearly missed what she said next. “Tap my shoulder when the [Water Bomb] is in the middle of that horde and I’ll let it go.”

“What about the boss?” Even with a bigger blast radius, her [Water Bomb] wouldn’t hit the boss if she waited that long.

There was no answer for a long moment before it dawned upon me. “You’re going to use the barrier to hit it, aren’t you?”

“Can you distract it for a bit to let me get set up for that?” She hissed. “Marie’s been working on converting the barrier into a weapon to sell, but I haven’t tested it. I’ll need at least a minute or two to get it set up, during which the shop is going to be defenseless.”

Is this what Dominus would want me to do? I pondered silently and subconsciously triggered [Dominus’ Insight].

[Mindy is a pure soul who has been beaten down her entire life. Marie is her only living family member and she would drown the world to protect her, despite being the younger of the two. Her talents are significant and, with the right backer, she could be an invaluable vassal and companion with her healing and barrier abilities. Vassal Approval: 95%]

I guess I know what you think about her now, don’t I? I let out a snort. Time to play hero…

“I can survive a few minutes, but make the first shot count.” I watched the approaching army of large greyish tan snakes with a grimace. “I’m good, but I’m not invulnerable.”

She nodded curtly before going still as she waited for my signal.

Thirty seconds later, I gave it and I’ll never forget the feeling of the blast wave hitting me. It threw me back against the door of the small storage room and it felt like I’d been struck by Uncle Arlo’s warhammer in training. His [Might] was over five hundred, so I was more than a little impressed by Mindy’s big attack.

She sagged to the ground and, after peeling myself off the wall, I moved to help her up. The scene outside the window was both better and worse than I’d hoped for.

All of the average sized [Ashen Tunnelers] were gone, obviously destroyed by the blast, but the [Ashen Devastator] was an entirely different story. He stood up even taller than before and somehow he’d sprouted four more snake heads along his body until it became obvious what [Ashen Tunnelers] grew into.

[Ashen Hydras], the most feared monster in the foothills of volcanoes. Known for killing parties of adventurers ten levels higher than them and then hunting down their families. I would have been in trouble if this were a standard member of the species, but I wasn’t that lucky. This was a boss variant with ten levels on me and I’d just agreed to tank it for at least two minutes.

“Well… fuck me.” I muttered under my breath as I helped Mindy down the stairs as the newly evolved [Ashen Hydra Devastator] roared indignantly.

Marie met us at the bottom of the stairs with a confused look. “What happened to her? Did the barrier fail?”

“Nope, but it’s about to.” I gently levered Mindy into her sister’s waiting arms. “Mindy was going to use the energy from it and turn it into a weapon of sorts.” I looked at the water mage with a small smile. “She’s done an amazing job so far, but the [Ashen Hydra Devastator] outside could kill everyone in this city by itself if we don’t deal with it. Mindy’s our only hope of taking it down without sacrificing a hell of a lot of people.”

Or a lot of elementals, but I don’t think the Elemental Monarchs would appreciate me doing that very much. I really like [Elemental Pactlord] and don’t want to risk losing it by pissing them off unless I absolutely have to. It’s on the table, but not until we’ve tried everything else first.

To her credit, Marie didn’t flinch. “Alright. I’ll help her get everything ready for Big Bertha.” Seeing the look on my face, she clarified. “It’s what I’ve been calling the water cannon.”

Unable to help myself, I chuckled, earning me a glare from the shopkeeper. “Hey, you haven’t had to name almost a dozen different new recipes for the system, I have. Having a test name until you complete whatever you’re working on is smart, or you’ll accidentally name it something dumb when you complete it.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” I went through my potion bandolier and confirmed everything was in place. I had a feeling I’d be burning through my good stuff if I didn’t want to end up beaten and bloody. “I’ll be outside when you drop the barrier. Hopefully that’ll stop huge, grey, and scaly from taking a bite out of your shop.” I threw a half-hearted Clan Ironwind salute, dominant hand clasped over the heart with forefinger, middle finger, and ring finger out.

Honor, Precision, and Victory. Hopefully I can live up to those today and make gramps proud. The few times I met him, he bragged about killing an [Ashen Hydra] as a younger dwarf.

Just before stepping outside, I figured it would be a good idea to go through my notifications. I wasn’t stalling… OK, I was, but I really didn’t want to get eaten and the hydra in front of me stood nearly thirty feet tall now with five acid dripping heads.

[Multiple Skills Acquired with Skill Dominance (Placed in order of acquisition)

Healing Waters

Runesmithing

Hydrosphere

Water Shot

Aqua Slice

Raging Torrent

Water Bomb]

[Active Skills - Mastery

Skill Dominance - 30%]

Not a ton of things useful to me in there, but I guess it can’t hurt to have them available. I guess Marie really is a Runesmith, or I wouldn’t have picked the Skill up. I might just have to have her make me some things when the Tower issue is sorted out.

With a sigh, I shook my head and muttered under my breath. “No one else is going to tank this thing, it’s up to you to protect Mindy and Marie until Mindy can kill it.” Before I could talk myself out of it, I stepped through the door and shut it behind me.

Two feet in front of me stood the gleaming cerulean barrier and again I marveled at it. I knew Mom could do something similar, but it drained a hell of a lot of her Mana from what I remembered. The fact that Mindy had come up with a more efficient barrier technology was truly inspiring. Essence reading triggered on the barrier and the monster behind it simultaneously.

[Mindy’s Geodesic Barrier

Formed from water Mana, this barrier is nearly immune to most damage, including all physical strikes, taking only one percent of the damage and losing a drop of water from the reserve per point done. However effective it is with most damage types, it does nothing to prevent radiant and water spells from passing through it.]

Genius. Great Auntie is going to want to apprentice her, I can feel it. As a [Riptide Caller] she and Mindy have a lot in common, including their love of barriers. I really have to connect those two at some point.

[Ashen Devastator Hydra - Rank A Raid Boss

Levels: 52

Vulnerabilities: Water, Ice

Immunities: Acid, Poison

Chosen of Dominus: This creature has been exposed to Devourer’s control. It knows you are my Chosen and will target you, and only you, as long as you are within five miles of it unless someone or something does grievous damage to it. Killing it will grant you bonus Stats as well as a boon from me, though escape is still a valid option. Discretion is the better part of valor for a ruler after all.]

Well, that’s not great. How did that happen? I groaned as the barrier in front of me flickered for a moment as the big beasty slammed his heads into it all at once while staring at me with blood red eyes. Nothing really changes, but now I know it’s personal. I wonder what kind of stats and boon I’ll get if we kill it?

The behemoth slapped the end of its tail against the ground hard enough to shake the building and a moment later the barrier failed entirely.

Triggering [Haste] and [Air Step], I launched myself toward the creature before my nerves could get the better of me.