The scouting drones buzzed back into Seth's workshop, their lenses glowing faintly with the information they'd collected. Seth had them patrolling the area constantly looking for threats. Seth activated the holographic display and examined the images they transmitted. His brow furrowed as the images revealed a vast horde of twisted creatures gathering in the wasteland a few miles from Olympus' outer walls.
"This isn't good," Seth muttered.
A towering behemoth lumbered amidst the seething mass of monsters, its grotesque form easily triple the size of the largest beasts surrounding it. Rows of jagged spines protruded along its hunched back. Fleshy tentacles whipped from its gaping maw, slimy strands dripping with viscous fluids.
Seth switched views, analyzing the horde's numbers and composition. By his estimates, there were thousands of creatures - everything from lumbering ogres and hulking werewolves to packs of feral direwolves and buzzing insectoid swarms. He sent the data directly to Calvin and the Council.
In his private chambers, Calvin studied the images and accompanying reports with a grim expression. So it had finally come to this. He reached out with his mind, feeling the power thrumming within his body after reaching level 71 in the dungeon trials. His available skill and skill evolution glowed like embers in his mind's eye. He would think on this.
In the city's training grounds, Tank bellowed orders as squads of soldiers maneuvered through complex drills. Beside him stood Amy, her lithe form contrasting his bulky frame as they oversaw the intense preparations.
"I want our first elite assault unit ready to mobilize in three days," Tank growled. "They'll be the tip of the spear when we hit that behemoth's forces."
Amy nodded, eyes narrowing as she scrutinized the soldiers' techniques. "Agreed. I'll handpick the most skilled fighters to form the core."
She glanced over at Navarro, who was supervising her own troops through a series of weapons drills. The grizzled sergeant caught Amy's gaze and gave a curt nod.
"Navarro's soldiers will supplement our numbers for this operation," Amy said. "We'll need their extra firepower."
The sounds of clanging metal and shouted orders filled the air as the soldiers redoubled their efforts, fueled by a sense of urgency. Every fighter knew the stakes riding on repelling this approaching threat.
In his workshop, Seth was a blur of activity, tinkering with various prototypes amid a clutter of tools and materials. A fresh batch of power cores and advanced components had arrived with the resource caches they'd earned from their tutorial rewards. Newly crafted plasma rifles and railguns were carefully assembled, their alien designs a blend of human ingenuity and system-granted knowledge.
Humming with satisfaction, Seth performed a final diagnostic on the weapons' energy capacitors and beam-focusing arrays. These were no ordinary firearms - each packed enough searing plasma or magnetically accelerated slugs to slice through even the toughest behemoth hide.
Once the armaments were complete, Seth made preparations to distribute them among Olympus' ranged specialists in time for the coming battle. With these in their arsenal, the horde would face the full might of human innovation.
Outside, the hazy afternoon sun cast long shadows as soldiers hurried through the streets, checking equipment and readying supplies. A sense of determination hung in the air, a quiet resolve to defend their fledgling bastion against any threat.
Calvin emerged onto a balcony overlooking the training grounds, Amy and Tank at his side. He watched the disciplined ranks moving through their paces with a critical eye. When the call came, these would be the finest warriors under his command.
"Prepare yourselves," he said, voice carrying over the din. "We march to drive back the darkness in three days."
Amy and Tank nodded grimly, flanking their leader as he turned to re-enter the command center. Though the odds seemed bleak, they would face this behemoth's onslaught with the full force of Olympus at their backs.
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"Andy. Can you walk me through the skill forge? How does it work?" Calvin asked. He was seated in the throne in the Hall of the Aegis going over his skill choices.
"Of course." the android said. "The skill forge allows you to exchange skill tokens and materials to either create or fundamentally alter a skill. When creating a skill, you're presented with base options such as, Offensive, defensive, support, and you can further refine the skill by defining it as a weapon skill or purely magical in nature. While in the skill forge menu, you can continue adding components to the skill at the cost of additional resources. The more powerful the resource, the more powerful the upgrade. When altering your own skill, it works similar to evolution except you get to choose from selections of components to add to the skill for resources."
"Interesting. So I can take one of my current skills and beef it up."
"That's correct. The nature of the options presented to you will depend on the resource components you add to the forge. For example, if you took a standard fireball skill for example, and added an ice essence stone. You may be presented with options to add ice related effects to the fireball. If you added something like an Ice behemoth core, you might completely change the skill to being primarily ice in nature. Upon selecting the component, you can continue adding components and coins to add more effects. In this way, you can continually upgrade a single skill as long as you continue providing tokens. Some of the most powerful skills in system space have been forged over millennia."
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Calvin thought on that for a moment. He hadn't really considered that with the nature of the system, they might live far longer than humans normally lived. Really, every day had been a struggle to just make it to the next day. Thinking hundreds or thousands of years in the future wasn't even on the table for Calvin currently
"Alright. I think I'm going to give it a shot."
Calvin considered his options. He could gamble for a completely new skill or he could upgrade a tried and true to make it even better. He also needed to make his current skill selection and with the knowledge of the skill forge, he now had a different aspect to consider. He might see paths to upgrade skill choices he received now or in the future. With that he dove back into his skill menu to consider his options and make his choice.
It didn't take long before he settled on a very powerful option. With the fight coming up, he was going to need another solid damaging skill that was effective against large numbers as well as single target.
Stormlord's Judgement: The Stormlancer calls down a massive bolt of lightning from the heavens, striking a targeted area and dealing immense electrical damage in a sizable radius. The power of this strike is directly proportional to the Stormlancer's current storm essence.
Calvin could already imagine the havok this would wreak on the battlefield. Considering his next course of action, he decided to use his evolution point on this skill as well.
Stormlord's Divine Judgement: The Stormlancer calls down a massive bolt of lightning from the heavens, striking a targeted area and dealing immense electrical damage in a sizable radius. The power of this strike is directly proportional to the Stormlancer's current storm essence. The lightning bolt rips through the air with such power that it tears a short-lived rift through space itself. Opening up directly to the dimension of storms. While open, the rift generates fierce winds and chaotic lightning strikes. Enemies in the direct vicinity of the rift risk being pulled into it.
And now he felt a little bad. This skill sounded pretty unfair. He almost wanted to run it through the skill forge too and beef it up, but that was just greed talking, and probably not the wisest move. He should really consider all of his skills in the next battle and see where the biggest gaps are for him in his personal power. This would be their first confrontation with such a massive horde and with such a large coordinated strike on his part. Olympus was evolving from a single party of powerful people to a full blown military force, and he would need to consider how his capabilities played into that. So, for now, he tabled his desire to pop into the skill forge.
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The day had arrived. The elite force of Olympus readied themselves to march against the horde. Weapons were checked, armor donned, and provisions packed. Calvin stood before his warriors on the steps of the Grand Hall, eyes resolute.
"Today we face our greatest challenge yet," he addressed the troops. "The forces arrayed against us are vast and led by a behemoth of immense power. But we are the defenders of humanity! We will not falter."
A thunderous cheer erupted from the assembled soldiers. Rank after rank of Olympians - warriors, archers, mages, healers - stood ready. Tank and Reaper commanded the vanguard, while Ian oversaw the mages and Marshall organized the medical corps, prepared for the inevitable bloodshed.
With a nod, Calvin signaled the march to begin. The great gates of Olympus groaned open and the army flowed out in disciplined ranks. They made their way across the ravaged terrain, past ruined buildings and shattered roads. Drones scouted ahead, feeding intelligence to the commanders.
Several miles out, Calvin called a halt. Raising his fist, ranks of soldiers took defensive positions amid the rubble. Snipers found overwatch spots as mages wove protective wards. Reaper's voice crackled over the comm channel.
"Horde is half a click northwest. Counting at least two thousand hostiles so far. And that behemoth is one ugly son of a bitch."
Freya growled at Calvin's side. Amy laid a hand on his arm.
"Ready when you are, Calvin."
He nodded grimly and turned his gaze northwest. And that's when he saw it - the behemoth stood towering above the lesser monsters, its massive horned head swiveling with eerie intelligence as it surveyed the horde. It opened its great maw, exposing rows of dagger-like fangs, and let loose a thunderous roar.
The horde surged forward in a tide of gnashing jaws and rending claws.
"Archers! Mages! Fire at will!" Calvin's voice boomed.
A torrent of arrows and arcane energies lashed out, cutting down scores of the onrushing beasts. But more surged forward, clambering over the bodies of their fallen kin. The behemoth reared back, then slammed its forelimbs down with planet-shaking force, sending fissures ripping through the ground toward the Olympian ranks. Tank's autocannon mixed with the staccato bursts of Seth's drones. Their powerful munitions obliterated the enemy by scores. The wave was unending though. A powerful behemoth core infused round fired out from a massive artillery drone Seth had sent with them.
"Brace! Incoming shockwave!" Seth barked.
The warriors dug in as the destructive force slammed into their positions in a hail of rubble and dust. When it cleared, the horde was almost upon them. Tank's vanguard locked shields as the first wave of drooling, snapping jaws crashed against their line.
Calvin gripped his spear tightly, feeling the lightning coiling within him. He scanned the field, his eyes narrowing as he watched the behemoth. The massive creature seemed to be... directing the monsters, gesturing with its immense claws to coordinate their assault. A cold realization washed over him.
This thing was intelligent.
Howls and shrieks split the air as the horde pressed the attack. Calvin raised his spear high, azure energy crackling around the blade. He had to end this quickly.
"Divine Judgement!"
Reality itself seemed to tear open as a maelstrom of lightning and screaming winds erupted from the rift. The cyclonic blast scythed through the horde, incinerating hundreds in an instant. The behemoth staggered, blasted by the fury of Calvin's power.
But it didn't fall. Shaking its horned head, the behemoth glared at Calvin with eyes burning with malign sentience. It opened its maw once more, this time unleashing a deafening roar that seemed to reverberate in Calvin's soul.
Olympus' soldiers faltered, some dropping their weapons to clutch at ears streaming blood. Calvin clenched his jaw, forcing himself to remain upright as the soundwaves pummeled him. Through sheer force of will, he fought through the pain.
As the others began to recover, they regrouped and held the line. Reaper and the drones turned their attention fully to the behemoth now.
The behemoth weathered the assault, its footsteps shaking the ground as it began advancing on Calvin's position, ignoring the frantic attacks of the Olympians as they struggled to regroup. It fixed Calvin with that unsettlingly intelligent glare.
Unease gripped Calvin's heart. If this thing could think, could strategize... what did that mean for the battles to come?