Chapter 22: Mana Bolt Destruction

I was clad in my ‘Armor of the Shallow Rat’, my equipment gray and black. My ‘Cloak of Slumber’ still hung from me, blending in with my armor. My ruby-colored ‘Vanquisher’ was on my back, and my shield hung on my left arm. The face mask I wore hung around my neck, simply because I didn’t care much for covering my face, and I was glad I didn’t get a helmet instead. I quite disliked anything but my hands covering my ears, even keeping my hair tidied away from it.

The city wasn’t too large, though it could just seem that way as I quickly moved through the streets, passing NPCs. I wasn’t sure what quest I would find, or where to look. Generally, an outstanding figure or something would approach a player to present the quest. I made it near the dock, seeing fisherman and various boats and ships lined up. Out further in the sea, a few ships were approaching.

A bell started ringing out leading to shouts within the vicinity.

“Monsters are coming from the forest!”

“Hide in your homes! Call in the Imperial Navy!”

“The Mermen are fast approaching, some are blocking the path of the Imperial Navy!”

[System Notice: Quest received. Choose a path to follow:

* A: Defend Nysel City Port by defeating the forest creatures

* B: Defend Nysel City Port by destroying the Mermen’s ships

* C: Prevent the Imperial Navy from reaching Nysel City Port

* D: Destroy Nysel City Port (Note: You will not receive quest completion, but may open up new quests)

Do you accept the quest? Y/N]

I looked at the quest, and I decided to accept it. Really, there had been no reason why I would not accept the quest. The faster I climbed, the faster I would get out of this tower. Regarding the quest’s options, I was thinking about doing ‘A’. I didn’t think my ‘Vanquisher’ would reach the ships, at least not until they came closer, and what reason would I have of preventing the Navy or of destroying the city?

I left the port, running back towards the area where the shack had been.

“Remaining mobs!”

[System Notice: There are 134 mobs remaining. Mobs cleared: 4/138]

Someone else has begun clearing the mobs! The first thing that came to mind, I decided to ask the system. “System, how can I conquer the floor if other people are getting my kills?”

[System: In order to qualify for conquering a floor, all mobs must be cleared. The player who has cleared 75% or more of the designated mobs will be considered the conqueror.]

I see. I finally made it over to the city outlier, and could see mobs running out from the forest beyond. There were some others here, some were guards, some looked like adventurers. I couldn’t identify who was a player, if any of these people were.

“Defend Nysel!” A guard shouted, and some of the men around raised the weapons, preparing for the arrival of the beasts. I checked out which mobs these were, as they were coming out of the forest. The first one I spotted was bigger than the others following after it. It had a scorpion’s tail, a lion’s head, a behemoth’s body, and some wings that looked like it belonged to a demon or a bat.

[Behemoth Chimera, Lv22]

The others behind it were various other Chimera-types - wolves, lions, and some bird types. The biggest was this Behemoth version. It was of a higher level than the others, which were between 17-20. They were all of a higher level than Raash Miira Guugi had been, though they lacked a name or title.

I pulled ‘Vanquisher’ from my back, holding it out in front of me as I took aim. The Behemoth Chimera roared as it noticed that a human dared point a weapon at it. Its charge changed, now making haste as it charged over to me. Upon hearing its roar, the other Chimera began a focused charge more in my general direction. I activated {Mana Bolt}, using the minimum of five mana to create it. The bolt lodged itself into ‘Vanquisher’ instantly, and I pulled the trigger, releasing the bolt. I could see the face of the Behemoth Chimera contort as that bolt released. The blue bolt of mana traveled quickly, inserting itself directly into the lion-like face of the Behemoth Chimera, before dispersing into residual mana.

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[Behemoth Chimera, Lv22, takes 15600 damage. {Lucky Strike!} Behemoth Chimera, Lv22, takes additional 31200 damage.]

[System Notice: You gained 2500 EXP.]

I looked down at my ‘Vanquisher’ in disbelief, “Oh.” The only words I could manage at the time. The following Chimera halted their charges as they fled away back into the forest. The guards and other adventurers or mercenaries, whatever they were, all looked in my direction as my ‘Vanquisher’ was still pointed in the direction the Behemoth Chimera died.

Their gaze still on me, I started walking toward the forest. I never received a notification informing me I completed the quest, so I desired to finish it. I transfigured ‘Vanquisher’ into ‘Ashen Gladius’, considerably dropping my damage, though it shouldn’t be too much of a problem now that Luck was the damage modifier.

I made it into the forest, and some of the Chimera stopped as they looked at the human who killed the Behemoth Chimera. I looked back towards them, steps slow as the sun was drowned out beneath the trees. A Wolf Chimera pounced out, bearing its shark-like teeth at me, striking my legs.

[You took 0 damage from Wolf Chimera, Lv17.]

My leg armor, ‘Shallow Rat’s Nagascale Trousers’, brushed the damage off. The Chimera hadn’t been able to break through the defense they brought, which when formulated properly, came out to 802. If I increased my Vitality further, it would increase even more. I cut into the Wolf Chimera dealing 1,473 damage. It died a swift death.

[System Notice: You gained 1200 EXP.]

Now that I had invaded their territory, they gave up all qualms of fleeing, instead deciding to slaughter their enemy. I activated {Goblin’s Recovery Hymn}, then something unexpected happened.

[System Notice: By using {Goblin’s Recovery Hymn} while possessing {Troll’s Blood}, {Assimilation} has created the new ability, {Heart and Soul of a Troll}. {Goblin’s Recovery Hymn} and {Troll’s Blood} have been deleted.]

{Heart and Soul of a Troll} - A passive ability. You regenerate 10% of your max HP every five seconds in addition to an amount equal to your Vitality. You regenerate 1% of your max MP every minute in addition to an amount equal to your Intelligence.

Another impressive ability. An attack came from the side, so I met teeth with blade. Then another attack came, so I activated {Shrouded Blink}. I blinked up towards the trees, transfiguring ‘Ashen Gladius’ to ‘Vanquisher’, loaded a mana bolt for five mana, and shot a target, then another as I made my way to the ground.

More enemies came towards me, so I shot again before a different Chimera activated my second blink. I swapped between ‘Ashen Gladius’ and ‘Vanquisher’ as I decimated various Chimera before finally receiving a notification.

[System Notice: Quest completed. You chose path ‘A’. You have completed 1/2 quests.]

I received no reward, but I gained a ton of experience points, allowing me to reach level nine before I received the quest notification. I had then threw my two attribute points into Luck.

“Remaining mobs!”

[System Notice: There are 89 mobs remaining. Mobs cleared: 49/138.]

I had cleared 38 mobs, and four were already cleared. So in the time it took me to clear out 38, someone or a party had cleared seven.

I left the forest, walking through the path of carnage I left behind. My mana quickly regenerated while my health had remained full the entire time. None of the mobs hit high enough to break through my armor.

Out of the forest, I saw the few guardsmen that had been there before. More were running from the outlier of the city towards the inside of Nysel. They may have been headed towards the port to fend off the Mermen that had been approaching.

I decided to follow them, ignoring the looks of others as I walked in my filthy set of armor. The blood of the Chimeras had been various colors, not the deep red of humans, so I had been mixed with different colors of blood. I looked like a mess, but headed onward anyways.

I swiftly approached the port area, able to see the battle afar. Ships of what could only be the Mermen that had been yelled about earlier were at combat with ships waving a white flag. The flag was quite simple, an anchor upon it and the words “Nysel Kingdom Imperial Navy” could be seen. I was expecting to see some ships closer to the bay as a few of the Mermen ships were holding off the navy, but there was one ship that was fighting off multiple ships, both the Navy and the Mermen.

That ship was huge in comparison, and the flag it bore was black, with a mad looking skull surrounded in a torrent of water. Then, one of the Mermen’s ships exploded from the fire put out by what I assumed was a pirate ship.

[System Notice: Unaffiliated NPCs have cleared mobs. Total mob count has decreased. Remaining mobs: 87. Mobs cleared: 50/137.]

Shit, that is going to interrupt my conquering of the floor. I ran as close to the water as I could to get a better view and hope I could get a clear shot. If the NPC was reducing the ships, which were considered mobs, I needed to get my piece of the pie.

I couldn’t calculate exactly how far the closest Mermen ship was to me, but I aimed my ‘Vanquisher’ at it anyway. I infused ‘Vanquisher’ with a ‘Hellfire Flask’ by using {Bladefire Infusion}. It worked, and I then conglomerated a mana bolt using 60 mana points. I didn’t know how the multiplier worked yet, but I hoped it would not let me down. The size of the bolt increased, and in return, ‘Vanquisher’ followed suit. I was sure it would have dragged me down to the floor if not for the requirements being negated through {Spin!}.

I held the enormous ‘Vanquisher’, pulling the trigger and hoping it would reach. The bolt shot out much faster than it had ever before, the ‘Vanquisher’ returning to its normal size. I was pushed back from the force of the bolt being launched, and as I recovered my stance, a ship blew up.

And then another.

And one final one.

I destroyed three ships as the bolt passed through, imbued with hellfire and exploding each time as it pierced continuously until the mana bolt disintegrated into residual mana.

[Merman Ship, Lv24, takes 93,700 damage.]

[Merman Ship, Lv24, takes 62,500 damage.]

[Merman Ship, Lv24, takes 31,300 damage.]

I gained 9000 experience points from those kills, and as they fell, an Imperial Navy ship had been destroyed by the pirate ship. The hellfire only added 100 damage each time, but the explosion effect with the high-power bolt simply destroyed those ships. The pirate ship then destroyed the last Merman ship out there.

Grr. “Remaining mobs!”

[System Notice: There are 83 mobs remaining. Mobs cleared: 53/136.]

The number went down by one, while my count went to 41. As the last Merman ship was destroyed, I could see the Imperial Navy actually fleeing from the pirate ship. The pirate ship then decided to head here, towards port.

I need to find another quest, but more importantly, I need to conquer this floor. If I can get more ‘Upgrade Jewels’— I can make my gear much stronger! I’ll save this one for later.

In search of another quest, I decided to wait for this pirate ship. Who knew, it may provide me a chance to clear some mobs.