Leaving his plane there, Rodney followed the suit of armor towards the encampment outside the castle. There were rows of red tents, with a strange flag flying above them. It was simply a piece of red cloth, with no distinguishing marks. Apparently the System did not bother putting much detail in its storylines for quests such as these.
They walked towards a larger tent in the center of the camp, and the knight opened the flap at the front for Rodney. Walking inside, the man was instantly struck with a potent aura. A nine foot tall suit of armor sat in a metal chair in front of a desk, poring over a piece of parchment with gibberish written on it. The fact that Rodney could not understand it meant that it truly had no meaning. It was merely a prop. The knight rose to its feet as Rodney entered, and looked at him for a moment.
“Rodney Kane, the third strongest man on this planet. Greetings,” It said, in a deep and sonorous voice. Rodney froze for a moment as he took in the fact that this suit of armor had recognized him. No, it seemed to have analyzed him. That was why it had paused while looking at him. These creatures were a lot more powerful than him, at least the leaders were, and he would have to be very careful. At least these ones were not hostile.
“I assume that you are here to claim the great sword?” The suit of armor continued, looking directly at Rodney despite having no eyes. Rodney nodded and the suit of armor held out it shand. Unsure of what to do for a moment, Rodney then realized that the robot wanted him to shake it. He did so, and his hand was enveloped in the bone crushing grasp of the armor.
“You may have the sword, but only if you prove yourself. It is useless to ones such as us, but we know its allure to you natural sapients. The almighty System created us as a test for your ilk. You shall fight alongside us as we attempt to breach the castle of that tyrant Arthur. Too long has he been propped up by that sword and the power of his pet magician.”
“Very well then. I did not expect anything different,” Rodney replied. He was beginning to have second thoughts about this whole thing however. He had not expected for the protections around the sword to be so expansive, nor for it to be such a complicated endeavor. He had been expecting for the sword to be on its own, perhaps guarded by a few monsters. This was very different.
A tiny piece of a foreign aura brushed his briefly, and he recoiled for the images that it produced. It had felt like a piece of recursively joined flesh, folded over on itself endlessly and disgusting in every way. It was gone in an instant, but the remnants of it remained. Rodney looked over at the direction of the aura, but he could find nothing there, and the aura did not appear again. Shaking his head, he sat down, and waited for instructions. He had a sword to claim, and a world to conquer.
The Mountains of Mjolnir
Sam and his companions had beaten the next mountain range, and the next, but the progress was starting to become pitifully slow. Each had boasted stronger monsters, in fewer numbers, but greater quality. It had been reduced to a boss rush of sorts, with an endless number of incredibly powerful creatures that they had to defeat to win. The goats had featured more prominently the closer that they got to the center, with them growing even larger and more powerful. Every single monster by now was F Rank in strength, and not even at the bottom of it either. This was an utterly unfair test, but they were already here. They would not leave until they knew they could go no further, or until they had won.
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With a pained grunt, caused by the fractured bone in his right arm, Sam dashed the brains of a large goat out onto the ground. By large, he meant utterly massive. The creature was about fifty feet tall, and it was only after they had cut it down at the legs that Sam could clamber up its furry bulk and deal the finished blow. Every single one of them, even Rax, was at the maximum level now, and it was showing. Most of them lacked the ability to reliably fight above their rank, but Eduardo and Lao were able to do so, albeit with incredible difficulty.
Upon reaching the max level, both men had upgraded their skills, meaning that their staple attacks were stronger than before. They had been waiting for an opportunity for a while, and this would allow them to transcend their weaknesses.
Eduardo now was able to fold his light slashes in on themselves, creating intensely magnified strips of pure heat that would carve through flesh and stone with equal measure. On the other hand, Lao now was able to reflect even more energy than before, and he was able to use his Dao energy alone as a weapon, by using it to speed up the movement of his hands in a loop of power. He had clearly reached a new level of Dao comprehension to figure that one out.
Even the others had improved by a bit, with Pyotr’s armor now spotting chunks of quartz and crystal in it that acted like an extra barrier against attacks. Jeffrey could now condense any projectile that he fired with his Dao and willpower, making it fly even faster than normal as well as packing a greater punch. Sam had seen one of the man’s signature blood balls turn into a pinprick of dark black, and carve straight through the skull of a weakened goat.
Addas could now exert a somewhat conscious level of control over the effects of his skills. It was still largely up to chance, but usually he was able to make the attack that he produced the best possible one for whatever scenario they were in. The one who had seen the most improvement however was Rax. The herpetopede was now the size of a small pony, with the density of an elephant. When he struck a monster, that monster would invariably stumbled backwards, even if it was ultimately unharmed. Each stomp from one of his many legs could seriously injure any monster at his level, and inconvenience those above. The most impressive upgrade however was his second set of teeth. His jaw had bulked out with muscle as he leveled up, and he could bite down with enough force to shatter rocks now. That was more of a testament to the durability of the monsters that they were facing that Rax could not easily damage them, but he still managed to harm them. As Sam looked out as his team, he felt only pride for how far they had come.A few of the top fighters on the planet, an alien, and a strange lizard hybrid had come this far, to the cusp of F Rank. Just over a month ago, they had all been living their lives, unaware of what was to come. Well, Jeffrey had known, but he had been unsure of when the System would actually come.
There was something annoying Sam about their situation however. They were wasting a titanic amount of essence by being all at the max rank, and he had a vague idea about how to solve this problem. Knowing the System however, it was unlikely to work.