My effective level dropped from 177 to 142 due to the two zero-level Sub-Classes weighing down the average. I wanted to go out and kill stuff but I couldn't. I needed to finish two projects that demanded a hefty sum of DM: putting all 40 rockets in the air and expanding the Hugging Momma patrol airships from one to six.
The power of a Legendary Class was ridiculous. At rank II, this transformation Skill was giving me 859 Attribute points so long I could pay the 288,000 MP daily upkeep cost. Which I could, do by burning 57,600 of my daily DM generation. It was quite the conundrum. The cost would ramp up by another 144,000 MP if the Skill ranked up.
I needed more trees. Therefore, another project placed itself higher on the list of priorities. Reinforcing the outer walls. The ones fourteen miles away from the epicenter of it all. The objective was twofold. Create a defense against the flies and also generate more Mana.
Eyeballing (yeah, no eyeballs) the gap between the 13th-mile and the 14th-mile walls, I drew a floor at 75 feet above the ground. Put dirt and grass on top of that floor, and raise the walls to 150 feet. Another floor, fly around each donut floor growing trees. Which demanded more Mana. We have plenty. Then raise the walls to 225 feet and put the fourth floor of trees. Raise the walls, the fifth floor. Sixth. Each floor ate 1.2 cubic miles out of my volume allocation of 93.67. I stopped at ten floors, 750 feet high outer walls. But each floor was a mile of exploding trees the fly swarm would need to cross before breaching the wall and making the 12th-mile wall the next outer perimeter.
But now I had 750 feet of wall to install autocannons and pop Beelzevoid Flies. Creating that bulwark took two months. The inside was painted blue (actually made to shed blue light) during the day and navy blue during the night, to camouflage it from the citizen's eyes. They knew the ridiculously tall walls were there but they weren't that much of an eyesore now. Mirrors could work too, reflecting the sky but they had the problem of inverting the sun's position and casting a reflection of sunlight upon the city.
April came and no Guardians ended their contract. Those who had given notice withdrew that, having been sweet-talked into staying by Marshall. The Rangers were taking an active position in the corridors to fight the Infernali and earn some levels. While the power armor teens were still in the academy, getting as buff and smart as they could before taking a Class and earning levels. Estimates showed they will have something between 20% and 40% more effect from their physical Attributes just for having better builds.
> > Your knowledge and training improved your Astral Transformation Skill to rank VI
>
> — While transformed, you move (5*Rank)% faster.
>
> — While transformed, you resist (3*Rank)% of all damage.
>
> — While transformed, gain a (3*Rank)% combat bonus.
>
> — While transformed, your spells have (5*Rank)% more effect and range.
"Wow, Contractor, you are ranking up your Skill so fast! I guess it pays to mass murder." Larry said.
I had adapted the cockpit of every one of my Mecha to carry the magical platypus mascot with me.
"You have no idea. Back in the day, Mass Murder paid in a much more valuable currency, Larry."
I kept working while the Platypus rested on top of my Core. I removed the protection measures to make up room for the mascot. I was harder and better armored than the Blackjack Six anyway.
The outer wall trees DM generation all went to fuel the ridiculously scaling cost of staying transformed. 144,000 times six MP per day. But I had more than half a million trees in that giant donut. I also had animals to consume the oxygen and quite the ecosystem going on. The land was as wooded as it could with no consideration regarding grasslands. "Tap for White Mana's" square root scaling didn't compare to the number of trees I could squeeze if I didn't care what biome that strip of ground was considered as.
I still had no idea what Perks this (Legendary) Class granted. I had gained 1 or 2 Experience points here and there, a handful each day but still hadn't gathered the 7,500 points necessary for a Perk.
*
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*
On the fourth of July, according to our calendar (Again, NASA came to the rescue with star charts that allowed us to determine the exact day of the year), I put the last three Hugging Momma dirigibles in the air. Six of them would now patrol lazily, around the outer perimeter, one mile away from the fortress walls and one and a half miles above the ground. Their primary task remains to maintain air supremacy by shooting down any demon birds with focused beams of light but now also included laying suppression autocannon fire on any bug swarms they found.
The beacon cast from one of the dirigibles could reach the ground and cover a bit more than one square mile of land. And then I had the twenty upside-down space launch rockets, floating ten miles above ground, above the ring of Kaiju. More precisely, above the Wobby Dicks.
Fifty Bricks Windows Mechas, piloted by Dungeon Automation, stood on the ground outside the walls. The PD lasers underneath the chassis were replaced with autocannons. The .50 Cal bullets dealt a little less damage than a burst of laser but with the boost from my transformation, they did enough damage to slow down the horde.
This is it. I wouldn't be readier than this. Surely I could spend more time and double the number of rockets in the air. But if two of these rockets wouldn't eliminate the whales before the eggs could hatch, then perhaps three or four also wouldn't. Anything that could resist two of the kiloton blasts these babies would create would surely resist Four or six.
We initiated operations. Marshall set up the raid though we weren't sure if we would get credit for the kills this far away. The aristocrat ensured me it was based on a multiple of the range of the weapons being used. Fingers crossed.
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I sensed with my Domain and ordered the first batch of twenty rockets to ignite while at the same time, I started to fill the vacuum-filled flotation chambers with solid Tungsten. They accelerated to terminal speed in seconds anyway. Thrust enough to escape Earth's gravity well pushed them toward the ground instead. Each of the Saturn V rockets could climb 10 miles in less than 80 seconds. They descended in much less time than that. Their payload was, instead of space paraphernalia, 160 tons of Composition C-4. The equivalent of 214 tons of TNT. But the rocket crashing at the speed it was going delivered way more energy. But hey, why not have both. The C-4 had no detonator anyway and would detonate with the shockwave from the impact.
All the Kaiju in the siege ring reacted. The Boboyotes ran away while the Damniablos cast layered shields on the Wobby Dicks. The Jabberwocks reduced the size of their portals drastically to put three layers of their World-Boss-sized shields above them.
Even the intelligent Infernale was rather dumb. The twenty rockets struck with the force of God's wrath (heh) and I lost contact with the DCSC inside them. Switching to visual on the still-floating rockets, I cast downward beacons from the rearmost (highest) point of all of them, setting a rule to absorb any matter or dust, or smoke that reached them. Then I fired.
As the mushroom clouds rose and the shockwave... I hastily rose a sheet of metal and infused it with the power to be a Dungeon wall. Should've thought of that. 50 seconds after the impact, the shockwave hit the metal wall and it held.
> [15] kill notifications were suppressed. You gained 100,000 Experience points. You gained 1,267 Dungeon Mana.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Magical Dungeon Gunslinger.
>
> [2] Perk notifications were suppressed.
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> > You gained 40 levels of Electronic Apple Orchard. The Perks received were converted into Main Class (God Dungeon) Perks.
>
> [5] Perk Notifications were suppressed.
>
> [87,045] kill notifications were suppressed. You gained 100,000 Experience points. You gained 354,691 Dungeon mana.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Magical Dungeon Gunslinger.
>
> [2] Perk notifications were suppressed.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Electronic Apple Orchard. The Perks received were converted into Main Class (God Dungeon) Perks.
>
> [4] Perk notifications were suppressed.
>
> [934,936] kill notifications were suppressed. You gained 100,000 Experience points. You gained 4,167,358 Dungeon mana.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Magical Dungeon Gunslinger.
>
> [2] Perk notifications were suppressed.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Electronic Apple Orchard. The Perks received were converted into Main Class (God Dungeon) Perks.
>
> [2] Perk notifications were suppressed.
>
> [1,782,315] kill notifications were suppressed. You gained 100,000 Experience points. You gained 6,783,212 Dungeon mana.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Magical Dungeon Gunslinger.
>
> [1] Perk notification was suppressed.
>
> > You gained 40 levels of Electronic Apple Orchard. The Perk received was converted into Main Class (God Dungeon) Perks.
>
> [1] Perk notification was suppressed.
No Kaiju kill notification. But the reaping effect of Implements of Demise granted me almost half the DM spent on the rockets. I dumped everything in the trees as the DM received was almost forty times my current pool.
The second wave of rockets descended right down the middle of the mushroom clouds. The beacons helped keep their path free of debris They had too much mass to be knocked off-course by the ascending hot air and steam. The beacons cleared the ground of dead Infernale and crushed Mana stones. I saw wounded Kaiju slowly trying to heal. The Wobby Dicks were severely wounded and without shields. Only them and the Jabberwocks remained but the tentacle monsters had encased themselves in another shield though the portals were no more. The Boboyotes had been tossed around by the shockwaves but were otherwise fine, running for their lives away from Speranza.
> > For killing Level 500 Wobby Dick, you gained 45,000 Experience Points. You defeated a World Boss in a raid. As the MVP, you received 50 free Attribute Points.
>
> > You gained 17 levels of Magical Dungeon Gunslinger.
>
> > You gained 17 levels of Electronic Apple Orchard.
>
> > You no longer are under Experience restrictions.
>
> [19] similar notifications were suppressed.
>
> > You gained 950 Attribute Points.
>
> You gained 3 levels! +48 Intelligence (In), +42 Wisdom (Ws), +45 Willpower (Wp), +36 Clarity (Cl), and +42 Hardness (Hd). You have 45 Attribute Points.
>
> [1] Perk notification was suppressed.
>
> You reached your level cap and must complete a trial to evolve your species. All future Exp awards deferred.
>
> Generating trial.
>
> Your trial will be ready in 24 hours. Please stand by.
I feel cheated. Again.
> > For killing Level 1000 Jabberwock, you gained 48,000 Experience Points. You defeated a World Boss in a raid. As the MVP, you received 50 free Attribute Points.
>
> [8] similar notifications were suppressed. Experience Awards deferred.
>
> You gained 400 Attribute Points.
The 1,400 extra points, along with the 45 for gaining three full levels went into Willpower. I wanted to see the damn tentacle Kaiju frighten me now.
> > Your knowledge and training improved your Implements of Demise Skill to rank X. Rank benefits from this rank and before do not scale past ten.
>
> — The natural Hardness score of weapons you craft is increased by (5*Rank)%
>
> — When you wield weapons you designed and created yourself, you have a 50% combat bonus.
Rank X? The first skill to reach that high and I was using it every single second of the day, for years. How hard was it to level crafting Skills Is this why Warriors look down on artisans? All benefits in the Skill entry changed to fixed numbers instead of some multiplier of the Skill rank. But would it keep evolving? I didn't know.
"Hey, Larry. Do Skills rank above X?" I asked the beast lazily draped over my Core.
"Only after you evolve your species!" The magical platypus replied. "Let's see what they'll request of you tomorrow!"
"Okay, thanks, buddy."
More notifications.
> > Your knowledge and training improved your Mecha Operations Skill to rank VI — Mechas on suicide missions have (Rank) extra armor points until they are destroyed. They explode if you attempt to disengage. Safeguard measures such as ejection seats fail in case of retreat.
>
> > Your knowledge and training improved your Astral Transformation Skill to rank VIII
>
> — Increase the transformation Upkeep payment interval by (15*Rank) seconds.
>
> — You may use the power of the transformation to charge a finisher attack. Doing so grants (10*Rank)% accuracy and a (25*Rank)% bonus to all damage types. After you deliver the finisher, the Transformation goes on cooldown for (24-Rank) hours.
See? The damn combat Skills level up like crazy when you use them. Though I believe this one had a faster leveling speed because the magical girl, I meant, Dungeon, shouldn't be transformed all the time.
The next one was because I had outdone myself. All around Speranza, massive mushroom clouds reached into the sky.
> > Your knowledge and training improved your Bless Skill to rank IV
>
> — For 7 days after displaying your prowess to awestruck believers, you gain (20*Rank)% more Divinity from them.
>
> — Empowering a worshiper increases their loyalty by (10*Rank)% with a minimum of one point per Rank.
>
> —Empowered worshipers resist (3*Rank)% more damage unless it's from Infernal or Corrupted sources.
The Guardians, including Marshall and the Rangers, cheered. They had earned a shit-ton of levels, all of them punching way above the level 150 mark, giving us hundreds of elite warriors among the top combatants on Earth. Marshall had grown beyond the level of power his father used to hold. The Rangers picked Mecha Operator as a Sub-Class. Now I needed to give the five teens a combiner robot but now they were piloting other Bricks Windows units.
And we still had several wounded Jabberwock bosses to slay. And Boboyotes to hunt.
I ordered the Bricks Windows forward. We would hunt as a pack of wolf spiders if wolf spiders hunted in a pack and carried cannons two dozen feet long.