CHAPTER XXVI: ANTI CLIMATIC NOTE
_____________________________________________________________
{11:15 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
_____________________________________________________________
LONG BEACH
MITCHELL
_____________________________________________________________
< UNCOMMON BEAST HORDE >
{WAVES COMPLETE 3/5
Time until next wave 44M:43s}
_____________________________________________________________
Junior Knight Ranger Mitchell was a prodigy. Even before the breaking, he was a former Marine and had served as a sharpshooter for the corps. He was a natural. He had over a hundred confirmed kills, and when the Breaking happened, he and his whole squad were in Vegas for New Year’s Eve out of Twenty Nine Palms Marine Combat Center in the desert city of the same name.
Vegas was nuts after the Breaking. People just roamed the streets, waiting for the electricity to come back on. It never did, and once the first horde came a week later, the town wasn’t ready.
Mitchell and his squad mates were lucky enough to be near a gun range when the Common horde started. They defended themselves pretty easily and gained quite a bit of experience from the oversized mole rats, who attacked them without fear.
The Syndicate ran Vegas. They were the combination of all of the Mob families and their enforcers. Realizing that law and order was over, and only power mattered now. They started sweeping changes to the city, first going after the tourists who had no one to call on. They got law enforcement on their side, and a few were former soldiers and marines who started to reach out to twenty-nine palms and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, a few dozen miles away from Vegas.
Neither group joined at first, but because of a lack of federal support, about twenty-five percent of both ended up migrating to and joining the Syndicate. Mitchell’s squad never returned to twenty nine palms, instead they cleared Dungeons until the Specialized. Once that had happened, the Syndicate wanted them, so they were recruited and joined the Vegas Stronghold. Their levels had only skyrocketed since then. They went after people for the Syndicate. Mitchell’s squad was tasked with taking out high-value targets, but mostly other mod bosses who were not getting in line with the Syndicate council. Killing humans was way more fun than fighting the Beast.
After their second specialization, they had move from the city into a county. That had them going back to clearing Dungeons outside the AOI of the subordinate Strongholds. That was when monsters started showing up on their doorstep from the west.
Lesser Ghouls were a major problem in their border town, Primm. The knight ranger’s squad had made a new Stronghold out of it when he had gotten his Knight status from the head of the council. After reporting the monsters, he was put in charge of a few Platoons to find the source of the undead.
After weeks of fighting for every mile, they finally made contact with the West Side Gang in Barstow, California. It was their eastern border as they were pushing away from LA because of the continuous horde. But with the help of the syndicate platoons of tier 3 knights classes, they were able to set up Strongholds and take back a lot of land. The syndicate sent Noble Caste members to provide the West Side Gang with much-needed Noble growth help. The West Side gang was a Professional-heavy organization, and while that made them useful and self-sufficient, there was no way for them to grow their Strongholds until they had Nobles.
It was a match made in heaven. The Syndicate provided the Nobles and high-tier Combatants, while the Gang supplied the items, slaves, and resources to grow.
Mitchell’s squad never made it back to Vegas; they kept pushing closer and closer. Expanding was not cheap or easy. It was very labor intensive. The need for slaves increased exponentially as they continued to expand. More Knights were created and sent to the Los Angeles area because of the abundance of people.
On this particular mission, he had a new leader of his Squad, a mage who was only a Level and Class quest away from Tier 5. He wasn’t afraid of her; he had killed Mage higher than him before. His shield breaker passive gave him almost a fifty/fifty shot of just ignoring all defensive, and since it was a passive, he could just continue hitting his target until he bypassed their defenses.
They were just minding their business on patrol of the main road maintained by a local Hamlet. They were going to take over the Hamlet eventually. It had a few protectors that they were unsure of, but only time will tell. They had already made deals with the Hamlet leadership.
A group of messengers was taking a rest when his squad walked out of the woods and surrounded them. The syndicate squads always collared new low-level professionals because messengers were the lifeblood of communication in the GREAT GAME. Most chat functions require line of sight to work, so most messages were sent via runner or messenger construct.
So when they stumbled onto three of them, Mitchell thought it was their lucky day, but after a few minutes of just wearing them down, he had just felt bored. Making it to level 40 wasn’t hard for a Marine with any combat training. His willingness to take a life also served him better than most humans.
Shit went south as soon as their leader threatened to kill one of them. Mitchell had frowned at the time because messenger slaves were in such high demand. But he didn’t have to think on it too long since that was when his squad leader and the other team mage w ere hit with a ballista bolt the size of a fence pole. He got the death prompt, but before he could react to it, a dome of darkness covered both of their squad’s knight warriors.
The black dome obscured his vision of them, but he wasn’t fooled by the distraction. His danger sense went off as someone used his shadow to move to him. He was about to defend himself when he heard a loud crunching sound and then chewing. After a second, Ballista Bolt took out one of the warriors.
That was when the clearing around them came to life. The rest of what happened was kind of a blur. He had been knocked out in the process. When he regained consciousness, he was tied up next to the very girls he was trying to enslave. He immediately checked to see if he had a collar on, he didn’t and let out a slow breath to not give away his threat.
He felt an itching sensation on his ankle. He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at it. On his ankle was a glowing bat with wings of blades. He had never seen a Style like that before, but it wasn’t a debuff on his Character Sheet, so he wasn’t too worried. He had a single-unit storage device that held his most prized possession: his dagger.
_____________________________________________________________
{ITEM NAME: Dagger of brain penetration.
ITEM TYPE: Dagger
ITEM RANK: PLATINUM
ITEM DESCRIPTION: A dagger that, when used against the head of a target, triples its penetration of the weapon.
ITEM EFFECT: Brain Penetration; when attacking a target’s brain the damage of the dagger triples.
RARE MOD: Brain Explosion: After the dagger pierces the brain, the built-up Mana in the attack activates the charges and blows up, causing catastrophic brain damage
Charges: 6
PLATINUM MOD: +40 to Dexterity per Tier.
_____________________________________________________________
He was patient; as long as he had his trusty dagger, he could get away from these guys. He scanned some more, making sure they weren’t aware that he was awake. He checked his cooldowns and map to plan his escape. He knew that there was a platoon of Knights that should be to the south of here. If he could link up with them, he knew he could get away or, better yet, come back and capture them. They had executed a near-flawless ambush on his squad. He looked at the X-out names on his HUD and knew they were all dead. He had to get away just to get that information back to the Syndicate, but he needed a distraction. Just then, he heard a new voice, a female one. He grinned; his Luck was always pretty high for his level.
“I’m Japanese, Mexican and Portuguese, I think I should be a candidate for making through the whole show.” The female voice said as she walked up and looked at the unconscious girls lying against the wall. “What is up with them?”
“I don’t know. Get a medic to look at them, please, Lady Sugar, okay?” the black soldier wannabe ordered. The man did look familiar, though, but Mitchell couldn’t be bothered to figure that out. He would be dead soon.
“Okay, I got you, Colonel. We should get used to his voice, Soto. They say it's the first thing you forget when people die.” She snickered as she unfocused to send a message in her HUD.
‘Colonel?’ Mitchell thought, ‘he can’t be that Colonel, could he?’
“HA-HA! Allyuh is hilarious.” The Colonel guy replied sarcastically in an unknown West Indian accent.
‘He does look like that guy on TV, but he can’t be that guy. He was in his mid-to-late fifties. This guy looks like a thirty-year-old at worst. Plus, he didn’t sound like that,’ Mitchell thought and then dismissed the name as just a rank.
“You see, that's my best friend. He laughs in the face of death and danger. I’ll miss you, buddy.” A light-skinned Puerto Rican man in a ninja outfit and backward baseball cap joked.
“I hate you both.” The Colonel said.
“You better hope that isn’t the last thing you say to me, you would be pissed when you are sitting with Saint Peter, and he is like ‘the last thing you said to your best friend was I hate you.’ What an asshole.”
Mitchell marked the Colonel guy as the biggest threat since everyone took orders from him, and he was still calm even though his subordinates were making fun of him. He knew a good leader when he saw one. ‘The Colonel must die first.’ Mitchell thought.
“Which Bible?” A really short, armored guy asked. He was obviously a tank type and had no chance of catching him, so he dismissed him. The ninja might have a chance, but it was too dangerous to attack a Ranger class first. Their reflection Shield could end up really crippling to an attacker. He hoped the Puerto Rican Ninja hit him so that retributive damage could cripple him so that he couldn’t pursue.
“It is the first holy book of every major religion that originated in the Middle East.” The Colonel continued.
“The Middle East?” The short guy asked.
Mitchell had never heard an accent so thick, and he couldn’t place it, but the more he looked at the guy, the more he thought he wasn’t human.
“Southwest Asia, the biggest continent on our planet,” Soto added.
Or not from Earth, at the very least.
“Yeah, according to the Bible, Saint Peter is the keeper of the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”
He kept listening, waiting for his chance to kill the Colonel and escape.
“That sounds like nonsense.” The short guy said.
They just kept talking...
“Oh no, not again.”
“The way God is described in holy books does not add up to who he is today. It seems that people in the past had more interaction with God than we do in the present. Today, we have people claiming they have talked to God, and we are just supposed to have faith in his word. Not this guy. It used to piss off all my aunties.” Colonel said.
And talking...
“My grandparents were super catholic, so I know the feeling. I am more of a Wiccan.” Sugar added her two cents.
“You were a witch?” Soto asked incredulously, involuntarily making a cross symbol.
“Not the same thing.” Sugar and Colonel said in unison, and then they chuckled.
And talking...
“Which gods are you talking about?” The short guy asked.
“Not gods, just one God,” Soto said.
“You only have one god here? Is that why you don’t have any Skyways yet?”
And talking, Mitchell was getting frustrated. He wanted to kill someone and get away so badly.
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Skyway, what is that?”
“We can talk about Skyways later. I did see an entrance to the Sky realm off to the east. I believe it was a Sky elevator, pretty common for Silver and Gold Cultivators to create for their Clergy,” the short guy said.
‘Is he talking about the Golden Bear pyramid at the entrance to their lands?’ Mitchell thought, remembering seeing it a few months back on his way to the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
“That is fine. We have a lot to go over.” The Colonel acquiesced.
A new person showed up, and Mitchell saw everyone start to get up and focus on the girls. The new person was most likely the healer. He started to check on the girls as they lay still.
The Colonel stood next to the woman as the medic did his job. “Not to rush you, Doc, but we have a platoon of people we have to go talk to. How long until they are ready to move?”
Mitchell froze at the words. ‘They know about the platoon, or are they expecting another platoon?’ Either way, neither scenario was good for him. It was time to make his move. He equipped his dagger and slowly positioned his feet to spring up when ready.
“No problem, Colonel, Lady Sugar, they were just exhausted; their bodies had just shut down to recover, just throw some...
Mitchell moved. He stood and used his Dash and Increase Accuracy Spells to stab the Colonel in the eye. It was tougher than he had ever felt before, almost stopping his attack cold, but triple penetration was just enough to get past the cornea. Just then, he felt the explosion go off in the leader’s head, and he twisted the dagger and pulled it out in a spray of blood.
Blood spattered on the Medic’s and woman’s faces. As the woman stumbled back, the knight ranger, not wanting to give up his momentum, yanked her by the neck with his blood-covered dagger to her throat. He ignored the kill prompt for the Colonel’s kill and addressed the clearing. “No one move, our I kill her as well.”
A whole squad of players turned around and looked at the Knight Ranger. He cursed his luck. Now, there were too many people for him to escape with his original plan. He smiled. It was a good thing he was good at adapting.
“She is coming with me. No one move-” No one did, but Mitchell’s danger sense went wild before he felt a hand placed softly on top of his head.
_____________________________________________________________
{YOU HAVE DIED!}
< DEBUFF ADDED >
{Curse of the undead(P)}
_____________________________________________________________
‘What the FUCK!’ Mitchell’s quickly fleeing consciousness thought.
***
_____________________________________________________________
{11:22 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
_____________________________________________________________
LONG BEACH
PRIME
_____________________________________________________________
< UNCOMMON BEAST HORDE >
{WAVES COMPLETE 3/5
Time until next wave 37M:43s}
_____________________________________________________________
“No one move, our I kill her as well.” He yelled at the top of his lungs, getting everyone’s attention in the clearing.
Sugar was in shock, and the blood of her teammate was all over her face. She just shut down and let herself be taken hostage.
Soto looked at the Knight Ranger with red in his eyes. The Shadow Mark on him made it so very easy for him to get to the man in an instant and get revenge for his battle buddy, but then he noticed something.
The Colonel hadn’t fallen over. He stood still behind the Knight Ranger. He slowly raised his hand and placed it on top of the Knight Ranger’s head.
Before the man could react, the Colonel said one word.
“Rebound!”
The Knight Ranger became a flattened, rubbery pancake. With the sheer amount of damage he had taken from the Blood Hunter Grove, the Stag version, and now a catastrophic brain explosion, the rebound damage was returned in the six digits of damage.
The Knight ranger’s bones turned to dust from the pressure of the attack, and his blood boiled and evaporated because of the overwhelming force of the retributive damage. His armor may as well have been warm butter, as it was crushed into a paste on the ground behind Sugar. She stumbled forward. What was left of the Knight Ranger was a two-inch thick piece of meat, ruined leather, and powder-like bone fragments.
Sugar threw up when she turned around and saw the former Knight Ranger’s new pancake body.
The medics joined her a second later when they saw the Colonel’s eye grow back at an unnatural pace.
“Always making friends, I see Colonel,” Soto said, looking at the pancake. “Next time, you got to watch your strength, man; that is gross.” He pointed at the used-to-be man.
“That attack did twenty-five thousand damage to me. That was ridiculous, bruh.” Colonel complained. “Now that Mod is on Cool down.”
“Is that the legendary Mod you were talking about?” Soto asked.
“Yeah, Damn, that was close. If I didn’t have that available, I’m not sure I would have survived the bleeding effect. It was 500HP per second until fully healed.”
“Oh shit, dibs on that dagger then,” Soto yelled quickly, smiling.
“Sure, I don’t use weapons anyway,” Colonel replied, undeterred. Penetration was super useful. I have an overwhelming amount of DR, and he still got through in one hit.”
“His luck stat must have been working overtime, brother,” Soto smirked. And yours must have taken a Trini carnival vacation. Why did you let him hit you, though?”
“I honestly didn’t think he would be able to do any damage to me.” Clyde shrugged. “A level 60 Stag didn’t do much, but humans seem to have more ways to bypass DR and shields. Lesson learned.”
“You know, most people know not to let other people stab them in the eye, their boss.”
“Seriously, what is wrong with you two.” Sugar said, frustrated after she finished throwing up. “That was the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life.” She spit on the floor, trying to get the taste and visual out of her brain. Just then, a Loot Globe started to form, and the pancake started to be absorbed by the ground.
“Okay, Lady Sugar, secure this area. Soto and I will take half of Buzbee’s squad and go take care of this platoon,” the Colonel ordered as Sugar leaned against the wall to get her bearings.
“Buzbee, check your gear. Get your fastest party members and any with a wide range of Area of Effect powers,” Soto ordered the scout team leader. "We leave in...” Soto looked to the Colonel.
“Five minutes,” Colonel answered.
“Copy that, sir, sergeant major.” Buzbee moved to talk to the platoon securing the perimeter.
“Talk to the girls when they wake up, and take them back to the Fort when they are ready to move.” Clyde started looking at his party, still speckled with blood from the knight ranger. He was ravenous from the fight, so he took out a ration and bit into it. “Cinnamon raisin. That is really good.” He handed Soto and the Medic one each, and they gladly accepted.
High stats meant a lot, but they also cost a lot to maintain. Each Stat threshold increased the need for calories exponentially. Peak Joy had told him that while in Dungeons, it didn’t affect players as hard because of the high concentration of Mana. But those who didn’t eat in Dungeons were hit with even higher debuffs when the Dungeon sickness kicked in.
The Colonel opened his Map ability for his team mates to see. He chewed on the ration bar. “So we are here,” He pointed at their location. “The Fort is an hour and a half walk North. The Hamlet is about another hour and a half to the south. The Long Beach Airport is about a three-and-a-half-hour walk east of the Fort, and the convention center, where we started, was about a four-hour walk east-south-east from the Hamlet. Los Angeles City Center has a Quest completion exclamation point on it, while all the other locations have a question mark for Events.” He explained while everyone looked at the mapping ability.
“Is this the location of the Platoon?” Soto asked, verifying it on his own Map Ability.
“Roger that. Let me zoom in and see if we get more information.” As Clyde zoomed in mentally, his view of the area got more detailed. As he zoomed in the last time, the map view went down to the street level like Google Maps. In that view, they could see the platoon.
“Is that the view of my clone?” Soto asked, shocked at the Colonel’s map functionality.
“I believe so,” Clyde said slowly, not expecting it at all. “What do we have here?”
“Looks like a standard raid party.” Sugar said, looking at the platoon of knights. “Look at the group of healers in the back, with the ranger contingent to protect them, smart. The Mages have their own platforms they are standing on, what is that?”
“Hmm, it looks like Mana regen platforms. These usually boost a player’s regen by three to five times, depending on Tier,” Bour said, standing in the air above them.
“That is only a few miles away, Sergeant Major,” the Colonel said with a wicked smile.
“Are you thinking what I am thinking, boss?” Soto asked, understanding where his team lead was coming from and liking it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Yes,” Clyde smirked.
“Rain, hell down on them.” Soto joined him with a crafty smirk.
“Buzbee!” The Colonel yelled, getting the Corporal’s attention as he turned back, curious.
“Anyone with a mortar, artillery, or long-range attacks that can be used with a mapping ability, bring them now. Forget my last order. We aren’t moving south right now. The woods are dangerous enough. Once we kick up a hornet’s nest with this bombardment, it will bring more beasts, I’m sure, or worse, more humans. We will target the Hamlet AOI, where we see the largest concentrations of beasts on the map, to help out with the Uncommon Horde.” the colonel continued, pointing out the cluster of red dots around Hamlet in his mini-map version. “Soto, tell your Clone to look at the Hamlet if you can.”
“Give me a second.” Soto concentrated.
A few seconds later, the Clone looked off at the Hamlet. Just as it turned, through the trees, they could see the Hamlet.
It was massive.
Clyde didn’t know what he expected to see, but it wasn’t what he saw.
The first thing he saw was the fifteen-foot wall that surrounded the whole Hamlet being overrun by beasts of all types, mostly Mirror Coyotes and Shadow Bears, but there were other variants of each beast, and a pack of Gray Dire Wolves by their size stood off to the side looking for weaknesses. Players were desperately trying to shoot, kick, punch, and cleave the beasts off the parapet on top of the wall, to limited effect.
Because of the elevation of the Platoon and the Clone, they could see into the Hamlet. It was about a mile across, with hundreds of buildings broken down into separate sections. The whole hamlet stretched to the Pacific Ocean, where they could see two creatures that towered over the walls next to the ocean. They had three long heads and could be identified pretty easily by any competent gamer.
“A hydra. It's a weak one, but they are at least Rarer Creatures, and the Ocean Hydras are always the biggest. Not a ton of exotic powers, but overwhelming strength and ridiculous regeneration.” Bour said.
Two orange blurs kept the Hydras at bay. “What are those?” Sugar asked, pointing at the blurs.
One blur was hit by the head of one of the hydra. It must have been a lucky hit because the blur was launched through a building, destroying it.
“Buzbee!” Colonel said, getting a bad feeling.
The building crumbled, and the orange blur glowed golden as it rose from the rubble.
“Holy Mana, very nice. Looks like you found some Clergy members.” Bour said, impressed.
The second orange blur released their golden energy as their bodies began to grow. No, not grow; it expanded the golden mana into a glowing Buddah construct-like armor that moved surprisingly well.
“It looks like their deity is lending them some power that will take them out of the fight afterward, though,” Bour said, looking at Colonel.
Buzbee ran up. “Sir?”
Colonel pulled his face away from his projected map and pointed at the platoon location. “I am sending you this location. Give it to who you got. Speaking of which, who do you got?”
“When we got back to the Fort, the Pros presented us with some new equipment, which Lady Sugar let me be in charge of distributing. My team is made up of 19Ds from a few Cavalry units, but the other team was made up of 11Cs from the same Cavalry combat troops.
“If you ain’t Cav?” Soto recited.
“You ain’t shit, Sergeant Major.” Both men replied.
“Children.” Sugar said, shaking her head at the defacto motto of the Cav.
“Explain the M.O.S.s for Lady Sugar. She will need to be caught up on the nomenclature. Start with Eleven Charley Sergeant Major.” Colonel added before looking back at his mapping ability.
“19D are Calvary Scouts, and 11C are infantry light and medium Mortars.”
“I put that together by the equipment they got issued.” Sugar nodded.
Clyde looked back across the clearing, where a squad of players were setting up Mortars. He analyzed them and then said, “After seeing those Hydras and the Clergymen, I think it would be better if we took a break after this. We have been going nonstop. Plus, it might be time to consolidate our power base. I have a few Quests we have to finish, which should also give us a huge boost in power.”
“Yeah, I think you might be right, boss,” Soto said, looking around the clearing. “We did get ambushed by a grove of trees, and that is kind of embarrassing.”
“Really embarrassing.” Clyde agreed.
“I’ll chalk it up as fatigue. So after we help here, we can head back to the fort.” He pointed at the Mortar tubes. “Can I get an Analyze on those mortars, please? I missed that ability of yours.” Soto was rubbing his hands together greedily.
“Aight.” Then, the small party got his Analyze prompt. Everyone in the clearing flinched, not expecting the information.
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{Item Name: M1 120mm Mortar
Item Type: Long Range weapon construct system
Item Rank: Low Rare
Item Durability:1300
Description: A weapon system that launches an explosive projectile long distances when provided with a round and Mana.
Weapon Damage: 1200 direct/600 AOE. Mana Cost: 35 Mana per shot. Range: 150 meters-8000 meters.
Duration: 20 shots
Manned By: Specialist Rice
RARE ATTACHMENT: Multiplicative damage: When combined with more artillery-style weaponry, the damage is multiplied, not additive.}
_____________________________________________________________
“Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff,” Soto said, reading the item prompt with glee.
“Chill, Anthony...” Sugar said, looking at the man-child with a shiver.
“Rice, how confident are you in hitting a platoon of troops about 3 miles away?” Buzbee asked, bringing their attention back on track.
Rice was a red-headed, somewhat below-average-height man with a renewed air of confidence around him. He looked up to Buzbee with a big piece of dip in his mouth. Clyde absently wondered where he got chew from, but if rednecks were anything, they were resourceful. Rice spat on the ground as he thought. “I am pretty sure I can hit a nat off of a cow ass at 3 miles, boss... and I probably wouldn’t even hurt the cow’s utters. Now, that is a good ole American cow if it was an Indian cow... I can’t guarantee my shot. Those poor, skinny little things are harder to hit, for sure. I always like my asses bigger, if you know what I mean” The man’s thick redneck accent conveying all the information Clyde needed to know.
“If a redneck can’t blow it up, no one can,” Soto said with a smile.
“Damn right, sergeant major, damn right. If we want to win in track and field in the Olympics, they might be better off calling your people Colonel, but if want some shit blown up right, call you a redneck.” He pointed at himself. “We blow shit up nice.”
“I can’t argue that point there, Specialist. Let me know when y’all are ready.” The Colonel replied, trying to stay serious, but he still smiled at the soldier. He was going to fit right in.
“Roger that, sir, two mikes,” Rice replied.
“What is our time on that holy power the two are using, Bour?” Soto asked.
“The Clergy men’s power won’t last any longer than five minutes, and that is if they are at least tier 5. If they are below that even less.”
“Well, we need to move fast. Cover me, Soto.”
“I got you covered, sir,” Soto replied.
Mana started to build around the Forger as Clyde tapped into his Siege weapon Trade knowledge for the best weapon for the distance and enemy type. The Colonel was a major student of history, specifically warfare and tactics. He had many ideas, but he landed on some version of a towed howitzer-long gun.
Placing his hand on the ground, it started to shake a little bit. Then dirt and stone began to rip apart at the molecular level as the Colonel poured mana into the Trade skill. He didn’t have a ton of material so it was costing him more mana than anything else he had made. He also sensed a vein of some material further into the earth and kept pouring more mana in to loosen it up.
The trail system, and firing platform solidified first. They were both clear and clean glass.
The traversing handle wheel, balancing gear, and recoil system, made of the same glass, followed quickly afterward. Several of the inner gears and parts were seen moving and sliding into place like a transformer getting ready to roll out.
As the barrel formed topped with a muzzle break, a loud cracking sound echoed so loudly through the clearing that the platoon of Knights looked in their direction, even though they were miles away. The Colonel didn’t miss the motion in his map ability through the eyes of Soto’s Clone, who was still observing the party.
CRACK!
Bour looked at the Colonel in a completely different light. The dark-skinned dwarf smiled a pearly white smile as he looked at the new creation in awe. “A Diamond tier creation in the Uncommon Period... wow.” He said under his breath.
“What was that sound?” Soto asked.
“Diamond tier is where mortal Professionals max out their ability. Only by combining trade skills is how any Epic tier creations are made in the Mortal and Sky realms, and Legendary Tier are made by only Heavenly realm Professionals.” Bour looked at the howitzer and shook his head, smiling. “I shouldn’t be surprised my father told me that Legacies can’t be measured like the rest of the players. The cracking sound is an alert to the heavens that a Diamond Tier or above piece of equipment was created. It allows the leaderboard to track your progress.”
“Leaderboard?” Soto asked.
“Later, Sergeant Major, look at the map.” The Colonel said, looking drained from using most of his mana to make the large, long-range weapon. He took out a mana potion and looked at it for a second.
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{ITEM NAME: Rare Mana potion
ITEM TIER: High Rare
ITEM TYPE: Mana Recovery
DESCRIPTION:
ITEM EFFECT: Recovers 2900MP plus 190MP per second for 30
seconds.
RARE BONUS: Mana based attacks through constructs or professional creations do 39% more bonus damage.
_____________________________________________________________
As Colonel patted himself on the back for making sure he kept hundreds of Rare potions with different bonus effects. Soto looked at the map.
The leader of the Platoon was pointing back in their direction, giving orders to a trio of ranger classes. “Shit. Buzbee, are we ready yet?”
“Yes, Sergeant Major.” Specialist Rice answered.
Soto looked to Colonel. “Mortars ready one.”
“Good copy, four,” Clyde answered. “Rice, hit the leader if you can.” He pinged the Specialist’s map again.
“Can and will do, boss man,” Rice replied as he adjusted his mortar tube. The other nine in his squad rotated in line with Rice as the lead mortar tube. He looked to his squad, and they nodded back at him. “We are green to green sir.”
“One round of white phosphorus each, then H.E. Soto, call out adjustment.” The Colonel ordered.
“Copy, One round, Willy P, and then high explosive afterward.”
Next to each Mortar tube were two storage bags that every member of Rice’s squad reached into to grab out a mortar round the size of a tall kindergarten. They had a white cap on the tip.
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{Item Name: 120mm Mortar storage bag
Item Type: Long Range weapon system storage
Item Rank: Low Rare
Item Durability: 1000
Description: A bag that can only hold 120mm howitzer rounds. The player must provide mana to create the round, and the retrieval of each created round is free.
Round count: 9/10(WP) 20/20(HE) Mana Cost: 30 Mana per round.
Duration: Until the Mortar system is spent.
Manned By: Specialist Rice
RARE ATTACHMENT: Two ammo slots.}
_____________________________________________________________
The Colonel was impressed. A good soldier was always impressed with good equipment. That was usually because it felt they were getting hand-me-downs most of the time. These were brand new, and he was looking forward to see what they could do to the platoon. He analyzed his creation with an even bigger smile.
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{Creation Name: Tempered Glass Cannon
Creation Type: Long-range siege system
Creation Rank: Low Diamond
Creation Durability: 103,000
Description: A mana-powered weapon that fires a 155mm explosive projectile at long distances.
Weapon Damage:5000 AOE. Cost:90 Mana per shot. Range:600 meters - 16,000 meters.
Duration: 7 weeks
Manned By: Unmanned
RARE ATTACHMENT: Reduced Cost: Mana cost is reduced by 30%.
PLATINUM ATTACHMENT: Multiplicative damage: When combined with more artillery-style weaponry, the damage is multiplied, not additive.
DIAMOND ATTACHMENT: 100% increase in damage on troops away from their Stronghold & 50% bigger Area of Effect area.}
< NOTE >
{Tempered glass becomes brittle with every shot. Durability decreases by 1000 per shot but recovers over time based on mana infused.}
_____________________________________________________________
< TRADE RANK UP >
{+110 INT, CHA, & LUCK}
{TRADE NAME: Defensive siege weapon forging(Active)
TRADE RANK: 11
DESCRIPTION: Manipulate the resources around you using your mana to make defensive weapons of war.
Cost: Variable. Cast time: Variable. Cool down: None. Duration: 1 month per level of trade.
EFFECTS: The Legacy can forge Low Diamond defensive siege weapons with time, concentration, and resources at a 89% chance of completion rate, the higher the rank of the professional the better chances to make higher level weapons.
COMMON Trade Benefit: Increased Durability.
UNCOMMON Trade Benefit: Increased Duration.
RARE Trade Benefit: Reduce cost for usage.
PLATINUM Trade Benefit: Escalating damage.
DIAMOND Trade Benefit: Stun chance}
_____________________________________________________________
< PROFESSION LEVEL UP >
{+31 to all stats except magic}
{PROFESSION NAME: Forger
PROFESSION RANK: 32 (Recruit-Trainee 2nd)
PROFESSION TYPE: Hybrid-Energy Creation
DESCRIPTION: A Forger is a unique profession as it needs no special materials, only the legacy’s mana and, in some cases, blood to fill in the blanks of what is being forged. The legacy can still use materials to augment and reduce the Mana cost. You can learn Trades, but all of that is second to the Mana creation.
Initiate Benefit: Use mana with all trades to forge creations.
Amateur Benefit: Absorb Mana from kills within a controlled area for use in forging creations
Recruit Benefit: All Styles have an extra use or reduced cool down.
Trainee Benefit: All creation bonus effects are triggered more often.}
_____________________________________________________________
“AYO!” Soto yelled. “That is mad, crazy boss.” He turned to the mortar squad. “Let’s go, Rice. Make it rain like we in the magic city you heard.”
Clyde chuckled at his battle buddy. The euphoria of his mental stats going up by over one hundred and ten was a heady feeling, but he didn’t complain. He looked over at the Mortar squad as they dropped their mortar rounds into their tube. The shallow popping sound could be heard as the rounds all fired off into the distance.
Soto looked at the Map through the eyes of his Clone. The leader was still giving orders when they looked up, and Soto smiled as he ordered his Clone to act.
***
_____________________________________________________________
{11:19 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
_____________________________________________________________
LONG BEACH
SYNDICATE KNIGHTS
The Knight Sergeant heard a cracking sound coming from the north. He had never heard it before, but that wasn’t new in this new world. “Rangers, get over here,” he ordered.
He was in light plate armor like all of his fighter classers with him.
Three men in studded leather armor and bows rush to him from a few meters back from the fighters.
Ranger types were versatile and quick. He had them pull up their map abilities to see what was to the north of them. Their secondary mission was to look for the Dungeon that an unknown party had just cleared.
“I don’t have anything there, Knight Sergeant.” One of the Knight Rangers said as the fog of war covered the north side of his map, outside of the known LA Town Stronghold.
“Well, now we know something is there. I have never heard something like that before-” The Knight Sergeant’s voice was cut off by a whistling sound. “What is that?”
A ranger type looked up with wide eyes. “Mortars! Get down!” He yelled, but before anyone could move a Dome of Shadow cover, the leader, the rest of the fighters, and the ranger contingent just tried to scatter. Most of them ran into each other before untangling themselves and trying to run out of the dome. That few seconds cost the platoon dearly.
Ten rounds hit the treetops, bursting into white clouds of incendiary heat. The area above the canopy was simply gone with overlapping fire multiplying the damage. The almost noon sun shined on them for a second before the second set of whistles was heard.
“Get down!” The Knight Sergeant said just as a massive round landed loudly inside of the Dome, crashing down like a shot from a mountain.
Their world went black for another reason.
_____________________________________________________________
{YOU HAVE DIED!}
< DEBUFF ADDED >
{Curse of the undead(P)}
_____________________________________________________________
***
_____________________________________________________________
{11:19 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
_____________________________________________________________
LONG BEACH
PRIME
“Adjust left one point east northeast fire for effect,” Soto called out after he had his Clone followed his order to blind the platoon, and the first rounds hit a few meters in front of them.
“Adjusting left one point east northeast and firing for effect,” Rice said as he cranked his mortar base plate on target.
BOOM!
The Glass Cannon firing rocked the clearing, kicking up dust and dirt and vibrating everyone’s teeth.
The mortar squad was a little away, but they weren’t to phased. They dropped a mortar round with a red dot on the top into the tubes each.
THUNK!
They all fire at the same time then another volley.
THUNK!
Then, a third.
THUNK!
Soft booms could be heard off to the south. “Ceasefire, Ceasefire, Ceasefire,” Soto yelled as he gave his clone another order. “Kills confirmed.”
_____________________________________________________________
< BATTLE LOG >
{-39000 Cumulative Area of Effect damage}
{Level 59 Knight Sergeant(Fighter) has died EXP +289,000}
{Level 51 Knight Fighter X20 has died EXP +1,434,000}
{Level 51 Knight Ranger X10 has died EXP +530,000}
{Level 51 Knight Mage X9 has died EXP +481,000}
...
{Level 56 Knight Corporal(Mage) has died EXP +163,000}
_____________________________________________________________
The Colonel looked at the map as the Clone looked over at the Hamlet. “How are the holy men doing?” He asked.
“Not good.” Soto watched as one of the Hydras smacked one of the holy men through a building just as his borrowed power winked out.
The second orange-dressed man moved to help, but now that the first Hydra was free to move undeterred, the man had a choice to make: save the other man or die, slowing down two Hydras. The man looked to an opulent compound closer to the center of the Hamlet and made his decision.
He condensed the remaining golden power surrounding himself and released it as a beam of pure, holy light. The attack punched through two heads on the Hydra he was holding off.
The Hydra reeled back from the powerful attack, its regeneration slowed by the holy residue of power. The Buddhist Monk, they could make him out better now that the energy wasn’t surrounding him, moved much slower in the direction of his injured or hurt comrade.
He was exhausted, and it was written all over his body language. He moved sluggishly and not predictably. Unfortunately for him, the flashy attack brought the attention of the second Hydra, which also sensed his weakness.
Usually, they weren’t very stealthy, but with the collapsing buildings around him and the Beasts overrunning the walls, the twenty-foot Hydra deftly leaped at the unsuspecting monk, its three heads rearing back to strike as soon as it landed.
The Monk’s holy sense pinged him at the very last second as he got to his unconscious comrade; he turned back as he pulled out and broke a piece of wood with glowing script on it from around his neck. A bubble shield formed around him and his teammate. The attack hit the shield hard, and the shockwave sent cracks up the side. The first Hydra head broke off a chunk, and the second head shattered the shield like a cheap wine glass. The last head snapped out and took off the monk's left arm with one quick bite.
The Monk screamed in pain. He prayed to his god as he looked to the sky, accepting his death.
His god may not have answered, but his prayers were. The third head of the wounded Hydra was blown clean off as well and the left side of its body was devastated by an AOE round. It wasn’t dead, but its regeneration was going to have to work overtime to regrow the brain. A second round hit its center mass and obliterated the rest of Beast, leaving behind nothing but a Loot Globe and chunks of flesh.
_____________________________________________________________
< BATTLE LOG >
{Level 53 Ocean Hydra has died EXP +319,000}
_____________________________________________________________
“Good shot!” Soto said, “Adjust two points west-northwest, second Hydra. Danger close to the monk.”
The Glass cannon turned to where the Colonel wanted it automatically. Then, the Colonel pulled the lanyard, and the clearing shook again. He didn’t wait; he pulled the lanyard three more times before the first round even hit.
The Hydra looked over at the loot globe of its family member and was confused. Before it could get angry, it was hit by one and then two rounds of center mass, blowing chunks of Ocean Hydra off its massive body. After the last two rounds took off one leg and one head, the beast was pretty much out of the fight.
To the monk’s credit, it took advantage of the beast being mortally wounded. He grabbed a similar piece of wood from his own partner. He broke it and threw it at the hole in the Hydra’s side. It exploded with dozens of blades shredding the Beast from the inside. What was left of it was minced meat and a brown Loot Globe.
_____________________________________________________________
< BATTLE LOG >
{Level 53 Ocean Hydra has died EXP +319,000}
_____________________________________________________________
“Target down!” Soto said; he scanned back to the front gate. The Dire wolves were starting to make their move to Soto’s clone location. “Oh shit, I got incoming.”
Colonel stood next to him. “Rice light up the front wall of that hamlet with everything we got left. You shouldn’t have any problem hitting stuff. They are all clustered together.” Clyde ordered. “Climb a tree of something. They are wolves, not jaguars.”
“Good point,” Soto said as he ordered his Clone to climb the nearest tree.
Through the map view they watch as mortars rain down on the beast at the front wall. After about five minutes of bombardment, the entire field in front of the wall was cleared of Beast. Leaving behind small craters with only corpses and quickly forming Loot globes in them. It was a mission well done. Then they got an update prompt when Clyde finally looked at his time stamp.
_____________________________________________________________
{12:00 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
_____________________________________________________________
< UNCOMMON BEAST HORDE >
{WAVES COMPLETE 3/5
WAVE 4 begins now! Prepare.}
_____________________________________________________________
“Let’s head back to the Fort. Take the girls back with us. We need more information about what the hell is going on in the local area. Holy monks, Ocean Hydras, and sentient fucking trees... all tells me we aren’t in Kansas anymore,” The Colonel said as he touched his Glass cannon, and it disappeared into his soul storage.
“Buzbee, get the platoon ready to move. We head back to the fort as soon as Sergeant Major’s clone escapes these Dire wolves.
The clone dropped a Dome of Shadow on the pack of wolves covering most of them in darkness that they couldn’t see through. It then stepped into a shadow and started to run back towards the clearing.
“Alright, everyone, get ready. We have dire wolves incoming,” the Colonel said as he saw the red dots chasing Soto Clone’s green dot. They had amazing coordination like wolves of old, and even though Soto's clones were stepping through the shadows a hundred meters apart, the wolves' size and gait ate up that distance very quickly.
The clone was caught fairly easily. The wolves coordinated perfectly, sniffing him out as soon as he emerged from a shadow. They quickly caught up and tore it apart before it tried to chain together two shadow steps and ran out of mana on the second one. But, it had done its job.
BOOM!
The wolves ran into their makeshift minefield, which contained all kinds of mines and explosive powers. The Colonel threw his grenades, of which he had made some proximity grenades. The clone had given them time to set it all up.
Clyde patted Anthony on the back. “Good shit, brother. Good Shit.”
_____________________________________________________________
{CREATION NAME: Proximity grenade-field Style
CREATION RANK: Rare
CREATION DURABILITY: 550
CREATION TYPE: Attack spell(Active)
CREATION DURATION: 0 uses left.
Cool down: 3 hours.
RECHARGE COST & TIME: 9000MP & 90 minutes.
Description: By feeding mana into this tattoo, the player can create a grenade that, when thrown, breaks apart into a cluster of smaller grenades that explode when the next enemy enters proximity. Each explosion is additive, causing mid-Rare damage.
Cost: 35MP
RARE EFFECT: Additive damage.}
_____________________________________________________________
< TRADE RANK UP >
+5 to STR, CON, CHA, & LUCK
{TRADE NAME: Grenade forging style(Active)
TRADE RANK: 6
DESCRIPTION: Mark a player with infused mana allowing them to use a mana grenade when accessing the style through the tattoo.
Cost: Variable. Cast time: Variable. Cool down: None. Duration: 5 weeks.
EFFECTS: The Legacy can forge Peak Rare mana grenade with time, concentration, and resources at a 99% chance of completion rate, the higher the rank of the professional the better chance to make higher level weapons.
Grenades available: Many.
COMMON Trade Benefit: Increased Damage over time.
UNCOMMON Trade Benefit: Linked Damage; any enemy within 2 meters of the original target takes full grenade damage.
RARE Trade Benefit: Extra Grenade per tattoo.
_____________________________________________________________
< PROFESSION LEVEL UP >
{+32 to all stats except magic}
{PROFESSION NAME: Forger
PROFESSION RANK: 33 (Recruit-Trainee 2nd)
PROFESSION TYPE: Hybrid-Energy Creation
DESCRIPTION: A Forger is a unique profession as it needs no special materials, only the legacy’s mana and, in some cases, blood to fill in the blanks of what is being forged. The legacy can still use materials to augment and reduce the Mana cost, you can learn Trades but all of that is second to the Mana creation.
Initiate Benefit: Use mana with all trades to forge creations.
Amateur Benefit: Absorb Mana from kills within a controlled area for use in forging creations
Recruit Benefit: All Styles have an extra use or reduced cool down
Trainee Benefit: All creation bonus effects are triggered more often.}
_____________________________________________________________
The sound of a hundred different types of munitions popping off blanketed the dire wolves with fire and dirt, and even a chain of lightning attacks hit the whole pack for a few seconds. The pack was devastated, and only the Alpha made it out of the chaos alive.
_____________________________________________________________
< BATTLE LOG >
{Level 54 Dire Wolves X 6 has died EXP +1,251,900}
_____________________________________________________________
Colonel analyzed the disheveled beast. Its fur was smoking in some places and just missing in others. The Alpha had three pair of legs, but the back pair were clearly crippled by the damage and it was dragging them behind itself.
“Can I get an Analyze sir?” Soto asked.
“Got you,” Colonel replied.
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{Beast Name: Gray Dire Wolf Alpha
Beast type: Wolf(ELITE)(Traveling boss)
Level:60
HP:5000/214,600
MP:50/2,500
DR:0/30,000
Highest ATTRIBUTES:
Physical; Dexterity
Mental; Charisma
Bane: Ice Damage
Weaknesses: Limb attacks
Description: In the late 2000s, the state of California started to reintroduce the gray wolf back into the wilderness in order to combat the deer and other overpopulated herbivore species. Twenty years later, this Alpha had made his way down from Oregon to take over the largest gray wolf pack in southern California. The pack had leveled up by killing the undead with the help of the Alpha’s exotic powers. Unfortunately for the Alpha, he was overthrown by the matriarch of the other pack and had to take his loyal followers and flee. Gray Dire wolf Alpha elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 10), HP regen (times 10), and damage(times 2.5).
EFFECTS: Semi Cripple. Blind, Bleeding, Internal bleeding, Burning.}
_____________________________________________________________
“Too much information, bro.” Soto laughed. “Adjust those settings ASAP. The enemy would have killed you by the time you read this..”
The poor Beast stumbled to the ground and fell face first, letting out a sad death rattle and expired, leaving behind a pink Loot globe.
_____________________________________________________________
< BATTLE LOG >
{Level 60 Gray Dire Wolf Alpha has died EXP +850,000}
_____________________________________________________________
“That was not a pretty way to go. It was almost worse to have that much HP. If he had less, he would have just died instantly.” Sugar shook her head sadly at the formally majestic Beast.
“Yeah, on a not-so-anti-climatic note, I have enough to get to tier 4 now.”
“That is great news. These tier 5 targets are a lot more than I expected to see, to be honest. I thought we would have some of the higher tiers among our peers, but it seems like Southern Cali has been through some crazy power leveling because of something unprecedented.” Clyde thought for a few seconds and then came to a decision.
He turned to Soto who waited for his orders. “Pack it up, Sergeant Major. I will go loot the wolves. You grab the Loot point, and Buzbee gets the platoon ready to move, then we head back to the Fort for the 4th wave.” He started to walk over the carnage of wolf body parts. “Now that we know we can hit the Hamlet from the Fort with artillery, I feel confident in waiting until the end of the Horde to make contact with our first humans again.”
“What if they hit us?” Sugar asked.
“With how effective the mortars are against horde creatures, I would say one of two scenarios is going on.” Bour started. “One, the Hamlet ran out of ammo because while it does cost Mana to fire the rounds, a Profession Trade skill must be used to make the rounds. Your raid party not only got lucky with all of the exotic skills you got from that Dungeon completion, but you also got a ton of complementary skills as well. They clearly don’t have those advantages. Or two, and the more likely scenario, they didn’t have any of these weapons in the first place.”
“That part.” Soto agreed.
“That was my assessment as well. Besides it is time for me to really flex my profession, I need to finish my quest so I can use all of my paths while fighting, this limited use is killing my fighting style.” Clyde said as he got to the Alpha’s Loot Globe. “Let’s see what we got here.” A grin on his face.