CHAPTER XXXXVI: FAMILY REUNION
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{11:20 LOCAL TIME 2ND JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
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FORT CHAVEZ NOBLE ROAD
SUGAR
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< ZONE EVENT ALERT >
EVENT NAME: Wild Beast Horde
DESCRIPTION: The continuous horde kept the beast population at bay at night, but now that it is done, the Beasts have come out to play. A wild beast horde is forming; they will converge on population-dense areas but prefer to go after groups in the wild. These are the biggest threats to Noble Road‘s integrity. The sheer number of Beast destroys anything in its way.
Objective: Survive the Wild Beast horde.(0/1)
Objective: Save at least 51% of the group stuck in the Horde. (0%)
Rewards: EXP and free Noble road route.
{Time Until the first wave: 9M:22s}
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Sugar read the Alert while her hair flapped behind her. Kuma moved at a full sprint—a motorcycle on each side of her with two people on each. The second person sat facing backward, scanning with their rifles. The team leader led the way on his bike, and Kuma happily kept up with its top speed.
[Johnny, we have made it to the Beast Horde zone.] Sugar said in chat.
[Copy that, ma’am. We are 3 miles out, with the gear over.] Johnny replied.
“That is good.” She said to her biker team. “Alright, Blue 1, we hold this position.” She said, looking at the helmeted leader.
“Copy that, ma’am. Boys, let's unload.” Blue 1 answered she was the person standing next to the player Sugar was looking at, and she inwardly groaned.
All of the team wore motorcycle helmets that were also conjured like their bikes, and she couldn’t tell who was who. But callsigns are callsigns. She was happy about that.
The team of five started to move.
Colonel had handed out quite a few storage devices. He was still tight-lipped about where he got them from or even what his Ascension Trial was, but he did say once everyone got to Tier 5, he would start explaining more.
It ultimately didn’t matter right now; she had a mission to do, and she scanned the area around Noble Road, which was basically a dirt highway that was the former 710 interstate that ran right around their fort. They were on the former Ocean Drive overpass, which had been remade into an elevated dirt road.
They pull pieces of equipment out.
The first were two mortar positions, which they set up in the middle of the over past. Next, they brought out two turrets, which they set up next to the edge of the overpass, and then they set up two more on the opposite side.
Kuma sniffed the air in her chibi form, and her ears perked up, becoming alert.
[Someone is here hiding.] She said in Sugar’s mind
“Where?” Sugar said, looking around.
[I don’t think she means any harm to us. She doesn’t seem very hostile] Kuma said, looking over the railing to the on-ramp next to the party.
A lanky, soft, brown-skinned young woman with long box braids, cornrowed into a ponytail, broke stealthily by walking into a shadow to reveal herself. She had a tired but bright smile looking at Kuma.
“That is a good nose you got, their cutie.” She said to Chibi Kuma.
The entire blue team moved to protect Sugar. She rolled her eyes as they interposed themselves between the unknown woman and herself, even to the point that one of the team members stood on top of the railing, all pointing their rifles at her.
“Is this necessary?” She finally said, watching the woman put her hands up.
“Ma’am, we all have a detection team ability, and this person stealth bypassed it. She is powerful. Be careful; powerful means dangerous.” What she believed was Blue 1 answered surprisingly well.
“I mean you kno...”
As things often happen in a high-stress environment. The tension was broken by a mistake. The man on the railing slipped when the late morning dew-covered dilapidated piece of rusted metal snapped from the trooper’s weight.
Kuma looked at the woman as she blurred. Sugar was also watching her and couldn’t keep up with her movements at all. The man fell comically off the railing to the highway below, all arms flailing.
But to his and everyone on the overpass’ surprise, the young biracial woman was under him, catching him like he was a shanked punt. After the man landed safely in a princess carried in her hands, she smiled at him and jumped.
Now, it must be said that the overpass was over twenty feet tall from the highway, but the skinny woman carrying a man in full gear easily cleared the railing and landed deftly next to Blue 1, who had holstered his weapon.
“Here you go, watch your step next time, big fella, okay?” The young lady said with a grin on he smooth, calm face.
“T-thank you.” The falling man finally said after figuring out what had just happened to him.
“No problem. I didn’t know what Tier you were, and I had no identify ability. I can sense your Presence, but Skill users are hard to quantify.”
“Tier 3 almost Journeyman in two main Skills.” The man said proudly.
“That is impressive in 6 mouths; it took me much longer than that.” She walked up to Sugar and offered her hand. “I am Valor of the JTF auxiliary. I was looking for help with a particular Raid Dungeon, and your group seems competent compared to the others I have encountered. Want to help me and my family out? We can be a great asset to any Stronghold as thank you for the help.” She said with a smile, but Sugar could see worry behind the smile.
“We are actually here to save the convoy from the wild Beast Horde.” Sugar said before shaking her hand. “I am Captain Brittney Sugar, and I’m the lady of a nearby fort, and the people coming our way are coming to join us. So we came to help them.”
Lyla nodded as if the information made a whole lot of sense. “I took off my zone alerts because I didn’t want to get distracted by them while on my mission. You have a fort, you say, and you are a Captain. It must be at least a Village Tier. Do you have a mission board yet?”
The blue team went back to setting up, seeing Sugar and Valor interact, all but Blue 1, who kept her hand on her sidearm, looking at the two powerful women. “I never heard of the JTF auxiliary before the breaking, but now that is the second time I have heard it in a day. What is JTF auxiliary, ma’am?” Blue one asked.
Valor turned to the woman. “It was the Enlighten or Dust branch of the JTF. I had Magic before the breaking. All Dusters and Enlightened did.”
That revelation caused everyone to stop. The JTF was known for its transparency, but every organization had its dirty little secrets, even the ones that were not supposed to. The straightforward statement didn’t have the effect Valor thought it would have, but Sugar quickly handled it. “Well, our leader is Colonel, the Colonel of the JTF. He headed to the Long Beach Airport. When he returns from that, you can talk to him about your Raid Dungeon... What?” Sugar noticed the immediate change in Valor’s posture at the mention of Colonel’s rank.
“Colonel Clyde Jacob is alive?” Valor said in shock, then smiled a truly genuine smile and relaxed shoulders. “and he is at the Long Beach airport?”
“Well, heading there, but he has a time-sensitive Event he has to complete, so we can’t bother him right now.” Sugar looked at Valor as she stumbled back with her arm out to the railing for support. “What?” Sugar asked, confused.
“Well, he is about to have a family reunion. He is my Uncle, my favorite one.” She said with a proud smile. “But more importantly, the Long Beach Airport is where the Raid Dungeon I was talking about is, and knowing my Uncle, he is probably OP as hell already.” Valor laughed at all of the party nodding. “I figured.”
Sugar smiled, her tension going away. “Okay, well, does that mean you can help me here?” To Brittney’s surprise, Valor took a knee.
“While I have been pledged to other Strongholds, I have never tied myself to one, but that was before the Breaking. I need a home, and if Uncle Clyde trusts you, so will I. If you will have me, that is.”
Sugar got a prompt telling her she had one more citizen, but the average level of the whole Strong went up a tier that was ten whole levels for adding one girl. How was that even possible? Her eyes were wide.
Valor rubbed the back of her neck. “Oh yeah, I am Tier 7. Is that a problem?”
“Not at all, Valor, not at all. I needed someone to be a show of force. I thought it was going to be me, but you would do just fine.” The two women looked at each other with big Cheshire grins.
“I think I can handle that.”
***
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{1:10 DUNGEON TIME}
_
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LONG BEACH AIRPORT
COLONEL & SOTO
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< Objective Control Main runway >
< Tower durability: Full >
{Main runway defensive Tower 1/1. (1 Gunner)
1000/1000 durability.
Main runway Hanger defensive Tower 1/1.(1 gunner)
1000/1000 durability.
{Players in current Scenario: 13}
< OCCUPY TOWERS >
{Take over the towers to bring the boss early.}
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The party had taken the Towers with no resistance. David and Ron were now manning the weapon systems that Colonel had made on top of the main runway Towers. The two tanks were standing by outside the Towers with Colonel and Soto’s armored car.
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< THE MAIN RUNWAY is Secure BOSS is SPAWNING >
{Time until BOSS spawns: 00m:01s.}
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All could hear the sound of a loud moan of anger. Hundreds of more moans joined the moan.
[Stand by] Colonel ordered in party chat.
The main runway slowly connected to the south runway, which slowly added sunlight to the main runway. The sounds were coming from the North of the main runway. Soto stood outside of the armored car with his bow equipped. “What is the pool up to?” He asked Colonel as he sat in the open turret of the vehicle.
“Two thousand Mana crystals.” The party was on a time crunch, so they had decided to let the loot globes become loot points, but the share amount of them was a little daunting.
After the Towers were repaired, each ghoul started to leave behind loot globes, plus a lot of the loot globes were already Platinum, so Colonel and Soto were expecting large rewards. Still, it belonged to the nation, not the individual. Well, 75% of it went back to the nation, and the party received 25%, but that was still after the nation had collected all of it.
Colonel was a stickler for oversight, transparency, and redundancies, so he was very happy that there were Professionals to handle that type of admin work. Bureaucracy is a good thing when appropriately regulated. Bureaucrats could be useful sometimes as well.
“Wow. That is...” More moans interrupted him. “What is the top option?”
“Lich, I believe,” Colonel replied.
“No way, a Lich feels like a final boss, not a middle-tier boss.”
“True, but Tower Modes Dungeons are more about throwing numbers at the players, right?”
“True indeed,” Soto answered, looking back at him curiously.
“What else can make an army of ghouls other than those beings and vampires?”
[Weapons ready!]
“Give me a test shot, Sergeant Major.” Colonel ordered.
Soto drew his bowstring back. While most people couldn’t see into the darkness, that wasn’t a problem for Soto. All he had to do was focus off to the north of the runway, and he could start to make out the bodies gathering. He released a shot that exploded in the darkness. “Wow, that only killed the Feral versions. They are getting tougher, boss man.” Soto shrugged excitedly.
“Well, that is why we have these.” Colonel pointed to the Auto cannons in front of the Towers.
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{Creation Name: Light Auto Cannon
Creation Type: Defensive siege system
Creation Rank: Mid Diamond
Creation Durability: 250,000
Description: A mana-powered dual barrel weapon that fires a light base ammo on any hostile target in range.
Weapon Damage:500 per round. Mana. Cost:100 Mana per shot. Range:1000 meters.
Duration: 1 week
Status: Active Scanning.
MP: 20000/20000 regen 250 per minute.
RARE ATTACHMENT: Reduced Cost; Mana's cost is reduced by 30%.
PLATINUM ATTACHMENT: Explosive shot; Rounds have a 40% chance to explode of impact for fire damage. 40% chance of burn.)
DIAMOND ATTACHMENT: 1000% damage against Undead and 500% damage against Living Dead.}
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Just as he read over the prompt, the gun swiveled to life and pointed north, preparing itself for the attack.
“So what happens if it is a Lich?” Soto asked.
“Dina, Jimmy, Terrence, and David would split the pool,” Colonel answered. He adjusts his turret a little. His vision wasn’t as good as Soto‘s, but his perception was almost god-like in this Dungeon, so he could feel more.
Speaking of which, time slowed down with Colonel’s thought because something had entered his perception range moving fast. Very fast.
[Contact, North.] Colonel called out.
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< ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Ability NAME: Legacy Perception(PASSIVE/TOGGLE/TRIGGERED)
Ability Level: Journeyman 9
The ability to see the legacy’s surroundings like never before. This perception allows the Legacy to know where all the pieces on the game board are as long as he has observed a similar type of enemy, ally, and neutral party. This Perception can be toggled on to see things he couldn’t see such as skills being used as well as a plethora of other applications.
Cost: 65 mana regen
STUDENT EFFECT: Instinctually feel the flow of battle beyond what the legacy can see with his eyes alone, synergizing all bonuses, skills, and senses and quantifying it in his HUD. Range: 40 meters per level of ability.
Current Base Range: 1120 meters
NOVICE EFFECT: Slows time once per thirty seconds when the ability triggers. How long the slowed time lasts is dependent on the level of ability & LUCK.
APPRENTICE EFFECT: You can look forward in time and see how your current actions will play out. (Be advised if you change one action the future could change as well.) Information can be shared with Teammates within 100 meters.
Cost 250MP. Cool down: 5 days.
JOURNEYMAN EFFECT: All information gained from the ability is instantly implanted into your mind, and HUD, and the player will have a near perfect memory of the surroundings during the engagement. All allies benefit from the knowledge of the Student Effect and a Minor chance to lower the perception of the enemy. As your active Presence expands, the player receives more detailed information from anything in his Presence.}
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A blur flew past the front line of the gathering-Enhanced ghouls.
Soto noticed, and his head jerked quickly at the motion. He drew his blades, unequipping his bow just as quickly. The bow had just dissipated when the blur arrived, swinging a glowing black bastard sword at the duo.
Sparks fly as Soto’s eyes widen in surprise at the sheer power behind the swings. His Ranger shield was broken after the second clash of blades since he couldn’t block the attack entirely. That was when Soto realized that this monster was much stronger than him and also much more proficient at close-range fighting.
In most instances in the GREAT GAME, that would be a quick death sentence for Soto, but he had something that this monster didn’t have, something that he could always count on in a fight.
The monster didn’t have a friend like Colonel Clyde S Jacob Jr.
Colonel had watched the exchange, his perception showing him the flow of the battle. Soto would lose if he didn’t intervene, but then something happened. It was hard to explain. When Soto’s Ranger shield broke, the force caused the monster to stumble back, and that opening was all Soto needed to change the course of the battle.
Soto anticipated the monster’s attack quicker, cutting them off before they could build momentum behind them, which allowed him to mostly negate the power behind the massive swings of the giant blade.
Soto was using the knowledge fed to him by the Colonel’s Perception ability to gain the upper hand in his duel.
[Don’t help just yet. I got this, Colonel. Can I get an Analyze, please?] Soto said in the team chat.
Colonel blinked and analyzed the monster.
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{Monster Name: Vincent Van
Class: Enhanced Grand Ghoul(Undead)(ELITE)(Mini-boss)
Level:69
HP: 28,924,000
MP: 7500
DR: 130
Bane: Fire
Weaknesses: Light magic and Life magic. Decapitation = True Death.
Description: Ghouls come in many varieties, but the one constant between them all is the insatiable appetite for living flesh. Undead Ghouls' appetite is seconded by their strength and constitution. For their level they will always be stronger and tougher than their frame suggests.
Grand ghouls are first casters of the undead, as they level they also gain dark and ice spells. Grand Ghoul elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 15) and damage(times 3). Mini-Bosses have a boost to intelligence.
EFFECTS: Hunger. Undead dexterity, undead Regeneration, viral bite. Undead absorption}
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[Okay, nope, I don’t get this. Way to much HP to take down with my blades I would feel more comfortable with my bow here. Tag in?]
[For sure!] Colonel replied.
The Grand Ghoul, to its credit, dodged out of the way of the Colonel’s clothesline attack. But it earned a cut over its eye for its troubles from Soto.
The bleed debuff activated.
“Humans never had honor.” The ghoul sneered at them.
They both look at each other and then to the north to the thousands of ghouls waiting there, then back to the Grand Ghoul. “Bruh, honor, are you serious?” Soto asked incredulously while putting away one of his blades and equipping his bow again.
The ghoul’s eyes narrowed at Soto then he exploded into action, and he really did explode. His body turned to darkness and reappeared behind Soto, swinging his sword so quickly you could tell he was serious about finishing the fight quickly by cutting Soto in half.
Colonel caught the sword with one hand and punched the surprised ghoul in the face, breaking his nose and crumbling his cheekbone while twisting his other hand. The ghoul even let go of his sword, which turned to darkness in Colonel’s hands.
Soto had already stepped into Colonel’s shadow and teleported to the top of the tank. He spun around and fired his bladed arrow back at the falling ghoul. Vincent didn’t have time even to grab his face, a reflex every being had when hit in the nose before Soto’s projectile was lodged into it...
BOOM!
The arrow exploded, sending Vincent flying back, rolling a few dozen meters back. The ghoul’s face was a mess, but he was already healing when he looked up at Soto with rage in its black and purple eyes. “You little worm, I will...”
“You talk about honor like this is a duel, buddy; it ain’t. You didn’t declare a duel, and you didn’t mention a duel; all you did was attack my best friend with reckless abandon, and he defended himself accordingly. I never like the kind of honor you speak of; it is just an excuse the powerful make when they can’t honestly overcome their challengers. Good of us, we see right through that bullshit.”
“Facts.” Soto agreed.
The rage in the ghoul’s eyes was unmistakable, but the monster was smart enough to know his situation wasn’t as simple as he thought. He wanted to kill the archer, but that Front-liner was preventing that in many ways.
[Fire!]
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
The rage became pain as all the gunners opened fire. The Grand Ghoul couldn’t even dodge because of the tank round taking out one of his legs with the first few hits. The damn monster was still alive after the first barrage.
[Fire at will.] Colonel ordered with a curious look.
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
“You will pay for this.” The monster yelled as his body was ripped apart by the heavy ordnance being shot at him by the towers and tanks. Small chunks of him were falling off with each hit, but between his high stats and undead regeneration, he was almost keeping up with the damage he was taking.
In a last-ditch effort to turn the battle in his favor, the grand ghoul created two back-to-back shields that stopped a barrage before breaking, and the second shield stopped another one from holding strong. But with light and fire-based attacks, his shield was doomed to fail, and he knew it.
Which was why he had planned to feed on a few lower-level players to replenish his health and even give him some insight into his enemies.
Sadly for the ghoul, he wasn’t in a position to get away that easily, and that guy with the full military uniform was tough enough to stop Vincent with his stats alone. That should be absurd, but he did stop his sword swing way too easily with his bare hands. But it could have been an empowered spell; if so, there might be a weakening period, so this was the time to strike.
The second shield broke, and Vincent made his move. He blurred at high speed at Colonel, only to be sent flying back by a size 12 and a half combat boots. The kick happened so fast that Vincent hadn’t even known he was kicked until he was flipping ass over elbows backward.
“What are you?” The Grand Ghoul yelled as he tumbled away from Colonel.
[Keep lighting him up.] Colonel said calmly in party chat.
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
“In the end,” The narrator began. “Vincent the grand ghoul was in a really bad match-up with the Raid party. He was supposed to be a caster, but for some reason, the variant he had spawned was more melee-based magical attacker instead of a pure range one. The problem with that strategy was just in the makeup of the party. In a typical scenario, the party would be at least one hundred players, mostly professionals maintaining the towers and using the towers to secure the runways. Those were soft targets, but the Colonel’s Raid party was not soft.
“They were more potent than the towers themselves, not to mention the party was so small they could all stay in the Towers. The bosses were not allowed to enter the Towers by the rules of the Dungeon Mode, but they were allowed to destroy them. Victor had engaged in close combat before trying to destroy the Towers, which wasn’t his only mistake but was his most significant.”
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
“Even if Vincent had just bypassed them and went for the south runway,” The narrator continued. “The sunlight there would have severely weakened him, and he was already at a disadvantage because, by now, he wouldn’t have been able to feed on some players to grow stronger. The only players he could feed on were monsters in their own right. One had a movement skill that made high stats useless against him. The shadow teleport was one of the most sort after transport powers in the multiverse, and while his arrow attacks hurt more than they should because of his bane mark, it was the fact that he had the tank of Colonel protecting him that made him even more annoying to pin down.”
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
“Colonel was another enigma that was so beyond Vincent‘s mind to understand. The ghoul couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that this human beat him in stats alone. The player’s Presence only read as a Tier 4 Professional which shouldn’t have nearly the amount of stats that Colonel had. Of course, Colonel wasn’t just a Tier 4 professional; he was also a Tier 5 Classer and Tier 8 Skill Artist, and he was a PRIME, and there wasn’t anything that would stand in his way. He was unrelenting in the pursuit of his objectives, he would do what must be done to make sure humanity was ready for the trials and tribulations that were the GREAT GAME, and the Grand Ghoul was just in his fucking way.”
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< BATTLE LOG >
{Vincent Van level 69 has died +1,946,850 EXP}
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“Well, not anymore. Vincent, the boss of the main runway, died never comprehending his enemies.” The Narrator concluded as Vincent burst into a massive loot globe.
[Cease fire!] Colonel ordered
[Good shooting people. I love that shit. Keep it up, we-] Colonel was interrupted by a prompt dump.
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< OBJECTIVE COMPLETE >
{Quest Name: Professional Help I
Quest Tier: Diamond
Quest Type: Professional (Profession Chain)
Description: You and your party have entered the area of influence of this Wild Dungeon. While you are in the Dungeon the expansion of the wild Dungeon has been slowed significantly. Complete the Dungeon, and collect or destroy the Dungeon Core to stop the growth of the wild dungeon. Creature birth and spawn rates have risen tremendously. The chances of creature evolution have risen very significantly. Control an area for 24 hours in order to bring out the area boss. Defeat the area boss in order to clear an area and fully control it.
Requirements: Use only Profession to finish Quest.
Objective 1: Control the South runway and Tower. (Complete)
Objective 2: Control the main runway. (Complete)
Objective 3: Control North the runway and Douglas Park.
Objective 4: Control Airport Terminal(Dungeon Core room)
Time limit: None Dungeon slowly grows while you are still in it.
Rewards: -Intent- & Battle -Intent- Pool, +125 to Vitality Pool(Immortal), ???(Dungeon Core) ???(Free Noble road).
Failure penalty: Path Forward is closed until a new quest is available.}
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< New Scenario begins. >
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< Objective Control North runway tower >
{North runway defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
North runway Hanger 1 defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
Douglas Park defensive Tower 1/1.
13/1000 durability.
{Players in current Scenario: 16}
< WARNING TOWER DURABILITY IS DANGEROUSLY LOW! >
{Kill monsters to increase the durability of Towers.}
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< THE NORTH RUNWAY BOSS SPAWNS >
{Time until BOSS spawns: 59M:58s.}
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The sunlight started creeping into the Main runway from the south.
“Wait, sixteen players! How did we add three more people?” Soto asked.
[Those new people, one must be my partner!] David yelled in party chat, then a blast of what can only be called holy energy came out of his Tower as he activated his heavenly shroud and leaped off the tower, heading north.
“Shall we go with him, you know I love me some family reunions. That guy must really like his partner. Do you think they are doing it? They definitely are, right? You can do the marriage ceremony, sir.” Soto chuckled.
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< TASK ALERT >
TASK NAME: Lost in the dark
DESCRIPTION: Three players have been stuck in this scenario because of their lack of compatible powers. They have been moved to your scenario, but none of their debuffs or status ailments have been removed.
Task: Save them
Task: Complete the Scenario with them
Rewards: EXP and new citizens.
{Time until first death:9M:22s}
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“Well, shit,” Soto complained.
“Get in the driver’s seat, Sergeant Major.” Colonel ordered just as he jumped onto the turret gun.
[Covering fire! Make a path for the vehicles. Tanks, follow me over]
[Lead the way, Colonel!]
Soto’s tires spin and take off, followed by a heavy track on pavement.
***
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{04W:13D:23m:10s DUNGEON TIME}
_
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LONG BEACH AIRPORT
SONALI
Sonali stood over two heavily breathing people. One was her father, Amit; he was frail because of his Race, and even though she was a half-breed of his race, the weakness didn’t affect her nearly as much.
The other person was a young lady with pale skin from blood loss and what looked like a nasty curse of some type. The latter kept her MP from replenishing. All of her passive and semi-passive powers were constantly draining her, and she couldn’t toggle them off because she was unconscious, making her situation worse.
Sonali sighed, and not for the first time. ‘How did we get here?’ She thought.
They had been in this wild Dungeon for almost a month and a half, and they ran out of food a few days ago after being at half rations for a week. Killing the ghouls hadn’t given rations or anything for sustenance, so they were pretty done for. She also knew that time was moving differently outside the Dungeon than inside it, so there was always hope. That hope was dwindling by a minute.
Sonali and her family team are part of the Joint Task Force Auxiliary, the semi-secret Enlightened section of the organization. They were the top team and were sent to secure the most critical assets of the JTF before the world had become magical.
Every interface user got an alert whenever the magic level rose, and the ones in the know knew that the common Era was very close, but the Breaking happened way too soon, changing everything.
The JTF Auxiliary was aware of the possibility. The massive rise of Duster and Enlightened activities among animals and plants was a clear sign based on historical knowledge. Still, with the booster shot for humans and vaccines for animals, she thought the world had brought themselves some time.
So, the most powerful teams of the auxiliary split up and went to strategic JTF locations to collect and store all of the experimental program materials, then were supposed to move onto major city centers and provide support until communication could be established if need be. However, her team never got a chance to complete their first objective. It was FUBAR from the minute they landed.
As soon as they got to Los Angeles, they made their way to the Long Beach branch in civilian clothes; they had their gear in low-rank storage devices that would work outside of Dungeons in a pre-Common world. Traffic was horrendous, so two hours after landing, they got to the Branch gate. Immediately, they were on high alert.
The branch location was located below a hanger at the Long Beach Airport, and there wasn’t anyone at the gate checking IDs. That would be a significant oversight at the typical airport point of entry, at a JTF checkpoint that meant a deadly emergency.
All pretense of being regular citizens went out the window when they saw the gate. They gave the ride-share driver a hundred-dollar tip and told him he should leave. To the driver’s credit, he left with a wave and a thank you. The team equipped their JTF standard gear and tactically moved into the hanger. They found blood and spent rounds everywhere; the guards were dead.
That wouldn’t have been that odd; JTF locations were the most attacked places on the planet, in fact. What was odd was the distinct lack of the enemy they faced. At a closer look, a lot of the blood wasn’t from the guards. That could mean only a few things, and two of them led the way. The attackers took their fallen comrades with them, or in the more likely scenario, the attackers were Enlighten with some type of regeneration power.
Those were the most common Enlightened powers and the reason why Dusters were feared. Sonali wasn’t afraid of them, though; she was discussed by them, to be honest. She and her team, consisting of her Mage younger brother, Tank younger sister, and Healer/Leader father. She was the Ranger class of the team, so she always led the way.
She got to the underground bunker after taking hours to make their way through the trapped compound. They encountered a Grand Ghoul named Vincent, who escaped them when the Breaking happened, and all of the former dead started to rise once again as undead.
They were in scramble mode to escape. Maybe it was more apt to say they were in catch-up mode. As the strongest players in the local area, they had set out to make sure no curveballs hit the big Strongholds that were bound to spring up in the area due to their benefits of them. Instead of being the heroes they should have been, they first got caught up in a time loop looking for a Dungeon that was responsible for the continuous horde.
Time loops were not something any of her team had encountered but were vaguely informed of during their training. Needless to say, they were stuck, and the only one who wasn’t was her brother Nathan, who she had been worried the most about. She shook her head.
according to Sonali’s identification Style, the woman Holly was a holy monk working for a god, which made it strange that she would be so severely beaten in a low-Tier Dungeon of this caliber. The Curse was not from anything in the wild dungeon, so she must have been hit by it before being thrown in here because Sonali knew there was no way a holy monk would enter a place so dangerous with a curse like that.
Sonali didn’t have time to worry about that. She was stalling. She had to figure out a way to beat this Scenario without her sister’s help now. Sonali’s sister, Lyla, gained the ability to leave the wild Dungeon, so she left. It was to get help, but Sonali wasn’t feeling very confident that she would make it back in time, and even if she did, Sonali wasn’t sure what the Power level was of the local Strongholds elites.
“I miss my party.” Sonali sighed in a taciturn tone.
She really did, she had had many adventures prior to the Breaking, and none of them was a shit show like this one... Okay, the silk road sucked worst than this, but that was... She looked at her Dad lying down, sweating, and breathing heavily. He couldn’t have known that the Wild Dungeon would have an Ever-night enchantment or that it would have been an antithesis to him.
She sighed again, playing with her daggers.
Suddenly the air changed.
“I-is that...sunlight?” She felt it on her face at first, then the warm light of a new dawn lit up Sonali’smahogany skin, and her eyes glowed a dull orange like the rising sun or dead embers coming back to life in gentle breeze.
_____________________________________________________________
< New Scenario begins. >
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< Objective Control North runway tower >
{North runway defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
North runway Hanger 1 defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
Douglas Park defensive Tower 1/1.
13/1000 durability.
{Players in current Scenario: 16}
< WARNING TOWER DURABILITY IS DANGEROUSLY LOW! >
{Kill monsters to increase the durability of Towers.}
_____________________________________________________________
< THE NORTH RUNWAY BOSS SPAWNS >
{Time until BOSS Spawns: 59M:58s.}
_____________________________________________________________
Sonali smiled, it looked like her sister did find help, she never doubted her for a second. She heard a crash on the first floor, and she moved to the stairwell and heard some ghouls breaking into the Tower proper.
She had only one bomb style available before she needed to get it recharged or wait for another twenty-four hours for it to recover naturally. She used it. She closed the door behind her and went over to the opposite wall. EXP poured into her as the bomb took lives. Far more than she had gotten before. But from experience she knew that it wasn’t going to be enough, she had done the same thing at the other two towers before they were overran.
She looked out the window and saw the sun rising from the south. She wasn’t one to question her luck, and she moved her Dad over to the window.
As the light from the sun hit her dad’s face, his salt-and-pepper beard became all salt, and he started breathing less erratically. She looked at the monk, and the light had weakened the curse a little but not enough to heal in the long term.
She saw flashes of light then...
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BOOM!
BOOM!
BRRRRRRZZZZT
BRRRRRRZZZZT
She felt and heard the military-grade weapons fire and froze.
‘Who still had bullets after all this time?’ She thought it was common knowledge in the JTF auxiliary that the rising Mana had made nuclear bombs obsolete even before the stupid Breaking. The pandemic had covered up that news, but anyone in the know knew.
Sonali was also aware of the fact that bullets not empowered by a Spell, Skill, or Tier 5 Energy wouldn’t do much damage to a Tier 1 player at the beginning of a magic epoch, but as the levels of Mana began to rise, that stopping power would continue to fall until they become basically paperweights at Tier 4 or the Rare Period.
She looked down to the runways, and her eyes widened. Not only were there guns and bullets, but more importantly, she saw Tanks moving towards her very quickly.
A man dressed in the same outfit as the monk led the way, but that was when she noticed the sea of Enhanced ghouls he was trying to fight through. The covering fire helped him, but Sonali could see he would not survive the rest of the way to the Tower if he didn’t slow down and adjust his strategy.
A large male blur flew out of a wheeled vehicle, and in three quick steps, he crossed the distance between his truck and the tower’s bottom floor, which enhanced ghouls had overrun. At every location that the blur had stepped, bright white explosions followed, taking the lives of dozens of monsters.
_____________________________________________________________
< UPDATE >
< Objective Control North runway tower >
{North runway defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
North runway Hanger 1 defensive Tower 0/1.
0/1000 durability.
Douglas Park defensive Tower 1/1.
158/1000 durability.
{Players in current Scenario: 16}
< WARNING TOWER DURABILITY IS DANGEROUSLY LOW! >
{Kill monsters to increase the durability of Towers.}
_____________________________________________________________
< THE NORTH RUNWAY BOSS SPAWNS >
{Time until BOSS spawns: 59M:49s.}
_____________________________________________________________
She saw the durability of her Tower skyrocket with the kills. Then, a massive explosion shook the entire tower. Now that the blur was closer, she could look down on and make out a black man in battle dress uniform fighting the ghouls outside single-handedly. The man looked like... “Uncle Junior?” She said, with a confused look.
Then the driver’s hatch on the armored vehicle opened and three black arrows fly out taking out a row of ghouls outside the towers, a familiar yankee fitted sat on top a pale skinned Puerto Rican man. Sonali’s wide, confused mouth turns into a smile. “If Tio Soto is here, then...” She looked back to the military man for confirmation. “So that is Colonel.” She visibly relaxed.
Looking at her recovering comrades, she couldn’t help but smile at their little family reunion, if there were someone in her family anyone can count on, it was her Uncle Clyde. Knowing that he was here, she instinctually knew everything would soon be alright.