INTERLUDE: THE JACOB WAY

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{05:53 LOCAL TIME 5TH JULY 1ME}

UNCOMMON PERIOD

MORTAL REALM

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MARACAS BAY TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

ANDRE, ROGER, & GILLIAN

The rising sun lit the green majestic mountain views of Maracas Bay. This was only second in noteworthiness to the beautiful sandy coastline bay beaches that litter the tourist area.

Coconut trees grew with abundance, all of them overflowing with coconuts. They swayed back and forth in the gentle morning breeze.

The inlet blocked the sun from the ocean side of the island nation this early in the morning; because of the shape of the bay, the waters were sometimes rough yet pristine prior to the Breaking. But that was in the daytime. At night, when a person looked out into the ocean towards the horizon, it felt like the abyss looked back at you.

After the Breaking, a calm and pristine night usually meant a stealth-specialized monster would ruin your soon-to-be very short life.

A large finned head burst out of the water, followed by an equally long-scaled snake-like body.

The setting moon barely reflected off the matted scales, making the creature nearly invisible in the early morning at sea. Though considering it was moving at such a high speed, it wasn’t trying to hide from shit. It was running away... swimming away? No, that doesn’t have the correct meaning. It was fleeing from something fast. To be honest, this was the best decision it could have made, but it had just chosen the wrong direction.

On its second dive, the oversized head turned to a torso in preparation for making landfall. Its pursuers were not in a good mood, and its heading to the beach made them even more unhappy.

“Wat de scene? Wam to you?” A small propeller-less drone spoke to a dark shadow running, yes, actually running on the water behind the monster. The accent of the voice was Trinidadian, thick and proud.

“Clyde hasn’t responded in three days.” The dark shadow said, frustrated.

“Really Andre? That’s what’s bothering you? He was missing for like six months before this, he is probably in a Dungeon getting OP you know how lucky he is.”The voice from the drone said.

“Stop being a dick, Roger; you know they have some real issues they have to figure out. Can we please catch this Sea Naga before it does something dangerous?” A female voice chimed in through the drone.

“Is that what that is? How do you know that, Gillian?” Roger asked.

“I fought a few in an Arena Dungeon back in the day. They were fast in the water but stronger on dry land, something to do with doubling of Strength and Constitution stat on Land and tripling Dexterity Stat in the water.” Gillian answered.

“Can allyuh chill. I’m hunting here, you know?” Andre yelled, frustrated, his American accent falling away in frustration.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Okay, how do we kill it?” Roger asked, focusing on the party.

“First off, Dre, can you stop playing around and catch it,” Gillian ordered.

“Allyuh knows, I don’t have the same Power Level I had before I died, right? I am still regaining that power, also Colonel is taking some of my EXP bonuses without knowing it through our link. Another thing I wanted to talk to him about.” Andre sighed in disappointment.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t,” Roger said.

“Agreed, leave it alone, little brother,” Gillian added. “Besides, I am sure he is using that bonus to protect others. That is who he is, and that is why he was born to lead the family.”

Andre nodded in his stealth form. “I’ll think about it; I am done keeping secrets from him, though. I want my brother back fully. I made sure he would have a good moral compass with Soto there, but we are twin brothers; we should be closer than we are, and I intend to make up for the lost time.”

The Ocean Naga made it to the beach and began to transform into a tall humanoid version of a fish. The eyes were big and wide set; the nose was just two tiny holes above a mouth filled with rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth. It smiled like it had won some prize for making it to the beach, and Andre had to oblige it with a five-finger sandwich hand-delivered.

A trident appeared in the monster’s hand, a water-conjured weapon of some sort. It was made of solid water; it would have been nice, but they were in the Caribbean, and ice powers were pretty much useless in these parts of the planet so close to sea level and the equator.

The Naga pointed the trident at the shadow just as the drone banked away, and a cone of high-pressure water blasted out at the dark figure.

Andre activated his Legacy Shield. He had the ability to negate a set amount of damage and use the rest of the damage as retributive back to the attacker while taking that damage as true damage. It took timing because it wasn’t a passive Ability. But he was beyond elite in this world, so it was child’s play to get it right against such a slow-reacting enemy.

The water blast did, however, remove his dark stealth Skill. Which, to be fair, he wasn’t hiding very well with all of his talking. Andre looked like his brother, the Colonel, in every way except for his hair. While Colonel was clean cut, Andre looked more like a murder hobo, his dreadlocks were blown back by the water, his gear was a mis-match of the best gear he could find, and not a neat set piece like his younger twin. While Colonel’s eyes were brown, closer to black, Andre’s eyes were glowing silver in the early morning light.

The look of glee on the Naga’s face turned to one of pain when the retributive damage cut right through the monster’s defenses, causing it to throw up blood.

“Ouch,” Gillian said from right next to the Naga in her purple caster’s robes. “That looked like it hurt.” The short black woman with hair up in afro-puffs said, looking at its back curiously.

To the Naga’s credit, it reacted quickly, swinging the trident at Gillian’s head. Unfortunately for it, she was more than ready. A brown Mana shield sprung to life between them. The trident slammed into the shield and was stuck. The eyes of the Naga widened even bigger as it realized it couldn’t overpower the shield.

“Here comes its second phase,” Gillian said, stepping back a few dozen feet in one step, burning through one of her movement perks for the day. She had three more uses for the day but doubted she would have to use them.

The Naga rapidly grew in size while ripping its trident out of the Gillian’s sand shield. The shield fell apart, destroyed by the Naga’s prodigious new strength from the berserker rage the Naga had just activated.

“She is a very strong one, it looks like.” Gillian mused as she dodged the much slower swings. “Slower now though, much, much slower.” She gracefully avoided the bone-pulverizing swings.

“Right up my alley them,” Roger said as a rocket-propelled heavy metal box slammed into the now three-story tall Monster with a tree-trunk size trident. It barely flinched back.

The box hissed open, and a mechanical armored suit based on a full samurai Yoroi stepped out of the stream-filled interior. The armor was about one story tall, but the sword at his side was at least double that.

“Dark anchor!” Andre yelled, and a black spike slammed into the Naga from the sky. Chains shot out to wrap around it before sticking into the ground and rooting the Naga in place. It roared in rage

Roger didn’t waste a second because just as fast as the chains had locked it down, they started to break with the new and apparently growing strength of the Naga... just not fast enough for it to matter at all.

The sword sheath at his side became shorter as he drew the sword, when he swung the sword there was no blade just the hilt of the sword.

He reversed the swing multiple times in every direction before slowly returning the blade to the sheath that grew back out to its two-story length. The chains around the Naga were cut to shreds. The Naga seemed unharmed, but as the first hint of morning light hit the Naga’s scales and the sword clicked back into place, it was apparent that it was far from uninjured.

The soft waves coming from the bay were the only noise as the Naga’s body started to fall apart into dozens of pieces, plopping onto the sand. A Red Loot globe slowly forms over its slowly dissolving body right afterward.

“Diamond Tier, these monsters are getting way too strong for the average player to handle way too fast. These incidents are definitely moving the timeline up,” Roger said, dismissing his suit, which packed itself up in the storage box and flew off south-southeast.

Andre looked at the sunrise, his silver eyes burning brightly in the light. “This is a Breaking Roger. We can’t stop the growth or even regulate it. We just have to grow at a higher rate than the monsters. The fact that there are Diamond Tier monsters in the Uncommon Period is not good at all. The only good news is they are still susceptible to the period suppression rules. So, while they are Diamond Tier, they can’t call on their Diamond strength or power, and more importantly, HP in the UnCommon Period. But that will change once the Rare Period starts in a few weeks. That would be a qualitative jump in their powers, not quite their full power, but enough to make them a threat to whole nations by themselves.”

“Then we must be ready,” Gillian said.

Andre and Roger nodded, looking at the sunrise.

“Do you think Richard’s Bake and Shark Place is opening soon?” Gillian asked with a smile. Maracas Bay was also known for its Bake-and-Shake meals, which was a meal for winners even before the Breaking. Now, the chefs were all Artisans, and the owner, Richard Jr, was at the Manager‘s Rank. A Manager Rank Professional could empower any player under them for better performance.

The trio’s mouths watered as they watched the sunrise, knowing that they would stick around the area now just to eat; they deserved it after protecting their nation.

It was the Jacob way.