We had gotten the Reverse Reflection Mirror. That had been a slight headache to capture, but it was doable. Now we were headed for the Infinite Block. We were going to cheat getting to it. If we went by land, then we would have to go through other level 4 and level 5 zones and terrain.
While doable it was a massive headache. That was why cutting across a void zone to our North was the best option. We could only do this, since it was a lake, not an ocean. There was a lot less turbulence. The trick the Astrologer had done wouldn’t work on a full proper void zone.
Looking out at the inky blackness, I had thought of all the tests we had run the stuff over the years. There was something there, but touching it was a bad idea. Anything sent down, was quickly corroded away into nothingness.
Items, people, terrain, monsters, the inky black of the void scrambled the energy of anything that touched it. Honestly it was incredibly impressive how there were no exceptions, except the terrain already present. The closer one got, the more one’s energy was corroded. I had tested it myself, but with my Aura stat at 20,000, I had only been able to get about two car lengths away before I would risk taking permanent damage.
Since energy was thought, the thought from the inky blackness was complete and utter gibberish, or perhaps chaos. Regardless of what it was, the void was my future go to place for tossing troublesome enemies. Just chuck them into the void and call it a win.
It was also disturbing to look at as well. The blackness was a lot. During the day, the light source would be there is the black sky, but nothing else. No clouds, no blue sky. Just black like the void beneath us. It was mentally oppressing, not counting the energy it released. Just pitch black everywhere.
The light source also disappeared behind an invisible horizon and then the stars came out. All of this was more than enough confirmation in my mind that everything was fake. The light source and how the physics worked out, showed it was clearly contrived by the Almighty System.
Looking ahead, I spotted land. The shifting rocks and terrain of the level 5 shattered lands zone. Ding! I heard the faint chime of a bell over the rushing wind. A signal we were about to slow down or engage in maneuvers. I quickly moved away from the railing and I moved my hands behind me and gripped the mast. A chime gave me ten seconds.
Even if we suffered an attack, no maneuvering would be done in those ten seconds. The airship spun about and began to descend while slowing down. It was stomach clenching, but I was used to it by now. Spinning about wasn’t needed to slow the airship down, but it was needed to fight off the sky monsters chasing us.
The door to the first deck opened and soldiers rushed up the stairs to man the beam cannons. They were pointed on a slight pivot point but were overall quite large compared to the size of the airship. On the wall of the city, they weren’t anything in terms of size, but on an airship with limited space they took up a lot of it.
The beam cannons were an integrated feature. Expensive to build and equip, but it was worth every point. Since we needed to keep the monsters away. The soldiers switched out the crafting crystals in the beam cannons to flesh type energy to counter the Expanding Blocks along the material and immaterial axis of the type chart.
As much as I wished I could handle everything myself, I needed the assistance for when we slowed down. A horde of flying monsters was right behind us. They liked to keep the aggro. That was another issue. Get too far ahead, they will trickle in. Speed management was key to clumping them together.
I bean unleashed beam attacks behind the Crystal Vortex. Flying worms exploded. Based on their size, I could tell what level they were. We had only pulled level 4 and level 5 flying worms. Captain Francis was getting better at sticking to the bottom of the fourth layer.
Flashes of white, from the annihilation effect, happened again and again. I had 20,000 Spirit and 20,000 Regeneration. It felt frustrating having to specialize in the Body stat, but being able to move quickly was too valuable and not something I wanted to leave up to Air Burst. Both beam attacks cost 400 energy each. So, each annihilation beam combination rang in at 800 energy.
That was why I aimed for the level 6 flying worms normally, but it appeared we hadn’t pulled any. It was time for me to focus on the next part, the descent. The various beam attacks sliced through the air. The frontal cannons didn’t switch out their crystals and there were two cannons on the bridge as well. I winced each time a cannon fired. The sheer number of points consumed per use was immense, but we weren’t taking chances.
Normally I would have been more active in taking down the monsters, but I needed to save my energy. Boss battles in level 5 zones could either be done fast and painful, or slow and tedious. Grinding away from the edge to reach the boss level creature, you would exhaust the monsters in the zone. There were only about 1,000 level 5 monsters per terrain type.
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That didn’t seem like that many, but the numbers add up. Even killing one a second, that was almost twenty minutes of non-stop monster killing. And level 5 monsters weren’t kind enough to line up and put their heads on the chopping block in front of me.
Giant block monsters began expanding beneath us, the Expanding Blocks. They began to lift off as we slowed down. That was when the door to down below opened once more. The only reason all this was possible was Monster Master Michelle. If we fought, I could win by targeting her directly, but it would be a pain.
For the Expanding Blocks, they were inundated by lots of tiny level 5 spiders. Summon: Queen Spider, was a very useful skill for spamming an area to death. The actual skill allowed Michelle to control the level and size of the spider spawned. She spawned level 3 spiders, which meant she could field a lot more quickly.
Looking at them as they floated down on strands of silk, I noted Doctor Katz had imbued several of them. She would then tell him numbers and he would activate his skills, create miniature annihilation bombs. The really big trick though was combining two opposite imbues on a massive egg sac with slots of tiny spiders, the size of my hand.
While the effect was more spread out. Michelle was adept at targeting weak points or creating them to be exploited. Maneuvering all the spiders from one egg to land at the same time for Doctor Katz to trigger them. She truly was god tier in terms of ability.
Doctor Katz, while impressive with using opposite imbues and triggering them remotely like he was, was also impressive, she was just too good. Explosions rippled across the undulating landscape, as the spiders exploded next to the Expanding blocks.
Another bell chimed. We weren’t to the boss yet as we came to a stop but it was better to let it come to us. The airship began rapidly, but not as fast as I could in free fall, so I didn’t float away even if my stomach felt light. The airship also began to rotate at a set rotational speed so as to allow the soldiers to aim with the beam cannons.
They were targeting the ground. It was time for me to cover the sky. I quickly went up to the third observation deck of the Crystal Vortex and began scanning the sky. I unleashed beam attacks at the flying worms, while mentally keeping track of my energy. We had tried combining annihilation effects with the beam cannons, but it wasn’t worth it.
Unless there was one boss monster to aim at, they tended to be out of sync, and at different targets. There were protocols in place, but using type advantages on the monsters themselves was more cost effective. I didn’t even want to look at the balance sheet it cost to operate the airship. I still did, but it pained my soul every time.
“Sky clear!” I shouted out, seeing nothing above us. I quickly descended the ladder to the second deck. “Sky clear!” I shouted out again. Michelle would send ants up to cover the top of the airship and keep an eye out. I went to the front rail and looked down. Time to jump.
I didn’t want to jump on the bag above the second deck, that was a good way to damage things. I leapt into the air. Joyo right behind me. If he was like the Divine Empress, he would have leapt off without me. But he wasn’t unfortunately. So, while he was decent, he wasn’t amazing.
Over the years I had become adept at sky diving, and adjusted my posture to headfirst, to out pace the airship. We were on a timetable now to prevent damage. If it took too long to descend, monsters would come from the sky. Three dimensional combat was exasperating for the most part. If level 4 and 5 zones weren’t horrible, the airship superfast, and it could carry supplies this wouldn’t have been worth it.
Acid Shot x10. Force Shot x2. Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot only cost me 20 energy for a level 6 skill. I could spam it all day and not really care. Force Shot cost 500 energy per use. It was a skill from a level 3 zone unfortunately. Fortunately, it was too good at what it did and I had become skilled during the years of using it.
The two Expanding Blocks underneath the airship were hit by the first wave of Acid Shots, and then the two Force Shots were spread out. Since skills moved at my speed, they adjusted to move very quickly. That was why I dove head first. The follow up Acid Shots were overkill, but I wanted to make sure the level 5 monsters died quickly. The area around the airship was being rapidly cleared out as well.
Just before I hit the ground I used my fifth skill. Air Burst. I had found Astral Projection, but it wasn’t good for combat maneuvering, or being an emergency movement skill. I could float and fly with it, but it was also fragile. The Astrologer had a lot more talent in that skill than I had, but it wasn’t practical for the fast pace of combat I engaged in.
I could float and keep a distance, which worked well ninety percent of the time. But the times I needed to get close to capture a monster or unleash my shot type skills in close range, then Astral Projection was lacking. Joyo had the skill though, as he rapidly floated down behind me. Above us, the airship continued to rotate as it descended into layer three where it would remain.
I spun around in the air and my feet touched the ground and immediately started moving. If I hesitated too long, I would started getting pulled in by the constantly churning gravel. I began my clockwise rotation around the airship, Joyo moved the opposite direction in a wider loop. He would pull in monsters while I kept an eye for anything coming up under the airship. While we knew the monster in this zone, it never hurt to be cautious.
Winged ants were already rapidly moving away from the airship, to draw in the monsters. I killed a few more Expanding Blocks before they could get going. Their trick was teamwork surprisingly. They would smash people together between themselves and keep growing while in combat. The bigger they grew, the slower they moved. They could still float around at a decent clip.
The boss monster was another issue entirely. There was a reason it had a separate name, the Infinite Block. It was a massive headache to deal with and didn’t have the weakness of the lesser versions. Speak of the devil and it shall arrive, there it was in the distance.