And when I say ‘we discussed battle plans’, I meant that the [Colonel] quickly dismissed the danger for what it was, while reassuring us that it wouldn’t be a problem.
Before I could point out that they were gaining on us, and would reach us before we could get in range of the rest of the [Army], whose structure I still couldn’t see, there was a shimmer in the air in front of us.
Then there was suddenly a wall. A tall wall with long tubes jutting from the top of it, which were now turning to aim outwards. Massive cannons that screamed ‘danger’ to my senses.
Senses that, for the first time, had been tricked.
“How fucking powerful and/or unique are their [Wards] if even I couldn’t see past them!?”
A terrifying thought: I had officially crossed the line and entered into the territory that had people vastly more powerful than I was.
Up until now there were those exceptions like both [Guild Masters] I met and Merga, but besides those, I never met anyone that felt ‘insurmountable’, at least with the level of strength I last saw them at.
But now? Just the entryway had me beat, so I could only dread what I would find beyond.
“Even Rubicon described [Generals] as ‘scary’, and I think I did him a disservice by dismissing the term as a dysphemism.”
Still, despite the increasingly threatening cannons, which now had a dull light coming out of their rifles, the [Demons] on our tail didn’t seem all that perturbed. If anything, it felt like they sped up.
I could only see one side of the base in front of us, but what I could see was a massive gray wall with the previously mentioned cannons mounted on top; eight of them, to be exact, or at least those were the ones visible from this side, and all with a striped mesh of white and silver material. Two defensive towers stood on the corners of the wall, half as tall again as the wall itself, and I could make out the defenses continuing on at least for another side, making me believe the shape of the base must be between a pentagon and an octagon.
“I have to ask: How precise are those cannons? Because, if it takes another couple of seconds for those to charge up, then I’m afraid of getting caught in the blast”, I couldn’t help but worry, even though a couple of [Shamanic Totems] should be enough to see us through it.
“You shouldn’t worry about the cannons; those are mostly for show against numbers this low. No, they’re a distraction for other, more precise, long-range options”, [Colonel] Lush was quick to nod forward, but I couldn’t tell what she was trying to point out from this far away.
“You got something like [Snipers] in there? I guess it makes sense”, I eventually replied, moving my focus to the parapets on top of the side-towers.
It was then that the [Demons] got within my visible range, and I was left confused: three Imp-like creatures, all with dark-red skin, were riding evil flaming horses, which were like what you would expect from a normal flaming horse, except with dark fur, glowing red eyes, and green fire as their mane, tail, and hooves.
My confusion mostly stemmed from the fact that they could have crammed four times the number of Imps on those horses, and there would have still been space left, and if this was a normal ambush there wasn’t any reason why they wouldn’t maximize their forces.
No, I was going about this all wrong: They’re such a small group specifically because they’re part of an ambush, and they managed to get as close as they did undetected only thanks to that.
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t have the sneakiest mind around- actually, my mind presents itself like a humongous and ominous black fortress to others, so even mere subtlety appeared mostly beyond me.
Anyway, the point I was trying to get at was that this ‘ambush’, and now I was using the word lightly, should have been called off when they were discovered before they were within reach to do anything despite it, so the fact they didn’t was sending my Spidey-sense tingling.
If this wasn’t some sort of kamikaze-plan set to test me I would eat my burnt staff.
…With all the ideas swirling in my head, I keep forgetting that I’m still holding on to its lifeless husk, sure that I can craft something even better than the original, given the right materials. Of course, I could just ‘materialize’ anything I might need, but doing things that way often ended up with an inferior product, probably because what I made lacked any enhancement that [Hunters]., [Farmers], [Leatherworkers] and whathaveyou will add by simply interacting with a material that is linked with their [Class] and/or [Job].
A red and green fireball sped towards the side of the [Speeder], and I barely stop myself from summoning a [Totem], which would have also damaged the vessel by stabbing its truck through it, and instead I sent a modified [Mana Orb] in its trajectory, that exploded with impressive concussive force at the moment of impact, and dispelled the flames.
“It doesn’t look like our pursuers are in the mood to wait any longer”, my mate stated, and the familiar sound of hands being clenched told me that she had already equipped her [Draconic Fists], the weapon that I made for her and the clue that told me that I could do something with remaining piece of my old staff.
Besides the fact the burnt piece was telling me so itself, and besides stating it directly it couldn’t be clearer with its intentions… if ‘intention’ is even the right word, because it isn’t sapient, and even it was definitely dead now-
I pause my thoughts for a second to counteract another set of fireballs, taking notice that a few of them had some kind of spike hidden within the flames. Peculiar, but nowhere near enough to get past my focused and directed blasts.
The persistent bastards were getting awfully close, though, and thoughts about my next crafting process could only distract me so far.
Before my mind could wander again to another of my many other projects, people started shooting rays of multi-colored energy into the [Demons] behind us. The Imps on their mounts’ backs valiantly defended both themselves and their mounts from the first volley, but by the time the third came around any method they tried using to deflect, or otherwise defend themselves from, the shots started flagging, until it ultimately failed, and one by one they all got picked off. Once the first two red-skinned [Demons] got new holes in them the [Army] went for the horses’ leg, and then they weren’t our problem anymore.
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I barely felt the trickle of [Experience] coming in from their kill, and that was entirely fair since we didn’t do much, besides bringing them in range, that is.
Expectedly, the firing didn’t last long, and I was able to make sure that all targets were dead before they were out of my range.
“See? Nothing to worry about, just like I told you”, Miss Lush decided to comment, probably more for the [Army]’s sake than our own, but the intention behind it was appreciated anyway.
Sheeno and Undine calmed down only after I gave them a nod though, but they were quick to pick back up the conversation with the [Colonel]. Meanwhile, I finally felt like I could soon start to tinker away-
“Oh, wait: I keep forgetting about that damn [promotion]!”
* * *
I wasn’t surprised that the gigantic wall didn’t have a door, I couldn’t see one from afar, and having a single door on only one side would have been just bad design; what surprised me ended up being that there were no portcullis, hidden door, or lowered elevators, but a hole just materialized in front of us when we got close enough.
And I have to be honest: I was starting to get worried when Lush was still going full throttle when the walls got uncomfortably close, and I didn’t scream at her to slow down because, one, I didn’t feel anything disturbing coming from her, two, nothing in my future involved getting splattered against a wall, and three, the wall was magical as shit but again I only noticed when we got close enough.
I was sure that my eyes weren’t that faulty, so I could only guess that either [Demi-Gods], or even proper [Gods], had been involved in the construction of this beast.
“I guess this is, in a way, the world and its creators telling me that I’m getting conceited. I’, only [Lvl 20] after all, and I have a lot of growth waiting for me-“
Except for your height.
“-in the near future… I guess this is where I joke about it happening in my pants.
“Anyway, yeah: I’m technically weak, even though I’m way stronger than anyone around my [Lvl] has any right to be.
“And I know how that sounds, but I have pretty strong limitations that stop me from being OP. Something that I may manage to work around, though, if I get the time to experiment, and it goes according to plan.”
We finally made it through the wall, which was much thicker than I had originally thought to be practical, and we were greeted by a dark grey and brown sea of tents with a stone tower in the middle of them all.
Well, we actually got greeted by a lot of spears pointed at us, which wasn’t nice coming from someone who asked for our help, but I felt that was just a normal security checkpoint, so I guess that was fine. The fact that the strongest emotions I could feel from the crowd were apprehension and relief also told me that everything was fine-
Nope! These fuckers fooled me once already, I’m not letting my guard down for a moment in here!
It may end up being exhausting, but I’m not getting stabbed in the back just because I was being stupid.
It definitely wasn’t that I suddenly got on edge once I felt like there was someone even stronger than Rubicon Riverfist inside the central tower. Not at all.
“[Colonel] Evelynn Lush reporting from duty: The requested help has been retrieved successfully. Awaiting personnel to ascertain their identity!” The voice from the… uh, ‘mixed’ woman next to me boomed with sudden authority, and it somehow made the various spearmen relax.
“By the way, I didn’t know that mixed parentage was a thing: I always thought that either one gene or the other won over which [Race] you got attributed at birth, without otherwise creating a brand new [Race] if the [Races] of the parents were compatible enough.”
It is rare, but sometimes equally powerful genes, when mixed, enter a sort of co-dominance that is recognized by the [System], and since its aim is to improve its users, someone of “mixed [Race]” normally turns out with all the benefits of such an union, with mostly none of the downsides.
“Well, that seems absolutely broken, and I have no idea why people wouldn’t abuse it to mix all [Races] into one and create the perfect being.”
“Mixed [Races]” cannot reproduce with one another, but only with recognized members of a “pure [Races]”. From that, eventually, one offspring will be born with a whole new [Race], and the process can then begin anew.
That does not mean that what you proposed could eventually come to be though: Just like there is a maximum number of [Skills] and [Spells] that anyone can handle within their souls, the same is true with [Traits].
And while it is normally pretty high, people eventually reach that “cap” and things either fuse by [Evolving], or they are offered the opportunity to exchange an old passive for a new one, but that choice is given only once.
And yes, you are getting close to that hypothetical maximum, but since I doubt you felt any strain from your soul, I am pretty sure that will become another abnormality of yours that will allow you to get stronger than expected.
Well, what could I say/think to that besides simply ‘nice’?
While [Buddy] was explaining another blind spot in my [Information], which I’m getting more and more convinced that my ‘version’ is simply a glorified journal, a bespectacled old man with a slight hunch to his back made his way through the crowd, and while relatively short, his path was easily followed by keeping track of his long and straight bunny-ears.
He kept his eyes fixed on Lush the whole way, with one hand aiding him walking with a wooden cane, while the other didn’t seem to want to stop petting the short beard on his chin; only he came to stop in front of our skiff did the [Colonel] have us all get off it, after which it was quickly retrieved by the bunny-grandpa with a flick of a finger that was resting on his cane, and then she him a formal salute, to which he nodded in response.
Then it was our turn to be put under his scrutiny and I barely managed to [Inspect] him myself after feeling him partially punch through my [obfuscation enchantment]: Whatever he did, he didn’t do it long on Sheeno, and even less on Undine, but when my turn came, he frowned.
He started pushing for more with whatever had already partially gotten through to see parts of my [Status], my inexperience blocking me from telling exactly what he had already gotten to see, and I decided that I had had enough.
[Unyielding Sovereign] was called so for a reason, and since I was the ruler and owner of my [Body], [Mind], and [Soul], I could decide to keep people out, and I know that that blocked people from getting anything from my [Status] too.
I thought it would have been a simple thing, but again I was fooled by my hubris, and a migraine soon started knocking on the metaphorical gates to my mind.
Although, given my [World Within], and the way I conversed with [Luck] ‘in person’, maybe those doors aren’t as metaphorical as I think.
Gritting my teeth, I held firm to the image of two massive steel doors being held shut, and after only a few seconds of our mental dick-measuring contest, I felt his presence abate, and the old Kebunu grunted out an annoyed sound of pain.
“[Inquisitor]? Is everything alright?”
The [Colonel]’s concerned tone interrupted our stare-off, and we both turned to her, although the old fucker kept throwing annoyed glances my way on the regular.
“Yes, don’t worry, [Colonel] Lush, I was just surprised by his mental and spiritual resistances: It isn’t often that I find a near equal in the field, and it’s definitely the first time that it happens with someone not even at half my [Level].”
His words set off a wave of troubled whispers among the crowd, many of them switching their concerned gazes from the discussion to me.
Also… [Inquisitor]? Like, the guys specialized with detecting and hunting [Demons]?
Did I just mentally tell the guy, that was supposed to give me the go-ahead to meet the higher-ups, to fuck off?
…Oops?