by Cobyboy
'Equipment Refining: improve magic equipment through refining'
'Spell Amplification: pure energy infuses users spells'
'What's with all these cheat-like benefits?!' Feihren was startled by all the information he learned about what general exp was truly used for.
Without a moment's hesitation, Feihren moved outside his tent into the direction of the Sentient Ores. He wanted to clarify if killing stronger or weaker beings would guarantee the same amount of general exp, or if it would be constant on beasts and would be less for weaker beings such as humans? He needed the answers to all these questions, and nothing beats first-hand experience after all.
He did not plan to kill any of the Sentient Ores, his aim was wild beasts within the area.
Amazement filled Feihren's eyes as he walked through the prismatic array of multicolored sentient ores. It was an aesthetic he never knew he wanted. It was beautiful beyond words. Having gigantic creatures walk timidly about with bodies that shine with the moonlight was indeed a sight to behold. Feihren nodded in satisfaction as he walked further.
After walking for a while, the place became a bit lonely as the Sentient Ores could no longer be seen. Feihren noticed an orange-red glow not far from where he was. He slowly neared the location, but he gradually felt that the temperature was increasing as sweat slowly dripped from his forehead.
Within the forest was a red Sentient Ore. It sounded like it was in agony and pain as it huffed and puffed in a really slow manner. Its 'eyes' were fiery but a hint of sadness could be felt in its aura.
...
[Ruby Golem] (Sentient Ore)
"Power Level: (5-star Epic-Grade beast)"
"HP: 4,000"
"Damage: 450-500"
"Status: Unstable (abnormal state)"
"Abnormal status effect: Heatwave"
…
Feihren checked the status of the sentient ore as he assessed the situation. 'It's only one star higher than that demonic ape, but its HP and Damage is way higher. Is it due to its physique being made of solid ruby? It seems like it, but somehow it's in an unstable state'
'I do feel like helping this poor guy though. It seems to be in a lot of pain after all'.
Feihren remembered that in his youth, what he feared the most was being old and weak with no one to help him when he was in pain. He strived to be physically strong back then and endured the effects of his Rheumatic arthritis that had started to kick in. He did not want to leave this world with only pain and suffering as his companions.
He thought for a while and arrived at a hypothesis. 'Maybe I could try using some of the general exp I have gathered to stabilize him? After all, the general exp is basically just pure life force. With these sentient ores drawing their consciousness from the core fountain, it might just work…' Feihren considered it, and the next moment he was determined that he would try it. Besides, it wouldn't do any harm to try… right?
Slowly approaching the fiery golem, Feihren bravely powered through the scorching heat. The heat wave caused him to take -10 HP per second as fire damage, but this did not bother him.
Feihren was about 10 meters away from the golem when, without any thoughts of hesitation, it threw a wild punch. The passive effect of the Hermes Assault Rogue Armor automatically reacted to the assault with Feihren not taking a single bit of damage. Unfortunately, in the next instant another punch flew in, triggering the reactive armor feature again. A barrage of punches were sent out by the golem as it seemed to be in a frenzied state, attempting to vent out the pain it was trying to hold in.
Feihren was still calm, but he knew the 30 reactive armor blocks would be gone fast, so he thought up a plan using armor-piercing rounds. Although it pains him to use more bullets, he thought he should at least give it a try.
'Equip'>>>' Dionysus AK-9'
'Load Special Ammunition'>>>'Armor Piercing Rounds'
Shooting this golem does not seem to be an easy task. It was moving at a speed that did not match its huge body. With the bonus movement speed of his armor, Feihren kept evading until he found the perfect opportunity.
*BANG!
A loud resounding noise occurred. Feihren got a clean shot at the perfect time! Right in the head! Running and gunning isn't usually a good thing, so patience was the key to attaining this kind of skillful shot. Just as Feihren felt ecstatic in knowing that he still has his skills.
*clink, clink clink tsss.
A tinkling sound could be heard as the bullet slowly rolled down the golem's body until it finally melted near its feet. Within the next moment…
*Boom!
A punch that caused a sonic wave was thrown straight at Feihren!
The 30 reactive armor blocks were already used up! The bonus 10% movement speed wouldn't help either! Feihren's reaction time is impeccable, but he was still a human. He needed more time to both react and move from a sudden attack.
*Boom!
*Boom!
*Crack!
*Crack!
'System Log: Epic-grade attack, Pallas Skin ineffective'
'HP: 9,000 (-500)'
'HP: 8,500 (Regenerating…)'
'HP: 8,505 (-500)'
'HP: 8,005 (Regenerating…)'
A system notification could be heard within the consciousness of Feihren, as to remind him that he's now seriously taking ridiculous damage at a crazy pace!
A hint of pain was evident on Feihren's face as he was taking the punches and being slammed through trees in the process, but he was still calm as ever while thinking about what to do for this poor frenzied thing. He thought for a few more seconds and a new plan was drawn. It was simple, it was time to weaken this Lil' sh*t…
'Equip'>>>' Titan Cronus Heavy Gunner Armor'
'Activate: Titan's Arms'
*Clank!
A loud clashing of metals could be heard as dust and fragments of debris started flying all over the place!
Feihren didn't have the upper hand against this creature since they have roughly the same damage when engaging in fist to fist combat, but the HP he gained to activate the Titan's Arms ability outnumbered and overwhelmed the base HP of the ruby golem.
*Bang! Clank! Bang!
A few successful hits powered their way through the golem's body as shards started fragmenting off of its body.
Around 10 minutes passed before Feihren had successfully weakened the ruby golem to the point that he could subdue it.
'I may be good at FPS games, but man do I suck at this punching stuff!'
Pinning down the ruby golem, the heat it was emitting gradually lowered as the ominous shine on its body started fading.
'Now how should I do this?' Having no clue on what to do, Feihren went towards the 'dramatic' route that he read about in the novels and placed his hands on the chest of the golem.
Weirdly enough, a system notification popped up!
'Use general exp?'
'The f*ck?' The notification was so vague that Feihren hesitated to agree with it. 'Use it for what exactly?' No reply could be heard… 'Forget it. I'm too old for this guessing game, so why not'.
'Use'
Green lights started swirling between the golem's chest and his palms as the red shards that littered the ground started condensing and solidifying back onto the body of the golem. The trembling and the agonizing sounds the golem was making at the start were slowly dissipating as the ominous glow on its body continued to fade.
"Yes! It's working!" With regards to what he was actually doing, Feihren had no idea…
A few moments later, a bright light enveloped the area as the green, glowing aura from Feihren palms disappeared. At that moment, the ruby golem suddenly disappeared!
"What the… did I just accidentally kill it by drowning it in life force?" Feihren was about to face-palm when he noticed a shiny red gem on the ground. He hardly noticed it because he was currently in his titan armor. With him being so huge and all, he did not immediately notice the small gem.
Feihren picked the gem up and a s
ystem notification appeared!
'Congratulations on unlocking the inventory tab: Familiars'
'Congratulations on acquiring Pure Alpha Ruby Golem'
'Would you like to give it a name? _ _ _'
"...Eh? ...A familiar? Holy cr*p, what's with this?" Feihren was not sure if he should be excited or confused after discovering a hidden game tab with a "familiar" feature in it. To be honest, pets and companions in Gaia's Paradox would be utterly pointless. It would have served no purpose as they could have easily been sniped, but now that it's in this world…
Feihren joyfully smiled as he proceeded 'Because you were like a devil while you were attacking me without hesitation, but an angel at heart that is now going to be accompanying me in this new world, I'll name you, "Samael".
'Confirm name? "Samael"'
'Congratulations on acquiring "Samael"'
Chapter 15: Being Innovative, One way or Another
Tossing the gem around, Feihren thought, 'This is really heavy!' The gem that contained Samael is only as big as a thumb, but weighs around a kilo or so. Feihren planned to customize the gem into a necklace so that he could easily summon Samael, but he dispersed that thought as he was really concerned for his neck if he attempted to wear that…
'According to the game system's information, Samael can stay in gem form or golem form as much as I want him to be, but having a giant follow you all the time is just… well, I admit it would be really "cool"? Is that the right term for it? Hmm, but the hassle of doing so is just… it pains my head just thinking about it'.
Around 1,500 general exp was left after pouring out a thousand to stabilize Samael. In the top right corner of the holographic screen, [11:48] could be seen. It was still kind of early for him to return to camp. Feihren decided to hunt wild beasts for now. Armed with his assault armor and his crimson crossbow, Feihren seized the night.
...
A silhouette could be seen rushing towards the camp where the dwarves had settled. The sunrise could be seen on the horizon.
'Sh*t! I got too carried away. I forgot to sleep."
Skipping a night or two without sleeping isn't really a big problem for Feihren, but ever since he arrived in this world his habit of taking a nap from time to time did not seem to disappear, even though his body seemed to be younger here.
"I should get used to this body and adjust accordingly... Besides, I'm just mentally tired. Who knew that finding wild beasts around this area would be so hard! And even boring."
Even while hunting for the entire night he only successfully gained 500 general exp! Last night was definitely not a great haul. Aside from acquiring Samael for a thousand general exp, he basically wasted the remaining hours. Not to mention that while he was testing his general exp, he used it all up and didn't gain much in return!
After hunting the wild beasts last night, Feihren tinkered on how general exp would affect his physical state by using the Body strengthening feature…
…
"Character Name": [Gama]
"Equipped Class: [Supreme General]"
"Equipped Title: [Gaia's Paradox Messiah]"
"Base HP: 9,010"
"Base Damage (Fist): 500"
…
… That's right. Feihren gained an increase of 10 HP after using 1,000 general exp. The conversion was so bad that Feihren felt helpless. As for skill improvement, it was even worse. After using up 1,000 general exp the [Pallas Skin] passive skill did not even change! The only difference was that a bar appeared beside it showing [10/100], which means it would take ten thousand general exp just to improve a single skill!
Although this may seem too unfair, Feihren actually knew the reason behind all this. With him being at the peak of the leveling system, the fact that he was getting hundreds of general exp from the creatures that were way below his level would have to mean that it was the minimum amount he could gain. If he could meet someone at the Divine-class or a Deity-grade monster, it would mean hundreds of thousands or even millions of general exp!
As for the spell amplification, Feihren could not test it out. Based on how the other two tests went, he believed that it wouldn't do much, but he still has to try and see how it would affect the results. Unfortunately, having no good target and the total exhaustion of his general exp forced him to put that test on hold.
It was barely morning when he got back to the campsite, but the dwarves had already packed up their things and were moving!
Feihren sighed helplessly. He didn't want to use his equipment like this, but he had no choice…
'Equip'>>>'[Titan Cronus Heavy Gunner Armor]'
'Titan Slate Mode'
'Autopilot On: Track friendly unit>>>Sherwin Mendi'
Hovering above the village chief was a buzzing, slate-gray board of unknown origins. The village knew that this was Feihren and just ignored what he was doing. Maybe he was just using it as some sort of scouting object to protect them or something? But what the villagers didn't know was that laying up on the slate was a man, sleeping peacefully, hiding from the bright sunshine behind the gloomy helm of the Titan armor…
It's not about being lazy, it is called being innovative! Feihren showed a satisfied smile before drifting off into dreamland.
...
The dwarves arrived at the mining area with no hassle at all. It was extremely weird, but they were satisfied that nothing bad happened so far.
As far as Feihren was concerned, he had already cleared the only danger that covered their path last night, and made a familiar out of it, but none of the villagers knew about it.
The villagers were shocked to see that the mountains that used to contain the mining tunnels were now completely destroyed. The mining tunnels seemed to have collapsed and exploded, creating a huge open pit!
Littered across the expanse of the open pit were differently colored minerals and rocks. This place seemed to have become a hidden treasure trove! The dwarves were teary-eyed as they saw that the home they thought would be forever gone is now as rich in resources as ever. There were many roaming sentient ores scattered around the edge of the pit, some of them were even in the pit itself and were just walking aimlessly.
What shocked Feihren, who just woke up, was how the Sentient Ores seemed to increase the number of gems in the pit. Those gigantic bodies seemed to squat as rocks and pebbles of the gems which they were made of were "shedding" off their bodies. The villagers and the village chief himself already knew of this "mannerism" of the sentient ores. These giants intake soil and rocks, which contain unrefined minerals, and convert them to their pure form, which those sentient ores are made of. But by the look of how this was all done, Feihren only had one thought on his mind.
"These things are basically sh*tting money!"
Feihren forced this shocking scene out of his mind as he casually picked up a grayish rock at the corner of the pit.
'System log: Obtained ore "Ancient Iron" (Item Ingredient)'
Feihren's brows raised as the pebble he was holding dissipated and appeared in his inventory. Without a second thought, Feihren picked up another dark brown rock, as another notification appeared.
'System log: Obtained ore "Ancient Copper" (Item Ingredient)'
The same thing happened! Feihren remembered his crafting type sub-classes, 'Ballistics Expert' and 'Firearms Engineer', which he used back then to create his custom-grade weapons and special ammunition. But the fight against Samael back then made him think that some things in this new world would always be able to counter what he was strongest at. Even though it's coined as being able to make the "strongest" types of ammunition or weapons, if it won't be effective it just won't work. If he wants to be truly strong in this new world, he has to play by its rules, and now…
Everything in this huge pit is basically materials for him to use in making his very own magic powered gun!
Chapter 16: Around that Time in THE Wolfenstein and Ranustin Kingdom
Wolfenstein Kingdom
A man in rugged l
ooking clothes is walking towards the Wolfenstein Castle. Dried tears and mucus met and mixed on his face as blood, sweat, and dirt covered the entirety of his body. Extreme exhaustion was evident on this man's face.
A few guards hurriedly approached to stop this crazy hobo who's trying to get to the castle.
"Sir, please leave this place immediately!"
The man seemed to have snapped from his dazed state as he dumbly stared at the guard knight in front of him. Then he realized that they were looking at him like that because of the condition of his clothes and body. In actuality, this 'crazy hobo' was one of the higher ranking knights that served as the swords of the king. This particular one also happened to be the man that was spared by Feihren back then, to bring the "good news" to the king.
