by EA Hooper
“What a payday!” Vincent said. “I didn’t even have half this much saved up.”
“We won’t always make this much in a day,” Xan noted. “There was a pretty decent backlog of bounties around here.”
“It’s still a great start,” Vincent said. “Over halfway to getting that pipeline. With the twelve grand I already had, we’re even closer.”
“Hang on,” Xan said, touching the tower. “I have thirty grand saved. I’ll give you twenty-five to put toward the quest.”
“Thanks, Xan,” Vincent said. “I’ll go ahead and transfer sixty grand to Isaac. Fifty for the pipeline, and the extra ten to show I’m serious about paying off Jim’s debt.”
Xan handed him the gild, and then he transferred sixty thousand to Isaac through the quest options.
Quest Update: Solving Your Friend’s Dilemma (Contract Quest) – Now that you’ve paid off the first fifty thousand gild, Isaac will run the pipeline to Juniper’s forge as requested.
Quest Update: Rebuilding Risegard (Contract Quest) – Construction is about to begin on the world magic pipeline. Once completed, Juniper will make your team skyglass weapons.
Looks like everything’s starting to come together. We just need to set up that outpost and mining operation. I’m sure some of the Crickets can help with that if they’re not too busy.
Vincent checked the guild list to see how many Crickets were in Risegard and whether they’d marked themselves as On-Duty or Available. As he scrolled down the list, a siren blared out across the city, grabbing his and Xan’s attention. Vincent knew right away that the war had started again.
Chapter 20 | Year 93
Player: Vincent the Wanderer
Location: Styxis (World) | Risegard (City) | Southeast Ruins (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 186
Spirit*: Lv 195
Resolve: Lv 178
Perception*: Lv 201
Agility: Lv 186
Strength: Lv 185
Following the siren, Antonio sent out a local guild alert that hell ants had appeared in the trenches, although devils hadn’t been spotted yet. From what Vincent had heard, the two monster types often arrived in waves with the Demon Lord appearing every so often to shatter the city’s strongest defenses.
Vincent and Xan reached the tower and scaled it to join Antonio and a dozen members of the Jiminy World Crickets. They had cast a forcefield that looked strong enough to stop a few ants at once, and the shield also allowed player attacks to pass through it.
Antonio and the Crickets spammed Mana Cannons and other ranged spells at the ants that Vincent saw swarming the trenches. There must’ve been at least a hundred, although the monsters didn’t look organized.
A portal appeared in the ruins of a destroyed building surrounded by trenches on all sides, and Vincent watched six more ants stumble into the channels.
“You don’t have Quinn with you?” Antonio asked Vincent. “We need strong close-range fighters to go into the pits before too many hell ants wander this way.”
“We’ll handle it,” Xan said.
Antonio nodded. “Just remember, you have to destroy their brains to kill them, and their chitin is as hard as orosteel.”
“Won’t be a problem,” Vincent said, jumping off the balcony. Xan and half the Crickets followed him, and they approached two ants that were hammering away at the forcefield. The players had nailed them with several Mana Cannons, leaving them horrifically injured even if they weren’t dead.
Jeez, these things can take a beating, Vincent thought, True Scanning one.
Hell Ant Knight – Monster Class: B+ | Age: 2 | Sex: Male | Personality: Mindless | Challenge Rating: +4,800% | Death Triggers: Brain (if 51% damaged), Lifeforce (if 100% lost) | Chitin Rating: 400 Total | Innards Magic Rating: 200.
Woah, that’s a fantastic challenge rating for a B-Plus monster.
Vincent’s focus went to the nearest hell ant, which had a large hole in his head that exposed his brain. Once Vincent neared the forcefield, he took aim with two fingers. A moment of worry crossed his mind, since he didn’t know if his Void Gun would disrupt the barrier, so he jumped across before firing a shot at the ant’s brain. The Weighted Shell upgrade caused the bolts to expand upon impact, taking out a chunk of brain matter.
Instead of turning to dust, however, the ant charged at Vincent. The creature moved faster than expected, but the Ranger used a second Void Gun to the head to kill it. Reflexively, Vincent turned and blocked the second ant’s sword-arm with the Guardian’s Blade he’d equipped. The monster’s power impressed him as it pushed forward, swung, and hurled him sideways into a five-meter drop to the bottom of the trench.
Vincent stood from the dirt, finding himself between two ants. He pulled his Builder’s Tome from his inventory and raised a greystone wall to separate one ant before the closer one attacked. His blade clashed with the ant’s sword-arm, but he broke away before it could overpower him. The ant tried to follow, and Vincent cast Black Cinder at nearly point-blank range.
The ant swung through the embers, taking off the Ranger’s arm mid-spell. Vincent’s attack sputtered, losing power as it sprayed void embers in all directions. His Gravity Shield prevented the embers from eating through him too quickly, but he still felt a hundred holes poke into his skin.
The hell ant took the brunt of the spell, and the embers chewed through its body, leaving it horrifically disfigured and full of holes. The front half of its head had been mostly disintegrated, exposing its brain, but the ant didn’t relent with its attack. It lunged forward, swiping at Vincent again, but the man dove away, even as his armor melted and broke apart.
Vincent looked down at the blood dripping from missing bits of flesh across his arms and chest. He even felt holes in his lower lip where the embers had struck him in the jaw. Without his Gravity Shield, the backfiring attack would’ve likely killed him, but he didn’t consider his condition a much better alternative. Luckily for him, the shock of everything happening so fast had left him little time to reflect on the pain. Unfortunately, the other ant tore through the greystone wall while he was distracted by his injuries.
A Barrier Wall appeared between Vincent and the ant, but the monster shattered it in one powerful strike. Xan landed on the ground and pushed back the monster with two Light-Drain Longswords. The ant tried to swipe through them, but Xan twirled the blades away before sending them back for two more strikes.
Vincent regained his composure as the faceless ant continued toward him. He raised his remaining hand, concentrating a fire blast into his palm. With utter sincerity to kill the creature, he didn’t even need to imagine the attack exploding out of his hand. The kickback from the blast burned Vincent’s hand and pushed him into the wall, but the explosion turned the ant’s exposed brain into mush.
Spell Creation: 6%
Woah, it went up two percent with one strike?
Vincent only marveled at the increase for a moment before turning his attention toward Xan to find her dodging and swiping at the hell ant until the monster grew sluggish. Finally, the ant’s strength ran out, and it collapsed to the ground. Xan touched a phantom blade to its head, letting the rest of its lifeforce drain over several seconds. When it finally turned to dust, she turned to Vincent and sacrificed both her swords to heal all of his wounds besides his arm.
Vincent equipped healing wraps over his missing limb, then the two players leapt from the trenches. They saw other players beside the Crickets had joined to take shots at ants wandering through the channels. Like Vincent, several players had gone down and returned with missing limbs.
“I guess we can’t just charge in by ourselves,” Vincent realized. “We should stay grouped with everyone else and focus on one or two ants at a time.”
“Let’s worry about your arm first,” Xan said before drinking an ether. She cast World Fountain, creating a spout of rainbow-colored rain that all the injured players crowded under.
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Vincent downed elixirs to speed the process, but he stayed near the edge of the fountain, so he could continue to shoot at ants climbing from the trenches. Each time he saw one, he’d expose their brains with two Void Guns before finishing them with Impact Blaze. His first cast raised the spell’s development to seven percent, and the second brought it to eight. He started having diminishing returns as the spell’s development climbed higher, but even seeing that much growth so quickly amazed him. By the time his arm finished regenerating, Vincent had reached eleven percent.
Xan used the opportunity to work on an upgrade to her Light-Drain Longsword, so she could control more at once. She made three of the floating blades and tried to pick off lone ants in the trench. However, she accidentally led one into the healing rain, making it even harder to kill. Several players attacked the stray ant at once, crippling it, but Vincent stopped Antonio from finishing off the monster.
“Let me use it to work on my spell,” Vincent said, hitting it with another half-developed Impact Blaze.
Vincent took his time circling around the injured ant while keeping his distance. He blasted it repeatedly, almost forgetting about the war in the background. It appeared Xan had upgraded her fountain during her time traveling with Zhang, increasing its duration. When the fountain finally sputtered to a stop, Vincent killed the hell ant with two more blasts.
Spell Creation: 14%
Vincent peered around, realizing Xan had left to hunt ants through the trenches with other players. Just as he readied himself to join them, he saw a massive fireball in the sky that he Scanned.
Echoing Bombardment (Requires Blast Bomb | Requires Wildfire Mortar) – Mana Usage: High+ | The user channels powerful fire magic between their palm while choosing a target location up to one hundred meters away. Once the attack is released, it flies overhead before splitting into a multitude of exploding fireballs.
Vincent saw the green fireball break into a dozen smaller ones, then steeled himself by attempting to cast Density Field on his Gravity Shield. Several of the fireballs struck the tower’s forcefield, cracking it, but smaller fireballs scattered from the initial blasts, creating even more explosions that tore down the shield. A rain of green fire fell around Vincent, and then flashes of bright light and concussive force followed. He felt a multitude of explosions, reminding him of the battle against Quinton and Gwendolyn those many years ago.
His Gravity Shield shrank on impact, and the blasts tore apart the light armor he’d been wearing. The reinforced shield seemed to press down against his skin, locking his body in place throughout the bombardment. He couldn’t draw a breath for several seconds, but when the emerald fires finally died down, Vincent only had minor injuries.
Spell Creation: 2%
Vincent took a frantic breath once he could move again. The voice of Antonio shouting for everyone to fall back rang through the smoke left behind by the explosions, but Vincent couldn’t tell what direction it had come from. He saw the flickers of portals opening at different spots in the ruins, but he strained to see through the smoke to find the monster that had launched the powerful strike.
Was that the Demon Lord? Where is he?
Finally, his eyes focused on a silhouette glowing green with magic as it channeled another Echoing Bombardment. Vincent Scanned the distant figure, but he was disappointed when he saw the text.
Lemm the Fiery (Exotic Boss) – Monster Class: B+ | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: None (Only spawns under certain conditions) | Personality: Brash
The next Echoing Bombardment hurtled through the sky, then arced toward Vincent’s location as a couple dozen players hurried out of the trenches. Just as it split, Xan’s World Wall materialized in front of the path, and all but a few stray fireballs exploded against it.
Vincent saw Lemm shaking his arm in anger, but then other devils appeared from portals and readied themselves for battle. Charming devils blew kisses at Lemm, and he prepared a third Echoing Bombardment.
“We need to take out him or the devils refilling his mana,” Antonio told Vincent. “Otherwise, he’ll keep bombing us over and over.”
Vincent closed one eye and tried to line up two fingers with Lemm’s far-off silhouette. Even with a century of practice shooting monsters at a distance, he knew he didn’t have much of a chance of hitting Lemm, so Vincent took two back-to-back shots. The first Void Gun killed a devil beside the target, who released his third bombardment. Vincent’s second shot caught Lemm in the shoulder, causing the devil to stumble backward.
Screw it, Vincent thought, leaping over the trench as the enemy’s spell headed their way. He hurried at full speed, hearing the explosions behind him. A few of the split-offs were close enough that he felt waves of heat and concussive force, but he didn’t slow his pace.
A crowd of devils tried to intercept Vincent, but he pulled out his tome and spent more than two thousand Builder Points to create five walls in a row. Each wall stood higher than the last, and he jumped from one to the next, leaving the crowd of devils ten meters below by the time he reached the top of the fifth wall.
Vincent used his momentum to launch himself off the last wall, then increased his speed with Zero Field. His mana burned out quickly as he rocketed over the trenches.
Spell Upgrade: 64%
He willed away the upgrade bar as he equipped Guardian’s Blade mid-flight.
Lemm channeled another spell as Vincent quickly approached. A flickering fireball spun faster and faster between his palms, gathering so much power it cast a green light on the nearby devils, ruins, and trenches.
The light almost blinded Vincent as he sped toward Lemm. With no mana left, he couldn’t control his trajectory or the force of impact as he slammed into the devil, throwing them both away from the monster’s entourage. They rolled nearly a dozen meters across the dirt before dropping into a trench.
Guardian’s Blade had ripped open Lemm’s chest, but it hadn’t slain the devil on impact. With the last of his strength, Lemm raised a glowing hand and opened it to reveal his fireball, which had shrunk into a small, fast-spinning marble of intense heat and pressure. The devil smirked and released his attack.
When the marble hit the nearest wall, a wave of green fire filled trench, engulfing Vincent and Lemm.
You’ve died. Respawning at Risegard…
Vincent’s body jolted when he reappeared at the Daiglass Tower. After taking a few seconds to slow his heartbeat, he checked his messages and the local guild chat. Xan had sent a few updates over the last two weeks, including details of her first encounter with the Demon Lord. He hadn’t engaged her directly, but he’d shown up to cast powerful spells that broke their defenses.
Antonio had survived and posted his own updates to the local guild chat, including information on which towers had sustained the most damage. It seemed he and Xan had kept Tower Sixteen in good shape until the Demon Lord had shown himself, but after that point they’d fought a war of attrition with little supplies or backup. The devil waves had slowed since then, but it sounded like the fighting never quite stopped.
In those two weeks, Juniper had sent Vincent two messages:
>Juniper: Man, those drone knights work fast. The pipeline is already finished, and Xan gave me some skyglass during her resupply run. Just enough to make a couple of short swords as practice. There’s no guarantee I’ll figure out this material right away, but I’ll see what I can do.
>Juniper: Hey, when you respawn, come see me right away. I have new equipment for your team.
Vincent grabbed any necessary items from storage, including more skyglass, then hurried to Juniper’s shop. In the distance, he could hear the occasional explosion or see flashes of light from the city’s edge.
>Vincent: Hey, I’m stopping by Juniper’s, then I’ll be on my way.
>Alexandria: K.
>Quinn: Hurry up. There’s good fighting going on here! I can’t believe I missed the first two weeks of this.
>Jim: And I can’t believe Vince got
dusted on the first day. Not a good look for our famous modslayer.
>Vincent: Yeah, I got in over my head. Should’ve played defensively like everyone else.
>Jim: Nah, I’m just picking on you. I got messages from several guildsmen telling me how cool you were taking down Lemm. That little bastard usually knocks out the shields around several towers before someone finally snipes him.
Vincent entered the shop to find Juniper sharpening a blade on a grindstone with runes on the sides of the wheel. The girl paused to look at Vincent before putting the blade back in her inventory.
“I know Xan already brought you skyglass, but I wanted to give you some extra pieces,” Vincent said, handing over several item crystals.
“Alright!” she said. “Now that I know what I’m doing, I’ll work on some of the finest blades you’ve ever seen. You and Xan can have the first two I made for practice.” She equipped two short swords to hand him.
Skytorn – Material Rating: 600 | A skyglass short sword of beautiful craftsmanship.
Direglass – Material Rating: 600 | A skyglass short sword of beautiful craftsmanship.
Vincent looked over the glass blades with a mesmerized expression. The curves, details, and shape of the emerald glass looked perfect, as far as he could tell. Under the room’s lantern light, he could even see a bluish tint beneath the curvature of the brilliant green. The blades felt incredibly light compared to basteel, and the edges looked almost paper thin. Even the hilt and handles had been shaped from skyglass, but his grip felt sturdy when he took hold of Skytorn. Direglass had a slightly smaller hilt, and he could tell Juniper had made it with Xan in mind.
“I almost would’ve thought you’d measured my hand,” Vincent said, eyeing how perfectly his grip felt.
“I always take a peek at peoples’ hands when they first enter my shop,” Juniper said. “Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but all my decades of practice have made me good at reading palm size at a glance.”
Vincent waved the blade, feeling barely any wind resistance even when he took a quick swipe at the air. “It’s so perfect,” he muttered. “I can’t believe this.”
