The Mana barriers that the players had used as cover were placed all over the castle, giving them cover from the fire as they looted and repaired the castle to the best of their ability.
“They’ve got a request in for an ono,” Josh said.
“Well, let’s get it in there. We can start to build it up and we can hit more of the Xelur coming from the portal to the southern castles.”
As this had been going on, more and more Xelur had come out of the portal, streaming toward the occupied castles. Artillery that couldn’t reach the contested castles fired down upon these streams of Xelur, trying to kill as many of them off as possible so that they couldn’t reach the various castles and reinforce them.
“Bravo—looks like we’ve reclaimed the eastern castle.” Josh looked to Esa.
“We lost a number of players who aren’t going to be too happy about losing all those levels.”
“But they aren’t POE. They can come back,” Josh said.
“Yeah.” Esa smiled slightly before she looked over her own castle. There were still signs of the fighting that had been going on just a few hours ago. Her smile dimmed as she thought of the POEs who had stood alongside players, knowing that if they were to die that they wouldn’t respawn.
That took a lot more guts than what she’d done.
People were already checking the loot they’d gathered and checking out the class upgrades they’d received and some had even gained levels and stat points to increase their attributes.
It had been a bloody fight but their hard earned gains would be needed in the near future.
Chapter 10: Force Multiplier
Suzy let out a gasp as she opened her eyes.
Lu Lu, seeing her master wake up, made pitiful squeaking noises and rubbed her face against Suzy’s.
Suzy made to pat Lu Lu’s head but found that she was too weak to do so. Her Stamina and Mana were at their lowest point and she felt completely drained. She shivered as she thought of the nightmares she had seen.
“Suzy?” someone asked.
“Hi. Where am I? What happened?” Suzy asked.
“You were struck by a Xelur soul attack. When you were using the skill on your Weapon of Power, your Willpower was boosted a lot higher than normal. It weakened the attack that targets the power of your soul, attempting to rip it from you and be absorbed by the Xelur attacker. But, the backlash from the skill is to greatly impact your soul energy and leave you in a weakened state. In this state, the soul attacks were much more powerful. It took a number of people skilled in the ways of the soul to increase your strength and to weaken the attack that you were hit with. They reduced it as much as possible and there was nothing to do but let you fight it off yourself,” the lady said.
Suzy nodded before her expression froze. Her eyes went wide as she looked to the lady. “Where’s Induca? She was hit by that Grand Demon Lord’s attack!”
“Calm down, please. You might be awake but your body is incredibly weak!” The lady stepped forward to press a hand down on Suzy’s chest, holding her in place.
Lu Lu, feeling ignored started to licked Suzy’s face.
“You damn animal, stop that!” Suzy giggled as Lu Lu’s tongue tickled her.
Induca pushed open the door, smiling at the scene before her.
Suzy looked to Induca. Time seemed to stop as relief filled her; tears fell down her cheeks as she started to sob.
“Oh, come here dear,” Induca said, her voice soft as she wrapped her arms around the fragile Suzy, who grabbed her as if she were some kind of lifeboat.
Suzy couldn’t stop crying as she grabbed onto Induca, not wanting to let go.
Induca made comforting noises, stroking Suzy’s hair as she held her close.
Suzy looked up to Induca, finding that she wasn’t the only one crying. She pulled Induca close, kissing her and once again finding refuge in her arms. “I thought I lost you!” Suzy sobbed.
“Take a lot more to get rid of me,” Induca said comfortingly.
“Don’t do that again!” Suzy said, remembering the scenes of Induca being hit by that soul energy ranged attack.
“I’ll do my best, love,” Induca promised.
The two of them held each other. Relief filled them both at seeing that the other was all right.
Anna simply stood by the doorway, looking at them both, with a smile on her face.
There was the sound of feet and rushing air in the corridor.
Anna looked to where the noise was coming from before hastily stepping fully into the room. “Incoming!” Anna warned.
Party Zero crammed through the doorway. All of them looked to Suzy and Induca.
Malsour was like a black shadow, looking over Suzy and Induca at the same time.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?” Dave asked, right at his shoulder.
“Healer, what do they need?” Deia asked the healer who was stuck in the room.
“Well, Suzy needs bed rest and a good meal,” the healer said.
“Induca needs the same but there was no stopping her coming here,” Anna said.
“Should take better care of yourself.” Lox gave Induca stink eye.
Suzy couldn’t stop crying. She wasn’t normally a person to show her emotions but she had been stretched so far that right now, seeing the care and the way that the rest of Party Zero were doting on them, the way that some of them were still wearing their armor that showed signs of recent fighting, she didn’t doubt that they had raced from the battle to be with her.
“What happened with the castle?” Anna asked.
“We secured the northern castle and retook the eastern one.” Steve admired his nails. “No big deal.”
Suzy and Induca laughed at Steve’s antics, finally coming down off the emotional high they had both been at.
“If you want, I can discharge Suzy right now. She’s stable, just needs to rest,” the healer said.
“We’ll look after her,” Deia said. The rest of Party Zero nodded unconsciously. There wasn’t even a question in their minds that they would do everything in their power to see that Suzy and Induca got better.
Suzy had thought of the rest of Party Zero as her family many times, but it was only now when seeing them all together like this her words became more than just words; she saw them turn to action. She saw their acceptance, their love and fears. She bawled again, hiding her head in Induca’s chest.
“What’s wrong?” Dave asked.
“Nothing!” Suzy said, her voice muffled. “Everything is perfect.” She muttered that part into Induca’s shirt softly, as if saying it any louder might break the moment.
***
Party Zero all accessed the Mirror of Communication conference room.
Waiting for them was Josh, with a complicated expression on his face.
“Hey, Josh. What did you want to see us for?” Deia asked. The rest of the party took seats around the actual conference table.
“I came to ask a question, I guess,” Josh said, not sounding too sure himself. “My question is, do you think fighting is the best use of your time? I know that you’re working on something or things—I don’t know what but I know that you place importance on them. You’re one of the most powerful parties within the Stone Raiders but I need to know if your time would be better spent on working on these inventions.”
Party Zero looked to one another before their eyes turned to Dave.
“As much as I want to say that being on the front lines would be the best use of our time, I can’t. Malsour and I are working on multiple projects. However, these projects won’t be useful for now and in these fights, well, actually some of them will.” Dave looked to Malsour, who nodded before he looked back to Josh. “The others we can’t use simply because they’ll send the Jukal AI off. They’re too powerful and they’re seen as weapons of war that could be used to attack the Jukal Empire. We can only bring out these things as a very last resort.”
“What is the thing we can use now?” Josh asked
.
“The citadels. However, we only have one that is mostly operational and we haven’t tested it out yet. We’ve got another three in various stages of production. In a week, the first will be complete; in three weeks, the second will be ready,” Malsour said.
“What can I give you in order to speed this up?” Josh asked.
“People,” Dave said. “Right now we’ve got maybe a half-dozen people and the Blood Kin besides Steve, Malsour, and me working on these projects.”
“How many people do you need and in what capacity?” Josh asked.
“We need coders, people who can manipulate Dark and Earth Mana. We also need Water mages and Light mages. We need laborers—everything.” Dave waved his hands.
“We also need people who would be willing to work for us for the next three years but they would be kept where they work,” Malsour said.
“What for?” Josh asked.
“We can’t go into that,” Dave said. It wasn’t that Dave didn’t trust Josh; it was that he didn’t want to put more things on his plate. He was already the binding force of the Terra Alliance. Throwing more on him would only add stress to his day.
“Okay, I’ll do what I can. Now, what about the rest of you?” Josh’s eyes passed over the rest of Party Zero.
“I’m good to fight,” Deia said.
“I am too,” Induca said.
“Same,” Gurren said.
“I’ll join in.” Anna raised a hand.
“Might as well help this lot out.” Lox smiled.
Lu Lu let out a screech.
“Looks like we’re in,” Suzy said.
“I’m just computing things anyway. With the upgrades Jeeves has got, he’s much faster and more useful than I am,” Steve said.
“Okay, well, let’s go off that then,” Josh said.
***
Dave sat down at a desk within Pandora’s Box. His eyes slid over to his angrily blinking notifications.
He opened up the menu. Different prompts cascaded down.
Quest: Weapons Master Level 3
One handed and shield 1000/1000
Two handed 325/1000
Dual wielding 458/1000
Archery 1000/1000
Rewards: Unlock Level 4 Quest
Increase to stats
Passive skills from other weapons increase from 25% to 50% when designated weapon is not equipped. (Example: While using Dual-wield blades, one is able to gain 50% of the archery skill’s abilities.)
“Close.” Dave sighed and continued through the prompts.
Level 240
You have reached level 255; you have 75 stat points to use.
It was only through killing hundreds of the Xelur as well as their beasts that he was able to get such a large increase in stats. There really was nothing quite like killing other sentients in order to raise one’s level.
Dave felt guilt but at the same time he knew that he would do the same thing again in an instant.
He moved to his character sheet and placed down his stat points. Twenty-five went into Intelligence, twenty into Endurance, another twenty into Willpower and ten into Agility.
With all of his projects, he needed to prioritize attributes that would allow him to work longer on these projects and make them as powerful as possible.
He checked over his new character sheet. His mind seemed clearer and his fatigue and hunger seemed to drift away as an inner strength filled him. His body felt rejuvenated and light, as if he could run forever.
Character Sheet
Name:
David Grahslagg
Gender:
Male
Level:
255
Class:
Dwarven Master Smith, Friend of the Grey God, Bleeder, Librarian, Aleph Engineer, Weapons Master, Champion Slayer, Skill Creator, Mine Manager, Master of Space and Time, Master of Gravitational Anomalies
Race:
Human/Dwarf
Alignment:
Chaotic Good
Unspent points: 0
Health:
50,100
Regen:
24.82 /s
Mana:
16,280
Regen:
59.95 /s
Stamina:
5,520
Regen:
51.90 /s
Vitality:
501
Endurance:
1,241
Intelligence:
1,628
Willpower:
1,199
Strength:
552
Agility:
1,038
With a nod of approval, he dismissed the character sheets and focused on the Mirror of Communication in front of him. He used the menu to find the right conference room; he entered a password and placed his hand on the Mirror of Communication.
He was sucked into the conference room.
“How are they doing?” Dave asked Malsour, who was watching the people in the simulation.
“They’re getting better every time. They’ve only been at it for a few hours but they’re already better than I thought,” Malsour said. “Watch.”
“Power levels are looking good. Okay, let’s power up the flight drive. How are we looking there, weapons?” the captain sitting at the back of the room asked.
“Weapons seem to be good,” a person in front of the captain, sitting at one of the consoles, said.
“Very good. Flight, situation?” the captain asked.
“Captain, all checks are good on the magical coding. The flight systems are good and ready to go,” the flight officer said.
“Barrier?” The captain looked to the barrier officer.
“Barriers are online above ground; as soon as we’re in the air, ready to transition to full coverage. I’ve tweaked them a little from last time so we should have greater defense,” the barrier officer said.
“That’s what I like to hear. Keep it up.” The captain bestowed the barrier officer with a smile. “Okay, well, seeing as we’re all ready to go, Flight, shall we get going?”
“Yes sir. Powering up flight drive.”
A deep humming filled the room as it shook slightly. Power seemed to thrum around the citadel and deep within Emerilia.
For a few seconds, nothing happened; then, slowly, they started to move.
Dave looked to a feed, watching the simulated citadel. This simulated citadel was complete, unlike the ones that were around Goblin Mountain. The ground around the citadel shook as it started to rise into the air.
As it rose, the mana barrier that had been covering just the Citadel now extended downwards, light shining out from under the rising construct.
“Power, how are we looking?” the captain asked.
“We’re good for power. Once we’re in the air, then I’m going to work on the heat and cold exchangers to see if we can’t get more power while we’re in the sky.” The power officer glanced to the captain.
“Good.” The captain nodded. They were still learning about how to use the citadel.
The citadel continued to rise, exposing what looked to be a massive soul gem underneath it. The roots that had spread throughout the rock underneath the citadel had worked with the soul gem construct to change the rock underneath into a massive soul gem. Right now, magical formations circled this massive soul gem construct; these formations were the flight drive that moved the citadel.
Rocks and debris that weren’t part of the citadel fell off the soul gem construct.
The soul gem underneath the citadel was massive, taking a few minutes just for the citadel to get high enough so that it was fully out of the ground.
“Moving to cruising altitude,” the flight officer said as the citadel moved away from the crater where it had been and pushed upward three kilometers into the sky.
Dave’s eyes shone as he looked over the flying citadel.
The massive soul gem supported the Level 3 citadel on top. The sight made one’s heart clench in awe.
/> The floating citadel dominated the sky, resting there.
“Okay, make any adjustments you want and test out your theories. You have ten minutes, then we’ll continue with the live fire exercise and see how we do up against an enemy,” the captain said to his officers.
Dave and Malsour shared a look, excited expressions on their faces.
“Not bad,” Dave said on a private channel. As they were in observer mode, no one in the command center could see them.
“With these, we can bring an entire citadel with us wherever we need to go. We could just stop above an occupied castle and jump down into it, take it and move onward,” Malsour said.
“Definitely increases our striking power.” Dave nodded. “What about weapons?”
“We’ve been testing them out. I’ve had Jeeves watching over all of these simulations and improving the coding to make the floating citadels easier to manage. Right now we’ve only got weapons that are based on the soul gem construct. However, I want to get in some dwarven master smiths and engineers to retrofit some artillery cannons to the walls of this beast. Having the ability to launch grand workings with this thing—this is how we’re going to win this event and portal opening,” Malsour said.
Dave nodded.
“Can we use the new cannons?” Malsour asked.
“I’ve been debating that. I think it would be best if we had some of them ready and fitted to the citadels but keep it hidden—I don’t want anyone to know that we have them. Only if we have to will we use them. Also, we’re going to have to secretly retrofit the secondary systems we’ve been working on.”
Malsour took a deep breath before he let it out. He looked at the command center, where the command crew were talking to one another, getting a good feel for their stations and working through issues they’d had and working to improve their abilities.
“I really wish that we could use those measures now,” Malsour said.
“I do, too. However, we can’t—we don’t have the strength yet,” Dave said. “Oh, and Bob wants to see us both. I can go by myself but do you want to come?”
Of Myths and Legends (Emerilia Book 9) Page 15
