Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 35 (Patreon)

The first thing we did after squaring things off with Misa, was to get Sakura and Bridget a room in a local inn. I’d picked one of the nicer ones, since we had more money than we knew what to do with, and would have even more when the next batch of Mana Bombs sold.

Nicer turned out to mean more spacious and in a better neighborhood... and not much else. The two of them accepted the room without hesitating. While it lacked some of the modern conveniences they were used to, both of them had lived through the apocalypse. They were no strangers to roughing it.

"I was just starting to get used to running water again back at the farmhouse," Bridget grumbled with a sigh.

"Just as long as I don't have to use an outhouse," Sakura replied. "That other inn we visited was a solid nope."

I chuckled. "The level of technology around here is decidedly more medieval than we're used to. I'm afraid that compared to most of the Arcadia Multiverse, we're spoiled."

"Perhaps when the System lets us travel freely, we can roam the Arcadia Multiverse spreading Earth food and plumbing," Sakura suggested.

"Maybe someday. For now, I just want us to survive the integration. Well, us and the rest of Crownhill. Our farmhouse won't be a very nice place to live if all our friends in town get eaten by ogres and trolls."

I bid the two of them goodbye and let them settle in. Though I would have liked to give them more of a tour of the city, showing them Marol's Theory Crafting shop was the most I could do for them at this time.

The two of them had instructions to manage the sale of the Mana Bombs with Misa, and to collect our cut of the profits. They were then to use those profits to get each of them a Theory Crafting session.

I'd regroup with them when I could get away, but just in case I couldn't, they had instructions to spend whatever they needed to buy items from the auction house. That meant whatever abilities or items Marol told them they needed for their respective classes.

The plan was that by the time the two of them returned to Crownhill, they'd both be outfitted like Myrina and I were. Instead of members of a newly integrated world just fumbling through their status sheets, they'd be armed with the proper knowledge, abilities, and items to make the most of their powers.

If we played our cards right, when we returned to Earth my little team would be a notch above everybody else on the Shard—which was exactly what we'd need to be to deal with the Ogres and Trolls.

Measuring both forces against humanity, they had us beat when it came to strength and durability or regeneration, respectively. Those ogres and trolls would be hard for anyone except my elite to put down—even that was a challenge for anyone besides myself.

The only real advantage we had over the Ogres and Trolls was numbers. There were several thousand residents of Crownhill crowded around the main shelter, and there were several other shelters scattered throughout the area. I wasn't sure how powerful the people at these other shelters were, though.

But compared to a few hundred Ogres and Trolls, we likely had them solidly beat. At least when it came to numbers. It should be possible to mob whoever survived the war between the Ogres and Trolls and beat them in a war of attrition.

That would still be a heavy price to pay, and I wasn't willing to sacrifice that many human lives to win. If I could build an elite strike force even more powerful than the one I'd trained up for the last operation—centered around myself, Sakura, and Bridget—we might be able to take care of whoever won between the Ogres and Trolls without involving all the low-leveled people just trying to eke out a living after the integration.

Humanity could win against the Ogres and Trolls, but I didn't want us to win by throwing superior numbers at the problem as cannon fodder.

With Sakura and Bridget taken care of, I returned to the castle. I arrived to find Myrina in the bathtub nursing a hangover.

She lay face-down in the water, and for a moment, I worried that she'd drowned. I pulled her head out of the water by a mass of red locks to check on her, and she moaned like she was dying.

"Ugh. Carter, why did you let me drink that much?" Myrina groaned. "I didn't tell you anything embarrassing, did I?"

I chuckled. "I told you to take it easy several times, if you recall."

She cracked one eye open and glared at me. "Why are you fine?"

"I only had water, remember? As for what you told me... well... it's better not to repeat it." I shook my head as though I'd heard all of Myrina's dark and terrible secrets.

"That’s cheating, Carter. Drinking water is cheating..." Myrina grumbled.

D-Grade had significantly improved my body, and I hadn't thought it was possible to get hangovers anymore. But whatever Myrina had been drinking had managed it. I'd gotten a whiff of it from her cup and figured it was strong enough to kill a normal man outright.

"I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning." I patted Myrina on the head. "I'm going to practice my Meditation proficiency."

You have gained 7 Meditation Proficiency levels.

Your Meditation proficiency has reached level 10!

You now regenerate all resources 300% faster while meditating.

While pondering the secrets that underpin reality as most beings understand them, you will passively gain experience toward your Scholar class, Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge!

My eyebrows rose at the new notification. I'd mostly been practicing meditation based on my trusting Myrina, and that Marol knew what she was doing. But this was the first time I’d seen real results.

Meditation really did synchronize with my class. I could gain passive experience just by sitting down and concentrating! That was a pretty big boon for someone in my position, given that I couldn’t earn experience points from killing monsters.

My exuberance was quenched after a few tests. The passive trickle of experiences was pitifully small. I counted off the seconds between experience points, taking careful measure of how fast the bar to my next level filled up.

At its current rate, it would take me a week of constant, non-stop meditation to gain a level. That wasn't impossible to achieve, but it did feel terribly slow. If I gave it my all, I could probably manage a level in about ten days by cutting back on sleep and spending as little time as possible on daily necessities.

If I had a hundred years to kill, which I likely did after reaching D-Grade, it might be a safe way to gain a bunch of levels before adventuring for real. But with such a small trickle of experience points, I'd quickly fall behind the leveling curve on my shard.

The Ogres, Trolls, and Wolfmen had already been pretty strong. Who knew what we'd face after them?

Still, I could hold out hope that at a higher proficiency level, this rate of passive experience gain would increase. And Myrina had told me she'd gone months between new levels before my arrival. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to keep this in my back pocket and work on it regularly.

I'd continue leveling it in the hopes that it would become more efficient over time. It wasn't like it took all that much time out of my day. And the enhancement to resource regeneration had certainly proven valuable when doing mana-intensive Artificer crafting.

I’m sure I would be singing its praises the next time I took a mortal wound and needed to keep myself alive through sheer force of will and continuously using Mind over Flesh. That had only happened twice, but I was very worried about it becoming a trend.

I spent the next few days completing quests with Myrina on behalf of her Clan. Most of them were little things, like clearing the roads or taking care of bandits just as we had done that first day. We didn't always get the quests straight from the matriarch herself. When we did, though, the rewards were pretty good.

I had enough gold from her that when I went to the auction house with Myrina, I didn't have to be shy about placing high bids when I spotted an item I wanted.

"I want to shout the bid. Can I shout the bid, Carter?" Myrina pleaded.

I rolled my eyes. "Go ahead and shout then."

"Eighty Thousand Gold!" Myrina yelled at the top of her lungs.

She folded her arms and tilted her nose up in smug pride at all the gawking from people in the gallery at the quantity of gold Myrina had just bid.

"Sold for Eighty Thousand Gold!" the auctioneer said after Myrina's bid was followed by a lengthy silence.

"That's right! You could never hope to match the might of my family's limitless coffers!" Myrina tossed her hair back over her shoulders and cackled.

"Okay, Myrina, that’s enough of that." I patted her on the shoulder and urged her to sit back down.

"That was actually my bid, and I'll be the one paying for it," I told the staring auctioneer.

I felt quite a few other eyes on me. I'd actually spent more in that one auction than Myrina's mother had given us as quest rewards—even adding in everything we'd earned from fighting monsters. If not for the Mana Bombs, I'd never have been able to afford the purchase I'd just made.

Thankfully, Myrina seemed to have little to no concept of money. Whether an ale cost one gold or one hundred gold, Myrina didn't know or care. I might have chalked it up to her growing up rich, but Sakura had grown up rich as well and was quite business minded.

In the end, I had to chalk it up to Myrina being Myrina. It worked to my advantage, though. I could be bold about spending coin at the auction house with her right beside me, remaining none the wiser at my large bids.

"So... what did we win?" Myrina asked me.

"It's supposed to be a special drink that boosts the luck stat," I explained. "There's no point in me expending valuable stat points doing what I can just pay money for."

"Oh, I get it. Good thinking, Carter!" Myrina grinned.

I’d obtained one other thing at the auction, which ended up costing me nearly as much as the luck-enhancing drink.

"Now presenting a valuable spell enhancement item taken from the body of a spell caster slain by one of our adventurers traveling abroad. It was likely a quest reward at some point and would have netted the wizard a tidy profit if he'd made it back to his homeworld to sell it. Unfortunately for him, he never got the chance!"

The auctioneer pulled back a cloth to reveal a book. "Behold! The famous Magic Missile spell! It fires a barrage of three basic magical attacks at targets, dealing small but noticeable damage."

There were a few groans from the crowd, indicating that most of the people present had been on the receiving end of a Magic Missile before.

The moment I heard about the spell, I was intrigued. Magic Missile was indeed famous. So famous, in fact, that I'd heard of it before the arrival of the System itself. It was available through various tabletop and computer games and was always one of the first spells most magic users learned.

My skill slots for spells were nearly full, but perhaps I could squeeze in Magic Missile. Worst case, I would sacrifice something unneeded to pick it up, as Marol had suggested I do. I bid on the item, eventually receiving it for a mere fifty thousand gold, much to Myrina's delight.

"They fear and respect the limitless might of your wallet. They know whatever we bid on, we get, so there's no point bidding against us!" Myrina laughed.

"Yes, of course Myrina."

We returned to Myrina's room with our prizes in tow. I tackled the luck-enhancing drink first.

"You want a clean pallet to make the most of these, but sometimes they taste really bad. Shall I get some ale for you to wash it down with after?" Myrina asked.

I shook my head. "I've tried your ale and drank all I ever plan to drink. But some water and a biscuit or something similar would be appreciated."

The servants brought water and a few biscuits for the two of us. Myrina snacked on the biscuits while I centered myself and prepared to consume the expensive potion. I felt a little bad consuming the whole potion myself, and offered her half the glass.

"No need, Carter. My family helped me hit my luck cap long ago. While I might be able to gain one or two more points thanks to the levels I've gained since then, my family will no doubt provide more drinks like that one after we put down the Shadefall rebellion. Go ahead and drink up!"

So that was just what I did. I swallowed the luck-enhancing drink in one big gulp. Its taste was somewhere between orange juice and cough syrup. It wasn't nearly as bad as Myrina had led me to fear, though it tasted more like medicine than something that actually tasted good.

You have gained 5 Luck stat points!

"Well? What'd you get! Tell me!" Myrina practically bounced in her seat in eager anticipation.

"Five points in luck," I replied.

Her eyes went wide. "What?! Five whole points! No way! I've never had anything that gave me more than two points. Didn’t the auctioneer say the drink would give you one or two points? How'd you get five?"

I smiled. "I guess I'm just... lucky."

Myrina laughed way too hard for such a lame joke. So hard, that I laughed at how hard she was laughing. Eventually, the two of us stopped giggling like giddy school children and I brought out my second auction house purchase.

"Alright… now I've got to figure out what I'm going to do with this baby," I muttered as I scanned the skill book for Magic Missile.

I desperately wanted to learn it. Since it struck three times, it would be much more useful than Mana Bolt in laying on Corrupting Marks. Having this spell would increase my power significantly.

I read through the first few pages. Sure enough, it was similar to Mana Bolt. In fact, the individual bolts were nearly identical to Mana Bolt, if a bit smaller and slightly weaker. But the fact that there were three of them more than made up for that.

The only question was whether or not I would need to ditch another existing ability to gain it. It was a shame that I couldn't merge the two to create three Mana Bolt-sized Magic Missiles.

A notification lit up before my eyes a moment after that thought crossed my mind.

Compatible Spell detected!

Due to your high Caster proficiency, you have grasped a connection between Mana Bolt (common) and Magic Missile (common)!

You may expend Caster proficiency levels to create a new custom spell of your own design! The more proficiency levels you expend to create your new spell, the higher probability you have of creating a higher-rarity spell.

Surprised and intrigued, I shared the prompt with Myrina.

Her eyebrows rose. "Wow, already?" she glanced up at me in surprise. "I've only had this happen with a single ability of mine. It's actually how I got my Legendary skill, Tempo of Battle. I gave up like a year's worth of proficiency levels to turn two epic skills into a legendary one."

"You're thinking I should do it?" I asked.

Myrina nodded vigorously. "For you? It's a no brainer. I've seen how fast you pick up those proficiency levels. Sacrificing a few or even a bunch of them for a new skill is a great move. If it's a unique ability, you might even get a title for it."

At Myrina's suggestion, I directed fifteen of my hard-won Caster proficiency points to the task. For those without my unique racial bonus, it would have been a lot more painful. I knew I could gain back the bonuses to my spells in no time, so I happily gave them up now.

You have expended 15 Caster Proficiency points!

Caster Proficiency reduced to Level 27.

You have combined Mana Bolt (Common) with Magic Missile (Common).

By pouring countless hours of spellcasting experience into the creation of this new spell, you have created… Mana Barrage (Epic).

You have been awarded the title: Spell Architect -- Mana Barrage (Epic)

By creating a unique spell never before seen in the Arcadia Multiverse, you have shared the fruits of your labor with future generations. You shall receive a small tribute in the form of bonus damage for every new user who learns and masters your spell!

Current bonus damage: 0%.

Because this spell was crafted by your own hands, it shall deal twice as much damage when cast by you.

I shared my prompts with Myrina.

This time she jumped out of her seat. "Come on, Carter! Back to the sparring ring! We're trying that thing out right this instant!"