Chapter 328 - 6th Floor (Patreon)

“No,” I answer to Maya, who is holding a damaged arcane axe.

“Come on, I will buy you something from the system shop worth 10 thousand shards.”

“Fifty thousand.”

“How the fuck would I even get fifty thousand shards? Ask in three-five more floors if I'm lucky.”

“Forty-nine thousand,” I poke.

To that, Maya just throws a small stone from the ground at me and smiles before returning to examining the axe.

I continue to pet Biscuit. Ever since I have found them, he refuses to leave my side and lays on my lap while I sit against the wall of the cliff we camp under. Not like I mind, the best doggo of the 6th floor deserves all the pets I can give. It's hard to believe I was able to stay without him for so many weeks.

Sure, Vega is a great ESM, but there is something hard to explain when I pet this silly corgi or boop his slightly cold nose.

Damn, I have missed him.

“Nat! So you have killed a Veil Guardians on your own?” with big eyes, Min-Jae interrupts as if waiting for some exciting story.

Biscuit woofs, either at him, or at me for stopping petting, so I continue.

“A few. I got some voidsteel blades with me, so later we will try to get someone to make something out of them for you. By the way, practice your [Telekinesis] and [Gravity Well] a bit more. I saw some scary stuff they were able to do.”

“Oh, me too. I saw a Veil Guardian using strong gravity attacks against the Bastion. The Housekeeper nearly died when he focused it on her. But the guardian didn't use telekinesis or anything similar.”

I nod, “There was one more monster. I saw it waving its hand and destroying an entire city. It tore down skyscrapers like nothing and kept throwing building-sized projectiles at me. Scary stuff.”

The boy continues to listen as I describe a bit more of what the Veil Weaver did. Back then, I don't think I would have had a chance without me and my duplicate cooperating.

“What about you, Tess? Did you kill a Veil Guardian?” I ask her.

“Two of them on my own and one with the help of the Bastion,” she says. “I just needed to charge my crown plenty and have some preparation. Then I’d just shoot them from really far away. Sophie was able to kill two of them. She even controlled one for a while.”

Sophie looks up from Izzy leaning against her, “I controlled it only for a few seconds. The Veil didn't like it at all, and it nearly killed me but the Butler and others killed it in meantime.”

“Dumb Sophie,” Izzy mumbles.

Noodle is also there, coiled around her arm. I notice that he is looking at me, probably hungry for my mana, but a single glance at Biscuit in my lap makes him stop. I wonder how these two set up this kind of pecking order.

“During the last day of the Floor, I killed five,” Lily says.

Most of the eyes in the group turn to her.

Of course, it wouldn’t be that hard for her. Boosted by her [Sacrifice] and with the most powerful damage skill out of group 4, she would kill them. Her level is also getting really closer to 200, but it's still scary that she is able to do this.

Well, it's scary, but she is our scary crazy healer, so that's fine.

Others also killed one Veil Guardian but always either with the big help of the Bastion or the four assholes leading it, mostly the Housekeeper or the Butler.

People who killed them alone, whether in a fight or by hunting or trapping, are the ones in Beyond. Well, other than Sophie, who I think would also do well. It's just that she already used an upgrade token, unwilling to leave Isabella for so long. Well, it's not like she needs Beyond rewards with her [Manipulation].

Of course, I killed the most Veil Guardians. With a duplicate, we hunted at every opportunity or on my own.

But as always, group 4 is scary.

“So Biscuit, how was your disciple?”

(Friend!)

“Oh, you liked him?”

(Food.)

“I agree. Disciples should be respectful towards their masters.”

(Food food!)

“Totally.”

(Asshole?)

“Oh no, my disciple was great.”

(Food?)

“I think it's close but you are just a tiny bit cuter than her.”

To that, he just woofs but continues to move his short tail from side to side. Cute little rascal, I wonder how strong he got and what his disciple looked like.

“Did you guys meet any monster on this floor?” I ask.

“A few,” Tess answers me. “During the night there seem to be none, and they get out only during the day. All of them over level 150 and plenty into two hundreds. But we know how it goes, there will be much stronger ones.”

Such a weird setup. Isn't the night usually the dangerous time when the dangerous animals leave their sleeping spots?

“Any other info on the floor or from twins?”

Tess moves closer and Sophie takes over, keeping a watch with her web made of mana and a swarm of small mana constructs.

I was able to grab one and now examine it while listening to others. Sophie doesn't seem to mind even though she rolled her eyes. I like how different our uses of mana can be, there is still so much to be learned.

Sitting on the ground near Maya, Tess explains, “The twins are kept by the master of the Black Tower. They tried to escape multiple times, but they caught them and punished…” She narrows her eyes and her expression changes, “Apparently the second in rank marked them and it allows them to track the twins.”

I also don't like it, “We will locate them and get them out.”

“We will, but carefully. Apparently, the master of the Black Tower used to be a Champion’s disciple before he was sent to Astral Prison. So far we don't know his level, but twins estimate something closer to 300.”

“It doesn't matter.”

Tess smiles, “I thought you would say that, Nat. As you said, it doesn't matter. We will get Aaron and Dennis back and in the process, deal with everyone who hurt them. I think everyone here is up for that.” She looks around.

Surprisingly, everyone from the group seems to think similarly as Tess said. I think as time passes, group 4 people are getting closer and closer.

“We probably won't be able to do it before the tournament that will start in fifteen or so hours,” I note.

“That's true,” Tess agrees with me. “We still don't know how the tournament works, but hopefully, it will allow all of us to meet there and plan everything without Community censorship or time limit. As for this floor, we have only bits of information from Aaron and Dennis. Apparently, it's a prison as the name of the floor says. The entire moon serves for multiple planets to get rid of criminals here, letting them either die from hunger or while fighting other prisoners.”

“Any guards?” I ask.

“We don’t know.”

“You said the twins are kept by people from the black tower and there is a master of the Black Tower, what is it?”

“The prisoners on this moon created multiple groups in order to survive. Black Tower is one of them.”

Such an unexpected floor.

The last one was probably to show the dangers of overreaching creation. Showing the world that has fallen because of the Enchanter Guild that enslaved a young divine beast, whatever it is. It also allowed us to learn more about Pairing, enchanting, and the dangers of mana radiation.

So what is this one about? We have to escape, but how? Is it supposed to teach us about portals between planets and planet defenses? Otherwise, there could be some things akin to the orbital base from the 4th floor? Spaceships?

Well, I’m sure we will learn as the floor progresses, but currently, the tournament’s going to happen soon. After that, I will be able to enter the 3rd Beyond trial and we also have to get the twins out.

Things here really refuse to get boring.

“Nat.”

I look at Lily who called to me and she hesitates.

“Did you miss m…us?” she asks in the end. For a moment she even looks vulnerable.

Lily also grew up like Min-Jae but she looks a bit calmer now, but of course, her anxiety of being left behind is still here.

“Lily, don’t bully Nat, you know…” Min-Jae starts.

“Yes,” I say simply.

Multiple pairs of eyes turn to me and I slowly return each gaze. Briefly, I meet their eyes. “Yes,” I repeat.

“Fuck, are you not ashamed to say it with such a calm face? Someone might fall for…” Maya mumbles quietly, looking up from the damaged arcane axe she is babying.

Isabella tries to connect to my feelings but I disrupt that attempt. Then I reach out and pinch Lily’s nose and shake her head slightly.

It's nice to be back.

 ***

“So, my eye totally got stronger with me, Nat!” the boy called Kim Min-Jae happily says “All these waves I see are gravitational ones. Look what I can do.”

He rushes and his eye shines slightly and I feel weird mana from him. Then he touches a rock as big as he is and the rock flies into the air.

Both of us stare at it as it continues to fly higher and higher, “I can do it to monsters or people as well. Of course, the stronger the monster is, the harder it is because of their natural barrier. At some point, I can’t do that no matter how much mana I spend if the monster is too strong. But when it comes to weaker ones or objects…” a pulse of mana expands from him and half a dozen of similarly sized stones fly into the air.

“I can do that to weaker monsters even without touching, but when I touch them it works better.”

As the stones he sent half a mile high into the air start falling down I start imagining what would happen if he did that to monsters or people incapable of flying or landing safely.

“Can you send them into orbit?” I ask.

Right away he steps up and he turns to me with even higher excitement, “I knew you would understand, Nat! I came to think of it just a few days ago, but you realized it immediately!” he talks quicker, happy to share it all.

He continues, “Right now I can’t, but in the future, I’m sure I will. Just imagine sending monsters to orbit or out to space. Or I can just send them high into the air and let them crash to the ground.”

“Tess, Nat is at it again and Kim is becoming similar,” Maya calls from somewhere nearby.

“Min-Jae, my boy. Why would you stop there? Imagine if you could send a rock as big as a building high into the air and then increase its gravity and send it crashing against your opponent. Or not even a building, just some highly dense metal projectiles, the sheer kinetic energy it would gain would be terrifying. Did you hear about kinetic bombardment?”

“I did not!”

“I saw it on TV, it was some old army project. Tungsten rods or something stuff. Three times as tall as me or even more and probably as thick as Biscuit.”

A woof sounds from somewhere nearby.

“They wanted to put these rods in orbit with satellites and then send them crashing to the ground, using gravity and gravity only. Mach 8 speeds or something and damage as a small nuclear bomb.”

“Isn’t that too much, Nat?”

“You have to think big. With your gravity skill and telekinesis, you might be able to do it even without putting them into orbit.”

“I will think of it. You really like using stuff around you to fight. Gravity, falling rain, or wind to absorb kinetic energy or precharged orbs, I have noticed.”

Well, he is not wrong, “It allows me to get more firepower quicker. I told it to my disciple, but always try to gain an advantage and don't bother trying to fight honorably. That's for dumb people to do. But now I will go and accept one of the rewards. Tess, will you keep a watch?”

“Sure, enjoy.”

Thankful, I move a bit away from the group, filter out their conversation, and accept my skill combination token.

You have used an active skill combination token. Please pick two skills from the following ones you would like to combine.

Warning! Combining two skills will reduce the level of the acquired skill.

Warning! A combination of not-compatible skills can result in worse skills.

Warning! After combining the skills, it will become extremely difficult to acquire the skills used for combination.

List of available skills to combine:

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 47
Perception - Lvl 43
Tether - Lvl 35
Regalia - Lvl 23
Infusion - Lvl 28

Five skills available. [Focus], [Redistribution], [Resonance], and [Mana Domain] are not here at all.

I once again wonder if they are skills that are unavailable to combine or if they are higher tiered than the active skill combination token. If there even is something like hidden rarities as I like to think lately.

[Mana Manipulation] with [Perception]

[Mana Manipulation] with [Tether]

[Mana Manipulation] with [Regalia]

[Mana Manipulation] with [Infusion]

[Perception] with [Tether]

[Perception] with [Regalia]

[Perception] with [Infusion]

[Tether] with [Regalia]

[Tether] with [Infusion]

[Regalia] with [Infusion]

Well, the last time I didn't think of using [Mana Manipulation] as I relied on it a lot, but this time I will keep it on the menu as I think even without it I would do well.

Let's think of the options.

***

Next Chapter