Chapter 348 - Under attack (Patreon)

I just wave at Tess and leave the wall, heading to the part where the barrier is powered.

There I grab one of the natives by the shoulders, “Soldier! I have noticed that this part of the wall and defense is damaged. You are an inscriber here to make sure it works smoothly, right? Explain the process to me so I can relay it further to our leadership.”

Confused, the man looks around, trying to get anyone to help, but there is only me.

“We do not call ourselves soldiers, sir, but will do so sir!” he answers in the end. “If you move over here, you can see the hidden control panel. You said there is a problem with it?”

“Yes, the enemy is attempting to disrupt the barrier on the first wall.”

“That would be terrible! Let's quickly confirm it works as it should be.”

“That’s a good idea, soldier!”

“I'm not a soldier, sir. Please, this way.”

***

The barrier is a much rougher version of the barrier the Bastion on the 5th floor had, so I don't spend much time checking it out. I just take note of some interesting ways they deal with this kind of construct, it will be useful in the future.

I leave, appearing back on the 1st wall. Not even one hour out of five has passed and looking down the mountain, it's all under control.

Yup, just thousands of level thirty, corgi-sized ants.

They are just under the wall, nibbling on it at places while lower difficulties shower them with attacks. Some of them have mildly interesting skills like hot water, a weak variation of hypnosis, some wider area sleep debuff, and snow attacks that seem nearly useless.

Then there are traditional mana projectiles, fire, ice attacks, some shadowy nonsense, weak variations of lightning, gravity, or telekinetic stuff. Plenty of Easy difficulty people also seem to rely on weapons to help. Either to focus their mana or do damage in cooperation with it.

So far, the atmosphere is light and plenty of people laugh out loud, joke, and smile as they compete, trying to get as many little monsters as possible. It’s easy for them to do so as the ants can't even climb the wall because of some sort of barrier on its surface.

Do they really think it will all be this level? Actually, they may think that. What weirdos.

I just continue to fill my crown and observe it while doing so. I haven’t tested it properly yet and looking at it, it's still pale blue. From what I know, my mana changes colors the more dense it is. I'm not sure if it's the same for others as it could change because of skills, passives, and maybe even traits. I saw plenty of different colors.

For me, it's pale blue, then a denser version is dark blue. More mana is dark blue with streaks of pale blue mana and further beyond that with purple streaks. Then it goes boom.

The crown is still only at the light blue stage, hungrily sipping on my mana. At this point, I start thinking this thing might be much scarier than my Mana Reservoir.

Moving a bit further from others, I put my damaged arcane axe on my lap and send my senses inside it with the support of multiple skills.

During the tournament, I saw what an arcane weapon did in Savant’s hands. The guy doesn’t even have such a big mana reserve yet the weapon did a great deal of damage and was even able to ignore natural barriers to some extent and hold people.

What would someone like me be capable of doing with that glove? With my mana reserves? I would easily win the 1st event, I believe.

So here I have a weapon of similar or maybe even higher rank. The glove was low arcane, meanwhile, the axe could be mid arcane at its peak. Even now, damaged, it’s upper epic in power.

My goal is simple: to make it work at its low arcane grade output for a short duration. It wouldn’t be its full power most likely, but more than enough to do some flashy stuff Tess hopes to see. And I will oblige.

Mostly because I think it would be fun. But also to show others how dumb they were by restricting themselves. Only Tacita either has the least severe [Restriction] or didn’t get to the 6th floor yet. She probably didn’t get there, but I can’t be sure.

As I observe the axe, it's the same as before. A myriad of lines, twists, and things that are hard for me to perceive even as I use [Mana Domain] supported by [Mana Crown] and my Mana Wavelength Iris.

The interesting part is that I can't change these lines. I can't scratch to wipe them out as I could with other weapons. I can't connect new lines to them. I'm just not at the point where I would be capable of doing that with an arcane weapon.

Well, maybe that's not fully accurate. If I used a lot of mana and full force, I should be capable of doing that. The problem is I would lack the control required to do it properly and would most likely end up fucking things up instead.

So the plan is simple. I will try to make use of my [Infusion] and recreate lines that are damaged. I won't be etching them into the axe and will instead try to use something akin to a temporar line. Thin threads of my mana infused through the weapon, trying to reconnect the damaged parts.

My lines will be much weaker than the ones in the weapon. They won't be able to bear the output the weapon requires. Well, not for long. If I do a good job, I should be able to use the weapon for a few seconds. Something between 5 to 30? It's really hard to say currently as I have no idea about the true power of the weapon.

Extremely janky, just the way I like it.

A thin hand touches the blade of the axe, a presence I haven't felt until she got too close. It's obvious who it is.

When I look up, lively eyes observe me and the axe from under brown messy hair.

“110 thousand shards for the axe. Two thousand shards if you want to use it for one hour. I do not offer subscriptions to use during the events,” I tell her. The more I observe the axe, the more I like it. Not for my personal use as I prefer other kinds of weapons, but just for the opportunity to learn from it. So the prices have doubled.

Tacita points at the damaged part of the blade and gestures something.

“Yes, it's damaged, but 100 thousand is for the cheapest low arcane weapons. This is more likely mid-grade.”

She stops her gestures and pokes the axe a few more times. A gentle pulse of her mana is sent from her finger through the surface of the weapon. Then she just shrugs and plops down on the grass, her back resting on the wall nearby.

After ten minutes, when I take a break from my work, I ask, “Are you also waiting for stronger monsters?”

A nod.

“Me too. I think others are dumb, thinking the system wouldn’t throw some bullshit at us. The increased rewards for the restrictions won’t be worth it.”

Tacita energetically nods again, her hair flying around her head. Then she taps a few times on her temple and smiles.

Thirty more minutes pass.

“Do you not like Tess?” I ask.

She looks up at me, thinking for a while.

A gesture with her hand.

“Not that much?”

A nod.

“Yeah, Tess is scary.”

Another nod.

“It shouldn't be that easy for someone to deal with people.”

Two quick nods.

Escaping Isabella’s clutches, Noodle also appears nearby. I notice him sensing my mana and the direction he was going to quickly changes and he rushes towards me at high speed. His tongue flicking towards my mana. Even from where I am, I can sense him absorbing tiny bits of my mana that I release in the area around me for detection.

The amounts of that mana are incredibly small and even most people from Hell difficulty can't sense it. Yet Noodle noms on it.

When he gets closer, he freezes. Slowly his head turns to the right and he spots Tacita. He stares at her as if surprised by the fact he couldn't sense her up until now, nor even see her as she didn’t move at all and is probably even hiding her heat.

He quickly slithers towards me and then stops a bit away, waiting.

“You can come.”

Only after I say that does the polite snake move closer and gently coil around my arm, his head on my shoulder looking in the same direction I’m looking. Carefully, I release a bit of my mana he starts absorbing.

Separating part of my mind, I observe as he absorbs mana, and with another part, I send senses towards the first wall.

Most of the Easy difficulty are already getting low on mana, resting to the side, and groups from Normal difficulty are replacing them. Even now, an hour in, no monster has even reached the top of the wall; the barrier feels weaker, but still strong.

So far, I sensed only a few stronger attacks, mostly from bored people from Hard difficulty.

There is also a new kind of monster now. Spiders of the average level around 50. They emerge from the same holes as the ants, multiple of them open already. The ants and spiders do not fight each other, instead attacking together. They throw themselves against the barrier and sacrifice their lives to weaken it even a bit.

So far, it seems to be working; the mana from batteries powering the barrier slowly going down.

When exactly one hour after the start passes, the mood changes and a lot of attacks pause as the earth starts shaking.

Curious, I fly up and something grabs my feet. When I look down, it's Tacita holding my feet and letting me lift her up so she can also see.

I pause mid air and look at her.

She looks at me.

“What the fuck.”

A shrug.

With a sigh, I fly us both higher and look beyond the first wall. There in the ground, another hole opens, a much bigger one this time. Much, much bigger. Out of that hole, with slow, lazy movements, a monster crawls up, tearing through the earth and rock, and then stomping and shaking to get rid of all the material.

The monster is lizard-like. A vertical pupil, orange eyes. Its head is like a snake with a body covered by gray scales. It stands on four thick legs, and its tail is long and very thin at the end. It reminds me of a Komodo dragon partially.

[Quake Serpent - lvl ???]

It doesn't feel as strong as Gaiathra I saw in the Valley, much weaker actually, so maybe it just entered into three question marks? Level 300 and a bit?

It's earlier than expected, but I can say that I was right. I would love to see Tess's and Savants' expressions right now.

The monster takes a few steps, killing hundreds of ants and spiders as it does so. Then a shockwave or something similar is generated inside its body and sent through strong legs into the ground. The earth explodes, thousands more little monsters die, and the earth shakes, reaching the wall where cracks start appearing immediately.

It repeats, the barrier weakening even further and chunks of the wall cracking and falling down, taking some people with them. They either die from the fall or get killed by the monsters that continue to attack even as they are dying to the same damage.

Finally, screams fill the area, and people rush all around, most of them leaving the first wall that is already lost.

Looking at the giant lizard, I have a single thought.

I can take it on easily.

***

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