Chapter 452 - A lot of shards (Patreon)

[Ley Line - lvl 9 > Ley Line - lvl 10]

[Ley Line - lvl 10 > Ley Line - lvl 11]

[Ley Line - lvl 11 > Ley Line - lvl 12]

[Ley Line - lvl 12 > Ley Line - lvl 13]

[Ley Line - lvl 13 > Ley Line - lvl 14]

A bit more testing with my skill revealed the difference between [Tether] and [Ley Line].

Where the main thing of [Tether] was to create a tether, anchor it in space, and connect these two spots, the main objective of [Ley Line] is to create a line, not the anchor itself.

I'm starting to suspect that at higher levels, I might not need to rely on anchors as much and could just create lines. I still have no idea how that would work.

It’s hard to explain clearly since I mostly go by feel. Yes, anchors, marks, or whatever are important, even for the new skill, but they’re more of an addition than the main focus.

As for the lines, I’m still not very sure what their main advantages are, but what comes to mind is the 5th floor and the Veil they made over the entire planet.

I have a suspicion that my new skill at a really, really high level could do something similar. Allowing me to pull invisible mana lines over the entire Earth and to do… something.

I’m sure I’ll come up with some fancy ideas. One of them might be my personal transportation net. Another one could be to detect monsters with invisibility skills and kill them on sight.

I know I still don’t understand this skill properly, and these are questions I have.

What’s the advantage of using lines instead of anchors? Lines have a larger surface area and more points where they can be damaged, while anchors are vulnerable at the anchors themselves. Yes, lines cover more space—the entire stretch of the line—whereas anchors are limited to just two points.

There’s more testing needed, and it’s not like I mind. It’s a shiny new toy I can work on, and I already did over the past few days.

I also detected that I’m in the central region, so far not seeing much difference, but I haven’t delved deeper and am staying at the border with the Mana Desert.

Still not giving up on my goal to try to use the sand to get a lot of shards, I also wait for Aaron, Dennis, Lily, and Biscuit, the group we decided to make before delving into the Mana Desert.

Tess and the others decided to still go with the plan, so for a few months, we’ll be splitting group 4 to cover more area, train, and level up.

Something tells me things aren’t as nice with the group after the days of amplified emotions in the prison of the Champion, but I don’t ask. I’m sure Lily and the boys will tell me more when they get here.

That is if we’ll be able to detect each other. Currently, the plan is for them to reach the edge of the desert and move across it until we meet. Of course, with help from my constant signals and the twins’ attempts to use [Connection].

There’s also a crown over my head. For the next few months, I plan to check how much mana I can store in that thing. I also want to move my mana to it for when I go to collect some white sand for crafting.

At least I’ve learned from the two blue brothers how to get rid of the mana from my clothes, so I don’t have to go naked anymore.

An interesting question comes to mind. If I leave my things and crown here and go for the white sand, would someone be able to steal my crown?

I mean, it would probably explode eventually, but it would still be interesting to see how the skill reacts if someone else touches the crown.

***

A day later, I shoot a few flares made of thermal energy high into the air, storing my mana in the crown. Then I do a few rounds of expunging and get rid of the mana on my clothes and in my body.

As I pass the border and my mana stops regenerating, I repeat the process again. Only then do I use kinetic energy and move towards the white dunes.

Reaching them, I quickly start checking for those annoying whales and then push as much of the white sand as I can into the bags I brought with me.

In the end, it’s probably around half of my weight, and satisfied with the result, I run back—no whale attacking me this time.

I stop just before passing through the border, where mana doesn’t regenerate. There, I have a few molds already made, mostly holes in the ground made with my mana and then emptied of that mana.

I grab the white sand in my hand and start putting it into these forms.

A single big dagger with a handle made of the horn of some monster I killed not long ago.

I repeat the process from before, and a stream of golden thermal energy melts the sand until it bubbles, releasing trapped air and starting to glow. It takes a while longer, and then I let the blade cool down. Then I continue to do it with 4 more forms, ending with five daggers.

Taking the bags of white sand, I put them in a hole on the side where mana doesn’t regenerate and push a rock over them.

Then I take the daggers and walk with them across the border, summoning the crown back over my head.

As before, the daggers react and shake a bit, feeling the source of mana so close, but trapped in the form of glass, there are no particles piercing me.

Mana-Reactive Dagger (Upper Epic): This dagger ignores mana-based defenses and absorbs mana on impact, sharpening its edge against physical armor and barriers. It becomes progressively more effective with each mana absorption, but if pushed too far, it shatters explosively, scattering fine, cutting particles that cause significant harm in the area.

Not bad. Let’s sell it.

Do you really want to sell the following item for 1,830 shards?

Mana-Reactive Dagger (Upper Epic)

Yes/No

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the system scamming me again.

Upper epic items often go for over 10 thousand shards or more. Me crafting this one should give me 50% of the item’s worth instead of the 10-20% I get for items found on the floor. Yet the price is like this instead of around 5 thousand.

There could be a few explanations, such as the low quality of the item or the blade that can shatter and kill its owner.

Little things like that.

Still, I decide to blame this asshole of a system.

I confirm the sale and then move to another dagger that has the same description.

Unable to sell the same item twice.

It’s as I feared. Even though I made each dagger slightly differently with handles of different materials or shape, the message is the same.

Just like before when I tried to sell coordinates to Lissandra’s world twice, but the system didn’t allow it.

I have a strong suspicion that there was a powerful duplication glitch, and the system patched it out like this. The lucky fella who abused it.

But it’s something I expected, so I open the easy difficulty community.

Noname (Hell, group 4) – yo, name all the kinds of weapons and simple armor or items you can come up with. Dagger, spear, axe, and similar. If you give me some I didn’t think of, I’ll buy you some stuff during the next tournament.

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) – hello boss! The items you gave me are great. I killed the boss monster on my own!

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) – I have a few ideas, but pick the ones you maybe didn’t think of: flail, warhammer, halberd, scimitar, throwing knife, katana, glaive, nunchaku, morningstar, quarterstaff, sickle, trident.

What the hell is up with that guy? The ones he sent, I really didn’t expect. I’ll seriously fuck up anyone who tries to take him away.

Maria (Easy, AFK) – Dagger, spearhead, arrowhead, knife, shuriken, short sword, throwing spike, club!

Potato (Easy, Royals) – Noname is giving away free items? I want them as well, hopefully from Tent Creep, hehe. Tomahawk, boomerang, pike, bayonet, harpoon, hook, glaive, estoc, fang, kris, falchion.

Huh, I didn’t think of some of these either.

Sami (Easy, AFK) – Helicopter.

Sure.

Maria (Easy, AFK) – While he’s at it, he can make a tank or two.

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) – Noname, try also spiked gauntlet, knuckles, garrote.

I didn’t think… well, whatever.

Noname (Hell, group 4) – For some items, I have no fucking idea how they look, so describe them for me, mainly their shape. If anyone has some funny stuff to say, I will make a hell out of the next tournament for you.

After that, everyone becomes very nice, and I collect the ideas.

I’m rich, but I will be even richer.

There are a few arcane passives I’ve been eyeing for a long time.

***

For each item, I make 5 forms and create five pieces of it even though I can sell only one. The remaining ones I throw into 4 different piles.

Do you really want to sell the following item for 1,790 shards?

Mana-Reactive Gladius (Upper Epic)

Yes/No

Of course, I want to.

Do you really want to sell the following item for 1,861 shards?

Mana-Reactive Scythe (Upper Epic)

Yes/No

Gimme.

Do you really want to sell the following item for 2,111 shards?

Mana-Reactive Claymore (Upper Epic)

Yes/No

Yes, yes, yes.

Some items are failures, like the boomerang, club, and warhammer. Some are sold for much cheaper, plenty of them at around 1 thousand shards.

I think there are certain requirements for the usefulness of the weapon or usability. You can’t just create a shape and expect it to be declared a weapon by the system.

Other items take more attempts to get right. For example, the scythe took plenty of time, and some things like armor, gloves, and chest plates just didn’t work at all. But I don’t mind it too much. I have tens of weapons, and I’m visiting multiple Communities, offering some nice stuff to people who come up with items I didn’t think of.

They’re mostly weapons, as things like brooches and pendants don’t seem to do much or become mostly rare-rated.

It takes multiple visits to the desert and even two attacks from those goddamned good for nothing whales.

There are also monsters appearing, as they always do during the day. Stronger than those in the outer region, but how could they cause trouble for me?

And even with how much mana I’m turning into thermal energy and how much I’m training with RTE and orbs, I still have plenty to fill my crown with.

These are beautiful times.

***

A week or two passes like that. It's hard to say with all the training and crafting I do.

Finally, I detect Lily, the best doggo of the 6th floor, and Aaron and Dennis. They reach the place where I’m camping, and the expressions on their faces are weird.

Lily rushes in first and hugs me with a big, bright smile. In a good mood, I return it and after a while tap the top of her shoulders, a sign for her to let go.

She doesn’t.

As I think about whether I should strengthen my body and how much kinetic energy I would need against this musclehead, she finally lets go.

“You made a mess of this place,” she notes, still smiling.

I look around and realize she’s right. There are dozens of holes in the rocky ground, the newer ones much smoother as I experimented with my skills to make the edges of the forms better. Beyond the border to the Mana Desert, together with the forms, there are multiple bags full of white sand.

On the opposite side, in the central region, there are a few corpses of monsters I tried cutting apart, using them as materials for weapons or to check the anatomy of the annoying ones.

I even dug multiple holes in search of metals to use for weapons.

This place really is a huge mess.

But it feels cozy. Maybe only because I’m getting richer and richer by the minute.

I grab one of the daggers from the pile and throw it to Lily.

“For how much can you sell it?”

“It says just a bit over 600 shards.”

Hmm, I see. I could sell it for around 1,800 shards. So if I make the weapon myself, I can sell it for 50% of the system’s considered value, but if I hand that weapon to someone else, it’s considered as if they found the weapon on this floor, so the price is 10-20%? Or is the system fucking with me?

Probably both.

“Good.” I take a few steps and lift Biscuit, turning him to make sure he listens.

The best doggo is held in my outstretched arms, with his hind legs hanging down as I shake him from side to side. It’s something he enjoys.

“There are 4 piles with around 70 items each. Go and sell them to the system shop. Each of you should get,” I try to calculate but give up. I hate math, “30-40k shards. Half is mine, and you will buy whatever I want.”

“The fuck?” Dennis stares like he’s never seen me before.

Aaron pokes him, “Shut up before he changes his mind. We’ll do it, Bossthaniel!”

Both of them rush away, and Lily follows after a bit of persuasion.

Then I whisper to Biscuit, “And you, buddy, if you can sell them, you can keep all the shards and buy whatever you want. On some floors, you can even buy food.”

(Food!)

“Yup.”

I put him on the ground, and he wobbles to his pile before stopping and then turning back to me.

He stops in front of my leg and then bumps my shin with the top of his head. With an extremely cheeky expression, he then goes back to his pile.

I open my status and check my shards.

Shards: 268,614

From the number before, that was:

Shards: 143,748

It's time to treat myself to something nice.

***

Next Chapter