Chapter 471 - One Hundredth Time (Patreon)

Even though the metals Dennis and Aaron brought back are only of epic rarity, I’m happy with them. I long since learned that sometimes a nice complementary metal with good properties is better than one of higher rarity. Sometimes.

The lights around me turn on again, a dozen thermal cubes lighting up my underground lab. My crown hovering over the metal bust with plenty of inscriptions floats back over my head.

My baby, my precious. The crown is now a deep blue, with faint traces of pale blue woven into it.

The amount of mana stored in it is probably enough to blow up… I don’t know what, probably something very big. Without further testing and experience, it’s hard to guess. It will probably also be difficult to channel that much mana, but hey, that’s what I’m good for.

I drop the metals on the table next to the short sword in a sheath that reveals no mana signature at all. The sheath is made from an alloy of a dozen metals: copper color, black, gray, blue sheen, and even tiny bits of blue and white crystals mixed all over, complemented by the densest and most complicated inscriptions I’ve ever made.

My Mana Wavelength Iris activates again, and as always, I feel the gradually increasing pressure on my mind. It’s doable, but continuing for longer will start causing trouble to me even with my goddamned arcane passive.

Radiating some heat, I melt the metal in my hand, thin strings of it moved by mana I release while I constantly hammer it with kinetic energy. Reaching the required consistency, I move the molten metal to prepared grooves on the sheath while also reaching to the back of my mind, where I have a prepared inscription structure just for these situations.

It doesn’t take that long, and after multiple checks, I absorb the heat from the metal, making it solidify while hammering it with kinetic energy a few more times.

I give the sheath a few more checks, but the seals, suppression inscriptions, protection inscriptions, camouflage inscriptions, and more seem to be working better now and the signs of breaking apart that were there just a few minutes ago are now rectified.

Good, that should be able to contain that evil sword I made for a bit longer.

Lastly, I take a sheath cover made out of the leather of a level 350 manta ray I hunted in the Mana Desert not that long ago and put it on, finishing the protections.

For a while longer, I examine the hilt of the sword and guard. Both are made from a single piece of molten alloy, combining arcanite alloy, amberlace, tiny bits of voidcopper, and some more I got from destroying damaged arcane weapons I had. All combining into an alloy that is mostly dark gray, with bits of black and light gray and accents of copper that seem to be going through the metal like cracks.

There are some imperfections, some cracks even, and shapes that feel off. To be honest, it’s a bit ugly, as pointed out by my fellow group members multiple times. But it’s my other precious, and I carefully put it back on the table and activate defenses around it.

Not to protect the sword, but to protect us from it.

The thing is evil.

I send a signal through the Ley Line connected to Lily and receive her confirmation, then use it to teleport near her.

Unlike me, she doesn’t need an underground bunker lab as she didn’t have an accident where her lab exploded and took an entire fortress with it. Things that could happen to anyone. Even to the best of us.

Lily likes to do her training and experiments in our walled yard. She even made some guys plant some nice trees here, which they had to get from one of the dangerous forests in the central region.

The result is trees with white bark and leaves that have a shade of green unlike any from the Earth.

There she sits on the bench with the axe she made on her lap. An axe she grew from her separated bone. Its handle is as long as half of Lily’s height, but I have seen how quickly she can make it longer if needed. The axe blade is single-sided and likely has a surface area nearly as large as Lily's entire body.

This weapon is something she’s been growing for months already and started doing so after I made her level up as much as possible to reach level 250 and get a body upgrade that was a massive power-up for her. Growing the axe from her body also made it stronger than it would be before level 250.

“It seems to be nearly done,” I note and sit on the ground opposite her. To not slack, I create one of my evil cubes and start training.

She smiles softly, “I’m happy with the shape, and I made handle slightly different, so I can grow it quickly if needed. Now I need to constantly strengthen the blade and experiment with trying to make the blade infuse with [Disintegration] if needed.”

I long since gave up being surprised at the terrifying ideas group 4 members can come up with.

For a moment, I examine her. Lily is still very pale, and her brown eyes seem lighter in the light. She currently also has her hair tied into a simple ponytail with her trademarked bangs falling on her forehead. By the day, she also seems more athletic.

Her shoulders are a bit wider, and she packs a hint of muscle, an amusing memory coming to mind where she refused to exercise much, worried she would turn into some muscle monster.

The twins threatening they would call her “muscle mommy” didn’t help.

But in the end, she’s still as petite as before. A tiny killing-healing machine.

“How is the Skele-Suit going?”

“Nat, please, at least you don’t call it like that.”

“Calcium-cage?”

“Another one? I’ll beat the two of those assholes.”

This time I decide not to tell her that last name was my idea.

Lily points at the tree against which a chestplate made out of similar pearl-white bone like her axe is lying. “It’s hindering my movements. Sure, it can save some mana and block attacks, but my bones can do it as well. I’ve already got some designs with platings that make armor much easier to move in.”

“How about making chainmail, but instead of iron rings, it would be made of your bones?”

“Huh, that’s not a bad idea, but I feel like going to sleep and procrastinating just imagining how much work it would take.”

“I already tried making something similar from manabloc, so you can bet I can imagine that.” A few months’ old memory flashes in my mind, and I shudder. Then a thought comes. Could I one day replace mana rings with Ley Lines? Wouldn’t that be too strong?

“How did it go with Gravelhand?”

“The twins triggered the trap, and their Champion Candidate appeared. The information about him being out of the city seemed to be wrong.”

“I’ll talk to the informant about that. Any trouble?”

“By talking to him, do you mean being scary and maybe beating up a few guys?”

“What else? I’m not Tess,” she smiles playfully, even while saying such a scary thing.

“As for the trouble, it’s nothing major and don’t worry, I’ll speak with the informant. For a while, we’ll be more careful while visiting Hollowgate, and that’s it. Hey, what have you just done?”

Proud of me noticing, she excitedly moves closer, holding that giant axe with a single hand and shoving the blade just an inch away from my face.

Before I can complain, she proudly points out, “I finally succeeded, and I think I’ll be able to ‘heal’ the axe if it gets damaged. Of course, it shouldn’t be that easy to damage it, with my constitution, body upgrade, trait, my bones are extremely tough, but it can happen! Now it’s close to feeling as if it’s part of my body! I told you growing it out of my bone instead of a Champion’s or some powerful monster’s would be better!”

“It’s pretty cool,” I agree with her, “I just still think it would be super strong if you used that bone.”

"It would take much longer to grow it from a Champion's bone. But don’t worry, this one will grow with me, and I’ll keep strengthening it." She pulls the axe back.

Some time ago, I held that weapon and was surprised by its weight. Sure, with my increased stats because of the Restrictive Training Emblem, I could hold it and even swing it, but with a single arm and as easily as Lily? She now swings it around her, taking swift steps and manipulating the axe as if it’s no heavier than a normal axe for cutting wood.

A petite black-haired girl doing that feels especially weird.

“I’m getting done with my work here, so we’ll leave in a few weeks to regroup with the others.”

“How about that place?”

“The Hoarders are preparing an expedition to the mines in a week, so we’ll join. I already had Dennis enlist us while you grew that monstrosity, and by monstrosity, I mean it in a good way,” I add before she can complain.

Lily laughs shyly, as if I just gave her a big compliment. “If you’re right and one of the Containment Cells is down there, it will be a very fun expedition.”

With that, I can only agree.

***

Later that night, I close my eyes, appearing inside of my mind where, as always, the area is different now.

This time it’s one of the views I saw a long time ago on TV. Both Whitey and I stand on the surface of the Moon and look towards the pitch darkness where the Earth seems so small and unimportant in the distance.

The gravity is normal, Earth-like. All of this is from my imagination, a combined image made from a collection of images and videos I saw on TV or on the internet.

As I sit down to enjoy the view for a moment, Whitey moves closer, sitting next to me and tapping my shoulder. He holds a tablet in his hand on which a video of me fighting against a Champion Candidate plays.

“Here you were too slow at absorbing your inertia,” he touches the screen and scrolls, “here you could move to the opposite side. The way you destroyed his barriers went pretty well, but there’s a lot of improvement that could be made. Instead of concentrating around such a small surface and delivering equal power, you should spread it out, more powerful in the middle and weakening while moving towards the surface.”

I grab the tablet and replay it, “Wouldn’t that make the aftershocks weaker?”

“Ha!” He grabs the tablet back. “Quite the opposite. The gradual separation would strengthen the ripple, and yes, it would be a bit weaker but more than enough and more efficient. Even better would be releasing multiple ripples at perfect timing, but you suck at it.”

“Bullshit. Show me.” I stand up and create a barrier that is an exact copy of the one the man used.

Whitey also jumps to his feet and does so, a single tap on the barrier, releasing three ripples. Each is released at a different time that seemingly makes no sense. Yet I watch as these ripples meet, crash, and strengthen each other. Instead of spreading further around the spherical barrier, they make “waves” higher in the smaller area, destroying the barrier very quickly.

Knowing what he wants to hear, I sigh, “I know shit about kinetic energy.”

Whitey smirks, “I wouldn’t say shit, but yeah, it’s pretty bad.”

After a word equal to praise, his stance changes.

Breaker Style.

Gone are the smile and careless bearing. As always when it comes to fighting, his eyes seem to be redder and the mood around him much more dangerous. It’s all replaced by the feeling of a cruel, dangerous predator.

I mimic the stance, and the rhythm of my heartbeat changes in a similar way. Slower, but more powerful beats.

He takes a step forward, and using the force of his entire body, he thrusts his palm towards me, a brutal, heavy attack of kinetic energy shooting forth.

Taking a similar step ahead, I stomp, releasing a similar burst with what I think is perfect timing.

The moon dust flies into the air and covers the area, but eyes in a fight against kinetic energy don’t matter.

From behind the veil of dust, another attack shoots and behind it another one, hidden in its shadow. Increasing my output, I attack three times, each of my bursts sending more dust flying into the air and sending audible vibrations, sounding as if someone bangs on a massive drum.

After a few more exchanges I sense a change in his heartbeat, replaced by a quicker, erratic, and more chaotic one.

Needle Point.

Thin bursts of kinetic energy, as narrow as fingers, shoot toward me, forcing me to dodge again and again. Instead of slowing down, the attacks come faster, several per second, leaving me no time to strike back and demanding every ounce of my focus just to react.

But unlike during our Challenge, I sense them much better, boosting my body to react with near ease.

Duck under, jump over, move to the side, twist the head. I sense each and every burst.

Then they stop.

Immediately after, a dozen of them fire nearly simultaneously.

I manage to dodge the first six, amazed that I could even do that, but the rest pierce through my body, perfectly anticipating my movements.

My knee explodes, my shoulder gets pierced, fingers on my hand turn to a mess, one punctures my lung too, and another destroys my ankle.

With another step, all of the dust is blown off, revealing Whitey in Wraith Dance. He appears in front of me, followed by a switch to Pulser Stance.

My attacks are dodged far too easily, Breaker Style just ripping apart the ground around him as he deflects the rest. He grabs my arm and tears it from my shoulder, my blood spraying across the surface of the moon.

He dodges again and blocks more attacks as I switch to first stance, then kicks me, my chest caving in and blood seeping from my mouth.

“The output of your heart is much better now and the efficiency as well,” he says while examining my torn arm he holds.

“Is it?” I hiss, blood flowing from my mouth.

“Yes.” He throws my arm somewhere behind him, not interested in it anymore. “Your detection is also getting pretty good, so I’ll start adding some feints the next time we spar.”

“Lucky me.”

“Indeed.” Whitey squats in front of me and touches the wound on my chest with his slim, pale finger, “It’s already five months since we started with all of this training. I mean, it was fun from the start, but it lost some of its charm. Not feeling like giving up yet? You could spend more time on your mana, that’s where your talent lies.”

“I liked you more when you talked less and beat the shit out of me more.”

With a smile, he stands up. On the moon lacking any colors, his eyes seem especially red, and his hair shining white.

“You aren’t that bad, for a human. This will be the one hundredth time I killed you.” Whitey then stomps on my head.

I open my eyes back in my lab and stretch on my bed before closing my eyes and replaying the fight.

It could be said the kinetic training goes pretty well, and I think I have found a way to get a hit in on that damnable snowflake.

***

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