Chapter 66 (Patreon)

For the rest of that day, Dream kept on making mana cubes.

Since he could just take the mana from several and make another cube, why wouldn't he? So as the cubes pulled in mana, he kept making them.

By the end of the day, he had made 200 cubes that could hold C- levels of mana. Not only that, but he did some tests with the mana ball.

The basic theory was that the ball would suck in mana and spit it towards Dream, thereby increasing the mana density around him and making it easier for him to regenerate mana. Since the balls could cover more area, all of them together would supply lots of mana. 

So the first thing he did was enchant 20 balls of iron. They weren't that big. He could fit a few in his palm. Each of them had the vortex and could store a little bit of mana for basic function. When he had them made, he stepped outside and spread them out. 

They covered him like a dome and spread out evenly about 30 feet from him. When they were activated, they worked as expected and began pushing mana towards him. Though this was when he understood the flaw in them.

"I would have to be in one area. They wouldn't be feasible for battle. Though they would be perfect for defensive purposes. Like if I were hunkering down. I could also use them to help charge the cubes."

Dream wasn't too disappointed. They at least still had a good use. 

After that, Dream decided to call it a day. He had used lots of mana and stressed his soul a bit. The fatigue could build up.

...............

The next day, Dream continued making preparations to fight those wolves.

If he could, he would rather only fight one or two. It would likely be enough to get him to class 2. But there was very little chance he could get away with such an assassination. So he needed to be able to fight all of them. 

He needed three things for this battle. Power, speed, and awareness. Those wolves would be tough and fast, so he needed to be able to keep up and still actually kill them. But perhaps the biggest factor is the invisible wolf. That would be his biggest threat and could get him in a bad situation.

Fortunately, he at least knew what to prepare for, and he was already mostly done with preparations. The biggest being his railgun.

The enchantments on the railgun enhanced its functionality. And they were as follows:

• Reinforcement. For the materials to make them more durable.
• Heat control. So the gun wouldn't melt while firing.
• Auto-reinforcement. To automatically reinforce the bullets being launched.
• Initial acceleration. Using Solid Magic, they could accelerate the projectile at the beginning to give a higher max velocity.
• Vacuum chamber. By removing air within the barrel and even extending the vacuum outside the tip, the bullet can accelerate faster and further increase max velocity.
• Speed enchantment. This helps to quickly enchant the bullets on the fly with either pre-made enchants or custom enchants.
• Mystify. This enchants the bullets to make them either totally invisible or confuse the enemy to its location. 
• Mana vortex/storage. A way to collect and store mana to maintain the effects of the enchantments. 

It was a lot, but the more the better. Dream was honestly surprised when Sophia put all these in. He hadn't thought of some of them. 

The biggest perk was definitely the speed enchantment. What he learned from his previous fight was that enchantments could have devastating effects if used right. Firing regular bullets seemed puny in comparison now. And it didn't take a huge toll on his mana. His regeneration made up for most of it. Not to mention how he has the mana cubes. He wasn't lacking mana in any way. 

And if that wasn't enough, Dream made other contingencies. Mainly in the form of explosives, but also defensive equipment.

The explosives he made were mainly just mana storages. He would stuff mana inside a ball and then 'load' it with an enchantment.

There were a variety of enchantments he made. He had some confusion bombs enchanted with Mystify, he made some solid and liquid bombs that would attract the elements to them. He also made some heat bombs that would superheat everything within its vicinity.

These bombs were actually rather big as well. Since they needed to store large amounts of mana to be more effective, he needed more space. So the balls he made were about a foot in diameter. If those weren't effective, then he didn't know what would be.

After this was some defensive equipment in the form of Shields. He made 20 shields that could cover him in a dome up to 10 feet away or be used by himself. Each was classically designed as a circle as he didn't need to get crazy. There were also places where one could equip beams that could be planted in the ground, which would allow it to divert any incoming force downward.

After he made the shields, he was finally done with his preparations. Anything else would be covered by his skills.

When he was finished, he decided to rest for the remainder of that day and get a good night's sleep.

...............

.........

[Dream, wake up.]

'Huh?'

Dream opened his eyes as he was awakened by Sophia.

"What's up?"

[The wolves are coming.]

"...Like.."

[Like the 5 alphas who you were preparing to fight. They are coming towards you right now. You may have a couple of minutes until they show up.]

"Shit."

Dream popped up out of bed as his body gave him a shot of adrenaline. 

Right after he did, his armor appeared and wrapped him up entirely. He stopped after he brought out his railgun.

"Give me a plan. I'm still tired"

Dream was still waking up and it would take a bit for his brain to fully function. He understood this and turned to Sophia.

[Leave the house and get to the forest.]

He didn't say anything and did what she said, leaving the house and darting straight for the trees. At the same time, Sophia activated Mystify and cloaked him. 

Unfortunately, the wolves were one step ahead of him. He didn't even take 3 steps before feeling his hair stand on end.

[Drea-!]

*Crunch*

Dream barely moved his body away from the wolf that was going for his neck. Though instead of the neck it clamped down on his left shoulder. So much pressure was applied that the armor actually caved in, crushing some bones. Though the teeth of the wolf didn't actually get through the armor, a testament to the strength of the armor.

Seeing that it failed to kill its prey on the first try, the wolf switched to plan B and began trying to bring Dream down. This was when the man himself was able to get a look at the wolf.

'It's him!'

Dream turned and saw an all-black wolf. It was the silhouette he saw, the assumed strongest of the 5 alphas. Though when he saw it now, he got scared. 

The wolf looked like a vicious killing machine. Its fur looked metallic, and its teeth and claws looked like metal razors. The thing that scared Dream though, was it's pale white eyes. They looked lifeless, but the murderous intent told him that this wolf was a very real threat to his life.

Luckily, the adrenaline that was activating his fight or flight response didn't let the fear stifle him. And if there was any quality that Dream knew he had, it was that he improved as the pressure grew.

Dream moved his right arm and ejected the blade in it, planting it directly into the wolf's stomach.

*Pui*

*Snarl*

After getting 10 hard inches of titanium shoved into its ribs, the wolf got the hint and let go of Dream's shoulder. It quickly put distance between them.

They stared each other down for a few seconds, before the black wolf broke the silence.

'You invaded our territory...'

'What?!'

Dream's eyes went wide. The wolf talked to him! Using telepathy no less! 

'You can talk?'

'Why did you invade our territory? Why did you kill our kin?'

'...Because they were unlucky enough to cross my path.'

'Who do you think you are?'

The wolf snarled at that response. Dream kind of wished he chose better wording, but oh well.

'I'm a human who seeks strength. And you, along with the other four, will feed me with experience.'

Saying that, Dream aimed his gun at the wolf and fired a shot.

*Dsh*

The wolf, not being able to dodge a bullet, was hit square in the chest. Or so Dream thought, until the body of the wolf turned to smoke. The bullet passed through the 'wolf' and planted itself in the ground. liquids began getting pulled to the bullet, a result of its enchantment.

The illusory image of the wolf soon disappeared. Though Dream was able to track the real body. It was retreating.

'Oh no you don't'

Dream aimed the gun again and fired a dozen lower power shots around the wolf. They all planted themselves around the body of the wolf. But Dream wasn't planning on hitting the wolf.

Right as they landed around the wolf, they began doing as their enchantment told them. Pull in all solids. Soon, the wolf along with dirt and rock was pulled towards the bullets. 

Since the wolf was basically circled by bullets, it was met with forces trying to pull it apart from all sides. And Dream thought that the wolf would be pulled apart just like that. Unfortunately, the wolf's body was strong enough to withstand the forces and not only that, the bullets must've counteracted each other. Either way, the wolf was merely held in place, not torn apart. 

But since the wolf was being held in place by his unintentional trap, Dream decided to take advantage of it. He raised his gun and fired a high-power bullet straight for center mass. Right as he did though, a barrier was created around the black wolf.

*Boom*

The bullet punched through a wall of rock and wood, but the remaining force wasn't enough to keep it traveling and the bullet became useless. Dream turned his head to the ones that prevented his kill.

'They're here.'

He saw four wolves by the treeline approaching the black wolf. It was the other four alphas.

'This just became much harder.'

[Assess their abilities. We'll formulate a strategy then.]

Dream nodded and took aim at the other four wolves walking towards them. Right as he did, another wall was created around all of them. Dream continued to fire 5 shots. 

four bullets hit the wall in a square and tore the wall open. The 5th bullet went through the center towards the unsuspecting wolves behind it and ended up hitting the green wolf in the chest.

*ARR!*

The wolf howled as all the fluids in its body rushed out of control. The blood and water was drained from its body and accumulated near it's heart, which was also destroyed from the blood being torn out of it.

Needless to say, it died a painful death.

<You killed a level 168 [Nature Dire Wolf]

<You have gained Experience!>

<You have leveled up!>

'Damn, just one more level.'

Dream cursed as his level stopped at level 99. He had a gut feeling that he could kill a fly and top off his experience. Right as he could use the class advancement the most.

After the bullet killed the green wolf, the hole in the wall was quickly sealed back up. At the same time, lances of rock were raised and launched at Dream from behind the wall. They were surprisingly fast, and there were a lot of them.

'Shit.'

Dream put away his gun and took out a shield, charging towards the treeline. He couldn't keep fighting an uphill battle.

As he ran, the lances came hurling at his shield, and each of them either shattered upon impact or were deflected. 

'If those things could even pierce titanium, I may as well give up now.'

It only took a few seconds to get to the treeline. When he did, he was able to get a view of the alphas.

'They're healing him?'

Dream saw the white wolf on top of the black one, healing its wounds with a soft glow. Dream could see the stab wound sealing by the second.

'Oh hell no.'

He put away his shield and brought back out his railgun. This time, he didn't fire high powered shots, instead deciding to unload.

*Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-*

He rained bullets down on their position. The brown wolf responded predictably and put up a wall, but it was quickly cut down. When the wall opened up though, he could see the wolves running to the forest. Many of his bullets hit nothing but dirt.

Dream gave chase and kept firing. Walls were constantly put up and broken right back down. This repeated for a bit, until the wolves finally split.

The white wolf kept running straight, the brown wolf went to the left, and the red wolf went to the right. The black wolf also disappeared in a cloud of smoke, going who knows where.

At first, Dream was happy as he finally had an open shot. He turned and took aim at the brown wolf who was speeding along. The brown wolf began launching it's premade earth spikes. And right as Dream was about to fire, he saw a light coming from his right.

'Red wolf?'

[Yes. Fireballs.]

He nodded and fired at the brown wolf. He was putting himself in a bad situation, but that's what shields were for. 

The bullet left the chamber and went straight for the brown wolf's chest. At the same time, shields appeared on his right and made a wall. 

*ARR!*

*Boom!*

The brown wolf yelped as it suffered the same fate as the green one. The fireballs also hit the shields, creating a loud shockwave. 

<You have killed a level 173 [Rocky Dire Wolf]>

<You have gained Experience!>

<Congragulations! You have reached your Class Advancement!>

'Nice!'

After a few seconds of the brown wolf suffering miserably, Dream got the kill notification.

*Boom!*

The shields kept taking hits from the fireballs and actually began breaking down. Dream turned and began running to get a view of the red wolf.

Right as he took a few steps though, he felt his neck tingle. 

'You think I would forget about you?'

Dream turned towards the black wolf that was now barely a foot away from his neck. 

Remembering what happened last time, Dream became a bit pissed. He didn't enjoy having his shoulder crushed. So instead of defending once more, he went on the offensive.

*Clunk*

Just as the wolf though it got his neck, a big ball of metal appeared in its mouth. Moments after, an absolutely searing heat began to overwhelm it.