[MA] 199. Both Happy and Annoyed (Patreon)

Previous Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter

[A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! A great 2023 for you all!

Chapters this week: 3/3

Late chapters: 3

Next release: Tuesday ]

After his bout of laughter, Shen used his aura to feel the ogres' equipment. He had cut all of them, but many were whole again. Further inspection showed that three of them even had auto-fitting enchantment: a plate chest armor—without matching plate legs, gauntlets, boots, or anything—a set of black lizard-scaled boots, and a weird brown fur overcoat that looked more fit for a social occasion than battle.

=

Tartus Plate Chest Armor (D+)

Enchantments: Self-Repair (D+), Auto-Fitting (D+), Shock Resistance (D+), Damage Resistance (D+)

The best D-tier armor in Tartus, yet also the most common. Mass-produced.

=

The armor didn't look special, but it was still a D+ item. Shen put it in his spatial storage to see if he could sell it for a reasonable price later.

=

Half-Wyrm Boots (D+)

Enchantments: Self-Repair (D+), Auto-Fitting (D+), Comfort (D+), Sound-Cancellation (D+)

Boots made with the hide of a stealth-specialized half-wyrm. Exquisitely crafted to bypass the black wyrm scales' resistance to magic.

=

Shen put those on.

They felt... wonderful.

In fact, he had a hard time believing wearing boots something could feel so good. It was like his feet were evolved by fluffy clouds at just the right temperature. They stopped below his knees, but he wished they went to his head instead.

Despite the comfort, he had no trouble feeling the soil or moving around. The auto-fitting enchantment kept the boots tight enough to let him feel every uneven detail on the ground, every pebble—without getting uncomfortable. It was a positively unique experience.

The last enchantment, sound cancellation, wasn't very useful to him. The techniques the drow had taught him let him move as silently without the boots as with them. The only situation in which that enchantment might come in handy was if he ever found himself dazed and thus incapable of moving correctly, yet still needed stealth.

=

Sun-Praising Fox Greatcoat (D+)

Enchantments: Self-Repair (D+), Auto-Fitting (D+), Comfort (D+), Resistance (D+)

Crafter's Remark: Stay stylish while drinking from your enemy's skull! You no longer need to bore yourself and your allies with the same old gray armor or pain-promising spikes. Forget about uncomfortable defensive equipment that protects you at the cost of distracting you with an annoying itchy at the worst situations. Look your best all the time!

System's Description: Made with the fur of sun-praising foxes.

=

That was the very first item Shen saw with a crafter's remark. It read like an annoying ad instead of anything useful. The system's lackluster description suggested even it resented the crafter's flashy statements.

Yet, Shen couldn't deny wearing the damn thing felt as good as the boots.

The greatcoat went almost to his feet and covered his arms and neck. Dozens of dark brown metal buttons, both visible and otherwise, kept it tightly in place. And to Shen's surprise, the thing didn't limit his movements at all, showing the crafter wasn't a complete moron after all.

That piece was perfect for him. It covered most of his body and was different enough from his usual style that no one would associate it with the Rising Star if they glanced at him at a distance and couldn't inspect him. It also provided extra defense that wouldn't reveal his own D+ resistance. Finally, it made it so he wouldn't have to care about finding clothes anymore.

The boots and greatcoat were a bit dusty and bloody. Shaking them at a ridiculously high speed dealt with the worst of it. The coat would still need proper cleaning to remove a couple of baby fist-sized stains, though.

Shen inspected the other self-repaired equipment on the ground and took all that could fit in his spatial ring while leaving space for his spear. He could ditch those things if he found something nicer later, but until then, he hoped they were worth something.

After that, only one thing was left to do before leaving.

Shen got a few yards away from the fire pit and kicked the ground, turning the battered earth into thin dirt, which he pulled with his aura. He took the human corpse with his aura, put it in the grave, and covered it.

He looked around for something to use as a tombstone and decided to use the rocks around the fire pit. He piled them over the tomb and nodded to the fallen person.

"May you find peace whenever you went," he said.

A last survey of the battlefield confirmed he hadn't missed anything. Sadly, the ogres had carried no information, so he would still need to find a city to find out where he was.

Shen retracted his aura, stored his spear in his ring, took the paper sheets back—minus the now unnecessary Sharpness one—and resumed his journey.

= - = - =

Shen found a road soon after leaving the ogres. Most cars had been taken away, except a few in terrible conditions. Those had been pushed to the side of the road instead and were evidently pillage—in some cases, not even the seats were left.

Shen realized his previous plan had had a glaring flaw. He had thought he could find clothes in an abandoned car, but one year and a month had passed since he left the tutorial. Humankind wouldn't just leave their roads blocked. There were even signs of road maintenance.

Humanity had recovered...

...which didn't explain the ogres.

Shen wouldn't waste time thinking about that, though. His Rupture Pilgrimage took priority unless he discovered his race was on the brink of extinction.

Shen followed the road. As he kept going, he passed by the broken ruins of many farms and the exploded remains of gas stations. The closest he got to a city, the more he saw destroyed houses up to entire neighborhoods.

Someone had gone to great lengths to destroy everything around a tall wall surrounding a gigantic area. Shen had found a city at least, and by the size of the walls, hundreds of thousands would live there.

The walls were twenty yards tall of pure, seamless-looking polished stone. Watch posts had been erected above it every few hundred yards, and Shen could see people manning them. Some Guardians also made rounds atop the walls.

A grated gate manned by seven E-rank Guardians separated Shen from the city beyond. They wore what looked like standardized plated armor and carried tower shields and short swords.

The gates were closed, which was strange, considering the well-kept roads. His best guess was that the ogre problem was a known and persistent one that kept the inhabitants away from that place.

That didn't explain the mere E-ranks guarding the city, though. If that was all they had, the ogre group could've easily broken through and slaughtered everyone inside.

So Shen further extrapolated that there was magic afoot.

He made himself invisible again and approached the walls. He wasn't surprised to feel they were made of mana rather than qi.

"Inspect," he mouthed without releasing a sound. That was enough for the system.

=

Stone Wall (E)

A magically summoned stone wall.

=

So humankind was using magically summoned materials now. That was a glaring security vulnerability. He might tip them off before leaving for the Summit.

Shen didn't feel just the mana the stones were made of; external mana was also being pushed into and running throughout the entire wall. He discarded the possibility of enough Guardians working in sync to keep the same spell uniformly running all the time. Magically created material couldn't hold enchantments, which meant some enchanted object was affecting the walls.

'Low-cost passive monitoring, reactive triggers, priority defense capabilities,' he concluded.

The Drow Maiden hadn't taught him enchantment but had explained most of the tell signs of what they did. They were categorized and dissected for their weakness so he could exploit them.

Low-cost passive monitoring meant the enchanted item affecting the walls was always on, but only to monitor and categorize external stimuli. That significantly decreased the costs, as keeping an active defense running all the time was prohibitively expensive mana-wise.

When the monitoring determined something was wrong using whatever parameters it had, it triggered a reaction. Since the city was so huge, Shen extrapolated that it would prioritize defense wherever it felt it was needed rather than protect the entire city. He simply didn't think humankind would have the energy to protect all that area for an extended period.

Still, if a thousand D-ranks had been kept at bay, the city should have enough resources to ensure the shield wouldn't be pierced by that many enemies of that rank.

One year was indeed a long time if a city had accumulated enough resources for that. It was a far cry from the despair of the Rift War.

Shen wondered what other surprises and improvements humankind had in store for him.

The walls themselves likely held such surprises. Who knows if it also didn't attack intruders? Moreover, while he couldn't analyze the enchantments' mana more than he had, he doubted it lacked a way to identify people who could come in and out without triggering defenses. Manually registering people was as likely as keystones that let their carriers go through the enchantments unhindered.

Unfortunately, even if there were keystones he could steal, he couldn't bet on them not having an additional security measure that would activate if carried by the wrong person, so they were a no-go. Then again, it was also possible that the city was in quarantine for all he knew. It was better to leave no traces of his coming and going.

Shen approached the city entrance, still invisible. An invisible membrane came from the walls and kept the enchantment working on the gate too. He couldn't even see inside, as the membrane was pitch black.

After confirming there was magic protecting the gate, he got away from it, keeping close to the wall, and flew up.

Well, not flew. He floated upwards at a fast speed using his aura and qi. He couldn't do aerial maneuvers well.

The enchantment became an equally dark dome above the walls that covered the entire city. Interestingly, the dome couldn't be seen unless you reached a certain height. Maybe not to look too ominous from a distance? Whatever the reason, the dark membrane kept the ill-intended from easily getting the lay of the land to plan something.

The most glaring weaknesses in the defenses were enough for Shen to get into the city. Concept-based passive monitoring enchantments could be easily bypassed with the proper techniques taught to him by the maiden. A True Path Walker like him could simply ignore the magically conjured stone wall. And there were no radar enchantments to find invisible people; he would've felt the mana pulses otherwise.

Combine all three, and he could get inside with none the wiser.

Yet, he didn't want to create an opening on the walls for someone else to use, so he was left with the dome. It was the weakest point in their defense because even the Guardians on top of the walls weren't looking at it.

He approached it and deployed his aura to confirm nothing was on the other side. As he expected, the enchantment didn't react to his aura. That required specialized enchantments because auras were nothing but Reality itself, only strengthened in certain directions.

Then, Shen made his body vibrate at the same frequency as the mana membrane while using his qi to create a magnetic field around himself. The former would make him harder to detect but would still not be enough without the magnetic field simulating a random solar burst or even a powerful yet distant Guardian skill messing with things in that place.

He had to let go of his qi invisibility for a moment as he went through the weakened dome, lest he entered an energy-will battle. However, he used his aura to bend light below him.

Just like that, no one saw him go through.

Once Shen was inside, he stopped the vibration, let go of the magnetic field, made himself invisible with qi again, and floated down slowly. He made himself invisible with qi instead of his aura because if another aura user felt him, it would be way more alarming than a person entering a split-second energy contest despite seeing nothing. A random Guardian might have used a skill or spell nearby. However, auras couldn't just disappear—not before the aura user developed a domain.

The city below was vast and modern, albeit not very vertical. Tall buildings made with contemporary technology were sparsely scattered in the central area but didn't occupy the suburbs. There was plenty of vegetation and open spaces all around.

There was also magic aplenty down there. A few crystal towers, medieval-looking buildings—why would anyone want to live in a stone block?—and floating vehicles.

And lastly, a palace could be found in the very center of the city.

It looked like someone had slapped an Ancient Roman structure with science fiction and magic. The building was grand, with tall pillars, and painted with light colors for a classical look. A dozen magic screens floated on the walls beside the main gate, and a few people checked whatever was on it.

The main entrance was a thick gate made of hard metal designed with sharp edges. Science-fiction-like blue lights shone throughout its extension, seemingly for no purpose other than aesthetics. It was closed and guarded by a couple of E-rank guardians with blue and white metal armor with similar light blue lights. They wielded futuristic-looking long guns instead of close-range weaponry.

A few other smaller entrances were scattered around the first floor, all similar to the main one but unguarded. Crystal pads beside them were probably used for access.

From the second to the fifth floor—the last one—the long balcony surrounding each floor had floating green crystals giving everything a soft atmosphere. Everyone Shen could see was wearing classical robes, even the Guardians.

He hated that conceptual mess.

Fortunately, Shen didn't need to approach it. He landed in a park and waited until someone left an unblocked smartphone unattended. A quick search later, he knew he was in Australia.

It was weird to see people living so carefree after humankind almost got done in by the gnolls. It was weirder because a thousand D-rank ogres had been not too far away from that city.

Shen felt both happy that people could live like that and annoyed that they were taking that peace for granted.

After confirming his location, he checked the maps online. The world's geography had significantly changed since the Eternal Empire's time. To make matters worse, he hadn't cared much about geography back then.

Fortunately, he only needed to get somewhat close to his clan's ancestral ground. The Blood Resonance technique he knew would take care of the rest.

Seconds later, Shen had memorized the map and was running over the ocean, headed straight for the heart of China.

Previous Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter