The Gamer Chapter 1081 – Final Grind of the Year 11 – Picking their Poison (Patreon)

John had a fantastic afternoon, a great night, a delicious and hearty breakfast, and an otherwise splendid morning, before he and everyone else that would accompany him had the talk about which Assault to go into. Of course, they had their little exchanges about personal preferences between then and now. It was the definitive choice they needed to agree on. The reason for that delay was nothing but a wish to be as rested as possible and make the choice with the greatest degree of soberness.

There was a lot at stake after all.

“Between 70 and 90 levels,” John told everyone. “Depending on what I need for the average level up and assuming our proficiency at killing the enemies in the Assault of our choice increases over the course of the three days.”

“What are you calculating with?” Momo asked. “72 hours?”

“70,” John responded. “The crash is supposed to be pretty sudden and I’m not risking being the one case that crashes at 71 and a half hours.”

“How about 69? 69 is a nice number!” Sylph babbled.

“That would cost us hundreds of thousands of experience at that point. Every kill becomes worth more and every hour gives us more time to kill.” John shook his head. “Considering I won’t take the powder until we’ve been in there for a bit and found our footing, so about two hours, we’ll have plenty of a grace period. Four hours off the advertised duration for a first timer without any resistance is plenty of caution. Might even be too much caution already.”

“I gueeeeeeessssssss,” Sylph stretched out her words.

“Seriously though, 70 levels?” Salamander asked. “That’s like a fifth our current level.”

“That’s what happens when you combine an experience doubling modifier with a self-stacking grinding method and drugs,” John shrugged. “We won’t get to do something even half as efficient for three months.”

“Any Advanced I.D. Settings?” Undine asked.

John shook his head. “Everything is turned off. We get the usual bonus exp from the lack of loot and that’s it.”

“Political statement: the treasury advises against this course of action.”

Everyone looked at Beatrice as if she had just grown a third horn. “Are you wasting Master’s time with nonsense?” Aclysia asked, offended where the rest of them were just confused.

“I would never,” the passive maid responded with mild annoyance in her own voice. “Clarification: us Artificial Spirits will need to consume the produce of several days, if not weeks, from the Mine in order to catch up to Master’s level. Although I,” she put a hand on the blue gem between her collarbones, “will be able to diminish this by absorbing sunlight instead. You two do not have that Perk.”

This was one of the rare moments where John had absolutely not considered something. 70 levels worth of magical materials, especially at their level, were indeed hard to get. It could slow down the entire heavy industry of Fusion if they tapped into the Mine. ‘We could grab the reserves instead… no, if Dramar finds out that I’m taking out the Token’s backing, he will be too upset.’ “I guess you will have to pull behind slowly,” he sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Nothing we can do about that. In the end, items are still easier to come by than levels.”

“As you say, Master.” Beatrice lowered her head in a show of obedience. “I’m your servant.”

“You’re so much more than that.” John couldn’t withhold the little flirt and exchanged a quick kiss with the passive maid. “Alright, anyone got any further general comments?” No answers, just a few of the haremettes cuddling with each other the way Aclysia and Beatrice nuzzled against his sides. Their eyes and gems glowed softly in the darkness of the night. It was about 02:40 in real time, as well as winter, so it was really dark. “Then let’s make a tier list of the six dungeons and then eliminate from there.”

That was an agreeable approach for everyone and they quickly placed the obvious non-contenders in the ‘absolutely not’ category. First to go there was the Undead Assault. Its boss mechanic would have made it fantastic for an Assault of the usual 3 to 4 hours. For 70, however, they would have had to deal with too many of the undead gryphons to make this a realistic endeavour. Quick to follow the Undead was the Orcs category. It was fun, but too difficult and risky. They needed something that could be handled reliably, and strategically minded warlords were too capable of nasty surprises.

Up next in the ‘rather not’ category was the City Elementals. The trash rodent monsters were annoying to kill, including the boss, and the projectile slugs hiding in the buildings had the potential for unpredictable burst damage. It was still a possibility, if they managed their resources properly it was possible. Better options were simply available.

That was half of the options already eliminated and they placed the Ferals in the ‘possibly’ category next. All of the enemies could be handled simply and only the need to stay on the move turned them off. If the forest had been a little more flammable, they would have ranked it one higher.

Placed in ‘high consideration’ was the Forest Elementals Assault. They already knew they could gimmick the environment by gradually expanding the amount of mushroom covered by stone. Essentially, they could create a kill zone. The start would be a bit rocky (or spore-y, rather), but it was better to fail at the start than later on.

Landing in ‘favourite’, the Ogres were their initial choice. With its own gimmick to exploit and a way higher experience yield, it seemed the obvious top contender.

Stirwin had his doubts. “Are we sure we can maintain the necessary level for the entire encounter?”

“Not completely,” John admitted, currently considering the same. “It’s really mana intensive to push all of those tumbleweeds back.”

“And fun!” Sylph exclaimed, wiggling in her seat on top of Salamander’s shoulders.

“I’m with the airhead on that one,” the apocalypse elemental chimed in.

“Fun isn’t what we are after,” Undine chastised the two of them. “We can amuse ourselves when we are not using performance enhancing drugs.”

“If Jane was here, she’d tell you that the point of drugs is having fucking fun.” The fire spirit folded her hands behind Sylph’s butt. “Whatever though, I’ll leave the decision to you geniuses.”

“You do remember that your Intellect is pretty high too, right?” John wanted to know.

Salamander shrugged, causing the whacky, wiggling Sylph on top to bounce. “Yeah, but I prefer to use it to blow shit up in the optimal way. What do you say, great leader?”

Although everyone looked to Gnome after the apocalypse elemental had said that, it took the brunette several seconds to realize that she was being addressed. “Uhm… well… ehem,” she coughed into her raised fist, just to gather herself, “I think the Forest Elementals would be best. I am…” she suddenly straightened up in a clearly forced fashion, “…I am certain of it! The highest difficulty is at the start and we can progressively expand our advantage.”

“I agree.” Aclysia slowly bowed her head approvingly.

“Sounds good,” Momo backed up.

“Affirmative.” Beatrice’s nod was mechanical and fast.

“I will have to wait for quite a while before I can eviscerate anything,” Siena sighed in her sexual voice, but did not actually raise a disagreement.

“Fantastic,” John clapped his hands and started walking towards one of the gates of light, “then we go with the Forest Elementals.”

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The ground under John’s feet was familiar yet alien. Not because he had touched the fungal matter hours earlier, even less because it may have reminded him in any way of the Lorylim, but because the undamaged surface of the floor reminded John of his mattress. It had just the right balance between soft and firm to mimic the surface he slept on. The alien feeling of this came from the fact that John was not and would never be in the habit of wearing shoes anywhere near his bed. Testing, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“Do you really have time for that?” Momo asked, a wary eye on the black dots in the distance. They quickly grew larger.

The Gamer looked around. Aclysia and Beatrice were already dashing in opposite directions, Salamander, Sylph and the Mandala Sphere went upwards, Undine split into a couple of bodies to be ready wherever she was needed. Only one of them was real and the others would gradually deplete their mass in healing efforts, but it was useless regardless. Best case, she could replenish them via shadow connections. As for the shadow spirit herself, Siena currently stuck close to John. She was their mobile relief force, in most cases, and she would have to move a lot during the initial stages of the encounter. After all, one of their usual frontliners was currently busy directing her butterflies to hover in an orderly circle. Stirwin was, like usual, an egg attached to John’s belt.

That left him and Momo standing at the centre of the typical formation. “I’d say so, yeah,” he therefore responded, just as the blue-winged butterflies turned into rods of stone. “Sylph, get ready!” he shouted upwards, already sending his mana up to the arcvolt elemental.

What followed was a truly precarious situation. The roots of the six pillars of stone, each fairly thin and five metres tall, expanded outwards underneath the surface in the search of healthy soil. They found only soft mushroom, which was easy to burrow through in the typically explosive fashion. The only problem with this was that the spore-filled gas pockets within the mushroom were disturbed by this.

A single vent was enough for a sudden and intense chain reaction. Past the burrowing roots and out into the open, the cloud of paralyzing spores exploded. They were immediately met by an intense torrent of air, hitting the ground where John stood and pushing the clouds outwards. Only Aclysia and Beatrice, who were immune to the effects, remained within the yellowish-white cloud. Their gorgeous curves contrasted starkly with the other forms that hushed through the darkness.

‘I-I will be as quick as I can!’ Gnome assured, while the roots and pillars of stone turned into putty in response to her magic. From penetrating presences in the ground, they turned into a flat layer, sealing up the entrances they had made. They soon covered more than their own damage and John had to jump onto the developing area so his feet weren’t enveloped by the reshaping rock.

The wind ceased, once the sealing was complete. The dirt brown stone harmonized oddly well with the light red of the mushroom surface. The night was displaced by the illuminating presence of a crystal growth far above, sealing up the top of the hollow tree trunk they were inside of. It was as bright as an overcast autumn day.

Aclysia jumped backwards onto the stone platform, narrowly escaping an explosion of spores. The paralyzing effect might not bother her, but the sudden shift of the ground under her feet would have thrown her off balance. That aside, the spider enemies had a knack for using the explosions to their advantage, as showcased by the very one whose blade-like legs had caused the eruption in the first place.

Letting the bursting spores catapult it forwards, the eight-legged creature was launched at high speed towards the centre of the ten-metre-wide stone surface. Curved skitters pointed like claws at John and acidic saliva dripping between its four fangs, the monster, called Spoleas Spider, was ready to harm the Gamer in whatever way it could, utilizing the thin sail that replaced  its abdomen to direct its path.

John cast a Blast Ray, which hit the spider directly in its large central body. It barely made a dent in the carapace, but succeeded in slowing the momentum to the point that the monster landed in front of the Gamer rather than on top of him. Gnome was already running over and punted the monster with a kick a professional football player would have been envious of.

If the impact did not kill the monster, the fact that it sailed directly into a cascade of apocalyptic, black and gold fire certainly did. Salamander was flying circles around their position, burning away the spores. They were resilient – annoyingly so. Employing Sylph to get them out of the way initially was a decision made by necessity. Even with friendly fire being off, Salamander could not burn the spores around them quick enough to prevent the paralyzing effects, and once Gnome was stunned, their entire plan was on hold.

‘Help Beatrice,’ John instructed Siena, keeping tabs on both Artificial Spirits. While Aclysia was faring fairly well, fending off three of the attackers, Beatrice was currently dealing with seven and it was only a matter of time before she would lose control over the situation.

The spiders had an aggressive hit and run combat style. Essentially, they were either incapable or unwilling to ever not move. All attempts to maul and slash their enemies were made in passing and they usually moved on to whatever enemy was right in front of them next. The only ways to prevent the Spoleas Spiders from chaotically swarming all over the battlefield were to kill them rapidly or to stay in their field of view.

How exactly the monsters kept skittering about this fast while their legs sliced open the soft ground was a mystery, but magic was doubtlessly involved. Whatever the answer was, the frontline had to deal with the constant threat of paralyzing poison, a mass of guerrilla spiders and little in the way of backup. Sylph and Salamander helped where they could, passively or actively, but their primary job at the moment was to reduce the number of spores. Gnome was now busy creating more stone and shaping it into the next segment of the structure. The walls rose slowly, the process mana intensive enough that both John and Gnome were hit by a steady supply of blue Fireflies. Truthfully, it would have been a lot more effective to only buff John, but it also helped Gnome’s creation speed to have higher Mental Stats and time was of the essence.

Siena’s presence at Beatrice’s side alleviated the burden somewhat, but they still killed the monsters slower than they came in. By sheer bad luck, that side attracted a lot more enemies than the other one. They had to deviate from the plan to cope.

‘Gnome, abandon the building for now and go help Beatrice. Put up windshields when you can, but that’s it. Momo, support Aclysia when necessary. I’ll go help out Beatrice. Salamander, Sylph, cover us,’ he gave a series of commands and ran over. ‘We’re focusing on killing enemies and making the boss spawn as quickly as possible. Once the spores are cleared, we are expanding the sealed area. We need to be able to reliably reinforce each other before we put up the walls.’

The change in plan was enacted immediately. Beatrice reacted by dodging backwards onto the stone platform. Now that Gnome was taking part in the fighting, there was no need anymore to put distance between them. If the spiders spread between several targets, that was now helpful rather than destructive for the plan.

“INCOMING!” Salamander screamed at the top of her lungs, a cackle soon following as a massive cascade of fire consumed John’s field of view. The flames were harmless to him, the lack of sight not an issue. He could sense his allies and enemies around him.

Beatrice utterly destroyed one of the enemies with a well-placed Needle Assault. The several Crescendo procs added the damage the rapid attacks Strength diminishing usually took away. A gust of wind rolled over them, disturbing the fire for a moment. More importantly, it sent a fresh explosion of spores flying away from them, leaving Salamander able to burn the rest away at a sustainable speed.

John reached one of the spiders and tried punting it like Gnome had earlier. His kick barely even forced the creature to stumble backwards. If he had the mana to spare, the Gamer would have followed this up with an Arc Lance, crippling or killing the creature. Instead, he was forced to defend himself against the retaliating jump. He wanted to Magus Step away, but he was so close to his haremettes that someone else would have taken the hit for him.

Razor sharp legs cut into his limbs and side, while the fangs of the Spoleas Spider gnawed at Purgatory. John toppled over backwards and fell. Repeatedly, he punched the spider, hoping that either blunt trauma or the steady fire would eventually kill it. Now up close, John noticed the birch-like texture of the monster’s exterior and the sap-like consistency of its acidic saliva, slowly dripping and burning his suit.

In the end, it was a pointy, crystal-bladed tail that slid into a thin gap between the body and neck carapace of the monster that extinguished its life. ‘You make for an amusing distraction,’ Siena hummed into his mind, as she moved on to lend her stealthy aid to whoever else was locked in an unfortunate situation.

‘You try operating as a proper combatant while not using most of your skillset for resource saving purposes,’ the Gamer complained back.

‘Aww, is the little man impotent?’ she ridiculed him.

John would make her pay for that comment later, right now he had to keep a view over the situation. Aclysia was gradually backing up in their direction, a white wall hovering a metre out from her left side covering one of her flanks. No matter where she turned, the Directional Defense stayed statically put in where it pointed. Four Spoleas Spiders were following her. A lightning strike took one out of commission, even if it didn’t succeed in killing it outright.

Now that the majority of their fighting happened on stone, the number of additional spore explosions was reduced drastically. The constant charging still cut the path open every now and again, but generally they were spared.

It was not an equilibrium they could sustain for several days, but for now they were stemming the tide.