Battleforged
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Chapter 420 - Desert Grinding!
🕑 Added 2024-05-10 03:57:01 +0000 UTCKelly shivered with excitement when Eric made the party offer.
“Are you serious?”
Eric nodded. “My Underlord knows exactly where we gotta go. Your family will ride safely and comfortably behind us while you and I make short work of a couple terror birds still lingering in this quarter of the territory that I’ve mostly cleared.”
Her eyes widened. “To hear you say that. As if anyone could actually take out an entire monster surge.”
Eric chuckled. “That’s the goal, after all. You wanna help?”
“Damn right I do!”
“Sweet. Here’s the deal. I see those assholes picked you clean, loot wise. No matter, I got a weapon that looks a hell of a lot like a pair of M107, complete with absurdly magical ammo, and about 100 rounds Wormy II claimed from the corpses. And even if most of the goodies was crushed to pulpified powder, these are Bronze Tier toys, so here’s a vibro-blade that I know you know how to use, and together, we’ll fire this gun.
Kelly’s eyes widened with wonder when Eric gently passed her Vibro blade and force shield as well as a belt made out of rune-reinforced leather he created with the gentlest surge of his might that strapped around her waist perfectly. He then summoned forth a futuristic looking M107 the color of blood and fire and Kelly trembled when he gently placed it in her arms before summoning a mounted sniper’s rest, their hearts beating as one as Eric used his monstrous Finesse and Gunnery skill to line up a shot.
“Are you ready, Kelly? Are you seeing the velociraptor through the scope? Can you feel the connection?”
“I…. yes.”
“Good.”
Finesse modified Gunnery Skill check: Critical Success! You have managed to strike Velociraptor through the heart! Experience Earned!
Experience successfully split between party members.
Kelly Sands has earned MULTIPLE Rank 1 Adventurer levels!
“Kelly?”
She shivered as his soft breath tickled her ears.
“Yes?”
“This is important. Super important, okay?”
“Okay…”
“If by some miracle, you hit level forty nine before we make it back… you’re to choose Core Saturation instead of progressing to Level fifty, okay?”
“Um…”
“No umms, Kelly. Trust me. I know exactly what I’m doing and I’m the baddest motherfucker you’re going to meet in this corner of the planet, so trust me when I say that Core Saturation, in addition togetting you access to a Tier-II pod one day VERY soon, will open so many possibilities to be making double or even triple the level-up points you are now that it will make your head explode! Not literally. Anyway, even then, this is key. You DON’T want the shiniest Elite or even Master tier class options you might get, after taking out Bronze tier baddies with an elite Top Ranked contender who just formed a very personal blood-bond with you. You want the class that has the greatest growth potential. Do you understand, Kelly?”
She took a shuddering breath, saying nothing, just nodding.
Eric nodded. “Good. You’re going to ask to see whatever choices will open the path to Bronze. Even Silver. I already know you have six meridian channels, and that’s a sweet, sweet number that counts as a full set. You might even find a cultivator’s path open, if you have access to spiritual energy, which means, at the very least, that Bronze-tier hybrid classes might also be open to you. But just to confirm, every point you put into mana pool gives you how much energy back?”
“Seven.”
Eric blinked. “I made a mistake. I apologize.”
Her awed expression turned to a bemused side-eye. “Wait, why are you sounding so solemn? Is something wrong?”
Eric shook his head. “It means you have seven nodes. Not six.”
“And is that a big deal?”
“Well, it means that you have even more potential than I first thought.”
She snorted. “You are a cocky bastard, you know that? Apologizing for not being perfect.”
They shared a laugh, and somehow she was wrapped about him in ways that had far less to do with shooting and far more to do with other things and Eric could feel her father’s eyes glaring like a velociraptor’s at him.
“Um… Kelly?”
“Shut up and kiss me. Then we hunt some more. Get me to level forty nine, Ernest, and I’ll rock your world!” She gave him a throaty chuckle, eyes wild with the heady rush of escaping certain death, leveling up at a furious pace. and falling hard for the hero of your dreams.
Eric laughed, rubbing her head. “Let’s focus on the sweet, sweet kills, and mastering a Bronze-tier killing tool, Kelly. You can flirt and make love to anyone at any other time. Maybe even me, if your parents weren’t giving me death glares. But certainly not now. On the plus side, right now we can get you so far above what your friends only dreamed they might one day accomplish that they will be both green with envy and thanking you profusely when you tell them to also do their best to saturate their cores”
Her cheeks flushed. She stole a single look at her incredibly patient looking father, shuddered, and quickly jerked a nod. “I know that look. Ooh, do I know that look. Okay. Help me get up to level forty nine, so I can endure the next week of being grounded in paradise.”
Eric smirked. “Sure. And hold off on buying any perks and filling those precious, precious nodes until we get you access to that Pod. If you actually have potential for spiritual energy as well as magical, I might be able to open up a world of power to you.”
Her eyes widened in wonder. “Seriously?”
He grinned and nodded. “And if not… my mom was working on an arcane university, before the world went unrecognizably crazy and everything changed and even then, even if you only have access to Arcane arts, there might still be a powerful mage’s path for you, but only if you keep your nodes free of garbage perks.”
She winced at that.
He chuckled. “Don’t stress the pair of node perks I’m guessing you already have. I doubt you’d have made it as far as you have without them. But listen to all your future mentors, including me, and think very, very carefully before investing in anything further.”
“Understood, master,” she said solemnly, flashing him a cheeky smile, before turning back to the howling winds, squinting hard. “But in the meantime… I’m placing my points in Finesse and Perception and Mana Pool, and now I can sense that target that much better! So are we going to take out that flickering shadow I barely see, or what?”
Eric laughed. “That’s one of mine, actually. See how they’re carrying the one we tagged? It’s so I can raise it later. Now the one over there...” he said, gently turning the gun so the scope landed on another, “Is a nice target. Shall we?”
She slowly nodded. Eric squeezed the trigger, using another precious soul-bound bullet, and he could feel her gasp and shudder against him with a climax of sheerest power so sweet she was breathless. “I just went up another three levels. Three levels with a single bullet!”
“Good. So let’s grab three more.”
And in the handful of hours it took them to gently and safely make their way back to Freetown, Kelly was squealing with excited glee, having not only achieved level forty nine but also hitting the 20% mark in compressing her core, all without passing out like he had at level nine. Just as importantly to both of them, they had made the trip fast enough that both baby Quilly and Megan had suffered no worsening of their symptoms at all.
Tears were in her eyes as they transitioned from howling sand storms and crackling lightning across a mustard grey horizon to a calm spring day with a clear blue sky, the warm sunlight and blossom-scented breeze a treat to all their senses. Even Eric’s own.
“We’re almost home!” Megan cried out weakly, now awake in her father’s arms.
“That we are!” Eric said. “So, how’d you like your ride on my pet World Eater? I’ll bet you’ll now have huge bragging rights with all your friends.”
“Damn right I do!” she quipped. “Zora and Sara Lin are going to be so fucking jealous!”
“Language!” her father said, though his heart wasn’t in it, and Eric was relieved to see even baby Quilly looked no worse for ware, angrily suckling her mother, which he already sensed was her chief coping mechanism for a too-stressful world.
Kelly’s father caught Eric’s gaze. “Thank you, son.” He paused, and Eric could see the tears welling in the man’s eyes as they approached the front gate, none other than Caliban leading a group of Bronze tier elites doing Eric, or Ernest, the honor of meeting him in person as he lowered the head of his Titan Wyrm and gently eased them all to the ground.
“No problem, Mister Sands. I’m sorry as hell that your family got caught up in bullshit politics, and I’m just glad that I was able to make it right.”
“And I’m forty-ninth level, Father!” Kelly squealed.
Her father gave her a hard smile. “Good. I’m assuming you didn’t spend all of your points yet?”
Kelly flushed. “Um… okay, let me put it this way. I’d make a really, really good sniper, now. Or wizard. And since Finesse, Perception, and Quickness all have the exact same number of sixty, I’m able to tap into the sweetness of Battletime, as Ernest explained it. At least a little bit? Like enemies slowing down when I zero in on them with the right modded archery perks in Skydragon. It’s so fucking awesome! Even if I need the numbers to be perfectly even to have anything like what comes so naturally to my hero right here.”
Her mother sighed as she adjusted Quilly and her shawl, so the rapidly approaching elves wouldn’t be put off while giving her oldest daughter a look that was equal parts fondness and exasperation. “Oh, Kelly. Do you have any idea about the edge you would have had as a Professional that most could only dream of, by boosting your Scholarship by just a few points?”
Kelly gave her mother a look as they stepped off the now fully submerged Wormy, Eric grinning at a rapidly approaching Caliban.
“Sorry, mom. I was too busy focusing on the rush of zeroing in on sniping FUCKING DINOSAURS and not thinking about what it felt like to be hung on a cross, doomed to die, to worry about my fucking grades!”
She then winced in apology when Megan burst into tears.
“Sorry, Megs.” She reached down, holding her sister tight. “I’m so, so sorry you went through that.”
Eric whispered in her ear. “For what it’s worth, I never put any points into Scholarship.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
Eric nodded solemnly, before flushing. “Let’s just say I had serious, serious issues about letting the System rewire my brain… but since now we’re on, um, friendly... Yes, definitely friendly terms… Well, if it was going to take me over and make me an AI zombie version of myself, I guess it would have already done so. But it promises me it likes me just as I am, so I don’t know why I’m so hung up on it, and I just got a message saying that you’ll still be you. So ‘go for it, Kelly! Learn those higher order concepts that come so easily to your sister!’ end quote. And that’s the System’s feedback for you.”
Eric’s smile grew strained at the look of absolute horror Kelly was giving him.
“Fuck. Did I fail my Charisma check, even with all those fucking perks thrown in? Sorry. Look. Just forget everything I said, please?” He then staged whispered into her ear. “My backup option was, if I just had to boost up Mana, Scholarship, or Soul Reserves, to just do it one point at a time so I was still ‘me.’ So that’s what I’d recommend.”
Kelly grew even paler, if that were possible. “I put over thirty points into my Mana Pool, Ernest.”
Eric blinked. “Well, how do you feel?”
She frowned, before a relieved smile came over her features. “Fine! Just totally fine!”
“Well then, it’s fine!” Eric’s smile grew strained. “You didn’t, um, feel like your brain was filling up with cthulian self-aware silver wormies, did you? And by that, of course I mean that they are VERY GOOD wormies that just want what’s best for us!”
Kelly blinked, looking suddenly green around the gills. “What the fuck, Ernest?”
Eric groaned. “I think I just critically failed my social skill check. I’m going to shut up and go away now. Please take care?”
Kellys look of disgust turned to golden peals of laughter, and the fey look in her eyes caused Eric’s heart to skip a beat. “You really had me going there, Ernest. No. I feel fine. Now go and save our city like the hero you are!”
Eric grinned. “Yeah. Sorry. I got an awful sense of humor and did you put some points into Appearance when I wasn’t looking?”
This earned a sultry chuckle as she leaned up on her tippy toes. “The fuck you weren’t looking, hero. Now come back safe, because there are some tricks I definitely want to teach you as well.” The hungry look in her eyes left no room for doubt as to what those tricks might be.
He winked and squeezed her hand, handing her a priceless prize.
“Ernest!”
“Enjoy the sniper rifle. And the 67 bullets we have left for it. Now show me you can use the storage pouch I gave you? Good.”
And with a final wave for Mr. And Mrs. Sands who looked caught between gratitude and absolute horror as their excited daughter, now armed with a Bronze-tier M107, was eagerly putting on a suit of armor comprised of essence saturated rawhide and bone from Bronze-tier kills along with solid, near indestructible plates from the female mercenary’s shadow armor, Eric headed toward a grim faced Caliban at a fast clip.
Eric’s fierce grin faded, feeling an all too familiar spike of dread in his gut. “Fuck, Calibro. Not more bad news, I hope?”
His friend gazed at him for long moments, before bowing a full 45 degrees at the waist, earning raised eyebrows from his personal guard and a surprised blink from Eric.
“Your Grace?”
Caliban gazed at Eric for long moments. “We’ve suffered three separate waves in the sixteen hours you were gone, and I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that were it not for your World Eater and the scores of velociraptor revenants you left in our care, casualties would have been in the thousands, our moral shattered. As it stands, less than a hundred lives have been lost, and our most elite soldiers stand ready to serve still.”
Eric let out a relieved breath he hadn’t even aware he had been holding. “Thank goodness. With that look, I had thought—”
“The Northeast Regional Counsel has made the motion that unlimited access be given to all potential settling factions to colonize Terra at will.”
Eric’s eyes bulged. “What the fuck? Are they serious? Did they not study American History? They should know exactly what the fuck will happen to us then. We’ll all be colonized and ground to dust!”
Caliban flashed a bleak smile. “Such was the concern raised by many in the Global Terran Counsel. A vote will be set in just two days. Our hope is that we can defeat the motion. Otherwise, should the motion be pushed through as written, absolutely any settler below Silver, up to and including those just a half-step breakthrough away, will be allowed to colonize this world as they see fit.”
Eric’s heart was pounding, his gaze locking with Caliban’s own. “Two days, you said?”
“Forty nine hours and seventeen minutes to be exact, Ernest.”
Eric flashed a bleak smile. “Well then, it looks like I’m on a tight deadline. I was going to offer you another wing of my raptors… but I’m afraid I’m going to need them.”
He winced at the sudden flash of dismay quickly passing over Caliban’s features.
“No, don’t worry. I don’t mean the ones I’ve already left guarding your city. I mean the ones I made most recently.”
Caliban flashed a relieved smile. “I’m glad to hear it. Just how many do you…” He then caught sight of the massive mobile cavalry now flanking Eric in a massive V formation. “Saints’ mercy!”
Eric grinned. “By last count? 508. And trust me, Calibro, this is just the beginning. And with that deadline… I’d better get cracking.”
Not wasting another word, Eric turned around the way he had come, racing as fast as he safely could without utterly tearing apart the terrain behind him with the speed his revenants were compelled to match, the V formation helping with air resistance as much as for any other reason.
But once they hit the wild storms of monster-surge central, Eric took off like a shot, the air cracking with a boom as their formation tightened behind the titan wyrm, forming a massive peloton and taking full advantage of the World Eater’s slipstream, all of them drafting behind the behemoth and cutting down massively on drag as they got damn close but couldn’t, even with Eric’s perk, break the sound barrier.
Eric howled with sheer exhilaration, feeling the earth vibrate and shake with the wondrous force and POWER of the massive hoard now traveling so fast behind him.
In a shockingly short period of time, they had spotted and closed with the nearest group of revenants, Eric shifting tactics so as to be able to lash out a single time with a boosted Blood Strike extending his crimson fiery blade like a gigantic laser saber to over twenty feet long even as it flared with fearsome life, no matter that he could now move it as only at a fraction of his normal Quickness, as if struggling against a massive weight. Inertia carried him through the moment of impact as it tore right through the velociraptor pack, decapitating three in the blink of an eye, his hoard washing over the remaining six and obliterating them right before Eric screamed out a handful of words as he turned 30 degrees and raced for the next pack of terror birds.
“Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”
He couldn’t even make out the reply, he was now moving so fast. Yet it didn’t matter, because he could sense the added platoon merging with the rear of the peloton, and Eric was swinging his enhanced crackling blade once more, right in time with a momentary leap, so it didn’t matter that his speed crashed down to 400 as his blade flared to 4-fold normal length and 400% boosted lethality, this time not using Burst of Strength because he needed to conserve his Soul Reserves even with his crimson orb happily whirling around his head, and the results were everything he could have hoped for.
Two fresh velocis killed, two more crippled, and the entire confused peack crushed and pulverized by his hoard as he roared yet more words that cared nothing for the limits of sound in the physical world as his glorious hoard grew.
And grew.
Until the trembles of their passing became an Earthquake.
Until Eric felt his Soul Reserves, even one point at a time, plummeting painfully low and exhaustion demanded he stop, because one mistake was all it took for triumph to turn to catastrophic failure. When he eventually found himself curled up on a stuffed pillow, lying on a reinforced bone and leather mattress, surrounded by soothing reassuring coils, he took sweet comfort in the knowledge that he was now being guarded by 866 Velociraptors in addition to his Titan Wyrm.
And though his final exhausted thoughts before slipping into blackness were that the entire territory was still filled with glaring hot reds, he could at least take comfort in the knowledge that the largest hoard of Bronze-tier monsters in the entire territory was now his own.
Chapter 421 - The Return of BunBun!
Comments
Antony Haynes
There’s a story mismatch between Eric’s talents (primarily physical/fighting) and the true nature of the challenges he faces (primarily political/espionage). For the reader, it’s frustrating that Eric is winning military battles, delving dungeons, and conquering territories, but the true battle appears to be on the Terran Council and local political factions. My recommendation is that the story develop in a way that Eric has a team of competent politicians, administrators, spies, and lawyers to deal with the political/ espionage angle or else that his physical/ military might become sufficiently great that all the political/ espionage games become irrelevant. At a minimum, the story should move in a direction where the various Terran-owned and -oriented facilities (like the tier 2 pod, the arcane academy, the wealthy dives, and so on) become “safe” and are no longer lost to Terrans or even contested by the alien invaders. Otherwise, the story will just keep going in endless loops with Eric having to defend or reacquire or reconquer facilities and territories he’s already acquired in the past (such as his sister’s territory, or Freetown, or his tier 2 pod). For the reader, we want to see parts of the new world we haven’t already seen—for example, what’s in the territories outside of the Northeast Corridor? We want to see a stable and relatively secure Terran faction (whether it’s Blue Corps or the Sylvans or someone else) so that’s there’s a stable “base” or point of operations from which Eric can expand his influence and the influence of his allies. It’s not as enjoyable to read a story where the main character is like a dog chasing his tail, constantly having to redo things that should be done. Nevertheless, I think having all the bronze tier mercenaries is an interesting direction as is moving up the timing of the monster waves. If the author decides to have unrestricted settlement of Earth by aliens, then there should be some mechanic (whether artificial or not) where by native humans are able, virtually in mass, to level-up to high-level white and low-level bronze to keep pace with the alien invaders.
A Will
Yiper ki Fuck yea, I'm fucking Eric erm Ernest fucking slaughter. The badest fucking bad ass. Lost all abilities to be normal fuck, so fuck it all. Story fucking telling at its finest.
Silver Beard
Been waiting for him to retake the Crimson path a long, long time now. Begin to wonder if that was just filler achievements?
Silver Beard
Miffed he willingly made her complicit in his bronze tier goods... now there'll be a new directive to save her from the use he applied to her... ofc
Trevayne
This has been a great story and I am still looking forward to following it. I do have to wonder though about just how the rest of the world is doing. IIRC everything we have seen on Earth is in the Eastern US. We see the NE Council has put forward a motion to allow unrestricted immigration by all Bronzes, even those just a step away from Silver. How much power does the NE council have? How many other councils are there and who is running them? Are they also being run by the rats? For that matter, who is on the Global Council? Is it just one rep from each of the regional councils? Again, I am greatly enjoying the story but just realizing how little we know about the world outside the NE of the former US.
Sébastien Kingsbury
Thanks for the chapter! That was fun, but I got to ask, is there ever going to not be a new BS time crunch for some other twist that gets thrown in out of nowhere? Feels like we jump from crisis to crisis with little room to breathe
