While the two of them were having a fierce fight, their eyes were serious and their actions were meant to pry open the other’s weaknesses. But they wore smiles on their faces as their movements were fast enough to disturb the dust on the training ground.
Storbon’s spear went wide as Tian Cui darted forward. Storbon swung his spear but it was too late.
Then Tian Cui let out a cry. His spear that hadn’t been able to hurt her had a stun spell cast on it; she hadn’t seen it when she darted forward. Now, when hit by it, her body tensed up in sudden pain.
Storbon shifted his feet, gaining room as her blade nicked his stomach’s armor. He angled his spear, pointing down at her neck. He took a heavy breath as Tian Cui rolled over and he raised his spear, resting the butt against the ground.
“Ow.” Tian Cui looked up at the ceiling of the first floor.
“I tried to decrease the power so it would only stun. It’s hard to gauge.” Storbon reached down to help her up.
“Well, it was definitely stunning. I never thought of that.” She slapped her hand against his as he pulled her back onto her feet.
“I sure hope so. It cost me forty-seven gold to get the spell book.” Storbon sighed. “Though in the Metal floor, it should be even stronger based on what Egbert’s told us.”
Tian Cui dusted herself off, a thoughtful look on her face. “I don’t like it. We’re going in blind again.”
“I know. Erik and Rugrat aren’t pleased with it either. That’s why it’ll be a scouting mission and not a fighting one. Hopefully we won’t even be needed,” Storbon said.
Tian Cui looked to him as if to ask, “And you really believe that, do you?”
Storbon let out a dry laugh and moved his spear around. “Want to go another round?”
“I’m going to the library with Yuli, try to improve my curses while she’s working on her magic,” Tian Cui said apologetically.
“I’ll take you up on that spar if you have the free time?” a familiar voice said as they both looked over to see Erik.
He wore a simple shirt underneath a set of new armor. It was based off the same design as the armor Roska and the second special team had, although it looked to be of a higher quality. The smith’s skills had improved since they had made the first version.
Erik looked to be at home in the armor, moving it around on his shoulders.
“This, I wish I could watch,” Tian Cui muttered to Storbon as she let out a hot burst of air before leaving the training grounds. Others in the training grounds looked over.
Erik and Rugrat were somewhat legendary.
In the defense of Alva Village, they had been finally able to see the strength behind the two men. They not only fought with their own power but made sure to stack the deck in their favor.
After just going through two temperings, Storbon was wary to try any more. The risk of dying was high and you had to completely trust in the healer or alchemist who was helping you.
Erik had passed through five temperings. He had Rugrat help him, but otherwise it had been on him and using his own healing skills and Alchemy to survive the temperings.
Erik’s fighting style also incorporated Mana into his attacks, increasing their power without costing a lot in Mana.
Fighting intent, the use of the entire body to carry out an action. It is possible for a sword to unleash a long-range blade attack, combining the flow of Mana into one’s actions, causing the surrounding Mana to move in harmony with it.
This was something that Storbon had been chasing for some time. He had read about it in one of the books in the library but he had yet to see it. I wonder if he is able to use it?
“You up for it, Storbon?” Erik asked.
Storbon shook his head, realizing that he hadn’t said anything in some time. “Y-yes! Sorry!” Storbon said as he quickly got his thoughts organized.
Storbon set his feet, pointing his spear at Erik in provocation.
Erik stood on the other side and took out a coin and tossed it up in the air.
The coin hit the ground and Storbon, who had raised his hand close to his chest, pulled out a throwing dagger and tossed it as he brought the butt of his spear up, bringing in two attacks at once.
Erik was stunned by the throwing knife and used his arm to deflect it. He punched out with his right hand. It slammed into the spear, making Storbon’s hands go numb; his foot came up, lightning quick, and hit Storbon in his right side, which was unprotected.
Storbon grunted and went sideways, falling down.
“Damn! That throwing knife was sneaky as hell, nearly got me!” Erik held out his hand to Storbon.
“Again?” Storbon asked, his eyes glowing as he accepted the hand up.
“I’m up for it. Been some time since I’ve had a real fight against another human.” Erik moved back over to his side as Storbon moved his spear around and moved into a fighting position.
Fighting the others, I have gotten used to the way they move and thought of ways to counteract them. Erik’s got a different fighting style. It combines form and strength together to overwhelm his opponent. With his low reaction times, it makes it hard to anticipate where he’ll hit.
Even a casual blow from him will be enough to shake someone. With so much on the line, Storbon was excited.
Erik picked up the coin and tossed it once more.
It struck the ground as Erik and Storbon came together. Storbon’s spear jabs were short but rapid, aiming at Erik’s head and upper body, then flashing down to his lower body.
Erik had to use all of his Agility as the spear danced in Storbon’s hands, bending and curving with the force of the blows and thrusts.
Erik advanced as Storbon had to dance around and retreat.
Erik snapped to the side of an attack. He grabbed the spear and seemed to roll up it. The back of his hand came for Storbon’s face. He released the spear and jumped backward. Erik followed but had to protect his face as Storbon threw out throwing blades. A crossbow appeared in his hands from his storage ring as he fired it at Erik, who was dodging the blades.
The bolt shot out and slammed into Erik’s stomach armor. A lightning attack that had been added to the bolt made Erik twitch. Storbon pulled out another spear and charged forward.
Increase Strength, increase Agility! Buffing spells fell on Storbon as he ran forward.
Erik threw a fist forward. Mana gathered around his fist before it discharged with a clap. The force of the explosion sent Storbon flying back as Erik shot forward.
Storbon lost the momentum as Erik was now the one attacking. His blows changed in intensity, sometimes having no Mana behind them; other times, they would detonate with Mana. Storbon could feel that Erik was adjusting how much Mana he used and how, refining the technique while they were fighting.
Not wanting to be outdone, Storbon pushed himself harder. His spear started to blur, making it harder for people to see as Erik’s advance slowed to a crawl.
Erik dropped to the ground suddenly and fired out a Mana bullet.
Storbon’s right leg went out from under him. He brought his spear down where Erik was.
Erik slammed his fist on the ground, rolling away. He rolled on his back, getting back up to standing.
Storbon rolled to the side and jumped forward, only to find a spear across his front. Erik held the spear as Storbon slammed into his first spear that Erik had pulled out of his storage ring.
Storbon dropped back down to the ground.
Erik moved the spear around and dropped its butt on the ground. “Good weapon,” Erik commended Storbon, who was getting up.
“Again?” Storbon asked, hope in his voice.
Erik looked at him with a raised eyebrow before he laughed. “All right! Again! What was with that crossbow bolt?” Erik tossed the spear back.
“I cast Stun on it as I pulled it out of my storage ring. I was holding onto the wood parts of the crossbow so it didn’t affect me much an
d was focused on the metal bolt,” Storbon said.
“Smart. I didn’t even see anything so the shock from the pain and the actual lightning made me lose my momentum.” Erik picked up the coin and returned to his corner.
He tossed it again, this time pulling out crossbows and firing them at Storbon and then throwing them at him before he pulled out more and tossed them at him again, advancing so Storbon couldn’t see. Then he loosed a Mana bolt on the ground, tossing Storbon up and to the side. Erik fired a Mana Detonation at him, tossing him backward.
“Those crossbows are weak—not strong enough to break through your armor. Why didn’t you cut them down to clear your vision?” Erik asked.
“I didn’t want to break your equipment?” Storbon slowly got up off the ground.
“That would be good if I was trying to save my damn gold but I’m not! I’m your opponent. And plus, I can get Rugrat to fix it for me afterward.” Erik grinned as he picked up the coin. “Again?”
***
Erik got back to the mansion much later. He had healed most of the muscle pains and the bruises.
He pulled off his armor and started to check it over as he heard snoring coming through the house. He went to the living area to find Rugrat had flopped down his sleeping bag and dropped on top of it.
“Well, at least we won’t be getting complaints about the noise coming from all of his testing for a night.” Erik’s shoulder spasmed. “Shit!” He started to use a healing spell to fix the spasm as he, too, headed up to sleep.
***
Rugrat woke up and wiped his face to get rid of the slobber. He sat up and put his hand on his eyes to hide the light.
He let out a grunt and rolled his head to the other side as he smelled his own armpit. It took him a few seconds to gather the willpower he needed to sit upright.
He headed to get a shower. Once he was smelling something clean, he got dressed and went to the food stalls.
Grabbing the Ten Realms version of coffee and breakfast, Rugrat dropped down into a seat and started eating everything in front of him.
The taste of the food was good enough to wake Rugrat up between sips of the almost coffee as he went up for his second breakfast, then his third. He stopped about his fifth and looked around, as if seeing the dungeon for the first time. A few people were smiling and laughing at his actions as he stood and stretched.
“Good sleep?” Erik asked.
“Bad wake up,” Rugrat replied as he passed his dishes off.
“The testing?” Erik asked.
Rugrat took a few gulps and then threw back the rest of his almost coffee. He wiped his face with the back of his hand and passed off the mug. “I think I’ve got it.” Rugrat pulled out a round and passed it to Erik.
Erik looked at the round and moved it in his fingers.
“Mortal iron for the cartridge, tester powder Alpha seventeen for the charge, primer Charlie three. The bullet is enhanced Mortal iron. Barrel is enhanced and compressed Mortal iron. The striking power, I wasn’t able to accurately determine, but I did some steel plate tests and it made an impression three times deeper on average,” Rugrat said proudly.
Erik looked over to him and raised an eyebrow.
The expression made Rugrat grin. “Innate ability increases speed by four percent. I want to place a formation on it that creates Wind Blades around the round, then Explosive Shot on top of it. Think grenade launcher mixed with hollow point nastiness. Kill any damn hog.”
“In the first three realms,” Erik amended.
“I am really not looking forward to developing more rounds and barrels,” Rugrat complained.
“At least we have something like a plan and we can scale up instead of walking in blind,” Erik said.
Rugrat nodded. It wasn’t as if making new rounds and destroying targets hadn’t been a fun way to waste a few days.
“Right now, I’ll be replacing the parts in Big Momma that would be prone to breaking. I’ll work on making designs for weapon bodies, but each round takes about thirty minutes to make in total and I’m going to need to upgrade frequently. For now, I don’t think that we can mass-produce them. And crossbows we do make are reaching the point where they can rival the stopping power of a rifle back on Earth. Also, each round is worth about ten to fifteen gold each, so not the cheapest. The weapon system is made from five Mortal-iron ingots so, yeah.” Rugrat left the rest unsaid.
“So, basically, it’s as crazy as those gold and diamond covered guns back on Earth.”
“Yes, but this one hits as hard as a shoulder-fired rocket.”
Erik let out a snort. “Minor difference?”
“Small.” Rugrat smiled as he held his fingers just barely apart.
***
Erik and Rugrat were inside the dungeon headquarters once again.
This time there was no one else around.
Erik had just four Mana gates that were still sealed.
Opening his Eleventh Mana gate was going to be as hard as Rugrat opening his thirteenth. Thankfully, Rugrat had more Mana so it would make it easier for him to help Erik in opening just a gap in the Mana gate.
With the Wraith’s Touch applied and everything set, Erik tried to relax as much as possible. “All right, well, let’s get on with it.”
Rugrat took the needle, tapped it into Erik’s Mana gate, and started to force his compressed Mana through it. With his open Mana gates, higher Mana pool and Mana Regeneration, a small indent was quickly carved into the Mana gate.
Erik used his own Mana on the inside to open a channel, allowing the two streams to meet up.
They didn’t rush it, taking their time as they slowly made the channel deeper and deeper.
The dungeon core’s excess pure Mana gathered around them and was easily absorbed. The attribute-less Mana was much more effective than impure Mana, speeding up the process greatly.
Minutes turned into hours but they continued on, slowly but surely, bit by bit, until finally there was a cracking noise and a rush of Mana as the Mana outside of Erik’s body and that within his Mana channels tried to equalize.
The chaotic back and forth served to open the channel wider. Erik circulated his Mana, recovering it before he pushed it out of the Mana gate and recovered it again. It was like a tide wearing away at a rock: in and out, back and forth.
“Well, looks like it won’t be long until you’re a Mana duke,” Rugrat said.
“Yeah, while it won’t be long until you become a Mana sovereign and open all of your Mana gates,” Erik complained.
“Hey, with looks like these, I’m bound to get some bonuses.” Rugrat clicked his fingers and gave Erik two finger guns.
“With brain cells as sparse as yours, you need all the help that you can get,” Erik shot back.
“Well, my momma used to say…”
Oh, here we go again—more Momma Rodriguez tips and tricks.
Chapter: A Trip?
Armor was finished and weapons were created. Everyone who was part of the team to go to the Metal floor was trying to sponge as much information from one another, the academy, the people in the barracks, and off Julilah and Qin as they could.
But it could only be interesting for so long.
“So you want to go to Vermire?” Elise asked as the entire council was around the main table above the dungeon core.
“Yeah. It looks like a place that we can turn into a hub. We control the lord there and I want to see what the trading post is capable of. No one has gone there other than our parties, gathering information. It’s time we strike some fear into Lord Aditya and see how capable he was in selling the wares we gave him. From there, we can choose how to advance our relationship and use him,” Erik said.
“And we’re also bored as hell and want to try out our new toys,” Rugrat said.
Erik shrugged, not denying it. Special Team One had gone out into the Beast Mountain Range but nothing was their opponent. It wasn’t training if
it wasn’t hard so they had continued to fight one another.
“Also, the Special Team One, I want to release them to go and check on the different trading outposts and let them take on tasks that have been put up by the barracks. We’ve got another two weeks before the deadline. If we just keep on training we’re going to lose our edge,” Erik said.
“Well, we can’t really stop you. Jasper?” Elise looked over.
“I can prepare items to be sold at the trading outpost that would gain a greater profit than on the trading platform,” Jasper said.
“Time for a little trip.” Rugrat smiled.
“What about the tests for the alchemists, medics, and formation department?” Taran asked.
Erik nodded at Rugrat to go first.
“The formation school have the basics down. Those who are both part of the smithing and formation department are the furthest along. With the information books and everything that Qin and Julilah have been researching, they’ve been able to increase their proficiency. Formations are a lot of complex calculations with a mix of practical and theoretical knowledge. They can all carve on formation plates, but they simply don’t know what to carve on it.
“It is really heavy on the books and learning from others. Tan Xue is teaching them what she knows but right now it’s only really a department in name instead of reality,” Rugrat admitted.
“With Alchemy, their knowledge of plants is incredible due to their gardens, but making concoctions is lacking because they only have a few formulas. There aren’t any available on the trading platform. Like the formations, they are skills that are groomed in the higher realms, where there are more materials and information. I hope upon reaching the Third Realm that we will be able to procure more information for the Alchemy department. The medical school has rapidly advanced. Using corpses and referencing the notes that I gave them, they’ve been able to quickly build up their knowledge.
“Healing spells are lacking and that is one of the greatest barriers. There are only a very few spell books for sale. Otherwise, people need to learn to cast healing spells themselves. Then make sure that it is truly a healing spell so it doesn’t hurt the patient. It’s time-consuming but both departments have a lot of students. All of the combat parties have at least an alchemist and medic, sometimes both. They have progressed further than I thought and made some incorrect assumptions but I’ve tried to make up for that knowledge gap. They might not have healing spells, but both alchemists and medics know how to look after wounds. The medic’s knowledge is more advanced but the alchemists know at least basic first aid,” Erik finished.
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