Chapter 21 Part 6 of 6 (Patreon)

“ Good to go. You want to try for area four? Or call it?” Erik asked.

“I’m running a course on spells in an hour”

“Ah, that should be enough right?” Erik glanced over.

“Sure,” Rugrat shrugged, scanning the area. “When you drew in that Earth and Metal element the mites slowed right down.”

“Yeah, I never really paid that much attention to elements, I just thought that they were only useful when combined with mana, becoming attributes.”

“You ever think that Element and attribute are confusing?”

“I guess. Element is the pure form, without the mana. Attribute is where the element and the attribute have combined. The purer mana is, the less attributes it has, or the less elements to mana ratio.”

“Yup, guess its that whole thing. Where the more you know the less you think that you know,” Rugrat said.

“So where we heading to?”

“That way,” Rugrat pointed at a path.

Erik stood up, getting out the kinks.

“Lets do this. Cover me so I can examine the centipede and some more of those mites. I want to figure out what their weaknesses are. Just need more test subjects.”

“Bro, you know you sound all mad scientist an’ shit when you say that right?”

“You watched too much tv.”

Erik examined the bodies quickly before they all dissipated.

“The mites have a weakness here.”

With a wet noise Erik threw the mite over, its limbs were splayed out andstarting to drift away.

“See where the limbs connect, right there, that’ll kill them. Otherwise go for where their head connects to their neck.”

“The centipedes?”

Erik moved to a headless centipede.

“Sixth section down where it bulges out,” Erik pointed at the section with his rifle.

“Yeah.”

“Vital organs are right in there, Sixth, seventh and eighth are extra armored, but the fifth and ninth aren’t”

“So hit the fifth with a penetration round and it’ll tumble right through its vitals.

“Yeah. They’re strong against direct hites, between the sections and at the leg joints they’re weaker. Hit them from an angle or as they rear up, much better chance to get through.”

“And that kids is our lesson on creepy crawlies and their weaknesses. Got it,” Rugrat nodded.

“Lets head for the next area then.”

Erik led the way down George’s path.

He dispersed the heat as he walked towards the tunnel.

“Contact!” Erik fired on the mite that came down the tunnel, his rounds smashed through the thinner skeleton around its neck. It collapsed in almost the same second.

Erik scanned the area for more moving around.

“We didn’t kill all of them?” Rugrat asked, looking around.

“Maybe more of them spawned?”

“Moving.”

Erik continued forward. He cleared his way through the tunnels, it took them longer to get to the fourth area. They ran into more of the mites. The further from the ruin capture area, the more of them there were.

Erik entered the room that housed the fourth capture room.

“Well, this looks like a fucking pain in the ass. At least the holes in the ceiling aren’t right over the capture point, cause as sure as shit something is going to fall out of those. Hope you can catch them Gilly!”

“Blind corners, pillars in the way.”

The center of the room was a much larger capture pillar atop several half-steps. There were several tunnel entrances and holes on the ceiling and ground. Five large pillars as big as George surrounded the capture area, blocking their line of sight.

“Well it should funnel them a bit. I’m using the mines.”

“Extreme dungeon makeover?”

“C-four style.”

George and Gilly covered for Erik and Rugrat as they laid down mines between the pillars. Spikes were stuck in the tunnels that led into the room.

“Contact!” Rugrat fired twice and went silent.

“Talk to me,” Erik said, he couldn’t see Rugrat, his rifle up and ready in his hands.

“Just think it was the one. Think it was just roaming the area.”

They kept working on the minefield and traps.

“Okay, that should work,” Rugrat said as they met up around the central pillar, they’d made a wall around the capture area for defenses.

“Mine fields are primed, spikes all over the place.”

“Lets start.”

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Capture Area 4

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1/100

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Chittering and the sound of armored feet against stone filled the room.

Erik flicked to automatic. He didn’t try to draw in the Earth and Metal element.

He fired as soon as he saw mites. The tunnels curved close to their entrance giving only a few meters before the spikes.

They smashed into the spikes, even if the leading mites wanted to stop, those behind them pushed them into the spikes.

Erik’s rounds cut down through the tunnels, killing dozens.

Rugrat’s rifle sounded like it was on automatic with how fast he was  firing.

“Reloading!” Rugrat tossed off a magazine and grabbed a new one.

“Above!” Erik looked up as a centipede launched itself from the ceiling. Earth spears shot out of the ground to meet the beast in midair.

Spears shot out of the ground like missiles, striking centipedes in the air. There was a stream from Erik’s rifle arcing across the open area between the pillars.

A centipede rose up from the floor, stepping on a mine at the entrance, its front half disappeared.

Erik’s rifle clicked empty.

“Reloading!” Erik yelled he tossed the magazine, grabbed a new one, smashing it into the magwell and hit the bolt catch.

Rounds went down range.

“Mites on the pillars! Back in!” Erik yelled.

He hosed the mites and centipedes aiming at their weaknesses. His arms blurred as he switched targets, rounds drilling holes through armor plates into the mites and centipedes vitals.

His reactions, life time of training in both medical and fighting all came together with the enhancement of the ten realms. In his vision he was overlaying the internal structure of the creatures.

It was a slaughter, but it was just a dent compared to the surging numbers.

They had broken through the spikes in some places, using the bodies of those that had gone before them as a bridge over top.

George let out a fire breath like a laser, the red light left scorch marks on the pillars needing just a few seconds to cut through the mites. The Centipedes cried out in anger but they were only more pissed off.

Erik gathered the mana and elements within his body. He threw his rifle to his side, securing it with a tie.

He threw a punch, scooping up the ground a fist the size of Gill swung out, smashing through four centipedes and several mites. It hit the ground exploding into magma.

The ground behind Erik turned into an extension of his own body as he magma fist technique.

He swept out wit his massive fists, striking the ceiling and detonating them, causing sections to collapse filled with centipedes.

Gilly swiped her claw and a claw of earth cleaved through mites.

Erik channeled the power of the fire element and mana through his leg, injecting it into the ground. The ground shifted and broke, spreading out and exploding, tossing mites and magma everywhere.

“Switching!” Erik pulled out a grenade launcher, firing it into the clumped groups near the tunnel entrances or around the pillars.

He swung out the empty chamber, dropping it into his storage ring.

“Fuck!” A centipede jumped for George having come out of a fresh patch of ceiling.

Erik dropped the launcher, grabbing his rifle and pulling the tie off.

He fired his railgun one handed, his tempered body taking the recoil easily as he wrapped his hand around the handguards, his rounds punching holes in the centipede as it smashed into the ground starting to fade out of existence.

Erik turned to fire on mites that had made it to the minefields when two shots rang out, killing most of them.

Erik tossed his rifle to the side on his sling, kneeling down to grab the dropped grenade launcher. He pulled out a full chamber slotting it into place and snapped it shut.

He fired wherever he saw groups of creatures, using magma explosion spells underneath those he couldn’t hit.

“Reloading!”

Another centipede came up after the minefield, just meters from Erik.

“Mother fucker!” Erik formed a hammer in his hand, infusing it with Earth, fire and Wood. He threw it with all his power behind it. The hammer smashed through the centipede’s mouth, going through it lengthways before it exploded.

“Fuck centipedes!”

Erik finished reloading looking for groups. He had time between shots as the groups had slimmed down, the  ground filled with the dead and the dying.

“Reloading!”

Rugrat yelled.

Erik threw out a hammer, catching a mite that came around a pillar and jumped. It was tossed backwards as Erik’s hammer exploded behind it, striking the ceiling.

“Back in!”

“Switching!” Erik switched to his rifle firing on the mites.

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Capture Area 4

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100/100

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“Isn’t this shit done?” Rugrat yelled.

“They’re only attracted by it, whatever is here is whatever is here.”

“Shit!”

The mites slowed their progress as Erik fired on them, targeting their necks. They dropped faster than before.

“Reloading!” Erik tossed out his magazine and threw in a fresh one.

“Back in!” The mites forward line were getting pushed back. The centipedes had been slaughtered. Some of the mites were moving to their dead brethren and opening their exoskeletons to draw in the ambient mana.

Erik fired explosive shots into the open mites, leaving smudges on the stone. Scanning he didn’t see anything.

“Good on my side I think!” Erik yelled, looking at Gilly and George’s areas.

“Good here, shit I think we got them all. Should we get out of here?”

“Yeah lets go.”

They broke their medallions reappearing at the dungeon entrance.

The doors opened, revealing the training dungeon lobby.

“Shit that was a tough last wave,” Rugrat pulled off his helmet.

Erik followed suit.

“Got  a little messy there, the centipedes coming from the roof.” They walked out with Gilly and George who shrunk in size padding along with them.

“The earth spears were a good idea, you learn a new fighting techinque with the fists?”

“Yeah, from the library, someone watched too much anime, they wanted to make a magi-tech mecha. You can clad yourselves with earth fire, wind and whatever, but it takes a lot of damn mana to do so and you should temper your body with that element. Else you need to wear armor to protect against it.”

Rugrat was rolling his eyes as he stored his helmet and cradled his rifle in his elbow crooks.

“Anyway, it didn’t work the best, though if you use parts of it, like that magma fist, you can create much stronger versions of your own punch and it doesn’t even hurt your fist.”

“Great to know you’re putting my gauntlets to use.”

“I thought that I would use them more often too. Might be a better idea to get a formation that increases my spell damage.”

“There are new beast hide gauntlets you can get. The armored ones are okay, they’re nice, but the plates rub on your fingers all the time, started to hurt after a while. The beast hide lasts longer, it doesn’t restrict you as much but the formation is sown in.”

“Might be a good idea,” Erik looked at Storbon and his team.

“Lets head back up top.”

“You got it boss.”

Gilly and George grew, allowing Erik and Rugrat on their backs.

“Guess we were in there for what, four or five hours?” Erik asked.

Rugrat sniffed his pits.

“Smells like it.”

Erik grinned and checked his notifications as the group headed towards the teleportation pad.

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Skill: Throwables

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Level: 53 (Journeyman)

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Your throws gain 5% power

Stamina used for throwing is decreased by 15%

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You have reached Level 65

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When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 15 points.

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146,596,128/344,700,000 EXP till you reach Level 66

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“Shit its hard to increase any skill now.”

“Could take on another set of skills that you could increase levels on quickly. Cooking for one, or something like that.”

“Maybe once this is done.” Their party moved forward towards the totems.

Erik saw Rugrat off once they were on the living floor. He headed to his private quarters and took a sleeping potion.

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You have 15 attribute points to use.

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Erik looked at his stat sheet.

“Strength is a little high, but agility is enough to control it still. Stamina, well I’m regenerating at forty one points per second. No wonder I needed to have two doses of the sleeping concoction. My mana pool is only at 1160 while my stamina is at 1845 and my mana regeneration is at fifty one. Mana pool it is.”

Erik dumped in all fifteen points, feeling his body start changing as he sunk deeper into sleep.

He opened his eyes sometime later.

“Better than waking up on the damn floor,” Erik snorted, he was still wearing his armor and boots.

He pulled out his stat sheet.

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Name: Erik West

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Level: 65

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Race: Human-?

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Titles:

From the Grave II

Blessed By Mana

Dungeon Master III

Reverse Alchemist

Poison Body

Fire Body

City Lord

Earth Soul

Mana Reborn

Metal Mind, Metal Body

Lesser bloodline

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Strength: (Base 90) +51

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1410

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Agility: (Base 83) +72

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852

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Stamina: (Base 93) +30

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1845

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Mana: (Base 37) +79

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1310

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Mana Regeneration (Base 40) +61

51.50/s

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Stamina Regeneration: (Base 142) +59

41.20/s

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“Time to go train some people.” Erik grunted and got up from his bed. “A shower might be useful.”