The Discarded, Half-Eaten Apple Core New Life

Eternal Ground Pounding and the Third Apocalypse.

The year ended and I gained my just rewards. Not only the five levels from the quest but also another four from crafting giant robots.

> You gained 9 levels! +252 Intelligence (In), +225 Wisdom (Ws), +252 Willpower (Wp), +180 Clarity (Cl), and +162 Hardness (Hd). You have 225 Attribute Points.

> You learned the Perk, Eyes of the Fruit God: Double the reach of your Domain Beacons and increase the angle to 45 degrees.

> You learned the Perk, Chaos Ward: Inside your Domain, change only happens if you allow it. Preventing a phenomenon costs DM proportional to its strength.

On a whim, I put those 225 points in Wisdom. Just because it would bump my Domain and I was giddy about that new Perk. Those weren't the omniscient [Eyes of the Tree God] but I'll take it. My Domain extended ridiculously large now. 21 miles long, and the cone was 17 miles wide at the end. If I cast a beacon straight down into the ground, I could sense a good length into the magma underneath the planet's crust.

The blimps felt crowded now. Each blimp could see four blimps away in each direction, and my scanning to remove volcanic dust and ash from the air went much better. The ozone layer above Australia was back to 1970s levels and the risk of UV radiation was over. I swept with my beacons underneath the crust, filling up some faults and fixing imperfections in the tectonic plate.

I could restore Australia to its pristine form before Western humans ever set foot on this land. I held back because the country was about to become a battlefield.

*

*

They were coming.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't afraid. No. I was scared and panicking. My first instinct was to fly away in my jetpack-enabled personal Mecha, Risky Roulette. Eight Armagellykulls floated over the ocean, crossing over Indonesia and the Philippines. Another three came over the Indian Ocean, probably crossing from the Middle East. Walking over the ocean bed, I could sense some massive Infernali I hadn't met yet.

It had a flat back with hundreds of spiral tubes growing out of it. An egg-shaped head with no protruding features, sunken eyes, and a mouth that ran half the length of the front, with square teeth and no lips. It made it seem like the creepiest grin ever. Its eight legs looked like an elephant's but the beast was massive. I could fit six or eight Jabberwocks on its back, each tube was a hundred feet long, and the monster stood some three hundred feet tall and wide by six hundred long. Six of these were moving toward Australia. Judging by how much their feet sank into the ocean floor, they were also super heavy and massive. They didn't care about stealth as most of them had at least the tubes out of the water.

Slow, too. I made sure to consider that in my strategy.

I issue a recall order to all Guardians and used the beacons to teleport the ones further away back to base. Rta and the Rangers went to the command facility in the base, while the Ranger apprentices, 323 in total, went to the land train near Speranza. Nineteen each for me and the Rangers, they would pilot the sub-pieces of our combiners, to lend their Attributes. They were only level 70 or so, but any boost was a boost.

The Galaxy Defender combiner gained a huge upgrade, due to the combat telemetry and live test data we gathered. Their performance improved by about 40% from the original prototype. We would field seventeen such combiners, against the massive World Bosses that were about to climb on the shores of Australia. My evolution and leveling also helped a lot. My Attributes were about 60% bigger than before. That, combined with the technological improvements, made my personal Mech work 124% better than before. On top of that, I now interfaced directly with the machine, reducing command lag.

It had to be enough.

We deployed the robots and started our combination sequences. The Guardians cheered. If things went well, they wouldn't have to fight at all. I focused on the sky. Thousands of rockets floated a mile above the ground, ready to be aimed and shot at their targets. I had prepared enough, this time. A pang of guilt flashed in my skin, reminding me I could've done more if I hadn't stopped to play with animals and traps. it was worthless worrying about that now.

The Magnawalkers, as I decided to call the new World Boss type, climbed out of the ocean. It would still take them several minutes to reach the shores but the sea there was shallow. They roared loudly, parting their mouths to reveal a tentacled tongue inside. Then I understood what the tubes were for. They bulged at the bottom and pulsed, spitting a black ball in a ballistic trajectory. Hundreds of them out of every monster. These were the artillery-type World Bosses. Let's see who has the better fire coverage.

The blimps opened fire. 450kW lasers heated these projectiles until they burst open. Something kicked the shells toward the lasers and used the momentum to fly away. The lasers tracked the movement and opened fire.

There's no such thing as dodging beams of light. The creatures screeched. Most of them burned up but a lot touched the ground and started to run. They were... squirrels?

Yeah. Squirrels. But not the cute little forest critters we often found in Granny Wilson's backyard in my childhood. No. These were forty feet tall and as fast as a Formula One racing car. They darted and dodged, trying to avoid the lasers' line of fire. Most of them died, however.

> For killing level 175 Gravisquirrel, you gained 16 Experience points.

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[...] 675 similar messages were suppressed.

They had been killed before, the System knew of them. The name gave me an idea of their abilities. Gravity manipulation. That explained how they could run at more than 100 miles per hour with that size. But the fourth volley of black balls was already in the air. It was a matter of saturation. The Magnawalkers were firing enough squirrels to defeat the blimps' ability to kill them.

Time to escalate the situation. Cannons along the blimps opened up and started firing the Mana crystal bombs. I was banking on a cheat Perk I had.

Eternal Ground-Pounding: Every time the same AOE weapon type strikes the same general location, the blast AOE increases by a linear 10%.

I couldn't understand the beauty of that baby until now. I hadn't had the resources to make proper use of it until now. You see, the effective blast radius (in which we could expect to cause some damage) of the Mana Crystal bombs was about a quarter of a mile. Respectable as far as explosives went. But that was the first one that exploded. By the time the fortieth shell hit the same general location, that explosion covered a mile. The eightieth? Two miles.

I had thousands of these bombs loaded on each blimp. I could teleport more from the factories in my Inner World that were at this very moment making them at an accelerated pace. Two hundred of these bombs struck the same location and their blast was already covering five miles. The blimps closer to the Magnawalkers were taking shrapnel but it didn't pierce their armor.

Hordes of Infernali started to climb out of the ocean. Damniablos, Giraffes, and what-nots. It seemed that every demon on the planet decided to join in this attack. Beacons confirmed Some Boboyotes were coming too.

Despite the constant bombardment, the Magnawalkers kept moving forward. The sand and rock of the beaches had been vitrified, shattered, vitrified again, and mixed with the metallic shrapnel of the bombs. Visibility was zero because of the smoke and dust. They tried to fire another salvo but the balls were consumed by the explosions before they flew out of blast range.

Some explosions connected to one another. Shockwaves reached all the way into the outback, making the blimps shake. Each bomb now covered a dozen miles, the blast reaching up into the clouds. Heat and water vapor created a storm and the wind from different explosions started tornadoes. The vortices danced at the sound of the explosions and the poor Northern Australian coast was devastated. Even the gigantic Magna walkers were having trouble finding footing.

Behind them, the Armagellykulls halted. They were spraying their black void goop to keep the explosions from reaching them. I shifted our line of fire. With the blast this big, I was now shooting behind the Magnawalkers, in a vain attempt to keep the blasts from reaching too deep into the land. It was useless.

Eternal Ground-Pounding was the epitome of my Sub-Class. I would keep firing until the blasts became big enough to swallow Asia. To reach the stratosphere. Into space. So long I could sense these monsters, The shells would fly.

But my plan had a flaw. The Mana Crystal bombs were only so strong, only so resilient. Against the constant blasting and the shockwaves, they started to detonate earlier. I reacted by projecting beacons from the blimps and setting an Automation rule. There should be a vacuum around the flying bombs. It weighed on my Materialization speed even at its current value of 354 thousand. But it guaranteed the bombs would reach their target.

Hours passed. I let a few squirrels pass by to give the Guardians a taste of combat. I was sure they could defeat them, especially led by Marshall.

The Magnawalkers climbed on the continental shelf. The Timor Sea was vaporized, which caused tsunamis and massive storms. It rained metal from the bombs. One of my blimps took a critical hit and had its balloon pierced. The Damniablos and other Infernali who attempted to get a foothold on Australia were vaporized. The blasts reached twenty miles horizontally and two or three vertically. Then they stopped growing. I cast a spell on the ground, then used that little patch of Domain to cast a beacon and check on the Magnawalkers. They were bleeding but still in the fight. Most of the tubes were warped, broken, and ripped apart. A red mist mixed with sand, dust, and soot.

> For killing level 175 Gravisquirrel, you gained 16 Experience points.

[...] 3,457 similar messages were suppressed.

> You gained a level! +28 Intelligence (In), +25 Wisdom (Ws), +28 Willpower (Wp), +20 Clarity (Cl), and +18 Hardness (Hd). You have 25 Attribute Points.

> For killing level 175 Gravisquirrel, you gained 13 Experience points.

Level 190 came like that. As I was stronger now, the monsters were worth less. I didn't care. I could wreck the planet and rebuild it later.

Another hour passed. The squirrels reached the Guardians and the battle was brutal and quick. A bunch of bloodthirsty warriors at an average level of 170, boosted by my Blessing and Marshall's leadership perks made mincemeat of the squirrels.

The bombardment went on. Incessant. Relentless. I lost a tally of how many bombs I'd used. I had millions more Mana Crystals waiting to become weapons of mass destruction. The storm washed over the Asian coast. Vietnam, Thailand, and even going as far north as Taiwan and as far west as India. Lightning lit up the dark clouds from inside. I lost another five blimps from cumulative damage and shrapnel. They were replaced, Materialized from a beacon projected from the rear line.

I scanned the ground again. The Magnawalkers were wounded, limping. Some of them had legs that no longer worked. None had the tubes anymore. The Infernali might have deployed their artillery unit, but it didn't compare.

The Infernali World Bosses that were advancing halted and stayed behind the Armagellykulls. Advancing was tantamount to suicide. That left the wounded Magnawalkers exposed and without support.

I flared a beacon down at the ground and triggered a teleportation trap underneath my Galaxy Defender. The cost was steep but the giant Mech was suddenly transported 1,500 miles north, appearing right beside one of the Magnawalkers.

I swung the impossibly large, impossibly thin enchanted sword. This time it was not a haphazard battlefield enchantment. It was a proper magical blade, with an embedded miniaturized qDCSC, which occupied less than four gallons of volume now. it sliced the head of the giant walker, the proportional size of a large dog in comparison to the 500 feet of this new Galactic Defender.

> For killing level 800 World Boss, Magnawalker, in a party, you gained 48,000 Experience. You are the MVP. You gained 50 Attribute points.

The Ranger Apprentices that were piloting with me all gained 2 levels as well. They were the top of their Class on the graduation exam, elites who would soon get their own Galaxy Defender and crew to pilot.

Without wasting time, I teleported another five times, using the fact the dead monster projected no aura to install a trap underneath my Mecha. The wounded monsters were defenseless against me.

> For killing level 800 World Boss, Magnawalker, in a party, you gained 48,000 Experience. You are the MVP. You gained 50 Attribute points.

[...] 4 similar messages were suppressed.

> You gained 12 levels! +336 Intelligence (In), +300 Wisdom (Ws), +336 Willpower (Wp), +240 Clarity (Cl), and +216 Hardness (Hd). You have 300 Attribute Points.

> You have a new Sub-Class slot.

> You reached the Fifth Threshold. For this landmark level only, you gained +20% to all Attributes' Efficiency ratings.

> You gained the Perk, Consecrated Ground: Your Domain hurts Demons and Heretics. If they fail a Willpower contest, they take sqrt(Wisdom + Willpower+Clarity) damage every 10 seconds. Each damage tick requires a separate contest.

> One obsolete Perk was converted into 5% Attribute Efficiency.

> You gained the Perk, Empower Trap: Pay 100% extra DM when creating a trap. This trap gains a 50% boost to one of its parameters.

> You gained the Perk, World Cataclysm: Enemies caught in weather phenomena created by your hurtful things suffer a 25% combat penalty.

> You gained the Perk, Hardened Munitions: Your ordnance adds half your armor rating to their own if it is advantageous. This has no effect on the usefulness of the ordnance.

> You gained the Perk, Beast Boss: You may convert an animal into a boss. It gains an extra 20 levels.

> You gained the Perk, Divine Overclock: Machines infused with your Divinity do their job 40% faster. The infusion lasts 1 month per point of Divinity invested.

> You gained the Perk, Holy Aura: Creatures who would have a direct line of sight to your true form are awestruck. Allies gain a 20% combat bonus, while enemies gain a 35% combat penalty.

> You gained the Perk, Overclock Factory: You can use Divine Overclock on factories.

> You gained the Perk, Bigger is better: Your Mecha gains a 2% combat bonus for every 5% it is larger than an enemy in the longest dimension.

> You gained the Perk, Psionic EMP: You can project an omnidirectional blast of psychic electricity that damages nearby machines up to sqrt(Willpower) yards away. The start point is anywhere in your Domain.

> You gained the Perk, Hardened Staff: Your staff has your armor rating or its own, whichever is higher.

> You gained the Perk, Enchanting Focus: Your staff of power lets you enchant 40% faster.

> You gained the Perk, Enlarge Einherjar: You can double an einherjar's size for 1,000 DM. This size increase lasts for a day.

Fuck yeah. Level 202 baby!