Weapons of Mass Destruction

After getting stomped by that demon, I remain seated, replaying our fight and taking notes on a mana stone I brought with me. Some of these things will be very useful for my minion.

While doing this, I reflect on our situation, trying to recall and visualize all those rivers of molten material. There is a suspicion I have and if I'm right, there are big channels in the rock around us through which this molten river, or rivers as the case may be, flow. I’ve also confirmed that some of them are thicker, while others tend to be a bit smaller, and some even move at different speeds. It’s still a mystery to me what actually keeps them moving, but I think they’re serving as a form of inscription.

Molten material flows at high speeds, generating a field that merges with those from the other channels moving at varying speeds, combining into a unique effect. The scale of such a formation would have to be massive, and I can't even fathom the effort required to create something like that so deep underground, at such a size, and then to maintain it for hundreds of years.

We’ve already walked for days, yet the number of rivers we’ve crossed has not decreased.

It certainly makes for a fascinating theory, and knowing what to look for, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out.

Is it possible that the acid rivers are also a part of this systems, what about the veins of metal running through the rock?

(Nat,) Lily warns me.

(I know,) I send back and focus back on my surroundings, watching the Witch and Mais, also known as Spinecrusher, moving closer.

With curiosity, I look at thylarin woman. Wondering what’s made her decide to break her silence and what she wants with the hypothetical prisoner she’s been communicating with.

The first to speak is Mais. “We will be splitting from the rest of the group and continuing deeper as a smaller group.”

As we speak, Lily is already standing by my side, and I notice the twins return, taking a position a bit behind the duo.

Ignoring Mais, I turn to the Witch. “Is it the prisoner you’re after?”

She doesn’t let any surprise show, nor does she even seem to be trying to hide it. “You may call them a prisoner, but the being trapped down there is more than that—a great presence, suffering in its confinement for millennia.”

“And you intend to save it?”

“What I do is my business, human,” she says with disdain. “Shall you and your healer go with us, I can promise there will be material rewards along the way. Enough to satisfy even the deepest greed. I do not care for any of these things.”

“Sounds good. When are we leaving?”

“Five minutes.” With one last look, she turns around and leaves with her bodyguard following her.

Little does she know I would’ve continued even if she’d turned away and returned to the city even if there was no Containment Cell in the end.

We leave quickly, through a tunnel she creates, leaving the rest of the group behind. I’m sure most of them can get back the way we came. There are others who can do much the same things with stone that the Witch has, they just didn’t bother because they had her around. Or maybe they’ll still try to go deeper and find more riches. It’s their life and their decision.

Our new group only contains about twenty people. The Witch, Mais, and even Babyface are here, along with a number of the stronger members from the larger group, some of them carrying interesting things in their backpacks.

I shrug a bit as Biscuit’s whiskers tickle against my neck and put the corgi down. He sniffs towards our destination with such interest that he doesn’t even seem to mind despite needing to run by our side to keep up with our walking speed on his short legs.

Because our group is so much smaller now, the fights become more difficult as well. I was also wrong. The acid attacks don’t stop with the increase in monster attacks. Instead, we get both.

The most common problem is the constant flood of Rotlings, who have been attacking six to a man. After killing them, the Witch has to foil their attempts to cave the tunnels in around us in or pour acid on us through holes in the ceiling.

Sometimes they even combine multiple streams and try to fill the entire tunnel, forcing us to dig through the wall, thankfully though the stone seems to be capable of resisting the green liquid.

One of the guys gets trapped behind us as a small river of acid washes over the wall the Witch was using to block the tunnel. There is no regret or pity on her face, just for a moment she stares toward the wall, her mana senses reaching through it.

When the man’s mana signature disappears, she turns around and we head in again where another group of Rotlings lies waiting.

Lily rushes in first, her axe slashing out in a big sweeping motion, carving through several of the little monsters.

A few of them jump towards her, but the twins are already there, cutting into them and easily avoiding the others, who seem to be terrible at seeing through their illusions. �

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I, meanwhile, move into one of the side tunnels and stand there, waiting.

I create a small crater in front of me as a preemptive measure, and a moment later, a dozen or so Rotlings fill the tunnel, their legs piercing the walls and creating footholds for them to climb on.

All of them freeze and stop moving. Some halt in mid-air, others are caught mid strike. Their tiny bodies fight against the hold I have on them, and more and more kinetic energy flows through me the more they try to move.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

I concentrate, and my heartbeat changes to a more erratic and unpredictable pattern as I swap stance to Needle Point, one of the stances I’ve always found difficult.

Moving the kinetic energy as I’ve been shown so many times before, I launch the first projectile. It’s not perfectly smooth and it’s thicker than a finger, but it reaches the monster, and instead of piercing through its body, it hits its leg.

Using kinetic energy attacks like these at such a long distance still proves difficult. Arm’s reach, or even a few steps in from me is fine, its something I’ve been doing for a while now. But at this distance? I’m just not there yet, but I’m still much better than I was even a few weeks ago.

“Still avoiding killing too many monsters?” Lily asks, coming to a stop by my side, axe resting along her body, her movements still energized from the fight she’s just been through.

“Yup, want them?”

“Sure, why not.”

As she says this, I release the monsters, and after waiting a few seconds to minimize my assistance, Lily rushes at them.

An hour later, I think we are getting closer. The fights are growing more frequent, there are even smaller streams of molten metal rushing through the walls, and the Witch starts saving up more of her mana, as if she doesn’t want to use too much of the mana in her crown.

Like she needs a specific amount of mana to do something.

The field surrounding us is growing stronger, and some of the weaker members are struggling to use mana for their skills due to the interference. It’s fascinating, especially given that I’m certain that this field isn’t even directed at us, more like it’s being concentrated elsewhere. I’ve gathered this mostly from mapping the three-dimensional network of rivers and streams around us and examining the structure in my mind.

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The inscriptions are fairly simple, so I can guess their purpose even without a complete picture. The power source behind all of this is still a mystery to me, but then again, my passive skill’s mana reservoir is also being stored, who knows where, outside my body while remaining connected to it. I can easily imagine someone doing something similar, actively concealing the power source in the same way.

Obviously, it still annoys me that I’m unable to locate it.

“Nice eyes you have. Is it a trait?” Babyface, seeing as he’s struck out trying to convince Lily to join his group again, he must have decided to bother me.

“Yes.”

“Look, I hope you don’t mind I talked to your healer and tried to get her to join my group,” he smiles, the act somehow making his face even more ugly.

“It’s fine. If she wants, she can join you.”

“Oh, how reasonable. The problem is that she doesn’t want to. Healers as powerful as her are very rare. To be honest, I’m surprised those mind manipulator dickheads haven’t snatched her up yet, let alone some other powerful group. You guys must be still be quite new here.”

“Yes, we’ve only been here a few months.”

“I guess that’s why. What did you do to get thrown here?”

Continuing to examine the structure in my mind, I think for a moment before just shrugging and staying quiet.

“It’s fine, friend, you don’t have to tell me,” he smiles. The whole time he speaks, even though he comes off rough, like someone one might expect to be impulsive or aggressive, he actually manages to control himself pretty well.

Izzy could probably tell me his true feelings, but to me, he looks like a reasonable person at the moment. He talks with an easygoing voice, gestures in a non-threatening manner, and doesn’t try to get too close or use excessive amounts of mana to come off as aggressive.

Of course, I’ve already seen the way he acts in fights and how he treats the weaker members of the group, so it’s a bit late for him to be acting like that.

Coming to a conclusion, I ask, “How much has Mais told you about me?”

I watch with a hint of amusement as a flicker of hesitation flashes across his face before he masks it with a smile. “Sharp, aren’t you?”

I don’t even think something like that deserves a compliment, but I see it as yet another communication strategy. Everyone likes compliments, even if they’re empty.

His voice turns to a whisper. “Tell me, how the hell did you kill that guy? That maniac was someone even The Witch didn’t want to mess with.”

Annoyed with the exchange I tell him, “Not your problem. But there is one thing that’s been bothering me.” I say, bringing my voice down to a whisper as I take a step closer. “My healer has turned you down three times already, made it clear she’s not interested in joining your shitty group. So, don’t bother her again, and don’t even look at her in a way you think I might not like. Got it, friend?”

I lower my voice even further. “I won’t even waste my time dealing with you myself—I’ll just ask her to get rid of you. Now screw off; I have work to do.”

“No problem. Sorry for bothering you… Nathaniel,” he says with a smile, taking a few steps back while maintaining eye contact, as he leaves.

Before continuing with my work, I begin to wonder if it’s really normal to have all of our expeditions go like this and how much more different it feels when it’s just the members of Group 4 and I wonder if it would be the same in Beyond with a party composed solely of people from Earth.

I would like to think it’s just the system pushing these fakes, the natives, to deal with attendees with the intent to speed up our growth, but I know far too many people to think it could be that alone.

Especially here within Astral Prison, which some prisoners seem to have taken to calling “the trashcan,” the idea being that this is where people go when no one wants to deal with them.

A day passes, and even I’m being forced to fight now, even though it’s strictly a support roll, keeping my assistance as low as possible, I mostly just keep the waves of monsters from moving and release them one after another.

Most of the time, it’s Lily who takes them out then. When she finds herself faced with any monsters she can’t cut, she uses the axe still the same, wielding the blade as a hammer instead, squashing monsters against the ground with great force.

A few more guys die along the way. We lose one to acid, another to a cave-in, and a third just gets pulled away into the tunnels by a hoard of Rotlings. I’m not trying to save my body’s supply of mana, as it regenerates quickly enough to spare my Reservoir and I help everywhere I can.

Pushing monsters away, crushing them against the wall, holding them with kinetic energy.

The entire time I keep my eyes active and my senses firing off into the area, and I’ve been doing so since the start. A constant rippling of my [Perception] outward, keeping me ready to teleport my group away.

Not even once have I underestimated the danger of this place, I still remember just how dangerous Caius was, even crippled as he was, imprisoned within the Mana Desert.

Lily fights well, as do the twins—often alone, without cooperating, using even this as an opportunity to practice. And Biscuit… well, he waits, rarely jumping in, like he’s been saving his energy for something.

As for the rest of the group, The Witch has been in constant communication with that presence I’ve finally begun to sense on the edge of my “radar,” her expression changing from that cold glare to a look of hope, anger, sadness, and desperation. In a twisted blend of emotion.

Mais stays close, the four swords vibrating with kinetic energy as they rest in his hands, his movements reminiscent of Pulser Stance.

Other than him, Babyface is the strongest, no longer bothering us and staying close to the mentioned duo, his face sometimes taking on a weird expression not unlike the Witch's. It makes me wonder what originally brought him down here. Is it greed? Or is his purpose similar to the Witch’s?

We stop by a small outpost, nestled against a wall with several veins of metal running through it. The place is dark and eerily quiet, small streams of acid run through the cavern, and the air is full of toxic vapor.

As far as I understand, this is the furthest any expedition has ever been, nobody’s ever reached this place before, something or other always stopped them, whether it was a lack of mana, or inexperience, but the greatest factor was probably the confusing layout forcing them to wander for days under constant attack. But this time, unlike the previous expeditions, the Witch is following her connection and is leading us directly to the source.

The materials we find down here are well worth the effort. Metals up to arcane grade, pieces of amazing crystal capable of enduring the pressure of incredibly dense and power-hungry inscriptions.

There’s a huge smithy carved into one of the walls, with an anvil as big as a car in the center and a piston-style hammer above it, both made from material that helps to reflect mana—so tough that even Lily can’t damage them with her weaker version of [Disintegration] as she makes her surreptitious attempt.

There are a few golden hued fragments of chain that seem to be made from a similar material, despite their odd coloring and the additional effects granted by the inscriptions that have been etched into them through unknown means. These shattered chains are massive, each piece is as big as my torso and they’re all very heavy.

Everyone takes some materials from the storage, careful to maximize value for weight, and when they are done, I step towards the anvil, activating [Ley Line].

All of the mana in my body disappears, along with the anvil.

A third of my Reservoir disappears, and the hammer with it.

The two remaining thirds of my Reservoir disappear and take the fragmented golden chains with them.

Using the last remaining bits of my mana, I touch a specific Ley Line, and within a flash, my [Mana Crown] appears over my head. The exact same design as the Witch’s, just a different color.

My mana seeps into my body, filling it, and my reservoir as well, and I continue to send all the materials I can away, totally emptying the store room.

[Ley Line - lvl 38 > Ley Line - lvl 39]

My crown then disappears as well, returning to float over the bust far away and I face the shocked members of the expedition.

POV The Witch

Impossible. The space here is too unstable for long-range teleportation, yet he managed it. Even after the activation, I couldn’t trace where he sent the materials.

And that crown too, it’s a lot more full than I had expected when I sensed the familiar skill on him.

(Underestimate humans, Melel, and they’ll surprise you. Always have.)

(I apologize.)

(No need. But please hurry. The pain... it’s unbearable.)

(I will. Forgive me.)

The voice, echoing like a distant memory of my mother, murmurs, (Use that human and the weapon he carries. It can free me.)

(As we planned. I’ve marked it. He’s still unaware.)

(You’ve always had a gift for this, my child. But beware of the small creature with him—don’t let it near me. Eliminate it if necessary.)

The pain surges again. Turning away from Mais, I grit my teeth, fist clenched, waiting for the wave to pass.

(I'm sorry, dear Melel.)

(It’s fine. It’s my weakness for not being able to bear our connection.)

(Please hurry. It hurts.)

Her gentle voice fades into silence as I channel more mana to keep my body from fracturing, forcing myself into composure before turning back to give the next set of commands.