160. Augmentation - 4

160. Augmentation - 4

As I looked at the giant wall three miles away, glowing in the dark of the night with endless magical fires, blue and red clashing, I felt a pang of nostalgia.

I was about to return to where it all had started.

Was my move risky? Certainly. But with the combination of my overwhelming stats, I should be able to take down the summoned monsters rapidly. The only other possible source that could match their output was the Lord Beasts, but finding them took too much time.

"Now, to sneak in," I said to myself, fixed my dark cloak, and tightened my grip around my spear, which was my main weapon, with half a dozen daggers that could be used against the enemies. Then, I jumped, summoning a platform under my feet.

[-1 Mana]

Then another and another, until I was above the clouds, Concealment once again around me. Once I reached above the clouds, I stopped creating platforms. Occasional mana flares miles away from the wall could be ignored, but I couldn't replicate the same trick against the wall.

So, I unfurled my glider, small enough for me to extend my Concealment, and started flying, with the wind on my face.

It was a nice feeling. In my previous life, I had never been a big fan of extreme sports I had enough excitement in my day job, thank you very much but the knowledge that a fall wouldn't do any damage helped me feel comfortable.

Ironic, considering such a fall could end with a desperate chase with an army behind me, but that risk, I was able to ignore. That threat, I could fight against, unlike the effects of a terminal fall.

Without using Speed, it took me almost ten minutes to cover the distance of five miles, still above the clouds, as the occasional flying cart passed close by but they all ignored my presence I doubted anyone with perception was desperately searching for an Assassin flying without mana.

The mana barrier, I passed easily, as it was designed not to keep infiltrators with no presence out, but to stop giant monsters from escaping. And, just like that, I was on the other side.

And was met with a thin cloud of red mist, sticking against my skin, creating a sensation of dirtiness. It wasn't enough to cause any harm, but it was still annoying.

I started absorbing the amount right around my skin, and soon, a notification popped.

[Archery of Destruction (1X)]

Meaning, I had to discharge it regularly for it not to be a problem.

I turned my attention to the environment. Even with the clouds cutting my view, the way things had changed was obvious. The skies were filled with larger corrupted beasts covering the skies, moving with a sense of rage even when they didn't have a target in sight, aggressively attacking the flying castles that floated around.

I wasn't exactly a military expert, but the movement patterns of the castles seemed interesting, looking more like a hunting pattern than a defensive one. I couldn't help but wonder whether it was the spies forcing the military to be less efficient

Or if I wasn't the only one who hoped to use this opportunity to collect some Authority.

Their hunting operation worked to my benefit, distracting the corrupted monsters the Concealment might not work against them, but giant floating rocks radiating mana were a better target than a black shadow emanating nothing.

Only after I moved away three miles, I folded my glider back, and started falling down at a great speed.

Landing right in the middle of a small group of corrupted beasts.

[Invader Slain]

[+71,551 Experience]

If the System worked as usual, a billion excess Experience points would not be as valuable though, seeing Experience Points getting devalued faster than the currency of a collapsing banana republic was a weird feeling and pushing Authority higher seemed to be more useful.

Pushing Limenta to his Level fifties was the utilitarian choice.

I used our connection to explain that change to Zolast as I continued to hunt

And decided to ponder on an important question.

Why were the beasts constantly attacking the military? Looking from the outside, I had thought that it was an attempt to weaken it, but watching the same attack from the inside showed a different picture.

The attacks, apart from that one determined rush that threatened to break the walls, were too regular, and too careless, empowering the military in the process.

Along with their Divine Patrons.

Maybe it was just a bribe, somehow keeping the military complacent while the god of destruction searched for me. Or maybe, the number of cultist agents among the military was less accidental than I had expected.

Probably a combination, considering the way Toross had rebelled.

Dumping yet another immediate problem on my lap before I could handle the previous one.

I considered somehow heating up the battle further, but I decided against it. Instead, I fought for five more hours, using most of the Health pellets and the mana stones I had brought along, my spear about to break.

As a reward, not only had I received enough Experience to push Limenta to level sixty with a confirmation from Zolast that they had completed it, and he was currently busy curing the after-effects of rapid leveling, which seemingly had a much more limited impact thanks to Limenta's new Elevated Life status but I also collected enough to handle my own Abilities to completion.

Also, my Authority had passed another milestone by reaching over thirty thousand, but with no improvement in the required Experience.

Considering the pattern, I expected that to come once I reached above a hundred thousand, I decided not to work for that particular achievement for the moment.

Now, it was time to go back.

"Let's create a distraction," I murmured as I suddenly flared my mana in a directional manner, triggering the aggression of every corrupted beast at range, and started running toward the walls.

Such a horde immediately earned a military reaction, and several flying castles dipped down, using huge mana blasts to clean up the horde weapons that they were reluctant to use before, probably because it didn't grant Experience like ballistas, the System not registering the attack as a personal kill.

The blasts were enough to scare me, making me glad that they were slow enough to dodge even without my speed.

More importantly, their attacks created just enough of a dust cloud for me to use my platform trick to climb to the sky once more, and the mana explosions made it impossible for any mage to notice my presence.

This time, I didn't climb up to the sky, but targeted one of the flying carts that looked like they were moving away from the battle, and landed on top as silently as possible, trusting my concealment to keep me hidden as I laid there.

And stayed silent until the wards parted open, allowing the flying cart to leave the perimeter and climb back to the cloud level and used my glider to depart.

Another successful mission.

However, rather than returning to the base immediately, I chose to dive down, finding another spot nearer to the walls to go through my Promotion. A place that I had already prepared by leaving a cart full of mana stones in place to fuel my Promotion, amounting to hundreds of thousands of Mana points, hoping it to be useful.

It was time to step into the next stage of my power.