Chapter 198

Chapter 198

Matt walked through an alley and shied away from the shadows that reached out to try and touch him. It was just an instinct, but something told him that if he allowed the shadows to touch him, hed never be able to leave.

At first, it was easy to casually walk along, but with each step he took, it became harder and harder to progress. Soon, he was jumping and flipping, using every bit of his Tier 1000 bodys prowess to avoid the grasping shadows.

Just as the shadows were about to finally entrap him, he felt someone push him from the side, and he woke up with a start.

Liz had her face buried into her pillow and murmured, Bad dream. Tossing and turning.

Matt kissed her forearm draped across his chest, then slipped out from under it and into the living room.

There, he found Aster standing guard. Which meant she was curled around a carton of ice cream and using her spiritual perception to watch their surroundings.

With their shielding, their house was nearly impervious from attacks, but nearly impervious wasnt enough this deep in Minkalla.

Aster felt him arrive then whined in what he interpreted as a question, and he quietly explained, Weird nightmare. I was super strong but trapped in an alley, and shadows were trying to trap me forever. So yeah, Ill give you some company for a bit until I settle down.

His bond picked up her ice cream and settled into his lap, where he brushed her fur while she ate her treat.

While he sat there, he contemplated his dream and the implications it carried, and what they said about himself.

If his fading memories of the dream were right, he had been something like Tier 1000, and impossibly strong. But despite all that power, he had still been cornered and captured like a mundane human, in the end.

He interpreted the dream as his brain trying to reconcile the danger of Minkalla and the realization that eventually, the Emperor and other high Tier people like Luna wouldnt be able to protect him. Soon, he would be in danger everywhere he went, in every waking moment.

Minkalla was the first time since he had gotten a manager that his life was in immediate danger, and there was no one who could pull him out of the fire if it got too hot.

The idea of death had never been far, but Matt and his team had been seriously wounded, and now, they were on a floor where they could actually run out of mana for their skills if they weren't careful.

Even his Talent couldn't fix the issue when the cost of a skill became more than an entire mana pool.

This floor had the possibility of being a hard stop for them, if they weren't careful.

It was a degree of danger that Matt had known about but hadn't really conceptualized as he should have.

But while they were in Minkalla, there was nothing they could do but push through. So, after he mulled over the feelings he was left with, he did his best to push them out of his mind.

Without his AI to translate Asters yips, he was forced to rely on their bond, but they didnt really need any more than that. She was comforting him, and wanted him to know that it was just a bad dream, which was quite appreciated. The follow up thoughts of her wanting a warm brownie with her ice cream were also meant to comfort him, he was sure.

Aster didnt have a selfish bone in her body after all. Not a single one.

They were watching a movie when Susanne came out to take over the guard shift, and Matt took the opportunity to go back to sleep himself.

After brewing Susanne some coffee, he slipped back into bed with Liz and the leg cooler that was Aster.

When he woke up the second time, after a dreamless nap, they set off quickly after a small bite to eat.

The second level of this floor was better than the maze they had been stuck in, but the waves of rats that they were up against had forced them to dip into their spell usage, despite their trying to rely mostly on items.

It could have been worse, admittedly. The rats were swarm monsters, and were quite weak individually, meaning Liz could just cast [Blood Sprites] and allow the multiplying nature of the spell to wipe out most of the horde.

Even then, they had to deal with the next wave as they pushed forward, which quickly made the tactic untenable. Though, after clearing an area of the rats, they were able to slowly bait the rest into the room and finish them off in smaller numbers that they could safely handle.

Susanne got to test out [Crescent Sweep] for the first time, and she seemed to deeply enjoy the ability to make her sword spin through dozens of rats at a time. The ability to summon a second copy of her manifestation and use that for a potent short ranged attack, while also attacking normally, would catch a lot of people off guard.

After they finished the labyrinth ruin and entered a forest, they decided to retreat and take a break for a few hours to get some sleep.

Without their buffing spells, they were spending more energy with each fight, and without [Endurance], they were unable to magically purge the exhaustion from their bodies either.

They could use potions to help, but that would burn through their limited supply, and even potions couldnt be used one after another without side effects.

So they went without.

It slowed them down a little, but everyone should have nearly the same problems and restrictions.

As they moved into the forest, Matt gripped his sword with one hand, and his staff in his off-hand, prepared to cast spells the second something attacked them.

Except, there was nothing.

As they sped up slightly, they discovered the aftermath of battle in the form of trampled trees and shrubbery, but it had been long enough ago that Minkalla already reclaimed everything.

At nearly the same time, they felt a bright beacon of Genesis Energy ahead of them, like a shining star to their spiritual sense, as soon as they came into range. It felt like one single person, but they couldnt be too sure.

It took the four of them nearly half an hour, but eventually, they encountered the nude man that they had seen in the second floor's safe room, fighting a swarm of monkeys with various colored fur.

Not wanting to seem like they were going to attack him, they stopped and watched. As they did so, Matt whistled.

The man was a fantastic fighter, which he would have to be without any weapons or armor.

Each attack missed him by inches; the man was just a bit faster than all of his opponents, and somehow was able to keep track of the entire troop during the skirmish.

After dodging the dozen or so monkeys' attacks for roughly fifteen seconds, he finally launched his own counter attack, and his fist lashed out like a falling meteor that sought to wipe out all life on the planet.

As his fist landed, all of the monkeys exploded at the same time in a display of gore.

Even before the bodies hit the ground, he spun and faced them.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

In the corporation language, he asked something, but seeing their non reaction, he changed to the Republicans language. Seeing their blank stares, he finally asked in perfect Empire, Is there something I can help you with?

Once more, Matt was surprised. The mans Empire was textbook perfect, despite the man not using an AI to translate, which was impressive. Even Luna hadnt bothered to teach them the other Great Powers languages beyond a few key words, having considered it a waste of their limited time.

The man seemed to be avoiding confrontation by denying anyone the ability to determine where he was from, which was an interesting strategy. Few people would be willing to attack members of their own nation; national loyalty ran strong in many cultivators, so plausible deniability on his origin would at the least give people pause. Just like what was happening now.

Matt assumed that the man must have a spatial storage implanted in his body somewhere, as there would be no way that anyone would be willing to go through Minkalla without the ability to carry items around. In addition to being a waste of loot, all of the growth item floors wouldnt do anything if one didnt have an item to use them on.

Liz shook her head. We were just looking for monsters to fight, and stumbled upon your battle.

The man nodded and pointed to their right. From your direction, I assume you came from the rat caves? At Lizs nod, he continued, Theres a Horse-Lizard ruin that way, if you wish. Or if you would rather fight for this ruin, I will welcome your challenge.

Liz shook her head. Not necessary. Well take our leave then.

Having said that, the four of them turned and started walking in the indicated direction, while keeping a portion of their spiritual sense on the nude man. He didnt make any aggressive moves, and after they passed through the treeline, he similarly turned around and moved deeper into the ruin.

As they moved in the direction he had indicated, they were attacked by a few of the monkeys that hadn't been defeated by the naked man, and they slowly killed their way forward.

Upon reaching the dividing line between ruins, the surroundings went from a lush forest to a grassy plain, where they found a herd of horses with scales and long, thick tails.

Matt shot a [Mana Bolt] at the nearest one, and the entire herd of twenty turned on them and started charging. If it had been a normal rush forward, that would have been fine, but they all used [Charge] to accelerate their mad dash. They seemed to be pouring mana into the skill, because they continued to run even faster as they came closer, each step carrying them further than the last.

Matt and the others simply took to the sky, and used the height advantage to kill the monsters that tried to curve upward with their Concepts. While [Charge] was a dangerous move, it had the weakness of making it hard to change one's direction, and they ruthlessly took advantage of that fact.

Sadly, the horse lizards werent mindless beasts. Seeing that their first collective charge only yield aerial counterattacks, they canceled their spells and turned in various directions before trying once more to use [Charge] and attack them. Being in the air and having three different attack vectors to worry about increased the threat of the horses advance, but Matt and his team didnt have any issues in dodging the monsters, even without their AI tracking them.

There were a few close calls, but they finished the horses off and started to loot the items they dropped, when all four of them felt the new arrivals with their spiritual senses. A group of ten people came out from the forest and immediately started casting spells directed at them.

Matt didnt hesitate to cast [Bulwark], relying on the spell to defend his allies. Even still, he was staggered by the damage that the spells did to his own. Their attackers werent holding anything back in their initial bombardment.

Aster immediately cast [Hail] and used the ice as a screen to cover the follow up attacks, while gathering the ice on the ground and sending it forward at the their attackers in a small wave.

Their attackers split at the sight of the wave, and in two groups of five, tried to flank and pincer them. But Matt and Aster broke off to face one group, while Liz and Susanne held off the other.

It wasnt a comforting trend, as it only promised to get worse as they slowed down and ventured deeper, where everyone was pushed further together.

As Matt lay down on the floor, he concentrated on keeping the mana in their reserves topped up while working his still sore jaw.

Liz started going through the first group's gear, but it was indistinct and didnt have any telltale signs from any of the Great Powers. But like Matt had said earlier, it was well crafted gear, about as good as Minkalla would allow.

Thankfully, Tier 14 materials and enchantments could only be so strong within the restrictions of the planet, which prevented teams like this from coming in with Tier 20 disposable weapons, and just killing everyone they encountered with wealth.

The second team that attacked them, and had been killed by Matts [Cracked Mana Spear], were a different story altogether.

They, unlike the first group, were very obviously Republican delvers, judging by their gear and items. As far as Matt could tell from the quality of their gear, the team had been on the Republican equivalent of the Path, though they werent notable enough to have been included in any of the briefings that Matt had received. Unfortunately for them, they were a case study in the dangers of delving too deep and too greedily; all their years of hard work were wasted because of a single bad decision.

Matt was just about to take a nap when he felt a ripple of Genesis Energy flow through his spirit, and it traveled with the mana he was sending into the house.

He jerked up, despite the pain, and started concentrating as much as he could on the sensation of the house becoming a growth item.

As his Genesis Energy flowed out of his spirit, he was able to follow it as it spread like an infection through the house. It wasnt a perfect description, but it was the best way he could describe the change.

The Genesis Energy from his spirit spread through the houses physical material and the accompanying spirit, but where it passed through, the material was changed. The spirit and materials of the items were strengthened and reinforced, while also binding to him like his other growth items. From their relatively ordinary house, things shifted and twisted as the Genesis Energy worked its magic.

Matt could feel as the unique energy completed its first pass and encompassed the physical house, before it started making leaps.

First, it jumped to his kitchen and started flowing through his range, and then to his fridge, and then to his spatially expanded cabinets. Even as he watched, the enchantments he had personally laid out morphed and changed. The changes werent large, and as far as he could tell, the function of the runes didnt change. Just like he observed with Susannes armor binding, it was like print letters being changed to cursive.

After his kitchen was absorbed into the collective whole that was the house, both his and Lizs work stations started to be absorbed at the same time.

He tried to concentrate on both, but focused most of his attention on his own room. What he found interesting was that he could feel his workstation itself bind to the room, and then to the house as a whole. It was like a nested binding that made absolutely no sense when he considered what he knew about linking enchantments, but the Genesis Energy seemed to easily accomplish the task anyways.

At the same time, as they were bound, he noticed that his workstation did what he could only call settling in. It was like they became unified and singular, despite remaining distinct items. With a thought, Matt knew that he could merge the two tables that made up an L shaped desk into a seamless whole, and then break them apart once again, but he wasnt so limited as to just return them into the original shapes. No, he was able to break off just a foot of the greater whole to create a smaller table that he could move around.

His tools also seemed to melt away into the workshop, and he knew that he could summon a carving pen at a whim, as long as he was inside the room.

As far as he could tell, Lizs workshop had the same things happen to it, but he wasnt nearly as familiar with it as he was his own, and he wasnt able to really investigate the changes there before both of the bedrooms started transforming.

The changes were smaller, but like the workshops, the furniture merged into one with the room as the Genesis Energy passed through.

As it hit the bathroom, he paused to inspect the changes a little more thoroughly, but found nothing new there either.

Watching the living room, and finally, the mana storage room change, Matt tried to commit the changes and how they happened to his memory, so he could try and replicate them eventually.

He paid extra attention to the house as a whole as he felt the Genesis Energy finishing its job.

Like with every item Minkalla converted to a growth item, they all got something extra added, and he wanted to see how that happened.

From the runes and enchantments he knew so well, he felt something extra taking form, like a whale rising from the depths and pushing the water above it away. That was the best way he could describe the way runes seemed to appear out of the Genesis Energy that had infiltrated the house's spirit.

Then as the new runes appeared, the Genesis Energy retreated back into his spirit, signaling that the conversion was over, and weighed down on his spirit like a lead blanket.

As it ended, Matt started making notes on a pad of paper he pulled out of his spatial ring and jotted down everything he could while it was still fresh in his memory.

The instant his pen stopped, Aster yipped, and Liz asked, What did the house get?

Matt blinked at them before shrugging. Don't know. Haven't checked yet. I was trying to note down what I felt first.

Liz rolled her eyes so hard she fell back into the couch while Aster flopped into her.

Susanne tried to suppress her laughter at seeing their exasperation, as her barely healed abdomen would have made laughing quite painful, and he took the opportunity to inspect the house and the feeling it gave him.

He twitched slightly as he realized what the house actually did.

As he tried to speak, he ended up stammering, What kind of growth item needs stuff like this? That's stupid. How does that even count?

Seeing the two other humans' amused expressions and feeling his bond, Matt scooped up and blew a raspberry on her head. The house eats other houses to upgrade itself and expand. I also sense that we can upgrade individual parts, like our workshops, by buying a new one and letting the house absorb it. Frankly, I'm disappointed to the extreme. Well need to buy new houses anyway, so why bind as a growth item? We could have just used the new house. It feels pointless.

Liz rubbed his shoulder and stopped laughing long enough to ask, Would you really want a new house anyway? You love this one so much.

Matt tsked at her point as he couldnt deny it. I like it because its mine. Future houses would also be mine but you arent wrong, I do like this one. I just wish it had a better ability..

Aster, on the other hand, squirmed free of his grasp and into their storage area before returning with a ring in her mouth.

As Matt grabbed it, he realized that she had brought the house they had found in the third-floor safe rooms area.

It was worth a test, and they all piled out of the house to drop the other house next to their original one.

The other house was smaller than their own, but even more opulent and well crafted.

Matt turned to Susanne, as she also had a stake in this house, so he couldn't just let his own house absorb it without her approval.

He didnt even need to say anything before she gestured for him to continue.

With her go ahead, he thought of their house absorbing the new house, and it did exactly that.

Their houses seemed to stretch slightly before its edge merged with the smaller house, and then it started to absorb the smaller house like a slime eating its prey.

It was slightly horrifying to watch, but Matt was more occupied with the feedback that the house was giving him.

He found it interesting that he could expand the individual rooms of the house, or add entirely new rooms with the additional material from the house being consumed, but he immediately rejected that option.

Their house was already as large as it could be with their current spatial ring, and if it got any larger, they wouldn't be able to take it with them, but thankfully, he was able to guide the upgrade.

Instead of enlarging the house itself, he was able to send the materials into their own house and improve various functions.

Their old shower and bathroom was replaced with the smaller house's full tub and better enchantment suite, even though he was forced to expand the room slightly into their bedroom closet. They really didnt need the closet space anymore, because they had more spatial rings than they knew what to do with. He likely would have moved the walls around anyways, after getting out of Minkalla, so doing it now with no effort was a minor but welcome boon.

After inspecting the kitchen, he kept his own appliances. The other house had much better appliances, but they werent built to the same standard sizing as he was used to. He would have had to spend a lot of effort to directly incorporate them to his original house, while also giving up some countertop space. Instead, he was able to direct his house to improve the existing kitchen with the cannibalized materials of the other house, adding in better self cleaning functions and spots on the countertop that would keep plates placed on them warm. All of the appliances were improved to varying degrees and effects. Though, he always thought it was a bit of a waste every time he saw that something became more mana efficient.

Matt then felt prompted to make a decision about the emptied armory in the smaller house, but as he couldn't just add the room to their house, he was forced to sacrifice it as well.

That turned out to be the right decision, as he felt his houses shield generators become more efficient and adaptive to outside attacks. There was some slight feeling from consuming the armory that the house would be able to attack back, if fed a few more similar houses.

Even better, he felt their mana storage crystal absorb the other houses, letting it store even more mana in the same volume.

That, more than anything else, was a boon sent by Minkalla itself. It nearly ensured that he would never have an issue with finding ways to increase his own mana pool as he Tiered up, if his read on how much additional capacity it had gained was right.

It wouldnt have been his first option to convert into a growth item, but Matt was content with how things turned out. He did love his house, and knew himself well enough that he would have pushed them to continue living in it long after they could have afforded something better.

But this was a good solution, even if he would have preferred to bond with well, pretty much any of his other commonly-used items over it.

He just wished they weren't constrained by spatial ring size, and that he could add more rooms. Some of the other teams they had killed and looted had also had houses that they could absorb, if only their rings had the space to hold the upgrades.

As they entered back into the house, Matt started showing off the new abilities, and even learned that he could grant people permission to change things like he could.

He seemed to have greater rights, and could lock things down so others couldn't change it, but it made it convenient for Liz so she could change her workshop, and allowed Susanne to rearrange her room with a thought.

They spent half a day recovering before they finally put the house away and continued their slaughter of the horse lizards.

Even injured and limited on spells, the Tier 14 monsters were no direct threat to them as long as they were careful, and didnt pull too many teams at once.

As fun as the new items were, they needed to try and pull as far ahead as they could to avoid having to fight over Genesis Energy with other teams.