PoA: Minkalla Chronicles Floor 5

PoA: Minkalla Chronicles Floor 5

Minkalla Chronicles Floor 5

Alvin looked at the cluster of buffalo with various elemental horns and contemplated how he could kill them.

Things had changed.

His team had earned enough Genesis Energy on the fourth floor, but with his repeated injuries and captures, he had been stuck in a rut. If not for those blasted extortionists taking all of his Genesis Energy for a single potion, he could have left with them, but no.

They had left him.

If that had been the only problem, it wouldn't have been an impossible rut to get himself out of, but when his team up and vanished one day, that rut became more of a canyon.

So, he decided to risk it and head deeper into Minkalla.

It was always a risk to head further in, where the planet got smaller and the people were closer together, but the monsters gave more Genesis Energy per kill as well. That combined with the exit reward not scaling meant he could, in theory, get away with a few dozen kills. Then, hed just have to find cleared areas to push through the three levels of the next floor and exit without too much fighting.

Except, he once again had awful luck.

Taxing Skills was never a good floor, but considering he had been robbed of most of his belongings besides his weapons and armor, he was faced with an issue.

How was he supposed to kill monsters this tough and durable?

If this was a rift, he would simply attack one of them at the edge and kite around them until he could whittle it down. But this was Minkalla, and things were never that easy. The monsters here weren't necessarily different, but these were herd creatures, and the first time he had tried to split the group, the entire pack had chased him down.

He had been forced to exit into the adjoining ruin to get them to break off the chase.

That tendency to group up and attack also explained why those monsters, in particular, werent killed like everything else on this floor.

Despite this floor being the antithesis to large scale magic, Alvin couldnt walk ten feet without seeing the signs of battle.

Large swaths of forests were burned or uprooted, deep pits littered the landscape, slowly filling with water, and in one particularly noteworthy area, a large portion of a desert was glassed.

Whatever fire mage thought it was worthwhile to spend that much mana on a floor that made skills more expensive with each cast was either desperate, or dumb.

Either way, Alvin avoided that ruin in case the monsters that would eventually respawn were stronger than the average.

So, he pushed on and eventually found the ruin with the buffalo.

As far as he could tell, it was the only ruin without most of its monsters killed off.

And he didnt know if he would be able to find enough monsters to satisfy his Genesis Energy needs without killing at least some of the buffalo.

He estimated that he was about eighty percent of the way to his goal, after a long, long time spent killing Fae, but the creatures here were so few and far between, hed be hard-pressed to close the gap.

Sighing, he decided against trying to fight the buffalo, and instead decided to look around for the few monsters that would have respawned in the meantime.

While Minkalla would boot him out at the end of the cycle, he had, at minimum, four more years before the earliest time the cycle could end, so he had time.

As someone over a thousand years old, he could be patient.

Even when he didnt want to be.

It took him almost six weeks, but he found an out-of-the-way ruin only accessible by a single entrance, next to a lava-filled ruin which few people were likely to stumble upon by accident.

Better yet, the monsters in the ruin were a physically strong, but magically weak type of zombie, which meant he could fight them without resorting to skills. After more than a year of slow farming as the monsters respawned, he slowly gathered up Genesis Energy to the point where he was halfway to his goal.

If he ventured out of the undead ruin, he could have gathered more Genesis Energy faster, but he knew he still needed to leave the floor, and might need to cast spells during that time to beat some of the bosses on each level, so chose the slower-but-safer method.

Even with nobody around to hear him, he complained to the thin air about the slow respawn rate, averaging just under a single monster per day.

Still, it was safer than remaining on the fourth floor and risking getting captured once again.

Three years after he entered the fifth floor, he finally felt the Genesis Energy in his spirit reach the point he could take the fourth floor exit reward. It actually surprised him, as the information jolted him from the stupor he had fallen into in the last few years.

Packing up his things, he pulled out his flying sword and immediately flew out of the ruin and through the nearest two, to find a boss rift he had found cleared when he was exploring.

Thankfully, the distortion was still there, and he entered it without hesitating.

He didnt care about rewards or skills. He just wanted his Concept to break through to Tier 15.

When he reached the third level of the floor, he found a team battling a ghost like boss and waited a respectful distance as they finished the boss off. When he was sure they had gone through the distortion, he followed up and walked into the distortion as well.

He wasnt even given the opportunity to take the floor challenge, as he didnt have enough Genesis Energy, but he didnt care.

The instant he appeared in the safe room, he readied his shield for an attack that never came.

Spreading out his spiritual sense and looking with eyes, he saw that most everyone was keeping to themselves, and was either wounded and recovering, or bartering with the trader who had set up shop.

Ignoring it all, he ran at the crystal pillar in the center of the room.

Alvin almost didnt believe it when his fingered touched the pillar, and he was given the option to exit or head deeper.

He had expected someone to attack him or try and rob him, despite no one being near enough to do so.

As he disappeared, he felt a list of his passed floor rewards being offered and let out a breath, seeing he both had access to and could afford the floor four reward.

Mentally selecting it, he felt the Genesis Energy he had painstakingly gathered rush and swirl into his cultivation cores, filling and then shattering the bottled Concept he had used to break through to Tier 10 so many years ago.

Even as the Genesis Energy settled into place, he was given the option to choose his exit destination, and with a feeling of relief he never knew he could feel, selected the Empires moon.

Appearing on a random street, he knelt down and let out a sound that was somewhere between a cry and scream, venting the last thousand years of frustration.

With a thought, he pulled out an essence stone and absorbed the energy to his spirit and immediately crunched with it, breaking through to Tier 15.

Even as his AI was inundated with offers from celebration halls, he just took a moment to take everything in.

He was immortal.

He had all the time in the world.

Looking at his hand that had started to show the signs of wrinkles and age he was keenly aware of despite his gauntlets, he threw his head back and started to laugh.

***

Valerie clenched her armor-covered fist and punched the orc in the face.

Metal met flesh, and the flesh of the creature exploded.

Taxing Skills was one of the five most annoying floors for a Paladin candidate, thanks to the block on [AI] usage, but she knew what was important, and it wasn't rushing ahead and killing everything for Genesis Energy.

Oh, the Genesis Energy was important; vital, even. But she wasnt gathering it for the rewards, even though she took each one from the floors she passed.

As a Tier 12, they weren't so expensive and were quite useful.

But her entire purpose of entering Minkalla was to have the set of armor protecting her bind to her as a growth item, which had thankfully been forced by the fourth floor reward.

The Paladins were one of the most elite forces the Corporations had to offer. While the Chosen were their answer to the Sects Young Masters and the Monster Collectives Alphas, the Paladins were an entirely separate military unit that were based on two extremely valuable resources.

The first and most obvious of the two was the hyper-advanced magitech power armor she wore almost like a second skin. It was a wonder of modern engineering, handcrafted by entire teams of the greatest crafters the Corporations had and formed entirely from natural treasures, Talent-made materials and fused into a single, beautiful and cohesive whole.

The second resource were the remnants of a Talented crafter who Ascended ages ago that could create rechargeable custom mana stones, with each able to hold an insane amount of mana for their size. They were integral to the function of the armors at higher Tiers, when they could burn upwards of millions of mana every second.

She didnt have any of those crystals with her, of course. Not only were they worth far more than everything else in the suit combined, which already cost exa-credits to produce, but they failed the single most important requirement for the entire suit.

Everything had to be below Tier 15.

The goal of the armor, after all, was to bind to someone and turn into a growth item.

And as it was a single item by design, if it did bind, it would bind as a whole.

Valerie had trained for nearly five hundred years before getting this chance, and she wasnt going to squander it.

Her power armor had been into Minkalla twice before her entrance, and was generally considered unlucky, if not outright cursed. But Valerie had been the one to bind with it. Even if she hadnt gotten a floor that automatically bound it to her, she was sure it would have happened anyway.

From the moment she was encased in the seven foot tall armor system, she knew they were destined to work together.

Using her shield, she blocked the next blow and drove her vibro knife through the orc's armor.

Stepping out and down, she shattered another's leg before firing her mana cannons at the remaining two creatures.

She could have killed all the orcs from a distance, but melee combat had shown a small but historically noticeable tendency to increase the chance of binding to the power armor.

When the final orc fell and started to dissolve, she checked her readout and saw that she only had seven percent mana left, and signaled the team behind her to retreat.

Her handlers.

Her power armors protectors.

They would watch her kill herself in combat, but the second she died, they would immediately move in and claim the power armor.

It was far too valuable to allow Minkalla to absorb it, after all.

Force the Realm to remember your passing.

Lesson forty-seven. A classic.

***

Long Zhiyuan watched the team from the Clans and was about to move when he felt four sources of Genesis Energy start approaching with a hostile speed.

Backing up into the shadows, he sent more mana into his obscuring cloak and let it hide his presence from spiritual perception.

That, combined with having most of his Genesis Energy in a ring, meant he was nearly undetectable.

Once the attacking team passed his hiding spot, he rushed forward with his claws ready to rip out the last man's throat.

His hand was just inches away from flesh when the man turned and cut out at him.

Dodging, Long Zhiyuan barely avoided catching the blade in the face, and seeing he wouldnt get his clean kill, activated [Heavenly All Seeing Eye].

The technique started parsing the information, and he immediately set two of his clones to fighting the man's copies.

It wouldn't be a perfect copy of the man, but his technique was now upgraded and had a better measure of people it encompassed.

Withdrawing a sword and shield, he stored his cloak so as to not damage it and engaged the man with more traditional weapons.

He nearly caught the man, but he was good with his blade, and almost caught Long Zhiyuan a number of times as well.

A rare occurrence, as people who could match his training efforts were hard to find.

And Talented.

That was always a possibility he couldn't discount.

Still, [Heavenly All Seeing Eye] would eventually gather all the information he needed, and then he would learn how to beat anyone.

He was just settling into the brutal rhythm of a life and death battle with an equal when they were attacked by another party.

That wouldnt do.

After taking care of the trash, Long Zhiyuan jumped back at the man, but to his surprise, he shot out a weapon that activated his last measure defensive artifact.

Despite the Sect leader not liking him, Soaring Clouds Sect knew how to take care of its most valuable resource, and commissioned him a set of embroidery for his robes that would protect him from neutral mana spells.

It cost a Tier 14 mana stone every second of activation, but its defensive power had the strength to match.

And he came in with a spatial ring full of the power sources for the embroidery.

In the second he had to attack, he used his off hand to replenish the pocket where the mana stones were kept, in case the man could cast that same spell again.

At the same time, he cast [Heavenly All Seeing Eye] once more, wanting to get more information about his opponent.

He cataloged the information to his [Spiritual Self]. Stronger than the average Tier 12. Faster than average. A higher defense than average. A higher attack than average. Average regeneration. The armor that flicked in and out of existence was rated as exceptional, with a potential weakness to either the floor theme or innate duration. The skill suspected the man in front of him had done exceptionally well on Genesis Cultivation and Back to Basics, which would explain most of his physical abilities.

As he updated his copies of the man to fight, he started planning his retreat.

He could see that the tide was turning in the larger battle that was happening next to them.

When an explosion went off and knocked everyone around, he was already ready to run for it.

Hed come back once he had a better understanding of the man's abilities and how to counter them.

As far as he had seen in a purely one versus one, he had a good chance of beating the man, but with the rest of his team, that was a long shot at best.

And this wasnt the time to take a fight for pride.

He could always kill the man deeper into Minkalla, when he had a more perfect model.

Even as he picked up the equipment from two of the bodies that were blown this way, he wondered just what techniques the man used to be that strong at Tier 12. That raw physical strength was hard to match for a long time, and could make any prolonged battle a challenge.

With that information, Long Zhiyuan let the two clones fight each other.

He needed to hurry up and get ahead of the pack.

This whole getting third partied thing was growing old quickly.

He was supposed to be the one interrupting fights to take advantage of both sides.

Finding an untouched ruin, he found a lone sheep monster and carefully fought it while gathering its information with [Heavenly All Seeing Eye].

Once he had enough information, he set two sets of clones to fight it. When he knew everything about the monster, he started a one sided slaughter.

Deeper into Minkalla. That was where he needed to go.

But first, he needed Genesis Energy, and if he couldn't properly ambush people without dozens more teams coming in to scavenge, he needed to focus on monsters.

***

Jasper jumped to the side as a bolt of mana swiped past his flank, while his bond darted from under his bulk and sent out a lightning bolt of her own.

As an Earth Armadillo, his outer shell was harder than most and was reinforced by his mana, even without an active spell. Which was very good for this floor, as the cost of his defense never increased.

Thankfully, Amsond was a Ground Gopher with a penchant for lightning spells, despite what her Talent would like to force her into.

As good as the bound pair was, they had been forced to fight their way through a number of ruins that were less than ideal for an earth mage, and she could pick up the slack.

As his bond chittered at him, Jasper sent a pulse of mana through his feet and felt for any more monsters nearby. Thankfully, nothing came back to his senses, and he was able to let out a sigh of relief.

Amsond climbed onto his outer shell and pointed off into the distance. Oh! I see a lightning-struck tree. Head that way, and we can see if there is anything good.

Not particularly caring about where they went as long as he could minimize spell usage, Jaster sauntered over towards the charcoal tree and started digging through it.

Instead of a natural treasure, they found a pillar of crystal.

A challenge room.

Want to do it?

His bond rubbed her paws together as she thought before shaking her head. No reason to risk it. We have enough Genesis Energy to take the floor reward as soon as we find an exit.

Agreeing with her, he started to walk forward once again. Can you scratch that scab where the crab thing pinched me? My armor is rubbing there.

He could feel as Amsond rolled her eyes but helped him out.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he moved the two of them forward.

***

Han De jumped to the next tree and grabbed the squirrel like monster, and drove a dagger he had found on a defeated foe into its brain.

To say this floor was not good for him would be the understatement of his life, but it was forcing him to learn.

This planet was one giant training ground where one needed to get rid of the crutches they once relied on, and it seemed he relied too much on his techniques, as they had been growing ever weaker while he fought.

He noticed the difference quickly, and had been fighting with just his body for a while now, but his real issue was the lack of monsters.

It seemed that being behind the others was finally making things hard for him. On the other floors, he had been able to find untouched ruins with a little effort, but now he couldnt find a ruin with even a dozen monsters in it.

That, combined with his techniques being limited, had led to him gathering a few new wounds, but thankfully, nothing debilitating.

Gathering his resolve, he looked off to the distance, where he could feel the newly respawned boss of this ruin.

With pumping legs, he charged at the purple and silver man-sized squirrel and slid along the ground, cutting at its front leg.

Before his blade could land, it jumped into the air and tried to drive its claws into his body, but Han De was just as fast as it was.

Rolling to the side, he brought his blade around and slashed out at the claw.

Sparks flew as Yi Zhelans sword impacted with the claws.

The purple squirrel seemed to have a mana type that actively ate away at Yi Zhelans sword, and seeing that, he changed his tactics to avoid using the sword so much. He didnt want to risk it in a fight. It wouldn't be the first or even the tenth item he had gone through in Minkalla, but that one was special to him, bonded to him even.

But as they fought, Han De was forced to use skill after skill to defend himself, and felt the skills he had previously hoarded start to get more expensive, until finally, he couldn't cast them any more.

Close to ten minutes later, a bloodied Han De looked at the squirrel and shifted his grip on Yi Zhelans sword.

He could feel this would be the final exchange.

One of them would die here.

With a heart like iron, he knew it wouldnt be him.

Rushing forward, he met the monster's attack with Yi Zhelans sword, and steel met claw. His chest may have been on fire and his vision may be turning black, but claw gave way, and the blade sank deep into the monsters hide as it erupted with lightning.

Yi Zhelan was with him always, even to the bitter end.