Chapter 250: Surrounded

Chapter 250: Surrounded

Two days pass, in the same fashion. I wake up, I train, I spend some time with others, I join Cael at the Craft Guild, I meet with Myrra, I rest on my own for a while and experiment with the items I got from the auction. A few weird mana stones with delicate inscriptions and a bracelet that reacted to my energies.

For the bracelet, I already found out that it's the metal that reacts so strangely well to them, and even after asking around, no one was able to identify it, and I got a few offers from curious blacksmiths.

So for now, I decide to keep it and continue examining it. The mana stones are more interesting. The inscriptions arent anything super powerful; I just like how delicate and intricate they are and I already have plenty of ideas on how I might improve my inscriptions.

What's interesting is that if I'm right, the stones were made to be implanted under the skin of an animal and synchronized with the animal's pathways, all to some effect that Ive found impossible to divine from the damaged inscriptions.

But I'm not even annoyed; the inscribed parts are enough to give me a few ideas for improvements to my constructs. Yup, I did not forget about them, and after getting my trait, I plan to go for a huge one and improve on my kinetic mana heart, probably the riskiest and the most powerful of my constructs.

As I said before and will continue to repeat, the second-floor Nathaniel was impressive as heck. Knowing what I know now, I would probably have noped out and never attempted to do something like that. Yet that cute little douche did, and succeeded, even though he almost died. Quite impressive.

So yup, I would like to get a few more levels and get my trait after level 200 from the quest, but in the past few days, Ive barely left the tower and only ever for short periods as I maintained an anchor inside.

I also continue to send a trickle of mana toward the anchor I left near the black orb. I do this so the orb takes that mana instead of trying to mess with my anchor. As time passes, the pull on the mana Ive been sending through the anchor weakens. This is either due to the black orb weakening and crumbling after days, or the ants dealing with it.

The Colony is confirmed to be sneaking around the city, and the only reason we dont attack is the protections that are especially set against them over long years by the matriarch. Eris had her lynthari and inscribers create massive circuits connected to dozens of power sources all over the city and then used her skill to make everyone forget.

After she died, Myrra and a few other lynthari learned about them from messages left by the matriarch and immediately reactivated them and checked to see if they were working properly.

In the end, it was judged that with how many there were and how many surprises the matriarch left, it would be best to just wait for the ants to attack and use it rather than go on a suicidal mission against the First One powered by the Colony.

From what weve learned, the weaker ants stayed in the Colony, and that number is a high percentage, but theyre just doing nothing either.

Nope, the Colony created a set of relays from their territory all the way to the city. Each step of that relay is a big group of ants that receives vitality, mana, and strength from the weaker members staying in the Colony then sends it along, to Virelia through [Hive Mind], where their leader can use it when they decide to attack.

I'm sure there are massive losses, yet the sheer amount of energy they are sending makes up for it.

Of course, that doesn't mean there are no ants surrounding Virelia; nope, there are tens of thousands of them, each of them is one of the stronger variants, and they are still really far away so most people can't even use ranged attacks. Rarely do I see Tess, Min-Jae, Obelia, and other humans or lynthari trying to get in kills, but the ants are protected most of the time.

Surprisingly, Tess still gets some kills since she can see much further than anyone else, and her [Psychokinesis] is extremely good in combination with her Primordial lightning when it comes to ranged attacks. Especially when she borrows the epic bow we got from the Champion's disciple down in the mines.

Not wanting to be left behind, I take some potshots as well, but I don't see as well as Tess and decide Id rather use my mana to feed the bomb I'm preparing.

The ants also return fire to force defenders to spend mana on the barrier encompassing the city. This barrier is powered by the mana of their bodies and mana stored in batteries all around the city.

I'm quite fascinated by the way its created in multiple segments and isnt always active. The barrier is split into hundreds of segments and makes use of something similar to Sophie's web, which reaches far beyond the city.

When the protections are activated, the detection web senses an attack aimed at the city, and through mana stones left behind by old humans and lynthari, it calculates the trajectory of the attack and then activates the required segment of the barrier.

It's much more difficult, and I'm not allowed to get close to the heart of it all, and no one else is. Hell, most of the lynthari and humans don't even know where it is, and there are dozens of fake stations all over the city.

Yet, no matter how good the protections are, most people are nervous and constantly shudder when a segment is activated and attacks crash against it. People scream and complain, and the mood between the lynthari and the humans becomes worse by the day, as rumors spread.

Running away is impossible as the Colony seems to be ever-present and surrounds the entire city, and even try to dig under it, where they find extremely strong layers of stone and traps left behind by the matriarch.

The Colony is highly capable, and its amazing cooperation is hard to imagine a single group being able to deal with, confirming my theory that there are always multiple ways to clear a floor.

Maybe you can face the Fallen Hero on your own as it's a single enemy. For the Colony, you can use Virelia, lynthari, and humans to deal with it. The tree is a single massive target, so maybe it can be dealt with from a distance, maybe it can be poisoned, or maybe you can even use another Calamity against it.

You can change your body, Lily. So why do you need items? You can maybe grow another finger for each hand. Maybe you can grow some small fake organs inside you and sacrifice those. You can use my left arm, as weve found out. So what if I cut it off, we store it, you restore my arm, I cut it off again and you leave for Beyond or another fight with multiple arms to use to power your skills."

Ew, Maya says.

Amazing, Lilys eyes are almost glowing.

So leave it up to me, well make a badass out of you yet.

Yes! Lily shouts.

A few days later we all stand around the chest from the Champions house.

Yes, the time has come. It took months of curiosity, impatience, and frustration. We had people try to open it, we used skills, we used items. I even risked it and created a tiny orb of black mana, yet nothing helped.

Not even Biscuit could open it after I told him there was better meat than the cut of Archdeer we bought at the auction.

I look around the room and catch the eyes of Izzy, who smiles at me brightly. Lately, Ive become her second favorite human and the 4th favorite member of group 4 after Sophie, Noodle, and Biscuit. The ten, no, eleven-year-old girl hugs me every time she sees me and rarely leaves Sophie's side.

The twins are here as well, all four legs back and smiling. It's not the same smile they had before, but it's close. Thanks to Sophie, the memory has become more distant. Not quite gone, and the emotions are still there, but they use that as fuel, and over the past few days, Ive seen them train extremely hard, even coming to Sophie and the others for advice.

Min-Jae continues to explain his process, and I listen to him with one ear while looking around the room. Everyone from group 4 is still here, safe and healthy. I can also say it's partially thanks to me, and it's getting harder and harder to lie to myself.

It's a weird feeling, as it's been years since I had someone I could even consider a friend or someone I kept seeing day after day and created a bond with. It's almost like camaraderie, like Tess talked about.

I look to the left and catch Tess's eyes, and her expression clearly shows that she has some idea of my thoughts. She smiles brightly, her steel gray eyes returning my gaze without wavering.

I have a few pieces of Archdeer jerky saved, call Tess an asshole, I lift Biscuit and whisper into his ear.

(Asshole!) he shouts before I even finish the sentence.

That only makes Tess smile even more.

So, as I said, I think this crest is something like a magnet activated by gravity-type skills, and I noticed pathways through the chest, so if I do this, Min-Jae, excitedly moves to the chest after using his skills to activate the crest.

Then he puts the crest on the chest, and even though none of us can feel anything, he moves it across the chest multiple times in specific patterns. Clicking noises sound out one after another, and finally, he lifts the crest, sending more mana through it and places it on one last point, before taking a step back.

Ready for anything, we step back, and I get ready to activate my skills.

I think it won't open on its own, I say and create mana arms that reach from me and try to open the chest.

Feeling how heavy the lid is, I create a few more and then slowly open it.

Curious, everyone takes a step closer and looks at the single item inside, a transparent glass tube filled with watery liquid. The tube is floating exactly in the middle of the chest, and inside that tube is a single thing.

A human eye with a yellowed iris.

There is no text from the system over it. No name, no rarity. This is not something that could be considered an item; it's just an eye.

The eye of someone who was extremely powerful, from what I can sense.