Beast Tide (2)
From the Apothecaries tent, Chen Hua saw a couple apothecaries sitting atop the wall surrounded by smoking cauldrons.
「Hey! Crazy Hu, how's it goin'!」
「Heh heh, It's going great! I only need another hour! Your reinforcing arrays and explosive inscriptions are Fabulous! Now, these things can easily wipe out a small group of Grade 3 beasts, or even a Low Grade 4 beast!」
---
Finally convincing a guard to allow him atop the wall Chen Hua looked out across the open area leading towards the forest. Now, the cultivators that were originally fighting within the forest have been pushed back to the edges of the forest. Wondering what else he could do with the supplies he had on hand one of the apothecaries called out.
「Hey, Brat, who let ya up here? Since ya here Come on over and help out a bit, will ya?」
「Senior, how can I be of help?」
「Drop the formalities brat, call me Old Hu or Crazy Hu, That young one over there is Hong Kongfei.
Ya see that area over there? That is where the more powerful beasts are more likely to come out'a' the forest. My son and I are gonna' be busy filling these to the brim with spiritual energy, your job will be ta activate those propulsion arrays on my mark. There is no need to aim, we 'ave hooked up a targeting array to the propulsion arrays to automatically target the strongest beast nearby. Can ya do that?」
「Sure no problem, I assume that these things will explode upon impact?」
「Yep! I found and harvested some o' that meteor that landed a while back an' found that holds spiritual energy really well for a short period o' time. I had an array master carve arrays to seal that energy in and force even more energy into it once it's a full capacity so they explode when it lands in the middle of a group a beasts.」
「Have you thought about connecting a bunch of these together to form an explosion enhancing formation?」
「Kid, Ya know of formations?」
「No, but I do have a book that contained the explosion enhancing formation. It said that if you set up a group of explosive type turrets to fire so that the rounds landed on the market like this then the explosions would enhance each other and only add onto each other's power」
「Can I borrow that book or the formation map?」
「Yeah sure, here's the map and an array map you can use on any material projectile to enhance the effects of the formation even further.」
「... Are ya an array master, or a formation master?」
「I only know a little bit about arrays from my teacher, he left me a collection of books and left on a journey somewhere. He said that the jade he left behind contains his location and an encryption array and that should I have mastered all of the array books he left behind then I could unlock it with a bit of effort.」
「... Old geezers like me love doin' that type of thing, give out an assignment and run off saying that when it's complete it'll reveal my location... I tried that once but it failed miserably. I forgot that I still had the association communicator with me so my wife found me, beat me, and dragged me back to apologise to my son... Women are terrifying kid if ya-」
「Boom! Ya Old Fart! Ya betta' not be talking about me behind my back! If I find ou' Y'are-」
「Okay, Mrs Hu, please calm down, I have cleaned up the explosion just now, I am sure that Mr Hu was complimenting you just now.」
「Hmph! Better have been.」
「*Haa what an eccentric bunch of people we have here at the association*」
「I herd that!」
「S-sorry!」
「Heh Heh, that wife of mine has the worlds best hearing I'll tell ya, she can hear a pin from miles away durin' a thunderstorm.」
「... Isn't there a noise-cancelling array around the apothecaries' tent?」
「Yep, an' there's even more inside around every section of the tent there's like two or three more.
I told ya my wife's hearing's great.」
「Roar!」
「Fall Back! Fall Back behind the first line of turrets and activate the mines in the forest!」
「It's about time kid. Ya'll be launching these cauldrons after they set the mines off an' some o' those stronger beasts make their way out a' the forest.」
「Bang! Bang! Bang!」
「Ready kid? here they come! on my Mark, 3, 2, 1, and... Launch」
「Boom!」
「Ding! Host had Killed beasts 2 levels above his cultivation rank, 10 lottery tickets have been gifted out, experience, and a free inventory expansion has been given out to expand your inventory to 25 cubic meters!」
Open lottery
「Would you like to use 1 lottery ticket? [Y/N]」
「Yes.」
「Congratulations! You have received the Ultimate De-buff array kit, use it on anything to place the ultimate debuff array set upon any object (permanent, choose wisely)」
「Roll again, use all 9 tickets.」
「Would you like to use 9 lottery Tickets? [Y/N]」
「Yes.」
「Congratulations! You have received the ultimate permanent inscription de-buff kit, use it on anything to place the ultimate de-buff permanent inscription set onto any object (permanent choose wisely)」
「Congratulations! You have received the Ultimate Reinforcement Kit*3, use it on anything to render it practically unbreakable!」
「Congratulations! You have received the full manual for [81 treasured soul pagoda]」
「Congratulations! You have received a hot bowl of noodles!」
「Congratulations, you have received an unrefined sentiment adamantine brick!」
「Congratulations! You have received a weight shifting kit, apply it on anything to make that object to nullify its weight for you and to allow you to adjust its real weight within a certain range!」
「Congratulations! You have used 10 lottery tickets within 30 seconds for the first time! Your last ticket has been used to award you with the skill for Chanting random things and making random things happen 101!」
「System, What is that last thing?」
「Self explanatory, Activate the [Random Chanting] skill to make something random happen. The skill is organized into 100 levels. At the first level, only tier one random things can happen. As your proficiency level increases then higher tier random things can happen. You can also choose random things of a certain level or level range to happen when the skill is activated. The cooldown of the skill will be more than 10 minutes depending on the random thing that happens. This skill is permanent. If it is not activated at least once every 10 days it will automatically activate in your sleep the next time you go to sleep.」
「... Activate random chanting skill (*3).」
「!*£$%^$~£*$&~W*#£&%^"*£&$*%"~#£!~£$%~¬#~"%~¬$"£$%~!£$~%"~£$」
「*Being stared at strangely by Old Hu and Hong Kongfei*」
As Chen Hua continued to chant and be awkwardly stared at by Old Hu and his son, a random flock of normal chickens fluttered across the top of the wall from the forest and landed on various roofs within the city.
「Ding! Congratulations 1 proficiency gained, levelling up to level 2」
Upon levelling up to level two a level two random thing occurred,
「Ding! The person wearing the most amount of gear and clothing in terms of weight within a 30-metre radius of the user will have the sudden urge to start dancing for the next 10 minutes.」
One of the cultivators that was currently heading off to assist the battle was wearing a great sword on his back suddenly dropped the great sword and started to dance and spin. Still being weirdly stared at by old Hu and His son as well as a few of the patrolling guards by now, a new message from the system popped up:
「Ding!, The oldest Lady within 30 metres of the user will randomly start yelling.」
「Bang!, I heard that! Who Ya Callin' Old,」
「Ding Warning! System has been detected, going into hibernation until the old lady is out of earshot.」
「Show Ya Self! You're the old one, get out 'ere!」
「Mrs Hu! Your cauldron exploded again, why are you yelling!? How could someone have called you old? I didn't hear it and there are plenty of Sound-cancelling arrays about!」
「Did Ya Just Call Me Old? Get over 'ere!」
「AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SAVE ME!!!」
「... I told ya that women are scary kid. That may have been an understatement.」
「Lets hope that no one heard that.」
「AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!」
Looking down towards the apothecaries' tent you could see an old woman chasing a young attendant about shaking her fist and yelling something about being called old.
「You think that she will calm down?」
「Ya, she'll calm down in a bit. Let's just hope that that attendant can keep running or find a place to hide.」
「Old Hu, that cloud over there looks odd, are those aerial beasts?!」
「By all means, Yes they're aerial beasts, take shelta' kid, those, in particular, are nasty to deal with.」
「What is the best way to take them down?」
「Very strong lightning, more lightning, and more lightning, also some strong turbulent winds to push them back」
「I could create a few 2-star lightening array along with a 2-star small dome type shield.」
「Two stars will not be enough, ya need at least 3 to deal with those nasty buggers.」
「System is that lady out of earshot yet?」
「Yes」
「I think I remember something about bricks from novels in my old world, what was that about?」
「They were used to build.」
「No, from novels, like fantasy novels.」
「... They were used to create a magic wall to a hidden-」
「No, they were not used to build.」
「... Sorry, no knowledge in the database... Wait, one record found, Used occasionally in Xuanhuan novels as an almighty weapon.」
「Ha. How do I refine the adamantine brick?」
「Use a drop of your blood.」
「Okay, now use one ultimate reinforcement kit, the permanent array De-buff and permanent inscription De-buff kits, and the weight shifting kit on it」
「Ding! are sure you want to use an ultimate reinforcement kit*1, a permanent array de-buff kit*1, a permanent inscription de-buff kit*1, and a weight shifting kit*1? [Y/N]」
「Yes.」
「Ding! Successfully applied kits to the sentient adamantine brick.」
「AAAAHHHH What did you do to me?!」
「Who just said that?」
「ME!」
「Where?」
「In your hand!」
「There's only a brick in my hand though...」
「That Is Me!」
「... What's wrong?」
「Why can you just wave me around so easily, and what do I feel so strong right now?」
「You haven't noticed the arrays and inscriptions placed on you yet?」
「Huh? Oh... Sorry... Master?」
「Just call me Chen Hua.」
「Okay... I'm going back to sleep now, only disturb me if you need me.」
「Wait! What should I call you, and, how do I disturb you?」
「Call me whatever, and since you refined me then there should be a brick floating around in your mind space, just call out to that.」
「And, ... how exactly do you access the mind space?」
「Are you an Idiot? Close your eyes!」
「I still can't sense any 'mind space'... 」
「Ding! The host does not currently have a mind-space due to the host using the System's levelling system. Would you like to activate the mind space? [Y/N]」
「Yes, Activate the mind space.」
「Ding! Mind space has been activated.」
「Okay, I can now see my mind space, but, where are you?」
「... I never knew that a mind space could be so large... Look to your left. No the other left! Okay, now look up at a 36-degree angle, and move towards where you're looking for a while.」
「Uh... How long is a while exactly?」
「37 minutes.」
「You said that my mind space was large, compared to other mind spaces how large is it?」
「Most people can easily see from one side to the other. You have to travel for an hour to get from one side to the other. Okay, you know where I'm at, I'm going back to sleep.」
「Hello... Are you Awake?! The aerial beasts are almost here! What're ya just standin' there for! Get over here, kid! Help me seal off these windows I got the doors, he's got the hatch」
「Will an array shield work?」
「Yes! Anything, now hurry up!」
Taking out his formation plates he placed them at the window and activated them causing a light blue shield to spring up. taking out a few more he placed them at the doors, other windows, and the hatch.
As the Aerial beasts began to defend onto the city anti-air turrets along the walls popped up and began to shoot the aerial beasts down.
「Kid, those are called reaper clawed hawks. They are two-star beasts with high manoeuvrability and have a small resistance to lightning. The reason I said that it is the most effective way to defeat them is because it will jump from hawk to hawk while they can avoid most other single projectiles.」
As the hawks flew by the windows a few crashed into the shield causing it to flicker.
「That is also why I said that a two-star array shield would not be enough. these are holding just fine because they are only stopping one or two at once, but with the dome type shield, it would have to stop tens of them at once. And as you can see, they got their name from their 20 cm long claws.
Let's just hope that not too much damage is done.」