The Raid Dungeon Pt6

Under these controlled conditions, I managed to enter the third level of Mana Assimilation after an hour of meditative breathing.

Sadly, after stopping to check my progress I was left sorely disappointed with my progress. Not only because Chaos Fiend was only half of the way to the first level but because Demigod was so close to full I could barely see emptiness. However, just as I was going to return to cultivating I received a notification that Geist had once again leveled.

Estimating that someone like Ivana or Agnes would probably already achieved Initial Success under those condition, I work out some quick math to see what time it would take Go and the other late arrivals to achieve the same success. Releasing the mana under my control, I take the pieces of holy rocks into my lap before confining the area around me.

Settling my awareness into the rocks, I experimentally robs the rocks and energies to slowly but surely nudge and draw out the divine energies within. The rocks themselves contained copious amounts of divine energy that filled my small confinement with a thin haze of mana by themselves. However, the tiny fingernail sized crystals within the rocks held fast to their mana.

I eventually had no choice but to give up on these crystals except to physically extract them from the empty rocks. Upon appraisal, I received a very interesting notification.

[Divine Mana Crystal: Grade-Divine. Can be used to place powerful enchantments on weapons, armor, and general items]

Divine grade mana stone? Would that happen to be above Pristine? There were a dozen from this one rock alone, that was enough to enchant an overpowered Flash Step on all of my equipment and then new stat accessories!

Deciding to keep these a secret for the time being, I hope that my friends and Zekrom are mindful enough to do the same before turning my attention to inhaling the concentrated divine energy of the rock. I could feel an obvious different in this concentration of mana, gone was the chilly and soothing nature of pure mana and present was a fiery life of its own that coursed hotly into my lungs.

After the first few breaths, the burning divine energy already stored in my body began reacting and throbbing with a swift pulse that traveled through every fiber of my being. The sudden shock of this internal blaze almost caused a lapse in my consciousness as if I were about to black out. However, I clenched my teeth and ended up biting my lip to center myself on a fresh and real pain away from the magic inside me.

Each pulse grew stronger than the last and would take place throughout every inhalation, leading me to subconsciously hesitate every time I go to draw in air. The only relief I could find for these pains was when exhaling the excess and waste energy afterward, making me not want to breathe at all!

Muscling through by forcibly maintaining a constant and steady rate of breathing, I feel my shoulders slack as my body starts to give under the sudden throb of each pulse while fighting to remain conscious and breathing.

Finally, though, the pulsing throbs became a sudden blaze that shot through every nerve ending in my body and I could no longer maintain my grip on the world around me. For but a brief second, I actually blacked out and only barely managed to catch myself from falling forward. Half of the mana I had condensed form the holy rock was dispersed into the air.

However, Melpomene's reassuring voice soon read out several appearing notifications that instantly made everything good again.

[You have Initiated the Mana Assimilation: Demigod's Affinity]

[+1000XP]

[Demigod's Affinity LVL1: After having converted and integrated enough holy mana within your body and Mana Pool you have developed a divine affinity with Mana. Permanent +100 to MP/HP. +(10)% affinity with Light Element/Piety/Healing Arts]

[Acquired Elemental Mastery: Light Manipulation]

[+250XP]

[Light Manipulation LVL1: Using the ambient light existing in the world or light produced by one's own soul, you can bend the light of your world around you to your will. At higher levels, one can completely bend light around them to render themselves transparent without casting any shadows or instantly concentrate light equal to a small star in burning power]

[Acquired Mastery Skill: Healing Arts]

[+200XP]

[Healing Arts LVL1: Using mana and the general life energies around you, you can now channel healing mana into other creatures and people to steadily recover their injuries. At higher levels, one can project life energy over great distances to save a fellow from death's door in an instant]

"Uh… okay," I say thoughtfully, grateful to have these mastery skills while doing my best to ignore the fact that I had no idea how to use them. I had originally learned actual spells which by Luck became masteries so I knew how to produce that mana. Now, I had masteries and no idea how to… make light.

Disregarding this aspect, I standing up and try an adverse method by thinking about the condensed light of the mana I had earlier cultivated with. I had spent hours today integrating such magic into my body and soul, so it definitely existed at my disposal. I simply had to find a method of simply willing it and letting Luck run its course.

After having forced this loose epiphany, reach out my hand with the though of gathering my own light within my hand. Even with my eyes closed I could feel a disturbance in my own mana perpetually in motion within and around me. However, instead of this mana, an entirely different energy seemed to leave some different plan of existence through me and formed into a ball of faint heat in my palm.

Upon opening my eyes, I found myself holding a tennis ball sized flame of white Soulfire that was as cooling and soothing as it was warming to my and.

[Learned Skill: Soul Flare]

[+500XP]

[Soul Flare Uninitiated: Using the power of your own soul you can produce a paradox energy of Light and Darkness. This flame can be used to heal allies with a value equal to MATK or damage enemy and obstacles with PATK equal values. At higher levels, one can concentrate Soulfire into a candle flame and project it as a beam with healing and damage values equal to the sun's heat]

I could not make myself invisible or shoot photon beams with the light element but I had discovered a branch of alignment energy through using my soul as a source. As well, I already had the Soulfire of a top-shelf lich in my production skills, giving me a 'cheap' method of combining and enhancing.

Stretching my arms out over my head and working my legs a bit after having spent so much time in one position, I easily lift off and fly up into the air heading over the cathedral. From above I could fairly clearly see most of the city and could tell that all of the traveling parties had long since reached their destinations. There was simply nothing going on anymore.

Turning to gently flap and glide over to the belfry nest, I simply perch atop the broken tower overhead and listen to the coordination of information taking place around the head priest. It seemed like less than twenty minutes had passed since the last company reached their destination among the front line of outposts. However, there had been no news of any kind since then and the people present were simply working independently to update different areas of the outdated maps.

After a few minutes spent here updating myself on current events, I hop down from the tower and glide down into the cathedral itself where I make my way over to the command center. Donna was now present in Go's place with Little Thirteen and both of them were heatedly discussing the quick crafting and use of anti-siege weaponry.

On the table were several simple drawings and outlines of things like torsion cannons and giant stationary crossbows like what the Romans used. Apparently, there were only enough supplies to make one of these in bulk and they could not decide which. The trebuchet style cannon was not a bad idea and neither was the ballistae, both could be easily supplied and made with only intermediate engineering skills while being allowed to function in the game.

Their big issue was the crowd control affect of a large metal cannonball with magic and a small spear with magic. The cannonball itself was designed to smash through whatever it came into contact with for overall damage while the ballistae were designed for overwhelming penetration power against a siege tower or the like. Both could destroy the tower but it depended on our magic involved to determine the crowd controlling.

When they tried to make me the deciding factor, I simply say, "Speed and compatibility. Scorpion fires faster and is generally easier to work with while the cannonball has a heavier math requirement. One-to-one, I would prefer the trebuchet but the scorpion will hit more targets easier and faster. Since the numbers you throw out are fifty of one or the other, make ten trebuchet and thirty ballistae and put everything else into ammunition. The scorpions will suppress crowds and we can single out big targets with the trebuchet."

By now, the enemy had probably already decided on the numbers they were using and the means of deployment while we had not even worked out what war machines to build. It was quicker, easier, and better for the defense efforts to just compromise and appease both parties, anyway.

Once this was decided, I turn my attention to the map and ask about the placement for these anti-siege weapons. After securing the methods for their housing, which centered around the platforms I had already built, I excused myself from further topics and return to the front courtyards of the cathedral.

Because the actual numbers of equipment were different from the projected value, I would be building a line of ten short towers roughly twenty feet tall about thirty yards behind the original platforms. Each tower would not only sport a trebuchet cannon apiece but also a pair of ballistae to defend the towers themselves. As for the rest of the ballistae, they will be placed two-apiece to the dozen platforms I had made where now only a few archers could fire from between the equipment.

This amounted to an actual total of forty-four giant crossbows, which made me second guess my choice of only ten cannonball weapons. Sadly, there was nothing I could do about it now except to get working. Luckily, the work itself was fairly easy now that I had over a thousand more mana than when I first got here.

A single full tank was all it took to make a twenty-by-twenty-foot square column that stood twenty feet high with plenty of view over the cathedral walls. Leading up behind each tower was a long train of broad platform steps to accommodate the relocation of 'machinery'. With only a minute or two spent 'breathing', I was back at full power and able to move on.

By the time I had finished making all ten towers, less than twenty minutes had passed and there were still no signs of further activity from the demon outposts. It was entirely possible that they were foolishly waiting to study our fortification and plan a more thorough attack instead of taking the opportunity to swarm us before we can dig our heels in.

With the general numbers at play, though, I would not have allowed my enemy to prepare themselves and simply stormed their undeveloped fortress. These guys, though, seemed to have other thoughts in mind. Most likely due to the fact that we just happened to be in possession of a giant holy bell that disintegrated a bunch of demons when we got here.

Deciding to continue spending my time proactively, I move outside of the cathedral once again and practice my field controlling skills. Starting twenty feet out from our actual wall I carved out deep stone pits lined with glassy crystalline spears that cost more to heat and transmute the digging the pits themselves.

Each pit was a ten feet deep and equal in size to the platforms they corresponded to. However, instead of placing them straight ahead of the platforms I dug the pitfalls to fill the open spaces between the platforms inside the cathedral grounds. Then, I simply covered the pits with a thin sheet of fragile stone that could probably barely support a handful of skeleton NPC.

In this fashion, not only would some of the crowds be divided by the deep pits but everyone avoiding them would be funneled into the penetrative line of fire from the platforms while the towers would be at the perfect positions to fire down into the pits.

Hiding the pits in plain view, I put up a short and simple mound of stone about four feet tall and four feet wide that stretched out as far as my own front wall fortification. With this in place, the demons and undead would be forced to climb or jump and as soon as many of them landed they would find themselves buried under their comrades. With luck, the shock of this would buy a few seconds of disorientation among the front lines of enemies that our ranged defenders could use.

After half an hour spent making these outer additions, I moved on to the wall itself and started adding augments like holes for storing certain kinds of items as well as long spears to reduce approaching speeds.

Next, I even planned to make flanking defenses around the front corners of the property.

*