The Raid Dungeon Pt7

Perched atop the lowest area of roof at the front of the cathedral, I overlook the ground with an approving nod.

Curving around the ends of the front wall were two one-hundred-foot stretches of paler stone ground, belying the deep and wide pitfalls I had dug in a half circle around the front corners of the property. Out ahead of all of the defenses were short earthen walls through from which protruded long transmuted crystalline spears to greet advancing enemies.

The shield wall stretched for just over two hundred yards across most of the front of the property and each spear was roughly seven feet in tapering length. Behind this mount was about four highway lanes of open space before greeting the naked mound in front of the main pitfalls. For creatures of certain sizes, this open space would only be about three steps.

Ahead of the spear wall, though, was an assortment of short wall and shallow trenches at random angles or with hard turns. This filtering ground would slow down the smaller creatures and allow all the big guys to single themselves out. Once they became the front lines some time ahead of the spear wall, they would soak up all of the attacks from our anti-siege weapons.

Their bodies would become proper hurdles for the lesser forces to climb over, forcing them in some places to drop right into the waiting arms of the spear wall. Unless these undead mobs were NPC smart, in which case this would not even have half of the effect I wanted. Luckily, everything had been blessed by Melpomene to passively heal allies with holy energy while passively damaging undead and dark magical entities.

Demons were dark magic, right? Usually. Here in Bygone Era, they were classified as a chaotic and neutral 'race' with hundreds of varying subspecies and these guys would be NPC intelligent by default.

However, Melpomene assured me that divine powers were extremely damaging to beings which originated from hell.

The wall of the property itself had been heavily added to on the inside, using earth and rubble and magic to form several yards of thickness behind the outer reinforcement. Now, the inner ramparts were begin loaded with stocks of simple throwing weapons like spears as well as some large canisters of alchemical ingredients. These were probably this world's versions of actual explosives, things that Oleander had only been able to play with while finding the boundaries set by the game.

The platforms and towers within the walls already sported the bases and supplies for anti-siege weapons, now they just needed to be assembled and secured. The towers already had completed weapons that were in the process of being secured in place so the platforms would be soon to follow.

Aside from these defensive positions there were portable bulwarks made of transmuted wood and stone material being set up in areas voted most likely to be breached. These places were all of the spaces between the platforms. Once the corresponding pitfalls filled up after the ballistae focused their fire in straight ahead directions, demons in good health would make it to the walls and the loss of integrity would be steady from that point forward.

In anticipation of this, the bulwarks and inner defenders were organized around the platforms to make them mostly inaccessible to the enemy. In order to get close to the heavy equipment they would have to get passed the skeletons and players. The rod and beam bulwarks might have looked weak, but they were made with the collective magics of the two biggest clans present and could put up resistance to even me in hulk form.

Assuming that each demon would be around one tenth of the lich lord boss's power, the bulwarks could buy several necessary seconds in order to overwhelm one or a few targets with skills. Against greater numbers of five-plus, the people manning the bulwarks would be what bought time for reinforcements to show up.

Not surprisingly, both Thirteenth and Duality had more than just the elites who followed the leaders. Both clans had several people with builds similar to Go or Skooma who were based around speed and damage, either for taking it or dealing it was a personal choice. Luckily, Go had the equipment to equal any other player with Skooma's dealing build.

Skooma himself had the build and equipment to be a better damage dealer than Go but lacked the actual combat skill. He knew how to use a sword without skills but he lacked a certain confidence in its use. Go had no problems swinging any weapon that I put in his hands as if they became a natural extension of his body.

Deeper within the grounds closer to the building were a few dozen small supply stations for running weapons, equipment, and ammunition out into the 'field'. Most of these were stockpiles of ballistae spears and various types of cannonballs, but those alone were our heaviest weapons. I had heard Little Thirteen's assurances numerous times that each of these cannonballs had the damage equivalent to a level fifty warrior class's strongest skill.

Not to be outdone, the ballistae spear themselves were outfitted with low and middle grade mana crystals with potent raw energy enchantments. The heads themselves were designed to shatter on impact or after penetrating to a certain point, triggering the release of pressurized elemental mana like fire and lightning.

Turning my attention away from the defenses that were nearing completion to look out over the ruined city, I find nothing but silence and inactivity in the distance no matter how much mana I use to focus my vision. It was as though the enemy were self-aware and hiding to prevent any form of information being conveyed after their earlier activities.

I spent a full ten minutes just sitting their scanning the dark and desolate ruins before finally getting bored and flapping up into the air. Flying up above the property, I look toward the back where I find my team and more hard at work in the pond. Zekrom was standing over the area condensing the entire yard into the pond, my team were meditating in the bottom, and watching it all were the leadership figures of the other clans.

Little Thirteen and Donna were sitting in similar fashion to my companions on the edge of the pond opposite from Zekrom. After channeling different layers of mana to my eyes, I could almost literally see the expansion of their aura awareness as they replicated the things they saw taking place around the pond. However, I could not detect any actual intake despite being within the scope of the shimmering mana field around the giant dry pond.

They would eventually figure out a method of taking it in similar to what I had found through breathing with Zekrom's advise, but they could also figure out alternative methods of intake with various effects. Since they were out here for the territory raid, they would already only have access to secondhand knowledge about the new contents released.

From this they probably already knew what we were doing but not how, so if they could achieve their own methods it could be worth sharing our cultivation and refining techniques. For the sake of keeping our alliance at the top of the food chain, of course. If not, then discussion would not hurt anything to begin with.

Hauntings, which had already gained as much from the pond if not more than it had from the lich lord. I had yet to try feeding Hauntings with the evolved Zekrom, though, so the potential for cordycep cohesion or something could increase its new growth from the converted boss. Currently, though, my sword was receiving a steady flow of ripples from the surrounding pond, causing visual distortion of sine pattern like waves of light funneling down into the bottom from above.

Seeing me land nearby after a few moments of watching from above, Little Thirteen, Donna, and even Mistress who tried to stay close to either of them got up from their seats to come over. Even before I had a chance to say anything about it, Mr. Thirteen simply asks, "How long have you been doing stuff like this for?"

Smiling faintly, I glance at Donna and decide to go all in before saying to Little Thirteen, "I only today had an epiphany of how to do this after the update. There was something weaker and similar, but it brought little rewards except in Intelligence points. This, though, is entirely for MP growth. The thing I do have, however, is what you would call a defense physique and, now, I cannot share it by default. Maybe a lesser version, but that will take time in reality," I lie hopefully, unsure if what I said was true or not.

Could I patent a physique for Infected Mortals to use for the officers of my conscripts once I finally had a chance to swear allegiance to the game's emperor? It was surely possible if they had a Plaguedman to influence them with cordyceps. The price for something like that, though, would have to be named in cash.

"What is this stuff?" Donna asks, now. "Is this the training the update had for classes?"

Her clan itself was smaller than the multi-clan network of Thirteenth so they had fewer members on the outside and those who were not at the territory were busy running every other affair. Their uptake would be slower and thus I had the highest hopes for them.

"Basically an in-game training method for increasing your mana," I reply with a shrug. "You can do it under any conditions but mostly to lesser effect and it takes much longer. These conditions make it faster and easier. I cannot say much because I want to see what conclusions you come to on your own, but the point of this is to literally take in and refine the mana."

With an explanation as directly vague as that there was little else I could say. They both asked a few more questions, such as why the positioning and what physical actions were required. Beyond saying that was simply how I sat down to try doing it, I could only say I could not say anything.

Once they got the message, the two of them gave up and went back to where their groups were sitting. Mistress, though, stayed behind as if there was something she wanted to say. Instead, I simply abused the situation and said, "This experiment is very important to me and you are part of it, please do your best."

They looked confused for a moment and then slightly shocked before finally becoming hesitant and looking back toward the others. Finally, she simply nods once and says, "Okay," before heading back as well.

I probably just fucked up big time by intentionally misleading this lady but this experiment really was important to me so there was nothing else I could do unless I were to be an outright asshole. Well, more of one anyway.

Left alone once again, I simply watched the inside of the pond and did my best to gauge the amount of mana the others were inhaling and exhaling. The difference in the quantity and quality helped me to determine the amount and purity of the mana they refined from it. All of them roughly had the same average refining rate with only a few variations based on sheer quantity taken or not.

This was not a small issue. Breathing in the mana was limited by the physical body so someone like Stonewall can take in twice the condensed mana as the other while small characters like Lil or Agnes were limited to much smaller lungs. Even if I myself could influence my own conditions and find ways of compensating in different locations, the others probably could not so this experiment was of the utmost importance!

Eventually clearing my mind of these thoughts, I find my own seat near Zekrom at the edge of the condensed mana field where his own undead aura was at its strongest without the hindrance of the usual divine 'climate'. Here, positioned with the wavering divide between divine and darkness shifting about my head height, I begin my own cultivation.

This lasted for longer than I wanted it to before I finally heard Melpomene's voice.

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

[+1000XP]

[Chaos Fiend's Affinity: After having converted and integrated enough holy mana within your body and Mana Pool you have developed a tainted affinity with Mana. Permanent +100 to MP/HP. +(10)% affinity with Dark Element/Necromancy/Dark Arts]

[Acquired Elemental Mastery: Shadowmancy]

[+300XP]

[Shadowmancy LVL1: A basic mastery for using the darkness elements in magic, allowing one to manipulate their shadow into a tangible and three-dimensional object. Adverse to usual Dark/Light elemental magic, this spell becomes stronger in light and weaker in the dark. Can currently turn one's shadow into a Shade that will protect its master. At higher levels, one can take over the shadows of others and even control others through their shadows]

[Acquired Skill: Reanimation]

[+100XP

[Reanimation LVL1: Bring back to life a dead enemy to fight their old comrades in your place, different elements can be used to bring about different effects in reanimation. The level of the fallen determines the cost and duration of Reanimation and the Reanimated will only have half of their previous strength. At higher levels one can reanimate hundreds at once to summon a fresh army and even reanimate bodies to 150% their original strength]

[Acquired Curse Magic: Curse of Weakness]

[+250XP]

[Curse of Weakness LVL1: The most simple and one of the most useful curse magics known to the mortal races. Currently, a successful cursing can drop the stats of an enemy by one-tenth of their overall values but must be cursed through physical contact with the caster or an item medium. With each level the Weakness becomes stronger than the target. At higher levels one can curse a hundred people at once just by giving them a dirty look]

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