Chapter 235: Amplifying Surge

  Landy fought like a wild animal. Every strike was punctuated by an emotional cry, every movement purely offensive. So Olandrin matched him. At the very least, the tortured NPC deserved that much respect.

  It was the least he could do.

  Preserving nothing, Olandrin pivoted his hips, raised his left arm, gritted his teeth, and screamed loudly enough to match Landy as he struck out with his left forearm blade hard enough that the mere motion of his body caused the dead world's planetary rotation to briefly increase in speed, which in turn led to more massive chunks of land breaking apart and flying up into the ruined atmosphere.

  At the exact same time, Landy thrust his arm forward, lashing out with his pincer, his expression a mask of madness and rage. He wasn’t trying to be defensive. Clearly, his only goal was to slice off Olandrin’s head from the neck. And yet, through sheer coincidence, Olandrin’s forearm blade collided directly with the pincer, each halting the other with a cataclysmic detonation that caused the last vestiges of an already broken continent to shatter and crumble, exposing a hole so vast that it likely extended down to the planet’s core.

  Now, hovering midair above this eternally deep chasm, Olandrin hastily glanced over his shoulder to reassure himself that he hadn’t just killed anyone. Under the protection of the Gods, the two level-1 humans would likely be okay. Angelica would also be okay, as she was a Goddess herself, even if thinking of her that way would disgust Adamus. No, it was the princess and the queen who were most likely in danger, their bodies potentially being hurtled around like ragdolls, caught in dual states of inexplicably awful terror as they were launched into an unstable orbit.

  ANGELICA!

  “They’re okay, Olandrin,” she replied immediately. “I have them.”

  My good girl. Take them out of here.

  “I can’t. If I do, the barrier is gonna fall, and he’ll escape.”

  Don’t worry about that. The last thing Landy wants is to leave. Kalana and her mother don’t belong here. They’ll die if they stay. I’m…I’m gonna let it all out now.

  “Why here? Why now? Why not back when it could have still mattered?”

  Olandrin sighed. A conversation for a different time. Just please, Angelica. Make sure everyone leaves. Eilea and Adamus as well.

  “No! Not Adamus! Let him stay. He won’t even expect it. Let him die.”

  Angelica, I still need him.

  “You don’t! You can rebuild the system without him. You and Mother.”

  Please, Angelica. I don’t wanna argue. Just yank them out of here. Not for Adamus’ sake, but for mine. If nothing else, then please do it for me.

  He could feel her anger and dismay. “He stole you from me,” she said. “He stole Mother from me. Both of you were gone for so long. First, I thought you were far away. Then I thought you were dead. I never knew you were trapped. I never knew!”

  I know you didn't, sweet girl, but what happened, happened. Please, just get them out of here. I wanna play with my new friend.

  “Done yet?” asked a miserable, sickened voice in his mind, barging in on their conversation. It was a voice he did not expect to hear, yet one that had nevertheless intruded. “I am tired of waiting!” the voice erupted, causing an actual pain in the back of his skull.

  Olandrin once more looked ahead, and now, he smiled at Landy, who had remained motionless since their clash; the projected manifestation of the trapped NPC was floating quietly across from him, having clearly decided against pressing the attack. And now, speaking aloud to him, Olandrin said, “Awfully kind of you to wait for me like that.”

  “Make special-girl Angelica take Zach’s girlfriend away,” he demanded. “Take Zach’s girlfriend. Don’t worry about barriers. You don’t need barriers. I’m always in a barrier. I won’t run!”

  “I know ya won’t, buddy. Angelica, you heard him, right?”

  “Yah, I did.”

  “Let’s say we take Landy’s word for it then, huh? He says he won’t run, and for what it’s worth, I believe him. So feel free to drop the barrier and get everybody out of here, alright?”

  “Just be careful, Olandrin. Please!”

  Olandrin didn’t reply because he didn’t want to lie to her—because he knew that he was going to be anything but careful.

  He let go of everything—and he fought.

  *****

  What had begun in light was ending in darkness. Here on the base floor of the tower, amid a relatively trivial fight against an Orcish elite, the first of his summoned light sources expired, and now, Zach was completely submerged in darkness.

  “Shit!”

  It wasn’t like the light flickered or petered out; one moment, there was white light filling the halls and crevices of this stone tower, and the next, it was so dark that his eyes might as well have been closed. Caught off guard, Zach felt a startling, yet not entirely painful slap on his right shoulder, followed by a somewhat harsher, but still relatively mild one on his left cheek and part of his chin. At first, he didn’t know what was touching him, but then he realized it could only possibly be one thing: the enemy’s blood-dripping axes.

  And they barely hurt.

  That’s right, he thought. My constitution is so high right now that these things can’t really damage me anymore.

  Realizing he had no actual reason to be defensive, Zach struck out blindly ahead of him, alternating slashes with each of his two swords, even the spell-blade. Each time he connected, he saw only the damage numbers, which presented themselves as white numbers amid a screen of pure black.

  55,211

  21,951

  60,008

  21,111

  +110,000xp

  As the Legion Portal Guardian died and the platform steps to the 2nd floor reemerged, Zach sheathed his blades and then used his hand to find the nearest wall, which he shifted along until feeling the opening—the partition. Slipping through, he made the walk straight to the tower’s entrance, which let out into the night air. Thanks to the moon, he could now at least see his own hands when held close to his face, even if only just barely.

  Calling upon Bank and Storage, he grabbed another Star Gun (White) out of storage, aimed through the scope, and fired it off just as he had the last one, placing it in almost the exact same spot. Once more, light filled this central location of the sky island, with much of it beaming down into the glass oculus atop the tower, illuminating all that was inside.

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  “There,” Zach said. “That’s better.”

  As he made his way back inside, he rubbed his left cheek where the elite Orc had struck him, and he could already feel his passive HP regeneration taking care of the tiny little scratch the mob had given him. It caused him to wonder why, with such a high constitution, he was able to shrug off direct attacks from a level-60 elite, but those damn spider adds had been able to bite off entire chunks of his flesh. With his current stats, that really shouldn’t have been possible.

  It's got to have something to do with armor, Zach thought.

  In truth, Zach didn’t know how the armor stat worked. He knew that constitution was responsible for a person’s “hidden” HP, and he also knew that constitution determined how susceptible someone was to damaging attacks. But armor sort of did the same thing, no? At least, for physically damaging attacks, anyway. And right now, with just a helm and boots, Zach’s armor stat was very, very low: just 36. But since his constitution was so massively high—170 to be exact—shouldn’t that be more than enough to compensate? If nothing else, shouldn’t that have at least prevented the spider adds from being able to bite his entire hand off with just one single snap of the jaw?

  It might not work that way, Zach thought. I don’t know the specifics, but clearly, armor and constitution must play off each other somehow in a way that I’m not understanding, because those spider things shouldn’t have been able to rip off one of my limbs so easily, but they did.

  Although it was just a theory, Zach was beginning to think that, constitution, all on its own, had severe diminishing returns unless paired with a proper amount of armor. Sort of like how the most advanced electronics had always required additional energy in order to work properly.

  Zach had no idea if he was right or not, but he was beginning to suspect that, the higher his armor stat, the better his constitution was at being able to protect him. And thus, being that he had only 36 in armor, it had probably been what had enabled the boss’s adds to inflict an extreme amount of damage on him despite his super-high constitution stat. Most likely, there needed to be a sufficient amount of armor in the mix as well, with the two stats working together in a way that Jimmy probably understood but that he didn’t.

  And this—along with a few other things—he both considered and contemplated in the background of his mind while slicing up a Legion Portal Guardian that had only just respawned the moment he entered the partition.

  He made quick work of it.

  +110,000xp

  Zach immediately stopped what he was doing, his emotions transitioning from one extreme to the next like a grounded DEHV going over a bumpy road. First, he felt bitter disappointment at receiving yet another shitty level-up—though at least he got something this time around—but then, within a half-second, his mood jolted in the opposite direction as he realized he’d unlocked a new ability, this one being a legendary unique. Those honestly tended to be pretty good.

  Let’s see what I got.

  Although he lacked a watch or his phone, Zach’s internal sense of time told him that it had to be at least an hour or two past midnight by now, and he’d been grinding it up in here since the early-winter sunset, which meant he’d spent quite a bit of time at this now, and he was really eager to see some Gods-be-damned progress. And so, desperate for at least some sign of growth, he quickly pulled up the information on his newest ability.

  For a brief moment, Zach feared his head would explode from sheer shock as he read the ability several times over. Gods, this was a good one. This was a really, really good one. And that was true all on its own. But add in the fact that it could be used with Boundless as well? Or…or at least some day it could. After all, Zach currently couldn’t survive a Very High Exertion Cost, so he was absolutely positive he wouldn’t live through an “EXTREME” cost, however much that actually was.

  Still, the very idea of an “infinite range attack” struck him so hard that he almost dropped his swords. Because now, with this ability, it seemed he could actually get around the limitations of Boundless, which could not be used to remove the range requirement of damaging spells and abilities. And it made sense, too, because Boundless would not be used on a damaging ability; no, it would simply be used to alter the range of Amplifying Surge, a non-damaging ability—but with a twist. Because this ability would then be used to modify an offensive ability’s range, thus, in essence, he would be passing the Boundless range forward in a way that was actually allowed.

  Oh, shit! he thought, sucking in a deep breath as he considered the awesome implications of what he could do if he ever raised his stamina to the point that he could actually make use of such a combination. I could hit an entire army at once with Phase Slash from two continents away—or even from another planet, as long as I can somehow see them.

  It was incredible. It was mind-blowing. And it also finally answered some of the questions Zach had been holding onto for a good long time now, such as the confusion he’d experienced last year when he’d been adventuring with Kalana on Elendroth. Back then, when he’d first acquired Phase Cannon, he recalled the ability having an increased cost if “used with” Boundless. But Boundless couldn’t be used with Phase Cannon. Or at least that had been his assumption at the time, causing him to think it must’ve been some kind of glitch in the system. But now, it all made sense.

  Wait, I wonder if this also explains the two question marks on Phase Slash.

  Since first acquiring Unleashed Phase along with Phase Slash, the ability had always had something next to it stating that the time was increased to over six minutes if used with “??” Zach wondered: could that “??” be Amplifying Surge?

  He decided to check it out for himself, though he wasn’t sure if he actually could, as the informational display that contained all of his ability costs in seconds was typically one that he only ever brought forward while in Unleashed Phase. He therefore didn’t actually know if he was able to investigate it without being under the effects of the ability. Nevertheless, out of a sense of curiosity, he tried anyway, and he was pleasantly surprised to see that he could, in fact, call the information forward.

  “So I was right,” Zach said aloud while nodding happily. But his smile faltered a bit when he saw the time cost for using the ability. “Gods-be damned. Two hours of time? I only even get fifteen minutes to start the ability with. How the hell am I supposed to get that much time?” He rubbed his chin as he thought over it. “I guess I could technically chug stamina potions, assuming they work how I think they should. What do you think?” he asked the Legion Portal Guardian that had only just respawned about two feet away from him.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” it offered in reply, charging at him.

  Zach raised his weapons and got back to work. Yet even as he fought the Orcish elite, his mind was already on how he might use his new ability to grind even faster, something that Jimmy would have been proud of him for thinking about. Zach chuckled as an idea came to him. As soon as this thing died, he’d climb up and try it out.

  This might actually be fun.