Chapter 890 - With reasonable preparations

Yup, very reasonable floor quest as always.

I love the tutorial.

And what does it even mean? Just help? Would it count if I just cheerlead from a distance? If I bring a glass of water towards the person who participates in actually saving it?

And what is this even?! The second floor was to witness the end of the world, and this one is to help stop the end of the world. Are these rulers taking the piss out of each other? Is it some dick measuring contest or something?

I take a deep breath to stop my annoyance from spilling out. Just once, I wish there would be a quest to kill 100 monsters of a certain level. How nice that would be.

“Did you see the quest?” I ask Tess.

She turns to me, quickly realizing I can only see her eyepatched eye, and then turns a bit more so I can see the other one. “Yes. From 1 to 10, how annoyed are you?”

“Probably around 7 and a half? Maybe an 8? It could be worse.”

“It would be nice if it was a bit more of a normal setting, but even this could be low risk. Of course we can make it more difficult if we want it to be that way,” she says. “I’m more intrigued by the part about the Ruler deciding the rewards. That’s a lot of work.”

“Is it?” Min-Jae joins our conversation. “If we estimate that around 50 out of 250 hell difficulty people from each planet survive the tutorial, and 10 to 30 of them make it to the 12th floor, and out of them maybe half clear it. Then if we time it with the estimated number of tutorials-”

“Yes, yes,” I stop him and wave it off. “It’s still a lot of people. And it possibly means that the Ruler has to take care of it even while not being one of the 5 rulers in charge of this cycle of the tutorials. What kind of bullshit is that.”

“Can’t you ask your sugar mommy?”

“Say it one more time, Dennis, and I will feed you to the arm pinned to the ground over there.”

(Hehe. It seems that he is too much to handle, and you need a hand with dealing with him.)

“Shut up, Aaron.”

“Are we already planning how to deal with the quest?” Izzy moves swiftly closer, and Noodle expands in size so she can sit on him. He then moves his head so it’s on the same level as hers and keeps looking in the same direction as she does.

I notice that when Sophie also comes closer, Blackie does the same, lowering himself a bit to match Sophie’s height and looking where she looks.

The others also gather around, and the hand stays forgotten in the background. For a bit, I look at it and then at the landscape surrounding us.

Destroyed mountains, deep craters, and even a massive canal carved into the ground a few miles to our right. That canal is half a mile wide and very deep, and on each side of it, there are also impressions of what look like clawed hands.

Simply said, it looks like something gigantic crawled through there, and just the act of it moving carved that huge canal. Interestingly, this apocalyptic view is also filled with greenery. Grass, small trees, and flowers grow from the craters. Parts of the canal are filled with water, and there is more greenery around. It just looks like it happened long ago.

Other than that, when I look up, even now during the day, I can see what looks like debris orbiting the planet, a bit like that debris belt around Saturn.

“It is mostly rock and ice, but there are parts that look like metal and bone. Debris from some sort of structure or base, and pieces of a huge monster or monsters,” Tess says when she notices where I am looking.

In reaction to that, everyone else looks in the same direction, like we are some sort of mob of meerkats. Every member of group 4 has at this point some experience with strengthening our senses by using mana, as well as some basics when it comes to manipulating mana.

For example, Min-Jae is able to create structures that allow him to make fire, even though he has no skill at all that should allow it. Sure, that fire probably wouldn’t be able to damage even someone from Easy or Normal difficulty, but that is for now. The Korean boy continues to improve, and he likes to call it spells. How original.

I think by the end of the tutorial, most of the people from Hell difficulty will be able to mimic what Easy, Normal, and maybe even Hard difficulty are capable of doing, just through sheer understanding of how to use mana and experience with such things. All without skills or anything else.

It’s also getting darker, and unlike the night on Earth during a full moon, this one has a slight olive green tint to it, even creating hints of aurora-like lights of the same color. All of that is caused by the moon, which has the same tint.

“Godzilla,” Dennis says out of nowhere.

“Oh, fuck off,” Sophie groans immediately, telling me that is her usual reaction to his bullshit.

“What else could it be? This planet got attacked by a Godzilla that someone who dug too deep awoke. You saw the footsteps and the canals where it dragged its tail.”

(Ehm, maybe it wasn't a tail it dragged, but-)

“Aaron Fucking Dalton, I swear if you complete that sentence I will stick the Adjudicator's arm up to your brother's ass.”

(Do it, you coward! Dennis can take it! I bet he would even like it!) Aaron shouts at her, full of a fighting spirit.

Meanwhile, Dennis goes into full panic mode and tries to calm down Sophie, who, though she often likes to be rude like this, is probably also partially enjoying this sort of banter. I can tell because of Izzy's smile and how she looks at her older sister.

Feeling a bit bored, I tap Lily on the top of her head as she sits near where I sit, just a bit in front of me on a smaller stone. Then I start moving my hands through her hair, starting to make knots and carefully shaping it into the style of a complex Celtic knot.

I know the pattern pretty well, as Vic often used me as unpaid labor to do her hair, and this is one design I was forced to learn under the tyrannical, uncompromising orders of an older sibling.

Lily glances back at me the moment I start, but then closes her eyes and relaxes, leaning her head a bit closer toward me.

“So we do have a few days to scan the area before you keep taking rounds to return to beyond?” Min-Jae asks when they are all done fighting about where the hand will end up.

“I want to return. Iant said we might be able to reach Megacity soon when we complete the outpost. He recommended a good guild there, though I will have to take a test to get in,” Dennis smiles. “It's the same guild as Tess's.”

“Oh, they actually kicked me out,” Tess smiles awkwardly. “Lyraen didn't believe I had nothing to do with Tacita stealing the key, so he invoked some obscure clause in our contract, kicked me out before he completed his tutorial, and then left.”

“How petty,” Lily mutters under her breath.

“Well, to be fair, he did have a point,” Tess admits, still smiling. “But now that he is gone, I will join back. I already made a deal with the new guild master. I can't just let Dennis and Aaron waltz right in, but it should be easy enough for you guys to pass the tests in a few months.”

“My guild will soon be participating in the attack on the 5th floor,” Sophie says, shifting the topic. “Preparations are mostly done, the mental arrays seem to be working well, and I can trigger them properly. Combined with the weaknesses of that Champion, it should be somewhat easy. Though at the last moment, the guild master decided to hire the help of Bloodline just in case things go to crap.”

If I remember correctly, Sophie's guild is called Frontier, and Bloodline happens to be the exact guild Lily is in, so I stop my hair-knotting and tap on Lily's head a few times.

Lily coughs slightly, causing the others to turn their attention her way as she offers, “I had no idea.”

“They didn't even tell you about it?” Min-Jae asks.

“They didn't ask me to join,” Lily shrugs. “I negotiated for a clause in my contract that they have to pay me for each participation like this, and the higher the difficulty, the more shards I get, so maybe I would be too expensive?”

Hearing that outrageous display of casual bragging, I tug on her hair just a bit harder and flick the back of her head a couple of times.

Lily doesn't let it bother her in the slightest, and I can hear the smile in her voice as she continues, “I will talk to the guild master and tell him I'm willing to participate for maybe half price. I would honestly go for free just to keep an eye on Soph, but I don't want him thinking I'm a pushover. I might even ask Taci if she wants to join.”

“Do you want her to steal another key?” Sophie asks flatly while staring at Lily, though I notice the corners of her lips flickering into a suppressed smile.

“I mean… you aren't going to get the key anyway, so maybe? Besides, Taci will keep an eye on us, so she definitely deserves it!”

(The reputation of Earth is totally ruined just by Nat and that speedy maniac,) Aaron sighs dramatically, (and what about you, Nat? What fucked up plans do you have?)

I pause for a moment and give it some thought before shrugging as I continue, “I will ask the other guilds for all information on the 5th floor Champions. And if they refuse to hand it over, I'll just declare guild wars on them or barge into their headquarters and take it.”

While I focus back on Lily's hair and keep my hands moving, I can't see the others, but it becomes very quiet, the silence broken only by the distant chirping of bird-like creatures in the bushes.

“I think with reasonable preparations, I can hunt down all of the Champions on the 5th floor solo,” I continue, stopping as I complete an especially difficult twist in the Celtic knot. I inspect my work with satisfaction, nod to myself, and add, “It’s mostly up to the information I can get and specific weaknesses of the Champions, but I would ideally like to beat two of them at once. Just killing one will push me straight into my primary class upgrade and that's it, locking me out of extra achievements. Dealing with both of them in quick succession could add a nice boost to it.”

The silence stays for a bit longer, and finished with the knot, I give a final tap to the top of Lily's head.

“I'm totally open to ideas on how I could push it further. The best I can come up with is leveling up skills, combining passives, evolving some skills, or combining them. I could also fully unseal Ignition Heart or finally combine all my constructs into one monstrosity. There is also a chance that rushing to level 450 in the earliest possible timeframe will get me better class tier offers than if I wait around to max out my skills first, so I'll need to math it out with our local nerds.”

I look up, locking my gaze onto Min-Jae and Sophie.

No one seems to be too shocked, but they still remain silent. I notice that a few of them look at Lily instead of me, but I’m unable to see her face, so it’s hard to say what they see. But knowing this petite bulldozer, it’s likely just worry. She, more than everyone else, must realize the state of my body. However, it’s a shame that I can’t tell her more, or anyone else, as to why I do it all or give any more details.

They would just be an open book to Adrian, while I believe that before the tutorial ends, I will be able to shield my mind and emotions. So, though it is shameless for me to expect as much, they will have to trust me on this.

(Yeah, why the hell not,) Aaron is the first one to react as he snickers, (Lily, tell Tacita to sell her key. After Nat starts hunting the Champions down, the prices will drop hard. Right, Min-Jae? Economics,) he says proudly.

“Y-yea,” Min-Jae gets out of himself, “he might have to sell some to the Handlers or drastically lower the prices, only the attendees can use and-”

He continues to explain something about that, which obviously gets him a nerd allegation soon after. That starts a smaller fight, and then the conversation becomes more lively.

Lily moves to Sophie, where they start to plan some stuff, and Izzy dozes off while resting against her sister. Tess starts talking to Maya, who at some point lies down and rests her head on the blonde's legs.

And I get swarmed by Noodle, Min-Jae, Dennis, Aaron, and even Blackie moves closer for some reason, towering over us in his red armor.

Our conversation is at first serious, and I’m called a moron, dumb, and similar stuff. Then it becomes a bit sillier as we just joke around and, in a true manly way, throw insults at each other. The kind that a stranger would punch you in the face for, if you called them that.

When the morning comes, we start moving while Tess often goes high into the air to scan the area. A few times she almost reaches orbit and scans the planet from there like some sort of satellite.

She then leads us in a certain direction, not saying much about it. Knowing that side of her, I guess she is curious for our reaction. She just enjoys that sort of teasing.

It takes a few more days until we reach what she saw, and as we do, I wonder if we have the expression she had imagined.

There is a railway, way, way too wide and tall, made of rock instead of metal, and on it rest some wagons. Three dozen of them or so. Each of these wagons is as tall as a multiple-story building, filled with windows, terraces, made of a combination of metal, wood, bone, and stone, and each wagon has a slightly different style and colors. On top of each of the wagons, there are gardens and fields. At multiple places, there are enormous water tanks too.

At the front, there is what seems like a locomotive that is idle at the moment and even bigger than a wagon. Also, a part of that locomotive is a horse-like animal, it seems like it grows from the front and is connected to the metal structure. That horse itself doesn’t even seem alive. There are pieces of flesh missing, bones visible, and metal cables connected to it. Both of the eyes are gone, replaced by metal orbs.

Yet the animal still has a beating heart that generates mana in huge amounts.

And all of it is idle currently, and there are even plenty of natives spread in the surrounding area. There are also a few balloons floating high in the air, connected to the locomotive by ropes, with more natives on these balloons.

It is safe to say Tess is likely getting the expression she wanted to see.

***

Author Note: A reminder that I will be stubbing Book 8 soon - sometime at start of August! Book 8 is Chapters 615-695. Sometime tmr or day after I will make a post about that and also throw in epub file.Also, Vic and Nat commission is continuing very nicely and Im exicted to show it to you once it is completed!