Chapter 048 - Work Smart

As the first of the skeletons charged up the steps to meet Anna, Catherine leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. Anna attempted to grapple and strike first during her first few exchanges and Catherine was forced to call her out on it, but otherwise she slipped fairly easily into a steady rhythm of parries and ripostes. Catherine watched Anna’s form for a few moments before turning her attention to the skeleton she was engaged with. The mindless creatures had practically formed a queue up the stairs, unable to logic a swarm without the overseer to direct them.

Lesser Skeleton Warrior - Level 6

Catherine turned to look at Beval as he poked his head out of the control room nervously, his face paling a bit at the sight of the growing mass of undead struggling to get past Anna. Catherine raised a hand to get his attention. “Are you able to adjust their levels?” she asked.

He blinked at her a few times, uncomprehending before he snapped out of his frightened stupor. “Uh, yes! A little, not by a whole lot. There’s only so much this thing can do and from what I understand it’s restricted even more because of the Integration.”

“How many are we going to get out of that one fuel crystal at this level?” Catherine asked as Anna slapped away another attack, kicking the skeleton that had gotten a little too close for comfort and sending it down the stairs, bowling over its compatriots in a tangle of bony limbs. Anna bounced only once on the balls of her feet before setting her stance again and rolling her neck, waiting for them to come back to her.

Beval shrugged. “No idea,” he admitted, “we were never allowed to use this kind of fuel for the machine. The unprocessed fuel got us usually around ten to twelve per night…” he trailed off and looked down at his feet. “But you already knew that.”

“Indeed.” Catherine’s smile turned wry as she thought back to the tireless nights fighting one wave after another. She would be the first to admit her own folly in the practice. Anna clearly had an advantage against eyeless undead because of her heritage power. Having her help would have saved her a lot of pain and exhaustion, but she had been stubborn and perhaps a little self destructive. She tightened her grip on her arm and fixed her eyes on Anna’s back. It is hard to accept that I am back. Hell kept me sane, but that feeling still lingers…

She tilted her chin up when Anna’s swing faltered against a particularly frantic skeleton that tried to grab at her arm. “Watch your stance!” she shouted.

“I know!” Anna barked back irritably. “Little fucker is just-” she grabbed the skeleton by the arm, pulled it down over her knee, and then slammed it into the ground. A quick stomp of her boot shattered its skull. “-annoying!”

“You are also losing room to maneuver,” Catherine said. “Try to loot them as you go.”

“Are you nuts?” Anna barked back.

Catherine frowned. “We are in training right now, Anna.”

Anna groaned and parried another strike from razor-sharp fingers, driving her shoulder forward and putting the next skeleton off balance. She kicked its leg and sent it tumbling down the stairs, creating another mess of the undead below. Panting, she turned and shot off a mock salute that turned into a rude gesture. Catherine shook her head and sighed. I suppose that is the best I am going to get out of you, my Lady, she thought with a chuckle. 

“She really is just doing it herself,” Beval said with wonder.

She looked at him briefly before looking back at Anna. “She has an early powerhouse title, she is young, but as the first Terran to have the title she is doing well. This should be expected of someone of her capacity, though I will admit she has an advantage over the skeletons.”

Beval whistled. “Powerhouse title, huh? Never met one.”

“There are as many powerhouses in the multiverse as there are stars in the sky,” Catherine said flatly. “She has a long way to go and is pathetically weak by comparison the rest.”

“I can hear you!” Anna barked.

“I am aware! It is good to be humbled now and then!” Catherine shouted back.

“I’m plenty fuckin-” Anna grabbed a skeleton by the ribs and hauled it up into the air before tossing it over its comrades. “-humble!”

Catherine shook her head as Beval slipped out of the control room, looking a little less uneasy now that he saw Anna at work. He furrowed his brow at the way the skeletons attacked her, almost as if they had a hard time seeing her properly. Catherine kept her mouth shut as he stopped a respectful distance away, rubbing his hands together. “I never thought about using a Bone Garden like this. It’s probably heretical to the Undead Empire.”

“Good,” Catherine said flatly.

He paused and tilted his head before looking her way. “Wait, pardon me for asking, but did you say ‘Terran’ a moment ago?”

Catherine nodded.

“As in; the Human-Terran in that System message?” he pressed.

Catherine nodded.

“She’s a native?” he demanded. “A newly integrated native? Her?” he pointed at Anna while the girl brutally killed another skeleton, crushing its ribcage after sending both of its arms into the air with a quick parry. It collapsed into a pile of bones and she tapped it with her foot, stepping to the side around the cloud of multicolored smoke that rose from it and drew into her body. Anna was already moving on the next skeleton when Catherine looked his way.

“Yes.”

“You are aware everyone wants her dead, right?” he asked, “She has Authority! All the factions on the planet will come for her, even some of the nice ones.”

Catherine eyed him, “Scared?”

“I would be an idiot not to be,” he grunted. “I’m the property of someone who makes enemies as easy as she breathes.”

Catherine shrugged, she couldn’t argue that point. Instead, she changed the subject as her thoughts drifted to something a bit more personal. “Those gods I missed earlier, when I was explaining the courts to our Liege,” she began and looked his way. “Would you mind telling me about them? Assume I have been living under a rock since I was a child.”

His eyes lingered on Anna’s back for a heartbeat before he nodded numbly. “Uh… sure.”

–

Why do I get the feeling she’s talking that loud on purpose? Anna thought irritably as yet another skeleton barreled towards her, a groaning shriek rattling from within its maw as it fixed her with its terrible stare. Whatever fear effect it would have had was once again shrugged off, her own grit and the effects of her stirred heritage rendering it useless. She took a half step back and let it come to her, its clawed hands coming down from both sides. She swung upward, heaving her club through the blow and connecting with its chin at the same time. Its jaw cracked noisily and it tried again to reach for her as its lopsided head flopped about. She wrinkled her nose and swung again, sending the busted cranium bounding down the stairs and off the tops of the next few enemy’s heads.

A quick tap and she looted it.

You have received: 28 Iron Coins and 26 Essence Points

She glanced at her parry quest progress.

Contingency

Parry 250 attacks. (119/250)

Her lips twitched and she grinned. Pretty good progress if I do say so myself.

There were still more down there but she’d gone through at least twenty or thirty of them already. It was wild to think she’d managed to carve through so many but it helped that their accuracy was shit when dealing with her. This is how you do it, she thought wryly. Find some easy, high xp mobs and grind away for a few hours. Even better if you can set ‘em up. Why work hard? I’m tired of killing myself for every point of essence.

She hesitated and took a look at her resources.

That said…

Resources:
HP: 176/209 | SP: 112/219 | MT: 68/182

I’m starting to push my stamina pretty low. In fairness they’re pretty durable unless I use power strike or get them into a prone or compromised position, she reasoned. She wiped a bead of sweat off her lips as two charged at her, jockeying with one another and nearly bowling each other over. A quick parry sent the first attack going wide and she jabbed with the tip of her club, delivering a quick strike to the closest skeletons face while the second one literally pushed past it, grabbing its comrade and throwing it out of the way. She stepped back and let it pass her before grabbing it by the shoulder and planting her feet.

Where do you think you’re GOING? She snarled, her arm muscles bulging once as she lifted it off the ground and hurled it back down the stairs. It hit the peat-like soil down below and shattered, bones scattering everywhere while the others resumed their relentless charge. She popped her neck and let out a breath. Keep ‘em coming.

She wasn’t sure how long she went at it, but eventually the last one fell and she nearly collapsed to her knees. Her stamina was critically low. She’d done her best to manage it but there was no way to not use it at all. One thing she had picked up was how comfortable it was to keep her movements to a minimum. She was used to running around, dodging and weaving against stronger opponents. Staying still and holding her ground, though, felt more natural. She committed to finding better armor and ways to stick to that strategy.

Why should I chase after them anyway? She thought as she opened her inventory and pulled out one of the bottles of water she’d stashed in there for her grinding session. She chugged it down and groaned, wincing at the piles of bones she’d have to loot.

This is going to be a pain.

“Well done,” Catherine said behind her.

Anna glanced up and shrugged. “I’m beat, but it was worth it. How many more of those fuel things do we have?”

The knight crossed her arms. “That I am willing to spare for this? About ten or so. They could come in handy for other things down the line and it would be unwise to use them all. Given that this place came with us during the shuffle it stands to reason we should be able to use it again in the future.”

“Nice,” Anna said. “I’d like to burn through what we’re able to spare. Snag as many levels as I can.”

“Wait until you get your profession. You need essence to improve it too, just focus on getting those two class levels for your bonus and we can go from there,” Catherine suggested.

Anna nodded. “Right, makes sense.” She looked down at the piles of bodies. “I gotta let my MT cool down a bit before I can refine all this, but I’ll get to looting. You want some?” she asked.

Catherine held up her hands. “No, thank you, my Lady. Your quest comes first. How is your parry quest going?”

“About twenty more to go,” Anna said with a shrug and started down the steps, kicking bones left and right. A growing cloud of that pungent multicolored light began to rise into the air. She was so used to it at this point she barely noticed. “Power Strike went up too,” she added. “Up to Low now.”

Power Strike (Mortal-Common-Low)
You may now expend extra stamina and a small amount of mana to deliver devastating strikes against a target, dealing enhanced damage. Your Power Strikes now do increased damage.

She twirled her club between her fingers and rested it on her shoulder when she finally finished looting the last of the things. All told, she’d gathered 1232 Iron Coins and 1144 Essence from the grinding session. That put her at 2561 essence total for her level out of 3800. She’d only had time to refine about 500 of it so she figured now was as good a time as any. She walked up the stairs and found Catherine and Beval waiting for her. The leader of the slaves eyed her warily while Catherine nodded with approval. “Rest and refine,” she said. “We’ll go again once you’re done.”

“That might take a while,” Anna pointed out. “It takes at least an hour or two to cool down my MT and I’ve got twelve hundred to go through,” she said. “Speaking of which,” she turned to Beval. “You think you can up their level for the next time?”

His expression went a little sickly but he nodded. “Y-yes. I can.”

“Great,” Anna said and walked past him to sit down against the wall and cross her legs. I should have brought a chair or something. Oh, I could engrave it with that cooling thing I put on the old man’s bed. It might help mana cooldown a little bit. She smirked and shot a look up towards Catherine. “You taking a turn?”

“Yes, if you’ll allow it.”

Anna waved a hand. “Knock yourself out,” she said. “I need you to keep pace with me.”

Catherine nodded and turned to Beval before gesturing to the doors to the control room. The two went inside and Anna closed her eyes. Like she’d figured it took a while for her mana to cool down but once it did she immediately went into refining, drawing more mana in and merging it with her essence. The refined energy spread through her body and she let it seep into her bones, not forgetting to keep improving on her racial trait. With Mana Touched and her current Mana Tolerance she could refine around three hundred essence in a single round before she teased too close to the edge.

It took most of the rest of the day to work through it all and during her cooldown periods she pulled out her notebooks and studied or practiced forms. Catherine finished her own round of grinding about half-way through Anna’s refinement and went to refine as well. As for Beval, he just took a nap against the wall while the two of them built themselves up. By the end of their first day of grinding Anna was pleased with the results.

I feel like I’m really close to improving a lot of my abilities. Tomorrow is gonna be a big day, she thought and opened up her character sheet.

Name: Anastasia Flitt
Race: Human - Terran
Class: Warmage - 5 (2561/3800) 67.4%
Profession: None
Tier: Mortal - First
Heritage: Born in the Gray (Unknown) - Stirred
Heritage Path: Path of the Gray (Legendary)

Resources:
HP: 219/219 | SP: 209/209 | MT: 0/182

Attributes: Available Free Points: 0
Strength: 60 | Agility: 36 | Intellect: 33
Vitality: 44 | Endurance: 42 | Willpower: 32
Awareness: 42 | Insight: 46 | Presence: 86

Titles:
The Monument (Mortal - Unique), Inheritor of the Integration (Mortal-Epic), Solo Boss Hunter of the Integration (Mortal-Rare), Stygian Apex (Mortal-Uncommon), Stygian Navigator (Mortal-Uncommon), Stygian Seer (Mortal-Uncommon), Youth of the Integration (Mortal-Common), Precursor of Earth (Mortal-Common)

Racial Traits:
Mana Touched (Mortal-Rare), Stygian Bones (Mortal-Rare-Base), The Human Spirit (Mortal-Uncommon)

Proficiencies:
One-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons (Mortal-Common-Low), Arcane Magic (Mortal-Common-Base)

Skills:
Stealth (Mortal-Common-Base), First Aid (Mortal-Common-Base), Athletics (Mortal-Common-Base), Scribe Spell (Mortal-Common-Base), Engrave (Mortal-Common-Middle)

Abilities:
Wraithsight (Mortal-Uncommon-Base), Temperature Tolerance Training (Mortal-Uncommon-Base), Stygian Endurance (Mortal-Uncommon-Base), Stygian Agility (Mortal-Uncommon-Base), Stygian Insight (Mortal-Uncommon-Base), Aura Snap (Mortal-Uncommon-Base), Identify (Mortal-Common-Base), Power Strike (Mortal-Common-Low), Warcaster (Mortal-Common-Base), Basic Physical Conditioning (Mortal-Common-Base),

Spells
Mana Barrier (Mortal-Common-Base), Mana Bolt (Common-Base), Pathetic Illusion (Common-Base), Heal Minor Wound (Common-Base)

Currency:
Gold: 1
Iron: 6102