56 Guardians of Yawm (1/2)
The sickle wielding guardian spoke with a steady voice,
“Impressive.”
I raised an eyebrow,
“I thought these guys didn’t have a conscious?”
Kessiah shrugged, “This isn’t a normal guardian. Uh…Let me think.” She frowned, pointing a finger towards the sky in mocking imitation,
“Indeed Kessiah. Using my incredulous intellect, I infused the corpses of two dead disciples into the corpses of warriors. I know, I know, hold your applause at me sheer and unmatched intellect.”
Althea giggled at Kessiah’s Torix impersonation. I even cracked a smile before the sickle guy spoke again,
“He gave us new life. What else are we to do but serve him?”
Althea mumbled,
“I don’t know. Not serve him maybe?”
I rolled my eyes, “Come on, let’s go. Yawm has guards here. Why? Probably because the fucker learned about our plans after I cleared the last dungeon. That means we have to hurry.”
Kessiah gave me a short salute,
“Aye, aye captain.”
I pressed my palm into the floor, my armor soaking up the blood in moments. After that, I walked up and consumed the corpse the same way. Each of these guys had about 5 million ambient mana as well. It would only take a whopping twelve thousand for my next armor evolution. At that point, I knew the grind would set in soon.
I hadn’t hit that wall with my levels though. This wasn’t a boss monster, so the experience bonus I gained from the Obliterator tree wasn’t there. It not being a boss monster meant it had less experience regardless. I still gained an easy 43 levels from it though.
With that handled, I began pressing the select button before the perk screen appeared,
Devotion to the Enduring (Have 1000 points in a single attribute before level 1000, Endurance over 1000) – You decided to become a symbol of endurance. Your unyielding faith does not go unnoticed. Every eldritch killed over level 1000 adds another year of life. Immunity to sickness and disease. +10% more health, health regen, stamina, and stamina regen per 1000 points in endurance. You may choose to add 1/10th of endurance to any attribute of your choosing, besides endurance itself. You may now unlock a unlock a legendary skill.
After looking over the perk, it had an odd set of bonuses. The extended life from killing eldritch would translate to immortality. The sickness and disease immunity helped with preventing other kinds of death outside of old age. The 10% bonus to endurance’s stats seemed kind of meager for what the perk was as well. The 1/10th bonus to another attribute was massive though.
It would be like injecting 100 attribute points into any stat of my choosing. Considering how focused I was on endurance, whatever stat I chose would be handled nicely as well. I could choose intelligence for even more health, or perhaps strength for the extra power I’d gain. Those answers seemed like fun, but I already knew which attribute I would choose, constitution.
It would feed into the other chains of stats. Constitution fed into strength which fed into dexterity and so on. Endurance fed into willpower which fed into intelligence and so on. I could connect the chains with this extra 1/10th conversion. Endurance would become a sort of do all attribute. The legendary skill thing sounded awesome as well, but I didn’t know what to think of it. So far, getting my only mythical skill, Boundless Storm, had been hard enough. I’d think about that part of the perk later.
So, I selected the perk before grinning at the rush of vitality. Before I could soak it in though, another message appeared,
Which attribute will you select for the 1/10th addition? Con, Strength, Will, Intel, Luck, Char, Dex, or Per?
I selected constitution, the sudden rush in stats feeling like another fifty level-ups. My body grew denser, making me weigh even more. After putting the rest of my attribute points into endurance, I checked my status.
Level 606
Strength – 293.5 | Constitution - 686 | Endurance - 1077
Dexterity - 112 | Willpower – 499.7 | Intelligence – 173.9
Charisma – 54.8 | Luck – 76.2 | Perception – 103.6
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Daniel Hillside Totals Regen Buffs/Debuffs
Health 58,194/58,194 16,499/min Oppression Damage- 15,000+40%hp/min
Stamina 26,519/26,519 344/sec Elemental Res - 98%
Harbinger of Cataclysm .16 Billion/56.6 Billion 69.4/per min(conduit) Plasma Res - 98%
Phys Dam Reduction - 98% Rad Res - 98%
Phys Dam Bonus - 4322% Mental Res - 98%
Total Damage Bonus 20% Boundless Storm
Pacing down the lowlit hallway of the stadium, I noticed the sudden shift in stats. I was heavier now, if I let my feet clunk against the tiles, they would splinter. If I let my weight press into the ground without finesse on my part, the slight quaking that ensued was awe inspiring. Besides that, the arcane bonds in my flesh tightened till they reminded me of the wires running through my flesh.
They were so strong, they felt physical, not even like magic. My raw stat total had become something to behold, turning into a monstrous total of around 3000. I had around 2-3 times more than a normal person, not including my armor’s bonuses. I had the stats to match someone well over level 1000.
My skills probably didn’t matchup with someone like Torix though. These guards he made for instance were incredibly powerful, being comparable with his current strength. Torix had made these guards and countless others since coming here. That distance would take time to close.
I grinned at the thought. Closing that distance wouldn’t take as long as I had first imagined. After looking closer at the rest of the devotion to the enduring perk, I may be able to shorten that distance further. Unlike with the leveling perks, this perk didn’t state any kind of limit. If I could reach 1000 in other stats, then I would be able to get other perks for other stats. Looking at my status, willpower and constitution were well within the realm for just that.
I got two attributes per level, and I could absorb a dungeon core every other level. That meant around 25 attributes every 10 levels. If my math was right, then I could get these perks for constitution and willpower as well before reaching level 1000. It would create a trifecta of super stats for me.
With that in mind, I figured putting the points into constitution would be my best bet for now. Till it reached 1000, I’d just pour the stats into it. After that, willpower would follow. It was good I had these perks lined up for me, since beating Yawm without them would be impossible.
He almost certainly had the genesis of potential perk as well as a few other advantages I didn’t know about. I mean he was pretty much the warrior king of a whole species. That’s bound to come with a few absurd bonuses. To beat something like that, I need something absurd as well.
With the stats handled, another set of echoing ebbed in the distance. More explosive in pitch, the echoes sounded like a thunder storm instead of stomping steps. We reached the ticket booth leading into the stadium’s center, the ticket booths lined up. One of Yawm’s guards walked by, the arc reactor on his back shooting lightning every few seconds.
The thing had a harpoon cannon as a right hand instead of a drill. The entire head was composed of glowing, yellow glass with a wire mesh supporting it. Along its feet were blocks of iron that looked like a ton of tiny strands of iron compressed together. It glanced up at us, shocked by us for some reason. Maybe it could see our levels too.
Spiker, Keemak Sentry (lv 944) – A servant of an undersea emperor of their home world, their kind lives in the dark. The sentry’s acted as a form of ranged offensive potential in strike groups during military excursions. Using their wide range of visions, they could also be used as exceptionally effective scouts given the right situation.
Their harpoon rifle is designed for maiming rather than piercing due to the elongated prongs on the sides of the spear. Once they’ve pinned an enemy down at a distance, spikers send powerful bolts of electricity into the spear. This can make their electric attacks many times stronger than a normal Keemak soldier from the enhanced conduction of the metal.
Their mobility is also superior to their more grounded brethren, the juggernauts. A spiker can magnetize the magnets under its feet with the arc reactors on its back. This allows it to preform moves otherwise impossible due to the power of magnetism. If all else fails, they can also detonate their reactor cores upon death.
While not a sure-fire way to death, facing one will be an undertaking to say the least.
This monster looked more challenging than the Mauler. I crushed the mauler because it was brute trying to beat me. My build negated its strengths, letting me exploit how bulky and slow it was. This monster didn’t look quite as easy to stop.
With that in mind, I shot towards it. The monster raised the harpoon gun and fired towards me. I moved my arm to deflect it, but Althea’s harpoon hit the other harpoon midair. Althea’s bullet split the spiker’s harpoon in half, the pieces spinning before lodging into the ceiling and floor.
Another shot later and Althea kept pace, firing each shot out of the air. I neared the spiker in seconds my ascendant mana roaring stronger than ever. The voice spoke in my mind, telling me to tear and maul my opponent. I silenced it, containing the sudden rage. A calm, cold focus was a far better tool for killing than red hot fury.
Once reached the monster, it sent out a wave of electricity like an emp grenade. The electromagnetic pulse didn’t do shit to me, but Kade, the rifle guard guy, had the electronics in his gun fried. As I reached within ten feet of the spiker, it sent out a bolt of lightning towards a ticket booth and into its feet. It jumped sideways, the metal on its feet pulling it towards the ticket booth.
It landed sideways fifty feet away. The move defied gravity, throwing me off for a second. That second was long enough for a harpoon to be fired right at me. The bullet landed straight into my neck, drilling through my armor and the back. It lodged a foot deep, the massive spear making a mortal wound. Well, mortal for most.
As a burst of steam streamed from the spiker’s rifle, I grabbed the end of the spear behind me and pulled. It felt like pulling out a needle. Not so bad. The spear tore into me a bit as I pulled, but I stayed standing. The bolt hadn’t even done a fifth of my health bar.