Free Web NovelChapter 22: Big Boost
[A/N: By the way, the Terror Master’s Minion was of Tier-9, not Tier-10 (His stats remains same as those were Tier-9 stats)]
***
A soft chime, and a single object floated up out of the chest, turning slowly in the air.
A gem.
It was the size of a walnut, faceted, deep violet shading to black at its core, and inside it something moved, a slow churn of pale wind threaded with darker currents, like a storm sealed in glass.
[Congratulations. You have acquired an Epic-rank Magic Gem of Netheraxin Wind.]
’A gem?’ Aidan plucked it out of the air and turned it between two fingers. ’And what do I do with you?’
[A Magic Gem can be embedded into any item and grant it bonus attributes as well as bonus abilities. An Epic-rank or higher-ranked Gem can trigger a magic modification on lower-ranked items, raising a lower-tier item into a higher-tier one, and rewriting its powers.]
Aidan’s eyes glinted.
’...Now that’s interesting.’
He had exactly one item worth talking about.
He pulled the Blood Hunter Knuckle Dusters out of his inventory, the crimson-gold knuckles with their neon fang patterns, the first real weapon the system had ever handed him, and weighed them in one hand against the gem in the other.
[Blood Hunter Knuckle Dusters]
Rank: Tier-9
Magic Gem of Netheraxin Wind: Epic-rank
’Tier-9 item, Epic-rank gem.’ Aidan grinned. ’Let’s see what you do.’
He pressed the gem against the back of one knuckle duster.
It sank in like a stone dropping into water.
The crimson-gold metal rippled. The fang patterns along the surface peeled apart and rewove themselves, darker now, veined with that same churning violet, and a low pressure rolled off the weapon as it climbed.
[Magic Modification in progress...]
[Blood Hunter Knuckle Dusters → Netheraxin Blood Hunter Knuckle Dusters]
[Rank: Tier-9 → Epic]
[Two new Aspects have been integrated.]
—> Nether (100%)
—> Epoxy (100%)
The knuckle dusters settled cool against his skin, and at the same moment, two new things bloomed open in his source, joining the others.
’There they are.’ Aidan closed his eyes for a second, feeling them out. ’So. What’ve I got?
[The Nether aspect is a force of decay and corrosion. It eats at structure, matter, and the bonds that hold a thing together, be it metal, flesh, or magic. The Epoxy aspect is a force of adhesion and binding. It fixes, anchors, and seals.]
’Decay and glue.’ Aidan opened his eyes, and they were bright. ’Opposites.’
His mind was already running.
Because across the warehouse, three Epic-rank Terror Generals stood trapped inside Arthur’s neon prison, hammering at bars they couldn’t dent, and they had one thing in common that had been bothering him.
Their Defense.
[Terror Knight] — [Defense: Epic-3]
[Terror Reaver] — [Defense: Epic-2.8]
[Terror Glaivedancer] — [Defense: Epic-2.6]
Aidan’s raw Attack, even with his Power Bond stacking, even uncapped now that he was outside any dimension, was the weakest of his stats. He was a man with a god’s health and a beginner’s punch. He could hit these things all day and chip them slowly, and slowly was fine when Arthur held the cage, but slow was boring.
Decay, though.
Decay didn’t care how hard you hit. Decay only cared how long you let it work.
’Okay. Spell time.’
He didn’t even need the chest’s leftover tickets for this. He had a stupid amount of Mana, courtesy of Divine-10 Health, more than his weak Attack could ever spend. For once, that was exactly the right problem to have.
He raised one Netheraxin knuckle duster and started building.
First, Epoxy.
Threads of pale adhesive light spat from his fist and crossed the cage, and where they touched the three Terrors, they sank into the seams of their armor, their joints, the gaps in their bone-plate, and set hard, gluing limbs to torsos, weapons to hands, plate to flesh. Not to hold them. Arthur was already holding them.
To pin the decay in place once it started.
The Terror Knight strained against the suddenly locked joints, greatsword fused to its own gauntlet.
Then, Nether.
Aidan exhaled and poured Mana into the second aspect, a slow violet mist that crawled out along the Epoxy threads like water finding the cracks it had been promised. Where it touched, it began to eat.
The bone armor of the Knight dulled, pitted, and started flaking away in grey ash.
The golden mask of the Reaver corroded from the inside, its four blades crumbling at the edges.
The Glaivedancer’s horns, dripping blue-purple fire a moment ago, blackened and curled like burnt paper.
[Defensive structure decaying.]
’Yeah.’ Aidan rolled his shoulders, feeding more Mana in, steady and endless. ’Just gonna stand here and rot you.’
It was almost relaxing.
He layered the spell as he went, naming it in his head the way he named all of them, Netherbind Rot, Epoxy to fix the corrosion in place so it couldn’t be shaken off, Nether to do the actual work, a self-feeding loop that climbed the more Mana he shoveled into it. The Terrors thrashed inside the cage, and every thrash just cracked their own decaying armor faster.
Their Defense numbers slid.
Epic-3 to Epic-1. To SSS-8. To SSS-3.
And once the Defense was gone, the vitality went next, the Nether reaching past the shell into the essence underneath, unmaking it the same patient way it had unmade the armor.
The Knight dropped first, its whole gaunt frame collapsing into a slumping pile of grey ash that lost its shape before it hit the floor.
The Reaver followed, all four arms crumbling at once, its eyeless mask caving inward into nothing.
The Glaivedancer lasted the longest, slender and stubborn, until its glaive corroded to powder in its grip and the rot climbed its arm and took the rest.
Seven minutes, start to finish.
Three Epic-rank Terror Generals, gone, without Aidan throwing a single punch.
[Terror Knight eliminated.]
[Terror Reaver eliminated.]
[Terror Glaivedancer eliminated.]
The neon prison flickered and dissolved, its job done, leaving three smears of ash on the warehouse floor and a faint violet haze that the Nether slowly ate too, until even that was gone.
And then the notifications hit.
[Massive experience absorbed.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
It cascaded, a wall of them scrolling past faster than he could read, the experience from three Epic-rank kills pouring in all at once now that the dimensional cap was gone and his Trial Quest had broken his ceiling. He felt it physically, his source swelling, his stats grinding upward, the weak A-1 attack that had embarrassed him for weeks finally clawing up out of the basement.
When it stopped, he was breathing a little harder, and the world looked a little sharper.
He pulled up his status.
—————
[Player Aidan]
[Level: 500 (41%)]
[Rank: Transcendent-Median]
[Titles: The One Beyond Despair (X)] fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
—Attributes—
[Attack = SSS-17]
[Speed = SSS-17]
[Defense = SSS-17]
[Health = Divine-10]
[Control = SSS-17]
—Talents—
[Power Bond (SS)]
[Exotic Summoner (X)]
—Inventory—
[10 x Omni-Slot Machine]
—————
<Quests>
<Terror Raids>
—————
Aidan stared at it.
’...SSS-17. Across the board.’
He flexed one hand, and the air bent around it.
’Now we’re talking.’
He let out a long breath and looked at the cocoon still hanging in the air, neon patterns spiraling slowly across its surface, Arthur sealed inside it, evolving in his own time.
Then he turned.
To the golden dome by the wall.
To the girl inside it, with the ash-grey hair and the pale amber eyes and the face that wasn’t hers anymore, who had watched all of it, every bit, without making a sound.
"Let’s talk some business now, and just so we are on the same page, the girl named Mira is dead." Aidan grinned.
Mira’s eyes had light in them.
Light of hope.
"Then..." Mira opened her mouth, and for the first time, Aidan saw her smile.
"Give me a new name."
