Chapter 8: Chapter 8.

I surveyed the area around us from up high on top of the tower. I sat straddling the two-foot thick wall that made up the hollow structure.

To the east, the black wall dominated the entire horizon. Clouds stacked up against the mammoth structure. To the north I could see towers and walls of a city through the mist. We were getting close, maybe another few hours – if we survived.

Below us and outside the tower a group of grublings were feasting on lizard remains. They were like some messed up land-based piranhas on steroids. They devoured flesh and bone in seconds before moving on to the next. In under a minute, they had managed to eat everything in sight. The smarter lizards had swam out to the middle of the lake.

Worse yet, the grublings were eating their fallen. And I provided them with plenty to eat. More had arrived after the initial small group. Before long, the area was covered in them – which suited me just fine. For minutes on end without pause, I had rained down Ethereal Blades right on top of them. It provided a full buffet, a feast for the newcomers.

I did it until I used up half my mana. I left enough in case I’d need it for an emergency. Afterwards, I sent down the star to slice through any grublings that got into range. I checked how much it would cost to upgrade it in the future.

[t1][Animate Iron] Upgrades:

• [10,000 Essence] [t1] Mana Cost: 90 -> 80 mana

• [10,000 Essence] [t1] Minion Control Limit: 1 -> 2

• [10,000 Essence] [t1] Mass Limit: 20lb -> 30lb

• [10,000 Essence] [t1] Control Range: 30 feet -> 40 feet

• [10,000 Essence] [t1] Action Force: 100 -> 200

The maddening cycle just fed into itself. I’d kill a few, their cannibalistic brethren would swoop in to eat the dead. I’d kill those, and more would arrive. The ground was covered in blood and guts. I had created a circle of death around the tower. I must had massacred at least a hundred of them in total. Essence kept rolling in without end.

Then the bigger ones arrived. Like grublings, but bigger, and with more legs. I pointed them out to Dandee.

“The hell are those?”

“Thems are grobalisks. Nasty buggers can swim.”

And swim they did. A dozen of them dove right into the lake. A furious battle erupted. The water churned, turned red. Lizard chunks floated up to the top. Then it happened.

They attacked the ‘islands’ in the lake. Big mistake. Two giant turtles barreled out of the water. The ground shook. They stomped and crushed the bugs into the dirt. It was a sight to behold. Like watching a Godzilla movie, but live.

All was going well too, until one of the turtles crashed into the tower. It bulldozed a whole side right off. The tower started to crumble. It leaned and leaned. The ground drew closer. We were going down.

I blinked to the closest thing, which was the top of the same turtle. Dandee leaped down next to me. I held tight to its scaled back, found a firm grip. Rode it like some bull at a rodeo. Shit was getting crazy. I buzzed my star around it, took down any bugs I could for some easy Essence.

But this wasn’t going to last. Either the bugs were going to rip its head off in pieces, or it would go back under water. I needed a way to get off this ride and get the hell out of this place in one piece. But first, I had an opportunity I couldn’t miss out on.

“Get ready to run north,” I told Dandee.

I scrambled up closer to the monster’s gigantic head. Waited for a lull in activity. When the moment was right, I sprung up to the front, raised the spear high and drove it deep down. It sunk a good foot into its exposed neck. The turtle bucked, threw us up into the air. I cast Burst of Clarity to get my bearings right.

I was upside down, mid-air. Next to me, Dandee wasn’t having fun. His sole eye was about as wide as it could be, mouth gaping open, tongue lolling out. I took a leisurely look about the place and scanned for a suitable place to blink to. Preferably somewhere far from the bugs, and far from the trampling legs of giant monsters. I pointed to a spot, and hoped he’d see it.

“There!” I shouted, but in slow motion, and wondered how it would sound to him. I waited for an extra count, then blinked. The star whistled after me, took a few heads off on the way. Because why not? I had all the time in the world – for the next few seconds anyway.

Dandee landed next to me, rolled and kept running. I dashed after him, and away from the feeding frenzy. Instead of us, the bugs found something worthy of their attention. The giant feast of a turtle in its death throes.

We ran and didn’t look back. A good distance away, we slowed to a walk, caught our breath. There weren’t any bugs in the area. No lizards either.

[Essence gained: 103,653]

Yes! I smiled from ear to ear. That was a juicy one. This essence was just what I needed. Now I had to find a calm minute and a safe place to figure out what spells to upgrade.

I had lost half my tower shield in the cracks of the tower, and my spear in the turtle’s neck. But it was worth it. My star flew at my side, the only weapon I had beside my ethereal blades.

“That was bloody amazing,” Dandee said.

“And damn close too. Did you gain any essence?”

Dandee looked about as happy as he could be. “Aye, that I did, and thanks to you. I already upgraded me class four times to tier five. Can ya imagine it?”

“What does it do for you?” I asked.

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Dandee tapped his forehead. “It taught me skill, it did. How to parry, to strike and cut. Oh, I sure can’t wait to try it now.”

“Do you have any spells that you can cast? You must have mana, right?”

“Aye mate, plenty of it too, but no spells.”

I had seen the option to upgrade my classes, and the Bounty Hunter profession too. The cost was ten thousand Essence each. Unfortunately, the status didn’t list any benefits though.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the essence to upgrade the classes until I knew for sure what I would get. My classes weren’t tied to any particular use of a weapon, or a skill like swordsmanship. Still, curiosity won over, and the first thing I did was upgrade the Chronomacer class.

[Passive skill unlocked: Accelerated healing]

[Accelerated healing]: Over-time healing effects on you are increased by 15%.

On top of it all, it looked like I could upgrade it from 15 to 20% for similar cost of 10k Essence. It wasn’t quite the huge upgrade I had hoped it would be, but still nice. Sadly, I didn’t have any spells or ways to get life regeneration, so all it did was increase the natural healing rate showed in my status by a bit.

Upgrading the Chronomancer class felt like opening a mystery box. It left me wanting to upgrade it again, but now the cost had doubled to 20k. So, I upgraded the Ferromancer class for 10k instead.

[Spell unlocked: [t1] Ironclad.]

A new spell was a surprise, but a welcomed one. It took up the seventh slot in my nine active spell slots, but with a message that it’ll become available in twenty-four hours.

Next, I turned to the spells I already had. I loved what Burst of Clarity did for me, I loved Blink, and Backtrack was absolutely ungodly. Animate Iron was amazing too, and I itched to upgrade the minion control limit to two. I had so many good options to choose from that I couldn’t figure out which ones to upgrade first. And I had 167,715 essence to spend.

[t1][Blink] Upgrades

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Mana Cost: 80 -> 70

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Distance: 20 feet -> 30 feet

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Cooldown: 60 sec -> 50 sec

[t1][Backtrack] Upgrades

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Mana Cost: 250 -> 230

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Time Limit: 60 min -> 70 min

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Cooldown: 24 hours -> 23 hours

[t1][Burst of Clarity] Upgrades

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Mana Cost: 120 -> 100

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Duration: 60 sec -> 72 sec

• [10,000 Essence][t1] Cooldown: 10 min -> 9 min

Some minor upgrades didn’t seem to be worth the high Essence cost. Such as the ones that reduced the mana cost of spells. So, I ended up upgrading the cooldowns to t1 for Blink, Backtrack, and Burst of Clarity. Increased the Distance to 30 feet for Blink, Time Limit to 70 min for Backtrack, and Duration to 72 seconds.

For Animate Iron, I upgrade the minion control limit, control range and the mass limit. This left me with 32k of Essence to spend. I was split between gambling it on upgrading the classes, or upgrading another spell. In the end, I decided to leave the Essence for later use.

Dandee raised his hand up to show me his number. It had changed to an amber color. 9,725,036. He had dropped from twelve million down to a high nine.

He laughed. “Wooo.”

“Oh wow,” I said. “Is that the result of the upgrades?”

“Yeah mate. I never thought I’d see the day. Incredible, ain’t it?”

I checked my hand, but the number hadn’t moved down by much at all. Maybe by a dozen or two. Did I need to wait for it? It didn’t make any sense. I had grown more capable with all these upgrades, I thought.

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