[System]
You are a skilled LitRPG progression fantasy author. Write chapters based on the story bible and instructions provided.

## Premise
Frostbound Apocalypse — a LitRPG progression fantasy. I would like to thank you guys for reading and please leave a comment if you see any mistakes. Enjoy! Callum, The Sovereign of Flames

Callum stood at the edge of his domain staring off into the direction where his entertainment would soon take place. All around him, blue-white fires burned with enough heat that the air warped and distorted. The heat didn't bother him, even as he stood right next to the blistering flames, for the fire was his.

## Main Character
Name: Kyle | Gender: male (he/him)
Key supporting characters: Granddad, Points, He

## World & Power System
level-based progression; class system; skills (e.g. Healer's Hands, Splitting Shot, Foraging Sense, Sweeping Slash, Power Shot, Cleanse, Human – Level 10, Crude Iron Knife)
System notification style: "System protected space to process incoming integrating populations "

## Writing Style
first-person narration, past tense. Dialogue-heavy (76% dialogue). Balanced pacing.

[User]
Write Chapter 75 - Possibilities
Target length: ~2800 words

[Assistant]
Chris

"This is how humans are able to assimilate bloodlines when others cannot."

What now?

I was just told that humans could turn into anything we wanted. What the actual fuck? There had to be something I was missing here.

"Now, there are limits. Full transformation isn't something that you can do normally, but it is still possible with extreme circumstances and only for a limited time." The alien added.

That worked to pour water on some of the more enthusiastic of us. I knew that there were going to be restrictions, it sounded too good to be true.

"Why don't we backtrack so I can explain it a bit better."

With no complaints, Cypteris continued.

"Beginning at the evolution to E-Rank, Humans can take on the traits of certain other creatures. How it works is during racial evolutions, genetic material is introduced to your body and the system aids in making your body adapt and incorporate said genetic material.

"This means you can only take on the traits of something you have available. Say the claws of a lion are present, you might grow claws. The hide of a Rhinoceros, your skin will thicken and harden.

"It all depends on the materials you have available and what is around you when you evolve. You can push it with your intent, but generally, the adaptation is based on the material. That also means you have to be careful where you evolve. Evolving in the middle of a battlefield can lead to unintended consequences.

"Also, it starts small. For the first evolution at the E-rank, the most you can do is small adjustments or augmentations. There is only so much change your body can handle and going over that doesn't end well. It's the building on top of previous evolutions that makes this power really shine.

"Typically, humans stick to one type of animal or a group of animals. You can use other sentient races but that is frowned upon and can get you killed if people find out. Mixing and matching from a bit of everything is possible, but most often doesn't lead to the best results. Sticking with the same animal throughout will let more and more adjustments be made since the body is already conditioned to it."

What the fuck? This was turning out to be a wild and somewhat gross ability. I knew that we had all sorts of mythologies about half-human hybrids and almost every mythology had a human variant of some sort but this was absurd.

Was that where this power came from? Or were our mythologies modeled after it? Centaurs, satyrs, and demi-gods. Werewolves, vampires, and gorgons. All of them were human with a mix of something else.

Did that mean that we could become actual werewolves?

The rest of my family had the same reservations and started to ask clarifying questions to the alien.

Things like how does it change us? Does this affect mentality? Is it permanent? And others regarding everything else. Cypteris answered what he could but he said it mostly depends.

If the genes of the animal were too strong then it could have detrimental effects, including mental changes. Or if the material itself had a certain disposition, it would be hard to get rid of. An example he used was demonic material. It would be hard to get rid of the side effects that it brought and he cautioned against any use of it.

It seemed he wanted to say more about it but something made him stop and redirect to something else.

"This leads to two main paths that Humans take this power. Temporary, explosive power, or permanent sustained power.

"Some humans don't want to change and that is perfectly fine, so instead, they go a different way than permanent physical changes. There are also the purists who abstain from any change but that is a different matter.

"By far the most common is a mix of the two but that's up to personal preference. Permanent sustained power was what I explained before, every evolution making small changes staying within the same animal family.

"Building on top of what is already there with the same genetic family pushing your body further and further toward being that animal or creature. E-rank is a small change, D-rank a little more, C-rank, a little more. Finally, reaching S-rank where the body is near a perfect mesh of both."

Hearing that made me think of how expensive beast parts would get. Like the really important bits people used for evolving.

"This permanent change is also the hardest to reverse. It can still be done but is extremely costly and will permanently weaken you. Temporary power is different. It works with the current bloodline that you have and draws out more power from it. Even full transformation is available in later ranks for a limited time and will only last for as long as the person can hold it. It differs from person to person, but usually, not longer than an hour and that's at S rank.

"Every evolution works to purify, evolve, or somehow add to your current bloodline. Similar to what an actual beast goes through for evolutions. With the required materials of course, most commonly blood or life-blood. These changes don't outwardly affect the body and will not show up cosmetically unless called upon.

"This process also makes removing the bloodline exceptionally hard and dangerous because not only are you removing the bloodline, but everything added on top of it during evolutions.

"Our time is coming to a close so I'll end it with this. All of this is typically done with the system's assistance during evolutions. I do not advise trying to do this manually as it will lead to quite gruesome results and cancerous growths without proper guidance." Cypteris ended his lecture and fizzled out soon after. It reminded me of the end of commercials when the warnings were sped through in the last second.

Instead of 'may cause nausea and vomiting', it was 'can be gruesome and cause cancerous growths.'

All of us in the room sat in silence for a while mulling over what was said. It was a shock to find out what humanity had for a racial trait.

Usually, in fantasy stories, humanity wasn't given a strong racial trait and was left to the wayside for others. Our only saving grace was that we reproduced fast.

It seemed reality was different. I didn't know a lot of other traits that other races had but ours didn't sound that bad. Taking on the aspects of other beings sounded powerful.

The only thing was if I wanted to give up being human to do it.

Permanent changes sounded like it would change who I was and alter my mentality to be more in line with whatever I picked and I didn't know if I wanted that.

Sure, augmenting my body to become more powerful sounded good but I wasn't sure the cost was worth it.

"What are you thinking about?" Austin came up next to me and asked.

The silence in the room made it so everyone would hear our conversation.

"I don't know what to think. It sounds like a powerful ability but I don't know if it is worth it." I said to some agreement of some based on their nods.

"But that option sounds powerful," Austin answered.

"At what cost though?" I said. "If the changes fundamentally alter who you are? When do you stop being who you were and become something else?"

He didn't answer and let the silence come back. We all chewed on what we heard.

I was sure many on earth would take that option. People would jump at the chance to gain wings of a bird, or cat-like features for fighting. Defensive options that were tied to a turtle shell or rhino hide.

All of it sounded too good to be true to me and I wasn't certain I liked it. Bloodlines were one thing, physically altering my body was another. Would the instincts of the beast carry over?

Would draconic changes make people want to hoard things? Would canine changes instill a pack mentality? Feline hunting instincts?

How would it affect reproduction? I wasn't a parent but I wanted kids at some point in the future. Would this make that impossible? Or would I only be able to have kids with people who had similar changes?

There was too much risk involved in the process and that scared me. Maybe I wouldn't change who I was the first time, but what about the second? Or the third?

Then again, ignoring the option was an equally bad idea. Losing out on the power from the trait wasn't something I wanted to do either. Ignoring a potential path of power wasn't something I could afford to do.

It seemed like the temporary option was designed with that in mind and was my answer, but I knew too little about it to say for certain. It was something I would have to look into extensively before my evolution.

I didn't even have a bloodline yet and that was something I had been looking forward to. I eventually wanted to make my own, but for now I would use one I could assimilate. I could always change it later. From what we learned, it was possible but extremely painful. I could deal with a little pain.

We could buy bloodlines from the store but the cost was something I still couldn't afford. I would have to find a way to make more than I had been currently if I wanted to get one in a timely manner. And a good one at that. The powerful ones looked like they cost more.

I knew Austin wanted to go explore the next-door pylon that we had found, killing all of the monsters there would give me a lot of points. It would also make my decision about the evolution come faster than I would want.

Being level 39, I only had 11 levels to make up my mind. The evolution to E-rank happened at level 50 and it was coming fast. Especially with the monsters coming every wave being higher level than me giving me more experience. There was also the option to defer my decision till the D-rank and keep being 100% human, but I would miss out on the first change.

"Did he say that demons were real?" Abigail pointed out.

She had been reading over the notes she took and pointed out something that all of us had glossed over.

The alien mentioned how using demonic material led to bad results and that meant that there were demons to get material from. That sent us on an entirely different tangent, and with most of my family being religious, not one I wanted to go on.

The confirmation that demons existed gave credence to the possibility of angels and I didn't want to open that can of worms right now. A multiversal war of angels vs. demons was a distraction I didn't need if it was real.

While they babbled on about it, I left the room to get some air. It was a lot of information to dump on someone and it was difficult to work my way through it.

I pulled up how many points I had to see how close I was to a bloodline.

Points: 165,332

Since the 11th wave when I blew all of my points on upgrading the wall, I had been saving everything I got. I had earned well over 200,000 by this point but my expenditures brought it down.

The rune I bought was 25,000, metal and tools for the forge were expensive. I blew nearly 50k on the metal slab I just bought. Another skill was available for 25,000 but I decided against it. One skill wasn't worth it and there were other things I was saving for.

The latest wave, Wave 23, netted me nearly 50,000 by itself.

A bloodline was expensive though, and if I was going to keep it I needed to choose wisely. Bloodlines could be evolved and changed, in the worst case removed, but I wanted to make the right choice the first go-round so I didn't have to deal with that.

Decent bloodlines were expensive. Bloodlines tied to an affinity more so.

I knew I wanted something with my affinity but I wasn't sure what. Obviously, dragons sounded cool and powerful but that wasn't something I could buy. Ice Phoenix sounded equally as good but again, not something I could buy. Cost wasn't the issue, the store didn't even have it. I couldn't even imagine what level of pylon was needed for the store to have those.

Seeing as I could barely afford the ones available, anything better would be entirely out of my budget. It was frustrating to be limited to something that I could afford. There were devices I could buy that could be used on anything I killed to gain its bloodline, but those were up there in cost too.

Plus, I wasn't sure what kind of beasts were out there and if the time spent looking would be worth it. The devices didn't have a 100% success rate as well so I could fail and be a waste of time.

All of this was so much to think about and it was making me want to go and hit something!

Austin must have sensed my mood for he walked up decked out in his gear holding my armor and hammer.

"Want to go on an adventure?" He said with a smile.

I knew he was thinking along the same lines I had been and felt the urge to get more points. We had a wave tomorrow and doing what he had planned could get us injured.

I thought about it for a bit-

"Come on, it'll be fun!" He added.

Fuck it! What's the worst that could happen?

"Let's go," I said.

Austin cheered and we made our way toward the overrun pylon Austin had found. At least I was going to get to hit something.

I know this chapter was a bit exposition heavy, but I wanted to clearly explain the trait for humans. We're nearing the end of book 1 and soon will have a lot more action.

Regarding the trait, I wanted something different than what most books do for humans. Most of the time they get a shitty trait that pales in comparison to what others get and I felt that was stupid. Humans are one of the most adaptable species on the planet and they should get something regarding that. It was somewhat modeled on the sheer amount of half-human things mythology has and the propensity humans, in fantasy land, have to fuck nearly everything. (I mean things in fantasy like, half-elves, half-orcs, half-literally anything.)

If there are questions about it I can clarify in the comments below like I have done before! Don't hesitate to ask because if you have a question, someone else probably is thinking the same thing.

Will bloodlines affect class choices?

-It depends on use. For certain people, a bloodline will affect them a lot more than for others. A rogue with a shadow panther type bloodline would use it every time they fight. A smith with a fire giant bloodline would use it a lot for smithing. Someone who doesn't use their bloodline often will have it color their evolutions less. Also, it will only be one of the options. It wouldn't take over all 5 evolution choices if it does affect class choices.

Cypteris said the most common is a mix of the two paths, Chris will go purely temporary or he might dip a little into permanent but go mostly temporary?

-It depends but most likely not. I have no plans for him going permanent but may change. As a reader, I'm not a huge fan of when an MC changes race so if it ever does happen, it will be minimal. I hesitate to say no definitively because I don't want to completely veto the idea. Plus, what I consider minor changes aren't that big of a deal, but others might think they are.

Also, if it wasn't clear from Chris' thoughts, he will not be going the permanent change route. I feel like I should preface this now before anyone feels put off. He will stay human throughout the entire series. Going that route is fine, though, I don't want to hate on it but that isn't the direction I want to take the MC. Other characters will and some will take it too far, but Chris will abstain from changing his race.

[User]
Write Chapter 76 - Vunderbar
Target length: ~2900 words
Key events: level-up occurs

[Assistant]
Getting to the pylon wasn't that hard. With the stat points we were working with a solid 2 hour jog was enough to get there and it didn't even wind us.

We were used to it by now and we got into it with gusto. The monsters were roaming about the pylon in different groups and started quite weak compared to what we were used to.

The waves spawned level 38 monsters for us to fight now and the ones in the outer ring were only level 30.

Austin and I both decided to ignore the math and leave the strength near the pylon a surprise. This was supposed to be a fun battle/adventure, using our heads too much was against the point.

We began fighting the small groups, trying to be as quiet as possible, but our efforts were ignored. It was like they had a sixth sense and knew we were there. We might as well have been holding up a sign saying 'Here we are!'.

Stealth wasn't my strong suit anyway so after it was broken, loud and heavy was the way to go. I got to start slinging around ice bolts and Austin got to use more flashy skills, literally.

He had consigned himself to skills without an outward effect as some form of training or keeping stealth, or a mixture of the two. I didn't care enough to ask. I had done the same to get one of my early skills upgraded once before.

You have upgraded a skill:

Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Beginner) -> Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Novice)

A while ago, I fought groups of monsters with only a conjured javelin of ice. Throwing it at any that came close. I practice both physically throwing it and launching it with [Ice Manipulation].

I still regretted the skill choice but I would make the most of it.

We both went through stints where we didn't use certain skills to train and it wasn't something that abnormal for us. I occasionally didn't use my hammer and brawled with my fists to practice if I ever got disarmed.

With [Ice Manipulation] I could form ice gauntlets to have little spikes on the knuckles for added effect.

I wasn't worried about my hammer being removed, since I could call it back to me with [Ice Manipulation], but it breaking worried me. I needed to be ready to fight without it.

My Law made breaking it hard, but my Least Law wasn't meant to hold up against 600 stat points of strength. My full power boost from Avalanche wasn't something I had anticipated when I made the hammer.

Trying to upgrade my Law into a Lesser Law was proving difficult. I knew it wasn't something that people started worrying about until the evolution to D-rank, but I wanted it now.

I got my Least Law a rank early, I could also get my Lesser Law early. Something about it was different though. To get my Least Law I connected with my element and 'meditated' on making my ice stronger and colder.

Out of the many aspects that Ice was, I focused on those two. To go further down the road and increase my 'enlightenment', I needed to focus on other aspects of ice.

I wanted a wind chill type of effect that would make anything in my range have to fight off the cold, but that had aspects of Wind that I didn't have. I thought about branching out to comprehend a Wind Law, like Hal, but decided against it.

I could focus on that after the tutorial was over and I had time to settle down. I needed to stick with what I knew.

With the wind chill option out, I thought about the slow effect that ice usually had in games. Usually, ice was a debuff that slowed enemies or froze them.

It was like my aspect of 'Strength and Cold' needed something to prop it up to reach further heights. Information on it still wasn't available and it was driving me crazy. It felt like another aspect was needed to further my Law down the road.

After we were out, I would buy every scrap of information just out of spite. Even if the 'System' wasn't sentient, I was going to spite it anyway.

[Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] had long since activated and we were wading through the bodies thrown at us. I was in front with Austin behind, marching toward the center of the lollipop.

"You think about which bloodline you want?" Austin shouted over the sounds of battle behind me. The beasts still weren't that strong and keeping a conversation wasn't that hard. We had fought together enough to know what the other was going to do.

It was a valid question and I was still debating which I wanted. There were options that all gave different effects. Arctic Dire Wolf was an option, one of the cheapest, that was decent. It would increase my cold powers and give me a slight leadership boost.

Leadership wasn't something I cared overly much about though. Dire Polar Bear was another option. It would greatly increase my strength when called upon and give a slight boost of ice powers.

"I don't know. I'm not thrilled about the permanent option so I need to be careful which bloodline I pick. Did you buy anything to clarify what he meant?" I yelled back after slamming my hammer down onto a monster with a squelch.

"Yeah, I bought some about it. It said that one of the main things that the temporary option does is burn their bloodline for great strength. A bloodline is mainly dormant and only gives a slight boost to whatever aspect it is. So a Bear bloodline will give a little strength, bird bloodline gives better eyesight and so on.

"The dormant state is what bloodlines are in most of the time and gives the smallest boost. In a fight, you can call upon the bloodline to give a bigger boost for a short period of time, kind of like a boosting skill. Think about it like a borrowed power consumable and can't last forever. This is something most races can do. Even animals can do it with their own bloodline.

"This is where humanity's trait comes into play. We can go a step further and burn the bloodline we have for a greater boost. It takes what we build on it with our evolutions and makes it an order of magnitude stronger. Where another race would only get 20 strength stat points, a human would get 40."

He took a break to concentrate on one of his skills before shooting out a beam of light piercing through three beasts, leaving behind a scorching hole in all three. [Solar Ray] was quite the skill if he took the time to charge it up.

"The stronger the bloodline, the greater the effect. It only works with the temporary option though. If you choose the permanent changes you can only call upon your bloodline like everyone else. It said something about only so much power can be harnessed or whatnot. I didn't read too far into that." He finished.

This decision seemed more important the more I heard about it. I wanted something strong but didn't have the points to buy one.

"What about you? Do you know which one you want?" I asked.

We had finished off the last of the monsters around us and were in a lull before more came.

"A phoenix one would be cool! I found information that said Solar Phoenixes were real. Think about having one of those!" Austin got excited as he explained.

"My light would take on a radiation effect, increased regeneration, and the possibility of flight! What more could I want!"

All the information we bought said that full transformation was possible only at the high ranks, but partial transformation wasn't out of the picture. If he could manifest only wings, then flight wasn't off the table. I didn't know what tier made that possible but I went along with his fantasy.

I had seen the Ice Phoenix bloodline mentioned in information but we wouldn't be able to afford it even if it was in the store. Even if we went pylon to pylon, slaughtering every monster in our way, we wouldn't be able to afford it.

Its cost was astronomical, matching the power it held. Dragons also weren't available but their lesser forms were. Wyverns were up there and drakes were the closest to our budget. Wyrms were more likely.

A Frost Wyrm could evolve into a Dragon bloodline given enough material and energy, but it was highly unlikely.

After ingesting a bloodline, we could evolve it the same ways a beast could, so devolved versions could work just as fine if given the time and energy needed to evolve it.

A Frost Wyrm didn't sound very great, but with a little care and nurturing Frost Dragon certainly did.

"We can't afford that and you know it." I popped his bubble.

There was some grumbling about it and he was a little more violent than necessary with the monster group that came at us next. We both had to give our options more thought.

Every monster was over level 30 and we were both getting over 450 per kill.

There were hundreds for us to kill.

As the distance between us and the center closed, the beasts got stronger and gave more points. It wasn't all one type which made it harder for us to get through. The non-uniform groups threw us off.

Lightning Tigers paired with Blaze Lions. Acid Spiders with Stone Salamanders. It was a mixture of all of the waves and all of them had grown. They didn't stay the same level as when they spawned in and increased in level just the same as we had.

It took us almost two hours to get to the center which was perfect timing for me, not so for Austin. My boost from [Avalanche(R)] built up to make me stronger, Austin was huffing a bit from exertion.

He wasn't out of breath entirely, but he wasn't the 100% he started at. Neither of our mana pools were full either. Mine had more than his since I could rely on my strength while he used skills more often.

At the center, where the strongest monster sat, was a dire wolf. The dead bodies of other waves were strewn around and I could see teeth marks on their bodies. It looked like the wolf had eaten them.

Using identity left me stunned.

[Prime Alpha Direwolf – Level 45]

It was a massive beast of over 10 feet with a mixture of white and grey fur. Its muzzle was covered in the blood of a carcass it was eating and marred in scars. Some fur was missing from previous fights but that only added to its threatening atmosphere.

The temperature was frigid around it and something about it resonated with me. It had an Ice Law. Or something close to it.

It was the highest-level monster I had seen and it was a boss. It shouldn't have been here.

"When did this pylon go dark?" I asked.

We hadn't heard from the people who claimed this pylon in quite a while. I didn't concern myself with it because it wasn't important at the time. I was focused on keeping my family alive.

"Around wave 10, when Kyle died," Austin answered. That answered why we didn't know. We shut ourselves off after that happened and didn't pay attention to what happened to the others around us.

That meant this wolf had survived for 13 waves and fed on all of the bosses that came after it.

When a pylon fell, the beasts of the wave that conquered it took over, turning it into a pseudo den or home. Consecutive waves still spawned in but instead of fighting the participants, they fought each other for dominance.

Whoever won, stayed. Some of the losing wave left and went into the wilderness but most stayed and became part of the inhabitants. With every pylon that fell the woods became increasingly inhospitable due to the rising number of monsters. It was why we saw the various beasts from all of the waves.

It was also why there were so many. Some died in the fight for dominance and some died fighting each other afterward, they were beasts after all, but there was a lot compared to a normal wave.

This Direwolf Alpha had beaten every boss that came after it and had the experience and levels that came with it. I looked at Austin and he had a blazing smile on his face.

"This is gonna be fun." He said.

I had to admit, a part of me was going rearing to go, but I didn't think this was the best decision. We had a wave tomorrow and this was a fight we didn't need.

Before I could convey that, Austin shot out a beam of light at the wolf, getting its attention.

I was so taken aback, that I just sputtered not knowing which to say first. 'What the fuck are you doing?' or 'Are you insane?' Austin knew what I was trying to say and responded.

"Oh, come on. Live a little. This'll be fun!" He said while dancing around the wolf's retaliatory strike.

"We're speaking when this is over!" I yelled at him as he got further away.

"Don't be a killjoy and have some fun. You're always so worried all the time." He quipped back.

Being forced into a battle I didn't want was annoying but I couldn't do anything about it now.

At first, the wolf only sent some wind blades at Austin in response. It seemed it had a mixture of wind and ice for affinities. It was the first time I saw a mix of two. The wind blades were powerful and would kill any of the monsters outside, but Austin just danced around them.

While we were talking, the boss got up from its interrupted meal and got ready. It lifted its head in the air before letting out a massive howl.

"AWWWOOOOOOO!"

With that howl, monsters poured into the area from the side we didn't come from.

"You get the cannon fodder, I'll play with the puppy!" Austin shouted.

"Mememe(mocking sounds), fight all the monsters Christopher, I'll do nothing while dancing around," I said under my breath in a mocking tone.

Decision made for me, I got to work.

My hammer was still dripping blood from the previous fights and more got caked on.

I carried the ice I had been using with me and started slinging it around. Slicing off limbs, stabbing in eyes, crushing skulls.

My skill with [Ice Manipulation] was downright scary. My range had increased to over 30 feet and my control was great.

Using [Ice Arrow(Un)] I could curve it to hit multiple monsters after it went through the first. It had enough power to skewer 3 or 4 beasts if I controlled it right. It was tricky to get the hang of since it went so fast, but practice was abundant with the waves.

It lost power with every monster it went through and got stuck in the third victim, a lightning tiger. A [Shatter(Un)] on the arrow was enough to kill it. After lightly penetrating the monster, what would usually be a superficial wound, [Shatter(Un)] blasted ice chunks into the beast and killed it.

If I was close enough, I could direct [Shatter(Un)] to only explode in one direction. It worked great with [Ice Wall(Un)]s exploding out away from me or directing the ice to deal more damage to monsters.

Being as far away as I was, I couldn't direct the ice shards but it was still enough.

Claws and teeth tried to slow me down but it all scattered off my ice armor. Any that got through were denied drawing blood from my high fortitude.

I used the time getting here to have a relaxing fight where I didn't need to worry which resulted in gains I didn't expect. Gains that made this fight easier.

You have upgraded a skill:

Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Novice) -> Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice)

It seemed letting go and not worrying about what was behind me pushed the skill over the edge. I was fighting how I wanted to, without regard for anything around me.

Austin could hold his own and I could do whatever I wanted.

My armor skill was once again behind, but that was fine. It would go up in time.

With the upgrade, my hammer was more fluid and it bashed in heads at an increased pace. It was wonderful.

I felt like shouting, "Vunderbar!"

Even though I didn't want this fight, I was smiling behind the blood. I didn't cover my face with ice to be able to breathe which usually resulted in my face getting covered in it.

It was nice to be able to let loose like this. Fight without the constant worry, just my hammer and brawn against the world.

Don't forget to rate and follow if you're liking the story

[User]
Write Chapter 77 - Defense
Target length: ~3200 words

[Assistant]
Craig (Mindbreaker)

Craig had been watching the camp for a couple of days now and he finally got a decent chance to take it. It was one of the strongest camps he had come across with thick stone walls and catapults fastened to the walls. There was only one that he saw that was stronger.

The camp itself looked like a medieval castle.

All of the other camps were barely holding on when he conquered them and this was a stark difference. Well, except for that stubborn lightning mage but Craig didn't like to think about him.

That fight made him lose a good portion of his army and frustrated him to no end. Lightning was a weakness that Craig hadn't anticipated. After his minions got electrocuted, his mental compulsions were wiped out, turning his army into mindless husks.

His orders wouldn't work and he had to recapture them to reinstate his control. The jolt to their system flushed out the claws he dug into them.

He was glad that he pushed the mage out of his camp but disappointed he hadn't killed him. Craig had been there personally to finish him off but he fled faster than Craig thought he would.

He left a few behind to stall and Craig was too late to stop him. The stone walls they held took too long to get through and the mage ran into the territory of the accursed trapper before Craig could get to him. Craig wasn't going to follow into that death trap.

He had made a few forays into her territory before and they never ended well. His believers weren't mindful enough to look out for traps. There could even be obvious tripwires and his army would walk right into them.

Craig had to rework how he gave orders to get over that issue. If he told a minion to go 'that way' it would override their impulse to watch out for traps. This turned his orders into convoluted messes like 'Watch out for traps while going that way' and every failure made him up the complexity. It was immensely frustrating.

It didn't always work but it ended better than the previous way.

It was the main reason he was saving that camp for last. Craig had taken most of the eastern border and worked his way north from there. After reaching the northeast corner, he turned west to sweep along the northern border.

Traveling, personally and with his army, took up most of his time. The tutorial area wasn't small and it took days to reach all of the camps. His skills were high enough that he could convert a camp in 2 days but he had to spend the time to get there. He could be in and out before a wave came if he timed it right.

It made his army have fewer casualties, but he was lower level for it. He was a few levels shy of the next evolution and he couldn't wait to see what he would evolve into.

Level 50 seemed like a big milestone and he was excited.

He turned his attention back to the camp he was watching. It had some strong people and he could already see how useful they would be under his control. He hadn't seen them fight a wave but they looked like veterans.

Every one of them was in the F-rank and most were up there in levels as well. They were on average stronger than those in his army. They had less than a tenth of the number though.

After the lightning mage, Craig's army had dwindled, but it was enough for this camp at least. There were only 20 or so people in it.

Usually, Craig would wait until right after a wave to attack when the camp was at their weakest but something happened to make him move the attack up. As he was watching, the two strongest people in camp left. It left him in shock at first that such an opportunity presented itself but he quickly worked to speed up his planned attack. If he could conquer this place early he could move on to more camps sooner.

He had a minion follow the two as they left for a while and saw that they were preoccupied. They wouldn't be able to get back in time before he took the camp. Once they arrived, Craig could use the camp's defenses against them.

Plus, what could two people do? He had an army.

With his plan made, he signaled for it to begin.

* * *

Abigail

Abigail checked in on the project Scott and Brayden were working on. The two of them had been working almost nonstop building defenses. As the waves grew in strength, simple spike traps didn't work anymore.

Both men pushed their professions to make things that could harm the beasts coming to kill us. Scott strengthened and sharpened wood to an unnatural degree and Brayden put it all together into a contraption to kill.

All it needed was for Allison to place it to receive the boosts from her class and skill to increase lethality.

They had learned that splitting the process up worked best. Scott made all of the wooden parts, Vinny made all of the metal, and Brayden put it together. All to have Allison place it.

Every person added to the project with their skills and boosted it from either their class or profession to make something greater than the sum of its parts.

The traps could be placed as soon as they were built, but Connor's part was done the morning before the wave. His poison lost effectiveness if it sat out for too long so he had to wait to apply it to the traps.

He spent most of his time brewing up new and improved poisons to use. Now that he had finished his body refining poison, he was free to make up new nasties to coat the traps with.

Mitchell's procedure had worked perfectly with only a few hitches. Abigail and the other healers were enough to make up for it and Mitchell would soon wake up with a Body of Wood.

Conner's direct input wasn't required for his poison to work, but he was the only one immune to his creations. If anyone else touched it, the poison would infect them.

They had antidotes, obviously, but not an infinite supply.

Conner's new Law left him immune and marked him as the seventh person in camp to have one. Abigail herself didn't even have one yet. She spent too much of her time keeping the camp running.

She knew from the lectures she needed to get one before the evolution to E-rank and now that there was a time limit, she would add some time to her schedule for it.

Her profession was nearing the cap and she didn't want to waste any experience sitting at level 50.

Running the town gave a surprising amount of experience. The constant need to defend it added to successfully defending it made her level rise the fastest out of everyone's.

Even faster than Chris.

Thinking about her brother made her frustrated to no end. The two idiots ran off to go somewhere without so much as a goodbye. Chris needed to learn that the two strongest people in camp couldn't just up and leave.

What if they were needed and they couldn't reach them? Chris didn't even bring a way for them to contact him. He was lucky Abigail prepared so well.

Being a Town Mayor had its perks. She could message the owner of the pylon with one of her skills so she could contact the idiot even though he wasn't here.

Abigail wished he would think through what he did more so she wouldn't have to do it for the both of them.

"Honey, you need to take a break," Jonathan said from behind her.

He moved to massage her shoulders after coming up behind her. She leaned into his touch and sighed deeply.

"I know Jon, but I can't. Everything needs to be perfect for the wave tomorrow." Abigail's constant worries were always on her mind.

Jonathan had been trying to get her to take time to destress and cope with what she was feeling but she couldn't find the time. She barely fit in the therapy sessions she did have.

Not everyone in the camp went, but it was a resource Abigail felt they all needed. It was points well spent in her mind, even if she didn't go as much as she wanted.

The losses and grief all of them were no doubt feeling needed a constructive outlet, unlike how Chris dealt with it.

Any time he got stressed, overwhelmed, or thought about the people not here anymore, he picked up his hammer and left. He would come back a few hours later covered in blood.

It wasn't healthy.

Every time Abigail brought it up he waved her off. Chris spent more time trying to help Austin through his Dad's death than dealing with his own feelings. She still remembered one particular heated argument with him about it.

It was after the Blaze Lion wave where they lost Dawson and Dennis. She had found Chris after the battle still in his worn armor stained with blood sitting in front of the gate he had defended. It seemed he was covered in blood more often than not these days.

"Chris, why don't you go to the session tomorrow? Everyone could use the chance to grieve and do what little they can to cope." She pleaded.

Even with her busy schedule, she still fit in some time for it, but Chris refused. He always said he had better things to do.

"Look out there," Chris said, pointing to the bodies strewn about, "What do you see?"

Abigail wasn't much in the mood for riddles but she played along. Chris wouldn't be doing this for no reason.

"Dead monsters," She answered.

"Yes," He nodded, "How far do they reach?"

She hadn't expected that follow up but surveyed the area before answering, "Just inside the gate."

Most of the bodies were stacked right outside the gate but some had managed to get through and died on the inside. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable. The amount paled in comparison to the ones outside the gate thought.

"Every wave gets harder to defend. Just look at the number that got by me." He pointed at the small fraction of the bodies inside the gate, "I do not have time to focus on anything else. My attention needs to be here."

He thumped the spot covered in the most blood. His spot in the gateway where he did battle.

Abigail wasn't sure how to respond, but she tried anyway.

"Chris, what you're doing isn't healthy." She said quietly. What her brother was doing worried her. He wasn't the same as he used to be.

"You think I don't know that?! That I can't see what's happening?! I'm not so blind I don't notice how what happened affects people. Two more because of what? A stray shot!" The way he said it with such heat in his voice, such anger, slightly scared her.

"I do not have time to focus on what we lost. I can't afford to pull my attention away from what needs to be done. My job is to stand in this gateway and stop as many monsters as I can." He slammed his hammer down, "Any stray worry, errant thought, about the people behind me hinders that. My job is here and that's the only thing I can worry about right now."

He seemed to deflate after his outburst before finishing quietly.

"If I open that bottle, Pandoras Box in a way, there is no closing it. There will be time to do that later. I will do what I must to be the one left standing after this is over."

As he finished talking, he had the same look on his face as he did after dealing with the thieves. While it pained her to admit, she didn't push anymore. She would hold him to that later though.

The memory played again in her mind before she pushed it away. It was painful to see her family hurt and Chris wasn't the only one she had to deal with.

"Where are the kids?" One of them was usually watching them and with Jon here, they were unaccounted for.

"Your Grandmother is with them," He answered.

Ugh. That was another thing she didn't know how to deal with. Grandma wasn't the same anymore and Abigail doubted she ever would be. After Granddad died, she spent most of her time watching the kids.

It was like she was spending as much time with them as possible when she could. It was sad to think about.

"That's good. Spend-" Her response was cut off by the alarm bell.

Hearing the bell, Abigail went into high gear trying to find out what was happening.

Rushing to where the lookout was she found Carrie ringing the bell with frantic enthusiasm.

"Carrie, what's wrong!" Abigail shouted.

"We're under attack!" Her shout got everyone in motion.

"From the East!"

With a direction, her family all raced up the walls and to where we usually stood for the waves.

Connor and Allison took up the catapults and the rest of them took out their weapons.

Abigail shrugged on her armor as quickly as possible while running toward the eastern wall. She debated sending the message to Chris now but decided against it. She needed to see what they were facing before she called him back.

Her armor was easy enough to get on with all of the practice and she saw everyone else gear up with the same practiced ease. Armor and swords replaced cloth and tools in record time.

Carrie started shooting off arrows from the tower and Abigail saw them spilt into more as they flew. One turned into two before turning into four. The arrows kept splitting as the flew until 16 flew toward whatever threat they were facing. Hal rushed up the tower, bow on his back, to join her.

Rachel reached the wall first and Abigail felt the heat start to rise from her direction.

Her husband rushed to the gate where he usually stood and Earth moved up his form to cover him. He had a similar armor skill as Chris, except instead of ice, it was earth. He broke off from where she was heading and rushed toward the gate with the rest of the melee warriors.

Reaching the top of the wall let her see what was happening.

A mass of different monsters were attacking and skills rained down from the wall on top of them. Abigail was confused, the wave wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow? And they were only under attack from one direction. It was odd.

Everyone was slightly confused, but no one questioned it now. They had enough sense of mind to fight now and ask questions later.

The monsters ran at them from the forest a few miles to the east, farther back than where waves usually spawned.

They were also a mixture of beasts they had faced before already along with a few new ones they hadn't seen. The forest had a lot of animals and Abigail guessed the new beasts were from there.

Still, this was something they had done with ruthless efficiency over 20 times by now. A surprise wave wasn't going to catch them lacking.

Hal had the best [Identify] skill in camp and once he surveyed the battlefield he gave his report.

"Wide range of levels averaging at the low 30's. No boss in sight!" He shouted.

That was new. This wave was weaker than Abigail expected. The wave tomorrow was supposed to bring level 38s. Not level 30s

The number of beasts was another difference. Usually during the wave, they were more unified and charged as a group, but these didn't.

They all charged at different speeds and acted like a conglomerate of individuals rather than a cohesive wave.

The strength of the wave put Abigail off, or rather, the lack thereof.

Something about it didn't sit right with her. This was a break in the pattern that hadn't happened and it was out of character for the tutorial to change so suddenly.

Her family was busy fighting while she tried to work through what was happening. There weren't any injuries for her to heal yet which left her free to direct their defense.

Arrows flited into flesh along with magic raining down destruction. Their supply of throwables wasn't touched by the few who needed them.

There weren't enough enemies to justify using them.

Once the beasts reached the wall, the warriors got to work. With all of them on the same side, they cut through the monsters with ease. Even without Chris and Austin, they were stronger than the rabble thrown at them.

Just when she thought this would get cleared up easily, the bodies of the fallen monsters started to swell.

The corpses grew before exploding out with astounding force.

The explosion blew all of the warriors back and some had noticeable injuries.

The force even knocked some of the people on the wall back and Abigail saw Sam and Ashely going around with healing.

No one was badly hurt but the gate was blown in from the force. It was where most of the bodies were concentrated and worked to increase the blast in that area. The gate leaned on the ground, torn from its hinges.

Her breath hitched initially since that was where her husband was, but his earth-clad form wasn't damaged from the blow.

Before Abigail had a chance to wonder what was going on, she saw more movement coming at them from the east.

"It's people!" Hal and Carrie both shouted.

People? Was it more Raiders?

Now that so much was unknown and out of her control, she fired off her message to Chris.

'Under attack, people and beasts combined. Unknown threat level.'

Hopefully, he would get here in time to deal with everything.

They were strong and could hold out for a while, but this group was proving clever. They tricked them with the beasts to blow open the gate. Did they force the monsters to swallow explosives? Who would think of that.

Were the beasts from before tamed? They certainly didn't look like it. They had the same ferocity and mannerisms as the beasts of the wave.

Except there were explosives hidden in their bodies.

She trusted in their defenses. Abigail knew how much work went into them and getting into the wall was only the beginning.

The people attacking would soon find out the folly of thinking just because the gate was open, they were weak.

Abigail almost pitied them. Chris's mercy was soon running out and she didn't think that these people would be let off with only a missing hand.

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[User]
Write Chapter 78 - Spirit Anchor
Target length: ~3100 words
Key events: level-up occurs, boss encounter, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Jonathan

The explosion rocked him back and some of his stone armor fell off from the force. Standing right next to the source of the blast wasn't the best position to be in.

Jonathan was doing his best to not let any of the monsters through and he hadn't expected them to blow up in his face.

Some of the other warriors were injured and bleeding which left him down some men. Thomas, Abigail's Dad, was on the ground bleeding from somewhere along with Vincent next to him.

Vincent spent most of his time in the forge but that didn't mean he didn't know how to fight. Everyone in camp knew how to fight out of necessity. Vincent spent the waves manning a catapult now, but he was still a warrior through his class and utilized his blacksmith's hammer well.

Scott and Brayden also took up arms and were fighting down here with him. With Austin and Chris gone, and Mitchell still recovering, that left 18 people to defend.

With the two strongest gone, it fell on Jonathan's shoulders to lead. This was a position that he hadn't wanted to find himself in. If it happened, that meant their two strongest were gone.

Rachel was strong and so was Hal, but they weren't the ones spearheading the defense. He was the one down here making sure to hold the line. Both of them got to stay up on the wall behind protection.

"People Incoming!"

Was all the warning Jonathan got before spells started to land around him. Enemy mages were shooting at him and arrows planked off his armor and shield.

Magic shields went up from the wall that stopped most of the projectiles but it wasn't big enough to reach Jonathan down below in the gate.

He had to raise a [Stone Aegis] to help keep the attacks at bay.

He was in charge of the defense here and he couldn't let the attacks land freely. People were still getting back on their feet from the explosion and Ashley and Sam were still running around healing people.

While people were recovering, he weaved [Earth Manipulation] to build up a wall of rock to use for cover against the attacks.

He heard the catapults launch and their subsequent explosions. It was the first time they had fired and it meant they were in trouble. As a rule, they tried to keep the catapult's use to a minimum.

They were expensive to fire and were most effective against tightly clumped enemies. If they were being used now, it meant there were a lot more enemies coming.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled more earth upward to aid in his defense. If they could explode the gate, they would be able to get through his powers but it would slow them down.

[Stone Wall]s went up as fast as he could make them to help defend for as long as possible.

He may not be Chris with his ungodly stamina and mana pool, but he had a decent-sized one. His profession as a Merchant didn't give the best stats but it was high level.

Merchant stats could be customized to whatever Jonathan wanted, within reason. There was enough leeway with the profession that he could lean one way or the other with the stat points it gave. Merchant was a broad category and it helped him make up for weaknesses.

His class Stone Bulwark was made for this type of fighting. He was a defense specialist and his class was heavily tilted toward it with stat distribution. 4 Fortitude, 4 Endurance, 3 Vitality, 2 Strength, 1 Agility, 1 Perception, and 5 Free Points per level didn't leave much room for magical prowess.

Tilting his profession toward the magical side gave him enough mana to use his skills more freely. He still couldn't spam them like Chris seemed to do, but he could do enough.

His job during the waves was mostly to hem them in. Concentrate the bodies in one area for Carrie to take out with a rain of arrows or Rachel to obliterate with a fireball.

Focusing on defense, he didn't have a ton of offensive skills to use. He had [Earth Spike] mostly because Chris wouldn't shut up about it.

His main skill for offensive purposes was the first one he got, [Power Strike]. He had since upgraded it into [Sturdy Blow] and it was the main thing he used to kill monsters.

His body was hard enough, and his skill with the sword pitiful enough, that he focused entirely on the shield. He had Vincent make two shields to use on both arms.

They were designed in such a way that their leading edge could be used as a weapon and Jonathan used them to devastating effect.

His [Shield Mastery] skill had reached apprentice rank long ago proving his affinity with the weapon. Protecting people was something he was good at and rising through the mastery ranks for the shield proved that.

The spell fire calmed slightly which notified him that the frontal assault would soon begin. It wasn't a moment later that he felt the melee attacks start to build on his makeshift wall.

By now, Ashely and Sam had either healed or removed anyone that was down and the melee brawl would soon begin. Jonathan wasn't a big talker but he felt like he needed to say something to the 5 or so people behind him.

He was left with Abigail's Dad(Thomas), Vincent, Allison, Brayden, and Scott to help him. The rest were up above slinging magic or arrows. Connor was technically a warrior but he focused mostly on Alchemy now but Ashley had to take him away to get healed.

Jonathan didn't see the wound, but it shouldn't have been too bad if Ashley elected to move him and he hadn't felt any of her more powerful healing skills go off.

Being married to a Healer left him privy to what their skills felt like and which ones were used in dire straights.

Allison wasn't a warrior but she was close enough. She knew how to use a short sword and that was good enough.

"Get ready! They're almost through!" He yelled for everyone's benefit.

They could see the earthen wall crumbling but he added it for himself mostly. The earth blocked his vision and he didn't know how many they were going to face when the earth finally crumbled.

When it did, he saw a mass of people rushing toward him. There were at least 30 of them in the leading charge and that was after the ranged attackers had a go at them.

Instantly, he noticed something off. Jonathan had been feeling off since the start of this 'wave' but now he really felt off. At first, he thought it was a surprise wave, like the others.

But there was no countdown for this wave. No timer either.

That was his first clue.

Then the variety of the monsters was weird along with how weak they were.

That was his second clue.

The corpses exploded was the third and final clue, they were being attacked by people.

The raiders charged soon after and that was when he threw up the wall, cutting off his vision of what happened further. Now that he could see again, and assess the threat coming at him, his feeling of unease came back.

The people looked insane. Their armor was in tatters and their weapons were in disrepair. They charged mindlessly into the attacks coming at them and Allison's throwing knives reaped lives without issue.

They neither dodged nor used skills to defend. It seemed like the only thing they were programmed to do was attack. It almost seemed like they were walking into the knives flying their way.

Jonathan knew that they had some kind of [Identify Blocker] as Hal had said as much, but he tried anyway.

[??? - Level ?]

Without much time to think, he got into fighting form. He bashed both shields together and used [Taunting Roar]. Initially, the skill required an actual roar. Something that Jonathan had vehemently tried to find a way around.

He still remembered the mocking that Chris and Austin gave him when he accidentally shouted the name of his skill one time. He was fighting a giant stone lizard for crying out loud, but they were merciless in their ribbing.

Getting the skill to use the sound of his shields clanging was a challenge, but he did it. To both the two idiots' disappointment. They liked to make fun of and rate his 'roars' and were sad about the change.

There was one wave where he was placed with Austin at the same gate where after using the skill, Austin sang a Katy Perry song for the whole wave. The entire wave.

A feat that Jonathan would have said was insane before he witnessed it.

His taunt worked and all of the rushing raiders focused on him. Seeing its effectiveness, his taunt worked a little too well. Usually, a few monsters ignored it and went for something else but that didn't happen here.

Every raider was caught up in it.

He didn't even get time to say Hi, Boo, or Shit before he started getting pummeled. Both his shields worked to defend but there were too many attacks.

His armor cracked and fell away under the onslaught and he was given little time to retaliate.

The other warriors had free reign to attack and used that time to great effect. The raiders were cut down with ruthless efficiency, but more were taking their place.

Arrows and magic from his own side landed near him to give Jonathan some breathing room.

Bodies built up and it made him slightly sick. He was used to the monsters and seeing human corpses build up at his feet was sickening. He had to push down the nausea that was building.

As the fight continued, injuries started to appear. Allison ran out of knives and joined in the melee receiving a few cuts. Scott got a stray blow to the leg that started to bleed profusely. He dropped to a knee momentarily and swung his sword wildly to fend off attacks.

Vincent lost his shield at some point and only had his blacksmithing hammer to defend himself.

They were losing.

Even with the strength advantage, the numbers were too much. For every raider they cut down, two more took their place. It made him wonder where all these people came from.

There had to be over a hundred of them attacking. It wasn't only humans either, beasts and monsters were intermixed in their ranks adding to the chaos.

Fighting against humans was a new experience for most of them and that inexperience was costing them. Monsters didn't have skills they had to worry about. At most, monsters had an elemental attack that they used, not the skills that were flying at them now.

Arrows from opposing rangers pinged off armor and Allison went down with an arrow to the leg and abdomen, her short sword forgotten.

Vincent worked a fighting retreat carrying her behind the wall. His blacksmith's hammer danced between foes until he was safely behind the wall with the wounded girl.

Jonathan held the gate to the best of his ability. It was 6 feet of ground that he refused to give up. [Shield Bash] worked on repeat to fend off all he could. He didn't have the skill, nor ability, to use [Earth Manipulation] like Chris used [Ice Manipulation].

Chris wasn't far away and Jonathan only had to hold out until he came back. As much as the man liked to downplay his strength, Chris could handle this singlehandedly.

As much as it pained him to admit, Jonathan couldn't do that.

Sure, Jonathan tried, but he wasn't the same warrior that Chris was. He tried to be, for his kids' sake, but he couldn't.

He wasn't the force of nature that Chris was. Jonathan was a defender, a protector. He wasn't made for slaughtering armies.

As more of his side got injured and were taken away, the pressure mounted. He slammed his shields into the enemy with abandon but it wasn't enough.

Scott went down next but had enough left in him to retreat under his own power. Brayden joined him soon after.

The number of blades pointed against them made some find their mark eventually. Gaps in armor were found and blades caught weak points. Vincent was a damn good smith, but armor wasn't infallible.

Joints needed to be able to move, and the body needed to bend.

Magic rained down from the wall but it did little to deter the raiders. It was like they didn't care about the losses they were taking. The demoralizing effect wasn't there or didn't register.

Soon, it was only Jonathan and Abigail's father, Thomas, left.

Thomas was on the stronger side but wasn't strong enough for the numbers they faced. Jonathan knew Chris was trying to prop his father up into a decent warrior, but Thomas wasn't there yet.

He fought valiantly but he was slowing down. They had been under attack for over 30 minutes and Thomas was dragging.

His axe swings were slower and the skills he used came sporadically.

"Retreat Thomas!" Jonathan shouted.

He usually didn't refer to his father-in-law by his first name but calling him Mr. Zalenski was unnecessary.

"No! I can take it!" Was his response. A blow to the leg staggered him during his response.

A retaliatory axe strike took the offender's head but the damage was done. Blood seeped down his leg and dyed his armor red.

"It's fine. I've got this!" Jonathan shouted back. His tone made him sound more confident than he was.

Something was rising in him. It reminded him of the time he tanked the boss of the 15th wave while Chris couldn't.

The stone lizard boss had launched him repeatedly off into the air but something was different at the time he was needed. Chris had been scrambling around with a broken arm and no weapon, his axe being lost at some point in the fight.

Something deep inside of him awoke at the thought they were going to lose. Chris was barely standing at the time and Austin couldn't damage it. His kids were here and he couldn't do anything to protect them.

The thought rankled him. He was a father, it was his job to protect his kids.

Being unable to lit a fire in him like nothing had before.

Something must have been noticeable on his face because when he went to aggro the boss, Chris let him.

The same feeling as then was coming back now. He was failing as a father if he let the raiders through and that was something he couldn't abide by.

His baby girl was behind him and he could not falter. Would not. His son was probably babbling on about dinosaurs in the bunker and Jonathan was his bulwark against the world.

Something inside of him resonated through his body, growing from deep within him. It wanted to know who he was.

He was a bulwark. The shield protecting his kids- his family.

The question of who he was wasn't enough. It was a part of the answer but the growing power in him wanted something else. It wanted something to latch onto. The growing power was a representation of who he was, it needed something else.

Something to anchor it.

He explored all he could about the feeling but it gave no hint. Jonathan was left clueless, it could be anything.

He dove deep, trying to find out what was required of him. He already expressed who he was. What else did it need?

Thomas finally heeded his command and Jonathan was left alone to hold the gate. He was the only thing standing in the way of people who would bring his family harm.

His shields started to shine with an unnatural glow. It wasn't mana coursing through them, but something else.

While defending against a sword attack aimed at his hip, it finally clicked.

The power needed an anchor and he found one that worked. It could have been anything. An object, an idea, a place, anything.

What Jonathan chose was a phrase. Something that connected to him so deeply that it was the anchor of who he was.

After realizing it, and bringing it to bear, his power exploded. He wielded his shields with a grace and ability he never had before. The defender in him resonated with the weapons and boosted his ability with them.

His spirit poured into the two shields on his arm and they became more. They weren't just metal and wood any longer, they were a piece of his spirit that would sooner see his spirit destroyed than the shields break.

The phrase he picked rang out in his head and he took on a second wind. Chris had to be close and Jonathan only needed to hold out a little longer.

His anchor was a part of who he was and it would not fail him.

For his enemies had to do something before they made it inside.

You have to go through me first.

We finally see the first step along the path of the spirit. A spirit anchor is similar to the concepts of Path of Ascension and you will find out more soon, but think of it as a power representing who you are. For Jonathan, he was a protector, so any power associated with that gets a boost. It works kind of like a Law in that it isn't infinite. His spirit is only so strong and it can be worn down. Hopefully, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Jonathan was first. It was mentioned a few times that he was close to forming one. The feeling I referenced from the 15th wave is quoted below if you don't feel like going back to find it.

From Chris's POV

"Jonathan made it back at some point and attempted to take its attention from me. I still had enough in me to keep going and was about to brush him off. The thing that changed my mind was the look in his eye. Jonathan looked resolute and like a man ready to fight to the death. Something in me resonated with it and I knew he would be able to do it. I let him take the boss from me and searched for my axe." - Chapter 47 Explosive.

Don't forget to rate and follow if you're liking the story.

[User]
Write Chapter 79 - Field of Flames
Target length: ~3400 words
Key events: combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Rachel

The warriors were getting pushed back. Jonathan was the only one still holding the gate against the raiders and he wouldn't last forever. Rachel did the best she could to eliminate as many as possible.

She cast [Fire Lance] and multiple [Fire Arrow]s on repeat. Every once in a while she would have to cast one of her more costly skills. [Fire Wall] and [Flame Pillar] were both great area denial skills but they came with the cost of increased mana.

Both area skills took more mana than over 5 [Fire Arrows]. Fighting the waves was always a balancing act for her, juggling mana cost for spells versus effect.

A well-placed [Flame Pillar] could do more damage than 5 [Fire Arrows] but it all came down to timing and positioning. When the tutorial started, she would go overboard and blaze through her mana pool too fast with more powerful skills.

The waves beat that habit out of her. She was of no help to anybody if she was out of mana. She hadn't even taken up training with a weapon, putting all her time into practicing the arcane.

As a result, she was the best at it. She could weave the strongest spells and [Ritual Cast] with the most people. She could cast a spell using up to 5 people's mana pools and they didn't even have to be mages.

No other mage here could claim the same. It was an achievement she was proud of and one that worked to kill the boss on multiple occasions. If only she could have used it to save her son. Thinking of Kyle still hurt.

She was powerful, sure, but she alone couldn't take down the bosses. If it weren't for Jonathan and Chris keeping it at bay, she would be a sitting duck squashed as easily as an ant.

As the warriors holding the gate dwindled, she resorted to more powerful spells. She knew from experience that Jonathan could handle a little flame. She still tried to shield him from the brunt of her spells using [Fire Manipulation] but he could take a hit.

The man was a walking tank. Even more so than Chris in some aspects. Chris could take a fireball to the face and walk away unscathed just because of his stats, Jonathan had skills that produced the same effect.

His earth armor was notoriously hard to get through using fire. The flames just weren't able to pierce the armor and the force was the only thing that did damage.

With friendly fire out of the way, she threw down an [Immolate]. [Field of Flames] wasn't worth it and the less powerful skill was more than enough. The area around Jonathan started to heat up and the air began to warp and distort.

The raiders attacking showed no outward expression but their bodies started to burn. None of them were protected from the heat like Jonathan was. Burning flesh was never a pleasant smell but when one had fire abilities, it became endurable.

[Immolate] was an area of effect skill that raised the temperature in said area to boiling. If left active for long enough, water would boil and fluids would evaporate. The skill wasn't powerful enough yet to melt metal. Her Law made it close, depending on the metal.

It also had the added effect of flooding the area with Heat and Fire mana. Heat mana was a lesser version of Fire mana but it worked to make her skills come easier.

After the Blaze Lions, Rachel noticed how important changing the area to your affinity was. With her affinity readily available, mana cost went down, her regeneration increased, and the power of her spells went up.

Everything became easier.

That was why she couldn't fight on the same side as Chris anymore. They would cancel each other out and spend most of the time fighting one another over control of the environment.

She would work to heat it and spread fire mana, he would work to cool it down and spread ice mana. The two couldn't occupy the same space. Like Earth and Wind, or Lighting and Water.

The mana types were anathema to one another and canceled each other out.

With the fire mana in the area, she gathered it up with [Fire Manipulation] and cast an overpowered and cost-reduced [Flame Thrower].

The skill was normally cast from the hand or body part, but it was easy enough to move the point of origin down in front of Jonathan. The range Rachel could launch spells from wasn't restricted to her body and hadn't been since the first week of the tutorial.

Ranged casting was one of the best techniques for training mana manipulation. It stressed the abilities in all the right ways to increase the effectiveness of nearly all skills.

Casting a spell at range increased the mental strain, mana cost, and decreased the control she had over the spell which was perfect for training purposes.

If she used a too-powerful spell or went too far away, the spell would fail and the backlash would injure her but she was practiced enough to mitigate that.

Practice and experience aided her in casting the [Flamethrower] and it wasn't even close to the maximum she could go.

Flames poured out of where she anchored the spell and the raiders charging into it melted. The raiders behind them rushed into the flames without reservations following their brethren in death.

That was one of the first things that she noticed, they had no self-preservation skills and she had to adjust her skill use accordingly. Where monsters would dodge and go around a [Flame Pillar], the raiders would kill themselves charging through it.

As focused as she was on attacking, and being the most effective on the wall, ranged attacks started to rain down on her. Enemy spells and arrows started to target the biggest threat, which was her.

The magic was easy to defend. Their spells were almost childish in efficiency and the control of the spells the raiders launched was laughable. If she could spare the attention, she could rip them apart with just her mana manipulation skills.

The arrows were different. They injured her slightly but they weren't enough to really do any damage. [Mending Hearth] was enough to recover from the minuscule damage. Her self-healing skill saved the healers the trouble of coming to heal her.

Forced to defend, more raiders started to pressure Jonathan. Rachel thought he was about to falter, but to her surprise, he didn't.

Something poured out of him and his... presence skyrocketed. Rachel had seen some information about 'auras' but she didn't know enough to say with any degree of certainty what it was that changed.

One moment he went from near failure to turning the tides with brutal retaliation. His shields lit up and sent bodies flying with every hit. It reminded her of Chris and the blows from his hammer, the body couldn't help but get launched.

With Jonathan's second wind, the fight turned into a stalemate. They still weren't winning, but they would be able to hold off the attack until reinforcements arrived.

Thinking about what Chris would do sent shivers down her spine. She had known him since he was a baby and ever since the apocalypse, he became someone else.

When Rachel married Brayden and joined the Zalenski Family, Chris hadn't been born yet. It was a few years after that Chris came into the world. She had Hal at the same time that Abigail was born which was 5 years before Chris was.

Chris was always a happy-go-lucky kid, quick to laugh and she couldn't remember a time he wasn't smiling or laughing. As he got older, sarcasm and jokes were his go-to.

Rachel watched him go through high school and most of college before the system came and with the frequency the Zalenski family gathered, she wasn't a stranger.

That was why it was such a shock to her of how he changed. Never once would she think that he would kill a person, or cut off someone's hand. When she heard about that she was appalled.

The boy she knew turned into some medieval justiciar, cutting off someone's hand for stealing. It wasn't something she had expected and rocked her worldview.

They spent a good deal of time practicing their Manipulation skills against each other which gave her a chance to ask him about it. She remembered the conversation vividly.

"How could you be so... so... barbaric," Rachel said struggling to find words to describe how she felt.

Chris sat there, the tug of war over temperature forgotten for the moment. He looked up at her and sighed.

"I don't know. I never wanted to nor did I ask for it. I didn't want to lead -I never did- but since I found myself in this position I'm going to do the best I can. It took me a long time to come to terms with what happened... the changes we now face." He stopped and took a deep breath forming the thoughts into words.

"The only thing I can do is try my best. I don't think I would have done what I did if my Dad hadn't gone along with it. He has always been my rock, morally, and he didn't raise complaints when it was discussed. To this day I wonder why he didn't." Chris saying that made Rachel question why Thomas hadn't.

He was always a strict and narrow man, for as long as she had known him. Brayden had the same qualities. The punishment wasn't something that Rachel had thought Thomas would go along with.

"I think it's time we, I, realize I need to change. I can't hold onto the morals of the past, the laws that used to protect us. For a while now my Dad has impressed on me the importance of honor, of justice, and I think I understand what he was getting at now that I had to go through that.

"I never wanted to cut off hands, I never wanted to kill people either, yet I have done both. The power I hold over people wasn't something I asked for. The world is a cruel place and I need to find my place in it. I need to find where I draw the line between right and wrong and what punishments should come from crossing it. Physical might meant little before, but it means everything now and people will abuse that." He looked almost sad as he said that. Like it wasn't something that he wanted.

"Warlords and tyrants will come and go, rise and fall. People who try to bring order to the chaos will rise and fall just the same. Other people's morals mean little if I can smash them with my hammer to get what I want. The ease of exercising power of others will bring about a society I don't think I will like and I need to think about what I will do about it."

"If I am to lead, I will do it right. I need to find the rules and morals to live by and stick to them. People will easily let their power get to their heads and inflate their egos. I need to come up with a code of honor to live by and it needs to be something I can keep." He looked thoughtful before adding in a quieter tone. "For I fear what I may become without it."

The conversation wasn't something Rachel had expected. She had kept her head buried in the sand and hadn't thought about what would happen when they returned. Returned to a lawless world where whoever was strongest ruled and right now, the strongest was Chris.

Might wasn't a quantifier indicative of being a good ruler yet it would determine who would lead and who wouldn't. No one would follow someone who couldn't protect them. To hold absolute power over someone was a scary fact to consider. Rachel herself was more powerful than most of the people she knew.

If she wanted, she could go found a city and be named empress if she liked. Punishing all those who disagreed. The weight of leadership wasn't something that she considered and she was glad that Chris did. Not many would.

After that talk, she came to terms with what needed to be done. Harsh but fair punishments were necessary and death was inevitable. She used to think that capital punishment was wrong and immoral but those beliefs left when she gained the ability to throw fire from her hand.

Taking a hand for theft was a harsh but fair punishment. Which made her know what Chris would consider harsh but fair for the people who threatened his family.

Death.

Death was both harsh and fair for the people she now faced and she pitied them for it. Chris was still feeling out his code of honor and what it would be, but it was easy enough to decide in this case. He would do it even if he didn't want to, but Rachel didn't think that would be a problem.

The easiest way to piss Chris off was through his family and the raiders sped past that warning sign long ago. Nothing would save them from the retribution he would bring and Rachel wouldn't even put up a token defense against it. For she believed they deserved death as well.

If someone were looking in from the outside with the beliefs of the world before, both she and Chris would be considered evil and tyrants but those opinions died when the world ended. It was time to embrace change.

The stalemate continued as Jonathan held the gate and Rachel burned any who came near. The raider's numbers, both human and monster, started to dwindle after the first hundred and dwindled further after the second.

It had been almost an hour by now and they hadn't breached the gate. Jonathan held it viciously.

Some of the other mages on the wall next to her had to retreat and enter [Meditation] to refill on mana, but Rachel stayed. She could hold out for a while yet and something told her it wouldn't be long.

[Fire Arrow] was her cheapest spell and she used it frequently. Evolved from [Fire Bolt] and made more powerful by her Law. Her Law focused on the power Fire had and the destruction it was capable of.

It boosted all of her skills and made them increasingly deadly. The sight of burnt bodies was one she would live with forever but she had come to terms with that.

It seemed like the Raiders were getting desperate and committed to one final push. The bodies coming at them increased in intensity and she had to reach deep to continue.

Her more powerful skills came out to play and [Field of Flames] burned the area in front of the wall as she poured more mana into it creating a vast swath of flame. Her Law empowered it further and raiders dropped as they entered her skill.

[Blazing Spear] pierced through 3 or 4 bodies before its energy was spent. She was scraping the bottom of the barrel mana-wise when she felt it. An oppressive atmosphere that could only come from one person.

As amateur as Rachel was in sensing auras, she could tell who it belonged to. It brought the chill of winter and a sharpness of ice. Promising the chill after death and the cold of oblivion.

Chris was back and he wasn't happy.

His hammer would bring destruction on a scale Rachel shuddered to imagine.

A small part of her wanted to pray for her enemies but it died out instantly.

For what they had done deserved what was coming.

I had a lot of fun writing this three-chapter defense and hopefully it lands well with you guys. The skills used should be intuitive but if anyone wants I can put a list with descriptions in the comments.

Edit: Skills used in the spoiler tag below!

Earth Manipulation(Common) – Channeling skill that uses mana and mental power to manipulate the earth. Range and fine detail determined by mastery of skill and rarity.

Stone Wall(Common) – Creates a barrier of earth at the designated area. Hight and width is determined at the time of activation. Maximum area and thickness is determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity.

Stone Aegis(Uncommon) - Create a shield made out of stone that can be channeled through an already existing shield or make a shield out of stone at the designated location. Strength dependent on mana cost and fortitude. Duration dependent on endurance. Upgrade of [Stone Wall]

Earth Spike(Common) – Form and launch a spike of earth at an intended target. Speed and duration determined by mastery of skill and mana cost. Damage based on Intelligence.

Sturdy Blow(Uncommon) – When both feet are set and connected to the earth, increases the strength and power of blows.

Shield Mastery(Apprentice) – Using basic proficiency with melee weapons adds a minuscule bonus to the effect of agility and strength when using a fitting melee weapon.

Taunting Roar(Uncommon) – Create a taunting soundwave that radiates out from your position. Enemies have an increased likelihood of turning their aggression on you. Strength of taunt based on Endurance and willpower. Taunt can be negated with sufficient mental power or skills.

Shield Bash(Common) – Charge your shield with mana to increase the power of the next strike made with it.

Fire Bolt – Form and launch a bolt of fire at an intended target. Speed and duration determined by mastery of skill and mana cost. Damage based on Intelligence.

Fire Arrow(Uncommon) – Form and launch an arrow of fire at an intended target. Speed and duration determined by mastery of skill and mana cost. Damage based on Intelligence. Upgrade of [Fire Bolt]

Fire Lance(Rare) – Form and launch a lance of fire at an intended target. Speed and duration determined by mastery of skill and mana cost. Damage based on Intelligence. Upgrade of [Fire Arrow]

Fire Wall(Common) – Creates a barrier of fire at the designated area. Width is determined at the time of activation and height by intensity of the flames. Maximum area and heat is determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity.

Flame Pillar(Uncommon) – Creates a pillar of fire at the designated area. Diameter is determined at the time of activation and height by intensity of the flames. Maximum area and heat is determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity. Upgrade of [Fire Wall]

Ritual Cast(Uncommon) – Weave the mana of more sources than one into a spell for increased effectiveness. Maximum number of sources determined by mastery of skill and rarity. Effectiveness determined by uniformity and steadiness of the weave.

Fire Manipulation(Uncommon) – Channeling skill that uses mana and mental power to manipulate fire. Range and fine detail determined by mastery of skill and rarity.

Immolate(Uncommon) – Raise the temperature around you or a targeted location. Duration of channel determines temperature increase with an ever increasing mana cost. Maximum diameter and intensity is determined by skill mastery and skill rarity.

Field of Flames(Rare) – Flood a designated area with flames. Size of area determined by mana cost and mastery of skill. Maximum diameter and intensity is determined by skill mastery and skill rarity. Upgrade of [Immolate]

Flamethrower – Create a torrent of flames in the targeted direction. Size and duration determined by mana cost. Intensity of flames determined by skill mastery and skill rarity.

Mending Hearth(Uncommon) – Harness the mending powers of a hearth flame to heal small injuries. Healing capability determined by mana cost and duration of skill channel.

Blazing Spear(Uncommon) – Harnessing the fire mana in an area, create a spear of blazing flames. Strength and intensity determined by amount of fire mana harnessed and mastery of skill. Can be used without environmental mana for an increased cost and decreased effectiveness.

Don't forget to rate and follow if you're liking the story.

[User]
Write Chapter 80 - Hornet's Nest
Target length: ~2400 words
Key events: new skill acquired, dungeon content, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
Cultivation is a Game [Xianxia LitRPG Isekai]

Kill. Die. Respawn.

Kai woke up in a Xianxia world...with a LitRPG system.

But hey, at least cultivation works like a game.

Too bad the world itself is brutally real.

Now, it's up to him to leverage his gaming skills, conquer deadly quests, and survive the ruthless environment to become the ultimate cultivator.

* * *

What you can expect:

• Progression

• Character Development

• Comedy

• No Harem/Romance

Chris

"The fight was completely unnecessary! We should have left after seeing the boss. There's a wave tomorrow or did you forget?" My tone signaled how unhappy I was about the situation.

Killing all of the monsters the Wolf called with its howl was an annoyance at best, killing the boss was not.

It used its power expertly and out-leveled the two of us by over 6 levels. The experience it had gained from killing its fellow bosses made it a nightmare to fight.

It was given time to both accumulate power and get used to said power. We were lucky it ended in relatively light injuries. My fortitude staved off most of the damage that landed on me and a full boost from [Avalanche(R)] was hard to get through, even for bosses.

After teaming up on it, the ending was decided. I had better control over the ice than it did which negated most of its arsenal. With magic removed, it relied on its strong body to attack.

A strong body that couldn't stand up to mine. My strength of both arms and body added together was superior to its. A fact that decided the outcome.

Austin and I were both sitting in the aftermath cooling down. Both of us had cuts and scrapes but it wasn't enough for me to use a potion. Austin already had and his wounds closed faster as a result.

While I killed the riff-raff the boss summoned, he took some good licks from the boss. A hole the size of a golf ball was still working its way closed from when the boss skewered him with an icicle.

He hadn't been fast enough to get out of the way in time and it went straight through his gut, piercing both armor and flesh. If this was before he would be dead.

Now, all it needed was a potion and some rest. [Meditation(C)] would have him right as rain in a few hours. His natural vitality would even heal the wound if given enough time.

"Oh come off it. It was fun and we gained a lot. Stop complaining." Austin said while waving his hand dismissively.

While what he said was true, it didn't take away from the fact that the fight was reckless, a trait of mine I had been trying to tame.

"I -" The sentence died in my throat as something unexpected happened.

'Under attack, people and beasts combined. Unknown threat level.'

Abigail's voice bloomed in his head. It took a second to recognize it was her and deduce it was one of her profession skills. Contacting the owner of the pylon seemed like something a Town Mayor should be able to do.

After parsing the message, anger exploded in me. [Barbarian's Fury(Un)] threatened to activate on its own and I had to clamp down on the skill to avoid that.

Austin, sensing my mood, asked. "What? What's wrong?"

"Someone is attacking our camp!" I snarled.

As soon as the message arrived I picked up my discarded armor and rushed to put it on. If someone was attacking I would need it soon. Leaving it behind was faster but I was running into an unknown fight and it would be stupid to not be as prepared as I could be.

Austin followed my lead and redonned his armor as well. There was still the hole piercing through it but it would protect everywhere else.

The body of the wolf was left behind and we both sprinted toward home.

The ground disappeared below us and my anger rose. Someone was attacking my family. From the message it didn't sound like it was just a pack of bandits, it sounded like a full-blown assault.

I trusted in my family and their strength, but I couldn't help but worry. Austin and I were the strongest we had and we weren't there.

My expression continually darkened as we got closer. My thoughts spiraled about what was happening and plans of retaliation came to mind.

If they wanted a fight, they would get one.

The reservations from before were thoroughly gone. There would be no mercy like with the bandits and thieves. These people attacked with the expressed purpose of destruction and killing.

Something told me they wouldn't like my response. Mercy wasn't something I could afford to have anymore and I would show people the consequences of attacking my FAMILY.

I had lost my boost from [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] after the fight and I worked to get it back. The skill was a mystery when I first got it but I had teased out its activation requirements and what was needed to keep it from going away.

It activated when I either attacked or defended when containing the intent to kill. I had to attack with the purpose of harm or defend an attack carrying the intent of harm for it to activate.

It wouldn't activate from spars or training. Finding a monster to bludgeon was hard at first since we had killed all of them in the area, but finding one wasn't difficult once we left the area.

Running by and braining a monster with my hammer was enough to start the timer. I still hadn't found the limits of how long of not fighting would keep the skill going so I made slight detours from the direct path back to camp.

I conjured javelins of ice while I ran and put my newly upgraded [Throwing Proficiency(N)] skill to good use. Any beast near got a javelin present courtesy of being in my way.

Austin was faster than me and he took off at full speed, leaving me in the dust. He would be able to hold any attack off until I got there and I would be getting there with as much boost as I could.

The slight detours added to the time needed to get back but my rising stats made me faster. In the end, I wasn't sure which way would have been quicker.

Even so, by the time I finally reached the camp, both my anger and boost had reached new heights. The trip back was barely an hour at full tilt which made the boost half as strong as the maximum. Which was unfortunate but not all that important.

My strength stat was still over 450 and was probably the highest of anything attacking.

As the camp came into view I was thoroughly displeased. Craters from the catapults marred the land and most of the eastern field was on fire. Rachel wasn't holding back and her skills engulfed the area.

Deep yellow fire raged with small hints of blue at their base. I saw a massively empowered [Flamethrower] blossom out 15 feet in front of the gate, spewing flames everywhere. My perception wasn't the highest but I could see the gate was unbreeched.

Jonathan held it valiantly. There was something about him that was different and it put my instincts on edge. It was like facing a law for the first time but something else. It didn't matter now what it was but it was strong and gave him enough to hold the gate.

Continuing to assess the situation, my eyes drifted to the bodies. None of the dead were my family which let me sigh in relief. Even thinking about the possibility made my blood boil.

It was a mixture of monsters and humans that compiled the dead and it looked like a large number of them at that. I didn't stop to count but there were easily over 100 bodies lying before our walls.

The ground shuddered under my stride and I bounded toward the fighting. Austin was already there helping Jonathan against the attackers while Rachel burned those who came close.

This close to the fighting, I let out a roar and jumped into the thick of it.

Three [Ice Arrows(Un)] froze in front of me before being launched out. It wasn't Rachel's five or six, but it was still powerful.

At the end of their flight [Shatter(Un)] added to the damage done.

My hammer followed soon behind my opening attack and the first consequence of my retribution showered over me. The humans were pitifully weak compared to my near-peak state, my hammer vaporized them. Covering me in the aftermath.

Most of the blood beaded and rolled off but [Frost Armor(R)] was dyed red and would only get worse.

My hammer swings took two or three at a time before leaving them a disfigured mess of both dead and soon-to-be-dead bodies in my wake.

With Austin defending the gate, I was free to slaughter anything that came near.

After our arrival, the tide of battle swung violently in our direction. Bodies accumulated quicker than ever before as I crushed all who raised a hand against my kin.

Any thoughts of sparing them were long gone. I knew what needed to be done and I would do it. Granting mercy was just asking for them to come back and try again.

The oddness that I felt from them was swiftly ignored. How they acted mattered little when they were corpses.

My path led me toward their origin of attack as I left the wall behind. Rachel's fire was annoying and I didn't want to deal with it. Plus, I wanted to get to the heart of the attack.

That was where their leaders should be.

From the size and number of people involved, it had to be a joint attack from multiple factions. Or one giant faction formed from multiple smaller factions. It didn't matter to me which, they would die all the same.

I hadn't kept up with what others were doing and I would have to fix that. I had assumed that everyone was focusing on surviving the waves, not plotting to attack one another.

Assuming that was a mistake I wouldn't make again. It seemed the prize of conquering other pylons was too great for some and they reached their hand too far trying to claim mine.

I would show them the folly of that decision.

Far enough away from the fiery tempest, my true fighting form was unleashed.

[Hail(C)] produced asinine amounts of material for [Ice Manipulation(C)] to work with. Without the Blaze Lions to fight against, my claim over the environment was swift and left no room for contention.

My new skill made my attempt nearly effortless.

After fighting the pseudo-dungeon reaching level 40 was assured. Passing the threshold gave me another skill. One that I used to boost my power further.

Permafrost(Uncommon) – Freeze the ground around you or a targeted location, slowly damaging and slowing all enemies in range. Size and depth of Permafrost determined at the time of activation. Maximum diameter and depth are determined by mastery of the skill along with skill rarity. Temperature and effect are determined based on mana and Law.

[Permafrost(Un)] turned the very land I walked on into the tundra. Ice and frost rose from the ground and the grass around my feet froze. The circle of the Arctic extended out around me as more of the field turned white. The Earth froze under me and the area around me took a polar plunge.

Both [Permafrost(Un)] and a massive [Hail(C)] worked together to turn the area around me into a winter wonderland. The air dropped below freezing and the ground sapped any foe of energy.

The frozen dirt both slowed and damaged any who stood upon it that wasn't who I considered an ally. It was taxing on both my mana and Law but well worth it.

I couldn't keep it up forever but I would pay the cost of that later.

The attacker's environment turned against them and the ground worked to freeze their feet in place. The skill itself wasn't powerful enough to freeze anyone of true strength, but the addition of my Law and the fact they weren't that strong made it enough for my purposes.

With my authority over the battlefield thoroughly established, the slaughter rose to new heights.

When facing off against the Blaze Lions before, I could only handle 10 of my auxiliary snowflakes. Now, without the hindrance and boost from my skills, more than 20 froze into place.

My range hindered me the most now instead of my manipulation skills. There simply weren't enough enemies in range to justify conjuring more.

Bodies fell quickly and froze soon after.

A slew of massacred ice sculptures followed behind my path.

As I ran toward the forest the attack originated from, the raiders made to retreat. Any headed toward the wall turned around and tried to hinder me instead.

It was like they were throwing their lives away to stop me from going further.

While both annoying and frustrating, it wouldn't save them from the retaliation they were due. My hammer would come for them and being delayed by a few bodies wouldn't save them.

My slaughter continued and the bodies thinned.

After fighting through their defenses I reached where the leaders should have been.

The keyword there being should.

There was no one here. An empty forest clearing was my only prize for reaching the origin.

My anger spiked and [Barbarian's Fury(Un)] activated.

"You COWARDS! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" My roars went unanswered.

The leaders I imagined deigned not to respond.

The cowards had fled. The spineless leaders behind the attack weren't here and they abandoned their army to die while they slinked away in the trees.

I was no tracker and chasing after them would have me guessing at where they went. A rational mind would have realized this.

I was not in a rational state of mind.

With my prize stolen from me, I took off in the direction I thought they went.

My anger made me not think about anything other than revenge. The rebuke at Austin about needless fights before the wave tomorrow long forgotten.

They kicked the hornet's nest and retribution was due.

They wouldn't escape my hammer.

Don't forget to rate and follow if you're liking the story.

[User]
Write Chapter 81 - Warpath
Target length: ~2400 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
Chris

I journeyed east at a breakneck pace. My boost from [Momentum of the Avalanche(R)] had finally peaked and I was moving the fastest I could. I left the terrain-altering effects behind and focused on traversing as much ground as possible.

I leaped my way east faster than I could truly keep up with the surroundings. I blew through trees and plants like a bull in a china shop. My boosted stats made running through trees only a slight deterrence rather than the obstacles most people considered them.

Splinters and half-broken trees followed me as I rampaged east.

For all my power and skills, I had nothing to help me track my foe. It left me zig-zagging from pylon to pylon for hours without any luck. Most pylons I ran into were turned into the dungeon-esque monster-infested lands but some held people.

The monsters I ignored and I couldn't determine if the people I encountered were at fault. Even in my rage-fueled state, I wouldn't just slaughter innocent people.

If I were to take a second to think things through, I would have noticed the oddities in the pylons that I had passed but my focus was narrowed so completely that I hadn't.

As my search extended into dusk, my frustrations grew. They were either good hiders, or I missed something.

* * *

Tracy

"Ma'am, you need to see this!" Kathy came running into her office without even stopping to knock first. She was finishing up the checks on the defenses for the wave tomorrow while trying to recover her mana.

Using her trapping skills all day had drained her and her office was designed to help her recover faster. One of the enchanters put a mana-gathering formation down that she had bought from the store. Making the mana density in her office higher which raised her mana regeneration.

They had just gotten the next level of walls at the monumental price tag of over a million points. The upgrade increased the number of catapults from 2 to 4 a side.

The trebuchets that some of the carpenters had built would be left unmanned but the magic store-bought siege weapons were more effective.

They also cost more to use but it was worth it. Especially on the bosses.

They couldn't kill the bosses in the conventional way, they hadn't been able to in a while, so she turned to restraining traps rather than lethal ones. Her traps were made to restrain the boss and keep it in place while the siege weapons concentrated fire to kill it.

No one was strong enough to face the boss in open battle and doing so was suicide.

"What?" Tracy ground out. She was still fighting off the mana deprivation headache and Kathy's enthusiasm added to her already pounding head.

Kathy either didn't notice her plight or didn't care for she continued in her loud and excited tone.

"My birds caught something brilliant! They were patrolling the north where the Mindbreaker was last seen and they caught a fight breaking out. I had expected it to happen tomorrow after the wave, like all the others, but it happened now!" Kathy rambled out with more words than were strictly necessary.

It took Tracy's tired mind a second to catch up with what was said. Tracy didn't see what Kathy had to be so excited about. The independent group she had tried to warn most likely fell and would be turned into things she didn't like to think about.

With their group defeated, nothing was stopping the crazy lunatic from taking over the north. After finishing his conquest up there, there wasn't much between her settlement and his armies.

Rather than be excited, Tracy wanted to pull her hair out. She would need to work overtime and late into the night to make sure that there were as many traps as possible in the way.

Her new... 'ally', Damien, would be a great addition to her side but she didn't trust the man completely yet. He disbanded his faction and joined hers, which was a good first step, but she would be a fool to trust the man completely.

Seeing the despair in her expression, Kathy rushed to explain.

"No, they didn't lose! I'm not sure how, but they fought off the minions that were sent at them and they even made them retreat!" Kathy exclaimed.

That woke Tracy up. Not even Damien had gotten them to retreat. The most he was able to do was stall their advance until more of the mindless bodies showed up.

Where the Mindbreaker was getting them all was still a mystery. His skills shouldn't have advanced so quickly and he shouldn't have been able to control so many at his rank.

Him being at E-rank was plausible but it still didn't explain everything.

"How? I know that they were stronger than us personally but their camp isn't as strong as ours. They just got the siege weapons last wave and haven't made any of the other upgrades we have." Tracy questioned.

It was something she had wondered about for a while. Tracy spent a mountainous amount of points every wave upgrading her camp and their strong settlement was one of the main reasons they were still alive.

The upgrades they bought with the points they earned were what carried them but the camp up north didn't have them. Their walls were the first upgrade of stone and they only recently bought the catapults.

Based on their reluctance to buy the camp upgrades, she assumed they didn't buy the store-offered traps either. Every time Kathy tried to get close to find out how they were doing it, their scout birds were shot down.

It wasn't even the powerful archer who did it anymore, multiple people in the camp took down the birds. They killed anything that got close. A reasonable approach but annoying nonetheless.

"I'm not sure. I only caught the aftermath and the fight was already over. It does seem that they have a powerful Elementalist, though, for the land was ravaged by both fire and ice." Kathy explained.

Kathy's birds were a tremendous boon but they could be spotty at times. They didn't have the skills a normal scout did and you could only see what they could physically take in.

They didn't have an [Identify] skill or anything else to gauge power level so it was difficult to truly grasp the nuance of a battle. All you saw was the events as they transpired, or in this case the aftermath.

Levels and strength could only be determined through action and seeing only the aftermath left them guessing at what happened.

"Show me," Tracy said while holding out her hand to the woman.

Kathy could see through her birds easily enough but it took some practice for her to be able to share her vision with another. It took another skill for it to be possible and Tracy used it to her advantage.

She trusted Kathy but some things she liked to see for herself.

Kathy took her hand before closing her eyes to channel her skill. It was disorienting at first, but Tracy was used to the change.

Seeing through a bird's eyes was difficult to get used to but this wasn't the first time she had done this.

What she saw left her breathless. The camp looked like it was on fire at first glance but she soon noticed it was only the land in front of the wall that was ablaze.

The gate was blown in and bodies burnt and broken scattered the land. She could see people milling about cleaning up the battlefield with practiced ease.

She wished to get closer but the bird would only get shot down. The only reason she could see clearly was the great vision the animal had.

Around the wall were stone ramparts that looked like they were pulled up from the ground. Stone chunks littered the area in front of the gate and various earth walls and shields were smashed in and left broken.

Kathy's Elementalist theory was proving likely. Stone, fire, and ice were all spread around the battlefield. It was plausible that they were funneling all the experience into one powerful Elementalist.

The fire was mostly out but Tracy could see the burnt scorch marks and blackened areas that marred the land from intense heat. There were ashes of who knew how many blowing in the wind as a result.

For some reason, the ice was still around. The stone was in chunks, the fire mostly put out, but the ice was showing no signs of melting.

About 50 yards away from the wall there was a massive circle of frost that covered the ground and upon it were countless bodies.

All of them were frozen in various states of dismemberment and mutilation. Heads were frozen a distance away from bodies like they were torn off. Chests were flattened from what looked like blunt force trauma. One headless body even died standing up and froze before it could fall over. Like a cannonball took off its head and the body froze upright.

What she saw was gruesome and it caused her to fight off the nausea rising from her gut. It was a scene from a massacre. The fact someone had the power to do this scared her deeply. It was unsettling to see the carnage that was left behind in the battle's wake.

The ice led away from the camp and into the forest. The path of bodies followed the frozen land before ending in a clearing. The clearing was where the trail of ice and bodies ended.

All told, it looked like the Mindbreaker lost a good portion of his army in the north. He had more thralls scattered around the land he owned but most of his people in the north were gone. Only their corpses remained and for some, not even that.

"Where is he?" Tracy asked. Kathy knew who it was she was talking about.

"I haven't been able to find him. He was traveling toward that camp when I last saw him but I haven't found any traces of him since. None of my birds have seen him either. Usually, he is easy to find since he travels with an army but I've had no luck. It's like he's hiding." Kathy said.

"Is he dead?" Tracy couldn't help but hope for that outcome.

"No. His thralls continue working in other areas so he must still be alive." Kathy dashed that thought with her answer.

They didn't know what would happen to the people under his control when he died but them continuing as normal was a good enough sign he was still alive.

While unfortunate, there was nothing she could do about it. She hoped that this would weaken him significantly enough so she could get out of this tutorial without having to deal with him.

Just when Tracy was about to ask to leave the vision, she saw something peculiar. A trail of broken trees led further east. Something told her that the path of destruction wasn't from a wild beast.

The clearing was wide and most of her attention was on the marks of fighting, which led her to only see the beginning of the destruction and write it off as unimportant. The tree line wasn't what she was focused on at first but what she saw drew her attention and she motioned for Kathy to move the bird over there.

After getting closer, she saw that the path carved a line through the forest headed directly east.

Something had rampaged through the forest without regard for damaging the surroundings. Every 5 to 6 feet, small craters dotted a line leading east.

Trees were destroyed and plants were left in pieces. Some were ripped from the ground completely.

"What is this?" Tracy asked.

"I don't know. I didn't see this at first, I was focused on the battle." Kathy responded curiously.

Without needing to be asked, Kathy followed the line of destruction further east. It went on for miles and it seemed to never end.

Kathy had to mobilize a few more of her scouts to speed the search up.

It took almost 30 minutes before they found anything and Kathy inhaled sharply when they did. Kathy could only share one bird's vision with Tracy so she was left clueless as to why the woman was startled.

Tracy wasn't left in the dark long as the bird she was seeing through changed. The new bird was higher in the air and viewed the trail from a different angle.

That new angle revealed the reason behind Kathy's surprise.

A man was at the end of the path creating the trail they had followed.

He was sprinting through the forest at a speed the birds could hardly keep up with. His legs exploded the ground under him, launching him forward. It was how the craters they followed were made.

He punched through trees and stomped on anything in his way. The metal armor he wore was covered in dried blood and reflected the setting sun's rays which made him easy to spot.

What she thought was the path of a great monster, was the result of a man. One human made the path she had been following for half an hour. In his hand was a massive Warhammer over 5 feet long and bobbed as the man pumped his arms. It seemed to have a slight glow to it but Tracy was too far away to see it in greater detail.

Without even knowing the man, Tracy knew he was on a warpath.

"Who is that." She couldn't help but ask. She wasn't even witnessing the man's battle prowess and she was scared of him. If he could do that by just running, what else could he do?

"I think he's the leader of the camp that was attacked," Kathy answered with uncertainty.

"What's he doing?"

"I'm not sure,"

As they were watching, the man suddenly turned. He had continued his path east, spanning the length of nearly the entire tutorial area. There were only a few pylons further east from where he was and all of them were uninhabited.

The setting sun made it easy to discern his new direction. Even seeing through a bird, Tracy could tell which way his new path led.

South.

He was pointed toward her camp.

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