There isn’t any mana radiating from the First One, all of it has been sucked up by the black dagger tethered to his body. He is just using the sheer strength of his stats.
Using my mana as effectively as I can, I block his body, and the armor surrounding my body disappears, reforming only at the point of impact with the black ant.
I channel mana towards the pillar where Myrra, trusting in me to protect her, continues to steer the orbital base and looking for signs of ants to target.
Seeing how desperately The First One attacks me, my assumptions are probably right, there is indeed a smaller Colony he plans to return to and rebuild after dealing with us. The leader of the Calamity never gave up in the first place.
His attacks are quick and hard-hitting, but they are far from what they were when he attacked Virelia, and neither are mine.
Both of us are tired, our reserves low, reducing us to a lowly brawl with weak bursts of our skills.
He tries to get to the pillar and cracks his mandibles together in an attempt to cut it apart with his ranged attack, but I stick my hand in the way and cover it with dense armor, blocking it and getting a cut on my arm.
Then my fist moves, a thin spike forming around it, and I stab it deep into his body. When I try to enlarge it, the mana gets pulled in by the black dagger, and even the armor around my arm flickers.
All this time I feel the First One's attempts to cancel out the anchor binding the dagger to him, and as before, I continue to channel my mana into it to keep it from being destroyed by him or the black dagger.
An attack throws my body to the side, and I sacrifice a bit of my mana to shoot a projectile boosted by kinetic energy at his head, which he dodges, and I'm back to attacking him before he can charge Myrra.
“I need more mana!” the lynthari shouts.
As requested, I channel more of my mana into the anchor near the pillar. I do not hesitate to weaken myself, and instead of using it against the ant, I send it to the base.
The First One's panicked attempts to stop it warm my heart. His demeanor cracks. His movements are quick and desperate, and his attempts to cancel my anchor or control the black dagger reach a peak.
And I'm here. I block his way. I take on his attacks. I sacrifice my mana to destroy his plans even in exchange for more wounds on my body.
At some point, a laugh comes out of my mouth, as I break one of his legs and kick him away from the pillar. Then even more of my mana flows out of me, and the base shakes even more, a sure sign of Myrra's work.
The First One attempts some sort of mental attack against me, but I shrug it off with my Mantle and use some mana to stop it from reaching Myrra. Unlike before, I feel happiness as I deplete my mana. Every drop I send to the pillar means more pain caused to the black ant.
In the end, he stops moving and just stands there, staring at me.
Nearly all of my mana is gone, and Myrra finally changes the trajectory, spending most of her mana as well.
“Ten minutes until impact. He won't be able to change the trajectory anymore, I locked it,” Myrra says.
Instead of answering her, I continue to smile and talk to the First One, “I know what your plan is. You will wait for us to get close to the point of impact and connect to the Colony to get their strength and maybe use it to stop the crash.”
My mana is slowly regenerating, all in preparation for the final clash. I don't want to fight now, no, I want the First One to watch his plans get demolished, his Colony to get destroyed. And only then will I finish him, letting him know his place.
“Or you might be trying to get rid of the dagger again. Maybe you want to kill Myrra and me once you get some power from the remaining ants. ” I take a step closer. “But you will fail.”
Oh, is that why some assholes like to monologue so much? I know that I hated Elydor and Emeric when I heard their cocky monologues. Back then I was curious why they acted like that, why they talked that way.
Yet, now I'm doing the same.
It's so silly it makes me giggle once more, all my hate brought to the surface just by looking at the enemy in front of me.
Minutes pass and the base takes on more turbulence. Through the window, I can see the planet growing closer, the clouds closing in, and the fire caused by friction.
I form a small orb next to me and place an anchor on it. Myrra prepares her attacks.
Then the First One receives the first wave of mana and strength from the Colony, a few seconds before crashing. A majestic power surrounds his pitch-black body and the glow in his eyes changes. The black dagger dissolves, as the leader of the Colony finally manages to dispel it. He immediately removes the anchor I left on him.
He snaps his mandibles and I pull Myrra down, avoiding the slash that cuts through the air where we stood.
The entirety of the First One’s mana attempts to slow the movement of the base, he tries to absorb it. He tries multiple skills at once, the pressure destroying him even as he immediately regenerates his body in exchange for the lives of the Colony.
And I disrupt his attempts.
My Mana Wavelength Iris activates, allowing me to quickly decipher the frequency and I disrupt all his attempts. The mana that The First One has right now is too much for me to fight against, so I just find the trigger, the important part of the skills, the threads that it can't work without. And I snap them without mercy.
[Resonance - lvl 39 > Resonance - lvl 40]
Congratulations, you have completed a side quest and received a skill upgrade token!
Then it's too late, the base too close to the ground. The ant’s eyes meet mine and for the first time, I can see the emotion in them despite their alien nature. It's hate.
Good.
My domain activates around as big an area as I can and I absorb kinetic energy around Myrra and me as we crash against the ground. Time feels as if slowed down and I constantly look for something, while the walls around us crumble and bend, an immense amount of energy around us.
Then I find it, a crack in the base, and finally, my domain passes through, creating an anchor outside of it.
I grab Myrra and transport both of us outside and right after I launch my orb as far as possible.
A second passes, the amount of energy and heat around us is immense and putting a strain on me, and only then do I activate the anchor, transporting us to the orb that has traveled quite far in the meantime. I repeat it until I'm almost out of mana.
Myrra creates a barrier around us and we wait and fight against the shockwave and waves of heat as they pass over us. There is nowhere to hide as the sand dunes surrounding us are thrown into the air as the ones closer to the impact melt in place.
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 15]
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 80]
[You have defeated Sentinel ant - lvl 164]
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 67]
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 88]
[You have defeated Flame Legion ant - lvl 115]
[Lvl 210 > Lvl 211]
I try to stand up from behind Myrra, but I stagger and fall to my knees, my head throbbing and hurting like crazy, and my vision blurs, I can barely see with one eye.
Standing up again, I push Myrra to the side and start walking towards the impact site, my feet burrowing into the hot sand thrown aside in waves, creating a deep crater of melted material, the heat palpable in the air.
In the center of that hole, a base lies, a building made of gray stone and of a shape I can hardly describe right now, with all the broken pieces everywhere. The base, by my estimates, used to be as big as a small shopping mall.
Absorbing the heat around me, I step toward the edge of the giant crater and start sliding down toward the center of the explosion. I roll a few times, get burned twice, and I still barely see with one of my eyes, yet I reach the base.
A scan detects me, and the black ant crawls from inside. Wounds all over his carapace, unable to be healed anymore, all the remaining vitality of the Colony used to keep him alive.
My mana encompasses the area, and I find only corpses of the ants and even the notifications have stopped. The explosion has set the subterranean tunnels ablaze causing the explosion that killed them.
The First One is the last one standing.
Surrounded by the debris of the orbital base, and heat strong enough to melt the sand into glass, the ant takes a step towards me.
It's a wobbly step, a few of its legs are broken.
I feel Myrra's mana move, but I don't stop her, and a barrage of Aurora glass hits the ant from the side, cutting him in half, the back half remaining behind in the sand.
Yet the ant doesn't stop. He falls to the ground and starts using his remaining functional leg to pull himself closer to me.
Slowly, second after second, he moves closer. Sticking a leg in front, burrowing it into the sand, and pulling, half of his body sliding on the ground.
The entire time I feel his attempts to connect to my mind. It's not an attack, only an attempt at communication. Either hateful words, maybe begging, maybe something entirely else.
And I won’t let it connect, not even to give one last word to the leader of the Calamity.
He finally reaches me, and his cracked mandibles snap around my shin, trying to cut it. The First One bites over and over again, his weak attack dealing no damage at all, not even piercing my skin.
Feelings roar inside me for a moment and then there is a strange calm. I stare at this being, strong enough to be considered capable of reaching the rank of Champion and kinetic energy flows through my right leg.
Then I stomp on his head.
[You have defeated Hive Confluence Sentinel - lvl 264]
[Lvl 211 > Lvl 212]
[Lvl 212 > Lvl 213]
[Lvl 213 > Lvl 214]
Congratulations! You've successfully completed the 4th floor's main quest in the fifth round of the tutorial for Hell difficulty. An entrance to the 5th floor has been created.
Next to me, the portal to the 5th floor opens.
I stomp again, the sand exploding under my feet and turning what remains of the First One into mush. And again, sending more kinetic energy through my leg, I stomp as hard as I can. Again and again, until my leg hurts and even what energy I have been able to recover is gone.
I receive 1,000 shards and a skill upgrade token from completing side quests, and then another side quest appears.
Side quest: Kill the Calamity
Reward: 4000 shards
Attention, a milestone reached. Entry into Irreversible Narrative Progression has been detected for group 4. In accordance, the Community Interface with other groups will now be deactivated.
I open Beyond Community.
Sset - We’ve also completed our quest and the entrances have appeared, but we will be staying.
Noname - Take care.
Sset - Yes.
After that, I close the Community.
Myrra slides into the crater, moving slowly, tired and devoid of mana. Even then, she looks at the remains of the black ant and burns them to ash.
“You keep looking there,” she turns towards the entrance to the 5th floor, “Judging from how you move your eyes, it's about my height and a few times wider. But I can’t see or sense anything.”
Neither of us wants to talk about what just happened, so we shift the conversation to something else.
“I will try to explain it later,” I say, and Myrra nods. “How about we rest for a while and examine what remains of the base?”
Myrra follows my gaze, curiosity also showing on her tired face. “Let's do that.”
cerim
Ehm, so, surprisingly today it is 1 year since I started posting this story. Who would have expected that there would be so many people reading and even enjoying it? I'm still shocked I was able to trick you into reading, and that you guys have fallen for it. At the same time, I'm super thankful.
So thanks to all my beta readers: Budspud, Jabber, JJtooly, Khanalas, Monsar, Ranzpunzel, and Rusty. They help a lot and notice a lot (really a LOT) of things I wouldn't by myself. They help with grammar and often have really good suggestions!
Also, thanks to all my Patrons. Having people willing to support me or pay for the advanced chapters is still something I'm not used to. Imposter syndrome is still real!
Thanks for all the comments on Royalroad and Scribblehub that make me excited to read them every morning. Seeing people theorize about my story and share their thoughts and feelings is something amazing.
And I can't forget the people over on Discord. So shoutout to them as well!
So, anyway, 260 RR chapters in 365 days? Not bad, right? I didn't need to go on hiatus, nor did need to take a break. But most importantly, I have a lot of fun writing and exploring the characters and the world I have created.
Hooray then to another year, hooray to more floors, and hooray beyond the tutorial.
Have a nice weekend and see you next week!
There isn’t any mana radiating from the First One, all of it has been sucked up by the black dagger tethered to his body. He is just using the sheer strength of his stats.
Using my mana as effectively as I can, I block his body, and the armor surrounding my body disappears, reforming only at the point of impact with the black ant.
I channel mana towards the pillar where Myrra, trusting in me to protect her, continues to steer the orbital base and looking for signs of ants to target.
Seeing how desperately The First One attacks me, my assumptions are probably right, there is indeed a smaller Colony he plans to return to and rebuild after dealing with us. The leader of the Calamity never gave up in the first place.
His attacks are quick and hard-hitting, but they are far from what they were when he attacked Virelia, and neither are mine.
Both of us are tired, our reserves low, reducing us to a lowly brawl with weak bursts of our skills.
He tries to get to the pillar and cracks his mandibles together in an attempt to cut it apart with his ranged attack, but I stick my hand in the way and cover it with dense armor, blocking it and getting a cut on my arm.
Then my fist moves, a thin spike forming around it, and I stab it deep into his body. When I try to enlarge it, the mana gets pulled in by the black dagger, and even the armor around my arm flickers.
All this time I feel the First One's attempts to cancel out the anchor binding the dagger to him, and as before, I continue to channel my mana into it to keep it from being destroyed by him or the black dagger.
An attack throws my body to the side, and I sacrifice a bit of my mana to shoot a projectile boosted by kinetic energy at his head, which he dodges, and I'm back to attacking him before he can charge Myrra.
“I need more mana!” the lynthari shouts.
As requested, I channel more of my mana into the anchor near the pillar. I do not hesitate to weaken myself, and instead of using it against the ant, I send it to the base.
The First One's panicked attempts to stop it warm my heart. His demeanor cracks. His movements are quick and desperate, and his attempts to cancel my anchor or control the black dagger reach a peak.
And I'm here. I block his way. I take on his attacks. I sacrifice my mana to destroy his plans even in exchange for more wounds on my body.
At some point, a laugh comes out of my mouth, as I break one of his legs and kick him away from the pillar. Then even more of my mana flows out of me, and the base shakes even more, a sure sign of Myrra's work.
The First One attempts some sort of mental attack against me, but I shrug it off with my Mantle and use some mana to stop it from reaching Myrra. Unlike before, I feel happiness as I deplete my mana. Every drop I send to the pillar means more pain caused to the black ant.
In the end, he stops moving and just stands there, staring at me.
Nearly all of my mana is gone, and Myrra finally changes the trajectory, spending most of her mana as well.
“Ten minutes until impact. He won't be able to change the trajectory anymore, I locked it,” Myrra says.
Instead of answering her, I continue to smile and talk to the First One, “I know what your plan is. You will wait for us to get close to the point of impact and connect to the Colony to get their strength and maybe use it to stop the crash.”
My mana is slowly regenerating, all in preparation for the final clash. I don't want to fight now, no, I want the First One to watch his plans get demolished, his Colony to get destroyed. And only then will I finish him, letting him know his place.
“Or you might be trying to get rid of the dagger again. Maybe you want to kill Myrra and me once you get some power from the remaining ants. ” I take a step closer. “But you will fail.”
Oh, is that why some assholes like to monologue so much? I know that I hated Elydor and Emeric when I heard their cocky monologues. Back then I was curious why they acted like that, why they talked that way.
Yet, now I'm doing the same.
It's so silly it makes me giggle once more, all my hate brought to the surface just by looking at the enemy in front of me.
Minutes pass and the base takes on more turbulence. Through the window, I can see the planet growing closer, the clouds closing in, and the fire caused by friction.
I form a small orb next to me and place an anchor on it. Myrra prepares her attacks.
Then the First One receives the first wave of mana and strength from the Colony, a few seconds before crashing. A majestic power surrounds his pitch-black body and the glow in his eyes changes. The black dagger dissolves, as the leader of the Colony finally manages to dispel it. He immediately removes the anchor I left on him.
He snaps his mandibles and I pull Myrra down, avoiding the slash that cuts through the air where we stood.
The entirety of the First One’s mana attempts to slow the movement of the base, he tries to absorb it. He tries multiple skills at once, the pressure destroying him even as he immediately regenerates his body in exchange for the lives of the Colony.
And I disrupt his attempts.
My Mana Wavelength Iris activates, allowing me to quickly decipher the frequency and I disrupt all his attempts. The mana that The First One has right now is too much for me to fight against, so I just find the trigger, the important part of the skills, the threads that it can't work without. And I snap them without mercy.
[Resonance - lvl 39 > Resonance - lvl 40]
Congratulations, you have completed a side quest and received a skill upgrade token!
Then it's too late, the base too close to the ground. The ant’s eyes meet mine and for the first time, I can see the emotion in them despite their alien nature. It's hate.
Good.
My domain activates around as big an area as I can and I absorb kinetic energy around Myrra and me as we crash against the ground. Time feels as if slowed down and I constantly look for something, while the walls around us crumble and bend, an immense amount of energy around us.
Then I find it, a crack in the base, and finally, my domain passes through, creating an anchor outside of it.
I grab Myrra and transport both of us outside and right after I launch my orb as far as possible.
A second passes, the amount of energy and heat around us is immense and putting a strain on me, and only then do I activate the anchor, transporting us to the orb that has traveled quite far in the meantime. I repeat it until I'm almost out of mana.
Myrra creates a barrier around us and we wait and fight against the shockwave and waves of heat as they pass over us. There is nowhere to hide as the sand dunes surrounding us are thrown into the air as the ones closer to the impact melt in place.
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 15]
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 80]
[You have defeated Sentinel ant - lvl 164]
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 67]
[You have defeated Worker ant - lvl 88]
[You have defeated Flame Legion ant - lvl 115]
[Lvl 210 > Lvl 211]
I try to stand up from behind Myrra, but I stagger and fall to my knees, my head throbbing and hurting like crazy, and my vision blurs, I can barely see with one eye.
Standing up again, I push Myrra to the side and start walking towards the impact site, my feet burrowing into the hot sand thrown aside in waves, creating a deep crater of melted material, the heat palpable in the air.
In the center of that hole, a base lies, a building made of gray stone and of a shape I can hardly describe right now, with all the broken pieces everywhere. The base, by my estimates, used to be as big as a small shopping mall.
Absorbing the heat around me, I step toward the edge of the giant crater and start sliding down toward the center of the explosion. I roll a few times, get burned twice, and I still barely see with one of my eyes, yet I reach the base.
A scan detects me, and the black ant crawls from inside. Wounds all over his carapace, unable to be healed anymore, all the remaining vitality of the Colony used to keep him alive.
My mana encompasses the area, and I find only corpses of the ants and even the notifications have stopped. The explosion has set the subterranean tunnels ablaze causing the explosion that killed them.
The First One is the last one standing.
Surrounded by the debris of the orbital base, and heat strong enough to melt the sand into glass, the ant takes a step towards me.
It's a wobbly step, a few of its legs are broken.
I feel Myrra's mana move, but I don't stop her, and a barrage of Aurora glass hits the ant from the side, cutting him in half, the back half remaining behind in the sand.
Yet the ant doesn't stop. He falls to the ground and starts using his remaining functional leg to pull himself closer to me.
Slowly, second after second, he moves closer. Sticking a leg in front, burrowing it into the sand, and pulling, half of his body sliding on the ground.
The entire time I feel his attempts to connect to my mind. It's not an attack, only an attempt at communication. Either hateful words, maybe begging, maybe something entirely else.
And I won’t let it connect, not even to give one last word to the leader of the Calamity.
He finally reaches me, and his cracked mandibles snap around my shin, trying to cut it. The First One bites over and over again, his weak attack dealing no damage at all, not even piercing my skin.
Feelings roar inside me for a moment and then there is a strange calm. I stare at this being, strong enough to be considered capable of reaching the rank of Champion and kinetic energy flows through my right leg.
Then I stomp on his head.
[You have defeated Hive Confluence Sentinel - lvl 264]
[Lvl 211 > Lvl 212]
[Lvl 212 > Lvl 213]
[Lvl 213 > Lvl 214]
Congratulations! You've successfully completed the 4th floor's main quest in the fifth round of the tutorial for Hell difficulty. An entrance to the 5th floor has been created.
Next to me, the portal to the 5th floor opens.
I stomp again, the sand exploding under my feet and turning what remains of the First One into mush. And again, sending more kinetic energy through my leg, I stomp as hard as I can. Again and again, until my leg hurts and even what energy I have been able to recover is gone.
I receive 1,000 shards and a skill upgrade token from completing side quests, and then another side quest appears.
Side quest: Kill the Calamity
Reward: 4000 shards
Attention, a milestone reached. Entry into Irreversible Narrative Progression has been detected for group 4. In accordance, the Community Interface with other groups will now be deactivated.
I open Beyond Community.
Sset - We’ve also completed our quest and the entrances have appeared, but we will be staying.
Noname - Take care.
Sset - Yes.
After that, I close the Community.
Myrra slides into the crater, moving slowly, tired and devoid of mana. Even then, she looks at the remains of the black ant and burns them to ash.
“You keep looking there,” she turns towards the entrance to the 5th floor, “Judging from how you move your eyes, it's about my height and a few times wider. But I can’t see or sense anything.”
Neither of us wants to talk about what just happened, so we shift the conversation to something else.
“I will try to explain it later,” I say, and Myrra nods. “How about we rest for a while and examine what remains of the base?”
Myrra follows my gaze, curiosity also showing on her tired face. “Let's do that.”
cerim
Ehm, so, surprisingly today it is 1 year since I started posting this story. Who would have expected that there would be so many people reading and even enjoying it? I'm still shocked I was able to trick you into reading, and that you guys have fallen for it. At the same time, I'm super thankful.
So thanks to all my beta readers: Budspud, Jabber, JJtooly, Khanalas, Monsar, Ranzpunzel, and Rusty. They help a lot and notice a lot (really a LOT) of things I wouldn't by myself. They help with grammar and often have really good suggestions!
Also, thanks to all my Patrons. Having people willing to support me or pay for the advanced chapters is still something I'm not used to. Imposter syndrome is still real!
Thanks for all the comments on Royalroad and Scribblehub that make me excited to read them every morning. Seeing people theorize about my story and share their thoughts and feelings is something amazing.
And I can't forget the people over on Discord. So shoutout to them as well!
So, anyway, 260 RR chapters in 365 days? Not bad, right? I didn't need to go on hiatus, nor did need to take a break. But most importantly, I have a lot of fun writing and exploring the characters and the world I have created.
Hooray then to another year, hooray to more floors, and hooray beyond the tutorial.
Have a nice weekend and see you next week!
