While Repel Water was well on the way to becoming a decent weapon in its own right, using it as an attack required multiple fields that had to be aligned just right. Achieving that level of precision wouldn’t always be possible mid-fight, and using the skill would be impractical in situations where he didn’t want to drench the battlefield.
All that aside, the water drill configuration of Repel was a fantastic addition to his skillset. If he kept working out the kinks, it had the potential to do significant damage while knocking his enemies off balance. Edge loved the utility the versatile skill provided—freely shaping the fields and freezing the water it created—but Vacuum Blast was something else entirely.
It was a skill that didn’t do anything other than dish out grievous bodily harm, and every upgrade he chose would enhance its lethality. It was also a wind-aspected power, which meant it would benefit from Fear the Season’s elemental bonus until winter rolled around in a few more months.
He wound up climbing out of bed well before dawn, so after taking Rue out to the yard to burn off some morning energy, Edge made his way into the kitchen and began making breakfast. He wasn’t much of a cook, but Violet had taught him how to make a simple porridge that was hard to fuck up, which everyone could sweeten to their preference.
By the time the burbling pot was ready, the rest of the crew had made their way into the common area and taken a seat around the table. He brought out the porridge and set it in the middle, along with some brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon.
When his friends were done eating, Edge let everyone know his newest skill was ready for a trial run, and they followed him out the door and into the yard. He set Rue onto Blue’s back so the fox wouldn’t try to get too close and then walked over to a post Trapper used for target practice. He made sure nothing was in his line of fire, then gathered his concentration and ignited his core.
A searing stream of refined mana came flowing out of his reactor, traveling through the conduit connecting to Vacuum Blast’s pillar. Once the magic passed through the circuitry embedded within the socket, it took on the specific properties granted by the skill and gathered in front of his outstretched hands.
Edge had learned the basics from the vision that accompanied binding the skill. However, while he knew Vacuum Blast was a mid-range wind attack, he wasn’t sure how the vacuum element came into play and wouldn’t have a good sense of the dynamics until he used it for the first time.
It all became clear a few seconds later.
It turned out the vacuum component was a wedge-shaped field of mana that only allowed air to pass through in one direction. The magic created intense suction, forming a band of compressed air while preventing it from escaping the confines of the spell.
When Edge activated the skill, it took a few seconds to reach full power. Wind began blowing toward him from every direction at once, sending debris swirling around his body. After the vacuum field reached maximum compression, he visualized his target, and it launched itself toward the post like an arrow taking flight. The wedge was invisible to the naked eye, although he noticed some dispersed dust and a blade of grass being cut in half as the spell passed through.
When Vacuum Blast hit the wooden pole, its leading edge sank in a few inches. He frowned. That was anticlimactic. I thought there would be an… His train of thought was derailed when the field dispersed, releasing the compressed air to create a powerful explosion.
The post was blown to smithereens—splinters flying as a sonic boom vibrated his bones and rattled windows all the way down the block. Rue’s hackles rose to a comical degree, and the pup started barking as everyone looked at each other before turning to face Edge.
Trapper winced, although she was smiling too. “That skill is fantastic, but you probably shouldn’t use it inside the settlement. Alice is going to kill me if you break all the glassware in her lodge, and if anyone in the district was still asleep, they aren’t anymore.”
Everyone laughed as they walked back inside. Edge set the fox in his lap and spent a few minutes calming the little guy down while reflecting on what he’d learned. Even at rank one, Vacuum Blast was a deadly skill, but it felt crude compared to Yussuf’s version.
When he pondered the attack that had claimed his arm, he realized that in addition to having more raw power, only the cutting side of Yussuf’s vacuum field had dispersed, rather than the whole thing. It had created a directional blast with incredible PSI that was more like a shaped charge than a simple explosion.
I need to upgrade that component if I want to follow the same path. I suppose I could upgrade Vacuum Blast to be more like a grenade instead. That would be useful for dealing with swarms of small opponents, but it won’t do nearly as much damage to high-stage enemies with multilayered defenses.
Either way, the next step was to upgrade the skill and see what options were available. Since Vacuum Bast had been high-rank when he stole it, Edge only needed to Absorb a single skill to take it to rank two. When he let the crew know he was planning to take a quick trip into the plains, Sasha and Riller decided to join him. They both needed to pick up more cycles before the stampede arrived and wanted to work on ranking up a few of their skills too.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
They left Puppet Town through the south gate, since the north was under repair, then Riller used Scout Drone to locate suitable prey. The observational skill had come a long way since the man had obtained it after completing the quest to kill the garax, which already felt like a lifetime ago even though it had only been a few weeks.
Thanks to using it constantly throughout the expedition to the dungeon, the subterranean siege that followed, and the trip back to the Ivory Plains, Riller had taken Scout Drone to rank three, acquiring more range and some sensory-boosting upgrades in the process.
He sent the stealthy device whizzing over the grasslands. A few minutes later, he reported that he’d located a pack of jobos a few miles out—perfect opponents for what they were planning and a good source of meat and parts besides. He ran back to Trapper’s lodge to grab Blue and the wagon, since this was going to be a bigger haul than they’d planned, leaving Edge and Sasha alone for a few minutes.
The sat down on a log, holding hands while watching waves of magicytes flowing across the prairie. “It should only be a few weeks before the center of the plains is just as magic-saturated as the bordering biomes,” she said. “There are already more stage-two beasts in the area around town, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we run into an occasional stage-three going forward.”
“It’s going to be more dangerous.” Edge rubbed his chin. “Especially for our newly cored residents, but in the end, it should help everyone cycle up more quickly and provide a constant source of high-grade materials. We’ve come a long way since the anomaly. If Puppet Town can rise above the biome’s power curve, we have a real chance of surviving for the long haul.”
“That stampede might be a blessing in disguise,” she mused. “If we handle it right, we should be able to advance our people quite a bit all at once.”
He nodded his agreement. “I think we can handle the horde, but I’m worried about what created it. If they were willing to go through the trouble of raising an army and sending it our way, I doubt this is the end of the matter. I’ll feel better when we learn more. Right now, we don’t know if the stampede is being controlled by a monster, beast, or another core-wielder like us—let alone their intentions.”
Sasha’s reply was interrupted when Rue emerged from his den, which Edge had placed him in before leaving the lodge. It was the first time the fox had been able to let himself out, and something they were going to have to work on sooner rather than later.
After some treat bribery, Rue let the strawberry blond hunter hold him, nuzzling Sasha’s neck while she ran her fingers through his coat. Edge did his best not to show his jealousy on his face, although he would have enjoyed some of her attention too. It must have shone through anyway, because she laughed, then gave him a look with more than a little heat to it.
Before he could proceed to some more serious flirting, Riller and Blue returned with the cart. After Sasha mouthed the word “later,” they made their way over to the jobos’ territory. As they walked, Riller provided the details of what he’d seen. The jobos were travelling in a pack consisting of a stage-two alpha male, two mates, and a juvenile male.
They decided to leave the young male and one of the females alive so they didn’t depopulate the region, then got ready to begin their hunt. Since Edge only needed to Extract a Common skill to rank up Vacuum Blast, he took the stage-one female. Sasha and Riller would drive the other jobos away, then cull the alpha. They promised to keep it alive long enough for Edge to Extract a skill or two if possible.
Jobos had been one of the first beasts he’d hunted after obtaining his core, and they had given him one hell of a fight. But he had experienced explosive growth since then—to the point where the densely muscular, hairless creatures no longer felt threatening at stage one. That being said, the jobos were ridiculously jacked, and he would prefer to avoid taking a direct hit if possible.
Since he needed to Extract a skill and using Vacuum Blast would kill the creature and ruin its hide, he decided to hold off on combat testing his new power and went with some old favorites instead. He closed the distance, activated Shadow Play, and Leapt, sailing over the burly pink beast—who lost sight of him the moment he turned into shadows thanks to the Concealment aspect of the skill.
On the way down, Edge shifted back to solid form and let loose with a vicious Double Slash of his naginata. It was enough to cut off an arm and mortally wound the creature, even without using his other powers to bolster the attack.
Before the jobo died from blood loss, he stole the only skill the beast had and fed its experience to Vacuum Blast. He made sure Riller and Sasha didn’t need his help, then stepped into his inner world. The skill was radiant with transformative energy—ready to complete its first upgrade.
He spent a few minutes praising the excited avatar before calling up his Guide to examine his choices.
The skill Vacuum Blast has advanced to Rank 2.
Its mana efficiency has been enhanced.
Please choose between one of the following options:
- Double the range the field can travel before losing cohesion.
- Cause the field to collapse along the point of contact instead of dispersing all at once, creating a directional blast instead of a generalized explosion.
- Create up to three fields at once and guide them along independent trajectories.
Warning: If no option is selected, your skill will remain unchanged and gain a slight bonus to mana efficiency.
While the other options weren’t bad at all, the second choice was the one he’d been hoping to obtain. He already knew it would lead to the same version of Vacuum Blast Yussuf the Red had wielded, which was how he intended to advance the skill, since it was one of the most devastating attacks Edge had ever seen.
When he made his decision and the avatar stopped shining, it looked subtly different than before. The shimmer in the air was thicker, making Blast easier to spot. The strip of mana covering the cutting surface of the field was more complex too. Thanks to the vision he’d received, he knew it would break first, releasing the compressed air in a single direction instead of creating a widespread explosion.
Additionally, if the field was embedded in his target, it would only destabilize along the penetrating portion, causing all the energy to erupt along a narrow band to magnify the damage it caused. If the field was destroyed en route, it would simply explode—like what had happened when Wind Ward blocked Yussuf’s attack.
He would have to wait a little longer to try it in combat, but the stampede would offer him a wealth of targets to experiment with. Immensely satisfied with his newest power, Edge went to find his friends—who were in the final stages of finishing their hunt.