Percy was surprised by the instructions as early as the first wave.
‘Draw an enchantment containing at least ten different runes.’
The requirements were laughably easy, though what shocked Percy was how different they were from all the previous levels. There was no time limit or a need to draw multiple copies of the enchantment. They only had to draw a single unit cell – albeit one that was arguably quite demanding for a first wave.
‘I suppose the challenge only cares about quality from the Green level onward…’
To no one’s surprise, the requirements continued growing steeply in difficulty with each wave.
***
“Congratulations! Wave 1 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 1000. Current balance: 224743.”
***
‘Draw an enchantment containing at least twenty different runes.’
***
“Congratulations! Wave 2 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 2000. Current balance: 226743.”
***
‘Draw an enchantment containing at least thirty different runes.’
***
“Congratulations! Wave 3 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 3000. Current balance: 229743.”
***
‘Draw an enchantment containing at least fifty different runes.’
***
“Congratulations! Wave 4 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 4000. Current balance: 233743.”
***
‘Draw an enchantment containing at least seventy different runes.’
***
“Congratulations! Wave 5 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 5000. Current balance: 238743.”
Even the fourth wave had required more runes that Percy had ever included in a unit cell before, let alone the fifth. Luckily, he had greatly improved since he created the most recent iteration of his equipment, so drawing unit cells with fifty or seventy runes wasn’t that difficult. In fact, as soon as he laid eyes on the requirements of the sixth wave, a smile couldn’t help but creep its way onto his host’s lips.
‘Draw an enchantment containing at least a hundred different runes.’
It was abundantly clear by now, that he and Gabe were overqualified for this challenge. Just the addition of the Scribing trait alone would have allowed his host to get through it by himself. Percy was confident that he could also clear it without help.
Working together, it shouldn’t be impossible to climb a little higher still. Technically, the sixth wave of the Green level should be on par with the toughest waves that he’d been able to clear in the lower grades, but he had a host that could actually contribute as much as him this time.
Drawing runes was effortless for either of them due to the trait, and they could also infuse meaning together into the enchantments, allowing them to tackle much larger unit cells.
“Cube. I want you to log us both in this time, and count the next challenges under both of our names. Let’s start with the sixth wave of the ‘magiscript’ challenge, Green level. User IDs: 004527945512 and WANDERER,” he said, pressing his palm on the floor.
“Authorization granted. Choice confirmed. Wave begins in 18 rits.”
***
“Congratulations! Wave 8 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 8000. Current balance: 259743.”
“Awarded credits: 8000. Current balance: 67129.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
‘Alright, I think this is going to be the last one,’ Gabe said.
‘Probably.’ Percy nodded.
Two hundred runes was already crazy. Based on how the most recent batch of waves had scaled, they didn’t even need to start the next one to guess that it would require at least two hundred and fifty – maybe as many as three hundred. Even with practically infinite time at their disposal, producing such a complex enchantment was out of the question, despite their combined ability.
‘Have you come up with any ideas on how we’re going to clear the rest of the combat challenges? Two more waves of each are going to be hard,’ the jellyfish-person said, moving to a different topic.
‘A few, but nothing too crazy,’ Percy reluctantly admitted. ‘Unlike the last time, you’re not a novice with your air and light affinities, so I don’t think I’ll be able to help you use them any better. That doesn’t leave me with that many trump cards.’
Percy still had a connection to his main body, but phantom mana wasn’t going to help much. It was a grade too low, and even the quantity would be reduced as the original funnelled the resource through the cord. Besides, even if it had been Green, the pure component was way too weak to scratch Blue golems without Reinforcement, and the constructs were completely immune to soul damage, making Percy’s mana types uniquely disadvantaged in the Vault.
Sending some soul-freezing ice mana might be a better idea, but Gabe had no resistance to either of its components, so letting the deadly resource flow through his soul would probably hurt more than it helped.
‘Well, what did you have in mind?’ the native asked.
‘My domain and magiscript. It’s not much, but I was able to accomplish a lot with those on Thess’kala. Juicing up your spells enough to clear a couple of extra waves shouldn’t be out of the question,’ Percy explained.
Obviously, he couldn’t access his main body’s willpower through the connection, and Gabe was just a Green, so he didn’t have a domain of his own like Kassorith. However, a two-cored Green with Synchronization was about as close as one could get to Blue without advancing – unless they had the Dance too, which he didn’t want to use.
Percy and Gabe’s minds weren’t in perfect sync, so fully awakening the man’s willpower shouldn’t be possible, but they should be able to produce a Nascent domain far stronger than Duwa’s with minimal effort. It wouldn’t be too useful by itself, but it would let Percy weave a few enchantments into his host’s attacks.
‘We’ll keep it simple. I’ll use my willpower and your light mana to brand a few heat runes onto the golems or the room. It shouldn’t take more than that to raise the lethality of your spells enough…’
Gabe already possessed the blessing of heat, so his mana was far hotter than it had any right to be. Percy guessed that the light affinity should be uniquely good at instantly drawing intricate runes from afar, so he only needed to give it a little nudge with his willpower and trait.
‘Sounds great. Do you want to try it a few times in the lower waves before we get ourselves killed?’ Gabe asked, caution seeping into his voice.
Percy couldn’t exactly blame him. The last time they’d attempted new challenges together, Gabe had ended up blinded and physically impaired for years. That said, they were both stronger and far more experienced, and Percy even had a lot of divine life mana to heal his host with if things went south. However, he ultimately shrugged, having no issue with taking things slowly.
***
“Congratulations! Wave 11 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 11000. Current balance: 270743.”
“Awarded credits: 11000. Current balance: 78129.”
***
“Congratulations! Wave 12 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 12000. Current balance: 282743.”
“Awarded credits: 12000. Current balance: 90129.”
“Wave 12 is a special milestone. Bonus reward is available. Please voice your request. NOTE: Bonus reward is limited to the Green grade.”
***
“Congratulations! Wave 11 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 11000. Current balance: 293743.”
“Awarded credits: 11000. Current balance: 101129.”
***
“Congratulations! Wave 12 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”
“Awarded credits: 12000. Current balance: 305743.”
“Awarded credits: 12000. Current balance: 113129.”
“Wave 12 is a special milestone. Bonus reward is available. Please voice your request. NOTE: Bonus reward is limited to the Green grade.”
“Convert them to Blue rewards and keep them for now,” Percy said.
“Evaluating request…”
“Evaluation complete. Choice confirmed. User ‘Percy’ has 5 bonus rewards pending. User ‘Gabriel’ has 1 bonus reward pending.’
Gabe exhaled hard, plopping down on the floor. Percy wasn’t faring any better, the last few weeks having taken their toll on both of them. At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel excited.
They’d actually done it!
It had been about fifteen months since he returned to the Vault using Cassiel’s body, and he’d spent every single second productively. Thankfully, this was the last challenge he’d have to clear for a very long time. He was tempted to start browsing through the Blue rewards right away, though there was something else he had to think about first.
‘Over three hundred thousand credits… This is getting ridiculous.’
This was an entire order of magnitude more than he’d intended to earn during this trip. He hadn’t expected that the seal-crafting books would have forced him to possess Gabe and Tlaloc and attempt the Green or Blue challenges, nor that his friend would have grown so capable since their last collaboration.
Needless to say, Percy was struggling to find things to buy. He could still burn through his entire balance in an hour if he really wanted, but it would have to be mostly on junk. There weren’t that many resources left that would greatly help him or his people.
This was the kind of wealth that even Blue residents of the Vault had a hard time amassing. Even if they did, they had to be either Green-borns or extremely talented Yellow-borns to even reach that grade, meaning that Metatron would have already started pampering them at that point.
Since they wouldn’t be concerned with their survival and the titan wouldn’t spare any expense to strengthen them, it was mostly the bonus rewards that enticed them to keep going. There simply weren’t that many things that required such ridiculous amounts of credits.
‘Alright. I suppose I don’t have to spend everything just for the sake of it. I’ll throw bunch on additional runecrafting books or exotic spells and hold onto the rest in case I come up with something during my next visit.’
Either way, there wasn’t much left to do during this trip. He and Gabe just had to browse through the Blue rewards, pick what they wanted and trade their affinity-changing treasures if they found one with enough uses left.
After that, Percy would finally ask Metatron what he wanted to talk about, before bidding the artificial world farewell for what he hoped would be a very long time…
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