Chapter 42
Unlike transfer scrolls that emit magical energy and have these whimsical holographic projections of the spell, adding the allure of mystery and enchantment, but it's all for show; energy wasn't designed to look that way, but in a game certain spells are designed to look a certain way for the player's enjoyment. The developers wanted to create a unique and immersive experience for players when casting spells in the game.
So even when the tower came real, most magical spells have this magical and visually appealing appearance, but Siglorr Bouldergrove, a dwarf, learned this spell from an elf and was truly beyond their limitation. They are all developing their personality based on their interaction with one another and the situation they are in.
Dwarven races were programmed to hate the Elven, as it was known throughout most mythological stories. However, Siglorr Bouldergrove defied these stereotypes by learning a new type of spell from an elf, showcasing the potential for development and change.
It is truly incomprehensible that after all the years that Dane and my team spent creating this universe, only those ancient gods showed their strength and made it a reality. The Arcane Crusade game is changing, and those gods genuinely went above what was typical.
And this Dane emerged near the cursed forest territory; he was about twenty feet in the air; his landing was guided by Ward as it extended its smoke-like body into a flexible whip and anchored itself to the ground below. The density and composition of its burning amber smoke form was undetectable from afar; the tendril coming out of Dane's body was so natural-looking that another person might see them afar as ordinary black leather whips, rather than as burning remnants of a burning amber coal infused with hot black smoke.
Miko, being an owl, was already flying above Dane as he slowly descended as Miko scanned the area where the salamanders were gathered. Miko told Dane that their targets were 100 feet from their location; there is a large rocky terrain. Dane could hear people talking from afar; these might be the nomadic tribes that Adam Roughbrook was part of. These were the same people he met when he entered the cursed cave a few days ago. It only means their tribe settled near the opening path into the only part of the toxic forest that is being protected by the natural wind flow, protecting them from the toxins coming inside the forest.
The scenario of this tribe was just a footnote, but it seems like the other residents of the tower were also trying to find a way to survive, not knowing they just changed their fate. Dane smiled and proceeded with the task at hand.
"The teleportation magic spell that Siglorr used is very practical indeed; it's somewhat similar to what I got from the criminal player Robert Duller Bounty , his burst teleportation; he just lacks mana to teleport even farther than what he used to."
"Anyway, he's gone now, and his skill has been incorporated into the formless armor."
"Miko, can I still use burst teleportation?"
"Master Dane, all six skills were seen as anomalies; the main system has forced these skills to be downgraded and integrated into the formless armor. Burst teleportation may still be possible, but it will likely have limitations compared to how Robert Duller Bounty originally used it. The main system's decision to downgrade these skills was to maintain balance and prevent any further anomalies."
"The downgraded skill is now called blink…"
"The distance is much shorter; using this skill would only transfer you to a different striking position."
"But leveling this skill can regain its real potential and possibly unlock additional abilities that were previously restricted."
"The six skills you obtain from the criminal players coincidentally, three of those skills that I fused together, were the trigger to access the formless armor, connecting it to the god remnant substory."
"The game we created has endless possibilities and outcomes. I just didn't expect those six player criminals; three of them have the branch skill on trigger that scenario; the odds are truly remarkable."
"Master Dane, what are your plans for the salamander quest?"
"We are going to eliminate them swiftly and precisely, like what I did with Tree Stomp, but this time I will cast Lightning, but I need both of you on this, please. Attack the salamander outside my strike range and increase the poison paralyzing."
"We will harvest as much as we can, so we might as well transport all the salamanders in the area."
"Master Dane, the biggest prey is 1,075 kilograms, measures 20 feet, and has the potential to provide us with a substantial amount of resources once killed."
"Let's move forward; Siglorr will be delighted."
Dane ran toward the direction where the Salamanders were located. The jagged, huge rocks that were scattered in the lower part of the long mass next to the forest were once a small lake, but because of the drastic change of the landscape as the Dark Elf residing inside the forest cultivated the toxic plants and made it flourish to their own benefit, changing the constitution of the outside area. The once serene lake was now dried up and barren, with only remnants of its former glory, the huge rock formation that was once under clear water.
Before lush trees and vegetation surrounded the lake, now only dead and twisted trees remain, a stark contrast to the vibrant life that once thrived in this area. The toxic plants have taken over, creating an eerie atmosphere that repels all but the most determined of explorers.
The location was abandoned by the dark elf that resides inside the forest. They all expected this to happen. After close inspection of the dried lake, Dane saw dozens of salamanders resting in the sunken landmass. The crater has different elevations from five feet going to the deepest part, and that was roughly twenty feet deep.
The sun shadow, even at the highest point, still created a shadow cascading in the deepest part of the dried lake where his prey was resting, undisturbed by the presence of humans. Dane approached the very center of their nest as he swiftly walked into the heart of the crater, carefully avoiding stepping on anything that might disturb them.
Dane was light on his feet , his breath steady as he moved closer to the center of the crater. Each step he took, Ward divided it. Main form, and all ten of these venomous snakes were able to bite and deliver poison in the sleeping creatures, while Miko flew ahead of Dane and used her paralytic needles to ensure his master task would be perfect.
The sun's rays beat down on his back, casting a long shadow behind him as he crept closer to his target. thing was as he prepared to capture one for his research. The dark elf's departure had created an eerie silence in the forest, adding to the mysterious atmosphere of the abandoned location.
Siglorr Bouldergrove was waiting outside a small tent that he placed near the location where he teleported Dane as they were neatly surrounded by a few trees and tall wild grass. The location was far away from the crate. Dane created as many people, including players, investigated the flashes of light a few hours ago. Siglorr took out his last gold coin and wanted to hired a pixie messenger the following day , requesting his clan relatives to help him with his financial needs
and He wanted to inform his family that his current situation, the sack twin bag that was in his possession, was tied to the pole that was holding his tent upright inside at the very center of the tent with a height of six feet and a diameter of five feet. While he prepared to light a campfire out his temporary shelter, he was prepared to wait in the same spot for as long as he could until his new partner came back.
The food he had in his traveling bag was enough for a week; he was disappointed when nobody accepted his quest. He wasn't hypocritical with the reward, but considering he was already low in funds, he could only pay as much. He had spent four days waiting for somebody to accept the task , but to his dismay, he was rejected over and over again. Until he was able to meet, Dane tightly held his last remaining coins and bet everything on Dane.
He entered his tent when the receiving sack bag that was tied to the tent pole suddenly expanded, and the sheer weight of what was transported broke the tent pole holding his tent. is suddenly collapsed, and Siglorr's eyes widened in shock as he realized the magnitude of what had just been delivered. The contents of the receiving sack bag were far beyond what he had expected, and he knew that his decision to bet everything on Dane may have just paid off.
Siglorr wasn't able to see what Dane actually did; he assumed his main skill was just fire, but Siglorr was wrong in thinking that Dane's abilities were limited and could only cast fire bullets. Dane bombarded the lake crate with a low lightning attack skill with a hit damage of 10. The continuous casting didn't give the 70 adult salamanders time to react , and even if a few of them were able to notice the attack, Miko's paralyzing needles and wards poison made sure that none of the salamanders could retaliate. Each lightning strike that came out of his hands consumed 25 mana points; Dane just cast twenty-two times to eradicate the 70 adult monsters with a combined level of 630 in total, and they died without a single one being able to fight back. The hunt was over in a matter of minutes, with Dane emerging triumphant against the formidable adult salamanders.
The sack bag was bigger than his tent. The three-foot-two-tall , muscular, bearded man was nearly crushed to death; he was filled with overwhelming joy as he crawled away and inspected the transportation sack bag in a frantic manner. He trembled and screamed in joy because the dead remains of the salamanders inside the magical sack bag were all intact; the monsters were not decapitated or severely burned to death, rendering their body parts nearly useless to salvage.
He quickly took out a gold coin and ran out of his fallen tent and summoned out in the open a pixie messenger while waving a few gold coins above his head. As this was the common method in hiring a pixie, and that is to lure them out into the open and reveal themselves as gold; it was their biggest weakness, and they were easily bribed with it. A few pixie messengers appeared in a flash of light, ready to deliver the urgent message to the recipient.
Siglorr paid the fastest pixie with two gold coins to travel overnight to fetch his entire family that was located at the abandoned mines behind one of the mages towers southeast past the tower gate exit. Siglorr told the pixie to tell his family to get all of their tools. As soon as the message was given, the pixie grabbed the 2 gold coins with each tiny but long hand and arm and tucked the gold coins under its arm, and with a salivating grin , the six-inch-tall cute winged humanoid creature suddenly changed, as it was consumed with greed and flew like a raging bull toward the destination.
While this was happening, Dane was watching the sky as the sun set and wondering if the timing of meeting Siglorr was another coincidence or if there was a greater force at play guiding their paths to cross. He plans to hire a transport guild to obtain a battle wagon or earn enough gold coins to buy a teleportation scroll toward the fallen. city of Lúthien,
But personally witnessing Siglorr Bouldergrove's newly developed teleportation skill, Dane thinks it was a sign that they were meant to meet. Learning the enchantment language of the spell, Siglorr was much better and more efficient than hiring a transport guild or purchasing a teleportation scroll. It seemed as though fate had brought them together for a reason, and Dane was eager to break the spell language down and copy it.
"Miko, is there a way to copy the magic language Siglorr used?"
"I ALREADY OBTAINED THE INFORMATION, MASTER DANE."
"CONGRATULATIONS. UPON STUDYING, THE SPELL LANGUAGE THAT MASTER SIGLORR USED IS RELATED TO THE TELEPORTATION SKILL YOU CURRENTLY HAVE."
"WOULD YOU LIKE TO INCLUDE THESE ACQUIRED SKILLS INTO YOUR SKILL TREE?"
"A skill tree? Is that what I think it is?"
"YES, MASTER DANE."
"Please proceed, Miko, with the integration of Siglorr's spell language into my skill tree. I am eager to see how it will enhance my teleportation abilities."
"THE NEWLY ACQUIRED SKILL NAME, TRANSMIT WILL NOW BE THE MAIN SKILL WHILE BLINK WILL BE UNDER SUB SKILL BRANCH."
"BLINK, WHICH DOESN'T USE MANA, TRANSMITS SKILL AND CONSUMES MANA ENERGY DEPENDING ON THE DISTANCE."
"RULES OF THE TRANSMIT SPELL AS FOLLOWS: CASTER NEEDS TO SPECIFY DISTANCE AND CARDINAL DIRECTIONS."
"EXAMPLE: THE NUMBER OF LONGITUDE AND LATITUDE."
"VISUAL TAGGING , OR MEMORY RECALL, DOESN'T APPLY."
"DOING SO SKILL NEEDS TO BE UPGRADED."
"So I have used all of my five skill slots?"
"NOT NECESSARILY MASTER DANE, LET ME ADD FURTHER INFORMATION ON YOUR QUESTION."
"BEFORE THE MAIN TOWER SYSTEM RESTRICTED AND CORRECTED THE ANOMALY THAT WAS RELATED TO YOUR PERSONAL SYSTEM,"
"WAS ABLE TO START THE PROCESS OF CREATING A SEPARATE, MORE STRUCTURED PROCESS , DERIVED FROM THE SUBSYSTEM THAT CAME FROM THE MAIN SOURCE,"
"A WAS ABLE TO CREATE AND FINISH THE BRANCHING SYSTEM , SIMILAR TO WHAT MOST PROGRAMMERS USUALLY DO."
"THE BASE CODE INFRASTRUCTURE YOU CREATED BEFORE WAS THE FOUNDATION FOR THE NEW SKILL TREE YOU CURRENTLY HAVE NOW."
"THAT'S WHY YOU NEED TO PRIORITIZE AND CHOOSE WISELY WHICH SKILLS TO UPGRADE."
"EVEN IF YOU GAIN A HUNDRED SKILLS, IT WILL BE REGULATED, AND PART OF THE FIVE SLOTS AT THE MAIN SOURCE WILL BE YOUR PRIME CORE.
"QUALITY OVER QUANTITY IS KEY IN OPTIMIZING YOUR BRANCHING SYSTEM FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY."
"PRIME CORE HAS FIVE SKILL SLOTS; THE FIRST SLOT HAS BEEN OCCUPIED BY THE FORMLESS ARMOR THAT HAS SIX BRANCH SUBSKILLS. THESE ARE
TRANSMIT = SUB SKILL IS BURST TELEPORTATION = MINOR SKILL IS BLINK
GOLEM CREATION = SUB SKILL NONE
NEEDLE PROJECTILES = SUB SKILL NONE
EXPANDABLE MANA APPENDAGE = SUB SKILL NONE
DARK SMOKE = SUB SKILL NONE
POISON AND PARALYZE = SUB SKILL NONE
"ALL SIX SKILLS CAN BE USED INDIVIDUALLY OR IN COMBINATION TO ENHANCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR BRANCHING SYSTEM."
"YOU CAN USE DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS THAT CAN HELP YOU DISCOVER THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO UTILIZE PRIME CORE'S SKILLS.
"SECOND SLOT ATTACK SPELL, MAIN SKILL IS ELEMENT CONTROL AND CREATION."
"UNDER THE SUB BRANCH ARE LIGHTNING WIDE BURST STRIKE AND FIRE BULLETS."
"THIRD IS THE HEALING SKILL SUB BRANCH; CURRENTLY, NONE CAN HEAL WOUNDS AND CONSUME MANA UPON USE."
"FORTH SLOT MANA CORE ENGINE, CONNECTED TO PRIME CORE AS AN ADDITIONAL SOURCE OF MANA REGENERATION. SUB SKILL CURRENTLY NONE."
"FIFTH SLOT CURRENTLY NOT IN USE"
"Having a tree skill was within the premise of my plan, but obtaining it this early is much better.
"The skill tree can be obtained when a player reaches level 100 for his second awakening, and the seed of the skill tree can finally manifest."
Dane recalled in the past that seven players were able to obtain the skill tree; he wonders if these people were still alive when the tower became real. The current strongest players were at level 70 even with the distorted time flow Dane assumed to experience was unprecedented. As his assumption of sleeping for one year was wrong, as he now knows he was to remain inside a cocoon for five years and not one year.
But even with this mistake or setback, the players that were able to enter the tower could only reach level 70 even after five years and were unable to progress further. Dane realized that the challenges within the tower that his team created were incredibly difficult when they came to reality.
And the fact of having one life prevents players from advancing beyond level 70 despite the extended time period. While Dane was still seated at the center of the dried-up lake, the ward was busy, as it was able to gain a certain amount of training time to change its appearance from just a typical-looking snake to shapeshifting tactical appendages with sharp, dagger-like tips. The maximum number Ward could manifest with a range of twenty feet was ten; the shorter the distance, the more tentacles Ward could produce. Using just two tentacles each, they can extend up to 50 feet, and the single use of the ward snake form golem has a reach of 100 feet or 30 meters.
While Dane was resting and was immersed in conversation with Miko, Anika, the same young woman that saw Dane walking and entering the cursed forest a few days ago, was silently observing him from afar. She saw what the mask hunter did to the 70 adult salamanders; she was shocked seeing nonstop casting of wide lightning attacks coming out of his body.
Adam Roughbrook Dautgher Anika was born unrelated to the random characters NPC generated by the main system; she and millions like her were born in a natural manner. Meaning she was autonomous. She had her own thoughts, feelings, and actions that were not controlled by any external force. Anika was a unique individual in a world full of pre-programmed entities, making her presence even more intriguing to those around her.
This development eluded Danes, as he had always believed that all beings in the world were controlled by the main system. Those who were conceived from their biological parents after the old gods copied the tower game and everything inside, these individuals were not bound to the law the tower had implemented. These include all the monsters and mythical beings.
Dane already knew he was being watched, but the person had no killing intent. Instead, he just let her be as Dane finalized his new plan to reach his main task. He recalled the distance of the mountain ridge separating the empire of Solnara Cererindur from the west region where the
small city of Lúthien was located.
This city was once part of Solnara Cererindur care, but after the aristocrat family that established the city has fallen out of grace because of its distance and raw resources, it became an independent entity on its own, arrogance and pride driving its inhabitants to forge their own path. Sadly, the drake that was resting in the mountain ridge near Lúthien awoke from its slumber, and when I awoke and evolved, it invaded the city and built a nest on its territory. With numerous monsters following it.
"The mountain ridge is 800 kilometers, 40 days of travel, direction midway between west and northwest, 292° 30′ clockwise from north."
"The mana consumption is 3200 points; that's a lot. My current mana capacity is 3000;
Having 200 negative mana will severely affect me in some manner.
"The teleportation skill I used to go from country X to the tower continent was an anomaly too."
"YES, IT WAS MASTER DANE , BUT WHY DIDN'T THE GATEKEEPERS STOP ME FROM ENTERING BEFORE?"
"SADLY MASTER DANE, I DONT HAVE THE ANSWER,"
"IN MY OPINION MASTER DANE, I THINK THE REASON YOU WERE ABLE TELEPORT FROM COUNTRY X TO THE TOWER MIGHT BE RELATED WHEN WE TRIGGERED THE NAMELESS GOD STORY LINE."
"But I was able to use it three times."
"REMEMBER THAT THE STORYLINE CHANGED AND SOMEWHAT FAST FORWARDED AND BRANCHED OUT TO THE GOD REMNANTS WHEN YOU TOOK AND ABSORBED THE MANA VAIN INTO YOUR BODY."
"AND AFTER THE TOWER MAIN SYSTEM WAS FINALLY ABLE TO RECOGNIZE AND CONFIRM THE OUTSIDE ANOMALY ENTERING ITS TERRITORY, IT HAD THE AUTHORITY TO RESTRICT YOUR ABILITY TO ALIGN WITH THE TOWER REGULATION BECAUSE YOU ARE WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF ITS JURISDICTION."
"This may explain why I was only able to use it three times before being restricted."
Luckily, the mana engine replenishes my mana at a fast rate; many players with high assessment skills can see my mana; I might as well use the mana ring distorter Siglorr gave me."
"Master Dane, it's activated. Are we proceeding with the use of the transfer skill?"
"I have calculated the distance and created a backstory with our sudden appearance in the Evolve Drake hunt,"
"The news about the sudden appearance of the Lazarus clan's unknown benefactor was a hot topic when I was at the association clinic. I will use that."
"AH! YOU MEAN THE LAZARUS BENEFACTOR,"
" I wanted to see the look on Siglorr face right now but leaning the Transfer skill on a huge blessing, I no longer need to earn gold coins to hire a transportation guild."
" I can now go there directly and confront Evolve Drake thus opening The Lazarus benefactor backstory that I will introduce ."