It has been a couple hours since Neo began his new life as an assault drone, the waves of Orcs are finally slowing down. The Orcs that came through have been steadily growing stronger, some of them could even withstand the explosion from his bullets if they had some distance. He even saw one of them swim rapidly through the lava pool, that definitely got his heart racing. He immediately fired a couple of extra shots to kill that spawn of Satan. He has also been improving his constructs as the wave continues, tightening the weave and making the threads smaller and denser. He even got a couple levels to his Mana manipulation, so he decided to take a look at his status and distribute his stat points. Knowing this system, there would probably be a super strong boss monster at the end of the wave.
Status sheet
Neo Wagner
Level: 37
Traits: Thermonuclear Mana Heart, Mana Eater.
Attribute
Str: 3
Agi: 5
Con: 3
Int: 23
Wis: 12
Free: 180
Titles:
Little Boy Survivor
Cooked Bacon
Vlad is Chump
Beloved by Mana
Skills (1/5):
Mana manipulation lvl 37
He has a lot of free points saved up, he hasn't got the time to use it before the wave slowed down. He chose to focus on his physical stat first, they came across as too low for his taste so he added some points until they all reach a satisfying ten. He didn't feel anything different after that, his arms still looked like a soft noodle. But when he pressed his muscles with his fingertips, that's when he could feel the difference. His muscles had never been that hard, even when he flexed it. That used up 19 free attribute points, he still had 161 free points left. He should probably use them on his mental stats, his build and skill is more inclined towards being a mage. There's no use increasing the physical stat too much, he wouldn't be able to use it anyway. He had never even punched anyone in his life, he'd probably broke his wrist if he tried. The question is how much should he put in either stat, maybe keep the ratio he naturally has?. About twice as much Intelligence compared to Wisdom, but he has no idea what they actually did. So he chose to add ten points each to see what happened. He added ten points to Int first to observe the effect, the most noticeable effect is the weight that is placed on his mind from constantly focusing on multiple things reducing significantly. That alone made it a worthwhile stat to invest in, another effect is more subtle. He has to really pay attention to see it, it seems to affect his mana density. Making it more potent and deadly. After making sure there's no other effects that he could feel, he added ten points to Wis this time. As with the Int stat, the first effect is obvious. It increases the size of his mana reservoir, he didn't see the use in that so far. But the other effect is way more useful, it also affected his mana. Somehow making it more fluid and easier to control.
He settled on using the remaining points on his mental stats while keeping the natural ratio that he has. He took a final look at his Status Screen.
Status sheet
Neo Wagner
Level: 37
Traits: Thermonuclear Mana Heart, Mana Eater.
Attribute
Str: 10
Agi: 10
Con: 10
Int: 130
Wis: 66
Free: 0
Titles:
Little Boy Survivor
Cooked Bacon
Vlad is Chump
Beloved by Mana
Skills (1/5):
Mana manipulation lvl 37
That was a lot more math than he expected to encounter in an apocalypse. The effects of the attributes increase is a lot more noticeable this time, he could now take control of each propeller's speed individually at the same time. The impact on his mana is the most dramatic, the Int increase made his mana extremely dense. There is almost a weight to it now, it would probably influence his mana control if it wasn't for his Wis stat. The increase to his reservoir is also significant, but he couldn't see the use yet.
He made a new bullet, this time leveraging his new attributes to make it a whole new level of deadly. The weave is incredibly fine, he almost couldn't see the thread that made up the construct. It looked like a solid metal that has been heated up to glowing orange, the dense core is the scariest part. He couldn't feel any seams at all, there was barely any flow to it. It's just rotating slowly along with the outer shell. The sheer energy inside made him hesitate to even fire it, he is not sure if 2 km is enough distance to keep him safe from the blast radius.
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He put it aside for now and focused on the portals, they are actually shrinking. Maybe his luck is turning up and the wave is actually ending, he didn't believe that for a second. There's no way this dumb system would let that happen. But as each portal kept shrinking down he began to doubt his hypothesis, but just in case he was right he made a few more of the new bullets and increased his altitude. Five of the portals have actually closed down without accident, but just as the final portal is about to close. A pair of armored hands suddenly appears, holding the edge of the portal. It actually widened the portal a little, just enough for the Orc to step through. This orc is only slightly taller than the other orcs, but it's actually wearing a pitch black full plated armor. The lava that he stepped on is actually solidified on contact with his feet, not frozen or cooled down. It just became solid, like his feet are gripping all the molecules and keeping it still. It must be some sort of skill, he seems to only carry a single weapon. A simple longsword on his hip that he drew with his right hand, there's no ornaments on the blade. It's simply a weapon of war.
The orc pointed the sword up towards him as a challenge, so he obliged and fired one of his new bullets at the orc. In response the orc took a step forward with his left leg and took a stance, he pointed his sword upwards slightly to his right. Gripping his sword with both hands, he took a step forward while slashing his sword downward on a slight diagonal trajectory. A thin moon shaped energy emerges from the tip of his sword, moving and expanding with incredible speed towards the bullet. The moon blade cuts straight through the middle of the bullet, not slowing down at all. It went on for hundreds of meters, splitting the earth in two.
Neo expected the two half of the bullet to explode immediately, but it didn't. The bullet just continued to hit the small hill behind the orc, it entered the earth and created a couple of holes. But there's no explosion, the sword slash manages to negate the explosive somehow. That was such a bullshit skill, how was he supposed to beat that thing?. He was pretty sure the orc could do that slash a lot faster if it wanted to, that was just a demonstration. He shook his head to get rid of his negative thoughts, if the bullet failed then that just means he is not using enough mana. He could always make a bigger one, so that's what he would try. But firstly he got rid of all his constructs except for the four engines, he even reduced the size of the engines to about half its size. Compacting the mana to make it stronger and adding two propellers to each engine. The orc had just demonstrated that he could cut through his densest construct, distance and evasion is the only way he could win this. If the orc managed to get close then he was done, any attack that could potentially hurt the orc would kill him too. He started off the fight by creating tens of bullets at the same time, he didn't bother with the barrel to help his aim. He just kept throwing the bullets to the orc while constantly creating more, he also began ramping up his engines to increase his speed while flying backwards. Keeping an eye on the orc, he saw that the orc was actually running on air to close the distance. The orc is also constantly sending sword slashes towards the bullets that are heading towards him, cutting most of them in half and negating the explosive. Some of the bullets went past the orc and hit the ground, those do explode. Creating a distinct background noise that he could feel on his chest.
The orc is gaining ground on him, getting closer and closer with no sign of slowing down. If anything the orc is actually speeding up, destroying anything in its path with its sword slashes. He has to change his strategy, his bullets are clearly not working. He kept up the bombardment to keep the orc occupied, he held up his right hand and a mana disc was formed slowly. Increasing in diameter and rotation speed as seconds passed, he needed to keep the construct near him for maximum control. Once it reached the maximum size he could manage, which was about 5 meters in diameter. He threw it down after sending all the remaining bullets he kept in reserve, slowing down the orc and occupying its attention in hopes of sneaking the disc in. The orc creates a storm of slashes that obliterates all the bullets, then he somehow manages to spot the disc in time to send a slash in its way. But the bullets has done its job, it manages to distract the orc long enough to get the disc close. There's a reason he needed to keep the disc close when he built it, not to mention its relatively small size. As soon as the energy slash hit the edge of the disc, it shattered into hundreds of sharp triangular pieces. The orc tried to dodge to the side, but he had been running forward at a very high speed. The storm of triangular blades hit the orc, every time one of them hit, the center of the triangle exploded and sent three smaller triangles as shrapnel. The smaller triangles would also explode, destroying the armor of the orc from the inside if it managed to penetrate.
Neo was holding his breath as the series of explosions happened, he never stopped flying backwards to increase his distance. As the explosions died down, the notification that he was waiting for never appeared. That could only mean one thing, he really wanted to say some bad words now. How could anything survive that kind of damage?. A stupid orc Swordsman apparently. Neo didn't wait for the smoke to clear, he began to craft another construct. Way larger than anything he had ever made, it's in the shape of a spear. Spanning over 200 meters in length and two meters in diameter, it looked comically large while he held it over his shoulder. He didn't do anything fancy this time, he just channeled a ton of mana while compressing the core as much as possible. Hitting the limit when his mana on the core goes eerily still, the only trick he added was a segment on the connection between the spear tip and the shaft. He shot the spear forward while sharply increasing the speed of his engines, he didn't want to be anywhere near when that thing exploded.
As the smoke cleared, he could see the figure of the orc. He is obviously injured, his armor is in tatters and smoke is still rising from his body. But he was still holding his sword steady, there's no shakes that Neo could see from this distance. When the spear gets near the orc, he enters another stance and sends another energy slash forward. But Neo has prepared for this eventuality, as soon as the slash touched the tip of the spear it immediately exploded. But most of the blast is directed backward toward the shaft, stripping the mana shell that enveloped the solid core. The core instantly became unstable, a mushroom cloud rose into the clouds while a light brighter than the sun shone from the center. Neo desperately pushed his engines to the limit, increasing his altitude to escape the shockwave that would surely follow. He also built layers after layers of spherical shields that cover him completely, there's no window this time. He might have overdone the spear, he didn't think the explosion would be that big. A notification he had been waiting for finally showed itself, he wasn't sure what else he could do if the orc survived through that explosion. After a few seconds had passed he stopped climbing and opened up his shields, he took a look at the explosion site. There was still a giant mushroom shaped smoke that rose high enough to touch the sky, the cartoons didn't lie after all. It really did look like a mushroom.
Everything around the explosion was flattened to the ground, all the dead trees had turned to ashes. There was a massive ring of clear sky where the clouds dare not enter, the perpetual white snowfall was finally lifted. All that was left was black and grey. As Neo flew closer to ground zero, he lifted his hand to catch a grey snow. He took a closer look and realized it was not a snowflake, just more ashes. Like everything around him. For the first time since he entered this trial, he realized how lonely he was. He hasn't spoken a single word since he got here, he wondered if he would eventually forget how to. He missed his family, his dependable brother that always got his back. His caring mom that always told the most fascinating bedtime stories, who patiently taught him how to read despite all the challenges. Especially his nerdy dad that showed him what true passion looks like, he still wondered if he made it into the tutorial. He cried as he flew away from the devastation he brought. Hoping that the joy of flying would chase away his sadness, but it was not to be. He flew away until all that he could see was a familiar field of snow and dead trees, then he landed down on the thick white snow. Laying down on the melting snow, as he cried himself to sleep.
