Chapter 59: Skalli

Chapter 59: Skalli

“Desert Amphitere, Agility somewhere in the forties, Strength and Fortitude in the thirties, Perception somewhere above fifty, Magic Power and Regen practically nonexistent. Primary weapon is a secondary tongue with a pointed spike at the end that can pierce magically reinforced concrete. No generated loot, but the sharpened tongue is removed upon death and floats before the person who dealt the final blow like all other Event loot.” Isaac slumped and let himself fall on his ass, carelessly tossing the pointy, razor-sharp bone spur into the corner with all the other stuff they’d gained that wasn’t particularly valuable or fragile. Well, he made sure no one ended up skewered, but that was about the extent of his caution.

“And now we’re done.” he sighed “Every creature from Tier 1 to 4 as well as all Tier 5 but one fully analyzed, including Stats, loot, abilities and weaknesses, all available in an understandable format. Finally.”

The fights themselves hadn’t been that bad, but constantly doing so, while paying full attention to every little move their foe made, all with precisely zero foreknowledge about its capabilities ... that had worn even on Isaac. He was no stranger to summoning and fighting for hours on end, but that usually included some downtime while his mana recovered. That, or he was simply going through the motions while he killed things summoned by other people to level them up in turn, but that was pretty easy too. Just doing the same motion over and over again.

But here, they were cycling out the summoner and whomever was in charge of crowd control to maximize the use of their mana regeneration and he had to pay attention to all the monsters instead of being able to effectively switch his brain of while he did the same thing over and over again.

The only reason no one had gotten seriously hurt was that they outpowered the monsters by a significant degree. Raul, Amy and Patrick all had a vast library of copied [Skill] that could exploit any possible elemental weakness, Karl could not only twist the concrete that surrounded the monsters on all directions but also fix any damage the room took, so they didn’t have to hold back. Then there was Isaac, with a blade that could crack practically any defense.

With a lineup like that, the nutty [Alchemist] that had come back with Patrick and Professor Bishop with his lifetime of hunting experience and the high levelled [Skills] related to it hadn’t even had much of an impact.

“I suppose the real question is if we continue to, say, Skalli?” Bishop asked “What is that thing, anyway?”

“It’s a wolf from Norse Mythology. In some versions, it’s the one who eats the sun, in others, that’s Fenrir. Point is, according to myth and legend, this thing is meant to be apocalyptically powerful.” Isaac responded “It’s weird that it’s only Tier 5 despite all that, that’s for sure.”

“It’s summoning cost is only 250, that’s the minimum for Tier 5, right?” Bishop asked.

“Assuming that summoning cost is a measure of danger level would be dangerous even if the [System] wasn’t created with ill intent.” Patrick argued.

“And making those kinds of assumptions with regards to the [System] would be presumptuous.” Chandler threw in, not even bothering to raise his head from where he was examining some monster’s insides “It’s done plenty of good and the bad it’s brought can all be traced back to it being poorly handled. I’m not going to deny that it’s incredibly dangerous and the ‘evil [System]’ idea does have some merit, but let’s not assign evil intentions without proof.”

“But assuming something is safe for lack of proof that it isn’t is a fast way to the grave.” Bishop said sternly.

“The thing is, if it were that easy to lay a trap, humanity would already be extinct.” Bailey corrected “If it were possible to summon a monster that strong with barely any mana, then we’d all already be neck deep in dragons, sea serpents and krakens. In all situations we’ve seen, there’s a correlation between summoning cost and power, there has to be a reason for that. Assuming the evil [System] hypothesis is one hundred percent correct, wouldn’t we be able to summon dragons for no cost and the first starry eyed dreamer to called upon one, we’d all be dead by now. There’d be no reason to put a single trap into the summoning system if it were possible to turn the entire [System] into a trap.”

“So, just assume that everything is safe? That seems overly risky.” Raul muttered.

“No, but true safety is an illusion anyway.” Bishop scoffed “We’ll be as careful as the situation warrants it, but assigning attributes such as being a trap to monsters at a whim isn’t productive.”

“It’s not random, though. The name indicates its strength is at an apocalyptic level, even if its mana cost indicates otherwise. But the correlation between mana and power is clear. This thing is going to be Tier 5 and slightly more powerful than normal because it’s an Event monster, but it should still be beatable.” Isaac threw in his two cents. He’d normally have been a hell of a lot more careful, but he knew the correlation was indeed true and that breaking the truisms from the other timeline wasn’t possible even in this one.

The mana spent to summon a monster was actually what summoned/created the monster, no one had been precisely sure which it was, but despite that, the mana used was needed. You could not get an apocalypse level enemy for 250 mana. Sure, there were some, like all those bloody Space Elementals that were a supremely bad matchup for basically everyone and therefore quite powerful, but those were the exception. And even they’d sacrificed in exchange for their power. They were utterly immobile, only had a single ability, and if that ability hadn’t been so incredibly versatile as to be useful for offense, defense and general utility, they’d have been well and truly screwed. Overall, there was a little wiggle room to the relation between summoning cost and power, but the variations shown in this Event were just about the full extent of that.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

Meanwhile, fighting an unknown monster in the mid-Tier 5 range was something he’d have been willing to try on his own at this point, never mind with all these people here. Sure, Chandler probably shouldn’t be here for this, but everyone else would be able to hold their own.

And if the wolf didn’t get summoned here and now, he’d probably be doing so later, on his own, but the question at hand wasn’t what he was willing to do, it was what everyone else was willing to do.

“You’ve got the most experience with Tier 5 monsters, what do you think?” Bailey asked, looking straight at Isaac.

“They’re dangerous on a fundamental Level, and have at least one kind of extreme standout ability. High toughness, speed, power, regeneration, and so on. Nasty, but this thing would be at the lower end of Tier 5 given the mana cost, at least outside of the Event. Given that it is a part of the Event, it’ll be a bit stronger, but not extraordinarily dangerous. I reached the Level the Los Angeles Stormheart Gestalt had earlier tonight, which has been the single highest Level monster to date. We can definitely beat it, the question is how many people will end up dead in the process.” he replied.

“I think this is definitely going to have to be a longer discussion.” Bailey loudly announced “Let’s all take five minutes to relax and recover, check the news and then come back to this.”

The group split apart after that, some heading upstairs to go grab something from the gas station five minutes from here, Bailey went right back to calling people on his phone and Raul had the Dwarf Dragon egg lying the palm of his hand, infusing mana into it in the attempt it would hatch.

Isaac just continued to lie there, relaxing and listening to everything that was going on, mostly Amy and Patrick, who were busily checking the news. Campus Wi-Fi didn’t reach down here and you could only check all the various news sites so fast, so they’d gotten creative.

A dozen university laptops had been set up in the closest building and each showed a different news site, with some kind of macro automatically refreshing them every five minutes. That way, all it took to check what was going was one of the three [System Researchers] to cast [Scry] and see a quick overview. If anything required an actual response, someone would go up and do so, otherwise, they could continue as they’d been for the last few hours. Then, every half an hour, Bailey would upload a brief overview of what they’d found out about the monsters, though there was a massive ‘these monsters are more powerful than their tier would indicate, so be fucking careful’ warning at the beginning of the page.

Of course, there wasn’t much information about the loot just yet, that would posted when they’d actually discussed it. Right now, all that particular page on the university website held were a bunch of ‘name, what it looks like, what its stats are like, why it’s really frickin dangerous and should not be summoned’ entries. Still, if the news were any indication, it seemed to be working.

Sure, there were people summoning the monsters and there had been a whole string of nasty incidents that could be directly blamed on the events, but far less than anyone had expected there to be. The promise of other people risking their lives to uncover the secrets of the Event monsters, people who would be done in a few short hours, was enough to stay the hand of most levelheaded people.

People willing to risk it all to be the first to summon a particular Event monster were unlikely to reach the heights needed to summon the truly dangerous crap, thankfully.

Of course, the impressive research progress had resulted in intense media scrutiny and people were camped out right outside their lab ... their old lab. They were currently in the bowels of a construction site, well clear of that place. And since everyone here had passable night vision, there were no visible lights up top, and there was a construction fence around the place anyway.

And when people had inevitably started assuming that they were full of crap because no one was available for a comment, Bailey had sprinted over there, very politely told them to buzz off because he was busy and left in a completely different direction. He was perfectly able to move faster than normal, or even slightly superhuman people would be able to track. Raw stats alone helped, but throwing in the basic enhancements the professor had, his speed was downright blazing.

Then, a new conversation began, one that really interested him. With another sigh, Isaac pushed himself to his feet and sauntered over. Playing tank for literal hours on end, with maybe sixty seconds between each fight, had worn him down mentally, but he was perfectly fine physically.

“Here’s the thing: we need to put this information out there to satisfy people’s need to know what these things look like without having to summon them on their own, but we don’t want to encourage them to try and go for loot belonging to monsters that they aren’t ready to fight yet. I don’t suppose you two have any ideas?” Bailey asked the other two professors.

“I’m guessing simply leaving out the loot is not an option? It would make us look manipulative in the long run, but it might save lives in the short term.” Bishop suggested, prompting Chandler to vehemently shake his head.

The professor stood a full three meters tall, still humanoid, but no one would ever mistake him for actually being a human, not anymore. His internal modifications were significant enough, his entire skeleton having basically become rubber and his organs had been segmented and toughened while also more able to shift past each other, making him effectively invulnerable to crushing blows. Blood and bone marrow had become that of a Hydra, granting him the same regeneration as the serpent monster while a little mechanism borrowed from the Horned Lizard let him launch the toxic liquid at range.

Bone scales that had been outright stolen off Isaac’s ultimate form covered the entire thing, interlocked with metal threads copied off a metal slime the same way rebar strengthened modern buildings.

And then, there were the flaming claws taken off a Jungle King, the original having been a gift from Isaac.

All in all, his Level was only 17 so his Stats weren’t that high, but unless the monster was Level 24 or something, Bailey might even be able to take it on his own. It wouldn’t be guaranteed win by any means, but he was still damn strong.

Karl, Amy, Raul and Patrick had spread out, each ready to rain fire and brimstone on the monster while the two other professors were waiting by the door, ready to run and lock the door behind them, should worse come to worst.

And then, the wolf arrived. Its shoulders were three meters above the ground, the head rising even higher. Its fur was black as night and its eyes were even darker, seeming to suck in the light to the point where it was visible even against the darkness that surrounded it.

It roared and lunged, only to be met with a salvo of devastating spellfire. Freezing blasts, lighting bolts, streams of fire weirdly reminiscent of the venom of a Uraeus serpent. The wolf howled even as it continued to charge, slowed slightly by the attacks, sprinting past Isaac to quickly for him to block it with his body, aiming right for Patrick.

Isaac just gave it a feral grin and stuck out his arm, he could reach that far. It chomped down, drawing blood ... and let go a moment later. [Tools of Terror] let him copy the natural weapons belonging to the monsters whose Aspects he’d slotted, and incredibly toxic blood counted to that purpose.

It staggered briefly, working to try and break down the toxin with its power, a moment that Bailey took to touch Isaac’s shoulder and heal the injury. Streams of fire and fury hammered into it while the ground began to liquefy to try and trap it.

A projected [Far Strike] slashed several times across its flank and Skalli lunged, trying to take his hand off at the wrist, but Isaac just tossed the blade down its gullet and yanked back his hand. The danger seemingly over, it whirled again and charged at the [Mage] group, only to be met with three overlapping barriers, which it promptly crashed into, stopped cold.

Instead of futilely scratching against it, Skalli simply opened its jaws wider than should be possible, and then a vantablack orb manifested right there, obliterating any parts of the barrier it touched, followed by it sucking in more and more of it even further away. Meanwhile, any attack spells from the front began to distort and fly towards it, disappearing on contact.

And then, the wolf stumbled, whined in pain, smoke trailing from its insides and flowing into the orb, and turned back to glance at Isaac. He just stood there, hand open and outstretched towards it.

The stupid thing had swallowed a soulbound weapon. [To Me] was a basic ability belonging to the weapon itself that recalled the weapon back into Isaac’s hand in a straight line. If the guts of a one ton wolf happened to be in the way, oh well, they’d just have to end up getting chopped in half, didn’t they? Oh, and Isaac had also activated the brand new [Starfang] ability, lighting it on fire with a venomous fire that both burned and poisoned its flesh.

Sadly, the wolf wasn’t completely stupid. It whirled, lining up itself so a second later, a blood, gore, and other things he didn’t even want to imagine-covered Old Reliable slapped into Isaac’s hand, still on fire. It was looking slightly warped, but despite all appearances, that thing in its mouth wasn’t a true singularity.

Skalli tried to jump towards him but the leap ended up rather anemic, as it had to first pull itself out of the concrete, which was now far closer to quicksand than anything else.

More and more spells burned through it, electricity causing spells to make its muscles spasm, ice freezing flesh solid, venom necrotizing flesh. The wolf collapsed a moment later, but no kill notification showed up.

Bailey held up a hand and the barrage stopped, his [Skills] letting him tell that the monster was practically already dead, now all they were doing was tearing up valuable materials.

Isaac stepped forward, ready to jump back at a moment’s notice, blade elongating back into its Kriegsmesser form. He lunged, blade glowing orange, and drove it through the skull up to the hilt.

As the wolf stiffened with finality, a beautiful cloak appeared before Isaac. It was a wolf pelt cloak, albeit in the grey color one normally associated with wolves, the fur on top of the head still attached to go on top of the wearer’s head, strongly resembling what a druid might wear in a work of fantasy. It looked cool as hell, though it would make the wearer give off some pretty strong cosplay vibes.

Isaac made the [System Window] visible to everyone.

Cloak of the Ulfhednar

This is a cloak made from the hide of a mystical wolf, empowering the wearer with the fury of that same wolf.

While wearing this cloak, the wearer gains +10 to Perception, +5 to Strength and Agility. It can also bank 100 points of mana that may only be used for transformation Skills.

Earning 5,000 XP while wearing this cloak will make it soulbound (so long as the user does not already have a piece of soulbound equipment, each user may only have one piece of soulbound equipment at a time) and unlock the Ulfhednar (minimum rare for the first Evolution, minimum epic for second Evolution, rarity will be altered and upgraded based on the user’s Class, Skill Level, Aspects and achievements) Class at the next Evolution.

For 100 mana, the form of this cloak may be changed, once unless it is soulbound. If soulbound, it may be repeatedly altered.

“What on Earth is an Ulfhednar?” Chandler asked.

Tossing the cloak over to Bailey, Isaac began to explain.

“I’m sure everyone is familiar with what a berserker is, right? A powerful warrior that fights with the fury of a rabid animal, at least that’s the modern interpretation of it. Historically though, they fought with the fury of bears, or so they said, and the name itself roughly translates to ‘bear-shirt’. An Ulfhednar is the wolf equivalent, though few people other than mythology nerds like myself know it.”

“Whatever it is, the stats on that thing are amazing.” Raul commented.

“Should we try to get one for everyone?” Bishop asked. They’d figured out a while ago that some loot that directly came from the monster’s body, like the Uraeus Venom, dropped with every kill while loot that had to be generated, like the Dwarf Dragon eggs, would only drop the first time a given person summoned the monster. That being said, Isaac suspected things had been set up like that to entice people to summon one of each monster for the guaranteed loot, and that guarantee would be dropped eventually, so everyone would desperately summon to get the same bling the ‘early birds’ had earned. It would be an easy way to counter the researchers trying to diffuse the danger posed by the Event.

But for now, that still meant that they should be able to get one each pretty quickly.

“Let’s get another two and then see what time it is. I’ve got the press conference in 90 minutes and at least some of us need to be there and presentable. Now, is everyone recovered, should we try and kill another one of these apocalypse wolves?” Bailey asked, tossing the wolf pelt over to Bishop.

“Do you really need to ask?”