Afterlife 2.0 [Litrpg in Hell]

I didn't have as long as I expected to prepare this morning because I didn't want to show up to the merfolk migration event with less than full Mana like I did last time.

It also wasn't raining like it was the other day, which meant Novi could go properly invisible. I expected us to have this in the bag.

Except for the fact that I could see a lot more shapes moving in the ocean than I was comfortable with. Far more than yesterday.

"Is that a turtle?" Novi asked, pointing to a massive dark round shape underneath the water. It was right in the centre of the pack as well.

"It looks like it. I can probably crack its shell if given a chance to get close. Is your insect drone anywhere nearby?" I asked and pulled the bullets I made for her out of my Inventory. They were neatly sorted into ammo boxes, and each bullet was connected to the next with cotton ties. "These will pack a punch. Each one is enchanted with an Avalanche, so make sure you aim where the target will be in a few seconds. Same as my javelins."

"I didn't design my body for belt feeding," Novi replied as she looked through the boxes.

I gave her a look that I hope conveyed my disappointment, "What's even the point of full auto if it's not belt-fed? Did you even add rotary cannons to your improvement?"

"I decided to go with a magazine-fed design. How was I supposed to know that you were going to make me bullets designed to be belt-fed?" She had the sense to show remorse for her decision.

"Because that's the obvious option! You could have easily attached it to the side of your design without even adding to your biomass," I said, smothering my head in my hands. I didn't even know how a version of me could make a choice like that. Magazine-fed, what a joke.

"That's what I did with the magazines. We really should have coordinated. One second, I just need to cut the bullet ties," Novi said, growing a knife and cutting the cotton strips away.

"You may want to continue this conversation after we deal with the invasion," Autumn said, pointing down at the beachfront.

On the shore, what appeared to be an odd combination of snake and dog. Their paws ended in webbed flippers, and they had fins coming out of the sides of their heads. Behind them, a variety of merfolk were just starting to emerge from the water.

There were no Tidal Sorcerers this time. It seemed like they learned their lesson from yesterday. Water magic that wasn't deployed as a projectile wouldn't be very effective when Novi and I could freeze it with a single word.

Instead, they had two Fangbearers in the lead, accompanied by six of their wet dogs. What we assumed was a turtle hadn't breached the surface of the ocean yet.

Pulling the javelins out of my Inventory, I grabbed one, took aim, and tossed it, activating the enchantment mid-throw. With a crack, it vanished, and the sand next to one of the dogs exploded as the javelin impacted it, moving at hypersonic speeds.

After a few more attempts that all missed, I realized these things were a lot harder to aim than expected. Sure, they packed a punch, but the merfolk could see me charging it up and would just get out of the way.

With the alterations Autumn made to the Root structure of the Plans, we were practically a kilometre away from them at the moment. The path had been stretched in such a way that we had plenty of time to bombard them while they made their way towards us.

I didn't have time to deploy a bunch of traps or set up any Domains last night, unfortunately. I'd have to do that tonight. Assuming we made it to tomorrow.

Eventually, I hit one of the dogs, blowing its back half off and spilling its intestines all over the beach. A second javelin ended it.

[Killed Spitscale Drakeling I-90]

They were only in the first Ascension, which was a good thing since there were quite a few of them. I didn't gain any levels from killing it, which was unfortunate.

Maybe my Class would give me a Skill that helped with aiming. Or was that wishful thinking? I really wish I had taken the time to practice with them.

Luckily, I had spent my time practicing something that might be even more valuable once they were a little closer.

The turtle was finally crawling on shore. It was the size of a truck and seemed to be some kind of armament system.

It was a tortoise, not a turtle, despite that not making sense, given that it had just come from the ocean. The tortoise was blue with a boxy shell and a second plate on its skull to protect its brain. It also had a platform saddle on its back; on that platform was what appeared to be a pillar with Mana circuits travelling through it and a glowing orb on top.

A Tidal Sorcerer stood on the tortoise with their hands on the ball, no sceptre in sight.

I really wanted to get my hands on that artifact. I bet it had really neat functionality. I just had to figure out how not to die from it first.

It was moving slowly enough that I decided to test my luck with a javelin.

Winding it back, I put my whole body into throwing it, triggering [Argent Flow] to help with aiming. Then, right as I let go, I pulled a thread of Authority wrapped around the [Imbued Enchantment], causing it to untangle, activating the enchantment.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The moment the enchantment activated, it froze in the air. A couple of seconds passed, then it simply vanished. The air in front of the tortoise seemed to ripple as the javelin slammed into a shield. The orb glowed for a moment as the projectile landed in a way that looked similar to how a Mana-based circuit would.

Now I really wanted to get my hands on it. More than just as an intellectual curiosity, I was certain that a shield like that would be incredibly effective with my Strand.

I threw a few more javelins, but the merfolk were starting to clump together behind the shield to avoid getting picked off. Novi had started shooting as well, but couldn't get past the barrier even when unloading into it. Even her commanding it to freeze barely did anything. The Ice just melted away moments later, washed away by the Water Mana.

Maybe once I got my hands on the orb, I could figure out a countermeasure to the shield generator. For now, it looked like I was going to have to deal with this the hard way.

I took my hammer out of my Inventory and heaved it over my shoulder. It was a good thing I had a little practice yesterday. Not to mention the trick I think I learned while tripping last night.

Placing the box of javelins back in my Inventory, I looked towards the merfolk advancing towards us.

Activating [Argent Flow], I channeled my Authority through my circuits to prepare a Quicksilver Avalanche, mixing my Strand and a regular Avalanche as I did last night. Like in that glacial tunnel, I felt a weariness creep up on me the longer I channeled it. Unlike a regular Avalanche, it wasn't possible to trigger immediately; instead, it took almost a minute before I felt something click into place.

I let go, felt the magic settle over me, and began to advance, slowly at first, but as I walked down the granite path, I found myself speeding up the further I travelled. Behind me, I felt Autumn manipulating the Roots somehow, but I didn't have time to contemplate what.

I found myself speeding towards the merfolk, the wind blowing past me as I ran, knocking my hood off in an all-too-familiar fashion. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea?

No time to second-guess myself, I dove through the bubble shield, finding zero resistance from it. I couldn't wait to figure out how it checked what was a projectile and what wasn't.

I was going faster still; my little legs were having difficulty keeping up at this point. With the momentum I was building, I swung my hammer down on one of the drakelings at the front. Hitting the switch right before the blow landed, I splattered it across the ground and continued flying onwards. I dropped my hammer into my Inventory and pulled it back out to get it unstuck from the ground.

They weren't ready for me to have moved like I did, but I could see the Fangbearer's eyes were glowing blue. As they did the last time I fought one, I had to wonder what that meant. Did they have Mana Veins that ran through their eyes?

It seemed like those vein structures had to be activated since they definitely didn't have blue eyes a moment ago. They were originally a more chartreuse-like hue. That activation requirement meant they weren't like mine or Hazel's, which just boosted us indefinitely.

Most of this I would think about later, as at the moment I was flying towards them at a rapidly accelerating pace, turning away from the Fangbearers who were about to strike. The movement drained part of my momentum, but simply turning my body caused the direction of my velocity to change with me. That was useful.

Unfortunately, I had turned back towards the remaining Spitscale, who had decided to teach me how they earned that name. Their snouts burned with a green light as they released into globs of disgusting-looking Mana at me.

By turning my body, I managed to get out of the way of the first volley, only for me to run right into the second. I could feel the poisonous energy seeping through my shell. Autumn was apparently correct about it being possible to poison me. I'd have to ditch this body soon.

With a hop forward and a swipe of my hammer, I destroyed all of the ribs on the left side of one of the drakelings, turning that into a spin. I warded off the Fangbearers who had tried to use that opportunity to strike at my back.

I was surrounded, Spitscales to my back and Fangbearers and that tortoise out front. I decided the tortoise needed to be my primary target so Novi could support me.

Letting my freshly generated Authority loose, I used [Imbue Enchantment] on the ground behind me, feeding plenty of Winter Mana into the enchantments. Then kicked off the ground towards the tortoise. I had burned a lot of my momentum spinning, but I could rebuild it.

As I flew, I had to put my hammer away so I could hop over a Fangbearer that had tried to take advantage of my attention leaving them. I also heard the crackling of my enchantment activating behind me. Which meant the Spitscales were handled for the moment.

While falling from the sky toward the tortoise, I pulled my hammer from my Inventory midair and aimed directly down toward the creature's plated head. I could feel the Tidal Sorcerer was doing something as my Authority was pushed back, but I didn't plan to stick around to see what. Activating the enchantment on my hammer, I didn't even see it move. I only saw the result.

The hammer slammed into the ground, travelling straight through the tortoise's head as if it weren't even there. The granite below exploded outward right as the Tidal Sorcerer pelted me with spears of water that cut through my flesh like butter, leaving me full of holes. It had been aiming for my Core but hit my upper body as the hammer's enchantment yanked me down.

More Water spears were manifesting in the air, but I didn't have time to dodge, and my Quicksilver Avalanche was running out. Which was when Autumn decided to pop into existence directly behind it and slice its head off.

I signed thanks towards them and turned, swinging my hammer up and to the right as I did so, which was the right move, as one of the Fangbearers had tried to charge me from behind. My hammer collided with its skull, and the blue glow in its eyes flicked off like hitting a light switch. I had been ignoring kill notifications, but I did confirm that I had received one from it before moving on.

The Spitscales were still frozen in place where they had activated my Winter enchantment.

Who needed landmines when you could make the ground itself into a mine? Other than the fact that the enchantments would decay very quickly due to poor materials if you forced one onto the soil, which meant it was more of a mid-fight thing.

The shield bubble around that had been emitted by the orb on the tortoise finally popped, misting me with a spray of water.

The moment it fell, Novi clocked the other Fangbearer in the skull while it was in the middle of charging up a strike. The bullet was one of mine, and it caused the fish's head to splatter across the beach. Its corpse took a moment to realize it was dead before collapsing.

Walking over to the drakelings, I swung my hammer toward them, allowing it to get caught by the enchantment. The moment it ran out, my swing slammed through the remainder of them, and I mercifully finished them off one by one as they writhed in pain on the beach, their ribs smashed to pieces.

"Well, I'd say that went pretty well," I said, then ejected my Core from my rapidly corroding body.

While I was regrowing myself, I checked my notifications.

[Killed Spitscale Drakeling I-90]
x5

[Killed Merfolk Fangbearer II-30-40]
x2

[Killed Tidal Artificer II-45]

[Killed Armoured Sea Tortoise Armament Platform II-49]

I knew it was a tortoise!

But that doesn't make any sense! Turtles are the ones that spend time in water, not tortoises!