NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 66
Ashley
I end up spending several hours just sitting inside of the little storage shed while regenerating my mana and Chaos Energy. And in the process I almost end up nodding off a couple times while leaning against the shrine.
Until I identify the shrine and realize it’s a shrine meant for the King of Destruction.
Not to mention the fact that apparently touching it means you’re stuck to it forever. Or until the King of Destruction dies.
Meaning that if I didn’t have Unchained…
After that I moved away from the shrine to rest elsewhere. All the way until I feel confident enough about my mana to head back out again.
Throughout my resting, though, I heard quite a bit of activity going on within the fortress. And lots of shouting kobolds saying random gobbledygook that I can’t understand.
What’s important is that I can sense their presences when they’re close by. Not to mention that I can smell them and hear them.
So their positions aren’t exactly a secret from me.
The more difficult part is sneaking up on them without them noticing me. Because they do have senses stronger than humans.
In fact, this was probably the only real place I could hide in the entire fortress. Since this gunpowder has a rather strong smell.
A smell that is completely covering up my own scent.
Although it wasn’t necessarily a bad scent. Hence why I could almost nod off.
Anyways, I wait for an opportune time before leaving out the window of the shed. Following which I jump into the window of the fortress wall.
Then I proceed to move through the fortress until I get close to a weaker kobold, at which point I quickly use several skills at once.
Nature’s Wrath to bind the kobold’s legs, hands, and muffle its mouth to dampen sound.
Mid-Stage Destruction Mana Manipulation to send arrows of destruction mana straight at its throat.
Memory Call to make it hallucinate that something else is attacking them and not me. Something they’re terrified of.
And last but not least, Minor Gravity Mana Manipulation to increase the weight of my weapon as I rush forwards and pierce it straight through the kobold’s heart from behind.
The kobold immediately crumbles down to the ground, with me leaving the roots in his mouth as I use destruction breath on his corpse to disintegrate him entirely. Leaving nothing behind.
Not even ash.
Then I quickly rush up the stairs as I hear a couple kobolds beginning to approach the area I was in. Albeit with the two still being too far to have heard or smelled anything.
I don’t wait for them and instead begin searching the second floor for my next target.
Because it’s time to hunt.
Somewhere else in the same Unique Domain
Blake pants in exhaustion as he finally teleports out of the fortress and into the hole in the ground that he found and claimed for his own. Having blocked off the entrance entirely with earth magic to make it so no monsters could possibly find it while still leaving him his ability to teleport into the cavern.
And without further ado, he collapses to the ground flat on his back and proceeds to stare up at the ceiling of the cavern while still panting.
He’s been pushing himself as hard as he can to grow stronger so that he can go search for Ashley. Because he’s seen her livestreams, and how much she’s struggling in them. How many times she’s very nearly been killed.
Not that he’s one to talk about near death experiences in the Unique Domain.
When he first assaulted the fortress, he believed as he always did back on Val that his magic could handle most threats.
It worked when he fought in the Tutorial, letting him kill all three of the mini bosses on his own without any help. And it helped in every Official System Event he’s participated in, letting him sweep through the events with ease.
So he was certain he could at least sweep through the low level kobold fortresses here to take one for his own and make into a basecamp.
But he was wrong.
The kobolds were easy enough to deal with, and so were the kobold guardsmen. But when he got to the kobold knights, he started struggling a little bit and his mana began to drain dangerously low.
After the start of the third day attacking the fortress, however, he met the kobold lord.
And didn’t even bother trying to fight it.
The thing didn’t just let him run, though, leaving him having barely escaped as he stares up at the ceiling.
But he doesn’t regret a thing. Because he’s gained numerous levels and Skill Points from his assaults on the fortress. And for that, he is glad for his decisions.
“You might want to check on your twin’s livestream,” Etheria comments, sounding intrigued for some reason.
Blake immediately opens the menu for the livestreams before navigating to his sister’s livestream, feeling his anxiety growing by the minute.
Is she being chased again?! Almost dead?! No, I need to-
His thoughts come to a halt when he sees the livestream appear, with her sneaking up to kill a kobold inside of a fortress without letting it make a single sound. Then she utterly annihilates its body before moving away from the scene of the crime. After which she repeats the process.
Once.
Then twice.
A third time.
Over and over again.
Blake just awkwardly stares at the screen.
“Maybe you should’ve taken an approach like your twin?” Etheria comments. “Your magic could certainly work for it. Spatial magic is extraordinary in the stealth aspect. You could’ve teleported in and slowly killed them off one by one. Or you could’ve-”
The man grimaces as Etheria goes over one possible way he could’ve done his attack after another. Each one leagues above his original plan of just rushing the place and bombarding it.
Blake watches his twin’s livestream for hours as his Primordial and teacher of magic lectures him nigh-endlessly. Meanwhile said twin just assassinates one kobold after another.
All the way until she begins to go after the bigger fish in the fortress.
Starting with a kobold guardsmen that she finds doing his business off of the wall. A sight that is censored on the livestream but makes Blake scowl anyways. Simply because it wouldn’t be censored for his sister.
Until he sees his sister casually fly outside of the window the kobold is doing it out of, letting her shadow cover part of the window. Then she teleports into the room right behind him and kicks the kobold guardsmen off the wall after using five arrows of destruction mana on its throat. Destroying the throat entirely and leaving the creature to be wordlessly screaming throughout his fall.
After seeing that, Blake can’t help but smirk a little.
Only for his smirk to turn into a grimace when he sees dozens of silver spikes pointing upwards on the ground where the kobold lands, piercing into numerous places.
“Brutal,” Etheria says, sounding not the slightest bit disturbed by that sight. “Seems like she does take after Chaos at least a little bit.”
Please don’t say that. Not with what Chaos just did to that planet.
“What, and you would’ve done differently?” Etheria asks, sounding a little surprised.
Yes, I would have.
A hint of disbelief flows through his bond as he sees Ashley go out the window and send a couple dozen more arrows of destruction mana at the already-nearly-dead kobold guardsmen. Her arrows and attacks in general being a lot stronger now than they were before. Thanks to the assassination spree she had been on for the past hours that raised her level by at least five levels.
And without the kobold guardsmen making even a single audible sound, he dies. Just like that.
I would’ve just killed them all and been done with it.
The surprise flowing across their bond turns into exasperation as Etheria mutters, “Right. Of course you would.”
Both of them watch Ashley as she rushes down the hall, having already cleared out a large majority of the kobolds on that wall. Including the ones that were in the position to see the kobold guardsmen and what she did outside the fortress.
“She is quite smart, taking the kobolds by surprise even for the ones she is easily strong enough to kill without any form of surprise,” Etheria says, making Blake nod with more than a little pride for his older twin. “And attacking the stronger one while he had his guard down was a brilliant idea as well.”
That part makes him grimace again, but he still agrees.
“It’ll also likely be-” Etheria begins, but Blake cuts her off by saying, “Please don’t say it.”
I don’t want to hear about how the Forums will likely have clips of that scene all over it soon…