NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 85
Ashley
The first fortress we hit up is the one Blake has been hammering away at since he entered the Unique Domain. And the place looks like a mess with half of the fortress walls completely destroyed, half of the buildings inside of the place turned to naught but rubble, and the other half partially destroyed as well.
Fortunately, the shack with the gunpowder is one of the few buildings left standing. Probably on purpose, considering the fact that the whole place would’ve blown up if that shack had been destroyed.
Just like the fortress I blew up.
Blake and I both quickly arrive at the shack itself without alerting any of the kobolds to our presence. Including the rather angry looking kobold lord at the center of the mess of a fortress. Then we walk up to the crates of gunpowder before he hands me the special storage rings he created, and I get to work carefully picking up the crates of gunpowder.
A process that goes… uh… not very well.
Since the crates weren’t made especially well, the gunpowder easily leaks out through cracks in them, instantly ending up with it touching me and blowing up.
But instead of the massive explosions that were caused by my sticking my hand in the gunpowder before, this one is very tiny explosions that instantly vanish the moment they begin, and my System Messages play out in my vision.
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 29/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 28/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 27/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 26/30 charges remaining.}
…
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 1/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 0/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of- Warning. User has no charges remaining. One unit of Chaos Energy has been expended to refill 10 charges. You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 9/30 charges remaining.}
Then Blake and I hear loud shouts of pain coming from outside the shack alongside small explosions.
Blake and I share a glance, only for me to quickly move the crate into the storage ring’s storage space. Following which we move to the window of the shack to find a bunch of the kobolds out there crying out while collapsed on the ground with bright crimson cracks shining around the edges of holes blown up into their bodies.
We share another glance as the explosions slowly begin to decrease in number from me no longer touching the crate. All the way until they stop entirely, leaving the kobolds looking around in confusion. With a good chunk of them dead at this point.
The kobold lord, on the other hand, does understand where the source of these explosions is. Even if he likely doesn’t understand what’s happening.
I can tell that because I can sense his gaze directed straight towards here as he begins to march towards us.
So Blake and I hurry up the process of storing the gunpowder, once again leading to the kobolds around the shack blowing up. Including the kobold lord himself as he marches over here, slowing him down a bit.
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 8/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 7/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 6/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 5/30 charges remaining.}
…
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 1/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 0/30 charges remaining.}
{You have used up one charge of- Warning. User has no charges remaining. One unit of Chaos Energy has been expended to refill 10 charges. You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 9/30 charges remaining.}
…
And the moment I finish storing the rest of it, Blake immediately teleports us far away from the fortress.
I glance at my energy for a moment before frowning a little at the sight of my energy having drained by about two-fifths of my maximum energy.
“I should have enough energy to do that once more without running out,” I tell Blake, turning my gaze back to him to find him nodding while looking down and rubbing his chin.
“In that case…” he mutters without looking up, “we should take the gunpowder from one more fortress before hunting the roaming monsters until your energy regenerates.”
“Sounds good,” I state with a nod after he looks at me.
So the two of us quickly move on to the next closest fortress and repeat the process. With me redirecting all of the damage from the gunpowder’s explosions to the kobolds in the fortress, pissing them all off in the process.
But, surprisingly enough, this fortress actually proves easier to steal from than the first one.
Probably because it’s not a complete wasteland already and has a bunch of buildings and walls around the shack obstructing the kobolds and the kobold lord from even seeing the shack from where most of them are.
And by the time I finish snatching the gunpowder from this fortress, I find my level to have increased by two levels. On account of the numerous kobolds slain through Chaotic Source.
Then we both leave the fortress just like the first one before beginning to hunt random monsters roaming around the wastelands. Only occasionally rushing for cover when the King of Destruction goes on a rampage.
The two of us gradually begin to level up through this method as we spend days upon days doing this, albeit with me leveling faster thanks to the kobolds blowing up from the gunpowder being counted as my kills.
All the way until the point where around two weeks have passed since the opening of the Unique Domain when things take a turn.
Blake and I grit our teeth as the King of Destruction goes on a rampage, shooting out endless missiles from the volcano. Far more than it was shooting out before.
So many more that it begins to destroy the outer edges of the Unique Domain that we’ve been in.
It even begins to crack the barriers on the fortresses and other safe locations.
Without hesitation, Blake and I immediately rush off closer towards the volcano. Finally leaving the edges of the Unique Domain.
Not long after we pass the last fortress, entering a completely barren wasteland with a faint crimson haze running through it, we both stop and turn around at the sound of something shattering.
Followed by an explosion.
And what I find greeting my gaze sends a chill down my spine.
The barriers covering the different safe areas are all beginning to shatter, with the fortresses turning into massive balls of destructive flames. No doubt partially because of the gunpowder we weren’t able to take from them.
Then more and more explosions begin to ring out across the edges of the Unique Domain as the area itself is completely destroyed.
Blake and I share another glance, only to instantly turn around when I feel a powerful and dangerous presence gaze over us.
But I don’t see anything even after turning around. So I begin flapping my wings just in case, flying up into the air.
Which turns out to be the correct move when a large worm shoots up out of the ground at me and I fly further out of its range. Following which it falls back into the ash-covered ground below, burrowing back down until the enormous thirty-meter-long black and crimson worm is gone.
And the sight of the worm sends a chill down my spine.
Not because of its size.
But because of what I see when I identify the thing.
♢ Level 100 Destruction-Touched Wyrm – 457 Potential Skills – X ♢
It’s level one hundred.