Amari's Ascension A Cultivation Litrpg Apocalypse Adventure

I slumped against a back wall while a dull ache spread through my mind. My rampage took around thirty minutes and drained me of mental energy. I even went through and cut open the pods to be doubly sure that there were no more of these things here. I was forced to use basic psychic attacks to save on spiritual energy at the end which wasn't too bad. It allowed me to advance Psychic Mastery again. My break ended when a swarm of the bipedal bugs entered the chamber. I unleashed Psionic Rain as soon as they appeared. The tiny blades almost danced through their formation. The group was dead within seconds of their arrival but it did nothing to make me feel better. If anything it just put a further damper on my mood. Not only was I trapped in a bug hive but they weren't particularly tough. Their levels were higher sure but they weren't anywhere near me in attributes. Not only that the ones with legs were stupid.

I got to my feet and made my way down the tunnel they came from. The deeper I went the more annoyed with it I became. After an hour the bugs stopped appearing. I was forced to reactivate Psychic Aegis while the drain on Intellect Fortress grew. Which meant that I was dealing with something capable of tough mental attacks. Sure enough, I arrived in a massive inner chamber an hour later. The chamber was as large as a football field. The first thing that drew my attention was the engorged bug in the center. It was like a bloated tick the size of a blimp I wasn't even sure the thing could move if it wanted. Its head was nearly a third of its body and its eyes were the size of dinner plates. No sooner did I take in the scene did I feel a scream of danger in the back of my mind. Before I could react a tendril of psychic energy slammed into my mind. My vision went white as pain beyond belief shot along my spine.

"Thrall". The voice was alien and utterly inhuman. Intellect Fortress drew energy rapidly as it fought against the mental assault. I pushed the Tao of Adamance into the sigil as fast as I could. My mind turned into a battlefield as the insect queen tried to crush my will with her own. I let out a roar and pressed against her will with everything I had. It was like the world had slowed to a crawl and then the damn exploded. The world came screaming back as color, sound, and smell overwhelmed me as I worked to catch my breath. Movement to my right brought me back to the situation and what I saw knocked the wind out of me. Humans, dozens of humans shambled toward me. Their eyes were vacant and they all sported nasty wounds. Wounds that refused to bleed. Fury shot through me as I realized what happened. The bug queen had dominated their minds. The damn thing was creating an army. I got to my feet and was about to unleash an attack when a new voice filled my mind. A voice that made me groan.

MonsterHunt: Perfect Victory: Defeat the enemy while preserving the lives of all thralls(0/30)Reward:[1]Automap

I had to admit I was thankful for this quest. It confirmed that these people were still alive which meant that they might recover. The only question was how did I save them. The most obvious solution was to attack the insect queen so I unleashed Psionic Rain. This time I poured both the Tao of Ludicidity and as much energy as the spell could take. The ball of mental energy emerged like an indigo sun before shattering. The blades fell like rain only to be met with a grey pulse of energy from the queen. The pulse passed through the room like a soundless wave before clashing with my attack. Nearly half of the falling blades were shattered while the rest lost their splendor. Despite her attempt, there was little the queen could do to stop the rest of the attack.

As soon as the blades made contact the human let out cries of agony. Nearly half of them fell to their knees and clutched their heads while the other half rushed me. I formed thin blades of psychic energy with as little energy as I could manage. The process felt like fighting with an arm trapped behind my back, but I could do nothing. The first humans arrived and assaulted my barrier. Punches and kicks rained down but my barrier held strong. Until the queen unleashed another pulse of energy. The grey wave washed across my barrier and glommed onto it. The indigo light began to flicker and each impact caused new cracks. I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to unleash my killing intent. Instead, I brought both hands together and pushed energy into Psychic Blast. Twin beams of light shot straight for the queen only for a grey barrier to appear and block the attack. "Son of a Bitch!"

Psychic Aegis shattered in the next second and I was forced on the back foot. I unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks, each aimed at nonlethal areas in an attempt not to kill anyone. Despite that, I could feel several bones break but they kept coming. I broke one woman's shin in an attempt to stop her only for her to drag her leg behind her like some zombie. The look on her face was one of agony and terror. I gritted my teeth and gave up on defense. I activated Apportation. I stepped through the portal and stepped out just above the overgrown insect. As soon as I stepped through I unleashed Psionic Rain empowered by the Tao of Adamance. The world seemed to slow down as I fell toward the ugly thing. As soon as I released the rain of blades I pushed spiritual energy into Psychic Blast and unleashed a beam of pure mental energy. This time imbued with the tao of Lucidity. The beam seemed to waver in and out of reality as it washed over the queen.

I landed on top of the queen and leaped back to the ground. I was just about to unleash another volley of attacks when I realized that her control wavered. Several humans had just stopped moving as if they were stuck in an idling position. Did the Tao of Lucidity fuck with mind control? I formed a pair of mental energy blades and imbued them only this time I aimed that at the closest human. A young man who looked to be in his early twenties. The blade slammed into his chest and he froze. I grimaced and waited to see what would happen. A dark part of me expected to feel kill energy. When nothing happened I smiled. Twin swords appeared above my head in the second each one drifting in and out of focus. I flexed my will and sent them flying toward the insect queen. A wave of ugly grey energy met the blades in flight and one was destroyed. The other turned completely immaterial just as they were about to meet. It then shot straight into the queen's head.

More of her thralls collapsed and a piercing scream filled my mind. It wasn't so much as words as intent and pain. The sensation forced me to my knees and filled my mind with fog. I pushed the tao of Adamance into my head replacing pain and confusion with Will. I forced myself up and unleashed an imbued Psionic Rain. The spell shattered and the queen released another psychic scream as a torrent of kill energy flooded my dantian. I dropped to both knees as I gained just enough energy to reach level 25. When I got my bearings I looked around and grimaced. All of the former thralls were lying on the floor. I slowly got to my feet and dragged them as far from the bug corpse as I could. My head throbbed like I had just gone ten rounds with Ali and he only aimed for the head. I was just about to slump against the wall when something drew my attention.

A spot on the insect queen's head had a slight glow to it. I considered ignoring it and cultivating but every time I tried to close my eyes the feeling intensified. After three minutes I got up and sighed. "Please don't let this be some sort of chest burster situation." I made my way along its body while ignoring the sickening squishes and terrible smell. When I was close enough to see its head I let out a groan. The object was a poorly shaped gemstone that was the same ugly grey color as its attacks. Now that I was close enough I felt hunger for it. It was like my soul wanted me to hoard it like a dragon. I remembered an information stone about this kind of thing. It meant I was looking at a genuine natural treasure.

Not just any treasure but one that would help with my soul which meant it would make me that much stronger. The only problem was that I had to dig through the skull of an ugly insect queen to get it. Part of me wanted to leave and make someone else do it but that wasn't realistic. One it would mean I had to go back to Amara bring a group back and then make them work on this instead of the injured. Second arguably more important, I didn't want people to know too much about what I did and didn't have. I couldn't be sure that my people wouldn't one day decide to take me out. Unfortunately for me, none of my spells had a physical component which meant I had to get to digging.

I dug through the insect queen's head for nearly ten minutes before I was able to pull the stone free. It was about as big as a basketball but much heavier. I sent it into the bag so I could deal with it later. With that finished I decided to turn my attention to my quest screen. The quest that started this mess waited for me to claim it so I did. In the next moment, a small black box appeared at my feet. I opened it and found a translucent stone covered in sigils. I considered infusing it now but I wasn't in the mood to deal with the information headache on top of the actual headache.

Instead, I placed it inside my bag and checked on the injured again. Their vitals were fine but there was nothing I could do to wake them up. I attempted to use my mental energy to jolt them awake but I had to give up. It felt like trying to defuse a bomb while blind and with tools that I had never used before. I placed all the bodies against an empty wall and made my way back to Amara. I passed through the closest passages searching for any remnants of the hornet-like creatures but there were none. Even at my maximum speed, the journey took several hours but there was nothing I could do about it. I wouldn't be able to open Apportation often enough to rely on it for this job. When I finally reached the city I pushed the doors open and spat out several orders. A combination group of guards and anyone with medical knowledge formed as quickly as they could. It was still far too slow. I made a mental note to get everyone working harder. Once the group was ready I led them back to the monster hive. I was forced to eliminate several of the dog monsters before we could get the injured back. Altogether the process took half a day and we avoided any more injuries.

"Clear out one of the middle floors and try to convert it into a medical ward. I don't know if we can properly sterilize anything but I don't think that will be a problem for this group. Tomorrow I am going to go and see if I can get some proper medical equipment." I took my seat at the head of the boardroom table as I finished.

"Alright, do you want us to keep them asleep or work on waking them up? I have to admit my people have limited medical knowledge. I doubt the first aid of some hunters and hikers is going to help with brain control." Christopher took a seat and shook his head. "I am still having a hard time convincing myself that I wasn't insane just by saying that."

"Yeah for now just have them maintain their current condition. I am going to check in with the academy in the morning to find out if there are any healing skills or if I could learn to heal with my mental energy."

"What do you want us to do with the body of the queen? If this were some kind of video game we could probably turn its body into weapons right? That's where we got leather armor."

I sighed, placed my elbows on the table, and rubbed my temples. "Yeah, but I don't know how and I doubt anyone here knows bug armor crafting. I am going to back there tomorrow and collect as much of it as I can. I imagine it's going to draw other monsters as it decays so I don't want to delay too long. We are going to need to speed-level other people. There is no guarantee that I am going to be here every time something happens. Not to mention that constantly fighting on my own is starting to bother me." I held up a hand when I saw him start to reply. "I am not expecting any of you to catch up to me anytime soon. The energy we got from kills in the tutorial was much more than we got from these enemies. I am saying that we will have to start phasing out the guns. Either we need more powerful guns or we need proper weapons."

"I-I have to agree with that. I hate to ask but are you able to search the city for melee weapons? It's going to be hard to convince people to give up their guns but it will be even harder if we have to give them kitchen knives or homemade gear."

"Yeah, I can do that. I am not sure if there is a Medieval Express near here but we should be able to find machetes right? I mean those are popular for nature types. Hell if we get lucky I will find a warehouse filled with gear."

"We will also need to find more food as well. I spoke with Desbera and apparently the stronger we get the higher quality food we will need. The civilians should be able to manage with normal stuff for longer but we will need to start eating the monsters soon."

I nodded. "Do we have any chefs?" I groaned as I realized just how many types of people we would need. Chefs, engineers, architects, farmers, doctors, and who knew what else. Not to mention I would need to educate them. The academy was a life savior but unless I could increase the amount of people it could train it wouldn't be enough.

"No, not that I know of. We have a few people who can cook but I would seriously recommend letting them practice before we start eating."

I let out a dry chuckle at that and nodded. "I am going to cordon off a floor for guest cultivation chambers. We are going to need to recruit some other cultivators soon. Especially as you all start to reach level fifteen or so. It's going to be harder for you to level without going out and gambling your lives. It's difficult enough for me and I can cultivate."

Christopher tentatively nodded and tapped his fingers on the stone table. "Are you going to order us to do that? Go out and fight I mean."

I sighed. The nervousness on his face was understandable and part of me seriously considered it but I knew better. Forced military conscription was seldom the right choice. I couldn't say that was true in the greater multiverse especially since the System rewarded people who struggled but I knew I didn't want to start with that. "No, for now, the only thing I want is for people to work hard and grow stronger. If battle comes to Amara then I will expect anyone that can do something to do something. I hope to form a defense force and exploration force. People who will keep the homefront safe while I lead the others out to do things. People should be aware by now that the System rewards those who push themselves."

"I understand. As for the cultivators, some people are a bit worried that uh things won't be—"

I held up a hand to stop him once I realized where he was going. "Everyone will be equal in Amara. Cultivator or not everyone will have the same rights and laws. Everyone will be expected to contribute and everyone will be appreciated." We sat there and went over a few more ideas including plans for a reclamation force that would spread out into the rest of the city. After four hours of conversation though I had to admit I was exhausted. I let Christopher get back to his people and his room. Once I was alone I placed the stone inside my cultivation chamber. I made a mental note to speak with Desbera about proper placement. That was a problem for tomorrow. For now, I needed to sleep.