NOVEL NEXT Chapter 402 – Follow through
As I stop to endure another heatwave and wait for more Heatseekers to pop out, I stop to think.
The heatwaves have been occurring at regular intervals. Three times in the span of 5 minutes, a five-minute pause, another heatwave, a thirty-minute pause, another heatwave, 15 minutes, heatwave, 10 minutes, heatwave, one minute, heatwave, thirty minutes again, and then another 3 heatwaves in the span of 5 minutes.
That’s all I’ve grasped so far and I'm currently in the process of confirming and getting more exact timing with the help of the countdown timer in my status. And I’m already planning to use it to my advantage.
Finally, the Heatseekers appear bringing more heat with them. This time there are five of them.
I let a bit of thermal energy flood through the Flamebearer and take a step towards them.
I wonder how I should deal with them this time.
A day passes and my level goes up once.
Other than Heatseekers, weaker monsters are abundant here. These ones move in bigger groups, but nothing I can’t handle.
[Redistribution] has reached level 49 thanks to my constant use of thermal energy. Overall, it's not bad.
However, I am being presented with a problem, in that the closer I get to the center of the pyramid the slower I seem to be healing.
My passive uses heat and thermal energy to heal my body. However, something seems to be getting in the way. It’s even managed to bypass my mantle without me noticing and no matter how hard I try I fail to identify the source. I think it’s probably connected to the Champion who died here.
At this point, I'm sure that man, whose head Lissandra stole, once possessed primordial thermal energy.
Lissandra said it before but his body, well, what remains of it should be down there. I have a few theories but I won’t be able to confirm them until I get there.
Overall the slowing of my heat-based healing only adds to the difficulty and once again leaves me frustrated with my inability to learn any other form of healing.
As a result, I have only 1 evil orb over my shoulders and find myself forced to act with more caution. It’s also taking a lot more effort to deal with the heat which is rising with every moment. It's frustrating.
The current tired me prefers to take a minor blow if it provides an opportunity to deal more damage. It's tiring to be constantly avoiding them, and to be honest my mind isn't as fresh as it could be.
Still, I force myself to be a bit more careful and see results in the form of fewer and smaller wounds. Well, they could be lethal if It weren’t for my boosted stats but it'll probably be fine.
I pause again as the next heatwave hits. Right away I check the time and make a mental note.
Heatseekers like to come exactly 11 seconds after the heatwave starts. Lately, there tends to be at least five of them. Three of them will engage immediately while the other two will hold back for several seconds. Usually, one of them attacks from the ceiling, and two will strike from the walls.
In preparation, I place a few anchors in places I expect them to be and prepare five thermal orbs. Precisely calculating the amount of energy in each one.
The three Heatseekers appear right on time. This time two on the ceiling and one on the side wall.
Cheeky things, maybe they felt fancy and decided to change their strategy a bit.
I send two orbs through the anchor at the ceiling and one to the wall. The orbs explode in golden flames the moment the monsters reach them.
[You have defeated Heatseeker - lvl 299]
[You have defeated Heatseeker - lvl 299]
[You have defeated Heatseeker - lvl 299]
Then seven seconds later three more appear instead of the usual two.
Two of them die falling victim to the orbs I send through my anchors.
[You have defeated Heatseeker - lvl 299]
[You have defeated Heatseeker - lvl 299]
The third one stops on the spot. Turning his humanoid head towards my anchor and the monster hesitates.
Tired of waiting for a reaction I boost my body with kinetic energy and throw Flamebearer at him, the weapon is filled with thermal energy and lodges itself deep into the wall, melting the metal around it under the heat of my golden flames.
The Heatseeker, having nimbly avoided my attack, rushes me, its dozens of legs turning into a blur and the heat around him rising in turn.
I look towards the ax and then at the monster. I step a bit to the right. Then changing my mind I step just a tiny bit to the left.
As the Heatseeker opens its mouth I activate the anchor I left on the ax and use [Tether] to pull it towards me.
The ax dislodges from the wall and flies in a straight line, piercing through the monster as I use a burst of kinetic energy to keep its body from falling on me.
[Tether - lvl 36 > Tether - lvl 37]
[You have defeated Heatseeker - lvl 299]
For a very short moment, I'm happy with the result but then the handle of the returning ax bangs into my shoulder, causing me to stagger before I can catch it, leaving the weapon to clatter to the ground.
Five out of ten points for the cool factor, I judge as I retrieve it from the ground. But my poor man’s telekinesis isn't that bad.
I sit down and take a sip of water from a bottle I brought with me. Those bottles are ones I’m constantly reminding myself to protect from heat. It's really nice to be able to drink something cool. And to that end, I use [Redistribution].
Still, the water tastes terrible and yet manages to be the best water I ever drank at the same time.
While sitting there I think about why I'm not using black mana or [Focus] for my emotions. I’ve already decided to fight Lissandra so is there a need for that?
I know I had a good reason not to stay and continue her lessons, but recently, it's been getting hard to remember.
Partially I don't even care about the reason anymore. I just know I made the decision after thinking things over and now I’m just following through.
It could be said that I trust past Nathaniel.
I yawn and blink a few times, rubbing my eyes. Damn, I really want to sleep.
Another heatwave comes and I take note of the timing. It seems like I was wrong about the timing, it’s even more chaotic than I expected. But there is a rhythm and I will use it to my advantage. That along with my crown and the thermal orb next to me. After days of channeling these things are scarily full of their respective energies.
The funny thing is that the crown is still light blue in color, meaning it's nowhere close to its limit. Yet the amount is easily more than my body and Mana Reservoir combined. The skill might be scarier than I thought.
The passage of time is hard to estimate currently. Well, it shouldn't be, I just need to check the timer, but I'm too lazy to bother.
It's annoying to calculate the passage of time by checking the countdown to our forced return to Earth.
After a long time, I begin to think. It says forced return. Does that mean it's possible to return earlier? Or does that imply that someone might try to stay beyond the 5 years and the system has a failsafe in place to send them back regardless?
I mean, it wouldn't be so bad, climbing the floors of the tutorial for the rest of eternity.
It's a shitty place, yes, and sometimes the difficulty is truly hellish, other times it feels too easy. It might be part of the strategy behind the tutorial’s design, to lure us into a sense of security and then bombard us with bullshit.
Anyway, I think a few days have passed but I'm too lazy to calculate it. I just know I still have enough time. And I trust myself.
I know I won't fail.
Another break and I sit down to think once again. It lets my legs rest and makes it easier to deal with my growing collection of wounds that continue to heal slowly. There is a lot of heat so why isn’t my passive overcoming the debuff?
What does the cockroach need the Champion's head for? The man did have orange eyes so maybe she’s after some kind of trait. Could she steal his trait with just his head? Does she want to dig some kind of information out of it? Could she learn his skills?
I bet I would have found out if I had stayed with her but I’ve already made my decision, I just have to follow… I pause.
Didn't I already go over that?
Well, who cares? Past Nathaniel made the decision and I will follow through.
I stand up and add another evil orb to the one floating over my shoulders.
Huh. Since when were there two of them?
Whatever, I add the third one there and head to the hallway leading to the center of the pyramid.
As I work on the last set of inscriptions the heatwave hits me and I take note of it.
With it, my theory is confirmed and the timing of heatwaves is deciphered. Another one will come in thirty minutes and this time seven Heatseekers should appear.
Without pausing my work I place anchors and attack, fully intending to kill all the monsters the moment they appear. I miss a few times and some of their attacks land dangerously close, but I continue with my strategy until they are dead. After the fight, I feel a new wound somewhere on my body but ignore it. What is one more added to the mix at this point?
My level doesn't change but at this point, I'm sure I'm getting close.
Then I check the timer.
One day and a bit remain until I return back to the 6th floor, my two weeks here coming to their conclusion. The past few days have turned into a blur as I fight, train, and intentionally move slower to reach the center so I can level up.
The cockroach is weirdly fair at times so she will wait until the last hour to go after me so I still have plenty of time. It’s all been planned out and I just need one more level and four skills to level 50.
For a moment I pause my work on the inscriptions and check the doors. Only now do I notice how huge they are, tall as a multi-floor building and about as wide. The metal they are made of is slightly different and they flaunt a number of decorative ornaments.
Things like these are one thing I’ve started to ignore lately, they don’t tend to matter much, but nevertheless, they are pleasing. I bet I would appreciate it a bit more after some sleep.
With a sigh, I reach for my bottles and stop.
Where is my left arm?
Checking closer I notice a clean, healed cut close to my shoulder.
The Voidsteel blade on my waist is nearly gone, just a piece as long as a dagger remains. All the water and food are gone too. Only Flamebearer remains, reliable as always, by my side, undamaged.
I have plenty of shards, should I buy an arcane weapon instead of saving for a passive?
Shaking my head I make an arm of mana to replace my missing one. I concentrate, improving on my design, most of the changes coming about as a result of my examinations of Miwa's arm back in the tournament and other bits of information I managed to acquire.
I even assign part of my [Focus] to keep it up.
[Mana Manipulation - lvl 50 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 51]
[Focus - lvl 49 > Focus - lvl 50]
The arm then flickers and with some annoyance, I check to see what’s taking so much of my mental capacity.
I identify the source right away, four evil mana orbs floating above me. Each one changing its frequency in an unpredictable manner, forcing my mind to work in overdrive. They also seem to constantly change the amount of mana required to maintain them which only adds to the strain.
What kind of dumbass decided to keep so many of these things running.
Shaking my head I deactivate all of them and for a short moment, I feel like losing consciousness as a wave of relief hits me. It's as if an immense pressure has been lifted from me, the constant annoying buzz in the back of my mind gone.
The arm made of mana instantly solidifies, turning dark blue with streaks of light blue, moving just like my normal arm would. I lift my mana arm to compare it to the right one and stop in surprise.
A second passes as I just stare at my arms.
The right arm is also made out of dark blue mana, this one severed just over the elbow.
I giggle, my laugh sounding weird even to me as it slips from my parched throat.
Not wasting my time on useless stuff I then turn back to the door and continue with my work.