NOVEL NEXT 92. 17,000
The fight against the final boss started much like the previous one. Shen jumped from one floating step to the next, and the golem tried to punch him when he got close enough.
During his cultivation, he had gained the most in War, Combat, and Sharpness. He had also added a new Concept to his Path, Flow. War and Flow both made him better positioned to keep moving, War focusing on doing so in a way he could dodge the incoming attack. Zephyr, who had also improved slightly, all but removed the resistance of the air.
It had become almost trivial for Shen to avoid the golem's attacks.
That held true even when Shen got closer to the golem, and its arms had to travel a smaller distance to get to him. Where previously he had barely managed to dodge, just extra awareness of positioning and momentum made him not endangered at all.
When he reached neck height, instead of leaping toward the weak spot, he filled his spear with qi and threw it.
Just like he had done against the flying werewolves, qi allowed him to push the spear further than it should have flown. The golem didn't notice it but kept trying to slap or punch Shen instead. He dodged the last strike but found himself lacking any footing nearby and fell in the direction of a newly generated step that was getting into position much lower than where he stood.
The spear kept going and struck true. The golem had no soul or will of its own, so there was no battle of willpower, only a weapon strengthened by qi and Concepts hitting a target.
| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 49,950 | -50
Some people cheered. From what Shen had been told, he had just become the first agility fighter to deal damage to the boss. Even archers couldn't hit the weak spots from below due to the angle, and they all died if they tried to climb the steps.
E+ agility could only go so far without a good movement technique and Concepts—or other people distracting the golem. To make things worse, attacking anything other than a weak spot caused precisely zero damage.
Shen willed the spear to jerk sideways when the qi he had put in it was about to get expended. It would be terrible if it got stuck on the golem's shoulder. It started falling, and he had to get further down to grab it.
Shen moved fast, but before he even got to his spear, the golem had already regenerated the fifty damage he had caused. It recovered ten HP per second, nothing to scoff at.
Shen grabbed his spear, then climbed again.
He had enough qi in his improved core for six hours of constant supply to his body, the same amount of time he now could withstand. He was confident those numbers would keep matching each other as he cultivated from now on. Of course, if he was forced to spend qi, as he did in his throws, the supply would lower more rapidly. He could only keep going for about four hours at his current attack rate.
So he controlled his qi expenditure this time. He didn't need to use as much qi when he was further away from the arms, and even when he got closer, he could afford to be a little slower than his peak speed.
He threw the spear again, this time with less qi too.
| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 49,950 | -50
The same amount of damage. Rinse and repeat; Shen kept throwing the spear with less and less qi until he dealt less than fifty damage.
| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 49,952 | -48
That let him find the sweet spot of qi expenditure vs. damage. He tried to use more qi for more damage too, but the weak spot only let him cause fifty damage maximum.
His next step was finding out how much qi to spend to cause maximum damage yet also let him pull his spear back into his hands rather than having to go all the way down for it. Doing that cost a lot more qi but would let him deal damage much faster. He still had to go down somewhat because the golem disintegrated the nearby steps when it attacked him, but soon, he only had to restart from the middle point rather than from near the ground.
Additional experiments later, Shen found the perfect balance of qi expenditure and damage dealt. He could keep going like that only for three hours because pulling the spear back at a faster fire rate was that costly. Yet, it allowed him to do something for the first time: accumulate net positive damage.
| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 49,945 | -50
It wasn't much, mere five points of net positive damage—or was it net negative? The golem could recover fifty damage in five seconds, and Shen had attacked again in four and a half seconds. The speeds involved were ridiculously fast, but it took him too long to fall to the midway point and reclimb to neck height after each throw.
It was a big victory nonetheless.
Shen focused on War, Flow, Zephyr, and Boundlessness, and soon, he had perfected the damage output into eight points of damage every four point two seconds. The E+ strength helped there, too, allowing him to jump higher and reach more distant steps. The faster pace required higher qi expenditure though, so he could only keep it up for two and a half hours.
Quick math told him that 5 damage every 5 seconds for 3 hours would let him deal a little over 10,000 damage, while 8 damage every 4.2 seconds for 2.5 hours would net him a little over 17,000.
Unfortunately, the other people on the stage couldn't deal the remaining 33,000 damage required to kill the golem.
Interestingly enough, the contribution points floating above his head didn't consider the golem's HP regen. The amount of damage he caused was how many points he got, regardless of the boss' recovery.
Anyway, that was a possible path to success. Shen would deal more damage if he improved his strength effectiveness, footwork, or Concepts to reach neck height faster. Things would be even easier if someone distracted the golem.
That made it for most of the tests he wanted to run. Only two remained: how far would the golem pursue him, and if it wouldn't stop, how long could he last?
He hit the ground and ran with all the speed he could muster, doing his best to dodge the thing's steps and not become a smudge on the floor.
It turned out that the golem would relentlessly pursue whoever attacked him until it regenerated fully. Once its HP was back to 50,000, it stopped and returned to the middle of the stage.
Shen barely survived.
An open-mouthed Sai approached Shen and asked, "What exactly did the system say about mana and qi incompatibility?"
Shen shook his head. "Greet me and ask for permission to speak first. You asked to follow me, not be my friend. We might become friends yet, but until then, follow proper protocol."
Cultivator culture followed a rigid hierarchy. It was better for everyone involved to know where they stood and behave as such. The world had changed, so Shen wouldn't ask others to observe his customs, but whoever asked to become his follower would be required to do so.
He wouldn't forsake his people's way.
Sai looked very awkward at that, but he cupped his hands in front of himself in a martial greeting. His lack of practice was evident. "Can I ask a question?"
No calling Shen master or boss and no bowing. Shen would fix that—later. Doing so now would be petty when the man was doing his best.
"Yes," Shen replied.
"What exactly did the system say about mana and qi incompatibility?"
"It said the nanobots were incompatible with qi, and purchasing extra health, stamina, or regen for either would make me permanently incompatible with qi."
"Permanently?" he asked despondently. "I have the nanobots, and I bought stamina and stamina regen to last longer in fights."
"I'm sorry," Shen said sincerely. He felt qi was superior even if mana was more versatile. "I suppose there might be some way to reverse that, but how hard or costly that would be is beyond me."
That gave Sai hope. He nodded, thanked Shen, and went back to his position.
Many people, including the war council, had stopped to watch Shen's attempt, especially when he didn't die instantly. He approached the council and asked, "So, how do we train?"
"I change my vote," Mazia, a pretty fifteen-year-old, said. "I agree with the tournament format."
"That settles it," Schneider, in his late twenties, concluded, then explained to Shen, "We decided to focus on the best we have while also giving opportunity for the others to improve. We'll have a ten resets rotation. By reset I mean when everyone dies then leaves the circles.
"The first reset will be a battle between all age groups, alliances allowed. The winning group will then fight amongst themselves on the second reset to decide three people of each stat to focus on. From the third to tenth resets, everyone will focus on helping those twelve people improve however they ask. Then we start over, and the winning age group from the last four times can't be the winner again."
"If I understand it," Shen said, "ignoring the time for the first two resets, there will be eight full training resets, lasting up to twelve hours each, to focus on twelve people. Four days total. The strongest group will have to wait sixteen days to be the focus of the training again. We have around sixty days remaining. The strongest group will be the focus three times, for a total of twelve days."
Schneider nodded. "That's the idea."
Shen shook his head. "I will tell you what will happen. Discontentment and rebellion. You're aiming to please the greatest number of people, at least half the groups, but the weak will resent not being focused on at all, and the strong will resent not being the focus all the time. I'll abide by the choice of the majority, but I warn you that this is a waste of time."
"What do you suggest?" Marzia asked.
"The best way to push our limits would be a few minutes for everyone to organize however they want on each reset and fight a free-for-all. Constant fights to the death, giving our all, would use our time and revives the most, and they are our most precious resources. Whoever wants to can get together to defeat others before fighting among themselves, which would also assist with their team fight. And if any group wins then decides not to fight among themselves quickly enough, everyone else crushes them in the subsequent resets.
"Every tenth reset, we fight the boss again because training against it is also important, then rest for the following twelve hours. That is the best way forward." Or so the Concept of War told him.
Shen hadn't been expecting much from his suggestion. He had thought they just wanted to point out how his idea was supposedly terrible. Yet, he was surprised when Marzia and Evelyn instantly said in unison, "I agree."
"Me too," Sandra followed quickly.
"We're in," Hina, in her late teens, joined the wagon.
Some were slower to agree, but the vast majority did in the end. Shen guessed his performance against the golem had given him a great measure of respect.
Schneider was the last to slowly nod. "Yes, that seems for the best. But I worry about something." He pointed at Shen. "You're arguably the best we have. What if you just kill everyone all the time? How will that help anyone else?"
"That's fair," Shen said. It was evident he couldn't kill the golem alone, so not letting others grow would be bad for him too. Not to mention he couldn't protect Earth by himself; therefore, they all needed to improve as much as they could. "I'll only join the fight every other reset." He offered.
"Once every five reset," Schneider countered.
"Once every three, and that's the furthest I'm willing to go. I want to improve too, and if I'm indeed the best, I should be allowed to try to reach D-rank."
"Can you?" Marzia asked hopefully.
Shen let out a slight smile. "It's a long shot, but I do have a shot." He had mastered about sixty percent of his foundational Concepts, War a bit ahead. "Even if I fail, I estimate I can already decrease the golem's HP by seventeen thousand damage over two and a half hours, and that's factoring in his regeneration. I am sure I will improve, and any tiny amount will help us all."
"One in three it is," Schneider agreed with a nod.
"Well, I'm warmed-up already," Shen said. "I'll start from my circle. Get ready."