Dark Fate, Chapter 208

Chapter 208 – Victorious

Your party has defeated a Level 2 Giant Kraken!

100% XP bonus for defeating higher Tier opponent!

50% XP Penalty for having a party member more than 10 levels higher than you.

You gain 100000 XP!

You have leveled up!

You are now Level 40.

You have 4017400 / 4095000 XP to reach Level 41.

+8 CHA, +6 INT, +5 WIS, +5 STR, +1 CON

4 Attribute Points to spend.

2 Skill points to spend.

Loot:

12000 pp

Kraken’s Hide Armor

Charm of the Deeps

Depthstalker Boots

As expected, the Giant Kraken did not have trillions or quadrillions of HP, and its defenses were nowhere near enough to protect it from Mhyreth’s blast. Fascinatingly enough, the beam had been so powerful that the ocean was instantly flash-boiled, an explosion of steam pushing back the water. Harahel used a wind spell to keep the steam off of us, allowing us to see the massive hole that had been dug into the Earth. A red glow showed in the depths, but, already, water was pouring back in to cover the site.

“Myreth, make a note for us to send some Earth and Water mages around to patch up this little hole.”

“O-of course, Master,” the Tomebound Succubus said, almost panted. I glanced over to her, and saw a look of ecstasy on her face. Well, the System knew what it was doing. Normal people didn’t get offered classes like Mistress of Destruction, even if they were primarily a ‘blaster’ type of spellcaster. It was the same reason why I was offered Despoiler of Virtue as a profession when I hit Tier 2. Normal people doing normal things would never even know such a profession existed.

Turning away from my familiar, I instead looked at my Greater Angel companion. “Harahel, see if there are any pieces of the kraken left that can be salvaged for ritual magic. We need to find where it came from, and make sure any kraken eggs are properly taken care of.”

“Of course, Master.”

As she flew down to search for kraken parts, I looked over the things I got for leveling up. First off, my armor had gained a new property, called Giantslaying. Basically, I wouldn’t take any penalties for my attacks or defense against higher-tier enemies while wearing the armor. Of course, higher-tier opponents were still likely to be more powerful than I was, but this property of my armor at least meant I could put up a fight, even against a mid-Tier 3 creature.

I had two skill points to spend, but some of the best skills I had available cost 4 points to take, and all the other good ones were 2 points. I was pretty solidly set for skills, right now, so, I decided to set the two skill points aside, in case there were any good skills that spoke to me later on, or I found a need for one of the skill I hadn’t picked up, yet. I should be getting plenty of XP once my forces hit the other planets that were part of Operation Slaughterhouse, after all.

Then, there was the loot to consider. More money was always welcome, of course, but the items were the real wins, here. Well, they would be, if I had any intention of using them.

First was the Kraken Hide Armor. This was a set of leather armor made from the Giant Kraken’s skin. It was high Tier 2, low Tier 3 armor, and had defensive qualities to reflect that, but its properties were better suited to someone taking on a more aquatic role, since they all had to do with breathing underwater, increasing your swim speed, and surviving the pressure in the deepest oceans. And it had a drawback, where if you didn’t keep it wet, it would start cracking, and losing its defensive value. Didn’t look like it lost durability, but it just wouldn’t protect you, and restricted your movements, which was worse for a lot of people. Not something me or mine would be using, but definitely a useful piece of gear for anyone who focused on underwater combat.

The Charm of the Deeps, on the other hand, was a leather collar made from kraken skin with an eye that resembled the kraken’s over the throat. In addition to significantly increasing the wearer’s Water magic, it also allowed the wearer to turn into a Half-Kraken while in the water, causing them to grow two long tentacles from their back, letting them breathe underwater, increasing swim speed, and letting them survive in the depths. Not terrible, but not exactly something I’d be using, as a rule.

And then, there were the Deepstalker Boots. Like the name suggested, these boots allowed someone to breathe underwater and made them immune to water pressure. Interestingly enough, it had two abilities, in terms of movement. The first basically let the person swim faster and more freely, but the other allowed them to ignore the restrictions of water, if they were on ground. In other words, someone wearing these boots on the ocean floor, or inside a sunken ship, could fight as though they were on solid ground, instead of underwater, allowing them to use their normal fighting style without penalty.

All three of them were strong pieces of gear. Tier 3 monsters, even if they had been ‘boosted’ did not drop weak items, after all. However, the reason that crafters existed was because most items you got from drops were heavily aspected towards the creatures they came from. If you didn’t like the Goblin Chic aesthetic, then it didn’t matter how powerful gear you got from goblins was, you were going to be unsatisfied. Plus, gear you got from killing goblins usually had properties that made it easier to fight goblins, but might not work against, say, undead. So, if you wanted gear that looked good and had the abilities you wanted, you went to a crafter.

“Do you really believe we’ll find any pieces of the Kraken, Master?” Mhyreth’s voice cut into my train of thought. When I looked over to her, she just shrugged. “I mean, most of the thing was inside the beam’s radius. And what wasn’t is going to be burned, boiled, and thrown about by the blast. I can’t imagine too much of it will have survived.”

“Well, there’s some hope. It was very big, and quite resilient. My only regret is that we weren’t able to determine if it had a [Slave Brand] or [Slave Collar] on it somewhere before killing it. But this wasn’t really a foe that we could play around with. And the footage is going to make whoever thought sending this thing over here was a good idea absolutely shit themselves.”

“Heh, I guess that is true. But I doubt you plan to just let things go with that, right?”

“That’s going to depend on who did this, and why. Of course, I don’t know if there will be enough evidence left behind for us to trace. I doubt this was an officially sanctioned operation by any of the major powers. And any terrorists with the ability to capture a Kraken and buy the supplements to advance it to a Giant Kraken would not need to go to such lengths to cause trouble. No, I’m expecting that if we find anything, it will lead, in the end, to someone hoping to play puppet-master and either use this for a smear campaign, or as a way for someone they control to insert themselves into the political situation. The end goal is almost certainly an attempt to break the alliance between Ceres and Panama before it can actually get off the ground, but whoever did it definitely didn’t want it connecting back to them.”

“Which is why they did something like this, instead of something less round-about?”

“Precisely,” I nodded. “Of course, I will give them proper credit for being circumspect. Someone less intelligent would have just assumed that a Tier 3 creature would wreck the place without the use of the Renegade’s pulse torpedoes to nuke it, and not prepare for the possibility of failure. Renegades that would have had to come from Ceres to Panama, by which time the beast might have been too close to land, or even in the canal itself.

“If that had happened, even in victory, we would have lost. Even if enough of a trail had been left, all anyone would be talking about was the way Ceres turned its most terrible weapons upon its new ally, burning away cities to deal with a single creature. That, and the damage to the canal, and what impact it would have on global trade. Any moves we made against the perpetrator would have come off as an attempt to either save face or change the topic.”

“Ah, true. Well, what about the Loot, Master? I saw you looking over the items before tucking them away in your inventory. Anything good?”

“Well, they’re drops from a Tier 3 monster. Obviously, they’re quality items. However, they’re all focused on deep sea exploration and combat. Good if you want to go hunting more krakens, or other denizens of the deep, or you are looking to explore underwater temples or loot shipwrecks on the ocean floor, but for anyone else, beyond the defensive boost on the armor, and some stat boosts on the other items, there’s nothing to recommend them. I’m thinking of selling them through the System Shop. It has been a while since I did any shopping for myself, actually. I haven’t needed to majorly improve my gear, but I should look at any possible upgrades, especially if we start getting stronger foes coming at us.”

Our mid-air conversation was cut off by our shuttle flying up to us. The side door was still open from where we’d stepped out. Only, now the co-pilot was standing in the door. “Pardon me, your Majesty, but we’re getting reports from the mainland. That light show set off every magic alarm in the country, it seems.”

“I don’t doubt it,” said Harahel, as she flew up next to us. “I found a piece of one of the big tentacles, Master. It is in bad shape, but should be enough for a tracer ritual.”

“Excellent work, Harahel,” I said, before lightly flying into the shuttle. The girls followed me, and the co-pilot closed the door. “And excellent work to you and Captain Graves, Lieutenant. Your work with the ion cannons was perfectly timed. No damage from the blast, I hope? To you, or the Rogues?”

“No sir, Sire. We all cleared the area when we saw that massive blast getting ready to go off. It was… quite impressive. Or, as Rogue Leader said, ‘Oh shit, they’re going full Death Star on that thing!’ Suffice to say, we were all impressed.”

I just smiled, though I saw my pets looked at least a little bashful at the over-the-top compliment. “Well, Lieutenant, that is what happens when you have high-level mages with a damage-dealing focus set out to destroy something. Good thing they’re on our side, right?”

“As you say, sir. What now?”

“Send the recordings of the fight out to everyone. Every news outlet, every country, every social media site, everyone. The complete footage, unedited. Someone tried to turn the forging of a new bond between nations into a tragedy, so we will turn it into a spectacle that will have the entire world speaking of Ceres. Once the recordings are sent out, bring us back to the city. Oh, and call ahead to see if there are any diviners or ritual magic users in the area. If not, we’ll bring some down from Ceres. Something drew the Kraken here, and, as fun as this has been, I want to make sure there won’t be a repeat performance anytime soon.”

“Of course, your Majesty.”