Jake's Story, ch 25

Apocalypse Cultivation is heating up!

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As usual, there wasn’t much air movement, but today there was a hint of a breeze.  Maybe it was a good sign.  Jake had decided to name this trial world, “Swampland.”  It seemed to fit, even if it wasn’t very creative.

He was currently standing on a ridge of the rocky hills that divided the swamps.  This location was near the vampire burrows he’d almost face-planted into what felt like forever ago.  His vantage was high, with a clear view of the entire area.  The giant was currently occupied, but Jake crouched behind a boulder anyway, just in case.  If he was spotted, it’d be a shame to spoil the surprise.

Hopefully, what he was about to do would not draw other vampire groups, at least not right away.  Since they were cautious, and basically just surviving, he didn’t see them breaking that habit right away.

Hmm.  Need to get everything ready, he thought.  He was about to make one hell of a racket.  If everything went badly he didn’t want to be fumbling around or wasting concentration on his storage ring.  Carefully, he went through a mental list of everything he’d prepared, just double checking.  After he was satisfied, he rose from behind his boulder.  “Time to get this show on the road,” he whispered.

The energy barriers around the nine swamplands had been great for Jake’s growth.  He’d gotten the idea to practice Demonic Contradiction Wave attacks at it one day, and the wall had completely absorbed the energy.  The barrier was obviously keyed to stop everything except the mysterious monster that passed through and hunted among the rocky ridges.

So Jake hadn’t been able to see the effects of his attacks, but he’d been able to practice structuring them, and even do some experimentation.  Practicing his skills completely silently had been great training.

Now he held up one hand, with his other chambered by his hip.  Using his body to help guide the flow of energy was helpful and actually allowed him to create the Demonic Contradiction Wave without tiring himself out as much. His master had always said that a real cultivator didn’t need to make flashy movements to deliver Daoist techniques, just a flick of the wrist or a finger sign.  But Jake’s teacher wasn’t here to yell at him at the moment for being lazy.

With a strange grin tugging at the side of his mouth, Jake used opposing energies from Swampland, and electrical energy from Earth, extracted from a couple of batteries. He unleashed the Demonic Contradiction Wave, hurling toward the vampire burrows.  It struck like thunder.

The attack wasn’t very fast, and was kind of difficult for Jake to create, but it sure did hit with authority.

Clay and bunches of shrubs went flying away from the impact area.  The detonation made small rocks on the stony ridge jump.  Sounds of the blast echoed around the swamp, bouncing off the stony walls.

The clay of the scrub area seemed to be really tough, though.  Despite all the noise, Jake was a little disappointed by the actual size of the crater.  It wasn’t much bigger than a small, above ground swimming pool.  But several things all happened at once after the explosion.

The giant began to turn and stand at max speed.  A few vampires popped their heads out to look around.  One was hissing.  Jake thought they looked like some sort of evil prairie dogs and the thought made him chuckle.  Unfortunately, they ducked down again before his second Demonic Contradiction Wave could hit them.

Jake had thought about this part of the plan.  He needed the vampires to come to him, but they had no reason to while they were safe in their tunnels.  He sure as hell wasn’t going to go underground, either.  Sure, he was a monster, but some of the vampires were actually stronger than he was, and there were more of them.  So getting their attention was the first step of the plan.

And to start the next step, he would need to avoid being crushed in the meantime.

He’d actually wondered whether the giant would throw something at him, or at the vampires.  His question was answered when he had to flash step to dodge a massive, swamp-covered chunk of rock.  The missile crashed into the boulder he’d been hiding behind.  If he’d still been there...it would have been bad.

A second later he had to dodge again as a streak of red resolved into magic fire one of the vampires had thrown.  Luckily, they were far enough away that he didn’t have too hard of a time dodging, but this was something he hadn’t planned for.  Some of the vampires having magic actually made sense.  Even if they weren’t high level vampires, they were still powerful monsters, probably mid-tier.

Flames ballooned on the rocks behind Jake.  He growled.  “Wanna fuck around? Alright.”  He leveled a hand and concentrated while he dodged two more attacks.  This attack would be stronger.  He layered three separate compartments of volatile energy with a Demonic Cultivation Wave, using Swampland essence, a battery, and a bottle of glass cleaner from his storage ring.

The result was a double explosion, and each was more powerful than the first.  All the vampires had ducked down again, but Jake’s goal hadn’t been to actually hit them.  This had been an experiment.  He’d needed to see what a triple layer Demoic Cultivation Wave actually did.  Good, that’ll work, he thought.

His newest Demonic Contradiction Wave was a lot more powerful, but the vampires were too well protected.  Throwing attacks like this until he was exhausted would be futile, and might actually attract vampires from a different swamp, or the mysterious predator from outside the red barrier.  He had to piss the vampires off enough to actually come after him.

Jake dodged another boulder thrown by the giant.  Then he grinned nastily and delivered a triple Demonic Contradiction Wave directly into the huge monster’s face.

Sure, the vampires wouldn’t come out if he attacked them, but what if he went after their protection and food source?

The stones seemed to vibrate as the beast bellowed.  It clapped one massive hand over its face and began frantically searching the swamp for another stone.  Jake’s attention wasn’t on the giant, though.  He was focused on the vampires.

More heads popped up now, looking between the wounded giant and Jake.  He grinned nastily at them and willed his eyes to glow blue.

Jake delivered another triple Demonic Contradiction Wave at the giant, striking its face again.  If he really wanted to kill it, he could have struck the neck or other vital areas, but the vampires couldn’t know he was intentionally missing.  In reality, these attacks were not meant to be lethal, only painful, debilitating, and loud.

It was better for his plan if the giant was wounded, not dead.

The whole point of this challenge seemed to revolve around the fact that managing to kill a giant, or even attack one, would incur the wrath of the vampires.  All of the giants were overwhelmingly powerful up close, but at range, they could be brought down.  Most adventuring parties had ranged attackers.  Jake remembered that the limit for participants to this challenge room had been fairly high.

A big corpse wouldn’t do the vampires any good.  But in this case, Jake wanted them to come.  He wanted them to be angry.

And angry they were.

Like dark hornets boiling out of a nest, the vampires surged out of the ground and bounded toward the end of the scrubland.  They could not head directly at Jake, there was swamp between them, but they were fast.  Holy shit! Jake whispered.  He dodged another magic attack and took off at a sprint away from the vampires.

Setting his trap without being noticed hadn’t been easy.  It had been tricky to find the right spot in the first place.  Since he knew the vampires would not want to go to another group’s swamp, he’d needed to set up in the ridge around the swamp he’d be targeting.  He’d also needed to place his trap far enough away that his retreat would look real, but also close enough that he could get to it once the vampire came after him.  He’d needed to live in it, so it was full of his scent.  On top of that, he had very specific requirements for the cave’s actual structure.

Luckily, he could cheat.

Now Jake could make his own tunnels using a combination of Mercurial Lunar Dao Polishing with a sword to cut large chunks of rock, and his storage ring to get them out of the way.

The vampires were hot on his heels when he ducked into his home and project for the last few weeks.  He’d been able to make a winding tunnel that doubled back multiple times.  It was difficult to run full-tilt in, and went straight into the ridgeline at a downward angle.

There were also fist-sized holes cut between the tunnels, connecting them.  The spaces were too small for a body to fit through, but they let air pass through.  They also allowed Jake to better know how far away the vampires were.  He was barely staying ahead of them.

If Jake had still been a human, creating a tunnel like this might have been impossible.  But not only was he a tireless ghoul now, he was also a Silver rank Body Refiner.

More importantly, his storage ring had allowed him to store countless tons of rock.  When he’d picked it out, the description had read, “Endless Storage Ring,” with a description that it held much more than a regular storage ring.  He knew it had been a priceless artifact, but it seemed to be even better than he’d imagined.  Most storage rings only kept about a closet-size amount of items.  He had no idea what the storage limit of his ring was.  While he’d been working he’d been prepared to use the ring as a magic wheelbarrow and dump rock from time to time, but he hadn’t needed to yet.

Once he reached the end of the tunnel, Jake phased through a wall of solid rock to the room he’d built on the other side of it.  The divider wall was perforated with a hundred fist-sized holes, plenty large enough for the vampires to see and smell him through.  He’d kept supernatural strength in mind, though.  The wall was solid.

As the vampire rushed into the room, Jake took a couple of shots at them with his revolver.  He wasn’t actually expecting the attacks to do much, but he needed to keep them riled up, and he didn’t want to use a Demonic Contradiction Wave in close quarters.  His shots were deafening, shocking the vampires and creating more confusion.

This part of the plan required the vampires not to be able to move through solid rock like he could, or turn incorporeal.  Jake had reasoned that they couldn’t since they dug tunnels in the marshlands, and his assumption was confirmed when more than two dozen angry vampires slammed into the rock wall.  The thick wall held.  Arms snaked through the holes, claws extended, futilely trying to reach him. A few vampires had already begun examining the room, snarling, trying to find the nonexistent way to get past the barrier.

Jake barely dodged another magical attack, this one made of some sort of sickly green.  He’d built another room on the other side of yet another wall, but this one had an opening to one side that the vampires could see him running through.  He grinned.  This must be driving them nuts.

In this hidden room that the vampires were never meant to see, the thin holes Jake had cut out to the surface could easily be seen.  This was actually one of the first parts of the trap that Jake had completed, a safe place for him to meditate in while he’d worked on the rest of the project.

He’d meditated in this place without worry, and over the last month, had hopefully trained the predator from outside the barrier that chasing after his scent meant only resulted in a waste of time.

Hissing, screaming, and guttural shouting from the next room was deafening.  The vampires were going apeshit trying to get to him, but they wouldn’t be forever.  Now it was time for Jake to spring his trap.  He phased and flash stepped, moving through the solid rock in a way that was familiar now.  When he popped back into reality outside, two vampires were crouched on the ridge, their attention on the cave mouth.  Jake didn’t hesitate.  He drew his saber and cut one’s head off.  She didn’t even make a sound before her head was rolling.

Jake’s speed, the surprise of his attack, and Mercurial Lunar Dao Polishing applied to his saber had been enough for a one shot kill.  His blade could shear through rock, now.  An unprepared, stationary vampire at the same general level as him hadn’t had much chance.  Good information.

The other vampire was a little more wary, and Jake’s plan was suddenly facing a serious hiccup.  He really couldn’t afford a long fight.  If he got held up for too long, it might be bad.  The vampire, a large, dirty male, lunged, claws extended.  Jake dodged and slashed in one motion, but the vampire vanished with a puff of smoke before the sword connected.  With a start, Jake realized that the creature had turned into a large wolf and ran into the cave.

He blinked, wondering if he could believe his good luck.

Tricky, he thought, and smiled.  The monster was retreating, meeting up with the other vampires, probably to tell them that Jake was outside.  But now it was already too late.

Jake leveled a hand and directed a three layer Demonic Contradiction wave to the ceiling of the tunnel.  He’d designed the cave mouth so it was only held up by one support.  He’d also stacked extra rocks on top of the opening, making it heavier and providing more mass.  His attack was just enough to take it out, and the entrance came down.

The cave in was even louder than his Demonic Contradiction Waves were.  Dust billowed out, and the ground shook.  Everything stopped moving in about half a minute, and the cave was completely blocked.

For good measure, Jake dumped a few more tons of rock from his storage ring onto the rubble.  The vamps weren’t gonna get out of that.

“Gotcha, bitches!” He snarled.

He warily kept track of the giant, but the beast was still bellowing and holding its face.  Jake moved to the top of the tunnel trap he’d created, quickly finding the section right before the room most of the vampires were still in.  They probably realized what had happened, but the cave in had been violent.

At this area, the ceiling of the tunnel was at least two feet thick, but Jake had punched vent holes connecting the tunnel to the outside all over the place. Now that the dust was settling and the air in the tunnel was still again, it was time for the next phase of his plan.

Jake lit a piece of oiled cloth on fire.  With a stony expression, Jake dropped the burning rag through the hole in the ceiling.  He’d doused the entire floor of the tunnel with gasoline, but especially the area he’d predicted most of the vampires would be in.  With a, “Whumph,” the tunnel ignited.

Ultimately, the fire plan from back in Georgia had worked so well that Jake had decided to use it again.

He clearly heard the screams of the vampires as they burned.  For good measure, Jake dumped a few more gallons of gas through the holes, too.  One thing the legends about vampires had gotten right was that they were weak to fire.  He had to step back because the heat coming through the air holes was getting too hot.  He’d intentionally built his safe room at the very end of the trap to never catch on fire so it could provide good ventilation for the flames.

Jake could feel himself relaxing.  It was possible that these vampires had left one or two of their brethren behind in the swamp, but he doubted it.  Besides, now he knew that he could deal with it.  The memory of how easily he’d killed the vampire with his saber was a bit surprising.  Sure, in a fair fight things might get more spicy, but the exchange had been educational.

He’d definitely gotten more powerful.  And if he was able to score some more monster cores after the roasting vampires were all dead, he’d get even stronger.  His plan now was to finish off the screaming giant.  It wasn’t much of a threat right now as long as he kept his distance, but the giant was still massive.  He didn’t know how long actually killing it might take.  It would be a learning experience for sure.  Learning all that he could was part of his goal.  He was not planning to stop with only one giant, after all.

Jake thought about the next steps of his plan as he moved to a good vantage point overlooking the wounded giant.  Its next was in view.  Perfect.  Even if it took a while, he’d be able to kill it for sure now that it was blind and defenseless.  Even as he had this thought, the giant randomly tossed a huge boulder.  It smashed into the ridge on the opposite side of the swamp from Jake.

He grinned, his heart like ice.  Jake had learned a lot after Purple Rain.  He’d learned to be ruthless when he had to be.

After the giant was dead, he was going to take a break to cultivate before checking on the cave trap.  He really needed to conserve gasoline, but if too many vampires still lived, he’d burn them again.  Luckily, he doubted he’d have to.  What was more likely is that a few would be terribly wounded, barely hanging on, and Jake would be able to finish the job with his saber.

His trap to snare the vampires had worked perfectly.  If he got a decent amount of monster cores, maybe he could even raise his Body Refinement rank to 5th Silver.  It was just a guess, but he was excited to find out.

It had taken him a month of hard work to prepare this trap.  All of his effort had been worth it.  He hadn’t forgotten his mission back in Georgia.

The main reason he’d entered the challenge portal was to get stronger.  Returning back to earth with increased strength was why he was here.  Whether the strength he found was increasing his cultivation level or snagging more amazing completion rewards, it could accomplish the same goal.  His focus now was on personal growth, not rewards, but he had to admit he was curious what rank he was going to score on this challenge, now.

He also briefly wondered how the asshole Faceted might be feeling after this first giant died in a few minutes.  The thought made him smile.  His eyes glowed blue.