FB: Chapter 91 – Supporting Tasks

“Open up!” I slammed my mega sword into the door. It exploded into splinters from the impact. “Vomitatis.” I puked all over the monsters that rushed at me from inside the cave. “Slice.” The monsters were struck by the sword beam and forced backwards, bleeding and poisoned.

They quickly died and I continued my unstoppable advance. I constantly healed from the self-poisoning while swinging about my mega sword, hitting each monster with a critical or super critical attack killing them instantly.

It was completely busted as a build. If I rolled out like this in the arena, people would probably start quitting Exponential in sheer rage. There was no good way to defend against my build, since I had all the angles of attack covered. Stay at range, I could use Slice or advance on you. Go to mid-range and you would get poisoned while I would heal up. Get in close and the mega sword Slice would instantly kill you.

Perhaps a dedicated team of teleporting archers or casters would be able to inconvenience me except for one critical fact. “Blink.” I teleported mid-swing and landed a super critical blow on a large worm type of monster instantly sharding it.

If my target kept attacking from a distance I would just teleport to their location and instantly smash my target. I had gotten the timing down to around a quarter of a second from teleporting to my sword smash landing. If you had any kind of defense, Slice would smash right through it. One Force Wall consumable would not be enough either. That was how devastating each swing of Slice was.

While I couldn’t swing it around like it was weightless, it was light enough that it wasn’t a struggle to swing it back and forth. That was the entire idea behind a mega sword. I had just gotten one of the best mega swords possible and combined with the rest of my build created something there was no counter for.

If I had to fight myself, then best option would be anti-teleportation consumables combined with area of effect attacks to layer on variety of status effects. Follow that up with archers using skills like Cripple Shot or Pinning Shot to reduce my mobility. Then rush in everything and everyone to finish me off with a  dogpile. The problem was that this type of attack plan was the optimal attack plan and incredibly expensive and difficult to pull off.

It was the kind of attack plan designed for very troublesome boss monsters or NPCs. If there was a guild battle the best course of action was a stalling action. Assign a team of ten archers and have them run about and pester me with constant attacks, while avoiding me teleporting in close and counter attacking them. It would be hard, but with some dodging skills it wouldn’t be impossible.

The problem was that one needed to invest in such a team and have capable people of executing in a high-pressure battle. That was also ten highly skilled people devoted to countering a single person. Not even winning, just countering. It would eventually happen to stop me since I was so overpowered, but it wasn’t a cheap investment in time or money.

I entered a large open cavern. There were several dark cultists around a ritual circle. Another high level monster appeared in the ritual circle as red light effects showcasing magical power flashed up from the ritual circle. “Blink.” I teleported to the monster and smashed it in the head just as it was turning face me. “Vomitatis!” I spun and sprayed, hitting all the dark cultists with my projectile vomit.

They screamed as they quickly began dying. “Slice.” I beheaded the Dark Acolyte running away with a ranged sword beam. It was a super critical attack since they were beheaded, their entire body sharded. All of that took just three seconds. Slice really was broken as a weapon with my build.

Checking over the loot I located the one piece of loot I was hoping for.

Lesser Pendant of the Summoning God
A pendant used by the Acolytes of the Summoning God to commune with their deity and receive blessings.
+Recognized as an Acolyte of the Summoning God
+Pendant hidden to inspection
+Innate Epic Skill: Summon Monster

I tossed it in my inventory with the other two I had collected so far. I sent a message to Jacklyn Fox the Knowledge Officer. A team rushed into the base to look for any useful pieces of information since I had cleared it out. I wasn’t about to search all the pieces of paper, drawings, books, and other pieces of lore. The lore was a blackhole. While I knew chunks of it, one could waste an incredible amount of time going down that rabbit hole with nothing to show for it.

That was why the guild had an officer dedicated to finding out the lore and knowledge of Exponential. Occasionally there would be something useful. I didn’t bother speaking with the knowledge team that was combing through the base. I used a city teleportation crystal to quickly get back to civilization and then took an airship to the Capital.

With three lesser pendants collected from the Dark Gods, it was time to cash them in directly. Once I reached the Capital, I made my way to the Holy Cathedral of the Trinity. After speaking with an Acolyte I was escorted to Cardinal Pious.

“Divine Champion Foxy Blight, welcome,” the plump woman greeted me.

“Cardinal Pious. I have come to hand over some trinkets I managed to recover and request your help with a problem I am facing,” I replied.

“Just put them on the table here,” she said. I removed the three pendants of the Dark Gods I had collected. She quickly disappeared the pendants after swiping her sleeve over them and gave me a smile. I then explained the plan in place to deal with the Unmentionable Horror.

“That is why I am requesting your aid once the monster is defeated and I attempt to end its existence permanently,” I explained. Cardinal Pious nodded at my explanation and gave me a smile, which raised my hopes.

“This problem is one known to the Trinity Church. Your plan will weaken the monster but will not permanently deal with it. You can use a crystal capture phial. Once you kill the monster, open the phial where it died no more than a minute after its defeat. The essence of the monster will be pulled into the phial. The Human Emperor likes to collect such things and this will fulfill the requirements of your quest,” Cardinal Pious handed over a crystal phial that was diamond shaped with a crystal stopper at the top.

“Thank you Cardinal Pious, would you be able to provide any additional help?” I asked and she shook her head.

“That would require a full team of paladins to protect my person. While the pendants you collected are appreciated, they are only enough for a crystal capture phial, not enough for me to mobilize a team to act personally,” she replied. I nodded at that. At least I had a solution to the problem now.

“I understand, and appreciate the support,” I replied.

“A crystal capture phial is incredibly valuable and rare. Do not allow it to fall into the hands of the Dark Gods,” she said, and I nodded at this.

“I will keep it secure no matter what and use it only on the Unmentionable Horror,” I replied.

“That is good. Since you are here, there are two things I wish to bring up. You do not wear the title of Apostle. Why is that?” she asked.

“I only have so many title slots Cardinal Pious. If had another title slot then I would take up the title I have been granted,” I replied. She nodded at this and gave me a smile.

“Hmm, a shame, but understandable. You hold the title of Divine Champion. You meet the requirements to know about the next stage of the title. The gods regularly hold tournaments from their chosen champions. Each champion putting up a considerable stake, normally items valuing around 10,000 platinum or more. Once eight people have put up stakes all are invited to a tournament to compete. As a follower of the Human God and holder of the Divine Champion title, you qualify for such a tournament,” Cardinal Pious explained.

“What level of competition should I be expecting?” I asked.

“Above level 300 if you participate. The people fighting can pose a threat to the Human Emperor. That should give you an idea of how dangerous they are.”

I had no doubt that items like a Divine Poison would be put up by one of the competitors in such a tournament. However, I was completely unqualified in my mind for such a fight with my low level. If I had 100 more levels, then it might be worth considering, but right now I was too weak and the cost to participate too expensive.

“If you ever wish to participate, you merely need to let me know and provide the item you plan to enter with,” Cardinal Pious explained.

“Thank you for letting me know about this opportunity. However, I suspect it will be some time before I enter,” I replied.

“That is your choice. Each tournament is single elimination and consists of only eight contenders. One only needs to win three times to win the entire tournament,” she explained. I might be able to get one win, but three wins in a row was impossible. No matter how powerful Slice made me feel, it wasn’t enough for a competition of that caliber.

If the competition could pose a threat to the Human Emperor, then it was completely out of my league at only level 120. No wonder why I had never heard of such a competition the last time. One would need a tremendous number of levels to participate and an insanely high title. With how things were working out, I had no doubt that the Human Emperor would show up as one of the competitors and crush anyone facing him. That was exactly the kind of diabolical twist that QAI loved for its high-level quests.

The entire thing was clearly content for the late game. Where each opponent had an incredibly unique fighting style. The tournament bracket would be set up to increase the difficulty massively with each match. If each person put up something worth around 10,000 platinum, winning would see a net gain of 70,000 platinum worth of value. Even if it wasn’t actual coinage, the value of winning was too great for QAI to allow it to happen.

At a certain point consumables began to struggle, which by my estimates was level 200 and above, even with excessive spending. That was when NPCs and monsters would have too much MP compared to the power of their skills and the variation in skills would be too high. That was on top of their base stats, which would allow them to counter consumables.

My jump in power with Slice and the upgraded skills would carry me until that point, but then I would be hitting a hard wall. I had no doubt that QAI would role out monsters and NPCs that could counter my poison cheese tactics. The Unmentionable Horror was a perfect example of this, while the Human Emperor was used as an excuse.

Once I got the massive amounts of experience I needed to upgrade my skills, I would have to really make an effort for a high quality piece of armor, better rings, and divine skill shards.