[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 40: MacGyver

Widening his stance, Sam tightened his two-handed grip on his claymore. Concentrating on the magical barrier, he tried to use his bloodline to visualize a weak point.

The barrier shimmered hazily, just as the same as usual. No weak point at all.

Seconds ticked by, and nothing happened. It was the perfect opportunity for a tumbleweed to pass by, but the two of them were stuck underground in a dingy hall.

One that floated in the vast empty grayness of some magical plane where time ran slower than outside. The timer for his first quest to flee the starting island was now at only 5 minutes remaining, proving that something odd was going on.

So maybe magical objects worked differently. Or he didn’t have as much mastery over his Breaker bloodline as he thought.

Probably a bit of both, he thought.

“That’s fine, I’m still destroying you,” Sam said to the barrier. “One way or another.”

“Please don’t bonk me,” Komachi said. “I am exceptionally bonkable. Critically vulnerable to bonking. So bonkable, in fact, you might one-bonk me.”

“I’m not going to one-shot you, Komachi.”

“You say that now….” She eyed him sidelong.

Sam struck the barrier with the full force of his Strength, without any of his other abilities. The blade rebounded harmlessly.

Tapping into [Power Stance], he released an onslaught of attacks upon the barrier. Each rebounding hit required extra effort just to keep the weapon in his hands.

Sam chained [Shockwave] into [Whirling Slash], then used [Reaping the Willows] as a finisher, but nothing happened.

Nothing more than his disdain for the rigid way stances had to be used. He was beginning to despise the way [Power Stance] worked.

It was too similar to his training, and while he enjoyed the structure back on Earth… this was meant to be a new way of life. And here he was, once again using prescribed attack patterns to dish out damage.

It was boring.

But using any normal attacks failed to generate [Fury], and when he finally did use [Whirling Slash], it was only usable on itself.

That part I don’t mind, he thought, looking at the barrier, then his sword. It’s the feeling like I’m locked into using them in a specific way that rankles.

Despite that his enemy was really just an inanimate—if magical—object, and he was in no immediate danger at all, he could still feel the stacks of [Fury] building.

This served as proof of concept that stances, at least this one, would work during training. He just needed to hit something. Nothing really suggested otherwise, but he couldn’t ever know for sure until he tried.

Next, he tried expending as much [Fury] as he could, as fast as possible.

He didn’t bother to let the [Fury] stacks hit their maximum. Each follow up strike consumed the stack of [Fury] generated from the previous.

He had to use the [Stone Anchor] ability on his boots to keep himself rooted to the floor.

And yet there was no real sign he was inflicting any damage at all.

What else could he do?

Lifting his left hand, clad in the [Fireblast Bronze Gauntlet], Sam used [Fireblast] for the first time.

Sending a pulse of mana into the gauntlet, Sam conjured a ball of roiling flame that shot out and pressed into the barrier.

He saw the way the barrier bowed in like a sheet of rubber and immediately dropped to his belly a hair’s breadth before the barrier bounced the spell down the hall right over his head.

Sam slowly got up, feeling decidedly toasty. He sniffed and wrinkled his nose as he picked up his claymore and sheathed it. “Do you smell that?”

“Your hair is on fire,” Komachi pointed out.

“Shit!” Sam patted out the small fire, making sure to do it with his right hand. Just in case he accidentally fired off another [Fireblast] without trying.

“Should I use regen on it?” Komachi asked, looking at the barrier thoughtfully.

Sam shook his head. “I’m afraid you might actually give it HP.”

“What would that do, make it some sorta nightmare flesh barrier?” He could see the gears working in the little cat’s head, catching up to what she just said.

They stared at each other in horror, then proceeded to never talk about it again.

Pacing up and down in front of the barrier, Sam went over their options. “Magic seems to be repelled straight-out. I don’t have that many abilities or skills that could be useful here except….”

Sam looked at the barrier, then his hand. “I do have Void mana.”

“Why can’t you just Break it like… everythin’ else here?” Komachi asked, snaking around his boots and keeping in lockstep with his pacing.

“I’ll be honest, Komachi, I’m not sure I fully grasp what my bloodline is capable of.” Sam turned around and continued his pacing the other way. “Normally, to get the full use, I need to visualize and create weak points, but I can’t do that here. I can try infusing my blade with the same sort of Breaker power, like I did with the statues, but it’s significantly weaker when I do that. Not to mention erratic.”

When Sam came in front of the barrier again, he widened his stance and motioned to Komachi to take a few steps back. He shut his eyes and focused on his bloodline, on the destructive force that seemed to ebb and flow within his body.

He had to time it right, like he did when he was fighting the statues. Time it wrong, when the tide of destructive force was receding, and it would do nothing.

The more he used his bloodline, the more he understood it. What first seemed simple and straightforward soon revealed itself to be annoyingly complex.

Why couldn’t I just get something that lets me see an enemy’s movements before they make them? That’s simple and easy to understand!

With a shout of frustration, Sam lunged forward, ripped out his [Charred Claymore] to a fanfare of spraying sparks, and crashed into the barrier with as much of his Breaker bloodline power as he could bring to bear.

The force shook the barrier like a bowl full of Jell-o and after a moment’s breath, Sam was thrust halfway down the hall full of rubble and shattered statues.

Coughing from the plume of dust that arose, and the pain in his back that coincided with the drop in health, Sam struggled to his feet. “Okay, we need a new plan. Force isn’t working, and that’s really all I’m good at.”

“You still got your Void stuff,” Komachi reminded him, gently padding over.

Sam sheathed his sword and dusted off his hands. “Right. Let’s give that a go.”

With both hands pressed against the warm barrier, Sam used [Scour]. The barrier thinned and fizzed like TV static. His fingers tingled uncomfortably, and his arms went limp and numb as the black-and-silver flames rushed out in a gout of fury.

It’s not enough, Sam thought as the barrier restored itself after he had used the Void Art. He needed time to use [Scour] again. Partly due to his low MP, but also because that was just how the Art worked.

It wasn’t a channeled thing that he could keep going, at least not at his current rarity. It was a burst of Void that was designed to obliterate anything in its path. Clearly, the barrier didn’t get the memo.

“We do got lots of junk in our Inventory.” She pulled out some crystals from her Inventory. “What if one of those golem eyes is like a key?”

“Couldn’t hurt to try,” Sam said, taking out the loot he received from the statues.

The [Carved Stone Chunks] were pretty much worthless as far as Sam could make out, but the [Grey Crystal] and especially the [Faded Mana Cores] showed some promise.

Sam examined each in greater detail to get some idea of what he might be able to do with them. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was better than nothing.

[Faded Mana Core]

(Arcane Item) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Enhancements

Deteriorated Mana Dynamo III

A glassy sphere encased in a metallic framework that once served as the heart of a construct, but has gone so long without maintenance and adequate fuel that it can no longer burn sufficiently dense mana.

“What’s dense mana considered, though?” Komachi asked, peering at the item too.

“First Layer mana? Just a guess,” Sam said.

“Could be something to do with Levels too. Or maybe just how many points ya dump into it.”

Mana density seemed something important to understand in general, but wasn’t immediately so. It could mean more than just how much mana could be packed in a given area, but also how strong that mana was.

And that brought up a lot of questions about climbing the Layers.

[Grey Crystal]

(Arcane Item) (F-Class)

(★Common)

Enhancements:

Mana Capacity II

A small, mostly inert crystallized vessel of mana. Thoroughly drained of energy, and yet its porous surface is capable of absorbing even ambient mana.

The “golem eye” from the Stellar Warden was just a large, dull, ruby-red hexagon. One that, oddly enough… lacked any sort of description.

Huh, that’s never happened before.

Sam tried to use it on the wall or the barrier to no effect.

Despite his original intent of using the [Faded Mana Core], he realized that it wouldn’t work. Oddly enough, the mana cores weren’t necessarily there to store mana, but to use it like how a heart pumps blood but doesn’t store it.

The [Grey Crystals] were another story. They were like tiny batteries and no bigger than a finger joint. Experimentally, and without much idea of what he was doing, Sam held one in his palm and tried to send a thread of mana into it, like when he equipped and bonded a piece of gear.

After a few false starts, Sam got the hang of it.

It was similar, though only tangentially, to activating the [Fireblast] spell from the bronze gauntlet. Rather than sending a little pulse of mana, Sam continued to push his energy into the [Grey Crystal], causing it to fill up with a liquid glow.

He cut off the flow and watched what would happen next.

After a few moments, the mana seeped out into the surrounding air in a bluish-green shimmering light. “Neat,” Sam said aloud at the tiny light show.

If only there was a way I could link the mana core and crystal together, Sam thought, shoving the idea away for later. He wasn’t a crafter. Not yet, at least.

He was certain it would work, though. So long as he had some means of tying the two items together. For now, it was just a pipedream that he didn’t have the time to indulge.

The barrier had only responded to his Void mana. Everything else it weathered or repelled with ease. The problem was he couldn’t channel his Void mana continually.

His fingers were still weak and numb from the attempt, but if he could instill Void mana into the crystals….

He tested the theory first before committing fully to it by sending a stream of Void mana into one of the crystals. It shimmered with black and silver motes of energy that seemed to fight to get out of their containment.

Unlike when he had put his unaspected mana into the crystal, there was no delay with Void mana releasing from its confines. As soon as Sam stopped channeling his Void mana into the [Grey Crystal], the mana broke free and began to dissipate into the air.

A few more tests and Sam thought he had the outline of a plan. Void mana disrupted the barrier, and if he could use the crystals to continually disturb the magic of the barrier long enough, he might be able to break through.

Sam worked quickly, mostly out of impatience, as he arranged the [Grey Crystals] near the barrier. It had to be done in one shot and he only had enough crystals for that single attempt.

Aligning the crystals so they could be chain-filled then placed, Sam looked down at Komachi. “I need you to move these six to the right side over there as soon as they’re filled, got it? They’ll fill up last, but you have to be quick. It only takes a second or two for the mana to leak back out.”

“It’s time for me to bust out my opposable thumbs!” She wiggled her paws. “Or thumb pads I guess.”

Sam knelt down and pressed his fingertips to the first crystal in the chain. He didn’t have much mana, but thankfully, Void was fairly potent. Enough that even his meager MP would be able to fill the dozen [Grey Crystals].

Focusing, Sam began to fill the first crystal. As soon as it filled, the Void mana overflowed to the next crystal in line. On and on it went until all twelve were shining black and silver with tiny tongues of argent flame rising off the crystals.

“Now!” Sam commanded, as both Komachi and Sam went to work arranging the crystals around the base of the barrier.

Sam shot to his feet, still a little woozy from the mana expenditure, and raised his right hand to the barrier. With the last dregs of his mana, he used [Scour].