Ultimate Level 1

“We’re about four blocks from the center courtyard from what I can tell,” Max informed everyone after he landed back on the street after jumping off a house. “Maybe one or two more groups, and then we’ll be on the outer edges of everything.”

Fowl was grinning, waiting to hear what Max was going to say next as he shifted from side to side.

“Yes, there is a tower, but I don’t think it's the same thing as the last time. This one is wider, and as you have noticed, taller.”

“Think we’ll have to fight inside it?” Batrire asked.

“I’m not sure, but I hope not. It doesn’t look over forty or fifty yards wide and that might mean going up staircases… having to fight from beneath whatever would be above us… that’s never a good thing if I’m honest.”

Their healer nodded and frowned.

“Might as well get this over with and see what’s waiting for us in the courtyard,” Tanila said. “I’d rather not just stand around. All this metal just feels weird.”

***

The metallic street opened up to the courtyard, which was once again about five hundred yards in diameter. The brick etched pattern in the street turned into a circle that all led toward the tower in the center.

“That’s a pretty big door,” Fowl said as he pointed at the metal gate they could see on one side of the tower. “Who wants to bet how large the thing that will come out of there is going to be?”

No one seemed interested and Max wasn’t paying attention to the discussion, instead he focused on the shift in the road pattern where the street and courtyard met.

“Do you see this?” Max asked as he pointed at the eight inch grooved section that ran the entire length of the street in a long rectangle.

Moving to where it ended, another piece just like it joined, a slight curve that matched the circular courtyard.

“It appears there is something like this around the whole thing,” Tanila said as she studied the area she could see. “Part of the pattern?”

Biting his lip, Max shook his head slowly. Something inside told him that something wasn’t right. Getting on his knees, he put the tip of a dagger he pulled from his inventory out and into the groove inside the courtyard.

“Crap… I think I’m right, and this is a trap.”

Everyone looked at Max as he stood up, frowning as he studied the courtyard.

“A wall?” Tanila asked.

Nodding, Max pointed at the sections that seemed to run around the entire area.

“At some point I’d bet this is going to rise up and keep us inside the courtyard. I’m not sure how high it will be, but that really makes me wonder what we’re going to face inside it.”

“And no other place the portal could be?”

Max shook his head at Fowl’s question and rubbed his chin for a moment.

“It makes sense the portal would be inside that tower or appear after whatever we face. Even if this isn’t the boss floor, we’re facing stronger foes now and I’m really not sure what to expect.”

“And we’re not running back to the exit, are we?” Cordellia asked.

“No, doing so as always sets a terrible precedent and we’re going to have to really focus on just being smart. You three stay close enough that Tanila’s walls or Batrire’s barrier can protect you. Fowl and I’ll do what we can with our shields and work on keeping whatever comes away from you all. Worst case if the things go wrong, I’ll grab everyone and try to get up and over the wall with my ability to summon air and stone walls and maybe portaling over.”

***

An eerie silence came as they began moving across the courtyard. No noise and barely any wind seemed present as the metallic tower got closer and closer.

“Do we knock?” Fowl asked when they were within seventy yards.

The door looked to be about twenty-five feet tall and still hadn’t moved.

“You can go bang on it,” Max replied, letting himself smile when his dwarven friend shook his head.

As they got within fifty yards, all hell broke loose.

A pair of orange lights emerged from a small section of the wall near the door, flashing as the door shuddered, starting to open.

The section of the courtyard Max had believed was going to box them in did just that. Thick walls rose, climbing higher and higher as they curved upward, quickly reaching a height of about seventy feet, creating an upside-down bowl without a bottom around them.

Another small section of the tower opened up and a large metal megaphone came out of it.

“Intruders! Activating Defense Protocol X, Y & Z!”

Fowl moved closer to the other three, shielding them and looking around frantically as he tried to see what might come.

The metal floor vibrated as loud clanging sounds of metal on metal came out of the darkness of the tower.

Max could sense with his sonar skill something large moving like the automatons, but it felt different. Bigger.

“On the sides!” Tanila shouted.

Glancing at the far ends of the area they were trapped in, two objects were rising from the ground.

“Are those robotic spiders?” Fowl asked. “With a goblin on them?”

“Those appear to have guns on them!” Cordellia shouted as she drew back an arrow and sent it flying at the metallic spider from near max range.

Each of them had eight legs and on two sides were four guns partially behind a metal sheet. Their barrels were sticking out and in the middle of the spider's back, in what had to be a seat, sat a goblin, moving levers.

As those two started to move a giant metal creature came from inside, covered in spikes along its arms and shoulders while a huge spiked metal ball connected to a chain that attached to the end of its left arm rested in the automaton’s right hand.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“There’s a dwarf in the thing's head!” Cordellia yelled out, still sending arrows at the spider creature on the right, watching her arrows bound off a shield of some kind, causing no damage.

“Ice shield the flanks!” Max yelled as he saw that there was a glass area in the automaton’s head. Behind it was a dwarf with no facial hair, wearing goggles and grinning like he was about to have the time of his life.

The massive ball fell to the ground, clanging against metal as the one foot spikes on it caused it to roll for a moment.

“I’ve got our women!” Fowl shouted as he moved to get closer to the group of three.

Max nodded, pulling a potion out and tossing it at his dwarven friend.

Fowl roared and in moments stood almost ten feet tall, his shield now creating a much larger area of protection for his friends to hide behind.

Still moving, Max cast his ice wall on the right of his friends and raced toward the creature that had to be the rare spawn of this floor.

Faster than he had expected, the boss flicked its massive metal left arm and the spiked weapon raced toward him, four solid feet of metal death coming at him.

From the corner of his vision as he lept and rolled right, getting to his feet and reaching the boss, Max saw Tanila had summoned her ice cloud above the spider to their right.

Ignoring it and the other, he focused on the leg that was before him, swinging his weapon, hammer side out.

An inch from impact a shimmer came and his weapon bounced off of some barrier.

The spiked ball came toward him as the automaton’s waist twisted, its feet never moving, causing the attached weapon to snap toward Max.

Instantly, his shield was in his hand and the impact came, sending him tumbling to the right, rolling across the metal floor.

[ Regeneration ]

The hit hurt a little bit, not enough to really do much damage as his natural constitution was so high now that his body had become more resistant to damage.

I guess I owe you more than I realized for how many stats I have consumed over these last few months.

Grinning, Max raced back toward the boss, dodging the spiked ball that came at him again and moved between the large legs, swinging over and over as he attempted to see how long the barrier might hold up.

The sounds of gunfire came from the left and Max saw the metal spider was firing a shot about every second. Each time, a different gun sent one hurtling towards the others.

Fowl was blocking the shots easily with his new larger shield. The ice walls were already gone on that side, having been blown apart by the barrage of attacks.

Dodging left, Max’s sonar informed him of the boss’s attempt to kick him, none of his attacks doing anything yet.

Stowing his weapon, Max moved backward and began casting a ball of lightning. He hadn’t used it yet, but Tanila had told him how it worked. With nothing else to do, he attempted to grab onto the leg of the boss, trying to see if he could push himself past the shield like he had with the rare lizard spawn on the first floor of the tower.

Moving constantly and trying to keep his hands on the boss, he couldn’t push through and knew after a few seconds this was something different.

By then the ball of lighting was fully formed, three feet in diameter, and Max sent it upward into the metal undercarriage of the boss. The smell of something burning came a few moments later and the way the boss had been spinning its midsection slowed down.

“Lightning that spider!” Max shouted.

Punching the metal side of the boss’s leg, Max saw that the barrier seemed less bright and didn’t feel as absolute as it had before.

Charging another lighting attack, Max easily dodged the leg that tried to kick him.

The boss moved backward, the weapon attached to its arm coming between its own legs, and Max almost laughed, moving sideways and sending the bolt of lightning into the boss’s underside again.

A flash of light came from around the boss and then a popping sound was heard.

Throwing another punch, his hand connected against the metal, nothing preventing his attack. Without hesitating, Max raced from underneath, pulling his halberd out.

Fowl had been right. He had been an idiot against the first automaton they fought on the wall. Going for the leg instead of the head had been a poor choice of skill use and had they not practiced that fight, he might have wasted the skills here.

Now he appeared above the boss’s head, coming down as his hammer glowed, ready to end this.

[ Demonic Teleportation ]

[ Power Strike ]

[ Magical Strike ]

The sound of metal breaking and shattering came and Max saw the carnage that erupted from beneath him.

Two unexpected things happened as his hammer struck the top part of the boss.

First, the head of the hammer traveled all the way through the metal head, going down to the base of the shoulders. The large dome-like head was almost split in two from his attack.

The second thing was the cold sensation that came rushing through him. His weapon was lodged in the metal and holding onto it kept him upright.

[ 10 Intelligence Consumed ]

[ 10 Wisdom Consumed ]

[ Consume has successfully Consumed a skill ]

[ Would you like to learn [Engineering & Tinkering Mastery]? ]

[ Yes / No ]

[ Consume has successfully Consumed a skill ]

[ Would you like to learn [Power Core Crafting]? ]

[ Yes / No ]

Those notifications gave Max pause as he ripped his weapon free and turned to see what the others were up too.

Max saw Tanila had destroyed both of the other monsters, her magic having done far more damage than he realized against them.

fellMax tried to pull his weapon free, the boss began to fall forward, giving him a ride as he stood tall on its shoulders.

The crashing sound echoed in the dome they were trapped in. When the boss finally came to a rest, Max yanked his weapon free.

“What do we loot?!” Fowl shouted as he raced toward the fallen boss.

He didn’t have a clue as Max tried to guess at what might even be salvageable. Hacking through the metal wasn’t going to be an option, and anything worthwhile had to be inside the protective armor.

“Don’t bother! I don’t think we can get anything from it!”

Jumping down, he avoided the fluid and blood that was oozing from where the boss’s head was, smiling at Tanila who was grinning.

“Nice work with the two spiders. Makes me feel like I should have let you clear everything.”

Their mage rolled her eyes at him, and Max felt the body of the boss dissolving into nothingness with his sonar skill.

“Anything?” Tanila whispered as she got close, giving him a kiss on his cheeks.

Nodding slowly, he grinned.

“Give me a second and let me see what they do.”

Choosing yes to the first, Max’s mind was overwhelmed at the knowledge that flooded through it. Even with his Formidable Mind skill, this time it hurt in ways he had never experienced before. Learning magic had been painful, but he had known about it. Getting mastery in weapons and even learning to craft wasn’t like this.

Now his mind was ravaged by things Max had never considered a possibility.

Suddenly there was so much potential in the world.

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