World Keeper

Chapter 334: Extermination

Author's Corner: Thank you to Madeline for another month of support!

Now that I had a rather clear goal in mind for something I could be doing to actively help out in the world, I saw no reason not to take the moment to do so. Even if the creature was labeled as a disaster by normal standards, I should still be able to kill it, right? Though, that isn’t to say that I would brazenly go in there unprepared. No matter what, it was still one of the strongest existences in any of my worlds.

Tubrock, any chance you have a set of armor and a weapon that would be effective against a creature with a level just over a thousand? For a moment, I had considered using my elementalist weapon, the chakrams. However, my proficiency with them was still lacking, and I wasn’t sure if the blade would even be sharp enough to penetrate such a strong hide.

Aye, I got somethin’ that should work just fine for ye. Lookin’ for a bow, a sword, or a spear? Got one of each.

Thankfully, his reply was pretty fast, so I didn’t have to wait long. As for those three weapons, I had only experienced fighting with one of them personally. A sword, please. And I’m going to guess that it has some additional functions built into it?

Nah, none of that with this one. Although he said that, I found it rather hard to believe when he sent the item directly to me. A glittering, silver curved blade connected to a golden hilt, a ruby embedded in the pommel. The entire weapon seemed to glow with a holy light that made me sure that it was a weapon crafted for divinity.

This is my Cauber, a sword designed purely to cut. Every enchantment, whether magical, divine, or ki is geared purely towards enhancing its cutting power. If ye can find something that Cauber can’t cut… well, then I’m sorry, but I got no weapon that could break that.

I gave a small nod, my hand reaching out to grab the hilt of the blade. Once Tubrock’s power stopped supporting it, I was left to handle the full weight of the sword. My arm dropped from the surprise burden, my eyes widening in shock. Even with all of my strength with my Keeper stats, I still felt the weight of the weapon. If I had to guess, it had to weight at least… five hundred pounds? Though not enough to make it difficult for me to carry, I wasn’t sure that there were many people within my worlds who would be able to easily wield the blade without other supporting measures.

Okay… now what about armor? Since he had given me a weapon, but no armor, I couldn’t help but voice my concern.

Sorry, lad. Armor’s a bit trickier. Give me a few days, and I could throw something together to fit whatever yer needs may be. But there are too many things to consider when designing an armor. Elemental resistances, whether it is specialized to reduce the effects of bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing, and so on.

While it was… regretful, there wasn’t much I could do. Though, I did have easy access to a good deity level armor, if my thoughts were correct. Leowynn. Sorry, but I’ll need you to return to me for a few minutes. Ashley wants us to go out on a hunt.

I could feel the surprise over my connection with Leowynn, but I also felt her quickly growing closer. It seemed that she had immediately stopped watching Tsubaki when I called her, and began heading in my direction. Emerging from the cracks in the door to the throne room a moment later, her golden mist poured into my body. What are we hunting today, father?

There’s a disaster-level creature in Desbar. She said that if it’s allowed to last long enough to find a mate, then it could destroy an entire country. Since we’re here, she wanted to ask us to take care of it for her.

There was a brief moment of pause as Leowyyn considered my words. That sword is something you acquired from Tubrock to help fight this creature, then?

That’s right. I know you can become a sword, but I wasn’t sure if the Warrior would be the best choice here, as it would be splitting you between offense and defense. I’d rather use the Dragon for this, and have you focused purely on defense. Better safe than sorry.

As we spoke, I passed through the door, quickly making my way towards one of the secret passages. Aurivy was still playing the game, so I didn’t want to bother her with this right now. Not when we had another option to move the Citadel without needing to trouble her.

When we arrived in the control room, I sent a message towards Ashley. Mind pointing out for me where I should be going? I looked at the four spheres floating above the terminal, representing the four planets that the Citadel was connected to.

There was an eruption of fire from beside me as Ashley appeared in her full glory. Her neck cracked as she tilted her head from side to side, approaching the control device. “Ten miles off the coast of Ashara, near the northern tip. That puts it… here.” She pointed towards an island that could barely even be seen on the globe, but made sure not to touch it, leaving that for me to do.

Once I did touch it, I felt the rush of my energies being drawn in. This was not the first time that I was borrowing the power of Tubrock’s creation to move the citadel instead of asking Aurivy to do it for me. I knew to expect the drain, and in fact… it wasn’t as large as I remembered, largely due to the fact that my energies had risen sharply since then.

By the time it was done, I knew that we had shifted positions. Ashley was already gone, having faded away into the darkness while I was feeding the artifact. I shook my head, turning to walk out towards the front garden of the citadel. As I walked, I sent my world sight to Tsubaki’s room, confirming that she was still plugged into the game.

Looks like we’ll need to figure out just how much one is still able to detect while inside the game. I muttered those words to myself mentally, knowing that Leowynn would be able to hear them as well. If Tsubaki had been able to feel the shift in location from the citadel, she would have immediately left the game to rush over to me. That was just the kind of person she was.

When I left the citadel, I was able to see the vast ocean beneath, a sizable island resting just under where we had appeared. Focusing closer, I could see large, shifting forms within the island’s jungle. Trees were bent and brushed aside as the forms moved, the sunlight reflecting off their dense carapace.

Ashley had told me that there was a single scorpion disaster. What she neglected to tell me was that there were a considerable amount of other powerful scorpion monsters that also lived in the same forest. Their bodies were black, lines of red marking their joint. At the lead was one that was nearly twice as big as any of its peers, the black on its body replaced with a pure white.

Even without looking at its information, it was clear that it was the disaster. The only problem was… I couldn’t fight it like this. Even with Leowynn forming my armor, there was no guarantee that I’d be able to hold off against so many powerful opponents without getting stung. And I really didn’t want to test for myself whether or not my body was able to resist that poison.

“Repeating trigger spell slice.” I spoke in the runic language, holding the sword that Tubrock had given me out in front of myself. “Focus spell, strengthened mana blast.”

I watched as, on my wrist, a faint blue rune appeared on my skin. It was the rune for ‘blast’, the mark that I had set up my spell. Not wanting to get into the heat of battle without properly testing this spell, I lightly swung the sword through the air while speaking. “Slice.”

Blue light condensed along the blade, drawing a line through the air where the tip of the sword passed. When the swing was finished, the light flew forward rapidly, a slash of mana sent through the air. I nodded in satisfaction, glad that I was able to get a second tier spell to work with a higher grade weapon.

“Now, let’s do this…” As I stepped off of the platform that held the Sky Citadel, it was clear that the scorpions below had already detected me. Like roaches hiding from a light, that scattered, moving disorderly in every direction.

“Slice.” I spoke the command as I stood in the air, swinging the sword as fast as I was able. As long as the blade did not stop, it seemed that the spell would continue. So… I did not stop. I picked one of the targets, and I kept slashing at a single point in the air from various angles, making sure to never allow the blade to fully rest. In the end, a great star of mana surged out, becoming larger and larger the further it went.

Without waiting to see the result, I repeated the process again on a different scorpion. And again. I needed to make sure that they would stay out of what I had to do next, because there was no way that I could feasibly wipe out the entire species of scorpions on this island.

Once I had sent out my fifth attack, I used my ki to propel myself towards the albino scorpion. From inside myself, I could hear Leowynn’s voice. I manifest the dragon!

As I flew through the air, my body was surrounding in what felt like golden smoke. What used to be black plate armor had turned a shining gold, giving off a feeling of power that was far greater than what this appearance used to present. “Slice!” I called out the attack again, slowing down just enough that I could swing the sword without diving headfirst into my own attack.

The blade of mana shot down towards the scurrying insect and crashed against it, but the creature appeared uninjured. Perhaps the spell was simply too weak to effect it, but it did not have a single scratch in its carapace. I couldn’t help but curse to myself as I saw that, having hoped that the spell would carry the weapon’s sharpness.

Since that didn’t seem to be the case, I could only speed up further, closing the distance between the two of us. My approach, however, was not unnoticed. Well before I made it all the way, it turned to face me. Its tail raised up, its stinger as long as my arm. The tip itself looked as sharp as any blade, but what worried me the most was the speed.

In a moment of danger, my perception seemed to slow, my body feeling sluggish and unaccustomed to such a thing. By rights, I should be faster than any living creature, purely due to my stats. My perception should be higher, and my muscles stronger. However, many facets of my abilities have been… let’s call it sealed, due to never having met the right stimulus. How do you know how much you can lift until you find your limit?

As I saw the tail whipping towards me, still appearing fast even after my perception slowed things down, I realized that I had found the limit for my speed. With the same body type, yes, I could claim to be the fastest. But this thing was built to strike out like lightning, and it showed.

I only had enough time to bring my sword up in an attempt to parry the stinger, my arm straining under the force I was using. But what came next… surprised me even more. As the sword came up to parry the stinger, I felt almost no resistance. Black venom sprayed out as the sword cut into the tail as if it were butter, the tip flying off and rocketing past my body as time seemed to return to normal.

My breath came in heavy pants while the scorpion screeched in pain. It once more turned to run, and I was faintly aware that I had to kill it now, or I might not get such an easy chance later. I still had Leowynn acting as my armor, so theoretically there shouldn’t be anything else that the creature could do to threaten me.

And with that self-assurance in mind, I charged again. I pushed my ki into the blade, wanting to give it as much power as I could, and crashed down on the scorpion’s head heavily. Its pincers came up, trying to grab at me. However, this time I was a step faster. My sword slashed down, into the head of the scorpion, and I once again felt as though I were cutting apart nothing.

That nothing, however, had a quickly depleting health bar, letting out panicked cries every time my wrist moved. Until finally, I pierced the sword into an open wound and smiled wickedly. “Slice.”

Okay, so maybe this time it’s not being used as a cutting attack. Did that really matter when the mana blast from the spell erupted inside the insect’s head? No? I didn’t think so.

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