End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2), John Gold [ebook reader online txt] 📗

It was a fine hit, only I didn’t think about the consequences. The target was so close that the shock wave hit me. As I tumbled to the ground, the girl leaped over and brought her weapon crashing down on my defenseless throat… She stopped at the last moment.

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already. Now do you believe me?” How can you not believe a sword at your throat? You have to be really strong to stop a sword flying through the air at that speed, and she pulled it off easily.

“Almost… But your armor is bright red, and I don’t know what you’re looking for. Until I know that, I’m not going to join you.”

The girl pulls the sword away from my throat and relaxes her stance, sinking the tip of the blade into the ground and resting her arms on the guard. It’s relatively quiet around us.

“The armor is a family heirloom that lets me use blood knight amplification, though it feeds on my blood. I wasn’t able to use it fully until the last Hunter trial. Thanks to a mutation that boosts my survivability, I can recover my health completely in two minutes. I have family skills for longswords. I was born into a family of swordsmen. Everything clear now?”

“Oh, god, this is the first time I’ve seen anyone put so much money into the game. How much would you have to spend to get such a natural swordsman? It’s probably scalable and set, too.”

“Yes and yes. Quite a bit. But I thought it was the same for you? Although, judging by your reaction, you haven’t spent any money on yourself.” A flash of intrigue flits across the girl’s face.

“First, we need to run. The undead are on their way here. The trees are quivering. Second, I didn’t promise to tell you anything. And third, that still doesn’t explain why you want to fight with me.”

We dash off toward a plateau butted up against the grove. I notice a ledge we can sit and talk on, so I run in that direction. The girl follows me.

“That’s fascinating. You thought about three things at once, and in full detail. Are you sure you’re a kid?”

“Look who’s asking, a non-blood knight!”

“Fine, screw it, you don’t have to say anything about yourself.”

The girl takes a pause, which is fine with me. Like I’m going to bite on that.

“Are you going to keep trying to manipulate me or should I just kill you know?”

“Okay, I get it, you aren’t going to tell me anything. As far as why I want to work together, you can do big damage but you need protection. See for yourself, another attack or two, and the undead are really going to come after you.”

“And your suggestion?”

“Working as a team. You kill as many as you can, and I cover the approaches and pick where we’re going to go next. For now, take your shot. They’re going to figure out where we are soon.”

I look at the hill where we last stopped and see that it’s crawling with undead. It’s the kind of moment I need to maximize.

“Group.”

The girl accepts my indication.

Femida, Level 279

Damn, how much do you have to play to pick up so many levels in a single year? She’s obviously a big spender who spends all her time in Project Chrysalis. Brutal…and she’s a girl? What about all the makeup, parties, and movies? She’s wasting her childhood, the idiot. Of course, the only reason I’m playing is because my whole life is here. What are you spending so much for?

Meteor! I drop down into meditation, with two minutes until my next shot and taking off running. I make sure I always have 10000 mana in reserve.

“Your job is to protect me while I’m meditating. I need a lot of mana. Each meteor takes 10000 mana, so I can launch one every two minutes.”

“Hey, wait a minute, you have 500 morale?” Fem looks at me nervously.

“I’m not telling you.” Why mention that I can use meditation to pick up 8500 mana per minute? It takes me two and a half to get what I need to launch a double meteor.

Every new level gives me attribute points, and I spend them all on intellect. I’m going to be an undead death machine! Find me meat!

“Fem?”

“Yes?”

“What’s your resistance to fire?”

“About 70000. I worked on it all year.”

“That’s not enough to be in fire.”

“What do you mean, not enough? And why are you asking? Wait, can you fuse with fire?”

“I wanted to burn down the forest and all the undead in it, preferably with us here, too. That would let us attract more of them to kill or injure.”

“You’re crazy! Why do you have to burn the forest down? Just use your meteors.”

I’m so happy to have my scalable things. With each five levels, the bonuses they give me are bumped up by one. It’s up to +10 now, making me a monster. My tattoos boost my intellect, wisdom, and morale by twenty-nine percent. The farther I go, the stronger I get.

“Hahaha.”

“What are you laughing about? It’s time to run.”

“I was just laughing at how strong I’m going to be by the time evening rolls around.”

“What happens then?”

“Levels, lots of levels. We’re killing undead three hundred levels stronger than us, so there’s tons of experience to be had.”

“Oh, come on, this isn’t the first time,” the girl replies with a shrug.

“What do you mean? Do you have the titanbane achievement?”

“Yep.”

“Although…yeah, it wouldn’t be that hard with armor like yours.” She could triple-strengthen herself and kill everything alive in less than a minute, and then die from her blood-sucking armor.

“And how did you