Chương 165: Chapter 161

"How rare are you exactly?" Wade muttered to himself as he inspected the crystal shard. Unfortunately, it held no answer, although it was quite pretty to look at. Travel to the mithril lootbox was underway in the meantime. After their not-mimic panic, the team of three and one useless goddess made good progress. Only real difficulty thus far was climbing up steeper sections. Solution had been pretty simple: They had Eri jump up or scramble up the bone walls, then toss rope behind.

The skeleton already weighed a lot less, didn't have a bulky suit to carry around, and had absurd strength since he ran on pure mana. And there was a lot of that to go around. The wagon of bullshit they carried behind them was a tad bit harder of a problem to solve. Wade looked away from the small shard in his glove over to the wagon they had tied rope to, slowly rolling up the steep hill, straps keeping the rest of the bullshit tied down the semi-vertical incline. It looked more like a backpack with wheels now.

In the meantime, the question remained: How to use this thing to the best. The weapons they had on hand was a crossbow, glocks, a shotgun, a Nathir display sword with no enchantments and a looted demonic longsword with a few modern Azdrian ones. That was the options he could use right now. Technically one extra option if he included his fists as a possible weapon. Or Eri's fists. Probably better Eri's fist, given, well, everything.

Far above the steep hill, Wade could hear rapid jaw clicking, as if the skeleton somehow knew someone was thinking about him. There would be payment for services rendered in hauling their gear and themselves uphills like this. They'd settled on a piano to play with once they were back home. Eri was going to start a collection of musical instruments at this rate, and enough hats to put one on each. Zin was on it, assuming Wade could bring back a few mana crystals to trade.

The wagon inched further up and crossed over the lip, out of his view. Then rope was thrown back down in an arc, where Leon deftly grabbed it, gave it a few tugs, and then handed it off to Wade to start climbing up, using the rope to keep himself walking on the wall. This would have sounded a lot more heroic if the hill had been steeper. As it was, the rope just made walking a lot smoother compared to carefully crawling his way up. Wade continued to mull it over as the expedition continued.

If it was rare, it was a good idea to save it for a specific weapon built to abuse it. If it wasn't rare, better to just slap it straight onto the weapon that would help him the most this round and call it a day. Some days, overthinking things really was a loss of productivity. It was unfortunate then, that Wade was a chronic overthinker as a side-effect of coming up with good bullshit ideas to abuse. And unfortunately, he'd only get a single shot to test this enchantment: After it had been used up.

"What is problem?" Leon asked, one hand pulling himself up the last bit of the latest cliff. Eri clicked his jaw, grabbed the copper lootbox and put right onto the wagon, ready to go. Now that the chest was looted, it was no longer off-limits to handle around by anyone. So they chucked it up at the start, and then Eri would climb up and follow through on the rest. The lootbox remained indestructible, so whatever was unfortunate to be in the landing zone was in far more trouble than his lootbox.

Once everyone was up, the chest was lifted and put back on the wagon and the team carried on. It still read system quality on Wade's identify, and he did remember the gold version of this denting Lapushka's hull when the angry golem tried to stomp it into the ground a few times. That chest could be used for something. Or sold for money. Or used to contain something safely. Like his mana crystals.

"I say we putting it on shotgun. Is best use of chance on hit, no?" Leon suggested, looking up to Eri who had that shotgun strapped to his back up ahead, rope tied to his waist to drag the wagon behind him and keep his hands free.

"Well, yes but no." Wade muttered back, following the wagon.

"Yeah, the buckshot rounds with five gagillion pellets would trigger the shield a few thousand times every shot even if the chance on hit was something like one in three half-gagillion hits - but that's too simple isn't it?"

"Ah. System trying to keep balance?"

"Exactly. Every single good idea we've had came from combinations, and unlikely ones. There has to be some bit of extra work and serious thought put into it, just to make sure the enemy team wouldn't figure out the same thing. So I'm betting all the money in my wallet that chance on hit is calculated based on the weapon you're using straight out of the gate." Leon whistled.

"Suka blyat, you betting entire wallet? Very serious." Wade rolled his eyes, and head, while the Russian laughed his ass off behind.

"I know it can't be a static thing." He said, trying to keep on topic.

"Putting this on a knife vs a machine gun, it can't be the same exact chance on hit buff for both." Eri clicked his jaws up ahead with knowing consideration, absolutely having no idea what the other two behind him were actually talking about but not wanting to be left out either.

"We have weapons here to pick from, shard to enchant weapons with, only reason to delay is that you are delaying." Leon said.

"Is fear of missing out." Play bobbed behind them, refusing to walk on the ground like a normie would. But boy did she have her unasked for opinions to share.

"Hoarding gear and potions for the final boss is a rite of passage for any faithful gamer~""Also finding out none of it was really needed for the final boss, I'm well aware." He'd done his time and learned his lessons. It's a shame he was still part-magpie on the inside, because instincts rarely faded away in the face of logic and experience.

"Don't forget the best part, seeing everything you're hoarding get outscaled by other gear as the game goes on." She added, with a little wink that had a glittering bit of dust and stars fade out to the side.

"Early game power is early game, thus sayeth your divine and beautiful goddess." She also stuck her tongue out and made a pose, but the less Wade thought of that, the better his day was. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Yeah, I know, I know. The problem is that this isn't a game, if I fuck this up, I don't know how bad it'll get." Wade said as the team hiked forward through the realm.

"I'm thinking it through." But Play did have a point. Because the shard was exactly that: Early game power. It had come from a copper lootbox. One not even protected by a mimic, and no luck trigger either. It couldn't be that rare to get.

"Maybe it not a very strong fire shield?" Leon suggested.

"Cosmetic effect?"

"Naw it'll be useful for something." Play said, now floating with her arms cradling her head, as if she was floating on water. She drew closer to wade, eyeing him from the side.

"Michael already knows how to use it and what to use it on. He's just dragging his feet about it~" Play was correct. Deep down in his gut he already knew what to use it on. There really was only one thing that was stopping him from making his choice.

"I'll decide what weapon the shard enchants when we get the mithril lootbox, that'll have a brand new boon to work with, which might change everything. It's important enough to wait…. for…" He might have to figure it out faster. Because he saw a new message pop up on his log and it had taken all of his attention. New Fleeting Quest: Problem with the HOA - Defeat or dissuade looting attempts on your mithril lootbox. Rewards: One Storefront coin. Insignificant Leveling Experience.

"WHAT?!" If that didn't get Wade out of his funk nothing else would. Someone else getting to his lootbox, which he had spent his MONEY on (technically), was absolutely going to put a second wind in his feet and make him double time it. Eri clicked his jaw. Perhaps the metaphor wasn't quite accurate to the situation, given Wade wasn't running on his feet. That would be inefficient. The promised piano had been upgraded into a grand piano now.

Because Leon and Wade both rode on the wagon of bullshit while Eri sprinted ahead like a discount huskey, mana empowered strides pushing the two rookie arcanaughts behind far faster than they could waddle around in the thick suit by themselves. The skeleton continued to click his jaws without pause, but Wade was pretty sure that was maniacal unhinged cackling. He'd think about the skeleton later, he was busy complaining to the universe.

"They can't possibly get my lootbox right? Right!? No, not the actual right, stay on the next left here, sorry." Wade seethed under his breath. Where was he? Ah, the complaining.

"That's not possible! How did goddamn Players even get here of all places? And next to my goddamn mithril lootbox before even we got to it?! No, no, keeping going straight for - yeah, you got it. Anyhow, aren't they going to die out here in hours? What the fuck. This is bullshit! Why are there players down here at all?!"

"Making more sense why I getting entire quest to escort you to lootbox." Leon shook his head wryly, one hand holding the wagon so that he wouldn't get shaken off.

"System playing a game in a game."

"More of an opportunist from what I've seen." Play said, floating along just as fast.

"Might be having a giggle. Or maybe it put your lootbox in a place it considered a hotspot, so that you'd run into people and get more quests~""Yeah, but that's MY lootbox! It should have been an easy grab and go!" The wagon raced over a small dying trickle of mana, the weight of both Wade, Leon, the copper lootbox and all the rest of their gear outright squashed the fleshy moss on the ground as Eri raced forward, leaving bloody streaks behind.

"Swear to god, we're going to tokyo drift into the area with guns blazing if they opened it up. I don't care if we need to work with them later for team humanity or whatever the fuck the end game is. That's my goddamn loot." Eri clicked his jaw again. The term tokyo drift floated through, Market's blessing give him the context he needed in a half second. And now he knew he needed a car. A sports car in specific. With pretty vivid colors.

He turned his skull backwards to leer at Wade, all the while sprinting forward.

"We'll figure it out back home!" Wade hissed back, making sure the glock was ready to fire at any would-be thieves.

"More getting us to the lootbox faster!" Fortunately, he hadn't needed to use that glock on anything out here yet. Animal wise, there had barely been anything scuttling around larger than a mouse. Which felt odd, but Wade figured that might be the more natural state of being. Last round they had a bullseye painted all over them, attracting enemies to their location. That might have contributed to a lot of the bullshit.

But the closer to the mithril lootbox they were getting the more Wade was noticing the lack of life. And it all stemmed with the dying streams of liquid mana. There were groves in the bone where prior erosion happened, but the streams that should have been here had almost all run dry or were now a very faint trickle. And they should have run into plenty more, since they were slowly winding down and down. His compass started getting real twitchy now, and Wade knew the team was close.

Eri barreled them out into what looked like a massive pocket of air in the realm. And a giant crater slowly leading to the very bottom, where there was a shallow looking pool of liquid mana that looked woefully tiny in comparison to the cavern. Wade got his first sight at the would-be thieves.

"Well, they probably not players." Leon said as Eri came to a stop and held the wagon from tipping over and running downhill to the center pool. The pair disembarked, looking over to the other team on the far end. There were five of them. All in arcanaught suits. Which meant they were locals to Azdrial, or somehow managed to get enough info on how to wear one. Wade and Leon were probably the only ones from Earth who even knew about this realm or how to even walk around it.

"No, they're not players." Wade said, looking to the team.

"Look at how they're positioned and moving around. I'd guess they're all pretty used to doing whatever they're doing down there." Two were standing guard behind the team to watch their six, another two were at the shorelines of the small pool, hands stretched out like they were warming up at a campfire. And the last one stood at the center of the formation, giving out orders. And right underwater, in the centerpoint of the crater, was his mithril lootbox. Currently being harrassed by two undead skeletons.

It was at least deep enough their skulls were completely submerged, but not by much. They were tugging on the chest, but otherwise not having any success. Two miners, two guards, and possibly the captain or a warlock at the center giving orders.

"They're miners I think." Wade said, "But where's their gear and wagons to carry stuff back?"

"Scout team." Bael said over the phone, watching with Medy from their safe couch.

"And if they're here, it means trouble."

"What kind of tro- oh." New Fleeting Quest - Survive the coming mana incursion event. Rewards: Copper Lootbox. Storefront coin.

"By chance, anyone know what a mana incursion means? Or why it might be hard to survive one?"

"Oh, I'm surprised you know the name for that." Medy said, "I thought you didn't know anything about the arcane realm at all?"

"I don't." Wade answered, watching as the group ahead noticed. Specifically how four of them all drew swords out, and started advancing forward on them at the command of the center man.

"I just got a quest about it."

"Same." Leon said, then pointed his hammer at the arcanaughts coming up.

"They level twenty to thirty. Check identify."

"Great, nowhere near what I need to get anything done, but high enough to be annoying to deal with." Wade looked over his quests.

"Could be good crewmates for your new fort. Just saying~" Play said, and Wade realized he couldn't spot the NEET anywhere. She'd gone invisible. No, not quite, he saw a cloud of glitter moving around.

"What are they scouting for?" Wade asked, keeping his glock out, while Eri pulled his shotgun on his off hand, while his greatsword rested on his right shoulder, with his main sword arm holding the hilt. He looked the most dashing of them all. Like an undead holy vampire slayer or something.

"This place is going to be flooded with mana soon." Bael said.

"There's a hole somewhere in Azdrial that opened up, and mana is getting sucked out from there, into here. It'll condense once it hits critical mass."

"Oh." Wade realized why that meant there'd be a flash flood soon. And since they had been going mostly downhill, all the way down to this single crater here…

"This is the low ground, isn't it?"

"You have some luck. If a scout team is here, it means this place won't be flooded soon. Or they're dragging their feet and playing a risky game." Bael said.

"They're here to map out what parts will get flooded and measure ahead what would be deep enough to be worth putting a stake in early." Medy said.

"There's probably, like, twenty other quick teams all out in different directions? Most are working together, but you could also have a few different cities all trying to get here first. The earlier you claim ground, the more likely others will decide it's not worth haggling over."

"Great." Wade sighed, as the scout team was rapidly fanning out with blades pointed at him. They clearly were not going to give up 'their' mithril lootbox anomaly, and now Wade knew there were tons of arcanaughts scrambling around the local area looking to figure out what caverns would start pooling mana up, and where it's worth putting fences up.

And their base with a giant pool of liquid mana - a deep lake filled with probably a few years worth of crystal buildup that had gone undocumented by the past generation - was probably going to be caught in all this somehow. He got confirmation of that not even a moment after thinking it: New Fleeting Quest: Finders Keepers - Have complete control over your territory by the end of the round. Rewards: Greater Gold Lootbox. Storefront Options. Quest Leveling Upgrade.