Chương 183: Chapter 177

The next three runs of the water fracture were filled with ceiling snakes and hydras, trying to swallow them whole or just drown them in putrid poison. Despite Clarissa's completely understandable aversion to the mobs, they mowed them down like kids did unattended candy at a Halloween party. Drops were so-so, mostly consisting of more high-quality water snake meat, literal barrels worth of poisons, and other useful reagents.

"We can't keep going like this!" Isabella declared after they finished the fourth run.

"What's the problem?" Sam asked as he finished his stretching. Always staying alert and ready to strike to deflect incoming attacks, gave him a crick in several places.

"The loot! We have so much stuff that a few more runs and it's going to be full!" she almost yelled looking at Sam with concern. Sam just smiled. At this point in time, the inventory was simply normal, they had a lot of slots, more if your Strength or Endurance was high. Most important items couldn't be stacked, like IDs or important quest items. But hundreds of meat pieces of a monster? They could stack that high. The stack height was based on Dexterity for some reason.

Every ten in Dexterity increased the stack height by fifty, with a base number of fifty. However, there was no weight limit. It worked on the principle of 'if it fits, it sits'. However, Sam knew that for some reason they changed that so that there would be an actual weight limit. The developers never released the official reason, but Sam posited that they also realized that the inventory, as it was now, was severely invalidating the existence of objects capable of carrying products or materials.

Weird oversight for a game that was this advanced…

'Maybe we will be the final impetus for that update…' Sam mused as he beheld Isabella.

"Just craft some crates. I'll then add some stasis and expansion runes, and tada! We have containers that we can stack hundreds high," he told her. She blinked, then facepalmed.

"Ugh, duh. Of course… Just add more containers…" Sam watched as she did an about-face, headed for the nearest tree, and began cutting it down. He made a motion toward the others and they soon joined the bladedancer to remove a greater part of the local forest. He, however, didn't join them. Instead, he took a seat at their small camp table, took out a few sheets of paper, and began drafting the runic circle they would need for the containers.

'Well, at least my skill levels will go up…' Took them a few hours to take down enough trees to craft crates according to Isabella's plans. Magic made things rather easy and convenient. Especially as some trees were so steeped in dimensional energy that Katie managed to intimidate them into transforming themselves into finely crafted crates…

The moment one simple crate was done it was sent over to Sam, cutely carried by one of the familiars – except, of course, Puffball, who was leisurely cleaning himself – and he would inscribe a simple runic circle that would enlarge the inside by a small margin, almost doubling the capacity, add a certain level of stasis and would make sure the items placed inside wouldn't move around.

Sam was glad they were in the middle of a distortion as the dimensional energies in the air had soaked into the plants found in the area where they made their camp, and that made the wooden material especially suitable for that kind of enchantment. Then, when they had enough, they all emptied their inventories of rocks, metals, ores, monster meat, scales, bark, and other materials sorting them into crates. They even filled one with just wood from the trees the crates were made from. Just in case.

The full crates then went to Katie's inventory, as she had the highest physical stats and thus the deepest inventory. Then they spent a few minutes prettying up their inventory, making sure everything was in their proper place, and dove back into the water fracture. With renewed vigor and freshly freed-up inventory space, they went into the fracture with renewed spirit.

The crabs were still crabs, striking extremely fast with their giant pincers, but with Sam's wind magic and Katie's manic energy, it was child's play to flip them over and destroy them through their softer underbelly. Sadly, the ceiling snakes were still creepy. Their chimeric versions even more. Still, that didn't stop the team from massacring all of them, collecting the loot – including a bunch of Poison Blood skillbooks – and harvesting the carcasses, then playing whack-a-hydra with the boss.

There were a few notable drops, though mostly special scales, from the boss that could be used in blacksmithing. Melting the scale into special alloys would allow a good enough blacksmith to draw out the hydra's special attributes. They were doing their ninth run in the fracture when that changed.

"What's this?" came the unexpected call. By now had they practically perfected their moves in the fracture, moving like a well-oiled machine. So, for somebody to break that flow, it must have been very important or weird. Or both. Based on the ceiling snakes, Sam's money was on the second one.

"What did you find, Katie?" he asked as his friend moved out of the cover of the giant snake that had crab legs and one pincer as a mouth. She stepped forward and held out her hand, showcasing what she was holding. It was a weirdly shining ore around the size of a fist. It had an aura of deep blue, reminding them of the depths of the ocean, but also had a layer of silvery light that pulsed very slowly.

"Any idea what is it?" Katie asked as she leaned closer to inspect it. Clarissa took one look at it and saw where it came from and simply turned away. Dan wasn't so squeamish.

"Did you just cut that out of its stomach?" Katie nodded, head tilted to the side.

"Yeah! Why?" Sam was meanwhile blinking in surprise. That was indeed a good find. It was basically a water snake bezoar. The snake swallowed materials that it couldn't digest, which over time would be collected in a specific spot and transformed by absorbing the monster's mana. This type was called water iron and could be used to craft a rather potent magical focus for water mages.

'Pity none of us are water mages…' he mused as he moved closer and aimed his mage sight at the curious metal.

'But there are other uses… Liz is going to love this." Sam smiled at Katie, then began to explain what he knew. On their tenth run, the hydra changed. So far, it was always a simple hydra with seven heads that would grow back unless they burned the tissue in the neck hard enough that it could be smelled from miles away. This one, however, had more armor, suspiciously looking like a crab shell, and had some bigger arms that were formed, almost like pincers.

As they watched it roar, Clarissa couldn't help but speak up.

"We're going to have to fight a big chimera, aren't we?"

"Look on the bright side…" Sam replied, deadpan.

"What bright side?" came the acerbic reply.

"We get to kill it!" Clarissa thought for a little, then nodded.

"Can't argue with that…" Their guess was right and the moment they stepped into the boss' chamber for the final time, they knew it would be different. Instead of the stone 'décor' they got used to, there were creepy wall carvings of crabs worshipping a giant snake with multiple heads. The pool of water was more circular, with a well-defined and worked edge that had small statues of crabs in various states of chimeric transformation facing the water.

Not long after they took in all the splendor of the cavern, it began to shake, raining stone and dust on them, while the water began to churn.

"That looks bigger than the other ones," Isabella idly commented. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. They didn't have to wait long, and soon the heads began to emerge. However, instead of the usual seven, Sam counted thirteen. Six were normal. Well, as normal as a hydra's head can be. Six were clearly crab hybrids, covered by spiky shells and having pincers in front of their mouths.

And the last one – the biggest one – had four eyes, surrounded by spiked shells, fangs the size of a man, and the scale shined with unearthly light. It roared, and Sam could feel that not only the ground and walls shook, but the mana in the air also rippled.

"Well, ladies and gents…" he spoke casually, raising his sword and aiming at the biggest head.

"As the saying goes…Fire when ready!"

"Did we get anything good from this abomination?"

"Another one of those weird bezoars. A few skillbooks. And a lot of scales," came the report.

"Any good?"

"A Poison Blood, another Healing Blood, a Chimera Scales, and two Hydra Breaths."

"Chimera Scales?"

"Check it out!" [Chimera Scales: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Your blood produces a special substance that turns your skin scale-like. The scales are miniscule, so from a distance, your appearance doesn't change. However, it massively increases your durability both against physical and magical attacks. Ingesting hydra blood also increases the skill levels.]"Pity it's blood magic…"

"Are we going to sell it?" Sam shook his head.

"No. This is too powerful." They left the abomination-filled fracture relieved. Their first task, before unloading the ungodly amount of hydra and ceiling snake meat into crates, was to check up on the Tree of Rewards. The small plant had grown during their plundering of the water fracture and after the final one, it had grown enough that it became knee-height with a crystalline shaft that had a wood-like pattern on it.

Clarissa made sure to feed it one seed after every fracture clear, but so far, they couldn't see any result from that. However, before they could do anything, they were distracted by the distortion around the camp. Slowly it began to pulse with eldritch light, ebbing and flowing to an unseen rhythm, then as they were just wondering, if they would have to fight some kind of monster, the distortion simply vanished leaving behind pristine green fields, trees, and a few flowers.

Though one of the flowers had fangs and was trying to eat the nearby flowers. The newly revealed area also uncovered six more fractures, each portal shining with malevolent energy. Isabella didn't waste a second and ran to the nearest one.

"Rock and plant! Only four charges!" she yelled back and the team as one released a relieved sigh. After they were finished organizing the loot in freshly crafted crates, the cannibal flower was hunted down and placed in a pot for Katie to admire while bugging Clarissa for tips on caring for plants, Sam sat down at the table and opened his system screens. They were finished with the first layer of the fractures, so he felt it was time to check his gains. [Congratulations! You've leveled up!] [You're now Level 66!] [You gain 22 unassigned attribute points!] [I don't know how you do this. You gain +3 MAG, +3 WIS, +3 AGI, +1 DEX, +1 PER!] Sam ignored the snarky message from the system and grinned at his unspent points while he rubbed his hands together. Five went to Strength and Vitality each, getting them to thirty. Three to Endurance for the same reason, then two to Dexterity and Agility followed. Perception only needed one extra point to reach thirty. The last four points were then invested in Wisdom.

Sadly, luck stayed the same. [Mana Manipulation is now Level 67!] [Mana Rebirth is now Level 2!] [Mana Shield is now Level 99!] [Second Skin is now Level 5!] [Mana Flux is now Level 5!] [Mana Tempered Body is now Level 79!] [You gained the subskill, Reinforced Musculature!] [Reinforced Musculature: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Your mastery over your body and mana grants a reinforced musculature which increases any body-enhancing skill by 3% per skill level.] [Reinforced Musculature is now Level 1!] [Ethereal Channels is now Level 5!] It was nice to see his favorite foundation skills grow, however, the Level 99 Mana Shield caused a frown to appear on his face. Technically, the skill didn't have an upper limit, but after breaking through, the increases would slow down drastically. [Perception Filter is now Level 19!] [Accurate Slashes is now Level 5!] [Illusionary Mana Slash is now Level 6!] [Mana Body Enhancement is now Level 99!] [Mana Unraveling is now Level 4!] [Spell Matrix is now Level 13!] [Mana Construct is now Level 46!] [Simplicity is now Level 3!] [Light Ball III is now Level 10!] [You learned the spell, Light Ball IV!] [Light Ball IV: level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to conjure a ball of light to illuminate your surroundings. You have greater control over the movement and location of the conjured ball of light. You can greatly increase and decrease its intensity, shape, and color. Thanks to your mastery over your mana, summoning a light ball basically costs nothing.] [Clean V is now Level 7!] [Earth Wall IV is now Level 5!] [Ground Shake is now Level 10!] [You learned Ground Rhythm!] [Ground Rhythm: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) You don't stomp, you step. Despite that, every step of yours shakes the world. The pulse of mana is much more controllable and you are able to affect the created earth detritus much more easily. The size of the area, the number of pulses, and their strength depend on the level of the skill.] [Electric Spark II is now Level 10!] Two new skills and his Electric Spark didn't grant him a new skill. Granted, he could go to the Mage Tower and buy an Electric Spark III skillbook, but he knew it was useless. He barely used the spell. It was a miracle it reached Level 10! [Wind Manipulation has reached Level 58!] [You gained the subskill, Guiding Storm!] [Guiding Storm: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Despite being surrounded by a storm, either your own make or fate's, you always find your target. Increases your skill accuracy with wind-natured spells.] [Aura of Air is now Level 4!] [Greater Wind Affinity is now Level 48!] [Battle Meditation is now Level 41!] [Internalized Meditation is now Level 2!] [Improved Discernment is now Level 6!] [Silent Casting is now Level 19!] [Spirit Link is now Level 67!] [Spirit Defense is now Level 3!] [Spirit Protection is now Level 17!] A good haul, with a nice subskill. He actually heard of this skill.

It was apparently the favorite skill of a wind mage who used long-distance spells to assassinate their targets. Though, Sam doubted he would ever have the patience for that. [Advanced Shadow Footwork is now Level 49!] [Silent Shadow (Sword Mastery) is now Level 47!] [Shadowpoint is now Level 5!] [Shadow Grace II is now Level 9!] [Shadow Burst III is now Level 7!] [Shadow Mirage is now Level 43!] [Mirage Obfuscation is now Level 5!] [Shadow Shield II is now Level 24!] [Shadow Cloud is now Level 20!] [Shadow Control is now Level 19!] [Shadow Tendrils is now Level 5!] [Greater Shadow Affinity is now Level 37!] [Solid Shadow is now Level 3!]'Ugh… I was on the verge of greatness…' he lamented as he looked at all his skills at 99%.

'So close, yet so far away…' [The way of the Forerunner is now Level 11!] [Durable Armor is now Level 5!] [Immersed Flow is now Level 3!] [Illusion Resistance is now Level 17!] [Corruption Resistance is now Level 24!] [Earth Resistance is now Level 27!] [Dimensional Mana Resistance is now Level 30!] [Adaptive Coordination is now Level 23!] [Basic Cryptography is now Level 9!] [Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 29!] [Your creative and tireless work granted you the subskill, Steady Hand!] [Steady Hand: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) When carving runes, your hand is as steady as a stone. Increases the quality of the runes by 5% per skill level.] [Illusionary Runes is now Level 19!] [Corporeal Illusions is now Level 9!] And with that, he gave the list another read, then closed every window bar one with a satisfied smile on his face. The last was, of course, for Lucky. [Lucky has leveled up! And he is now Level 62!] [Shadow Dash is now Level 20!] [Fear Aura is now Level 20!] [Shadow Bite is now Level 20!] [Your loyal companion has learned the skills, Shadow Steed and Shadow Bleed!] [Shadow Steed: Level 0/50 (0%) (Passive) Your companion has learned how to run while being ridden. Stamina consumption is decreased when being ridden and can carry bigger loads.] [Shadow Bleed: Level 0/50 (0%) (Passive) Your companion's claw has been enhanced by a chaotic shadow field which rends the area where the claws strike, causing extra bleeding.] Closing the last screen, Sam let out a quiet sigh and called over his familiar. Lucky performed excellently during the snake hunt, thus Sam decided both of them deserved a little break. If he spent that break neck-deep in Lucky's silky fur, well… Nobody could really fault him, could they?