Weapons of Mass Destruction

Our trek across the bridge goes much the same as before - we get the same uneasy feeling and the same liquid darkness below, with something seeming to reach out and caress our feet. This time, no one dies, having experienced it before seems to have helped. It doesn’t change the fact that when we cross, everyone exhales, clothes sticking to their bodies, covered in cold sweat.

We reach the SDAT and kill a few monsters along the way. Spiders mostly, as they spin those thin and powerful threads. Most of them are well into the 200s and tend to be the sneaky type, preferring to trap their opponents. Their main strategy tends to revolve around the many types of threads they weave into their webs.

There are, of course, the ones that can cut you apart, should you walk into them, though they’re extremely tough they don’t hold up well against fire.

Then there are the ones coated in a terrible toxin that rots through your skin on contact.

And rarely, we encounter a thicker thread, that seems to have the sole purpose of being impossible to get rid of without cutting away any clothes and skin they come into contact with. The sticky ones also are usually the longest and tend to hang freely from surfaces, entangling you further as you struggle.

[You have defeated Grymlok Spider - lvl 261]

[You have defeated Grymlok Spider - lvl 269]

[You have defeated Grymlok Spider - lvl 233]

[You have defeated Grymlok Spider - lvl 241]

For me, they’re not much trouble, and once I’ve managed to locate a few early on, I know what to look for and find it trivial to snipe them down from a safe distance.

The webs are a different matter. And everyone, including me, has trouble detecting them given their near transparency, there is no mana in them, and most of them are razor thin.

Sophie is working on improvements to her web that should make it easier to find them, and I watch her progress eagerly, ready to steal her ideas and try to implement it into my scans.

Along the way, we find a few bodies, either cut apart or rotted to mush, we even a few even tangled in the web, glued to the stone of the walls, still alive and unable to move.

The web clings viciously to any and everything, and pulling it down tears flesh; burning it is even worse. The web seems to emit some strange substance when it burns, causing extreme pain.

It's an unusually nasty thing, even with our broad range of experience, we never come up with an easy way to remove it without causing even more harm.

The man we free dies on our way back, succumbing to his wounds and shock, and likely whatever toxin was in the thread.

We could have let Lily heal him, or she could have use [Disintegration] to destroy the web at a high cost to her mana. It's possible I could have done something with my [Resonance] or Izzy’s unique application of flame and subclass could have spared the man his burns while we removed the thread.

Yet we didn't.

We leave the body behind for the monsters to eat. But we don't forget to poison it with a skill from one of Famir's men with the hope that some of the monsters will be just dumb enough to eat it and weak enough to die from the poison.

A few hours later, we’ve set up for another round of beating from Maya and the twins, even Tess gets a few hits in this time.

It might be only me, but they seem to be getting bored of it, well, maybe except Maya, who seems intrigued, trying out a variety of techniques, and asking which ones net me the most mana.

I oblige, and she keeps changing her stance, and I notice a slight difference in her attacks. She’s still only using the pure strength of her body. Sometimes she also asks me to stand up and tries to target different areas.

Seeing her progress, I think some of these attacks would cause damage if she uses her mana, and if she used her [Boost], she could probably hurt me. Her [Boost] in combination with [Focus] seems to make for a great combo, not just for massive armors.

We’ve warned people not to fall asleep, but some already had before we got back, and we weren't able to wake them up. They still seem to be sleeping, but it’s creepy. They do not shift, they breathe calmly, and they do not react to the pain or Sophie's mind-blending efforts.

The cause of their state is a mystery; we couldn’t find a single hint.

There aren't many passengers left either. I think there were around 200 of us in total when we got here, and now it's closer to 100.

Yes, some went to explore underground before our small expedition went after them, but that still doesn’t account for all the missing. They’ve just disappeared, no one knows where they went, and no one’s brave or curious enough to go and look for them.

Deathtrap is their safe haven. The old rusty Sand-Defensive Air Transport even fell on its side with a big hole in it. It’s just laying there in this huge cavern that we can't even light fully and no one can be bothered or seems to have the will to waste mana doing so.

So it's dark in here.

With a bit of help from Kallus, we reactivate some of Deathtrap's systems and check the storm. There are some calculations running in the background, I think they’ve stored a huge amount of data in one of the mana stones, data about the previous storms Deathtrap collected, compared to the current one, and then Kallus does some calculations as well. Something they taught them in Guide kindergarten or who knows where.

The storm will last at least for a week with a possibility of it lasting over a month.

I don't think people are happy about it in the least, and when we tell them, a good number of them scream and shout, their faces pale. They’re terrified and they really don't want to stay here.

Some try to force us to leave, some even come to me begging and crying, offering up their items and bodies to me if I would only save them, knowing that I'm probably the one with the highest mana and that I’ve powered Deathtrap before.

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I leave, and when they try to stop me, I shove them against the walls using a bit of kinetic energy. One of them shouts after me, screaming that I will die here with the rest of them, their voice full of spite.

Heading out of Deathtrap, I think about those words.

How would I feel if I died down here?

I’d like to think it would happen only after I’d expended all my options, after I gave it my all, and tried everything I could. I’d also like to think I would die satisfied, knowing there was nothing more I could have done.

Would I regret not making different decisions? Maybe not heading here at all? Storing more mana or acting differently to avoid whatever killed me?

I think I would probably blame my past self a bit, but that's it.

These are just my thoughts based on how well I know myself, so I can't be completely sure yet. But I was close to experiencing something like that, so it probably isn't too far off.

And I'm sure I wouldn't go down easily - I'd be spitting, scratching, clawing, and biting until the very end, probably missing my left arm with my organs spilling out.

I reach Sophie and drop into a squat next to her, her item lighting the small area around us. It’s a small floating cube, powered by a small mana stone, only there to serve as a mana battery. It's a pretty cool item, and it can change the focus of the light, making it weaker to light a bigger area or it can concentrate that light onto a smaller area. It can also shine into the distance or provide a softer, more localized illumination.

I also know Sophie would like to make an item like that that would be useful for Izzy and her fire. It's a good idea, and I'm already taking some notes from that curious item to use with my thermal energy.

“You wanted to say something, but then you didn't and got enamored with that cheap Light Box instead,” she says, rudely.

“Enamored is too strong a word, but it is a pretty cool thing.”

“Yes, it is.” With that, she points at a small pile of white sand that sits a safe distance from us. The “Golem Heart can't control it, unfortunately. If the item was fixed and modified? Maybe it could.”

“I think it makes sense if the sand was created to kill a Champion, it might be too much even for a fully restored Golem Heart. It's just an arcane item, most likely low arcane, even before it was damaged.”

“Only arcane,” she giggles. “I disagree there, I think it would have been capable of containing at least a few dozen grains of sand, maybe hundreds or more, if I could combine it with my skills.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I have a suspicion that each grain of sand might be a separate construct, too intricate for us to examine at this point, but I think given a few months I could make some changes to the Golem Heart and 'steal' some sand for my use.”

“The problem is how do we store it. Do we try Min-Jae's idea? Take some of the protective plating from Deathtrap, twist it, add in a mana battery to keep it powered, and then store the sand inside?” I ask.

Sophie nods, “I think it could work, but maybe we double up the layers and add a few backup power sources? If the white sand got out by a mistake, it could end terribly.”

“Triple layers and we might not even need mana to power it if we sealed it properly. And at least three containers: one bigger and better sealed, one for you to experiment on with a small number of grains, and an even smaller one for me to examine, I just want to play with it a bit.”

“That could work, what do you want to use it for?”

“My bones? My heart? Maybe I’ll find a way to develop a new skill or improve an existing one. It could also help me improve my crafting. Sometime in the next day or two, I want to try melting some of the sand. It might be possible to form it into the shape of a weapon, and in that solid state, it wouldn’t be able to move and attack you. If its properties don’t change too much, you might even be able to use your mana to charge it.”

“Wasn't that Kim's idea?”

“Nope, I thought of it first.”

“I… I see.”

“Yup, I’ll either make these blue brothers prepare some forms for me and move it, or I get them to teach me how to get mana off my clothes and do it on my own, but that would still cost the mana I would need to use to stabilize my crown and leave it behind.”

“Let me know, I would love to see how they did that.”

“No problem.” I nod.

With that, Sophie continues to stare at the small piles of white sand while absentmindedly playing with the piece of clay that is Golem Heart.

“Nat,” she calls quietly after a while.

“Yes?”

“We shouldn’t speak to the Champion again. Maybe we could destroy the bridge so no one can. Izzy’s terrified of him, and she feels like there’s something else here with us.”

“I agree with you for the most part. But let's keep the bridge for now, just ask Tess to have someone guard the path leading to.”

“I will. Thank you.”

Two days pass and no one goes too far away from Deathtrap, and that might be the only reason no one else dies. Well, other than the ones who fell asleep. The ones with the lowest levels die in their sleep; we never did manage to wake them. The cause of death is unknown.

There are also more and more monsters crawling in the darkness around Deathtrap. Dozens and hundreds of monsters, patrolling in groups. Grymlok Spiders place their threads all over the place. The smaller monsters keep releasing their poisonous smoke.

We’re avoiding using mana as much as we can. Plenty of people with higher physical stats just throw rocks at the monsters, it tends to be enough to kill or seriously wound them.

For some reason, I find it funny just how effective the primitive tactic turns out to be.

I also keep getting my daily dose of beating. At this point, I think most of the passengers at least suspect what it’s for, but the mana I'm getting outweighs the risk of them knowing.

And now, Sophie, Dravos, Drekar, Izzy, Min-Jae, the twins, Noodle, Biscuit, and I are all grouped, a good distance away from the mold we managed to prepare and fill with white sand.

The mold is something Min-Jae and Tess made using their skills. A formed and twisted piece of metal. There are also a few wires of mana-conductive metal placed in between the sand that fills the form. The wires have some basic inscriptions on them, but we don't know how much of them will survive the heat.

The weapon we came up with is a spear, a long inscribed metal rod I made. At the end of that rod, sits a mold filled with sand and inscribed wire, with the purpose of forming the blade of the spear out of the molten sand.

It's the first attempt, so I don't expect it to end well; and then there are the haters who, if they knew, would be there screaming at us for doing this in the situation we find ourselves in. They can screw off.

I let out a concentrated stream of golden energy and point it at the mold.

Just like all the times before, the white sand fails to react to the primordial energy, and I gradually, over the next few minutes, narrow the stream and increase the heat.

The white sand slowly rises to temperature, glowing a bright, hot, red, but it takes longer than expected but it does eventually melt. It takes quite a bit of thermal energy, but at this point, it's just too late to stop.

So I continue, and over the following minutes, the sand starts melting just as it reaches a white-hot glow. The texture of the sand changes, oozing from its gritty and granular state to a more viscous and glass-like pool. Small bubbles form and pop as trapped air escapes, and more than anything, it begins to remind me of burning hot lava.

My golden flames light the area, and the heat can be felt even from this distance.

The final result is a pool of molten, glowing, liquid glass that shimmers in shades of yellow and white. It’s at this point that I cut off the flames, and the area darkens once more without their illumination, the only light comes from the molten sand and Sophie's lightbox.

The molten white sand solidifies into glass in the form as it cools, its surface rough and irregular. To be honest, it's ugly as hell.

Mana-Reactive Spear (Upper Epic) - This spear ignores mana-based defenses and absorbs mana on impact, sharpening its edge against physical armor and barriers. It becomes progressively more effective with each moment it absorbs mana, but if pushed too far, it will shatter explosively, scattering a mist of fine, cutting particles capable of causing great harm over a wide area.

But as I look at the finished weapon, I have to wonder. What would happen if I stabbed the Champion with it? Would the altered sand forming its blade activate the fail safes in this place?

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