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Chapter 123 - Pylons
🕑 Added 2024-08-30 20:00:06 +0000 UTCThe hammer was AMAZING. It was everything I wanted it to be and more.
After Austin's frostbite was cured, he was kind enough to spar with me to break the weapon in.
With his misfortune of touching it known, I refrained from hitting his uncovered skin with it, but the rest of him was fair game. The weapon was so cold that it caused frostbite just by touching it.
The weapon was that cold. I didn't even have to use mana or skills to get it to such temperatures, the ice it was made of was just that cold.
It was great.
During testing, I used a few skills through the weapon and couldn't help but laugh manically at the result. It was like a mage's staff. It worked as a focus to amplify spells.
It only worked on Ice based skills but that was most of my arsenal. [Mighty Blow] didn't get the boost but every other skill I had did.
Casting [Ice Arrow] or [Sweeping Snow] through the hammer strengthened the skills with less effort.
[Icy Bastions] came out stronger and larger, [Ice Arrows] came out bigger and flew faster.
[Pervading Cold] got a huge boost to its effect, freezing Austin's armor completely and we had to stop to let it thaw out. I worried that it would break after it frosted over and became brittle.
It was perfect.
The wood felt good in the hand and the Ice was the strongest material I had seen. The knots and intricately carved Runes along the wood brought the whole thing together into a majestic weapon of war.
The ornamentation was subtle enough that it didn't come off as a showpiece but stood out as better than average.
To test the effectiveness of my new hammer versus my old one I set up a test between the two. I would hit my new hammer with my old one to test its durability.
There was little doubt that my new one was better, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. I had no need of two hammers and would most likely melt my old one down anyway, might as well have it go out with a bang.
I laid my new one up against an elevated rock while I hefted my old one up over my head.
To give it the best test I could, I layered [Mighty Blow], my Law, and my Spirit into my old one to make it as hard as possible and maybe give it a shot.
The only thing I didn't do was use my boosting skill or get [Avalanche] built up. The test wasn't worth racing around for two hours building it up.
The ending surprised no one.
My old hammer shattered into a thousand pieces. Ice shards exploded out from where the two hammerheads collided and showered me in bits of Ice along with a few others that were standing close enough to the explosion.
The only thing left of the weapon was the wooden rod that used to be the shaft of the weapon and even that was vibrating uncomfortably in my hands from the impact.
Now it was reduced to a wooden staff instead of the hammer it used to be. Maybe someone could use it as a Bo staff or something? It was a strong wood and I had no further uses for it.
I wasn't upset about the outcome, far from it really. The result meant my new weapon was that much better. There wasn't even a trace of the impact on the new hammerhead and I hit it with everything I had.
It proved sturdier than my Law and Spirit combined. That was a hard thing to do. Even the E-Ranked beasts with sturdy bodies from previous waves couldn't say the same.
Another thing that I noticed after using it, and testing it out, was that there was a connection between me and the hammer. It didn't feel like anything bad, but there was certainly a link that connected us. Bound us together.
The skill said that it would be bound after being summoned but I wasn't sure what that meant at the time. I still didn't, but now I knew what it felt like at least.
No one I mentioned it to was able to see the link and neither did they know anything about bound weapons. It didn't sound bad and it didn't hurt, so I could only dismiss it to look into when I had more information.
While I sparred to test it out and get a feel for it, it wouldn't get its real test until later. The last wave was due tomorrow and it would get its christening in blood then.
While swinging it around there weren't many things that I didn't like about it. It was an overall upgrade from the weapon I had used before with only one difference.
The only downside to the weapon was it was heavy.
It put the heavy in heavy weapon.
Now that I could level again that wouldn't be a big deal after a few rolled in and my strength started to shoot up again like back before I was level capped. Now that I was getting 21 strength a level, heaviness wouldn't be a problem for long.
Now that everything regarding my evolution was over, I pulled up my new status to give all the changes a look.
~~
Name: Christopher Zalenski
Race: (E) Human*
Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) – Level 50
Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) – Level 50
Affinity: Ice
Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)
Strength - 478
Agility - 264
Perception - 142
Fortitude - 391
Endurance - 200
Vitality - 151
Intelligence - 143
Wisdom - 244
Acumen - 102
Free Points: 0
Laws: Lesser Law of Ice
Body Stage: Body of Wood(Northern Wind Body)
Spirit Stage: Anchor Formation
Class Skills: Mighty Blow(Uncommon), Reinforced Body(Uncommon), Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Apprentice), Identify(Common), Pervading Cold(Rare), Sweeping Snow(Uncommon), Icy Bastion(Rare), Heavy Armor Proficiency(Apprentice), Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Journeyman), Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon), Righteous Fury(Rare), Hail(Common), Ice Manipulation(Uncommon), Cold Meditation(Uncommon), Ice Arrow(Uncommon), Shatter(Uncommon), Frost Armor(Rare), Momentum of the Avalanche(Rare), Frozen Fortitude(Uncommon), Permafrost(Uncommon), Mental Freeze(Uncommon), Glacial Presence(Rare), Frozen Patchwork(Rare), Frostbound Hammer(Legendary)
Profession Skills: Sense Metal(Common), Create Weapon(Common), Create Armor(Common), Metallurgy(Common), Forging Proficiency(Novice), Mana Engraving(Uncommon), Mana Infusion(Common), Basic Runecrafting(Uncommon), Forging Style: Rhythm Forging(Uncommon), Warding(Uncommon), Formations Mana Flow(Uncommon), Runesmithing(Rare).
Coins: 0
Points: 1,497,200
~~
It was looking mighty fine. With the stat boost from the Racial evolution, all my stats were now over 100. It didn't come with any achievement or anything like that, but it felt nice to have all of my stats in the triple digits.
My points took a hit after buying the Heart but I didn't need them anymore anyway. All the points I earned in the last few days of the tutorial would be going to my family for them to buy bloodlines and get them ready for their own evolution.
Abigail evolved not long after Jonathan did which made me the 6th of my family to reach the E-rank. Rachel was level 50 but she was waiting for a few more things until she went through with it. I wasn't sure exactly what she was waiting on but I guessed it was her Law.
She wanted to push it to Lesser like I had before going through with it.
Plus, she wanted a more expensive bloodline than what we could currently afford. She really wanted a draconic bloodline but I wasn't sure we would be able to afford it.
There would be a lot of points to be had conquering the fallen pylons but we still had the others to think about. 11 people still needed to get a bloodline and we weren't going to blow all our points on Rachel's.
She had her own points that she had been saving up and had a few more days to push for more, but we were returning to Earth in under 4 days.
It felt weird to think that. In just over 3 days we would be back home. After everything we had been through, it didn't seem right somehow. 90 days passed in the blink of an eye. It felt like only yesterday we were getting inducted into this new System.
Without anything left to do, I decided a change of plans was in order.
Instead of waiting for the wave to come to me tomorrow, I would go have a workout fighting a few of the pylons on my way back north. It wouldn't make it easier to conquer since more would fill in were I killed, but we might just be able to get Rachel a dragon bloodline yet.
~~
Defend your claim!
Wave Start: 0:59
I heard the ding for what would be the last time. No more waves would come after this one. No longer would we be forced to fight for our lives every three days.
We knew that cities had waves like this but they weren't nearly as frequent as the tutorials had been. They would come once a month and sometimes not even that frequent.
It was a hotly debated topic based on the information we had on city ownership and something I took a keen interest in giving my intentions.
While everyone had the ability to buy a Civilization Pylon from the store if they had sufficient coin, that didn't mean everyone was able to found a city.
When someone founds a city, the surrounding land gets claimed by the pylon when it is placed. Like owning a deed to the land the pylon claims, the leader gains ownership of the land. No other Pylon would be able to claim the land that another pylon has ownership of unless it was from the same faction.
Pylons placed under the ownership of another were called subordinate pylons.
If one pylon claimed a vast swath of land from being leveled up a few times, another pylon was able to be placed inside that radius if it was owned by the same person, or faction, that holds ownership the first one.
Creating a Village or Town that was tied to the original City. Owned by the same people.
It was how Kingdoms set up their land and what brought about the Noble hierarchy that the System used.
That was a whole different can of worms that I didn't want to open. I didn't want to be King or start an Empire, just one City was enough for me. A heavily fortified and defensible city, but a City nonetheless.
I could let other people have the fun of starting Kingdoms and fighting each other for land. I would be able to stay isolated up North and maintain neutrality. A don't mess with me stance.
Or that was what I hoped.
There might come a time later when I had a few subordinate pylons but that would be a long ways off.
The subordinate pylons would never be able to grow past a certain rank though. They would be capped by the level of the first pylon. If the first rose to City level, then the subordinate pylons would be able to go to Town level.
There was also a cap on how many subordinate pylons one could have. A City couldn't have countless Towns and Villages under its control and could only have a few of each.
The only other way to conquer land was fighting for pylons in battle.
The rules on placing pylons and claiming land kept people from placing them too close together or claiming land that others already held ownership of.
Now, placing a pylon was all well and good, but the System didn't want just anyone to own a city. It sent tests to make sure the owner was of sufficient strength to own it.
Those tests came in a few different forms but they were similar to what we had faced with the waves.
It was the System's way of making sure millions of Cities didn't pop up and by making people earn the right to own one.
Similar to the reason we had to fight off a wave to upgrade our pylons to the next rank. The System was full of fun little tests like that.
And that was all only for Planetary City structure and Planetary Nobles. There was a whole other level above that going as far as Galactic Scale. High-Tiered people weren't satisfied with only holding ownership of a planet, they needed more.
Planetary bodies and Galactic Sectors of ownership were common in the multiverse with their own set of noble titles. Calling them a Planetary Duke instead of a Galactic Duke was a grave insult and could be punishable by death in some Duchies.
I didn't get much more time to ruminate on that whole jumble of problematic societal structure as the countdown reached its end.
A wave of monsters spawned in for the last time.
~~AN~~
With the arrival of the last wave, the end of the tutorial is near. With all of the achievements that Chris has racked up, what do you guys think he will get as his prize?
Comments
Kemizle
Didn’t this skill already upgrade? Class Skills: Mighty Blow(Uncommon)
nightmare
Sorry if u already answered this already. But I thought he had an Arctic affinity?
Oladipupo Oluwasile
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe as faction leader (permanent) his followers will gain his affinity.
IAMather
I’m thinking he gets a civilization pylon because he held his factions pylon until the end. And then personal rewards maybe an epic or legendary skill because he pushed his class so high. Maybe bonuses for people who join his faction back on earth? I’m wondering if city pylon placement affects the affinity of people in it. I know he wants to go north so are people born there or who unlock their affinities there more likely to be ice?
Supperwaffle
Nah he already has better armor options he just prefers his own maybe a transfer from points to coins
Demonlord
Thanks for the nice chapter 😊 Nice to know more about the pylons and coming social structure... In regards to his rewards i think of a lot of money to buy things from the pylon and starting his own City... Also a lot of boosting achievements and maybe a magical armor or something like that
