The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 52 – Old friends and enemies

Matt watched as the little deep dweller rushed over to him with a big smile on its face. He was still slightly startled that it could now speak or at least say his name. Stopping short by a couple meters, the deep dweller, bowed then stepped up to him. He identified the little creature while it approached and was pleasantly surprised.

Forest Deep-Dweller. Level: 27

“It’s good to see you again.” Matt said. He could see 2 others moving closer, peering out from behind the grass and small shrubs in the area. “Have you been well?”

The deep dweller nodded before responding. “Am good. Happy to see you.”

Ok, so it’s more than just my name that it can say. “That is good to hear. When did you learn common?”

“Evolution time. Offered good skill for talking.” It responded then went on to make Matts life a little easier. “My name Tengi in common. No more…” it made the whistling and humming sound. “…please. You say wrong most time.”

Matt laughed. “Ha. Fair enough, Tengi.” He looked around and saw even more deep dwellers popping up. “Are they your family?” Now that Matt had seen more examples of the deep dwellers, he knew that Tengi was indeed a male of his species.

Tengi frowned taking a moment to respond. “Family yes and no. Clan? Yes, clan is right.” he was building momentum and confidence as he spoke. “Good to see you well. Why you here?”

“I was sent to look for something. Tobias thinks there might be something valuable in this area. Have you seen anything?” Matt decided to be honest with the deep dwellers, not wanting to sour the good relationship he had with at least one of them.

“Yes, but ours.” Tengi said. He then hummed softly, tilting his head back and forth a little before asking a question that surprised Matt. “Your city, is safe? People nice?”

“Yeeesss?” Matt slowly responded, not sure where it was going with the question. “Most people in the city are nice and we are making it very safe.”

“Make a deal?”

Matt just stared for a minute then shrugged. “Eh, why the hell not. What did you have in mind?”

Tengi stood up again and gestured for Matt to follow. They walked deeper into the glade, and he saw that there were over 30 of the deep dwellers scattered around. There might be more lurking, but he couldn’t be sure either way. Eventually Tengi led him to a large tree with a nearly hollow base and stopped just outside the opening where Matt could see a golden floating orb.

Verdant Fields sub dimensional resource orb. (Contested)

“So, this is what you have claimed?” Matt asked. He didn’t know anything about it, but saw it was ‘contested’, whatever that meant.

“We tried. Had it once. Then monster came, force us out.” Tengi said.

Matt looked from the orb to Tengi. “Ok, what is the deal you want to make?”

Tengi looked up to him and smiled in a rather unnerving way. “If you help… reclaim, we take to your city. We own, but all can use.” He then went over and mimicked pulling the orb. “If we own, then we can move to city. We all live there, help everyone.”

Turning back to the orb, Matt thought for a moment. He would likely help them out either way, but this would let them get something out of the deal. “Alright, but I can’t make this deal alone. Just give me a minute to call someone and make sure we can have you guys move in.”

*****

Half an hour later, Matt had secured the approval of Franklin. It honestly wasn’t that hard and most of the time was spent explaining what the deep dwellers were. Well, he tried to since he wasn’t exactly sure himself. Still, he climbed back out of the mech and walked over to Tengi. Echo had taken to lurking on the edge of the glade, staying out of sight but moving around the outskirts.

“We have a deal.” Matt said once he made it back to the orb.

“Good, let’s go.” Tengi said and reached out to the orb.

“Hang on, we are bringing along one more.” Matt said as he called Echo over. The drake stalked through the grass with the majority of the deep dwellers none the wiser. After reaching Matt, Echo pushed against him and then he put his hand on the orb. Tengi looked absolutely terrified by appearance of the drake, but he didn’t have time to do anything more.

Do you wish to contest the ownership of Verdant Fields sub dimensional resource orb? Y/N

Matt selected yes and felt himself be pulled into the orb along with Tengi. He didn’t even try to bring Van since Tori had explained that orbs like this would not allow a construct to enter unless they were of a certain type that specifically allowed them. Matt was looking forward to eventually finding one of those orbs.

Appearing in what looked like a lush valley of gently rolling hills, Matt didn’t have time to take in much of his surroundings before he heard Tengi scream. Instantly, Matt went into damage control, pushing out his calm aura to soothe the little blue person.

“Tengi, everything is ok.” Matt said in a soft voice. “This is Echo, he is my familiar and very... eh, mostly friendly.”

Tengi was chattering in his own language. Matt didn’t know what he was saying but had a feeling it was a long litany of curses and appeals to a higher power. Finally, he got himself under control and was able to speak in common again. “Why not tell me?”

“Things happened to quick. I wanted to, but then you just put your hand on the orb and were ready to go.” Matt explained his position. He had only been reunited with Tengi for a little more than an hour and the topic of the Echo never really came up.

“Warn next time.” Tengi said and shook his head before turning to survey the valley before them.

Matt followed his gaze and saw that while the valley looked lush at first glance, there was something within that clearly didn’t belong. Mixed in with the fields, trees and bushes were dark green tendrils snaking along the ground. They didn’t move but they also didn’t need to, since Matt recognized the creatures.

Choker Vine Hive. Level 31

Choker Vine Hive. Level 30

Choker Vine Hive. Level 38

There were dozens that Matt could see and likely more that he couldn’t. His last encounter was with a hive of 5 but this was going to be much worse. The level range was also extreme with no gentle progression, instead the levels jumped up and down at random.

Matt was considering the vine monsters and how to best deal with them. He knew they were very weak to fire and that was what he had used previously. Problem was, last time he was encased in a few tons of armor with much more powerful weapons. He then pulled out the recoilless rifle and studied it.

While the choker vines were primarily weak to fire, explosives should work to. Or so Matt reasoned, though he wasn’t so sure it would be the best option. The rockets were very expensive mana wise, and he briefly wondered if his imbued rounds would be a better option with his normal rifle. “Sorry, Carl. Today isn’t your day.” And he put the launcher away.

Matt’s plan was to use his 2 forms of imbuement and if that failed, explosives. If the explosives failed, then it would be down to his mana shaping and mana blast skill. He had a lot of tricks and just hoped that they would be enough to deal with the infestation of plant monsters.

“Echo, you can go do your thing, I’m going to try some things on my own. Just keep me updated on where you are in case something goes wrong.” Matt said as he got down into a prone firing position and sighted in on the closest of the vine monster’s cores. Echo huffed and prowled off, turning nearly invisible as he blended in with the vegetation.

Taking a deep breath, Matt settled into his rhythm for good precise shots. The nearest plant monster was just over 500 meters out and, while he could probably force a good hit with his armor and increased stats, returning to the basics was always good. He pushed the magnification on his optics as much as he could, maxing out the 10x optical and additional 5x digital magnification to see the dense, fleshy center of the Choker Vine. He held over for the corresponding distance and pressed the trigger.

Bang. The imbued round zipped out in an incredibly flat arc, a trajectory so flat that the bullet was sent right over the target. “What the fuck?” Matt said. He didn’t just miss, he missed by half a meter. He lined up a second shot and fired again. The result was a second puff of dirt right next to the first. “What fresh hell is this.” He said as he got to a knee and inspected his rifle.

Everything was as it should be, none of the adjustments for his scope had been tampered with and the dials remained at their zero location of 100 meters. Thinking of all the possible issues, Matt ran down the list, checking all the likely suspects. All the clamps on the mounts were tight, the barrel screws were still at their witness marks, nothing was loose anywhere that could cause an issue.

With all that ruled out, Matt went on to confirm his zero. He found a tree 100 meters away and picked out a knot from where a branch had broken off. Once again getting into a good position, he fired. 3 rounds this time, then 3 rounds of imbued before walking down to check the results.

Just as he suspected, all 6 rounds were clustered together, centered nicely but over a centimeter high. Once again, he confirmed that his elevation turret was set at the 100-meter mark and accepted his current theory as fact. His stats effected his weapons. With a groan, he walked back to his starting point and pulled out his tablet to do some math.

Matt had a suspicion for the past couple weeks. His theory was that as his stats grew, they altered his weapons and their ballistics. He had noticed that even with stronger enemies, he wasn’t falling behind much in the terminal effects of his bullets. There were differences, but it mostly came down to the type of beast he was facing.

He didn’t expect it to manifest in the external ballistics of his projectiles but guessed it came with the territory. Damage was influenced by energy, which was based on mass and velocity. In this case energy was damage and since the bullets didn’t get heavier, velocity had to be the issue. The problem with increasing the bullet speed was more than just a onetime fix to re-zero.

Because the velocity increased, it changed the flight path through initial external ballistics but also the ballistic coefficient went up as the little 6 mil bullet was pushed faster. With a higher muzzle velocity and higher BC, also came a change to the flight time. If he was engaging a moving target at range, he would have to shorten how much lead he put on. Not that lead mattered at very long range, it was more of a ‘sharing is caring’ methodology of putting a lot of lead in the air.

So, Matt pulled up his ballistic app and input new data. He kept the hard info like bullet weight, its drag profile, optic height and such. He had a way to measure change in velocity and BC by shooting at 3 known distances and measuring the different points of impact. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but it was tedious.

After far longer than he had expected, he was once again fully equipped with working ballistic solutions. It turned out that he had around a 20% reduction in bullet drop, thanks in part to the afore mentioned changes.

Once again lining up on the nearest choker vine, Matt fired another imbued round. The reaction was immediate, confirming the hit beyond the spray of plant matter. The vines writhed in a frenzied fashion that made him glad he wasn’t nearby. The tendrils lashed out in every direction and tore at not only the ground but also surrounding choker vines.

Wanting to try something else, Matt used his unstable imbuement and fired into the same nest of vines. This time the results were much more explosive in nature. The recoil from the shot settled and Matt watched the impact through his scope. The round hit the center of the root like bundle but instead of zipping through, it burst with a little pop of plasma. That little explosion was enough to set the creature alight. After a few moments, the thrashing stopped as the main body of the choker vine went up in flames.

“Well, that was an absolute success.” Matt said to himself. He was pretty happy with the results when using the unstable variant of his skill. He then proceeded to shoot at the next one, moving right down the line, one vine monster at a time.

The entire time Matt was firing single shots into the vine monsters, Tengi watched him, scarcely moving except to flinch from the loud muzzle blast. Matt knew that Echo was off playing with some of the vines in the valley. The drake was finding his own method to take care of the creatures that was much more… creative.

The culling was going rather well, boring but well. Matt had taken out almost 40 of the monsters, gaining just a single level. He suspected that it was because of the rather low risk and that he was higher level than them. He did start to wonder where they all came from and was about to ask Tengi about the source but saw movement in the distance.

Trees on the other side of the valley began to shake and tilt at odd angles. There was a line being drawn through the forest toward the edge of the fields over a kilometer away, headed right for Matt on his hillside.

“Finally.” Matt sighed with relief. “Tengi, what was the monster that took over the orb?”

“Don’t know. Was dark then.” The deep dweller was staring at the commotion in the valley, laser focused on the trees.

Matt wasn’t sure what to make of that, but he zoomed in as much as his optics allowed. Not for the first time, he wished Van was there just for the convivence of his better sensors. He recalled Echo, wanting the drake at his side in case things went horribly wrong. The trees finally parted, and Matt could see the movement below the canopy. It was brief but just enough for his skill to work.

Choker Vine Spawner Hive. Level 51

Matt focused on the edge of the woods where the creature was due to step into the lush fields that made up the majority of the valley. Out of his other eye, he watched the slow and steady progression of the spawner hive. He didn’t have to wait long for it to break free of the trees. It was almost exactly what he expected to see, yet also far beyond those expectations.

The creature was almost completely made of writhing tendril like vines and dense plant matter. It stood nearly 5 meters tall if you only counted the main body since the vines reached in every direction and could add to that by several meters. It crawled forward, pulled and pushed by tendrils at its base, leaving a wide furrow in the dirt as it passed.

Its color was a mixture of browns and greens with the occasional black spot spread over its surface. As Matt looked closer, he noticed that the black spots were actually pits from which more tendrils erupted. The sight made him shiver in disgust at the parallels that his mind involuntarily drew to other monsters from earth’s fiction.

Thankfully the creature moved slowly over long distances and Matt would try to avoid closing with the creature and its whip like tendrils. Since it was still around a thousand meters away, he decided to do some more testing. He had felt that there was more to be gained from his imbuement skills after having the luxury of such slow, methodical shots over the past couple hours.

Matt eased himself back into the prone position and concentrated on his unstable imbuement. He pushed mana into it, feeling feedback that let him know the skill was ready. Bang. A round arced out and hit the plant monster, penetrating, bursting and blowing a chunk out. The monster thrashed but didn’t move any faster in its race to Matt.

More mana, pushing it into the skill until he felt it couldn’t hold any more. Bang. Another hit, pop and more smoke. He pushed harder, concentrating on the skill as he felt the barrier of mana surrounding his chambered bullet. Bang. A hit, pop and more smoke, this time taking off a couple tendrils in the process.

Feeling like he was on the edge of something, Matt focused harder. He felt the next round in the chamber as it filled with his plasma. He could sense that he couldn’t expand the amount in the 6-millimeter bullet anymore, but then had an idea.

Matt pulled mana into his core like in his meditations. He compressed it, concentrating it into a tiny bead of pure, high-density mana. He felt it now, the difference. It was like holding a piece of lead compared to an equal size piece of aluminum. There was a density there that was more than just weight. With a concentrated effort, he pushed the compressed, high-density mana into the skill and filled the unstable round to the brim. Confirming his point of aim, since the monster had gotten much closer, he fired.

Bang. Matt watched as the bullet arced out like a tracer. This time, it wasn’t the yellow orange he had come to expect, but a bright blue like when he imbued his melee weapons or his mana constructs. The impact was much more violent as the round hit the monster then erupted, spewing burning plant mater out of the now half meter hole in its side. The report of the impact was actually audible now and sounded like a firecracker going off under water.

Focusing again, Matt repeated his actions, this time faster. Condensing, concentrating and pushing the denser mana into the skill. Bang. Another chunk blown off the spawner leaving another smoldering hole in its flank. He did it again, this time faster than the previous attempt. Bang. He did it again, getting the time down to less than 2 seconds. Bang. Once again, this time in less than a second. Bang. Once more, but nearly instantly. Bang.

Matt could feel System notifications banging into his mind, hollering for attention. Seeing as the monster was still hundreds of meters away, he obliged and opened the first of the System messages.

Unstable Imbuement (Epic)

Imbue a weapon with your affinity but in an unstable nature that reacts violently when contacting an enemy. Gain total control of the stability of mana imbued projectiles. Cost and usage are similar to Imbue Weapon.

Has upgraded to:

Unstable Imbuement (Legendary)

Imbue a weapon with your affinity but in an unstable nature that reacts violently when contacting an enemy. Gain total control of the stability of mana imbued projectiles. Allows user to vary the quantity of imbued mana, by increasing density, to alter the effects of the reaction. Cost and usage are similar to Imbue Weapon.

What Matt wanted to do was to practice with his normal imbue weapon skill to see if he could get it to upgrade. He figured he could but just needed to actually go through the motions. He also wanted to read the other message, but this was the important one. He then stood up and readied himself to finish off the vine monster that had finally closed to within 500 meters. It was a mess of burning plant matter at this point, but formalities were still necessary as it turned out.