Leveling up the World

Chapter 937: The Golden Mountain

ACADEMY GUARDIAN

Species: COLOSSUS

Class: ELECTRON

Health: 64%

Traits:

- BODY 150

- MIND 80

- REACTION 95

- PERCEPTION 50

Skills:

- ATTACK

- GUARD

- ACROBATICS

- ATHLETICS

Weakness: EARS

An all-out fighter… there could be no doubt that the colossus had been created specifically for this purpose. It was very possible that the emperor had somehow removed all the needless skills during the leveling up process. The choice of material was no accident, either. Combining sun gold with another magic metal to negate the effects of magic was just what someone distrustful of mages would do.

This had to be a secret that even the archbishop didn’t know, otherwise there'd be more examples of it. A metal that rendered a target impervious to magic. Quite a feat, unless the person who had discovered it also happened to be a mage.

It must have been quite the dilemma for you, Jeremy, Dallion thought, amused.

Given enough time, Dallion might uncover the exact composition of the alloy and make use of it. For the moment, his goal was to defeat the colossus.

Flying up to the guardian itself, Dallion performed a dual spiral attack. His harpsisword, as usual, was infused with magic, while the aura sword had magic threads within its blow.

Taking advantage of its high body trait, the guardian swiftly moved to the side. Despite being enormous, the body easily managed to evade the most devastating effects of the attack.

MINOR STRIKE

Dealt damage has been increased by 10%

The spiral attack barely singed the chest of the being, while the magic attack bounced off, completely repelled.

“Have you fought anything like this before?” Dallion asked, filling the air with spark infused line attacks.

The glowing threads of destruction sliced through the vines and vegetation of the realm like a scythe through grass. Unfortunately, none of them managed to touch the Colossus.

Without warning, one of the being’s massive fists blocked out the sky, flying straight towards Dallion. Thanks to his reaction trait, Dallion was able to spot the attack. His body movements alone would have been too slow to escape, but thankfully the flying spell he had cast was affected by thought alone.

For half a second Dallion flew back, the colossus’ fist mere feet away from him. Aether barriers appeared by the dozen, cast by a single slash of Dallion’s aura sword. All of them were shattered, not even remotely slowing down the guardian’s attack. Finally, after what felt like minutes, the distance from the golden knuckles widened.

Leave it to the emperor to come up with something like this, Adzorg said, almost with admiration. The perfect counter for a mage. With such a high body trait and invulnerability to magic, there wouldn’t be anyone capable of stopping it.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Dallion snapped. Yet, even he had to admit that the counter was perfect. Remove spells from a mage and they become extraordinarily weak. Even the noble exceptions would hesitate, which was more than enough time for the guardian to dispatch them.

A relatively safe distance away, Dallion cast a series of spells to boost his speed and strength. Once done, he followed up with a quick spell to create an aether blade. The new weapon was quickly covered with a series of illusion spells with the goal of removing the colossus magic invulnerability.

Splitting into two hundred instances, Dallion darted back down, then thrust the blade straight at the guardian’s chest. The enhanced speed prevented the being from evading the attack. Unfortunately, that was all it did. The aether blade shattered, turning to dust the moment it came into contact with the sun gold alloy.

“You’re skilled,” the guardian admitted as he went on a multi attack, attempting to snatch Dallion from the air.

The actions were fast and precise, not to mention covering a vast range. It was purely thanks to the large number of instances that Dallion managed to retreat into the sky unharmed.

“The most skilled I’ve seen,” he added, leaping into the air.

Suddenly, the distance between the two disappeared.

MAJOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 50%

Dallion felt the hard surface slam into him, sending him flying miles away. Normally, that could be considered as a good thing, but a colossus of this size and speed could easily catch up to him no matter where he was thrown.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lux! Dallion thought.

Without needing further instructions, the firebird emerged, wrapping Dallion with its blue flames and propelling him up, faster than even the colossus could manage.

That was too close. If it hadn’t been the few moments in which Lux had healed Dallion back in the real world, the battle would have been over. Right now, Dallion was barely at one percent of his health. The only times he’d fallen so low were back in the first awakening shrine. There, losing only meant being ejected from the realm. As a domain ruler, if he were to have his health depleted, he’d die on the spot.

“Better than your creator?” Dallion shouted—a desperate move to make use of his music skills. To his great surprise, it worked.

Several strands attached to the guardian as he fell back to the ground with a slam. The entire realm shook.

“Better than he was when he created this realm,” the guardian replied. “Even I was weaker when I chose to become the realm’s guardian. You could have taken me easily. My skin was granite and my speed, just over half what it is now.”

Focusing, Dallion skimmed over the surface of the mountain, using his forging skills in an attempt to spot any crack or weakness he could use. If any existed, they had been mended centuries ago. It was obvious that the emperor had kept improving the guardian multiple times, but it was more than that. During the improvement, he had changed the material until reaching its current composition. There was no telling how many times he had gone through it. Reaching simple gold was a difficult task. Achieving any of the magical materials required magic forging, and even it was not a given.

You know its weakness, don’t you? Dallion wondered. There was no way Jeremy would allow anything, be it a guardian, to be stronger than him. There had to be some weakness—a blind spot that only he could take advantage of.

With the music strands fading away, the effects ended, sending the guardian up again as he attempted to reach Dallion yet again.

There was no doubt that Lux had taken him dozens of miles above the ground, but that alone was not enough. Dallion felt the sky itself move down, bringing the ground closer. Had this been an overseer, the fight might well have ended. As things stood, there were several possibilities for success.

“Here we go!” Reaching through his personal realm into his wider domain, Dallion summoned a rocket crossbow. Although the colossus had the power to reflect all spells, he didn’t have the power to negate them.

The massive weapon emerged in front of him, already loaded with four deadly charges. Dallion held his breath. Waiting for the colossus to get fifty feet from him, he shot all four rocket bolts straight at the guardian’s head and shoulders.

MINOR HIT

Dealt damage has been increased by 50%

MINOR HIT

Dealt damage has been increased by 50%

MODERATE HIT

Dealt damage has been increased by 150%

MINOR HIT

Dealt damage has been increased by 50%

The force of the blast pushed the colossus back down before he could reach his target. All the speed he had was wasted into the air.

Realm section damaged!

Overall completion 59%

The entity slammed into the ground, sending a shock wave throughout the entire realm. Ripples formed through the mesh of magic threads that composed the ground, slowly settling once they reached its limits.

Unsummoning the weapon, Dallion immediately replaced it with a new one.

Once the dust had settled, the results were a lot less impactful as he had hoped. Some might even call them underwhelming.

In the real world, such an attack would have been enough to destroy living armor. Here, they had merely scarred the guardian. The most serious wound—located slightly above the shoulder—was barely the size of a jab. As for the rest—they were just scars.

“Jeremy must have improved you a lot.” Dallion resorted to his music skills. In his mind, he knew that this was the method, yet he had to rely on the colossus’ weakness. “How many times did you go through this?”

“Why do you want this domain?” The guardian stood back up. “It won’t increase your level.”

“If it’s so useless, why not just surrender and give it to me without a fight?” Dallion smirked.

The colossus didn’t react.

“See? It only doesn’t matter as long as you have it. We both know that no one will allow so much magic to go unused.”

“You just want to feed your dragon.”

“I’m sure that Jeremy did the same.” In his mind Dallion was calculating possibilities of how to get the guardian to face the right direction so he could initiate a killing shot.

“He did, but you’re greedier.”

The response was surprising on several levels. When he said it, Dallion didn’t believe it to have been true. According to everything he had learned in the Learning Hall, the first Emperor Tamin had transformed his companion familiar into a great dragon, through lots of magic and leveling up. Nowhere was it said that the entire domain of the Academy had been used as a grazing ground. Yet, that would explain why the area was so sparsely built in relation to its size.

MAJOR HEAL

Your health has been increased by 50%

A green rectangle emerged. Lux had managed to restore a large chunk of Dallion’s health, and not a moment too soon.

“Get me to his ear,” Dallion ordered, bursting into instances.

Hundreds of versions circled the guardian’s head, yet each time the result was the same. The Colossus’ speed was just too fast for Dallion to do anything about it, even with his magic boost. Of two hundred instances, forty-one managed to get anywhere close to the guardian’s head. Less than a third of them managed to fire, and in all those cases, the guardian twisted his head, causing the rockets to explode on his face. Damage was dealt, though it was a far cry from the kill shot that Dallion needed.

“Jeremy used that millennia ago.” The colossus grabbed a patch of ground and threw it in Dallion’s general direction.

The speed was impressive, fading half of Dallion’s newly created instances.

“He did, did he?” Dallion unsummoned the empty crossbow. “Then how about something new?”

Summoning his usual two blades, Dallion spun in the air, casting point attacks throughout the realm.

“Predictable.” The colossus dashed from one place to another, using his left arm to shield himself from the magic attacks, while avoiding the spark infused ones. “Jeremy used that twice.”

Not quite this, Dallion thought.

The issue with someone incapable of seeing magic was that they couldn’t tell the difference between a destructive and an effect spell. A large part of the aether point attacks were not mere attacks, but effect spells surrounding a small magic core. Coming into contact with the threads on the ground, they changed into symbols, patiently waiting to be connected. There was no way for the guardian to see that, and because of the devastation to which the area had been submitted, there wasn’t anyone nearby to tell him.

Got you! Dallion said to himself, completing the magic circle. It extended for miles, only visible from high above. The effect, though, was something no one could miss.

In a split second, the ground that the guardian had been running on lost its firmness. With a massive splash, the colossus vanished beneath the surface, like a carriage falling through thin ice into a river.