Chapter 306: The Final Army
Isaac sat on an asteroid, gazing out at the inner system. There were countless other asteroids around him, plenty of them, but they were so far away that a normal person would barely have been able to see even a bare handful, and even to Isaac, they were just specks.
Ceres was currently on the other side of the sun from his current position, and the nearest asteroid miner was several light hours away. No one was going to get hurt if he picked a fight here.
The Void Dragon wasnt an actual boss, but it could only be summoned in a vacuum and was far more at home out here than virtually any human could be, agile and flexible as hell.
Isaac knew he could win easily, but that monster would tear open a miner like a tuna can and devour the people inside in two seconds flat. Distance was needed.
And so was a solid surface to draw the summoning circle on. Isaac had once seen someone try and roll out a sheet of paper and draw on in zero-g. It had been in the other timeline, and if the internet had still been around, that video would have gone viral as the funniest video of the year.
Hm, was there a researcher out here he might be able to trick into making the attempt? It would have to be someone he seriously didnt get along with, obviously, but beyond that to be entirely honest, it likely wasnt worth the effort, funny as it would have been to see that again.
Drawing out the circle was a matter of seconds, but placing down the various materials was a pain in the behind. He couldnt just place them down, if he moved them with just a little too much force, theyd just go flying off again, he needed them to stay down on the rock, in contact with it.
Straps would have been the obvious solution, or maybe superglue, however, it was as though microgravity had been forgotten about when the [System] had been designed because neither of those solutions would fly.
Summoning worked by drawing out the circle, and then, youd add in whatever items the summoning list wrote out. Anything you threw in after the circle was drawn counted as summoning materials, but such things as air or dust were ignored.
As such, adding glue or straps would result in a misfire, and hed wind up facing a weird amalgamation of mana instead of an actual monster, with no proper reward. And adding them in ahead of time wouldnt work either, since that would result in them being counted as part of the ground, the same way that the odd rock sticking up from the ground inside the circle would also be ignored.
So, after playing operation for a good ten minutes, Isaac was finally able to pour mana into the magic circle, dissolving the materials and ensuring that even if he bumped the asteroid, nothing more would happen until he activated the darn thing.
His mana pool began to rise up at massive speeds, his Magic Regeneration Stat currently being 990, and after one more Level up, hed bump it up to a flat thousand. Right now, though, he regenerated 495 mana per minute, enough to unleash dozens of his customary spammed [Strikes] and not even see his pool dip, or wield most of his sensibly priced flames for a damn long time.
Of course, drawing out Prometheus Wrath or other overpowered fires would drain his mana pool real quick, but if he broke them out, the fight was highly unlikely to take very long.
Isaac kicked against the surface of the asteroid to throw himself off into space, and once at a sufficient distance, stopped himself cold with [Speed of Hati]. This would be tricky. That particular sub-[Skill] was the best method of maneuvering out here he had, but it only regenerated once a day, and fighting out here without it would be almost impossible. If he spent too much of it on a given fight, hed be out here for a while.
Balmung manifested in his right hand, armor formed around him, and a cursed dagger of Cumulative Insanity was drawn into his left from one of his storage rings.
That particular wasnt particularly dangerous directly, but hits would mess with sensory perceptions, delaying the input from any sensory organs near the point of impact. This fight would be fast as hell, and even the slightest delay in perceptions would leave the monster chasing its proverbial tail.
And after eight minutes of sitting on his proverbial ass, the monster finally made an appearance.
The asteroid shattered like glass as the Void Dragon hatched, a monster the size of a commercial airliner tearing its way free of the rock, deep purple scales glittering in spots, others reflecting practically no light at all, large chunks and razor-sharp fragments of stone being flung straight at Isaac.
He dodged, kicking himself sideways and stopping himself again the instant he was out of the line of fire, then flung back a lance of fire that slammed into one of the monsters eyes.
The dragon roared and a single beat of its massive wings accelerated it well past what would have been the speed of sound had they been fighting in an atmosphere, forcing Isaac to fling himself out of the way again, eyes glimmering slightly from [Wisdom of the Simurgh].
All of the knowledge in the world was theoretically at his fingertips, though it restricted itself to only talking to him about the topic at hand. Namely, orbital mechanics, proper maneuvering, and information about how to read the beasts wing movements.
Sadly, that information didnt stick with him when he deactivated the [Skill], just the end result of his deliberations, but then again, he didnt have the memory capacity for a fraction of the information that he got when he activated this ability.
As the dragon whipped past, Isaac flung the dagger and managed to inflict a small scratch just behind the dragons ear. Not that there was any sound out here, however, this particular species ears somehow picked up the impact of two objects without a medium to carry sound, so damaging its ears would still be useful.
Once past him, the dragon twisted unnaturally in space, body whipping around though the head managed to stay lined up on Isaac throughout the process, purple energy pouring up from the bottom of its gullet.
Cosmic radiation, entropy acceleration, enhancing the consequences of vacuum exposure, all fused into a single burst of purple energy that tore through space, the odd rock struck being practically erased, first reduced to dust, then eventually converted to iron.
The monsters head swept up and around, chasing Isaac as he jumped from spot to spot, flashing past the monster, Balmung carving straight through scales and muscle, but being too short to cause serious damage.
But in time, he managed to not only properly put out the eye hed hit with the flame, but sufficiently curse the monster that all its senses save touch were acting on a few milliseconds worth of delay.
So Isaac decided to switch his method of flight, using his flames as impromptu rockets. Expensive, mana-wise, but mana regenerated far more quickly.
Even so, suddenly switching was one of the most disorienting things Isaac had ever done.
When he could step on empty vacuum for locomotion, he had perfect control over his movement and could come to a dead stop relative to any celestial body he chose.
But using the combination of fire and mass nullification, he needed to first nullify his momentum before reversing, coming to a stop was damn difficult, and turning was really just adding extra momentum along a different vector and going spinning off into the void while the dragon chased him, purple blasts and gleaming claws seeking to end his life.
Isaac threw his cursed dagger again, watched it bounce off the bony ridge just above the intact eye, and instantly burned fire at full power and came to an almost complete stop, something the monster would only be able to perceive by the time it had already flown past.
Hed mistimed the burst a little, but another kick-off empty space positioned him perfectly, and then, his metaphorical muscles bulged as he drew upon the [Power of the Behemoth].
Normally, the force transferred by executing a melee strike against an enemy in microgravity sent one flying backwards, forcing one to correct the altered momentum before doing anything else. A sharper sword could mitigate that somewhat, parting flesh with a reduced transfer of momentum, but not eliminate the issue entirely, far from it.
But the admittedly smallest aspect of his currently active [Aspect of the End] meant that he could put himself above, well, fundamental physics.
The dragons momentum pushed it into his sword as it flashed towards its neck, and in an explosion of blood, the monsters head and a good chunk of its spine were separated from the rest of its body while Isaac got clipped by a wing and got flung ass over teakettle.
Void Dragon (Lv. 180) has been slain. 45,000 XP gained
Ow.
Isaac turned and glared at the body, which was rapidly vanishing off into the distance. How long would he be chasing that thing for?
Also, there was the small, small issue of the monsters blood not freezing just because it was in a vacuum and that the way it was spreading out, hed have to take a massive detour to avoid getting utterly filthy.
if thered been a rock in headbutting range, hed have smacked it with his forehead.
Welp, time to go salvage some materials.
As he worked on the body, having it slip a little bit away every time he touched it, he went over the battle in his head. Hed spent 2,317 points of mana during the fight, but regenerated over one and a half thousand in the same time span. That had worked well.
However, Isaac had burned [Aspects of the End] for a little over 23 seconds. That was too much. If he replicated this fight exactly, hed be able to kill three more dragons, and then have to wait for another eighteen hours before he could go again. And that would leave him with barely any margin of error. Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: N♡vεlB¡n.
Of course, he could do another couple of fights on top of that by using his cooldown [Skills], but even that wouldnt necessarily give him his Aspect.
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Scales of the Void
Void Dragons Breath
Infinite Mind
Void Lungs
There was a small issue here, though. The Aspect he was stacking this on belonged to a [Raid Boss], and held [Moment of Immortality], which he could not upgrade with this one.
Thankfully, that [Skill] was a bit of a special snowflake, one he could keep irrespective of what Aspects he got after the fact, or override with any [Skill] from his new Aspect he needed.
First, there were the obvious upgrades.
[Draconic Heart] became [Stars Heart].
Stars Heart (legendary)
Within your chest, a star blooms, your every heartbeat an explosion of power that sends fire coursing through your body.
Where you tread, the ground turns to lava (toggleable), and if you want something gone, you may enhance the firepower of your flame magic to great heights. And if you wish, you may channel your inner strength into a fire or breath-based attack, overcharging it with mana and even your physical stamina to unleash devastating power.
Furthermore, the power of a star empowers your heart, and through it, your very life, extending your lifespan by millennia at a minimum and possibly more, depending on other Skills that may empower/synergize with this one.
Once again, a powerful fire attack and longevity booster.
[Dragonscale Mantle] became [Scales of the Void].
Scales of the Void (legendary)
Cosmic radiation, micrometeorites, various gasses, the odd supernova or pulsar. Space is kinda dangerous when you think about it, even if you somehow figure out a way to breathe in a place devoid of air.
This Skill might not help with that last one, but it does with all the others.
The Scales of the Void render their bearer immune to all the natural dangers of the void, and grant enhanced heat, radiation and kinetic damage resistance while in outer space.
Furthermore, the user may choose to resist external sources of acceleration to avoid being flung about, although doing so can easily cause damage if too much force is nullified.
This [Skill] had changed somewhat, instead of boosting his armor, it would massively increase his combat power out here in space.
And now, for the new [Skills]. The obvious pick was [Wings of the Void], the single best space maneuvering ability that wasnt from a [Class], both in the long and short term.
Wings of the Void (legendary)
The world is a vast place. The universe is incomparably vaster, and far harder to move through. After all, there is nothing to push against, nothing to walk on, no proper medium to travel through. And, you know, its kinda big.
The Void Dragon is one of the few creatures capable of traversing this place, its great wings hurling it through the vast emptiness.
With this Skill, its user will be able to manifest these wings on their back and use them to move and maneuver through space, while also allowing the user to engage travel mode, which allows them to constantly accelerate without being affected by relativistic effects or the light speed limit, however, this renders you unable to affect the normal world, and you cannot move through solid objects, though gasses and small rocks are pushed out of your path.
When travel mode is deactivated, the user will revert to their velocity and direction at the moment of activation.
In addition, this effect can be disrupted from the outside.
Cost: 100 points of mana per hour of manifestation, 5,000 points per hour of travel mode
The simple fact that these wings worked out here made them useful as hell.
But travel mode offered a path to go FTL, one that could be massively enhanced when combined with a couple of other abilities.
Of course, having no limit as to how quickly one could move sounded insanely powerful, but getting even to the nearest star system would take a long time, as it was a little over four light-years away. And the Milky Way as a whole was 100,000 light-years across.
On its own, Travel Mode was mostly an intra-system movement option, but still incredible.
Now Isaac just had to check if [Continent Strider] stacked with this, or if he could use his other methods of acceleration while in Travel Mode.
And for his final [Skill], it had been a hard choice whether or not to keep [Moment of Immortality], but in the end, that [Skill] had multiple sources and he still had another from his Demon Lord Aspect. If he needed it twice, something would have gone seriously wrong.
In the meanwhile, [Infinite Mind] could theoretically be replaced by [Blessing of Innovation] or [Wisdom of the Simurgh], but both of those were temporary. And finding out that hed wasted minutes or hours going the wrong way would really suck. Being able to properly navigate out there, permanently and without using up any of his most powerful boosting [Skill] would be invaluable.
Infinite Mind (legendary)
Space is huge. Big enough that trying to wrap ones mind around the concept is practically enough to give a man an existential crisis.
And there are people who want to navigate that place on their own? Are you sure youre not talking about the incarnation of the Dunning-Krueger effect there?
Anyway, thats what this Skill is about.
Firstly, it enables its user to perceive the vastness of space without risk.
Secondly, it helps them to navigate space by allowing them to identify individual stars, granting a solid grasp on orbital mechanics, and everything else needed to navigate between the stars.
Oh, this would be so much fun to play around with.
Isaac grinned a pair of leathery wings manifested on his back, both a purple so dark they were practically black, and then, he flexed them, sending him flying through space.
The effect reminded him of how [Speed of Hati] functioned, actually, it was exactly the same effect, but Isaac had plenty of experience walking, hed done so for most of his life. Walking by flexing his back not so much.
After two or so minutes of experimenting, Isaac decided to flee behind a large nearby asteroid. The last thing he needed was someone filming this and putting it on the internet. It was nice out here, but there was a serious lack of privacy if someone cared to pay attention to you.
But once hed managed to get his new wings under control, he was very happy with everything. His flames didnt work in Travel Mode, unfortunately, but [Speed of Hati] and [Continent Strider] did, and getting back to Earth was a cinch.
