9 9. The grind for levels, class advancement.

name: Silver Hailstorm

class: Arcana Machina

stats.

Str: 46 (39)

AG: 30 (26)

DEX: 45 (42)

Int: 25

Stam: 50

mana: 400 (270)

Free attribute points: 30

Seeing her status, silver sighs dishearteningly. 'it takes so much to level, and it is going to take forever to get the mana needed to fix me, I am already level 7.' Nodding tiredly to herself Silver stands and walks towards the dungeons exit, leaving this team to loot as they please. Once the world comes back to Silver after exiting the portal, the first thing silver sees is dozens of hunter teams surrounding the portal, putting her on edge instantly, she clenches her gauntletted fist tightly waiting to see what they are here for, when the group see this, they look at one of the more prominent looking hunters, a swordsman wearing gold and silver engraved armor pieces, as if trying to emulate a royal armor of some sort. Seeing this the young man steps forward to speak. "Hello miss, I am the vice leader of the sun strike guild, we are here to see if you are interested." he states, the last bit sounding more sinister and threatening than the words implied, basically he is saying join or be beaten. Unfortunately, she never liked bullies, or peer pressure. with her hand on her hip preparing herself for quite a fight, some of these peoples level exceeding 50, and everyone wearing at least a single legendary item. "And what benefits would I get for joining you? I have a dozen guilds offering me a spot right now, why should i pick yours?" She says confidently, hiding the fact that, as of yet she hasnt even applied to a guild, much less have offers, all just a ploy to buy a bit more time. Seeing this, the pricks face bunches up into a scowl. "Do you think you have a choice at the moment? If you dont, no one else will want you after we are done with you!" The vice leader growls out. "seriously? we are going with the typical join or die Villain concept? am I just a magnet for trouble?first my arm, then you lot? so be it..." Silver says before waving her hand her sniper turret spawning beside her while a larger and beefier looking tower spawns a few feet behind her with a large barrel on it, Silver orders it to open up the engagement first. At this point the guild members react and move to advance with a roar like the sound of a meteor falling or jet engine taking off, sounds, and a large round made of pure purple mana, and looks to be encased in mana flames as it streaks across the short distance, punching into the chest of a level 50 warrior, it doesnt kill him, but the force knocks him down as the round explodes and mana flames engulf him and several others at this point, the sniper turret also joins in sniping two of the level 25 to 30 opponents, killing them instantly. "you shouldve picked on someone your own size!" Silvers roars out, uncaring if its unlady like to trash talk in such a fight. The leader, already pushed to his mental limits by someone daring to go against him, he roars and charges towards Silver, ignoring the two towers as they continue dealing with his minions, much better than silver had guessed considering their gear. "I am going to kill you and use your skull as a wine glass!" Silver doesnt say anything simply stepping back using her flexiility to dodge his fast strikes, although he isnt exactly skilled, he is still level 55, the sheer stat difference making up for the gap in fighting style, silver keeps dodging, waiting for an opening, all the while, in the background the two turrets are racking up casualties quickly, the artillery and mana fire, melting through all of the heavy and high tier armor, the sniper hitting the face opening of helmets killing them, or soft spots on the shoulder joint armor or hip armor, killing, crippling or maiming. Although her sniper isnt quite enough to punch through the chest plate and helmet, its more than enough to threaten the lives of everyone present, though, her mana is already nearly depleted, just as the last of the minions falls to the mortar cannon, a notification pops up making silver smile, as all of her mana has been refreshed, having just leveled up to level 8, the levels of this guild having boosted her recieved mana by a large sum. "this is where you run...or die..." Silver states as she back pedals quickly, before launching into a huge back flip, carrying her more than 8 feet off the ground, a flash of two varying in size purpls blurs, slam directly into him, making him stumble and grown in pain as he feels the armor on him heating up and start melting. Refusing to give up, he charges again at silver, his eyes filled with indignant madness. "no one humiliates me! I am the son of the senator!" He roars as he slashes and strikes at silver, his large sword enough to threaten her if he was skilled with it more than waving it around like a flag. Another volley of fire comes in and slams into his back, further engulfing him in mana fire, making him fall to his knees in pain, a shrill scream, making Silvers ears ring from it, as the fire breaches his armor, burning him alive slowly, unlike what happened to the rest of his minions. Silver remains silent, watching him burn to death, the heat being felt from 10 feet away. Eventually, all the bodies are burned to nothing but ash under the mana fire. 'the cannon is either stronger than i realize, or they were far weaker than their level, i shouldnt have been able to dodge him so easily...unless he stat dumped intelligence or something...' she broods on this thought as she walks away, completely exhausted at this point, she goes home.

For the next few days, life moves on calmly, people call from time to time to invite her for dungeon raids, her feats already known in the community. When the weekend comes back around for her, she takes some time in the shop working on her latest turret. Having chosen to upgrade it to a 155 mm artillery cannon with incendiary ammo, its potential should be even greater than before, though its mana consumption is tenfold and then some of the normal turret. With all of her chores taken care of, The only thing left on her mind is getting enough mana to finally fix herself, the growing frustration of working with just one arm, nawwing on her heavily. Sending a text to a free lance raid team, the leader's name, Jack, a swordsman, has a half elf archer, rosetta, a shield bearer nicknamed turtle, for his slow speed but strong and dependable defense, and another swordsman, but not too much damage from the group, thus they contacted Silver in hopes of running higher end dungeons, using Silver as main damage, especially since word got out that she has a new turret as well. The text reads 'Looking to power through some high end dungeons, as soon as you guys are ready, I want at least 3 today, if we can fit more, perfect.' before going to their previously agreed upon meeting spot, a bbq shack thats actually quite close to her shop, and a favorite spot as well, the meats and menu choices all being hravily meat based and delicious, she goes in to the back table, a now permanent reserved seat of hers, having bribed the owner with some free work and money in hand for it. She orders a huge brisket platter with a side of ribs, mash potatoes and brown gravy, and cole slaw, with a piece of thick sliced toast. After awhile, just before her food arrives, the team shows up all coming over and taking a seat with a smile. "hi, its good to work with the legend, already making a name for yourself and havent even reached level 20 hows that even possible?" the group greet and several questions immediately get asked though its more from excitement for the group, silver as well. "well, first you gotta be injured something fierce..." she makes a joke about her legend status among the team. Her food arrives and they place orders as well, the shield bearer and archer gawking a bit at the sheer amount of food silver ordered, and is now devouring quickly. "so which dungeon do we want to hit first? the shortest dungeons with the highest monster density are..." she checks her phone foe the information real quick. "arachnid caves, lizard kings domain, domain of poison, and volcano juncture. the first two are the shortest but have tons and tons of enemies, a good leveling spot, I have rumors saying possible treasure spotted with the boss in arachnid, and a chest on the island of lizard kings, you guys can pick as you want though, I am not here for the loot anyway.." she says shrugging her shoulders, the rest of the team falling into discussion with eachother, the topic of how greedy should they be, treasure chests are always good loot, and even if the team cant use it, the sale value is still pretty good, same with treasures. Usually a herb treasure from a dungeon can heal heavy injuries, or strengthen ones vitality giving years to ones life span, so the value there makes anyone greedy, and with silver giving them the information for free and taking her claim from the treasures, it makes the whole team a bit more daring, after they all eat, they give their answer. "lets start with arachnid and the lizard kings, then we can possibly do poison domain, its least explored and has higher chances of treasures.." they all nod in agreement. "alright! I will meet you guys by the portal then." With that silver leaves and drives to the portal, once everyone is present and kitted, they enter and the show begins. As soon as their orientation of the world returns in clear view, thousands of red glowing eyes can be seen in front of them (she did say highest monster density afterall) Before the team even has time to panic, silver summons her new artillery tower, and lets it fire as fast as its huge cannon can firing a round every 2 seconds but draining her mana at the cost of 5 mana per shot. the resulting explosion and huge wave of mana fire from the first shot clears a large 15 meter radius just in front of her, killing dozens of spiders at once and setting dozens more on fire with the first volley. " circle round the tower! i have limited mana and this cannon is heavy on the drain!" Silver says as she stays close to her tower getting into a defensive posture with the team, the spiders already rushing over, some even daring to try climbing over their dead and burning allies, only to be engulfed as well, though the cannon is slow and drains a lot, the sheer damage and huge ring of fire around them is more than good enough to make up for that fact as the stragglers come into melee range the swordsmans are the first to move, the archer taking shots at further targets just on the edge of the ring of fire, keeping them at bay. Fighting continued like this for nearly 3 hours, her turret sporadically firing as her mana pool allows it, after killing the boss, silver's level only increases once, reaching level 9 now. after they loot and rest for an hour, they head to lizard kings, repeating the same strategy, after about 2 hours here, the bosses being weaker and slower than the arachnid queen made it easier. They finish and While they loot Silver rushes to the next location, Using the chance to rest in peace, looking at the latest notification, having just reached level 10 another class advancement popped up.

1. all turrets +1

2. all turrets = elite towers

3.shield wall +1

4. self deployment blueprint +1

Seeing the options, Silver hesitates, curious to know what the self deployment blueprint means, but torn with doubling her turret count. With a promise to look into it later, Silver chooses to double up her turrets this time, needing all the firepower she can sustain. Soon after the time shows, and they manage to finish two more raids before night falls, and the exhaustion catches up to everyone, though the whole team leaves with a smile, even silver now level 11 after one day of power raiding. "bright and early tomorrow guys! and thanks again for letting me join!" Silver says as everyone drags themselves tiredly to their respective vehicles, everyone having profited in their own ways, the only one really losing out is silver, the lack of money being earned in order to trade for higher experience amounts. But with that, Maybe soon Silver can fix her issues.