Unknown Force II
All of that could be ignored if she just shot right by it and used all the Action Points, but she felt really weird when she teched up more than once in a day. That worried her, as so much information was being pushed into her head that for all she knew, it could cause brain damage if she teched up too fast. It was probably a safety and control measure to keep her from going up the tech ladder; if she tried too hard, she'd get light headed or maybe black out. She had shot up multiple tech tiers at the beginning, but there wasn't much to really learn at the time, and it was the start of the tech tree. Now, it seemed like a good idea to limit it to one tech up a day, maybe every two days. Given she was already a 1st world power, Selene could afford to take it a little slower. The same effect applied to leveling though, except it seemed to have a higher ceiling before bad effects happened. The bandit army had made her shoot up thirteen levels, which after the battle had made her need to rest and fatigued her immensely. The dev thought it was just fighting at night and her circadian rhythm was telling her to sleep, but there might have been something else telling her to settle down. Given the orb was her new way of gaining levels, going up by five levels each day seemed doable, with ten probably pushing it. If she went for fifteen, there might be another resting day required, despite her stamina staying up and having her food and water bar full.
This could also be balanced with the Stat and Skill Potions she had available. Given the tiers, they seemed to cap out at eleven points per potion if using an Ultra tier. Unfortunately, she had just reached Very Large, which provided seven points from either one. In a sixteen-hour day, she could take one every hour for a total of one hundred twelve Skill Points or one hundred twelve Stat Points. Of the past six days, she spent two days drinking those potions and gained an equal amount of both. She dumped forty-seven Skill Points into Strategy and Tactics to get it to one hundred percent, receiving three abilities in the process, "Divide and Conquer," "Peace Through Superior Firepower" and "Golden Army."
Divide and Conquer added an aggro effect that could either pull an experienced army out of position to attack, ignoring their commanders due to blood lust for kills, or soften aggro and make an army focus on one direction, which was fantastic for pincer attacks or flanking maneuvers. Peace Through Superior Firepower drastically increased the damage of all combat forces under her command by two hundred percent for two hours, along with bypassing immunities and resistances to standard attacks. There could be a super wizard out there that wouldn't need anti-magic rounds fired at him or her if they went up against her army, or trolls wouldn't need acid or fire rounds. The cooldown for it seemed to be forty-eight hours. Golden Army seemed to be an odd one, as it didn't do anything until some of her forces were damaged or destroyed. It would auto repair them even from a completely destroyed state, rebuilding the army back to fighting capability, even from melted down parts and pieces. It could be used once per twenty-four-hour period. While it was powerful, it didn't look like it would come into use much given the strength of her forces. If she kept upgrading their materials, weapons, modules and modifications along with research, they wouldn't take much damage to begin with.
She put another fifty points into Alchemy, gaining the abilities "Lead into Gold", "Philosopher's Stone" and "Fast Reaction." Lead into Gold allowed a limited conversion of one material into another without the need of the converters, but with a twist. It would only convert to a better-quality tier of the material used, regardless of the amount. The advantage was it was always an equal conversion, with no loss compared to the converters in her inventory, despite them getting better with upgrades. Philosopher's Stone seemed to allow transmogrification of stats in any consumable or even her equipment, however, it was a random roll of the dice on what it would improve, always defaulting to the original stat or number provided if it rerolled the number too low. This could mean she'd use an Ultra Skill Potion, and instead of gaining eleven points, she could instead get twenty? Thirty? The main issue was the stone could only be used once per week, with only one allowed, a second one produced would make the first one crumble. It also only worked on one item, as in not the schematic. If she used it on a skill potion, it worked only on that one skill potion, not the stack she would create.
Fast Reaction removed the indigestion effects of most consumables as they were absorbed instantly, excluding Upgrade Potions like Stats and Skills. This meant she could down multiple health potions without any ill effects, but it seemed a little low end as a one hundred percent skill passive ability due to healing being widely abundant now via spells and automatons, including Turnie. Regardless, it did mean she could fully heal or regenerate any of her bars without issue if she somehow managed to get interrupted or if her pain tolerance wasn't up to snuff. She threw her last fifteen points into Logistics, but oddly enough didn't receive a new ability. Given she had gained five the last time, it stood to reason it frontloaded the whole thing with one final ability added later. This changed things around, as now she had skills that would give an ability every twenty points, skills that didn't give any abilities but gave huge boosts to things and now ones that gave everything at the beginning and just allowed the remainder to help as a normal booster.
Of her Stat Points, she spent sixty-five on Molecular Reformation's Control to provide near effortless use of the ability. She could easily use it no matter what now, without issue, without rest, instantly. Selene could just sit around in a chair and read while she fired it off and did whatever it was that she was attempting to do, moving one slab of a room to another like a jigsaw puzzle without caring or anything else. It also made firing off a defensive stalagmite or protecting herself with it as easy as breathing, just like casting a spell with no cooldown or restrictions. The empress threw another fifty into Molecular Reformation's Crafting Time, allowing easy piecing together of any buildings without another thought, or constructing spare equipment beyond her inventory. While it didn't sound that great to use anything other than her stations to build, it did allow rapid placement of homes if another refugee situation ever happened. Her final seventeen points she had right now went into Movement Speed, giving her a little more pep in her step. It wasn't a massive boost, but there would be a noticeable decrease it time from getting from one place to another… she also was getting a little weirded out by her automatons being able to dead sprint through the valley in record time while she had difficulty playing with the wolves, they were so fast.
She looked at the orb and sighed while deep in thought after closing her character sheet. "Ma'am, we may have a lead on where the miners were attacked from" Jorge reported over coms. Selene snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at the ceiling. "Go ahead." Orlo started talking. "I may have found what looks to be… a temple. The place seems to be in disrepair, but there was movement in it not too long ago. I've got heat sources through an entrance in the middle, ten of them." The fact that Orlo was that efficient at picking out anything was a marvel of just how good he was at his support role. "Understood. Have you ventured into the temple?" Turnie spoke up. "We were wondering if you might want to take a look at it before we did anything. There's a path right up the side of the Azaltos mountains, just above the mine."
So… what… the miners were building a mine under the temple and some religious zealots attacked them due to it being right under their feet? It's not going to collapse the whole mountain down damn it or displease their gods.
"Alright, maybe we can talk to them and make them see reason. We're not destroying the temple, the mine is… I dunno how far down it is but it isn't touching the place." Jorge acknowledged and ended coms as she sighed and looked at the orb. "A quick use of it today, but I won't have time to set points until after." The empress touched the orb and focused on connecting to it, then drained the required amount of experience, and actions, required to level up five times and go up one tech tier. She was now level 45 and had a quick tech up that she completed… to Pre-Atomic. Tomorrow would be Super Steampunk maybe, but right now having an understanding of WWII era stuff to make steampunk versions of was the best thing she could do. Besides… she really wanted to play around with a P-51D Mustang.
Selene left the treasury vault, with the doors closing behind her. It took a little time to make her way to her royal bed chambers to change into some nonthreatening clothing. While it might be a good idea to wear her armor, she didn't want to be telling the ten people at that temple she was ready to fight, maybe they would understand they don't mean any harm to their religion and just want the ore deep below. It could be possible to play to their fervor by providing repair to their temple, given it was mostly ruins. As she finished with getting dressed yet again, she tied her hair back in an arcing ponytail then looked at herself in the mirrors. A simple blouse with leather pants and boots, some bracers and a brown belt. Nothing ostentatious, no jewelry. As much as it might be a bad idea to go in without much defense, she did have Bronze Team escorting her there, along with a contingent of military autos ready to swarm in nearby.
The dev headed downstairs to the courtyard and to the helipad for a waiting helibot. Riding Aster would take too long and trying to weave an APC up an unknown path could be dangerous for a large vehicle. Once she was airborne, she called Bronze Team and had them ready for pick up, then continued on to the coordinates that were provided. As soon as they touched down, she was able to get a good view of the surroundings. "These are… er… this is a Norse god temple… I didn't think something like this existed." Orlo floated nearby her. "The ruins seem to date at least six hundred years old, though show extensive disrepair. No one has taken care of this place in some time." Deacon looked at the damaged statue sitting behind an entrance in the middle. "It's definitely not in a good nick. You'd think these ratbags would be trying to fix up their home, not taking shots at the battlers down below."
"There's the entrance" Jorge said as they headed towards it and down. They moved silently as they tried to ascertain who these people were. Despite not wearing armor, she had cast all of her protection spells. As they entered a large rectangular room, the torches lit up by themselves showing support columns spaced throughout, with a mural of Norse mythology on the wall with runic language. "Not good" Ethan said as they got ready to be ambushed.
(Recommended Song: Two Steps From Hell – Atlantis)
What they saw immediately standing on a stairway from another direction were ten women in full battle armor with long skirts standing spaced out on the steps. "So, more of you vermin coming in here after we tried to scare you away from the hole you were digging out from under us." Selene made Bronze Team lower their weapons and one woman in the back stood at the top of the stairs. "Look, we don't want to fight, we're here to talk. Why did you attack my citizens?" she asked.
The woman peered down at her. "Your… citizens? My sisters, we have a so-called queen here!" some of them laughed. "Empress actually." The rest of them laughed hard at that. "There is no discussion found here. Your people were attempting to harm the very foundation of this temple, this home of the All Father."
Wait, All Father? ODIN?!
"Um, they're not trying to damage any foundation, there's nothing down there other than metal ore, they're also digging down and-" the woman at the top took one step down the staircase. "Leave this place mortal, unless you wish to offer your prayers up to him. Stand their gawking and we as his battle maidens will end you."
VALKYRIES?! REAL VALKYRIES?!
Standing before Selene were ten Valkyries, the real ones, not a job class from Yggdrasil. These were the women who took dead heroes to Valhalla as Einherjar or to Freya. She activated her scanning in her Hud and saw their level, 100, which might not be reliable given they served Norse gods. They were immensely powerful warrior women, probably immortal given they were living here and not aging. "I'm not gawking, I was hoping we might be able to come to an understanding. They aren't trying to harm your temple, we didn't even know about it until you attacked them. Why would I want to destroy a historical site? It's actually quite beautiful, even if a little run down." Three of them stepped forward readying their weapons. The middle one raised a hand for them to stop. "You insult, and yet you praise. This temple was for those who wished to become Einherjar, not some little garden to primp and fawn over by a little ruler like yourself."
"Getting tired of her propping up her ego" Deacon said over coms. "Then is there a way to stop the attacks? Can't we come to an agreement? There must be something we can do to fix the situation, we don't have to be enemies at all. I mean… I thought Valkyries-" she was interrupted. "Valkyrja human, do not taint our very being with your pathetic mispronunciations." She corrected herself. "My apologies, um… might I ask of your name? I feel like I'm also doing a disservice for not being able to say it."
The Valkyrja walked down the steps and stood in front of her, easily seven feet tall and towering over Selene, but nowhere near the size of Jorge. "My name is Sigrun, I lead the last ten of Valkyrja after Ragnarök." That made her blood go cold. Ragnarök was supposed to destroy Earth.
No no no, Earth isn't gone. It must be a mistake. This must be the world that went through Ragnarök and that's why no one comes here after six hundred years.
"So Ragnarök has already come to pass? Here?" she asked. "A simple creature you are. Is it so difficult to understand? The final battle has happened; however, this world has healed after some time due to the last vestiges of power from Odin. We were sent here to watch over this temple until the gods come back."
If Ragnarök did happen like she said it did, then the gods are dead. No one is coming here. It's a lost religion, they'd just sit up here waiting for nothing for the next millennium, many millenniums even. They're forgotten. Odin probably sent them here as a last chance to save at least some of them from death, or as protectors to help cultivate the world. Their orders might have been lost somehow, like playing telephone.
"Did he give you direct instructions to watch over the temple or the world? I'm just asking to understand what's happening, apologies." Sigrun sighed. "We stay here and watch, ready to bring strong warriors, living or dead, to Odin once he comes back. The dead will go to Valhalla once it is rebuilt, with the living ruling over the weak of this world with his blessing." The empress thought on that for a moment. "So, two people come to fight at this temple and decide who is stronger? The victor assumes a place of power?" Sigrun seemed to be getting annoyed explaining things to her. "Yes, if that is how it works for your little brain, two are brought here to show their true warrior spirit. None have come in some time though." She seemed a little distraught about that, her face softening slightly. They might be worried they were forgotten, cast aside and not worth anyone's time.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Back to what we were talking about, is there some way I can come to an agreement?" Another Valkyrja stepped forward, black long hair coming out of the back of her helmet. "Sigrun, why even talk to this woman who wants to burn your ears off and your patience? Just end her." Sigrun looked at her. "Hrist, is it not normal to teach the lowers so that they may soon remember the All Father and the reason they still exist?" Hrist grunted a little then stepped back, glaring at Selene. "You wish to come to an agreement?" Sigrun asked. Hrist, despite being another Valkyrja, was six foot four, smaller than Sigrun, but still quite a bit taller than the empress.
"Yes, maybe we can settle something so that the miners can continue their work. They're not trying to harm anything, just working to make a living." Sigrun looked behind her at all the other women standing. "Will you do anything required?" she asked, a slight glint in her eye. Selene looked between all of the faces staring at her. "Uh, I'll do what I can to protect my people, that's for sure." A slight smile crept up on Sigrun's lips. "Then acknowledge the rite of this temple." The empress looked confused.
"What does that mean?" Hrist now had a small grin on her face. "Acknowledge the rite of this temple and we will allow the "miners" to continue." Selene somehow had a bad feeling about this. "I… accept and acknowledge the rite of this temple then." The Valkyrja laughed but were silenced by their leader. "You have three days to prepare, as it seems you did not come here well equipped. It will be an interesting battle."
Wait, what.
"Battle? Wait… I… you want me to fight as a potential Einherjar?" she asked shocked. "Given there are no others here that meet the requirements of a human, I would say yes, you will fight." Selene was trying to figure out a way to get released from this rite. "I… can't fight, I don't… there's no opponent. I doubt there would be anyone who would wish to fight me down below anyways." She straightened up and nodded her head. It was possible she was the strongest person on this continent. "I will be her opponent Sigrun." Hrist stepped forward again, her eyes gleaming. Now that she was closer to the torch light, she was seeing that most of the battle maidens were quite beautiful, Hrist especially. There were stories of them having love affairs with strong warriors in history, or even some soldiers seeking them out. There was no way for her to know if those were true or not.
"You want me to fight a Valkyrja? I can't… there's no way." She'd be annihilated. Hrist was a bringer of the slain to a god, she probably wasn't even capable of dying like a human. "So, you refuse? Perhaps the miners would accept the punishment then? Or your town?" that hit hard. If she refused, the miners would be killed instead of her, or the townsfolk, close to four hundred lives. "Can I choose a champion instead?" she asked. The Valkyrja laughed at her. "Are you so pathetic that you need someone else to fight for you? Maybe hold your hand when you walk down a difficult street? The answer is no. If you do not fight, then there might as well be armies, which suits us just fine. We've been waiting for some practice" Sigrun said. These women didn't discriminate between soldier and civilian, they were willing to kill defenseless townsfolk.
"What is your answer? You accepted the rite; do you shame yourself or do you grow a spine and die with honor?" Hrist asked with a smirk on her face. "I…" Selene thought hard for a moment.
There's absolutely no way! This is like fighting a raid boss solo! I don't have Celestial equipment! I'm not even level 100! I've been feeding skill points and stat points into things to help with building the empire, not fight by myself!
"I accept."
"Very well. You have three days. If you do not return on the fourth by the time the sun is at its zenith, we will come for the town to end this mine once and for all. This mountain will not be sullied by cowards." Selene took a deep shaky breath and nodded, then walked out of the temple underground and back out. "Your majesty, we-" Jorge tried to say. "Not now Jorge, we have to get back to the castle." Bronze Team could see she was doing her best to keep it together, but under the façade she was scared shitless. This wasn't fighting a bandit army behind fortified walls, this was fighting something well and truly above what she could handle. This wasn't another player either with the job class of Valkyrie, this was the real deal, a true, fucking, Valkyrja, Hrist. There was no telling how fast or strong or resilient she was, but chances were that she had immense if not unlimited stamina being a battle maiden and bringer of the slain for Odin.
The helibot took off as Selene just clenched her hands into white knuckled fists, doing her very best not to just break into tears. What was she, a level 45? How quickly could she level up with the orb without affecting her health? Ten levels a day? If she could get forty levels by noon of the fourth day, that's level 80. She'd still be twenty levels below Hrist, with that level maybe not even being her true level. Some games had bosses simply show a level in different colors like red, however, in all actuality, they were far more powerful; others provided stars in replacement or skulls telling you that chances of survival were slim to none by yourself. As she took breathes, they were trembling, with thoughts of what she needed to do, not to win, but just to survive this.
"Ma'am…" Jorge tried to say again softly. "Bronze Team, I need all of you to do your best with helping me train in the coming days, or so help me you won't have a living empress to follow after the battle." Everyone acknowledged. She had been relying on her steampunk automatons the entire time to steamroll through the valley, living on easy street. Now, she had to fight alone, or the citizens of Gold Pine would pay for her accepting the rite like an idiot.
God damn it I am so stupid! Oh yeah Selene, accept the fucking rite without knowing what it is! I fucking knew this was a place for ceremonial combat! What, was I supposed to figure it was a sign of respect, light some torches or fast a day or two?! Smoke something and see my ancestors?!
The helibot landed with the empress storming out of it and heading back to the vault. She pushed Skill Potions and Stat Potions into crafting stations and set to work on further improving her armor and equipment, already working towards Blessed tier. It was the start of raid gear for Divine Apocalypse, which she sure as hell was going to need. While her automatons and other steampunk items had a vast assortment of features and abilities pre-installed due to modules for defense, her own equipment didn't follow the same principles, so she was going to need to be extra careful in the crafting and put all effort into producing the most powerful maxed out Blessed armor and weapons she could make, entirely customized from the ground up. Unfortunately for her, that was going to mean ranged weapons wouldn't work here, as Hrist would probably be able to close the distance very fast to get at her. This left sword and shield, spear, martial arts… everything Hrist would probably be fantastic at. She might get a shot or two in, maybe some throwing knives, but that would be the greatest number of projectiles before it was fighting up close.
Tears were trying to fight their way out, but she kept trying to push them back in as the vault doors opened and the orb came into view. As she touched it, the dev already knew she had gained five levels today. "How many can I afford to do per day without hurting myself." She tried for eight more, feeling the lightheadedness from last time and fatigue almost immediately, just like with the bandit army. Selene wanted to tech up, to get that little extra edge in technology to maybe Atomic Era or Super Steampunk, but that could very well push her over the edge.
As she left the vault and headed back upstairs, putting her hands on the safety rails she had installed, her character sheet opened showing the extra points she had just gained or hadn't used. What she also saw was psionics was now unlocked near her magic list. She had no idea how effective it was going to be, but she was going to need every trick in the book to fend off a raid boss Valkyrja. She cast Greater Rejuvenate on herself to help with the fatigue, which seemed to help a little, not nearly as much as it should have. What it would normally do is cure all fatigue and give her a massive boost to energy, almost like coffee and sugar overdose; sadly, it didn't. Her psionic abilities seemed to go by a "usage allows stronger abilities to be unlocked," learn by doing sort of leveling. Her first five psionics were Telekinesis, Cryokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis and Biomimetic Barrier.
The first four were relatively self-explanatory, but unfortunately each was pretty weak due to no usage yet, with Pyrokinesis being almost the equivalent of an early tier firebolt. What seemed to be a saving grace was the Biomimetic Barrier, which didn't go by usage and instead created a form fitting shield around her body that was equal to her health bar. Given that wasn't very much without her armor on, it was damn low right now. The only advantage it did have was it didn't drain her psionics bar, just provided a slowly regenerating shield. While some would think that was amazing, she doubted it would save her from the strikes she was expecting from a bringer of the slain. She had to practice with everything she had available as hard as she could. Psionics, magic, martial weapons, unarmed combat, she was going to need to physically push herself to instinctively do things, dodge things, fight to her absolute limits.
(Recommended Song: Epic Score – Proud Heritage)
As she sat down in a chair in the entranceway to the throne room, with Bronze Team standing near her, her mind just wandered.
I'm a human, fighting a Valkyr… Valkyrie... Valkyrja. I'm fighting a fucking Valkyrie. I'm a little mortal that's probably going to die…
She put her head in her hands and rubbed her face, pulling down some of her face as the bottom of her eyeballs were showing, her mouth agape. Selene sighed and decided right then and there.
I'm also an American. I may not be on Earth, but I am an American, just like anyone else would be proud of where they hail from, their country. I know what my forefathers did to fight back against the British. They were outnumbered and sometimes outgunned, so how do I fight this?... I'm going to use every damn trick in the book that's what I'm going to do. They want honor. Honor doesn't win a battle, the winner uses everything they have available, and I wasn't restricted on how I can fight by them. I have steampunk, I have so many features from so many different games to help me. Time to make use of all of that.
"Alright guys. Time to get to work. I think I have a plan."