Book 1 Chapter 16: Earning a skill and Going in

Jaeger moved pieces of strewn wood and debris to the side of the basement heavy door. With a quick look around he pulled the secret lever that controlled the door on this side while the woman pulled the one on her side, and a mechanism finally slowly slid the heavy door apart with a groan.

She leapt out onto the ground and took a deep breathe in. Her hair was disheveled, her skin paler then before and her over all frame much smaller as well: but in the end she was alive.

"You okay?" Jaeger asked lighting up his smoke as usual.

"Yes…how many were there?" She asked looking around the broken remains of the Pagoda.

"Oh uh…not many…" Jaeger clutched his side when she was looking away but took his hand off when she looked back over.

One potion wouldn't heal him completely, the fight last night was horrendous and if it wasn't for the constant lightning that occurred and the height in the atmosphere this town was in, he would be fucked right now. Even then, he had countless wounds that would take days to heal but since they had come all at once he had some time to heal back up now.

She walked up the basement steps to the first floor and looked around at the walls that had collapsed. In fact the second story of the building had collapsed down onto the first, with holes everywhere the several dozen slices had broken the structural integrity.

"I am sorry…I had to, they tried to go around me to get to you while we fought and so I had to collapse it."

She nodded, "It doesn't matter…thank you" She looked at him with heart felt eyes, admiration, and a tinge of love. Jaeger already had someone though, or he might very well take her up on the offer her eyes gave off.

Her smile faded as she saw the bodies piling several stories up around the pagoda. In fact she gasped that one man could do all this and still be alive.

"If they had come all once in the first several weeks I would be dead right now…but they gave me time to become stronger, and that was their downfall"

He didn't mention the dermal layer of metal that had saved his life countless times, or the frequent shocks of electricity from the sky to fuel his speed and mental processing because there was no need to tell her.

She nodded, and went into thought about what to do from this point forward.

Jaeger let her be, and went out to find a bed in a different building before collapsing on it. Another day passed and he finally got to have another potion, which took the edge off of the nerves that felt like they were on fire.

She came by to see him again, with the same eyes as before. He had even told her that he had a girlfriend in a different world, but this didn't seem to stop her.

She knew she had only two day's left to make a move, give back what he had given her in blood.

On the last day before he left, she came to him again and looked over his wounds from before.

"They're all healed up, you have a lot of scars but it shouldn't affect you." Jaeger nodded thanks to her before laying back down on his bed.

"Hey, my muscles still have knots which a potion can't mend…you could rub my back?" Jaeger gave her a smile, and she finally felt like she could return a favor. She ran over to several buildings before finding a jar of medicinal oil to use on him.

Jaeger took off the ninja robe, and her eye's scanned over his back full of more lines then a tiger had stripes. She kneaded his back slowly before adding more pressure over time, and Jaeger contently layed there to enjoy it.

Slowly she massaged his shoulders, his arms, his legs, even his pecks and forehead. As Jaeger was about to fall asleep, her hand slowly glided down his stomach and under his robes. He flinched for a second, but slowly stopped himself as he looked up at her. She gave him a determined look, and Jaeger slowly closed his eyes.

'Well…I did kill ten thousand men, and this isn't a real world…it's…just a dream right?'

She stood up and undressed, and as the night fell and the rain slowly came back in a maelstrom, the two fell asleep.

She woke up to find him missing, she layed her hand on the pillow where his head used to be and sighed.

'He was a really good lover too…what a man.'

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Jaeger quickly checked the items hidden under his robes, the derringer, his pistol, the chain spear, his bracelet. The only thing missing was his old clothes, the set he wore now was the robes of the ninja he had killed off. It was pretty comfortable too, so for now he might as well wear it till he got back.

"Only seconds have passed in the world since I entered the portal…to think a month went by inside" Jaeger shook his head and thought of the woman inside. Because he soloed it, nobody else could enter it again with him. He flipped open the display of his watch to see his rewards.

"You now have 100.00% proficiency in the finesse weapon 'Chain Blade'."

Under it was the skill it said it would give him.

"Skill: 10,000 Fold Slayer: With each consecutive attack, raise your damage .1%." .1%? That means for every slash, it was the equivalent to that of ten men striking, adding it up it meant that after a thousand slashes it would be the same as ten thousand men striking one point!

"Worth" Jaeger laughed silently as he looked out into the fog of the space oh so familiar to before.

Undead were currently walking the streets, and it seemed far more than before. Jaeger looked back down at his watch to see an update there, "Your skill has been raised, and the difficulty of the environment has been raised"

"So the fog matches that of which is inside? Strange…" Jaeger furrowed his brows.

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Jaeger arrived half an hour later back at the sanctuary following the route on his watch. When he arrived everyone near the fountain looked over to the black robed Jaeger walking up to them.

Damon looked him up and down and asked, "How many?"

Jaeger smiled, "All of them" which caused everyone around to raise their brows. Ten thousand! No person before had been able to do that!

Alexandria ran over with Ana who looked him up and down, scars peppered his arms and body.

"Just heal my face, I want to keep the rest. Keep the scar over my eye too…that was earned after fighting the boss, I don't want to forget that…" Jaeger looked off into the distance as if he was remembering some horrendous battle. Alexandria wondered exactly what he had been through, but shook her head and nodded to Ana who complied with Jaeger's wishes.

Jaeger had a different air or aura to him as well, everyone felt it. Like the feeling before a beast that wouldn't hesitate to kill.

Jaeger summoned his spirit, and from it spewed out a pile of weapons he had collected.

"If anyone needs material, these weapons are pretty good." Jaeger smiled, but everyone was surprised to find weapons of various kinds. Every kind they could think of in fact from the ancient times.

"I'll go trade it to Craft for you, should earn a good amount of currency back for us…cost us a pretty penny for what we bought you!" Damon smiled and ordered several people to help pick up all the weapons and bring them over to the shop. He came back not long after that and tapped his watch to Jaeger's giving him half the money.

"What now then?" Solomon asked looking over at him.

Jaeger gave him a look, "Go to that portal…choose a weapon, and master it within. Trust me…it will be worth it." Solomon was caught off guard, but understood that they couldn't just wait near the fountain or live here and that they needed to get stronger.

Alexandria nodded, if she was to stay by his side she needed to be as strong as him or at least supportive during fights. She saw that just from those within the fountains portal.

"Are you going for any other skill next?" Damon asked after a while.

Jaeger thought for a moment, "Yeah actually…just one more…the skill mending."

Damon didn't understand what he meant, "Why would you want that? To fix like an item or armor?"

"Yeah to be able to remend material could come in handy" Jaeger wouldn't say that he wanted it to use on his own body, because he got the inkling that if his flesh became metal which was a material, why couldn't he use it on himself? It be like a self-healing ability but also something he could use elsewhere.

"Well…alright, you have to buy it as a skill book from Craft, he should be willing though." Damon shrugged.

Jaeger smiled and left off to Craft again and after arriving was met with the echo of Craft's voice from multiple places "Hey! How was using the chain blade!"

"I love it so much…Craft I can't thank you enough for it. I was hoping to be able to acquire the skill Mend from you…" Jaeger waved his Vanilla smoke back in forth to one of the Craft clones who smiled and walked outside to talk with him.

"You know what it costs right?" Craft asked after several puffs back and forth between the two.

"Yeah some mula right?"

"No…you have to pledge yourself to me. You will become my disciple and only through this will I let you take that skill." Craft gave him a determined nod that seemed unshakeable.

Jaeger smiled, "in fact…I was thinking about getting into craft, maybe make my own items hahaha…how about it then? Take me as your disciple?"

Craft looked him up and down and scrunched his lips, "Yeah alright…rule number one, if you aren't in this shop and earning something from it…no mending of other people's equipment other than your own. It only works for you and for nobody else got it."

Jaeger nodded, and Craft handed him a small tome with golden calligraphy titled "Mending". Jaeger pressed his hand to the tome and it disappeared, melted into his hand and flooded his mind with information.

It was like learning several years' worth of experience at one moment, but it wasn't too overwhelming. Craft looked around and picked up a stone before smashing it in his hand like it was tin foil. He held it towards Jaeger who looked down at it as a test. Jaeger lifted his hands over the stone, and before his very eyes the stone reformed back together as if it was never broken.

"Hey are you the transmutation type?" Craft looked at Jaegers adeptness with the skill with glee.

"Yeah…actually an old man told me that I am a transmutation type, hell my very power is related to it as well."

Craft nodded, "interesting….interesting…hmm…" Craft looked at Jaeger with a more intense glare that Jaeger didn't quite understand, was transmutation that useful? I mean for crafting it made sense, the best alchemists too were the best transmuter.

"Why did you want mending now and not earlier?" Craft asked after handing back the last portion of the vanilla smoke.

"I didn't realize just how much I needed it…until I did."

Craft didn't know exactly what he meant, but he nodded anyway and waved Jaeger away as he went back to work, Jaeger stopped him though "Wait I needed a new item I almost forgot!"

Craft did a 180 and grinned, "What? What do you want come on tell me" he was busting at the seams to craft more. What a guy.

"Could you craft something that generates electricity?"

Craft shook his head, "I could…but what I feel you are looking for is at the mage tower, they have magical engineers there…go to them." Jaeger nodded and waved him goodbye before running over to Damon.

Damon saw Jaeger running over to him and got the feeling he wanted something.

It was true.

Jaeger smiled, "I need one last thing from you…do you have a small handheld portal electricity generator? I need one"

"Uh…" Damon looked over to a tall skinny male, who shrugged "Yeah…we do, we made one quite a bit back for when you enter portals like the fountains and need a jump for most systems…I think we have couple on hand in fact, portable though? I think the smallest we have is about a foot by 6 inches diameter?"

Jaeger nodded, "That's perfect"

The skinny guy looked over to Damon who shrugged. He ran off to the mage tower, and about 20 minutes later came back with something in his arms. It was a cylinder with several lines etched across its body. A crank was on the left side, and a crystal like ball was on the right side jutting out several sharps edges.

"You crank this side…and as you can see it has a tube that is turned by the crank. Thousands of loops of copper wire draw in electron….turn the crank, electricity gets stored in the right side. Here ya go." The skinny guy didn't want to go over the logistics, and Jaeger didn't push him for it.

He took the portable gen and placed a hand on the crystal before turning the crank with his other hand.

"Whoh… Woooh…don't shock yourself dude, it hurts like a bitch. You usually point it away from yourself and touch the thing you want to supply" The skinny guy reached his hands forward, but Solomon stopped him in his tracks with an arm.

"It's…part of his power, don't worry about it" The skinny youth nodded and lifted his hands up to say sorry before slowly backing up. Damon opened his mouth, but after a stare from Solomon quickly shut it again.

Jaeger turned the crank, and after a minute or so the runes on his right palm were full. This little thing created quite a jolt, but it had to build up a certain amount before it discharged and so it took a little while.

Jaeger summoned his frog, which then proceeded to warp the generator into its mouth to some unknown space before disappearing through a small handful of mists.

Damon gave him a look and Jaeger nodded before turning to his friends, "While I am gone, take those seconds to think deeply about what you want here as well…I love you Alex. Solomon lead the group, and most of all become stronger."

Solomon nodded along with Jack and Malcolm. Alexandra blew him a kiss, and Ana waved.

Jaeger hopped up onto the edge of fountain and readied his gun in one hand and the chain blade in the other.

*splash* and like that Jaeger was gone. A second later he hopped out of the fountain, before diving back in again, a couple seconds passed this time. He flew back out with several wounds on his body, before grabbing a potion from someone and chugging it before leaping back in again.

This happened several times, and the strange knowledge that weeks and months were passing for Jaeger while they stood there was a strange feeling. The others might have been used to it, but Solomon and the group weren't. They looked at each other before discussing several things and splitting up into several groups. Alexandria and Ana left for the mage Tower, Solomon left to the portal to gain the 'Master of one' skill, and Jack and Malcom went off to find skills that could help benefit them.

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Jaeger finally came out after staying within for a year straight the last time. He was crawling as he came out too, and had to be supported just to drink a potion or two.

"What happened?"

"Remember how I just killed ten thousand men and women like 2 years ago…or…half an hour ago for you…well, they were just people…from an older era…those things inside? They were like a horror movie…you ever have a tentacle creature come spiraling through a wall at you? 100's of undead flooding your surroundings as you looked for an engine part…fuck me…there was so much that happened…" Jaeger shivered.

Damon felt sorry for him, but knew that if Jaeger could make it to a year alone even at a lesser difficulty because it was solo…he might just survive along with the others currently inside past the 1 year mark challenge.

"You see the woman?" Damon asked timidly.

"No…but I felt her…every time I went in…she felt closer to the fort. At first it felt like she was a hundred miles away…didn't even notice her, I merely guessed that distance because after the 4th run through several months long…that was when I felt her just several miles away. Like in that direction a wave of cold was there."

"Do you know how it is that you are sensing her?" Damon still couldn't understand how Jaeger did it. It was a very unique form of 6th sense.

"I don't know…maybe my dad had it…maybe my mom…never met them, so I wouldn't be able to know" How could Jaeger know what he was given or born with.

"Good luck" Everyone crowded around Jaeger and shook his hand.

Most of them sighed as well, because they felt like they were sending a man willingly to his doom. It was that edgy kind of a feeling. Damon asked if Jaeger needed anything one last time, Jaeger only simply asked for more dry goods and water which he tossed into the space within his frog. He didn't wait for his friends, and just leapt into the fountain.

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Jaeger arrived in front of the fort, the icky smell of the swamp pervaded his nose like a cannon peppering a wall.

"Geez…yak" Jaeger took a deep breathe until he got over the smell and looked around. A camera to his upper right was blinking repeatedly. Before he could wave to it a creeping cold feeling came over him and he spun around and shot out into the air.

Nothing was there though. It was as if it had been a mirage or hallucination but Jaeger knew better.

It didn't come back and so slowly Jaeger placed his back to the door and waved his hand to the side over at the camera. It blinked several times and panned around before stopping on him again.

Several mechanisms sounded and the door parted just long enough for him to get pulled inside by a disheveled looking engineer.

"I could've been caught here coming…what the fuck you are doing here." He squeaked silently, obviously drawing the short straw to come open the door for him.

"I was sent…by the god of magic, as well as the players using the loophole of reaching this level solo…because I have a 6th sense for this…woman that haunts you, I have seen her." Jaeger kept it simple.

"Why…why would you condemn yourself? If we can't take her out, why can you? This only means that you will see her when you die…at least…at least we are blissfully ignorant"

Jaeger had a somewhat unsettled feeling within his gut hearing this, but with the last several years' worth of time he had been in this exact place it wasn't as dark as it could be. He had even fought off countless enemies nonstop; this was merely someone with the power of ten thousand individually.

He already had an answer for this, "You strike her as if she is the source…what if she was a set of bones in the forest? Like some ghosts that I hear. A spirit of vengeance locked onto the bunker, who meant to seal you within because this is where she has power? What if…she had you face that large creature out there, to have you back into coming in here…purposefully…so that you recuperate in the place you deem safe, giving her time to cast out another creature outside…to make you continuously think this is the safe place to be….

To me…this is the purgatory of the 3rd boss…to make you think you are leveling up, only to find that you face countless enemies and bosses in the pursuit of an end that will never come."

The engineer began to tap his fingers on a wrench he had brought for safety, albeit that he was weak it provided a safety blanket of sorts. The more jaeger spoke, the more he felt the people on the outside may not have sent this guy to his death but instead had sent hope to them.

"Follow me…" The engineer dipped down several corridors and after a series of heavy doors and countless salt lines brought Jaeger to a small room with a generator whirring within. Several people swiveled their heads over in their direction.

The same swordsmen that Jaeger had watched the most of stood up and walked over.

A large killing intent poured from the man and washed over Jaeger. It was like a blade was held to his neck, and caused goosebumps to appear on his skin. The two looked at each other for a long while, before the swordsmen held up a lighter with an open palm.

Jaeger smiled, "I brought quite a bit of good things for you…cigars or smokes? I heard the guy in the back liked brandy, and you like fruit…here." A frog leapt from a small cloud of mist and landed on the ground. Seconds later countless items appeared on the ground as they whirled out from the inner space of the frog. The swordsman looked Jaeger up and down before nodding and picking up several things.

He choose a cigarrete, but didn't touch the food that littered the floor in several boxes. He grabbed a cleaning cloth and small grinding stone and began to work on his blade.

The priest however grabbed several incense sticks, jerky, and a hemp rope. He took the hemp rope and began to paint something upon it of unknown origin using a golden paint. The rest grabbed food or change of clothing.

"Thanks…" The burly earth manipulator thanked jaeger simply before lying down in a corner.

The swordsmen stopped polishing his blade, and looked to jaeger with an inquisitive look.

Jaeger smiled, "if we want to hit this spirit where it hurts…let's burn this place to the ground."

Everyone looked at Jaeger like a mad man, but the swordsman actually nodded! He approved?