10. Depressing realization, An offer from the asari.

The dungeon raiding went on for an entire week, when one team was too tired to continue, Silver called another, After hearing the number of dungeons Silver has raided in the last week, and hardly leveling up, gaining a level when others gain two three or more, people realize her class is consuming many times more experience to level up, by the end of the week silver successful reached level 20 after raiding more than 20 dungeons, her experience starts stagnating, She ignores all advancements, and distractions, becoming crazed to the point where she hunts late at night outside the city instead of resting for the next days events, like everyone else. Though, with the lack of sleep one can note tje change in her behavior, becoming more volatile and reckless, but, on friday, after reaching level 20, the little neko cat can no longer take the strain, falling into a deep slumber than even a disaster could not shake her from, unknown to the cat, that the system has been recording every fight, and works to optimize the blueprint for her prosthetic limb, with a long ways to go to reach the 1500 mana required to craft her arm. after sleeping for nearly twelve hours straight, a very groggy Silver finally wakes up from her week long fervor, with a splitting migraine equivalent to a hang over. Getting dressed she goes down to her shop, looking to just get through the day and review all of her notifications. Sitting at the work bench she summons her status page first.

name: Silver Hailstorm

class: Arcana Machina

level 20

stats.

Str: 46 (39)

AG: 30 (26)

DEX: 45 (42)

Int: 25

Stam: 50

mana: 1050 (660)

Free attribute points: 95

Seeing how restricted her mana is, makes her frustrated, but what can she do. Choosing to ignore this fact for now she waves her hand, and several advancement panels appear, some from reaching the level milestone others from accumulated combat experience. the first message to appear. [CONGRATULATIONS HOST ON SUCCESSFULLY REACHING LEVEL 15, CLASS ADVANCEMENT IS AVAILABLE!]

Silver sees basically the same options as before, and decides to opt for even more turrets turning her two basic turrets and two artillery into 3 each, giving herself a decent amount of more firepower. Nodding to herself as she thinks about the last few dungeons and what can be done to increase the damage output. 'The sniper is solid, but doesnt have enough for beefier targets, I dont want to waste my time on machine guns...we could step it up to full on cannons? maybe not artillery, but maybe step it up to a 20 mm rifle...or 37mm? 40mm grenade launcher? go a step more and use a machine gun grenade launcher? surely my damage and crowd control will be even better, could load high yield explosives? Hm, its not crowd control that I lack.' Silver summons both towers and look them over from her seat. 'We need punch through...Rail guns have the punch but maybe mass drivers for the rate of fire? they are slower than the snipers but have been used to bunker bust...not a bad Idea.' Getting up, silver walks to the hidden weapons alcove, taking a gander at all the mass drivers, and rail guns she has collected from repairing and retrofitting military equipment here. Coming across a quad barreled mass driver anti flyer piece, Her eyes light up seeing the set up, something that would both increase overall rate of fire, but also the punch through, now that her mana can handle the strain now, its an excellent idea, so Silver grabs its carry handle and picks it up nearly dragging it along as she moves it closer to her sniper tower. Injecting mana into the tower, a new notification pops up. [weapon fusion available! would you like to fuse?] weapon fusion? Hell yea, lets see what you do. Soon after she says that, the new cannons and the old sniper rifle dissappear into giant ball of purple mana, swirling and reshaping without a blemish, and this continues on for more than one hour. After awhile, the orb of mana slowly dissipates, revealing a beefed up quad barreled mass driver with four laser sights showing what each barrel is going to hit, with each barrel having its own suppressor to reduce sound. Laughing diabolically, with an eagerness to test her new battle strategy. 'as the defense queen, or...chess queen? hmm, we will have to work on that...' She thinks to herself. She gets in touch with a lower tiered hunter team, using them to flex a bit with her now half dozen turrets and insane output. Albeit, her limited mana may not be able to support it entirely, the show of force is enough. After another day of resting, silver finally meets up with this team, outside of a decent dungeon, with tons of undiscovered treasures. " good choice on the pirates alcove, you guys should get a few benefits at least here. Shall we?" this dungeon is famous for the skeleton pirates and undead captains, thus its name, but its also a treasure trove.Stepping in, everyone appears an a sand shore, with very few high points on this entire island, giving Silver a diabolical idea, she summons all three of her new mk. III turrets, and before the leader can address the party, a sound akin to thunder erupts just feet from them, and repeats rapidly. Glancing over, the party's jaws drop, watching as silver's turrets decimate the realm, blasting every skeleton in sight from one side of the island to the other, the sheer noise even after the fusion, speaking of how much power is being put behind the once made of tungsten, rounds, now nothing but pure heavily condensed mana, slamming and destroying everything, even the elite captain bosses guarding treasure, the team, stands there, pale and shaking, fearful of their random teammate. "relax, all the treasure is yours i dont need anything but the experience, besides you havent made an enemy of me, i have some morals yeesh." Silver says at how scared her team is with just showing off this turret, wondering how this random unimportant team would feel if she summoned her big guns? Gaining a level by the time she ran out of mana, and basically wiping the entire dungeon in one go, she gives a nod to the leader. "happy hunting guys, I will take my leave first." leaving them gaping at her departing back, eventually they laugh and charge into the cleared dungeon, looting everything they can before anyone shows up. With that, and nothing left to do but to level, and stat dump a bit, silver drops all of her free attributes on agility and intelligence, to bolster her mana and increase her movement speed even further.

name: Silver Hailstorm

class: Arcana Machina

level: 21

stats.

Str: 46 (39)

AG: 80 (72)

DEX: 45 (42)

Int: 75 [this stat does not increase mana like video games, more reduces mana costs and consumption, essentially making her turrets burn far less mana now.]

Stam: 50

mana: 1100 (690)

Free attribute points: 0

Seeing the Slow climb of her experience, as well as her abismal mana limit, Since her amputation has caused her stats to be restricted, her arm having been one of the mana gates of her body. With a depressed sigh. Silver climbs into her car driving to another dungeon tiredly, the events of the last couple of months, taking its toll, the reality of her situation sinking in. ' Its going to be hell getting the levels required to build me new arm...I need to be early stage of the mid tier experts to just scrape by...' with a shake of her head, her mouth stuck in a deep frown as she drives.Pulling up outside of one of the toughest and highest level dungeons her level can challenge, level 25 to level 35, Fenrir's Den. Getting out, the first thing she notice's is the team waiting for her, at the front is a huge woman, if no one knew better would assume she is part giant, but in actuality, she is one fourth orc, giving her the restout physique, minus the ugly look, although she is just barely average, having a more manly looking square jawed face, she has a huge shield and mace, an obvious tell, that she plays the roll of tank, Walking over, another group intercepts Silver, a group of asari, a blue skinned tall and skinny race, with a unique characteristics, such as 4 fingers instead of 5 like most bipedal species, though with much more dexterious hands, and longer fingers, their race always produces exquisite items of jewelry, bows, and other high quality craftsman pieces, thier hunters are always mages, or some form of ranged combatant, rarely do they fight with swords or melee. Seeing them approach shocks Silver deeply, usually asari never leave their personal city, preferring to trade to others that travel. "Hello, Mrs. Silver, I am Avi, a representative of the asari royal family, may we have a moment of your time?" A female asari, wearing blue and silver robes, a sign of royalty for the asari, the combination being chosen by the queen actually. "um, sure? I don't think I caused trouble for the asari? I love your craftsmen, I collect some jewelry and even had a small wolf figurine made by an asari wood worker." Silver rambles a bit, nervous that she somehow messed up with the asari and will lose her ability to collect shiny things from them, already depressed about earlier, this doesn't help, causing her shoulders to sag a bit, this doesn't go unnoticed by the asari though. "its not what you think, the queen sent me here in search of strong mercenaries and talents willing to act as mercenaries, of course with the offer to pay. While searching at the Hunter's head quarter's for new talents, your name seemed to be in everyone's mouth, it seems they have dubbed you...The king of defense, or defense king for short. With that being said, if what they said is true, you are exactly what we need the most. Our kingdom is currently being plagued with an unprecedentedly large beast tide, one spanning in the several trillion. its not that they are too strong, just their sheer number is causing a strain and we are in desperate need of extra guards to have our soldiers rest.We also heard you have been giving up your right to treasures in every team you join in turn to have full right to kill all the monsters, is this true?" After explaining everything to silver, and getting straight to the point of looking for her, visibly relaxing a bit. "It is, its easier than haggling for treasure for one, and two the world is cruel to the handicapped, if you havent noticed..." at this point silver makes a point to turn her empty sleeved side of her tshirt towards the asari. "So let me get this straight, you are here to recruit me to assist in relieving your soldiers and civilian fighters, but, what exactly do I get out of it? I am not a charity, nor am I kind hearted." Silver states, Her morals, long having been built in fights since she was young, and having changed a lot recently from all the events. "benefits of course, what is it you want? do you lack a treasure since giving up your claim in the raids? we can negotiate for one, but depending--" silver cuts her off quickly speaking. "I care very little for treasures at this time, what I would like, if possible is a ton of the highest grade armor alloy used by the royal family,access to the asari enchanter, levi and a choice of one of the most advanced firearms, or artillery available in your kingdom, do this and I will buy you all the rest time you need." Silver states domineeringly, giving no room to haggle, barter, or negotiate. thinking for some time, the asari examines Silver, almost as if trying to decipher why she would choose those over a high quality treasure of her choosing. "May I ask why?" Avi asks curiously. "I require strong material, and I collect Military hardware. As for the exact purpose...you don't need to know. If you want to know what you are buying at that price,feel free to join us for this raid and watch the show, I am sure they wont mind letting me take point on this raid."

With a curious smile, Avi waves her hand, and her troup comes closer to her as they move to stand beside The team lead by a part orc girl. As silver appraches she speaks openly to the team,having no qualms of privacy in the matters. "I have been invited by the Asari kingdom, but they have requested a demonstration of my prowess, any chance i can take point on this? Same rules as agreed upon, treasure and loot is yours, just want to show off what they are buying." At first, no one says anything at this point, but the tall muscular female stares intently at silver, being as small as she is, the simple mindedness of orc seems to have also crossed to her as well, size meaning strength, silver should be weak, but isnt. "Okay, but I will stay close, you are small." The tall woman says with no malice or intent of belittlement, just her statement of fact. "sure sure." even though it annoys silver she says nothing as everyone enters the dungeon, the reason this dungeon is so strong is not the amount of enemies, but the strength, each wolf here is either a demonic wolf, abyssal wolf, hellhound, undead wolf, or half god wolf. Making this place tough for its level, once the group gains their bearings, they can see a long wide path on the side of a sheer mountain side, leading down towards a giant crystal seen from here, inside is a huge wolf that has been dubbed fenrir, hence the name of the dungeon, within minutes of traveling this path,several haunty howls can be heard up ahead, Silver proceeds forward as if not hearing anything, the group lags behind a few paces, giving her room to be point, just as the wolves come into view at nearly 50 yards. Silver summons only one of her mk. 3 main turrets, and it immediately locks on firing 4 shots in just a few seconds killing one wolf, a demonic wolf in the group, and only wounding the two abyssal wolves at first, and breaking a limb off the skeleton undead wolf,But before the wolves can react and charge, another volley soon follows, then another, and another, the volume of fire drowns out their howls of pain, and whimpers of death, before the group proceeds the weakest member taking a second to loot the bodies before everyone proceeds forward. Avi, The asari envoy, steps up beside silver, quietly asking a question, so thats how you fight, how long can you maintain it? how much mana does it consume?" "well, with my high intelligence stat, I can maintain them for far longer than previously, but for how long as of now? I dont know, it only costs mana to summon and to fire, its an indefinite spawn until I take it back, a small blessing for this class." Silver answers truthfully as the walk along the path for several minutes before a large group of wolves appear most of this group consisting of abyssal wolves, and demonic wolves, just a few hellhounds sprinkled in. Without a warning to the team behind her silver summons all of her turrets, the artillery fires immediately landing three shots roughly center and middle area of the group, causing the death of a dozen of these wolves, and wounding many of the surrounding wolves, just as the main turrets open up, punching through the wolves tough hide and killing many or wounding them heavily, rhe volume of fire doesnt allow any of the wolves to approach aa she forcefully drowns them in bullets, not her usual tactic, but is working well enough for this demonstration. They continue on within 10 minutes of combat, as they walk past the large group, the team quickly loots the bodies, the tal lady taking several abyssal wolf pelts with a bit of a happy smile, as if finding a beautiful set of clothing or something her style. The asari group having a contemplative look on their faces as the gaze at silvers back, As they continue past the group, not once does silver look back at the groups loot, showing an unerring determination for her goals.This pattern continue on all the way, for a few hours, only a few elite wolves pushing close, only for silver to brush forward striking them down with her gauntlet, saving the explosive charge, but her speed and strength proving enough to handle them just fine.