Hell's Edge
TJ stored the sword in his Inventory and could finally see its name.
[Name: Hell's Edge
Rank: B
Effect(s): +20 Strength, +10 Agility, +50 Health, +40 Mana, enhances affinity to dark element mana]
Active Skill: Dark Friction.]
'So that moment where the cerberus lit up a black fireball after scratching the blade with its claw is called [Dark Friction],' thought TJ.
Aside from Summer and Katja, and of course Magnus himself, no one else had had a B-rank item. Now, TJ's name had been added to this list.
The sword might not give a massive boost to each stat, but overall its effects weren't bad for a weapon of such a rank, since four of the wielder's stats were affected. In comparison, Katja's [Tempest] only gave boosts for two of her stats, namely Agility and Mana, each numbering 30 and 100, respectively.
TJ pulled the weapon back out of the Inventory and inspected its blade more closely. He couldn't tell what it was made of, but he wondered how it seemed as if light couldn't be reflected on its black surface. It was as though it was absorbing all traces of light waves around.
'Oh, nice! You finally got your weapon!' Magnus 2.0's voice sounded in his head. It seemed like he kept switching back and forth between annoying TJ and calling Summer. 'Fun fact, back in the past future, you didn't actually get your hands on it till after you left Earth. You took it from the dead body of an acquaintance of yours. He liked to brag about how he had come to obtain it, which portal he'd gone to and what kind of monster he'd fought. Some of his story was then relayed to me. By you. That's how I knew what you needed to do for this Objective. Funny, huh? It's come full circle.'
His original then added, 'Oh, you also told me that the blade was made of Vantablack Iron or something like that.'
TJ didn't respond to his friend's explanation as he kept examining the surface of the blade. Some kind of symbols or hieroglyphs had been etched along one of the sword's edges. The symbols glowed with a black light that exuded dark element Aura.
'I've seen your axe has weird symbols on its blade, as well. But they glowed blue and it seemed like the style was different from the ones on this sword.'
'Oh, that's 'cause the gods who blessed them are different,' Magnus 2.0 answered. 'Gods hailed from different worlds, apparently. So of course they all have their own unique languages and cultures, hence the different languages engraved on their blessed items. As to the colors of their glow? Uuh, it's a long story, but let's just say that each god produces their own distinctive glow when imbuing an item with their blessing.'
He was, of course, talking about Divine Essence.
'Like how those chicken scratches you make on those papers glow silver?'
'...I'll have you know my handwriting isn't that bad.'
TJ stared at the sword for a few more seconds before a thought crossed his mind. 'Does this thing not have a scabbard?'
'Dude, why would you need a scabbard when you have Inventory?'
'....'
'Are you imagining yourself unsheathing it out of a scabbard and then it goes 'shing'?'
'....'
TJ then heard his friend cackling over the call. He immediately hung up and stored the sword back in the Inventory. He then opened up his Status Window.
[Status Window
Name: Tyler John Haysmith
Race: Human
Author: Magnus 2.0
Alias: Death
Age: 18
Title(s): None
Level 12
XP: 740/2000
HP: 610
Mana: 880
Strength: 89
Agility: 71
Perception: 72
Stamina: 71
Skill(s): Rejuvenate, Ignite (Lv. 10), Flamethrower (Lv. 8), Swordsmanship (Lv. 6), Death Flame (Lv. 5), Decay (Lv. 5), Wind Bullet (Lv. 5), Pain Resistance (Lv. 11), Line of Fire (Lv. 3), Solar Flare (Lv. 3), Lesser Heal (Lv. 3).
Unused Stat Points: 7.]
After eliminating a total of 98 hellhounds—over eighty of them in the Abyss—he had gained 5880 XP, since each was worth 60 XP. Defeating the cerberus earned him an additional 260 XP, and finishing the Objective given by Magnus gave him 600 XP. Lisa must have also gained a sizable amount of XP for being his Support outside the Abyss.
All in all, in exchange for soloing an army of hellhounds, nearly exhausting himself, and getting his arm cut off, he had leveled up seven times in a matter of a few hours. And of course, he could now say goodbye to the stupid earth sword and finally got himself an actual sword.
After assigning four bonus stat points to his Health and three to his Perception—since Magnus always refused to boost this particular stat for some reason—the now bare-chested and one-armed TJ turned around to head for the portal. He wouldn't want to be there when a new batch of hellhounds arrived; he was ready to call it a day. Not before demanding Magnus to reattach his arm, of course.
— —
A few hours ago…
*Bang!*
A six-legged horned feline rammed into an invisible wall that barricaded the Abyss Circle.
"Oof! Are you okay?" Fiona half-shouted.
Nikolai, who was next to her, looked at Magnus' mother with an odd expression. "Did you just ask a monster if it's okay?"
As TJ and Lisa headed for the east, the first group led by Summer and accompanied by Sergeant O'Brien's squad had just arrived on the border of an Abyss Circle. Inside it, tens of what looked like tigers with white fur and black stripes were roaming around destroying parked cars and could sometimes be seen fighting against each other. Unlike the hellhounds, these felines weren't a very cohesive bunch. They basically did whatever they wanted, and got easily attracted to anything that moved.
That was the reason why one of them rammed into the invisible barrier; it had noticed the group coming their way.
In terms of size, they seemed to be a bit smaller than normal tigers, but with just a glance, anyone could tell they weren't normal tigers. They had one ivory horn protruding out of their foreheads, bright and attentive golden eyes, and six legs.
Sergeant O'Brien walked up next to Summer, observing the scattered felines beyond the invisible wall. And then, her eyes traveled up to the windows of small apartments along both sides of the street. Several faces could be seen peeking out through the glasses, as if half-wondering what the soldiers were there for and half-expecting to be rescued.
"My squad has experience exterminating monsters," the sergeant said. "In fact, many of us have leveled up at least twice since a couple of days ago. But every time we were done with one group of monsters, more would come from the blackhole. We used the short gap between the time when the streets were cleared and the time a new batch arrived to evacuate trapped civilians. But there are just too many places for us to deal with and the time gaps weren't long enough for all the residents to safely leave the area.
"Besides, even though guns are a sufficient weapon to defeat the monsters, what we're lacking is our own physical prowess. Many of these monsters are insanely fast. I'm guessing the only way to match their speed and raw strength is to increase these things called stats on our Status Windows."
Summer nodded. She understood the problem the military was currently facing. They weren't completely helpless, owing to the years of combat training and a collection of tactical weapons. But what they didn't have was prior knowledge regarding the monsters and everything about the gods, and of course, a Magnus to boost their stats. Although he could only provide occasional small boosts to everyone since he apparently had his own limitations, he had also been teaching everyone magic. Those were the privileges the military didn't have.
Right now, out of everyone present there, Summer was the one with the highest Level and stats. In fact, she had a nice additional boost now since borrowing [Forthright]. Counting her [Forest's Wish] bracelet, she currently held two B-rank items, which was a massive boon.
This made her feel reassured but at the same time, the weight on her shoulders felt twice as heavy. She felt as if she really had to succeed in rescuing everyone stuck here while keeping her friends safe simultaneously. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if even one person died, no matter if they were from her group, the soldiers, or other civilians.
It was probably not a healthy mindset to have, considering her lack of experience and leadership skills. She was no Sergeant O'Brien, who seemed assured of herself and knew what she was doing.
It wasn't good to set too high of expectations on oneself, as disappointment upon failure would break them on a profound level.
Alas, that was the burden Summer had chosen to bear. Magnus trusted her, so why couldn't she trust herself?
'Hey, babe,' Magnus' voice echoed in her head.
'Oh, I was just thinking about you.'
Summer couldn't see him, but she could almost imagine her boyfriend's stupid grin after hearing that.
'You made my heart go 'thump' for a bit there.' He chuckled a little before continuing. 'Anyway, there's a reason I chose this group of monsters for all of you to deal with. They're pretty dang fast, especially whenever they enhance their speed with lightning element mana. It's a similar skill to Katja's [Lightning Steps]. But other than that, they couldn't use any other spell. So what I want you to focus on is to improve your battle sense and reaction speed.'
'I see. Do these tigers have a name? We've fought creatures named harpy and ammit before.'
'They don't have an official name, actually. If you were a god's Protagonist and received an Objective to defeat these monsters, they would just call them 'horned tigers'. However, the horned tigers that have undergone evolution are called byakko.'
'Okay. Do you have any advice for us?'
'There are three in your group who specialize in earth element spells, including yourself. So it comes down to how you utilize your defenses. Also, babe, try not to tunnel vision. When you attack, always go for the kill. It's more efficient that way, so you won't take too much time on one target. Otherwise, you'd forget about the others and possibly fail to notice if anybody needed help.
'I know what I just said might not aid you much, though. After all, no amount of advising can guarantee everything will go smoothly in practice.'
Hearing that, Summer smiled. 'That's okay. I'll keep your words in mind. Thanks, Magnus.'