Testing Ground

The night loomed, and as I gazed towards the western part of the city, it had transformed into an undead haven.

Zombies roamed slowly, their bodies decayed, and the blood that once spilled had turned brownish, their corpses now dry and withered.

The entire cityscape had changed, covered in black tendrils that had red orbs all over it. The black tendrils were reminiscent of the symbiote from a certain movie.

That thing, won't stick to me and make me it host when I touch it right? It was really unsettling to look at, especially at night.

I activated my Night Vision skill and followed up with Enchanted Perception to identify stronger enemies.

Recalling the first moments of the apocalyptic game, I remembered undead beings controlled by figures resembling skeleton mages from fantasy anime, robed with magic orbs in hand. They must be the boss monsters.

I found some of the skeleton mages all over this side of town, flying around, and even ordered some of the zombies to do something that I couldn't understand either.

It would be great if there was a hidden mini-game for this boss too, like Lord Goblin one. Yeah, I'm feeling so overconfident now, nothing would go wrong, right? I'm just testing my new skill anyway.

Now, since I had a new system, I would try to summon some characters that would help me in this testing. Someone with a great holy power, a Goddess perhaps?

{I have a couple of characters that match your description. Boy, you really watch some weird shit aren't you?}

What the fuck does that mean? I never ever watch something that weird in my life and stop peeking at my memories, darn it!

Oh well, just give me the character that was strong enough to support me!

{I will send the information and the knowledge of the character to you}

{The Architect activated: transferring all the data to host}

{100% completed}

Information flooded my mind like a rapidly sped-up movie. My head spun, feeling like I was on a rollercoaster – a worse version. I wanted to puke but now wasn't the time. I needed to strategize.

The character's name was Seraphina, an Angel guarding light. Where did this character come from? What the... It's from an eroge visual novel character?!

{Don't blame me, I got that from your memory.}

Tiamat laughed, making me feel judged for my reading choices. Embarrassing.

But, you know, in her story lore, she was basically a powerhouse. The author just wanted her to be this super-strong character, likely to end up in the main character's harem.

Anyway, I decided to roll with it. "Soulbound Summon: Seraphina."

[Processing the summoned being, Seraphina]

[Your MP will be depleted everytime the summoned being doing damage dealing]

A magic circle appeared, and there she was – long blonde hair, and eyes covered by a white cloth. Of course, her outfit had to be sexy, like, really open.

A two-piece white gown, the top barely covering her ample chest, and a long white skirt teasingly hiding her private parts while I could still see her legs.

She wielded this stunning golden staff, and her wings were massive and shining. I even felt like I didn't need my Night Vision anymore; she was that radiant.

But the MP cost? Yeah, that's a bit steep. It drains quite a bit, especially in the long run. Could I do something about this?

I remembered the Tiamat System could stop my drained HP; maybe it could pull off the same trick with my MP?

{Positive, but because of the limit of the skill, I could hold your depleted MP for only 3 hours per day}

{Do you want to activate it?}

So, there I was, eyeing my MP gauge. Still full, thanks to chugging down a bunch of MP potions earlier. Nah, not now. I'll save that trick for later.

Then, I looked at Seraphina, she just stood there, waiting for my command. "Terminate all the undead here," I said.

She nodded and darted towards the undead. Seeing her, they started running and roaring, rallying their friends to take her down.

But Seraphina wasn't having it. She raised her staff, and her wings glowed even brighter and expanded. The light shone intensely, and the undead screamed as it hit them, literally purifying them into ashes.

Damn! The system notifications chimed in with the sound of killing points and echoed like crazy. Now that's what I call an awesome skill!

It means that I could just summon some crazy powerful characters like God to this universe and end every game, right?

{Practically yes, but the system still needs to make them weaker than they should be so the power creep won't be too big and disrupts the game balance.}

What? Really? What a shame. I wanted to win easily and, of course, witness firsthand the immense power of the characters I've watched or read about!

I just sighed and looked at the mess in front of me. Seraphine had summoned many magic circles, emitting lightning lasers that made the zombies look even more pathetic.

Well, at least she was already strong enough to massacre the monsters.

In the end, I couldn't just stand there; I needed to do something. How about trying out the new weapon?

I materialized the Morphic Arsenal in my hand and attempted to imagine the biggest cannon I could remember. But the weapon wouldn't budge.

[In this level, you couldn't morph it into that caliber gun, yet.]

Damn! So now the only cool firearms I had were shoulder missile launchers and a mini-gun? Well, not bad. It would be perfect if this weapon could be infused with holy magic.

As I recall, you could do that, right, Tiamat?

{Right, boy. At least you're not that dumb.}

I furrowed my brows. What did that mean?

{The Architect activated: segregating passive skill from "Lumina Blaster."}

{100% successful.}

{Integrating passive skill from "Lumina Blaster" to "Morphic Arsenal."}

{100% successful.}

{The "Morphic Arsenal" is now covered in holy magic; every normal attack and skill would reduce the host's HP by 5% and increase damage by 10%. When the host's HP is down to 50%, the damage will be increased to 30%.}

Then I morphed my weapon into a mini-gun, activated my flying skill, and began shooting zombies and even the skeleton mage, turning them into dust.

The mini-gun was lighter than expected, and the firing rate was decent but not as great as I imagined. Still, it was effective for finishing off crowded enemies.

Then I remembered one of the skills for this weapon as I peeked at the information:

[Ammo Cascade]

[MP: 45]

[Skill Cooldown: 10 minutes]

[Upon activating this skill, the mini-gun unleashes a powerful upward volley, releasing a burst of 100 bullets that rain down from the sky.]

Perfect! I stopped flying and landed in the middle of the fight between the zombies and Seraphina. "Ammo Cascade," I muttered.

As I shot the mini-gun upward, bullets rained down, hitting all the zombies in the 25-meter area. Simultaneously, Seraphina unleashed her area skill, below us now a giant magic spell as she said, "Holy Purge."

All the zombies turned to ashes, and even some of the tendrils near us disappeared. Silence settled over this side of town as I sighed.

Now I understood how Matthias felt with his powerful skills and abilities. I wanted the world to know and witness how awesome I was!

I smirked, holding back my laughter. In almost every game, I almost ended up dying because of my lame skills.

But not now! I'm stronger now! Take that, dumbass system that gave me lame skills! I don't need you anymore!

However, something unexpected happened. All the black tendrils moved into one place. The red orbs were shimmering and beating like a heart. It seemed like something was about to appear.

The tendrils not only moved but also increased, covering all the nearby buildings and making webs like a spider. In front of me was something different, like a big mass that felt like it was breathing.

Something was about to come out, and I knew it was not something good! Was this the boss?

Then I heard the sound of the system, giving an announcement:

[You triggered the mini-game]

[Hidden mini-games are activated: the Crimson Enchantress is fully awake, and you need to make her go back to sleep]

[The area of Lifebearer is activated: your HP will drain - 5 every 5 minutes]

[Reward: +5000 killing points (in addition to the raw killing points earned), 2 skill passes, 1 weapon pass, 25 skill points, 35,000 gold coins, and 950 EXP]

[Special Rewards: Title: The Slumbering Enchantress]

[Punishment for failing the Mini Game: Death]

[Remaining Time: 3 hours]

There it was! The perfect game to test my power and the limits of The Architect! I smiled widely, ready to face the Crimson Enchantress and prove my newfound strength.

***

I actually changed some skill requirements for the SSS soulbond skill. So everytime the summoned being is doing a dmg dealing, the MC's MP will be depleted.

I also erased the 50% MC damage for the summoned being dmg dealing. So it raw dmg would be 100% based on MC knowledge about the character.