Chapter 327

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, 7:43 AM

Every part of my body was in pain. We were covered in soil, mushroom pieces, rubble, and debris. The only thing keeping us from being completely buried was my Constructs. I had used my full allotment to shield us and began Lifting them so we could burrow out from under here. They started cutting through the fallen mushroom cap.

That had been after using both instances of my Shield Sphere, all of my Force Fields, and my Shield ability from being a Warmind. My back was covered in slag from the wire rope. I could tell my hit points were almost depleted, but I hadn’t been forced to use Heavenly Hero so I counted that as a win.

Mercury coughed as he shifted away from me. I had managed to body block most of the damage, but he also had the Cloak of the Irradiated King and the Princess helping him out. His survival had been my top priority since I had contingencies that he did not.

Regardless of how healthy he looked, I still tapped him with the Touch of Heaven to remove any radioactive debuffs he had gained from the fallout. I waited to do the same for myself since I still had work to do.

“How are you doing?” I asked as I sat back, giving him some space. The Cable Conglomerate disappeared into my inventory when I touched it. It wouldn’t last since the Vambrace of Wires would restore itself over time, so I ejected the lump onto the ground beside me.

“Disappointed in myself,” Mercury admitted as he stretched and checked on his now-healed wounds.

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yup,” he answered with a sigh. “I turned and looked at the explosion.”

“No, Merc. Really?” I asked, trying not to chuckle. “Decidedly uncool. I’m disappointed, too.”

“As you rightfully should be.”

“How can you not cool guy the explosion and just let it go off behind you after you grinded down that energy beam?”

He shrugged and scratched the back of his head, snorting in amusement as he couldn’t hold back. “I know. Ruined the whole thing. Eyes really hurt until you healed me up.”

“Well, at least the job got done,” I jokingly conceded before gently punching him on the shoulder after I slowly stood up. “Guess we can keep you around for a little longer, all things considered.”

“Thanks, Warmonger. I was really worried there for a few moments,” he replied, miming wiping sweat off his brow despite the metal headband he wore. With a small questioning noise, he looked down at the Princess. “What? It’s just some after battle banter. Not every day I get to adventure with the boss.”

My smile faltered a little at that. It was true that I hadn’t really given Mercury as much time as I should have. His training had been mostly taken care of by Jamie and Jeff and I didn’t really want to step on their toes and take over until they were off doing their own things. The results spoke for themselves, but he really looked up to me far more than he should have considering how absent I’d been.

“What about you?” he asked, looking me over. “You look way more injured than I was, aren’t you going to heal, too?”

“I will, in time,” I answered before nodding in the direction where the Chernoshroom’s stalk had been. “I’ve got to get back in there and get some materials for Ash. Why don’t you head back to the station that everyone’s been using as home base and tell them to keep burning. The fungus won’t proliferate anymore, but leaving this much material for Hernigan is going to be a terrible decision that will come back and bite them.”

Mercury looked around for a moment before light started shining through the mushroom cap above us. He nodded before starting to wipe off the Princess before realizing he didn’t have to, considering her new composition, and simply sheathed her instead.

“Speaking of the administrator,” the ninja started as he began backing up. “Did you read the scenario clear screen yet?”

“I’m about to, why?” I asked.

“Someone’s super salty,” he answered with a grin. Giving me a mock salute, he jumped out of the hole I made.

“Good. Monster deserves to be,” I said to myself with a chuckle as I followed after him. The mushroom cap was fully flush to the ground in some places, which meant going over was going to be easier than going through.

I snapped open my menu and checked on what Mercury was talking about.

<<<>>>

[[Victory!]]

You have defeated x478 Chernoshroom-Infected Wildlife; +2,390 points.

You have defeated x51 Alpha Chernoshroom-Infected Wildlife; +1,020 points.

You have defeated the Reactor Boss [Atomic Elk]; +2,000 points.

You have contributed to the defeat of the Reactor Boss [Nuclear Boar]; +1,924 (2,000) points.

You have contributed to the defeat of the Reactor Boss [Fission Bear]; +1,950 (2,000) points.

You have contributed to the defeat of the Reactor Boss [Irradiated Lynx]; +200 (2,000) points.

You have contributed to the defeat of the Awakened Scenario Boss [Chernoshroom]; +9,500 (20,000) points.

[[Final Scenario Quest Complete]]

The Chernoshroom has been… defeated.

Scenario MVP: Leonard Langston

Rewards: +20,000 points.

[[Patron Quest Complete!]]

Thanks to your efforts, the brave and selfless people protecting the world from Chernobyl are safe at last from the radioactive mushrooms. Once they’ve destroyed them all, anyway, but there should be plenty of downtime. Hernigan was supposed to sit on this scenario for a long, long time and now he has nothing.

You’ve done well, Ant. You’re already on your way to get the radioactive materials, so you’ll finish up that mission shortly. This has been a very lucrative expedition for you. Don’t forget to put the excess points in your bank account when you get back to the train.

Reward: +205,000 points.

<<<>>>

I laughed when I saw Hernigan’s small, dejected message and whistled appreciatively when I saw the amount of points I had just gained from my Patron quest. 1,000 for everyone still alive in the area was huge when the defense force was a couple hundred strong, and from the wording it seemed like Sara had probably included both myself and Mercury in the total for a little extra. She had been pushing for larger rewards than I was used to, and I was here for it.

“Thanks, love,” I told the sky as I flew towards the slag that used to be the Chernoshroom’s stem.

Once I was above it, I Constructed the largest drill I could and sent it burrowing. While the explosion had ripped through most of the considerable fungus, I knew my prize would still be in there.

To pass the time, I opened up my menu. Five more boss kills meant I had more things I could upgrade a few items. There was no reason to wait; I upgraded my Warmongering Mystic items first.

<<<>>>

[[Equipped]]

Boots of the Warmongering Mystic +1

(Set Item 4/6; Growth Item, kill 10 bosses to upgrade; +60 Mental Points, +14 Wisdom, +14 Willpower, Increased Speed ability augment, Shared Flight ability augment)

[[Ability Augment]]

Increased Air Speed

Treat the level of your Flight skill as two levels higher

[[Ability Augment]]

Shared Flight

You may use Flight on one willing ally within your field of vision. Using this ability in this manner costs twice as many Mental Points as using it on yourself.

[[Equipped]]

Belt of the Warmongering Mystic +1

(Set Item 5/6; Growth Item, kill 10 bosses to upgrade; +100 Mental Points, +10 Wisdom, +10 Willpower, Body Buffer ability augment, Incredible Construct ability augment)

[[Ability Augment]]

Body Buffer

Empowered Body now increases your Strength and Dexterity scores by an additional 8%.

[[Ability Augment]]

Incredible Construct

You may create one additional item with Construct, and all items are now 30% more durable. In addition, increase the amount of physical and psychic damage done by weapons you make with this ability by 8%.

<<<>>>

The biggest gain from these two was the boost to my air speed, which now allowed me to fly at 90% of my running speed, and the increase of durability to my Constructs. Body Buffer was always nice considering I had skills like Dragon’s Breath, King’s Authority, and my fifth set bonus that worked based on my total stat points.

Shared Flight, unfortunately, was like Extra Focus where it didn’t upgrade every time. Terrible, but it was what it was.

All in all, a pretty good series of boosts. I looked at the Staff of Raphael as I lowered myself into the hole my drill was making. This was going to be its second growth, and I was looking forward to seeing what kind of skill or passive it would gain.

<<<>>>

[[Equipped]]

Staff of Raphael +2

(Angelic item; Growth Item, kill 20 bosses to upgrade; +24 Constitution, +24 Wisdom, +24 Willpower, Touch of Heaven skill acquired, Aura of the Robust passive acquired, Divine Regeneration passive acquired)

[[Skill]]

Touch of Heaven

Touch the Staff of Raphael to any non-Demonic entity, including yourself, to heal them for 50% of your total hit points. In addition, if your Constitution stat is high enough to remove any physical debuffs, do so at the same time. This skill can be used three times per day.

[[Passive]]

Aura of the Robust

Whenever you have a benevolent or neutral aura active and are wielding the Staff of Raphael, the people around you can receive Divine Regeneration. You can choose who within range is exempt from this effect. This healing scales off of your natural regeneration, but will only have 25% the efficacy. Some auras and additions are incompatible with this one, and cannot be active at the same time.

[[Passive]]

Divine Regeneration

Increase your natural hit point recovery speed by 600%.

<<<>>>

“Now that’s a good upgrade,” I said with a grin.

Aura of the Robust being a passive heal that I could choose the targets on was a fantastic grab. I assumed it wouldn’t work with Tyrant or Madman’s Will or Black Flame Aura, which was already an addition, but my awareness aura was the very definition of neutral and Peacekeeper’s Will was certainly beneficial.

Compounded by the fact that it scaled off of my regeneration, and it was very effective. Heavenly Hero already had me naturally healing half of my Constitution stat per minute and Divine Regeneration sped that up even more.

I did some mental math in my head with my new upgrades, and it came out to be around 270 hit points per minute. That was huge for the average person, and it would only get better as the Staff of Raphael became stronger.

“Normally, I wouldn’t do this,” I said to the sky. “But I want you to know that I’m trying to do right by you, Sara. I should be able to upgrade my stats and abilities, so instead of waiting in order to make things more challenging, I’m going to do that now.”

I was already navigating my menus when I received a response.

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

I’m glad that you’re taking this seriously, but you should hold off.

<<<>>>

“Okay, then I won’t?” I asked more than said, pulling back from the menu. “Is everything okay?”

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

Yes. It’s just that increasing your class is going to make your soul more powerful. Since it still needs to be fixed, there’s the risk that doing so now is going to make the process even harder on you. It’s a long shot, but I’d rather everything go as smoothly as possible.

For now, hold off on it. There shouldn’t be any more nasty surprises since you’re heading straight to Washington D.C. after picking everyone up, so don’t go picking any unnecessary fights and everything should be fine.

<<<>>>

“Right, because I’m going to get vaporized and healed. Still looking forward to that,” I said weakly before shaking my head. “Alright. You understand this stuff way more than I do. If you say I should hold off, then I’ll hold off.”

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

Just be careful, please.

You’re coming up on the Chernoshroom’s essence, by the way.

<<<>>>

“Good call out, thanks.” 

I could already sense the small vein of material, which was far more radioactive than the rest of the stem, but I didn’t say that out loud. Instead I released my Constructed drill and made something that would fit around my prize while cutting out the stem around it. It began to Spin, working around the area I wanted it to.

There was no need to handle the radioactive material with my own hands. The stem it was encased within worked as a natural barrier, though admittedly not a very good one. It popped out of the rest of the Chernoshroom when I Lifted it up. The whole thing was roughly as tall as I was, but thin and its innards glowed blue.

Just standing next to it was causing my hit points to drop even though I was still wielding the Staff of Raphael. There was no reason to waste time so I sent it straight into my inventory.

<<<>>>

[[Patron Quest Complete!]]

And there it is, the materials required to finish the Hellbreaker. Ash won’t want to wait once she gets her hands on that, so get back to her ASAP so you can get back to the states and drop it on those Demons.

Reward: +85,000 points.

<<<>>>

Smiling at Sara’s enthusiasm for Demon killing, I started flying back towards the station. The increased speed was nice, and I made it there in barely a minute.

All around, the defenders were cheering and celebrating. Most of the people here had been fighting day in and day out for months now in an attempt to beat the Chernoshroom back, and now their mission was finally over. A few were already on burn duty, something that would take a good while on its own, but the overall mood was filled with joy and relief.

I landed near Mercury and Taras, both of whom turned to face me, and waved. “You should be good for a while, my friend,” I told the manager.

There was a look of shock on his face, as if he hadn’t expected that all of his problems would be solved this morning, and he ran a handkerchief over his head. “It’s really over?”

“Until Hernigan figures out a way to salvage this, yes,” I answered honestly. “But it’s not going to happen overnight. A few weeks at the earliest as he tries to figure out what to do now that he’s accelerated his own scenario. Take out the mushrooms, burn as much as you can, salt the earth, everything. You may even be able to head home for a short time. Hopefully, whatever he comes up with to replace the Chernoshroom is small potatoes compared to what you’ve been dealing with.”

“I…” Taras turned towards the fallen Chernoshroom. “You have to understand, it’s really hard to come to terms that our fight is just… over. It still doesn’t feel real.”

“Celebrate, man,” Mercury said, clapping the manager on his shoulder. “That’s what everyone else is doing. Might as well join in, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose I have earned a drink,” he replied with a chuckle before turning back to me. “How can we ever repay you? Did you already grab the boss' loot?”

“You can repay us by living long and thriving, Taras,” I told him honestly. “And y’all can keep the loot. Most of it will better align with your group than ours, and it’ll come in handy if Hernigan continues down the radioactive route. All we need is for you all to keep taking care of yourselves.”

“And maybe spread the tale of Sol Ligatus and its heroes, too,” Mercury added.

“Not necessary, but feel free if you want to,” I chuckled.

Taras was about to say something when a group of already drunk fighters dipped into our personal space, and lifted him up on their shoulders. He protested, of course, but the manager was already being whisked away to the festivities. We received pats on the back and congratulations ourselves though only a handful tried to lift me and it just wasn’t happening.

“Ready to head on back to the states, Mercury?” I asked as I started walking back to the Subspace Depot.

“For sure,” he answered with a grin. “Let’s go pick everyone up so we can send some Demons back to Hell where they belong!”

“Amen to that, brother. Amen to that.”