It was dusk out, the sun was just starting to rise on the horizon, Fenrich had an early breakfast and was now fully geared for a day of zombie grinding. Throughout the Mini Game Dungeon, Fenrich had hit level 10, while the rest of his group were hitting the level cap before the first Class Evolution.
Given that after the Integration Period ended, there would be a Class Ascension Ladder event starting right after the Integration Period ends. Fenrich informed his group to hit level 25, with the focus on Skill progression, Weapon Mastery Skill progression, meditation, and aiming to achieve achievements and Titles.
Given the experience he previously had, Fenrich named off the Titles that were easily accessible to all newly integrated worlds. There were a couple Elite Titles they could achieve when working together.
Killing a raid boss of at least Lord tier and more than twenty-five levels above them. Being the first group/individual to destroy a Zombie occupied Smart Base/Shelter. Hunting a Regional Boss. Unifying a Capital City and so forth.
There were a few Dungeons that had exclusive rewards for first time clears that Fenrich remembered, and informed Eden to pass all the information along to the group later on.
As for the "wrestling" match he had with the four ladies the night prior, he had brought them all back to their individual rooms. Thankfully after their extraneous activities, they were all out cold, and thus Eden was able to easily wipe their memories. Bringing a huge relief to Fenrich, however, he was still not at all pleased by Eden's interference with his personal life.
There eventually would be a time that came when he had children, but it would be with Alarune, and her alone. Every man couldn't deny that they never dreamt about having their own harem, Fenrich included. There were too many variables with that, and neither would Fenrich have the time to properly treat all said women equally.
Of the increasing amounts of notifications that he was ignoring, Fenrich still skimmed through the more important ones that were starred. This had led him to finding out that as he traveled outside of the Smart Base, there was now an azure-blue dome that had a 35 kilometer radius, and in the sky above was a countdown timer of 29 Days 06 Hours and 11 minutes.
Taking less than three minutes to cross the distance, Fenrich quickly reached the ends of this dome space, finding an astronomically huge number of zombies outside of it. A quick glance put him at an estimate of around 100,000 total undead bastards, with more shambling forward from a distance.
He had a 1,000 kilometer distance personal communication line with Eden, and informed her of the gigantic mob and the reoccurring Elite, Lord and King tiered mobs that he was occasionally seeing. A third of this hoard was of Rare tier, and the rest were all Uncommon tiered.
[You done goofed.]
"Hold up, was that an Hellsing Abridged reference?"
"Sigh… why do you keep going through my memories, good choice this time though mate." Fenrich replied back with a chuckle
Looking at all the cardinal and intermediate points, there was no point at all where the hoard was thinner. The only difference was there were a few less Elites and Lords.
"Well, based on memory it should be easy to replicate it." Fenrich muttered to himself
Fenrich circulated his Mana around his Heart of Abyssal Eden, brain and a smaller part of his Abyssal Viscount Soul. To the left and right side of Fenrich, there were two identical versions of him forming. Each of which had 65% of all his attributes, their kills would only account for Fenrich to receive 33% of each kill, but that would be more than enough.
Fenrich's brow was coated In a thick layer of sweat, it was no easy task to form a doppelganger let alone multiple using a second Class Evolution method.
"Bonjour toute la gang!"
One of the doppelgangers spoke In French with a poorly done accent.
"Esti tabernacle don't make me kick you in your one head with my two boot."
"Alright, alright pull it in you bunch of idiots. We've got work to do." Fenrich said to his doppelgangers that were now split into half groups wearing red and blue.
"For the bloods!"
"For the crips!"
The doppelgangers rushed out into the swarm of mindless undead. Some activated Abyssal Sword Forge and Abyssal Swords, others using their Mana to manipulate flying swords as area of effect damage. Oddly enough they still had his Firmament Defiance Greatsword but all of its effects on the doppelgangers were cut down by 50%. Otherwise it would be truly broken in and out of the word itself.
Fenrich could count dozens of damage numbers floating up going from -500s to -800s with the odd critical in between hitting -1,400 as a high and -1,230 as a low.
The constant flow of notifications flooded in like a tidal wave, Fenrich stretched his body and limbered up as he too joined the fray.
Fenrich casually walked out, wielding his Firmament Defiance Greatsword in one hand, and creating a Mana based copy in the other hand, and sunk himself spiritually into his Greatsword Weapon Mastery Skill.
He was a World Master in Saber, Longsword and Greatsword in his past lifetime. Saber was his aspect of Sharpness through intense speed, wind and space aspects.
Longsword was the aspect of brute strength through Heaviness, it also contained the aspects of fire, time and momentum, a combination of soft-hard aspects.
But his Greatsword, he never did manage to plan out a specific route or create a Sword Intent based off of the Greatsword alone. He had been slain when he was on the cusp of gaining enlightenment and his divinity. The Greatsword was blank like a painters canvas, this time, however, he decided to focus solely on Greatsword while incorporating past hints of his Sword Intent.
It had reached the apex of 9 star Demigod Sword Intent, but never truly broke through into a God Sword Intent.
Fenrich was in deep thought, his instincts took the driver seat while following the patterns of the Greatsword Weapon Mastery Skill, refining and perfecting each aspect it showed. It was all muscle memory to begin with, but the basics were the most important. There was no reason to skip the basics other than being an idiot. Hard work always paved the way for those that were less gifted.
Fenrich was by no means a genius with a j, but when you ram your head into the same wall repeatedly no matter how much you failed. Eventually that wall gave through.
Fenrich shut down his sense of sight, hearing, smell and taste. Leaving only touch active with his Greatsword and the endless slaughter was all that Fenrich needed or cared about.
His current attributes were ridiculously high, that even if he was clawed, bitten into or had a battering ram bashed into him, the damage was negligible. With his Dao of Abyssal Eden, it both actively healed him, and devoured whatever viruses that entered into his system.
In this particular state, Fenrich was no longer a living being. He was nothing but an moving animate object, his consciousness entered the Firmament Defiance Greatsword, becoming a single entity.
The key that most people were unaware of or did not spend the time to do so, was to commune with their sword. Stepping into the Sword Unification stage was only the baby steps. When you use a single weapon infusing it with your Will, Dao, Sword Qi and Mana over a long period of time. Eventually it formed a consciousness within the sword based off of what you put into it.
The hardest step was to spiritually enter the sword and find the nascent sword spirit to successfully commune with. That would lay the foundations for the second stage, Soul Sword Integration.
Due to the description of the Firmament Defiance Greatsword, it could be difficult or easy to find the sword spirit. The difficult part for him is if it would accept him as its current wielder or not.
Fenrich entered a world of water, there were sunken skyscrapers and an ancient civilization swallowed by the endless water. Fenrich was able to breathe naturally, but it was also the perfect opportunity to regain his Water Breathing Skill. Technically useless for most worlds in the Omniverse, on the other hand it was extremely beneficial for Earth which was more than 70% water.
After diving for an unknown period of time, Fenrich figured he'd only dove above 1/1000th of the way. Six indistinguishable figures appeared before him, three were men and three were women. Their figures were hazy all except for them having a unique pair of eyes.
"Well. This is interesting isn't it? Who'd ever expect a recently integrated wielder would claim this weapon and then turn all of us into a Soul Weapon? The Omniverse truly never lets old relics like us of the past eras rest, does it?" A gruff man's voice sounded filler with intrigue and wonder.
"The current wielder is indeed the first to come into contact with the Firmament Defiance Greatsword before achieving level 250. His stats are blown out of proportion based on his current level, unknown Races, and a nearly infinite pool of latent talent sleeping within. However, his affinities make him dumber than a stump, but even a stubborn fucker like you made It to our ranks, didn't you, Rauhm?"
This time around a feminine voice sounded as she made the show of putting a hand to her mouth to dampen the sound of her laughter.
"By the Primordials you're still the queen of all bitches aren't ya Sylvia?"
"Why are you cursing ALL of us at once, including yourself you big buffoon!" Sylvia sounded exasperated before she let out a long and suffering sigh.
"Kid, you have no idea how unbearable It is to be stuck with this dumbass in here. Anywho, you're too weak to begin thinking about Soul Sword Integration with this relic before the Omniverse Era. Come back when you reach level 250 at the minimum. However, we are always accessible to teach you our created Greatsword styles. Also you should consider finding a chronomancer to dampen the scars of time etched onto your Soul. It will make many old monsters curious. One hundred years backwards in the river of Time is unheard of and only something the OAS would have the ability to do." Sylvia patiently explained
"Don't let ye old bad habits from a past lifetime affect your future combat stances or Combat Techniques you may create. One hundred years is nowhere near enough to create a God Sword Intent. Use your past experience to start building from the ground up once more. I demand a lot from the wielder who finds us, if you disappoint any of us we can forcibly break the Soul Weapon attachment. Use a new pair of eyes to look at the old to find the secrets hidden deep within. Do not under any circumstances go into your second Class Evolution without a tier 5 Weapon Mastery Skill." Spoke another of the primordial spirits.
"You're also trying to run before you learn how to walk. Do not let any of us deny that you achieved a lot in your previous life, however, you need to spend a lot more time contemplating where you went wrong, why did you fail to get your divinity? Why did you never achieve God Sword Intent? Why did you stop at the Ancestral Weapon Unity realm? You rushed your Cultivation all the while neglecting your comprehension. You had the correct foundations, otherwise you'd never have reached so far. But you lacked the stability to build upon, the maturity of your mentality was shaken, your confidence and Will to live was snuffed out. No one is destined to achieve Godhood let alone a Primordial like all of us here."
"Sees!? all youse using some big words I don't understand so I'm gonna take that as disrespect! Listen little wielder! You need not hear fancy words from elders. Walk, jog, run. Easy to understand right? Don't be big idiot like the rest with fancy sounding words. Cut, slash, chop, rinse and repeat until the big thought approves your skill. You grow strong step by step, not by running to fall off a ledge. Time in here is one week compared to one hour on the outside. Come train with Rauhm and friends soon little wielder."
Rauhm spoke in a way that was simplistic, straightforward and with difficulty in general. Fenrich could see the figure of Rauhm was massive standing at more than fifty feet tall. Some kind of Giant Race possibly. It would explain the simplistic way of understanding and less than desirable speech. But its straightforwardness was without a doubt correct.
Sylvia nearly pulled her non-existent hair out "Don't listen to everything that big buffoon says. Listen to our words first then the buffoon's simplistic way of comprehension. Rauhm isn't the smartest Primordial, his simplicity is as harmful as it is useful. But he is one of us due to his far superior abilities. In battle you will never find a more intelligent and monstrously adaptive individual than Rauhm." Sylvia said as she hatefully eyed Rauhm, she had to have clearly lost many battles.
As if sensing what Fenrich thought, Sylvia snapped her attention back with an intense glare. "So what if a Primordial loses to another Primordial? You killed some low and middle tier God's and Divine Beasts. That's so impressive."
The sarcasm practically dripped from Sylvia's tone.
"It's time you go little wielder. Your body is still on auto pilot in the outside world, and a high tier mutant beast is about to arrive at the chaos you and your doppelgangers are making. It is a dual winged lion with a self nurtured Beast Flame, based on what we've seen the Barren High descendant named Lukas would benefit most from the Beast Flame. Being a son of the Berserk Flame Dao and all that. Barren High will pay you greatly for caring for one of their Berserker children," Sylvia said as she flicked Fenrich on the forehead. Sending his spirituality out of the Firmament Defiance Greatsword.
[Ding! Your Greatsword Mastery Skill went from level 3 to level 8]
All around Fenrich the area was stained by murky black blood, but there were no zombie corpses to be seen.
[I needed sustenance so it seemed fair to let myself out to enjoy an all you can eat buffet. There are plenty more coming though, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Zombie Monarch controlling the horde, partner.]
Fenrich took control again as he let himself dive deeper into the feeling of the air circulating around his weapon, the countering force when he didn't move with the wind, and the fluidity like water when he was on the same "wavelength." But all the while, his eyes were stuck to the sky like a pair of magnets had caught his attention.
[You feel it now, partner? We've been locked onto by something that shouldn't be within the limits of the Integration Period. Possibly due to the higher difficulty this planet faces now, there are a lot more monsters, the zombies and mutant beasts are rapidly strengthening, multiplying and evolving at a tremendous rate that is rather impressive. But for all of you Humans it doesn't look good. This is already the equivalent of a full year passed after the Integration began on other planets.]
In the sky from a distance, Fenrich could see a small dot that was gradually growing and getting closer to their position. Before long he could see the silhouette of two wings, and a thing wreathed in both blue and purple coloured flames. After another thirty seconds Fenrich was able to let off an Identify to see what he would be dealing with.
Amethyst Flame Winged Tigress [Emperor] [Boss]
Level: 75
Life Rating Late E
Health: 5,700,000
Mana: 845,000
Primary Attributes: Agility, Intelligence, Strength
Skills: ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
After Fenrich saw the stats of the Boss that now appeared before him, inside his head he could hear car doors being slammed closed and an engine starting up.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
[It was nice knowing you, partner. I'm going to let this homewrecker take whatever she wants peacefully so nobody, except for you, has to die.]
"Hardy har har, it's-"
[Morphing time!]
"No. Actually, yes it is. Do the honours mate!"
[Metamorphosis level 2 has been activated. All attributes increased by 2.14x for 13 minutes.
[Abyssal Symbiote Physique Enhancement level 2 has been activated. All basic attributes gain +50, all advanced attributes gain +25]
[Abyssal Weapon Enhancement level 1 has been activated on Firmament Defiance Greatsword. Gains +80 to all basic attributes. Due to the Abyssal attunement gains +125 to all basic attributes and +50 to all advanced attributes.]