Chapter 996 – The Surface of Ohmior 5 – A seal well-guarded


    ‘Ehhh... well, I guess the choice is pretty obvious,’ John analysed his choices. The goal of the Perks was still to allow him to teleport through walls. To that end, Detail Perception – Elementals was useless. In general, it was incredibly niche. It was incredibly rare to deal with an elemental that was not, by the physical manifestation, obviously an elemental. The connection was a tad better, but John needing to have both targets in range made it awful again.


    Aside from his preference to stay in the backline, there was the fact that his contact lenses could already deal with this. The Connective Gaze Attribute let John see the line between not only an elemental and its summoner, but between all kinds of familiars and their summoners, creators or contractors. It was a strictly worse version of something he already had.


    ‘I guess it’s made with blindness in mind,’ he tried to justify what something this weak was even doing in his choices of level 6 Perks. The second Perk, Motion Reading was at least functionally an upgrade. Agility 250 had given him rough awareness of things going on in a metre around him. Motion Reading was more detailed, warned him of attacks earlier, and had a larger range. If he had been a melee fighter, it would certainly have been attractive to Daredevil it up a bit. With his goal and build in mind, the last option was clearly what he should go with, however.


    Sensing light levels in areas he couldn’t see was going to be useless in most situations, but he figured it wasn’t as niche as Detail Perception and more helpful for his build than Motion Reading. Therefore, he went with it. Afterwards, he had Gnome construct a couple of obstacles for him to see what he could teleport through now.


    Obstacle 1: the simple thin wall. This one was overcome easily. John had been able to do it before, so it was more of a warm-up.


    Obstacle 2: the isolated thin-walled room, possessing no doors or windows. This was overcome easily as well, which was a pleasant surprise. Previously this had been the last obstacle he managed to clear. If the air of two places was connected, that usually made it easier for John. Now, his supernatural awareness of the darkness within the hollow space gave him enough details to work with that Magus Step let him teleport into it.


    Obstacle 3: the isolated thick-walled room, possessing no doors or windows. This was overcome with a minimum of concentration. The thickness of the wall was roughly equivalent to street-facing facades of brick houses and the stone used was denser as well.


    Obstacle 4: the isolated room with walls two metres thick. This was not overcome and existed purely so John could test the limits of this new ability. He was vaguely aware of the thing behind the wall. He could definitely feel that there was a hollow core. It wasn’t enough to get inside, though.


    “Alright, looks like I got what I wanted out of Unfound,” John announced to everyone.


    “Will you max it out?” Undine asked.


    “Good question,” the Gamer considered. Because of the nerf, he had considered getting into Silver Arcanist next. Since he had adjusted well to the changes, going for another response measure was not strictly necessary. Maxing out Unfound, getting access to the Modification, Overclock and Advanced Class, could be a worthwhile endeavour. “Let’s go with yes. It’s only 4 more levels.”


    That decision made, John checked out his current status.


    As wanted, his effective mana regeneration was up ever so slightly. 23 wasn’t much better than 22, but it was better.


    The group only stood in the entranceway of the dome, wary to not activate the boss ahead of time.


    ‘If this wasn’t a Raid, this is where I would turn around and not touch anything related to this until I was like level... 600 at least,’ the Gamer thought. Mindlessly messing with ancient seals without knowing what was behind them or why they were placed was something only stupid anime protagonists did. Thankfully, this place was just created for him (or for Gaia’s entertainment, depending on perspective).


    “Anything interesting?” Siena asked.


    “Kind of, yeah,” John said. “A lot of the loot table is recycled, so that’s unfortunate, but there’re four somewhat intriguing things in here. The Ohmior Armour Instructions, which will probably show how one could forge these sets themselves, the Ohmior Sentry Schematics, which I have no clear idea what they are supposed to teach, and the Spellbook. Been a while since I encountered one of these.”


    “Not that you look around for a lot of them,” Salamander pointed out.


    “Most Spellbooks describe incredibly basic spells that I have better versions of,” the Gamer countered. “Bothering to find one that might let me learn something worthwhile would cost me more time than to get another Class Level.”


    “Doubt this one would be basic...” Gnome mumbled. “I mean... it is a legendary drop.”


    “Which also means we probably won’t see it,” John said and scratched the side of his head. “Wonder what ‘Guardian’s Resolve’ is as well, but I got no clue. Anyway, everybody ready for the first try?” The agreement was given all around and Aclysia sent to lead the group.


    They walked in carefully, John in the middle of it all, looking around the dull dome some more. Absolutely nothing else of interest could be found. He forged a simple map in his head.


    ‘I’ll adjust it as necessary,’ he thought.


    Finally, the boss warning popped up. The group continued further, until they were twenty-five metres in, about halfway between the entrance and the motionless boss.


    One more step by Aclysia, and the Guardian’s eyes suddenly burst to light in a flash of arcane purple. Ash and dust dropped from its damaged armour as the form quivered. The screeching of rust simulated the years of waiting this created enemy had suffered through in terms of symbolism. While its limbs straightened and moved in snapping fashion, a tendril of energy reached out from the seal to the boss. The moment it connected, the skeletally sudden movements grew smooth and controlled. The gaps in the armour shone with soft blue and purple.


    The left of the seal’s four runes was extinguished as light oozed from the hands of the Guardian. In its hands grew a crystal, gradually forming into a long shaft with a large axe-blade at the end of it.


    ‘Let’s see what you can do,’ John thought.