Chapter 327: Plan of Attack!

The wriggling, formless mass of shadowy black tentacles was towering above the Climbers, trying to grab and corrupt them.

"Wait, what?! She's in there? She's alive?!" Even Josh was shocked by such news. How hadn't the little girl died yet?

"She is, but who knows for how long. We need to get her out of there ASAP!" Lana cried out, her eyes shifting from side to side, searching for a weak point.

She would slash at the thing from time to time, but there wasn't any visible effect. It only rippled as it tried to make contact with them at all costs.

Fuck! What could he even do? He quickly went through every ability and equipment that he owned:

1. Spider set: Completely useless. They were in an open area with nothing to stick to.

2. Big Chungus set: It would make things worse as it would be nearly impossible to dodge the attacks with increased size.

3. Smelly set: It wouldn't be effective. This thing was a chaotic mass of energy. There was no way that a nasty smell would affect it.

4. True Pickaxe: He could try to sweep it underground, but it would screw up their chances of rescue.

5. Mana arrows: Nope. The MTA soldiers had some mages. They would rain all kinds of elemental attacks on the enemy without success.

6. Mysterious Stick: Hell the fuck no! He wasn't about to use an item that had already almost killed him to deal with a corrupting power.

7. Zoom set: Offensively, it was pretty bad, and did he even need the movement speed?

He finally settled on killing intent. What if he could affect it using such a trick? Josh concentrated, imbuing his blade with mana as well as killing intent, before slashing powerfully.

— Swoosh! —

— p̸̨͙̬̮̳͕̹̘̜̥̐̂̃͂͐̈̍̍̓͝a̴̧̛̛̖̪͕͚̳̖̮̩̤̫̖̿͋́i̵͓͉̘̓͛̈́͗́̂̓n̵͓̲̳͓͇̐̀̎̈́͛̐̓̍̓͌̌̀̕͠

Wait, was it working?! The creature had suddenly recoiled in pain, one of its tentacles wounded! A few that saw this couldn't help but cheer:

"What?! How did you do that?!"

"What's the secret to killing it?!"

"We might just come out of here alive!"

The MTA soldiers were extremely relieved at seeing this, but he knew that it was too premature to rejoice. It didn't even take a second for the target to regenerate. It was as good as new.

"Whatever that was, keep doing it!" Lana shouted.

Josh tried to redo it, but this time without the mana coating. He slashed, using a blade full of killing intent that cut straight through the enemy...yet barely affected it. It seemed to find it uncomfortable, but that was it.

Josh couldn't help but click his tongue.

"No, it won't work. I'll run out of mana far before I can take it down." He murmured.

Actually, even if he had infinite mana, he doubted that he could take this thing down. There were too many tentacles to destroy, and its healing was phenomenally OP.

Meanwhile, the thing kept trashing around without any sign of stopping anytime soon.

— Shlack! —

— Shlack! —

— Shlack! —

In fact, it even seemed to be slightly growing as time passed. Was this the result of the dark energy imbued in the air? Was it just that thing's nature? It felt so damn different than what Josh had experienced at Metropolis-H!

Back then, it had been potent corrupting energy that had filled the air entirely. There had been no escaping from it, but it hadn't been as pernicious either. The proof was the tentacle guy who was alive and kicking.

No, this thing was different. It almost seemed...sentient?!

"You can't?! What the hell did you do then? I'll try too!" The old lady screamed.

"It takes too long to explain. Anyone here has any buff skill?!" This was the only way Josh could see himself succeed.

An MTA soldier came forward:

"I have one! I can boost your magic attribute temporarily!"

"How does it work!?"

"It lasts a minute, and I can multiply the base stat up to a max of 2 times! Well, if everything goes right."

"If everything goes right? What the fuck does that mean?!"

"The stronger the target, the weaker the buff."

"I see...."

Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. He was way stronger than his level or stats. If he received a buff that was more potent on weaker Climbers, he may actually be able to do it.

"Do you know how to save her?" Lana inquired again.

"Maybe, maybe not...."

Josh needed more information. Wounding it was one thing, but surviving its attacks was another. His defense was pretty trashy, especially now that he had already used his cloak skill.

That's when he turned toward the man who lost his arm to the corruption:

"You, tell me about this thing! What is it?!"

"How the fuck should I know?! We're not trained to deal with shit like that!" He shouted back.

Fair point. Who the fuck would train to defeat tentacles? Well— besides magical girls, of course.

"Think carefully. Anything will help. How did it feel?" Josh asked, grasping at straws.

"That.....it was...it was...." He began shaking, with his face livid as he remembered. He forcefully brought his nerves under control and uttered slowly.

"It's like a voice was telling me to shed my mortal appearance and become something else. I couldn't understand the words it said and yet....I just knew what it wanted. I would have done it too, but luckily I was saved."

A voice convincing him? Wait, this could perhaps be good news.

"Say, what do you think would have happened if you refused the voice?" Josh asked, a gleam in his eyes.

"That...I couldn't have done it. I couldn't see myself doing such a thing. I had to please it at all costs, or I wouldn't have been able to live with myself...I ..." The man began hyperventilating, unable to finish.

Had he heard that thing's voice? Perhaps was it the origin of its power? Josh had no clue, but he could already think of a method to clear this.

Could it even work?

"Do you have a plan?" Lana asked anxiously.

"Yes, that one guy buffs me, and I go in." Josh "explained."

"What do you mean go in?! Are you crazy?!" a soldier shouted.

Josh shook his head slightly.

"If this thing can only corrupt and needs the host approval to do so..."

"Wait, you're planning to resist its will forcefully?!" Lana cried out.

"Exactly." Josh nodded.

The surrounding soldiers couldn't help but gulp as they heard his plan. What kind of madman was he?!

This ...thing was horror incarnate. There was no way anything remotely touching it would survive. That's why they had been dodging its attacks all along! Plus, they had only succeeded by staying far away from the main cluster.

Josh turned to the buff guy:

"Say, I still have 24 unused stat points, would adding them to magic ability make a big difference?"

"Fuck yes! Once buffed by my ability, it could change everything!"

"Wait, you still have stat points?! Aren't you spending them every level up?"

Josh could only scratch his head awkwardly.

"I wasn't sure about perfect stat attribution just yet...."

"Hell, whatever you did earlier used mana for sure! Just put it in there!" a soldier aggressively recommended.

He added all he could to his Magic ability stat without hesitating anymore. He was out of attribute points to distribute for the first time since his first level up.

He could only hope that this would be sufficient...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[ STATUS! ]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Player: Josh Malum Lv 24

Class: Josh MF Malum

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STATS

HP: 5170

Mana: 6655

Magic Ability: 359

Strength: 660

Agility: 648

Defense: 38

Magic Resist: 32

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SKILLS (43)

- C Weapon Mastery

- D Mana Manipulation

- D Mana Coating

- E Great Gnoll Bloodline: Piercing Eyes

- U (E+) Gluttony Bloodline: Endless Stomach, Devouring+

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SPECIAL

- S Curse of the Greenwood Lord: Active

- ?! Devoured Part of the Will of Iron

- ?!? የአረም አምላክ በላ

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"Alright, are you all ready?" Josh asked sternly.

"Wait! What the hell is that?!"

A soldier suddenly pointed far back. A distance away, there was a man slowly walking over. He wore a black suit and a joker mask. It was the mysterious chain guy!

He brought along green glowing wriggling chains, ones that seemed to be fighting their black counterparts. Nice! With his help, they'd definitely be able to win! He would do his part since they were all stuck here, right?

"Who are you identify yourself right—!" A soldier began screaming.

"Shut the hell up. He's a friend...kinda." Josh stopped them before waving at the newcomer. "Hey man, did you already miss me?"

As he came nearby, he slowly shook his head. Hell, even his tentacles were shaking in denial.

"Not missing more as I thought I'd give you a friendly warning."

"Warning?" Josh raised an eyebrow. "You'll help, right?"

"I am not able to. This chaotic being directly counters my magic and would exhaust all my energy pointlessly. I'm going to leave instead."

"What about the energy barrier?"

"Nothing that a bit of link magic won't shatter. Restraining is my specialty. They won't be able to use it against me. The point is, I will be leaving, but you are welcome to tag along if you want."

Josh couldn't help but think that this sure was nice. What happened to not making any more deals with him? Did this mean they were friends or something?

Josh wasn't sure, but he gave him a bright smile as he answered:

"Alright, sure. Count me in." As Josh said that, he could see Lana's face turn into a mask of despair. "But first, let me save the kid, alright? It will only take a minute."

"No, you don't understand. This thing owns a god's fragment. Do you know what this means?"

Judging from his bleak tone, it had to be serious...

Creator's Thought

When your OP friend comes along only to tell you that he's getting the fuck out. It turns out that my guess was right. A god fragment really is a big fucking deal. Then again, the name already hints at it doesn't it? I always wondered how he already knew about such information at this stage...