Chapter -21474836324 (Arms Sundered)

  Beyond the door back down to the dungeon, there was a passageway constructed from carefully worked stone stretching into the darkness to both the left and right. The available light was poorly provided by a single lit candle unhelpfully sitting in a wrought iron sconce mounted directly into the wall opposite the dungeon. Ada considered pulling it from the wall and using the iron for herself, but decided leaving it as it was, in case someone happened to pass by this way, was the better course of action. She did, however, take the candle and formed a spherical shroud that would sit on top of the candle and allow the light to exit from only a circle at the front, with vents at the top and bottom to allow airflow.

  Ada decided to head down the hallway to the right, which turned to the left just a few meters down. Thankfully, she couldn't see any light from the corner, and proceeded down the way. The hall continued for a ways past the turn where there was a set of three more doors spaced fairly evenly down the left side.

  The first door was locked, but a quick use of [Metal Manipulation] solved that problem. Beyond the door was a sight that stated a slow simmer of rage within the back of Ada’s mind. On the far wall across from the door were anchored a pair of manacles that were sized appropriately for a woman's dainty wrists. Below them on the floor was a considerable amount of old, dried blood. A shelf to one side held a number of iron implements that Ada chose not to imagine how were used. The only item that could not be mistaken was a fairly heavy blacksmithing hammer. From the rusty stains on the tool, Ada didn't think it was being used for the intended purpose. Another burst of [Metal Manipulation] rendered down the tools and manacles into ironsand, which was drawn into Ada’s body where it was compressed and added to the rest of her core. The hammer head was kept intact and stored in her left thigh.

  When she turned to leave the torture dungeon, Ada noticed traces of mana similar to what she had felt from the draining collars, but arranged into different patterns. She still has no idea what the patterns were supposed to do, but she could guess. What else would a sadist want to have

  marked into the walls of their play room but sound proofing? [Unravel Enchantment] was hungry, and Ada saw no reason not to feed it.

  [*ding!* [Unravel Enchantment] has consumed [Inscription: Unidirectional Sound Barrier]. You gain 1,317 mana.]

  [*ding!* Good job! [Unravel Enchantment] has leveled up! 17 -> 18!]

  The other two doors held much the same with only slightly different implements. Ada collected the iron from each room and ripped the mana from two additional inscriptions.

  [*ding!* [Unravel Enchantment] has consumed [Inscription: Unidirectional Sound Barrier] x2. You gain 2,634 mana.]

  [*ding!* Good job! [Unravel Enchantment] has leveled up! 18 -> 20!]

  [*ding!* [Breaker] has Leveled up! Level 27 -> 28! +8 Free stats, +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Speed, +2 Mana Regen, +8 Magic Power from your class, +2 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +5 Vitality, +3 Speed, +2 Mana, +3 Mana Regen, +5 Magic Control for being a Forgeling (Living Construct), +1 Magic Power from your element per level!]

  Ada returned the way she came, passing by the dungeon where she had woken and continued further down the hall. Several meters beyond, there was another turn in the path, this time to the right. She stopped and listened for any signs of people from the corner. Unlike the previous route, this time she could hear voices around the corner, but they were too faint to make out any of the words being spoken. Ada adjusted the shroud she had made for her candle, fully enclosing the flame so that it would be smothered in a way that contained all of the smoke and fumes. With her light extinguished, she could make out faint flickering light coming from around the corner. She spent a few moments trying to come up with a plan for how to approach the unknown threat in her path to freedom.

  Ada drew out a full brace of eight tungsten spikes and started them orbiting around her head. It took a fairly minimal amount of mana to keep them going, but the act was more of a flex than actually useful to her. Ada’s magic power was plenty high enough that she could easily break into hypersonic speeds if she dumped the maximum amount of mana allowed into a ten gram dart using the instantaneous [Darts] skill.

  To conserve resources, she kept her conjured projectiles to however much twenty points of mana created, which seemed to be close to a hundred grams, and only one thousand, six hundred mana to launch them. Ada couldn’t be completely sure exactly how fast her [Darts] went, but they did make a nice, sharp crack as they broke through the sound barrier into supersonic speeds. When Pliny had explained the mass/speed tradeoff with the amount of mana spent pushing projectiles of different sizes and the speed at which they would actually travel, she’d realized that the issue was input energy.

  The chemical reactions used in projectile weaponry back on Earth worked by rapidly converting a solid mixture into expanding gasses that pushed a solid plug through a tube. A longer tube increased the amount of time the gas had to push on the plug, which would transfer more kinetic energy into it. This wasn’t a problem when using magic instead of chemical reactions. Sure, if your magic power wasn’t high enough, then you could push on your projectile for longer, but someone with sufficient power and a big enough mana pool could impart the full force into a projectile all at once, instantly launching a projectile into hypersonic speeds and beyond. Tungsten was particularly fun due to the density of the metal; all that mass focused into a very small surface area made for quite the penetrative projectile.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  All that is to say that when Ada stepped around the corner and came face to face with five prepared combatants, she initially wasn’t too worried about the situation. They weren’t particularly well equipped; the city guard wore better. The two she assumed to be warriors were closer to her and wore leather lamellar vests over what might be gambeson, though it left the arms completely bare. Two of the three standing further back were wearing similar, though their armor seemed to not fit them quite as well. The last had no armor, and was instead wearing a simple long tunic that was suspiciously lumpy in the chest area.

  However, as she identified the quintet, that confidence was eroded.

  [Warrior]

  [Warrior]

  [Mage]

  [Laborer]

  [Mage]

  Two mages. Not only that, but there was some kind of magical barrier separating the two warriors in front from the remaining three standing behind made from some element that Ada did not recognize. It was translucent, which ruled out a few of the possible elements in use. She was fairly sure that a more experienced combatant would know; unfortunately, she did not have that experience.

  “Hello boys,” said Ada, “it seems that I made a wrong turn at Albuquerque and now find myself in a bit of a pickle. I don’t suppose any of you would like to show me the way out?”

  “Fuck you, bitch,” said one of the thugs, er, warriors, up front. “Where’s Greg? How the fuck did you get out of your collar?”

  “Well, funny story about that,” she replied. “You see...”

  *CRACK*

  Four of the tungsten spikes orbiting above Ada’s head launched out. One passed straight through the forehead of the man who had spoken and crashed into the barrier. A second projectile went wide, curving around the second warrior’s face, likewise crashing into the barrier. The final two had been aimed at the mages, but instead both crashed directly into the barrier. All four spikes had their momentum completely dissipated as they impacted the standing magical shield and fell to the stone floor.

  [*ding!* Congratulations, you have slain [Unstoppable Force (Earth) - 320, Soldier of the Line (Steam) - 261]!]

  [*ding!* [Breaker] has Leveled up! Level 28 -> 32! +8 Free stats, +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Speed, +2 Mana Regen, +8 Magic Power from your class, +2 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +5 Vitality, +3 Speed, +2 Mana, +3 Mana Regen, +5 Magic Control for being a Forgeling (Living Construct), +1 Magic Power from your element per level!]

  [*ding!* Congratulations! For reaching level 30, you have unlocked the skill [Disruption]!] Your presence causes a disruption. While in your vicinity, skill activation costs more mana, and active skill effects require more mana to upkeep: (Skill Level + Magic Power / 8)% additional mana costs.

  The second warrior smirked, apparently satisfied that whatever skill he used had deflected the spike around himself. One of the mages took a half step back as a somewhat worried look passed across his face. The second mage, however, raised one hand and pointed at Ada. Blue streaks of lightning swirled around his arm before snaking down to his extended finger and a white bolt lanced out, striking Ada directly in the chest, exploding the layer of iron, burning a hole through the tunic underneath, and leaving behind a crater of fused iron sand below as the energy from the bolt dissipated down into the stone floor below. Ada flinched, but did not falter. She held a hand out toward the body of the fallen man and crushed every piece of metal that he’d had on him into sand. All of the rivets that held the leather plates together, the dagger that was still sheathed at his hip, and the head of the mace that had been in his hand. All of this rose and flowed into her outstretched hand. The crater in her chest filled in with shiny new iron sand before the surface shifted to appear as unblemished skin. More iron filled in the hole in her armor plate, and in a matter of seconds, it was as though she had never been damaged. Only the hole in her tunic remained as evidence of the strike.

  Ada spent a couple dozen points of mana to conjure a combination buckler and knuckle duster for her left hand and wrist, fusing it into her vambrace and gauntlet. For her right hand, she formed a seax. At just longer than from her elbow to fingertips, it was short enough to be usable with the low ceiling of the underground space.

  The laborer tried to step back, but tripped on her own feet, falling back onto her ass. Ada eyed the feminine figure that had not yet taken any hostile action. That one would be allowed to live. At least for now.

  Not wasting any more time, she charged forward and threw a left jab with the knuckleduster directly into the throat of the remaining warrior, then stabbed him six times in the gut with the short sword. Or at least, that is what she tried to do. What actually happened was her jab went wide, and five of the six stabs missed completely. The final stabbing thrust did, however, puncture the man’s side, piercing straight through a kidney. Ada ripped her blade out putting pressure to the edge, opening the wound further in the process.

  However, before she could recover from the swing and return to a guard stance, a mace crashed into her neck and was lodged there, stuck. As the warrior attempted to pull his weapon free, Ada swung an uppercut with her shielded hand into his arm, and felt something snap.

  [*ding!* Good job! [Sunder Arms] has leveled up! 1 -> 2!]