Streaks of blue light burst from the ends of the runed barrels as I painted the ground. Small puffs of dust created a low cloud and larger chunks of concrete were launched into the air. As fun as it was, I was more interested in how it worked. I felt the connection to the turret, and I watched my mana pool as I fired again.

  One mana per shot. Now, that said, the thing shot faster than I regenerated. WIth some consideration, I tried throttling the trigger and found that I could fire it slow enough that my regeneration would overtake the usage. I relayed the information as several others tried them as well. I hopped out and asked for volunteers to shoot me. Ernest and Tim nearly fought each other getting to a gun.

  I leapt out onto the battlefield and stood with my arms outstretched. The blue lights lanced out at me, feeling like paintballs bursting against my Endurance hardened skin. That the shots stung me at all was an excellent sign. I used Void Step and stood next to Ernest, who nodded with the first inkling of respect I’d seen from him.

  “Those are going to be great against at least the next tier of waves!” I said, rubbing several of the sore spots.

  Tim ran over across the wall. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

  The unexpected seriousness caught me off guard, and I nodded. Ernest tipped his fedora with a glare and hopped off the wall. I leaned against the turret and motioned for him to speak.

  “How are you so calm about this? I feel like I’m constantly a step from panic,” his wide bovine nostrils flared.

  “You didn’t play many video games, did you?” I asked.

  “Not really, not since the N64 days. What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Please tell me you played Ocarina.”

  “Arguably the best Zelda game ever made.”

  “Right?! When you played it, especially if you played it around the time it came out, you had to figure out what to do in the moment, who to play Saria’s song to or where to take the various trade items. Our new lives have become like that. We have to figure out how to succeed within the bounds of the System and our powers and tools therein. My circumstances are a little different because I have means to break the rules of the System, but that’s beside the point.”

  “So, treat the System like a video game? That isn’t helpful, Dan.”

  “Sure it is! Get stronger, fight like your life depends on it, because it very much does, and find as many ways to break the game as possible!”

  Tim gave me an exasperated look, turned and stomped away.

  Having another twenty or so minutes to kill, I discussed my findings with Selka and the other leaders. They decided to set up teams of turret gunners to cycle out when they ran out of mana. It reduced the overall available soldiers to ride out, so to speak, but I figured the best plan would be to eventually get enough turrets to overwhelm any incoming forces.

  The scouts continued their paces, now along the top of the wall, and I stood on the northern face, overlooking the empty grounds before us. My chamber that contained the energies from the Deeps was still recharging, and I was considering ways to improve it. I could still sense Lassa’s connection through the blessing around my core, though I dared not try to pull from the connection while still in the tutorial and somewhat disconnected from her for fear of severing it. Nothing was coming to mind and soon enough, the ground began to stir once again.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Bursts of flame erupted from the ground as steelflame bulls clambered out. Their eyes flashed red as chimpcrete rapscallions followed shortly thereafter. They climbed atop the bulls and their bodies absorbed the fire affinity. Concrete seemed to melt as an army of mounted chimps burst in flames. I quickly identified them as Level 16 Flameheart Flingers.

  Scout messages came flooding in that a similar army appeared to the south. Five thousand bulls and fifteen thousand flingers, split to the north and south.

  WAVE 6 BEGIN!

  The turrets immediately got to work to devastating effect. I cheered as they mowed down flingers and bulls alike. In just a few minutes, we’d cleared out the sixth wave, gaining 340,000 wave coins from that wave alone. A quick chat decided to hold onto them for now just in case we needed to do some repairs. Ten minutes later, Wave 7 sprouted the same, gradually improved armies, with slightly more. Level 21 bulls and Level 17 flingers, six thousand and seventeen thousand, respectively.

  The turrets couldn’t keep up with the increased numbers, and we had to send out troops to stop them from getting to the wall. The flingers, true to their names, threw out fistfuls of a stick, fiery substance that just pointlessly stuck to the adamantine walls but did no damage.

  This was the first time we’d had anything reach the walls, and some of the troops had grown worried, so with the 415,000 wave coins we received, we decided to spend 160,000 of it to double the number of turrets, bumping it to four facing each direction.

  Wave 8 had the same number of enemies, but they had gained two levels instead of the typical one. Our extra turrets were sufficient this time, though for the first time, we lost a turret to concentrated fire. During Wave 9, the frontline of the enemy wave included a thousand Level 30 chimpcrete gorilla cretins per direction, who upon my use of Senses of the Deeps I learned had a metal affinity.

  Our camp of survivors had been steadily growing in power, with even the weakest reaching around Level 50 from the sheer numbers of slain enemies. But it eventually proved that there were too many enemies and I finally had to step in when one of our squads was nearly smashed by metallic fists. The corrosive arcs of my Hunger Strikes cleared the path of retreat. I leapt ahead, drawing the attention of the steelflame bulls with a short pulse of the Mark. They barely did any damage to my thick hide, and as I feasted upon them, my regeneration spiked and overwhelmed any damage they could do. After another half hour, we finally got the notification.

  WAVE 9 COMPLETE! Next Wave to commence in ten minutes. Records received.

  QUEST UPDATED.

  Waves Survived: 9/100.

  Tower Health: 100%.

  Wave Coins: 1,077,000.

  Survivors within your designated Tower Area: 802/802.

  Noticing we were a half million wave coins short, and figuring Selka or Bethany had purchased something, I ran back toward the tower to see our first additional building. I hadn’t bothered looking through the buildings, as they all had various rules and prerequisites I didn’t want to fool with.

  The ‘building’ was really more of a standalone doorway that had a strange multi-hued swirling glow within. They’d set it up a few meters to the north of the tower, and already had a line of people walking through it. Bethany stood next to it, motioning for people to hurry given the short time available between waves.

  “Does this thing take us into the Nether?” I chuckled, but then I pulled up the description.

  Rejuvenation Portal. Legendary Building. Stepping through this portal will feel as though you experience a full eight hour restful sleep. This can be utilized by a humanoid once every 24 hours.

  “Very funny,” Bethany said, her annoyed expression never wavering. “No, we needed something like this to cycle people through because non-stop fighting is exhausting for most people, and there is no guarantee we’ll be able to have adequate time to rest.”

  “Fair enough. Thank you for thinking of this. I’m sure it will be a huge help!”

  “You’d better get ready for wave ten, I feel like it’s going to be annoying.”

  “It absolutely will be!” I agreed excitedly, rushing back to the northern wall.