Reaching into the unknown

John immediately grabbed a mana potion from his inventory. He uncorked it awkwardly after a moment and gulped it down greedily. True to the description, it tasted faintly of blueberries. The feeling of mana being integrated into your body was an odd one; it was as if every nerve in his body crackled with electrifying potential as it was used as a conduit to replenish his main stockpile of the stuff.

And this is why we prepare for things ahead of time, John. Not waiting until the last second really does pays off.

John equipped his Mana Pistol in one hand and summoned a Mana Javelin in the other, preparing to give his all against this thing. He stood there waiting, attempting to spot something. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long, as he soon saw what was without a doubt the boss.

It was a small mass of machinery, seeming to be completely unarmored beside the mask that all of the golems shared, if you could call that armor. The body contained visible mounting points for armor, but had clearly gone without as the internal servos, gears, and circuitry were entirely exposed. It seemed… unfinished, like a prototype that hadn’t met a deadline.

Attempting to see the true capabilities of what was currently sprinting towards him before falling back on assumptions, John fired off an Observe at the golem.

John considered the advantages and weaknesses of this. More importantly, he had to know how to exploit it. Something near double his level wasn’t exactly going to fall like a deck of cards; sometimes less than respectful tactics were warranted.

To get a real sense of how fast it was, John unleashed the Mana Javelin he was holding in one hand towards the golem once it had gotten within range.

Without missing so much as a single beat, the golem shifted slightly to the side mid-stride, causing the javelin to miss entirely.

After seeing the golem dodge his attack effortlessly, John opted for a faster approach. He wielded the pistol in both hands and released a shot directly at the thing.

Sensing this attack from a mile away, the boss turned to dodge once more. However, there was only so much one could do to avoid plasma going faster than sound. With the screech of breaking metal, the plasma impacted directly in the chest of the golem. As with the previous Caster golem, part of the mana used for the spell was siphoned off with a soft blue glow.

However, this barely seemed to deal any significant damage, as it fully completed the roll with no problems whatsoever. And then it turned to face John once more, mask contorted in what seemed like fury with a hint of curiosity.

Immediately reacting to that, John began to charge the pistol for a full power shot while backing away from the golem.

This did little good, however.

The golem charged John with almost supernatural speed, channeling mana visibly into its fist. As it closed the distance between them in surprisingly little time, the clenched fist seemed to rip all color and warmth from its surroundings and focus them into a multicolored sheath of lifeless arcane energy before smashing directly towards John’s chest.

-75 HP (Armor Bypassed [Magic])

With a fleshy cracking sound, the coalesced magic impacted John directly. This sent him crashing backwards into a nearby tree with a burst of fire that lit up his entire body. Why does pain have to hurt so much… was his only thought before staggering to his feet once more as the pain slowly subsided while the damage was healed.

Thankfully the Mana Pistol was still in his hand, as he had instinctively tightened his grip around it before he had been punched into a goddamn tree.

Quickly getting his bearings, John located the golem after a moment, which was now standing in place, weaving some sort of spell to no doubt finish him for good.

We can’t have that, now can we? He aimed down the sights of his pistol for a split second before releasing the charge that he had accumulated.

The golem quickly stopped the spell to dodge once again, but thanks to John’s speed, was unable to entirely get out of the way.

While the shot went a bit wide, the end result was still quite satisfying. As the golem turned to dodge away, the bolt of superheated gas ripped through the exposed plating of its arm like butter, leaving a gaping hole in the now useless limb.

This obviously damaged the golem, as sparks and hydraulic fluid leaked from the wound, lessening the effectiveness of the construct as a whole.

Having sustained almost as much damage as it could take, the caster golem prepared for one last attack.as an array of blue circuitry lit up all across its body. Simultaneously, a translucent shield of **** erected itself to surround the golem in its entirety.

Fuck, I hate fights with multiple phases. John was helpless to stop this due to the distance between them, so he did what anyone would do, brace for impact. He took out two of the health potions he had before uncorking them rapidly and guzzling down the contents.

+40 HP (Alchemical)

The golem simply watched him as it completed… whatever it was doing. Arcane power seemed to flow through the overall structure, reinforcing and repairing what John had torn away using his own magic.

With a blast of scorching heat that blackened and warped the very material that it was made of, the golem’s external circuitry burned itself into the plating before fading entirely, leaving only scorch marks as the only indicator they were there at all.

And then it leveled its gaze upon John once more. Although it didn’t have a face, it was hard to miss the unmistakable emotion of pure rage.

I… may have bitten off more than I can chew, was John’s only thought as he attempted to discern a visible weakness. Anything, really, that could be used against it.

And then it struck John, quite literally as his body was wracked with the pain of being brutally punched once more. This time, with the added benefit of becoming extra crispy in the process due to the intense heat given off by the golem.

-24 HP (34 Before Armor), (15 [23] Normal, 9 Fire)

Being launched by the sheer kinetic **** of the blow, he landed in a pile of limbs on the nearby street curb, narrowly missing cracking his head open on the stone tiles. As John scrambled to his feet once again, he saw the golem’s outer carapice begin to visibly distort and crack open, spewing out a pillar of flame into the sky as the internal pressure and temperature became too great for the simple steel to endure.

Guessing that this was going to be a test of both time and damage, John composed himself and mentally prepared for a struggle.

At first glance, the speed of the golem had intensified by magnitudes. However, as it took a step towards John to attack him once more, it visibly slowed down before intensifying the motion at a now terrifying pace.

The one thing he really needed to do was keep at least something resembling distance between it and him, right? So John did what any sensible person would do when they realized they were completely out of their depth and turned on his heels to sprint away in the opposite direction of the flaming golem.

That was a fatal mistake, however. As soon as he had reached what he thought was a good distance, John turned and was met with a burst of flame almost as tall as he was.

-35 HP (Armor Bypassed [Fire])

This, of course, was not too good for his complexion. As his armor was crispened and his entire body was seared and rapidly regrown, John screamed in pain, attempting to retain the last semblance of logic that he had left in him to no avail.

Once that was said and done, he quickly reevaluated his life choices and attempted to make sense of everything once more.

However, what John saw made his blood run cold.

The golem was lit up partially through the mana circuits he had seen earlier, but broken and fragmented into barely connected lines. Well, it was clearly enough to work, as it was preparing a spell. From a quick glance he could only discern that it meant pain for his fragile health pool.

Time seemed to move slower than ever possible; the only sound he could hear was his rapidly thumping heartbeat.

John brought out one of the steel plates he had grabbed earlier from the upgrade room, attempting to use it to shield his body from whatever the golem was throwing at him in a moment.

With a burst of primal energies, a bolt of crackling flame and electricity was unleashed from the fingertips of the golem directed towards John.

In what could be the last moments of his life, John closed his eyes to search for something that would help him. Anything. He dove down deeper inside himself than he had ever gone before.

And he found something. Something that had not been there before.

The bolt of primordial energy impacted John’s makeshift shield, but that did little to stop anything. The fire was partially blocked by the plate before boring a hole straight through, while the electricity simply travelled through to incinerate his hands.

But the moment any of it came in contact with his skin, it seemed to disappear entirely, as if whisked away by an invisible ****.

John suddenly felt the electrifying presence of power that he had never imagined. However, one thing was immediately obvious above all else. His body was never intended to contain this, and it screamed at him to get rid of it as soon as possible or else something terrible would happen.

In an instant, John cast Move on the scorched steel plate he was holding, aiming towards the golem that was shocked by him even being alive at this point.

Shoving his complete amount of mana towards the spell, as quickly as possible, he felt the familiar sting of Overclock for a moment before, to his shock, the spell succeeded without any additional input, taking most of his mana along with it.

The plate rocketed towards the golem with an **** amount of ****. Reaching it within a mere second, the plate cleaved the golem in half with the sound of tearing metal before embedding itself inside a department store nearby.

Spell Critical! Drain the Flow effectiveness raised by 250%

John could only stand in shock of what had just happened. Then he felt a searing pain in various points across his body, which quickly alleviated itself along with a loud Ding. This was an opportune time to check the ever mounting amount of popups he kept shoving into the corner of his vision.

Trait Skill Unlocked: Drain the Flow
Trait: Integrated Mana Capacitors

Achievement Unlocked: Attribute Utility
Unlock your first Trait Skill. Remember that everything has a cost.
+30 EXP

Broken Capacitors
The result of you overcharging your internal capacitors. You will lose their functionality until they completely repair after a few hours. Can reduce capacitance, depending on the severity.
Duration: 3 Hour(s)

Encounter Complete!
+272 EXP