Only the occasional invader present granted me some good experience, though they were mostly only weak tier 2 and thus only granted a respectively small amount of experience for my efforts.
Well, it wasn't like I made no progress either. From the 7 remaining at the start I gained 4, which put me squarely at level 72. Three more and I'd be at the peak of tier two, with the ability to tier up whenever I want to.
Actually, I thought I was gaining levels rather rapidly, but it still felt slow when compared to the slew of levels I got in a single instant from my 6k mana bomb and 6k mana worth of [Unstable Space] taking out a whole invader battalion.
Since following weak tremors of the strings to weak rifts was very boring in the long run, I was very happy when I felt another larger shock rumble through the world of strings I was spending most of my time in. It wasn't as strong as back when I found the cluster, but it was still strong enough to probably be sufficient for granting me my last few levels.
In all honesty, I was really sick of being tier two. I was still making progress, very quickly even when compared to how it apparently was for natives of this realm, but I still felt very impatient. I couldn't fathom how people spent literal ages at the exact same level of power they were on decades ago.
They are probably used to their own speed of progress from the way that it's the same for almost everyone, but the thought of spending the rest of my life with the powers I currently held felt extremely unsatisfying, like I wouldn't be complete if I stopped now.
Well, I didn't have much of a choice here if I wanted to survive for any longer period of time, though I wouldn't take the other option even if I did have the ability to choose.
It didn't take me long to find the source of the stronger-than-average tremors I had felt. Unlike the cluster of rifts from before, this one was just a single rift that was a lot larger than the usual rift I encountered.
Just like before, though, there were a bunch of invaders here, doing whatever they were doing. I still didn't understand the purpose of the moss they seemed so intent on spreading. Even here they were just shepherding the moss in every direction, single-mindedly following an elusive goal that was completely avoiding my grasp.
I didn't know their endgame, but I didn't care much right now either. Whatever they had planned, I couldn't take it on the way I was right now, even if I was the 'Sentinel' the realm had chosen to appoint on a whim.
I wondered whether they had reached the surface by now and how the situation up there compared to the one down here. I was the first one to encounter an actual rift, but the anomalies had been there even slightly before that. All the invaders I had seen up to now were incredibly weak when compared to the few tier four beings of this realm, though, so I doubted they faced any real world-ending trouble.
My classmates were up there hopefully doing their part as well, so I shouldn't worry too hard about finding a wasteland when I inevitably get back to the surface at some point.
Finishing my short survey of the vicinity from my vantage point on the 'other side' of the rift, I concluded the danger level to be rather low. There were two tier three invaders present, but both were rated as just over 75 by the system, which made them even weaker than the ones I have already eradicated before.
This time I wouldn't use a mana bomb, though. Instead I was planning to test out something even more destructive I had up my sleeve. For a long time now, I had been sitting on the ability [Celestial Reprieve] of my very useful halo, which promised a whole bunch of destruction.
According to its incredibly brief description, it consumes all the mana I currently have stored in my corona to unleash a single condensed attack. Since I currently held the full capacity of 14500 points of mana in there, it should be incredibly destructive, more than enough to wipe out all the invaders present.
It probably won't be able to close the rift by itself, as it wasn't an attack related to that vector, but I actually thought it to be possible since it's an ability of my halo, which also has the ability [Unstable Space] and thus also the capability to close rifts.
Having made up my mind, I used [Broken Sky] to switch my plane back to reality, appearing a good distance away from the rift. Since they were spread all around there, I needed a vantage point that could overview the entire situation to be able to hit everything with a directed attack like this one seemed to be according to its description.
Invoking the cast of the ability with intent, my spiked halo that was usually just rotating slowly while languidly floating over my head shot into action, moving in front of me like I was scoping with a rifle. A strange light blue glow snaked its way across with a color reminiscent of the color of my flames. It spun faster and faster until it just looked like a blurry circle to me, the spikes not visible anymore due to its high rotational velocity.
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As it sped up, a deep humming seemed to emit from it as the space in my immediate vicinity started trembling slightly. All this seemed to take forever in my perception, though it probably took less than a single second in real time.
The glow was so bright by now that I wondered how they hadn't noticed me yet. Were they blind or something? Even so, they must have felt the extreme amounts of mana being channeled so close to them, right? Oh well, a puzzle to figure out in the future, though I doubt I'll just be able to outright ask. Mushrooms don't have mouths after all, and even if they did, they definitely can't speak our language.
Feeling the ability reach its maximum, I didn't hesitate much before finally firing the attack off. Instantly, a meter-wide cone of pure destruction screeched into existence out of the center of my still fervently spinning halo. Like a directed explosion, the containing of the energy into a single direction made it all the more devastating as it melted through stone and mushroom alike, as if there had never been anything in its path to begin with.
Lower tier three was nothing more than a joke in front of a debilitating attack like this one. Stronger beings of the upper end of the tier could have probably blocked it with the expense of a good chunk of their mana reserves, but not the two tier-three mushroom invaders that had just stopped existing a good second ago.
Even if they had seen the attack coming, they would have stood no chance against it. If I was being honest, I didn't even know if I myself could have properly defended against my own attack. While I had no problem throwing multiples of my entire natural mana reserve into this attack, I didn't really have an effective way of doing the same for defense.
I could maybe try blocking something like that by summoning a whole bunch of [Celestial Fire] and condensing that to be as solid and durable as possible, but fire was obviously not the best defensive choice one could make. I didn't have anything else, though, so that was that.
I could, of course, escape into [Broken Sky] if I had no other choice, but that fell more under evasion than actual defense, even if it was obscenely effective. Unless someone prevents me from doing that or somehow manages to damage me while inside of it, they're pretty much powerless against me using that skill to evade or completely escape.
I hoped that it'd never come down to me actually escaping that way, but you never knew, especially since I'd inevitably have to blindly test myself against Blake at some point in the future.
Seeing [Celestial Reprieve] ebb down just a few seconds after I cast it, I concluded its first test as a full success. The rift was still there, completely unharmed, but that was pretty much what I already expected. For the invaders, however, their fate was a bit more tragic.
From my position in the direction I shot in, there was a perfectly circular cylinder stamped into the stone, extending maybe one or two hundred meters through the now vaporized stone.
I was definitely not a big fan of introducing boiling hot gaseous stone into my respiratory system, so I held off on breathing for now. Luckily for me, I didn't need air anymore with vitality readily available through [Thermal Conversion]. Since the superheated attack that was emitted from my halo just a few seconds ago was unbelievably hot, there was already enough environmental heat currently present to sustain my oxygen levels indefinitely.
Having to actively stop myself from automatically breathing was a bit uncomfortable and took a bit more of my focus than I would have liked, but it was far from being unbearable.
Now I only had to take care of the sizable rift still floating unwaveringly in the wake of my attack. Just like all the other rifts before this one, it was incredibly vulnerable against [Unstable Space], losing grip on the fabric of this reality just as quickly as the small ones usually did. It might have been slightly more stable but not enough to become noticeable to me.
Having taken care of that, there was only one last thing to check up on. Both the closing of the large rift and annihilating both tier three creatures present here should have been more than enough for me to reach level 75, the peak of tier two.
[Name: Hanah Mayflower (Sentinel of the Realm)
Race: Human
Level: 75 (Tier II) (max)
Mana: 7010/7010 | 37/14500
Achievements: [Hero Candidate], [Predator III], [Molten Rebirth], [Slayer of the Leviathan], [Sentinel of the Realm], [Vanquisher II]
Class: Broken Star (Epic+)
Active Skills:
[Celestial Fire Lv. 28]
[Broken Sky Lv. 16]
[Regalia: Starfire Corona Lv. 29] (max)
Passive Skills:
[Thermal Conversion]
[Broken Celestial Physiology]
[Regalia: Starfire Corona Lv. --]
General Skills:
[Identify]
[Heightened Senses Lv. 14]
[Pain Resistance Lv. 15]
[Fire Resistance Lv. 7]
[Mana Sense Lv. 1]
[Corrosion Resistance Lv. 2]]
Indeed it was. Level 75, I finally did it. In all honesty, I'm so incredibly sick of not being able to see the sky or the sun anymore. No matter in what direction I looked, it looked absolutely identical everywhere. Stone, more stone, darker stone, lighter stone, even more normal stone, stone covered with invader moss, wet stone, dry stone, metallic stone, there was basically no type of stone I hadn't had the pleasure of encountering yet.
Accompanying the avalanche of stone, there were also strings upon strings in the world of [Broken Sky]. Beneath me, in front of me, behind me, and even in the sky, the strings were all-encompassing and always present. It was a nice change from the stone, but it wasn't interesting either. In just a few minutes you'd already have seen everything that place has to offer and would slowly grow sick of it.
With achieving tier three, I could finally go back to the surface again. No matter what, I needed to get under free sky again, or I'd really go insane down here. Even if it turns out that I wasn't ready yet and should have stayed longer, I've made up my mind to not regret the decision no matter what. I'm going to fight with everything I have for my freedom and eradicate everything and everyone that is going to try to prevent that, no matter who that may turn out to be.