Starting from Zero

Chapter 25

Book 4, Chapter 25

The Tank

           Different from other Iron Beetles, thisthing has a pair of highly developed fore limps. And they"re obviously weapons! They have been folded close to the beetle"s chest part until we see them.

           They"re long. The outer part has a structure like a bonehammer, and the inside is sharp, jagged blade. They are like mantis scythesequipped with hard rock!
  
     Theknight leader was knocked away by that hammer part. And now the limbs arecompletely stretched in front of us. The hammer is located a bit below thepointy tip. A stab of that thing could prove lethal.

           The beetle rubbed its twolimbs against each other like knife and fork, as if someone is planning toenjoy a feast!
  
      Irecalled Dart and Night Shade. They won"t help here. Phiona is down, so she"sout. And only 7 out of 10 Phantom Knights...

           This is not good.
  
     "Attack!"

           The beetle slashed the scythe at me. I dodged it by putting myselfagainst the ground, but the other one stabbed downward and there"s no way I can avoid this one!

            Loong"er dropped fromabove and entangled her own body onto the scythe. Then she began to releaseelectricity. I didn"t expect she can do that kind of move like a shock eel.
  
      Rosareleased dozens of tentacles and wrapped them around the beetle with severallayers. Some of them pulled on its six legs.   
     

            Luckylunged and sunk his fangs into where the beetle"s head is connected with thebody. It"s the only part without any hard sh.e.l.l. Usually that spot is noteasily reached since the beetle can hide it by raising its head. He revealed thatweakness because of all the distractions.
  
      ThePhantom Knights all went up with their lances. These experienced fighters aregood at picking out vulnerable parts--they stabbed at the joints on the legswhich are less protected compared to elsewhere.   
    

           Icrawled up and pressed my dragon lance against the beetle"s head.

          "[HeartPiercer]!"

           Boom! I was knocked away by the blast power of my own skill.

           Thebeetle suddenly raised. The first one to get hurt is Rosa, all the tentacleswere torn up one after one!

           Then it retracted its scythes. Loong"er got locked inside the bladeand shrieked in pain.

           Her voice stopped soon. With a Snap! The beetle completelyclosed up its fore limbs, slicing Loong"er"s body into several pieces. Goldenblood showered down on me and the knights who were trying to help her.
  
      Myheart stopped for a bit. I know they can be revived but...this hurts.

           Before Ican react, the scythes bounced open again. The bone hammers knocked away twoPhantom Knights as if they"re toy figures. I tried to catch one of them and wasthen sent flying by the enormous force as well. Thank G.o.d the sand is soft so the landing didn"thurt us further.
  
      Luckyhas completely climbed onto the beetle and won"t release his bite. The beetletried to reach for Lucky but realized his limbs aren"t long enough. It shookviolently, without success, so it can only jump and spin in place.
  
      Maybeit knows I"m the master of Lucky so the beetle simply charged at me again. That giantbody, added with Lucky"s weight, is now causing an earthquake. The PhantomKnights tried to distract it from behind.
  
      Iheard Phantom"s voice. "Don"t worry master. Loong"er is coming back soon!"

            A dark cloud appeared in the sky and Loong"er emerged from it. I forgot aboutPhiona"s special skill which is shared to everyone. We can get revived for once! Watching Loong"er die like that really disrupted my mind.
  
      "Master!Can I use my new skill?" Loong"er talked to me while swimming in the cloud.
  
      "Whatskill?"   
   

            "[HeavenStorm]!"   
   

            "Whatdoes it do? Nevermind just do it!"
  
      Shewent back into the cloud and disappeared. The piece of dark cloud grew bigger, untilit covered a huge area of the sky above our heads. I think this can be a good move whenI want to escape from the harsh sunlight!
  
      Rollingthunder came from the cloud, then a lightning came down and hit the ground. It"spretty far from the beetle, so the skill"s accuracy is poor?

            I"m wondering ifwe can hit the beetle at all when more lightening pillars appeared non-stop.

           Holycheese "n" rice! This is literally a "thunder storm"! Countlesslightening strikes rained down from the cloud and swept through the entirebattlefield, hitting everything inside including me and my team.
  
      Thankfullythe spell doesn"t hurt friendlies. Electric arcs ran all over my armor but I"mnot feeling anything.

           On the other hand, the Gold Beetle is now burnt into aladybug with G.o.d knows how many spots.

            Lucky is still hanging on the beetle"s neck.I can see Lucky"s HP almost empty.
  
      Thedark cloud didn"t go away when the lightening stopped. Instead, large waterdrops began to pour on us. A rainstorm followed the lightening attack, a bigone! I"m surprised when I see my HP bar getting filled up, same for my team. Therain can heal us!
  
      Asa plant, Rosa must loved the weather. His damaged tentacles all recovered. Numerousof them emerged from the ground and wrapped onto the beetle again.

           The immobilizedbeetle started to draw in air, and its belly is growing. It"s going the breathfire again!
  
      Icalled everyone to retreat. Lucky should be safe for now, since the beetle won"tbe throwing that fire onto its own back.

           The beetle stopped breathing. But itdidn"t use fire, it let out a greenish fluid instead.

           The first victim isRosa again. The liquid melted most of the tentacles in an instant like strongweed killer!

           A Phantom Knight was knocked into the attack. His armorimmediately disappeared! I quickly unsummoned him. This is bionic acid d.a.m.n it!
  
      Allthe knights ran away from the terrible attack. Their armor can be restoredafter some time but their lives cannot. It"s not wise to keep fighting upfrontnow.
  
      WhenI"m un-summoning all the knights, the beetle turned its head and brought theacid stream towards me! There"s no time to avoid. The only thing I can do is tolower my mask and cover my face.

           The green, viscous slime engulfed me for good.I heard some "fizzzzz" sound. Then I lifted my hand and checked. Weird,apart from all the smoke, I"m not receiving any damage.

           I looked at my equipmentdurability. Nope, nothing.
  
      "Ah-ha!"I cried in joy. The Dark Dragon Lord armor is immune to acid! Which means thebeetle"s last resort can"t hurt me at all!

           Wahhahaha! Meet your doom today, bug!!
  
      Theattack stopped. I don"t know if it"s because the beetle realized myresistance or it used up its liquid stock. But it didn"t give up. It followed up with agreen flame attack. This time I intentionally took the attack head-on.

           0 damage!
  
      Poorbug. Your breath weapons all aren"t gonna work.

           The beetle then began to rotate thatstrange looking mouthpart. I saw two holes hidden under it.

            Bam!

            I was thenknocked flying by a great force. My HP dropped alarmingly. Two more hits like that willkill me!
  
      "Phantom!What was that?"
  
      "Idon"t know. Maybe the hammer?"   
     

           "No.That thing can"t reach this far!"
  
      Loong"erspoke from above: "I think it spit something from its mouth. But I didn"tsee it."
  
      Phantomadded: "Rosa said he sensed something flying just above the surface!"  
    

            Thebeetle"s belly grew and shrank. I"m blasted away again. I saw it this time! Theb.a.s.t.a.r.d can use air cannon. Those holes must be its nose or something. It compressesthe air inside its body and releases it with great speed. And it"s powerful!
  
      WhenI"m getting ready to dodge a third air shot, that ruby flashed again. It"s going to useits laser weapon instead.

           Oh come on, this thing"s a freaking mobile artillery battery! It"sacting more and more like a real tank!
  
      Thebeetle didn"t actually use any of the weapons. It began to dig thesand and...went underground! The hole was quickly covered up by thesurrounding sand. Lucky can"t survive underground so he could only give up hisposition and flew into the air. Now our only effective damage won"t work!
  
      "Rosa!Give me its position!" 

           Can this fight become more complicated?? Jesus.
  
      BeforePhantom can translate Rosa"s message, the sand in front of us rose, then theground shook. A stream of dark green liquid sprayed out and soaked a large areaof sand. 
    

            Idon"t need Phantom to tell me now cause I saw it from the system. Rosa waseasily killed by the beetle! So the green liquid was Rosa"s blood!

            I de-summonedthe revived Rosa. He"ll only be killed again if he remains there.
  
      Aseries of long needles suddenly emerged from under my feet. I rolled aside toavoid them. Another needle array immediately followed to where I landed. Iopened my wings to dodge this time.

           This will be troublesome.
  
      Thebeetle lost target and stayed motionless for a while, then needles eruptedunder one of the Phantom Knights. All the knights avoided the attack by turninginto bats.   
     

           f.u.c.k.How do we attack this thing like this?? Rosa is our only member that can moveunderground and he can"t do anything.
  
      Isummoned Phiona again. She looks better after the rest.

            "Can you set fireunder the surface? The bug escaped there!"
  
      "Letme try!" Phiona circled around in the sky for a bit and quickly dived intothe sand.
  
      Thesand started to shift, and we can already see the surface turning red. Theground shook again. Then a b.u.mp appeared, followed by the beetle"s giant body.

           "There you are stupid bug. Phiona, get out of there!" I recalledPhiona and prepared to confront the annoying enemy again.
  
      Ourteam is pretty battered up but I can see from my Star Gaze that the beetledoesn"t have much HP left now. Lucky did most of the damage by tearing up itsneck. We"re almost there!
  
      Right.I should try to capture it after all these effort. I"m glad this idea came upin time or I"ll kill it any time soon.   
    

           Iconcentrated my magic onto the gem on my forehead and summoned the Dragon Waspswarm. I ordered them to attack anywhere on the beetle that looks soft. Thebeetle may be powerful but it doesn"t have much to counter these tiny killers. Ittried to use its air cannon, and it"s like using artillery to shoot mosquitoes,just won"t work. Looks like being big isn"t all about advantage.
  
      Iwatched as its HP dropped to about 20. The beetle is already having a hard timestanding straight. I de-summoned the wasps as the beetle finally fell, then Iasked Dart to hit it using plain attacks. Dart"s Attack is not near enough topenetrate that Defense so he can only do 1 damage each time. And that"s justwhat I needed.

           We stopped at 1 HP. Now there"s no better chance to capturesuch an impressive companion.
  
      Aftera dozen tries, the beetle turned into a green egg. I didn"t hesitate to drop myblood on it. A pitch-black miniature Gold Beetle cracked the sh.e.l.l and crawledout. Oh shoot. It"s black again. Every companion of mine is black except Dart. ActuallyDart is only white on the outside, if I smooth his fur aside I"ll see the blackskin beneath. This demonize effect on me is a headache.
  
      Thebeetle on my hand is only about a foot long. That"s no problem since I"m sureit"ll grow to its full size in the future. I named the little bug as [Tank], causethat"s literally what it is! 

  
      [GoldBeetle], rank level 900 (current level 0)

           Attack 100-200,

           Defense 200,

           Speed 100,

           HP 2,000,

           MP 500.

           Attacks carry poison effect.

           Talent skill [Strong Acid Spit],damage 120, causes continuous damage for 1,200 seconds.

           Physical Resistance 50%,

           Magical Resistance 45%.   
    

           That"snot all its skills. Maybe I need to level it up to activate them. Should be easyenough. Companions level faster, it is usually my own level that restrictstheir levels in the end. And the fact that I always ask them to kill monstersfor me only makes it more obvious.

           Now I think about it, I"ve already have agood number of companions. Lucky, Phiona, Loong"er, Night Shade, Phantom, Rosa,Dart and now Tank...That"s 8 of them. My slot limit is 9. I should be carefulwith it. It"s a good thing that everyone I captured so far turned out to be strong helper. I"m still relying on the Phantom Knights to soak most of the damagenow but I think these Boss level companions will become the actual heavyhitters when I get my level high enough.
  
      Myprivate chat interrupted my thoughts. It"s from...Merciless?

           "What"s thematter?"
  
      "Isaw the quest done, and I already claimed the reward. Come here and I"ll giveyou your share."

           Ohh, nice. Usually most people will just run with the spoil insuch cases.
  
      "Youkeep them. I"ll just consider this as a level campaign. I got three levels intwo hours! If I find more of these quests I can try go for the top of the rank."
  
      "Wellno!" He became...excited? "Come and take them. You did the wholequest, I don"t want to just be a tour guide or something!"
  
      "Huh.Wait for me then."

            I looked around the battlefield for any good drops. Nope.I spent some time searching around and only discovered all sorts of trash. Thereare over a thousand items lying on the ground, most of them are necklaces! Whythe h.e.l.l did they only drop one type of equipment? Are those spiders fond ofcollecting necklace??

           Well shoot. I"m short on money anyway, so any reward iswelcomed. I managed to pick up every single item thanks to my patience. Thatfelt like a homeless scavenger. Owww, my back... (*)
  
      Justas I"m finished, Merciless pinged me again.

           "What are you doing bud? Didyou fall into another pit?"
  
      "Very funny. I"m picking money!"
  
      "Pickingmoney?"   
     

           "Yes!The place is full of junk. Maybe 10 crystals or so."

            I can"t help it. Iowe people big time! I do have those money from selling the companion eggs butthat"s far from enough!
  
      "Youmean, all those monsters only dropped useless common equipment?" Mercilessexclaimed in surprise.
  
      "Worse. They are all necklaces, about 700 of them. All trash, as in, the likesthat give you one bonus attribute point or two. The rest are random weapons orother parts with one or two bonuses. Not even one valuable piece."
  
      Merciless"smouth fell open. "Wait wait wait you"re not joking right? 700, necklaces??"
  
      "Yeah. What"s wrong? Let me see, small ones, big ones, colorful ones, formen and for women or for orcs. All kinds of them. I can give you a dozen or twofor free if you want them."
  
      "Well,I mean, just come back! I"ll explain it in front of you."
  
      "Alright."  
     

            Iteleported to the station in the Far Land city. I sent Merciless a private chatto find out he"s waiting for me at the city gate. He ran towards the station, panting.

            "You have recall scrolls? I thought you were going to come back on foot."
  
      "Where"sthe NPC shop? I need to sell this mess."   
    

           "Wait."He sent me a trade request and put a companion egg, a champion badge and 10kcrystals in it. "Take them!"
  
      Iglanced at the items. "I"ll take the money, you keep the egg and badge."
  
      Heonly took the egg off. "Just take them. I already earned big. I have myrules you know!"
  
      "Okaythen." I confirmed. The badge gives you +1 Luck and 10% HPregeneration speed. Not too shabby.

            "Here, have a necklace as a souvenir."
  
      "Howeverdid you get this thing? I mean, you are carrying a whole bunch of them right?"
  
      "Yeah,as I said, about 700 of them. All similar ones, they give you one or twoattribute point bonus. Not very useful."   
     

            "NOTUSEFUL??"

            Woah the dude"s eyeb.a.l.l.s gonna stick out.

            "They give youBASE attributes! The points you set up upon character creation! Do you know howmuch actual bonus you"ll get, with all the other multipliers??"
  
      "Really?"

            I picked out a necklace with a "+1 Luck" and equipped it. Allmy base attributes became 14! Holy moses. This is almost Artifact level! (**)

            I"mrich! Thank goodness I didn"t discard or sell them.  Looks like Iknow how to get rid of my debt crisis now!
  
      Mercilesswatched as I giggled like an idiot. "Are you alright?"
  
      "Oh,I"m totally fine!" I wiped my saliva clean. "Let"s go celebrate!"

(*) It happened again. The author forgot his auto-loot bracelet. Please just ignore these logic bugs.

(**) The MC has something that modifies all his base attribute points to the same level as the highest one.

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