Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Karra———

“Say, Karra. Do you know the significance of the knife?” Wiina suddenly asked before we went towards the eighth floor.

“What?” The significance? How so? Is there something that special about it?

“From what I can tell just from a glance. It’s a weapon with magic in mind.” She explained… How is that the case? “...By the way, is the person making it want to keep it a secret?”

“I don’t know. I kinda need a middleman… middlethey? For that.” I said, making it clear I don’t really know who this person Idea knows actually is.

*Beep*

“Hm?” Someone is texting me right now…

‘I think the damage is done at this point. Just don’t say my name out loud.’ Idea said in the DMs. I guess at this point the other friends in our Harmoni group already figured it out.

“They said it’s basically pointless at this point and simply don’t disclose their name.” I announced in their stead.

“I see. Guess we were a few sentences too late.” She remarked, and yeah, that kinda sucks.

{well guys time for a witchhunt. Blacksmithhunt?}

{that still doesn’t give a lot of info}

“So, what were you gonna say?” Let’s just continue the conversation and leave this little mistake behind us…

“I was going to say that this weapon seems to be engraved with some sort of spell in it. When you pour mana into it, it should activate something.” She explained. So it is some sort of magic weapon… So… Pouring mana into it…

*Sizz*

“Whoa!” I was quite taken aback as I tried doing as she instructed. Suddenly the blade’s edge lit up with what looked like condensed flame now consuming the knife and making it glow. “Wow… What the hell?”

{Cool!}

{Wtf?!}

{Some spellblade shit!}

The effective size of the knife has grown from the magic protrusions, and the new bright orange edge here is probably extremely hot. A hot knife…

*Swing* *Sizz*

“Damn… This is crazy…” I feel extremely bewildered after swinging it around. Swinging it in this activated state causes it to spew out flames, strong ones too… “No normal person can make this…”

“That’s why I asked in the first place.” Wiina remarked. “But it seems that this person and their associates choose to remain hidden… What else is new?”

{What does that mean?}

{hmmm}

“Regardless, we shouldn’t think too much about this. Let’s go down.” She said as I stopped pouring mana into it.

“Okay.” I replied as I walked behind her. Now we’re reaching the lowest floor I’ve managed to reach, unwillingly.

“Now then. I think I can confidently say that your damage output is good, but I think I am being fair in saying that you are running low on mana, having to rely on it for the preceding floors.” Wiina said as we finally reached the eighth floor, just on the edge of the entrance.

“Yeah? I can’t use any big magic at this point. Still enough to maintain this knife, at least.” I said, giving her a pretty clear look at my mana points.

“...Now, not to criticize your fighting style, but there is a large dependence on the mystics from you. I think with that weapon you’ll feel more confident in fighting up-close, but I think we should nip this in the bud.” She suggested… And that means? “So, aside from activating the mechanic of that knife, no magic will be casted on this floor. Understood?”

“...Fine. I need to test this out anyway.” I begrudgingly said. I don’t think I’m that frail, so why not.

We stepped into the cave-like floor with more golems, these are a tiny bit more pristine than the one on the fifth floor, but only by a bit. Also, not box golem.

Now there’s not a lot of them, thankfully. Still, these are still big and bulky, not gonna be easy to take down.

*Sizz*

I activated the knife’s special property, ready to fight.

*Dash* *Slash* *Sizz* *Sprint*

I quickly ran in and attacked one of the golems before just as quickly retreating. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem all too susceptible to fire attack, but I clearly make a significant dent in its body, so destroying it with just this alone isn’t out of the question. They are also not very fast, so as long as I don’t trip up I’ll be fine.

Let’s try this then…

*Dash* *SLICE*

This time I charged right towards one of them as they were pursuing me, aiming right for the joint, cutting through one of their arms, running right past them before they could attack me.

{Tight call!}

{that’s risky!}

Okay, so I managed to debilitate… one of… seven golems, that are now more aggressive than ever and are running towards me-!

*Swing* *Evade* *Sprint*

“Eep!” I can’t help but let out a sound of just the slightest tinge of fear as I avoided their attacks and ran away to get some distance for my next move. Seriously, how am I supposed to beat all seven without any area-of-control magic?

Does it have any very clear weakness? Maybe in its eye? Where would its core be? Is it in the head or somewhere in the torso?

Let’s go with the head first, make sure to break through, no matter what.

*Lunge* *STAB* *Crack*

…Okay. I think I managed to work that out.

“See? You can make it work.” Wiina commented while my arm… hurts a lot. Like it’s so strained. My mana tank is also definitely drained.

*Shine*

Oh… the loot…

“Let’s see here… No mana potions, unfortunately.” She remarked, grabbing the small dagger and an antidote potion. “The stuff in these floors aren’t that good anyway, and like I said before, some parts from these enemies can be used for something.”

“...Are these stuff used to make weapons and armors?” I asked, seeing her picking up the leftover cores.

“It all depends, these cores are pretty good for creating high-specs electronics or magical items, for example.” She casually answered before storing them away. “Of course, modern man-made materials aren’t outdone so easily, so if you want something that’s above that you need to dig deep.”

{there’s gonna be a gold rush right?}

{This seems very important now that she elaborate more}

{imagine all the crazy shit you can build with so many new foreign mats}

She has already alluded to this the first time we met, but with her giving a clear example, as well as the knife I am holding showing things with magical properties can be created, it really expands your horizon…

*Shine*

“Huh?” She is casting something silently at my arm… Oh, it’s starting to feel a lot better. “Is this… silent casting hard?”

“Who’s to say? My mentor said I am very adept at it.” She dismissively answered. A mentor… That just leads to more questions I probably won’t get answers for any time soon. “At least, you need some level of mastery before you could try doing it chantless.”

{ooh more lore}

{mentor?}

{Now wondering if there’s school for dhis}

“I see…” I muttered as I looked through the chat and waited for her to finish healing me.

“All done. Your arm should be fine now.” She said and the light soon disappeared, and when I tried moving my arms around it was indeed no longer stiff and painful.

“Thanks.” I said, moving it around some more. Hard to believe that I used it to pierce through solid rocks just a few moments ago… That sounds so absurd now that I think it out loud.

“Then shall we get moving?” She asked, to which I nodded in return, and so we kept moving down. Next is the ninth floor which I will have zero information on.

“Say, Wiina. Do you know anything about dungeons? Like, why do they exist?” I asked as we walked down another set of stairs.

“Unfortunately, that’s one of the many mysteries that might never be solved… Basically, I personally have no clue. I know its utility, but not much beyond it.” She replied, giving up on trying to sound eloquent halfway through. “As it stands there are a lot of things you could ask about, but even I have next to no information on.”

“I see…” I replied just right as our feet touched the ninth floor… And it looks quite colorful, comparatively speaking. “I’m gonna assume those are traps…”

“Indeed.” She said, also looking at the many kinds of panels scattered across the ground. I’m gonna guess they are elemental-based, but I’m not going to risk actually stepping on one…

“Gehehe…” And in the back are some lanky horned goblins each with a bow. I can tell the gimmick already.

“Can’t say I find this kind of floor fun, what about you?” Wiina suddenly asked as she put her hand on the rapier’s scabbard.

“I’d rather not risk stepping on any of these, to be honest.” I answered, not feeling like dealing with such a gimmicky floor. Am I being a bit unreasonable? Maybe.

{Awww}

{c’mon}

“No means no, chat. What if some of them wreck my stuff and end the stream?” I said, trying to convince them to consider the risk.

“To add to that, there are electric traps.” Wiina chimed in and helped out my case. Maybe if my camera can float and not be affected… No, even if I can do that, or just have Wiina record this for me, I’d rather not be a guinea pig.

{fine…}

{understandable}

{awww}

{Shucks}

“They’re really praying for my downfall.” I remarked as I turned to look at Wiina. “Anyway, please do.”

“As you say.” She responded and grabbed the handle of her rapier, then walked a bit forward and stood ahead of me.

*Swing* *Slice*

A clean swing from across the hall, and these humanoid monsters were cut in half unceremoniously.

“[Earth Carpet]” She said and a large slab emerged and covered the floor entirely, burying these trap panels underneath so I can’t even accidentally step on one. “As for the rewards. There’s none. I’ve checked.”

“Talk about a shitty floor…” I said as we leisurely walked across with zero difficulty. “Say, what about these bows and other monster weapons?”

“They aren’t worth much, unless it’s from a boss monster.” Wiina said as we reached the end of the hallway. “Speaking of the boss monster… I’ll quickly handle it.”

“Why? I thought you were gonna have me-

“No. In the first place, your mana pool is still rather dry, right?” She quickly cuts me off, bringing up a point that… isn’t wrong. Even maintaining the special power of that knife took a bit out of me.

“Okay, fine. Fair enough.” I said, and then we walked down to the tenth floor. It feels special just from the fact that it’s the tenth floor alone, but she also mentioned that this is a boss room… “Holy crap this place is big.”

“Indeed, and there stood this floor’s champion.” She replied, pointing at the large bulky magenta ogre in the middle of the room. It’s kind of a weird color choice… alongside the absurdly large curved horn on its forehead.

{Kind of a rare color for an ogre}

{Not quite}

{is this thing also a unicorn what is that horn lol}

{rip this thing}

*Slice*

And then, in an anti-climatic fashion, Wiina simply walked over to it and cut it down just when it finally noticed her presence. Bisected diagonally and there is some gore there oh no can’t show that.

{MORE CENSOR}

{Can we get discretion shot in the chat}

“Ugh.” I let out a voice of disgust seeing this transpire. I find what she managed to do to be impressive, but wow am I not impressed seeing this thing’s corpse staying around. “Sucks it’s not like in the games where these things just dissipate and not show any gore.”

“That would be quite wishful thinking.” Wiina remarked as we waited for the reward to come to us. What would it be?

*Shine*

“A magic staff this time around.” Wiina commented as she picked up the wooden staff with a white orb on its head. “Looks very standard, and any novice would probably want this. It’s basically a tool for those wanting to use magic with less risk and having an overall easier time…”

“Less risk?” That’s the part that caught my attention.

“With a magic staff like this, or just any object aside from your own body, you can channel your mana into them as a catalyst for your magic. It’s a bit easier to concentrate your power into one singular tangible object, and if anything goes wrong all the backlash would be put on the object first and foremost.” She explained… Ah! I see…

{That sounds very important}

{crazy that Kara hadn’t use one until now}

{So no super duper bad incident with it around?}

“Sounds pretty neat…” I commented, wondering if I should need it or not. I have the knife and it is something magic-related already.

“I don’t think you need it, but I also don’t.” Wiina remarked. If she thinks so then… Eh, I can worry about who gets it later.

“We can worry about that later. How about we go further down?” I said, wanting to drop the issue for now.

“Sure, guess I’ll hold onto this for now.” She said before… Once again, putting it somewhere. It just disappeared and I’m sure chat has already caught on, maybe. “Let’s go further down then. We might need to rush things a bit if you really want to go down to the fortieth floor.”