The Patriarch hit the shield with such force that he reeled backwards. What Gerhard didn't realise was that the "Mental Clarity" from his previous shield-shatter, plus his unconscious use of [Telekinesis], had unknowingly levelled up his [Minor Warp Manipulation] several times, making the cast faster and twice as dense as before.
The reason for this was that Psionic Mana Shield was a skill that could be used through Mana and Warp energy. The system turned everything into MP, but that didn't mean that Gerhard couldn't use the Warp if he wanted to.
The situation had unwillingly revealed an interesting fact, that if he increased his Minor Warp Manipulation skill, he would require less MP to use his Psionic Mana Shield.
Gerhard stood defiant on a literal hill of Xenos meat, the Patriarch in front of him. The Mk. 1.2 suit, or what was left of it, was dripping with purple blood, and his Mana pool was brimming with fresh energy.
He looked at the Patriarch, then at the shocked Magus and the one-armed Primus.
"I will bathe this Underhive with your blood."
The Patriarch let out a scream of pure, unadulterated rage, understanding Gerhard perfectly.
Gerhard knew the "Level Up" was a temporary reprieve, a full tank of gas in a car with a shattered chassis.
"Hans, focus everything on the suits' regeneration and adaptation. Don't focus on the battle for now."
> UNDERSTOOD. REDIRECTING REMAINING SUIT POWER TO STABILISE THE INTEGRITY AND BEGIN STRUCTURAL REGENERATION. DURABILITY CRITICAL: 12%.
Gerhard broke into a sprint, but it wasn't a straight line. Every time the Patriarch tried to intercept, Gerhard concentrated as hard as he could, flicking his fingers.
[Psychokinesis]
He didn't try to move the powerful monster. He pulled a heavy industrial floor-grate up by six inches just as the Patriarch's foot landed on it. The predator king stumbled, which translated into a microsecond of lag that Gerhard used to bypass it entirely.
He wasn't after the king yet; he wanted the subordinates first.
The Magus screamed, a wave of Warp-fire erupting from its staff, which Gerhard took dead-on.
[Psionic Mana Shield]
[MP: 1100/1248]
[Absorbed damage converted to MP: +85]
The shield rippled, feeding off the Magus's use of the Warp. Gerhard closed the gap using massive strides. The Primus lunged with its own Bonesword, aiming for one of the large breaches in Gerhard's armour.
Gerhard didn't parry, though. He let the blade sink into the polymorphic alloy, trapping it with one arm, took out the assault cannon and then brought it point-blank against the Primus's stomach.
BRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTT—!
The Primus was shredded into a fine purple mist that coated the Magus, who reacted, creating a Warp shield of his own.
[Primus defeated]
[+219,222 EXP]
Gerhard spun around. The Bonesword in hand as he coated it with Psychokinesis, adding more piercing power to it and cutting through the Warp shield. With another step, Gerhard sliced the dizzy Magus, who suffered a psychic backlash, in half.
[Magus defeated]
[+380,282 EXP]
But the cost was high.
The Patriarch, seeing its brood-coven slaughtered, went into a frenzy. It used its highest speed and struck Gerhard from behind. Its claws tore the entire back plate and the left shoulder pauldron of the MK 1.2 suit off, and struck Gerhard once more.
HP: -550
> DURABILITY: 0% - SUIT FAILURE, MASTER.
Gerhard was smashed to the ground, and pieces of metallic silver alloy clattered across the ground. He was exposed. His suit was a ruin of sparking wires and crooked metal.
The Patriarch loomed over him, its claws already pulled back and about to strike again.
Gerhard acted as fast as he could, using Psychokinesis and Telekinesis both, to trip the monster slightly, making it lose its balance and snarl with rage so hot it could have burned the sun.
But it had been enough time.
Gerhard had ripped out Hans' core and thrown it into his inventory, along with the rest of the suit's remains, which vanished, leaving Gerhard in his basic gamer clothes.
He was heaving.
'You die!'
The Patriarch hissed, a sound triumph, and swung its claws through the air, for that final and permanent death.
FLASH.
One second, the Patriarch lunged at Gerhard; the next, it struck empty air. He was gone. The monster and leader of the entire Genestealer Cult on this planet, the most powerful creature in the Underhive... was confused as it stood on an empty, but very bloody remains of a battlefield.
SWING--!
A Bonesword's sharp edge caught the Patriarch's thick, armoured neck. Cutting through the outer chitin armour, through the powerful muscles and bones... finding the spine and cleaving through it.
...
THUD
The Patriarch's massive head hit the floor with a wet sound. Its body stood upright for a second longer, twitching, before collapsing like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
[Genestealer Patriarch Defeated]
[+938,230 EXP]
[Level Up]
[Energy Drain Active]
[Health: 1158/1158]
Gerhard stood over the corpse, leaning on his sword. He looked at the severed head of the predator king and let out a long breath.
For a moment, silence fell over the cavern. Without the Patriarch, the primary synapse creature has been lost. Usually, depending on when that happens, the Cult members either go insane, realising that they were manipulated through the broodmind into becoming voluntary Tyranid snacks and not the 'Star Gods' chosen people'.
If it happened before the Cult revealed itself, a Purestrain Genestealer would undergo a hormonal transformation into the new 'synapse' creature and resume control.
Now in this case...
"AAAHHHHH... ahhh..."
"NOOOO..."
All around the Underhive battlefield, the now-disillusioned Genestealers descended into a crying and angry mess. The truth is that the humans weren't really doing this as willingly as it seemed. They were manipulated into believing that now that they were part of the Cult, they would be reawarded eventually, and their saviours would descend from the sky and come for them.
In an Imperium of Man doing everything it could to make life for its inhabitants a living hell, this was, of course, tempting. But the horrible truth is later on revealed.
You couldn't have anything good in this reality.
The remaining cultists descended into chaos, their minds shattered by the sudden realisation of what had happened. They started to fight against the other genestealer cultists, using whatever they had at hand and hacking into each other.
It was an even worse look than when they had fought as one unit. The terrible emotions they experienced at being used as slaves and manipulated, only to then realise what happened, had to be one of the worst things to experience.
Gerhard looked on for a moment, seeing cultists running past him, without even a second glance at times. They were filled with pain and anger, hating what they were and willingly killing each other.
A Genestealer Neophyte ran towards him. Interestingly, Gerhard's [Danger Sense] didn't go off. He still gripped the Bonesword, which was slowly regenerating, prepared for anything.
The former cultist threw itself on the ground in front of Gerhard, wailing.
"Please... kill me!"
"..."
He cried hard, making Gerhard glad that he had [Gamer's Mind] once more. The creature begged again.
"Pleeeeaaassseee... kill me. I beg you..."
Gerhard took out his Bolter Pistol...
BOOM--
...and shot the former cultist in the head, ending his suffering quickly. Gerhard was still human, and this situation was different from the Genestealers he had captured and experimented on. This one had been freed and was in terrible psychological pain. Gerhard could feel it. Killing him was as much mercy as he would ever muster in this galaxy, as harsh as that sounded.
He looked at the maddening sight of the broken battlefield and shook his head. He walked forward and started the cleansing, freeing these tortured souls from their suffering.
He also wasn't going to take any chances and allow a single Purestrain to go free. He looked at his minimap and used [Detect Presence] to keep an eye on such cases, going out of his way to hunt and kill them.
He also used the technique he had just developed. However, calling it a technique was not quite correct. It was more like cheating on the highest level.
What Gerhard did was use [Instant Dungeon - Create] and enter his time dilation dungeon of a 5:1 ratio. Then, he walked forward on the battlefield inside the dungeon to the rough spot where the enemy had been a second ago in the real world, used [Instant Dungeon - Escape], and appeared somewhere in front of or behind the enemy, killing him.
That's how he had killed the Patriarch. And it was bloody effective, too. The only thing he had to make sure of was that no one and nothing was touching him while he did it. Otherwise, that person or thing would accompany him inside the dungeon, and that wasn't a good thing, now was it?
Was it honourable?
PFFF... what a ridiculous notion.
And there was another bonus by Gerhard using this tactic. Since the time inside ran 5 times faster than outside, he also regenerated his health and Mana faster. So imagine this:
Gerhard disappeared for two seconds from the real world. The enemy is confused for one second, and maybe, depending on how powerful he or she or it is, it will take another second or a few more to look for Gerhard. However, those two seconds turned into 10 seconds for Gerhard, allowing him to regenerate 10 seconds' worth of Mana.
And he didn't need to use it only to ambush people. He could also simply dip from danger. Although there was another problem here, and that was whether he was inside the Warp.
Doing this inside the Warp was NOT a good idea. Creating a separate dimension in the Warp was like doing the same thing underwater. Sure, it was a separate dimension, but it was still underwater. There was still water inside the separate dungeon. Meaning, there could still spawn Warp denizens like before.
...
Not a great plan.
Gerhard guessed he would have to significantly raise his level in ID creation to eliminate that negative aspect. If it were even possible, but for him, as the Gamer, it should be possible.
.
.
Gerhard returned to his 'base' and entered an empty dungeon for now. He had finally ended the Genestealer Cult and, hopefully, if he was now lucky enough, prevented Hive Fleet Leviathan's arrival.
He would have to wait and see.
But he would also have to train and prepare again. Because if that happened, Gerhard had to go on a mad killing spree and kill as many Tyranids as he could. But for some reason, he didn't think that would happen.
Gerhard first pulled up his status window to have a look at what had changed.
------------------
|Name: Gerhard
|Class: The Gamer
|Level: LV39
|Title: The Grinder
------------------
|HP: 1343/1343
|MP: 1230/1230
------------------
STR: 47 (+12)
VIT: 50 (+12)
DEX: 40 (+12)
INT: 101 (+12)
WIS: 73
LUK: 20
------------------
|Points: 131
|Money: 0
------------------
Derived Stats:
MP Regen:
→ Passive: 476.10 / min
→ Active: 521.20 / min
→ Passive + Iron Will: 833.18 / min
→ Active + Iron Will: 912.10 / min
MP Cost:
→ 72% of normal
------------------
"You know, that's not a bad-looking status window. Considering I haven't spent a single point in STR, VIT and DEX."
...
"Right, Hans isn't here. I forgot how boring it can get when you're talking to yourself. Eh, it's not that bad."
The reason for this was that [Iron Will] and [Deep Breathing Energy Control] both levelled up.
Iron Will (Passive) Lv. 2
| EXP: 0.00%
| You will never stop, you will never give up. You would rather die than give in. There is no obstacle you can't climb. This skill activates as soon as either HP or MP drops below 50%.
Effects:
| +75% HP regeneration (only when HP drops below 50%)
| +75% MP regeneration (only when HP drops below 50%)
| +15 VIT (Permanent)
-
Deep Breathing Energy Control (Active/Passive) Lv.6
| MP: 20
| EXP: 0.00%
| A breathing technique that enhances physical performance through controlled respiration, by precise Mana control.
Effects:
+16% total HP (Passive)
+6% HP regeneration (Passive) -> +16% when active
+16% total MP (Passive)
+6% MP regeneration (Passive) -> 16% when active
Special Effects:
+12 STR (Active)
+12 VIT (Active)
+12 DEX (Active)
+12 INT (Active)
-
"Urgh, to think that this breathing technique is still an active skill. I'll have to change that before going against the Orks, that's for sure. Then there's the problem with Chaos... Yeah, I am in desperate need of training and more powerful weapons and armour."
Gerhard was correct. He divided the dangers of the Warhammer 40k reality into some very broad tiers. It helped him prepare mentally. His status looked rather impressive if he compared it to the lowest tiers, but he was constantly on the back foot against the Patriarch and for good reason.
He was about to spend all his points when he remembered that crucial cheating skill. And he was lucky that he did. Spending points before your stats in one area were not even 100 was a terrible waste. He could still train on his own, and if he was right, he should already be ready to handle most Ork Boyz, depending on which clan they belonged to.
But then again, saying that was not healthy or even a good idea. Orks might not look as impressive in terms of INT, WIS or DEX, but they were physical stat monsters. And their tech made them unpredictable.
So an Ork Boy might be in a similar tier to elite Imperial troops like Tempestus Scions, but their health, strength and vitality would be far above theirs. Ork Boyz most likely also had higher health, STR and VIT stats compared to Space Marines, despite Gerhard thinking that an Ork Boy would win against a regular Space Marine in a 1v1, like 80% of the time.
Again, it all depended on circumstances and chance. Theoretically, an Imperial Guard could kill a Space Marine if he got lucky or the Space Marine was arrogant. Or a bomb squig...
Yeah, all of this was useless to think about. Gerhard had to prepare more. Not necessarily level up, but in terms of his skills and stats.
"Alright, let's get Hans back in action."