charm.
I learned it just before dinner but never used it yet.
I was not sure how effective it would be in a head on fight, especially against the undead that I faced rather frequently because undead don't rely on their visual senses to locate me.
Judging by how the hammer I kept in my pocket didn't return to its original size on each floor, I could try applying the disillusionment charm on myself before going to the next floor to be invisible upon entry already.
Maybe I can get the first hit for free this way unless the enemies have special means of detecting me.
Returning the hammer into my robe pocket and turning myself invisible I slowly walked towards the portal to floor 18, trying not to break the illusion while walking.
Using the disillusionment charm felt as natural as breathing and it was one of the few spells that had no verbal component, so that was another nonverbal spell to my growing list.
I was ready to cast Protego at a moment's notice but saw that I didn't need to, the enemies on floor 18 were a pair of goblin shamans who just looked around in confusion.
I took a silent step, letting my covert talent guide me as I instinctively knew how and when I should move to prevent the goblins from noticing me.
The disillusionment charm only bent the light around me, having a similar effect to a gecko blending into its surroundings, a keen and continuous observation would still detect me.
After moving out of their direct line of sight I cast a nonverbal Diffindo as my opening move.
My invisibility got canceled as soon as I launched the spell but that didn't alert the goblins as I was not within their line of sight anymore, they died without even knowing how as the slash took off both of their heads simultaneously.
This was more effective than expected.
Not wanting to become overconfident because of it, I still decided to have a shield ready to be cast at a moment's notice despite re-applying the disillusionment charm on myself as I walked towards floor 19.
I found myself face to face with a rather modern looking humanoid robot holding an assault rifle on floor 19. After looking back and forth in confusion for a few seconds its eyes spun and its head snapped to my location. It lifted its rifle and opened fire without hesitation, sending a hail of bullets at me.
I activated protego immediately when I noticed it aiming its rifle in my direction and started running before the first bullet even impacted my shield.
I knew I could not withstand a continuous barrage of bullets so I tried to dodge as many as I could while frantically pushing more magic into my Protego shield to repair the spreading cracks.
After what felt like an eternity the robot finally ran out of bullets and started reloading the rifle, which was my cue to start my counterattack.
It either was not programmed for dodging or did not register the stick in my hand as a threat, but the Expelliarmus hit home and flung the gun out of its hands.
I followed up with a Levioso and Incendio to set it on fire mid air.
After struggling for a few seconds the robot stopped moving and the portal to the 20th stage opened up, making me breath a sigh of relief.
This was another close call. Some bullets managed to actually get through my shield this time because they repeatedly hit the same spot and staying in motion was the only thing that saved me at that moment.
I knew that if I got hit by even one of those bullets I would have died regardless of where they hit me because I would lose concentration due to the pain and become unable to maintain the shield, which would allow the rest of the bullets to hit home.
I also noted down mentally that fire was quite effective against robots too. I assumed that was because it melted their sensitive internal components.
I wasn't quite out of breath after my brief run, but my heart rate definitely skyrocketed during the fight.
After calming down a little I finally registered the meaning of the portal at the center of this arena.
That was my ticket to 25 credits, whether I survived the next stage did not matter as long as I stepped through.
Not wanting to write myself off as dead yet I would face the next boss seriously regardless.
I wasn't keen on dying if I didn't have to, obviously.
My magic reserves were slightly below half again, but I didn't want to wait any longer.
I re-applied the disillusionment charm once again and got ready for the second "Boss".
Floor 20 was the same size as the previous boss floor but when I saw my enemy I paled considerably. That thing haunted more than one of my nightmares from when I was little and watched TV during hours I should have been asleep.
The damn Xenomorph naturally saw right through my invisibility with its heat vision and was halfway on top of me before I finally managed to hit it with a Levioso, sending it sailing right over me and parrying the tail swipe with a quick Protego, which shattered from the impact but managed to deflect the blow.
Unfortunately Xenomorphs are adept at moving in zero gravity environments and it used its tail for leverage by stabbing it into the ground to launch itself at me again.
It was not as fast as before however and I pushed it back away with a Depulso, making it leave a deep furrow in the floor where its tail scraped against it in an attempt to prevent itself from being moved forcefully.
One more Depulso and another Levioso had that damned thing flailing mid air at a height where not even its tail could find purchase anymore.
I immediately went on the offensive, but I refrained from using the cutting spell to avoid giving it long range ammunition in the form of its own highly acidic blood.
Instead I attacked its mind with a barrage of Stupefy. One definitely did not knock it out but after five it grew weaker in its flailing and by ten it just hung lifelessly in the air.
Unfortunately it didn't die from that as the portal had yet to form and I was wary that it was just pretending to be unconscious.
I switched to Petrificus Totalus, continuing to unload one spell after another until its entire body was covered by stone and my magic reserves started to dip below 20%.
Throwing out my hammer I enlarged it and positioned it before the Xenomorph.
Instead of simply letting it fall downwards, I applied a Levioso on the very end of its handle and cast a Flippendo at it, making it spin rapidly midair with the spot where I applied Levioso as its axis.
Casting one more Flippendo to speed it up even further until I was barely able to hold it, I finally let the madly spinning giant sledgehammer crash into the petrified Xenomorph.
The xenomorph shattered into thousands of stone fragments coated in acidic blood and I finally breathed a sigh of relief as the last of the pieces bounced off my hastily erected Protego shield.
There was no overkill when it concerns Xenomorphs, they were apex predators of a spacefaring age and deadly to an absurd degree.
The only reason I was still alive was because I managed to lift it into the air where it had no way of moving or attacking me as long as I stayed outside the reach of its tail and thankfully I took it down before it came to the idea of cutting itself up to fling its blood at me.
My earlier excitement at making it to floor 20 was somewhat dampened by having to face one of my childhood boogeymen, but I did not regret my choice, I survived and now I would be able to grow strong enough to take out an army of these things.
Well, eventually.
I had enough excitement for today and after shrinking the hammer back to normal size, cleaning off the blood with a spell and fixing the corroded parts I decided to leave the Bloody Palace without going through any more floors.
Sensing my intention to leave, the scenery disappeared and I found myself back in my room at the orphanage.
It was now completely dark outside, which meant that time continued on normally while I was in the Bloody Palace.
Something I'd have to consider for the next time.
Realising that the continuous throbbing pain in my chest finally disappeared, I checked my robes and hammer for the damage I inflicted on them and found both items completely restored, just like the bruise on my chest.
Sighing in relief at not having to fear the destruction of my wand during that particular mission I'll have less reservations about accepting this mission again if it shows up once more.
I put away both the robe and my hammer into the suitcase and laid down on my bed while claiming all rewards from today's mission.
Mission : Bloody Palace - Multiversal Edition
Progress : Complete - Repeatable
Objective 1: Defeat a foe for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 5 (Claimed)
Objective 2: Defeat every foe in a Floor for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 5 (Claimed)
Objective 3: Reach Floor 10.
Reward [ Credits ] : 10 (Claimed)
Objective 4: Defeat a Boss for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 10 (Claimed)
Objective 5: Reach Floor 20 without losing a Companion for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 25 (Claimed)
Objective 6: Reach Floor 20 alone for the first time.
Reward [ Companions ] : Tier 3 Ticket x1 (Claimed)
This brought my total credit balance to 62 Credits and one Tier 3 companion ticket that I had no intention of using yet. I briefly considered selling it, but the sale price of Tier 3 was just 4 credits, it would hardly make a difference.
Having a certain perk in mind that would alleviate some of my credit troubles, I browsed the company shop until I found it near the end of the list.
Contractor Interest (Cost: 50)
The purchase of this perk grants you an allotment of two credits every three days, provided your current credit balance does not exceed 25 credits. Attempts to abuse this system, and bypass this balance limit will be prevented and may result in payouts being frozen for increasingly long durations of time, depending on the severity of the attempted abuse. Allotments will also only occur if you are fully awake and cognizant the majority of the time each day.
This perk can be purchased up to three more times, with each purchase increasing the cap past which allotments are no longer paid out by 25. Each subsequent purchase of this perk costs an additional 50 credits. Allotments will cease to occur after a total amount of 2,500 credits have been issued.
Since I was just 13 years old now and the Hogwarts school would last for 5 more years, which I intend to attend and graduate from, this perk would provide me roughly 1200 credits over those 5 years as long as I made sure to use them up before they hit the balance limit.
It's certainly not a suitable perk for fast powerups, but for those patient enough to play the long game like myself , this was perfect.
Naturally there were things in the shop that cost way more than 25 credits, but I could just do another mission or capture and sell a couple of Death Eaters after hitting the balance limit.
I was fairly certain that the restrictions about bypassing the balance limit only applied to buying companions or perks to stockpile credits past the balance limit and then selling them again to cheat the system.
Getting the credits "the old fashioned way" should still be possible , otherwise there would be no way of purchasing that perk again if my credit balance was permanently fixed to an upper limit of 25.
The second purchase of this perk would cost 100 credits after all.
With my income secured, I decided to leave the other 12 credits unused for now.
In 12 days I'd have 20 credits to spend, which would provide much more options.
Having decided on a rough course of action I put away the phone and fell asleep in seconds thanks to "Time Savers".