One must question the use that so-called ‘precious metals’ have when they can be found spilling out of dungeons as water does from a spring. However only the uninformed would dare to pose such a foolish query. If the metals didn’t have some kind of value, why would every being alive value them?
The value of the metals lie in their unique mana conductivity. Copper is the weakest, followed by silver, then gold, then platinum, then mithril. The metals are valuable due to their ability to channel mana of all types regardless of affinity as well as for their ability to hold enchantments. Thus the coins have value regardless of whether they bear the enchanted mark of a country. And they are especially useful when one needs a sacrificial component for a complex spell.
* An excerpt from ‘The Basics of Money’ by Royal Treasurer Duke Marnix
Ava’s Own POV
The Wyrm began to slowly crawl out from its resting place. Revealing its true size and flaring its aura in an attempt of intimidation. The monster was 34 feet long from the tip of its tail to the end of its snout. By simple Wyrm biology it could be deduced that its wingspan would be slightly longer than its body length, somewhere between 40 and 50 feet. The fact that such a ginormous creature could compact itself into such a small space made Ava think of it like a cat, bringing a small smile to her face.
Her smile quickly disappeared after she saw the dual row of spikes lining its spine from the base of its skull to the tip of its tail. The presence of those spines meant one thing, True Scale. All Wyrms would inherit from their draconic bloodline a single one of a real dragon’s traits. This could range from the dragon’s eyes that could perfectly read mana flows to the dragon’s breath weapons which were more dangerous than any spell.
A Wyrm that inherited the scales of its blood, also known as a True Scale, would be impervious to any attack with a lower mana quality than its aura. The problem was that the Wyrm was higher level than us. Not only that, but its aura was stronger than even my Superior 0 spells which meant it likely had several Superior skills with levels in them. We wouldn’t be able to hurt this beast without some kind of specialized spell.
“Jay did your father ever teach you the Wyrmfall Array?” Ava asks, making sure that her voice is just loud enough to be heard through party chat while also keeping her eyes locked onto the Wyrm.
“He didn’t teach it to me, but I have stolen his grimoire multiple times so I do know it.” Jay responds, also keeping his voice down and his eyes locked on the monster.
“Well then get ready to cast it, there’s no other way we’re killing something like that.” Ava says.
“You do know that Wyrmfall requires sacrificial components right?” Jay says, his voice gaining a slight pitch of urgency as the monster is already almost done crawling out of its hole.
She quickly opened up her interface and used the special system features granted by the dungeon to transfer some of her money to Jay. Watching with the monstrous Wyrm the entire time for any aggressive movements.
“There’s twenty platinum, just do it!” Ava said in a whisper-yell, doing her best not to alert the boss.
Jay made a slight choking sound and his eyes went wide at the mere thought of using twenty platinum on a single spell. Twenty platinum was 200,000 silver pieces, it was enough money to sustain a family of six for over twenty years. Jay could hardly believe that his companion was able to throw away that kind of money even if she was a noble, the only thing he could believe less was the fact that he was about to throw away the money.
“Fine! I’m not even going to ask where you got this!” Jay responded with his own whisper-yell, pulling the money out of his inventory and starting to arrange it around himself.
The Wyrm’s focus shifted. Before it had been slowly, almost thematically, crawling out of its resting place. Gold and gems spilling out from around its body. Now however, its eyes locked onto Jay. The feeling of mana being manipulated and the sight of twenty shiny coins of the second highest value made it completely forget about its orders of how to start a boss fight.
The Wyrm had been told that it should allow the adventurers to initiate combat unless it caught them trying to ‘exploit the mechanic’. It decided then and there that a magical array that would sacrifice twenty precious coins definitely constituted as such. The Wyrm cared little if they wished to drink potions, recover mana, or prepare spells, but it refused to let them destroy innocent coins.
The Wyrm opened its maw and released a deafening roar from its place on the side of the wall. It infused the roar with its mana causing the sound to create a shockwave that would destroy their formation. Unfortunately for the oversized lizard, Ava’s Own was prepared and their two tanks used their shields and defensive skills to block the opening attack.
The Wyrm was annoyed that its roar had no effect and became enraged when it saw that it hadn’t even stopped the blue robed one from casting its spell. It flared its wings outwards and dived off of the side of the wall, swooping towards the adventures below.
Ava felt the ambient Wyld mana lowering and noticed a slight glow in the monster's throat.
“BREATH WEAPON!” She shouted, immediately using Dual Cast to simultaneously cast her best defensive spell along with a Wyld resistance spell that would help reduce the effects of the Wyld-based breath weapon regardless of its actual effect.
The Wyrm inhaled deeply and breathed out its fury as it flew over the adventurers formation. A blast of green energy that quickly turned into a thick gas was spewed out of its throat and onto the adventurers below. The gas spread out around them sticking to the inside of their throats and lungs and burning them with its caustic poison.
The green glow of Ava’s spells actively fought against the foreign substance, cleansing her teammates of its effects. Jay was forced to halt the casting of his array and use air magic to disperse the poisonous gas before it could overpower Ava’s protections.
“When we get out of this, remind me to get some air magic lessons!” Lia said as she finished coughing out the remnants of the breath attack from her lungs. Jay was the only one with any air element training in their party due to its necessity in the Blizzard affinity.
“We need to make it out of this first! Jay back to that array; it's our only chance at winning! Z, do what you can but hold back your strength, your attacks won’t do much anyways. The rest of us need to form up and make sure Jay can finish casting. Hal, If it uses its breath again stop it with Earth Dome. Lia, remember that Cleansing Light can be used on both people and their surroundings.” Ava rapidly shouts out orders and reminds Lia that she has a way to clear the air, even if it's mana intensive.
“Focus on defense and reserving strength. Remember that none of the level 40+ parties that came down here have succeeded yet, there’s more to this boss than just this.” She warns her party as she finishes her orders.
The Wyrm twisted around in the air, bellowing a roar of annoyance at the lack of effect his breath had. He quickly swooped back towards the adventurers while they were still repositioning themselves. He expertly aimed for the lone one clad in black, his claws ready to shred the human to pieces.
Z watched carefully as the Wyrm approached him. He had noticed the moment that the monster chose him as its target. He readied himself to dodge at the last possible moment in order to insure the Wyrm committed to the attack. He closed his eyes and let his skill guide him, using his high perception to determine the exact moment he would need to dodge.
He could hear the Wyrm getting closer. His muscles tensed and his body moved on instinct. If he had had his eyes open Z would’ve seen the razor sharp claws of the Wyrm pass less than inch from his chest. The moment he dodged Z exploited the Wyrm's commitment by slashing both of his blades across the back of the monster's heels.
The loud clanging sound of metal striking metal rang out. His blades had failed to pierce the scales of the Wyrm, not even leaving the barest of marks on its hide. Unfortunately for the Wyrm the blow still had considerable force behind it. Enough force to send its forelimbs crashing forwards and foiling its plan of attacking with its rear legs.
The Wyrm was forced to land to regain its balance and everyone knew that it wouldn’t be able to take flight again so long as it couldn’t charge its wings with more mana. The moment the Wyrm landed the three melee fighters of Ava’s Own closed on it.
Hal and Lia advanced in front of it, keeping themselves between the dangerous jaws of the monster and their caster companions. Z closed in from behind doing everything in his power to disrupt the boss's focus so that it couldn’t ready any more abilities. The three fighters did their best to simply bludgeon the boss, hoping that the force of their attacks would make it past the scales and deal some damage. However the Wyrm’s regeneration was superb thanks to its wyld affinity and it could regenerate any damage that made it past its hide.
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Luckily for Ava’s Own, time was on their side. So long as they could delay the monster long enough for Jay’s array to finish they would be able to kill it. An array was a special type of spell that required far more complex components and incredibly elaborate spell circles. This meant that arrays required far more casting time than what was reasonable for a combat spell and that they required the mage to bring special (and often costly) components with them as well. That being said, the tradeoff for the time and expense was power. More power than a mage could normally conjure.
An array's strength was based solely off of the ambient mana quality and the components sacrificed in its casting. By sacrificing twenty platinum coins and casting the spell inside a dungeon the array would enhance Jay’s casting to the point of being a low one star attack (roughly level 110-130). The spell would be especially effective due to being the Wyrmfall array, which was specially designed to take down Wyrms with True Scale.
The Wyrm could sense the growing power of the spell that Jay was casting. Knowing that it couldn’t allow the stalemate to last It began to struggle harder. Utilizing its innate wyld affinity to enhance its body beyond its limits. Due to Wyrms being attuned with a single element they’re limited in what magic they can use, the benefit however is that they never suffer from overstraining or mana poisoning. Their bodies are perfect conductors of their own mana and are able to channel their naturally large mana pools without any stress. Thanks to this a Wyrm can use mana to enhance its own body without limit or consequence provided that it uses only its own mana to do so.
Every member of Ava’s Own could tell that the Wyrm had started overcharging its body. Blows that Hal and Lia could stop before were suddenly strong enough to knock them backwards. Tailswipes that were once easy for Z to dodge suddenly tripled in speed forcing him on the defensive. The Boss had become at least twice as powerful physically and it was proving difficult to stop him.
Fortunately for Ava’s Own the boss’s newfound strength wouldn’t last. Even if there would be no side effects for boosting itself the Wyrm still had a limited mana pool. A pool that it was rapidly burning through in order to boost itself by such an extreme amount. The adventurers knew that if they could delay the beast long enough it would run out of mana and be easy prey. Without mana to fuel its aura the True Scale would have no effect.
It was once again a race against time. If the Wyrm could stop Jay before it ran out of mana then it would be able to decimate the humans. If it failed then it would be easy prey for their spell.
The Wyrm lashed its tail furiously, using a small portion of its focus to keep Z from hindering its movements. Even if it was immune to their blades and could regenerate through anything that did make it though its scales, the Wyrm could still be slowed down and shoved around. Its considerable mass could be easily negated by the right spells and skills.
With Z pushed back and unable to continue harassing its back, the Wyrm began methodically moving forwards. It had tried recklessly charging before, but both Lia and Hal had skills that could not only negate his momentum but also reverse it back on him. Having learned from that mistake this time it made sure to carefully plant each limb on the ground while using its jaws and wings to harass the adventurers.
Hal and Lia both knew that they were in trouble. With its massively increased strength the Wyrm didn’t even need to bite them anymore. A simple swing of its head and neck carried enough force to toss them backwards and break their bones. The boss’s wings were also now kicking up enough wind to drown out any other sound and force them to squint their eyes, hindering their perception of the surroundings.
Their strategy of simply stopping its advance with their shield skills was no longer viable. The Wyrm no longer focused on dealing damage and instead just tried to knock them out of position. They could use a skill that would let them stand their ground and negate the knockback, but that skill would also root them to their position making it easy for the Wyrm to get past them before they could move again. This meant that they were forced to constantly cede ground to the boss allowing it to slowly move forwards to Jay’s position.
The Wyrm was gaining ground, its strength slowly overwhelming Jay and Lia. Ava desperately scanned the boss room for anything that they could use to further stall the Wyrm. Her gaze panned over the various alcoves, searching each of them for some kind of item or weapon that could help them. Her eyes gleamed and a smile crossed her face as she finally saw a path towards victory.
“Hal, how high is your metal manipulation?” Ava asked, having not checked with him since the start of their dive.
“It’s at Superior 4, but I don’t see how that matters. We didn’t bring enough metal to do anything because my skill was so low!” Hal shouted in response as he was forced to dodge another flap of the monster's wings.
“Lia, use your best restriction skill to lock down its movements! Hal, get ready to encase everything but its head in metal!” Ava ordered as she called on her magic, sending dozens of vines into the ground.
“WITH WHAT METAL?!”
Ava’s vines crawled their way into the alcoves above and around the Wyrm, making large loops that started pushing on the piles of treasure. Thousands of coins began to rain down on and around the Wyrm creating huge piles on the floor of the boss room.
“Oh, that metal.”
Hal immediately sent his mana into the massive piles of metallic coins. Due to the highly mana conductive nature of the metals used as currency, the coins rapidly sucked up his mana like a desert sucks up water. He used the power of his metal manipulation skill to help guide his mana slowly taking control over the pile of once inert money.
Lia activated her best restriction spell Chains of Light (Superior 0) was a powerful spell that was quite accurate to its name. At Superior 0 the spell created a dozen chains made out of hard-light that would wrap around the target before creating more hard-light constructs to connect itself to the other chains, further restricting the target. The spell took 15% of her entire mana pool to cast and it had a long cooldown due to the strain it would place on her.
The Wyrm roared and trashed violently as Lia’s spell took effect. The chains wrapped around the monster’s body and slowly restricted its movement. Even with it being Lia’s strongest restriction spell the Wyrm still managed to break half of the chains before its limbs were restrained enough to stop it. Despite the limits to its movement the boss still struggled the entire time, knowing that it could wear down Lia’s concentration and eventually break her spell.
Hal struck the moment that the Wyrm was fully trapped by the glowing chains of light. The massive piles of money and treasure had soaked up so much of his mana that he could move them as easily as his own limbs. With a flex of his Metal Manipulation skill and the use of enough mana to maintain his connection, Hal began to slowly wrap layer upon layer of metal around the boss.
By the time that Lia’s spell broke the Wyrm was encased in a cocoon of heavy metal coins that had fused together into a solid mass. The desecration of his treasure horde sent the Wyrm into a frenzy, his anger great enough to overcome his desire to not destroy his own belongings. Unfortunately for the Wyrm his strength wasn’t enough. Every second Hal fused more coins onto the pile while the rest of his team either brought him more metal or channeled their mana into Jay to help with the array.
As the array drew closer to completion the Wyrm tossed all caution to the wind and started charging itself with as much mana as it had left. It started growing in size and began to claw and bite away the layers of metal trapping it. The screeching of tearing metal and the sound of furious roars echoed out through the entire third floor of the dungeon.
“Wyrmfall!” Jay shouted in triumph as his array was finally complete.
The twenty platinum coins instantly melted and fused together into a large and complex magical circle. A circle that absorbed all of the mana he and his party had been channeling. The mana began to gather together and mix with ambient mana from the dungeon that the circle was also absorbing. All the mana was fused into the circle and was slowly transformed into higher quality levels of mana.
The moment that the quality of mana reached the one star level the circle flashed with the aqua color of pure mana. The glow was then slowly transformed into the swampy green color of scourge mana and the silvery shine of metal mana. The mana grew in intensity until it reached the point that the circle could no longer contain it, which triggered the activation condition to finally cast the spell.
In a flash all of the metal mana coalesced into a giant silver spike. As the spike materialized all of the scourge mana flowed into it, causing shimmering runes to appear across its surface. The instant that its creation finished the spike hurled itself at the exposed head of the Wyrm.
The sound of screeching metal and furious roars was silenced by the deafening boom of the sound barrier breaking. An explosion of blood coated the walls around the boss. The spike had sheathed itself in its body, the base of the spike large enough that it completely obliterated its head. The scourge mana had been fully depleted just to counter the monster's True Scale, but the end result had been catastrophic for the Wyrm.
The force of the impact had shattered the cocoon of treasure and knocked every member of Ava’s own backwards and into the walls.
“Is everyone ok?” Ava called out while checking the party interface.
Both the interface and the groans of her companions told her that they were fine. Five casts of Rejuvenate was all that was needed to slowly patch up any injuries. She forced everyone back into formation as they got up and handed Jay one of their only mana potions.
“Ava what’s this for? The fight’s over and we can’t afford to waste-” Jay’s complaints were cut off as a warm glow began to surround the Wyrm’s body.
“Don’t you guys remember what was on the door. That Wyrm was all green, which means. . .” She trailed off as the body began to float into the air.
The gentle glow turned deep purple and a flash of light completely blinded the adventurers for a short moment. Their eyes went wide the moment that their sight returned. The Wyrm had completely healed, not a single sign of injury anywhere on its body. However that observation took a back seat to the simple fact that the Wyrm was now covered in purple scales and its aura was now filled with aether mana.
The newly changed Wyrm opened its eyes and flared its wings the moment that the glow stopped. It released a deafening roar in a much higher pitch than before, almost to the point of being a screech. Everyone reflexively checked its tag.
[Wyrm of Duality] Level 40
Unchanged from before, it was the same monster in a new form.