Etia cast his [Fireball] and it flew away from his wand and into the large mass of Giant's Tears, it exploded, killing a few at the center and leaving those at the outer perimeter. He readied his wand again, though this time he took a step backward so that a nearby [Archer] could step in and fire his arrows, he let go of the string and the taut line relaxed, taking the arrow its bow was primed with and sending it to the eye of an insect to their left. That had been a lucky shot, Etia knew that much.

Calling up the mana dwelling within the cave, Etia cast another [Fireball] and threw it at another mass of insects, it exploded and took a number of them out. They couldn't dodge it even if they tried, the spell was simply designed that way and that's precisely why Etia picked it over something like [Bolt] because despite [Fireball]'s cost in mana as well as its rather steep slope of mastery, it was a simply superior starter spell. Every single [Mage] who knew their weight knew that much.

And yet... Etia tilted his head slightly, just enough that he can eye Jacob without making it obvious. He watched in barely contained envy as the plane shifter threw one powerful [Bolt] after another while seemingly unconcerned for his mana pool at all. He was throwing out the spell as if it was water and it was starting to affect the tide of battle because it wasn't enough that his [Bolt]s were numerous, no- it had to take out the insects in one shot and in a few lucky cases, even manage to pierce through one and into another, literally killing two birds with one spell.

Or insect, in this case.

The other mages were doing their best to hide it, but Etia can tell, they all feel the same way towards Jacob. And Etia couldn't blame them, the man- no teen is an actual monster despite his age. If there's a list of reasons why the other mages would feel envy, then the fact that he's so young and yet, he's already so powerful.

And with that power, he was able to turn what was supposed to be a Dungeon guardian battle into nothing more than a simple floor fight.

Everyone stopped fighting once the last of the Giant's Tears was stabbed by some no-named warrior carrying a spear. Etia stood upright and noted that he didn't feel tired nor exhausted, and of course, because they didn't have to fight the Stone Feeder, it extended to everyone else as well. Carefully, Etia stepped away from Jacob and eyed the quartet of knights meant to lead the dive, they didn't seem to have a cohesive reaction and looked content to stare at Jacob as he kicked the corpse of a Giant's Tear.

Then without hesitation, he shot a [Bolt] straight through its skull. He turned and faced Etia, "It was still alive, burnt. Though."

The Acolyte nodded. "I see."

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Jacob walked away from the corpse of the Giant's Tear with the knowledge that all he needed was three amp to fuel his [Sharp-Bolt]s and the insect's armor would cave in. It seems that the Piercing upgrade for the spell was more literal than he thought. He thinks that the upgrade was also the one responsible for killing the Stone Feeder in one shot and from everyone's reaction, that thing was a pretty big deal and since he killed it in one spell, it was safe to assume that this Dungeon is gonna be easier than he expected.

It felt like a sick joke really, [Sharp-Bolt] seemed like its way too perfect for this Dungeon full of armored insects.

"So, the Stone Feeder seemed nice." He said, trying to loosen the tension in the air.

"You killed it in one spell." Says one of the knights after a sharp intake of breath, "How?" He threw his flaming sword downwards and turned it off. The fires died and the surroundings considerably darkened.

"[Sharp-Bolt]." He answered, thinking that it was better to be honest rather than let suspicions form. He chuckled, "Honestly, it feels like it's perfectly tailored for this Dungeon, with it being full of armored insects."

The knight nodded, "You're probably right." He faced the other divers, "Protect him if he is low on mana, the Dungeon's full of them so expect that he's gonna recover fast. You're gonna go back to the fight once you do though, right?"

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Jacob nodded, "I will, yeah." Not that he needed to worry about running out of amp, whatever effect the Dungeon has, it regenerated his reserves so fast that he didn't feel threatened throughout the entire fight earlier.

The formation went back to the way it was and Jacob walked to the center of the warriors and melee's again. This time, the rest of the other ranged divers allowed him to move to the front of their group, Jacob did so, it was easier to kill more monsters that way, and wouldn't he just love to wipe them out? Killing increases his levels after all.

When they first went inside the Dungeon- actually no, it was a whole lot earlier than that, and it was when Jacob first realized the ancient door is a Dungeon; back then, he wondered if it had levels and if so, then how did the "Divers" go down? That question got answered when he and his team reached the endpoint of the floor they were on and in front of them is another set of stairs that they'd have to descend to reach the second floor, there are 5 of these in total, and at the very bottom is the supposed boss of the place- A giant crab with venomous tentacles on its back.

Floor two had nothing but Giant's Tears and from what Jacob can see, they came in two types: One is the regular, tear-shaped thing without holes on the hump on its back and the other is the complete opposite, a Giant's Tear that have these trypophobia inducing set of holes on the front end of their hump, it dripped with clear blue liquid and Jacob can roughly guess what they spit out.

And one of the knights thankfully gave him information on the danger they pose, "Be careful of the ones with the holes in their humps," He said, pointedly looking at Jacob, "I don't know if you encountered them or not but once a hive of Giant's Tears in the wild get big enough, you can see variants like these popping up, there's gonna be another one in the fourth floor, something tanky- but I don't think you need to worry about those." A gauntleted hand pointed to the ones with the holes. "These ones though, spit out thick, sticky honey that'll immobilize you."

"And don't lick it. It'll burn your tongue." Says another knight to a round of laughter.

"I won't..." Jacob idly trailed off. He hadn't thought about licking the fluids coming out of the insects though, now that he knows its honey...

"Seriously, don't." Jacob only nodded at the knight's words.

Raising his hand, Jacob prepared his spell, "How do you do that by the way?" The half-ling's voice came again and Jacob faced her and had another urge to treat her like a kid.

He was prepared for it this time and turned his smile soft instead of condescending and his answer calm instead of tolerated impatience, "I... don't know what you're talking about?" Though that didn't mean that he couldn't sound confused while answering. Or have a confused answer for that matter, "This is just how I was taught?" He added unhelpfully.

"I... see." Says the half-ling, "Your parents must've been either super rich to afford a channeler or they're a powerful channeler themselves."

"The former, definitely." Jacob turned to Etia, "Right?"

"Yes." He agreed to put the conversation to rest. He heard the half-ling ask about how rich he is and her shocked gasp once Etia explained to her that Jacob's family owned islands also didn't go unnoticed.

"They're starting to move, cut the talks." One of the knights kindly mentioned and that got Jacob and the rest to be on alert, they all looked to the walls and observed as the various insects started skittering down from it, they spilled into the floor in a mass of honey and chitin and in response, the knights raised their fiery swords high and waited for the army to come to their defensive formation.

"Ready!-" The Knight at the front twisted the hold of his sword- "-They're here!" -And swung down to the first of the insects to come to him. He slashed and tore through the mass, killing a bunch of insects quite easily, his three other teammates moved to his side and did the same. The Quartet turned themselves into a wall of metal and fire that the insects can't do anything against other than die.

Meanwhile, the other melee divers waited with their leather armor and regular steel weapons at the back, if any of the insects came then they'd kill them with ease thanks to the support of both the knights to their front keeping the horde at bay as well as the casters and rangers at the back, who are peppering the insects with arrows, stones, and spells.

When the horde got wiped out, everyone breathed a sigh of collective relief and most of the warriors sat down to take a bit of rest. The Knights didn't fare any better and they took off their helmets for air and then proceeded to the nearest wall to rest their backs.

"Anyone need anything?" One of the rangers asked with a tired voice as she took out a small backpack full of potions, "Mana? Health? Food?" She looked around.

"I can use to eat something." Jacob decided to say because no one seemed interested.

"Ah- sure." She gave him a soft smile and took out bits of jerky out from her bag, "here."

Jacob walked over to her slowly, all the while making sure that he didn't step on anyone who was lying down. He took it and bit while the woman watched with a pained expression, "It's good." He said, "But I can give them back to you if you want?.."

"You know you can say that you don't like it, right?" Someone behind him asked and Jacob turned to see everyone sitting on the floor, recovering. The speaker wasn't obvious among the crowd.

"She looked like she- Nevermind." Jacob ate an entire piece, "I'll take it, thanks."

The ranger nodded, "You're welcome! But... aren't you tired? You can take a seat and rest. Casting spells can be pretty taxing."

Jacob waved her off, "I'm fine,"

"Right." She said, looking down.