"No problem, I absorbed full elemental energy last time I came back from an adventure."
Bennett wiped his nose and smiled brightly, revealing his pearly white teeth.
People with Visions need to absorb Elemental Energy every time they use Elemental Burst. They can store it even if they don't use it, but they need to re-absorb it after every use.
"That's good then," Nolan said calmly.
Now there were two archers here, whether it was him or little Amy, it would be easy to deal with the obvious weaknesses of the Ruin Guards.
"Princess Fischl, Sir Oz, could you please attract the attention of the Ruin Guards later? I think I can take care of them quickly!"
Nolan did not suggest that he and Fischl use bows and arrows together to deal with the Ruin Guards.
Firstly, he hadn't seen Fischl take out her bow and arrow yet, so it would be a bit awkward to show that he knew.
Secondly, she could concentrate elemental power on the arrows, and arrows with elemental power attached could more easily destroy the core of the Ruin Guards. Fischl might make it so there was nothing for him and Bennett to do.
For Nolan, compared to treasure chests, he wanted the Adventure EXP from defeating strong enemies more.
"Hmph, fair enough." Fischl closed her eyes and arrogantly raised her head, her snowy white neck was as graceful as a swan, and she said in a soft tone as her moist lips opened and closed lightly, "As the Princess who severs sin, how can I casually make a move? Then I shall leave the enemies to you, my servants!"
"Thank you for your grace, Princess." Nolan played along with her.
"What do you need me to do?"
Bennett habitually put his hand behind his head.
"Bennett, just stay where you are and uh...release your elemental burst," Nolan said with a slight smile.
Bennett used a one-handed sword, so it was still best not to get too close to prevent accidents.
In fact, with Pyro-infused shots, he may not need Bennett's help, but Pyro shots required Mora, and Bennett's elemental burst was free and he could quickly absorb full elemental energy.
"No problem, leave it to me!"
Bennett clenched his fist as if to pump himself up and said.
The battle-hardened Bennett also knew that using bows and arrows was the best way to deal with Ruin Guards, combined with his elemental burst it would indeed easily take care of them.
The premise was that Nolan's archery was accurate enough.
"Oz!"
Seeing that everyone had discussed, Fischl called out to the night raven.
"Understood, Miss."
Oz responded tacitly. He flapped his wings of night and flew towards the Ruin Guards under the large pit.
The Ruin Guards were in standby mode, their cores would be as hard as their steel bodies, making it very difficult to directly attack the core while they were on standby unless their bodies were damaged.
As the night raven Oz approached the Ruin Guards, as expected, one by one the Ruin Guards were awakened.
The rusty steel bodies made mechanical noises as they stood up in the dim environment. Seeing this, Nolan took the Adventurer's Hunting Bow from his back as well as an Armor Piercing Arrow.
"Burn it up!"
Seeing this situation, Bennett shouted and did a backflip on the spot, landing with one foot on the ground and directly releasing his elemental burst.
A crimson domain Like Inspiration Field generated on the ground, enveloping all three of them. Nolan only felt a kind of fiery power empowering him.
Even the Steel Armor-Piercing Arrow gave off a faint red glow, unfortunately, it did not gain any Pyro Element.
It seems that the current Bennett has not grown to the extent in the game where his "Fantastic Voyage" can imbue elemental power to other people's weapons. But even if he could, it seems to have no effect on bows and arrows.
That is unique to melee weapons.
Of course, Nolan believed this was just because his strength or comprehension was insufficient. When he becomes stronger, his arrows would probably also be imbuable.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"Oh, such might, not bad, as expected of the right and left hands of this princess!"
Fischl also felt the empowerment from Bennett's elemental burst "Fantastic Voyage", and upgraded their assigned roles to her right and left hands from servants.
At this moment, the core of the first activated Ruin Guard lit up completely.
A circle of golden light dispelled the dimness of the environment. Judging by this momentum, it was much more impressive than the five units outside the Thousand Winds Temple.
"Boom!"
The faint red Armor-Piercing Arrow left the bowstring, turning into a shallow stream of light. Like a ray of light ignoring gravity and wind resistance, it shot straight toward the Ruin Guard.
Nolan, who had the 2nd Level's Fuvonius Archery's Fundamentals and the 3rd Level's Hunter's Archery, basically wouldn't miss against these slow and clumsy fellows.
And with the decent 2-star weapon, the Adventurer's Bow, plus the buff from "Fantastic Voyage", he only needed to hit the core once to paralyze the Ruin Guard.
The faint red arrow collided with the golden core.
With a sound like breaking glass, ~Crack~ Crack ~Crack~, golden electricity flashed across the Ruin Guard's body. This was due to the destroyed core causing a short circuit.
As one was paralyzed, another activated right after, and was promptly met with the faint red arrow.
With another buzzing of electricity, the Ruin Guard was shot down before it could fully stand up. Nolan was much more relaxed in dealing with them compared to last time.
At the same time, he also noticed that the intricate sealing spell on the exquisite treasure chest was already half lit up.
It seemed that the method to unlock the chest was indeed by defeating enemies.
Before Bennett's short elemental burst duration ended, he took down and paralyzed the two subsequent Ruin Guards that activated one by one.
[+642 Adventure EXP]
[+601 Adventure EXP]
[+655 Adventure EXP]
[+633 Adventure EXP]
Nolan suddenly gained a lot of adventure experience. Looking at the adventure EXP provided by each, they seemed much stronger than the ones outside the Thousand Winds Temple.
[Adventure EXP: 2651]
Plus the original 120 adventure EXP left, Nolan now had over two thousand adventure EXP reserved.
He could level up again.
In this secret realm, according to what the Adventurers' Guild had said after investigating, most of the dangers that existed were the Ruin Guards.
So with over two thousand adventure EXP, leveling up would only increase two levels. That wouldn't help much against the steel ruins guards. Instead, investing everything into archery could raise it to a high level in one go.
That way, even without Bennett's help, he might be able to take out common Ruin Guards with one arrow.
Thinking of this, Nolan hesitated no more. He continuously invested in the high-level "Hunter's Archery (0/300)":
[Lv.4 (0/400)]
[Lv.8 (0/800)]
Investing a total of 2500 adventure EXP barely brought it to Level 8, still 2 levels away from maxing out and reaching the "Master"(extraordinary) level.
Countless experiences regarding archery and "Hunter's Archery" appeared in his mind, as if having practiced it for many years to the point of becoming instinctive.
With his current Level 8 "Hunter's Archery", as expected he would be much stronger than Draff who had been immersed here for years. Calling him a master archer would not be unreasonable.
Using "Hunter's Archery" would make him more powerful, discreet, and stealthy.
(End of Chapter)