James had already used a fire bolt and a water bolt on the skeleton, to little effect. He then tried an earth bolt, an ice bolt and a wind bolt as well, which were also met with failure.

The ice bolt did the most damage because it was basically a huge chunk of ice pulsing with mana, aching to freeze and shatter whatever it touched, the physical impact alone being devastating.

But it was just ever so slightly more effective than the other ones.

At this point the other monsters were pushing the skeleton forward. James made the corridors really narrow so only 1 monster at a time could pass through, but that didn’t make the huge line of monsters in front of him any less dangerous.

He needed time to think, he really didn’t expect his spells to have so little effect. But he didn’t have time, he was already dodging sword attacks that were almost chopping his ears off.

He didn’t have time for thoughts, so instincts had to take over.

And his instincts screamed at him that he needed more space. He was a mage, not a warrior for Christ’s sake. He shouldn’t be dodging swords.

James immediately began conjuring powerful winds, pouring as much mana as he could into them. Then he unleashed the winds onto the skeleton. The skeleton was being pushed back by the wind as if he was a tiny piece of paper, but there were too many monsters behind it. While several monsters lost their footing, many more were left standing, pushing back.

James was channeling the wind with so much effort that he was involuntarily flexing every muscle in his body as hard as he could. It felt like he was pushing a truck.

He was saving up his reserves of Darkness essence for his mana shield, but at this point offense really would be the best defense.

As soon as he imbued Darkness into the wind, he could feel the resistance weakening. After giving it one last push, all the monsters were knocked down.

But channeling wind continuously and using the Darkness as well consumed most of his mana. He quickly chugged down a mana potion, almost choking on it because of how frantic his movements were.

Although being the first person in history to die by drowning from a mana potion would be a great achievement, that wasn’t what James had in mind when he dreamt of greatness.

This wasn’t a victory yet, all he accomplished by knocking the monsters down was buy a few seconds of time.

He still didn’t have time to think, so operating fully on instinct, he used earth magic to envelop the monsters while they were still scrambling on the floor. He cast it several times, wrapping them in several layers of earth.

But that still wouldn’t do much, he needed to find a way to actually damage them, not just postpone the actual fighting.

Helios and Lunaris were watching and were quite impressed. For a level 15 to fight several level 30 monsters and control them for so long, that was already quite an achievement. Lunaris was finally convinced that not interfering was the right call, she had almost jumped in several times already.

They were going to help him if as soon as he asked for help, but if he didn’t, they wouldn’t interfere.

And James understood the importance of triumphing here on his own. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to face the greater threats that the future was bound to have. Also, training the slow and steady way didn't appeal to him at all.

Not only was he extremely impatient and wanted to level as much as possible as soon as possible, but could this world even afford a few years of him taking it slow? Everybody at Hedonia was too nice to put pressure on him, but he noticed the subtle signs.

The whole world is at war with the Darkness, and while they weren’t losing yet, they weren’t exactly winning either. If there’s even a 1% chance of him being able to influence the course of this war, he had to train as hard as possible.

James didn’t have time to think about any of this at the moment, but subconsciously he knew these things, providing him with a strong feeling of motivation. He even felt a sense of duty towards this amazing new world and his loving friends.

But as motivated as he was, his mind was drawing a blank. His instincts had no more answers, he needed to think. But his thoughts weren’t giving him any answers either.

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He felt a very odd and awful feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time. Here he was in this dungeon, in a magical universe far from Earth, and he felt just like he did when he was taking an exam and he didn’t know the answer.

His mind was going through dozens of thoughts per second, and yet all he could see was this empty test paper, with barely any time left to come up with an answer. And this time, writing down bullshit just for the sake of having filled the word count wasn’t going to work.

This is why Cadmus told him to focus on mastering something. James had focused on learning plenty of spells, he could now control almost any element and do things he could only dream of just weeks later. But he didn’t have a really strong spell, a finisher that could turn the tide.

There was only one thing left to do – go crazy with it. And that’s exactly what James did.

The monsters were already coming towards him, having escaped from their bindings.

Most of the monsters were skeletons, so he had to strike them with a lot of force. James started throwing ice bolts infused with darkness with no regard for his mana. He even deactivated his mana shield altogether, leaving himself vulnerable, but allowing him to use all his darkness offensively.

With one hand he threw ice bolts, and with the other hand he chugged down the mana potions.

Each individual ice bolt didn’t do that much damage, but the constant flurry was having an effect. He was like a human machine gun, he was desperate to succeed.

James’s arm was tired from the sheer motion of throwing the iceball. His mana channels felt strained from the overuse.

But he kept the onslaught going, not stopping for even a second, consuming potion after potion.

The damage finally started accumulating till even the level 30 monsters were dying one by one, but there were still more than half left. They were heavily damaged though. If only he could kill them now, he’d get so much xp.

“STOP! James, don’t do that!” Both Helios and Lunaris shouted as James was about to consume his sixth mana potion.

After consuming five potions in a single day, one would suffer from potion sickness. It wouldn’t kill you, but for a few hours you’d wish you were dead.

James knew he was doing something reckless, but he had to take care of these monsters all by himself.

James then quickly spent all the mana granted by the potion, finishing off the already badly damaged monsters with a final, desperate flurry of ice bolts.

[You have reached level 27]

Twelve whole levels! That’s a gargantuan amount of progress! A normal, sane person who didn't leap into danger would have to train for months to make so much progress! James was so happy, all the effort was definitely worth it.

Or so he thought, for about five seconds. He then began vomiting his guts out, becoming more of a geyser than a human.

“It’s all right mate, we’ll help you get through this.” Concerned, Helios picked James up and carried him outside of the dungeon.

“James, potion sickness doesn’t actually do any long-term damage, but for a few hours you’ll feel absolutely horrible. Just hang in there, we’ll help you in any way we can.” Lunaris was saddened to see her friend in that state, so she and Helios tried to make James as comfortable as possible.

They set up a campsite a few hundred feet away from the dungeon. After they made the campfire and rolled out the sleeping bags, it was actually quite the cozy scene. It would’ve looked like a quaint little picnic in the forest, if not for the dude dry heaving and convulsing.

Luckily, both Lunaris and Helios had spacious storage rings filled with all sorts of ingredients. Using their alchemy skills, they were able to prepare creams and ointments that would soothe the pain. Unfortunately they couldn’t give him any pills for the pain since they would just shoot out of him as if he were doing a cosplay of Old Faithful.

After a few hours of them doing anything they could think of to help, even singing songs to try and take his mind off the pain, James finally recovered.

“You’re a real nut, aren’t you?” Lunaris said with tearful eyes, but with a big smile, happy that James was finally feeling better.

“Bet you won’t do that again though.” Helios laughed so hard that he was slapping his knees.

“That’s for damn sure.” Although, now that the pain was a thing of the past, the twelve levels seemed worth the hell he had been through. Months of progress achieved in just one day, if he could keep this up he’d be a totally different person in the near future.

“Why didn’t you use Mana Drain instead of chugging the 6th potion though?” Lunaris asked innocently.

James went pale, his whole body frozen from embarrassment. He simply forgot! He was cringing at his own forgetfulness. It wasn't like in a game where your spells are displayed on your action bars, you had to actually remember the spells you had!

James didn't want to admit that he forgot to use Mana Drain, choosing to instead make himself sick for several hours. That would make him seem like a dumbass, and he’s not a dumbass, he’s just scatterbrained sometimes. Yep, James was convinced that scatterbrained and stupid were two very different things. Especially when there are skeletons double your level charging at you.

“Never mind that, I was wondering something. This is a sentient dungeon, right? Why didn’t it send more monsters to overwhelm us? Especially after I became sick and was thus vulnerable.” James asked.

“The dungeon core must be quite smart. It realized that we were there to train, so once it saw us standing back and letting you train, it probably decided to stop feeding you xp. It will be even more dangerous now, who knows what dangers lie ahead.” Lunaris answered.

“Does that mean I can’t train here anymore? Should we go back to Hedonia?”

“No way, that just means the reward will be so much greater! Sure, you probably won’t be able to kill mindless monsters like skeletons for xp, but the smarter and more powerful the dungeon core, the better the loot. And you’re now level 27! Combined with Mana Drain, you’ll be able to unleash a lot more spells now. ” Helios grinned.

James was excited again. They barely even entered the dungeon, and he already profited so much, twelve whole levels! It would definitely be worth facing the dangers ahead for this kind of reward. He just had to spend the night thinking of some spells that can really destroy monsters.