When Vespinax launched his attack after finishing his speech, he unleashed a lightning attack that spread throughout the entire room. It would have required a significant amount of my energy to defend against, but there was a simpler solution. The attack only electrified things on the ground, so I jumped up, making myself as light as possible, I managed to stay in the air until the wave passed by. Luana was as brilliant as ever and defended everyone around her. After that, I quickly resumed my assault.

The boss we were fighting was absurdly difficult. It used one of its staffs to constantly create barriers that my sword couldn’t penetrate. If it hadn't been preoccupied with defending against me, I believe we would have lost the fight long ago. This battle was also starting to strain our resources. I considered using my core energy to finish him off quickly, but he was resilient. Given the speed of his healing, I wasn’t sure if it would make a difference.

The stalemate persisted until I realized how much mana he was spending every time he was doing something. "Luana, reduce your damage output but cast as many spells as possible. He'll need to continuously use his defenses. Arabella, multiply your arrows whenever possible; they don't need to be too powerful. He's running out of mana," I communicated to everyone.

We all adjusted our fighting styles accordingly. No longer large strong attack that took time to prepare landed on Vespinax. Now many ice small ice beams and a multitude of arrows constantly hit Vespinax's defenses and body. I continued to attack with my sword but also launched numerous energy knives, forcing the monster to defend or, even better, start healing himself again.

The effect wasn't immediate, but our resource expenditure decreased significantly, while his worsened. From his expression, I guessed he believed we might be running low, but for some reason, he didn't consider that he was the one depleting his reserves, not us. It took another half an hour before his first defensive spell was weak enough for me to break through. I inflicted a wound that he tried to heal, but he couldn't fully mend himself.

Then realization dawned on him. "Curse this slaver of mine. If my immortal soul was still connected to the prime hell, this would never have been a problem. Take care of my staffs," he instructed before charging at me, boosting himself with the last of his mana to maximize his strength.

However, it wasn't enough. My body might be smaller than his, but my muscles were incredibly powerful. From his comment, I ensured I didn't damage his staffs. After repelling his charge, I easily cut through him with my sword and continued to do so until I ended his life for the time being. He would likely respawn, and someone else might fall victim to him.

As expected, the staffs dropped immediately, like any other weapon, but they didn't vanish with his body like other weapons wielded by other monsters we have run into in this dungeon. What surprised me was that the boss also dropped another item, which was likely the intended drop for our group.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I sat down, having expended a significant amount of energy in the battle. But I wasn't the only one; Luana and even Adam had exerted themselves considerably. Fortunately, we had enough time for a brief recovery session.

In the meantime, we examined the loot we acquired. From what Luana and Adam told us, the staffs were extraordinary. One staff could hold ten spell weave patterns for attack spells, while the other could hold ten patterns for defensive or support spells. It was like having ten spell abilities from an achievement page, but with the flexibility to change them out to any spell as you required.

None of them had ever even heard of a staff so exceptional, but there seemed to be a limitation. Luana and Adam were certain that they couldn't channel spells that were beyond rank 2. Luana claimed the attack staff, and Adam took the defensive one. The third drop was a book that looked quite beautiful.

The book had intricate gold and dark red markings and a latch that held it together. Luana and Adam were unable to open it. They had hoped it was a spell book, but since they couldn't open it, the rules of loot meant that others would have a chance to test it out.

It didn't open for Horus and Arabella, but when I touched the book, I felt a connection to it through my soul. The book seemed to test me, and whatever it found, it was satisfied. I heard a click, and it opened. Luana and Adam rushed over, and I opened the book to find, written in large intricate letters on the first page, "Compendium of Spell Waves created by Vespinax, the Demon of the Prime Hell." Underneath was a description of the demon Vespinax and a brief history of his life.

"What kind of language is that? Can you read it, Rich?" Luana asked. I turned to see that they didn’t see what I saw, but some sort of illegible script. If I told them it was a spell book, they would definitely use their prime loot claim chances on it.

"It seems to be a history of the demon we defeated, written by him," I replied. My words visibly deflated both of them, and the excitement from the loot seemed to fade, replaced by the exhaustion from the fight. "It at least seems like an entertaining book, so I'll take this as my loot," I told Horus, who agreed.

I spent some time flipping through the book, which seemed to contain an endless array of different spells. However, I couldn't comprehend any of them. Understanding different spell waves is already a challenging task, and creating new ones is even more difficult.

Most mana casters specifically choose an adventurer's class that already possesses a variety of spell abilities, so they don't have to learn new ones. For those who do venture into learning, only the basic spell weaves are common. To acquire the rest, one either has to pay a hefty price or find someone to teach them, which can be worse than the upfront cost to just buy the spell weaves.

With this book, my nation should have access to a vast catalogue of different spell weaves. This will be immensely beneficial for us in the future. While I did feel a twinge of guilt for not being entirely truthful with the others, the safety of my nation is more important to me than losing a bit of possible favour with Luana and Adam.

I stored the book in my tattoo storage and began to meditate, preparing myself for the next floor. I also reflected on the recent battle, realizing the reason behind one of my most disliked tropes. I have always disliked it when enemies converse during fights without attacking each other. But now I know it allows both sides to recover from their previous actions, ensuring the battle doesn't devolve into a weak exchange of blows.

I could vividly imagine a scenario where two long-time rivals both just expended a lot of strength attacking or defending and then going straight back to fighting. However, this time, it would resemble two frail children trying to harm each other without causing any real damage.

Of course, they could choose not to converse during this recovery period, but why miss an opportunity to undermine their opponent or like in our recent battle, where the demon was keen to learn our names. I wonder whether he regretted not being able to eat us.