Orrin’s mana recovered at an astronomical rate while using the regen potion. His [Meditate] skill let him recover one mana point a minute. While only sixty mana points regenerating over an hour seemed like a small amount, the majority of people in this world had to wait for sleep or use a mana potion to recover their used mana.
When he’d given a regen potion to Iona, she effectively learned to use [Meditate] for an hour. When Orrin drank his potion, it increased his mana growth from one point a minute to one point every second. That meant that over the next hour, Orrin would recover three thousand and six hundred points of mana. He would need to throw mana around with abandon if he was to make even a dent in his rapidly climbing mana bar.
As he rushed away from the group, he gauged how much mana was already filling his mana pool. His maximum mana was set at eleven hundred and the few hundred he had used throughout the day was rapidly refilling.
He summoned a [Fire Sword] and [Ice Sword] and went to work.
Orrin spent much of his time being cautious. He tested and theorized because if he didn’t do it, Daniel surely wouldn’t. He spent so much of his time worried about refilling his party’s [Wards], healing injuries, and buffing that he forgot the simple fact that he was using magic.
As Orrin approached the first set of three Anglers, he did something new. He let loose.
Orrin didn’t reduce their stats. He spun through the three targets using [Way of the Water], narrowly avoiding splatters of light magic and teeth alike. However, he never worried about getting hit. His own speed guaranteed the monster’s attacks were always a second behind. He sent blasts of [Gust] up through each sword, burning with each thrust and freezing with each slash. In short, Orrin had fun playing with his magic.
This is how Daniel feels when he fights up close with Gertrude. Orrin ducked under one of the floating fish, using its body to shield against the other two’s light spell attacks. All the adrenaline of a fight.
With his intelligence and will increased to the max, each spell cost next to nothing.
One of the Anglers backed away as Orrin summoned another [Fire Sword] to his hand.
“Oh no you don’t,” Orrin said and pointed the [Fire Sword] at the retreating monster.
Without thinking about it, Orrin used [Boost] on his [Gust] spell as he replayed his new trick of sending the air magic into the [Fire Sword]. His mana was nearly full in the under ten minutes it had taken him to find this group of monsters and dart about within their defenses. He threw a minute’s worth of mana into the [Boost] spell modifier.
[Boost] — (Spell Modifier) Modify a spell to perform additional effect based on MP
The spell didn’t increase the amount of fire magic that [Gust] was able to steal from [Fire Sword] before it disintegrated in Orrin’s hand. It did manage to launch the Angler threw the air in an arc. It landed hard on the ground a few hundred yards away and didn’t move.
Experience Gained: 500 XP
Level 19 Obtained!
+10 AP
Orrin laughed as he rushed the other two bags of experience waiting to die.
Experience Gained: 1,000 XP (500 x 2)
He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing heavily with the exertion of dodging the last desperate attempts of the Anglers to hurt him. Having watched Hamish and Sloane fighting close up with fish, he knew his feat of killing them three at a time by himself was impressive. It wasn’t something he was going to advertise, but he’d gained a level, improved his spell selection a bit, and gained some fighting experience. The thought of experience made him open his eyes and his Status box.
Orrin
Utility Warder Level 19 (1,418/10,000)
AP: 25
The entire fight had taken him only a few minutes, but he really didn’t have the time to spare for another fight. Orrin contemplated waiting to be the last one through the exit but simply not returning. He could stay here and farm Anglers until he hit diminishing returns. At 500 experience points a fish, that wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
Each additional fight of three to four fish would be 1,500 to 2,000 experience. In five more fights, he could hit twenty. Orrin would complete the Quest to hit level twenty. He was hoping his weird Administrator powers would let him take off this damn collar.
He pulled up his [Map] to find another group of three. Since Sloane wanted two for her and Hamish, Orrin planned to bring only one for Iona and Rhys. Neither of them was a front-line fighter, so Orrin would either need to control one with precision use of [Gust] or use his fighting style to distract the monster. He wasn’t ready to give that secret up yet.
The Anglers were piling up in larger groups closer to him. The school of fish must have some way to tell their numbers were being thinned out. Orrin settled on a group of four and used [Boost] and [Gust] to knock on far away. He kept the three moving in a zig-zag pattern around other groups until the fourth fish gave up chasing them and turned to join another cluster of monsters.
Pulling close to his party, Orrin saw Sloane and Rhys standing far apart. Each had their shadow posted next to them. He brought the three Anglers close to Sloane and let her hit two. Using [Gust], Orrin pushed the third toward Rhys and Iona.
Orrin watched Sloane step into the melee between the two fish, once again wondering what her class build was all about. She’d called herself an [Assimilator] but all Orrin had seen her do was hit with her stick. The hits did seem to pack more of a punch than his own sword attacks would without his strength buff. Orrin wasn’t sure what her level was, but either some magical hijinks were going on or she’d devoted too many points to her strength. Hamish spun his ax, leaving deep bleeding furrows wherever he attacked.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Rhys used his glaive like an actual weapon, forcing Iona behind him. The single Angler challenged the two of them but Orrin could see they had it under control. Whenever Rhys moved to one side, Iona dashed in to attack before skipping back.
Everything was going to plan.
Orrin shivered at the thought and quickly checked his [Map]. The red dots that denoted the Skylight Anglers continued to group up in larger groups away from them. Was Graem wrong about the assassination attempt?
Rhys stabbed out the Angler’s left eye, which gave Iona the breathing space needed to rush in for the kill. Their single monster went down. Since Orrin didn’t harm the thing, he received no credit for the kill. The downside of being a utility caster in a world of attackers.
“Casimir, you forgot to attack this one,” Rhys said, stabbing the fallen monster to make his point. “You should hurry up and do some damage to one of Sloane’s Anglers before she… well, there goes the first one.”
Orrin looked over his shoulder at the woman with the quarterstaff. The first Angler was a broken mess on the ground. Hamish was hammering away at the second, keeping it at bay with large sweeps of his blade. The last beast went down in only a few more minutes once they both targeted the same one.
“I thought you wanted to gain experience?” Rhys said, scaring Orrin. He hadn’t noticed the younger man walk up behind him.
Orrin waved a hand. “I gained a level already. A few hundred extra points aren’t going to make the next level come any quicker. How’s Iona holding up?”
They both turned to look at Iona. She was poking the fish with her sword, testing for weak spots.
“She’s much better. I don’t know who your [Alchemist] is but I’d pay them well for that recipe.”
Orrin hesitated. Rhys didn’t need to know he was the one with the recipe. “It’s dangerous to use too much and expensive to make. I’m not supposed to give them out like that either. She’ll kill me if I brought you to her door.”
Rhys gave his toothy smile. “I could protect you. She might like my offer.”
“I’ll think about it. They only last an hour, so she should still be careful.”
“Can you take another group or are you all too weak to keep going?” Sloane asked without preamble. She walked toward the three of them, leaving Hamish behind. He was dragging the corpses to the small pile of dead fish they’d accumulated near the floor door.
Orrin deferred to Rhys by glancing at him. Crossing his arms with his glaive tucked into his elbow shouldn’t look so cool.
“I think we should head back. We’ve gained enough experience for a day’s work.”
Sloane sneered. Her attitude became worse the longer they were in the dungeon. “I’ll tell Hamish.”
“She’s been fun,” Orrin muttered as she walked away. “Is there a way to request not being on someone’s team for the future?”
Rhys uncrossed his arms. “You can request it but unless you have a full party of five, it’s supposed to be random.”
“Which means I can probably pay for it to not be random, right?” Orrin watched Rhys for his reaction.
Rhys laughed. “My mother would say gold solves all.” He reached back over his back and rubbed his shoulder. “You did better than I would have thought today. I wouldn’t be against doing this again with you. You are a bit unorthodox but it works.”
“We could find another two people and make our own party.”
Rhys smiled and then sighed. “She’s walking in the wrong direction. Sloane? The exit is this way.”
Iona’s head snapped to the side at Rhy’s yell. She left the dead fish and came to stand by Orrin and Rhys.
Sloane and Hamish were walking back toward the field where Orrin kept disappearing to bring back monsters. They didn’t turn back as Rhys yelled.
“Are they leaving us to go fight some more?” Orrin asked. He wasn’t going to stop them if they were but it seemed like a stupid idea.
“No. I’m party leader and we are going back right now,” Rhys said with steel in his voice. He sucked in air and yelled, “Sloane and Hamish, come back.”
Hamish raised a middle finger in the air.
“We tried. It’s not worth getting into a fight over. Let’s go.” Orrin had that feeling again and checked his [Map]. Nothing new appeared but Sloane and Hamish were walking toward a group of about ten Anglers. “Damn it. Stay here.”
“Wait, wh—”
Orrin was running already. He closed the distance to the other two members of his party in just a few seconds. “Hey, assholes. You can go kill yourselves if you want but there’s a group of ten… actually, all the groups are bigger now. Everything I can see for a few miles out.”
Sloane glared at him. “You can tell us whatever lies you want but we can handle ourselves. Anglers don’t travel in schools that large unless it’s a dungeon break. We’ve cleared enough of them out that’s not a possibility. Go back with His Highness, Casimir. You aren’t strong enough to force us back and Hamish and I both need a few more kills.”
It wasn’t the first time that Orrin wished he could share his [Map] view. The skill wouldn’t let anyone else see it though. “I’m not lying, Sloane. If Iona was at full mana, I’d still recommend we leave. Something isn’t right. The monster groups are clustering. Come back to the door and I’ll find a way to bring a few more back for you two.”
“She said no,” Hamish drawled, bringing his ax off his shoulder and holding it across his body. “We know what we’re about. We don’t want to babysit anymore today.”
Orrin raised his hands and took a step back. “If you head north, there’s a group of six. That’s the smallest one I can see. Just be safe.”
Sloane and Hamish walked off in the same direction, ignoring his advice. Orrin moved back to Iona and Rhys.
“They’ll get in trouble for leaving their party but it’s not uncommon,” Rhys responded after Orrin told them of the conversation. “We should head back.”
Orrin gave one last look back at the small figures retreating from view. He didn’t like Sloane but he would be worried about ten Anglers. That would be a lot of mana to slow each of them down, not to mention actually hitting them all before they closed the distance.
“We can make a report when we get back. The school or the guard might send someone in to drag them out,” Iona added, seeing Orrin’s hesitation. “We did everything we could.”
Orrin kept his [Map] up as they approached the floor door. This was the door that people would normally use to travel from the fifth to the sixth floor but retreating back into it would bring them straight to the exit.
Sloane and Hamish were moving closer to one of the larger pods of Anglers.
“I’ll go first,” Iona stated. “Rhys will follow directly behind me. Understand?”
Orrin nodded, paying her only half his attention.
Just as Iona took a step toward the stone door, a new dot appeared on Orrin’s [Map].
“Iona, get back.” Orrin threw himself forward without thought.
A cloaked man stepped out, entering the floor.
“Oh, sorry. We’re just heading ou—”
The man fell toward Iona with a dagger already drawn but Orrin used [Gust] to shove him back. He flew backward, his arms flailing. Orrin angled the wind so the man fell directly back into the open doorway but the assailant had time to drop two items on the ground as he went through.
“He tried to attack me,” Iona said in a confused voice. “Where did he come from?”
“Iona! Casimir! Get down!”
Orrin dropped, pulling Iona to the ground with him. A dome of metal materialized over the doorway, just as Orrin felt a flash of magic explode. Something rushed by him but a quick check of his Status showed no damage.
“Rhys! Are you alright?” Iona scrambled from Orrin’s grip. Orrin turned and let out a gasp at the sight. Rhys was covered in metal from head to toe. As Orrin watched, metal cascaded away in layers. It flowed to his wrist until Rhys was standing there again.
Rhys whispered something to Iona and she went on high alert. Her sword was drawn, and she scrutinized every direction. Rhys walked toward Orrin.
“You saved Iona’s life. How did you react so fast?”
“I’ve been using [Map] to watch those two fools and saw someone stepping through the door. I saw the knife and reacted.” Orrin told the truth, mostly. He might have some foreknowledge that someone was coming after Rhys but that attack had been for Iona. “What did he drop?”
“Spell canisters. A [Scribe] writes down a spell on a sheet of paper and it gets activated when it hits the ground.”
“Luckily, you covered it in time.” Orrin waved a hand at the metal dome covering the doorway still.
“I didn’t get both,” Rhys whispered. “I moved too slow. I’m sure that I blocked one attack but the other got through before my [Steel Turtle] activated. Whatever it was didn’t do any damage to me but I’m keeping the door covered just in case someone else comes along.”
“Shit.” Orrin checked his [Map].
“What is it now?”
“I think it was some sort of aggro spell. Every Angler on the floor is headed right at us.”