I had bought a lot of magical ink before leaving Grenezi, but it looked like it wouldn’t last for that long… so I wondered if I should ask Cassius for some. Still, he didn’t know that I could use magic tattoos or scrolls to fight, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reveal that.
‘Perhaps I should slow down on the creation of scrolls… I rarely sell them, after all.’
I returned to the last part of the second section. By the look of things, the fight against the boss would be a bit challenging since I could feel the weight of the attacks of the Woodkins when they came into groups of three. I still could cut them down easily, but avoiding their attacks was a bit troublesome since a single mistake and I knew that I would end up with a hole in my body.
According to what will happen until the boss fights, I will decide if I will keep things as they are… Still, I had a solution for that kind of problem. I could just keep increasing my endurance, and their attack power would weaken. The only real downside is the fact that those creatures can poison and cause bleeding as well. Quite the terrifying combination.
Two hours later, I was back to the last part of the second section and then decided to rest a bit and face the monsters at the peak of my condition. This time, a crossbow was in front of me while I was resting my back against the wall of a dead end. It wasn’t perfect, but it was set to fire a bolt as soon as the ground shook with the approach of a woodkin.
I had to wait for a while until I could confirm that this would work… three of them approached from the ground and their footsteps made the triggers be pulled in their direction. While the aim wasn’t perfect… the bolts were enchanted with Flames… and they exploded upon contact, destroying half of the monsters with each shot.
You received 40 experience points.
You received 40 experience points.
You received 40 experience points.
‘Nice, I can rest even here too… can’t wait to see how much experience I will have when I wake up…’
Things wouldn’t be that convenient, naturally… the crossbow could only store fifty bolts, so I had to reload it now and then. I should have tried harder to make the experiment with crossbows and magic storage enchantment. I certainly had an insane amount of bolts in reserve, since I only sold the very best. Still, I was certain that it wouldn’t be that easy with my level of skill.
Despite the explosions caused by the bolts, I was able to sleep pretty well, but soon I changed my approach when I woke up. Using Enchantments consumed mana that I could recover in a bit more than eight minutes. Half of that if I used a mana core. Still, I could make a fireball scroll a lot faster than that if I focused on speed. Moreover, those scrolls would give me experience in the actual skill as well…
‘The only downside is that I will keep making a lot of noise and reveal my position to those guys… I also will destroy a lot of good materials.’
When I woke up, I found of burned branches. The remains of the Woodkin bodies still could be used, but I was wasting them… it couldn’t be helped, given the circumstances. In any case, I gained enough experience to increase my endurance four times, and that made me curious. How tough was I now? Probably not much… the best option would be to return to the previous section and test my defenses against the Seed Cannon, but once again. I decided to take some risks.
When I found the next monsters, I decided to explode them with my hand crossbow. My faithful companion sure was being as useful as ever… they didn’t have any chance against it. Still, the final monster tried to impale my head with its branches that took the form of spears. I blocked one of them with one of my swords and the other I grabbed with my right hand.
“Tch.”
My hand began to sting and burn… small barbs in the arm of the monster pierced my palm and poisoned it, and made it bleed. Even such small scratches were that troublesome. I used Fireball with the wounded hand and then made the branch of the monster burn before charging and beheading the creature with all my might.
“I am a moron…”
Of course, any defense would be weakened against creatures like that. They just needed to scratch you for a bit and then both effects would take place. Regardless, at least I confirmed that had the physical strength and endurance to deal with the physical strength of a creature of that level already… when they didn’t have those annoying effects.
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In any case, I used the day to check that part of the section and my new physical limits thanks to my increased endurance. Now I could really feel like I was becoming almost superhuman.
“I can understand now why Rayner told me to follow the warrior path… this is truly convenient.”
I jumped from one side to the other of the corridor and slowly landed on the wall. Before I could let gravity push me down, I used my strength to jump to the wall in the opposite direction. My feet trembled a bit thanks to the impact and a small jolt of pain spread around. Still, it was bearable.
When the next monsters arrived, I kicked the ground with all my might and then charged toward them. Soon, they turned their branches into spears and tried to impale me all at the same time, but I touched the ground again with my feet and changed directions to the wall on the right side.
The monsters had a hard time fixing their branches and when they began to retreat their arms, I kicked the wall toward them. I collided with the first monster with my shoulder and made it fall backward and hit the closest. They fell on the ground and became easy targets for my swords, their heads rolled on the ground.
The final one turned its arms into shields and then tried to slam them against me, but they were easily chopped in half. Without them, the creature couldn’t defend itself for three seconds and then lost its head as well.
The soles of my feet were hurting a bit, but I felt satisfied with the results. Perhaps all the pain would go away once my endurance was as high as my strength, or close enough at least. Usually, one would have to wait to confirm that… but I just drew some tattoos on my body to increase my endurance.
My mana began to fall quite fast, but I achieved my goal. I began to jump around with all my might and I confirmed my guess… those two parameters worked in synchrony with each other. I wondered why I had never read about that before.
‘I guess the obvious answer is that few people noticed that. Or maybe it is only shared in some places. Maybe the same theory applies to the other parameters… Magic and Spirit would work in the same synergy with strength and endurance. What about Dexterity? With Movement Speed?’
I didn’t think that I would stumble if my movement speed was high and dexterity was low… perhaps it worked better with attack speed. I was pretty sure the difference in skill usually would make me able to block an attack on the level of Seed Cannon with ease, but I couldn’t move my hands fast enough to pull that off. I probably could if I were two times faster or something.
I decided to write down those things and research them later. Regardless, a couple of hours later, I reached the boss’ chamber… at this point, it was about time for those kids to show up, but I wondered why I didn’t find other parties. Most likely, some crazy soldiers had been training in this dungeon for several days. Quite the hardcore fellows.
You received 40 experience points.
You received 40 experience points.
You received 40 experience points.
The skill Fireball leveled up. You received 200 experience points.
I nodded to myself in satisfaction when I heard some explosions and then that warning followed it. I put a crossbow filled with arrows enveloped in scrolls to guard the corridor that led to that part of the labyrinth and soon enough, the skill leveled up. A lot sooner than I had expected, in fact.
“Was it because of the damage caused or because of the level of the monsters?”
The more I used the system, the more I realized that there were many things hidden from the public. Most of those things would come naturally to people, but most of them required some creativity. So, those who could live for longer had the advantage in that aspect.
Was that by design or just sheer coincidence? It was hard to tell given that I didn’t know anyone who was able to exploit the system, and I wasn’t interested in revealing what I knew either.
In any case, I rested for a while before deciding to challenge the boss. I was a bit surprised that those guys didn’t show up again, but it wasn’t my problem.
“Maybe it is their day off or something.”
I checked the information about the boss before heading to the dungeon. It was just like any other woodkin, aside from a few upgrades and being obviously tougher and with more access to skills and energy. This shouldn’t be that difficult… of course, I wouldn’t think like that. My hand crossbow was fully loaded with my best bolts. They were of the Epic rarity rank and had three Flames enchantments. They also had fireball scrolls on them, so their power should be comparable to a grenade.
‘Hopefully, I won’t have to use these guys and I can test my skills with the short swords without losing a limb.’
I headed to the boss chamber and soon I noticed a pungent smell attacking my nostrils. It was the smell of something sweet and spicy as well… it made me think that it was something similar to a concoction with sugar and peppers.
It was an odd combination, but at least it put me on high alert. When I reached the boss chamber, I found a place with tall grass reaching my waist and found a large and tall woodkin in the middle of the chamber. Before long, I felt something bothering me like never before and the air on my back began to stand. I suddenly jumped to the side out of reflex and soon saw a wooden spear emerging from the ground that almost impaled me.
“Son of a bitch…”
I felt some heavy beatings in my chest… my heartbeat increased a single moment when I realized that I had almost died. Dying should be pretty painful, but dying while being impaled like that should be even more terrifying.
Before long, the monster trembled a bit and then another wood spear emerged from the side to hit me, but I blocked it with my right sword… it looked like this monster wanted to fight in a nasty way, so I decided to do the same.