Alaster slid to a stop, and looked behind him. Four Apes collapsed to the snow covered ground, their hearts stabbed through or their throats slit. The Black Guards rushed forward and began to harvest their fur. If Alaster’s count was correct, that group brought his kill count up to Thirty two.
He had been fighting each group alone, intent on increasing his proficiency with [Imbuement]. After that first battle, he had taken very few blows, and most of them impacted the shield. None of them had managed to break the shield. Every bit of damage it received, was quickly repaired by Alaster’s second mind using [Bone Crafting].
He had refrained from spending any of his Free Points. Alaster decided that he would clear out the Dungeon first, and then spend all his free points before he challenged the boss. In this way, he could get used to [Imbuement] without also having to adjust to the changes the stats would provide. The changes would be minor, but with the massive boost [Imbuement] provided, every tiny bit mattered.
Already, Alaster was level sixteen. The standard average most people accepted was that it took until the person’s twentieth birthday to become an Adept. And then most people never become an Expert. Most people would only reach a Level in the Mid-thirties to low forties.
Every Kid dreamt of becoming an Expert. But now, Alaster didn’t see it as a far away dream, but a necessary step to save and protect his sister.
It had been two days since Alaster entered the Dungeon, at least if the lengths of the days in the Dungeon were the same outside. Alaster didn’t really know or care. He had simply slept when he felt tired and eaten when he felt hungry. However, with the time difference, Alaster was not quite sure how much time had passed in the Real World while he had been in the Dungeon.
But Alaster did not care. If he wasn’t an Adept by the time he beat the Dungeon, which he was expecting, he would simply turn around and do it again. It would, of course, be faster if Alaster found a D Rank Dungeon, but he had no idea where he was in the Real World, let alone where such a Dungeon could be. Instead, Alaster stuck to where he knew a Dungeon was. It was slower, but more reliable. And because he was getting all the EXP it wasn’t actually slow in any way. Most Novice Parties would usually have to run a Dungeon twice before they all leveled once.
However, Alaster’s EXP gain was beginning to slow. Not only because the Apes were becoming more scarce, but because his level was raising too high for the Monsters in this Dungeon to impact it. Alaster finally realized why so many Minion Type Classes were Experts. They could simply solo Dungeons.
But in an actual fight, it was common sense to ignore the Summons or Minions of the Mage, if you could, and directly attack the Mage themselves. It was a solid strategy because those types of Mages would focus on making their Summons and Minions as powerful and numerous as they could, typically neglecting themselves.
Alaster decided not to allow that to happen to himself. While the [Horde] Skeletons were running around and killing every Ape they came across, increasing the levels of [Horde] and [Raise Undead], Alaster was training himself. If someone decided to bypass his Undead, he would surprise them with his personal power.
[Imbuement] was costly, and while the [Horde] Apes had taken his natural Mana Regen, Alaster was able to [Meditate] to recover any Mana lost. It was repetitive, but gradually Alaster began to familiarize himself with [Imbuement]. He was still far from the proficiency of the Siphas Guard who had [Imbuement], but Alaster no longer his vision blurred while he used it. He could, fairly accurately, predict where he would end up with each movement. The Siphas Guard had been able to activate and deactivate [Imbuement] at will, to conserve his Mana, as well as focus it on certain parts of his body. Alaster was still far from that level.
By the end of the third day, Alaster hadn’t run into more Apes, nor had the [Horde] Skeleton Apes. So, Alaster called them back. It took over an hour for them to return. When they did, they were riddled with cracks, missing bones, and fractures. Alaster cast [Necrotic Heal] over each of them, and watched in amazement as the missing bones began to slowly return. Like branches, they grew from the other bones until it was large enough, then it seemed to just fall off and position itself back into its rightful place.
The Night Children appeared excited to see him again as they hopped around him. They hadn’t taken any damage, as he imagined they let the Ape Skeletons take the attention and therefore attacks of the Apes, while they attacked from behind. After healing all six of the Apes, Alaster as out of Mana, so after a quick [Meditation] session, he headed for the cave at the end of the Dungeon. It didn’t take long to reach it from his position.
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The cave itself was nothing extraordinary. Its entrance was roughly four meters high and six meters wide. At either end of the entrance, stood an Ape, guarding the cave. They hadn’t yet spotted Alaster or his Undead. Alaster didn’t want to waste any more time and simply cast two [Necrotic Bolt] at them. Two bolts of Necrotic energy slammed into the face and throat of each.
[Level Up]
‘Yes!’
[Class: Death Mage
Level: 15<17
EXP: 42%<1%
Health: 385/385<405/405
Health Regeneration: 10/min
Mana: 360/360<380/380
Mana Regeneration: 6/min
Spells: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal
Strength: 54<58
Dexterity: 46<50
Constitution*: 55<59
Wisdom*: 60<64
Intelligence*: 57<61
Free Points: 10<20]
[Dexterity Bonus Unlocked]
[Dexterity 50 Bonus: Fine Control
Level 1: 0%
Better Control over body and mind.]
Alaster didn’t hesitate to immediately put the twenty Free Points into WIS, bringing it up to eighty-four and his Mana Regen up to Eight. He now had all the Stat fifty Bonuses. But that wasn’t all. With those two kills, he had finally gotten [Necrotic Bolt] to level ten, earning another Evolution.
[Necrotic Bolt Evolution
1. Can fire additional Bolt for half cost
2. Can slightly change trajectory midflight
3. Can slightly bypass inorganic]
Each one of those were interesting in their own right. At the moment, Alaster could cast a [Necrotic Bolt] for ten Mana, or cast it once but fire two bolts for fifteen Mana. The bolts were powerful against exposed flesh or thin clothing, but had very minimal actual impact power, and did nothing against armor. If the Bolt didn’t hit flesh, it did nothing. If it did his flesh, it was very powerful at melting it. Though it did appear as if the stronger Monsters could resist the melting power of the Bolt.
If he chose the first option, he could fire three bolts for the price of two standard casts. That was interesting, but they fired right after each other, making it hard to aim the additional bolts if he wanted to hit different areas or targets.
The second option would help remedy this, but while Alaster did want to eventually get that Evolution, especially when he was dealing with a lot of lower Level enemies, it wasn’t as great as the first or third option.
The Third option seemed to slightly remedy the weakness the bolt had against armor. Alaster had noticed that as the bolt leveled, it had more of an impact against organic matter that wasn’t flesh. Such as trees, the bolt would chip off some of the bark. But Alaster wondered how it would work exactly. Would the Necrotic Mana seep through the armor? In what manner would that harm the target?
Alaster was very tempted to choose the first option, after all, more bolts per cast meant more firepower with less Mana used. But as Alaster fought stronger and stronger enemies, he was bound to encounter more enemies with armor of some sort. It was inevitable. When he did, he didn’t want his one and only ranged spell to become entirely useless. The third option would make it only mostly useless. Big difference. In the end, Alaster selected the third option.
Done with his choices, Alaster stepped towards the cave. He had cleared this Dungeon, and was not intent on killing he Boss. As he stepped through the snow, his four Black Guards, two Night Children, and six Skeletal Apes, Alaster briefly wondered what sort of Loot the Boss would drop.
In lower ranked Dungeons like this one, the Boss was typically the only Monster that had any Loot. As the Dungeons became higher ranked, more Monsters would begin to drop Loot. But one constant of any Dungeon was that the Boss always dropped Loot of some kind, and it was always the best Loot the Dungeon would offer. Though even the same Boss dropped different Loot each time it was killed.
As Alaster passed into the cave and was swallowed by the darkness, he wondered how the Loot would be dropped. Would it just appear? Would the Boss be guarding it? Did you have to dissect the Boss to reach the Loot? Alaster did not know, but soon, he would find out.