"Four more spiders appeared somewhere," Monica said. "The total number increased."
That was not good news.
"They must be coming from somewhere," Sir Tristan replied. "A nest or a spawning point."
“Maybe they just reproduce,” Ted said.
"Can constructs even reproduce?" Heidi asked.
Monica stared at the quest marker for a few moments and looked around. The spiders were avoiding them and doing a damn good job of it. If those creatures were waiting to gather in numbers large enough to swarm and kill them, they were now racing against time on this first floor of Viscera. They needed a way to hunt these monsters down.
While the others seemed lost on what to do next, Monica knew exactly what the solution was - or rather, who. She had barely spoken to Dotty after yesterday's outburst, but she could see in the teenage girl's eyes that they'd reached the same conclusion.
Monica walked beside Dotty and put a hand on her shoulder. "This is not the worst thing," she told the group, gently squeezing Dotty's leather armor.
"What do you mean?" Sir Tristan asked.
"Dotty, you want to tell them?"
Dotty looked surprised at Monica's gentler behavior but took the chance to be a more active part of the group. "One of the first three Skills I got was Track Mana."
Before she could say anything else, Sir Tristan's eyes widened, immediately understanding what that meant.
"You can track down the creatures, can't you?" the large man said.
Dotty nodded. "I think so."
Dotty crouched down and pressed her hand to the stone floor. Her eyes closed as Track Mana activated. She felt traces of corrupted mana on the ground. The residue left a clear trail.
"This way," she whispered. "The Mana leaves marks like footprints."
She moved slowly through the streets. The others followed behind her at a distance. Her hand touched the ground every few steps to check the trail. The traces grew stronger.
"The trail's fresh," Dotty said. "They passed through here recently."
She stopped at a corner and peered around it. Her tracking had led them to a small courtyard. Three Corrupted Spider Constructs lay on the ground. Their metal legs were folded underneath them. Their mechanical bodies barely moved.
"Are they... sleeping?" Ted whispered.
"I didn't think constructs needed rest," Sir Tristan said.
Monica studied the resting spiders. "Maybe maintaining the corruption takes energy.”
They saw something curious—the spiders had a small pile of undefined ore by them, which clearly bore bite marks.
Dotty pulled out Twilight's Edge slowly. The sword didn't make a sound. She remembered Sir Tristan's training about targeting the legs. Her muscles tensed as she prepared to strike.
"Wait," Monica grabbed her shoulder. “Stay back for now.”
Dotty lowered her sword with a defeated expression.
“Can you sense any others nearby?"
Dotty checked with Track Mana again. "No. Just these three. The rest of their mana trails lead deeper into the city."
Sir Tristan moved forward with his shield.
Sir Tristan activated Enemy Magnet, immediately making one of the unconscious Corrupted Spider Constructs fly toward him. He battered it to the ground using the shield almost like a mace, dealing a not-insignificant amount of damage. Monica wasn’t happy about that because it would diminish the experience that she, Heidi, and Ted would get for the kill. But Sir Tristan didn’t care. He was just trying to make sure that everyone would be safe. That was his job, his main job.
Monica didn’t waste any time covering her fists in Obsidian Flame. She punched the head of the Corrupted Spider Construct three times in rapid succession. The spider flailed its limbs, but between being stunned by Sir Tristan’s sudden blow while it was asleep and Monica peppering its head with blows, it couldn’t get up. Upon Monica’s third blow, delivered exactly at the same point as the previous two at the top of the spider’s head between its many metallic eyes, Shatterpoint activated. The Skill allowed Monica to deal 300% additional damage if she struck the same spot three times within five seconds.
A web of cracks filled with Obsidian Flames spread upon the creature’s head as it caved in and killed the Corrupted Spider Construct on the spot. Meanwhile, as the two other monsters rose from their slumber, Heidi used Emberstorm Convergence and fused three giant fireballs to generate a storm that trapped them both.
Sir Tristan took a second to turn to Monica and say, “It’s time for the girl to get a kill.”
“No, it’s too dangerous,” Monica said. But Sir Tristan, instead of arguing back with the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix, quite simply kicked the construct’s body and sent it flying toward the tempest of black flames while he activated Enemy Magnet again and attracted one of the two trapped creatures to his spot. He pinned it down with his shield and, ignoring its attacks which couldn’t penetrate his extremely high defense, spoke first to Monica.
“I’ll make sure she’s safe. You do your job,” he shouted, emphasizing the ‘your.’ Then he turned to Dotty. “Girl, it’s time for you to show me what you’ve learned.”
Monica, now in the middle of the dying storm with the remaining Corrupted Spider Construct finally getting free, had no choice but to focus on the enemy in front of her. She saw Heidi hesitate when Monica got in her line of fire, but Monica simply shouted, “Heidi, your fireballs can’t hurt me. Just throw them. I’ll dodge around them so they can strike the spider.”
And so a new kind of combo and fighting style was born. Monica decided to let Heidi do the bulk of the work, simply keeping the spider rooted in its position by parrying all its strikes with her golden bracers. Now that her Attributes had increased, Monica could finally deflect the attacks without her bones breaking. They were still taking quite a bit of damage, and she had to occasionally flash the Golden Flame around her body to heal it, but this was more than manageable. Now, their speed was catching up despite the huge difference in levels.
Monica kept parrying the blows without the need to activate Fury of the Phoenix. And as Heidi kept throwing fireballs, which were finally eating into the Corrupted Spider Construct’s metal, Monica tried something. She activated Mana Sense and once again focused the Golden Flame through her eyes. Even though she couldn’t see Heidi’s fireballs, she got a rough sense of where they were coming from, even without looking. And so she kept dodging, managing to make space for most of the fireballs to pass through, with only the occasional one striking her back instead.
Thankfully, her resistance to inferior flames and the fact that these flames were not just inferior to the real Obsidian Flame but that they came from herself, meant she wasn’t even thrown off balance by them. No, they felt just like a refreshing splash of water on her back, almost making her giggle. Soon, between the fireballs and the aftereffects of Emberstorm Convergence, which left a flaming field of black flames on the ground - an Obsidian Ember Field as the Skill mentioned it - the monster was both taking continuous damage and being peppered with fireballs, and Monica was making sure they would hit their target.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the monster to capitulate.
* * *
Meanwhile, Dotty faced the spider that Sir Tristan had pinned down. The knight kept the construct's legs trapped with his shield. Only two legs could move freely.
"Remember what we practiced," Sir Tristan said. "Target the joints."
Dotty gripped Twilight's Edge. She moved to the side of the spider. She watched the legs struggle against Sir Tristan's shield.
"Now," Sir Tristan commanded.
Dotty stepped forward. She swung her sword in a diagonal slash like they had practiced. The blade cut through the joint of one leg. The metal limb fell to the ground.
The spider thrashed harder. Its remaining free leg stabbed at Dotty. She jumped back as Sir Tristan had taught her. The leg missed.
"Good," Sir Tristan said. "Again."
Dotty circled to the other side. She timed her approach. The spider's remaining leg struck. She dodged and brought her sword down. Another leg dropped.
Sir Tristan shifted his shield. He exposed more of the spider's body while keeping it pinned. "Finish it."
Dotty saw her chance. She activated Magic Rend. The sword glowed with power. She drove it into the gap between the spider's head and body. The construct shuddered and went still.
"Well done," Sir Tristan said.
*Ding*
You have slain [Corrupted Spider Construct - Level 82]
You receive extra experience and skill proficiency for killing a creature fifty levels above you.
You receive extra experience and skill proficiency for killing a creature infected by Corruption.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 23
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 24
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 25
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
*Ding*
You learn a new Skill - Dangersense
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 26
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 27
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 28
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
*Ding*
Class – Hunter of Magic (Uncommon) reaches Level 29
+4 STR, +2 END, +4 DEX, +2 WIS and 2 Free Attributes
Dotty’s eyes went wide.
She had just learned another Skill! And at a -5 level, which was exceedingly rare!
Dangersense (Perception Skill)
Develop the ability to perceive danger in your surroundings.
Usage: Automatic.
*Ding*
Hidden Effect Uncovered!
Dotty immediately went to check her Skill List.
Skill List
Dangersense - Lv. 1 Your attunement to magical energies grants you an instinctive awareness of incoming threats, allowing you to perceive danger before it strikes.
#1 Base Effect: Provides a 0.5-second warning before any hostile action targeted at you. The warning time increases by 0.05 seconds every Level. Current Warning Time: 0.55 seconds
#1 Hidden Effect - Magical Threat Assessment: When Dangersense activates, you gain a brief insight into the nature and power of the enemy.
"I got a new Skill!" Dotty exclaimed.
"What did you get?" Monica asked. She walked over after finishing her fight.
"Dangersense. It warns me before attacks and tells me about magical threats."
Sir Tristan nodded. "That's a good Skill for your Class. It will help you dodge attacks."
* * *
For some reason, Monica’s auto-looting worked on all the spiders this time, despite the last one having been fully Dotty’s and Sir Tristan’s kill.
They gathered around the ore, examining it.
“It’s silver,” Heidi said, surprising everyone. “The Healer’s collects a lot of it because it can be used to enhance healing magic.”
They looked at the half-munched ore, wondering why the Corrupted Spider Constructs had been munching on it. They certainly didn’t need sustenance—right? They didn’t even have stomachs, as far as they knew.
Monica used her Golden Flame to purify the Corrupted items she got. Ted inspected the pieces while Heidi watched.
"More Mithril Thread," Ted said. He held up three silvery strands.
Monica put the threads back in her Inventory.
She checked the Quest progress.
Quest – 'Eradication I/IV'
Progress: 9/84
"Nine down, seventy-five to go," Monica said.
* * *
For the next three days, all they did was track down lethargic spiders and execute them. During that time, the levels of all members of the group, excluding Sir Tristan, skyrocketed.
Monica, despite her insane multiplier on the needed experience to level up, had broken through level 35. The leveling up had slowed down to a crawl for her the instant she had stopped getting the bonus for killing a monster fifty levels above her.
Ted reached Level 42. His leveling was slower than everyone else, except Monica, despite fighting the same monsters. The Song of the Phoenix gained small improvements. The duration increased by a few seconds. The power boost grew slightly stronger.
Heidi hit Level 50 on the second day, which had been a big moment for her.
Level 50 was one of the big thresholds for one’s Class and Heidi had received a new Skill that, together with three new Skills she had learned along the way, now made her a damage-dealing, Mana-hungry powerhouse.
Skill List
Fire Lance - Lv. 7
A piercing spear of fire forged from your mastery of the Obsidian Embers, the Fire Lance impales a single target with extreme precision, dealing devastating damage and leaving behind a burning trail.
#1 Hidden Effect - Piercing Flame:
Your Obsidian Ember increases the damage of Fire Lance by 250%. The damage increases by 5% for each Level.
Current Bonus: 250%
Cost:
Fire Lance consumes 350% of the Mana required to cast a Fireball. The Mana cost penalty decreases by 5% per Level.
Current Mana Cost Increase: 315%
Cooldown: 10-second cooldown.
Fire Lance had been the first Skill Heidi had gotten, and it provided an interesting alternative to Fireball, despite the greater cost and the cooldown.
But the real heavy hitters had come after that.
Skill List
Infernal Overload - Lv. 12
Your mastery of fire magic allows you to overload a single spell with catastrophic intensity, turning it into a devastating force at great cost to your Mana reserves.
#1 Base Effect: Overloads a single fire spell to deal critical damage, increasing the spell’s damage by 300%. The damage increase grows by 10% per Level.
Current Damage Bonus: 420%
#2 Base Effect: The overloaded spell has a 50% chance to apply a Burn effect to the target, dealing additional fire damage over 5 seconds. Burn damage increases by 5% per Level.
Current Burn Damage Bonus: 60%
Cost: Increases the Mana cost of the overloaded spell by 1200%. The Mana cost penalty decreases by 10% per Level.
Current Mana Cost Increase: 1080%
#1 Cooldown: 30-minute cooldown.
#2 Cooldown: 10-minute cooldown for the Skill used while Infernal Overload was active.
Infernal Overload, much like Heidi’s old Skill, Emberheart Fury, massively increased the Mana cost of casting in exchange for much more damage. While Emberheart Fury provided an increase in power and reduced cooldown for all the spells in exchange for a flat percentage consumption of Mana per minute, Infernal Overload was a one-shot type of Skill.
Obsidian Nova - Lv. 9
Unleash the destructive power of your black flames, concentrating them into a volatile sphere that detonates with overwhelming force, crippling enemies caught in its blast.
#1 Base Effect: Creates a powerful explosion that, after dealing damage to the target, also deals 250% AoE damage. The damage increases by 10% per Level.
Current Damage Bonus: 340%
#2 Base Effect: Applies Charred Weakness, a unique debuff that reduces enemy Obsidian Flame resistance by 20% for 10 seconds. Resistance reduction increases by 2% per Level.
Current Resistance Reduction: 38%
Cost: Obsidian Nova consumes 600% of the Mana required to cast a Fireball. The Mana cost penalty decreases by 5% per Level.
Current Mana Cost Increase: 555%
Cooldown: 5-minute cooldown.
Obsidian Nova had given Heidi a new powerful offensive Spell that she had already used multiple times to destroy the spiders. She could now one-shot a spider by herself and, if the spider had other monsters around it, cripple the rest.
But the cherry on top had come when she crossed Level 50, getting what Ted had called a Cornerstone Skill.
Dark Phoenix Furnace - Lv. 4
Channel the essence of your fire magic to transform into a living embodiment of the Obsidian, drastically empowering your abilities but straining your Mana reserves.
#1 Base Effect: Increases spellcasting speed by 100% and spell damage by 200%. Each effect increases by 5% per Level.
Current Spellcasting Speed Bonus: 120%
Current Spell Damage Bonus: 220%
#2 Base Effect: All Burn and Charred effects applied during Phoenix Furnace deal 50% more damage. Burn damage amplification increases by 5% per Level.
Current Burn Damage Amplification: 70%
Special Effect:
Dark Phoenix Renewal: While Phoenix Furnace is active, defeating an enemy has a 25% chance to restore 10% of your maximum Mana.
#1 Cost: Spells consume an additional 200% Mana while Phoenix Furnace is active. The Mana consumption penalty decreases by 5% per Level.
Current Mana Consumption Penalty: 200%
#1 Cooldown: Phoenix Furnace lasts for 30 seconds and has a 15-minute cooldown.
Phoenix Furnace, thanks to its Dark Phoenix Renewal effect, meant that, as long as Heidi could kill monsters without expending all her Mana at once, she could graduate from being a one-shot one-monster trick to a veritable slaughterhouse.
However, even with the current stat distribution of her Class, which was two Attributes per level to Wisdom, four to Spirit, and six to Intelligence, because of the Class’s twenty percent malus to her total Mana and thirty percent malus to Mana regeneration, she was still far from being a real threat after the first minute of fighting.
Right now, Heidi could basically run through eighty percent of her Mana in about two minutes normally and thirty seconds if she went all out. While she could output enough damage to scare even Sir Tristan, she wasn’t even close to being an all-rounded fighter or capable of venturing out on her own.
Dotty, just like Heidi, had made quite a bit of progress, and she stood on the verge of Level 50 herself. She was shy of one level and currently at Level 49. Ted, as expected, was still the one struggling the most, with still only one Skill under his belt.
More importantly, the group, at large, hadn’t made that much progress because the total spider count kept rising. For every three they killed, one new spider appeared somewhere in the city.
* * *
The quest counter went up to one-hundred-fifty spiders.
*Ding*
Quest Progress Updated – ‘Eradication I/III’
Progress: 46/144 -> 46/150
"They're multiplying faster than we can kill them," Monica said, checking the quest counter again.
They had tracked down another group, but the process of tracking down the Corrupted Spider Constructs was not only slower than one might imagine, but it also led them down goose chases at times. There were Mana tracks all over the place, and only a few led them to stationary groups. Sometimes, they’d be chasing down the same non-stationary group for hours. Even if Dotty was getting slightly better at identifying which group might be closer and which might be resting, it was still too slow for them.
Dotty looked up from one of the maps they had found around Viscera. "Here," she pointed at a rectangle on the map. "I think this is a storage room meant for ore. A lot of tracks point in that general direction. Why don't we try going there? Maybe we can ambush them or something."
Everyone looked at her and nodded. Monica felt instinctively that Dotty had made a great call.
Soon, they were standing in front of a large storage building. It was pitch dark inside. It had no windows, and the redhead felt an ominous feeling crawling up her back.
"Wait," she said as Sir Tristan was about to enter. "Step back."
"Why?" the man said.
"Step back," Monica said. Then she looked at him for a second, and he started stepping back from the place.
She activated Mana Sense and empowered it with the Golden Flame. Her vision became much sharper. She now felt a much stronger presence than the ones they had faced before right inside the building. It was one, just one, a solitary monster, and Monica felt it slowly crawling out.
"Get ready. It's coming," she said.
What came out of the building wasn't a normal Corrupted Spider Construct. No. When the first barbed leg was hit by the artificial sunlight, everyone felt their muscles tense. Unlike the polished, smooth surface of the legs of the previous monsters, this one was veiny. The flow of nodes around its joints resembled tendons and muscle fiber. The barbed edges meant that if anyone got caught on them, they wouldn't simply get pierced. They would get shredded apart.
As it came fully out, the most striking thing about this creature wasn't just its twisted form but also its color. The Corrupted Spider Constructs had been a dull gray, whereas this new thing was almost milk-white. It had the sheen of silver, and Monica immediately understood what had happened. The monsters had been consuming the ore to evolve.
As she looked at the tag, her theory was instantly confirmed.
[Corrupted Tarantula - Level 105]
The monster looked at them with its eight steel eyes. But instead of charging immediately, it twisted, and its abdomen suddenly shot out a thin, deadly steel wire easily capable of slicing them apart.
Monica activated Fury of the Phoenix without hesitation. She knew that this fight was going to be different.