During the first day, he only killed a few hundred of those turtles, as he was somewhat tired of the trip to the dungeon, and the morning had already passed. From the second one, many hundreds per day were wiped out.

It wasn’t a great challenge to put an end to those strange beings of mana, but rather a monotonous and repetitive work. Hundreds of them disappeared on the second day, and on the third, on the fourth… After two weeks, he had wiped out thousands of them, and although the gain of experience was no longer relevant, it was useful to level up his skills and spells. And to continue filling mana stones.

In addition, by freeing the area from the horde of monsters, he found abundant reserves of magical iron, copper and tin, in addition to a smaller amount of other magical minerals that, combined with iron, could be used to create steel.

The different proportions and the smelting process allows creating varieties of steel with different properties, some more flexible, others harder, some useful for armor, others for sharp weapons, bludgeoning ones, for arrowheads… It is really difficult to know and master the different techniques, but the knowledge from the game and the recipes made it easy for Eldi, who just needed access to the right magic platforms.

He had leveled up to 55, unlocking five spells and skills. Upon reaching 51, he obtained the Rock Armor spell, which allows him to be covered with a rock layer that gives extra protection, at the cost of mobility. With a high mana cost and limited duration, one minute per level, it is very useful for moments of danger in which you can’t dodge, or in which you need to protect an ally. It was at 4.

At 52, 53 and 54, he had obtained the Burning, Frozen and Lightning Prison spells. They work by surrounding the enemy with a mesh of the corresponding element, preventing it from leaving without facing the damage of crossing them. They cost triple the mana than the Walls, and they were at 6, 5 and 5 respectively.

And at 55, he recovered Gravity, which despite the name, is a spell similar to Rock Armor without the protection part, hindering the enemy with extra weight, and thus reducing its mobility. Or even immobilizing it if it doesn’t have enough strength. It had reached 10, mainly because it was one of those he had been leveling up with the turtles.

It didn’t make sense to use neither the Prisons nor the Armor with them, as they didn’t provide any advantage for leveling. Actually, letting himself being bitten while using the Armor could work, but the jaws of those beings were too powerful, forcing him to waste mana in healing, not to mention the pain.

The first skill, in 51, had been Almost Thor, another of those names that caused him a grimace of resignation. It consisted of throwing the hammer but not releasing it, flying with it, and causing a strong impact on the enemy, pushing it. He could reach up to fifteen meters away, and it was at 10, although he preferred not to remember why. It was embarrassing to recall how excited he has been about it in the past, flying with the hammer for hours.

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Area of Attack, at 52, is a skill that delimits an area of five meters around the caster, increasing the attack of the allies in the area by 20%. Its cost in mana is high, and the area is static, which means it doesn’t move from where it has been created, even if the caster does. It was at 7.

Area of Defense, at 53, is equivalent to the previous one, but increases the defense, and was at 4.

The original names of Non-Attack Area and Non-Defense Area belong to skills similar to the previous ones, decreasing the attack and defense of enemies instead of increasing that of the allies. They were at 10, because he had been leveling them up with the turtles. There is no other problem in overlapping the four areas than energy consumption.

In addition, he had leveled up to 10 Burning, Frozen and Lightning Walls, Mole’s Power, the four Blasts, Electrolysis, Sandstorm, Crush Earth, Javelin, Dancing Axe, Propel, Boomerang, Frenzy, Shred, Lion’s Roar, Scatter, Abyss and Buttstock. And the affinity with the secondary weapons that hadn’t been reached 5 before, were now at that level, including the shield.

Also, between the days of the trip and the two weeks there, he had managed to level up, without the help of the turtles, Magic Mirror to 7, Sleepyhead’s Shield to 8, Mana’s Essence to 9, Ambient Light to 7 and Climbing to 4.

When he looked back for the last time, contemplating the waterfall, he had to admit that, despite the monotony and boredom, it had been worth it. Not only had he raised several levels, but he had been able to take advantage to improve many of his spells and skills. In fact, he had left a Gate Mark to return in the future, with the intention of improving what he would unlock and, perhaps, bringing his children if they needed a place to train theirs.

He even thought about the four adventurers he had met days ago. Perhaps, in the future, he would also take them there, but he needed to secure that future for that. No doubt he had benefited from the trip, but he still had a long way to go.

He left the lake and the waterfall behind, heading towards the capital of a kingdom he was passing through, but in which he could perhaps gain more knowledge about the insides of magic, something he had wanted to do since his second arrival at Jorgaldur

As in the capital of Engenak, there was also an important library, in which he intended to investigate, to unleash his scientific spirit. He hoped that, by gaining greater knowledge of his power’s nature, he would master it better, have more control, perhaps even create or learn new spells.

It should be said that he was wearing a striking black armor, a level 50 armor that couldn’t be crafted, but was earned by completing a series of complicated missions. Some of those missions required to be level 100, and even do them in a group, so the armor had hardly any practical utility.

However, for the Eldi of that time, and for all the other players who had also earned it, it was a “very cool” armor. Eldi was now somewhat embarrassed about his attitude from the past, although he had to acknowledge that it was elegant. Of course, both Gjaki and Goldmi had obtained theirs with him, and had even forced him to a long photoshoot of the three with their armor. Or was it him who suggested it?