"There are some adventurers who scoff at those that heavily use magic items for combat or comfort, pretending themselves greater for their lack of reliance on external aid, but when you are in some gods-forsaken jungle with no civilization in sight or fighting an enemy with a very high resistance to your weaponry you'll be glad for that shower wand or fire sword."

-Excerpt from the journal of an unknown adventurer

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After giving my agreement to the suggested rules, which was more like a progress plan now that I think about it, I examined the item that Jason had tossed to me while noticing the faint smile he had on his face.

Name: Lightning Crystal Rarity: Uncommon Requirements N/A Effect: Lightning attributed mana or elemental energy channeled through this crystal is minorly strengthened

Quickly testing out the crystal by channeling some energy into it, I noticed that it was even easier than doing so with my staff and my control over the lightning didn't diminish at all while it was in the crystal, though I could feel that the lightning didn't want to sit still inside of it and it wasn't feasible to store any inside for any real length of time. It even seemed to slightly draw the lightning into itself which gave me an idea that would speed up my current training. Letting out a chuckle at my clear excitement Jason left to go practice his card throwing by the woods as I started to follow but then remembered that I used all my mana earlier and haven't regenerated enough mana for any practice or testing, so I instead shambled over to the dungeon for a meditation session since we weren't going to be attempting it again until tomorrow. Unfortunately while the pain in my leg was more or less ignorable when I wasn't actively putting weight on it or moving, it was still very distracting when you were trying to focus and I had to move outside the dungeon where it was easier to assimilate the energy, and even then I still failed more than half of my attempts and could barely feel the difference in my connection with crystal by the time I went to sleep.

The next morning I could feel my twenty endurance doing its work as I felt noticeably better than before, with the bump on my head all but gone and my leg only hurting when I put weight on it or touched it rather than a constant dull throb. Since there was still an hour or so until everyone woke up and did whatever they needed to before we could head into the dungeon I decided to try out the idea I had last night. Walking out of the cave I set the crystal on the ground and walked a few feet away from it before crouching down and shooting directly at it with my lowest output and carefully concentrated as it entered the crystal, and feeling my connection fade but not disappear I controlled the lightning to shoot upwards from the crystal. Seeing the thin arc coming out from it made me break out in a big smile, and while the low power of the bolt made it unimpressive to look at, the proof of concept was established as the draw of the crystal was much higher than the ground so rather than making the lightning go fully against its nature I instead just had it prioritize something with a much higher conductivity in order to make it hug the ground without grounding itself and dissipating. The crystal was required because while the chitin of the crystalmits wasn't resistant to lightning, it still wasn't much more conductive than the ground, so even if I crouched and aimed for the legs I still had a very good chance of missing since I still mostly relied on the natural correction that lightning would have as I still didn't have the control to forcibly keep it in a straight line or the accuracy to reliably hit something even if I did. Retrieving the crystal I returned to the cave with a metaphorical spring in my step just in time for breakfast so I grabbed a sizzling turkey leg and gingerly sat by the fire to eat.

"You seem happy, feeling better already?"(Jason)

"Better than I thought I'd feel, but probably still a few days before I am fully back to normal if the current rate holds, but the real reason I am happy is that I think I've figured out a way to make the fights way easier while staying in the back."(Mason)

"Oh? How so?"(Leo)

With the prompting from Leo I told the group what I had thought of and tested, and it was quickly decided that it was worth a try but it was better that Jason held onto the crystal as he was more likely to throw the crystal under the monsters accurately than anyone else so I handed it to him, and after everyone finished eating we found ourselves once again standing in front of the portal, this time with gear that was much more physically damaged, but also with a much more serious look on all our faces than the first time we entered. As Leo stepped forward I felt that now familiar pull and offered no resistance as I found myself in a crystal lined cave, and after a quick look around Leo led our march into the dungeon slowly so as to see if there was any variation between the first time we entered an now that it has reset. A caution that was ratified as while we ran into the first group of crystalmits at around the same place as before and while they were the same level, this time there was four of them instead of three, but even with the additional monster we made quick work of them and proved that my idea was viable, though it would only work on one monster unless another one walked above the crystal by chance or force, and the party gained 100 EXP each, which only hammered in the fact that hunting lower levelled creatures was not the best way to progress, though the dungeon offered a stable supply of them which we hoped would make up for it.

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The rest of the dungeon went much the same way with crystalmits at the same areas and levels, but slightly different numbers, so there was clearly some randomness present as some encounters had more and some had less than what we encountered the first time. By the time we made it to the gate and turned back we had earned 300 more EXP each and gotten one more crystal shard and another leg. The rest of that day and the following two were spent repeatedly running the dungeon up to that point in order to gain levels, in the process gaining 2 more shards, 3 legs, an uncommon ring that gave plus two STR which we gave to Jackson, and a conductive crystal, which was uncommon and only told us that it had high mana conductivity, in addition to all of us reaching level eight, and after putting five of my free points into END and immediately feeling my already mostly healed leg become almost as good as new, as well as Leo hitting 50 END and telling us that there was nothing special that happened from him hitting that milestone system-wise, we all prepared for our rematch with the group of crystalmits that had wrecked us previously.

"Alright, last time only two of them almost got us, but that was mostly shock and terrible decisions on our part so now that we have more stats and a solid plan we should be good to go but just in case keep your backs to the exit so that we can run if necessary."(Leo)

With the final reminder from Leo, and a pointed glance towards me when he mentioned bad decisions, we proceeded to where we knew the higher leveled group to be. This time thanks to our extra caution we managed to notice them before they noticed us and actually stayed quiet enough to keep it that way. Our extra caution was proved to be wise since this time there was five crystalmits idling in the pathway, their legs retracted into their crystalline shells, seemingly asleep if not for the fact that we had seen their lower levelled versions pop out their legs and start a charge near instantly once they notice us.

With their shells too hard to do any real damage to before they popped out their legs and uncovered their heads the only real setup we were able to do was very carefully plant my lightning crystal between us and position ourselves for the incoming fight. Once we were in position, and after a nervous pause that went a few seconds longer than it should've, Jason threw a card at the nearest monster and while the card was fast enough that I could barely keep track of it, the ping it made as it harmlessly bounced off of the crystalmits shell was impossible to miss, though it was quickly overshadowed by the sound of chitin hitting stone as all five reacted at almost the same time, popping their legs out of their shells and looking around for no more than a second or two before seeing us and filling the air with the sound of their scuttling charge. As they neared us I put all my attention to the glittering purple crystal lodged in the ground and prepared my new attack as they rapidly approached the trap. Only a few seconds passed before the first crystalmit was about to pass over the crystal and I wasted no time in using a full hundred mana to hopefully ensure a quick kill. The Lightning inside me didn't disappoint as while it was harder to bend it with it as empowered as it was, I was still able to manage to hit the charging beast causing the familiar smell of cooked crab to fill the air alongside a loud crackle that let me know that the monster was unlikely to get back up as it tumbled for a few feet before coming to a stop.

With the frontrunner down before it could make it to Leo and Jackson, they only had to deal with the initial charge of one each as the remaining two had to stop their charge to avoid running into their fallen friend, which bought us a precious few seconds before they became an issue. That being the case I turned towards Jackson who was tensed and ready to jump out of the way and hopefully cause the crystalmit to hit the wall and do our work for us. Unfortunately it was not meant to be, as while Jackson was able to jump out of the way with no serious issue the crystalmit was able to stop itself before hitting the wall, but not wasting the time it took to stop itself, Jackson quickly closed the distance and started jabbing towards its legs and claw joints in an attempt to sever them while making sure to stick close enough so that it wouldn't be able to build momentum for another charge. Seeing that he had it handled I redirected my attention to Leo, who had tanked the original charge with his skill and was otherwise doing the same thing as Jackson, though with some support from Jason to help make up for his much shorter range with his sword but overall seemed to have things well in hand.

Meanwhile the last two crystalmits had gone around the corpse obstructing them and resumed their charge so there was no time to let Leo and Jackson handle theirs and no way in hell that me or Jason would be able to block them for more than a few seconds before sustaining heavy injury. So with no time to waste I made my way to Jackson and once I was in range I sent out a 50 mana lightning bolt to snake across the ground before shooting up at the offending monster, as my practice with the technique over the last few days made me proficient enough to do it without the crystal so long as I used no more than 50 mana and the target was only 3-5 feet away. While not enough to kill it outright, it did stun it for a few seconds that Jackson was able to make good use of with a power thrust to slice off two of its left legs before jumping back and preparing for the next one.

During the days we spent grinding, we also took the opportunity to study the crystalmits, and after some experiments that would make any animal rights activists foam at the mouth we learned that taking out two legs on the same side of a crystalmit rendered them almost completely immobile as their shells were just too heavy for them to stay balanced without at least two legs per side, as their claws did not have the necessary range of motion to substitute for a leg. As such, we felt confident in our decision to ignore the disabled crystalmit in favor of the other uninjured one currently charging for Jackson.