“You really want to do this again?” Naran asked me. I looked at the mound of ants. The dungeon between Purgatory and Heaven. We had tried before to clear it, but there were too many summons.

“I want to poke it and get some information. I am curious about the skills. Also, it is on the way,” I replied.

“I suppose, outside first?” Naran asked.

“Yes, clear the perimeter, also good practice for Fethee, right?” I asked looking over at the man.

“Yes, Michael. Don’t worry, I will act as support to Naran,” Fethee said and I looked at Naran.

“We have worked out how to fight together. I will plow forward while Fethee will trail in my wake, picking off what I miss,” Naran explained.

“Alright, this will be useful to work out how to handle summons at the very least with your beat stick,” I said.

“Beat stick? Really Michael,” Naran gave me a look.

“The thing is long, hard, and massive. You don’t cut with that sword. You smash with it and cleave things in twain. It is a giant metal club with an edge,” I countered.

“Buster sword, since it busts people up,” Naran countered back.

“Beat stick. You don’t get to name it since you are too close to the situation,” I deftly deflected his verbal counter.

“Then we can ask Fethee. A useless name like beat stick. Or a great name like buster sword?” Naran asked. Fethee looked at me, then at Naran, he seemed very unsure. Now I was curious who he would pick.

“Buster stick,” Fethee finally said.

“That is worse,” I complained.

“I love it,” Naran said, and I rolled my eyes. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” I said. We began to clear the perimeter around the ant nest dungeon. Naran took the lead. He would rush in quickly and smash the summoner ant before it got a chance to get going. Fethee would follow up behind, killing anything that Naran left behind.

I noted that the summons persisted even after the summoning monster was killed. A minor detail. Since the summoning monster was a level higher than its summons. If you could kill that monster, you could kill the summons.

I stayed in the back, killing anything that came in on the flanks as quickly as possible, so there wasn’t time for the monsters to build up. That was the key with summoners, kill them quickly, so they don’t get going.

If only I had learned that with the Ritualist, the problem could have been nipped in the bud. But he was building up steam somewhere, waiting to explode in my direction. The fact he surfaced in my thoughts, was enough of a sign that I was probably at the forefront of his thoughts.

We quickly did a loop around the ant nest, clearing out the monsters and returning to the cart where Heba was. After a quick break to rest, we went at the main nest. I rushed in the front. Acid Shot x3. Acid Shot x3.

I quickly cleared a path forward and reached the main chamber. The level 3 summoner ant was there. Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot x2. A veritable flood of acid formed in front of me and targeted the boss monster. Level 2 summon monsters tried to block the attack, but it was too much.

With my immediate follow up attack, there were no summons to block it. The level 3 queen ant was solidly hit and began to melt. I was already retreating as all the ants swarmed towards me. “Hot pursuit!” I called out.

I cleared the entrance to the tunnel and Naran was there. Now it was time to see if his practice had paid off. A horde of ants was right behind me as Naran spun around with his blade, building up momentum. He then changed the direction of the blade, so it was spinning in front of him.

His hands were moving rapidly as the blade spun around. The ants rushed into the buster stick and were smashed. Bits and pieces of the ants flew past him and they were smashed and shredded. Dust and crystals swept past him as well.

He leapt back after five seconds of his whirlwind attack. Acid Shot x5. I covered for his retreat as he skidded across the ground, barely hanging onto his massive sword, breathing heavily. Fethee darted forward with his much less massive sword and began finishing off the few small ants that had survived.

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Naran took ten seconds to catch his breath. More ant summoners were flooding the outside of the hill with their summons. We gave each other a quick look, we knew what we had to do. Naran kicked off the ground, right at one of the summoners.

I copied him, heading towards another summoner ant. Acid Shot. I managed to graze it, and it slowly began to melt. I angled my movement to land on top of the monster and crush it. Naran continued to rush about smashing everything in his way. Fethee kept working to thin the low-level ants.

It took time and was exhausting, but after half an hour, we stood victorious. No more ant summons, no more summoners coming to attack us. Naran had stabbed his sword into the ground and was leaning against it.

I was sitting down and Fethee was completely collapsed. “How was that such a pain, when we can kill level 4 monsters,” Naran said in between breaths.

“They are clear threats and the fights have been quicker, or we were running away. This we had to move all over the place, kill low level monsters, target higher level summoners. A mess. A complete mess,” I explained.

“We need an AOE type attack,” Naran said, and I agreed with that. An area of effect type attack would help against this kind of summoner swarm.

“I can’t even begin to imagine a level 4 summoner. It would be an endless tide, since they would summon level 3 monsters, which would summon level 2 monsters, then level 1 monsters,” I said.

“I don’t want to think about that right now. Skill crystal?” Naran asked since we were breathing easier now.

“Sure, let’s go take a look,” I replied. We entered the ant nest leaving Fethee and Heba to pick up all the crystals. At least there had only been one level 3 monster, which was weird, compared to other dungeons. But the cliff bulb only had one. It wasn’t unreasonable for a summoner dungeon to only have a single high level monster.

The skill crystal was floating there in the air. I went over and poked it. The two skills were Summon: Brown Summoner Ant and Summon: Warrior Ant. The skills were exactly like the names suggested. They summoned monsters. I stopped poking the crystal and let Naran have a go.

But summoners could summon directly through point crystals and powders. How was a summoner skill different? I could clearly summon a summoner type monster, which could summon other monsters. “What do you think?” Naran asked me.

“I kind of want it myself honestly. But I don’t have the skill slot. What about you?” I asked Naran.

“Curious, but it isn’t that strong obviously. You killed the boss monster really easily and it didn’t move or anything,” Naran said.

“It only used other monsters to defend itself. Still, I am super curious how the skill works and to compare it to non-skill summoning. If we had a summoner teammate this would be perfect,” I complained.

“We can always come back. Once we have cleared a dungeon, it will be easy to clear again. Well not easy, but not any harder than it was today,” Naran explained.

“That makes sense,” I replied with a tinge of regret. I poked the crystal again. My three upgrade options for Aqua Sphere were trajectory, shape, and size. I didn’t need the skill to be any larger. That might create a bigger barrier or allow me to protect someone else, both things I wasn’t that interested in.

Trajectory, might allow me to alter the path the water flowed around me. Another sub-optimal upgrade. That left shape. I picked that upgrade for my skill. “Aqua Sphere.”

The water flowed around me. I pulled more water from the back and pushed it to the front, creating a lopsided defense. “Ahh!” I let out a cry as the skill suddenly stopped and broke apart.

“Are you okay?” Naran asked.

“Just a bit of pain. Apparently, I pushed the skill too far and it broke.” I rubbed my forehead as the pain quickly disappeared. “Nothing serious, doesn’t seem to be a lasting injury. Just a sharp pain in my brain and I lost focus maintaining the skill.”

“What were you trying to do?” Naran asked.

“I wanted to have the shield be thicker on the front, than the back. But that didn’t take into account how the water swirls around me. Perhaps reorienting the skill, so the top is facing in front. Aqua Sphere,” I used the skill again.

This time I focused on the top of the sphere being in front of me and the water swirled over the top of my head, back down, and around. I focused and the front of the sphere, or the pole of the skill, began to get thicker.

This time it was about half a foot thick, or a bit more than a tenth of a meter. That was double the thickness. The skill held and didn’t break. That had been an unpleasant experience. There could be a relation to a stat, or just the skill itself. Another shape upgrade might allow me to go much further with the skill, which would make sense.

“Well, another dungeon down,” I said.

“You have what, only two more upgrades before the cost goes up? Know what you are going to do after that?” Naran asked.

“Not go into dungeons. Can’t save up skill points. While there might be a better skill out there for defense, I am not seeing it or holding my breath. A fourth skill slot would be nice, but I need to think on it a lot more,” I replied.

“Fair enough, well, we can still make some time today. North?” Naran asked as we left the dungeon.

“Yes, to go around the swamp. Hopefully there is a path to the East. And we will find the Ritualist. Give him a nice warm hello,” I said.

“Yeahhhhh, if you say so, just keep those warm hellos far away from me,” Naran replied.

“Don’t worry, I am saving them up for the Ritualist. I swear the man has become a heart demon. The closer I get to him, the more my thoughts laser in on killing him,” I replied. Naran just shook his head. We exited the dungeon and Fethee and Heba were almost done picking up crystals. Naran and I helped them finish up before we set off to the North.

This time the Ritualist wasn’t getting away, no matter what. I was coming for him, and with Naran by my side, I wasn’t worried.