Maria was tremendously happy with her new gain. The basic attack spell, [Magic Missile] was something she desperately needed since it was literally the basic attack of all mage-class players. The moment a player changed into a Mage or a class within the mage branch, they’d immediately learn this skill but she hadn’t been able to because her Main Class was a Dark Priest which fell under the Priest branch. The only way she learned hers was by fulfilling the conditions of learning Paimon’s Enhanced [Magic Missile] which needed [Magic Mastery E].

Paimon had told her about this a long time ago in passing and she set learning [Magic Missile] as her goal. It was really worth it because unlike the regular [Magic Missile] that dealt fixed damage depending on the player's currently equipped weapon's M.DMG, Maria’s [Magic Missile] scaled on her INT stat instead.

This made her [Magic Missile] even more powerful than the regular one because as long as she continued to enhance her INT, the spell would always be of use even in the future. The regular [Magic Missile] had become obsolete to the mage-class players because of the poor lack of damage and it was common sense for every mage to use other spells rather than that basic attack spell to attack their foes.

Some of the mages felt that it was a pity that [Magic Missile] was so bad. After all, it permanently occupied a skill slot because it was a basic attack. If it was better, then it wouldn’t be a waste of space on their skill menu. There were ways to acquire a similar version of Maria's enhanced [Magic Missile], but that isn't until they acquired their Class Advancement that puts them on a similar level to an Archmage.

Once player Archmages enhanced their [Magic Missile], the only difference they would have with Maria's [Magic Missile] was the mini-stun effect that her enhanced version had, but at the very least, it wouldn't be a complete waste of space since they could still deal a lot of damage with it.

“Alright, let’s test this spell right away!”

Maria gave her scepter a wave and conjured a [Magic Missile] on the tip of it. Since there was no target, the [Magic Missile] just began rotating around her staff like a blue sprite. She omitted the incantation so the cast time was practically 0 thanks to her [Magic Mastery]. Every second, Maria would conjure another one until a few [Magic Missiles] were orbiting her staff like fireflies.

Even after waiting for a minute, the conjured [Magic Missiles] didn’t disappear as they continued to orbit around Maria’s staff so she continued to conjure more and more until finally, the first [Magic Missile] she created blinked out of existence. When she tried creating more, the previous ones she created would disappear and be replaced with the newer ones. She stopped casting the spell for a moment but the other [Magic Missiles] didn’t disappear so Maria finally figured out the limit of the spell.

“I can create 20 of these things at once and they last indefinitely until I use them. That’s pretty neat.”

Maria looked around for a target and waved her staff at a nearby mob, sending all 20 of her [Magic Missiles] flying towards it. The poor mob was struck by 20 of these magic projectiles and it was knocked up into the air after the fifth one and Maria manipulated the missiles to send it crashing back down into the ground.

“WOAH!”

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Once she used up all 20 of her missiles, Maria had shaved off around a third of the mob’s HP which caused her to exclaim in surprise.

“T-That’s a lot of damage!”

She quickly sent her minions to clean up the monsters while she began creating more [Magic Missiles] around her staff.

“I need to level this spell up. The 1-second cooldown is so long!”

Maria didn’t know that the regular magic missile at level 1 started with a 2-second cooldown and finally got to 1 second after reaching level 10 so saying that it was ‘too long’ was only something she would do. Once she created another 20, Maria had her minions draw in another mob, brought its HP below one-fourth before finishing it off with her [Magic Missile] barrage.

“I love this spell!”

Like a child with a new toy, Maria began playing around with the mobs. She made them dance in the air with her magic projectiles or knocked them into other monsters before blowing them up together. She was having the time of her life when Ash, Carmilla, and a beaten-and-bruised Henry walked out of the garden’s maze. Henry saw Maria using [Magic Missile] to toy with her opponents and he couldn’t help but grow a little pale.

‘T-This girl…did she take it easy on me earlier?’

[Magic Missile] was a very basic spell but it was a very flexible spell if one used it rather ingeniously. The way Maria used it frightened Henry because it meant Maria was on the same level as an Archmage if she could use it so freely like that.

“It looks like Her Highness found a new toy to play with,” Carmilla said with a smile.

“...”

“Our Queen was probably waiting for us. Let’s not keep her waiting any longer,” Ash said before turning to his son, “You better be respectful to her. She spared your life so be grateful.”

“...I nearly died because of you though…” Henry mumbled.

“What’d you say, bastard?”

“Nothing…I’ll naturally pay my respects to Her Majesty… damn geezer…”

Ash grabbed his son’s face and really wanted to just crush it but Carmilla came over and calmed him down. After settling down a bit, the trio quickly moved over to where Maria and the others were just as Maria took down the final mob with a [Magic Missile] barrage.

“My Queen,” Ash greeted.

“Ah, you guys finally done? Perfect timing, this should be the last of the monsters here. Let’s go to the next floor!”

“Of course, but–”

“I’ll address the issue of your son later after we’re finished with this. For now, let’s just focus on clearing the castle. If he wants to show his worth, then isn’t this the perfect time?”

“As you will, my Queen.”

“Ah, but do things in moderation. I want to hunt the mobs and floor bosses to increase my skill ranks.”

For the next few days, Maria spent her time fighting the monsters inside of the castle. Her subordinates and the extra–Ash’s son, Henry–only dealt with 30 to 40 percent of the mobs while Maria cleared out the rest. She also dealt with all of the bosses and mini-bosses on her own. There were some bosses on the Third Floor that proved to be quite skillful so Maria had a hard time dealing with them though it was mostly because she was limiting herself to using only her magic abilities and nothing else.

With her [Magic Mastery] still being at a low rank, most of her powerful spells were unusable at the moment so this was what made it hard. It was like she was fighting with both her arms and legs tied while being stuck underwater. The fights were exhilarating, however, and it let Maria showcase her ingenuity as a mage in combat. She only used her [Magic Missile] and [Fire] spells in the fight with the Third Floor’s boss that was guarding the entrance to the next floor but she learned a lot from the battle.

[Magic Missile] was a very versatile basic attack spell and depending on the situation, she could use it for just about anything. Be it as a regular attack, a homing attack, a shield, a smokescreen, a tool for mobility, or even as a decoy, there were so many applications as long as she thought outside of the box.

After taking down the Third Floor’s boss, the current generation’s Third-ranked Vampire Duke, Maria’s [Magic Mastery] skill ranked up from E to D which unlocked her [Blizzard] and [Terra] spells.

“Nice, let’s keep going with this momentum! I’ll have all my spells unlocked by the end of this dungeon run!”