As the boss monster stumbled upon my view, my first observation was the level of corruption. It had gotten much worse. Looking at the transformed, tentacled monster, I was having trouble seeing the insect that it had been before.
No matter how much I wanted to test my new skill, I started with a slash of Radiant Flame. It flew with its usual eerie precision, but once the distance got closer, it started to show cracks, as if the corrupted monster had some kind of protective aura.
The effect of it was limited. It likely reduced the damage by only a minor amount. The cut still bit through its skin deep enough, but the existence of such a feature alone was a scary realization. By the nature of their endurance, they were able to fight against weaker opponents with great efficiency. If they gained the ability to erase weaker spells…
No wonder whole planets had fallen against the horror they represented. If it continued growing —
“Doesn’t matter,” I growled, interrupting that line of thought immediately. Right now, I have a much more important task. Testing new skills, and leveling up. Too bad I didn’t have another week or two, or…
“Doesn’t matter,” I repeated, though the tone was completely different. I raised my hand, using the skill as a medium to cast a spell. Another decay spell, but instead of being shaped like a bolt, it turned into a wave, landing on the beast, and slowly eating through its skin.
The difference in effect was immense. Previously, the decay effect was like a bucket of water. Sure, some of it landed on the target, but most of it bounced away, wasted. Though, thinking, it was to be expected when I engineered the spell based on a fire bolt, relying on explosiveness above everything.
[Rune Craft (Mythic) 57 -> 73]
The new spell channeled the powerful decay effect I could channel, rapidly enhancing my skill when facing the corrupted monster.
The spell, while effective, was not a universal solution. Just like how the corrupted aura weakened the earlier sword attack, it had been weakening the decay effect. It took about ten seconds for it to fade away completely.
“Let’s try something else,” I said, targeting the beast with about a hundred different spells in quick succession, each using the unique fire or decay concepts from the dungeons explosively. Wasteful in terms of mana, but it was an excellent way to improve my skill.
It was good to see my class skill finally include combat applications directly.
Too bad that rapid increase once again hit a point that cut off its improvement. Once it reached its current point, all the benefits from my latest workaround had been gone.
I would have loved to upgrade the skill to another stage. Too bad the situation would never allow me to avoid battle for a few weeks it would have required.
I pulled my blade, relying on direct attacks to demolish the beast. When it finally fell, I was breathing hard. It endured far more attacks than I expected. No wonder Maria was that exhausted.
Still, the reward was worth it.
[+20 Vitality, +16 Strength, +12 Dexterity, +20 Essence, +12 Wisdom]
“One more,” I muttered excitedly as I cleaned my weapon, burned the corpse, and returned to the surface. In all likelihood, the next boss monster I took down would give me the skill I had been waiting for.
The temptation to go do that was strong. Instead, I returned to my room, gave strict orders for them to alert me the moment a boss monster had been detected, and returned to my room.
I needed to be in my best shape for the class upgrade.
I closed my eyes, doing my best to not think about anything. It was difficult. Having a spell-related class skill was a much more different experience than the lifeless external skill. Every use gave me answers to questions that I had spent months to solve.
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Of course, that didn’t make all those efforts useless. Without them, there would be no special trick to upgrade my skill, and no access to those mysteries. The class skills helped me to skip some steps, but they didn’t invalidate the whole journey of exploration.
Not to mention, I doubted I could have used the new skill so effectively without all that research. Sometimes, answers were not worth much without the questions that preceded them.
My attempts to sleep, or even take a nap, turned out to be a pipe dream. It refused to come, and while it was tempting to further push my skill, I refrained from it, not wanting to put any more pressure on my soul.
Soon, I found myself drawing a new spell scheme, one that was etched to a metal block, with the potential to improve the effectiveness of the shields around our town several times. I even managed to integrate some nasty surprises against any mage that might attack it directly.
Naturally, even as I designed the scheme, I knew they were far from usable in a practical sense. However, they would work well as a basis to discuss it with Maria. Though, when I found myself trying to integrate Ramanujan’s nested formulas into the shields, I threw the pen away.
That stuff was too complicated to teach anyone in a short time, meaning, they would be useless unless I could successfully upgrade my class, and receive Intelligence stat in the process. And, I didn’t want to disappoint myself by making all that preparation, only for it to go to waste.
I closed my eyes, lay back, and tried to think nothing… An exercise that was doomed to failure. Luckily, I had been pulled from my musings by a knock on the door. “My king, a corrupted monster horde has been seen ten miles away, closing into the town rapidly from the northern side. Would you like to —”
“I’m on it,” I said, once again opening a quick gate to skip there.
There, I found Eleanor outside. Unlike Maria, she wore a helmet that hid exhaustion from the most. Not from me. I could feel it radiating off her. “Look who finally decided to get some fresh air,” she said. “I was afraid you finally replaced your sword with a pen permanently.”
I chuckled even as I pulled my blade. “Oh, you misunderstand. As a professor, I only carry a pen. This is just a larger than usual one.”
That earned a chuckle from her despite her exhaustion. “So, did your experiments finally end?” she asked. I nodded. “Good. Why don’t you go to the dungeon and relieve Maria? She was even more exhausted.”
“I already did,” I said. “But, you can go as well. I can hold the fort while you two recover. Then, we could focus on this ascension business.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah. Don’t forget. I can just open gates right next to the dungeon monsters.”
“True,” she nodded, and started walking away, her shoulders dropping in exhaustion.
Naturally, Harold wasn’t too far away. The moment Eleanor walked away, he arrived. “My king. Welcome back.”
“Good news,” I started, knowing Harold wouldn’t prompt questioning me about my experiments, success or failure. “I have succeeded, and once I find time to reforge my equipment, I should be ten times more effective.”
And, that was a conservative estimate. I had no idea the true limit of equipment forged with runic sigils, but it was certain they would be significantly better than my current equipment. It didn’t even factor in the potential class upgrade that awaited me.
“How’s the general mood?” I asked. “Everyone looks excited.”
“It’s only because you have returned, sir. People were getting scared of your absence.”
I chuckled. “Did they think I ran away?”
Harold frowned. “That’s no joking matter, sir. People rely on you. They were afraid that you were hurt fighting against a monster.”
“Thankfully, that’s not the case,” I said. “Should I give a tour to confirm nothing happened to me?”
“That wouldn’t be amiss, sir,” he replied. I could see that he had a lot more to say, but the approaching darkness didn’t allow him to say much.
Just like monsters in the dungeons, the monsters outside had been corrupted to a greater degree, their original forms difficult to distinguish. But, that, I didn’t care as I moved forward, a gesture of mine already turning into a tight cone of fire targeting the boss monster. It handled the blast with surface burns that recovered, but the beasts in its immediate range weren’t that lucky.
Unlike the monster in the dungeon, I didn’t play with it. I just rushed close, delivering a rapid cocktail of ranged cuts, mixing it with decay to prevent its recovery.
Its defeat merely took fifty blows, and less than twenty seconds. Cheers rang around me, but I only paid attention to my notifications.
[+20 Vitality, +16 Strength, +12 Dexterity, +20 Essence, +12 Wisdom]
[Class Upgrade: Master Blacksmith / Expert Mana Mender / Smith of Decay / Master of Decay/ Smith of Rune Forge / Runic Mender / Master of the Rune Forge]
Once again, a set of options, each bare with explanations, just a vague sense of potential. Yet, that made the selection easier.
“Victory,” I shouted as I raised my blade, returning to the wall to watch over the soldiers while they handled the rest of the horde, sending a slash to occasionally save one from a gruesome injury. The battle ended in less than a minute.
“You have the command, Harold,” I said as I left through a gate, leaving the walls alone. I stayed on the first floor of the dungeon, near the gate, and surrounded myself with several layers of metal. I also dropped a letter, addressed to Rosie, to alert her in case the process lasted longer than an hour.
Then, I started the process.
Once again, I found myself floating in a dream…