One good thing about hunting monsters, they’re basically walking mana batteries for me.
While my summons attack the monsters we find in the dungeon, I would take the opportunity to create maximum stats summons at the back of the fight.
Once the monsters are defeated, I’ll have my summons collect the Mana Crystals and replenish my mana that way.
The downside to this arrangement is that only my Magic stat is increasing since I’m not training myself physically, but having more summons makes it worth it.
Of course, I didn’t use up all the Mana Crystals I collected and kept a few in my backpack just so that I get a net profit in terms of Mana Crystals for later use.
The curious thing is that despite being able to transform the mana inside these Crystals to other elements, I have yet to gain the magic skill in said elements.
Perhaps I have to do this to my own mana instead of just the mana inside the Mana Crystals? The problem is that Mana within living things are much less malleable than the one found inside Mana Crystals so it’s easier said than done.
No wonder it’s so hard for people to learn magic.
I guess this is also why the mana inside Mana Crystals are known as malleable mana since they can adapt easily.
Oh? That actually gives me an idea!
I used [Shadow Summon] to create another shadow that used up all of my mana, allowing her to join the ranks of the other summons within my shadow.
Now that I’m out of mana, I picked up one of the Mana Crystals and imagined it turning into water.
Just as I felt the crystal stir, I tried to direct the mana inside it into my own body instead.
The moment I did so, however, my insides felt like it was on fire, burning me up from the inside out. I gasped and quickly pulled the mana out, just as the crystal exploded into a shower of water, drenching me in the process.
Ok… That wasn’t good. That really wasn’t good.
I think if I didn’t react fast enough, the water might have exploded inside my body and brought me to the brink of death.
At this point… I think I’m being a little too reckless… Even if I wish to get stronger, I shouldn’t be rushing with it just to end up dead. I do have Mother to consult after all so such things are better left to a time when I have someone much more competent than I am to watch over me.
There’s no need for me to do everything myself.
Shelving that idea aside for now, I went ahead to receive the newest batch of Mana Crystals from my summons.
Hmm… I wonder if I can just get my summons to go dungeon diving while I do other things? Automating your farms is a standard thing in games isn’t it? The fact that I could leave summons behind to dismantle the wyvern while I’m exploring the rest of my dungeons…
Holy shit, I just realised I’m basically a one man raid party!
Sure, my summons can’t use magic which is really sad, but who needs magic when I reach the level where my summons can punch through concrete with their bare fists?
Not that I’m at that level yet but I’m working there ok?!
But just imagine that! If each of my summons were on the level of that asshole who tried to kill me, I could very well take on a dragon myself! Maybe… Since I don’t know what a standard dragon’s stats is at the moment.
Damn! Ok, Time for me to join the front lines to train my stats!
We’ve yet to find the way down yet so we’ll just need to keep going until we–
*Click*
I looked down at my feet, seeing a particular panel on the ground sinking downwards.
Ah… Nothing had been appearing except goblins so far that I forgot about the possibility of a trap.
Before I could start wondering what trap it was, the floor underneath me opened up and I dropped in.
My wings exploded out from my back and I tried to fly up, only to have the floor close up before I could even fly out of the hole.
Spike also appeared on the newly formed ceiling and something tells me it would drop on me very soon.
I furled in my wings and quickly let gravity retake me, dropping myself down right as the spikes began to fall.
The spikes seemed to propel itself towards me as it slowly got nearer and nearer to the base of my feet, even as I was already trying to drop as fast as I could.
Salvation came in the form of a hole at the bottom that led to a large hall, allowing me to fling myself away from the spike with a twirl and a flap of my wings.
I looked up and it seemed like the spikes stopped right at the hole, sealing off my exit. Deciding to find another way out, I looked around the hall to realise I was not alone.
The fact that the two opposite ends of the hall were blocked by a thick layer of fog also told me where I was.
There, in the centre of the hall and looking up at me with its amber eyes was the boss of this floor.
<strong>[Name: Infant Crimson Dragon</strong>
<strong>Race: Monster</strong>
<strong>Stats:</strong>
<strong>Stats:</strong>
<strong>450 Strength</strong>
<strong>250 Dexterity</strong>
<strong>180 Endurance</strong>
<strong>300 Magic</strong>
<strong>Magic Skills:</strong>
<strong>Pyromancy (Tier 3), Aeromancy (Tier 2)]</strong>
Are you shitting me?! This thing is four times stronger than me! How am I supposed to kill it?!! And isn’t it unusual to have it jump to a dragon after the wyvern boss?! Who the hell made this dungeon?!!
When I made that comment about taking on a dragon, I meant after I got those stats you know?!!
I wasn’t using my [Shadow Wall] so I lost the element of surprise too! Do I even stand a chance against this thing?!
It let out a challenging roar accompanied by a blast of fire towards me, the fireball barely missing me as I dove towards the ground.
The fortunate thing was that it wasn’t a wide and empty hall but a place that was littered with debris, some of them looking like broken marble columns littered around the landscape.
I immediately called out a group of my summons and gave the order to attack, a few of them staying behind to shoot bows from here.
I joined the archers, pulling out the Tornado bow and using [Shadow Forge] to create my arrows.
We let loose the first batch of arrows at the same time, mine flying much faster than the rest because of the enchantment.
Unexpectedly, a gust of air blasted out from the dragon and our arrows were deflected away from it before they could touch its scales. That must be its Aeromancy at play.
The summons that were wielding melee weapons finally reached it, beginning their assault on the much larger creature.
Though my summons were attacking it with all their strength, the dragon looked more annoyed than in pain, rearing up one of its forelegs in an almost casual way.
I commanded the summons to immediately retreat but the swipe came slashing down before they could, the claws protruding out of the limb slicing through ten of my summons easily.
Those were my max stats summons too, meaning if that had been me, I would have already died.
I cursed, directing the melee fighters to charge in again while focusing on evasion.
The archers and I began drawing back our bowstrings again, taking aim while the dragon was distracted before letting our arrows fly.
This time, without the blast of air to stop us, our arrows hit our marks.
The dragon roared out in anger as our arrows penetrated its scales, burying themselves into its flesh. As much as I wanted to think it was doing damage, it probably felt like toothpicks poking at it with its size.
The dragon opened its maws again and I felt the air heat up before a fireball was launched directly at us.
With my [Shadow Glide] I was able to get out of the way in time but the other summons were not that fortunate, all of them consumed in the raging inferno before dissipating away.
I called up more from my reserves to replace them, this time making sure all of them were spread out and not clustered together like before.
As for the front lines… It was not going well.
Even the summons outfitted with a shield and plate armour died to a single hit from the dragon, that means our only defence was our speed.
Thankfully the dragon’s superior dexterity can only be utilised while it’s flying, so we stood a decent chance of outmanoeuvring it while on the ground.
Switching to such tactics, it got a little bit better as less of my shadows died while holding the dragon’s attention, allowing us to continue peppering it with our arrows.
,m I do not, however, have unlimited summons so it’s a matter of whether I will run out of them first or the dragon dies first and the prospects are not looking good for me. I’ve already brought out most of my summons with only a handful in reserve in case I needed them and yet their numbers are still diminishing rather rapidly.
While I was drawing back my bow again, the dragon smashed its tail on the ground and a large marble column was sent airborne.
I wondered what it was trying to do with it when air exploded behind the column, propelling the giant block of marble to fly directly towards me.
Fuck.