With the warrior clutching their new hammers and Matt and Lewis beside them to provide support from incoming spells, they made their way deeper into the large dungeon. Lue activated his concealment skill and slipped into the distance, travelling the perimeter around them to make sure nothing sneaks behind them. They walked carefully for a minute, the glow from the mana crystals illuminating the way as they found many possible paths and sheer rock walls, the group not even being able to spot the walls or ceiling as they searched for the animated stone constructs that inhabit this dungeon.
The terrain was also fairly uneven, forcing them to mind their footing as they stayed close to the large mana pillars, the ground occasionally opening up into a deep crevasse without warning, or the path being blocked off by large boulders they were forced to circumvent. But it didn't take long for the sound of rumbling rock to be heard, and a meter-tall spherical stone appeared, rolling along the ground as if someone had tossed it like a bowling ball.
But it soon became clear that that definitely wasn't the case as it came to an abrupt halt, its spherical shape rotating to present a tube-like indentation at its center, which suddenly glowed with the telltale sign of mana, and a needle-shaped stone spike materialized within the cavity. Lewis was so surprised that he was slow to react when that spiked stone launched forward like a bullet, a transparent mana barrier materializing before them just in time to catch the stone projectile, the barrier receiving a small fracture, appearing like cracked glass, before it slowly vanished, repaired by an influx of new mana that returned it to its pristine form.
Without speaking, the two warriors ran around the side of the barrier, their hammers raised as they charged the spherical stone turret and swung down with superhuman might, their empowering skills activating as Patch's sledgehammer landed first, echoing with a crash as the stone turret creaked, a hairline crack forming down its stone body before the warrior rapidly pulled back to allow Jonny to repeat the same move, his slightly larger hammer hitting the same spot, the fractured stone completely giving way as it cracked into three large pieces and crumbled apart, a notification notifying the two warriors of their success.
Lewis was now stunned for an entirely different reason, seeing the effectiveness of the two strength-oriented warriors killing that stone creature in barely a second. Admittedly, using hammers and strike-enhancing skills, but that projectile-spitting stone sphere was infused with mana, likely to strengthen itself and make its stone even more difficult to damage. Not to mention it was even higher level than any of them, Lewis having gotten into the habit of [Identify] on anything he found, leveling the skill quite easily when used against higher-level beings.
[Granite minion - lvl 8
An infant granite construct.]
Skill: Identify has reached Level 5
It's great that the skill is starting to give little hints about what I identify, but this still isn't enough information in my opinion; it doesn't even mention how it can attack or any weaknesses to exploit. I hope it will be more useful in the future. Speaking of which, now that it gives more information than just name and level, what would it show for other humans?
Randomly selecting to test out his idea on Patch, Lewis focused his identify skill on the unsuspecting warrior, the feeling of squinting only taking a moment to bring up a new window with the information from [Identify].
[Human - lvl 5
A widespread and versatile race]
Huh, not what I was expecting. I guess it doesn't actually show names, simply the race and level, but I didn't expect that description for humans.
Patch's voice brought him out of his thoughts as he called out to Matt, giving the young mage a kindly smile.
"Nice save with the barrier, Matt," Patch said, hoisting his hammer back onto his shoulder as he looked off into space, likely reading a system message.
"Looks like I got another level, Level 5 at last," Jonny said before moving the broken pieces of the stone construct and finding the pale blue crystal of its mana core.
"How do we divide the loot?" He asked Patch, the two of them having been the ones to finish the thing off, but Jonny having delivered the killing blow.
"Since only the person who did the work is allowed to claim the lot and sell it to the system, I say whoever lands the final blow or inflicted the most damage. I'll let you have this mana core, and we'll take turns landing the killing blow on whatever we come across next." Patch said, getting a series of nods of approval from the others.
But right as they were about to move on, a loud cry from their right got all their attention, the sound of Lue in trouble stirring them all into action as they rushed forward, rushing around a large boulder, only to find three similar stone creatures, all aiming towards the shimmering outline of a person. But that wasn't what caught Lewis's attention. Instead, it was the stone spider that was running towards Lue in that creepy, fast run as its sharp limbs clicked across the ground, Lue clearly trying to back away but being forced to avoid the projectiles of the three granite minions blocking his path.
"I got the spider, help Lue!" Lewis called as they reached the battle; the spider was only a few seconds away from reaching Lue and seemed twice the size of the previous one, this stone arachnid reaching all the way to his chest, with a far wider body and longer limbs.
Lewis didn't even wait for the others to respond, knowing that he would be the only one who could deal with this large creature, not even Patch's strongest strike likely to inflict much damage on this thing. Still, as he was now, he still felt weak and unprepared to face the creepy eight-legged stone creature and tried activating [Spiritual alignment] in the hope that its cooldown would be over by now.
Skill: Spiritual alignment is on cooldown 2:31
Oh, come on. Looks like this is about to be a lot harder.
Rushing to intersect the spider, Lewis's mind raced as he tried to think of the best way to kill the spider as fast as possible. His mana detection flared as he narrowed in on the creature's abdomen, ignoring the buildup of fire mana he was sensing from its head as he located its core.
Upon seeing Lewis jump into its path, the spider slowed down slightly as it prepared to engulf him and the others in a stream of flames, but Lewis wasn't about to let that happen as he channeled a significant amount of anti-mana, his latest investment in mental stats giving him a significantly more advanced level of control over his mana, the dark cloud rapidly condensing into a spike, but without access to its back, he wouldn't be able to reach its mana core. He briefly considered trying to slide beneath the creature like an action hero and attack from beneath it, but a single glance at those sharp, pointed stone legs convinced him it was a terrible idea.
Out of time and with the spider right in front of him, Lewis gritted his teeth and activated [Anti-magic mantle], feeling his body exude anti-mana as he tossed the anti-mana spike at the creature, both physically with his hand and mentally willing it to fly off towards the spider.
Firing his mana out like this was something he hadn't actually tried before, always using physical contact to convey his mana's destructive effect, but something in the back of his mind told him it was possible, the same sort of feeling that whispered to him about the presence and nature of mana around him, and he had yet to be led astray by listening to that new instinct.
Unconsciously holding his breath, he watched in almost slow motion as the dark spike in his mana detection sailed towards the stone spider, not aiming for its mana core but for the charged spell stone on its head, which was moments away from activating, the field around the spell stone identical to what Lewis had noticed around Matt's fireball, that field having just stabilized when the anti-mana projectile reached it, slamming into the side of the ruby-like spell stone, instantly upsetting the stability that the field had just reached, along with disintegrating a portion of the spell stone as the large buildup of fire-attuned mana suddenly turned volatile and imploded.
It was as if the spider had bitten into a can of gasoline, a large, violent explosion engulfing its head and body. The spell backfired as all the built-up power was released prematurely in an instant and uncontrolled fashion, a shockwave blasting outwards that pushed Lewis off his feet and flung him backwards slightly, the spider's head and front limbs disintegrating as stone flew everywhere from the power of a spell that should have continuously released flames hot enough to melt steel for several seconds but instead was unleashed all at once to devastating results.
The air was hot and charged as Lewis groaned on the ground, having hit his back on the nearby stone pillar when he was tossed back, but as his eyes flitted open and spotted what remained of the stone spider, he couldn't help but let out a weak chuckle.
The flames had mostly dissipated since they had nothing to burn, leaving behind a pile of rubble that used to be the large stone spider, half of its body either evaporated or flung far away as portions of its stone body had fractured into small pieces and even partially liquified under the intense heat, leaving behind an almost tar-like black pool and rubble, with no indication that it was ever anything else.
You have slain, Granite Sentinel - lvl 19 (+ 150 TP)
Congratulations! You have reached Level 7 (+3 free points available)
Congratulations! You have reached Level 8 (+3 free points available)
Skill: Anti-magic mantle has reached Level 9
So many? I can't believe that actually worked. Honestly, I'm glad it did. I didn't realize how much mana it had packed into that spell. I was too focused on trying to locate its core. It's a good thing I didn't try to withstand its fire attack, since I'm not sure even my anti-magic mantle would be able to fully withstand that kind of attack. Not too surprising, considering this thing has more than twice the levels I do. If anything, I'm surprised it didn't kill us all in a moment, considering how fast it could have been at that level. Then again, since I felt its mana core with far less effort than the other one, I'm willing to bet it had invested a lot into magic stats, which really backfired on it.
Shaking himself off, Lewis got back to his feet, his injured leg bleeding again, but the wound hadn't worsened much. Glancing back towards the others, he found all but one of the granite minions to have been destroyed, with Jonny clutching his left arm where a stone spike was protruding from, but otherwise they seemed unharmed despite the large explosion not far away. Lue also had a cut across his cheek where the stone constructs must have nicked him while he was in stealth mode, but he was helping fight the stone creatures with his obsidian daggers that seemed more than able to cut through the hard rock.
Receiving that everything went well, he opened up his status screen and allocated his points. He was tempted to place them all into his magic stats but also knew that he couldn't let his body fall behind, especially since he now knew that, despite not being able to use magic himself, he did have the possibility of fucking with other people's spells and manipulating the outcome in his favor. It was a more roundabout way of using a spell, but he still felt a thrill of excitement at the idea that he might one day be able to do more than just cause catastrophic failures.
He had no idea how he would go about accomplishing this, but he had a burning desire within him to uncover the secrets of this incredible new power called mana, and even if he had to create an entirely new method of casting spells specifically geared toward the precise and localized disruption of specific mana, then he would find a way to make it work. He might not be able to cast normal spells, but he already had new ideas flooding into his brain, his thoughts clearer than they had been his entire life, as he already imagined reshaping Matt's barrier spell by selectively removing certain sections of mana without collapsing it as a whole, reshaping a spell to his own desire. True magical control may forever be out of his reach, but he would be damned if he didn't at least try.
But investing more points into magic right now would be pointless. It wasn't more raw power he needed—he literally just killed a creature he had no right defeating—it was his own survivability he currently needed to enhance.
Strength (STR): 9 -->10
Speed (DEX): 9 --> 10
Endurance (END): 8 --> 10
Constitution (CON): 13 --> 15
Perception (PER): 5
Intelligence (INT): 12
Willpower (WIL): 17
Spirit (SPI): 32
Power flowed through his body, his injured leg itching furiously as his constitution increased and his leg wound scabbed over in real time. Feeling the chilling sensation of his body being stuffed with even more raw power, he felt his muscles harden and contract, as if they had been replaced with steel, not to mention the new flood of energy he suddenly felt, a feeling that he could keep going for hours more, despite having spent most of the day fighting in absurd scenarios he would never even imagine.
It was his first time increasing his endurance attribute, not thinking it necessary since it was already so high from the difficult life he had led, but the boost to his body's energy was almost tangible, like he had just downed a potent mix of energy drinks and could run a marathon without tiring.
He jumped in place a couple of times and flexed his muscles as he felt out the differences in his body. It was almost surreal to find that he felt healthier and more energetic now than he did before fighting the large stone spider. But he wasn't the only one getting stronger down in the spiral mines dungeon, Patch glaring at Jerry as the man mocked him for his now-bent hammer, the former commander having broken it with only a few swings, his muscles even more toned and impressive compared to before.