[You have cleared the 2nd stage of the [Skeleton Chamber] dungeon]
The battle of the second stage had dragged on for more than an hour, and if it were not for Ethan and his summons, the raid team would have taken far longer to clear it and with significantly more effort.
In fact, thanks to the random person they had recruited simply to fill their party requirement, none of them felt like they had exerted any real effort at all in clearing the stage.
Ethan sighed as he inspected his spirits.
His dragon spirits and Undead Knights had sustained heavy damage, and several of the knights had been completely destroyed.
Under Ethan's command, the Undead Wood Spirits activated their skill Bloom Beam on him.
Several huge, laser-like strands of greenish-yellow energy shot toward Ethan, restoring his spiritual energy within seconds.
Once he was back at full capacity, he summoned five more Undead Wood Spirits, then ordered all of the spirits, old and newly summoned, to replenish his energy again.
Jonathan and the others watched this scene in horror.
"I have never heard of a more powerful summoner before," a support professional said in astonishment.
"You know, he could probably solo this dungeon," the hammer user muttered, tapping his hammer.
"His summons can perform long-range attacks, short-range attacks, aerial attacks, support skills, and he even has a debuff skill. He is basically a one-man raid team," a magic professional said.
"We are lucky he is here. Without him, clearing this stage would have been much harder," the hammer user added, glancing at Jonathan.
"You are right. I am going to ask if he is willing to accompany us for a few more clears," Jonathan said with a nod.
He knew the others were thinking the same thing.
"We are still missing three pieces from the Skeletal Warden Set. It would be amazing if all three dropped this time, but we all know the chances of even one piece dropping are low. Who knows how many runs we will need to complete the set? And even after that, we still have to farm the dungeon to acquire the skill. We cannot stay in Tier 1 for months."
"You are right. Even if we can get him to join us for just a couple more runs, we will save a lot of time."
Everyone agreed that the chances of acquiring the set were low, but they could be increased by clearing the dungeon again and again, a process that would take days, if not weeks.
With Ethan joining them for at least a couple more dungeon raids, they could save days' worth of time.
Ethan, unaware of their conversation, continued using the Undead Wood Spirits to replenish his spiritual energy reserves while summoning more and more creatures.
More than twenty minutes passed, and Ethan had summoned an entire legion.
There were a total of 20 Undead Wood Spirits, 20 Undead Ice Spirits, 20 Undead Lightning Spirits, 20 Undead Earth Spirits, 20 Dragon Spirits, and 35 Undead Knights.
To the dungeon raid team, Ethan looked like the most powerful awakener they had ever seen.
He might have been a high-grade summoner, perhaps even a brand new type of summoner, but the number of summons behind him was simply too much, even for an abnormal summoner.
Ethan glanced at his teammates and nodded, signaling that he was done.
He was not truly finished; he simply decided that the number of summoned spirits was enough to clear the third and final stage of the dungeon.
If he wanted to, he could summon without limit, but this dungeon was not that demanding.
Ethan had begun to get a good understanding of his abilities compared to other professions in terms of clearing a dungeon.
For this dungeon, he had decided that the summoned spirits were more than enough to clear it, even on his own.
"Okay, I will explain the third stage," Jonathan said, looking at Ethan. "The third stage will have the same number of monsters as the second stage, plus the boss monster known as the Skeleton Warden. What makes this stage different from the second stage is the skill possessed by the boss."
"What kind of skill?" Ethan asked, curious.
"It's a skill called Warden's Rally. Once it feels threatened, it will activate the skill, and when it does, the speed and attack power of all the other skeletons will dramatically increase," the hammer-wielder explained. "The boss itself is very weak and does not possess any notable abilities except for that skill."
"We will use the same strategy we used in the previous stage and try to kill as many Skeletal Guards as possible. We will kill half of the skeletal soldiers, force the Skeletal Guards to use their Bone Shield, and use that chance to take them down," Jonathan continued.
"The level of the skeletons in the third stage will remain the same as in the previous stages, but they will be stronger and much faster, especially the elite ones. It should not be a problem if you train them with the skills of your summons, since you have so many."
"Let us finish the job," Ethan said with a nod.
Jonathan looked at the others, and they all nodded in agreement.
Everyone had recovered their fatigue and spiritual energy and was ready for battle.
He placed his hand on the huge metal double door, and with a gentle push, it opened on its own, revealing a massive cavern illuminated by torches.
Hundreds of skeletal soldiers stood within, and behind them were ten-foot-tall Skeletal Guards.
Further back, on an elevated platform, was a throne made of bones, and seated upon it was a single skeleton draped in a robe.
---
[Skeletal Warden]
[Level: 15]
[Skills]
-Warden's Rally: Unleashes a commanding, authority-filled roar that forces all skeletons under its control to enter a Frenzy State, greatly enhancing their movement speed and physical strength.
---
"Charge!" Jonathan screamed, pointing his sword at the legion of skeletal soldiers.
Ethan was the first to move; he commanded all his Undead Ice Spirits to use their [Frost Wave] skill.
Waves upon waves of pure, freezing ice energy burst from the spirits, spreading across the entire cavern.
Each successive wave intensified the effects of the previous one, layering more and more ice over the skeletal legion.
The third freezing wave only managed to slow them slightly.
The eighth wave slowed them so much it looked as though they were moving in slow motion.
By the time the fifteenth wave struck, the hundreds of skeletons were completely encased in ice.
All of this happened in mere moments.
The teammates' eyes widened as they stared at the legion of skeletons frozen solid like statues.
"He froze them..."
"That's insane."
"We didn't even get to attack them..."
"He froze almost half of them in an instant."
It was not that Ethan's spirits had a uniquely powerful skill; it was simply the overwhelming number of spirits repeatedly using the same skill in rapid succession, creating a compounded effect strong enough to freeze hundreds of skeletal soldiers.
"Did I go overboard? …Whatever," Ethan wondered, before giving a mental command to his newly summoned Undead Earth Spirits to activate their skill.
---
[Undead Earth Spirits]
[Level: 9]
[Skills]
-Earth Manipulation: The spirit can generate and control the earth element, shaping, hardening, or moving it at will.
-Stone Wall: Creates a thick barrier composed of condensed earth-elemental energy. The wall can be used as a sturdy shield or formed as a projecting wall to strike and suppress multiple targets.
-Stone Spikes: Releases a swarm of sharp, earth-element spikes as projectile attacks, dealing heavy physical damage to a wide area of targets.
-Stone Javelin: Launches a sharpened spear formed from compressed stone toward a single target, inflicting piercing damage.
---
The earth spirits possessed both offensive and defensive abilities, and the one Ethan ordered them to use was their [Stone Spikes] skill.
As soon as Ethan gave the command, hundreds of earth spikes, each as thick as a man's hand and sharpened at both ends, formed in the air and launched themselves at the frozen skeletal soldiers like a swarm of locusts ravaging a crop field.
Upon impact, the earth spikes pierced the frozen skeletons, shattering them instantly like glass exploding into fragments.
Within seconds, nearly half of the skeletal soldiers had been destroyed, all by Ethan alone, causing his experience to skyrocket once again.
[Experience Increased]
[Experience Increased]
[Experience Increased]