Chapter 58: Resisting (1/2)
“Perfect, follow me please.” she said and walked with the man towards the second door to the right, leading to the teleportation gate. The man followed until she stopped in the first trap room. A couple adventurers were in that room as well, meditating or training as well while two were making out in the hallway beyond. Ilea saw them with her sphere only.
“So please use your weakest ice magic on me. If I don’t stop you just keep using stronger magic until you hit something you can sustain for a while.” she explained, activating her auras but not her shroud of ash.
“You want me to attack you?” he asked and she nodded. The man looked at her for five full seconds before shrugging. A weak ice spell hit her soon after and then a stronger one. Ilea didn’t chose to use her second stage of pain tolerance as the pain was reduced quite a bit already anyway. She healed the damage as it was done and simply took the mage’s attacks for twenty five minutes straight.
Afterwards the man meditated for five minutes until he could continue. People came and went but Ilea noticed more and more adventurers stayed in the room and watched her training. “Does she not feel pain?” someone asked.
“Demons don’t feel pain didn’t you know?” another adventurer joked, getting some chuckles from around them.
“Hey iceman...can you use a really strong attack? Like a lance or something to pierce me? You think you can do that?” Ilea whispered to the man in front of her. He raised his eyebrows but nodded.
“There’s a weak spot in my armor here...” she showed him the part where the centurion had pierced her. The repairs were well done but the armor’s integrity had certainly been lessened, at least at that specific point.
A much bigger amount of mana gathered near the mage’s hand before he unleashed a massive spear of ice right at the spot in her armor, piercing it and then her flesh. The spear was blocked by one of her ribs and was stuck inside her. Ilea didn’t immediately heal the wound but simply cocked her head towards the joking adventurer. Her buffs were put to the max as the inside of her horned helmet glowed slightly red.
The man’s smile turned to a flat line as he excused himself from the premises. Ilea watched him go and removed the spear, splattering a lot of blood onto the ground in the process. Healing up, she gave the ice mage a thumbs up. “Worth it.” she said and smiled from under her helmet.
‘bing’ ‘You have learned the General skill Ice Resistance – lvl 1
You have endured the biting cold of ice and lived to tell the tale. One of the deadliest climates and magics will now be less dangerous to you with this skill.’
“You’re sure you’re alright?” the mage asked, seemingly worried at the damage he did. He was level 170 after all and a pure mage.
“Yea, surprised you actually managed to punch through...although my buffs weren’t at their highest.” she said and held out her hand. “Can you try that again with my hand?” she said and removed the armored glove, putting her buffs to the maximum but not using her shroud of ash.
The ice lance still managed to punch through her hand to Ilea’s annoyance. ‘Maybe if I level ice resistance...I mean it’s not like I’d get hit by that but still...’ she thought and looked at the man with angry eyes.
“I’m sorry I didn’t...” she stopped him immediately.
“Again...” she said as a mist of ash started swirling around her.
This time the lance was deflected to the side by the ash even though it would’ve been a direct hit. Ilea nodded and motioned for the man to continue. The thirty minutes she had left with the man passed quickly as she adjusted her skills to take just enough damage not to lose time healing. Her ice resistance leveled to three and she already noticed that less and less of her defensive skills were necessary to block the attacks.
“That’s it I guess. Thanks for the hour. Let’s go see who’s next...” Ilea walked back with the man until they reached the other mages. “What’s your specialty?” she asked one of them.
“Fire mage.” was his short answer. Ilea shook her head and looked at the next one.
“Crystal magic, dunno if that might be of use to you Miss Lilith.”
“Why does everybody call me miss Lilith. Just Lilith or Demon is quite fine, thank you.” she motioned for the mage to follow her and went to the same place. There were more people watching this time, apparently there was only so much time you could kill with card games. Or perhaps there weren’t just quite enough cards to go around.
“She’s back guys!” someone said and cheered.
“I should sell merchandise at this point...do you guys have popcorn?” she asked the female mage that came with her. The woman shrugged, either not knowing popcorn or completely apathetic to her obviously joking questions.
“Let’s get started then. You’re aware of what I’m doing at the moment right?” Ilea prepared her buffs and stood a couple meters away from the woman in plated leather armor.
“You’re raising resistances the painful way. Yea I know. I’ve done this to others before, at least you can heal yourself and don’t need the services of another. Quite the expensive and...well painful way to gain strength….”
“Perfect, then let us get started.” she punched her fists together and got into a defensive stance. “Low first and then stronger, I’ll stop you once it’s too much.”
The woman nodded and a thin crystal spear shot from the ground, punching at her armor. Ilea motioned for the destroyed part near her chest so that the woman could hit her directly. The next spike scratched against her skin. Soon after blood was drawn.
Ilea was sure that being hit in an actually dangerous spot would fasten the learning of a resistance. “Are general skills limited by the way? Getting quite a bunch at this point.” she asked the mage.
“You do not seem to be very informed. Well seeing your strength I do not fault you. They shouldn’t be limited. At least I have never heard of something like that.” the woman explained helpfully before more spikes pierced Ilea’s chest.
‘bing’ ‘You have learned the General skill Crystal Resistance – lvl 1
Crystals aren’t just shiny decorations to old ruins and caves. You have learned that the arcane scholars have found ways to turn the beautiful natural phenomenon into something quite more deadly. Less deadly to you with this skill.’
“Oh got it, continue lovely.”
“Did you just call me lovely?” the woman said and closed her eyes for a second before more crystal spears formed and pierced Ilea. The hour passed and Ilea managed to level her resistance to 5.
“Thank you for the assistance.” Ilea said and nodded to the woman.
“That’s it?! Come on show us something better.” one of the watching adventurers said. One of the cooks had joined them and served food while the last surviving bard was playing some music. The stairs and destroyed mechanisms in the trap room gave it a little more charm than the hall above.
“Alright alright. Hit me with something heavy love...” Ilea said and the shroud of ash formed around her.
“What’s your resistance at?” the mage asked and Ilea held up five fingers. The woman nodded and walked back a couple more meters. The healer saw a massive amount of mana manifest around the mage, a grayish mana in the eyes of her magic perception.
The head of a dragon formed before Ilea and quickly closed in, closing its maw around her. The crystal teeth bit deep into her ash, then flesh and finally bone. “AAAAAHHHH!” her scream was accompanied by a burst of all her skills and her healing trying to keep the damage at bay.
As quickly as the attack had come it vanished again. Ilea stood, her armor pierced by dozens of holes, blood leaking from some of them while a part of her helmet was missing, revealing a smile and one blue eye.
‘ding’ ‘Crystal Resistance reaches lvl 6.’
“You wanna go another round mage?” Ilea asked as her wings spread behind her, red lines of ember formed on the exposed parts of her body and the blue runes shined on. The mage in front of her collapsed though, no magic remained around the woman as told by her magic perception.
‘What the hell was that...cool attack but it seems a little overkill to make a fun show off move at the end...cost me only twenty percent of my life, heh.’ she thought as she walked up to the mage and lifted her up with one hand to bring her back to the table with the others.