Chapter 245: The slowing Grind (1/2)
Ilea looked for and quickly found a knight to fight. He was patrolling the streets when she sent an ashen projectile towards his head, quickly running away as he followed. It took the two around two minutes to reach the small field where Ilea had killed all the previous dungeon inhabitants. She looked at the knight that arrived without a word, his weapons pointing towards her as he landed and continued in a sprint.
Ash clashed against steel, Ilea avoiding the two blades slashing towards her as she delivered her Wave of Ember with eight simultaneous strikes. Her hands moved as she dodged, deflecting one of the blades before her fist hit his side, the shock wave traveling through the two and into the dirt before she blinked away, meditation flowing through her as she prepared for the next hit, a big grin on her face. She was ready.
The fight took around five hours, the dual wielding knights easier targets thanks to their lack of a shield. Many scratches on her armor showed the more shiny metal below as she dragged the dead woman out towards the cathedral. Opening the door, she carefully removed the armor and dumped it in the corner of the hall. There was plenty of space both here and in her storage item but she wasn’t about to visit the smith again in a couple days simply because she didn’t have anymore capacity in her necklace.
“You can work with the armors if you want to but I need the metal. Let me know if you want any of it permanently.” She said as she walked back to the dungeon entrance, the corpse stored in her necklace as it only needed one unit. Plus she didn’t feel like having a corpse mountain in her base of operations.
Back inside, she summoned the Penumra moss and ate a bit of it. Her healing skill was active and checking for any changes that might happen.
‘ding’ ‘You have been poisoned by Curse of Penumra -40 Health per second -40 Mana per second for one minute.’
Just a poison then. Nothing to worry about either. She thought, waiting out the minute as she meditated and canceled out the health drain. She didn’t know how much her resistance had reduced the effects but checking her health drain with no healing confirmed that the message had already been adjusted to her defenses.
No level in poison resistance but the knight kill hadn’t gotten her any levels or skill levels either. There were plenty more though, both of the moss and off the knights, the latter would be the main focus for now. Ilea went out later that night, when the dungeon was cast in darkness and the mists had settled outside.
Squeezing through the rock, she looked over the terrain, a sea of mist visible near the valley below. Some smaller specks were visible as well but nothing with less than at least a couple of the stalkers inside. At least try…, She thought, flying down as she checked for dangers both in the air as well as on the ground, landing near the smallest pool of mist she had seen as the first stalker noticed her. Her health and mana started draining immediately, her meditation and healing kicking in as well. Her second stage resistance against health drain mentioned it getting harder to drain from her while her mana drain resistance actually damaged the enemy if they used the mana they drained. Both effects would grow with time, meaning she should be able to damage the monsters at some point but she didn’t exactly know how much damage it dealt. Ilea waited for a while until the miststalker was at the border of the thin fog. It twirled a couple times but couldn’t actually exit. Its blade like arms ending in a scythe like bend slashed through the air but couldn’t reach her, barely. The things had a longer range than she had thought.
As soon as the thing realized it couldn’t leave, it started twirling in place, the drain effects increasing drastically. Enough that her health was now gradually declining, even with her healing active. Yea that’s not gonna work. A second and third miststalker started noticing her and soon joined in but Ilea doubted the first one would’ve died faster than herself anyway. Even adding a tendril of ash that loosely grabbed onto it didn’t help. Though she could deliver destructive mana, the thing somehow benefited from the direct connection as well.
A numbing feeling spread inside her before her health dipped under fifty percent, making her blink backwards twice to get out of their range. She meditated and healed herself back up. It might’ve been a waste but if she could at some point kill the miststalkers, it would benefit her greatly. The fight would be a simple thing too, simply sitting there and perhaps sending out her ashen limbs to deal more damage. Although to effectively strike the thing with Wave of Ember, she would have to get close enough for its rather long ranged scythe arms to hit her.
Maybe it was good. To have a change of pace after focusing so much on taking down a knight. Her resistances would grow and in time she might be able to take them down. Getting back up after ten minutes, she walked back to the edge, the beings of mist having lost interest already. “Hey, ghosties!” She shouted to the closest one, the thing turning at the sound, six eyes looking at her before it slowly twirled towards her. It would be a long night but Ilea was smiling, she had Meditation after all.
Twoweeks passed, days spent luring and fighting single knights in the Tremor dungeon and nights spent on resistance training against the miststalkers. Occasionally she had to run and hide, other beasts or birds hunting for her near the small pool of mist she had chosen as her training ground. It was good, to be kept on guard and to not forget where she was. The only reason the mist beings didn’t kill her was the borders of their prison. One of her armors was a little dented by now but still wearable, the silver metal definitely more durable than the Niameer steel had been.
Ilea walked out of the dungeon, dropping the latest set of armor on the pile. Number fifteen…, She thought, checking her messages again.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Knight of the Rose – lvl 310]. For defeating an enemy seventy or more levels above your own, bonus experience is granted’
…
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Knight of the Rose – lvl 278]. For defeating an enemy forty or more levels above your own, bonus experience is granted’
Checking through all fifteen of them, she found that only two of them had been above level three hundred. Weirdly she hadn’t noticed much of a difference, just realizing after the fact that they had been of a higher level. She assumed class evolutions might happen at that level but monsters were different after all. Perhaps they didn’t evolve at all or it didn’t make a big difference. They were thoughtless undead after all. Looking at the empty armors, she frowned. Maybe they were trapped souls as well, screaming for her not to kill them but their bodies wouldn’t allow it, an old spell keeping them in place, keeping them fighting as she slowly killed them. One after the other.
She stopped that train of thought and shook her head. Simple undead. Defending their old city from any intruder that might attack. Perhaps she was going a little crazy from all the fighting. At least neither her fighting with the knights nor her training with the miststalkers had been fruitless.
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 233 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 234 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 235 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth First Hunter has reached lvl 236 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 227 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 228 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘Inheritor of Eternal Ash has reached lvl 229 – Five stat points awarded’
‘ding’ ‘State of Azarinth reaches 3rd lvl 5’
‘ding’ ‘Blink reaches 3rd lvl 6’
‘ding’ ‘Hunter’s Sight reaches 2nd lvl 11’
‘ding’ ‘Veil of Ash reaches 3rd lvl 3
‘ding’ ‘Embered Body Heat reaches 2nd lvl 7’
‘ding’ ‘Wave of Ember reaches 2nd lvl 18’
‘ding’ ‘Ash and Ember Manipulation reaches 3rd lvl 2’