Chương 200: Back Inside

When Damion entered the dungeon and took a look around, he realized a lot had changed. There was still snow on the ground, but there was no snow falling. There were also more trees in the area. He was not sure if the goblins had cleared the trees previously, or if the change was due to the dungeon becoming a different variant since it was cleared.

"Go look for enemies," Damion told Phil.

'Food,' the Snow Hawk sent as the bird flew off his shoulder and into the sky. Confident that Phil would send him a warning of anything it spotted, Damion headed deeper into the dungeon on his own search. The snow on the ground was compact, making it quite slippery and leaving hardly any tracks as he moved through the trees. It appeared to have been some time since the snow had fallen, that or something else had already compacted the snow. The first Demonic Beast Damion spotted was an Ice Boar.

The beast was only E Rank and fell to a single Earth Shard. Once dead, Damion scooped the Demonic Beast up with his Spatial Storage spell. He hoped that as he increased the mastery of the spell the cost would go down. Storing the 170-kilogram Ice Boar ate up more than half his mana. Even though he had known the spell for quite some time, he had never considered how much mana Arica must have burned through to store all the things she had.

Continuing further into the dungeon, Damion began to experiment with his new spells. Fireball, Telekinesis, Earth Prison, Fiery Grasp and Flame Breath. He used each spell in turn hoping to increase their mastery by a Rank or two. The early Ranks were easy to get. Later on, Damion knew it would become harder, just like advancing from C Rank to B Rank, the step up was difficult. The Demonic Beasts he encountered were typical for a cold environment dungeon.

Though, for the first time, Damion had to actually rest a few times to recover his mana with Mana Absorption. The Ice Boars and Snow Lions he encountered repeatedly weighed quite a bit and cost a lot of mana to store in his personal spatial storage. When Damion encountered a Snow Hare, a small Demonic Beast that looked like a large rabbit and only weighed about 5 kilograms, he was not upset that the creature did not have a high value.

"Now I know why a lot of teams take out the cores of creatures instead of bringing the entire carcass out of a dungeon even when they have a spatial mage. If it wasn't for my high mana regen and Mana Absorption, I would have run out of mana a long time ago." Damion said to himself as he walked through the forest. So far, he had killed a dozen Demonic Beasts, most had been E Rank, with only one of the Snow Lions he encountered being D Rank.

'Share,' Phil sent to him as he was about to store the Snow Hare in his personal spatial storage.

"Sure, you can have it," Damion told the Ferocious Beast. Once he had permission, Phil quickly swooped down and began to devour the dead Snow Hare. When the Snow Hawk reached the Demonic Beast's core, Phil nudged the core with its beak before grabbing hold of the core and swallowing it. Before Damion could fully process what Phil had done, it was too late to interfere. He had no idea what would happen to his familiar after eating the Demonic Beast's core. Would Phil grow stronger?

Would the core transform Phil from a Ferocious Beast to a Demonic Beast? He really did not know, but he figured he would find out in time.

'Though, with my luck, it was probably just a waste of a magic core,' Damion thought bitterly as Phil continued to feast on the Snow Hare. Once the Snow Hawk was done eating, Damion started walking further into the dungeon, while Phil took to the sky again. As he watched his winged familiar flying through the sky, he wondered if Phil would be able to cross through the Breach Boundary. Demonic Beasts could, so Damion thought it might be possible for Phil to as well.

If it was possible, then Phil could potentially scout out the area around the dungeons to see what was different in the area. Perhaps even settle the question of what Realm Breaches were. As much as Damion wanted to order Phil to scout through the Breach Boundary, he held off. It would be better to let their bond increase before he attempted such a thing.

If the description of the spell was correct, as the spell advanced in mastery, then Damion and Phil would be able to do more than just talk to each other in the future. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. After a few more minutes of walking, Damion came across an open area with what looked to be a small snowy hill in the middle of it. Fortunately, True Sight kept him from being fooled.

Floating above the hill in letters only Damion could read was C Rank. The hill was a Demonic Beast. Damion froze where he stood when True Sight showed him the hill was a C Rank Demonic Beast. True Sight now let him identify targets up to 75 meters away, but even that far away was probably still within jumping distance for the giant beast. While looking at the hill-sized Demonic Beast Damion considered his options. His most powerful spells were unlikely to be much use against an Ice affinity beast.

Ice Shard could still kill a Snow Hare, but when he tried the attack on an Ice Boar, the boar shrugged off the attack and charged at him. Thankfully, Damion had time to cast an Earth Shard and hit the Demonic Beast between the eyes before it could mow him down.

'Having multiple affinities is very useful,' Damion thought as he decided on the spell to use.

'But having to work on so many spells to increase in mastery will inevitably slow down my mastery of my Ice spells.' The first spell Damion decided to cast was one he hoped would distract the C Rank Demonic Beast, Ice Clone. After casting the spell, he ordered his clone to silently move closer to the Demonic Beast. Even if the Ice Clone could not do much damage, he hoped it would either distract or confuse the beast long enough for Damion to land a few good attacks.

'Phil, once that beast is awake, go for its eyes. Don't try to use your Ice Breath, it probably won't hurt it.' Damion sent to his familiar, who was circling high in the air. After giving Phil his orders, Damion struck. With his left hand, he cast Earth Shard, and with his right he cast Fireball. He considered using his sword and its fire attack glyph, but since the sword was only D Rank, he was afraid this target would be the same as the Deinosuchus he once fought.

Before the two spells had even crossed the distance to the Demonic Beast, Damion already cast the spell two more times. When the first spells landed, the Demonic Beast let out a howl that sent him to his knees. As the Demonic Beast rose to its feet and turned, Damion realized what type of beast it was, an Arcdotus. Thankfully, this Arcdotus was not an S Rank like the last one he had encountered. The Ice Clone was unaffected by the Arcdotus' sound attack and started slashing its sword at the Demonic Beast's flank.

The blows from the Ice Clone barely scratched the beast, but still served to give the Arcdotus something to focus on other than Damion. Unfortunately, a single swipe of one of the Arcdotus' massive paws turned the Ice Clone into nothing but broken pieces of ice. With the time bought by the Ice Clone, Damion was able to get to his feet, shaking off the Arcdotus' sound attack. The Demonic Beast started moving towards him, while he started casting more Earth Shards and Fireballs.

The Arcdotus picked up speed as it ran towards Damion, shrugging off Earth Shards and Fireballs. Before the Demonic Beast could close the distance further, Damion cast Earth Prison. Ahead of the Arcdotus, the ground began to shift. Columns of dirt rose up and hardened around the Demonic Beast. A split second later, the Arcdotus rammed the bars of the Earth Prison shattering the hardened dirt into pieces. Damion shifted back to casting Earth Shard and Fireball, launching both spells at regular intervals.

The Earth Prison had failed to contain the Arcdotus, but the spell had at least slowed the giant bear down enough for Phil to swoop down and land a few scratches with its talons on the Arcdotus' muzzle. The Earth Shards Damion cast had punched a number of holes into the Demonic Beast's hide and while none of the injuries were serious, they were starting to add up. Blood was streaming out of the wounds made by the Earth Shards, sapping at the Arcdotus' strength.

The Fireballs cast had also burnt small patches of fur off the Demonic Beast's body. Each attack that landed caused the Arcdotus more pain and served to distract the Demonic Beast from the Ferocious Beast that repeatedly swooped in trying to claw out its eyes. The Arcdotus apparently had enough of Phil trying to blind it and snapped its jaws at the Snow Hawk as it flew past, raising its head and exposing its neck to Damion.

Damion cast Summon Ice and split the cube of ice into three razor-sharp blades and sent them spinning towards the Arcdotus. The blades of ice each slashed across the Demonic Beast's throat in turn, opening a wound across its neck. With the speed the blades were spinning, they completed several rotations before the blood from the Arcdotus' neck even reached the ground. The Demonic Beast collapsed, shaking the ground when it hit.

Phil circled the carcass once before landing on the Arcdotus' head and letting out a victory cry. Damion heaved a sigh of relief and moved towards the dead Demonic Beast. Damion knew there was no way he could store this carcass in either spatial artifact or in his personal spatial storage, that left the Magic System Inventory. He pulled the corpse into the Inventory, forcing Phil to take flight again.

Now that what Damion assumed was, the guardian beast was dead he just needed to find the fake core of the dungeon and he would be out of here.