Chương 351: Going For The Core

Since Damion was not sure what the situation would be when he destroyed the dungeon core, he called out to Phil through their bond and told the Blizzard King to head out of the labyrinth through the portal. That way, the Demonic Beast would not be forced to walk through the cave and possibly back out, if it turned out the entrance revealed once the core was destroyed did not take him out of the cave. Damion could sense Phil's disappointment at having to leave the labyrinth, but it was for the best.

Once he felt his companion bond weaken, he knew the Demonic Beast had left, and he resumed his journey through the caves. With the aid of the auto-mapper and his tablet, Damion was able to quickly work his way through the twisting tunnels. Always able to take the correct path on his way to the main chamber. When at last he stood outside the main chamber, he realized the Magic System had been right to warn him not to try destroying the Fire Cave.

The large chamber was an underground reservoir, and it was filled with the strange combustible liquid most adventurers called flame water. If he had set the cave on fire before, the amount of flame water in this chamber was likely enough to level the entire mountain. Despite the danger, Damion decided to take a sample of the flame water. He did not have an exact use for it, but he felt there was a chance he could use it in the future for an artifact.

At the very least, a jar of the liquid would make a good diversion. After filling a cup with the liquid, he stored it in the Magic System Inventory and then headed towards the final chamber. At the edge of the chamber, Damion peered in to try and identify the Demonic Beasts the auto-mapper said were within. Inside the chamber were hundreds of Shadow Rend Bats. As far as he could tell, all the Demonic Beasts in the chamber were the same.

However, considering all the ones he could see were C Rank he knew somewhere in there should be the guardian of the floor, which quite possible was a B Rank Demonic Beast. He considered waiting until he spotted the guardian to move in and start killing the Shadow Rend Bats. It would be the smart thing to do.

But since he could see where the core was, he was sure the guardian would be nearby and it just happened to be where there were a large number of Shadow Rend Bats, blocking True Sight from spotting the core or the guardian. Since he could not use Fire magic to clear the area, at least not without risking certain death, Damion was forced to rely on his other affinities.

Thankfully, the Shadow Rend Bats were rather passive creatures, until he encroached on their territory or actually attacked them, they would remain in their nest and ignore him. However, once he attacked, the Demonic Beasts would swarm at him and become quite difficult to deal with. The first spell Damion cast was Ice Clone. Once he began his attack, he would send the Ice Clone into the chamber to serve as a distraction for him. Hopefully, the Shadow Rend Bats would focus on the clone and not him.

Next, Damion cast Ice Wall and sealed up the exit from the chamber except for a small gap that he concealed by overlapping his Ice Walls. This was to give him a path to retreat through if needed. If the Shadow Rend Bats had nowhere to run to he hoped they were more likely to stay in the center of the room with the Ice Clone, than to fly at him and risk running into to a wall. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

With his preparations finished, Damion began channeling his mana to dual cast Summon Ice. Each block of ice he created he split up into small icicles about ten centimeters long. Once his barrage of icicles was ready, he attacked. The icicles flashed across the chamber towards the ceiling and walls where the Shadow Rend Bats were the thickest and began tearing through them. Dozens of Demonic Beasts fell in the first instant and in the next the chamber was filled with shrill cries and the sound of wings.

Every Demonic Beast in the chamber took flight and began circling the chamber, searching for their attacker. The Ice Clone quickly attracted the attention of the Shadow Rend Bats. They flew around the ice construct, trying to cut into its frozen flesh with their claws and talons. Since his distraction was proving successful, Damion began dual casting Ice Shard, sending a dozen more deadly icicles into the cloud of Shadow Rend Bats around his Ice Clone. Once again dozens dropped to the ground.

Ice Shard was strong enough to cut right through the C Rank Demonic Beasts, so each shard was able to kill multiple bats. After a second barrage of Ice Shard, the Demonic Beasts started to single Damion out of the room and a number of them flew towards him. Several quick casts of Frost Over chilled the area and coated the walls of the chamber with ice before the Shadow Rend Bats covered half the distance to him.

Then, once they were within range, Damion breathed out the biggest breath he could hold and exhaled Ice Breath. The Shadow Rend Bats flew into the freezing air and one by one dropped to the ground as they froze midair. Unfortunately, Damion could not continue to cast Ice Breath, since it was limited to him exhaling and there were far more bats heading his way than what the one Ice Breath could handle. Shutting off as many of his passives as he dared, Damion cast Ice Domain.

Instantly the area around him became heavy with his mana and the ice that was just coating the surface of the cave walls thickened and bit into the walls. Inside his domain, the Shadow Rend Bats were greatly weakened. Their flight slowed and they were no longer able to call on the ambient mana of the world to strengthen themselves. Since they were already weaker than he was, weakening them further did not change the situation much, but it did allow Damion to use weaker attacks to deal with them.

With his Ice Domain active, Damion cast Ice Mastery. All the ice in the chamber heeded his command. Being able to control it all effortlessly was exhilarating, but he had a job to do and not much time to do it in. Ice Domain took 1, 500 mana to cast and 250 mana per second to keep up. Ice Mastery took 2, 500 mana to cast and 100 mana per second to maintain. Even with his higher-than-average mana capacity and mana regeneration, he could not maintain both spells for long. Still, he only needed a few seconds.

With the assistance of Ice Mastery all the ice in the chamber became razor sharp ice crystals. The ice on the floor and walls peeled off and flew towards the Shadow Rend Bats. The blizzard of deadly ice he created tore through them all. The bats fell to the ground, each with dozens of slashes and holes across their bodies. As soon as Damion sensed that all the Demonic Beasts had fallen, he canceled his spells.

The exhilaration of control he felt vanished in a second and he felt his severely drained mana quickly recovering. In all the times he had cast spells, Damion did not think he had ever been that drained before. Still, without the demand of casting spells, in less than a minute his mana was fully recovered. Looking around the chamber, Damion began collecting the carcasses of Demonic Beasts into his personal spatial storage. As he worked, Damion kept an eye out for the guardian of the floor.

It might be just a stronger Shadow Rend Bat, or it could have been some other kind of Demonic Beast, but with everything dead, True Sight could no longer help him discern the Rank of the fallen creatures, leaving him to try and spot it on his own.