Chương 35: 1-34 Monstrous training partners

"There is magic like that…" Bezzo explained, though the words came out slowly as if he struggled to get them out.

"However, it's strictly regulated in just about every place that I can recall. If someone has spells like that, they must register them and can only use them with parties that agree to it beforehand. There's actually a clause about that in the contract we had to sign with the guild, so they can use magic to rally everyone during the beasttides."

"But that has nothing to do with Sanctum, so they shouldn't be allowed to use it like that," Josef concluded.

"Guess it's not surprising if they think themselves above the law, fits the current behaviour." Zippa made a grossed out face, as if he had tasted something vile.

"So they did something inappropriate to our brains? Ew."

"Ew, indeed, Zip," Josef agreed with his notion. Sometimes his friend had a special way with words that was simply on point.

"Just another notch against them, I guess. Can't even get myself to feel upset about it. At this point, it's simply expected." The brothers wordlessly mumbled their approval to that, going back to checking their supplies, as Josef continued with his notifications.

☆☆☆ Nightprowler's Eyes (Moderate) -> (Advanced) Analyzing Onyx must have majorly helped with progressing towards the next increase, causing it to trigger on the very next enemy, but considering the danger involved in doing so, he couldn't help but feel that the progress on his eye-skill was a little lackluster. He wondered if he was missing something, and considering that Vasaj, the Inspector, had built a whole life around using his eyes, the man probably knew how to level such a skill properly.

Not that he intended to ever ask such a shady man, but at least he had the general idea of analyzing skill gems down, so maybe he should try inspecting gems more thoroughly? ☆☆ Summon Familiar (Exceptional) -> (Pinnacle) Current limit: 2 Letting Dusty kill things on his own was good for pushing that spell. Who would have thought? Now that he was at the pinnacle grade, he would once more need a bigger push to move into the higher rank. Maybe the next boss would be enough?

Or perhaps Nibbles would pull through while healing in the clinic. He was looking forward to meeting his next familiar. ☆☆ Water Prison (Moderate) -> (Exceptional) Countless have drowned in the sea throughout the ages, a concept you have now touched upon. None shall escape their watery grave, your control over the magic has improved That improvement didn't surprise Josef, as he could already feel the sphere grow more responsive just as he moved it to catch that last Rachse.

It was a nice improvement, especially considering how solid this spell had performed since he got it. Control and damage wrapped into one wet, round package. Now that he had monsters to use it on, he could finally push this spell again before it fell even further behind his healing capabilities. Not letting things fall further behind was something he planned on doing in general, as there were several outliers in his status that had barely, if at all, improved since he acquired them.

The first that came to his mind was his earth affinity, which, if he had read his status and feats correctly, must have been one of the two affinities that he was born with, alongside the unknown one. Yet, he had never made an effort to use or improve it. He had enough inspiration from his memories to know this element would come in useful if he put in the time to make it work.

Then there was his space affinity and, by extension, his Blink spell, which were more than what he started with, but their rank was still stuck at a single, lonely star. That was no way to treat a rare type of magic, was it? Especially considering that it doubled up in utility by extending his Portable Hoard, allowing him to carry more stuff with him without having to bother lugging around the extra weight.

He mentally skipped over the Light spell, which, while being his first spell, he had only created to stop bumping into things at night, something that had already become redundant thanks to his improved pair of eyes. What kind of loser didn't have night-vision in this day and age, right? Though he did momentarily wonder what affinity linked with this spell. There was also the Fluid Movement skill, which he had so excitedly picked up during his first skill choice, hoping to cover his every need for Dexterity.

But how much use was he actually getting out of it right now? Sure, it supported every move he made in some way, improving his stability and grace, but that didn't really help all that much when he was sitting in the back, waiting for things to get near his water magic, or sitting right inside of a slime while draining it. No, to push that one he actually needed to haul his body back to the front and engage opponents up close. And as it so happened, Blink was also a fairly useful spell for melee engagements.

So were most of his ideas for using earth spells, aside from chucking stones from afar. Something that wasn't a bad idea in general, but after his attempts at water bullets, he didn't feel like throwing pebbles. Low level magic just didn't seem to generate enough velocity for such tactics. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"You good?" Zippa's voice snapped Josef out of his thoughts, having gotten slightly lost in his pondering. Fortunately, he was pretty much done checking his supplies, as the most important items were in his hoard anyway.

"Yeah, all good, everything's still there," he replied before putting his thoughts into words.

"You two have experience with these monsters, right? Are they easy enough for you to have some leeway in fighting them?"

"Easy as pie!"

"I see little trouble with the enemies that were on floors ten to twenty. The biggest problem with them was the afflictions they could spread, but that's not an issue with you around." Bezzo translated his older brother's exclamation into a more informative package.

"In that case, would you mind if I tried some stuff while we go through these floors? I feel like I'm not doing as well as I could." Josef steadied his breath as he walked around the corner of the tunnel, facing another group of Rachse that they had heard scurrying along from further away. The brothers would be holding back for this fight, giving him a chance to push himself and his fighting style.

They were not as patient and passive as Cana was with him before, as these monsters were an actual danger to him, but he would have a chance to be fighting front and center, maybe even finish it on his own if he was quick and efficient. As always, Dusty was with him, though he had asked his familiar to stick close and only attack if things went ass up.

This had been their setup for the last several fights, as Josef was learning to hold his own against enemies that were not only on his own level, but also possessed a certain degree of tactics. His first spell was at the ready before the Rachse even spotted his approach, as the mana in his body had already been tinted with the intent to cast space magic. Unlike the influence of restorative energy in his body, which had acted like a passive regeneration effect when he tested it, this one felt far more weird.

It was a sensation like being submerged in a cold, viscous liquid, but instead of slowing him down, it made his steps feel lighter and his movements more smooth. This state didn't show any direct increases in his status, but it still felt somewhat similar to the effect of Fluid Movement, though instead of guiding from without, this one pushed from within.

Seven pairs of eyes locked onto him almost simultaneously, but their instinctive action of rushing at him was immediately interrupted by a state of confusion, as he disappeared from their sight. That state was only broken when a pained squeak and a horrible cracking noise erupted from behind as the Rachse furthest in the back met its end through a vicious kick that crumpled its body.

Josef had taken the initiative and blinked himself right behind the group, taking out the first monster before they could catch a whiff of him. From there, he gathered mana in his right leg and promptly kicked the closest beast, bending it around his shin and sending it flying as something in its body broke. Reinforcing body parts covered in clothing might suffer from a drastic reduction in effectiveness, but with the legs of his pants pulled up, he had plenty of skin to work with.

Unleashing his space affinity in such a fashion appeared to have a more repulsive force than the attack should have normally carried, turning an otherwise unsophisticated kick into a terrible impact. Not to give away the advantage of his surprise opener, he immediately took a step to the next creature, subjecting it to a similar fate as the first when it met his other leg.

With the way mana had amassed inside his body, pulling it out for reinforced strikes allowed new, untinted energy to flow from his heart and down into his limbs. It was still somewhat tainted by his space affinity, but it was heavily diluted as Josef managed to keep most of it separated in the rest of his body. He still couldn't truly cast multiple spells at once, but his changed body could hold several colors of magic at once, spread out into his different body parts.

The borders between those were nowhere near perfect, but it allowed for a greater variety in used affinities. And the new mana that was rushing into his legs? He was focusing on his earth affinity to change it, without even creating a proper spell. The raw effect was enough for what he was trying to achieve. Durability and strength, something in which this type of magic excelled.

As the Rachse finally managed to respond to him, they were already down two members of their group, and the third would soon follow, as one of them lunged at him only to meet his right fist, experiencing the third eruption of space mana, which would quickly soon be replaced by another type. Two more went for a more grounded approach as they went for his legs, aiming to cause enough pain and injury to make him fall down, but he ignored them completely.

His earth affinity was nowhere near strong enough to prevent their teeth from penetrating, but as a healer, the amount of damage they did was of no concern. The moment he had decided to use that affinity, he knew it would be for the purpose of tanking damage, turning himself more survivable. So what if his body no longer scaled up health as well as before? He would just add a different buffer on top of it. The final two monsters were circling around his back, trying to make use of his current immobility.

It was a far greater capacity for tactics than anything the rats that formerly wandered these tunnels were capable of, but not enough to overcome his preparations. Through the new mana filling his right arm, he expanded his trusty Water Prison, loosely pointing his hand behind his back, the sphere formed behind him like a big spherical obstacle, cutting short the lunge of one beast that had tried to reach his neck, but now only found a watery grave. As for the final one?

It had decided to change targets, aiming for Dusty, mistaking the smaller rabbit as a defenseless recipient for its destructive instincts. He was not. Even though Josef had urged his familiar to try and stay out of things, if one was dumb enough to go after the passive bunny, then all bets were off. Rest in pieces.

Finishing off the two Rachse gnawing on his legs was more of an annoyance than a fight, as he had to bend down awkwardly to smack one with his final rush of space aligned mana, while the other one soon joined its ally in the confines of a wet orb, after he slowly maneuvered it around his own body, back to the front. He definitely had to train that part, maybe even make something like an orbiting sphere. Food for thoughts.

With a final application of Regeneration to close the bite wounds on his legs, while purging potential diseases at the same time, he allowed the mana in his body to settle back into a neutral state, as the fight was officially done. Mana 325/588 He hadn't spent even half of his primary resource, proving how efficient a direct application of mana could be. While there was still a lot of wastage when using different types at once, it was manageable for him.

Going by the loud cheers coming from Zippa, he had done well enough.