Chương 61: Ten Steps At A Time

Woosh. For the umpteenth time this past month, a jet of lava rushes over my head. Honestly, I am starting to get sick of these monsters. Sure, they may be getting trickier, but they all still use the same attacks. Just fire, fire, fire and more fire. Plus the occasional rock or lava thrown in. I force energy into my legs and leap upwards. Doing a bit of a spin, I activate one of the new techniques I have developed lately.

"<Spark Drill>" The air fills with sparks as I crash downwards at several times my normal speed. With an earsplitting crack I bring my hammer down into the body of the golem I am fighting. The center of its body is split apart and I am forced to kick off to get away. However, the thing is somehow still alive and its arm manages to lock around my knee, dragging me back to the messy puddle of lava and death. So I use yet another of my newest tricks. A spell, which I manage to incant just in time.

"<Flare>" the moment I cast it, the world erupts into a bright light, blinding me, but also the golem. Of course, the golem doesn't really have eyes, so the effect is much lesser, but still enough for me to slip out of its grasp. After all, I don't even need eyes. Now as for how I figured out that my spirit sense basically lets me sense things without the associated body parts? Well I would prefer not to remember that it was related to a fiery tiger and claws through my eyes.

I shudder briefly at the thought and get back to fighting. The golem isn't quite dead yet, but it is immobile. Now, what is the best way to kill an immobile lava golem?

"YIP YIP!" Luma answers my question, jumping out from behind a rock. She flies through the air–very cutely, of course– and even does a bit of a twirl. A few meters from the golem, she starts to glow intensely. I watch in awe as that light condenses in front of her and then shoots out in a giant laser beam. The beam hits the golem and obliterates it. I watch in what is now a mix of horror and awe as it gets vaporized down to the tiniest pebble.

'Ding', You have slain [Ignis Golem]. 2 shards of might obtained.

'Ding', Magic Smith has advanced to level 49. Stat points distributed.

'Ding', Luma has advanced to level 48. Stat points distributed.

'Ding', Luma has advanced to level 49. Stat points distributed. Ding', Luma has gained a new ability, [Light Cannon]'Ding', Spirit Mage has advanced to level 47. Stat points distributed. Level forty-nine in Magic Smith already. Damn, how far I have come in just a short month. To be fair, we have made it all the way to floor seven of this dungeon. I definitely wouldn't have made it here without Ari and her knowledge.

The girl may be a bit awkward here and there, but when it comes time to kill stuff, it is like she flicks on the badassery switch.

"YIP!" Luma yips, jolting me out of my thoughts to focus on her as she jumps into my arms.

"Oh come on, you are a badass too, you jealous fox." I say as I scritch Luma in the spot she loves right behind her ears.

"By the way, what the fuck was that?!" Luma licks my nose in what I assume to be smugness. Damn does she deserve it too, I didn't expect her to ever get anything combat related. But I guess she will be able to fight alongside me someday.

"Yip yip!" Luma says, nuzzling against my chest. In return, I give her many, many, many headpats. Back to the topic of Ari, I should start heading back to our camp soon, she is probably returning from her own hunting trip soon. But first, I make my way over to the spot where the golem died. Sitting there in a crater are two shiny white crystals. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Shards of might, as they are called.

They are what we need to challenge the floor bosses, and thus make our way up the dungeon. Problem is we need so fucking many. Seven hundred to fight this next dungeon boss. The amount seems to increase by one hundred for every dungeon floor, which gets tedious quite fast. Especially when the regular monsters only drop two or three. Rarer variants like that changeling I fought do end up dropping like ten though. So our progress has been sped up massively by having Dovey scout out for stronger monsters.

The loot from them is nice, too, I have gotten all sorts of useful stuff. Though as it turns out, my first few loot chests were just really good. Most of the stuff I have found hasn't been all that useful. Good for selling, sure, but not personal use. I did find a few good things though, like a scroll for Flare, a utility spell under light magic. Blinding enemies has come in handy quite often.

I also found a scroll for a spell called Ice Spike, but it is an apprentice tier spell, and I have yet to be able to cast it. Which is quite frankly odd, Ari says that most people can easily cast graduate spells by the time they hit level fifty, and I am nearly there. Yet I can't even do an apprentice one. My guess is that I need to spend more time using spells. Most people spend decades learning and fighting before they hit level fifty. But I have been going a bit faster than most.

By that I mean that if levels were a flight of stairs, I would be taking them ten steps at a time. A few months to hit level forty nine must be a record. Not that it is that impressive, as the moment I walk into our camp, I see Ari jumping up and down in joy. Noticing me, she turns and I imagine a smile appears on her face that I still cannot see.

"Orn! I hit level forty nine, can you believe it? So close to level fifty and the first specialization." She says, I knew she was close, but I can't read her level. Some skill she picked up to hide from her enemies, or so she told me. Which is fair enough, mine is hidden as well, for similar reasons I suppose.

"Yeah, me too. These dungeons are crazy for leveling. By the way, what exactly is a specialization?" Ari plops down on a comfy rock and motions for me to sit across from her, which I do.

"Well basically, halfway through each star level, you get a big upgrade. It usually locks you out of other paths and focuses you a lot more. For instance, close combatants tend to get choices like making themselves tankier, do more damage or better at finding targets. That sort of stuff. You only get one though, and I hear the system can be a bit weird in how it offers choices sometimes."

"Hmm, so I should take my time making the choice when I get it?" Ari laughs, "Nah, just go with your gut. Thinking choices over too much only ends up screwing with your mind in the end. Much less guilt to just go with the flow, don't gotta deal with any of that 'well that buff was five percent better than this one bullshit.' Pure vibes, all the way." I burst out into a fit of laughter. The theory makes sense, I suppose. But just the way she says this stuff with such a deep voice always cracks me up.

I regain my composure, "I see. I shall keep that in mind then. Anyways, how close are we to the next boss?" I ask. We both get up and head over to the bowl in front of the ornate door. Our camp is right adjacent to the door's chamber, as we figured that nearer to doors are a bit safer. Thus far, we haven't had reason to discount that theory.

"Six hundred and forty six, plus the twenty we just added… so just over thirty left to go."

"We are close then, a day or two of hunting at most." I add on.

"Orn buddy, a day?" She places her hand upon my shoulder, it is heavy, yet oddly warm and reassuring.

"Come on, if we take it a few strides at a time, we can do that by the end of today. Like seriously, have you met us?" She says and then takes a step back before doubling over in laughter. The laughing doesn't stop though, several seconds in, it intensifies even. It takes several seconds for me to realize something is long. But shortly after I do, Ari collapses to the ground, and I realize the laugh isn't a laugh, it's a cough. I rush to her side, and start to look for what's wrong.

But she seems perfectly fine, it is like she suddenly got a severe cold or something. I quickly cast Stabilization, but that doesn't seem to help at all. I try giving her a healing potion, but that too doesn't do anything. I am hesitant to investigate further, as I can't really tell anything through the armor. Despite the situation, I would feel wrong to remove it… Thankfully, I am freed from making such a choice. Ever so slowly, Ari musters the energy to move her arm. A potion appears in her hand.

Before I can inspect it, she pops it open and dumps it into her helmet, spilling most of the thing all over the ground. The effect is still instant, though. I can almost physically feel the amount of vital energy as it surges through her, fixing whatever is wrong. Or counteracting it, at least. Ari sits up and then she stares right at me. I suddenly become aware of our proximity and step backwards a few meters.

"I am fine, don't worry. A monster got me with some poison earlier, thinking my body would detoxify it naturally. But I guess not…"

"Well, as long as you are okay." I sigh in relief, and then chop her on the head.

"Don't go scarin' me like that."

"Sorry." She mumbles before standing up again.

"I am all good now, whaddya say to some party hunting? We can farm shards faster that way, though we level a lot slower of course." I smile at her, "Sounds good, I have been leveling a bit fast I think. No reason to push it at every opportunity. Plus it's nice having your backup, don't gotta watch my flank as much." Ari sighs, "Just don't go getting careless just cause I'm here. I won't be able to save your ass forever, you know." With that, we set out back into the caverns.

The grind never ends, or so Ari always says. Gotta say, she has a lot of good sayings and funny words. I think I might borrow some of them occasionally. They just have good vibes, I guess. One could even say they are amazeballs, whatever that means.