The other side of the gate was as I had expected, filled with an army of insects that rushed forward, threatening to drown , which I cut down rapidly with ease to create so space.
"Disgusting," Maria said the mont she arrived, a red shield of mana hanging around her like a bubble, then she waved her hand, and a ring of fire exploded outward, killing hundreds of insects at once, burning them to ashes.
Which, incidentally, destroyed their shells as well. Their mana puffed into existence for a mont, only to be drawn in by the dungeon in quick order. "Thanks for the assist, but don't forget. We need to preserve the shells for mana recovery."
"Right," she said with the slightest blush. "You're right. I'll be more careful."
"By the way, how much mana do you have to throw around like that, if it won't be a private question," I asked, surprised by the ease she had done so.
"It is," she said, but she continued to smile, so I wasn't scared of her reaction. "Just above forty thousand."
"W-what?" I gasped. Considering she was level hundred, I was expecting a lot. But, forty thousand…
"My class gives ten Essence each level, which is enough to raise the number in the first place. Then, there is an item to increase my Essence further, and another to enhance mana points that it grants by every level… Combined, it goes up significantly."
"Impressive," I said, though I couldn't help but feel jealous. It was a scary amount of mana. No wonder she didn't need to stop to replenish her mana. "So, I'm sure I can leave you here safely for a second," I said. She nodded, and I disappeared to the fourth floor to get another sapling.
Once I returned, setting up the hydroponic garden took only seconds, the process getting more and more familiar.
"So, you have Nurture as well," she comnted. "I can arrange for a skill removal stone if you want. We have several in storage, and now that you have thousands of Farrs to call upon, it's a waste of skill a point."
"It cos in handy too often," I said.
"Are you sure? It's … Nurture," she said, her disdain clear.
"Once we finished with the dungeon," I said, deflecting the request. I had no intention of doing so, as Nurture was a very useful tool, but I didn't want to spend ti convincing her of that. At least, not here.
"Good," she said. "So, does the boss monster really just co rushing in," she said.
"Yes. Should I assu it's not common?"
"Might be," she said. "But, the dungeons I operate in are usually split into two categories. Either the boss monsters are valuable enough that they are hunted the mont they are born, with the various teams competing for it, or the last thing you want is to co across them."
"Fair point," I said even as I finished setting the web of trees, including the steam-powered crusher, and piled it with mana. Adding a secondary mana exhaust that poured pure mana toward her while pushing the more tainted portion to the trees was easy.
She closed her eyes as the mana flow hit her, only to open them back again, surprised. "The mana … it's pure," she gasped.
"Well, yeah. I have a filtering chanism there to separate the two portions. It's not that hard."
"Really? There are wards capable of doing that, but they are rare and expensive. This could be a ga changer for dungeon exploration."
"As long as we find a way to spread it around without accompanying assassination attempts," I said.
"Good point," she said, and focused on absorbing the mana with enough speed to shock . A rough calculation told that it would take less than five minutes for her to refill her mana reserves completely, and that was with her taking in every drop of mana the crusher produced.
Her true limit, I had no idea, and that was with her yet to pass the level hundred barrier … which was supposed to improve her abilities in a material manner.
It was a good realization, snapping my growing bubble of arrogance. I had improved a lot and gained so impressive victories, but it wouldn't do well to forget that all of those victories ca from situations I could manipulate to my benefit.
Soone like Maria could still kill a hundred of with a spell in an open field of battle. And, from the speed with which she devoured mana, it seed like that one spell wouldn't be her limit.
I busied myself with adding more trees to the hydroponic garden, distracting myself from the sudden sense of inferiority. It wasn't exactly fair, as not only did my class have very significant drawbacks when it ca to combat potential, but I was also significantly behind her in terms of schedule.
I made sure not to let her realize any of it, as my personal crisis was hardly her problem. "The first boss is almost here," I called her soon. "Should we discuss how to deal with it?"
"No need. Just give a signal when it's five seconds away, and leave the rest to ."
I wanted to argue against it, as it seed silly to fight a battle without a plan in place, but the way she told that gave pause. She seed confident enough.
I decided to hold my complaints to myself, as there were two probabilities. First, her spell would put us in a dangerous position, but with several layers of trees around us, it would be easy to compensate. The second, she actually knew what she was doing.
Her confidence didn't fill with confidence, but I chose to trust her expertise.
"Now," I said once the gargantuan beast approached the line with sufficient speed, and the mana started to gather in front of her. It was bright enough to signal that it was going to be a strong spell, but its structure was packed tight. I didn't have the experience to asure the amount of mana she was putting into her casting.
But, it should be enough to wound the beast significantly. I still wished that we discussed tactics beforehand, but I could also see where she was coming from in terms of confidence. I prepared to rush once her spell went off, focusing on distracting the boss while she cast another spell.
… Only for it to turn unnecessary when the gargantuan monster had collapsed against the edge of the tree line, a giant flaming spear skewering through its center.
One spell. It was all it took to kill the giant beast, while I had to whittle at it slowly for an hour.
"How was that?" Maria said as she turned to proudly.
"Amazing," I said, which was certainly not an exaggeration. "What was it?"
"My strongest single-target spell," she said. "Too bad it takes almost half of my mana to cast it once here," she said as she moved near, and then absorbed the crystal that the dungeon boss had turned into.
While I wanted to watch her, gaping in shock, I had more important things to do. Like hunting the swarm that it brought along to supply the crusher. "So, you can take it down with one spell," I said. "I'm impressed."
"Yes," she said, then frowned. "Unfortunately, it's hard to use against smaller targets. It's slow to cast, expensive in terms of mana, and its range is not particularly impressive."
"It's still a hundred tis more powerful than the siege weapons," I said.
She waved her hand. "Yeah, siege weapons are hardly worth using anywhere except when defending towns against monster hordes. Nothing that can rival a proper mage."
I would have argued if it ca from anyone else, but as soone who might match the devastation potential of a ship full of napalm, she had a right to make that comnt.
"If the mage in question is you, certainly," I said, which earned a big smile.
"Exactly," she said. "Now, it has been a while since we had a proper ga. Why don't we have one while waiting for the next boss? I missed playing with you. You know how to make the gas interesting."
"Knight C3," I called in response even as I continued hunting the beasts. Luckily, at this point, even using mana attacks was mostly automatic, allowing to focus on the ga even as I got piled on by the leftover swarm.
Too bad my full focus only ant a slower descent to inevitable defeat. Not that I was complaining, as it was far better than focusing on the fight. Nothing except the boss monsters ca close to providing with a challenge … and with bosses no longer a problem with her attacks, even that was not the case anymore.
So, trying to put up an impossible defense against her attacks seed like a good way to pass the ti as I expanded my little hydroponic forest, to see just how many boss monsters I could pull to fight us.
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