Chapter 43 – Capital of the Waters 01!
[Chapter Size: 2718 Words.]
Lucius POV
Eighteenth Floor, Dungeon.
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The next morning, I woke up and finished conducting some tests with my new powers before heading to the next floors. I wanted to explore the possibilities of my abilities and gauge my capacity in a few hours, something I hadn't done since acquiring spells without incantations.
After my first meal with Riekling, I went to an open area and summoned my new attack summon. Invoking an Atronach on the spot, I commanded it to launch flames towards me. Following my orders, I stood still as firebolts flew in my direction. It was just firebolts; I'm certain that if I used a spell that evolves a summon, costing five million in the store, its firebolts would transform into fireballs—a spell a hundred times the price of firebolts with destructive power ten times greater. This would turn it into a formidable fire summon. Looking at it this way, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to Riekling with this spell—an unanswered question until I laid my hands on it.
As the fire blasts were about to be unleashed with a kind of art by the Atronach, gracefully dancing and hovering a few inches from the ground, I simply disappeared when the attack was inches away from me, almost feeling the heat of the small fireballs. I reappeared two meters away, testing my quick dodge spell.
"Atronach, keep attacking. Don't stop trying to hit me until I say stop." I instructed it, and it spun and danced while raising the spell again.
While the fire blasts continued to come at me, I tested the quick dodge and tried to adapt to it before going into battle against monsters. I wasn't trying to dodge large spells, giant rocks, or trees coming my way. Instead, with this spell, more like a powerful skill, I could dodge deadly weapon strikes, claws, and teeth aiming to kill me, given my two-meter dodge range.
So, I trained with the Flame Atronach, which tried to hit me in the next few hours while I appeared and disappeared without taking a step, relying solely on my spell. I ended up getting hurt a bit as I was still getting used to the sensation, but it's better to get burned by friendly fire than pierced by dungeon monsters. I got used to it, and in the end, I wasn't hit by any fire in the last hour that attempted to strike me.
In the end, this sensation of a small teleport became very enjoyable, and I truly liked it while no projectiles hit me in the last hour. It was a far cry from just conjuring in the past few days, which was quite dull and demotivating, but now it was different. Without an incantation in real combat, the experience was incredible.
Feeling ready to fight on the next floors, he began to dismantle his small camp, donning his armor and cloak. He left the area with his goblin companion by his side.
While things unfolded normally on the eighteenth floor, an adventurer with a wizard's cloak shone in a small blue aura around his body, and his amethyst eyes gleamed. By his side was a support unlike anything ever seen before—a goblin with a large backpack, a monster never before seen tamed. On the other side of the wizard, another monster, a female creature made of fire, flew while somersaulting in the air from time to time, leaving a trail of fire wherever she went.
This small group was now heading towards the stairs to the nineteenth floor. The adventurers returning to Rivira from their expeditions on these floors, who saw the peculiar group of mages and creatures, were all levels two, three, or four. Despite their curiosity, they were alarmed by a group of this magnitude, and no one wanted to mess with them. They simply passed by the trio without asking any questions, trying to stay as far away as possible, while the two monsters and the human mage descended the stairs.
Third Person POV
Twentieth Floor.
Everything was calm on the twentieth floor. The monsters were in small or large groups, encountering no opponents so far. However, the silence ended when suddenly a group with three Vouivres heard a noise from the darkness of the tunnels—a sound of footsteps coming their way. The trio was on alert, waiting for any enemy to appear, until the corridor lit up with a ball of light flying on the shoulder of an adventurer who appeared, holding a sword shining in a blue ray.
This ball of light was the Magelight, while Lucius used the lightning sword, a form reminiscent of Sasuke using Chidori in his Kusanagi. Upon seeing the Vouivres in front of him, Lucius prepared for battle, and the creatures began to growl at him. Without wasting more time, he ran forward at a level 2 speed. The monsters could easily handle this, but as they attacked the adventurer, he disappeared in front of them before their claws could tear into him and reappeared beside them with a small teleport. He wasted no time and tore through the head of the nearest creature.
The other two creatures, seeing this, attacked the adventurer with hatred, but he simply disappeared again and reappeared a few meters back from the furious Vouivres. The two creatures were boiling with even more anger, growling at him in frustration, outraged by this opponent who was evading their attacks easily.
"Hehehe, very interesting. Battles are easier if I dodge and get to the opponent like this. With the lightning weapon spell, I don't even have difficulty cutting these monsters like the previous spell. It's like cutting paper now. However, my weapon started showing small cracks after a few hours of fighting..." He reflected while ignoring the monsters running and attacking Lucius.
Without wasting any more time, he resumed attacking the monsters. Utilizing his quick dodge ability, he appeared behind one of them, killing it in a few seconds. The other attempted to attack, but suddenly, 6 fireballs appeared around the human without a word from him, as if he had done it with just a thought. The attack, a multi-firebolts charged assault, forced the last Vouivre to protect itself with claws on its face and retreat after being hit point-blank. This gave the adventurer time to lower the creature's neck after swiftly dispatching the last one.
"Heee!" A small goblin appeared as soon as the battle ended, congratulating the human, while a fiery creature appeared by his side, further illuminating the darkness of the floor where they stood.
"This is very interesting..." Lucius celebrated, realizing he had sustained no injuries in this fight, which he took quite easily.
"Well, let's continue..." He said after Riekling picked up the crystals and started moving forward, with the goblin and the fiery creature following closely behind.
Some time later, the stairs to the twenty-first floor were found.
[Notification: You Killed 1 Dark Fungus from the Twenty-First Floor: 21 Points added!]
[Notification: You have 1 Dark Fungus Crystal from the Twenty-First Floor. Do you want to Convert the Crystal into Points? 80 Points;]
[Yes/No]
As always, the crystals doubled the points every 5 floors. "If I do the math, I'll be earning 5120 points per crystal between floors 51-55, but it's a bit of a distant benefit... Maybe in a few months if I think positively," he mused aloud as he watched the crystal in his hand disappear, sold to the system.
Lucius POV
I continued killing everything that appeared. On this particular floor, there were many groups of monsters, so it was easy to accumulate a lot of points by using magic. My fire machine gun multiplied because now 6 fireballs are summoned around Lucius with the Multi-firebolts spell after being charged. I don't need to raise my hands to aim, as I can materialize the spell in the space around me and launch it every second with a single thought about the spell and the target; the fireballs explode where I think.
With the skill charged for 2 seconds using my charged magic ability, the balls have the power of 24 firebolts when launched—extremely overpowered.
On these floors, I had to hit the monsters dozens of times for them to be destroyed. Still, with the speed of my magic and the quantity of attacks, it was quick to eliminate all of them as I explored the floor with an insect theme.
In the end, Lucius stayed on the floor until he eliminated all the creatures, not in a hurry to advance to the lower floors. He ended up killing 1060 monsters on this floor and sold the crystals he gained to the system.
[Notification: You Killed 1060 Monsters from the Twenty-First Floor: 22,260 Points added!]
[Notification: You have 1060 Monster Crystals from the Twenty-First Floor. Do you want to Convert the Crystals into Points? 80 Points Each.]
[Yes/No]
"Yes"
[Notification: 84,800 Points Added.]
Lucius POV
I managed to get over 100,000 points here in 10 hours on this floor, killing many hordes and groups. I only sold the crystals from this floor and left the others to sell in Rivira and exchange for more supplies. So, after 20 hours in the dungeon, I decided to return to the safe zone and rest for a bit.
After a few more hours taking some potions I had to avoid passing out from exhaustion, as I had accumulated a sleep debt since I started training, I finally arrived in Rivira. I had to turn off my magical aura and my Flame Atronach, which I had kept on to complete their respective missions.
Ignoring once again the stares directed at me as I entered the city, I exchanged my 600 crystals for supplies for many days, as I plan to accumulate more points without having to return to this floor. Meanwhile, I dive deeper and explore the dungeon in the water capitals, which is my current goal. In the end, I got a room at an inn this time, so I wouldn't have to set up camp again.
"I've accumulated 118,760 points in just one day... that's very good!" I thought, satisfied with my points. I've been in the dungeon for almost a week now. I don't know exactly when the events with the Apollo family will start, but I plan to stay here for another 10 days to accumulate more useful spells, so I went to sleep.
The next day, without wasting time, I returned to the lower floors without wanting to go back to Rivira so soon. As I fought everything I encountered and followed the maps I bought for the lower floors, two days passed, and I managed to reach the twenty-fifth floor for the first time.
The sight of the waterfalls cascading for hundreds of meters was very satisfying to look at, wondering what kind of creatures I will find here.
"The monsters are getting tougher, but with my powers, if I don't face the Amphisbaena on the twenty-seventh floor, I'll be fine... with a bit of difficulty," I reflected.
I'm having a bit of difficulty each time I go down to the lower floors. The monsters become stronger and smarter, even with the quick dodge, I still got hurt many times during some fights, and if it weren't for my magical skin, I would be seriously injured.
Putting that thought aside, I started to explore the floor and began fighting in these next corridors—battling Raider Fish, Harpy, Siren, Blue Crab, Aqua Serpent, Crystal Turtle, Devil Mosquito, Light Quartz, Crystaroth Urchin, Iguazu, Mermaid, and Merman—encountering fights against terrestrial, aquatic, and even aerial monsters.
I didn't worry too much about exterminating all the monsters on the floors, as I faced all of them on the way that led to the stairs to the other floors, according to the guild map I had with me. Since leaving Rivira, I descended to the twenty-sixth floor, where I am now, and encountered a problem, which was resting for a few hours. There were no safe zones on these floors. So I adopted Aiz's strategy when she was teaching Bell to fight in the early episodes of the anime, which was to sleep on the ground for a few hours.
However, this annoyed me. I am an adventurer with enough resilience to endure sleeping on the ground, but it bothered me, preventing me from having a quality sleep in the few hours of rest. I am the kind of person who had the spell that cleaned me without needing to take a bath, and for that reason, I loved this spell more than any other. Yes, I love comfort and cleanliness!
So with this thought and without wasting any more time, after accumulating many points in the last few days, I opened the shop again. At that moment, I bought the most useful spell I found so far.
[Alteration/Creation Intermediate Spell/Rank 3: 500,000] (Spell that creates fixed objects in a place like a bed, forge, alchemy table, tent, table, chairs, among other things for a while until the user undoes the spell or stops casting it to keep it.)
I spent 500,000 points out of the 800,000 I accumulated in the last 5 days. It's a bit of a waste if I consider the spells that made me stronger, but now I can sleep in a bed whenever I want, and that gave me another quality of sleep that I never had, even in the safe area.
Not just a bed, I can cook and eat at a table with dishes I create with magic. I started having fancy dinners in front of the great waterfall of these floors. I've never had so much luxury in the dungeon before, and I believe no one else can have this luxury as I am living now. So yes, I don't regret spending 500,000 points on a spell over many other useful ones in battle.
Spending another day in my adventures on these floors, I ended up clearing the entire twenty-sixth floor, and I was satisfied with my results. So, I went to find an area to have a rest and a meal, unlike before when a little after leaving Rivira, I had to look for a somewhat hidden place with a flat ground to avoid hurting my back. Now I could find any place where Riekling could stand guard for me to create a comfortable bed.
But before that, I decided to stop in an area next to a stream between the rivers of the floors before reaching the waterfalls and summoned a dining table. After cooking on a stove I created—an object that doesn't exist in this world, but I created one that needed magic stones to work, an easy fuel to get while you're in the dungeon—I made some dishes, pots, and a frying pan. I used spices and oils that I bought in Rivira to make a beautiful dinner with Riekling.
And while I was peacefully enjoying the meal with the landscapes of the floors with all that water flowing and falling, Riekling doesn't need to eat or sleep. He eats sometimes just for pleasure, so he ended up joining me for dinner because of the pleasant taste of the food I prepared.
But as I enjoyed the meal, it was at that moment that I heard a sound of a small frightened scream with a touch of water.
"AHHH!" The sound was quiet, but I still heard it.
I looked at the origin of the sound and saw a Mermaid, spying on me from some distance, and her scream was because she slipped between the rocks. I thought she would attack me, but she only showed curiosity in her gaze. Seeing this, my eyes widened with her presence.
"Is it her?" I exclaimed mentally.
When she saw that I noticed her, she began to retreat, and I couldn't help but shout quickly.
"Marie! Wait!" I shouted.
The "Monster" that was returning to swim into the depths of the streams stopped at that moment, and she looked at me bewildered.
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