Chapter 127: Preliminary End Of The Exploration

POV Eliza

Next, despite the problems I had recently, I wanted to fight the 6th boss on floor 30 next. But before I did that, I had to create the best conditions. Firstly, the Shadowbind spell had proved to be very useful. I had previously thought about how to deal with the monsters in the boss fight, which posed a greater threat to me. My last tactic against the bears was not feasible. The room was presumably brightly lit. This meant there were little to no shadows big enough for me to hide in. But they should be enough to successfully cast Shadowbind.

Before the boss fight, I tried out how long it took me to defeat a single treant to floor 30. The result was not very satisfactory for me. In addition to an increasingly strong bark as armor, it could now summon tendrils from underground like the vines. At least they were still slow, so I was able to use my high Agility and Evade skill on all attacks. However, my daggers took far too long, so I had to resort to spells. The treants had to have increased resistance to poison, as they were slow to lose HP. The Air Cutter, on the other hand, was the most effective, as were the Dark Bolt and the Shadowthorns. Dark Bolt was the simplest attack spell of Dark Magic and worked against one opponent, while Shadowthorns had an area effect. They were even more effective than the Air Cutter and quicker to cast. It took me a while to remember why. Luna had told me that every elf had an affinity for a form of magic that defined their exact race. As a dark elf, this was Darkness Magic. As a result, all spells from this realm were significantly more effective than all others. I hadn't noticed this before and I'd better not forget it again.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel well enough prepared. I was most worried about my weapon. I probably had enough Magic Cores to buy the best possible weapon. I went to a weapon store recommended by the Adventurers' Guild. Many of the weapons that could be looted in the dungeon were on offer here. Naturally, I was here as a human.

You could only recognize it from the outside because there was a large sign above the door in the shape of a crossed sword and spear in front of a shield. The name next to it said: Farnim's Weapons and Shields. The interior was a large counter with many different smaller weapons on display. Dozens of swords, axes, spears, maces, shields and other weapons hung on the walls. Behind the counter was a door to the back of the building. There was a bell on the counter. There was no one to be seen at the moment, so I pressed the bell.

“Hold on, I'll be right there.” <Man>

A male voice sounded from behind the curtain. A short time later, a man in his 50s in splendid-looking clothes emerged from the back room. He wore a mighty moustache, one end of which he kept rubbing.

"I am Farnim. How can I help you?" <Farmin>

"I'm looking for a good dagger for fighting in the local dungeon. What do you have to offer?" <Eliza>

“I would need to know which floor you want to fight on and whether your skills are sufficient to wield the weapon in question.” <Farnim>

“I want to fight the floor between 25 and 30.” <Eliza>

"25 to 30? With respect, you don't look it. But then you'll have enough money to be able to afford my weapons." <Farnim>

"I have the appropriate magic cores. Will you accept them as payment?" <Eliza>

“Of course, although I'll have to give you a small discount on the value as I'll have to exchange them for gold myself.” <Farnim>

"I see. How big will the deduction be?" <Eliza>

“10%.” <Farnim>

"Maybe I'll have to give up the offer and sell it myself. I don't know if my money will be enough otherwise. But first I have to see which weapon is useful to me and how much it costs." <Eliza>

"Just as you wish. I would recommend a magical weapon. These are enchanted with various attributes. Elemental enchantments that deal additional damage to the opponent depending on the element are popular. What value do you have in Artifact Control? “ <Farnim>

”Artifact Control? Why?" <Eliza>

"Depending on the strength of the enchantment, you need a corresponding value in Artifact Control to be able to wield the weapon. As soon as you enchant a weapon, it counts as an artifact. If your value is too low, you cannot use the enchantment. If, on the other hand, your value is far too low, you may be affected by the effects yourself." <Farnim>

"I see. Wait a moment. I need to check something." <Eliza>

I concentrated on my status for a moment. I hadn't invested anything in Artifact Control yet, but I had more than enough free EXP to raise it to advanced tier 10, my current maximum. All I had to do was upgrade it to advanced with my magic teacher in between. All right, then I knew what I had to do next.

“Please show me daggers that can be wielded with advanced Artifact Control.” <Eliza>

"As you wish. This way, please." <Farnim>

Farnim led me along the counter and pulled out a box. The box contained several daggers of various designs. The smallest of them measured 25 cm and was pointed like a stiletto. The largest measured 40 cm and had the shape of a triangle. I was particularly struck by a dagger measuring around 35 cm, which was curved like a flame. It had a large red gemstone in the handle that radiated great magical power.

"These are the daggers that are suitable for you. We currently have four elemental enchantments in our selection. The small dagger here carries lightning enchantment. It can trigger a stun effect when hit. The second smallest has powers with the element earth. It is particularly sturdy and also very sharp. The dagger with the shape of a flame carries a fire enchantment. When hit, it inflicts additional fire damage. The last one has the power of water. It can melt metal and armor with acid. Note, however, that you need at least tier 5 in Artifact Control for the last two." <Farnim>

“How expensive are the daggers supposed to be?” <Eliza>

"The cheapest costs 3 small gold piece and the most expensive 4 small gold and 4 large silver. You can see the exact prices here." <Farnim>

The merchant showed me the corresponding price tags. As expected, the two most interesting daggers were also the most expensive. I calculated in my head how much money my magic cores were worth. I had to subtract the expected cost of the magic teacher from this, which was also likely to be several silvers high. Realistically, I could only afford one of the two. So I had to weigh up the options. I knew that the treants were resistant to water magic, while they were sensitive to fire. I could fight the bears and wolves with Darkness Magic, so it didn't matter at this point.

I had the fire dagger put aside and planned to come back for it in a few hours. I went to sell most of my Magic Cores first, but not in the guild. Sana would just ask me where I got them and give me another lecture. I could do without that. Luckily, I knew a lot of the merchants in town by now, so I knew who I could sell some of them directly to. I then went to the magic teacher and was lucky that he had time to teach me Artifact Control on advanced. I also spent the EXP accordingly to increase the skill to tier 5. Then I went back to Farnim and bought the fire dagger.

That should have prepared me well enough. Before the boss fight, I rested until my MP had recovered. Then I cast Haste and Agility Enhancement on myself and opened the door. Inside, I was expecting the most difficult fight I'd ever had to face. But before I entered the cave, I summoned a servant with the basic summoning spell. Any help was welcome, even if it was very little. I was given a bat as support and ordered it to guard me. If it could keep one or two opponents at bay for at least a short time, I was already doing myself some good.

This time I opened the battle with another dark spell. I cursed the monsters with the Blind spell. It created the status effect blind, medium and affected several opponents thanks to advanced Darkness Magic. It reduced the victims' chance to hit and their parry ability, both of which helped me a lot. Since the monsters always appeared in a small radius around each other, I hit all of them with it. My affinity helped me enormously.

The boss this time was the wolf, in this case a wolf with earth magic. I was expecting him not to be blinded. Fortunately, both butterflies and the two bears were blinded, which gave me enough time to bind the boss wolf with Shadowbind. Then I took care of the orcs first, as they were the easiest opponents, especially when blinded. I mainly had to make sure I didn't get hit by the others, which I managed to do at the beginning. As I was fighting alone and many of the monsters were much bigger than me, only 3 monsters came at me at a time. The two treants and the caterpillars were so slow that I could always outrun them. Meanwhile the boss wolf rampaged inside his shadowbinds and fired several stone bullets at them.

I finished off the orc archer first and then the orc scout. My buffed speed gave me a lot of advantages, so I could quickly run into a corner afterwards to buy myself time for more spells. I kept casting Shadowthorns into the pack of monsters and renewed the Shadowbind. I was also able to take a deep breath and regenerate HP during the short rest period. By now I could no longer dodge every attack, as I also had to attack. The flaming dagger proved to be surprisingly effective.

The tactic for the next phase of the fight was a continuation of the hit and run tactic. I ran towards a monster, hit it once and ran away again. However, this only worked halfway safely as long as the boss wolf was still hanging in the shadow tentacles, so I had to keep renewing the spell. I killed the caterpillars with attack spells, as well as the butterflies.

I managed to use this tactic until only the two treants and the wolf remained. All three were tough monsters, so I had to continue to act carefully. I chose the wolf as my first target. His stone spells were dangerous. With a combination of powerful stabs to the joints and acrobatic dodging, it still took me over 10 minutes to defeat it. Most of the damage was dealt by the fire enchantment. It was money well spent. I would have had a lot more trouble without it. In the end, my biggest problem was the increasing fatigue and my dwindling stamina.

But the two treants were another big hurdle. I also had to start paying attention to my MP. Without my second class, I wouldn't have any left. I had to finish the fight as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it also cost stamina to cast spells. So I couldn't choose the Air Cutter because it cost too much SP. That left me with the Dark Bolt, which cost nearly nothing, and Shadowthorns. For the latter, it was more effective to have both Treants close together. Fortunately, both were close enough to each other. So I used Shadowbind while both treants were still there. So I ran around the monsters in a wide arc and cast one spell after another on them.

Nevertheless, it still took several minutes before I was finally victorious. This battle had lasted just under an hour in total. The advantage of my fighting style had become clear and now that I had a strong weapon, it had given me the victory in this fight. I took surprisingly little damage, but it was still close. I almost used up all my MP and had to take several breaks to replenish my SP. I was only able to survive because of my double class. I had learned my lesson. I should be more careful in the future, but I'd said that before. Often my dark elf blood came to light and I had to fight again. A difficult situation.

Let's move on to my reward. I opened the chest and looked inside. Inside was a book, a scroll, two potions and 3 small gold pieces. Wow, that was a lot more money than before and there were other exciting items too. Unfortunately, I couldn't identify any of them, but I had accumulated enough EXP to improve the Identify Item skill to tier 10. After that, I was able to identify all the items. The book was a textbook on nature magic. Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything with it. The scroll was the Advanced Light spell. Could it be used to make light? The two potions were a healing potion and a mana potion. Both would certainly help me in the future.

I couldn't improve any skills on the stele because I still didn't have the improved class. So I only took the second development point and made my way back. To do this, I left the boss cave and went through the portal to floor 31. From here, it became too dangerous for me to continue. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten that I would always start solo on this floor from now on. I could only get to the previous floors as part of a group. This was the end of my career in the nature dungeon for the time being.