Chapter 413

Anna P.O.V.

Fighting the bees on the previous floor had been a great way to warm up and it was something I very much needed if I was to kill a miniboss in this frozen hellscape. The fifth floor of the dungeon was a land of eternal winter. While I had seen snow outside the dungeon it never got any higher than my knees, father told me the worst winter he ever experienced it got as high as his waist.

“This is amazing.” Arianwyn shouted with glee as continued to practice her Domain. This was the perfect place for it, her winter domain was right at home with the theme of the floor. Oddly enough the presence of her domain was the only reason the wind had slowed down around us and we weren’t pelted by hail. 

“Let's go find some of the minibosses.” Ajax said with a relaxed posture, it was as if the cold didn’t affect him at all while I could feel it burrowing through my enchantments with every moment that passed. “Since the floor is environmental we the minibosses might be weaker than usual.” 

I appreciated the heartwarming encouragement, while Ajax’s lack of subtlety wasn’t something I appreciated there was something to be said about his willingness to support his friends. The encouragement was mainly geared towards Benedict who had all but given up on clearing this floor before we even stepped foot on it, but it was also slightly directed towards me. 

The winter theme of the floor wasn’t a disadvantage for me, while snow and ice could both easily put out a fire so could a fire melt them. This would all come down to one thing for me, could I be efficient enough with my mana to bring down my enemy before they got to me or not. I know I could blow all my mana quickly but that might not be efficient enough to kill something at level seventy two, I also knew with enough time I could use my mana efficiently enough to bring it down. The problem with the second scenario was that I was alone and a full on mage so I had to win before they got too close to me.

Am I even a full on mage anymore? I know I spent every one of my free stat points in either my Vitality or my Mental stats but I had also delved more than fifteen dungeons. All of my stats had more than an extra fifty added on just from clearing floors, my body wasn’t as weak any more. I know for a fact Benedict is planning on working out a deal with Elara’s family to help build his foundation more like the elven physical fighter after his Metal stats had increased so much from delving. Once I returned home I would need to work hard to get accustomed to my new limits, especially when it comes to my physical attributes which will have all gained almost a 50% increase in under a year.

As soon as we crossed the boundary of Arianwyn’s Domain the chilling wind returned with a vengeance. I bundled myself tighter with the fur coat my father had gifted me, more than that I could also admit that he was right. Despite the presence of the soft fur not doing anything to keep me warmer than regular leather would have with the same enchantments the fur just made it feel like it was keeping out the cold and even that little bit helped.

“We’ve got incoming.” Ajax warned us but I knew none of us would even lift a finger unless there was a miniboss. There were more than twenty people above level one hundred and fifty on this floor, even if half of them split off so they could stay with Arianwyn as she practiced her domain, nothing would get the jump on us.

“What is it?” Benedict asked curiously, the nature of the enemy was important to see if it was a favorable match-up for him. 

“Foxes.” Ajax answered, a little sadness in his tone.

It didn’t take me long to see why he wasn’t pleased. While the monsters the elves were toying with did resemble foxes they were also only slightly smaller than an average horse, not only that but they were pure white, their fur would sell for a premium. Their increased size didn’t seem to affect their usual quickness and to make matters worse they could somehow dig through the snow in the same way a mole monster would through the earth. I could feel their mana working but that small bit of warning wasn’t enough for any of us except Ajax to even consider fighting them.

“There’s a miniboss there for you Ajax” The prince said, he obviously agreed with my assessment of the monsters.

Ajax didn’t hesitate to engage, I could feel him activating [Mana Syphon], my own [Sense Mana] painted a clear picture of a vortex centered on Ajax where all mana would surge towards as he consumed it to increase his own physical prowess.

As Ajax engaged the fox I braced myself for the wall of Aura that washed over us. It wasn’t all that powerful, I’ve felt many more powerful Aura’s but all of those had been constrained or offset by another Aura. Nobody else other than Ajax was unleashing his Aura now and while it wasn’t intentional I could tell Xavier, Benedict, Lexi and myself were all slightly pressured by it.

With his sword in hand Ajax’s hand turned into a blur. I knew his hand hadn’t actually turned invisible, it was simply moving faster than my eyes could track, a single exchange with the fox was enough to bring it down. The only reason I knew he had made five cuts was by counting the wounds on the fox. 

“You’re getting sloppy.” the prince teased Ajax. 

Despite getting a lot stronger in the past half a year, even more than all of us, it was getting more and more obvious that Ajax wasn’t used to his own stats. The cuts that covered the fox’s body weren’t precisely grouped. Back when we left Gryndor Ajax wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice any of his speed for his cuts to land exactly where he wanted them to.

It didn’t take more than five more minutes before we found our first arch on this floor. The guardian was a creature I hadn’t seen before but one I had read about as being relatively common in frozen floors. A penguin.

“I’ll fight it.” [Noble Bearing] keeps my face emotionless and my voice even as I lay claim to the miniboss.

Penguins are slow, and not particularly tough. Their threat comes mostly from their magic and their pack tactics. This whole fight will come down to how quickly I can overpower the penguin’s defensive magic while ensuring my own defenses aren’t breached.

While getting in position I get a round of nods from the rangers as three of them have their bows drawn, ready to kill all the surrounding penguins and leave only the miniboss for me to fight. I bring out the potion and remove the cork before downing it in one gulp. The moment after I swallow I begin to chant.

The potion is one specifically made to influence the drinker’s mana towards fire. I can feel the potion take effect as the cold and wind stop bothering me entirely as a wave of warmth radiates out from my core, with this my fire spells would pack that much heat.

Halfway through my chant the penguin’s feel my mana gathering and move to engage me. A few brief but powerful flashes of mana spring up in my surroundings as this happens but I force myself to ignore them as the rangers remove the minibosses’ helpers.

The surprise attack confuses the miniboss and that is the last of the help I will get as I channel almost a tenth of my entire mana pool into a single flame lance that I sent hurtling towards the penguin. I don’t even wait to see the effects as I already start chanting my second spell.

My [Sense Mana] is locked on to my lance, as soon as it gets within ten feet of the penguin it’s met with a frozen barrier. My lance loses its form as it breaks through the barrier and the flames wash over the penguin. 

The miniboss whines in pain as the flames flow over it and for a moment it seems like it wants to run away. If this was a real penguin I’m sure it would attempt to flee but in the dungeon the monster's base instincts are suppressed and the angry creature starts to retaliate.

The brief moment of indecision it had was enough for me to finish chanting my wall of flames. A defensive spell isn’t something I would normally use to follow up my initial attack with but in this case it is essential as the flood of fire mana very much limits my opponents range.

Over the past six years I have become increasingly proficient in dealing with caster type monsters, in fact I am sure there are very few people at my level that can claim the same mastery as Lexi, Xavier and I have. The reason for this is our constant sparring with Ajax, my friend’s casting is almost identical to the way monsters cast their spells. 

With my defenses established I quickly turn up the aggression with a few quick spells, I can’t allow the penguin to channel a powerful attack or it will break straight through my defensive enchantments.

The next few minutes feel like an eternity as a deadlock form where both of us are launching a volley of spells at one another. While the penguin’s spells aren’t strong enough to outright shatter my defensive enchantments I can feel the barriers starting to crack with every shard of ice and frostbolt. At the same time my own spells have managed to break through the penguin’s renewed ice shell and I’m finally starting to deepen the initial burns it suffered.

I’m down to a fifth of my mana but that’s more than enough to finish this, that’s when I feel an icy shiver pass through my body. My potion has finally run out and my spells have started to lose some of their heat. While the boost in power wasn’t enormous without it the damage my spells would do to the monsters has dropped considerably, without the added heat the penguin’s own magical defenses smother them too much. 

I was so close. No, I won’t give up, this isn’t over yet. A brief flash of Ajax and Lexi leaving me behind as they push forward and I can feel my emotions burn as they refuse to allow it to become reality. Then everything clicks into place. 

I’m not sure what changed but as i release my next fireball I can feel the heat of the flames almost strong enough to burn my own hand as I launch it, it’s more than powerful enough to break though the penguin’s defenses and as the attack lands the flames persistently latch on to the creature, almost like they are enforcing my will for it to burn.

The battle ends with my next attack as the creature dies while my flames continue burning through the blizzard without a care in the world as they turn the corpse into ash. I quickly open up my status looking for an explanation of what happened. 

There it is, down at the bottom, my news skill, my only Legendary skill. [Pyromancer]