Ruthless ~ 38!

~ 38 ~

You have entered the Dungeon ‘Trial section 118b’. Please cast your vote for party challenge! Strength / Dexterity / Constitution / Intelligence / Wisdom / Charisma / Perception / Luck.

Joe selected the dexterity option. The odd cube-shaped world rearranged itself and settled. He jumped to the platform, then to the door, and stepped inside.

Average party dexterity… 70. Scaling difficulty to 50-100 dexterity range. Good luck!

“Not so much about luck here, is it?” Joe was still salty about the luck-based trial being decided instantly. A roar shook the surroundings, and Joe instantly focused on the incoming battle. The great part about this area was that there was a high concentration of monsters to fight against. The terrible part was that they would happily destroy him if he messed up. This area was designed for people with anywhere from fifty to a hundred dexterity, so there was a good chance that there would be Neigh-Bears in here that were more than a match for his abilities. 

Joe readied his mind, and threw himself into combat after taking a look at his newest spell.

Cone of Cold (Novice VIII). Ever wanted to look at a group of people arranged in a cone within thirty feet of you, and tell all of them to chill at the same time? Looks like you found the right spell! Effect: Release super-chilled air from your hands, dealing 15n damage on all enemies within thirty feet in a cone-shaped area-of-effect, where n = skill level. Inflicts the ‘Brittle’ debuff. Cost: 20n mana. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Requires both hands to use, or channeling through a two-handed staff.

Brittle: doubles durability damage against rigid objects. This is only accounted for when the object is struck. No, you can’t boost the damage your acid does, nice try. Ignore 20% armor rating for any metal armor where ‘Brittle’ is applied.

Joe was crossing his fingers that as he leveled this spell up, he would be able to slow the movement speed of enemies as well. It seemed that was more of an actual ice spell, and Cone of Cold was, in truth, an ‘air affinity’ spell. Still, while it wasn’t as effective as it could have been, it would get the job done. “Cone of Cold!”

In an instant, one hundred and sixty mana left him, and the three charging Neigh-Bears took one hundred and twenty damage. Beyond the addition of shivering, there was no change in their pace toward him. At the last moment, Joe jumped into the air and to the left. He thought he had made a clean getaway, but his fluttering robe was hooked by a sharp claw. In the next instant, Joe was slammed against the ground, completely winded.

Damage: 0 (120 terrain damage absorbed by Exquisite Shell).

A shadow of himself appeared and slapped the bear in the face. Taking the chance his skill had given him, he rolled back to his feet in an instant. Joe found that he was surrounded by charging monsters. “Perfect. I can attack in any direction!”

As the paws came down at him, Joe called down a Dark Lightning Strike, then dove under the attacks as the Neigh-Bears flinched back from the surprise pain and odd snapping sound the lightning produced. 

Charging attacks avoided: 5/100.

“Thank you, system, for the timely updates.” Joe started jogging away as the bears awkwardly turned to face him once more. He lifted his staff into the air, twirling it while he prepared Acid Spray, then abruptly angled it behind him. The pained scream of the bears made him smile. The polearm mastery skill was coming in handy in unexpected ways. He had never been able to maneuver his weapon so easily, always just carefully pointing and shooting like he was using a flamethrower or rifle instead of a staff.

“Let’s see if I can write my name in the air as I spray acid.” Joe jumped, whirled around, and managed to draw a ‘J’ and about half of an ‘O’ before the acid ran out. He had been trying to regain his ability to channel, but for some reason couldn’t get a handle on it like he had the first time. “This reminds me of making yellow snow.”

Charging attacks avoided: 8/100.

Joe landed lightly, preparing another attack that would strike the backs of his assailants. Instead, his head snapped forward as a clawed paw smashed into him. Joe flipped and bounced twice on the ground before friction forced him to a stop. He got up, slightly disoriented but ready to fight. His heart sank at the sight before him.

Sneak attack! Damage: 0 (511 damage absorbed by Exquisite Shell).

Exquisite Shell: 1,297/1928.

There were another six Neigh-Bears coming for him, and the one that had hit him was clearly an elite version, being a full head taller than the others. His horse body also seemed to be on par with a draft horse in terms of size, though admittedly Joe didn't know his horse breeds very well. Joe looked up at the face of the bear, which seemed especially furious now that it was sporting a handprint on it's fur that seemed to be just about the size of Joe’s hand. “Well, you’re a big boi, aren’tcha.”

A bellow came out of the bear head at such a high decibel that Joe’s shell took a single point of sonic damage; just enough to get another slap to the face from Joe’s Retribution of Shadows. Joe twirled his staff and pointed it at the bear, his eyes narrowing in focus. “It’s gonna be like that, huh? I hope you’re prepared for my specialty, then!”

The Neigh-Bears charged at him in formation, and Joe took a deep, steadying breath… before turning and running away like a scared little forest elf. “Nope, nope, nope! Don’t gotta fight, just need to dodge!”

The speed of a magical horse hybrid was clearly higher than what Joe could manage. He started gathering his mana, preparing to use Cone of Cold again as soon as the thirty-second cooldown had completed. Sadly, thirty seconds during combat is a terribly long time, and the Neigh-Bears were never going to allow him that length of time. Now that there were nine total of the beasts after him, Joe started to think that he may have made a terrible mistake.

“Can’t let… random monsters kill me!” Joe puffed out as he ran frantically. The thundering hoofbeats behind him were coming closer and closer, and Joe desperately worked to think of anything he could do. As the claws of the elite were reaching for him, and Joe could practically feel the rough horse hair, he jumped as hard as he could.

His body exploded upward and forward, the limits of his body being tested by his Master-ranked skill. As Joe soared up, and up, and up, he could only reflect on his choices. “Something seems different this time around.”

That was an understatement, as he still had yet to start falling downward. His eyes flashed to his mana, and widened as he saw what was remaining.

Mana: 526/1,872 (617 reserved)

Whatever had just happened had pulled away effectively half of Joe’s usable mana. He tried to figure it out even as he started falling back toward the ground and awaiting Neigh-Bears. “What was different? I was running, I started jumping… I shot off like a bottle-rocket. I…! I had gathered a bunch of mana in preparation to cast a spell! Wait! I’ve used mana in jumping before, but only for skipping along so that I didn't need to use stamina! Can I empower my jumps with mana at the Master rank?”

Skill increase: Jump (Master I). Your understanding of this skill has reached a new level! Even though you had used this ability in the past… you know what? Just enjoy the increase. Go, go, rocket boots!

Information flooded into Joe’s mind about how to use his mana within his body to further supplement his jumping abilities. Just before he hit the ground, the only thing that Joe could think was, “I bet thieves would love this skill.”

Then he was rolling through the long grass, bouncing off rocks, finally coming to a halt at the rear feet of a Neigh-Bear. It started to turn, so Joe Joe tried to make himself get moving. He struggled to his feet, and looked at the waiting flash of notifications.

Charging attacks avoided: 21/100.

Exquisite Shell: 832/1928.

He had taken four hundred damage from falling from that height? Didn't he have fifty percent falling damage reduction? Yes, yes he did. Joe started running toward the center of the area as the herd found him and came running. Joe prepared his spell, then jumped forward and spun around to cast Cone of Cold. The elite merely shivered, the others started faltering. The first three that Joe had fought were clearly weakened, so Joe cast Corify on one, then sent acid at the entire group. 

With the second casting of Acid Spray, the Neigh-Bears were on him once more, so Joe instantly stored his staff in his ring and jumped to the side, pushing off and returning to his original position as soon as the elite thundered past him. Because of this, Joe was able to avoid every attack from the ‘V’ formation of monsters.

Charging attacks avoided: 30/100.

He lashed out with the staff as it reappeared in his hand, smashing the blunt endcap into the rear-right kneecap of the bear that he had targeted with Corify. With one more spray of acid at its face, the bear died. Joe turned to the others, already weary but with excitement burning within him. Acid started to drip from his staff, and he whirled it in a circle to create a field of pain around himself.

“Alright, you overstuffed teddies. Let’s play.”