Chapter 253: Eviscerating Enemies

In the few moments that passed before the wave of monsters got to us—this one being the largest by far, consisting of the hundreds that had starting coming for us from off in the horizon back when the battle started—I dug into my pocket and drew out a small round stone.

It was my Curse Spell Crystal, the one I’d need to Upgrade my two still-unimproved Spells. Ray of Frost and Curse of Echoes were still stuck at Rank 9, meaning I was able to invest this Spell Crystal into either. Of course, with Time Loop, whichever of the two I didn’t use the Spell Crystal to Upgrade would just get Upgraded by the same Spell Crystal once I went back to keep it, but there was still a decision as to which I wanted to Upgrade first.

However, that decision was cut short by the fact that there were, in this moment, a few hundred bloodthirsty monsters charging straight at me.

Index, just tell me, what should I pick?

“Uh, Ray of Frost?”

Sounds good to me. Done.

Threshold reached. Ray of Frost XP has reached 355.

Ray of Frost Rank has increased to 10.

Due to Ray of Frost Rank reaching 10, it has undergone the following changes:

Mana Cost: From 25 to 31.3

Damage: From 62.1 to 65.2

Dexterity Debuff: From 7.77 to 8.15

The armored woman—well, most of her armor was destroyed by now, but still—turned back to see me resting my shoulders and dropping the now-useless marble onto the ground.

“Did you just use a Spell Crystal?” she asked.

“I should probably be as strong as I can be for my final fight, y’know?”

She gave me a look of respect and nodded. I almost felt bad doing this and letting her actually think this would be her last moment, but what could I even say? I wasn’t exactly sure I could explain time travel in the five seconds before we’d have to start fighting for our lives. Or, rather, fighting without our lives at stake. Not that she’d know.

Regardless, I took a step forward and readied myself to start using the last of my Mana to Crippling Chill these Stingers that were just about to get into my range. A good few of the ones I’d previously cursed had died off in these past few moments, their Healths finally running out after being paralyzed for so long. I just wanted to keep myself alive to get the XP from as many of those easy kills as possible.

With under 500 Mana, I’d likely need to start rationing out every Spell I cast. It reminded me of the good old days, in a way. Less ‘good’ than struggling to survive,’ but my mind still held some nostalgia for it, for some reason.

As the swarm of Sand Stingers came buzzing into my range, I decided not to curse every last one of them; I didn’t have enough Mana to do so even if I wanted to. But as they got closer and closer, I identified that around half were coming my way, while the other half were going for the woman. So I cast Crippling Chill on the closest three coming to attack me, dropping them paralyzed to the ground and thinning my herd somewhat. Mana down to 253.

Sorry, lady, I don’t have enough to protect both of us!

After my short preparation, the remaining Stingers, around five of them, came at me. The first flew straight on, bending and thrusting its sword-sized stinger at my chest, dripping with venom. I turned to the side and it went speeding past me, just barely grazing across my skin.

You have been pierced. 6 damage.

Your Health is 714.

You have been poisoned. 58 damage.

Your Health is 656.

I grunted in pain as I reached out to grab the monster before it could fly off. Apparently, no matter how shallow the cut actually was, the venom would be pretty bad regardless.

My hands wrapped around the thing’s abdomen and I instantly activated Noxious Grasp. If it normally took around twenty-five seconds of Crippling Chill to kill them, and Crippling Chill dealt 8.56 damage per second, then I’d need about eight and a half seconds to kill one using Noxious Grasp. Not exactly easy to do something like that, but compared to the 140 Mana cost for the Crippling Chill method, a Noxious Grasp kill would only need around 50.

A stabbing pain in my back and another 80 total damage told me one had gotten me from behind. Still holding onto the first Sand Stinger by its abdomen with one hand to drain its Health and ensure it didn’t get away, I reached out with my other to grab onto the stinger of the other just as it drew it away from my skin. Both of them struggled and flapped their humongous wings, a loud buzz surrounding me as I fought to keep them in my grasp.

Two more Sand Stingers approached. Now, both my hands were occupied keeping the two I already held in place, and neither were going to die from Noxious Grasp in time to free my mobility up.

So, as one of the monsters came from the front and the other attacked from behind, I took the Sand Stinger in my right hand—the more damaged one—and swung it overhead, through the air and directly toward my attacker in front of my face. One giant bug smacked into the other and they both went crashing to the sand.

I hurriedly stepped forward and stomped on the head of the damaged monster that I still held restrained by my hand, finally receiving a kill notification for it and letting go of its corpse, but not taking the time to glance at any XP numbers; I didn’t have the time. Immediately after, I turned just to see the Stinger that’d aimed to attack me from behind charging in and stabbing its stinger straight at me. Without any time to dodge, my mind before my body did, and I instinctively cast Crippling Chill to immobilize it. It dropped to the ground like I’d plucked its wings off, the threat technically gone but my Mana having dropped down to 152 in order to eliminate it.

Before any more Sand Stingers could attack me, I hurried to finish off the rest I’d temporarily disabled. Thankfully, the weak chitin that made up their exoskeletons offered little protection against simple blunt force, so with a stomp to the head, I quickly dispatched the three foes.

I heard a shout of pain from beside me, and turned to see the woman falling to the ground, four separate Sand Stingers each withdrawing their deadly needles from her. She’d been overwhelmed, it seemed. And now that she was down and no longer drawing half of the fire, I’d be next.

The ground rumbled as the slightly slower-to-arrive Sand Stompers and Sifters came close as well. With only 150 Mana to my name, I wasn’t exactly looking to survive the next five seconds.

So before I left, I aimed my hand at the initial three Sand Stingers I’d cursed with Crippling Chill to thin out their numbers, and shot each of them with Ray of Frost, using the very last of my Mana.

You have slain Level 15 Sand Stinger.

You have earned 165 XP. Your XP is 3.2k.

You have slain Level 18 Sand Stinger.

You have earned 211 XP. Your XP is 3.41k.

You have slain Level 17 Sand Stinger.

You have earned 196 XP. Your XP is 3.61k.

Threshold reached. 3.5k XP.

Your Level has increased to 22.

Due to achieving Level 22 in the Minute Mage Class, you have been granted the following benefits:

-You have gained 1 Endurance.

-You have gained 2 Conjuration.

-You have gained 1 Intelligence.

-You have gained 3 Stat Points.

-Recursive Growth has activated. You have gained 1 Strength, 1 Endurance, 1 Dexterity, 2 Conjuration, and 1 Intelligence.

-Time Loop Talent Rank has increased to 22.

-Soft Cap has increased to Rank 12.

Wait. I glanced over the notifications, only just now paying full attention to the XP I’d been getting from killing all of these monsters. Did I just…?

A massive stinger being jabbed toward my face pulled me out of my thoughts, and I hurriedly activated Time Loop to avoid feeling the pain of that any more than I needed to.

**********

Still shocked by the sudden Level, I found myself in the in-between space, suddenly tasked with deciding on a time to return to.

Shit, uh, let’s see…I think I have just enough time to go back to a little before we woke up, before this whole tourney challenge officially started at all, and then we could go and get the crystals without having to worry about competition in the first place.

But then, if we do that, would we be accused of cheating somehow? People might think we bribed someone to give us the info early, or something. And I’m pretty sure I can get the crystals for myself no problem if I just go back a couple hours to when I was already out here and make a beeline for the exact locations I remember finding them in this timeline? But then, that still leaves Erani, Sylvie, and Ainash to find them on their own, so—

I could already begin to feel myself fading away before I’d come to a concrete conclusion.

Fuck it, I’m just going back as far as I can. Can’t go wrong with that. Probably.

**********

And then I was back, lying in bed with my eyes closed, suddenly feeling much groggier than I was before. It always felt strange to go to a time when I was originally in the middle of sleeping, since it’d automatically wake me up, suddenly putting me into a position of being extremely tired after being entirely well-rested only seconds before.

But regardless, I sat up and shed the sheets from my body. I’d been able to go back seven hours this time, since apparently I’d just Leveled up and that meant Time Loop was able to take me back a little further, and with that extra time, I was able to return to a little before this whole crystal collection challenge thing was even announced to the public. Meaning, we had plenty of time to get out there and grab a few before it got crowded.

Erani, still sleeping soundly beside me, stirred a little and muttered something incomprehensible in her slumber. I sighed. I just didn’t have the heart to wake her when she looked so peaceful.

Though, I supposed I did have something I could do if I wanted to give everyone another ten minutes before we got to working out there.

I closed my eyes once again, though this time, it wasn’t to sleep. Entering a meditative state, I prepared to assign my Stat Points and see where my Mana/Minute had ended up by this point.

Oh, and my Soft Cap finally went up, right? So that means, like…six of my Spells can all reach a new Rank?

And speaking of new Ranks, one of those Spells was very distinctly Ray of Frost, which I’d just used a Spell Crystal on. That meant a new Upgrade choice, still sitting there waiting for me to make the decision since I’d unlocked it in the previous timeline. Ray of Frost was a very solid option for dealing ranged damage already, so I anticipated whatever Upgrades it offered to be extremely useful.

I smiled. Okay, seems like I’ll be entering the tournament proper in rather nice shape.