Chapter 137 - Hardships (5)

On the second days while facing the cold, the party managed to obtain one hundred and twenty cores. Their progress was evident, but they weren't getting carried away because they only had been facing three golems at a time, it was a clear signal that they didn't even reach half of the second floor…

"Things aren't going the way we planned, huh…" Lily said when they were heading to the inn. "What we should do now?"

"You think so?" Billy asked. "I think we are doing just fine."

"At this rate, we will take too long to reach the final level of the dungeon," Lily said. "We are against time, remember?"

Although they made quite a lot of progress in the last few days… those kids sure were spoiled. Or maybe because of their talent, they didn't tolerate letting obstacles get in their way for long… In any case, Billy had some ideas in mind, but they were drastic. Making Natalie and Alexander use hammers like Marie's party did. Telling Lily and Kate to use Earth Manipulation like he and Sarah were using were the main ones. However, clearing the dungeon while using a fighting style that wasn't their own wouldn't benefit anyone.

"Well, it is up to you," Billy said. "You can always use magic to make things end faster… you do know that the Golems are strong against physical attacks, after all."

After hearing that, they looked at each other. In the end, they had to compromise since they had a limited amount of time to use the dungeon. Once they decided that they would do that, they began to practice their magic inside the inn. While Kate and Lily were practicing Earth magic, Alexander and Natalie did something else… they increased the reach of their weapons with earth magic. Natalie wanted to make sure that she wouldn't miss the cores and Alexander just wanted to cause as much damage as possible.

Thanks to the fact that everyone was mixing their combat skills with magic, on the next day, they got twenty percent more cores. While that was good and all, Billy was worried because the number of golems wasn't increasing for some reason. In every single encounter, they fought from three to five monsters, but never more…

"Maybe the difficulty will only spike on the next floor…" Billy said. "Anyway, I guess I will fight for a while without using my magic to speed up our hinting speed."

"Why so sudden?" Natalie asked.

"Just like Lily said, I want to confirm that I can defeat them without magic," Billy explained.

Billy - Lv 69 600/13.000 EXP

HP: 213/236

MP: 475/489

SP: 211/229

Strength: 96

Speed: 79

Magic: 172

Endurance: 35

Dexterity: 37

Status Points: 125

Skills: Deadly Wind Lv 13, Steel Spear Lv 11 (+ 01), Light Spear Lv 13,

Spells:Mana/EXP conversion Lv ∞, Exp Master Lv ∞, Analyze Lv 22, Appraisal Lv 35 (+ 03), Meditation Lv 34 (+ 03), Earth Manipulation Lv 28, Mana Infusion Lv 29, Water Manipulation Lv 25, Wind Manipulation Lv 19 (+ 03), Fire Manipulation Lv 13 (+ 04), Zen Lv 11 (+ 03), Check Up Lv 05

Passive: Language Skill Lv 54 (+ 03), Spearmanship Lv 48, Swordsmanship Lv 15, Archery Lv 27, Firing Speed Lv 15, Quick Spear Lv 15 (+ 03), Block Mastery Lv 12 (+ 03), Writing Lv 13 (+ 03), Reading Lv 13 (+ 03), Pain Resistance Lv 03, Recovery Lv 04 + 06

Skill Points: 25

Although Billy made some progress with his magic, in the last few weeks, he didn't make much progress with his other skills. Every day before going to bed and after waking up, he train a little bit, but not as much as he could do it at home. So, it was time to use the dungeon on favor of his skills.

When he joined the front line and the Golems appeared, he tried to feel the cores, but as expected, he wasn't good at that kind of thing like Natalie was, so he got nothing. Still, he charged at one of the beasts and used Light Spear right on the belly of the creature and then split the rest upward by using Steel spear. If he had aimed a bit lower, he would have split the monster in two, but Billy would feel a bit weird while aiming at something's groin. even though nothing was there…

Regardless, the monster splashed a lot of water, but it didn't. However, that made Billy realize something very obvious, it would consume a lot of stamina, but he could use the full combo of his tribe to split the monster in half.

"No… Let's try something more efficient," Billy said and then held his spear tightly.

Billy used Quick Spear and attacked the golem in front of him furiously. He wasn't just trying to hit the core of the creature by relying on luck, he was trying to find it while all that water was being splashed around. Still, that hadn't been enough… the monster couldn't attack while it was trying to restore itself, but… in the end, it died. It took two full minutes though. Now Billy's arms were hurting because he used Quick Spear for too long.

You obtained 150 experience points.

The skill Light Spear obtained 75 experience points.

The skill Steel Spear obtained 75 experience points.

The skill Deadly Wind obtained 75 experience points.

The skill Quick Spear obtained 75 experience points.

"Well, I suppose this isn't half bad…" Billy nodded to himself.

However, Billy would get the same amount of experience, even if he had killed the monster in five seconds. So, he truly needed to improve that.

"I thought that Billy would find a way to deal with them instantly," Lily said.

"You give me too much credit…" Billy frowned.

In the end, Billy had to compromise as well… he had to use magic to cause more damage and try to find the core. Unlike the ground, the water of the monster's body couldn't be controlled, but could be frozen?