One month passed without any incident, so Leon couldn't help but frown, imagining that the angel general of that world was slacking off on his duties. Any decent leader would have noticed that the angels that were on the northern and southern continent didn't send any word or even appear.
"Perhaps he doesn't care…"
His minions were quite crazy, after all. Besides, if the angels are numerous enough to conduct a conquest of six worlds and decimate the sentient beings of that world. Losing a few thousand was probably nothing… for a cold blood leader.
Congratulations! The skill Mana Armor has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Mana Armor has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Mana Armor has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
...
After a month using only Thunder Ray, Leon finally decreased the time he had to spend electrocuting mermaids from five to three seconds in order to kill them. So, he decided to work on his survivability again. Using Telekinesis and Gravity, he could control the mermaids and prevent them from escaping. Since they couldn't do anything else, they attacked him with their Water Cannon. The level of that skill was quite high, so Leon leveled up Mana Armor insanely fast… at the price of his own mana.
Congratulations! The skill Telekinesis has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Gravity has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
"I guess I also should learn Water Cannon..."
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Water Cannon.
Cost: 40 mana per second
You obtained 01 status points.
Leon had to stop training his Mana Armor for a few days in order to have enough mana, but he eventually learned. It took him almost a week because he could only practice between battles, after all.
"It looks like they don't plan on using me to guard other dungeons... so, I guess it is time to start my secret training."
Leon postponed that because he needed to obtain the power to slay all the mermaids that leave the dungeon before anything. Besides, he had to confirm that everyone would act precisely the same for a few days in order to chance his own routine.
Although it was tiresome, all harvesters and even Leon could only rest once every seventy hours. Someone always has to keep an eye on the dungeons, so it couldn't be helped. Every ten hours, Leon would use Checkpoint to move one person from a dungeon to the base, and the last person who had rested on the tower would go to that same dungeon. As expected, that was annoying since Leon was the only one who had to do the extra work, but at least that allowed him to confirm that he wasn't being watched.
"I don't know if I can consider Appraisal to be as one of the elemental skills… but the skill to counter it certainly belongs to the shadow element. Donan and that shadowy figure are living proofs of that. The problem is, I didn't find any monster aside from demons that may have that element."
Maybe Leon would be able to obtain that skill once his Mana Concealment reaches level one thousand, but then again… he didn't have time to level up his skill to that point. Could he learn the skill without even a bit of an idea on how to create the elements shadow and light?
"Donan didn't have items, so he actually received as a skill the means to counter Appraisal."
If white was the mix of all colors and black was the lack of any color, Leon imagined that he would be able to replicate shadow and light using the same theory. But he wasn't even sure if he knew all basic elemental magic… no, he probably knew. Wind, water, fire, and earth definitely were the basic elements. Ice, magma, thunder, and steel were only the strengthened version of those elements. So, to learn light magic, Leon would probably have to mix all elements… but since his first goal was to counter Appraisal, he would have to start on the tricky part.
"If I can't find a monster that can do something like that, then the only option is to learn by trial and error."
Just concentrating mana around his body wasn't enough. Even if Leon tries to create a condensed aura of mana around himself, he would only produce mithril, so that obviously wasn't the answer. The obvious way to counter Appraisal was by using Invisibility, but Leon was pretty sure that spell belonged to the light-type magic.
While Leon was pondering about those things, three mermaids left the dungeon. In a hurry, he used Thunder Ray and fried to the point past of well-done. If they weren't so ugly and had humanoid forms, Leon would have considered to eat, but since that was the case, he decided to ignore his hunger.
"Although concentrating my mana around me doesn't look like to be the answer... Donan did exactly that, but no... Dark Aura is a different spell. It can't be that related to the skill I'm looking for."
While Leon was shaking his head, another three mermaids appeared. It looked like the beasts didn't want to let him find the answer he was looking for… That greatly irritated Leon, so he fried them a bit more this time.
"Those bitches keep bothering and didn't even drop a single fucking tome…" Leon sighed. "As expected, not even a ring that doubles my luck can solve the problem of my misfortune."
Thinking about luck and misfortune was a waste of time itself, so Leon shook off those thoughts of his head. In the end, he had no choice but to endure the interruptions as well.