As before Ezekiel took advantage of the shadow mana in the room before activating the boss fight but this time he was ready to harm her as much as possible.
With the massive difference between shadow and fire affinity he knew that even if he took advantage of the critical points and abused her with fire magic it would not be as effective in the long run again.
So he began to abuse her rising form with shadow spears.
~
Without any surprises now that he knew what she would do in the fight he was easily able to bring her back down to 10%.
His experience with this fight let him significantly reduce the damage he took.
He especially enjoyed that he could trick her into channeling spells just to open up an opportunity to strike her head.
By focusing on her critical point he was able to damage her so severely that not only had her jaw been blown off like before but she even had a large portion of her cranium missing which he hoped hindered her vision since one eye was gone.
His damage was a lot higher than before but he knew she was about to strike with her sword.
When she began surrounding herself in shadow mana he threw himself to the side.
Her strike was still fast even if he expected it so she still clipped his side.
With his arm still in play he could actually aim and trick her unlike before, this allowed him to keep his damage consistent.
She continued attacking him with her shadow blades while her sword strikes happened roughly once every ten seconds.
If this were a mage instead of a boss he was terrified of how strong she would be since it seemed bosses were limited by cooldowns.
As he drew closer to victory with her falling rapidly he knew that once she reached 2% she would enter some sort of frenzy like before.
He wouls have to aim perfectly to take her out though.
When her health hit 2% she paused for just a fraction of a second which gave him the perfect opportunity to strike her again.
He was reaching a point where he could estimate her health by how often he cast his spear using critical points since crits reduced the number of spells needed to slay her by half.
~
She struck him.
His body was marred by wounds bleeding that gray mist while he stood there in his victory.
Soon he was transported back outside just as before with his earnings.
This time slaying her only gave him two levels while his title seemed to have paid off somewhat as he got an additional item compared to before.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sword of Blazing Waves (Silver)
He wanted to help his fire affinity catch up with his shadow affinity.
Currently after the last bit of mana he absorbed his shadow affinity sat at 75% so to make them even it might take a very long time.
He decided to look for the largest forge he could.
~
After asking around the city he learned that the largest forge was in the craftsmans district with the other mass production crafters.
He might not be able to cultivate his fire affinity to 75% today but he could get very far and he knew this when he saw the forge room.
A giant forge full of smiths and behind it was a warehouse.
A warehouse that cast their own ingots.
In the forge room the area dedicated to mana replenishment and mage cultivation had a dozen people so he asked if he could try cultivating in the refinery.
In the refinery was another beast entirely.
The room was so full of heat that the mana itself practically burned and the whole time he sat there he was being harmed by the heat.
He learned that the workers of the refinery had to actually take shifts until they developed a strong enough fire resistance skill to stay there for long periods.
It was so unbelievably hot that even his sweat evaporated before it could fall.
His time in the refinery was short but intense as he was able to absorb mana almost as potent as in the dungeon.
He went as far as staying into the night shift to gain as much mana as possible no matter how much damage he took.
The only time he left was to recover his hp when he got to 5% left.
While waiting he looked at his gains.
~~~~~~~~~~
Fire Affinity: 32% -> 67%
Core Affinity: 0% -> 38%
Fire Resistance lv 1 (N) -> lv4 (A)
~~~~~~~~~~
He would not back down no matter how burned he got.
He would grow stronger and he would learn how powerful a mage with affinity at 100% in regular and core would be.
~