Once the door finally opened all the chaos ceased.
They were careful about entering the room because they expected more danger but none presented itself.
Inside of the room they saw that a large portion of the room was coated in the same emerald crystals full of life mana and the mana density in the room was extreme.
They could finally take a breather but they made sure that they absorbed mana in turns.
Hope began to jump around excitedly because of something and they had to grab her before she accidentally activated the boss fight.
"What happened? It must be something pretty good right?"
"My core maxed out! I can try out that core advancement thingy Zeke did!"
She looked so excited by this prospect and since he had seen the process Ezekiel would be able to guide her through it.
"Ok so what happened to me was a large amount of mana surrounded my core and began to out pressure on it across the whole thing, even pressure like when you made your core."
She nodded in response and began to meditate and examine her core... at least they assumed so.
"After you have eavenly covered your core with enough mana you have to force the mana inward on the core but you cant absorb it otherwise you have to start over."
He then looked at the rest of the group.
"Don't absorb anymore mana I think she might need its help when sbe rebuilds her core into a gem."
~~~~~~~~~~
Title (Tutor) is in effect.
Increased student comprehension.
~~~~~~~~~~
'Huh that's actually really helpful.'
"Once you shatter your core into dust of even particle size you have to absorb it all back into the place where your core was, im pretty sure that once the denser particles from the core get pulled into an even smaller space that's when the gem takes shape."
She nodded and Ezekiel began to drag life mana crystals to surround her, for larger crystals he needed Layla's help.
They watched over her while occasionally looking for any signs of the boss, they knew that it would show up if they touched the coffin but they had seen other changes in the dungeon so far and it was a good practice to be on alert.
Ezekiel would occasionally place a hand kn Hope's shoulder to observe her progress and although it was taking a while he saw that she was doing it perfectly.
The group even chose to remain silent to help Hope focus.
After some time they saw through their mana sense that she was absorbing a shocking amount of mana and Ezekiel knew that this was the runaway mana absorption he had observed when his gem was reforged.
Now that he saw what step she was on he quit keeping track and just used his mana control to guide the ambient mana towards her.
He hoped this would not interfere but he was pretty certain that all it would do was help her have more mana around.
Once they saw the mana finish being sucked in they crowded around to ask her what happened.
"What grade is your gem?"
Layla was quick to ask this question and Hope seemed very happy to answer.
"Mythril! I got a mythril grade mana gem!"
She bounced around in one place happily and gave everyone a hug.
"Now I think I can help you guys even more! This is the best day ever!"
After all of this Ezekiel nodded and went back to cultivating his mana core.
"By the way Layla, why did you think the boss would be lv200? Normally these dungeon mobs only reach the maximum level which is the same as the boss and the highest level we saw was lv170."
"Well while you guys were doing stuff I took a chance to ask the city lord about Diana since they had the same family name. He told ne that before she died Diana was lv200 and was waiting for something called a breakthrough."
'He doesn't use mana for much of anything except for a couple skills... he might outlevel us because of that.'
Ezekiel nodded and looked at Layla.
"How about we try to fight the boss once and then we can do something about our levels when we know what we are fighting?"
With the group in agreement they began to ready themselves for the fight against Diana.
Those who had ranged abilities would prepare the most powerful versions they had while those that had physically powerful skills would strike from close range.
When they touched the coffin they waited for it to open as before... only to be caught off guard by a shower of stones and dust as the coffin exploded.
In the chaos they could not strike without harming one another so they all simply backed away and Ezekiel kept his eye out for when the boss was visible again.
Once he saw her he had a moment of panic.
~~~~~~~~~~
Diana Raylock- Vampiric Archlich lv200
~~~~~~~~~~
Layla was right, this thing was using the original level of the person who had died.
He cast his Frenzy Wing spell and began to send needles of mana tearing through the boss but her life mana aura took the brunt of it as the needles mostly stuck inside.
They all detonated making shadowfire spread across the form of the boss but she seemed mostly unharmed.
The battle had begun.
~
From the moment the boss made her first move it was clear that this battle was not the same as before.
She started by using her life mana to create a monstrous sword filled to the brim with shadow mana that she used to slash and consume the group.
She moved quickly and cast spells at the same time as if she were a true magus.
Inside of the room she even created spell circles with every stomp of her foot when she moved, these spell circles seemed to be delayed to do many things.
One spell circle created an explosion of shadow mana while another created a skeleton that struck Layla from behind.
Diana had evolved into a genuine threat and with the level difference she was doing significant damage to them with every strike.
The first to fall was shade, taken out by Diana beheading him after he lost his leg to a spell circle trap that had caused a blade of shadow to lash out.
When Shade was slain they only tried harder, Ezekiel even activated his mana burn skill and started to use Frenzy Wing constantly.
Every strike seemed to be adding on more damage to her shield but he wanted to pierce through.
Hope was able to block most of the strikes by shattering them against her life affinity armor but with two individuals competing to sustain life affinity constructs the winner would inevitably be the one that could control them better.
Layla was able to guard against many blows but the extra danger of projectiles and skeleton rogues made her ability to guard herself fall apart.
When Ezekiel saw the chaos breaking them apart he decided to use everything he had.
He only guarded himself while putting every drop of mana into his attack, one more Frenzy Wing with all of the mana he was able to produce.
Combined with mana burn and void conversion he had created a new version of the spell... though the system refused to recognize it.
'I'll call it the Final Void Wing when the system finally acknowledges what i've made.'
He released the spell upon Diana and the spell itself tore through her shield.
Her body began to be shredded by the spell but it did not last long.
He could only use one tenth of his mana in that way and it ended almost as soon as it began.
Out of mana and falling to the ground he barely noticed when his head was separated from his neck.