Chapter 3: Skills

Chapter 3: Skills

Derivan struck down the last of the Crystal Mimics, his sword slowing as it shattered. He didn't have the muscles to feel the ache of acid or the soreness of prolonged battle, but his movements were beginning to feel sluggish. It took more effort for him to move and react, even to speak.

Conveniently enough, that meant that he sounded out of breath when he spoke, just like a human would. "That is... the last of them. [Monster Sense]has faded again. I believe we are due for a break."

"No fuckin' kidding," Misa groaned, flopping down onto the ground with a thump. "How long have we been at this?"

"Five hours," Vex said. He leapt nimbly down from the platform he'd been standing on, but stumbled slightly as he straightened; Sev quickly grabbed him and steadied him, and he flushed slightly as he nodded at the cleric. "Thanks. We're lucky, I think; the countdown's down to about twenty minutes. I knew crystal processing would be faster, but I didn't realize it would be this much faster."

Vex called up the window again to confirm, glancing quickly through the displayed information.

Mana Crystal Collection Processing...

Ambient mana concentration detected at 95%.

Ambient mana deviation measured within 1.3 standard deviations.

Crystal purification proceeding... Estimated time: 18 minutes, 20 seconds to Grade 2 crystal.

"We've shaved about twelve hours off the initial reported time," Vex said. "A grade 2 can sustain a village for a week. Should we stay for a grade 3?"

"If it keeps speeding up, we should," Sev said, but he bit his lip. "I hope the Guild hurries up. It'd be better if multiple parties could take advantage of this, and that mana concentration is going up way faster than is normal."

"There's no guarantee that any adventurers will be close enough, anyway," Misa grunted. "Though at least with a job like this they'd actually pick up the quest."

"The mana concentration is significant?" Derivan asked curiously. "Vex mentioned earlier that the quality of the resulting dungeon depended on mana concentration, but I was unaware that it had an effect on the time taken for a dungeon to form."

"Dungeons always form a certain amount of time after the process begins, but reaching a hundred percent usually triggers the process immediately." Vex looked at the status. "Sev, you said it was two or three days away?"

"It was," Sev confirmed, flicking a finger through his own status with a worried scowl on his face. "I should've noticed it before, but it's accelerating. And not just because of the monsters we fought off that contributed only about three percent of the mana concentration. We've gone up the other sixteen percent in five hours."

"Worrying," Vex said, his brows furrowing; he wondered if it had something to do with the amount of mana he was throwing around. "Then I think we should definitely stay. There's no guarantee anyone else would be able to get here in time to take advantage of the bonus." Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)

"I agree," Misa said, and Derivan nodded as well.

"We're staying, then," Sev decided. "Anyone need healing? I'm about topped up on mana." Sev glanced around, checking the party for injuries. No one was significantly hurt... a low-cost [Area Heal], then.

The glow of his heal rippled through the party, reflecting briefly off the walls of force that made up the small defensive structure Vex had built. Everyone let out a small sigh of relief, and the party settled in to wait.

Surprisingly, the wait was uneventful.

Mana Crystal Collection Processed.

Ambient mana concentration detected at 96%.

Ambient mana deviation measured within 1.3 standard deviations.

Crystal purification complete! A Grade 2 Mana Crystal has been deposited with your party leader.

Please remain within the Nucleus to upgrade your crystal further.

A pause, and then the screen updated, reflecting a new upgrade time for the next grade of crystal.

Grade 2 Mana Crystal detected!

Grade 2 Mana Crystal will be upgraded to Grade 3 in: 10 minutes, 40 seconds.

"...Ten minutes?" Vex said, staring blankly. "That... can't be right."

"It's not." Sev gripped at his staff, his face suddenly pale. He glanced at a screen no one else could see. "I changed my mind. We should leave. Now."

"But... ten minutes. A Grade 3 crystal will keep a village topped off for at least a month, if they don't need to cure any diseases." Misa breathed, staring at the display and half reaching out towards it. Then she shook her head fiercely. "I no, you're right. [Danger Sense] is telling me we should leave, too. Let's go."

"We cannot," Derivan said softly, and the other three all glanced at him. He gestured to the the edge of the crater that made up the Nucleus.

Past the force walls Vex had conjured, mana was swirling, the concentration so thick it was visible as streams of glittering light. It would have been beautiful if not for the fact that it was beginning to form into solid, physical structures. It began from the outer edges of the crater, where towering walls of light were beginning to solidify.

"We are best protected here," Derivan said. "If we leave now"

All she had to do was hold the line.

Derivan was worried. He was stronger than any of his companions thought, certainly, but there was only so much he could do to hide the true extent of his skills; he would not allow them to die simply to preserve his secret. No. If this fight revealed him, and this was where his journey ended...

...It was easier not to think about.

Despite the warning on [Hide Status], the skill couldn't completely force him to fight as a level 26. The problem was twofold; one, no skill would remove knowledge that you already possessed. [Combat Proficiency] was a skill that was currently being restricted down to a grade 1 skill but he still possessed all his memories of fighting at maxed [Combat Proficiency].

The second problem was that skills themselves were never completely disabled; the most they would do was be restricted to grade one. But some of his skills were exceptionally effective even at a grade of one; it was one of the perks of being an elite monster, as much as he hated the thought.

[Consume] [Active Skill] [Maxed ]

Cost: 250 MP

Grapple a target. If the target does not break out of your grapple in seconds, absorb the target, refilling your HP and MP by of their remaining HP and MP, and gain the [Satiated] buff.

[Satiated] grants of all stats and skills possessed by the target, and lasts for 10 seconds per 10% of the target's remaining HP.Note: Until [Satiated] expires, target has a chance of escaping every 5 seconds.

[Consume] may not be used while [Satiated] is active.

It wasn't a skill he enjoyed using. But for this battle, while he was still restricted to level 26...

The average Burrowing Spider or Earthwyrm, at level 35, took him 30 seconds to kill without assistance from Vex. Grappling would restrict his movements slightly, but not completely he had the benefit of being large enough to grapple the smaller enemies with a single hand.

Derivan had three enemies headed for him; one level 32, one level 40, and one level 37. This was a small enough crowd that he could handle them, even with his current stats.

The level 37 Burrowing Spider reached him first, and he ducked underneath its leap, catching its exoskeleton on the wicked hook at the end of his sword; he spun his blade forward, smashing it into the ground and stunning it.

Before it could recover, he ran forward. He grabbed the level 40 wyrm in the middle of its body, ignoring the razor-sharp teeth and making sure it didn't have the leverage to twist around and bite him. He activated [Consume], then scrambled back into position, using the force of his blade hitting the ground to launch himself back.

It was a trick Misa had taught him. If the skill or weapon was stronger than his stats, it could give him more power and speed to leverage than his stats would.

The level 32 Burrowing Spider was scrambling over the still-struggling body of the first; they were getting tangled with one another in their desperation to get to Sev. Derivan didn't give them the chance his sword slammed into the two wriggling spiders, cracking carapace and splattering insectoid goop.

Not enough to kill them. But enough to wound them badly; they retreated briefly, hissing at him.

Four more seconds.

He opted to wait. The spiders were circling his position, wary of him; the other monsters were looking for an opportunity to attack. The timer continued to tick down.

One. Zero

There was a flash of darkness, and the wyrm he was holding on to abruptly vanished.

Buff [Satiated]applied!

7.5% of the stats of a level 40 monster was not an incredible boost, though it also wasn't insignificant. More important, however, were the skills.

Or, more accurately, the skill. There was only one skill that he cared about receiving. The [Earth Ward] Vex had applied to the ground did, after all, only prevent enemies from moving; it would do nothing to stop him from wreaking whatever havoc he wanted.

[Burrow] [Active] [Grade: 1] [Temporary]

Cost: 15 MP/s

Move underground at normal movement speed.

The other ridiculous thing about [Consume], of course, was that skills were often designed for the particular species they belonged to. Earthwyrms did not move particularly well on land, but dug through the dirt like they were swimming through water. Translated to Derivan, who could already move at high speeds for his level?

The armor dove into the dirt, feeling it part easily for him; his feet landed on platforms that didn't exist, and he felt the earth almost pushing him forward as he aimed towards one of the two Burrowing Spiders. He swung hard as he exited the dirt, still moving at twice his normal velocity

Carapace shattered.

Your party has killed a Level 37 Burrowing Spider!

Derivan would have smiled grimly, if he could. That spider still had more than half of its health. This was good. And he still had 97 seconds left on the buff.

It wasn't quite enough yet. But he could make this work.