Chapter 60: A knightly stomping.

Chapter 60: A knightly stomping.

So how do you want to approach this fight?, Cerion asked me.

What do you mean? The same way we always do, of course. We just run up to the bad guy and start swinging.

Cerion sighed and rubbed his temples.

Cant you at least ambush him with an apparation first?, he said exasperatedly.

I guess so, I replied.

Apparating into an attack would force me to reset the mana in my surroundings, but if I was successful, it would be a worthwhile trade.

If there was one major downside to my current overloading build beside the fact that it gradually destroyed my body, it would be the fact that I had to charge my environment with mana before I could use my skills, since my overloaded Aura could only grab onto mana from close by.

When I apparated, I couldnt exactly teleport the overloaded mana that floated around me, with me.

That meant that when I apparated somewhere, I wouldnt be able to use any skills for the first few seconds after the apparation, because the mana simply wasnt there yet. The upside of this, was that once my immediate surroundings became saturated in mana, I could theoretically continue using skills infinitely.

Thankfully, my [Aura step] didnt utilize teleportation, so I was able to carry a lot of the mana that I had made tangible with me as I dashed around, while the ambient mana stayed behind.

In summary, my ambush strategy was a little risky, but had a high pay-off if it succeeded. Fortunately, I wasnt scared of taking risks, thanks to my healing skill.

I motioned for Cerion to approach the ghostly knight, but told him to keep his distance until I completed my ambush.

He crouched and snuck behind a few bushes, slowly but surely getting closer to the giant gateway. After a few minutes, he was only a few dozen meters away from our opponent, hidden behind a boulder.

From my cover, I had a sight line of my target. He was quite far away, so I would have to push my skill to its limit. Luckily, [Ghost apparation] was a tier 4 skill. While its description left its general capabilities unsaid, in truth, apparating such a distance had become possible since the tier up. It might not be as effective as the greater variant, but it would do.

Before springing into action, I pushed some more mana into my core and the circuit that [Dark Form] regulated, topping up their capacity. With a lurch, I activated my apparition and reformed a hundred meters away, behind the transparent ghost. From close up, I could tell how large he actually was. He looked as wide and tall as five men combined, with spiky armor and a sword and shield in his hands.

As I appeared behind him, I swung down my greatsword and pushed as much mana as I could summon in that short moment into the tier 4 weapon. My half-charged sword cleaved into the ghosts shoulder, sinking a dozen or so centimeters in. I activated a curse mark for later. Good thing I did so, too, because a split second later, my opponent gave a ghastly howl and swung his body around in such force that my sword was dislodged and I was sent flying, tumbling on the grass as I landed.

Fortunately, entering an overloaded state in battle had become second nature to me now that all of my skills were geared towards making that happen quickly. Thank Helios for small-capacity cores.

As I struggled to gain back control and right myself, the dark mana around me gradually grew in density.

The ghost I had ambushed shrieked and flew at me, only to be interrupted by an arc of water shearing its way through the ground, interrupting its charge. The ghost lifted his transparent shield, blocking the attack, before backing up a few dozen paces.

It had realized it was facing more than one opponent, I supposed. Was it trying to figure out our numbers first? Smart ghost.

Looks like this is rather intelligent as well, I murmured.

My new movement skill! Havent you noticed that it became a lot more reliable? I finally turned it into a skill after racing Rashid., I said proudly.

Really? I noticed that you were a lot more maneuverable lately, but I didnt think that it had already turned into a skill. Congratulations! So how does it work? Do you just blow yourself up repeatedly? Is it random how far you fly? Can you choose in which direction to launch?

I held up my hands in surrender, quickly coming to regret even bringing this up.

Yes, kind of, and yes. Now then, time to review. What did you think of that monster?, I asked, changing the topic.

Cerion hummed and brought his finger to his lips as he thought.

He was intelligent and capable of strategy, thats for sure. We overwhelmed him quickly, but would a normal guy have reacted any differently to our onslaught?, he asked rhetorically.

It was true. This dungeon had shown us its inhabitants troublesome intelligence and learning capabilities before. Though they didnt transcend the strategies and preparedness of, say, a human, they were impressive enough to make a difference, especially when the opponent was of a higher tier.

I agree. If that knight had been tier 4, we couldve been in trouble. Still, didnt we kill him rather quickly? What, that took like all of three minutes?, I claimed, grinning.

Cerion smiled.

Its certainly fun to see how far weve come since just a few months ago. We trivialized that battle and kept that ghost on the back foot the entire time. Who knows what skills he couldve used had we let up for even a moment

Well, to be fair, he seemed to be focussing on his physical stats, rather than any impressive skills. If he had the ability to summon more ghosts, for example, I feel like he wouldve used it., I hypothesized.

Well, dont get overconfident. We dont know if that guy even counted as a mini-boss. For all we know, we could face a horde of knights once we actually enter the city, Cerion said, making cold sweat appear on my back.

That seemed unlikely, however. A tier 3 dungeon would have a peak tier 3 boss, with a few tier 3 monsters to test intruders. A large number of tier 3s close to one another? The chances of that happening werent high.

Why do you think my uncle sent us here, specifically?, I asked out loud.

It didnt really make sense. So far, this dungeon had thrown water-aligned monsters and environments at us. While Cerion felt at home here, neither of us had any particular advantage nor disadvantage in this dungeon, which meant that that couldnt be the reason.

Maybe he wants us to learn how to deal with tricky opponents? Cerion shrugged, Those ghosts from earlier were difficult to deal with once they started possessing plants.

I hummed.

Actually, I think its more likely he wants us to get more experience fighting against semi-intelligent opponents. The tournament is coming up, after all., I replied.

Cerion laughed.

Already calling our future rivals semi intelligent, huh? Never change, Arthur.

I grinned back.

Luckily for you, I dont intend to.