Chapter 162: Ethereal

Chapter 162: Ethereal

Casting the new spell encased Pelopi's arm in the icy gauntlet. I had to quickly warn her not to touch the claws under any circumstances. If we weren't in the middle of a dungeon run and I had more time to endlessly tinker, I would have tried to scrutinize how buffs work and try to apply that to the spell.

Pelopi spent some time swinging around her new toy and scratching the claws against the dungeon walls. It looked like she was trying to break it, but as long as I kept holding and maintaining the spell, it would repair the damage at the cost of some of my mana. When I finally released the spell, it cracked and crumbled off Pelopi's arm, leaving behind some wet and cold-looking fur, and when she shifted back, it was bright pink.

"Okay... It's a little chilly but really fun!" Pelopi said, trying to warm up her arm.

"I'd say we could wrap up your arm, but I don't know how much warmer that would be than them being literally bear arms," Eliza replied.

"Do you have [Ice Resistance]?" I asked, to which Pelopi shook her head.

I rummaged through my profiles and found the trait sitting with the orc profile, then displayed it.

"You're like a walking treasure trove of traits," Ian joked.

"She does have nearly fifty race levels." Eliza pointed out. "Are you beelining for your next ascension that much?"

I chuckled, hoping to hide the fact I needed to lie to answer the awkward question. "I want to get all the elemental affinities since it ties directly to my class."

"That makes sense," Pelopi said, then held out her other arm. "I'm ready for another test."

I cast the spell, and she had fun practicing and swinging the icy claw around, leaving frosty scratches on the walls and floor.

"I wonder if giving her a new toy will come back to bite us..." Eliza muttered while watching the unrestricted vandalism.

"Let her have some fun," Ian replied, poking her. "She's had a rough second floor with all the illusionary nonsense, and I bet even with those magic ice claws, the ghosts aren't going to make it any easier for her..."

Since [Frostclaw] wasn't designed with the intent to hurt the wielder, even the first level of [Ice Resistance] combined with her bear arms was enough for Pelopi to comfortably wield it for an extended duration. I was asked if we could do it with any other elements; most notably, Pelopi wanted lightning claws, but I couldn't see a way to mimic the effect of a gauntlet as it was far too immaterial of a concept.

The rest of the evening went by with not much other details. When it was my turn to take watch, I made sure to wander away and thanked the dungeon again for the orange slime. There was no reaction again; even if it was a coincidence, I thought it better to be safe and polite.

I also spent some time doing some very minor testing with [Nitro Slime] and what were the implications of "primed slime" since, according to the description, it retained its state for the duration. I formed a small sphere of slime and primed it, then placed it on the floor, completely separated from me. Unlike any of my previous attempts to separate my slime, it actually kept its form. As amazing as that was, it unfortunately was the limit of the extra control, and I couldn't reform it once it was separated as usual.

I also tried placing a [Sub-Core] in another sphere of primed slime, but despite the sphere retaining its shape, color, or any other modifications I had made before priming it, as soon as it left my grasp, the [Sub-Core] connection was broken. Unconnected slime control was still beyond my abilities, and I wondered if it was even possible. I certainly hoped so.

If I had been willing to take the risk, I could've created a gauntlet of primed slime for Pelopi and perhaps made a solution for lightning claws that wouldn't harm her. It was something potentially worth exploring, especially when I got my tendrils on that silver slime. I could make a metal slime sword that was actually detachable! For half an hour anyway...

Finally, before my shift was over, I looked over my profile. There had been quite a few changes, and I couldn't help but glare at my unmoving Elementalist levels. A lofty goal I anticipated would be all my [Sub-Cores] reaching level six together; that would be a glorious cascade of notifications.

Name: Syl [Nature's Bane]

Race: Chimeric Cluster Slime (Blue) LV 1 (-3)

Class: Elementalist LV 4

Status: Healthy

Mana: Overflowing

Emblems:

[Experiment]

[Apex Hunter]

[Elven Legacy]

[Dungeoneer]

[Nature's Bane]*

[Manhunter]

Traits:

Slime:

[Mana Slime LV 11]

[Acid Slime LV 7]

[Poison Slime LV 6]

[Blaze Slime LV 6]

[Cryo Slime LV 7]

[Voltaic Slime LV 6]

[Nitro Slime LV 6]

[Morph Slime LV 8]

[Pseudopod LV 7]

[Slime Shot LV 7]

[Vaporize Slime]

Core:

[Core Collective LV 8]

[Core Storage LV 6]

[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5] [Sub-Core Beta LV 5]

[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5] [Sub-Core Eta LV 5]

[Sub-Core Delta LV 5] [Sub-Core Theta LV 5]

[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5] [Sub-Core Iota LV 5]

[Sub-Core Zeta LV 5] [Sub-Core Kappa LV 5]

Mimic:

[Chimeric Mimicry LV 7]

[Chroma Shift LV MAX]

[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]

Mana:

[Mana Circulation LV 7]

[Fire Magic LV 5]

[Rogue Expertise LV 4]

[Magical Subterfuge LV 3]

[Subtle Afflictions]

Skill Points remaining: 13

Profession:

Enchanting:

[Rune Reading LV 6]

[Rune Engraving LV 1]

[Rune Framework LV 7]

[Rune Tracing LV 5]

[Rune Design LV 3]

[Runecrafting LV 2]

[Rune Inspection LV 5]

[Rune Filigree LV 3]

[Rune Repair LV 2]

[Brand]

Profession Points Remaining: 0

***

Everyone woke excited for the day, although without Jet, none of us would have known the actual time, thanks to the dungeon's artificial lighting. I thought he bought the skill [Time Keeper], which I had previously scoffed at, but he had a magical device that kept track of the time. It was a strange circular device with two arms that told you the time together. I would have thought it entirely mundane, but it had the tiniest sliver of an enchantment on it that, as far as I could tell, merely made the arms spin. I had wondered who came up with such a strange device, and thankfully, there was a [Brand] on the device indicating that its creator was Keldenar.

'So the Golemancer made these? Very interesting... I still have his invitation to visit his kingdom from that damage test. Perhaps I should bump my visits priority after the dwarves?'

With us finally ready, we started heading down the stairs to the final floor. Like the transition from the first to the second, it immediately stepped up in quality: the floor looked wonderfully paved, and the walls even had sconces. Before we reached the first room, I cast [Frostclaw] twice for Pelopi and had my two Ice [Sub-Cores] hold it. Thankfully, the upkeep cost was minimal, and Pelopi had seemingly gotten used to the discomfort of having my spells within her aura.

We reached the first room without any traps, and inside, we could hear a yipping noise and chattering. Peering inside, we saw a bunch of little lizard people in various scaled colors, and most importantly, they all had different opacity levels. The lancers were only mildly transparent, whereas the three magical varieties were barely visible and even floating.

"I bet how see-through they are is correlated to how ethereal they are," Eliza whispered.

We all nodded in agreement. Which meant that it was my primary duty to deal with them, and I'd target the healers first. Ian and Pelopi were itching to try out their new weapons, so we didn't do any further planning.

Ian once again burst into the room, and Pelopi sprinted afterward while making a beeline towards the snipers. I used [Thunder Step] to appear midair beside one of the clerics, startling him as I cast a point-blank [Lightning Bolt]. Due to the sheer number of kobolds being thrown at us, I didn't expect them to be too difficult to dispatch, but I didn't expect my first cleric to basically be blasted into nonexistence. Even with all my various bonuses, it seemed far more effective than normal.

This was further proven when Eliza's black lightning from siphoning my self-damage demolished one of the other healers. Eliza didn't have as many stacking bonuses as I did, so it was a rather strange sight, further proven when she stared at her hand in bewilderment.

The lancers came in two varieties, one with a large twohanded spear and another with a short spear and shield. The shielded ones had [Taunt] and made sure to use the skill on us. [Taunt] was interesting; even if you resisted it, which I did, it still had a minor effect on you. If you attacked anyone but the taunter, you dealt reduced damage and had a constant nagging feeling in the back of your head. Failure meant you were compelled to attack the target, but these kobolds must not have had the skill at a high level as none of our group failed to resist.

Ian swung his axe with excitement clearly visible on his face. He was testing out the blue enchantment side, and this time, it diddamage the lancer with which he was directly engaged. With well-practiced precision and a flick of his wrists, he instantly rotated the weapon around for his second swing on the red side. The second swing caused a huge bloody gash in the kobold, dropping it on the spot.

With both kobold clerics down, I moved on to the geomancers, easily dispatching another with a [Lightning Bolt]. I felt a buildup of mana, and [Tremor Sense] detected huge vibrations below me, so I used another [Thunder Step] to go directly upwards. The ground erupted upwards into a deadly batch of rocky shards and spikes as if the ground was trying to eat me. In response, I threw a quick [Aegis] spell below me to block any shrapnel and watched Eliza take out another geomancer.

Pelopi, meanwhile, was tearing through the kobolds, bouncing around the room like a flea before pouncing down on the small lizards and tearing into them with the icy claws. Any slashes she made would become a deadly frozen gash creeping over the kobolds before they poofed out. It was greatly upsetting that the ethereal theme likely meant there would be nothing left to harvest for this entire floor.

Jet had tried shooting a few of the casters but soon switched to helping Ian with the lancers. It appeared he was dealing less damage than he liked against the more transparent variety. Thanks to their see-through nature, they didn't seem to have solid shadows, which appeared to be reducing his usual method of attack.

'Such a strange interaction.' I thought to myself before blasting another geomancer.

"Can you save a pyromancer for me!" Ian shouted aloud.

"Want to test the axe?" Eliza questioned.

"Yup!" Ian replied with a grin as he cut into another lancer.

Hilariously, the pyromancers were the least dangerous of the lot as the [Fire Arrow] spells it cast against Ian barely singed his skin. Likewise, the snipers were somewhat ineffectual, as Pelopi downright ignored some fired arrows. One of the snipers started becoming more opaque before firing an arrow, and this time, it left a flesh wound on her. An interesting observation for the post-battle talk.

We didn't take much longer to clean up the remaining kobolds, and Ian was slowly approaching the lone pyromancer left. I would've thought it might have cowered or begged, but it kept fighting mindlessly, showing a clear difference between dungeon-spawned monsters and others. Ian swung down with the red side, and it barely scratched the kobold, who responded by casting [Nova] right into Ian's face, also doing almost nothing. With a big grin, Ian swung with the blue side again and tore straight through the ethereal kobold with a strange ripping noise.

"I bloody love this axe!" Ian shouted aloud. "Red side for flesh, blue side for ghosts!"

"Ghostflesh makes sense now..." Jet murmured.

I definitely needed a thorough copy of the blue enchantment; perhaps I'd finally find a way to eat ghosts if I could somehow apply it to myself. Or could I possibly create an enchanted weapon with silver slime?

'Although how would I eat it then? The enchantment would break as soon as I turned the ghost weapon into slime for dissolving? If I combined it with [Acid Slime], would any dissolving be enough for a profile? Questions, so many questions...'

"Who cares about your silly axe? These claws were outstanding!" Pelopi boasted with a beaming smile. "I killed so many stupid ghosts!"

"On the other hand, these ethereal ones seem to give me a lot of trouble..." Jet said, shaking his head. "They don't have full shadows, so it's reducing my umbral damage, and then my actual bolts don't deal full damage due to their ethereal nature..."

"I noticed one of the snipers briefly become opaque before firing." I pointed out. "So, at least for the physical damage dealers, they're also hampered."

"Which was why the mages were at maximum ghostliness." Pelopi agreed.

"On the flip side, they were very weak..." Eliza added. "I know the lightning I'm siphoning from Syl is strong, but it was certainly not that strong before."

"Ethereal entities take more damage from magic in exchange for their physical resistance or outright immunity." Jet explained. "It's definitely a tradeoff."

"Guess that's good for me." I chuckled.

"Well, until the dungeon starts stretching the definition of ethereal, like I'm half expecting it to do." Jet grumbled.

"Hey, all things considered, the dungeon was pretty good to us so far." Ian argued. "Nothing like crazy pheromone ants on the first room of the second floor."

"I bet it's luring us into a false sense of security..." Pelopi speculated.

Ian faked outrage with a gasp and ran his hand softly along the dungeon wall. "Don't listen to the cranky catwolf, you beautiful dungeon. I love the axe, by the way..."

"And to think I was worried about Syl, but he's about to cheat on me with a stinky dungeon and an axe." Eliza joked.

"To be fair. It is a beautiful axe." Jet responded.

"Boys and their toys." Pelopi shook her head.

"You're one to talk, Miss [Frostclaw]!" Ian countered.

We all couldn't help but laugh at that exchange. So far, so good with our entrance to the third floor.