Chapter 241: Day 529 – There Really Is A Fountain

Chapter 241: Day 529 – There Really Is A Fountain

The level 3 chicken bosses were easily killed. Honestly the dungeon was a nothing burger, except for its horrible location.

The first skill was Force Wall. It appeared like a weaker version of what the light blue gargoyles had been using in my level 3 grinding spot by the tower. That was how the light blue chickens were double jumping.

I would have considered replacing Aqua Sphere, but the issue with the skill, was that it was very weak to energy attacks, other skills. The level 3 light blue chicken was melted through the skill. I thought of the blue gargoyles and never had attacked through their skill.

I had gotten into a rut of working to dodge their attack rather than attack through it. Thinking hard, the few times during grinding my Acid Shot had grazed the Force Wall they used, it didn’t do much, but it pushed my acid out of the way. That hadn’t happened here.

Was there a difference between the two monsters’ skills? I thought about what I had just witness and the blue gargoyles. It was hard to say. The chickens used the Force Wall more for movement and not defense.The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

The second skill was Nature Cloak. It allowed a person to project the image of native foliage instead of their body. Basically an illusion type skill. That is why those green chickens attacked at the end and all the shrubs on the island. I had noticed them as odd and chicken shaped.

It was an ambush skill, but it could only do so much. I guess that was why it was a level 3 skill, and my Perception was quite high at 300 stat points.

I let Naran have a look. “You want either of them?” I asked.

“No. All yours,” Naran said. I poked the skill crystal and considered my upgrades for the third upgrade for Aqua Sphere. There was multicast, prep and hold, and minor effect. Multicast was pointless. I had that for Acid Shot. I didn’t need multiple Aqua Sphere.

Prep and hold was also pointless. Aqua Sphere was a defensive skill. I had that upgrade for Air Burst which made sense since it was an escape skill. That left minor effect. I picked that and got the same four options I had for Acid Shot.

I had the choice of death, cold, air, and metal. Cold was out, since I didn’t want to freeze my defense. Air was also out, since it I didn’t want to expand it. I wanted a more solid defense. That was also why I skipped death. I chose metal.

“Naran test it with a swing to the side please. Aqua Sphere.” The skill came into being. The water was grayer with a slight glow to it. At least there weren’t chunks. Naran gave it a whack with his sword, but it went through just as easily as it had all the times in the past. I let the skill stop and the water dispersed around me.

“Well, it is doing something, not sure what. We haven’t come across the metal type, but a construct type,” I muttered.

“Are they the same?” Naran asked.

“Clearly not. Since construct type crystals created harder to resist physical damage. This metal type selection, clearly did nothing.”

“That is unfortunate. Let’s get out of here before I gag to death,” Naran said and I nodded at that. We back to the canoe and carefully pushed it back into the foul water. I was in front again.

We went back across the lake as quickly as possible. Good to know there were no monsters in the water. Or if there were, we were too quick for them. That had been the biggest risk about this operation. Small mercies, even if this entire thing was horrible.

Once we got back to shore, we set off clockwise around the lake, since we wanted to be on the North side. We followed the shore of the foul lake until it turned into a foul river. There were chunks resting on the sides of the river. Why?!

My cloth mask melted off, but I didn’t care. Once I was finally clean, I slowly went back to my clothes and armor and put them back on. Naran came over. “Smart,” he said.

“Thanks. Now lets get out of here and never come back. This place is the worst,” I said.

“Agreed,” Naran said and we quickly raced away from the foul fountain dungeon towards where Fethee and Heba had gone. We easily found them outside the range of the horrific smells.

I could finally breathe without gagging. I took deep breath after deep breath, trying to cleanse myself of the foulness. “Well that was good Perception training,” I said while Heba served cut up fruits and vegetables for dinner.

“Really? You didn’t tell me?” Naran asked accusingly.

“I talked about this. Perception works by focus. You just have to not focus and the smell isn’t that bad,” I said. Naran was glaring at me. “Oops, sorry” I replied.

“Oops, yeah. Well it was a life experience and it is over. That is the best I can say about the entire ordeal,” Naran replied.

“That I can agree with. Finish going East then North up to the corner, can work out things from there,” I said.

“Sounds like a plan. We should find something,” Naran said.

“Hopefully. My main concern is if it is all level 3 zones, figuring out which way the Ritualist went. He can only hide so long. If he can make it across a level 3 zone, so can we,” I replied.

“Plans if we find a city without the Ritualist?” Naran asked me.

“Assess the situation first. The fact we are going to them implies we are stronger, since we can travel. Still no airships, that is what I really want. To travel in style,” I replied.

“One day,” Naran replied.

“One day,” I echoed him. I was now skill point capped. Any more upgrades would either increase the cost or take me to the next level of the skill. While I really wanted that information, I couldn’t afford a cost increase to Acid Shot.

I was loving the fact that I was able to spam the skill to overwhelm any opponent and still have energy to keep going without concern. Since it didn’t look like I was about to grind level 4 monsters any time soon, there was no reason to upgrade the level of the skill. I would be better served focusing on grinding out level 3 monsters and raking in the points as quickly as possible.

This exploration was going much quicker than I had originally thought. That was the power of having so many stats and upgraded skills. We could just rush the dungeons and overwhelm any opposition. I knew this would happen, and it was nice that my guess was on the mark.

That was the good aspect of having stagnant power levels that didn’t scale. It was a pain at the start when everything was deadly. Now it was breeze. Level 2 zones were easy enough that the main threat was from the foul water and chunks, not the monsters.

Crossing a level 3 zone, was another matter. Going deep would be challenging and there were two types of terrain I really didn’t want to cross. The fact I was spot on about the swamps, solidified in my mind that I shouldn’t rush into a level 3 zone, no matter what.