"Well, since that is the case, we will extra spicy meat for the rest of the week in celebration," Jake said.
The group laughed a little bit, but Jake didn't. So, Lana and Louise began to sweat bullets since the level of spiciness that he liked was many levels above of normal people. Regardless, the group divided themselves in two to take turns watching the camp and fighting the enemies if necessary. Jake ended up paired with Louise and Lana with Karina since those two were too much for him to handle. While Jake watched the salamanders' side, Louise watched the Sahuagins' side.
"Let's see… I suppose I can use the extra mana I gain with Meditation to finish some wanderer salamanders," Jake thought to himself.
While Jake couldn't see the point of using two different magic attacks when their natures were obviously above the ordinary elements, Mana Blade had a longer reach, so even if Flames of Wrath were more powerful, it had a limited range. Nevertheless, Jake successfully lured some salamanders with Mana Blade and finished them off with Flames of Wrath. Thanks to all that, he killed several dozen monsters without making any noise, much less getting hurt.
In the end, nothing happened during that night. Still, as Jake had expected, the number of salamanders around the forest had increased quite a bit when the sun began to rise. They only finished all of them around noon. Fortunately, all that hard work came with some benefits.
Staff of the Flames
Fire Pillar, Int + 06 (0%), master this weapon to obtain the skill and the status points permanently.
Durability: 10/10
Fire Pillar: it grants you the power to attack the target with a pillar from below, causing damage of fifty percent of your intelligence instantly and adding the burn effect that will also cause ten percent of your intelligence in the form of damage over five seconds. Each level up will increase the power and the effect of the spell by five percent.
Cost: 15 mana.
Regenerator Ring.
Enhanced Recovery (0%), master this item to obtain this skill permanently.
Durability: 05/05
Enhanced Recovery: it passively improves your recovery by five points per level.
Naturally, the staff went to Louise, and Jake equipped the ring first. If he manages to make that skill level up faster, he will see himself getting stronger quite fast. Still, he had yet to learn how to improve that skill level faster than usual.
p "All right, we will enter the forest now," Jake said. "Keep your guard up since we might be attacked from behind and the sides."
To avoid that kind of troublesome situation, Louise could use Earth Wall. Still, even those wouldn't last more than five seconds against the salamanders since Louise barely used the spell. Nevertheless, Jake soon confirmed his suspicions about the forest. When the first group of salamanders approached, they used the trees as a cover when Louise tried to hit them with Ice Arrows. They used their speed for that, and it was pretty effective. Not to mention, the monsters didn't stay clustered, so Jake's shield wasn't protecting him completely…
When one salamander appeared on his left side, and he couldn't do a single thing about it since he was already blocking the Flamethrower of three monsters, Jake clenched his teeth and waited for the pain. Still, Lana used Barrier to protect him, and then Louise fired a massive Ice Arrow that turned the monster into an ice statue. While the three remaining monsters were focusing on him, Karina had the chance to attack them from behind and finish them off by using her innate skill.
You obtained 06 coins.
You obtained 06 coins.
You obtained 06 coins.
…
"This was dangerous…" Lana said.
"Jake why didn't you use…" Louise said.
"The creature was too far away, my range isn't that long yet," Jake interrupted her.
Karina was curious how Jake sometimes could defeat enemies while moving a single inch. She thought that he was a boring swordsman, but it seemed that he had some other tricks up his sleeve aside from his high health, mana, and stamina.
"You can use these if necessary," Jake said and then passed ten mana potions to Lana. "If an enemy approaches from any direction aside from the front and try to burn us."
While Jake seemed like he was being too generous, the truth of the matter was the fact that he was going to be the one who would need that kind of help the most. Since he didn't like to owe others anything, he felt like he needed to do that. Besides, he was also doing that to be able to level up his Fire Resistance in peace. Even Jake didn't want to suffer so much to level up his skills to the point of feeling the smell of his own flesh burning.
Unfortunately, even those ten potions didn't last long when the salamanders began to appear in packs of five and six. At that point in time, even though Jake was leveling up his Fire Resistance and Heat Resistance pretty fast, he was only getting annoyed… he was that stingy. He didn't want to give more of his mana potions… So, with that in mind, Jake began to dash toward the enemies and use the Flames of Wrath even more often than before. That prevented the monsters from causing too much damage, but since Jake got closer to the flames, the hide that he was using on his shield wasn't last as long.
"I guess this is the true difficulty of the mission," Louise said while she was thinking of what she could do to improve their current situation.
"If you endure the flames for a while longer, I think I know something that I can do to defeat the monsters faster," Karina said.
"Do you see me complaining about anything?" Jake asked. "Something like this is nothing."
Karina wasn't so sure of that since Lana had to often heal the burn marks on Jake's body. Still, she only nodded after hearing that and then jumped to the branches of some trees and disappeared.