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Chapter 121
After careful preparation and checking all my stuff twice, I decided it was finally time to head down to fight the boss. White Mage and Hero were the two jobs I decided to equip. Most of the True Dungeon Diver skills were not really combat helpful. I was hoping to find a way to either leave the dungeon or contact my girls, and the result was failure. Not only that, but I didn’t get better at combat either. That is not completely true. Every time a job went up, your status increased slightly, so even though Hero hadn’t budged in some time, I was a better fighter now than I had ever been before.
Few people were able to level like I was, so it was uncommon in this world for someone to have so many status boosts from low levels. I had the feeling that each level led to exponentially increasing stat boosts, so it wasn’t like I was super overpowered. Someone with 5 level-5 jobs may be stronger than someone with one level five job, but nowhere close to someone who was level 25. You could probably fight a six or a seven, but there were limits. In that respect, I was a level 19 mage… but adding all my other stuff, I probably could fight a level 25 or so. Maybe I could survive against a 30 if I really gave it my all.
So, the real question came down to what level this boss we had to fight was. He was only the dungeon’s first boss, so that meant he had to be somewhat easy.
Screeeeeeee…
“The Shrieking Wraith…” I read the name given to me after entering his boss room. “Weakness, Spirit Fire.”
I ducked out the way, trying to keep my distance from it. Fortunately, since the entire tenth level was just a single room devoted to this monster, there was plenty of space to move. As long as I ran at full sprint, I could get ahead of it, and it seemed easily distracted. Celeste was buzzing around its head keeping it from focusing on me.
Unfortunately, its greatest weakness was something unique to Miki. If only I had her here, we could definitely kill this monster with ease! Ah well, I guess I had to depend on Exorcism and Ghostbane instead.
I made sure to keep the floor Sanctified, although the Wraith was flying and I was getting the feeling that sanctify land only worked for ghosts that walked. Flying ghosts were uneasy hovering over sanctified ground, but they didn’t show the signs they were being injured like the sizzling noise at their feet. I thought about using Create Cushion to try to force him down to the ground, but he slipped out of it with ease.
Instead, I quick attacked with Ghostbane, backed up, shot out an Exorcism, and then ran away once I attracted too much aggro. Then, I’d let Celeste dance around him shooting off airstrikes. It seemed effective, as we were able to deal a stream of damage and he hadn’t gotten a hit on either of us. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. His screech attack must be a mind stun attack. However, I could cure that with some Refresh.
There was only one real issue. I was starting to run low on mana potions. I mean, I still had ten, but I also had twenty floors to go. As my mana started to get eaten up after fifteen minutes of fighting, I found myself resistant in taking another one. I was just starting to back up and allow Celeste to continue her bombardment while I recovered mana the long way when the wraith roared and a skill triggered.
He glowed a golden color, and suddenly moved much faster. Celeste tried to dodge, but he took her off guard. With a backhand, he struck the fairy’s entire body. She went flying like a bug, striking a nearby pillar and collapsing.
“Celeste!” I gave out a cry.
I took a step forward but stopped as I realized the Wraith had his eyes trained on me now. With Celeste knocked out, the Wraith could now focus on the only other person in the room. I gulped. This fight wasn’t over yet.
Chapter 122
“Ah, this is bad!” I muttered to myself as the Shrieking Wraith started advancing on me.
I’m not really a fighter, even in the best of circumstances. I had gotten through the dungeon up until now by surprise attacks and running away. However, this monster already knew where I was, and running away became a whole lot harder without Celeste distracting the boss. He reached me and slashed down, so I created a cushion to block him. This didn’t stop his attack from landing, but it was like being hit by a ton of pillows rather than a ton of bricks. I found myself downing a mana potion without a second thought as I retreated.
“Group Heal Plus!”
The healing spell surrounded half of the room, including the space Celeste was in. Group Heal allowed me to target who was affected, so the wraith wasn’t healed by mistake. It seemed to be sufficient since once I healed her, her eyes fluttered open a bit. However, she still looked groggy and confused.
“M-Master…?’ She asked in confusion.
I ducked behind a column as the wraith let out another shriek attack. This time, her eyes opened wider. I was using all of my attacks now without regard for mana at all. I threw another Group Heal Plus and a Refresh her way. I cushioned another blow and then used Moderate Heal on myself. His hits really did hurt. I’d hate to feel one that wasn’t cushioned!
“I’m not your Master!” I growled out of breath, “Exorcism!”
Fighting as a mage without any other support really did kill your mana quickly. I found myself downing another potion. I only had a few left. I wanted to cry, but surviving for the moment was far more important.
“Use your tornado wind slash attack!” I cried out, preparing to give her all the time she needed as I hit it with two more exorcisms before getting hit by another cushioned strike that sent me rolling across the floor.
“Y-yes!” Celeste finally got her mind back together and then floated up.
She began to shine with magic, but I had succeeded in pissing the monster off royally and all of its attention was on me. It seemed to have used a skill and was now rapidly striking me with claw attacks. I summoned cushioned air, then a Holy Circle, and then I suddenly went for a quick attack. It was caught off guard.
“Switch position! Attack now!”
Our bodies switched positions, with Celeste in front of the reeling wraith. I immediately created three cushions around it, eating up another mana potion. At the moment, her strike triggered. The wraith was boxed in without escape, and the blades of wind spiraled around it with reckless abandon. The monster was quickly torn to shreds by her brutal spell. I still kept my guard up until her spell cleared, and the wraith dissolved into a pile on the floor. Only then did I collapse on the floor and let out a breath of relief.
A small jar appeared where the monster fell. However, after chugging seven vials of potion and casting spells without limit, I was completely exhausted. As for Celeste, she was eyeing the jar curiously, seemingly having already forgotten about the fight we were just in.
After a few moments of rest, I forced myself to my feet and walked over to Celeste. “What is this new item?”
I didn’t wait for an answer as I picked it up. I equipped True Dungeon Diver and did Basic Item Identify.
“Fairy Dust.” I read, and then looked over at Celeste.
“Celeste is dusty?”
“I-I-I am not!” Celeste cried out, her face flushing.
“Hmm… there is no other description, and since it was a boss drop, it probably means it has value. It’s probably an alchemy ingredient, right?”
I was speaking to myself, but Celeste landed on my shoulder and shrugged. “If I’m not mistaken, fairy dust can only be made by a Fairy Queen.”
“Made… huh? I wonder if it would allow me to fly?”
Many fantasy tropes turned out to be true, so why not fairy dust that could help me fly? Out of curiosity, I carefully opened the lid and pinched it.
“Well… here goes nothing!” I lifted up the pinch of dust over our heads and began to sprinkle.
I had gotten excited over the prospect of flying. Besides, I never could have predicted it would have had this outcome. In retrospect, this had been a really dumb thing to do.
Chapter 123
As soon as the fairy dust touched my skin, something popped up in my vision.
{An ally has used a skill on you. Would you like to create a combined skill?}
Wait, no one used a skill on me. Rather, I sprinkled fairy dust on myself. Was fairy dust considered a skill? It was more like an innate trait that certain species were able to create. In that respect, Spirit Fire also wasn’t really a skill. Miki could create fire as part of her natural tendencies, but it was less something she did and more something she created. Technically, once generating Spirit Fire, it’d stay lit as long as it was provided mana. In that case, Spirit Fire was really a mana product. It was something that didn’t technically exist in this world.
In the same manner, as soon as the fairy dust touched my skin, it shined and disappeared. It looked like fairy dust was something similar to Spirit Fire, in that it had no official physical existence, and its existence was considered a skill or a trait of some sort. Unfortunately, I only had the amount that was in this bottle. Once it ran out, I wouldn’t be able to use my combination spell again until I found a Fairy Queen.
While I was having these thoughts, Celeste started rubbing herself against my neck. I was focused on the screen, so I shook her off of me and stepped forward. I now had the capacity to create a new combination skill. What should I combine fairy dust with? What would it create? It was really tough to guess. Which ability would give me something akin to flying? I felt like it’d blend well with a healing ability. However, healing wasn’t a problem. The problem was that I didn’t have enough mana.
I was basically out of mana potions now, but wouldn’t a spell that made mana be a little ridiculous? Wait… fairy dust was kind of like mana, right? In the case of spirit fire, it’d cause a mana attack which could hurt ghosts. If I used fairy dust, it was more like a mana healer. How did I know this? Video games. That was really all I was drawing these conclusions from.
Perhaps if I mixed Fairy Dust with Low Regen, I could gain a low mana regen too. That would be really useful in fights. Being able to increase my mana regeneration could go a long way so we didn’t get this close to dying again.
“M-master…” Celeste tugged on my shirt.
“In a minute.” I shook my head. “I’m still deciding here.”
Combination skills essentially allowed me to combine one of my skills with an innate ability of my teammate. Maybe I could figure out a way to combine Lydia’s speed with a skill too, I didn’t know. The big problem with Low Regen was that it wasn’t something I could activate. Therefore, if there was a way to combine the skill, I didn’t know-how. I needed a way of replacing my mana potions by combining fairy dust with an active skill. Sanctify land? Healing Circle? Holy Circle?
“No… wait…” An idea popped into my head, a ridiculous idea. “Create… water…”
Water suddenly came out of my hand, but it had a faint green glimmer to it that immediately made me realize it wasn’t normal water.
{You have created the team skill Create Waters of Life.}
“No way…” I let out a cry of shock, instantly pulling out some empty bottles and filling up with the water I produced, which kept coming as long as I pumped mana into it.
“Deek!”
“The fairy dust is an ingredient to create the waters of life!” I laughed.
“Deek!”
“What?” I turned at Celeste’s desperate cry and then froze.
Celeste was standing nearby, except that she had the illusion spell make her body full-sized again. Her cheeks were blushing and her legs were held tightly together, but the thing that was most shocking was that she wasn’t wearing any clothing.
“Please… I can’t stand it anymore… take me!” She said tearfully.
“Huh?”
Fairy dust is an ingredient to create the waters of life. It’s also a very potent aphrodisiac for fairies. The more you know.