112 - to fight

After the first monster kill, all tension left my body. I retreated to the back of the party and watched as the long range attackers took care of the weak slimes. After 10 minutes, a new monster had appeared.

It was a goblin. It had green skin and the physique of a child. It was less intelligent than children, so it was relatively less dangerous than most other monsters. When monsters were defeated, most of it is dispersed as mana back into the environment , while the little remaining amount was turned into "exp". In order to convert most of the "dead's soul" into "exp", it was better to be at a lower level. In this case "exp" was like many other matter, it moves faster from a place of higher concentration to lower contraction, like water vapour.

Therefore my levelling would be much more effective if I conserved my strength and fought higher level monsters instead. Of course, as a precaution, I had to test my strength against each and every monster first. That was the purpose of today's trip in the dungeons. More goblins arose from the darkness of the dungeon, their little pattering feet echoing in this small hallway. A few of them glowed green before tightening their grip on their weapons. In one of their hands was a twisted wooden club, it was packed full of energy of a despicable nature. I could faintly feel it from my [Demonic energy] waves. Was it a curse?

"Careful Lilith. That's a high level curse... At least high for this area. Anti curse equipment has been prepared for worse case scenario, however there's nothing to worry about." (Cress)

As her words trailed off, a large ball of flame shot forth from the back. Impacting into the middle of the ground, the ones that got hit directly were mashed into paste, while the surroundings goblins caught fire. Walking through calmly as burnt goblins rolled around, Cress continued to move forward. It was less reliable to use a burnt goblin, but I had a test I wanted to attempt.

Facing my palm on one of the burning goblins, I concentrated my will. Noticing my presence, the goblin ignored the searing pain enveloping its body... No its nerves were too burned for it to feel anymore pain. It was doing a last ditch suicide attack. Unfortunately for the goblin it was too late. Focusing my mind, I gathered a small amount of [Demonic energy] before losing control. It dispersed back out destructively, exploding away any semblance of the goblin.

My control over [Demonic energy] seemed to improve with practice. For now I was converting my mana pool into [Demonic energy], if I practice enough I might be able to use the surrounding mana instead, lightening the strain on my mana pool.

Advancing further into the dungeon, we hit the first level 50 mark. A green line made out of a magical Ore borders the next area, signalling the shift in levels. From here on, the enemies would be much tougher, the real test started here. Jogging through the area, the party scouted for monsters to test my strength on.

A couple of large green humanoids appeared. Their skin rupturing and rotting in multiple areas, their armour rusting and cracking under their own pressure. They had noses as big as goblins, but were the size of bears. Orcs, with their large built and monster class bonus, their strength could easily pulverised a room. With a rarer variant, a random mutation, they could grow strong enough to demolish buildings by themselves.

They had some semblance of iron plating on their chest, it rusted into a deep reddish-brown that was so jagged only an orc's rough skin wouldn't get cut from wearing it. On their lower regions was leather leggings and chain mail short skirt that protected the nether region.

In cases like this, I needed to find a weak spot. After fighting for the past half hour, I had gained 2 levels, which didn't amount to much points. The only notable change was that my [Shadow step] went from tier 1 to tier 2. At tier 2,it was able to form multiple shadow footholds in the air, instead of forming only 1. When shadows solidify, it gains mass. When an object has mass, it cannot exist in the same space as another. Forcing multiple footholds to form in the exact same spot gave an ejection effect, boosting my speed.

My body had also becomed more accustomed to my movements, allowing for some more tricks. I still couldn't pull off jumping from a vertical foothold, and practicing was dangerous in the dungeon. So I was still quite some distance away from mastering the drawing of my muscle's strength.

"[Shadow step-tier 2]."

Executing my skill, a small pressure explodes under my feet, sending gust into the surroundings. Harnessing all my agility, I shifted all my weight and force into my fist. Not having much experience, the shifting made me lose a considerable amount of speed, however it was necessary to concentrate my force. Cladding my right fist in [Demonic energy], It bursts into a purple aura. Trace amounts of purple lightning manifested, enveloping the air around my fist with an additional barrier of heat and air.

Activating [Shadow step] once more, I formed additional footholds. In order not to decrease my speed, I formed them under my heels and cramped them together to form the ejection effect. Making up for some of the lost velocity, I swung my fist forward at the last second. Making contact with my knuckles, several Orc heads burst off their shoulders. The [Demonic energy] covering my fist erupted at the last second and fried everything below the neck of the orc in front of me. The pressure from the punch itself had made their heads into paste.

Originally [Demonic energy] was for protecting my fist,but it had an unexpected offensive effect. Walking pass the corpses, the party picked up the cue to continue advancing.

If everyone acquired the same stats upon levelling , wouldn't combat ability be the same for everyone? That was where classes came in. Monsters also have their own monster racial classes and skills. Ultimately, the pinnacle of ability is skills. Skills defied all logic, some have a heavy cost, some only take mana, ultimately there was an exchange. Some skills simply have the most absurdly cheap exchange, logic and fairness simply did not dictate the price.

"[Demonic energy]. "

Having practiced enough for the past 2 hours, it was now possible for me to send small invisible bullets. At the present, they dealt very little force. At most they could destroy a pebble or two. But I could see it. Or at least I could imagine it. The peak of this ability. If I couldn't destroy my enemies at once, what if I were to control it? Prevent it from dispersing after shooting the bullet. Force it to rampage thoroughly before it runs out of energy.

Before I noticed it, I was so far ahead of the party that they couldn't be seen.