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Volume 2 - Ch 5.3
Volume 2 - Ch 5.3
As for the way we could proceed, we had two options when we reached the intersection: the left one and the right one, so I asked Roxanne if she could try sensing how many enemies were down each route.
On the right there seems to be a group of two Needlewoods and one Green Caterpillar. On the left there is only a lone Needlewood. What do you want to do, master?
The closer the enemy is to us, the better. Were going to the left.
Understood.
And so we proceeded down the corridor to the left.
Now that I have tested pretty much all variants of the Fire-type spells and their general usage, it would be good to try my hand at using different kinds of magic as well.
I tried Beginners Fire Magic already, but the Wizard Job has given me access to three more Skills that I have to test out: Beginners Water Magic, Beginners Wind Magic and Beginners Earth Magic. If Fire Magic used spells that were based on the word fire insert the rest here, then it should be the same with all the others, right? Like, for example, Fire Magic has Fireball spell, so for Water Magic it would be Waterball? Lets give it a try.
(Waterball!)
When I spoke the spells supposed name in my mind, a ball of water materialized itself in my hand and immediately shot forward from it.
Oooooh! So that is Water Magic, huh?
Since there was an enemy not that far away from us, I concluded that there was no better time than the present to test it out against live, moving targets, and the Needlewood Lv.2 fit that bill perfectly, so when we approached it, I launched the Waterball at it from a safe distance. When the monsters body was hit by the rapidly flying spell it was pushed back a few steps and lost its momentum and was staggered for a few seconds, but it collected itself and continued its advance towards us immediately after that. Okay, aside from that brief stagger, it doesnt look like this Waterball attack did that much damage to it, so I patiently waited for it to come just within slashing distance and disposed of it with one blow from Durandal.
So, that did way less damage than I anticipated, which is admittedly kind of a bummer.
Some monsters may actually be resistant to certain magical attributes or have different set of weaknesses, so Needlewoods might be resistant to Water Magic. Im sorry I cant tell you more about this matter, but as I said before, Wizards and Mages are rare to begin with, and I didnt have much occasions to meet them and ask about magic.
Well, I guess well just have to keep trying different spells on them to see which are effective and which are not, but that will come in due time. For now, theres no need for us to worry about it too much.
That being said, I wonder if what Roxanne said about Needlewoods being resistant to Water Magic was really true? I mean, they technically are nothing more but sentient trees, and trees thrive from water instead of being harmed by it, so I guess that would make sense?
Well, then, shall we go to the next spot with the enemies?
Of course! The next ones should be over that way!
Our next opponents turned out to be a group of Green Caterpillars, so I tried using Fire Storm on them. The sparks created by the spell gathered around two of them, and in the next moment they were engulfed in the series of fiery explosions, turning them both bright red before they turned into lumps of charcoal and burned body chunks. Oh yeah, as long as the enemies are weak enough, Fire Storm might actually be the best way of dealing with groups of them, provided that they wont prove to be resistant to fire damage.
When the flames of the Fire Storm finally died out and the monsters slain with it turned into the puffs of green smoke, I decided to test Fire Storms Water Magic counterpart, Water Storm on the remaining ones. Initially it looked like a single droplet of water, which made me think that it was somewhat unimpressive, but as soon as that droplet hit the ground it grew and erupted into a pillar of highly pressurized water that closed in on the Green Caterpillars location, and then it swallowed them all, squeezing them in one place where the torrents of spiraling water continuously lashed at them. Water Storm might not be as destructive as Fire Storm, but that property of keeping groups of enemies bundled together in one place might certainly come in handy somewhere down the line.
Then I tried eliminating Green Caterpillars using the Waterball spell. As expected, they didnt die in one shot, but I guess such an outcome was to be expected since I needed three Fireballs to kill a single Lv.1 Needlewood down on the first floor, so obviously it would be unreasonable to expect the Lv.2 enemies on the second floor to die in two or three hits from a Waterball. However, unlike with the Needlewood, it didnt feel like Green Caterpillars were particularly resistant to Water Magic, which was a good piece of intel to obtain.
The next Green Caterpillars must have been a little tougher than the rest, because when I threw another Fire Storm at them, they endured the attack while being colored a mixture of charcoal-black and smoldering-red. I have to admit, there was something especially ghastly in the appearance of a giant, oversized caterpillars that continued crawling towards us even when their meaty bodies were slowly being consumed by the raging flames that wouldnt let go of them until they were burned to cinders. Its not like Im worried that they might kill us considering their current state, so we just have to stay calm and respond to whatever tricks they might try to pull on us with their dying breaths. And in case of any emergency, I will simply smack them with Durandal to kill them instantly for sure. Or maybe I should use Durandal right away and be done with it without sweating the small stuff?
When they came into our melee range, they were only two of them remaining, so Roxanne and I each took on one of them. The Green Caterpillar that I faced tried to rush at me, and I avoided its attack, although barely, I have to admit that much. It was a really close call. I knew that things will only get tougher once we go to the higher floors of the Labyrinth, but to be honest, I thought we would still get some kind of leeway on the second floor. I guess the times of taking down enemies quickly and effortlessly couldnt have last forever, did they?
I used Fire Storm once more after throwing two more Fireballs at it, but as soon as its sparks appeared in the air, I sensed a wave of negative thoughts washing over me.
I cannot avoid the monster attacks forever. I want to, but thats simply not possible with my current self. Their attacks will reach me and kill me. I have to escape if I want to leave this place alive! Just do it, you insufferable idiot! Turn your back on everything in this shithole and run as far away as you can! Just when I was about to heed my basic instincts and turn tail and run, the Green Caterpillar finally collapsed right in front of me while burning bright red from the flames of the Fire Storm that did enough damage to it to reduce its remaining HP to zero.
Haha, hahaha, kill them in one shot with magic? What the hell was I thinking?! It took a total of four spell to kill that one enemy. Was that how big the difference between mobs of Lv.1 and Lv.2 was? Or perhaps my own stats are to blame because my Magic ATK is too low? Is that it? So many shots to kill one monster because I am too incompetent?!
I dont care about that now! This is bad! The amount of my MP has decreased too much, affecting my thinking processes in a negative way. I have to kill some more monsters with Durandal now to get myself back to normal before I will do something really stupid! Those spells decreased my total MP to around 1/4thof its total value, so killing a few more monsters should put me back on my feet as usual, and then, assuming I will live through it of course, I will be able to go back to checking the rest of the spells out. I already tested Waterball And Water Storm out, so next will be Water Wall.