Fei Lei and the team continued to stomp down the 2-Star Army of Magic Beasts.
Using every fighting style he was capable of, his physique continued to improve at a quicker pace, Fei Lei even started using his old breathing technique while he was fighting to increase his strength.
Relying on the Breath of Summer, Fei Lei didn't have to worry about Udo's scan ability stealing the art.
A dozen hours later, June had just come back from restoring her mana in the safe zone and saw that Fei Lei was still battling it out, "Incredible he's still fighting?" June asked with widened eyes.
"Actually he's been coming back and taking 5 minutes breaks, well more like power naps," Udo said before he let out a long yawn.
"Naps?" June questioned as she set up her barrier again.
Udo walked over to June, nodded his head, and replied, "Yeah, Fei Lei said that his Sigil and spells don't use a whole lot of mana and that he's mostly fighting with raw physical power. So, the only thing he has to worry about his stamina."
"Are you telling me, that Fei Lei takes five-minute naps, and he's back in combat? What is he a golem?!" June shouted in disbelief.
Udo shook his head before answering her, "Nah, every time he seems tired, Fei Lei comes back and uses a spell to restore his stamina, and then once he naps, he goes back out to fight again," Udo said sitting down while he monitored the influx of magical beast.
"I've never heard of a Level-0 spell that could restore one's physical stamina!" June said with her eyes nearly bulging from her skull. Most low-level healing spells can heal wounds, but stamina is a whole other matter, only a level three spell or higher was capable of such things.
"Yeah, his whole body radiates a golden aura when he does it, and the Mana cost must be so small that not even I can determine whether or not he's using Mana at all!" Udo explained.
After asking Udo a few things about his Scanning ability, he learned that it wasn't omnipotent, while it could scan his body for Mana, and even read his pulse, it couldn't detect his breathing pattern.
Fei Lei had mixed in a faint trace of his mana through using his Quick Recovery spell and convinced them that his Breath of the Nature Gods was a spell.
Udo had no idea that it wasn't a spell at all.
After a few minutes passed, Eriks walked up to them and placed the tip of his sword into the ground as he took a seat against the steps.
Since it was his turn to take a break, Eriks relaxed as breathed a sigh of relief, he then looked to Momo before he said, "Use your support spell on him. I'm interested to see just how powerful this Adept's physique is."
Momo nodded her head and cast all her level 0 supports spells alongside her Sigil.
When the Support Sigil attached itself to Fei Lei's back, he suddenly felt his body's physical parameters double.
Fei Lei laughed as he felt the difference between his boost magic, and Momo's support magic.
It was as if the Mana was solely responsible for the increase in strength, and it didn't stress the body in the same way his Boost spell did.
Activating his Boost Spell, Fei Lei became a monster in his own right, his physique was currently 4 times more powerful than his base strength. If he activated his Level-1 Boost Spell, Fei Lei could increase the limit to 6 times his body's limit.
The image of Fei Lei's movements became like a ghostly figure wherever he moved. With his enhanced powers, it didn't take long for him to cut, punch, and kick everything in the room to death.
Fei Lei stood in the center of the room standing around a massive pile of Magic Cores.
When suddenly the next random creature to attack Fei Lei was struck down, dropped an item. It was a strange-looking claw that had a magical spell written on it.
"A one in 2000 chance for an Item drop, I wonder if there any requirements besides luck," Fei Lei thought as he scratched his chin.
He quickly stored the fang in his spatial ring and pulled out his Clear Mist before he started clearing the room out once again. After killing every creature on the floor again, Fei Lei felt disappointed that his idea that clearing the room of all enemies at once wasn't a factor in the item drop phenomena.
They continued to fight for hours longer, and by the time they finally managed to succeed in taking out all of the opposition, the entire party of Mages all stood next to each other panting heavily and were exhausted.
This time Fei Lei ended up with around 2,574 cores of all 6 elements and a single Item drop.
They all headed back up to the rest area and chose to rest up for another day before returning to the depths of the dungeon.
The next day, everyone geared up before they marched down to the third level.
When they arrived at the natural archway, Fei Lei and Yan Mei were blown away by the change in scenery.
Seeing the forest-like terrain around, Fei Lei began to inspect the area when Udo stopped him and warned everybody by saying, "Be on the lookout for any and all types of dangers, also, don't wander off alone too far unless you're looking for a quick death.
Eriks then followed as he said, "Never go alone, always have someone watching your back. Unlike the floors above, the monsters that spawn down here are actual Magical Beasts. The monsters on this floor are directly influenced by the Dungeon Core, so they aren't the humanoid creatures we've been fighting thus far."
Fei Lei and Yan Mei thanked him for the advice, when Fei Lei said, "Well I guess this ends our partnership, from this point on, it's whoever kills it, keeps it."
"Nice working with ya! I'll put in a good word for you at the Guild!" Hina said as she stepped up to Fei Lei.
"Stay safe, and have a good time!" Yan Mei said as she jumped on Fei Lei's back.
With a quick activation of their Boost Spells, Hina and Fei Lei took off while Yan Mei was piggybacked through the forestry.
While the trio disappeared from the rest of the party's view, June and Terry waved goodbye before they left as well, thus leaving Eriks with his teammates.
Fei Lei, Yan Mei, and Hina moved through the forested terrain with ease. Whenever they spotted a beast they would take it down with ease, Fei Lei was also delighted to know that unlike the beasts they fought earlier, these didn't dissipate into a cloud of dust.
As they traveled along, Hina spotted a herd of around fifty 4-Star Water Hippo-Rhinos. As one would expect, they were massive creatures almost 8 feet tall and around five feet long.
Each of them weighed well above two or three tons, had large round bodies covered in thick purple hide, and had a large unicorn protruding from their snouts.
The Mages of Fantasia stood on top of a nearby hillside that was covered in bushes, looking in on their prey.
As they peered out at the large lake below them, Yan Mei looked at the monsters with a hint of greed in her eyes and whispered, "Fei Lei, the materials from those Magic Beasts can help create some really good armor."
"And I bet the 4-Star Water Cores aren't that bad of a haul either." Fei Lei said with a grin on his face.
Hina gave a mischievous smile and acted like she didn't know what he was talking about.
Fei Lei shook his head in response and said, "Yeah, that's not obvious."
Yan Mei giggled at their antics before she said, "I don't know if my level 4 spells or my new Level 2 Sigil can damage them. They're water-based, so they're pretty much my mortal enemies."
"Oh yeah, you ranked up. What's your new Sigil?" Hina asked.
"Forge Fire. I told you I want to be an Enchanter," Yan Mei replied while nodding her head.
"That's good, you can add your red flames with your green flames now, with two Level-2 Sigils powering up your fires, you can do some real damage. Have some faith in your magic," Hina replied as she slapped the back of Yan Mei's shoulder.
Fei Lei then said, "Hina and I will take care of keeping them distracted, while you charge up the biggest fire tornado I've ever seen."
The three of them began to plan out their attack. After some time discussing amongst each other, Yan Mei turned to Fei Lei and asked, "Hey, Fei Lei, how did you use ice magic, and can you do it again?"
Fei Lei being the genius he is, figured out what Yan Mei was getting at, "You remember that lesson I gave you on the movement speed of molecules determining the heat of the environment?"
"Yeah, but how does that have anything to do with your magic?" Yan Mei asked scratching her head.
Fei Lei gave her a kiss on the forehead and then explained by saying, "I can use telekinesis; the power of my mind, to affect the flow and speeds of the atoms in the air, speed it up and you get fire, and if you slow it down you get ice."
Yan Mei nodded her head as Fei Lei explained that his psionic power wasn't magic, but a mental ability. Yan Mei's mouth then dropped open as if she had figured something out.
Her eyes went wide as she whispered, "Do you have a divine blessing!?"
Fei Lei lifted his brow in confusion.
Hina snorted in response to Fei Lei's expression and started to explain, "Some people in this world are born with unique abilities that can't be explained through magic, like being born with unnatural strength, or specific and unique abilities. Mages call these abilities that only a rare few people born with, Divine Blessings."
Fei Lei nodded his head and said, "Thanks for the lesson, but I don't think I have a blessing, rather, my telekinesis is a result of a mutation that occurred in my brain."
"Okay, so let me get this straight, you're telling me that you don't have a blessing, but a mutation? How is that even possible?" Hina shot back with a look of disbelief.
"Okay, can we get back to the plan!" Yan Mei interrupted the two.
"Sure. So, I want to freeze the lake, but since Water Mage's use Ice Magic too, that would mean the Magic Beasts can do the same, right?" Fei Lei asked as he looked at Hina.
Nodded her head, Hina smiled and replied, "Yes, but unless they're creatures that specialize in Ice Magic, they'll use far more mana than just using their water magic. A magical beast that has just unlocked its awareness like the before us, don't really know how to manipulate water on that kind of level, but, someone like me can easily pull it off."
"Good, I want you to freeze the lake while Yan Mei and I will dry them out!" Fei Lei said with a smile, this time confusing them both.
Seeing they didn't understand his plan completely, Fei Lei followed up by saying, "Just because fire is weak against water, doesn't mean that fire can't overcome it. We can dry them out."
The three quickly decided on their roles and put their plans into motion.
Fei Lei and Hina jumped down off of the hill while Yan Mei started charging her Mana. Fei Lei then pulled out his Clear Mist Blade and ignited it while Hina began to freeze the lake, slowly pushing the hippos towards the shore.
While the magic beasts moved closer to the shore, Fei Lei pulled in the chunks of Ice behind them and stored in his spatial ring.
As the lake drained, the Hippo-Rhinos noticed Fei Lei taking their lake and charged towards them in anger.
Fei Lei held his Clear Mist out and took a battle stance as he shouted, "Now Yan Mei!"
Suddenly, from out of the bushes, Yan Mei cast a powerful level-4 fire spell, Crimson Inferno.
A powerful pure red and green fire shot out from cover before they enveloped Fei Lei's sword while swung out his blade.
Green and Red Flames merged with Fei Lei's natural fires and covered the herd of magical beasts in a dome of flames.
Fei Lei then used his telekinesis to spin the dome counterclockwise, expelling the air and maintaining the level of heat at the same time.
Hina stood back in shock as the air from the environment around them dried up.
While the Hippo-Rhinos were trapped inside the rotating dome, some of the creatures tried to run through the flaming barrier, causing them intense pain in return.
Yan Mei then helped Fei Lei by maintaining the Crimson Inferno Spell while he kicked one of the creatures back into the trap.
Hina activated her boost spell and shatter their spines of a few monsters with a single powerful lash of her Flawless Heavenly Treasure.
The Nightlash Whip was a long 14-foot long purple steel linked whip had a terrifying claw at the end of it that looked like it was made from a powerful magical beast.
She hadn't needed to use it before, so instead, Hina had been using her 100-Pound training whip up to this point. However, now they were fighting 4-Star Magic Beasts, she didn't have the luxury of holding back anymore.
During the chaos, Fei Lei found the time to shout out, "Just keep them back! I don't want to damage their bodies too much!"
Hina nodded her head and flicked her hand, the whip cracked in the air as Hina used her spell, Water Wheel, and created a ring of water around the dome of fire that constantly circling it.
Every time the creatures came running out of the fires, the ring would spew out a jet of highly pressured water, ramming them and knocking them back inside the infernal prison.
After keeping them in for around 10 minutes, Hina couldn't help but ask, "Why are we doing this?"
Yan Mei jumped down from the hillside and said, "Incredible, I never thought about killing them like this!"
Hina looked to her with a brow raised, "You know what he's doing?"
"Haven't you noticed that every time they charged out they were weaker than before?" Yan Mei returned her question while she pointed to the flaming dome.
Hina furrowed her brow and placed her hand to her chin as she thought out loud, "Hmm...Your right."
"He's suffocating them. Fire uses the air as fuel, and if he burns it all up…" Yan Mei's explanation was cut off by the sudden dissipation of the flames.
Around 40 or so of the Hippo Rhinos were lying down in the center of where the flaming dome used to be.
All of them were dead, and most of them were without a single wound on them.
Only the creatures that attempted to escape were covered in slight scorch marks, but no other than the two who had their spines shattered by Hina, the corpses were in peak condition.
"Wow, to think they didn't take any real damage from the flame!" Fei Lei said as he walked forward to see that one of the bodies was missing.
Fei Lei and the rest searched through the bodies, but in the end, only one of the creatures had turned into an item.
When Fei Lei picked up a long blue-leather headband with strange markings on it, Yan Mei shouted out, "Woohoo!" as she stared at the item made from the creature's flesh.
"Put it on Fei Lei! That's a Heavenly Treasure! I can't tell what tier it is, but headpieces are really different, they always carry some kind of unique effect!" Yan Mei said as she hopped around excitedly.
Fei Lei smiled, and as he placed it on around his head he felt a cooling sensation enter his brain. Suddenly, all of his thoughts began to spark up.
It was as if dozens of things that he couldn't fully make sense of concerning the subjects from Isaac's memories more difficult problems.
"Headband of Intellect!" Fei Lei said, not knowing where the words came from.
"It has a true name! It's a flawless Heavenly Treasure!" Hina said smiling.
Fei Lei grinned, "The headband passively increases my mental processing speed, and it has a once per day spell on it."
"What is it?" Yan Mei and Hina asked with curiosity filling their eyes.
"Focus! It's capable of doubling the speed of all my cognitive functions for half an hour," Fei Lei said smiling ear to ear.
"Cool!" Yan Mei followed with stars in her eyes.
Fei Lei laughed at her choice of word, then proceeded to store the bodies in his spatial ring. After pulling out the cores and handing them off to Hina, Fei Lei then quickly dissected the Magical Beasts and separated their parts into his spatial ring.
Hina smiled before giving Fei Lei a kiss on the cheek, and as he blushed she backed off and said, "Thank you, Fei Lei!"
Yan Mei grabbed Fei Lei and pulled him back before shouting, "He's MINE! Stop hitting on my man!"
Hina laughed hard, making Fei Lei shake his head while Yan Mei clung to him like a koala on a tree.
Hina quickly put away the 40 perfect cores Fei Lei gave her, and said, "Better watch out Yan Mei, I might just request you to share."
Yan Mei frowned in response and growled like a cat.
Fei Lei held his hands up and said, "Okay, we still have a lot of hunting to do, let's get back to work."
"Awe, but I wanna tease the kitty!" Hina protested.
After Fei Lei calmed Yan Mei down, the three of them began to seek out more prey.
During their hunt, they collected the bodies of many different kinds of 3-Star Magical Beasts, and yet no items were dropped.
They continued to keep this up for several hours, with Fei Lei constantly having to stand guard during Hina and Yan Mei's breaks.
After killing for several hours more, they stocked up their rewards and decided to head towards the center of the dungeon.
Altogether, each of them earned around 120 Three-Star Cores of various elements. The group started to celebrate as they chatted about their hoard when suddenly, they heard an ear-shattering roar and the sound of June screaming for help.