With the preparations done, Donis found some straggler Tranners. He ended up taking potshots at them with some small water bolts he conjured up. They took the bait and ended up following him back to his little arena. There were some inclines and small bits of shelter made from stone just in case.
He created these not knowing what tactics, if any, the Tranners used. He wanted to be as sure as possible that the levelling for Etheria would go as smoothly as possible. He didn't want to hurt her at all.
The initial group he attracted was comprised of 3 varying sized Tranners. It looked like levels for the increase their size and probably ferocity, since the largest one was level 24 and was charging straight at him. The smaller ones were level 22 and 23, and they were situated just a little bit behind the bigger one.
Donis took his stance and took out his Goldwood Bow. He wanted to try out the new skill [Frost Shot] and what better enemies than those that fly! Etheria was still summoned back and not out in the playing field. He didn't want her out getting hurt unless it was absolutely unavoidable.
He launched a few arrows in their direction and landed a few hits. They weren't major but at least he was able to hit them. He was trying to get to know their flight patterns so that his [Frost Shot] wouldn't miss.
Aiming at the two smaller ones, he cast [Frost Shot] on both and ended up landing both hits. Each hit froze their wings which made them fall hard on the new terrain. They were incapacitated for a little while since their wings were too heavy to use, which gave Donis the perfect opportunity to fight the highest level Tranner.
He put the bow on his back and took out the Khopesh sword, assuming his next battle stance. He loaded it with Void Charged Mana and cast [Air Pulse] since it had a homing attack, making it easier to actually land the hits. It hit the Tranner head on and disturbed it's flight path, making it have to land abruptly just a few meters short of Donis.
It was perfect! How else to deal with a flying enemy than to get them to land? Donis closed the distance in one quick dash, summoning Etheria behind him and commanding her to stay there until he told her to move.
While the Tranner was getting up, it used it's wings to shield itself. The wings took on a metallic sheen as it cocooned itself away from the sword attack. The Khopesh sword reflected off of it's wings, but not without doing damage. It took out a chunk from the metallic wings. Neither Donis nor the Tranner expected so, since the bird stood there motionless staring at it's now gored wing.
'Huh, I guess Variis's blessing really does work. It probably has never met someone as strong as me!' he thought.
Spinning around and shifting his momentum to generate a stronger swing, Donis struck again, this time cutting the metallic wing clean off and throwing the Tranner entirely off balance and on the ground.
'Nice, this is so much easier than the Sandracons!'
Donis continued the attack until the Tranner in front of him was just shy of [30HP], putting it in range of his now slightly more powerful [Immolate I].
Donis cast the spell, culminating as much of his newfound Will into the attack and igniting his life force once again. It always hurt, but with each level it hurt just a little bit less. The downed and bleeding Tranner couldn't hold up to the final attack and ended up perishing.
Donis quickly glanced at [Immolate I] and saw it went up to 40 damage!
'Nice! It works!'
Focusing back on the last two, Donis made quick work of them, leaving them at the lowest sliver of health possible. He then motioned to Etheria to come over and finish them off. Etheria took not a single moment, unknowing of the moral battles Donis had to fight to come to terms with killing, and struck with all of her power.
The damage wasn't much, nor was the ability great, but the result was the same. The Tranners died and Etheria lived, soaking up the [EXP] they gave off. She seemed happy to finally feel useful to Donis, but he wasn't sure if the look of pride was all that necessary. Wasn't he the one that did all of the work?
Looking at Etherias status, he saw that the massive difference in levels greatly propelled Etheria. She went from level 9 to level 16! This was a viable strategy, and they still had 47 Tranners to take care of. It was going to be a bountiful day for the two of them, but Donis knew that it was still going to take time to get through these numbers safely.
As much as he wanted to powerlevel Etheria to his own level, he still needed time for his own experiments. He had yet to try [Dark Lightning], [Lightning Hand], [Water Spear] and [Pressurised Earth Spear].
It wasn't so much as he didn't know how to use them, the [System] taking care of that with its pseudo memories, but more like he didn't know how they felt to use in real life. It was one thing remembering how it works vaguely, to knowing from real experience.
Donis spent the next few dozens of minutes gathering the attention of a slightly larger group of Tranners. Pelting them with water, and baiting them back to his little arena doesn't take long, but finding stragglers that aren't with the entire pack was the tough part.
This time there were 4 and again they followed a size scheme that reflected their levels. The highest level one was level 24 again, with the lowest being level 22. It was perfect for them.
Following the same pattern as last time, Donis disabled the three behind the biggest one with [Frost Shot] and brought down the large using [Air Pulse]. This time he infused the attack with Electrical Elemental Mana, wanting to see its effects.
It made the larger one crash down hard on the ground, following the other three in their graceless landings. It didn't seem to be getting up, and looking at it's status Donis noticed another little thing that appeared.
[Debuff – Paralysed]
��Oh, it looks like even raw Elemental Mana can cause debuffs! Nice!'
Making short work of the [HP] bar of the Tranner, Donis cast another [Immolate I] and watched it's damage numbers rise once again by 10. It was now at 50 damage per cast. It still wasn't his highest damaging ability, but if this keeps up he'll see it's damage skyrocket.
Now as for the other three that are struggling on the floor with frozen wings, Donis didn't waste much time. To the first one he walked up and cast [Lightning Hand]. He saw his right hand light up, crackling with golden electricity. It was almost a numbing experience for him.
Placing his right hand on the Tranners head, Donis saw the electricity jump from his finger tips and rush through the wet feathers. Watching the [HP] bar, Donis kept casting it until he thought the monster would be within Etherias new killing range.
Leaving it there he moved on to the next one. He cast [Dark Lightning]. He watched as a bolt formed between his hands, as if he was generating it from the mere action of pulling his hands apart. It was dark, and crackling with power, screaming at him to be let loose. He threw the lightning bolt from point blank range and within the blink of an eye it was already gone.
The wet feathers lit up, and the lightning bolt left a scorch mark on the chest from where it struck. It didn't look pleasant, but it definitely did far more damage than he expected. With that attack alone the Tranner was on deaths door, entirely incapacitated with the [Debuff – Paralysis].
Satisfied with the results, he moved on to the last one. It was staring at Donis with resignation in its eyes. Donis wasted no time and cast [Water Spear] directly at its head. A small water column appeared in Donis's hand, rotating wildly, giving itself an almost solid look. It pierced right through the head, killing it on the spot.
Donis was shocked, judging by the damage numbers, it should have lived through that, even including Variis's blessing.
'It looks like if I hit a critically weak spot on the monster, it can bypass the normal numbers of an ability. Huh, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you Tranner, and I'm sorry it has to be this way,' he thought in slight lament.
After telling Etheria to kill the other two telepathically, Donis went over and collected the dead bodies of the ones he'd killed for his experiments. There was no need to waste anything since he had taken their lives from them. He was sure he could either sell them, or make use of the ingredients their bodies provided.
Etheria rushed the two, killing them with much greater ease than before. As soon as she was finished with her task and levelled up to 20, Donis was greeted with a new notification.
-Soul Contract Evolution Available. Do you wish to [Evolve] the Soul Contract [Etheria]?-