The elemental fully reformed and started to envelope the boss's arm, hardening it to stone, the water elemental was taking significant damage but was reforming just as fast, soon the other two summons went in to aid it, freezing other parts as the boss attempted to swat them.
"You good?" I asked Fulcrum.
"Yeah, the constant feed of mana is helpful, you better get involved though." He grinned, his focus was on directing the tactics of the summons.
"Will do." I turned, feeding my body more mana, not enough to slow time unintentionally but enough. I then created two spells in either hand, rays of frost, each using more than four million mana.
I leapt into the air and blasted the boss with these beams, freezing significant portions of it, I then started to soar about it, freezing larger sections of it. Soon the boss's movements had halted significantly.
"Give it a good whack when it stops entirely!" Fulcrum shouted up. I nodded my response.
I spotted the last glowing section of the boss's body, a low groaning sound echoed out from the beast as it was trapped by its own body. I sent a burst of cold energy at the spot, changing its tone to black as a plume of water vapour exploded off of it.
"Now!" Fulcrum shouted.
I flew straight towards its chest, enhancing my body to insane levels by means of the mana stored within me, time slowed as I reached the chest, throwing my fist into it. Spiderweb cracks rapidly spread across the surface even in this state of slowed time. I pulled the influence of the mana back out of me and time resumed it's usual flow. The boss shattered instantly, into countless pieces, scattering across the room. The death was followed by a "Yahoo!" From Fulcrum as he jumped up and down in the air, looking at my windows I saw why.
DUNGEON QUEST COMPLETED
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
+125 ABILITY POINTS
+20 SKILL POINTS
+25 TO EVERY STAT
I understood that if I'd leveled two times, how many times must Fulcrum have leveled? At least ten surely. Even I could vaguely feel the boost to my stats, he must've been elated. Then one strange screen showed up, massive, taking up almost the whole room in front of us.
DOES THE PARTY ACCEPT THE MATERIAL REWARDS:
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
ELEMENTAL LOOT BOX
Y/N
"Yes?" I asked Fulcrum while floating in the air. It appeared he could see the screen too.
"Yes." He confirmed, and the Y on screen lit up. As the window disappeared, three objects materialized on the now cold stone floor.
I gently flew down to them and observed with Fulcrum.
One staff made of what looked to be pitch black glass, like obsidian. One dagger made from the same material and a box about the size of a Rubik's Cube that was made from smoking stone that had small flames on the surface, it was wrapped in a bow by a ribbon of water.
"Elemental loot box indeed." I said to Fulcrum.
"Which ones do you want? I mean, you did come here to prove that you could've solo cleared that dungeon at my old level. But you ended up doubling my level in return, I think you should have all of the items." He said adamantly.
"Nah, I'm ascended, you're close. You can have the staff and knife, I'll take the box." I grinned, opening a storage portal under the box.
"What? No. I can't get these, there'll be stat boosts with them. It not fair to you." He complained.
"No, it is fair, I said that I didn't want them anyway. If you really don't think it's fair, let me fiddle around with them first?"
"Fiddle?" He asked, frowning.
"Yeah, just give me like ten minutes and I'll be done experimenting. I've got to level a skill I've been neglecting." I explained.
"Sure... As far as I'm concerned, they're yours." He walked away, moving his hand in the air.
He must've been placing his points, I quickly opened his stat block.
NAME - FULCRUM IPODEX
RACE - HALFLING
LVL - 88
HP - 492,800
HP/s - +490
MP - 369,600
MP/s - +1,800
JOB - SORCERER
INDIVIDUAL SKILL - COIN TOSS
STR - 70
AGI - 200
CON - 200
INT - 300
FTH - 50
ABILITY POINTS (138)
SKILL POINTS (8)
Looked like he was trying to keep his stat ending in a zero, I guessed that he was a sort of neat freak with his stats. I made a mental note and then turned back to the two artifacts, looking at their stats.
STAFF OF FIRE
+110 INT
+20 CON
GAIN SKILL - FIRE RESISTANCE
MANA STORED - 0/200,000,000
DAGGER OF FLAMES
+120 AGI
+50 CON
GAIN SKILL - FLAME STEP
MANA STORED - 0/300,000,000
They were two very powerful artifacts, I made two balls of mana large enough for each artifact's mana store capacity. I placed them in and then checked the stats again.
STAFF OF FIRE
+330 INT
+40 CON
GAIN SKILL - FIRE IMMUNITY
MANA STORED - 200,000,000/200,000,000
DAGGER OF FLAMES
+360 AGI
+150 CON
GAIN SKILL - FIERY TELEPORT
MANA STORED - 300,000,000/300,000,000
So, because the mana storage was so high, the items get such large bonuses. Moreover, their appearance had changed, the staff which was plain in shape had intricate spirals along its length and it's top had shattered and the shards were floating just above the top, glowing slightly red. The dagger which was curved and roughly chiseled before, was now incredibly smooth with a leather wrapped handle and ornate patterning on, in the gaps of those patterns, lava trickled. Moreover the blade itself glowed faintly red like the end of the staff.
I then opened my skill list, moving down to the skill I gained from maxing out my mana weaving skill, possibly my most powerful skill.
ENCHANTMENT MANIPULATION - LVL 56
YOU CAN CREATE AND MANIPULATE ENCHANTMENTS BY PUMPING MANA INTO AN OBJECT WITH A SPECIFIC GOAL IN MIND, EFFECTS OF ENCHANTMENTS AND STRENGTH OF THEM INCREASE WITH EACH LEVEL OF THIS SKILL.
MANA COST - 25000
I created a small ring, made of obsidian, checking that it would fit around my pinky finger. I then gathered over a billion points of mana above my hand, imagining the same properties as the final evolution of the dagger. I then pushed the mana into the ring. The mana wrapped about the ring, forming letters in a script that I recognized, but didn't know what was. The letters shifted to a orange-red glow and sunk into the surface of the black ring. The letters then faded but I could still see the patterns on the surface.
"What was that?" Fulcrum, who had been watching, asked.
"I'm trying out a skill called enchantment manipulation. I've not used it before but I got it from leveling my main job skill to max." I explained.
"Ah, well it looked spectacular, with the writing appearing in the air."
"Yeah, I thought so too..." I trailed off as I checked that the ring had a screen.
N/A
+360 AGI
+150 CON
GAIN SKILL - FIERY TELEPORT
MANA STORED - 0/1,000,000,000
"Huh." I breathed
"What?" Fulcrum asked.
"Give me a second." I said.
I pressed on the N/A
ENTER A NAME FOR THIS ARTIFACT...
I typed on the keyboard that appeared before me.
RING #1
It was a test run so I wanted to know that this was my first attempt. I then took the mana out of the air, forcing one billion points into the ring. Then gazed in amazement on seeing the stats of the ring.
RING #1
+720 AGI
+300 CON
GAIN SKILL - INCANDESCENT TRAVEL
MANA STORED 1,000,000,000/1,000,000,000
So there wasn't a correlation on the improvement to the stat increases. At least I had found that out and discovered that I could become incredibly over powered. Suddenly a notification showed up in front of my face.
SKILL LEVELED UP - ENCHANTMENT MANIPULATION LVL 78
Making such a powerful artifact had increased my skill level greatly. I grinned and placed the ring on, watching my stat screen change and feeling the changes.
My agility had skyrocketed and suddenly become my highest stat, I also felt my physical condition greatly increase.
"You can have your items now.' I grinned to Fulcrum.
"You sure you don't want them?" He asked, fully ready to leave them to me.
"Sure. You can have them." I stood up, quickly shifting my stats about with the points.