At night…
The Poison Crypt, the fourth floor.
The terrain of the fourth floor is more like a model of numerous earth trench stitched together, with a combination of muddy swamp filling those trenches.
It was a very favourable place for Purple Scaled Alligators, entering this floor without much knowledge of the terrain was more dangerous than patrolling the fifth floor alone.
Poison Scaled Alligators makes caves in a dry area away from the trench and swamp, to mate and lay eggs, once the eggs are laid, they leave them to their fate and abandon the cave, and because most Poison Scaled Alligators prefer to make their own cave, the old caves are either destroyed or remain as isolated areas.
An abandoned cave around 100 meters away from the Boss Room, 3 men were sitting at its outside region, they were naturally Kale, Fynn and Ajin.
A mud pot hanging above the bone fire with the help of a wet wooden stand. The pot was filled with water and pearl white eggs that were as twice as big as chicken eggs.
Kale picked up a sharply pointed twig, with a swoosh sound, he penetrated a boiled egg inside using the twig as a fork, he then pulled it back, sprinkled some salt on it and took a quick bite.
Kale slowly chewed on it and swallowed it down his throat, he then looked at the other two men staring at him and nodded "They are cooked,"
After hearing his words, both Fynn and Ajin picked up and twig, then pulled out the remaining eggs from the pot.
At this time, light footsteps sounded and Tanya came to the outer area from the inner side of the cave. The cave naturally wasn't deep at first but Ajin, who was a Marital Mage with Earth element mastery could easily modify it.
Ajin divided the cooked eggs and gave the bigger share to them, they had long decided on who will keep watching outside first and for how long, right now, it was the men's turn first, that's why Kale was at the outer part preparing food with the other two.
After dinner, Ajin looked at Kale and spoke "You should stay at the mid part of the cave, wake them up if I alert you,"
Kale nodded.
He knew why he said so, Kale's current level of strength was lowest in his eyes, to someone like Ajin, his mana fluctuation when casting spells could easily tell that it wasn't long before he breakthrough. Moreover, Kale looked like a kid that lacked experience, the monsters on the third floor could easily deal with such a person.
In Ajin's view, Kale's only worth was him acting as a hostage in case something happens, like Tanya he also guessed that Kale was important to Elza or she wouldn't bring someone so weak, especially a mage, to lower floors of such a dungeon.
Who knew what kind of expression he would make if he realized that the whole team including Elza and Fynn was instead working under Kale's commands.
But on the other hand, Tanya was playing the same game.
Both wanting to make use of each other for their own benefits.
Kale obediently walked to the middle part of cave, after confirming that no one was around, he took out the light pink piece of meat wrapped into leather from his pocket, the second he did, the little white snake dashed out from his clothes, opened its mouth wide and swallowed it in one go, it then turned and stared at Kale wondering if he would stop it from eating again like earlier.
Kale was speechless.
He kept it under his clothes and prevented it from eating the food earlier, to keep it hidden, although Ajin may have already found out about it if he has a good investigative spell that could see through his magic robe, but as a naïve little boy, he was still supposed to hide it.
Kale didn't say anything, he took out the boiled egg to eat, but before he could even open his mouth, the little snake opened its mouth wide again and leapt at it, trying to swallow it in one go, nevertheless its mouth got stuck after reaching half of the egg's length.
The snake still didn't give up and penetrated the egg's surface with its fangs, pale green venom dripped from its fangs as it stared at Kale.
'This little… Gluten,' Kale was at a loss. In the past, not counting the plants, he had raised snakes, scorpion, and numerous other types of poisonous insects and animals in Kazeer to harvest poisons, but none of them ever acted so disobediently and lawless like this to him before.
Magic Beast at Rare-Grade are more intelligent compared to normal ones but it still surprised him that they could actually develop a personality so soon, it was faster than a human kid who takes years to learn to walk and talk.
Kale used a knife to divide the egg into two parts and gave one to it, the little snake first stared at the other part of the egg, but after switching glances between the two parts several times and making sure that the peace on its side was bigger, it reluctantly started to eat its share.
After the little snake swallowed all its food, its body inflated to twice as big as before, it was the ability of Blood & Bone Snake species, as a variant, it also got that ability, by doing so it can digest the food faster.
Kale didn't pay much attention to it any longer, he ate the small part of meat he saved in advance and started cultivating ‹Nether Venom Body› together with his main cultivation, after half a night of cultivation, he levelled up twice and his level rose to 14.
Normal kids can only cultivate for one or two hours at most in one try but Kale had years of experience, even cultivating a whole day wasn't much of an issue for him, that's why he was faster than others, only someone with gifted talent could dare compare with his normal speed unless he is stuck at 10n level bottlenecks.
Once his cultivation session was over and Kale slowly opened his eyes, he suddenly sensed something and turned to look at the little snake lying in his lap, its size was back to normal, but a complete set of old shredded skin was lying on the ground, and contrary to before, its white scales were shining like pearls, the crystal on its forehead was also glowing.
Kale placed his palm on it and sensed the mana fluctuations, the second he did, his eyes brightened while the little snake just lazily hissed without even opening its eyes.
'It already reached Tier 2? So fast? I knew the growth speed of Magic Beasts is fast, the flesh and core of Boss monsters also played a role but still, it feels a little faster, Er… This too,' Kale was observing it when he noticed that his connection with the little snake has become stronger, he could even feel its beating heart!
'Seems like the contract connected us in many ways, more profound than I expected, my higher lifeform level is working as a booster for it or something? But if it's like this then, shouldn't Elza and Fynn's life level also work as a booster for me and I don't see something like this happening, is it only one way, contractor to the client? Or there is a requirement that isn't met yet,' Kale picked up the little snake gently in his hands as he pondered 'The main difference between little snake and them is, the little snake has completely submitted to me without any distrust or maliciousness… Is it related to loyalty and trust? I need to try this concept later on,'
He then took a deep breath and stopped thinking about the matter, Kale slowly raised both of his hands then a magic circle appeared above each of his palms.
Being able to summon two magic circles means that the person in question has become a newbie Dual Star Mage, becoming a Dual Star Mage wasn't even an achievement in Kale's eyes, because two aside, he could do several tasks at once, onetime he gets a hang of it, after all, in a battle of Martial Venerable, no one would be idiotic or unskilled enough to use only one martial technique at a time.
There was only one reason why he didn't try or show the use of Dual Casting before, it was consumption, a Tier 1 mage could only use their spells, a short number of times before their mana reserves get empty, if, in such a situation, they use dual spells at once, them their consumption rate would be more than just double. Rather than practising dual casting at that time, it was more efficient to sharpen the control over mana and increase spell casting proficiency.
After reaching Tier 2, and his encounter with Elza, Kale knew it was time to move on, but his motive was not limited to just becoming a newbie Dual Star Mage.
Kale slowly moved his hands closer until the magic circles almost touched each other, when they were closer enough, both the circles fluctuated and repelled each other like two poles of a magnet. Kale wasn't surprised, he calmly changed the mana output of both of them to match each other. Under his firm control, both the magic circle stabilized, and the repulsion force disappeared.
The two magic circles were of ‹Stone Shot› and ‹Stone Blast› respectively.
Once the merging of the spell was successful, the magic circle representing ‹Stone Blast› firmly locked itself above the magic circle representing ‹Stone Shot›.
Being able to cast two spells at a time, means the mage is a newbie Dual Stare Mage, but being able to summon then merge those two spells while casting means it is a fully matured Dual Star Mage.
Kale was directly aiming for the latter.
Under the synchronized working of the two magic circle, several dust particles became visible above the overlapped spells circles as they merged to form a sharp stone giving off mana fluctuation.
'‹Stone Shot› will allow me to attack from distance, unlike ‹Wooden Thorn› that focuses on penetration and speed, it focuses on power, coupled with ‹Stone Blast› I can detonate it with a thought, it's not bad to catch enemies off guard,' Kale thought.
Kale looked at it in satisfaction, then with a flicker of his finger, the magic circle disappeared and the stone fell to the ground. He naturally cancelled the spell as releasing it would make the stone explode and catch unwanted attention.
After practising for a little while, the time to change shifts came and he rested for the rest of the night.
***
Next morning…
Fourth floor, Boss Room.
Kale walked past the giant door following at the back of Ajin and others.
Once everyone was inside, the door slowly closed.
Clutch…
The sound of the door closing made everyone's expression serious, once someone is inside Boos Room they can't exit until they kill the Boss monster, neither can someone else enter from outside.
It is the reason why most adventure, who is not confident enough, only harvest the monsters on cleared floors and excludes the Boss Rooms.
Of course, the clearing price of Boss Room is also high as even the weakest Boss would be a Rare-type.
Depending on the number and life levels of the adventurer, the dungeon can buff the Boss monster that's why adventure cannot form too large of a group for the raid either. Kale, Tanya and the dwarf sisters had lower life levels according to the reference scale of the fourth floor that's why their existence didn't have too big of an impact on the expedition.
Kale and Tanya, who were supposedly weakest, weren't left outside even after knowing the danger because on the fourth floor, leaving them outside would be more dangerous.
Once the door was shut, Kale scanned through the enormous hall that seemed like an underground dried pond, glass-like lustrous crystals were embedded on the wall that was lighting the place, the thick fluctuations of energy around them told them they were Origin Crystals ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 3.
The ground was mostly regular but there were muddy ponds here and there, air bubbles were forming in them giving off a bad stench as they burst at the surface.
Kale then focused at the locus of the pond, a round body, half sunk in the muddy ground was moving, it was covered in long pointed spikes that seemed sharp as needles. The body suddenly stopped moving, it then pulled out its short legs from the ground and moved out of the muddy hole, the creature had a long mouth and narrow eyes, it stared at Ajin and others without moving.
The monster had an appearance similar to a porcupine as big as a young elephant with legs smaller like a boar.
From the aura, it was a Tier 3 monster but only a fool would judge a Boss monster just based on tiers, Boss monsters are like elites among elites even when not counting the dungeon buffs.
"Move according to the first formation," Ajin shouted out of nowhere and rushed towards the monster.
Everyone started moving on his command.
Except for Ajin, the rest of the team got divided into three groups, Fynn and Xaxa moved to the right as a team, Elza and Zalie moved as a team to the left.
Xaxa and Zalie were Tier 2 but they had the innate physical strength of dwarfs and were only working as supporters.
Kale and Tanya retreated backwards under Ryenee's lead, they were acting as ranged fighters. Kale and Ryenne, both were mages that could attack from a long-range while Tanya was wielding a bow in her hands.
When they were planning before the battle, both parties only shared the basic information about each other, like who was a close-range fighter and who was a long-range one instead of subclass and the mastery, it was a common understanding between adventurers.
Revealing too much at once was foolish behaviour.
Ajin made the plan with Elza based on the details he gathered, or they shared among each other.
Ajin was above Level 30, he was pretty sure to confront the Boss, Elza and Fynn's team were meant to deal damage when it was distracted or distract it if Ajin falls in a dangerous situation, Ryenne's team was not the close combat type, she was tasked to attack from distance and restrict it to buy them time to retreat if needed.