The expedition began their journey back to Marbelium in order to inform the king whilst my clone finally began to make his move now that there isn't a chance for the group to be attacked by the possibly enraged spiders if he should be killed.
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Knowing that the mountain is now sealed by the expedition group, my clone begins his preparations in order to attack the five hundred spiders located bellow him. He begins by summoning a dozen magic bullets reaching the maximum number summon able at his skills current rank. After summoning a dozen bullets, he activates his sneak skill and spreads his awareness in order to hit as many spiders as possible, so he won't waste any of the magic bullets.
Finding the best targets, he launches his magic bullets towards those selected spiders trying to guide them in order to hit the spider's heads and killing them instantly. Since he has never tried to control his magic bullets after launching them before he didn't have a whole lot of success in directing their movements. Most of them impacted the spider's bodies creating several holes in the spider's body and causing them to slowly bleed to death. While most didn't hit the spiders heads due to his novice ability to control his magic bullets there were a couple that he was able to control to hit the spider's heads and kill them instantly.
(Killed Scarlet Death Spider) (x2)
- - - - -
Tsk, seeing that he was only able to direct two magic bullets to kill a spider instantly he was slightly upset because he thought it would be much easier to control them. Although after thinking about it and realizing that he has never tried to do this before, he was content that he was at least able to control two of them.
"Neph, is there a way to make a skill with will give me control over my skills and magic abilities to attack more precisely?" I ask as I notice the difficulties my clone is having.
(There is a way to make a skill like that, but you'll need to increase your intelligence stat in order for you benefit the most from it)
"What is the required stat amount in order to make the most out of it?" I ask.
(You'll need to have your intelligence at 300)
"300!! Why does it need to be so high? That's ridiculous, it'll take me forever to get it up to that, I complain in outrage.
(300 is where you'll need to be in order to get the most benefits from the skill, I don't make the rules, I'm just relaying them to you)
"Hmmmm, I see, I'll focus on getting my intelligence up to 300 for now so I can make the most out of the skill," I decide.
(That is a good idea, you will improve greatly after creating this skill)
(Ding)
(Skill Created - Mana manipulation and Augmentation)
- Mana Manipulation and Augmentation - The ability to control ones mana with better precision and also increase the power of one's magic ability. This skill isn't rank based but is based upon the users intelligence, the higher ones intelligence the more powerful this skill becomes.
While Neph and I had our discussion, my clone was launching another volley of magic bullets down at the spiders below. Due to his sneak skill the spiders are unable to find where he is at since their rank isn't that far apart. If they were D rank or higher, they would have a higher chance of being able to see through his sneak.
After launching his second volley of magic bullets, he now was able to control six out of the dozen of them perfectly while the others pierced through random parts of the spiders cause it them to lose a fair amount of blood.
(Killed Scarlet Death Spider) (x6)
Seeing that he was now able to control six magic bullets he decided to continue launching volleys of magic bullets at the spiders bellow, even though he can only kill six instantly, he'll be able to wound the rest and cause them to die from blood loss instead of a headshot. It'll end up being a bigger death count later since so many will end up getting wounded there will surely be many dying around the same time.
Now that the skill was created my clone continued to create magic bullets and sending them other the ledge to rain down upon the spiders for several hours. While utilizing his new skill and continuously casting his magic bullets he discovers that he can now control twelve magic bullets instead of the previous six and can create a total of thirty-six magic bullets. Now he is able to kill twelve spiders instantly and wound twenty-four spiders, causing them to have a slow and painful death. Eventually after several days he manages to kill the last of the spiders below him after attacking them without rest for days on end.
(Killed Scarlet Death Spider) (x492)
Now that the area directly under the ledge is clear of spiders he descends and begins collecting the monster cores and absorbing them.
-----
Several days earlier as the expedition is returning to Marbelium after their nightmare exploration of the ancient city of Murcrilium.
While my clone was killing the spiders, my original self finally made it back to Marbelium along with the rest of the expedition members. As they entered the city the adventurer guild members all went towards their guild hall while Damian and I followed the guild master as he made his way towards the royal castle.
After walking through the city for over an hour they finally neared the gate leading to the royal castle, as they got closer, one of the royal guards came forward and stopped them.
"Halt, who are you and what business do you have at the royal castle," the royal guard asked gruffly.
"I am the guild master for the adventures guild, I've come with my two companions to report an urgent matter with the king," replied the guild master as he looked the royal guard in the eye.
"Do you have proof of station confirming that you are indeed the guild master of the Adventurer's guild," the guards asks in a slightly suspicious tone.
"Here," says the guild master as he displays a pendent around his neck with the crest of the Adventurer's guild and the royal seal intertwined on it.
"My apologizes, sir guild master, I just had to make sure you weren't an imposter," the guard says hurriedly trying not to offend the guild master.
"It's fine, you're only doing your job," replies the guild master waving his hand as he begins to walk through the gate leading to the royal castle.
Damian and I follow behind the guild master as we walk down a finely carved path through a garden of stone statues depicting different dwarves. Damian and I walk past each one slowly, admiring them and the beautiful craftsmanship that went into making them.
"Those are the former kings of the dwarven race, once the king passes his crown onto his successor a statue is erected as a memorial for all the years that he served and led our race," the guild master explains as he notices the pair of them looking at the statues.
We continue to admire the statues as we go by them as they border the path leading to a grand set of stairs ascending to the main door of the castle. On either side of the base of the stairs sits two identical statues of Nephelium, as they approach the stairs, they're in awe of the twin statues of the creator of the crypt and their deity.
I look at the statues and sees that they are nearly identical to Neph which means that at one point he was in contact with the dwarven ancestor, most likely right after creating him with his power.
"They sure do revere you Neph, these are some amazing statues, and the detail is exquisite," I tease Neph silently.
(It sounds to me like someone is jealous that they don't have any statues of themselves)
Tsk, just you wait, I'll have even better statues than these two and they'll be even bigger, maybe I'll have them adorn the front gate to Rinascita," I reply haughtily falling for his teasing instead of the other way around.