Vinny and Eshwar stood next to the portal; Vinny didn't know who Eshwar was because Vinny used an artifact to trap Max's soul before he regressed, and both Max's soul and the artifact were destroyed in the final battle; Max shouldn't have existed after he regressed, and the person before him is a different person even if they have the same body.
Vinny came to this conclusion after observing Eshwar from the moment he appeared; even though he knew he wasn't Max, he didn't pry into it and was relieved that he didn't have to kill Max again, Max's face was filled with regret, but he also looked relieved when he was dying, Vinny thought as he looked at Eshwar beside him, who was looking at Jiwoo and nodding his head.
"Ah!" Jiwoo exclaimed.
Vinny turned to face Jiwoo, he was excited for some reason, and suddenly Jiwoo pointed at Eshwar, Vinny glanced at Eshwar, and then turned his head back to Jiwoo.
"Sir Eshwar! The Auth..."
Jiwoo was about to say something, Eshwar appeared in front of him and covered his mouth. Vinny looked beside him and then back to where Eshwar was standing.
'Fast.' That was all Vinny could think of as he stared at Eshwar, shocked.
***
I used the mana veins I copied from the werewolf and appeared right before Jiwoo and covered his mouth. Jiwoo was smart so I expected him to figure out who I am someday but I didn't expect he would figure it out so easily.
"Aren't you a bit too smart?" I whispered at Jiwoo.
Jiwoo's lips curled upwards I could feel it on my hands as I was coving his mouth to stop him from speaking.
"Keep it a secret now, will you?" I whispered at Jiwoo and he nodded his head, I removed my hands from his mouth.
"Ok, now, let's raid the dungeon." I said as I turned towards the dungeon and saw Vinny staring at me blankly, I could feel Jiwoo's stare at my back too.
"Haa."
I sighed and walked into the dungeon without waiting for them. Of course, while breathing in the mana from the portal, I couldn't miss the pure mana now, could I? Muhahaha.
*
The cave had red sand and orange boulders on the sides and above, the boulders looked smooth like giant pebbles, there was no other way to move except forward, and the only light source was the glowing portal.
I entered the cave, which was about 50 meters tall, and began analyzing the terrain to help me decide on a fighting style. I held out my hand, and ice began to form into what I desired.
"Blergh."
"Wha...." I turned to face the sound and saw Vinny throwing up and instantly turned my back at him.
"Blergh."
This time, I heard a different voice and assumed Jiwoo was throwing up as well, but that's not the problem; the problem is that they're making too much noise.
THUMP (3x)
I heard something huge approaching us because the ground shook slightly every time, I heard the 'THUMP' sound again, and I was having difficulty finding them because my eyes couldn't adjust to the dark because the portal was glowing.
I lifted my hand up while using both fire and ice magic, a light flashed from my hand as both opposing elements combined, and I used frost magic to cover the glow in my hands, a glowing ball formed in my hands, and I threw it into the cave, it bounced twice, rolled a bit, and an ice pillar which glowed from the center formed at the center of the cave, revealing many stone golems of various sizes marching towards us.
'Golems' are elemental monsters capable of regenerating themselves through 'Elemental Regeneration.' They can regenerate as long as they are in terrain that supports their elements, which is the worst-case scenario because we are in a cave now and every single stone golem in front of us is rank- SS.
"How did you do that?" Vinny asked as he walked towards me, pointing to the ice pillar that lit up the entire cave.
"Huh? Oh, I used fire and ice magic."
".... It's possible to use them like that?" Vinny asked.
"Yea, I can teach you how to use magic." I said while looking at Vinny.
"Ah!" Jiwoo made a strange sound, Vinny and I both turned our heads to face him.
".... I can't use magic." Vinny said as he made a bitter smile.
Yes, Vinny couldn't use magic because his trait wasn't revealed until a certain incident; he now only has one trait, which is his specialized trait [???]; only I know what that trait is and how to use it, and he should have received his first 'Class' while regressing.
"..... Activate your 'trait' Vinny and I'll teach you, how to use magic." I said in a serious tone.
Of course, I was going to teach him how to use his trait completely but, not yet.
"Don't activate it completely,"
"Huh?" Vinny asked confusedly.
THUMP (4x)
I walked towards him while the stone golems were still marching toward us, I pulled his right hand near my heart and looked at right in his eyes.
"... Concentrate on your hand and activate 'BUFF' Vinny."
"..."
".... hey, guys, I don't think it's the time play around." Jiwoo said while looking at the golems.
I ignored him and stared a Vinny dead in the eye.
"Huuu." Vinny took a breath, closed his eyes and concentrated on his hand.
THUMP (5x)
Vinny's hand turned cold and pitch black, and his pitch-black hand began to grow claws, indicating that he was losing control.
"Guh." Vinny groaned.
"Concentrate." I said in a soft voice.
Claws stopped growing and began to shrink; this time, only his hand turned pitch black and glowed golden.
"Buff." Vinny said in a low tone as he breathed heavily.
A golden hue enveloped my entire body, Vinny slowly opened his eyes and looked at his hand and me in disbelief, both Vinny and Jiwoo gaped with their mouths open wide.
PING
[You have received UNIQUE PRIEST's first 'BUFF.']
[All stats increase by 1 star permanently.]
['BUFF' takes effect, all stats increased by 10 percent temporarily.]
I grinned and turned around to face the GOLEMS, who were 30 long steps away from us. I snapped my fingers as I slowly walked towards them.
SNAP
The ice pillar in the middle of a swarm of golems cracked and exploded, freezing all the golems around it. The explosion echoed all the way around the cave and was deafening.
BOOM
"Let's play."
I said and launched myself towards the golems while I covered my whole body with mana because every golem in front of me were rank- SS, I couldn't get careless while fighting them.
The golem in front pulled its hand back a circular wind pressure formed behind its elbow joint as it punched at me.
'Fast.' I thought and started to rethink my plan on fighting them.
I guarded the punch a circular wind pressure formed from the impact and flew back; I knew that if I crashed my back, I won't be able to fight for a while and we are going to die. My eyes were still glued on the golems if I stop thinking things will get worse, a golem which fell down from the explosion of the ice pillar earlier stood back up and I noticed its joints were moving more smoothly but it looked difficult to control at the same time.
"Snowflakes." I mumbled.
Air surrounding chilled down and turned white forming 12-sided snowflakes all-around me, dense air around me slowed me down as I was flying back, if I just turned around and decided to absorb the shock with my legs then they would have definitely been broken, so I used 'snowflakes' to dense the air around me to slow down.
Now I bought my knees a bit close to my face and decided to change my trajectory, I did a flip in the air and placed my foot on the wall while snowflakes below my feet absorbed some of the shock and pushed myself at the golems, I sped up while in air by stepping on the snowflakes.
I flew back twice as fast as I flew away from the golems, in an instant, I was close to the golem's face and grinned at it, then punched its face, causing a circular wind pressure to form and a loud 'BOOM' to reverberate throughout the cave.