I'm back on the 19th floor, with one thing on my mind.
"I need to find a strong opponent to test this new ability on."
I activate enemy detection and inspect to begin taking a look around for a Berskerer to test out my new mana control technique on.
Every 1km or so, there's a level 400-405 hiding deep whiting the dungeon. The black hills, valleys, caves, and mazes fill my senses as I search. Finally, a reading that catches my eye pops up.
[1250m]
[Lv. 408]
A level 408... Immediately, I lock onto this familiar reading and Dungeon Walk back to the square-shaped black arena that I know so well. Drawing my sword and igniting my body and weapon into flames, I prepare for our second battle.
A 4m tall red-skinned Berskerer Giant stands in the open air with its long silver sword winging back and forth, mindlessly staring up at the sky. It's exactly the same as the last one I fought. The area destroyed from our previous fight is completely renewed as well, it looks like more than just dungeon mass respawns after a certain period of time.
The manically smiling green-eyed monster turns its gaze toward me just moments after I appear.
Just like that, we begin.
It plants its back legs and begins darting toward me while glowing with the red aura of a berserker skill activating. I grin, putting off a red and gold glow myself, and charging up my blade.
Last time I faced this beast, I used both of my weapons at full blast. I was able to slowly chip away at its defenses because of my attack's pure destructive power, but I'd like to win things a bit differently this time around if possible.
I activate my All-Seeing Eye.
The pink and white swirls of mana around me begin to fill my vision. The crystal-like black rock structures glow brightly with a similar grid pattern that the rocks on the 10th floor showed off. They're just much tighter gridlines, closer together, and vibrating at a much higher frequency.
I move my gaze to the fast-moving Berserker coming my way. Its silver-colored light armor pieces give off a dense mana reading too. Again, it's similar to the stones and crystal-like structures around me, just much much tighter nit threads of energy creating an almost microscopic grid in my mind's eye.
"Perfect."
Grinning, I focus my attention on the charging monster's chest plate. Burning through an entire MP potion in a matter of seconds, I visualize every last mana particle in the monster's armor.
The green-eyed fiend cracks the ground with every step it takes. I drink another MP potion to prepare my attack. Charging up just 100MP, I burn through another full potion just to get near matching this new ultra-thin level of mana control.
My body shakes, and I grit my teeth as I grip my blade tight, attempting to line up the perfect attack.
Now, it's within range, but I am too...
"Dungeon Walker."
I teleport to the opposite side of the monster and let my strike soar. It's thin, with a black tint, letting out light red flickers of flames as it rips through the air toward the solid metal plate of armor covering its back.
My attack makes contact with the oblivious battle-hungry beast. I grin as I watch my strike disappear momentarily into the back of its armor. Fractions of a second later, I see a flash of white light and a small explosion of flames.
Gritting my teeth, and letting out a frustrated grunt, I air-step upwards to get out of rage before it gets too mad...
When the fire and dust clears, I'm not too disappointed with the results of my first attempt.
There's a huge chunk of metal missing from the top half of its backside's armor. It seems like no actual damage was done to the berserker itself, but with just 100MP, I managed to break its armor that much...
I smirk, air-stepping back down to the ground about 30m away from the berserker. I drink another potion and prepare my next attack. This time around, I'll try to add even more mana to the blade.
The monster turns to me, locking its sharp green eyes on my blade. It's glowing red with 250MP worth of charge. At this level of precision, it's much harder to manage this much mana and keep it stable at an exact hair-line width and perfect frequency.
My arms shake as I grip my blade burning through copious amounts of MP on my perception skill to hold the concentration. Even of a fraction of a second slip-up makes for an entirely different attack.
I teleport to the now charging Berserker's blind spot and let my attack soar.
I land the hit. The thin black flaming blade slips through its armor, then a flash of white light triggers a fiery explosion, just like last time.
Thankfully, Im fighting at a much closer range this time around. The beast doesn't have much time to dodge. Even if it could, I'm not sure it would...
As the flames and dust begin to clear I hear the clanging of metal on stone.
The red-skinned menace turns to me holding its long silver sword while its armor falls to the dungeon floor in pieces.
I cut through its chest plate with that attack. Parts of the metal are sliced cleanly in two, showing off a glossy texture, just like the boulders I cut through earlier.
Unfortunately, the monster is completely unharmed. There isn't a single scratch on its skin. The rippling muscles and bulging veins are untouched by my 2 attacks so far.
It shows me a wide toothy grin, then charges forward like the mindless battle junky it is.
I do the same...
Chugging an MP potion and charging up my blade for another attack, I get ready for the next phase of this fight. When I try to get a reading on the fast-moving monster's skin, it seems to be pretty weak....
If anything, it's even less dense than the rocks down on floor 10. This all seems way too good to be true.
Even its sword isn't much denser than the armor I just cut to pieces.
"I must be missing something."
I Dungeon Walk to its blind spot and prepare for my next move.
Imbuing a full 250MP into my sword again, I match up all of the necessary mana readings, similar to my previous strike, then let my attack fly.
The thin black blade of mana rips through the air toward the monster's open back. It jerks its head to the side moments before impact and I watch an interesting interaction of mana particles take place. My attack bounces off the creature's back with only the tiny white glow of excess energy being released
Fractions of a second before impact, an incredibly dense layer of mana seeps out of the creature's skin... Almost like a bodysuit made of pure mana. This is the mana control skill Fisher was talking about.
"Mana Shielding."
I smirk, getting ready for more as the menace walks toward me licking its lips and glowing crimson-red.
I charge up another attack with 250MP. I'm curious about one more thing. Its sword...
It comes running in at full speed as I throw another black crescent of energy its way. With a swift swing of that sliver sword, I watch my attack get deflected far off into the distance.
The same thin layer of mana covered its blade the moment it needed to deflect my strike.
I remember back to the last Berserker I fought, and when I appraised its sword.
[Berserker Giant's Long Sword] [Blood Bonded] +1000 Attack +500 Agility
This [Blood Bonded] perk must be similar to the bonding between an element stone and a sword like mine. It's an extension of the mana user, that's how it's able to use the technique on its weapons as well.
I grit my teeth and Dungeon Walk away the moment my attack is deflected. I'll have to try a new plan...
I start charging up another one, just shy of 100MP, it's low power, but I'm able to send these attacks off very quickly.
This is exactly what I do, with a burst of rapid-fire attacks, I begin Dungeon Walking around the battle-hungry monster throwing attack after attack at it.
I'm not trying to do any actual damage just yet, I just need to get a better reading on its mana shield's exact density and mana frequency levels. It usually only activates for a fraction of a second after each one of my attacks, this isn't nearly enough time to mimic it.
After close to 30 attacks, I feel like I've finally gotten a close enough reading. Burning through just over 4 more MP potions, I've finally got a feeling for this monster's mana shield readings.
Unfortunately.... Just knowing it isn't going to cut it. The tightly wound mana particles create a thin, nearly indestructible defense lining this Berserker. The levels are far beyond any rock wall, or even its armor I destroyed earlier.
I air-step down to face off against my test subject.
It's getting thoroughly annoyed. All this beast wants is a good fight, and all I'm giving it are weak attacks thrown from a distance. This time around, ill give it what it's asking for.
I use up 2 MP potions as it runs in toward me. I close my eyes and picture the dense layers of impossibly small grid-like mana particles it spawns every time my attack comes near its skin.
Gripping by blade tightly, I attempt to match its levels of mana readers, but after 10 seconds the monster is drawing too near and my efforts are starting to seem futile.
I let out a frustrated grunt, releasing the attack, knowing it's not even a quarter of the thinness required to pierce its barrier, not to mention nowhere near enough power either.
I Dungeon Walk far away to its opposite side as it defects my attack with ease using its sword, then runs by my previous position like a raging bull.
I attempt to charge up another attack, watching closely as the monster turns to run toward me again from the far side of the square-shaped arena. I have 20 seconds or so to prepare this time. I concentrate hard, barely using 100MP, attempting to match its mana shielding frequency with all my might.
I'm putting my all into this. With my hands shaking and head aching, I still create a blade way too thick to puncture its shielding and nowhere near enough pure mana to get close to the density required to make any damage.
As it nears I let out a yell of frustration, chucking the attack forward and Dungeon Walking away as it swings its silver sword to send my black blade of flames soaring off into the grey sky.
Clenching my jaw, I try again... From even further away. I airstrip backward to keep my distance and charge up for a full 40 seconds.
At the end of the charge, my brain feels like mush from focusing so hard on a single point, my hands and arms are numb from grabbing the rattling sword, and I've burned through 8 full MP potions on my All-Seeing Eye skill to release a measly 100MP attack.
A thin crest of black energy comes out of my blade. It doesn't flicker of shine, it just glides through the air without any resistance.
The Berserker ignores the insignificant strike, it has blocked dozens of these attacks and even taken a few head-on in the past. By now, it's just focused on me, its prey.
In an exhausted state, my eyes are locked on the attack I've just released. It may not be full of power, but I believe I got one thing right... It'll definitely be thin enough to slip through this monster's defenses...
Moments later, my theory is proven to be correct.
The thin black blade slides through the red-skinned Berskerer's mana shielding just like it slid through the rock wall during my training hours ago.
Then... an explosion of white light and flames follow.
With a smirk, I Dungeon Walk away to get out of range from the rage fit that's about to take place.
As the flash of light and fireball fade, I hear an ear-piercing screech. Looking closely, I see a small blood-dripping gash on the side of this red-skinned monster's torso. Enough to make the crimson liquid dribble down its side, but not quite enough for the stream to make it to the floor.
"I did it..."
Dungeon Walking to the far side of the arena again, I prepare to charge up another attack.
"Good progress... Now it's time to finish this fight."