With his spell distributed across her body he couldnt properly damage her critical point.
His spells bombarded her at a rapid pace where he did everything possible to break this aura.
His spells were striking the aura focusing on her skull faster and faster until he saw this aura beginning to lose its shine.
He was feeling triumphant when he saw her stomp the ground with her skeletal foot which sent a wave of mana through the stone floor.
Centered around her was a green spell circle created from this mana which began to form the undead.
He tried to interrupt the spell like he normally would but something astonishing happened.
She raised her hands and in front of her palms dense mana was released which she used like shields to block his strikes.
Not every strike would be blocked as her skeletal limbs were not very fast but it still diminished his damage.
'Jesus i expected a change but this is crazy, new spells, new abilities, she actually fights like she has a brain?'
While battling with her he would cast shadowfire volleys to start taking out her skeletons when they spawned.
He even kept his mana sense ready so he could find the rogue skeleton that she typically spawned in.
Through the haze left by the shadowfire he saw something that he didnt expect though.
Two armored skeletons were standing amidst the destroyed group she spawned, but behind her was a rogue.
'Crap this will actually be tough.'
Almost twenty levels under the boss and struggling to harm her he was eventually slain but he was proud that he had at least brought her health down by ten percent.
~
When he was about to enter the dungeon again to try to farm levels from the basic undead he saw the demon player who had added him previously.
She was approaching him quickly and waved her hand to get his attention.
"Hey belial! Im happy i caught you my friend, can we talk?"
He hadn't noticed it before but when she spoke it was almost like she tried to lower her pitch.
It was strange to him but he just ignored it and followed her.
She brought him to a pair of players who seemed to be waiting on her and introduced them.
"This is shade, he's a rogue and a friend of mine irl."
The elf waved a hand in greeting and Ezekiel nodded back.
"This is hope, she's a healer whobwill be joining my team."
She motioned to a strange girl who had a race he actually hadn't seen yet.
She was like an anthropomorphic rabbit girl that had a very bizarre mix of human and animal features.
It made him wonder if she was a furry in real life as well.
He nodded to hope as well and the girl clapped happily.
"He's the mage right? Oh please say he'll be joining us?"
He looked at War God in confusion.
"Joining you?"
The demon player nodded and sat down.
"I want to ask you to join my team for our first run of the hard mode in the dungeon, i don't know how hard it will be but it will certainly be more difficult than the normal mode."
He nodded, it made sense to try to form a team and this did help with his own goal of trying to beat the hard mode.
"Well from what I've experienced already the hard mode is a pain."
At this the group sat up more and leaned closer.
"You already tried hard mode?"
War God was very intrigued by this as she hadn't expected it.
'He did do the normal mode solo so i guess it makes sense for him to try it again.'
"Yeah, Diana is much more difficult than before and the undead at the start are actually dangerous for once."
While speaking with them he began to notice through his mana sense that all of them had shockingly weak auras.
The healer in particular had the strongest aura but it came from her bag not her body.
"You guys haven't started to train your mana yet have you?"
When he mentioned this they all looked confused.
Except for the demon.
"I knew you figured out some kind of skill for your spellcasting. So what is it? Can you teach us how to get it?"
He seemed caught off guard by the request but he simply nodded.
"Well the npcs teach it but i guess i can do what they did?"
So he showed them.
He went to each one and pushed mana into their body the same way he had been taught.
"What i just did was give you mana, it should teach you what to look for. You need to start looking for that same sensation in your body and eventually you should obtain a skill called mana sense."
They were very good students he supposed because they hung on his words.
The first one to obtain the skill was actually the elf and he had a giant smile after he accomplished it.
He would occasionally return to do the same thing so the girls could also continue their practice.
It took nearly ten minutes for them to sense mana and obtain the skill which would allow him to continue his teaching.
"Now i want you to focus your thoughts on your mana and start trying to will it to move. If you can form a ball of mana in your hand then you'd obtain the mana control skill."
They all nodded and began practicing.
This time the one who was successful first was actually hope.
She practically cheered but quickly shut up so she wouldn't disturb her new friends.
For this skill it took even longer, twenty minutes for the elf to figure out how to manipulate his mana.
Next he wouls have to help them to form their core.
He truly worried for Shade since his poor mana control talents would make this incredibly difficult for him.
"I want all of you to focus your attention inward now and use your mana control to take all of the mana in your body and begin to compress it towards your chest."
He would place his hand on their sternum right beneath their heart.
"Focus your mana here and use your mana control to wrap it almost like you are tightening a bag. Think of your mana control as a sheet of plastic that is holding water and just start guiding it all to the center."
He watched their progress with his own mana sense.
He had learned a long time ago in the village that when you are in physical contact with another person your mana sense could get an image of what they were doing inside.
"Picture your mana sense like a sheet of plastic closing on one end and beginning to get pulled tighter around your mana, evenly coating the mana until you have made it compress into a core."
It was beginning to grow dark when they finally accomplished it.
"Now we need to help you cultivate your mana cores to increase the mana regen and base amount bonus, at my level i have nearly double the base mana and i regenerate almost 5% every minute with twice as much if i actively recover my mana."