Chat Group For Magicians

Chapter 178: Grinding

Goblins, Orcs, giants, even golems are present in this dungeon. They are quite overwhelming at times but I managed to preserve my life without dying, keeping it at 4 lives. However, this latest monster I am fighting against is resilient to almost anything that I don't think I am damaging the monsters much seeing them looking fine. The skeleton undead.

I know about defeating them in books and games but it seems like they don't die. Cracking their heads, breaking their whole body to pieces, attacking them with magic, or destroying them physically, they don't just die and stop moving. They just keep on reviving. Even grinding their skulls to dust, it seems it is not working either.

"F*ck, are they all unkillable at all?!"

What is worse about these enemies is that they multiply like crazy. I am just fighting 5 at first but now they are already numbering 20. Instead of decreasing, they are instead increasing.

"Blue! This is insane! Why did you include monsters that cannot be killed?!"

Blue's voice echoed around the place. "Hey, I never include monsters that cannot be killed alright? How would you even clear and proceed to the next floor if you can't kill a monster? It is either you did it wrong or you are just too weak to kill it. Now continue killing enemies and stop complaining!"

After that, everything went silent except for the sound of the rattling bones that are currently trying to surround me.

"Damn it. Can I just blow them all up from within? Even if I have lots of mana in my body, I still get exhausted using too much magic spells for the past few hours..."

Then, a sudden realization came to my mind. What if I try what I just mumbled earlier?

Seeing the skeletons now gathering around, it doesn't hurt to try. Igniting my hands in flames, I meet up with the skeletons head-on and grab two skeletons in the skulls by my two hands, and separated them from the group. Although they are fourth-floor monsters, they are not that strong, they are just annoying and they multiply which is why the difficulty of the battle. Now let me try this attack.

"DIE!"

BOOM! BOOM!

I made quick work on the two and ignited them from the inside of their bones. By channeling mana to their bones and letting it run through their whole body, I can easily do that. Now the next thing I did is to control the mana on their bodies and put a spark on the mana. And destruction follows.

The skeletons did not leave a single bone intact and all of their parts were reduced to dust. After doing so, I started dodging the remaining skeletons and observed the skeletons that exploded from my magic. Usually, another one will rise on the ground depending on how many I destroyed the last time. If I destroyed two enemies, they will multiply to 4 skeletons. If they continue to multiply and add new enemies even with that technique, then everything is bad even for me.

"Come on, come on, do not resurrect please!"

After a few more minutes, I saw no changes from the ashes. Seeing not a single reaction is present to the dust, I felt excited, enough to change my despair into hope.

Seeing the skeletons are still attacking, I am not going to hold back now since I know what to do to destroy them, then, it is time to break them all down. There are still 18 skeletons to defeat. Igniting my hands, I will be breaking all of you down.

KLAK KLAK KLAK

Grabbing the next two skeletons' skulls, I didn't waste my time and supplied their bones with mana however, the skeletons are not just petty creatures, the moment I grab their skulls, they would try to stop me by swinging their arms armed with swords to detach my hands away from them. The good thing is that I can still supply them with mana before I cut the source. When they are almost loaded with mana, that is the time it is needed to ignite their insides.

BOOM! BOOM!

Rinse and repeat. Dodge and repeat, explode, and repeat. 

It took me around 3 minutes to finish them all off. But sweat and blood pour in my forehead. Pain lingers in my arms and back as I ascend to the next floor. I never underestimated the skeletons but they are quite the pain in the neck. The novels and games describe skeletons as weak enemies but in real life, they are tough nuts to crack. I don't want to deal with skeletons next time.

Ascending to the next floor, I sighed in relief seeing the fifth floor is empty except for the Checkpoint terminal that is present. It looks like a magic circle but it has a more complicated design than usual and has many Sanskrit on the edges. It is also spinning slowly counterclockwise which is quite mysterious.

"So how do I activate this?" I looked around for anything that I can interact with besides this but nothing is around except this big magic circle. 

The very first thing that I know in activating magic circles is either standing in the middle of it or do some incantations while your hand is currently in the middle of the magic circle. The latter is not possible since Blue did not say anything about an incantation so I guess that the former one is the right one.

Taking a deep breath, I took a step into the magic circle. It started glowing the moment I step into it, allowing me to activate the checkpoint. My stat panel appeared once more but this time, all of the stats I earned returned to zero. At the same time, my whole body suddenly got tensed and my head suddenly became painful. It didn't last long and disappeared a few minutes later. I checked again my stat panel and yes, all of them are zero.

"What the hell? Where did my stats go?"

This time, Blue's voice rang once more."I forgot to tell you that once you go to the checkpoint, all the earned stats will turn to zero. However, that only happens because it is now converted to your body. You must have experienced pain in your head earlier and your body suddenly felt strange right? Then that means the stats you earned has finally assimilated to your body without a hitch. Don't complain it is gone. The stats in the panel is just there for the sake of showing how much stats you gained and monitor it in case you died once again."

"Oh, I panicked there for a second. I thought all my hard work has gone to waste."

"As long as you don't die and you managed to get into a Checkpoint Terminal then it will not be lost. However, as I said earlier if you died while fighting against any enemies on any floor while not yet able to access any Checkpoint Terminal will cause your points to disappear and get drained out of your system which will result in the loss of your hard work and progress. Now, got it?"

"Nice and clear. You should have told me from the very beginning before I panic too much."

"Yeah, yeah. Now go and continue your work. If you can fare and get to the tenth floor without dying, it will be really good and you will get stronger easily since the stat gain in the next floors will be double or triple from the last floors," Blue revealed to me.

"Let me guess if these rewards are too good to be true, to obtain it must be to survive a harder risk, right?"

"Heh, you catch up easily. Higher risks, better rewards. That is the rule as always. So if you wanted to get stronger, you should go and start training on the top floors. You can stay on the lower floors to grind, but it would be much better if you challenge high risks if you are ready."

"How to reset back to the first level?"

"You want to go back to the first level?"

"I am not an idiot man who will just charge forward to the enemy on the next floor. If I can grind like in the games for stats, then I will grind enough stats that will help me overpower the next floors."

"Hmm, that is a good strategy, I am not surprised. Anyways, if you wanted to reset your progress and return to the ground floor, then just activate the Checkpoint Terminal by putting your right palm to the magic circle and say "Reset". Simple as that."

Since time does not flow in here, fighting in the lower floors will net me lower stats but easier to reach Checkpoint Terminal, allowing me to get my stats into my body permanently. I can't challenge high risk blindly since I know how bad it is to blindly go into a level you are not sure if the enemies are strong or not in games. So even though it is a not-so-profitable effort, it is safe and has a bigger worth if you are still a beginner in battles like this. Since dying is a pain and can also cause you to lose your gains, it is much better to do a safer approach.

Putting my right palm into the magic circle, I take in a deep breath before I mumbled the keyword.

"Reset."

The magic circle starts to spin wildly and sparks appeared before I was engulfed in a bright light once more, transporting me to the ground floor once again. Just like the usual, the first enemies appeared this time around but since I have mastered their craft, then I will not just lightly do it. I have to immediately gain enough stats to go to the next floor. Maybe I should perform a speedrun on this one to determine how fast I can clear the first four floors.