YM778.TV Volume 3 - Ch 1.01
Explorer Lv.20
Hero Lv.16
Mage Lv.12
Monk Lv.13
Equipment:
Copper Sword
Leather Armor
Leather Jacket
Leather Gloves
Leather Shoes
Right now, I am fighting monsters inside of the Labyrinth, but not in my usual, one-hit-kill-with-Durandal way. No, since I have decided to gain as much levels for my and Roxannes Jobs as soon as possible, I am fighting by only using magic now. Thats right, you heard that correctly: just magic, no Durandal. Since I got rid of Bonus Weapons 6 with my last Character Reset, the only purely physical weapon I have equipped right now id the very basic Copper Sword.
Facing the current group of enemies, I shouted (Firestorm!) in my mind, and when I did, the activated spell created fiery sparks that appeared all around the enemies and erupted into fiery explosions as soon as they came into contact with the monsters that happened to be near them. I didnt have to use any matches, oil, gunpowder or any other materials in order to make it happen. The sparks which initiated that series of devastating explosions was executed from start to finish only by what I imagined, thought about and ordered, coating the two Green Caterpillars in front of me entirely in flames.
This is magic. A power to turn whats seemingly impossible into possible and make various supernatural things unavailable to any Jobs aside from that of a Wizard or Mage happen. However, while it is true that you can certainly fight monsters by using magic, its not all rainbows and sunshine as you might think, because while that method of fighting certainly has its share of advantages, it also has disadvantages. For example: you can use magic to fight monsters from a distance, which makes it much safer in comparison to physical fighting where you have to get up close and personal to them to do any kind of meaningful damage, but killing them that way takes a few attacks in a row, whereas with my earlier Character Setting, the one where I had a bunch of Bonus Points invested into the Bonus Weapons Skill all the way to Lv.6, which granted me my ultimate weapon, Holy Sword Durandal, I was able to defeat all regular mobs with a single strike, and the Boss of the first Floor with a few strikes.
When the fire created by the Fire Storm subsided, one of the Green Caterpillars that must have survived its raging inferno came at me with its ramming attack, which I guarded against with the aid of the Copper Sword, the weapon that was now acting as Durandals replacement for as long as I am using the Wizard Build that I am using now to accumulate EXP as fast as possible. I have to admit, using a weapon that is weak as shit in comparison to Durandal was tough to get used to, but thankfully the monsters here on the second floor are not as tough and do not hit as hard as to give me a genuinely hard time dealing with them. All I had to do was to switch my mindset and adapt to killing enemies at a slower pace than usual.
Some distance away from me, Roxanne, who was wielding a Scimitar was nimbly avoiding the attacks of another Green Caterpillar that must have targeted her while I was busy with the ones in front of me, which is admittedly kind of strange, because normally she would have just wailed o it with her weapon without needing to avoid it that much. I wonder if something happened to cause it, or perhaps it used its Skill and she had no choice but to avoid it to not get caught in its sticky webbing? Well, no matter. For now we both have to focus on fighting, and the time to eventually ask questions will be after that.
When I finished parrying the Green Caterpillars charge attack, I went on and launched another Fire Storm that engulfed the one I was squaring off against along with the one that targeted Roxanne. Since they were already beaten up to some extent by our previous attacks, they werent able to survive the flames that burned them up to crisps. Both of them fell onto the floor and disappeared in a puff of green smoke, leaving only their Drop Items, Green Caterpillar Thread, behind them. Looks like the victory once more belongs to us.
Phew we finally defeated them, huh? I have to say, even though we are taking countermeasures against that pesky Web Spitting Skill of theirs, fighting Green Caterpillars sure is much more mentally exhausting than fighting with the Needlewoods.
I struck up a casual conversation with Roxanne as we went on picking up the items all the Green Caterpillars dropped onto the floor after their deaths.
The Green Caterpillars Skill that I am talking about, Web Spitting, is a Skill that they are using on those who let down their guards around them that allows them to pin their prey in place and prevent it from both moving and defending themselves by with their sticky threads that are pretty similar to spiders web now that I think about it. Also, I have to confess that I have been caught in that freedom-of-movement-robbing Skill more than a few times now, which makes me feel incredibly embarrassed about it, because it is actually very easy to avoid as long as you will remember to pay close attention to the Green Caterpillars to see if any of them does not have an orange magic circle on the ground under their bloated bodies. If they do, then you have to get as far away from them as possible, since the length and the width of that Skill are both deceptively large.
Maybe so, but still, your magic defeats them so fast that I cant help it but to feel at ease, master. Not to mention that thanks to you we seem to be getting much stronger extremely fast!
Y-You really think so?
Yes! And that is why I am grateful to you for this. Thank you very much, master!
Roxanne answered me with a bright smile on her face. Truth to be told, its not me that you should be thankful to, but rather to the increased EXP gain Skill that I have currently equipped. If not for that, then I really dont think there would be any cause for celebrations.
Normally, Roxanne is able to avoid Green Caterpillars Skill attack thanks to her superior senses and agility of the Beastman, and I still have to work on my own strategy of avoiding it, but we will definitely get there at some point. As for the rest of the monsters of the second floor, they are only Needlewoods that are slightly stronger and a little bit tougher than their counterparts from the first floor, so we have no problems with dealing with them, since all that it takes to completely avoid their branch swings are some light dodges. But the thing is, we might have a relatively easy time fighting the enemies now, but such a state of affairs wont be able to last forever. Which is why
If at all possible, I would very much like us to become just a bit stronger before advancing to the next floor.
Stronger, huh? Lets see I heard that typically Mages and Wizards tend to use staffs and wands instead of swords.
Staffs and Wands, huh?
Well, that certainly makes sense. After all, normally swords and other weapons like that are supposed to be wielded by the members of the front guard while Mages and Wizards are supposed to hand around the back of the Party and use their ranged spells to provide support to those fighting on the frontlines. That might be another thing I should be looking out for then. If anyone saw a guy using spells fighting along with the rest of the Party on the frontlines, that would probably net me all sorts of uncomfortable questions. In short, if you want to act and fight like a Wizard, be sure to also be equipped like one but wait a minute
What was the typical Wizard equipment again? I have to admit that when I was doing my shopping back in Veil when I first arrived there and later when I bought Roxanne, I didnt really paid attention to anything else besides the things I needed at that time, which is to say, a typical Warriors equipment. And since Roxanne fights with the Scimitar and the Leather Armor I gave her, there was no need to optimize our stuff according to the Jobs we have, but now that I decided to change my playstyles so drastically, a change of both weapon and equipment might be exactly what I need. Kind of a pain in the ass, but hey, its for the sake of keeping up appearances.