Chapter Twenty Three

Jason used temporal shift, teleporting to the dungeon ceiling and sent five condensed fireballs to the awaiting ice elementals below. It had been an hour since he was confident one fireball would be sufficient defeat the mobs instead of two. He was fortunate to have made the improvement, since as soon as that hurdle had been jumped, the enemies seemed to multiply. The five elementals he had just reduced to puddles were five of twenty that were in this portion of the cavern.

When he had first started, the elementals only attacked when he sent his first fireball. Now though, as soon as he entered their line of sight, all of them targeted him and began attacking. It was not only a test of Jason's wisdom, but also his agility. If he didn't react in time, he resembled something like an ice porcupine. Something that had happened too often within the last few hours.

With the last of the mob defeated, Jason changed his ability to frost skin and kept going down the winding cavern. He had only started with the ice elementals, but after the first hour, the flame elementals came out of nowhere. But after some time, he started to understand the pattern, which made it easy to predict which ones would await him around the corner. In his experience, any information understood was a battle waiting to be won.

Readying an ice bolt before even turning the corner, Jason used Temporal shift to appear on the other side of the flame elementals before they came into sight. He let loose one bolt after another, catching four of them by surprise.

Five balls of fire shot towards him, but Jason had already teleported to the ceiling and rained ice below him, cooling six more from existence. He flipped once and landed on his feet, turning his ice skin up just a notch as a flame elemental attempted a suicide run at his blind spot. Jason heard a sizzle as the living flame extinguished, just before he let out four more consecutive bolts, one into each flaming head.

After the first few hours of dispatching elementals, it had become less than challenging. He had begun to sense a pattern in their attacks, which only helped him with the battle. He barely dodged anymore. Though he still remembered the one time he had stood in the center of the attack zone with his ice skin turned up to max. At that time, the flame elementals could sense that he was trying for an easy win and kept their distance, instead sending burst of flame towards him. He had wisdom to help him recover mana fast, but they were living mana. Even if he could keep up with their output of flame, he couldn't match their increase in intensity, within minutes, what he thought would be an easy win had turned into the beasts cooking him from the inside out. It was not a pleasant death, and not one he'd repeat.

Using temporal shift, Jason teleported away from the last five flame elementals. Summoning a condensed ice bolt per finger of his right hand, he shot the projectiles through the face of each of the living camp fires, extinguishing them embers and all.

As the last elemental fizzled out of existence, Jason felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He ignored it, as he had the last half a day's worth. Instead, he kept moving through the winding cavern. For how long he was in this area, he knew the next door had to be relatively close.

If he were to follow the routine he had picked up on, Jason would have to assume he'd grown too comfortable within the dungeon. It felt as if the place had lulled him into a false sense of superiority. Instead of giving into the notion, he cautiously looked into the next bend of the cavern and saw that he was right.

Multiple groups of fire elementals huddled around a large bonfire. They looked almost as if they were dancing around it, if such a thing were possible for floating balls of fire with faces. Just a few paces away, the same image presented, only with the frost elementals. Jason had to wonder just how fierce both elemental energies had to be in order to exist in the same space.

He let out a slow breath, calming his nerves. "I knew something like this was bound to happen eventually." He sighed as he activated his frost skin. Ready for battle, he raced from his hiding place towards the elementals. Before they could lock on to him, he used temporal shift, teleporting to the ceiling of the cavern, then releasing the largest gale of snow and ice he could muster.

Ten of the fire elementals collapsed, fizzling out of existence, but that was just a third of the tiny hazards. Fireballs formed at the other's mouths, shooting up towards Jason, who narrowly avoided them by teleporting back to the ceiling and beginning his freefall again from another angle. He readied another gale, sending another group to their ashy graves.

Jason felt a small headache form as mana depletion threatened to take him. He knew he only had enough in him for one more attack, so he launched a third snow and ice attack, completing the assault. Before he could drop to the ground in exhaustion, he teleported back to his hiding place once again to regenerate his mana.

Sweat beaded his brow as he waited for his energy to replenish. His hands felt clammy, his vision was more like the pixelated screen of a tv without a channel. He sat and waited, slowly the headache left and he was able to think again. When his vision returned to normal, he looked around the corner and his eyes went wide.

He watched in disbelief as the elementals he had just slain were once again dancing around the bonfire. The flame in the center seemed to have lost a foot of its flame, but as Jason watched, it was gaining it back. "A regenerating mob?" He cursed his luck. "I can't release large attack after attack, I'll just run out of mana. But if I use small attacks, I could still run out due to the sheer numbers."

Jason ran back out to test his boundaries. He summoned a large cloud of snow, sending frost bolt after frost bolt at the elementals, dropping them one by one. He counted ten before his attack ended, then activated it again, teleporting to the side to avoid fireballs that blasted into the ground where he had just been. He let loose the next attack, only able to get ten once again. Frustration consumed him as he activated his mana saber and slashed at one of the remaining elementals. The saber sailed through it as if it were just gas.

He staggered as cooking flesh assaulted his nostrils. He turned to see the elementals preparing a second attack. His anger got the best of him. Jumping into the air, he channeled his frustration into his blade, as well as the frost skin. When the saber met the creature, it paused in its attack before crumbling into ash.

Jason's eyes went wide when he realized what he had done. "Well shit!" He teleported a distance away from the remaining elementals and let his mana replenish by a quarter. He then concentrated his ice mana into the saber. It turned from a glowing green to an ice blue. Then, his face lit up in a manic smile as he teleported back before the bonfire could regenerate the elementals.

He slashed one in half, teleported to the next one and dropped it before it could launch a fireball. Jason used his frost skin to deflect a third attack before he disappeared, reappearing with his saber in the center of the next elemental.

His output of mana had reduced to a third of what it had been with his larger gale attacks. Now all he had to do was teleport out of the way of oncoming projectiles and retaliate before they could launch their next volley.

The last seven of the fire elementals lasted less than two minutes with his new understanding of his ability. As he had attacked, his mana had begun to increase instead of plummeting. His mana saber only took up ten mana per minute, with the ice element, it added another ten. With his wisdom up to thirty-five, his mana increased thirty-five mana per second, making the drain nonexistent even while using his temporal shift.

Launching himself back up in the air, Jason let loose a barrage of ice bolts to the center of the bonfire. He noticed it shrinking further as each projectile hit, until it extinguished. Dropping to the ground, he landed in a small pile of ash were the fire was just moments before.

He allowed himself a minute for his mana to regenerate before changing the blueish hue of his saber to one of orange. Jason smiled as he teleported to the ceiling of the ice elemental area and launched one explosion of fire after another to the ice core below. When he drained it completely, he landed in the puddle and unleashed himself on the remaining elementals. With the use of his mana saber as well as his temporal shift, he made quick work of them.

His mana saber fizzled out as he faced a set of double doors which appeared after the final elemental fell. A large number ten was carved into the stone above them, symbolizing the end of dungeon boss.

Jason fell to the ground and placed his back against the wall, his breathing rapid, but slowing. He placed his forearms on his knees as he stared up at the large number above him. A final buzz sounded in his pocket. Since he finally had the time, he flipped out his phone and checked his notifications:

'You have leveled up!

'Current Level: 7

EXP: 1,000/7,500

HP: 150

MP: 150

STM: 85

Armor Rating: 20

Current Skills:

English Scribe: Intermediate

Cooking: Beginner

Cardio: Intermediate

Hunter: Apprentice

Hand to Hand Combat: Beginner

Sword Skill: Apprentice

Spellbook:

Novice Fire: level 5.0

Novice Water: level 5.0

Novice Wind: level 5.0

Novice Earth: level 0.0

Novice Light: level 2.3

Novice Dark: level 1.2

Novice Time: level 2.3

EXP Bonus: 20%

EXP to next Level: 6,500

Spells Unlocked:

Temporal Shift: Mastery: 100%

Arcane Thrust: Mastery: 1.96%

Mana Saber (Elemental):2.15%

Hurricane Kick: Mastery: 0.90%

Flash Heal: Mastery: 2.70%

Revive: Mastery: 0.00%

Sneak: Mastery: 1.30%

Mana Skin: Mastery 5.00%

Other spells may be unlocked upon experimentation and advancement in rank.

INT:15

STR:24

VIT:15

AGI:28

WIS:40

DEF:20

You currently have 5 attribute points to distribute.'

Balance: $15,916'