Now Dead
Crack, Thud-! After I sent Mark to help others, I went to a storage room not too far away. I wanted to visit here after I finished with the Necromancer, but I needed some material that could only be found here.
The room was unlike a room inside a mine. The walls and ceiling were covered with wood, and the room was brightened up with many magical torches.
I quickly brought out the [Auto-Brewing Cauldron] and put it in the middle of the room. There were many combinations of mixtures that I could try, but I wanted the most efficient one, so I went for a hard one.
I slowly poured the remaining Unstable Mana Mixture into the cauldron. I also liquefied every Undead Core that I had.
[ Skill "Material Liquefier" Activated ]
I looked around and collected every material I needed based on the previous [Resets] and dropped them one by one inside the cauldron. The contents inside the cauldron began to react with each other and gave off an ominous-looking characteristic.
I could see the colors of different materials in the cauldron, and I knew that it wasn't a good thing. For a potent potion to be made, I needed a lot of Mana Ores, which I didn't have on me, so I used what I wished I wouldn't.
I took out the Sword of Beginning and the Mana Infusing Potion from my [Inventory]. I then poured the Potion on the Sword. The pinkish-looking liquid filled all the sword's cracks and stuck to it like glue.
[ Item "Sword of Beginning" Acquired the Temporary Enchantment "Mana Infused" ]
I put the sword inside the cauldron and moved it around like a spoon. I knew a sword wasn't supposed to be used as a spoon, but I didn't have any other options for faster mixing speed.
After a few minutes, the strange colors inside the cauldron faded away and turned into an even gray-colored fluid. I took out the sword, and a message appeared in front of me.
[ Item "Sword of Beginning" Entered the Status of Critical Durability ]
I touched the sword and could feel the weakness inside of it. Even though I wasn't an expert, I could tell that the sword would shatter if I used it again, so I put it back into my inventory.
[ You have Brewed "Vandal Essence" Potion ]
[ Level Up ]
I stared at the pot of abomination in front of me and had the feeling of a child who was about to break an entire castle made out of Lego.
I poured the contents of the cauldron into the empty glasses that I found in the room's corner… slowly.
After that, I ran to help my group. When I reached there, I saw others struggling to keep up with the fights. Thankfully, none of them were heavily damaged, and they were keeping up the good work.
Crack- "Action! Where have you been?" said Carl.
"I was preparing for what we are going to do," I said.
"What are we going to do?" said Brass.
There were nearly no dark Mages left in the attackers' group, and most of them were low-level undead, who were just for decoration and buying some time.
The look on the Dark mages' faces seemed calm, but I could feel the hint of stress inside of them. With that, I found that they were waiting for others to come and help them, which was out of the equation.
With my help, we could easily kill this group and move forward, but I wanted to do something else.
"We are going to explode this mountain."
"… wait, what?"
Based on the town folklore, Gray Tip Mountain was a dead volcano whose last eruption was a decade ago. I wanted to use that to my advantage.
"Sir Entwine, can you make a path for us to the hallway in front?" I said.
"Are you sure? If I use a lot of Mana here, I won't be able to help you with the Necromancer," said Brass.
"Don't worry about the Necromancer. Show us what you've got," I said in a funny tone.
Brass nodded in agreement and began to cast a skill. Mark, the twins, and I were blocking anyone to make sure Brass could cast his magic without any problem.
[ Brass Entwine Used "Skeleton Summon" Skill ]
[ Brass Entwine Used "Dark Domain" Skill ]
Suddenly, a dark aura emerged from Brass, and the once extinguished undead woke up again. The opponent Undeads and Dark Mages were powerless against the Dark Army of Entwine, so we easily breached through them.
"I want one of the skeletons to do something for me," I said.
"What do you want?" said Brass.
"Can they hold onto this potion and drop them on my command?"
"Yeah, just give it to this one." He then pointed at a shallow Undead who was missing a leg.
I gave him one of the three Vandal Essence Potions that I made and ran towards the others. We easily crossed the hall and entered the new pathway in front of us while preventing any of the opponent's team from entering.
"Drop the Potion."
With my command spoken, the skeleton dropped and smashed the gray substance on the floor. Unlike Unstable Mana Mixture, Vandal Essence wasn't about explosion, but rather destruction.
The floor began to deteriorate, and cracks appeared all over it. The decaying effect of the potion was spreading through the walls and the surrounding areas, which was a fun thing to watch. Sadly, Vandal Essence was only effective on buildings and structures and couldn't cause any damage in combat.
CRASH! The path that we were on was blocked by the rain of stones from up ahead, and no Undeads and no Mages could make it through.
[ Level Up ]
[ Level Up ]
"…"
"…"
Everyone was staring at me with a panicking expression for about 5 minutes.
"Well… I know a little [Alchemy]," I decided to speak after a long quiet, but my words just made the situation more awkward.
"How can you be so relaxed about this?" said Mark.
"You'll get used to it. Now then, should we move on?"
Everyone put aside the questions and terrors and proceeded with the plan. This was my first time entering this path. Up until then, I could only reach that alone or with nothing to spare, so I [Reset]. But after a long-awaited run, I reached the path without losing a single teammate and having a lot of items.
There was nothing that could stop us from clearing this [Event]… and in the worst-case scenario, I could always [Reset], so there was nothing to worry abo-