Facing Euron (1)

Felix would have liked resuming his training, but the MP lost was too much. He already only had less than half of his MP left, and this first attempt had drained another chunk, so he decided to postpone for later.

A short while later, the group met another bunch of Ocuminis, and this time Felix participated. He was glad to see that killing them had become much easier, the level suppression having been reduced.

Moreover, because he had the support of the three other players, he was able to dispatch Ocuminis quickly and without expanding a ton of MP.

In the course of the following three hours, the group of players met a total of 27 Ocuminis, all of which were Common Rank. It didn't do much to Felix's companions other than use resources, but to him they were a precious source of XP.

By the time they reached their objective, the old fortress where the others believed the Dark Wizard to be waiting for them, Felix had already reached Level 8. It was quite the leveling speed, rising through 7 Levels in a single day.

Of course, considering the monsters he was hunting, it wasn't that big of a deal, but Felix still found it nice. It showed him that catching up to the top players should be possible, despite his three weeks lateness.

In any case, as they arrived before the fortress, they took a small break for everyone to recover their stamina, and her MP for Zara.

As for Felix, his MP had already returned to full, as his Mana Regeneration was way higher than hers. The way Mana Regeneration was calculated was still a bit of a mystery as it seemed to not always be the same, but as a general rule of thumb, it took a mage around two hours to recover their entire Mana Pool.

So the basic formula for Mana Regeneration in MP/s was MP/7200. As Felix had Inner Mastery, which increased his Mana Regeneration by 25%, the formula was MP/5400.

Since Felix had added all the MP he had received from his three levels to Spirit, it had reached 90, and his MP stood at a staggering 900. That means his Mana Regeneration was at 0.167 MP per second. In other words, he recovered 1 MP around every 6 seconds. This meant the cost of a Rune would be recovered in only slightly more than a minute.

So even as Felix used a few Runes to fight against the Ocumini encountered, the rate at which he recovered fast exceeded his consumption.

The group did not wait for long anyway, as Zara had brought Mana Potions, which allowed her to recuperate MP by simply drinking the potion. It was quite the useful potion, which would be next to useless to Felix as it only recovered 50 MP. That's only 5 Runes.

Anyway, as everyone was ready to go, Felix received a notification from the game.

[Drakon has invited you to join their Party.]

Felix sent a glance to the large man, who explained, "The monsters until now would have given us subpar XP, so forming a party would only have lowered the XP you received. Now though, we're about to fight the real enemies, so joining our party will be beneficial to everyone."

Felix nodded in agreement, and accepted. He didn't feel any different, nor could he see the HP/MP bars of his allies, so it seemed shared XP was the only change brought by forming a party.

Now that everything was ready, it was finally time for them to assault the fortress. They headed for the main gate, which was closed. Felix had wanted to find another entrance, but Drakon had told him not to worry about it.

But as they reached the gate, Drakon simply stood a few meters in front of it. After five seconds of stillness, Felix looked at his companions and asked, "Are we waiting for something?"

Zed took out his daggers, and Zara her staff, as the former said, "He's about to go. I would prepare myself for the fight, if I were you."

Felix was still confused, but he took Skera off his back nonetheless as he watched the ramparts for an eventual archer.

Another two seconds, and Drakon finally moved. Looking closer, Felix noticed a faint layer of Mana had gathered around Drakon's body, but before Felix could observe it better, Drakon had already taken off.

He arrived in front of the gates, and did not slow down as he smashed into the large wooden door shoulder first. The gates went higher than any Ocumini Felix had seen, and looked easily half a meter thick. It wasn't something supposed to be moved by someone, and instead probably relied on a lever mechanism to be moved.

Yet, as Drakon slammed into it, he went right through the door, shattering the wood that did not offer even a bit of resistance as a hole several meters big was broken open.

Although Felix guessed this was a skill, it was still shocking to see. He did not tarry though as he quickly followed Zara and Zed in.

He arrived in a large courtyard, where a welcome party was waiting for them.

[Euron, Level 26, Apostle of Izrath]

[Ocumini, Level 20, Chieftain]

[Ocumini, Level 20, Elite]

[Ocumini, Level 20, Elite]

[Ocumini, Level 20, Elite]

Standing in front of the group were three Elite Ocumini, each looking scary enough by themselves already. Behind them though, was an even more imposing one.

It was six meters tall, twice as big as a Common Ocumini that already towered over players. It's eye, while not bloodshot, was scary to look at nonetheless as it was bloody red, with an orange tint to it. Its body, thicker than most trees in the forest, and each of its arms were easily a meter long, and each muscular enough to compete for Mr Olympia.

As they entered, Felix also felt its gaze pass over him, and while he had a good control over his emotions, the gaze was magical in nature. No matter how good he was at controlling himself, he still felt a force suppress him.

Finally, behind them was the least threatening enemy to look at, as it was but another player. However, his Level and eerie sounding Class was more than enough to tell Felix this was a dangerous man.

The Ocuminis did not attack right away, and instead stood still as Euron spoke.

"So you are the ones who killed my Ocuminis. Quite bold of you, to bring a Level 8 newbie with you. I'm a little offended, I must say."

Zed looked ready to spit back something, but Felix suddenly felt the mana around him shift. So without any hesitation, he broke into a sprint, yelling, "He's cursing us!"

Felix didn't know whether his companions had felt it, or believed him, but he didn't look back as he ran straight toward the monsters.

Opposite him, Euron clicked his tongue as the Ocuminis started moving, forming a wall to block Felix from reaching Euron.

Intending to simply jump over the rows of Ocuminis at first, Felix made a first big jump, followed by a second. Then, however, all of the Ocuminis gazes turned to him, and he felt the oppressive force stronger than ever.

The fear weighed down on his body, but even more so on his mind, making it hard to concentrate. However, Felix's 100 Intelligence and 90 Spirit weren't for show as he still managed to focus enough to make another rune, for his third jump.

He was now well above the first row of Elite Ocuminis, and with everyone's attention on him. As he reached high above the ground though, Felix was given a much larger view of the battlefield, and immediately noticed that Zed was not there, while Drakon was standing abnormally still, just like he had when he burst through the gates.

What Drakon was doing was obvious to Felix, and the Assassin could only be aiming for one thing too, so Felix took yet another step, followed by one more, fully reaching the Chieftain Ocumini's eye.

He needed five jumps, so 4 Runes to reach the Chieftain Ocumini's eye, meaning that if he fought that thing, each blow would cost him 40 MP, at least. Even with his absurdly high 900 MP, that was barely more than 20 attacks.

Felix wasn't sure he would be able to kill the thing in 20 moves.

Still, for now, his goal laid elsewhere as Felix took another step, reaching above even the tallest Ocumini.

But as he thought he could finally attack Euron, the Chieftain did something unexpected. Instead of standing still, like the others had, it actually jumped!

Felix suddenly found himself facing more than a dozen arms, all reaching out to him, in an effort of crushing him. And they no doubt would succeed doing so, were he to be caught.

The Runic Mage managed to react fast enough though as he created a rune right on top of him, 'Gravity', followed by another, 'Fall'. The two were cast so fast that they activated together, despite the air not being stabilized, and it resulted in Felix's sudden drop.

The arms of the Ocumini failed to grab him as it continued rising, unable to control itself in the air, while Felix made yet another rune, a 'Shield' Rune right behind him, which he used to propel himself towards the Dark Wizard.

Of course, while all of this had happened relatively quickly, when Euron saw the unbelievable scene of Felix moving through the air with such great precision, and finally dropping down on him with his spear raised high above his head, he quickly erected the strongest shield he could make.

[Dark Shield]

Among all the skills Euron had been presented with and offered to be taught, this was perhaps the one with the simplest name. Yet, he had still chosen it, because of how good it was.

A large chunk of his Mana rolled out of his body, merging with the shadows on the ground as they materialized into a thick shield that covered him from every angle. The shield had a gas-like texture to it, yet Euron knew it would stop any weapon or spell from hitting him.

So Euron felt fully confident in his defense as he started chanting another spell, one that took longer to prepare, but would put an end to his enemies.

Unfortunately for him, he underestimated Felix's adaptability, as well as the flexibility of his magic.

As the shield appeared in his way, and seeing that it was covering Euron from all sides, Felix knew his attack wouldn't break it. His Strength was only at 16, and while his weapon was Fine, he was facing a Level 26.

So the Level Suppression alone would mess with Felix quite badly, not to mention he looked relatively confident in his defense.

So instead Felix decided to pave the way for his ally.

While still smashing down with his weapon, Felix gathered his Mana in front of him to form a Rune.

'Suck'

As it lit up, the Rune started sucking at the surrounding air, as well as the barrier. It was a bit of a gamble on Felix's part, but from what he could sense from the shield's Mana, its shadowy appearance wasn't simply there to look cool.

Instead, it was literally a shield made of shadows. Now, Felix wasn't exactly sure of how it was supposed to protect the mage from attacks, but what he did guess was that without those shadows, there wouldn't be much of a resistance.

Felix cast a few more 'Suck' Runes in the short moment he had left before his collision with the shield. His spear clashed against the shield, which was even thicker than before because it had been sucked over, and as soon as he did Felix felt a strong rebound force coming from the spear.

He couldn't even keep it in his hands as it flew out, the web between his fingers tearing apart from the sudden shock, while he lost a portion of his HP. Meanwhile, the shield did not even look harmed in the slightest.

However, while Felix's attack had pathetically failed, Euron no longer had any protection behind him, and a shrouded figure appeared right on time.