The Raid Dungeon Pt8

Excitedly opening my menus and sifting through my skills to bring up the skill tree for Mana Assimilation, I find that both CF and D were at one out of ten in their tiers and that MA1 was almost to its fourth tier.

If these were just the initial gains from cultivating those two types of mana then I could not wait to see what gains were made after reaching their Initial Success stages. Even if I did not gain any new increases to my HP and MP until Initial Success, the increase to the affinity of my new magics alone would be worthwhile.

Plus ten percent affinity to curse magic with a level one Weakness allowed me to shave ten percent off of another person's stats. Plus fifty percent would probably more than double this effect while the skill was still at level one. I could literally strengthen my newest skills just by meditating.

This cultivating thing was an absolute cheat, especially for players with high Luck or classless players in general who have to create their own versions of everything.

Noticing that I had spent more than fifteen minutes initiating the Chaos Fiend Affinity, I turn my magically enhanced gaze toward the other clan leaders and their elites on the opposite side of the pond from me. Even though it had been a quarter of an hour since I left them to run my experiment, only one of them had actually worked out how to take in and refine mana.

Mistress, sitting off by herself, was enshrouded in the ambient mana compressed around the pond and seemed to be channeling it into herself at a ceaseless rate. It was clear just by watching the subtle flow of mana into their character from all around their body that they had managed to find a method other than breathing for taking in mana.

However, I could not see any 'exhaust' such as the impurities and excess I and my team exhaled after every breath. She seemed to be taking in and holding everything that came into contact with her as if her entire body was a plant's root soaking up water. As a half-dryad, half a sentient magical tree or plant, this was probably the most effective method for their character race.

As I was studying her, though, I finally saw the release of impure excess mana that said she had refined everything that she could. The exhaust mana for here came out from every inch of her body as if being released through her pores. The sheer amount of released mana alone led me to believe this was a sign that she had broken through.

While my method refined mana as one cultivated and released the impurities, it seemed as though hers filled the 'vessel' with raw mana and then refined it in mass to break through with whatever was refined. Wondering at the pros and cons of this bulk refining method, I quickly get up from my seat and leap into the air to casually glide over.

Twisting upon landing to land seated on the edge of the pond next to Mistress, I say, "Congratulations on making your first breakthrough, Mistress. May I ask about the process and the gains you made?"

Nodding her head slowly with a sheepish smile while looking down into the thirty-foot deep pond, Mistress says, "After you said the goal was to take in mana, I tried a few different ideas until I figured out I can absorb it directly into my body. The process seems different from your clan's method but I gained ten MP and learned a Mana Training Technique."

It took her much longer than me to reach the first level even considering the conditions but she had still made the same gains. In this way, I could not find any real cons in her method of mana training besides how long it took to fill up with mana and then refine it at once.

Curious, I say, "You should try coupling this technique with my own. Breathing in and out the mana allowed for refinement as you go which should increase the overall speed of your technique. I will do my own experiments with your method. Thank you for your assistance," I add quickly before hopping up with a flap and returning to my seat by Zekrom.

I honestly want to go back down into the pond to cultivate with greater speed so I could get a better grasp on both branches while I was still ahead of my companions. However, the conditions at the divide between Zekrom and the pond were near the peak of perfection for balancing the divine and dark mana I took in.

Using the mass absorption method that Mistress had come up with was hard to wrap my head around at first but after a few minutes of releasing the pressured control of my breathing and thinking about absorbing mana through my pores and cells like Vitamin D from sunlight I suddenly began generating a thin funnel or vortex of inflow from the surrounding mana.

Coupled with my slow and steady breathing that caused all of the mana within me to be refined as it came in and exhaled in one large cloud of dark vapor, my cultivation sped up by nearly half of its previous speed with the addition of a new intake.

Instead of focusing on overall Mana Assimilation, though, I did my best to pour my efforts into the Chaos Fiend and Demigod specializations so that they would rise to catch up with MA1. Of course, MA1 made its fourth breakthrough before either CF or D was half full again but the gains of four hundred mana were more than welcome.

Sadly, as I was nearing the second level of Chaos Fiend a third of the way to the fifth level of MA1, there suddenly came an assortment of loud calls coming from the highest point of the cathedral. Even the deafening whisper of the head priest rang out, stopping everything in the area with the words, "The demons are marching!"

As soon as the worlds clicked in my head, I stopped my meditation and bolted upright only to suddenly have every muscle in my entire body begin cramping up so that I found myself on my hands and knees. Even as I was falling to the ground there was a rush of steam-like mana vapor gushing out of every inch of my body. The incomplete storage and refinement using Mistress' technique had been canceled out and released from ending my cultivation.

Feeling as though I could spit blood at any moment from the agony in my heart and lungs, I lift my head a little to look up and see that I was not the only one. Mistress was also suffering from the adverse effect of having their cultivation interrupted, even though it was to a much lighter degree than my own. This was probably due to the sheer amount of mana that I could take in and store.

Realizing that my breathing techniques had never caused such backlash from ending the cultivation, I turn my perception inward to find that only about ten percent of the mana I had been refining to reach level five of MA1 remained. Even though the combined cultivation method had a high speed perk, the backlash of an incomplete breakthrough was not something I wanted to experience again.

This whole-body intake method was not a practice to be used when one was short on time or at risk of being disturbed. Now I understood why my research had made numerous mentions of closed-door cultivation called going into seclusion. At least I already had a safe and swift training technique worked out.

Ignoring everything else once I was finally able to climb to my feet, I swiftly fly up into the air toward the belfry crow's nest at the very top of the cathedral. All eyes in the nest were facing forward, looking out over the city toward the demonic outposts. Here, one could clearly see all the front outposts on our side of the encirclement were deploying hundreds of demons and undead into the ruined landscape.

Even though there were over a dozen types of demons that I had seen before, there were currently only three distinctive species of demons in these large traveling parties surrounded by a much larger variety of rotting or skeletal abominations.

The largest number of demons were spread between two of five groups and they themselves were only bigger than some of the undead with bodies the size of chief trolls. However, that was the only similarity.

While the trolls were flesh and blood and fur, these demons seemed to have almost transparent bodies of thick keratin scales and opaque blue skin that allowed one to see blackish purple muscles and organs underneath. They had large reptilian triangular heads and giant three-clawed hands that wielded pieces of undead or other demons as weapons.

The second largest type of demon present were even smaller and looked like kobolds except that their brownish gray bodies were ethereal and gaseous as if they were completely intangible with dark back flames for eyes. They wielded no weapons but passed through the undead around them as if to prove their lack of a physical form. These could be the most dangerous because they would be impervious to physical damage.

Leading the five army-like companies of demons and undead were a single group of two hundred demons that looked like giant rotten primates with four arms and three skeletal tails. They carried no weapons but from their immense size and bone bodies it was clear that they would be fulfilling the roles of heavy hitting tanks for the rest of the demons.

Overall there was maybe a couple hundred less than a thousand demons but well over a thousand undead. The head priest's original estimates based on visual values had been around five thousand demons. In my head, I doubled that for a quick estimate and then tripled the original estimate to be safe.

These were probably only around one tenth of their overall forces and we were dealing with upwards of two thousand enemies at once. Now, we were facing upwards of two thousand demons in a siege attempt because all five companies were in a slow but steady V formation march heading in our direction. This was the official start of our dungeon raid.

Doing my best to work out the math on equipment that each of the clans already had and everything we could make for the NPC, I soon realize that we would have only about a thousand overall troops at play. Even with the few dozen anti-siege weapons at our disposal, the trebuchet alone would have to be used the entire time just to wear down the bone demons that were as tall as our wall itself.

The ballistae could certainly deal damage to them as well, but they would be occupied with other enemies. All of the spears were tipped with potent AOE magic and magic was probably the only weapon everybody could use to deal with the freakish phantoms. At this point, everybody in our clans were equipped with blessed weaponry to deal with the undead so they and the obvious warrior demons would be the easiest for us to cope with in a proper fight.

Of course, the demons were roughly two miles away and taking their sweet time in marching, giving us at least another twenty minutes to get into position and make last-minute adjustments. However, their formation was intimidating to say the least. Their area of coverage was about two acres per company and their formation took up the better part of a square mile.

Below, I could already hear the calls of players shouting for organization and preparations while waiting on the main commanders to appear from the graveyard area. In moments the front yard of the cathedral was filling with hundreds of skeletons and players taking up positions about the platforms, towers, and dozens of bulwarks.

Gliding swiftly down to land at the front of the cathedral's lower entryway roof, I bring my fingers up to my lips after opening my helmet's mask with Corruption and channel fifty MP into a Whistle. "Familiars, to me!"

Within moments, Zekrom appeared in the air above the roof behind me while the black hornet blurs over. Cweeper, Hermes, Fluffy, the emperor scorpion, and my own trolls soon arrived together spread between the mounts. "Zekrom, I need you to stay back in reserve, protect the towers from being destroyed," I explain briskly. "Cweeper, Hermes, I need you two to be ready to patrol the walls and throw out a hundred-yard skill whenever those phantom kobolds are within range.

"We cannot let them get close to the wall," I emphasize seriously, suspecting the ghosts could simply phase through all of our defenses except for the blessed obstacles. "Imperial, I need you to ferry supplies about the towers and platforms but be ready to answer my summons if I need you. The rest of you, form ranks together with the other Infected to make a standalone familiar division. If anything breaches the wall, your division will be a response team supporting the bulwarks. Any questions?"

Even the ones who could talk had nothing to say, simply blurring or disappearing from view to take up their positions or assist where needed.

Since this was a siege, I did not expect for it to be a fast fight even if I threw myself at this brick wall the same way I did everything else. However, I could already tell that this was going to be a fun fight!

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