We had slowly descended to the 6th layer over the last month. Lanner had been doing a good job handling the various chambers and monsters on his own. I had been practicing my soul skills constantly.
Soul Shield, Soul Vision, and Soul Strike were the soul skills I had that I needed to work on and improve. Even though it was slow, I was getting more experienced and better at each of these skills.
Soul skills used Mana differently, which was layered within my soul. They were more deeply rooted in a person than other skills.
I read ahead in the soul book during my breaks, checking out upcoming skills. If I could, I'd skip ahead for a stronger skill to trace a cursed skill, though it was ill-advised while I honed my skills.
The entire time I could still feel Gnomish Silence. That was going to be my first test. I knew Xanatos had counter-divination skills in place, like the gnomes. The Dark Cabal had knowledge of a tremendous number of esoteric and forgotten skills. Since he had survived so long without being hunted down, he had to have counter-divination skills.
Gnomish Silence would be the curse skill I would test myself against first. After I could track that skill back, then I would work on backtracking Experience Siphon. I had thought of the Ring of Remote Viewing my mother had given me so long ago, but I didn't dare put it on.
If the demon who killed her had gotten access to her spatial pouch, I could be in danger. The demon might even track me down to kill me. While I wouldn't give up the ring, I wasn't about to use it either.
Keeping the ring secure in my spatial pouch was the best choice. Once I was a supreme legend, I'd use the ring to find the demon who murdered my mother, and I would get my revenge. Yet, that day wouldn't be today, or soon.
"Trap," I said, and Lanner paused and looked.
I had already spotted the trap, but he hadn't singled me out. Trap Detection was one of those support skills that didn't seem important until a dungeon trap killed you.
It took several minutes of Lanner carefully checking before finally finding it and then activating it at a distance. Sharp metal spikes came out of the floor, ceiling, and walls, making a section of the tunnel between chambers certain death.
I kept an eye out for secondary triggers, but there were none. Lanner got to work disabling the trap by bending the spikes to create a clear passage through the spiked barricade.
"That was a nasty one," h
"Yes, it was. Most traps are instant death. You still have a way to go. You need to pay more attention to your Danger Sense. It would have changed slightly once you were that close."
"I didn't notice."
"Pay closer attention. You can let your mind drift when we stop for the night to rest. But in the tunnels when you think there are no threats, that is when you need to be extra careful. If I weren't here, you would be dead."
He nodded and kept working on disabling the trap.
I wasn't trying to be too harsh, since he was still learning, but the dungeon wasn't forgiving of mistakes. One screwup and he would die like the countless adventurers before him. After passing the spike trap, we came to the next chamber.
The Mana was slightly higher, and my Danger Sense had increased slightly. Checking the Bush Monsters in the next chamber, I noted they were slightly stronger than they should be. They were of similar levels to monsters from the 7th layer.
But I knew we were on the 6th layer. That wasn't a question in my mind. With Depth Sense, I could feel the tug of the next passage down and the one upward. They had shifted to be in front of us, which was surprising.
We were going to spend longer on the 6th layer, so I hadn't aimed for the next passage down. But they had shifted to be in front of us in the same direction. Both the shift to in front of us and in the same direction were weird. Normally, the dungeon didn't shift like that.
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The higher Mana density also made me more concerned.
"Be on guard. The monsters are stronger in the next chamber."
He nodded and readied himself along with two wands.
Gnomish Fencing did little to monsters. Lanner was too small and didn't have enough physical stats and skills to easily inflict blows that would kill. Also, as a gnome, his reach was incredibly poor.
Lanner easily won by cycling through his wands, wiping out all the monsters. He was getting better at hitting two at once when they were close together. Most likely Wand Combat or some other skill that allowed him to pull off such moves. We harvested the cores after wiping out the monster bushes. Ozy was content to stay on my shoulder pauldron and watch.
While we were handling the monster cores, Lanner was focusing on recharging his wands. I had guessed it might be possible to use the monster cores, which were solidified Mana and charge his wands with them.
I had also warned him heavily that he shouldn't take any Mana from the monster cores into his body no matter what. Even if he was on the verge of death, doing something like that was worse than death.
The graphic details I had supplied him with about what could happen to people who took in external Mana made him clearly understand never to do such a thing. I also compared it to willingly inflicting general curse damage to your entire soul, affecting all your stats and skills.
With the warnings, he was working on trying to move the Mana from the monster cores into the wands. He had little success, but his Mana Manipulation was slowly improving. I had put him through specific training exercises. I didn't have all the equipment, but there were a lot of minor exercises I could set up easily with some thread and a loop of metal.
It might take him a few years, but if he could recharge his wands through the monster cores, then he would have a shot at going the distance. It would be a brutal method of combat. Since monster cores were quite small, one could go through them quickly to constantly unleash spell skills from a wand.
The skill needed was probably going to be tier 4. But if he focused on getting that skill over a couple of years and worked on related skills, he should get a skill that allowed him to move Mana from a monster core to a wand.
That would be his core skill until he reached the rank of legend, and then his path would end. There was no future in using wands as equipment. Getting higher-tier equipment would be too difficult, and then he would need to create unique runic structures for the wands.
At best, he could start a slow crafting movement once he returned to the gnomes, where they trained up to get that tier 4 skill and develop their wand combat at the same time. That would be the work of centuries. He had to get that skill first and become a legend before he would have a chance at realizing such a thing.
"Need to recharge."
I nodded as we made our way to the tunnel, leading towards the passage to the next layer. We would keep going down to the 11th layer slowly. Because he needed to recharge, he could not keep moving. Since this was the 6th layer, I wasn't concerned about handling threats while protecting him.
I figured it would be possible until we reached the 11th layer. Once we got that deep, we would need to take things one chamber at a time. But the high-level monsters would help Lanner level much more quickly, both his main level and his skills.
It wasn't precisely power leveling, but it was close. I wasn't guaranteeing his safety, but I was still responsible for him as the leader of this team. This differed from the last team, where none of us were in charge. Some people's opinions carried more weight, but no one was officially in charge since there wasn't a clear strength difference.
For Lanner and me, I was in charge, since there was a clear strength difference. I would never be part of a team that I wasn't in charge of unless there were special circumstances, like hunting down Xanatos or something similar.
"The Mana has gone up a bit more," I mumbled as I noted the walls of the dungeon were rougher and more cracked. It could be just a terrain change, but it was concerning.
I thought about going back, but I wanted to keep going down. I'd look in the next room, dispatch the creatures, and then choose. The dungeon changed constantly, so it made little difference in my mind.
"Watch your footing," I said since the floor had become uneven.
I was in front, sword in hand, with Lanner following. Had his wands been charged, he would have led the way to gain experience in finding traps.
We reached the next chamber. I frowned slightly. The monsters had more Mana, like the monsters of the 8th layer. They were just some kind of Humanoid Lizards. I took a few minutes to make a runic circle and vaporize a bunch of them right away.
After that I moved around, using my sword and Soul Strike, to kill them one by one. It was an easy battle.
My soul felt sore afterwards, sluggish in a way that was hard to describe. Like everything was slightly slower. Perhaps the skill affected my stats and skills. It wasn't this bad in the past, but these monsters had more Mana.
That was the problem. The monsters were becoming more powerful, and we weren't going down. The dungeon had rules, but I was concerned I was running into another exception.
Twice I had picked the tunnel towards the passage down, and the monsters had increased in strength. It's time to return immediately. I changed our course after collecting the Mana cores.
I didn't want to continue with Lanner, as he wasn't ready for tougher monsters. What if there was some super Abnormal waiting at the end of this route?
Better to avoid the entire thing.