The Elemental Relics

Ali and Kamis planned on finishing their meal before they attempted to reach the third stage. Prior to eating, Kamis already explained that their group, following their good performance for the morning run, wasn’t hard pressed to do well in the hell grind. While it would be nice to have a bigger buffer from last place, they benefited far more through improving their abilities until they were ready for the next stage. Thus far, Ali got both his air slash ability and air serpent ability to level 4.

“How about Svenne and Umaru?” asked Ali.

The teenager was worried that those two weren’t getting the practice they needed, thus leaving them further and further behind. Kamis reassured him that, once the two of them could reliably clear the third stage, the other two would join them. They would have plenty of more opportunities on the hell grind for the rest of the month. For the time being, those two were just gathering supplies for the day they could take on the final stage.

“Let me check a few things before we head to the safe base of the third stage.”

Ali first checked his air slash ability which had stopped leveling up, indicating that the minotaurs were lower levels than the ability.

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[

Ability: Air Slash

Level: 4 ( 1 / 68 XP to Level Up)

Level Up Requirements: Inflict damage or kill foes of equal or higher level

Type: Attacking (Blade)

Description:

A blade forms in a hand and is released where the hand is aiming.

Cost: 2 MP per use

Cooldown: None

Damage: 4 (+2)

]

>

By making progress on his air slash ability, Ali was pleasantly surprised to see his booster relic also leveling up. The level up might have only doubled the debuff duration but, once they do face tougher enemies, the extra duration could come in handy.

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Relic: Booster

Type: Support

Subtype: Debuff

Tier: A

Level: 2 ( 19 / 38 XP to Level Up)

Cost (no Elemental Relic): -1 HP per minute whenever stat boost is used

Cost (with Elemental Relic): None

Stat Boost (no Elemental Relic): +3 Strength, +3 Constitution, +3 Intelligence, +3 Survival, +3 Wisdom

Enhancement (with Elemental Relic): Enemies hit by abilities will suffer -2 Strength for 20 minutes.

>

To obtain additional offense, Ali summoned Tian which lowered his MP regen. Given the increasing MP costs for his abilities like Air Slash, management of his MP would eventually be a problem. Ali didn’t look forward to the day when he had to be more picky about what abilities he chose to use. Even the air serpent ability was becoming more and more unreasonable over time with the MP per min cost rivaling the mana cost of a single air slash.

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[

Ability: Air Serpent

Level: 4 ( 0 / 68 XP to Level Up)

Level Up Requirements: Inflict damage or kill foes of equal or higher level using the air serpent.

Type: Support (Summoning)

Description:

Summon an air serpent to do battle with the enemy. Creature’s level matches the ability level. Only one creature can be summoned at one time. The air serpent stays around until it is unsummoned or the summoner can no longer pay the cost.

{

Creature: Air Serpent

Level: 4

HP: 16/16

MP: 0/0

Strength: 6

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 5

Survival: 10

Wisdom: 6

Attack Type: Blade (Melee)

Damage: 6

Defense Type: Arcane

Defense: 3

}

Cost: 4 MP per use and 2 MP/min while the air serpent is summoned.

Cooldown: None

]

>

Due to time limitations, Ali didn’t have a chance to use either of his new abilities. The serpent wings ability wasn’t particularly useful when Tian could attack the minotaurs with impunity like him. The wind blast ability, with its higher upfront cost of 3 MP, wasn’t viable when he wanted to first max out his air slash. Now that air slash was maxed until the next stage, Ali could afford to try out his new ability, though the one meter radius was very small.

“Kamis,” said Ali as the duo exited the safe base. “I have an aoe ability I need to level up but it only has a 1 meter radius.”

The bulky teenager stated that he understood and would try to get the minotaurs as close as possible. It didn’t take long for them to encounter three minotaurs who charged Kamis as soon as they saw him. While they hacked away at Kamis’ shield, Ali used his ability for the first time, pleasantly surprised to see the ability gaining XP for each target hit. Therefore, he got 3 XP per wind blast until the minotaurs were defeated after 15 hits. Disappointingly, the level up only increased the radium from 1 meter to 1.2 meter and did nothing to increase the damage. Yet, even Ali understood that the ability could level up very quickly so there had to be some downsides to it.

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[

Ability: Wind Blast

Level: 2 ( 25 / 38 XP to Level Up)

Level Up Requirements: Inflict damage or kill foes of equal or higher level

Type: Attacking (Blunt)

Description:

A ball of air forms in a hand and is released where the hand is aiming. Upon making contact with a physical object, the ball explodes and the resulting shockwave inflicts damage to all enemies within 1.2 meters.

Cost: 3 MP per use

Cooldown: 1 minute

Damage: 1 (+2)

]

>

Doesn't this mean that points in strength can make the ability more potent, especially once I get more blast radius from leveling it?

With the conclusion of the combat, the duo waited until Ali’s MP was max again. Out of combat, his 5 MP/min was pretty quick in replenish his pitiful 12 MP pool. They then encountered another group of three minotaurs which they dispatched with ease. The next level of wind blast only increased its radius to a measly 1.4 meters. Luckily, his booster relic also leveled up and now had a -3 Strength debuff, an increase from just -2.

Even two minotaurs will be sufficient to get wind blast to level 4, though another 0.2 meters radius increase isn’t that impressive. At least we can proceed to the next stage afterwards.