The Elemental Relics

Ali laid down on the ground as soon as he and Kamis arrived at the safe base of the third stage. After his wind blast reached level 4, the rest of the second stage felt like a grind. Minotaurs, in groups of two, three or four, kept harassing them. While the minotaurs posed no real threat, the combat ate up valuable time he and Kamis could be using to figure out the third stage. Exhausted, Ali relaxed as he stared up at the stars. While the stars weren’t the ones he was familiar with, they still reminded him of the village he left behind. The teenager then checked his prompt to be updated on the small gains he gained.

Level 4 wind blast now has 1.6 meters radius and booster relic debuff duration is 30 minutes. Slow and steady, I guess.

When he turned his head, the teenager could see Kamis toiling away at the chest assigned to their group. He reluctantly got up to join his companion.

“What can I help with?”

“Don’t bother,” said Kamis as he easily took out food and torches. “Take a rest while you still can. We may not get a breather once we engage the creatures here.”

“How strong are those creatures?”

“I can only take twenty hits from the Cyclops before I get knocked out.”

Twenty? Cyclops? Depending on how much HP and defense they possess, we might be able to take them out.

“Do they travel in groups like the minotaurs?”

“I…I don’t know. I faced one and it was too much.”

Let’s hope we only encounter one cyclops then.

Ali followed Kamis’ suggestion and took a short nap. When he was woken up, he called for Tian as they took their first step into the third stage. Only Ali held a torch because Kamis couldn’t do so when he needed both of his hands to brace his shield against incoming attacks. It didn’t take long for them to hear a roar nearby. A cyclops, easily towering over both of them, brought its club down at Kamis who braced for the attack. The club was stopped dead in its tracks by the shield.

Tian, let’s focus our attacks at the cyclops.

Doing just as they practiced in the summoner realm, Ali and Tian attacked at the same time, thus combining their damage together. After landing their first combination attack, Ali studied the cyclops to see it unfazed.

Again!

The two of them kept attacking until, on their seventh attack, they brought the cyclops down. As soon as the cyclops collapsed, Kamis fell onto his knees. Ali quickly ran over.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I just need time to get my HP regen to kick in.”

While Kamis was recovering, Ali looked around, searching for any signs of the cyclops that wanted a piece of them. He might have stood behind the bulky teenager but he felt the impact of each club from where he stood. He couldn’t imagine himself taking one of those hits without losing consciousness.

Kamis is the reason I even got this far.

Once Kamis stood up, Ali found the courage to ask the bulky teenager about his defensive ability. He thought Kamis would be hesitant to share but his companion was very open. Kamis had a defensive ability that boasted much higher defense than defensive abilities of the same level. The downside was that the defense scaled with his HP so, as soon as he lost HP, his defense would drop as well. Therefore, he was the strongest at the start and, the longer a battle had dragged on, the weaker he would become until his defensive ability offered very little in defense.

Interesting! When fighting with Kamis, Tian and I must end things quickly then or we would be at a big disadvantage.

The duo continued down the path when roars caught their attention. Two large shadows materialized from the darkness before the cyclops were close enough to be illuminated by Ali’s torch.

Curses! We must avoid both of them focusing on Kamis.

Kamis took the frontline position but, unlike the earlier fight, Ali and Tian were already focusing on one of the cyclops with their attacks. While the air serpent distracted one of the cyclops, the other cyclops was engaged with Kamis. Tian took two big hits from the cyclops but he and Ali continued their attacks with no interruption. Unlike the cyclops who needed to take big swings to land hits, Ali and Tian could attack much faster, allowing them to land seven hits shortly after the cyclops landed its third hit.

Are you okay, Tian?

While the air serpent reassured Ali that it was fine, Ali still checked the prompt briefly to be certain.

<

{

Creature: Air Serpent

Level: 4

HP: 5/16

MP: 0/0

Strength: 6

Constitution: 5

Intelligence: 5

Survival: 10

Wisdom: 6

Attack Type: Blade (Melee)

Damage: 6

Defense Type: Arcane

Defense: 3

}

>

Even with 3 defenses, Tian can take at most four or five hits…

Ali turned to Kamis who was holding his own against the lone cyclops.

And he can take twenty hits? I wonder who the monster is here.

Ali and his air serpent then quickly dispatched the cyclops. As he approached Kamis, he immediately noticed a big goofy grin. He asked the bulky teenager what was up.

“My defensive ability leveled up to level 5! I got an ability boost! I no longer fear the cyclops as much!”

“Ability boost?”

Kamis went on to explain that, when abilities reached a level that was a multiple of five, they gained something called an ability boost. Upon gaining such a boost, the individual got to choose between two options that would make their abilities stronger. This was different from the normal improvement like higher attack, higher defense and larger radius that came with leveling up an ability.

“What was your ability boost?” asked Ali who needed a more concrete idea of what boosts were out there.

“My defensive ability can negate up to 5 damage an opponent gains through their boost.”

That's pretty good...I wonder what boost my air slash has. I hope it will be useful!