Chapter 3 – An Idea That Needed Testing

Seris made a complex gesture with her wand without another word. She looked too afraid even to talk again.

White mana vapor trails burst from the icy blue stone at the tip of her wand. The pattern that she drew with the vapor trails mid-air with her wand expanded into a dome around them. She continued casting a second spell inside the dome afterwards, which turned the vapor trails into threads that wove a transparent blue layer.

She had combined a conceal-type spell, which was neither an attack nor a defense, with a shielding spell beneath it. The first layer got rid of any trace of their existence, and the second one was just in case.

“This should be enough for now,” Fominel said in a hushed voice, his eyes still set on the looming Dreagan through the trees.

“I still have no idea what they are,” Darya whispered.

“You’ve forgotten too much, princess!” Fominel sighed. “Dreagans have been plaguing Vainfall for centuries. We set out to fend them off before they reached Karossa.”

“What do they do?” Darya asked.

“They take people, swallow them whole, strip them to ribbons inside. The corpses are remade as Shadows that do what the Dreagans want. They’ll kill you just enough for the Dreagan to swallow you.”

Darya narrowed her eyes. She was concerned this was the endgame, but it didn’t seem that way. In version six, the apocalypse was far more straightforward and cinematic. It was called Endworld.

Teleporting necro balls harassing populations for centuries is not exactly an apocalyptic event.

It was undeniably interesting as a mechanic.

This sounded like a routine task if people had to set off on expeditions to fend off Dreagans from approaching their lands. She thought about why she woke up splattered on the ground in a cave.

Something unexpected had happened in the last encounter.

“I’m guessing we met a Shadow here that we didn’t expect?”

“Of course, we met the most unexpected one,” Fominel said, rolling his lips. “It was Sarka.”

Darya blinked, pointing a finger at her head to indicate the lack of memories. “And who’s that supposed to be?”

Fominel rubbed his nose bridge. “Apologies, I need to get used to this, princess,” he said with a sigh. “Sarka is an archmage supreme who went missing a hundred and twenty years ago.”

“Turns out he’s been swallowed by the least impressive dark sphere somehow. Imagine our luck, princess! We picked the smaller one first because we thought it was the easiest!” Seris said.

“Bad luck indeed,” Darya muttered, looking ahead. She had already gotten a lot of actionable information from these two, but there was still more she needed to know.

“Seris said it took you a while to cut the sphere open, why?” she asked, turning to Fominel.

“A Dreagan has a mana-enforced outer shell, princess,” he replied, clutching his Manablades.

“That’s what they use most of their mana for,” Seris added eagerly. “Makes them really hard to kill.”

Darya had guessed as much. The collapsed inner bits of the sphere that she saw in the cave looked soft and brittle. The blackened outer shell looked thin, like a paint layer over a meatball.

“You’ve fought them before. What do you think about that one?” She asked, pointing at the ominous ball approaching them. It was hopping in straight line dashes across the waves.

“I’d say about four thousand mana based on the size,” Fominel said, staring at it warily. “Seris can tell you more about health, but I think the number will be about four thousand as well.”

Darya turned to Seris.

“Combined with that shell, the effective health would be fifty-four thousand, I’d say,” Seris said.

“That high?!” Darya exclaimed.

“It doesn’t matter if you can break the shell. Dreagans go down real fast when they start bleeding.”

“I see, so they’re weak against bleeding?” Darya asked.

“Oh, they bleed rivers if you manage to crack the shell. That’s the hard part, because they’re dangerous to get near. If you get hit by something that big that hops around that fast, you’re dead even with shielding,” Fominel said.

The Dreagan darted in their direction as Fominel finished his sentence.

“It’s here!” he said in a hushed whisper.

The waves parted as it approached in a dash. It was close enough to properly comprehend the size now. Darya estimated the sphere to be at least thirty meters in diameter.

The fact that it was hopping around was an understatement. It was fluctuating like mad, displacing air around it in shockwaves. Magic aside, just standing on two feet before it would require good constitution and movement skills.

Darya had a few ideas on how she would’ve fought this if she were an Archdemon. She didn’t even need to check her Skills screen to see what she had. Her Warblade staff was enough evidence that she wasn’t built to be a frontliner.

She had another idea.

A dangerous idea.

[Inspect]

She used the command as the Dreagan slowly approached the treeline. It was rotating sporadically like an eyeball.

Creature: Black Dreagan
Kind: Magical
Level: 135
HP: 4,324/4,324
MP 4,312/4,312
SP 99/121

Fominel’s estimations have been correct. Effective health was up for interpretation. The system wasn’t doing that calculation for her. She could see why Dreagans were a problem. They were much tougher than what Inspect showed.

Seris must really know what she’s talking about.

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The Dreagan didn’t find anything in their last known location on the beach. It circled the area for a bit, combing the whole forest from above.

“It might drop a Shadow here, if they can smell us,” Seris whispered shakily.

Darya already knew why she was scared. The Dreagan could leave after dropping a shadow, but they would have to fight it when their limited protection runs out. As soon as they make contact, the Dreagan would return to swallow them.

“Hmm, in that case, this is a trap,” Darya said, looking at her spells again.

[Spells 25/25]

Spell: Seven Petal Spear
Grade: 35
Rarity: Uncommon
Axes: Un(163)
Mana: 163M
ATK/s: 326
Shaper: Line
Duration: 2s
Status Effects: Burning
Shoot a ray of fire that splits into seven and flares outwards on impact.

Spell: Blast Weaver
Grade: 58
Rarity: Rare
Axes: Lo(20) Ae(112) Un(161)
Mana: 293M
ATK: 1,758
Shaper: Touch
Duration: Instant
Status Effects: Bleed, Burning
Release a cluster of powerful explosions that subdivides and deals damage over three seconds. The explosive sparks can ricochet off surfaces.

Spell: Comet of Volaria
Grade: 67
Rarity: Rare
Axes: Un(257) Ri(257)
Mana: 514M
ATK: 2,313
Shaper: Bolt
Duration: Instant
Status Effects: Burning, Knockdown
Fire a high-speed Mana-infused projectile along a ballistic path that deals heavy damage to the designated target.

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