Chapter 1215 – Light

Lillian didn’t even move as the spear pierced toward her chest. It penetrated straight through, but found no flesh and blood. Instead, it merely faded into her body, only to erupt with the light of the moon a second later.

The high-tier C-grade dungeon boss recoiled from the attack as Lillian floated away like a ghost, reappearing a few dozen meters away. Magic circles appeared around her as beams of lucenti light shot toward the boss.

It unleashed a screech that dispelled her magic, but before it even had a chance to move, her party member struck. Phillip, the former head of the Fort before Jake claimed it, swept in from the side and struck the boss with a massive hammer of pure mana.

An explosion rocked the large cavern, sending the bipedal beast flying into a wall and scattering shards of rock everywhere. Seeing that Phillip had fully caught up after being occupied by the monsters that had accompanied the boss – a few dozen high-tier C-grade wolf monsters – Lillian took the chance to prepare a ritual spell.

While Lillian didn’t see her primary role in life as a combatant, she still hadn’t neglected her combat skills. This was perhaps in part due to the class Jake had given her, allowing Lillian to become a Lucenti Mage.

She knew that to Jake, giving her that tome was a casual decision he had made with little thought behind it, but to Lillian, it was an important gesture. What’s more, she found that the class suited her well. Compared to many other casters, lucenti mages were worse off when it came to offensive spells, but their defenses tended to be far greater. Moreover, unlike a barrier mage, who focused on resilience, Lillian instead invested in elusiveness, making her difficult to pin down in a fight.

Which is not to say she lacked offensive might; it just wasn’t something she could deal out on demand… because another aspect of lucenti magic was the communion with the power of moonlight and the rituals pertaining to such.

The lucenti school of magic was essentially moonlight magic. It had deep roots in mysticism and relied heavily on conceptual power rather than pure mana or spell-casting prowess. This also meant that the level of comprehension required to learn its rituals and improve as a lucenti mage was difficult, but luckily for Lillian, she had always been considered a smart woman, and what she didn’t have in smarts she made up for with hard work.

She prepared her ritual as Phillip battled the boss using his own magic. The middle-aged man had effectively retired by the time he reached peak E-grade, but the Trial of Myriad Paths system event had entirely changed his life.

After that event, Phillip was no longer the former leader of the Fort, but just a man walking his own Path. His class and profession had both changed, turning him into a mage focusing on alteration magic with a profession focused on enchanting. He combined both of these in combat as he focused on enhancing one thing more than anything else: himself.

Mana burned through his body as he attacked with the large hammer of mana, but the boss had managed to stabilize after initially being taken by surprise. It blocked his hammer with one clawed hand as it struck with the other, seeking to rip out the man’s throat.

However, sadly for it, the battle mage was not that easily taken out. As the claws approached his neck, they encountered a translucent set of mana armor, making them scrape across it with little effect, only succeeding in leaving marks that were rapidly mended with just a bit of mana. This granted Phillip another opening as he let go of his hammer and empowered his fist with mana as he punched the beast, sending it smashing back into the same cave wall as before.

Phillip tried to follow up, but the dungeon boss proved itself to be more than a mere punching bag. It suddenly exploded with power and dodged his attack before swiping at the alteration mage again, this blow far more powerful than the prior.

His armor was torn through, and the attack even managed to tear up his flesh despite the many spells Phillip had cast on his body to increase durability. Before he could even stabilize, the monster struck again, smashing the mage into the ground as it held him down and prepared to tear him apart.

Luckily for Phillip, Lillian had finished her ritual.

Wielding her staff, Lillian held it with both hands as she tapped it to the ground, activating the magic circle under her foot. The mana within lit up, making it look as if she stood upon a shining full moon.

Light enveloped the entire cavern next, with the most intense of it falling upon the werewolf-like dungeon boss monster. Its raised claw suddenly slowed down significantly as if something restrained the beast, making it unable to bring down its attack upon Phillip.

Taking full advantage, the alteration mage sprung up and kicked the boss in the stomach with both feet, sending it flying back. On his feet once more, Phillip focused and summoned two gauntlets of pure mana before charging forward again.

The boss didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest and was ready to clash with the mage, but when it tried to move, it was once more slowed down and drained of energy. This allowed Phillip to land several solid blows, dealing some serious damage before the boss recognized that fighting him while ignoring Lillian was a bad move.

Lillian, for her part, focused on the ritual as it wasn’t easy to keep active, as the boss wasn’t weak in the slightest. Moreover, she was exposed as she stood on the shining full moon beneath her, unable to move away unless she was willing to abandon the ritual.

Unsurprisingly, the C-grade boss relatively quickly realized this and switched its target. Phillip also seemed to have done enough damage to activate a kind of berserker skill as the werewolf-like monster’s hide turned red and its power jumped up a notch.

This allowed it to swipe Phillip away before rushing towards Lillian. Phillip desperately tried to stop it, but failed as the monsters closed in. Lillian tried to intensify the restraining ritual, but the boss proved too strong as it was soon upon her…

Just as planned.

The monster entered the magic circle and swiped for Lillian as her body once more turned to moonlight and shot backwards. At the same time, the light of the new moon erupted from below as the second function of the ritual was revealed.

A massive beam of pure moonlight exploded upwards, creating a pillar of destructive light that burned the screeching boss. Moreover, some elements of the restraining spell remained, making it difficult for the monster to escape.

Even so, it struggled forward as its energy intensified, its berserking skill growing stronger with each passing moment. However, just as it managed to get out of the pillar of moonlight, a transparent wall of pure space mana slammed into it, sending it stumbling back into the destructive light.

Before it had a chance to escape again, barriers of space mana surrounded the entire magic circle, trapping the boss within the ritual of moonlit destruction. Still having to maintain the ritual circle, Lillian popped a quick potion as she continued to fuel it with mana.

“Sorry, I was late; that howl seemed to have summoned even more wolves,” a third voice joined them as yet another mage had made his appearance. Neil had teleported over right as he got the opportunity and came in clutch with the assist.

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Phillip also caught up by now and stood ready in case the boss got out of the trap as he asked the space mage: “How about the two others?”

“Handling the rest of the wolves,” he answered. Their two final party members today were two relatively unknown yet high-level citizens of Haven whom Miranda, and thus Lillian, trusted.

They had done a dungeon prior with William and also one with Maria, but both of them were too powerful and didn’t allow the others to get any proper experience or to contribute to fights.

Phillip nodded and looked toward the werewolf monster again. “Does the ritual have enough… Ah, it seems my question already got its answer.”

Before he was even done asking, the dungeon boss monster collapsed within the ritual circle, most of its body burned to a crisp by the searing moonlight. With the notification received, Lillian quickly dispelled the entire ritual circle to try to preserve what little mana she had left.

After the moonlight faded and the crispy form of the boss was revealed, Neil let out an uncomfortable chuckle. “I thought you talked about lucenti mages lacking offensive prowess?”

Lillian looked at the space mage and smiled. “I do also recall adding the caveat that’s only the case if I don’t have time to properly set up.”

“True,” the space mage nodded, also looking up and seeing the massive hole the ritual circle had burned in the cavern’s ceiling. “Yet I still feel like I’m developing a progressively less irrational fear of moonlight the more time I spend with you.”

“Just don’t get on my bad side,” Lillian joked, enjoying spending time with both Neil and Phillip as both had also been colleagues of hers in less combat-focused situations. “And I do think that for now, we should go help the others finish off the rest of the wolves.”

“I don’t think we need to,” Neil shrugged as he turned toward the direction where they were, peering across space. “They’re doing well, and the wolves seem to have grown weaker.”

“In other words, we should go find the loot,” Phillip chuckled.

“May as well,” Neil agreed with the sentiment.

Lillian just sighed and agreed as the three of them “secured” the dungeon loot while their final two members continued to fight a dozen wolves.

“What would My Lady like?” the dark elf waiter asked the high elven-looking woman who sat alone at her table.

She studied the menu for a moment before finally deciding. “I think I’ll have today’s fish.”

“A great choice,” the waiter said with a polite bow. “My colleague shall be by with your wine shortly.”