Chapter 250 – Skeletal friends.

“That’s about it…”

Roland screwed in the last screw to the device he was assembling while Agni gave out a yawn. After clearing out the last of the monsters there wasn’t really much to do for him anymore. Even if they spent a week here the monsters wouldn’t respawn that fast. Thus the only thing he had to do was to sniff at the strange thing that was standing there.

“Be careful with that Agni.”

“Awoo?”

Agni moved his head sideways while looking at his owner. The thing that was standing here was on something that looked like an adjustable platform. At the rear side, there were two long support limbs that would keep it from sliding back. In the front, there was a really long cylindrical shape that made this object look like a massive gun.

This thing had the shape of a cannon but it lacked a hollowed-out bore. There was no inside chamber to house anything resembling a cannonball or bullets. There also weren’t any fuses to be lit but instead, it was connected to a side canister by thick cords. This canister was the actual fuel portion of this magical device that Roland was slowly filling up with the crystalized Elokin’s fluid.

The cannon had handles that he could hold with both his hands as well as a sight for aiming. It was a fully functional magical cannon that could cause a lot of damage but had a very limited aiming angle. It was made as a tool for farming monsters and used the naturally forming crystals here as fuel.

Roland had thought about ways of hastening his leveling process. It was possible to use his current armor to produce a strong enough blast to kill some of the lower-leveled tier 3 skeletons. It was a very inefficient way of going around it and also a fast way of damaging his expensive creation. Instead, he decided to create a bulky magical cannon from cheap materials. The thickness of it would counter the deterioration effect and he could just repair the runes by himself.

With the cannon now assembled all that was left was to open up the wall. After going through this part several times he was convinced that the monsters inside would not attack him. Even if they did they could not penetrate to the side of the dungeon he was residing in. Thus he could go ahead and create a large enough opening for the cannon to shoot through.

“It doesn’t seem to be getting thinner at least…”

Each time he visited this space he had made measurements. The area between the two dungeons didn’t seem to have moved at all. At first, he was concerned about the opening spilling into this dungeon but after further investigation, this didn’t seem possible. The dungeons had separate areas of effect, something was keeping the creatures from being able to leave them.

‘Could these dungeons really be some type of living organism made from magic?’

This was not the first time two separate dungeons came across each other. The main theory was that the creatures that came from one dungeon could not survive without the support of their dungeon’s mana. They would even be separated into levels by their dungeon as well.

‘Perhaps they require a certain mana signature to survive? That would explain why they can’t go out or even go to separate levels.’

This was only a theory that was somewhat faulty. If a higher level collapsed with a monster falling to a lower one they wouldn’t just die. He had even tested this out on one occasion while trying to find a shortcut to the lower levels.

‘What makes more sense is that the dungeon blocks its monsters from leaving in certain areas like passages between levels. There is probably some kind of barrier right before its region of effect ends as well.’

Yet that was only when the same dungeon was considered. It didn’t look like the monsters could break through this invisible barrier and travel into another dungeon at all. He couldn’t find any research on anything like this happening and his contact at the magical academy didn’t have any information on it either. It seemed that this was a very safe way of grinding and he was in no danger at all.

‘Even if a monster breaks through, it should not be able to survive in this environment, the mana in this area should be like poison to it or at least its reserves should run out and it would just die.’

After putting his worries to rest he moved the cannon closer. For the time being the opening to his grind spot was devoid of any monsters. He took this time to heft his weapon closer and aim it towards the middle. Luckily the dead-end corridor on the other side wasn’t very wide so his targets would not have that much space to dodge.

“Agni, whatever you do, don’t get close to that hole, just stay there for now.”

Roland pointed to the opening that he made. Agni was very interested in what was in there and would be able to venture forward. He would not be able to contend with the tier 3 undead monsters in there. It was a possibility that he would try intercepting one of them if they attempted to charge towards his cannon. He knew that they would be bounced back by the invisible barrier but Agni didn’t.

“Woof?”

“Yeah just stay there and look at what the golem for now…”

Finally after about ten minutes of waiting his first enemy appeared. It wasn’t a Skeleton Champion that usually showed up. Instead of the rattling knight, he saw something that was a head taller and much bulkier. Its bones were a lot thicker and it looked more like a gorilla than a human being.

‘So that’s how Armand looks under all those muscles?’

A little smile covered his face as he moved the monster into the cannon’s sight. He had a clean shot as the monster was just standing there and minding its own business. While holding onto this contraption he could integrate it into his own targeting system. Thanks to this he knew when to finally pull the trigger.

This weapon required quite a bit of time to charge. The canisters with the mana crystals started glowing as mana was transferred towards the runic structure. Various bright runes started appearing on the cannon’s shaft that continued to become brighter and brighter. At the end of it, a large ball of blue energy was forming, and with each passing second, it continued to grow until it reached the size of a football.

Finally, it was ready, a tiny jolt of his own mana was the only thing required to make this cannon roar. Agni that was on the side jumped up in fright as the beam of condensed mana drilled its way towards the Infernal Skeleton Berserker. It collided with the top part of its body and started spiraling out of control.

The monster was caught off guard, its bones started shattering after a moment as the beam of blue light exploded in the corridor. Roland was forced to brace himself for impact, even with the two large support limbs he needed to hold the cannon with his own two hands. If he did not the beam would push him back and probably burrow its way into the ceiling from how much firepower it possessed.

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The moment he noticed the system prompt he instantly cut the mana injection. The roaring beam of light slowly dispersed into the environment. Tiny sprites of mana that looked like tiny dots traced a path towards the hole in the wall that had been made slightly wider. The whole metallic frame was still flashing with glowing runes that continued to give out smoke.

“One shot, one kill huh? Not bad.”

After the smoke had cleared he glanced towards the opening to the other dungeon. There was not much left of the monster that he had defeated. Most of its upper body was blown away while the legs were pulled back into the wall behind it. The more astonishing part was that the walls behind his target didn’t seem to have taken that much damage.

The mana drill spell was created to achieve a lot of penetrative force by using drill-like movement. It didn’t drain that much mana and for this reason, could be overcharged to produce a very powerful hitting spell. Even then for some reason, it was not really able to produce much damage to the wall that was behind the monster. He could only see a small gash appearing there.

‘So that material is stronger than a tier 3 monster’s body? Would it be possible to get those stones over here?’

After noticing the resistance of those walls he wanted to bring them home. If he could create walls made of those materials then he wouldn’t need to worry about most intruders. The spell he created was able to one-shot a tier 3 monster but it was only able to produce a small scratch on the stone wall. There were some of those stone slabs on the ground along with some thinner tiles, the problem was getting them over to his side.