Dealing with the other waves of Frost Imps had been easy, but soon the explosions began to take pce once the Frost Sentinels arrived in the area. I could tell that they were being killed left and right, but this was kind of scary.

  You received 90 experience points.

  You received 90 experience points.

  You received 90 experience points.

  The skill Arcane Trap reached level ten. You received 1000 experience points.

  You have learned a new skill in the Arcane Archer css.

  Elemental Convergence (Lv 35)

  Fire an arrow that combines multiple elemental effects, causing a chain reaction upon impact. The target suffers fire, frost, and lightning damage simultaneously, with each element having a chance to apply its respective status effect. Cost: 120 Mana.

  The area was shaking with the endless explosions, and since that didn’t stop, it meant that the monsters were still coming. A full section filled with the Frost Sentinels… that was kind of exciting as well.

  ‘I guess I will increase my magic… and deal with them with Mystical Barrage. It has been a while since I increased my dexterity despite having its biggest multiplier.’

  Dexterity was useful in dungeons and byrinths, but it was mainly something to hit a target from a distance or to deal with very close range battles. I didn’t have to do it either here. Unless…

  “Hey, can you give me some tips on how to fight while dual wielding?”

  “You dual wield as well?”

  “Well, I can’t say that I am particurly good at it.”

  “I can’t teach you anything in a short window of time that will actually make a difference.”

  It couldn’t be helped… making a lot of progress in such a complex fighting style was just unrealistic. I had been postponing training in that style, but it seemed that I would have to force myself.

  “You can make a lot of progress fast if you spar with me every day.”

  “You still didn’t give up, huh?”

  “I am just trying to solve several problems at once in a way that benefits us both. At the same time, Nimira should also be pretty good at dual wielding.”

  Now that he mentioned, she learned how to fight with knives quite fast, probably because it was her natural way to use her hands to attack when she transformed… in any case, I should just close my ears when he starts to talk about Nimir, now I am calling him she as well…

  I stopped thinking about that when I noticed the approach of the Frost Imp boss. The creature was even taller than us, and also quite muscur, so it was a monster that didn’t have the weaknesses of the ordinary frost imps.

  While it was grinning, it pointed its hands at me and then fired a barrage of ice spears. I stopped the projectiles with a barrage of arrows and the smile of the beast soon disappeared. I showed a wicked smiled on my face instead that annoyed the monster quite a bit.

  “Sorry, but we don’t have time to let you enjoy the fight.”

  Huh?”

  While I was making fun of the monster, Roswald disappeared and then reappeared behind the Frost Imp… he could use Shadow Step, too. Before the monster could react, he stabbed its nape and paralyzed the beast completely.

  Still, that wasn’t enough to finish off. So, he eventually stabbed the neck of the monster from the sides a couple of times. He finally showed some of his skills…

  You received 2500 experience points.

  ‘I can understand why he doesn’t show his skills that much. They are indeed deadly. It makes even me feel like I should be cautious around him. Even though I also focus on practicality when it comes to fighting.’

  While I was thinking about that, I noticed that the explosions stopped happening. The enemies were getting closer, and I had to hurry up with the next pn. For starters, I decided to use the experience accumuted that almost reached the one hundred thousand mark… I got ready to increase my magic, but I changed my mind at the st moment and then increased my strength.

  ‘This will make things way more interesting.’

  “They are here.”

  The explosions stopped as an eerie silence spread across the byrinth. Roswald’s head tilted slightly, his senses picking up the faint thud of heavy steps approaching. The rhythmic pounding grew more clear…

  His grip tightened as he surveyed the surroundings. Massive figures emerged from the corridor in the distance, each Sentinel towering over the battlefield with ice-encrusted armor and glowing blue eyes that radiated their intentions.

  As soon as the monsters arrived, I bombarded them with iron arrows. The beasts were fast enough to raise their swords and then block the attacks, but each impact pushed them backward for several meters and even cracked their weapons.

  Roswald frowned when he saw that, but soon he noticed that I was using Hunter’s rage. Things got even more interesting when I used Adrenaline Surge… the arrows pierced through the weapons of the monsters and they pierced through their bodies as well.

  ‘Hehehe, this is more like it…’

  It made me recall old games where I pyed with archers and with the right build. The characters looked like a machine gun of arrows. My arm blurred thanks to the continuous shots, but I felt that I could do more than this. I used Berserker than well, and things sure got a lot more fun.

  My shots made chunks of the bodies of the enemies fly in all directions and even though the beasts tried to use the bodies as shields and their swords as well, the arrows pierced through all that with no worried… hundreds of Frost Sentinels couldn’t move a single inch thanks to my combo.

  Roswald watched, amazed as the monsters were decimated. The next waves would be a lot bigger, but he had confidence that I could do the same… until he looked at me and then saw my right hand completely covered in blood.

  “I guess my endurance is really low.”

  I had lost around ten percent of my health, but it was no surprise given that I had used three skills that were supposed to make a person push their bodies behind their limits. Even though I only moved my arms, it obviously would cause a lot of damage.

  “Doesn’t that hurt?”

  “It stings a bit, but it will heal soon. I guess I should learn Health Drain next time.”

  “Why don’t you use that skill that you used on me to restore your health?”

  “I don’t want to reveal all my secrets to you.”

  The truth of the matter was that I couldn’t… I increased my strength so that ordinary attacks would cause more damage and drain more mana and stamina, but not all arrows could do that thanks to the enemy’s defenses. I was also summoning arcane traps around us to buy time in case we needed to escape.

  “Well, this much is fine. I just have to increase my endurance and health regeneration a bit, and that will be enough to counter those effects.”

  The sharp pangs coursing through my arm were troublesome. Each slight movement was a reminder of the strain I was putting on myself. But amidst the discomfort, I discovered something unexpectedly satisfying, a new way to attack that felt instinctively right.

  The pain became secondary, almost an afterthought, as I focused on the excitement of refining my technique. I told myself that it was fine… As long as those skills kept leveling up, the progress would make it worth enduring a little pain. The satisfaction of watching my abilities grow outweighed the momentary pain, and I knew this was just another step in pushing past my limits.

  I turned around and then pretended to cover my hand in bandages, but I actually grabbed some bolts and used them to create some decay bolts. I managed to make five of those, so quite a bit of blood was lost… around 250 milliliter.

  In any case, soon we began to feel the ground shaking and could tell that more enemies had arrived. I had increased my endurance a bit, so I was expecting that I would be able to fare a bit better, but given how much the ground was shaking, the number of enemies was truly insane.

  ‘It seems that more than one group of them are here… I guess I don’t have a choice but to use Dreadful Enchantment to recover some health.’

  I had already recovered half of it just with the passage of time, but it wasn’t enough. Regardless, I forgot about those issues and then activated those skills and soon felt free of worries.

  I stopped using Arcane Trap and used Dreadful Enchanter to heal myself. Because this current fighting style caused me too much damage when combined with all my crazy buffs. At first, I thought increasing my endurance would help, but I quickly realized it wasn’t the answer. Endurance is great for dealing with damage caused by others, but it doesn’t do much when the damage is self-inflicted, when I’m the one pushing my body beyond its limits.

  That’s when I started considering Elemental Convergence. It just made sense. Instead of trying to brute-force my way through the pain or rely on endurance to hold me together, I needed something that could stabilize and channel my power more efficiently. If I could harmonize my buffs instead of overwhelming myself with them, I might be able to push even further without breaking down. It felt like a smarter way forward, less reckless, more precise.

  ‘It isn’t fun… wait, I am getting addicted to this feeling.’

  WritingMachineGun