Chapter 43: Conquering the Water Palace II
After Nox slayed his first Voltimeria, he realized that he needs to adjust some things about his magic and curses to reliably defeat those monsters without resorting to finite resources like his Blood Pool.
Sanguinare Vampiris was one of Nox's trump cards and not something he liked to casually use. If push came to shove, he would not hesitate but, if his other abilities could be further optimized, than that would obviously be best.
For that purpose, he returned to the safehouse he established in a safe area in the Water Palace and, after greeting Marie that was resting inside as well, he went to his own room and sat down in meditation.
Nox efforts in attempting to observe and analyze various magics, curses and skills to develop his own had not stopped at all and he did manage to get a few new ones. The problem that plagued him however, were his limited magic and curse slots.
To mitigate this problem, he had designed his most powerful spells and curses in a way that he only had to use them once to permanently receive their effects. Just like the Dragon Aspect spell that resulting in a change to his Archon Skill and the Sanguinare Vampiris curse.
By using the Kokonoe spell he had acquired along with his Arcana Ring, Nox had been working hard in developing a spell that would fix the problem but it was by far his biggest magical undertaking yet so the progress was slow. Until then, he had to make do though.
This would be done by refining his spells and curses to make the most of his slots and always endeavour to choose the appropriate ones for every battlefield.
'Alright then . . . Let's tweak Invictus a bit. Although it's a great spell and always occupies one of my slots due to its power and versatility, as my skill with magic improves, I can further improve it.'
Thinking this, Nox set about making a very small but significant change to Invictus. That was to simply give him greater control of the storm of magical energy that surrounded him during its use. This would allow for much more flexible attacks without relying on extra spells.
And since Nox's Invictus was the very thing that allowed him to be so successful in the Water Palace's environment to the point that being underwater was almost an advantage, this upgrade would be very significant indeed.
Not just for the increase in attacking and defensive methods but also due to the fact that a lot of his other spells could not be effectively used underwater.
As a side note, he also reworked it to better integrate all the draconic power from his improved Archon skill since he was wondering how big of a difference would it make.
Other than this, Nox had two more items on his immediate agenda. One was to tweak his Berserker spell that he was not overly fond of using since its boost did not justify the loss of tactical thinking and cool minded planning.
The other, was to create a few water spells, specific for use in the Water Palace. Even though so far he had made do with not specialized spells, it was time to develop some.
Nox's reason for not doing it so far was that he hadn't felt a true need for them and the fact that they would mostly be useful, only in a water based environment that was not all that common if the dungeon, at least in a performance affecting way.
The first might take some time and ultimately is not that urgent of a matter of Nox temporarily put it aside. Since the Water palace was his main battlefield until he beat its Monster Rex, the Amphisbaena, and reached Level 3, water magic was definitely his best bet.
The next day, Nox left the safehouse and went to look for a second Voltimeria to test out his new moves. Underwater and with the boost of his Invictus Undine, water magic would receive a colossal boost so he was looking forward to the results.
A little while later, he was facing one of the fish once more. Along the way, he tested out a new application of Invictus on a Kelpie and was pleasantly surprised. Combined, the two changes he made to Invictus resulted in a qualitative change that greatly increased its power.
Face to face with the Voltimeria with sword in hand, Nx waited for it to charge which, since his opponent was a mindless monster, was not long at all.
But, rather than use his superb underwater movement to dodge to the side as he had previously done, Nox made a different move.
Holding out his left hand in front of him. The spirit water based magical energy of his Invictus Undine started morphing in shape, adopting the form of a big dragon head with an open mouth, full of serrated teeth made of pressurized water, right in front of him.
Undeterred, the Voltimeria fearlessly charged ahead like a raging bull but, just as it was about to collide with the dragon head, it suddenly became bigger and as the fish monster partially entered its mouth, Nox clenched his fist, causing the dragon head's jaws to close with a snap.
The force from th Voltimeria's charge caused Nox to be pushed back several meters but was unable to hurt him as the fish monster was completely stopped in its tracks.
When Nox used this move on a charging Kelping, it immediately tore its body in half but alas, the Voltimeria's scales that troubled Nox in his previous fight managed to save it from harm.
Although the force of the bite hurt the monster, it didn't damage it significantly and it was still very lively, thrashing about it an attempt to escape the jaws of the dragon head.
'Time to finish this!' Nox thought as he unleashed one of his new spells straight from the dragon head's mouth.
Aqua Slicer: Stream of pressurized water capable of slicing through any physical obstruction. Water from the environment can be used to increase its power. Power drastically increases when underwater.
And so, with a final cry of pain and anguish, the Voltimeria was violently torn apart by the water magic.
'Hmm . . . This battle was sweet and short. Although the Mind expenditure would have been very daunting for a common mage, it was well within reason for me so I can't complain.'
'Still, I want to try out other methods and my other water magic spells so let's look for more targets.' Thinking this, Nox went back to the hunt as his Spirit Pulse scanned the surroundings.
This time he was lucky and managed to find another Voltimeria quite quickly and, without even waiting for it to charge, Nox immediately used the Aqua Slicer magic to attack it.
With the element of surprise, he was able to hit his target dead center, unfortunately, under the situation that his target was far away and not restrained, not only was the power weakened but, by moving just enough, a good portion of the magic's power was deflected.
Even so, a large gash was made on the side of the monster which infuriated it.
Filled with unbridled rage, the Voltimeria charged at Nox and, seeing this as an opportunity, he unleashed another of his spells.
Aqua Lash: Creates one or more whips of pressurized water capable of lashing, striking, tearing and restraining opponents. Water from the environment can be used to increase its power. Power drastically increases when underwater.
This spell had weaker cutting power than the Aqua Slicer but the impacts of the water whips knocked the Volimeria of course and injured the flesh underneath its hard scales.
By virtue of this spell alone, Nox could bully the fish monster to death, slowly beating the life out of it but since his purpose today was the testing of his new water magic spells, he would not finish it in such a manner.
Using Aqua Lash to restrain the Voltimeria, Nox used another of his new spells, the third and last one he had created.
Aqua Bolt: Divided into Aqua Gun, Aqua Cannon, Aqua Missile, Aqua Mortar and Aqua Decimator. Respectively, they are a small pressurized water bullet with high penetration and firing rate, a powerful single shot projectile with an area of effect blast, multiple fast moving projectiles with area of effect blasts, a slow moving big projectile with a large area of effect blast and an area suppression attack capable of laying waste to a huge area with utter indiscrimination.
This spell was the evolution of his Bolt and Missile type spells that went out of use with his Invictus that allowed him to do the same thing.
However, this new and improved version was far more powerful and beyond what he could reproduce with a "mere" Invictus. This however was only for water magic at the moment but Nox had plans to expand this to other elements as well.
Since he was not going for overkill, he used the penetrative Aqua Gun on the restricted Voltimeria to riddle it with hole bringing the battle to a quick end.
'Hmm . . . After a bit more hunting just to get completely used to the new spells, I'll got get my status updated to the peak of Level 2 and then I'll kill the Amphisbaena for my level up . . .'
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