Chapter 143: Scouting Task.
In the dark tunnel, Evan led the team as he lit up a light artifact which brightened their surroundings.
He glanced behind him to check on the others and gave them a suggestion.
"You guys aren't familiar with each other, right? So why don't you all introduce yourselves? We'll be able to cooperate well then. Tell your name, rank and profession. These three details are enough."
Nobody rejected the suggestion, and starting from the person standing right behind Evan, everyone started introducing themselves.
"I'm Leon Maurice, a Swordsman Warrior at Early Rank 2.", after him a few other people too introduced themselves until it was the purple-haired girl's turn.
"Selena Astralyn, I'm a Dual-type fighter at Late Rank 2. My main attribute element is metal.", she introduced calmly while gripping the broadsword at her waist.
When Felix heard her words, he became astonished at everything she mentioned.
'Both a Warrior and a Mage? At the Late Rank 2 stage? How is she so powerful....Isn't she around my age? Also metal is a rare attribute!'
He, Roven and the other members from the Twilight Chaos who hadn't heard of her before were surprised at her information.
The people from Mystic Society, on the other hand, had a proud and respectful face.
From what Felix had read in the Forbidden Library, there were five basic elements which were the easiest to manipulate, Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Thunder.
The five rare elements on the other hand were Dark, Light, Soul, Space and Time, and not many people had the talent to manipulate them.
Then came the sub-elements like Metal, Poison, Wood etc, but they were mostly derived from the basic elements and seen very rarely to be used.
Hearing that the girl Selena was talented in manipulating a rare element while also being at the Rank 2 stage, Felix couldn't help but whisper to Roven.
"Hey, who's that girl? Isn't she too strong for her age?"
Roven nodded as he replied.
"I'm not too sure, but if her last name is Astralyn. Then that can mean only one thing."
"And what does that mean?", Felix didn't know what that name meant.
"It means that she's the daughter of Rhodes Astralyn, the Guild Leader of Mystic Society."
Felix widened his eyes in surprise at the information.
'So she's a big shot!? Damn! Them kids with the silver spoons always get a better start than others....', shaking his head in frustration, he stopped admiring her for her strength.
After her introduction, a few others did the same before it was their turn.
"My name is Roven Vonsarth, a Swordsman at the Peak Rank 1 stage."
Then next came Felix as he calmly stated.
"I'm Felix, a Dual-type fighter at Early Rank 1. My main attribute is Earth.", this was what he had decided to say after carefully considering for two reasons.
First, he wouldn't need to hide his powers now and if asked about it, he could just answer it ambiguously.
Second, to gain the respect of his teammates so that he wouldn't have to go through the trouble of them looking down on him and getting surprised later kind of drama.
He wasn't a fan of playing weak, if there was a need for him to show his true power, he wouldn't hesitate to do it.
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the team was surprised to hear that there was another Dual-type fighter in the team, especially making the members from Twilight Chaos feel a bit proud.
Selena gave a slight glance at Felix, her impression of him changing from before.
Evan had a delighted look on his face as he nodded in appreciation.
"This is good! Having two Dual-type fighters of Metal and Earth elements will strengthen our team with diverse combat strategies."
He took a few seconds to think before he continued with a serious face after some calculations.
"Alright, now that you've all been introduced, let me give you proper instructions to follow for any of the situations that we'll come across...."
For the next ten minutes, while the team traversed deeper into the dark tunnel, Evan briefed the ten members with some suggestions and directions to have better coordination together.
Suddenly, he stopped walking and raised his hand to his lips with a hushed expression.
He did a few hand symbols and the ten members understood that there was a group of monsters up ahead.
Felix quietly turned on the map skill and turned to look into it.
'Hmm...it seems the map still works in the dungeon. But it's not the same...'
Instead of showing the map of the dungeon from up in the sky like an eagle's eye perspective, which was obviously not possible in a cavern-type dungeon, the map showed basic routes and chambers in the form of illustrations.
And on the map, Felix could see a bunch of red marks appearing in front of the team, just a few meters away from them.
'I wonder what kind of monsters they are...'
It didn't take long for him to get the answer as a few shadows slowly stepped forward into the visibility of their light artifacts.
It was a group of lizard-like monsters, approximately 1.5 meters long and a meter tall, with hard brown coloured scales covering their thick bodies.
"Those are Earth Lizards. Everyone get ready for battle!"
Evan took a step back while taking out his bow and stated to the rest of the team.
"We'll face them according to the group strategy I mentioned earlier. So don't make any mistakes and remain in formation!"
The ten of them nodded and quickly moved to their position to start the confrontation. About 20 of those monsters were present from what Felix could see on the map, all of them at Rank 1.
'Earth Lizards huh.....It's my first time fighting monsters with that shape I guess.', Felix thought amusingly as he used his Inspect on them and eyed them curiously.
Among the eleven in the team, Evan was at Rank 3, there were three others including Selena at Rank 2, while the remaining seven including Felix and Roven were at Rank 1.
The moment the eleven of them got ready, the Earth Lizards hissed with their tongues hungrily and arrived at their position, opening their jaws to attack.
"Now! Attack!"
At Evan's order, everyone got into action as they brandished their weapons at the Earth Lizards in a formation.
Felix wasn't too fond of this set-up of maintaining positions, but he followed it unwillingly anyway and attacked the Earth Lizards that had entered his arm's reach with his skills.
"Earth Spikes!"
Several sharp rocky spikes emerged under the underbelly of two lizards, where a few red lines were present in Felix's eyes, and pierced into the only part of their body that wasn't covered and protected by their scales.
"Grwehkk!!"
Blood splashed on the ground as the two lizards cried out in pain, their bodies kept firmly in place as the earth spikes passed through to the top of their body.
Felix flashed towards the two lizards and took out his newly upgraded sword, stabbing into their heads while they struggled in pain.
A slight twist in the stab at the end was all it took for the two Earth Lizards to die under his attacks.
'Well, that wasn't much....'
Felix turned to look at the others, who had also almost finished ending the battle with the monsters.
Evan stood at the back right now with his bow, his presence not required to deal with such weak monsters, instead he was keeping an eye on the surroundings.
But he nevertheless took in the scene of Felix easily handling the two Earth Lizards that were the same rank as him, a task most would find difficult.
'He's a natural....Hmmm, a nice addition to the team with those earth-type spells.', Evan thought to himself with a look of appreciation.
After a few minutes, all of the twenty Earth Lizards had died and their corpses were moved to the side.
Roven had defeated one of them on his own, their only weakness being at their underbelly proving to be a disadvantage to a swordsman such as him and a few others too.
Felix on the other hand had watched the other Dual-type fighter in the team, Selena Astralyn, who killed three Earth Lizards on her own using a few metal-type spells.
'Hmmm she used spells that conjured metal chains and restricted their movements, then used her broadsword to chop off the monsters' bodies....that's brutal but also kind of my style...'
Felix smirked as his gaze lingered on her broadsword, its size a bit larger than her thighs.
'It looks heavy...'
Evan walked to the front of the formation as he clapped his hands and complimented.
"That was splendid, everyone. You guys worked well together. But this is just the start, we've to explore the dungeon more until any of the scouting teams find a good area. So don't let down your guard any moment."
After giving a few more instructions, Evan led the team forward as they stepped deeper into the tunnel.
Felix on the other hand had finally decided on the next skill that he should create for himself, something he greatly needed in crowd fights and in a situation where he was surrounded, not taking escaping as the option.
'Alright! I'll be needing this....'
He thought as he ordered the system in his mind to create the skill he was thinking of.
[Processing the skill's power scale....grading the skill....estimating the possible points required.....skill successfully moduled.]
[Ding!]
[Skill Name: Battlefield Awareness
Description:
An active skill that grants the user heightened perception and awareness during combat, allowing them to analyze the battlefield with extraordinary clarity.
When activated, the user can instantly assess the positions, movements, and intentions of all combatants within a radius of 30 meters.
This skill enhances the user's reaction time, enabling them to anticipate enemy attacks and exploit weaknesses with precision. It also reduces the chance of being caught off guard by hidden threats or sudden changes in the battle.
- The skill has a duration of 10 minutes and a cooldown time of 30 minutes.
- Grants a 360-degree awareness of all active entities within a 30-meter radius.
- Highlights enemy weak points and predicts their next moves.
Cost: 400 skill points]
[Do you wish to use 400 skill points and create the skill 'Battlefield Awareness?]
Felix scanned through the given details of the skill, and though he felt the skill points cost a bit too much, the skill's abilities made him nod.
'It looks good....With this I'll be able to efficiently hunt more monsters than before.', he agreed to create the skill without wasting any time.
[Ding!]
[Successfully created a new skill!]
The team had left the previous area and wandered into the tunnel carefully, treading in a formation while looking for their destination.
At the moment, Felix very much wanted to test the new skill, but he didn't want to activate it when there was no fight, so he turned on the map and curiously looked at it.
'Hmmm? What's this?'
Suddenly, from the corner of the map screen, a large number of red dots started appearing.
The number of dots passed a hundred within seconds as Felix finally understood what was happening.
"Uh oh...we got company...", a small grin slowly etched on his face as the rest of the team turned to him.