Ascending Endlessly: I Copy Skills

Every party gathered around the sphere in a semicircle as one individual stepped forth right in front of it, facing us. This must be the operations commissioner. While these B-Rank dungeons overseen directly by The Order would be challenged by a group of parties, one individual, usually one of a rank higher than the dungeon, would be designated to organize and ensure that they all worked together well.

"Alright, listen up. You all know the drill. Today's structure is as follows. Parties A and C, you're on suppression. F will take the northern vanguard, B and D will be positioned at the flanks. E is our support team today. Business as usual, people. Let's get to it."

He shouted towards us and then clapped, rubbing his hands together. He started calling the parties forward one by one, each member touching the floating sphere before being sucked into it. Finally, only he and I were left. I approached him.

"Dammit, who the hell are you? You weren't on the list."

He asked, clearly frustrated.

"I'm a last-minute addition. I'll do my own thing, so don't worry about me too much."

I responded. He sighed and waved me past him. He didn't have to time to argue or think about it too hard. Besides, if I'd gotten through the checkpoint, unless I was an S-Rank hunter with some kind of stealth skill, I had to have been invited. The security was too potent otherwise.

I touched the sphere and felt my body warping, similar to the teleportation spell I'd been subjected to just earlier today. It only lasted for a moment before I was sucked through onto the ground. As I heard the commissioner landing behind me, I looked around at my surroundings. we were on a large flat plane of rock, a spherical red sky above us wrapping around seven giant mountains which encircled the platform. This was the namesake of the dungeon.

Looking carefully, there were holes in all of the mountains' faces. As we all took our positions and started marching forward, something started to emerge from those holes. Soon enough, it turned from a few shadows into a wave of creatures spilling out down the sides of the mountain and onto the ground. These were this dungeon's monsters. They quickly encircled us- however, our configuration of parties was built to withstand this.

The six parties spread out enough to allow each other space to use their skills, but remained close enough together to stop the monsters from breaching the formation. After a short stalemate where we and the monsters stood still and looked at each other, they finally started to charge towards us. 

As the horde of beasts got closer, their figures started to come into clear view. Of course, I'd already seen them before, but it had been a long time. They truly were disgusting to look at. They were lizards made of intertwining stone and muscle; a hard outer shell of rock with thick flesh filling in the gaps. 

Everyone readied their weapons, as did I. I stayed within the defensive wall of hunters, though. I didn't want to take any risks, and I hadn't been given a specific role to play, anyway. staying in the back line would not only protect me, but allow me to more easily collect the skills of the hunters in front of me.

Finally, we started to attack. I heard an explosion behind me as a B-Rank skill was fired off into the lizards. With that, the rest of the rangers started attacking as well, launching various attacks into the horde. As much as I wanted to jump in and start collecting skills, I couldn't disrupt the formation. It would not only put everyone else at risk, but myself, too. I would just have to be patient. 

Of course, the lizards possessed various skills as well. Outside of the protective ring of hunters, a fierce battlefield was being created, with fire and brimstone spilling over the ground, lightning chaining through monsters, and explosions happening every couple of seconds.

Eventually, though, cracks in our defenses started to form. The organization was strong, but of course a couple of stragglers would break through. This is where the support team would shine, ensuring the rear was well protected. I was naturally a low priority as I wasn't part of the formation. As the lizards started to break through, I would have to protect myself for long enough for the support team to take care of them.

I activated several C-Rank skills, such as hardened skin and super speed, as well as my two B-Rank skills. A lizard charged towards me, and I responded by throwing several spears at it. I was mostly just trying to maintain my survivability; killing it was unlikely.

I barely managed to dodge it while barraging it with a series of spears. It suffered some cracks to the rocks on its back, but seemed relatively unfazed. 

I prepared for it to throw itself towards me again, but instead, it opened its jaws where a beam of light started rapidly manifesting.

"Fuck!" 

I started running in a circle around it, teleporting a couple of times to get it to lose its sight of me. Unfortunately, it was too reactive. Within a moment, a volley of small lasers fired out from the ball of light in its mouth. I tried my best to dodge, but one lightly grazed my arm.

Fortunately, just as I felt it was becoming way too much to handle, two members of the support team arrived. One struck down on its head with a spear while another ensnared it with a skill. A third member showed up and within a few seconds it was dead. They didn't say a word and moved onto the others lizard who were breaking through, which was fortunate for me. 

I rushed towards the lizards' body and collected the spell signature which was lingering in the air. Good, that's another B-Rank skill. I just need to keep this up for a while longer. I kept maneuvering around through the safer areas where the support team had just swept.

Eventually, I got a chance to run through one of the party's formations as they had a moment to breathe. Without hesitation, I leapt into the center of their arrangement and nabbed some spell signatures. I wasn't sure what they were, but I managed to grab four. Then, I leapt back out.

As the battle wore on, I managed to keep snagging some skills. It definitely was becoming noticeable, though, so I decided to slow it down.

"Hey! Some kid is running around through our formations!"

They were talking about me as they fought. I didn't want to be too much of a distraction, since it could affect my capacity to survive, so I thought I'd try out some of my new B-Rank skills. Since I didn't know their effects, I didn't charge into the front line; I just started waiting for some more lizards who'd broken through. Soon enough, one showed up. 

I tried to keep some distance and fired up seven skills. I figured I might as well try out as many of them as I could at once. Of course, it was rapidly burning the mana in my batteries, but this was an important experiment. One by one, I cast them.

The first that shot out was a ranged spell- a magic arrow which exploded on impact with the lizard, drawing its attention towards me. The next skill was the one from the last lizard. A ball of light formed in front of me and I fired off a series of small lasers towards the lizard, further pushing it back. It recoiled before charging towards me.

So I cast another skill. And another, and another, until it started to get too close for comfort. At that point, I ran towards the support team who quickly dispatched it. My work was going smoothly. I was running out of batteries, and my new B-Rank skills were still on cooldown, though, so I just sat back for the rest of the fight. I couldn't defend myself anymore, so I tried to stay within close proximity of the support team without putting myself in danger.

Around two hours passed like that, with the occasional B-Rank skill entering into my arsenal. For the most part, though, I just waited. The most important thing was the boss monster- if I could farm a few skills off of it every day for a few days, I'd feel comfortable repeating this cycle in A-Rank. 

The first wave soon came to an end. With the last few lizards being slaughtered by the various parties, I took my chance and ran ahead through them. On the battlefield was a sea of spell signatures laying around from the final few lizards. I collected as many as I could as some onlookers gave me strange looks while they sat down and rested. Everyone was exhausted; they'd just fought hard.

So, seeing me casually sauntering around with a happy look on my face must have been kind of infuriating. Still, it didn't matter. I couldn't afford to think about the perception of other people. I collected as many spell signatures as I could until the ground started to rumble. This was it. The boss was arriving.