NOVEL NEXT Chapter 201 – Quests
After pulling the carcass of the Arcdotus into the Magic System's Inventory, Damion took a moment to rest. He had dual cast spells before, but dual casting so many spells of different affinities was a new experience. It was actually somewhat surprising to him that he was able to cast both Fire and Earth affinities at the same time so easily and he needed to take a moment to process the battle.
His Fire affinity attacks had been more effective against the Arcdotus than the Earth Shards, despite the Earth affinity attacks penetrating the flesh of the beast. The Fireballs he launched may not have pierced the Demonic Beast's flesh, but they had burned its flesh and in the short examination Damion did of the corpse before storing it, the burns were rather severe.
Despite being of the same element, his Ice affinity attacks had actually finished the beast off with surprising efficiency. Part of that could be attributed to the fact that he had used a tier 3 spell. But there was also the fact that his Ice affinity was EX Rank. Looking at the difference in effectiveness of the Earth spells and the Fire spells he could only attribute the contrast to his Earth affinity being at D Rank while his Fire affinity was at A Rank.
*Ding*
[Spell Fireball mastery increased to E Rank]
*Ding*
{Quest Completed}
[Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]
The notification was pleasant to see. Any increase in his credits was a happy occurrence, but what Damion really wanted was to increase the Magic System to level 3. For that he needed more experience and most of his quests just did not give him much.
'System, show me my active quest statuses.'
[Quest Status]
[Kill C Rank Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts – 15/30 (Repeatable)]
[Kill B Rank Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts – 0/10 (Repeatable)]
[Learn a Tier 2 Magic Spell (Repeatable)]
[Increase a Magic Spell in Rank (Repeatable)]
[Learn a new language (Tal)]
[Learn a Tier 3 Magic Spell (Repeatable)]
[Learn the Truth of Magic]
[Learn a Tier 4 Magic Spell (Repeatable)]
[Learn a Tier 5 Magic Spell (Repeatable)]
[Master Nashto]
[Discover the Origin of Goblins]
Damion mentally clicked through each of the quest descriptions in turn. Most of them would only give him 100 experience points for the Magic System. The exceptions were Learn a Tier 5 Magic Spell, Master Nashto, Learn the Truth of Magic and Discover the Origin of Goblins. None of those quests were currently within his reach. He needed 3,900 more experience to increase the level of the Magic System. That meant 39 of his other quests which gave him 100 experience each.
"This is going to take a while," Damion said to himself, causing Phil to look at him confused. "If I increase the mastery of all my spells twice, I can get the experience I need. I should also get Elicia to teach me Tal. I've had that quest for too long."
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Phil chirped at Damion as he continued to talk to himself, apparently not pleased to be left out of the conversation.
"Alright, let's find the core and get out of here."
Channeling his mana into his belt of purification, Damion got rid of the dirt, snow and sweat that was clinging to his body before starting his walk over to where the Arcdotus had been sleeping. Usually, the dungeon core could be found in or near the guardian's lair and this time was no exception.
In a small hole in the ground under where the guardian had slept Damion found the dungeon core. With a quick cast of Ice Shard, he destroyed the core and a moment later, he and Phil were transported back to the mountain range where Mage Teft was waiting.
"It seems you were successful in clearing the dungeon," Mage Teft said when Damion appeared outside the dungeon portal with Phil on his shoulder.
"The dungeon was filled with Ice affinity Demonic Beasts as I suspected," Damion told her. "Ice Boars, Snow Lions and Frost Hares, as well as an Arcdotus as the guardian."
"A C Rank Arcdotus. How large was it?"
"Not as large as the S Rank ones that appeared during the Saung beast wave, but it was bigger than most houses."
"And how did you kill it?"
"Phil distracted it, and I sliced its throat," Damion said calmly. He was not about to reveal his new affinities, but he doubted she would ask to see the body. After all, the Arcdotus was huge, and Damion's spatial artifacts only had 3 cubic meters of space in them.
"Did you retrieve the core?"
"I didn't want to dig through something so large," Damion told her.
The Arcdotus was of course in the Magic System Inventory and while it would never start to decompose, eventually he would have to take the carcass out if he wanted to get the core from it. But that was a task for another day, for now, the Demonic Beast could stay in his Inventory taking up just one of his 40 slots.
"Good job clearing a dungeon by yourself," Mage Teft said. She was proud of what Damion had accomplished, since she felt it was largely due to the years of training she gave him. Very few mages could fight a Ferocious Beast of the same Rank, let alone a Demonic Beast. However, it appeared the years of training Damion as a knight and increasing his physical abilities had certainly paid off.
"Do we really have to report this dungeon to the patrol?" Damion asked, hoping for a better answer than Mage Teft had given him before. "What if I start my own guild, that will let me keep the dungeon for myself right?"
"And what will you do when you reach B Rank? Someone has to work to clear the dungeon, so it doesn't become a Dungeon Breach."
"I can always sell it to a city or another guild when I reach B Rank. This place is a really good source of Ice affinity cores. If I had regular access to it, I could probably speed up my growth by quite a bit."
Of course, Damion did not need Ice affinity cores to absorb the mana from. With Mana Absorption he could drain the mana from any magic core safely to enhance his strength. What he wanted, was the magic cores for when got enough experience to level up the Magic System. Once he could trade magic cores for credits, he would need a steady source of magic cores.
Every other dungeon or labyrinth he would go in, he would have to split his loot with the owners of the dungeon, the school and his party members. Even if they collected 100 cores, he would only get a small portion of that.
There was of course the option to buy magic cores. Because of the graveyard dungeon in Saung, there was an abundance of Dark affinity magic cores available for sale. But his funds were not infinite, and Damion had the goal of 100,000,000 credits to reach for the Anti-Regression Potion. He did not know what the exchange rate was, but even if it was 10 to 1, he would still need an absurd number of magic cores.
"For a guild to qualify to own a dungeon, they have to have at least 50 members and show the ability to secure the Breach at all times," Mage Teft told him. "Remember the Falks guild? Before they lost their dungeon, before their entanglement with you, they had over 200 members and had to maintain that number for years before they were allowed to own a dungeon."
"I guess that is a no then," Damion said. He had not really held out hope he could own the dungeon, but he did wish he could have regular access to it. "What if we alert a guild in the nearby town, Levande, I think it was. If they come and claim the guild, they could grant me access to it right? Instead of a finder's fee, they could just let me do a run every so often and keep everything. It would only cost them their commission for runs until I reach B Rank."
"No," Mage Teft said quickly. "Your second term will start soon. And you will not have the time to go back and forth between Levande and the school. Not to mention how dangerous such constant trips would be for you."
"Fine," Damion said defeated. "Call the local patrol."