CHAPTER 87: IT’S WORKING!!!

Seeing the hound jumping before him, Max clicked his tongue and pumped mana in his feets, gaining additional boost in his speed.

Before the hound could bite his head off, he bent backwards, his momentum pushing him body forward in a perfect slide under the hound.

Then, he summersaulted his way forward, leaving the hound behind.

The monster growled realising that it had failed and pursued Max with it’s top speed. Since it has just one of it’s skill, the cooldown was there and it would have to wait a few Seconds.

That was all Max wanted as he smirked and jumped inside the Fire Wall, saying, "Get ready!"

As he went forward, the hound followed after him and entered the fire wall. All of a sudden, it’s terrifying blue eyes lost their luster and returned to a bizzare state.

The hound stopped in it’s tracks, standing like a statue like it had been from the start.

Max noticed it and called out to Stelle, "Smash it’s head before it recovers."

She didn’t understand what he meant, but still raised her hammer and brought it down on the hounds head with all her might.

Sounds of bone cracking came as the hounds head was pulverized. Even being a monster stronger than Stelle, she easily managed to shatter it’s body.

This was the advantage most berserker held as long as they were given good Artefacts. Though, many times they forget about their Artefacts when they enter their berserker state.

Max followed after her, aiming for the blue runes running on it’s obsidian body. With a single strike, he managed to dismantle them and heard a beautiful voice in his head.

[You have slain a Early-Stage Second Order Monster. Gained 20 EXP!]

’Noice!’ Max grinned in excitement and turned towards his companions, who were smiling too.

Their plan had succeeded. By isolating the Hounds, they removed it’s inteligence part which was given by the Dark Tree, the main boss of this dungeon.

They had expected a fight but a sweet surprise awaited them. The monster couldn’t immediately regain it’s control over it’s body, meaning they had a brief movement where it was at it’s weakest.

This was way better than they had expected and would speed up their farming in the dungeon.

"Will she be okay?" Max asked, looking at Charlotte who had closed her eyes and was standing like a statue.

She was concentrating on the spell so it was on it’s maximum output and this method also consumed less mana.

His question fell on deaf ears as Stelle excitedly took out the Mana Shard from the hound.

Max rolled his eyes and knocked on her head lightly, finally getting her attention, "I asked something, you know."

Stelle rubbed the spot he had hit, as if showing she was extremely hurt and said, "She’ll be fine and go on for many hours like this because the activation and formation of the spell takes most mana. Keeping it active means less strain on mana and soul."

"I see. That’s good then," Max heaved a sigh of relief and said. "Then, we’ll proceed forward with this plan and hunt as many as monsters we can."

Stelle nodded and asked, "It made me wonder about something, can I ask you about it?"

"Why are taking my permission? This isn’t like you at all," he frowned and pointed his sword at her. "Are you an imposter? Tell me where Stelle is. She’s a brat but my best nonetheless."

Stelle resisted the urge to smash his head like she had done with the hound and said through her clenched teeth, "I was just being nice to you but I guess you’re a masochist so who dislike nice people."

"Alright, it’s you. Now get down to business as your sister is spending every second you waste!" Max nodded in satisfaction.

Stelle inhaled and then said, "I just thought that if the dark mist was making them Intelligent then maybe I can defeat them in a soul battle and gain their full mana."

"That’s a possibility so try it later when we are resting," Max shrugged and left the fire wall.

He once again went towards the hound, found their range and use it to lure one towards their baiting point.

As he had done it once again, Max was more familiar now so he found it easy. Still, he kept his guard up as he didn’t want to get wounded in this dungeon.

With nimble and fast footwork taught by Harley, Max made it out to the Fire Wall. Then a familiar scene followed out as Stelle smashed the hound’s head, and Max attacked on the Runes.

Max didn’t stop at that and continued to run around the dungeon, catching one Duskmaw Hounds after another and reaping their lives through their unique tactics.

In the next few hours, Max had to run around a lot in search for the hounds while making sure he didn’t attract attention of some powerful monsters.

It was a tough task which also took a toll on his body but this was the perfect chance of leveling so he didn’t want to miss it.

Even if he was practically bathing in sweat, his lungs burning and his vision grew slightly blurry, he didn’t stop at anything.

Charlotte was in quite similar situation as him as she had to stand in the same position for hours while fighting the dark mist for the control of that area.

After all, the dark tree wouldn’t stay still when faced with opposition. The only good thing for them was that it’s influence was quite low in the outer areas.

But that also scared them as they wondered what they would encounter deeper in the dungeon.

Max knew about the dangers in the dungeon but even then he was scared to move deeper. After all, he had just planned this dungeon and never actually used it.

So, in a way, he was also quite unfamiliar with it.

Only Stelle had it relatively easy as she just needed to protect Charlotte with any monsters attacking them and also keep up with the fire wall.

Though, she also used this time to assimilate with the Mana Shards as her theory proved to be right.

Without their inteligence and the group support, they were easier to deal with, so whenever Max went to search for their next bait, she would sit to assimilate with the Mana Shard.