• 3^rd Person POV

Evan’s world changed from the sunlight rocky field & cliffs into a mouth of a cave. Large in its size, capable of housing Umbra with the dog’s height comfortably.

*Drip *Drip *Drip, sounds of water droplet from the stalactites added the ambience of the cavern as Evan can see them adorning the cavern. But something else too adds the nuances to the place. There are several animals bones and human bones alike being impaled by sticks like ornament.

Several torches as well being set alight giving clear vision on where to go and what Evan can see. Umbra is right beside him, giving him courage to go forward as he activates his ‘Radar’ and expanded it. Consuming a great deal of MP as a result.

“There!” Evan opens his eyes as he detected five entities far in front of the cavern. He stops the radar so that his MP can regenerate to full. Focusing on weaving mana, he created some kind of cover in front of his eyes like a glasses.

Soon after, the darker parts of the cavern turn bright as he gives night-vision to himself. “This way, I don’t need to have my own light that can attract things” He crouches behind the stalagmites while moving forward with Umbra hides in his shadow.

In front of the pair, are goblin encampments made from leather. There are around 4 goblins with bluish green skin wearing nothing but scrap leather and iron mace. With 1 of them is a hobgoblin that acts like a leader.

Evan weaved mana again allowing his ‘glasses’ that gives him night-vision to see something else in addition to its prior effect. In the world of ‘Eidolon’ they did not give information such as HP to the monsters.

By judging, their damage taken players needed to be able to estimate how long before they are defeated. That mechanic is inspired by a monster hunting game that is famous around fifty years ago

“Hmmm… they look like the same goblin that we defeated. I don’t know about  the hobgoblin thought. I think, it’s the biggest threat at the moment” He can see a bone pile made up from random animal bones with human bones as well mixed up in it. “Umbra!” Evan thought as the dog replies in their connection. “Woof?”

“I’ll try to make a distraction, you deal the most damage to the biggest one. How about that?” Evan asked with Umbra elicit a ‘bark’ of approval.

He infuses the bones with the surrounding mana and attaches them together. *Clunk *Clunk *Clunk, the bones from that pit begun reconstructing themselves as Evan raised an amalgamation of bones.

“Kiee?? KIEEE!!!” One of the goblin noticed it as they see a bone construct resembling a large stout humanoid but made entirely out of bones. Evan had a headache upon creating that construct as he lean on the stalagmite to rest his head as his MP regenerates.

The skeletal golem slammed its limb to one of the goblin. Hurling it to the wall but it stands although injured a little bit. The raised bone golem isn’t strong due to the raiser isn’t that powerful either.

“KIEEE!!!” The hobgoblin shriek and commanded the 4 goblins to attack the golem as Evan still hide behind a stalagmite occasionally lean his head to the side to see the chaos he’s making. As the four goblins swarmed the bone construct. The hobgoblin’s back is wide open.

“Now!! Umbra, shadow leap!” Evan’s shadow flicker a little bit as something left and move at an incredible speed as the large dog emerges right behind the hobgoblin. It launches a shadow strike in a form of Umbra’s fang seemingly coated with inky shadow as it bites down the hobgoblin neck.

“KIE!” It shrieks and shove Umbra away, taking quite a lot of damage as it pants and held its wound. “Its, certainly stronger and have more HP” Evan thought, in his vision he can see the goblin’s HP indicated by the aura surrounding him.

Spells that mages always have are ‘Health Detection’ ‘Mana Detection’ and ‘Stamina Detection’ to gain information. That is one of the reason why party members ask for a mage during hunts.

Evan learned that from reading the books illegally in mage’s archive and have his own twist. Making his ‘glasses’ to be able to see all in one. “Thankfully, it is a buff spell rather than concentration” Evan weave the mana surrounding the hobgoblin and four other goblins.

“[Weaken]!” The shroud of mana become brittle & shatter. The magic it causes, reduces their defence and offensive power. The hobgoblin noticed the de-buff as the ire change to Evan. The four goblins are being hurled left & right by the bone construct but its not enough to kill them outright since it has weak offensive stats.

Umbra lodge in another bite to the hobgoblin’s shoulder eliciting a shriek. Evan can see its HP have been reduced but still kicking as he outstretch his hand and point to the hobgoblin direction.

A condensed blue mote appeared right in front of his index finger as he flick it up leaving a trail of white mist when he did so. With that, a large spike of ice emerge from the ground attempting to engulf the hobgoblin in ice.

The hobgoblin is indeed encased in ice but not for long as it shatters dealing cold damage to the figure of the green skinned creature. It still standing but weakly as Evan directed Umbra using his telepathic connection. “Bite him!”

*CRUNCH* The hobgoblin body vanish indicating that it has been defeated as Evan can sense his connection with the bone golem have disappear too. Turning around to his right, indeed the bone golem has broken to pieces of bones. He can reassemble it back, but it would take a lot of MP to do so.

Instead, Evan decided to command Umbra. “Umbra! Shadow Leap!!” staring at one of the goblin that seems to be exhausted from continuous flinging by the bone golem. Umbra comes up behind it and its fangs engulfed by inky shadow as he bitten through the goblin. With that, the body of the goblin vanishes.

“KIE!!??” The other three goblins saw what has happened as they look at their missing hobgoblin and begun swarming on Umbra. Evan weaved mana surrounding Umbra to form a tight-fitting shell down to each strands of his fur. Consuming a lot of his MP in the process, earning a light headache since he needed to concentrate that much.

Umbra defence capabilities raises a lot focusing on his physical capabilities. As the damage Umbra took from the onslaught of three high-level goblins allowed Umbra to withstand even with [Weaken] to reduce their offensive power.

Evan hurriedly hurl a wave of mana to Umbra that he weave to rejuvenate Umbra. Healing him and give him regenerative buff. Umbra manages to defeat one more goblin in the process, but one has changed its ire to Evan.

“I don’t have a lot of MP left! Quick! Think!!” Evan eyes darted around the area, until he looks up and see a stalactite that is hanging loosely. He weave a tiny bit of mana into small hands to give it a little nudge as it fell.

*BAMM!!!* The spike crushes apart with debris and dust lifted up as Evan blow air towards it amplified by mana into a gust of wind removing the cloud of dust. After seeing it, he sat down a bit resting. “Uwah… its tense. I’m pretty sure with a party its much easier” Evan thought as he lean on Umbra’s fur to take a rest as his MP regenerate.

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After a while, his MP is back to full & Umbra’s HP back to normal as well. Evan then take his only one [Branch of Good Berry] that he didn’t sell. And gives all the berries to Umbra to eat as they went deeper to the cavern.

The surrounding is more ominous now with bone décor now plastered on the walls. There’s even cages where animal bones are stuck inside. Drums filled with black, tar like substance that Evan do not want to touch or try.

Although, he did notice that the drum have wood sticks & bandages wrapped on top reminding Evan of a torch. “It might be something… that can be set alight on fire” Evan thought as he look around the more with his ‘radar’ activated.

So far, he didn’t notice anything else until at some point. He sees a single entity in his ‘radar’. That brings up his alertness level to the highest meter he can reach. “Is that a boss?? Hmmm… it makes sense though… I mean… it’s already adjusted to solo. Similar to when I’m battling maiden of the frost lake” Evan look at Umbra as the dog look at him.

*Nods* He nodded at the dog as Umbra licked his cheek which earned him some good boy points and treats. Evan also uses all the charges of his [Branch of Good Berry] to give Umbra 10 minutes of constant HP regeneration.

Entering the place, it is a wide-open chamber. Contrary to the area filled with snow & ice like in the [Icy Cavern]. This place is filled with lightened torches, some drums or bowls filled with the familiar tar like substances with the smell becoming quite pungent. Its like burnt rubber in Evan’s nose but the system helped him to not being bothered by it.

There are bone chimes strung about between the stalactites or stalagmites with leather covering the cavern structure. Drawings made from red coloured dye or black ones littered the walls. All in weird writings & scribbles that Evan did not recognize.

Umbra tilted his head whenever Evan just stare at the walls. As the dog comes forward to one of the writings. They are still far away from the ‘single entity’ so it is safe to dawdle around.

The dog licks the wall with Evan just look at Umbra in confusion. “Umbra?” Evan questioningly asked as Umbra look at him and grimaces pulling his tongue in and his face wrinkles as if eating something sour.

Evan cannot help but chuckle as he rubbed the dog’s head and moves on. The cavern is just a straight pathway forward, soon after the area begin to widen into a large circular chamber complete with those jagged peaks of stone. The smell of the tar substance is much stronger, but it is dulled by the help of the system.

As Evan approaches the single entity, he turned off the ‘radar’ as he sees the entity in his eyes. A large goblinoid like creature. Bigger than any he had seen including the hobgoblin. Wearing a large crown made from animal bones and vines knitted together.

The creature carry a large staff easily twice in its size and on top of it is a human skull. The body of that staff is filled with myriad of bones with the creature wore some kind of mask made from leopard skull.

“Kiee!! KIE!!!” It seems the creature discovered Evan as it raises up. Its body easily reach hover the height of Umbra while it swung its staff down. Evan automatically sharpened his senses to see mana surrounding the place.

From there, the tar substances begin to burble and move by itself. As the threads of mana guiding it. Evan tries to touch it, trying to interrupt what’s going on but it is far too solid for him to do so. As if fighting against an extremely heavy current.

“ Guh!!I can’t” Evan stop whatever he’s doing although he gain several pings & dings on his panel when he did so. But he opted to ignore it since he’s going to fight something that has been summoned by that creature.

“KIEEEEE!!!” The goop of black tar merge together in the middle of the chamber as emerge from it is a creature made from living tar. The liquid goops out from its body then return back once again. “KIEEE KIEE KIEEE” The creature point its staff towards Umbra as the living tar reformed itself to create wolf like appearance of Umbra.

“Ehh??? Okay…” Evan looks surprised by it as he look at the panel of the monsters.

 

 

“I can see the resemblance” Evan take a closer look to the creature. It is indeed a humanoid, green skinned with pointy ears and jagged teeth. “GRRRRR…” Umbra snarls as the battle commences.

The living tar moves forward albeit slowly as it aimed directly at Umbra. Evan [Aegis] spell is still on in Umbra so Evan can be sure that Umbra is able to take more than one hit at least.

Evan also side-step as he weave mana into a flaming lance, He launched it towards Privila. It strike the witch and then disperses as the witch doesn’t seem to be severely injured by it. Merely annoyed by Evan with her gaze now stare right to the magic caster.

She begun to point her index finger to Evan as lightning emerges from that point and shoot at an incredibly speed to the male. Unable to react, Evan got hit by the lightning spell but his HP didn’t get reduced a lot. “Thanks to my magic defence I guess” Evan thankful for the boss to be magic caster.

Touching his chest a soft golden glow appears as he healed himself with the living tar now fighting with Umbra. The dog shadowy fangs manage to inflict some damage to that creature making the form unstable, but it reforms once again. Evan notice this.

“I think they are unable to be killed… then that means I need to focus on this goblin witch.” Evan thought. “Umbra! Can you hold off the creature?” using that telepathic link he asked. Umbra replies with a bark. “The regen can help Umbra survive for 10 minutes”

 “If fire doesn’t affect you, maybe ice will!” Evan decided as he outstretch his right palm towards the witch. A large ice spike form similar to what maiden of frost lake use. It shoots hitting the witch and shatters to billion pieces.

Due to his ‘glasses’ capable of seeing night-vision & now creature statistics. Evan can see, that indeed his spell damages the witch but not a lot. “I guess it’s a battle of attrition then” Evan purses his lips and dunk down his (S) Mana Potion in his throat.

The witch began to murmur something and dance as Evan sees this as a ritual spell. “No, you don’t!!” Evan sharpened his senses and begun see how the layers being added. He whisks in several tendrils of mana to unveil it. A battle of adding and removing ensues as Evan concentrates.

Each time the goblin witch added layers to the pile. Evan infiltrates it and dispels it, it goes on and on until the witch stop at a determined time. Her spell stopped. “Kie?!?” She had a look of surprise seeing Evan before her look change to anger.

“Uh… Oh… she did not like that” Evan ignores the *dings & *pings he got as he has other things to concern about. The goblin witch point using her staff as a ball of flame begun to gather. Evan notice it too late as it hurls towards him.

He quickly weave mana into a wall as a small ice wall emerges in front of him. *BOOOM* The explosion shakes the stalactites as some fell to the ground. Umbra expertly dodging them in addition tapping his paws like a dance as he comes to bit the living tar. Each time he does it, he had a grimace on his face like eating a lemon.

The ice shield is melted away, but Evan is unharmed as he copy what the witch did. He point his index finger forward and weave the mana into a single point. It condenses and eager to be unleashed as he shoot it.

A bolt of lightning incredibly fast shoot forward passing through her chest as Evan can see a significant reduction to her life aura. “She’s weak to lightning damage then” he put that into his mind memory.

“KIE!” The goblin witch snarls as she swishes her staff together, mana begun to congest above them all as Evan witness all of it. The ceiling of the cavern is filled with black clouds with him can hear rumbles coming from it like thunder.

It spooked Umbra a little bit, but he didn’t show it on his face. “Okay… how can I dodge this?” Evan warily watch surrounding him, but he has no cover on top.

An idea flashes on his mind. “A lightning Rod!” He picked the tallest stalagmite not too far from him but not too close as he weave the mana into a blanket to cover the structure. With his intent, to attract lightning magics.

“KIE!” She slam down her staff as a powerful lightning is unleashed by the spell. Yet it did not come after Evan. It hits the stalagmite with a look of surprise from the goblin witch although the stalagmite is destroyed rendering it unable to be used. Evan smirked, a little bit proud of what he did.

He point his index finger again to the goblin witch as he unleashes a straight lightning bolt to the witch. Taking another chunk of her health in the process although in a form of aura surrounding the goblin witch based on Evan eyes.

“KIEEEE!!” She looks angry as she hurl a mote of fire towards Evan, it hit him off course, but it doesn’t deal much damage that Evan needs to be concerned about. He look to the side and sees Umbra fighting against the living tar.

Outstretch his hands, Evan give healing to Umbra as the regenerative effect from Good Berry isn’t enough to last due to the level difference.

“Her spells have a cooldown. I am sure that ‘ritual’ thingy can’t be casted over and over including that cloud or fireball.” Evan learned it from ‘watching’ other mages and learning from MeTube about it.

He weave several mana into a single point but hovers it around the goblin witch. It turns into an electric sphere that occasionally pulses electrocuting any creature surrounding it. “Haah… that consumes a lot of MP” Evan almost regret that decision, but he did not due to the witch is stationary.

It pulses again eliciting the shriek from the witch, she hurls several fire bolts to Evan with the male just take it all and heal himself back. In normal players point of view, a mage cannot use restoration magics since it is exclusive for clerics. Yet, it is happening a mage ‘Evan’ is able to use it to sustain himself.

In between, Evan has a cooldown period not from the spells he weave but waiting for his MP to regen. Slowly but surely, he chipped down the health of the witch using the lightning pulses and lightning bolt spell.

She did the ritual once again as Evan prepared for this. His concentration become much sharper as he felt it is easier to unravel the layers of the witch’s magic. As she did finish the ritual nothing happens earning another shriek of annoyance.

“Her HP is already reduced to 50%!! I can do this!!” Evan seems optimistic as she snarls, and the living tar become solidified into a blackened crystal-like golem. “Huh?” Evan look back to see the change on the golem as Umbra got knocked back by the transformation.

“Umbra!!” Evan shouted in his mind. The witch shrieks and point her staff towards Evan now as the golem move incredibly fast and targets Evan. It launches a piercing attack using its sharp pointed limb with Evan too late to react.

 

His world change into the familiar salty breeze of Clamshore as he respawned. “Sigh… hey at least I can fight against magic caster higher level than me!” Nevertheless, he gain experiences and 500 gold as he opens the status panel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Sigh… *Yawns* I guess that is it for the day. I’m going to log-off. Getting tired concentrating all the time fighting against that ritual spell” Evan decided to leave as his figure vanishes.

Coming out from the console, Evan did his usual then fallen asleep. Unbeknownst to him, somewhere behind the desk where multiple computer panels are displayed. Someone is watching him in-game.

“So how’s the person going?” The man behind the figure asked.

“He’s doing quite well, it’s amazing for that player to discover the [Mana] Tree skill. For a year we thought its already hopeless to see it. I’m glad the wishes of one of the developers come true” The figure replies.

‘Tree Skill’ or in other words ‘Tree Line Skill’ are evolving skill that is incredibly rare in the world of ‘Eidolon’ it is worth more than just legendary magic items. Many veteran players have single line skill dedicated to their class. But it can also be in a form of something that went hidden in the eyes of players.

The beginner skills such as [Agility LV1] or [Martial Arts LV 1]. [Mana Sense LV1] is also a tree line skill. The other two skills prior have been developed by some veteran players, but the mana sense is much tricky since the developers wanted it to be hidden inside puzzle dungeons.

“Heh… to think, he manages to prevent the witch ritual to one shot him like that.” The figure smiles in satisfaction seeing the progress. The way to safe yourself from that ritual is to let yourself be engulfed by the living tar as she finishes her cast. The living tar would die, and you’ll be safe. But in this case, Magie Magia just fully concentrates and interrupt her.

“Hehehe… I want to see you in the battle royale event.” The figure smiles as he sees the male in green lavish robe logged out. He too closes the panel and watch others as well. Such as a white-skinned blonde-haired male in his early thirties having clothing that looks like a hanfu. Currently practicing martial arts against a wooden dummy.

The other is a female figure wearing a bear skin cloak. Her skin is dark with black braided hair, her body is athletic as her leather armour is tight-fitting to maximize movement, she also displays it by swinging across branches to branches while shooting her bow. She stood atop the branch seeking for something to hunt.

“Sigh… I do want to see them fighting against one another but the [Mana] Skill Line player is too under levelled.” He looks to the two figures he closely watch. “They are already max level, I guess it’s exciting enough I suppose”. The figure left with the man behind him.