VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 65: Dungeon Crawlers

The Baboon’s were already starting to tear themselves free from Figg’s restraints in the short time that it took Belladonna to deal with the Living Trees. But despite their lack of a tank, and their complete exposure to any attacks that might come their way, neither spell caster was worried.

With a wave of her wand, Vestra began to cast the most basic mage spell possible, Mana Bolt. Simply taking mana, compressing it into a swirling ball and launching it at their target like a bullet.

Before, Vestra had to be careful with how many she shot, as to make up for the thin ambient mana she had to use the limited amount she had gathered to fuel the bolts.

But now she had a source, so conservation was a concept that had been completely tossed out of the window. Bullet after bullet of compressed mana formed at the tip of her wand before launching itself at the half entangled Baboon, blasting it in the face with multiple bullets per second.

She was like a mana bullet machine gun, blasting it in the head until all that was left of its head was a pile of ruined meat riddled with holes. At the end of it, she was panting heavily from the exertion, already understanding the new limits of her mana capacity, but despite that she waved her wand again.

With a flash, three more Belladonna’s appeared out of thin air, skating around the room just like the real one. The remaining Baboon’s eyes swam and their heads whipped around in confusion.

They let out angered howls and shouts, desperately trying to figure out which was the real one. But by the time they figured that out, Belladonna’s blade had already sunk into their flesh.

Along with more metal bullets, Belladonna had bought five knives in total. One hunting knife, to replace the one she lost, and four throwing knives.

She held one in either hand, as they glinted wickedly with freshly spilled blood. Her body moved like a phantom, skating around the room and slashing out at key points on the Baboon’s body.

Unlike the random, meaningless hacks and slashes of the previous group, Belladonna was targeting specific spots. The back of the legs, the eyes, arms, underneath the arm pits.

She went for every weak-spot she knew of, constantly keeping the Baboon’s on their toes with her illusionary doubles, until it was time to finish the job and plunge her daggers into their throat.

Just like that, their first encounter as a three man group was easily wiped out, without so much as a tiny paper cut on any of their members.

The three of them high fived each other, whooping and cheering about their first fight as a group, before Belladonna taught them the importance of searching beasts for Source Remnants.

Once she made it clear that these crystals were the same one that had boosted them up so much, they practically leapt onto the bodies left behind and started to dig into their chest cavities.

The greedy and slightly manic look in their eyes as they ripped open a Baboon’s chest cavity and tore through it was simply terrifying. The mercilessly tore organs out and tossed them to the side like useless trash, as they searched for the real treasure.

While those two searched for their new favourite loot item, Belladonna used the Baboon corpses to restock her blood supply for healing. She considered changing her essence bonus, but quickly dismissed the idea.

These Baboons were weaker than the Ardent Bear, and so any bonus’ they could likely give would be lesser than it. Besides, the current bonuses she had worked very well for her build.

With Figgs help, after he got over his disappointment that he didn’t find any Source Remnants, they managed to harvest a few of the apples from the dead trees. When either of them tried to take them, they would simply burn them on contact or dissolve into nothingness if they cut them from the branch. On their previous run with the commanders group, they had ignored them for this reason.

But Figg, given enough time and the right amount of coaxing with his Druidic Nature, could not only touch them without burning himself but he could pluck them off the branch like regular apples. The only reason the previous group never did such a thing, was time and limited imagination.

They were too focused on looting to sell, and still locked in the habits of the old games they had played.

As soon as Figg plucked the apples, they turned into regular items that the rest of them could touch and store without issue. Even better was, with a little mana infusion, they could be turned back into fiery bombs.

Belladonna took some for that use, to make up for her limited range options, but she also kept some aside to experiment with. Her Grimoire stated that spell components weren’t fixed.

So long as they had the right capabilities and she used them in the right quantity, theoretically she could exchange any components for any spell. The issue was just finding the correct types and quantities.

However, not only was experimentation perfect for increasing her Esoterica stat, which couldn’t be improved by levelling up, but simply sparked Belladonna’s natural curiosity. The secrets of magic were laid out before her and, even if it was something so dreadfully basic, she felt the unyielding draw of discovery. She needed to know it all.

Once everything, including the basic loot of teeth and claws, had been collected the trio moved on without issue and delved deeper and deeper into the dungeon. With every group of monsters they faced, their tactics changed. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Not just to deal with the different compositions of mobs, but simply to experiment with their own abilities. The true capabilities of their classes had just been unlocked for the first time, and they were spreading their reach as far as they could to understand their limits.

While they might have been moving slower than the previous run and have fights that were much more wild and inefficient, such thoughts never entered the minds of any of them. Because above all else, they were actually having fun. Something that was painfully absent from the last run, and something Belladonna would never exchange for again.