The Forgotten Legacy

As Shaun drew closer to the monsters, he was able to make out just how many there were surrounding the platform. While the Arachne were more solitary, choosing to spread throughout the forest and keep to small groups, these flying monsters were more packed together.

From what his echo told him there was around two dozen of the monsters in the area he was flying towards, most of them however felt on the weaker side of the D grade, probably in the 130’s if he was to guess at a level. Within the mix there were a few that felt slightly stronger, but none gave off the feeling of being the leader of the tribe of monsters.

He wasn’t yet in range to identify them but he was close enough to start preparing his attack. He had no desire to have him or any of his summons stay land locked during this fight so Shaun started to prepare the max amount of summons he could, all Zapian Eagles. Rather than make everyone one of his summons equal though he purposely went with a tiered approach. His first three summons used 3,000 mana each, a huge amount to most people, to him though it wasn’t even 10% of his total. These three eagles would make up the point of attack, the remaining six of his eagles were at half that strength, only using 1,500 mana each, and they were split so that each of his most powerful summons had two of the weaker eagles as support for their attacks.

Even after all of the mana used in his summoning he still had over half left, plenty to use for his own attacks in the upcoming battle. The monsters had taken notice of his approach now, although hadn’t approached him. Instead, they had all grouped together in the air and waited for him to arrive.

He had finally gotten into range for his identify skill to work and what it told him lined up pretty well with what he had already assumed. Each of the monsters had the bodies of women, although they were covered in feathers in some areas that gave them some modesty and had clawed legs like a bird and talons to match. They had wings on their back in the same feathers that covered their bodies, but their faces looked mostly human, outside of a nose that looked slightly beak like.

**Harpy – Level ???**

This was the second monster in the dungeon, a Harpy. Like with the Arachne they were taken straight out of myth and matched perfectly to what he remembered from stories out of Greek Mythology. Inspecting them further, they al looked ready to attack, like the Arachne there would be no pleasant conversation occurring, only death.

Seconds before he collided with the Harpy he shifted into air and went straight through their front line, appearing behind them in a split second, his swords were already at the ready and several mirror blades appearing with them.

Just as his Zapian Eagles made to attack from the front, he made his own attack from behind them. His unexpected shift of location took the Harpy by surprise, one even letting out a squawk before he sliced through it with Death’s Kiss. The squawk from his first kill alerted the others of his presence, half of the Harpy immediately turned to him while the other half were busy fighting off his summons.

Before Shaun was able to get his second attack off the Harpy, through some method of silent communication, spread out through the air, using their wings to move at an incredible speed around him. What the Harpy didn’t realise was that although they could move fast, he was quicker.

Before they even got into a position to take advantage of him being surrounded, he let loose Ice Strikes from every one of his swords, all aimed in different directions around him. Although not every one of his strikes hit a Harpy it was enough for them to retreat away from him, cautious of what else he may throw their way.

Shaun didn’t hesitate to drive his sword through the closest Harpy that had bene caught by one of his strikes, his mirror blades taking care of the others. When a sword through the chest didn’t immediately kill them, he moved more of his blades around to start beheading them which did the trick.

As He had been killing off the Harpy he felt the air around him still and build with power, one he was somewhat familiar with. He felt the use of air and what he thought was a tinge of electricity start pressing down on him. When he started to observe the growing power he was able to use his Mana Mastery skill and like seeing invisible threads in the air was able to trace the power back to the 8 Harpy that had avoided his attacks, each staring down at him in concentration.

Rather than launch another attack on the Harpy, he continued to stare at the intricate weave growing around him, it was beautiful if he was being honest with himself. The power of all 8 of the Harpy was combining into one larger work of magic. He had been correct before as well, he could see strands of mana that matched with his air affinity as well as what seemed to be a weaker version of his lightning affinity.

Following the feeling he had he grabbed hold of one of the lines he saw building from one of the Harpy and plucked it in a way one would pluck a guitar string. The moment he did he saw the Harpy it was connected to flinch, its eyes growing wide and a look of fear grow on its face.

Shaun was now even more curious as to what he could do with these mana threads, if a single flick of one was enough to cause distress to the monster, what would happen if he cut it? Bringing over one of his Mirror blades, he reinforced it with mana, making sure the edge was glowing with power before making his move.

Before anything could change he cut through the thread, reinforcing the blade with his Mana Mastery skill. The blade passed right through the thread, and for a moment he didn’t think anything happened. A second passed as he stared on in confusion, not understanding how he could have plucked the thread with no issue but when he cut through it nothing would happen.

Just as he was about to try again he saw the thread fall apart where he had cut it, disintegrating in both directions. The one leading towards the weaving around him caused mayhem on the remainder of the spell, the other Harpy letting out desperate squarks, trying to recover from the hit the skill took on losing a part of its power and stability.

In the other direction, once the thread disintegrated and hit the Harpy who had been using its skill, it started to convulse and dropped unconscious to the ground within the next second. To say he was confused by what had just occurred would be an understatement.

Pulling up the skill description again he tried to figure out what exactly had just happened. The Mana Mastery skill allows the user to more easily pierce the makings and patterns of mana. The skill also allows for the ability to change mana constructs, also known as skills, and unravel the making of them. That was all the skill said, but he quickly realised what had happened. He had unravelled the skill and in doing so had caused one hell of a back lash to the Harpy who had been using it.

Suddenly he felt his mana reserves drop, checking his status sheet he found that by simply touching and then cutting the thread he had lost several thousand mana, which in a fight would make a big difference in how long he would be able to fight for. It was a powerful skill, being able to undo someone else’s skill, but it seemed that it also took a lot from him in doing so.

During all of his experimenting the Harpy had gotten their skill back under control and they were now ready to unleash their attack. He had gotten distracted, but seeing as he saw what this skills was made of, he didn’t feel very threatened by the Harpy. Air and electricity? He wished them luck in being able to do him any harm with using these two elements.

Keeping his Mana Mastery skill active, but not interfering with the skill that the Harpy were using, he watched on, wanting to see if he could learn anything from the way that their skill was weaving with both the elements and each other. He both saw and felt when the skill completed, mana flashed through the threads around him and he felt electricity course through his body as well as a deepening pressure in the air around him.

Although it hurt at first, he quickly activated his own elements and pushed back with much more force than what the Harpy was able to use with their inferior elements. He still felt the pressure from the air, although significantly less, the electrical element though? It had been consumed by his own lightning affinity in an instant.

Rather than mess around with the Harpy any longer Shaun pushed out around him with his aura and using it to throw off the Harpy immediately followed up with his blades and started attacking with all of the skill he had accumulated over the past few months. He turned into a whirlwind of blade and element. Each of his attacks was coated in an elemental strike, all but Death’s Kiss, who he used to great effect to not only kill the Harpy but removed wings from their backs and throw them off for his summons to finish off.

The more he used his new blade the more he grew accustomed to the varying uses it had with it unique design. The smaller, second blade on the opposite side of the handle was more useful than he had originally thought. He was able to feint using the larger edge and then quickly slam down with the smaller hooked side and cut through flesh and bone like butter.

He was able to kill one Harpy after another, no matter what the Harpies tried they could not out run or out manoeuvre him or his blades. Their bodies fell to the ground one after another in quick succession after he cleared his mind from his earlier discovery. His Eagles, although slower than him, were also making an impact on the Harpy.

Unlike the Arachne, Shaun found fighting the Harpy to also be easy, they still took a bit to kill, but fighting in the air had become almost easier than fighting on the ground, especially when the opponent he was fighting could not use the skills they had to do any true damage to him.

Their clawed bird feet would have caused some serious damage if they had managed to land a hit on him, but his speed outmatched theirs, not to mention that that needed to make their way through his elemental blades to even get close.

When the last Harpy fell to an onslaught of attacks by his summons he looked around him at the now completely empty platform. Not one Harpy remained in sight, and although he was covered in blood, not his own but the Harpies, slightly panting from the fight and now rather thirsty and in need of rest, he was impressed at how he was able to kill off two dozen D grade monsters at once.

**You have defeated a (Harpy – Lvl 133). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

……………………………………………………………………………………………

**You have defeated a (Harpy – Lvl 142). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

**Class upgrade available on [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger. Would you like to upgrade class? Note all experience is forfeit until class is upgraded.**

As he had previously he denied upgrading his class, his level may be at the peak of E grade but his skills were not. Until he had made sure that every skill he had was either maxed out or in Epic he would not upgrade his class or profession.

Status:

Name: Shaun Clermont

Race Human I

Level: 115

Class: [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger – Level 124

Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator – Level 107

Health Points: 10259/13671

Stamina:4257/14147

Mana:3156/47102.5

Stats: (Available Points: 0)

Strength:

1303

Dexterity:

1394

Endurance:

1415

Vitality:

1367

Intelligence:

1346

Perception:

1327

Willpower:

1406

Soul:

4710

Affinity:

Basic: Earth, Fire, Nature, Air, Water

Advanced: Lightning, Ice, Magma

Titles:

New Initiate, Apex Predator, Planetary Forerunner, Elementalist, Expert Solo Dungeoneer, King, Impossible Feat. Mana Body, Mana Mind

Heritage:

Azreal’s Legacy (Hidden)

Skills:

Class:

[Advanced] Blade Mastery (Level 101), [Advanced] Earthen Echo (Level 98), [Advanced] Enhanced Mind (Level 125 – MAX), [Advanced] Elemental Strike (Level 102), [Advanced] Stone Skin (Level 33), [Advanced] Elemental Shift (Level 85), [Advanced] Elemental Summons (Level 89), [Advanced] Mirrored Elemental Blade (Level 65)

Profession:

[Advanced] Elemental Fusion (Level 111), [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 115), [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 98), [Advanced] Meditation (Level 125 – MAX), [Epic] Mana Mastery (Level 14), [Advanced] Runic Scribe (Level 125 – MAX), [Advanced] Elemental Storage (Level 53), [Advanced] Creators Plan (Level 76), [Advanced] Creators Domain (Level 22)

After reviewing his status sheet he had made some great strides in his skill levels, although he wondered if he would be better off picking one skill and training it fully then moving onto the next or doing what he was doing now and split his attention across all of them.

He was getting closer to getting each of his skills to the peak of advanced, if he was lucky, by the time he finished this dungeon he would have gotten at least another two to max. He still had the rest of the Harpy to finish off, as well as the next tribe to take out. By the time that was done he hoped that he would be ready to skill the boss of the dungeon and be done with having to run dungeons for a while. For now though, he would rest and then continue to hunt.