Dean arrived at the school. The application for the practice dungeon already formed a line—many in groups, and some by themselves.
At the desk, they signed a waiver, then entered the rift. This practice dungeon was an instance. It could replicate itself as many times as needed to accommodate a large number of players running it simultaneously.
When it was Dean's turn, he chose a steel sword and entered without hesitation.
Space around him blurred, and he arrived on a patch of grass, surrounded by trees. Roaming this scenery were round, bouncy, translucent blobs called slimes.
[Slimes, lvl 1]
After a brief hesitation, He walked up to it and stabbed his steel sword into its soft body. The membrane burst like a popped balloon, spilling water onto the soil.
Dead waited, but failed to see the scene he expected.
"Where's my mana core?"
He crouched down on the soil, perhaps because the slime was weak, its core was too small, so he failed to see it the first time.
Yet no matter how hard he looked, he could not find even a trace of mana core.
He opened his player panel and read the skill description again.
Trait 2: Monsters will only drop mana cores. The number of Enlightenment stacks affects the amount. Max count: 5 . Exceeding the bonus ceiling will increase the quality of the dropped mana core.
Realization flashed in his eyes. It did not say that it would always drop a Mana Core when defeating enemies.
The monsters at the practice dungeon do not drop any loot; only the boss would, and it drops either a wooden shield, a club, or a stained linen cloth. On rare occasions, it would drop a "corpse".
Dean wasted no time, stabbing every slime he saw. The slimes remained unaware, still bouncing carelessly.
When he had eliminated all the slimes, a portal appeared in the center of the place. Inside the portal, it displays a dark cave.
Dean entered and was transported into the scene being displayed. The light suddenly grew dim. He was inside a spacious cave.
When he appeared, various rattling sounds came from the corners.
"This time, goblins? This should be more challenging."
Five green figures appeared, surrounding him. Their heights barely reached his waist. Their face showed fierce expressions.
They shrieked with a voice like a child, guaranteed to annoy most adults.
Dean stabbed with his sword, piercing the head of one. It's blood, surprisingly red, stained his clothes.
The other four were horrified to see their companion die a gruesome death.
Dean felt uncomfortable, feeling the sensation of his sword piercing through flesh. He wiped the blood from his face and chased the goblins around.
The goblins used any means, running, throwing, growling, clawing, and biting.
Dean, although tired, made quick work of them with his weapon.
He the five goblins were killed, a portal appeared in the center of the cave, showing another place. This still seems to be a cave, with a round area surrounded by torches.
A green figure could be seen standing in the center. Holding a wooden shield and a club.
"The boss room."
Dean stepped inside and came face to face with the dungeon boss.
Without further Ado, the goblin boss charged him with a shield the moment he saw him.
Dean froze for a moment, surprised at the speed of the goblin boss, nothing compared to the previous mobs.
The impression was like seeing a speeding car heading straight at you, and being paralyzed from indecision.
Dean threw himself to the side, looking pathetic as he rolled on the floor.
The boss, realizing that he had missed, skidded for a while before turning to face him in one swift motion.
Then it ran, shield in front and club poised to strike at its foe's head.
However, it felt a sudden strong impact on its shield, before a scorching flame reached its face from the gaps of it's defense.
Without awareness of the events that transpired, it was already in the air. It came down hard and tumbled on the ground a couple of times.
Raising its head, it saw its shield deformed and burning, its wooden club lying on the ground not far from it.
Suddenly, it saw a bright sun, growing by the second until it consumed its entire vision.
[Defeated boss. Dungeon cleared]
Dean put away his fireball diagram; the paper had a faded color, and the ink had faded away, unable to be used again.
Two-thirds of his mana was consumed by the formation.
Unlike normal mages, formations have shorter cast delays, requiring no chants, and have no cooldown either. It was superior to regular spells in any way, disregarding cost and feasibility.
As for the current fireball diagram, it had no cast time. The only thing that slowed it down was Dean controlling his mana to channel it to the formation. Even that was a brief moment.
If he could hook the formation into a Mana core beforehand, the cast time would be instantaneous.
"So this is why formations are so popular."
Dean had heard about formations, but using them personally, he realized its power and potential.
Even at level 1, if he had hundreds of fireball diagrams linked to a hundred mana cores, he felt he could solo a level 5 dungeon boss. Or even stronger.
That's a hundred fireball, even with low stats and no equipment to boost its damage, its base damage alone is sufficient to turn a boss into ashes.
"Unlimited firepower..." Dean smiled, clearly pleased at his discovery.
"Now then," Dean turned to the shining, translucent crystal floating above where the defeated boss corpse was.
It was the holy grail of formations. The object that could realize his dreams of unlimited firepower.
"My precious, hehehe." Dean dramatically wrapped his fingers around the core and laughed menacingly.
He exited the dungeon and went back to the line. His fireball diagram could no longer be used; however, this diagram had been imported into his workspace and could be copied anytime. He even "dissected" it with the Tutor and turned it into a waterball diagram.
He intends to farm Mana stores to use for his practice. As for the boss monster, it wasn't that dangerous. He could manage somehow, even with a single sword.
As a result, approximately an hour later, Dean beat the dungeon boss and arrived looking disheveled. Not a single strand of his hair was spared, and his face was swollen and bruised
The player in front of the line saw him and was dumbfounded. He saw this pitiful being, and with a straight face, tried to ask him
"Hey dude, you alright...pfft!"
In the end, some laughter escaped. Giving up containing it, the person howled in strange laughter, causing others behind to also laugh.
Dean also laughed, and his distorted, swollen face elicited more laughter from the crowd.
"Dude, did you bash that goblin shield with your head? HAHAHA!"
Dean talked to them, made some acquaintances before lining up again. He cleared the dungeon two more times before his stamina could no longer keep up.
Four mana cores in his inventory.
Arriving home, he saw his father admiring the garden, his hands behind his back.
"Oh, Dean? How did it go...what? What happened to you? Tell me who did this to you. I'll make sure your mother knows."
His father saw his face, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch a bit.
" The dungeon boss-"
" Hahahaha!
Learning it was the dungeon boss, his father laughed with all his might, basically roaring at his face.
Dean returned to his room, sighing helplessly. Fighting melee should be left to melee experts.
He took out a plastic containing a bright red liquid and drank it. It was a healing potion he bought along the way.
In his player panel, his health immediately jumped up, rising every second until his health bar was full again. With his health full, his injuries disappeared like an illusion. His face returned to being handsome again.
He withdrew more items from his inventory and put them in his desk. It's practice time.
A bottle of red liquid, a monster blood, a monster leather, and a basic mage wand. Funded by a Mana core he sold.
He also bought some mundane tools like flasks and filters.
"All set. I'll create my first formation."