With newfound courage and a plan in mind, Avan proceeded to sneak up to a stalagmite, which was in the back of the Komodo Dragon.

The level of his opponent was unidentifiable to him, but the two question marks were enough to indicate that it was within the realm of possibility to defeat his adversary.

And if the fight against the chimera has shown me one thing for sure, it is that despite my inexperience, I have the POTENTIAL to master situations like this! ... Pun unintended... He thought to himself with a grimace at his unintentional word joke.

He positioned himself behind the slightly smaller crystal that protruded from the ground in front of him, and knelt on the ground, glancing at the dragon lizard's rear end.

Then let's see...

With a short and quick gesture of his left hand, with index finger and middle finger whizzing from top to bottom, he ordered his two Akkalons spheres to rush down from above and again, as the times before, target the back of the lizard's head.

At the same time, in a partially meditative posture, he concentrated on pouring as much destructive mana as possible into the lizard as the spheres landed on the back of its head, one after the other, with a screeching thud.

The lizard, which had just been swallowing, howled with a low rumble and threw its head back at this unexpected attacker.

Meanwhile, Avan sent his mana into the lizard, which was many times less than it had taken to summon the Akkalon spheres. He traced the path of his mana and could feel where it flowed and how it entered the lizard through the smallest cracks between the crystal skin.

With an inward sigh, and already suspected, his mana penetration didn't do much harm and was far too widely dispersed to cause anything more than discomfort to the lizard, which was noticeable by the tiniest twitching on his body under the purple crystals.

The Crystalline Mana Wyrm had classified the attacking spheres from the air as the true attackers and was now trying to snatch one of them out of the air, while it had completely forgotten its meal from earlier and was poking around in the surrounding air with its long neck.

With another uncomplicated command and mental impression of what he was imagining, Avan sent his two spheres the image of avoiding these attempts at all costs, preferring to make one less attack. The picture in his head of the chimera bursting one of his spheres still echoed in the back of his mind.

Focusing again on himself and his own attack, Avan considered what he could do to make Akkalon's touch also contribute effectively to the fight, while loud and booming sounds of combat from bluntly impacting objects on crystal drifted across the environment in front of him.

The skill doesn't describe anything in detail, but so far a lot of things on Aorus weren't really set in stone and everything could be applied relatively intuitively... Whether it is possible for me...? Hmm... he scratched his chin with his right hand while thinking about it, and supported himself with his left hand on the floor between all the small crystals.

Following the train of thought, he inwardly shrugged his imaginary shoulders, and looked again at the monster in front of him. This time, he targeted a specific spot on the right front claw of the komodo dragon and tried to direct his mana specifically at that spot.

The first few attempts didn't really work, and his mana continued to flow into his opponent unbundled, until he finally managed to at least somewhat limit the area of influence and fix the shoulder area, including the leg, as the target of his destructive mana.

Inwardly exultant, Avan continued to try, while the lizard seemed to get angrier and angrier and tried to pluck the two balls out of the air with the greatest of effort. While he was so inwardly absorbed, his attention focused only on the two spheres and his own attempted attack with mana, he did not notice the trickle of crystal dust raining down from the ceiling onto the floor all around him. As the floor around him vibrated more and more and another droning and steady rapid noise was added to the scene, Avan finally realized that something was wrong.

The moment he looked around and saw a five meter tall crystal object swinging up and down towards the other lizard, he momentarily lost concentration and his opponent managed to snatch one of the two spheres out of the air with a triumphant roar, still completely unimpressed by Avan's attempts to damage the right claw with his mana intrusion.

Confused and momentarily snapped out of his trance, Avan looked back at the crystalline object as the struggling lizard bit down on the celestial sphere in his mouth with a loud crack. Just when he thought he saw something between and behind the crystals, a wave of destructive celestial mana crashed over him and the surrounding area with a deafening boom.

Still kneeling, he only swayed his torso briefly and quickly regained his balance, unlike the lizard, which shook its head, shrieking in pain, and waved a long tongue through the air, peeking out from between its pointed teeth.

His ears had this time, with more distance to the explosion, not suffered so completely and only a dull roar impaired his hearing, while his healing already began to work automatically.

Less than two seconds later, when his hearing was working a little better, Avan was startled when he heard another roar of a lizard nearby to the right. This was exactly the direction from which the five-meter-high purple crystal had just approached.

Just as the ominous object was swaying around a giant stalagmite, Avan saw the lizard that had heard the roar. Unlike the monster in front of him, this one was one and a half times larger and the crystals on its back seemed to be of a higher density and size.

Ahh fuck! Mama Lizard? In any case, an even larger specimen!

As the second crystal lizard stomped towards the edge of his sphere of influence, Avan was also able to make a quick identification.

[Crystalline Mana Wyrm - ???]

Yep! I'm officially fucked!

He grudgingly thought to himself when he saw the three question marks, which he had only seen before on Cyntha's guildmaster.

Avan! Think! Think think!

He glanced around frantically and quickly took in the situation. The smaller lizard was still shaking its head dazedly and painfully, tossing its neck back and forth, while his second sphere was still trying to hammer the back of its head. At the same time, the other and larger lizard had entered the clearing and was roaring at the spectacle before it.

With a quick thought, Avan sent his remaining Akkalon's sphere upward to the edge of his sphere of influence and frantically ran his right hand over his head as he tried to find a solution to the doubled problem.

Staring at the scene in front of him and half in thought, he could only watch as the second lizard suddenly charged at the smaller komodo dragon with another roar in a rage.

Closing his slightly open mouth again, and following a sudden thought, Avan began to conjure up another Akkalon's sphere. He sent the other sphere into the back and blind angle of the larger lizard and let it hover there while he poured all his possible mana into the right leg of the large lizard. Akkalon's touch focused all the mana it could on the right knee, where Avan hoped to do the most damage.

The smaller lizard had only now noticed the onrushing larger komodo and spun around on its four legs to receive a clawed blow to its own shoulder and hiss back angrily.

As the two opponents attacked each other back and forth with bites of their sharp and pointed teeth and claws, Avan waited crouched a little further behind the stalagmite, with an increasingly materialized sphere hovering over his palm.

After successfully summoning the second sphere, he also sent it upwards between the crystals, where the other one was still hovering, waiting for his further commands. When Avan finally heard a triumphant cry from the first and much more battered lizard, he could feel something fray and dissolve between the bones of the great komodo dragon with the help of his mana.

He glanced at the battling giants and just saw the smaller adversary bite into the right side of the larger one's neck with relish as its right leg buckled under, causing confusion.

At that very moment, Avan ordered his two waiting balls in the air to concentrate on the back of the larger monster's head and do as much damage as possible.

Satisfied with the result, he turned his spell back to the right front leg of the smaller monster to do damage there as well.

With loud roars from the two fighters, things looked a little better for the smaller one, especially when the two spheres slammed into the back of the larger lizard's head with a loud bang, jerking its head forward on impact. Green blood gushed from between the fangs, which were still clenched in the neck, amid cries of pain.

The larger komodo dragon threw itself around furiously and out of control, dragging the smaller one to the ground with it, which brought both of them, armed with teeth and claws, into a roll in body to body close combat.

Suddenly, the smaller of the two shrieked and let go of the other's neck with his jaws, as the connection between the bones of his legs also dissolved.

Not missing the opportunity, the giant komodo dragon pounced on the smaller one in revenge and ripped out a piece of his opponent's neck with a jerk of his equally giant jaw. A green fountain of blood spurted from the neck of the writhing and ferocious little lizard as it lunged at the other's neck and throat in a final attempt with claws and teeth.

Avan's two spheres, meanwhile, repeatedly crashed into the head of the larger variant, missing here and there the twitching komodo head as they smashed and crushed the crystals on its skin with all their force and might.

Not quite able to cope with the onslaught of three attacks, the giant lizard tried to tear itself away from the small one, but this was of little use, as the opponent had already bitten into the same part of its neck a second time, clawing wildly and lashing out while its tail whipped around behind it.

The sounds of the fight became louder and more fierce, and the two opponents were equally matched, as the wounds became more numerous and the blood of both lizards seeped into the ground between the crystals.

Avan, following another flash of inspiration and spontaneous experiment, had meanwhile decided to unconventionally aim Akkalon's touch at a part of his body that, for whatever reason, he had never thought of before.

On the go, go... Why didn't I think of it before? Because that would NEVER have worked in games? He said, annoyed at himself for his lack of foresight, and watched with narrowed eyebrows at the spot he was aiming at.

Ignoring the two fighting monsters, he didn't really notice when one of the smaller lizard's claws destroyed one of his spheres in another celestial explosion and the larger one then took the other's neck whole between its jaws and bit through the neck completely with a second loud crack.

Dazed and bleeding, the surviving komodo dragon staggered and gasped out of breath as it wheeled around angrily and whipped the other Akkalons sphere with its tail into a stalagtite on the ceiling. where it loudly imploded inside the crystal and glass-like pieces rained down in a large circle below.

Just as the lizard lay down to lick a bleeding wound on its right shoulder with its meter-long tongue, it suddenly and without warning spasmed its head back and forth jerkily, and then abruptly fell dead to the floor with its tongue hanging out.

"Wheew, that feels like cheating ... fucking hell..." Avan cursed out loud, half pleased with himself that his attempt had been so successful, and half horrified at the thought that he had actually been able to do it.

"If THAT could be done by someone else earlier in the healing order, why did they seem to die out?" He asked himself aloud one more time, while his head jerked to the left as he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye.

Reassured, he watched as Horny came hobbling up, ears perked, to observe the battlefield in front of the stalagmite, and then cast a luminous glance out of his eyes at Avan.

Avan, with a queasy feeling in his stomach and a sensation following him, had applied his Akkalons Touch directly to the brain of the giant lizard, irrevocably destroying parts inside the head, resulting in the creature's instant and twitching death.

He had never thought about this possibility before, because it had seemed impossible to him, and on earth, in all the games and scenarios, such a thing would never have been conceivable.

Stroking his companion reassuringly for both of them, he thought about it again briefly, while he let himself fall completely on his backside and briefly enjoyed the peace and quiet after the fight. "I would have really thought that some mechanics or protective mechanism would prevent the direct damage to the brain.... I stupid idiot... I'm not in a game after all!" He laughed in disbelief, still shaking his head in amazement and craning his neck to stare at the site of the stalagtite that had imploded earlier.

"And because of my dungeon class, only I can do something so extraordinary! THAT'S probably why no one had ever been able to do it before...! Because who could touch the opponent's head for seconds or minutes to let his destructive mana flow directly into the brain? All during a fight? No one probably!"

After some time of thinking, he called out the suppressed system notifications.

*Chime*

Congratulations on defeating [Crystalline Mana Wyrm - 73]!

*Chime*

Congratulations on defeating [Crystalline Mana Wyrm - 112]!

*Chime*

Congratulations on reaching level 59!

For leveling up, you gain 5 free stat points.

Please look into your character interface to distribute your free stat points.

...

*Chime*

Congratulations on reaching Level 67!

For leveling up, you gain 5 free stat points.

Please look into your character interface to distribute your free stat points.

*Chime*

You have gained another level in Tracking!

Tracking: [Bronze] 9

*Chime*

You have gained another level in Pain Expert!

Pain Expert: [Bronze] 1

Passive Skill: Pain Expert

Pain is your second name. You love to be in pain, and you love to claw yourself through torture, primarily self-inflicted. Since pain is such a nice feeling for you, you will inflict much more pain on enemies to share your own experienced passion about it with others.

[Bronze] You can now focus on extremely increasing the pain you inflict on your opponents instead of harming them.

Before he could forget again, he grabbed twenty-five points each of his seventy-five free stat points and distributed them evenly among intelligence, wisdom, and spirit.

Intelligence:

Increases magical impact and power.

Increases your understanding of magic overall.

Increases your learning speed.

Wisdom:

Increases your mana pool by 5.

Increases your mana regeneration by 5 per minute.

Increases your perception.

Spirit:

Increases your mental resistances.

Increases your magical resistances.

Increases your luck.

Satisfied with himself, he took some dried berries from his celestial storage and a drinking bottle from his backpack, and took a short break.

A short time later, he set about examining the crystals on the komodo dragon's skin when he identified a few larger chunks of them on the ground.

[Unique Purple Mana Crystal]

Whistling, he stowed away all the chunks he could find and collect. "I'm very excited to see what I can do with THEM... Mana batteries would be something really cool...!" he muttered to himself as he looted.

[Avan´s Character Sheet]

Avan Leaf

Level: 67

Free Stat Points: 0

Element: Celestial

Class: Healing Dungeonheart [Human]

Subclass: [Bronze] Healer of Akkalon

Stats

Strength: 75

Dexterity: 130

Vitality: 95

Intelligence: 135

Wisdom: 100

Spirit: 130

Active Skills [3/8]

[Bronze] Akkalons Touch

[Bronze] Akkalons Sphere

[Bronze] Celestial Storage

Passive Skills

Pain Resistance: [Bronze] 7

Steady: [Bronze] 8

Potential: [Unlocked]

Celestial Affinity: [Bronze] 5

Identify: [Bronze] 6

Celestial Sphere: 1

First Aid: 7

Tracking: [Bronze] 9

Meditation: [Bronze] 9

Pain Expert: [Bronze] 1

Primary Resources

Health: 525

Stamina: 525

Ambient Mana: 950

Celestial Storage

[Bronze Coin]: 10

[Silver Coin]: 67

[Gold Coin]: 35

10 [Golden Meaples]

1 [Well-used Spear]

3 [Water Flask]

1 [Short Sword]

3 [Blanket]

1 [Tent]

1 [short ax]

1 [Used Iron Knife]

1 [Bow]

3 [wooden iron-tipped arrow]

73 [Small Stacks of Berries]

11 [Dry Roots]

122 [Lymia Herbs]

3 [Cup of steaming Lymia Tea]

113 [Hound Fangs]

9 [Small Rune Engraved Stones]

3 [Wooden Logs]

33 [Small Rune Engraved Wooden sticks]

753 [Small Purple Mana Crystal]

23 [Unique Purple Mana Crystal]

Debts

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