Reincarnated as a Sword Vol. 2 Read online

  Having the proclivity to use two elements was a tall enough hurdle by itself.

  “Correct. You also need to have the talent for using Compound Elements.”

  In that case, Compound Element users were rare. I had only seen Wood Magic on the Guildmaster and Furion, and they were both Wood Elves so they were probably born with it. Amanda went on to tell us that some races were born with magic. The Wood Elves had Wood Magic and Salamanders had Steel Magic, for example.

  “That’s why you don’t see people using Compound Elements all the time.”

  I wondered what Fran had for talent. She had no problems using the spells that I had, and that included all four elements plus Dark and Healing. Talent might not be a factor when using spells which were under Skill Sharing. Fran was good, but I doubted she had the miraculous talent of being able to use all four elements naturally.

  “Next I’ll talk about the other elements.”

  “Like Dark and Healing.”

  “That’s right. I’ll start with Light and Dark.”

  Light and Dark were not part of the four primary elements. You could learn them the same way as the main four, but not many people had the gift for them. The main four were the most common, followed by Compound Elements, and Light and Dark were the rarest. We were lucky to get them off the Daemon when we did.

  “There are also the derivative elements of Light and Dark. Cleansing and Illusion fall under Light Magic. Poison and Necromancy are a part of Dark.”

  The occurrence of Derivative Elements were consistent enough that researchers thought of them as the lower forms of Light Magic and Dark Magic. Having talent for Derivative Elements made it more likely to have talent for its parent element. Meaning, if someone was good at Poison Magic, they might be able to get Dark Magic.

  The Derivative Elements had advanced forms, too. Purification for Cleansing Magic, and Venom for Poison Magic. This magic hole ran deep.

  “And then there’s Unique Magic.”

  Unique Magic had various forms, such as Healing, Support, Summon, Contract, Dimensional, Moonlight, Spirit, and Blacksmith, to name a few. Healing and Support magic were common enough, but Moonlight was even rarer than Light and Dark.

  “Those are the ones I know but I’m sure there’s a lot more variations out there in the world. Some magicks are unique to particular monsters.”

  “Rumor has it that there are magicks only dragons and fiends can use. Compared to us humanoids, nearly all monsters can use magic.”

  “Why?”

  “They need to use magic to survive in the wild. Even if a monster was bigger than a castle, they’d get annihilated in an instant if they didn’t strengthen their bodies with magic. Magic is as necessary to them as breathing is to us. They can use it even without Mana Manipulation. It might have something to do with the crystals they have. They would be stronger with Mana Manipulation, of course.”

  “I see.”

  “It’s the same with Battle Arts. Spirit and Mana Manipulation might differ in their manifestations but they both have to do with controlling mana. Crystals allow monsters to use Battle Arts even without Spirit Manipulation.”

  Vibrofang must work on the same basis.

  “That’s why a lot of monsters can use Compound Elements and Light and Dark magic. They’re more talented than us in that way.”

  It might be distressing to learn that there were gigantic monsters out there but it was good news for us since they were more likely to have the rare elements. I might be able to get a boatload of crystals off them to boot.

  There was something that had been on my mind for a while, though.

  “Is Dark Magic only used by bad people?”

  We got it off a Daemon, and there was nothing good about Poison and Necromancy. I would never let my guard down around a Necromancer if we were meeting for the first time. They just had this evil aura about them.

  “Not at all. It might seem that way since they’re mostly used by monsters. But an adventurer with Necromancy would be a powerful ally to have in a raid. Think of how useful Necromancy is in a dungeon.”

  Good. We wouldn’t have to worry about using Dark Magic or the spell we got when we bumped it up to Dark Magic Up. I asked her about the Compound Element pairings to wrap things up.

  Water + Earth = Wood.

  Water + Wind = Frost.

  Water + Fire = Life.

  Wind + Fire = Thunder.

  Wind + Earth = Sand.

  Earth + Fire = Steel.

  She taught us how each worked, too.

  Wood Magic: As its name implied, it allowed its user to manipulate plants. It could make them grow as well as wilt. It also came with a skill that allowed its user to navigate a forest.

  Frost Magic: Ability to control cold air. Came with a variety of ice and snow attacks, along with the ability to steal the heat from a target to chill it. It also allowed you to survive freezing terrain.

  Life: Could be used for healing but its intricacies went deeper than that. It could manipulate life itself. Used in conjunction with Alchemy to conduct homunculus research.

  Thunder: Allowed its user to control lightning and magnetic forces. Had the ability to summon lightning strikes and apply a speed buff to its user.

  Sand: Allowed the user to control sand. It could also desiccate, dehydrate, and erode, among other things. Mostly used in food preservation.

  Steel: Allowed the user to control metal, ores, lava, etc. Worked under the ground. Mostly used by blacksmiths.

  As for the Unique Elements:

  Timespace: Control over time and space. Teleportation and time manipulation have been confirmed by researchers.

  Moonlight: Control over reflections and the mind. Mostly associated with vampires and werewolves.

  Support: Applies various buffs and barriers. There are similar skills in the other elements but the Support Element is the best in this case.

  There had been no sightings of a Compound Element formed between Light and Dark and Unique magicks.

  “Or maybe I just haven’t heard about it,” Amanda finished.

  “I want a Compound Element magic.”

  “You used Earth and Wind earlier. You’re good at Fire too, right? You can go for either Lightning, Sand, or Metal.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Should we absorb the Compound Element from a crystal or should we unlock it by ourselves? We already had Flame Magic when our Fire Magic hit 10, so we could unlock a Compound Element by leveling another element.

  Our strongest element after Fire would be… Wind.

  Leveling skills up through crystal was faster and more effective. The Army Beetles had Wind Magic 3 on each crystal. Wind Magic was easier to level up compared to Sword Mastery since the Goblins only had Sword Mastery 1 on them.

  Should I put more points into it?

  I had 47 EP left.

  What do you think?

  I want a Compound Element.

  No need for further argument. I used 6 EP to level up Wind Magic to unlock Lightning Magic. We got the titles Storm Elementalist and Wind Mage from it, too.

  I can’t wait to use it.

  Not now. Amanda just taught us about Compound Elements. She’d get suspicious if we suddenly started using one.

  Fine…

  We’ll experiment once we’re back in Alessa, okay?

  “Hm.”

  Chapter 3:

  A Black Wolf Named Jet

  Dawn had broken, and the expedition team had rushed through the dungeon floors to make up for lost time. We had just finished exploring the fourth floor.

  “All right, time to gun through level five.”

  We hadn’t run into any problems so far. Even Krad wasn’t giving us any lip. His loss the other day had made him taciturn, and if that wasn’t enough, he happened to wake up during Amanda and Fran’s mock battle (served him right).

  Their battle had been fierce and downright horrifying at times. Seeing Amanda stab right through Fran still sent shiver
s up my spine, not that I had one. I had yet to snap out of using bodily metaphors to describe a situation. They felt weird to use in my current state, but alas, old habits die hard. Still, the experience of fighting an A-Rank had been a good one for Fran. As much as it pained her to lose, she bore no grudges towards Amanda. In fact, it made her like the Half Elf all the more.

  Amanda herself was very satisfied with the proceedings of the night before. If an ordinary adventurer had been on the receiving of her whip’s onslaught, one lash would’ve brought them to a tragic end. Thanks to Fran’s evasive capabilities, Amanda had to go all out or risk getting cut herself.

  Amanda adored Fran for being equal parts cute and strong. She had been doting on her all morning, but then again she had been friendly ever since our first encounter at the guild some days ago. It wouldn’t have been awkward if she had blurted out, “I actually knew your parents,” because she was so kind. That goes to show you how much she liked kids.

  Cruise and Furion had looked on in awe at Fran and Amanda’s earth-shattering fight. There were no obvious changes in their behavior, but there was a note of awe in their voices when they talked to Fran now. She had earned their respect. Cruise had sparred with Amanda afterwards, but the match was nowhere near as intense.

  Oddly enough, Cruise took a liking to Fran, as well. I guess he didn’t feel like he lost to a D-Rank adventurer. He respected her for being much stronger than him, and was broad-minded enough to admit that fact. He’s a good man, Cruise. Not that I’d give Fran over to him.

  We went from the first to the fourth floors unhampered. There were no strong enemies, and no traps that we could find. We weren’t able to gain any new skills but that was okay. We had never fought in a team before and the extra experience didn’t hurt.

  “A word of caution before we go deeper. We’re going to start running into Trap Spiders, so stay sharp.”

  “Hm.”

  “They’re a pain if they manage to swarm you. Be on the lookout.”

  The Trap Spiders could produce strong silk thread. They might be weak, but you could suffer a humiliating defeat if they managed to wrap you up in their webbing.

  “There’ll be other traps, too. The Teleportation Trap is going to be the most dangerous one here. Thieves, focus on sniffing out traps over killing monsters.”

  There were also poison gas traps and trapdoors, both of which could kill you if you weren’t careful. And to top it off, there were strange traps that unequipped your armor, or confused your sense of direction.

  The Thief-class adventurers took point as we descended into the fifth level. In the event of a fight, the Fighter classes would move forward to swap positions with them. The Mage-class party members would hang back and provide covering fire and support.

  We needed the materials the spiders left behind, so we were warned not to use fire magic. Trap Spider Silk was strong and necessary in the making of a myriad of equipment. However, singeing them with fire before processing them would lower the quality of the material. Fran was going to have to stick to swinging her sword.

  Our expedition was doing all right. We hadn’t run into any problems during our battles or with traps. At this rate, we would clear level five without a hitch. We brought a lot of firepower so that was only natural.

  We ran into our first obstacle once we descended into the sixth floor.

  “Damn it, these spiders aren’t going down!”

  “My Spirit Magic isn’t working on them, either?! How?!”

  The Trap Spiders had suddenly gotten stronger. They were bigger and had more health points than the ones we’d been fighting on the previous floors. Did they get stronger the deeper we went into the dungeon?

  I used Identify on one of them. After seeing their stats and titles, my suspicions were confirmed.

  Fran, these aren’t Trap Spiders, they’re Trick Spiders! They’ve evolved!

  Trick Spiders looked like oversized Trap Spiders, but their capabilities were on a different level. Having evolved, they were now an E-Rank monster. Their stats were a tier above regular Trap Spiders, but what made them especially dangerous were their Confusion and Venom Fangs. Many an adventurer was fooled into attacking them, thinking they were ordinary Trap Spiders.

  We weren’t supposed to run into Trick Spiders yet, though, and yet here they were in full force. Wasn’t this a bad sign?

  “Gennel, what’s wrong?!”

  “I don’t know… My antidote’s not working…”

  There was our first victim. A Trap Spider’s poison was so weak that popping a fifth-rate antidote would’ve been enough to cleanse it. You needed a third-rate antidote for a Trick Spider’s venom.

  This was how the Trick Spider killed its prey. An adventurer, having been bit by something that looked like a Trap Spider, would consume his cheapest antidote. He’d continue fighting with the venom still in his system until he eventually succumbed to it.

  Fran, that guy’s in trouble.

  “On it.”

  Fran knelt beside the man and cast the Healing spell, Antidote.

  “Y-you saved me!”

  “Thank you. But why didn’t the antidote potion work?”

  “That’s a Trick Spider. Its venom is stronger.”

  “Trick Spiders?! So they’ve evolved?”

  This dungeon wasn’t supposed to spawn any Trick Spiders; Trap Spiders were the strongest things here. However, there had been cases where the monster population in dungeons would evolve on its own. Usually, it was an accident of the dungeon’s spawn system. A dungeon produced monsters out of nothing by using free mana in the atmosphere. Individual variations between specimens were inevitable. Sometimes, a dungeon would spit out a Rare or Unique monster that was head and shoulders above the rest.

  There was no clear explanation for it. Some say it was a trial from the Chaos God himself.

  This apex predator ate all weaker monsters around it. Eventually, it would have eaten enough of its own kind to evolve. It would move to greener pastures, and gave a chance for the next strongest monster to become an apex predator, and to subsequently evolve.

  Most of the time, the apexes’ battles for dominance would end in mutual destruction. However, there have been awful cases where they would coexist, thereby disrupting the dungeon’s ecosystem.

  Alternatively, monsters could evolve by ingesting something with high EXP, or other external factors. These latter cases were rare, however, since most conquered dungeons were monitored by guilds and the nations the dungeons were in.

  Cruise understood that this was not the time to be fussing about examination matters and promptly asked Amanda for assistance.

  “Damn it, we should’ve noticed sooner! Lady Amanda!”

  “Got it. Let’s go, Fran.”

  “Yeah.”

  And so the stomping began. Amanda unleashed her whip to keep the spiders at bay while Fran moved in to slice their heads open. The Trick Spiders, which had been giving the E-Ranks a hard time, began to dissipate. Soon, all that was left of the swarm were a pile of corpses. There were around twenty of them in total.

  “Well, that was boring, wasn’t it, Fran? I wish we could fight something stronger.”

  “No, I had fun.”

  “Aww, really? Then I had fun, too.”

  The other adventurers lay around exhausted despite Amanda’s cheerful exchange. Krad and his crew seemed to be at their limits.

  “Fall back to the fifth floor! They wouldn’t be able to chase us there!”

  Dungeon monsters were only able to move floors if a Dungeon Master ordered them to. Since this was a conquered dungeon, the Trick Spiders wouldn’t be able to go after us if we went back to the fifth floor.

  “They’re already breeding, so watch out.”

  “Got it!”

  “We’ll cover the rear. Fran, you’re with us.”

  “Sure.”

  “E-Ranks, you’re on point!”

  Krad and his crew followed Cruise’s orders without talking back for on
ce. He didn’t have time to bicker.

  “R-right. Aargh!”

  “Calm down! It’s just a scratch.”

  “They’re right behind us!”

  “It’s only one of them! Stop panicking!”

  “They’re coming in from the front!”

  Dragon Roar, Krad’s party, started freaking out. They weren’t used to being surrounded from all sides. The chaos didn’t make things any easier on them, either.

  “Wait.”

  “S-shut up!”

  Krad was barely able to maintain his composure during the brawl, but two of his teammates, the ones who had gotten attacked from behind, were now in a frenzy. They charged blindly into the swarm of spiders in front of them.

  “Stop, there might be traps there!”

  They stepped into a part of the floor that the thieves hadn’t scouted yet, and surely enough, fell into a trap. It activated with a low whine.

  “And it’s a Teleport Trap, too…?”

  “Crap!”

  “Run for i—”

  Fran disappeared. I fell to the ground, no longer in her hands.

  What? Fran?

  “Fran!”

  Fran was gone. The trap Krad’s party activated had taken her with them. Their weapons fell to the ground, too. It wasn’t just their spears, either. Even their daggers and throwing knives had been left behind. The Cobra Dagger Fran had equipped as a sidearm lay next to me.

  “A Strip Weapon trap…?”

  “It even stripped their sidearms!”

  We were warned that Teleport Traps could drag the people next to you when activated, but they could unequip your weapons, too? That was not part of the mission brief!

  Please be okay… She should be fine… Right? Right. Just calm down!

  Where was she…? Damn it! I should’ve leveled up my scouting skills if I knew this would happen!

  “Impossible! What’s a Compound Trap doing in a dungeon like this?!”

  “These are traps you see in high-rank dungeons!”

  Cruise’s crew were just as shocked as I was. The high-level trap hit them like a bolt out of the blue.