72. Strategy
Mana Reinforcement is a skill that dramatically amplifies all stats, including attack and defense power, in proportion to your Intelligence value. Mana Reinforcement is, quite literally, a cheat skill capable of turning your life around the moment you acquire it. You can get a rough idea just by looking at how much benefit I've reaped from my [All-In] skill alone. [All-In] only momentarily boosts a single stat, but Mana Reinforcement amps up every stat simultaneously. And it's especially broken because it doesn't stop at just the four basic stats—it separately boosts attack and defense power on top of that. Boost Strength, and your attack power rises; boost Endurance, and defense rises. Then, it amps attack and defense independently one more time. Your effective combat power is going to explode.
On top of that, the fact that Intelligence—the stat dictating the amplification level—is such an insane advantage. You can roughly gauge Strength, Agility, and Endurance from swordplay alone, but Intelligence doesn't show on the surface. Which means the instant someone uses the skill, no one can predict how much the stats will surge. And that's not even touching how it lets Warrior classes make effective use of Intelligence, a stat they might as well dump. Hell, pumping just Intelligence is basically the same as pumping all stats. The list goes on—the sheer brokenness of Mana Reinforcement could fill a book.
-Rumble! An overwhelming pressure emanated from Mercedes as she advanced slowly, cloaked in white mana light. It wasn't just my imagination. My newly awakened mana sensitivity was picking up the sheer oppressive force of her leaking mana.
I pulled out a large shield to brace for a potential ambush, gripping the best weapon Erwen had forged for me. Then a fist hurtled toward my face.
Iron Wall
All-In
-Bang! Even as I snapped the shield up and maxed out my Endurance reinforcement, the impact overwhelmed me. This wasn't a truck—it felt like a goddamn plane crash. With a physical gap this wide, "blocking" wasn't blocking at all.
And shit, the rebounding shield clipped my head the instant her fist connected. Blood trickled from my forehead. The bleeding itself was no big deal, but it could obscure my vision at a critical moment. I'd need a potion to heal this—
Another attack came barreling in before the thought finished forming. Couldn't even tell if it was sword or fist. Just a flash of something blinding.
-Bang! I barely managed to interpose the shield this time too, but my body slid back in a straight line. My left arm popped out of its socket. The potion I'd yanked from my inventory got caught in the shockwave and shattered, splattering across the ground.
No time to heal, huh? Fine, but it was more bearable than I'd expected. If this were me right after stepping onto Floor 7, I wouldn't have reacted to that first strike at all. No way in hell could I track it with my eyes alone. I'd have to predict via mana sense and block.
Disgustingly fast and strong, but her swordsmanship wasn't all that different from that Verit prick or whatever his name was. You could argue there's no point when blocks don't really block, but I've got plans for that.
-Zing. Mercedes activating Mana Reinforcement pinged on my Intuition skill and mana sense. I predicted the arc of her swinging blade. With a casual gesture, I opened my inventory.
'Item drop.'
I dumped a massive pile of armor and shields I'd been hoarding for ages.
Up through Floor 7, I'd raided dozens of treasure chests and snagged items. Gear doesn't just come from chests—you get it from monster drops too. And most of it? Useless. Equip restrictions I couldn't meet, or just mediocre performance not worth equipping.
But I'd reinforced a bunch of these emergency backups anyway. Full [Durability] enchants, naturally. Then never touched them. Now I poured out every last sturdy piece: armor, shields, weapons.
-Kaboom! Mercedes's strike detonated with explosive force, sending my gear flying like Styrofoam scraps. But flooding her attack path with a mass of obstacles blunted the impact big time. Her attacks weren't magic or AoE skills—just brutally powerful slashes and strikes. Physical barriers like this could hold her off somehow.
"What is this? Space magic...?"
Mercedes muttered, dumbfounded by the absurd defense. Made sense for an NPC—suddenly summoning heaps of objects from thin air would look like that. The dark elves, Elenoir included, chalked up my inventory pulls to some "item box" magic. But this was just the system's inventory function. Zero cost to use.
Which meant shit like this was fair game.
-Tap! I leaped high into the air, scattering more items beneath me. Mercedes spotted me quick and tried launching an attack skyward. But I dumped another avalanche from inventory—this time junk items. Sure, she could sense surroundings with mana, but a sudden flood like this would fuck with that.
How'd I know? Tested it myself after mastering mana sense.
-Clang! Clang! Mercedes whipped her blade to bat away obstacles, but I scooped up the scattered crap and dumped more. Items weren't the only thing I could spam, either. Like back at the forge, I could unleash millions in gold coins too.
"You think these pathetic tricks will buy you time, human scum?!"
-Clang! Bang! She cleaved through the horde, but seemed to be tracking my noisy position anyway. Yeah, figured as much. Her mana sense outclassed mine. But this was good enough. She could guess my spot, but not my moves.
Right now, Mercedes was on guard for me popping out from the clutter for an ambush. She ignored the junk flood, focusing solely on when I'd charge. Which meant she couldn't block this.
-Whoosh! A handaxe I'd hurled, threading perfectly through the obstacle gaps.
Beings with strong mana get pinged hard by mana sense. Flip side: inanimate objects without much mana slip under the radar easy. She'd dismissed the junk swarm as a smokescreen and zeroed in on my position alone.
So she was bound to notice the fast-flying hunk of lifeless metal too late.
-Crunch!
"Ugh!"
Mercedes took the handaxe clean in an unguarded moment, though the wound wasn't deep. Expected—Mana Reinforcement would've jacked her defense sky-high. Landing a solid hit with one throw was always gonna be tough.
-Whoosh! Whoosh! I recovered dropped items, dumped more, kicked junk around, flipped dirt to pile obstacles higher. And between it all, kept chucking iron balls, daggers, handaxes.
"Enough of these childish games!"
Maybe because I'd tagged her once, she wasn't letting her guard down anymore—properly deflecting now. But the chaos would ramp up, making it harder to track me via mana sense.
Which meant her next move was obvious: bull her way through the pile, no matter the strain, to get at me.
-Kraka-boom! Right on cue, Mercedes barreled through the heap with monstrous charging power.
Too bad—that wasn't where I was.
"What—how...!"
"What, you fucking moron."
I burst from behind her, slashing down to carve her arm.
-Splatter!
She whipped around for an instant counter, and my arm got sliced too, but whatever. Equal wounds meant I came out ahead with [Combat Healing].
Mercedes had mistaken my position for one simple reason: bait via the [Light Gathering] skill, which clumps light into a mana-like glow. The second she started minding the thrown junk, her mana sense accuracy tanked.
[Light Gathering] was straight-up a mana-using magic skill—power gathers the instant it's cast. I'd dropped my maintained [Lightning Charge] at the same moment, sparking the illusion.
"To soil a sacred duel with such filthy tricks...!"
"Oh yeah? And what you did was all clean?"
Furious at getting duped by the cheap ploy, Mercedes trembled. I sneered and pressed the assault.
I spam-dumped items like a maniac, hurling weapons in the gaps, faking positions with [Light Gathering] decoys. But it didn't take long before Mercedes started adapting to my tricks and ambushes.
Still, dragging this out had meaning. Mana Reinforcement was powerful, sure, but a sustained skill—burned MP to maintain. Yeah, I was spending MP too on this bullshit. But way less than what she poured into Mana Reinforcement.
Call it cheap and cowardly all you want. That's strategy. Against a stronger foe, you poke every weakness, analyze, and topple them however you can.
I'd nearly gotten wrecked by this bitch the moment I hit Floor 7. Forced loss event, solo play quirks, epic quest route—whatever special sauce piled on, it was still a legit massive threat.
So of course I'd prepped a clear method.
-Whoosh! Caught her rear again, swung at the opening.
But she'd predicted it—her blade met mine faster.
-Puke!
I jammed my broken left arm in to forcibly block, then slammed my sword down. What the hell did you think I'd spent the last few weeks grinding training for?
"Told you I'd rip your fucking ear off, you bitch!"
-Splatter! My downward slash tore through Mercedes's left ear and shoulder.