Eldritch Creature's Guide

Half an hour later...

[Profficiency with the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion has been increased by 9%.]

[Profficiency with the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion has been increased by 10%.]

[Profficiency with the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion has been increased by 6%.]

[Profficiency with the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion has been increased by 1%.]

[Profficiency with the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion has been increased by 8%.]

[Profficiency with the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion has reached 100%.]

[Spell Fusion between two 2nd Level Spells should be possible.]

After using the Spell Fusion on the 1st Level Spells continuously for more than a half hour, Samiel achieved his goal of attaining the 100% in the Metamagic Skill - 1st Level Spell Fusion, as he wished. Spell Fusion was one of the harder parts of the Metamagic because one wrong move and one could easily kill himself if fusing incompatible spells.

For now, he refrained from using the Spell Fusion on the 2nd Level Spells, not only because he lacked suitably compatible Spells to fuse together, but most importantly, some major change was happening on the battlefield, as the Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps suddenly changed the pattern.

The continuous bombardment from the Mana Cannons reduced their numbers significantly, judging by the number of carcasses that were lying around the battlefield. Still, somehow, new Monstrous Spiders were constantly appearing.

"Maybe they had more than I was aware of?"

Samiel pondered, as probably the number of the Monstrous Spiders that the Drows managed to breed, was actually much higher than he anticipated; based on the memories from the Drows Warrior whose soul he ate, it should be around 400,000.

Though it would probably be false, and during past months, they managed to increase the number tremendously, probably... Fortunately, the strength of all Monstrous Spiders was either Iron-Tier or Steel-Tier, with some rare exceptions being the Bronze-Tier.

There was a high probability that either the Drow Warrior was unaware of the actual numbers, which could be highly possible because he was just an ordinary Warrior, and thus his status should be pretty low, especially taking into fact that Samiel killed him on the guard duty.

Or that somehow they increased the number of the Monstrous Spiders and bred more of them. Samiel read in the bestiary he got from Karliana that breeding Monstrous Spiders was easy as slapping a kid... one needed just some food for them, and it is done. Drop a few hundred of corpses for the Spider Colony, and they could multiply even several thousand times.

***

On the other side of the battlefield, a group of Drows were gathered like obedient soldiers around their Drider leader as they awaited their next orders. Neither of them dared to breathe too loudly, not wanting to irritate the Drider, who already looked pissed beyond reason.

"How many of them managed to get to the Walls?"

Questioned the Drider angrily as he saw that tens of thousands of his precious Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps were already turned to the meat paste without any significant result ye to be seen.

"Only something around 10, My Lord. The defenses of the City are too strong, and they found that we have strapped the Spiders with some Gnome Explosives, so they are focusing on the Spiders with the explosives on them."

Answered one of the braver Drow Warriors; while hearing the report, the Drider got an amok of rage, as he, in a split of a second, went to the Drow Warrior and pierced his chest with one of his spiderish legs, dropping his dead body like a piece of meat.

Indeed, such was the rookie mistake, and the price was only death.

Other Drow Warriors didn't say anything, just looked around and pretended that nothing had happened, like usual they did on a similar occasion.

"Start focusing the explosives on one part of the Walls; I don't believe that we can't create at least one hole to breach them."

Shouted the Drider angrily; instantly afterward, the other Drows dispersed almost immediately as they went to carry out the orders of their Lord, mainly because they feared that they would be killed.

Soon enough, the Monstrous Spiders started changing their attack patterns as they chose one of the points in the walls of the Zephystrand City, attempting to create a breach in the walls. Among the hordes of the Monstrous Spiders, there were also some Drows mixed up, either planning to attack or defect.

***

Somewhere on the 3rd Floor, a few tens of kilometers away from Zephystrand City, in a hidden location.

"We have enough data, My Lord."

Said one of the drows to the drow who was acting as a Messenger from the Underdark City. He was standing together with a few others who were his guards during his observation mission on the 3rd Floor.

"Indeed we have."

Stated the Messenger absent-mindedly as he looked at the Mana Cannons massacring the thousands of Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps with each fired salvo. The new generation of the Mana Weaponry was already half-automated and was achieving frightening combat and destructive prowess.

"The marvels of the Magetech... this new generation of the Mana Canons is really something else compared to the previous one."

While the Magetech was not common across the Cosmos, it also couldn't be said to be very rare. Certainly, there existed one exception, and that was more powerful Magetech weapons; those were rare, especially the automated ones, just like those which were now stationed in the Zephystrand City.

For the Underdark, this amount of resources was practically nothing, just a few tens of thousands of Monstrous Spiders and some corpses for them to feed on, which was not really a problem to transport here.

Compared to the data they managed to gather on the new generation of Mana Cannons, it was nothing. They now had confirmation that Dwarven Coalition was on the verge of achieving automatization of Mana Weaponry, which was devastating, especially for the races who often competed with the Dwarven Coalition, like an Underdark City.

Underdark City did not consist of only Drows, but there were other species, one of the major ones which were the Duergar, the Gray Dwarves, or the Underdwarves, who competed with the Dwarves for the hegemony over the mountains and caves.

Of course, for the Underdark, this information was precious because they planned to sell it to other factions that often fought against the Dwarven Forge Cities and Fortress Cities.

"Let's leave... that madman from the Hall of Kadath would probably soon join the fight; we can't be seen here, even if I am Silver-Tier; I don't really think I can fight him, especially together with his Undeads."

Stated the Messenger from the Underdark, as he looked with binoculars at the walls of the Zephystrand City, seeing there a red-haired man wearing menacing black armor, as he kept spamming one spell after another.

One of the people the Messenger from the Underdark City noticed and observed the most, from the distance and safety, of course, was the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath, whom he noticed by chance, and only recognized the Holy Son by the earing he was wearing.

Even though the man was only a Steel-Tier, his power was frightening for his Level, especially now, just his Mana was several times bigger than his own, and even though he was Steel-Tier, the purity and density were not losing to even some weak Gold-Tiers.

After observing the situation for a while, the Messenger from the Underdark City activated some sort of teleportation device that teleported him out of the 3rd Floor back to the Underdark City; not even several seconds later, one Legendary Level Magician together with a few Gold-Tier ones, all of them bearing the sigils of the Nesser Dynasty appeared on the spot.

"They got away."

Stated one of the Gold-Tier Magicians.

"Indeed they got... it was to be expected that they had some means to hide from our sight, but those old coots must be very nervous about this when they entrusted bunch of Silver-Tier juniors, a Legendary-Grade concealment artifact."

The Legendary Level High Elven Magician summarized the situation; his voice didn't contain any emotion or anything, just coldly stating the facts.

This group of Magicians was called here by the Crown Princess Yvraine Nesser Silvermoon to catch the people from the Underdark City who were gathering the data on the Mana Canons that were applied in the Zephystrand City.

Even Yvraine didn't await that they would succeed because since the Underdark had already organized all of this, then for sure, they would ensure the safe passage for their rats on the 3rd Floor.

***

On the Walls of the Zephystrand City

While Samiel was casting spells once again at the Monstrous Spiders, who started attacking the sole spot on the walls, and every few minutes, some explosion could be heard. Yvraine got the call through some spell from some High Elf wearing Wizarding clothes and a long white beard.

"Hmm... so they failed."

She muttered as he ended the call.

"?"

Samiel tilted his head towards her, hearing Yvraine mutter something.

"The people I requested to descend down to catch the agents from the Underdark who were monitoring the progress of the Magetech Weaponry failed in their task."

While being irritated at this, it wasn't something that could be prevented; even with the Legendary Level Magician, they failed the task, so it meant that the people of the Underdark who were tasked with this mission must have come very well prepared.

"Don't be discouraged by this, Yv."

Samiel said as Yvraine smiled gently at him before suddenly an enormous explosion was heard several tens of meters away from them, as several huge cracks started appearing across the walls in that area.

'Booom!'

'Booom!, Booom!'

'Booom!, Booom!, Booom!'

"Breach!"

Yvrains shouted as the enemies managed to create a breach in the walls, as suddenly all Mana Cannons aimed at this area and intensified the bombardment several times over.

"How large is the breach?"

Samiel asked Yvriane, who was now thinking about the solution to this problem.

"Enough for three or so Monstrous Spiders to pass at the same time."

She said back as Samiel dispersed his spells and went down the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

Yvraine asked Samiel as she took up a bow, going to join the defenses of the City.

"I will hold the Spiders out until you can patch up the hole."

Samiel stated because that together with his Undeads, when they were in formation, with him as their support, they could probably hold the ground long enough until the hole was patched up. Samiel had very powerful Undeads, so it should not be a problem.