Chapter 382: Chapter 217: The Drawbacks of Overpowered Monster Skills (Part 2)

"Polar Ray?"

It was the first time Raine had heard of this ’obscure’ spell.

Of course, it might not really be that the spell was obscure, but rather because back in Dorne City, he’d only learned spells of Fifth Level and below, while this spell was as high as Sixth Level!

"Sounds like a plus version of the Freezing Ray."

The suffix ’Ray’ immediately reminded Raine of the first frost spell he mastered—’Freezing Ray.’

After carefully examining Polar Ray, Raine continued to look further down.

What caught his eye was the final and only spell of the Seventh Level, ’Icebound Shackles.’

Icebound Shackles Level 2, Effect: Releases a circular surge of extreme cold energy within a 30-meter radius, freezing all targets within in high-intensity ice coffins. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Huh? This seems like a group attack version of Polar Ray?" Raine speculated as he noticed the ’ice coffins’ present in both spells.

With the newly acquired Adult White Dragon Bloodline, Raine naturally wanted to give it a try.

After a moment of thought, Raine replaced the ’Frost Giant Commander Bloodline’ with ’Adult White Dragon Bloodline’; the four bloodline slots were as follows: Deadwater Wild Boarman Lord Bloodline ×1, Adult White Dragon Bloodline ×1, Gray Dwarves Combat Priest Bloodline ×1, Drow Elite Mage ×1.

It’s not that the other three bloodlines were stronger than the ’Frost Giant Commander Bloodline,’ quite the opposite; the other three were considerably weaker in terms of strength.

But the issue was that many of the Monster Skills of both Frost Giants and White Dragons overlapped, like extremely high ice resistance, strong stat enhancements, etc.

According to Golden Finger Rule Two ’the stronger trait overwrites the weaker one,’ simultaneous enhancement is less effective than the aforementioned combination.

With the enhancement of the ’Adult White Dragon Bloodline,’ Raine, eager to try the new Monster Skills, found no suitable target in the ice cave.

After some thought, he carved out a chunk of ice the size of a washbasin from the glacier and placed it about four or five meters in front of him.

"Let’s test the power of frost spell on this ice block...."

"Hiss!"

As a thick, wrist-sized, white beam of extreme cold energy flashed by, a huge solid ice block about the height of a person immediately froze the washbasin-sized ice block.

Although the large solid ice was irregular, it resembled an ice coffin.

"Clang! Clang!" Raine casually knocked on it with the Counterattacker, and instantly the ice coffin emitted a sound as hard as steel.

However, although Raine successfully cast the Sixth Level Spell Polar Ray, as the spell ended, his expression turned somewhat uncertain.

"I didn’t expect a Sixth Level Spell to almost completely drain my Spiritual Power! This..."

"Which means, due to my low Classes Level, even though I obtained the Adult White Dragon Bloodline, I can’t release the Seventh Level Spell ’Icebound Shackles’ for the time being."

"My Classes Level is relatively too low...."

Raine knew that this issue had always been present—’The ever-growing strength of Monster Skills versus the insufficiently fast promotion of Classes Level.’"

Only, because the Monster Skills obtained previously were never so powerful, it was partly hidden.

But this time, the ’Adult White Dragon Bloodline’ was far too powerful compared to his current Classes Level of only Level 5.

Even for an exceptional individual among special classes like ’Frost Lord,’ it couldn’t compensate for this.

The Adult White Dragon’s Challenge Level was between thirteen and fourteen, while his own Classes Level was only Level 5....

"Sigh~ I really need to level up quickly!" Raine glanced at his Classes panel at that moment and sighed.

In fact, most mages can only cast Sixth Level Spells after reaching Transcendent, or Classes Level eleven.

And Raine could barely cast it at Level 5...

It’s a blessing wrapped in concern.

"In some time, I should be able to raise ’Frost Tremor’ to Level 2, so reaching Classes Level six shouldn’t be a big problem."

"But increasing just one level isn’t nearly enough."

"Just the act of casting Sixth Level Spells that drains Spiritual Power with one cast, has little practical value in battle."

"Moreover, to cast Seventh Level Spells, the Classes Level needs to increase by at least three levels."

"Clearly, I must focus on studying exclusive combat skills moving forward."

"Wonder if I can incorporate some White Dragon moves into that?"

"Right now, my combat ability is about no less than that of a newbie Transcendent; in fact, the burst might be much higher than a freshly transcended mage, but endurance is still a huge issue..."

As Raine’s drifting thoughts gradually converged, he noticed something with the corner of his eye.

"Huh? The absorption speed has significantly increased!"

Raine looked down at his own hands.

The dragon-blood stained, cooked-shrimp-like red back of his hands had faded, almost returning to their original skin color.

"Is it because the enhancement of the Adult White Dragon Bloodline has increased constitution, accelerating absorption? Or is it due to casting the Sixth Level Spell ’Polar Ray’?"

After pondering for a while, Raine couldn’t pinpoint the precise reason, but in any case, faster absorption is always welcome.

"Wait! Doesn’t this mean I can return earlier?" Raine’s eyes lit up.

Originally, he planned to stay here for a day or two, mostly to wait for the ’bathing in dragon blood’ effect to end.

But if it’s almost fully absorbed now, then naturally there’s no need to wait any longer.

"However, how can I evade the White Dragon’s keen sense of smell and perception..."

Raine looked up through the glacier crevices at the white dragon circling in the sky, deep in thought.

After a moment, he quickly stripped off his blood-stained Courage Set, wearing only a linen undergarment and shorts.

Taking a sniff of the air, Raine found that most of the bloody odor had faded.

"I could leave the Courage Set here, as the source of the bloody smell."

"The minimal blood scent on me shouldn’t pose much of an issue."

But to be safe, Raine rubbed some icy snow on his body, attempting to further reduce the smell of blood.

"Next up, is to wait for the blizzard."

After all preparations were complete, Raine glanced at the darkening sky, already filled with lowering clouds, and couldn’t help but smile.

The combination of dark clouds and a blizzard would greatly reduce visibility. Even the White Dragon would not be able to see much from the air.

Of course, if anything unexpected happened, Raine had a plan.

He could always come back!

...

Meanwhile.

After an approximately two-hour rush, Henry and the rest arrived at the edge of Lankote Snowfield where Elise, Laisa, Reya, and the Giant Blade Squad were located.

Because of the previous rescue operation, the Giant Blade Squad had already set up a temporary camp, erecting several simple triangular tents. After treatment from Elise and the Druid Maiden Sulfur Vine, the six heavily injured Royal Guards had almost fully recovered.

With the original six members in the group, there were now a total of twelve Royal Guards.

Behind the temporary camp, about tens of meters away by a rock, the place seemed deserted but faint whispers could be heard:

"Looks like this should be their temporary camp."

"Good, we’ll launch the attack after nightfall."

"I heard the Black Hand Priest, newly switched by Aesir, has some special abilities at night?"

"Yes." Salno smiled and nodded.

Just as he was about to say more, his brow furrowed, his expression changing as he said, "Not good! They seem to be about to relocate the Necromancy Crystal immediately."

"Olaf, look over there, three Griffins are flying over!"

Olaf immediately looked up, following Salno’s gesture.

In the distant horizon, the three Griffins were flying in a V formation, swiftly approaching from the southern sky, estimated to land within a minute or two at that speed.

Truly, plans can’t keep up with changes!

"Should we start the action early?" Olaf frowned.

Facing a Transcendent, twelve Royal Guards of the Soladin Kingdom, a highly specialized fire mage squad, and a host of adventurers with not low Classes Levels....

Even as Transcendent, both he and Salno felt considerable pressure in handling it.

"We have no choice but to act. However, since the protection around the box is tight, we’ll directly target the Griffins in a while." Salno, after pondering for a moment, smiled.

"Great idea!" Olaf’s eyes also lit up.

"Once the Griffins are killed, they’ll either have to retreat on foot or wait for the next wave of Griffins to arrive."

"But either way, by then, Aesir and the others should have arrived too!"

"Exactly, that’s the plan, get ready," Salno smiled.

...