Ludwig felt embarrassed. Of course, the undead in front of him was afraid of the fire, but in this terrain, where the humidity was almost palpable, flames weren’t nearly as effective as they should be. The waterlogged environment was more of an ally to the crocodile than any of its tentacles or jaws. Fire spluttered and hissed, doing little more than scaring the beast temporarily.
The crocodile wasn’t going to leave its hiding place as long as Ludwig was using fire, and if Ludwig tried anything else it would be able to shrug it off.
Quite the opponent,’ Ludwig muttered to himself, pacing cautiously at the edge of the murky lake. It was rare for him to encounter something that not only countered his abilities so effectively but also seemed to enjoy taunting him with its patience.
Though Ludwig could have tried to intimidate it further with flames, his options were painfully limited. the other option was Holy magic, the only sure way to destroy such creatures, was completely out of the question. If Ludwig even tried to channel holy magic-that is if he knew how in the first place- it would burn through him faster than it would affect the crocodile. The irony of an undead creature being defeated by its own spell was not lost on him.
Ludwig thought he was at a standstill, after all, he couldn’t attack the crocodile, nor could it attack him.
But he was gravely mistaken, that small moment when he was distracted, the crocodile shot one of its tentacles at Ludwig who desperately tried to dodge away only for the tentacle to graze his arm.
The sleeve of his academy robe was instantly melted off.
[-80 hp!]
[You’re suffering from minor corrosion]
[You will lose 20 hp over the course of ten seconds!]
-2
-2
…
Ludwig’s arm was affected by the corrosion, to which he rapidly grabbed a piece of wet mud from the ground and wiped his arm with.
[You have removed the corrosive substance]
‘Okay, that somewhat worked out,’ Ludwig thought.
Ludwig glanced toward Van Dijk, hoping for guidance, but found his master perched lazily on a tree branch, his pen scratching away at a notebook. The casual dismissal of the situation only added to Ludwig’s frustration.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Ludwig grumbled under his breath, more to himself than to anyone else.
He then channeled a fireball again and threw it at the crocodile who simply dove down the shallow lake.
The fire and water exploded harmlessly spraying steam and vapor all around it, but it didn’t affect the creature whatsoever.
It soon perked up to gaze at Ludwig, ludicrously so. Which gave him even more frustration.
The crocodile hissed, and two tentacles darted toward Ludwig in a blur. This time, Ludwig was ready. He sidestepped one and ducked under the other, narrowly avoiding being ensnared. However, the creature’s movements were so forceful that even a glancing blow could have been devastating.
Ludwig found himself dodging and evading repeatedly, each attack coming closer to landing. He needed a strategy—and fast. The crocodile was smart enough to stay out of range, forcing Ludwig to play its game on its terms.
Ludwig thought about all his learned skills. And came to the conclusion that he had little to no usable skills against such opponents.
[Taint] was useless, though it would lower the opponent’s defenses, it’s meaningless if Ludwig can’t hit them.
[Fire Ball] is also not practical in this scenario.
[Rise Undead] is utterly unusable, since well he didn’t know what type of undead would rise, nor if they would help Ludwig, they might even attack Ludwig in fact and make his day worse.
[Self-Immolation] would be usable but that will require Ludwig to get up close and personal, but that also means that he could get turned to sludge the moment he’s close enough to the crocodile.
The rest of his skills were [Exhaust] which also won’t have much of an effect since the crocodile is wary of Ludwig. [Frenzied Spirits] is also quite useless since he has no idea what the spirits would do.
The most useful were [Summon Undead] and [Frenzied Spirits], but they were unreliable because they had problems of control.
All problems with those spells could be solved if Ludwig had enough [Charisma] stats.
Ludwig did a quick check of his current stored Souls.
All he had were a couple dozen souls that were wandering around in his lantern, and the Vondel guy’s soul that seemed to have been dormant since the day Ludwig used its emotions.
And finally, the [Corrupted Soul] Ludwig didn’t think of using it because of its name, but since he had no choice.
[Inspect]
[Corrupted Soul]
The Soul of a corrupted worshiper of the [Gluttonous Death]. Gives 200 Souls. And One [Corrupted Soul Essence]
[Corrupted Soul Essence]: one of the ingredients needed to unseal [Soul Shackles]
‘Well, I guess that solves one of my issues about that item.’
It had skipped Ludwig’s mind to inspect the [Corrupted Soul] he obtained from killing the Sheikh. As he thought it was only a simple Soul. But apparently, it had another function. However, this didn’t help Ludwig much. After all, what if he was able to use the chains? He wasn’t a chain user, nor did he know the least about wielding them, and he definitely didn’t want to get his face caved in by his weapon in front of Van Dijk.
Ludwig pushed the idea to the back of his mind, he would inspect the chains later and see what its capabilities were afterward.
But for now, almost all of his skills were useless in the face of this crude water terror.
But there was one skill he hadn’t used before. All because it was too dangerous for him to use.
Ludwig took another glance at his skill, [Flame Bringer].
A skill that would transform his mana pool temporarily and force him to take increased damage from all fire abilities but at the same time do far more damage using flame abilities at the same time.
It was a skill that basically turned him into a living volcano that would burn all around it and itself at the same time.
“Screw it,” Ludwig said. If he dies, then so be it, he had spare souls to come back a day before and think up another way on how he could handle this situation. Maybe he’ll go back and get anti-corrosion gear or even spend time looking or searching for spells that could help him in this situation.
“[Flame Bringer!]” Ludwig muttered. And only then did Van Dijk stop writing and begin watching the play for real.
Ludwig’s entire body began smoldering as his mana began rippling through his body and around it. He had a faster pace of rotation that began echoing out of his body like shockwaves of fire.
The ground around Ludwig hardened as it dried up super fast while his entire body began smoldering, turning bright red as flames and fumes began bursting out of his body.
His current appearance reminded him of a certain human torch. But then the notification that appeared made him aware of his predicament.
[You have used [Flame Bringer] at 580 mana.
Your mana pool has temporarily transformed to {Flame Pool}.
You can remain in this state for 100 seconds.
For each passing second, your resistance to fire damage will lower by 1% (It can go into negative)
Your fire damage abilities will increase by 1%]
“Let’s get cooking!”