Unlimited Power 02 – The Ranger's Domain

Although it was a necessity, after a while, Ryan kind of got tired of using Flash. Due to the fact that the skill consumed a lot of mana and the number of encounters was increasing, he could only fight using melee weapons. Still, things were proceeding too slow for Ryan's tastes. 

"I am never satisfied…" Ryan sighed. 

Some sacrifices had to be made to achieve certain things, Ryan realized that. Still, he couldn't help but always move in a hurry and feel satisfied when the progress didn't satisfy him. In the end, Ryan decided to sacrifice some coins to gain time. Instead of killing every single skeleton he found, he just killed those that blocked his way. Fortunately, by doing so, he had just enough mana to use Flash whenever was possible during the fights.

In any case, before sunset, Ryan and his salamander finally found the skeletons' dungeon. It was right in the middle of a place called Chestertown. It seemed like a small town before, but Ryan couldn't be sure because snow covered everything.

"What the heck is going on with the climate? Just by walking for a few hundreds of kilometers, the snow became so deep and thick…"

Ryan barely missed it since they soon left, but he saw some skeletons and dire wolves fighting in the distance. No… the dire wolves were getting their ass kicked since their numbers were small, and the skeletons could use Flame Arrows. In any case, Dire wolves were larger than Ryan imagined. They were at least five feet tall and ten or twelve long. A thick white fur covered their bodies, and their eyes were red like blood.

"Maybe it is because of them the skeletons didn't head South until now… wait, what is that?"

The skeleton army had dozens of thousands, but their numbers weren't what surprised Ryan, but the fact that even the ordinary skeletons were divided into many groups. Some of them even had armor, shield, and swords. While others had magic wands, could fly, and were wearing robes.

Skeleton Knight - Lv 55

Health: 1.500/1.500

Mana: 300/300

Stamina: 700/700

Strength: 750

Dexterity: 250

Speed: 250

Intelligence: 250

Endurance: 750

Control: 200

Mentality: 750

Luck: 200

Recovery: 500 

Willpower: 750     

Coins: --

Status: --

Skill List

Offensive Physical Skills: Bash Lv 50

Passive Physical Skills: Swordsmanship Lv 50, Shield Mastery Lv 50,

Spells: Mana Shield Lv 50, Bronze Skin Lv 50, 

Support Skills: Cold Resistance Lv 50, Fire Resistance Lv 50

Skeleton Wizard - Lv 55

Health: 500/500

Mana: 1.500/1.500

Stamina: 300/300

Strength: 200

Dexterity: 700

Speed: 150

Intelligence: 750

Endurance: 300

Control: 400

Mentality: 750

Luck: 200

Recovery: 400 

Willpower: 750     

Coins: --

Status: --

Skill List

Offensive Physical Skills: 

Passive Physical Skills: Alert Lv 50, 

Spells: Flame Arrow Lv 50, Frozen Arrow Lv 50, Thunder Arrow Lv 50, Fly Lv 50

Support Skills: Fire Resistance Lv 50, Cold Resistance Lv 50, Shock Resistance Lv 50

It was weird that a single dungeon could spawn three types of monsters… they weren't three types exactly, but they had three types of builds, and that was already crazy enough. To make matters worse, the army of skeletons was well-organized. First of all, the skeletons knights formed a massive defensive line around the dungeon. Based on Ryan's estimations, for every four skeletons, two of them were skeletons knights.

Right behind the skeletons knights, Ryan saw several groups formed only by skeleton mages. Although they could fly, they probably never leave that position in the middle of a fight because their attacks weren't as long as the archers. In any case, spells like them can hit just fine any enemy in that position. They just had to adjust their aim a little bit.

Deep on the backline, Ryan found the archers. Although their numbers were larger than the wizards, they couldn't be compared to the knights. Probably due to the nature of their long-ranged attacks, they were the only monsters Ryan saw on the way to the dungeon. They were weak physically, but in groups of three, they could get rid of most enemies.

"This will take a while…"

Even if Ryan uses his summons or slowly snipes the enemies from a distance, he couldn't tell what might happen since he didn't find the bosses. Most likely, all of them were sapient beings. Only such creatures could make brain-dead monsters follow that kind of formation, after all.

Regardless, Ryan's old tactics won't work now. Bleed doesn't work on skeletons, so summoning the giant bees was out of the question. Attacking at night from above also wouldn't work since they have wizards and archers. Ryan wasn't that patient, but it looked like the only thing he could do was to slowly decrease the size of enemies' army with short but concentrated attacks.

"I suppose it can't be helped… I want to be a one-man army, but I am not one yet. So, in this kind of situation, I have to be patient and do what I can."

Fortunately, Ryan would be able to use surprise attacks as much as he wanted. The snow was high, and he could hide inside of it with ease. Not only that, he could hide his trials and sign of his actions by using Water Manipulation and Water Transformation. After all, just like he could transform the water of the atmosphere into ice, he could transform all the cold of the region into the snow as well.

First of all, Ryan decided to hide his salamander a few kilometers away from the dungeon since the creature wasn't as quiet as Ryan. Meanwhile, Ryan also checked his skill list and wondered which skills could come in handy. Magic Trap seemed like one of them. However, since it was at a low-level, it wasn't strong enough to kill a single skeleton, not even the ones which had low health.

Ryan waited for a while until things get really dark in that region. Since it was snowing, the visibility was quite low, so the conditions were perfect for Ryan. Moving inside the snow, Ryan approached the dungeon until he found a point where the skeletons and he were basically on the same level. Nothing was blocking his path, and with a single shot, as long as his arrow has enough energy, Ryan knew that he could destroy several skeletons. Finding those conditions is going to be hard, but at the moment, that was the only thing Ryan could do.

Ryan began to charge his Power Shot, and then he had an amazing idea… then, he smirked since that would help him a lot. After charging Power Shot until his mana and stamina almost got empty, Ryan fired. However, at the last moment, he used Force to change the trajectory of the projectile.