Unlimited Power 02 – The Ranger's Domain

"I see, so you're having some troubles while dealing with dungeon masters," Alissa nodded after she heard Ryan's summary of the last events. "Well, it isn't that surprising given that they are creatures that probably lived for much longer than us. Still, if you ask me, I would say that you are losing a golden chance because you are rushing ahead trying to deal with small fries."

"What do you mean by that?" Ryan frowned.

"Those are going to cause problems for us aren't those dungeon masters who try to do things behind the scenes," Alissa replied. "If we keep strengthening ourselves, when the time comes, they will be at best, a minor nuisance. Think about it, what they will be able to do if someone like Thanatos and Lilith decided to go at each other. Nothing, right?"

"That isn't the issue here, while it isn't much, by obtaining some domains we can decrease the problems we will face later on," Ryan said. "Besides, the domains can also become a good source of coins."

"You can get as many coins as you want just by fighting and by doing so, you will also become stronger," Alissa said. "Considering the things, you said, trying to take a domain from some sapient beings can be a huge pain in the ass. Besides, the more domains you have, the more time you will have to spend guarding them. Thus, you will have less time to train certain skills and obtain more classes."

Alissa was strangely convincing… Ryan was pretty sure that she wasn't that logical a few months ago. Ryan recognized her points, but he still couldn't believe that the human race could survive a war against mythological beings just by relying on brute strength. They needed some trump cards, and the domains could play that role. While some dungeon masters attack Earth, their back would be exposed on their bases, and Ryan wanted to use that chance to strike. However, since dungeon masters couldn't manifest themselves in all worlds when they reach a certain level of power, a lot of preparation was needed.

"I hate to say this, but… she has a point," Femradiel said. "We know that you have been facing some problems trying to defeat other dungeon masters. I guess it is too early for that. Come to think of it, it is already amazing that you have three domains when most of the dungeon masters lived for hundreds of years. You should focus on increasing your strength and once you become a few times more powerful than you are, defeating dungeon masters and obtaining their domains will be something that you will do much more smoothly."

Ryan was stubborn and prideful, but he wasn't that stupid. Alissa and Femradiel had a point. He rushed ahead without thinking because he realized the potential the domains had. Still, Ryan couldn't get his hands on several of them when he wasn't even on the rank of the ten strongest humans. Come to think of it, he realized that the special classes would help him much more than any domain until at least he obtains an equal number of domains and classes.

"I guess you are right…" Ryan said after a lot of hesitation.

"What? Who are you and what you did to Ryan?" Alissa said, showing an expression of disbelief. "The Ryan that I know would never admit that he is wrong about something…"

"… How many guys called Ryan you know that call you a chopping board?" Ryan asked.

"Only one… and he is probably the most stupid guy who I know," Alissa said and then crossed her arms, trying to play it cool. "Who cares about boobs anyway, they are just lumps of fat."

"Whatever you say," Ryan shrugged. "Anyway, I am going to train this new skill. You guys can keep training, but if you damage the domain or kill any of my summoned creatures… well, I won't be as understanding as before."

Without wasting any more time, Ryan teleported to another dungeon that was relatively close by. The dungeon was spawning Harpies, and since those creatures could fly and were pretty good ranged attackers, leaving them alone. At the same time, multiplying wasn't the wisest of the ideas. Fortunately, that was a tier two dungeon, so Ryan would be able to train his skills relatively well.

"Let's do this without crossbows," Ryan stored his weapons away. "Thunder Bullet probably would be enough to deal with them, but in order to level up the Mage class, I will have to stick with Fireball."

The harpies were scattered around several mountains, but then when Ryan activated Taunting Aura, several of them began to fly towards him. Just as expected, when the skill worked on several monsters, it soon leveled up, and the range expanded, making even more monsters fly toward him.

"I need to start now, before they can overwhelm me with sheer numbers," Ryan said. "Without my archer skills and crossbows, I am pretty much an ordinary survivor."

Although his primary skills were sealed, Ryan still had many others. His magic damage was far above the average survivor. When the Fireballs hit the Harpies' faces, they exploded and caused critical damage that made the monsters stagger and became easy targets for a barrage of other Fireballs.

The Harpies caused some trouble when they used their wind magic, but Ryan could easily dodge them with Teleport. He was starting to feel that he was relying too much on that skill, but in the end, not leveling it up would be insane.

After a couple of minutes, the hundred or so harpies had been killed, and Ryan had gained a level in the Sage class, two in the Elementalist, and eight in the Mage class. As much as it felt weird not using crossbows, it was definitely the right choice when facing small fries. Fortunately, just before he killed all the monsters outside the dungeon, the Sage class reached the max level. Now, Ryan just needed two more…