Billy was in such a good mood that he even let the tyrants attack him. Naturally, he used Magic Absorption to stop their attacks. Although the magic attacks of those creatures were something else, they all consumed mana over time, thanks to it, their burst damage wasn't that impressive. At least not for someone who could counter magic attacks like that. Upon noticing that their magic wasn't enough, they tried to attack Billy directly, but he put a spear in their eyes before they could scratch him. The difference in power was that evident... in any case, he couldn't get carried away now because things could get dangerous the deeper he goes. Billy already had much experience to tell that things change drastically and he also had a feeling that it would.
In any case, after a couple of minutes, the others managed to learn the passive skills with Icarus' help. They felt mentally exhausted because they did in a few minutes what they were supposed to do in days, but at least they felt satisfied with the results. Once they find the Manipulator, they will without a doubt be a lot stronger than now and they would have to be since his strength was unknown..
"I thought that you traveled around because you liked it, but I guess you used that as an excuse to learn the skills of the people around the world," Icarus said.
"I am someone who likes to optimize my time, so I use it while doing several things at the same time, like relaxing and learning new things," Billy said.
"I am pretty sure that your notion of relaxing and mine are pretty different…" Icarus said. "In any case, let's get going. I feel pretty good since it isn't every day that I learn something new. With Quick Steps, I will save some mana while using my powers."
Meryl recovered a bit faster since it seemed that she was used to taking damage or harsh training. The same couldn't be applied to Lucyna and that made sense since it was a lot more efficient to rely on her powers to get stronger. Billy realized that a long time ago, but his innate skills would only truly be useful in lower levels when it comes to everything, if he hadn't learned other ways to get more mana, he truly would be in a bind.
Regardless, it didn't take long for the group to find some bifurcations ahead, so Billy used his experience to draw a map using his magic on an Earth block, he was curious to see how Meryl used cleared dungeons, but since she didn't say anything, her method probably wasn't that much better. In any case, after two hours, they found the entrance to the next level.
"This might not be good, the size of the levels increase exponentially as we go downward," Billy said.
"You have one dungeon that has ten levels, right?" Icarus asked. "How many times the first level is smaller compared to the lower ones?"
"It isn't something certain and accurate, but I would say that it is ten times smaller," Billy replied. "Of course, you will waste more than ten times in terms of hours to find the last room for the first time and the whole thing is reset once the dungeon is cleared."
"I can see that this might be really problematic," Icarus said. "I guess I will use go on ahead and find the shortest route for us, even the shortest route will take days for us to cross, after all."
"We don't have much of a choice here," Lucyna said. "Just find the entrance to the next level and then you should regroup, you might get lost if you go too far ahead."
Icarus nodded and then he dashed ahead. The path ahead didn't have many bifurcations since it was only the second floor, so it took him only a couple of minutes to find the right path. Unfortunately, his presence alone along the way was enough to make the tyrants spawn, so when he returned…
"Some monsters are chasing me… Well, trying to chase," Icarus said. "I thought it would be better if we were to face them together."
"We don't have time to waste, so let's cooperate," Billy said when he saw a group of tyrants dashing and making the ground tremble. "I will stop them, and you guys will finish them off."
Billy pointed his hands toward the monsters, and then he used Lightning. Each one of his fingers fired one that hit a different target in the head. Still, thanks to their Shock Resistance, they weren't losing that much health.
"If I approach, then I will get hit…" Icarus said while he saw Meryl bombarding the tyrants with arrows and Lucyna stealing their health with her powers.
"Just run faster than the lightning," Billy said.
"Easy for you to say that!" Icarus protested.
In the end, Billy decided to listen to Icarus' complaints since he spent too much mana on the first group of enemies. Considering his skills, some blunt trauma would be a better option, the only problem was the fact that Earth magic wasn't that fast when Billy fires entire blocks of dirt. Fortunately, Billy made it work by freezing the air around the monsters and hitting their heads from the sides when the other groups approached.
"These scales seem pretty powerful, are we going to ignore them?" Icarus asked.
"We don't have time for gathering materials, even if we had, carrying them would slow us down," Billy replied. "Let's just focus on taking the manipulator down as soon as possible."
Once they were done with the pursuers, the group speed up while they followed Icarus to have a few encounters on the second level as possible. Despite all that, they managed to cross the second floor in two hours as well, but once they reached the third floor, they began to be attacked from both sides by the Tyrants.
