The Divine Wolf... or?

The 5th level of the dungeon that they were currently in was called the Hellfire Ruins. The name naturally stemmed from the hellfire that was all around the ruined city, but it was also because of the creatures that one would find here. Almost all of the creatures in these ruins didn't have physical bodies. Since they didn't have physical bodies, they could naturally only be killed using mana.

Although Atar didn't usually use magic, all he really needed to do was coat his body with mana to be able to kill the different spirits that roamed about.

Ark naturally had no problem with this, but since he knew that something was coming in the future, he wanted Atar to be able to use ranged attacks as well. Letting Atar specialize in close combat was fine, but he didn't want him to be too reliant on just physical attacks. Since there would definitely be times in the future where he couldn't use physical attacks.

It was better to be safe than sorry, and since this dungeon was the perfect place for Atar to practice, Ark would make sure he did so later.

For now, he wanted to get a little familiar with this place first, and grind some levels before he let him practice. As they walked down the path that led to the ruins, the closest hellfire spirit suddenly started pulsating with energy, indicating that it had sensed their approach. Since Ark was the strongest, he was the first to test the waters.

The hellfire spirit started to expand in size as it drew nearer, and after getting close enough, shot out a fire spear.

Although the fire spear packed quite the punch, Ark could fairly easily snuff it out with an overwhelming amount of mana. Without waiting for the fire spirit to react, Ark drew his sword and used blink to teleport right next to it. As he felt the heat radiating from the fire spirit, Ark almost started sweating immediately, but because of his physique, he wasn't really affected.

With a large amount of ice mana imbued within the pure white sword, all that the rest could see was a white flash, before the fire spirit was obliterated.

Although it seemed simple, not many people would be able to do what Ark did. Instant teleportation magic was really rare, and both his affinity with ice as well as the amount of mana he consumed was nothing to scoff at either. And you also had to consider the fact that this was essentially the weakest monster in this entire level of the dungeon.

Ark was still pretty relieved since he could take care of it so easily, he was sure that the rest wouldn't have any problems either.

"So, how do you guys want to do this, you want to stick together or split up?"

"I say we split up, as usual, it would take too long to make any progress otherwise."

After hearing Thufrat's opinion, Ark just silently gazed at Ephine.

"I think I will go with Atar for today, and if it goes well we can split up tomorrow."

"Ok, sounds good, let's just meet up here for lunch then."

Since they had it all figured out, they all went their separate ways. Although Ark was eager to power level, he still needed to scout the place out a bit first. If he was going to be fighting a lot of these enemies, then he wanted to know whether there were any peculiarities that he needed to watch out for.

After roaming around for a while, he noted down some things to look out for, and he also made some plans for himself. Although the dungeon was the ruins of an ancient city, this particular city had once been divided into several parts, which had created 3 different zones in the current dungeon.

These 3 zones all had different levels of danger and rewards, with the outermost level consisting mostly of lesser hellfire spirits and similar creatures. If you continued further in, you would start running into hellfire elementals of different levels and kinds, which were much more high-level creatures.

Since that was the case, Ark decided to stay in the outermost zone for now and work his way into the other zones once he was a bit stronger and a bit more accustomed to the dungeon. Whilst he was busy planning, the rest had already engaged in some fights, and understood the strength of the lesser hellfire spirits more.

Since they had only seen Ark fight one earlier, they naturally needed to test them out themselves, and the results were actually a little surprising to them.

Although they knew that Ark was a bit stronger than the rest of them, they were still shocked by the ease at which he handled the lesser hellfire spirit after they had fought one themselves. Although it was by no means a frightening or particularly strong monster, it was far from being weak.

Before he actually started grinding, Ark also probed some of the stronger monsters a little. After a confrontation with a hellfire elemental that could be found between zone 2 and 3, he concluded that he could win if it was a 1 versus 1 situation, but considering their surroundings, that would only be wishful thinking. Even though it wasn't the best of situations, Ark was satisfied.

It would only serve to further strengthen him if he could feel some extra pressure, and he hoped that this place would be able to provide him with that.

After confirming some other theories, Ark set out to finally grind some levels. Since he didn't have unlimited time in his human form, he decided to grind in his wolf form. Although he wanted to train his swordsmanship, that would have to wait until another time. Although he couldn't train his swordsmanship, he made sure to train his other skills as he grinded, especially his mana erosion.

Although these spirits didn't have physical forms, his mana erosion could literally erode anything, especially mana, it was in the name after all. After a few hours of relentless hunting and grinding skill levels, he saw some result in his training. Not only had he gained 3 levels, but he had also managed to level his mana erosion once.

Although 3 levels might not seem like a lot, this was only a single morning after all.

Since they had been at it for a while, they all soon met up near the entrance of the dungeon. Although they had agreed to meet up at lunch, they didn't say a specific time, which meant that Ark had to wait for the rest of them for a while. Surprisingly enough, Thufrat was the last to arrive, and he looked like he had been through a fairly rough battle.

Seeing his tattered clothing and scorched body, Ark didn't ask what happened before he instantly enveloped him in holy light.

It took a little while for the healing to completely finish, but they all sat down and talked a little in the meantime. Although Thufrat had been injured, the atmosphere wasn't heavy or gloomy at all. He was fine now after all, and they all pretty much knew why he had been injured anyways.

Thufrat didn't really mind either, and he naturally shared why he had been injured, he had overestimated himself!

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