Ryan's arrow made a lot of snow fly, but before the skeletons could notice that, and the entire squad got wiped out by his attack. Surprisingly enough, Ryan saw the moment the skeletons raised their shields to block his arrow… even though he charged his arrow for fifteen seconds…

You obtained 40 coins.

You obtained 40 coins.

You obtained 40 coins.

…

Ryan covered the hole in the snow his arrow created, and then he waited for the monsters to head toward a point several meters to his left side, but the creatures never did. That was odd. If the skeletons managed to react to his projectile, they were supposed to know that the arrow came from such a direction.

"I wanted to mislead them, but… it won't be easy, huh."

Something smells fishy… Lately, Ryan had that kind of feeling many times. The behavior of the monsters was changing quite a lot. Maybe Ryan should wait until sunrise, and then he will attack when the dire wolves appear. Certainly, the attention of the skeletons will be divided, and his job will become easier. However, Ryan being Ryan, he didn't want to win by relying on other factors.

"Let's see… this shot just killed for skeletons, and I can fire one of those every five minutes. So, I can kill around seven hundred skeletons per hour. Not bad, I guess. The question is: will the skeletons let that happen and don't try anything?" Ryan rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

There was only one way to find out. However, Ryan didn't want to find out without having a countermeasure or two. After thinking for a while, he had an idea. It wouldn't be that efficient, but at least it would make the bastard who was controlling the skeletons hold his horses if something happens.

Ryan moved dozens of meters from the position of his first shot, and then he prepared another one. He repeated the same actions, so the result had been the same. However, soon after, a group of skeletons got wiped out. Two groups on the sides began to move toward the direction the arrow came from. Those groups had eighty knights and forty skeletons and wizards in each group. Without mana and stamina, Ryan wouldn't be able to fight them. However, the skeletons stopped when they began to get hit by something coming from the underground. One after the other, the skeletons knights suffered damage and got sent flying upward. That alone halted both groups' charge.

You obtained 40 coins.

You obtained 40 coins.

You obtained 40 coins.

…

Congratulations! The skill Magic Trap has leveled up.

Magic Trap Lv 1 ➞ Lv 8

Effect: It creates a magic trap hidden underground. When your target passes above it, the trap is activated, causing magic damage equal to your intelligence. When the enemy's mentality is lower than your intelligence, the target will also be snared for two seconds.

Cost: 30 mana

You obtained 07 status points.

"They moved almost instantly… as expected. They were expecting the second attack to confirm my position. My guess is that once the same thing happens, they will be more cautious, but the same trick won't work twice, even more so if the bosses are the ones controlling them."

That was kind of troublesome; still, it could work well as training for Ryan. He wasn't strong yet to overpower every single opponent that gets in his way, so Ryan needed to become more adaptable to unexpected situations. He had to make most of the situations, after all.

A direct powerful attack was too obvious, so Ryan decided to attack the backline and see they respond to it. Luckily enough, snow began to fall even more intense at that moment, so when Ryan used Arrow Shower, the skeletons didn't notice from where Ryan was attacking. That being said, the archers and wizards responded to his attack by using their own projectiles to block the attack. In the end, only five skeletons were defeated before Ryan's mana got empty.

"How annoying… let's see how they will respond to this."

Using Water Transformation, Ryan began to concentrate the snow that was about to fall around him over his hand until it turned into ice. Little by little, the sphere grew in size, and when Ryan used around eighty percent of his mana, a sphere of ten meters of the radius was floating above him. Still, instead of firing at the skeletons, Ryan shot it upward. Only after a couple of seconds, the sphere fell above one squad of skeletons. However, once again, the knights reacted fast enough to save half of the squad.

That was getting old really quick, but Ryan decided to test one more thing before observing how the skeletons would react if he repeats his previous attacks. Ryan grabbed his twin long swords and then took a deep breath. He had to approach a little more to use that attack. It was unfortunate, but the range of Fire Storm was one hundred meters. That was probably the range the skeleton wizards had, but for someone quite Ryan… it was quite never-wracking to get that close of his foes. Regardless, while crunching underneath the snow, the skeletons never saw him.

By swing, both swords at the same time, Ryan cast Fire Storm, and two tornadoes of flames appeared right inside the skeleton's formation. The monsters tried to protect themselves with their shields, but they couldn't endure the power of such flames. It was a level fifty spell, after all. Although Ryan only managed to keep the attack active for eight seconds, it had been more than enough to wipe three whole squads.

Before he could get carried away even further, Ryan decided to retreat. However, at the same time, the skeletons began to march in all directions. They apparently gave up on trying to find Ryan based on the direction his attacks come from, and they decided to destroy everything in the area. For starters, but skeleton wizards began to melt all the snow.