Since Frankenstein had won the fight against a member of the Executioners' Team, his knowledge of Element Manipulation had reached a much higher level than before.

"We all need to reach the Second Phase before facing Medusa's team," Helial said. But this time, Helial had decided that, to ascend to a higher Phase, splitting would have been better: each of them would have chosen a Dungeon to train and reach the Initial stage of the Second Phase as soon as possible.

All of them had accumulated the maximum possible Mana within the First Phase. It was a number that ranged from 80.000 to 100.000 based on one's attitude towards Mana. This difference one day would have increased exponentially and each additional MP could have been as big as the distance between heaven and earth.

Frankenstein knew he was lagging behind monsters like Helial and Snowflake. However, he had absolutely no intention of getting thrown down. Lulu and he would train together to help each other.

And besides, the girl had the Skill to heal and provide support. A supporter without someone to support is practically dead. The life of a supporter was really hard, consisting of a continuous serving of others, a thankless but fundamental task within a group battle or a Dungeon. Only very though fighters like those in Helial's group could hope to face Dungeons on their own without any supporter to help them. But Frankenstein wasn't sure that this time he would be able to stay alive without Lulu's help.

Frankenstein looked at the girl walking beside him, surrounded by the darkness of the Dungeon. He came up to her and squeezed her wrist to give her strength. In addition to be his supporter, Lulu was the closest thing to a friend Frankenstein had ever had.

Skill Activated:

Lv: 6

Elements Manipulation

Grade: Blue

Degree of Knowledge: Bodily Manifestation

Damage: 8000-8600

Effects:

It allows to manipulate the energy of the elements to create Palms of pure energy, within which the principles of the elements are contained.

Cost: 200 Mana / sec.

Efficiency: 100%

Suffering is always a starting point for strength. Whoever will be able to carry the greatest cross will redeem humanity.

Skill Activated:

Healing

Several bluish hairy spiders popped out of every corner of the cave, while Frankenstein dodged their poisonous spits, trying to protect Lulu.

Blue Indigo Spiders.

They were extremely poisonous beasts and had an unbelievable physical strength. Their carapace was so hard that no one at the First Phase could ever penetrate it.

Five Blue Indigo Spiders surrounded Frankenstein and Lulu.

Their poison had properties belonging to the class Affinity to Ice. Although it was not deadly, the drool would have slowed down and blurred the movements of anyone who was hit. Afterwards, thanks to the tremendous force contained in their paws and fangs, the spiders would have blocked and eaten their prey. Those were monsters at the Initial Stage of the Second Phase.

Facing such creatures would mean the death of an expert fighter at the Initial stage of the Second Phase. Blue Indigo Spiders were not creatures that could be faced lightly. Their venom allowed those monsters to hunt prey much higher in level than themselves.

Frankenstein knew he had to kill the monsters as quickly as possible, before they could block his movements.

According to the information received, the team they were to deal with consisted of five members, all at the Initial Stage of the Third Phase, except Medusa, who was on the verge of reaching the Intermediate grade.

“Boom!”

Forcing the Mana and compressing it in the arm Meridians, Frankenstein cut one of the spiders that had surrounded him in two. On the Goblin's face there was an expression of madness, ferocious and possessed.

In an instant, after the explosion, he slipped five needles into his other arm, carefully hitting as many Meridians, and held it motionless with his free arm.

BANG!

A huge palm of energy materialized from Frankenstein's hand. It seemed that the blow contained the power of all the elements and chaos too.

Within a few seconds the four remaining spiders were turned to dust.

Other Blue Indigo Spiders began to surround the two.

Frankenstein's chest rose and fell quickly, while an exaggerated amount of blood was flowing from the holes he had made with the needles. Because of the blast he had just thrown, even his skin had cracked in several places.

"Healing!" shouted Frankenstein, his arm dangling inert beside his body.

Skill Activated:

Divine Healing

The wounds on the Goblin's arm suddenly began to heal, but they were too deep. Even the Meridians had suffered damage due to the forced use of Manipulation of the Elements. It seemed that the Skill was still far from the result desired by Frankenstein.

Although the Goblin had only that Skill in its arsenal, it was so versatile that he would hardly have felt the need to learn more for the time being. However, if he really wanted to face those monsters in Medusa's group, he couldn't stop at that. He still had two weeks to train.

In a fraction of a second Frankenstein inserted another ten needles into his arm, speeding up the wound regeneration process. The price to pay was a huge lot of pain. Frankenstein's face distorted because of the pain, but the Goblin did not emit a single whimper.

Lulu continued to heal and support Frankenstein with several Buffs, but all those Skills required constant support, which seemed to take too big a toll on her small body.

As the arm that had been unusable until recently had started to move again, Frankenstein pulled something out of his Interspace Ring.

One arm protection, just one.

Lulu looked confused at the piece of equipment as Frankenstein quickly pulled it on and began to recite a strange formula.

The artefact was composed of Phoenix Crystal, fused with Black Steel. It had the power to contain and stabilize the Mana within one's body. Using mainly the arms as a weapon, the protection would have allowed to reduce the effects of the backfire. Furthermore, it would have ensured that the Meridians were reinforced during the fight, thanks to the greater amount of Mana they could now support.

Frankenstein had researched for weeks in the Royal Library information on new materials, to forge something that could bring his to the same level as Snowflake and Helial. If his body wasn't enough, he would have invented something to bridge the gap!

Frankenstein put his body forward to receive the recoil and stopped the arm with the protection, before fully activating and compressing all his Mana trough Elements Manipulation.

"AHHH!" he screamed as if possessed, while half the cave was swept away by the power of the blow.

Lulu looked at the storm of fireworks with wide eyes, but did not get distracted; she continued to manage her Skill and watched Frankenstein's life bar swing fiercely back and forth thanks to the healing spells she was Casting.

Another dozen Blue Indigo Spiders were reduced to pieces.

"We have to take something from the Boss of this Dungeon, if we want to guarantee our victory in the arena," Frankenstein muttered to himself, making mental notes on what had to be improved in that arm guard, which was now slightly charred.

First, it was necessary to find a better balance between the materials in order to create other pieces that would enhance his Skill use. Well, that was not a problem. In his Interspace Ring he still had several gadgets to try.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city

In a house on the edge of the forest, a slightly plump woman no more than twenty years old was slowly leafing through a book and looking at the sky through a telescope, trying to peek at the secrets of the universe.

The room all around her was a complete mess, with books and clothes scattered everywhere and food residues on chairs and tables.

A wooden chair collapsed under the weight of a mountain of books and tools.

Indifferent, the woman took a slice of bread from a plate with one hand and continued to scribble notes on a piece of paper with the other. Suddenly she stopped and let her Mana flow through several Meridians.

She repeated the operation several times, without stopping.

Several times she was forced to spit out mouthfuls of blood because of the internal damage she had caused herself, but just as many times her body shone with a strange light that seemed to heal her previous wounds.

"Miss Margherita," a timid and trembling voice interrupted her, "Miss Medusa challenged the team of Cesar's disciple to a death match." A Human boy was standing at the door, not brave enough to enter .

Margherita raised her head and slowly yawned: "Okay. All right. Tell her I need more money, though. For my research."

The boy trembled and replied: "No, Miss Margherita. Miss Medusa would kill me. Today she has already killed four of them servants! "

Moving a strand of dirty hair from her face, Margherita blew her nose with a piece of paper that contained old research, smudging it with black ink.

"Okay okay! My servants even stop taking orders, bah," Margherita murmured, heading lazily towards the entrance.

The servant watched his mistress leave her room and enter the corridor, probably heading towards the gate of the villa to go and meet Medusa. Made bold by Margherita's absence, the boy had finally the guts to enter the study and peek at the notes scattered around the room.

As soon as his eyes touched those papers, blood began to flow from the boy's nose, who put his hand to his nostrils and felt the viscous liquid. The servant did not even have time to be surprised, because blood began to flow copiously from his eyes, ears and mouth too. He collapsed on the floor, smearing it with blood, and died within moments.

The young man had made a huge mistake: he had cast his eye on information about Mana that was too powerful, so powerful that just looking at them had killed him. This kind of information could be acquired and understood only if one was at a Level high enough.

A gust of wind blew Margherita's sheets up to cover the corpse and get smeared with blood.

One covered the boy's face. On the page there was a drawing representing several complex machinery, full of descriptions ...