Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

Fighting the Nightmare Devourer isn't fun...

Ashton wasn't looking forward to it since he already knows it's gonna suck, and he hates it when he's right too.

A matured demon, one with four and a half pairs of horns, one that can talk and obviously dead-set on eating him, isn't really something that he'd easily deal with.

Despite its sluggish appearance, the Nightmare Devourer is deceptively swift. It can instantly cover hundreds of meters in a blink of an eye. Its main form of attack is by sending barbed tentacles at him.

Each tentacle is covered with acidic spit, one that could punch a hole in his body within mere seconds. The thorny barbs that covered the tentacles were extremely sharp, each one is jagged and curved too which makes it even more painful.

This thing was a predator through and through. The creepier part of its abilities comes in the form of 'Grafting' as Ashton would like to call it.

In some kind of sick and twisted way, the Nightmare Devourer can control the corpses of its victims, somewhat reanimating them in a way and using them as a puppet to increase its arsenal for predation.

Ashton had witnessed it using its victims to shoot streams of acid towards him, lob thick shells, emit a poisonous fog, bite him in half with large mandibles, and so on. All of this was done using the corpses of its victims and it didn't help that Ashton has to sever the connection if he wants to stop it.

The most disturbing thing about this is the fact that it can also use its human victim quite easily.

Ashton had to shake off the unsettledness that he felt when the human corpse began casting spells. It turns out that the man it ate was once a Sorcerer for the parasite and was able to use High-Order Spells.

The demon can use multiple bodies at once so if he wants to even stand a chance against it, then Ashton had to develop a fine strategy here.

The fires caused by his shots don't work either. They've finally met their match it seems.

The moment he tries to set the demon on fire, the Nightmare Devour would just casually discard the part of it that's on fire giving it no chance to spread at all.

And since it's agile as well, shooting it down is difficult even with Ashton's expertise. Ashton also confirmed that this thing has an absurd about of vitality. A battle of attrition isn't wise to deal with it since it would most likely outlast the attempts.

This meant that Ashton is kind of stuck now. He doesn't know how to approach this for now but he could certainly try more ideas.

He didn't plan on going out before finding a solution to this problem though. Ashton just didn't want to risk it.

Based on his observations during the past few days, the Nightmare Devourer is really determined to find him. If had been doubling down on its patrol and practically refused to never leave the spot he departed from for too long.

It's clear that it is waiting for him, it wants to eat him so bad and he'd be an absolute buffoon to fall for such a blatant trap.

This is fine for Ashton, if anything, time is on his side. He's not in a hurry anyways.

That being said, he's far from being idle. He's working hard.

Getting killed by the Nightmare Devourer sucks. The demon takes its time and savors the victory. It will even go so far as to preserve him just so that he becomes more 'flavourful'. Experiencing that process is just a prolonged agony and suffering.

It's kind of traumatizing to die in such a way but he's building some kind of resistance towards it with every subsequent attempt.

Ashton is also trying to figure out a way how to kill this thing more effectively.

While the flames don't work on it, it doesn't mean that the demons weren't harmed by it. Oh, that hurts it a lot. It just doesn't suffer too long from it, which is the problem.

He tried shooting it using the Anti-Abomination Formula.

Well, it sorta worked, but it didn't kill it outright. It was close though.

Still, Ashton would prefer to not use that kind of shot unless it's completely necessary. While it does seem effective, the attack proves to be so strong that it will undoubtedly collapse the tunnel system.

And as much as he would like to eradicate the demons barring his path toward home, he wants to do it without burying himself in the process.

'Restricting its movements is a no-go.' He mused to himself after another failed attempt. 'The tunnels are too small that there's no use for that anyways. Plus, this creature is highly resistant against the flames.'

'Well, it is a Matured Demon so it does make sense why that's the case but still...'

'A battle of attrition is a big no, I'm not faster nor stronger than it is, and traps don't work either.'

'Surely, I'm missing something, right? There should be a way for me to defeat this thing without killing myself in the process?'

Ashton was facing a dilemma. This thing is more difficult to deal with compared to the Tormentor and the Crowfather. It truly is one hell of a demon.

And to think that something like this is hiding in the depths of this place. It puts the world's perspective in a negative light.

In the end, Ashton couldn't come up with an answer for today. So another fruitless endeavor it seems.

It's not like he doesn't have any other options though. For one, he could just remain inside the library and cultivate until he's strong enough to wipe that thing off of the face of the planet.

That's an option...

Sure, it will take time but it's effective so it's viable. Additionally, Ashton has time, he isn't in a hurry. But this would be the last resort though.

Even though he wasn't in a hurry, it wouldn't be productive of him to be stopped for that long just to deal with one demon. So, whether he likes it or not, he has to find a way to deal with this as soon as he can.

"Hey, Babe."

"Yes?"

"What non-offensive High-Order Spells do you have?" Ashton asked.

"Hmm, well there's Absolute Immunity, Archangel's Breath, Divine Fortress, and White Emperor's Regalia." She replied, "Why do you ask?"

"Can you teach me one at least?" He asked, looking a bit hesitant. "My ammunitions aren't working on the damn thing. I've tried all sorts of combinations at this point but that thing just casually shrugs it off, I'm getting sick of it."

"Well...since we're in a weird situation, I guess that wouldn't be a problem. I can teach you everything I know, but I need to check if you even have the mana capacity to cast them in the first place."

Aria then walked toward him and held his wrist. Ashton could feel her sensing his mana reserves.

Under normal circumstances, what he did just now would be considered rude and disrespectful, but like Aria said their situation is weird and they're lovers so it isn't much of a big deal.

"Wow...no wonder you can last so long." She gasped faintly. Ashton pointedly ignored the innuendo. "Your reserves are almost as big as I have. With your intellect, it shouldn't be difficult for you to learn High-Order Spells. You should be fine casting three of these before your reserves dry out."

Aria then let go of his wrist and proceeded to write down something on a parchment. Ashton leaned over to see what she was writing and discovered that she was writing the details about the spells she will teach him.

She even wrote it down according to the System's style, which made him feel special.

[Absolute Immunity]

High Order Immunity Spell.

Grants Immunity to all kinds of negative status ailments for five minutes.

Cooldown: 12 hours

[Archangel's Breath]

High-Order Healing Spell

A massive AOE heal that cures all known injuries and heals allies back to their peak health.

Cooldown: 12 hours.

[Divine Fortress]

High-Order Defensive Formation Spell

Erects a 5x5km Defensive Formation that blocks High-Order Offensive Spells for an hour.

Cooldown: 24 hours.

[White Emperor's Regalia]

High-Order Defensive Spell.

Grants a massive offensive and defensive boost to all allies.

Unique Effect: White Emperor's Revenge - Reflects all damage inflicted.

Cooldown: 12 hours.

"Oh wow..." Ashton was awed.

These spells looked absurdly strong. It would make sense since they are High-Order Spells, something that 'only Sorcerers' are supposed to learn and able to cast. That being said, Ashton's a unique guy.

High-Order Spells are similar to EX-Skills in video games. They're supposed to be absurdly strong and have ridiculously long cooldown times. It sounds like something that Ashton needs to deal with one massive pain in the ass.

Anyway, since Aria doesn't have any problems teaching him these Spells, he should be able to use them shortly. And with the Grinding Slots available to him, this should hopefully be enough to deal with the Nightmare Devourer.