For a while Joshua just laid there, arms spread out on the platform while catching his breath. He noticed that everyone else was in similar situations as him, being tired out from the fight and standing on their last legs. Although he wasn't able to see everything that happened on their end of the fight he was certain that the Ant Queen would be a fairly challenging opponent with all of the added abilities. If Aito hadn't taken down the Rabbit and Flutter mimics at the start of the fight then things would have dragged out for a long time and there was no way that he'd be able to hold up against the Scorpion Prince if it was being boosted during its enraged state while also constantly being healed the entire time.
Joshua was so exhausted that he barely noticed the scathingly hot ground that he was laying on from all of the flame attacks from Cinder and the heat generated from the Ant Queens body during the fight. When he was fighting the Ant Queen he could tell the area was getting hotter, but his aura was protecting him from the most of it at that point. In his current state he was completely drained of aura and had no way to protect himself on his own, but luckily Henry had seemed to figure out the situation and had put fire resistance buffs on everyone while taking on the Ant Queen. They were still in effect and would last a while longer. Joshua was just hoping they would last long enough for him to catch his breath and get some aura back before being forced to get up and leave the surprisingly comfortable hot ground.
While thinking along those lines a message appeared in front of all of them and Joshua took it as a sign that they had finished the dungeon. There would be no more boss level beast coming out of a portal to challenge them and when he looked around tiredly he noticed that the swarm of spirit beast had left as well. This had left his group entirely alone to rest on the platform that had now shrunk back down to its original size. Joshua was hoping that the reward for this place would be something interesting considering the fact that it was a new type of dungeon for them all to experience.
He also hoped it was a nice reward simply because of the fact that none of the enemies they had faced up to this point left anything behind for them to use as materials. They may have mimicked the bodies of interesting creatures with all sorts of differences, but they were still spirits in the end and that meant they didn't leave anything behind whenever they died. The only difference is the area got a little less cold as a whole whenever the spirits passed away. The group all looked towards the message that they had received to check out what they gained from all of their efforts.
[Congratulations on clearing this spirit dungeon. You have cleared the place with an excellent rating considering the fact that you were able to force the spirits to speed through the second phase and killed the boss monster in a relatively quick and clean manner. Spirit dungeons are different from other dungeons when it comes to rewards and that is simply because the reward is a skill that anyone can use. This reward remains the same no matter how many times you clear the dungeon so after the first attempt to clear the place it is advised to either move on or grind the place for experience if you are confident in taking on the constantly changing challenge. Since you have gained an excellent rating with this dungeon everyone involved shall receive the highest available form of the skill given…For clearing this dungeon you are rewarded with the Fade Presence skill!]
Joshua was shocked about the fact that everyone would get the exact same skill as a reward, but he clearly wasn't the only one that was currently surprised at the situation. He got over it quickly though and was interested in what the skill they had all gained would be like considering it worked well for all jobs. It had to be something that was versatile in a similar way to his blink and reset skills were. Of course since everyone was getting it he didn't expect something on the level of his reset skill, but it should still be fairly useful and was probably related to the spirit beast in some way. Joshua decided to pull the skill up to see what it was and he nearly cheered after reading its description.
[Fade Presence (Active) – This skill can be used whenever you've gained the attention of an enemy and are trying to break away from the situation. It allows you to drop all aggro of any creatures targeting you for three seconds. In that time you can move away from the creature and allow someone else to gain the aggro, or you can hide if you can get far enough away before the skill ends. If you attack while under the effects of the skill then it will end immediately. The cool down is five minutes at level one and will get lower as the skill is leveled.]
It was a great skill for just about anybody to have from what Joshua could tell. It was great for tanks that needed to shift off their role before getting to hurt and allow another tank to take their place. Gaining the attention of stubborn creatures could be like going through hell in long drawn out fights. For damage dealers it allowed them to go in for massive combos or techniques and then fade away for a time so that enemies don't lock on to them. Then for support or long distance fighters it could be used whenever they became targeted and they could easily just step out of view while the skill was in play and completely get out of harm's way if needed.
The skill did have some draw backs though as well. If you're fighting on your own then the creature will be constantly searching for you when you use the skill, so if you don't get out of sight in time then it won't do much more than give you a three second break. There was also the fact that you couldn't attack during it or else it would be completely pointless, although it could be extremely useful for ambush type situations. You could use the skill before you attacked just to make sure your opponent didn't notice you coming in for the strike.
Before Joshua could think about it anymore he could hear his little sister cheering and he turned to look only to notice that her body had completely faded away from view. He could barely sense her aura at all and it would have mixed into the background of things if it weren't for the fact that the current location they were at was completely void of life and aura. With no spirit beast around to generate large amounts of aura and mana there was nothing for Amy's aura to fade into even though it had greatly lessened as if it was trying to hide itself away. It was amazing to see, because Joshua knew for a fact that this would make it possible for them to be able to use this ability on even humans in combat.
"This is amazing!" Amy shouted in joy as her body faded back in to being as soon as the time limit for the skill ended. The only reason they were able to tell where she was before she once again appeared was because she had shouted out and the skill did nothing to hide her voice in the end. "This can be so useful for us. Now I don't have to hold back against more intelligent bosses since I can just fade away."
"This is an interesting skill. The fact that we couldn't even see you when you used it means that it works well against humans as well." Henry said with a thoughtful look. Joshua could tell he was going through a lot of the ideas he had just thought about and he wouldn't be surprised if Henry came up with even more interesting stuff. "It's similar to the faded state that we met Kalvin in when he tried to ambush us."
"Not exactly." Joshua decided to speak up to point out the main difference. "Kalvin's body was hidden from view and all, but his aura and mana were clearly there and easy to sense. Any monster could spot him if he moved around too much or was in a location with nothing to blend into. When we met him he was extremely lucky since there were multiple scorpions there so they didn't notice his aura over the other scorpions and they weren't nearly as good at sensing through aura as me or Tank are. This ability even hides aura as long as you have other sources of aura in the area. If Amy used it in the forest I wouldn't be able to notice her at all… well for at least those three seconds."
"Interesting." Henry simply responded as if he was trying to think of the best ways to use this new ability in upcoming fights.
"It's a shame that we didn't level up again though Joshua. I could feel that I'm so close so I'm sure that you must be as well." Lilly said with what looked like a pout as she looked over to Cinder who simply nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah. It seems like the leap to level fifty is a bit more than I was imagining. It's already annoying enough trying to break through fifty, I can't imagine how much worse it'll get in the future." Joshua said with a sigh. He was so close to level fifty that he didn't really feel like moving on to another location quite yet until he and Lilly had leveled up. One level might not seem like much, but fifty was a marker even if it was a small one. It would make it easier for them to stand up to the stronger opponents they'd be facing in the next area. Every ten levels was like a small divider in strength somewhat and that's why they all knew they stood no chance against the level eighty plus creatures that were to many steps ahead of them for now.
"So do you want go through this place a few more times then?" Adrian asked after testing out the fade presence skill as well. He seemed to find it incredibly useful since it would make it much easier for him to get to the weak points on enemies if they never noticed his approach in the first place. "It'll be something different each time we come through since it can take on the form of different creatures that we've faced before."
"I'd like to." Lilly said with a thoughtful expression. "It's not just for the fact that Joshua and I are closing in all level fifty and would probably reach with one more run through the dungeon, but also because of the fact that Cinder and Tank are both in the same situation. Plus I have a feeling that Cinder is about to evolve once she levels up, her body is just filled with far more energy than normal and that always tends to happen when one of my partners are going to evolve."
"Cool, I wonder what Cinder will look like when she evolves." Amy said as her eyes brightened as she looked over to the giant spider.
"She'll still be a giant spider so my best guess is fairly scary." Joshua said with a small grin as Cinder seemed to be annoyed with his response and screeched at him. He scratched the giant spiders head calmingly to get her to settle down at his little joke. "Well if she's about to evolve then I'd definitely say we stick around for one more round of this place. Having a far stronger Cinder could be a big blessing in the next area that we go to. Besides Lilly and I won't be going back so soon since we just started this expedition and we can take our test for our sub-jobs at any time since we've both had a fairly large head start at what jobs we want to take."
They all agreed with Joshua comments and decided to take on the dungeon again soon after they got enough rest. It had only been half the day since they started so they were planning on doing another run after a quick break for Joshua and Henry to recharge on their aura and mana respectively. They headed out of the portal that had returned as an exit and prepared for another trip inside.