Although he did that several times, the others didn't get less impressed as they watched Jake kill the crystal wolves with a single attack. One of them got close enough to attack Julian and the others. Despite having a focus on magic attacks, it could push him backward for several meters. Louise's magic was powerful, but her Thunder Arrows couldn't paralyze the enemies for a moment without enhancing them with extra mana, so it felt like his magic attacks were more powerful.
Thanks to that, Louise got a bit depressed. Although he was no longer the leader of their party, Jake still could say a few things to them. It is like that saying, old habits die hard... Still, it seemed that they would gladly accept Jake's opinions on most matters. They never change... it was hard to say if it was good or bad.
"You have too many magic spells. That is why you fall behind in some aspects," Jake said. "I bet you could do even more than what I did if you focused on non-elemental offensive spells."
"I never saw any of those. What are they?" Louise asked.
"Don't know, I just thought that they existed," Jake replied while he shrugged. "Maybe they are that rare…"
The group kept moving toward the entrance of the dungeon while following the same strategy. In the end, they had to take a break because Julian was getting tired. Using his counters wasn't that easy.
"Do you know how to solve that?" Julian asked. "Please help me. I want to get stronger!"
"Why are you suddenly asking a stranger to solve one of your major problems?" Jake asked. "You aren't in the same position as me, so my answer might not help you."
"At least give him some tips…" Lana said and then sighed. "Why do you always avoid the main topic and make things more complicated?"
"Since Lana is useless most of the time, make her carry and use your stamina potions," Jake replied. "That is what I would do in your position."
Lana decided to endure in silence since Jake was always trying to get on her nerves. While it was annoying, she was glad that despite things, Jake was the same as ever. His friends knew and had heard a lot about the things he had been up to, so they imagined that he was changing into something else.
"What would you do in your current position?" Karina asked.
"I wouldn't try to reflect every single attack and would only Aim for the big ones to surprise the enemy and cause as much damage as possible," Jake replied. "Besides, only stupid morons would use their innate skills every single time and show them to others."
Julian showed a depressed expression since he was basically insulted in front of his face. Perhaps Jake had gone too far, and he couldn't say much since he also showed his skill often, but he decided to do that to make things more interesting.
The problem with both strategies for Julian was the fact that he had people behind him, so it would be better if Lana actually focused on recovering his stamina. It also would level up the skill faster as well.
Putting that aside, the group made a lot of progress, so they quickly reached the area in front of the entrance of the dungeon. Jake couldn't see the bosses yet, but he could see thousands of crystal wolves around. No matter what they do, they will at least get the attention of a few thousands of those monsters.
"Are you guys satisfied yet, or do you want to risk your neck against those guys?" Jake asked.
"What are you going to do, Jake?" Louise asked.
"I am going to take my sweet time decreasing their numbers," Jake replied.
"Using the dark flames?" Louise asked. "You must be really hurt… Why don't you let Lana heal you?"
"Don't act like I am a frail backline…" Jake said. "Right now, those who want to become strong have to push their limits. I am not carefree, unlike you guys."
"After getting strong, what will you do next?" Lana asked. "Focus on world domination?"
"That might not be so bad," Jake replied. "But you think too small in scale. Since people can move between worlds now, cosmic domination would be more appropriate. Still, it would be troublesome since I would have to listen to everyone's problems."
"Nevertheless, we can't retreat now and since we are making a lot of progress, it would be stupid to do so," Lana said.
"Don't complain later that I didn't warn you." Jake shrugged.
The group moved to lure a small group of the crystal wolves, and thanks to Karina's skills, they managed to lure one that had only fifty wolves. Louise concentrated to use her mana and paralyze most of the monsters since it was clear that Julian wouldn't be able to reflect all the attacks of the monsters. Even before the monsters reached their attack range, Louise began to attack them with Thunder Arrows. That strategically was good, defensively speaking, but soon Louise's mana began to reach dangerous levels, and only a couple of them had died.
The beasts finally began to fire dozens of ice arrows. It didn't take long for Julian to be hit by those, Lana began to heal him with all her might, and she actually was managing to cancel the damage caused by the enemies. However, the issue was that Julian was suffering a lot, he wasn't a proper tank, after all. His main weapon was his speed, and since he liked way too much to counter long ranged attacks, he wasn't used to being hit by such a barrage.
Jake sighed as he summoned some dark flames to protect the kid from the arrows. The dark flames began to block the projectiles making them evaporate. Hence, Julian finally had the chance to reflect on some projectiles properly. That was a bit mentally taxing, but Jake began to attack as well.
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