Ryan's mood improved so much that everyone noticed. It was only natural that it would happen since he got one heck of a class that gave him three passive skills that worked very well with his stealthy fighting style.
"You finally cheered up for some reason," Gustavo said while he slightly frowned. "May I ask what we missed?"
"I obtained a special class, don't ask more than this," Ryan said.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"We obtained two of them as well. While those classes were useful, they didn't make us grin from ear to ear," Gustavo said.historical
"That is probably because you sacrificed classes that aren't that related to each other, or they belonged to a low tier," Ryan said. "Anyway, while I don't want to talk about the skills, you will notice tomorrow the changes in my attack power."
In any case, that day, thanks to their improvement in fighting style and actions, the party managed to slay five thousand Hydras. Still, everyone knew that they didn't face a single boss. That was worrisome. Besides, their goal was more distant from them than ever. They barely crossed a few dozen miles toward the target, and they had to cross hundreds of them. Defeating so many enemies, doing something about the massive Sea Storm, killing thousands of bosses… in two days. It didn't seem like an achievable goal.
Due to the intense fights, everyone aside from Ryan, Fernanda, and Gustavo went to sleep as soon as they had their dinner. While Ryan wanted to take a nap as well before hunting at night, Gustavo decided to bother him alongside Fernanda.
"Things are already ready for the hunt tomorrow, but I would like to talk to you about what we can do to improve our hunting speed," Gustavo said. "Do you have any idea, Ryan?"
"None," Ryan said.
"Are you sure?" Gustavo insisted. "As long as it isn't anything too dangerous, I think everyone will gladly accept your ideas."
"You give me too much credit. This situation is more troublesome than we thought," Ryan said. "It isn't something we can solve with a quick brainstorm."
"What do you think, Fernanda?" Gustavo asked.
"I share the same feeling. If we had more allies that could fight the Hydras, perhaps things would be different," Fernanda replied. "Even if we try hard without caring about how many resources we use, we need at least half a minute to defeat a Hydra. Adding that to the time we have to search for them, the time we have to use potions and transport their bodies to land… I think that we are already doing too much. Trying to do more might be pushing our luck."
Gustavo crossed his arms and closed his eyes to consider everything he heard. It wasn't much, but that was what Ryan and Fernanda were thinking.
"To be honest, I also don't have any idea of what to do now. Just hunting Hydras seems too little considering that we want to stop Poseidon's return…" Gustavo said. "I was thinking of flying and using all of my magic powers to attack the Sea Storm and see what happens, but I guess that is too reckless, even for me."
At least Gustavo was smart enough to understand that. Even if they succeed, even though it seems pretty far-fetched, nothing guarantees that things will improve. They still would have to hunt and kill thousands of bosses.
In the end, the only idea that Gustavo had was to divide his friends and make each one of them lead a group of humans. In their Draconic form, they would draw the Hydra's attention, and their allies would attack from a distance. Even though the difference in power was absurd, a group of twenty experienced humans could cause as much damage as they could.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmRyan didn't want to give up that easily, but he at least had to consider the possibility of a failure. The meeting that Gustavo started ended much sooner than he expected. Still, at least he recognized that despite everything, they earned a lot in that mission. Confidence to fight the monsters back even in their territory and a lot of their bioproducts would considerably increase the power of the humans' forces.
A few hours later, Ryan returned to the ocean. Still, instead of hunting as soon as possible, he used Clairvoyance to see what lies ahead. After a while, he saw the massive Sea Storm Gustavo had mentioned, and even though Ryan tried to see things inside and below the storm, he failed.
"I see… since that is a spell cast by several Hydras bosses, it can also work as a magic barrier," Ryan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I can't let the mission end at least without knowing what lies ahead at the core of that storm…"
After thinking for a while, Ryan decided to tame a Hydra and then use it to infiltrate that region. While the massive concentration of mana worked to repel skills like Clairvoyance, it probably wouldn't stop Animalistic Transference. However, to make the chances of the infiltration, Ryan decided to tame a boss.
"That will set the difficulty a bit higher, but it is absolutely necessary," Ryan nodded to himself.
While using Clairvoyance again, Ryan looked for a Hydra boss to tame, but much to his annoyance, he didn't find a single one, even after half an hour. At that point in time, he was wasting an excellent opportunity to level up his classes.
Without much of a choice, Ryan used Teleport to capture an ordinary Hydra and much to his surprise. Things worked pretty well; the moment didn't even resist a few dozen times. It was hard to tell if his Draconic Transformation was playing a major role or if the difference in power was already that big.
In any case, now that he had one Hydra, his total command, Ryan had a hard time treating the monster like a comrade. He had killed thousands of those, after all. Regardless, before things could get even more complicated, he sent the creature toward the eye of the storm.