It turned out that, fortunately, the dungeon was temperate. Also, every single floor was a joke. John couldn’t stretch that enough. A real. Giant. Joke. Floor five, breezed through; floor six, decimated; seven, annihilated; eight, obliterated; nine, massacred. John had almost felt bad for the Cupids they were taking out, small little angels with cute wings and bows that shot pink arrows. Their appearance deserved to cover the front of a valentine’s card, not to be impaled by a bolt from Mono’s Lesser Lance of Longinus or by the metal projectiles Lydia used.
That wasn’t to say that they weren’t a threat. Like the Demon dungeon, the Angel one was a multitude of towers connected via bridges, although everything was golden and shiny, instead of grey and dank.
The enemy’s patterns were also inverted. Where the Satantyr had been holding each and every tower like a small fort, with the Cupids it was a fight from bridge to bridge. The flying enemies would start showering them with arrows, in groups from five to twenty. With Sylph in the group none of the arrows ever hit their mark, though. The tempest elemental even went as far as to redirect the arrows to hit another Cupid just because it was all too easy.
Now, they were on floor 10, and a few things had changed. The monsters looked different and the environment had been replaced with the inside of one giant tower, rather than a multitude of small ones. Beyond that, the situation remained the same. They remained easily capable of cutting through everything that came before them.
The enemy of this Floor was the Guardian Spirit. One of these animated suits of armour was currently facing them, in all of its silver, gleaming glory. It was getting kicked around by Rave, sliced by Aclysia, and cracked open by Gnome. A halo above its head flickered and finally vanished, moments before the entire monster turned into dust.
“Johnnie, where is my challenge?!” Rave, now level 62, complained. A question that he had no immediate answer to.
The way this floor was laid out was rather interesting. There was one of these Guardian Spirits (sometimes two, but that was a rare occasion) per room. They never left these rooms, unless baited out by a member of the group. That meant that, basically, they were free to take a break between every single encounter, which gave this more of a round-based feeling. The rooms in turn were situated around a giant circular hall. John led the party back into that hall at the moment.
Like the previous floor, the colour scheme of the hall was gold and shiny. Ornaments curved through white marble; a bas-relief, depicting the biblical tree of life, decorated the ground. So finely worked was that picture that the light from the shining crystal up above reflected in every single one of the uniquely worked apples of gold hanging from the carved tree. John didn’t doubt that the boss would spawn here, once they had cleared all of the rooms.
“Johnnie!” Rave repeated and snapped her fingers in front of John’s face a few times.
“What?” he asked, then remembered her earlier question. “Oh, sorry, dunno, honestly, I expected it to be easy but not THIS easy,” he answered and tried to find her something to keep her entertained. Most of the doors already stood open.
“I, too, am slightly surprised by the ease of this,” Lydia chimed in, checking her status at the same time. “What do you say the level of these enemies is?”
“66 to 70,” John told her, “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised… how is your EXP gain by the way?”
Rave was the first to answer that question, “I get around 0,5 percent per mob, I guess?” she said.
“0,1 percent,” the princess added.
“And the last boss gave you…?” John probed, thinking he had figured things out.
“1 percent,” Rave said. “And you don’t have flat numbers on display? Only percentages?” He probed further.
“That is correct,” Lydia stated, Rave also nodded.
“Okay, so it seems that you earn more EXP for higher level enemies, but what you gain is capped at 1% max for bosses. Now, I would theorize that Gaia made that cap even lower for different kinds of enemies just to disable me from abusing this and getting people power-levelled,” John spelled out his idea.
“Certainly sounds like her,” Rave agreed.
“How would you know?” Lydia asked.
“Just kinda the way tiger describes the texts he's getting… plus the way he told me she acted when he met her.”
“You met Gaia?” Lydia asked, one of her eyebrows shooting up. “Are you earnest in this claim?”
“I met her twice,” John reported. “Both meetings were very brief. Also, as Jane said, she is writing my Achievements, and, believe me, the sass is real.”
“Gaia is a green haired woman, of a petite frame with a notably pronounced bottom. She is slightly taller than Sylph -in her big form-, with curly hair and a black dress that reveals almost all of her ass, due to its design, which slits the dress into four strands from the waist downwards. A google search has resulted in Tatsumaki from an anime called One Punch Man as reference,” Aclysia informed all of them.
“For real’zies?” Rave laughed.
“Uhm, no idea about that One Punch Man part but the rest is correct, yep, yep,” Sylph chirped. “Met her right before fighting mister pickle, we did. A true hero of the world, the bestest, most awesome Space Marine and a pickle. PICKLE DIO!”
“You didn’t tell me about either of those things!” Rave complained to John, barely holding back her laughter.
“Because I am still not convinced it really happened,” John said, walking towards the next door. “It was too stupid. Anyhow, if this is too easy for you, we can always just kill the rest and go to a higher floor,” he stated while entering the next room.
‘Shouldn’t you send in Aclysia or Gnome first?’ asked Mono in his head.
‘I normally would but, wooooaaah,’ he barely dodged a mace coming for his head, ‘I still have to beat the current Challenge.’
John wasn’t particularly afraid of the mace. Even though it looked impressive, a silver shaft with starlight as its head, swung by the animated armour, it was barely a threat. His HP was high enough that he could have tanked several hits. Even if an enemy managed to pummel and overwhelm him, Aclysia was right behind him, ready to intervene at any moment. So he could beat his current Challenge, to kill 50 enemies with Mana Blade, in relative safety. This was the last enemy he needed anyhow.
Ducking underneath the next attack, John extended his arm so that his flat hand pointed at the being’s helmet. Then he cast Mana Blade. Rapidly, the blade extended right through the enemy’s head. Pulling his arm downwards he split the living armour in two.
‘Should use it like that more often,’ John thought as the blade vanished, leaving his hand bare again. Having the blade appear only when his hand was already in position not only made the attack less predictable, at least the first time around, when the enemy didn’t know what the motion was about, but it also saved him a bit of time. With every Mana Blade only lasting 3 seconds, every moment counted.
With the enemy defeated he only needed 5% more to achieve the next class level. One more Challenge would surely do it.
‘Again?’
“These things must be really easy if even ya can beat them in melee,” Rave teased, while John closed the window. “
Oh, shut up, Jane,” John shot back, “poor guys are about 8 levels under me and really slow.”
“I continue to find this ease concerning.” Lydia rubbed her chin in deep thought.
“I think they are balanced around me trying to solo them,” John explained, “but, well,” he looked over to Rave, then Aclysia, Gnome, Salamander, Sylph, Undine, Mono and finally back to Lydia. “I found a way around that.”
“I see…but you say Gaia dislikes you abusing systems, right?” the princess inquired.
“She most certainly likes hiding full rocks of salt in my cheese, yes,” John nodded.
“Would it not be in her character to increase the difficulty by a rather absurd margin, then?”
That comment made the Gamer freeze. “That totally sounds like her,” he admitted.
“Wait…so assuming that is the case… and because she has been at least nice enough to delay taking my levelling powers away until after I fought Thana…” he mumbled to himself. Suddenly he ran out of the room and shouted. “GAIA, IF YOU STEALTH PATCH MY MONSTER SPAWN TABLE AND OR BUFF THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING FROM THE NEXT FLOOR ONWARDS, I WILL TELL EVERYONE THAT YOUR ASS IS FLAT!”
“You’ll do no such thing!” In the air, far above them, suddenly, a rift opened. It was a round window with green edges, two-dimensional, physics defying and hovering there without a care in the world. Beyond it lay what looked like a stereotypical living room. Gaia stuck her green head and part of her torso out of said rift. With puffed up cheeks she shouted down: “I have a great ass!”
“Prove it!” Sylph said as she flew up there, “I wanna see, I wanna see! I also want to become bigger, please make me bigger, oh almighty world spirit.”
“Go away, Sylph!” Gaia cursed. “You sound just like your Mother which, oh-my-self, I do not need in my life. I still have headaches from the last time I had her over!”
A second head popped out of the portal right next to the supreme deity. It was another woman, with unkempt, light brown hair that curled to a regular degree. A beige hat sat on her head, one that looked like it belonged to the sandman. “Who are you looking at, Ga- OH HEY, it’s the Gamer!” said the new being, waving at John and the rest of the party behind him.
“And who are you?”
“Ferikrona, but just Feri is fine,” the girl introduced herself and yawned. That name John knew from the Patch Notes, hadn’t there been a third one though? Zone or something like that?
“Really? The Gamer?” said third person popped her head out of the rift. This one had purple, straight hair, about chin-length. That was all John could make out from the distance. “Hello, I am Zone-tan,” the purple haired girl shouted, “I watched you fap. Like, a lot. Grade A handwork, dude.”
“Wha-?” John was dumbfounded. He had expected a sarcastic response, but apparently the supreme deity was not handling her ass as a joke subject.
“Hey, hey, can any of you two make me bigger?” Sylph asked as she whirled between the two other girls up there.
“Nah, and sorry,” Feri answered, “it won’t get better.”
“What, how do you know? Maybe I’ll evolve into a beautiful super butterfly! Or a space moth!”
“I just do,” Feri answered with a little melody in her voice. “Now hop, hop back to your summoner.”
“Whatever, I’ll show you!” Sylph cried and flew back to her summoner. “Joooohn, Feri is mean to meeeee,” she complained when she had reached him.
“Yeah, well, nothing I can do about that, still,” John gave her the same answer as last time, when a similar scene had happened.
“Okay, I wanted to buff everything from the next floor upwards, so what?” Gaia shouted at him. “I let you level freely because I wanted to have you survive, now that that isn’t an immediate concern anymore I thought: ‘Hey, patch that in when he reaches the next segment of Instant Dungeons, that’d be the perfect moment.’ But if you don’t want to live by my rules, have it your way then, you ass.” With that a new window opened in front of John.
It wasn’t the new monster table though.
“And here, as your first buffed encounter, have an old friend!” Gaia told him, the tear in reality closing before anyone around could react. John looked at the window, while the whole room started shaking. Six pillars fell from the ceiling, slowing down a mere moment before hitting the ground and then, light as a feather, connecting to the marble around the bas-relief.
Following that, hundreds of Guardian Spirits streamed into the room. They weren’t interested in attacking the group. Instead, they formed a wide ring at the outskirts of the room. Just as they closed rank, allowing no one to leave the arena formed from their bodies, the depiction on the floor came to life. Silver flowed into the air and branched out, first as a liquid but then quickly hardening into rough bark. For a moment it was just a bare tree, then glorious golden leaves grew from it, and on the thick trunk appeared three faces under a golden barrier.
“First, you kill younglings, then you kill me, and now you chase me into my deserved rest?!” The ancient voice whispered; it was like the sound of leaves in the wind. John saw the three faces take familiar expressions, those of a man, a woman and a child.
“Oh great, that guy again,” Rave complained. “Wasn’t that like the second boss we ever killed?”
“Yup,” John answered. “Guess we are doing it all over again.”
“Are we… can we… was that truly…” Lydia began then shook her head. “All of this is ludicrous!” With that declaration, she prepared for combat.
Everyone took a battle ready stance, as the Tree of Life shook its mighty silver branches. ‘If the arena is roughly the same, then his abilities are likely too,’ John thought. “Everyone be on guard for attacks from below, he might use his roots. Aclysia, Gnome, you knock out these pillars, I am pretty certain that those will start spitting out adds. If they do, ignore the adds, the rest of us will take care of them. Everyone ready?”
Almost all of them nodded. “What is an add?” Lydia asked.
‘Oh right, she doesn’t game,’ John thought. “An additional enemy… and there is the first wave,” he answered, watching as, from the top of three of the six pillars, Guardian Spirits jumped down to the floor. Unlike their former brethren, these specimens were completely golden and swung maces that shone like the sun, and, if Gaia could be trusted, she had just buffed them. They were still 5 levels below John and his familiars though.
As per his instructions, Aclysia and Gnome ignored the assailants and went straight for the pillars instead. This turned out to be a naïve endeavour. One of the Guardian Spirits that had just spawned charged at Aclysia. The attack was dangerously fast. Not quite fast enough for Aclysia to be unable to dodge, but still fast enough to hit her when she wasn’t careful. She sidestepped the swing, but the suit of armour actually kept up, delivering a second strike that Aclysia couldn’t dodge. The mace’s shaft collided with Ashkandi’s blade.
The Guardian Spirit may have been almost as fast as Aclysia, but the same could not be said for its strength. In a contest of sheer physical power, Aclysia pushed her blade upwards against the pressure of her taller opponent, and then pressed down on it, forcing the armour to retreat from the engagement. A smart move that allowed it to stall for time.
Elsewhere, Gnome had reached the first pillar. John had no time to check on whether or not she actually was doing damage to it. There were two more Guardian Spirits to address. If they all were as fast as Aclysia that meant that they could deal some serious damage to John, Undine or Mono, the group's backline. In other words, they absolutely could not be ignored. They would need to go about this more methodically, John actually had to strategize this.
“Lydia, can you keep one of them occupied?” John asked.
“It shall be done,” Lydia turned her attention to the closest Guardian Spirit. Sprinting at the enemy, rapier at the ready, she thrust a hand out mid charge. The armour trembled, then folded at the knees, almost going down. The control Lydia exerted over its body was slowing it tremendously, something the princess was ready to exploit.
In addition to her magic, Lydia was skilled in melee combat. If her enemy hadn’t been made from metal, the Guardian Spirit perhaps would have the advantage. While it was slowed, however, Lydia’s rapier had an easy time stabbing repeatedly at and into the gaps in the armour, disturbing whatever magical flow was happening within.
John was about to ask Rave if she could try and get the last one’s attention, but the techno-lover was already running right at the unoccupied enemy. Her aura flared up, a pale blue fire-like field that enveloped her body, boosting her physical attributes beyond their normal limits. Around her feet glowed two rings of light, the blessing of Copernicus. It was an extremely powerful buff. Every kick of Rave that connected to a target created a ripple of light magic. That ripple grew in strength depending on how much momentum her feet had gone through since they had last connected to an enemy or the ground.
Rave knew that even better than John, and she was more than happy to demonstrate what she had learned over the past few months against an opponent that could actually withstand the showcase. About four metres before actually clashing with the enemy, she jumped forwards, landed on her hands, pushed herself off the ground and did a somersault, ending in a dropkick aimed at the enemy’s position.
Even though John knew that the attack grew in effectiveness that way, he couldn’t help but feel slightly amused at how much this overly flashy style suited his girlfriend. The kick missed. Even though the Guardian Spirit wasn’t as fast as Rave, an attack telegraphed this clearly was easy to see coming. The monster wasn’t prepared, however, for the shockwave that spread over the floor from where Rave’s missed attack hit the ground. Strong enough to rob the living armour of its balance, and make it unable to take advantage of whatever opening Rave might have shown. It also allowed Rave to recover and stay on the offensive.
With all three enemies tanked, John adjusted his battle plan. Salamander and Sylph were to act as mobile damage dealers, helping each of the three combatants currently occupying Guardian Spirits in turn. Undine would closely follow them, healing whoever needed it. Mono would stay right where she was at the edge of battle, serving primarily as an additional pair of eyes and mana supply.
“Don’t you want to help too?” John asked Copernicus who was cleaning his golden paw.
“Nyah, you got this,” the sun cat stated. He wasn’t wrong, this looked like a solid plan, it hinged on two things, though.
‘Gnome, can you destroy these pillars?’ John needed to know. If she couldn’t then that would mean that the adds would eventually take over, they only had three tanks and competing with an infinite flood was always a bad idea. Rushing the boss was the best option, but the golden barrier around the faces seemed to advertise that as a bad option. ‘The one I am attacking is crumbling, John!’ Gnome gave a positive response, ‘But I’ll need a bit.’
‘That’s fine, I believe in you!’ John told her.
‘T-t-thanks!’ the stone elemental stuttered, and John heard a sudden, very loud cracking sound. If he had to take a guess, an embarrassedly happy fist had just collided with and done massive damage to the first pillar.
Okay, that part of his plan was secure. If Gnome could destroy the pillars, what they needed to do was to keep taking care of the adds and remove the spawning points one by one. ‘This is the one time I miss Victoria and her rocket launcher,’ a cynical thought crossed John’s mind. He felt bad for speaking this way about the deceased sniper, but it was true and the Bloodfallen had been cold for a few months now. The loss of life wasn’t a good thing, but if he was honest with himself, the Abyss was properly better off without those indoctrinated psychos around. Maybe if he had had more time, he could have convinced them…
But this was hardly the time to be thinking about morals. There was a several-elephants-sized tree in the middle of the room, waiting to be addressed, and it looked at John with three pairs of hateful eyes. Unlike the old tree, this one wasn’t hiding behind a protective layer of branches, meaning that its main body was vulnerable, save for the protected three faces. That had been the weak point last time around. Something had changed about the way this boss worked, beyond the aesthetics and adjusted difficulty.
There was one potential way to find out.
“How nice of you to wait for me,” John taunted as he stepped closer, “Were you just waiting for me to get my plan set-up?”
‘What are you doing?’ Mono wanted to know.
‘Well, we are out of tanks, so I’ll have to kite,’ John responded with a nervous smirk, feeling the minor vibrations in the ground below him. After making sure that Mana Protection was active, he added, ‘Just keep some mana ready for me, would you?’ His whole body was tense as he got ever closer, watching through Mono’s eyes as well as his own.
“Arrogant meat heap,” echoed the Tree of Life’s voice, “you may be able to handle the spirits, here to protect my eternal soul, but what will you do about THIS!” The marble floor around and under John broke and tentacle-like roots came forward.
John was prepared for this, as a matter of fact this was the best-case scenario. ‘So, it just put the old second and first phase together?’ he thought as he jumped out of harm’s way. All of the roots slammed back down, turning the space he had just stood in into a death trap. By the way his mana decreased, he knew that at last some stray slams had hit his barrier.
John ran for his life. Kiting was not his expertise. He only did it because the fight demanded someone take the role. “You can run, but you will still get crushed under my branches!” the faces taunted as the tree brought one of said branches down. In the past, these had been dangerous due to the sheer force behind the whip of a branch thicker than young trees. That was only more true now. In addition to the increased size of the tree, the leaves growing from it glistened like thousands of little knives.
‘It would really suck to get hit by that,’ John thought and turned heel. He would much rather dance the dance of dodging tentacles than get crushed under a metric ton of metallic wood. He heard the branch crash onto the floor behind him. Saw, with Mono’s eyes, how hundreds of pebbles flew through the air. Many of them rained down in his path through the whipping roots. He dodged most of them successfully, but some still connected, his Mana Protection siphoning away MP with every hit.
Then he was out and continued running, eyeing the branches up above. His eyes fell on one of the pebbles in his path. Following a quick idea, John calculated, ‘New passive cost for the elementals is 1,9% times four is 7,6%, 1,9% from Artificial Spirit, so 2,97 mana per second minus 3… that’s barely negative, good enough!’ He grabbed a pebble and then ran far around the next descending branch. This one was smaller, giving him at least some hope that he could dodge.
The stone wasn’t unique, but it was a nice piece of marble that fit into his hand comfortably, ideal throwing size. After staring at it for a moment longer than necessary, he threw the pebble at the Tree of Life’s three faces. It hit, but was uselessly reflected by the golden energy field. The angle of impact caused it to land on the floor just below the three faces. The boss burst into laughter. “Ahahaha, a measly attempt, what has become of your Mana Power Attack, John Newman?”
Even the name of that attack made him cringe. ‘God, those were darker times,’ he thought as he ran around a dangerous looking bulge in the floor. Stone burst behind him, another whip-like root rising. ‘Well, that is going to cost me some more mana,’ he resigned himself when he saw it coming down through Mono’s eyes.
The root suddenly slowed down, giving John the breathing room he needed to get away. He only had to wonder what just happened for a moment. Lydia, in her full 18th century military glory, appeared at his side.
“3 pillars have been taken out,” she reported, “the spawn of ‘adds’ has been reduced to two. I chose to intervene, is this compatible with your strategy?”
“Yes, absolutely, you saved my ass there,” John thanked her. In this moment of relaxation he added, “…You are surprisingly good at not being in charge.”
“Subordinate is the appropriate word. As all members of the mainline, I was trained in the Prussian Noble Korps,“ Lydia explained. “It is selbstverständlich that I would be competent in various positions in the chain of command.”
“Your German is leaking there,” John commented with a broad smile. Lydia gave him one of her poisonous glances but slowed down the next root all the same. Her fingers clawed at something invisible, as she focused her Innate Ability.
“It is awfully convenient that it is made from soulless metal,” she pressed out, the strain evident in her voice.
“Well, if it were actual wood I could abuse Salamander. I generally beat my enemies through exploitation of weaknesses,” John said.
The princess shot him an interested glance, “You plan to do the same here?”
“Kind of,” his smile turned into a smirk, “depends on whether or not there will be another recycled mechanic. Let’s just say, I got the tools in place.”
With Lydia slowing down the attacks, dodging whatever the Tree of Life threw at them was child’s play. “So, how do you regenerate mana?” John asked, merely jogging at this point. The boss fight had been hard at the start, when the sudden difficulty spike had hit them. Now that they knew what to expect, it was group content they were slightly over-levelled for. Sure, if they fucked up, that’d be bad, but they had room for mistakes. John was happy to chat under these circumstances.
“Why do you ask?” Lydia looked questioningly at him.
“Well, Jane uses a breathing technique, I do it by existing, how do you do it? I see your mana slowly depleting, but it seems you have a lot of it, so I was wondering, is all,” he explained.
“…Everything that happens today…”
“Will stay classified, yes, yes,” John interrupted, “will you tell me or not?”
“…Typically, existence alone suffices, but in a pinch I can absorb metals,” Lydia said after a moment's hesitation. “My mana pool, as you call it, is quite vast and it does replenish slightly over time, but for the most part I do it by ingesting metals. I guess this is as good a time as any, to reveal to you my emergency strategy.” With those words, she suddenly stopped.
“Now I’ve got you!” The Tree of Life creaked and brought one of its giant branches down to squash Lydia. John, who was not entirely sure if this was a good idea, decided to trust Lydia that whatever trump card she had would allow her to survive that.
As the branch descended, the princess pulled back her vest, and reached into a pocket on the inside. What she pulled out was a vial filled with a mercury-like substance, glowing light blue. The metal cap that kept the vial sealed quickly flew off. Lydia gulped down the contents in one motion.
Her mana bar refilled within an instant. That wasn’t the end of it, however, as Lydia simply looked at the branch and it ceased to move. “This,” Lydia explained, showing the now empty vial to John, “Is a mercury mithril liquid alloy. It is worth quite a sum, so watch and listen closely.” Accompanied by the annoyed sounds of the Tree of Life, the princess raised her left hand. It looked like she was struggling against an invisible force. John could imagine the metaphysical resistance she was pushing against, her senses turning the intangible pushback into a reality that she strained against.
The branch above her quivered, then gradually was pushed backwards, then beyond that. Creaking and screeching, the metal wood snapped backwards at an unnatural angle. The Tree of Life screamed in anger and pain.
“Mithril is one of the rarest metals out there. It is hard to create and extremely rich in mana, and for metal users like me, it doesn’t just refill our own mana.” Lydia twisted her arm and the branch twisted in kind.
“CURSE YOU!” screeched the Tree of Life, and roots exploded from the floor around Lydia. The metal tentacles were pushed back, unable to enter the sphere of the princess’ influence.
“It temporarily boosts our limits!” she finished her explanation with a loud CRACK! The whole branch had been forced far enough and broke from the main body. The Tree of Life reeled from the loss, giving Lydia the time to step back, before letting out an exhausted groan. “This comes at the usual price of overexertion, however, and is taxing on the body.”
“Still pretty impressive,” John admitted, his gaze fixed on the branch that lay lifeless on the marble floor. For a moment he wanted to ask whether or not she got mercury poisoning, but then he remembered that she was part metal elemental, so that question became redundant. He wished he had a way to overcharge spells, there had been quite a few occasions where he would have much rather used a big attack to get a decisive victory earlier.
In the background, the last pillar crashed.
“Adds have been taken care of, thoroughly, all been beaten, yup, yup, I am the best. Sally was somewhat useful too, I guess. But not all that much. So, keep that in mind if you hand out rewards later, Johnnie, cause I am willing to trade some ‘oral favours’. Wink, wink,” Sylph palavered, leaving John with only one question.
“Why are you naked?”
The air spirit giggled, “You don’t like it?” she asked. Making a pirouette, her foot-reaching hair following her like a flag in a breeze, she showed off her milky white skin. “I felt like it, don’t you just want to take me to bed and take me like the cute courtesan I am? Come on Jonnie, get some inflation in that dick and fuck me right here, I don’t mind!”
“Quiet!” Undine’s voice whipped through the air, making Sylph jump both from the sharpness of its tone and the mental lash that accompanied it. The slime woman was filled to the brim with an annoyance beyond any John usually felt when she was dealing with the tempest elemental.
“Yeah, shut up,” Mono agreed, “that boss is still alive, am I the only one here that DOESN’T immediately get distracted by sex-stuff?”
“I would claim to also keep a level head,” Lydia stated.
“Oh, is that right? Well, I guess you didn’t just look at Sylph with keen interest then,” Mono drily stated and made a toss away gesture.
“What? Is that true? Did you look at my hot bod and were like, all enticed, princess?”
Before Lydia could answer, or Undine’s annoyance could manifest in another harsh admonishment, the boss stopped wailing. The silence was all they needed to refocus their attention.
“You insects,” it growled, “you will see my true form! Fight my guards until then!” The pillars started reconstructing. As if reversed in time, the broken pieces lifted off the ground and slowly put themselves back together.
Simultaneously, the golden barrier around the faces expanded, gradually covering the entirety of the boss. It forced the party back, putting them out of reach of the branches that could just as little reach out as they could reach in
“B-but,” Gnome looked at the pillars and frowned, “I just got done destroying those…”
“And you did a very good job,” John patted her head. The stone elemental made a very pleased face, then she remembered where she was, noticed her fellow elementals grinning at her, and blushed deeply.
“Wh-why are you all staring at me?!” she demanded to know.
“You are just so adorable when you are happy and embarrassed,” Salamander cackled, her laughter growing even stronger when Gnome turned into darker shades of red. “Now look at you, unable to say a thing! HILARIOUS!”
“What now, we wait for him to go into the next phase?” Rave asked, interrupting that little chat, “by the way, this was WAY better. Guys were actually a bit hard.”
“Well, I guess it was adjusted to be group content, so they were meant to be taken by one person each, instead of all three of them by one. But no, I guessed that he would recycle the barrier mechanic in this or a similar way, so I made preparations. Mono, how much mana do you still have?” “About 600, why?” “Mhm, I still have 413… that makes 5 attacks, should be enough.”
Inside the protective barrier the Tree of Life was going through a change. Soon its roots would no longer be bound by the earth, and its branches would turn into many arms, wielding blades of golden leaves. Soon, it would destroy the Gamer, once and for all!
At least that was what John thought was happening. Whatever it was, he had no intention of letting it happen when he had prepared the cheese. From his perspective as the pebble, he saw the three unprotected faces grinning widely, and John would have loved to punch each and every one of them. Sadly, he couldn’t do that as a pebble. He could use Arcane Explosion though. Wasn’t Spellcarrier nifty?
One, two, three, four, five of the balls spawned. They were supposed to be thrown, but without a hand that fulfilled that purpose, they spawned right on the ground, resulting in 5 almost simultaneous waves of arcane energy. The boss had no time to prepare. A burst of notable damage hit all three weak points five times over.
First the bubble, then the body underneath, began to disintegrate.
It turned out that, fortunately, the dungeon was temperate. Also, every single floor was a joke. John couldn’t stretch that enough. A real. Giant. Joke. Floor five, breezed through; floor six, decimated; seven, annihilated; eight, obliterated; nine, massacred. John had almost felt bad for the Cupids they were taking out, small little angels with cute wings and bows that shot pink arrows. Their appearance deserved to cover the front of a valentine’s card, not to be impaled by a bolt from Mono’s Lesser Lance of Longinus or by the metal projectiles Lydia used.
That wasn’t to say that they weren’t a threat. Like the Demon dungeon, the Angel one was a multitude of towers connected via bridges, although everything was golden and shiny, instead of grey and dank.
The enemy’s patterns were also inverted. Where the Satantyr had been holding each and every tower like a small fort, with the Cupids it was a fight from bridge to bridge. The flying enemies would start showering them with arrows, in groups from five to twenty. With Sylph in the group none of the arrows ever hit their mark, though. The tempest elemental even went as far as to redirect the arrows to hit another Cupid just because it was all too easy.
Now, they were on floor 10, and a few things had changed. The monsters looked different and the environment had been replaced with the inside of one giant tower, rather than a multitude of small ones. Beyond that, the situation remained the same. They remained easily capable of cutting through everything that came before them.
The enemy of this Floor was the Guardian Spirit. One of these animated suits of armour was currently facing them, in all of its silver, gleaming glory. It was getting kicked around by Rave, sliced by Aclysia, and cracked open by Gnome. A halo above its head flickered and finally vanished, moments before the entire monster turned into dust.
“Johnnie, where is my challenge?!” Rave, now level 62, complained. A question that he had no immediate answer to.
The way this floor was laid out was rather interesting. There was one of these Guardian Spirits (sometimes two, but that was a rare occasion) per room. They never left these rooms, unless baited out by a member of the group. That meant that, basically, they were free to take a break between every single encounter, which gave this more of a round-based feeling. The rooms in turn were situated around a giant circular hall. John led the party back into that hall at the moment.
Like the previous floor, the colour scheme of the hall was gold and shiny. Ornaments curved through white marble; a bas-relief, depicting the biblical tree of life, decorated the ground. So finely worked was that picture that the light from the shining crystal up above reflected in every single one of the uniquely worked apples of gold hanging from the carved tree. John didn’t doubt that the boss would spawn here, once they had cleared all of the rooms.
“Johnnie!” Rave repeated and snapped her fingers in front of John’s face a few times.
“What?” he asked, then remembered her earlier question. “Oh, sorry, dunno, honestly, I expected it to be easy but not THIS easy,” he answered and tried to find her something to keep her entertained. Most of the doors already stood open.
“I, too, am slightly surprised by the ease of this,” Lydia chimed in, checking her status at the same time. “What do you say the level of these enemies is?”
“66 to 70,” John told her, “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised… how is your EXP gain by the way?”
Rave was the first to answer that question, “I get around 0,5 percent per mob, I guess?” she said.
“0,1 percent,” the princess added.
“And the last boss gave you…?” John probed, thinking he had figured things out.
“1 percent,” Rave said. “And you don’t have flat numbers on display? Only percentages?” He probed further.
“That is correct,” Lydia stated, Rave also nodded.
“Okay, so it seems that you earn more EXP for higher level enemies, but what you gain is capped at 1% max for bosses. Now, I would theorize that Gaia made that cap even lower for different kinds of enemies just to disable me from abusing this and getting people power-levelled,” John spelled out his idea.
“Certainly sounds like her,” Rave agreed.
“How would you know?” Lydia asked.
“Just kinda the way tiger describes the texts he's getting… plus the way he told me she acted when he met her.”
“You met Gaia?” Lydia asked, one of her eyebrows shooting up. “Are you earnest in this claim?”
“I met her twice,” John reported. “Both meetings were very brief. Also, as Jane said, she is writing my Achievements, and, believe me, the sass is real.”
“Gaia is a green haired woman, of a petite frame with a notably pronounced bottom. She is slightly taller than Sylph -in her big form-, with curly hair and a black dress that reveals almost all of her ass, due to its design, which slits the dress into four strands from the waist downwards. A google search has resulted in Tatsumaki from an anime called One Punch Man as reference,” Aclysia informed all of them.
“For real’zies?” Rave laughed.
“Uhm, no idea about that One Punch Man part but the rest is correct, yep, yep,” Sylph chirped. “Met her right before fighting mister pickle, we did. A true hero of the world, the bestest, most awesome Space Marine and a pickle. PICKLE DIO!”
“You didn’t tell me about either of those things!” Rave complained to John, barely holding back her laughter.
“Because I am still not convinced it really happened,” John said, walking towards the next door. “It was too stupid. Anyhow, if this is too easy for you, we can always just kill the rest and go to a higher floor,” he stated while entering the next room.
‘Shouldn’t you send in Aclysia or Gnome first?’ asked Mono in his head.
‘I normally would but, wooooaaah,’ he barely dodged a mace coming for his head, ‘I still have to beat the current Challenge.’
John wasn’t particularly afraid of the mace. Even though it looked impressive, a silver shaft with starlight as its head, swung by the animated armour, it was barely a threat. His HP was high enough that he could have tanked several hits. Even if an enemy managed to pummel and overwhelm him, Aclysia was right behind him, ready to intervene at any moment. So he could beat his current Challenge, to kill 50 enemies with Mana Blade, in relative safety. This was the last enemy he needed anyhow.
Ducking underneath the next attack, John extended his arm so that his flat hand pointed at the being’s helmet. Then he cast Mana Blade. Rapidly, the blade extended right through the enemy’s head. Pulling his arm downwards he split the living armour in two.
‘Should use it like that more often,’ John thought as the blade vanished, leaving his hand bare again. Having the blade appear only when his hand was already in position not only made the attack less predictable, at least the first time around, when the enemy didn’t know what the motion was about, but it also saved him a bit of time. With every Mana Blade only lasting 3 seconds, every moment counted.
With the enemy defeated he only needed 5% more to achieve the next class level. One more Challenge would surely do it.
‘Again?’
“These things must be really easy if even ya can beat them in melee,” Rave teased, while John closed the window. “
Oh, shut up, Jane,” John shot back, “poor guys are about 8 levels under me and really slow.”
“I continue to find this ease concerning.” Lydia rubbed her chin in deep thought.
“I think they are balanced around me trying to solo them,” John explained, “but, well,” he looked over to Rave, then Aclysia, Gnome, Salamander, Sylph, Undine, Mono and finally back to Lydia. “I found a way around that.”
“I see…but you say Gaia dislikes you abusing systems, right?” the princess inquired.
“She most certainly likes hiding full rocks of salt in my cheese, yes,” John nodded.
“Would it not be in her character to increase the difficulty by a rather absurd margin, then?”
That comment made the Gamer freeze. “That totally sounds like her,” he admitted.
“Wait…so assuming that is the case… and because she has been at least nice enough to delay taking my levelling powers away until after I fought Thana…” he mumbled to himself. Suddenly he ran out of the room and shouted. “GAIA, IF YOU STEALTH PATCH MY MONSTER SPAWN TABLE AND OR BUFF THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING FROM THE NEXT FLOOR ONWARDS, I WILL TELL EVERYONE THAT YOUR ASS IS FLAT!”
“You’ll do no such thing!” In the air, far above them, suddenly, a rift opened. It was a round window with green edges, two-dimensional, physics defying and hovering there without a care in the world. Beyond it lay what looked like a stereotypical living room. Gaia stuck her green head and part of her torso out of said rift. With puffed up cheeks she shouted down: “I have a great ass!”
“Prove it!” Sylph said as she flew up there, “I wanna see, I wanna see! I also want to become bigger, please make me bigger, oh almighty world spirit.”
“Go away, Sylph!” Gaia cursed. “You sound just like your Mother which, oh-my-self, I do not need in my life. I still have headaches from the last time I had her over!”
A second head popped out of the portal right next to the supreme deity. It was another woman, with unkempt, light brown hair that curled to a regular degree. A beige hat sat on her head, one that looked like it belonged to the sandman. “Who are you looking at, Ga- OH HEY, it’s the Gamer!” said the new being, waving at John and the rest of the party behind him.
“And who are you?”
“Ferikrona, but just Feri is fine,” the girl introduced herself and yawned. That name John knew from the Patch Notes, hadn’t there been a third one though? Zone or something like that?
“Really? The Gamer?” said third person popped her head out of the rift. This one had purple, straight hair, about chin-length. That was all John could make out from the distance. “Hello, I am Zone-tan,” the purple haired girl shouted, “I watched you fap. Like, a lot. Grade A handwork, dude.”
“Wha-?” John was dumbfounded. He had expected a sarcastic response, but apparently the supreme deity was not handling her ass as a joke subject.
“Hey, hey, can any of you two make me bigger?” Sylph asked as she whirled between the two other girls up there.
“Nah, and sorry,” Feri answered, “it won’t get better.”
“What, how do you know? Maybe I’ll evolve into a beautiful super butterfly! Or a space moth!”
“I just do,” Feri answered with a little melody in her voice. “Now hop, hop back to your summoner.”
“Whatever, I’ll show you!” Sylph cried and flew back to her summoner. “Joooohn, Feri is mean to meeeee,” she complained when she had reached him.
“Yeah, well, nothing I can do about that, still,” John gave her the same answer as last time, when a similar scene had happened.
“Okay, I wanted to buff everything from the next floor upwards, so what?” Gaia shouted at him. “I let you level freely because I wanted to have you survive, now that that isn’t an immediate concern anymore I thought: ‘Hey, patch that in when he reaches the next segment of Instant Dungeons, that’d be the perfect moment.’ But if you don’t want to live by my rules, have it your way then, you ass.” With that a new window opened in front of John.
It wasn’t the new monster table though.
“And here, as your first buffed encounter, have an old friend!” Gaia told him, the tear in reality closing before anyone around could react. John looked at the window, while the whole room started shaking. Six pillars fell from the ceiling, slowing down a mere moment before hitting the ground and then, light as a feather, connecting to the marble around the bas-relief.
Following that, hundreds of Guardian Spirits streamed into the room. They weren’t interested in attacking the group. Instead, they formed a wide ring at the outskirts of the room. Just as they closed rank, allowing no one to leave the arena formed from their bodies, the depiction on the floor came to life. Silver flowed into the air and branched out, first as a liquid but then quickly hardening into rough bark. For a moment it was just a bare tree, then glorious golden leaves grew from it, and on the thick trunk appeared three faces under a golden barrier.
“First, you kill younglings, then you kill me, and now you chase me into my deserved rest?!” The ancient voice whispered; it was like the sound of leaves in the wind. John saw the three faces take familiar expressions, those of a man, a woman and a child.
“Oh great, that guy again,” Rave complained. “Wasn’t that like the second boss we ever killed?”
“Yup,” John answered. “Guess we are doing it all over again.”
“Are we… can we… was that truly…” Lydia began then shook her head. “All of this is ludicrous!” With that declaration, she prepared for combat.
Everyone took a battle ready stance, as the Tree of Life shook its mighty silver branches. ‘If the arena is roughly the same, then his abilities are likely too,’ John thought. “Everyone be on guard for attacks from below, he might use his roots. Aclysia, Gnome, you knock out these pillars, I am pretty certain that those will start spitting out adds. If they do, ignore the adds, the rest of us will take care of them. Everyone ready?”
Almost all of them nodded. “What is an add?” Lydia asked.
‘Oh right, she doesn’t game,’ John thought. “An additional enemy… and there is the first wave,” he answered, watching as, from the top of three of the six pillars, Guardian Spirits jumped down to the floor. Unlike their former brethren, these specimens were completely golden and swung maces that shone like the sun, and, if Gaia could be trusted, she had just buffed them. They were still 5 levels below John and his familiars though.
As per his instructions, Aclysia and Gnome ignored the assailants and went straight for the pillars instead. This turned out to be a naïve endeavour. One of the Guardian Spirits that had just spawned charged at Aclysia. The attack was dangerously fast. Not quite fast enough for Aclysia to be unable to dodge, but still fast enough to hit her when she wasn’t careful. She sidestepped the swing, but the suit of armour actually kept up, delivering a second strike that Aclysia couldn’t dodge. The mace’s shaft collided with Ashkandi’s blade.
The Guardian Spirit may have been almost as fast as Aclysia, but the same could not be said for its strength. In a contest of sheer physical power, Aclysia pushed her blade upwards against the pressure of her taller opponent, and then pressed down on it, forcing the armour to retreat from the engagement. A smart move that allowed it to stall for time.
Elsewhere, Gnome had reached the first pillar. John had no time to check on whether or not she actually was doing damage to it. There were two more Guardian Spirits to address. If they all were as fast as Aclysia that meant that they could deal some serious damage to John, Undine or Mono, the group's backline. In other words, they absolutely could not be ignored. They would need to go about this more methodically, John actually had to strategize this.
“Lydia, can you keep one of them occupied?” John asked.
“It shall be done,” Lydia turned her attention to the closest Guardian Spirit. Sprinting at the enemy, rapier at the ready, she thrust a hand out mid charge. The armour trembled, then folded at the knees, almost going down. The control Lydia exerted over its body was slowing it tremendously, something the princess was ready to exploit.
In addition to her magic, Lydia was skilled in melee combat. If her enemy hadn’t been made from metal, the Guardian Spirit perhaps would have the advantage. While it was slowed, however, Lydia’s rapier had an easy time stabbing repeatedly at and into the gaps in the armour, disturbing whatever magical flow was happening within.
John was about to ask Rave if she could try and get the last one’s attention, but the techno-lover was already running right at the unoccupied enemy. Her aura flared up, a pale blue fire-like field that enveloped her body, boosting her physical attributes beyond their normal limits. Around her feet glowed two rings of light, the blessing of Copernicus. It was an extremely powerful buff. Every kick of Rave that connected to a target created a ripple of light magic. That ripple grew in strength depending on how much momentum her feet had gone through since they had last connected to an enemy or the ground.
Rave knew that even better than John, and she was more than happy to demonstrate what she had learned over the past few months against an opponent that could actually withstand the showcase. About four metres before actually clashing with the enemy, she jumped forwards, landed on her hands, pushed herself off the ground and did a somersault, ending in a dropkick aimed at the enemy’s position.
Even though John knew that the attack grew in effectiveness that way, he couldn’t help but feel slightly amused at how much this overly flashy style suited his girlfriend. The kick missed. Even though the Guardian Spirit wasn’t as fast as Rave, an attack telegraphed this clearly was easy to see coming. The monster wasn’t prepared, however, for the shockwave that spread over the floor from where Rave’s missed attack hit the ground. Strong enough to rob the living armour of its balance, and make it unable to take advantage of whatever opening Rave might have shown. It also allowed Rave to recover and stay on the offensive.
With all three enemies tanked, John adjusted his battle plan. Salamander and Sylph were to act as mobile damage dealers, helping each of the three combatants currently occupying Guardian Spirits in turn. Undine would closely follow them, healing whoever needed it. Mono would stay right where she was at the edge of battle, serving primarily as an additional pair of eyes and mana supply.
“Don’t you want to help too?” John asked Copernicus who was cleaning his golden paw.
“Nyah, you got this,” the sun cat stated. He wasn’t wrong, this looked like a solid plan, it hinged on two things, though.
‘Gnome, can you destroy these pillars?’ John needed to know. If she couldn’t then that would mean that the adds would eventually take over, they only had three tanks and competing with an infinite flood was always a bad idea. Rushing the boss was the best option, but the golden barrier around the faces seemed to advertise that as a bad option. ‘The one I am attacking is crumbling, John!’ Gnome gave a positive response, ‘But I’ll need a bit.’
‘That’s fine, I believe in you!’ John told her.
‘T-t-thanks!’ the stone elemental stuttered, and John heard a sudden, very loud cracking sound. If he had to take a guess, an embarrassedly happy fist had just collided with and done massive damage to the first pillar.
Okay, that part of his plan was secure. If Gnome could destroy the pillars, what they needed to do was to keep taking care of the adds and remove the spawning points one by one. ‘This is the one time I miss Victoria and her rocket launcher,’ a cynical thought crossed John’s mind. He felt bad for speaking this way about the deceased sniper, but it was true and the Bloodfallen had been cold for a few months now. The loss of life wasn’t a good thing, but if he was honest with himself, the Abyss was properly better off without those indoctrinated psychos around. Maybe if he had had more time, he could have convinced them…
But this was hardly the time to be thinking about morals. There was a several-elephants-sized tree in the middle of the room, waiting to be addressed, and it looked at John with three pairs of hateful eyes. Unlike the old tree, this one wasn’t hiding behind a protective layer of branches, meaning that its main body was vulnerable, save for the protected three faces. That had been the weak point last time around. Something had changed about the way this boss worked, beyond the aesthetics and adjusted difficulty.
There was one potential way to find out.
“How nice of you to wait for me,” John taunted as he stepped closer, “Were you just waiting for me to get my plan set-up?”
‘What are you doing?’ Mono wanted to know.
‘Well, we are out of tanks, so I’ll have to kite,’ John responded with a nervous smirk, feeling the minor vibrations in the ground below him. After making sure that Mana Protection was active, he added, ‘Just keep some mana ready for me, would you?’ His whole body was tense as he got ever closer, watching through Mono’s eyes as well as his own.
“Arrogant meat heap,” echoed the Tree of Life’s voice, “you may be able to handle the spirits, here to protect my eternal soul, but what will you do about THIS!” The marble floor around and under John broke and tentacle-like roots came forward.
John was prepared for this, as a matter of fact this was the best-case scenario. ‘So, it just put the old second and first phase together?’ he thought as he jumped out of harm’s way. All of the roots slammed back down, turning the space he had just stood in into a death trap. By the way his mana decreased, he knew that at last some stray slams had hit his barrier.
John ran for his life. Kiting was not his expertise. He only did it because the fight demanded someone take the role. “You can run, but you will still get crushed under my branches!” the faces taunted as the tree brought one of said branches down. In the past, these had been dangerous due to the sheer force behind the whip of a branch thicker than young trees. That was only more true now. In addition to the increased size of the tree, the leaves growing from it glistened like thousands of little knives.
‘It would really suck to get hit by that,’ John thought and turned heel. He would much rather dance the dance of dodging tentacles than get crushed under a metric ton of metallic wood. He heard the branch crash onto the floor behind him. Saw, with Mono’s eyes, how hundreds of pebbles flew through the air. Many of them rained down in his path through the whipping roots. He dodged most of them successfully, but some still connected, his Mana Protection siphoning away MP with every hit.
Then he was out and continued running, eyeing the branches up above. His eyes fell on one of the pebbles in his path. Following a quick idea, John calculated, ‘New passive cost for the elementals is 1,9% times four is 7,6%, 1,9% from Artificial Spirit, so 2,97 mana per second minus 3… that’s barely negative, good enough!’ He grabbed a pebble and then ran far around the next descending branch. This one was smaller, giving him at least some hope that he could dodge.
The stone wasn’t unique, but it was a nice piece of marble that fit into his hand comfortably, ideal throwing size. After staring at it for a moment longer than necessary, he threw the pebble at the Tree of Life’s three faces. It hit, but was uselessly reflected by the golden energy field. The angle of impact caused it to land on the floor just below the three faces. The boss burst into laughter. “Ahahaha, a measly attempt, what has become of your Mana Power Attack, John Newman?”
Even the name of that attack made him cringe. ‘God, those were darker times,’ he thought as he ran around a dangerous looking bulge in the floor. Stone burst behind him, another whip-like root rising. ‘Well, that is going to cost me some more mana,’ he resigned himself when he saw it coming down through Mono’s eyes.
The root suddenly slowed down, giving John the breathing room he needed to get away. He only had to wonder what just happened for a moment. Lydia, in her full 18th century military glory, appeared at his side.
“3 pillars have been taken out,” she reported, “the spawn of ‘adds’ has been reduced to two. I chose to intervene, is this compatible with your strategy?”
“Yes, absolutely, you saved my ass there,” John thanked her. In this moment of relaxation he added, “…You are surprisingly good at not being in charge.”
“Subordinate is the appropriate word. As all members of the mainline, I was trained in the Prussian Noble Korps,“ Lydia explained. “It is selbstverständlich that I would be competent in various positions in the chain of command.”
“Your German is leaking there,” John commented with a broad smile. Lydia gave him one of her poisonous glances but slowed down the next root all the same. Her fingers clawed at something invisible, as she focused her Innate Ability.
“It is awfully convenient that it is made from soulless metal,” she pressed out, the strain evident in her voice.
“Well, if it were actual wood I could abuse Salamander. I generally beat my enemies through exploitation of weaknesses,” John said.
The princess shot him an interested glance, “You plan to do the same here?”
“Kind of,” his smile turned into a smirk, “depends on whether or not there will be another recycled mechanic. Let’s just say, I got the tools in place.”
With Lydia slowing down the attacks, dodging whatever the Tree of Life threw at them was child’s play. “So, how do you regenerate mana?” John asked, merely jogging at this point. The boss fight had been hard at the start, when the sudden difficulty spike had hit them. Now that they knew what to expect, it was group content they were slightly over-levelled for. Sure, if they fucked up, that’d be bad, but they had room for mistakes. John was happy to chat under these circumstances.
“Why do you ask?” Lydia looked questioningly at him.
“Well, Jane uses a breathing technique, I do it by existing, how do you do it? I see your mana slowly depleting, but it seems you have a lot of it, so I was wondering, is all,” he explained.
“…Everything that happens today…”
“Will stay classified, yes, yes,” John interrupted, “will you tell me or not?”
“…Typically, existence alone suffices, but in a pinch I can absorb metals,” Lydia said after a moment's hesitation. “My mana pool, as you call it, is quite vast and it does replenish slightly over time, but for the most part I do it by ingesting metals. I guess this is as good a time as any, to reveal to you my emergency strategy.” With those words, she suddenly stopped.
“Now I’ve got you!” The Tree of Life creaked and brought one of its giant branches down to squash Lydia. John, who was not entirely sure if this was a good idea, decided to trust Lydia that whatever trump card she had would allow her to survive that.
As the branch descended, the princess pulled back her vest, and reached into a pocket on the inside. What she pulled out was a vial filled with a mercury-like substance, glowing light blue. The metal cap that kept the vial sealed quickly flew off. Lydia gulped down the contents in one motion.
Her mana bar refilled within an instant. That wasn’t the end of it, however, as Lydia simply looked at the branch and it ceased to move. “This,” Lydia explained, showing the now empty vial to John, “Is a mercury mithril liquid alloy. It is worth quite a sum, so watch and listen closely.” Accompanied by the annoyed sounds of the Tree of Life, the princess raised her left hand. It looked like she was struggling against an invisible force. John could imagine the metaphysical resistance she was pushing against, her senses turning the intangible pushback into a reality that she strained against.
The branch above her quivered, then gradually was pushed backwards, then beyond that. Creaking and screeching, the metal wood snapped backwards at an unnatural angle. The Tree of Life screamed in anger and pain.
“Mithril is one of the rarest metals out there. It is hard to create and extremely rich in mana, and for metal users like me, it doesn’t just refill our own mana.” Lydia twisted her arm and the branch twisted in kind.
“CURSE YOU!” screeched the Tree of Life, and roots exploded from the floor around Lydia. The metal tentacles were pushed back, unable to enter the sphere of the princess’ influence.
“It temporarily boosts our limits!” she finished her explanation with a loud CRACK! The whole branch had been forced far enough and broke from the main body. The Tree of Life reeled from the loss, giving Lydia the time to step back, before letting out an exhausted groan. “This comes at the usual price of overexertion, however, and is taxing on the body.”
“Still pretty impressive,” John admitted, his gaze fixed on the branch that lay lifeless on the marble floor. For a moment he wanted to ask whether or not she got mercury poisoning, but then he remembered that she was part metal elemental, so that question became redundant. He wished he had a way to overcharge spells, there had been quite a few occasions where he would have much rather used a big attack to get a decisive victory earlier.
In the background, the last pillar crashed.
“Adds have been taken care of, thoroughly, all been beaten, yup, yup, I am the best. Sally was somewhat useful too, I guess. But not all that much. So, keep that in mind if you hand out rewards later, Johnnie, cause I am willing to trade some ‘oral favours’. Wink, wink,” Sylph palavered, leaving John with only one question.
“Why are you naked?”
The air spirit giggled, “You don’t like it?” she asked. Making a pirouette, her foot-reaching hair following her like a flag in a breeze, she showed off her milky white skin. “I felt like it, don’t you just want to take me to bed and take me like the cute courtesan I am? Come on Jonnie, get some inflation in that dick and fuck me right here, I don’t mind!”
“Quiet!” Undine’s voice whipped through the air, making Sylph jump both from the sharpness of its tone and the mental lash that accompanied it. The slime woman was filled to the brim with an annoyance beyond any John usually felt when she was dealing with the tempest elemental.
“Yeah, shut up,” Mono agreed, “that boss is still alive, am I the only one here that DOESN’T immediately get distracted by sex-stuff?”
“I would claim to also keep a level head,” Lydia stated.
“Oh, is that right? Well, I guess you didn’t just look at Sylph with keen interest then,” Mono drily stated and made a toss away gesture.
“What? Is that true? Did you look at my hot bod and were like, all enticed, princess?”
Before Lydia could answer, or Undine’s annoyance could manifest in another harsh admonishment, the boss stopped wailing. The silence was all they needed to refocus their attention.
“You insects,” it growled, “you will see my true form! Fight my guards until then!” The pillars started reconstructing. As if reversed in time, the broken pieces lifted off the ground and slowly put themselves back together.
Simultaneously, the golden barrier around the faces expanded, gradually covering the entirety of the boss. It forced the party back, putting them out of reach of the branches that could just as little reach out as they could reach in
“B-but,” Gnome looked at the pillars and frowned, “I just got done destroying those…”
“And you did a very good job,” John patted her head. The stone elemental made a very pleased face, then she remembered where she was, noticed her fellow elementals grinning at her, and blushed deeply.
“Wh-why are you all staring at me?!” she demanded to know.
“You are just so adorable when you are happy and embarrassed,” Salamander cackled, her laughter growing even stronger when Gnome turned into darker shades of red. “Now look at you, unable to say a thing! HILARIOUS!”
“What now, we wait for him to go into the next phase?” Rave asked, interrupting that little chat, “by the way, this was WAY better. Guys were actually a bit hard.”
“Well, I guess it was adjusted to be group content, so they were meant to be taken by one person each, instead of all three of them by one. But no, I guessed that he would recycle the barrier mechanic in this or a similar way, so I made preparations. Mono, how much mana do you still have?” “About 600, why?” “Mhm, I still have 413… that makes 5 attacks, should be enough.”
Inside the protective barrier the Tree of Life was going through a change. Soon its roots would no longer be bound by the earth, and its branches would turn into many arms, wielding blades of golden leaves. Soon, it would destroy the Gamer, once and for all!
At least that was what John thought was happening. Whatever it was, he had no intention of letting it happen when he had prepared the cheese. From his perspective as the pebble, he saw the three unprotected faces grinning widely, and John would have loved to punch each and every one of them. Sadly, he couldn’t do that as a pebble. He could use Arcane Explosion though. Wasn’t Spellcarrier nifty?
One, two, three, four, five of the balls spawned. They were supposed to be thrown, but without a hand that fulfilled that purpose, they spawned right on the ground, resulting in 5 almost simultaneous waves of arcane energy. The boss had no time to prepare. A burst of notable damage hit all three weak points five times over.
First the bubble, then the body underneath, began to disintegrate.
