James repeated his awakening a little easier this time around. With a new plan in place, he started practicing his newer techniques against the minotaurs. The first thing on the list was trying out his water arrow.
He waited until he could get a minotaur on its own. James charged up the water arrow and let it fly. It struck the minotaur piercing its armor but went no further. Instead, it seemed to be intentional in its placement as it started to become red. Blood started to flow out and replace the water that made up the arrow. The minotaur’s face paled and fell to its knees at which point James ended its life.
Happy with the results of the attack James moved onward toward the end of the maze. This time he took out fewer enemies but focused on precision and Improving his skill. The minotaurs had become less of a challenge so he felt there was little to gain by wasting time on the floor.
James ended the boss’s life with a water arrow and moved on to the 19th floor. He then made his way through the tunnels without setting traps while still giving himself enough time to recoup the mana he had lost. By the end of the floor right before the boss, James had avoided using potions thus far.
James started by firing off a volley of arrows and then his lightning arrow. Delaying the lightning arrow, had the added effects of aggravating the initial attack and bouncing the attack to the mini spiders that had started to swarm. What followed was a game of cat and mouse as James avoided attacks and stomped the small spiders until he could fire off his water arrow. It need more time than regular to prepare but once it was in the air nothing would stop it.
The queen froze once she was hit by the arrow. She wailed in pain as the open wounds opened up further and drained blood quicker. James took the opportunity to make some precision shots at the mini spiders before they could become a problem. With another volley, James hit her head with all four arrows, and she went down. The mini spiders connected to her fell thereafter.
James let out a sigh of relief and took a minute to relax before entering the 20th floor.
The demon was not as easy to deal with compared to the spider queen. Seeing the singular foe, the demon raced to face James.
James shot off four arrows and the demon avoided all but one. It broke off the arrow and started healing as it prepared fire magic.
As he felt the heat James also felt the missing mana from his system. He had used up the mana available to him and would not be able to launch a powerful magic attack for a few more minutes at least.
James used his movement skills to back away from the demon, but it launched fireballs in response. The attacks burned him but did not spread once he rolled. More arrows were fired but the demon got too close to him.
It grabbed him and threw him across the volcanic rock burning him further. James stepped away from the demon and the heat vents as he poured a potion down his throat. His reddened skin lightened and returned to normal. James prepared another volley. He aimed his shot at the demon’s head and fired.
Two of the arrows missed while the other two hit the demon. One in its neck and the other through the side of its cheek.
The demon stopped. It spat out splinters as it worked to heal itself with soothing flames. James was realizing that he could not deal enough damage alone to kill the demon. He checked the amount of mana available to him and found it lacking. He would need to survive for a few minutes longer before attempting one of his mana arrows.
James rolled under another fire attack and went for his bow when he was tackled by the demon. Its speed increased and James’s bow was knocked aside before the demon started choking him. James struggled to breathe and could not get a grip on the demon. The pain overwhelmed him as he tried to get oxygen. James returned to the 17th floor again.
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James’s path through the dungeon repeated as he fought the boss monsters and dealt with their minions along the way. He altered his tactics each time to varying effects. The main problem he faced was his limited mana attacks when dealing with the queen and the demon thereafter. If he used both charges of his attack he then had nothing left when faced with the demon who had more strength and could out-damage him in a ranged battle.
He then attempted to use only one mana attack against the queen and then regular attacks afterward. He was finding it too hard to limit himself to volley attacks against bosses at least. The resulting battles ended with about a fifty-fifty chance of James dying after using his special attacks against the queen. When he survive James waited as long as he could to rest before dying to the demon.
It was easy enough to guess that using his water arrow against the demon who threw fire would be injured more than against other attacks. The water arrow caused the demon to writhe and stop all fire abilities while it recovered. Once the attack was finished however the demon would race toward James like a mad dog. It would then ignore any arrows James hit it with until the demon had its claws in James’s chest or neck.
As James died and returned to the 17th floor over and over again he felt mentally exhausted. While physically he was refreshed each time he died some of his mental energy was drained each time. It was like a piece of himself was left behind in the loop as he went. After James died to one of the spider monsters before even reaching the spider queen he kept his eyes closed and rested.
“Are you okay,” asked Naomi?
“I’m not sure honestly. I need a minute to rest. Ian and Derek can wait. They have a healthy potion and will defeat the boss by themselves. We can catch up with them on the 18th floor. I know the way to the end.”
“What if they can’t?”
“The boss is just a beefed-up skeleton with a dangerous sword that Derek will deal with now let me sleep.”
James rolled over and adjusted his bag to act as a better pillow.
He finally got back up when sleeping became a futile action. Naomi and Wes had left him alone for a few minutes but had started to bug him with increasing frequency by talking at him and nudging him awake. Finally, he rose.
Anna started to say something, but James cut her off and her neck. His attack was followed by another toward Wes. With that taken care of James marched towards the 17th-floor exit. James didn’t walk very fast and instead took the time to rest a bit along the way. After stepping through the portal James felt much better. He wasn’t in perfect condition but close enough to it for now.
Unlike his words to Naomi, James did not try to find the others on the floor, but they found him, nonetheless. James came upon a two-path junction point and looked to his side. Further down the hall where he did not intend to go lay Derek and Ian. James tried not to look but his eyes looked at their forms all the same.
The minotaurs had beaten the pair to a pulp. The dungeon had already healed all damage to its walls leaving just the organic aftermath behind.
James turned away and kept walking. He did not need their items that badly this time through the loop.
The fight against the spiders went better than James expected as he improvised new traps and improved the old ones he had been using for a while. The time to kill each enemy had also gone down significantly. Each spider monster fell in only two or three minutes depending on the trap used.
Some traps were more lethal than others while some slowed and incapacitated the spiders more. After an hour of trapping, preparing, and fighting James reached the spider queen again. She towered over him, and he stood tall. With a quick burst of arrows, he launched two volleys almost back-to-back. Reaching out of his bag he threw a stick that lit up in flame shortly after. The torches were aimed at the webbing which caught fire and spread to half the cave. James started to reposition himself so that he would not be trapped in the remaining webbing again.
Throwing the torch had left open time for the queen to create small spiders which swarmed towards him. James ignored the spiders and stomped on them as he prepared his next attack. The magically charged shot hit the queen and her minions shuddered. The water shot bled the queen out more than James had seen before. He had aimed the shots so that the water arrow could multiply the damage even further.
The weakened queen could not put up much more of a fight and died to his attacks. With her dead James had one more shot available for use against the demon on the 20th floor.