The door was around eight meters tall and seemed to be completely made out of wood. It would be more appropriate to call it a gate. A line of light vertically divided the gate into two halves. Even at a glance, it was obvious that the doors would be incredibly heavy. Michael wasn’t sure how he was even supposed to enter whatever room they guarded. Was that part of the challenge?

He ran a mental check on himself. His mana pool was nearly full, his body was completely healed, and his mind was razor-sharp. His robe was a bit tattered because of the repeated attacks from his enemies, but that didn’t matter. He was ready for the Boss. Concentrating, he walked toward the gates. The moment he got within three meters of them, he heard the sound of something heavy being dragged on the ground. The gate opened slowly.

He immediately focused on what lay beyond it. The first thing he saw was a brown cloud. His brow furrowed. It did not leave the room beyond the gate, and instead remained floating within it.

Spores?

He hadn’t expected the Boss arena to be covered in a cloud of spores. He should be fine, but what about other people who didn’t possess as many abilities as he did? An ordinary Mage’s Mana Shield wouldn’t be able to endure such a high number of spores, and they wouldn’t have his Dragon blood for support.

I guess that’s part of the reason why Tairy said I wasn’t ready for this Dungeon.

The average contestant at his Level had no answer to this problem. Michael drew a line with his wand, firing a Mana Wave into the cloud. It parted as the Wave flew by and hit something behind it. He narrowed his eyes. Now that the spore cloud had parted a bit, it became clear that there was a huge structure in the middle of the room, which had been hit by his Mana Wave. He stared at it in disbelief.

It was a giant mushroom.

Michael stood listlessly for a few seconds before sighing and smiling to himself. It was to be expected, given that the Dungeon was called Mushroom Grotto, but after fighting so many humanoid Mushroom Warriors and Casters, he had thought that the Boss would resemble them. Instead, the only thing in the Boss arena apart from the spores was the giant mushroom.

In spite of his amusement, he didn’t dare lower his guard. He raised a Mana Shield and entered the room. The nearby spores immediately clung to him as if they were attracted to his mana. Everywhere they touched began to melt slowly. He felt the continuous drain of his mana in order to keep the Shield up. It wasn’t at a level he needed to be worried about, but it was good to be aware of it. At that moment, the ground shook slightly. He instantly stopped moving. The ground continued to vibrate, with each vibration being stronger than the last. He felt uneasy.

Suddenly, the ground in front of him shook and broke apart, with something that looked like a white tentacle or vine shooting toward his throat at blinding speed. Michael barely had the time to step back before the vine smashed into his Shield, making it tremble. The only reason it wasn’t pierced through outright was Michael’s familiarity with the Skill, alongside his high stats. He gritted his teeth. Behind him, the ground was broken through by another tentacle that looked identical to the first one. It attempted to wrap around him, but he hurriedly jumped over it. He had become capable of increasingly bigger movements while still keeping the Shield up.

Hyphae!?

Since the mushroom was the only thing in the room, he already suspected it to be the Boss, but was unsure of how the battle would go. It was an enemy to be killed, since this was an Extermination Dungeon, so should he just bombard it with Mana Spheres? What could it even do against him? Those questions were answered as three more tentacle-like hyphae broke out of the ground and slammed into his right side, making him almost drop his wand.

“Fuck!”

The Shield was broken. Michael flew to the side, managing to barely drag himself to a halt and conjure up another Mana Shield just as another of the hyphae smashed into him. He hadn’t expected this. The mushroom Boss’ hyphae were each as thick as an arm, and could probably be used as tentacles that could attack, defend, or wrap around an enemy. In addition, there were also plenty of them. Just from a few glances, he identified at least eight of them, all of which had surrounded his current position. This was far more troubling than facing a single melee-focused enemy.

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There was also an unknown number of them still underground. The first thing he needed to do was reduce the number of tentacle-like hyphae as much as possible. He dodged an attack aiming at his head, before dismissing the Shield. As he did, multiple other hyphae burst out of the ground, likely seeking to capitalize on the absence of his defensive layer. Michael gritted his teeth. He needed to do something he had only pictured in his mind but never tried in an actual battle. The situation had become desperate enough to force him to choose this. There was no way to take down the hyphae one by one. As he attempted to cast a Mana Sphere to hit one, all the others would pierce through him and kill him before he could even blink. He needed to rely on his one area-of-effect Skill but in a different way.

Don’t try to focus it. Spread it in a continuous flow.

Repeating the same words to himself over and over in his head, Michael spun in a circle.

“Mana Wave!”

The mana half-moon was turned into a full moon as his spin was complete. The Wave tore at the hyphae all around him. His idea had been simple: to continuously feed mana into the Skill to allow for more output. He coupled this with a circular motion in order to hit everything around him. His gamble had succeeded. The hyphae were split in half, easily seared through even though the Mana Wave’s power had been less focused. Michael could still feel the ground vibrating, however. New tentacles climbed over the destroyed bodies of their kin. A mushroom of that size was likely to have no less than a hundred of these hyphae. He couldn’t keep just attacking them forever.

The main body.

He needed to kill the host, and not only fight its limbs. He fired three other full-moon Mana Waves, destroying the hyphae coming for him, before starting to run toward the giant mushroom. At this point, so many spores had entered his body that he hadn’t even bothered to pay them any attention. He simply relied on his Dragonheart’s fiery blood to handle them. That was when something changed.

At first, the pain was slight. It was like he had touched something hot. In nothing but ten seconds, however, it had become all-consuming. Michael stumbled, cursing. The spores that touched his skin no longer sought to penetrate it, and they seemed to almost actively avoid being breathed in by him. Instead, they melted on his outer layer, just like they did against the Mana Shield. In no time at all, it was as if he had been thrown in a pot of boiling oil.

“Damn it!”

His murderous gaze turned to the giant mushroom. Its cap was moving. Spores flew out in droves from under it. It appeared that the Boss had determined that the hyphae wouldn’t be enough, and therefore changed its strategy. It was now attempting to melt him away with an overwhelming number of spores. Michael fired Mana Waves at the air around him, trying to disperse the spore clouds, but there were simply too many of them. He drew a cross and created a Mana Shield, but it became obvious that this turtle-like strategy wouldn’t work. He was temporarily freed from the pain, but the spores’ assault continued. As he couldn’t cast two different Skills at once, he was out of options.

Dragonheart!

Even though he had already activated his Dragonheart before entering the arena, now he pushed it to its very limits. His heartbeat quickened while his skin became fiery red. Trails of smoke floated up, and every breath felt like it was on fire. The burden was severe. He couldn’t stay like this; he needed to attack. He dismissed his Mana Shield at the same time that his skin heated up.

[Your blood continues to burn.]

Michael recklessly used Mana Wave after Mana Wave, as if he didn’t have a limit to his mana pool, but the expenditure was still sustainable. His Wisdom was so high for moments exactly like this. The Waves burned and dispersed the spores, but it wasn’t enough. They still reached his body. This time, however, the pain was lessened. Part of the spores burned to nothingness once they approached him. It was a small portion of them, but it still mattered. Clenching his jaw through the pain, he drew symbols in the air. A large arrow made of mana appeared.

Hyphae burst out of the ground and grabbed at his ankles, but because of his improved physical stats, he managed to maintain his footing. Other ones smashed at his ribcage, but his ribs didn’t break. It was as if he were starting to emit light, shining like the sun in this underground, damp grotto.

It might have a variety of effective attack methods, but it’s fixed in place. It cannot dodge.

It meant that this had become a damage race. Whoever could output the most damaging attacks the fastest would win. Fortunately, this could be considered to be one of Michael’s strong points. The Dragonheart helped his body withstand the attacks, while empowering his mana in its entirety.

The Mana Arrow shot forward.