In the blink of an eye, I'm back. I open up my item storage and use enemy detection to scan my surroundings. Ember flies out and stretches his wings.

"We're back."

I smirk.

"Indeed we are."

I've been climbing the Labyrinth floors for hours. Too many hours... but I can't let any more time be wasted. I have plenty of energy left and I'm itching to use it all up.

Reaching my enemy detection skill to the depths of the 19th floor, I locate that red-skinned 4m tall level 408 creature once again.

I place my hand on Emebr's wing and teleport back to that glossy square-shaped battlefield. Waiting patiently, the respawned Berskerer Giant going turns its head to me, showing off that toothy grin I know so well.

Its green eyes lock on me and the beast begins charging forward at once. Ember flies up into the sky to let me handle this one alone.

I take out my blade and begin powering up a strike as the monster approaches from roughly 100m away. Its heavy feet crack the ground as runs at me showing a murderous look in its eyes.

I smirk, standing in place while I grip my red glowing blade.

The beast comes closer and closer. I feel the ground shake as it approaches, but continue to focus on refining my attack to its full potential.

In just 10 seconds, I manage to charge up over 450 MP worth of energy into a paper-thin strike. With a yell of excitement, I let the black crescent of mana fly.

It's silent, soaring through the air with ease as the Berserker plows toward me not thinking twice about the powerful energy attack aimed straight at its torso.

Moments before impact, I watch the dense mana shielding appear as my attack threatens to make contact with the monster's chest plate.

Without a hint of resistance, it glides right through.

Less than 10m in front of me, I watch my dark blade of fire slice this Berserker in half without slowing down for a second.

The creature's eyes open wide as it realizes its fate. Both halves of the beast still rocket toward me with impressive momentum. I air-step out of the way to watch the bloody mess roll to a stop over 30 meters behind me.

Letting out a chuckle, I look up to the sky to see Ember watching with great satisfaction. He speaks to me through our link.

"It looks like your month of training has definitely paid off. Shall we continue to climb?"

I grin at the dark black Dragon in the sky. I can tell he's just as eager to gain more levels, just like me. His next rank-up is definitely one of the only things on his mind. I admire Ember for that, he doesn't care about much else...

Me neither.

I walk over to the dissolving corpse and pick up the lone mana crystal it drops. I throw it into my stash and drink an MP potion from my storage.

There's nearly an unlimited supply of these Association-funded potions, it'll take me forever to run through them. I'll use them while I can.

I begin air-stepping up to the Dragon hovering high in the sky, then get on Emebr's back. We begin soaring around the 19th-floor dungeon for the next hour or so hunting Berserkers on sight.

Most of them are around levels 402-404. I vary my energy slashes and begin to keep a record of how well they perform. The minimum amount of MP used while at the correct hair-thin width is just about 300MP. I can manage one of these in just about 3 seconds now. Any lower than that, and the monster in question needs to be weakened before a less-charged slash can do any damage.

Once my tests are complete, I've farmed around 5k MP worth of crystals and the two of us fly off to the boss room together. The longer I charge my attacks top for, the less MP I'm able to efficiently store into the attack.

Soaring deeper and deeper into the back of the dungeon with grey skies and a jagged glossy black landscape below my excitement grows.

I grip my sword tightly. Both Ember and I burst into flames as the spinning grey portal comes into view.

The Dragon's voice rings out in my head through our telepathic link.

"I believe you're more than ready for this, but it would still be wise to stay cautious. Would you like me to leave the battling to you?"

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

I smirk.

"Take out the lesser mobs if any spawn in my way. Leave the boss for me."

"Understood."

We continue to soar downward, and I jump off Ember's back to hit the crystal-like ground with a loud thud. Fragments of dark stone fly up in the air from beneath my feet as I face the spinning portal of energy less than 3 meters away from my face.

"Let's do this."

I begin to shine red and gold while my sword glows crimson and the flames burn hot all around me. Ember does the same, glowing red and burning with dark flickering flames.

We step through and enter the 19th-floor boss room.

As we do, I look around at the odd environment we've stepped into.

The floor, curved walls, and dome-like ceiling are all made out of the same fragmented black crystal-like rock. There's no sign of a light source in sight, but the inside of the room is well-lit.

The floor area is circular, about 100 meters in diameter, and the ceiling goes up about 50 meters into the air.

It's deathly silent. All I can hear is the light crackling of my flames. Ember flaps his wings and flies up into the sky while speaking to me through our link.

"Here it comes... There seems to be only 1 boss. I'll take care of its dozen or so underlings."

The moment Ember's words hit my inner ear, my enemy detection senses start to go off like crazy.

The monsters are here...

From the back of the Boss room, I see a stampede of 4m tall Berserker Giants come charging towards me. They're all levels 402-408. Each one of them stares at me with jagged teeth, sharp green eyes, and long silver swords.

I watch Ember swoop down from above, letting out a thick beam of dark fire magic from his mouth. It collides with the incoming hoard of monsters and half of them are engulfed in the hot flames.

Some jump in the air to attack the flying Dragon, but Ember is fully prepared. With his dark crimson mana-imbued craws at the ready, I watch 3 red-skinned Berserker Giants get torn in half in a matter of seconds.

The battle is on...

I grin, facing forward as a menacing figure approaches from the back of the room.

Heavy footsteps make the ground shake, and I hear the thuds approaching through the screeches and cries of Berserkers getting mutilated by Ember.

I air-step forward to face whatever monstrosity approaches. I'm shaking with excitement and eager for a hard battle ahead.

I fly over the pit of flames and destruction below to finally see the enormous beast in all its glory.

It resembles the Berserker Giants I've faced before but stands over 6m tall plated head to toe with silver armor tightened with thick leather-like straps and lined in golden accents.

Its chest, arms, and legs are all covered but its bright red skin bulges at the seams with large muscles and thick veins.

The monster glows red as it wields a long shining silver sword.

The creature's white teeth, long tongue, and sharp green eyes stare deep into my soul as I hit the ground with a thud. My feet crack the glossy black floor on impact.

With a dark burning fire behind me, and a 6m tall Giant in front, I use Inspect and Appraisal to see what exactly I'm dealing with.

____________________

[Lv. 421]

Active Items:

[Berserker King's Armor Set] [Blood Bonded] +73% Defense

[Berserker Kings's Long Sword] [Blood Bonded] +1250 Attack +600 Agility

Active Skills:

Swordsmanship

Berserker

Final Breath [Special Grade]

____________________

My eyes light up as my flames all grow higher and higher engulfing everything around me in a 5m radius. My dark red aura mixed with shimmers of gold clashes with the Berserker's red glow. It spots me and lets out a murderous roar.

I grip my flaming blade and begin to charge MP into it as the monster before me starts making its move.

Cracking the hard ground with every step, it jumps my way with surprising speed. I dodge to the left, assisted by wind magic to increase my speed while narrowly avoiding its long silver sword.

I continue to charge up my attack.

Gritting my teeth I watch the monster turn the moment it realizes its attack has missed, swinging its long blade with scary precision toward me without hesitating for a second.

It's working off of pure battle instincts, and it's very skilled. While the monster's movements are quick, its long arms make each swing very predictable.

I air-step further away, putting distance between myself, and the beast. Fires rage on behind me as Ember continues to massacre the Berserker's minions.

As the Boss makes its move in for a third attack, my first 10-second charge is ready to release. Roughly 450MP is stored up in a thin black blade. I let it fly.

The massive Berskerer King keeps its trajectory moving forward without batting an eye. A slash that can cut its underlings in half like butter rockets toward it without making a sound.

As the crescent of mana hits the monster's chest plate, a grin creeps across my face. I watch it sink in without any resistance.

I activate my All-Seeing Eye, watching my blade of fire penetrate the dense armor's built-in mana shielding.

Next, there's a white flash of light followed by an enormous explosion of dark red flames. The King roars from inside the bright ball of fire that appears before my eyes.

I air-step back up into the sky. The monster doesn't slow down in its charge one bit. The Berserker plows forward engulfed in a ball of flames swinging its long silver sword.

I smirk, charging up my blade again. It looks like this boss is tougher than I predicted.

The flames slowly clear and the monster turns to face me as I air-step back down to the hard floor.

My smirk widens as I catch a glimpse of its chest plate torn to shreds and cut clean down the middle. My attack destroyed it almost completely in one shot. A long open wound is visible across its chest where the armor broke. Fire burns around the bloodied area and dark red liquid drips to the ground as the flames burn the gash shut.

I've charged up another attack almost halfway when I see the armor begin to glow with a dim white light...

The Berserker King stares me down while putting out the flames on its chest with an open palm. Each time it pats the dark fire a white glow shines.

Its armor begins to shine with this same white light.

My jaw drops as I watch the chest plate that I just sliced in two meld itself before my eyes. Each half comes together in a brilliant white glow before fading away to show a completely undamaged set of armor.

I grip my blade tighter and imbue more mana inside it, readying myself for the next stage of our battle. Gritting my teeth, a stare right back at the beast before me and whisper under my breath with a grin.

"It seems like this is going to be a good fight."