An enormous brown-skinned lizard wearing thick shining silver armor approaches in a cloud of dust from the back side of the dungeon.

On all fours, the mindless beast charges forward, waving a red tongue back and forth while letting out grunts and hisses.

Thick mana shielding surrounds its body on all sides.

It has a skill I've never seen before.

Of course, it's one I want, but I'm not drawn to it immediately like the last creature we faced.

It seems my teammates are more trigger-happy than me on this floor, especially the blond-haired mage.

Maria lunges forward, glowing bright blue and taking a swing with her sword smiling ear to ear.

"This one's mine!"

Before the 7-meter-long lizard can even get within range, it is hit point blank with a powerful incoming wall of ice.

I watch its black crystals of body hardening activate and the monster's aura glow gold, but in a matter of seconds it's already over.

The incoming blue and white light encapsulates the lizard's mana shielding in a layer of ice. It squeezes in tighter and tighter until a buzz of white light from the fractured shielding explodes outward in all directions and the feral beast comes to a halt.

Frozen solid, not moving a muscle, the Lizard Tyrant stands in front of us now in the form of a light blue statue.

Maria sends out another wave of energy and the work of art explodes into a million tiny little fragments of ice that glimmer and shine while falling to the floor under the heat waves of the artificial dungeon's sun.

She cheerfully jumps in the air as we follow after her.

"Alright! Another level!"

A few more monsters appear as we continue onward. They are all between levels 480 and 490.

Each of us sends out attacks, either splitting them in two or shattering them with just the touch of a finger. That's only Lydia's battle style. I still haven't seen her put in any effort at all today.

After defeating one of the rather easy-to-kill Lizard Tyrants myself, a familiar text screen pops up.

[Use Absorption]

Skill: Hibernation -> Hibernation [Special Grade]

[YES][NO]

While choosing [YES], I whisper under my breath.

"This is getting too easy..."

I check my status, in a particularly good mood about the [Special Grade] perk on my Absorption skill automatically upgrading this one.

____________________

Hibernation

Info: Hibernation allows the user to fall into a deep slumber and cure any curse, disease, or illness given enough time.

Hibernation costs a set amount of MP upfront and the user will not require food, water, or excess mana until the process is complete.

If awoken before Hibernation is complete, progress will be 100% negated.

The effectiveness of Hibernation is greatly decreased if a curse or disease inflicted on the user comes from a being of significantly greater mana control or level. It may take significantly more MP to complete a difficult request.

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The user's defenses will decrease by 99% during Hibernation.

The user's defenses will decrease by 50% for 12 hours following Hibernation.

[These De-buffs may not be completely removed by any skill below the Mythic Rank]

[Special Grade] Perk: Hibernation time is decreased by 50% and upfront MP cost is reduced by 35%. Post Hibernation De-buffs may be reduced by up to 50% with specified MP cost depending on the severity of the ailment cured.

Grade: [Special Grade]

[Upgrade]

____________________

I scrunch my eyebrows as I read this description....

It seems to be another healing skill, but useless if I already have Life Steal.

Self-regeneration and HP potions should be more than enough for post-battle trauma too.

With a shrug, I close my status and continue moving forward with my team. It never hurts to have another interesting skill in my arsenal for any unexpected issues.

We come to the first major cliff that leads down into the Orange Canyon below. There's a water source down below, allowing for more plant life to grow in the deeper regions of the dungeon.

Arie turns to Maria and speaks up.

"So, I assume it's either you or me. Who's guarding this dungeon from the impending break."

She smiles.

"I'll do it. I'd like to see what kind of loot these creatures drop after a few dozen more kills. There's been nothing yet, but I'm feeling lucky."

I nod and interject.

"They should drop a solid mental strength buffing amulet if you kill enough. It's definitely worth farming for."

She gives me a firm nod.

"Great. Plus, these creatures have a natural weakness to the cold. It'll be easy enough, even if 10 attack at once. I'll be nearing level 500 by the end of today."

Arie turns to me, then back to Maria.

"So, it's settled. We should keep moving."

Again, we go over logistics and Maria heads back to guard the gate.

The 4 of us remaining head off down into the canyon and keep killing Lizard Tyrants as they show up sporadically.

I sense some of them lying dormant at the backsides of the dungeon.

There's a high chance they're Hibernating, but we don't have much time to check it out.

Deeper and deeper, we travel until we make it to the swirling grey portal at the furthest portion of the canyon.

It's located underneath a massive overhang that blocks out the sun, and two mutant Lizard Tyrants levels 491 and 492 stand waiting for us.

Fisher and Arie take them out with ease as Lydia and I follow behind.

The anticipation of what's to come is building, but I still have a while to wait...

Everything in this dungeon feels so weak. In reality, I've just grown very strong.

"When am I going to get a good fight?"

I murmur to myself as we're transported into the Boss Room and the level 504 humanoid-looking Lizardman with dark brown skin, shining silver armor, and two enormous glowing red axes eyes us down.

Orange stone walls create an incredible arena for a fight with a ranked-up beast, but I can't help but feel irritated and bored by the sight of it.

I could take this monster out in a single slash.

Aire and Fisher lunge forward as I stand back and watch with Lydia.

The white-haired mage chuckles and leans in toward me.

"I feel the same way. Not even worth drawing your sword right?"

I swallow hard, then reply while blue and white light begins to flash as the two hunters take on a ranked-up Boss of the 22nd Floor.

"No... unfortunately it's not.

Just under a minute passes and the mutant creature falls to the boss room floor, dissolving and dropping a glistening silver armor set.

Arie gladly accepts it and puts the new gear on.

I Appraise the silver armor as we're transported to the next floor.

[Lizard Tyrant King's Armor Set] +3000 Defense +1500 Mental Strength

The white transfer magic fades and under my boots, I feel the earth shift and make odd scratching sounds.

Once my full vision comes back, the black-colored gravel beneath my feet glimmers with a metallic shine.

I look up, and all I see is an endless void of a very light grey sky. It's almost completely white, and the flat ground stretches out for kilometers ahead. The end is further than the naked eye can see.

Taking a step forward, the metal crunching under my boots fills my ears.

My 3 teammates step forward as well, making the same twitchy reactions as the sound of a thousand tiny forks scraping across dinner plates fills everyone's ears.

"What... is this place...?"

The ground begins to vibrate. Less than 30 meters in front of us the metal fragments on the ground start to twist and turn, then float slowly up into the air.

At first, it looks like a silver and black bubble.

The ball of metallic shards lifts from the ground, contrasting with the grey sky and glimmering as it shifts and spins to mold into a different shape.

It floats higher into the air, pulling more metal with it, sporting arms and legs, now standing over 5 meters tall.

The metal fragments look like tiny silver bugs as they shift and move around forming a humanoid body holding what looks like a long sharpened shining sword.

A shadowy face, with faded features continuously shifting and moving appears. It's trying to mimic the eye and mouth formations it sees on us as it creeps closer.

The slow creep speeds up.

Then, it lets out an ear-shattering metallic roar.

It starts to run straight toward us leaving thousands of tiny fragments behind while scooping new ones up with every passing step to reforming its lost mass.

I power up my stat-boosting skills and grip my sword, then use Inspect and Appraisal.

____________________________

[Lv. 495]

Active Items: [Metal Warrior Core][Bonded]

Active Skills: [NONE]

____________________________

"Interesting..."