I had a vision. In it, I was standing there. Like an immovable mountain. Thousands of monsters trying to nibble a piece of me, none succeeding. It was a vision and I am sure of it. The same kind I see, after consuming a core.

I stood up abruptly, the feeling of invincibility still lingering. 'Where am I?' A bit muddled, I looked around. The rock behind me reminded of the event past.

"That's right. I was choking on nothing."

To hide my incompetence as a human being I pulled some of my hair in front of my face. 'I need to take a bathe.'

"Spending too much time with the monsters is turning me into a savage."

Walking toward the water area with a hunched back I was thinking about the vision I had. 'Who was I looking through? Why did I see it! Life without the internet is so tough.' While grasping the convenience of the internet I reached the water body.

I wanted to shave my beard first. It was getting out of hand recently. 'When was the last time I shaved? Before starting level 31 I think.' I shaved my beard clean before starting this hotchpotch of a level and now it was ½ a feet long. It took more time than I thought it would.

"Look at this handsome bastard."

I was looking at my reflection in the water. Fairy red hair stained by God knows what, making it look like dreadlocks. The beard looks good. 'I think I will keep it.' I cut my hair short. Kept an inch of the beard. 'Now I look a bit more civilised.' I thought. Digging up some soft soil, I applied it on my hair and laid down on the water.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh… dipping in water without worrying about something biting off your leg is such a bliss. Life is good."

Alright, alright, I get it already. Let's talk about the atrocity that is covering ⅙ th of the entire water area. I saw It from the dry lands, right after I woke up and thought 'What in the hot & crispy kentucky fried fuck is that?' I was feeling pretty refreshed after taking a nap. Until I saw it, and remembered about my living conditions. That's what prompted me to take a bath as soon as possible.

"It looks like a sperm whale and a frog fish gang banged a sunfish to create this kind of unholy abomination."

There was another question that was rubbing me the wrong way. 'Where did that thing live?' I searched the major part of this level for crustaceans. I had seen a glimpse of the kelpie too, tucked away in a corner. But, I never even sensed this thing.

A shiver ran down my spine.

"If that thing can hide who knows what else is hiding in plain sight. This does make things more complicated doesn't it? I have to be more careful from now on."

[And I am sure I would follow through that statement in the near future.]

__________

To the lava we go then. That is the only biome I have not touched until now. I passionately hate heat. I have always been sweaty. It was so bad that even after taking a bath at least 3 times a day I still smelled like a garbage bin. So yeah. More than tolerance or anything I just did not want to go in that area.

You may be wondering how I scored a girlfriend with that kind of smell right? Deodorant. Don't underestimate science.

Now that I had killed both kings of the water nation I seriously negotiated with myself about not setting foot in this place but logic kinda won overwhelmingly.

If I go with the pattern so far every 20th floor guardan seems to be special. Being the dumbass that I am, I wouldn't have noticed if all the levels were corridor based. But the 10 field levels without any boss monsters, 5 different biomes with a bit too hard bosses, everything converging toward the middle, does smell fishy.

Especially the bosses. There is no need to make them so strong if they are not trying to stop you from going any further. There are two reasons why someone is trying to stop you. One, treasure; two, something very embarrassing. There are no treasures here. That means the one who made the monsters are very embarrassed about me seeing their creations. On a serious note though, I think this place is artificial. Think about it. A dungeon with no treasures. Why would anyone want to visit this place? And the fact that nature does not segregate living beings according to their power level.

So, if I can't connect all the dots even after allllllll that I think I will lose the qualification to call myself a member of an intelligent species. As such I need to clear this place too. Take it away Mr. Narrator.

Finding enough reason to not leave this place alone, I steadied my spine and stepped into the magma hell. My weapon of choice this time was bow and arrow. I wanted to hunt something from afar and get the 《Heat/Magma Resistance》 skill.

Stolen novel; please report.

The first thing I encountered was a fireball. Looking at it closely, it turned out to be a bird.

"Bird on fire? Do they come prepared?"

If that was the case, I had to taste it no matter what. 'I should have looked into this place properly before judging it.' Thinking how wonderful the taste would be, I knocked an arrow to my bow and pulled the string.

"Huh! Why is this so light? Did I take the wrong bow? No, this is The one I made from the forest's tree."

Suspecting something wrong with the bow I pulled it harder to generate enough force. 'Snap'. Like a twigg the bow I made with so much effort snapped in half.

"Nooooooooooooooo…. why? Why now? I just wanted to taste a precooked bird."

Frustrated, I picked up a rock and threw it toward the bird. For a moment there I thought the stone caught on fire. 'Must be my imagination.' But the bird that burst apart sang a different song. I was awestruck.

"It's fucking raw."

"Why did I think a living being is gonna be pre cooked?"

"That's not the main issue though."

"It was me who threw the rock right?"

I picked up another rock and threw it toward a big boulder. The stone turned into dust and made a hole through the boulder, cracking it in the process.

"This is getting ridiculous by the seconds."

Suspecting something I ran as fast as I could. The speed was a bit faster than before but not too much. After running around for a bit like headless chicken I found my net target. A red crocodile.

"So you guys were here! I was thinking why didn't I see any of Kevin's extended family members in the water park. To think you guys were dipping in lava. You have my respect. Kevin couldn't get out of water but I am sure he was happy for you. Anyway, be my test dummy."

Finishing my one sided conversation I punched the crocodile right on its face. With a 'splat' the crocodile head burst apat. I stood there looking at the carcass, amazed by my own strength.

"This is freaging amazing, and there I was cursing you for stealing my kill Mr. Whatever fish you were. Thank you. Thank you for eating me."

Coping quickly to the fact that I got absurdly strong out of nowhere, I started cleaning up the lava area.

__________

"Aren't you out of place my friend?"

While cleaning up the lava area I met the mini boss. A crocodile bird. Not a Terodactyl. A crocodile bird. How do I explain this thing! Imagine a crocodile, now remove the tail and put a bird tail of similar length, make the four legs bigger, give those legs talons, make the snout a beak, add 2 full length feathery wings and add some feathers on its body too. That is basically how it looks.

There are 3 types of monsters I have seen so far. The basic normal monsters, the big powerful awe inspiring monsters and alongside them lives this. This whatever the fuck it's supposed to be. These guys really need to be taught a lesson on which inter species relationships should be allowed. I hear by take it upon myself the responsibility to teach these uncultured fuckfaces…………… never mind. I am going to kill them either way.

The crocodile bird was a lavamancer. It knew both fire type spells and earth type spells. In an ordinary situation it would have been difficult for me to deal with it. This was not an ordinary case.

Being a bird crocodile hybrid it lost the tough skin of a crocodile and flying prowess of a bird. All in all it was definitely a failed experiment.

The crocodile bird died a sad death by getting repeatedly bashed on its head with a few boulders. I did get some 3rd degree burns here and there but it was my overwhelming victory.

I did not learn anything from eating its heart. I do not blame it. The seer amount of disrespect I directed toward it was my suspect. The vision was similar to the kelpie's, albeit a little less graceful.

I searched long and hard around the lava area but I could not find even a hair of the big boss. The only place left was the volcano, so I gave up.

Next on my list was the tiger. This fight was hard. The tiger could use fire type spells and gravity type spells. Fireball, firepaw, gravity slam, lightning 200 meter around us fire, these were all manageable. Then he made a giant fireball and added gravity to it. I'm not sure if it reached fusion level or not but it looked like doom so I ran away.

My next approach was to get out of the tigers range and throw rocks at it. That continued for around 7-8 hours before it finally died. I did not get any abilities from the tiger either. At this point I lost hope of getting anything but stat boost from these mini bosses.

"Cheap asses."

Taking rest and weeping tears of sadness for a few hours I made my way toward the forest area. I had seen an opening in the forest that looked like a boss arena. I was heading towards that.

I had made peace with myself that I was not going to get anything special from these mini bosses. The basic stat boosts were good enough. I forgot to mention, I had lost my herculean strength, but that was okay too. I got awesome strength from the fish boss. That was more than enough. I even broke my hand once trying to apply my full strength on one occasion.

__________

Looking around the arena I could not find anything. 'Did I misjudge the place?' I thought. As I was thinking that I suddenly felt my hair standing on its end. I hurriedly jumped to my right but my left hand was lifted in an awkward position. I felt my wrist ripping apart.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh……"

I shouted in pain. Being unprepared for the fight I paid the price. Adjusting my mental fortitude I looked around even more carefully. Nothing. I received another instinctual warning. I ducked down just in time to see a blurry object flying above my head and going into the trees.

"This is why I don't like open spaces."

I activated 《Seismograph》. Generally I could make a mental map of the covered area and if anything moved it felt like dots were moving around. This one was making lines.

"Absurdly fast. If this thing hits my vitals I am dead."

The stake of this fight got exponentially higher. I had no option to run. I completely concentrated my mind and activated 《Gravity Field》 around me. I had one chance. This was not the miniboss I was hoping for. This was a creature on a similar level with the gargantuan fish monster.

I stood there completely still waiting for the next attack. My plan was stupid and daring. Slow down the creature and catch it. With my strength being high If I could land a hit I was sure about winning.

I kept my right hand near my face ready to snap out at any moment. My heart still. Everything else focusing on the lines. Time passed slowly. The line broke. Assessing its trajectory I tilted my body and snapped my figures shut.