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SPLAASH!
A wave of hot magma surged, splashing over the entire village. Chris used his light magic to fly high by releasing a photon explosion, barely managing to escape the burning molten rock.
“W-What the hell is going on? Is the Volcano about to erupt or something?!” he cried.
“No…” said the Heavenly Emperor. “It seems that your final challenge is here, my reincarnation.”
“Final challenge? Is that drowning and burning to death inside of magma or something?!” Chris asked angrily.
Grasping upon the ceiling itself, he glanced in disbelief at the thing that emerged from above the volcano, perhaps…
RUMBLE!
It was, most likely, the culprit behind all these tremors, and what was happening to these people! Its footsteps made the entire mountain tremble as it moved forward, emerging from the molten lava, unaffected by it.
“GRRRHHHH…!”
It was a massive red and black-scaled draconic monster, a beast with two heads at that, over thirty meters of height, a massive, bulky body composed of two enormous arms and a long tail, sharp claws, and several golden and black horns.
This appearance alone sent shivers down Chris spine! If he had Paul, Argentia, and everyone else to help him out defeat this Raid Boss-level monstrosity, he wouldn’t even be half as nervous.
But right now, he was alone, and without even being able to rely on the equipment Paul crafted for him with so much love and attention to detail…
“GRAAARRGGH…!”
The draconic monster’s chest was infused with a strange black and red crystal, constantly dropping miasma everywhere, infecting even the lava itself…
The Salamander people glanced at the creature, as the monster’s aura immediately began to control them, suddenly beginning to affect them in ways Chris could have never thought possible before.
“W-What is happening to the Salamander people?!”
“Oh my, it seems that monster might be the root behind the Miasma spreading everywhere…” the Heavenly Emperor said. “Most likely, this thing has been here for a while; the Salamander people had fully succumbed to the Mold and Miasma, becoming zombie-like monsters.”
“E-Eeeh?!” Chris cried. “I won’t be able to save them?! But my points!”
“I don’t think you should be worrying about such things at this moment!” The Heavenly Emperor sighed, facepalming. “Look!”
“GROOOAARRR!”
As the monster screamed at Chris furiously, the Salamander people transformed, becoming gigantic, bulky draconic monstrosities with long tails and sharp teeth, and there were at least forty or fifty of them within the vicinity.
Not only could they swim in the lava, which covered the entire area now, they had their stats beefed up, plus there was a Raid Boss Level abomination just a few meters away from munching on him like a snack!
“Ah sh*t, are you kidding me?!”
Chris couldn’t believe that this carefree adventure turned out like this at the end! He began to think about Paul the most right now; he just wanted him to come here and help him out.
“Dammit, I can’t call Paul here? Maybe if I use the Party Invitation function…!”
“ROOAARR!”
Before he could try anything dumb, Chris heard a Salamander roar, rushing towards him by jumping directly from the magma beneath, splashing it around as its jaws opened.
“Is this thing really a Fire Spirit?! it’s just a monster at this point!”
He barely evaded, lifting his legs up before the jaws could tear them apart, and then Chris gathered his Heavenly Ki and Arcana within his hands.
“Dammit, I need my bow for this…! If I had it, I could… Huh?”
FLUOSH!
As Chris thought about that in this predicament, the light he wielded rapidly transformed, taking the form of a bow.
“Oh my, you’re truly a genius at handling Heavenly Ki.” Said the Heavenly Emperor. “You’ve just used the Light Materialization Technique, turning light into a solid object. I usually make swords though, but a bow? I suppose it suits you more.”
“The only thing you do is yap and yap!” Chris cried. “I wish someone could give me a hand!”
As Chris kept whining, he fired several arrows of light from his Light Materialized Bow, the arrows reached the Salamanders nearby, acting as homing missiles.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions of purifying light engulfed them consecutively, as Chris kept firing them endlessly without stopping. However, the Mutated Salamanders were tough, resisting several arrows in a row, although they were growing weaker.
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“Just get purified already!”
Chris continued his assault, but the Salamanders rapidly did the same thing he was doing, opening their jaws and firing giant black fireballs at him, which began hitting the ceiling, making giant boulders collapse.
“Uaaaggh!”
He kept escaping the fireballs and the boulders, wrapping himself around barriers to reflect them; the barriers didn’t work that well though, most of them breaking down into pieces rather quickly.
He was growing more and more stressed, too many things to take into consideration as they came and attacked him, and the Raid Boss was beginning to prepare a nasty attack, beginning to breathe in a lot of air!
Chris had never been a fan of hardcore games; he abhorred souls-likes, and he preferred fun RPG adventures, visual novels, or typical 2D or 3D platformers.
The level of precision he had to pull out to survive this onslaught was simply too much.
“Alitheus… or Chris, whatever your true name, remain calm.”
He heard the voice of the Heavenly Emperor resonating within his mind.
“Wha…?! What can you even do to help me anyway?”
“I will tell you what to do, and you will do it. Move to the left.”
“Eh? Ah!”
Chris moved to the left, flying away from a boulder he hadn’t seen before.
“Descend, now!”
“What?!”
“Do it!”
Chris descended a second before the two-headed draconic monster fired a massive dragon breath where he was.
BOOOM!
The attack was devastating, decimating a large part of the ceiling as a massive amount of boulders fell from the skies, crushing a dozen Salamanders beneath.
“Woah…! Wait, what?”
“Unlike you, as a ghostly being, my senses are spread everywhere. I can see behind, above, below, to the left and right, and everywhere else. Although I can’t do anything for you, I can tell you precisely where to go.”
“Oh wow, you’re actually useful!”
“I’ve always had been useful, you ungrateful little demon… You’re up for some reprimanding later, but for now, concentrate!”
“But are you sure that…?”
“Again with doubting me so much, I’ve been helping you since the beginning, Chris! Stop doubting me so much. I only want you to get a good score in this trial and then Rank Up! Don’t you want to become strong? As strong as Vlad, perhaps?”
“Yeah! I want to! Okay, sorry, sorry, I’ll follow your commands!”
Chris realized that the only way he was going to even approach a chance of winning was by following the commands of the Heavenly Emperor.
And right now, he had to give it his all!
“To the right, quickly. And then, take the opportunity and shot!”
“Gotcha!”
Chris moved to the right as he descended; three Salamanders rushed just where he was and swung their claws, aiming to slice him into pieces.
“Now!”
Chris pointed his bow at them as they were in midair, firing three loaded Heavenly Arrows, which looked more robust and stronger than the other Light Arrows.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
The arrows reached their targets instantly, and as they moved as quick as light itself, three explosions engulfed the Salamanders, splashing into the magma below.
SPLAAASH!
Their bodies slowly mutated back to their original Salamander forms, although they remained unconscious, making it so the Boss didn’t care about them.
“Bullseye!”
As Chris celebrated, the Heavenly Emperor commanded.
“Quickly, run upwards!”
“Ok!”
Chris kicked the air using his Light Aura, reaching several meters high, evading a giant whip-like tail coming from the two-headed monster.
CRASH!
The tail ended hitting the ceiling as several boulders fell from above, crashing down on Chris.
However, Chris used his barrier to protect himself from them, quickly rushing outside of the cave.
“Escape the cave; the place is too unstable. Lure the Salamanders outside and take them down. That monster is too large to get out through that cave; it’ll have to break out, and it will take some time.”
“I see!”
Chris was learning a lot of insights about his surroundings, making the existence of the Heavenly Emperor as if he had eyes on his back, above his head, and even on his foot.
It was incredible, as if his senses had fully expanded!
FLASH!
As he rushed outside, the dozens of Mutated Salamanders quickly followed him, firing more black fireballs at him.
Chris evaded them with much more space to fly, while the monster behind them roared angrily.
“ROOOAAARRRGH!”
BAAAM! BAAAM! BAAAM!
It began to rapidly attempt to break out of the caverns, using its giant claws to tear through and dig the hard ground.
However, even with all its efforts, it would take a couple of minutes at the earliest!
“Alright, time to take you guys down!”
This time, he decided to use the rest of his skills now that he saw that he had to deal with actual foes and not just spam his Light Elemental Spells or Techniques.
First, he conjured a huge cloud of pink-colored gas; it was Dream Magic.
“{Dream Eating Cloud}!”
By using the Dream Eater Skill and further enhancing and changing its shape through raw Arcana, Chris did a little imitation of Paul’s Geomancy.
FLUOSH!
The cloud of dreams reached the Salamanders; they didn’t go to sleep or anything, but their dreams being rapidly devoured made them groan in surprise, most of them getting stunned.
“Amazing! I had no idea you could take your skills to such levels!” said the Heavenly Emperor. “Are you taking inspiration from your lover?”
“Kinda!” Chris said. “I am not near as good as that no-life gamer is, but it’s something!”
Chris followed by creating several arrows around him, his bow pointing down as the arrows followed his commands.
The arrows weren’t just made of golden light but also of silver moonlight.
This was because Chris not only used his [Magic Archery] Skill, but also his Class exclusive Skill, made from the Blessing of the Goddess of the Silver Moon, [Silver Moonlight Archery Arts]!
“{Silver & Golden Moonlight Archery Arts}: {Mercury Star Rain}!”
The arrows descended as Chris fired the one within his bow, much larger than the rest, bombarding down the Salamanders with small, consecutive explosions that seemed to never end.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
They resembled golden and silver stars that constantly fell from the skies; even Chris Aura changed, resembling some sort of cosmic nebula as it merged with his Dream Eating Cloud leftover energy.
The Salamanders began to rapidly change, returning to their normal forms as the blinding silver and golden light consumed them, burning the miasmic mold away.
“Take this! And this! Don’t you dare turn into monsters ever again!”
Chris continued firing more arrows, ultimately returning everyone to normal! The advantage of flying was always the best; being above them made it easier for him to fire as many projectiles as he wanted.
“Ugh…!”
However, he immediately felt like he was about to puke his entire body, beginning to quickly fall from the skies.
“W-What the…?!”
“You’ve overused your Arcana and Ki! You’ve almost run out of it completely, Chris! I guess I never told you about the side effects, which may include falling unconscious and nausea, among many…”
The Heavenly Emperor informed him about very important things quite late!
“You damn…! Ugh, I just have to absorb what’s in the forest!”
Using whatever he had left, Chris quickly changed his falling trajectory, falling in the middle of the forest.
Right at the same time as the two-headed draconic monster emerged from the volcano!
CRAAASH!
It pulverized everything in its wake, destroying the entrance as the monster finally freed itself from the volcano, glancing at the evergreen forests, ready to be burned to the ground.
“ROOOAAARRR!”
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