“Once we deal with the first attack, our strategy will change based on the mobility of the monster. A giant ice salamander should be slow, but it should be able to use magic to help with that as well. We will get closer to the monster if the mobility of the creature is compromised, but if the monster is at death's door, then we will go all out on the offensive.”
“Okay.”
In theory, the monster should be on the same level of the golem that I killed the other time… two years had passed since then and I have gotten a lot stronger, but it was hard to tell how strong I really was. That was why I had ten explosive bone bolts…
“What about the classes?”
“Right… There is one option here that can help you. The information I have is more or less like this.”
Actor - Master of Performance: Gain additional bonus experience when performing in plays, storytelling, using dramatic techniques, or acting to fool others, the more people see you, the more experience you will get.
Parameter - Mana Regeneration: Increases your mana regeneration by 0.1 points per level.
Active Skills: Emotional Resonance - Channel powerful emotions through your performances, allowing you to sway the feelings of your audience or manipulate their reactions. It increases their mana regeneration.
Cost: 05 mana per minure.
Illusory Identity - Assume a false identity with such convincing detail that others believe you to be someone or something you’re not. This skill allows you to deceive observers, making it easier to infiltrate groups, gather information, or escape detection. Cost: 05 mana per second.
“Huh? How are those skills going to help me?”
“It isn't the skills, it is the mana regeneration. You will need a lot of it to keep Honed Senses active alongside another that you will get in the next dungeon. If my guess is right, this other skill will help you a lot with perceiving the surroundings, almost completely. If that doesn't work, using both that skill and Honed Senses will be enough to more or less cancel the Hex of Darkness.”
Nimir didn't ask anything aside from that… maybe he wasn't that hopeful of it, or maybe he was just focused on the battle. Either way, that was good since it wouldn't make him that anxious. In any case, with an Illusory identity, he would be able to live in most places while fooling others. Eventually, I was hoping that he would find a good place to live where he wouldn’t need it, but I couldn’t be sure since this world was so messed up.
“What about your class?”
“That will be a surprise.”
Nimir could tell that I was looking forward to my own class, so he decided to focus seriously on the job. After we checked our weapons, we headed to the boss's chamber.
There was this cold mist even on the stairs that led to the boss chamber, enough to bypass the enchanted items that were supposed to keep us warm. That cold only showed how much the boss would have the upper hand against us, but we still kept going.
When we reached the boss chamber, we found that the place was a bit different than we had expected. The path leading to the middle of the boss' chamber was far from straightforward. Massive boulders littered the ground, each one coated in a thick layer of ice, making them treacherous to climb or maneuver around. Some of the rocks jutted out of the frozen floor at odd angles, creating narrow passages and potential choke points.
As we ventured deeper, the dense mist began to increase, swirling around the ice-covered terrain. The fog grew thicker with every step, obscuring our vision to the point where we couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. The cold air was biting, and an eerie silence hung over the chamber, broken only by the faint echo of dripping water. Despite the ominous atmosphere, there was no sign of the boss, only the cold, the mist, and the looming threat hidden somewhere beyond the icy veil.
Still, a screech eventually echoed in the room and its power made the mist disperse a bit. The giant salamander emerged and then suddenly climbed one of those frozen rocks. The creature was five meters long and two meters tall… it didn't look that imposing with that alone, but its body was completely covered in the ice scales.
The creature glared at Nimir viciously before summoning several ice spears around to target him, but before it could do that, several explosions happened on its body.
Camouflage deactivated the moment I attacked, but the beast didn’t have the chance to react to my attacks since I hid behind one of those frozen boulders… I also used all the iron balls enchanted with Flames, so I could only hope that half of the head of the beast had been destroyed.
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When the smoke and mist dissipated, the monster appeared with its head half-burned and half-covered in blood. My five attacks certainly hit that thing’s head, but only that much damage was caused because of the ice scales. I felt like sighing, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Run and then approach when the beast is busy!”
After my shout, Nimir nodded and then began to run on all four like a dog. He approached a bit and then the beast summoned a single ice spear to hit him… it could summon single missiles faster, apparently. Still, it only hit a frozen boulder that Nimir hid behind.
I used that chance to approach the blind side of the creature, but soon the monster kicked the ground, and then ice spears emerged from the ground and almost impaled me. It was able to sense my approach, apparently. I kicked the ground to the side and then avoided the ice spears.
‘This will be hard…’
I decided to run in the opposite direction and attack the monster from behind, but I reached the point and changed direction, another spear almost impaled me. I felt a shiver and my blood ran cold… I kicked the ground and avoided the attack somehow, but that wouldn’t be good for my heart.
‘It got colder when I approached… the range should be twenty meters.’
I could tell that the monster was using some sort of skill to sense the heat of my body approaching. It made sense… Nimir passed by me and kept his distance, it looked like his senses warned him of the danger as well. The monster began to turn around to attack us, but soon I resumed my run and then fired three bolts on the side of the monster.
The creature raised its arm and then made an ice wall emerge… the bolts pierced through and hit the wing of the creature, I felt the impact, but it didn’t cause much damage. If it is going to keep spawning magic, then it should run out of it eventually, but should we bet on that? I wasn’t entire sure…
‘It didn’t have to look and it reacted to the sound of the attacks… possibly.’
No, my bolts could cross those twenty meters in the blink of an eye. The monster couldn’t have such reaction time when it relied so much on magic. Still, I had to confirm that… I stopped moving my legs and skated on the ice with my hand cannon being pointed at the boss. However, the creature stopped moving entirely. When I thought of pulling the trigger, I saw the monster raising its wing and then creating another ice wall.
The iron ball flew fast without making any sound and collided against the ice wall, but that was it. It didn’t hit the beast… still, that confirmed that the monster could read my intent, somehow.
In the next moment, I fired another iron ball and another ice wall blocked it… I waited for two seconds before firing it again, but another ice wall blocked it. That was fine by me… but it was a bit annoying, even though I probably could make the monster run out of mana, I was counting as well on bypassing its defenses by combining some different attacks.
“Something is off! I feel the energy around us gathering around the boss!”
“What?”
I raised my guard and jumped away… usually when something like that happens, the boss would launch a special attack, but I didn’t sense any of that. Thanks to my confusion, the boss fired some ice spears at me, but I repelled them with the iron balls in my hand cannon. They cancelled each other… Still, that wasn’t a special attack.
“It still is happening?”
“Yeah!”
The monster didn’t look different, it wasn’t healing faster either… so something was off. I tried to use Identification on the beast, but the only thing I could see was its health, mana, and stamina.
Name: Giant Ice Salamander
Race: Ice Salamander
Health: 1950/2900
Regen: 50.0 per hour
Mana: 5000/5000
Regen: 150.0 per minute
Stamina: 300/300
Regen: 3.0 per minute
“What? It didn’t use any mana with those attacks?”
Something was definitely off… how could that be possible? Still, before we could find a solution to that problem, the monster bombarded us with the ice spears even though we were on different sides of the chamber.
We avoided the attacks, but sooner than later, our stamina would run out. I thought that I had obtained all the information about the boss, but it looked like some people were hiding some things in order not to get some adversaries when it comes to farming the boss. That was annoying, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Keep your distance and don’t use too much energy! We can’t do anything unless we understand what is going on!”
Nimir nodded and then we focused on dodging the attacks of the enemies… my first guess was that the dungeon was powering the boss, but I never heard of that happening in such low-level dungeons. The boss didn’t seem like a mutant variation either…
Still, it didn't take long for me to realize what was going on… it happened when I looked around and then frowned, the room looked more spacious for some reason. Before long, I was able to see the boulders inside the blocks of ice clearly, and before, I was only able to see them when I got really close.
‘Is it absorbing the ice or the cold somehow and turning it into mana?’
There was only one way to find out… I moved away from the beast and then targeted the ice-covered boulders with my iron balls. Before long, I could see the eyes of the beast on me, and the thing looked really pissed… I felt shivers.
‘Jackpot, huh?’
The ice fell off from the boulders and turned into small blocks of it on the ground… slowly but surely, they began to melt and then the water was absorbed by the ice on the ground. I didn't notice anything odd with the ice on the ground being absorbed, so I assumed that the beast couldn't.
“Wait a bit, Nimir! This thing has absorbed the cold from the rocks! I will destroy them and then we will attack together!”
As if the beast could understand my words, it fired a barrage of ice spears at me. I avoided them by a thin margin while preparing my hand cannon. Still, there was no tension or fear in my body since I could see those attacks easily… dexterity for the win again.