The magic bag didn’t explode… but unleashed a torrent of water that covered half of the body of the monster and it began to freeze as well. I had this idea while I was living in the cavern about filling a magic bag with the water that the flask could produce and then drench a target and then shock it, but this worked as well.

Flask of Endless Water: Produces freshwater indefinitely until it is full.

Durability: 05/10

It was the only use I found for the effect, aside from drinking the water myself when it was needed. Regardless, the arms were still approaching me, but I freed myself after breaking the ice that also had reached my legs. I jumped backward with all my might, and then the hands of the monster destroyed the rest of the ice… it would have been really convenient if it had destroyed the core of the monster, but I wasn’t that lucky.

Before I could fall, I used the grappling crossbow to move to the back of the monster while a lot of sand was falling around. The monster was still in shock and confused apparently, since its arms weren’t moving at all. I used that chance for my next trick…

I equipped my gloves and then began to stab the monster left and right… as my mana recovered, I also used a certain spell on its back. Before long, the arms of the monster approached me again, but the creature began to tremble all over, as magic traps began to pierce its back.

I figured that the bleeding effect would be useless since the monster was made of sand, so having a high attack would be a waste of time. So, I changed the enchantments of the gloves to the mana drain effect.

‘You might be pretty strong against physical attacks, but not against magical ones…’

The monster trembled for a short while, and a lot of its body turned into sand on the ground, but even those parts began to be restored overtime. I was expecting to find some reaction to the real core with the magic traps, but I failed.

It was the fourth boss of a labyrinth. It wasn’t supposed to be easy, even more so when I was fighting alone, but it was still annoying.

All of a sudden, a certain possibility came to mind… perhaps I was indeed wasting my time with those types of attacks. I jumped back to the ground and then used two power shots with my best arrows on the base of the monster’s body.

A powerful wave of heat spread around the area since the arrows were enchanted with flames and even had Fire Wall scrolls on them. At the same time, the giant monster began to fall forward.

‘My guess was right… it is underground.’

I never heard of incomplete golems. In one way or the other, they could obtain all the limbs necessary to move. In this case, the monster also had its legs underground and its core was probably in one of them… perhaps I should have fired one arrow at a time to confirm where the core was.

I saw the monster getting up again and then I used Rapid Fire on its right side… the creature quickly raised its right arm to block the barrage. It looked like my guess was right.

The sand golem soon emerged from its arms and then fired a barrage of sand spears at me. The beast sure liked to spam that attack, or perhaps it just liked to keep the enemies away. Regardless, the battle was pretty much over, since I could tell where the core was.

If I had the exact position of the core, I could finish that with a single attack, by using skills like Shadow Mark, Precision Mark, and Deadeye Focus, a single arrow would become many times stronger, but since that wasn’t an option, I had to improvise.

All of a sudden, I stopped running and then faced the boss. The sand spears hit the ground where I had been before and then raised a massive curtain of sand. I appeared right in front of it with three arrows in hand. I used Rapid Shot and then two Decay Arrows pierced through the sand and the monster’s body blasting away all the sand around.

With Hawk’s Vision, I saw in the split of a second the core of the monster thanks to the power of the arrows… I used Power Shot, and then the final arrow hit the core. The sound of glass cracking echoed in the room, and then the monster stopped moving altogether. In the next moment, the entire thing began to collapse like a sand castle.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

You received 30.000 experience points.

You completed a trial. Please choose between the classes: Beastmaster, Battlemage, and Cryomancer.

I sighed in relief once the battle was over and I found the mana core of the monster. Still, I soon felt annoyed… this battle had been a mess. I had to use too many tricks and none of them were that effective. I found it satisfying to outsmart the enemy, but when I tried that and failed every single time, it left me more than a bit bothered.

‘I am still weak… I want to reach a point where my arrows alone will be enough. It goes without saying that using my short swords here would be a disaster as well.’

I had to make a lesson out of this… my back was still hurting quite a bit. Somehow, the Shadow Step amulet was still intact, but it had decreased the power of the sand spear that hit me by quite a bit. Without it, I would have suffered enough damage to prevent me from fighting any longer.

‘Well, at least the classes this time around are pretty good. Either of them would serve me quite well. If it is a matter of preference, I bet Cryomancer would be the best option since I like ice magic… it would be useful too for all kinds of scenarios. As for the others…’

You obtained the Beastmaster class.

The Stamina Conservation parameter was improved.

You unlocked the aptitude: Animal Empathy.

You unlocked the skill: Tame Beast.

You unlocked the skill: Beast’s Fury.

Animal Empathy: Gain 1 point of experience for every minute you keep a beast tamed.

Tame Beast: Attempt to tame a wild animal, turning it into a loyal companion. The success of taming depends on the animal's power and your current dexterity. Once tamed, the animal can fight alongside you for a determined amount of time. Cost: 10 mana per second.

Beast's Fury: Temporarily boost the attack power and speed of your animal companion by ten percent, making their attacks deal increased damage and their movements faster for 10 seconds

Cost: 15 Stamina per second.

I chose the most unlikely option… I wondered if it was because I was lonely or something. I wanted to believe that I just thought that it was cool to have an animal to ride, like a dire wolf. Then again, I already had my bike. A tamed animal would consume a lot of my mana and it would be useless once it grows too strong.

‘The second skill is quite weird… does it consume my stamina? Why? It would make more sense if I consumed my magic or the animal’s stamina. Improving Stamina Conservation is a good thing, so I guess this isn’t half bad.’

Regardless, I didn’t have time to waste… I soon grabbed the mana core of the monster and then dashed toward the exit. I had forgotten a long time ago to make the map of the floors, but I still could find the marks of my bike on the sand, so that helped a fair bit. Still, when I reached the next floor… The water was already there and coming even faster than before.

The mud golems were still coming, so I used them to recover mana and use Shadow Step as much as possible, but using the skill was almost a waste of time considering that the water made it difficult to move after that. Still, it was too shallow to use the boat yet.

Without any other choice, I decided to move from wall to wall… kicking the walls and then moving forward while zigzagging. If I could control my strength, I could do that without hurting my legs, but even so, my stamina was draining faster.

‘It is probably because I have been awake for several days…’

Still, I endured since little by little the water was increasing. Soon enough, using the boat would make sense… even though I wouldn’t be able to move faster. On the 36th floor, the water was already on my knees, so I took out the parts of the boat and began to mount them and then attached the bike’s engine. This time, it had a proper propeller, so it would be able to move faster.

The engine began to work and then the boat began to move. The materials were as light as they could be, so it was able to move thirty kilometers per hour, almost twenty miles per hour. Still, despite that, it lasted only for two minutes after using a mana core.

‘Well, let’s use all of them… my life doesn’t have a price, after all. The mana cores won’t be of any use if I die here.’

I stacked a bunch of the mana cores on the engine to keep moving since soon the mud golems would get in the way. They were easier to damage than before, but their attacks were more annoying as well. A few of them wouldn’t damage the boat, but a bunch of them certainly would. The mud would make the boat heavier as well, so I had to dispose of them as soon as they appeared.

After I confirmed that, I used the Fireball amulets close to the engine and after adjusting the angles, I attached a mana core to it. Before long, the boat began to be pushed forward with some sudden blasts when the fireballs exploded on the wall… the very clumsy propulsion system was working. I was already imagining how I could turn that into an airplane engine, but soon I woke up when I saw monsters getting in the way… my eyes were starting to hurt as well. So, I had to at least close them to rest them between the battles…