Panic tried to assail Ray, but he kept, if not a cool head exactly, at least enough of his wits to know what to do.
With the way the huge monster was crushing the entire mountain around while pulling it out into the chamber, Ray was going to be squashed into meat and bone pile in seconds.
But he countered by converting his draconic maw constructs into Impervious Shells. Three of them on three sides, with the rest of the area covered by a cast of Mottling Spiritguard, where he had ordered all the orbs to close in on him in a packed defensive formation.
Still. Ray’s breath caught as all the rocks around him were compressed by the monster’s enormous strength. Even if he wasn’t crushed, he would suffocate in short order. It wasn’t that all the air was trapped. There was light, which meant there were holes in the compressed rock, where the air could come through. But the rising panic made breathing hard.
But there was light. A gap he could take advantage of. Ray just had to bless whatever bit of him allowed him to even think in such a situation.
He summoned his mimic as the rocks crushed in closer. The heavy grinding noise was starting to chafe his ears, but he did his best to ignore it and focus on giving his Imitator construct the right command.
The black-red blob shot out through the gaps with blistering speed. Despite the crushing all around him, Ray grinned.
His smile grew wider when the Imitator punched the huge Stone Elemental.
Ray’s order had been simple. Get outside through the gaps and transform into the monster’s enormous arm. Well, it sounded simple to him, but the command had still needed him to split his mind. Thankfully, with the recent Vitality Tier break, there was no stinging headache accompanying his imbuing of consciousness into his construct.
The Imitator’s success had kept his smile alive through the panic. Shouting in a rocky voice, the huge monster staggered back, its grip on the crushing rock loosening.
Ray’s makeshift prison began crumbling. He, his constructs, and his sparking orbs had been squeezed hard by the Stone Elemental, but they expanded away from him as the rocks fell away.
He fell too.
Not for long. He dismissed all the constructs save the gigantic black-red arm assaulting the Stone Elemental’s boulderlike head. Then he called up his Soaring Wings and jumped off.
The tunnel, now opened into a massive hole gouged out of the tall chamber’s side, was too far away. No matter how powerfully his wings’ jet streams fired, they wouldn’t get him to his target location. Ray was prepared for that though. He crafted two draconic heads, aimed them straight down, then launched their laser breaths with all the power he could manage.
That provided just the elevation boost he needed. His True Mana was running dangerously low, so he summoned a True Mana shard in between his teeth from the Bag of Holding and crushed it in his jaws. The taste was like water. Essentially flavourless.
Ray reached his target location just as everything shook again. His Imitator construct had rammed itself against the Stone Elemental hard enough to make the monster crash into the wall.
“Go,” Ray shouted, as he turned. “Tear that thing apart.”
He had commanded his construct to turn into as much of the Stone Elemental as it could mimic. Turned out even at Tier 11, thanks to the Tier of Lifeblood Soulform, it could only copy one limb of such a gigantic creature.
The actual Stone Elemental was countering. It clawed at the mimic version of its limb, hammering at it and tearing away huge chunks. Poor Imitator construct wasn’t going to last long.
Ray was tempted to get going. How long was the Imitator going to hold out against such a powerful opponent? But that monster had caused him so much trouble. Plus, he had begun to take down enormous creatures, starting with that ginormous Flesh Elemental at the Flesh Dungeon.
So, Ray summoned a couple more of the Imitator constructs. Maybe one Imitator alone couldn’t mimic the entire length and breadth of such a titan, but that was why Ray had more.
He had them turn into different parts of the huge monster. One formed a huge limb leg to kick with, the other turned into a second arm to grapple the monster’s midsection. Ray sent out his little mimic army to finally take down that huge asshat.
Together, the Imitators were extremely effective, compared to one alone.
While the first Imitator had mostly been reduced to just a hand clamped over the actual Stone Elemental’s face, it still managed to distract the monster enough for the others to get to work.
The second arm punched away at the midsection of the huge Stone Elemental, shattering apart its stomach and chest. When the monster tried to stop the Imitator, it simply dodged before wrapping itself around the monster’s arm and chest, effectively trapping it. This allowed the leg to come with powerful, ramming kicks and stomps.
Ray and the whole chamber were shaking harder than an earthquake. This was nuts.
He couldn’t remain just a passive audience, though. As such, Ray held up his arms and pointed them at the monster. They still had the Greater Windbane Maws grafted on them thanks to Primal Spiritcraft.
Ray fired. With the ground providing a strong footing, he wasn’t thrown backwards. Instead, the compressed laser of chaotic fire cannoned into the monster hard enough to fling it back again. While the flames’ chaotic effects weren’t effective against its non-organic body, the blasts alone held a huge amount of power. Enough to start tearing through their target.
In moments, the combined assault had broken down one leg and crushed half of the monster’s chest. The trapped arm fell next. Ray was destroying it bit by bit.
When the Stoen Elemental’s free arm tried to thwack the Imitator constructs, Ray made sure to aim the lasers at the monster’s face. His first Imitator exploded, taking the Elemental’s entire head.
It took only a second more for the whole monster to come crashing down.
[Enemy Defeated—Stone Elemental]
Tier 12 Monster: Arch Stone Elemental [Level 30] x1
Tier 9 Monster: Vilewyrm [Level 24] x14
Essence: +33,840
Knowledge: +45
True Mana Restored: +3,660
Essence to Level 32: 60,550/70,400
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 1,250-point threshold, your Knowledge has raised your Intellect by 80.
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,270/1,500
He had to wonder if he was going to reach another level in this dungeon before long. Surely there were more challenges up ahead, right? More monsters to fight and kill. As much as he was looking forward to an actual Viledrake somewhere inside the dungeon, he knew he would get a ton more Essence from killing weaker, more numerous monsters.
He moved on. That had been one annoying Dungeon Obstacle. Ray was really hoping there wouldn’t be others that tested his patience as much, at least.
His wishes were unfortunately not answered as he came to his next obstacle before long. It took about five minutes of journeying through twisted passages before the whole area started shaking. His heart joined the trembles too. What was going on now?
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A blue box answered him.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Living Walls
The birthplace of Stone Elementals is one you’d expect. Stone itself. But in such an area, that is no comfort. After all, stone is everywhere.
Ah, shit. He looked around, his heart hammering even faster. Was he already—
Yep. The rocks started cracking. Ray only had enough time to call up a salvo of Mottling Spiritguard to form a defensive barricade around himself before the walls and ceiling broke to reveal dozens of Stone Elementals.
Ray cast another salvo of Mottling Spiritguard as half of the first group all tried attacking the emerging monsters. They took a tiny moment to recover from coming out of their walls—cocoons? Eggs?—before attacking. It was that moment of recovery that Ray did his best to take advantage of. He was going to gut them.
As the Spiritguard orbs rammed into the Stone Elementals with bludgeoning blows, Ray used Anima Charybdis on the nearest ones. There were so many within ten meters of him that using the spell while centred on himself was his best bet.
Black-red tatters of shredded monster souls all conjoined over Ray in a matter of seconds. A moment later, Ray had it slam down just in front of him, while erecting an Impervious Shell construct as a stop-gap against the blast. The massive detonation sent out a shockwave that sent the nearer monsters flying back. Some died immediately, while others were injured severely.
It was enough. Ray had created some space. Now he could get to work directly.
Casting Soulstrike twice brought up two True Mana arms with striking ends to smash apart the rocky monsters They were hard. Resilient. Blow after blow made them crack, but not fully crumble. It was a bit annoying just how much Ray had to hit them.
It got really frustrating when they counterattacked. He had believed he could be fast enough to destroy them before they could even muster up an attack. That was not to be.
They fired off chunks of their bodies in rocketing blasts. Ray protected himself with more Mottling Spiritguard spheres. That was the easy part.
The harder part was when they faked their deaths.
Several crumbled into the ground. Ray thought that he had defeated those ones, but it turned out they were simply moving through the earth to reappear around him, over him, and even under him.
The solution to tricks like that was simply to keep moving. Good thing Ray was quite adept at that. The tunnels weren’t small and claustrophobic like others he had been. There was space, especially after the way the area had crumbled to allow the monsters to emerge in the first place. Ray had room to manoeuvre.
When he kept destroying monsters and evading or defending against their attacks, the Stone Elementals finally resorted to simply churning up a sandstorm.
Ray had no counter to something like that. This would have been a great time to store something like goggles in his Bag of Holding, but he sadly hadn’t had that much of a foresight. He had very little normal sight too, what with the sand getting in his eyes. It was ridiculous. A sandstorm inside the tunnel of a dungeon? Really?
Worse was the fact that Ray was getting hit. He kept moving, since it was better than being a sitting duck, but the lack of visibility made him occasionally move into the monsters.
One smashed his leg hard enough to break it. The pain was bad enough to rip a scream out of him, which turned into a cough as he choked on the sand. He retained enough presence of mind to use up some Recovery to fix the injury, but moments later, a flying stone came in and dislocated his shoulder.
More Recovery saved him. Fuck it, he couldn’t even curse in this stupid storm without swallowing down flying sand. This was hell.
Ray stretched both his arms out wide, constructed Greater Windbane Maws at the ends of both limbs with Primal Spiritcraft, and aimed them at either side of him.
Next, he also dismissed his Soaring Wings only to resummon them differently than normal. Instead of both on his back, he called one on his back and the other on his chest, so that they stretched out perpendicular to his body. This allowed Ray to spin in place.
The wings’ jets fired, and as Ray began to rotate like a top, he fired the laser breaths from both his grafted draconic maws. The chamber shook as the streams of compressed fire shot outwards and began flooding the entire area as he spun faster and faster.
That did it. The monsters finally stopped attacking, finally stopped being annoying. Even when they tried appearing right on top of Ray, he had counters prepared, sending out orbs of chaos to destroy them. The more he used Spiritguard, the more he was loving that spell. Best versatile ability he had in his possession.
Ray only came to a stop when the notification popped up in his line of sight.
[Enemy Defeated—Stone Elemental]
Tier 10 Monster: Stone Elemental [Level 26] x16
Essence: +41,600
Knowledge: +48
True Mana Restored: +4,160
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* 1 True Mana Tier point
Essence to Level 32: 31,750/76,600
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,270/1,500
Excellent. Another level up. Ray could always use extra Tier points to boost his spells further. He added the new one to Lifeblood Graveyard. With the way this dungeon was progressing, Ray was expecting to come across some kind of ability he could add to his crucible.
He added the free stat points to Intellect. Tier 4 would be his soon. He was sure of it. Maybe by the end of this dungeon. That would be great.
Ray kept moving. He once again didn’t have to go far before he came across his next Dungeon Obstacle. It was like this dungeon was filled with them. Not that he was complaining. More monster killing opportunities meant he was gaining more and more Essence.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Pit of Ascension
Despite the name, you are supposed to go down the hole to go forward. However, this is the path newly mature Vilewyrms are supposed to rise. If they can manage to climb to the top, then they are considered ready to face the world.
The dark hole was riddled with a bunch of caves all along its side. That was how Ray was supposed to descend. Jump or glide from cave to cave until he reached the bottom. Simple enough.
Except for the fact that the caves were no doubt filled with monsters who’d attack as soon as he appeared. Primordial Gauge already confirmed he wasn’t alone here.
Taking a deep breath, Ray jumped forward. He had already cast Mottling Spiritguard around him to create a defensive barricade. They would prevent the monsters from reaching him even when they launched surprise attacks out of nowhere, hopefully giving him room to retaliate.
It went just as he planned, thankfully. The monsters did indeed jump out to attack him as soon as he landed on the lip of the cave, as he was warned by Primordial Gauge.
But they were then pushed back by the chaotic orbs. The sparking spheres smashed into the leaping Vilewyrms, beating them back.
The caves were small. Ray had almost no room at all to move himself, much less use a big spell like Soulstrike to call up large True Mana arms. It would be impossible to control and manoeuvre them in this tight space.
That was why he had smaller spells like Spiritsorb to do the job. Even if they weren’t that strong in and of themselves, Ray had boosted his Intellect a lot. Seemingly weaker spells were more than enough to take care of these Vilewyrms. It was helped by the fact that the sparking orbs smacked them, that these were slightly weaker, and that Ray had the Mana Infuser ring.
But Ray’s descent down the dark pit was mostly eventless. He kept landing from cave to cave, taking out the monsters that attacked and granting himself more and more Essence.
Occasionally, the caves he missed or ignored spat out their own Vilewyrms. The monsters jumped from above, thinking they could surprise him. He only tutted. Mindless beasts didn’t realize he had Primordial Gauge and Mottling Spiritguard covering him. Idiots.
About ten minutes later, the bottom came into view before long. It glowed, like there was a pool of lava down there or something. He wouldn’t have been surprised if that was indeed the case.
When Ray reached the bottom, he found it indeed be the case. It wasn’t a pool, though. More like a whole river of magma stretching out into the distance.
[Enemy Defeated—Vilewyrm]
Tier 9 Monster: Vilewyrm [Level 22] x12
Essence: +23,760
Knowledge: +48
True Mana Restored: +4,160
Essence to Level 32: 55,510/76,600
Knowledge to next Threshold: 1,318/1,500
Ray looked around. There were more Vilewyrms all around him, though these were smaller, less well-defined. Younger. The last Dungeon Obstacle had mentioned something about the maturity of the monsters. He was starting to get the sense this dungeon was a breeding ground for these Vilewyrms, and he had just arrived at what was potentially their nursery.
He sniffed. Of course. Monsters being nursed in lava. What else was he supposed to expect?
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Stream to the Ruler
A river forms from the offshoot of mountains. Even a river of magma, though the molten runoff that forms lava may not appeal in the same way that cool streams from melting snow might. Nor are they as serene as their watery counterparts, for they may hold an unfathomable danger that the peaks of mountains rarely see.
Ray barely paid attention to the notification. Yes, yes, he got the deal that he was supposed to get to wherever this stream of lava led. Or originated, rather. But the more important fact was that he was on lava. His nostrils burned.
He looked around. The Vilewyrms here weren’t approaching him. If anything, the nearby ones were staying well away, slowly retreating with fearful looks.
That overgrown lizards could actually look fearful was news to Ray. Serpentine species just didn’t have the tools to express complex emotions, as far as he knew. Maybe it was different for monsters in the Tower of Forging, though.
For a moment, he stepped forward to attack. Then his feet grew uncomfortably warm. Ah right. He had stepped on a thin stone floating on lava. Yeah, no. This wasn’t going to work.
Ray looked at the monsters again. These… weren’t interested in fighting. In trying to rip his head off like all the others had been so far. Had he really been about to attack them? Was he that blinded by his hunger for Essence?
Was this need for Essence controlling him?
He cursed. No. Killing underdeveloped, immature monsters that didn’t even mean him any harm was not going to do.
Alright, sure, maybe he was about to have a fight to the death with their giant ass mama or papa, possibly turning them all into orphans in the process. But hey, killing infant monsters was a good line to draw, regardless.
Ray flew over the river until he arrived at another tunnel opening. He noticed some curious details as he moved. The little Vilewyrm appeared to be munching on what looked like the remains of Stone Elementals. So strange. Was there some sort of weird relationship between the Elementals and the Vilewyrms? They certainly had worked together in that first, huge room.
Whatever the case, Ray forgot all about it as he entered what had to be the final challenge of the dungeon. The proverbial boss room.
One that held a Viledrake.