Chapter 12: The Mortal Gorgon

For the past month, Soula has been training all of his stats and skills. Now nearing the end of the month, he thought that he should end it by getting his second beast spirit. Soula already reached the 2nd gate around the middle of the month.

"Now, what monster should I absorb?" thought Soula as he jumped from tree branches, never touching the ground. For the last week, Soula has searched for subtle monsters that he could absorb. Ruling out the common monsters, he checked for elite and rare monsters, but couldn't find any BOSS monsters.

As he drew deeper and deeper into the dungeon, Soula encountered one bloody, cruel battle after another. He experienced many ambushes from monsters and bandits. After all of these battles, the wounds and scars on his body grew more and more plentiful.

Right now, Soula was hidden in the middle of many leaves, staring straight down at the ground. Just a few dozen feet away from the tree which he was hiding in was a small group of giant birds. Because of the bird race aspect, and the fact that the monsters easily camouflaged into the background, he kept looking for a monster that had good hiding abilities.

Mana Blended Chicken [Elite Monster]

Lv: 64 Health: 70200

Attack: 3972-4001

Defense: 7020

Skill(s): [Instant Flee] [Mana Blend]

With Soula's current stats, he can easily take down the whole flock down by himself if he wanted to. He was about to jump in when suddenly he felt a huge aura nearby. Turning to look, he went pale with fear at what he saw.

Mortal Gorgon: Medusa #2141 [Elite Rare Monster]

Lv: 81 Health: 91000

Attack: 5100-6100

Defense: 10000

Skill(s): [Petrification] [Death's Aura] [Death Light]

The revived form of Medusa. Having lived for 2140 lives before, her intelligence and wisdom are extremely high. Having passed Hades's realm for many years, she has been blessed by the lord of the underworld.

Currently, Soula was shocked at what appeared before him. While he was surprised, Medusa used her skill [Petrification] to attack the group of Mana Blended Chickens. Without struggle, the chickens were turned to stone, but strangely only parts that seem to be visible from Medusa's point of view.

"What a powerful opponent." thought Soula. Quickly turning around to escape, he didn't notice that Medusa has already had her sights on him. Once again activating [Petrification] she fired her skill at the unguarded Soula.

Soula was helpless as his back, which seemed like it turned to stone was actually covered by an earthen layer that immobilized him. Falling, Soula activated the ki in his body to destroy the layer of earth. It should've been easy, but the layer was strong. Although it took a few seconds to destroy it, that was all the time it took to activate another skill.

Suddenly Soula was overcome with a horrible sense of impending doom. Unable to control himself, he felt as though he would die any minute.

[align=center]

You have been hit with the skill [Death's Aura].

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

All of your stats are decreased by 50%.

Shaking himself, Soula thought quickly about his options.

"Right now, my [Godslayer] Intermediate 5 skill counters her de-buff. All of my stats are increased by 915% because of the skill, making my stats 507.5% my original stats. I have around 9000-9200 attack so my new stats are around 45000-46000 ki-infused attacks. As long as I don't get hit by a certain death skill." Soula thought as he backed away.

Some skills can have certain death. Medusa's skill [Death Light] was one of the most famous certain kill moves.

Right now, both sides were at a stalemate. Both were coincidently thinking of the same thing.

"How does a mere beastman have the legendary [Godslayer] skill." thought Medusa. Several lifetimes ago, she had died to the same skill. Since then, she never took any enemy, no matter how weak, lightly ever again.

Both sides can insta-kill the other, but both haven't realized that the opponent knows about their main skills.

"I'll just use a long range move," Soula decided. Calling his mana, he formed a few hundred arrows and fired them all at once. Coincidently, this was also the time Medusa fired her death magic.

[Spiral Arrows] v.s. [Death Light]. If it was only one arrow, then maybe Medusa might've had a chance, but there were hundreds of arrows. As the death magic drained her, she could only watch as the arrows hack at her away.

"Aw man, I died again." was the last thing she said.

Congratulations!

You reached the 2nd Gate!

Do you wish to absorb the spirit {Medusa}?

Yes / No

Calculating probability of success.

[Godslayer]: 30%

[Serpent] race: 20%

[Humanoid] aspect: 20%

[Earth] element: 1%

[Light] element (0%): 0.5%

[Elite Rare] aspect: -30%

Total: 41.5%

Accepting, I felt the beast spirit enter. At first it resisted, but having higher soul power, she was successfully absorbed. Soul power can also be used to weaken the wills of others, which is helpful for absorbing beast spirits.

Congratulations!

You are now on the path to the 3rd gate.

You have received the following:

+20 Strength

+50 Agility

+10 Vitality

+70 Dexterity

+100 Intelligence

+4000 Ki

+5000 Soul

+10 Luck

+1% Earth

+1% Dark

+[Petrification]

Dismissing the bonuses, Soula just collapsed on the ground.

"I barely made it away with my life," he thought to himself. Although the rewards seemed worth it, it would've done good to nothing if he had died there. "I got overconfident. I thought I could take anyone on ever since I got [Godslayer]."

Mentally exhausted, Soula went to his hiding spot he made a month ago.

"Well, time to sleep. I'll leave first thing tomorrow."