Author's Note: My goodness! I have just checked the amount of views my chapters have gotten. Wow! I'm about to get schwifty! Take off my pants and panties! Shit on the floor!
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Cici and Null continue on through the path, fighting monsters along the way. They make it to a wide open area. When they see it, their faces turn ugly. They immediately run and hide behind a giant rock. There are literally thousands of monsters there. Most of them are at a higher level than even Cici, who has managed to raise her level to level 240 due to constant hunting. What's even more worrisome is that there is a new enemy here. It's a giant flying mosquito.
“Identify”
Mosquito of PlaguesInformation: Do not let it suck your blood. Not only will it decrease your health while regaining their own, but it will also give a poison condition.Level245 Health ???Mana ??? Strength ??? Dexterity ??? Vitality???Charisma???Intelligence???Wisdom???Luck???Attack???Defense???
Cici and Null both know that their usual methods of going through enemies are not going to work here. Maybe they could take on tens. Maybe they can barely do hundreds if they use the terrain, but thousands at once? Null knows that would be impossible.
Cici turns to Null and says, “Null. I'm willing to help you out. I know that you are very resourceful and brilliant. Even though I had already placed you really high in my mind, I still had underestimated you. But Null, even you couldn't do this.
Even if there were 5 of me buffing you, you couldn't do this. Maybe we should just cut our losses and wait for the Qasburg force after all. I want to help you, but going through that huge group of monsters with just the two of us is simply impossible. What are you going to do?”
She waits for Null's answer.
“Keep going forward as always. I'm not going to sacrifice the time that I was forced to interact with you only to give up now.” Null said resolutely.
“Null, this isn't a Shonen Jump! Having the power of friendship and willpower alone will not work!”
“Just shut up, and buff me.” Null says annoyed.
Cici gets upset, but does as she's told. Null then takes out multiple scrolls. These scrolls are even bigger than Null himself. There are three of them in total. He then takes out multiple paintings of the creatures.
“Art is Feeling.”
"Art is Feeling."
"Art is Feeling."
...
Null's Art is Feeling has upgraded to a point where he can take out multiple enemies with one picture if they look exactly the same. Because there are so many, Art is Feeling will take a very long time to take effect, it takes practically all his mana, and also the effect won't last too long. Because of this, he drinks mana potions every time he performs a new Art is Feeling. He then takes the scroll and pulls off the strings binding them. After he takes the bindings off, he places the scrolls back into his inventory. When he's done he stands on top the boulder.
Some of the monsters see this movement, which causes other monsters to look. They see one lone human standing atop a rock. They start charging forward.
Cici whispers to Null frantically saying, “Null, please don't tell me you're about to Leeroy Jenkins into a bunch of enemies!”
“I'm about to Leeroy Jenkins into a bunch of enemies.”
He then runs off.
'You're insane!' Cici thinks.
Null runs without stopping constantly manipulating his mana for dexterity. He's actually holding a mana potion in his mouth. Every time he's running low on mana potion, he replaces it with a new one. Throughout all this running, he hasn't hit a single enemy. He just keeps running and dashing around seemingly randomly.
Cici peeks out and thinks, 'What is he doing?'
Null heads towards the center of the room. He barely dodges some of the monsters there such as the Giant Poison Dart Frogs, and the diving action of the mosquitoes. He never stop running. Every time a new enemy blocks his path, he changes direction. Cici notices something. All the enemies that were scattered around everywhere are starting to converge in the center of the room.
This will make it harder for Null to evade enemies. She also notices something else peculiar. The monsters that are chasing after Null behind him have slowed down a lot.
'What's going on? What is Null up to?' Cici wonders.
Null keeps dropping pellets on the ground. When they drop to the floor, they break apart and turn into a sticky liquid. Not that kind of sticky liquid. This super glue doesn't stop them, but it slows them down enough that Null doesn't have to worry too much on what's going on behind him.
The mosquitoes really are the only monsters here that are giving him problems, but Essence of Mana let's him know when they are coming. Thanks to the other monsters being in the way, the mosquitoes cannot recklessly charge at him in a swarm. It's getting harder and harder for him to dodge the monsters' attacks, but he's still alive. If it weren't for him doing Art is Feeling before, he would've died a long time ago.
His injuries start piling up. Cici cannot heal him lest she give away her position, so Null is on his own. He takes out health potions and keeps it in his mouth along with the mana potion. He looks stupid with two potions sticking out his mouth, but Null thinks that if something works as intended, it isn't stupid.
Null then suddenly changes direction.
'Almost out of mana potions. Well this is good enough.' Null thinks.
He then jumps on a Giant Dart frog's head, which he uses as a platform to jump onto a mosquito. The mosquitoes, seeing that he no longer has the monsters as buffers, start to swarm at him. Null jumps from mosquito to mosquito, avoiding their attacks as best as he could. It wasn't enough though, and his health almost gets depleted. One or two more hits from the monsters and he would die.
When he reaches a certain point, he manipulates his mana for strength, and jumps off a mosquito, jumping above all the enemies. All the mosquitoes, seeing that he is in the air, know that now would be the best time to kill him. He can't dodge in the air. They start converging on his location. Null's lips twitch into a slight smile.
He takes out the scroll that he had taken the bindings off of earlier.
'I really, really hate this technique, but right now I have no choice but to use it. I have to beat this dungeon before those other people show up.'
Null unravels the scroll and yells, “Art Materialization!”
There is a picture of a giant net. It looks like there are multiple heavy balls along the edges and parts of the center of the giant net. The scroll keeps unraveling until it has reached a length of 70 meters. The picture glows blue, and a giant net pops out. The scroll which had once contained a picture of a giant net, is now blank. A message has popped up.
Due to the use of Art Materialization. You will lose levels. The number of levels you lose will depend on the rarity of the materials brought to be real. The picture that you used has cost you 3 levels. You can gain these levels back. The structure created using Art Materialization is unstable, and will turn back into paint depending on how high leveled the object is. The time until stability collapse of this object or objects is within 4 weeks.
The giant net first falls upon the huge mosquitoes. They try to keep flight, but the net is just far too heavy. The monsters that had converged into the center of that area, also look above them. They all try to run. Some escape, but most of them get trapped under the net. Now, the materials that make up the net are not that hard for the monsters to break through.
Given around a few minutes, the monsters could break out, but Null won't give them the chance. Null heads to the edge of the area, manipulates his mana for strength, then jumps across. He has taken out and unraveled his second scroll.
“Art Materialization!”
Due to the use of Art Materialization. You will lose levels. The number of levels you lose will depend on the rarity of the materials brought to be real. The picture that you used has cost you 4 levels. You can gain these levels back. The structure created using Art Materialization is unstable, and will turn back into paint depending on how high leveled the object is. Time for stability for this object or objects is within 3.5 weeks.
A rain of bombs, more than thousands of times the amount that Null currently has on him, gets released. The bombs are also more powerful. Before the bombs go off, he rushes into the direction of where Cici is hiding. He had timed from the jump off before where he would end up. Cici sees him practically flying towards him.
When he lands, Cici asks, “What are you-”
“Cover your ears.” Null tells her while covering his own.
Cici does the same. If there is one thing she has learned from doing the dungeon with Null, it is that when he tells you to do something, it's a very good idea to do it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Explosions start raining down on the monsters. Hydrogen and other flammable gas bombs were also inside the bombs that were thrown. The glue that Null had used to slow the monsters is also flammable.
The results were as expected. A rain of hell showered upon all the monsters there. Even for the monsters that were lucky enough to not have been caught by the net were still hit with this. The explosions lasted for a full minute. Null looked to see the results. The monsters were all badly damaged, but most of them were still alive. They aren't high leveled for nothing. This was also expected from Null's calculations.
The smoke is still covering up the area. Since most of the monsters are still alive, Null takes out his final scroll. He runs into the group of monsters while they are still disoriented. While this is going on, Cici coughs and then takes out her oxygen scale mask. It's a mask that is designed to allow you to breathe underwater, but it also works as a gas mask.
Null once again jumps into the area and says the skill name. “Art Materialization!”
Due to the use of Art Materialization. You will lose levels. The number of levels you lose will depend on the rarity of the materials brought to be real. The picture that you used has cost you 4 levels. You can gain these levels back. The structure created using Art Materialization is unstable, and will turn back into paint depending on how high leveled the object is. Time for stability for this object or objects is within 3.5 weeks.
The scroll unravels revealing different weapons. A huge assortment of needles and needle bombs start flowing out. They even outnumber the bombs that were materialized from before. The needles fell like a heavy rain, piercing all who came into contact with it. The needles were all coated with an extremely rare and powerful poison.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Null in his lifetime would not be able to make the quantity of poison that is being displayed. There is no longer a safe place for Null to land on in this area. He has to go around to the side to make it back to Cici. Needles to say, um, needless to say, the vast majority of the monsters could not withstand this onslaught and they died. The surviving monsters were not in any condition to be considered a threat.
Null looks at Cici thinking, 'If I was by myself, it would've been impossible to take out that large group, even with Art Materialization, but thanks to her, my attacks were amplified.'
Null runs to Cici and tells her, “Let's go.”
Cici was still shocked from the display of power that Null had shown. Her chin had dropped to the ground.
She cancels the buffs on Null and says excitedly, “That-That was Art Materialization! Only those who have intermediate in the painting class can use that skill! This is my first time seeing it! Even for those that do have the skill, most do not even have the luxury of sacrificing their levels since Painter is one of the weakest classes!”
“Okay. Let's go.”
“And that display is something that I will never forget in my life!”
“We should really get going.”
“And to even create a scroll that big! My goodness!”
“We're going to be here all day aren't we?”
Null just decides to leave her. The drops from the monsters are all surrounded by poisonous needles, so Null would rather not go and try to pick them up. Null is lucky. Due to him taking out thousands of monsters all far higher leveled than him, he actually gained more levels than he lost.
They continue on ahead. Every time they ran into a monster group that numbered thousands, Null would spend around a week painting the weapons he would use for Art Materialization. 2 weeks later after Null had taken out another group of enemies, a message he has been waiting to hear pops up.
You have now reached level 200. From here on, leveling will become a lot harder. You will now gain 7 points per level up. Depending on what your main class is, you will receive stat multipliers. For the librarian class, Knowledge stat increases by 1.4x. Intelligence stat increases by 1.2x. Wisdom stat increases by 1.2x.
Status WindowNameNullFame570Level200Infamy0RaceHumanSatiety100%GenderMaleEndurance305/305Main ClassLibrarianSub ClassesCalligrapher, Painter, Alchemist, BlacksmithTitlesDungeon FinderHealth8030/8030Health Regen3.02 / secMana18500/18500Mana Regen6.04 / secStrength208Dexterity212Vitality208Charisma146Intelligence668Wisdom666Luck146Knowledge713Attack154Defense134Magic DefenseNone
'That's it?'
Null is upset that this is all he gets. He's read how classes like monk get a 1.5x multiplier in health and how mages get 1.5x multiplier in intelligence.
'This sucks. The librarian class sucks.'
He was still satisfied that he has reached the level 200 milestone.
Cici at the beginning had thought that there was very little chance of beating the dungeon. Now that she has seen Null's skills, she thinks now that their chances are pretty good. She starts getting a little lax. When Null was fighting a group of monsters, his endurance was running low.
Null said to her, “Cleric, my endurance is running low.”
He kept fighting but nothing happened.
“Cleric?”
“Wow. This pebble is so interesting.”
Null looks back and sees Cici kneeling down staring at a pebble.
“Dammit cleric! Enough of your bullshit! I'm about to die!”
She continues to ignore him.
“*sigh* Fine. Cici, can you please recover my endurance?”
“Oh Null! How long have you been there? You look tired. Allow me to heal you!” She said with a big smile.
Null was determined to get her back for that. When they ran across a new group of monsters. Null runs out towards them like he usually does, while Cici does her buffs. Cici notices that the monsters ignore Null and start attacking Cici.
'What's going on?'
When Cici did her buffs, it made the monsters notice her. Because Null didn't attack them, they ran towards Cici. She was quickly surrounded.
She yells out, “Null, I'm being surrounded! Help me!”
“The cleric is right. These pebbles really are interesting.” Null says while staring at pebbles on the ground.
“Damn you Null!”
***************
David and Cecile are in class. After class, Cecile runs over to David's desk. He gets annoyed that she always does this.
She tells him, “David. By the time we make it home, according to our regular schedule, there will only be 3 weeks remaining in-game before the Qasburg force will enter the dungeon. We have to speed up if we're going to make it.”
“I'm doing the best I can. Do you have any bright ideas?”
“Well...”
They start discussing among themselves different strategies. The other students, who are all one of the smartest in the school, looks upon this scene flabbergasted.
“Wait. Aren't they usually arguing?”
“Yeah. Either um, Dillan right?” The people there shrug. “Well whatever. Either Dillan ignores Cecile or he insults her. I have never seen them get along before.”
“Wait. It sounds like they're discussing New Reality.”
“Oh right. Cecile is one of the most skillful clerics in the game, and she always helps people out in our class. It's great that Cecile would even help out Dillan. It makes me love her more.”
“Well I'm even more surprised that Dillan would even ask for or accept her help. I was under the impression that he didn't accept help from anyone.”
“Right? Every time there's a group project, he always volunteers to do the project by himself.”
“...You don't think he likes her do you?”
Those 6 or so discussing went silent. They look at David, who has an annoyed look on his face. They then bust out laughing.
“Him? I don't think he is capable of liking anyone!”
“I'm still curious though.”
******************
A week in-game has gone by. Null has managed to level up to 203 while Cici has managed to level up to level up to 241.
'Wow. Ptah wasn't kidding about leveling up after level 200 being harder. Even after defeating countless thousands of enemies, the cleric has only gained 3 levels from the dungeon.'
They walk until they find their way into a strange room. The room is empty, and it has a circular pattern on the ground. This room looks totally different from the other rooms they've been in before. It looks neat and tidy. Both Cici and Null have experience when it comes to this sort of thing.
“Are we about to fight the boss? But it is still too early.” Null ponders.
“You have never entered a C-rank dungeon before have you? Some C-rank dungeons and above will have mini-bosses. It's completely random.”
“Oh great.” Null says sarcastically.
They walk further in. Cici then sees something that causes her to look in surprise.
“Null, look! Over there!”
Null looks and sees that there's someone who is lying on the ground. He has purple spots covering him. What surprises Null even more is that he sees that the person is still breathing.
“He's still alive!?” Null says surprised.
At that moment, a giant scorpion comes out, tail raised, ready to do battle.
“Identify.”
Giant Acid ScorpionInformation: While it may be slow when it comes to moving its body, the tail and pincers are lightning fast. Has a very thick and strong exoskeleton. Its tail is the most dangerous part of it. The tail can even shoot out long ranged attacks.Level272 Health ???Mana ??? Strength ??? Dexterity ??? Vitality???Charisma???Intelligence???Wisdom???Luck???Attack???Defense???
“Null, I know you don't want another traveling companion right now, but we have to save him. He must be here because we need him to advance forward. Judging from how he was able to make it this far, he must be Swordedge, the person who went missing.”
“Of course I'll save him. I'm not going to let someone in front of me die due to my misanthropy. Let's worry about saving him after we defeat this scorpion. If he lasted this long he can last through a fight.”
“Right.”
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Author's Note: ADMIN! NERF!