Entering the Cursed Temple yet again, Rin discovered every one of the monsters had respawned and patiently awaited his inspection. After his battle with the level 106 Terracotta Drake, he planned to return and store as many monsters as possible in his storage ring. But he couldn’t right now.
It was already full of chickens.
Rin changed into the level 88 Giant Southern Skink and activated its Empowering Embers to gain a +10 to all physical stats. He then triggered its Ash Armor, covering his body in a protective layer of crackling ash, before finally turning into the level 94 Murder Chicken.
They stepped inside the boss’s lair and were confronted with an extended version of the notification Rin had seen several weeks prior.
Temple Boss: Level 106 Terracotta Drake (Clay Type)
Elite and boss monsters cannot be charmed until first defeated in battle.
Charming requirements not met.
Challenge Encounter
“Defeat a monster stronger than you by 100 levels or more”
Note: This battle has been designated a Challenge Encounter in the Game of the Gods. If you are victorious, it will count as one of three challenges necessary for success in the game.
Good luck.
Trixie received the same notification and gave Rin a questioning look. “Challenge encounter?”
Rin shrugged his teensy chicken shoulders. “I bet that’s what Craven was talking about. I don’t know what it means, but it doesn’t affect the plan either way. You’re up.”
The ghost darted away, and the boy took a deep breath, forcing himself to count at a measured pace to thirty seconds. During that time, Trixie lured the drake away from the front of the cavern and into its farthest recesses.
At the thirty-second mark, Rin released Murder Chickens from his storage ring, one at a time. When each chicken materialized, it was in the same pose as when he’d stored it. Since Rin generated them all via the same method—by mercilessly attacking the poor boulder outside—they appeared with identical looks of disdain. They were unilaterally unimpressed at the boy’s pathetic fighting tactics.
Rin ignored their attitudes, focusing instead on arming each chicken with a new Memorable Outfit called Smash Kit. It was a combination of multiple items: a steel beak casing and two hammer-like shoes that fitted around the chicken’s claws, the effect of which turned the little beast into a pottery-smashing devil. The steel also conducted the chickens’ lightning bolts, but that was an unnecessary byproduct that ultimately didn’t matter. The clay type of the Terracotta Drake was a perfect counter for lightning, and Rin knew it would nullify those effects. What he craved instead was the pure pecking fury the chickens could unleash against their foe.
Once he outfitted a bird, the next trick was getting it to attack the drake in the distance. The Murder Chickens were mildly interested in Trixie’s fight with the beast but not enough to join in. That is until he conjured a long rubber scarf to physically launch the chickens into the heat of the battle.
In no time, a dozen birds were fluttering about, having the time of their lives as they bashed their beaks against the drake’s terracotta segments. For all the boss’s power, it couldn’t come close to the birds’ outrageous speed, and they easily evaded its efforts to smash down on them from above.
From here on, as soon as a chicken appeared from Rin’s ring, he could barely arm it in time before it launched into the fight of its own accord. Apparently, seeing their brethren enjoying such a good time induced a substantial fear of missing out, a far more powerful motivator than Rin’s feeble attempts could ever be.
It took fifteen minutes for Rin to empty his armament of chickens into battle, at which point he stepped back, gaping in awe. The cavern’s atmosphere was thick with chaos, lightning, and squawking poultry. There were thousands of them, for every Murder Chicken had summoned additional chickens as their own Bar Fight abilities had triggered. The only problem was that, despite the impressive numbers, the Terracotta Drake was largely unharmed. As Rin predicted, the drake nullified the monsters’ lightning on contact. Worse yet, as time wore on, the enormous swarm of chickens became increasingly skewed toward those without Rin’s conjured weaponry.
Rin changed tactics, changing into the level 88 Giant Southern Skink to quickly top up his MP, before switching to the level 65 Banshee and diving into the heart of the battle. Everywhere he went, he conjured Smash Kits onto his allies. Each set was a Memorable Outfit and didn’t have a mana cost to create, only to maintain, which is precisely why he’d opted for the Banshee with its impressive mana pool. Anytime his MP dipped precariously low, he’d back away from the battle and transform into the Giant Southern Skink for a few seconds to refuel.
On several occasions, he veered close to the Terracotta Drake in his Banshee form and took the opportunity to unleash Sonic Shatter at one of its segments. The monster would roar in fury before crashing down on Rin with the force of several tons of clay. The boy’s new Phantasmal Drift saved his hide several times, transforming the lethal attack into a mere glancing blow so he could retreat and change into the Vortex Warrior to recuperate his HP.
After several minutes of this delicate dance, the tide of the battle turned, marked by the drake’s rumbling groan. The chickens broke through a clay segment, smashing open a hole a mere foot wide, and the swarm poured into it in a cacophony of squawks and clucks.
From that point on, the winner of the battle was a foregone conclusion. The drake writhed and convulsed, shocked and pecked to death from the inside out. The chickens’ lightning was far more damaging from the inside of the monster. Within minutes, it was lying on its side, the auburn light in its eyes dimming to obscurity.
Temple boss defeated
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1 of 3 challenges completed successfully
“Defeat a monster stronger than you by 100 levels or more”
“Now that was fun,” said Trixie, landing beside Rin in his more comfortable human form. Her phantom outline glowed brightly.
“Did your new sword work at all?”
The phantom girl shrugged. “Somewhat. I certainly felt resistance when attacking the drake’s body pieces. But when the monster was dying there at the end, my sword was able to carve into its soul, and I absorbed a ton of essence.” She gave a very unladylike burp into her fist. “Oof, pardon me! I’m going to be feeling full for a while.”
Rin raised an eyebrow. “That’ll be a change. I’ll have to see it to believe it.”
They sat there in companionable silence while the timers on the mob of chickens expired. With the boss dead, they stopped attacking and spawning new chickens. Within 5 minutes, every last one had dissolved into thin air.
Only then did Rin transform into his latest acquisition: the level 106 Terracotta Drake.
Rin Cartwright
Level 106 Terracotta Drake (Clay Type) [CURSED] Level 6 Potato Farmer
Attributes:
Strength: 268 (+255)
Dexterity: 125 (+110)
Perception: 50 (+35)
Stamina: 103 (+88)
Toughness: 237 (+229)
Current HP: 2370/2370
Recovery: 137 HP/min (+125)
Magic: 54 (+44)
Current MP: 327/540
Absorption: 57 MP/min (+52)
Charisma: 92
Inherited Abilities:
Power Smash: Grade C
Harden: Grade C
The monster’s physical stats were astounding, with the highest Strength and Toughness of any monster Rin had conquered. Its two abilities were rudimentary but powerful at grade C. The Harden ability explained why it had been so challenging to take down, even with thousands of level 96 Murder Chickens. It was the same ability that had so empowered the Dirt Stomper, giving it the similar result of being very tough to kill.
Rin experimented with the monster for a few minutes, thrashing and squirming around the massive chamber, thoroughly enjoying himself. Drakes were far smaller than their full-blooded dragon cousins but were still incredibly powerful. The Power Smash was particularly satisfying with how his gargantuan mass crushed thousands of clay shards at once.
Once he’d had his fun, he changed into human form and Trixie immediately accosted him.
“I’ve been trying to get your attention!”
“What’s wrong?”
“There!” She pointed. “A treasure chest, all the way in the back. It appeared while you were rolling about like a dumb log, smashing everything.”
“But there shouldn’t be one. We already collected the dungeon flowers weeks ago and got a secret chest for them.”
The girl raised her hands to her hips. “Are you seriously complaining about more treasure right now?” She waved at the remnants of the dead boss still littering the chamber. “I’d say killing a gigantic monster like that was worth something special, wouldn’t you?”
The boy’s mouth dropped open. “You’re right. I’m being stupid.”
“Damn right you are!”
Rin changed into the Bog Squirrel and dashed to the chest before returning to his human shape. The chest was a rarity he’d never seen before, glittering in the faint light as if painted with a million crushed diamonds. Opening it revealed a simple book lying on the customary pillow of purple velvet.
Craven’s Journal
A god-level item. Cannot be destroyed by any means on this mortal plane.
Oh-kay. I was hoping for something a bit more useful in the upcoming duel. Like a really big sword.
Inside the journal were pages and pages of advice from Craven to … himself? The entries didn’t make any sense. Rin had no problem reading the actual words. It was the sentences that were confusing. The god constantly referred to himself in the plural, rather than singular, saying things like “Many Cravens suggest this,” and “Several Cravens tried this.” The book also contained an impossible number of pages for such a slim volume. Thousands and thousands of pages. They were magically compressed into a book that appeared deceptively concise. It was a lot to take in.
Rin was careful not to let his disappointment show. No doubt Craven was watching him right now to gauge his reaction. “What a kind gift,” he said aloud, failing to mask his leaden tone. It made the words sound sarcastic.
At least I can test out the claim of it being a god-level item. Surely, Craven wouldn’t begrudge me that.
First, Rin zapped it with the Death Ray from the Scout of the Undead, then the Lightning Thrust from the Thunder Rhino, and finally a titanic Power Smash from his latest monster, the Terracotta Drake. The physical attacks did absolutely nothing, and the magical attacks were outright canceled, sucked into the journal to never be seen again.
It was unlike anything Rin had ever seen. The magical attacks in particular were strange, because of how they disappeared. Area-based attacks were similarly affected. If even the slightest portion of the attack touched the journal, the whole spell collapsed and vanished, as if teleported into an invisible void. He activated every magical ability at his disposal, launching everything he had at the journal, expecting it to eventually power up to a cataclysmic eruption of mana.
Instead, nothing.
Trixie looked at the book with a mixture of disgust and confusion, her eyebrows twisted into knots. “Some reading material for the journey back?”
Rin answered her with a deep sigh, stashing the journal in his storage ring. “I guess. Let’s get going. I want to store a few spawns of those monsters in the other room. If we fly at full speed all the way home, we can get back to Strathburn for a good night’s sleep before the duel tomorrow morning.”
They did just that, waiting for several rounds of the various monsters to respawn while Rin repeatedly stashed them away. The monotonous process was made worse by the stronger monsters, which took far longer to regenerate than the weaker ones. Rin found himself impatiently tapping his feet, anxious to return to Strathburn. Curiously, the Terracotta Drake boss monster didn’t respawn at all; presumably because of the obscene amount of ambient mana required to regenerate its gigantic size.
When they finally made their way outside, the sun had long set, and stars blanketed the sky. He followed Trixie into the air, opting for the Wind Fairy to reach his highest speed. Once they reached Strathburn, they descended into an alley behind Sonnig’s Clothiers where Rin could turn human unobserved.
As they snuck into the shop, his thoughts were fixated on the upcoming fight. Little did he know, the ultimate challenge wouldn’t arrive until after the duel.