*Ding*
Quest Received – ‘Eradication I/III’
Destroy all the Corrupted Constructs plaguing the first floor of Viscera.
Progress: 0/80
Reward:
Rare Loot Chest x3
That’s a juicy reward, Monica thought to herself, studying the monsters.
She activated Mana Sense immediately, looking at the mechanical spiders as they skittered toward them. Unlike the Crystal Wolf Boss, which had been saturated with Corruption and brimming with Mana, these monsters seemed much tamer in that regard.
That's interesting, Monica thought. These feel like they were made by Machina herself, but the Corruption in them is just a thin coating compared to the full injection of malice the Boss had.
Monica had been worrying about facing monsters of the caliber of the Crystal Wolf Boss from the very start. Thankfully, it seemed that, at least in that regard, they’d have some respite.
Furthermore, if she understood anything about Machina, she believed that the Old Goddess wouldn’t swarm them with monsters. Machina would be interested in kills that led her to become stronger. Old Gods dealt in esoteric murder, not normal carnage.
The metallic spiders skittered toward them with a rhythmic clicking of their metal legs onto the floor.
Those legs are lethal, Monica immediately thought. They don’t even need to bite. They can just impale us.
Monica took another look at the Progress of the Quest and the two most important numbers in it.
Quest Received – ‘Eradication I/III’
This is apparently the only first major floor of three. So, there are going to be three Quests, and this one already has three Rare Loot Chests. Well, we’ll need them. Three is perfect. One for Ted, one for Heidi, one for Dotty. Nothing for Sir Tristan for now. I don’t even think he needs it.
Progress: 0/80
Eighty of these spiders? That’s almost as many Crystal Wolves I think we killed in the Dungeon.
"Sir Tristan, I need you to—"
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Monica cut herself off because the Knight had already stepped forward.
* * *
Sir Tristan stepped forward without hesitation, his massive shield raised.
"Enemy Magnet!" he called out, the Skill pulling the Level 87 spider toward him. "Taunt!"
The other two spiders' heads snapped toward him as well, their mechanical legs clicking rapidly against the stone.
"Let me deal with this!" the Knight shouted back to the others. "They're too strong for you!"
But then he heard Ted's mandolin ringing out, its notes weaving through the air.
Before he could ask what the hell the young man was doing, he saw Monica whizzing past him with a golden aura surrounding her. And before Sir Tristan could protest further, she had already launched herself at the strongest spider with terrifying speed. Two long feathers appeared on her forearms, and Sir Tristan saw her speed increase further because of them.
The Knight watched in amazement as Monica crashed into the construct like a wild horse, her fists wrapped in Obsidian Flame. Moments before getting to it, her feet suddenly got covered in dark flames, and she flashed forward. Monica dodged two legs and got struck by a fourth in her abdomen but just hit a double-fist that exploded forward and made the creature fly away from her.
The spider limb tore away from her abdomen, leaving a massive hole that the woman showered with Golden Flame.
The spider's metal legs stabbed at her repeatedly, drawing blood every time, but Golden Flame flashed across her wounds almost instantly. She fought with complete disregard for her own safety as if pain meant nothing to her.
“What is she doing,” Sir Tristan was comfortable taking the two monsters' attacks with his shield but couldn’t understand how the Level 16 Phoenix Healer was doing this.
Maybe she is all she said she was.
Her fighting style was unlike anything he'd ever seen - raw, primal, yet somehow ruthlessly elegant. The spider's legs pierced her shoulder, her side, her thigh, but she didn't even seem to notice.
While true that levels weren't a perfect reflection of power - Sir Tristan had seen Level 50 fighters take down Level 100 monsters through skill and strategy - this was different. Monica fought like someone possessed, like a force of nature given human form. The spider's legs could barely track her movements as she danced between them, each of her strikes leaving molten metal in its wake.
“Ted, can you turn it up?!” Monica shouted.
“Sure!” The Bard responded.
A blast of heat made Sir Tristan turn. Heidi had taken up position behind him, her hands wreathed in black flame as she unleashed a barrage of Fireballs at the two remaining spiders. The explosions rocked the constructs back on their legs, their metal shells consumed under the assault.
"Emberstorm Convergence!" Heidi shouted, and the air itself seemed to ignite. A swirling vortex of black flame engulfed both spiders, lifting them slightly off the ground as it spun them in place. While the attack didn't seem to be doing massive damage, it had them completely immobilized.
Sir Tristan didn't waste the opportunity. He charged forward, his shield leading the way as he slammed into the first spider. The construct's legs scraped uselessly against his armor as he drove it into the ground. One powerful thrust of his sword through its central body was enough to still its movements permanently.
The second spider tried to skitter away, but Heidi's vortex held it in place long enough for Sir Tristan to dispatch it with similar efficiency. As its legs stopped twitching, he turned to check on Monica.
The redhead had the strongest spider pinned beneath her, one of its legs torn away and scattered across the street. As he watched, she plunged both hands into its head, Obsidian Flame burning so explosively it rained all around her. The construct's struggles grew weaker until finally, with a sound like tearing silk, Monica shouted like a madman and ripped its head completely off.
She stumbled away from the wreckage, covered in blood from dozens of wounds that were barely healing. Her hair was matted with gore, and her armor punctured in multiple places, but she wore a wild grin on her face.
"That was fun," she said, then promptly collapsed.
Dead.
But with a lot of notifications coming her way.