Xerxes was not a fan of earth. He had chosen to disguise his appearance in his attempt to find an heir. He had tried to pick a form that would be the most unassuming shape. And so that was how he had ended up walking through the streets of several cities as an old lady. He had to give credit to most earthling however, they did seem to treat all elders with some measure of respect.
The only aspect he could not understand was how most would speak to him as if he were a lost child. It was the biggest test of patience he had had to experience in a long time, which was impressive as he had lived for several thousand years.
He had been following a prime candidate for almost a week and had "bumped" into them by accident several times trying to test their character. They seemed to meet all of the criteria, but he had not yet had the chance to offer his inheritance. He had originally wanted to approach in his normal form, but he was certain, that would scare most citizens into thinking a gate had broken already. "Can you please stop following me, it's really creeping me out." The man said turning to the old woman that was Xerxes in disguise. It looks like he wouldn't need to be the first to reach out after all.
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Myra threw both her arms up in victory, as the notification came in.
*You have slain level 14 inferior roseborn human. You have gained 40 experience.*
"It works!" She shouted to the others, they were busy keeping several monsters from coming up the stairs to the building they were in. The plan they had come up with the day before was to try and see if they still got experience if the opponent died from fall damage. Which based on Myra's shout of joy, it worked. He hadn't gotten a notification, but Peggy should've and she was grinning as well. "So, Owen whenever you're ready," Owen nodded and Peggy pulled open the door to let one of the roseborn slip through the opening.
The door was quickly shut behind it and Owen didn't waste anytime. He stab the monster through the middle and with all his strength forced it to walk with him as he dragged his spear closer and closer to the waiting Myra. Facing his spear tip towards her, she wrenched the roseborn off of his spear and flung it over the rooftop's ledge. A couple seconds passed before he saw the kill notification.
*You have slain level 14 inferior roseborn human. You have gained 36 experience. 18 experience has been consumed by your 2nd grade soul.*
They continued the process for almost an hour before they needed to try and round up a good size group of roseborn again. Peggy had been the first to notice, but any section on the roseborn body had the ability to secrete the red cloud that would attract monsters to their location. And so their plan was to slice off an arm or leg of one of the roseborn and create a much more grotesque version of a breadcrumb trail. All they then had to do was aggro a couple of the roseborn monsters and they would slowly follow the trail up to the top of the building, where Peggy stood holding the door closed.
And so several hours passed with this plan and Owen couldn't be happier. He had finally gained enough experience to pay off his experience debt, but also even leveled up by the time most of the inferior roseborn enemies had been killed.
*You have leveled up, you have gained 1 unallocated stat point(s)*
He quickly tossed the extra stat in strength and felt a small wave of power infuse his body. Nodding in satisfaction he turned to both Peggy and Myra, only feeling slightly jealous. "So, you guys are both level 13 now?" Myra nodded looking smug and Peggy grinned. "Don't worry, I suppose we could protect you," Peggy said teasingly. "I guess I'll have to leave all of the fighting up to you then." He said snickering. "What's the plan now, most of the enemies on the ground now are giants and I have no confidence in killing them the same way."
Owen stared at both of them, "We go kill that hidden boss." Myra and Peggy both looked blanched after it, but Owen started speaking again before they could interrupt. "The hidden boss disguises itself as a small group of enemies right? Well, if we can bait it up on top of the roof we can try the same strategy, all we need is enough pushing force to be able to get it to fall off the roof. " Peggy gave him a skeptical look. "How do we even know it'll be enough to kill it?" Well that's the thing, if we can bait it away, someone else can run in behind it and steal the loot."
"The monster description even said it has a treasure horde." Owen did his best to imitate puppy eyes at Peggy who just sighed. "That's a really gross face, please never do that again. Or just change your face completely. I think that would be best." Myra said looking slightly less worried throwing Owen a grin. "So, does that mean both of you are in? Remember if it come down to it, I have my back up skills to make sure no one dies." They both nodded with Myra beginning to look excited and Peggy just looking defeated.
They made their way to the bottom of the building and Owen had to whistle in appreciation, the pile of shattered roseborn corpses was satisfying to the extreme, especially given the trouble he had had fighting them when they first got there. They quickly made their way across the city and into the building with the hidden boss inside. They had needed to be a lot more careful as more roseborn had begun meandering through the city, they definitely seemed like new monsters in the gate, since when Owen had tried identifying one, the monsters level had only been 9.
The decided to rest for the night on the floor directly below where they had remembered the boss being and Owen went up the stairs as quiet as possible to make sure it was still there, thankfully it was so he grouped back up with them to finish preparing their plan. "We should rest tonight and take turns on watch. I don't want to risk sleeping when we don't know what the nighttime inside of this gate will look like." Myra said quietly. Everyone agreed and the most stressful night of Owen's life began. They heard sounds all throughout the night as if the roseborn were trying their best to speak to one another.
Being close to the top of one of the buildings protected them form most of the sound, but the monster boss above them eventually joined in making sound. "OOOOAAOAAHA" Its shouts shook the building and small clumps of plaster fell from the ceiling every time it would shout into the night. By the time morning cam, every one of them looked more haggard than when they had first tried to fall asleep. Owen had a rage inside of him now for the boss sitting comfortably above them that had continued to wake him every time he had thought he was about to fall asleep.
"Alright, here is my plan," Owen started. "We don't know if it'll react to the red cloud at all and there being no other roseborn in this building I'm not sure if there is a great way to test it anyways. But I am going to try and maintain aggro and see if I can get it to follow me to the roof, which one of you wants to help me try and drag it to the roof?" Looking between the two, Myra looked pale and Peggy worried and he sighed. "You can either rock paper scissors it, or I suppose I can try to hold it in place while you guys recover everything it leaves behind."
They tied for a couple rounds, but eventually Peggy was paired off with him and Myra moved to try and hide. "Do any of you guys have skills that might help push it off?" When neither nodded, Owen felt butterflies, but he did his best not to focus on it. "Alright, we will figure something out. Let's do this!" They silently moved upstairs and Myra moved in behind one of the desks in the room with the boss. Owen slowly crept forwards, using keen eye to make sure nothing had changed.
*Superior Roseborn Amalgamation Level 26. This monster type will often disguise itself as a group of weaker enemies and ambush those trying to take it's treasure horde.*
It had gained a level? It shouldn't be enough of a change to matter, Owen thought to himself as he was now within range of one of his spear attacks. Each of the fake roseborn humans were standing idle and had a thick vine connecting them to what looked like a pool of thorns in the center. He then realized why they hadn't noticed before him using his skill on it. Each of the vines connected to the back heel of the dummy and seemed to shift its color based on the ground underneath it.
He first used empowered body on max power and then charged his spear attacks the same way. Preparing to strike, he dashed forwards and stabbed at it's center mass of thorns. His spear pierced all the way down to the hilt. He braced himself to dodge backwards and tried to pull his spear with him, but suddenly one of the roseborn dummies, rushed forward and threw it's body into the haft of his spear shattering it. Owen then had to continually dodge back as the Amalgamation's dummies continued to throw attacks and sometimes themselves at him.
He had had a small hope that the vines would slowly be knotted together, but each time they crossed paths, they would just phase through each other. He slowly moved back towards the stairs case all the while staying out of the way of each of it's attacks. It moved ever so slowly as each dummy seemed to slowly drag the main body with every time it attacked.
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Every thing seemed to be going perfectly until Owen missed a dodge. One of the dummies had thrown a fist at him and as he dodged back a step, one of the vines attached to a dummy he had dodged just before caught onto his heel and dragged him to the ground.
He tried to roll away from the follow up attacks, but the vines slowly began to grow up the length of his legs making it impossible. Pulling out his short sword, he tried slashing at the vines, but they just continued to grow faster than he could cut them away. He ended up taking blow after blow on the ground, before Peggy ran up from behind the boss. Stabbing her sword through it's center she shouted, "Shower of flame."
"PEGGY WHAT THE HELL?" Owen screamed at her. But instead of the mini flamethrower attack that had appeared the last time she used the skill, her rapier seemed to absorb the flame into itself and a cherry red sphere began forming in the center mass of the boss.
With the boss distracted by the flame, he was able to fully cut the vines off of his legs and stand up. Worried the fire would cause it to start pumping out red clouds, he began slashing at the dummies, trying to clear them away as fast as possible, but instead of a red cloud, a purple haze started pouring out of the bosses body. Owen did his best not to breathe in as notifications began pouring in.
*You have resisted being poisoned*
*You have resisted being poisoned*
*You have resisted being poisoned*
*You have been poisoned x1*
He didn't feel like anything was happening to his body, but when he looked at the next notification he paled.
*You have been poisoned x17*
Grabbing Peggy's hand he dragged her out of the cloud set her out of the bosses attack range. She had fallen and wasn't moving. Owen looked at his own body and he felt and looked fine, but he opened up his HP and MP bars and saw them dropping drastically, despite him not using them for anything. He had let his body tank most of the hits from the dummies earlier so he still had close to full HP, but it was dropping fast and he probably wouldn't be able to move in a matter of minutes.
Running back up to the boss, wielding Peggy's rapier in one hand and his sword in the other, he began stabbing and slashing the main body and slowly dragging it up to the rooftop. He only made it halfway up the set of stairs before the bosses body seemed to shimmer. Then each of the dummies began being pulled into it's body as it slowly began to grow in size. It hadn't moved since it started shifting, but Owen could feel a drastic change in it's presence. Using Keen eye all hope in his mind vanished.
*Superior Roseborn Amalgamation Level 30. This monster type will often disguise itself as a group of weaker enemies and ambush those trying to take it's treasure horde. When pressured, this monster will absorb it's lures and use them to power itself up several levels temporarily.*
Level fucking 30, Owen began laughing, he wasn't sure what else to do, how was this ever supposed to be a dungeon designed for level tens to survive. The boss monster stared down at with with a disgusting face of stretched skin, vines and thorns. It had shaped itself it that of one of the normal roseborn giants, but was many times more powerful. It charged and Owen was too slow to dodge. The boss opened a hand that slapped Owen's entire body at once, sending him flying up the rest of the stairs and through the door the blocked off the rooftop.
Charging after the tiny human, it covered it's body in purpled mist and standing before the human that had caused it so much pain. It roared, "OOOOOOAAAAAARAGH" Owen coughed up blood and channeled just enough HP into his legs to allow him to stand. Standing before the Amalgamation, he felt powerless, but he began laughing and coughing up blood at the same time. Even if he was powerless, by himself, he still had his trump card hiding up his sleeve.
Brandishing his sword as the boss continued to channel purple mist into it's body, he said out loud. "Polymath's Keen Eye!" He waited expectantly and the notification popped up.
*Superior Roseborn Amalgamation Level 30. This monster type will often disguise itself as a group of weaker enemies and ambush those trying to take it's treasure horde. When pressured, this monster will absorb it's lures and use them to power itself up several levels temporarily.*
He waited for the second prompt to appear, but nothing happened. He used it again, but again nothing happened and Owen truly began to feel himself panic. The sky had begun to darken and a red cloud denser than any other Owen had seen was collected above him. Vines and thorns weaved together perfectly inside of the red mist and an exact copy of the boss came crashing down onto the roof of the building.
*Superior Roseborn Amalgamation Clone Level 20.*
Owen had never understood the concept of seeing your life flash before your eyes, but for the first time in his life he actually did and both the boss almost entirely purple now, and the clone charged at him. He had always been content with his life before the system. There were several things he didn't like, but it had never been enough to hate his circumstances.
He would always remind himself just how many people might kill to be in his situation. Ever since the system came, he had been pushing himself for reasons he wasn't sure of. He had thought about trying to become the hero, like in so many of the books he had read.
He had also considered just trying to push to the top until he ran out of motivation. But actually existing in the system he felt alive, like he was actually in control of his life again. He hated the idea of going back to his old life or dying before he got a chance to see what his limits were. "These can't be my limits, I've only just started." He thought and as soon as he thought it, he flung himself to the ground in a prone position. The both attacks flew over him, with only one of them grazing him, but as soon as it did, he saw his HP dived down by 25 points.
*You have 317 out of 1000 health points. You have 211 out of 1430 mana points.*
Empowering his fists with extra mana, his mana diving down by another 20 points, he punched his hands into the body of the real boss and began climbing it from behind. It swung it's arms and had vines come out of it's body and try to grab him, but he dodged out of the way of each attack thrown. The bosses clone, threw a punch at Owen while he was grappling the main bosses head and as soon as the punch was thrown, Owen tried to dived out away, but he was thrown to the ground as the clone's arm collided with the face of the real boss.
It staggered back a single step, but Owen didn't relent.
Dashing faster than he ever remembered moving he tried cutting through the bosses legs, but it just let out another loud shout. "OORAAAAAAAGH." He was thrown back by a wave of force and landed hard against the wall beside the doorway leading back down into the building. He couldn't move, he channeled more HP into his wounds but looking at his health bar, it didn't look good.
*You have 32 out of 1000 health points. You have 165 out of 1430 mana points.*
His eyes began to grow heavy as the clone started moving towards him, "I guess I found my limits," He barely managed to say as more blood splattered out onto his tunic. He felt someone rush past him, coming from the building. He tried to warn them off, but he didn't have the energy to speak anymore.
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Peggy shouted at Owen, but he wasn't responding. She had managed to cure herself of the poison and had begun spamming her heal skill on Owen. "Pursuit of Change!" She practically screamed. She watched as his health points increased almost all the way to 100, then they all disappeared as his body began to visibly heal.
His breathing had gotten steadier, so she pulled him just around the corner of the doorway. Turning her head towards the bosses that she couldn't help but feel terrified of, she charged towards the fight to help Myra, who had somehow held both bosses at bay.
Myra felt awful, more awful than she felt scared of the bosses before her. She had been too scared to come and help fight the boss and Owen was probably dead now because of it. He looked like his whole body was just one big infection. His skin looked like it had been painted with a rainbow of disease, colors ranging from a nasty purple to a sewage green.
Her first friend other than her sister and despite her only ever being mean to him or making fun of him, he had taken it in stride and still treated her the same. Making her feel all the worse.
She had rushed up the stairs when she saw a purple haze float down the stairs. And the first thing she had seen was Peggy lying unconscious off to the side with no sight of Owen. After making sure Peggy was fine, she rushed to the door, to see Owen get sent flying back towards her and crashing into the wall not even a meter from where she was standing. She had been terrified, too terrified to even move until, she heard Owen whisper. She hadn't heard exactly what he said, but he had sounded disappointed, but not angry.
She broke then, roaring in anger, she barely remember to shout at Peggy to heal him, before she rushed to meet the clone head on. She immediately began to channel both of her strongest skills Empowered Body and Into the Fray made her body explode with energy as a green aura roared like fire around her body.
She met the attack head on, swinging her axes with full strength and completely cleaved through the arm. Not pausing to think she rushed past it and began to tear the real boss apart. She faintly heard Peggy shouting out some of her attacks and put the other boss out of her mind and she focused solely on tearing apart the enemy in front of her.
The boss was slowly pushed back and realizing that they were close to the edge of the roof, she pushed even harder and both her HP and MP took a nosedive, before settling barely above 10%. Swing both of her axes together, they sliced clean through one of it's legs and the boss fell backwards.
It barely caught itself before falling off, but Myra screamed at the top of her lungs. "IVAR'S FATED BLOW!" The axe she threw sliced the other leg clean off and almost cut all the way through the ledge behind it. Sending the boss falling down from more than ten stories up.
Myra didn't wait for the notification but turned around ready to tear apart the other boss, but it had begun to fade into red mist. Peggy was griping one of her arms that looked badly mangled and Owen was still slumped over against the wall, but looked slightly better.
Myra fell onto her knees crying, and Peggy dragged herself forward and wrapped her younger sister in a tight hug. "You did it, We won." She whispered to her while consoling her as the notification came in.
*You have slain Level 30 Superior Roseborn Amalgamation. Congratulations, you have defeated the hidden boss of the Wasteland of the Overgrowth! You have gained 1500 experience and an additional reward upon completion of the gate.*