There it was, the final boss. The Mother had to elites standing on either side of her wielding spears, though unlike the first elite they had fought, these seemed to have much better control over their bodies. Both took stances as the boss gestured to Owen and his group. It took him a second to realize, it was not gesturing to them, but to Briar. Seemingly curious Briar prepared to go over, but Owen gave it a pat and leaned down close, whispering. "You have my permission to eat whatever you want in here except the lady talking. That will have to wait until we're done with her."
He still wasn't sure if Briar had understood, but it seemed to listen nonetheless. "My patience is too limited for you to show me this kind of disrespect. Take care of them, but leave this child be, they will be important." The Mother said the last thing while gesturing to Briar. Then the elites moved forwards and the mother let out of unearthly screech. "ORRREEEEEA!" Dozens of low leveled roseborn enemies entered the room and began to surround the group. Each of them used their powering abilities and only wasted enough time to say. "I'll take on one of the elites." Myra said brooking no argument. "Me too," Peggy said. Owen nodded and looked to Briar. "Looks like we've got the small guys today, now let's go have a feast!"
Owen couldn't help but laugh as he and Briar tore through the lower ranks of the roseborn. He spun and slashed, slowly turning into a chaotic dance of death. Briar meanwhile was taking large bites out of the roseborn that Owen had left in his wake. Several of them stayed at a distance and gave Owen a chance to observe their situation. The Mother, which he had expected to give them a hard time, was staying in one place and casting magic at her two elites. Peggy and Myra seemed to be giving the elites a run for their money, but with the mother buffing them, they seemed to be able to hold their ground for a bit longer than what would've been possible without.
Calling out as he started to charge towards the mother, "Peggy, Myra, I going to keep the queen busy, I'm going to leave the lower level guys for Briar." He saw both of them avert their attention for a split second to see Briar had given up on trying to eat them all mid fight and had grown massive thorned claws from it's body, tearing apart roseborn after roseborn in the process. Recharging his sword, Owen made it in front of the mother and began to try and slice her into pieces.
The mother weaved through each attack effortlessly, getting frustrated, Owen began pushing himself harder. Each swing had close to his full strength behind it and as he picked up speed, the mother's movements became more frantic as she tried to keep the elites alive and dodge Owen at the same time. "I need a fucking spear," Owen thought as he moved through poor imitations of the spear techniques with the sword. It made him regret only learning the spear mastery skill, but hopefully, he could earn the sword skill as well.
Owen began channeling more mana into his empowered body skill and began ignoring the skill on his sword. His movements increased in speed just enough to be able to begin interrupting the bosses spells. Noticing the growing frustration on the mother's face, he couldn't help but grin. They could win this! Taking the briefest of pauses, Owen took his short sword out of his storage and began to press the attack once more.
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Myra was laughing, she couldn't help it. While her identify skill didn't give her as much information, she could still see an enemy's level and it was just ridiculous.
*Roseborn Level 19*
Myra had use both of her body based skills and was still radiating a green aura. She was doing her best to slice up the elite she was facing, but her every attack was either blocked by a small opaque shield of some kind, or would be instantly healed by that awful 'mother' boss monster hanging at the back of the fight. It made her angry at first, but now she just felt powerful. They had entered the dungeon almost a full two days ago and in that time they had gone from fearing these monster to becoming the monster that the roseborn feared.
She heard Owen yell that he was leaving it to Briar and in the second she looked she couldn't help but smile. The little bugger had begun to grow more and more into something looking like a weird dog. Though it currently was performing almost as well as she was, not one to be outdone by a plant, she pushed even harder.
When Owen started to attack the mother, it had become several times easier to push the elite back towards the mother, step by step. It was slowly cut down as she approached and by the time she was within a meter of the mother, the elite was in several pieces and she had made it close enough to assist with Owen's onslaught of attacks.
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Focusing more than she ever had in her life, she did her best not to look at Briar every couple seconds. She was worried for him, despite her fighting an enemy that by all rights should be stronger than her. Then when Owen spoke, it gave her the opportunity to double check and had to hold back a giggle. Briar to her was like the cutest thing right now as it played with all of it's 'friends'. Turning back to her opponent, she began to attack more fiercely, especially as the buffs coming in from the queen had lessened considerably. A stab, then slash, imbue her sword with fire then repeat. She slowly and methodically, cut it down until it had no way to fight back.
"Briar, come get some lunch!" She shouted happily and Briar turned to look and seeing the Elite struggling to move, excitedly ran over and began devouring the previously stronger monster as if it were a treat. Peggy meanwhile began to take on fighting the rest of the monsters, until Briar was able to join again. A quick identify made her smile.
*Briar Level 16*
She would maybe have to see if Owen had any interest in trading Briar to her, she love to see it all dress up.
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Owen and Myra now had the Mother's full attention, with both elite's downed, she was only barely able to continue summoning weak roseborn enemies. Killing each one that got too close in a single blow, Owen and Myra were in sync. Owen would force the mother to dodge, only for that to be a feint for Myra's attack. They wasn't any specific technique behind the movements, but Owen felt like he was more alive than ever.
He knew there was something going on with him, but couldn't identify it. He felt like everything he was and could do had been unlocked as they fought the boss. He continued to push more mana into his body as his resources had fallen below triple digits in both mana and health. The mother had begun to attack more often, but her hits didn't hurt directly at least. They instead somehow seemed to damage his HP directly, putting the fight on a timer.
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Pumping the last of his mana to keep empowered body active, he felt like he had taken a breath of fresh air for the first time in years. He looked to Myra as the boss began to radiate even stronger energy as the last of the minions nearby Peggy and Briar had fallen. "Phase two," Myra mouthed and Owen smiled. It would be close, but they would win. They continued to push the boss back, even after her power up and after Peggy joined in it was only a matter of time.
"ENOUGH, DIE!" The mother began to radiate energy that made everyone in the group pause. It's body began to tear in several spots as it's own energy had began to be too much for even it. Several bodies around the mother had also began to convulse and fill with copious amounts of energy. "Get cover!" Peggy yelled. They started running towards the wall that had ben blocked off, Owen and Myra prepared attacks to take the wall down. Then the energy just stopped, thinking the worst, they all dived to the ground. Several seconds passed as they worried they were already dead, but when nothing happened they cautiously looked to where the mother had been.
Briar was sitting there happily munching as two legs hung out of it's mouth. Owen got up laughing and helped the others to their feet. They moved over to where Briar was sitting and within seconds of having consumed the boss, grew even larger. It was weird to him, but wasn't Briar looking more and more like a dog? It was sitting exactly like any dog might normally and the power it absorbed from the boss, only made it look more detailed, though it was still clearly a monster made of plants.
Several notifications were blinking at him, but before he had a chance to look at it, a different system screen appeared in front of them.
*Congratulations, Tier 2 Gate has been cleared. Calculating Rewards... Hidden Boss - Cleared. Number of monster Remaining - 0. Time Remaining 25:17:36. First cleared Tier 2 Gate. Rewards Calculated.*
*You have 3 Legendary rewards to select from and 1 personal reward.*
*Please select one of these options to unlock early.
Unlock Title System before level 25
Gain 5 levels
Upgrade Core by a step.*
Owen felt a little overwhelmed and looking at his friends, they seemed to be just as confused. Sharing his screen with them he was surprised to find out that they had drastically different options given, excluding the title system option that they had all been given. Unsure as what to pick, he decided to think through what he knew about each of the options, which sadly wasn't a lot. His was a little upset with his master that the title system hadn't been explained, but they had so little time he didn't exactly hold it against him.
Gaining 5 levels however would be great. He was a bit surprised the others had not been given this option, but based on Myra's screen her offer had been for the system to upgrade her body temper. Upgrading the core, he just didn't understand. He remembered his conversation with Xerxes barely, which it then didn't help that his master had been somewhat vague. If he remembered right however, he essentially was supposed to grow somewhat stronger as his core upgraded, but he didn't have a number to compare it to.
Peggy and Myra's choices were a lot more straightforward though, both had gotten the same first two options. Unlocking the title system and upgrade body temper by one stage. The third option was one that did stand out for the two of them though. Peggy's third option was insane however, it would upgrade any one of her skills. Owen wasn't sure of the difficulty of raising skills level, but he had done it twice before so maybe not impossible, but he could theoretically use it to upgrade silent execution.
Myra's third option was slightly more specific, offering to upgrade her 'Into the Fray' skill twice. This ability made her arguably the strongest fighter in his group and getting it upgraded twice would create and even bigger gap. He could see how all of the options would be good for them, but just didn't have the knowledge required to know which of the options was the best choice for him. "I guess eeny meeny miny moe is my only option." He snickered to himself.
Ultimately his decision wasn't based off of anything smart, it was based off of prior knowledge. Even though he knew that if he were to get 5 levels, it would just make it harder for him to level up against enemies, as more experience would be required for level ups. He also didn't have any full understanding of cores and what they do. He had done some pretty weird things with them in the past, but hadn't even been able to recreate anything meaningful with it yet.
So, at least for now, he felt like the title system was more than likely his best option, as even though he would get it in a while. If it gave any major benefits, he could stacks those up and be ahead of everyone else by the time he was actually level 25. Making his final decision, he selected the title system as his reward.
*Congratulations, you have unlocked the Title System. You have earned the title, First Titled. This title grants +1 in every stat. *
"Guys, I just gained a title for being the first to unlock titles!" Owen said excitedly. Peggy beamed at him, though the look on her face made it clear she didn't truly understand. Myra meanwhile just nodded. "I suppose I probably could've taken that from you if I had been faster, but I think I am going to upgrade into the fray anyways. It's too useful and I'm not sure how to upgrade it myself anyway."
With the gate clear notification gone, Owen flipped to the next one and could only grin.
*You have slain Roseborn Mother Level 23 - Tier 2 Gate Boss. You have gained 1000 experience. 500 experience had been consumed by your 2nd grade soul.*
"Wait a minute, I should've gained a level from that," Owen started to fume, before he felt like his inside were roiling with power. It sent him to the ground, causing him to convulse in pain. He finally had to see what was going on and closed his eyes, forcing his mind and body to calm down, as he focused on his breathing. His teal core was vibrating at an uneven pace, if it was happening to his heart, it might've even been considered a heart attack. The flames that normally licked off of the sides were dimmed and pitiful in comparison.
It took him a couple seconds, but then he realized. His core was being dampened down by an almost white film, that was preventing his core from working the way it was supposed to. He focused in and tried to have his core absorb the weird energy encapsulating it. It was a slow process and he could feel his body in the real world still writhing. He wasn't sure how long it took or what this energy was, but as he pushed more and more of it into his core to be absorbed, it seemed to shine brighter and more vibrantly, until eventually, any remnants of blue energy were gone and his core had begun shimmering in a brighter green coloration.
As his core stabilized, he let himself leave his core space, now positive that the problem had been solved. When he opened his eyes, he had to spit small leaves and do his best not to shift too much anymore as Briar was very clearly sitting across his face, to keep his head from moving. Almost as soon as he had opened his eyes, Briar moved and Owen was again flustered to see Peggy straddling his chest, while he held both of his arms flat against the ground, with Myra a little further back, holding his legs in place.
"I'm okay guys," he said sheepishly. Doing his best to keep a flush from coming to his face. "What the hell was that, you looked like you were having a seizure." Myra said angrily, he could tell not at him, but that she had just been worried. "Trust me, I think I'm fine now." He then went on to explain what had happened in detail, but neither of them had an idea what could've been the cause, but thankfully this was one of those rare opportunities where the system did have the information.
*Your 2nd grade soul temper has infused the minimum threshold of experience required to upgrade your core into the Green core stage. You have gained the title, Cultivator. This title awards the user 5 stat points in mana.*
Before he had a chance to even considered what this meant, his original experience notification had changed.
*You have slain Roseborn Mother Level 23 - Tier 2 Gate Boss. You have gained 1000 experience. 500 experience had been consumed by your 2nd grade soul.*
*You have gained a level, you have 1 unallocated stat point(s) ERROR... due to Green stage core advancement, your unallocated points awarded per level have increased to 2.*
*You have gained a level, you have 2 unallocated stat point(s).*
Owen was flabbergasted, twice the original stats gained per level. "What the fuck?"